Carl and Donut hike back to a saferoom inside a roadside shrimp shack while other crawlers report that attempts to cheat the T’Ghee card fights—killing or trapping opponents before engagement—fail because traps vanish and intruders are knocked unconscious when the fight ring activates. Carl notes the system still feels unbalanced, with many battles ending too quickly for totems to matter.

At the Guild of Suffering, Carl finds the main room trashed and crowded with sleeping strippers and changeling children; only Samantha is awake and watching the social feed. Carl and Donut retreat to Donut’s room, where Donut admits growing anxiety about being deckmaster, how easily Carl could die to unknown cards, and the inevitability of losing Katia, which is affecting Bautista and everyone else. Carl shuts off the social feed to protect Donut from cruel comments, lights Donut’s “home” candle, and convinces her to take a short, normal nap together; Mordecai agrees to wake them in two hours.

Carl struggles to sleep, dwelling on the dungeon’s pressure, Mordecai and Odette’s guilt, Frank Q’s warning about being “crushed,” and the looming climb. He wakes early to find Mongo in the room and Samantha reactivating the social feed. Carl uses the magic rest pad to reset exhaustion, then reviews messages from allies and a pile of achievements, including one that awards a Gold Prepotente Box for ending a card fight before any cards are drawn—framed as further humiliation for executive producer Mudskipper Cascadia.

Carl opens his loot: the Silver Spam Box contains Scrolls of Build Trench, and the Gold Prepotente Box yields The Filthy Little Crawler’s Book of Voodoo, an untradeable, indestructible messaging book that links only to other crawlers who own it and are encountered nearby. Donut receives the same book; Carl tests it by sending a message, and Donut complains that it is inferior to the normal messaging system, while Carl quietly saves her reaction by copying it.

After showering and buffs, Carl and Donut return to the relocated Florida Keys dirt mound in daylight and begin climbing its muddy slope. Carl’s new back patch provides a helpful climb benefit as they trade updates: Imani’s seventh opponent used a flee card, forcing her to search Detroit to continue in order; Katia heads toward her seventh fight with a new totem; Li Jun’s group still cannot bypass fight protections; and Chris reports the final area is blocked by a vending machine that requires nine tokens. The groups briefly discuss “Christmas” plans, but refocus on securing keys first as Carl continues the ascent.