YOU ARE (AGAIN) EXALTED!
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story.
Notes:
Please, don't be shy. I like "like", but posts are the lifeblood of any author. So, please post about this story.
I found that my character is more focused on plants (mainly due to her sorcery path) than animals like the original Zia.
It's not a bad thing since it helps her not become a carbon copy of the female MC from The Mysterious Cities of Gold.
Besides, using mundane plants in a way that Blasto or any bio-chemists couldn't is making me smile when I think about the PRT reaction.
By the way, I am seriously thinking about bringing out a catgirl in this story despite writing the contrary. Not my character, obviously. So far I'm hesitating in making a Lunar from a Worm character (possibly linked to my SI) or a newly created Other Character from the Worm setting (perhaps even another extra-dimensional exile).
Only the last could appear during Arc one, the former after my SI reached Brockton Bay.
Thank You to my Beta, SwiftBlizz who not only edited my chapters but also gave me 3 Solar points for the last.
Arc 1: Essence One.
Chapter 3: Are you lost? Why yes, I am.
July 23, 2009. 06:00 AM. Yonaguni Island, Yaeyama cluster, Ryukyu islands.
The black-haired, green-eyed young girl woke up, following a feeling from deep inside her heart. Her eyes blinked as she chased off the sleepiness and took in the sight of her shelter. It was still night but nearly very early morning.
She nodded to herself and walked outside after ensuring that her banked fire wouldn't go wild in her absence. A blanket of warm and protective essence weaved itself around her brown-skinned body to shield her from the environment and the consequences of being still sky-clad and barefoot. Yonaguni Island in July had an easy 30° Celsius on average and was classified as a tropical rainforest climate.
She made her ablutions in the brook nearby, using the act of physical washing to purify her being. Then, still damp, she reached a rocky promontory near the southern beach and faced the East, waiting.
When a pale light appeared over the horizon and painted her body with gold, the Eclipse Solar slowly raised her arms in a welcoming pose as the sun climbed the sky. "Ô, Sol Invictus..."
Her caste mark shone on her forehead as the Child of the Sun bared her very soul to the stellar body that symbolized the god, the Supreme Incarnae, who took her under his wing and offered the Divine Spark within her core.
As the sunrise continued,
Zia the Bright Raven, as she decided on her new name with the witnessing and blessing of her spiritual adoptive father, walked away towards her shelter and began to think about her workday.
"All right… I need to upgrade my current shelter and secure better access to food and water… I'll need tools and some materials for that. I don't want to waste time searching for whatever is in the ruined villages, so wood and stone will have to do at first."
She nodded to herself. "After that, I'll need to produce… well, everything I could or will need. Pottery-making for storing various things like seeds and other plant-based materials, metal-working for better tools and equipment, weaving clothes and accessories, extracting salt and building a smoke cabin for preserving food, making wood barrels for storing water, perhaps a few basic weapons, and so on… Important note for myself: Can't forget to secure as much tea as I can."
She giggled then sighed. "A trifle. Captain Future managed to go from the Stone Age to building a complete spaceship in a few months to escape a doomed planet in his eighth adventure. I should do better since I just need a way to leave this island… Yeah… Right..."
Zia frowned. "And then what…? Taiwan is the closest land at 108 km, but I don't want to deal with the CUI. At least not yet… That leaves only Okinawa, if the island still retains some infrastructure after Kyushu, as a reasonable destination… That's maybe 509 km by the sea."
She smiled. "Which is why the ROB put the "Floral Ferry" as my first spell. So 10 to 20 days max to Okinawa depending on the weather and my Essence Pool. Then I'll take a plane to the USA, either West or East Coast. Finally, a direct train to Boston, a Gray Hound bus to Brockton Bay, and I'm gold."
She shook her head and stretched. "Of course, boarding a modern plane is difficult and dangerous. Climb inside the wheel compartment and you face hypothermia and lack of oxygen if you're not crushed by the wheels. Stowing away in a seat or the cargo hold is easier but would depend on the overall security… I'll probably have to learn a few things in Stealth."
She absently took in her Inventory any loose materials, debris, and garbage that she could use or recycle later as she pondered on a few things. "The South coast of Okinawa seems the better approach by the sea, especially with the town of Itoman nearby. Then straight to the airport while taking, stealing, buying, or making the few things necessary for taking any plane. Either one to Japan or direct to the USA. I'll have to be prudent with any stopover."
Zia sighed. "I wish I could find or even build the Great Condor right now. A project for later nonetheless."
She nodded to herself, feeling already her Essence gathering within her as she prepared to craft…
Wait… What…?
"The bare necessities…?" She laughed. "Why not? All you gotta do is… Look for the bare necessities. The simple bare necessities. Forget about your worries and your strife…"
And as she sang, Zia's Anima glowed and pulsed, outlining her with the colors of the sun corona. Her Caste mark burned on her brow. As a Solar craftsman, her Essence could work directly with any material, mundane or not. She could shape it with her hands as if it were soft clay. She could breathe on it to guide the matter where it was meant to be, and her voice could command the new refined form to emerge from the raw material.
And while she didn't need tools or a workshop, the Bright Raven started nonetheless to make, at first crude basic tools from stone and wood which were promptly used to make the same tools with the same material but with a better efficiency. Polished stone was better than chipped stone.
Choosing a better location near the fruit orchard, newly cut and polished planks were used over a suddenly appearing foundation of sturdy and flat stones, and a small but serviceable workshop was built alongside a proper wooden little house and a storage shed.
The brook that quenched her thirst yesterday was diverted and upgraded with bamboo to furnish a source of fresh and running water. There was even a small hydro-electrical generator built from repaired and recycled materials from the ruins, although finding those intact LEDs had been very lucky.
She put in the workshop a furnace made of freshly baked bricks for both smelting metals and heating a shower stall. The fuel problem was resolved by making a supply of charcoal. Finally, as the sun reached high noon, the cavern she used last night was transformed into a water-less composting toilet.
Wait… What…? High noon?
As she ate her lunch of fruits and seafood, Zia thought about her morning and was flabbergasted that she managed to accomplish all of this with blazing speed, often in just minutes or seconds for each individual task. She found herself also amazed at the amount she just built with nothing but debris and garbage found on the beach, recycled materials from the villages' ruins, and what raw material she extracted from nature with her tools.
"Bare necessities…? Maybe I was a little too focused on what I was doing. Still, thanks for the Inventory or all that would have taken… Yeah, another day or two instead of half a day. Craft Charms are as bullshit as Tinkertech."
She looked at the house and her newly weaved basic clothes consisting of a loincloth, a chest band, and sandals made of bark and plants. "I look like a new video character from Conan Exiles who just finished building her first house." She tilted her head. "Not that bad for a comparison. I now just have to progress on the tech tree. Oh well, nothing compared to the real treasure."
Zia fondly looked at the transplanted tea bushes (Camellia Sinensis and Camellia Assamica) she found in another abandoned garden. She still had to properly harvest them and then precisely oxidase the leaves to have her cherished white, yellow, green, oolong, dark, and black teas.
She shook herself from drooling at the sight of the promising tea plants. "All right. Now I need to make some provisions since I'm going to stay some days in the workshop to craft what is needed for sea travel, more clothes, more tools, and a few weapons like a dagger or a bow."
Her eyes narrowed as she considered the few ounces of gold and silver she found in the ruins. Most come from abandoned jewelry. She hadn't enough to make a relevant quantity of Orichalcum or Moonsilver but… "I could still make a lesser artifact but that 6 weeks of work… Too long. However, Orichalcum isn't the only recipe that I know."
The Bright Raven smiled as among the vast library of her knowledge, she had some pearls. "I can make
Orikalk, one of the mythical Atlantean's alloys from the "Witchcraft" setting. I have the required quantity of mercury, gold, copper, and silver. It's a simple smelting process with me providing the required Essence to forge the alloy."
Feeling more and more confident about achieving her objectives, she nodded. "Since I have taken the name of Zia, I should look the part of that character. I can't weave a proper Silken Armor since I'm lacking the required spider silk… At least for now. But I can easily make the golden headpiece and wrist cuffs. Perhaps even the medal."
Sighing, Zia realized that any useful future crafting would require significant quantities of precious metals and stones. Resources that she could have easily found in Creation, but on Earth Bet… She'll have to build an Alchemical forge to synthesize what she should require. She snorted. They were going to pigeonhole her as a Tinker, especially since she was, for now, the only source of Essence for many processes relevant to Exalts' technology.
The Solar Eclipse looked at the little compound she just finished building and smiled. "Well, I have half a day left and plenty of food. I'll prepare for my travel tomorrow. For now, it's time to put some little luxury features here and there before indulging myself with a nice cup of tea." She let her Essence flow within her, allowing the glowing stage of her Anima to manifest as an energy-bleeding side-effect and went to task.
Old ship ropes were unbraided and weaved into various useful items such as a net for easier fishing than a fishing rod and a hammock which was a better option than sleeping on a bed of leaves. After all, a hammock was comfortable and at a height from the ground to avoid being bitten by certain insects. She just had to smear some plant extracts on the support ropes to prevent other insects from reaching her.
Bamboo already helped her with some structures, but it could also be used to make a simple bamboo flute. A little music never hurt anyone… Unless you're using Silver-voiced Nightingale Martial Art. As she finished the last touches on the instrument, an ominous feeling seized her.
Guided by the feeling of danger her left arm suddenly flickered down her left ankle and caught the pouncing snake attempting to bite her around its neck.
She looked at the struggling captured animal. "A Habu snake? Quite the nasty pit viper. Why did you attack me?" She looked around the bamboo grove, essence boosting her senses. "Ah, you have your nest around. Okay, I'll just let you go and never enter this place again. There's enough bamboo elsewhere."
Barely registering that she easily caught barehanded a venomous snake and released it promptly, Zia continued her tasks. "It should have waited for me to use my flute. I could have charmed it then..."
Wait… What? The young girl shook her head. Either she was more preoccupied than she thought or she was already adapting to being an Exalt. Think about it! Catching a venomous snake bare-handed! Even punching a shark didn't seem… so outrageous.
Resin-based torches and plant oil-based lamps were prepared to illuminate her nights without the need for Essence outside her LED-lighted house as she didn't find any recoverable electric torch in the ruins.
A broken and beat-up pair of hedge shears served as the basis for a knife. A little grinding, a new handle, and a proper sheath made it a serviceable steel blade. Better than the stone knife or the sharpened metal debris she used so far.
And speaking of metal-based tools, she went and upgraded her current stone and wood tools, using recycled and properly repaired broken modern tools… Not up to the level of an electrical tool like a drill, of course… At least not yet.
The plants themselves helped her to make some soap, hygiene products, and medicinal salves. Manufacturing medical paraphernalia was under her new Craft specialty of Botany, and it was better to have those medical products on hand in an emergency. A first aid helper needed access to many tools and simple items like bandages and disinfectants. And if she needed to get a badly wounded person to safety? Well, better to have a travois than putting them in sensory deprivation in her Inventory… If she can convince them to enter it.
She also had access to enough plant fibers and salvaged tissue scraps that using a simple loom enabled her to make simple clothing such as a rain-proof cloak and a simple tunic was no trouble. Making some leather sandals was a little more complicated but well within her abilities. Essence was just speeding and smoothing the process.
Everyone also needs all sorts of containers sooner or later. A Canteen, a ceramic mug and other types of pottery, a leather gourd, or even a metallic flask for a little sip of tea now and then. Woven baskets, boxes, wooden barrels, buckets, crates, jugs, vials, sacks… In brief, all manner of simple containers could be useful even with her valuable Inventory.
Zia also had to think about the near future. She wanted to tame one of the Yonaguni horses to have an appropriate mount… At least under her current standards and not those of her past lives: Having a tyrant lizard mount didn't seem like a good idea for Brockton Bay. So she had to prepare workable raw materials for making horse tack like bridles, reins, harnesses, horseshoes, and plenty of other things.
All right. Now she had to dig a trench in preparation to…
Wait… What?
"Making some basic fortifications?" She looked around at the deserted island. "Granted there's some wild animal packs, but really…?" She shook her head. Her newly built house was sturdy enough to resist a tropical storm. "I was probably thinking about Creation. There, those fortifications would be a must."
She tilted her head. "Perhaps one or two weapons wouldn't be amiss…" No need to tempt Murphy. She immediately started to craft a self-bow and arrows alongside a solid staff. She didn't have any proper wood, but alongside her knife and her current mastery of Essence, it should be quite enough to deal with the threats around.
Zia the Bright Raven felt very satisfied with what she had accomplished. Now, she just had to prepare the materials for the Atlantean Alchemical ritual to make Orikalk tomorrow. It was no trouble to bless the required metals, their containers, and the workshop to appease their spirits in the fashion her past lives in Creation appeased the Little Gods before forging an artifact.
The middle-aged man from another world transformed into a young female Solar Exalt of the Eclipse caste looked at the sunset from her newly built chair on the patio of her new house while savoring her very first cup of tea, with some honey stolen from a wild beehive. Zia was also anticipating her first hot shower with soap later that evening.
She indulged herself with a little flute piece based on the theme of Esteban's Dream from The Mysterious Cities of Gold while praying to the setting sun that the beginning of her adventure would evolve into a legend and one not too dramatic… For herself as much as for all the other people she knew from the Worm web novel.
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Rachel Lindt aka Bitch according to her, aka Hellhound according to the PRT, was glowering. A rather natural state for her. Despite having a squarish, blunt face with thick eyebrows, she had a sort of primal beauty accentuated by her auburn hair, her piercing gray eyes, and a muscular body.
Even before her Triggering as a Parahuman, she had been a rather feral child due to poor education and the virtual abandonment of her mother. Traveling from one foster family to another, she had an education in violence of every kind as the Child Protective Agencies didn't understand that she needed a specialized environment.
The last foster mother was the straw that broke the camel's back. The woman tried to drown a puppy that Rachel was raising and the 13-year-old girl triggered, empowering the puppy with a bio-organic shell that boosted all its physical attributes.
The poor animal killed the stepmother and Rachel fled rather than go to a Parahuman detention center. Not knowing how to read, properly interact with people other than canines, or have any useful skills, Rachel survived by resorting to crime.
For more than a year she ran away from the law, gaining a reputation as a super-villain with a mistaken tag of being a Master. In fact, she couldn't control her canines but trained them to follow her orders and signals even after empowering them.
And now, accompanied by Brutus the Rottweiler, Judas the German Shepherd, and Angelica the Terrier, the 14-year-old teenager entered the limits of Brockton Bay. Here perhaps she'll have a better chance. She just had to find an animal shelter not looking too much at its volunteers. She snorted. Even if she found that uncommon pearl, it never lasted for long.
She sighed. She could somewhat understand that she was missing some knowledge, some trick to relate with other humans, but despite her best efforts, she only truly understood animals, especially all the canines. Why couldn't the people, always saying they were more intelligent than dogs, change their ways with her? The dogs understood her after a little time and vice versa. One day perhaps, she'll either find or discover a worthy pack.
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Butcher IX was the current version of the possessive entity which acted as a leader of the gang named the Teeth.
Yes, the current version was a brown-haired, black-eyed skinny man with crooked teeth because, since the first Butcher, any parahumans who killed the Butcher gained a watered-down version of all their powers and a share of their consciousnesses, making the killer the next Butcher.
Those voices in the head stemming from their predecessors irremediably led to the insanity of the current Butcher, especially those with heroic biases. Current holders, males or females, mainly tried to appease them by following the same lifestyle as the first, especially if they were initially from the Teeth, and challenged the Butcher for his title.
Thus, everyone feared Butcher, because killing them was to become the next Butcher with no end perceived.
If and only if they could even kill them. Butcher IX had inherited super-strength and durability, could inflict pain at a distance with enough intensity to induce a cardiac arrest, could see cardiovascular systems through walls, had a danger sense, could inflict wounds that festered, had an explosive teleportation at the arrival site, could shape unrefined matter into objects, and could induce mindless rage in targets.
No. No matter what, Butcher was here to stay. Even an Endbringer couldn't kill him permanently as the nearest Parahuman would simply become the next Butcher.
Or, at least, that was what everyone thought.
And what was the Butcher thinking about? They were thinking about Brockton Bay, the very town they had their beginning before leaving for Boston after the Slaughterhouse 9 nearly wiped them out. Maybe a little probe in a few years?
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Sherrel Bailey aka Squealer was a blonde-haired, brown-eyed Caucasian woman. Although it was something difficult to see under her trashy appearance and her makeup so heavy it looked practically caked. She was the Tinker of the Archer's Bridge Merchants. One would think that it was something if not good, at least great, right?
Not really. Right now, Squealer was worshiping the porcelain god. A bad batch from her personal drug stash. Yes, her personal stash. The hygiene conditions in the "common stash" weren't very good. Rusted contaminated needles were the last worry among what you could find in it. Besides, even her leader and lover, Skidmark, had his stash.
And the Archer's Bridge Merchants? Their current headquarters wasn't even in the vicinity of said bridge. And they were only Merchants of death. It was only in her rare moments of lucidity that Shelley could admit, at least to herself, that… Well, she fucked up.
Before and after she triggered, the only thing she wanted was her freedom. And right now, only because she was the girlfriend of Skidmark, she was almost a slave. The violent man was just ordering her to "make love" with him or/and others and build vehicles before being rewarded with another batch of drugs that made her more dependent on the Merchants and the cycle began anew.
She couldn't even build what she wanted. Her Tinker specialization was "Vehicle", capital V. And certainly not the Mad Max monstrosities she was forced to build because of the limited access she had to resources. It was ONLY because she was a rather competent mechanic alongside her power that she could manage to make them function.
She tried to hydrate herself from the sink, some of her makeup draining away. She snorted at her reflection in the dirty mirror. As if the makeup could mask the tells of her slow death. The gang wasn't going to let her go, ever. She was going to die. From an overdose, from overworking, from her failing health, from gang internal violence, from a shootout with another gang, or even an Endbringer.
The PRT? It could or would be worse. Even if she was rehabilitated and healed, they would also never let go of her. It was funny. She was seemingly a Mad-Max-style Tinker and she needed a hero. Tina Turner would laugh it up.
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Robin the Overlord of Beasts smiled. His
guest was as entertaining as he hoped.
He fully intended to
gift her with small rewards and big drawbacks in the future and was putting the final touches on such one gift.
The hidden rooms within the seven hidden cities within a hidden… something. Sorry, readers but ROB didn't want to spoil the surprise.
Still, he could allow the Author to describe the huge cache of treasure containing powerful and very powerful artifacts from various settings, as well as numerous extremely useful items from the entire multiverse, and ONE crucial secret per each city.
The cherry on the top was enough precious and rare metals, stones, and gems that anyone gaining it could be called Wealthy in any sense of the term even if
Zia the Bright Raven decided to use some of the precious stones, gold, and silver as raw materials for her crafting.
Of course, finding the hidden room couldn't be easy. Zia should receive/discover a map leading to the first clue one month after she arrives in Brockton Bay.
All hidden locations were fiat-backed warded against everything but solving the clues and completing the challenges ROB put legitimately. Thus scrying, brute forcing the search with super speed, and other obvious "cheats" were not permitted and actively neutralized for everyone.
The ROB smirked because if someone else than Zia learned of the treasure or the clues… Well, they could also enter the treasure vault by solving the clues just like her. He
really hoped she would be careful about who she told. Why it would be a catastrophe if any of her future enemies would somehow learn about the first clue some months after she arrived in Brockton Bay… Perhaps a year or two, depending on what she will do.
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Notes:
New specialties bought (15 exp): Craft: smith, pottery, weaving, and leather-working. Lore: Botany.
Exp points: 17. Solar points: 0.
The spell "Floral Ferry" is as follows: By tossing a leaf, petal, or fruit into a body of water, the sorcerer beckons it with mudras of the turning seasons to grow into a small, seaworthy craft with a cargo capacity of one ton. The ship can also comfortably carry a half-dozen passengers with an average speed of 16 mph.
Upon casting this spell, the sorcerer names the destination she intends to sail to. If she has even approximate knowledge of its location, the Floral Ferry will sail itself as close as possible to that destination.
Once it's reached its destination and its crew has disembarked, the ferry shrinks back into the foliage from which it was summoned.
The bare necessities… I wonder when my story became a Disney musical… Let us hope Zia won't become a Disney Princess. Still, that could be funny if a Master would push the whole of Brockton Bay into acting as if they were in a musical. Piggot and Armsmaster singing together during a meeting would be hilarious.
Craftsman Needs No Tools is one of the best Charms ever.
The "Witchcraft" setting is an RPG about sorcerers, psychics, and supernatural beings like vampires or werewolves. Among those are the Immortals, reincarnated beings from Atlantis. Those Atlanteans can make nifty magi-tech items from Orikalk, Adamant, and other things. I just used the Lore rule from the 3° edition of Exalted that enables players to "create" lore facts when they need one. In this case, the knowledge of how to make Orikalk.
Silver-voiced Nightingale Martial Art style can be used with any sound-based expression. Thus, not only can you use singing to attack, but also musical instruments. Imagine someone "rocking" you to death, or someone using a lyre just like the God-Warrior Mime of Benetnash in an OVA of Saint Seiya.
I didn't find the dog race for Judas so I just chose German Shepherd.
The funny thing? I initially wrote Skidmark as Squidmark… Still appropriate for that man.
If you really want to know, yes. I took some of the various missions in version 6 of CYOA Worm and adapted them to my story.
I'm repeating myself, but post your choices with justification for the next buy by the character.
• Increasing an Attribute.
• Increasing a Non-Caste/Favored Ability.
• Increasing a Caste/Favored Ability.
• Buying a Specialty (You can still propose modern-based specialties. Alchemy should also be possible).
• Purchasing a Merit (Avoid Innate-based merits, People-based merits, artifacts, Hearthstones, supernatural merits, and Demesne/Manse).
• Increasing Willpower.
• New Solar Charm (Only for Essence 1. I think I should have 5 new charms at least before reaching Essence 2).
• New Martial Arts Charm (The animal-based and "soft" styles that interest me are Snake, Tiger, Crane, Silver-voiced Nightingale, Dreaming Pearl Courtesan, Mantis, White Veil, Centipede, Falcon, and Swaying Grass Dance).
• New spell (Including benefits from the source of her Shaping Ritual, the Root-Lore).
• No Spirit Charm via the Eclipse Anima power (In fact, until she encounters a Parahuman and fights them, she won't gain anything through her Eclipse Anima power).
• A Thaumaturgic ritual.
In the next chapter, you should see Zia crafting her panoply, how she tries to tame a horse, and other survival shenanigans.
