What It Does
The ground, set bad — the poison makes the water bad, and the water bad is the whole argument, and the one who drinks is the one who was already the terms. It is the poison school's answer to the water school's flood: the water does not drown, the water loses.
The Cost
Circle 3 · Poison · Exchange: breath — casting time one round. On the ladder in The Veil, the breath rung is the price.
The Failure
The taint holds the ground a beat too long, and the decay keeps the tension — the ground is the one who is bad, and the one who is bad is the ground that was already the road.
In Stories
The journeyman's poison spell; the one the camp casts when the ground is the argument and the terms are the ones who have to lose.
The door's scale anchor is Scorpion — the dragon casts it without thinking, which is how a reader learns the shape of the thing.