Character · from book 2
Katia Grim
Crawler #9,077,265, a former art teacher and one of Brynhild's Daughters, sent to Carl and Donut by Hekla to level up: a doppelganger who must sculpt her own face and gets it wrong, in a Monster Truck Driver class whose constitution climbs with speed. Level 9 when she arrives at the One-Eyed Narwhal; 21 when she leaves the floor with them.
Race and class, since book 2: Doppelganger · Monster Truck Driver
First appears: Book 2
Series arc
As of book 3. The party's third member, sent by Hekla in book 2 and on the team for good, unspoken, by the end of book 3. A doppelganger art-history professor from Iceland who can make any part of herself armour, she was told by the audience that she was boring, talked into a mohawk by Donut, lost four fingers and said she was losing herself, and was remade by Carl's Ugly-Ass Backpack into a ton and a quarter of walking metal. She made herself the cowcatcher of the train that freed a thousand people, was shot twice inside her own scoop by Hekla, heard Eva say why nobody likes her, and killed Hekla by accident with the Rush she hates — the first bounty of the season, level 24 to 37. She is eighth on the last leaderboard shown, as a 'Monster Truck Driver', with Hekla's crossbow, a riot shield, a Skull Empire princess for a sponsor and one bolt for a god's eye. Open: Eva, alive; Loita, who came to the party through her; the bolt.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Eva, alive and unaccounted for | B3 ch. 24 | open — Thrown from a window, alive on Katia's chat, unseen at station 75 and not found at station 36, her party dissolving under her. |
| The Bolt of Ophiotaurus | B3 ch. 29 | open — One bolt, 1 of 100, for a god's eye; a sister's message to her brothers. |
| Hekla's design on Donut | B2 ch. 26 | resolved · B3 ch. 23 — Hekla came for Katia, used a healer as bait, and died against a train wall; Brynhild's Daughters is no more. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 2
Through book 3
Book 3 makes Katia. She is told she is boring by the audience and talked into a mohawk by Donut (B3 ch. 6); loses four fingers and says she is losing herself (B3 ch. 12); and is remade by Carl's backpack into a ton and a quarter of walking armour (B3 ch. 13). Hekla comes back for her with thirty women, and Katia's own idea is to be the cowcatcher on the front of a train (B3 ch. 21); Hekla shoots her twice inside her own scoop, Eva mocks her in her own voice, and her Rush — the ability she hates — kills the second-ranked crawler in the dungeon by accident, taking her from level 24 to 37 (B3 ch. 22, B3 ch. 23). She loots Hekla's crossbow, which only a woman can wield (B3 ch. 24); takes a riot shield that turns Rush into Crowd Blast, and one bolt for a god's eye from a Skull Empire princess (B3 ch. 29); reads the floor as a mirrored noodle when nobody else can (B3 ch. 30); becomes Carl to draw a god off him (B3 ch. 33). On the team for good, unspoken (B3 ch. 25); eighth on the leaderboard as a 'Monster Truck Driver'; a golden skull; a Desperado tattoo; Odette's contract has a Katia option.
Carried forward: Eva, alive and unaccounted for; the Bolt of Ophiotaurus; Princess Formidable's interest; Fannar and the adoption that never happened; and Loita's claim on the party through her.
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 6/26 | Ch. 21, Ch. 22, Ch. 23, Ch. 24, Ch. 25, Ch. 26 · the book's own page |
| 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook | 35/35 | 1–35 · the book's own page |
By book
Katia Grim in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Katia Grim arrives in ch. 21 as a level-9 Monster Truck Driver with a Juan Gris face — a doppelganger whose guide talked her into a race she cannot control, sculpting herself with a health potion for a mirror. Carl gives her a shard of gym mirror; Mordecai teaches her ears. Constitution 51, strength 11, a Rush ability, a Pathfinder skill, an art teacher's Earth Hobby Potion that made her a gear head. Hekla sent her; Hekla wants her back.
She holds the detonator outside the warehouse (ch. 23), is named a host of the blast quest with no way into the club (ch. 24) — which is why Carl closes the glass case rather than run — and Rushes through a wall when the fourth pulse fires her hotlist (ch. 25). On Odette's couch she has her real face, short-haired and pale, and twelve new levels (epilogue). Odette's warning is not about her: 'I don't think she's in on it. Not willingly.'
Katia Grim in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
The lost lamb
Constitution 102 from a momentum bonus on a moving train (ch. 1); a shatter shield that explains the doppelganger rule — ten per cent metal, continuous (ch. 2); an art history professor told by Zev's audience that she is boring (ch. 6) and by Donut that she needs a mohawk. Gore-Gore takes four fingers and healing does not give them back: 'part of me is gone. I'm losing myself' (ch. 12). Carl's answer is the Ugly-Ass Backpack: a ton and a quarter of robot steel, six legs, a slug, a blob, an eleven-foot Hekla (ch. 13). A third eye that lets her watch behind her, and less human for it (ch. 18). A Makeup Table bought with both coupons; Hekla's face at 65% (ch. 10); Carl's face well enough to fool a god (ch. 33); a gnoll at 98% that a key still refuses (ch. 26).
The cowcatcher
Hekla comes back for her with thirty Daughters, and the plan is Katia's own: fasten herself to the front of a subway train as scoop and spikes (ch. 21). 'She brought the entire team to pick me up. That is more than anyone has ever done for me.' Carl feels her heartbeat through the plate. Two Dirty Little Phased Bolts in her shoulder inside her own scoop, amnesia and a bleed to 1% (ch. 22); Eva's mockery in her own voice — Fannar, the adoption, 'this is why I left you behind' (ch. 23); and Rush, the ability she hates, which misses Eva by inches and kills Hekla against the wall. Level 24 to 37 in one blow; a golden skull; the first bounty of the season (ch. 23). 'Goddamn it, there's nowhere to sit down and have a breakdown in here' (ch. 24).
Monster Truck Driver
She loots the key and, quietly, the crossbow (ch. 24). Then the boxes: a Desperado tattoo, Find Crawler, the 500,000, the Gorgo belt (ch. 25); a riot shield that turns Rush into Crowd Blast every five minutes, a baton, and one bolt for a god's eye from a princess who dislikes her brother (ch. 29). The map is hers: the prime numbers she did not see, the route in hours not days (ch. 12), and at the end the folded paper — a mirrored, upside-down noodle with a chamber between (ch. 30). She tracks blood across the saferoom floor while laughing about her mother, and is on the team for good without anyone saying so (ch. 25); the blood she stored on the cowcatcher erupts in every direction when the rules change (ch. 29). The recap calls her kill rage (ch. 25); Odette calls her zippier (epilogue); the leaderboard calls her a Monster Truck Driver, eighth.