King Graham was held captive by the Stone Goblin King and his minions. While underground, he quickly realized that he was not alone. Many of the people he encountered in the first episode were also locked up, including the Hobblepots, the baker and his wife, Amaya Blackstone, and even Mr. Fancipants! Working through the dungeonous puzzles that ensued, King Graham was able to work his way to a final encounter with the Stone Goblin King. In a battle of wits, our hero was able to earn the freedom of all involved, despite many becoming deathly ill from lack of food (potentially, depending on your order of choices). Fast forward to Chapter 3: Once Upon a Climb, and believe it or not, King Graham finds yet another precarious predicament.

Enter King Graham and King’s Quest – Chapter 3: Once Upon a Climb, for an adventure in love. This episode revolves wholly on yet another one of the elder King Graham’s stories to his granddaughter, Gwendolyn. This time around, he tells a tale of how he met the love of his life and the woman he would eventually marry, Queen Valanice. Fate plays a hand as he is told by the magic mirror to climb to the top of a wicked tower in search of his damsel in distress… none other than a trapped princess, of course. Here, he is promised, will be his one true love. In order to do so, the young King Graham must traverse the perilous tower’s ever-changing climbing handholds. As he finally reaches the top, he learns of his fate.

Unfortunately for the King, but nonetheless fortunate for us and a new adventure, instead of a princess waiting to be saved, Graham encounters TWO princesses and must work toward figuring out which is to be his queen. In the meantime, he also learns that it won’t be that easy to escape. A sinister witch named Hagatha has a history too, and she has managed to capture the princesses out of spite, and now it seems that King Graham can’t break the spell and he, himself, becomes entrapped too.

Since Hagatha is an old, um, hag, she has a bit of a hard time distinguishing King Graham from the other two princesses. The visually impaired old woman may not be able to see well, but she has a gigantic sniffer and with it she smells a third princess atop the tower. Unfortunately for Graham, he smells of lavender, which is why she gets confused.

King’s Quest – Chapter 3: Once Upon a Climb takes place nearly entirely within the tower as a whole, and Graham must once again solve puzzles to progress and escape. There are a few moments where through Hagatha’s magic powers, Graham is transported to areas of his kingdom, but the scope is quite limited and the encounters reuse previous landscapes and characters for the most part. So will princess… ahem… King Graham be able to escape and climb down the tower with his future queen? Only time will tell, if Hagatha doesn’t freeze it first.

King’s Quest – Chapter 3: Once Upon a Climb ended up actually being an interesting third part to this five-part series, with many different styles of puzzle to solve. Although a bit limited in scope, the tales told in this episode lend a view into King Graham’s personal life and the clear anxiety that surrounds his choices surrounding his love life.

It will be interesting to see where all of this leads, but if the history of episodes repeats itself, most of the upcoming Episode 4 will have more tales of heroism and bravery, as well as a few humorous moments and puns. These tales will likely be mostly independent of the first three episodes, with only minor overlapping moments.