Rune of Singular Hate

Cost: 10m
Target: Person

This curse is the blackest, foulest one that an Exalt can utter. It sears and twists the soul of the target and of the sorcerer who pronounces it. The Rune of Singular Hate is but a single word, a word so sharp-edged and hateful that a tongue can give it voice but once in a lifetime—a spell that a sorcerer may cast only once. As a result, the casting time is near-instantaneous. This spell has special timing rules. The character can cast it as three reflexive Shape Solar Circle Sorcery actions that take 0 ticks.

To speak the rune, the character must be within earshot of the target, and the character must be able to speak. The target need not hear the word, and magical silence is no protection—the target hears the curse in his heart. The Rune of Singular Hate can target only a single individual, but if that individual is less than a Yozi, a Neverborn or an Incarna, the rune sears him.

The player of the spell's target rolls the value of each of his character's Attributes, Virtues and Abilities—including Essence and Willpower—in which he possesses a score, one at a time. The player cannot botch these rolls, and 10s do not count as two successes. For every success the player rolls testing a trait, his character retains one dot of that trait. Dice on which the player does not roll a success represent a dot that is lost, immediately and forever, from that Attribute, Virtue or Ability. The sorcerer pronouncing the rune suffers a lesser curse—she loses one dot in every Attribute, Virtue and Ability in which she possesses a score.

Characters with Intelligence or Wits scores of 0 are reduced to mindless vegetables. Characters with no dots of Perception are deprived of all senses and cut off from the outside world. Characters reduced to Stamina or Essence 0 have their lives snuffed out. Characters without any Willpower become will-less automatons, similar to what remains after the Fair Folk consume a being's hopes and dreams. In all of these cases, the character can no longer spend experience and has no hope of recovery. Characters who lose a more expendable trait can purchase it back from 0 to 1 at a cost of 10 experience points. This spell cannot, however, reduce a Virtue below the minimum required for the Great Curse.