Louis leaves Juice Box behind soon after their wedding and takes Party Planner on its first trip toward the base with Katia, Bautista, and Samantha. Carl and Donut head through the Meadowlark saferoom because the guild-wide doggie door upgrade is not yet installed, discussing Shanty Town, Juice Box's defense work, Ferdinand's warlord menus, and plans to recover useful enchanted items from Ferdinand.

On the way, Donut receives notice that her garbage truck sponsorship has been canceled for a conflict of interest and will be auctioned off. When Carl and Donut enter the Meadowlark space, they find Imani, Florin, Mistress Tiatha, and two Crest visitors waiting: Rosetta Thag and Tipid. Both are level 60 colonels in the Princess Posse, and Carl is stunned to realize Tipid, author of the fourth Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, has entered the game.

Tipid embraces Carl and explains that only a few former crawlers were available, though Florin clarifies that this means just over 50,000 reinforcements. Rosetta greets Carl by slapping his forehead, then hugging him, and privately warns that the dungeon is still listening. Rosetta demands Carl's remaining toraline, Shi Maria's tattoo ink, access to the saferoom and bomber's studio, several million gold, and Donut's charm for purchasing supplies from the bopca.

Tipid then gives a condensed account of what happened after Tipid left the dungeon. Tipid survived through costly surgery, fell into debt, and was helped by Doctor Porthus Hu, author of the second cookbook and founder of the Crawler Project. Tipid explains that Hu's work helped secure citizenship, healthcare, and housing protections for newly released crawlers, while Hu also formed the Open Intellect Pacifist Network to try to end the crawl.

Tipid says authorities cracked down on Hu's organization after incidents including Paulie's appearance in the Florida shelter. After working for years in a Crest waste management colony, Tipid joined Hu's plan to convert a garbage freighter into a passenger liner and bring former crawlers back into the dungeon to fight in Faction Wars. More former crawlers begin moving through the saferoom, and Tipid explains that the returnees received a standard mercenary package: level 60, temporary race and class choices, little equipment, but extensive experience.

The hope brought by the 50,000 former crawlers is undercut when Tipid reveals that the eight enemy teams also received reinforcements: about 20,000 experienced mercenaries each, most allowed to enter armed. Tipid believes the situation will be dangerous because the enemy factions are cooperating, especially during the first week, but he remains confident in the skills of the former crawlers. Carl decides it is time to go to the base and introduce the reinforcements to the team.