Motif · from book 3

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

A recipe book to the showrunners and a manual to its holder, read in bathroom stalls: passed from crawler to crawler across seasons, each adding an edition — Carl's is the 25th — invisible to the showrunners, not to the AI, and erased if its holder tells anyone.

First appears: Book 3

Series arc

As of book 6. The 24th edition, handed to Carl in book 3, his own 25th signed there and first written in book 4, and in book 6 a chorus: notes from Tipid, Herot, Rosetta, Milk, Drakea, Priestly, Porthus, Ossie, Allister and Ikicha, and the Bahamas book transcribed into it. Herot's Worn Path essay, read a few paragraphs deep on the third floor, is the one the eighth floor proves right.

Open threads

Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.

All threads: Open threads.

The editions

Through book 6, of 25 editions: 21 have an author the books name outright, 1 by inference, 1 is the system's own, 2 are not yet named. Known from is the first place the text says who wrote it.

Where the text disagrees

• 22nd edition. Carl does not know Drakea's sex from the notes, then settles on 'he' without learning more. “he (or she, I wasn’t really sure) was also a crawler during the final naga-controlled season” (B4 ch. 28) “Drakea had more comments in the cookbook than anybody else. He commented on everything.” (B4 ch. 28)

How the book works

• What the showrunners see: a recipe book — “» The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Anonymous.” (B3 ch. 7)
• The hidden text appears when Escape Plan activates — “Hello, Crawler. As you’re about to find, this is a very special book. […] this book has found its way into your hands for one purpose and one purpose only.” (B3 ch. 7)
• How it passes between holders — “It has been passed down from dungeon to dungeon. […] It will disappear from your inventory upon death or retirement where it will find its way to a worthy recipient in a future crawl.” (B3 ch. 8)
• The price of an edition — “There is only one price for access to these pages. You must pass your own knowledge on.” (B3 ch. 8)
• The hidden second scratchpad page is the next edition — “Anything you add to this second page will be included in the 25th edition of this book.” (B3 ch. 8)
• Invisible to the showrunners, not to the AI — “While the true contents of this guide are invisible to the showrunners and to the viewers, it is not invisible to the current System AI.” (B3 ch. 8)
• Tell anyone and it erases — “if you tell anyone about the existence of this book, the information within will erase, and you will forever lose access to the hidden text.” (B3 ch. 8)
• Every recipe must look like the holder's own — “Every recipe, every secret, if utilized, must be presented to the outside world as if you are discovering this all on your own.” (B3 ch. 8)
• Recipes by chapter, then every edition's notes in order — “It was presented in curated chapters. All the potion recipes in one, all the explosives in another, and so forth.” (B3 ch. 8)
• It takes a different form for each holder: a sketchbook, a deck of cards, scrolls, a prayer projection — “I knew the cookbook manifested itself in different forms. For Allister, it appeared as a massive deck of playing cards from his home planet.” (B4 ch. 3)
• Who receives it: not clerics — “There was very little information about this stuff in the cookbook, likely because this was all cleric territory, a class that’d never receive the book in the first place.” (B4 ch. 32)
• Carl transcribes the recipes into his edition — “I’d already copied all the recipes over to my main scratchpad, and then I’d copied and pasted them all into the cookbook.” (B5 ch. 60)

Notes in the text

Every note header in the books so far, with the note's opening line. Carl's own entries are under his edition below.

Book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

• B3 ch. 8 — Drakea (22nd): “The saferoom restrooms are a good place to read. Just don’t take long or you’ll get pinched. The rats say there’s a Syndicate rule that they can’t…”
• B3 ch. 8 — Sinjin (15th): “A level 3 sapper’s table lets you infuse bombs. Soak a hobgoblin smoke curtain in a healing potion, let it dry, and it mass kills undead like you…”
• B3 ch. 8 — Forkith (20th): “Confirmed. Works with bombs too but smoke works better. Doesn’t kill high-level undead, but they get mad. I use these to clear rooms of those…”
• B3 ch. 13 — Rosetta Thagra (9th): “Comrades, you know the high-level madness satchels, the bronze tier ones with the big yield? They are not as useless as they look. Because they…”
• B3 ch. 13 — Allister (13th): “There is no longer a 15-second waiting period for removing items from inventory, so this advice is mostly moot. I can confirm that backpacks do still…”
• B3 ch. 13 — Forkith (20th): “Backpacks only slow destabilization now, not negate it. Found that out the hard way. Rest well, little sister. I pray those who read this kill an…”
• B3 ch. 26 — Azin (17th): “Some NPCs are indestructible. You can kill them, and they regenerate in a matter of minutes. If you find one of those, it means they have something…”
• B3 ch. 26 — Drakea (22nd): “We found one of them and tied him to the front of our shield. Ha. The next day the Nagas patched it. Didn’t make an announcement or anything, but the…”
• B3 ch. 27 — Milk (6th): “Portals are hard to understand. It seems like there are dozens of different types that all work in different ways. Sometimes they’re like doors, and…”
• B3 ch. 32 — Coolie (19th): “There are three types of deity summonings. Avoid all three. Only idiots deal with deities. Some of them are genuine NPCs, but the big ones like Apito…”
• B3 ch. 32 — Forkith (20th): “They may be invulnerable, but they still feel pain. They still bleed. The drivers of these bodies suffer. In honor of my sister, I pray I make it to…”
• B3 ch. 32 — Tin (21st): “I have noticed something quite curious. The gods and goddesses are Soul Armor. So when the aliens inhabit the bodies of the gods, they do so like the…”

Book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods

• B4 ch. 3 — Batbilge (12th): “Be careful with the marketplace interface. It uses a different system to value items than whatever you might have installed into your UI. It tags…”
• B4 ch. 3 — Allister (13th): “I don’t know if this is the cause, but this appears to be Batbilge’s last entry into the Cookbook. I’ve been leaving the cards casually on my bed…”
• B4 ch. 18 — Coolie (19th): “I went on a program tonight. They transported me to a ship that floats in low orbit over the planet. The ship has an open window with no glass that…”
• B4 ch. 18 — Coolie (19th): “I am going on another program tonight. I have secreted bugbear paste into my boots. I will detonate them while I am in orbit. There will be two…”
• B4 ch. 18 — Coolie (19th): “I have failed. I have blown the ship, and my skill indeed protected me, but the forcefield around the ship has prevented it from fully breaking…”
• B4 ch. 30 — Sinjin (15th): “I now worship the goddess Kuraokami. Worst decision ever. The goddess is sponsored by some male soother twat who is treating it like I really worship…”
• B4 ch. 30 — Azin (17th): “This is Sinjin’s last entry. A person in my party was smote by his god, and it made his blindness debuff permanent.”
• B4 ch. 32 — Justice Light (8th): “I made a mistake today. I killed an NPC I shouldn’t have. We are a strong people, the skyfowl of the white cliffs. We do not take insults without…”
• B4 ch. 33 — Priestly (14th): “Larracos is like a dream. It is a living, breathing poem. A song. One that marks itself indelibly onto your bones the moment you experience it the…”
• B4 ch. 34 — Porthus (2nd): “I don’t know why this journal came to me, but I don’t feel it will ever be enough. I have done my best, adding little things here and there to the…”

Book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade

• B5 ch. 5 — Forkith (20th): “Based on some of these previous passages and my own observations, I think I’ve put together a good idea about the layout of the Hunting Grounds. They…”
• B5 ch. 6 — Everly (5th): “We ended up hiring five mercenaries. I got four from the Merc guild on the sixth floor of the Desperado Club, and another party member got a healer…”
• B5 ch. 24 — Drakea (22nd): “The hunters avoid the elites. They are smart enough to know not to fight against something they won’t be allowed to easily defeat. The problem for us…”
• B5 ch. 33 — Rosetta Thagra (9th): “Never trust mercenaries.”
• B5 ch. 45 — Allister (13th): “Vampires. We have vampires in my culture, but they are not the same as the ones here in the dungeon, though they are similar. My T’Ghee deck contains…”
• B5 ch. 47 — Volteeg (7th): “I miss her. I miss her so goddamn much. Is it worth it? To survive this place with her gone? No. No, I don’t think it is.”
• B5 ch. 47 — Drakea (22nd): “This is Volteeg’s first, last, and only entry in the cookbook. Fuck everything about this place.”
• B5 ch. 52 — Ikicha (11th): “We are meant to live solitary lives, even the eunuchs amongst us. Still, the sight of him, twisted and changed, speaking with that same voice that…”
• B5 ch. 52 — Drakea (22nd): “This was Ikicha’s last entry.”
• B5 ch. 54 — Herot (16th): “During my studies, I have run across multiple castle variations. So far I have identified three distinct types. The size of the castle doesn’t seem…”
• B5 ch. 56 — Herot (16th): “Show them the lie. Show them the seams. Show them the path they’re on is a false one. Think of a trolley on a track. A worn path is easily traveled.…”
• B5 ch. 61 — Milk (6th): “When a country boss dies, it drops persistent loot called the Treasure Map. My advice. Don’t pick it up.”
• B5 ch. 64 — Everly (5th): “My sponsor sent me a box today meant for someone else in my party. And not a crawler, but one of my mercenaries. A spellbook of Hasten Poison. I was…”
• B5 ch. 64 — Everly (5th): “The moment I hit floor eight, they gave me a great box, as if to make up for the previous one. A tool that allows me to take shortcuts through this…”
• B5 ch. 64 — Everly (5th): “I take it back. I take it all back. My sponsor was deliberately steering me not toward life, but a death that would be watched and remembered and…”
• B5 ch. 64 — Drakea (22nd): “This is Everly’s last entry. She did not mention the manner in which she was set up, which is unfortunate. Please, future author. Be as detailed as…”

Book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

• B6 ch. 12 — Rosetta Thagra (9th): “How can they do this? Do they not see us? Are we not real to them? We are the same. By the gods old and new, we are the same. Yet they kill us like…”
• B6 ch. 13 — Milk (6th): “I used to make a stew for my whole family. The recipe in itself wasn’t anything special. Rance meat, bone broth, a wild grass that would grow on the…”
• B6 ch. 13 — Milk (6th): “I am writing the sixth edition of this book. I am putting as much information as I can in here. One day you will find these words, and I pray that…”
• B6 ch. 13 — Rosetta Thagra (9th): “Comrade, I agree. One day, we will make certain they all know. Our words will not be lost. I swear it.”
• B6 ch. 16 — Tipid (4th): “I killed my best friend today. I wish I had never made it this far.”
• B6 ch. 21 — Herot (16th): “I do wonder, sometimes, how my worn path method will work on the deeper floors with the longer timelines. Tea that steeps too long tends to take on…”
• B6 ch. 26 — Azin (17th): “Spiders. By the gods, why? In our world, they only exist in myth, but apparently they’re a real thing and are common in the universe. What sort of…”
• B6 ch. 26 — Tin (21st): “I don’t know. I think they’re cute.”
• B6 ch. 26 — Tin (21st): “Never mind. Holy shit, never mind. Fuck spiders.”
• B6 ch. 31 — Rosetta Thagra (9th): “As fragile as they look, fairies and sprites can be difficult to kill. They’re fast. They’re magical. They’re always on alert. They say luck is not a…”
• B6 ch. 34 — Ossie (18th): “I know I don’t write often in these scrolls, but I have read them all. I just finished my third re-read of Herot’s overly-wrought essay and ramblings…”
• B6 ch. 42 — Drakea (22nd): “Ever since I hit the tenth floor, I’ve noticed a peculiarity in some of the mobs. It is difficult to put to words, but it is like they are embracing…”
• B6 ch. 46 — Milk (6th): “Holy underworlds on high. That last fight... I can’t even describe it. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.”
• B6 ch. 50 — Drakea (22nd): “If you get the chance, don’t hesitate. Not for one second.”
• B6 ch. 52 — Ikicha (11th): “My people have a saying. “The burning Yenk needs only to embrace their enemies.” It likely translates poorly, but what it means is that some problems…”
• B6 ch. 54 — Priestly (14th): “Stab, stab, stab. It is all I know.”
• B6 ch. 54 — Drakea (22nd): “This is Priestly’s second-to-last entry. Do yourself a favor. Don’t read that last one. He doesn’t make it to the battle once he sees what has…”
• B6 ch. 55 — Porthus (2nd): “It’s important to note that possession via ghost and an evicted demon inhabiting a shell are two very, very different things. They call it…”
• B6 ch. 57 — Tipid (4th): “It was me or him, and I chose to save myself. I didn’t think. I reacted. I reacted to save myself. Anybody else would do the same. I keep telling…”
• B6 ch. 61 — Milk (6th): “Even though you can sometimes move the platforms upon which the stairwells sit, you cannot put the exit portal into your inventory. You can’t bring a…”
• B6 ch. 61 — Herot (16th): “Milk is correct here about the stairwells. It states in the rules manual that while stairwells may be gated until certain conditions are met, the…”
• B6 ch. 61 — Rosetta Thagra (9th): “The only way for a crawler to move from one floor to the next is via a stairwell. That’s it. It is an unbreakable rule. There is no skipping floors.…”
• B6 ch. 62 — Herot (16th): “I’m starting to believe I have the ability to manifest my own destiny, after a certain fashion. The more unstable the AI running this system becomes…”
• B6 ch. 63 — Milk (6th): “If you have to fight a demon, and you have access to Sheol fire, do not use it. It makes the creature exponentially stronger.”
• B6 ch. 63 — Ikicha (11th): “Gods, I am so lonely.”
• B6 ch. 64 — Allister (13th): “The Semeru Dwarves of the ninth floor all only worship a single goddess, who inevitably makes an appearance near the end of the battles as the final…”

Carl's edition

The 25th edition, in the order the books print it; the last entry is where the book stands as of book 6.

• B3 ch. 34 — signed: “- Crawler Carl, 25th Edition of The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook”
• B4 ch. 18 — entry: “Coolie. I know you can’t read this, but I want you and every future reader to know that I used the information from your passage to help plan the…”
• B4 ch. 18 — entry: “One.”
• B5 ch. 64 — entry: “I’m starting something I don’t think will succeed. I will be documenting every step along the way. We have a method of communication that allows…”
• B5 ch. 65 — entry: “From page five of our planning notes:”
• B5 ch. 66 — entry: “From page seven of our planning notes:”
• B5 ch. 72 — entry: “From page ten of our planning notes:”
• B5 ch. 73 — entry: “From page four of our planning notes:”
• B6 ch. 15 — entry: “After all this time, it’s still shocking to me how quickly everything can change.”

Where they appear

By book