This spell was supplied to Team 7 of Series 2 by Bumptious the dwarf miner, although he claimed the spell was not related to digging. The team wanted to use SHOVEL against Cedric, who was guarding the Level 2 wellway; but they made the unusual mistake of misremembering the name of the spell! They tried spellcasting SPADE (and then offering it as the password!), but because this simply wasn't what their spell was called, they found no defence against Cedric, who attacked dungeoneer Neil and ended the quest. Having already made a meal of dealing with one 6-letter 'sh' spell and been generously helped (see entry on SHROUD for details), it seems that with SHOVEL, the team were left helpless against their own incompetence.

But the team's demise, as well as echoing their own earlier misfortunes, was oddly reminiscent of that of Team 3 of Series 1, who also made a pig's ear of casting a spell (in their case, ANVIL) to overcome a Level 2 wellway guard. From this comparison, we may infer that SHOVEL was offensive magic, and would have conjured up a magical shovel to knock Cedric out. But then, even if the team had managed that, would they have succeeded in dispelling the shovel before it turned on them?

[Previous versions: 2008-05-10 16:45:34, 2007-02-21 17:24:40, 2005-11-16 20:48:44]

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