From TES issue 29 (September 2004)
Series 4.
Quest: The Cup.
Dungeoneer: Giles.Advisors: Robin, Andrew and Brett.

Home town: Somewhere in the New Forest, Hampshire. [Moderator's note: Giles has since named it as the village of Tiptoe.]
Team score: 7 out of 10.

Another high-quality quest from series 4, which concluded this series in a most memorable manner.

Level One: A slightly wobbly trip through the Place of Choice leads to the chamber of Dooris. A score of two out of three riddles is enough to earn Giles passage into level one.

The first room features Merlin, disguised as monk trapped in the stocks, which is one of the wizard's favourite pastimes this series. This time, however, a key is needed to release Merlin, which Giles agrees to find and collect. Merlin directs Giles into finding the eye shield under an orange cloth, and then [Mistress Goody], the witch, turns up with her magic broom and chases Giles out of the chamber.

A walk through the Forest of Dunn leads to the Crazed Heifer, where Motley is entertaining the punters. After a quick chat with Giles, the jester gifts the team the spell DASH. This is needed back in the woods, as Giles is pursued by a band of goblins.

After escaping this threat, Giles arrives in Oakley's glade. Giles and the team answer all three of the tree troll's riddles correctly, and Oakley gives Giles some information that leads him to collect a bottle labelled Sniff and a spanner from the tree stump.
Giles then meets Mellisandre at Dungarth, and the dizzy maiden mistakes the dungeoneer for an assassin. When a real assassin turns up, Giles and Mellie both make speedy exits.

Giles then has a second encounter with Goody, who sends him on a ride on the conveyer belt. The spanner is required to bring the device to a halt, and then Giles exits into the wellway room. Fatilla is on guard here, but the Sniff bottle incapacitates him enough for Giles to sneak past and go down the wellway, into level two.

Level Two: Giles releases Gundrada from the [pillory] and she fights off an armoured behemoth for him.

An encounter with a very drunk Brother Mace gives Giles a Joker card (although it's almost a Three of Hearts) before he reaches his second door monster, Doorkis. Yet again, the team answer two out of three questions correctly and Giles progresses to Dunkley Wood.
Here Giles enters Ariadne's glade, where he picks up a bar of gold. The card is played when Ariadne arrives, and Motley magically appears. He uses his wits to ridicule the giant spider until she retreats, and Giles moves on to the Dunswater.

The ferryman accepts the gold as payment for a ride to the Tower of Time, where Giles walks down a staircase and into level three.

Level Three: Giles finds Merlin's key in the clue room. He calls Merlin, who crashes into the picture for his only level three appearance in series 4. Merlin congratulates Giles on honouring his bargain and rewards him with the spell TINY.
Further challenges see Giles running past two skull ghosts to reach the Corridor of Blades, where he very nearly gets sawn in half. A brief meeting with Mogdred follows, which results in Giles running along a falling bridge to the relative safety of the Block and Tackle. Once things start to move, Brett starts to guide Giles in a most haphazard and alarming manner, which Treguard, Pickle and the other advisors find very amusing.

Giles then arrives at the Transporter Pad, where the season ends. Treguard brings Giles back to the antechamber with the spell UNITE, and then Merlin appears in the Great Hall of Knightmare, making his final appearance on Knightmare to wish everyone a very merry Christmas.

Summary: An intelligent and enthusiastic team, whose quest was cut short by the end of the series.

[Previous team: Team 7 of Series 4
Next team: Team 1 of Series 5]

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