Place · from book 1
The Dungeon
The eighteen-floor structure that replaces the surface of the Earth at 2:23 in the morning, into which some thirteen million people descend: a maze of quadrant-sized squares, safe rooms, tutorial guilds and boss lairs, run as a broadcast for an interstellar audience and collapsing a floor at a time on a timer.
First appears: Book 1
Series arc
As of book 3. Eighteen floors, four seen. Book 1 gave the structure, book 2 the map, and book 3 the wiring: a floor that announces its own rules and its own self-destruct, built by Borant 'with spit and duct tape' as a dual-layer zone to sea level, with a pocket system that never switched on. Floors 12 and 15 are glimpsed in item cards. The fifth is chosen on a wheel: Air, and a Dirigible Gnome fortress.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The fifth floor scatters the parties | B3 ch. 35 | resolved · B4 ch. 1 — The Bubbles: 1,172 worlds, four castles each, about 150 crawlers apiece. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 1
Two of eighteen floors seen. Book 1 supplies the structure (quadrants, safe rooms, guilds, bosses in six tiers, a timer per floor) and one structural hint about the rest: floors three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen and eighteen exist simultaneously and are one linked setting (B1 ch. 44). The series' plot spine — floors, not books — starts here; floor pages arrive with book 2.
Through book 2
Through book 3
The fourth floor announces its own rules and its own self-destruct (B3 ch. 3, B3 ch. 31). Its wiring is explained by a rental robot — a cheap dual-layer zone to sea level, no admin bubble (B3 ch. 20) — and by Zev: the pocket system never switched on (B3 ch. 25). Floors 12 and 15 are glimpsed: gods who never leave the twelfth, per Mordecai (B3 ch. 2); Sheol Bricks on the fifteenth, per an item card (B3 ch. 14). The fifth is chosen on a wheel: Air, the Dirigible Gnomes' fortress (B3 ch. 35).
Through book 4
The fifth floor: bubbles, quadrants, castles, and a Lacuna between (B4 ch. 1, B4 ch. 30); the tomb's top nine kilometres above its sea and ninety-two below the planet's surface (B4 ch. 8). Mordecai's map of the ninth floor and Priestly's of Larracos (B4 ch. 24, B4 ch. 33); a partial map of the sixth on a ghost (B4 ch. 33). The sixth is announced: specialisation, guilds, a record number of hunters (B4 ch. 33).
Through book 5
The sixth floor is the first where the rich can die, and the book is the account of how many do: 360 hunters bumped to level 50 and released into a jungle (B5 ch. 1), 1013 by the time they are released (B5 ch. 9), a quarter dead by the last week (B5 ch. 56), seventy-five in the pit and none after (B5 ch. 76). Its saferooms switch to tenth-floor rules (B5 ch. 52); its towns are eaten by brambles; its seventh floor is destroyed in ten minutes (B5 ch. 78).
Through book 6
An eighth floor that is a recording of the surface (B6 ch. 1).
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl | 39/48 | 1–10, 12, 14–15, 18, 20–23, 25–30, 32, 35–48 · the book's own page |
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 17/26 | 1–3, 6–8, 10, 13–15, 18–21, 24–26 · the book's own page |
| 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook | 23/35 | 1, 4, 6–8, 12–14, 18–26, 29–30, 32–35 · the book's own page |
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 19/35 | 1–5, 9–10, 13, 18–20, 24–25, 27–28, 32–35 · the book's own page |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 38/78 | 1, 3–4, 6, 8–10, 12, 16, 18–21, 24, 30–33, 35–43, 45, 47–48, 54, 56–57, 65–66, 76–78 · the book's own page |
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 35/74 | 0, 2–6, 11–13, 15–16, 18–20, 33–41, 46–48, 51, 54, 56, 59, 61, 63–64, 66, 73 · the book's own page |
By book
The Dungeon in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl
Named and explained in the first three chapters: eighteen floors under the surface, the first three a tutorial designed to drown crawlers in loot and kill them, floors collapsing on a timer (ch. 1–ch. 3); just under 13 million entering, and under 10 million left when it seals (ch. 4). The first floor is a condensed Seattle in a grid of squares (ch. 15); the second is cinderblock and grubs (ch. 30); the third onward, everyone says, is where it gets strange. Zev's parting hint (ch. 44): floors three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen and eighteen exist at once and are one linked setting.
The Dungeon in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Book 2 adds the shape of the whole: floors three and six are one volcano-world (Over City, Hunting Grounds), the fourth and fifth are random (ch. 3), and its capital sprawls on the ninth (ch. 18); the eighteenth is a billionaires' retreat and the fifteenth is Sheol (ch. 3, ch. 24); the tenth has rules of its own (ch. 15, ch. 24); a Divine Guardian guards a fire gate on the twelfth (ch. 7). Stairwells now hide behind quests (ch. 12), and the door at the bottom says 'Mind the gap' (ch. 25).
The Dungeon in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
The fourth floor has a rulebook read off a sign and a system that announces its own self-destruct (ch. 2, ch. 31). Mexx-6000 explains the wiring: Borant runs a cheap dual-layer planetary zone to sea level with no admin bubble — 'spit and duct tape' (ch. 20); Zev adds that the pocket system never switched on because Hinter refused the cores (ch. 25). Floors 12 and 15 are sketched: gods who never leave the twelfth, Sheol Bricks lousy on the fifteenth (ch. 2, ch. 14). The fifth is chosen by wheel: Air, the Dirigible Gnomes' Wasteland Fortress (epilogue).
The Dungeon in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
The fifth floor explained by announcement: 1,172 bubbles, four quadrants, four castles, all four to fall (ch. 1); Mordecai wonders if the bubbles average out player levels (ch. 2); a Lacuna between them (ch. 30). Elevation: the tomb's top is nine kilometres above its sea level and ninety-two below the planet's surface (ch. 8). Mordecai's map of the ninth floor (ch. 24), Priestly's of Larracos (ch. 33), and a partial map of the sixth on a ghost's corpse (ch. 33). The announcement for the sixth: class specialisation, a guild system, and a record number of hunters (ch. 33).
The Dungeon in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
The sixth floor is the first where the rich can die, and the book is the account of how many do: 360 hunters bumped to level 50 and released into a jungle (ch. 1), over a thousand by the third day (ch. 9), a quarter dead by the last week (ch. 56), seventy-five in the pit and none after (ch. 76). Its saferooms switch to tenth-floor rules (ch. 52); its towns are eaten by brambles; its seventh floor is destroyed in ten minutes (epilogue).
The Dungeon in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
An eighth floor that is a recording of the surface (ch. 1).