[larsdangly]

That is the most straightforward reading of the spell, for sure, but I'm not convinced it was the intent. The text of the spell hasn't changed since the original edition of Wizard, so when it was written there was no such thing as fatigue or mana or anything else like that - it described ST loss the way all spell casting worked, just with a variable amount that depended on the circumstances. So, while yours is a reasonable reading, I still think it falls under the heading of 'table rulings'