From TES issue 50 (March 2008)

Series 3. Level 1.
THE PURPLE POOL

A familiar sight in the first level during series 3 was the room that contained a thin ledge running around a pool of purple water. Inevitably this chamber would involve some kind of challenge, either with finding a way out or avoiding something dangerous that came out of the pool. There were some nice little scenes in this room, about which I shall now reminisce.
Cliff was the first dungeoneer to encounter the pool, but there was no obvious way to leave the room. By using a spell called DRINK, this team caused all the water to be sucked into a small opening on the right-hand side of the pool. Cliff then had to lower himself onto the checkered floor of the now-empty pool, and crawl through the tiny exit. Most undignified, but a nice little scene.
James [pictured] had a simpler task – he just had to walk around the ledge to a door at the far end, whilst being chased by a haunted sword that came out of the water. Ross had a more complicated ordeal to face – he had to use a fishing rod to pluck a portal out of the pool and flick it up onto the causeway. This was a nice little scene, although the somewhat unresponsive advisors couldn’t seem to care less about it!
When Douglas entered this room, the water was all gone! Cliff’s little door could be seen in the empty pool, but there was a larger door up on the causeway for Douglas to use. Motley was in the pool, attempting to take a bath (with all his clothes on, of course) and he was most perturbed to discover that the plug had been pulled out. A large cobra appeared in the pool behind the jester, and he would undoubtedly have helped the team if they had warned him about the danger he was in. However, they failed to do so, and Motley stormed off in a huff. This was just one contributing factor to Douglas’s inevitable downfall.
The pool’s final – and arguably best – appearance was with Martin, who actually entered the room by walking through the water. This was not a very safe place to be, because there was a shark in the pool! We were treated to some very Jaws-like music as the black dorsal fin moved around in the water, dangerously close to Martin. Of course, he was never in any real danger – this was just a chance to show off a bit of computer wizardry. The advisors took an unnecessarily long time to guide Martin out of the pool and onto the causeway – it’s a good thing the shark wasn’t hungry!

Difficulty: 3 Despite first appearances, a safe exit was never far away.
Killer Instinct: 1 Cliff and Ross could have been stuck here.
Gore Factor: 5 A drowning scene would have been nice…
Fairness: 9 Nothing too difficult here – even the shark was just for show.

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