From TES issue 61 (January 2010)
Series 1
Quest: To survive the Dungeon.
Dungeoneer: Helen Abbott. Advisors: Anthony, Claire and Jean-Paul.
Home town: Unknown, Mid Glamorgan.
Team score: 3 out of 10.

The penultimate quest of the first series ended perhaps a little sooner than it deserved to, although the advisors did forget one very important directional guideline – remember to stay on the right!
Level One: As usual in this series, the quest begins with a Simple Starter in the grey four-door room. There is nothing complicated about this one, as Helen has to do nothing more than walk over a large key symbol on the floor (without having to join different pieces together) in order to unlock one of the doors. The first appearance of the spectral scorpion (and the only one in this series) follows; the team direct Helen out safely with no problems.
The next chamber is the level one clue room, where Granitas is on guard. He asks his three riddles as usual, and the team scores two. Acting on information from the wall monster, Helen picks up a key and a vase of rather sickly looking flowers from the clue table, before moving on to a bomb room. The door is locked, but the key soon sorts out this problem, and Helen arrives in Lillith’s lair. Lillith is apparently convalescing from an illness, and insists that Helen present her with a gift to make her feel better. The flowers do the trick, and Helen is allowed to exit through the Serpent's Mouth, along with a WELL spell as a token of Lillith’s gratitude.
The chamber of the Giant is next, where Helen advises the allergic monster to hold his nose when he’s around humans in order to cure his sneezing problem. The Corridor of the Catacombs is the next port of call, where the team has to choose blindly whether to take Helen through the left-hand or the right-hand door. Unfortunately they plump for the left, which leads on to a dead end. The WELL spell is cast, but to no avail: ”The WELL spell can only reveal a well; it can’t create one.” – Treguard. Life force runs out and the quest ends here.

Summary: A typically tentative early attempt, which reached a dead end and could go no further thanks to a slightly dodgy decision.

[Previous team: Team 4 of Series 1
Next team: Team 6 of Series 1]

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