Burrowing Bone Maggot

Cost: — (2m per attack); Mins: Thrown 3, Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Avatar 1, Crippling, Obvious, Stackable
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Any Thrown Excellency, Improvised Assassin's Trick

The momentary pleasure of murder is nothing compared to a lifetime of savoring a victim's terror and agony. An Abyssal who knows this Charm can reflexively enhance any Thrown attack that inflicted at least one level of damage by committing two motes to the attack. Doing so dissolves the Essence of the deathknight's weapon into the point of impact so it appears to physically crawl through the skin—the process does not wake sleeping victims, though. The dissolved attack does not inflict any damage or other effects during Step Ten of attack resolution. Instead, the doom waits in abeyance for the deathknight to terminate the commitment from anywhere in existence with a diceless miscellaneous action. In so doing, he can either harmlessly give pardon or apply the delayed effects in full. Wounds inflicted this way manifest in whatever gruesome manner the Abyssal finds instructive and/or poetically appropriate, using the damage the player rolled at the time of attack.

Even the Abyssal's death does not end the curse, leaving it to the Neverborn to decide when they wish to inflict the damage. Multiple uses of this Charm on the same victim track separately, and only the last attack in a flurry may be deferred. Mundane medicine cannot cure the Crippling curse of a Burrowing Bone Maggot.

Branding Judgment Attack

Same Charm for Solar Exalted. Adds Mirror keyword.
Prerequisite Charms: Any Thrown Excellency, Returning Weapon Concentration

The Solar Mirror to Burrowing Bone Maggot functions identically, apart from lacking the Avatar keyword and leaving Heaven to decide when to resolve a judgment that outlives its judge.