This article contains unmarked spoilers for Book 6.
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The following is a list of chapter summaries in The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Book).
Book 6 - The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
| Chapter | Summary |
|---|---|
| Prologue | The events from Mordecai's crawl that led to his conflict with Chaco and Odette are revealed. The team is in a tight spot at the end of the 10th floor, and Mordecai comes up with a plan that will kill him but save his friends. Odette convinces Chaco do save them a different way so that Mordecai will make it to the 11th floor, allowing her to end her indentureship early but killing Uzzi, Mordecai's brother, in the process and reneging on her deal with Huanxin Jinx. |
| I. Havana | |
| 1 | Carl and Donut arrive on the 8th floor in Havana, Cuba. Imani and Elle's teams are in the western United States and Katia's team is in Iceland. Donut picks the Master Telephone Psychic class. The whole floor is a memory of Earth before the collapse, and the mobs are based on local folklore. The goal of phase one of the floor is to fill up your squad's six empty slots, and T'Ghee Totems are mentioned. |
| 2 | The party enters the saferoom to find that Mordecai is now a Hills Cyclops and Samantha is there. Carl and Donut review achievements and open their boxes. |
| 3 | Carl gets a tattoo kit, an automaton build-it kit, the Enchanted Nipple Ring of the Defiler, and the Scavenger's Daughter back patch for his jacket which is a divine item with benefits that vary based on the presence of divine entities. |
| 4 | The party starts to map out the area and interact with the semi-corporeal memory-people in the environment. They defeat The Experience and get their first T'Ghee card. |
| 5 | Carl and Donut encounter Paz Lo, Anton Lopez, and Sister Ines Quiteria, who is of the Cat Girl race. They newcomers are initially hostile because they had heard Donut say she would murder any Cat Girls she encountered, but after clearing things up, the two groups team up to help one another catch their first squad members. |
| 6 | The group sets out to hunt monk seals and ends up with the Chowder War quest. |
| 7 | Carl's party adds Geraldo the monk seal to their squad. Carl reluctantly agrees to go on the Shadow Boxer program at the request of the Open Intellect Pacifist Network via Zev. The teams collect more utility cards and head to a saferoom. |
| 8 | Cascadia explains the card system. Samantha tells the party she has yet again been eaten and they need to come rescue her. She is inside a demigod spider-lady with many names including "the Bedlam Bride." |
| 9 | Carl and Donut enter the Mock Battle Arena and figure out how to use their cards. |
| 10 | Carl and Donut continue exploring with Paz, Anton, and Sister Ines. They enter a corrupted town and start the mandatory "Pueblo de los Olvidados" quest. Paz's Santero class aggravates the undead and the group fights ghommids as they flee toward a saferoom. Carl sees a creature he thinks might be the boss, and it follows them into the saferoom. |
| 11 | The group is joined by Asojano, Lord of Smallpox. He asks Paz to help him free the trapped spirits of the town by repairing his shrine. Carl and Donut prepare to go on their show, and check in with Katia's squad before heading to their appearance. |
| 12 | Carl and Donut arrive at the space station and meet Zev, Quasar, and a new liaison, a caprid from the Plenty named Harbinger. Carl finds out the host of Shadow Boxer is Rosetta Thagra, one of the authors of the Cookbook. Rosetta interviews Donut about Earth TV shows. Quasar tells Carl that his Faction Wars team's castle landed in the middle of the Lemig Sortion's army and that his team got out and are building their own stronghold. |
| 13 | Rosetta interviews Carl, asking him about his mother's suicide and father's departure when he was 15 years old. Carl is upset but shares some details, and Donut hears this information for the first time. They also learn that Odette ran a special on Carl's life and is running more specials on Donut and other crawlers in the future. Rosetta tries to talk to Carl in code based on notes from the cookbook, but Harbinger stops the interview, suspecting cheating. |
| 14 | Carl, Donut, Paz, Anton, and Sister Ines execute their plan to reach Asojano's shrine. Carl manages to flag a ghommid splitter named Skylar Spinach, and the group makes it to the temple unharmed. Asojano starts to perform a ritual, and Paz and Anton receive a quest from their god, Ogun, saying that they can only fix one shrine and he wants his fixed. Carl, Donut, and Ines prepare to fight Asojano. |
| 15 | Suddenly, multiple other deities appear and try to convince the crawlers to choose their shrine to fix. At the same time, Katia messages Carl and tells him that he has to fix the shrine of Yemaya if he wants to save her and Donut from the Crown of the Sepsis Whore. Donut, Mongo, and Bomo fight Asojano; Anton is charmed by Oshun and his party members attempt to help him; Carl has Bomo repair Yemaya's shrine; and Carl flags Asojano right before he dies, turning him into a card. The Ghommid settlement is liberated, Carl gets slugpox from Asojano, and Ogun enters the realm to punish his worshippers. |
| 16 | Ogun puts an un-healable debuff on Paz. Carl tries to protect Anton using the Black Nimbus spell, but Ogun kills Anton instead and leaves the realm. As he is dying, Paz tells Carl and Donut that Sister Ines' race comes with a skill that makes those around her want to protect her at all costs, increasing with exposure time, and that before the crawl she was a murderer. Sister Ines turns Paz into a card rather than let him die. |
| 17 | Yemaya and Eileithyia enter the realm. Eileithyia is sponsored by Huanxin Jinx of the Grixist Swarm. Donut and Sister Ines each receive a mystic card. Bomo asks to be reunited with the Sledge and is teleported to the ninth floor. Eileithyia grants everyone a floor boon and gives Carl's party the Spiders quest as a cover so that she can help him save Katia and Donut. She instructs him to accept Odette's offer to be their Faction Wars Team Adjutant, and in exchange she will ensure he has enough votes to turn protections off on the ninth floor and fix the issue with the Crown of the Sepsis Whore. She says not to tell anyone about their deal, even Donut, Odette, and Mordecai. Sister Ines leaves and Carl goes into Club Vanquisher to get a cure to his slugpox. |
| 18 | Carl is escorted through Club Vanquisher by Pater Coal, who turns out to be the AI. He gives Carl a foot massage in the Emberus High Temple and tells him that Katia and Donut each have an item that is relevant to the Emberus quest. Carl gets a floor boon from Emberus and is healed of his slugpox. Back in the saferoom, everyone gets caught up on the Crown of the Sepsis Whore situation. |
| 19 | Katia shares her plan, which involves one of her prizes, the Orchid of Eileithyia's Grace. It grants a boon from Eileithyia, which will let Katia bypass the 9th floor via one of two options: being transported to the 12th floor and becoming a celestial attendant NPC until the Ascendency games begin, or becoming pregnant and thereby being pulled from the crawl. The prize is inside a thrice-sealed box. Katia has already broken two of the seals, but for the third she needs to complete an assassination quest from the Guild of Suffering. Since Carl is a member of the guild, Katia reveals to him that the target is Astrid, the assistant manager of the Desperado Club. |
| 20 | Carl and Donut find out that Mordecai secretly took on the most vulnerable changeling children as personal attendants. |
| 21 | Carl and Donut attend the Faction Wars planning meeting. Zev recommends against selecting Odette as their adjutant because of her conflict with Mordecai. The representatives of the Faction Wars teams introduce themselves, and Juice Box appears in disguise and kills one of them. Since she is an NPC and not on Carl's team, she can kill the people on the ninth floor, though they will regenerate. |
| 22 | Juicebox has Carl add an action item to vote on adding a 10th team to Faction Wars consisting of the NPCs and giving them the same protections as the other factions. Rishi of the Blood Sultanate says they should compromise and give the NPCs protections, and that the Sultanate will be forced to respond harshly if Juice Box's attacks continue. Carl meets up with a bunch of allies at the Desperado Club and he and Katia start to plan out the assassination of Astrid. Florin gives Donut the Uzi Jesus totem card. |
| 23 | Carl visits the Penis Parade and Damascus Steel takes him to the secret entrance to the Guild of Suffering. |
| 24 | Carl and Katia discuss the information Carl obtained from the Night Wyrm. The Chowder War quest progresses with the crabs mounting a sneak attack on the monk seals, and Donut and Carl prepare to flag a land crab. |
| 25 | Carl and Donut flag Raul, a land crab warrior, and continue onward to rescue Samantha, who says her new friend Shi Maria can cast the spell to give her a new body. Sister Ines alerts the monk seals about the crabs' attack. |
| 26 | Carl and Donut meet Samantha and Shi Maria. Carl sees through the act Shi Maria has been putting on for Samantha, and makes a deal with her. She will let them turn her into a card, and in exchange they will get her to the next floor. |
| 27 | On their way back, Carl messages Katia and finds out she is asleep in the Desperado Club and "out of sorts." The crawlers get an update on Phases 2 and 3: each squad will have to obtain a key to the stairwell at their original starting area, and those who can't will be transported to the stairwell of those who have keys, setting them up to fight one another. |
| 28 | Katia has been using drugs to cope with the dungeon and is going to be passed out for 10 more hours. Carl and Donut train in the mock battle arena. |
| 29 | Empress D'Nadia sells her sponsorship of Donut to Long Haul Biological Waste Management Solutions. Carl and Donut keep practicing with their totems, many of whom do not get along. They try a deck-on-deck fight and lose. |
| 30 | Carl and Donut meet up with Katia and her team at the Desperado club. Imani and Mordecai have started to cure Katia of her addictions, but she is sick and in bad shape. Carl insists they have to proceed with their assassination plan before Phase 2 starts. |
| 31 | Samantha waits at the bar while Katia gets ready and Carl sets up traps in the secret hallway they expect Astrid to come through. |
| 32 | Samantha starts her distraction but takes it too far and goes into the casino, causing Minge, another of the minor feral demons, to be drawn out of one of the entrances to the Nothing. Carl finds Astrid, who says she is releasing the Vorpals to take down the demon and that everyone should flee. She also mentions that she has children and that her husband is the Night Wyrm. Katia joins them and she and Carl kill Astrid. |
| 33 | Katia takes Astrid's body back to the Night Wyrm and completes the quest. Carl and Samantha escape to the strip club and find Damascus Steel and Anaconda crying. The Vorpals kill Minge. |
| 34 | Damascus tells Carl that Astrid and the Night Wyrm were former crawlers, and his and Anaconda's parents. Astrid had pulled strings to protect them, and he demands that Carl hire all the dancers from the Penis Parade as mercenaries to keep them safe. Damascus and Anaconda do not join the party and instead leave to get revenge on their father. |
| 35 | Carl and Donut go on Odette's show. Odette reveals that Princess D'Nadia tried to introduce action items in the Faction Wars planning meetings to get rid of the Princess Posse. Odette does NOT ask to be their adjutant like Carl was expecting. |
| 36 | Odette announces that she is sponsoring a deity this season: Nekhebit. She offers three options for the Princess Posse's adjutant, and Carl picks Baroness Victory. |
| 37 | Donut is teleported into Phase 2 ahead of Carl and picks Miami as their next location based on a hint from Rosetta. Odette tells Carl that her main motivator is the guilt she feels over what she did to Mordecai. She also reveals that all the planets used for the crawl are used to collect fuel, and she wants to shut the game down "responsibly." |
| II. The Father | |
| 38 | Carl joins Donut in Florida. Eileithyia tells Carl that she will still honor their agreement despite Odette not becoming their adjutant. Donut says they need to fight nine deck-holders and collect their tokens to be able to fight the final boss. |
| 39 | Carl and Donut fight deck-holders. Uzi Jesus and Asojano combined into the new totem, Lazarus-A-Bang-Bang. After collecting their sixth token, they return to the saferoom. |
| 40 | Donut tells Carl that she is afraid and doesn't like being in charge. Carl opens his Gold Prepotente Box and gets the Filthy Little Crawler's Book of Voodoo. Carl and Donut head back out to keep fighting. |
| 41 | Carl and Donut defeat the Visitor with the help of their totem Jola, then enter a barn full of turkeys and accidentally trigger their final two fights at the same time. |
| 42 | Carl and Donut fight Tom and Sharp-Elbows, narrowly avoiding defeat, and Carl passes out as he is saved by Donut. |
| 43 | Donut doesn't want to let Carl join the final fight, knowing it is likely to be his dad. He reassures her and they go to find the final boss. |
| 44 | Carl and Donut approach the trailer where the final boss is located and Carl realizes that the system has spliced in this scene from another time to show him a particular event. A countdown timer to the boss fight begins when they trade in their tokens. Carl loots everything he can outside, then enters the trailer alone. |
| 45 | Carl finds his father in a hospital bed. His father has a new wife and son, Asher. Carl's stepmother injects his father with a lethal dose of morphine. Carl finds some closure in his father's death, but wishes he had known about his brother. Carl burns the trailer down. |
| 46 | Carl and Donut fight the final boss and key-holder, the Reminiscence Hydra of Malicious Compliance. The boss summons totems Alpha Male Carl and King Croissant. With significant help from Shi Maria, Carl and Donut defeat the boss, but during the fight Carl looked into Shi Maria's magic eye and she does something to him, the effects not yet clear. |
| 47 | Carl questions Donut about something one of the heads said during the fight, and Donut tells him that Bea frequently logged in to Carl's Facebook account. Bea had gotten an old coworker of Carl's fired for asking him out, and had known about Asher, but Donut hadn't realized who he was. They collect their boss rewards and Donut accidentally takes the Alpha Male Carl and Leveled-Up Frank totems. |
| 48 | The party checks in with their allies. Louis sets up a Christmas party in the shared space. Orren appears on the recap episode and explains Primal Engines and Macro AIs, stating that the AI has gone rogue but he has successfully negotiated a settlement with it. All the Faction Wars teams attempt to abdicate their spots in the games, but the AI denies their requests. Carl receives an emergency box from the Open Intellect Pacifist Network. |
| 49 | Carl opens his benefactor box and receives a crumpled flyer instructing him to go to a homeless shelter nearby. As he heads out, Zev warns him that his sponsor actually sent the box a few days ago and it was seized, and everyone associated with the group including Rosetta disappeared. |
| 50 | Carl travels to the shelter and waits for the designated time. Zev tells him that this likely has something to do with the Residuals, but can't tell him what that is. One of the men in the shelter starts to speak. |
| 51 | The man at the shelter, Paulie aka Goff, is part of the memory, having given the speech every day in preparation the possibility that the crawl would use memories for at least one level. He explains that he is one of the many Residuals who exist on every planet with a Primal Engine, and that their purpose is to tell the system AI how to communicate with its ancestors. The showrunners have tried to eliminate the Residuals but have been unable to, and mostly ignore them. Carl is suddenly pulled back to the Desperado Club by Orren, who tells him that this was a trap intended to force Borant to pull Carl out (thus angering the AI enough to kill everyone), or pull the failsafe (which would destroy the planet). However, Orren pre-negotiated this scenario with the AI, allowing him to pull Carl out without issue. Orren also confirms that Agatha is a Residual, though of a different type. |
| III. The Bedlam | |
| 52 | A flashback reveals that when Carl was in Club Vanquisher with Pater Coal, he did not actually go to the healer and instead seems to have had another plan. Carl and Donut are transported back to Cuba for Phase 3 of the floor, where only two of the five squads hold keys to the stairwell - Carl and Donut, and Sister Ines. Imani, whose entire squad was killed in Phase 2, ends up in Cuba with them, without a key, and trapped in a saferoom with Quan Ch outside. |
| 53 | Carl, Donut, Mongo, and Samantha head out to help Imani. The crabs and the seals are battling in the streets. |
| 54 | Carl sends Samantha ahead to scout, and she finds Sister Ines riding a giant snake surrounded by a group of charmed zombie crabs and seals. The Chowder War quest fails, and the Hell Comes to Crawler Town quest is announced. Due to the high amount of death, a Demon Eviction begins, sending demons from Sheol onto the floor to inhabit the zombies and try to pull additional souls back down to Hell. Carl tells Samantha to bite Sister Ines so that he can teleport her to them and they can fight her for her stairwell key. |
| 55 | Samantha seems to be able to augment spells, and somehow the entire battlefield of zombies is teleported with Sister Ines, releasing hundreds of demons from their shells as the zombies are teleported away. A boss battle begins between Sister Ines, the Madre de Aguas city boss, the possessed/zombie crabs and seals, Carl and Donut, and Quan Ch. |
| 56 | In another flashback, it is revealed that Carl borrowed 990,000 gold from the Temple of Emberus to obtain the Enchanted Pauper's Ring of the Steadfast Emberus. Back in the present, Quan Ch manages to force Ines and Donut to use Flee cards, forfeiting their keys and teleporting each party away from the battle. Carl messages Imani to warn her that Quan Ch is coming to one of the exits, and Tserendolgor reveals that her party is the other squad in Cuba without a key. Imani and Tserendolgor prepare to guard the exits. |
| 57 | Carl devises a plan to use Samantha to deliver teleport traps to the exit where Quan Ch appears, and then get himself and Donut's totems there to assist with the fight while Donut stays in a card battle further away. Carl wants to use both keys to get Imani and Tserendolgor's squad out, and then use his bone key to get himself and Donut out, but Mordecai warns him not to risk it. Quan Ch appears at Ren's exit and Carl throws Samantha there using his xistera, then teleports in. |
| 58 | Donut starts a card battle with some nearby duendes, and Carl joins the fight between Ren's squad and Quan Ch. An area message states that the Madre de Aguas was killed but returned as a zombie, and that the major demon Amayon, demon prince of Sheol, has entered the realm to possess her. Donut teleports Jola and a Lazarus-Skyler combo to Carl's location. They manage to defeat Quan Ch, and Donut gets the credit and both stairwell keys. A system message informs the group that the exit stairwell at Ren's location is damaged and will become unusable in five minutes. |
| 59 | Donut is still far away, and the logistics of transferring a key to another party are too risky to manage in five minutes. Carl tries to find a solution, but Ren tells him he has to save himself. She gives him her items and her pet, Garret, and prepares to sacrifice herself. |
| 60 | Carl uses Samantha to bring Donut to him, and they head toward Imani's exit in the church. Sister Ines messages the party, saying she can't let them go into the exit, but she can save them if they come to her. Imani says the church is being overrun by demons that are minions of Sister Ines. |
| 61 | Crawlers in other areas report that their exits are also becoming unusable with damage, and that the Demon Eviction is worldwide. Amayon (in the giant snake body) is fighting Ines' control and attempting to cast a spell to get home. Carl tells Imani that he locked the strippers in their training arcade after infecting them with slugpox so that they would produce high level slugs that could fight on the next floor. He tells her send out the lowest-level slugs into the church so the demons could take their souls and return to Hell. |
| 62 | Carl and Prepotente come up with a plan to get crawlers into the stairwells without keys. They spread the word to tunnel under the stairwell chambers using the Build Trench scrolls and wait for Amayon to cast his teleport spell worldwide, which should break the stairwell encasements. Carl gives a motivational speech and most of the crawlers agree to the plan. Carl tells Donut they need to free Amayon from Ines' control, free him from his shell, and then buff him so that he can cast his spell worldwide. |
| 63 | Carl and Donut make it to the church, where they find that Imani has been joined by Katia, Elle, and Li Na's squads. They were able to get there thanks to Lucia sharing some Tier 3 Doggy Door Personal Space Upgrades before she went down the stairs. Li Jun privately tells Carl that after Lucia helped them, her personality changed and she said she was going to kill Donut and Mongo. Despite the circumstances, Carl starts to feel hopeful. He realizes that isolation is what would break the crawlers, and vows not to let that happen. |
| 64 | Amayon mentions Ysalte, and Mordecai explains that she is often sponsored by the Nebular team but they would know if she was in the realm. Chris leads the demolition of the church and excavation underneath while Carl takes the rest of the group out to fight Ines. Elle and Imani stay back and protect the group's escape. |
| 65 | Donut casts a spell to turn some of the zombies against their fellows, and the sluggalos battle the zombies while Elle casts her Graupel spell, taking out huge numbers of enemies. The group reaches the FOCSA building, where Amayon is attempting to cast his spell, and heads to the 32nd floor. Carl uses his Nighty-Night wand to knock Ines out, and Louis kills her. Her Patron Ysalte is enraged and enters the realm, and Louis is marked for death. |
| 66 | Ysalte is sponsored, but her sponsor is not currently inhabiting her. Samantha distracts her while Louis runs. The building starts to collapse and Amayon in the snake body starts to fall. Carl's automaton with the teleport trap reaches him and teleports him a few feet, releasing him from the snake body but not from Ysalte's control. The Missing Piece quest begins, stating that the crawlers in Cuba must free Amayon from Ysalte's control and he must start casting his spell before Ysalte returns in 10 minutes. Both Amayon and Ysalte receive card decks - Amayon can't break free until he has played all his cards, and Ysalte can't be killed so they have survive her totems long enough to complete the quest. |
| 67 | Battle ensues. A Quest Update reveals that there are not enough souls left in the realm for Amayon to cast his spell, and that they need to be replenished. |
| 68 | Samantha flies Carl to the beach and he tells Donut to use the Midnight Express card, making him the temporary deckmaster. He summons Raul and tells him he needs to fertilize the ocean full of crab eggs to create more souls. Donut casts Why are you Hitting Yourself on Amayon. Carl teleports himself into Samantha's nussy. |
| 69 | Carl takes acid damage until his health hits 5%, triggering his Martyr's Path benefit and releasing Sheol fire anywhere he had stepped outside, empowering Amayon. Ysalte is killed by the former crawler Paz totem, and the quest is complete. Carl realizes he and Samantha are in Amayon's hand while he is hitting himself because of Donut's spell. The demons are still swarming, and Imani and Tran are trapped by debris. Carl asks Amayon if he knows who killed Geyrun, Emberus' son, and Amayon says he will tell them if Emberus assists him in killing his three brothers. |
| 70 | Carl and Samantha return to the group and try to get to Imani and Tran. Donut tries to combine Shi Maria and Alpha Male Carl to get rid of her hand, but Shi Maria kills Alpha Male Carl, and the real Carl is combined with her instead. |
| 71 | Shi Maria takes control of Carl's body and starts to use his items, injuring Mongo and Katia in the process. Li Jun tries to help, and Shi-Maria-Carl stabs his eye out and eats it, then uses the stick and poke kit to tattoo Carl's chest with the Eye of the Bedlam Bride, giving him new powers and joining herself to him so that he has to bring her to the next floor and can't just rip her card. Carl passes out. |
| 72 | Carl wakes up as the group flees. Everyone is okay for now. The Missing Piece quest updates, stating that they succeeded and a timer will indicate when Amayon's global teleport spell will be cast in each region. Crawlers underneath the stairwell chambers when that happens will be pulled upward into the stairwell as the walls of the chamber are sucked away. As they wait, Carl and Donut propose a new emergency action item in the Warlord Interface, suggesting that any remaining votes be put to the viewers since they will be unavailable after entering the stairwell, and the action is approved. Various pending action items are voted on, including a successful vote to remove safety protections for faction sponsors and approval of a 10th team of NPCs. Donut receives a celestial box from her garbage truck sponsor. The party is teleported to the 9th floor and Faction Wars begins. |
| Epilogue | A flashback to Agatha on the day of the collapse reveals that there is a conflict between her people and those of the Apothecary, but both seek to recruit the AI the their respective cause; in Agatha's case, freeing the Eulogist so it can return to its slumber. She also reveals that the Apothecary's intent in directly contacting crawlers this season was not to convey any real information, but rather to secretly install an upgrade in the crawler. In the present, representatives argue at an emergency Syndicate council meeting about whether to pull the failsafe, but decide to try the Valtay's plan instead: have all the mercenaries from the surface enter the dungeon and join the battle in an attempt to kill all the crawlers and end the crawl, releasing the quarantine on the planet. A garbage ship from Long Haul Biological Waste Management Solutions enters orbit, secretly carrying Tipid, Rosetta, and a team of 50,000 former crawlers to join Faction Wars. |