Team 3: Sarah, Keeley, Helen and William from Northampton.
The third quest of Series 5 was for the Crown and lasted 54 minutes.
Level 1
Sarah begins on a riverbank and is rowed further into Level 1 by a silent boatman.
- Pickle: "Master, they've nothing to pay the ferryman with. How can they cross?"
- Treguard: "This is Level 1. Part of it is a bit of a free ride..."
She arrives at a jetty. The Eye Shield takes her through Wolf Glade.
The Level 1 clues are on a table, though several are questionable - an arrow, a knife and a bottle of poison. Treguard points out that the arrow is more of a token.
The team ignore the hint, choosing silver and the poison after long deliberation. (The advisors even tell Sarah to hide the knife.)
The merchant Julius Scaramonger is behaving suspiciously in a forest clearing. He is apologetic until he realises Sarah is not the warden, then he gets bolder.
After an awkward conversation, he gives Sarah a password in exchange for her silence about the deer he is carrying in his sack.
In the next clearing, Gwendoline the Greenwarden demands answers about the missing deer.
She is reluctant to believe Sarah because the dungeoneer is carrying poison rather than the green arrow.
The team almost make matters worse by offering her the poison, but Gwendoline decides the best action is to accompany Sarah and find the culprit.
They soon find Scaramonger, who senses danger and runs off.
The Greenwarden pledges to deal with him and offers Sarah an alternative password for Level 1.
Sarah proceeds to some stone ruins, where she finds a spyglass.
Spyglass: Struggling to communicate with his minions, Lord Fear consoles himself with the thought that adventurers usually choose the path of aggression rather than defence.
In a chamber guarded by a blocker, Sarah finds a scroll: "One word is a lie. The other is truth."
Sarah sensibly decides they should trust Gwendoline. Her password proves to be correct.
The causeway features symbols of aggression and defence. The team follow the path of defence to cross safely.
Sarah arrives at Smirkenorff but is confronted by a loud-mouthed elf, who demands payment for a journey.
Treguard: "This is Elita, a cavern elf. Not a servant of the Opposition - more her own girl, so to speak."
She accepts the silver in the absence of anything else.
Elita: "Beats me how you human beings ever survive. Suppose it's because there's so many of you - doesn't matter if a few of you get wasted along the way. A bit like lemmings, really."
Smirkenorff takes off for Level 2.
Level 2
The Eye Shield takes Sarah through some hilly terrain into a castle courtyard.
A scroll reads: "Take one step forward, two steps right." The team chooses a bar of gold and a statue, leaving behind a glove.
Brother Mace is sat by a chess board. Sarah's statue turns out to be a missing piece.
Mace advises Sarah that she needs a key stolen by Sylvester Hands to access a spell.
Brother Mace: "Although Merlin is no longer with us, some of his spells are still around."
A rider pursues Sarah into a forest clearing. Treguard calls him 'Sir Hugh de Wittless'.
Treguard: "He was rude to Hordriss the Confuser and Hordriss put an enchantment on him. It compels him to go around rescuing people, whether or not they want to be rescued."
The team insist that Sarah does not need rescuing. Instead, he agrees to escort her through the woods. They reach a patch of farmland.
Spyglass: Lord Fear warns Sylvester Hands that he needs to hand over the stolen key if he wants to stay alive. Fear is then distracted by a goblin horn, which the team also hears.
Sir Hugh says he will fight off the goblins while Sarah escapes.
She finds Hands dining in a hut. He tries to sell Sarah a map but the team demand the key instead.
After a testy exchange, he sells it for the gold.
The causeway is made up of symbols showing fire, earth and water.
The team follow a combination provided above the door to navigate the puzzle.
A magic box is guarded by a skull. Sarah sustains life force damage as she opens it with the key.
It contains a spell: PIXEL.
In a stone cavern, Skarkill arrives to capture the dungeoneer. The team spell-cast PIXEL, which releases a pixie.
She dispatches Skarkill and his goblins.
Sarah approaches a tall tower with a gate. A guard enters.
Gatekeeper: "I stand at the Gate of Time, serving neither the Powers that Be nor the Opposition. All you have achieved so far leads to me."
The gatekeeper explains that the descender is voice activated. Sarah works out from his challenge that she needs to go down one level.
She commands the device, which delivers her to Level 3.
Level 3
Treguard: "This is the third level. All that has gone before has prepared you for this. Let's just hope it has prepared you well."
In a stone clearing, Sarah finds some clues. The scroll reads: 'The key to my dungeon is the jewel in my crown'. She also finds a spell: GHOST.
They take a key and a red stone, leaving behind a pendant.
In a red chamber, Elita the Cavern Elf needs a ruby for her ritual, but she's not in the mood to bargain for it.
After a lengthy debate, the team decides to hand it over, but Elita's patience has ran out.
She runs off with it without giving any help.
Death
It's the Corridor of Blades.
Sarah presses forwards down the corridor, making her an easy victim.
Treguard: "Elita might have saved you from this fate, but you couldn't make up your mind. And now you've lost your dungeoneer."
