S01E04 - Staff Meeting

Staff Meeting is the fourth episode of the first season of Top of the Round.

After finally leaving Heaven's Gate, our three companions, followed by an unknown figure, find themselves at the receiving end of strange, dangerous magic... and back in an unwelcoming forest.

## Detailed Synopsis

The trio leave the potion shop, Rose’s Thorns, and head out of the main gate of Heaven’s Gate into Tallow beyond. They are in the rice-growing district of Tallow.

Chaz runs ahead to the crossroads where Zeek faced the Shadestriders.  As the other two follow behind him, a conversation ensues in which Se’ku says he’s searching for his parents. Talice feels someone watching her.  She looks around and spots a gray figure in the distance who bolts away when it realizes she’s spotted it.  Talice thinks it might be the same gray figure who tackled the dog the previous night. Talice tries to give chase, but quickly loses it.

Chaz reaches the cross road where Zeek died.  Off to the side is a crater with a staff balancing upright in it.  Around the area are the shadows of people caught in the blast burned into the ground, even though the bodies are gone. The staff appears to be the same gnarled oak cane that Zeek had on him, but the handle has splayed open flower blossom.

Chaz pokes the staff, with no affect. He then grabs it with his right hand. The staff burns, but Chaz is unable to let go.  His hand is visibly steaming and he’s screaming, prompting Talice and Se’ku to run the rest of the way to him. He is finally able to let go and falls away from the staff with only 4HP left.

Talice attempts to commune with the staff in several different languages but gets no response. Chaz mimics her, speaking in Celestial, but he also gets no response.

To Se’ku’s eyes, the staff is glowing, but neither Talice nor Chaz see the glow. Se’ku hears the staff whispering his name. When Se’ku approaches it, the glow of the staff reaches out towards him. He reaches his hand out to the glow, and it spreads to his hand. Talice and Chaz still can’t see any glow. They both grab Se’ku and try to pull him away but are unable to move Se’ku at all. As they tug on him, he begins to lift up off the ground, but does not move away from the staff.

As the glow creeps up Se’ku’s arm to his shoulder, he has a brief vision that he’s in a living room with a human who has green eyes and brown hair.  The man is ruffling his hand through Se’ku’s hair.  The vision ends.

The glow continues to creep further around Se’ku’s body.

Eventually Se’ku lets go and the glow around his body fades, but the staff continues to glow.  Se’ku watches this, then reaches back out and lets the glow again grow from the staff to his body.

Talice tries shooting the staff with his crossbow. The first bolt bounces back and hits Talice.  The second bolt disintegrates on impact.

Se’ku has several moments when he feels drowsy, but no more visions occur. Eventually he actually grabs the staff.  The glow completely encases him. He feels nothing.

Eventually Se’ku gives up.  He lets go and walks away, the glow fading from him as he does so.  Talice and Chaz confirm they never saw anything glowing.

They need to cross the lake to get to the Wayward Wilds where the yellow cap mushrooms for Talice’s potion grow.  They get into a boat and cross the lake to the other side.  They see the same path they had run down the night before, and begin walking down it.

Talice sees the grey figure again hiding in the forest.  She shoots and hits the tree the figure hid behind. She yells at it to come out, but nothing happens. She charges after it, and Chaz and Se’ku follow.  Upon coming to the tree her bolt struck, they find no one and no tracks to follow. There is a small piece of rotten skin stuck to her bolt.

Talice takes the skin and sniffs it. She is poisoned.

Chaz can see her skin turning green and they debate returning to Heaven’s Gate to find aid for Talice.

Chaz recognizes the area they’re in as the one he fell asleep in the night before, just before Talice tripped over him.  He remembers seeing a meadow nearby with yellow mushrooms.  The trio go there and collect a few Yellow Capped Mushrooms.  There aren’t many in the meadow, but they see there are more in the forest nearby.  The trio wander into the woods, collecting more mushrooms. Eventually they decide they’ve got enough and are ready to go back. But when they turn around to leave, the path has disappeared.  They try walking in the direction they think is right, only to find themselves back where they started.

Then the air begins to fill with spores.  Chaz and Talice are both affected, they thinks they see a face on a spore and hear small voices chattering.