Chapter 14 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 14 — Were-castors

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Hunt · Previous: Chapter 13 — Elites in the trees · Next: Chapter 15 — The kids' menu · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

Bravvo’s highest stat was his dexterity.

Summary

Bravvo's highest stat was dexterity; one point. Hunters have slot inventories, not bottomless ones: thirty Good Health Potions, thirty Good Mana Refills (two hundred mana over two minutes, which Carl gives to Donut), boots against magical bolts, a longsword for the sell pile, and nine potions of Levitation — intelligence times two seconds in the air, height and landing unspecified — which is how he was scouting Point Mongo when a missile found his face. Donut and Carl loot the corpse with the new safe-looting method while the elites watch. Signet's dryness is a curse, not a spell. 'With this rain, they will soon emerge' — the confederates come out of the river in hard rain — so they walk northeast into the jungle behind the caterpillar — Nadine, a Bearded Sage Caterpillar, level 50, once the Chee day school's teacher — who chews the trail, the six were-kin riding her like a theme-park wave. Signet's story, in the rain: her mother, a naiad princess, is long dead, killed in a revolution; her family's palace is held by 'the simpering dukes of the confederacy'; her father King Finian is dead too and her half-sister Imogen rules the high elves. Grimaldi killed the parasites and set the circus free — 'like when you freed Heather the bear', the performers crumbled — and Signet took him with her; 'his story in this is mostly done.' Areson was in the Hunting Grounds when Scolopendra struck; a third brother, Herman the Fleet, was in Larracos, fate unknown. The six are were-castors — a small rodent — transfigured as schoolboys by Imogen, then Finian's Sorcerer General, when the elves took the Chee's land and sent in cleansers; Nadine was their teacher. What Signet wants: 'There are two great cancers in this once-beautiful, once-sacred land […] The Confederacy and the High Elves.' Donut: her father was disqualified when his tail caught in a car door, and she conquered Cleveland.

Characters

• Carl — Kills a marked hunter for one stat point; walks into the jungle behind a caterpillar.
• Princess Donut — Would sell her firstborn grandchild for Signet's dry spell; conquered Cleveland.
• Tsarina Signet — Her mother a murdered naiad princess; Finian dead; Imogen queen; two cancers to cut.
• Bravvo — Dexterity; nine Levitation potions; a naked corpse into inventory.
• Clint Smashgrab — 'We are not safe here'; a were-castor.
• Miss Nadine — Named on her card, once the Chee day school's teacher; chews a trail through the jungle.
• Areson the Wise — Apollon's brother, ranging north to keep the trail clear; a third brother in Larracos.
• Queen Imogen — Named: Signet's half-sister, once Sorcerer General, now queen of the high elves.
• Ringmaster Grimaldi — Alive, with Signet, his story 'mostly done.'

Locations

• The Selva — Rivers on the jungle floor; ruins under the foliage on the city side.
• The river — The confederates emerge in hard rain.

Motifs

• The Vengeance of the Daughter — Recruiting the last pieces; a revenge story Donut finds cookie-cutter.
• The Chee — Were-castors: six boys, one transfiguration, a life of running.
• The hunters — Slot inventories; Levitation potions; sixty potions on one yenk.
• The Ring of Divine Suffering — One kill from two points a mark.
• The high elves — Imogen's cleansers; the Chee's land taken.