In Studio Three, Carl is seated on a panel before the event begins and studies the other participants: former guide Uptown Hal, historian Sydnee Iglacia, and former crawler Drick. Because Carl is still hidden from them, he overhears them discussing his chances of survival and learns that they think he is better off facing the summoned hunters than confronting Lucia Mar alone. Their comments establish that the next transfer back to the dungeon will likely drop Carl into a chaotic conflict with both mantids and Nebulars nearby.

Circe Took arrives late to moderate the panel, immediately terrifies the room, and demonstrates that she can see Carl even while he is hidden. After Carl insults her, Circe nearly cuts him in half by slicing through the table, then begins a long, controlling lecture about crawl history while refusing to let the panel speak. Carl realizes the audience came to see confrontation, not propaganda, so he deliberately derails the event by mocking Circe, joking with the crowd, and turning attention away from her prepared topic.

As the room becomes volatile, a cloaked woman in the audience uses authority to stop the soothers from cutting Carl off and announces that, as one of Carl's sponsors and a sponsor of CrawlCon, she has directed them to let him speak before leaving. Carl then notices that guards Frito and Moxo have vanished and left behind a smoking device, and he understands he has been drugged much like Odette's pet-treat incident: his judgment is intact, but his inhibitions are gone. Recognizing the panel is a setup by larger powers, Carl decides to exploit the opening rather than retreat.

Carl publicly reframes the panel as a discussion of how to kill Vrah and the other mantid hunters. He condemns the convention audience for treating crawlers as disposable entertainment and demands the same tactical information his enemies already have. The audience and panelists respond with useful details: Circe has eight surviving children, seven of them warriors in the area, and the Nebular hunters are also waiting in their own territory. Carl needles Circe until she storms out, and Uptown Hal bluntly warns Carl that the mantids are brilliant tacticians and that survival will require killing all of them.

When the session ends, Carl promises to return for autographs and more discussion, then is pulled out of the panel space by the mercenary guards. Frito tells Carl that drugging him was business, while an earlier matter involving the commander was personal, hinting at divided motives. Back in the empty studio, Carl regains his interface and reads Donut's warning that the safe room is a trap because Lucia Mar is waiting there, while the bug warriors and Nebulars remain outside. Carl also finds an Automaton Table and an autographed copy of Dr. Ratchet's Guide to Building Automatons for Fun and Profit, stores both, re-equips himself, and enters the green room to return to the dungeon prepared for the ambush.