Team Free Love
The self-aware bugbear NPC team Carl deliberately kills with a hidden beer-can bomb — a friend sacrificed so his own crew wouldn't finish last.
Story so far
Team Free Love, the tie-dyed bugbear NPC racers Radoslav and Jasha (their third, Alevtina, died at the first heat), meet a heartbreaking end in the L'Engle Building race. Long before, anticipating a moment when his crew might otherwise come in last, Carl had built a fail-safe: using Oozy Form while Samantha distracted them in the cul-de-sac, he swapped one of the peach-flavored beers in their magical self-restocking cooler for a can drilled out and packed with a hidden explosive, concealed so well only a level-12+ Find Traps skill could spot it. When the race nears its ten-minute cutoff and Carl learns Osvaldo claims to be crossing the finish (leaving Carl's team possibly last), he detonates it: 'Team Free Love has been eliminated due to the death of both racers.' The wordless exchange with Jasha and Radoslav at their garage days earlier ('We all knew what had to happen next') is paid off in cold blood.
Carl feels like 'an utter piece of shit' — they were friends who'd aided the crew many times — and takes bleak comfort only in 'at least it's not another crawler.' Their wrecked van lies just short of the finish line, a monument to what survival costs.
Appearance
Two tie-dyed bugbears and their bright red minivan, now a smoking wreck stopped just short of the finish line.
Role
The self-aware bugbear NPC team Carl sacrifices with a planted beer-can bomb to keep his own crew from placing last.
Relationships
Sources — 2 recorded facts, by chapter
- A three-bugbear racing team of self-aware NPC 'volunteers' seeking freedom — dressed, suspiciously, like costume hippies.
- The self-aware bugbear NPC team Carl deliberately kills with a hidden beer-can bomb — a friend sacrificed so his own crew wouldn't finish last.