The Archive of Esoteric Secrets

Nox's Dark Sun

8-level Illusion

You channel the dark energies of the Shadowfell through you, pouring them into the skies above. For the duration a plume of dark smoke pours from the skull, heavily obscuring a 10-foot area around the point of the spell’s casting that extends upwards in a cylinder that reaches the clouds.   Over the course of the spell's duration, the smoke fills the skies, advancing 1 mile per minute that you concentrate on the spell, out to a maximum 60-mile radius around you. After every 10 minutes that you concentrate on the spell, a new effect occurs and persists for the duration of the spell. These effects are as follows:   10 minutes. All light sources have their range reduced by half, unless that light source comes from a spell of 6th-level or higher.   20 minutes. Any dim-light in the area becomes darkness.   30 minutes. The sun is completely covered, stopping any sunlight from penetrating the smoke. All that can be seen is a thin corona of sunlight in the sky that has darkened to a menacing red.   40 minutes. The darkness oppresses the mind, any creature other than the caster that takes a long rest underneath the darkness must make a saving throw against Shadowfell Despair (as detailed on page 52 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide).   50 minutes. All healing received by a creature other than the caster in the area is halved.   60 minutes. The plume of smoke from the crystal stops, and spells effects become permanent, persisting in their entirety until successfully dispelled. You need not concentrate from this point onwards to maintain the effects of the spell.   If for any reason the spell ends before the duration has expired, the effects persist for 1d4 + 1 hours, with the effects disappearing as they appeared, but in reverse order during the final hour.   Undead creatures are immune to the effects of this spell.   After the effects have been made permanent a creature that wishes to permanently dispel the darkness must find where it was first cast, dig up the crystal skull that was buried at the casting location after the spell’s completion, and cast a success dispel magic on the skull.