From: Sunderland, Mackem Country
Quest: Sword
Duration: 9 minutes 46 seconds
Progress: Level 1, 7th Room
Died: Blown up by a bomb
Trivia: 1st team to challenge the dungeon in Season 2. One of the team members assisted Mildread in faking his voice. Shortest ever Quest.

Characters: Folly, Gretel, Olgarth of Legend, Gumboil, Mildread
Clue Objects: Bottle of Ground Toads Legs, Gauntlet, Key
Spells: None

Quest Summary
Level 1, Final Thoughts

The Team

Martin (Dungeoneer)	Lee
Tony	John

Comments
A strong team let down mostly by being treated unfairly when compared to other teams from this Season. They worked well together and even helped the production team pull off a special effect for Mildread. But despite everything Treguard it seems would rather have them dead than offer a little help.


 Level 1 "A hall with 5 stars", nope the crew of Knightmare have something much more interesting in store for this Season for the 1st regular room. It is the "Wheel of Fate" but it's also the "Wheel of Fortune if you're quick enough!". For the 1st time in Knightmare it gives a sense of choice in where to enter for the 1st challenge the dungeon has to offer. A multi-coloured ball of web like strands would fly forwards and unfold creating the wheel in question. All the team have to do was pick a room they liked the look of and pull the lever at the right time in order to enter it. The team doesn't really make a decision on what room they'd like to enter. Instead they automatically presume Fate is obviously much better than Fortune. So they pick at random by simply telling Martin to pull the lever as soon as he approaches it. Fortunately for them the room they select is a harmless one. Now something much more familiar, the good old 4 archways room from Season 1 except with torches burning above each one for a change. It's also one of the few times where the rooms lighting matches that as seen in the wheel of fate. Martin isn't left on his own for long because Folly makes a grand appearance by chasing the unwelcome Gretel with his stick. This is Gretels first appearance in Knightmare and she'll be thankfully gone next Season. She's in a bad mood, unwilling to play Follys game and demands that he "Stop it!". She points out Martin to Folly referring to him as "a um thingummy" or words to that effect. Obviously her vocabulary is competing for brain space and she hasn't read the dungeons welcome pack to inform her of what dungeoneers are. Telling Folly to "play with that" she runs off towards a portal and isn't heard from again this quest (yay!). Folly blows a raspberry at her. "Before you stands and dances too, the fool of all the world. Folly is my name and Folly is my nature, foolish is my character and fun my alma mater". Folly introduces himself in style and you'll have to just put up with the way he talks. If you don't like it then skip to Season 3. Folly's always rather giggly. He asks them if they wish to play his game of "chase the lady" stating "I wonder which direction you should chase in". They decide to go through the same portal Gretel departed through. Ending up in a bomb room! There's no body on the floor though so unfortunatly it didn't manage to get Gretel when she passed by. They simply walk on through into the next portal leaving the exploding bomb in their wake. Ah the good old clue room as used in Season 1, in fact you'll find just about every room from Season 1 being reused this season. Olgarth makes his appearance and he's grown a little too. He gets straight to the point in letting the team know he has 3 riddles and asks away leaving our current heroes little choice in the matter.

1. It is born with egg, yet mother never feeds it. A song it sings but only two notes ever needed.
Answer: Cuckoo
Answer given: Cuckoo
Result: Truth Accepted

2. Who is the giant of the greenwood?
Answer: Little John
Answer given: Orc
Result: Falsehood

3. Time and tide wait for no man, yet one substance will measure it for him.
Answer: Sand
Answer given: Sand
Result: Truth Accepted

"2 is the score your quest is to find the sword but you may not yield it. The password for this level is the maiden name. Rock I was and rock I become." said Olgarth in his typical unenthused manner. Some pretty tough riddles, especially number 2. The answer given in 2 was stupid and a better guess would've been something like "The Major Oak". But they did well and earnt a much needed clue. The objects available are:
A pie
A bottle of "Ground Toads Legs"
A gauntlet
A key

Picking up the pie they choose the "glove" and key. They've not been given any other advice so this is pure guess work.
Onto the edge of a ledge Martin strolls with the rather hideous Gumboil guarding the way forward. Whom the team seem to find rather strangely funny. Without even giving them a glance he states, "Halt! Intruder alert level 1, Gumboil the orrid reporting.". Who exactly he's reporting to is unknown, as to who would actually care is an even bigger mystery. He continues, "Password intruder or you perish... NOW!". The team being a smart bunch wrote down Gretels name and instructed Martin to say it. "Password Accepted, pass on.".

As Martin walks on past Gumboil has this little utterance for Martin, "Just you make sure you get the password for level 2 or you go on the chopping list. Alright go on before I change my mind.". He sounds a lot like the bouncers outside the typical dank pit nightclubs often found in grotty towns. He has a much more lax policy on trainers though.

Mildread stood next to her cauldron disguised as a well fakes the voice of one of Martins advisors. She tells Martin to walk forwards towards the well which he does. John and Lee seem rather put off by this surprise looking round at Treguard in a "What do we do? what's going on?" kind of way. He soon interrupts Mildreads plans to have an exuberant feast of boiled dungeoneer telling her to make "everything as it was". Mildread of course isn't too happy at having her party ruined by the old spoil sport. "Inerfering dratted devious dungeon master ... Yes master, very well master, as you will master". She probably wishes she could whisk him away like Lilith does. But she obeys the instructions revealing the true nature of things. Treguard tells the team she's dangerous but can be useful. "Dangerous? Dangerous? I wouldn't hurt a fly. I'd hurt him though, I'd turn him into a fly and then hurt him." she says. It has to be said this is certainly one of her more evil and unwelcoming moments. "Now here's bold young thing, ever so clever too I expect. Got any bats wings have you?" Of course they've got no bats wings and never had an opportunity to get any. They offer Mildread a key but her door has no lock. So she sends Martin on his way, in fact litterally chases him out the room.
So onwards Martin goes straight into another bomb room, the fuse is lit, the life force is low and Martin must act fast. The team encourage him to go quickly and run but he simply walks and the bomb explodes killing poor Martin.

"Oh dear what a pity, never mind. Mildread has sent you into peril. The armourous gauntlet could've helped you but the secret of its use you never earned." Treguard informs the team. They look pissed off and rightly so. Treguard could've told them how to use it if he had wanted to.

Boys we're sorry to lose you, but there again it's you who've lost. Fairwell, the dungeon wins and challenges still.

 
Final Thoughts

Martin and companions were treated rather harshly here especially with it being the first quest of the season. They needed to get 3 riddles right to know what just 1 of the correct objects was. It becomes clear that during their encounter with Mildread that giving her the Toads legs would've prompted her to give something in return. Their choice in objects was a reasonable one. There are teams that follow that also only get 1 or 2 riddles right yet manage to progress to level 2 because their clues relate to the objects and they're given much more help. The team also guided Martin well and didn't perform any of the zig-zag patterns a lot of teams seem to end up performing. The team deserved a much easier time and for level 1 the result was far too harsh.

Next Team: Season 2 Team 2

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From TES issue 69 (May 2011)

Series 2
Quest: The Sword of Justice.
Dungeoneer: Martin I.
Advisors: John, Lee and Tony.
Home town: Sunderland, Tyne and Wear.
Team score: 2 out of 10.

The first quest of series 2 was undoubtedly short, although not necessarily sweet.

Level One: Martin kicks off the trend for this series by pulling the lever at the Wheel of Fate as his first task, before arriving in the familiar four-door starting chamber. Folly and Gretel immediately rush in, apparently in the middle of a silly and noisy game, but Gretel promptly becomes bored and runs off. Folly then subjects Martin to some of his usual prattle (”You look much more fun to play with than Gretel!” – Folly) and invites him to join in with the game, which is apparently called ‘Chase the Lady’. The advisors manage to work out that this means Martin should use the door through which Gretel has already exited. Martin reaches the clue room, where Olgarth is on guard (for the first time since the second episode of series 1) and the team scores two correct riddle answers. Somewhat unfairly, the only information Olgarth reveals is that the password is the maiden’s name, leaving the team completely in the dark about which objects they should take. There is a bottle of toads’ legs on the table, which they don’t bother to examine and so leave behind, but even so, I always think they should have had a piece of object information for their score of two truths, just like every other team to achieve that score!

Martin next arrives on a rocky ledge, where Gumboil is on guard and demands the password. The advisors manage to remember the maiden’s name – Gretel, just in case you didn’t know – and so Gumboil allows Martin to pass. Mildread’s cave follows. Mildread uses one of the advisors’ voices to entice Martin to step into her cauldron (which she has disguised as a wellway) but Treguard promptly puts a stop to the witch’s shenanigans. However, without the toads’ legs, the team has nothing to give Mildread in order to earn her help (”You’ve got nothing to offer me and I’ve got nothing to offer you!” – Mildread) and Martin is forced to dash from the room with demented cackling ringing in his ears. A bomb room follows, and as the team is now in losing status, Martin promptly gets blown up!

Summary: They obviously weren’t much cop, but this team fell victim to a tough new rule with their wall monster information, so perhaps the quest was cut short slightly prematurely.

[Previous team: Team 6 of Series 1
Next team: Team 2 of Series 2]

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