From TES issue 12 (November 2001)
Series 8
Quest: The Sword of Freedom.
Dungeoneer: Daniel II. Advisors: Gideon, Ben and Justin.
Home town: London.
 
In his Eye Shield interview, Tim Child named these four incorrigible Jewish lads as the team he most remembers. I'm not surprised, either. It is impossible to describe how het-up Gideon gets by everything, screaming Oh my God! at any given opportunity. Indeed, it is Gideon's lack of control over his wild emotions that is ultimately responsible for Daniel's death. There can be no denying, however, that it is a brave and admirable attempt at conquering the Knightmare Dungeon.
  Level One: After a mad dash through the snap-dragon infested dwarf tunnel, Daniel emerges into the level one clue room. After some initial trouble in understanding the message on the scroll, Gideon leads the team into deciding to take the Acme self operating danger horn, which warns you of danger if you encounter it. Daniel looks through the spyglass. Lord Fear and Lissard are playing Dungeon Monopoly (Wolfenden High Street, Get Out of Dungeon Free card etc.) when Sylvester Hands appears on the telescreen. Fear tasks Hands with finding Stiletta and getting back an object that she's stolen from him. The team decide that Stiletta might like the pendant that is on the table, and she might give them the object that Fear wants in exchange. A room with a tiled floor follows, where the horn immediately sounds. Gideon panics wildly as fireballs drop from the ceiling. Daniel is guided out by Gideon's expert manoeuvring. (Gideon: "Oh my God, Daniel! Run, quickly, run! Go on, run!!") Miraculously, he makes it to the door. Stiletta is in the next room. Daniel just manages to avoid drowning in his own lust-induced saliva as he speaks to her. He warns her that Sylvester Hands is coming to get her, and also offers the pendant as a trade for the object she's stolen from Lord Fear. Stiletta agrees that it is a very nice pendant, and gives Daniel a ring that she says can disintegrate skeletrons. As Daniel is being directed out, Hands arrives. Stiletta soon sees him off by throwing a few of her knives at him. The trapdoor chamber follows. A skeletron guards the way, but the ring soon disintegrates it. The team do not know how to open the trapdoor, but Brother Strange arrives to help them. Gideon thinks that it is Hands coming for revenge, but then realises that it isn't. (Gideon: "Oh! Sylvest... oh." Justin: "It's the monk!") In return for a proverb, Brother Strange opens the trapdoor by magic and gives Daniel a FLOAT spell. When this is cast, he floats safely down the trapdoor, and into level two.
  Level Two: Majida is very surprised to see that Daniel has landed in the corridors of Goth, which she recognises as level three from the previous series. Treguard explains that the old levels have changed, and that level three now lies in the Great Mire, below Goth, where Lord Fear has made his new home. Snapper-Jack is the team's first challenge of this level. They answer all three of his riddles correctly, so he is forced to slink off empty-handed. After negotiating the corridor, Daniel enters the clue room. After reading the scroll, containing a pun on the word humerus, Daniel is instructed to take a large bone that is on the table. Another spyglass sequence follows, in which we are introduced to Maldame. Lissard tells Lord Fear who she is, then she immediately starts demanding that Lord Fear gives one of his illegally-built towers - Linghorm - to her as the ruler of the Mire-world in return for her alignment with him, leaving the other tower - Marblehead - for himself. She asks for the word-key to Linghorm. Unimpressed, Lord Fear freezes her. Just before the sequence ends, he tells the word-key to Lissard: it's Phoenix. After some further deliberation, Daniel then picks up a fearsome potion from the table. Next it's the Sewers of Goth. The boat is waiting to take Daniel across, but the one who arrives to row it is Sylvester Hands. After promising Daniel death, Hands slinks off to find some ammunition for his catapult. Daniel takes the potion and turns into Lord Fear. When Hands returns, he is full of apologies. He rows the person he believes to be his master through the sewers without delay. Gideon is panicked again in the next room; it has sliding blocks between several rows of floor. Miremen are seen to be following Daniel. Again he manages to escape. In the next room, Daniel is accosted by Raptor and some miremen. By holding the bone out, Daniel is able to make Raptor laugh uncontrollably (humerus/humorous, you see) and he runs off in hysterics. Daniel has to dash past the miremen. The frozen Maldame is in the next chamber. Justin instructs Daniel to free her with the reach wand, which he does successfully. In return for the word-key to Linghorm, Maldame opens the door to level three for Daniel. There is a stair-case on the other side, which leads down into Linghorm.
  Level Three: After negotiating the corridors of Linghorm, Daniel emerges into his final clue room. Here he picks up a red key and a sight potion. He has to dodge some fireballs on the way out. He meets Honesty Bartram in the next chamber, who is interested in a bit of trading, as usual. In exchange for the potion, he gives Daniel the spell SHADE. Honesty Bartram also tells Daniel that he must travel across the mire on the Golden Galleon to reach Marblehead, where the Sword waits for him. The docks of Linghorm follow this chamber, and Daniel is able to get on board the ship. He has to sneak past two miremen who are guarding the way down to the hold, for which SHADE is used. Daniel finds another spyglass below decks. Through it, the team see Lord Fear cursing Lissard for putting Bhal-Shebah on guard duty, as Daniel may be able to defeat him by taking advantage of his two different personalities. He also tells Lissard the word-key to Marblehead - confusion. At the docks of Marblehead, Daniel meets Maldame again. In return for the word-key, she agrees to help him enter and escape Marblehead. Daniel gets a green gem that opens doors by magic and a summoning-spell from Maldame. The spell is called SAVANT, and will call any sorcerer to Daniel so that they may help him escape when his quest is over. We do not get to see exactly how this would have worked. Maldame's gem enables easy access to Marblehead, but the challenge waiting inside is the dreaded Corridor of Blades. Unfortunately, Gideon takes control of guiding Daniel out of the blades' path - and he completely loses control! Before long, Daniel has been sliced by a blade. We are treated to blood spurting all over the screen.
 
Summary: An excellent team, let down only by Gideon's panic in the Corridor of Blades. They deserved to win, in fact, but, like Martin and Leo before them, one level three mistake spoiled everything.
 
Score: 8 out of 10.

[Previous team: Team 1 of Series 8
Next team: Team 3 of Series 8]

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