The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, Chapters 30-32

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Thank you very much to Michael for commissioning this episode!
So these chapters are the ones where Mordecai finally comes back (well technically he came back in the last section but he was only there for a minute before the blood fountain happened so it doesn't count) and he attempts to slap some sense into Carl. Predictably, that doesn't work. 
Thank you all so much for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
covering Dungeon Crawler Carl Book three, The Dungeon Anarchists Cookbook,
chapters thirty through thirty two. In these chapters, finally Katcha

(00:26):
is able to figure out exactly what it is they
have been missing about the weird setup of these train tracks.
Just in time, might I add? It's like barely twenty
four hours ahead of what happens. And then Carl comes
up with one of his bright ideas that in practice

(00:48):
turns out to be just a tad more complicated than
he anticipated. Welcome to spoil Me. Welcome to the show everyone.

(01:16):
I am Natasha. Thank you very much to Michael for
commissioning this episode, and Michael is here in the chat
with me. I'm delighted to see you, Michael. I wanted
I think I mentioned already about like the new feed
that I'm going to be making for this and I'll
keep you guys all prized of that, so I just
wanted to mention it real quick because I am not positive,

(01:40):
but I think I told you all, and also mention
that I cannot believe there's only one more episode left
of this book. The books are always a little shorter
than I think they are. And this is not a criticism,
like I don't think, you know, I feel like the
rhythm of the story works, and so doing it the
way you've been doing it, you know, But it just

(02:02):
I keep being startled thinking that it's going to take
a little longer for us to get to the end.
And I think part of that is there's something very
cinematic about the way he writes that. I honestly feel
a little bad for people who only read the text,
because there is a performance happening with this audio book
that literally there is no possible way reading it in

(02:25):
text is going to be as good. I'm so sorry
it just won't. So that in itself, I'm just like,
everybody should at least listen to it. And then I
think it's it's the fact that, like he has such
a huge A lot of the way many books are
written is that the penultimate episode of recording would be

(02:50):
when shit really hits the fan hard, and then the
final episode is sort of wrapping that up. But these
books really tend to be that shit hits the fan
as the second episode's like section ends, and it's the
final episode of coverage where it really is hectic and manic,

(03:12):
and so I think it's going to be longer because
I'm just used to there being a sort of cool
down after that insanity that we don't really get in
these books, you know, we stay hype right up until
the end. Seraphim says, I do like how the reason
she couldn't figure it out was it required outside knowledge

(03:34):
about non earth based iconography. Oh talking about yeah, showing
she's smart to get most of it, just missing an
important detail she'd have no way of knowing, which Mordecai
says that previously that logo had been on the doors,
so they are very clearly keeping this knowledge away from
them on purpose so that they can't put it together.

(03:55):
Either that or it's been changed once they realized they
were getting too close, Like I don't know, and Serfrum
says agreed, this goes on audio is the best way
to experience the list alongside Dresden an expedition Expeditionary Force.
I've read the first and agree second. I have not read.

(04:18):
But yeah, so guys, I just, uh, this section is wild.
I am really surprised at how much I am enjoying
the contact with the rest of the community, and I'm
a little saddened knowing that, like we're going to be
splitting everybody up for the next floor, like it's been

(04:38):
explicitly stated that's what we're doing. It may be that
they wind up against all odds managing to work together
after all, and I hope that's true, But just where
I'm sitting right now, I'm like, but this is the
part that I've liked, is how everybody has figured it
out as a crew and how to cope with it

(04:58):
all together. And they're just instantly like nope, not like
that and squashing it. They suck, they really do. So
let's begin chapter thirty. The first thing we did was
walk out onto the main restaurant. Mordecai, who was somehow
even more soaked with gore than I was, approached the

(05:18):
counter with the Bobka. So this is immediately after Katya
soaks all of them with all of that blood and
doesn't have any on her, which I kind of like,
just because this feels like a fuck you from the
system that we're gonna make everybody around you really hate

(05:40):
you for this, but we are not going to make
you suffer the same way. So they're gonna hate you
extra because you somehow manage to get away with a
smudge on you. They have to get an upgrade that
costs twenty five thousand gold, which she pays for. And

(06:00):
even though she didn't do this on purpose, she did
just got what she get like five hundred thousand gold
for killing Hecla. I think, so, yeah, she can pay
for it. It's fine, and this suh. They go inside
and it's like a little rumba that's like slowly but

(06:22):
surely making its way through all of this disgusting blood.
But it is going to take a while, and thankfully
it clears up the kitchen area so that they have
somewhere to go and sit down and talk. In the meantime,
and they have to do, they do a lot of
catching up with Mordecai because he is just so he's

(06:48):
so behind, he has just missed so much. Of course,
he first wants to know what it is that it's
so funny. Of course he wants to know what it
is that Carl chose. But that is so old, that
is such old news at this point, and for him

(07:09):
it feels like it just happened so naturally. But for me,
I was like that's what you're asking about. And then
I realized, oh, yeah, I guess you would. But there's
a bunch of other things it. Donna says something about, oh,
I got my glasses. If I hadn't gotten them, we
wouldn't have known Heckler was trying to kill Katya, and
you know, then she mentioned something about like and then

(07:30):
we killed her and la la lah, and Mordecai is
just like, okay, okay, okay, you know what. Hold on,
how did you guys get the skulls? And just as
he is asking this, he spots the ring on Carl's
hand and he freaks the fuck out and says, I

(07:53):
need you to take this the fuck off right now.
And it's sort of interesting because I feel like if
Mordecai had approached this differently, he would have gotten a
different response. I really think he would have. But he

(08:16):
goes so hard in a way that feels bullying, even
though I know he doesn't mean it this way, and
I don't actually believe it was, but there is a
sense to it of if you had just not taken
the tone and handled it this way, Karl might not

(08:37):
have dug his heels in as much as he does
because it feels like an instinctive reaction in him in
response to somebody treating him like this. So I really
the way that this all goes down, Mordecai has got
a really good reason for telling Carl to take the

(08:59):
ring off, but as he points out later, Carl is
like not really hearing his reasoning and just has the
wrong takeaway overall to this. And it was, honestly, it's
really kind of the first time Mordecai has had his

(09:21):
moments of ME being frustrated with him, for sure, but
this was the first time that I was genuinely like, Okay,
you know what, Mordecai, what the fuck? Because it just
seemed to me he has been making the same mistake
now a couple times. I want him to have more

(09:44):
control over himself. And I don't know what happened to him.
I don't know what particular buttons they're pushing whatever, And
maybe once I find out, I will really feel like,
you know what, he deserved all the grace I should
have given him. I was being unfair, you know, like
I may revise my statement, but it's the tone that

(10:06):
he takes and then the fact that he literally smacks
Karl in the face, and he doesn't smack him hard
enough to hurt him, so it's not hard enough for
the system to see it as a threat. But the
fact that you didn't know it wouldn't see it as
a threat. You almost took yourself out of play again

(10:29):
because you are losing control over your fucking temper that quickly.
It's sort of funny because it's Carl that has this
reputation as of being the one with a short temper,
and I'm just like, I don't remember Carl losing his
temper over nothing the way that it was described by Silfa,

(10:51):
But Mordecai, I'm like, this dude actually granted he's not
a crawler, so people aren't going to see it the
same way. But I wonder if he had that reputation
as well, because you wouldn't have to edit him particularly,
it would just it is how he actually behaves. So anyway,

(11:13):
Oh sorry, Saraphim says about Katcha, this didn't seem like
an intentional thing, just how the system worked naturally. I
disagree with anything that suggests they aren't going to make
things mean on purpose just because and it may be
just how the system works. But I fully think if

(11:33):
this is going to be annoying for you and make
other people more annoyed with you, they will do that.
I just like they just you know. Michael says, it's
also probably some of Karl's resentment of Mordecai taking himself
out of play, and yeah, that there's there's been a
mention in the discord, and I'm so sorry. I'm not

(11:54):
going to open it right now, but somebody mentioned about
Carl's abandonment issues and I hadn't put it in those
terms in my mind, like specifically abandonment issues. Of course
that's what they are, but I didn't consider it that way.
And Mordecai getting yanked away in that sense, Mortdecai didn't

(12:19):
necessarily choose to get yanked away, but he took action
that resulted in getting yanked away that he knew would
do so, so it was ultimately his fault. And it
is very funny to me later because there is a
woman that Carl runs into who is a demon, and
he's like, I can kind of see why so and

(12:39):
so is so into her and describes this absolute nightmare
sounding woman, and I was like, oh, wow, Carl, a
woman who would like touch you and kill you because
she's so toxic. Is somebody that seems really appealing to you.
I'm shocked, Like, it doesn't get much more toxic than
be's just it's almost it's a joke, how bad she

(13:04):
was with this. So yeah, you have not got good
taste or judgment in that sense, sir. And it all
ties together as it does with us all, so Mordecai explains,
even if you were a player killer, you'd be an
idiot to keep this on you. Every season, several of

(13:25):
these rings are generated, and every season the crawlers who
own them are the first to be tracked down and
killed by the hunters on the sixth floor. The bonuses
for this ring work both ways. One of the reasons
why those idiots flock to the hunting grounds is to
obtain one of these things, because in the hands of
a sadistic bastard, a combatant can raise his power exponentially
once it's charged up enough. If its owner gets massively stronger,

(13:48):
its owner gets massively stronger each and every kill. I
don't think there has ever been a faction wars where
the victorious army is led by a champion who doesn't
have one of these rings, amongst several other items. Those
rich assholes who fight it out on the ninth floor
will do anything they can to win. This sort of
item can't be brought in from the outside, but the
factions can collect them if they can convince an idiot

(14:10):
to go hunting from one on the sixth floor. And
if there's one thing this universe doesn't lack, it's idiots.
You need to sell this ring, and Carl says, so
the faction war's winner always has one of these. Indeed,
did the wrong takeaway, and this is when Mordechai slaps him,

(14:30):
and Carl is thinking how his dad used to do
the same thing, but harder, and Mordecai himself looks startled
at his own reaction and he doesn't like this is debatable.
Do you guys consider him saying I shouldn't have done
that an actual apology, because I don't. He doesn't apologize

(14:56):
in my view. But anyway, what he says is crawlers
don't fuck with the faction wars. They just ride out
the ninth floor like it's a tornado and they just
hope to get to the other side. And everybody knows
you have this ring because it was a whole big thing.
Don't be a fucking moron. Plus the magical pulses that

(15:22):
like they will trigger things, and you don't know what
this could do, never mind the fact despite what it says,
it's not meant for crawlers, it's for tourists, and then
ends it. If you don't get rid of it. God's
helped me. I will tell Donut to stay the fuck
away from you the moment you hit the sixth floor.

(15:44):
He takes it off and he says, we'll talk about
selling it on the fifth floor before we get to
the sixth don't touch me ever again. And this feels
and I want to be clear whenever I'm pointing something
like this at this is not a criticism. This is

(16:05):
just me acknowledging the structure you need to have for
certain things plot wise to work. Carl tends to have
reasonable good judgment, and he tends to be pretty logical
about what a smart thing to do is for him

(16:25):
to not want to sell this right away. All I'm
hearing is you smacked me, and now I don't want
to listen to what you say. And honestly, I'm not
even really mad about that, like I would also be
responding this way. It's just so relatable, you know, I can't.
I tend to be somebody who can be defiant anyway,

(16:49):
like just in the best of times for no good reason.
If you tell me to do something, I will be
like now, a very petulant, childish shit. I'm aware of it.
I try and fight it every day. You add that
personality trait to the fact that you are someone who
just smacked me, and I have a history of being
smacked by a parent who was a bully, and yeah,

(17:10):
I'm gonna that's gonna color my judgment real hard, and
I am not gonna do the thing that otherwise I
would recognize quickly was the smart thing to do. So
I feel like we're putting circumstances on Carl here to
ensure he keeps this ring just because and I'm not
mad at it. I feel like this is pretty good storytelling.

(17:32):
This is, you know, like, I really, Mordecai, you did
the exact opposite of what you were trying to do.
I think you really fucked it. So anyway, this is
when we get to the whole thing with the actual
boring syndicate logo and him mentioning about like the way

(17:59):
that things loop and that I'm surprised that you guys
didn't put it together. And Carl is like, well, how
the fuck were we supposed to know what it looks like?
And he says, isn't it etched on the doors to
the next floor down? No, it's a massive couatine. Huh.
Mordecai said, when I did it, it was a syndicate logo. Odd,

(18:19):
and I'm surprised that he's surprised it was. It's like
they're not doing the exact same thing. It makes me
think that as many times as he has done this,
things have been pretty standardized, even more than I recognized.
But anyway, this is Katchia starting to ask him a

(18:40):
lot of questions, and she's drawing and drawing and drawing,
and he, in the meantime, is explaining this whole thing
with the metaphor that they are making with this floor.
The abyss represents the center of the galaxy, the tracks
probably represent the worm paths. The whole thing's a simplified map.

(19:03):
The train lines are the original worm paths. And then
does that say station mimic? He laughed, They really went
all out. There's a story about the early days of
the Syndicate, where the Hellene system set up six way
stations near the center. They were traps. The Hellene were
robbing and eating all the travelers and then stealing their tech.

(19:23):
The Hellen don't exist anymore, and they weren't really mimics,
but they're oftentimes represented as them. They got wiped out
by the Valtai and the Yorcs. And then Katcha asks
about the Krakaren bosses and he says the k Karen
is actually a real creature, a collective mind spreading through
the universe. Its proliferation causes a lot of anxiety. A

(19:46):
better translation of its name is the Apothecary because of
its ability to synthesize elements. When they call it the
krak Karen, it's them deliberately bending the translation into a negative.
What we have here in the dungeon is a caricature.
And he talks about the drug dealing stuff. The Plenty

(20:08):
invented the modern tunneling systems. The technology is proprietary. Nobody
knows how it works. There's a ridiculous conspiracy theory. They
use Krakern technology and it's all a ploy to get
everyone into the Krakaren collective. Previously everything had to be
filtered through the wormholes. Born had a stake in the
communications relay that are now obsolete and fast forward. He says, basically,

(20:34):
their tech is outdated, and Boren is trying to make
it look like, oh, this new stuff is real scary,
And he says, this whole floor is a racist political
cartoon telling the universe how shifty the Krakaren and the
Plenty are. This is sort of interesting to me, the
idea of them being this worried about like a collective

(20:58):
mind because I don't know, you know, how literal we're
being with a lot of this stuff. I don't know
if what comes to mind for me is what was
intended by the author. But I will say that for me,

(21:20):
when I think of the collective, it makes me think
about things that fly in the face of the way
Americans are trained to think. We're so hyper individualistic and
we put so much emphasis on being able to do
it yourself with no help from anybody else. And we're
really one of the only major cultures that has that

(21:41):
kind of attitude. So many others are very community based
and proud of that that it's a joint effort. Everybody
works together, we all have our place in this machine.
Like this fact that we look out for one another
is a good thing. And so I can't help but

(22:02):
interpret they're afraid of this collective mind as it being
like basically almost like anti union. You know, it's obviously
a bigger than that, but like, if I'm gonna put
it in a sort of very broad basic terms, a
sense of collectivity and having each other's backs is a

(22:25):
threat in a way that I feel is very present
in our own culture today. So there's just a vibe
to it, you know, I don't know. So anyway, let's see.
Wait till you hear how we stuck caught you to
the front of a train and then killed Hekla Donat added,

(22:46):
oh my god, I love the way that ends. I
forgot about that. So they take their naps, they get
their buffs. Mordecai has been rearranging the crafting room, installed
a repair bench, and bought three more benches, two with
our coupons and one with gold. He bought a second
alchemy table, which he said was necessary because he could

(23:06):
specialize one of them. He bought a metalworking table, which
he said he'd explain the purpose of later, and he
bought something called a bolt Thrower's Workshop, which would eventually
allow for the mass production of explosive and other magical
crossbow bolts. And this sounds so dope. I can't help
but wonder you guys. You know, I was very hard
on Carl and Donut for making him a manager when

(23:30):
that wasn't what he wanted. And a lot of that
was just because it explicitly was not something that he wanted,
and they seemed to be told that and they did
it anyway, and I just don't like I don't like that. However,
there is a sense for me of him getting to

(23:53):
use his knowledge here in a way that I can
help but think seems it seems like he's having a
good time. And I know that's like a weird way
to say it, and I'm not trying to imply that
he's enjoying the crawl exactly, but I can't help but
think it would be really gratifying if you had been

(24:14):
through a lot of this shit already to be put
in a position where you can put that knowledge to
practical use in a way that you hadn't been allowed
to do previously because of the rules. So there's a
part of me that wonders if he actually dislikes being

(24:40):
a manager after all, or if he does, has his
mind been changed, has he come around on any of this?
I just I want to know, really what it comes
down to. What the hell is his baggage with this?
You know? But at this point, I'm irritated with him

(25:01):
enough that I don't particularly care whether he's happy or not.
But I am curious just in that I am a
nosy bitch. I can't help it. So he's working on this.
They keep like remembering things that he hasn't been updated on,
and Carl has to like keep him from asking to

(25:25):
see the cookbook. I'm really I'm worried about this because
the whole thing is that Carl's not allowed to tell
anybody or show anybody. And instantly when Mordecai is told
that he got this cookbook, Carl is able to put
him off and be like, later, there's other more important
shit first, which he is right, you know, that is
a true statement. And I feel like in that moment

(25:47):
he came off very convincing. But there's only so many
times he's going to be able to get away with
saying that and it's going to be difficult as time
goes on. I feel like I don't I wonder if
Mordecai has ever come across something that has this sort
of function to it where if you tell anybody, it

(26:11):
goes away. If he's going to start to like understand
that maybe Carl isn't showing him for a damn good reason.
I don't know. Sorry, there's so many people, are not
so many people, so many comments in the chat, Saraphim says,

(26:31):
I think it's more Carl not wanting to let go
of anything that might give him any kind of edge.
I think that's what he's telling himself, but I don't
think that's really what it is. My thought was that
Mordecai always helps, enjoys helping people, but he's seen so
many people die that he got extremely jaded, and Saraphim says,
I never got the idea. He hated the idea of

(26:51):
being a manager per se so much as he has
baggage with it and doesn't really want the responsibility of
trying to keep people alive that he knows are likely
to die on him, as he'll blame himself for not
helping enough. If that's it, then I feel less bad
about them doing this when they knew he didn't want it,
because that's more. That's the kind of attitude that I

(27:13):
always kind of take issue with, is I'm so afraid
of failure that I'm not even gonna try. So if
that is all that he's struggling with, then I'm not
as mad at them as a result, you know. But
if it's something else, then yeah, I will see. We'll

(27:34):
see if that's it. Though, I appreciate that instead of
there being like a specific trauma. I think that makes sense.
So let's see. This is where Kutcha says, I think
I know why there were only six station mimics and

(27:54):
why they're so big. They're really occupying two stations at once.
If it's upside down and mirrors the tracks above it,
then the map works. We are at station fifty nine
on the ZOMP line. If we dig, we'll end up
at station fifty nine on some other line, probably whatever
the inverted color is on the color wheel. Plus, I

(28:17):
think there might be an empty chamber between the two levels.
Remember that room from the recap episode with the stairwell
and the ladder. I think that's the space in between
a mirror doesn't make sense. I don't think it's a
mirror of the entire tangle, just each individual line. What gotcha?
What the fuck? How does that make sense? I am

(28:39):
going to say right now, I do not really understand.
I get the basics, I get enough. It's fine. At
one point, he says I can't understand this, I can't
follow it, and she says, just pretend like you have
understand and that felt like the author saying that to
me specifically, and I accept, I will pretend like I

(29:01):
half understand, and we will go forward from there. And
it is it is fine, It is fine, It is fine.
I am positive. With as popular as this series seems
to be, somebody out there probably made like a diagram.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if somebody made an
actual three D model of this, because it would be
so tempting. If I knew how to do that, I
would definitely consider it just out of curiosity. So yeah,

(29:27):
Katcha's just like all of this just felt like there
was something central that I wasn't getting, and then the
announcement said you're gonna have your hands full soon. But
like we figured out everything and gotten in place that
shouldn't be true, So they've got something else up our sleeve,
you know. And let's see. There was a floor once

(29:50):
this is Mordecai, like a rat maze, and it had
rooms that were like giant sliding puzzle pieces. It was
also a fourth floor. The pieces of this one area
it's lived together to make the syndicate logo, and it
opened up the exit. Actually I forgot about this part.
Once the pieces were together, the whole thing spun on
the center axis, flipping everyone upside down into a hidden

(30:11):
chamber below them, and Carl instantly calls Imani and Ellie.
It is like, are the province bosses on the ceilings?
And Emani says, I don't know for sure, what are
you asking. Ellie starts talking about how terrifying they are

(30:32):
and that nobody has been able to beat them, and
also that was pretty fucked up what you did to
that poor hyena. I know the show is exaggerating things,
but I worry about you sometimes. It's so disturbing that
even somebody who knows Carl that well is getting tricked
by these edits, Like, you know, it just sucks. I

(30:57):
returned my gaze back to the circled Station twenty four,
where the kirk Karen babies were gathered. They weren't ranging
far from the area. But if there were so many,
why where were they all going? You know, if this
whole thing's a metaphor, like you say, then the Kirkarens
will be the final blow. I thought back to the
time Katcha and I entered the empty stairwell station. It

(31:20):
had been a group of stairwells all closed. They were
in a circle in the middle of the room. How
big was that empty space in the middle of the circle?
Pretty big? About the circumference of a railway tunnel. Fuck me,
I think I figured it out, so sorry, I'm oh,

(31:41):
Rob is here? Hi? Rob? He did kill Growler Gary
fourteen times. Yeah, but they tried to make it as
quick as possible, and the game made it so they
couldn't progress without doing that. So that I do not
blame Karl. I can't blame him, Saraphim says, not really
getting tricks. She knows it's putting in the world worst
light possible, but he still killed Gary a lot of times.
I can't. I cannot accept blaming Pearl for that at all.

(32:05):
I just can't I understand, but it's just so unfair
with what everybody is being forced to do all the
time that to hold him responsible for that in any way,
it just doesn't feel fair. Michael says, it's so real too.
Reality TV is all based on editors creating heroes and
villains just by selected. Oh yeah, it's crazy. It's so

(32:27):
much fun when shows that are aware of that, Like, like,
there's a bit in Community where there's an edit and
Annie like mentions the will they won't they between her
and Jeff and he's like, what are you talking about?
And they play this edit of the two of them
talking and laughing and almost touching with a song playing
over it making it seem real romantic, and he's like, oh,

(32:50):
come on, if you did that with Abed and Pierce,
that would still work. And they have the same they
do the same thing with the two of them, and uh,
it's a fun bit. But yeah, ye, and it's that's everything.
It's absolutely everything. Rob says accountability does depend on agency,
and he could have chosen not to even if it
would have stuck him, but it's definitely a ninety nine

(33:11):
point nine to zero point one percent sort of thing,
and it's like what he's doing, it's literally to set
up a system to save as many hundreds of people
as he can. So what do you guys prefer? You know,
it's sort of blaming a person who's like he's doing
the dirty work to make sure as many people get
out as possible. I don't like holding that against him.

(33:35):
Did you have a better idea? Do you want to
step forward with an alternative? Like you know what I'm saying,
and exactly Miss t says. Plus Gary got on board
miss once he knew what it was for. Gary was like,
all right, let's do this. But they don't show that part,
which is why I do think it's getting tricked. I
one hundred percent stand by the editing is tricking people,

(33:55):
and I don't care, like that is what their intention is.
Flat out They they changed the lighting, they changed the
like everything about this was set up to make him
look like he was the villain in a horror movie.
That is absolutely too trick. I am sorry, but there
is no I am not moving from that stance whatsoever.

(34:15):
So and just like again, he's just this is something
that I always have felt very strongly about though, is
the way that people depend on somebody to do things
that are like distasteful to get the job done, but
then they want to stand back and blame that person
for it, and there's just this sort of like it's

(34:41):
very disingenuous. We want to pretend that there's like some
sort of purity that we can reach while also doing
the thing, and we know good in goddamn well inside
that that is not how things work. But we don't
want to be the one. And I get that. I
really get not wanting to be the one, but then
you're saying somebody else should be the one, which is

(35:04):
really shitty. And yeah, so anyway, I don't like anybody
throwing that in his face. I do not like it,
And Ellie, I'm a little annoyed with you about it.
I just that's just where I stand on this. Don't
don't say anything to him like blank blank blank that

(35:27):
you did was fucked up. When you're getting all of
your information about what he did from that edit, if
you weren't there, and if you haven't had a conversation
with him about it, first, don't fucking say anything because
that's literally your only source and that source is hugely biased.
So to me, that's shitty, that's just how I see

(35:50):
it though, So anyway, let's go to chapter thirty one.
They are getting in touch with as many people as possible,
trying to tell everyone what they think is gonna happen.
And there are a bunch of folks who are like,
the fuck out of here. That is now, what's gonna happen?
That is insane? YadA YadA, And later on there's a

(36:11):
whole thing this is honestly very funny, but we will
get to it when that message happens. I the Ellie
took a team of fighters to range down the outskirts
of twenty four to fight and grind on the crack
hairin juvenile clonelings. They are testing out what works on them.

(36:33):
And I am a little bit short on time at
this point, so I'm gonna try and speed through some
of this because I don't think a lot of these
details are like I think they're interesting, but they're not
necessary for me to talk about. When I first came
up with the idea, I hadn't thought it through. Shock
her ah. Each rapid response cart was about the width

(36:56):
and height of a cargo van and maybe one and
a half times long, while the station platform and the
stairwell itself was just wide enough to carry the cart.
There was no way to get it through the tight
hallway system that led to the main room of Station
thirty six. In my head, the caverns had been much bigger,
but when I arrived or realized the plan was doa
the hallway walls were practically indestructible, and we didn't have

(37:19):
time to fuck around trying to figure out how to
widen them. Go around several bends and then get the
train cart into the room. And then zang Legion's friend
comes in and he's got a magic wand that will
string the shrink down this train car. Eventually they get
it through to the center of the room. It sat

(37:40):
on the circle in the middle of the room. The
floor had a faint etching on it, a side view
of the syndicate logo that I'd never have noticed if
Mordecai hadn't shown us the night before. We all quickly
backed up as the cart returned to its regular size,
popping as if inflated. So Imani comes up, are you
sure about this? And he's like no, but nobody else

(38:02):
has a better idea, And she asks about the other people,
and he's like I warned them, and that's as much
as I can do. Let's see, you really think this
cart will keep us from having a fight. Oh, I'm
sure there'll be plenty of fighting. I just want to
even the odds a little. And what they wound up
doing is putting this portal here so that when monsters

(38:23):
begin to fall into the room with them, they go
into the portal instead, which is honestly genius. I really
love this whole idea. She has to use her magical
chain to get it to like the right spot and everything,
but this is just delightful. From there, I used my

(38:44):
handmade ladder to climb up into the cockpit. I patted
the two Growler gary left hands to make sure they
were still firmly in place, and then I turned on
the portal. And I think Growler Gary to know that,
like all of this is what's happening because of his hands.
I think he'd appreciate it. This would make him feel
pretty good. Katya and Donut returned to the chamber. Katya

(39:05):
was still thirty seven, but Donut had raised a level
to thirty three and Mungo had gone up a few
to twenty six, which uh Mongo is really coming along.
He is getting impressive here. So the clock ticked down
to one day left, and just like that, it was

(39:25):
on system message Attention, attention. We've been betrayed by the Krakheren.
We've been forced to initiate the self destruct sequence. I
swear to God. And then eventually, Doughnut, they're laying the
story on a little thick and I was like, yeah,
thank you. It is very funny though. They're really trying
to get this message across, and it is like, all right,

(39:48):
we get it and off already. My chat was suddenly
filled with people screaming for their lives. Ronald Oh. A
round section of the floor disappeared in the middle of
the station. It fell away in the It shot up
and out of the hole. The octopuses are pouring in.
They're falling into the room, but from below they're big now,
human size. Jesus, Jesus. They just keep coming. We have

(40:09):
to run. We need to find another stairwall. There's too many.
Gwendolen Duet, the bomber guy, warned, all of you dumbasses,
fall back to the train lines. Hold them at the
choke points. Ronald Oh. He didn't say what happened this
bad Gwendolen Duett, are you on crack? This is exactly
what he said is going to happen. It's literally the

(40:30):
exact thing he warned you about. Now clear the chat Ronald,
Oh fuck you bitch. Several iterations of this conversation filled
my screen. This is so funny, and it's very funny
because it is absolutely horrifying and not funny at all.

(40:51):
This is like, it is twenty twenty five and we
are looking at the fallout from people voting for Donald
Trump a second time, and there are all all of
these surprise Pikachu faces across the United States from people
who voted for him now being very surprised that there
are negative consequences. We fucking tried to tell you, you
stupid asshole cunts, and are what did you do? You

(41:15):
laughed in our faces like we were exaggerating. The man
is a psychopathic narcissist with the mind of a seven
year old, and the most powerful, rich people surrounding him
that exist on our planet. There is no limit to
the kind of damage somebody like this can do. And
y'all really just thought it was about to be a

(41:37):
real fun ride where everybody you don't like, it's rounded
up and kicked out of the United States. And then
oh it's people that you like that aren't bad people. Wow,
who could have seen that coming. Oh they are tariffs
that are affecting your livelihood. Oh they've laid off half
of the people in your department at a federal job
that you thought was super stable. Oh they've cut off

(42:00):
all of the funding for your education. Then, so now
you can't finish your degree, or you can't get the
trade school training that you were planning on, or well,
I won't pretend that I don't still feel sorry for you,
because I do. I actually genuinely do still feel sorry
for these people. But I am also so angry and

(42:23):
so frustrated, and it's just like there is such a
lack of thought. It's so that's what it comes down to,
over and over. And I've talked about this before on
other shows as well, but that like, you know, there
are people I know that are otherwise very kind to generous,
people who voted for Trump, and you would never like

(42:45):
understand why, And then when you talk to them, they
genuinely don't know a lot of basic stuff, and it's
because they get all of their news from one news
or two that all repeat the same bullshit. And these
are people who have never had to examine where their

(43:09):
news comes from. They have never felt the need to
check sources, and so they don't have any critical thinking
skills and they don't look past the very surface of
what they're told. There's no thinking involved. They are being
fed a thing and they output that thing, and it's
just a one to one. And that's what I find

(43:31):
the most frustrating is that these are not necessarily bad
people with bad intentions are who are actually malicious or
trying to harm anyone. They're lazy, That's what it is.
These are people who they don't use their minds. They
are intellectually lazy, and that is something I can't fucking

(43:55):
tolerate anymore. I really can't. Like. I understand that you
need to step back from news, you need to step
back from current events in general, sometimes to keep your
mind safe. And I do that, and I have stepped
back a great deal over the past like year and
a half. I sympathize, but there's a difference between like
knowing things and stepping back consciously for your own sanity
and refusing to fucking look into things at all and

(44:17):
then continuing to do harm those That's just one of
those things is not like the other. So anyway, this
whole thing is so annoying because like Carl doesn't want
these fucking people to die. This is somebody he went
and tried and saved everybody. It's like a bunch of
his work that went into saving half of these people
and then for what for them to just die like

(44:38):
this because then they decided not to listen to them,
you know, Like anyway, Uh, Sarah Fim, I know I
voted for the release the face eating Leopard's party, but
I didn't expect them to eat my face. Well, this
is the thing, and I was talking about this with Sean.
They voted for the uh leopards eating people's faces party,

(45:01):
but then the leopards ate legs and arms and they're
the legs and arms and they're like, but it just
said eating faces, like you really thought it was just
gonna end with faces? You really thought, because you're very
dumb because you don't try to think and reason through
the next logical step in what they do. And what

(45:24):
kills me is we have been down all these roads before.
This isn't new This is all the same fucking playbook
that we have gone through over and over in history,
and we don't fucking learn and it's embarrassing. It's humiliating,
like there's no reason to not be able to put
two and two to fucking gether Ah disgusted anyway, you

(45:50):
see quick bring up Star Wars. You know it's bad man,
Uh Sarah, Yeah, But then we end up with her
wondering why we go way over time on this I do.
It's my own fault. These are also huge sections though
altogether this was an hour and forty five minutes this section,

(46:10):
so you know, I'm really doing my best. There has
to be room for tangents. That's my whole thing. Rob says,
I would seriously just listen to her go off, but
yell in the chatter wonderful too, Thank you Rob. Anyway,
this whole thing is just it's it's difficult because there's

(46:31):
only so much you can do. What Mordecai said, you
can't save everybody. It's like, I mean, I know that's
literally true, but God, and you can't save people from themselves.
That's the hardest part. Is like when somebody is determined
to not listen that's you don't get to just enforce
your will on them as much as you really think

(46:52):
that's the right thing to do. So they gooth, they
go and look, and the Krekaren monsters are falling into
the portal, like the hole in the ground is from
the ceiling. I'm imagining like sparks going up from a
campfire or something, and they're going through the portal. Some

(47:18):
of them are coming in from other areas, but they're
like in very manageable numbers at first, and then uh,
I realized as I watched the constant stream of creatures
it was probably a good thing for everyone if they
did survive the fall into the pit. These were living,
non undead creatures, which meant every time one of them died,

(47:38):
a ghoul was generated, which is a really good point.
I keep thinking that the ABYSS is like taking them
sort of out of play in a way that doesn't
affect the gool generator, and that's not The ABYSS is
part of everything, like it's not some sort of dead zone,
you know. So there's a moment here where Donut and

(48:02):
a dog creature dog soldier are getting into it because
she's accusing the dog soldier of being an experienced hog
and the dog souldiers telling her she didn't call that one,
and YadA YadA, donut. You gotta stop with your racism, girly.
You keep talking about like how am I supposed to

(48:22):
cover my ears? Or what about non humans? Uh? I'm
under need you to start taking a step back, That's
all I'm saying. Behind us, another group of mobs approached
and were quickly dispatched, then another Soon we had red
dots all around us. There were four choke point entrances.

(48:43):
The Nightmare was down there, still parked a few stations down.
The train was still on an idling. I could tell
right away something was wrong with the demon woman. And
he realizes that Brandy has figured out that this is
all construct and he's just like, yeah, how do you
cope when you find that out? And also when you

(49:03):
have children? This one guy finding out that his daughter
was never real, that's one thing. But she's there with
the children that she just gave birth to. They are real,
kind of And he walks away and says, if I
don't see you, take care of those babies, okay, And
she doesn't answer, and a part of me is just like, yeah,

(49:26):
what do you like, I don't know what i'd do.
Your instinct of course, they feel like your children, so
you're gonna want to do the thing, But you also
know it's feudle. This floor is closing, You're nothing, you know, like,
I don't know what I do. I really don't. So
an hour later they're still fighting. There are so many

(49:49):
bodies piling up that it creates a clog until the blood,
which is acidic like burns, It burns it through him
and like melts the piles. He gets in touch with
Batista briefly and is like just checking in to see
how things are going, and it's it's not great. There
are Krekaren monsters on one side of them, and on
the other side are these uh mantors who are playing

(50:14):
the alarm traps with heavy metal, and it's like giving
them some kind of buff and it's making everybody's ears bleed.
And he starts getting messages from everybody, like in all
these different separate groups that have gotten trapped in various places.
There is a point here the new Krekaren monsters were
suddenly all level twenty to twenty three and about seven

(50:36):
feet tall. Donut gotcha, Ludacris and it's spelled Ludacris, the rapper.
I will just mention that in audiobook, I wasn't sure.
I felt like he said it as if it were
the rapper name. There's a tiny difference in pronunciation, and
I was like, that sounds like it's sung about wherever
and it is. Now I don't know why that's this,

(50:59):
but she uh, I'm trying to find He runs forward,
Katcha uses crowd blast and explodes the crowd and he
runs through behind her and he drops a boom jug

(51:19):
and he decides to do two and as they're coming
through that opening, Doughnut uses the puddle jumper to jump
them back into the main room. Now this works, but
it does cause an explosion of acid onto them, so
there is pain here and Moni saves them, and money

(51:41):
is so fucking clutch, Like seriously, not enough credit to
that woman. But I just I'm trying to decide what
about this. Oh my god, it's moved, bitch, get out
the way. That's what it is. Oh my god, Oh
my god, that's what it is. That's what it is.

(52:04):
You can't convince me otherwise. Ah, that is so good.
I love it. Okay, that's that's my favorite. I love it.
I'm just picturing this scene now with that song playing
over it, because that song still goes hard I do
not care, so this would be a fantastic song to

(52:27):
play over this scene. I love this. Oh you guys
don't know how much that delights me in my heart.
I love Ludicris, Like for the record, I just I
grew up with him as like the guy in the
top forty all the time when I was younger, and
he just has some fucking bops. So anyway, yeah, that's

(52:48):
what this is, and it works really well and cutches
like I hate that ability, but it does work really well.
Like I can't help but be kind of impressed with myself.
I'm getting a lot of people being excited because they
didn't put that together either, and that makes me feel
better because for a second I was like, am I
just slow not figuring this out? So let's see. I

(53:12):
looked worriedly over at the crane, but the device held
and there's another explosion and Ellie's like, what did you do, Carl?
And he's like, I didn't do that, and he messages
Mordecai and he says, yeah, I think it's the soul
crystal thing and whatever you did cause some weird stress
on them that had a couple go. And Carl says,

(53:36):
I have a glorious idea, and Mordecai says, no, you
don't know what it is yet I don't care what
it is. If it's a Carl idea, it's probably a
brilliant idea that's gonna get you killed. And I'm like,
nobody's they haven't been killed, Mordecai. He's got one hundred
percent solidity record here to me. I mean, granted, things
I haven't always gone a plan, but they've worked in

(53:57):
the end. So we jump ahead thirty two time to
level collapse seventeen hours time to the opening of the
stairwells at eleven hours, and I just want to say,
how just incredibly mean it is that they wouldn't open
the stairwells earlier, Like I just that's so rude. So

(54:21):
all the monsters at Station twelve are dead, and there's
not even that much rubble, but there's loads of corpses.
The crystal is still floating in the middle of the room,
but it's not glowing. There's a hole in the floor
but nothing's coming up, and Ellie walks up to the
hole and she's like, oh yeah, there's like another room
that's burnt out and it's upside down and I dropped

(54:41):
a rock and it came back and let's see. But
bah bah, I'm trying to find the spot. I hadn't
had the time to examine or meet Lee Nigh yet,
but I examined her now. I remembered her as a slight,
almost mousey woman. She was taller now, rail thin. Her

(55:02):
skin was deathly pale, ghost like, and despite her disturbing appearance,
I could see why ZAG had a thing for her.
There was something there, deep and alluring but also terrifying.
She had an I might murder you at any moment,
but it'll probably be fun for both of us esthetic
and she does not really like him, as it turns

(55:25):
out later. She is very intelligent and isn't tolerant or
overwhelmed by Carl, and he is used to people sort
of rolling with what he says because they're too timid
or polite to say anything, or maybe they just don't
think quite quickly enough. But she does, and she finds

(55:46):
flaws in his plans and points them out, and he admits,
I think I actually need somebody like this around me more.
But he also knows that she doesn't really like him,
even though he thinks she's sort of rad, and he's like,
I guess that's it's okay. Like we work together for
a time and then we split up and it's probably
for the best. But uh, I enjoy the fact that

(56:08):
she's just so fucking like not willing to play his game.
I like Carl, and I think he has earned the
right to boss people around a little bit a little bit,
but I could see how folks might fall into just
letting him handle things because he has such a strong

(56:31):
vision of what he wants and he really is stubborn.
When he decides on a thing, he's just like, yeah,
let's do that thing, and she's just, you know, got
her own ideas. Like I enjoy this a lot. I
do wish though, that it was like, despite how much
I annoyed her, I could tell she liked me. There's
a part of me that does sort of want that,

(56:52):
but I actually respect more that it's just straight up
she doesn't. I just kind of like, uh, I like Carl,
so everybody'll like Carl. But also, ah, I sort of
enjoy the fact that she's like this fucking guy, because honestly,
as much as I like Carl spending time with him
as we do, if I were actually like physically around him,

(57:15):
I think i'd feel this way also, you know. So anyway,
we have this whole, I'm trying to make sure that
I don't go over too long. But they are looking
into this abyss where there is like through that noodle,

(57:38):
and there is a boss down there, which we find
out later is being like hypnotized, so that it's much
more docile than it seems like it normally would be.
It's just hair and quivering skin covering up the hole.
It's disgusting. It looks like one of those guys whose
pants doesn't cover his butt, Like when your smelly friend

(57:59):
used to come over and play video games while you
two lied about your exploits with women. What was his name?
Mana brow Sam Don't. I just loves embarrassing Carl. So
she uses a magic missile and even just looking at it,
she gets a achievement for and then I hit it,

(58:23):
drop it, drop the cart. The crawler's groaned, luring the
cart back into place. I locked the chain while I
secured the lower chain the moment I did, the whole
cart shutters shuddered. I felt it. It had worked. He
tries to high five Lena and she says that if
I do that, you will die, and he's like, oh, okay,
she's just a not She won't kill him. He will

(58:46):
experience terrible pain and shit and piss himself. So yeah,
something screamed. Maybe we only got some of it. And
then a voice comes. Now, guys, it's Prepotente the goat,
and I just want to mention again. Audiobook preferable because

(59:11):
he does the scream of the goat, and it is
impossible to get across what this sounds like if you
haven't heard it before. If you've watched thor Love and Thunder,
then you have heard it before, because there's a joke
with a goat in that as well. I know that

(59:31):
movie gets a lot of shit and it was a mess.
Granted that joke did continuously make me laugh though these goats.
If you have never gone on YouTube and looked at
goats screaming, you, guys, it is so fucking wild. It's
hilarious because there are times where you would swear somebody

(59:56):
just got a guy to scream in a stupid way,
and and then they just dubbed it over a video
of a goat opening its mouth. But no, that's what
they said. I've worked on a goat farm and I've
been around many breeds of goats, and they make this
noise and it's just bizarre. I can't if I were

(01:00:18):
to make the noise adequately, I feel like I'd blow
out my mic because you have to, like, I don't
know how this. They had to have edited them in.
He had to have like made the sound backed way
up from the mic for the audiobook, or they had
him do the sound separately and they cut it in
or something. Because there's I'm I just don't want to

(01:00:38):
even try. But it is very funny to me with
it peppered into this conversation and how Carl is just like,
how the fuck do they deal with that? Because it
would be extremely irritating, and Prepotente is just like out
here trying to cut everybody around him down and just

(01:01:01):
start and shit. But the moment that his mom turns
up Miriam and kisses him on the head, he's just like, no,
I want another one. It still hurts, And when she
tells him to apologize, he instantly does. It's so strange.
He doesn't even apologize for threatening them. He says, I'm

(01:01:22):
sorry I wanted to murder you. It's a there's something
different about apologizing for that. It's not I threatened you.
It's like, no, I really genuinely wanted to murder you,
and I'm really sorry about that, which just hits different,
you know what I'm saying. So they take off and

(01:01:44):
for a moment they see that fucking other goat. Black
flames flickered with wisps that drank the light. Three pairs
of human like breasts ran down the monster's underside. It
was the size of a horse. Mordecai had called it
a hell spawn familiar. It made a wet, chittering noise,

(01:02:06):
something I felt deep in my bones. I think that
is the worst part, that wet chittering noise. No thank you.
You could have said a lot of things there, and
you chose that, and I don't like it. I'm on
record thumbs down. I exchanged look with Amani and she

(01:02:29):
shook her head. The bizarre exchange told me all I
needed to know about that group. We needed to stay
the fuck away from them. Honestly, I was a little
surprised by that takeaway, Like they seem like not a
great group. It seems like there'd be a lot to
deal with. But I don't really feel like we need

(01:02:51):
to say though, Like that just seemed like more intense
than I thought was warranted. I don't know, but yeah,
this is just it was a funny moment. And also
the fact that both doughnut and prepotente seems to have
been given like British accents is a strange choice, but
why not. Okay, so we get into this, like I'm

(01:03:19):
trying to figure out exactly what I need to talk
about because there are so many battles going on and
there is such a high level of like volume of
boss or mobs coming at them that like they're killing them,
but then they're leaking blood, and that blood is like

(01:03:40):
burning things out and can injure people. Eventually, Ellie figures
out that she can freeze it, and then once it
like defrosts, it's not caustic anymore. There's all kinds of
like different things happening here with them holding up for
a little while. Then eventually they get onto a train
car and let's see, I sped Despy the paramantark creatures

(01:04:05):
guarding the interest to the employee line, and I knew
that plan was out the window. Mordecai quick question, if
I accidentally some in the war god grow, how long
do I have before he's unsummoned? And Mordecai thinks he's
asking because it's happened. But there's this bit. There are
three types of deity. Summonings avoid all three, and they

(01:04:32):
eventually get to When some poor fool accidentally summons a god,
they are usually pissed about this, and what's worse, they
arrive untethered, which allows them to smash everything in sight.
In my small, short experience, all three scenarios lead to
the summoner's death, even the first. Don't trust deities under
any circumstances. Just stay the fuck away. They may be

(01:04:56):
in vulnerable, but they still bleed, they still feel pain.
And then somebody else adds, I noticed something. They are
soul armor. So when the aliens inhabit the bodies of
the gods, they do so like the intellect hunters, the
scree and the Valtae. The aliens are wearing the gods
like clothes. That means they can, in theory be removed

(01:05:19):
by the successful cast of any spell designed to remove
biological armor, such as take that Shit off and Laundry Day,
you'd first have to defeat that in vulnerability. Plus it
won't hurt the gods, who will revert to their programming.
But if you need a god to do your bidding,
it might be in your best interest to first shed
it of its off world influence. And I will be honest, guys,

(01:05:44):
Normally I can sort of see where Carl's going with
a plan, and I couldn't with this one. I really couldn't.
So eventually we get if I summon him into a
potion vial, he'll be tiny? Is there before I can
summon him again? No, there isn't a cool down, and

(01:06:05):
yes he will be tiny, but he'll be able to
break right out if you can't make a sigil that's
good enough, which you can't. And he hangs up on
Mordecai and this whole thing, you guys, He gets into
the fight with a mantor. The whole way that they
have this setup is to make sure it's not killed,

(01:06:27):
so that Carl has like well, not not killed. But
Karl needs to be able to punch it to do
this triggering thing and it begins to trigger and he
yells out, girl comes. I feel him. It's a whole

(01:06:49):
like religious ecstasy sort of moment for him. Zang ease
the cart forward as Mango and Donuts scrambled past us
getting out of the way. If we couldn't bring him
to the poor, we'd bring the portal to him. This
was dangerous, though, as we had to let go before
he got sucked in. So they're going to try, and

(01:07:09):
like I'm not understanding, we all jumped back just as
the creature's head hit the portal. The timer was at
one second. He got sucked away, and at the moment
he disappeared, I realized with horror he'd let go of
the track with his lower hand and at the same
time wrapped tightly around my foot and he couldn't feel

(01:07:31):
it because of the invulnerability that his foot has. So
Carl is getting sucked through the portal. Also, this is
not part of the plan. This blows. I do not
understand the potion bottle question in relationship to this. I
don't know if that was just like an example, because

(01:07:54):
it feels like it's just the portal and why do
we want grol out here? And I don't like. I
don't know why, why we're doing it this way? Why
did you Why couldn't you just send him through the portal?
Why do you want girl going? Also, I just I
don't know. I will find out very shortly, so I'm

(01:08:16):
going to wrap this up. I'm over time, but only
ten minutes, which is better than last time. Thank you
guys again for hanging out with me. I appreciate you all,
and until next time to the Loo motherfuckers. That was

(01:08:56):
an Unspoiled Network podcast two