From TES issue 58 (July 2009)
Series 2
Quest: The Crown.
Dungeoneer: Jamie Wilkinson.
Advisors: Paul, Saranjit and Joseph.

Home town: Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Team scorem: 6 out of 10.

I have discussed the unfairness of this team’s demise many times before, so I don’t intend to get bogged down in that particular subject here. I will, however, just reaffirm my belief that Jamie and friends lost the game through no real fault of their own, at least so far as I can tell.

Level One: After pulling the lever at the Wheel of Fate, Jamie meets Folly on a narrow ledge of rock. The team endure some pointless banter from the jester before answering a simple question – the Knave of Hearts was the one who stole the tarts, as everybody knows. Folly tells the team that the felonious red jack became a black jack after he was caught, and that they should look out for him on their journey. Jamie then grabs an item of food as he dashes across a bomb room, before arriving in a chamber where he is forced to Pick a Card. The advisors have obviously remembered Folly’s hint, as they quickly direct Jamie to unlock the door that is blocked by the Jack of Spades.
The clue room follows, where Igneous is on guard. Thanks to some serious prompting from Treguard, Jamie and friends manage to gain a perfect score, meaning that they have little trouble in selecting a humbug jar and a bag of small change from the clue table. A quick stroll past the Lion's Head and the Lasers leads to the Troll’s chamber, where Jamie opens the humbug jar (after another prompt from Treguard) and summons a swarm of bees, which sting the Troll while Jamie escapes. He then arrives in Mildread’s cave, and steals an item of food while the witch is asleep. Mildread wakes up and gives the team some heavy hints about dropping the bag of small change into the cauldron, which Jamie duly does. The cauldron transforms into a wellway, which Jamie uses to descend to level two.
Level Two: Jamie lands in Cedric’s chamber. As usual, the acid-tongued monk is in a foul mood, and poses the team three riddles. Again, they get a perfect score. Their reward is an escort from Cedric, although it is a very short one, as Cedric stays behind in the Corridor of the Catacombs to see off a toadadile. Jamie crosses the bridge over the Vale of Worms, chased by the Automatum. He then arrives in a room that has three broken spell parts scattered across the floor, but the Automatum arrives before he has time to collect them all – for what it’s worth, I’m absolutely certain that no team could have done this in the time available to them! (”Too late, team, too late, exit now or you perish!” – Treguard.) Given no choice but to abandon the spell, Jamie is directed out quickly.
The clue room follows. Not unusually, it is being haunted by a cavern wraith. The wraith speaks to Jamie, begging him to release it from the magical hold of a talisman that is on the clue table. Jamie releases the wraith; the grateful ghost rewards him with the spell FREE. Next comes Ariadne's lair. All three doors have been blocked by webs, and Gretel is trapped behind one of them! The maid’s plaintive cries for help are answered, as the team decide to cast FREE. Gretel runs over and thanks Jamie for releasing her, as Ariadne casually reobstructs the door with a new web. Gretel tells Jamie to use the MEDAL spell to escape before she runs off, but of course the team don’t have that spell and they are totally trapped! (”It’s a tangled web we weave and unfortunately, you’ve trapped yourselves right in it!” – Treguard.) Well, actually it was more your fault than theirs, Treguard, but there we are, what can you do?

Summary: A competent, fairly engaging team that perhaps deserved to reach level three.

[Previous team: Team 8 of Series 2
Next team: Team 10 of Series 2]

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