You mark the target with a black marking on its skin; the mark's exact appearance determined by you, but can be no larger than your hand. You state some behavior on the part of the subject that will activate the mark. When activated, the mark curses the subject. Typically, you designate some sort of undesirable behavior that activates the mark, but you can pick any act you please. When the mark is activated, the target becomes shaken anytime it is on or in the water more than a 5 feet from shore.

In addition, as long as the black mark is active, all creatures with the aquatic or water subtype or with a swim speed have an initial attitude of hostile toward the target. Familiars, being magical beasts, are not affected by this spell, but animal companions are. If you have an animal companion, it does not become hostile, but as long as you remain cursed, your animal companion takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, skill checks, and saving throws. The target also takes a –10 penalty on Survival skill checks as the weather and environment themselves seem to conspire to cause trouble.

Since this spell takes 10 minutes to cast and involves writing on the target, you can cast it only on a creature that is willing or restrained.

A black mark cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell. Remove curse works only if its caster level is equal to or higher than your Black Mark caster level. These restrictions apply regardless of whether the mark has activated.