An Najaf/“The Quest for the Star Crown” By Knight Ultor Amedes/Act One
This is an old tale shared among the people of An Najaf. It is a particular favourite of An Najaf’s favourite son, Ultor Amedes.
Prologue:
Itius: "Speak slower Master, I cannot understand you."
Pafizi: “Well then LISTEN faster!”
Itius: “Alright, alright, please continue.”
Pafizi: “Now this tale is an important one. A tale of might, majesty and glory! Something your feeble self will never enjoy! You weakling! You common-skin!”
Itius: “Master!”
Pafizi: “Sorry. Where was I?”
Itius: “Right at the beginning.”
Pafizi: “Yes. This tale has been told by tongues long and far, but none know it as I do. None have seen it, smelled it, breathed it, as I have.”
Itius: “Are you the hero Master?”
Pafizi: “Shut up! You know nothing ingrate, degenerate! Your foul soul knows nothing conceivably comparable to the purity and righteousness of the heroes in this tale.”
Itius: “Alright, alright. Do not get too excited Master, remember the last time.”
Pafizi: “Do not remind me of the last time. Now that I think of it, didn’t I say never to mention that again!?”
Itius: “Sorry Master, please do not cane me.”
Pafizi: “Not this time, insect.”
Itius: “It was rather unforgettable though, even for – “
Pafizi: “That’s enough! -- This tale is a story of old wonders and ancient treasures, but every bit new as anything…”
Itius: “What does that mean Master?”
Pafizi: “Itiot! “
Itius: “My name is Itius Master,”
Pafizi: “What did I say about asking questions during my dramatic performances!?”
Itius: “ ‘It spoils the mood.’ Right, I remember.”
Pafizi: “Good. Don’t forget it either. Back to the story.…”
In a far away land in a long ago time, there was a treasure so fair. It belonged to a Queen whose beauty knew no match, but rule was harsher than none. She was rich and exciting, tame and yet wild. She served no man and no law. Her decrees went unbroken, her expansion went unmatched, and in time she ruled from sea to sea. But the one enemy she could not overcome was the one that she feared most.
It was death - it was death!
Her son took the crown, but it did not fit his head, and he lost it to the villains of vice. They bickered and battled and bled each other dry, and in the end no man possessed,
The Star Crown – the Star Crown!
The crown became history and history became legend then legend turned into myth. But ancient imaginations would always remind us, that treasure is never forgotten. And so, this tale since long passed, is the last adventure, the last hunt, and most recent lust for that long lost treasure, the Star Crown…
Itius: “Master, did you find the Star Crown?”
Pafizi: “You are ruining the story! Keep quiet!”
Itius: “Yes Master.”
The myth of the Star Crown spread as campfire stories or nursery rhymes, and it never left the hearts and minds of the people. Additions were made and remotions were had but the kernel stayed the same. Treasure was out there and no hand possessed it, and one day it would be found again. But by whom? ….
"The Quest for the Star Crown"
Act One:
Scene One:
On the peaceful coast of An Najaf, three young men rest and listen merrily to the waves crash on the shore. Each of them watches the clouds and dream better dreams. Tantor, the oldest by one year, speaks first.
Tantor: “Say fellas, isn’t this beach perfect?”
Cri Cri, the youngest, replies.
Cri Cri: “Compared to what? We have never seen another beach besides this one.”
Tantor: “Does that mean it’s not a beach?”
Cri Cri:” Huh, no it is still a beach, but how do we know if it is the perfect beach?”
Oddimes, the middle one, stirred from his comfort to join the conversation.
Oddimes: “A beach is a beach is a beach is a beach…”
Tantor: “It is perfect because it is our beach. This coast stretches all along An Najaf, our land. That’s why it’s perfect.”
Oddimes: “Hang on, Tokat and Fontan City share this coast. Would they not have beaches too?”
Cri Cri: “Exactly. So wouldn’t the beach near Fontan City be better than this one?”
Tantor: “Not at all.”
Oddimes: “Why not? I am sure there are more women in Fontan City than here in An Najaf. Wouldn’t that mean there would be more women on the beach, hence their beach is better than ours?”
They laugh.
Cri Cri: “None of us have been to the beach near Fontan City, so how would we know it is not better than this one?”
Tantor: “Because we do not live in Fontan City, we live here in An Najaf. This is our beach, and so it is perfect.”
Oddimes: “Tantor, that is commoner’s logic. You have no reason in your head.”
Tantor: “What do you know about reason?”
Cri Cri: “I would like to see the beach in Fontan City.”
Tantor: “What about Tokat’s?”
Oddimes: “There are no women in Tokat!”
They laugh again.
Tantor: “I am sure there are.”
Cri Cri: “How can you be sure of that?”
Tantor: “Because there are women here.”
Cri Cri: “And. Have you ever been to Tokat?”
Tantor: “Never once.”
Cri Cri: “So how would you know they had women? And how would you know Fontan City’s beach was better than ours?”
Tantor: “Have you seen our beach?”
Oddimes: “We are sitting on it now.”
Tantor: “Isn’t it perfect?”
Oddimes: “Bah! Commoner’s logic!”
Cri Cri: “Commoner’s logic! -- The beach in Fontan City is probably much better than ours, and I assure you that Tokat has no women whatsoever!”
Tantor: “That is ridiculous!”
Oddimes: “Almost as ridiculous as finding the Star Crown!”
They laugh.
Cri Cri: “How can we be sure there even is a Star Crown?”
Tantor: “Your father said so. He told us again last night, you were there.”
Cri Cri: “I know I was there, and I heard every word of it. But how does my father know it exists? He has never seen it.”
Tantor: “Never once.”
Oddimes: “He certainly wasn’t even alive for that Cree.”
Cri Cri: “Exactly, so how does he know it is real?”
Tantor: “It is.”
Oddimes: “Prove it.”
Tantor: “How? Do you know where it lays now?”
Oddimes: “Some say King Psyimodius lost it in the springs of Evora, or that gnomes in Akesh Temple horde it with the rest of their gold and jewels, without even distinguishing it as a crown.”
Cri Cri: “What gnomes?”
Oddimes: “There are gnomes I tell you, my cousin has seen them when he went on a pilgrimage to the temple.”
Cri Cri: “Danoura?”
Oddimes: “No, Iscander.”
Cri Cri: “Oh yah, I remember him telling us that. But that was a few years ago. The gnomes might be dead now.”
Tantor: “No no, the gnomes don’t have it.”
Oddimes: “Then who does?”
Tantor: “I heard it was lost in the Sunken Palace under Krimml.”
Cri Cri: “I heard that too, but how do we know it’s really there?”
Tantor: “Brako told me so.”
Oddimes: “Brako! That hulking idiot! What does he know?”
Tantor: “He has been to Krimml.”
Oddimes: “Oh yah, he would know.”
Cri Cri: “Let’s go ask him.”
Tantor: “He is at work in my father’s vineyard.”
Cri Cri: “Then let’s go to the Vintnery and ask him.”
Tantor: “Alright.”
The three youths took a nice peaceful walk in the sun up the road, which our Lords do a fine job of maintaining, towards Amedes Vintnery. On either side of them are elysian fields, blissful and irenic.
Scene Two:
They enter the field and walk along the grapevines looking for their friend Brako. They find him clipping and stripping the dead vines away from the live ones. If the dead vines remain, then they would choke the living ones and no grapes would be fed.
Brako notices them walking down the tilled land between the grapevines and waves.
Brako: “Hello guys.”
The Fellas: “Hello Brako!”
Cri Cri excitedly rushes closer and begins to speak to Brako.
Cri Cri: “Brako, we have a question for you.”
Brako: “What?”
Cri Cri: “Have you ever been to Fontan City?”
Oddimes: “You mean Krimml you dolt.”
Cri Cri: “Yah, that’s the one, have you ever been to Krimml?”
Brako: “Sure, last fall. My father, my brother and I went up there for harvest. My uncle needed some extra hands because my cousin was enlisted.”
Tantor: “And…?”
Brako: “And what?”
Cri Cri: “Did you hear anything about the Star Crown?”
Brako: “The Star Crown? Wasn’t your father telling that story last night? I hear he does a fine job of it.”
Cri Cri: “Right right, but did you hear anything about it when you went to Krimml?”
Oddimes: “Like where it is?”
Brako: “Sure, there are stories about that thing all over.”
Cri Cri: “Right right, but did you hear anything about it being in Krimml?”
Brako: “Uh…hmm…”
Tantor: “You told me you did.”
Brako: “I did? When?”
Tantor: “When you guys came back in early spring, like a month and a half ago.”
Brako: “I did…?”
Cri Cri: “You did. We want to ask you what it was that you told Tantor?”
Brako: “Tantor? Oh ya, about the Star Crown. Yah. It is in Krimml.”
Oddimes: “Did you see it?”
Brako: “No, of course not.”
Oddimes: “Then how do you know it is there?”
Brako: “Because that’s what they say.”
Oddimes: “Commoner’s logic!”
Cri Cri: “Hang on. What did they say?”
Brako: “That it is in Krimml, underneath it actually. It was left in the Sunken Palace, in the ruins beneath the city.”
Oddimes: “How did it get there?”
Brako: “Uhh…I don’t remember.”
Tantor: “You told me that they told you that the last battle for Krimml was between King Susa and Prince Jer. Prince Jer was fighting to become King of Krimml, and for the crown that Susa wore; which was the Star Crown. The both of them died in the Palace that later sunk and was rebuilt over.”
Brako: “Yah that’s right. Susa had it last.”
Cri Cri: “Where did he get it?”
Brako: “I dunno, no one told me that.”
Oddimes: “How do you know it’s not in the springs of Evora?”
Brako: “Who said anything about Evora?”
Oddimes: “That’s what my cousin told me.”
Brako: “Danoura?”
Oddimes: “No, Iscander! Oh wait, yah Danoura said that.”
Brako: “I don’t know. Maybe it is in Evora. The local bard kept singing about the Star Crown being lost in the ruins beneath Krimml. In the Sunken Palace.”
Tantor: “Did anyone go looking for it?”
Brako: “Sure, plenty. None of them survived though. In fact, now that I think about it there was a funeral going on in a homestead outside the town because a couple of men went looking for it and never returned.”
Cri Cri: “So, it is still there.”
Oddimes: “If it is there.”
Tantor: “It’s there.”
Brako: “How do you know?”
Tantor: “You just said.”
Brako: “What did I say?”
Tantor: “You said people are still looking for it in the ruins of Krimml. And that they never returned.”
Brako: “And?”
Tantor: “And if someone wanted to find the Star Crown don’t you think they would look in the last place it was seen?”
Oddimes: “Why not Akesh Temple? Those gnomes have a lot of treasure. It might be sitting there buried under rubies and silk.”
Brako: “Gnomes? Really?”
Oddimes: “Yah, my cousin said so.”
Brako: “Iscander?”
Oddimes: “No Danoura. Wait, yes, Iscander.”
Tantor: “Because no one goes looking in Akesh Temple for the Star Crown, they go to Krimml. And if anyone has explored Akesh Temple they would not find anything and so they would return empty handed. If people go looking in Krimml they don’t come back at all do they? So, it must be there.”
Oddimes: “Commoner’s logic!”
Cri Cri: “So it is under Krimml, eh. Guys, I have an idea!”
The Guys: “Oh oh.”
Cri Cri: “We’re going to get the Star Crown!”
Oddimes: “In Evora?”
Cri Cri: “No, Krimml.”
Tantor: “To Krimml.”
Brako: “To Krimml!”
Oddimes: “Who said you can come!?”
Brako: “I am the only one who has been there.”
Cri Cri: “You did not go alone though.”
Brako: “No, but I would still know the way. At least, would recognize the way…or, at least would know if we ended up in a different city.”
Tantor: “That is true. Brako can come too.”
Cri Cri: “Excellent. Which way to Krimml?”
Oddimes: “You know what we need? A ranger.”
Cri Cri: “What is that?”
Oddimes: “Someone who knows there way around, that’s what.”
Tantor: “Where would we find a ranger, they usually flock to big cities looking for work. There are no big cities in An Najaf.”
Brako: “I know one.”
Oddimes: “Sure there are no big cities in An Najaf, but that does not mean there are no rangers.”
Cri Cri: “So where are we to find one?”
Brako: “I know one!”
Tantor: “Right, but what reason would a ranger have to be in An Najaf if there is no work for him. He might as well go straight to Fontan City or Karbala.”
Brako: “I KNOW ONE! I KNOW A RANGER!”
Oddimes: “Stop yelling! What are you babbling about!?”
Brako: “You ignorants! I know a ranger.”
Cri Cri: “You do? How?”
Tantor: “Where is he? Probably in a city.”
Brako: “No, he is staying at my step mother’s house. She told me to call him ‘Uncle’.”
Everyone but Brako laughs.
Brako: “What? He is not my real uncle, she said that he would just like that that’s all.”
Tantor: “Uncle what?”
Brako: “Uncle Khomeinius. His friend is staying up the hill at her sister’s house.”
They laugh at Brako again.
Brako: “What?”
Oddimes: “Is she supposed to call him uncle too?”
Brako: “Not that I know.”
Tantor: “Who is he?”
Brako: “His name is Jusebban. I don’t know what he does.”
Tantor: “But Uncle Khomeinius is a ranger?”
Brako: “Yes.”
Oddimes: “Are you certain?”
Brako: “Certainly certain.”
Cri Cri: “Then let’s ask him for a map!”
The four youths begin to leave the Amedes Vintnery, as they do Tantor’s father catches Brako leaving.
Chrysogonus: “Hey! Where do you think you are going! Finish the job! Tantor, why aren’t you working today!?”
They keep on walking, completely oblivious to Tantor’s father yelling. They take a lovely stroll away from the Amedes Vintnery towards a little homestead near another vineyard. There they see Brako’s step mother working in her garden. She hums a fine tune.
Brako: “Hiyah mum!”
The Guys: “Hi Mrs. Pushiflees.”
Mrs. Pushiflees: “Hello Brako hun, hi guys. Shouldn’t you be working today?”
Cri Cri: “Uh, we took the day off. We’re all sick.”
They all start coughing, exaggerating.
Oddimes: “I think I might vomit at any minute!”
Mrs. Pushiflees rolls her eyes and turns back to her work.
Mrs. Pushiflees: “Stay out of trouble. I know you are restless young men, and I don’t want to hear from your bosses that you were not at work when you were needed to be. Especially you Tantor, your father cannot work in his fields alone.”
Tantor: “Quite right m’am. That’s why Brako was working for me today.”
Brako: “Hey wait a minute! You did tell me you were sick! Where were you guys!”
Tantor: “Never mind that. M’am, is your, uh…is Uncle Khomeinius here?”
Mrs. Pushiflees: “What do you want with him?”
Tantor: “We just want to ask him a few questions.”
Cri Cri: “Is he really a ranger?”
Mrs. Pushiflees: “I don’t want you bothering him.”
Oddimes: “We won’t, we are just interested in how he makes his living you know in case it is a path we decide to follow.”
Mrs. Pushiflees: “None of you are going to be rangers. I won’t have it!”
Cri Cri: “So he is a ranger!”
Brako: “C’mon ma, we won’t bother him, we’re just interested that’s all.”
Mrs. Pushiflees: “Hmm…Khomeinius. KHOMEINIUS!”
Khomeinius replies from inside the home.
Khomeinius: “What!”
Mrs. Pushiflees: “Come outside! Brako and his friends would like to talk to you!”
Khomeinius: “I’m busy!”
Mrs. Pushiflees: “No you are not! Get out here NOW!”
Khomeinius comes out immediately.
Khomeinius: “What’s up fellas?”
Mrs. Pushiflees: “That’s better.”
She returns to her garden. The guys walk to the other side of the house with Khomeinius.
Brako: “Uncle K. You ever been to Krimml?”
Cri Cri: “Are you really a ranger?”
Khomeinius: “Sometimes yes. And I surely have been to Krimml, many times.”
Oddimes: “If someone from An Najaf wanted to go there, which way would they take?”
Khomeinius: “Well, you either go through the Astrum Woods, or follow the coast.”
Oddimes: “Which one is the faster way?”
Khomeinius: “Well, if you wanted to take the coast you would need a skiff. Going through the forest just needs a pair of legs. But it would take about a week and a half to cross through Oporto and Braga.”
Cri Cri: “The Astrum Woods?”
Khomeinius: “Sure, it’s deep and thick. Once you get deep inside no light penetrates through the canopy.”
Tantor: “Is it traversable?”
Khomeinius: “As long as you stay on the path, yah, it can be done. Me and a pal of mine went in there chasing after these girls on the border of – uh.”
Brako: “…is it dangerous?”
Khomeinius: “Naturally. It is a big dark scary forest, full of wild animals and wild men.”
Cri Cri: “Wild men?”
Oddimes: “Yah, you know, men without jobs or mothers!”
They laugh.
Khomeinius: “Haha, Something like that. Off the path it is like any other wild terrain. On the path is as safe as An Najaf.”
Tantor: “And skiff?”
Khomeinius: “None around here. The seamen already left down the coast. They are the only ones who might have an extra skiff.”
Tantor: “What about the people at the harbour?”
Khomeinius: “What about the people at the harbour! Go ask them.”
Oddimes: “Nah, let’s just walk!”
Brako: “Walk! Walk! Walk! Walk!”
Khomeinius: “Wait a minute, you guys are going to Krimml?”
Cri Cri: “Sure are.”
Khomeinius: “But it’s dangerous!”
Oddimes: “What about the path?”
Khomeinius: “Yah but, don’t go through the Astrum Woods!”
Tantor: “No skiffs? We’ll take the path.”
Cri Cri: “The path! The path!”
Khomeinius: “Crazies! You dumb guys and your pathtrips!”
Brako: “That’s it! Pathtrip!”
Khomeinius: “What reason do you have to go to Krimml? None of you have ever left An Najaf before in your lives. What’s in Krimml that is so demanding?”
Cri Cri: “We seek-“
Tantor: “A vacation, a vacation in a big city. That’s all.”
Khomeinius: “Isn’t Fontan City a big city, and it’s a lot closer than Krimml. Or even Karbala, that’s one of the biggest.”
Oddimes: “True, but we want to see Krimml.”
Khomeinius: “Oh, I see, you guys are chasing tail eh. Well, Krimml girls are like any other. A bit fast to kiss, which is easy but not as fun.”
Cri Cri: “You ever been to Tokat?”
Khomeinius: “Once, yah.”
Cri Cri: “Do they have women over there?”
Khomeinius: “Never seen any.”
Cri Cri: “Ha! I told you guys! No women in Tokat!”
Khomeinius: “Haha, what are you talking about; of course there are women there. It’s a place like any other.”
Cri Cri: “Oh.”
They all laugh at Cri Cri.
Tantor: “Thanks Uncle K. Sorry to bother you from whatever you were doing.”
Brako: “Yah, thanks Uncle K.”
Khomeinius: “Any time guys. Stay out of the Astrum Woods though. Not even a grown man should wander through there.”
Oddimes: “What about the path?”
Khomeinius: “You think anyone takes care of that thing? Oporto and Braga are dense thickly forested. The paths are overrun with bush. Not like An Najaf, where our roads are finely cared for.”
Tantor: “I hear that!”
Cri Cri: “What about the Bragaian Combine? I hear they are supposed to patrol the paths?”
Khomeinius: “Talk is cheap. Many have said that they will patrol the forest, but that is just to make the appearance of a safe region. Once visitors fall for it and actually get into the forest its everyman for himself! Plus they only operate in Braga, you still have Oporto to deal with.”
The young men prepared themselves for their journey. Each of them returned home and packed rations and supplies. Enough to last a month. Also, they took with them weapons and thin armour. They decided to meet at the pillar that designated the end of the village Melos. From there they would begin their journey to Krimml.
The village Melos was right close to the top of An Najaf, eight hours from the coast, five hours from the top border. When they arrived they greeted with excitement, drank to their success and then carried on with the journey. The road from Melos to the border of An Najaf and Oporto was clean and safe. No obstacles or highwaymen, who would steal from women and children if they had the chance. Nothing of that sort operated in An Najaf, which was by all methods and means a peaceful, homely region. Safe, plentiful and upright. The men and women bred in this land know good values and ideals, and are proper servants when needed to serve, and proper leaders when needed to lead. You have plenty of living examples to be inspired by I am sure.
Itius: “Master, nothing happened on the way to the border?”
Pafizi: “Nothing at all. An Najaf is safe and sound. The only thing a person has to worry about there is staying out in the sun too long.”
Itius: “That goes for anyplace.”
Pafizi: “Right, but other places have far worse things to watch out for.”
Itius: “I see.”
Pafizi: “I am glad that you see, but for now you better listen or so help me I’ll bruise you good!”
Itius: “Of course Master, please continue.”
Scene Three:
The gang reached the border to Oporto in four hours and forty six minutes. They were tired, but still anxious.
Cri Cri: “Are we there yet Brako?”
Brako: “No, this is the border to Oporto.”
Tantor: “That means this must be the beginning of the Astrum Woods.”
Oddimes: “Sure is. Look how black and foresty it is.”
Cri Cri: “They say that the Astrum Woods eats the land that it touches. Five regions suffer because of it.”
Tantor: “Who says that?”
Cri Cri: “They.”
Oddimes: “They? Commoner’s logic!”
Brako: “Hahaha. They sure do say a lot of things don’t they?”
Tantor: “They also say that the Star Crown is under Krimml.”
Cri Cri: “Yes, but they wouldn’t say anything about that unless they meant it. Like you said Tantor, that’s something people don’t joke about.”
Oddimes: “He did say that.”
Tantor: “Right. So let’s relax for a bit then enter into the forest.”
Brako: “Where does the path start?”
Oddimes: “I thought you would know.”
Cri Cri: “Yah Brako, that’s why we brought you along.”
Tantor: “We should have brought a map along.”
Brako: “I was in my father’s caravan, the carriage was bumpy and I wasn’t paying attention to borders and things. One moment we were riding over plains, the next we were in a forest. It was too quick to notice the transition.”
Cri Cri: “How are we going to get into the forest?”
Oddimes: “What about the path?”
Tantor: “The border is long; we can’t search the whole thing. That would take all day.”
Brako: “Okay…so what do you guys want to do?”
Tantor: “We have to do something. We are here now.”
Oddimes: “Let’s just enter here.”
Cri Cri: “But Uncle K said to stay on the path.”
Oddimes: “Do you see the path?”
Cri Cri: “Not yet.”
Brako: “The forest is thick. It will be uneasy.”
Oddimes: “C’mon, look there, that inlet, let’s just use that as an entry. We can thrash our way through if we have to.”
Tantor: “How long will that take?”
Brako: “To oblivion with it, let’s just go in.”
Cri Cri: “Fine.”
Tantor: “Alright, but keep your eyes open for gillamonsters.”
Cri Cri: “Gillamonsters?”
Tantor: “They live on the threshold between plains and forests. They sleep in the forest and hunt in the plains. Sometimes they hunt in the forest, but they like to run around in the open space.”
Cri Cri: “I have never seen a gillamonster.”
Tantor: “I have never been to the border before, so neither have I.”
Oddimes: “Let’s go already.”
Tantor: “Away and onwards!”
