As Carl returns upstairs, a Dromedarian fires a rocket at the barricaded door. The explosion damages their defenses but fails to breach them. Carl retaliates with a hob-lobber that ignites the Dromedarian’s own explosives, triggering a secondary blast that sets the building on fire. Carl arranges a distraction for the Dromedarians while Firas uses Puddle Jumper to teleport the group to safety. The town hall collapses as they escape. A camel-woman from Hump Town informs them that the townspeople need to find remnants of the gnome Wynne to give to the gnomes; otherwise, they’ll bomb Hump Town just like they did the Bactrian town. Carl worries about how to keep to townspeople alive.

Carl, Donut, and Katia all receive second sponsors. Donut’s sponsor made the highest sponsorship bid in the show’s history, as competing organizations compete to be a crawler’s sponsor. The AI administrator Loita informs them that Donut will participate in an infomercial for her new sponsor’s product and that Katia has been booked for a solo interview. The group adds a third bodyguard, a rock creature named Very Sullen, to their team.

Morris Sp. and Bobby D.J., two of the tomb raiders who killed Wynne, arrive at the Desperado Club for their meeting. Morris describes the subterranean quadrant as a deadly maze filled with traps. He explains that—like with Wynne—they also accidentally killed the NPC they were supposed to save, a pig, which led to the bombing of the Bactrian town. Their new quest is to kill Quetzalcoatlus, the ghost of the emperor’s wife who now haunts the necropolis. Carl, who found the map they need to navigate the maze, agrees to have Katia transcribe the map for them just before he receives two boxes from his sponsors.

Carl opens his boxes with Mordecai. One contains a neural enhancer pill that adds elevation and airspeed tracking to his interface. The other from his new sponsor, a pacifist network, holds a Toraline Root Vegetable, a rare but seemingly useless alchemy material. With his updated interface, Carl learns the necropolis is approximately nine kilometers above sea level.

Following the storm, the town has deployed anti-air defenses and posted guards who interrogate everyone about the attack on the town hall. Katia and Donut return from the Desperado Club, where they spent the storm transcribing the necropolis map for the tomb raiders. Katia reports that the subterranean team is dangerously stressed and overly reliant on Bobby, their only trap detector.

The party prepares to test missiles Carl has on Ruckus, a Level 55 cyborg chicken hawk borough boss that roosts near town each night. Juice Box explains that the waster patrols avoid the creature, as a previous attempt to kill it destroyed an entire city.

Carl bribes Skarn to direct children to the Toe bar if bombs fall, while Donut steals the telescope from the roof of Skarn’s home. Donut’s new benefactor box from her sponsor upgrades her sunglasses, greatly enhancing their heat-signature detection capabilities. Using the upgraded glasses, she identifies two guards at the town gate as changelings based on their unusually hot brain signatures.

The party assembles the Royal Chariot, now equipped with a missile launcher, and drives into the desert. Carl uses the telescope to examine Ruckus, causing its description to appear on his interface. It mentions Shamus Chaindrive, a treasure hunter who sought an artifact called the Gate of the Feral Gods hidden in the necropolis. A brief system freeze occurs, causing all technology to pause. Mordecai suggests the system is adjusting its predetermined gameplay path to the early appearance of the mysterious, unusually strong artifact; stronger items normally wouldn’t appear until around floor eight.

Ruckus suddenly awakens and attacks. The boss battle begins, and Ruckus’s description changes to show it has received new orders. Carl fires a two-stage missile, but the second stage causes premature detonation. Abandoning the long-range plan, Katia drives directly toward the attacking bird. Carl fires three remaining missiles, all hitting their target. Ruckus explodes, and its massive buzz saw weapon crashes into the ground. As they celebrate, a massive rumble shakes the area, and a notification announces that a crawler, Chris Andrews 2, has conquered the Water Quadrant.

Carl explains Chris’s history to Katia. Once a quiet maintenance worker at a retirement home, Chris entered the gameshow with crawlers Imani and Elle, as well as his brother, who died and gave Carl a note to pass on to Chris expressing his love. Chris changed drastically after selecting the Igneous race and murdered a crawler named Frank Q in the Desperado Club. When Carl messages Imani to alert her, she asks him not to kill Chris.

At the collapsed town hall, Carl finds Henrik directing rescue efforts. Using her upgraded sunglasses, Donut confirms Henrik is a changeling. Charmed by Donut, Henrik explains how he uses a special pocket watch to communicate a daily code from Wynne to Commandant Kane, the established method for proving the gnome is alive. An ambassador named Leon the Commissar periodically inspects Wynne and uses a spell to detect changelings. Henrik reveals the changelings are refugees who were taken in by the Dromedarians. With Wynne dead, Carl formulates a plan to impersonate the hostage and gain access to the Wasteland.

Morris messages that the necropolis walls have shifted and water is flooding the maze from below. Carl enters the Toe and finds it full of Dromedarians and changeling children seeking shelter. He leads them into his personal space, where Mordecai reluctantly agrees to watch them. Juice Box tells Carl her people seek to return to the Hunting Grounds (the sixth floor) and that a way existed in the town hall. She refuses to say more until Carl proves himself by saving the town. A new platinum quest appears, giving Carl one hour and 15 minutes to prevent the impending bombardment of Hump Town.

Carl opens his loot boxes, receiving a Jellyfish Salve and an Enchanted Roll of Never-ending Duct Tape. With 45 minutes remaining, the party exits the safe room. Wynne’s corpse, retrieved by the tomb raiders, has been reanimated using Donut’s Second Chance spell. Katia disguises herself as part of the Royal Chariot’s back seat. Firas sits behind a different corpse dressed in Henrik’s robes.

Thirteen gnome airships descend from the Wasteland, led by the Vahana, a diplomatic balloon carrying Leon the Commissar and a sniper captain. Donut acts as spokesperson, claiming to be a healer seeking passage into the Wasteland. To maintain the deception, Firas stages the murder of “Henrik,” actually the corpse of Svern, the changeling Carl killed earlier. Carl presents the reanimated Wynne, and Donut explains its zombie-like state is a side effect of the spell the Dromedarians forced the gnome to cast.

Leon agrees to take Carl, Donut, and Wynne aboard but insists on casting his changeling-detection spell first. He tests Louis, Donut, Carl, and the reanimated Wynne, finding no changelings. As Leon inspects Henrik’s corpse and confirms it is actually a changeling, Wynne’s head disintegrates when the Second Chance spell expires. Katia seamlessly grows a replacement head unnoticed. Leon cannot find the special pocket watch on the body, so Carl produces a fake he crafted, claiming to have stolen it. The deal is struck. Carl administers a fake healing potion to Wynne and carries the duct-taped form of Katia, disguised as the gnome, toward the balloon.