THE CRAWLER'S COMPANIONpatch notes for the apocalypse

Floor 3

First seen: Book 2, Chapter 1

The third level of the World Dungeon. Carl and Donut teleport straight from the green room into its entrance hallway, then into Mordecai's relocated guildhall. Per Mordecai, marks the end of the 'training levels' and the true start of the games.

Dungeon FloorDay/Night CycleRandom EntryThe Over City

Appearance

A long golden-bricked hallway, walls and ground alike, with a plush red carpet leading to a familiar guild door. The ceiling puts up a dark, star-dotted sky with a colorful nebula like the one behind Odette's stage, but it's an illusion only about 25 feet up: a slingshot rock fired straight at it bounces right off.B2C1

Village:

Beyond Mordecai's guildhall door: a bustling village of medieval-style shops and creatures of all types, ground made of wooden slats with smoke drifting up through the gaps, air thick with sulfur, and a fake blazing red sun overhead lighting everything in a crimson hue. Noticeably hotter than floor 2B2C2

Ruins:

Beyond the village gate, decrepit, abandoned buildings of crumbling, moss-covered brick slumping in on themselves, faintly visible through a rolling fogB2C3

Scale:

Roughly the size of Arizona, about 300,000 square kilometers, most of it ruins scattered with hundreds of small villages, the whole thing one connected landmass, built to span the length of a volcano's crater. Per Mordecai, the sky overhead isn't real and neither is the volcano beneath them; they're still technically below the planet's real surfaceB2C3

Stats

Two days, eighteen hours remaining, per Carl's own aside while checking his other timers mid-evacuationB2C25

Three days, sixteen hours remaining, per this chapter's own header stat blockB2C18

Five days, ten hours remaining, per this chapter's own header stat blockB2C13

Eight days, per this floor's own welcome broadcast, which fires the instant floor 2 collapses; just over 700,000 crawlers remain per the same broadcast. Mordecai worries that if the season keeps shortening every floor's timer this way, floor 6 will only stay open 11 or 12 days against its usual 30B2C2

Connections

Floor 2:

The floor above, given 3 hours and 35 minutes left on its own collapse timer as Carl and Donut arriveB2C1

Mordecai:

His guildhall has relocated here; runs Carl and Donut through race and class selection behind its doorB2C1

The World Dungeon:

Parent structureB2C1

The Over City:

The recurring urban-level tradition this floor belongs to; floor 3 is its top layerB2C3

Village Guard Swordsman:

Level 75 guards posted at the village gate, enforcing a no-crime, no-jail policy backed only by the death penaltyB2C3

Carl:

Leaves the floor early via the stairwell down to floor 4 rather than waiting out its remaining collapse timer, escaping the settlement-wide blast in the processB2C25

History by chapter
Book 2
Chapter 1
  • RELATIONSHIP Mordecai: His guildhall has relocated here; runs Carl and Donut through race and class selection behind its door
  • RELATIONSHIP Floor 2: The floor above, given 3 hours and 35 minutes left on its own collapse timer as Carl and Donut arrive
  • RELATIONSHIP The World Dungeon: Parent structure
  • PHYSICAL Appearance: A long golden-bricked hallway, walls and ground alike, with a plush red carpet leading to a familiar guild door. The ceiling puts up a dark, star-dotted sky with a colorful nebula like the one behind Odette's stage, but it's an illusion only about 25 feet up: a slingshot rock fired straight at it bounces right off.
  • TAG Dungeon Floor: The third of 18 levels; per Mordecai, marks the end of the training levels
Chapter 2
  • PHYSICAL Village: Beyond Mordecai's guildhall door: a bustling village of medieval-style shops and creatures of all types, ground made of wooden slats with smoke drifting up through the gaps, air thick with sulfur, and a fake blazing red sun overhead lighting everything in a crimson hue. Noticeably hotter than floor 2
  • STAT Collapse Timer: Eight days, per this floor's own welcome broadcast, which fires the instant floor 2 collapses; just over 700,000 crawlers remain per the same broadcast. Mordecai worries that if the season keeps shortening every floor's timer this way, floor 6 will only stay open 11 or 12 days against its usual 30
Chapter 3
  • RELATIONSHIP Village Guard Swordsman: Level 75 guards posted at the village gate, enforcing a no-crime, no-jail policy backed only by the death penalty
  • RELATIONSHIP The Over City: The recurring urban-level tradition this floor belongs to; floor 3 is its top layer
  • PHYSICAL Ruins: Beyond the village gate, decrepit, abandoned buildings of crumbling, moss-covered brick slumping in on themselves, faintly visible through a rolling fog
  • PHYSICAL Scale: Roughly the size of Arizona, about 300,000 square kilometers, most of it ruins scattered with hundreds of small villages, the whole thing one connected landmass, built to span the length of a volcano's crater. Per Mordecai, the sky overhead isn't real and neither is the volcano beneath them; they're still technically below the planet's real surface
  • TAG Day/Night Cycle: Ruins monsters are far more dangerous after dark; villages stay safe by day, but at night only their main roads hold, with the alleys sometimes worse than the open ruins
  • TAG Random Entry: Where a crawler enters this floor tracks their own tutorial guide's location, not where they left floor 2, scattering crawlers from around the world across the map
  • TAG The Over City: Mordecai's own name for this floor and the recurring urban-level tradition it belongs to
Chapter 13
  • STAT Collapse Timer: Five days, ten hours remaining, per this chapter's own header stat block (Down from eight days at chapter 2)
Chapter 18
  • STAT Collapse Timer: Three days, sixteen hours remaining, per this chapter's own header stat block (Down from five days, ten hours at chapter 13)
Chapter 25
  • RELATIONSHIP Carl: Leaves the floor early via the stairwell down to floor 4 rather than waiting out its remaining collapse timer, escaping the settlement-wide blast in the process
  • STAT Collapse Timer: Two days, eighteen hours remaining, per Carl's own aside while checking his other timers mid-evacuation (Down from three days, sixteen hours at chapter 18; this chapter has no header stat block, unlike the previous three collapse-timer updates)