Setting: the alien planet of Mer. There's a storm raging, and lightning crackles across the orange-hued sky. Nobody would dare to be out in this storm, but something is. It's a dagron, and it's winging its way over the sea. Suddenly, out of the waters below, a leviathan launches itself up, snatching up the dagron in its jaws before diving below the surface again. Its landing throws up a huge wave which buffets a small, makeshift raft. The old man on board is fighting to keep the ship right-side up.
He doesn't go without being seen, though--a 17-year-old boy named Ren has spotted him from the lighthouse he's keeping a watch on. Suddenly he hears his guardian Jenna yell up to him.
"Ren, come down from up there!" Jenna calls.
"No, I think I see someone out there!" he shouts back.
"Ren, enough foolishness!" Jenna chides him. A giant wave rears over the lighthouse and crashes down on it, breaking through the glass, knocking Ren back, and putting out the lighthouse flame. As he climbs to his feet, Jenna's head and shoulders appear at the top of the ladder poking through the trap door. "Do I have to drag you inside?"
Ren, meanwhile, has gone to re-ignite the lighthouse flame. "Wait!" he calls back. "If somebody's out there, I have to make sure!" Pulling a bottle from his belt, he uncaps it and pours oil over the lighthouse's wick. (Mer isn't a technologically-advanced planet; this is an actual fire Ren's starting.) He then recaps his bottle, removing a portion of the cap with flint in it and sparking the oil, making it catch alight.
"And where is this fool who would brave such a storm?" Jenna demands, standing at the window. Ren goes to rejoin her, and it only takes him a few seconds to find him.
"There, by the rocks!" he proclaims, pointing at a hand reaching desperately for a handhold on one of the boulders on the beach. "Look," Ren whispers, mystified, "he's alive. He made it to the shore!" With that, he spins on his heel and goes running to save him despite Jenna's call for him to stop. He quickly descends to the first floor, sprinting out to the sea and diving in. A moment later he surfaces with the man and drags him to the shore.
The elderly man, much to Ren's surprise, shoves him away with surprising strength, gasping, "No--Bloth! You'll never take me again!"
Ren assures him, "You're safe now, old man. I'm a friend."
"Blast his soul to the abyss--he's been helped!"
The exclamation comes from a pirate on a ship off the Octopon coast. The pirate is a huge, white-skinned, black-haired, blue-lipped man named Bloth, and his ship is the Maelstrom. He turns angrily to a scrawny little man. "He was your charge, and you allowed him to escape!" he snarls, grabbing the man and lifting him off the deck.
The tiny man, panicking, cries, "For seventeen years, I guarded him and never a mistake! I took my eye off him for a moment--"
Bloth's eyes are glittering as he walks over to a deep pit in his deck, holding the man over it. "And a moment is all you've left to live," he growls. He lets go of the man, who falls, screaming, into the pit where growls ensue from a creature living down there. "Eat well, my pet!" Bloth calls after the creature, and turns to a red monkey-bird cowering behind him. A smile crosses Bloth's face. "Are you hungry?" he asks, his tone alarmingly sweet. The monkey-bird, named Niddler, squawks fearfully. Bloth leans closer. "I'll make you a deal..."
Commercial break.
On shore, Ren holds the old man through his last breaths. "Tell me...this is Octopon," the old man croaks.
"It is," Ren assures him softly.
The man lets out a shuddering sigh of relief. "Then the circle--is complete," he whispers.
Ren's not sure what to make of that, so he ignores it. "Come on," he offers, starting to lift the man gently up. "Let me get you inside--"
The man cuts him off. "There's no time," he replies hoarsely. "Look to Octopon. What do you see?"
Ren looks, and is astonished--he's never seen the city that beautiful before! "I s-see the city reborn," he manages to breathe, awestruck.
"No," the man replies, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder, "you see your destiny. Only you can bring our city back to its former glory. Go to the one called Alomar." He starts to shake the boy, hard. "Tell him that Primus has escaped the pirate king Bloth."
"Alomar?" Ren repeats, confused. "W-where will I find this man?"
"Seek him in fire and smoke, Ren--my son," the man replies, his voice becoming fainter. He falls unconscious, letting out one last breath, and it's then that Ren realizes, amid his shock at the man claiming to be his father, that the man is dying in his arms.
"Old man!" Ren cries desperately, shaking him once, but the man is already dead. Ren lays his body out on the sand, but jumps away as a wave washes over them. As it recedes, the man is no longer on the sand; the wave has given him a burial at sea. Ren runs out to the edge of the sand, looking for him, but is unsuccessful. He bows his head and looks to Octopon, which is in ruins once more.
Back up in the lighthouse, Ren relays his story to Jenna, saying all he could do was comfort him, and clearly the man had lost his mind, but Ren felt a bond with him. Jenna responds, "It's because he knew you, Ren." She walks over to a ledge, pulling out a loose brick as she continues. "It was I who looked after you these 17 years. But it was Primus the king who fulfilled his prophecy--" She turns, a cloth-wrapped parcel in her hands. "--and returned to his son." She steps toward him. "He was your father." Ren is stunned, and Jenna hands him the parcel. "And that which was his is now yours," she says quietly. The violet cloth comes free, revealing a glistening sword. A half-sword, actually--the upper half is missing. Ren holds it up, lightning illuminating it, and asks what his role is in this prophecy. Jenna says that he will be Octopon's guiding light. Ren asks her where to find Alomar, and Jenna replies that he is in the Abby of Galdebar.
But she's cut off by a horrible squawking. Niddler, Bloth's monkey-bird, suddenly breaks through one of the windows, and lunges for Ren, grabbing him and carrying him off into the darkness. Ren orders to be let go, and even yanks out some of Niddler's feathers, but Niddler just squeezes his arms harder in return. When they arrive at the Maelstrom, Bloth's ship, Niddler drops Ren through the sail and he lands on a large table covered in food. Sitting up, he looks around and sees a large man approaching him with a fork.
"My meal looks--" the man begins, jabbing his fork playfully into Ren's stomach, "undercooked."
Niddler flies overhead. "Just one moment, what about my food?" Niddler demands. "We had a deal."
Bloth gives him a disapproving look as he picks up a slab of steak-like meat. "The deal was for you to bring me the old man," he replies coldly, ripping a piece of the meat off with his teeth.
"Old man, young man, what's the difference?" Niddler exclaims impatiently. "I want to be fed!" Angrily, he lunges at the pirate, who easily catches him.
"Niddler, when have I ever lied to you?" Bloth replies. "I'll feed you--" He gestures with one hand to the pit he'd dropped the man into. "To the constrictus!" Laughs ensue from the other pirates watching.
Terrified, Niddler bites Bloth's hand and flies off. The pirate lord orders for his pirates to kill the monkey-bird. Ren, meanwhile, gets off the table, hiding behind it and using it as a shield, and watches in disgust. Niddler flies away, shouting, "This won't be the last you see of me, fish-lips!"
"I apologize for this outburst," Bloth says to Ren, who's standing. "I hope my guest understands that the pressures of leadership weigh heavily."
Ren isn't buying it. "Why have you brought me here?" he demands.
"I saw your rescue of the old man," Bloth replies. "I had to meet you!"
Ren leans forward, interested. "Did you know him?"
Bloth smiles. "Intimately. He was a long term...guest of mine."
Ren picks up on the implication and straightens. "Then you would be Bloth," he states.
"Yes...but you have me at a disadvantage. I don't know who you are."
"That's not important."
Bloth raises his eyebrows. "Oh, but it is, if the old man told you more than my name." He smiles. "Secrets, perhaps?"
Ren looks at him calmly. "Then why should I tell his jailer information he died to protect?" he replies.
Bloth's fed up. He slams his hand down on the table. "Enough of this dancing about!" he snarls. "The old man hid the Thirteen Treasures of Rule within the realm of Dark Water--and I mean to have them!"
"You won't get any help from me!" Ren shoots back.
Bloth's taken aback. "What? The Treasure's no good to a dead man--why won't you join me?" He tries to smile somewhat pleasantly but fails.
Ren holds his ground and lifts his chin defiantly, mocking him. "The old man was my father," he informs Bloth coldly.
Bloth gasps in real surprise. The look in his eyes shifts from shock, to jarring realization, to cruel malice. "Was he now?" He strokes his chin. "And I thought I had eliminated all his heirs--" His eyes fix on Ren and he shoves the gigantic table away, advancing toward the boy and grabbing him. "Well, here's an opportunity to finish the job! He is as as stubborn as his father." He strides toward the constrictus pit and dumps the boy unceremoniously in.
Ren surfaces, but so does the Constrictus (its three mini-heads). He climbs up and out of the way just as the Constrictus attacks where he had been, and pulls out his lighter bottle, his heart pounding. Uncapping it, he pours the oil over the Constrictus, and strikes the flint, lighting the oil and starting to burn the Constrictus. Hastily he clambers up and out of the pit, using the bones lining the sides as a ladder. Out on deck, he's surrounded by pirates, and a little peglegged piglet named Konk shoves his way out of the crowd, for the attack. He swings his axe, just missing Ren's head, but his axe is stuck in a wheel used to raise the mast. Ren does a headstand and kicks the wheel, sending Konk and his axe flying. They both hit the far wall, the axe cutting a rope holding the main sail up. Ren grabs the end and is pulled upwards as the sail crashes down onto the pirates.
From just below the crow's nest, he starts to taunt Bloth, but looks down and sees the other pirates hot on his heels. He climbs up to the crow's nest, regretting his egotism. Bloth is loading a catapult with nycra (acidic jellyfish, pretty much). He sets it off, and the jellyfish start dissolving the mast, which is holding up the crow's nest.
As the crow's nest sways, Niddler flies up to the helpless boy. "Well, it looks like you're in a bit of a spot," the monkey-bird gloats.
"Yes, and I wonder who it was that got me into it," Ren replies testily. An idea occurs to him. "If you want revenge against Bloth, help me escape!" The crow's nest topples completely and just as Ren starts to fall, Niddler grabs him and starts flying away with him.
Bloth orders the dagrons out after them. Ren thanks Niddler profusely, who tells him to keep his thanks and help him get some food. Ren says there isn't any time for that, and Niddler deliberately begins to weaken his grip on the boy. Quickly, Ren tells him that there's food at the Abby of Galdebar, and Niddler takes him there.
Later, they arrive at a place and Niddler tells him there'd better be food there because his stomach's growling. As they enter, they don't notice the dagron circling overhead. Inside, it's dark and deserted. Niddler annoyingly informs Ren of this and complains that Ren had lied to him.
"Who dares enter the Abby of Galdebar?" a soft, low, male voice sounds suddenly.
"Two hungry travelers!" Niddler calls out, but Ren shushes him, calling out his identity as the son of Primus. Niddler grins. "Good story--that makes us sound important!" he declares.
A robed man emerges from a side hall, staff in hand. "Why have you come?" he demands.
"It was the will of my father," Ren replies.
"What do you seek?" the man asks.
"You. Alomar."
"Wrong!" the man thunders. Niddler cowers, whimpering. "I am not Alomar, but he is here." The man grabs Ren's arm and drags him toward a wall, Niddler trailing behind and going on about how maybe now they can eat. The party reaches the wall, and Ren sees the carving of a compass in it. The man touches his hand to it, and the rock falls into the wall and pulls away as if by magic, revealing a glittering blue and gold compass. The man pulls it out. "In darkness and in light, this will be your guide," he informs Ren, putting the compass around the boy's neck. The entire wall slides away, Ren peering curiously into the chamber it reveals. The man stands aside and gestures to the chamber. "Alomar awaits," he declares quietly.
Commercial break.
At the bottom of the staircase, Ren and Niddler are checking out their surroundings--dreary and acidic. Ren calls Alomar's name, and a huge dragon appears. Ren calls for Alomar to call off his beast, but the dragon informs them that he is Alomar, and that not only humans run Mer's fate. Ren apologizes and asks about the quest. Alomar reveals a poem written in runes on a far wall by breathing fire.
Thirteen Treasures of ancient time,
Thirteen lessons of Rule in rhyme.
To find the jewels in secret places,
Follow where the compass faces.
If returned from the shore beyond,
A new day dawns for Octopon.
But if they fall into evil hands,
Darkness descends on all the lands.
For these riches, two shall vie
In the realm of Dark Water where the Treasures lie.
Alomar explains that another is hunting for the Treasures, and they must go immediately. Suddenly, the ground quakes. Above, the anteroom is flooded with pirates, and Bloth comes through and thanks the robed man, who is tied to the huge gong, for his cooperation. His pirates destroy the wall leading to the staircase, and they flood down the stairs. Alomar orders the others to go while he attacks with his fire. Ren looks back and sees that Alomar is falling and the pirates are injuring him severely. He runs back and fights them all off, and throws most of them into the sulfuric water by lassoing them with one of their ropes. Then he checks on Alomar, who tells him he should have run and it's too late for him. Alomar dies. Then Ren hears Bloth tell the others that the one who kills him gets 50 gold pieces. Ren retorts, saying you can't spend your money until you earn it, and kicks some more into the water. An archer is aiming a fire arrow at him, but Niddler distracts him and Ren dumps the man into the water. But Bloth has Niddler by the neck and is about to cut his head off--until Ren fires the fire arrow at Bloth's sword-holding hand's wrist, pinning it to the wall by the cloth around it. He and Niddler escape as Bloth orders his men to find him some water.
At a nearby port, Ren and Niddler are in robes, considering options to get out to sea to find the Treasures, and Niddler declines carrying him anywhere. But Ren finds a flier that looks appealing, and reads it over.
Later, at a nearby tavern, a girl is going around, smiling politely, and collecting the dirty dishes from the other tables. She comes to Ren's table, where he's studying a map, and sighs wearily.
"You've been sitting here for over an hour," she informs him, annoyed. "If you're not going to eat, leave!"
Ren quickly tries to cover for them. "Uh, my friend here is having trouble selecting from your large bill of fare," he replies with a charming smile. Meanwhile, Niddler pretends to study the menu intently.
The girl sighs in disgust. "I don't know why the innkeeper tolerates these--things. I'll be back." She turns on her heel and leaves.
Niddler suggests that maybe they should eat, but Ren tells him that they can't lose sight of the reason they're there, which is a man at another table. At that moment, Ren catches his eye and elbows Niddler, and the two play out a two-line play about trying to find a Treasure. They look up and there stands the man, interest on his face, offering his assistance to find this treasure. He sits down just as the girl comes back with a huge tray full of food. Ren protests that they didn't order anything, but she replies that the man did.
"A gesture of friendship," he explains.
"What makes you think we need a friend?" Ren asks dubiously.
The man gives them a knowing smile. "These eyes can spot landlubbers who could use the experience of a true seaman," he explains. "And these ears know when they hear talk of treasure." His smile fades as he catches a glimpse of the girl lingering in the background. "Ah, this is men's business," he growls in disgust, and slaps her butt. She jumps, startled. "Off with you, wench!" She quickly and indignantly leaves.
"You...have a boat?" Ren asks him expectantly. At that, the man smiles.
"The finest in the harbor," he assures the boy, "for a cut of the take." He reaches for the map before Ren and tugs it toward him. "Seventy-thirty?"
Ren quickly yanks it back. "Eighty-twenty."
"Sixty-forty!" The man and Ren are glaring at each other over the map.
"Fifty-fifty!" Ren shoots back. At this, the man seems pleased, and the two shake on it. The man tells them to call him Ioz. At this point, Niddler butts in, asking what he gets. Ioz narrows his eyes, leans forward menacingly, and informs him that he gets three meals a day and his (Ioz's) promise not to pluck Niddler bald, to which the Niddler readily agrees.
At the dock, while loading the ship called the Wraith, a gang of pirates runs down the dock after them, screaming about a lost ship and throwing their weapons at the Wraith. Ren, Ioz, and Niddler cast off before the men can catch them, and Ioz admits to stealing the ship. But five days later, Ioz finds out the truth about the map.
"What?" Ioz grabs the front of Ren's shirt angrily and gives him a good shake. "Five days at sea--and now you tell me the map's a fake?"
Ren grins slyly back. "Well, we're all full of surprises, aren't we?" he retorts, just as the compass around his neck starts to glow and emits a bluish-white stream of light to some point in the distance. Ren tells Ioz about the Treasures of Rule (he refuses to believe it at first, retorting that they're all just a myth), and he directs the ship towards where the light is pointing. Ioz declines to go any farther when he sees it's on the other side of the Dragon's Maw, a treacherous path where, if one missteers, it is easy to go over the side of the path and down a very tall waterfall. From behind, suddenly, the Wraith is bombarded with fire bombs. Ren, Ioz, and Niddler turn around and see the Maelstrom towering behind them; it turns out that Ioz used to crew for Bloth but his employment "ended ugly." The bombardments get even worse, and the crucial decision comes forward, over whether or not to go across the Maw. They end up going because Ren won't let Ioz steer them away, and suddenly a panel in the floor pops up, smoke billowing out and feminine coughing heard.
"Well, one of you had better decide before the ship burns out from underneath us!" a female voice interrupts, and suddenly the girl from the tavern appears through the trap door opening. Ioz is very dismayed that a woman's joined them. The girl grins apologetically and explains herself. "I wanted to get away from the drudgery of life on land," she begins, but breaks off and leaps out of the hole as a fire-bomb crashes into where she had been. "And it looks like I've picked the right ship," she replies, standing up and going over to Ren with a friendly smile. "I'm Tula."
"Well, uh, Tula," Ioz interjects, storming over to her and grabbing her wrist rudely, "I'm throwing you overboard!" Ren dissuades him, insisting that they need every hand they can get. As they enter the Maw, Ren muses that they need to slow the Wraith, and Tula sees that they need less sail and goes to work instantly, turning the sail so that it's horizontal instead of vertical and making the Wraith slow.
"Now aren't you glad you didn't throw her overboard?" Ren comments to Ioz just as his Compass lights up again.
"Halt!" Tula shouts. "I see something ahead off the starboard bow--a--a light of some sort!" The beam from the Compass gets stronger and brighter, and now Ren can see where it's pointing to--a pillar of stone with something sparkling in it near the top in an alcove. It's the First Treasure of Rule. Unfortunately, Bloth and his crew can see it too.
As another fire-bomb hits the Wraith, Ren orders Niddler to get the Treasure. Niddler goes, much to Bloth's rage, and he orders his crew to stop Niddler. As the monkey-bird is working the Treasure free, Bloth's pirates aim carefully and fire another fire-bomb, but this one's aimed at Niddler. The monkey-bird turns and sees it, and then the pinnacle explodes into a thousand pieces with the impact. There's no sign of Niddler, and all falls silent for a minute aboard the Wraith. Tula moves to say something to Ren, but they're both interrupted by Bloth.
"Boy!" Bloth barks. "There are twelve Treasures left!" He smiles and holds his arms out. "Join me, and we'll find them together!"
"Never!" Ren hisses, and he turns the Wraith sharply so that it goes over the side of the Maw. The ship falls straight down, but the winds from the water crashing to the "regular" sea at the bottom make the horizontal sail act like a balloon and the ship turns upright again, soaring over the bottom of the Maw and a safe distance away, where it bounces twice before coming to a complete stop. Tula's in awe, but Ioz merely says they're lucky they're all alive. Ren soberly replies that not all of them survived just as red feathers rain down on them and Niddler lands next to Ren.
Bloth is laughing that since Ren didn't get the Treasure, it's a victory for Bloth. Niddler opens his mouth and reveals the Treasure inside, and Ren retrieves it, showing it to Bloth, and proclaims it a victory for Octopon. Bloth orders his men after them to get the Treasure, and simultaneously the Wraith takes off.
"I can't ask you to continue with me on this dangerous quest," Ren says to the other three. "Name the port of your choice and I'll take you there."
"Which way does the Compass point?" Ioz asks.
Ren holds up the Compass and hits it lightly, letting it turn. "To the second Treasure of Rule," he replies as the Compass emits another beam. "East."
"Then east it is," Tula proclaims cheerfully. "For adventure!"
"For treasure!" Ioz adds with a gleeful grin.
"For Octopon!" Ren shouts.
As the Wraith sails toward the east, followed by Bloth's scout ships, one more voice is heard: "For crying out loud!" Niddler whines. "When are we gonna eat?"
To be continued in the next episode...