Motif · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

The hunting trophies

The floor's other currency: a Gold Hunter-Killer Box for every hunter killed, a thousand gold more each time, and a severed hand or claw — thirty-four in a row, then thirty-eight, fifty-two, sixty-six — to be spent like arcade tickets at the masquerade's prize counter, where the cheapest prize costs one and the queen's memorial crystal costs a hundred. The hunters collect scalps the same way.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 6 — Miriam, Pony and Bianca
• Chapter 8 — The Night Wyrm's web
• Chapter 9 — Just Wait Until Your Daddy Gets Home
• Chapter 11 — The Recital
• Chapter 14 — Were-castors
• Chapter 23 — Congratulations, Murderer
• Chapter 24 — The rock chucker
• Chapter 34 — How to kill a mantis
• Chapter 36 — Swole
• Chapter 37 — The rainbow bridge
• Chapter 50 — Uncle Morty's Insta Lawn-Kill
• Chapter 56 — Zerzura
• Chapter 60 — The raids
• Chapter 61 — Marked for death
• Chapter 67 — Slate Butterflies
• Chapter 69 — The prize counter
• Chapter 77 — The mask

Progression

Thirty-four hands as arcade tickets (ch. 8); JayGee's fat hand (ch. 11); thirty-eight (ch. 24), thirty-nine (ch. 34), fifty-two (ch. 36), sixty-six (ch. 60); a prize counter where the crystal costs a hundred (ch. 69).