Brandon Andrews

“We talked about it. All of us are going to go down. We’ll take our chances on the third floor. We don’t want to risk getting separated.”^[2]

Brandon Andrews is a crawler from Wenatchee, WA, and a member of the Meadow Lark party.

Description

Before the transformation, Brandon and his brother Chris Andrews were maintenance workers at the Meadow Lark Elder Care Facility in Wenatchee, WA. They were working after hours to repair a broken oven when Agatha set fire to the facility's kitchen, and they helped evacuate the patients into the freezing night.^[3]^[4] After the collapse, they managed to move about half of their wards into the warmth of the surface-level stairwells before the stairwell grabbed Brandon's foot, preventing him from leaving. When Chris attempted to grab his hand, he was trapped as well. With no other options, they descended into the Dungeon with a group of their coworkers, patients, and emergency responders.^[3]

Cheerful and talkative, Brandon is the first friendly crawler that Carl and Donut meet in the Dungeon.^[3] He helps Carl assemble a modular fortress of looted tables and gym equipment with goblin tools, and deploy it to defeat the Ball of Swine on the First Floor.^[4]

Appearance

Brandon Andrews is a "chubby black guy," a little stocky and shorter than his brother. He wears a heavy winter jacket, and carries a comically massive enchanted metal hammer looped over his shoulder; the hammer glitters and is likely made of a lightweight, magical metal.^[3]

Story

Book 1: First Floor

Brandon and Chris choose to protect their wards rather than strike out in search of a stairwell, but take time to explore the First Floor. They fight a neighborhood boss that looks like a floating crystal and shatters after a few blows from Brandon's hammer. In the next neighborhood, Brandon is poisoned by a Troglodyte Pygmy and only survives by slamming Healing Potions until the debuff expires. The brothers returned to their wards, gathered in the hallway outside the Ball of Swine's chamber, and watch as the rest of their party is picked off one by one. By the time they meet the Royal Court of Princess Donut, Brandon, Chris, Imani, and Yolanda Martinez are the party's only remaining non-patients.^[3]

Brandon spray-painted directions to Meadow Lark's location on various Dungeon walls, hoping to gather a team to help fight the Ball of Swine. Although he's initially a little wary of Carl's appearance and "Royal Bodyguard" title, he bursts out laughing when Donut indignantly reveals that she can talk, and then immediately drops to one knee to pet her and apologize: “Well it’s nice to meet you, Princess Donut. I’m sorry if I offended you, pretty girl. I’ve never met a talking cat before.”^[5]

When Carl returns to Meadow Lark with a plan, Brandon and Chris help him engineer spike strips and the "Speedbump" from looted tables, weight equipment, and Enchanted Shuriken of Bloodlust using only goblin-made tools. Brandon, Chris, Imani, Yolanda, Carl, and Donut work together to defeat the Ball of Swine and gain access to the stairwell.^[4] Brandon receives a magic boomerang in the Silver Boss Box.^[6]

Book 1: Second Floor

On the Second Floor, Brandon, Chris, and Yolanda decide to train by taking on Mind Horrors. The boss is a giant blimp inside an an abandoned warehouse, which Yolanda easily killed from a distance before it could exit the room.^[1]

He also is a big help building the Moab device to escape the Rage Elemental on the second floor.

Book 2

Brandon messages Carl to tell him about the Third Floor selection process. He mentions how the process is slow, since none of the Meadow Lark residents can choose to stay Human since that would keep them feeble, but there is a lot of pushback. The residents that made it to the third floor without killing anything got a Legendary Pacifist's Box. Carl thinks about telling him about Agatha, but decides against it. He passes along Odette's advice about choosing a class with a Manager Benefit. ^[7]

Book 3

SPOILERS FOR BOOK 3

Carl realizes he hasn't heard from Brandon in a while, and goes to send him a message when the first daily announcement covers his message screen. When the update ends, he realizes that the message is in a category of deceased Crawlers. ^[8]

"Brandon: Hey bro. I’m sending this message to Imani and Elle, too. You wouldn’t believe what’s happening with Elle. But just in case they don’t make it, I wanted to get this out to you, too. It looks like this is the end for me. The Third Floor is about to collapse. Me and Henry—he was one of the residents—we’re holding the line against the advancing Shade Gremlins. I hate those fuckers. Imani, Elle, and the others are getting away, but it’s already too late for me. The floor timer is down to ten minutes, and that stairwell is twenty minutes away.
I saw your escape last night on the recap episode, so I know you made it to number four. Everyone knows about that bomb you now got stuffed down your pants.
Look, man. I got into a fight with my brother Chris, and he left the party. He took a few of the guys with him, but I can see they’re all dead. All except Chris. I know he’s alive because he’s still on my chat. I can see he’s alive, but it says he can’t accept my messages. I don’t know why. I think maybe he blocked me, but I’m not sure. He was never much of a talker. Mom said there was something wrong with him, maybe he was slow. But he ain’t slow. And even if he was… I said something stupid, and he got mad. He left, and now it’s too late to tell him I love him. I never said it. I’m about to die, and it’s all I can think about.
So if you see him, tell him I said I was sorry, and that he was right. He’ll know about what. Tell him I said if there is an afterlife I promise not to give him shit ever again. He can eat all the damn traveler biscuits he wants. I promise not to get mad about him taking risks. Not about girls. Not about him stealing my Matchbox cars. Nothing. And tell him I love him. That’s the most important part. It’s always been the most important part, but I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I gotta go. Damn shade gremlins. Get them for me, brother. Get them all.”^[8]

Elle McGibbons mentions Brandon had her pick the Frost Maiden class due to it coming with the Manager Benefit on Carl's recommendation. ^[9]

Progression & Gear

First Floor

FIELD	FIRST MENTION	LAST MENTION
Countdown	~40 Hours^[3]	6 Hours^[4]
Level	6 ^[3]	8 ^[10]
Identifying Tags	Bronze Star x 1^[3]	Bronze Star x 1 Silver Star x 1^[4]
Skills / Spells / Benefits
Equipped Gear	Enchanted Hammer^[3]	Enchanted Hammer^[3] Unspecified Strengh-boosting Item^[4]

Second Floor

FIELD	FIRST MENTION	LAST MENTION
Countdown	6 Days^[6]
Level	8 ^[10]	9 ^[1]
Identifying Tags	Bronze Star x 1 Silver Star x 1^[4]	Bronze Star x 2^[1] Silver Star x 1^[4]
Skills / Spells / Benefits
Equipped Gear	Enchanted Hammer^[3] Unspecified Strengh-boosting Item^[4] Magic Boomerang^[6]