Series 7, Quest 2. Nicola takes on the Trial by Spikes in Level 2.

Series 7 Quest 2

By Keith McDonald

Team 2: Nicola, Lisa, Diane and Vicki from Oldham.


The second quest of Series 7 was for the Sword and lasted 33 minutes.

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Nicola, the dungeoneer.

Pre-quest

This was the only team this season to choose their own quest.

Treguard: "I warn you - they're all equally difficult."

Level 1

Nicola begins in a dark dwarf tunnel, where she finds a bag of gold on the wall.

Treguard: "As Majida would call them, long rooms for short people. Mind you don't meet any big people in there..."

Sylvester Hands is robbing Romahna. He doesn't recognise the dungeoneer because of the new helmet.

Hands takes great delight in explaining how he outwitted the dragon warden.

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Sylvester Hands demonstrates the trick he used to capture Romahna.

Sylvester Hands: "Look, I says! A great big Goosey Gander!"

They offer Hands gold in exchange for the key to her shackles.

Romahna agrees to accompany Nicola for a short way in return for her release.

Level 1 clue room. The clues are: a wand, a glowlight, and a gauntlet. The scroll reads: 'The Wand of Confusion. Guess whose?'

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. The Level 1 clues include a glowlight and a wand.

Spyglass: Fear is experiencing problems with his Pool of Voracity. The Brollachan appears. Fear orders it to destroy Smirkenorff.

Lord Fear: "That's the way you handle monsters. They're like children, really. You've got to be firm with them but decidedly unfair!"

The team takes the torch and the wand.

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Sidriss turns Marta into a large dog.

Into a large chamber, where Sidriss is sat with a large black cat - the result of a magical accident with Marta. She needs to reverse it so Marta doesn't lose her job at the tavern.

Treguard: "Sidriss - a sort of junior sorceress. Well, not much more than a conjuror, really, and very accident prone."

Sidriss gets her wand back, though her magic is no less disastrous. Nicola receives a firestone in exchange.

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Nicola uses the glowlight to show the way down a dark dwarf tunnel.

Into a dark dwarf tunnel, where Nicola needs the glowlight to see the way. They are chased by a sinister Raptor but manage to evade him.

At the gateway, Raptor and the goblins catch up with Nicola.

Before he can move in for the kill, the gate opens and Smirkenorff unleashes a fireball at them!

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Raptor's shouting at the dungeoneer has caught the attention of Smirkenorff the Dragon.

Nicola gives him the firestone for a ride to Level 2.

Smirkenroff: "Say what you like about the opposition - they do singe rather nicely."


Level 2

Hordriss and Grimaldine are throwing fireballs at each other across the rift valley.

Treguard: "They're probably testing each other - it's something that wizards and mages do..."

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Hordriss and Grimaldine are trading fireballs in the Rift of Angar.

The two combatants are in utmost concentration, so Nicola must scurry through the line of fire.

Into the undercroft, where a green Hordriss comes stumbling after them.

Hordriss says he was deceived by a green fireball. With his powers fading, he asks the team to find a salve for him.

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Hordriss has turned completely green.

Level 2 clue room. The scroll reads: 'Finders keepers, holder Seekers hidden Secrets.'

Nicola takes a bag of silver and a divining rod, leaving behind a jar of nightsight.

In a courtyard from Witch Haven. Treguard hints that it appears to be empty, so they use the divining rod to reveal a spyglass.

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Nicola's divining rod reveals a spyglass.

Spyglass: Lissard has been preparing a trap to thwart the team but has forgotten the 'combination of numbernesses'. Fear has no choice but to remind him.

Lord Fear: "Have you got that? Well I hope not, as it'll serve you right."

Into a chamber that resembles a chess board with spikes emerging from every square.

Treguard: "We've never seen anything like this before..."

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Nicola on a chess board covered by spikes.

A bar of gold appears on a square in the first row, highlighting the beginning of a safe path.

The team uses the combination from the spyglass to guide Nicola line by line through the trap.

Rothberry the Apothecary is dealing with a depressed ogre.

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. Rothberry the Apothecary touts a healing potion to the dungeoneer.

He has a healing potion that will help Hordriss, but he will only accept gold for it rather than the silver.

The witches of Witch Haven have got a very nasty case of witch-stick rump. It's from the splinters on the broomsticks...

Rothberry

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. A weak Hordriss returns to his normal colour.

Nicola summons Hordriss in the nick of time. The potion turns him back to his normal colour. He offers a key to the Descender for Level 3.


Death

Nicola enters a very dark room. We hear a coordinated pursuit, with goblin horns and troll steps.

Knightmare Series 7 Team 2. The team watches on as a troll descends upon Nicola.

Treguard asks where the nightsight is. Everything goes quiet.

Two-nil, I think. Nice one!

Lord Fear

Treguard: "Ooh, nasty..."

Due to the drawn-out ending, this ranks only in third place of the swiftest death at the start of an episode (40 seconds).

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