Maddening darkness

Maddening darkness was an evocation spell that created an area of darkness that caused psychic damage to those within.

Effects
When cast, the spell created a sphere of darkness with a radius of 60 feet (18 meters). The sphere was malleable, able to bend around corners and other obstacles. The darkness was nearly impenetrable, darkvision and mundane light sources were rendered useless within the sphere. Only light from the most powerful magical source or spell was able to penetrate the darkness, spells such as light did not. Creatures within the sphere heard disturbing sounds and were inflicted with severe psychic damage.

Components
In addition to verbal and somatic components, the spell required material components: a minute amount of mercury and pitch. These were combined during casting.