Sorcery: Death Spells I

Sorcery: Death Spells I

Here we have 4 spells from GURPS Magic - Death Spells that I could not append to any other unconverted spells. Abominable Alteration and Thousand-Legged Demise are transmutative death spells. Dissipate liquifies the victim. Drown is an expensive spell that drowns the victim.

Abominable Alteration

Keywords: Resisted (better of HT or Will).

Full Cost: 65 points.

Casting Roll: Will.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: Instantaneous.

This is a variant of Partial Shapeshifting that affects only one body part without preserving scale or function. Transforming a victim’s head into a diminutive insect head will kill him instantly, as such head will not provide enough brainpower to sustain the body. A huge elephant head will snap the victim’s neck, and so on. In each case, the death is instant, and the spell may be resisted with the higher of HT or Will. The corpse left behind is permanently transformed.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT or Will; Disadvantage, Fragile (Enhanced Unnatural), +100%; Heart Attack, Variant, +300%; Malediction 2, +150%; No Signature, +20%; Nuisance Effect, Multiple ways to resist, -10%; Sorcery, ‑15%) [65]. Note: Fragile (Enhanced Unnatural) means the subject dies if reduced to 0 HP; therefore, since Heart Attack reduces the target’s HP to 0, the target dies.

Dissipate

Keywords: Resisted (HT).

Full Cost: 63 points.

Casting Roll: Will.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: Instantaneous.

This spell causes a subject made mostly of water (living beings that require water – humans, elves, animals, trees, fungi, etc., flesh golems, water elementals, rotting undead, wet nanotech robots) to lose structural integrity, melting to thick fluid.

Remove Curse can reverse it if the victim’s residue is collected within a minute. As the residual matter is a liquid, Shape Water is useful here. Dissipate doesn’t affect even a small amount of clothing – only the subject.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Only on water-based lifeforms, -20%; Disadvantage, Fragile (Enhanced Unnatural), +100%; Heart Attack, Variant, +300%; Malediction 2, +150%; No Signature, +20%; Nuisance Effect, Can be reversed, -10%;  Sorcery, ‑15%) [63]. Note: Fragile (Enhanced Unnatural) means the subject dies if reduced to 0 HP; therefore, since Heart Attack reduces the target’s HP to 0, the target dies.

Drown

Keywords: Resisted (HT).

Full Cost: 33 points.

Casting Roll: Will.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: 30 seconds.

You fill the subject’s lungs with water. The subject loses his ability to breathe or speak for 30 seconds. He may do nothing but drop. While the drowning endures, he suffers the effects of suffocation (see Suffocation, p. B436). After that the subject is stunned (p. B420) and may roll vs. HT once per second to recover. The subjects with Doesn’t Breathe, Doesn’t Breathe (Gills), or Injury Tolerance (Homogenous) are immune to this spell!

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Not on water-breathers, -10%; Choking, +100%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Malediction 2, +150%; No Signature, +20%; Reduced Duration, 1/6, -15%; Sorcery,  15%) [33].

Thousand-Legged Demise

Keywords: Resisted (Will).

Full Cost: 67 points.

Casting Roll: Will.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: 1 second.

This transforms the subject into a seething swarm of small, mindless creatures for 1 second. The magic is highly unstable and doesn’t impart a group mind – rather than stay in a cohesive horde, the critters crawl, fly, or swim in all directions. The spell end a second later, leaving small pieces of the victim’s dead body scattered across a radius equal to his Move, with a few surviving creepy-crawlers dining on the carrion.

Someone who casts Insect Control on the subject immediately (on his first turn after Thousand-Legged Demise is cast) may roll a Quick Contest against Will + Talent of the caster. Victory keeps the swarm in one place, allowing the subject to reform unharmed.

Whatever happens, if transformation occurs, the subject’s possessions aren’t affected and end up on the ground.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (Will; Based on Will, +20%; Disadvantage, Fragile (Enhanced Unnatural), +100%; Heart Attack, Variant, +300%; Malediction 2, +150%; No Signature, +20%; Nuisance Effect, Victim can be saved with Insect Control, -10%; Sorcery, ‑15%) [67]. Note: Fragile (Enhanced Unnatural) means the subject dies if reduced to 0 HP; therefore, since Heart Attack reduces the target’s HP to 0, the target dies.