It's a sad thing that your adventure ended Here. Let's Play... Shadowgate!

I’m breaking one of my own rules here, by doing an LP of this game. Normally I only do them for games which I’ve either never played, or only have dim recollections from my childhood of.

Not so, with Shadowgate.

I’ve played this sucker enough that I don’t think I even need to see the screen to have a successful runthrough. Consequently, I’m doing this one a little differently:

In the grand tradition of the woefully abandoned Lone Wolf LP, and the Aerobiz LP which I can only assume is still going (this bit is being written in early December, you see, and Lone Wolf was abandoned back then), this here is a Choose Your Own Adventure-style Lets Play! I’ll be doing the linear bits, and some puzzle solving, and I’ll turn the reigns over to YOU, the Viewer, at the end of each Update. One might ask “How much audience participation can you have when the game is entirely linear?”, and I would reply “Shut-up, kid”.

I’m sure fun times will be had by some.


Now you find yourself staring at an entryway which lies on the edge of a forest. The Druids words ring in your ears:
“Within Castle Shadowgate lies your quest. The dreaded Warlock Lord will use his black magic to raise The Behemoth from the Dark Depths. The combination of his evil arts and the great titans power will surely destroy us all! You are the last of Line of Kings, the seed of prophecy that was foretold eons ago. Only you can stop the Evil One from darkening our world forever! Fare thee well.“
Gritting your teeth, you swear by your Gods name that you will destroy the Warlock Lord!!



You also make a mental note that it was difficult to determine what of the Druids words were supposed to be proper nouns, since everything he said was in capital letters. You also notice that the Druids words used a lot of unnecessary apostrophes and too many exclamation marks, and would be sure to eliminate those in your memoirs of your quest. I suppose you can’t criticize the grammar of a man who lives in a dirt hut and wears nothing but woad. I mean, he DID magically transport you to the castle with all your limbs intact, so that’s something.

Would have been nice if he also sent you with some kind of tools or advice for killing the Warlock Lord too, though.



The door to Castle Shadowgate is closed, but unlocked. You think that odd, as the Warlock Lord surely would have bothered to at least latch his stronghold with something. Just as a precaution, you deface the outside of Shadowgates entrance by removing the Skull decorating it.



The Skull moves and reveals a key. You thank your good fortune, pocket Key 1, and move into the entrance to the Castle.


You will surely regret it, for the only thing for you here is a horrible death!”
The sound of his maniacal laughter fills your ears.

“Presumably that was the Warlock Lord”, you think, “His grammar is just as bad as Lakmirs”.

Gazing about the foyer of Shadowgate you spy a pair of unused Torches hooked to the wall, you take them, as the one you currently have would not last forever, and you have a sneaking suspicion that if your current torch goes out, you will instantly die.

Also in the room, you notice a small closet, its door is too thick to break open, and you will need to unlock it to open it. The large wooden door is also locked.



Key 1 fits into the wooden door, and you enter the next room of the Castle.



This third room has several items of note. Not only does it have another pair of torches, but there is a book as well. You take the Torches, and notice that one of them is marked differently then the rest you’ve acquired. There is a label on the marked torch reading: “Anti-Ghost Torch: For all your Ghost Incinerating Needs”.

You then make the logical assumption and take the book.




Clearly that was a bad idea, and you decide to rewind time and try the room again. You can do that, you see. I don’t think I mentioned it before, though, but you totally can. Trust me.

This time you read the book, without removing it, which doesn’t trigger the deathtrap.


A rectangular hole has been cut out of the inside of the book.

Inside the book is Key 2, which you (cautiously) take. The floor doesn’t fall away as you remove the key, you sigh with relief and walk away from the book.

You return back to the foyer, to see if Key 2 fits inside the lock.


You immediately take both and, lacking any better ideas, you decide to use the Sword on yourself.


The Warlock Lord will surely triumph now

That was an incredibly stupid idea, clearly.



Back in the Book room, you notice a slightly off-color rock in the wall, and surely enough, it can be removed, revealing another passage.

The Path Branches, do you:
A) Enter the secret Passage
B) Continue along the hall
C) Try to use other inventory items on yourself


Current Death Count: 2

This is like MS Paint Adventures, but I'm actually playing it!

A) Enter the secret Passage

Use other items on yourself.

Hey, he gave you a torch. That's better than a lot of these heroes get when they start out.

You should totally burn the rug in that first hallway. If nothing else it'll really hurt the resale value of the castle. You know what else would lower its resale value? A burned corpse in the foyer. Try using a torch on yourself.

I think you should use the Anti-Ghost Torch on yourself to make sure you are not a ghost.

This game is all about the vivid descriptions of your own death. The acid fountain one is the best.

I second burning yourself.

For science.

Do Shadowgate 64, instead!

Kill yourself.

Burn yourself.

Then, find out for us if the game can be completed using only one torch.

For us!

Oh, I can't deny the puclic what it plainly wants.

===========================================

The chattering gestalt of voices in your head reached the only logical course of action when you find yourself faced with a decision like “Which path do I take, left or right?”



“OW, OW, OW!” you cry out “WHY THE HELL DID I DO THAT?” But honestly, those are terrific burns. Really, they’re great.

Luckily, the wounds are not fatal, nor do they slightly impede your progress. As it would happen, your hands were already severely calloused from a similar experience you had trying to impress a girl in high school.

It worked just as well then as it did now.

Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, you try using the torch on yourself again.



“OH DEAR GOD! WHY DO I KEEP BURNING MYSELF?” you yell, to nobody in particular.

Just to be on the safe side, you try incinerating yourself one more time.



Clearly this was a terrible idea, you had.

Rewinding the very course of history, you retreat back to the foyer and enjoy one more little bit of arson, as you burn the rug. Just for laughs.



That’ll teach that uppity Warlock Lord!

Now you return to the forked road, to focus more intently on whether you should:

A) Enter the secret Passage
B) Continue along the hall


Death Count: 3

Head into the hallway, since it's most likely tra- I mean, safe.

I'm going to assume that you also wrote the most recent post in early December and just accurately predicted that the entirety of Talking Time would ask you to set yourself on fire.

I DID predict this, but I didn't bother to write it. In all honesty, that was foolhearty.

However, until I tried, I didn't you you could die by immolation. I always only tried it once, so I just burned my hands instead of... myself to death.

Secret Passage

Hallway!

Both!

Burn yourself to death again. Just in case someone's hidden a key inside your manly unburnt flesh. Or something.

Ooops, wrong thread. I vote for the hallway though!

The babbling mental cacophony seemed to agree that the hallway was the better course of direction then the scary hole in the wall.



And promptly find yourself at yet another forked road. Rather then resorting to the terrible voices in your head again, you close you eyes and plunge into the right-most door.




Besides the shark infested pool, you can’t help but notice another key. This one being held in the hands of a skeleton, placed in the middle of the aforementioned Shark-Infested Pool.

You assume that you can easily out maneuver a shark with your years of swimming practice.

Well, your weeks of practice.

Well… you went down a waterslide once.



Normally, a thought like that wouldn’t even slow you down from trying something recklessly dangerous, but your negligible sense of self preservation kicks in and stubbornly refuses to allow you to swim in the lake. You can’t help but feel that the voices in your head would be disappointed to learn this.

On a cheerier note, however, you spy another door in the distance and enter it.



Unfortunately, this room is considerably less shark-filled. It is, however, rock-filled. You fill your pockets with what are surely rare and precious stones that will prove to be invaluable in your quest.



The other, larger stones block off another door, and there is no way that you would ever consider to remove them. Seriously, you’re not going to do that. Maybe later, when there is no threat of The Behemoth and Warlock Lord, you can clear out your social calendar and tediously remove the wreckage, but until then, no go.

You also decide to fling yourself into the waterfall.


The damp walls of this eerie cave are rough and irregular

As it would happen, there was another, significantly tinier, cave buried in the crack between the cave-in and the waterfall. It’s a good thing you’re obsessive about hunting down even the most inconsequential details of the landscape and futzing with them.

Similarly, your obsessive compulsive disorder can’t leave that rock-outcropping just sticking out of the wall all irregular-like. So you punch the hell out of it, just to teach it an important lesson about conformity.




That was unexpected.

The small bag in the crevasse contains White, Red and Blue gems. They must be pretty important to be hidden so far out of the way in an almost invisible secret room. You take them all, but leave the bag behind.

You briefly attempt to try crouching at the lake with the Blue Gem, in the hope that this will cause the water to drain away, allowing you to get the key. However, that is a stupid idea and there is no way any quest in any video game would EVER attempt a puzzle as asinine as that.



Besides, with your limited grasp on verbs, you don’t know the MEANING of the word “crouch”.



You return to the room with the three doors, and horrible indecision plagues you yet again. Do you:

A) Enter the North Door
B) Enter the West Door
C) Go back and head into the secret passage

Death Count: 3 (but not for lack of trying)

Go West, Young Man.

Everyone knows secret passages are best.

Use Stone on Self.

You don't find a secret passage then just ignore it.

West! West! Manifest some destiny!

The blue stone may not work on the shark pool, but I bet hitting the pool with a torch would screw it up something fierce.

If you guys haven't played this game before, you should go download the soundtrack and listen to it while participating. It kicks a lot of ass.

I'm not participating, as I've beaten the game before and have no funny death ideas left.

1) Stone yourself
2) Secret passage!

When in doubt Kai Lords always go east.