Story so far
While everyone else ran for the stairwell, Mordecai stayed outside, sitting in the dirt and staring upward, with a cigarette and a bottle of Crown Royal from somewhere. Dawn was rising, red comets from the erupting volcano streaked overhead, the heat was sweltering, and less than a minute remained before Emberus destroyed The Ninth Floor.
Carl told him to get back in the Saferoom. Mordecai said he had lost so much today — but that he thought he had gained more, and thanked Donut for setting that up. He stood, wiped himself off, and hurled the bottle, which crashed through rotten roots and disappeared, then stepped toward the door. Donut, unaware or unable to leave it alone, had just been fretting aloud about having pooped in his mother's ashes; Carl told her not to say that to him.
Appearance
Sitting in the dirt under a red comet-streaked dawn with a cigarette and a bottle of Crown Royal, staring upward, then standing and brushing himself off.
Role
The grieving mentor who takes a moment alone with the burning floor before going down with the rest.
Relationships
Donut — Thanks her for setting up what he gained today; unaware of her guilt over his mother's ashes.
Carl — Urged by him back into the saferoom.
Huanxin Jinx — Connected through the arrow made from his mother's ashes.
Earlier in this series
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:
Sources — 55 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
- Princess Donut's manager, whose life was wrecked by the railgunning that came with Huanxin Jinx's ban.
Chapter 4
- Princess Donut's manager, coaching her through class selection over chat and warning her to stay away from anything to do with gods.
Chapter 5
- Carl and Donut's Canadian-flavored game guide, gleefully absorbed in his newly upgraded alchemy table.
Chapter 6
- The team's trainer, who in chapter nine engineers Donut's celestial cloak exploit and brews the potions to do it.
Chapter 7
- Carl and Donut's trainer, now human and Canadian, giddy at finally learning the secrets of Celestial potions.
Chapter 9
- The crawlers' trainer, who diagnoses Carl's hair disaster and brews a rehab potion for Katia.
Chapter 10
- Former guide who declines the airship tour, holed up in the crafting room working on his own projects.
Chapter 12
- Carl and Donut's former trainer whose briefings on real naga government correct Drakea's dated notes.
Chapter 13
- Trainer and guardian who has been keeping the compression-sick changeling children safe, cited twice by Carl.
Chapter 14
- The crawlers' guide, who explains changeling marriage customs and the divorce-paper month over chat.
Chapter 16
- Team advisor holding the last of the toraline, warned by Carl that Rosetta is on her way to the saferoom.
Chapter 17
- Carl's manager, whose mercenary status and fostered changeling children are put at risk by the new guildhall rules.
Chapter 19
- The Posse's trainer and alchemist, already working with Rosetta on ways to remove the spider from Carl's chest.
Chapter 20
- Carl's kobold trainer and advisor, who called the splitter tactic and wants a sample of literally everything.
Chapter 22
- Former crawler and guild manager whose long-brewed compound drug is the only shot at curing Katia and caging the spider.
Chapter 23
- Mordecai collapses laughing at the news of the massacre and refuses to explain why.
Chapter 24
- Carl's guide, who explains Summon Ally over chat and reveals he thought he'd killed Carl during the treatment.
Chapter 25
- Carl's alchemist mentor who, knowing he was illegally watched, brewed an expulsion potion while announcing a wake-up salve.
Chapter 27
- Team Retribution's advisor and builder, warning Carl about the patch and noticing Justice Light's odd bow.
Chapter 30
- The crew's crafter, who mass-produced gallons of ear-protection potion for the assault on his upgraded table.
Chapter 39
- Trainer and advisor whose accessibility through the safe room is why Carl refuses to destroy the breached entrance.
Chapter 40
- Guild manager who insists the bait shop saferoom entrance be destroyed before the enemy nukes it.
Chapter 48
- Trainer and advisor who warned Donut not to reveal what her bleeding spellbook's spell actually does.
Chapter 49
- The crawlers' trainer, off in Meadowlark's saferoom building potion balls for the coming operation.
Chapter 54
- Worried manager who hands Carl the potion balls and warns him not to anger more than two religions.
Chapter 56
- The party's rules-lawyer trainer, who walked Carl through the maddening cooldown logic of item versus spell Tripper.
Chapter 58
- Holds that a Bijou fairy could theoretically be caught with a certain type of trap, though nobody ever has.
Chapter 59
- The guild's trainer and alchemist, whose hour-long aura potions make the Club Vanquisher raid possible.
Chapter 60
- Crafter whose new abilities let him mass-produce Black Nimbus potions; even he had never heard of Dark Purpose.
Chapter 61
- Carl's advisor whose warning against excessive damage haunts the raid, and who vouched for the damned-door trick.
Chapter 63
- Recalled by Carl in a delirious flash, talking about drowning something in a bucket.
Chapter 66
- Team Retribution's trainer, helping interrogate Milk and baffled by this season's new skills.
Chapter 67
- Mordecai's old warning to stay away from gods returns to Carl, and he is now researching a cryptic box name.
Chapter 69
- Trainer whose war-movie screenings backfire, and who first realizes what Meatus's arrival implies.
Chapter 70
- Former crawler trainer feeding Carl and Donut god lore over chat during the opening of the assault.
Chapter 72
- Mordecai identifies the laughing goddess as Eris and explains she was pulled back into her body by a new rule.
Chapter 75
- The crawlers' veteran advisor, who warns that Eris's spells can reach everyone in the realm at once.
Chapter 76
- Crawler guide who explains the Ceremony of Chaos and is left aghast by Donut's ball of swine.
Chapter 78
- Remembered mentor whose warning that Carl can't save everyone returns at the worst possible moment.
Chapter 79
- Mordecai is one of the minds Carl brushes during the dream bleed, revealing a deep, bottomless well of sadness.
Chapter 81
- Carl and Donut's trainer, who instantly identifies zarogoths as generated mobs from a built generator.
Chapter 82
- Believing the end has come, Mordecai spends what he thinks are his last hours reading to Ruby in the saferoom.
Chapter 83
- Works the problem of the anti-escape net over the Nest tower, finding no easy answer without a dispel scroll.
Chapter 86
- Recalled for his rule of thumb: if the AI is excited about your plan, it will generally let you do it.
Chapter 87
- Absent mentor whose Special Brew remains hotlisted in Donut's emergency loadout for the War Crime cast.
Chapter 89
- The crawlers' coach, who identifies Donut's new spells as deity spells and calls her the most powerful crawler ever.
Chapter 90
- Carl's trainer, who deflects the Scavenger question and tells him to focus on Donut and Katia first.
Chapter 91
- Mordecai judges the Shanty Town merger possible and has never seen a class awarded the way Donut's was.
Chapter 93
- Mordecai reconstructs how Fang escaped War Crime and reluctantly endorses Carl's wild theory that Tagg is a cyborg.
Chapter 94
- Mordecai doses Louis into a sleep deep enough to keep Epitome Tagg blind, then goes back to minding the children.
Chapter 95
- Veteran trainer who rules out knocking Tagg unconscious and blesses Samantha's flesh golem transplant as a great idea.
Chapter 96
- Former trainer turned surgeon, cutting Louis open in thirty minutes to break Tagg's hold.
Chapter 97
- The crawlers' trainer stays behind as the city transfers, holding little Ruby and telling her it's for the best.
Chapter 98
- Mordecai gets his revenge by loading an ash-tipped bolt into the crossbow that kills Huanxin Jinx.
Chapter 99
- Mordecai sits in the dirt with a cigarette and a bottle of Crown Royal, and says he gained more today than he lost.