Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network

This article contains unmarked spoilers for Book 4.

System Message. Posting Book 8 spoilers will result in "acceleration" per our rules.

“My dear, he’s already shaken everything up. Even if he fails, it’s already a success. Every time he goes on that Odette woman’s show, more people sign up for the cause.” -- Dr. Porthus Hu[1]

The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network, Intergalactic NFC (OIPAN) is a small, self-funded, tax-exempt charity organization operating in Syndicate space.[2][3] Dr. Porthus Hu is the CEO and president of Outreach Operations.[4] Its subsidiaries include the weekly program Shadow Boxer.[5]

OIPAN's logo is "a spiral galaxy symbol with some alien lettering on it."[2]

Story

Porthus has been watching Carl since at least the Fourth Floor, when Carl received the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook and risked everything to save as many crawlers as possible. Believing that he and Carl fight for the same cause, Porthus decides that OIPAN is going "all in."[6]

OIPAN secures Carl's second sponsorship slot in an extensive bidding war at the beginning of the Fifth Floor; although Donut technically commands a higher fee, OIPAN pays one of the highest amounts in Dungeon Crawler World history.[7] They promptly send Carl a Silver Benefactor Box containing a Toraline, which Carl fails to use for its mysterious intended purpose.[2][6]

Carl begins using the Gate of the Feral Gods to rescue crawlers from surrounding Bubbles while threatening to throw a feral god into Larracos. OIPAN designs a special, custom-made xistera extension that allows Carl to throw and recover Samantha's head, and sends it in an Emergency Platinum Benefactor Box. Mordecai insists that the box alone must be the most expensive box in the game's history, worth "more than the GDP of some star systems." [8] Based on everything OIPAN has spent on him, and that they do not sponsor other crawlers, Carl speculates that OIPAN may have sponsored a god.

SPOILERS FOR BOOK 5
On the Sixth Floor, OIPAN sends Carl a Pawna's Cries Potion in a Gold Benefactor Box, with a note reading, "Save the toraline."[9]
SPOILERS FOR BOOK 6

On the Eighth Floor, OIPAN spends yet more money to ensure that Carl and Donut appear on Rosetta Thagra's show, Shadow Boxer. They use a series of screenshots to steer Donut toward Florida for the floor's second phase, and photographs and clues to imply that Milk and the toraline are related.[10][11]

Then, they send Carl their final gift: an Emergency Gold Benefactor Box (first seized by liaison action, then released by the System AI, citing "Syndicate rule 855.C. AKA the “Don’t be annoying little bitches” rule"[12]) containing a paper flyer advertising 7AM Christmas breakfast at The Shepherd's House, a homeless shelter in Florida. After sending the box, OIPAN and all of its members vanished.[13][3] Carl goes to the shelter, where he drinks a coffee, takes a plastic tub of junk (including neural enhancers), and listens to Paulie talk about the crawl.[14]

Orren pulls Carl out to seize the tub and its contents. He claims that all of OIPAN are now fugitives, and their assets have all been frozen. He goes on to give his interpretation of OIPAN's motives for sending Carl to the Shepherd's House:

“The Open Intellect Pacifist Network is comprised of former crawlers who want to see the crawl fail. We should have seen this coming, but this plan was so ridiculous, we were all taken by surprise at the sheer audacity. They believed, falsely, that if they could get you within earshot of that speech, that one of two things would happen. Either we would be forced to yank you away, which would upset the AI to the point of killing us all. Or we wouldn’t yank you away, but the information the Residual was giving turned out to be so dangerous, the Syndicate Council would immediately pull the failsafe, which would, in effect, kill this solar system’s star. In either of those scenarios, it would be the end of the crawl for a long time.”[15]

Meanwhile, OIPAN is hiding in plain sight: aboard the Homecoming Queen in Earth's orbit.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Epilogue) (pp. 556-557). Dandy House. Kindle Edition.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dinniman, Matt. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Chapter 8)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 49)
  4. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Chapter 34)
  5. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 7)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dinniman, Matt. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Epilogue)
  7. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Chapter 7)
  8. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Chapter 34) (p. 535). Dandy House. Kindle Edition.
  9. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Butcher's Masquerade (Chapter 55)
  10. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 12)
  11. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 13)
  12. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 48) (p. 476). Dandy House. Kindle Edition.
  13. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 48)
  14. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 51)
  15. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Chapter 51) (p. 492). Dandy House. Kindle Edition.
  16. ↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Epilogue)