Book 2 of the series (2021).
Plot Summary (Spoilers)
- Training's over — the real games begin on floor 3, the Over City, a huge ruined-city crawl.
- Class picks: Donut becomes a Cat Former Child Actor (Mordecai her unwilling manager); Carl becomes a Primal Compensated Anarchist.
This part is fun — picking a class is also one of my favorite moments when I play an RPG in real life.
- First quest, "Show Must Go On": help the ghost Tsarina Signet move on — lion fights, a parasite-ridden bear, and Carl poisoning his own blood to kill Ringmaster Grimaldi's parasitic vine.
Touching thread in this one — Donut and Mongo have become Carl's only family.
- Then into the city proper: shopping, Fan Boxes, explosives, and the Desperado Club.
- Murder mystery: GumGum's corpse leads them to corrupt Magistrate Miss Quill — Carl blows her up and ends up the new Magistrate himself.
- Katia Grim, a doppelgänger struggling with her race, joins the party.
- "Boss" Remex turns out to be a soul-leech capacitor — Miss Quill was draining the whole city's soul crystal through him.
- The reveal triggers a city-destroying "Doomsday Scenario"; Carl refuses to run (it would kill Katia and others) and rides it out.
What makes it hit harder is that Donut doesn't want to run either — really touching moment.
- The blast erupts in waves; Katia detonates the Swordsmen Depot, stopping the final blast as they escape floor 3.
- Epilogue: the depot blast saves thousands, earning a Bandit Achievement — 83 celestial boxes force Borant to burn their season veto. Carl and Donut make the leaderboard; Odette warns of bounties on their heads and Hekla's plans for Donut.
Also fun — I like hearing about the story unfolding in the background, outside the game itself.
Characters
New faces:
- Katia Grim — doppelgänger struggling with her own identity, joins the party; her arc goes from self-loathing to hero when she detonates the Swordsmen Depot.
- Tsarina Signet — tragic ghost bound to the circus; helping her move on is the emotional core of the first half.
- Miss Quill — the Magistrate villain; sweet old lady on the surface, city-soul-draining monster underneath.
- Mongo — Donut's baby velociraptor, now a full party member; eats an arm within seconds of his first fight.
- Odette — Carl's manager/handler; her intel in the epilogue sets up Book 3.
Returning cast:
- Donut — real growth this book: the Former Child Actor class forces her to face her past, and she drops the diva act when it counts.
Still my favorite character.
- Carl — keeps leveling as the moral center; choosing not to run from the Doomsday Scenario (to save Katia) is his defining moment.
- Mordecai — from drunk comic relief to essential manager/mentor; "You can't save them all" is his line.
I really like his personality. Even in the first half, the book plays up his funny side — and all the things we still don't know about him make him even more interesting.
- Hekla & Lucia Mar — rivals sharpening into real threats; Hekla wants Donut for something, Lucia wants her dead.