System Message. Posting Book 8 spoilers will result in "acceleration" per our rules.
“Well, considering his history with my client and the princess, I’d say this is improper at best. It’s a three-ring ass casserole at worst. Even if he hadn’t already been sanctioned for trying to straight up murder my client, he’s a caprid, which is another one of Carl’s sponsors. It’s like hiring an incubus as a guard on a chastity yacht during an elven rut.” -- Quasar[1]
Harbinger is a caprid liaison working behind the scenes in the Dungeon. He expressly disagrees with the Plenty's goals and philosophies, and is "actively working" to remove Carl and Prepotente from the crawl.[2][3]
The Royal Court of Princess Donut meets Harbinger for the first time during the first phase of the Eighth Floor, when they appear on Rosetta Thagra's show, Shadow Boxer.[4]
Appearance
Harbinger is twice as tall as Prepotente and, with two curling horns atop his head and a line of bug-like red eyes down his face, looks like something from a nightmare. He stands on cloven hooves.[4] Carl is fascinated by his shaggy black hair:
The creature leaned in and paused, not saying anything. He moved oddly, like he couldn’t turn his neck, which was astoundingly unnerving. A full five seconds passed. I was transfixed by his long, obsidian, and wavy hair. Unlike Prepotente, whose wire hair felt very much like that of a regular goat, this guy’s coat appeared to be silky smooth, yet at the same time, it was so black and bottomless that I imagined if I reached into his fur, my hand would come back oily. Or covered with spiders.[5]
Gallery
Story
Book 4
Early on the Fifth Floor, Harbinger approached Maggie My in a safe room and gave her a Celestial Grenade to use against Carl and Donut.[6] He continued to conspire with the Skull Empire to help Maggie cheat, and muted Chris Andrews's ability to use chat when Chris tried to identify him.[7]
Book 5
After Carl descended to the Sixth Floor and landed in Orren's office, Orren explained that the caprid liaison "has been dealt with," but that Carl was not allowed to know more.[8] Later, as Orren prepared to vacate his in-game office in the Desperado Club, he gave Carl and Donut a cryptic warning: liaisons "fundamentally disagree with their home nation's goals and philosophies," and some liaisons may take it too far.[2]
Book 6
Valtay rules require a liaison's presence anytime a crawler might be alone with their sponsor, so Harbinger insisted on virtually babysitting when Carl and Donut appeared on the Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network-sponsored show, Shadow Boxer, during the first phase of the Eighth Floor. Quasar wasted no time pointing out (in colorful terms) that Harbinger was "sanctioned for trying to straight up murder" Carl and had no business being there.[4] Harbinger ultimately shut the production down when Rosetta not-so-subtly prompted Carl to review Milk's Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook entries for the toraline's true purpose, and proceeded to ban Rosetta from interviewing any other crawlers. Before leaving, he explicitly told Carl that he feels both Carl "and the caprid" are dangerous for the crawl.[3]
He virtually supervised Carl and Donut's mid-floor appearance on Dungeon Crawler After Hours with Odette, and warned them in advance that he would stop the show early if either crawler "gave up privileged information about behind-the-scenes stuff." Carl and Donut attempt to walk a fine line as Odette reviews rejected Action Items, but Carl notes that Harbinger seems unusually distracted.[9] As Odette recommends adjutants for the Princess Posse Faction Wars Team, Harbinger disappears.[10] Odette reveals that she had shot down an unmanned liaison spy ship in orbit to distract Harbinger and trigger an automatic security response so she could warn Carl about Huanxin Jinx.[11]
Book 7
When Carl is called into Orren's office to talk about the Failsafe, Harbinger is present with several other liasons but not visible during the conversation. Orren has them on mute to be able to talk to Carl to ascertain if he did something with the failsafe. When Carl swears at him, Harbinger attempts to intervene but Orren cuts him off and out of the call altogether. Orren triggers his red ball which forms a Level 0 Enhancement Zone which is supposed to be protected from System AI control. The other liasions appear for a moment and Orren hangs up on all of them. He says they have approximately 10 minutes, or even slightly less as he suspects Harbinger is being sent to their location to fire him. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the System AI inhabiting the form of Growler Gary. [12]
The AI confirms that Harbinger was on his way, but says he is talking to him and that if he attempts to harm either of them outside the game, he will "“pull his intestines out through his hair follicles. All of them, all at once." [13] Harbinger does not appear in the rest of the book.
References
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 12) (p. 128). Dandy House. Kindle Edition.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dinniman, Matt. The Butcher's Masquerade (Chapter 59)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 13)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 12)
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 12) (p. 127). Dandy House. Kindle Edition.
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Chapter 14)
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Chapter 29)
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Butcher's Masquerade (Chapter 1)
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 35)
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 36)
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 37)
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. This Inevitable Ruin (Chapter 36)
- ↑ Dinniman, Matt. This Inevitable Ruin (Chapter 37)
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