Chapter 58 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 58 — The last stall in the women's bathroom

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Butchering · Previous: Chapter 57 — I Take it All Back · Next: Chapter 59 — The sheriffs of the wild west · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

» 63 Hours until the Butcher’s Masquerade

Summary

Clarabelle at the Desperado's door: crawlers now enter only on the top floor because Carl stranded hunters on both the Hunting Grounds and the Larracos levels — the Zockau bar cannot be rebuilt without the mayor's approval, and the mayor is Vrah; seven trapped hunters dead already, five to bouncers; Larracos still has not drained ('Something keeps clogging the drains, and those sharks aren't helping'), so the weapons brokers have not traded all floor. Tenth-floor rules apply at the door only. Hunters cannot be mayors except in Zockau, so most towns' guards attack them and they cannot reach a club. NPCs with credentials enter on their own floor and cannot move between. Donut's 'magic': first the Penis Palace, then the ledger — 500 gold paid for security on the fourth floor, only 400 refunded, 'This is us, taking the matter up privately.' Clarabelle's answer is a secret stairwell behind the last stall of the women's bathroom, latch in the toilet tank. Below: carpets, fairy portraits, a restaurant, a casino, the Silk Pavilion, a Guilds hallway ('an explosives guild […] and a rogue's guild!'). Haxor the Destroyer, a level-50 unaffiliated Dreadnought merchant, walks out of the men's room into Carl, who kicks him in the nuts, breaks his neck, cracks a sink and hides it with a towel; another credit chit. Two changelings at the bar — Pearson, once a dromedarian bartender, now a cretin — flash a face and lead them into the guild hallway while a crocodilian guard batters the door ('Carl is pooping! He's almost done!' 'This is the skill guild hallway!'). The plan: Zerzura works on a town, the elves have razed every town in their forest but one, so the changelings must be gotten inside the high elf castle, and the children come to the guildhall now. 'Juice Box told us to be careful of you.' 'But she still trusted us.' Then Carl's skin bubbles: 'Your blood has been set to boil' — Astrid, the level-125 Bloodlust Sprite assistant manager, at the door.

Characters

• Carl — Down a secret stair; kills a merchant in a bathroom; boiled by Astrid.
• Princess Donut — Blackmails Clarabelle with a ledger; finds the guilds.
• Clarabelle — Pocketed a hundred gold once; points at a toilet.
• Pearson — A changeling in cretin form who holds a door and takes a map.
• Haxor the Destroyer — A Dreadnought merchant with a credit chit, dead by a sink.
• Astrid — Cardiovascular magic; 'if you wish to ever be allowed access to the club again.'
• Juice Box — Told her people to be careful of Carl.

Locations

• The Desperado Club — Floors now segregated; a hidden stair between bathrooms; the Hunting Grounds level's carpet and casino.
• Larracos — Still flooded; the drains clogged.

Motifs

• Zerzura — Needs a town, and the only town left is the castle.
• The hunters — Trapped in clubs; unable to hold towns; a credit chit on a merchant, like the orc's.
• The blood bar — Full to enter; does not drain inside.
• 'Goddamnit, Donut' — 'This is us, taking the matter up privately.'