Theme · from book 1
The mobs are victims
The Hoarder begs in Spanish to be sent to Jesus; the Juicer is proud of Carl for fighting through the pain; the tuskling courtesans seem to have no memory of the ball; the goblin shamanka wants only to breed in peace deeper down. Mordecai warns it will not always be so, and that there are no gods here — only those who pay for the privilege.
First appears: Book 1
Series arc
As of book 3. Every boss on the first three floors is someone; on the fourth the theme becomes the plot. Vernon the conductor's wife, Madison's apartment, Tizquick's daughter and Fire Brandy's children were never real, and the floor's people find the edges of their lives. Two of them drive a train into the abyss by choice, and Brandy says what the theme has waited for: 'we shouldn't be enemies in this.' Carl's signed entry in the Cookbook says killing them is mercy and the makers are the unfinished work.
Through book 1
Every boss on the first two floors is someone. Mordecai's warning that it will not always be so (B1 ch. 25) is a promise about later floors that book 1 cannot keep or break.
Through book 2
Through book 3
The theme becomes the plot: NPCs with paper-thin lives finding the edges — Vernon's wife, Madison's apartment, Tizquick's daughter, Brandy's children (B3 ch. 6, B3 ch. 17, B3 ch. 21, B3 ch. 34); a floor of addicts dying three times; and Carl's Cookbook entry that killing them is mercy and the makers are the unfinished work (B3 ch. 34). Brandy: 'we shouldn't be enemies in this.'
Through book 4
A starved gnome asking to die, a mage married to an ooze, a girl drugged not to cry, a people going sterile, a town rebuilt with hours to live (B4 ch. 6, B4 ch. 21, B4 ch. 17, B4 ch. 15, B4 ch. 34). Carl's position hardens into 'They're better off dead. We are freeing them' and a city drowns (B4 ch. 32, B4 ch. 34); Justice Light's note argues the other way (B4 ch. 32).
The bestiary
Every » This is a… card the system shows, 40 through book 4: the first line of each.
Book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl (10)
- B1 ch. 2 — rendition of a Kua-Tin, the dominant species of the Borant System and principal owners of the Borant…
- B1 ch. 3 — Safe Zone
- B1 ch. 3 — Non-Combatant NPC
- B1 ch. 7 — Fleeting item!
- B1 ch. 7 — Unique* item!
- B1 ch. 9 — Non-Combatant NPC
- B1 ch. 30 — shaping tool. May only be used at a workbench. Assists in shaping materials into something else. You might…
- B1 ch. 35 — Non-Combatant NPC
- B1 ch. 36 — Dungeon Admin
- B1 ch. 46 — pet-class mob
Book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario (9)
- B2 ch. 1 — Non-Combatant NPC
- B2 ch. 2 — Monk subclass
- B2 ch. 6 — Elite
- B2 ch. 10 — Elite
- B2 ch. 13 — Fleeting item!
- B2 ch. 13 — comp chip, and it may not be sold or transferred. You may not redeem this chip directly for gold. This chip…
- B2 ch. 15 — Non-Combatant NPC
- B2 ch. 15 — non-combatant NPC
- B2 ch. 24 — Bereft Minion of Miss Quill
Book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (13)
- B3 ch. 2 — Non-Combatant NPC
- B3 ch. 2 — Non-Combatant NPC
- B3 ch. 5 — non-combatant NPC
- B3 ch. 5 — trap monster
- B3 ch. 7 — unique item
- B3 ch. 12 — pass or fail quest. Failure has consequences
- B3 ch. 14 — non-combatant NPC
- B3 ch. 15 — Unique Item
- B3 ch. 17 — Non-Combatant NPC
- B3 ch. 22 — Phased item. It is invisible. It will hide its entry point and will only be discovered if it is physically…
- B3 ch. 24 — unique item
- B3 ch. 24 — repeating, ranged weapon. It has the buffet enchantment, meaning it will not run out of basic ammunition. You…
- B3 ch. 33 — minion of the Mimic Rex
Book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods (8)
- B4 ch. 2 — unique item
- B4 ch. 9 — bereft Minion of Shamus Chaindrive
- B4 ch. 22 — minion of Psamathe
- B4 ch. 27 — minion of Lusca
- B4 ch. 29 — bereft pet of Geyrun
- B4 ch. 30 — world quest! All living crawlers on the fifth floor will receive this message!
- B4 ch. 31 — locked god. There will be no sponsors of this deity this season
- B4 ch. 34 — unique item!
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl | 3/48 | Ch. 12, Ch. 24, Ch. 25 · the book's own page |
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 0/26 | — · the book's own page |
| 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook | 0/35 | — · the book's own page |
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 3/35 | Ch. 9, Ch. 11, Ch. 13 · the book's own page |
By book
The mobs are victims in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl
The Hoarder is a person who asks to be sent to Jesus (ch. 11); Mordecai says there is 'recycling' (ch. 12). Rory explains the mobs' hope of peace deeper down (ch. 15); the goblin boss room has babies (ch. 18); the Juicer is proud of Carl (ch. 24); the tusklings are unarmed aristocrats with no memory of the ball (ch. 27); the fairy screams that they were going to move to the third floor (ch. 33); the caged dingoes are wounded slaves (ch. 45). Carl's theory (ch. 35) is that real alien species are crossed with earth stereotypes to teach and to mock — 'Or Persian cats as princesses.' Mordecai's warning (ch. 25) is that it will not always be so, and that there are no gods here, only those who pay.
The mobs are victims in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Mordecai's promise that it would get less sympathetic is not kept on this floor. The lemurs, clowns and bear are a circus family kept alive by love (ch. 9, ch. 10); the NPCs are biological people with planted memories (ch. 3); GumGum is a prop and also a person (ch. 17); Burgundy asks to die mortal (ch. 22); Remex was a crawler (ch. 24). Heather's eyes: 'End it.' Carl's response is to stop killing bosses when he can talk to them instead.
The mobs are victims in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
This is the floor that makes the theme a plot. Vernon's wife (ch. 5, ch. 6), Madison's apartment (ch. 17), Tizquick's daughter (ch. 21), Widget's stew (ch. 17), Brandy's children (ch. 14, ch. 34): NPCs given paper-thin lives and left to find the edges. The mobs are addicts by design, dying three times (ch. 12, ch. 31). Carl's own hands are on it — Gary, the mantaurs — and his entry in the Cookbook says so, and that killing them is a mercy, and that the killers of the makers is the unfinished work (ch. 34). Brandy: 'we shouldn't be enemies in this.' Madison, hanged by her own employees, is the other ending (ch. 31).
The mobs are victims in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
A changeling made to be Jessica Rabbit for two drunks (ch. 3); a starved gnome asking to die (ch. 6); a mage eaten daily by a wife who loves him (ch. 21); an ooze's card about unrequited love (ch. 22); a girl drugged by her father so she would not cry (ch. 17); a people with one child in four sterile (ch. 15); a town rebuilt for a world with hours left (ch. 34); Juice Box waking up (ch. 28). Carl's position hardens — 'They're better off dead. We are freeing them' — and a city of NPCs drowns (ch. 32, ch. 34); Justice Light's note warns against exactly that (ch. 32).