Cascade

  

Cascade by Lusine

 

 The VaM-style spell today is Cascade - the title coming from this song by Lusine (ICL at the time).

I love love love Lusine's music - Iron city is calming, condensed is like concentrated cyberpunk walking through megacities, Serial Hodgepodge sounds like museums and walking paths and lots of other things, Language Barrier is just so beautiful and otherworldly, A Certain Distance is likely one of my favorite albums of all time - I listen to it all the time, Lucky Numbers is dance-y, The Waiting room is a wonderful combination of all he previous albums, And Sensorimotor sounds like the future.

You can expect more Lusine songs as spells, I love his music so much - especially when his wife does the singing!

Today I am doing a song from Condensed - mysterious, dense, patterns and chirps and what I would typify as sinister elevator music.

Cascade is one of my favorites on the album - and always reminds me of unintended consequences...

Here are some definitions that inspired the spell -

 a small waterfall, typically one of several that fall in stages down a steep rocky slope.

a mass of something that falls or hangs in copious or luxuriant quantities.

a large number or amount of something occurring or arriving in rapid succession.

a process whereby something, typically information or knowledge, is successively passed on.

a succession of devices or stages in a process, each of which triggers or initiates the next.

(of water) pour downward rapidly and in large quantities.

fall or hang in copious or luxuriant quantities.

arrange (a number of devices or objects) in a series or sequence.

No lyrics!

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, here is the spell's effects!

Cascade

Duration: N stages, where N is the caster’s level + 1

Range: Touch, then each cascade

The caster touches something – affecting it in some kind of way.

They could push – throw – punch – caress – ETC

Then that effect cascades, and whatever the object touches next

will be impacted with the original force and motion but doubled –

this continues N times, where N is the caster’s level.

If the caster maintains concentration after the touch –

they may have been considered to have extended their touch

to include any object they are holding –

such as firing a gun, swinging a sword, throwing a rock, ETC.

Concentration is broken if the caster takes damage or undertakes any

strenuous action, basically any action that would require a roll is

out of the question if they want to maintain concentration -

and if concentration is broken the cascade stops moving from stage to stage.

Miscast Table (Referee – keep the roll secret!)

1 – The spell appears to work, and it does – but it will also happen one more time at the referee’s discretion at some point soon.

2 – The spell is parabolic – it will extend out and cascade the determined amount, then rush back parabolically the same amount towards the caster, growing in intensity as normal.

3 – The spell narrows each stage – which in many cases renders it less impactful.

4 – The spell widens each stage– which in many cases renders it more impactful than intended.

5 – The spell is delayed – and will travel each stage with a gap of 1D4 minutes.

6 – The spell is delayed – and will travel each stage with a gap of 1D8 minutes.

7 – The spell is juttering – it goes one forward, one back, one forward, one back – ETC

8 – Add 8 stages to the cascade – nobody can hear the noise generated except the caster – it will make them permanently or temporarily deaf – this won’t be immediately clear.

9 – The cascade halts second to last.

10 – The cascade only goes one stage.

11 – The object moves as expected – but then on the next stage it just explodes into fiery white light – dealing a lot of damage to anyone nearby, and temporarily blinding all who see the flames.

12 – All things touched by the caster for the rest of the day or night get cascaded – but only one stage.