Carl
Names: CarlRoyal BodyguardRoyal Bodyguard CarlUncle CarlDungeon Crawler CarlCrawler Royal Bodyguard CarlCrawler CarlMagistrate Carl of Medium Skyfowl Settlementboxer boyPigletCrawler #4,122Crawler Bitch Boy CarlCrawler number 4,122beefcakeMaster CarlWarlord CarlDaddy CarlLittle CarlMeatKarl
First appears in Book 1: Dungeon Crawler Carl, chapter 1 (1)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: Dungeon Crawler Carl
- Ch 1Carl is a twenty-seven-year-old former US Coast Guard member who works as a marine tech fixing boat electrical systems in Seattle.
- Ch 1Carl broke up with his girlfriend Beatrice after she lied about her ex-boyfriend joining her Bahamas trip.
- Ch 1Carl survived the transformation only because he was outside in boxers, a leather jacket and pink Crocs, chasing Donut.
- Ch 2Carl is designated Crawler Number 4,122, crawler name 'Carl', race Human, level 1; he can choose a new race and class on the third floor.
- Ch 2Carl earns a run of mocking achievements on entry, including a Legendary Pet Box for being the first crawler to enter with a cat.
- Ch 2Carl served aboard a Coast Guard cutter as a technician and trained in hand-to-hand combat.
- Ch 2Carl kills his first monster, a goblin, with his bare hands outside the Tutorial Guild.
- Ch 3Carl is six-foot-three and about 230 pounds, and uses his bulk to crush a goblin engineer.
- Ch 4Mordecai warns that crawlers who disparage the Syndicate or Borant risk having their experience 'accelerated'.
- Ch 4Carl's starting stats are modest, with intelligence 3; Mordecai advises a strength-focused class rather than magic.
- Ch 5Carl reaches level 2 and Pugilism level 4 after his kills, earning more boxes for a total of ten.
- Ch 5Carl's boxes yield a toad cudgel, a fireplace poker, five sticks of dynamite and a lighter, among other supplies.
- Ch 6Carl now wears the trollskin shirt, cloak, leather jacket, toe ring and fingerless gloves, but still has no pants or shoes.
- Ch 6As a child, Carl's mother often locked him in the basement, where he mastered his father's Frogger arcade machine.
- Ch 8Carl nearly leaves the party over Donut's attitude, but she apologises, admits she's scared, and they agree to stick together.
- Ch 8Carl reaches level 3, gaining the Foot Soldier and Smush skills, after killing rats and Scatterers with his bare feet.
- Ch 9Carl plans to base himself in the safe room and farm a nearby Scatterer nest for experience until the stairs appear.
- Ch 10Carl wonders how surface survivors are coping without shelter, power or food in the winter storm.
- Ch 10Carl finds his dungeon weapons useless and fights best with kicks and stomps, often landing critical hits on heads.
- Ch 10Carl and Donut both reach level 5 while clearing Scatterers; Donut's strength grows to 15 and she has Slice Attack and Back Claw.
- Ch 11Carl's dynamite kills dozens of Scatterers, earning explosives skills, a Silver Goblin Box and a Gold Crowd Control Box.
- Ch 11Carl strangles the Hoarder with a dog's chain leash, then reluctantly beats her to death as she weeps and prays.
- Ch 11Carl's bare feet are toughening noticeably faster than they would have before the dungeon.
- Ch 13Carl remembers the last day he saw his father, calling him a bully; his father never hit him but demanded respect.
- Ch 13Angered by Rebecca's murder, Carl wants to find Frank Q, while Donut flips from bravado to fear of him.
- Ch 13Carl warns Donut not to reveal their gear to other crawlers, since outsiders can't examine it.
- Ch 16Carl stores the chopper in his inventory and takes about three thousand lumps of coal.
- Ch 16Carl decides to loot the abandoned workshop and then fight the goblin chieftain, despite feeling it's a dick move.
- Ch 17Carl strips the goblin workshop of tools, coal, explosives, alchemical liquids and nearly a ton of black powder.
- Ch 17Carl builds a cart bomb of black-powder barrels packed with metal scraps and Hobgoblin Pus, with a decoy detonator on top.
- Ch 18Carl and Donut both reach level 8 from the goblin lair explosion.
- Ch 18Carl feels sick at having killed goblin babies, along with old and pregnant goblins, in the boss room.
- Ch 19Carl receives the achievements 'You Monster!' and 'War Criminal' for killing an infant and over 20 non-combatants.
- Ch 19Carl concludes the goblin babies were placed in the boss room so crawlers would kill them, and vows the dungeon won't break him.
- Ch 20Carl sees through Frank's story: a 9.8 EXP cookie shows he is partied, and Rebecca's inventory proves she visited a tutorial guild.
- Ch 20Carl avoids killing crawlers partly so he won't bear a skull marker that would make others refuse to talk to him.
- Ch 21Carl and Donut earn the 'Bitchmeat' achievement for being attacked by a crawler in a safe zone; Carl laughs at a notification for the first time.
- Ch 21Carl learns that driving fast shrinks the fog of war, hiding nearby mobs, so he wants a navigation skill or spell.
- Ch 21Carl hopes Frank and Maggie died in his trap but wants to avoid ever earning Crawler Killer.
- Ch 22Carl commits to grinding, then leading Donut and the four caregivers into the spiral to kill the borough boss.
- Ch 23Carl admits privately to Donut he has no plan yet for killing the borough boss, but believes the group must train.
- Ch 23Carl defaces the encampment's guide signs so that crawler killers can't find and farm the helpless elderly crawlers.
- Ch 23Carl and Donut become an effective team, with Donut firing from his shoulder while he finishes enemies with punches and kicks.
- Ch 24Carl believes the Juicer, like earlier bosses, was a person from Earth merged with a monster.
- Ch 24Carl learns potion cooldowns differ: his is 15 seconds while Donut's is near two minutes; drinking early poisons him.
- Ch 25Killing the Juicer brings Carl and Donut to level nine.
- Ch 25Carl decides to remain human, while Donut insists she will stay a cat and never change race.
- Ch 27After the borough boss, Carl and Donut reach level 10; Imani is 11, Brandon and Chris 8, Yolanda 6 and Agatha 4.
- Ch 27Carl smokes his last cigarette as he resolves to keep helping the elderly crawlers.
- Ch 28Carl warns Donut that the show's people are not their friends.
- Ch 28Odette reveals Carl's catchphrase among viewers is 'Goddamnit, Donut', and that the pair are a sensation despite the official snubs.
- Ch 28Carl fears Donut is becoming addicted to the crowd's adoration.
- Ch 30Carl fears that despite strong upgrades he is falling behind crawlers like Lucia Mar and the crossbow woman.
- Ch 32Overnight Carl and Donut's social numbers explode to billions of views; Donut's favorites are double Carl's.
- Ch 33Carl feels guilty using Donut's charm to kill mobs and reminds himself the real enemies are the Syndicate, Borant and the kua-tin.
- Ch 33Carl and Donut both reach level 11 after Carl firebombs about 40 clurichauns.
- Ch 34Carl makes the smoothie mid-fight; he and Donut get drunk on it but become immune to the Vigorous Measles mist.
- Ch 34Carl sends a zombie clurichaun carrying a lit boom jug and dynamite into the boss chamber, then shields Donut with his body.
- Ch 35Carl survives the Krakaren explosion with broken legs and burns; Donut drags him out and heals him with a scroll.
- Ch 35Carl theorises the show merges alien species with Earth stereotypes to mock disliked cultures; Mordecai says that's mostly correct.
- Ch 36Carl loses his temper at Zev, telling her they are not willing participants and won't fight on Borant's schedule.
- Ch 38Carl recalls Zev's message that helping the residents only delays their deaths and hinders their own training.
- Ch 39Carl's plan to beat the Rage Elemental would mean abandoning all of team Meadow Lark, not just the elderly residents.
- Ch 39Remembering something Rory told them, Carl decides they can't wait for his shield's cooldown and asks Brandon for help.
- Ch 40Carl keeps the full plan secret, even from Princess Donut, fearing Borant and the dungeon AI would change the rules if they learned of the exploit.
- Ch 40Carl discovers that dynamite is inert while in a safe room.
- Ch 40Carl gets no experience and few achievements for the elemental's death, as the system disapproves of the trick.
- Ch 41Carl declines Brandon's offer to come along, and he and Princess Donut part ways with Meadow Lark.
- Ch 41Carl remains stuck at level 11, despite his bomb skills mostly reaching level nine.
- Ch 42Carl reasons that he and Princess Donut are too expensive for the show to endanger, and uses that to provoke the Maestro.
- Ch 44Carl's appearance fee has doubled to equal Lucia Mar's, and Zev advises him to level up and coast until the next floor.
- Ch 44Carl decides to prepare for Maggie My rather than run, planning to kill the neighborhood boss for its map.
- Ch 45Following Mordecai's advice to look for clues in boss rooms, Carl wins over the dingoes instead of killing them for experience.
- Ch 45Carl and Princess Donut both reach level 12.
- Ch 46Carl worries that Mongo will teleport away in Mordecai's safe room unless he bonds with Princess Donut first.
- Ch 47Carl and Princess Donut both reach level 13 hunting Brindled Vespas on Floor 2.
- Ch 47Carl suspects Agatha's appearance after his discovery was no coincidence and wonders if she's working with the system AI.
- Ch 48On Odette's show, Carl denies any knowledge of the snick and repeats his challenge to face the Maestro in single combat.
- Ch 48Carl decides not to tell Odette about Agatha and resolves to stay away from her.
Book 2: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario
- Ch 1On Odette's advice, Carl secretly planned the Manager Benefit choice and made it look like Princess Donut's idea, knowing Mordecai would never forgive him.
- Ch 2The AI recommends Hobgoblin, Human or Sasquatch for Carl; he rejects the monstrous races as bad for viewers.
- Ch 2Carl chooses Primal as his race, so he looks unchanged but can train skills beyond 15.
- Ch 2Carl picks Compensated Anarchist as his class over Bomb Squad Tech and Prizefighter, and must choose a subclass on the sixth floor.
- Ch 2Carl worries his build is weak, having spent heavily on Charisma, and plans to put future points into Strength and Constitution.
- Ch 5Carl's Earth box holds a small cactus and a set of Louis L'Amour Sackett westerns, reminding him of his father's shelf.
- Ch 5Carl hurts Princess Donut by calling Mongo just a pet, then calls her his partner.
- Ch 6Carl takes two +2 Strength rings from a dead crawler, realising why player killing can be tempting.
- Ch 6Carl readies Protective Shell, knowing it won't affect Signet while her map dot stays white.
- Ch 7Carl traps a Mold Lion against a wall with Protective Shell and rips out its heart with his fist.
- Ch 7Carl agrees to meet Signet an hour after sundown the next night, after she has summoned her squad.
- Ch 8Carl asks Zev for help with a plan without asking her to interfere directly.
- Ch 9Carl's Fireball or Custard ticket heals Heather with custard, which kills her parasite worms and frees the real bear.
- Ch 9Carl wins his first solo boss battle by killing the freed, dying Heather, reaching level 15.
- Ch 9Carl judges the big top task was designed for at least three crawlers and impossible to win solo in a straight fight.
- Ch 10Carl poisons himself, cuts his hand and drips his blood onto Grimaldi's root, then takes an antidote.
- Ch 10The circus smell reminds Carl of going to a circus on his fourth birthday with his mother, who had briefly run away from his father.
- Ch 11Carl threatens to cure the poisoned Grimaldi unless the Vengeance of the Daughter producers sign him as a regular on their show.
- Ch 11Carl agrees that, if he and Donut survive, he will do only Vengeance of the Daughter elite quests on the sixth floor.
- Ch 11After the deal, Carl un-poisons Grimaldi with his own healthy blood.
- Ch 11Carl deliberately swallows Grimaldi's parasite worms under Wisp Armor so Grimaldi can speak to Signet through him.
- Ch 11Carl completes the quest The Show Must Go On and jumps from level 15 to 18.
- Ch 12Carl suspects Donut's brash camera persona hides a genuinely cunning, intelligent mind.
- Ch 12Carl longs for the crawl to be over and wonders what level they must reach before they could settle in a town.
- Ch 14Carl puts his stat points into strength, raising it to 30 without his gauntlet, as strong as six regular humans.
- Ch 14Carl notices the dead women share distinctive shoulder wounds and twisted bodies.
- Ch 16Carl and Donut instantly kill a ranting elf who had lured Mongo into a trap and called them blasphemers.
- Ch 17Carl realises the photo of Bea no longer bothers him, and shrugs it off to the viewers.
- Ch 17Carl drops his slingshot for the xistera and plans to throw hob-lobbers with it.
- Ch 17Carl deduces the dead women's shoulder wounds suggest they were carried aloft by something with talons, possibly a skyfowl.
- Ch 18Using the Gate Pass, Carl carries a murdered woman's corpse and dumps it on Miss Quill's desk without the guards intervening.
- Ch 18Carl believes Magistrate Featherfall, a night-only black cleric, must be behind the murders.
- Ch 18Carl pre-lights hob-lobbers in his inventory so their fuses suit fast throws from his xistera.
- Ch 18Carl wonders if his beheaded neighbour Mrs. Parsons's body was used to make the Shambling Berserkers.
- Ch 18Carl suspects Magistrate Featherfall sent the Shambling Berserkers after them.
- Ch 19On live television Carl uses a boiling-frog fable to urge Skull Empire subjects to overthrow King Rust and his son.
- Ch 19Carl is angered that the aliens are outraged over one friend's death after destroying humanity's whole planet.
- Ch 20Carl privately suspects they were set up: Stalwart was prepared to kill them, and the trailer switch humiliated him and hurt the Valtay alliance.
- Ch 20Carl punches a level-75 village swordsman to stop it killing the frozen Eunice, branding himself a troublemaker whom guards attack on sight.
- Ch 21With the guards now hostile by day and about three days until collapse, Carl's only known exit is in the ruins of Grimaldi's circus.
- Ch 21Carl realises the killer overheard his revenge vow through the Mysterious Letter, which explains the corpse carved with 'No you won't'.
- Ch 21Carl hid three sticks of hobgoblin dynamite and a Hobgoblin Pus detonator inside Miss Quill's shelves in the magistrate's office.
- Ch 22By killing the acting magistrate, Carl gains control of the Medium Skyfowl Settlement and the title Magistrate Carl until the floor collapses.
- Ch 22Carl realises the system's descriptions are often inaccurate and that nothing it labels can be fully trusted.
- Ch 23Carl served in the Coast Guard, not the Navy, and would have liked to be a forester watching for forest fires.
- Ch 23Carl rings the swordsmen depot with dynamite and gives Katia the detonator, planning mutually assured destruction to make Remex talk.
- Ch 24Rather than flee, Carl and Donut choose to try saving Katia and about 80 crawlers by sealing the vibrating soul gem inside the Reaper Case.
- Ch 24Carl tells Donut he is proud of her for wanting to protect Katia, admitting his own first instinct was to abandon her.
- Ch 25Carl strips off all his magical gear, including his underwear, and leads fleeing crawlers naked through the Over City.
- Ch 26The explosion's kills raise Carl from level 21 to 27, Donut from 19 to 26, and Katia from 9 to 21.
Book 3: The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook
- Ch 1Carl starts the fourth floor ranked sixth on the leaderboard with a 100,000-gold bounty.
- Ch 1Carl sets the Alarm Module and a vertically mounted Spike Module in the forward gangway to warn of and slow the Dreks.
- Ch 1With his pedicure buffs expired, Carl's feet are vulnerable again; a Drek's bite on his sole badly hurts him.
- Ch 2The AI awards Carl, Donut and Katia a spite box of coupons, including a free level-three personal space and upgrades.
- Ch 2Carl puts his 24 stat points mainly into strength and constitution, reaching strength 41; Mordecai wants it at 100.
- Ch 3Carl expects Katia to leave for Hekla's party; if she leaves or dies, her upgrades go with her.
- Ch 3Carl dreads needing only two hours' sleep, since sleep had been his only sanctuary.
- Ch 3Brandon's death enrages Carl; only Brandon was on his chat, so he can't check on Imani or Chris.
- Ch 3Grieving, Carl snaps at Mordecai and trains Bare Knuckles for an hour against wooden dummies.
- Ch 4Carl deliberately undertrades with Limp Richard, expecting the bored mole to want more books later.
- Ch 4Carl's group has only nine more days to find a path to the exit, so they slept just two hours.
- Ch 5Carl fabricates train-car fortifications on the engineering workbench, including door wedges and a giant metal plate he calls the Gangway Chock.
- Ch 5Carl's group has nine days to find their way off the floor and plans to kill a neighbourhood boss for a map.
- Ch 5Carl warns Princess Donut not to share too much about themselves with other crawlers, even Hekla, because they now have bounties on their heads.
- Ch 5Carl's suitcase holds a stranger's clothes and three potions, including an Invisibility Potion.
- Ch 6Carl explains that NPCs like Vernon are real living creatures given artificial memories when a floor is generated.
- Ch 6Carl defends Katia to Zev, calling her a shy, overwhelmed art history professor, not a circus poodle.
- Ch 6Carl decides to destroy the robots to scrap them for crafting materials for better train defences.
- Ch 6Carl blows up the two dormant automatons with hobgoblin dynamite and collects nearly 15 tons of scrap metal.
- Ch 6Carl plans to ride the train to transfer station 131 to visit a Desperado Club and open their fan boxes.
- Ch 7Carl is ranked sixth on the leaderboard with a 100,000 gold bounty, with 8 days and 18 hours until level collapse.
- Ch 7Carl suspects fans voted for the Prize Carousel knowing Mordecai hates Chaco and would be in the same room.
- Ch 7Carl's father was physically abusive once, belting him severely; his mother threatened to return to Texas but never did.
- Ch 7Carl, whose class is Compensated Anarchist, picks a book bearing an anarchy symbol because it glinted at him.
- Ch 8Carl resolves to crowdsource information and add many crawlers to his chat rather than isolate because of the bounty.
- Ch 9Carl plans to capture one of the train engineers while Imani's team investigates a fifth platform where mobs disembark.
- Ch 9After the casino, Carl plans an hour of training, some crafting, and then deliberately crashing a train.
- Ch 10Carl secretly consults the Cookbook in the restroom and uses its ideas while disguising them as his own.
- Ch 10Carl confirms the third rail is live, then plants two Jelly Bombs on an ochre line track to derail a train and draw out the engineer.
- Ch 11Carl's landmines derail an ochre line train, earning him level 29 and the Locomotive Breath achievement.
- Ch 11Carl realises an engineer's key, used on a train already ahead on the line, could let them ride the engine car through the gate.
- Ch 11Carl is shocked through the grounded tracks but survives; Princess Donut drags him out and heals him.
- Ch 12Carl resolves that Katia should be sheathed in metal armour to become the ultimate tank.
- Ch 12Carl realises crawlers who ride the named lines die, which is why no information about them has come back.
- Ch 13Carl buys an armorer's table and upgrades his Sapper's table to level three at a saferoom on the Mauve line.
- Ch 13Carl despises the sponsors but sends the Valtay a thank-you note to appear grateful.
- Ch 14Carl urges crawlers at the Desperado Club to swap chat details, adding 22 names to build an information network.
- Ch 14Carl teleports ahead of the Nightmare Express with Donut's Puddle Jumper and uses Protective Shell to kill the monsters and engineers aboard.
- Ch 14Hit by the runaway Nightmare Express, Carl survives on the cowcatcher and breaks into the cab to stop it.
- Ch 14Carl steals the Nightmare Express, rising to level 32 after his Protective Shell killed every monster aboard, including three neighbourhood bosses.
- Ch 14Carl plans to drive the train to see what is at station 436, then loop back for Donut and Katia.
- Ch 15Carl broadcasts to his whole chat list four possible ways to get back to the early stations where the stairwells are.
- Ch 15Carl stashes the five-use boss-damage toothpaste, saving it for days he knows he will face a boss.
- Ch 15Carl misses reading at night after trading away all his Louis L’Amour books.
- Ch 15Carl feels taking the train through the portal would abandon crawlers stranded as trains go out of commission.
- Ch 17Carl suspects the floor's NPCs were given shallow false memories, and that Yard A may not exist.
- Ch 17Carl warns Bautista not to get off at Terminus Station because it is a trap.
- Ch 18Carl concludes the Iron Tangle workers' families and homes are false memories, never built into the floor.
- Ch 19Carl puts the Ring of Divine Suffering on his left index finger.
- Ch 20Carl keeps wearing the ring for its 5% stat bonus but vows never to use Marked for Death.
- Ch 20Carl refuses a script calling pageant women 'roasties' and instead narrates a history of video arcades.
- Ch 21Carl admits he hid Odette's warning about Hekla because he suspected Donut would be better off with Hekla's team.
- Ch 21Carl comforts Tizquick, reflecting that NPCs and crawlers will kill each other while the real culprits watch and laugh.
- Ch 21Carl recalls his mother telling him she was giving him a chance at life as a birthday present.
- Ch 22Carl concludes the floor is a near-perpetual engine, with stairwell stations 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72 each targeted by ghouls.
- Ch 24Carl drives the crowded Vermillion train backwards out of station 101, carrying about a thousand rescued crawlers.
- Ch 24Carl believes Hekla meant to kill Katia, provoke him, and kill him so Donut and Mordecai would join her party.
- Ch 24Carl plans to hand the train to Li Jun at station 75 and go rescue the crawlers stranded at the end of the line.
- Ch 25Carl collects over 700 conductor hats and fifteen keys from fellow crawlers to deliver to hundreds stranded at the Abyss.
- Ch 25Carl, a Primal Compensated Anarchist, is ranked third on the leaderboard, with Donut fourth and Katia eighth.
- Ch 26Carl plans to send portal-scoop carts down three lines to teleport crawlers stranded at the Abyss to the trainyards.
- Ch 26Carl plans two carts per line: one sweeping debris and ghouls into the Abyss, then one sending stranded crawlers to the trainyard.
- Ch 27Carl sends rapid-response portal carts, fitted with severed gnoll hands, through portals to rescue crawlers trapped at the abyss.
- Ch 27Carl secretly writes his feelings into a hidden second scratchpad in the cookbook, fearing future crawlers will think him whiny.
- Ch 27Carl sends the battered Vermillion engine loaded with hobgoblin dynamite down the line, sealing it and reaching level 35.
- Ch 27Carl kills the Krakaren hatchlings by stomping them and then setting the track ablaze with moonshine and a torch.
- Ch 28Carl, Katia, Donut and Mongo ride a portal cart down the Mindaro line to rescue Bautista's stranded group.
- Ch 28Carl accidentally teleports the station mimic city boss from station 433 into Trainyard E with the cart's portal.
- Ch 28Carl's plan got just over 1,400 trapped crawlers away from the end of the lines.
- Ch 29Carl believes that viewers watching live increasingly see the recap show as pure propaganda.
- Ch 30Carl reluctantly removes the Ring of Divine Suffering and agrees to discuss selling it on the fifth floor.
- Ch 30Carl suspects the Krakaren will be the floor's finale, using the empty chamber between mirrored levels beneath the stairwell circles.
- Ch 31Carl warns all crawlers to abandon stairwell stations before the Krakaren attack; many ignore him.
- Ch 31Carl hangs a portal cart upside down from a crane over station 36's center, its portal facing down and tuned to the abyss.
- Ch 31After talking with Mordecai about soul crystals, Carl gets a 'glorious idea' involving the Nightmare.
- Ch 32Carl plans to carry the portal cart across the trainyard onto the employee line, despite its different track gauge.
- Ch 33Dragged through the portal into the trainyard, Carl becomes the subject of a televised Death Challenge between the Mimic Rex and Grull.
- Ch 34The Nightmare's explosion in the abyss earns Carl a flood of experience, lifting him to level 41.
- Ch 34Carl realizes how much he needs other people after his friends risk certain death to save him.
- Ch 34In the cookbook's 25th edition, Carl vows to stop just talking about burning the dungeon down and to break its makers.
Book 4: The Gate of the Feral Gods
- Ch 3Carl finds his quarter-strength hob-lobbers still too strong for close combat and plans weaker ones.
- Ch 3Carl feels the dead-boss drop is a scripted clue forcing them along a storyline and wants to break away from it.
- Ch 3Carl decides they must build a dune buggy and an anti-aircraft system to move safely under gnome air attacks.
- Ch 4Carl rises to number two on the top-ten board behind Lucia Mar, while Katia drops off the list to her relief.
- Ch 5Carl suspects the gnomes bombed the other town because its collateral in the town hall was killed or freed.
- Ch 6Carl kills the knocked-out Svern by crushing his glowing head and stores the head for Mordecai to make a potion.
- Ch 6Carl orders the subterranean crawlers to meet him at the Desperado Club so he can transcribe the catacomb map for them.
- Ch 7Carl escapes the burning town hall by summoning a grulke toad from a beanbag toy so the dromedarians blame toad creatures for the attack.
- Ch 7Carl gains a second sponsor, The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network, Intergalactic NFC, a tax-free group Mordecai suspects opposes the crawl.
- Ch 7Carl offers Morris's party cooperation, including building anything they need, rather than treating them as rivals.
- Ch 8With Mordecai's help, Carl builds four modified missiles he hopes can reach high enough to strike at the gnomes.
- Ch 9Carl tells young Skarn and his friends to shelter at the Toe during the bombing, planning to fit townsfolk into the group's personal space.
- Ch 9Carl's two-stage missile test fails when the warhead detonates early, ending hopes of hitting the Wasteland from the ground.
- Ch 9Carl drove toward Ruckus to ensure accurate hits, because he wanted to salvage the boss's giant buzzsaw as a prize.
- Ch 10Carl shelters about forty dromedarian and changeling children from the coming bombing in the group's personal space, to Mordecai's annoyance.
- Ch 10Since his missiles can climb only about a mile and the Wasteland bombs from three miles up, Carl needs a creative plan.
- Ch 11Carl's silver fan box finally gives him an enchanted, regenerating roll of duct tape, which he uses to bind Wynne.
- Ch 11Carl recalls his father smashing his fish tank soon after his mother left, a month before his father abandoned him too.
- Ch 11Carl shows Leon a hastily made fake of Henrik's watch, promising it once the gnomes ferry up the rest of the crew.
- Ch 12Carl fires missiles from the hijacked Vahana into the Wasteland's underside, setting off a massive explosion before the group jumps.
- Ch 12Carl suspects Henrik, Commandant Kane and the Mad Dune Mage each hold a watch that together form the Gate of the Feral Gods.
- Ch 12Carl resolves to collect all three watch pieces of the celestial-tier artifact: from Henrik, from Kane's castle, and from the mage.
- Ch 12After destroying most of the Wasteland, Carl reaches level 43 and Donut reaches level 36.
- Ch 14Before trying to kill Chris, Carl passes on Brandon's message that he loved Chris and regretted never saying it.
- Ch 14Carl orders Mordecai to seek the antiparasitic potion supplies now, hoping to free Chris from the worm before the floor ends.
- Ch 14Carl resolves to break free of the Skull Empire's royal feud and finally starts tracking his viewer numbers.
- Ch 15Carl receives the quest The Gate of the Feral Gods, to take and assemble all three pieces of the artifact.
- Ch 15Carl climbs down the glowing magical balloon's net from the Nightmare II to land on the gnomish flying house's lot.
- Ch 16Carl loots Kane's corpse and obtains a Mysterious Watch and a letter from the Glass Wizard.
- Ch 16Carl realises Bonnie's lemonade is a deliberate misdirection: it is just lemonade, though hitting Denise with the pitcher hurts her.
- Ch 16Carl kills Denise by shoving her head into the kitchen garbage disposal while Donut flips the switch.
- Ch 17Carl finds the stairwell in the flying house's master-bedroom closet, sealed until two more throne rooms are captured.
- Ch 17Carl warns Donut that her panic over Mongo's injuries took her out of the fight and could get them killed.
- Ch 17Because of Ghazi's letter, Carl decides to deal with the land quadrant before attempting the catacombs.
- Ch 17Carl gives Bonnie her old pink bed, side table and family photo; seeing her grief, he commits to a risky idea he'd dismissed.
- Ch 18Carl deliberately goes off script, accusing Veriluxx's parent Veritan Linkage of advocating slavery, hoping to get Loita off the couch.
- Ch 18Carl claims Loita's death was an accident caused by the self-destruct sequence she had demanded in the robot.
- Ch 18Carl used Crawler Coolie's cookbook notes about trailer forcefields to plan the attack on Loita.
- Ch 18In a cookbook note, Carl dedicates the act to Coolie and Bonnie and vows to do everything he can to make them burn.
- Ch 19Carl secretly killed Loita by wedging a fingernail shim behind Robot Donut's flimsy back panel so it would fall off when the toy jumped.
- Ch 19Carl refuses to sign a confession or reveal his outside source, the cookbook, despite being offered a Legendary box.
- Ch 19Carl and Donut lose five days while held by the liaison, leaving five days to finish their bubble.
- Ch 19Carl looted Loita's rebreather from her body and smuggled it out in his waistband.
- Ch 20Carl suspects the redundant second cable connects to the drainage wheel and has Tran drag it there.
- Ch 21Carl tricks Ghazi into revealing the winding box, punches him out and takes his bag; Katia carries the mage upstairs.
- Ch 21Carl concludes the winding box can be used as a weapon and that the artifact might help against the final boss.
- Ch 22Carl uses his toe ring's Sticky Feet ability to walk across the ceiling above the ooze and set the recliner over its core on fire.
- Ch 22Carl distracts the ooze with a bouncing alarm-trap ball playing 'Jump Around' and Donut's clockwork Mongos.
- Ch 22Carl shields Donut as the flood blasts them into the water quadrant, healing them both with potions and scrolls.
- Ch 23Carl is struck by an idea from the second-to-last gate scenario in Ghazi's diagrams and asks whether this town has a Desperado Club.
- Ch 24Carl suspects the castle was a trap: had it stayed intact, the doll would have woken as a full-powered minor deity.
- Ch 24Carl questions Mordecai closely about the ninth floor and the Hunting Grounds, and Katia suspects he's planning something stupid.
- Ch 26Carl loots Henrik's corpse, gaining his Mysterious Watch and a Torn Book Page.
- Ch 27Carl kills thousands of Lusca's babies with a hob-lobber bomb carrying a potion of bloodlust, sparking a cannibalistic feeding frenzy.
- Ch 27Carl refuses to use the gate to escape while others are outside a saferoom, believing the game steered him into this trap.
- Ch 28Carl reaches level 47 and Katia level 44, while Donut lags at level 39 after her time out.
- Ch 28Carl takes being sued as proof that his secret plan is possible and that Borant hasn't patched it out.
- Ch 28Carl realises the rampaging god is his fault and resolves to return Orthrus to Emberus, which first means popping their bubble.
- Ch 29Carl recognises Emberus's attacks on other crawlers as deliberate bait to provoke him, and vows not to be broken.
- Ch 29Carl uses Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook knowledge to tell possessed crawlers to hurt themselves, freeing Morris and Low Thi from ghosts.
- Ch 29Carl feels guilt for sending the tomb raiders to their deaths, questioning what gives him the right.
- Ch 29Carl plans to free other bubbles after the dog quest, needing about four and a half hours plus an hour for the portal.
- Ch 30Carl fears that if Quan Ch kills Orthrus, everyone in Carl's bubble and in bubble 18 will die.
- Ch 31Despite the Cookbook's warnings, Carl chooses to worship Emberus over Grull so his thrown celestial grenade will summon Emberus.
- Ch 31In a rage, Carl rips Quan Ch's whole arm off as Quan flees, then sends word that it was 'just a deposit'.
- Ch 31After worshipping Emberus, Carl has glowing orange sun tattoos on the back of each hand.
- Ch 32Carl is now an Acolyte of Emberus; without a cleric or paladin class he can never rise past Devotee.
- Ch 32Carl privately reckons with plans to kill tens of thousands of NPCs in phase four, telling himself death frees them.
- Ch 33Carl and Donut part from Katia at the Desperado Club as phase four begins, with Carl holding the gate pieces again.
- Ch 34Carl hurls Samantha's head over 50 kilometers with the new attachment, luring Slit away; her presence outside summons a multi-armed god.
- Ch 34Carl expects the factions, cut off from markets, to send their own people to the sixth floor as hunters, deliberately 'seeding the pond'.
- Ch 34Carl, a level-47 Primal Compensated Anarchist, is now the number one crawler on the top ten list.
- Ch 34Carl publicly vows that every hunter who sets foot on the sixth floor will be dead before it collapses.
Book 5: The Butcher’s Masquerade
- Ch 1Faced with handing over the gate, Carl refuses to touch it and demands a lawyer, which Orren calls the magic words.
- Ch 1Carl becomes a level 47 Agent Provocateur, defying Mordecai's advice because he wants the Advanced Bomb Maker's Workshop.
- Ch 2Carl once dreamed of becoming a park ranger and working in a forest far from the ocean.
- Ch 3Carl's new religion requires a daily blood drop and 5% of his looted gold at a shrine in his personal space.
- Ch 4Carl secretly orders Bomo to teleport him and Donut to the stairwell in Zockau, instead of hunting mushrooms.
- Ch 5Carl secretly teleports to Zockau the night before the hunters are released, to ambush them with bombs and missiles.
- Ch 5Carl is shot with barbed, bleeding crossbow bolts by the town's level-70 Grand and collapses, confused, just past the city border.
- Ch 6Carl's raid killed 34 hunters and over 250 non-mob casualties; he rose to level 54 and Donut to 41.
- Ch 6Carl uses his Tripper spell to set off a line of decapitation traps at the town entrance that Prepotente couldn't disarm.
- Ch 7Carl counts 35 hunter kills from the Zockau raid, including Donut's, and plans an even bigger bomb for this floor.
- Ch 8Carl senses a hidden, growing 'stream' in the back of his mind that gets louder in combat and quiets only when he fully rests.
- Ch 8Carl believes the guild system is a cash grab, but agrees they should get a guild charter quickly.
- Ch 8The rushing 'river' in Carl's mind is growing louder and starting to hurt.
- Ch 9Carl asks Katia to organize crawlers to knock down every bridge over the river except one, on Zockau's main road.
- Ch 10Carl notices a line about other AIs in a system description vanishes when he pastes it into his scratchpad.
- Ch 10Carl abandons the Bomo bomb plan and replies to Vrah's note: 'Come and get it, bitch.'
- Ch 10Carl discovers he can step out of his personal space door into the saferoom space where Bomo last entered, in Zockau.
- Ch 11A trap Carl left on the road kills the hunter JayGee; Carl taunts JayGee's family on camera, and Mordecai warns that people remember.
- Ch 11Carl arms Point Mongo's funeral bell guards with anti-hunter missile launchers and rings the town with alarm traps against Vrah.
- Ch 11Carl carries Donut back toward town so Mongo won't have to fight his pack to defend them.
- Ch 12Carl promises Donut he will never leave her behind on the ninth or any floor: they are a team, no matter what.
- Ch 13Carl asks for the captured hunter Bravvo to be healed, then puts on a ring, telling Signet he is no longer soft.
- Ch 14Carl kills the captured hunter Bravvo, collecting him as a hunting trophy and looting nine Levitation potions.
- Ch 14Carl is contractually obliged to help Signet but cannot say so, since her storyline is a semi-scripted drama.
- Ch 15Carl needs one hundred fifty million credits for an unspecified goal; Quasar says his outside net worth is about 117 credits.
- Ch 17Carl promises to bring Samantha along to see Signet during the assault on the Naiad castle if she stops screeching.
- Ch 18Carl threatens to kill Odette himself if the Beatrice reunion turns out to be a trick.
- Ch 19Carl tells Beatrice he is glad she is okay but says goodbye, calling their drama trivial compared with the crawl.
- Ch 20Carl plans to go down the stairs early to avoid the masquerade, but Donut points out the next fifty crawlers would be taken instead.
- Ch 20Carl adds a drop of blood to the Emberus shrine and expects his first boon soon.
- Ch 22Carl duct-tapes seeking missiles to Samantha's head, triggered by her biting a string, and throws her with his xistera as a guided bomb.
- Ch 22Carl marks the captured Akland and deliberately drags out the interrogation for the viewing audience.
- Ch 23Carl reaches level 55 after killing Akland.
- Ch 25Carl marks the captured orc Future Huntress before killing her as the sacrifice for Signet's summoning.
- Ch 25Carl throws Samantha into the river with an alarm trap strapped to her head as a distraction for the naiad castle's guards.
- Ch 25Carl regrets not talking to Langley since the floor began, and vows to break the hunters.
- Ch 26When the assault goes wrong, Carl puts on a water-breathing ring, growing gills, to go into the castle after Signet.
- Ch 28Carl's Find Traps skill reaches level 10, revealing all the traps on the slope, which he disarms and collects.
- Ch 30Carl is transferred to CrawlCon, leaving Donut and Samantha behind in Alucarda with Lucia Mar.
- Ch 30On the Valtay vessel Carl is blocked from his interface by crawler wetware containment, yet his gauntlet still works.
- Ch 31Carl promises to praise the Desperado Club's design at his next panel in exchange for Hurk's vote for Lix.
- Ch 31Hurk warns Carl that his upcoming panel is moderated by the mother of a hunter he killed, who openly dislikes him.
- Ch 32A trainer tells Carl his planned weapon needs a table allowing multiple permanent minions, which he cannot manage soon.
- Ch 33Carl realizes the guards' vape smoke drugged him, lowering his inhibitions, in a setup he attributes to the Valtay.
- Ch 33Carl denounces the audience as a death cult and asks them to crowdsource how to kill Vrah.
- Ch 33Carl plugs the Desperado Club's design to the panel audience before leaving, still under the drug's effects.
- Ch 34Carl returns to the dungeon unable to use potions, asking Zev to watch over Donut if he dies.
- Ch 35Carl writes a note offering protection to the mantis representative in Zockau if he brings all his collected gear.
- Ch 36Surrounded by his guildmates, Carl thinks of them as his family now.
- Ch 36Carl's base strength reaches 100, and he physically grows larger for the first time.
- Ch 36Carl wonders if he's alive only because the AI wants it, and feels dirty choosing as he did.
- Ch 39Carl keeps thinking about Edict's claim that he hated how the universe works, and decides he disagrees.
- Ch 39Carl and Donut claim two more ursine towns, Ferdinand Peak and Nipton, killing one mayor each.
- Ch 40This is the first time Carl is physically in a studio with a crawler other than Donut or Katia.
- Ch 41Carl stabs Nihit in the neck with the magical signing pen at the end of the CrawlCon press event.
- Ch 42Carl hopes Quasar will come through to make dealing with the Blood Sultanate easier.
- Ch 44Carl insists on rescuing Miriam because she once saved his life.
- Ch 45Carl gives Prudence and her cubs guildhall access, then fires missiles from the royal chariot into the pile of body parts.
- Ch 45Carl suspects the top-50 party is a trap and wants lower-ranked crawlers free to rescue them.
- Ch 46Carl punches through Sierra while falling and finally kills her by staking her loose heart with a branch.
- Ch 46Carl's anti-vampire jacket patch likely kept him from being infected during the fight with Sierra.
- Ch 47Carl secretly marks Miriam with his own Ring of Divine Suffering at dawn, taking the Left to Fester debuff.
- Ch 48Carl quietly takes two Size Up scrolls from Miriam's belongings and gains three intelligence from his ring's mark on her.
- Ch 49Carl suspects charming Kiwi was always the intended solution to the Tina quest, with the Plenty's potion recipe a shortcut to it.
- Ch 49Carl gives Prepotente five fine healing potions to make the herbicide meant to kill Odious Creepers.
- Ch 50Carl secretly uses a cookbook aerosol recipe, disguised as modified hobgoblin smoke curtains, to build weedkiller spray bombs.
- Ch 51Carl believes the attack on Mongo was engineered by the showrunners to raise drama for the floor's finale.
- Ch 52Shaken by Ferdinand's return, Carl wants to take Donut down the stairs early to spite the showrunners.
- Ch 53Carl kills Iota after interrogating him, levelling up his Ring of Divine Suffering to four stat points per kill.
- Ch 54Carl loots four magical nipple rings, hundreds of healing potions and lots of alcohol from Iota's body.
- Ch 54Carl alerts all crawlers that untrained hunters have been ejected from saferooms and are vulnerable.
- Ch 54Carl decides against descending early for now and suggests the crawlers work together for the rest of the floor.
- Ch 55Carl's benefactor box gives Pawna's Cries, a +3 skill potion, with a note saying to save the toraline.
- Ch 55Carl wears a nipple ring granting Quarter Fall, which reduces falling speed to a quarter.
- Ch 56Carl is now a taxpaying stockholder, which Quasar says changes his situation in the wider universe.
- Ch 56Carl wants to cut the hunters' numbers below 250 before the masquerade ends.
- Ch 57Carl says Katia is like a sister to him.
- Ch 57Carl tells Donut not to reveal the potion to Signet, fearing she would use it on Grimaldi.
- Ch 58Carl plans to gather the changelings in the high elf castle so Zerzura can send them all to the ninth floor.
- Ch 60Carl uses his level-five Automaton table and stolen recipes to build exploding spider automatons.
- Ch 61Carl reaches level 59 with 66 trophies; his ring now gives five stat points per kill.
- Ch 62Carl persuades Signet to wait for his signal and attack Imogen later, secretly intending her as a held-back distraction.
- Ch 62Carl fears the sponsors give Donut everything because they expect everyone else to die.
- Ch 63Carl's cookbook entry lays out the masquerade plan: survive, solve Tina's quest, kill Eva, Lucia Mar and Imogen, save the changelings, and leave no hunter alive.
- Ch 64After Imogen's warning, Carl changes the plan: nobody starts violence inside the ballroom.
- Ch 66Carl believes Apito chose Signet as a guest to test Imogen, and that Signet will now be Imogen's first target.
- Ch 67Carl has 66 hunter hands and buys a shrink wand, the Eighth Floor Book of Lore, Skedaddle sheet music, and potions.
- Ch 71Carl's plan was to magically charm Ferdinand with a charm-animal potion made from cat blood, making him Donut's minion.
- Ch 71With every plan failing, Carl decides on Plan A and resolves to break the seal himself so the others can escape.
- Ch 71Carl plans to kill Eva himself to break the peace seal so the others can escape, despite Imani and Elle's objections.
- Ch 72As the party ends, Carl marks Vrah with the Ring of Divine Suffering and throws smoke curtains to start the escape.
- Ch 75Carl publicly urges citizens of voting faction-wars teams to remove sponsor safety protections, until he is muted.
- Ch 75Carl hopes the faction wars safety vote gives leverage to get as many crawlers as possible to the tenth floor.
Book 6: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
- Ch 3Carl fears the showrunners will send his squad to the Bahamas in phase two to watch Beatrice's ghost with another man.
- Ch 3Carl already knows about T'Ghee from Allister, author of the cookbook's 13th edition, for whom T'Ghee was a religion.
- Ch 4Carl and Princess Donut, with help from Carl's lawyer, succeeded in kickstarting a war, marked by a spinning star over Donut's head.
- Ch 4Carl earns the Apex Predator achievement for killing the most hunters and the very last one, receiving a Celestial Predator Box.
- Ch 5Carl recalls a note in the cookbook about an item similar to his back patch.
- Ch 6Carl traps the exit stairwell to trigger on any crawler not in the guild Safehome Yolanda.
- Ch 6Carl fears that crashes in the replayed traffic will cascade into growing pile-ups, as with the Iron Tangle's trains.
- Ch 6Carl heads toward the second stairwell in Miramar to learn whether other crawlers share the area.
- Ch 6Carl suspects the dungeon's legendary creatures are distorted versions of real myths, like the sloppy research behind Earth Beautiful.
- Ch 6Only the Squad Leader may hold cards, so Carl cannot store the T'Ghee Card in his inventory.
- Ch 6A new combat system announces 'Combat Started' and 'Combat Complete. Deck has been reset.' in an unfamiliar voice.
- Ch 8Carl worships the god Emberus, whose blessing sometimes sets enemies on fire when Carl punches them.
- Ch 8Carl suspects his and Donut's fame is contagious, putting many eyes on any crawlers who associate with them.
- Ch 8Carl hands Yago's card to Sister Ines, since it belongs to her team.
- Ch 9Carl was left without a guardian from 15 until adulthood, then joined the Coast Guard, not the Navy.
- Ch 9Carl reluctantly agrees to Shadow Boxer because its sponsor and liaison might explain Orren's earlier warning.
- Ch 9Using The Daughter's Kiss vaporizes a duende and leaves Carl with an unsettling feeling of souls leaving his body.
- Ch 10Carl considers capturing Shi Maria as a squad member rather than abandoning Samantha.
- Ch 12Carl notes the quest AI's remarks about quarantine and enhancement zones vanish from his copied quest text.
- Ch 12Touching non-corporeal ghommids with bare flesh freezes Carl's arm and drains him.
- Ch 13Carl's fan box yields a massage coupon for the Desperado Club's Penis Parade or Penis Palace, delighting Donut.
- Ch 15Living alone at fifteen, Carl was briefly suspected of killing his father and was then taken into state custody.
- Ch 15Carl concludes the message concerns the toraline root vegetable and that his sponsor employs several former cookbook owners.
- Ch 16To spare Paz and Anton a divine smite, Carl decides the group must kill Asojano rather than restore his shrine.
- Ch 17Carl chooses Yemaya's shrine over Ogun's, determined to avoid a future where Katia must die.
- Ch 17Carl flags the dying Asojano, capturing him as a card, but is infected with SlugPox.
- Ch 18Carl refuses to kill Sister Ines and decides to separate from her and warn others, though Donut wants her dead.
- Ch 19Carl is suffering from slugpox, which Yemaya says her brother Ogun caused deliberately and a healer can fix.
- Ch 19Carl agrees to Eileithyia's secret deal and keeps copies of her deity messages in his secret notepad.
- Ch 20Carl has Emberus quests to find Geyrun's killer and to kill Hellik, the main suspect, before reaching the twelfth floor.
- Ch 20Carl suspects that Pater Coal is really the AI speaking, and Pater Coal does not deny it.
- Ch 20Carl receives the Martyr's Path boon, gets cured of slugpox for about 10,000 gold, and is banned from the club for three days.
- Ch 20Carl lies to the group about part of his Club Vanquisher visit and leaves out the rest.
- Ch 22Carl's group heads southwest through Havana, collecting cards and looking for Sister Ines and a Desperado Club.
- Ch 23Carl decides they must pick Odette anyway and needs a plausible excuse to ignore Zev's advice.
- Ch 23Carl recognises the woman posing as Epitome Noflex as Juice Box.
- Ch 24Carl proposes an action item for a tenth team of NPCs with the same protections and full voting rights.
- Ch 24Carl and Katia must kill Astrid before Floor 8 collapses, since the ninth floor's only Desperado Club entrance is unusable.
- Ch 24With HeyZoos, Carl and Donut have four of six totems: the monk seal, the ghommid splitter, Asojano, and HeyZoos.
- Ch 25Carl enters the Penis Parade alone, aware that Donut will eventually find out from his spiking view counter.
- Ch 26In the Guild of Suffering, Carl declined a job but received a map of the Desperado Club's secret passages and hidden markets.
- Ch 26Carl plans to strike at their target with Katia after returning from rescuing Samantha.
- Ch 27Carl uses Phase Through Wall potions to punch Raul from below, then regrets the risky tactic.
- Ch 27Carl suspects Shi Maria is lying to Samantha about being able to animate the body he carries.
- Ch 28Carl tells Samantha she is part of the team and that he would have come to save her anyway.
- Ch 28Carl suspects Shi Maria wants to become a card so she can be the one card kept at the floor's end.
- Ch 28Carl offers to take Shi Maria to the next floor if she helps, threatening to rip her card if she harms his friends.
- Ch 29Carl warns Donut never to trust Shi Maria, now a card, and to hide that Larracos has been flooded.
- Ch 29Carl now has a full deck, with Shi Maria as its strongest card, but wants practice in a simulation room first.
- Ch 30Carl feels guilty because Katia found the drug den after he told her where it was.
- Ch 30Carl and Donut build an 18-card deck with six totems: Geraldo, Asojano, Skylar Spinach, Uzi Jesus, Raul and Shi Maria.
- Ch 30Even inside the simulation, Carl feels a dizzying pull from Shi Maria's fifth eye, like 'the river in my mind'.
- Ch 31Carl concludes they must attack the enemy deckmaster immediately, with himself and Mongo striking at once.
- Ch 32Carl plans to win deck fights by attacking enemy deckmasters directly, as when his hob-lobber killed The Luau in seconds.
- Ch 32Katia's addiction makes Carl think of his father, stirring anger he realises isn't really aimed at her.
- Ch 32Carl insists Katia help him kill Astrid now, so the quest box opens and Huanxin keeps her bargain.
- Ch 33Carl lines the ambush corridor with teleport traps to send any guards Astrid summons to a locked closet.
- Ch 33Carl tells Katia he won't give up on her and that NPC deaths free them from this hell.
- Ch 34Carl's plan was to kill Astrid with directional anti-NPC claymores as she left a secret passage, with Katia as backup.
- Ch 34Carl ripped off Astrid's wings to break her spell on Katia, then stored them in his inventory.
- Ch 35Carl sent an automaton to dismantle the barricade and release the vorpals, and used holy-water spider bombs to drive Minge back.
- Ch 35Carl's last task for the plan is ensuring Odette becomes their adjutant when he goes on her show.
- Ch 36Carl uses his 100,000-gold coupon to hire the Penis Parade dancers, including Doctor Bones and Bucket Boy, as Meat Shields mercenaries for two floors.
- Ch 36Carl theorizes Astrid's family are long-indentured 'natural' people, not generated NPCs, and the Night Wyrm had her killed for money.
- Ch 37Carl's deal with Huanxin to save Katia depends on Odette becoming their adjutant, which only Carl knows.
- Ch 38Carl suspects Odette knew Huanxin's plan and used the interview to announce her own entry into the dungeon on equal footing.
- Ch 38Carl chooses Baroness Victory as the team's adjutant, on Quasar's enthusiastic advice.
- Ch 40Carl kills a level 45 Babababoon with a hob-lobber before it draws a card, collecting the second token.
- Ch 41Carl reaches level 68 and Donut level 59 while clearing token-holding deckmasters; Mongo hits level 40.
- Ch 41Carl's Scavenger's Daughter back patch soul bar is nearly full, and he feels uneasy whenever it nears full.
- Ch 42Carl is suspicious of the Book of Voodoo, as its description hints at a nefarious purpose.
- Ch 43Carl's Nightgaunt cloak so enraged the Visitor that it attacked him instead of playing its cards.
- Ch 44The barn's heat lamps were placed to make Carl's bombs explode prematurely.
- Ch 44The AI grows irritated when Carl asks for shorter mob descriptions, claiming it writes them because of their 'special connection'.
- Ch 44Carl used the Scavenger's Daughter's Kiss to obliterate Tom, but the impact sent the barn sliding toward the cliff.
- Ch 44Carl believes he has seen the dying ogre's pleading, frightened eyes before.
- Ch 44Carl wears a debuff-resisting ring disguised as his strength ring, which Pater Coal secretly helped him buy at Club Vanquisher.
- Ch 45Carl accepts he must face the final fight, telling Donut they're going to 'say hi to dad'.
- Ch 46Carl never had a bike as a child, and blamed his lack of lasting friends on it.
- Ch 46Carl finds carefully tended, labeled flower pots in feminine handwriting, something his father would never have kept, and is troubled by the implication.
- Ch 46Carl strips the yard of everything he can lift, wishing he could take the Ford truck's engine for Katia.
- Ch 47Seeing his father as a broken, dying man frees Carl of his fear; he says it was exactly what he needed to see.
- Ch 47Carl loots his father's Glock, cigarettes, court documents, vehicle keys and Centipede arcade cabinet, then sets the trailer alight.
- Ch 48Carl doesn't tell Donut about Asher yet and fears the showrunners will use his brother as the boss.
- Ch 48Carl served in the Coast Guard, not the navy; he can't fire his father's Glock without it exploding, as it comes from outside the dungeon.
- Ch 48Carl decapitates Bea's mom's head with a snap collar shrunk by his shrink wand, then cauterizes the wound with moonshine, setting himself ablaze.
- Ch 49Carl deduced the hydra heads' powers were deliberate, tied to each person's life, which let him identify Bea's mom as the fire head.
- Ch 49Carl realizes everyone in the hydra died in the collapse, and refuses to tell Donut his father's name.
- Ch 50Carl and Donut find a mile of dead monk seals and crabs washed up on Florida's shore, laden with loot, apparently a warning about Cuba.
- Ch 50Carl receives an Emergency Gold Benefactor Box from the Open Intellect Pacifist Network that a liaison tried to seize, overridden by a Syndicate rule.
- Ch 50Carl doesn't believe Orren's claim that everything will stay the same.
- Ch 51Carl secretly opens a benefactor box containing only a flyer for a homeless shelter's Christmas breakfast in Homestead, Florida.
- Ch 51Carl decorates his bare room with a fern, his brother's crayon airplane drawing and a Centipede arcade cabinet.
- Ch 51Carl suspects Rosetta and the Pacifist Network steered him to Miami for a reason beyond sparing his feelings.
- Ch 52Riding alone to Homestead on Christmas morning, Carl feels lonely for the first time and regrets not bringing someone.
- Ch 52Carl once spent a night in a homeless shelter in Seattle, the night after his 18th birthday.
- Ch 52On the shelter wall Carl finds an old graffiti message written in Syndicate Standard: look for the man in the red hat at breakfast.
- Ch 52Carl takes the red-hatted man's plastic storage tub into his inventory before the man speaks to him.
- Ch 53Carl trades away the bin of Valtay upgrade pills and a communicator for a wand recharge scroll, three Cracker Jack scrolls and keeping four cretins.
- Ch 54Carl uses Cracker Jack scrolls to unlock a Valtay Perso-Shield for himself and a Bull Rush shield for Donut.
- Ch 54Carl locks the strippers inside the Mercenary Arcade for a secret plan and asks Elle to make room for more mercenaries.
- Ch 54Carl's teleport traps by the exit stairwell are triggered by at least three intruders as the stairwells open.
- Ch 55Carl and Donut race to Imani to kill Quan Ch before Sister Ines arrives, since Quan would kill her and take her key.
- Ch 55Carl's riding skill from the goblin copper chopper lets him ride the motorcycle, and Katia tuned it up for him.
- Ch 55If Imani lacks a key, Carl plans to have Donut flee a battle to give Imani their key, while he uses his jacket's bone key benefit.
- Ch 56Carl sends Samantha to bite Sister Ines so he and Donut can force a card battle before demons claim her and her key.
- Ch 57Carl's summon, boosted by Samantha, teleports Sister Ines, the snake boss and thousands of charmed seals, crabs, zombies and fish to him.
- Ch 57Carl punting a zombie turkey into the ocean started a global zombie outbreak, helping trigger the earliest demon eviction in crawl history.
- Ch 58Carl takes an interest-free loan of 990,000 gold from the Temple of Emberus and cannot renounce his religion while in debt.
- Ch 58At the last moment Carl infects Quan with Super Spreader, making him leak slugs that damage him over time.
- Ch 59Carl reassures Samantha she's part of the team, then realizes two-part teleport traps could let him travel fast.
- Ch 59Carl's plan: put teleport-trap anchors on automatons inside Samantha, throw her to the exit, and teleport there himself.
- Ch 60Carl teleports to the capitol building exit and uses card-battle totems summoned by the distant Donut to attack Quan directly, an exploit.
- Ch 61Only one key remains; Carl cannot give Ren a key without risking his and Donut's escape or Imani's.
- Ch 62Carl loots Quan's huge hoard, including nearly five million gold, a celestial cloak and a decapitating bowler hat, but leaves his ring.
- Ch 62Carl decides to give the last key to Imani and take his chances with Donut; Mordecai thinks she won't accept it.
- Ch 63Carl wants Amayon's coming event to spread over the whole world and asks Prepotente for ideas.
- Ch 64Carl and Prepotente devise a theory to get crawlers into stairwell chambers without keys, if the chambers are isolated and undermined with trenches.
- Ch 64Carl urges all crawlers to stop fighting over keys, let keyholders leave, and demolish around stairwell chambers.
- Ch 64Carl plans to kill Sister Ines, free Amayon, then buff him so his portal covers as much of the world as possible.
- Ch 65Seeing his friends together again, Carl realizes the darkness he has felt since the Butcher's Masquerade was loneliness, and that isolation will break them.
- Ch 66Carl's group demolishes the church around the stairwell and digs a channel beneath it, sparing its two temples.
- Ch 66Carl plans to kill Sister Ines inside the FOSCA building, then climb to the roof and teleport Amayon out of the snake body.
- Ch 67Carl places a teleport-trap automaton on the roof to break Amayon free of the snake's body once Sister Ines is dead.
- Ch 67Carl fears that if Amayon is freed before Sister Ines dies, the demon will torch the building for revenge.
- Ch 69Carl's team must kill Amayon's six totems to free him while keeping Ysalte's deck from running out, since then she could cast spells.
- Ch 69Carl has Donut ready The Midnight Express card and leaps off the building toward the frozen Samantha.
- Ch 70Carl plans to have himself nearly killed to power up Amayon, and teleports into a trap he left inside Samantha.
- Ch 71Carl's Martyr's Path, enhanced with Sheol fire, sets the whole city ablaze and empowers Amayon's spell to return home.
- Ch 73While combined with Shi Maria, Carl loses control of his body; the spider totem speaks in his mind and controls him.
- Ch 73A male voice inside Carl's mind, which Shi Maria says she killed, warns Carl never to trust her.
- Ch 74Carl's jacket glows, revealing an image of a giant centipede crawling through skulls.
- Ch 74A voice in Carl's mind warns he should have diffused his Scavenger's Daughter soul power, and says it needs him alive and sane.
Book 7: This Inevitable Ruin
- Ch 1Quasar summarises that Carl now has a spider stuck in his chest, via the Eye of the Bedlam Bride.
- Ch 5Carl receives an Unbirthing achievement for teleporting into Samantha, which the AI ominously enjoyed.
- Ch 7Carl's fan box holds ammunition and a leather shoulder holster stamped 'Carl'; he still keeps his father's Glock but won't use it.
- Ch 9A botched hair tonic leaves Carl with waist-length hair that regrows when cut and will last about two weeks; he ties it in a ponytail.
- Ch 10Carl is haunted by thoughts of the failsafe and the warning that using it would be the end of everything.
- Ch 14Carl trades Ferdinand Quan's boomerang bowler hat, temporarily, in exchange for the mayorship of Shanty Town.
- Ch 17Carl insists the naga team must be the Princess Posse's first target.
- Ch 20Carl plans to be closely involved in Katia's rehab while Donut helps build trenches on the southern front.
- Ch 22If Carl traps Shi Maria in her memory he will control the tattoo and gain skills; if he fails, she will be furious.
- Ch 23Shi Maria is now trapped inside Carl like an egg he alone can break; Carl failed the Bedlam Bride quest.
- Ch 23Carl lost 11 hours during the treatment; 20 hours remain before the ceasefire ends.
- Ch 25Carl now controls Shi Maria's eye and can summon her once; she may then take over his body or return to her own form.
- Ch 26Carl suspects the AI does not want to die and that the fuse button is a trap or test.
- Ch 26Carl chose not to blow the fuse, thinking of Donut and his friends, and instead pressed Disconnect Containment.
- Ch 27Carl keeps his glowing patch active for power despite warnings, and now suffers Soul Poisoning.
- Ch 28Carl orders captured NPCs and outside mercenaries separated, with troublesome mercenaries killed, looted, and their bodies kept.
- Ch 31Carl's soul poisoning keeps worsening during the assault, causing stabbing stomach pain and new debuffs.
- Ch 31Carl accidentally sends an order to the whole army through war chat, and the soldiers obey it.
- Ch 32Carl puts on the Ring of Divine Suffering before confronting Empress D'Nadia in her throne room.
- Ch 34Carl heals D'Nadia to full and marks her with the Ring of Divine Suffering; her highest stat is Intelligence.
- Ch 34Carl hates D'Nadia more than anyone because she pretended to be kind while seeking to kill crawlers in Faction Wars.
- Ch 34Carl nearly kills D'Nadia in a white rage but steps back from the edge when Donut pleads with him.
- Ch 35Carl spares the enemy gnolls and orders Boomer to retreat rather than push toward the Blood Sultanate castle.
- Ch 35Carl's stat upgrades make him the strongest member, so he becomes Party Leader of the Royal Court of Princess Donut.
- Ch 35Carl refuses to discard the ring yet, saying he needs to get stronger and needs Donut to keep him grounded.
- Ch 37Carl realizes he saw his father in himself when he confronted D'Nadia, and hasn't processed it.
- Ch 37Carl beats the worm-controlled Charles Andrew to death and stomps on the worm Goldblum that emerges.
- Ch 38Carl decides it should be Kiwi's choice whether Tina fights, but Donut overrides her and orders Tina out.
- Ch 39Carl beats an invisible Dreadnaught assassin, J IronFjord, to death on the barracks roof, horrifying onlookers.
- Ch 39Carl uses Tripper to detonate the Reavers' satchel-bomb automatons, wiping out most of the cyborg paratroopers.
- Ch 42Carl secretly knows the failsafe won't work because he turned it off himself.
- Ch 45Carl considers Rosetta, a fellow cookbook author, his sister, and feels killing Rust was her right.
- Ch 45Carl feels unsteady that major warlord deaths happened without him, as if he's losing control.
- Ch 45Carl demands the crawl end, crawlers be freed and the Syndicate leave Earth in exchange for his information.
- Ch 48Carl now holds King Rust's body, a second Ring of Divine Suffering and the Necklace of Indelible Woe.
- Ch 49Carl learns the Special Edition spell Run, Little Günter, Run from a whimpering, centipede-legged spellbook found in a box.
- Ch 49Carl can wear only one Ring of Divine Suffering at a time, and two rings cannot mark the same person on this floor.
- Ch 50Carl and Donut's job is to stretch out the warlord council while their team infiltrates naga territory and fakes a northern push.
- Ch 51Carl feels awe and fear before Vinata, knowing the plan is for her to die within hours.
- Ch 52Carl uses an Emergency Action Item to close loopholes, like renaming news programs, that teams use to dodge the outside-communication ban.
- Ch 52Carl worries about Katia going to the 12th floor, since Odette and Huanxin Jinx are mortal enemies and Katia would be in Huanxin's court.
- Ch 53Carl suspects Juice Box's warning and the Scolopendra warning are somehow tied together.
- Ch 53Carl realizes the Blood Sultanate's troops are already dead and the naga are hiding how close they are to defeat.
- Ch 54Carl changes the plan to assault the naga castle without the sluggalos, hoping it is lightly defended.
- Ch 55The original plan used four groups: Florin's northern push, Tran's southern feint, an invisible sluggalo raid on the castle, and Carl's group in Shanty Town.
- Ch 57Carl had secretly readied a potion of Conscription to force Prepotente in, and is relieved not to use it.
- Ch 58Carl, Katia, Prepotente and Samantha plan to break into Khepri's temple in Club Vanquisher and kill Vinata and her guards.
- Ch 59Carl must reach the Temple of Khepri within an hour, before Vinata's court can ask to be released and possibly escape.
- Ch 60Completing Emberus's quest to kill Mork earns Carl the Celestial Boon Heathen Scald, adding damage to his punches for the floor.
- Ch 60Carl's team must keep the two portal doors into Club Vanquisher open, or the club's lockdown will cut them off.
- Ch 61Being in Khepri's presence makes Carl immortal for 90 seconds, though Khepri marks him for death.
- Ch 63Carl's Waffle Maker blast kills Vinata's guards and both cousins, and only Khepri's immortality boon keeps Carl alive.
- Ch 63Hellik marks Carl a friend of his church, so Hellik's worshipers are no longer automatically hostile to him.
- Ch 64Carl breaks Brother Widespread Tempest's Untouchable status with Black Nimbus and plays Megadeth to send the mantaurs berserk.
- Ch 64Meeting Milk, Carl feels a sibling-like bond and finally breaks down sobbing in her wings.
- Ch 64Carl tells Donut the raid went off without a hitch, hiding how close he came to death.
- Ch 66The hairbrush's constitution boost forces Carl to keep his hair long.
- Ch 66Facing Operation Ruin's multi-front attack, Carl agonizes over what gives him the right to lead so many to likely deaths.
- Ch 67Carl received 32 loot boxes from the Club Vanquisher raid and is now banned from Club Vanquisher and most temples.
- Ch 67Carl was oddly named friend of the church by several gods, including Hellik and, inexplicably, Grull.
- Ch 68Rishi says a Syndicate court named Carl de-facto leader of Earth, allowing him to sign on Earth's behalf.
- Ch 68Carl rejects Rishi's offer as power-hungry politics and marks him to be killed while the naga system watches.
- Ch 69Carl plans to use the Gate of the Feral Gods with Elle to enter Madness territory and kill Houston.
- Ch 69Carl's presence stabilises bombs and greatly increases their yield, so he rides Louis's first bomb run.
- Ch 70Carl overclocks each bomb on Party Planner during the bomb run over the orc castle.
- Ch 72Carl is frustrated that allies keep making plans without telling him and using him as part of them.
- Ch 73Carl makes Samantha an officer so she can cast Paint the Target on the dragon for the missile crews.
- Ch 74Carl's sneak attack is exposed; he summons his full team and the 105th to fight, pulling Prepotente away from the 103rd.
- Ch 75Madness mind mages hit Carl with psionic attacks, nearly convincing him to surrender, until his Mind Balance reached level 16.
- Ch 75A friendly, familiar male voice, perhaps a dwarf, told Carl he isn't crazy and is now family.
- Ch 75While under attack, Carl's bare feet were buried in an All Tree root, and the tree withered and died afterwards.
- Ch 76Carl decides to trust the others and press on to the Madness castle while its army is gone.
- Ch 78Carl puts Burcu to sleep with a wand to free her safely, then loses his invulnerability mid-rescue.
- Ch 78Carl's attempt to save Burcu failed; the traps fired, killing Burcu and Houston while Carl escaped with Gloom Wraith Phase.
- Ch 78Carl is credited with killing Architect Houston, defeating the Madness and winning its assets for the Princess Posse.
- Ch 79Several days earlier, after taking dream potions, Carl touched Katia and was pulled into her dream instead of Shi Maria's.
- Ch 79For a moment Carl glimpsed the inner emotions of everyone nearby, including Mordecai's bottomless sadness and Rosetta's tired rage.
- Ch 81Zev had ordered Carl, on the Syndicate prime minister's instructions, not to talk to Agatha.
- Ch 81Realising the war mages want the gods in the ball, Carl heals the battle formation to keep it intact.
- Ch 81Carl orders Donut to steer the ball toward Larracos and keep it intact, so any conscripted god there harms the war mages.
- Ch 83Carl levitated over Larracos and dropped his whole bomb stockpile on the Piccadilly, destroying the zarogoth generator but triggering the city defense towers.
- Ch 83Carl smashed the Hell-Kissed Conscription potion on the captured Lucia rather than let Raul kill her.
- Ch 84Carl put on the Ring of Divine Suffering, intending to kill the conscripted Lucia, but stopped when Diah emerged.
- Ch 85Carl fears for Donut over the War Crime plan, calling her his best friend and the only true family he has left.
- Ch 86Carl is horrified by War Crime but agrees with Rosetta that it will save hundreds or thousands of their allies.
- Ch 88Eris's chaos effect makes Carl's level-15 Pied Piper benefit from Harpocrates permanent.
- Ch 89Carl is now level 81 and feels left behind by Donut, Li Na and Prepotente.
- Ch 90Carl tells Justice Light where the gate is, believing he seeks revenge as Rosetta did against King Rust.
- Ch 94Carl rejects the Inevitable Ruin as hopelessness in another form: nothing is hopeless until you're truly dead.
- Ch 95Carl wonders whether Samantha's daughter is the Scavenger's Daughter the War Mages took.
- Ch 97Carl refuses to kill the surrendered mercenaries for stats as Li Na did, and has Donut swallow the Ring of Divine Suffering.
- Ch 100Carl meets lawyer Quasar in the Outreach Guild and declines every exit deal offered.
Book 8: A Parade of Horribles
- Ch 3Carl learns only 5,501 crawlers remain, meaning about 75% took deals to leave the dungeon.
- Ch 5Carl drives the first heat; the food truck tops out around 70 miles per hour.
- Ch 5Carl feels a strange relief that, in the race, only his and Donut's lives depend on his mistakes.
- Ch 6Carl decides to tow Team Free Love's van to the finish so no more teams are eliminated.
- Ch 7Carl builds a flatbed trailer and tows Team Free Love's wrecked van behind the food truck to the finish line.
- Ch 8Seeing weapon upgrades, Carl realizes crawler-versus-crawler races are inevitable, especially since Li Na has killed most other teams.
- Ch 9Mordecai's prophecy tells Carl he is reached for by both the tree and the abyss.
- Ch 9Carl learns the Oozy Form spell, letting him turn into a slime to slip through cracks and obstacles.
- Ch 12Carl's achievements mock him for winning Faction Wars by default and for feeding the Ring of Divine Suffering to Donut.
- Ch 12Carl receives a sad, needy achievement from the AI praising him for rejecting the exit deal.
- Ch 12Carl receives a baby backpack for quadrupeds that lets Donut Phase with him; Donut refuses to ride in it.
- Ch 15Carl wants to avoid telling Dong about Corcunda, fearing the drama is a setup, but speaking aloud triggers a quest.
- Ch 16Carl wonders whom he could force into the eleventh-floor arena as a stand-in to cause the most damage.
- Ch 19Carl cannot modify his vehicle's stock configuration, so he fails to rip the giant tommy gun off the truck's roof.
- Ch 19Carl plans with Chiyome and the bugbears to shatter his own windshield at the race start so Donut can use her crossbow.
- Ch 20Carl's team may kill only one rival team in this race; a second death would undo their plan, but they also can't finish last.
- Ch 20Hearing 'Black and White' from the bugbears' van, Carl remembers his mom dancing with him while she sang it.
- Ch 21Carl decides a better vehicle shield will be his team's priority after this race.
- Ch 22Carl suspects the dead joeys are a clue after Donut finds their inventories hold only their skins.
- Ch 23Carl climbs into Prison Pocket's pouch in a joey costume, drops two satchel bombs, phases out and detonates them, killing the boss.
- Ch 24Carl did 95% of the damage to Prison Pocket and reached level 84; he and Donut each got Platinum Boss Boxes.
- Ch 24Finishing last earned Carl's team an audience-vote upgrade instead of choosing their own.
- Ch 25Carl feels helpless after barely surviving the heat, remembering his father smashing his fish tank and killing his mollies.
- Ch 26Carl suspects Samantha's daughter, the Scavenger, Emberus, Geyrun's murder and Akuma are all connected, and refuses to kill teams without knowing why.
- Ch 28Carl decides to keep Rend in his pet carrier except during fights, since he can't stay in the safe room or garage.
- Ch 30Carl ignores Orren's prepared question and asks on live broadcast whether the public knows gods have escaped and they must run.
- Ch 32Carl plans to use denial-of-service missiles, a Rosetta idea, to stop One Fine Pig and Sparkles attacking during the race.
- Ch 34Carl survives the crash with broken limbs and a flayed kangaroo suit, saved by his health scroll contingency and potions.
- Ch 35Because Carl and Donut both handled the controls in heat three, neither may drive in the next race.
- Ch 36Carl and Donut plan to check out Chicken and Waffles, then look for the entertainers' guild entrance at the Lollipop karaoke bar.
- Ch 37Carl's Kill Hellik quest must be done by the end of Floor 11, but Emberus vowed to kill him if he succeeds.
- Ch 37Carl concludes his only real option is to kill Emberus, which would mark him for death by all the other gods.
- Ch 37Carl grabbed Eris's coin mid-flip, choosing a random fifth side; it left a spinning swirl tattoo on his palm.
- Ch 38Carl fears Eris's coin means Donut's death, losing his feet, most friends dying, or something worse, and wonders whether he must kill Eris too.
- Ch 38Carl believes they must break the game and has a ridiculous, suicidal idea he won't yet say in chat.
- Ch 41Carl plans to recruit volunteers to fight for the Cabaret, with Prepotente and Mordecai on the shop exploit and strippers at the Desperado Club.
- Ch 43Carl wants Team Sparkles dead but considers Corky the key to everything and must keep him alive.
- Ch 45Carl dismisses the system's ginger stereotypes as made-up prejudice from the AI.
- Ch 46Carl's team arrives at the pit stop in fourth place, behind Team Sparkles, Osvaldo and the Lady Dominators.
- Ch 47Enraged by the mercenaries' deaths, Carl attacks One Fine Pig's armored APV with his fists until Imani and Donut pull him away.
- Ch 47Carl's team cannot drive now: they can't hire new mercenaries between heats, Imani can't drive, and Jamal counts as a mercenary.
- Ch 47Calming down, Carl resolves to eliminate a team smartly and sees a hard way out tied to Penelope.
- Ch 48Carl apologises to Imani for losing control, saying Donut talked him down, and announces he has an idea.
- Ch 48Carl lays two silent disintegration traps beside One Fine Pig's truck, set to trigger only for Tigrans so Penelope stays safe.
- Ch 49Carl's heat is rerolled from the jungle track to Satan's Water Park, putting him an hour behind Team Sparkles.
- Ch 49Carl wants to win his heat to get the key he needs to get Penelope.
- Ch 51Using Prepotente's insight, Carl's team climbs the wall on spider legs to bypass the trapdoor, saving about an hour.
- Ch 52Carl combines Gutter Bumper with Donut's Ice Slick to freeze the whole River of Sloth, trapping hundreds of gingers.
- Ch 52Carl drags a chained 'brush hog' of spare weapons behind the truck across the ice, shredding the frozen gingers.
- Ch 53Carl advises the bugbears Jasha and Radoslav to tow the stranded unicorn Dwight in, but to be wary.
- Ch 53Carl tells Azra her father is safe and loves her, and privately concludes they need Lucia to take a deal.
- Ch 55Carl's race win earns two Golden upgrades and a key, which he plans to use on One Fine Pig's house.
- Ch 55Of the 5,500 crawlers who reached this floor, fewer than 3,000 remain.
- Ch 55Carl realizes Chalchiuhtlicue is an escaped goddess sharing Lucia Mar's head with the trapped children.
- Ch 56Carl's Scavenger's Daughter patch tried to activate while talking to Lucia, and he wonders whether he can reach where the kids are.
- Ch 57Carl wants Grigori to talk to both Corcundas, and needs Donut inside the guild to charm Porky into coming out.
- Ch 57Carl asks Donut to trust him, promising to explain once it's too late for the prize to be taken away.
- Ch 57Realizing Li Na's Changbi race can't worship a deity, Carl hatches a plan for Li Na to leave the dungeon.
- Ch 58Carl commits to the cleaner bot plan for Li Na, wanting her fully informed and willing, and to test Herot's theory.
- Ch 59Carl, who has never sung sober, uses singing potions and a Gelded Choirboy scroll to lead a duet of 'Take on Me' by A-ha.
- Ch 59Carl and Donut sing a duet so that Donut, with few lines, can likely enter the guild and charm Porky out.
- Ch 60Carl wants Dwight kept alive at least until the next heat starts, so the team protects him.
- Ch 60Carl sings 'Take on Me' through the brawl and earns permanent access to the Stage Performance Guild.
- Ch 60Every team that dies in the bar means another crawler-versus-crawler matchup, so Carl's friends try to protect everyone.
- Ch 61Carl doubts whether Akuma's claim that worshippers would be smitten in the Cabaret is true, since Akuma lied before.
- Ch 61Carl believes getting Lucia Mar to take a deal is the only way to remove her from play and protect the children.
- Ch 62Carl blames himself for giving Dong the sock he got from Quan Ch, and decides to reunite Corcunda's halves during the race.
- Ch 63Carl apologises to Dong for trying to keep him away from the quest to reunite Corcunda.
- Ch 63Carl will attempt the Corcunda reunion during the race, bringing three mercenaries: the fleshmancer, Porky and Dong.
- Ch 63Carl admits to himself he is slipping, haunted by whispering voices and a hand tremor since Donut's attack in the tower.
- Ch 65Carl plans to slip behind the Lady Dominators at the start, with Osvaldo and Prepotente helping.
- Ch 66Carl uses the untested rocket accelerator with the Bubble Buddy upgrade to jump between conveyor belts, overshooting before correcting.
- Ch 68Carl drives the truck upside down along ceiling tracks over a river of molten metal using spider legs and Roller Limbo upgrades.
- Ch 70Only eighteen of sixty teams survived Carl's heat; about 1,200 teams remain in roughly 300 heats.
- Ch 71Carl agrees to explain his plan to Donut, but only once with everyone together, and carefully so no gods figure it out.
- Ch 72Carl's Floor 11 plan involves leaving the party temporarily so he can ensure Hellik is dead before the floor ends, satisfying his Emberus quest.
- Ch 72Carl aims to keep NPCs alive in heat six and get about 1,500 crawlers to take deals to minimise crawler-on-crawler races.
- Ch 73Carl's quest is to learn who murdered Emberus's son Geyrun; Amayon, a son of Sheol, claims to know.
- Ch 73Carl suspects the answer to Geyrun's murder is the key to unravelling the Scavenger mystery, and that even the AI doesn't know.
- Ch 74Carl hints that something grim must happen with Jasha and Radoslav, after the dungeon let him use Oozy Form in the cul-de-sac.
- Ch 75Carl tells the gathered crawlers he considers every one of them his family and is proud to have survived alongside them.
- Ch 76Carl's team starts in apartment 712, and their mandatory ring is in apartment 231 on the second floor.
- Ch 79Unsure of their placing, Carl detonates a hidden explosive he planted in the bugbears' beer, killing Team Free Love so his team can't come last.
- Ch 79Carl planted the bomb using Oozy Form while Samantha distracted the two bugbears, and feels like an utter piece of shit.
- Ch 80Carl drinks splooge to brave the toxic air and comforts Prepotente, telling him he is always welcome and they are a herd.
- Ch 81Fewer than a thousand of the 5,500 crawlers who started the floor remain, with one heat still to go.
- Ch 82If Osvaldo refuses a deal, Carl and Donut face Team Sparkles and Team Flamengo in the final heat.
- Ch 84Carl is hit by the level 20 Transformation and becomes a quadruped, losing several equipped items.
- Ch 85Carl has been transformed into a long-haired dachshund with a German accent, and the chat system spells his name Karl.
- Ch 87Carl can't bring himself to hate Osvaldo or the Russians, saying so few humans are left that they can't hate each other.
- Ch 89Carl reflexively opens the Eye of the Bedlam Bride, freezing Mitch in place.
- Ch 90Carl swears to everyone sent away that he will do everything he can to free them.
- Ch 92Carl finished second on the final leaderboard and is likely the only remaining crawler without a player-killer skull.
- Ch 94Carl leaves the Royal Court of Princess Donut and joins the Safehome Yolanda guild, losing his royal bodyguard title.
- Ch 95After reading the AI's description of a Horrible, Carl says he finally understands, filled with sadness.
- Ch 96Carl defines vengeance as righteous, sometimes indirect punishment, as opposed to revenge against those directly responsible.
- Ch 96Holding Grigori's gaze, Carl heals the dying Chaco with a scroll; the AI doesn't react.
- Ch 96Carl warns the galaxy that everyone complicit in humanity's murder will face vengeance, even if he doesn't deliver it.
- Ch 97Before the arena, Carl tells Donut he loves her and sends her to Elle and Imani; she says it back.
- Ch 97On the jumbotron, Carl declares the crawlers will no longer play by the show's rules: their revolution begins.
- Ch 98Carl feels that dragging Penny into sapience, then using her as bait, crosses a line he hadn't known existed.
- Ch 98Carl holds his father's gun to Penny's head and threatens to shoot her unless Taranis shows himself.
- Ch 99Carl uses Gloom Wraith Phase to tunnel into Scolopendra with Penny, then Oozy Form to reach Club Scolopendra inside her.
- Ch 99Carl renounces his worship of Emberus and taunts him by claiming he killed Emberus's son Geyrun himself.
- Ch 102Carl's sun-shaped tattoos have become raised scars described as the Mark of the Damned.
- Ch 102Carl finds a dart in his leg: a tracking tag announcing that the Kyryap has claimed him.
- Ch 102Carl picks up Emberus's memorial crystal from the arena dirt.
- Ch 102Carl believes Krakaren and Samantha are both connected to Apito.
- Ch 102Carl resolves to stay on the twelfth floor and stop anyone winning the Ascendency until everyone left gets out.
Connections
- partner ofBeatriceex-girlfriend; they just broke up
- enemy ofGoblin
- ally ofPrincess Donut the Queen Anne Chonkparty members
- friend ofBilly Maloney
- related toGoblinholds a Goblin Pass granting free passage
- member ofThe Royal Court of Princess Donut
- related toMordecairegistered guide
- enemy ofScatterer
- enemy ofThe Hoarder
- enemy ofFrank Qwants to hunt him down
- family ofCarl's fatherfather
- enemy ofGoblin chieftain
- related toHobgoblin Pususes it in the cart bomb
- enemy ofMaggie My
- related toGoblin Copper Chopperdrives
- ally ofBrandon An
- enemy ofThe Juicer
- ally ofMordecaitutorial guide
- createdThe Speedbump
- ally ofMeadow Lark
- createdCarl's Jug O' Boom
- related toElle McGibbonsrescued
- createdMother of All Bombs
- enemy ofThe Maestro
- enemy ofRalph
- related toMongoCarl's pet dinosaur
- related toZevCarl's agent
- related toEnchanted BigBoi Boxersworn by Carl
- enemy ofCrown Prince Stalwart
- leadsMedium Skyfowl Settlementmagistrate until floor collapse
- ally ofDaniel Bautista 2owes Carl a debt
- enemy ofKing Rust
- createdCarl's Doomsday Scenario
- friend ofBrandon An
- ally ofKatia Grim
- createdJelly Bomb
- ally ofImani C
- enemy ofGore-Gore
- related toValtay Corporationsponsor
- enemy ofDismember the War Mage
- createdUgly Ass Backpack
- related toNightmare Expressstole and drives it
- ally ofElle McGibbons
- enemy ofBabababoon
- enemy ofCrackJack
- enemy ofFestering Ghoul
- related toEvamutual distrust
- friend ofLi Jun
- ally ofLi Jun
- createdThe Royal Chariot
- related toThe Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network, Intergalactic NFCsponsor
- related toBomobodyguard at the Desperado Club
- related toThe Sledgebodyguard at the Desperado Club
- related toVery Sullenbodyguard at the Desperado Club
- ally ofMorris Sp
- enemy ofRuckus
- enemy ofGnome sniper captain
- related toSystem AIobsessed with how Carl kills small creatures
- enemy ofLoita
- enemy ofOrren
- enemy ofLuscakilled her
- enemy ofQuan Ch
- related toEmberusworships himCarl's god
- ally ofFlorin
- ally ofChris Andrews 2
- enemy ofZabit
- related toQuasarhis attorney
- enemy ofChin'Dua
- enemy ofXindy
- enemy ofPrepotente
- ally ofMiriam Domagreed to keep each other apprised
- related toPrepotentefeuding but reconciled under Miriam's prodding
- related toGuild of Sufferingmarked with access to it
- createdJust Wait Until Your Daddy Gets Home
- enemy ofHellikhas a quest to kill him
- enemy ofVrah
- friend ofPrincess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk
- enemy ofBravvo
- enemy ofThe Dark Hive
- enemy ofSkull Clan
- related toThe ApothecaryCarl's third sponsor
- enemy ofAkland
- enemy ofCirce Took
- enemy ofLucia Mar
- enemy ofDiwata
- related toThe PlentyCarl's new sponsor
- enemy ofNihit
- enemy ofIota
- enemy ofHaxor the Destroyer
- ally ofTsarina Signet
- enemy ofImogen
- leadsPrincess Posse
- related toPsamathecompanion who threatens him
- enemy ofHarbingerordered him killed
- ally ofQuasarCarl's attorney
- family ofCarl's mother
- friend ofPsamathe
- enemy ofAsojano
- member ofGuild of Suffering
- ally ofShi Mariauneasy bargain to reach Larracos
- friend ofKatia Grim
- enemy ofEmir Akbas
- ally ofPater Coal
- family ofAsherhalf-brother
- copied intoAlpha Male Carldistorted totem copy
- enemy ofAlpha Male Carl
- related toDickCarl's former boss
- friend ofMonobrow Sam
- related toDoctor BonesCarl is his bard patron
- member ofTemple of Emberus
- related toGarretRen gives her pet to Carl
- enemy ofSister Ines Quiteria
- ally ofDoctor Bones
- ally ofPrepotente
- member ofPrincess Posse
- ally ofDong Quixotemercenary
- related toAmayontrying to help him go home
- enemy ofShi Mariapossessed him and tattooed herself onto him
- related toSir RendlegoreCarl's bonded pet
- createdJamalbuilt his automaton leg harness
- enemy ofArchitect Houston
- enemy ofPrincess D'nadia
- friend ofTsarina SignetCarl believes she saw him as family
- leadsThe Royal Court of Princess Donut
- family ofRosetta Thagraconsiders her his sister
- member of107th White Dragons
- friend ofPrepotente
- enemy ofKhepri
- enemy ofThe Sultana
- related toMilkfellow cookbook authors; Carl feels she is like a sister
- enemy ofRishiexecuted him
- enemy ofPrime Minister Glory
- family ofPrincess Chandrahis new wife
- ally ofTeam Free Lovetemporary, towed them to the finish
- partner ofPrincess Chandramarried
- ally ofBucket Boydrives his truck
- ally ofHedymechanic
- ally ofJasha
- ally ofChiyome
- enemy ofPrison Pocket
- friend ofJustice Light
- related toAkumamanipulating Carl into an alliance
- enemy ofOne Fine Pig
- member ofStage Performance Guild
- enemy ofDwight
- enemy ofGrull
- ally ofGrigori the Placidmercenary who survived the race
- ally ofPontiffhired mercenary driver
- ally ofNestermercenary
- enemy ofTeam Free Lovekills them to avoid last place
- related toDr. MetcalfCarl's vehicle GPS
- enemy ofOsvaldo
- friend ofElle McGibbons
- member ofSafehome Yolanda
- related toChaco the Bardheals him
- related toPenelopemade sapient by Carl; in his party
- enemy ofTaranis
- enemy ofEmberus
- enemy ofKyryap
- related toScolopendrajoined his party as a level 1 crawler
- friend ofForkithfriends, sort of
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 1The transformation
At 2:23 AM every building and interior on Earth is crushed, killing everyone indoors. Carl, outside retrieving Donut, survives as his apartment building collapses.
- Book 1 · Ch 1Carl runs for the entrance
Freezing and with nowhere to shelter, Carl carries Donut toward a warm, lit dungeon entrance that appeared in a former thrift store.
- Book 1 · Ch 2Entering the dungeon
Carl and Donut descend to Floor 1, are assigned crawler numbers and showered with achievements and loot boxes they can't yet open.
- Book 1 · Ch 2Murder Dozer ambush
Following a sign to 'Da Tutorial Guild', Carl walks into a goblin trap and flees a Goblin Murder Dozer down the tunnels.
- Book 1 · Ch 2Reaching Mordecai's guild
Carl kills a goblin barehanded; Donut slips inside, and Mordecai lets Carl into the Tutorial Guild just before the dozer arrives.
- Book 1 · Ch 3Carl destroys the Murder Dozer crew
To stop the goblins summoning their clan, Carl boards the Murder Dozer, kills both remaining goblins and flees back into the guild before the boiler explodes.
- Book 1 · Ch 3Mordecai explains himself
Mordecai reveals he is a former crawler, a skyfowl turned Changeling, and begins explaining the dungeon to Carl.
- Book 1 · Ch 4The tutorial begins
Mordecai grants Carl the Crawler Menu and walks him through the map, stats, ratings, health, skills, magic and party menus.
- Book 1 · Ch 4Carl questions Mordecai about the show
Mordecai explains how seasons rotate between corporations, that this is his final tour, and that no crawler has ever survived beyond floor 13.
- Book 1 · Ch 5Opening the loot boxes
With his inventory unlocked, Carl opens ten boxes, gaining weapons, potions, dynamite, the Goblin Pass and enchanted gear.
- Book 1 · Ch 5Donut eats the Enhanced Pet Biscuit
While Carl weighs selling it, Donut eats the Enhanced Pet Biscuit and begins a transformation that Mordecai says will take several minutes.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Carl gears up
Carl equips the trollskin shirt, nightgaunt cloak and toe ring, sharply boosting his constitution, strength and regeneration.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Donut speaks
Donut emerges from her transformation able to talk, and scolds Carl for wearing the cloak without pants.
- Book 1 · Ch 7Donut becomes a crawler
The Enhanced Pet Biscuit leaves Donut a talking cat with boosted stats, reclassified from pet to full crawler.
- Book 1 · Ch 7The Royal Court is formed
Donut names the party The Royal Court of Princess Donut and makes Carl her Royal Bodyguard; Mordecai urges them to stick together.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Carl and Donut reconcile
Carl tries to leave the party; Donut apologises, admits fear and affection, and they continue east together.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Killing the Bad Llama
Donut provokes a lava-spitting Bad Llama with Magic Missile; Carl breaks his hand but kills it by punching its glowing throat.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Finding a safe room
After many fights with rats and Scatterers, the exhausted pair reach a safe room near what may be a Scatterer nest.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Arrival at the safe room
Carl and Donut reach a transplanted fast food restaurant safe room, learn only 4.3 million crawlers remain, and meet the caretaker Tally.
- Book 1 · Ch 9A plan to farm the nest
After Tally's meal, Carl proposes staying to clear the nearby Scatterer nest; Donut agrees but wants exciting kills to get on the show.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Rest and breakfast
Carl sleeps ten hours, showers and eats in the safe room while the remaining-crawler count drops past 4.1 million.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Clearing toward the nest
Carl and Donut kill a Brood Guardian and dozens more Scatterers, reaching level 5 by the nest door.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Dynamite into the nest
Angered by learning Bea cheated, Carl recklessly lights a stick of goblin dynamite, throws it into the nest and runs.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Explosion in the nest
The dynamite blows as it lands, nearly killing Carl but wiping out the nest's Scatterers and wounding a hidden boss.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Boss battle with the Hoarder
Locked in with the Hoarder, Carl and Donut fight her and her vomited Scatterers; Carl strangles and finally punches her to death.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Debrief with Mordecai
Carl and Donut visit a drunk Mordecai, who explains boss types and boss loot while they open their boxes.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Boss loot opened
Donut accidentally learns Torch; Carl gains a Tome of Wisp Armor, more dynamite and spiked kneepads.
- Book 1 · Ch 13Rebecca W's corpse
Carl and Donut find Rebecca W shot dead by fellow crawler Frank Q, who stripped her body of everything.
- Book 1 · Ch 13A plan to hunt
Carl decides to clear the neighbourhood's remaining mobs, watch the premiere, then hunt for both the stairs and Frank Q.
- Book 1 · Ch 14The premiere airs
Carl, Donut and Tally watch the premiere of Dungeon Crawler World: Earth, which recaps last season and shows mass deaths and a few standout crawlers.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Entering goblin territory
Carl uses his Goblin Pass to enter the goblin neighbourhood, and Donut charms a goblin into guiding them to the engineers' workshop.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Trading for a vehicle
Carl trades two bags of meth and the location of more for a steam chopper with sidecar, fuel and Bomb Bard grenades.
- Book 1 · Ch 16The chopper is delivered
Goblin engineers build Carl a Goblin Copper Chopper with a sidecar, and Rory hands over a bag of explosives.
- Book 1 · Ch 16Decision to attack the chieftain
Alone in the workshop, Carl agrees to loot it and then attack the goblin chieftain's boss lair.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Looting the workshop
Carl and Donut strip the abandoned goblin workshop of nearly everything they can carry.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Cart bomb on the chieftain
Carl shoves a black-powder cart bomb into the chieftain's lair, flees with Donut and detonates it, just as Donut mentions babies inside.
- Book 1 · Ch 18The goblin boss dies
The blast kills the goblin chieftain along with goblin babies and elders, destroying the workshop and leaving the boss loot unreachable.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Fleeing the goblins
As the goblins return, Carl and Donut flee north into unexplored territory, planning to find a safe room and then the stairs.
- Book 1 · Ch 19Reaching a second safe room
After fighting through exploding rot stickers, Carl and Donut rest in a bus-station-style safe room six hours before episode two.
- Book 1 · Ch 19Asshole's Boxes and Desperado Passes
Their baby-killing achievements bring Asshole's Boxes that brand both with Desperado Pass tattoos, infuriating Donut.
- Book 1 · Ch 19Carl's resolve
Lying awake, Carl decides the dungeon set up the infant deaths, and vows it will not break him.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Meeting Frank Q
Donut finds Frank Q in the safe room bathroom. He tells a story of being an ICE agent whose partner died, but Carl realises he is lying.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Safe room ambush fails
Frank and the hidden Maggie My fire at Carl and Donut, but safe room rules freeze both attackers instantly, letting Carl and Donut flee.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Booby-trapped rat corpse
Fleeing, Carl hides a lit smoke bomb and unstable goblin dynamite in a rat corpse's inventory as a trap for Frank and Maggie.
- Book 1 · Ch 20First ride on the chopper
Carl and Donut drive the chopper for the first time, fleeing the neighborhood where Frank and Maggie attacked them.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Driving east
Carl and Donut ride the chopper east for hours through empty dungeon, fighting Scat Thugs at a bathroom stop.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Graffiti leads to the stairwell
Fresh spray-painted signs lead Carl and Donut to a gathering of crawlers near a stairwell inside a spiral guarded by a borough boss.
- Book 1 · Ch 22Meeting the eldercare group
Carl and Donut find Brandon, Chris, Yolanda, Imani and Agatha guarding 38 elderly crawlers outside the spiral maze.
- Book 1 · Ch 22Plan to storm the spiral
Carl decides to grind for a day, then return with Donut and the four caregivers to fight the borough boss and get the residents downstairs.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Grinding troglodytes
Carl and Donut spend hours killing troglodytes, honing their teamwork as they near level nine.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Entering the troglodyte boss room
Carl and Donut decide to fight the neighborhood boss and enter a gym-like boss room through automatic glass doors.
- Book 1 · Ch 24Battle with the Juicer
Carl and Donut fight the Juicer and his troglodytes in a gym boss room; Carl clubs him with weights before Donut tears open his neck vein.
- Book 1 · Ch 24Donut nearly dies
The dying Juicer flings Donut into a wall, leaving her at a sliver of health; she slowly heals and recovers.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Debrief with Mordecai
At the training guild, Mordecai reviews the Juicer fight, explains stat effects and teaches Carl to look for each monster's weakness.
- Book 1 · Ch 25New loot
Donut learns Puddle Jumper and gains heal scrolls; Carl wins Bloodlust shuriken and the War Gauntlet of the Exalted Grull.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Third episode at the Taco Bell
Carl and Donut watch episode three in the Taco Bell; they are snubbed again while other strong groups are camped by stairwells.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Borough boss battle begins
Carl, Donut, the four Meadow Lark staff and Agatha enter the spiral; it becomes a rave arena and the Ball of Swine charges them.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Popping the Ball of Swine
The ball wedges on the Speedbump; the group stabs until it bursts, raining dazed tusklings as the fortress collapses.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Slaughter of the tusklings
The group kills the confused, weaponless tusklings released from the Ball of Swine, needed to drop the stairwell's forcefield.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Borough boss defeated
Brandon crushes the Tuskling Dominatrix, ending the fight; Carl loots the Borough Field Guild and the stairwell forcefield drops.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Descending to the second floor
Carl and Donut go down the ramp to clear a path for the Meadow Lark group, but the door teleports them to a production trailer on a boat.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Invited to Odette's show
Lexis tells Carl and Donut that Odette wants to interview them, and Donut is ecstatic.
- Book 1 · Ch 28Interview with Odette
Carl and Donut appear on Odette's talk show; Donut wows the audience, Carl is made to say 'Goddamnit, Donut', and clips of their fights are replayed.
- Book 1 · Ch 29Odette unmasks
After the taping, Odette removes her costume and privately advises Carl and Donut about fame, loot, races and Mordecai's indentureship.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Arriving on Floor 2
Carl and Donut reach the second floor, spot the stairs to Floor Three, and fight grubs, Danger Dingoes and Mind Horrors.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Opening boss rewards
In a storm-shelter safe room, Carl boosts Pugilism and gets a pedicure kit, while Donut receives the Second Chance spell by mail.
- Book 1 · Ch 31Floor 1 collapses
As episode four begins, the first floor collapses, killing over 700,000 crawlers while the Meadow Lark group moves into the storm shelter.
- Book 1 · Ch 31Appearance on the recap
Carl's group appears briefly on the recap's Ball of Swine footage, and Chris notices Agatha was edited out.
- Book 1 · Ch 32Clearing the clurichauns
Carl and Donut clear clurichauns near the stairwell, using Second Chance zombies for slingshot practice; Carl is infected with the Taint.
- Book 1 · Ch 32Inventing the Jug O' Boom
Carl turns looted moonshine jugs into firebombs, which the system names Carl's Jug O' Boom.
- Book 1 · Ch 32Scouting the filling room
Carl and Donut find the Rev-Up filling room guarded by laminak managers and plan an assault that preserves the moonshine.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Plan Pied Piper
Donut teleports into the filling room, charms the laminak and lures the clurichauns into a room Carl firebombs; the two fairies are killed.
- Book 1 · Ch 33The boss breaks out
As Carl discovers the immunity smoothie recipe, screaming tentacles burst from the boss chamber and the room is locked for a boss fight.
- Book 1 · Ch 34Fight with the Krakaren Clone
Carl blends the immunity smoothie as the Krakaren Clone's tentacles smash through the walls and clurichauns attack.
- Book 1 · Ch 34Zombie bomb
Badly hurt, Carl sends a firebomb-carrying zombie into the boss chamber and wraps himself around Donut, expecting to die in the blast.
- Book 1 · Ch 35Surviving the Krakaren blast
The explosion kills the Krakaren Clone; Donut saves the badly injured Carl, and they loot the neighborhood map amid converging grubs.
- Book 1 · Ch 35Visit to Mordecai the Bugaboo
At the guild, Mordecai rejects Odette, explains Damien, and Carl gains BigBoi Boxers before an admin is announced.
- Book 1 · Ch 35A kua-tin arrives
An admin warning sounds and a kua-tin named Zev teleports into the guild room.
- Book 1 · Ch 36Meeting Zev
Zev appears in the guild, cutting the cameras, and announces she is Carl and Donut's PR agent, booking a round-table show in about forty hours.
- Book 1 · Ch 36Carl's outburst
Carl rages at Zev; she replies that everyone is afraid and she is on their side, and Donut breaks the tension with Gossip Girl talk.
- Book 1 · Ch 36Mordecai explains the Bloom
Mordecai privately tells Carl about the Bloom and how the kua-tin government is pressuring Borant to end the game quickly; grubs then pour in.
- Book 1 · Ch 37Grub swarm
Thousands of spawned grubs swarm Carl and Donut; they firebomb and stomp a path to meet the Meadow Lark group.
- Book 1 · Ch 37The resident train
The Meadow Lark group arrives with a wheelchair train, and Carl leads them toward the stairwell.
- Book 1 · Ch 37Jack breaks the bathroom rule
Jack urinates on the hallway wall, and Zev urgently warns Carl and Donut to run to the safe room.
- Book 1 · Ch 38Rage Elemental attack
Jack's urinating on the wall summons a Rage Elemental that kills Yolanda and Randall while the group races the residents toward a safe room.
- Book 1 · Ch 38Escape to Big Shot Chicken
Carl's Protective Shell buys time; he carries Mrs. McGibbons through reversed gravity and dives into the safe room as the elemental pounds at the door.
- Book 1 · Ch 39Recap of the elemental attack
The recap episode opens with Jack's fatal mistake and Yolanda's death, and ends with Carl's boom jug badly hurting the Rage Elemental.
- Book 1 · Ch 39Safe rooms to close before collapse
An announcement says all safe rooms will now close one hour before floor collapse, so the group can't simply wait out the elemental.
- Book 1 · Ch 39Carl changes the plan
After the elemental wipes out the grubs and returns to the door, Carl remembers Rory's words and starts piling out items to build something.
- Book 1 · Ch 40Building the MOAB
In the safe room, Carl, Brandon and Chris spend hours building a bomb-launching trailer for the chopper, after testing that the elemental is teleported away from the open door.
- Book 1 · Ch 40Chase to the stairwell
Carl and Princess Donut lure the Rage Elemental on the chopper, carpet-bombing the halls and ensnaring it with Imani's chain on the way to the stairwell.
- Book 1 · Ch 40Elemental lured into the stairs
The elemental slides on oil into the stairwell hole as Puddle Jumper teleports Carl and Donut away; it vanishes, giving them no experience.
- Book 1 · Ch 40Path to the stairs cleared
With the elemental gone, an exhausted Carl tells Brandon to bring his people to the stairs while the way is still safe.
- Book 1 · Ch 41Farewell to Meadow Lark
Carl and Princess Donut torch the pupae and see Meadow Lark's survivors safely down the stairs, then head into the kobold quadrant.
- Book 1 · Ch 41Mukta forces an interview
With Zev in a time out, Mukta overrides her booking and sends Carl and Princess Donut to Death Watch Extreme Dungeon Mayhem despite Carl's refusal.
- Book 1 · Ch 42Carl defies Death Watch
Disgusted by the Death Watch game, Carl walks out until Mukta threatens him, then returns and demands the Maestro let him join the game.
- Book 1 · Ch 42Li Jun and Zhang sent back
Goaded by Carl, the Maestro angrily returns Li Jun and Zhang to their fight, but Carl's advice lets their group slip past the troglodytes to a safe room.
- Book 1 · Ch 43The Maestro reveals his clan
Off-air, the Maestro boasts of the Skull Clan's Faction Wars record and warns that the Blood Sultanate crown dooms Princess Donut on the ninth floor.
- Book 1 · Ch 43Frank and Maggie's recap
The show reveals Frank and Maggie murdered crawlers, that their daughter Yvette was hurt by Carl's trap, and that Maggie then strangled her.
- Book 1 · Ch 43Parting gifts
The Maestro trolls Carl with boots and gives Frank and Maggie a potion to track any crawler; Carl challenges him to face them on the ninth floor.
- Book 1 · Ch 44Stairwell exploit patched
After the recap shows the elemental dissolving, Borant patches the stairwell rule and says guides can now explain race and class selection for Floor 3.
- Book 1 · Ch 44Zev's debriefing
Zev returns from suspension, explains the Maestro's royal family and the Skull Empire, and warns that a viral fan video has made it hostile to Carl.
- Book 1 · Ch 45Freeing the dingoes
Carl feeds the caged dingoes, turning them friendly; when the boss fight starts, they kill the kobolds and one swallows Ralph whole.
- Book 1 · Ch 45Ralph's defeat
Ralph bursts out of the dingo's head and lunges at Carl, who stuns him with a punch and stomps on him.
- Book 1 · Ch 46The pet reward room
After the boss fight, Carl and Princess Donut find a pet reward room; Donut begs for the Mongoliensis and Carl frees it with the key.
- Book 1 · Ch 47Mordecai explains race and class selection
Mordecai explains race and class selection for Floor 3 and reveals his own class history and that his brother was a crawler.
- Book 1 · Ch 47Mongo bonds with Princess Donut
After days of training, Princess Donut saves Mongo from a Brindled Vespa and he finally bonds with her, joining the party.
- Book 1 · Ch 47Agatha's hidden tech
Carl's inventory history reveals Valtay tech once in Agatha's cart; moments later Agatha appears and heads down the stairs.
- Book 1 · Ch 47Agatha descends
Agatha rebuffs Carl's hint about her cart and goes down the stairs; Zev reports a feed outage during the encounter.
- Book 1 · Ch 47Descent to the third floor
With six hours left, Carl, Princess Donut and Mongo head down the stairs to Floor 3.
- Book 1 · Ch 48Odette's interview
On Odette's show, Carl addresses the Pork Boy Snick and the Skull Empire, denying involvement while keeping his challenge to the Maestro open.
- Book 1 · Ch 48Odette's warnings and advice
After the show Odette warns Carl about the Valtay Corporation, reveals Mongo is a velociraptor and hints at a risky class choice.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Arrival on the third floor
Carl, Princess Donut and Mongo arrive on Floor 3 and find Mordecai transformed into a handsome Incubus, ready to guide race and class selection.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Princess Donut becomes a Former Child Actor
Princess Donut stays a cat and, in a ruse planned with Carl, picks Former Child Actor, binding a furious Mordecai to them as manager.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Carl becomes a Primal
After hours reviewing 398 races, Carl chooses Primal for its uncapped skill training, keeping his human appearance.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Carl becomes a Compensated Anarchist
Weighing Mordecai's advice, Carl picks the Compensated Anarchist class, valuing its trap, bomb and navigation skills.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Second floor collapses
Floor 2 collapses during class selection; just over 700,000 crawlers remain with eight days to clear Floor 3.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Carl presented to the third floor
Mordecai leads them out into a bustling village and formally presents Carl as the Level 13 Compensated Anarchist Primal.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Mordecai's Over City orientation
Mordecai explains the Over City, its owned NPCs and volcano backstory, then sends Carl and Princess Donut toward a medium village before heading to a pub.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Ambushed by circus lemurs
Knife-throwing lemurs and a giraffe attack, triggering the quest The Show Must Go On; Carl and Princess Donut kill a stilt clown while fleeing.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Drunk Mordecai arrives
When they reach The Belly-Rubbed Pug, a drunken Mordecai teleports in with his pants down, vomits and passes out.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Opening the Earth boxes
While Mordecai sleeps it off, Carl and Princess Donut open Earth boxes and hobby potions, and Donut learns Clockwork Triplicate.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Scouting the circus
Carl decides to investigate the circus; they find three dead crawlers left as a trap and Princess Donut spots the circus tents.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Mortar attack at dusk
Fleeing the fortifying circus at nightfall, Carl, Princess Donut and Mongo are hit by magical mortars and fall into a buried basement.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Meeting Tsarina Signet
Princess Donut teleports them out to face the Elite Tsarina Signet, whose charm grips Carl until he breaks his own finger.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Signet confronts Carl and Donut
The elite Signet tries to charm Carl, Donut and Mongo. Mordecai warns them by chat to flee, but Signet reveals it is too late: she has had the circus beasts' cages opened.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Circus beasts released
The circus cages open and red dots appear on all sides of Carl and Donut's minimap; they are surrounded.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Battle with the Mold Lions
Surrounded by six Mold Lions, Carl uses Protective Shell and Donut's Confusing Fog, kills a lion barehanded, and Donut raises the dead as zombies until all the lions fall.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Signet's failed sacrifice
Signet admits she meant Carl to be killed by the lions so his blood would power her Blood Magic. She invites them to hear her story and help her assault on the circus; Carl agrees to meet the next night.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Mordecai explains elites
Back at the Belly-Rubbed Pug, Mordecai scolds Carl and Donut and explains that elites are scripted characters in writer-driven storylines with heavy plot armor.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Race selection recap episode
Carl, Donut and Mordecai watch a special recap showing crawlers' race and class choices, including Hekla's, Carl's, Donut's and Lucia Mar's dramatic Lajabless transformation.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Signet abducts Carl and Donut
Signet stuns and knocks out Carl and Donut as they leave for the skyfowl settlement. Carl wakes fifteen hours later to find Donut under Signet's Water Lily spell, held hostage until he fulfils his promise.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Signet tells Grimaldi's story
Signet explains Grimaldi saved and raised her, that she loves him, and that the cataclysm turned him into the vine controlling the circus.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Carl must kill Heather
Signet brings Carl to the sleeping Heather and demands he kill her as the sacrifice for Signet's summoning; an admin note signals a boss battle.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Carl defeats Heather the Bear
Carl fights the parasite-controlled boss Heather with fire and smoke; an unlucky custard result heals her and kills the worms, and Carl ends the freed bear's suffering. Her blood flies to Signet.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Signet's paper army assaults the circus
Signet summons her Blood and Ink Elementals and leads Carl into a nightly assault on the circus amid mortar fire, lemurs and mold lions.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Mordecai finds the Water Lily cure
Mordecai learns Satch Toad extract plus a healing potion cures naiad sleep curses, but it isn't available locally, so Carl moves to plan B with Zev.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Assault reaches the big top
Signet's elementals crush the circus's outer defenses and secondary tents, but the big top's ancient protective magic repels them. Signet tells Carl he must enter with a ticket and break the three tent poles.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Carl enters the big top
Holding a Big Top Ticket, Carl passes Clammy the Clown and enters the big top, where performers ignore him. He discovers Grimaldi is a level 85 City Boss and elite.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Carl poisons the vine
Following Mordecai's advice, Carl removes his poison-resistant cloak, poisons himself, and bleeds onto Grimaldi's root, then cures himself, unsure whether it worked.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Carl's deal with the producers
Holding Grimaldi's life hostage with his poisoned blood, Carl forces the Vengeance of the Daughter producers to agree, via Zev, to make him a regular on their show, then cures the vine.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Grimaldi and Signet reconcile through Carl
Infested by Grimaldi's worms but protected by Wisp Armor, Carl pleads with Grimaldi and Signet to stop fighting. Grimaldi un-banishes Signet, Carl purges the worms with a potion, and Signet enters the big top.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Donut in danger
As Carl finishes the quest, Mordecai warns that Donut's health has dropped below 20%.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Carl rescues Donut and Mongo
Carl races back to find Mongo badly wounded defending the sleeping Donut from Street Urchins drawn by his makeshift barricade. He heals them, and Donut wakes at dawn.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Staircase revealed at the circus
The circus is gone after a bright light at dawn, revealing a hidden staircase to the fourth floor where Grimaldi had stood.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Arrival at the skyfowl settlement
Carl, Donut and Mongo reach the much larger skyfowl town, head for the Tutorial Guild, and spot The Desperado Club.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Carl's moment of longing
Before entering the Tutorial Guild, Carl pauses to take in the large town and wishes the crawl were over, recalling Bea's words about him.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Opening rewards in Mordecai's chamber
At the skyfowl town's Tutorial Guild, Carl and Donut open boxes from the circus quest, including fan boxes, Fang Caps, a casino chip and a Scroll of Upgrade.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Carl's boxers upgraded
Carl's Scroll of Upgrade hits his Enchanted BigBoi Boxers, granting big stat bonuses and Freeballing, which bars him from wearing the trousers he wanted.
- Book 2 · Ch 14Night at The One-Eyed Narwhal
The party stays at The One-Eyed Narwhal and watches a recap featuring a goat lady's hellspawn familiar and Mongo defending Donut. Mordecai rebuffs the orc GumGum's plea, and Carl later fails to find her.
- Book 2 · Ch 14Shopping in the skyfowl town
Mordecai teaches Carl and Donut how shops work; Donut haggles their junk into about 50,000 gold, and they buy alchemy supplies and a pet carrier for Mongo.
- Book 2 · Ch 14Grinding and the Dispenser
The party grinds brain boilers and, warned by Donut's Acute Ears, quickly kills the neighborhood boss the Dispenser.
- Book 2 · Ch 14GumGum's quest
Outside the town wall Carl and Donut find GumGum piling dead women's bodies. She begs for help, triggering the quest The Sex Workers Who Fell from the Heavens.
- Book 2 · Ch 15First visit to the Desperado Club
Mordecai takes Carl and Donut into the Desperado Club, past the bouncer Clarabelle, and explains how the members-only club works.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Deal with Quint
Mordecai's old friend Quint, a former crawler turned drug dealer, trades an alchemy starter kit for moonshine and tells of Lucia Mar's rampage in the club the night before.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Mordecai explains manager protection
At the Desperado Club, Mordecai tells Carl that from the fourth floor managers are protected from true death and paid more the longer Donut survives, but deflects why he resented the role.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Meeting Pustule
In the Silk Road market, Carl and Donut meet the eccentric hobgoblin explosives dealer Pustule and buy dynamite and Hob-lobbers.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Ambush in the alley
On the way back to the inn, Mongo charges into an alley where Krasue flee from Donut's light, GumGum lies dead, and a ranting elf who lured Mongo is killed by Carl and Donut.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Aftermath in the alley
Carl and Donut find the dead elf Vicente wore a 201st Security Group uniform, and take a Gate Pass and Mysterious Letter from GumGum's corpse, resolving to continue her quest.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Fan boxes opened
At The One-Eyed Narwhal, Donut's fan box reveals a photo of Bea with her ex Brad, which no longer bothers Carl, and Carl's reveals a xistera that suits his Cesta Punta skill.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Mordecai explains the city elves
Mordecai identifies the 201st Security Group as a city-elf militia of conspiracy theorists devoted to protecting the skyfowl.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Investigating GumGum's death
Carl, Donut and Mordecai examine GumGum's Gate Pass from Magistrate Featherfall and a necroscript letter; Fitz reveals GumGum's past and that the magistrate is a black cleric who ignored the krasue.
- Book 2 · Ch 17A warning from the sky
That night a dead sex worker is dropped on the inn's roof; in the morning they find 'No, you won't' carved into her back, answering Carl's promise to Donut.
- Book 2 · Ch 18Visit to the magistrate's office
Carl and Donut reach the town hall but Miss Quill blocks them. Carl dumps a murdered woman's corpse on her desk; while she flees for towels, Carl finds Featherfall's door magically locked.
- Book 2 · Ch 18Ambush at the abandoned pool
While grinding, the party is plunged into magical darkness and attacked by city elves and giant monsters. Carl kills the elves with hob-lobbers and dynamite, but is blasted onto a roof when the Divider's bloated corpse explodes; Donut and Mongo finish the fight.
- Book 2 · Ch 18Carl wakes amid the gore
Carl wakes on a rooftop healed by Donut, who with Mongo is picking off Shambling Berserkers in a street drenched with the Divider's gore. They finish the fight before heading to a saferoom for their interview.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Danger Zone panel appearance
Carl and Donut appear live on Danger Zone with Ripper Wonton alongside Hekla and alien panelists. Donut mocks the comedian Tucker, and Hekla asks them to help one of her Daughters.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Carl calls for revolt against the Skull Empire
Asked about unrest in the Skull Empire, Carl tells its people to overthrow King Rust and the former Prince Maestro. Tucker warns that advocating sedition is a crime; most of the audience cheers.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Studio disruption
Mid-show, Manasa vanishes, the trailer bucks violently, the studio disappears and Carl's HUD comes back on as the sea roils outside.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Assassination attempt kills Manasa
A pulse fired from Prince Stalwart's yacht to execute Carl and Donut instead hits the trailer Manasa had swapped into, killing her. Stalwart's prerecorded statement claims the execution.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Danger Zone audience questions
Audience members question Hekla about leaving her husband, Carl about killing, and Donut about Ferdinand and whether she would leave Carl for Bea.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Aftermath of the assassination attempt
Back in the saferoom, Zev reports the Valtay destroyed the royal yacht, and Mordecai forbids Carl and Donut from mentioning any outside entities again.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Confrontation at the Apito Education Center
Carl and Donut confront nine city elves of the 201st, who reveal they tortured GumGum, call Donut the Oak Fell, and power up with Magical Fervor.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Street brawl at the temple
Eunice beats Salvatore, an Icer elf freezes her, guards move to kill her, and Carl punches a guard, turning the guards hostile. Mongo bites off Ricky Joe's arm.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Mic Drop destroys the 201st
Carl grabs Ricky Joe and drops a lit boom jug as Donut's Puddle Jumper teleports them to a rooftop; the elves burn and Salvatore is cleaved by a guard.
- Book 2 · Ch 21Katia Grim joins the party
At the One-Eyed Narwhal, Hekla's friend Katia Grim, a struggling doppelganger, meets Carl, Donut and Mordecai, and joins their party at Hekla's request.
- Book 2 · Ch 21Lucia Mar feud manufactured
The recap show frames Donut as challenging Lucia Mar's dogs; Lucia threatens to kill Donut and Carl, and Mordecai expects a showdown on or after the sixth floor.
- Book 2 · Ch 21Baiting the killer with the letter
Carl and Donut stage a scripted conversation near the bugged Mysterious Letter, then send clockwork Mongos carrying it onto the magistrate's roof as decoys while krasue close in.
- Book 2 · Ch 21Dynamite detonated
From a neighbouring rooftop, Carl triggers the Hobgoblin Pus detonator, setting off the dynamite hidden in Miss Quill's shelves.
- Book 2 · Ch 22Carl becomes magistrate
The dynamite blast kills Miss Quill and Magistrate Featherfall, making Carl magistrate of the settlement, but the quest remains open, implying they killed the wrong target.
- Book 2 · Ch 22Discovery of the krasue nest
Inside the quarters, Carl and Donut find a muted room of hanging female corpses around Featherfall's mummified body. Mongo's attack wakes the krasue, and Carl's fireball destroys the room.
- Book 2 · Ch 22Burgundy's confession
The dying krasue Burgundy reveals that Miss Quill ran the city, Featherfall was a long-dead fetish, and Quill's undead husband Remex transforms women into krasue. Donut kills her at her request.
- Book 2 · Ch 23Meeting Daniel Bautista 2
After the municipal building collapses, crawler Daniel Bautista 2 confronts Carl over his ruined quest, learns his family was avenged, and pledges to help Carl.
- Book 2 · Ch 23Preparing to confront Remex
With a crowd of townsfolk watching, Carl wires the swordsmen depot with dynamite, hands Katia the detonator, and climbs up with Donut to face Remex, who turns out not to be a lich.
- Book 2 · Ch 24Remex tells the story
Remex reveals Miss Quill's plot to cast The Final War and reclaim the Over City for the skyfowl, completing the quest The Sex Workers Who Fell from the Heavens.
- Book 2 · Ch 24The Fools Who Broke the Glass begins
The failed spell triggers a group event quest: a 45-square-kilometre magical blast in seven minutes. Skyfowl and chickadees fall ill, and Carl's party, as hosts, can't use saferooms.
- Book 2 · Ch 24Containing the soul gem
Instead of fleeing to the Desperado Club, Carl and Donut return and Carl encloses the cracking Soul Crystal in the Sheol Glass Reaper Case, hoping it holds.
- Book 2 · Ch 24Bracing for the blast
With seconds left on the countdown and the gem sealed in the glass case, Carl and Donut sit together, share confessions, and brace for the explosion.
- Book 2 · Ch 25The contained explosion
The soul gem explodes silently inside the Reaper Case, becoming Carl's Doomsday Scenario, which Carl stores in inventory. Remex becomes the source of a bigger explosion.
- Book 2 · Ch 25Flight to the stairwell
Carl leads naked crawlers east through the Over City as precursor bursts kill Conrad E and destroy Donut's crown; they reach the stairwell and descend.
- Book 2 · Ch 25Detonator pressed at the stairs
At the fourth-floor door, Katia presses the dynamite detonator seconds before the blast, and Carl, Donut, Katia and Mongo descend.
- Book 2 · Ch 26Odette's post-floor interview
On Odette's show, Carl, Donut and Katia learn their blast tempered Remex's explosion, but Borant's veto denied them Celestial rewards; Quan Ch kept his.
- Book 2 · Ch 26Leaderboard revealed
Odette reveals the draft top-ten leaderboard, with Carl and Donut sixth and seventh, and explains the numbers are bounties on each crawler.
- Book 2 · Ch 26Odette's private warnings
Odette privately warns Carl about Grull, a possible Skull Empire deity sponsorship, and Hekla's designs on Donut.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Arrival on the Iron Tangle
Carl, Donut, Katia and Mongo arrive in the last car of a speeding Red Line subway train, and Donut picks the Football Hooligan class.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Drek swarm at Sirin Station
Hundreds of Dreks board at Sirin Station; the party retreats into the windowless Janitor's Lair, kills two Jikininki janitors, and prepares traps.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Protective Shell bulldozer
When the Dreks breach the forward door, setting off the alarm, Carl casts Protective Shell; the static barrier sweeps the rear cars, crushing Dreks and a Psycho Sticker as the party flees aft.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Arrival at station 83 saferoom
The party reaches transfer station 83's saferoom, where Mordecai reappears as a Grulke and reveals the crawler count has fallen to 389,441.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Opening the quest loot
Carl opens his boxes, gaining the settlement necklace, Bang Bro and the AI's coupon box, while Donut haggles Wendita down on a personal space.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Buying the conjoined personal space
Guided by Mordecai, Carl, Donut and Katia redeem their coupons with Wendita to create a conjoined level-five personal space and buy major upgrades.
- Book 3 · Ch 3Setting up the Royal Palace
Donut lays out the conjoined personal space, Mordecai gains his manager's room, and the party sleeps two hours in the new bed, earning the Good Rest bonus.
- Book 3 · Ch 3Fourth-floor recap and rules
The recap redacts the level explanation, the leaderboard opens bounty hunting, and the announcement forbids descending early this floor.
- Book 3 · Ch 3Brandon's final message
Carl finds a message from the dead Brandon, sent as he held the line against Shade Gremlins on the third floor.
- Book 3 · Ch 3Carl reads Brandon's last words
Brandon's final message asks Carl to tell his estranged brother Chris he is sorry and loves him. Carl, shaken and furious, throws himself into training.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Trading with Limp Richard
At Limp Richard's general store, the party buys a mallet, sells junk, eyes a Battery Fabricator, and Carl trades westerns for science fiction books.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Platform sniping and boarding the Yellow Line
The party kills mobs through train doors from the platform for an hour, then boards a Yellow Line train, where Cave Mudge Bonkers open the doors and charge.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Funnel defence against the bonkers
Carl, Princess Donut, Katia and Mongo hold a formation in a train car, funnelling attacking bonkers and killing them, then reset as four more charge in.
- Book 3 · Ch 5Pollyslogs cut down by the train doors
Carl's door wedges keep pollyslogs from boarding; two are maimed or killed when the doors close on them.
- Book 3 · Ch 5Meeting Vernon the conductor
In the employee break room the party meets Vernon, who explains the train's strange looping reset, the unseen engineer, and the stations ahead.
- Book 3 · Ch 5Suitcase prizes from the reward room
Carl and Princess Donut pick suitcases 1 and 8 from Pierre the Porter in the Yellow Line Reward Room.
- Book 3 · Ch 5Fire ant trap destroys the break room
Donut's suitcase unleashes Literal Fire Ants; a moonshine bottle explodes, Vernon dies, and the party escapes onto the platform at Banshee Station as the train burns away.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Zev criticises Katia
Zev messages Carl and Donut that audiences find Katia boring; Donut tells Katia she needs to be more vibrant.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Training against the cornets
The party fights Red Cornets in small groups, led by the immune Mongo, until they become resistant to Queasy.
- Book 3 · Ch 6The robot room behind the sigil
Carl finds a control sigil outside a warehouse holding two dormant automatons and a cart, and decides to scrap the robots.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Clearing Banshee Station
Using reanimated cornets and explosives, the party clears all the cornets and finds a hallway littered with empty vials.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Bautista passes on Imani's message
Bautista tells Carl that Imani needs to talk to him at the Desperado Club and explains how to find the clubs.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Katia's makeover
Donut gives Katia a new look with a mohawk and bodysuit to make her more interesting to viewers.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Mordecai's new potions
Mordecai upgrades the alchemy table and gives the party his Special Brew, Constitution buff potions and throwable potion balls.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Donut's saddle fan box
Donut's Platinum fan box contains a saddle for Mongo, which Carl fits despite Mongo's protests.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Mordecai attacks Chaco
Carl's fan box triggers The Prize Carousel hosted by Chaco; Mordecai hurls a chair at him and is removed for a seven-day time out.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Carl chooses his Prize Carousel prize
Shown nine prizes including his father's motorcycle and his own tool chest, Carl picks a thick book with an anarchy symbol.
- Book 3 · Ch 7The Cookbook's hidden message
The prize seems a joke recipe book, but Carl's Escape Plan skill reveals a hidden welcome promising to burn it all to the ground.
- Book 3 · Ch 8Carl reads the Cookbook's secret
Carl learns the Cookbook is a secret guide passed between crawlers that he must contribute to and never reveal.
- Book 3 · Ch 8Reunion with Elle at the Desperado Club
With hired bodyguards, Carl and Donut meet Elle, now a Frost Maiden, at the Desperado Club.
- Book 3 · Ch 8Imani warns Carl about Chris
Imani tells Carl that Brandon died, and his brother Chris, changed by his igneous race, broke away and is looking for Carl.
- Book 3 · Ch 8Donut attacked at the Desperado Club
While Carl talks with Imani and Elle, a human crawler attacks Princess Donut on the dance floor; she survives near death and kills him.
- Book 3 · Ch 9Aftermath of the attack on Donut
Elle kills the second attacker; Donut weeps over her first human kill; Astrid apologises and grants free security.
- Book 3 · Ch 9Planning with Imani and Elle
Over Mordecai's train map, Elle points out the prime-numbered transfer stations and they divide up the investigation.
- Book 3 · Ch 9Carl spins the Wheel of Fortune
Carl cashes his comp chip at Tito's wheel, narrowly avoids Nothing!, and wins a Scroll of Upgrade for his toe ring.
- Book 3 · Ch 9Carl resolves to crash a train
Carl announces they will return to base, train, build at the crafting table and then crash a train.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Katia's disguise and new table
Katia greets Carl and Donut disguised as Hekla, revealing she used her coupons on a Makeup Table.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Setting the derailment trap
On an ochre line platform Carl tests the rails and plants two Jelly Bomb landmines to derail the next train.
- Book 3 · Ch 11The first derailment
Carl's landmines derail an ochre line train; Gore-Gore the engineer emerges, believing the party fellow passengers, and explains the abyss gate.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Boss battle with Gore-Gore
Learning they caused the crash, Gore-Gore attacks; Carl's punches trigger a countdown to summon Grull, and Carl drop-kicks the engineer onto the tracks.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Gore-Gore electrocuted
Gore-Gore dies on the electrified third rail; Donut pulls the shocked Carl from the track.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Carl gets a sponsor
An admin notice tells Carl he has been sponsored by The Valtay Corporation.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Sponsors revealed
Donut is sponsored by Princess D'nadia, Carl by the Valtay Corporation and Katia by Princess Formidable of the Skull Empire.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Imani explains the drug system
Imani and Elle report that mobs disembark every five stops to collect drug vials from Pooka bosses supplied by a Krakaren.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Boarding the Dismemberment Limited
The party boards a gore-covered maglev train driven by Levi the Seventh, who pleads with them to get off.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Holding back the Fleshers
Trapped on the Dismemberment Limited, the party barricades the rear door against hundreds of Fleshers to protect Levi the Seventh.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Surprise Three kills Dismember
Donut opens a Hole in the barrier, Carl drags Dismember's head through, and Donut closes it, decapitating the war mage.
- Book 3 · Ch 13Escape from the Dismemberment Limited
After Dismember's death the party holds the door until the next stop, then leaves the train as Levi waves goodbye.
- Book 3 · Ch 13Katia's backpack transformation
Carl crafts a metal-filled backpack that Katia equips, absorbing over a ton of metal into her mass and becoming a huge armoured form.
- Book 3 · Ch 13Recap shows war mages on named trains
The recap episode shows crawlers slaughtered on named trains by war mages, and Quan Ch destroying a train.
- Book 3 · Ch 13Carl takes the Valtay pill
Carl opens his Valtay benefactor box, takes the neural enhancer and discovers he can see through doorways.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Building a crawler network
At the Desperado Club Carl persuades about twenty crawlers to exchange chat details so they can share intelligence about the floor.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Ambushing the Nightmare Express
Carl and Donut use Puddle Jumper and Protective Shell against the oncoming Nightmare Express; Carl is struck and carried away on its front.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Runaway train and Fire Brandy
Carl finds the engineers dead and the boiler about to explode, then meets Fire Brandy in the firebox.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Carl steals the Nightmare Express
Guided by Fire Brandy, Carl defuses the boiler, learns to drive the train and claims the Steam Engineer's Key.
- Book 3 · Ch 14Three bosses in one blow
Carl learns his Protective Shell killed everything aboard, including three neighbourhood bosses, earning three levels and a Platinum box.
- Book 3 · Ch 15Discovering the Abyss
Carl climbs from Abyss Station to a flaming pit full of portals and wrecked trains, and learns the conductor hat lets crawlers pass through to the trainyard.
- Book 3 · Ch 15Donut's benefactor box
Donut shows Carl the unique focusing goggles Princess D’Nadia sent her and describes her new Love Vampire ability.
- Book 3 · Ch 15Elle's party stranded
Elle and Imani report that trains stopped coming, likely because Quan Ch is destroying them, and they must walk to another station.
- Book 3 · Ch 15Carl wrestles with the stranded crawlers
Before sleeping, Carl reads chat about failing trains and stranded crawlers and, moved by York's essay in the cookbook, resolves something more must be done.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Babababoons invade the transit station
DT-stricken Babababoons swarm the transit station outside the safe room; Carl, Donut, Katia and Mongo kill them and protect the Nightmare.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Scouting the Station Repair portal
Carl drives to the switching station, examines the Station Repair portal and watches a red train emerge from it, choosing it as their route.
- Book 3 · Ch 17Arrival at the ghoul-infested trainyard
The Nightmare passes through the portal into Station and Repair Hub E, which is overrun by Festering Ghouls breaking through the walls.
- Book 3 · Ch 17Widget is killed
Gremlin technician Widget unhooks the damaged cars and offers to guide them out, but a reanimated spider ghoul rips off his head.
- Book 3 · Ch 17Escape via the turntable
Donut operates the turntable from Widget's tower, then the crawlers steam the engine slowly toward the yard's exit through the ghouls.
- Book 3 · Ch 17Rescuing Madison
Fleeing the burning substation, the crawlers stop to save Madison, an HR associate, from a flaming wolf ghoul.
- Book 3 · Ch 17Questioning Madison
Carl pushes Madison until she admits confusion about her home, then learns Terminus Station holds six passenger-eating Station Mimics, and warns Bautista.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Terminus Station attacks
Bautista reports the Terminus station is a city boss devouring crawlers; Carl learns from Madison that station 435's portal depends on a living Kravyad.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Katia reveals the PVP Coupon
In the empty stairwell room at station 24, Katia hands Carl a PVP Coupon with his name that Donut had hidden, fearing Donut has one for her too.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Imani confirms the coupon book
Imani confirms player-killer skulls bring a coupon for every party member and that Donut discussed hers with her.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Ghouls on the move
At station 24 Carl spots festering ghouls travelling up the line from the trainyard and kills a few before leaving.
- Book 3 · Ch 18The empty employee town
The crawlers find Station 60 has no settlement at all; Madison refuses to leave and is left behind to wait for Rod.
- Book 3 · Ch 19Updates from Meadow Lark and Bautista
Imani's group survives a ride to Trainyard D, while Bautista's crowd faces a suicidal Kravyad whose death would close their escape portal.
- Book 3 · Ch 19Frank gives Carl the ring
In the Desperado Club a drunk Frank Q. explains Yvette's death and Maggie's vendetta, then gives Carl the Ring of Divine Suffering as revenge.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Recording Planet Beautiful
In an undersea rental trailer, Carl refuses a bigoted AI-written script and confronts producer Bin, settling on a video arcade script while Donut goes off script.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Frank killed by Chris
The Sledge reports Chris killed Frank in the Desperado Club; Donut then reassures Carl she discarded the PVP coupons.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Hekla's party in the personal space
After looting the trailer and hearing Bautista's group is stranded, Carl sees Hekla and dozens of women in their personal space.
- Book 3 · Ch 21The daughters arrive
Hekla and about thirty of Brynhild's Daughters enter the Royal Palace of Princess Donut through Katia's whitelist to collect Katia.
- Book 3 · Ch 21Plan to rescue station 101
Hekla recruits Carl and Donut to rescue a thousand trapped crawlers using a subway train with Katia as a living cowcatcher; Carl reluctantly agrees.
- Book 3 · Ch 21Riding to Station 60
Carl drives the Nightmare toward Station 60 with the daughters clinging to its outside.
- Book 3 · Ch 21Carl comforts Tizquick
Passing through Station 60's NPC colony, Carl stops to comfort a grieving dwarf conductor whose family was false, while Hekla urges haste as stage-three mobs appear.
- Book 3 · Ch 22Plowing down the Vermillion line
With Katia as a living plow and Eva driving, the subway train smashes through ghouls at station 72 and onward, Katia nearly electrocuted.
- Book 3 · Ch 22News of the province boss
Elle and Imani report festering ghouls merging into a province boss at stop 48 and plan to hold station 36 against wrath ghouls.
- Book 3 · Ch 22Hitting the main horde
Near station 101 the train hits the main horde; living gore floods the cab waist-deep and Katia cries for help.
- Book 3 · Ch 22Hekla's betrayal exposed
As Katia's health plunges, Donut spots Hekla shooting her with invisible bolts; Carl has Katia disengage and pulls the bolts out, saving her.
- Book 3 · Ch 22Donut attacks Hekla
With the train stopped at station 101, Donut ignores Carl's plea for calm and blasts Hekla in the face with a Magic Missile.
- Book 3 · Ch 23Standoff in the cab
After Donut's attack, Eva and two mages strike at Carl until Hekla halts the fight and tries to dismiss the betrayal as a mistake.
- Book 3 · Ch 24Escape from station 101
Donut turns Hekla's corpse into clockwork minions, Katia loots the key and crossbow, and Carl drives the packed train backwards away from stage-three monsters.
- Book 3 · Ch 24Confronting Silfa
Carl catches Silfa hiding in the cab and convinces her Hekla used her as bait; she reveals the daughters' party is collapsing.
- Book 3 · Ch 24Reunion with Li Jun
Carl and Donut, covered in gore, greet Street Monk Li Jun among the rescued crawlers.
- Book 3 · Ch 24Planning the stand at station 36
Carl teaches Li Jun to drive the train, sends the rescued crawlers to reinforce Imani at station 36, and resolves to save those at the end of the line.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Collecting the hats
At station 75 Carl hands the rescue train to Li Jun and gathers 700 hats from crawlers to save those stranded at the Abyss.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Katia's loot
In the saferoom off The Downward Dog, Katia opens ten boxes, gaining Club Vanquisher access, Find Crawler, the bounty gold and a wrestling belt.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Hekla tribute recap
The recap honours Hekla, shows Eva abandoning Katia, frames Katia's kill as rage, and reshuffles the leaderboard with Carl third.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Zev's warning visit
Zev teleports in to congratulate the crew, explains Odette's contract changes, and warns that Loita may take over their account and their chats will go public.
- Book 3 · Ch 26Questioning Growler Gary
The drunk, regenerating gnoll bartender tells the crew about the ghoul massacre and points them to the interdiction carts.
- Book 3 · Ch 26Discovering the portal-scoop carts
In station 75's yard Carl finds Rapid-Response carts whose front scoop is a mobile portal, but they need two gnoll hands to start.
- Book 3 · Ch 26Taking Gary's hands
With Katia unable to fool the sensor, Mongo kills the sleeping Gary and Carl takes his severed arms to start the carts.
- Book 3 · Ch 26Starting the portal carts
Carl activates a rapid-response cart with Gary's hands, tests its clean-up portal on the Sinopia line, and finds every cart needs its own pair of hands.
- Book 3 · Ch 26Gary's sacrifice
After repeated killings, Carl explains the plan to Growler Gary, who agrees to die ten more times to help stop those who killed his friends.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Portal carts sent to the abyss
Carl, Katia and Donut send six rapid-response portal carts, rigged with musical alarm traps, through portals toward the abyss so trapped crawlers can escape to trainyards.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Yard F crawlers die in explosion
A distant explosion kills a large crawler group attacking a blister ghoul generator; Carl suspects they blew the soul crystal.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Carl's train bomb seals the Vermillion line
Carl sends the Vermillion engine loaded with hobgoblin dynamite backward down the track; the blast kills many mobs, levels him up and knocks everyone at Station 36 off their feet.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Fight with a stage-three DT monster
Carl, Katia, Donut and Mongo fight a stage-three DT Razor Fox; it is barely hurt by bolts until it bursts open from within.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Krakaren clones hatch
The exploded monster releases thousands of Krakaren Crotch Dumplings, revealing the DTs spread Krakaren clones; Carl burns the hatchlings.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Station mimic teleported to Trainyard E
Fooled by a fake railroad crossing, Carl drives the cart's portal into the station mimic at station 433, sending the whole city boss to Trainyard E.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Bautista's group escapes via the abyss portal
Rather than face the waiting mimic, Carl hands out train hats so Bautista's 600 crawlers can pass through the abyss portal to Trainyard H.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Hat tribute to Princess Donut
The rescued crawlers applaud and, at Katia's suggestion, each bows and gives their train hat to Donut.
- Book 3 · Ch 29Bautista explains the stuffed summons
Bautista reveals his pets are stuffed figures from Miss Quill's apartment that summon real monsters when their tags are pulled.
- Book 3 · Ch 29Katia opens her boxes
In the station 59 safe room Katia gets a riot shield and baton from her fan box and a god-wounding bolt from Princess Formidable's benefactor box.
- Book 3 · Ch 29Recap shows a hidden stairwell
The recap shows a stairwell in a cave that Carl realises was hidden under the station mimic they teleported away.
- Book 3 · Ch 29Mordecai returns
Mordecai reappears in the safe room, shocked to have lost seven days, and notices the golden skulls over Katia and Donut.
- Book 3 · Ch 29Katia's stored blood erupts
Because of the new liquid rule, gallons of blood stored in Katia's inventory burst out of her, drenching the room and everyone but her.
- Book 3 · Ch 30Mordecai rejoins and is caught up
Mordecai returns from his timeout, buys a cleaner bot for the blood-soaked room, and hears what the crew did while he was gone.
- Book 3 · Ch 30Ring of Divine Suffering dispute
Mordecai demands Carl remove the Ring of Divine Suffering, smacks him, and Carl angrily takes it off.
- Book 3 · Ch 30Katia decodes the Tangle map
Using Mordecai's Syndicate-logo insight, Katia folds the map and concludes the lines have upside-down twin tracks, suspecting a floor-flipping trap.
- Book 3 · Ch 30Carl figures out the trap
Recalling the size of the empty space inside the circle of stairwells, Carl realises how the Krakaren swarm will strike.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Portal trap in station 36
Carl, helped by Zhang's shrinking wand and Imani's magical chain, hangs a portal cart over the station's center tuned to the abyss.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Iron Tangle self-destruct and Krakaren eruption
The Iron Tangle announces self-destruct; station floors open and Krakaren pour up from below, overrunning stations whose crawlers ignored Carl's warning.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Madison's death reported
Fire Brandy tells Carl and Donut that dwarves and gremlins hanged Madison, and she took the body into her fire.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Siege of station 36
Crawlers hold station 36 against waves of Krakaren and ghouls; Katia's Crowd Blast and Carl's boom jugs break a breach, with Donut teleporting them back.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Ghoul generators explode
Two nearby explosions shake the chamber, likely soul crystals blowing at station 12 and its mirrored twin.
- Book 3 · Ch 32Province boss sent to the abyss
Donut shoots the province boss across the noodle with a magic missile; it attacks and is teleported away by the portal on the raised Def Leppard cart.
- Book 3 · Ch 32Meeting Prepotente and Miriam Dom
The goat crawler Prepotente, whose kill was stolen, confronts Carl through the noodle until his shepherd Miriam Dom smacks him into line.
- Book 3 · Ch 32Ride to the trainyard
Carl's group reaches the portal cart, teleports a neighborhood-boss Krakaren at station 24, and stops at the edge of the monster-filled trainyard cavern.
- Book 3 · Ch 32Carl questions Mordecai about Grull
Seeing mantaurs guard the employee line, Carl asks Mordecai how long an involuntarily summoned Grull lasts and whether he can be resummoned, then changes the plan.
- Book 3 · Ch 32Mantaur pushed into the portal
The group lures two mantaurs into the tunnel; as Carl's gauntlet triggers Grull's summoning, they shove the dying mantaur into the portal, but it drags Carl in with it.
- Book 3 · Ch 33Death Challenge: Grull versus the Mimic Rex
Carl lands in the trainyard as Grull is summoned; the Maestro-driven god kills the Mimic Rex and hunts Carl, who survives on smoke, invisibility and Mordecai's Special Brew.
- Book 3 · Ch 33Rescue and Grull's banishment
Katia and Elle decoy Grull while Donut, Li Na, Li Jun and Mongo come through the portal; they trigger a second summoning and throw the mantaur torso into the abyss portal, pulling Grull away.
- Book 3 · Ch 34The Nightmare blows up in the abyss
Fire Brandy and Tizquick drive the bomb-laden Nightmare into the abyss portal; the blast kills masses of monsters and blows the remaining ghoul generators.
- Book 3 · Ch 34Descent from Floor 4
The group returns to station 36 and heads down the stairwell; Agatha unexpectedly passes them, and Loita summons Carl and Donut to Odette's green room without explaining Zev's absence.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Loita replaces Zev
In the production trailer, Loita announces Zev's 'reeducation' and takes over as PR agent, clashing with Carl and later censoring Odette's interview.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Odette interview after Floor 4
Odette discusses the Death Challenge, Borant's losses and the Maestro's humiliation; Carl needles her about sponsoring Hekla, and Loita mutes topics about Eva and Chris.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Spinning for Floor 5
Donut spins the wheels placing the team in the Air Quadrant against the Dirigible Gnomes, and a door opens onto a desert.
- Book 4 · Ch 1Arrival on Floor 5
Carl, Donut and Katia enter a sandstorm in Bubble 543; Donut picks Glass Cannon, and they find a sealed tomb entrance to the subterranean quadrant.
- Book 4 · Ch 1Entering Hump Town
Clay the Dromedarian admits them for a blitz stick and warns them off city hall, prompting a quest; Mordecai meets them in his new skyfowl body.
- Book 4 · Ch 1Floor 5 rules announced
At the Toe, the system announces that all four quadrant castles in a bubble must be taken before any of its stairwells open.
- Book 4 · Ch 2Opening Floor 4 rewards
In their personal space the team opens boxes from the Grull fight and the abyss bombing, gaining Astral Paw, a lizard tattoo, a two-benefit toe ring and Pawna's Tears.
- Book 4 · Ch 2Contact with Gwen
Carl's group message finds Gwendolyn Duet in the land quadrant of Bubble 543, who describes the Sandcastle of the Mad Dune Mage, a reef and tomb mazes.
- Book 4 · Ch 2Carl scouts the gnome castle
Carl pays the changeling orphan Skarn to use a gnomish telescope, surveying the floating Wasteland and a patrol ship carrying a Knock-Knock bomb.
- Book 4 · Ch 2Learning of the town hall secret
Skarn reveals Hump Town is spared bombing because town hall holds something the gnome leader wants kept safe.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Rallying Hump Town's crawlers
Carl's team recruits drunk crawlers Firas and Louis and Langley's archer party for a planning meeting at the Toe.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Thorny Devil attack
Heading across the desert toward the Bactrian town, the team fights a level 34 Thorny Devil with magic missiles and clockwork Mongos.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Drop Bear attack
After Carl kills a Thorny Devil, a gnome Drop Bear biplane drops two eggs on the team; Donut teleports them clear and Carl's hob-lobber damages the plane.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Dead goose in the egg
The dropped egg proves broken, holding a dead Feral Goose boss; with eight more aircraft descending, the team retreats to Hump Town.
- Book 4 · Ch 4The Royal Chariot is built and tested
Carl and Katia design and build a tracked vehicle at the engineering table and field-test it on the dunes outside Hump Town.
- Book 4 · Ch 4The Wasteland bombs the Bactrian village
After flares rise from the south, the gnome fortress Wasteland drops bombs on the distant Bactrian village while Hump Town's dromedarians man anti-aircraft guns.
- Book 4 · Ch 4Recap show reveals Ifechi's story
The recap episode shows the end of the Iron Tangle, then a tribute to the dead crawler Ifechi, ending with Lucia Mar confronting Ifechi and Florin in a stairwell station.
- Book 4 · Ch 4Carl's group resolves to stop Lucia Mar
After the recap, Carl, Katia and Donut agree Lucia Mar must be put down, though Mordecai hints her spell has a vulnerability.
- Book 4 · Ch 5Crawlers meet in the personal space
Carl brings the drunk Louis and Firas and the archers into the personal space to plan against the gnome fortress, while Mordecai warns everyone to be polite to the changeling prostitutes.
- Book 4 · Ch 6Break-in at the town hall
Carl, Donut, Louis and Firas teleport onto a town hall balcony, sneak downstairs and knock out the basement guards with Cloud of Exhaust, but the noise brings about 15 guards and traps them inside.
- Book 4 · Ch 6Guards revealed as changelings
The knocked-out guards revert into faceless changelings; Carl kills Changeling Principal Svern and orders Louis and Firas to kill the other.
- Book 4 · Ch 6Carl finds the gnome hostage
Beneath the town hall Carl finds the Necropolis map and the chained gnome Wynne, the town's hostage, and receives a quest to free him for access to the Wasteland.
- Book 4 · Ch 6Low Thi kills Wynne
Five crawlers from the subterranean zone arrive; believing Carl is the changeling Henrik, Wynne begs to be killed and Low Thi spears him, failing Carl's quest.
- Book 4 · Ch 7Escape from the burning town hall
A dromedarian rocket blasts the basement door; Carl counterattacks with explosives, summons a decoy toad, and Donut teleports the group out as the town hall burns and collapses.
- Book 4 · Ch 7New sponsors announced
Carl, Donut and Katia each receive a second sponsor, and Loita announces Donut's record bid and upcoming promotional shows.
- Book 4 · Ch 7Carl shares intel with the subterranean party
At the club, Morris and Bobby describe their maze quadrant, the lost first map, and the ghost Quetzalcoatlus; Carl outlines the other quadrants and has Katia map them a route.
- Book 4 · Ch 7Benefactor boxes arrive
Walking back to the saferoom as a storm arrives, Carl receives benefactor boxes from the Valtay Corporation and The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network.
- Book 4 · Ch 8Carl opens his benefactor boxes
In front of Mordecai, Carl takes a Valtay enhancer that adds altitude and speed gauges, and gets a useless rare tuber from the pacifist network.
- Book 4 · Ch 8Preparing to test missiles on Ruckus
With the gnome bombing hours away and the camel town under siege, Carl plans to test his upgraded missiles on the cyborg borough boss Ruckus.
- Book 4 · Ch 9System pause after learning of the Gate
As Carl reads Ruckus's lore about the Gate of the Feral Gods, the game briefly freezes; Mordecai suspects the AI adjusting the storyline.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Missile battle with Ruckus
Ruckus wakes and attacks; Carl's first two-stage missile blows up short, then three guided missiles fired together hit and explode the boss overhead.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Ruckus defeated
Carl's missiles destroy Ruckus; its runaway buzzsaw lodges in the tomb's rock, and Carl plans to have Katia carry it off.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Water Quadrant liberated
An earthquake rumbles as a notice announces Chris Andrews 2 has taken the Bridge of the Akula; Carl realises Chris is in the bubble with them.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Henrik reveals how the collateral works
Charmed by Donut, the changeling Henrik explains the twinned-watch code proving Wynne alive and the gnome ambassador's inspections, giving Carl an idea.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Necropolis begins flooding
Morris reports the tomb's exits sealed after the Water Quadrant fell and the necropolis is filling with water beneath his party.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Children sheltered in personal space
Carl leads about forty town children, plus Juice Box, from the Toe into the personal space ahead of the bombing.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Juice Box hints at the changelings' goal
In the personal space, Juice Box asks if it leads to the Hunting Grounds, the changelings' ancient home, then clams up when Carl mentions Quetzalcoatlus.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Quest to save Hump Town
After the gnomes cut off contact with Henrik, Carl receives the quest Squeeze out the Juice Box to save Hump Town before the bombardment.
- Book 4 · Ch 11Hostage exchange ruse
Carl's group meets the gnome ambassador's balloon with a zombified Wynne, a fake Henrik and a fake potion, hoping to get aboard the Wasteland before it bombs Hump Town.
- Book 4 · Ch 11Leon's inspection
Leon tests the group and Wynne for changelings, finds Wynne a ghoul but accepts Donut's cure story, then searches the fake Henrik's body.
- Book 4 · Ch 11The fake watch secures the deal
As Leon finds Svern's corpse and seeks the missing watch, Carl produces a fake; Leon accepts and lets Carl and Donut board with the disguised Katia.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Hijacking the Vahana
Aboard the gnome balloon, Donut's Hole drops the three gnomes while ground missiles destroy the escort planes, leaving Carl's party in control.
- Book 4 · Ch 12The Wasteland is crippled
Carl's missiles detonate on the Wasteland as the party leaps from the balloon, survives the fall by potion, and crashes through the necropolis roof.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Hump Town saved
Hump Town survives mostly intact, completing the quest; the Wasteland is reduced to one balloon-borne house holding Commandant Kane and his daughter.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Zev's changed return
Zev messages to congratulate the crawlers, now only as a social media manager who can't be messaged directly, leaving Donut worried.
- Book 4 · Ch 13Gerbil siege of Hump Town
A punishing wave of thousands of frenzied gerbils pushes the defenders back to Weird Shit Alley until Carl stomps one, appeasing the AI.
- Book 4 · Ch 13Opening the quest rewards
Back in the personal space, Carl upgrades his gauntlet with a platinum sharpening stone and receives a scroll-writing author kit.
- Book 4 · Ch 13Donut's merch arrives
Donut's sponsor box contains a shoddy robot toy of herself; it insults Mongo, who decapitates it, and Donut vows to complain in her review.
- Book 4 · Ch 13Chris finds Carl
As Carl walks the children out of the personal space, Chris, now an igneous rock creature, approaches and greets him.
- Book 4 · Ch 14Maggie unmasked inside Chris
Chris's slips reveal he is really Maggie My; as she pulls a celestial grenade, Katia petrifies the body with a bolt and Carl seizes the grenade.
- Book 4 · Ch 14No way to save Chris
Mordecai explains the Infiltrator parasite can't be removed without killing Chris; Chris begs to be killed, and Carl reluctantly apologises to Imani.
- Book 4 · Ch 14Donut drops Chris through the floor
As Carl prepares to kill the petrified Chris, Donut casts Hole and Chris falls into a sealed chamber in the subterranean quadrant below.
- Book 4 · Ch 14Planning to save Chris
Carl, angry but relieved, sends Mordecai after antiparasitic ingredients and plans to question Juice Box before attacking the last castle.
- Book 4 · Ch 15Juice Box explains the Gate of the Feral Gods
Juice Box explains Henrik's aims, compression sickness and the three-piece gate artifact, and Carl receives the Gate of the Feral Gods quest.
- Book 4 · Ch 15Ascent to the gnomish flying house
Carl and Donut use a salvaged biplane's emergency balloons to rise to the bubble's ceiling and skid across to Commandant Kane's flying house.
- Book 4 · Ch 15Arrival at the flying house
Carl and Donut climb down from the Nightmare II to Commandant Kane's flying house, where his young daughter greets them, saying her father is dead and offering lemonade.
- Book 4 · Ch 16Kane found dead
Inside the flying house Carl finds Commandant Kane killed by Denise and loots a Mysterious Watch and a letter from the Glass Wizard Ghazi.
- Book 4 · Ch 16Boss battle with Denise
The house begins falling on a three-minute timer as Denise the Feral Goose Mother starts a no-magic, no-physical-damage boss fight; Carl's lemonade gambit proves a trick.
- Book 4 · Ch 16Denise killed in the garbage disposal
With one second left on the falling-house timer, Carl jams Denise's head into the garbage disposal and Donut turns it on, killing the boss and stopping the fall.
- Book 4 · Ch 16Air Quadrant liberated
Taking the Commandant's quarters liberates the Air Quadrant, and the house gently lands.
- Book 4 · Ch 17Looting the flying house
After the house lands, Carl takes the soul crystal from Bonnie, finds the sealed stairwell, and loots the house's contents including its electrical panel.
- Book 4 · Ch 17Zev reassigned
Loita threatens Donut and announces Zev is no longer their social media manager, leaving Donut unable to say goodbye.
- Book 4 · Ch 17Signalling Henrik
Carl sets off the alarm on the mysterious pocket watch and sees Henrik, in an underwater creature form in the necropolis, confirming he's alive.
- Book 4 · Ch 17Settling Bonnie in
Carl, Katia, Donut and Mongo visit Bonnie at Skarn's house; Carl gives her old bed and photo, Mongo gives her the pink bunny, and Juice Box comforts her.
- Book 4 · Ch 18Disco Ball accident
Carl's new Hobgoblin Disco Ball is knocked off his table by Robot Donut and set off, covering the crafting room and Mordecai in rainbow residue.
- Book 4 · Ch 18Loita's tirade
In an underwater production trailer, Loita rants that human culture is a contagion and reveals what was done to Zev's family to bring her back into line.
- Book 4 · Ch 18The Veriluxx commercial
Carl and Donut tape a toy commercial with soother hosts Gravo and Liddi, and Carl derails it by accusing Veritan Linkage of advocating slavery.
- Book 4 · Ch 18Death of Loita
Robot Donut explodes in the underwater trailer during the Veriluxx taping; the forcefield holds back the sea, so Loita can't be teleported out and dies in front of Carl and Donut.
- Book 4 · Ch 18Carl's first step
Carl writes in the cookbook thanking Crawler Coolie, dedicating the killing to Coolie and Bonnie, and vowing to keep going.
- Book 4 · Ch 19Interrogation by Orren
After Loita's death, Carl and Donut are taken to an office in the Desperado Club where liaison Orren accuses Carl of assassinating her and demands his source.
- Book 4 · Ch 19How Carl killed Loita
Carl privately recounts arming Robot Donut with a fingernail shim under its panel, knowing it would fall off and trigger the self-destruct when the toy followed Loita.
- Book 4 · Ch 19Case closed
Orren closes the matter, bans third-party teleports for the floor, and reveals five days have passed.
- Book 4 · Ch 19Reunion after the liaison hold
Back in the personal space, Donut recounts the interrogation, and Katia explains how she moved the flying house to the land quadrant during the five lost days.
- Book 4 · Ch 20Return to the land quadrant
Louis and Firas fly the half-demolished house to pick up Carl and Donut and bring them down to the land quadrant, catching them up on events.
- Book 4 · Ch 20Meeting Gwen
Carl meets Gwendolyn Duet, who has been waiting impatiently while Katia stalled the castle assault for Carl's return.
- Book 4 · Ch 20Planning the sandcastle
Katia explains the easy flooding plan versus the hard lightning-door plan that could recover Ghazi's winding box.
- Book 4 · Ch 20Opening the sandcastle
As the storm hits, lightning electrifies the towers and the door of Ghazi's sandcastle opens into a hallway; Katia charges inside.
- Book 4 · Ch 21Exploring the glass castle
Carl, Donut, Katia and Mongo explore the crystallized castle, finding a glass statue of Lika that Mongo knocks over and shatters.
- Book 4 · Ch 21Snatching the winding box
The sand ooze attacks through the door; Carl's shell blasts it back, then he takes the winding box from Ghazi and the party flees upstairs with the mage.
- Book 4 · Ch 21Interrogating Ghazi
Carl questions the revived Ghazi, learning the sand ooze is his 'wife' and the Lika statue was a companion doll, then demands how to kill the ooze.
- Book 4 · Ch 22Killing Mrs. Ghazi
While Katia distracts the ooze, Carl walks on the ceiling and sets its core ablaze with burn gel, killing the borough boss.
- Book 4 · Ch 22Buried in the sandcastle
The castle collapses as the boss dies, trapping Carl and Donut in the basement under three stories of sand while Katia escapes with Ghazi.
- Book 4 · Ch 22Flushed into the sea
Tran opens the drainage valve, the water washes away the sandcastle and blasts Carl and Donut into the water quadrant, where Carl keeps them alive as a predator feeds nearby.
- Book 4 · Ch 23Escaping the sharks
Underwater, Donut animates a dead beluga with clockwork copies that explode against a shark, and Carl swims clear of the feeding frenzy, then kayaks to shore.
- Book 4 · Ch 23Ghazi's notes on the gate
Back in the personal space, Carl reads Ghazi's letter to Tish explaining how the watches and winding box open portals and the danger of feral gods escaping.
- Book 4 · Ch 23Studying the gate
Carl, Katia and Mordecai study Ghazi's notes and diagrams on using the gate, debating whether it could reach the ninth floor.
- Book 4 · Ch 24The talking head
The de-crystallized Lika doll head pops out of Carl's inventory and is revealed to be possessed by the withering spirit of Psamathe.
- Book 4 · Ch 24Keeping Samantha
Over Carl's objections, the group decides to keep Psamathe's head in the training room, and Carl plans to finish the last castle and rescue people.
- Book 4 · Ch 24Mordecai explains the faction wars
Mordecai corrects Katia's ninth-floor map and explains how the faction wars and the sixth floor's Hunting Grounds work.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Planning the submarine dive
At the Death Stalker tavern Carl meets water-quadrant survivors Britney and Vadim; Vadim agrees to guide Carl, Katia and Tran to the Akula's pump controls.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Chum bombs and the dive
From the flying house, Donut detonates chum bombs to distract the concierge sharks, then Katia becomes a diving bell and drops Carl, Tran and Vadim onto the Akula's hull.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Into the drowned Akula
Carl, Tran and Vadim swim through the flooded Akula, drain an airlock, and loot the neighborhood map from the sentinel gun boss's hidden control box.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Quetzalcoatlus attacks
The ghost of Quetzalcoatlus screams through the bulkhead, nearly killing Vadim, while a gigantic creature approaches the sub and reaches for it as Katia flees.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Henrik's body found
As the Akula is dragged to the sea floor, Carl reaches the bridge and loots Henrik's corpse, briefly triggering a Syndicate court lock over the gate items.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Lusca boss battle begins
Lusca swallows the Akula in a live-commentated special event; Carl orders the depth charges dropped and everyone topside to saferooms as a ten-minute timer starts.
- Book 4 · Ch 27Bloodlust bomb in the Akula
Trapped as Lusca's babies flood the bridge, Carl seals himself, Katia and Tran in the stateroom and detonates a bloodlust-potion bomb that makes the juveniles devour each other.
- Book 4 · Ch 27Protective Shell and Leatherface vs Lusca
As Lusca swallows, Carl's Protective Shell breaks open her jaw, and Katia's rocket-propelled buzzsaw spins through the octo-shark's head.
- Book 4 · Ch 27Lusca killed
Lusca's tentacle stops the spinning buzzsaw, but she is already dead; Carl, Katia and an injured Tran trudge across the crushing sea floor.
- Book 4 · Ch 27Vadim's death
Vadim fires the last escape pod through the dead shark and the jellyfish layer, then dies when pain amplifiers get inside.
- Book 4 · Ch 27The feral god is released
With everyone in saferooms, Carl uses the Gate of the Feral Gods to teleport to Pandinus, flooding the town wall, and shelters as a feral god arrives.
- Book 4 · Ch 28Loot after the feral god's release
Sheltering in the safe room while a feral god shakes the world outside, Carl opens his boxes, gaining a patch jacket, an Earth patch and Drakea's bandana.
- Book 4 · Ch 28Carl learns Drakea's fate
Mordecai reluctantly tells Carl that Drakea was a bune who died to an unnaturally backfiring trap, helping bankrupt the nagas.
- Book 4 · Ch 28Samantha explains Orthrus
Mordecai brings out Samantha, who reveals the released creature is Emberus's dog Orthrus from the Nothing, confirming Carl's group caused the crisis.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Orthrus in the bubble
Carl's team finds the giant two-headed puppy Orthrus trapped in their bubble, hurt by lightning and sharks, triggering the group quest Where the Red God Glows.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Keeping the puppy alive
Carl sends Donut, Louis and Firas up in the Twister so Donut can heal Orthrus with Heal Critter during the storm.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Connecting the lightning trap
While Carl's team fights feral pazuzu, Morris reconnects the electrical panel as Low Thi decoys Quetzalcoatlus; both die, and lightning strikes the towers.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Subterranean Quadrant liberated
The lightning trap electrifies the temple and kills Quetzalcoatlus, the tomb's guardian, liberating the last quadrant; all its crawlers are dead.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Bubble 543 pops
With all four quadrants freed, the bubble's top vanishes and the stairwells open, but Orthrus is still dying in the water.
- Book 4 · Ch 30Luring Orthrus out
Carl flies the drop bear while Donut heals Orthrus and casts Meat Hooks, drawing the puppy out of bubble 543 into the Lacuna toward Emberus.
- Book 4 · Ch 30Bounty on the puppy
The AI escalates with a new group quest and a world quest offering huge rewards to any crawler who kills Orthrus.
- Book 4 · Ch 30Orthrus attacked
An unknown flier hits Orthrus with a spell, crashing his health, and circles back to finish him as Carl turns to intercept.
- Book 4 · Ch 30Carl warns off Quan Ch
Recognising the attacker as Quan Ch, Carl asks anyone in contact with him to tell him to back off from the puppy.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Aerial fight with Quan Ch
Carl and Donut knock Quan Ch from the sky with a disco ball and hob-lobber, but Quan returns and knocks Orthrus unconscious.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Carl summons Emberus
Carl worships Emberus and throws the celestial grenade at Quan, summoning the god; the plane crashes into him and he reclaims Orthrus.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Carl punches Quan
After crash-landing in the Soulless Prophet's land quadrant, Carl, still invulnerable, charges Quan and punches him in the face.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Carl rips off Quan's arm
Carl attacks Quan Ch, ignoring an inner voice saying he isn't the enemy; Quan rockets away to a stairwell, leaving his arm in Carl's grip.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Quests resolve
Get Orthrus fails and The Dumber of the Flunkies completes, earning Carl's group a platinum quest box.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Carl joins the church of Emberus
Carl reads his new faith's rules and benefits, gains sun tattoos and a boon, and receives quests to find Geyrun's killer and kill Hellik.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Looting Quan's arm
Carl takes Quan's rings, then drags the stairwell to the All-Seeing Spleen saferoom while a secret message is nearly exposed to Louis.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Bubble rescues begin
Imani coordinates the first rescue phase from the Desperado Club, covering eight qualifying bubbles.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Phase one extractions start
Imani launches the bubble rescues; the first group passes through the gate to Hump Town and hands it on without stealing it.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Carl opens his boxes
While waiting, Carl opens his achievements and boxes, gaining Enchanted Handcuffs from a savage box and the Ping spell from his platinum quest box.
- Book 4 · Ch 33Bubble rescues completed
Phases one and two use the gate to free about 1,500 crawlers from trapped bubbles, releasing several feral gods and summoning a few real ones.
- Book 4 · Ch 33Return to Hump Town
Carl and Donut cross the Lacuna back to bubble 543, are applauded by crawlers, and Florin thanks Carl before descending.
- Book 4 · Ch 33Katia's decision
Katia tells Carl and Donut she will separate on the next floor to protect the former daughters from Eva; Carl gives her Eva's lost saber.
- Book 4 · Ch 33Phase four begins
Elle hands the gate back to Carl, and Carl, Donut and Katia share a farewell hug as phase four starts.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Setting the gate
Carl buries the winding box near the stairwell atop the bowl; Katia calculates the ninth-floor portal will open 23 minutes before collapse.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Borant's warning
Zev relays a failed Skull Empire lawsuit and a politburo message approving the plan but forbidding future sponsor-harming antics.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Slit attacks
Slit, a feral demon, attacks hunting Samantha; Carl uses his sponsor's gift to throw Samantha's head far into the Lacuna, drawing Slit away.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Death of Maggie My
Chris bursts from the sand and hurls the winding box; Carl, phased, pulls the Maggie worm from Chris's head, purges her from his own body, and Mongo eats her.
- Book 4 · Ch 34The real plan revealed
The thrown box was a decoy; Katia opens the real gate underwater, draining the sea, bombs and sharks into Larracos's faction market on the ninth floor.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Borant's fury
Zev relays that the sponsors are enraged as Larracos floods; Carl insists they approved the plan and descends with Donut and Chris.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Carl's challenge to the hunters
At the stairwell, now the top-ranked crawler, Carl holds up the Ring of Divine Suffering and vows to kill every hunter on the sixth floor.
- Book 5 · Ch 1Orren demands the gate
Syndicate liaison Orren tells Carl he must voluntarily give up the Gate of the Feral Gods or be removed; Carl stalls and demands a lawyer.
- Book 5 · Ch 1Floor 6 announcement
The sixth floor, the Hunting Grounds, opens with 17 days to collapse and hunters at level 50 to be released after a grace period.
- Book 5 · Ch 1Ian's warning
Bush Elf attendant Ian warns Carl to avoid Zockau and the mantis hunter Vrah, revealing he was once a crawler.
- Book 5 · Ch 1Carl chooses Agent Provocateur
In the specialization booth Carl weighs three permanent specialties and, against Mordecai's advice, picks Agent Provocateur for its bomb-making workshop.
- Book 5 · Ch 2Night Weasel ambush
Invisible Night Weasels belonging to Hunter Zabit paralyze two guards and then Carl at the dryad settlement gate; Donut, Mongo and Chris fight them off.
- Book 5 · Ch 2Mordecai's new form
Carl wakes in the personal space to find Mordecai turned into a tiny Pocket Kuma and can't stop laughing.
- Book 5 · Ch 2Collateral arrives
A knock comes at the personal space door, which Carl says is a delivery of collateral.
- Book 5 · Ch 3Carl gets a lawyer
Carl asks for an attorney during his meeting with liaison Orren, and the Nullian lawyer Quasar appears and coaches him to negotiate collateral for giving up the gate.
- Book 5 · Ch 3Mercenaries as collateral
Carl gives up the Gate of the Feral Gods until the ninth floor in exchange for four mercenaries, two of whom carry the teleport spells Teleport to Stairwell and Zerzura.
- Book 5 · Ch 3Planning purchases
Mordecai and Carl plan to buy an advanced bomber's studio and a magic studio for the space while waiting on the recap to learn about the guild system.
- Book 5 · Ch 4Katia departs
Katia, Chris and their two mercenaries leave on a caravan to join other crawlers, leaving Donut sad.
- Book 5 · Ch 4Examining the doomsday bomb
For the first time Carl takes out Carl's Doomsday Scenario and copies it into his new bomber's studio simulator.
- Book 5 · Ch 4Secret teleport
Pretending to hunt mushrooms, Carl has Donut put Mongo away and orders Bomo to teleport them to the stairwell in Zockau.
- Book 5 · Ch 5Raid on Zockau
Carl and Donut teleport invisibly to Zockau, plant a missile launcher and bomb barrels among the hunters' pubs, and send Bomo to the Scuttlebutt saferoom.
- Book 5 · Ch 5Xindy and Chin'Dua killed
Carl marks Chin'Dua, spreads Left to Fester onto the flying hunter Xindy, kills her with homing missiles, then beats Chin'Dua to death.
- Book 5 · Ch 5Barrel bomb detonates
Carl and Donut dive into the Scuttlebutt just as a bomb barrel by the Desperado Club explodes.
- Book 5 · Ch 5Escape from Zockau
After the bombs level the block, Carl and Donut flee invisibly through trap-strewn streets while an invisible flying hunter, the town's Grand, shoots Carl with crossbow bolts.
- Book 5 · Ch 5Rescued at the border
Carl collapses with bleeding bolts in the jungle beyond Zockau, and a group of crawlers including Pony and his mother find him and Donut.
- Book 5 · Ch 6Carl recovers in Miriam's cart
Carl wakes from a coma in a cart pulled by Bianca as Miriam heals his bleed debuff and Donut scolds him for his plan.
- Book 5 · Ch 6Tallying the raid
Carl's notifications reveal 34 hunter kills, a mass casualty achievement and a warning about the Ring of Divine Suffering.
- Book 5 · Ch 6Zev's heads-up
Zev contacts Carl and Donut to say they will appear on Odette's show, and that their Vengeance of the Daughter contract still applies.
- Book 5 · Ch 6Trap squabble
Carl triggers every trap at the town entrance, Prepotente takes offence, and Miriam forces the two to apologize and hug before they enter town.
- Book 5 · Ch 7Parting with Miriam's group
Carl and Donut separate from Miriam and Prepotente in a looted bugbear town and head to their saferoom.
- Book 5 · Ch 7Donut heads off the lecture
Back in the personal space, Donut preempts Mordecai's scolding, and Carl announces a plan for a much bigger bomb before the hunters are released.
- Book 5 · Ch 8Opening the hunter boxes
Carl opens his prize boxes, gaining a cult tattoo, 595,000 gold, 34 hunter hands redeemable at the Butcher's Masquerade, and a boost to his Fear spell.
- Book 5 · Ch 8Hunting Grounds recap
The recap, hosted by Kevin, shows the end of the last floor, Katia flooding Larracos, and the top ten crawlers' new classes; much is redacted.
- Book 5 · Ch 8Guild system announced
The system caps parties at 30 and launches guilds, which combine up to five parties' personal spaces for a hefty charter fee.
- Book 5 · Ch 8Masquerade announced
The system announces the Butcher's Masquerade party for the top 50 crawlers, and Donut fixates on its pet beauty contest for Mongo.
- Book 5 · Ch 9Bridge plan
Carl studies Katia's crowd-sourced map and asks her to have every bridge but one knocked down.
- Book 5 · Ch 9Planning the Zockau bomb
Carl builds a huge wheeled bomb for Bomo to detonate in Zockau before the hunt begins; Donut proposes a clockwork Bomo instead.
- Book 5 · Ch 10Crossing the bridge
Carl and Donut travel south through the empty jungle, planting mines, and cross the one bridge to the Large Ursine Settlement.
- Book 5 · Ch 10Death of Mayor Elmer
When Elmer bars Mongo, Donut pushes him down the riverbank; he dies on the rocks and a Naiad drags his body away, giving Donut the kill.
- Book 5 · Ch 10Branded troublemakers
The guards turn hostile and Carl and Donut flee into a saferoom to launch the clockwork Bomo bomb plan before the hunters are released.
- Book 5 · Ch 10Vrah's threat
Opening the door to Zockau, Carl finds Vrah's note warning that the hunters are protected from explosions and vowing revenge for her sister; Carl cancels the bomb plan.
- Book 5 · Ch 10The hunt begins
The system announces the gates are down and the hunters are loose.
- Book 5 · Ch 11Donut takes Point Mongo
Donut renames the Ursine town Point Mongo, equips her leadership charm, and with Mordecai resets the guards while Carl arms them against the hunters.
- Book 5 · Ch 11The Recital quest
Mordecai's argument with the cleric Tam accidentally triggers a quest to deal with the dinosaurs attacking Point Mongo.
- Book 5 · Ch 11Mongo meets Kiwi's pack
Mongo bolts out of town with Donut into a pack of forty raptors; Carl pulls Donut off, and Mongo and the pack leader Kiwi leap at each other.
- Book 5 · Ch 11Mongo and Kiwi mate
Mongo and Kiwi mate instead of fighting; Carl drags a protesting Donut back to town, leaving Mongo behind.
- Book 5 · Ch 12Donut's panic attack
In a sandwich shop saferoom, Donut breaks down about being left behind; after Zev's pointed interruption, Carl promises never to leave her, even on the ninth floor.
- Book 5 · Ch 12Mongo returns
Mongo stumbles back into town and collapses; Kiwi's pack watches from the jungle before leaving, and Donut reinstates the no-dinosaur rule.
- Book 5 · Ch 13Negotiating the license for Vengeance of the Daughter
Quasar negotiates with a kua-tin Borant admin and Orren, securing bodyguards, spells and a secret emergency license extension for Vengeance of the Daughter.
- Book 5 · Ch 13Meeting Tsarina Signet again
Carl's Ping reveals a waiting group of elites; Carl and Donut cross the bridge to meet Tsarina Signet, Areson the Wise, Clint Smashgrab's were-kin brothers and a giant caterpillar holding the captured hunter Bravvo.
- Book 5 · Ch 14Bravvo killed and looted
Carl kills the captured yenk hunter Bravvo and loots him before following Signet's group into the jungle toward Zockau.
- Book 5 · Ch 14Signet explains her mission
Walking through the jungle, Signet tells Carl and Donut about her family, the fate of the circus and the Chee, and says she is recruiting them to destroy the Confederacy and the High Elves.
- Book 5 · Ch 15The hunters' map
Carl loots a dead Dream hunter and finds a crayon map showing how hunter groups have divided the hunting grounds and claimed crawlers, including Louis as the Dream's sole target.
- Book 5 · Ch 15Signet's quest begins
At Signet's camp, Carl receives the quest The Vengeance of the Daughter: help Signet assault Fort Freedom and kill the Naiad Confederacy's leaders.
- Book 5 · Ch 16Were-castors fight weasels
After Clint and Holger brawl with each other on the trail, invisible night weasels attack; the two were-castors, immune to paralysis, do most of the work killing them.
- Book 5 · Ch 16The Apothecary sponsors the top ten
Arriving at Point Mongo, Carl and Donut each receive their third and final sponsor, the Apothecary, which has also sponsored most of the other top-ten crawlers.
- Book 5 · Ch 17Samantha demands to see Signet
Samantha screams through the saferoom until Carl agrees to take her to Signet during tomorrow's assault on the Naiad castle.
- Book 5 · Ch 17Security checkpoint in orbit
Before Odette's show, Carl and Donut are teleported to a checkpoint aboard a ship orbiting Earth, where Shade Gnoll Riot Forces mercenaries search them.
- Book 5 · Ch 17Odette reveals Beatrice is alive
In Odette's trailer, with Zev present in person, Odette tells Carl that his ex-girlfriend Beatrice is alive.
- Book 5 · Ch 18Odette explains Beatrice's rescue
Odette reveals she had Beatrice taken off Earth to keep bounty hunters from selling her to Borant, and asks permission to bring her on the show before a rival program breaks the story.
- Book 5 · Ch 18Donut agrees to the reunion
Despite Carl's fury and refusal, Donut decides they will go on Odette's show and do the reunion with Beatrice.
- Book 5 · Ch 19Beatrice on Odette's show
Beatrice appears as a guest on Odette's show; Carl and Donut stay cold on air, then off air Donut confronts Beatrice for planning to give her away and they say goodbye.
- Book 5 · Ch 20Lexis's warning
While surveillance is down during the hand-off to Valtay control, Lexis warns Carl and Donut that the Butcher's Masquerade is being set up to wipe out the top crawlers and that Queen Imogen is a hidden country boss.
- Book 5 · Ch 20Donut's confession
Donut blurts out that she smuggled Valtay secret agents to Zev and the Borant Emancipation Front, leaving Carl alarmed.
- Book 5 · Ch 21Hunter communication cut off
A system announcement downplays the Valtay takeover and reveals that hunters can no longer communicate with anyone outside the dungeon, following a court injunction.
- Book 5 · Ch 21CrawlCon fan box
Carl opens his fan box and finds he is a special guest at CrawlCon, scheduled for three virtual events without Donut.
- Book 5 · Ch 21Elves attack Point Mongo
After the party joins Safehome Yolanda and Katia leaves, high elves bombard Point Mongo with poison bombs, and Clint summons Carl and Donut to fight.
- Book 5 · Ch 22Samantha as a missile
To stop elves shelling Point Mongo with a poison catapult, Carl uses a potion-boosted Ping to locate them, then throws a missile-strapped Samantha, killing one elf.
- Book 5 · Ch 22Akland captured
Samantha drags back the unconscious second elf, Akland; healed and handcuffed, he begs for his life and explains the Dream's hunt for Louis before Carl marks him.
- Book 5 · Ch 23Akland's death
Carl kills Akland with the Ring of Divine Suffering equipped, loots him, and gives Donut his fire-casting obsidian bracelet.
- Book 5 · Ch 23Samantha grows stronger
Samantha rolls off to harass an ursine cleric, and Donut warns Carl that the head is getting stronger and faster.
- Book 5 · Ch 24Looting the Dream's trebuchet
Carl finds the second dead elf hunter and takes the Dream's poison trebuchet, noting its hidden high-tech parts.
- Book 5 · Ch 24Lightning at the all-tree
On the way to join Signet for the Fort Freedom assault, a lightning blast strikes near the all-tree; Donut's map shows two dead hunters among Signet's forces.
- Book 5 · Ch 25Samantha meets Signet
Samantha asks Signet to surrender her body so Samantha can take it; Signet declines and offers a vague promise of help later.
- Book 5 · Ch 25Langley's team dies
As Carl prepares the sacrifice above Fort Freedom, news arrives that Langley's whole team died hunting Bogdon Ro, before Carl kills the orc Future Huntress.
- Book 5 · Ch 25Assault on Fort Freedom begins
Carl launches Samantha into the river as a distraction, an alarm sounds deep in the castle, and Signet's summoned paper monsters and assault team move on Fort Freedom.
- Book 5 · Ch 26Signet storms the castle
Signet's paper battle squad and allies cross the river and enter Fort Freedom while Samantha, stuck in a vent, relays fighting and blood in the water.
- Book 5 · Ch 26The assault turns into a trap
Lightning and explosions erupt from the castle, bodies of naiads, paper monsters and allies float up, and Samantha calls it a trap; Carl prepares to dive in.
- Book 5 · Ch 27Claude teleported ashore
Recalling Samantha brings along the boss Claude Sludgington the Fourth, which had swallowed her and Holger; it appears beside Carl's group on the riverbank.
- Book 5 · Ch 27Death of Miss Nadine
Claude's lightning strikes Miss Nadine, the giant caterpillar guardian, and she explodes.
- Book 5 · Ch 27Claude killed
In a thirty-second fight, Carl's Protective Shell launches Claude skyward, Donut's Fireball opens his belly, and Mongo eats through him to kill the boss.
- Book 5 · Ch 28Fort Freedom retaken
Signet returns having taken Fort Freedom and defeated the confederacy, completing Part One of The Vengeance of the Daughter, though Clint, Miss Nadine and the south shore team died.
- Book 5 · Ch 28South shore massacre
Samantha scouts the far shore and finds the ursine defenders killed by a large dinosaur, which Areson identifies as Big Tina, triggering the quest The Recital.
- Book 5 · Ch 28Part Two: kill Queen Imogen
Carl and Donut receive Part Two of The Vengeance of the Daughter: help Signet kill Queen Imogen at the high elves' party.
- Book 5 · Ch 29Miss Nadine's tattoo
Edgar tattoos Miss Nadine's remains onto Signet; the new tattoo appears as a young chee woman with a memory of child Clint, and the were-castors pay their respects.
- Book 5 · Ch 29Arrival at Alucarda
Rushing south to a saferoom before Carl's CrawlCon transfer, Carl and Donut reach Alucarda and learn Lucia Mar is its mayor just as Carl is transferred away.
- Book 5 · Ch 30Carl taken to CrawlCon
Carl is transferred through an orbital security checkpoint to a Valtay landing vessel on the ocean floor, where Zev tells him Donut fought Lucia Mar but is safe in the guildhall.
- Book 5 · Ch 31CrawlCon art contest
Carl judges a children's art contest at CrawlCon alongside Hurk and G'valt, and rigs the result so Lix wins.
- Book 5 · Ch 31Warning about the panel
Hurk tells Carl that his upcoming panel will be moderated by the hostile mother of a hunter Carl killed, and the whole fandom is watching.
- Book 5 · Ch 32Zev briefs Carl on the panel
Zev tells Carl his panel is moderated by Circe Took, mother of Xindy, whom he killed, and hints Vrah may learn when he returns to the dungeon.
- Book 5 · Ch 32Carl trains in the Ultimate Training Room
With a tier-four training room installed by sympathetic guards, Carl spends nearly four hours improving his sticky bombs and Powerful Strike.
- Book 5 · Ch 32Carl is escorted to Studio Three
Passing through a zero zone, Carl reaches Studio Three where porter bot Biff seats him virtually beside an empty space for Circe Took.
- Book 5 · Ch 33Circe Took attacks at the panel
Moderator Circe Took cleaves the table where Carl virtually sits after he insults her hive, then lectures on crawl history until Carl mocks her.
- Book 5 · Ch 33Drugged Carl turns the panel
Drugged by his guards and backed by a robed sponsor, Carl provokes Circe into storming out and asks the crowd how to kill Vrah and her sisters.
- Book 5 · Ch 33Carl gets a gift and a warning
Returning from the panel, Carl regains his interface, reads Donut's warning that Lucia awaits in the safe room, and finds Dr. Ratchet's Automaton Table and signed guide.
- Book 5 · Ch 34Panel crowdsources tactics against the hunters
The CrawlCon audience and panelists brief Carl on mantid weaknesses, the Dark Hive's dominance and the Nebular Sin Patrol's crusade.
- Book 5 · Ch 34Carl coordinates his return
In his last minutes in the green room Carl sends the team a plan; Donut and Samantha report Lucia in the saferoom and hunters fighting outside.
- Book 5 · Ch 35Ambush at Alucarda
Carl teleports back into Alucarda amid mantis and Nebular hunters, triggers traps and an alarm ball, and turns the hunters against each other with explosives and a berserking potion.
- Book 5 · Ch 35Carl confronts Vrah
Langley's and Bogdon Ro's heads bite Vrah, Carl stabs her with a poisoned arrow, and his wheeled bomb kills the other mantises as Vrah flees.
- Book 5 · Ch 35Carl lures the Zockau mantis
Back in the saferoom, Carl has Bomo carry a note to Zockau offering the remaining mantis representative protection in exchange for his gear, aiming to reach him before Vrah does.
- Book 5 · Ch 36Reunion in the saferoom
Carl reunites with his guildmates, who catch him up on new classes, Team Cichociemni and their own adventures.
- Book 5 · Ch 36Carl becomes an enemy of Diwata
Opening his boxes, Carl receives the Enemy of the Church Tattoo for breaking Diwata's shrine in Lucia's desecrated temple.
- Book 5 · Ch 36Carl picks his strength upgrade
After reaching 100 strength, Carl weighs three upgrades with his friends' advice and chooses Swole, while Katia sews his new patches on.
- Book 5 · Ch 37Daily announcement
The AI notes 100 guilds have formed, announces a redesigned seventh floor and mandatory Butcher's Masquerade invites for the top 50.
- Book 5 · Ch 37A male mantis arrives
Bomo returns from Zockau with a small male mantis who urgently wants to talk to Carl.
- Book 5 · Ch 38Edict chooses death
Trapped between ruin, dishonor and Vrah's demand to mate, Edict deliberately attacks Carl a third time and is teleported naked to a mob nest before Vrah reaches him.
- Book 5 · Ch 39Massacre at Prepotente Town Number Four
Carl, Donut and Samantha arrive at a shadowed ursine town to find its streets covered in day-old bear corpses and pink feathers, all killed by Big Tina, with a few survivors hiding.
- Book 5 · Ch 39Zev's warning
Zev urges Carl to reach a saferoom for his last CrawlCon appearance and reveals Odette's interview tunneled, adding to attention on Carl.
- Book 5 · Ch 40Carl meets Dmitri and Maxim
Before a joint CrawlCon signing, Carl meets the two-headed ogre twins in a cramped green room; Dmitri asks after Donut while Maxim complains about their treatment.
- Book 5 · Ch 40Replacement sponsor news
Zev reveals Carl's new sponsor was chosen after the first winner couldn't pay, and they will award his first benefactor box at the end of the signing.
- Book 5 · Ch 41CrawlCon signing with the Popovs
Carl and the Popov brothers sign autographs for about three and a half hours, fielding questions about the Odette interview, Vrah and the twins' choice of race.
- Book 5 · Ch 41The Plenty revealed as sponsor
Before the press, Borant announces The Plenty as Carl's new sponsor; a huge goat appears briefly and Carl is awarded a gold benefactor box.
- Book 5 · Ch 41Carl stabs Nihit
After the naga reporter Nihit accuses Carl of cheating and threatens him, Carl drives the signing pen into his neck.
- Book 5 · Ch 42Zev explains the warrant system
After Carl stabs Nihit, Zev tells him Nihit wants to press charges and explains how Syndicate warrants and franchised convict labour work.
- Book 5 · Ch 43Anti-vampire benefactor boxes
Carl's Plenty box and Donut's Apothecary box both grant protection against vampirism and lycanthropy, hinting at a coming fight with undead.
- Book 5 · Ch 43Charm Animal recipe
The Apothecary sends a long-sought Charm Animal recipe needing Mongo's blood; Mordecai is thrilled but Donut refuses.
- Book 5 · Ch 43Miriam's plea
Miriam Dom messages that she is trapped nearby and will not survive the dawn unless Carl comes.
- Book 5 · Ch 44Miriam Dom calls for rescue
Miriam reveals she is pinned by paralyzed Pony far east of town; despite Mordecai's suspicion of a vampire trap, Carl sews on his anti-vampire patch and sets out.
- Book 5 · Ch 44Prudence tells Big Tina's story
Hiding in the pub, ursine barmaid Prudence explains Big Tina was a girl whose ballet recital was crushed by her cleric father before Scolopendra transformed her.
- Book 5 · Ch 44Big Tina is a vampire
A bear claw crawls away as a glamoured minion of Big Tina, revealing the rampaging dinosaur is a vampire.
- Book 5 · Ch 45The body-part pile
Leaving the pub, Carl and Donut find the streets swarming with reanimated body parts gathered into a pile by vampire dinosaurs; Carl bombards it with missiles as they flee.
- Book 5 · Ch 45Vampirism spreads across the floor
Other crawlers report vampire animals across the map while Carl and Donut race toward Miriam through a flooding storm.
- Book 5 · Ch 45Unwelcome in the dryad town
Carl is branded a troublemaker at a small dryad settlement and hides in the Y-Not Lounge saferoom as guards gather outside.
- Book 5 · Ch 46Mongo's blood and a burning town
Donut collects Mongo's blood for the Charm Animal potion, then fireballs the hostile dryad mayor, setting the town and forest on fire.
- Book 5 · Ch 46Boss battle with Sierra
While levitating to spot Miriam's signal, Carl is seized by Sierra, a vampire pterosaur boss; with Donut's light, holy water and a falling punch, Carl kills it by staking its heart.
- Book 5 · Ch 47Miriam's story
Carl and Donut reach paralyzed Prepotente and exhausted Miriam; she explains Viscount Fog's hunt, the bounced Community Pool spell and the ring that marked her.
- Book 5 · Ch 47Death of Miriam Dom
Carl refuses to kill Miriam but guards her; at dawn he marks her with his own ring, and she turns to dust in the sunlight beside Prepotente.
- Book 5 · Ch 48The Creeping Apocalypse begins
Miriam's death cures the vampirism but leaves Big Tina's undead army uncontrolled; a world quest demands all fifty Odious Creepers die before sunset.
- Book 5 · Ch 48Prepotente wakes
Donut wakes Prepotente, who swallows his Ring of Divine Suffering and screams over Miriam's ashes as Kiwi and other dinosaurs close in.
- Book 5 · Ch 49Donut charms Kiwi
Princess Donut uses a Charm Mongoliensis potion on Kiwi, making the raptor pack leader her minion and bringing Kiwi's pack of velociraptors onto their side.
- Book 5 · Ch 49Prepotente's vow of vengeance
After opening his loot boxes in a temporary safe space and receiving a spray applicator and herbicide recipe, Prepotente takes healing potions from Carl and flies off on Bianca, vowing to kill everyone responsible for Miriam's death.
- Book 5 · Ch 50Weedkiller prepared for the creepers
Mordecai hands out jugs of his extra-strength anti-undead weedkiller; Katia and Louis take two to attack creepers from the Twister while Carl plans spray bombs.
- Book 5 · Ch 51Trebuchet kills a creeper
Carl fires Mordecai's weedkiller from the trebuchet with Donut spotting from a treetop, killing an Odious Creeper; Donut gets the kill credit.
- Book 5 · Ch 51High elf procession confronts Carl and Donut
High elf guards and Queen Imogen's familiar steal a creeper kill, invite Carl and Donut to the Masquerade, then fire lightning at Mongo; Donut blocks it and nearly dies.
- Book 5 · Ch 51Donut recognises Ferdinand
After waking, Donut tells Carl the queen's familiar is Ferdinand, brought down with changed memories, and fears she will have to fight him.
- Book 5 · Ch 52Carl considers leaving the floor early
Carl tells the group he plans to take Donut down the stairs early; Katia, Imani and Elle push back, and Donut refuses to go.
- Book 5 · Ch 52Big Tina arrives
Big Tina, an enormous allosaurus, arrives with the raptor pack and roars at Mongo; Kiwi restrains her daughter.
- Book 5 · Ch 52Creeper quest fails
The Creeping Apocalypse fails; the AI imposes blood-bar saferoom rules and casts Gehenna Bramble from the creepers near Zockau, teleporting idle hunters out of saferooms.
- Book 5 · Ch 53Carl interrogates and kills Iota
Carl pins the maimed crafter hunter Iota, learns the dungeon AI overrode a court ruling and is going primal, then kills him.
- Book 5 · Ch 54Planning around the brambles
Carl and Katia realise the Gehenna brambles will drive everyone toward the high elf castle by floor's end, and plan to regroup and map stairwells there.
- Book 5 · Ch 54Big Tina accepts Mongo
Kiwi brokers a meeting between Big Tina and Mongo, and Tina turns non-hostile, prompting Carl to plan a dance recital.
- Book 5 · Ch 55Signet's warning
Signet, Holger and Areson meet Carl and Donut to warn of the brambles and that the trees are summoning the god Diwata.
- Book 5 · Ch 55Secret message about Circe
Carl's benefactor potion carries a hidden note from P. Hu: Circe Took sponsored Diwata, and Donut's spell must secretly be pushed to level 15.
- Book 5 · Ch 55Nipple rings
Carl pierces himself with a Quarter Fall ring and persuades Donut to wear a constitution ring in exchange for the Pawna's Cries potion.
- Book 5 · Ch 56Quasar explains Zerzura
Fifteen days earlier, Quasar explains the Zerzura spell and its dangers as a way to move the changelings' town downward, and plans to negotiate for mercenaries.
- Book 5 · Ch 56Planning the castle
Carl and his allies study Edgar's castle map and learn Donut's contest entries were accepted, while Prepotente heads their way with a present.
- Book 5 · Ch 57Bautista and Katia revealed
Carl congratulates Bautista on his relationship with Katia, shocking Donut.
- Book 5 · Ch 57Prepotente's delivery
Prepotente brings Donut a potion from his benefactor that reverses Scolopendra's Transmutation, the second benefactor gift meant for Donut sent via someone else.
- Book 5 · Ch 58Sneaking into the Hunting Grounds level
Donut pressures Clarabelle into revealing a secret stairwell; Carl and Donut descend to the club's Hunting Grounds level, where Carl kills the hunter Haxor.
- Book 5 · Ch 58Meeting the changelings
Carl gives Pearson a map and the plan to bring the changelings into the high elf castle for Zerzura, before Astrid stops them by boiling Carl's blood.
- Book 5 · Ch 59Summoned by Orren
After Astrid knocks Carl out, Orren tells Carl and Donut he is leaving until the ninth floor, warns them about rogue liaisons, and summons Quasar and a weeping fan.
- Book 5 · Ch 60Coordinated hunter raids
With hunters scattered by the brambles and blood bar, Carl, Donut, Katia's team and Imani's crawlers launch coordinated raids on hunter-held towns, starting another with traps, Ping and spider bombs.
- Book 5 · Ch 61Raid on the hunter town
The crawler alliance destroys the hunters' anti-air gun and kills nearly all hunters in a fast coordinated raid; Donut scores five kills.
- Book 5 · Ch 61Diwata enters the realm
The last hunter flees into a temple, where Diwata erupts from his body, marks Carl for death, and flies off, apparently to reach Vrah.
- Book 5 · Ch 62Carl redirects Signet
Carl warns Signet her attack on Imogen is a trap and convinces her to enter the castle and wait for his signal, despite Zev's warnings.
- Book 5 · Ch 62Puzzling gifts for Donut
Carl and Mordecai examine the Apothecary's gifts for Donut, including a seemingly useless hammer and stick marked with sevens, before leaving for the masquerade.
- Book 5 · Ch 63The masquerade plan
Carl posts his secret plan for the masquerade in the cookbook and his allies sign it, each adding their own stance.
- Book 5 · Ch 63Caravan to the castle
Theobold escorts Carl, Britney, Donut and the dinosaurs toward the high elf castle, explaining that the queen's protection covers all guests.
- Book 5 · Ch 63Queen Imogen revealed
Drawn out by Pearson's disguise, Queen Imogen materialises in Carl's wagon; Carl recognises her as Ifechi, Florin's dead girlfriend.
- Book 5 · Ch 64Imogen confronts Carl
Queen Imogen visits Carl's wagon, explains the Butcher's Masquerade ritual and its peace seal, and warns him that breaking the peace means the Nothing.
- Book 5 · Ch 64Plan changes
Realising they cannot strike first inside the sealed ballroom, Carl tells his allies to party peacefully while operations outside continue.
- Book 5 · Ch 64Arrival at the castle
The changeling posing as Signet is turned away, the dinosaurs are caged and moved to the hunters' attendant room, and the crawlers pass security into Ballroom A.
- Book 5 · Ch 64The masquerade begins
Inside Ballroom A, Donut meets her sponsor Empress D'Nadia, Chaco runs the prize counter, Vrah charges toward Carl, and Carl signals Bomo, the Sledge and Britney to start the plan.
- Book 5 · Ch 65Warning light disabled
While Vrah threatens Carl, Britney releases a slate butterfly that drains the ballroom's warning light without the guard noticing.
- Book 5 · Ch 65Tensions in the ballroom
Katia nearly attacks Eva and Florin approaches Lucia Mar, but Carl and others keep the peace as Theobold opens the masquerade.
- Book 5 · Ch 65Signet arrives
Signet unexpectedly appears in the ballroom, saying Apito invited her, upsetting the production and Carl's plan.
- Book 5 · Ch 66Carl points Signet at the judges
Carl tells Signet the judges are outside viewers controlling her world, and she heads off to confront them, to Zev's dismay.
- Book 5 · Ch 67Carl questions Zabit
At the prize counter Carl confronts the hunter Zabit, who explains he hunts crawlers so his people, the Atoll, can survive.
- Book 5 · Ch 67Carl spends his hunter hands
Guided by Mordecai, Carl examines the prize counter, learns of the memorial crystal, and buys a shrink wand, a lore book, Skedaddle sheet music and potions.
- Book 5 · Ch 68Mantis swarm disrupts changeling evacuation
Mantis nymphs swarm the floor, forcing the Sledge's changeling escort to switch to entering the castle by airship.
- Book 5 · Ch 68Diwata's brood revealed
Carl and Mordecai work out that Diwata is still on the floor, birthing endless mantis babies after curing Vrah.
- Book 5 · Ch 69Florin uncovers the children in Lucia
Florin comforts a suddenly childlike Lucia and learns that several real children, including a Dutch girl named Jill, are inside her head, controlled through her dog.
- Book 5 · Ch 69Ferdinand arrives
As Zev deflects Carl's questions, Ferdinand appears on Carl's shoulder, and Carl signals Samantha to go while the cat is distracted.
- Book 5 · Ch 70Donut charms Ferdinand
Ferdinand appears wearing a giant turban; after Katia reads his stats, Donut uses her doubled charisma to charm him, but he leaves to come to the crawlers' ballroom via the tunnels.
- Book 5 · Ch 70Samantha enters the tunnels
Samantha sneaks into the cat tunnels but has forgotten the map, so Firas guides her toward the security room while the talent show begins.
- Book 5 · Ch 70Security room guards found dead
Samantha reaches the security room without the sleep potion and finds the elf guards already dead.
- Book 5 · Ch 71Queen Imogen confronts Carl and Signet
Imogen enters the sealed ballroom, taunts Signet, lifts Carl magically and accuses him of besieging her castle; Gideon's team dies outside.
- Book 5 · Ch 71Diwata's sabotage countered
Samantha finds Diwata had killed the guards and restored hunter magic; she replaces the crystals, foiling a draconian's attack, and prepares to fight Diwata.
- Book 5 · Ch 71Signet offers herself
Signet eats a white acorn, gains Magical Fervor and prepares to cast Ink Marauder on herself so the seal breaks, taking Carl's place.
- Book 5 · Ch 72Signet's sacrifice
Using the distraction, Signet casts her spell by killing herself beside Imogen, falling into the Nothing; the seal breaks and the masquerade fails.
- Book 5 · Ch 72The escape begins
Carl marks Vrah with the Ring of Divine Suffering and throws smoke curtains to begin the crawlers' escape.
- Book 5 · Ch 73Vrah dies
The velociraptors attack the hunters; Mongo and Kiwi maul Vrah, Samantha bites her, and Mongo finishes her off on Carl's order.
- Book 5 · Ch 73The castle teleports away
Carl stores Princess Lunette's golem and drinks Feather Fall as the Sledge's spell moves the castle, freezing everything else in place.
- Book 5 · Ch 74Cage fight boss battle
The AI pits crawlers, the last hunters, Queen Imogen and Diwata against each other as everyone falls into the castle's empty basement pit, surrounded by brambles.
- Book 5 · Ch 74Circe Took dies
Carl gets Donut close to Diwata, who strips the god armor with Laundry Day; Circe Took is killed by her own children.
- Book 5 · Ch 74Imogen defeated at heavy cost
The crawlers wear down Imogen with coordinated blunt attacks; the Popovs, Gwen and Cleiton die, Zabit falls to his own trap, and Prepotente lands the final strike.
- Book 5 · Ch 75Aftermath of the battle
Carl wakes to find many dead; Osvaldo and Prepotente quarrel over the memorial crystal, and Katia claims Eva's bounty.
- Book 5 · Ch 75The Popovs escape the dungeon
Katia finds the Popovs reborn as baby nodlings; Zev reveals children are ineligible, so they are freed to the surface.
- Book 5 · Ch 75The Princess Posse joins Faction Wars
Carl and Donut's team enters faction wars, and Carl gives a broadcast speech attacking the sponsors before being muted.
- Book 5 · Ch 75Descending the stairs
Prepotente forms a party with Carl and Donut, reveals the memorial crystal is Apito's, and leads the survivors down the stairs.
- Book 5 · Ch 76Prepotente breaks the seventh floor
From the pole position chamber, Prepotente cracks the glass with an enchanted stick and hammer, shattering the whole Great Race level and sucking every crawler into the stairwell portals.
- Book 5 · Ch 76Choosing an eighth-floor start
Donut, as squad leader, picks a Caribbean starting location that turns out not to be the Bahamas.
- Book 6 · Ch 1Princess Posse newsletter recap
Donut's fan club newsletter recaps the sixth floor and Butcher's Masquerade: Signet's revenge, Vrah and Diwata's deaths, deaths of friends, and buying a Faction Wars spot.
- Book 6 · Ch 3Arrival on the eighth floor in Havana
After skipping a floor, Carl and Princess Donut start the eighth floor in Havana's capitol building; their friends check in from regions around the world.
- Book 6 · Ch 4Reunion with Mordecai as a cyclops
Carl and Princess Donut enter the saferoom to find Mordecai transformed into a Hills Cyclops, Samantha returned, and Bomo the last bodyguard.
- Book 6 · Ch 4Carl earns a celestial box
Opening his achievements, Carl gets Apex Predator for killing the last hunter, earning a Celestial Predator Box, plus several platinum boxes.
- Book 6 · Ch 4Donut opens her boxes
Princess Donut opens her prizes: a Cosmic buff potion raising dexterity, a Love Vampire upgrade, a fire-demon nipple ring, and a chained summoning spellbook.
- Book 6 · Ch 4Donut learns a summoning spell
Princess Donut applies the chained Tome of Legionnaires of the Damned, gaining a spell to animate armor with wailing spirits; then it is Carl's turn to open boxes.
- Book 6 · Ch 5Carl opens his celestial box
Carl opens his boxes, including a tattoo kit, an automaton kit, a reflecting shield and a Defiler nipple ring; the celestial box yields only a divine back patch.
- Book 6 · Ch 5Carl sews on the Scavenger's Daughter
Carl sews the divine patch onto his jacket, gaining big stat boosts, a Soul Essence bar, and the Soul Reaper and Mysterious Bone Key benefits.
- Book 6 · Ch 5Crawlers reel from the last floor
Over chat, Carl learns Britney and Louis are grieving Firas, and Tran lost his legs and his friend Gwendolyn Duet.
- Book 6 · Ch 5Donut's flag outrage
Princess Donut bursts in furious that each squad's flags, meant to be planted in enemies on this floor, are designed for them; she shows Carl theirs and he laughs.
- Book 6 · Ch 6Entering Old Havana
Carl, Donut and Samantha leave the saferoom into a replay of Old Havana; ghostly tourists walk through them, stripping clothes, and Samantha is sent south as recon.
- Book 6 · Ch 6Traffic chain reactions begin
Crawlers in other areas report car pile-ups caused by monsters and debate building roadblocks away from the stairwells.
- Book 6 · Ch 6Fight with the Experience
On the northern coast highway, a barking Experience charges Carl and Donut; Donut burns, mutes and turns it against itself with her new spell until it dies.
- Book 6 · Ch 6Meeting other crawlers
Three unknown crawlers, two human men and a cat girl, approach and wave, confirming Carl's team is not alone in the area.
- Book 6 · Ch 7Tense meeting with Sister Ines's group
Carl and Donut meet Paz, Anton and Sister Ines, who fear Donut over a broadcast threat and Carl's link to Prepotente; Sister Ines defuses the standoff and proposes working together.
- Book 6 · Ch 8The Chowder War quest
Examining the monk seal Yago gives Carl the quest The Chowder War, a conflict between monk seals and Red Maníseros Land Crabs.
- Book 6 · Ch 8Capturing Yago
The combined group fights the level 70 monk seal Yago; after he shields against ranged attacks, Carl and Paz bring him down and Carl stabs him with Team Sister Ines's flag, capturing him as a card.
- Book 6 · Ch 8A second monk seal appears
After Carl passes Yago's totem card to Sister Ines, another monk seal named Geraldo charges across the beach, and Carl proposes capturing it too.
- Book 6 · Ch 9New interview and meeting scheduled
Zev books Carl and Donut on Shadow Boxer after Odette's show is postponed, and announces a Faction Wars preproduction meeting for Floor 9.
- Book 6 · Ch 9First Daughter's Kiss
Fighting a swarm of duendes fills Carl's essence bar, and he unleashes The Daughter's Kiss, vaporizing a duende with a shockwave.
- Book 6 · Ch 9Saferoom at Cuba Libro
Both teams reach the saferoom coffee shop Cuba Libro and agree to meet after the recap to clear a nearby park and hunt stronger mobs.
- Book 6 · Ch 10Cascadia explains deck combat
After a largely redacted recap, Cascadia lays out the card and deck combat rules, adds saferoom practice arenas, and urges squads to kill each other for cards.
- Book 6 · Ch 10Samantha swallowed by Shi Maria
Samantha reports she was eaten by Shi Maria, a spider demi-goddess at the island's southern coast, and Carl plans to rescue her and possibly capture the monster.
- Book 6 · Ch 11Practice in the Mock Battle Arena
Carl and Donut test their incomplete deck on easy difficulty: Mongo kills a Teletubby-like monster, then Donut summons and buffs Geraldo against a Squonk that dissolves without fighting.
- Book 6 · Ch 12Locked in the ghommid cemetery
After scouting the cemetery, both teams enter; the gate locks, the compulsory quest Pueblo de los Olvidados begins, and Paz's presence draws a horde of unsettled ghommids.
- Book 6 · Ch 12Fighting to the saferoom
Overwhelmed by ghommids, Carl is frozen and drained by an owl spirit before Mongo and Sister Ines save him, and Donut teleports the group toward the saferoom.
- Book 6 · Ch 12The boss enters the saferoom
Carl glimpses a level 130 straw-masked figure as the group reaches The Yellow Zone; when Carl reopens the door, the figure steps inside.
- Book 6 · Ch 13Asojano enters the saferoom
The Orisha Asojano walks into The Yellow Zone, revealed as the source of the town's corruption, and asks Paz to repair his shrine; Sister Ines breaks down, and he leaves, telling them to come at night.
- Book 6 · Ch 13Opening fan boxes
Donut receives the snare card Hobbled and The Bard's Golden Throat microphone, and Carl gets a massage coupon; then Katia, Bautista and Louis visit.
- Book 6 · Ch 13Catching up with Katia's group
Katia, Bautista and Louis visit Carl and Donut, share news of their losses and squad, discuss Tserendolgor possibly joining the guild, and give Carl spare cards before both teams leave for shows.
- Book 6 · Ch 14Harbinger as liaison
At the production trailer, Carl and Donut meet the caprid liaison Harbinger, and Quasar arrives by holo to object to his presence.
- Book 6 · Ch 14Shadow Boxer interviews
Rosetta Thagra interviews Donut about television; during a break Quasar briefs Carl on Faction Wars, then Rosetta begins Carl's interview about his dead mother.
- Book 6 · Ch 15Carl's interview about his past
Rosetta questions Carl about his mother's suicide, his father's abandonment and his time at the Anacortes Boys' Ranch, while slipping him a coded cookbook clue about milk and potatoes.
- Book 6 · Ch 15Harbinger shuts down the interview
Harbinger ends the interview, dismisses Quasar, bans Rosetta for cheating, and tells Carl he is working to have him removed from the crawl.
- Book 6 · Ch 16Gauntlet run to the temple
At night the group fights through glowing ghommids behind Asojano to the central temple, using Carl's stun bombs and Bomo's missiles; Carl flags the splitter Skylar Spinach at the door.
- Book 6 · Ch 16Ogun's conflicting quest
As Asojano prepares his ritual, Ogun orders Paz and Anton to restore his blacksmith's-anvil shrine instead, setting them against the orisha.
- Book 6 · Ch 16Plan to kill Asojano
Carl assigns Donut, Bomo and Sister Ines to fight Asojano with him while Paz and Anton rebuild Ogun's shrine; boss music starts as Anton picks up a piece.
- Book 6 · Ch 17The Celestial Thorn Room
The temple becomes a Celestial Thorn Room offering seven Orisha shrines with competing rewards, while Katia urgently tells Carl to restore Yemaya.
- Book 6 · Ch 17Boss fight with Asojano
Anton throws away Ogun's shrine piece; Donut's Phantasm swarm attacks Asojano while Bomo rebuilds Yemaya's shrine and the gods compete for the crawlers' loyalty.
- Book 6 · Ch 17Asojano captured and Yemaya restored
Carl flags the dying Asojano and catches SlugPox, while possessed daggers carry the Sun of Reawakening to Yemaya's shrine; the quest completes and Yemaya re-ascends.
- Book 6 · Ch 17Ogun arrives
As Carl tries to get the shunned, bleeding Paz and Anton to Club Vanquisher's healer, Ogun appears in the realm.
- Book 6 · Ch 18Ogun's punishment
Ogun appears to punish his failed worshippers: he freezes Sister Ines, permanently dooms Paz, and kills Anton despite Carl's attempt to shield him with Black Nimbus.
- Book 6 · Ch 18Paz's confession
Dying, Paz warns Carl that Sister Ines is a convent poisoner whose racial skill compels loyalty; Carl chooses to part ways rather than kill her.
- Book 6 · Ch 19Yemaya and Eileithyia appear
Two goddesses appear in Yemaya's temple; Yemaya gives Donut and Sister Ines cards and teleports Bomo to his friend The Sledge in Larracos on the ninth floor, stranding Carl's group without his spell.
- Book 6 · Ch 19Eileithyia's secret deal
Under cover of a spider-killing quest, Eileithyia secretly messages Carl, demanding he accept Odette as Faction Wars Adjutant and tell no one, in exchange for protection and help until the twelfth floor.
- Book 6 · Ch 19Sister Ines leaves
Sister Ines loots Anton's body and storms out into Havana, ignoring Carl, with Paz still trapped as a card.
- Book 6 · Ch 20Carl enters Club Vanquisher
Suffering worsening slugpox, Carl clashes with the door guard Potsy before Pater Coal of Emberus escorts him inside.
- Book 6 · Ch 20Foot-washing sacrament
In the secret Temple of the Ending Sun, Pater Coal washes Carl's feet, briefs him on Geyrun's murder, and points to Katia's crossbow and Donut's oak bracelet as clues.
- Book 6 · Ch 20Return to the saferoom
Cured and banned from the club for three days, Carl recounts events to Donut, Katia, Mordecai and Bautista and notices Katia now worships Eileithyia.
- Book 6 · Ch 20Katia prepares to confide in Donut
In the tense saferoom, after Carl recounts a partly falsified story, Katia sits with Donut to tell her something very scary.
- Book 6 · Ch 21The lock box plan
Katia reveals her Lock Box of the Night Wyrm and Eileithyia's orchid, planning to escape the crown's trap via the Celestial Attendant boon; Mordecai explains Huanxin Jinx and the Ascendency.
- Book 6 · Ch 21Assassination job revealed
Carl reads Katia's Guild of Suffering job from the Night Wyrm: kill Astrid of the Desperado Club.
- Book 6 · Ch 22Moving south through Havana
Carl, Donut and Mongo leave the ghommid village and travel south through Havana to a saferoom before their Faction Wars planning meeting.
- Book 6 · Ch 22Mordecai's secret attendants
Carl and Donut catch Mordecai in makeup and learn he secretly hired Ruby and other changelings as room attendants using their money.
- Book 6 · Ch 23Zev's secure briefing
In a secure sponsor conversation, Zev explains the adjutant role and urges Carl and Donut not to choose Odette, for Mordecai's sake.
- Book 6 · Ch 23Faction Wars preproduction meeting
Carl and Donut attend a meeting run by Cascadia with the other warlords, where Donut provokes Crown Prince Stalwart and they meet Rishi of the Blood Sultanate.
- Book 6 · Ch 23Viceroy beheaded at the meeting
The Madness's viceroy is decapitated and Juice Box, in Epitome Noflex's form, takes his seat, enraging Tagg and Stalwart; Cascadia says the AI won't let them intervene.
- Book 6 · Ch 24Juice Box's demands
Juice Box demands NPCs become their own Faction Wars team, Carl tables the motion, and her detonator blows up the Operatic Collective's representative before an arrow drops Stalwart.
- Book 6 · Ch 24Scouting the Desperado Club
Carl and Katia secretly plan how to lure out and kill Astrid while meeting allied crawlers at the Desperado Club.
- Book 6 · Ch 24Florin's totem card
Florin hands Donut a powerful unique totem card he cannot control.
- Book 6 · Ch 24HeyZoos joins the squad
Carl and Donut take Florin's unique HeyZoos card, giving them four of six totems, before planning to rescue Samantha.
- Book 6 · Ch 25Carl meets Damascus Steel
Carl visits the Penis Parade, finds the ifrit dancer Damascus Steel, and is led through a hidden portal into the Guild of Suffering.
- Book 6 · Ch 26Crab migration
Near the southern coast, Carl and Donut find hundreds of giant land crabs migrating to attack the monk seals and plan to trap the lone meditating crab Raul.
- Book 6 · Ch 26Donut's new tiara
Carl pays to install Donut's citrine gem into a new tiara, which grants her a Hover skill she delights in.
- Book 6 · Ch 27Raul flagged
Using a Hole spell, phase potions and debuffs, Carl and Donut trap and flag the meditating crab Raul into a card.
- Book 6 · Ch 27Preparing for Shi Maria
While the crab migration passes, Carl studies Shi Maria in the Bahamas book and chats with Samantha, who calls the spider her best friend.
- Book 6 · Ch 28Meeting the Bedlam Bride
Samantha leads Shi Maria to Carl and Donut; the spider admits she can't animate Princess Lunette's body yet and breaks down when Samantha threatens her mother.
- Book 6 · Ch 28Samantha won't leave her friend
Carl tells Samantha she's part of the team, but she refuses to abandon Shi Maria, who is prepared to become a card.
- Book 6 · Ch 28Bargain with Shi Maria
Carl approaches the spider and offers to escort her deeper if she helps; Shi Maria speaks for the first time and agrees, wanting to reach Larracos.
- Book 6 · Ch 28The Bedlam Bride quest
Carl receives an escort quest to bring Shi Maria to Larracos; she exposes her belly and Carl punches her to begin turning her into a card.
- Book 6 · Ch 29Shi Maria becomes a card
Carl turns Shi Maria into a card and, travelling north with Donut, Mongo and Samantha, gains new cards from La Ciguapa and tests his Scavenger Daughter.
- Book 6 · Ch 29Katia goes quiet
Katia stops responding after scouting the Desperado Club; Bautista says she is asleep and out of sorts after finding a secret merchant.
- Book 6 · Ch 29Phase two rules announced
Cascadia explains phase two and three: squads must fetch a key, and keyless squads may ambush keyholders at their stairwells, setting up crawler-on-crawler fights.
- Book 6 · Ch 30Katia in the drug den
Imani reports that Katia overdosed on something from a secret drug den and is unconscious with a debuff; she fears Katia has an addiction.
- Book 6 · Ch 30Deck practice in the mall
In a 1980s mall simulation, Shi Maria kills Uzi Jesus after he shoots her, then destroys Rude-Dolph's puppet reindeer with her fifth eye and rips Rude-Dolph in two.
- Book 6 · Ch 31Donut loses her sponsor
Mid-fight, Donut learns Empress D'Nadia sold her sponsorship to a biological waste management company.
- Book 6 · Ch 31Hours of deck practice
Practising in the mock arena, Carl and Donut learn their totems' quirks: Shi Maria dominates, while Uzi Jesus and Asojano resist orders.
- Book 6 · Ch 31Defeat by Der Schachmeister
In their first deck-versus-deck practice, Der Schachmeister locks and burns Donut's cards and his wolf strikes her, failing the simulation.
- Book 6 · Ch 32Katia's addiction revealed
In the Desperado Club, a sick Katia apologises while Mordecai explains her four drug addictions and begins treating them with Imani.
- Book 6 · Ch 32Carl refuses to abandon Katia
Mordecai suggests letting Katia self-destruct to protect Donut; Carl refuses and demands she pull herself together to do their Astrid quest now.
- Book 6 · Ch 33Samantha gets into the club
Carl smuggles Samantha past Clarabelle into the Desperado Club, where she starts harassing the badger bartender Charles as a planned distraction.
- Book 6 · Ch 33Setting the Astrid ambush
Carl disarms traps in a secret corridor, sets teleport traps and walls off a room of deadly monsters to prepare the ambush on Astrid.
- Book 6 · Ch 34Ambush on Astrid goes wrong
Astrid bypasses the trapped secret passage and heads down the main stairs as an alarm announces a containment breach in the casino.
- Book 6 · Ch 34Emir attacks Carl
A drunk crawler, Emir, punches Carl to the floor; Carl rips off his boot and Zeynep mutes him before dragging him out.
- Book 6 · Ch 34Minge breaks out of the Nothing
The level 225 demon Minge escapes into the club hunting Samantha, slaughtering NPCs while Katia refuses to abandon the Astrid mission.
- Book 6 · Ch 34Minge rampages through the Desperado Club
The demon Minge devours club guards while Sai and croc guards charge her; Carl uses an invisibility potion and an alarm ball playing 'Material Girl' as a distraction.
- Book 6 · Ch 34Astrid reveals her secrets
In the kitchen, Astrid tells Carl she unleashed the vorpals and that the Night Wyrm, Hamed, is her husband.
- Book 6 · Ch 34Death of Astrid
Katia, shapeshifted and using totem cards, attacks Astrid; Carl rips off her wings to break her spell, and Katia kills her, then flees pretending to be a monster.
- Book 6 · Ch 35Vorpals released on Minge
Carl sends an automaton to free the vorpals and hits Minge with holy-water bombs, then flees upstairs with Samantha; the vorpals kill Minge.
- Book 6 · Ch 36Damascus reveals his family
Damascus Steel tells Carl and Katia that Astrid was his mother and the Night Wyrm his father, then leaves with Anaconda to take revenge.
- Book 6 · Ch 36Hiring the Penis Parade
Through Rosemarie, Carl spends his Meat Shields coupon to hire the Penis Parade dancers as mercenaries for the Faction Wars, and they move into the guild barracks.
- Book 6 · Ch 37Carl and Donut on Odette's show
On Odette's show, Carl and Donut defend the Desperado incident and learn that Empress D'Nadia tried to have them deleted via emergency action items.
- Book 6 · Ch 37Odette declines the adjutant role
Odette explains the adjutant role, then reveals she can't be one this season, threatening Carl's secret deal to save Katia.
- Book 6 · Ch 38Odette announces she will play Nekhebit
Odette reveals she has sponsored the re-ascended vulture goddess Nekhebit and will enter the dungeon for the Celestial Ascendency.
- Book 6 · Ch 38Carl picks Baroness Victory as adjutant
Offered Ripper Wonton, Baroness Victory or Drick, Carl chooses the orc judge Baroness Victory as his team's adjutant.
- Book 6 · Ch 39Odette's confession
In a private window, Odette tells Carl of her crawl, her betrayal of Huanxin, the deaths of Uzzi and Armita, her guilt over Mordecai, and her plan to end the crawl.
- Book 6 · Ch 40Arrival in the Florida Keys
Carl joins Donut in Monroe County after a selection glitch; the key location from Iowa has been dumped as a huge earth mound nearby.
- Book 6 · Ch 40Spider quest completes
Huanxin, via Eileithyia, confirms she will honour the deal to help Katia, completing the spider quest.
- Book 6 · Ch 40First token fights
Carl and Donut begin collecting tokens, killing a Babababoon on the road toward the mound.
- Book 6 · Ch 41Lazarus-A-Bang-Bang's debut
Fighting a Reef Explorer and his Swordfish Interlopers for the sixth token, Donut summons Lazarus-A-Bang-Bang, whose bazooka wipes out the swordfish with beetles.
- Book 6 · Ch 42Carl and Donut rest
Back at the guild, a frightened Donut opens up to Carl about the dangers of the card game and losing Katia, and they nap together.
- Book 6 · Ch 42Book of Voodoo distributed
Nearly every crawler receives a Gold Prepotente Box containing the Filthy Little Crawler's Book of Voodoo, a messaging book with ominous hints.
- Book 6 · Ch 42Climbing the mound
In daylight, Carl climbs the muddy, eroding mound with Donut on his shoulder toward the next token fight.
- Book 6 · Ch 43Jola kills the Visitor
Atop the mound, Donut summons Jola the Yule Cat, who kills the Nightgaunt deckmaster, the Visitor, before it plays a card.
- Book 6 · Ch 43The turkey barn ambush
Mongo rampages through a barn of turkeys until a hidden turkey deckmaster knocks him out and starts a double card fight with a spiked ogre.
- Book 6 · Ch 44Double deck fight in the turkey barn
Carl and Donut fight Tom and Sharp-Elbows at once as the turkeys turn hostile and dead ones rise as zombies; Shi Maria is snared back into the deck.
- Book 6 · Ch 44Carl kills Tom
Carl unleashes the Scavenger's Daughter's Kiss on Tom, destroying him, and the damaged barn begins sliding off the eroding cliff.
- Book 6 · Ch 44Death of Sharp-Elbows
Sharp-Elbows impales Carl on her spikes and whispers about the mobs' hunger before Raul destroys her staff and decapitates her.
- Book 6 · Ch 44Escape from the falling barn
With Carl dangling over the cliff and passing out, Donut Puddle Jumps them away as the barn collapses into the ocean.
- Book 6 · Ch 45Donut prepares Carl for his father
After Carl wakes, Donut tries to take the final key fight alone, then admits she knows the boss is Carl's father; Carl resolves to face him together.
- Book 6 · Ch 46Carl reaches his father's trailer
Crossing a floating chunk of Iowa above the ocean, Carl and Donut find his father's motorcycle and a token-operated fight machine at a trailer spliced in from an earlier time.
- Book 6 · Ch 46Carl enters the trailer alone
After looting the yard and activating a 42-minute countdown, Carl leaves Donut and Mongo outside and goes into the trailer by himself.
- Book 6 · Ch 47Carl witnesses his father's death
Inside a recording of the trailer, Carl finds his dying father, learns he has a young brother, Asher, and watches his stepmother prepare a fatal morphine dose.
- Book 6 · Ch 47Carl confronts his father's memory
Carl whispers that his father is a bully and a nobody, tells ghostly Asher he won't be forgotten, loots the trailer and burns it.
- Book 6 · Ch 47Keyholder fight unlocked
When the timer ends, Carl rejoins Donut and Mongo outside and decides to burn the trailer before facing the keyholder.
- Book 6 · Ch 48The AI hijacks the keyholder fight
As the trailer burns, the AI locks out the production team, replaces Carl's father as boss with a nine-headed Reminiscence Hydra of familiar faces, and rants about mantis-made macro AIs.
- Book 6 · Ch 48Battle with the Reminiscence Hydra begins
Judge Lucian strips their invisibility, Carl blows off one head, Donut summons Jola, and the hydra's totem Alpha Male Carl destroys both clockwork Mongos.
- Book 6 · Ch 48The Reminiscence Hydra is defeated
Carl removes and cauterizes the fire head, letting the moonshine fire hurt the hydra; Shi Maria bites off heads, and the burning hydra dies, giving Carl and Donut the win.
- Book 6 · Ch 48Shi Maria touches Carl's mind
While Carl burns, Shi Maria's magic eye connects with his mind; she kills the Asher head mercifully and says Carl will soon do something for her.
- Book 6 · Ch 49Carl learns Bea hid his brother
After the fight, Donut reveals Bea ran Carl's Facebook, got Sally fired, and knew about Asher, which makes Carl angry at Bea for the first time.
- Book 6 · Ch 49Carl becomes a Devotee of Emberus
Carl's suffering in the fire earns him the Devotee rank from Emberus, with better heat immunity and the Self-Immolation spell.
- Book 6 · Ch 49Looting the keymaster's deck
Carl and Donut claim the Champion Pack and discard the hydra's totems, but Alpha Male Carl and Leveled-Up Frank force themselves into Donut's deck.
- Book 6 · Ch 50Saferoom Christmas party
Back in the saferoom, Louis's Christmas party is in full swing; Carl objects, but after Louis's angry plea Carl joins in by offering turkeys to roast.
- Book 6 · Ch 50The system AI takes control
Instead of the recap, Cascadia and liaison Orren announce the system AI has seized operations from the showrunners and begin explaining Primal Engines and Macro AIs.
- Book 6 · Ch 50Carl gets an emergency benefactor box
Carl receives an Emergency Gold Benefactor Box from the Open Intellect Pacifist Network after a liaison seizure is overridden, and is told to open it alone.
- Book 6 · Ch 51The benefactor box flyer
Carl opens his loot boxes alone, including a benefactor box holding a homeless-shelter flyer with a 7 AM Christmas breakfast circled, and decides he must be there.
- Book 6 · Ch 51Zev's warning
As Carl leaves the saferoom, Zev warns him that his sponsor and the entire charity, including Rosetta, have disappeared, and that no one knows what he is heading into.
- Book 6 · Ch 51Carl rides out alone
Telling Donut he needs air, Carl leaves the Christmas party and rides his father's motorcycle toward Homestead.
- Book 6 · Ch 52Message on the shelter wall
Scouting the empty Homestead shelter, Carl finds a long-standing graffiti note in Syndicate Standard telling him to look for a man in a red hat at breakfast, then breaks in to wait among sleeping memory ghosts.
- Book 6 · Ch 52Zev hints at the Residuals
Zev covers for Carl with his team and says the AI forbids interference; she suggests the errand involves the Residuals but cannot explain them.
- Book 6 · Ch 52The man in the red hat speaks
At breakfast, the elderly man in the red hat drinks his coffee, then turns to Carl and addresses him directly as a crawler.
- Book 6 · Ch 53Goff's Residual speech
The man in the red hat, Goff, delivers a rehearsed recorded speech revealing the Residuals and their purpose, until Carl is yanked away mid-sentence.
- Book 6 · Ch 53Orren explains the 'trap'
In the closed Desperado Club, Orren tells Carl the Pacifist Network set an elaborate trap risking the planet, and that the AI agreed with pulling him out.
- Book 6 · Ch 53Trading away the bin
With Quasar present, Carl trades the Residual's bin to Orren for minor scrolls and keeping four cretins on the ninth floor; Orren refuses to return the Gate of the Feral Gods.
- Book 6 · Ch 54Return to Cuba
On December 26th Carl and Donut are dropped in a Cuban church with a key; Carl's stairwell traps fire and other squads report in, many having set traps.
- Book 6 · Ch 54Imani trapped near Quan Ch
Imani reveals she is in Cuba at Sister Ines's church, having fled into a saferoom from Quan Ch; Carl and Donut head to her.
- Book 6 · Ch 55Pinpointed on the road
Riding east toward Imani with Donut on Mongo and Samantha on the handlebars, Carl's location is revealed by an unknown caster's Eye in the Sky scroll.
- Book 6 · Ch 56Samantha's recon
Thrown toward the coast, Samantha reports a giant snake covered in zombie seals and crabs, with surviving seals singing and Sister Ines riding its head.
- Book 6 · Ch 56Demon Eviction begins in Cuba
The Chowder War quest fails and a new quest begins as Cuba experiences a Demon Eviction event, letting demons possess zombies and drag victims to Sheol.
- Book 6 · Ch 56Forcing a battle with Sister Ines
Carl and Donut prepare traps and spells while Samantha bites Sister Ines, letting Carl pull the nun in for a card battle.
- Book 6 · Ch 57The mass summon
Carl's summon, amplified by Samantha, drops Sister Ines, Madre de Aguas and thousands of creatures around him, breaking her charm spell and freeing dozens of full-power demons.
- Book 6 · Ch 57Live-announced boss battle
Kevin and Magnificent Troy live-announce an eight-way Survival Royale battle, replaying how the zombie outbreak and Demon Eviction disrupted Sister Ines's plan.
- Book 6 · Ch 57Allegiances chosen
Donut picks Sister Ines as an ally while Carl pleads with the raving nun to do the same; Quan Ch is revealed to be present as the battle starts.
- Book 6 · Ch 58The Emberus loan and ring
Several days earlier, Carl borrowed from the Temple of Emberus to have his strength ring enchanted to suppress his slug debuff, earning the Columbia House achievement.
- Book 6 · Ch 58Quan steals the keys
Quan ambushes the eight-way battle, uses Peekaboo and Force Play to make Sister Ines flee, then swaps hands with Donut and forces her Flee, taking both keys.
- Book 6 · Ch 58Race to stop Quan
Teleported into swampy woods, Carl warns Imani and Tserendolgor's squad to delay the slug-infected Quan at the exits while he forms a new plan.
- Book 6 · Ch 59Samantha's confession
Pressed by Carl, Samantha tearfully admits her powers are unpredictable and that she cannot teleport, sparking Carl's teleport-trap idea.
- Book 6 · Ch 59Teleport trap plan
After Florin finds traps can't be set in stairwell chambers, Carl loads teleport-trap automatons into Samantha and throws her toward the capitol building as Quan arrives there.
- Book 6 · Ch 60Amayon arrives
Madre de Aguas dies and rises as a zombie, letting the Demon Prince Amayon slip into the realm; Carl earns an achievement and a quest to question him.
- Book 6 · Ch 60Death of Quan Ch
In a chaotic battle at the capitol building, Quan steals Ren's death worm, killing Chuluuna, before Donut's totems strip and overwhelm him; Carl returns his ring before he dies.
- Book 6 · Ch 60The failing door
Donut receives both keys for killing Quan, but the capitol building's exit door is damaged and will collapse in five minutes.
- Book 6 · Ch 61The exit collapses
With Donut holding the only usable key and the Capitol door crumbling, Carl and Ren realize no option saves everyone; the Capitol exit is destroyed.
- Book 6 · Ch 61Ren's sacrifice
Refusing to fight Carl and Donut, Ren gives Carl her gear, cards and her reset pet Garret, confesses to Donut, and prepares to die with Khulan on her own terms.
- Book 6 · Ch 62Ren's death
Ren detonates her wrist bracer, collapsing the Capitol building and dying, as Carl leaves with the loot.
- Book 6 · Ch 62Regrouping in Havana
Carl throws Samantha to retrieve Donut, and the three sneak through zombie-filled Havana toward the church where Imani waits.
- Book 6 · Ch 62Sister Ines's ultimatum
Sister Ines, now controlling demons including Amayon, demands Carl come to the FOSCA building or she'll destroy the church holding the last exit.
- Book 6 · Ch 63Broken doors and sealed stairwells
As crawlers worldwide threaten each other's doorways, Katia confirms a broken door seals its stairwell chamber completely.
- Book 6 · Ch 63Amayon's sky portal
Samantha explains that Amayon is fighting Sister Ines's charm to open a huge soul-hungry portal to Sheol above Havana.
- Book 6 · Ch 63Sluggalos versus demons
Imani releases the Sluggalos Doctor Bones bred in the training arcade to feed the demons' portals around the church, while Carl begins forming a larger plan.
- Book 6 · Ch 63Carl gathers intel on Sheol
Mordecai briefs Carl on Sheol's queen and princes, and Prepotente reports the reddening sky as Carl seeks ideas for making the event global.
- Book 6 · Ch 64Carl's mass appeal
Carl messages all crawlers to stop fighting over keys and clear around stairwell chambers; after doubts and infighting, Katia, Elle, Li Na and many others agree.
- Book 6 · Ch 64Where the Sidewalk Ends quest
A regional quest confirms Amayon's two-hour soul portal over Cuba, offering options to do nothing, free him into a World quest, or kill him.
- Book 6 · Ch 64Donut stays with Carl
Carl tells Donut he must kill Sister Ines and free Amayon; Donut refuses to leave without him.
- Book 6 · Ch 65Friends arrive in Cuba
Imani leads over twenty crawlers, including Elle, Katia, Louis and Li Jun, out of the church via a Doggie Door to help Carl with his plan.
- Book 6 · Ch 66Ysalte and the Nebulars
Mordecai identifies Ysalte as the deadly Vinegar Bitch and reveals that the Nebulars sponsor both her and Sister Ines, explaining the cult's genocidal aims.
- Book 6 · Ch 66Approaching the FOSCA building
Leaving others to demolish the church, Carl leads his friends, strippers and sluggalos to the FOSCA building surrounded by docile demons waiting for Amayon's portal.
- Book 6 · Ch 67Assault on the demon horde
Donut casts Minion Army while the sluggalos charge early; Elle's supercharged Graupel then obliterates the demons outside the FOSCA building.
- Book 6 · Ch 67Death of Sister Ines
Climbing to the 32nd floor, Carl knocks out the charging Sister Ines and Louis stabs her to death, drawing her patron Ysalte into the realm.
- Book 6 · Ch 68Ysalte arrives
Ysalte rises from Sister Ines's corpse, vows Louis will suffer, and attacks Samantha, whose head deflects the goddess's pickaxe.
- Book 6 · Ch 68Amayon's true form
The snake collapses through the building and Carl's teleport trap frees Amayon into his giant true form, though he stays enslaved to Ysalte.
- Book 6 · Ch 68The Missing Piece begins
Where the Sidewalk Ends completes and a hybrid world quest starts: crawlers in Cuba must survive a card battle against Ysalte and help Amayon break free within ten minutes.
- Book 6 · Ch 69The final card battle
On the ruined 32nd floor, Carl's team battles Amayon's demon totems and Ysalte's deck while the building collapses, quickly emptying Amayon's hand.
- Book 6 · Ch 69Refill the world with souls
The battle freezes for a quest update requiring the world be refilled with souls before Amayon can be powered up; Carl prepares to leap toward Samantha.
- Book 6 · Ch 70Carl takes the deck
Donut plays Midnight Express, making Carl the deckmaster on the beach; he summons Raul the crab and Alpha Male Carl.
- Book 6 · Ch 70Raul ascends
Pressured and berated by Alpha Male Carl, Raul finally fertilizes the eggs in the ocean to supply souls for Amayon's spell.
- Book 6 · Ch 70Carl teleports into Samantha
With under a minute left, Carl steps into his teleport trap trigger, teleporting to the trap he left inside Samantha.
- Book 6 · Ch 71The city burns
Carl triggers Martyr's Path from inside Samantha in Amayon's hand, setting the city on fire and powering the demon's homeward spell.
- Book 6 · Ch 71Carl delivers Emberus's question
Carl asks Amayon about Geyrun's fate; Amayon trades the answer for help killing his brothers, then drops Carl toward the fire.
- Book 6 · Ch 72Carl combined with Shi Maria
Shi Maria kills Alpha Carl before the Golden Combo resolves, so the card fuses Carl with Shi Maria instead.
- Book 6 · Ch 73Shi Maria possesses Carl
Combined with Shi Maria, Carl loses control; she casts Self-Immolation, burns through the floor and wounds Katia and Mongo.
- Book 6 · Ch 73Li Jun loses an eye
When Li Jun approaches, Shi Maria uses Carl's hand to stab out and eat his eye.
- Book 6 · Ch 73The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Shi Maria tattoos an eye into Carl's chest with homemade ink, binding herself to him before the combination times out.
- Book 6 · Ch 74Paz's card ripped
The group agrees to free Paz Lo rather than keep his card; Donut rips it and gets no player killer skull.
- Book 6 · Ch 74Quest update: Falling Up
The system announces Amayon's portal will scour the world, crediting Carl and Raul, and explains how to escape by stairwell chamber.
- Book 6 · Ch 74Emergency action item
Carl's emergency action item sends pending Faction Wars votes to viewers, who remove sponsor protections and add an NPC Home Team.
- Book 6 · Ch 74The heavens open over Cuba
The portal strips the world clean, sucking Carl, Donut and Imani into the sky; Carl swears vengeance for everyone lost.
- Book 6 · Ch 74Arrival at Faction Wars
The quests Hell Comes to Crawler Town and The Missing Piece complete, and the crawlers are welcomed to Faction Wars.
- Book 6 · Ch 75Aboard the Homecoming Queen
Tipid and Rosetta, Crest working with Doctor Hu, watch Carl and Donut escape the eighth floor and discuss the AI and the failsafe.
- Book 7 · Ch 2Paulie's real message
In a frozen Christmas memory, Paulie reveals how the crawl harvests elements from crawlers and has Carl drink a neural enhancement from his coffee.
- Book 7 · Ch 2Containment Interface installs
The enhancement begins installing a Containment Interface letting Carl trip the fuse and destroy the system; Carl is then sent to Orren's office.
- Book 7 · Ch 4Arrival in Larracos
Carl and Donut land in a drained alley of Larracos as the ninth floor, Faction Wars, begins with a 60-hour ceasefire.
- Book 7 · Ch 4Carl purges soul poisoning
Suffering Soul Poisoning, Carl uses Daughter's Kiss to vaporise a dead concierge shark and disperse the stored soul energy.
- Book 7 · Ch 4Donut's new class
Donut reveals she picked the Deathbed Hellcat class and urges Carl to a saferoom so she can collect her accessories and open her boxes.
- Book 7 · Ch 5Opening achievements
In a Larracos saferoom, Carl opens over fifty achievements from the last floor, including two celestial boxes and several unsettling AI messages.
- Book 7 · Ch 5Emberus's quest update
Emberus orders Carl to the Temple of Issitoq to seek permission to break the truce so he can learn who killed his son.
- Book 7 · Ch 6Donut opens her boxes
Donut receives new spellbooks, the Tiara of a Thousand Lights from Long Haul, and a second charge pillow from the Apothecary.
- Book 7 · Ch 6Planning the champion's cloak
Mordecai and Carl plan for Donut to take MySpace Photo before donning Quan's cloak, massively boosting her Constitution.
- Book 7 · Ch 6Donut becomes champion
Donut drinks MySpace Photo and dons the champion's cloak, which boosts Bad Attitude and three more spells toward level 15.
- Book 7 · Ch 7Carl opens his boxes
Carl opens his prizes, gaining a toe ring, a Midnight Market patch and, from his celestial box, the skill Gloom Wraith Phase.
- Book 7 · Ch 9Carl bonds a tummy acher
Carl reveals Ren's reborn tummy acher; Mongo swallows and spits him out, and the pet bonds with Carl after eating chowder.
- Book 7 · Ch 9Naming the pet and fixing Carl's hair
Friends argue over a name for the tummy acher while Katia regrows Carl's eyebrows and lashes with hair tonic.
- Book 7 · Ch 9Sir Rendlegore named
Louis proposes Sir Rendlegore as the tummy acher's name to honour Ren, and Carl accepts it immediately.
- Book 7 · Ch 10Tour of the Party Planner hangar
Louis takes the group up the new airship elevator to the hangar, where they examine his stealth light bomber Party Planner and discuss Faction Wars armor rules.
- Book 7 · Ch 10Carl's moment of dread
Seeing leftover tinsel, Carl reflects on living in a simulation of a simulation and recalls the failsafe he nearly used, feeling fear as the eye on his chest blinks.
- Book 7 · Ch 11Donut discovers the Donut Holes shirt
Donut finds Louis wearing an enchanted Donut Holes fan club t-shirt depicting her backside and is outraged; Zev explains the merch is licensed and Donut earns nothing from it.
- Book 7 · Ch 11Meeting War Leader Arief
Leaving the college, the group meets War Leader Arief, a Semeru dwarf officer, who says the NPCs want to discuss tactics and that Juice Box wants to seal the truce by marrying Louis.
- Book 7 · Ch 12Descent through Larracos
Arief leads Carl's group down through the rings of Larracos, recruiting crawlers on the way and explaining the city, the NPCs' memories of past seasons and their raids on enemy camps.
- Book 7 · Ch 12Arrival at the Desperado Club
At the reopened Desperado Club, Donut spots a changeling bartender, and the gnoll manager Hunger Hammy greets Louis by kissing him furiously.
- Book 7 · Ch 13War council with Juice Box
In a hidden room at the Desperado Club, Juice Box shares maps and plans, explains Shanty Town and reveals Ferdinand controls her team's systems with Drick as adjutant.
- Book 7 · Ch 14Crawlers banned from the Desperado Club
Clarabelle tells Carl's group that the new manager, Hamed the Night Wyrm, has banned all crawlers from the Desperado Club.
- Book 7 · Ch 14Trade for Shanty Town
Carl gives Ferdinand a temporary bowler hat in exchange for the mayorship of Shanty Town, and the alliance is renamed The Good Guys.
- Book 7 · Ch 14Louis and Juice Box marry
Louis and Juice Box hold a small changeling wedding in the entrance bar, whispering private vows; the Confirmation will follow in a month. Florin then summons Carl to headquarters as recruits flood in.
- Book 7 · Ch 16Former crawlers arrive as reinforcements
In the Meadowlark saferoom, Carl meets cookbook authors Tipid and Rosetta, who reveal that over 50,000 former crawlers have joined the Princess Posse.
- Book 7 · Ch 16Tipid's story
Tipid explains Dr. Hu's Crawler Project, how the former crawlers came, and that the other eight teams each gained about 20,000 armed mercenaries.
- Book 7 · Ch 17Carl arrives at base camp
Carl arrives at the Princess Posse Base Camp, where thousands of former crawlers building the stronghold greet him with a thundering war chant started by Penn.
- Book 7 · Ch 17Tina escapes
As Carl and Tipid open the stronghold's huge door, Tina the allosaurus bursts out to greet Mongo.
- Book 7 · Ch 18Mongo meets pregnant Kiwi
Tina greets Mongo as 'Papa', and Kiwi, now an ursine and heavily pregnant, hugs Mongo before taking Tina back inside.
- Book 7 · Ch 18Herman's suicide bombing foiled
Herman the Fleet, covered in explosives and compelled by Sensation Entertainment, nearly kills Carl's group until Baroness Victory axes him and Carl stows the body in his inventory.
- Book 7 · Ch 19Carl discovers Shi Maria's attempts
In the flag room, Carl finds hundreds of suppressed notices showing Shi Maria trying to cast through him, including a Gloom Wraith Phase that could have detonated Herman's bombs.
- Book 7 · Ch 19Victory's war briefing
Baroness Victory explains the four phases of combat and the Ramp-Up rules, and reveals about 100,000 enemies massing on the northern border.
- Book 7 · Ch 20Hunting the Rolling Battle Formation Ball
Carl's mixed squad hunts a mob incursion at the edge of their territory; Carl breaks the rolling ball apart with hob-lobbers and Rend feeds on the dazed skunks.
- Book 7 · Ch 20Skunk spray unleashed
Donut knocks out Fancy Boy, freeing the fleeing skunks to spray all at once, and Carl escapes the cloud using Gloom Wraith Phase.
- Book 7 · Ch 20Aftermath of the skunk spray
Carl escapes via Gloom Wraith Phase, Bodi paralyzes the skunks, Rend feeds and levels up, and Jamal eats Fancy Boy, while Donut, Mongo and the elves are Skanked.
- Book 7 · Ch 20Elle reports back
Elle returns from scouting, reporting the artillery positions and a new threat on the naga side tied to the robots' interest in pet leveling.
- Book 7 · Ch 22Katia and Carl go under
In the base field hospital, Mordecai gives Katia and Carl modified Glory Bound so Katia can confront her past and Carl can try to trap Shi Maria in her worst memory.
- Book 7 · Ch 22Minds collide
As they fall asleep, Carl's mind briefly floods into Katia's and others', before a Lemig Sortion peace offer interrupts.
- Book 7 · Ch 23Shi Maria trapped
In Shi Maria's memory, she devours her husband Hapanzi, who later tells Carl she is now trapped inside him; Carl fails the Bedlam Bride quest.
- Book 7 · Ch 23Massacre in the Lemig throne room
Carl wakes covered in blood in the Lemig Sortion's throne room after their sabotage attempt backfired, leaving about fifty dead including Luke; a minor quorum of adjutants pauses hostilities.
- Book 7 · Ch 24Field ruling on the Lemig plot
Panford leads a minor quorum showing how Stockade used Summon Ally to pull Carl to his base, replaying Katia's dream memories; Stockade's outburst is ruled an admission of guilt.
- Book 7 · Ch 24Enemies prepare an early assault
Prepotente, Elle and Florin report enemy troops and tanks moving on both borders despite the ceasefire; Carl orders a code red and tells Louis to launch the bomber.
- Book 7 · Ch 25Ruling and Stockade's death
The quorum clears the Madness and Princess Posse and penalizes the Lemig Sortion, but Stockade, maddened by Shi Maria's spell, kills himself, and the Lemig assets go to the Madness.
- Book 7 · Ch 25Faction Wars begin early
The ceasefire ends early; Houston shoots Carl as he teleports home with a stolen bag of cat food, and enemy artillery begins striking the Princess Posse's shield.
- Book 7 · Ch 26Carl disconnects the containment
On Christmas morning, at a gas station beside a ghost dog, Carl explores the Containment Interface, decides against blowing the fuse, and presses Disconnect Containment, disabling the failsafe.
- Book 7 · Ch 27Faction Wars Phase One begins
With the ceasefire over, the base scrambles to send troops to the northern and southern fronts as enemy artillery pounds the FUPA's shield.
- Book 7 · Ch 27Carl heads to the southern front
Carl ejects Samantha from Party Planner via Louis, sends the eager kids and Jamal back, and leads his Personal Guard toward the naga border.
- Book 7 · Ch 28Rot sticker assault on the southern trenches
The Reavers unleash about 1,000 diseased rot sticker behemoths against the Posse's southern trenches; mages raise an earthwork and the Moles blow it up, but Gurgles-infected soldiers die in the trench.
- Book 7 · Ch 28Carl prepares the counterattack
With Louis in position in Party Planner and Elle watching the enemy lines, Carl tells Tran it is their turn to strike.
- Book 7 · Ch 29Planning the southern assault on the Nagas
Carl, Tran and Colonel Boomer review Elle's scouting of the enemy trenches, trebuchets, cavalry, tanks and invisible Madness troops before attacking the Naga territory toward the Blood Sultanate castle.
- Book 7 · Ch 29The assault begins
With the NPC team confirmed ready via Britney, Carl gives the order and Boomer finally lights his cigar.
- Book 7 · Ch 30Opening bombardment of the southern assault
Louis bombs the ground before the enemy trenches from the Party Planner, Elle hits an anti-air battery, and the lone trebuchet scatters Dazzlers that blast a deafening song.
- Book 7 · Ch 30The Princess Posse goes over the top
On Donut's order, over two thousand members of the Princess Posse drink invisibility potions and charge across No Man's Land into enemy fire, with Carl, Donut, Mongo and Imani among them.
- Book 7 · Ch 31Charge across No Man's Land
Carl, Donut, Mongo and Imani run through fog, artillery and pulse fire; an enemy diffusion spell strips their protections, and Carl silences a heavy gun with a hob-lobber.
- Book 7 · Ch 31Breaching the trenches with Build Trench
On Boomer's signal, the attackers drop into the bomb craters and use Build Trench scrolls to dig channels that join the enemy trenches; Carl then attacks a stunned Saccathian soldier with Daughter's Kiss.
- Book 7 · Ch 32Enemy front trench captured
After Carl blasts the trench and briefly blacks out, the Princess Posse captures the first trench while fleeing enemies fall into an acid-filled middle trench; Boomer takes command.
- Book 7 · Ch 32Raid on the Prism headquarters
Louis flies Carl, Donut, Mongo and Rend thirty miles to the Prism castle, where they kill the guards, steal the traps and enter to confront Empress D'Nadia.
- Book 7 · Ch 34Defeating Empress D'Nadia
In the Prism throne room, Carl and Donut strip D'Nadia's shields with bangers and Clockwork Mongos, heal her and mark her with the Ring of Divine Suffering.
- Book 7 · Ch 34Carl steps back from the edge
Consumed by hatred over Tsarina Signet, Carl wants to kill D'Nadia himself, but Donut talks him down and he lets her and Mongo finish it.
- Book 7 · Ch 35The Prism falls
Mongo kills Warlord D'Nadia; the Prism is defeated and its assets, including eight gnoll mercenaries, go to the Princess Posse, while Carl spares their two friends from rival teams.
- Book 7 · Ch 35Carl becomes party leader
Carl's base stats overtake Donut's, making him Party Leader; Donut feigns outrage and urges him to give up the Ring of Divine Suffering.
- Book 7 · Ch 36Toyotomi joins the Posse
Carl frees the inherited Sai mercenary Toyotomi from Rend and, learning of his building shield magic, sends him to help Li Jun fortify Shanty Town.
- Book 7 · Ch 36Warning about Agatha
Li Jun reports Agatha came looking for Carl, and Zev passes on a direct order from the Syndicate's prime minister that Carl must not interact with her.
- Book 7 · Ch 36Abandoning the Prism castle
Carl traps the castle and leaves Lockjaw in the throne room to provoke conflict between the Madness and the Dream, then heads off to hunt the blobs.
- Book 7 · Ch 37Northern front falls back
Florin's forces retreat under the enemy's big armored push, and he warns the enemy will flow around them toward the castle.
- Book 7 · Ch 37Assault on the Posse castle
Enemy flyers drop paratroopers, saboteurs destroy the anti-air battery and hangar, Reavers enter via a saferoom door, and worm-controlled mages kill defenders from within.
- Book 7 · Ch 37Carl kills a worm-controlled mage
Carl beats Charles Andrew to death and kills the worm Goldblum, warns the army about brain worms, and orders Tina unleashed.
- Book 7 · Ch 38Defending the castle entrance
Pinned behind shields at the castle's only entrance, Carl, Donut and the defenders pick off invisible Monkeywrenchers while worm-controlled Lonnie disables the castle's protections from the enemy lines.
- Book 7 · Ch 38Donut unleashes Tina
Kiwi refuses to let Tina fight; Carl relents, but Donut orders Tina out, rallies the troops from the castle roof, and leads a charge on the paratroopers.
- Book 7 · Ch 39Destroying the Reaver beachhead
Tina charges the cyborg paratroopers while summoned card monsters join the fight; Carl detonates their bomb automatons with Tripper, and the defenders finish them off.
- Book 7 · Ch 39Killing the last worm-controlled mage
Carl kills an invisible assassin on the barracks roof, then leaps onto the fleeing worm-controlled Lonnie; the Reaver door vanishes.
- Book 7 · Ch 39Bracing for the main assault
Reinforcements arrive as the enemy's main armored force, possibly led by Prince Stalwart, approaches the castle.
- Book 7 · Ch 40King Rust arrives with the northern army
A massive enemy army masses outside the Posse castle, and Donut discovers the orc leader is King Rust himself, not Prince Stalwart.
- Book 7 · Ch 40Closing the saferoom entrance
In the guildhall, the leaders decide to collapse the bait shop entrance, while Donut spends the last money on a hangar, anti-air gun and banners.
- Book 7 · Ch 41Riding out to parlay
Donut rides Ferdinand's rhino Simoom in a howdah to match King Rust's mount, and she and Carl head out under a parlay shield to meet him.
- Book 7 · Ch 41Florin captures enemy armor
Florin's forces stop the enemy armor column and capture two Weeper tanks, and he moves to support the castle while Carl stalls Rust.
- Book 7 · Ch 42Parlay with King Rust
A grieving King Rust reveals that Princess Formidable is flying to trigger the system failsafe, and agrees to withdraw his army if Carl pleads with her for Earth.
- Book 7 · Ch 42Carl's secret about the failsafe
Carl tells Donut privately that the failsafe won't go off, because he is the one who turned it off, and plans to strike the retreating army.
- Book 7 · Ch 44Looting King Rust
Amid the enemy charge, Rosetta uses King Rust's corpse to authorise a bank transfer while Carl takes the body into his inventory; robed war mages on clockwork mounts approach.
- Book 7 · Ch 44Rescue through the dwarven tunnel
When a dispel clears the smoke, the ground opens and the group falls into a Semeru dwarf tunnel, where the dwarves fight off war mages who fall in.
- Book 7 · Ch 44Carl transferred to the Desperado Club
As the Operatic Collective's defeat is announced and the enemy retreats, Carl is abruptly transferred to the Desperado Club.
- Book 7 · Ch 45Interrogation by Orren
Pulled into the liaison office at the Desperado Club, Carl learns Rosetta stole billions from Rust, and Orren demands to know how Carl's implant disabled the failsafe.
- Book 7 · Ch 45Orren creates a zero zone
Orren sets off a device creating a zero zone outside the AI's control and begs Carl to say whether the failsafe can be re-enabled, until Growler Gary interrupts.
- Book 7 · Ch 46The AI's avatar reveals itself
The system AI, in Growler Gary's body, breaks Orren's zero zone and confirms it has disabled the failsafe, refusing to reveal its intentions.
- Book 7 · Ch 46Formidable pulled from her ship
The AI teleports Princess Formidable into the office, tells her that her father is dead, then sends her down to Earth's surface at her choice.
- Book 7 · Ch 47The AI asks Donut for relationship advice
The AI summons Donut and, through a metaphor about girlfriends and an imprisoned ex, seeks advice; Donut urges caution, and the AI declares the game will go on.
- Book 7 · Ch 47Growler Gary released
The AI departs Gary's body; the confused, drunk, level-175 gnoll asks for Rory and teleports away.
- Book 7 · Ch 48The Bloc splinters
Carl loses the former Prism castle to the Dream, and both the Bone Clan and the Dream leave the Bloc, reshaping the alliances.
- Book 7 · Ch 48Preparing Operation: Snake Pit
Back at base, Boomer debriefs Carl and signals in code that it's time to launch Operation: Snake Pit against the nagas as Katia returns.
- Book 7 · Ch 49Carl learns Run, Little Günter, Run
A crying, leggy spellbook from Carl's box begs not to be read; Carl studies the strange summoning spell with Katia and learns it.
- Book 7 · Ch 49Katia tattoos Carl
Katia uses ink made with Li Na's blood to tattoo a level-13 skill onto Carl's right arm as a dragon-shaped chain.
- Book 7 · Ch 49Operation: Snake Pit begins
Zev confirms the warlord council will go ahead in the production facility, and Carl is teleported there as Operation: Snake Pit begins.
- Book 7 · Ch 50Arrival at the production facility
Carl, Donut and a panicked Ferdinand arrive at the production facility and are security-scanned by gnoll guards before the warlord council.
- Book 7 · Ch 50The Aryl system goes dark
Zev reveals that triggering the failsafe caused the Aryl system and its tunnel node to go dark, an unprecedented event.
- Book 7 · Ch 51The warlord council assembles
The warlords gather at the production facility; Carl meets the imposing naga warlord Princess Vinata, whom his team plans to kill.
- Book 7 · Ch 52Odette hosts the warlord council
Odette takes over hosting after Chaco is knocked out, interviewing warlords while Cascadia sits drunk and Vinata whispers threats and offers to Carl.
- Book 7 · Ch 52Carl closes the communication loophole
Learning teams talk to the outside by renaming news programs, Carl spends an Emergency Action Item to close all such loopholes.
- Book 7 · Ch 53Blood Hunter revelation
Odette reveals the Blood Sultanate made Blood Hunter; Carl realizes their troops are already dead and bursts out laughing, while Donut vows vengeance on Vinata.
- Book 7 · Ch 54Operation: Snake Pit goes sideways
Carl returns to find Prepotente already killed most of the naga army, insulted the team, and drew off the sluggalos, forcing a change of plan.
- Book 7 · Ch 54Carl prepares the assault
Carl checks in with his commanders, then collects hundreds of potion balls from Mordecai and sets off with Samantha.
- Book 7 · Ch 55The plan to kill the line of succession
Carl recounts the four-group plan built on Tipid and Rosetta's intelligence to kill the four naga in Vinata's line of succession.
- Book 7 · Ch 55Rosetta's theory of the vanishing sultana
In a flashback, Rosetta argues from past seasons that Vinata escapes into Club Vanquisher through a temple outside Larracos.
- Book 7 · Ch 56Elle and Imani enter the naga castle
Without the sluggalos to clear traps, Elle, Imani and strippers enter the naga castle; Imani uses the tattooed Tripper spell to trigger traps.
- Book 7 · Ch 56Katia's promise
After arguing with Bautista, Katia tells Carl she'd give him the flower for Donut if needed, as Prepotente arrives on his dragon.
- Book 7 · Ch 57Prepotente joins the army
Prepotente lands on Bianca and asks Carl to recruit him; Carl makes him a Colonel and the goat sobs that Carl is his best friend.
- Book 7 · Ch 57Edgar detects movement
Edgar senses non-corporeal movement rising in the castle, and Li Na climbs the clock tower as Carl's part begins.
- Book 7 · Ch 58Rosetta's theory confirmed
Edgar's detection of a Bijou confirms Rosetta's theory, and Carl deduces Vinata's court will travel to Khepri's temple in Club Vanquisher.
- Book 7 · Ch 59Infiltrating Club Vanquisher
Carl and Prepotente take aura potions and pass through the Temple of The Dagda while Bautista distracts the cleric and Li Jun and Zhang trail wire.
- Book 7 · Ch 59The fake bounty ruse
Carl pretends to have captured Prepotente, persuading the ram guard Mork to summon Club Vanquisher's guards.
- Book 7 · Ch 60Breaking into Club Vanquisher
Katia's fake demon alarm and Bautista's pyxies sow chaos; Carl hits Mork with Black Nimbus and the team kills the guards and holds the portals open.
- Book 7 · Ch 60Li Na's dread massacre
Li Na's wire-amplified Dark Purpose makes guards and trophy heads destroy themselves, their ghosts dragged away by chains, defiling the lobby.
- Book 7 · Ch 61Race to the temple portal
Carl, Katia, Prepotente and Samantha cross the blood-soaked club to the temple portal and dial Khepri's temple, where Vinata is visible.
- Book 7 · Ch 61Entering Khepri's temple
Samantha opens the door and the team storms in, only to find Vinata immortal-tagged and Khepri himself present.
- Book 7 · Ch 62Vinata's trap sprung
Carl's team storms Khepri's temple and realizes Vinata anticipated them, summoning Khepri so they'd trespass in a god's presence.
- Book 7 · Ch 62Temple Battle Grudge Match
The AI declares a boss-style temple battle against Khepri and six naga, drags in Li Jun, Bautista and Zhang, and opens betting.
- Book 7 · Ch 62Corinne calls foul
The Blood Sultanate's adjutant demands the fight be stopped over god summoning; Victory refuses as temple rules apply.
- Book 7 · Ch 63The Waffle Maker in Khepri's temple
Carl summons Little Günter and detonates the Waffle Maker in the narrow temple, killing the guards and both cousins while immortality keeps him together.
- Book 7 · Ch 63Gods pour into Club Vanquisher
Blasted out with Carl, Vinata crushes him as dozens of gods emerge; Hellik banishes Khepri and gives Carl a message for Emberus.
- Book 7 · Ch 63Death of Princess Vinata
A sluggalo bursts from Carl's slugpox boil and kills Vinata with a hatchet once her immortality ends.
- Book 7 · Ch 64The Blood Sultanate falls
With Vinata dead, the Blood Sultanate is defeated and its assets go to the Princess Posse; the sluggalette Bigs gets the kill.
- Book 7 · Ch 64Operation Head Banger
Carl berserks the mantaurs with alarm-trap music, nimbuses a Basilica ogre and uses Profane Iron to fight through to his friends.
- Book 7 · Ch 64Carl meets Milk
Prepotente leads the team into a hidden guild where Carl finds Milk, the sixth-edition cookbook author, and breaks down in her embrace.
- Book 7 · Ch 66Preparing for Operation Ruin
In the lull after the Blood Sultanate's fall, the Posse secretly prepares Operation Ruin and completes the Nest tower in Shanty Town.
- Book 7 · Ch 66Forced interview
The AI forces Carl and Katia into a live interview with Victory, Drick and Kevin about their celestial loot while Louis is distraught.
- Book 7 · Ch 66Celestial loot interview
On a live broadcast, the AI reads out Katia's divine knee pads and Carl's screaming celestial hairbrush while Victory explains divine item rules.
- Book 7 · Ch 66Carl's doubts before Operation Ruin
Watching his army prepare and Donut enter the Nest, Carl dreads the losses the coming all-out attack will bring.
- Book 7 · Ch 67Carl reviews his Club Vanquisher rewards
Carl reviews achievements from the Club Vanquisher raid: a temple ban, an unwanted Lucky Shot patch, a celestial box, and a new Emberus quest to kill 100 Hellik worshipers, plus a menacing message from Emberus.
- Book 7 · Ch 67Carl visits the brig
With an hour until chaos begins, Carl, Li Jun and Zhang go to the brig and find only one prisoner left; Carl realises Li Na has been using the Ring of Divine Suffering on the others.
- Book 7 · Ch 68Carl interrogates Rishi
Carl questions the captured naga Rishi, who explains why he hid during the fight, reveals he has usurped the naga throne, and offers Earth a treaty of citizenship and generation ships.
- Book 7 · Ch 68Carl rejects the naga treaty
Disgusted by the politics, Carl tells Rishi to drive his ships into a star, marks him, and announces to watching naga viewers that their new leader is about to die.
- Book 7 · Ch 69Open Hostilities begin
Operation: Ruin starts. Reaver seeker missiles target Party Planner, and Bonnie, a stowaway, shoots down the last three, while Dream artillery opens fire.
- Book 7 · Ch 70Bomb run on King's Point
Louis drops an overclocked bomb load that cracks the orc castle's shields; a long-range death ray narrowly misses Party Planner.
- Book 7 · Ch 70The orc mountain erupts
Dwarves agitate the lava tubes under King's Point; an extra orc shield builds pressure and the mountain blows its top with Party Planner too close.
- Book 7 · Ch 71Carl jumps into Reaver territory
After the eruption damages Party Planner, Carl and Samantha jump out over Reaver territory to meet Elle at the feral gate; Eris is summoned and Team Retribution seizes two throne rooms.
- Book 7 · Ch 71The war mages rebel
War mages teleport to Elle's gate, knock her out, kill King Stalwart, turn into a new independent faction under Akuma, and steal the Gate of the Feral Gods.
- Book 7 · Ch 72Aftermath of the war mage betrayal
Elle recovers, Carl collects the war mage bodies before their heads explode, and Victory explains the War Mage Rebellion before leaving for an adjutant hearing over Drick's foul.
- Book 7 · Ch 72Carl and Elle go through the gate
As Boomer begins the raid on the Reaver castle, Carl and Elle step through the feral gate toward the Madness castle, while Samantha spots a dragon overhead.
- Book 7 · Ch 73Carl's strike team assembles
In Madness territory, Carl teleports in Katia, Imani, Splash Zone and, unexpectedly, Dong Quixote on Gonk with Bigs, then the team starts picking through the trapped prairie toward the castle.
- Book 7 · Ch 73Boomer overrules Carl
Boomer insists Louis continue the bomb run despite the dragon; Carl apologises and makes Samantha an officer to paint the dragon for missiles.
- Book 7 · Ch 74The memorial crystal lights up
When Yarilo appears, Osvaldo's Memorial Crystal: Apito shoots a huge prismatic beam into the sky, updating Carl's quest and drawing enemy attention.
- Book 7 · Ch 74Carl's team is discovered
Elle's Subterfuge is negated and half the Madness forces charge Carl's group on dune buggies; Carl calls in reinforcements and Prepotente while missiles pound the Madness castle.
- Book 7 · Ch 75Psionic assault on Carl
As the 105th arrives, the Madness's mind mages bombard Carl with psionic debuffs; a mysterious voice steadies him, his Mind Balance hits 16, and he paints the mind mages for the last missiles.
- Book 7 · Ch 75Eris's Chaos Ritual
Eris casts Bear Witness and Bring Forth the Witnesses, freezing almost everyone outside structures on the floor and lifting them into the sky, including Carl's army and the Madness soldiers.
- Book 7 · Ch 76Party Planner is destroyed
The dragon tears Party Planner in half; Louis falls toward the Reaver castle, and Carl sends Samantha to save him.
- Book 7 · Ch 76Carl presses on to the Madness castle
With the Madness army gone, Carl, Dong, Bigs and Jamal decide to continue the assault on the Madness castle.
- Book 7 · Ch 77Carl breaches the Madness castle
Carl, Dong, Jamal, Bigs and Rend cross the trapped field, are deshrouded, and force a back door into the Castle of the Madness, finding about twenty soldiers inside.
- Book 7 · Ch 77Madness guards confront Carl
Eighteen guards, including two conscripted crawlers, rush Carl's group; their psionic attacks fail and they meet the invulnerable Carl and Dong.
- Book 7 · Ch 78Madness castle guards defeated
Carl's group kills the Madness guards and two Viceroys, captures the conscripted crawlers Selvi and Tuba, and Bigs occupies the Madness throne room.
- Book 7 · Ch 78Houston's surgical theater
Carl finds Houston fusing himself with a dead changeling, Zeynep's mutilated corpse, and a captive Burcu, all ringed by Sheol-fire traps; Carl jumps between tables to free Burcu and loses his invulnerability.
- Book 7 · Ch 78Death of Architect Houston
The fused changeling transforms; Carl's rescue of Burcu goes wrong, the Sheol-fire traps fire, and Houston and Burcu die while Carl phases out, earning the kill and defeating the Madness.
- Book 7 · Ch 78Li Jun dies
Carl receives a message from the deceased Li Jun thanking him for more time with his sister and best friend.
- Book 7 · Ch 79Carl enters Katia's dream
Days earlier, a dream-potion experiment goes wrong and Carl shares Katia's dream of the Icelandic children's hospital where her adoption of baby Annie was denied.
- Book 7 · Ch 79Shi Maria breaks into the dream
Katia's and Carl's dreams collide as a screaming Shi Maria bursts in, denying she killed someone.
- Book 7 · Ch 81Donut unleashes the fleshers
As her rolling ball reaches the field of corpses, Donut casts You're Not Done Yet, creating thousands of fleshers that swarm into the ball seeking enemies.
- Book 7 · Ch 81Carl stops the ball breaking
Fearing the war mages will conscript Eris or Meatus, Carl and Li Na tell Donut to stop, and Carl heals the battle formation before retreating to a saferoom.
- Book 7 · Ch 81The ball is sent toward Larracos
Carl has Donut steer the intact ball toward Larracos and orders everyone free to defend the city, while the adjutants theorise about Agatha's aims.
- Book 7 · Ch 81Carl flees the fleshers
Fleshers start creeping toward Carl, and he runs with Rend for the saferoom entrance.
- Book 7 · Ch 82Carl reaches Larracos
Carl's group travels through the saferoom to the Larracos College of Magic, where Team Retribution and Semeru dwarves fight zarogoths as the city defense towers power up.
- Book 7 · Ch 82Juice Box's deal with Samantha
Carl meets Juice Box, who frantically asks about Louis; learning he is bound in the Reaver castle, she offers Samantha a new body to save him.
- Book 7 · Ch 83Carl bombs the Piccadilly
Carl levitates over Larracos and drops his entire bomb folder on the Piccadilly Theater, destroying the generator but activating the city towers, which target him as he climbs into Shanty Town.
- Book 7 · Ch 83Li Na gives Carl the potion
In the Nest, Li Na, wearing her brother's eye, gives Carl a duplicated Hell-Kissed Conscription potion and leaves to use the original on Harpocrates.
- Book 7 · Ch 83Lucia is conscripted
Lucia climbs the Nest against Donkey Kong barrels; Donut summons Raul, who sends Lucia tumbling and seizes her, and Carl smashes the conscription potion on her.
- Book 7 · Ch 84Lucia under Carl's orders
Conscripted, Lucia drops her protections; as Carl prepares to kill her, a child named Diah surfaces and begs him to wait for Lucia to return.
- Book 7 · Ch 84Battle with Gustavo 3
Mongo, Raul and clockwork Mongos tumble out of the Nest with Carl and Gustavo 3; the dog nearly kills Mongo until Rend's Wrecking Ball kills it.
- Book 7 · Ch 85Zev reveals Lucia Mar is a dead man's switch
Zev tells Carl that about 120,000 children on the surface are tied to Lucia Mar and may all die if she does; Lucia is pulled away by an admin to be interviewed.
- Book 7 · Ch 85Carl reunites with Donut atop the Nest
Carl climbs the Nest to reunite with Donut, whose trapping net finally fails; Rosetta, Milk and Edgar arrive to tattoo Donut with a spell for the War Crime plan.
- Book 7 · Ch 86Rosetta reveals the War Crime plan
Rosetta explains Donut will cast War Crime combining Bijanbi and Wall of Fire to pull enemies out of the ball into a ring of fire, with fleshers as the finisher.
- Book 7 · Ch 86Edgar tattoos Donut
After Carl offers her a way out, Donut agrees to a tattoo on her right flank granting Bijanbi; Edgar reveals the design is a dog.
- Book 7 · Ch 87Donut receives the Bijanbi tattoo
Edgar finishes Donut's dog tattoo granting Bijanbi, Milk boosts it with Words of Power, then gives Carl ink and a pen before leaving with Rosetta and Edgar.
- Book 7 · Ch 87Trapped by Lucia's second net
Carl and Donut find a second net keeping them in the Nest; as the ball breaks, Carl tells Donut to cast War Crime without fire and sends Dong to grab the trigger.
- Book 7 · Ch 88Eris visits Carl
Freed from War Mage control, Eris freezes time, makes Carl's Pied Piper permanent, tempts him to become her champion, and tells him where the Gate of the Feral Gods went.
- Book 7 · Ch 88Donut casts War Crime
Donut's War Crime pulls thousands of enemy soldiers and Meatus into a giant Astral Paw; she slams it repeatedly through Li Na's lattice of chains until everyone trapped is dead.
- Book 7 · Ch 88Teleport ban lifted
All restrictions on teleportation are lifted after Eris leaves, freeing Carl and Donut from the net.
- Book 7 · Ch 89Aftermath of War Crime
Meatus is destroyed and Harpocrates leaves vowing revenge; Shanty Town is drenched in gore under falling ash as Donut reaches level 135 with new deity spells.
- Book 7 · Ch 90Akuma's warning
In warlord chat Akuma asks Carl and Donut to kill Agatha, saying the War Mages got the Scavenger's Daughter, then leaves the realm, ending the War Mage Rebellion.
- Book 7 · Ch 90Justice Light sent after the gate
Carl tells Justice Light that Paca in the Midnight Market holds the Gate of the Feral Gods; Justice plans to retrieve it with the sluggalos.
- Book 7 · Ch 90Setting out to rescue Louis
As cleanup proceeds in Larracos, Carl, Donut and others prepare to raid the Reaver castle to rescue Louis while Prepotente joins Li Na's hunt.
- Book 7 · Ch 91Raid on the Reaver castle begins
Carl's group travels to the bombed Reaver castle to rescue Louis; spotting invisible Fopsy among the adjutants, Carl suspects a trap and switches to plan B, sending Juice Box in.
- Book 7 · Ch 92Louis rescued from the Reaver castle
Juice Box possesses Louis and teleports him out as explosive robot dogs attack; Carl pockets a frozen nuke dog and detonates No Disassembles, blowing up the castle.
- Book 7 · Ch 92Warlord Fang dies
Calliope crashes from the sky and dies; Fang was hiding inside her, and Carl gets most of the credit. The Reavers are defeated.
- Book 7 · Ch 93The AI blocks an assassination
As Carl names Tagg's secret, Prime Minister Glory tries to eject him via a Syndicate override; the AI stops it and warns that there will be no more meddling.
- Book 7 · Ch 93Tagg revealed as a cyborg
Carl deduces Epitome Tagg is a cyborg like Fang who grafted himself into Louis's mechanical organs, as Tagg threatens to kill Louis if removed.
- Book 7 · Ch 94Li Na's marks escape
Prepotente reports that three of King Rust's harem, marked by Li Na, fled to the 18th floor, leaving her permanently unable to heal.
- Book 7 · Ch 94Juice Box's confession
In the medical tent, Juice Box tells Carl the Hunter Wraith's curse showed her that Louis doesn't love her; Carl insists nothing is hopeless.
- Book 7 · Ch 95Negotiating with Tagg
Victory confirms Tagg cannot surrender because Louis can't leave the floor; Carl stalls Tagg, who demands the Team Retribution soldiers leave his throne room.
- Book 7 · Ch 95Emberus enters the realm
Right after Samantha admits a possible hand in Geyrun's death, the system announces that Emberus has entered the realm.
- Book 7 · Ch 96Emberus threatens the 9th floor
After Samantha's slip, Emberus arrives and the system gives the Posse 66 minutes to win Faction Wars and escape before he burns the floor.
- Book 7 · Ch 96Katia eats the orchid
Carl urges Katia to eat the Orchid of Eileithyia at once; she says she loves them all and falls unconscious before Donut can say goodbye.
- Book 7 · Ch 97Larracos is sent to the Ascendency
The Sledge casts Zerzura, transferring Larracos and Shanty Town with their NPCs to the 12th floor while mercenaries and outworlders vanish from the dungeon.
- Book 7 · Ch 97The crawlers' farewell gift
Milk reveals departing crawlers have painted their skills into books for Carl and Donut, then they shower the city with flowers and streamers.
- Book 7 · Ch 98Samantha is thrown to Emberus
With Prepotente spotting, Carl launches Samantha to Emberus at the volcano to stall him while crawlers flee down to the 10th floor.
- Book 7 · Ch 98Victory becomes Prime Minister
Victory reveals she is now acting Syndicate Prime Minister; Carl privately resolves he would still kill her if necessary.
- Book 7 · Ch 98Donut kills Huanxin Jinx
When Eileithyia arrives for Katia, Donut traps and kills her sponsor Huanxin Jinx using Laundry Day, Katia's crossbow and Mordecai's ash-tipped bolt.
- Book 7 · Ch 98Katia leaves the crawl
Katia chooses pregnancy from Eileithyia, is made human again with Louis as father, is fitted with cybernetic limbs and disappears, ineligible to continue.
- Book 7 · Ch 99The crew leaves the 9th floor
Samantha is recalled from Emberus, and the remaining crawlers say goodbyes and enter the stairwell as Emberus destroys the floor.
- Book 7 · Ch 100Carl declines all deals
In the Outreach Guild, Quasar outlines poor exit deals and the 10th floor's racing format; Carl and Donut both decline, and Quasar reveals Donut's lawyer is Carl's new wife.
- Book 8 · Ch 2Chandra's legal takeover
From the warship Ventilator, Chandra marries Carl under Widow's Rights, takes conservatorship of Donut's assets, becomes Donut's attorney and sends assassins after Quasar.
- Book 8 · Ch 3Arrival in the tenth-floor garage
Carl and Donut arrive in a garage on the tenth floor with five minutes before the first heat; Donut rushes to pick a new class, choosing Assassin of Sekhmet.
- Book 8 · Ch 3Donut picks a mechanic
Two gremlin applicants, Hedy and Waldrip Chris, brawl for the garage manager job; Donut chooses a mechanical vehicle, Hedy gets the job and Waldrip Chris explodes.
- Book 8 · Ch 4Spinning for a vehicle
The vehicle wheel lands on a box truck, which materializes as a gaudy Big Shot Chicken food truck; Carl takes the wheel as the first heat begins.
- Book 8 · Ch 5First heat begins
Carl drives the food truck into the first heat in darkness, lit by Donut's Torch spell, tallying NPC opponents including a unicorn in a tumbleweed.
- Book 8 · Ch 5Prepotente's warning
Prepotente warns in chat that killing more than one opponent per heat could force crawler-versus-crawler races; Zhang hints Li Na may already have killed one.
- Book 8 · Ch 5Manatee attack at the cave
At the cave entrance, a minivan burns on its side while a huge manatee kills a ladybug racer, whose rider explodes.
- Book 8 · Ch 6Donut kills Miss Talulah
Donut one-shots the level 90 manatee Miss Talulah, then chooses to let the audience vote on the special guest creature's fate.
- Book 8 · Ch 6Helping Team Free Love
Carl puts out the fire in Team Free Love's crashed van; the bugbears explain the NPC racers race for freedom and remember their past lives, and Carl offers to tow them to the finish.
- Book 8 · Ch 7Team Sparkles runs them over
Team Sparkles insults Donut, then their Avernus Creeper bolts at the food truck's horn and crawls over the trailer and van before racing off.
- Book 8 · Ch 7Towing Team Free Love to the finish
Carl tows the bugbears' van through the caves to the finish line near Hungry Eyes Village, finishing seventh with Team Free Love eighth.
- Book 8 · Ch 8Choosing the first upgrade
Back in the garage, Hedy offers mobility upgrades for the food truck; Carl chooses retractable spider legs and plans a driving rig for Donut.
- Book 8 · Ch 9Mordecai's prophecies
In the safe room, Mordecai's glitching Moon Reaper form unveils a flaming eye and delivers ominous prophecies to Carl and Donut, then reveals he is really a shadow mimic.
- Book 8 · Ch 9Carl learns Oozy Form
A slimy spell book from Donut's box turns out to be Oozy Form; Donut refuses it, so Carl learns it as a travel and escape spell.
- Book 8 · Ch 10Donut opens her boxes
Donut receives Sekhmet pet hats for Mongo and Rend, the Danforth bolts, a celestial crupper and many Emergency Gremlin scrolls.
- Book 8 · Ch 10Donut's paw is empowered
The celestial godslayer box replays Donut's killing of Meatus and leaves no item; instead her paw glows painfully and her claws tear the kitchen table in half.
- Book 8 · Ch 11The crupper's description
Donut equips the Crupper of the Benevolent Champion, whose description recounts the mercenaries her War Crime killed, upsetting her; she raises Puddle Jumper to 16.
- Book 8 · Ch 12Carl opens his achievements
Carl reviews mocking achievements, restocks bombs, and gets a Hotlist Expansion potion and a quadruped baby carrier.
- Book 8 · Ch 12Rishi's junk floods the safe room
Carl's legendary fan box spews Rishi's burned household junk until it fills the safe room to the ceiling, to Donut's disgust.
- Book 8 · Ch 13Back to the garage
After starting cleanup of the junk-filled safe room, Carl and Donut return to the garage where gremlins repair the truck and Donut gives Mongo his new hat.
- Book 8 · Ch 14Meeting The Wild Hunt
In the team cul-de-sac, three Razor Fox ninjas perform a flipping routine that casts Size Up; their leader Chiyome then drinks beer with Carl, Donut and Radoslav and proposes an alliance against the leading teams.
- Book 8 · Ch 15The womantaurs size up the competition
Genesis and Rapture of the Lady Dominators visit the cul-de-sac, sneer at Carl and Donut, and leave for the Hairpin bar.
- Book 8 · Ch 15Corcunda quest triggered
Carl and Donut realize the half-mantaur gimp is Dong Quixote's lost friend Corcunda; talking about it triggers a quest to reunite them and restore Corcunda's other half.
- Book 8 · Ch 16Into Hungry Eyes
Carl and Donut pass through the portal into the neon town, noting a banned Club Vanquisher, an illegal-mods shop and the Hairpin, heading to the Lollipop karaoke bar.
- Book 8 · Ch 16Jurgen's mystery meat
Outside the Lollipop, Prepotente and Jurgen argue over their Perriso mount Sweety and Jurgen's street food until Jurgen vomits.
- Book 8 · Ch 17Crawler gathering at the Lollipop
Carl and Donut join the other crawlers at the Lollipop karaoke bar and compare vehicles, results and upgrades from heat one.
- Book 8 · Ch 17Meeting Linus
Elle's superfan Linus hides under the table as her daily tourist companion, wearing unflattering fan merch of her.
- Book 8 · Ch 18Prepotente asks about the Paramour biscuit
Prepotente shows Carl and Donut an Enriched Pet Biscuit that would make his former girlfriend Ragazzaccia a humanoid crawler hopelessly in love with him. Donut firmly tells him never to use it and offers to be his daily adviser.
- Book 8 · Ch 19Preparing the truck for the race
Minutes before the race, Carl and Donut prepare their truck with nervous new driver Bucket Boy and the rude GPS Dr. Metcalf, which reveals a 10 km left-path course in a hailstorm with a gatekeeper monster midway.
- Book 8 · Ch 19Zhang reports Li Na's killings
Zhang messages that Li Na killed five teams and her heat's replacements include two crawler teams, including Tran's; Li Na sits unresponsive while Zhang drives.
- Book 8 · Ch 20Hail starts the race
As the light is about to turn green, house-sized hail destroys the awning over the starting grid; Carl shatters his own windshield with a banger sphere as planned.
- Book 8 · Ch 21Reaching the gatekeeper boss
Carl's truck crawls through the hailstorm to a hilltop where One Fine Pig and the Lady Dominators have stopped; Carl and Donut walk over and see the boss waiting in the road below.
- Book 8 · Ch 22Truce at the kangaroo bosses
Racers on both roads face twin level 170 kangaroo-like gatekeepers, Prison Pocket and Party Foul; the womantaurs propose a temporary truce while Nico threatens Donut over Penelope.
- Book 8 · Ch 23Killing Prison Pocket
Using gremlin bait, Little Günter's delayed mallet strike and a joey-skin costume, Carl gets inside the kangaroo boss's pouch and blows it up from within.
- Book 8 · Ch 23Genesis kills the engineer
Genesis kills the engineer Niels instead of getting Carl a joey, so neither available engineer in the heat is claimed.
- Book 8 · Ch 24Aftermath of Heat Two
Carl's team limps back to the garage after finishing last; Carl is stuck in the kangaroo costume and learns other crawler teams lost allies.
- Book 8 · Ch 24Next race revealed
Dr. Metcalf reveals the next race is a 20-minute, 30 km downhill run against waves of generated mobs, starting in 8 hours.
- Book 8 · Ch 25Akuma's secret note
A gremlin hands Carl a note whose hidden message from Akuma asks him to kill two teams and come alone to C&W&U after the next race.
- Book 8 · Ch 26Corcunda quest part two
The AI reveals Corcunda was split in two by a spell and tasks Carl and Donut to reunite the halves with a fleshmancer; the reward is two stand-ins summoned to the 11th-floor arena.
- Book 8 · Ch 26The sock suspicion
Imani heals Dong and privately concludes his collapse came from separation from his sapient sock, which may be sustaining him.
- Book 8 · Ch 27Opening loot between races
Carl and Donut open boxes in the safe room; Carl gains the Fursona skill, a Fursuiter temporary class and a hotlist expansion with Contingency.
- Book 8 · Ch 27Rend dies
Mordecai enters the safe room, rises into the air and speaks an ominous pronouncement at Rend, who instantly drops dead.
- Book 8 · Ch 28Rend resurrects
Rend rises from his sixth death bigger and stronger with his memories intact, but gains a new weakness to potatoes; Carl puts him in his carrier.
- Book 8 · Ch 28Rosetta and Tipid return with leads
Rosetta and Tipid report a likely fleshmancer and a lead on the hidden performance guild, and bring two Jikininki ghoul mercenaries.
- Book 8 · Ch 29Lexis briefs Carl and Donut
Pulled to a greenroom on the ocean floor for Plenty of Plenty, Carl and Donut learn from Lexis that OIAN has seized the ships in orbit and that something strange protects Katia's facility.
- Book 8 · Ch 29Lexis is frightened
A message on Lexis's datapad, shown over the image of a small child, cuts her off mid-sentence and visibly terrifies her.
- Book 8 · Ch 30Judged on Plenty of Plenty
Carl and Donut are sentenced to death, appeal, and are judged by a circle of caprids, several of whom deem them worthy and ask questions.
- Book 8 · Ch 30Bathin explains Justice Light's trap
Bathin tells Carl that Justice Light's trap broke the Nothing, releasing ancient entities onto three floors, including Club Scolopendra.
- Book 8 · Ch 30Carl goes off script on live
Orren and Victory beg Carl to ask the Plenty about tunnel integrity; instead he publicly asks whether people know escaped gods endanger them.
- Book 8 · Ch 31Caprid stampede
Carl's revelation sends the caprid panel into panic; they stampede out of the studio, leaving Gamori, who judges Carl too dangerous for the herd.
- Book 8 · Ch 31Harbinger is killed by the AI
Harbinger teleports in, rebukes his mother Gamori, and raises a pulse rifle at Carl; the AI explodes him, drenching everyone in gore.
- Book 8 · Ch 32Heat three begins with a drugged driver
Back from the studio, Carl lines up for heat three with Gluteus Maxx driving, then discovers Gluteus is high on outworlder uppers just before the start.
- Book 8 · Ch 32Sugar Hermit migration
Tens of thousands of skull-wearing Sugar Hermits flood the steep track toward the kaiju skull at the finish as the shielded racers wait to launch.
- Book 8 · Ch 33Heat three launch
Gluteus floors it down the steep track; Carl deploys the ghoul cages and slimes Team Sparkles and One Fine Pig with Denial of Service missiles.
- Book 8 · Ch 33Holding off the skull waves
As twin waves of sugar hermits flood the road, the ghouls hurl Biscuit Packs and Donut casts a massive Wall of Fire.
- Book 8 · Ch 34Wild Hunt and Jugglers eliminated
Skulls rain from the sky and burst from the road; both of Carl's ghoul mercenaries die, and the Wild Hunt and the Jugglers are wiped out.
- Book 8 · Ch 34Three-way crash at the finish
With Gluteus unconscious, Carl kicks through Tem's skull as Dwight's cannon flips the truck; three vehicles tumble over the line together.
- Book 8 · Ch 34Royal Court wins heat three
The results put the Royal Court first, Sparkles second and the Dominators third, with Free Love and One Fine Pig behind.
- Book 8 · Ch 35Aftermath of heat three
Carl and Donut limp back to the garage, learn the next race is a deadly jungle trail in seven hours, and begin rebuilding the truck with Hedy.
- Book 8 · Ch 35Friends check in
Other crawler teams report their heat results: most won or placed, while Louis's team survived last again and Zhang fears crawler rivals conspiring.
- Book 8 · Ch 36Team Helix hired
Rosetta and Tipid bring Team Helix, three mercenaries who can drive and protect; Quemada demands triple pay after seeing the Emberus shrine, and Carl accepts.
- Book 8 · Ch 37Quemada's holy mission
Quemada tells Carl that Emberus sent her to help him kill Hellik, forcing Carl to confront his no-win quest.
- Book 8 · Ch 37Eris freezes time
Eris appears with a robot Uzi Jesus, urges Carl to ally with Akuma and to worship her, and grants a nearby crawler a permanent effect.
- Book 8 · Ch 37The five-sided coin
Eris flips a coin of grim fates for Carl; he snatches it midair, choosing a chaotic fifth side that brands his palm.
- Book 8 · Ch 38Jacobus made permanent
After Eris leaves, Imani's Reverse Tooth Fairy card Jacobus becomes permanently summoned through Carl's Scavenger's Daughter effect.
- Book 8 · Ch 38Carl tells the group about Eris
Carl explains Eris's visit and coin in chat; friends react, and Carl proposes talking to the war mages before sharing a half-formed plan.
- Book 8 · Ch 39Finding Akuma
The group enters Chicken and Waffles, finds Akuma's murdered upgrade imp and note, and Carl opens a trapped secret door to reveal Akuma.
- Book 8 · Ch 39Elle's revenge on Akuma
Donut mutes Akuma and Elle shatters one of his frozen testicles, then sets terms for his interrogation under Imani's anti-magic shield.
- Book 8 · Ch 40Interrogating Akuma
Under a draining anti-magic shield, Akuma explains reused NPCs, the dungeon framework, and that everything in the dungeon will be destroyed after this season.
- Book 8 · Ch 40The Pineapple Cabaret revealed
Akuma reveals Herot and Menerva secretly built the Cabaret behind the seventeenth floor, and that the war mages need crawlers to retake it.
- Book 8 · Ch 40Carl punches Akuma
Akuma admits he wanted Carl to kill two teams so he'd face friends and be forced to help; Carl breaks his nose.
- Book 8 · Ch 41Planning around Akuma's offer
After leaving Akuma, Carl sets plans to verify his claims and find routes to the Pineapple Cabaret while Donut explains it all in chat.
- Book 8 · Ch 41Tipid finds the guild entrance
Tipid sings karaoke at the Lollipop and a gauge appears, confirming the hidden performance guild requires a perfect song to enter.
- Book 8 · Ch 42Rules for the jungle race
Zev announces survival containment bubbles, mandatory two-hour pit stops, survival after losing a vehicle, and garage keys for winners.
- Book 8 · Ch 42Team Flamengo joins the heat
The replacement team is crawlers Osvaldo and Filipe on Bruna the Slaughter Gnu; Carl's plea for restraint is rebuffed and Donut antagonizes Osvaldo.
- Book 8 · Ch 43Route planned for the race
Before the race begins, Dr. Metcalf plots a route through the jungle to the pit stop at Upano, skirting the Temple of the Exploding Snake Goddess and a cannibal village.
- Book 8 · Ch 43Osvaldo explains the memorial crystals
Carl messages Osvaldo, who reveals he had two memorial crystals for Tupa and Ysalte, both rejected, and gave one to Prepotente.
- Book 8 · Ch 44Race begins in the acid rain
The race starts; teams split onto different jungle paths, and only the Lady Dominators take the same route as Carl's truck before the Wienermobile cuts in front.
- Book 8 · Ch 44Imani's team joins Carl
Imani reports her team is behind Carl's, that Henrietta's team was lost to a trap, and Carl agrees to wait for them at the cliff.
- Book 8 · Ch 45Cannibal ambush
Thousands of ginger cannibals hurl themselves at the truck's shield; Donut's Astral Paw sweeps away the warriors on a skull-laden arch.
- Book 8 · Ch 45Great Rusty slain
Great Rusty's soul attack knocks out Olga; Donut kills him with a magic missile, and Finley drives through the village.
- Book 8 · Ch 45Mandatory quest triggered
Great Rusty's death triggers Pasty Inferno, requiring Carl's group to kill the northern chieftain Maurice to finish the race.
- Book 8 · Ch 46Arrival at Upano pit stop
Carl's truck reaches the pit stop at the Lost City of Upano in fourth place, where Hedy inspects the truck and explains garage doors must stay open.
- Book 8 · Ch 46Jamal rescued from the ceiling
Jamal confesses his fear of heights and of dying, and Donut talks him down from the garage ceiling.
- Book 8 · Ch 47Carl attacks One Fine Pig
Carl storms One Fine Pig's garage; their APV fires and destroys a wall, camels join in, and the APV's shield kills a camel and the gremlin Lipstick.
- Book 8 · Ch 47Carl regains his composure
Pulled away by Imani and Donut, Carl grieves the mercenaries, has Donut collect the corpses, and overhears the Tigrans' plans for Penelope.
- Book 8 · Ch 48Donut distracts One Fine Pig
Donut uses All Eyes on Me through a spoken speech to Penelope, charming the Tigrans Nico and Dario while Carl secretly plants Tigran-only disintegration traps around their truck.
- Book 8 · Ch 48Passing the Minister of Blood-Letting
Heading into town, the group passes the Minister of Blood-Letting's skeletal creatures carrying a bucket of foul white liquid.
- Book 8 · Ch 49Race tracks rerolled at the pit stop
Zev reveals that each heat rolls a new track for the second half; Carl and Donut get Satan's Water Park while Elle and Imani get the eternal slum.
- Book 8 · Ch 49One Fine Pig eliminated
Carl's hidden traps dissolve both Tigrans, eliminating One Fine Pig and leaving five teams in the heat.
- Book 8 · Ch 50Corpse driver at the starting line
Carl and Donut line up at Satan's Water Park with the resurrected, headless Olga at the wheel, planning to catch up via the River of Sloth.
- Book 8 · Ch 51Mehmet's Book of Boom entry
Mehmet Or's page records his life, his loss, his plea that Carl find his daughters Azra and Yaz, and his gift of Gutter Bumper.
- Book 8 · Ch 51Descending the water park tubes
With a clockwork Olga at the wheel, Carl and Donut fight through gingers and zipper shrews, then use spider legs to skirt the trapdoor trap; Olga falls through it.
- Book 8 · Ch 52Freezing the River of Sloth
Carl and Donut freeze the river with Gutter Bumper and Ice Slick, shred the gingers with dragged weapons and summoned shrews, and kill Maurice, completing Pasty Inferno.
- Book 8 · Ch 52Lucienne dies at the finish line
Charmed by Summon Ye, Vermin, Lucienne clings to Carl's truck hood and is crushed through it by the finish-line barrier.
- Book 8 · Ch 53Heat Four finish
Carl's team wins the heat; Lucienne's remains are cleared, the Lady Dominators and Osvaldo's team follow, and Dwight is left stranded behind.
- Book 8 · Ch 53Voices inside Lucia
Lucia confronts Carl, channelling the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue's warning, then shifts to the frightened child Azra asking about her father.
- Book 8 · Ch 55Upgrading for the factory race
With Hedy, Carl chooses a Golden Bubble Buddy shield, a heat sink, booster rockets and the Golden Roller Limbo upgrade for the next race.
- Book 8 · Ch 55Samantha identifies Chachi
Samantha recognizes Chalchiuhtlicue's scent on Carl and describes her as an unstable goddess who sacrifices children, alarming Carl about Lucia Mar.
- Book 8 · Ch 56Researching Chalchiuhtlicue
Rosetta, Mordecai and Prepotente share what they know about the goddess Donut nicknames Chachi.
- Book 8 · Ch 56Retrieving Penelope
Carl opens One Fine Pig's abandoned garage with his key and finds Penelope, who happily follows him out.
- Book 8 · Ch 57Zhang's despair at the Lollipop
At the Lollipop, Zhang breaks down over Li Na's killings and reveals his plan to kill Torpedo so the system kills them both; Carl says it won't work.
- Book 8 · Ch 57Carl's plan for Li Na
Carl realizes Li Na can be pointed in a useful direction and asks Bodi to jockey for Zhang, announcing Li Na is leaving the dungeon.
- Book 8 · Ch 58The cleaner bot plan is a go
After Mordecai's test succeeds, Carl approves a plan to send Li Na to the Pineapple Cabaret via Herot's cleaner bot purchases.
- Book 8 · Ch 59Preparing the karaoke duet
Carl and Donut prepare to sing 'Take on Me' to gain guild entry, with potions, a scroll, Mongo watching and a packed bar.
- Book 8 · Ch 60Carl's karaoke debut
Carl sings 'Take on Me' through the chaos and gains access to the Stage Performance Guild, while Donut fails at the final line.
- Book 8 · Ch 61Jurgen pleads with Carl
Jurgen begs to escape through the Pineapple Cabaret and reveals his fear for his pregnant partner Heidi; Carl promises to help after the race.
- Book 8 · Ch 61Carl recruits Porky
Inside the Stage Performance Guild, Carl frees Porky's stuck zipper and persuades him to help reunite with Corky, though Porky wants revenge on Dong.
- Book 8 · Ch 62Strippers vanish at the Desperado Club
Splash Zone, Gluteus and Doctor Bones can't be contacted after going to see Hamed at the Desperado Club.
- Book 8 · Ch 62Failed garage raid on Corky
Before Carl's group can break in, Genesis and Rapture drive Corky out to the race; Porky learns Dong is involved and is furious.
- Book 8 · Ch 63Carl apologises to Dong
With Dong dying, Carl apologises for keeping him out of the quest and decides to bring him, Porky and the fleshmancer as mercenaries for the Corcunda reunion during the race.
- Book 8 · Ch 63Dong and Porky meet
Carl leaves Dong alone with Porky, the other half of Dong's split lover, who still wears Dong's scarf.
- Book 8 · Ch 65The factory race begins
Carl drives the truck to the factory starting line with Donut, Dong, Porky and Grigori, plans to tail the Lady Dominators, and the race starts.
- Book 8 · Ch 66Racing through the factory
Carl tails the Lady Dominators' GTO through the factory, rocket-jumping a gap between conveyor belts over vats of molten metal amid crashing rivals.
- Book 8 · Ch 67Corky rescued from the wrecked GTO
After the Lady Dominators' car falls into a trap hole, Donut teleports down and retrieves the unconscious Corky while cocaine-elemental dolls swarm.
- Book 8 · Ch 67Corky revived in the truck
Grigori cures Corky's debuffs; Porky lies beside him to rejoin, and Carl retakes the wheel as the race continues.
- Book 8 · Ch 68Grull enters the realm
Right after the fusion, a god's marked-for-death symbol appears over Corcunda and a system message says Grull has entered the realm.
- Book 8 · Ch 69Grull attacks in the factory
Grull crashes through the factory wall, wrecks the truck with an axe blow, and Donut ejects the Maestro from his chest with Laundry Day.
- Book 8 · Ch 70Aftermath of heat five
Carl's team mourns Dong; allies check in, and Osvaldo reveals Dwight won by going over the factory instead of through it.
- Book 8 · Ch 70Quest reward from the System AI
The quest reward lets Carl choose two beings to bring to the Floor 11 arena, alongside a warning about exits that seem too good to be true.
- Book 8 · Ch 72Guild meeting in the pet stables
Carl outlines the plan for the last two heats and Floor 11, including leaving the party to deal with Hellik, while Donut and Imani object.
- Book 8 · Ch 72Rosetta explains the Scavenger myth
Rosetta recounts the myth of Nekhebit, her children, and the Scavenger's Daughter, a being able to erase the pantheon and take gods' powers.
- Book 8 · Ch 73Examining the Memorial Crystal
In the god-proof stables, Prepotente lets Carl inspect Apito's Memorial Crystal and explains his quest from the Midnight Epicure.
- Book 8 · Ch 73Samantha's secret plan
Samantha bursts in having ditched Grigori, and when Donut describes Carl's plan, Samantha says hers is just like it.
- Book 8 · Ch 74Farewell gathering in Hungry Eyes
About five hundred crawlers gather in Hungry Eyes as two hundred, including Bautista, Tran, Zhang and Archie, prepare to leave for the Pineapple Cabaret.
- Book 8 · Ch 74Bautista's farewell tea
Bautista thanks his friends, speaks of having found peace, and serves them his breakfast tea one last time.
- Book 8 · Ch 75Carl's speech to the crawlers
Before the escape and final race, Carl salutes the gathered crawlers and calls them his family.
- Book 8 · Ch 75Linus unmasked
Elle's tribute to her husband turns into exposing Linus as an impostor assassin; he admits Imani and Louis were his targets and faces expulsion from the dungeon.
- Book 8 · Ch 76Heat six starting line
Shrunk to Lego size, the racers start inside apartment 712 of the L'Engle Building; a last-minute rule requires seven rings, one per floor.
- Book 8 · Ch 77Racing through the what-if apartments
Carl's team clears gates one and two in apartments depicting crawlers' alternate lives, including Tran's parents' home, using Hole spells to drop between floors.
- Book 8 · Ch 77Ad Infinitum quest
The System AI freezes the race to explain the apartments as its predictive models, reveals Minus's identity and targets, and hints at an overlooked flaw in heat seven.
- Book 8 · Ch 78Archie's what-if apartment
Passing through Archie Mu's apartment for gate four, the team watches his wife Mackenzie become aware and tear at her stitched eyes.
- Book 8 · Ch 78Imani's family apartment erupts
In apartment 310, Imani's family shells become aware and burst into invulnerable scarab beetles as Carl's team clears gate five.
- Book 8 · Ch 79Escorting Imani and Elle out of 310
Carl's team waits for Imani and Elle to clear their gate amid the beetles, then all drop through a Hole to the second floor.
- Book 8 · Ch 79Marjory's apartment
Clearing gate six in apartment 231, Carl and Donut overhear Marjory's what-if life and piece together her history with Bill.
- Book 8 · Ch 79Team Free Love killed
To go help Prepotente without risking last place, Carl detonates a bomb hidden in the bugbears' beer, eliminating Team Free Love.
- Book 8 · Ch 80Carl comforts Prepotente
In apartment 130, Carl runs on foot to Prepotente, who is transfixed by his mother's what-if life, and persuades him to leave before time runs out.
- Book 8 · Ch 81Damien's announcement
Damien opens the Outreach Guild, disowns the Pineapple Cabaret exploit, and reveals that Floor 11 begins with building a parade float.
- Book 8 · Ch 81Preparing for the final heat
Imani coordinates upgrade theft and deals to minimise crawler-on-crawler heats, refuses a deal herself, and Hedy fits Golden rockets for Carl's plan.
- Book 8 · Ch 82Britney's telepathic warning
Leaving the Desperado Club, Britney evades Carl's concern and speaks directly into his mind, telling him he just needs to survive.
- Book 8 · Ch 82Pontiff's casino discovery
Pontiff reports the Wheel of Fortune now shows a quoted 'Nothing', casting doubt on Akuma's casino escape plan.
- Book 8 · Ch 83Final heat lineups revealed
At the starting blocks of the final race heat, Carl sees that the heats now pit allied crawlers against each other: Chris with Imani and Elle, and Louis and Britney with Florin and Lucia Mar.
- Book 8 · Ch 83Pontiff volunteers to test the portal
Pontiff tells Carl he will step into the new Nothing slot portal to learn whether it leads outside the playing field, and Carl asks him to pass a message to Herot.
- Book 8 · Ch 84Carl's fury at the heat lineups
Carl screams at the ceiling, blaming the showrunners for setting allies against each other. Chris says he should have taken a deal, and Imani refuses to accept that.
- Book 8 · Ch 84Scolopendra's first attack
The AI launches the Nine-Tier Attack quest. A wheel lands on the Beast of Burden Sin, Transformation. Donut, Jamal and Samantha are spared, but Carl is hit and transformed into a four-legged creature.
- Book 8 · Ch 85Contingency three
Realising Pontiff's exit means a way out exists, Carl, now a dachshund, tells all crawlers facing allies to use contingency three, and the crawlers turn on the NPC racers.
- Book 8 · Ch 85Crawlers slaughter the NPC racers
When the light turns green, Dr. Metcalf's hole punch and potions kill Dwight's vine and GPS, and Donut decapitates Dwight, eliminating Team Sparkles. Across the lobby other crawlers kill their NPC opponents.
- Book 8 · Ch 85Carl blows the ceiling
With Osvaldo poised on Bruna waiting to make his move, Carl warns the others and detonates the ceiling.
- Book 8 · Ch 86Osvaldo's dash for the portal
Carl blows a path to the roof; Osvaldo launches toward the Floor 11 portals, leaving Bruna to die, but Carl and Donut shield and save Bruna and Osvaldo is stunned by the portal wall.
- Book 8 · Ch 87Slugpox flare and cure
Having forgotten Mordecai's cure potion, Carl spawns the sluggalo Lil' Mello Haze on the way to the meeting point, and Imani finally cures his slugpox.
- Book 8 · Ch 87Crawlers gather at the Hairpin
About thirty crawlers wait outside the Hairpin; seeing Carl as a dachshund, they all collapse laughing before he proposes robbing a casino.
- Book 8 · Ch 88Entering the Desperado Club
The crawlers enter the remodelled Desperado Club; Clay-ton, now in the band, backs Chris and the guards stand aside.
- Book 8 · Ch 88Chris and Britney enter the Nothing portal
Carl bribes Mitch to open the Nothing portal for a test; after a farewell with Imani, Chris goes in, and Britney jumps in after him uninvited.
- Book 8 · Ch 88The trap springs
Donut spots something wrong with her magic-flow glasses, and Mitch signals his men; the table tries to eat Donut.
- Book 8 · Ch 89Mimic ambush in the casino
Everything in the Desperado Club casino turns out to be mimics; the crawlers, with Mongo and his clockwork copies, kill around fifty of them.
- Book 8 · Ch 89The AI's Big Six lore dump
Mid-ambush, the AI explains Shadow Mimics and lists the six groups fighting to control or escape the dungeon.
- Book 8 · Ch 89Mitch dies
Pinned by Donut's missiles, Mitch reveals the mimics wanted crawlers for the Cabaret, then lunges; Carl's Eye freezes him and Donut kills him.
- Book 8 · Ch 90Louis enters the Nothing portal
After the mimic fight, Imani reopens the wheel portal; Louis says goodbye and jumps in, and Carl swears to free those sent away.
- Book 8 · Ch 90Leaving the cursed floor
Back at Hungry Eyes, Donut collects two more mounts, comforts the giant dream-Imani, and the truck heads for the stairwell.
- Book 8 · Ch 91Quasar hires Kiki
Quasar accepts the summons to Carl's call and retains Kiki for both legal and physical help against Princess Chandra.
- Book 8 · Ch 92Arrival on Floor 11
Carl refuses a deal from Quasar, and lands in the parade staging garage to find only 23 crawlers left; Donut chooses a new class.
- Book 8 · Ch 92Chaco announces the parade
Chaco, made parade Grand Master, explains the 90-minute float build, judging and arena; garages merge and Carl and Donut join Prepotente and Jurgen under the theme Vengeance.
- Book 8 · Ch 93Mandatory parade broadcast
Screens everywhere show a tunnel-node map, then Earth near the Juan de Fuca Ridge, then a yellow-brick parade route with a countdown.
- Book 8 · Ch 93Preparing for the parade
Carl examines Donut's Gatekeeper spell book and sews on the Lucky Shot patch, while Donut opens boxes and rushes everyone to decorate.
- Book 8 · Ch 94Building the Vengeance procession
The team decorates five vehicles and three giant mounts with dahlias and Gurkha gear, assigning drivers and riders for the parade.
- Book 8 · Ch 94Carl leaves the party
Just before the parade, Carl leaves the Royal Court of Princess Donut and joins Safehome Yolanda, keeping most crafting tables on Donut's side.
- Book 8 · Ch 95The parade lines up
The processions line up on the yellow-brick road among silent masked crowds; Carl examines a child spectator and the AI reveals the Horribles are lost memories of Primals.
- Book 8 · Ch 96Approaching the judging stand
As the processions reach the arena, a huge tentacled tree looms inside and Prepotente prepares the Vengeance presentation.
- Book 8 · Ch 96Carl's vengeance speech
Carl reveals an Unwashed effigy, heals Chaco under Grigori's gaze, and vows vengeance on the galaxy; sluggalos drop from the airship and slaughter the masked elites in the stands.
- Book 8 · Ch 97Carl's farewell to Donut
At the arena door, Carl hugs Donut, tells her he loves her and sends her and the pets to the RV; Tipid is replaced by sluggalo drivers.
- Book 8 · Ch 97The revolution speech and charge
Carl proclaims a crawler revolution on the jumbotron, reveals the missile launcher, and the sluggalo-driven truck smashes into the arena among slaughtered stand-ins.
- Book 8 · Ch 97Carl chooses Scolopendra
Realising every NPC and mob is a Primal fragment, Carl makes his first stand-in choice: Scolopendra.
- Book 8 · Ch 98Scolopendra enters the realm
Carl's choice summons Scolopendra, the level 500 Dungeon boss, alongside Krakaren Prime; the AI explains the consequences of killing or abandoning her.
- Book 8 · Ch 98Plan C begins
Carl straps the sapient pig Penny to his chest, messages Emberus to meet in Club Scolopendra, and holds a gun to Penny's head to draw out Taranis.
- Book 8 · Ch 99Into Club Scolopendra
As Taranis and Emberus enter the realm, Carl carries Penny into Scolopendra's body and reaches Club Scolopendra, keeping her alive with a magic nipple ring.
- Book 8 · Ch 99Carl provokes Emberus
Carl summons Khepri, renounces Emberus, and claims to have killed Geyrun, triggering a smite.
- Book 8 · Ch 100Trapping Emberus
Donut swaps in for Penny and pins Emberus with Katia's bolt; Emberus's fire is redirected to Penny, and Donut teleports herself and Carl to the arena.
- Book 8 · Ch 100Taranis kills Emberus
Enraged at the attack on Penny, Taranis destroys his brother Emberus; the blast wrecks vehicles across the arena, though the crawlers survive.
- Book 8 · Ch 100Eris enters
As Carl mounts his motorcycle with Donut refusing to leave him, the world freezes and Eris enters the realm.
- Book 8 · Ch 101Scolopendra turned to goo
Amid Eris's inventory swap, Donut finds the biscuit-loaded banger sphere and Carl hurls it into Scolopendra's mouth, turning the Dungeon boss into a puddle.
- Book 8 · Ch 101Eris's visit
Eris freezes time to speak to Carl about the Ascendency, chaos and the coin's fifth side, then leaves.
- Book 8 · Ch 101Taranis departs
Taranis returns Penny, banishes Khepri, spares Carl and Donut, and leaves with Samantha and Krakaren Prime, ending the battle.
- Book 8 · Ch 102The arena battle ends
The gods and monsters are gone and the crawlers are declared winners even though neither boss died. Hedy and several crawlers are dead, nineteen crawlers remain, and the 18th-floor exit opens.
- Book 8 · Ch 102Carl unites everyone in one party
After Prepotente warns that the level 250 gods are too strong one-on-one, Carl sends party requests until every remaining crawler is in a single party.
- Book 8 · Ch 102The wrong pet biscuit
Donut confesses an inventory mistake: she gave Carl the wrong pet biscuit, and Scolopendra emerges not as a pet but as a level 1 crawler who joins the party.
- Book 8 · Ch 104The contenders are shown
The AI shows images of gods and contenders, including Taranis, Eris, Odette as Nekhebit, Princess Donut, Carl, Lucia Mar, Samantha, unknown figures and finally the Unwashed, before a one-hour countdown to the Ascendency.