Seeds of Wrath

**Seeds of Wrath** is the second episode of Season 1 and the second episode overall of Act 2.

## Episode Description

As day disappears in Willow Ridge and night reigns, the guests' quest to banish the Others begins. If they go down to the woods today, they'll find a tale as old as time: a magical war, centuries deep. Can they prove they have the magic touch to claim the first of Soteria's stones? And who will wither and die, like a grape on a vine?

## Episode Summary

Lynne's compass pointed to the faraway woods, leaving the guests with little choice but to follow it. After preparing themselves - preparing weapons and grabbing the correct equipment - they headed there. At Mama Louise's Orchard, abandoned and now overgrown, where the guests soon spotted several rabbit holes and a disused tent. Xalvadora Marchesi quickly investigated inside the tent and discovered a bubbling cauldron, while Naomi Hollister found a backpack in the dirt. The attached note from a paranormal investigator claimed they'd discovered a pathway to the magical fae realm through the rabbit holes but would be unable to fit; however, he was working on a concoction to shrink himself - he just needed daisies, roses, and bluebells.

Since the tent was abandoned, likely because of the Others' arrival, the guests agreed to find the flowers they needed: Jasmine Winters, Joanna Garcia and Scarlett Wilde searched a flower patch, where Jasmine found the daisies, while Xalvadora and Endou Chiaki recovered the bluebells and roses by the trees, respectively. After mixing the new ingredients, the investigator's cauldron bubbled in multicolor. Joanna and Lynne opted to drink it before the others and were soon rapidly shrunk to the size of an ant. With little choice left, the other guests followed, downing the hot and vile potion. Once they were all done, the guests slid down the rabbit holes.

They soon fell near a gigantic river of sap, bordering the fae castle like a moat. The realm was devoid of color and life, with the trees disintegrating into dust when Xalvadora touched them. Before long, they heard desperate shouting from nearby. While most guests hid, Joanna decided to greet the shouting woman: Elva, a young fae and the Queen. Nastasia tried to stroke Elva's wings, leading to her getting tackled to the ground, while the others, upon seeing the first of Soteria's stones in her crown, reasoned with her. Elva explained that she was once the Princess, but the Unseelie Court, dark fae intent on realm domination, overtook the castle. They were intent on destroying the tree of life, the thing that gave the fae realm power and life. Her father had died fighting them and now, it was her duty to protect the tree before the last leaf fell and drive the Unseelie from her home. Since the guests were mortal, they could enter the now-corrupted sap river. She tasked the guests with finding the secret entrance to the castle within it and disabling the barrier that prevented them from entering. Once they had done that, Elva's people would eliminate the Unseelie, while they would receive the stone as payment. Elva also claimed her father had a book on the Others, in his grand library.

After a tiring swim through the thick sap, the guests entered the castle courtyard, hidden behind a load of barrels. There, they saw the Unseelie farming the tree with their spears, cutting off branches and draining it of sap. To disable the barrier, two towers - one glowing, one floating - needed to be disabled. Jasmine, meanwhile, suggested that she and a few others go to the late King's library to reclaim his book, no longer wanting to play catch-up to the Others. Buck and Joanna agreed to go with her, with the rest grouped into two groups. With their goals set, they all headed to their locations.

The grand library was burned to a crisp, with most books either destroyed, scorched, or left in a heap on the ground. The trio soon found an instruction: find the red book to unlock the King's private collection. Buck eventually found it amongst a pile of singed rubble. The spine of the book read: *To Those That Try, The Table Talks*. They soon saw the table in question; however, it only had two chairs. Before they could get to it, they were cut off by an Unseelie, clad in armor blackened by ash. Realizing one would need to distract the guard while the others ran to the table, Joanna didn't let them make a decision and ran to do it herself. She let out a flurry of teases and caught the guard's attention, while Jasmine and Buck ran to the table. They were soon weighed down to their chairs and given magnets. As inside the table were two metal spheres and two holes, they worked together to drag the spheres to their places. Once they did that, the King's book fell down, and Joanna was able to stab the Unseelie in the neck and turn it to dust.

Elsewhere, the two groups ran to their towers. First, Xalvadora, Naomi, Nathan Pierce, Scarlett Wilde and Reggie Stevens went to the floating tower. Inside were multiple buttons, separated by floating bricks they'd need to traverse. One of them glowed an ominous red, with whoever pressed it receiving an extra vote in the pile. Xalvadora unknowingly did so, soon becoming cursed, while everyone else pressed theirs. This revealed a map, which Nathan claimed, while Naomi found a diary in a nearby, floating box. Combined, the diary and map would reveal a visitor's path through the kingdom, which would spell out its name. Nathan eventually decoded the name, IEA, with Nathan calling it aloud and disabling the tower.

In the other tower, which glowed so bright they couldn't see anything, Endou felt a hidden button. After debating whether to press it with the others, she did. The lights around the tower began to change colours as the guests received their instructions: the lights would flash in separate sequences, and they would have to recall them back. If they were wrong, they would receive an extra vote. The first would be the easiest, while the last would be the hardest. Davian and Endou went first and second and recalled their sequences correctly. Third was Nastasia, who recalled her sequence correctly except for the last colour. Finally, Ross received the hardest sequence and failed to recall it, meaning Nastasia and Ross had extra votes. After that, the lights turned off, revealing the word MOONFLOWER written on the wall. Endou called it aloud and the tower was disabled.

Back at the courtyard, Elva's soldiers filled the courtyard. The Unseelie and the fae fought bitterly, swords and armour clinking and clashing, Xalvadora herself eliminating one of them until Elva and her army emerged victorious. Before they could celebrate, the last lead fell. Distraught, Elva panicked and thought about how she had failed her father but remembered his words: "do what it takes". In her eyes, the guests had failed to save the tree, so they hadn't fulfilled their end of the deal. As they were mortals, one could be sacrificed to revive the tree. She forced the panicked guests to vote on two challengers. The voting was dramatic, with Dexter angrily cursing the guests and Joanna volunteering in denial over what was happening, before Buck and Dexter were drawn.

Buck and Dexter both had ten minutes to find as many 'seeds of life' within the tree's remains as possible; the one with the most seeds would survive, and the one with the least would be sacrificed. The duo set off to find as many as they could, with Buck even reaching into the mouth of a bark face to claim one. Dexter soon found two, while Buck found another two, and so on and so forth until the time was up. The duo presented their seeds to Elva: Buck had six, Dexter had three. Dexter tried to run but Elva's guards surrounded him. With one last chant of her father's words, she threw the seeds in his mouth and the guests could only watch in horror as roots appeared from his body and his skin turned to bark. Soon, he became the new tree of life, with only his sorrowful face left in the bark. Elva gave the stone to Buck and the guests fled back out the rabbit holes.

In the orchard afterwards, they struggled to comprehend what had happened. Eventually, a box appeared before Buck. It was a Pandora's Box, containing either a disadvantage or an advantage, which could be opened or given to another guest. Buck chose to open it which gave him an advantage: for the next three episodes, his vote was doubled. Scarlett then saw smoke rising from a distant forest clearing, which the compass soon pointed at. Knowing the next stone was there, they returned to the clock tower to prepare.

## Characters

* Buck Channing - The Storyteller
* Davian Rhoades - The Courtesan
* Dexter Milner - The Cultist
* Endou Chiaki - The Rock Star
* Jasmine Winters - The Burlesque Dancer
* Joanna Garcia - The Serenader
* Nastasia Delacroix - The Lunatic
* Nathan Pierce - The Troublemaker
* Naomi Hollister - The Opera Singer
* Reggie Stevens - The Jazzman
* Ross Smythe - The Historian
* Scarlett Wilde - The Supernatural Hunter
* Xalvadora Marchesi - The Enforcer
* Lynne
* Elva