Dark Embrace

This spell manifests as a dark shadow that flits about the spellcaster for a few moments before coalescing into a half-mask of black velvet on the spellcaster's face. Vhaeraun's dark embrace lasts for at most 1 turn plus 1 round per level of the spellcaster before dissipating into nothingness.

Once clad by the black half-mask created by the dark embrace – although not in the same round in which the dark embrace is cast – a priest can unleash another memorized spell of 3rd level or less with a single word of power; that is, with a casting time of 1. Such a spell must be either a touch-delivered or an area-effect spell that has no physical manifestation. For example, cause light wounds and hold person can delivered by a dark embrace spell, but a flame strike cannot.

Upon the utterance of the command word, the black half-mask dissolves once again into a dark shadow that then moves to envelop the intended target. The dark embrace acts as a carrier of the second spell: No saving throw or magic resistance check is allowed against it. Instead, the target creature receives magic resistance checks and saving throws only against the spell delivered. Such magic resistance checks are made with a 10% penalty, and any saving throw is made with a -3 penalty. Only the target creature is affected by the transferred spell, even if it is normally an area-effect spell.

If the carried spell requires the caster's holy symbol as a material component, the black half-mask created by the dark embrace serves as such.