An Najaf/“The Quest for the Star Crown” By Knight Ultor Amedes/Act Four

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Act Four:

Scene One:

Poleias carries Severan back to the farmstead, and drops him in the dirt at the gateway.

Poleias: “He goes no further than this. I don’t want him in my house.”

The guys shrug. Severan groans and wakes up.

Severan: “Did someone throw a chunk of iron at my face?”

Oddimes: “I’ll say.”

Tantor: “Someone sure did.”

Severan: “Dirt!? What the hell is this all about! Thanks for keeping me out of the –“

Poleias: “Stay here.”

Severan: “Oh, right. The big man.”

Poleias enters the gate and returns with a table, he goes back in and comes out a few minutes later with maps and papers.

Poleias: “Alright, you boys want into the Sunken Palace?”

Tantor: “Sure do.”

Poleias: “Here is the way you get there.”

Brako: “Thanks Uncle Poleias. What are we up against?”

Poleias: “Unimaginable terror.”

Severan: “Gulp.”

Cri Cri: “What, then why are you letting us go in?”

Poleias: “If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Plus, we need fresh tactics. You may be able recover it.”

Tantor: “So it is down there!”

Poleias: “You bet it is.”

Severan: “That’s the easy part. The hard part is surviving to hold it.”

Brako: “Well, what are we up against?”

Polieas: “Subterranean Dragon.”

Cri Cri: “What is that?”

Oddimes: “Underground dragon? What is that all about?”

Severan: “Certain dragons live in certain areas, some like to stay in the ocean, others like to fly and live in mountains. This one is a dirt lover. Like a worm.”

Poleias: “Better not say that to his face.”

Cri Cri: “His? What is this dragon?”

Poleias: “His name is Fat. He is a greedy, stupid worm.”

Oddimes: “You said not to call him that.”

Poleias: “I said not to call him that to his face.”

Tantor: “How are we going to defeat a dragon?”

Brako: “How big is it?”

Severan: “The game is not to defeat it, it is to evade it. This lizard is not very smart. If we think of something to trick him or make him leave for a few minutes we can walk right into the main hall that leads to the Sunken Palace.”

Tantor: “Hang on, you mean we have to outsmart a giant dragon? I thought we would have to fight it and slay it.”

Brako: “How did the other men die then?”

Poleias: “No one has yet been able to outsmart the dragon, so he lets no man past him.”

Cri Cri: “I thought you said he was a stupid dragon.”

Severan: “He’s an idiot, which is why it’s so hard to outsmart him.”

Poleias: “No one has thought of anything good enough to distract him, so he eats everyone.”

Tantor: “Are you guys joking with us? What are you saying? We have to come up with an idea to make a stupid lizard move out of the way that leads to the Sunken Palace, that’s it? That’s the big danger?”

Severan: “Well, if you think it’s that easy go and try for yourself. No one has succeeded.”

Brako: “All this time you knew about the dragon and the Star Crown, why has no one succeeded?”

Poleias: “Not too many know about the dragon. Most think it is a simple dungeon crawl. Once they get to the dragon they make all the wrong mistakes. No one has succeeded in passing the dragon. Those who do know, just the clergy of my temple, have been trying method after method but have not figured out a way to outsmart him.”

Tantor: “Hahahahah! What a bunch of idiots!”

Poleias: “Excuse me?”

Tantor: “Your temple has been working hard on how to outsmart an idiot dragon!”

Severan: “Easy kid, you don’t want to get on this guy’s bad side. He punches.”

Tantor: “We can handle this, we are from An Najaf!”

Brako: “Uh, explain how?”

Tantor: “We don’t need the sorcerer, just give us a copy of the map to the lair and we’ll be fine.”

Cri Cri: “Tantor, we should devise a plan first, its not smart walking in there defenseless.”

Tantor: “Plan all you like, but plan only on how to remove the wonderful riches we are about to catch. I’ll deal with the dragon.”

Oddimes: “Are you mad man? What has gotten into you?”

Tantor: “Poleias, you say all we have to do is outsmart a stupid dragon?”

Poleias: “Yes, then he will move out of the way and you can walk right past him.”

Tantor: “We don’t have to kill him or deal with him beyond the ruse?”

Poleias: “Not at all, unless he is really hungry. But I think he had a decent meal not too long ago. Some fools from Tabost went in there. I haven’t seen any return.”

Tantor: “Excellent.”

Oddimes: “What’s the plan?”

Severan: “I don’t like his cockiness, that’s dangerous. We better plan anyway.”

Tantor goes into the farmhouse and enjoys a nice conversation with Brako’s cousin Ulyanda. She is a sweet woman, not much older than Tantor is. She describes to him the best way to skin a rancid cat without seeping the poison into the meat. He doesn’t much appreciate her details. He says to her that he has never eaten cat before, and she runs into the kitchen and brings out a cloth with a small cat breast. He tries it and smiles.

Tantor: “Tastes like chicken.”

They share a laugh together.

Meanwhile, the others are outside at the gate planning and scheming. They find it terribly difficult to think of something clever enough, but simple enough to outsmart an idiot dragon.

Severan: “Fat maybe stupid but he is not easily fooled.”

Poleias: “We have tried the chromatic method.”

Cri Cri: “What’s that?”

Poleias: “Take three cloths of different colour, one in each man’s hand. Have an additional man stand to the left and ask which colour the dragon is looking at. As the dragon thinks about it, have the three men rotate positions, thereby bringing three different colours into the dragons focus.”

Oddimes: “And that didn’t work?”

Poleias: “No. He ate the first two and stepped on the third.”

Oddimes: “How was that supposed to trick him anyway?”

Severan: “The time it would have taken him to figure out that there were three different successive colours in his line of sight should have given the questioner enough time to slip past him.”

Cri Cri: “And that didn’t work? Why not?”

Poleias: “We learned that Fat is colour blind.”

Oddimes: “Oh. What else have you tried?”

Severan: “This one time we took three mirrors in there and asked him to tell us which direction the light was shining in from. Each mirror would direct the sunray to another point in the wall.”

Poleias: “Hmm, yes, the refractive method.”

Severan: “You remember that one Polee?”

Poleias: “Yes, we barely made it out alive.”

Oddimes: “And that didn’t work?”

Poleias: “He smashed our mirrors first then took a look.”

Cri Cri: “What made him look at the mirrors?”

Severan: “The light normally shines top down in that cavern, when we brought the mirrors in it made a shiny surface, sending light bottom up. That caught his attention and he attacked.”

Poleias: “We learned that Fat has sensitive eyes.”

Oddimes: “Why are these all visual tricks?”

Severan: “What else can we do?”

Oddimes: “I dunno, ever ask him a riddle?”

Poleias: “A riddle? Some have yes. They get eaten.”

Severan: “Oh ya, Guipodus. That poor fool.”

Cri Cri: “What did he ask?”

Poleias: “What makes a dragon move?”

Severan: “Fat was not impressed.”

Cri Cri: “Why did that not work?”

Poleias; “We learned that Fat does not like people talking about him to his face. He is a sensitive one, very non-confrontational.”

Severan: “Plus Guipodus broke a rule.”

Oddimes: “Severan, why not use your amazing magic?”

Severan: “Creativity is the magic of man. Fat cannot resist it.”

Cri Cri: “And your sorcery?”

Severan: “He is older than my magic. He knows its foibles.”

Cri Cri: “Foibles?”

Severan: “He knows all the weaknesses.”

Cri Cri: “Oh.”

Oddimes: “So what are we going to do?”

Poleias: “We can get to him easy enough, dodging the Beheading Zealot, navigating the Bloodless Maze, and leaping over the Chasm of the Underbelly. Once we get to Fat, it’s a dead end.”

Cri Cri: “Oh my…!”

Oddimes: “You can get past all that easily?”

Severan: “Sure, they respond to the normal methods of treasure hunting. But Fat, he is something else.”

Poleias: “Yes, my temple has lost many intelligent and brave men because of that stubborn worm!”

Brako: “Stubborn?”

Poleias: “Like a mule.”

Cri Cri: “Like a subterranean dragon.”

Oddimes: “Ever try bribing him?

Severan: “Bribing him? With what?”

Oddimes: “I dunno, tell him that if he lets us past he will get a nice surprise.”

Poleias: “That might work. We have never done that method before. The venal method.”

Severan: “What’s the big surprise?”

Oddimes: “Us running out of there with the Star Crown!”

Severan: “Ha! That’s a crazy plan. So crazy it just might work!”

They all place their hands together and cheer! Then call Tantor and prepare to move through the city and into the sewer system.

Scene Two:

Tantor, Oddimes, Brako, Cri Cri and Severan move determined through the city streets of Krimml. It is late in the afternoon, and they are all full from the filling lunch Poleias and his family fed them, except Severan, he was not invited. Poleias wished them best of luck and gave them the most up to date map he had, with detailed instructions on how to wade through the many obstacles until they got to the Dragon Fat. Once the map gets to his lair, it goes blank.

The team made to the mouth of the sewers and enters its watery gloom. They begin mushing through the filthy water towards the depth of the sewers.

Cri Cri : “It’s stinks, and the water is thick!”

Severan: “Well this is the outgoing sewer pipe.”

Brako: “Eww.”

Cri Cri: “What does that mean?”

Tantor: “It means we are walking through other peoples waste.”

Oddimes: “Oh for the love of-’”

Severan: “Hang tight fella’s this is the best way in, I know.”

Brako: “You been here before Severan?”

Severan: “Sure, a few times. Me and your uncle tried before you were even born.”

Brako: “No luck?”

Severan: “Not a chance. Well, now that I think about it, we did master our way through the first obstacles. That is pretty impressive if you ask me. And all the women I tell usually are wooed by that.”

Brako: “Oh right. You are a philanderer.”

Severan: “Sometimes yes.”

Oddimes: “Tell us about your sorcerer training.”

Severan: “Well, there is more to it than you may think.”

Cri Cri: “I don’t care. I have made it my life goal.”

Severan: “And it’s not that rewarding as you may think either.”

Oddimes: “What does that mean?”

Severan: “Well, in any realm there are always powers larger than a single unit, one unit being one person’s soul. Those that are larger tend to be stronger, and when they are stronger they make the rules. Now, what a sorcerer does is try to take some of that power and make his unit larger than everyone else’s. What happens is that instead of taking he borrows, this leads to debt.”

Oddimes: “How do you repay that?”

Severan: “Good question. How to you repay the powers something that they are purely made of? Anyone guess the answer?”

Tantor: “Doesn’t sound possible?”

Cri Cri: “It has to be possible.”

Severan: “Well, it is nearly possible.”

Brako: “What?”

Severan: “He either has to give himself into the rule of the power, obeying its command, or, he wins big enough to pay them outright, maybe even become a power himself.”

Cri Cri: “I knew it was possible.”

Severan: “Hang on kiddo that is easier said than done. Do you know what the odds are of winning bigger than the debt you owe a power?”

Cri Cri: “No.”

Severan: “Me neither, I could never figure out how those things worked. But, I do know that in all the histories that I have read, no sorcerer has ever outmatched a power. Ever.”

Oddimes: “What happens to them?”

Severan: “They are consumed or dissipated.”

Cri Cri: “What is going to happen to you?”

Tantor: “Cri Cri, that’s impolite.”

Severan: “Ah, I wonder that myself all the time.”

Cri Cri: “And?”

Oddimes: “Can you win big Severan?”

Severan: “I’ll sure as hell try.”

Brako: “What’s the game?”

Severan: “It’s a sorcerer thing; you can’t understand it even if you tried. Very technical.”

Cri Cri: “Why is being a sorcerer so crummy?”

Severan: “That’s life, you can’t deny it.”

Oddimes: “But you have so much power, you can do anything.”

Severan: “Wrong. You can do anything because you are not in bondage to a power. Being a talent is like being enslaved.”

Cri Cri: “I do not want to be a slave. I was born free in An Najaf.”

Severan: “Then you’ll never want to be a sorcerer.”

Oddimes: “Are all sorcerers in debt?”

Severan: “Yup.”

Oddimes: “Who are they in debt to?”

Severan: “The powers.”

Oddimes: “But what are these powers, and where are they?”

Severan: “All around. They move the wind, and the water, and fire. They pull the sun up, and let it go when the night creeps in. Ever hear the waves crash on the beach?”

Tantor: “All the time!”

Severan: “Some say they are having a conversation with the sand.”

Tantor: “Talkative aren’t they.”

Cri Cri: “So why are they so vicious?”

Severan: “Because they are amoral, and have no sense of the human condition. They obey their laws without fail, and expect every other system to do the same. You cannot ask them for any favours, or to give you a break because they just plain don’t care.”

Oddimes: “Sounds unjust.”

Severan: “Justice is a human invention same with everything else on this planet, except for creativity.”

Tantor: “Creativity?”

Severan: “Creativity is the one thing that belongs to us alone, as our birthright.”

Brako: “How do you mean?”

Severan: “The world runs on order, everything is a system within a rank and file. That is the organization of the universe. Everything fits within it.”

Cri Cri: “Even humans?”

Severan: “Especially humans. We work under the rules of the universe just like the powers do.”

Oddimes: “They just have it better.”

Severan: “Not necessarily, we have that one thing none of them have.”

Tantor: “Creativity.”

Severan: “Yes. Creativity above all else, and everything is subject to creativity. That is what composes our unit. The powers want this, and that’s why they are willing to make a deal with us. We sorcerers want to become immovable like the powers, but we have to give up our creativity in exchange. They make the game unwinnable so they can take us every time. Outright criminal if you ask me. Those powers want the most priceless thing we have in exchange for something worthless by comparison.”

Cri Cri: “I don’t understand.”

Severan: “Don’t worry about it. It’s technical, sorcerer stuff. Commoner’s logic!”

Oddimes: “Commoner’s logic! Haha”

They all laugh.

Cri Cri: “Are we almost there?”

Severan: “Make a left here.”

The gang mush through more thick water until the water becomes thin and fresh. They drink and eat a snack. While there they see some rats and a snake. They laugh.

Tantor: “That’s the worst this place has? C’mon, that worm doesn’t scare me!”

Severan: “Don’t get out of line buddy, or I’ll take you down. I won’t hesitate either, so watch yourself.”

Oddimes: “He isn’t usually like this.”

Tantor: “Haha! You just wait! I look forward to facing that little insect!”

Severan: “Is he going to be able to control himself? I’ll bind him right now.”

Brako: “He’ll be fine. We’ll need him when we get to the riches.”

Severan: “I thought you only wanted the Star Crown?”

Oddimes: “We do, but while we are down there we might as well take what we can.”

Severan: “Ha, take what you can carry. I’m not carrying anything.”

Brako: “But you have been trying to get in here for years, why not take what you’d like?”

Severan: “There’s more to life than gold. I don’t need it.”

Oddimes: “But you can eat for years!”

Severan: “I make a humble living.”

Brako: “But you are a philanderer, wouldn’t you like to have the gold flash off you?”

Severan: “Easy guy, that’s a cheap shot.”

Brako: “You are some piece of work. You lack morals and courtesy.”

Severan: “Who’s going to teach me you?”

Brako: “I’ll put my fist in your face, same place my Uncle put his!”

Tantor: “Easy! EASY! What’s wrong with you!”

Oddimes: “Brako, he is a sorcerer!”

Brako: “I know how to deal with his kind. You are a no good rotten shell of a man.”

Severan: “I make a living.”

Brako: “Curses be upon you!”

Severan: “Harsh!”

Cri Cri: “Brako! Why are you so angry!”

Brako: “Both my cousins, and my aunt! That animal! No wonder my Uncle wants to kill you!”

Severan: “Yah, that’s true.”

Brako: “How do you live with yourself? Sell out! Animal!”

Tantor: “We haven’t even gone to the first obstacle and you are already going to kill the guy! Brako! Calm down!”

Severan: “I’ll tell you what. If it will make you feel any better, I’ll be the one to speak with Fat. If the plan fails, he’ll eat me. If it succeeds, you guys can walk right past us. I will not enter the hallway.”

Oddimes: “What if there is something worse in there, and we need sorcerer power?”

Severan: “Make do without.”

Brako: “I hope Fat eats you up!”

Severan: “Me too.”

Cri Cri: “No! Stop this! We have to keep going.”

They continue on their traverse.

Scene Three:

They continue walking through the sewer and come to a white stone archway with an iron door sealed shut.

Severan: “This is it.”

Tantor: “Fat is behind there?”

Severan: “Fat is. So is the Beheading Zealot.”

Cri Cri: “Who is that?”

Severan: “An ancient beast, used to be a man now turned to something worse.”

Oddimes: “How do we defeat him?”

Severan: “He does not like to be wet, it pisses him off. There is a trap in the maze that drops to the underground lake, the one that flows down into the Chasm, but also is part of the sewers drainage system.”

Brako: “What’s the plan?”

Severan: “Make him chase us to the point where the ground falls out, get him to walk into the trap. Then viola, he is down in the lake and out of our way.”

Cri Cri: “What happens to him down there?”

Severan: “He has to make his way out of the lake through the sewers. This exposes him to the air outside. There is nothing more he hates than being wet, except being wet outside.”

Brako: “That’s the plan? To get him wet? Why don’t we kill him?”

Severan: “I’d like to see you try.”

Brako: “Oh. He’s one of those ancient beasts.”

Severan: “That’s right.”

Tantor: “Okay, so we run into the maze, watch the guy fall into the lake, then what?”

Severan: “Then we have to escape from the maze and its multitude of booby traps. But don’t worry Poleias and I have that place mapped out quite well, most of it anyway. If we get lost we might be ruined.”

Cri Cri: “So follow the map exactly.”

Severan: “Exactly.”

Oddimes: “Okay, then we get to Fat?”

Severan: “Then we get to Fat.”

Tantor: “Ha! Fat! What a joke!”

Severan: “Alright, maybe you should go first.”

Tantor: “Sure will!”

Severan: “Actually, Poleias said for every one of you who gets killed he will kill me. So you better not.”

Brako: “What about the Chasm of the Underbelly?”

Severan: “That’s right! I forgot about that.”

Cri Cri: “What do we do then?”

Severan: “That’s when I get to use magic.”

Oddimes: “Honey!”

Severan: “Then we get to Fat.”

Tantor: “Let’s move in!”

Severan and the guys kick in the iron door, which always manages to close again after it is used, and enter into the depths of the ruins. It is an ancient city buried beneath Krimml. The very same where the Queen ruled so long ago, the very same where her son lost the crown and the very same where Susa and Jer battled. The air is old, and heavy, and there is very little light. They pull out torches and ignite them, illuminating the cobwebs and debris lying throughout.

They walk further in and turn through corridor after corridor, Severan never once checking his map. The guys notice, but follow anyway. Then they reach another door with a glowing tree etched in it. They marvel at it as Severan kicks it open. They enter the next segment and walk further into the ruined city. Somehow it seems all of it is indoors, but they do not notice that there is plenty of dirt where there should be roofs. The streets were swallowed by the ground and immersed totally. All the citizens at the time paid the same heavy price as the corrupt rulers. The earth shows no mercy.

As they walk they begin to chatter.

Oddimes: “Severan, tell us more about being a sorcerer. It sounds like a mistake, why would anyone want to do it?”

Cri Cri: “Yah Severan, tell us more.”

Severan: “Alright, well, remember how I said that everything runs in order?”

Oddimes: “Sure.”

Severan: “Okay, so at the top of the order is the highest life form imaginable. It is the supreme power, the power who has the most power, the Ultimate On High. Not only is he the best of the best, this power is inherently creative too. You understand? That is the goal of every power and every sorcerer, to become the Ultimate On High. We have creativity, but no power. The powers are all powerful, but have no creativity. That’s the game. We tip and flow every day trying to raise ourselves closer to the top, to become the supreme power. Only one can sit there at any time, in fact as long as the game has been played there has only been one at the top, the very first to reach the gold medal. No being has beaten him.”

Cri Cri: “Wow, that’s deep.”

Severan: “True the powers do not have creativity, but they have something very close to it. Variety. Just as we humans are various in everything and every manner, so too are the powers. But variety is not as useful or as potent as creativity is. We humans have a little power of our own, no where near the cosmic power the powers have.”

Oddimes: “What’s our power?”

Severan: “Art. We are an industrious lot, always inventing always creating always active. Art is the activity that is our power.”

Cri Cri: “You mean like painters and musicians?”

Severan: “Yes, and more than that. I mean architects and rhetoricians; even the journey you boys are making is art. Art is making, and artifice, the world is artificial, is the inventions of art. A thing made by our human minds. That is our power. It is subject to creativity of course, but without artifice we would have no civilization, no society.”

Cri Cri: “I do not understand!”

Oddimes: “It’s abstract, sort of.”

Tantor: “No, it’s very concrete.”

Severan: “It is finite and infinite, boundless and bound. If a human mind understood this, they can accomplish anything. That is why creativity is the magic of man. This is wisdom of the ancients and will be wisdom of the future.”

Oddimes: “You know the future?”

Severan: “Man will live for uncalculated lengths, they will learn this lesson, apply it, and then lose it to history. Millennia’s will pass they will relearn it, and then lose it again. And this cycle will always run.”

Tantor: “Is it an eternal truth?”

Severan: “Hmm, what is eternal truth?”

Tantor: “Knowledge that applies in all times in all places to all people.”

Severan: “No. It is certainly not eternal truth.”

Tantor: “But you just said that it is a cycle that will always return, then would that not mean that humans would always know this and be able to apply it?”

Severan: “No.”

Tantor: “No?”

Severan. “No.”

Tantor: “How no?”

Severan: “If one generation forgets it, then it is not an eternal truth. That lost generation would apply a completely different truth than the ones prior to it. That goes for everything.”

Tantor: “Then it is relative?”

Severan: “No. It is certainly not relative.”

Tantor: “But you just said that different generations would apply different truths. That means it is relative.”

Severan: “No.”

Tantor: “Why no?”

Severan: “If it was relative then it would only apply to one generation and then that is it. This returns to humankind again and again. It is not relative if it applies to many people at different times.”

Tantor: “Relative to those people in that particular time.”

Severan: “Universal.”

Tantor: “So it is eternal?”

Severan: “No.”

Tantor: “What’s the difference!?”

Severan: “It certainly applies to particulars, but cosmically. It applies eternally, but temporally, while being atemporal.”

Cri Cri: “I don’t understand! This is too much!”

They keep walking through the ruins until they reach the large dome. A sign is lying on the ground written in an ancient language. They all look at it trying to translate what it says.

Cri Cri: “Here lies, Woozelwuzzle?”

Oddimes: “No, it says ‘Idiots and uglies stay out. Lookers only.’ It must have been a gentlemen’s club!”

Brako: “No, it says ‘…and bob is your uncle’ Hmm?”

Tantor: “It says, ‘Beneath the planet of the – “

Severan: “You are all wrong.”

Oddimes: “Anyone could have guessed that.”

Cri Cri: “Do you know what it reads Severan?”

Severan: “Poleias told me once. It is ancient Krimmelian, means ‘Know thyself.’ We must be where the oracle was. That means we are close.”

Tantor: “And closer to the Beheading Zealot.”

Severan: “We have to enter through here. The best way to get to the Palace is through the secret underground – well further underground – escape tunnels that led from the Palace to the dome.”

Oddimes: “We have to confront the Beheading Zealot in here? And this is the best way!”

Severan: “Trust me. Enter the dome, into the tunnels, we dodge the Zealot, the tunnels lead to the maze, we find the trap lead the zealot into it, then work our way through the maze over the chasm and into the palace.”

Brako: “Why so much?”

Severan: “These were used as escape tunnels, outgoing. They did not want anyone to come in.”

Brako: “Oh.”

They enter into the large dome, one of the great wonders of the ancient city. Unfortunately it is just as crippled and decayed as the rest of the rotting ruins. But the majesty of it cannot be avoided. To have lived during those times would have been like nothing any of us alive today could have known. Unless you are from An Najaf, that land is incomparable to the wastelands of every other region. Its beauty and glory shine brightest. It has been observed that the moon reflects the light of the sun, and it has been said that the sun reflects the light from An Najaf.

Itius: “Master! Are the ruins still accessible in Krimml?”

Pafizi: “Yes, but there is not much left in there besides soft rubble.”

Itius: “Has anyone gone in there looking for treasure?”

Pafizi: “Not in centuries, most of it had been plundered through the ages.”

Itius: “And the Star Crown, where is it today?”

Pafizi: “Let me finish the story! You rotten overripe fruit! I’ll squash you with my sandal! I’ll mush you with my teeth! You worthless, you incompetent! You do not even know how to use the hands attached to your wrists!”

Itius: “Finish the story master.”

Pafizi: “Fine. I’ll hurl insults at you some more later.” Hrm uhm. “Where was I…”

They walk through the receptionary and into a passage off to the side. The passage winds and twists then ends up in a large storage room in the basement. From here, and without a map, Severan leads them to a trick statue that rotates and reveals a hidden chamber. Once this is opened, there is a descending stairwell that leads to the escape tunnels – and to the Zealot.

Oddimes: “Where is the Zealot?”

Severan: “Down here. Are you sure you guys want to go through with this? This is the point of no return. Once we enter the tunnels, it is forward to death.”

Tantor: “We travelled this far, nothing can stop us.”

Severan: “Many things can stop you, and they are all down there.”

Cri Cri: “Do I have to go?”

Severan: “No.”

Brako: “Of course you do Cree, we want you safe with us.”

Cri Cri: “My stomach hurts.”

Tantor: “Go in the corner over there.”

Cri Cri: “I have to go badly.”

Oddimes: “Then hurry!”

Cri Cri runs into the other hall way and squirts in the corner. They giggle.

Cri Cri: “Not funny!”

Oddimes: “Make sure you don’t bring any back with you!”

They giggle again. He squirts some more then returns a few minutes later.

Cri Cri: “My stomach still hurts.”

Tantor: “You want to stay here?”

Severan: “If he stays we all stay, if we all go he comes with us.”

Cri Cri: “I want to go. If this be my end, better to pass over with you guys than alone in a dark room.”

Severan: “That’s the spirit.”

They all take a good look at each other, then one by one they drop into the tunnels. Severan first, then Tantor, then Cri Cri, then Oddimes and finally Brako.

Act Five