Duress
Duress is a skillset available to Elemental Lords of Air.
Abilities in Duress
| Ability | Description |
| Coalesce | Upon the Elemental Plane of Air. |
You may cross great distances, traversing the very planes themselves to materialise upon the Elemental Plane of Air. Such an act takes great focus, requiring that you do nothing for several seconds while focussing on the process. | |
| Buffet | A crude but effective technique. |
Hammer at a target with solidified air, beating them into unconsciousness and death (deals damage). | |
| Whisper | The winds shall be your guide. |
You speak to the winds, and they speak to you. Request the location of an individual and if they can be found, they will be (tells you the area and room the target is in). | |
| Skysight | Know all that transpires in Whiirh's domain. |
Focus upon the skies, granting yourself the ability to know whenever someone flies into or out of your immediate location or area. | |
| Gale | Diverge them of defences. |
Summon forth a powerful gale to blow away magical shields that may be protecting your foes. | |
| Tempest | Safety in the eye of the storm. |
Manifest a whirling tempest to surround you, reducing the potency of attacks that would seek to do you harm (mitigates damage). | |
| Tornado | An insatiable hunger. |
You may manifest a tornado in a location, making any that fly in the sky have difficulty leaving your location (This is indiscriminate and shall hit your allies as well as your enemies. It will not however capture fellow Elemental Lords of Air.). | |
| Scour | A slashing wind to tear flesh from bone. |
Summon forth a slashing wind to rip the face of your foe to bloody tatters, making them so hideous that even their most loyal allies will turn against them (gives disloyalty and damage). A time after you use this ability (this time is shorter the more pressure you have built up around your target. See AB DURESS PRESSURE for details) either the wind shall come again if your foe has cured disloyalty, or if they still labour under the affliction they shall be stunned and knocked off balance for a short time. Note that this periodic tick will continue to occur until a tick occurs where disloyalty is reapplied. | |
| Drift | As light as a feather. |
Drift on the wind, carrying yourself up into the sky. | |
| Zephyr | A freezing rush to leech away strength. |
Call upon Whiirh to grant you a zephyr, which will freeze your target to such a point that they will be unable to retain their mental fortitude (gives manaleech and damage). After a time (this time is shorter the more pressure you have built up around your target. See AB DURESS PRESSURE for details) the zephyr will come again, either re-afflicting your foe if manaleech isn't present, or giving deadening if their mental faculties are already failing. If your foe has both deadening and manaleech when the zephyr comes again, your target shall receive a short mental blackout. Note that this periodic tick will continue to occur until a tick occurs where manaleech is reapplied. | |
| Glide | As fast as lightning. |
When flying, you may glide on the air currents in a given direction, moving many rooms at a time. You may additionally specify a number of rooms to move (between 1 and 11. If on the wilderness map, the max is 5). | |
| Susurration | A gentle cleansing breeze. |
This gentle cleansing breeze will surround you, passively healing you of afflictions every so often. If you are in Whiirh's domain (when flying), this will cure two afflictions at once, though when you next return to the ground it will prove less efficient for a time after doing so. | |
| Soar | To the clouds and above. |
You may now soar to the clouds and above, granting access to various special locations with exits all around the world. Low: takes you to on the clouds. High: takes you to high above the clouds. Stratosphere: takes you to a special room only accessible to paragons of Whiirh. | |
| Strangle | Crush the life from them with bands of air. |
Wrap bands of air about the throat of your foe, crushing the life from them. Depriving them of oxygen will lead to them becoming light-headed and mentally slowed (gives deadening and damage). A time after strangling your foe, if they are still deadened in mind they shall become disrupted (This time is shorter the more pressure you have built up around your target. See AB DURESS PRESSURE for details). If they are not, the bands shall remanifest, giving them deadening once again. Note that this periodic tick will continue to occur until a tick occurs where deadening is reapplied. | |
| Asphyxiate | Make every breath an agony. |
Take hold of the air in the very lungs of your foe, lacerating the delicate membranes that permit them to draw breath. This will cause them to hack and cough on any smoke that they inhale, revealing the type of it to you. | |
| Lightning | Become the storm. |
Become living lightning itself, allowing you to cross vast distances in an instant. If you are on the ground and enact this ability against someone flying above you in the skies, you shall instantly move to the flying elevation at no balance cost. If you enact this ability against someone on the same continent who is also outdoors while you are flying, you shall immediately transverse to their location (though be warned, you will transverse to the ground rather than the sky). This manifestation of lightning does incur a short balance cost. Note that both forms of becoming lightning carry a short delay before you may do so again. | |
| Updraft | A powerful gale-like surge. |
This powerful surge of wind will have various effects based on your target's current state. If they are upon the ground and outdoors, they will be launched into the sky. If they are upon the ground but indoors, they will slam into the ceiling, taking damage and falling back to the ground. If they are in the sky, they shall be forced upwards, taking fairly significant damage. Additionally, the recovery time for this ability is twice as fast if your target is suffering from the tension affliction. Note that dying to updraft neither leaves a corpse, and bypasses the starburst defence. | |
| Tropostheria | The sky is no refuge from your wrath. |
Your power over air is now so great that you may utilise all of your attacks against targets that are in the sky, even if you stand upon the ground. Additionally, holding ones breath is no longer a viable defence against your mastery over the element of air. | |
| Silence | Speech is a luxury they do not deserve. |
Create a bubble of silence around the head of your target, making them unable to hear or be heard through conventional methods. | |
| Effervescence | An insidious vapour to lay low your foes. |
You may manifest a vapour that will linger in a location for a time, periodically striking down your foes with various maladies. Notably, holding ones breath is only a partial defence against this sinister gift of Whiirh. | |
| Pressure | To oppose Whiirh weighs heavily. |
Increase the pressure around your target. The more weakened your target is, the more pressure you will be able to build at any one time (for the purposes of this ability, the more of manaleech, disloyalty and deadening a target suffers from. A max of two can boost this effect at any single point in time). Additionally, while the air pressure is raised around a target, their attempts to move will be delayed somewhat (when pressure has been raised at least twice, the target will also be unable to perform many leaping-style abilities). | |
| Gauge | The degree of their demise. |
Intently study a target, determining how elevated the pressure surrounding them may be. This ability requires but does not consume balance or equilibrium, though you may only utilise it every second or so. | |
| Tension | Turn the air against them. |
Increase the tension around a target (it is not possible to land if in flight, though external sources may still pull you back to the ground), as well as slightly increasing the pressure of the air surrounding them (increases pressure by one if present, otherwise gives the pressure affliction). | |
| Skyhammer | The hand of Whiirh. |
Call down the very wrath of Whiirh, smiting those that fly above you with cataclysmic damage and casting them down to lie broken before your feet (deald extreme damage). There is a windup period while invoking this terrible power during which you may do nothing, and there is a one minute cooldown on a room after each use. | |
| Compression | An example must be made. |
After you have elevated the pressure surrounding a target sufficiently (the target must have had the pressure surrounding them elevated at least six times), you may crush their skull like a grape, ending their life in a manner fitting one who has dared cross you. | |
| Stormfront | There will be no interruptions. |
Summon forth towering walls of wind to enclose your location, preventing any long distance travel into your location (no travel into a location that isn't from an adjacent location will work while this effect is active). This effect lasts for only a single minute due to the tremendous amount of concentration required, and a lord may only summon forth a stormfront once every five minutes. | |
| Mistral | That which heralds death. |
Assume the form of the fabled mistral, an icy wind which is completely immune from the world around it. While in this form the actions you may perform are extremely limited, and you may only maintain it for a time before you will be forced back into corporeal form. Though assuming the mistral has a short windup usually, if you are flying at the time of initiation the transformation is instantaneous. | |