Latest / The Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted / The History of The Blood Sultanate (Chapter 8)

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The History of The Blood Sultanate (Chapter 8) · The Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted

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Hello, and this is the Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted.
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We are a married couple from Atlanta with boring
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day jobs. We have been together 12 years, and
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we usually create a lot of weird performance
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art to entertain people. But we are trying our
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hand at having a podcast because we have had
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an obsession lately, and that obsession is Dungeon
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Crawler Carl. This is a spoilers podcast, and
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we will be discussing plot points from all seven
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Dungeon Crawler Carl books. You should not start
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this podcast until you have finished book seven.
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We will not be discussing anything from Patreon
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or the Pineapple Cabaret. There are spoilers
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from this point forward. Be warned. Donut is
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very disappointed when she finds out that Louie
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and Juicebox are getting married. And it sounds
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like it is going to be a quick elopement rather
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than a big to -do. And Donut does love her big
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to -dos. Maybe she should stop and try to figure
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out if NPCs or changelings have their own wedding
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customs before she gets too far into the planning.
1:05
Yes, she absolutely should. And I always find
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it amusing when Donut points out of, you know
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how much I love my big to -dos, how much I hate
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tassels, as though these are already established
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facts that have been brought up before. Yeah,
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well, she has big plans for this quick elopement,
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including... Singing and having Mongo as a ring
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bearer. And she does plan to sing Don't Look
1:31
Back in Anger by Oasis. And as long as there
1:34
isn't a Sally there, it's going to be OK. Sally
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is mentioned several times in that song, but
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it seems to be a breakup song. It does. And I'm
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going to go ahead and get myself canceled here.
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I am not a big Oasis fan. And I thought I hadn't
1:49
heard this song, but when I listened to it on
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YouTube and read the lyrics, I actually had.
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And it seems like the singer is breaking up with
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his girlfriend and maybe has another girlfriend
2:00
lined up or that they're breaking up to go on
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tour with their band. But either way, it doesn't
2:07
seem super appropriate for a wedding. But Oasis
2:09
does do Wonderwall, which is arguably one of
2:14
the most beloved songs of all time. Yeah, that
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doesn't mean all individuals have to love it,
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although it does have some comedic value and
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I feel like everyone has a Wonderwall story that's
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pretty funny. Yeah, I mean, we have a pretty
2:26
fantastic Wonderwall story of being at an event
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and we thought everyone in this large group of
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people were singing the song, but it turns out
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it was just... our group of friends, and we were
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just being so loud we didn't realize nobody else
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was singing. Jonah says that she promised Carl
2:43
would be wearing pants and shoes, and she asked
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if Carl has shoes in his inventory. He definitely
2:49
does, or at least he has at some point. Maestro
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gave him some shoes. They were kind of like a
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fuck you gift. Yeah, and he had those red boots
2:59
that Splash Zone was wearing, so he's had shoes,
3:04
he's had pants, but... Because of his buffs from
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his boxers and all of his bare feet buffs that
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he has, he's just never going to end up getting
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to wear pants or shoes. Well, he definitely does
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have a kilt. He does, but also he still wouldn't
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be able to wear that all the time. No, but just
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for the wedding. He could put it on for the wedding,
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and hopefully someone can play those bagpipes.
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So they're going to be following Arieff through
3:28
the city and Carl tells Donut to put on her sunglasses
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because there's probably other changelings around
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and he wants her to be able to keep track of
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them just like they did on the fifth floor. And
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Carl still seems to have a lot of distrust or
3:44
I guess a healthy level of distrust of the NPC
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team. I think that's fair because we learned
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several times later in this book that Juicebox
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also has a healthy distrust of him. So I think
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that's fair. Yeah, she definitely does. And,
3:57
you know, we do learn that she has a lot of her
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own plans and kind of secret things that she's
4:03
doing that the crawlers aren't aware of. But,
4:07
I mean, you can say the same thing about Carl.
4:08
In the previous chapter, Donut is like, well,
4:11
does this guy, Arief, know that we killed his
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goddess, Isalte? And Carl's like, yeah, no, and
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they're not going to if you don't say anything.
4:20
Everyone has their secrets. Yeah, well, and I
4:23
want to throw out the disclaimer that Juicebox
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is one of my favorite characters. This is not
4:29
a criticism of her at all. But she does have
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spies within Carl's people. And I do not think
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that Carl has spies within Juicebox's people.
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No. I don't think they really have the ability
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to. I think the closest to that would be... No,
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I don't think so. No. I don't think they have
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the ability to. Pull that off. And this is not
4:49
a dig on Carl, but I do not think that they have
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a way to infiltrate the NPC team and get away
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with it. Yeah, the closest thing would be Brittany
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being the liaison between the Princess Posse
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and Team Retribution. But maybe she's possessed.
5:01
Possibly. But also, Carl does have some changelings
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on their team that don't end up going over to
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Team Retribution, which is going to be talked
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about around Chapter 12 to 14. They do have those
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changelings in their army, but I don't really
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think that they end up using them that much on
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this floor. No, I don't think so. Yeah. Something
5:27
that I've also thought about and I find interesting
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is that the NPC team could theoretically recruit
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crawlers into their army. That just isn't something
5:36
that happens, but it is a possibility. It is.
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I just don't think it makes very much sense from
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a logistical standpoint. No, not at all. So they
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are following area through the city. There is
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a lot of kind of world building that's going
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on. Carl just taking in the beauty and kind of
5:52
everything that's happening in the city. Some
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of it I do think is like interesting from a like
5:57
kind of psychological analytical point of view.
6:00
For sure. Although I did put in my notes. I get
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it. Arrakis is breathtaking. Like a lot of it
6:05
is just world building and they do a lot of breakdown
6:08
of how the different levels are and how many
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levels there are and how they're set up. I think
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it's really just Matt trying to give us a good
6:14
representation of what this city is like, but
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it's not necessarily important to the plot. Well,
6:19
and it is interesting because I'm one of the
6:21
people who, when I read books, it plays out in
6:24
my mind like a movie. And before I started doing
6:27
this chapter -by -chapter analysis for the podcast,
6:31
I definitely wouldn't have said that they just
6:34
go on and on about how beautiful it is because
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I just don't notice it. It just blends into the
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world -building when you're reading it. You're
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doing it as an analytical exercise. It's a little
6:44
different. Yeah. And there was a point in our
6:48
relationship in the last 12 years where Brie
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told me that when she's reading a book, it's
6:52
like basically watching a movie and she's visualizing
6:54
everything in her head. And that was just kind
6:56
of like mind blowing to me because me, especially
6:59
when I'm physically reading, it's such a mechanical
7:00
process that like I'm barely actually visualizing
7:03
what's happening at all. And I found out that
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other people also have that same experience of
7:07
when they're reading, it's like watching a movie.
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I wish that was my experience. That sounds great.
7:12
It is pretty great, although I will say that
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you have a huge advantage listening to the audiobooks
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versus me, and I might actually start doing a
7:20
physical read -through and an audiobook read
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-through before we do this every week, just because
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I cannot pronounce these characters' names to
7:29
save my life. It definitely makes knowing how
7:32
to pronounce things a lot easier. I do think
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I have a pretty... good understanding of being
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able to read something and have a good idea of
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like how it's pronounced and I think part of
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that is because I do speak a different language
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and I have a decent understanding of how words
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are pronounced differently in different languages.
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Yeah definitely. So Carl is still dealing with
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his existential breakdown from a couple of chapters
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ago and he sees a schoolboy walking by and he
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says that everything in Laracos is just as real
8:02
as Havana was. And I think that's kind of interesting
8:05
because I actually think in this moment in time,
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Laracos is more real than Havana was. Because
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Havana was just a memory and it was a projection.
8:16
We know from the chapters about Miss Beatrice
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that we've seen in previous books that there
8:21
are still some people living on the surface.
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So I don't... think that they just moved all
8:28
the survivors out of cities where the crawlers
8:32
were going for floor eight like i don't think
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that they were really on the earth service in
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havana no absolutely not that was just like a
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photocopy and a recording that they took and
8:44
then printed into the dungeon exactly so like
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i would actually say that laracos is more real
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than that in this moment yeah and and because
8:53
of Floor 8 being a memory recording, even though
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there were like the ghosts essentially walking
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around, there was no interacting with them. And
9:00
there was no ability for those people to react
9:04
to anything that was going on. And I think that's
9:07
really a big part of what Matt is getting at
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here is what is real and what isn't real. And
9:14
these NPCs being broken from their cycles and
9:18
waking up. And I think that's just it's a big
9:21
topic in humanity in general is what is real?
9:25
What is life? You know, what is sentience? Definitely.
9:28
And I actually won't eat octopuses because some
9:32
people think that they are sentient and have
9:33
their own cities underground and are just as
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developed as we are. Yeah, I'll still eat them.
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But maybe when we get more information about
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the nature of octopi, maybe my opinions on that
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will change. And I mean, I have friends who won't
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eat pigs because they think they're too smart.
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It is interesting. And I think that this is something
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that is not just within this book that we're
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grappling with, as you said. And Carl is definitely
9:59
really struggling with seeing the destruction
10:02
that he caused by flooding the city. And that's
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highlighted several times. And I do think, though,
10:10
that he wasn't thinking and he wasn't at the
10:13
point where he realized that the NPCs were. just
10:18
as valuable as he was at the point that he flooded
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the city. Well, he still doesn't hold the opinion
10:25
that they're just as important. And the reason
10:27
I say that is because in the next chapter, when
10:31
they're kind of having the back and forth between
10:33
Louis not wanting to marry Juicebox, but, you
10:37
know, maybe it's important. And Carl has the
10:39
line of saying she's still just a damn NPC. I
10:43
will say that I think that they are kind of uneven.
10:48
about that because they make a lot of very risky
10:51
decisions with Mongo's safety in mind. He is
10:56
just a damn NPC. I know the fans don't like to
10:58
hear that, but it's true. And Matt regularly
11:01
antagonizes the fans of he will kill Mongo if
11:05
expletive. Yeah, but he has this line here where
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he says. This thought was not a welcome one,
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especially in context of what we'd already done
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to this place, to these people. And that's just
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showing the guilt that he has because when he
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flooded the city, it was just a means to an end
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of hurting the factions and hurting the powers
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that be, but now seeing what he actually did.
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And I will say in his defense that the NPCs in
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Juicebox don't seem mad at him about it. They
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seem pretty supportive that he did what he had
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to do. Well, Juicebox definitely, but it seems
11:40
like she didn't. really tell any of the NPCs
11:42
that this was Carl's fault. I imagine maybe some
11:44
of the people in her inner circle are aware,
11:47
but maybe Arief here would have a bit of a different
11:50
feeling towards Carl if he knew that he's responsible
11:53
for their city being flooded. Maybe he has. Yeah.
11:57
As they are walking through the city, they are
11:59
still recruiting people into their army and they're
12:02
making people sergeant first class so that they
12:05
can help recruit others as well. Right. And that's
12:07
super important just to kind of help them expedite
12:09
the process of recruiting people because they
12:12
need to have everyone recruited by the end of
12:14
the ceasefire. So there's 66 levels roughly and
12:18
the numbers start from the bottom and go up and
12:21
different levels are different kind of development
12:23
areas or different neighborhoods. Arieff says
12:27
50 is for the fancy folk and that he went to
12:30
a play that he didn't understand a word of in
12:32
level 50. Then he says the Piccadilly Theater
12:34
is on level 9 and that is more for the common
12:38
folks. But he also says that it did get drained
12:42
by his uncle after the flooding, but the balcony
12:44
is still filled with jellyfish. Seems like they've
12:47
had a bit of a hard time getting rid of and disposing
12:51
of the corpses of these jellyfish and sharks
12:54
and such. I guess that it's something that they
12:57
would have to do manually, although I don't know
12:58
why they don't just have a good time having a
13:00
lot of seafood. Yeah, I mean, definitely Mongo
13:02
and Rand like sushi if they need volunteers.
13:05
But they said that the water got up to level
13:09
39 and that the NPCs were trying to fix the flooding
13:13
until Juicebox woke them up and explained that
13:16
it was actually benefiting them. Yeah, and so
13:19
it like drained down to 29 pretty fast and then
13:22
they were up to 15 for a bit. Then they did end
13:26
up draining it down just to level three, which
13:28
covered the highest tower of the castle. And
13:31
that's basically just like helping with their
13:33
defenses. Anybody who wants to take the castle
13:34
is going to have to learn how to swim. I would
13:37
imagine, I know the crawlers probably still have
13:39
some water breathing scrolls, but maybe the out
13:42
of dungeon factions don't have those water breathing
13:45
scrolls. So that would make things harder for
13:47
them unless they had Kuatine in here, which they
13:49
don't. Well, I mean, they would have to have
13:51
a lot if they're trying to take the castle with
13:52
like a hundred people. or 1 ,000 or however many.
13:55
I do wonder how many people kind of end up when
13:59
there's just the last two teams trying to storm
14:01
the Rakos. I mean, we don't know. Not specified
14:04
in any way. I was thinking, like, why do they
14:07
not have it flooded higher than just the tippy
14:10
top of the castle? And that actually is covered
14:14
later in the chapter where the Desperado Club
14:17
is on floor four, so it is important for them
14:21
to have that open. Yeah, definitely. And they
14:23
do say that they have been making their own preparations
14:27
and that they have traps on the ramps and they're
14:31
on every other ramp. Yeah. So if the enemy teams
14:35
come down and they're not aware of that and they're
14:37
not looking out for traps, they're going to have
14:38
a hard time there. So Carl ends up asking Ariath,
14:41
like, why don't the teams just jump down into
14:44
Laracos and, you know, kind of skip going through
14:47
all the floors? And he tells Carl that there
14:50
was another season where it was just the orcs
14:53
and the reavers left and the reavers jumped down
14:55
using feather fall potions or fall potions. So
14:59
this is a tactic that's been employed. But he
15:03
tells Carl that that's not going to work this
15:05
season because they have the city defenses set
15:07
up. And with there never being an NPC team before,
15:10
I guess that just made taking the city a lot
15:12
easier. Yeah, definitely. Because the NPCs weren't
15:16
trying to defend the city before. Because they
15:19
weren't woken up to what was going on. And Carl
15:22
is like, you remember other seasons too? And
15:25
Arieff tells him that he doesn't remember other
15:28
seasons, but a lot of NPCs do. Like his uncle
15:31
remembers dozens of seasons, but they think that
15:35
some of the NPCs are new, whereas others have
15:39
been recycled over time. Well, and if they die,
15:42
they do not come back. Some NPCs can come back,
15:45
but most... don't seem to which I thought that
15:48
that's not how the dungeon worked I thought that
15:51
they had like a lot of NPCs were reused season
15:55
after season well being reused season after season
15:58
is different if you live through the end of the
16:00
season rather than if you die so like basically
16:04
let's say you have a dwarf whose job is guarding
16:09
the castle of Loracos And he's in Fraction Wars.
16:12
Maybe he like stabbed someone as he goes by,
16:14
but like he doesn't take any damage. He's not
16:16
really involved. So he would come back and be
16:20
reused for another season. But then if you have
16:23
someone who is stabbed in the face, then that
16:26
person dies and they do not come back, is what
16:29
they're saying here in this chapter. Right. I
16:31
do remember back during the Iron Tangle and they
16:34
had the, I forget her name, the kind of fire.
16:38
demon lady who's powering the train and they're
16:41
able to actually wake her up and she has memory
16:44
or knowledge of past iterations of herself but
16:47
there are npcs that don't die and can keep coming
16:52
back like growler gary who they have to kill
16:54
a bunch of times during the iron tangle but he's
16:58
like a special kind of npc that's locked to a
17:00
certain area and he's just going to regenerate
17:03
every time I have other comments to add to this,
17:06
but they are related to the Pineapple Cabaret.
17:09
And we are going to have to figure out something
17:11
about the Pineapple Cabaret soon. Because the
17:15
more I go back and reread, the more it ties into
17:17
other stuff. Yeah, it's definitely, like Matt
17:20
says, it's a standalone story that you don't
17:22
have to know everything else to follow along.
17:24
There are a lot of tie -ins, and I think that
17:27
reading the Pineapple Cabaret adds so much more
17:30
color and depth. to the existing books. And yeah,
17:35
I do want to keep those exclusive to people who
17:37
bought the books. But for our purposes of making
17:41
this podcast, like we're going to have to think
17:43
on that and try to figure out something more
17:44
because it is becoming impossible to not talk
17:47
about it. And it is completely impossible to
17:50
talk about book eight without talking about the
17:52
pineapple cabaret. Right. And then Carl does
17:55
make a comment that had been. what, about a month
17:59
since Juicebox had made it down to this floor.
18:01
And I did actually go and do some research on
18:04
this to kind of get a timeline. The Faction Wars
18:07
floor opens up after the dungeon has been open
18:10
for 11 days at the end of the second floor. Juicebox
18:14
gets sent to the ninth floor at the end of the
18:17
fifth floor. By that point, the dungeon had been
18:20
open for about 44 days. The Changelings gets
18:23
sent to the ninth floor at the end of the sixth
18:25
floor. and the dungeon had been open 61 days
18:28
at that point. The crawlers arrived at the 9th
18:32
floor after roughly 81 days of the dungeon being
18:35
open. The timeline is a little bit difficult
18:39
because some of the floors ended a little early,
18:41
the 7th floor was skipped entirely, and on the
18:44
8th floor everyone went down early. Because of
18:48
this, there's some times of stasis and wasted
18:51
time, but the general consensus is that Warrant
18:55
isn't going to let there be dead airtime because
18:57
that's going to hurt their finances and how much
18:59
money they make. So with all of this being said,
19:03
the Out of Dungeon factions have roughly 70 days
19:06
to prepare for Faction Wars after it opens up
19:09
at the end of the second floor. And Juicebox
19:11
has had roughly 26 days to prepare since she
19:16
arrived to the ninth floor. Yeah, so like, for
19:19
example, we know that Carl was gone for four
19:22
days at some point. So like, I think as far as
19:24
making content, I think they would be interviewing
19:27
people from the dream, the madness, for example,
19:31
kind of like our reality TV to build that content.
19:34
Well, but Carl was gone, but that doesn't mean
19:37
that like other crawlers were still doing things
19:40
because when he was gone for several days, like
19:42
he came back and people were like, oh my God,
19:43
thank God you're finally here. So much has happened.
19:45
Let's see. Area F goes on to explain that some
19:48
people understand what's happening. But some
19:52
people don't as far as past iterations, past
19:55
seasons, etc. He said that some patrons of certain
19:58
establishments don't understand. I'm guessing
20:00
he probably means like the patrons of the Desperado
20:03
Club who are just kind of blank canvases. Yeah,
20:07
that would make sense. I mean, I think that some
20:11
of them wouldn't really have a lot of context
20:14
depending upon how much backstory they were given.
20:16
So like Arieff clearly has someone that he believes
20:19
is his brother that he was. programmed to believe
20:22
that for the game but you know i think that if
20:24
people were just kind of created as more one
20:27
-offs and they don't have those other family
20:30
members to ground them that it would be harder
20:33
to understand right or someone who's like entire
20:35
scope is just you know running a shop let's see
20:39
and areaf does make a note here when talking
20:42
about the different npcs that the hands of the
20:44
outworlders are everywhere if you know where
20:46
to look i'm not really sure what he's getting
20:49
at there I think what he means is that, and this
20:53
is like kind of going back to the main theme
20:55
of the book of oppression. I think he can see
20:58
where things were created to cater to the outworlders
21:01
and not to the NPCs. And that makes a lot of
21:04
sense. I would imagine certain things just don't
21:06
make sense to them because of that. But I think
21:09
now that they're woken up, they can start seeing
21:10
where things don't really make sense and like
21:12
start wondering about it. Yeah, I know that there's
21:15
certainly other works of media and literature
21:18
out there. where that point is hammered home.
21:21
So the next thing that happens here is Arya pulls
21:25
out his sword and kind of starts flinging it
21:27
around and everyone backs up and is a little
21:29
scared and doesn't know what's happening. And
21:30
I noticed this was mentioned here and we talked
21:34
about last episode when Rend was riding Mongo
21:36
and we were like, how is he getting on his back?
21:38
And they tell us exactly how that's happening.
21:41
So he falls off of Mongo and then Dona nudges
21:44
him forward with her head, rolling him onto Mongo's
21:47
tail. Then Mongo lifts his tail up and Grind
21:50
rolled down onto Mongo's back. So that's exactly
21:54
what's happening. We guessed it was either from
21:57
the front or coming up on his tail. So super
21:59
cute. What else we got? Gareth wants revenge
22:02
against Architect Houston, who killed his brother.
22:05
His brother was caught sabotaging forifications
22:08
and he was tortured until Juicebox did a mercy
22:12
kill on the door. Yeah, so she had to kind of
22:15
infiltrate and go in there just to put him out
22:17
of his misery, which is kind of juice boxed because
22:21
there is some risk there. But that just shows
22:24
again, you know, to juice box to these NPCs,
22:28
they are real. They view themselves just as real
22:32
as the crawlers think about themselves. And it
22:36
says that nobody has been able to get to Architect
22:38
Houston or his operating theater, but that Juicebox
22:42
did decapitate one of the surgeons, which is
22:46
the guy that she decapitated during the meeting.
22:48
Right. Yep. Yep. Carl asks Arieff how much damage
22:51
they were able to do to each of the factions.
22:53
And Arieff says that they were able to infiltrate
22:55
the inner circle of all of the factions except
22:57
the Nagas. And then as Arieff had noted, they
23:00
were not able to get into the operating theater
23:03
of the madness of. architect houston which they
23:07
are visceroys there is a kind of a funny throwaway
23:10
line here from donut that uh if she had a face
23:13
like them she would be wearing a mask too yeah
23:15
so for the most part the rest of this chapter
23:18
is a pretty hardcore info dump about the naga
23:20
yes and this is where we get to learn about the
23:23
royal breeding program of the naga as we alluded
23:26
to at the end of the last episode delightful
23:29
absolutely so the naga are not very good at faction
23:33
wars They are assassins, not traditional warriors.
23:37
Arief says, it is said theirs is a court of assassins,
23:40
not warriors. If they are to win, it is with
23:42
a poison blade in the dark, not with the marching
23:45
of a thousand feet. So it says that no one has
23:48
ever seen the sepsis whore and that even Juicebox
23:53
is not brave enough to try to sneak into their
23:56
throne room. She is not. And I do think that
23:58
that's interesting because... We do find out
24:01
later in the book that Juicebox actually has
24:03
more spies in places than anybody else is really
24:07
aware of. But I think that she genuinely doesn't
24:10
know what the Naga are up to or how they're able
24:13
to hide and get away every season. And I think
24:16
part of that is because of the trick that they
24:20
use with the god that they worship and sneaking
24:24
away into his chamber. And I don't think that...
24:26
juicebox would have that level of knowledge about
24:29
the different gods in the game even though she
24:31
is aware of their existence now and it took a
24:33
lot of work to find out what was going on there
24:37
thank god for rosetta yeah but naga are confusing
24:42
because you have the in -game myths that are
24:47
created about them and then you also have the
24:50
historical story of their people which has been
24:54
passed down over millennia. And it's kind of
24:58
unclear how much of it is urban legend and how
25:01
much of it is true. Right. Well, and the knowledge
25:03
that we get of this is from a former cookbook
25:07
author, Drachia, and it's all from like his notes.
25:10
And then Carl is relaying that information to
25:12
us. So basically in the game, they're LARPing
25:16
the Sultana version of their history. And basically
25:20
it's just a marketing ploy to boost tourism to
25:24
their home planet. Yes, right now they have a
25:26
constitutional monarchy. They have a constitution.
25:30
They have a prime minister. They have parliament,
25:32
which is interesting considering some of the
25:34
things that happen later. So they still have
25:37
a king, but historically they had the sultanate.
25:41
But basically nowadays, the person who plays
25:44
in game is one of the royal princesses who plays
25:47
as the sepsis whore. And I think it's interesting.
25:51
So their government is basically set up like
25:52
the United Kingdom. In some ways, yeah. Yeah.
25:55
So the princess is the daughter of the current
25:59
king. And we're going to talk about that a little
26:01
bit more here in a minute. Naga used to be known
26:04
as like explorers, shipbuilders, conquerors.
26:07
But nowadays they're kind of considered to just
26:09
be mostly humble and like wanting to keep to
26:10
themselves. They do have like a pretty vast,
26:14
I guess, like network of planets and they call
26:17
them like habitats and such. But like they're
26:19
basically just treated as cheap labor to work
26:22
in the shipyards that they used to own. But now
26:23
other people own these shipyards. Yeah. And basically
26:27
the real world in our real world equivalent to
26:31
that is like the U .S. having a lot of factories
26:33
in Asia. Right. OK, so now we're getting to the
26:37
actual breeding program. And this is a mess in
26:42
every sense of the word. It's a little convoluted.
26:46
So in the old days, the sultana was the eldest
26:49
half -sister of the sultan, and she would be
26:52
mother to the future generation of the royal
26:54
family. She would be bred until she gave birth
26:57
to either 99 sons or 198 daughters. If she has
27:02
99 sons first, she gets murdered, and then the
27:06
99 sons start fighting and killing each other,
27:09
and then the winner gets castrated. Yeah, I cannot
27:12
understand that in any way, shape, or form. How
27:14
is that winning? I don't know. And then, like,
27:17
the offspring or what have you, like, how the
27:22
lines keep going, it's confusing. The... No,
27:26
sorry. The other... They're not trying to kill
27:28
each other. But the remaining winner gets castrated
27:31
and he becomes the sultan. And then the remaining
27:34
98 would take turns knocking up the oldest sister
27:38
until... It does say that they start fighting.
27:42
So, like, wouldn't some of them get killed? Like...
27:45
I guess just why I'm struggling to understand
27:47
is like, where is the winning and losing in this
27:49
situation? Maybe they have some kind of games
27:52
or jousting or who knows? Maybe it's a hot dog
27:55
eating contest. I don't know. I mean, Carl says
27:58
this is confusing and it's based on Drakia's
28:00
notes and Drakia was getting his information
28:03
from in dungeon history and knowledge. And it
28:07
also says that Dracula hates the Naga, so he's
28:09
probably not a reliable narrator. He may not
28:12
be, but it is messed up, so the remaining 98
28:14
brothers take turns knocking up the oldest sister.
28:17
Also, they say that gender of Nagas can't be
28:20
determined for a while, so that just makes things
28:21
more confusing to keep track of. But if the Sultana
28:25
gives birth to 198 daughters, she becomes the
28:28
leader, and then all of the male siblings are
28:30
executed. And it says that that's only happened
28:32
once and it's suspected that she poisoned most
28:36
of her sons, which is how she was able to win,
28:39
which that does make sense with the information
28:41
we were given earlier in the chapter about them
28:44
being mostly poisoners. Right. But what I don't
28:47
understand is like, it doesn't say like the sons
28:50
have to make it to adulthood. Just that they
28:52
get born. Yeah. So if they were born and then
28:55
they were like later poisoned, wouldn't that
28:57
still count towards the 99? I suppose. It's confusing.
29:02
Well, and this is kind of a legend and it's kind
29:05
of an urban legend. So, like, who knows what's
29:08
gotten lost through the millennia about how this
29:10
would actually work. Well, and this could also
29:12
just be what the Naga want people to think about
29:14
their history because it's interesting and it's
29:16
brutal. And, oh, look at this, this, you know,
29:19
whole shebang that we're putting together to
29:21
entice you. However, the only time that 198 daughters
29:26
were born first. That was when the term sepsis
29:30
whore came about. She was labeled as the sepsis
29:33
whore. And then in the game, that is who the
29:36
current princess is LARPing as. And she has never
29:41
been killed. She has never been in the throne
29:44
room when it got taken. And then her and like
29:47
her royal guard would disappear and then reappear
29:51
at the end of the floor laughing and having a
29:53
great time. Speaking of LARPing, I imagine there
29:55
is some super cringe cosplaying that is part
29:59
of that Naga tourism. I kind of have this vision
30:02
in my head of medieval times. Yeah. And you go
30:06
and you sit in a big stadium and you have food
30:10
and drinks and you yell as Naga are dressed up
30:14
in costumes pretending to bang their sister.
30:17
It'd be more like Westworld, which Westworld
30:20
and Dungeon Crawler Carl are... Definitely overlapping
30:24
hugely in themes. Interesting to think about.
30:27
I would assume it's more along the lines of Westworld
30:29
just because of the level of technology that
30:30
they have. And so Carl does note that the crown
30:34
princess, the sepsis whore, she has both in -game
30:39
experience with Faction Wars and then she has
30:41
out -of -dungeon experience in the military.
30:43
So she's not an idiot by any regard. And that
30:47
she and her crew know exactly who Carl is. They
30:50
know exactly how important it is. to him and
30:53
Donut to kill them. So he kind of has this thought
30:55
of like, are they going to keep up this charade,
30:57
this in -game LARPing? Are they going to change
31:00
tactics? It's just going to make things even
31:03
more difficult for the task that they have ahead
31:06
of them, even more difficult than it would have
31:08
been in previous seasons just for the regular
31:11
Faction Wars participants to take them out. With
31:13
all of that said, the breakdown of how the Blood
31:17
Sultanate worked and the breeding programs and
31:20
their lineage and everything. Ultimately, none
31:22
of that actually matters. So I think that's why
31:25
it is kind of confusing. For sure. But they are
31:28
still walking through the city when they're getting
31:31
all this information. And I think some of it
31:33
Carl had before. And he said that some of it
31:35
came from Drakia and some of it came from Mordecai.
31:38
But they do meet Juergen, who is a crawler who
31:41
got saved on the eighth floor. And he kisses
31:44
Carl for saving him. I hope he doesn't get mono.
31:48
Carl gets kissed a lot in the next few chapters.
31:51
It is true. But we are going to meet Juergen
31:55
several times going forward. So definitely remember
31:57
that name. And here we see like Carl notes that
32:01
the NPCs are cleaning up the city. There's a
32:03
play that they're preparing for. And there's
32:05
this like big frog mouth statue that the waterfall
32:09
is falling into. And there's something lodged
32:11
in it. And they're trying to clean it up. They're
32:13
trying to get that thing out. And it's just.
32:15
noted multiple times in these chapters that the
32:17
NPCs are trying to clean up the city and they're
32:19
even fixing things like statues and and such
32:22
that like are superficial but they have a lot
32:25
of pride in their city well and they know it's
32:27
stupid and they know it's fruitless but it still
32:29
matters to them and they have a sign out for
32:32
one of the plays it says one night only session
32:36
of love final show before we all die balcony
32:38
is still closed due to jellyfish infestation
32:42
which is what Arif was talking about earlier
32:45
Right. I wonder if the NPCs in previous seasons
32:49
put any effort into fixing their city or maybe
32:53
they're doing that now because they are awakened
32:55
and they do have like a level of like consciousness
32:59
that they didn't have before. It is possible.
33:02
Like I know in previous seasons, once the fighting
33:03
started, it would just hide out and maybe towards
33:06
the end they would start fighting back. Yeah,
33:08
I don't know. I don't think there's a clear answer
33:10
to that. But it says a lot of the shops are ruined,
33:13
but some of the guilds are still open, which
33:16
we'll be going into one of the guilds later in
33:17
the book. We will. That guild, I believe, is
33:21
a hidden guild inside of the Desperado Club.
33:24
It's kind of funny. So there's some like troops
33:28
marching by and they're supposed to be in formation.
33:30
But Carl's like that formation isn't very tight.
33:33
A little judgy about it. He is very judgy about
33:36
it. And I just do not know if that matters for
33:39
the kind of fighting that they're doing. No,
33:41
but it's because of his military background that
33:44
he has. No, for sure. But it's very funny. Coast
33:48
Guard, not Navy. Nobody can tell the difference.
33:51
Make it down to the fourth floor, which is just
33:53
above where the standing water is at the tippy
33:56
top of the castle towers. And they are going
33:59
to go into the Desperado Club. There's a sign
34:02
hanging over it that says, Now open club under
34:06
new management. Yeah, the Desperado Club has
34:08
definitely had a lot of struggle with us. between
34:11
the flooding and everything else, and that must
34:15
be exhausting for the poor employees. I think
34:17
that the Desperado Club has had a really hard
34:19
time this season. Lots of damage and bad things
34:23
happened to it, more so than other seasons, presumably,
34:26
and I think definitively. Yeah, Carl's paranoia
34:30
does prove to be valid here, as Donut can tell
34:34
with her glasses that the bartender is a changeling.
34:36
Right, and they... exchange a nervous look with
34:41
each other in the group as they're beckoned to
34:43
follow Arieff down a hallway and deeper into
34:46
the club. Carl and his group follow Arieff through
34:49
the club and down into a hallway and then into
34:52
a back room and we see this NPC whose name is
34:56
Hunger Hammy and he is a gnoll and when I was
35:00
reading this I noticed the alliteration of Hunger
35:03
Hammy and Growler Gary and they are both gnolls.
35:07
Take of that what you will, but that alliteration
35:11
stuck out to me. Yeah, so the gnolls are not
35:13
portrayed as the most attractive species. They're
35:16
kind of like gross old trolls, but this one starts
35:20
kissing Louie pretty passionately. Jumps up on
35:22
the desk, leaps at Louie, and starts kissing
35:25
him furiously on the lips. That's where the chapter
35:28
ends. At this point, there's still about 54 hours
35:31
left in the ceasefire. Which is just crazy. All
35:35
of this has happened and only six hours have
35:37
passed, roughly. It doesn't actually say right
35:41
here. That's just my estimation. So join us next
35:43
week when we find out if Donut gets to sing inappropriate
35:46
Oasis songs at Louie and Juicebox's wedding.
35:49
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35:51
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