Serenity's Arrival

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

There is a reason the necromancer speaks of Serenity the way others speak of a guest, or a visitor, or something that comes and finds you rather than something you go looking for. Serenity does not announce itself. It does not ask permission. It simply arrives, the way it always has, the way it always will. Serenity arrives in its own time and with the particular unhurriedness of something that has nowhere else to be and nothing more pressing to do than this.

When Serenity arrives for the target of this spell, the target feels it as something they cannot immediately name. Death magic moves across the surface of their body, quiet and thorough, burning away 1d30 Vitality as it works, not with violence, not with any outward drama, just the calm efficiency of something completing a task it was always going to complete. Simultaneously the spell moves inward, finding its way past whatever defenses the target has and settling into them at a level deeper than the physical. Sickness takes hold, the target's movement halved, damage power halved due to the body suddenly preoccupied with something other than fighting for 4 rounds as it tries to process what has arrived inside it. Distracted and lacking focus, the target is unable to cast spells that it could not cast that round. 

And then, beneath all of that, the most lasting thing. Serenity does not leave when the sickness fades. It stays, having found a comfortable place within the target's sense of purpose, and the Loss of Self it leaves behind persists for the remainder of the battle. The quiet erosion of conviction affecting the target, beginning to feel that nothing matters. It is a feeling that the necromancer's allies know too well from fighting alongside someone who carries Serenity always. Serenity never arrives uninvited. It simply expands its definition of invitation.