Chapter 29 of 35 · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

Chapter 29 — Where the Red God Glows

Book: The Gate of the Feral Gods · Previous: Chapter 28 — Emberus · Next: Chapter 30 — Get Orthrus · Floor: Floor 5 — The Bubbles · Series: the series

Opening

“The storm is already starting to blow.

Summary

Outside the pub the minimap shows an orange star filling half the bubble: Orthrus, a two-headed puppy standing in the drained ocean, his paws over the rim of the bowl, his tail wagging tsunamis. His card: Juvenile Gate Guardian, level 10, Cerberus's kid brother, the bereft pet of Geyrun, whose father is Emberus; his master murdered and himself sucked into the Nothing the same day, untouched by the blight, immune to fire, but fragile. Katia sees the trap — 'They make the puppy fragile so he dies' — and Carl sees the rest: Emberus hurting other crawlers is 'the same goddamn bait Hekla had used'. Every quadrant has had a cheat, and for the tomb it is the lightning tower wired to the drain mechanism to electrify the water where Quetzalcoatlus swims. Then lightning hits the puppy and a group quest lands on everyone in the bubble, Where the Red God Glows: the dog is being shocked and bitten by sharks, and if he dies Emberus turns the bubble into a kiln — his death the fault of all of them, 'Especially Crawler Carl'. Carl sends Donut, the only one with a heal that works on animals, to keep him alive from the flying house.

The quest chat lists the bubble: the tomb raiders down to Low Thi, Morris and Bobby, all marked Possessed, and, listed separately, Maggie My and Chris Andrews 2, with Chris marked Enslaved. Chris reports they went down a ladder, disconnected a wire in the water and killed Tyler on the way up; he says Maggie has outside help and is muted, his messages erased. Carl tells the possessed to hurt themselves to shake the ghosts, and it works. The tower fires and nothing happens: the connector Chris unplugged is a mile down the ladder, underwater. Morris goes on his silk while Low Thi draws the ghost; Half the bowl breaks away, taking the Bactrian village; Bobby and Low Thi die, and Morris reconnects it and dies as well. The next strike turns the beach to glass around Carl's ankles, halves his health and electrifies the temple: the tomb's guardian is destroyed and the last quadrant liberated. Every crawler who started in the necropolis died.

The bubble pops: a cold, constant wind, a red sky, and the end of a claustrophobia Carl had not known he had. Donut's heal works on the dog, but the sharks are still biting. Elle has the Gate, and Carl needs it back before they leave the floor; with three days left, he has Katia tell Elle to wait until the dog quest is done, 'then we start with the rescues'. The Twister lands with its net in ribbons, and Carl asks Donut for the Meat Hooks scroll from the third floor.

Characters

• Carl — Sends two men to their deaths for a connector; 'what gives me the right?'; a scroll remembered.
• Princess Donut — Rips into Maggie; heals a god's puppy from a house in a storm.
• Katia Grim — Fights beside Gwen 'like a pair of pack hunters'; drenched in blood.
• Gwendolyn Duet — Vaults a pazuzu; 'I ain't touching that electrical line.'
• Tran — Checks the wire; nearly zeroed by the glass.
• Orthrus — Level 10, two heads, half a bubble tall, bitten by sharks.
• Chris — Out of the tomb; a wire pulled; Tyler killed; muted mid-warning.
• Frank Q and Maggie My — Loose on the bowl; 'outside help. A cap…'; a Labrador.
• The tomb raiders — Possessed, freed, and dead to the last man connecting a cable.
• Louis and Firas — Riding a bull of a house behind two heads.
• Elle McGibbons — Holds the Gate.
• Tserendolgor — Doorknobs melting.
• Lucia Mar — Her tears, Carl decides, were manufactured for the same reason.

Locations

• The land quadrant — Tsunamis; a statue through a hut; a beach turned to glass.
• The Necropolis of Anser — Its guardian electrocuted; a mile-long ladder; half the bowl fallen away.
• The Bubbles — 543 popped: the top half gone, the water and island left.

Motifs

• Orthrus — 'Who's a good boy?'
• Quests — Where the Red God Glows: a group quest with no opt-out and Carl its host.
• The gods — Geyrun murdered; Emberus's dog; a puppy fragile by design.
• The System AI — 'Oh, wait. They're all dead!'; mutes Chris; erases his log.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — The debuff chapter, disguised as a memory.
• 'You're not going to break me' — At the sight of the bait.
• The Infiltrator — Enslaved in the quest chat.
• Staying human — Which is worse: a dead puppy or a bubble abandoned.