A whispering… word?

Baleful Utterance

Tags: magical, immobile, terrifying

Hidden from the sun, in a ring of runes, there is a… word?… floating in the air. Squiggling and wriggling, yearning to be free, it whispers promises of power. But the runes around it fill you with dread.

To unlock it, you must:

• master your fear, forcing yourself to grasp it and take it inside of you;
• hold tight as it wracks your body and soul, attempting to unmake you (2d6 damage, messy, ignores armor);
• spend weeks in isolation, wrapping your mind around the dread word that now lives in your head;
• risk corrupting your locale and destroying your possessions or anything else nearby as you practice speaking the dread word aloud.

Baleful Utterance

When you speak the dread word, name an object that your voice can reach — it shatters, unravels, or is otherwise unmade.

Then roll:

• On a success with a 6, pick 1.
• On a success with no six, pick 1 — and the GM picks another.
• On a bust, pick 1, in addition to whatever else the GM says.

Regardless, if the item you destroyed was indestructible, pick 1 more.

• Your throat burns and your tongue blisters; mark miserable and you can barely whisper for a few days.
• Your ears and those of all who heard the word start bleeding (1d4 damage, ignores armor, temporarily deafened). 1d4 other objects of the GM's choice also shatter/unravel/are unmade.
• This place is corrupted by the Things Below; if already corrupted, it gets worse; otherwise, it is now a shunned place, a place of disquiet and unease.