Dungeoneer walks down stairs into Level 3 in Series 8 of Knightmare (1994).

Series 8 Quest 2

By Keith McDonald

Team 2: Daniel, Benjamin, Gideon and Justin from London


The second quest of Series 8 was for the Sword and lasted 49 minutes.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel, the dungeoneer.

Level 1

Daniel is targeted by snap-dragons in the tunnel. Gideon orders him to "Run! Run! Run!"

The Level 1 clue room. The scroll refers to a 'self-operating danger horn'. The clues are: a bar of gold, a horn, a necklace (or pendant) and a crossbow.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. A Level 1 scroll reads: The ACME self operating danger horn, Mk 5. Instructions: Do Not Blow.

Spyglass: Lord Fear and Lissard are playing Dungeon Monopoly.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Lord Fear and Lissard are playing Dungeon Monopoly.

Sylvester Hands appears on the viewing screen. Lord Fear orders him to go and retrieve an item from Stiletta.

Daniel drops the spyglass in time. They take the horn and the necklace.

Next is a room with a fireball hazard. The ACME horn sounds, which they initially mistake for a goblin horn. Treguard explains that it means danger.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel strides through a tiled chamber as fireballs fire down around him.

Fireballs begin to drop from the ceiling, striking out tiles from the floor. The team proceed cautiously.

Next, they encounter Stiletta in the middle of target practice. She advises them to move aside.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel almost gets hit by one of Stiletta's knives.

Undeterred, they approach and warn her that Sylvester Hands is looking for her. They demand information, but Stiletta wants more, so they trade in the pendant.

In return, she offers a ring which destroys Skeletrons.

Stiletta: "It's jolly good fun. Bit of them fly everywhere!"

She spots Sylvester Hands loitering downstage and fires at him!

A Skeletron is guarding the trapdoor to Level 2, so they use the ring to destroy it.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel makes a skeletron break apart.

Daniel proceeds onto the trapdoor, but nothing happens.

Brother Strange skulks in. He says that to open the trapdoor requires magic.

They offer the horn, but he wants a proverb for his collection. Daniel succeeds with "many hands make light work".

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. A new spell animation as a book opens on-screen.

Brother Strange uses his staff to open the trapdoor and gifts them a FLOAT spell.

We see the book of spells appear for the first time, before Daniel descends to Level 2.


Level 2

It's the Black Tower of Goth! Level 3 of the previous series has now become Level 2.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel arrives in the Black Tower of Goth.

Treguard: "I've heard the rumours but this confirms it. Lord Fear never played by the rules but now he's got worse - the old levels have gone and Level 3 becomes Level 2.

I'm afraid to have to tell you that the toughest task in the dungeon dimension has just got tougher!

Treguard

Snapper-Jack appears. Treguard describes him as a 'fool-taker'.

Snapper-Jack: "Three questions I gives you. Two good answers you gives me. And if you don't, I 'naps ye."

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel meets Snapper Jack, the fool-taker.

They pass the test by answering at least two riddles correctly. (We rarely got a definitive answer as to whether two or three were scored.)

The Level 2 clue room. The scroll reads: "Humorous or what? That's funny. Get the joke?"

The clue objects are: a green gem, a bone, a casket, and a Fearsome Potion.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. The Level 2 clues include a fearsome potion and a green gem.

Spyglass: Lord Fear argues with the sorceress, Maldame.

Lissard: "A redoubtable woman, Lordness. They call her the iron maiden."

Maldame demands the word key to Linghorm, one of Lord Fear's two towers. Fear loses his temper and turns her to stone.

Lord Fear: "There you are, Lissard. Now you can call her the concrete lady."

Lissard queries the word key, which is revealed to be 'Phoenix'.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Lord Fear turns his back on the sorceress, Maldame.

The team take the bone and the potion as a Skeletron approaches.

In the ensuing panic, and to Gideon's dismay, Daniel sprints through the left-hand door.

Skeletrons are sort of reconstituted warriors. You might call them undead - though I'm not convinced they ever lived. They don't like water, apparently, so the Sewers of Goth are finally good for something.

Treguard

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel turns into Lord Fear. Sylvester Hands kneels at his feet.

The Sewers of Goth and a meeting with Sylvester Hands. Sly wonders off briefly, knowing that Daniel has nowhere to go.

Daniel convinces the team that he should take the Fearsome potion. He turns into Lord Fear! When Hands returns, he is ordered to take Daniel across the sewers.

Into a moving floor obstacle (similar to that from Series 7). As Daniel is halfway through the puzzle, a goblin horn sounds. Two strange creatures appear.

Treguard: "Miremen, I think. They're slow on land but deadly if they catch you."

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel takes out a bone when approached by Raptor and two miremen.

Raptor appears with the Miremen. Daniel points the humerus bone at him, making him laugh until he staggers off.

The team guide Daniel out before the Miremen can react.

They enter a room with an image of the stone Maldame on the wall. Daniel uses the Reach Wand to release her from Lord Fear's spell.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel uses the reach wand to unfreeze Maldame.

She doesn't seem particularly grateful, and demands they make her an offer.

It's all a matter of personal and private enterprise. In this case, my personal enterprise.

Maldame

They exchange the word key to Linghorm for their escape to Level 3.


Level 3

We see the Tower of Linghorm for the first time. Majida describes it as magnificent.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. An over-the-shoulder shot of Daniel walking through Linghorm, the new tower.

We receive an over-the-shoulder shot of Daniel walking through the corridor.

The junction is patrolled by a Skeletron, which the team avoids.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel reaches a junction in Linghorm where a skeletron walks on patrol.

Into the Level 3 clue room. The scroll reads "Welcome to Level 3. This tower is Linghorm. The Sword lies in Marblehead".

The clues are: a 'Sight' potion, a needle, a key, and a gauntlet.

They take the key and the Sight potion. Daniel makes his escape.

Into the watch tower. Daniel is greeted by a trader, who introduces himself as Honesty Bartram.

Trader: "Bartram's my name and bartering's my game."

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel meets the trader, Honesty Bartram.

Under pressure to make a quick trade, the team swaps the Sight potion for a SHADE spell. Bartram tells them that they will need to get on the Golden Galleon to get to Marblehead.

They board the ship in the next chamber. The decks are guarded by Miremen. The team spell-cast SHADE, which makes Daniel invisible so he can proceed below decks.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel turns almost invisible to evade miremen on the top deck of a ship.

Spyglass: Fear is frustrated that Maldame is now lingering outside Marblehead.

Lord Fear: "She's already squatting in one of my properties. Now, she wants this one."

Lissard says he has set Bhal-Shebah to guard the quest object. Fear explains that the dragon is schizophrenic and will be useless if this is discovered.

He gives Lissard the word key to Marblehead.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel encounters a crone in disguise on the docks of Marblehead.

Daniel disembarks the ship to a mountainous area. Maldame is loitering in the background. When they approach her, it's clear she wants the word key.

The team bargain hard. They exchange the word key for a gem that opens gates and the calling spell SAVANT (on the condition that Daniel does not summon her).

Maldame: "It will call any mage or sorcerer to you up to and including the fourth level of magic."

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel holds out a green gem to make the portcullises open in Marblehead.

Daniel moves into the outer courtyard of the Great Fortress of Marblehead. The green gem opens the portcullis.

We follow the eye shield as Daniel passes through the foreboding tunnels of Marblehead...

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel arrives at a corridor with a spinning blade.

...and ends up at the new entrance to the dreaded Corridor of Blades!

Treguard: "What Daniel needs is a Sight potion or a seeing-eye spell, but you've got neither. All you've got is a red key that you don't seem to need..."

Death

They go into the slicer...

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. Daniel in the Corridor of Blades.

And meet a gruesome end.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. The screen splashes red as Daniel is sliced by a blade.

Treguard: "Oooh, nasty."


More information

In 1996, Tim Child, Creator of Knightmare, was interviewed for the Eye Shield fanzine.

Do you have one outstanding memory of Knightmare?

Tim Child: Probably the team of Jewish boys in the last series, who you may remember all came wearing their skull caps. They were all eleven and became almost uncontrollably excited about their adventure!

They became totally absorbed in what they were doing, and we had to think about toning the adventure down, just to calm them somehow!

Worse still, was that Children's TV does not allow swearing or blaspheming in any show, so we had a lot of editing to do! We must have cut out about 200 "Oh God's" (It was more like two dozen actually).

DownloadFull interview with Tim (799.69kB)


Hear from the team

In March 2001, Justin Kett signed the Guestbook.

Knightmare was the best experience of my life. All the guys still talk about it, and every time I mention it in public, someone remembers us being on it.

Believe it or not, we are all still bitter about the way we were killed - they really hated us by the end, and all because of Gideon's cockiness!! We do remember that we were only 12 years old, and naive with it.

Gideon does know his left from right now - he had to learn for Cambridge to let him in!

Knightmare Series 8 Team 2. The advisors: Benjamin, Gideon and Justin.
Benjamin, Gideon and Justin

In July 2005, Justin signed again.

I'm writing again now because I still find it so funny how people still come up to me quite randomly and ask me if it was really me on it - all thanks to Challenge TV!!

It's just so weird and shows how popular Knightmare really was. It would be fantastic if it was released onto DVD.

Interview in 'The Quest' fanzine.

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