Place · from book 1

Safe rooms

Restaurants, bus stations and storm shelters lifted whole from the surface and set into the maze, where no violence is possible, food is served by surly Bopca Protectors, and three screens count down the collapse, the next episode, and the living. Mobs that attack inside one are teleported out — a rule that cuts both ways.

First appears: Book 1

Series arc

As of book 3. Fast food again on the fourth floor, and the blank door in every saferoom opens: personal spaces for sale. A Cookbook note says the toilet stalls are unwatched, on the rats' word. Transit stations stop being safe when the mobs go into withdrawal.

Through book 1

Seven seen; their rules used as weapons three times. From B1 ch. 39 they close an hour before collapse.

Through book 2

Pubs with rent, and Mordecai in all of them (B2 ch. 4, B2 ch. 14).

Through book 3

Fast food again, and the blank door opens: personal spaces for sale (B3 ch. 2). A Cookbook note says the toilet stalls are unwatched, on the rats' word (B3 ch. 8). Transit stations stop being safe when the mobs are in withdrawal (B3 ch. 16).

Through book 4

Half the bars are not; NPCs are protected only with a crawler present (B4 ch. 4); the personal space shelters forty children and half a town (B4 ch. 10, B4 ch. 28); monkey soup for the rest of the floor (B4 ch. 31); a hatch called the All-Seeing Spleen (B4 ch. 32).

Through book 5

A pub where a tree-like creature watches Carl carried in (B5 ch. 2), a Whataburger (B5 ch. 7), the Scuttlebutt's hallway of doors (B5 ch. 5). Lucia Mar finds the loophole: a teleport cast inside dumps the room's occupants outside (B5 ch. 35); Lucia peppers every town she enters with Loop-de-Loop traps (B5 ch. 37); a third attack inside sends the attacker naked to a nest (B5 ch. 38). Then the blood bar: full to enter, ten hours of rest, a random teleport when it empties (B5 ch. 52, B5 ch. 58).

Where they appear

Book	Chapters they are in (of the book's)	Where
1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl	28/48	5, 8–10, 12–14, 18–20, 22, 26–32, 36–44, 47 · the book's own page
2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario	17/26	1, 3–8, 14–15, 17–21, 24–26 · the book's own page
3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook	20/35	1–4, 6–8, 10, 12–13, 15–16, 18–21, 25, 29–31 · the book's own page
4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods	25/35	1–4, 6–7, 9–11, 13–15, 17–18, 20, 23–24, 26–32, 34 · the book's own page
5 — The Butcher's Masquerade	46/78	2, 4–10, 12–13, 15–17, 20–21, 28–30, 32–40, 43, 45, 49–53, 55–58, 60–61, 64, 69–70, 72–73, 75 · the book's own page

By book

Safe rooms in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl

Seven in the book: Tally's Polish McDonald's (ch. 9), the bus-station room with experience cookies (ch. 19), an Alabama Waffle House the residents will not leave and a Peruvian Taco Bell (ch. 22, ch. 26), a French storm shelter with a mailbox (ch. 30), Big Shot Chicken under siege (ch. 38–ch. 40), and an industrial kitchen with a rude toaster (ch. 41). Their rules do the plot's work: no violence, so Frank and Maggie freeze (ch. 20); mobs teleport out when they attack, so the elemental can be baited through the door (ch. 40); explosives are inert inside, so the MOAB can be built (ch. 40). From ch. 39 they close an hour before collapse.

Safe rooms in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Pubs and inns now, with rent: the Belly-Rubbed Pug at ten gold (ch. 4), the One-Eyed Narwhal at twenty (ch. 14), an unnamed bare room with one shower (ch. 19). Mordecai appears in all of them. Explosives are inert inside; spells mostly won't cast; an event quest can lock hosts out (ch. 24).

Safe rooms in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Back to fast food: Nirula's, Arby's, J.CO Donuts, a mall food court, Everest, Soda (ch. 2, ch. 7, ch. 13, ch. 15, ch. 19, ch. 29). Personal spaces for sale at 50,000 behind the blank door (ch. 2). A Cookbook note passes on the rats' word that the toilet stalls are unwatched — 'Dunno if it’s true' (ch. 8). A station-only bar with a personal-space door but no rooms is not a saferoom (ch. 25). The transit stations stop being safe when the mobs are in withdrawal (ch. 16).

Safe rooms in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods

Not every bar is one — the Toe is not (ch. 4), the A.O. in Weird Shit Alley is (ch. 7, ch. 9) — and a saferoom protects Borant's NPCs only while a crawler is inside, which is why Growler Gary died (ch. 4). The personal space is the only real shelter for forty children (ch. 10). A pub in Pandinus; a hatch called the All-Seeing Spleen (ch. 32). The saferoom's shrine appears when Carl takes a god (ch. 32). Monkey soup and crackers for the rest of the floor (ch. 31). Access closes an hour before collapse (ch. 34).

Safe rooms in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade

A pub where a tree-like creature watches Carl carried in (ch. 2), a Whataburger (ch. 7), the Scuttlebutt's hallway of doors (ch. 5). Lucia Mar finds the loophole: a teleport cast inside dumps the room's occupants outside (ch. 35); Lucia peppers every town she enters with Loop-de-Loop traps (ch. 37); a third attack inside sends the attacker naked to a nest (ch. 38). Then the blood bar: full to enter, ten hours of rest, a random teleport when it empties (ch. 52, ch. 58).