Jewel Quest, Part I

FHE Jewel Quest — Family Home Entertainment VHS cover

Starla und die Kristallretter Jewel Quest VHS — German VHS release cover art

"Jewel Quest, Part I" is the first episode of Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. It features the song "There's a Bit of Magic in Everything" and directly continues in next episode, "Jewel Quest, Part II", together forming the show's pilot episode, the events of which set up the titular Jewel Quest and are also retold in a book as well as in the Panini sticker album. Their international titles include Catalan "La recerca de la joia", French "À la recherche des joyaux" ("In Search for the Jewels"), German "Die Jagd nach Merlins Schlüssel" ("The Hunt for Merlin's Key)", Italian "Arriva Starla" ("Starla Arrvives"), Polish "Wyprawa po klejnoty", Portuguese "A demanda das jóias", Russian "Дикий камень" ("The Wild Stone"), Serbo-Croat "U potrazi za draguljima" ("Searching for Jewels"), and Spanish "Las joyas de la corona" ("The Crown Jewels").

The time has come for the young Princess Gwenevere has come to enter the revered Circle of Friendship ceremony and bond with her magical animal so she can join and lead the newest generation of Jewel Riders. But the peace in the kingdom of Avalon is disturbed when the evil Lady Kale finds the powerful Dark Stone and attacks Merlin to steal the Crown Jewels...

Synopsis[]

Featured elements[]

Regular characters: Princess Gwenevere, Tamara, Fallon, Lady Kale, Merlin, Sunstar, Archie, Rufus and Twig, Queen Anya, King Jared, Drake, Grimm, Moondance, Cleo, Spike, Sugar, Wintermane, Goliath
Guest characters: Hawk, father unicorn, teen unicorns
Locations: The Great Forests, Crystal Palace, Friendship Ring, Merlin's cottage, Wild Magic
Items and concepts: Enchanted Jewels, Circle of Friendship, Crown Jewels, Crystal Carriage, Dark Stone, Dragon Wagon, Jewel Box, Merlin's key, royal family, Travel Trees

Plot summary[]

Somewhere within the Great Forests, Lady Kale discovers and claims a Wild Magic portal containing a mysterious magic jewel. She manages to tune it to herself, bonding with her two dweasels Rufus and Twig. Now equipped with the immense power of her newly-dubbed Dark Stone, she is finally ready to take over Avalon. Using the Dark Stone, Lady Kale forces open a Travel Trees portal and gets into the Wild Magic. Convinced that nothing can stop her now, Kale begins laughing maniacally as she transforms into her jewel armor.

At the Friendship Ring, the great wizard Merlin is preparing Princess Gwenevere for her upcoming Circle of Friendship ceremony tomorrow. He explains how in order to wield the Sun Stone and become a Jewel Rider, Gwenevere must bond with a magical animal. Her friends Fallon and Tamara already have their own Enchanted Jewels and magic animal special friends. The lesson is interrupted by a hawk that tells Merlin that trouble is brewing in the forests. The girls return to the Crystal Palace, where they meet up with the boys of the Pack and their wolves.

Meanwhile, a unique winged unicorn named Sunstar tries to play ball with some other young unicorns. She gets teased for having wings and yet not being able to fly. Her father comes to Sunstar and tries to reassure her.

Elsewhere, Merlin arrives to save a doe trapped in a wild magic bubble, but this turns out to be just a bait as he gets trapped in a magic bubble by Lady Kale's Dark Stone. The evil princess then confronts her former mentor to boast about her newfound powers. She demands that he gives up the key to the magic Jewel Box brought to her by the dwesels, The box contains the powerful Crown Jewels of the kingdom, with which Kale can forever rule all of Avalon, but Merlin cannot allow this to happen. He pretends to give up to her threat to destroy him and summons the hawk from earlier that steals the key away at the last moment. Furious, Kale blasts the defiant wizard into the dangerous Wild Magic for him to perish there and gets in the air by her dragon Grimm to go after the hawk.

At the Crystal Palace, Gwenevere, Fallon, Tamara, and Drake of the Wolf Pack are summoned by King Jared and Queen Anya to the throne room and learn of Merlin's disappearance and a mysterious threat to the kingdom.

The girls decide to check out Merlin's house and find it totally ransacked. They find Merlin's talking owl Archie, who tells them that someone (it was the dweasels) stole the Jewel Box before knocking him out, and so the girls ride off with him in the Crystal Carriage (along with Fallon on Moondance) to find it.

Lady Kale is flying in Grimm's Dragon Wagon, pursuing the hawk in the sky. After a long aerial hunt, Grimm's fire breath nearly fries the hawk on Kale's order and the bird crash-lands in a forest where Sunstar just happened to be walking by. Checking on, the unicorn receives the key with the instructions to bring it the Crystal Palace at all cost, and now it is her turn to be tasked with escaping from Kale. She does not run very far, however, and soon Kale chases her down into a top of cliff. As she cannot fly, Sunstar is trapped in a net and tumbles down. She survives the fall but is captured,

After a ride through the Wild Magic via the Travel Trees, the girls find Kale with Sunstar. Not seeing them, Kale tries to grab Merlin's key but Sunstar's horn burns her hand. This enrages the witch, who begins viciously hitting the unicorn with her magic before deciding to take Sunstar with herself to her castle extract the key there, making cruel promises, Not waiting for the Pack to arrive, Gwen rushes in to rescue, followed by Fallon. Seeing them, Kale tries to take off, but Fallon races on Moondance after the Dragon Wagon and brings it down.

The crash momentarily knocked out Grimm but Kale stands on top of the Wagon ready for them. Gwenevere tries to talk to her evil aunt but Kale fires the Dark Stone at her, and Fallon jumps in to take on Kale in a magic duel to protect the defenseless Gwen. With the witch distracted, the princess goes behind the Wagon to sneak the key from the imprisoned Sunstar, making an instant special connection with her on their first meeting.

After taking the key, Gwen is attacked by the dweasels Tamara and Archie save her, and then Tamara runs to aid Fallon against Kale herself. But even their combined magic of the Moon Stone and the Heart Stone is too weak against the terrible might of the Dark Stone. Just as Kale is about to prevail, Tamara's baby panther cub Spike bravely throws himself to shield Tamara from the incoming deadly beam and he is blasted down.

In the chaos that ensues, Kale makes her escape before the Pack can arrive and join the fight, and Archie swoops down to keep Tamara down to avoid the flight of the Dragon Wagon. The triumphant Kale gets into the Wild Magic with the stolen Jewel Box and the captive unicorn, not knowing that the key that is now safe in Gwen's hands thanks to Archie.

Panini sticker album narration[]

(Translated from French)

Not everyone is satisfied with the order created by Merlin in Avalon. Kale, the sister of the Queen of the Kingdom of Avalon, dreams of owning the throne and the Crown Jewels. Fortune seems to smile to her when Rufus and Twig, her two faithful minions, find a new jewel born of wild magic. With this jewel, Kale intends to get rid of Merlin!

Meanwhile, in the gardens of the Crystal Palace, residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Avalon, Merlin explains to Starla (Gwenevere) the duties that await her in her role of princess. The girl will soon be part of the Jewel Riders, like her friend Tamara, and she will get paired with her animal companion.

Far from the Crystal Palace, in a secluded corner of the kingdom, lives a family of unicorns. In this family there is the young Sunstar, who, despite a pair of splendid wings, is afraid of flying. "Do not forget that you are different from the others and that one day you will have everything you want," says her father, while her brothers laugh at her.

But let us go back to Crystal Palace, where Starla and Tamara are joined by the young Drake, timidly in love with the princess, and by their friend Fallon. They both have inseparable companions: the giant wolf Eclair (Thunder) and the splendid unicorn Moondance. The four friends talk about the big party tomorrow for the admission of Starla into the Jewel Riders.

However, Merlin, on his way, meets a frightened fawn, locked in a bubble of air! What kind of magic is this? In reality it is a trap: the fawn suddenly turns into a monster that locks the magician spirit in the bubble and disappears.

Kale, triumphant, then shows up with the box with the seven Crown Jewels: Rufus and Twig stole it for her from Merlin's house! She now threatens to seal him forever if he would not give her the magic key to the box. But when the wizard pretends that he is ready to give it to her, a hawk seizes it with his beak and flies away! Furious, Kale casts a spell on the air bubble that is swept away from Avalon by a current of wild magic!

At the Crystal Palace, everything is ready for the ceremony that will make Starla a Jewel Rider. But Merlin is no longer around and so the queen, worried, sends her daughter, accompanied by Tamara and Fallon, in search for the wizard. Drake is also dispatched by the king to search the surroundings with his fellow knights.

The girls head to Merlin's home. Merlin has never been very orderly, but this mess that they found inside is very suspicious. Suddenly they find Archie, the wizard's faithful magic owl, tied up and set him free. "Oh poor of me," - laments Archie - "I was just preparing a tea when these two creatures came here. After that I don't remember anything!"

But let us find the hawk that carries Merlin's key. Chased by Kale, who pursues him on a chariot pulled by flying dragon, he has no other solution but to entrust this key to Sunstar, whom he encounters in the forest. But Kale arrives and carries away the unicorn in her chariot.

However, Starla, Tamara and Fallon are already there to stop Kale's escape. Fallon and Tamara use the magic jewels that the Jewel Riders possess to send energy beams towards Kale, but the girls find out that Kale's own ray is far too powerful. Starla is trying to free the unicorn as the time is running out, while Tamara owes her survival to the intervention of the little great cat Spike who serves as her shield, but the poor thing gets the worst of that. As for Kale, she vanishes in her chariot, along with the Crown Jewels and Sunstar...

Behind the scenes[]

Original script[]

Main article: Jewel Quest script (Enchanted Quest)

In this draft, markedly different than the finished episode in various ways, Princess Guinevere (Gwenevere), Melody (Tamara), Alexandra (Fallon), and Shawn (Drake) ride the Wild Magic with their friends Amber (Sunstar), Cleo, Samantha (Sugar), Rusty (Spike), Moonglow (Moondance), and Thunder (Thunderbolt). There are also completely cut characters such as that of Gwen's little sister Tara.

Storyboard[]

Avalon: Web of Magic connections[]

The story of the pilot episode(s) is basically Kara's arc from the first half of Avalon. Kara tries to do the right thing by releasing Avalon's magic in order to heal Aldenmor. She inadvertently scatters the Power Crystals, forcing the party to find them all before the villains do, and obtains her Unicorn Jewel.

Lady Kale is the Dark Sorceress analogue. They both have sister issues and want to take over Avalon.
Tamara and Fallon (the Emily and Adriane analogues) became Jewel Riders before the series started. In Avalon, Emily and Adriane find their jewels before Kara joins the party.
Archie is basically Ozzie. They both have long Greek names that are conveniently shortened, and they have similar vocal tics.
The Crystal Palace shows up in Avalon: The Warlock Diaries.