Wizard's Peak

"Wizard's Peak" redirects here. For the location, see Wizard's Peak (location).

"Wizard's Peak" is the fifth episode of Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. Its international titles include Catalan "El cim del mag", French "Le Génie du joyau", German "Die alte Karte", Polish "Szczyt Czarodzieja", Portuguese "O monte do feiticeiro", Russian "Гора волшебника", Serbo-Croat "Čarobnjakov vrh", Spanish "El pico del mago".

While trying to locate the Jewel of Burning Ice in the Crystal Cliffs, Princess Gwenevere and Drake become separated from the others and trapped inside an ancient mountain known as Wizard's Peak, where they come face to face the magical Guardian of a mysterious lair. Tamara and the baby animals must come to the rescue, but the evil Lady Kale is not going to make this easy.

Plot summary

In the Crystal Cliff mountains, the Jewel Riders (without Tamara) and the Pack meet up with the local band of Highlander Riders who give them an old map that will hopefully lead them to the Crown Jewel of Burning Ice before the whole lan is transformed into crystal. But then Lady Kale shows up with Grimm, so Fallon and Moondance cast smoke screen magic and the party runs away.

But soon Kale finds them and begins a chase, strafing them with her Dark Stone. Drake leads the group to escape through a hidden tunnel while Kale's dragon narrowly avoids crashing into a mountain. Drake is confident that he can make his way to where the Crown Jewel is. Gwenevere decides to go with him, and orders Fallon in command to lead the other Pack members to lead Kale away. The distraction does not really work, though, because Kale quickly figures out that Gwen and Drake went elsewhere, and abandons the pursuit.

After riding through the changing icy landscapes, Gwen and Drake get lost. Eventually, they arrive at Wizard's Peak and find a mysterious cavern that turns out to be really a dangerous mine tunnel and leads them to the Hall of Wizards, where they arrive on foot after saving each other. Searching the place, Drake accidentally releases a genie Guardian that attacks them as he thinks they are thieves. During the battle, Gwen and Drake fall down a hole into another mine shaft.

Sometime later, Kale's dweasels enter the wizard's lair and find the Crown Jewel. The genie at first thinks that the dweasels are wizards and so he caters to all their whims, before eventually realizing they are really there out to steal the magic.

Meanwhile, Drake's wolf Thunderbolt gets stuck in the mine shaft entrance, so Sunstar flies off to get help from Tamara and the babies. Thunder gets freed, and then the babies explore the cave looking for Gwen and Drake. After much confusion, Cleo finds them and Tamara ends up activating a mine cart that brings out Gwen, Drake, the babies, and the dweasels. Gwen takes the Crown Jewel from the dweasels.

Lady Kale shows up demanding the Crown Jewel, the Pack and Fallon also arrive, and the angry Guardian emerges wanting to attack everyone because he thinks they are all thieves. When the genie distracts Kale, Gwen returns the Crown Jewel to the Jewel Box. Merlin appears and tells the genie to stand down. He gives an advice: It is not the path you choose, it is how you walk the path. After Kale leaves, Drake offers to lead the Jewel Riders home but Gwen and the others pelt him with snowballs.

Behind the scenes

Original script

Main article: Wizard's Peak (script)

Inspirations and homages cited in the script include Indiana Jones, The Mask, the Harrier scene from True Lies, and the Genie from Disney's Aladdin.

Storyboard

The "Not Final" storyboard includes many cut scenes (like of Rufus dancing with a sexy dweaselette or Kale's extended confrontation with Guardian, as seen to the right), unused dialogue lines, and various other differences in relation to the animated version. It also provides notes on more inspirations/references, including Disney's Fantasia and more Aladdin.

Avalon: Web of Magic connections

Adriane often uses Stormbringer or Dreamer to create smoke screens.
The Spirit Trail from Avalon is on Drake's map of the Wizard's Peak area.
The Power Crystals influence magic in the surrounding area like the Crown Jewels do.
Kara traveled through crystalline mountains and a maze with shifting corridors in All's Fairy in Love and War.
The Guardian's magic reflecting attacks are similar to the manticore's, complete with green fire.