Chapter 19

Carl's group arrives at Signet's jungle encampment where they join forces with her growing army of forest creatures and elves. Carl discovers a detailed map from a slain Dream hunter revealing that multiple hunter factions have divided the ninth floor into territories and are actively hunting specific crawlers, including himself, Donut, and Louis. Signet formally presents her two-part quest: to assault Fort Freedom and overthrow the corrupt Naiad Confederacy leaders responsible for her mother's assassination.

Carl, Donut, and Zev trudge through the humid jungle near the river, collecting mushrooms while discussing the poor ratings and public perception of their involvement in Signet's storyline. Areson the ogre arrives carrying a dead hunter from the Dream faction with an arrow through his head. Carl examines the corpse and loots two items: a poisoned arrow called the Arrow of Enthusiastic Double Gonorrhea and a hand-drawn map from a Canadian diner's kids' menu. The map reveals that hunter factions have divided the ninth floor into claimed territories: the Hive controls the bottom left, the Dream controls their current area including Point Mongo, the Skull Empire has the southeast near the elf castle, and other groups like the Crafters and Nebular Sin Patrol claim additional regions. Critically, the map lists thirty named crawlers with color-coded circles indicating which factions are hunting them—Carl and Donut are claimed by both the Hive and Skull Empire (blue and purple circles), Katia and Elle are hunted by other groups, and Louis is heavily targeted by the Dream, circled repeatedly with an angry drawing of his face marked with an X. Carl relays this intelligence to his team via group message, warning them of the danger. At Signet's camp, which houses approximately seventy fighters including six were-creatures, the caterpillar, forty bush elves, a talking tortoise named Edgar, pixies, dryads, and various forest creatures, Carl receives a long message from his lawyer Quasar. Quasar reports that Sensation has agreed to Borant's offer for a ninth-floor extension but will delay signing for a few days, and that Carl must make the program more exciting without overshadowing Signet. Quasar also reveals that Carl needs to raise 150 million credits to address an outside problem, a sum Carl currently cannot afford, and mentions legal complications surrounding bribery. After the full group assembles, Signet announces two tasks and formally presents a quest: The Vengeance of the Daughter, Part One of Two, asking Carl's group to help her assault Fort Freedom, the former Naiad river palace, to assassinate the current Confederacy leaders responsible for her mother's death and restore proper governance to the Naiad kingdom.