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A HISTORY OF KNIGHTMARE
Welcome to the third instalment of our Knightmare history, as written by David Bradshaw, with his assistant Stephen Wilson.
When we left you in issue 5, the tale of Knightmare had reached series 5. Still with that series, let history commence !....
SERIES 5 (continued): .... A dungeoneer named Ben wore a cape through a chilly snowy courtyard, and entered a castle in which Aesandre was ready to confront him. He could stop her, but had to choose from two spells which he had obtained earlier, FIRE or FREEZE. He chose FREEZE and froze her on the spot. It seems then. that he had chosen the right one. He left that room, and faced a final floor puzzle over a lake involving Roman numeral puzzles to let him reach his destination - back to Knightmare Castle. Halfway across the puzzle lay the object of his quest - the Shield - in a block of ice. Ben was able to use the FIRE spell to release it. By completing the final part of the puzzle involving shapes, Ben returned to Knightmare Castle, although his deteriorating life force made it a race against time. However he just made it, and this became the fourth success in Knightmare's history.
Series 5 ended with the winter chill at full blast. Lord Fear and Aesandre attempted to freeze the dungeon over, and trap the final dungeoneer, but luckily she was able to find some blue fire, as was needed, escaping just in time. Lord Fear was left behind as a failure, and a cold one at that ! A book was released named "The Sorceror's Isle".
SERIES 6 : 1992, and in my opinion a much improved series on the previous one, back up to the standards of series 4 - maybe even higher. The show now started with a great new opening sequence involving a dungeoneer running around dungeon chambers. Obviously, technology on Knightmare continued to improve massively. Lord Fear had an impressive new fortress at Mount Fear, and he also made a new enemy - Captain Nemanor, the sailor destined to sail the seas forever without finding land. Fear came to despise this man because he helped a winning team on their way later in the year. A new life force image was another change from previous series'. The old design of armour, then skin, then skull was replaced by a dungeoneer walking along, with armour gradually falling away - perhaps not as good as the previous one. There was also a new starting chamber, in which a hexagonal tiled path lead to a door, after the dungeoneer selected a quest from four squares on the ground bearing a quest symbol.
The dungeon also boasted some new characters, such as the Oriental salesman Ah Wok, and Ridolfo - the wandering minstrel from Italy. Hordriss' dizzy daughter Sidriss also joined the dungeons ranks.
Now, as I have done for previous years, lets focus on a quest. This year a team from Salisbury which featured two brothers, Ben and Nathan Waite. Ben was the dungeoneer, as the team entered the dungeon bidding to become another of those "one in a million" teams, as Dickon and co. had done two years previously. I think this team were equally good, and had some brilliant tasks to overcome.
Let's join them in Level three, having just tackled one of the new-look dwarf tunnels for this series, they found themselves aboard Nemanor's ship, where they struck a deal with him. They had to retrieve an important artefact for him from Ariadne's lair. In doing so, they only just escaped, but they fulfilled their agreement, and in exchange Nemanor cast them from the ship and into the final dungeon. Once they were there, a scroll presented them with a choice of two spells - "TRICK" or "TREAT". The weeks programme ended at this point before they chose, making for a nailbiting seven days !
The team decided upon TRICK, and by casting it, they summoned Hordriss into the level. Reluctantly, Hordriss gave them the spell SPLASH, on condition that they dis-spelled and returned him. From here, they moved onto a giant causeway, spanned by an enormous floor puzzle. At times they were just seconds from a fatal fall, but they passed through to the final chamber, and a confrontation with Lord Fear ! Believing Ben to be trapped, Fear decided to watch and gloat whilst Ben's life force trickled away. The crown lay in front of Ben, but Fear promised to fry him should he touch it.
Using SPLASH, Ben cast Fear into his own magic pool in Mount Fear. Grabbing the crown, Ben literally had to sprint through the final dwarf tunnels, with fast disappearing life force, and emerge back into Treguards antechamber.
Glorious, triumphant music accompanied Ben's return after the most exciting quest in a long time.
At the end of series 6, Lord Fear released a huge red dragon and sent it through the stars with the objective of destroying Knightmare Castle. The team questing at the end of the series were informed of this by Hordriss whilst they were midway through level two. Immediately, their pursuit of the sword was ended, and they went to Nemanor who gave them a lightning rod. They did so just in time, and returned to Treguard and Pickle who vanquished the beast just in time.
A new book for series 6 was released, clearly aimed at a younger audience than previous efforts, entitled "The Forbidden Gate". Also of interest in series 6 was the introduction of Witch Haven as part of level two, where the witches were ruled by Greystagg, so when Lord Fear destroyed it, a new rivalry was set up for series 7.....
YET AGAIN, THANKS TO DAVID AND STEPHEN. MORE NEXT TIME !...