Ancestral Wrath

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

The ancestors have been patient. They came when called, offered their strength, stood as shields. They have watched from wherever Memory holds them as the praeteriamancer has faced what they face, and they have endured it with the particular restraint of those who understand that not every threat requires their full attention. This time is different, however. This threat warrants their full attention.

When the praeteriamancer casts Ancestral Wrath they do not ask. They release. Every ancestor who has been present, every spirit that answered the call and stayed, turns its attention to a single target with the concentrated fury of generations that have had enough. They do not simply strike from where they are. The ancestors exist not in the present but in Memory, which means they exist across all the moments they ever inhabited, and what descends upon the target comes from all of those moments simultaneously.

The target is struck for 4d12 magical damage as ancestral fury crashes into them from multiple points in time at once. But it is not the damage that is most dangerous. The temporal nature of the attack - multiple strikes arriving from different moments, the target's body receiving impacts that do not agree with each other about when they are happening - disrupts something fundamental in the target's sense of balance and orientation. The target is inflicted with Imbalance for 1d6 rounds. Every move and every attack requires a Hard Balance check or the target falls prone, their body unable to reconcile the temporal disruption that has been worked upon them, requiring both a move and support action to return to standing. The ancestors do not linger after this. They have said what needed to be said. They finally return within Memory, and Memory resides within the runic soul of the praeteriamancer.