War Crimes Spell

This article contains unmarked spoilers for Book 7.

System Message. Posting Book 8 spoilers will result in "acceleration" per our rules.

War Crimes Spell  is a spell given to Donut in a Legendary 1914 Box.

Appearance

The spell book itself is describes as bleeding and crying before the user reads it. ^[1]

AI Description

War Crime.

As this spell is unable to be properly trained, it will start at level 5, and it will increase by 5 each time it is cast.

Type: Atrocity.

Target: A line-of-sight beam extending from caster’s eyes that shoots in a narrow cone.

Area of effect: See description.

Cost: 1 mana point.

Duration: See description.

Cooldown: This spell can only be cast once per floor, and it can only be cast on the Scolopendra Levels, meaning levels 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18. It can only be cast a total of 3 times.

This spell has been cast 0 times so far.

At level 5, the casting of War Crime requires you to choose two spells in your arsenal. It will then combine these two spells in a creative way. The spells will always do what they’re supposed to do, but it may happen in a fun, exciting, and unpredictable manner. Intention matters, and for this spell, we respect that. Just know it’s going to be awesome and something that most governments would consider unconscionable.

At level 10, you will be able to combine three spells. At level 15, you will combine four.

The chosen spells must be at least level 8. Their strength beyond that will not be taken into consideration. Don’t worry. It’ll live up to the spell’s name.

I’ll make sure of that.

Three notes:

One. Once you cast this, your health will be knocked down to 1%.

Two. You will lose access to the two spells for the remainder of the floor, but you will now be able to—optionally—chain those same two spells together and cast them simultaneously for the price of just one on later floors. All spells added to the mix during further castings of War Crime will be able to mix and match with one another, either all or in part.

And finally, Warning. No matter what happens to your targets physically, this spell can’t kill anyone directly. No matter what happens to them, they will not die from this spell. They will want to die. They won’t. Even if the chosen spells results in them being chopped into pieces, liquified, and spewed across the playing field into multiple puddles, they will not die. You should probably have a finisher on hand if that’s your intention. As far as I’m concerned, I think it’ll be funnier if you leave them alive. But you do you.

So, what happens when you actually cast this? Let’s give an example from the one and only time this spell has ever been used in Dungeon Crawler World.

The Operatic warlord who cast this decided to combine two spells on a group of charging soldiers from the mantid team: Fireball and Paralysis. Not very creative, but it worked. He was parked atop a circle of power at the time, and the spell cast in a wide arc, hitting approximately 200 mercenaries for the mantids at once. There was only one true mantis in the bunch, and she noped out of the game all together by ejecting approximately ten seconds after getting hit.

The victims were paralyzed permanently. They were set on fire permanently. They were each blown off in an arc away from the caster where they didn’t stop until they hit something. For some of those poor mercenaries, that was very, very far. They remained there, paralyzed and on fire and undying for the remainder of the floor. The caster of the spell received an experience point update for every hour or so of their suffering.

Incidentally, the wuss of an AI in charge of that season decided to put the on-fire NPC mercenaries out of their misery once the floor finally collapsed about two weeks later.

Additional fun fact. The Operatic who cast the spell supposedly had to go for an identity reset after the crawl and was re-absorbed. Part of his essence eventually formed into Hortense Leadership Unit. I’d like to think that’s why he has a twitch to him. Collective minds should really have learned by now how to peel off their own... impurities. Otherwise you’re just wallowing in used bath water, if you know what I’m saying.

Story

Book 7

Donut in a Legendary 1914 Box. ^[1]

References