Ep 64: A PARADE OF HORRIBLES | Ch 39 - 44

Hello Crawlers - A Dungeon Crawler Carl Podcast

The hosts dive into chapters 39 through 44 of Dungeon Crawler Carl's eighth book, 'A Parade of Horribles.' They discuss the escalating inten

Key takeaways

• Heat 4 introduces a high-stakes jungle course featuring toxic gas and mandatory pit stops.
• New vehicle upgrades include 'Bubble Buddy' electric shields and all-terrain tires to combat environmental hazards.

Main topics

• Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 8 progression
• Heat 4 race mechanics and hazards

Notable quotes

Is this Heat 4? It's kind of bonkers, yeah.

Conclusion

An engaging deep dive into the increasing complexity and character-dri

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:16) Heat 4, Osvaldo's Memorial Crystals, Welcome to the Jungle, Ginger Phobia, and a Team Helix Hit and Run. Hello, crawlers, and welcome to episode 64 of your Dungeon Crawler Crawl podcast. I'm Grant. I'm John. And Speaker 3 (0:34) I'm Martin. Speaker 1 (0:35) And we are covering chapters 39 through 44 of A Parade of Horribles, book 8 of the series today. And... We finally got into Heat 4 and it's fucking nuts. Is this Heat 4? It's kind of bonkers, yeah. Okay, I was thinking this was 3. Okay. Well, when we were leaving last week, I think I was like, yeah, I think we're about like halfway through the book to you. And then Rubio stops me as I was about to get in the car. He goes, we're Speaker 2 (1:05) a Speaker 1 (1:05) third of the way through. Right, right, right, right, right, right. It's like. Speaker 3 (1:09) Oh, we got a lot to go still. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I figured as much. Right now, it doesn't have that feel of being halfway. Right. Speaker 1 (1:16) I got to say, I see that I keep seeing these comments from people, and I'm trying to avoid spoilers, but I do see comments from people about their impression of Book 8 and that they didn't enjoy it. Or at least they didn't enjoy maybe the beginning of it, this part we're in, it seems. I am enjoying this. I think it's a lot of fun. Well, Speaker 3 (1:37) I didn't read anybody not enjoying it, but I did read people saying they thought it was the weakest book of the series, which I was like, no. That's Speaker 2 (1:45) wild. Speaker 3 (1:46) Have they read two? Speaker 2 (1:47) Yeah, right, right. I was thinking the same thing. Speaker 3 (1:50) But it was feeling like a comedown after the last two or three books. Almost like it slowed maybe on purpose. Yeah. But these last couple of sections Speaker 2 (2:02) we've read. I really up there. I'm having a blast with this one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it just feels, I know that after faction wars, I think maybe people are expecting, you know, the knob to get turned up again. Yeah, yeah. And you can't, you can't keep doing that. Like there's an upper limit to that and you have to ebb before you flow. Sure. To hit that point again. Otherwise it's just relentless and we're starting to reach a point. in these heats where it is becoming a little bit more like amped up. Well, that whole confrontation with Speaker 3 (2:37) Akuma, uh, and that we just left, I was like, okay, this is, this is, this is peak Carl right here. I'm, I'm loving it right now. I guess that's my thing when they have the confrontations with people that are long overdue. Speaker 1 (2:52) Yeah. You got to boil up to it, you know, and then just let it explode out of Carl, which sounds. Speaker 1 (3:01) But only Speaker 3 (3:01) if you make it that way. I'm not. It hasn't been made that way. Speaker 1 (3:06) You Speaker 3 (3:07) sound like Samantha, though. Moving Speaker 1 (3:08) forward. As of recording this episode, we haven't released episode 63 yet. So I don't have any of your comments or notes from that. So we're going to skip that for today. I do want to give a shout out. To Becca Bird, who made the artwork on this shirt I'm wearing. Ooh. I'll move over to the side here. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've seen that online. It's very nice. Speaker 2 (3:30) It's so good. Speaker 1 (3:31) She's making a bunch of awesome, like, Norman Rockwell-esque art. Yeah, yeah. That's all these, like, plays off of different elements Speaker 2 (3:40) of the Speaker 1 (3:40) book. Speaker 2 (3:40) A lot of, like, J.C. Leyendecker Saturday Evening Post- Yeah. Speaker 1 (3:44) Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:45) Style stuff, yeah. Speaker 1 (3:46) And I saw this, and I was just like, I want that. Speaker 2 (3:48) Tell people you had, like, four years of art history classes back to back without telling them that. Speaker 1 (3:56) Becca.bird.artwork over on Instagram if you guys want to check it out as well. Not paying me to say that. I bought it myself. I just Speaker 2 (4:04) liked it. No, really great stuff. Yeah, Speaker 1 (4:07) I haven't seen a good artist really yet for Dungeon Crawler Carl stuff and I saw this. I was like, oh, someone actually knows how to make art. Speaker 2 (4:14) I know people are always like, John's so mean to Grant. Speaker 1 (4:19) My jokes are Speaker 3 (4:20) obvious. Yours are just cruel. I'm catching shrapnel from that too. Speaker 1 (4:25) I did look over at you too. I gave you as well a look. Also, I made something one time and it was bad. Y'all, this is great. A couple of ways you guys can help support us is go to patreon.com slash hello crawlers. And also you can buy our merch, which I am not making fun of. Hello crawlers.com slash store. The best merch. Including this, this new gem. Yeah. Floor eight Mordecai. Yeah. Speaker 3 (4:53) I'm loving that. Speaker 1 (4:55) You have a new shirt each. episode we do. Speaker 2 (4:59) I think so. I think I've maybe repeated shirts one time on the show. I might do it more often. I have some favorites, but I'm cranking them out so fast that I get to do that. Speaker 2 (5:11) I Speaker 1 (5:12) said nothing about him cranking it out. Speaker 2 (5:14) I Speaker 1 (5:15) said nothing. I wasn't even expecting you to. I know, and I didn't. We're not saying that. Speaker 2 (5:21) It's normal. You're not going to hell if you crank it out. Oh, wait. Since we're talking about merch, I brought this in. The Speaker 3 (5:29) Carl action figure that I wanted so badly. Thank you, John, for giving me the link. Yeah. I was able to go pick it up from Hot Topic yesterday. Speaker 2 (5:38) Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:40) It's not as cool looking in Speaker 3 (5:42) person as it is online. Oh, Speaker 1 (5:43) no. Speaker 3 (5:45) I was like, huh. That was a good photographer. You know what it really needs is like some paint enhancements. You Speaker 1 (5:52) need Todd McFarlane in there making them all like. Speaker 3 (5:55) Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just very plain and pasty. I Speaker 2 (5:59) think the sculpt is really nice. Yes. I wish it had more paint. Speaker 3 (6:03) Yeah, yeah. And I was like, man, I haven't painted a. figure in forever. I don't even know what the proper paint is, but I was like, all right, I'll make this, that, that the project. Oh, that's awesome. Speaker 1 (6:14) You're going to use it up. Speaker 3 (6:15) I got to use it up. I, every time I look at it, I go, come on, man. But then, cause I just really kind of like took it out of the plastic yesterday, but then I flipped it on the side and saw that there's a prep attend day. And I was like, I think I got to get that. Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:32) Even if it Speaker 3 (6:33) looks crappy, I got to get that. Speaker 1 (6:34) The art on the side looks so cool. Surely they can't do a bait and switch there. You guys really should have sent us free samples. We would have given glowing praise. Yeah, we would have praised it. Yeah, we would have been like, these look amazing. But you didn't. Speaker 3 (6:48) You Speaker 1 (6:48) blew it. Speaker 3 (6:49) You Speaker 1 (6:50) got a chance Speaker 3 (6:51) with the prepotente, though. Just saying. Send us a free one and Speaker 1 (6:54) Martin will be like, Speaker 3 (6:55) this is Speaker 1 (6:56) so Speaker 3 (6:56) good. Speaker 1 (7:00) We want to remind you once again that we're going to be in Cape Con, which is in Cape Girardeau in Missouri, November 6th through 8th. And we're figuring out what we're going to do there. That Speaker 3 (7:12) will be here before we know it. It's like three weeks. It's creeping too fast. Yeah. I want to see people out Speaker 2 (7:17) there. I want to see. I want to meet some of our. viewers and listeners. It's not three weeks. We got a month in Speaker 3 (7:24) between. You said that and I was like, Speaker 1 (7:26) uh... Is it? No, no, no. We Speaker 2 (7:28) got more Speaker 3 (7:29) time. I Speaker 1 (7:30) fully believed you. So eager to believe. Speaker 3 (7:33) I just blew past October. Speaker 1 (7:36) Alright, your homework assignment for next week is going to be chapters 45 through 51, which I believe should bring us to the end of Heat 4. Yes. Yeah. But... We will start now today with us reentering the lollipop bar. Team Yo-Kai is still up there hoarding the Speaker 3 (7:54) karaoke. There's always somebody. Speaker 1 (7:56) Yeah, they seem to love it. And I love that they love it. The whole scene with Akuma got cut short, I guess, after they busted his nut. And Carl. You're doing that on purpose now. I'm Speaker 2 (8:14) not Speaker 1 (8:14) doing that on purpose. That's just a turn of phrase people commonly use when you punch someone's nut out with ice. Speaker 3 (8:21) Commonly? I've never heard that. They're always saying it. I've never heard it used that way. Speaker 1 (8:25) My people are Speaker 2 (8:26) always saying it. The last thing we left it on was Carl punched him in the face. Speaker 1 (8:30) Yeah. That's what I meant to say. And they left him at a 2 % because imps came in and interfered. And yet Carl did take a moment to add him to his chat. So they fist bumped. Right. Speaker 3 (8:45) After he punched him. We abused you. Speaker 1 (8:47) Yeah. But deservedly so. It's kind of a dick. Yeah. They need each other. Yeah. So we also find that Louie got his milkshake and Prepetente went. Out with not like 24 bottles like I thought, 200 bottles of soda. Yeah, Speaker 2 (9:05) yeah. 200 cups of soda, each with their own. No, it's bottles. It's bottles? Yeah, with striped straws. Speaker 1 (9:12) Straws, Speaker 2 (9:12) yeah. Speaker 1 (9:13) Load it up. That's, no one is looking out for this guy anymore. Speaker 2 (9:18) No. Speaker 1 (9:20) Miriam's gone and now this guy is just a wreck. He's, I mean, this is alcoholism with soda, essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, it's sad. He's got no family, no friends looking out for him. He's got family Speaker 2 (9:37) -ish. I don't know that he knows that yet. Speaker 1 (9:42) Yeah. No one's saying, hey, cut it out with that. Like, I keep expecting Carl to be like, hey, five a day. Well, people care about him, Speaker 3 (9:52) but he keeps pissing people off. Speaker 3 (9:56) That's true. He's kind of an asshole. Yeah. I mean, you know, we know a person or two or 25 who, uh, you're like, you seem like a nice guy, but you have some antisocial behaviors that you don't seem to be able to control. Why are you Speaker 1 (10:14) both looking at me? Cause he's talking about you. Speaker 2 (10:21) Except you're like prepotente, but with beer. Speaker 1 (10:26) Guys, I don't have a problem and I'll fight you if you try and steal this from me. Speaker 1 (10:33) The squad, the whole team, they're all going to be working to try and recruit NPCs and I guess other people that they might be able to shepherd off to the Pineapple Cabaret. Prepetente and Mordecai are going to work together to try and figure out the shop interface exploit that will allow them some sort of backdoor to get into the Pineapple Cabaret. This was suggested or hinted at by Herit and Akuma related to him. And the strippers have now been deputized to go back to the Desperado Club and investigate the casino to try and figure out where that entrance is there. Speaker 3 (11:14) So Speaker 1 (11:14) it does feel like Carl doesn't have time to do these tasks that he wants to do. These little side quests and missions because he's very constrained to the race himself. But now he has such an entourage that he can. get others to help him. Speaker 3 (11:32) Yes. Yes. Uh, I mean, it's necessary. It's just, he has to like relax Speaker 2 (11:37) and go like, okay, it's Speaker 3 (11:39) all right. If I let other people do some of these things, Speaker 2 (11:42) it's nice to see him finally delegate. Yes. I mean, it's not a Speaker 3 (11:47) necessity, but yes, he's finally doing it. You Speaker 1 (11:49) know, it was kind of reminding me that the, the. Anarchist cookbook, you said it was introduced in the third book because it was like a fan idea. There Speaker 2 (12:00) was a bunch of ideas presented to Matt's Patreon and the fans voted on it. Speaker 1 (12:07) Yeah. And because of that book, we have seen that it isn't just Carl against the system. It is Carl and all the people, all the shoulders, I guess he's essentially standing on, people that came before him, some who are still in the fight. come back to help him like more like Porthas and Rosetta and Tippett. But then like we see behind the scenes, Herod is probably going to be extremely instrumental as well. Right. Because he also did a different type of focus on, on, uh, cultivating and humanizing the NPCs and making them part of his army, like giving them validation. And like all of these different pieces work in conjunction to. presumably overthrow the evil empire. Yeah. Speaker 3 (12:57) And if not overthrow, just throw it into a haywire. Speaker 2 (13:00) Yeah. And I like how each of them had their own passions and insights and what turned out to be missions that they were good at. Speaker 1 (13:10) Yeah. Like even, even the ones that died have died with purpose going toward, you know, like Volteague died. to help them with that next step they needed. Like each of these have all mattered. Yeah. Speaker 2 (13:24) Look at justice light. Yeah. No shit. Speaker 1 (13:27) Although he might've fucked him over. We don't know yet. That was quite a thing to do. Speaker 1 (13:36) Donate relays what happened to Akuma to everyone in the chat. And it's always funny hearing how she Speaker 3 (13:41) relays those things. It is funny, but I noticed in these last few chapters, some went last time and this is, I don't recognize Matt doing this often, but something has happened. And then he's had a character recap it shortly after. Normally it's just like, hey, it happened, keep going. But it's had these things where it's like, all right. Speaker 3 (14:02) It's like, it's Carl with Eris. We all read that happen. And then the next chapter, he's relaying everything we just heard and saw to the people. And he doesn't normally do that. That's why it stuck out to me. Speaker 1 (14:17) It feels like when, I mean, my best frame of reference for this is Harry Potter. Like when you'd enter the fifth book and it'd feel like she still had to explain how a lot of things work just in case this was your first one to read. Right. Which I wonder if this was like an ace or the Penguin publishers, if there's a note from them like, hey, can you give like a little bit of a recap? That could be. I mean, like in the case of a Harry Potter, you've Speaker 3 (14:42) had to wait. you know, however long, months or years or so for the book. So it's easy to forget some things. Speaker 1 (14:48) These ones are like every couple months. Yeah. Speaker 3 (14:50) But also this is like right after this chapter happened, somebody's explaining what we just went, you know, read. Speaker 1 (14:57) Yeah, that is curious. It makes me almost wonder if what we should be paying attention to there is what we saw described to us happen. versus how Carl chose to relay that and if there's any discrepancies there. Speaker 2 (15:11) It also does feel like the author underlining something for us. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, these were the Speaker 1 (15:16) key parts of that and Grant, stop wasting your time with this other bullshit. I'm going to ignore you, Matt. Speaker 1 (15:24) Rosetta doesn't know who Herod was, but is excited to have heard the name Minerva. Meanwhile, Tippet did know who Herod was, and Tippet's like, Herod's a lizard, Herod's a badass, very smart, I would trust him with my life, which of course all the cookbook authors will say that, but he's trying to say this under code. A little bit to Carl. Like, yeah, this is a legit dude. Always had an NPC army around him. I saw his crawl. Speaker 2 (15:53) And Speaker 1 (15:54) like we mentioned Speaker 2 (15:55) last episode, Minerva's Porthos' companion. Speaker 1 (16:00) Yeah. Speaker 2 (16:00) Right. Speaker 1 (16:02) Carl is eager to complete the Dong quest and... Aren't we all? What do you mean by that? Speaker 2 (16:13) You know, always Speaker 1 (16:14) the one. Ever had a dong quest? Uh, Tippid says he knows, or it reveals that he knows more than anyone else about guild halls. And like, Carl's like even more than Mordecai. And, uh, I'll remember who else you said, like these other people that like should have a lot of like knowledge. Cause they've been here for a while, but we learned that Tippid was here for centuries as a game guide. So yeah, he did have a lot of time to really. Come to understand all this. How much does he still remember? It feels like he remembers everything up until he was in the crawl. Like he was about to leave the crawl. He doesn't remember any of his life post crawl. That's my guess. Speaker 2 (16:58) I think that's right. Yeah. Speaker 1 (17:00) So Tippett knows how to get into the stage performance guild through the lollipop bar. And he notes that he is just really confused by the fact that the war mages can even talk about something like the pineapple cabaret without the retaliation of the showrunners and the AI. Like, how is that working? How is there not any sort of pushback? Yeah. How? And Carl's like, eh. Yeah, I was like, when he brought that up, I was like, Speaker 3 (17:31) okay, yeah, how is that? Speaker 2 (17:32) Well, the War Mages by themselves are kind of an anomaly, right? They're dungeon-born NPCs that weren't created, weren't thought up. They're ghosts in the machine, essentially. Sure. And maybe there's something there that allows them to do stuff without interference. Or maybe the AI is just like, yeah, do it. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's Speaker 3 (17:56) the Speaker 2 (17:56) only thing I can think. Speaker 3 (17:58) Because what you're saying, yeah, they are an anomaly, but Tippett seems to know them. He's like, those guys are assholes. Never trust them. So he has intimate knowledge of what the war mages are. And I assume their limitations. Speaker 1 (18:10) Yeah, it does seem like in part, maybe the AI does have a little bit of like autonomy to decide whether or not he wants some information divulged or not like being very controlling in that way. But then again, maybe. This is a blind spot as the war mages exist outside. So his protocols or whatever don't kind of hit into place. It Speaker 3 (18:36) just seems like every time there's something happening that's not supposed to, that the AI has allowed, it's because it's got ulterior motives. Speaker 1 (18:45) Yeah. So could be that as well. Tippett warns that shadow mimics must be around on this floor as a mob. As you know, we know that already because. Mordecai is a shadow mimic. Right. So just be extra careful. Um, and those are the big threat as well in the pineapple cabaret. Ellie and