The Butcher's Masquerade, Chapters 1-4

much to Jackie for commissioning this episode. I think this is the first of uh Dungeon Crawler Carl that wasn't commissioned by Michael, so appreciate it, Jackie. Uh and welcome. I don't feel like i've seen you in the chats before either, so delighted to have you. I don't know where to start, guys, And I know I have to start at the beginning link technically, but I kind of just don't want to. I kind of just want to start where I want to start. I'm going to restrain myself,

all right, let's let's begin at the beginning. So well, no, well, okay, you know what I'm going to do a general sort

of like overview of what's going going on. Before I go into this, because there's like a fair amount to cover in these first four chapters, because we go from some pretty like intricate stuff that's happening legally, and then we have to deal with the floor itself and what's going on there, and the adjustment of some of the new ways that playing is going to shake out, because there turns out to be a combination of some factors

that will make things look pretty different. I think this floor as compared to previous So the way that I want to kind of divide this up is legal battle versus dungeon battle, and the legal battle thing. I should have seen it coming that the first thing we were going to have to deal with would be the repercussions to the flooding that Carl caused. I for some reason, I didn't expect him to have to deal with the same guy. I thought that this was going to turn out to be a big enough of a deal that

it would have been escalated to somebody else. But it turns out he is still having to face off with the same dude. And it's such a weird scene because Carl consens there's something weird about the setup here. The gate itself is very close to the edge of the desk and is just apparently sitting there unguarded, very temptingly, to the point where he's like, Okay, obviously, you guys are tempting me with this, Like this is not you know.

And what we find out late is that the item it is basically in this limbo at this point because they're still figuring out the the legal ramifications and outcome of this. So because it's in this limbo, if Carl were to touch it, the item would delete itself and simply not exist, and thus erase the problem entirely and

deprive Carl of a very valuable weapon and resource. And I just keep thinking, you guys, about the fact that the Gate of the Faral Gods is already available this early in the game when it's not supposed to be. And I know that we are already aware the AI is accelerating things a lot. I know that it's like part of what we are already seeing going on, But I can't help but feel like there's something more happening beyond just it's the accelerated game. It feels like it's

such a specific at advantage. It's not just something like has existed in the game that shouldn't yet, you know what I mean. It feels more like I am going to give you, in particular, something that will be super useful because of what you want to accomplish in the game. And that's just I think probably I'm reading into it

more than I should. But it just seems so perfect for the way that Carl operates and would want to, like the way that he would want to rescue other people, that I just can't help but feel like there's something more here. And I don't know it's especially you know, the end of the last book, somebody said that the AI is going primal, and I don't know exactly what

that means. I know that that's the race that Carl shows, and I know that, like historically speaking, they are significant, and I know that this will eventually result in his the type of power he has being really amplified, but that it's like gonna take some time for that to become a parent and in the meantime he's gonna have to grind and be patient. I get all of that, but I just don't really understand what that looks like when it comes to the AI, you know, So it

just I don't. I'm not going so far as to say the AI is on Carl's side and is helping him, because I think it's pretty clear that's not fucking the case. But there is just something specific about the gate itself and the way that it can be useful to Carl with his desire to help everybody that it may just be it feels that way because it is specific to the way that Carl works, because the book is written so that Carl gets a really great thing to use

to save people. It just maybe, you know, but there's a part of me that feels like, ah, there's I don't know, maybe there's a little bit more in there. So you know, he's in the office or in his sitting there and he is still able to communicate with Donut via chat and she is still left in that like sort of like arena. Everybody is waiting in line, but Katcha is in the room when he is drawn in, and uh, basically the reason she was here was because

she actually was in possession of the gate. But now that she has said, it's really Carl's there, which I think they all already knew, but they had to like handle her because she was the one who had it. She's dismissed and obviously feels kind of guilty over the fact that she put Carl in their crosshairs. I like, this is one of those things where I have very mixed feelings because I understand why she has this sensation of like, I threw you under the bus, But they

have watched the whole thing. They know good and goddamn well that this was like Carl's idea, and I can't blame her for just fucking telling the truth in this regard.

You know, I don't think Lyne was would have fooled anybody or would have done any good frankly so, So, uh, this conversation, like I said, there's just a strange sensation here because the overall vibe is meant to be We're going to have this real convo, But what's also actually happening is this temptation right in front of you that I'm not going to acknowledge. And finally he says, Okay,

you've got three choices. I could create an order that would encase the first floor in a protection spell, that would remove all crawler access to portals, that would remove all access to personal spaces and clubs, and break thousands of other little things. Teleport scrolls would cease to work, certain movements, spells wouldn't work, your pet's carrier would no longer function. It would be chaos, and it would kill thousands.

And I'm real curious about that it would kill thousands, part because I am assuming it's just what he means is sort of like, as a result of doing this, it's going to cause people to not be able to go to safe spaces, and that will result in their deaths. But I wasn't sure if it was something more direct than that, where like it will remove personal spaces and if there are people in them when I do that, they will die or you know what I mean, I

don't know. Two, we accelerate you, which will result in your death along with the death of anyone near you. Or three you turn the winding box in, I give you a receipt and you get it back the moment you reach the ninth floor. And Carl buys some time by first asking there was somebody helping Maggie cheat? What was that about? She was getting censored? I want to know what the fuck was happening there, and Orn just says, well, I mean, I know the answer, but I can't tell you.

I'm glad you asked because it's an important lesson. Exploits can work both ways. The forces working against you have had a lot more time to learn how to manipulate the system, rest assured that particular issue has been dealt with in the same manner and swiftness as the one before us now And I love that of like, exploitations can work both ways because it just is a perfect

opening for Carl to say, I want a lawyer. Guys, this is one of those things that is such a fundamental if you ever get arrested for any reason, honestly, even if you're just brought in for questioning on something, request a lawyer. There is a lot of propaganda out there that makes it seem like requesting a lawyer makes you look guilty. It doesn't. It makes you look smart. They make you want think that it's going to make you look guilty to scare you into not doing it.

But the way that you can completely fuck yourself without having legal representation to tell you to shut the fuck up at certain points, I cannot overstate I mean, I am I have a very hard time keeping my mouth shut, and I know that I would have a really really difficult time keeping my mouth shut in front of a cop who is trying to like bait me with questions that are very like suggest are provocative about like oh so was so and so doing that, Like I would

have to bite my tongue so hard because I fancy myself a smart person, and I would think, and I know, I know I would wind up saying some shit that would fuck me over. I just would because I don't understand the full implications of everything I'm saying in the moment. I just can't because I don't have all the information

that they're working with. So this is something that's like apparently not usual for this early in the game, but because of the special circumstances of everything, this is exactly allowed. And this guy apparently predicted that this was how Karl was going to respond. He grunted with amusement. I could tell, despite his mostly serious demeanor, he was enjoying this exchange. He looked back over his own shoulder to peer at the blank wall. I told you, what did I say?

He returned his fish bowl head, and mind direction, you just said the magic words crawler. And it is just so honestly, guys, especially in the year of our Beyonce twenty twenty five, where Ice is out here just pulling people out of their fucking homes in the middle of the night, in unmarked vehicles without license plates and masks on. We are not living in a world where justice prevails, and you cannot rely on the goodwill or common sense of anybody. Use the system as much as you can.

It's your only protection. And it may feel slimy, probably at times, but like, oh, well, you know, it is slimy. All of it is slimy. That's kind of part of the nature of it. Is like the way the system is built is it's an a just two people who are willing to compromise ethically all the time, and you just have to be at a point where you're okay with doing that to protect yourself. And it sucks because like,

that's not my instinct. I want to do things, like, you know, in a moral and upright way, and that's just a pipe dream at this point. So then he goes into the staging area, and he had expected that he was going to see Mordecai and be put in his personal space, but he gets sent to the spot where there's a line, and he says, from what I gathered, everyone had to go through the line, even those whose

classes didn't have the option to specialize. I just it's a very small throwaway line, but I just wanted to mention what bullshit that is. How pissed I would be at having to just stand in a line for no fucking reason. If it turned out I couldn't specialize. I would be livid at just the waste of time and just standing around. I be so mad. I hate that so much. And he, while he's like waiting, chats with Katya and Donut a little bit, and we find out that Katya no sorry, that Donut has a new class

and she is a bard. I. It's so perfect, it's so good, it's so great. I absolutely have no problem with this in light of the fact that she can't use half her spells because she is so out of tune. Even better, it's so funny. This is one of my favorite jokes of this series, is that she chooses this class and then she can't fucking sing. I mean, I

love it. I cannot tell you, guys. This is and and and the way that it works as well, where it's like the you just have to put it to whatever melody you pick is weird, which I also like because now she can just pick some like she chooses the A team theme song at one point for a spell that I think she says like a standing ovation or encore something like that, I my god, you guys, that's so fucking great. There is this this I don't know if it's a filter. I guess you would call

it a filter. There are various things on TikTok that are sensitive to sound that you can use as a like overlays on your videos. And one of the things is a ball that it's like an a A what's the word I want? It's an animation while you are taking video of yourself of a ball that is hovering and you have to sing in scale, you know, like oh, and the ball every time you change noe it lifts

a little bit. And there are boards coming toward it that each have a hole in it, and if you are on key, the ball will be in the right place and it will pass through that board. And there are a lot of people who are like professional singers that posted their videos of being able to get the ball through every hole on every board. On the first try, I thought I was going to be able to do it, and I got every board except for the very last one, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it.

I couldn't get it. I don't know why. It was infuriating, but it was just one of those things that I couldn't even be like, well, then the game is wrong because a bunch of other people had done it. You know, it's obviously me. It's a me problem, but it made me really wonder, like, how effective would I be with this kind of ability if I think I'm on key. It appears Dona is aware that she's not on key.

It doesn't feel like she's so much under the impression that she's a good singer so much as she just loves to do it and she doesn't care that she's not good at it, which I just cannot help but admire that attitude. That's just you know, I wish that I were more like that of just like it's just fun and yeah, maybe I suck, but oh well, I just like it. I'm kind of that way when it comes to dancing. But I can still get very much in my feelings about the fact that I'm not good

at it. It's sort of you know what I mean, it's like dependent on moods and whatnot. But yeah, I just And also the way the audiobook narrator delivers the line and she tells him what class I'm aboard, there was just something about it that was so just ideal. I feel like the audiobook narrator is pulling out some stops already at the beginning of this book, and I'm going to be keeping my eye on him. So this is when he gets to the front of the line.

He's the last crawler and he's about to go into one of these little cubicles, which he says is like one of those cubicles from porno theaters or whatever, not porn theaters, but like sex shops. And once he goes in, he's like, oh, yeah, that's exactly what it is. But

before he goes in, he gets the announcement. And when I'm talking about the narrator like pulling out some stops, this voice, I mean, every time that he does the voice Hello Crawlers, like it's it's very much like I'm smiling too much the whole time, and I'm too excited. That's the energy that's always put into the voice no matter what right. But in this book there's also this like breathless quality added that is so over the top

that it's almost uncomfortable to listen to. I'm just gonna I'm gonna do my best to imitate it, just in your if you're not listening to the audiobook, just to give you an example. Hello crawlers, welcome to the sixth floor. We are so happy to have you here. Like the third floor, this sixth floor is a dungeon crawler world tradition. It's the hunting grounds like that, it's so much it's a significant chunk of text also so keeping that kind of energy up for the whole thing. It's really something.

It's really something. And there's a mention of like that. The hunters have been here for weeks and they have set traps up so and some of you have already found this out the hard way. Traditionally, all hunters start out at level thirty and are able to train themselves up as you make your way through the lower floors. It's no secret you're here sooner than usual. In the spirit of fairness and as an incentive to gain more last minute participants, we have given all hunters a bump

of twenty levels. I am so sorry. That's insane. That's insane behavior, especially because in the very next paragraph she's like, there's less a few than we expected. We lost more of you on the previous floor than we really thought. I understand that all of the crawlers are higher in levels than they normally are at this point. I know that I don't think that they are like that far ahead twenty levels. That's not the impression I was getting.

And maybe I'm wrong about that, but that's bananas. And let's see, there is at least one unguarded exit in the city of Zuccau, along with more in the valley beyond. In addition, some city boss and larger mobs will have an exit nearby. The rest are hidden but should be easy to find. And there's also the mention of, like, you know here it is, we did lose a few more crawlers than we anticipated. We will all have to work together to make sure your incompetence doesn't continue. Are incompetence?

You guys are litigating NonStop this game. That's your incompetence, y'all are the fuck ups? Try to make it. It's

the crawler's fault disgusting. I hate you so much. So this is when Carl runs into Ian a bush Elf NPC who we find out is actually a former crawler and normally he has a different job, but they're being pulled in to do this thing, and he even mentions when they're talking that this is like the smallest group he's ever seen come through at this point, and he knows Carl by name and is like, oh, they said that you were going to do such and such, and

Carl's like, yeah, well they took the thing away and he's like, yeah, they really like to do that. And he says stay away from the city of Zacau even after the countdown is done. It's all the way to the north. That's where they aliens are. They don't fight fair, so be careful. Last Hunting season, one of them killed my brother for no reason, was working a food stand, ripped his head right off, and since the guards didn't see it, they did nothing. You remember the previous season,

I asked, suddenly intrigued. I was a human like you. I was a crawler a very long time ago. I hate this every time we run into somebody, like when they always just say something about how like it was a while ago. Now we don't get like dates, and how long has this dude been forced to be an NPC. And he's not supposed to say this stuff. He's supposed to stay in character. So we have this awful moment at the end of the convo where he gets snapped.

Obviously there's some kind of like mechanism by which they can punish him for speaking out of turn, and you know, ugh, and Carl asks like, do you know who killed your brother? And her name is Vrah and she's Mantis. There's a core group of about twenty regulars who are here every season. Rot takes the heads of those she kills and wears them upon her body. Her death count is in the thousands,

wears them upon her body. She must be pretty big if she could just be wearing people's heads like their fucking pearls on a necklace, Like she must be big, yikes, or else she doesn't mind them being in the way, I suppose. So Karl has to choose a specialty. And I'm not going to go into all the options in detail. There are three revolutionary gorilla agent provocateur and Mordecai wanted him to choose something that was like had an advantage

in melee. But as soon as Agent Provocateur says something about you like to blow things up, I was like, oh, well, obvious. If there's anything that Carl is like doing, it is provoking them. So yeah, that sounds right. And it also allows access to the advanced bomb maker's workshop, and that's really the thing that he wants, so he goes for that one. As he steps out of that room, he winds up in this jungle and he gets attacked almost immediately.

It's like really really soon. And I don't know if this is a result of a trap going off or if somebody knew where he was going to come through. I genuinely don't know, but this is like the way that this goes down. There are guards here who are our little mushroom guys. I say little. They're pretty tall, I think, actually, but they are level ninety five and they get paralyzed really quickly, and Carl gets attacked and is like unable to see his adversary. So he has

protective shell up for a minute. But he does something that I really liked, which is he uses gunpowder and he throws it out there to make this sort of like haze, so that it will get stuck on whoever and make their shape a little bit more distinctive. And they are all they are able to shake a lot of it off, but he's still seeing the outline of it.

It doesn't help, though, because there's more than one of these things, and we wind up finding out that these are night weasels and they are the pets of a hunter who like the way that these things work is the pack hunting, and the paralyzing is there, you know, it says a typical gang consists of approximately twenty weasels, including two or three seeker scouts, a group of huntsmen, and a pack leader. The scouts can sniff out prey from hundreds of kilometers away. They track down and disable

the target, rendering it immobile. Once the prey is down, the rest of the weasels move in their movements coordinated by the gang leader, and hundreds of kilometers away is genuinely really scary. That's terrifying. There's no hiding from that. Like, that's that's insane. So a part of me was like, don't kill these, wait until the rest show up, and then kill all of them. But I understand that they

are probably that's not actually practical here. So he gets paralyzed and he has to wait to be rescued because he can't move, and the paralyzing timer is five minutes, which when the audiobook narrator says five minutes, I immediately my first thought was five minutes, and then Carl says five minutes, and I was like, yes, we are on the same page. That's so long. That is agony. Five minutes.

Fuck yeah, So I'm sorry. I just saw it in the chat, Michael says worth, noting Carl is only level forty seven, and he's one of the highest level crawlers, so the level fifty that Boring gave all the Hunters is far stronger than the vast majority. Yeah, that's why. It's like what I was saying earlier is just like twenty levels is blonkers, and I just it's they're acting like, oh, yeah, this is to make things fair. You're complaining that you

lost too many crawlers last level. Just making all of the hunter's waist stronger seemed like a way to combat that to you, Like, not me, but anyway, this, uh, let's see, I felt myself rise in the air, and I realized Chris had picked me up and he's burning Carl's skin. But I guess because of like you know, the potions and whatnot, he winds up being fine, and

Mordecai is like leaning over Carl yelling at him. I looked up at the furry buck toothed, teddy bear like face glaring down at me, and as soon as it was described like this, the picture in my head was a cappy bara, which it turns out he is related to a pocket kuma. You take a small bear, cross breed it with a kappy bara spirit, pick out the runt, and then breed it further down with a sugar glider, which sugar gliders are also adorable. The resulting bug eye

creature is what you see before you. Now. They can't fight for shit, they can barely walk, but holy shit, are they disgustingly cute. And then it ends with I bet they smush really well. And I was just like, oh Ai, every time I have a moment where I start to just lean too close into liking you, you have to say some shit like that. I suspected this was going to be the look that he had to him. As soon as we hear his voice when he chimes

in on Carl's messenger before we actually see him. There's just a sound to the voice that I was like, Okay, this is gonna be a little rodenty thing, which I think is remarkable that the audiobook narrator can make a voice that instantly evokes an image in my head that turns out to be accurate later. Just another bit of like how good this narrator is. Just it's kind of crazy,

you know what I'm saying. So sorry, guys, I'm just trying to find my spot in the book because I'm jumping around a little bit on what I'm talking about here. So Karl wins up like laughing way too hard for a bit, and he keeps losing it when he's around Mordecai, and I do find that fun. The thing that I really liked about this was when he starts laughing and

he's like on the floor cracking up. There comes a point where Katya walks in and she's about to say something to him, and then she sees him laughing, and she stops what she's gonna say and just lets herself laugh for a second two And there was something about that moment like taking a breath and just enjoying the humor of this situation. It was just nice, you know, just having a bit of a break for just a moment,

and I loved it. I don't know, it just felt like we don't have to be all business all the time. I'm not mad that we mostly are, but little moments like this add the human element, you know what I'm saying. So let's see. This is when he gets the knock on the personal space and it is his attorney, Quasar Advocate of Crawler four one hundred and twenty two. The small creature glowered at Orin as I examined him. I was pretty certain the alien wasn't really in the room

with us. Later on, he notices the smoke from this guy's cigarette is pixelating, and he's like, okay, yeah, he's a excuse me, he's not. He's a gray alien. I just again. The narrator for this and the voice he gives to Quas are There is this escalation later on as he's talking about things, where he keeps increasing the volume, as well as the fierceness with which he says the word fuck. That is so hilaireous. It's so good you could just feel this like rage coming off him, and

I you, guys, it was just so well done. It was just so good. Now I want to say something about this. Overall, Carl is getting really concerned as he's talking to this guy because he's like, I can't tell if he knows what he's doing. I am unsure why Carl is feeling worried about that. I think it's really clear this guy knows what he's doing. I think this is exactly what you want in a lawyer. This whole attitude that he has of everybody is gonna be constantly

trying to fuck you over. That's what I want my lawyer to be, like. I want him to be on the alert at all times for the attempts to screw me. That's the idea, that's their job. And the frankness with which he talks about everything, and also his frustration at the basicness of Carl's questions, like Carl's like, well, how do you work as a lawyer like a human lawyer does? Or and he says at one point like this is

how you want to spend your time? And I was in such complete agreement with Quasar through this whole scene Carl keeps asking these fucking nothing questions, and I'm like, we don't have time for this, Carl, will you fucking get on, like you know what I'm saying, And eventually he does, but in my opinion, it takes him too long, and his like reticence about this lawyer doesn't make sense to me. This guy knows what he's about. He's been through this a million times, he knows tricks, he knows

what it is they're aiming to do. He's even able to see the way that Carl was being set up and warns him about it. So now Carl is aware that sometimes there's like just straight up trickery happening, you know. I just everything about this guy made me feel really confident. Oh this is a great person to have on your side one hundred percent. And so Carl constantly being like,

I don't know about this guy. I really can't tell if he knows what he's doing, and then at one point being like, oh, this is the guy who negotiates the deal for when I leave, and it says something like I felt suddenly sick, which I think is supposed to be, like this idiot's going to be negotiating for me. I'm so sorry, bro, but this is a good advocate for that too. I don't think you're gonna get a good deal, because it doesn't seem like anybody gets a

good deal when they negotiate to stop the game. Setting that aside, I think he's gonna do his best for you. And when Carl is like, what's to stop somebody from bribing you to fuck me? I love that he's like nothing, I mean nothing. I definitely could just decide to fuck you, and I might, but like, right now, I'm on your side and I'm gonna do what I can, and I respect the shit out of a person being like straight up, there is no reason for me to not screw you.

If the opportunity comes up, I will be honest about it, you know, like I want that straightforwardness. This is not offensive to me or an indicator that somebody isn't competent at all. So, just for me, Quasar is a win, and a part of me wonders who is responsible for him getting assigned to Carl because I feel like they

are really helped him out. There's possibly a bunch of you know, like when you look at public defenders, who are the lawyers that get assigned to people who cannot afford a lawyer, so one will be provided for you.

They are doing their best a lot of the time, but they are so overworked and they are not able to get into the details of every case the way they would normally, because they don't have time, because there are so many cases, and because they don't make any fucking money doing a job like that a lot of the time. So it's really unlikely when you get assigned a public defender that you're gonna get somebody who's on

their shit in a real way. And I feel like Carl got fucking lucky, actually, so his constant complaining in doubt, I was just like, I'm bored of this. Get on the get on the train, Carl. I'm already on it, and I'm waiting for your ass. Okay, sorry, Saraphim says, Yes, someone that is either so bad at his job he'd have starved to death already, or is really fucking good

at his job. Agree. Agree. And he's just so insistent as well, talking to Eryl about like, all right, not only do I want you to turn your sound receptors off, I want you to turn the fuck around, so that you can't read our lips either. And I love this. This is a bulldog, you know, like you need a person who's going to really be on top of shit and insistent and not cooperate with the enemy. So yeah, and finally Carl says, I'm not selling the gate or and said I could have it back on the ninth floor.

I don't know how it works in the universe, but in my world, if someone is borrowing something, they usually give collateral, something they won't want to lose. Quasar grinned. Now we're talking, and then we jump into the scene where he comes in and Sledgey, Bomo, Clayton, and very Sullen all come in and they are like living in

quarters that appear in the personal space mercenary quarters. And Carl says they're part of the package deal we negotiated in exchange for temporarily giving up the Gate of the Faral Gods. This got me so excited, the idea that these guys are just gonna be like around all the time. Now, there is so much potential here. There's potential in the way of like our friends proceeding in the game. There's potential in humor and the situations we could be in.

There's potential for like upping certain stakes because now we've got help. There's like limitations to how this works as well, But overall, I just immediately sat up and was like a word. So let's see, Bomo and Sledge stay with us very Sullen goes with Katcha, and Clayton will stay with Chris. We have them on floors six, seven, and eight. That's it. If they die, they will regenerate, but not

until the next floor. You guys should bring Clayton and Sullen with you when you venture out, But Bomo and Sledge are too valuable to risk, so they're staying in here. What Doughnut asked, Sledgi can't go on venturing with us? Why not? Sledgie made a disappointed noise. Did they give you the spells? I asked, Bomo. The rock Monster rumbled yes, the Sledge has the second. I nodded, excellent, Sorry, guys,

we need to keep these two safe. Since we were losing the Gate, I wanted to be able to replicate two of the Gate's abilities. The first thing I asked for was a teleport spell, but they wouldn't give it to me. Not directly. They didn't want to give me anything that I could just keep after we got the artifact back. They really said you could have it back

when you hit the ninth floor, Katya asked. Yeah. They seem to like the idea of me being able to sow chaos during fact wars, so they can teleport now. Not your guy, but yes, sort of. They agreed to give me a mercenary upgrade and access to four bodyguards. Then they gave two of them extra spells. Bomo now has a level fifteen spell called Teleport to Stairwell. We can pick a stairwell from a list and teleport there.

It has a ridiculous cool down, like twenty five days. Still, it's a pretty powerful spell because it lists all the exits on the entire floor. It's not something they want me to have access to later on, so it's in their best interest to make sure we get the gate back. The other spell is also teleportation, and it's even more impressive. This one was my lawyer's idea, What does it do? It's I trailed off, finally noticing Katcha's level, So we don't find this out. It turns out where is it she?

She is now level fifty two because of her participation in the whole thing with the gate, which is amazing. I love it so much. And she starts to tell him about one of the things that she got and she stops, and I'm really curious what she doesn't tell him. If it's because she doesn't want other people in the room to note. Does she think if she tells Carl he'll try to take advantage of it, Like why would she want to keep this from him? I don't know. So when she when she trails off, she changes the

subject back and says, you didn't answer me. What a Sledge's new spell do? It was glorious, Quasar had said, shame how it ended for Remis. They made us study the exit deal he made in school. But the mud Skippers cleaned up that season. It was a real windfall. You ask for this spell and they'll fall over themselves to give it to you. And you want to know the beautiful part, All of those other pricks won't interfere. Everyone will want you to pull it off. All the factions,

all the fans, the showrunners, the ai, everybody. That spell always leads to carnage. Everybody likes carnage. When it's not them, and we still don't know what it is. So let's see, I'm trying to find the Uh oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about this like platinum venison box that Carl gets and it's got three hundred thousand gold in it, and there he has to pay some of this gold to the shrine, and he tries to do it without Doughnut noticing, but she fucking does and she just complains

for a while about it. I suspect that's just going to be an ongoing theme. Donut emerged from the space, all poofed out and clean, and this is when she says she's going to start using the eighteen melody. Uh, we're taking the care of and we'll be okay, Katya said, as she, Chris Clayton, and very Sullen exited the safe room. We'll see you guys later, Bye Katya, Bye, Chris. Doughnut said she was attempting to be enthusiastic, but I could hear the sadness in her voice. Katcha leaned over and

kissed Doughnut on the head. Donut sniffed, Mongo squawked mournfully. See you tonight, I said, Katya held my eyes. Don't do anything stupid. I won't. I lied. So after purchasing these new rooms that they do, they only have one hundred thousand gold left and they need to find a spellbook for Donut Shield spellbook. Mordecai also wanted to find an item with something called a Golden Throat enchantment, which

was apparently the Dungeon's version of autotune. I can't tell you how delighted I am by this, the fact that

there's an item that does magical autotune. I am really wondering how long it'll be for them to find something like this, because if there are hunters who are getting outside information about the game from people watching, if they are told that all of Donut spells are basically worthless, not all of them, but all of the barred spells until she can sing on key, I would be out there looking for this item to take before they get

to it. It would be a tactic for me to like basically disable her in a lot of ways on this floor. So I don't know how known it is by everybody that this is an issue for her, or that this item exists, but uh, I just I'm a little concerned about it. That's all. That's all I'm saying. And she can cast spells in like a monotone, But it turns out that the power of the spell increases the better you sing it, So even though she can cast them, they're very, very weak and just don't really

do what you need them to do. Donahead also received one additional regular spell thanks to her spell Book of the Floor Club, a spell called Laundry Day, which removed an item of armor from an opponent and caused it to fall to the ground. The higher the level of the spell, the more powerful it was. At level five, she'd be able to remove breast plates and other chest armor. At level ten, she could strip an opponent bear. At fifteen,

she could cast on multiple opponents at once. I would be so very angry to be in the midst of a fight and have somebody just yank off some of my clothes. That would be so effective on me, not just making me vulnerable because I don't have armor, but also I would be so distracted and pissed that I would just like completely lose my cool, you know what I mean. That's a really could spell. That's like obnoxious.

You know, I really really love it. And let's see, I'd sent a message to Dona and told her to work on laundry day instead of Magic Missile. She didn't question it, and I thought this was a nice detail that comes up here, And it comes up later when he tells her to put Mango in the pet carrier. Is she trusts Carl so much that she doesn't ask questions before she does a thing. She does it first and then like keeps chatting with him, and a few minutes later is like, oh yeah, and why did I

put Mango away? And I just love the fact that she has that level of trust in him, that she just does what he asks. And it's not that's a big change, you know, like everybody remember the donut who just did whatever the fuck she felt like and ignored everybody. That's a big deal. So let's see, Sledgie has to stay behind and they the whole thing. There's a scene where not a lot really happens in it, but Carl goes into his new bomb room and he acts victually

pulls out the doomsday scenario bomb and gives it a look. See. I copied it using the Bomber Studio interface, so I'd be able to play with it safely using the simulator. I place the bomb back into my inventory, my hands still trembling, and I am really interested in what he's going to be able to do with that, especially in light of the fact that we find out the simulations that this room can do of how an explosive is

going to go off are not necessarily accurate. They are accurate in the vacuum of this room, but when you are actually out in the world, there's a billion different factors that affect the way in which something explodes, how fast the space it takes up, Like, all of that is going to be dependent on what's happening around you. What kind of magic are other people emitting? There are magical artifacts, Is there something happening with the building itself

that has a protection on it? What's the humidity like today? You know, just basic shit like that. What is the wind like? So I am so curious because the doomstay scenario is something that I am sort of assuming he's going to wind up using to kill that god that he is assigned to kill. And I think it's point. It was pointed out in the discord by Michael that level twelve is the level at which gods are vulnerable

and can die. So the fact that Karl was told to kill this god before level twelve is really particularly shitty, which I didn't catch onto at all, And that's that sucks, sorry, Michael says. When Mordecai mentioned that one crawler whose trap went off unnaturally, it made me worry Borne would accidentally adjust the inventory system and have the bomb go off.

When Carl mentioned it was a microsecond from blowing. I can understand this, Michael, And this is the thing, Like Carl is number one on the thing now and I think that's the only thing saving his life is that he is just making so much money for them, you know. But anyway, So yeah, this is so like it's just compelling. I just really want to know. Saraphim says. The doomsday scenario is totally sticking around to the final book, and like that's also something that I assumed initially, and now

I'm not so sure. I feel like keeping it around to the final book is almost too predictable. It feels so Chekhov's final like battle weapon that I would rather at this point that weren't what happened, because it's just obvious, you know, not that I would have like a problem with it. It wouldn't be like, you know, but it would feel a little like, well, yeah, you know, we all figured and I don't like that feeling. I want to be surprised. So I'm kind of hoping he doesn't

do that, but we'll see. So Carl and Donah head out allegedly to grind in the jungle and look for herbs and mushrooms and stuff that Mordecai needs for making his spells. And as they head out, Donah is asking Carl, like, do you think that the hunters are getting info on where we are at any given moment because of their friends? And Carl's basically like, probably they're not supposed to be able to do that, but we fucking know how all that works. And she says, we'll need a plan before

we can keep it a secret. And why didn't I just put Mongo away? I'd like to apologize for what's about to happen. Apologize for what. Aren't we hunting for herbs? We're going hunting, all right? This is gonna go quick. Get ready, And then Carl in chat calls out to Bomo, cast your spell, send us to the stairwell in zacaw, do it now? What are you doing? Carl? So my instinct when he says this was like, can you just go down the stairwell already? You can't do that yet, right?

I don't know what he can do other than maybe sabotage the stairwell for other people. But this is him using an ability that has a cool down of twenty five days. He's got something specific in mind. He would never use a spell this valuable with that long the cool down if he didn't know exactly what the fuck he was doing. And I am so baffled, like because this is especially the city that he is told to

stay away from. Because the thing that keeps like bringing me up short is that he makes sure to do this with Donut. And that's the part that I find huzzling, because if he were going to do something that was like a sabotage, I believe that he would be too afraid to risk her and he would want to do

it alone. But also we're in a stage now where they are not going to be able to communicate with each other as easily, and so he's going to have to just spring things out of nowhere to keep it secret unless they're able to utilize that whiteboard on the inside of the bathroom, which seems to have been pretty effective. But like you know, we're pretty early on in things right now, so I don't know if we've even used

the bathroom yet. Like I guess they have because Donut takes a shower, but obviously from the way he's talking, she doesn't know what he's about to do. And I feel a little bad about it in light of the fact that earlier I was saying, I'm so glad that she has grown to trust him that she'll just do things without questioning it first. Now I'm worried that he has done something that's going to make her start to question him after all, And I really hope not, because

I love this innate trust. This is one of those things that I find really touching whenever it comes up in a story that there are two characters who are so close that they are willing to go along with something even when it seems like it's in direct contradiction to their best interest, because they trust their friend or their partner so completely that they know they're not an idiot.

They're up to something with this, and I just have to roll with it, you know, I think it's because I have rarely felt that kind of total trust anybody in my life. I am always really aware of their being a sort of like they're being a worry about somebody's competence or ability. So I just, I don't know, there was something about that that I really like. And I just hope that him springing this on Dona out of nowhere without telling her ahead of time or anything,

that it's not going to like break that. I hope that she is going to get it right away and understand why he handled it the way he handled it and whatnot. We still don't know what that other fucking spell does, but he's not with them, so that has nothing to do with whatever's going on now from what I understand, or I may be wrong. I don't know. Maybe he can cast it from where he is, but so yeah, it was a pretty great ending to chapter four. Very much left me on the edge of my seat,

so I am looking forward to reading more. All right, everybody, Well, I'm gonna wrap this one up and thank you everyone for coming and hanging out. Thank you again to Jackie for commissioning this one, and until next time, to the lou motherfuckers that was an unspoiled network podcast