Chapter 40

Carl appears as an invisible panelist on a CrawlCon discussion about the dungeon's history, where he's drugged to lower his inhibitions and deliberately provokes Circe Took, Vrah's mother, into revealing information about the mantid warriors awaiting him. A mysterious robed sponsor intervenes to allow him to speak openly, and he uses the panel to crowdsource tactical advice on fighting the mantis hunters.

Carl finds himself at a CrawlCon panel alongside three other figures: Uptown Hal, a former game guide with a popular tactics show; Sydnee Iglacia, a saccathian crawl historian; and Drick, an albino moon elf and former crawler turned Valtay-controlled worm. Carl is initially invisible to the crowd. Circe Took, a massive Dark Hive mantid and mother of the warrior Vrah, arrives as the panel moderator. She immediately threatens Carl, and he insults her, leading her to slice through the table in anger. Circe dominates the discussion with a lengthy, boring lecture about the dungeon's history, which Carl interrupts by banging his head on the table, joking that she's bored him to death. He then discovers he's been drugged via vape smoke—a setup he realizes was designed to lower his inhibitions. A mysterious robed woman, later identified as the Apothecary or a collective spokeswoman, intervenes by ordering the production team to allow Carl to continue speaking despite the sponsorship contract violation. Carl seizes the opportunity to address the crowd directly, delivering a scathing monologue about how society treats crawlers as disposable entertainment, then pivots to asking the audience for tactical information about fighting the Dark Hive mantids. Through audience responses, he learns there are seven warrior daughters of Circe besides Vrah, all mantids, plus Nebular hunters also waiting outside. Circe becomes enraged and storms out, threatening to kill anyone responsible for harm to her remaining daughters. Carl escalates by claiming he will be that person. Uptown Hal warns Carl he is "fucked" and that mantids are tacticians. The panel continues with audience members offering tactical suggestions. Carl ends by advertising the Desperado Club and promises to display mantid heads at his signing table the next day. Upon returning to his green room, Carl finds a message from Donut warning him that Lucia Mar is waiting in the safe room and that the bug ladies and other aliens are outside in the town. He discovers an autographed book—Dr. Ratchet's Guide to Building Automatons for Fun and Profit—and an Automaton Table, both of which he takes into inventory before preparing to return to the dungeon.