From TES issue 25 (January 2004)
Series 8
Quest: The Shield of Justice.
Dungeoneer: Oliver Dawn. Advisors: Anthony, David and Matthew.
Home towns: Leicester and Melton Mowbray.
Team score: 3½ out of 10.

The first-ever quest was examined in TES ages ago, and now it's time for the last-ever quest. I could quite easily get embroiled in a sermon about what a bad idea the Short Cut was and how this quest should not have had time to take place at all, but it's best, I think, to stick to the facts.
Level One: The quest begins in the clue room. Here Oliver uses a spyglass, through which Lord Fear and Lissard contrive a plan to speed up the blades in the Corridor of Blades, thereby stopping Oliver from using the Short Cut. The scroll gives the most obvious indication ever of the correct clue objects and the team very nearly make the same mistake as Richard and friends at the beginning of the series by ignoring what is blatantly written in front of them, but fortunately Treguard manages to guide them into taking a dowsing rod and a spellbook from the table.
In the next chamber, Sidriss is making Motley fly around in the air and he is not enjoying it. Oliver gives Sidriss the spellbook and she brings Motley back down to earth. Oliver then tells Sidriss about the Corridor of Blades, and she decides that Smirkenorff is the only one who can cast a spell to slow the blades down again. She gives Oliver a dragon-charming spell called CREEP. Oliver and Smirkenorff meet in the next chamber, and the spell makes Smirkenorff very friendly. He gives the team a spell called BURST to slow the blades and tells them that the entrance to the Short Cut is in the trapdoor room.

Fortunately enough, Oliver arrives in that room next. The dowsing rod is used to reveal a door and Oliver goes into the Corridor of Blades. Bizarrely, the spell is not cast but the blades are moving normally. (I sense a production error!) Oliver survives the blades and exits the tunnel.

Level Two: Erm...
Level Three: In the clue room there is a spyglass sequence where Lissard shows Lord Fear his extensive plans for keeping Oliver out of Marblehead - he has blocked the sewer tunnels with a miretrog and also placed a booby-trapped false Shield into the final chamber next to the real Shield. From the table, Oliver picks up a sight potion and a bottle labelled power to rule to give to Maldame. There is no time for any further development of these plot lines, though, as Oliver enters one of Linghorm's passages where a skeletron is on guard. The Dungeon bell sounds, signifying the end of the very short final quest season. Treguard sends Smirkenorff on his final Knightmare flight to rescue Oliver from Linghorm.
Summary: To be completely and shockingly honest and candid, I don't think for a moment that this team would have got to level three under normal circumstances. There was a lot of bickering among the team members and they seemed very disorganised, and their stupid initial disregard of the scroll clue was infuriating. I think they were not a very good team, and that a full three-level Dunston victory would have been a much more fitting end to the programme. There, I said it!

[Previous team: Team 6 of Series 8
Next team: Knightmare VR pilot team]

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