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 5. The doppelganger from Iceland who joined in book 2, stayed through book 3, left by choice at the end of book 4, and in book 5 leaves the party for Imani's guild, Safehome Yolanda, and comes back as its equipment locker, its cartographer and the reader of every stat sheet at the party. Level 60. She gives away the Apothecary's hat so Carl can reach a god; after the pit she digs Eva out of the gore, hears her afraid at last, and puts a sword through her — a second golden skull, 'It's done' — and Eva's dying hand puts the Crown of the Sepsis Whore on her bare head. The epilogue gives what nobody else knows: a cocoon squeezed too tight, and blitz sticks that show her a baby she once held. Open: the crown, which means only one of Donut and Katia may take the stairs from the ninth floor to the tenth; the sticks Mordecai warned against; Daniel; 'I do that sometimes. I hurt those around me.'
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The Bolt of Ophiotaurus | B3 ch. 29 | open · B5 ch. 78 — Not used; Katia keeps it. |
| The Gate, kept, and what it costs to use | B4 ch. 34 | open · B5 ch. 3 — Lent, not sold, against four cretin mercenaries and two spells; a receipt for the ninth floor. |
| The guild system: Safehome Yolanda and the shared space | B5 ch. 21 | open — A 500,000-gold charter, parties capped at thirty, a common area and guild-only upgrades; Imani guildmaster of sixty-three crawlers in six parties; the Royal Court of Princess Donut joins so the space stays shared when Katia leaves. Whether guilds survive the eighth floor's squads of five is open. |
| The crown on Katia's head: only one of them leaves the ninth floor | B5 ch. 78 | open — Eva's dying hand; the Apothecary's hat would have stopped it, and Katia gave it to Carl. 'I do that sometimes. I hurt those around me.' |
| Katia's blitz sticks and Annie | B5 ch. 78 | open — Found on Eva's victim Sally, left as a trap; 'Show me Annie'; 'show me stopping her'; shorter each time; only Daniel knows. |
| 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. |
| Eva, alive and unaccounted for | B3 ch. 24 | resolved · B5 ch. 78 — Dead under the gore, by Katia's hand and Eva's old sword; fifty-one skulls; the crown handed on as she died. |
| Katia's own party | B4 ch. 33 | resolved · B5 ch. 21 — She leaves the party for Imani's guild, Safehome Yolanda, with Elle, Bautista, Florin, Gwen, Tran, Louis and Firas; the Royal Court of Princess Donut joins the guild too. |
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.
Through book 4
Katia's shape is the plan all floor: a pipe on a wall, the Chariot's back seat, the hostage's body and the corpse's at once, a diving bell, a submarine's camouflage (B4 ch. 6, B4 ch. 11, B4 ch. 25). When Carl, Donut and Mordecai vanish for five days into a liaison's hold, she flies the house to the land quadrant, kills scorpion men, breaches a magic door, argues with Gwen and gets back onto the top ten above Carl (B4 ch. 19, B4 ch. 20). She kills the mage Ghazi and loots the note that explains the Gate (B4 ch. 22), maps the ninth floor from its notes (B4 ch. 23), reads the box as a reverse compass (B4 ch. 27), and opens the real gate under the sea while the decoy sits in the sand (B4 ch. 34). Her decision: to separate on the sixth floor and gather the former Daughters before Eva does, with Gwen, Tran, Louis, Firas, Bautista and Florin — 'When you're in the Carl and Donut party, you ride on the Carl and Donut rollercoaster' (B4 ch. 33). She takes the Left Fang of the Green Sultan to return to its owner.
Carried forward: the new party and the guild system that may keep the personal space shared; Eva; the adoption she was refused and the lie that she is glad; a backpack made for her mass.
Through book 5
Katia leaves the party for Imani's guild, Safehome Yolanda, and comes back as its equipment locker (B5 ch. 21, B5 ch. 67): level 60, she-hulked, the floor's cartographer and arithmetician (B5 ch. 9, B5 ch. 54), the reader of stat sheets at the party (B5 ch. 72, B5 ch. 73). She gives her Apothecary beanie to Carl so he can reach a god (B5 ch. 76); it would have saved her from what follows. After the pit she finds Eva under the gore with Li Na, hears her afraid at last, and puts a sword through her breastplate (B5 ch. 78) — a second golden skull, 'It's done' (B5 ch. 77) — and Eva's dying hand puts the Crown of the Sepsis Whore on her head (B5 ch. 78). The epilogue also gives her secrets: the cocoon she squeezed too tight, and blitz sticks that show her Annie in the crib.
Open: the crown, which means only one of Donut and Katia may leave the ninth floor by the stairs; the blitz sticks Mordecai warned against; Daniel, whom she tells she loves (B5 ch. 78).
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 |
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 32/35 | 1–15, 17–30, 32–34 · the book's own page |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 58/78 | 1–12, 15–17, 19–21, 23, 25–26, 29–30, 34–36, 39–40, 43–44, 46–48, 50–52, 54–58, 60–67, 69–73, 75–78 · 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.
Katia Grim in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
The chair, the hostage, the corpse
Katia's book 4 is the floor where her shape is the plan. She is a pipe on a wall watching a door (ch. 6), the back seat of the Chariot, the body of Wynne and the body of Henrik at once with a bag of ghoul blood for a throat, and the head that grows back when Donut's spell runs out (ch. 11, ch. 12); a diving bell with three poles, then the camouflage on a submarine's hull (ch. 25); a second face on the back of her head to argue with Carl while driving at a boss (ch. 9). She designs the Chariot from an Earth Hobby potion's knowledge — 'Like I'm tapped directly into Wikipedia' — and wonders what it means for a society that anyone can drink expertise (ch. 4). With ten bolts of Petrify Rock Class from her box she turns Maggie-in-Chris to stone and keeps him petrified (ch. 14).
Five days alone
When Carl, Donut and Mordecai vanish into a liaison's hold, she flies the house to the land quadrant, breaches a magic door, kills scorpion men for five days, argues with Gwen and gets back on the top ten above Carl (ch. 19, ch. 20). She kills Ghazi in a small fight and loots the note that explains the artifact (ch. 22); she maps the ninth floor from a list of times (ch. 23, ch. 24) and reads the box as a reverse compass (ch. 27). 'I wasn't going to take shit any more.'
Leaving
The days without Carl and Donut, she tells him, showed her she can do this without his help. Eva is regathering the Daughters and has got Silfa and her girls killed; the former Daughters are vulnerable; 'when you're in the Carl and Donut party, you ride on the Carl and Donut rollercoaster.' She will separate on the sixth floor with Gwen, Tran, Louis, Firas, Bautista and Florin, keep the personal space through the guild system if she can, and return the Left Fang of the Green Sultan to its owner (ch. 33). Her last act on the floor is to open the real Gate five hundred metres under the sea while the decoy sits in the sand, and to leave by the tomb's stairs (ch. 34). On the question of children: pre-approved to adopt alone in Iceland, disqualified for a reason she will not give, 'glad now' — which Carl can hear is a lie (ch. 15).
Katia Grim in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
Leaving
Katia is questioned first and popped away (ch. 1), and her leaving is the floor's first fact: she will go south to the other crawlers before the hunters are released and stay in the party only until the guild system is understood (ch. 3, ch. 4). She maps the floor from gate coordinates (ch. 9), organises the guild's logistics (ch. 11), wants a manager's headquarters (ch. 20) and leaves the party the day Eva is cornered by the hot springs (ch. 21). Donut names it before anyone else — 'Everybody always leaves me' (ch. 12) — and Imani turns it on Carl when he means to go down early (ch. 52).
The equipment locker
She is level 52 with Steely Skin at the start (ch. 3) and 60 at the end; a she-hulk, all business (ch. 50); a decoy Donut from a stuffed mouser (ch. 34); careful stitches on a patch jacket (ch. 36); the bramble arithmetic that tells them where the floor ends (ch. 54). At the party her arm is a locker of potions (ch. 67), she reads the queen's stat sheet from a Size-Up (ch. 73), and she gives her Apothecary beanie to Carl so he can reach a god (ch. 76).
Eva
The thread that runs under everything is Eva: ninth on the leaderboard and Katia's cold promise (ch. 8); glamoured towns and a hot-springs chase (ch. 21); a lunge across a ballroom while Eva talks about Fannar and motherhood (ch. 67). After the pit she finds Eva under the gore with Li Na, cuts off the ring hand and the rapier stub, hears 'Katia, I'm sorry' — 'I just wanted to hear you afraid for once' — and puts a sword through the breastplate (epilogue). A second golden skull; 'It's done' (ch. 77). The epilogue gives the rest: the blitz sticks that show her Annie in the crib, the cocoon she squeezed too tight, and Eva's last act — the Crown of the Sepsis Whore from her own shoulder armour onto Katia's bare head. Only one of Donut and Katia may take the stairs from the ninth floor to the tenth (epilogue).