Stale's still... kinda here? We're kinda bugging him about it, and he said he's still here, so... I dunno. About the expedition... the two teams are off to save Josh's love interest who is in mortal danger, or, more accurately, Team Scarab is doing that, and Spruce just thought it would be funny to tag along due to the fact that he's not really believing Anthony actually got a psychic message telling him to head north.