Priestly

Priestly is the fourteenth author of the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook. He is remembered primarily for his extensive knowledge of the Ninth Floor and for a lyrical description of Larracos, a city he loved as a work of living art. The city's destruction during his season overwhelms him before he can reach the Faction Wars battlefield. Later Cookbook readers regard Priestly as one of the best sources on the Ninth Floor. He studies Larracos closely and plans to attend one of its plays. His map expands work left by Milk and helps later authors understand how the city relates to the wider floor. Priestly describes Larracos as a living poem. The city has the form of an inverted cone or funnel containing museums, galleries, colleges, theaters, temples, shops, and pleasure districts. Semeru dwarves serve as caretakers. An inverted castle and traditions surrounding Scolopendra give the place both civic and mythic importance. His account treats the NPC population as a community, not scenery placed between battles. Faction Wars destroys the city in Priestly's season. A bugbear army marches over the bodies of NPCs and actors, converting the place he treasured into a battlefield. Priestly breaks under the sight and never reaches the main battle. The Cookbook preserves the event as both historical evidence and a warning about the emotional cost of caring in an institution designed to destroy what crawlers value. Priestly's second-to-last entry contains the celebrated account of Larracos. His final entry is incoherent. A later author advises future readers not to read it. The sequence shows his mental state deteriorating, but it does not supply a confirmed death scene. His status is therefore unknown after the breakdown rather than definitively deceased. Carl compares Priestly's paralysis with the behavior of Coolie, another contributor who acts under intolerable conditions. Carl does not dismiss Priestly as weak. He recognizes the danger that compassion can become incapacitating when every choice seems to feed the system. The comparison helps him resolve to protect people without allowing grief to end his ability to act. Priestly also records information about conscription. Later notes show that he did not understand every mechanism available through a warlord menu, illustrating the limits of even a highly informed contributor. His page is therefore central to both the usefulness and fallibility of the Cookbook.