Nephilim's Embrace

This spell is a part of the Essence Bolt spell chain and can be found in the Essence Bolt rune stone.

Glaring at the target, the navitamancer casts the spell, calling upon the dark symbol of all life energy, the fallen Nephilim. There is a cruelty unique to the Nephilim that is more insidious than simple destruction. They understand comfort. They understand the appeal of warmth and rest and the feeling of being held against something larger than yourself. They understand it because they once were that something fairer, beings of divine energy who sheltered and sustained. They remember what it felt like to be an embrace worth seeking. And they have never forgiven what they lost. When the navitamancer calls upon the Nephilim, the Nephilim responds, desiring to once again feel that embrace and ever too happy to be called upon. When this spell is cast the target feels it first as something almost welcome, they feel a sudden warmth, a heaviness in the limbs that feels like the edges of deserved rest, a sense of being gently gathered inward. It feels, for just a moment, like safety. Then consciousness fades and the target falls into a deep and consuming sleep, and the warmth reveals itself for what it truly is. Not comfort. Not rest. The Nephilim feeding. Long devoid of contact, the Nephilim desire more than an embrace is the very life essence itself. While the target sleeps the Nephilim's embrace drains 1d20 Vitality directly per round. Not damage. Not something armor can absorb or resistance can reduce. Life itself, drawn out steadily and without mercy, the Nephilim taking back what was never theirs to take. The target's physical defenses are irrelevant here. The embrace reaches past all of it straight to the source.

The sleep is not peaceful and it is not passive. Each round the target may attempt a Hard Stamina check to drag themselves back to consciousness through sheer physical will, feeling the feeding and their failing life not in reality but as a terrible and dark dream. They seek desperately to end the nightmare, fearing what lies beyond it and never really knowing the truth behind the horror - that they are being drained to the point of death. Should any allies be actively working to wake the target, either by shaking them, calling to them, fighting to pull them back, each ally doing so adds +1 to that round's Stamina check. The Nephilim's embrace is most dangerous when faced alone. It is only by having the help of others could the one trapped in the nightmare have a chance to survive.  The embrace does not end on its own. It has no timer, no natural expiration, no mercy built into its duration. It holds until the target finds the will and the strength to wake, or until there is nothing left worth holding. Should the target never waken the nightmare closes in and they leave the mortal coil - their body laying there, still and motionless.