Series 5 Episode 6

[Canadanne]

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.)

[Morghanna]

Team 3 negotiated another causeway easily, but in the next room got hit by a haunted-skull for life-force damage while opening a chest. Found a "PIXEL" spell.
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.

[AriadnesLayer]

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.