Chapter 27 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 27 — Phase two rules

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: Havana · Previous: Chapter 26 — MaeMae · Next: Chapter 28 — Rude-Dolph · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

» Carl: Whatever you do, don’t trust her.

Summary

December 22nd; forty hours to phase two. The spider is a card. 'Whatever you do, don't trust her. Ever' — and don't tell her Larracos is flooded, nor remind Samantha that the drowning probably killed the pulpmancer. North again on foot, grinding birds; Samantha rolls after frogs and smells something off the path: La Ciguapa, a hairy woman with backward feet asleep under foliage, legendary, charm-lurer, hard to kill except by familiars and pets — and Mongo eats her before anyone can examine her. Her drops: Damnation, a snare that discards an enemy totem when its timer ends, dead or not; and Glow-Up, a mythic consumable of an unknown type that rewrites a card to its current buffed state permanently — 'something practically immortal' if stacked right, once. The Scavenger's Daughter drained three more times: a pure bar of one species doubles the Daughter's Kiss and echoes that species' attack — a Howling Gull charge unleashes a scream; a Yuanat iguana punched to dust in a ten-foot crater. A full deck: seal, splitter, Asojano, Uzi Jesus, Raul, Shi Maria — the last probably obedient for now, the rest unproven; no real-combat use until a simulation room ('Uzi Jesus couldn't shoot us in the head'). Odette's show soon. A roadside saferoom with Pahzi; Donut cracks her own crab legs now. On the recap: Tokyo crawlers and a masked woman with scissors; Osvaldo doing parkour after a monkey with the memorial crystal round his neck; Florin with a 1940s tank shelling a bus-wide serpent at a river. Katia silent after reconnaissance; Bautista: she is asleep inside the Desperado, 'found some secret merchant', 'out of sorts', wait a day, 'Just leave it, okay?' — Carl messages Imani and Li Na. Cascadia's update, chipper with tension underneath: arena prices rise, challenge-level wins unlock options; at 12:01 AM December 24th every squad is teleported to a start room and chooses a destination in sixty seconds; inactive totems are lost, decks fixed at six forever; a new memory simulation with deck-carrying intelligent mobs whose cards and totems can be taken; a key ten to fifteen kilometres away, forty-eight hours to fetch it, opening only the stairwell beside your own start and only for the keyholder's squad; at midnight December 26th, phase three — keyholders return to their area; keyless squads transfer to the doorway of someone who has one: 'you'll be blocking their path […] the potential of crawler on crawler violence is quite high. Doesn't that sound just great?' 'Kill, kill, kill.' 'I don't want to fight other people.' 'Then we'll do what we have to' — and Carl thinks of the back patch and the mysterious bone-key benefit he does not want to use.

Characters

• Carl — A full deck, a pure soul bar, a rule set that sets crawlers on crawlers.
• Princess Donut — 'THEY GIVE MONGO NIGHTMARES'
• Samantha — Smells the Ciguapa; fights a jukebox.
• Mongo — Eats a legendary before it wakes.
• Katia Grim — Asleep in the Desperado after a secret merchant; unreachable.
• Daniel Bautista — 'Just leave it, okay?'
• Osvaldo — On screen with the memorial crystal at his neck.
• Florin — A tank against a river serpent.
• Cascadia — The phase-two rules, cheerful.
• Pahzi — A good-natured bopca.

Locations

• Havana — Kapok trees past the marsh; a roadside saferoom.

Motifs

• T'Ghee totems — Six locked forever; Damnation; Glow-Up; La Ciguapa lost to Mongo.
• The Scavenger's Daughter — Pure essence: a species' own attack turned back on it.
• Crawler on crawler — Keys and doorways engineered for violence.
• The bone key — The patch's benefit Carl does not want to use.
• Memorial crystals — Osvaldo wears it on television.
• Secrets — Bautista's evasions about Katia.
• The show — Tokyo scissors, Osvaldo's parkour, Florin's tank.