The Four Phases of Combat, plus triggering conditions.
The Ceasefire. 66 Hours. Current Phase. 50 hours left.
The Ramp-Up. Triggers when the Ceasefire ends. 180 Hours.
Open Hostilities. Triggers when the Ramp-Up Expires.
The Peeling of Larracos. Triggers Once Conditions are met.
Chapter 14
We stepped into the large, round c...
2023-09-30 00:42:16 +0000 UTC View PostIf you don't regularly read, skip to the bottom to the "question"
<Note added by crawler Ikicha, 11th Edition>
If only I could see him again. It would change everything.
I am jealous, those of you with community, with friends, with family. My kind are castrated and cast out. As such, I think my perspective is unique, so much different than the one who came before me, York, who appears to have c...
2023-09-15 00:45:54 +0000 UTC View PostTipid
“Can I keep this?” Tipid asked his attorney. His hands shook as he turned the key over in his blood-covered hands.
He sat in the chair, but he could barely feel his legs. He still shook. Is this real? he wondered. Am I really here, or is this another trick? The Illusionists were still out there, casting their spells. Cassio was dead. He’d stabbed himself in the neck, fighting illusions, screaming for them to get off of him. It’d lef...
2023-08-30 23:45:07 +0000 UTC View PostJuice Box changed to her familiar human form as she sat on Louis’s lap, her arm draped over his shoulder. She was smiling broadly, but I could see the tired and worry in her eyes. She had scars she didn’t have before. Her left ear, I also noticed, didn’t form when she changed, though after about ten seconds, an ear did finally appear, almost like an afterthought.
We lose things, and we gain them.
I examined her.
Juice...
2023-08-19 00:58:50 +0000 UTC View PostArief whisked us out of the main courtyard of the college, out the main gates and past the security guards and out into the city.
Entering Larracos.
“It’ll be more like an elopement than a traditional marriage,” Donut was saying as we walked. “I suppose that’s okay, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make it a big what-to-do. I do like my what-to-dos.” She gasped. “Mongo can be a ring bearer! I already have a top ha...
2023-08-05 23:25:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Louis’s celestial box came with a pair of items.
The first was a tier III guild upgrade called an Airship Portal, which was basically just an elevator that went up to the ceiling and allowed us to enter Louis’s new vehicle as long as it was docked to the base.
The rules for the portal were fairly straightforward. The guild leader, Imani, could designate up to three different personal spaces on the map as airports. There were ...
2023-07-26 02:43:29 +0000 UTC View PostDante.
Dante read the newsletter a third time. He exchanged a look with Justice Light, his skyfowl neighbor.
“They can’t do this,” Justice Light said. He also had Damien’s newsletter clutched in his shaking talon. “Who’s going to mind my shop?”
“They’ll throw either a bopca or a generated NPC in there, like they always do,” Dante said, sighing. Justice was relatively new to his indentureship, only ten seasons in. Kept in ...
2023-07-15 03:46:53 +0000 UTC View PostIf you're holding out on reading book 6 until audio, you'll want to skip this poll.
***
Carl is getting a pet. Ren's Tummy Acher needs a new name. The system will not allow it to be named Garret, and Carl will suggest to name it Garret 2 to which Donut will have a visceral, negative reaction. She's also going to object to adding him to the party either way and will go on a rant about adding new, cute characters late season ala Scrappy Do, and Cousin Oliver in the Brady Bunch, h...
If you just finished Eye of the Bedlam Bride, start here for book 7.
Hey folks. Sorry for the delay in getting this started, but end of book stuff always takes a lot of time. A couple of housekeeping things. We will be changing the chapter naming conventions from now on, as you can see. Also, I know you’re all excited about the lootbox chapter, and we didn’t quite get there with this one. Next time.
Also, this map is temporary until I can get a real artist to draw it.
<...
So this is not the final, final version, but we're getting close. There are still typos to squash, and a few rando inconsistencies to fix. This version removes an unimportant fight or two and adds a sprinkling of new New Achievement notifications throughout. Lots and lots of little things have changed, too, like Phase Through Wall is a potion the whole time and not a scroll half the time. Deals with the Liquid Therapy potion issue that protects them from Shi Maria. Deals with Carl not opening...
2023-06-03 23:13:32 +0000 UTC View PostStop! Did you read part one that I posted yesterday? Yes? Okay, good. Here we go.
Warning: You have been temporarily combined with a totem. If you are slain while in this state, you will not regenerate.
This combination will time out in 180 seconds or when the battle ends, whichever is sooner.
“How...” I started to say, but I felt my control over my own body slip.
What, w...
2023-05-24 23:53:38 +0000 UTC View PostThis is it. The last few chapters will be broken up into two nights. Book six ends tomorrow night.
Cliffhanger warning.
A graphic appeared at the bottom corner of the interface. This was something new. It showed all the team names. As I watched, a rapid-fire string of miniature, face-down cards appeared after each team with a blip, blip, blip. It was a counter showing how many cards each team had. Donut had 21 cards, I knew. Katia an...
2023-05-24 00:11:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Cliffhanger alert.
Chapter 261
<Note added by Crawler Allister, 13th Edition>
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 teams approach the gates of the castle of Larracos. She only has a single temple in the entire dungeon. I have never seen or heard of a crawler worshiping her. I don’t know if that’s even possible....
2023-05-11 07:44:22 +0000 UTC View PostOkay guys. As we approach the end, there’s goin
2023-05-07 00:53:44 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone! I made a small, but crucially important change to the rules earlier, and I realized I had forgotten to post my retcon message which kinda pulled the punch of the cliffhanger at the end of the previous chapter. Apologies.
Here is the relevant update quote from Cascadia when she was announcing the rules of card battles regarding the loss and transfer of keys in chapter 250. Basically, if you want to give someone else a key, you can’t just hand it to them, no matter how m...
Remember what I said last week about cliffhangers?
Time until level collapse: 6 days, 15 hours.
<Note added by Crawler Tipid, 5th Edition>
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 myself that again and again. Does that make me evil? No, I don’t think it does, not when I think of it logically....
2023-04-27 23:45:27 +0000 UTC View PostJust as warning. Every chapter release for now on is likely to end on an industrial-strength cliffhanger. This one is no exception.
Chapter 251
<Note Added by Crawler Priestly. 14th Edition>
Stab, stab, stab. It is all I know.
It is the final days of Faction Wars, and it is clear the orcs will stand victorious. It is clear the army I have been drafted into will fall against these beasts. It is clear tomorrow I will die...
2023-04-19 07:52:37 +0000 UTC View PostPart III
The Bedlam
Chapter 250
<Note added by Crawler Ikicha. 11th Edition>
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 aren’t problems at all if you think on it long enough.
~
“Wait, before we go, I have a question,” I called after Pater Coal as we stepped from the Temple of the Dying Sun back out into the club. I cou...
2023-04-05 23:55:09 +0000 UTC View PostNote about the upcoming physical book release at the end of the chapter!
~
The trip north was eerie. There were no mobs. Not many memory ghosts, either. It was past midnight on Christmas morning, and traffic was light on the single lane highway. It was cold enough that I really shouldn’t be doing this without pants, but it wasn’t freezing. A light drizzle occasionally started and stopped, making everything slick. I’d had to circle a...
2023-03-25 23:52:52 +0000 UTC View Post“How did you know it was Miss Beatrice’s mother and not the pitbull lady? I mean, with the fire thing. I was trying to keep track, and I couldn’t.”
We were waiting for the fire on the yard to calm before we looted everything. The rest of the Iowa area was about to crash to the ground, and we had maybe an hour to get everything and get off this pile of dirt. As it was, I wasn’t certain how we were going to get down without jumping. We’d al...
2023-03-21 05:42:09 +0000 UTC View Post<Note added by Crawler Milk, 6th Edition>
Holy underworlds on high. That last fight... I can’t even describe it. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.
~
It didn’t take long for the old trailer to burn. My view counter was spiked all the way to the right, despite me recently adjusting it upward. My chat was filled with people who were currently facing similar circumstances, all having to watch moments fro...
2023-03-11 03:06:36 +0000 UTC View PostApologies in advance. This whole scene is really four chapters, which means this ends with a fucked up cliffhanger. I'm not quite finished with 244, and I wanted to make certain you got something before the end of the month. I have an additional note about these chapters at the end.
~
Chapter 241
“Carl, I feel you’ve been asleep quite long enough,” Donut said as I groggily sat up.
I groaned. I’d been dreaming. Dreaming of the river, of me be...
2023-02-28 00:01:06 +0000 UTC View PostQuick note. I did a few minor retcons that should be fairly obvious. I added a part to an earlier chapter about them prepping for the fights, which includes Donut wearing her headset microphone to call out commands (bard songs don’t work while a deck is active) and her casting Clockwork Triplicate on Mongo before a fight. That part didn’t work for this fight because it started unexpectedly, but she did have time to don the headset.
Note added by ...
2023-02-09 13:43:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 238
We had to hike a good ways to the saferoom, which was within a small, side-of-the-road shrimp shack. As we traveled, Donut continued to chat, rapid-fire about card theory, but somewhere along the way, she trailed off, and we finished the walk in mostly silence.
I continued to talk with the others. All were pushing their way through the first n...
2023-02-02 01:53:45 +0000 UTC View PostPart II
The Father.
Entering Monroe County, Florida.
It is December 24th.
Time Until Level Collapse: 6 days, 22 hours.
The Key location has been marked on your map.
You have 46 hours remaining to collect your key.
“Monroe County?” I muttered as I appeared in the dar...
2023-01-19 12:03:12 +0000 UTC View Post(Just did a minor edit. I posted the wrong version. It's the same as before, but I'd broken it up into two chapters.)
Chapter 234
I took a deep breath. I did my best not to show my utter dismay on my face.
“So, why can’t you do it?” I asked.
“Oh, believe me,” Odette said, waving her hand dismissively. “I was going to ask to do it, but I received an opportunity I can’t pass up. ” She straightened. “That’s right folks. The r...
2023-01-13 13:06:10 +0000 UTC View PostWarning. Chapter 233 ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.
<Note Added by Crawler Ossie, 18th Edition>
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 about the Worn Path Method of waking NPCs. These theories are sound, I think, but I believe there is something he has missed. Something monumental. I think they’re lying about ...
2023-01-05 02:57:47 +0000 UTC View PostWAIT!
WAIT!
Have you read chapters 229 and 230 yet? They were posted the same time as this one. I had to post this one separately because it was too long.
Seriously, don't fucking read this until you read the last chapter.
Link to map: https://www.patreon.com/posts/desperado-club-76055235
~~
Link to map: https://www.patreon.com/posts/desperado-club-76055235
I am also posting chapter 231. THIS post, 229 and 230, will be the pinned one.
Also,
https://youtu.be/6p-lDYPR2P8
Chapter 229
<Note added by Crawler Rosetta, 9th Edition...
2022-12-18 01:13:24 +0000 UTC View Post