A jar labelled 'Darkness' was found by Team 5 of Series 7 among their Level 2 clue objects, and was vital to their quest. The team correctly chose to take it with them, but entered losing status when they missed their cue to use it.
The item was accompanied by a scroll giving the clue "Create darkness to find light", so they rejected a glow-light in favour of the jar. Its contents were described by Treguard as "powdered darkness".






In an earlier spyglass scene, Lissard said he had delayed their quest by scattering a spell that was needed "for access to Level 3". Each room contained a letter which the advisors had to note down.
> Here they found only a pair of stools, and Majida wondered aloud why there were "no spell parts in this room", implying the letters were hidden. Failing to realise the purpose of their clue object, the team instructed dungeoneer Ben to try examining and sitting on the stools (despite a "No..." from Treguard), and gave up their search when a troll's approaching footsteps could no longer be ignored.

A couple of rooms later, Ben perished on the Trial By Spikes when the troll blocked his advisors' view. Treguard explained they'd been doomed anyway: "for without using the Darkness powder, you could not complete the spell you needed to get to the end of Level 2."

Fans have speculated that sprinkling the powder in the bare room would have dimmed it (like the DARK spell in Series 2), highlighting a letter or two, perhaps one on each stool. It is unknown what spell they were trying to collect, as they had only found the letters C, I and D at the time of their death; some believe it may have been an anagram of DEVICE, which could be used to reveal the Descender (often called "the descendant device"). Indeed, Marta had already hinted "you need some other sort of device to get you through to Level 3... like magic!"

login to vote

The absence of light was a recurring peril in the Knightmare Dungeon, and one that meant certain death for almost any team that failed to deal with it. Doing so required a spell (FLARE, LANTERN), a potion (Nightsight) or an object that gave off light (candle, lamp, glow-light). Teams that encountered darkness during their quests include:
- Team 1 of Series 1. Without a lamp from the clue room, dungeoneer David was unable to reach the wellway to Level 2 and is presumed to have fallen prey to an unknown menace within the darkness. Please see the Lexicon entry on wellway rooms for further examples of teams who had to negotiate darkness to proceed safely to a wellway. Team 3 of Series 1 and Team 12 of Series 2 both died in wellway rooms pervaded by darkness.
- Team 4 of Series 2. Raised a self-lighting candle in order to lift the darkness from a pitch-black chamber (and later used the ultimate anti-darkness spell, SUN, in the stained glass window room). Team 3 of Series 3 used a candle for the same purpose, as did Team 8 of Series 5 (pictured).

- Team 6 of Series 6. Dungeoneer Sophia found herself in a particularly gloomy dwarf tunnel. She had not taken the supply chamber lantern that would have illuminated the tunnel, but was able to proceed without entering losing status nor even incurring Life Force damage.

- Team 2 of Series 7. See: Nightsight.

- Team 7 of Series 7. Used a glow-light to conduct a spotlight search of a dark room in order to locate a piece of Grimaldine's missing staff.

Ironically, darkness was championed as a prerequisite for viewing Knightmare by CITV presenter Tommy Boyd, who would encourage Watchers to draw their curtains in readiness.

See also: Shadow Monsters, DARK

login to vote