From TES issue 68 (March 2011)
Series 5
Quest: The Cup.
Dungeoneer: Catherine Croucher. [Moderator's note: Correct spelling is Kathryn, as revealed to Knightmare.com by a teammmate.]Advisors: Rayleen, Alison and Fay.

Home town: Liphook, Hampshire.
Team score: 3½ out of 10.
Catherine’s somewhat unremarkable team kicked off series 5 for us, and helped to introduce us to a whole new style of Knightmare gameplay… and that’s all they did do, really!
Level One: Smirkenorff makes his first appearance as he takes Catherine on a lengthy flight, after which she finds herself in the Wolfglade. At the charcoal burner’s camp, Brother Mace is playing cards with Sylvester Hands. After some coaxing, Mace informs Catherine that she is on the path towards the village of Wolfenden, and tasks her with delivering a bag of gold to a merchant by the name of Julius Scaramonger. Exiting through the portal in the hovel, Catherine arrives in the bustling market village and is immediately approached by Julius. After trying to get her to sell him the quest equipment, Julius accepts the bag of gold and gives Catherine a spyglass in return, before directing her down the street towards the Gateway Inn.
Once inside the inn, Pickle suggests that Catherine tries using the spyglass, and Treguard suggests that this might be achieved by holding it in front of the eye shield – a significant moment in Knightmare history indeed! We then see Lord Fear for the first time, although he doesn’t reveal any useful information on this occasion – it really is just a brief introduction to a very significant character: ”That ‘gentleman’ we just encountered at long range is Lord Fear.” – Treguard. Back in the greenwood Gwendoline makes her first appearance, as she asks the team a quick tree-related question and then gives them the password for level one – Saracen.

The first appearance of a blocker is quick to follow, and the password gets rid of it pretty quickly. Catherine then arrives in the Descender, and after a lot of coaxing she asks it to move, although an instruction far less specific than later teams will need (“Can you move, please?”) is all that’s required to entice the device to descend to level two. This level one, then, has not really been a challenge for the team, but more a chance for us to get used to the new style of the show, and meet most of the new characters and settings.
Level Two: Catherine ascends a brick staircase, emerging into a room where Hordriss is waiting for her. After a brief conversation (which mainly serves to inform us that he is now a wizard rather than a warlock) Hordriss charges Catherine with finding a sphinx bone for him, and rewards her with a mysterious box containing a so-called “weapon” to use against Opposition forces. In the very next chamber, Skarkill makes his first appearance (along with Grippa and Rhark, of course) and the box is opened, unleashing Pixel. Skarkill and the two goblins quickly run off as they are mercilessly bitten by the grouchy pixie, then Catherine has to placate her with a few pleasantries.
Pixel offers to stick around in case her services are required again, so Catherine continues to carry her inside the box. The first ever causeway follows, and Pixel proves herself useful once again by revealing the key to crossing it safely – don’t be offensive. Despite this clear clue, however, the team’s directing skills just aren’t up to the task, and Catherine is soon plummeting to her doom. (This is the first time of two in this series that a dungeoneer falls off a causeway whilst carrying Pixel, who obviously was never all that bothered by the experience, thanks to her wings.)

Summary: This was very much a coast through level one to introduce us to the new series (and with it the concepts of the Powers That Be, the Opposition, the village of Wolfenden and spyglasses) that didn’t ask too much of the girls, and then as soon as they were required to wake up a bit, they quickly stumbled.

[Previous team: Team 8 of Series 4
Next team: Team 2 of Series 5]

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