Chapter 4 of 35 · Book 3, The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Chapter 4 — Limp Richard's books

Book: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook · Previous: Chapter 3 — Messages from deceased Crawlers · Next: Chapter 5 — Vernon the conductor · Floor: Floor 4 — The Iron Tangle · Series: the series

Opening

It had been several hours since I’d beaten my knuckles raw on the wooden dummies.

Summary

Hours on the dummies leave Bare Knuckles at 8; Donut trains Dodge and Katia Catcher against a four-armed hologram. In the crafting studio Carl sets three tables — alchemy (Mordecai's), sapper's, engineering — and with the Goo-inator bends a swordsman guard's iron breastplate like dough (Martha Stewart!; a bucket of pink glitter that will never go away). Mordecai: shaping weakens metal; a welder can be had. Bautista is at station 199 on Azure and Brown.

At Limp Richard's the party buys a padded mallet, sees a 75,000-gold dwarven Battery Fabricator — mana potions in, charged bricks out; 'better than the soul gems the elves use' — and Carl trades five Louis L'Amours for five of the mole's sixteen Earth paperbacks (Andre Norton, Le Guin, Haldeman), leaving the copy of Swan Song with its last chapters torn out. 'The value of entertainment to a bored man who has run out of books.' The Nightmare Express runs a figure eight through two different station 83s and station 436 at the top; the yellow line is a fishhook. Mobs on the yellow trains — Cave Mudge Bonkers and Shock Chompers, level 19–20 — can be killed through the open doors but cannot step onto the platform, which Hekla calls a bug and Carl a time trap; she also reports the mobs all get off every five stations into cave tunnels. The party boards, and the first fight inside a train car is Formation One: Mongo and Katia in the door vestibules, Carl in the middle, a V-shaped kill zone. Katia catches a club on her metal forearm; Talon Strike opens two heads. 'Reset the formation.'

Characters

• Carl — First crafting; the book trade; Formation One; Talon Strike.
• Princess Donut — Talks the mallet down; 'You're a terrible negotiator, Carl.'
• Katia Grim — Shapes into a squat Popeye to catch a club; her first hit.
• Mongo — Disembowels a bonker through the poles.
• Mordecai — Studies the changed crafting system; warns about the shaping tool.
• Limp Richard — Sixteen books, one with the end torn out; a straight trade.
• Hekla — Farming mobs through the doors; the five-station migration theory.
• Daniel Bautista — Station 199, Azure and Brown, with a party.

Locations

• Transfer station 83 — The general store, the Nightmare Express platform, the yellow line.
• The Iron Tangle — The Nightmare Express's figure eight; the yellow fishhook; mobs off every fifth station.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — The crafting studio at work; the Battery Fabricator noted and wanted.
• Achievements — Martha Stewart!
• Louis L'Amour — Five Sacketts traded for sci-fi.