Chapter 4 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 4 — Golden Throat

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Hunt · Previous: Chapter 3 — Quasar · Next: Chapter 5 — Zockau · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

“You guys be safe. Stay on the trail,” I said.

Summary

Twenty-one hours to the hunters' release. Katia leaves with Chris, Clay-ton and Very Sullen on the caravan — 'Don't do anything stupid.' 'I won't,' Carl lies. Donut's Legendary Diva needs no mana, only a song in key, and Donut sings, in Carl's words, 'like a helium-drunk cat being crushed by a steamroller'; until Mordecai finds a Golden Throat enchantment — the dungeon's autotune — the class is useless. Three support songs cast even in monotone: Standing Ovation (dexterity and spell power), Entourage (illusory party members), Encore (a party heal that clears debuffs); two attack songs cannot. Her spellbook of the floor is Laundry Day, which strips an opponent's armour piece by piece — at level ten, bare. The Magic Workshop trains spells, one person at a time; Carl tells Donut to work on Laundry Day instead of Magic Missile, and she does not ask why. In the Advanced Bomber's Studio, a private bowling alley of a room, explosions are simulated on virtual villages and yields tuned; its bench can dissect bombs it cannot yet build. Carl sets Carl's Doomsday Scenario on it for the first time, hands shaking, and copies it into the simulator. 'One day.' Then he slices a stick of hobgoblin dynamite into twenty pieces.

Shopping fails: herbs, no Shield book, no Golden Throat. Mordecai wants night mushrooms from the tree roots in town and a caravan south in the morning; the Vengeance of the Daughter production will rope them in soon. Outside, in the dark, Donut asks whether the hunters' friends outside can watch and tell them where the party is — they can, eventually, so every plan must be kept secret. Carl has her put Mongo away, apologises in advance, and gives an order: 'Bomo. Cast your spell. Send us to the stairwell in Zockau.'

Characters

• Carl — Copies the Doomsday Scenario into a simulator; orders Bomo to send them to Zockau.
• Princess Donut — A bard who cannot sing; Laundry Day; 'Why did I just put Mongo away?'
• Katia Grim — Leaves on the caravan with Chris and two cretins.
• Chris — Goes with Katia.
• Mordecai — Herbs and night mushrooms; a strict training schedule; wants Golden Throat.
• The Sledge — Locked in with the Frogger cabinet; Bomo is 'worth the risk.'

Locations

• The Royal Palace of Princess Donut — The Advanced Bomber's Studio: a simulator and a dissecting bench.
• The dryad settlement — Shops without a Shield book; tree-creatures and monkeys in the dark.

Motifs

• Race and class — Songs in key; Laundry Day strips armour.
• Carl's Doomsday Scenario — On a bench at last, copied into a simulator: 'One day.'
• Explosives — Twenty slices of hobgoblin dynamite.
• The show — Hunters' friends outside can watch and tell; plans must be secret.
• The hunters — Twenty-one hours.