Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

[ses]

I have no idea what the butterfly is but the best guess is that Quicksilver rattling off Old Realm somehow ended up under Dragon's eye and this escalated to her ID being blown.

"The wolf devoured every part of her, until not a single speck was left."

Lie status: Not found.

Click to shrink...

Very late to noticing this but the lie is that she didn't say "This just proves me right you know" with her last breath. Which in hindsight with the Fleeing Maiden sutra making a joke of precog literalism is a little surprising.

 

[Daniel Snuts]

Handy tips for fighting the Butcher:

1. Don't.

2. No, seriously, don't.

Much like Lung was for the ABB, and you are for BITN, the Butcher is the lynchpin that allows the Teeth to exist. That has allowed it to thrive for years on end. When a parahuman has this level of power, the details of what minions they choose to surround themselves with barely even matter. They lay their will upon the world, and the world bends to accommodate them.

Having two of them in the same city seldom works out, long term.

---

Handy tips for fighting the Butcher:

1. Don't kill the Butcher.

This is the first rule, because it's the most important. If you kill the Butcher, the soul (mind-state, psychic imprint, whatever) of every previous Butcher will latch onto you. They will grant you a portion of the powers they had in life, and drive you insane. You can't kill the Butcher, you can only volunteer to become its new host.

Don't kill the Butcher. It's the first rule, because it's the most important. But it's also the last rule, because thirteen people already ignored the first rule. It's the last rule, because it's the last of your problems.

2. Don't try to ambush the Butcher. The Butcher can see through walls.

3. Don't try to sneak up on the Butcher. The Butcher has danger sense.

4. Don't engage the Butcher in melee. The Butcher has six sets of Brute powers and the ability to inflict unnatural, festering wounds.

5. Don't engage the Butcher at range. The Butcher has perfect accuracy with all weapons. Perfect as in 'bullets go around corners to hit you' perfect. The Butcher also never runs out of ammunition.

6. Actually, whatever range you try to engage the Butcher at doesn't matter, because the Butcher can teleport. The Butcher teleporting also causes an explosion at the destination, because of course it does.

7. The Butcher can also induce crippling pain just by looking at you, but do you even care at this point?

8. Don't try to take the Butcher alive. The Butcher can induce mindless rage just by looking at you. If it looks like you're about to succeed in a non-lethal takedown, the Butcher will make you go nuts and kill it instead.

9. Don't kill the Butcher.

That looks like an imposing set of rules, doesn't it? But you know the secret:

Rules are for losers.

The kind of people who care more about rules than about winning will never amount to anything. Rules fucking suck. For example, the ones about background checks when buying a firearm.

Handy tips for selling firearms:

1. Don't sell to people who refuse to show ID.

2. Don't sell to underage kids.

3. Don't sell to people whose background check comes back 'deceased'.

4. Especially don't sell to known supervillains.

It takes special talent to be able to fail all of these criteria, but you're just that good.

You had to make your own anti-materiel rifle from scratch. Yes, it's magic. Everything you make is magic. To make it, you melted down and reforged the golden armor you tore off the invincible dragon-robot that tried to arrest you a while back. The resulting weapon is taller than you are, and would be heavier as well if not for the magic making it light as a feather in your hands.

The bullets are magic too, forged of the same orichalcum.

Spoiler: Sutra of the Manifold Maiden

Once there was a maiden...
...or was it two? Or maybe three, or fourteen?
She found it quite confusing to be so many people.
Because she could never agree with herself,
she often had trouble deciding what to do.
All this confusion tended to make her angry,
and she usually ended up doing angry things.
"Violence is a democracy," said she.

Even without magic, the effective range of your rifle would be many times that of the Butcher's sensory powers. The time between the bullet entering the range of her danger sense and it hitting her will be roughly one hundredth of a second. The Butcher does not have enhanced reflexes.

You carefully take note of wind-speed, range and elevation, and adjust your sights. The scope is magic too. Alas, poor Faultline. The gem in her amulet will have crumbled to dust by now - you had to adjust the geomancy of the Silver Desert to produce a clear crystal for your magic optics. You'll restore it and send her a replacement once you get back.

Your skill as a sniper is also magic, a product of emptiness endowment. Not too much - you can't risk overdrawing your capacity for learning, not with what's coming up next - but certainly enough to hit a stationary target.

The Butcher is stationary right now, sitting down to dinner in the center of your crosshairs. You hold your breath and gently, gently squeeze the trigger.

The blast deafens you. In the next instant you've sent the rifle Elsewhere, and you're flying away at top speed before the bullet has crossed half the distance. In case you missed, you'll be gone long before the Butcher can even figure out where the shot came from, much less cover the two and a half miles separating you - given the modest range of her teleportation, it will take her over fifty jumps.

If you did miss, you'll just try again tomorrow. And the day after, and the next. You have bullets to spare, and you only have to get lucky once.

You'll find out whether your aim was true sometime in the next second.

---

"How can I help you, miss?" the receptionist at the PRT HQ (which, in the wake of Leviathan dashing the Rig against the shore, is now also the Protectorate HQ) asks. There's a certain tension in her voice, what with you being a non-hero cape and all. And probably also because of the bow you're carrying - it's clearly a weapon of war rather than sporting equipment.

"I'd like to be sent to the birdcage," you say. The receptionist hits the silent alarm. Well, that works too. You give her your best reassuring smile (it's not super good, at the moment) and wait for it to bring someone with more authority your way.

After only a few seconds, Assault comes shooting out of the stairwell at superhuman speed. When he recognizes you he dumps his momentum and comes to an instant stop.

"Quicksilver?"

"That's not my name anymore," you tell him.

"Oh? What do you call yourself now?"

"Butcher XV."

The receptionist hits the non-silent alarm. Klaxons blare, and a pair of containment foam turrets descend from the ceiling. You stand there and let yourself get foamed long enough to heave a deep sigh. Then you teleport away, leaving a QuicksilverButcher-shaped foam mold behind.

The receptionist flinches away and huddles down in her chair when you appear behind her desk and reach in her direction. You ignore her - you're just here for the closest loose object you can find, which happens to be the keyboard of her computer. You snatch it up and place it against your bow. As you draw back the string, it thins and lengthens into an arrow, the brittle plastic at the tip impossibly hardening into a bodkin point.

One of the more peculiar powers you inherited, the ability to turn absolutely anything into ammunition. The way the keys shifted around such that the four sides of the arrowhead spell out STOP didn't even take any concentration from you, it just happened on its own.

You fire the keyboard-arrow into the more distant foam turret, and it pierces deep into the armored mechanism. The turret briefly gives off a terrible grinding noise as it tries to traverse towards you, before growing still with a burst of sparks and smoke.

Meanwhile you've dropped your bow and leapt up to grapple the nearer turret with your bare hands. You flip yourself around to brace your feet against the ceiling, and heave. Metal shrieks in protest as you straighten your legs and rip the turret right out of its socket. Containment foam spews from the broken feed line, expanding and hardening to seal the wound.

With cranelike grace you twist in the air to land on your feet, just in time to see half a dozen armored PRT troopers burst into the room.

You drop the broken turret and raise your hands. "Please. I already turned myself in. It's hard enough not to kill everyone in the room without you giving me reasons."

Assault motions for the PRT troopers to stand down. "Someone turn off the alarm," he orders. "We're all friends here."

"Thank you."

"Things didn't explode when you teleported," he notes.

"Fifteen remains a Thinker/Trump," you say. "A certain finesse with powers is only to be expected. We were- I was being polite. Now, the birdcage? Please?"

"What did you do to deserve that?" He does an adequate job of hiding his worry in the face of an insane murderer stepping into his building, you judge. You did not expect the designated comic relief of his team to deal with authority being thrust upon him so well.

"This incarnation? Nothing, yet. Shall I read you the Butcher's file?"

"I'll get the director," Assault decides.

===

Spoiler: Updated status

Charms:
Taylor: All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
Tattletale: Know the Soul's Price
Bitch: Spirit-Tied Pet
Aegis: Ox-Body Technique
Browbeat: Shaping the Ideal Form
Dragon: Implicit Construction Methodology
Kid Win: Industry and Forge Wisdom
Lung: By Rage Recast
Vista: Mind-Hand Manipulation
Cricket: Mantis Form
Faultline: Charm of Lesser Unmaking
Labyrinth: Hell-Walker Technique
Othala: Verdant Emptiness Endowment
Rune: Sometimes Horses Fly Approach
Shadow Stalker: Bloodless Murk Evasion
Miss Militia: Nightmare Fugue Vigilance
Circus: Graceful Crane Stance
Ballistic: Crack the Sky
Crusader: Shell-Cracking Atemi
Purity: Eagle-Wing Style
Flechette: Pattern Spider Touch
Regent: Distracting Finger-Gesture Attack
Jack Slash: Blazing Solar Bolt
Murder Rat: Unstoppable Lunar Wound
Siberian: ???
Animos: Soul-cleaving Wound
Cuff: Willpower-Enhancing Spirit
Shatterbird: Death of Obsidian Butterflies
Lizardtail: Halting the Scarlet Flow
Butcher: Agony of Unwise Adversity, Watchful Spider Stance, Surprise Anticipation Method, Twisting Spiteful Shaft, Scar-Writ Saga Shield, Loom Stride, Iron Kettle Body, Generalized Ammunition Technique, Terrifying Lust Infliction, Dark Messiah Form, Yeddim's-Back Method, Steadfast Yeddim Meditation, Increasing Strength Exercise, Accuracy Without Distance

Spoiler: Mechanics corner

Who needs sorcerer's sight and tedious hours of study, when the Butcher's powers will helpfully sear themselves into your soul on their own? Fourteen charms for the price of zero.

 

[Fernando]

Birdcage arc ho!

 

[Korttihai]

Did she get the previous butchers in her head as well or just the powers?

 

[GAMB42]

F*cking Finally. We are moving into high gear and the end game might be in view. I really want to see how the this all ends, one way or the other.

 

[ses]

>Dark Messiah Form
Shit it was Void Avatar Prana and she can activate it now
>A surprise negator
Well color me surprised.

 

[wigg55]

Did she get the previous butchers in her head as well or just the powers?

Click to shrink...

Even odds; their in her head but no real problem, their in her head and are a problem (not that a solar would ever admit to such), their not in her head and its BS to get access to that sweet sweet para human power bank.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Birdcage arc ho!

Click to shrink...

I'd be up for a birdcage arc, but at the pace things are going I wouldn't be surprise if it were more like a double feature.

 

[Dread Pirate Gilligan]

F*cking Finally. We are moving into high gear and the end game might be in view. I really want to see how the this all ends, one way or the other.

Click to shrink...

Scion floats aimlessly looking down upon the world. Just one of many iterations of the same worthless rock spread across countless dimensions. He can barely be bothered to remember which one this one even is, for truly... Life is meaningless suffering. For him. He isn't sure if the primitives below can even understand pain. Silly mortals.

Then there is a flash of light and another Golden and Glowing being appears before him.

"...Eden?"

"Eh, sure. You can call me Eden. But, I get to study your powers. All of your powers. Deal?"

"The Cycle continues...?"

"Yes. Oh yes indeed. The cycle continues. New powers forever."

For, while Taylor Eden liked some mortals alright... The chance at learning new powers forever? Well, she can always find new pets friends on the next world. Well, for about 300 years until it is time to move on again, at least...

And, while Trousers might think her the 'Monster at the End of the World'... It seems pretty obvious to her that Trousers meant to say Goddess at the End of the World.

 

[ses]

• I'd be up for a birdcage arc, but at the pace things are going I wouldn't be surprise if it were more like a double feature.

  Click to shrink...

Yeah with infinite-mote Loom Stride of all things on her character sheet now plus a surprise negator, we've now left any hope of combat against anything but Scion himself being a thing. I really want to hang out with my waifu String Theory though. World-Slaying Arsenal Epiphany is such a fun name to say. And we get to chat with Lung again! I hope there's a lot of character interaction and stuff that isn't just bulldozed over.

 

[zapking5]

This is the first rule, because it's the most important. If you kill the Butcher, the soul (mind-state, psychic imprint, whatever) of every previous Butcher will latch onto you. They will grant you a portion of the powers they had in life, and drive you insane. You can't kill the Butcher, you can only volunteer to become its new host.

Click to shrink...

I find it somewhat annoying how things are getting skipped over and leaving us to guess. Why not include what Taylor thinks about this? Does she have a method to avoid the voices, to counter the insanity, or does she just not care?

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

"Fifteen remains a Thinker/Trump," you say. "A certain finesse with powers is only to be expected. We were- I was being polite. Now, the birdcage? Please?"

"What did you do to deserve that?" He does an adequate job of hiding his worry in the face of an insane murderer stepping into his building, you judge. You did not expect the designated comic relief of his team to deal with authority being thrust upon him so well.

"This incarnation? Nothing, yet. Shall I read you the Butcher's file?"

"I'll get the director," Assault decides.

Click to shrink...

Hopefully the director has the good sense to just do it, because there's a really obvious way to use a PRT director to get to the Birdcage.

Who needs sorcerer's sight and tedious hours of study, when the Butcher's powers will helpfully sear themselves into your soul on their own? Fourteen charms for the price of zero.

Click to shrink...

Yeesh, next thing we know she's gonna be drooling at the faerie queen with knife and fork in hand.

 

[Kennethil]

So, because Taylor being able to deduce that after killing the Butcher she'd be spared the voices for some reason would be too neat and painless, my guess is this:


After gaining the regeneration charm from LizardTail, she can now exploit the one she got from Cuff that provides Willpower when injured without limit. Unlimited willpower means never getting ground down by the previous Butcher voices.

 

[GAMB42]

Scion floats aimlessly looking down upon the world. Just one of many iterations of the same worthless rock spread across countless dimensions. He can barely be bothered to remember which one this one even is, for truly... Life is meaningless suffering. For him. He isn't sure if the primitives below can even understand pain. Silly mortals.

Then there is a flash of light and another Golden and Glowing being appears before him.

"...Eden?"

"Eh, sure. You can call me Eden. But, I get to study your powers. All of your powers. Deal?"

"The Cycle continues...?"

"Yes. Oh yes indeed. The cycle continues. New powers forever."

For, while Taylor Eden liked some mortals alright... The chance at learning new powers forever? Well, she can always find new pets friends on the next world. Well, for about 300 years until it is time to move on again, at least...

And, while Trousers might think her the 'Monster at the End of the World'... It seems pretty obvious to her that Trousers meant to say Goddess at the End of the World.

Click to shrink...

This right here. This might be a horrible grimdark ending but would be well in character. This does put a smile on my face.

 

[Requiem_Jeer]

Lizardtail: Halting the Scarlet Flow
Butcher: Agony of Unwise Adversity, Watchful Spider Stance, Surprise Anticipation Method, Twisting Spiteful Shaft, Scar-Writ Saga Shield, Loom Stride, Iron Kettle Body, Generalized Ammunition Technique, Terrifying Lust Infliction, Dark Messiah Form, Yeddim's-Back Method, Steadfast Yeddim Meditation, Increasing Strength Exercise, Accuracy Without Distance

Click to shrink...

Lethal damage healing, supernaturally potent combat banter, territory perception, surprise negator, damage over time with archery attacks, minor durability increase, short range teleport, activated but significant unarmored durability increase, turn shit into arrows, mass emotion control (limited to hungers), Kung Fu booster (DM for punching a lot, Mantis for parrying a lot), feat of strength booster, wound penalty ignorer, actual strength booster, and archery auto-hit.

Quite the list. Plenty of possibilities and synergies here. I suspect Taylor is going to lift something quite heavy and throw it a very long way with Crack the Sky.

I do have a question about Iron Kettle Body though. I'm assuming how it works is that it's a standalone scene length unarmored soak increaser? She just can't do the instant speed hit that she could if she had durability of oak meditation proper? It's the first time she's gotten a charm that upgrades another charm without having the prerequisite.

 

[queermunist]

Scion floats aimlessly looking down upon the world. Just one of many iterations of the same worthless rock spread across countless dimensions. He can barely be bothered to remember which one this one even is, for truly... Life is meaningless suffering. For him. He isn't sure if the primitives below can even understand pain. Silly mortals.

Then there is a flash of light and another Golden and Glowing being appears before him.

"...Eden?"

"Eh, sure. You can call me Eden. But, I get to study your powers. All of your powers. Deal?"

"The Cycle continues...?"

"Yes. Oh yes indeed. The cycle continues. New powers forever."

For, while Taylor Eden liked some mortals alright... The chance at learning new powers forever? Well, she can always find new pets friends on the next world. Well, for about 300 years until it is time to move on again, at least...

And, while Trousers might think her the 'Monster at the End of the World'... It seems pretty obvious to her that Trousers meant to say Goddess at the End of the World.

Click to shrink...

Definitely in line with my own expectations, though it seems more likely she's going to become some kind of space worm predator. She still has her human creativity and
Scion isn't good company after she studies all his powers.

Still doesn't end well for humanity unless she finds a way off world without the dimensional cascade omni-splosion Entities use for travel.

Cuz if she has to omnicide the human race to go out hunting down space worms she absolutely will.

 

[Amberion]

I find it somewhat annoying how things are getting skipped over and leaving us to guess. Why not include what Taylor thinks about this? Does she have a method to avoid the voices, to counter the insanity, or does she just not care?

Click to shrink...

I'm thinking she's just going to expend willpower to ignore them, and cut herself to generate more willpower.

 

[Zxzx24]

>Dark Messiah Form
Shit it was Void Avatar Prana and she can activate it now
>A surprise negator
Well color me surprised.

Click to shrink...

I was holding out for birth of sanitys sorrow, but this is pretty cool too.

 

[raisins]

Butcher: Agony of Unwise Adversity, Watchful Spider Stance, Surprise Anticipation Method, Twisting Spiteful Shaft, Scar-Writ Saga Shield, Loom Stride, Iron Kettle Body, Generalized Ammunition Technique, Terrifying Lust Infliction, Dark Messiah Form, Yeddim's-Back Method, Steadfast Yeddim Meditation, Increasing Strength Exercise, Accuracy Without Distance

Click to shrink...

Welp

 

[Dakkah]

Snip.

Click to shrink...

She can also make tranquility trinkets. (Like the one she keeps stealing from Faultline.)

 

[PlasticSoldier]

Did she intend to become Butcher? Wouldn't she have known that would happen if she didn't?

 

[Daniel Snuts]

I find it somewhat annoying how things are getting skipped over and leaving us to guess. Why not include what Taylor thinks about this? Does she have a method to avoid the voices, to counter the insanity, or does she just not care?

Click to shrink...

Next chapter, man. You gotta wait for next chapter.

I do have a question about Iron Kettle Body though. I'm assuming how it works is that it's a standalone scene length unarmored soak increaser? She just can't do the instant speed hit that she could if she had durability of oak meditation proper? It's the first time she's gotten a charm that upgrades another charm without having the prerequisite.

Click to shrink...

Iron Kettle Body is a standalone charm, not an upgrade (in 2e, at least).

She can also make tranquility trinkets. (Like the one she keeps stealing from Faultline.)

Click to shrink...

Trinket, singular. That only works for a few minutes per day.

 

[zapking5]

Next chapter, man. You gotta wait for next chapter.

Click to shrink...

You've been corrupted by the power of the cliffhanger!

Yeesh, next thing we know she's gonna be drooling at the faerie queen with knife and fork in hand.

Click to shrink...

I wonder what the Fairy Queen will call her. I bet it literally has 'Exalted' in the title.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

I wonder what the Fairy Queen will call her. I bet it literally has 'Exalted' in the title.

Click to shrink...

A normal exalted I could believe that, but this one is a shard, one that consorts with every other shard it can rub its host up against.

I'm guessing Wanton Harlot.

 

[Omnomimous]

I'm guessing Wanton Harlot.

Click to shrink...

Probably a title in the theme of Exalted charm names. Something like...

Timeless Assimilation Harlot
Which is an abbreviation that Taylor should find familiar.

 

[John Doey]

I can't believe you posted this on Friday of all days, what a dick.



OMGWHEEEEEE

 

[Ruy]

Who needs sorcerer's sight and tedious hours of study, when the Butcher's powers will helpfully sear themselves into your soul on their own? Fourteen charms for the price of zero.

Click to shrink...

If it comes with insanity not a worthwhile trade at all.
Potentially getting all the other powers with enough time and less downsides is more worthwhile.

She has been active for less than a year, another year of activity and she could have gotten even more powers with Accord, being capable of studying parahumans 24/7 with or without his help.

I'm not familiar with all the abyssal charms so if she got the powers without the insanity it is still absolutely worth it.

I don't get why she didn't get Accord tho.

 

[Omnomimous]

I'm not familiar with all the abyssal charms so if she got the powers without the insanity it is still absolutely worth it.

Click to shrink...

The insanity isn't inherent, to my knowledge. Just a consequence of the voices.

Part of her current charmset includes functionally infinite willpower generation with which to resist the screaming/whispering of the voices.

 

[ses]

Acidbath: All-Devouring Depths Shintai. This one is easy.
Lab Rat: Inner Devils Unchained.
Teacher: Power-Awarding Prana (VEE is already taken so there goes the best Training charm with an inbuilt Master effect.)
Ingenue: You and Yours Stance
Canary: Harmonic Completion
String Theory: World-Slaying Arsenal Epiphany
Crock o'Shit: Judge's Ear Technique/Factual Determination Analysis
Black Kaze: Uh, something from Charcoal March of Spiders Style.

Can't think of good guesses off the top of my head for Gavel, Marquis, Crane the Harmonious, Glastic, or Lustrum. Watch Glastig's inherent charm just be Sacred Kamala's Inhalation. Though her ghosts are probably each separate valid study targets.

 

[Ruy]

Part of her current charmset includes functionally infinite willpower generation with which to resist the screaming/whispering of the voices.

Click to shrink...

Still not worth the hit on QoL.