Chapter 54 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 54 — The blood bar

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Unhinged Child · Previous: Chapter 53 — Iota · Next: Chapter 55 — Save the toraline · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by Crawler Herot.

Summary

Herot's note on castles: an obstacle, a governmental quest target (the ninth floor's throne seeds), or a self-contained village that appears in the interface as an owned town — 'a fellow crawler has […] threatened to punch me in the mouth if I kept asking' Iota's three remaining nipple rings come out with a pop; 498 healing potions, twenty blitz sticks, forty kinds of alcohol including Larceny and Stoli, 400 gold. Mongo and Kiwi bob for apples in the corpse; a raptor licks the gore off Carl's foot and he lets her. Donut on a used AI: 'Some things shouldn't ever be purchased used. Like underwear and mattresses and jigsaw puzzles'; Trixie carved a T into a man's thigh because she liked him too much. Carl's warning to the chat: every untrained hunter has just been dumped out of a saferoom. Then the realisation: the changelings' hidden village is far from the brambles but not far enough, the Sledge's spell can only be cast on the last day, and Katia's arithmetic says the vines will have covered the whole map exactly as the timer runs out, ending at the southeast corner — the high elf castle, where the top fifty are going anyway. Everyone should move that way and map the stairwells; Bomo can scout; work together for the rest of the floor. Katia's group is off to rescue Britney, ejected with an empty bar because she has killed nothing all floor. Tina peeks from behind a tree like a shy child; Kiwi introduces her to Mongo with Donut on his back, and Tina's dot turns white. 'We have a recital to prepare for.'

Characters

• Carl — Loots four nipple rings; sees the brambles' endpoint; a foot bath from a raptor.
• Princess Donut — On used goods; rides Mongo to meet Tina.
• Katia Grim — Does the bramble arithmetic; rescuing Britney.
• Big Tina — Dot white; a recital owed.
• Kiwi — Introduces her daughter to her mate.
• Britney Proskurina — An empty blood bar; teleported out.
• Juice Box — Her people's village, in the brambles' path.

Locations

• The high elf castle — Where the brambles will end and the top fifty will be sent.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Herot on three kinds of castle.
• Gehenna Bramble — Timed to finish with the floor, at the castle.
• The blood bar — Britney's is empty.
• The System AI — 'If someone is going to go crazy, it's probably for the best they like you.'
• The mongoliensis — Tina tamed by way of her mother and Mongo.