At the warlord meeting, the changeling Juice Box appears and taunts Prince Stalwart, then reports she has been rallying NPCs and tracking the teams’ movements. Declaring herself “her own team,” Juice Box demands a new rule: the NPCs must become a protected, regenerating team with full voting rights. Carl, partly for strategic value and partly to anger the sponsors, formally proposes a tenth team for NPCs, and the agenda system opens voting.

The room destabilizes immediately. Juice Box triggers a pus detonator and vanishes; several leaders flee, and a nearby blob representative explodes, ending that feed. Moments later, Prince Stalwart is assassinated by a sizzling magical arrow to the eye, and his feed shuts off. With most participants gone, Cascadia ends the meeting and promises to reconvene after regeneration, while Rishi warns that his sultanate may respond harshly unless Juice Box accepts a lesser compromise (invulnerability and a safe zone for unaffiliated NPCs).

Afterward, Carl and Donut chat with their allies while moving toward the Desperado Club en route to rescuing Samantha. Along the way, Carl and Donut grind mobs and spiders, level up (Carl to 65; Donut to 57), and collect new cards including Hole in the Bag (totem mana drain) and the rare Force Discard. Carl also transcribes material from the Bahamas book into notes and messages, and they locate a saferoom near the Desperado so Mordecai can access the club’s supplies.

Inside the Desperado Club, Carl and Donut reunite with multiple crawlers, including Katia and Louis, and Carl quietly coordinates with Katia about their secret contract: assassinate the assistant manager Astrid and deliver her body to the Guild of Suffering. They agree they must do it before the eighth floor collapses, and they focus first on identifying where and how to lure Astrid into a spot that won’t immediately swarm with guards, referencing a known secret passage in the women’s bathrooms. Katia asks Carl to scout access points while she develops a card-based plan to kill Astrid.

At the table, Carl checks in on the battered group, noting Britney’s severe facial scarring and her new extinction sigil, and Tran’s continued recovery after losing his legs. Florin offers Carl and Donut a powerful card he can’t control: a unique level-140 totem, HeyZoos (“Uzi Jesus”), an undead ranged healer with dangerous abilities. Because Carl and Donut have open squad slots, taking the card automatically adds HeyZoos to their totem squad, strengthening their lineup as Carl prepares to shop, fix Donut’s tiara gem, and then head out to rescue Samantha.