The Butcher's Masquerade, Chapters 39-45

the show everyone. I am Natasha. Thank you very much to Jackie for commissioning this episode. I just really want to get through chapter thirty eight since I wasn't able to cover that last time. But like I said, this was already going to be a pretty packed section without me also having to talk about a previous sections chapter, So forgive me, everybody, I'm out here doing my best. So chapter thirty eight, we're dealing with this creature that

Carl is like trying to take advantage of. And I say that not in the way that it's like this is unethical exactly, because I think this is fair enough. But I could see other people feeling this way, and it is. What he's trying to do is get as much of the gear from the hive as he can in exchange for rescuing Edict, who is one of the mantises and he's the only remaining male and therefore the only choice for Vra to mate with if she wants to get rid of this this venereal disease, so to speak,

this enthusiastic double gone rhea. And what it comes down to here is that Carl suspects that there is some sort of trap, but he's not really suspecting in the right direction. Like I think that you know his instinct here and the way he's responding it makes total sense. But once you actually know what's going on, it's sort of there was a sort of trap in that there was a plan in place, but it was not at

Carl's expense exactly. So what it turns out to be is that there are a bunch of weird reasons that one, this dude can't hand over his gear because there's like a party that is going to be there's already like a contract signed, and if he does give it to Carl, then he winds up his family is going to be responsible for it. There's also a reason why he can't meete with ra outside of just the fact that it would he would be killed because of being a mantis,

never mind suffering this fucking gonna rhea thing. But he's like not allowed to without certain permissions, and so so that could potentially be something that winds up biting him in the ass later on as well. And so what he has come up with is because the only like suitable death for me is death in battle, I propose. And then he goes after Carl and gets transported somewhere else where it will be into the nest of a mob.

And it's like a kind of I'm not sure, guys about this, and I'm really wondering how you feel about it what happens because he's teleported naked, right, which I guess just means like, not only are you stripped of everything that you're actively wearing, but your entire in is also stripped. So I don't know if this would like count against things. I'm not sure if this guy is aware that he'll be stripped naked if he is sent somewhere.

I have to assume he knows, Like you know, he's part of a hive that professionally is fighting in this thing in the crawl all the time. So I'm gonna go ahead and assume that, like, yeah, he fully knows

what's going to happen to him. And I don't know whether or not the stripping of the stuff that winds up in Carl's hands anyway is a violation of this like contract or I have to assume it isn't, and this is why it's like the only option, or maybe it's a loophole sort of, but anyway, So I I really like this as like the choice that he ends

up making. The weirdness of the regulations surrounding who can mate with who is odd as well, because it's like, you know, as a male, he's going to get killed mating either way, and evidently there's a psychological counseling that happens if you are a male because of the fact that you will be aware your life is going to

be gone shortly, you know. So I just thought this was a pretty solid plan here, and like they wind up with a ton as soon as he gets yanked away, there's all there's so much gold that pours out of him that he creates a sort of tidle wave that Dona and Carl have to close the door quickly enough that they aren't even able to grab it all, which Donah is deeply regretful of later on, and it's just like, come on, you could have gotten the rest of that.

What the hell? And I can't help but agree, but you know, I'm very donut codd, I guess one could say so. So, yeah, that's chapter thirty eight. And then when we're in chapter thirty nine, we've been avoiding the Dryad settlements because half the tree guys now attacked me on site, and I just learned the hard way that if the mayor happened to worship Duwata, he'd immediately task the funeral bellguards to attack me too. And there's also

these monkeys, and you know the whole thing. Dona is saying that she feels a little bad for the guy, and Karl is unable to muster much sympathy. And I believed him when he said he didn't want to be there and that he hated the way the universe worked. Despite everything that was happening to me in our planet, I thought he was wrong. It was stupid to let it bother me. I heard my dad's voice scolding me. Why do you care, He'd said to me one day

when he caught me watching the news. Knowing all that stuff wroughts you from the inside out, it doesn't affect people like us. And this is one of those things that it's such a it's so very touchy right now, and it should be. But you guys, like the thing that I have been having such a hard time with is managing my own desire to know what's going on with my mental health as so many of us are running into, you know, and his father's attitude here is

very different. I want to emphasize from what I'm talking about, which is simply that like, yes, I acknowledge that there is a toll on my mental health, but I also feel a certain responsibility. His father is much more like it it has nothing to do with you, because other people and what happens to them ultimately is only about them and never could like we are safe from it.

And so there's not only a lack of empathy there, but a really intense individualism and like trying I would call this like kind of burying your head in the sand, pretending that you're totally safe from something. But the thing is burying your head in the sand. When I say that, it suggests that you're trying to hide from a fact that you kind of know is there. And I really don't know that his father knows it's there. I think his father's lack of empathy really does translate to him

fundamentally not believing that things will affect them. I think that there's a certain, like genuine quality to what he is saying, because he is so sure it's not burying your head in the sand if you really believe it, and I think he really believes it, And it's infuriating because living during the time that we are currently living through the whole it could never happen to me. I'm safe from an attitude is what has gotten us into

this whole mess to begin with. Like, make no mistake, but uh, you know it's you've got to like I think there is to a degree a point where you need to draw the line and be like, I don't need to know any more than I know now about some things that I genuinely can't change. And I do think that there are some things knowing and being unable to do anything about them I don't think it's helpful

to you. I don't think that the people involved would feel better about somebody knowing about it who can't do anything, Like there's a certain urge to want to bear witness to things to simply you know, And I understand that. But we have so different a relationship with the news than we did before. When Carl was younger and watching the news, he wasn't scrolling his phone, he wasn't interacting with people in comments. He was looking at a television

getting news from that. And only that It's a lot easier to dodge the news when it comes from like two places, the TV and newspapers, maybe the radio. But now it is part of the way that we entertain ourselves as well a lot of the time. So I feel like we've got to be even more vigilant now about even in our downtime we are going to be getting hints of this like seeping in or outright. We spend all our downtime actively engaging with it. And is that beneficial? Is it helping? You know? And when you

ask helping, who good question? Who do you want to be helping? What do you feel you're accomplishing? And is it worth what it's costing you, like on a daily basis, and sometimes yes, it's worth it. I'm not trying to suggest that the answer is always like, no, it's not. I am saying that you need to ask yourself that.

And I have caught myself a few times about to engage in an argument with somebody that when I stop and think about it, I'm like, I don't even know that this is a real person, and they are operating here in such bad faith that even if they are a real person, my reply to them will not change anything about what they think. And even if it would, I would frustrate myself so deeply and become so angry. It's not worthwhile because I would half of my day

would get sucked into this argument. And I've had to be so much more careful about it. But it's uh improved my life. I feel stopping and asking myself that question. So anyway, I'm sorry, I just saw Michael. What is fucked up is that people in charge have gotten really good at weaponizing the news, especially via entertainment news like Fox,

and creating a constant bubbling fear that slowly radicalizes people. Yes, it's you know, the whole way that this that capitalism has changed in relationship to our interaction with social media, and with internet views and advertising being necessary for things to survive, it has created this weird bubble where the only way for places to employ people is to generate ad revenue, which means you have to go to their site, which means they have to write articles that draw you,

which means that they have to be pretty shocking headlines, which means things are often taken out of context, which means that maybe if we're making money from the ads, maybe we don't need to employ people now, maybe we can just have AI do it. And then you're getting giving them money for viewing something that wasn't even written

by a person or fact checked or anything. And then it becomes what if the person kind of clicking the thing and going isn't an actual person either, and you're getting paid from the ad revenue from AI viewing your AI written article. And this is the bubble that is happening that is going to pop sooner or later. I hope sooner, because it's so unsustainable and so bizarre when you stop and think about it anyway, we uh, they're taking over a bunch of different settlements. They have to

kill two mayors. Carl's trying to get in touch with his attorney and it's not working out. Eventually, he asks Zeb to do this on his behalf, and he asks Mordecai, and he replies that he's starting to feel obsolete because Carl's encountering a bunch of stuff that's literally never happened before. So Mordecai is like, I am, like, it's not that I don't know shit. I've been super helpful at times, I acknowledge, but like, ah, bringing me a lot of puzzlers, man.

So he's also Carl is thinking about this whole thing with Lucia, and he's going through a bunch of the same questions that I was going through last time. I won't go over them again. You know what they are, but you know, not that much time was spent on it after that scene ended with them talking about what she could have meant. And I'm glad that he is just chewing that over because I would I would have really been like, what do you think was going on there?

And talking to Donut about it, and it just you know, we don't actually see them theorizing or discussing this and a part of me really wonders why not, because I feel like this would be a huge topic of conversation.

And I don't know if it's because they feel like they're not allowed to say certain things, or that maybe they won't get featured if they're in the midst of like a discussion about something regarding her, because like there's obviously a person influencing her, or she's cheating or whatever.

But it's something that I have noticed that happens repeatedly in these books, is that a bonker's thing will happen that they don't have all the information on, and we don't really get people theorizing out loud about it or asking each other what do you think. It's almost always that we're relying solely on Carl's internal monologue and his own puzzling it out with the information that he has from now he's got the cookbook, but you know previously he didn't even have that, And I don't know, man,

I would definitely be like throwing ideas out there. It doesn't in the end matter that much, as he points out, because like she's hurting people, and she's clearly during that last fight kind of turned a corner and has decided, Okay, I just need to kill everybody, So yeah, bitch needs to be taken out. I'm not arguing that, but I am super curious exactly what the fuck is going on here, and I would be bringing this up a lot. I would in like a lot of my downtime, I'd be

questioning it. So he also has this thing where he's like knows that Donut got lucky in surviving, but he wants to like say that to her delicately enough that she doesn't get upset, And every time they sort of steer toward that subject, she changes the subject so well and so deftly that he doesn't notice initially that it's happened, and he keeps trying to bring it back up, and finally he realizes she's steering the conversation away on purpose

because she's fucking aware that she's lucky to be alive. She knows and does not require his you know, insight on this, because she's not an idiot. And I just really liked this moment. Every time that he starts to like underestimate her and then realizes, you know what, I got her fucked up. She's on this. It's nice, I approve of it. So then donut like she notices that the mongo's growling in the way that he does when

he has smelled other dinosaurs. And they come across this town that weirdly seems empty from far away, and they're sort of like, oh boy, what's this now? And they send Samantha in to investigate. And Samantha had been super mad at Dona previously, but at this point has seemed to get over that. There's a mention here that she's

rolling a lot faster than she used to. And there's a point later when they're talking about their plan where she turns up on the counter in the midst of the conversation and Carl has to take a second and be like, was she on that counter before? Has she

figured out how to get up there? And just all of these little hints that this weird doll head is beginning to advance somehow to being more and more capable in a way that should probably be of concern, But as long as she's on their side, is maybe fine, you know, like question mark, I know depends, but uh, I will just say that I love how Samantha keeps insisting that, you know, if I were there, I would have killed the guy or I'm going to kill the guy.

And she has never done anybody any damage that I know of, and like, I don't think it's ever happened, because she's made of silicone and even her fangs are soft, and like at one point, she's assuring them that she would have been able to take care of edicts, and they had just found her lodged under like a dead log somewhere. You know, she's so lacking in ability that she can't even get out from under a dead tree. And yet she's like, no problem, I would have absolutely

smoked that guy. And I'm like, oh, sweetie, sure you would have. Okay, sure, why not? We'll go with that. So oh, I'm sorry U. Michael says, how dare you? She ripped that giant toad up from the inside? I forgot about that. Wasn't that really? Mostly mango? Though? What am I thinking of? Was it the toad that was at the four? Where was the toad that she ripped up? I don't remember it? Does it was all mango? Says Michael. Okay, God, the way that mam would like, uh huh okay, Michael says,

that took credit for it. Amazing. I forgot about that, Thank you, Michael. So she comes out of this town and she is just covered in muck, and she tells them this town is full of dead people. It's really really bad. And you know, I've seen that there is a bear at least still alive that seems to be like hiding in one of the pubs. But that's the only person that's alive that I have seen. So they make their way in very cautiously, and the stench is so bad. There are all of these body parts all

over the place. And the pub that they go to, they find a bear like a woman who is the wife of the proprietor, I guess, and she's there with her two sons and she's still hiding. Eventually, Carl gives them access to their personal space that they can go

in there to hide, but they are very traumatized. Her husband's claw is still locked on the doorframe that he was standing in when he tried to keep himself from being yanked away and was apparently either pulled so hard or his wrist was chopped so that his claw like remains wrapped around it, and later it drops to the ground and begins scuttling out the door, which is the indication that some shit is happening now because the sun

is going down. We will get there shortly. First we have to go to the convention and Carl gets whisked to to the production facility, and the way that he is treated is very, very different than the last time. There's no camaraderie. There's a feeling almost of like maybe somebody got wind of the fact that he made a deal with the guy, and so now they're giving Carl even less personal attention because they're trying to maintain tighter

security with him or something. I don't know, maybe a person like spotted the fact that he looted a bunch more stuff than he should have been allowed to that like, access to his personal space was turned on far enough ahead of him leaving the the production facility that it's suspicious, you know, or it may just be coincidental, who knows, But regardless, he gets transported to see the the pop Off brothers in such a manner that he lands really hard like on his side and it's so just a

you know, very undignified first meeting. So these guys are called Maxim and what is the other guy's name. Oh my god, I'm trying to find their names here. I remembered Maxim because that one, for some reason, was like particular. Dimitri, that's the other one. So we don't get like the details about the way that this accidentally happened are revealed a little bit further on, because there's a kid at the convention who's asking, like, was it really an accident?

Because I saw some clips of you guys before this all went down, and the two of you were very obsessed with a TV show about conjoined twins something like that. So this kid is like trying to suggest that they're living out a weird fantasy that they had about being conjoined, and it's just a bizarre assertion to make, and you know, like, what are you hoping to accomplish, your kid? And when they are like, shut the fuck up, dude and go away, he's like, so you won't deny it that kind of shit.

But what we find out is that the guide that they had did not adequately informed them of the result of the class that they were picking or the race. The race, so they were simply told, this choice will give you a second life. If not the video if you are killed you will be regenerated and you will get another shot at things. And I just can't imagine being so completely misinformed that you wind up conjoined with your brother, Like I if I were their guide, I'd

go into hiding. Like It's just it's either malicious intent or the most profound negligence. It's like I can't imagine either way. It's got to be one of those two. And uh, yeah, I wonder about this just another example about how like the person who who teaches you how things work is so instrumental in the choices you make, and you only have the information that they give you. You know, when they start this crawl, they don't get access to a fucking wiki about it. It's they're just fully dependent

on their game guide. And even if they do get a second chance that they're at a life, they actually are like reborn as these weird toddlers, and they grow quickly evidently, but like, it's not it makes it sound like a cockroach ability, like what Doughnut has, Like it was described to them that way. But then we find this out, So there's even a question regarding like, okay,

is the second life worthwhile? Are you actually going to do anything with because if you are that vulnerable, then you might just die a few minutes later than you would have died. Anyway, how much of an advantage is it really, which there's you know, we don't know exactly how this ability works. So if it's like you're reborn immediately, I feel like that's not what you want, because you're reborn probably in the midst of a battle or something.

But if you're reborn like a few minutes afterwards, perhaps the creature that killed you or whatever it will have moved on and you'll be born in a place that is no longer occupied. That is something that's possible. I guess there's just a lot of like variables in there that we don't know about that make me wonder, Okay, how how worth it would this even be? And I doubt they were given any of those details either. Anyway,

these guys are delightful. One of them is like a melee fighter and the other one is a magic user. They have this meteor hammer a flaming ball at the end of a chain, and Carl thinks something like, I'm glad I don't have to face them down that they've been described as the nice guys to me because they seem pretty fucking badass, and I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of any of this. And they have this conversation here Dmitri really wanted to meet the cat.

He wanted to meet Donut so bad. It's super disappointed that she's not here. And then we find out that they weren't allowed to have a pet growing up, and Dmitri had just gotten a cat the day before the collapse and is super sad about it. His name was Captain Whiskers and he was orange, so you know, he was a real dummy, and I was sad on his behalf for this one. I really was like, that sucks. What a bummer? So sorry. His name was Kepitin Whiskers

with ka Kepitin. So this is when Zev turns up with Skindle, who is their representative, and there's a moment here, like Zev had said before they are before Carl's transported, there's something I want to talk with you about in person, And when the two of them arrive, Carl's like, okay, you wanted to talk to me about something, and she sort of like looks over at Skindle and is like, yeah, I wanted to talk to you about your new sponsor, And I can't help but feel like that glance indicates

that wasn't what she wanted to talk to him about it originally. Right. It's really feeling for me like she's signaling, Okay, I can't actually talk to you about it after all, because she's here, so she has something else locked and loaded to talk with him about. But I don't know, maybe not, or maybe there's something that she wanted to warn him about regarding this sponsor that she can't I

don't know. Feels like something though. Why would she give like skindle a glance when this should be perfectly ordinary information to share? Ah? Feels like something. So anyway, she says there was a delay in the announcement because the first sponsor who won the bidding war ended up unable to pay. I am so curious who that is, you guys, I don't know, Like Zev claims, she doesn't even know that it's basically above her pay grade, and I believe her.

I'm willing to bet she doesn't know. But I don't know friends who out there would do this and not

be able to pay. I am kind of feeling like it could be even somebody like be you know, like that she would be all cut up in guilt and would want to help Carl and then would try and be his sponsor, not understanding really like the extent of what it would take, and then they would find out that she like couldn't pull it off or something because otherwise, like how does you know I'm just being unable to pay? It just feels like this is somebody with no experience,

and so who who does that leave? And it could certainly be somebody that we've never even met, but that was the person that occurred to me, is Okay, she's like outside of the crawl itself, but connected enough to Carl to want to do something, but also whacking in resource,

you know. So anyway, it turns out that his sponsor is one of the Plenty, and I just the plenty are just so strange and the fact that they, like there was a caprit involved with whatever was going on with Maggie my and now he's got one as a sponsor. I don't know if this is like an elaborate setup or if there are different factions of the Plenty that are in opposition to each other, you know, like I don't know, but it's a It was very surprising to me, and I was very glad that Carl brings up the

whole thing with Maggie later. It's clearly on his mind as well that this seems weird.

compliment in the way they pulled it off. But Carl just sees this as profoundly fucked up, which it is, and probably Donut would also understand that it was fucked up. But I think that her, overall, her ego would win out, you know, and the whole the interview with Bee apparently aired the night before this event, so it's on everybody's mind, and Carl winds up having to field a bunch of questions about it and starts to get very very tired

of it, understandably. And there's also talk about Vra and what she's going to do now that this last mantis is dead, and people are thinking like, is she going to cut the infection away? Because then she can't be hive queen like you know, and let's see, I simply replied, if it were a comment about be Dona was doing fine, everything that needed to be said was said during the interview.

So there's also there were a pair of Cicccathians who hied themselves together and were pretending to be the pop offs. The two bickered so much they ended up dislodging from one another. I thought that was pretty funny. Dimitri and

Maxim did not, which I'm sure they didn't find. You know, I'm sure they fight so much that they wish they could get away from each other all the time, and here are these people who can actually do that, And you know, everybody's like, oh, t he's so funny, and they're like, do you know how much we would fucking give to be able to do that. Yeah, I'm sure they didn't find it funny. So then comes a creature

named Jennifer. She walked carefully and slowly up the podium like she had an issue with one of her legs. Other than that, she looked like a regular brunette human woman, maybe in her forties. Her name was Jennifer. She had the word premium after her name, with little spinning star, which meant she'd paid for this spot. Effects slid a picture in front of me to sign her Premium pass came with two free pictures and a photo, but she

had only wanted one. It depicted me and Dona in the drop Bear biplane as it was chased by Orthris the giant puppy. And apparently this name is super common everywhere, Jennifer, which I find. My mother's name is Jennifer. Yeah, I think it's probably the most common women's name out there. I'm sure there's I'm sure it's not the most, but it's got to be in the top five. Right versions

of it as well, different spellings. And she's got this shirt on the Society for the Eradication of Cocker Spaniels, but the word Cocker Spaniels has a line through it, and then above it there's a picture of a dog with an X flashing over it, and when Carl asks about it, outa says the word cocker spaniel. This tentacle thing comes out and begins to beat the shit out of her head. A little mouth opened up on the tentacle and started growling and salivating, oozing thick saliva over

the woman's head. The tentacle had a spot of long blonde hair at the very tip, held together with a bow, making the thing look like a fucked up Yorkshire terrier. It quivered with anger. I have no idea what the fuck is going on here? And when he calls it a parasite, she gets really, really angry. She gets angry. When someone says the sea word, she gets so mad she runs away. I say, I'm not going to chase you,

you little monster, but I do every time. And I've got to mention once again the delivery of this by the audiobook narrator, who makes this whole conversation feel very horrifying with the kind of breathlessness that he gives this character. It's really weird. The society is real. We used money from our fund to purchase a premium pass so I could come and give you a message. I am the president of the Princess Posse Inner System number forty three.

The syndicate brings a select sampling of unique flora and fauna to a compatible biome in order to preserve a sampling of the lost biology. Multiple canine variations are on this list, including the C word. I would like for you to tell Princess Dona that, as she suggested, we have filed a lawsuit to pretend prevent this from happening. And he says, as she suggested, And as soon as

he asks how many donations have you brought in? FX comes over and is like, I didn't see your CYNDI out your premium pass gets a photo, but not for two And I wondered if this was like a strategic cutting off of the converse or you know. And you guys know that I had been suspicious of the fact that it seemed Carl was meant to meet somebody here. It felt like that was what zeb was saying about

staying behind a little bit later. And as things go, Carl gets transported out of there early, which makes me wonder if he fucked something up. Is this the person he was meant to meet? I am assuming that the money that Dona is saying they're raising for the eradication is actually going towards something very other. That's like, I think that she's putting this face on it because it's making it seem very petty and frivolous, and so nobody

will pay much attention. But I think it's probably not for what it looks like, and it's just you know, maybe it's for exactly what it looks like, but I don't know. Man just doesn't. So then here comes the Naga and he is standing in line and he is really obviously upset and wants to talk to Carl, but is being forced to wait while they announce his new

uh what do you call it, his new sponsor. With the new sponsorship, he's been awarded a gold benefactor box which he will open upon the return to the dungeon, which eventually we get there, and it's a bunch of stuff for dealing with vampires. So this is when the Naga shoves through and Carl recognizes him and is like, oh, you're the one that Odette scooped, that's why you're so mad, And the Naga is insisting that Carl is cheating, which like,

I don't really know if that's technically true. We know he's getting a bunch of information via the cookbook that many people would prefer he didn't have, But the cookbook is literally presented to him as part of the game. This is not something that is outside of the functionality of the game itself. So I think that's not cheating. I think he has access to a game approved resource that simply is invisible, and so it seems like he must be cheating. But I wouldn't consider that actually cheating.

And the Naga just keeps insisting I know that you are. I'll find out a way to prove it to everybody.

be happening. That might be valid. I don't know, you know, And then the timing of that interview with Odette is pretty damn suspicious. Don't you think assisting in system sedition is a crime? I don't really get what it is he's suggesting here, and I don't get I get the impression Carl does, because he doesn't say, what the fuck are you talking about? He just just like, good luck? Now? Is it supposed to be the sedition of the Valte taking over the game and the timing of the interview

being right before that happened? Is that what he's saying? I don't really understand, Like that doesn't seem like sedition to me, though. That seems like the Valte simply came out on top in a business transaction. I'm not getting the connection here, and I feel like I'm missing something. And finally, and there's this moment where uh, he like he flipped a long forked tongue and it pierced the illusion of my head and Carl says, you think you're safe? The Naga says, what do you think you can do?

And like we just had it established that Carl is not actually there, but the magical Sharpie is somehow managing to reach wherever it is that these people are gathered for the convention. So he uses that and shoves it into this thing's neck and it breaks apart, but it does like part of it sticking out of its neck, and there's blood all over the place. And then suddenly the lights go up, and Maxim says, in Bulgaria, much of the media is not trusted, but at least they

pretend to be impartial. I don't think this is the case with that guy. The United States doesn't pretend to be impartial, so we're like Bulgaria, I guess. So, yeah, Carl just really decided to take this to eleven. And you know, most of the time I am delighted and surprised at the stuff that he decides to pull, but this is one of those moments where I was just like, Carl, what did you accomplish? Like, you know, it just felt

so pointless to me. I don't know. So anyway, the pop off, others get let off, and he is left alone with the Nole guards and they're all very serious until Carl says something like, come on, you have to admit that was pretty awesome, and one of the guards just starts laughing and has to be yelled at. And this is when zeb turns up and is like, he

is going to charge you with assault. He's gonna press charges, and we get a description of the way that being imprisoned works here in this universe, which I am not going to get into fully, but suffice to say it's really really similar to how prisons in the United States work, where you are used as free labor by corporations, businesses, whatever for the duration of your sentence, and then you are released and none of that often counts towards like

job experience, or the same business that use your free labor won't hire you because you're a former convict. You know, there's like so much to that, and technically it's not considered slavery because the way that our laws are written, we make it so that slavery is legal actually if

you are a prisoner. And the reaction that she has when Karla is like people are okay with that, she just says they're criminals, which is exactly what everybody says when you try to talk about like justice within the prison system. And you know, we have so many privatized prisons in the United States, but people just see if you are in jail that you must have done something to deserve to be there, and therefore you don't deserve any protections, any rights, any anything, and it is so frustrating.

So yeah, he asks if he can buy out his own warrant, you know, all of this stuff. In the end, though, what it comes down to for him is just I don't even know if I'm gonna make it out of the dungeons, So I'm not even going to worry about this as something that's so unlikely to even happen. I just don't need to think about it, which I fully agree with. And she says it is a naga. His brother is married into the Blood Seltanate. He wants you in Donut out of the dungeon before you get down there.

He seems to think you're some sort of Antichrist figure sent from the heavens to bring about the apocalypse. You and Donut. It's a small but growing conspiracy amongst some populations. Most everyone else loves you too, And uh yeah, so they're QAnon, I guess, is what I'm hearing. You know. At this point, Carl thinks about like the Blood Sultanate thing, we'd have to make sure all of the members were

dead before she'd be allowed to leave the floor. And while the nagas usually had their asses handed to them during the fighting, I now knew the royals themselves always made it to the end. Always getting to them was going to be a difficult, if not impossible task. So this knee hit guy thinks there's a way to physically harm those guys on the ninth floor. Zev's side, you might want to start worrying about surviving the sixth floor first.

Carl so forty three. Donnut delighted at the fact that Dimitri wanted to meet her, and she also when he brings up this thing with the cocker spaniels, She's like, oh, yeah, they've made a shirt. I've approved the design. I'm hoping they'll send one into the dungeon for you to wear. And like, I personally would be delighted. He does not want to advocate for the genocide of dogs, which I understand.

She's like, not all dogs, but you know whatever, And you know, Mordecai is like, if you went to trial, I would love to see it. A death's trial was a farce. It was this whole production, and she pleaded down to a lesser charge just before they reached a verdict. Wait, you saw Adet's trial. It was when she was my manager. I testified against her. I am so curious. You guys, they don't ask questions. I am just I need a little bit more curiosity, and I do I want them.

You know, he's offering this up and then immediately follows it with now open your boxes and get back out there. You can't say that and then just not follow it up with any explanation. I really really want to know what is it? What did she do? Testified against her? Like damn? Anyway, Okay, so they have been trying to get in touch with Prepotente and he has not been replying, and so they're not really sure what to make of that.

Let's see the plenty give him a the patch for his jacket, and then the silver benefactor box from the apothecary. Let's see. I'm sorry, I don't know about this description. It sounds like the Ai is having a stroke and she's got this bracelet with purple gems, and so the lion fell in love with the lamb and it's in those alternating like upper and lower case. I'm actually quite

fond of the twilight numbers. Of Twilight numbers Twilight novels. Sorry, guys, And there's a long thing about just how like weird we are about really young protagonists in stuff, and that it's like a misguided trend, which I fully agree on.

And this bracelet imbused the following effects protection against vamporism, protection against lecanthropy plus twenty five percent magical damage against all sapient un dead, and Donah says the description doesn't have anything to do with the item and is very happy that it's purple. The description on his patch this the midnight Epicure, the catbird who devours the sky, This scary ass fable is used to terrify children across the universe.

Protection against vamporism, protection against leacanthropy plus twenty five percent magical damage against all sapient undead. And they basically do the exact same thing as each other, except his as a fleeting item in hers is so understandably. Donah is like, oh man, we haven't been able to get a hold of them. Does this mean that we're gonna have to fight like Miriam and Prepotente. I don't want to do that.

And I was in complete agreement with her. And then the silver benefactor box is a post recipe and a drawing of Mongo, and he hands these things over to Mordecai, who nearly has a fucking heart attack. And it's a recipe that he's been trying to figure out and hasn't been able to and once he's like reading it and sees the way that it works, he's like, oh, that makes so much sense. I was really close. And he's got all the ingredients except for one, and they can

get that. And it turns out this is Mongo's blood and the potion is charm Animal, which I'm assuming they would like to use on Big Tina. Now, Donut puts up a big fight about getting his blood, but they're able to like concoct something that will put him to sleep and then they can give him a healing potion. It'll be fine. But she is very uncomfortable with the fact that he won't know what happened to him, but she will, and she feels like she's breaking his trust.

And I actually really understand where she's coming from on this. I think that we're Mango sapient and were they able to have a conversation, Mango would volunteer his blood and be totally fine with it, but that's not the point, you know. And I get why she feels this way, and I have often felt this way with the dogs and stuff, where I have to kind of like trick them into doing a thing, and I feel like really shitty, but also, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. Sometimes.

This is when they get a message from Miriam and she explains that I've been asking for help. Nobody would get involved. I tried to message you and it wouldn't go through. And when Carl looks, he realizes, oh, I see the word elite is in the keywords, which means like a lot of people were understandably not wanting to get involved. And he can't get involved if an elite is in the mix either because of like the contract thing. But Miriam is like, no, no, no, the elite is dead.

Pony managed to kill him, but he's paralyzed for fifteen hours, and I am stuck in place because if I move and shatter any part of him, that will make his entire body break apart and he'll die. And it has been two days and the dark is going is returning, and the dinosaurs are going to come out, and I'm

not going to be able to keep us safe. She manages to stay alive through the sunlight with revived spell and blood potions over and over, but she like one more day and I'm toast, like I won't be able to make it through another one. So, you know, I am in the same camp as Mordecai partially here where his instant response is like, okay, but she's a vampire and you just got a load of anti vampire gear. Do you think that maybe the fact that this is happening might be a trap or an indication that you

shouldn't get involved? Actually, and like, you know, I appreciated that he said it, at least because Carl doesn't even say it. Nobody says out loud that connection. And I was sort of like, am I fucking am I crazy? Like why is nobody addressing this? And uh, what it comes down to is they're not addressing it because even if that's true, she saved their lives and they feel they owe her, and that's just all there fucking is to it. I'll be honest to a point, I respect

the hell out of that. You know, I'm not mad at it, but I did want to at least acknowledge for God's sake. So anyway, they are going to head out and help her. They figure out, you know, a plan to get through, and they have to stop at a couple dryad settlements, which is bad for Carl and he's just like, Ah, this is gonna fucking suck. And Samantha wants to come with them, but he says, you're staying back this time. And I don't know why that is.

I don't know, like why he doesn't want to bring her, but you know, she's been very useful before, and I kind of feel like maybe he should just let her come. I don't know. It was curious about that. And this is when Mordecai is like, hold on a second, hold on, and he comes out with two potion balls that are holy water mixed with a healing potion and air activated coagulant. Embres is a light based god. The water from the shrine combined with a healing potion and the coagulant acts

like napalm to vampires. Hit him with this and then have Donut Max out her torch spell. Any vampire will be turned to dryerland. So this is when they head out and encounter the U, the Bear, and her two children, and they talk through everything with her that's going on,

and it's like the exact story of Footloose. And as she's like telling this story, her little kids are chiming in with like the fucking brainwashing sinners get what they deserve, the judgment of the gods, like it's it's very much giving, like Ned Flanders and his kids. And the little girl who was going to defy the anti dancing rules was Tina, and she's the only child who turned, and they believe that it's because she was flying in the face of the rules. Let's see, she has lost all of her faith.

While she kills everyone she meets, she actually actively hunts Erstine. Her mother survives, along with several of the other mothers, but they are in the form of dinosaurs like your Companion. They are vicious and they also kill, but they're not as deranged. And Tina is stronger than ever and the others can't stop her. And Kiwi is her mom and that's the one that banged Mango, So now they have

a mission to deal with Tina. And he's sort of like, well, we have to kill her, and Doughnuts like, no, we don't. We need to like give her what she wants. They are they're, you know, they're thinking maybe kill all the er sign is what Carl says, and he's She's like, no, she wants to dance. We have to finish the recital. And he instantly is like, that's it. She's right, I completely, that's exactly what it is. And then there's a noise and this is when they see the bare claw wiggle

in its way out the damn door. And I'm once again out of time with like a whole other chapter to talk about, but I am going to try to wrap this up fairly quickly. Miriam inflicted vamporism on the dinosaurs, and what is happening is that they tear apart all of their victims into lots of pieces, and then wait as they slowly pull themselves together. And let's say, I'm trying to find the the oh, they're so high glamoured fragment all together level forty two, twenty one point eight

percent of the whole. This is a minion of Big Tina. They slaughtered people, ripping them into as many pieces as possible, and then they came back two days later and waited for them to reform. Each individual piece had a level, and if they reformed with the original, the levels got added. The pieces added together were going to be ridiculously powerful, way stronger than they were originally, which is bananas. That's a crazy hack. Calling it a hack is actually really funny.

And he's like, I really want to go back in seye and just fucking hied from this. But this is evidently spread quite easily, and so this could be a complete game changer to this entire floor if we don't get it under control. Basically, they started something like we did with unleashing that puppy, where it's a result of some other thing that is now going to affect everybody.

And so they flee and they drop some bombs behind them to hopefully break a bunch of the pieces up maybe stop them, but he thinks, probably just slow them down. And as they're in this like chariot and heading out, they get some messages from Gideon and Surrendel Gore and he's asking them, are you seeing like vampire animals around? Have you encountered these? I found a half genie, half

owl vampire thing and surrender Gore. I haven't seen any reanimated body parts, but the drill beaks all disappeared almost overnight, and now they're vampires. It makes them twice as strong and super fast. You don't automatically get infected if they touch you. I think only if they injure you severely. If I cast ultraviolet on my flamethrower, they die quick, which is you know, the light makes sense. They talk about whether or not they're going to be able to

go to the Butcher's Masquerade surrender. Gore is like potentially, but the other guy is like nope, and I don't want to, and Carl's sort of like, yeah, I think it's a trap. Probably best if you don't actually come. And then they enter the small dry ad settlement and they have to like bust through a bunch of people who are yelling apostate and YadA YadA. But where they're heading is a safe room, which means that everybody who tries to attack them here gets transported away, which I

thought only applied to crawlers. I never thought about this actually happening with like the NPCs in a safe room, because I thought that the safe room proper was only accessed by like you know what I'm saying. I don't think I realized that a real safe room, safe room where you would actually be explicitly protected, was somewhere that NPCs also just hang out. I don't think that I was putting that together. I think I assumed that it

was like within your personal spaces. I was not understanding this, and like it's book five, I should have known this, but I was not getting it. So so anyway, that is the end of chapter five, and I am really really curious, like because the whole charm animal thing, it seems like they're thinking they may have to make more than one, which I understand if you're dealing with more dinosaurs than just Tina. I'm wondering how well it'll work and how long it lasted. All of that, I guess

we'll see. All right, friends, I gotta wrap up, but thank you again so much for listening, and I will see you next week with a new episode. Or actually no, I won't. Next week is Thanksgiving week, so I have that week off, but i'll be back the week after. Don't miss me too much until then.