Mongo is a male Mongoliensis, the bonded pet and Royal Steed of Princess Donut, and a core member of the Royal Court of Princess Donut. He enters the crawl as a hostile, seven-inch-tall chick imprisoned in a pet reward room on the Second Floor. Through Donut's training and protection, he becomes a large, fast close-combat fighter and mount whose survival shapes the decisions of Donut and Carl. His status as a pet never makes him passive: Mongo chooses targets, forms attachments to other creatures, protects his companions, and repeatedly acts beyond the role of equipment or reward.
Discovery in the kobold kennels
Carl and Donut find Mongo late on the Second Floor, after defeating the kobolds in a fighting-pit complex built within a former municipal dog pound. The reward chamber contains ten cages, each holding a possible pet. Carl considers a white-tagged brindle grub because its adult form may be useful, but Donut is immediately drawn to the final captive: a tiny, pink-feathered Mongoliensis with a long tail, small forelimbs, a beaked mouth, and sharp teeth. The chick is already alive and caged when they encounter him; he does not hatch from an egg.
Donut decides that the creature will be called Mongo if male and Sissy if female. Its hostile red map marker prevents Carl from feeding it through the bars, and the reward-room key can open only one cage. With the selection timer expiring, Carl opens the Mongoliensis cage and catches the charging chick in both hands. Mongo fights his grip, pauses to eat pet biscuits, and then bites Donut on the nose. The creature's information identifies him as a male, level-one pet-class mob and warns that a Mongoliensis is too stubborn and aggressive to be conventionally tamed. The best possible relationship is described as mutual respect.
That first attack establishes traits Mongo retains as he grows. He is food-motivated but not made docile by food, and his attachment to Donut must be earned. He is also predisposed to rush visible enemies and continue fighting regardless of danger. At his original size this behavior is comic as well as hazardous; once he reaches full growth, the same lack of self-preservation becomes one of the party's most serious management problems.
Bonding with Donut
Mongo's bond does not form when the cage opens. Because an unbonded creature may disappear during a safe-room transition, Carl and Donut carry him in a small gerbil cage while they seek a way to remove his automatic hostility. Mongo initially tries to bite anyone who handles him. Even after he becomes familiar with Donut, he remains red-tagged and reacts violently whenever another mob comes into view.
Carl learns from a recap program that Mongoliensis are pack hunters and uses that information to structure the training. He releases Mongo against a lone brindle grub while Donut fights beside the chick and demonstrates how to open the creature's body. After repeated shared hunts, Mongo's marker changes from hostile red to neutral white. Donut then teaches him to wait for her command before attacking instead of charging every enemy immediately. Progress is gradual: the training occupies the rest of the Second Floor, and Mongo continues biting Donut's nose even while responding to her.
The decisive moment comes during a fight with a brindled vespa near the stair chamber. The wounded monster grabs Mongo and moves to eat him. Donut attacks with unusual speed, kills the vespa, and saves the chick. Mongo's marker changes from white to party orange, and the system formally identifies him as Donut's pet. He receives the title Royal Steed, although he is still far too small to carry her. The sequence makes the bond reciprocal. Donut does not merely feed or command Mongo; she risks herself for him, while he learns to hunt as her partner.
Mongo is subsequently recognized as a velociraptor, the familiar Earth name obscured by the system's use of Mongoliensis. His feathers and beak had made that identity less obvious to Carl. Odette also explains that a magical pet carrier can hold a bonded animal safely in inventory. Obtaining one becomes a priority because the improvised cage is cramped, noisy, and increasingly impractical as Mongo grows.
Growth and training
On the Third Floor, Mongo changes from a small dependent into a useful combatant. Donut practices basic obedience by making him wait before fetching and by reinforcing attack commands. His senses prove valuable when he notices a skull-headed lemur hidden above the party before Carl can see it or acquire its map marker. His rapid growth also makes his attacks more effective, although his enthusiasm can spoil stealth and draw him toward hazards.
Mongo reaches level three early on the floor and nearly doubles in size. His pink plumage becomes longer and is joined by red feathers, his tail lengthens, and his head appears more recognizably dinosaur-like. A magical collar from Donut's Gold Pet Box keeps his orange dot visible on her map wherever he is. This is a practical safeguard for an animal prone to chasing prey or being separated from the group.
Donut's pet magic develops alongside him. Heal Critter gives her a means of restoring him that ordinary crawler healing cannot provide. Clockwork Triplicate creates two temporary mechanical copies of a pet or minion; when cast on Mongo, the copies can scout, distract enemies, or join an attack without placing the living dinosaur at the same risk. The real Mongo quickly accepts the constructs as playmates, but their destruction has no effect on his identity or survival.
The limits of obedience become clear when a city elf uses Meat Hooks. The spell creates a lure that compels nearby carnivorous pet-class creatures to run toward its source, pulling Mongo away from Donut and into an alley. Recovering the spell reveals that his apparent defiance was magical compulsion rather than a failure of loyalty. The incident also demonstrates that his system classification can be exploited: anything designed to affect carnivorous pets may bypass the behavioral training Donut has established.
By the Fourth Floor, Mongo reaches level fifteen and stops increasing in physical size, though he continues gaining levels. He stands roughly as high as a pony and measures about thirteen feet from beak to the end of his long, red-and-blue-feathered tail. More than half that length is tail, but even so, narrow train cars and crowded rooms become difficult to navigate. His pet carrier changes from a convenience into a necessary part of the group's movement and stealth.
Level fifteen also gives Mongo Earthquake, a leap attack with a chance to knock enemies from their feet when he lands. A fan box later provides an enchanted Mongoliensis saddle fitted for a cat. While Donut occupies it, the saddle increases her offensive spell damage and gives Mongo greater constitution and melee damage. The equipment formalizes the rider-and-mount role implied by his Royal Steed title, but it also creates a shared vulnerability: Mongo must close with enemies to use his body and claws, placing his small rider in the same danger.
Combat role
Mongo fights through speed, momentum, claws, jaws, and relentless pursuit. He is most effective when another party member controls the battlefield, allowing him to rush a vulnerable enemy or finish a target already knocked down. Earthquake adds crowd disruption to this close-range role. Against the flying swordfish bodyguards of an Eighth Floor deckmaster, for example, Mongo catches one in midair and triggers Earthquake on landing, toppling the remaining creatures before tearing into his prey.
His strengths require active supervision. Mongo is likely to chase movement, continue an attack past the safe point, or expose himself while protecting Donut. Carl and Donut therefore alternate between releasing him as a shock attacker and storing him when stealth, negotiation, poison, narrow terrain, or precise timing make an uncontrolled charge too dangerous. Donut's saddle, pet carrier, healing spell, collar, clockwork copies, and Twinkle Toes spell form a support system around Mongo rather than replacing his natural fighting style.
Twinkle Toes, obtained after the Fifth Floor, temporarily increases the speed of Mongo or another eligible minion for a duration based on Donut's intelligence. During the Hunting Grounds, an active casting lets Mongo outrun Carl's dune buggy. Donut repeatedly practices the spell while riding him, transforming Mongo into a rapid transport and pursuit platform as well as a melee fighter.
Mongo's loyalty is clearest when Donut cannot direct him. On the Third Floor, he remains with her after a carnival attack leaves her unconscious. He guards the barricade around her while scavenging street mobs attack, and Carl finds him badly injured but still defending the breach. On the Fifth Floor, after Maggie My tears open Carl's neck in her Scree form, Mongo seizes her and responds to Carl's command to kill her. These actions show that his attachment extends beyond conditioned attack cues: he places himself between danger and members of his group.
The protection is mutual. Ordinary healing fails on Mongo, forcing the party to account for pet-specific recovery. During an Eighth Floor battle in a turkey farm, Mongo is rendered unconscious and begins taking damage from the birds around him. Carl drags the much heavier dinosaur by the tail, lifts him over an obstacle, defends him until he wakes, and catches him again when the collapsing barn begins sliding toward a cliff. Mongo's combat value does not make him expendable; saving him repeatedly takes priority even when doing so puts the crawlers at immediate risk.
Donut's companion and public symbol
Donut describes herself as Mongo's mother and treats his identity as part of her royal household. She names him, manages his pet interface, teaches his commands, rides him, and reacts fiercely to threats or insults directed at him. Mongo responds to her voice and mood, seeks her out, and remains close when she is vulnerable. His continued habit of biting her nose during his early training underscores that their bond is based on affection and mutual recognition rather than perfect submission.
Mongo also becomes part of Donut's public image. His bright feathers, aggressive behavior, royal title, and incongruous relationship with a show cat make him popular with the dungeon audience. Donut presents him as her beloved boy, prized mount, and pageant-worthy animal, while broadcasts turn his training and violence into entertainment. At the Butcher's Masquerade, he appears with a line of other velociraptors in costumes during Tina's performance. The spectacle uses the same animal as both a comic performer and a concealed weapon in the crawlers' assault.
That fame provides no guarantee of safety. Mongo's importance to Donut makes injury to him an effective way to destabilize her, and she sometimes loses focus when his health falls. Carl challenges her to keep fighting during such moments because abandoning the wider battle would endanger Mongo along with everyone else. By the Ninth Floor, Donut can remain at her position while Mongo fights elsewhere, but a report that his health has nearly emptied still produces immediate panic. His survival remains an emotional condition of the party's plans, not merely a favorable combat outcome.
Kiwi and other Mongoliensis
The Sixth Floor introduces Mongo to a group of wild Mongoliensis and to Kiwi, a larger female. Mongo and Kiwi initially charge one another, but their collision becomes a mating encounter rather than a fight. Donut reacts with protective outrage, while the other Mongoliensis withdraw instead of attacking. The scene gives Mongo a relationship rooted in species behavior rather than his bond with crawlers.
Mongo and Kiwi subsequently hunt together and become central to the assault at the Butcher's Masquerade. Donut practices directing both animals while the wider pack patrols the forest. During the attack on the ballroom, Mongo and Kiwi fall on Vrah and tear off her limbs. Carl sends Kiwi back toward the stage and orders Mongo to finish Vrah; after a brief farewell gesture between the pair, Mongo completes the kill.
Their connection continues after Kiwi becomes part of the Princess Posse's allied population. By the Ninth Floor, Kiwi is pregnant with Mongo's offspring, and Mongo remains attentive to her even while the crawlers prepare for Faction Wars. He also reconciles with the awakened tyrannosaur Tina, who addresses him as her father while the two dance together. Near the end of the floor, Kiwi gives birth to two babies. When the non-crawler children and allied NPCs are sent onward through the Zerzura, Kiwi chooses to accompany them to the Twelfth Floor, while Mongo remains with Donut and the crawler party.
Faction Wars
Mongo participates in the Princess Posse's Ninth Floor campaign as an experienced fighter operating within a much larger army. He befriends Carl's pet Sir Rendlegore, and the two play, guard spaces, and fight together. During combat near Shanty Town, Mongo is nearly killed by Gustavo, but Rend helps save him. Mongo returns to Donut bloodied and missing feathers around his neck, and Donut explicitly acknowledges Rend for saving her boy.
Mongo's final major credited action on the floor helps eliminate the Dream. Warlord Epitome Tagg's artificial heart and lungs remain attached to Louis after an attempt to remove the warlord's presence from him. Mongo bites through the organs and spits out the ruined pieces. The system awards the kill to Mongo, declares the Dream defeated, and transfers its remaining assets to the Princess Posse. The act is characteristic of his development: a creature once feared because he would bite anything becomes the party member whose bite resolves a strategic threat.
At the close of the Ninth Floor, Mongo is no longer the fragile reward-room animal Donut must carry. He is a high-level mount, a veteran of multiple floor campaigns, Kiwi's mate and the father of her offspring, and a recognized member of the Princess Posse. Despite the scale of that growth, his defining traits remain consistent with the chick in the kobold cage: he is excitable, predatory, fiercely attached to his chosen companions, and never wholly reducible to the dungeon's label of pet.