From TES issue 36 (November 2005)
Series 2
Quest: The Talisman.
Dungeoneer: Julian Smith. [Known latterly as Jason Karl]
Advisors: Vaughan, Becca and Mary.

Home town: Banbury, Oxfordshire.
Team score: 10 out of 10.

Featuring the second-ever and the only mixed winning team, Julian's quest has achieved the status of a real classic in recent years.
Level One: After stopping the Wheel of Fate, Julian meets Gretel in a room with four doors. Gretel provides some hints about which door to take, as well as a spell called FOUL, which will show up evildoers in disguise. In the Fire Cave, Julian receives a slight burn, causing the loss of one life force level, but this is soon restored with the food in the clue room. Olgarth is the wall monster on guard, and the team - chiefly thanks to their dungeoneer - manage to answer all three questions correctly. Julian picks up a quill pen and a key from the table. The Automatum chases Julian out of the next chamber, and then the key is used to unlock a door in a [bomb room]. In the Dungeon kitchen, Gretel is behaving rather strangely with a pie. The FOUL spell reveals Mildread in all her splendour, and then the real Gretel turns up and is annoyed with Mildread for using her shape and voice. The Automatum chases Julian out of the kitchen, much to Gretel's consternation, but the wellway room follows. Pursued relentlessly by the Automatum, Julian plunges down into level two.
Level Two: A choice of five doors is the team's first challenge, and Gretel turns up - yet again - to provide the clues. Across the Mills of Doom, Julian has to dodge a cavern wraith in order to pick up a strange unlabelled bottle. He is told to open this in the clue room, but it turns out to be a Destructor, and the advisors have to guide Julian out without taking any objects. A meeting with Merlin follows, in which the team answer two out of three questions correctly. As a reward, Merlin entrusts Folly to Julian as a guide to get him through the rest of the level. Julian and Folly meet Gumboil in the Bridged Vale. Although he is very drunk, Gumboil still demands the password. Folly tricks Gumboil into thinking that he has been given a magical sorcerer's stone as a bribe, which is completely invisible to all but the cleverest people. Folly and Julian then enter the [Great Corridor of the Catacomb], where a toadadile can be seen down the far end. While Folly "holds back" the monster, Julian makes his escape. He then reaches the wellway room, where Olaf is on guard. Without anything with which to bribe the Viking guard, Julian is forced to try Folly's sorcerer's stone trick:

Olaf: "I can't see it."
Julian: "Only stupid people can't see it."
Olaf: "Oh, in that case, give to Olaf. Yes, it's very beautiful."

Very convincing, I'm sure you'll agree(!) Anyway, Olaf allows Julian to use the well, and descend to the third level.
Level Three: After picking up a few useful snippets of information from a gargoyle, Julian avoids some cavernwights and reaches the clue room, where he picks up a bag of salt and the magic shield. Merlin's chamber follows, where Julian has to touch a small black symbol [SEE: mannaz] in order to summon the wizard. Merlin awards the team the spell DARK, as well as telling them that they must spellcast in order to retrieve the Talisman at the end of the quest: "...and the spell to use should be obvious to you." - Merlin. When Julian meets Medusa, he has to shelter behind the shield while Treguard directs the advisors to take it in turns to guide their dungeoneer to the exit for a few seconds at a time each, thus avoiding being turned to stone. Mogdred then tries to get Owen to eat Julian, but a speedy exit is all that is required. In the stained glass window room, the DARK spell is cast and the symbol of the Talisman appears on one of the four paths, indicating the correct way to go. A second meeting with Mogdred follows, where Julian has to refuse to pledge himself to the Dark Side. Mogdred's gloating laughter accompanies Julian into the final chamber, where he has to duck under a guillotine and walk onto an arrow. The spell TALISMAN is then cast, and the team have beaten the challenge! Not a very exciting end, I suppose, but anyway...
Summary: An intelligent team, with a particularly quick-witted and responsive dungeoneer, who definitely deserved their win.

[Previous team: Team 9 of Series 2
Next team: Team 11 of Series 2]

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