CLASSIC QUEST

Series 7.

Quest: The Shield.

Dungeoneer: Barry Thorn.

Advisors: Simon, Derek and Daniel.

Home town: Somewhere in Worcestershire.

Team score: 10 out of 10.

Level One: The quest begins in the dwarf tunnels, where Barry meets Brother Strange. He offers a spyglass in exchange for a proverb, but rejects the three proverbs Barry thinks of for him, at last settling on one thought up by Derek. Through the spyglass, the team see Lord Fear showing off his new shell-phone to Lissard, and then Lissard telling Lord Fear how he has managed to incapacitate Grimaldine by breaking his magic staff into four pieces and scattering them throughout level one. Lord Fear is angry because he thinks that Barry will now be able to collect the staff pieces, making the team’s mission clear.

Barry next meets Romahna outside a castle. She is shooting some goblins, and also guarding a piece of the magic staff. After some pointless Barry-banter, Romahna allows him to take the staff piece and leave. Next there is a supply chamber, where Barry picks up a lantern and a bottle labelled Speedwell. A meeting with Rothberry follows. There is a piece of staff leaning against his stall, which Barry ends up taking free of charge, although he very nearly gives away the Speedwell. This is used in a room where Sylvester Hands and two goblins appear. When Barry drinks the Speedwell, Sylvester and the goblins are slowed down, meaning that Barry is able to sneak past them.

In the sliding floor chamber, Barry has to backtrack at one point to pick up the third staff piece, but he makes it through despite the pursuing goblins. In a room that is in total darkness, Barry has to turn on the lamp and search around for the fourth and final staff piece. They nearly make an exit too early: ”You’ve hardly looked at the room, there may be something there!” – Treguard.

At last Barry picks up the top of the staff, and is able to progress to the final chamber of the level, where Grimaldine is asleep on a chair. The repaired staff appears beside him and he wakes up. Grimaldine is grateful to Barry, and gives him a firestone to pay for a ride to level two. Through the large metal door, Barry is able to offer the firestone to Smirkenorff and secure passage to the next level. The now familiar flight to the Rift of Angar takes place, and Barry lands in level two.

Level Two: A spyglass reveals Lissard sharing a juicy bit of gossip with Lord Fear – that Hordriss is smitten with Marta. Lissard has a plan about recruiting Marta to help them take advantage of Hordriss, but Lord Fear changes Lissard into a Marta look-alike instead! In the dwarf tunnels, Barry picks up an old boot and a fireproof potion. He then arrives at Hordriss’s magic school, where Sidriss is trying to hold the fort in her father’s absence. Fidjit is there too, and Barry explains to them about Lord Fear’s plan to deceive Hordriss. Sidriss and Fidjit decide that a REVEAL spell is needed in order to bring Lissard back to his true form, and that the only person on the level with access to such a spell is Greystagg.

Barry volunteers to take the case to the witch queen, so Fidjit unlocks the door to the Fire Room, where there is witch amber. Barry takes the fireproof potion so that the fireballs cannot harm him, and so he is able easily to pick up the witch amber and progress across the room. Raptor and his goblins then turn up to menace Barry, but he manages to squash them all by means of the magic boot. Barry then meets Greystagg and manages to persuade her to part with a REVEAL spell in return for the witch amber. A meeting with Brollachan follows, and the team manage to satisfy his thirst for knowledge with some decidedly iffy answers.

In a tavern, Hordriss is flirting with a person he thinks is Marta, although we know it’s really Lissard. The REVEAL spell transforms Lissard back into his true form and the amphibian beats a hasty retreat. Hordriss is appalled to have been tricked in this manner, and is concerned that nobody should ever get to hear about the incident. In return for Barry’s silence, Hordriss takes Barry into a further chamber and reveals a staircase that leads to level three. Barry walks down the stairs, and level two is complete.

Level Three: Barry has to pass through a flashing anti-magic barrier, which Lord Fear has set up to keep out rival sorcerers. He then picks up two magic potions in one of the corridors of Goth – freezer and fast backwards. In the Sewers of Goth, a spyglass reveals Lord Fear introducing Lissard to Bulstrode, the king of the trolls. Fear explains that he plans to set Bulstrode loose in Knightmare Castle, and Barry and friends realise that their task is to stop this. Greystagg appears and rows Barry through the sewers. As they are both working against Lord Fear, she tells Barry that she will help him in his quest if he needs her, and reveals her calling name – Gwen. She also gives Barry a VISOR spell, which is used during Play Your Cards Right so that Barry can see what he is doing. The team complete this challenge with relative ease.

Next Barry meets Brollachan again. Through his questioning, Brollachan reveals that Lord Fear has tasked him with eating his way up through the levels to Knightmare Castle so that Bulstrode can follow. Once Barry has answered some more of Brollachan’s questions, he progresses to a chamber that contains one of Lord Fear’s shell-phones. Through this device, Barry hears Lord Fear and Lissard discussing the progress of Brollachan and Bulstrode towards Knightmare Castle. Also in this room, Barry has to stand under some dripping water to restore his life force. He leaves the room through a door marked Short Cut, which leads into the Corridor of Blades. Despite a couple of very near misses, Barry survives this challenge until the conveyer belt grinds to a halt.

Brother Strange then arrives, and tells Barry that his best bet to defeat a troll is with a device called a troll hammer. Barry next meets Sylvester Hands once again, who is holding Romahna prisoner in some stocks. Barry manages to persuade Sylvester to drink the freezer potion, and then he frees Romahna. They go to the quest chamber together, where Romahna uses her crossbow to get rid of two goblin guards. There are two items in the chamber – the Shield of Justice and a troll hammer. They are both protected by forcefields. Barry summons Greystagg, who tells him that she only has the power to disperse one of the fields. The team are faced with a choice, but it is not a hard one. Barry tells Greystagg to release the hammer, which she does.

Once he has the hammer, Barry drinks the fast backwards potion, which takes him back in time through his entire quest, until he walks backwards in the Great Hall of Knightmare. Treguard ushers him to safety just before Bulstrode crashes through the floor in a most dramatic fashion. Treguard uses the troll hammer to send Bulstrode crashing back down the tunnel to Goth, where he lands on top of Lord Fear, Lissard, Raptor and Sylvester Hands. Although they did not choose the Shield in the final chamber, Barry and friends have still won the game, because the eye shield has been mysteriously supplanted by the Shield of Justice! Treguard summons Hordriss to provide the trophies, and the series ends with a thrilling and well-deserved victory.

Summary: It was a very high-quality and entertaining quest, thanks chiefly to Barry’s own unique style of dungeoneering. It was a well-deserved win, and a satisfying end to the series.