Place · from book 2
The Hunting Grounds
The sixth floor by its NPC name. Mordecai names it on the third floor as the over-city's next level down, high-elf jungle ruins where Carl guesses Signet's story is heading; the Desperado Club keeps a staircase to it. By the fifth floor it is the changelings' ancient home, the only floor where the rich can truly die — the hunters who enter at level thirty and up, their fees paid, a record number waiting — and the place the factions send people for gear. Carl's pledge at the end of book 4 is addressed to it.
First appears: Book 2
Series arc
As of book 5. The sixth floor, named in book 2 and reached in book 5: the third floor's map under centuries of jungle, a hunters' city in the north, a high elf castle in the southeast, naiads in the river between, a thousand paying hunters, guilds, CrawlCon, a vampire outbreak, brambles that eat the map, tenth-floor saferoom rules, and a party the top fifty cannot refuse. The castle is moved to the ninth floor and a pit is left where it stood.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
| What Signet left: two living tattoos and her mother's body | B5 ch. 75 | open — Nadine and young Clint, 'She gave us life'; Princess Lunette, an incomplete flesh golem in Carl's inventory; 'Find a Pulpmancer.' Samantha rocketed away through the floor. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 2
Mordecai's name for the over-city's next level down: an urban floor of bigger, richer villages gone to jungle ruin, part of the same volcano story for the NPCs (B2 ch. 3); the high-elf king of its Liana Sector on Signet's card (B2 ch. 6); the place Grimaldi took Signet from as a child, and where Carl tells the producers her story really ends (B2 ch. 8, B2 ch. 11).
Through book 3
Through book 4
Named by Juice Box, suddenly serious, as her people's ancient home (B4 ch. 10). Mordecai over Katia's map: hunters enter at level thirty and up, may sign up until the sixth floor opens, and are the only rich who can truly die there; the factions send people down for gear (B4 ch. 24). Priestly's poem remembers 'the murderers who cleaved through us like chaff on that nightmare of a sixth floor' (B4 ch. 33). The changelings and the children go there through a portal; a record number of hunters are already waiting; Carl's pledge at the stairwell is to break every one of them (B4 ch. 33, B4 ch. 34).
Through book 5
Book 5 in full: the third floor's map under jungle, a hunters' city in the north, an elf castle in the southeast, naiads in the river between (B5 ch. 1, B5 ch. 5, B5 ch. 9); tenth-floor saferoom rules and brambles at the end (B5 ch. 52); a castle moved to the ninth floor and a pit where it stood (B5 ch. 75, B5 ch. 76).
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 7/26 | Ch. 3, Ch. 6, Ch. 8, Ch. 11, Ch. 15, Ch. 17, Ch. 22 · the book's own page |
| 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook | 2/35 | Ch. 9, Ch. 30 · the book's own page |
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 4/35 | Ch. 10, Ch. 15, Ch. 24, Ch. 33 · the book's own page |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 14/78 | 1, 5, 8, 10, 14–15, 22, 28–29, 34, 44, 52, 58, 73 · the book's own page |
By book
The Hunting Grounds in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Named by Mordecai as the over-city's next level down: for the NPCs the sixth floor is part of the same story, an urban level of bigger, richer villages gone to jungle ruin (ch. 3). A high-elf king of its Liana Sector is named on Signet's card (ch. 6); Grimaldi took her from it as a child (ch. 8); and Carl's note to the producers says her story is really about getting down there (ch. 11).
The Hunting Grounds in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
The Hunting Grounds in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
'The Hunting Grounds are our ancient home' — Juice Box, suddenly serious (ch. 10). Mordecai: where hunters start at thirty, can sign up until the sixth floor opens, and are the only rich who can die; where the factions send people for gear (ch. 24). Priestly: 'the murderers who cleaved through us like chaff on that nightmare of a sixth floor' (ch. 33). The changelings go there through a portal; the hunters, a record number, are already there; Carl's pledge is to kill every one (ch. 33, ch. 34).
The Hunting Grounds in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
The third floor's layout under centuries of jungle, 2,344 exits (ch. 1); Forkith's Cookbook map — a named city in the north, a high-elf city in the southeast, naiads between (ch. 5); Iceland-sized, with a 500-kilometre river and a dozen bridges (ch. 9). The changelings' ancient home; Signet's; the floor where the rich can die, and do.