The whole clue object choice thing is partly what I was waffling about when I said I could see why they were hesitant about offering the gem to Elita. I can think of a few reasons why they might not want to give it to her:

1. Pickle has said some rather nasty things about her. It's at least plausible to think she might not be wholly trustworthy, although the evidence from their own Quest doesn't really support that, since she held to the bargain over getting them a ride on Smirkenorff.

2. She's conducting some kind of ritual, thus I think they're not totally dense to ask what she wants to do with the ruby. If she's using it to summon evil spirits, create more disgusting and downright offensive clothing like her current attire, or something equally evil, then our "Truth and Justice" motto would perhaps make us question if we want to give her the means for the rite.

3. Elita's unwilling to tell them much about what help she'll offer them in return for the ruby.

4. "The key to my dungeon is the jewel in my crown." Note my dungeon, my crown. This is, I guess, Lord Fear's Dungeon, so it's at least plausible that the right thing to do is to keep the gem for the final encounter and not waste in on a smelly little cavern elf with no dress sense. It's also possible, of course, that the clue just meant "take the jewel because you'll need it", but I'm arguing not that it was needed later on, but that I can see why they had reservations about giving it to Elita.

GG does like trying to help excuse teams just a little, to balance out being rather bitchy about them. GG also seems to like making nice orderly lists. 1. 2. 3. Mmmmm, nice lists.

This is a very old post (only 20 years later haha) but I'd like to thank you for this as it offers some understanding to the team's actions that I hadn't thought about before. I always thought it was annoying that this team took so long deciding to give Elita the gem, but with the reasons you mentioned it does make it more understandable.

They were then cornered by the shifty skarkill but used their spell to send him packing.

(I thought the Pixel was ok as a one-off plot, but it's a bit samey after a few quests.)

Worked-out the descender and reached level 3.

Straight into a "clue-room" and they took forever to decide to take the ruby and the key. They also gained a "GHOST" spell.

In the next cavern they encountered Elita again, and she wanted a ruby.

Why did they take so long to offer her the ruby? Advisor Helen rightly pointed-out that they had dealt with Elita before and she was honest with them. Unfortunately the others took so long (two minutes!) to agree (plus Sarah was rather stroppy with Elita) that when she finally got the ruby she did a runner....

Next-up was the corridor of blades and Sarah reacted far too slowly to her directions and got sliced.

Treguard suggested that Elita could have helped them....

I assume Elita would have helped them by advising them to cast the "GHOST" spell before exiting the chamber and entering the corridor of blades, then they could have automatically passed thru it unscathed. (Like Martin, S3 T11, in the corridor of the catacomb.)

Team 4 were flown by the dragon straight to the level 1 clue-room.

Unusual that they were instructed to take the spyglass with them, so only got one other clue object. (silver) Had to leave Gwendoline's arrow behind, and we know how much trouble team 3 had when they did that.

Encountered Motley just before the bell sounded.

Treguard shows worrying signs of senility at temporal disruption, though it does crack me up how he seems to be off in a world of his own, chuckling away at Motley even though he hasn't said anything funny!

Maybe Treguard was amused by Motley telling the dungeoneer "I'd sidestep to your left a bit if I were you", bringing back memories of Simon in the Block & Tackle! (I love the thought that even Treguard considers that line to be a hilarious classic.)

Interesting how Elita says "straight on down the path for the final conflict" - I wonder if this would have been with Lord Fear, considering Aesandre hadn't yet been introduced.

Treguard shows worrying signs of senility at temporal disruption, though it does crack me up how he seems to be off in a world of his own, chuckling away at Motley even though he hasn't said anything funny!

Then again, going down to Level Three, only to go up a flight of stairs, seems a bit awry to me...

*GHOST: One of a group of Knightmare spells which are also names of films. Other examples are BIG and SPLASH.

So basically - don't vacillate and get Elita to help. Pretty simple, really...

oh well

Hmmm it seems to me that Elita is Pickle's sister, but Pickle wont admit to it.

But this knew team have got to a promising start!

The clue room looked quite like a blocker chamber to me, I was tryng to remember if they had a password.

"The gem was the key to the dungeon," this would suggest to me that they wouldn't have any use for the key, but the team thought differently.

Elita seemed to be in the middle of some ritual and wanted the gem/firestone. Team didn't get help as they dithered about before deciding.

Next, Treyguard sent them up the stairs - that wouldn't have happened under the old regime!

Into a speedy corridor of blades. Also, this serious there is no warming, they just appear in the corridor.

Resumed on the Earth/Air/Fire causeway. Navigated brilliantly and got through. I think they should have died at one point, as the dungeoneer's feet were on one tile as it fell down. Perhaps they were let off.

In the next room they found a chest, with a skull going up and down over it. Although they waited for the skull to move up before going to the chest, they failed to tell the dungeoneer to duck down as it moved down again - damaging their life force! The skull disappeared as they opened the chest with the key though. Inside was a scroll, with one word, PIXEL, on it. They thought this must be a spell.

Came into an internal castle room, where they got food. But then Skarkill and the goblins appeared, so they had to spellcast PIXEL. This caused Pixel the Pixie to appear, and used her needle on Skarkill to make him run away! Then they thanked Pixel for her help, and Pixel requested they magic her away again. So they had to disspell LEXIP to make her disappear.

Arrived in front of a tower with a metal gate in the front. Cautiously approached it. When the camera changed to a closer view, the Gatekeeper appeared serving 'neither the powers that be nor the opposition'. Told him their name and quest, and were allowed into the Descender. (metal door opened)

The Gatekeeper gave them information that Level 2 was 5 levels down, 6 up and 2 down. At first they thought they had to make the lift go down 5, up 6 and 2 down - but the dungeoneer cleverly noticed that adding those numbers up would just be 1 level down! Told the Descender to go down 1 level, and it did.

This team became the first to get to Level 3 this season. There was only one door that the Descender stopped at, and it had a Frightknight symbol above it!

Arrived outside a castle, where I sort of expected a blocker to jump out - but there was no wall so it couldn't! They found some food and clue objects. One scroll said 'The key to my dungeon is the jewel in my crown'. The other one said just 'GHOST' so they thought it was a spell. The spells don't count as items, so they decided to take the key and the jewel. A skull appeared and chased them out!

Encountered Elita in the next area doing a ritual. Elita told them to get out fairly quickly, giving them directions - but also heard that 'ruby red' was a part of her incantation. Took a LONG time deciding whether to give Elita the ruby or not. Eventually they decided to give it to her - but Elita just ran off with it and didn't help!

I think it was because they took so long deciding that put them in losing status, had they just given it straight away Elita would probably have helped.

Next was the Corridor of Blades, where they got chopped in half - ooh, nasty! Wait, was that the original Life Force Skull? Knice! Treguard said that Elita could have saved them, but they took too long to decide. Too bad we never got to see them use the GHOST spell.

Next team got a free ride from Smirkenoff into Level 1, and arrived in front of a castle. There were a few clue objects on a table there - an arrow, a fish, a spy-glass, a scroll, some rope and a bag of Silver. They took the fish as food, then read the scroll. It said 'Look - but not here'. Taking the scroll's advise, they took the spy-glass (but didn't use it) and silver, and went into the castle.

Through an eye-shield sequence into a castle courtyard. Here, they found Motley trapped in the stocks. Motley referred to the dungeoneer as 'elmet-ed' and asked him to come over. They couldn't release Motley from the stocks, because they needed a key. Timed out as they were talking to Motley.

View of a castle moat and bridge under the credits, negative so it looked strange. Look out for a negatived bird flying across the picture!