Chapter 6 of 35 · Book 3, The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Chapter 6 — Banshee Station

Book: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook · Previous: Chapter 5 — Vernon the conductor · Next: Chapter 7 — The Prize Carousel · Floor: Floor 4 — The Iron Tangle · Series: the series

Opening

Unlike the previous platform, this one held multiple exits.

Summary

Banshee Station is a warren of wet cave tunnels, three gathering rooms and a walled-off chamber at the back. Katia mourns Vernon's wife; Carl explains there is no wife and no home — the floor is a day old, the NPCs were given memories, and 'these aren’t computer programs. These are actual, living creatures who believe this is the real world.' Zev checks in about the mid-floor interview and the sponsorship bidding, then says it: Katia is boring, the tunnel wants her dead so it can be the two of them again, 'ditch her or make her more interesting.' Carl: 'She's an art history professor, not a circus poodle.' Donut, diplomatic in her way, relays it as 'more vibrant' and by the end of the chapter Katia has a purple mohawk, a black bodysuit and an expression Carl cannot read.

The Red Cornets — skinless, eyeless, human-sized rabbits, a devolved Lepus with an echolocation attack the AI admits it skinned 'because it makes them scary as shit' — render everyone but Mongo Queasy; Mordecai's prescription is to keep being hit until the resistance skill lands, and it does, after every drop of hamburger is gone. Each cornet is tapping an empty vial of golden liquid; the floor of their dead-end tunnel is carpeted in vials. They are stoned, Carl decides — riding to a fifth stop for a fix and back. The chamber is not a boss room: a blue control sigil on the threshold only Carl's Escape Plan can see ('sloppy programming'; showrunners' gating, not the AI's), a wire materials cart, and two sleeping Dwarven Industrial Light-Duty Automatons. Hekla's Daughters found the same room in another warren. Carl blows the robots up with hobgoblin dynamite — 'for science,' Katia agrees with a wink — and takes fifteen tons of scrap and two damaged dwarven batteries. Bautista: Imani is alive and will wait at the Desperado Club after each recap; the club is at any transfer station ending in 1, Club Vanquisher at any ending in 9; and people are talking about the bounties.

Characters

• Carl — Explains the NPCs to Katia; defends her to Zev; reads the cornets' vials; harvests the robots.
• Princess Donut — Second Chance to level 7, an undead cornet squad; styles Katia; 'rookie numbers.'
• Katia Grim — Told she is boring; a mohawk and boots she does not want; 'Be yourself? I don't know what that means.'
• Mongo — Immune to Queasy; level 14; nearly full-grown.
• Zev — The audience wants Katia gone; 'like when they added April to Gilmore Girls. But worse.'
• Mordecai — Queasy is physical, not magic; explains control sigils.
• Daniel Bautista — Imani's message; the club-number trick; bounty hunters talking.
• Hekla — The Daughters found an identical robot room.

Locations

• Banshee Station — Station 116: cornet warrens, three gathering rooms, the sigil-gated automaton room.
• The Desperado Club — At transfer stations ending in 1; Club Vanquisher at those ending in 9.

Motifs

• The mobs are victims — NPCs with implanted lives; cornets addicted to a golden liquid.
• Entertainment as machinery — Zev's note on Katia: a character who does not rate.
• The Rev-Up Vitamin Shots — Blue means on; showrunner gating; 'easy to break.' The cornets' fix — and, at the back of their tunnel, a fireball-scorched wall.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Fifteen tons of robot scrap for better train defences.