From TES issue 41 (September 2006)

Series 6. Level 1/2.
DREADNORT

Dreadnort was a metal robot, built by Lord Fear just prior to the start of series 6. He was goldish-brown in colour, large and square-rigged in build, had two visor-slits in his head, and had one flexible and one inflexible knee-joint. As well as being a creature, Dreadnort was a character in his own right, although he had no characteristics as such. His deep, grinding voice was provided by Clifford Norgate.


Dreadnort's one and only task in the Dungeon was to collect passwords. Despite the fact that both Treguard and Lord Fear implied in the first episode of the series that Dreadnort was a highly dangerous enemy, hell-bent on destroying dungeoneers by whatever means necessary, it became clear in the second episode that this was not the case at all. Dreadnort would accost dungeoneers and utter that infamous line: "Give me a word!" - Dreadnort. If the password was ventured, Dreadnort clanked off the screen and the quest continued. If the password was not ventured, the quest would end there.

Sounds a lot like a blocker, doesn't it? Well, the truth is that Dreadnort performed exactly the same role as the blockers, and he really didn't do any more than that. At the start of the series, he collected passwords in level two only, leaving the task in level one to the blockers. However, later in the series, he could be found demanding passwords in level one as well, thus rendering the blockers completely redundant. One might question why Lord Fear bothered to waste time and technomagic building a new creature that was exactly the same as an existing one, and I can think of no practical reason for this. Perhaps, in truth, Dreadnort was just a way for Lord Fear (and the Knightmare production team) to show off some new technological tricks.

However, despite his somewhat unnecessary and incidental part in Knightmare, Dreadnort does have the privilege of being able to boast a victim, unlike many other characters and creatures. Although this was undoubtedly due to Sumaiah's advisors' lack of acumen when dealing with scroll clues relating to witch amber rather than Dreadnort's formidability as a foe, I have to admit that the moment when Dreadnort brings a very abrupt and definite end to Sumaiah's quest is a satisfying moment: "With no word, you have reached journey's end!" - Dreadnort. Having said that, Dreadnort didn't actually make good on his threat to remove one of Sumaiah's limbs, but merely blocked her way until her life force ran out. This was a disappointing death scene, and could have been much more spectacularly performed by a blocker, as we know from Chris III's level two death in series 5.

I seem to have been very negative about Dreadnort in this article. As I type, I'm surprised to find how little I seem to like him. I don't really have anything against the character as such; I just can't see the point of bringing him in solely to replace the blockers, especially when they were better at the job anyway. If Lord Fear had used Dreadnort in other situations, he could have been an effective enemy and a good character, but this was, sadly, not to be.

Pickle hinted on occasions that Lord Fear had more than one Dreadnort, although no one else seemed to be of this opinion. Imagine if it were true, though, and several of the creatures had attacked a dungeoneer at once - there could have been some genuinely tense and exciting scenes there.

Fear Factor: 7 A fairly frightening foe.
Killer Instinct: 8 One victim in one series.
Gore Factor: 2 Unless you're turned over by technomagic.
Humanity: 1 Modelled after a human figure.

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