10 Maleficence Effects Based on the Plagues of Egypt

"But it's just another bug." What? No. Stop.

Focus. Think.

1. Water into blood (דָם): Ex. 7:14–24

The misaligned arcane energy crashes back onto you, transforming all water based objects in your inventory into blood. This undeniably ruins them. Water skin? Full of blood. Alchemical potion? Just a vial of blood. Bottle of wine? Nope, grape flavored blood. The water in your eyes keeping them moist? Blood. Any vampire in the area can smell this sudden concentration of blood, and they wish to meet you.

2. Frogs (צְּפַרְדֵּעַ): Ex. 7:25–8:15

It's Wednesday, my dudes.

Unbeknownst to you, you begin to produce frog pheromones, and begin to attract all the frogs in the area to you. Now, I worry you read that as "a lot of frogs." No, no. ALL the frogs, as well as the stink, noise, and muck that come with them. The area you're in, there are frogs there, trust me. You're never more than eight feet from a frog. 

More into body horror flavor? That's good, cause you also begin to take on physical features of a frog. Your skin grows slimy and wort covered. Your eyes bulge, your back hunches, your mouth grows ever too wide, your tongue ever too long. Hair falls out, fingers grow webbed, throat grows pouchy, throat pouch fills with squirming tadpoles. These tadpoles live and grow for a few days until you vomit forth your babies (and they ARE your babies), only to have your throat refill with tadpoles. 

3. Gnats (כִּנִּים): Ex. 8:16–19

The word kinim could translate to lice, gnats, or fleas. But that is unimportant. What is important is the red rash beginning to spread across your skin. It itches like a sonofabitch. No soothing balm helps, only scratching. However, scratching also spreads it. You can imagine how stressful this is. 

Either way, the real trouble beings during the camping phase or city action, when the rash subsides and the sneezing begins. With every sternutation clouds of lice and fleas rush from the victim and into the surrounding area, infecting those around them.

4. Mixture of wild animals or flies (עָרוֹב): Ex. 8:20–32

Christian interpreters understand this as a swarm of flies. Ignore this. Jewish interpreters take to this as meaning a swarm of scorpions, venomous snakes, venomous arthropods, and reptiles. So much poison. 

The caster's hair (all of it) turns to snakes, their moles sprout tiny scorpion stingers, their saliva occasionally congeals into centipedes. While the social stigmata is obvious, whenever a court card is played at the table these new body mates become enraged at the host and biting viciously, poisoning them. 

5. Diseased livestock (דֶּבֶר): Ex. 9:1–7

Witches curse livestock; this fact is well known and widely believed. Sometimes, however, the magic backfires and curses the caster instead. When this occurs, the caster begins to sprout patches of musty fur, prone to matting and knotting, and your tongue bloats and grows too big for your mouth. While this may be enough for some, upon encounter an animal (any and all animals), they'll grow immediately aggressive to you. Doesn't matter what sort of animal: cow, chicken, cockatrice, kelpie; all hate you and will try as best as they can to show you. Usually though biting. 

6. Boils (שְׁחִין): Ex. 9:8–12

Exactly what it says on the tin: Painful boils dot the caster's skin. However, when struck by a blow strong enough to burst one (i.e. taking a wound), the boils do indeed burst, but cry out the victim's darkest secret or gravest sin as they do. 

7. Thunderstorm of hail and fire (בָּרָד): Ex. 9:13–35

You know in cartoons when a rain cloud forms above a victims head and rains upon them in a comedic fashion? This is something like that, only with fiery hail and brimstone, instead of rain. And also room/area sized. The shattered hail makes traversal of  the area difficult, the burning sulfur makes breathing painful, and the flames, if left unattended, will start fires. 

8. Locusts (אַרְבֶּה): Ex. 10:1–20

A cloud of biting flies rushes forth from the caster's mouth, filling the room and biting everyone within. They will probe at any potential opening and cavity. Always hungry, always biting. Rations too are in danger, as the flies will consume them rapidly and producing more of themselves at a sickening and alarming rate. They continue until visibility and mobility are zero, at which point, should no food be left, they begin to consume themselves.  

9. Darkness for three days (חוֹשֶך): Ex. 10:21–29

The caster becomes entrapped in eternal midnight. No matter the local time, time within (card*10) meters of the caster is always midnight. Should you be on the surface, a shaft of darkness towers into the sky, with the moon and stars clearly visible. Clocks within the circumference always show midnight, returning to current time once out of range. In the Underworld the world around you is just a bit darker; light sources work at half strength, creatures of darkness are embolden. 

10. Death of firstborn (מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת): Ex. 11:1–12:36

The person you cherish the most appears on the scene and is fated to, before the end of the scene, perish. This person can be anyone: firstborn child, mother, sister, cousin - whom ever is the closest to your heart. The person came here for no other reason but to see you, and developed the urge long enough ago to appropriately travel to your location, suffering similar trials and tribulations along the way.

Their death may be violent (as is likely in combat) or sudden (such as a heart attack). Healing automatically fails against them. No matter the actions, they WILL die before the scene is ended.

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