Chapter 45 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 45 — The sorting yard

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Unhinged Child · Previous: Chapter 44 — The Recital · Next: Chapter 46 — Sierra · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by Crawler Allister.

Summary

Allister's 13th-edition note on vampires: his T'Ghee deck's Plague Bearer and Blood Hunter, and the dungeon's undead that are fast, strong, spell-casting and want protectors — 'avoid them' Miriam confirms it: she nearly killed the dinosaur in the pink boa and infected her instead; vampirism is spreading through the forest's dinosaurs, weak for days and then strong; the elite died before the infestation could be stopped, and she can still contain it if reached. Prudence and her cubs are given the guildhall. Outside, under Donut's light, what Tina was really doing on the street: the two-day-dead are being called home — bears, deer, monkeys, wolves, every mob missing from the day's grind, gathered by the other dinosaurs into 'a massive pile of bloody, mismatched socks', a sorting facility where severed arms, slithering tails, walking rib cages, bouncing eyeballs and rolling organs find their matches, and reformed pieces add their levels — a foot, a leg, a pelvis, a thigh, an intestine and a kidney make a level 42 at 21.8 per cent. The main pile rises down the street like a hill. Carl builds the chariot facing away, fires every missile into the pile as they clear the dead vines, and turns west. The storm covers the whole map; the river is overflowing. The chat: Gideon's owl-genie vampire; Tserendolgor, two hundred kilometres off, says the drillbeaks all turned overnight, infection needs a severe wound, and Ultraviolet on her flamethrower kills them; she is ranked 54 and trying to climb — Carl: 'Don't try too hard to get into the top 50. I think it might be a trap.' The first dryad town's mayor worships Diwata; inside the Y-Not Lounge two dryads shout 'Apostate!' and 'Black magic!', a monkey throws itself at Carl, and all are zapped out; guards at the door. So Donut must draw the litre herself. 'Sorry, buddy. Just a little blood.'

Characters

• Carl — Understands the sorting yard; fires the missiles; cannot leave a saferoom full of enemies.
• Princess Donut — 'I don't like this. Let's go.'; must bleed Mongo without thumbs.
• Miriam Dom — Infected Big Tina; can still contain the outbreak.
• Mongo — Kept from bolting; a litre owed.
• Prudence — Given the guildhall with her cubs.
• Tserendolgor — Ranked 54, with a flamethrower and Ultraviolet.
• Gideon — Nearly had his neck ripped out by an owl-genie vampire.
• Big Tina — Not eating: summoning the pieces of her dead.

Locations

• Prepotente Town Number Four — The streets a sea of reanimating parts; the main pile a hill.
• The Y Not Lounge — A beach bar facing bamboo; a Bopca in a Hawaiian shirt; dryads screaming apostate.

Motifs

• The vampire outbreak — Glamoured fragments summing their levels; a floor-wide storyline spiralling.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Allister on vampires.
• The gods — A Diwata mayor makes the first dryad town hostile.
• The Butcher's Masquerade — 'It might be a trap'; friends wanted outside the top fifty.