BLOOD OF THE DRAGON

  This is the third episode of series 2 in which we see Skullmaster force a small jungle tribe to drink of the blood of the dragon, promising to make them gods if they serve him.  Hesitantly one man steps forward to drink the blood.  At first nothing seems to happen to him and so many others rush forward to drink the blood.  Suddenly they start to transform into humanoid lizards.  A few of the remaining villagers refuse to take the blood, and are locked up by Warmonger.  One villager appears to only transform halfway, and makes a dash for it.  Warmonger chases him but he gets away by leaping into a river.  Skullmaster is pleased, as he knows that this will bring the Cap Bearer.

Episode Captures (Click to enlarge)

   Max leans out of his bedroom window when Felix calls for him.  He puts on his Walkman and excitedly rushes down the stairs.  No school! He leaps around as he listen to the music and prepares to go out.  A strange voice is heard in his headphones, and Max recognises the voice of Virgil telling him that he has another mission.  Max peers into the tape window and asks, "Are you sure you aren't just tape hiss?"  Max despairs as his fun is cut short by Virgil's confirmation that it is him.

 When Max finds Virgil and Norman, he is told that they are to visit a circus, which gets Max excited; but it turns out to be a bit of a rubbishy circus.  They enter a tent where they see a cage which contains a strange lizard-man.  As soon as the lizard-man sees Max, it starts jabbering words, which, Virgil tells Max, means "Mighty One."   Norman releases the lizard-man by wrenching off the door to the cage, and the lizard immediately falls at Max's feet, as if in worship.  Suddenly the circus owner enters the tent and screams that they have stolen his prize possession.  Two large men arrive and move toward the team.  Norman smiles.

 As the team leave the tent, with the lizard-man, a ruckus can be heard coming from within as Norman makes short work of the two men.  The tent collapses and Norman emerges triumphant.  However, the circus owner re-appears, this time with two tigers, which he releases onto them.  They all run away, following Virgil's directions, and only just manage to escape the pursuing tigers when a portal opens up in front of them.

Out of the portal, all four of them end up in the middle of the sea. Virgil is puzzled as he was sure that by his calculations there should be an island right here.  Fortunately it is very nearby, and they all clamber ashore.  A welcoming party of lizard-men greet them, and a fight ensues in which they are all promptly dealt with by Norman, who swings them all by their tails and lets them fly!  

 As they move deeper into the jungle on the island, the see huge stone statues of gods, all appeared to have been knocked down.  There is even one of Max there too!  They climb what they think is a hill, which the rescued lizard-man tells them was not here before.  Max stops.  An awful smell surrounds them which Virgil identifies as sulphur and brimstone.  The ground moves violently beneath their feet, and they realise that the are standing on the snout of a dragon, which opens its huge yellow eyes, casting an eerie glow all about them.  All except Norman fall or leap from the dragon, but Norman stays to fight.  Max and Virgil watch in horror as Norman is thrown into the air, and is blasted by a fireball from the dragon's mouth.  They watch as he falls into a river far below them.  Max cannot believe his eyes as he sees Norman plunge into the water.  Is he dead?  What do they do now?  Suddenly more lizard-men approach and Max and Virgil leap into the river, in a bid to make it to safety, but unfortunately Warmonger is waiting for them on the shore.  They are captured and taken back to the village.

 Once in the village Max is confronted by Skullmaster who tries to force him to drink the dragon's blood, just to see what would happen to him.  It seems that Max is in dire trouble as the chalice containing the blood is forced upon him.  But a sword emerges from nowhere and smashes the chalice, spilling the blood all over the place.  Max looks up and gasps in delight as he sees Norman standing before him, looking singed, but alive!  As Norman starts another fight, Max complains to anybody who is listening, that his T-shirt has blood on it and is ruined.  To of his captors look on in an apologetic way.

 After Norman has dealt with the captors, Max, Virgil, Norman, and the lizard-man run away, trying to find a way off the island.  Looking over the edge of a cliff they see a boat far below, anchored on the shore.  Using twines they abseil down the cliff and run to the boat, but their hopes are dashed as a fireball hurtles overhead and demolishes the boat  They look up to see the huge red dragon fly down and land heavily next to them, Skullmaster riding upon its head.  Skullmaster tells them to prepare to die, but Max steps forward and strikes up a deal with Skullmaster.  He tells Skullmaster that he is fed up with being the cap-bearer and wants to get rid of it.  "I want to be a kid again!" he states.  He tells Skullmaster that he will give him the cap if he will spare their lives and let them go.  Skullmaster agrees, and so Max holds out the cap.  But as he holds it out it suddenly bursts into light, and a portal opens up before them.  They see their chance and leap into the portal, leaving Skullmaster shouting threats at them.  The dragon prepares to fireball them, but with the portal still open, Norman stops, picks up a huge rock, and throws it as hard as he can at the dragon.  The rock lands in one of the dragon's nostrils causing it to rear up.... and sneeze.  The rock flies out of its nose toward the escaping party

 They all safely emerge from the portal in an unknown plain.  Max and Norman sit up to look for Virgil.  They soon find him trapped under the rock that had been stuck in the dragon's nose.  As Norman lifts it off Max is amused to see that it, and the complaining Virgil are covered in dragon snot!