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Character profile
- Race named in the Cookbook
- High Elf
- Cookbook role
- Original recipient
- First received it
- Season fifteen, Floor Nine, according to its introduction
Current Status
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Unknown
Alive
Alive
Alive
Introduction
Porthus the Rogue is a High Elf and the first recipient named in the Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook. He found it disguised as a sketchbook on Floor Nine of the fifteenth season, beginning a record passed between later crawlers.[1]
Appearance and Personality
The early account gives his High Elf race and Rogue class but little physical description. Carl first knows him through the writing he left behind.[1]
A private conversation reveals that Dr. Hu is Porthus. He remains committed to funding Carl despite an ally’s warnings about the expense, instability and political danger.[2]
His old exit interview shows a frightened survivor stripped of enhancements and haunted by those he left behind. Menerva urged him to run, but he still wonders whether he could have saved her. That unresolved loss drives his later search despite Rosetta’s love and support.[3]
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Attributes and Abilities
Porthus uses the Cookbook to preserve discoveries and strategies for future crawlers. His words can help them long after his own season ends.[1]
As Dr. Hu, he can support a current crawler from outside the dungeon. Carl’s appearances with Odette also bring supporters to their wider cause, giving the sponsorship value beyond Carl’s own survival.[2]
The later dossier lists Porthus’s birth race as Elf, crawler race as High Elf, class as Rogue and highest level as 89. After accepting a deal on Floor Eleven, he survived a hundred-season game-guide indenture.
He founds the Crawler Project and helps place former crawlers covertly in enemy forces. The network also plans evacuations for allies and veterans’ families. Its members operate across scattered locations under terrorism allegations.[4]
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History
Book 3
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook
The original recipient
Carl learns that Porthus received the Cookbook as a sketchbook during the fifteenth season, on Floor Nine. His entry begins the chain of authors Carl now relies on.[1]
Choose Book 3 or later above to read this part of the history.
Book 4
The Gate of the Feral Gods
The deal recorded in the second edition
An earlier entry describes the second-edition author accepting an exit deal and fearing the long service ahead. Surviving the crawl means exchanging its immediate danger for years of restricted freedom.[5]
Dr. Hu’s concealed purpose
A private discussion identifies Dr. Hu as Porthus. His ally questions the cost and danger of supporting Carl, but he insists on continuing. Odette’s interviews attract new supporters, though they are unsure how much Carl understands of their purpose.[2]
Choose Book 4 or later above to read this part of the history.
Book 7
This Inevitable Ruin
The tenth-floor escape and the hundred-season contract
Porthus’s historical interview reveals that his party numbered twenty at the end of Floor Nine. A predatory tenth floor took more of them, including Kimu. Menerva urged him to run. He arrived at negotiations alone and terrified of continuing.
The attorney offered low-floor service, a Hunting Grounds role or a hundred-season game-guide contract. Porthus chose the guide position at the start of Eleven. The later dossier confirms that he completed the indenture, wrote the Cookbook’s second edition and became wanted by Syndicate Security.[6]
The Crawler Project and hidden deployments
Tipid names him as the Crawler Project’s founder. Its members are scattered under terrorism allegations, placing veterans inside opposing forces while supporting the openly returning army.
Evacuation plans include Porthus, his allies and the families of veterans returning to fight. Rosetta continues trusting him despite his fixation on Menerva.[7]
A public declaration of war
Porthus publicly declares war on Syndicate governmental properties and systems, demanding an end to the crawl.[8]
Choose Book 7 or later above to read this part of the history.
Book 8
A Parade of Horribles
A network in orbit and a possible survivor below
Lexis reports that the Action Network takes orbital ships using enhanced equipment. Carl hears about the operations rather than witnessing Porthus direct them.
Later information places Menerva in the Pineapple Cabaret with a retained shop interface. It offers hope of resolving his search, though he has not been shown receiving the news or reaching her.[9]
Choose Book 8 or later above to read this part of the history.
Relationships
Carl
Menerva
Menerva was a schoolteacher planning a retirement club with her husband. She told Porthus to escape, but he remains afraid that he abandoned someone he could have saved. Finding her becomes an obsession.[3]
Rosetta
Rosetta loves and trusts Porthus while recognizing how deeply his search for Menerva shapes him.[10]
The Crawler Project
Through the Crawler Project, Porthus brings former crawlers into a common struggle. Returning veterans and their families take serious risks, while his public declaration gives the covert work an openly stated goal.[11]
References
- The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, chapters 8. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
- The Gate of the Feral Gods, Epilogue. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
- This Inevitable Ruin, Porthus Interlude; Rosetta Interlude. ↩1 ↩2
- This Inevitable Ruin, Porthus Interlude; 11; Volteeg Interlude; Rosetta Interlude; Epilogue. ↩
- The Gate of the Feral Gods, chapters 34. ↩
- This Inevitable Ruin, Porthus Interlude. ↩
- This Inevitable Ruin, chapters 11; Volteeg Interlude; Rosetta Interlude. ↩
- This Inevitable Ruin, Epilogue. ↩
- A Parade of Horribles, chapters 27; 38–39, 55. ↩
- This Inevitable Ruin, Rosetta Interlude. ↩
- This Inevitable Ruin, chapters 11; Volteeg Interlude; Epilogue. ↩