I Want to Play Too

It was pretty obvious that the guard Charlie was the next player of The Game. I quickly explained to the other guard that there was an evil creature taking people to a dark alternate reality and asking them to play a game. The guard ordered us to watch Charlie while he reported this situation to the Duke. Since murder accusations fly around this city faster than a hastened Quickling, Tina retrieved another member of the Triple Fang to watch Charlie, and we dashed to the Manor front gate.
 
I wanted to speak directly with the Duke, but the guards were only willing to pass along a note. I started to look in my bag for some parchment when Tina insisted we speak with the Duke because I had been taken by the corrupted creature in the same way that Charlie had. The guard accused me of being corrupted and ordered me to come with him for decontamination. This felt like a silly waste of time, but I humored him without a fight. I was quite insulted that he bound my wrists like a petty criminal though. I told Tina and Jade to BE GOOD and STAY OUT OF TROUBLE, and followed him to the back of the Manor. As I walked away I messaged Tina to stay in the area in case something went wrong. And reiterated to STAY OUT OF TROUBLE.
 
I was taken to what looked like a cellar door with an arcane seal on it. The guard pulled something out of his pocket to unlock it, then ordered me to go first into the darkness. It turned out that torches on the wall would magically light once you were inside, but "creepy dark void" must have been an intentional design choice because the lights could have easily been set to trigger upon door opening. The guard followed me down a long hallway and ordered me through a gate.
 
I immediately noticed an arcane symbol of reflective white paint on the ground in the middle of the room. Glancing around, I only saw torches on the wall, no windows. The gate closed and the bindings on my wrist fell off and slithered away. The guard said that the room removes corruption. They had used it for objects, but never for a person before. The process takes about an hour. Suddenly this all felt like a bad idea and wanted to make a run for it, but even if I did make it out of this cellar, what then? Run from Hygrim and hide out forever while the corruption took over everything? No, I needed to stay calm and do what I do best: observe and come up with a quick plan when the situation goes wrong.
 
The guard left and the arcane symbol on the floor began to glow. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me, but it looked like the flower on my staff was blooming. I started to feel itchy, and my spores started buzzing around, agitated. Trying to take my mind off of the possible impending doom, I identified the arcane symbol as a Transmutation circle, which really didn't tell me anything. You really need a Wizard in times like these. I carefully walked the perimeter of the room looking for anything interesting, but no luck. The spores seemed to be more agitated so I ushered them all beyond the gate where they were safe from the room's effects.
 
The symbol continued its cycle of glowing and fading, the itchiness growing and fading in tandem. As the risk of death also seemed to be fading, I settled in to wait out the remaining hour. What seemed like a few moments later I heard the cellar door burst open. I was pleasantly surprised that the time had passed so quickly. But to my horror, the guard had Charlie in tow, one arm black with mushrooms. Mushrooms breaking down a log is one thing, but to see them growing on a living person is revolting. I fought down a wave of nausea.
 
I backed into a corner as Charlie was thrown into the room, unsure if he would attack. He seemed slightly delirious--probably for the best, to not face the cold reality that you are being consumed by corruption. The symbol on the floor began to glow again, and Charlie started shrieking. I couldn't tell if it was from physical pain or the mental anguish of knowing that he was going to lose the game with the corrupted creature. I sent my spores to attack the corruption, and they too began eating away at it.
 
Charlie wasn't in a talkative mood, but he did say that the corrupted creature would be coming for him.