Season 1
Episode 3 — The Captain
Far beyond Troll’s jungle troubles, a galactic crisis is already unfolding — and a captain wakes up in the last body he expected.
Scene 1 — Prologue: Tamu & Tera
Episode 3 starts with this: The idea is that 65 million years ago, the Eldaryn occupy a large watery planet in between Mars and Jupiter called Tamu. The third planet from the star Sol is ancient Earth, and the Eldaryn call it Tera. A race of dinosaurs live on Tera — similar in culture to the Klingons from Star Trek — except they are up to 12 feet tall, look like dragons, and are highly caste-driven. The ruling class have dragon-like wings. After an Eldaryn scout ship is shot down over Tera by the Saurosapiens, they manage to back-engineer it and rapidly develop into a spacefaring species. They have been continuously killing and stealing technology throughout the peaceful Eldaryn habitat stations in orbit of Sol, and their latest raid was particularly brutal.
Art slot — star system overview / Tamu vs Tera
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Scene 2 — Council Vote
OPENING SCENE High above the watery world of Tamu, in a space station in orbit of the planet, the Home World Council discusses the increasing threat of incursions from Tera by the relatively primitive but highly aggressive Saurosapiens. ELDARYN COUNCILOR 1 "These lizards are becoming more brazen by the day! Not only do they have access to who knows what technology from their latest venture into our sector, but they continuously shock and horrify us with their utter brutality... We cannot allow Saurosapiens to control this level of technology! Something must be done!" ELDARYN COUNCILOR 2 "Agreed, councillor, which is why I have continuously advocated for these extreme biological intervention proposals... Their demeanours must be altered to avert catastrophe." ELDARYN COUNCILOR 3 "This council has ever maintained the hope that natural developments will yield a manageable emergence... But this new development has given me pause..." ELDARYN COUNCILOR 1 "Our biotech division has been continuously stonewalled by this council's misguided belief that these... 'people' have any hope of developing into responsible galactic citizens. I don't want to say I told you so but..." ELDARYN COUNCILOR 3 "We get it, Mafrod..." ELDARYN COUNCILOR 4 (fancier robes) "Senator Myasjich, the motion you have brought before the council is bold and dramatic. Let us bring the motion to a vote." CHAMBER BELL IS STRUCK. The councillors press a voting button in front of them. ELDARYN COUNCILOR 4 "The motion has passed! Effective immediately, genetic intervention of the Saurosapien scourge with Eldaryn DNA via targeted aerosol nano-cloud dispersal over Tera is to begin immediately."
Art slot — council chamber + vote moment
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Scene 3 — Attack on the Station
At this point, there is a violent explosion in the council chambers, and the senators are all sucked into space — except for Eldaryn Councilor 4, who holds on. She looks up through the blasted hole, amidst rushing air and debris being sucked into space, and sees an Eldaryn cruiser out in space with cannons pointed at the station. Clear saurian markings on its hull show: this is a captured Eldaryn ship. Eldaryn Councilor 4 manages to press an emergency beam-out on her console and disappears.
Art slot — station breach / captured cruiser reveal
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Scene 4 — Cerebra Fails
Back on prehistoric Earth, Cerebra (volumetric projection of the ship computer) has been explaining her situation to Troll, Unicorn, Timmy, and Susie on the banks of a river. Her ship is damaged and almost out of power. CEREBRA "My ship has suffered extreme damage and it is imperative that the reactor core be transported to the extinct volcano beyond the forest. I have located the core on the other side of this body of water, however my efforts to rescue you has placed my ship..." (other side... bzzzt) UNICORN "Thath mysteriouth mountain! There’th candy there! I love candy!" Cerebra starts to glitch out. CEREBRA "I apologize… power cells… front portion of zoo ship… drained… generators… capacitors… broken… replacements… pod… bzzzt. LOCATE CAPTAIN! pod… locate…" Cerebra’s image flickers with distortion and warping and finally disappears. Her last image shows her holding her head in her hands as if in pain. The ship loses all power and shudders, rocking onto its side as if the landing gear on one side gives out. DRONE "SIGNAL LOST. NEW PRIORITY 1 MESSAGE RECEIVED."
Art slot — Cerebra glitching / ship slumping
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Scene 5 — “Locate Captain”
SUSIE "Locate captain? Maybe the captain of the ship is hurt! Maybe this captain is in that broken space ship!" The drone projects a hologram map of the entire forest from above. The core is shown as a glowing purple dot. The extinct volcano is visible beyond the forest. A “YOU ARE HERE” label shows the group’s position. A red dotted path animates from their location to a green flashing dot deeper into the forest on their side of the river. The letters “CAPTAIN” appear over that dot. UNICORN "Leth go!" Unicorn gallops away in the direction indicated. TROLL "No wait! Oh for goodness sakes!" TROLL (grumbling as he follows) "What is your obsession with candy? Is that a metaphor for something?" SUSIE "Maybe the captain can help us get home." TIMMY "I like space ships."
Art slot — drone hologram map with “CAPTAIN” waypoint
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Scene 6 — The Pod
On the other side of the river, the T-Rex emerges and starts sniffing at the edge of the water. It jumps onto the “rocks” (tentacle monsters) and fights them. After a brutal struggle, it finally gets to the other side and continues sniffing. Back with the main gang: They arrive in a clearing where there is a spaceship escape pod with a clear front panel. Inside is the skeleton of an Eldaryn wearing a fancy uniform. DRONE "CAPTAIN LOCATED. VIABLE CORTICAL BACKUP DETECTED. BIOLOGICAL FUNCTION CEASED. LOCATING SUITABLE HOST…" The drone flies off into the forest — back the way they came. SUSIE "Gross!" TIMMY "Cool! That’s a skeleton!" UNICORN "Captain ith just thleeping inthide hith magic bokth. He knowth how to get to mytheriouth mountain, right Thpooooth?" TROLL (wincing) "Would you please stop calling me that?" UNICORN "But thatth your name ithn’t it? From when we were all friendth up in the thky? Member?" TROLL "That is not important. What do we do now?"
Art slot — escape pod + Eldaryn skeleton reveal
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Scene 7 — A Host is Chosen
TIMMY (looking up) "Aaagh!!" A huge T-Rex walks out of the trees. The drone floats in front of its head, beaming a soft blue light at its face. SUSIE "It’s that dinosaur that was chasing us! But what’s wrong with it?" TROLL "The flying round thing is using its magic on it to control it, I think?" DRONE "VIABLE HOST LOCATED. PLACE CORTICAL BACKUP INTO VIABLE HOST." Inside the escape pod, above the captain’s head, a green flashing light ejects a small box onto a tray. TROLL (reading magical “instructions”) "Yes, the spell says I just have to put that box thingy into the hatch on top of this big creature’s head... I’m getting good at this!" DRONE "TRANSLATION MATRIX UPLOADED." CORTICAL BACKUP BOX (speaker) "What the… Where am I? Why is it so dark? What’s going on?" TROLL "Unicorn, let me get on your back." Troll grabs the box, climbs onto Unicorn, and with Unicorn’s help leaps up onto the T-Rex’s head. He opens the hatch and places the box into the dinosaur’s skull compartment. Inside the head: wires emerge from the box, wiggle, find sockets, and plug themselves in. CORTICAL BACKUP BOX "What’s that light? Oooh, this tickles!" Troll closes the hatch and jumps down. The drone turns off its hypnotic light. The T-Rex shakes its head, closes its eyes, then opens them again, trying to rub its head — but its arms don’t reach.
Art slot — “box into dino head” sequence
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Scene 8 — Captain T-Rex
CAPTAIN T-REX (booming growl, with the captain’s voice layered over) "What? Where am I. What’s going on. Ow my leg!!! What’s wrong with my voice? Why am I growling!" There are gashes on the T-Rex’s legs from the tentacle-monster fight; the captain feels the pain. UNICORN "Captain ith now inthide funny green thing!" TIMMY "It’s a dinosaur. You’re a T-Rex dinosaur!" CAPTAIN T-REX "I’m a what?" The captain looks at the ground, then his limbs, then his tail, wagging it in disbelief. TIMMY "Hey! Can you do cool dinosaur stuff now like roar and run fast?" CAPTAIN T-REX "This is… impossible! How can I be in this creature’s body?" He looks down at the escape pod. His old self is a skeleton inside it. CAPTAIN T-REX "Oh… Ah…" He slumps down with a heavy thud. CAPTAIN T-REX "I see…"
Art slot — Captain realizes his old body is gone
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Scene 9 — Vos Remembers
Susie approaches and gently places a hand on the captain’s head. SUSIE "It’s alright, Captain T-Rex… I’m sure we can find a way to get you back to your old self. Somehow." CAPTAIN T-REX "It matters not. My name isn’t Captain T-Rex. It’s Vos. Captain of the zoo ship Parmony — to collect samples of animal and plant life from Tera before we destroyed it. We had a mission." He studies the group. CAPTAIN T-REX "Who are you people? You are not Eldaryn. I have never encountered your species before." SUSIE "Can you help us? We are trying to get back home… A bad man captured us… We have to get to the extinct volcano so we can go back home…" CAPTAIN T-REX "Lizard people you say? You know about the Saurosapiens?" TROLL "We need to focus on getting the reactor core to the extinct volcano. That’s our priority." CAPTAIN T-REX (to Troll) "And what in sacred heavens are you?" TROLL "I am Thagius Spoozicm Gumwillows, keeper of the orbs, balancer of meteors and other—" CAPTAIN T-REX "You know about meteors?" TROLL (tightening up) "I’m not always in this form, you know… Yes. I know about the meteors, Captain. But you need to explain to us the danger you say we are in." CAPTAIN T-REX "Let’s get away from here. I can smell approaching lifeforms from the east. (That’s weird.) But indeed… it all started when the head of Eldaryn council materialized on my bridge…"
Art slot — Vos begins the big backstory
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Scene 10 — The River
CAPTAIN T-REX "We need to find the reactor core of our ship." UNICORN "I thaw the big ball and it tried to eat me! But itth ok now." TROLL "We know where your reactor core is. Follow me, but we have to traverse an annoying river to get there." UNICORN "Oooh fun leth go!!" Unicorn gallops back toward the clearing and sees the tentacle monsters have been killed. CAPTAIN T-REX "Ah yes. I think I did that! Here — get on my back. I’ll carry you across to the other side." Everyone climbs up Captain T-Rex’s tail onto his back. The cyborg dinosaur wades into the river — at one point water reaches his waist. They huddle on his neck and head. A tentacle monster, barely alive, makes a weak swipe. Because of his injured leg, Captain T-Rex winces. TIMMY topples off into the water and is washed downstream. SUSIE "TIMMY!!!!" END OF EPISODE 3
Art slot — Timmy swept away cliffhanger
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Want the full Episode 3 adventure? Read Troll & Unicorn Season 1 Episode 3: The Captain on Amazon.
Prefer the illustrated edition? Read Quest For Mysterious Mountain: Book 1 as a flipbook →