From TES issue 51 (May 2008)

Series 7
Quest: The Shield. Dungeoneer: Naila Kahn.Advisors: Aquila, Asmita and Samreen.

Home town: London.
Team score: 5 out of 10.

This was a fairly average attempt, but the team certainly had a lot of enthusiasm, and approached their quest with just the right amount of light-heartedness.

Level One: Naila meets Brother Strange in the dwarf tunnels. The mysterious monk warns her that Sylvester Hands is lurking somewhere in level one, but he is in disguise. Naila then finds herself in the Crazed Heifer, where Marta sits her down at a table and then goes off to think about what kind of helpful information she might be able to offer. At this point, Sylvester Hands enters the inn, disguised (very poorly) as a troubadour. After sneezing all over an unfortunate customer and ordering a tankard of beer from Marta, Hands sits down with Naila and tells her that he is on the lookout for dungeoneers to kidnap, but he knows that she herself is not one because she is wearing the wrong helmet. Hands gives Naila a horn with which to call him if she comes across any dungeoneers, and then leaves.

Marta then rejoins Naila, and demands to know something from her in exchange for some useful information. Naila explains that the troubadour was Hands in disguise, and Marta tells her that she will need to procure a firestone from Grimaldine in order to pay Smirkenorff for a flight to level two. Naila next travels to the area of level one known as Grimdale, where she finds a bag of silver on a table. This is used to pay Rothberry for a True Sight potion, which is utilised to help Naila get past a giant troll with a swinging club.
Through a spyglass, Naila sees Grimaldine threatening Lord Fear with an invasion if he does not return the Brollachan. Fear pretends to be unmoved by Grimaldine’s threats, but once the green wizard reveals his plan to capture one of Fear’s servants and pump him for knowledge, Lord Fear is clearly somewhat rattled. He tells Lissard to remove all members of the Opposition from level one, which makes the team realise that the horn they have been given might prove very useful to Grimaldine. In the final chamber of level one, Naila is fortunate enough to run into the green wizard himself, who readily parts with a firestone in return for the horn that will call Sylvester Hands. The large metal door to Smirkenorff opens, and Naila is able to pay the dragon with the firestone for a flight to level two.
Level Two: Naila comes across a collection of clue objects in the Rift of Angar. She picks up a glow-light and a talking book of spells, which is apparently playing host to a bookworm, rejecting a bar of gold. Deeper into level two, Naila is accosted by Raptor and his goblins. The bookworm finds a spell called BOLT, which causes a crossbow to appear and shoot fireballs at Raptor and the goblins until they run away.

Next, Naila meets the Brollachan, who is on the lookout for knowledge as usual. The advisors tell Naila to ask the book for knowledge, which is not the best idea, as it is a spell book after all, and Naila manages to drown out most of the Brollachan’s first question. However, they manage to answer all three questions correctly in the end, and the Brollachan is satisfied.

In a darkened dwarf tunnel, the glow-light is utilised, and Naila comes across a spyglass, which she makes use of. Lord Fear is talking to Hands in the magic pool. Hands is covered in green slime, which was apparently Grimaldine’s punishment for his inability to remember any useful information about harming Lord Fear. Fear gloats and laughs at Hands in his usual way, before telling him the combination for the Trial by Spikes.
It is not long before Naila reaches this deadly obstacle, and it is here that the advisors’ dithering and somewhat panicky tendencies (which have shown themselves before a couple of times) really come to the fore. They do a very poor job of trying to direct Naila across the correct number of squares; they even begin by asking her to take a certain number of steps instead! They do eventually get the idea, but they are in a right mess by now, and Naila is soon directed backwards into a spike.

Summary: A fair attempt, but their indecisiveness (and slight ditziness) did for them in the end.

[Previous team: Team 3 of Series 7
Next team: Team 5 of Series 7]

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