The Once Powerful

This spell is a part of the Synergy spell chain and is found in the Synergy rune stone.

There is a particular cruelty unique to the Nephilim. They do not simply destroy. They diminish. They take what was great and leave it standing as a monument to its own decline, a breathing testament to what was lost. The Once Powerful is perhaps the purest expression of that cruelty. With the casting of this spell the Nephilim reach into the target and pull away everything that made them formidable, leaving behind only the shell of what they once were. The target does not feel it happen. They simply find that the body they inhabit is no longer the one they remember, all the vibrant life energy that once flowed through them stolen.

Upon the spell taking hold the target suffers the following for its duration:

• All trait bonuses are reduced to zero. Every bonus the target has accumulated through growth, training, and experience simply ceases to function. The target operates on base stats alone, as if all that hard won mastery never existed at all.
• All damaging and healing power is halved. The target's ability to deal harm and to receive healing is cut in half. They strike weakly where they once struck powerfully and their wounds close slowly where they once healed readily.
• Runic Speed and movement rate are halved. The body that once moved with confidence and speed now shuffles and struggles, each step a reminder of what has been taken.

The target still sees themselves as they were. Their mind retains every memory of their former capability, every battle won, every feat of strength or magic achieved. It is only their body that tells the cruel truth. This disconnect between self image and reality is perhaps the most devastating aspect of the spell, the target knows exactly what they have lost. The spell holds its grip until the target loses consciousness. Should the target fall in battle the spell releases with their last breath, granting no mercy in their final moments. Should the target simply succumb to sleep - whether by exhaustion, by choice, or by any sleep inducing effect - the spell releases as consciousness fades. But the release is not clean. As the target crosses into sleep the Nephilim deliver one final cruelty. The target relives the spell's full duration in a single nightmare, every moment of diminishment, every humiliation of a failing body, compressed into one vivid and inescapable dream as if they were participants in the very final days of their mortal life itself. Upon waking the spell is gone. The target's stats return. Their body is their own again. But the memory remains, sharp and immediate, as fresh as the moment it was cast. For 1d6 days following the spell's end the target must make Hard Mental Balance checks during quiet moments and periods of rest as the memory surfaces unexpectedly, the anxiety of having been so completely powerless rising unbidden from wherever the mind tries to bury it.