From TES issue 42 (November 2006)
Series 3
Quest: The Shield.
Dungeoneer: Kelly I.Advisors: Emma, Sarah and Tammy.

Home town: Sea Palling, Norfolk.
Team score: 3 out of 10.

This was a short quest which was doomed from very early on, yet its valiant participants were cruelly cheated out of a way to level two.
Level One: After rolling the die, escaping from a bomb explosion, rushing past Khar the Cobra and completing the challenge of the
Lion's Head and the Broken Path, Kelly finally reaches the clue room. Golgarach sets three seemingly easy but very confusing questions, of which the team answer two correctly. Kelly is instructed to pick up a rose and a bar of gold from the table, leaving behind a red wax crayon. After dodging some goblins in the [Great Corridor of the Catacomb] and sneaking past a giant spider on a rocky ledge, Kelly reaches the Dungeon Valley. The advisors guide her well down the winding path, and the pursuing goblins are left far behind. Velda is waiting for Kelly in the Vale of Vanburn. The elf maiden asks to see a token to prove that Kelly is on the path of truth, and is duly satisfied with the rose:
"No one would carry this instead of a weapon if their feet were on the dark path." - Velda.
In return for the rose, Velda awards Kelly the spell TRANSFORM. The next chamber contains four barred doors, as well as Mrs. Grimwold and Festus. The old witch is about to feed Kelly to her savage pet, but the TRANSFORM spell turns the dungeoneer into an armoured warrior. Mrs. Grimwold runs away in terror, and then Kelly is able to force her way past one of the portcullises. She arrives in the wellway room, back in her true form. Unfortunately, the well is nowhere to be seen. There is a small table with a sheet of paper on it, but without the crayon there is no way to create a well. Mr. Grimwold, the loathsome ogre, arrives in the chamber, and promptly brings a premature end to Kelly's adventure.
Summary: Okay, so they weren't that good, but I think they deserved to get to level two at least. However, confusing riddles and a very obscurely hidden wellway conspired to stop them from doing so.

[Previous team: Team 6 of Series 3
Next team: Team 8 of Series 3]

login to vote