"Lies will make the world go around, 'til truer words are written down."
- ―Aphrodite's charm for the scroll, in "The Quill is Mightier..."
Gabrielle's enchanted scroll was an ordinary scroll, that was enchanted by Aphrodite, making everything written on it become true. This coincided with Gabrielle's then-current objective to try writing fiction.
Story[]
When Aphrodite became irritated by Xena's heroic exploits becoming the center of attention (instead of herself), Ares explained to her that she shouldn't be angry with Xena - it's Gabrielle's chronicling that is publicising Xena, and so Aphrodite places a curse on the scroll to make everything Gabrielle write become true, hoping it would cause havoc. However, when the scroll's power causes Aphrodite to lose her powers, she is unable to remove the curse. She explains that if the scroll has the truth written on it, everything will return to normal and the curse will be lifted. When Xena returns to fight Ares' army, Gabrielle documents the exact details of her fight, which results in everything returning to normal.
Events caused[]
Gabrielle's scroll made the following happen:
- caused Xena to go fishing and meet with a friend she hadn't seen since she was five years old, and later her mother;
- caused Joxer to appear with Gabrielle;
- caused Gabrielle to perform high-level combat skills and fight off five barbarians;
- caused Joxer to hit himself with Gabrielle's staff;
- caused the Sisters of Gaia to receive wealth for their orphanage;
- caused a tavern owner to make the food and drink on the house, which caused the drinks to rain from the roof;
- caused the barbarians to go west, then go east, then disappear from the lands, then fall into a deep slumber in the caves;
- caused Ares to lose his Godhood (stated to make "war lose all its power");
- caused Aphrodite to lose her Godhood (stated to make "the force that enchanted the scroll to lose its power"), then later caused her to fall on top of Ares (stated to make her "as she was before");
- caused Minya (stated to be the "woman carrying the whip of Xena") to appear;
- caused Scaborus to head to the caves;
- caused three nude Gabrielles to appear;
- caused the three nude Gabrielles to head for the caves;
- caused it to rain dinars;
- caused Xena to return and fight off Ares' army;
- caused the curse to be lifted from the scroll.