Chapter 24 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 24 — The rock chucker

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Vengeance of the Daughter · Previous: Chapter 23 — Congratulations, Murderer · Next: Chapter 25 — Fort Freedom · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by Crawler Drakea.

Summary

Drakea's Cookbook note: hunters avoid elites, elites are more dangerous and more numerous, but the powerful hunters hunt them anyway for gear and clout; the naga, the talk-show host let slip, have offered insurance to the programs that control the elites, and Drakea means to bring hunter and elite together — 'When one values coin above life, you should target the coin.' Thirty-eight trophies; eleven days, eight hours. Carl's first boon from Emberus is a dud: +50 per cent to fire spells he does not have ('boons were like low-tier loot boxes'). The first artillerist's headless corpse is being eaten by slugs; his hand already arrived in a box; he carried a gonorrhoea arrow and a photograph of Louis from Facebook, with a dog-ears filter. The prize is the abandoned Enchanted Venomous Elven Rock Chucker, light as a windsurfing board, built on the fly from poisonous bamboo grown by a spell called Bamboozeled, ninety seconds a throw — except that its 'magical' plates are postage stamps of diodes: 'These assholes are still cheating […] Well, it's mine now.' A Siege Equipment tab appears in his inventory; he takes the boulders too. Samantha, slug on her forehead, points out she can fly further than it can throw; Mongo shakes her like a chew toy. The schedule ahead — the naiad castle tonight, then a town south by the dinosaur lowlands, three CrawlCon events — and a worry underneath it: if Sensation does not want another season it is because they have a finale, and Signet's finale is killing Imogen, who is the country boss the top fifty must face at the party and cannot be allowed to die on another program's licence; so the show's climax comes before the party, Signet loses, and everyone around her dies with her. Herot's advice from the 16th edition: 'Efficient helpers are an absolute must. Remember their true capacity. Fools will get you killed.' Three hours of grinding slickbacks — half-sized wolverines from holes — with Mongo put away so he does not kill them all. Night; Holger has never heard the word beaver; Donut on castor oil and Bea; Samantha: 'Another god, Hehaka, uses him as a hat' Then a blue flash and lightning over the trees where the assault team's tree stands. Samantha rolls off to kill whoever is shooting and gets stuck; Donut's map shows two dead hunters, Signet, Areson and the beavers unharmed. 'These hunters are terrible at their jobs.'

Characters

• Carl — A dud boon, a stolen siege engine, and a theory about how the show wants Signet to end.
• Princess Donut — Castor oil and the judging cage; 'Beavers do not give me a vanilla vibe.'
• Samantha — Names a beaver god and a god who wears him; rolls into the dark.
• Holger — 'You foreigners always have funny words for things.'
• Mongo — Shakes Samantha like a chew toy; put away so the slickbacks last.
• Tsarina Signet — Alive by the all-tree after lightning.
• Louis and Firas — A Facebook photograph of Louis with dog ears.
• Emberus — First boon: fire damage for a man with no fire spells.

Locations

• The Selva — A clearing of pre-Scolopendra rubble; slickback holes; the all-tree over the next bend.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Drakea on coin over life; Herot on helpers.
• The hunters — Diodes in an 'enchanted' catapult; a Siege Equipment tab.
• The gods — A boon that is a dud; Capa and Hehaka in the Nothing.
• The Vengeance of the Daughter — A tragic ending in the offing, and who dies with the star.
• The Dream — Bamboozeled; a war machine built in hours.