Motif · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Race and class

The third-floor choice that can never be unmade. Donut stays a cat and tricks Mordecai into being her manager by picking Former Child Actor; Carl turns down Hobgoblin and Sasquatch for Primal — a blank slate with every skill unlockable to 20 — and Compensated Anarchist. Eighty per cent of crawlers stay human.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — The vice principal's office
• Chapter 8 — The Night Wyrm's web
• Chapter 32 — The Ultimate Training Room
• Chapter 33 — Crawling Through the Ages
• Chapter 53 — Iota

Progression

Specialisation in a booth, three choices, ten minutes (ch. 1); a manager reduced to a court pet (ch. 2); a bard's songs in key (ch. 4); Swole, Prison Bitch or Stepson at strength 100 (ch. 36); a guide's bad advice that fused two brothers — and saved them (ch. 41, ch. 77); Laundry Day to fifteen (ch. 55); Viper Queen, unread (epilogue).