Chapters 181, 182, 183, 184, and 185

Love the Kaiju Battlefield ref, I just finished reading it tonight ;-;

Josiah Henderson

Any estimated time on the next chapters?

Josh Cothran

Where is Agatha? I know she is going to be present...

william brown

I wonder if Pearson the Changling happened to make physical contact with any of the queens guard before he was ran off….. seems like that could be…. Useful

Dirty Dibbler

Team Flamengo lol, I'm Brazilian and choosing that name is indeed something a group of us would do lmao

André Faes Oliveira

He did warn us that these might be a little scattered. I believe he plans to finalize the chapter orders and whatnot more tightly in the later editing.

Joshua Stevens

I was actually just talking about this. I think flashing back to the initial meeting at the beginning of the floor (with the admin and the lawyer) is perfectly fine and adds a lot of intrigue to the story. The other time jumps just seem gratuitous and confusing. Almost like a heist movie lol

Stephan Doyle

I don't mind a little hidden agenda stuff like with the gate of the feral gods, or with the quick attack at the beginning of this book. But the last few chapters haven't been as enjoyable to me. Just my two cents.

Gabe

I am not really enjoying the format of the last few chapters. All of the back and forth timeline zigzag seems like needless obfuscation.

Gabe

You've never been to an old fashioned mining exhibition?

Tyler Vickers

Are you implying that he got the map from the cookbook? Because he got the map when Edgar the giant tortoise, a part of the Signet storyline, cast a spell and scanned the castle.

Stephan Doyle

Carl mentions the potion option of 10% to lowest stat or 5% to highest. But then “ Mordecai: Those potions are all a waste. I agree with you. She should get the plus five percent to her lowest base stat and then the random spell book”. Mord should say 10% in that sentence.

Steven Myer

So they'll know to try and take it from Queen Imogen I'd hazard

Somewhere in this book she mentioned she's used it but it hasn't actually triggered, I forget the specifics of how it works though

macrocode

[Edit] I'm wrong. - Does this: "Edgar’s map was quite specific and accurate.” She sighed dramatically" mean that Carl has actually said where he got the details of the Castle? Seems like exactly the opposite of what he's been doing since he got the cookbook, no?

Did Donut *ever* use her Love Vampire ability yet?

Ilya Taytslin

Considering escape plan D involved a lot of falling, the potions were probably in case they needed to do that

DrSubterfuge

Well it looks like Preponte wants to be in the party to help Carl and Donut make use of his Pole position. Carl was wondering why they had the rod on this floor, I guess because of Pole Position it's possible to make use of it right away if things line up for you. Obviously there's a thing as too much, but I don't mind dangling hooks in stories. When every hook has a purpose it feels a little too designed, useless things make it more real.

Sickul

I was going here to post this just now! So, it is a copy paste from the bathroom secret message-pad, and the other crawlers would get the reference. But it does not feel like Carl is writing to the other crawlers in this passage. Havent they seen the maps also? Is it necessary to point out the many floors? It feels things are described for me, the reader, not fellow crawlers.

Frank Helle

Great chapters, but how did Carl not buy the upgrades????

Erik Leiden

Should Carl really be writing in the cookbook that the castle looks like a “Borg Cube”? I feel like that would not be helpful information to future crawlers.

It's near the end of chapter 178. And 179 implied that Carl was planning to use it to buy the last spot in the faction war. Now it seems the good empress has swooped in and taken the spot instead, which is why Carl now hates her guts. Seems like she's into playing war games at the expense of crawlers' lives, too.

DrSubterfuge

Any ideas on the dead god that made that crystal? Other than Emberus's son (a ghost helping to solve his own murder! fun!) the only one I can think of is a long shot. The AI called Chaco a "slayer of gods" when he first showed up. If we take that at face value (a dubious proposition I know), that's a second option. Wouldn't it be interesting if that's the same god that Mordecai and his party messed up summoning...

DrSubterfuge

Thank you so much Matt, those chapters were brilliant to read; I’m so invested in how this all ends :D

Dan Birkett

I read in this upload that carl has a company and i am a bit confussed how it came to that Dont know if i missed anything in the last few chapters

Hoang Le Minh

And I am back!

The 49th Khan

Lucia is completely free from the influence of her dog right now and not having a good time with the shambles that are left :(

DrSubterfuge

Wow, thank you for the gift today. Not as bad of a cliffhanger as I feard, but this was a great setup for what is to come I suspect. I can't wait to see how some of these open plot lines get wrapped up.

Craig Carey

So I'm guessing whatever augmented reality feed Lucia Mar has been operating under for the entire Crawl up to this point has been disabled in the ball room?

Jon

@Jeanean > As soon as they kill hunters, the protection will be broken. And as soon as the protection is broken, Chaco disappears. True, but I have to think they're going to find a way around that. Otherwise, why was this thing here?

David K. Storrs

"He shrugged. “All the description says is that it was discovered during a mining exhibition" i bet that last word is supposed to be expedition

Jason Hornbuckle

I'm betting on some sort of theft. That or he loots it off the Queen's dead corpse.

The Lost Pages

As soon as they kill hunters, the protection will be broken. And as soon as the protection is broken, Chaco disappears.

Jeanean

I can’t wait to hear the audio reading of Zev saying, “Goddammit Carl!”

Will Mill

The elf zookeeper guy says the reanimated head will have to stay in here, but I thought she was in the basement

Jason Hornbuckle

Didn't Prepotente have a wand that let him create a small one-time saferoom so that he could open boxes in the field? I think he exhausted it, but if they can recharge it with that Benefactor box prize then it seems like a way to get the memorial crystal. Assuming they kill a whole bunch more hunters, that is.

David K. Storrs

Things are really heating up! I love it! > One could purchase plus ten percent to their lowest stat > She should get the plus five percent to her lowest base stat I think the bonuses got a little mixed up here... > that case of 24 Feather Fall potions, and a case of healing potions Were the consumables really a better option than a 2-hand upgrade?

loimprevisto

Means the same thing in America.

David K. Storrs

I’m going to have to plan my day around reading all these chapters

Brandon Baier

Hmmn so I can't think of a way to make Chaco stay (except maybe charm spell?), so I'm thinking they'll have to bet on Laundry Day if they want that gem. Did I misunderstand or did Carl NOT buy an upgrade for 2 hands? Cos, that seems to be better than the potions (which I think are 1 hand per set) I was wondering if they had some plan to stop people just stealing the potions when Carl put them in the room. Turns out they didn't, should've just manually handed them out in the changing room, I guess. Very interesting that the AI is straight up interfering in a story of both the Crawl runners and the tv show runners. I mean he's kinda influenced it in the last floor by making the Gate obtainable, but that was a smaller change than forcing in Signet imo. It's becoming more and more of a major player in things. Wondering if Carl would be able to convince that Hunter Zabit to use his Drop Shield during the boss fight with the immovable creature that's coming up (or that was implied with that achievement Carl got). Maybe offer to send him real money through his company or something, seeing as the shield has a horrible exchange rate? EDIT: just realised it's in a box so can't be used. Maybe he'll offer to buy it for later use? Man, there's so much to discuss and theorise in this chapter drop.. Oh! Did Lucia Mar revert to helpless girl persona because of none of her pets being present? (or rather, the one surviving pet, who may be an instrument/avatar of a Crawl administrator in disguise) Ok, this comment is way too long, I stop now. I will say though that I recently re-read the Remex parts from floor 3 and it was interesting to do so, now that we know he was a big time Crawler

MatrixM

Really, it's 4 o'clock in the morning, I decide I need to go to sleep instead of reading, and you dump not one, not two, not THREE, BUT FIVE CHAPTERS ON ME? You should be ashamed of yourself for doing something so heinous to me. Good night sir! I shall now attempt to stave off my desire to read and sleep out of pure spite and not return for an entire 6 to 7 hours.

The 49th Khan

I think in america it might have a different meaning, in Australia 'non-plussed' means confused

MatrixM

5 WHOLE CHAPTERS AT ONCE! Matt you are cruel but kind man and I respect you for it.

Darnell Maxwell

5 chapters?? o.o omnomnom

MatrixM