From TES issue 22 (July 2003)
Series 6.
Quest: The Sword of Freedom.
Dungeoneer: Alan Davis. Advisors: Jim, Nick and Mark.
Home town: St. Albans.
Team score: 7 out of 10.

Another high-quality quest from series 6 this time, which I used to particularly enjoy because the team lived very close to my town.
Level One: In the first clue room, Alan looks through the spyglass to see Lord Fear instructing Sylvester Hands to impersonate a hero in order to gain Alan's trust and friendship before despatching him. After he has finished with Hands, Fear receives a call from Julius Scaramonger, who explains to Lord Fear that Ah Wok's arrival in Wolfenden has been damaging his business recently. In return for some goblin clubs, Fear agrees to do Julius a favour by getting rid of Ah Wok with a SAMURAI spell. Alan takes a bar of gold and a musical scroll from the table. In Wolfenden, Alan meets Hands in the guise of Konan the Vegetarian. After showing off for a while, Hands invites Alan to join him for a drink in the pub later on.
In the marketplace, Alan meets Ah Wok. Lord Fear's spectral samurai assassin soon arrives to slay the stallholder, but one of the advisors dispels Lord Fear's spell and the samurai warrior disappears. Ah Wok is very grateful for his rescue, and gives Alan a silver bar and the password - skeleton - in return for the gold. In the inn, Alan meets a drunken Sylvester Hands, but Ridolfo soon arrives and sees him off with his sword. In return for the musical scroll, the minstrel tells Alan the causeway code. Once he has passed the blocker with the password and crossed the causeway, Alan meets Smirkenorff at the end of the level. The dragon grudgingly agrees to fly to level two in exchange for the silver. A dragonflight sequence duly follows, and Alan arrives in the second level.
Level Two: Alan meets Sidriss, who has been turned ugly by foolishly messing about with cosmetic magic. Alan agrees to find some magic to restore Sidriss's looks, and is told to call her when he has done so. The clue room follows, where Alan picks up a gauntlet and a bag of gold. Through the spyglass, Lord Fear shows Skarkill a small chest which, he explains, contains a Medusa Eye, which will turn anyone who looks at it into stone. Amongst the Rocks of Bruin, Alan meets Lord Fear in person, which is a rare occurrence in a quest and this was the first time it happened. Fear is disguised as Hordriss in disguise as Harris the beggar, and he manages to persuade Alan to swap his gold for the box containing the Medusa Eye. Alan then swaps this item for a BEAUTY spell from Heggatty.
Whatever the diminutive witch intends the Eye to be used for remains a mystery to this day, but Alan is able to call Sidriss and return her beauty to her. In return, Sidriss reveals the password - scarify - and that the way to the third level lies by ship. Alan uses the password to get rid of Dreadnort, and then comes across an enlarged version of Lord Fear's hand in an enclosed chamber. Fear refuses to let Alan pass, and after much coaxing from Treguard the team tell Alan to put on the gauntlet. This causes a large magic gauntlet to appear and restrain Lord Fear's marauding hand while Alan escapes. In the dwarf tunnels, Alan picks up a key and then arrives on the galleon Cloudwalker, which is bound for level three.
Level Three: On the deck of the ship, Elita appears and insults Alan for a while before skipping off. Below decks, Alan finds a scroll telling him to abandon ship as well as another spyglass. Through this, the team see Lord Fear instructing a limping Skarkill to take Rhark and Tiny into level three to intercept Alan, and to take the even path on the causeway. Fear then calls Captain Nemanor in his pool to ask if he has seen any dungeoneers on his ship. Nemanor is none too receptive to Fear's questions, but the mariner assures the evil sorcerer that he will kill any stowaways he finds onboard.
Elita pops up again next and tasks Alan with stealing a firestone from Ariadne in order to gain her help later in the level. The eye shield takes Alan through a hatchway and into some more dwarf tunnels, where Skarkill and his goblins are lurking in the shadows. After sneaking past them, Alan emerges onto the causeway. Despite the fact that they have the combination, the team are much too slow in their direction and Alan falls to his doom before he has barely taken one step forward, bringing a somewhat abrupt and unexpected end to the quest. ("I warned you, you've got to be quick in level three. And now I shall be quick. Farewell, boys. - Treguard.)
Summary: A commendable performance, but they turned out to be a bit too slow when it really counted.

[Previous team: Team 2 of Series 6
Next team: Team 4 of Series 6]

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