Chapter 8 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 8 — The Night Wyrm's web

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Hunt · Previous: Chapter 7 — Whataburger · Next: Chapter 9 — Just Wait Until Your Daddy Gets Home · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

I had boxes to open and a ton of other stuff to do, but all of that could wait an hour.

Summary

Carl tries to rest and notices what rest reveals: a stream at the back of his mind that has always murmured and is getting louder, audible only when he is calm, rising in the heat of Zockau. He has been writing in a third scratchpad every idle moment, drafting for the Cookbook even while playing Frogger. The boxes: the Gold Junkie's Box is a tattoo, his third in a week — a faded green spiderweb of segmented worm-strands on his left elbow, The Night Wyrm's Nasty Little Web of Suffering, which grants access to the Guild of Suffering. Mordecai: a cult, not a guild or a church, like the third floor's city elves; they worship the Night Wyrm, a demigod outside the pantheon like Samantha; they have a 'memorial crystal' whose function has never been established; a few seasons back the whole seventh floor was about them raising their god; everyone who uses a divine-suffering artifact is marked like this. Thirty-four Gold Hunter-Killer Boxes open in a row down the room: a thousand gold more each time, 595,000 in all, and a severed hand or claw from every hunter — Xindy's claw, Chin'Dua's scaled hand, an orc's. The card: a Hunting Trophy is an arcade prize ticket, to be redeemed at a prize counter open 'at the Butcher's Masquerade during the party that will occur near the end of this floor'; the cheapest prize costs one hand; sold or transferred, it reverts to 'some dude's appendage'. Nothing in the Cookbook mentions a Butcher's Masquerade. The Platinum Asshole's Box is a potion: Fear to level 10, with a two per cent paralysis and an area cast — 'less of a bonus and more of a corrective measure' — so Ping is next. Donut's one box: a gray hand and a thousand gold. The shrine chimes: 29,750 owed.

Louis is an Extermination Professional now, Firas still a Hammersmith; the changelings and Bonnie have gone to a village in the Liana district on the elf side of the river, and Bonnie built a ballista out of the Twister's garage-door opener. Donut plans Louis and Juice Box's wedding — Carl to officiate, in pants, prison tattoos covered, Mongo as ring bearer — and describes her own long-distance relationship with Ferdinand. The recap: the Popov brothers, a two-headed Nodling, fighting a bald crawler with a war gauntlet when Slit's foot lands on them; Katia's stoic face at Larracos cut against Carl laughing; the top ten's specialisations — Prepotente a Profane Vitiate, Dmitri a Visionary, Elle a Tundra Princess on a 'four seasons build' nobody has completed, one-armed Quan Ch a Sergeant-at-Arms (Donut: 'It should just be Sergeant-at-Arm'). Katia, coldly, on Eva in ninth: 'She won't be on there for much longer.' The announcement: 1,002 hunters; the private-message subscription discontinued (a lawsuit Quasar gave fifty-fifty); parties capped at thirty; the guild system live — a 500,000-gold charter from a Bopca, five parties, a shared common area, guild-only upgrades; and a party at the end of the floor, the Butcher's Masquerade, for the top fifty crawlers and a plus-one each, with the hunters and intergalactic celebrities, a costume contest, a talent show, and a pet beauty contest. Donut: 'You’re going to follow in mommy’s pawsteps!' Carl goes back to the studio with Bomo, the river in his head getting louder.

Characters

• Carl — A cult's tattoo, 595,000 gold, thirty-four hands, and a river in his head.
• Princess Donut — One hand; a wedding to plan; a pet beauty contest to win.
• Mordecai — Explains the Guild of Suffering and the Night Wyrm; 'they don’t usually actively encourage the crawlers to kill the sponsors'
• Katia Grim — Silent, planning; 'She won't be on there for much longer.'
• Louis and Firas — Louis's engagement is out; Bonnie's ballista; the Twister cannot clear the trees.
• Britney Proskurina — Now a Pit Champion who will not speak to Carl; grunts at Carl's stats on screen.
• Juice Box — Engaged to Louis; her people in the Liana district.
• Bonnie — With the changelings; built a ballista from a garage-door opener.
• Elle McGibbons — A Tundra Princess: a four-seasons build.
• Quan Ch — One-armed, pale; Sergeant-at-Arms.
• Eva Sigrid — Ninth; Katia's cold promise.
• The Popov brothers — A two-headed Nodling on the recap, knocked flat by a giant foot mid-swing.
• Quasar — Someone else's lawsuit he gave fifty-fifty wins; the hunters' outside help is harder.

Locations

• The Royal Palace of Princess Donut — Thirty-four boxes in a row to the wall; the shrine chimes.

Motifs

• The Night Wyrm — A spiderweb on the elbow; a cult of the Night Wyrm; memorial crystals.
• The Butcher's Masquerade — First named on a severed hand: a prize counter at a party at the end of the floor.
• The hunting trophies — Thirty-four hands as arcade tickets; the cheapest prize costs one.
• The river in Carl's head — A stream at the back of the mind, louder in the heat, muted only by rest.
• The leaderboard — The top ten specialised; Carl first at 54.
• The guild system — Parties capped at thirty; a 500,000-gold charter; a shared common area.
• Achievements — A Junkie's Box is a tattoo; Fear to ten as a corrective.
• The show — Private messages no longer sold to subscribers; Kevin the lizard redacted.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — A third scratchpad of drafts; nothing about a masquerade.