Character · from book 1
Mordecai
The tutorial guide assigned to Carl and Donut: a former crawler, born skyfowl, who chose Changeling and reached the eleventh floor of his own season, now serving out an indentureship as a shapeshifting NPC in a guild room with his mother's ashes and a photograph of his brother. He is bound by rules about what he may say, and he says as much as he can.
Race and class, since book 2: Incubus · Arcanist
First appears: Book 1
Series arc
As of book 2. Guide, then manager, then free: an Incubus in a tuxedo whose every piece of help is shaped by what he may not say. Book 1 set the rules and two facts beneath them — a contract that needs a crawler on the fourth floor, and a history with Odette and a brother who crawled. Book 2 rewrote the contract twice (Donut's trick, Donut reaching floor four) and let the history leak: the sixth floor with Odette, a manager benefit that upset him for reasons unsaid, and Odette's 'a lot of experience in the subject, unfortunately' — gods.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Mordecai's advice to leave Donut before the ninth floor | B1 ch. 7 | open — Overheard by Donut; not answered by Carl. |
| 'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege' | B1 ch. 25 | open · B2 ch. 26 — Deferred twice by Mordecai; a god has now been bought against Carl. |
| Mordecai's contract, and his history with Odette and his brother | B1 ch. 29 | open · B2 ch. 25 — Manager by Donut's trick (ch. 1), freed when she reaches the fourth floor; the history keeps leaking. |
| King Rust's deity sponsorship, and the Grull gauntlet | B2 ch. 26 | open — A god bought to get at Carl — probably Grull, whose gauntlet Carl wears. |
| Mordecai's 'unfortunate' experience with gods | B2 ch. 26 | open — Odette's aside says Mordecai has a lot of experience of gods, unfortunately; what kind she does not say. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 1
The guide whose help is always shaped by what he may not say. Book 1 establishes the rules of that shape (no boss weaknesses in advance, nothing about the next floor, nothing when the cameras are on) and the two things underneath it: his contract only counts if a crawler reaches the fourth floor (B1 ch. 29), and his history with Odette and with a brother who was a crawler (B1 ch. 47, B1 ch. 48). Two sentences of his: 'There will always be clues' and 'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege' (B1 ch. 25).
Through book 2
Book 2 changes his contract twice: from guide to manager by Donut's trick (B2 ch. 1), and from indentured to free by Donut reaching the fourth floor (B2 ch. 25). Between, an Incubus with a drinking problem and a stolen newsletter who supplies every trick that keeps them alive. The history keeps leaking: Odette was with him on the sixth floor (B2 ch. 13); the manager benefit upset him for reasons he will not give (B2 ch. 15); and, from Odette, 'He has a lot of experience in the subject' — gods — 'unfortunately' (B2 ch. 26). Free, protected, and still bound to Donut's saferooms, he goes down to the fourth floor with them.
Trace
The thread line by line, in reading order: its presence before anyone could see it, and the lines that made it legible. Each line is verbatim from the cited book.
| Where | The line | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Book 1, Ch. 12 | "He had that photo of his brother cradled in his rat arm, and a pile of empty bottles littered the floor." | The brother is on the shelf from the first guild room (ch. 3) and in Mordecai's arms when they wake him after the Hoarder; nothing is said about him. |
| Book 1, Ch. 25 | "There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege." | Said solemnly after the Grull gauntlet, in answer to Carl's question whether it makes a difference; Carl cannot make sense of it. |
| Book 1, Ch. 47 | "I almost chose a skyfowl class, something called a Storm Commander. But Odette talked me out of it. My brother ended up picking it instead, on her recommendation." | The brother was a crawler, and Odette steered him; Mordecai will not continue. |
| Book 1, Ch. 48 | "But the short answer is I pushed him too hard, and he paid dearly for it." | Odette's own account of what she owes Mordecai, in one sentence. |
| Book 2, Ch. 13 | "Odette made me spend a lot of time learning about that stuff when we made it to that floor." | A slip: Odette was with him on the sixth floor of his own crawl. Carl and Donut both catch it and say nothing. |
| Book 2, Ch. 15 | "It's not you," he finally said. "It's complicated." | Why the manager benefit upset him: not the party, something he will not name. |
| Book 2, Ch. 26 | "He has a lot of experience in the subject, unfortunately." | Odette, on gods: Mordecai has a lot of experience of them, unfortunately; what kind she does not say. |
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl | 32/48 | 2–8, 11–15, 20–21, 25–30, 32–33, 35–37, 40, 43–48 · the book's own page |
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 26/26 | 1–26 · the book's own page |
By book
Mordecai in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl
Part 1 — the drunk in the guild room
A level-50 Rat Hooligan with a photograph of his brother and an urn of his mother's ashes (ch. 3), Mordecai is the book's exposition and its conscience. He tells Carl what the crawl is, that it is his last tour, that the deepest any crawler has gone is floor 13; he explains species, stats and ratings (ch. 4), inventory and safe rooms (ch. 5), and is cut off mid-warning as the tiara goes on (ch. 7): 'You can always leave the party.'
He is bound: he may not name a boss's weakness before the fight (ch. 25), may not discuss the Desperado Club or the third floor, and answers the question of whether the bosses will always be people with 'there will be a lot of… recycling' (ch. 12). Within those limits he gives the book its method — 'There will always be clues. Look for them' — and its warning: 'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege' (ch. 25).
Part 2 — the Bugaboo
On the second floor he is a seven-foot obsidian Bugaboo with a tidied room (ch. 35, ch. 47) and a history. Odette was his trainer; he would rather devour his own children than work for her again (ch. 35), and she admits she pushed him too hard and he paid dearly (epilogue). His brother was a crawler who took the Storm Commander class on her advice (ch. 47); he will not say more. Damien is a name he flinches at.
With the cameras off in Zev's presence he says what he cannot otherwise: the Bloom, the badges, the bankrupt kua-tin system, and Borant forced by its own government to end the game as fast as it can (ch. 36). Odette has told Carl the rest — Mordecai's contract only counts if one of his crawlers reaches the fourth floor (ch. 29) — which is the motive under every piece of help he gives.
Mordecai in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
The manager
An Incubus in a tuxedo, three hours in formal wear, waiting to run the jury room (ch. 1) — and then, tricked, Donut's manager: no codex, no television, teleported to every saferoom she enters, and paid by her survival. His first act as manager is to get blackout drunk in twenty minutes and materialise with his pants down (ch. 4); his second is to drug a bopca and steal the newsletter (ch. 8). 'Managers only have one rule.'
What he gives the party is the whole floor's method: the finger-breaking trick (ch. 6), the Elites lecture (ch. 7), the Pestiferous Vine's poisoned-blood weakness (ch. 10), Eklund's name for the program and the Satch Toad cure (ch. 9), the cinnamon-and-thistle potion that saves Mongo (ch. 12), doppelgangers and wombats in buckets (ch. 21), Suppurating Eye (ch. 21), liches who never shut up (ch. 23). He is wrong about the lich and says so.
His own story leaks out sideways: Odette taught him the sixth floor's plants — she was with him there (ch. 13); Quint remembers when he was supposed to be free (ch. 15); the manager benefit upset him for reasons that are 'complicated' and 'nothing to do with you' (ch. 15). Managers are system-protected from the fourth floor and freed the moment their ward reaches it. Carl's last chat message on the floor: 'Congratulations' (ch. 25). Odette's last word on him: 'He has a lot of experience in the subject, unfortunately' — the subject being gods (epilogue).