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

Punch 'em, Lil Mac!

This is a problem that can be solved with the liberal application of fire. Burn the troll with a torch!

Go back into the mirror room and jump into the hole. Who knows what's inside of it?

Afterwards, kill yourself.

Really? I remember it being relatively smooth sailing from that point on.

There's one puzzle in particular in this game, near the very end, whose solution relies on you using something very obscure to get past what looks like a dead-end trap that happens to be situated near the beginning of the game, and as such, by the time you can solve it you've learned to ignore its existence. Spoilers: Drinking bottle 2 to cross the chasm right before the Wraith, and then Wand-ing the snake to get the Scepter.. I've always thought it was the most unfair thing in the game.

The puzzles in the latter half of the game do tend to go more quickly just because you have a firmer grasp on the game mechanics, though.

I stumbled on the solution to that puzzle earlier, before I could accomplish anything by doing it, when I was wandering around trying to figure out how to get past the troll. I can certainly see how you could get stuck on it, though.

Go back in the Gehenna room, and use the torch on the oil. Maybe that will scare the troll.

That's no troll, that's George Lucas! Maybe he'll accept some delicious shark meat as payment?

The Troll is spiritually confused, you decide, and you try to talk to him, to have him forget his miserly ways.



You can’t tell if you managed to get through to him. It’s entirely possible that the Troll can’t read to understand the delicate storylines present in a Chick Tract. This is the first time you’ve been let down by the Church of Latter Day Druids.

You fall back onto Plan B, ignoring the legless Troll. It’s not like he can chase you, what with his lack of legs.


The Troll picks up the Bridge causing you to fall into the Chasm!



You make a mental note that that last part would have been one of the parts of your quest that probably would have scared the hell out of you when you were nine.

You’ve tried Diplomacy, and you’ve tried ignoring your enemy. The only course of action left is to destroy the Troll.

As you recall from the tips that appeared during the loading screens from Baldurs Gate, Trolls can be destroyed only by fire. And you should periodically stop adventuring to have a meal.



But Your Gods decided to make it so that your Torch can’t be used on the Troll. Stupid Your Gods! In your rage against the Heavens, you pick up the Spear you got from the Dragon and heave that at the legless monstrosity.



“Well, that solves that problem”, you say to nobody in particular, confident that there is no chance that the floating monster could have survived the fall into a hole.



Just past the Troll Bridge you enter Castle Shadowgate’s Courtyard. While your gaze is first drawn to the wishing well (doubtlessly containing either something to kill you, or treasure. Probably treasure that would kill you), it inevitably drifts to the Cyclops just milling about.



The Cyclops doesn’t pay you any mind, so you go back to the Well, and promptly start reeling in the bucket.

Instead of a supply of fresh water, the Bucket contains a Gauntlet. You shrug, and take the Glove, expecting there to be at least some point where hand protection would he helpful.



As it would happen, the Cyclops is blocking your path to the next room, and it can’t understand the human tongue to try to outsmart the creature, forcing you to resort to violence.

PUNCHING Violence!



Clearly you need a better Battle Cry to destroy the Cyclops. You pick up your Hammer and try bellowing like some Norse God again, and again the Cyclops smashes your head flat before you can inform him that you “Say Thee Nay!”

Melee weapons are no use against a large creature with no depth perception, so you opt for a ranged weapon, hoping to finish him off while he’s outside of counter-attack range, since being armed with a Ranged Weapon means that you’re defenseless if he gets too close to you.


You cry out “Death to the Philistine!!”, and release the stone. Bull’s-eye!



You quickly slink past the Cyclops, cautious to not walk on top of him.



The next room is another one of Shadowgate’s few seemingly harmless room. And it has another Torch! You enter the first room on the left.



You find yourself in The Warlock Lords library. A pretty small one, considering what you’d expect a castle owend by an evil wizard. You revert to your baser instincts and immediately pilfer everything in the room that isn’t nailed down. In this case, that being the incomplete map of Tarkus on the wall, and the skull on the shelf.



You open the Drawer and find several more scrolls, a key and some reading glasses. You make a mental note to make fun of the Warlock Lord for his astigmatism. “Oh look at me! I’m a living conduit for the Darkest of Forces, but I need bits of glass to read the paper!” you mime.



You also decide to read the Warlock Lords mail, just because.
‘’Terra Terrakk’’
You’ve learned one Magic Spell!

As the words were chanted, the Scroll quickly vanishes

‘’Instantum Illumina’’
You’ve learned one Magic Spell!

As the words were chanted, the Scroll quickly vanishes

You decide to also read the book on the Table, since it’s drawn in a slightly conspicuous way, meaning it’s important somehow.



Not that it helps since the book is written with a bunch of crazy squiggles. The Warlock Lord has terrible handwriting. You decide to try on the Warlock Lords glasses, to better complete your impression of him, which you can then take on tour at all of the Comedy Clubs that dot the land.



Of course, you have pretty good vision anyway, so this is hardly news.


The Light grows faint, The Path winds round. Where Life is Lost, Wisdom is Found. The Seed of the Dream, fore the Evil is free, where the Sword is hung, he must place The Key. A Bridge to From, amidst Burning Death. A demon to guard”
‘’Motari Riseth’’
You’ve learned one Magic Spell!

As the spell was chanted, the Book quickly vanishes.

You roll your eyes, “Oh yes, that clears up what the book was talking about. Thank you, Magic Reading Glasses”.


”The Circle of Twelve was formed before most things that began to be. Their names are… Framas, Garolia, Talotin, Ronlin, Talimar, Magnus, Wontave, Butwik, Tenmakk, Sharnia, Lakmir and Turgor. The Circle was broken when Talimar took a new name: The Warlock Lord!”

A quick glance at one of the books (which is pretty much the size of a pamphlet) gives you a fairly vague bit of The Warlock Lords history. Personally, you think that The Warlock Lord sounds a bit cooler then Talimar, but not by any great extent. Maybe the reason he turned evil is because he was embarrassed of his name?

You also go into hysterics when you read the name “Butwik”.



Fitting the Red Gem, that you had almost forgotten you had picked up, into the notch in the wall causes a cliché to appear.

You are now faced with branching path, do you:
A) A secret passage? Behind a book case? How creative!
B) Head back into the previous room and go in the other side door
C) Head back into the previous room and go through the central door
D) Laugh at Butwiks name, again.


Death Count: 17

Head back into the previous room and burn the rug.

Oddly, you can't get a rock back after you've slung it, so running out of rocks is one of the few ways to get stuck.

The troll is the worst part of the game because following the hints gets you nowhere and trying any other weapon just gets you killed.

Next time we see the troll, throw another rock at it.

And then stab it over and over again.

Lord knows I was stuck there for the longest while, but the Wyvern is pretty bad too (and has possibly the single most senseless puzzle in the game). As is the Werewolf, if you didn't bother to look at the Arrow you picked up near the beginning of the game.

No, no, no. The pattern for the three switches was the worst puzzle in the game. It required you to realize that something wasn't a crappy 8-bit brick texture.

Don't go in the hidden passage, that's obviously what he wants you to do! You've gotta out think him, so I say you should go back to the hallway and set yourself on fire again.

>Laugh at Butwik's name again.

>Kill yourself.

The knowledge contained in those books shouldn't be shared with just any adventurer who happens by, it needs to be hoarded. Burn the book case, and then go onward through the secret passage.

Since none of the rabbling voices in your head gave you any clear indication of what to do next, you flip a coin and head into the Secret Passage. It was a three sided coin.

It disappeared from your inventory as soon as you flipped it too, so don’t bother looking for it.



You whistle, impressed as you walk into the next room. It’s a bit odd that The Warlock Lords rec-room was hidden behind a secret passage in his library, but then, that does seem to fit with Shadowgates general architecture.


You feel a bit of a chill and decide to light a fire in the fireplace. You make it a point to close the flue when you leave, hopefully killing the Warlock Lord with carbon monoxide poisoning, saving you form ever having to confront him.

You also take the cup, bellows and poker, all resting against the fireplace, just because you’re a mild kleptomaniac. You also want to bash open that globe, but it resists you. You also can’t seem to muster the will to fling yourself into that fireplace. Maybe you’re finally developing a sense of self preservation?



You head back into the other side room from the earlier hall.



That sounds pretty tasty, but you’re going to open that kennel first. Any dog being held by the Warlock Lord would probably enjoy being released.


It looks like the Doctor put something strange in the dogs water. Before you can do anything else, the mutation quickly you apart.

You kind of question how a small dog, mutant or no, could possible tear apart a heavily armored knight. You also kind of wonder if the dog was mutated in anyway besides being kind of angry, and having a small horn.

You decide to take a swig of that poison instead.


You notice blue hairs starting to grow on the palms of your hands. The viscous liquid seems to contain body-altering ingredients.




Well, being covered in blue fur doesn’t seem that bad, in retrospect. It never held Kurt Wagner back, now did it? You are about to take another swig, hoping to get a proboscis, or eyes that shoot poison blood or something, but decide against it. With your kind of luck, you’d probably end up looking like Grover.

You do, however, make it a point to steal every pharmaceutical in the kennel, hoping for at least a contact buzz of mutant hound tranquilizer.



Some of them taste pretty awful, but none of them turn you into an unspeakable abomination. Which is too bad. You decide to leave the kennel through the rear exit.



Outside the Kennel is a small enclosed garden with a fountain. And the fountain contains a flute! No magical fantasy kingdom would be complete without a musical instrument that has super-natural powers, you reason, so that must be a very important item, lying there, unguarded, in the middle of a fountain.


The water is extremely acidic and, obviously, not good for drinking.

Phht, like you’re going to let a little thing like a warning against drinking highly potent acid seriously. Besides, you’re still parched, despite having just drank mutant dog juice.


You can’t even scream since you no longer have a throat, let alone a larynx!

In retrospect, you probably should have put some antacids in the fountain first. You decide to be a big baby and put on your Gauntlet to fish out the flute. You wimp.


By using the Silver Gauntlet, you remove the Flute easily. The sound of the water splashing is music to your ears



You decide to play a little ditty for the mutant dog, because you like dogs, even the genetically perverse breeds. Nothing happens, but you feel slightly better about yourself.

Nothing else to do, so you head into the room at the end of the hall.


“My Gods,” you exclaim, “how many rooms filled with a whole bunch of doors are there in this stupid castle?”

You take the Crest and Mirror, mounted on the walls, and turn towards the doors. And you:

A) Go into the left door
B) Go into the center door
C) Go into the right door

Death Count: 19

Let's see what's behind door number 1. A. Number A? Whatever.

I want you to set fire to every cloth in the room. And then go into the door in the upper left.

Use HAMMER on GLOBE.

This was the point in the game when I realized you could set certain things on fire... And that you could tell during the transitional animation between rooms if anything visible was able to be destroyed or removed.

Wait, you just drank an apothecary's worth of mysterious substances and foul-looking liquids, and all you got was blue fur on your hands? Are you sure you're not fireproof (or have extra toes) now?

Shadowgate actually caused me to ask my parents for a globe for Christmas when I was little. This is really true.

Honestly, we're past the part where I have a perfect recollection of how to progress, so while I did remember that something had to be done to open the globe, I forgot what.

Don't worry. Exactly one half of my posts will include how to progress in the game. The other half will include new and entertaining ways for me to watch you die.

I'm disappointed you didn't try to kill yourself with this alleged three-sided coin. I'm sure that would be at the very least a major choking hazard.

As you flip the coin, a trick gust of wind from the wings of a nearby imp causes it to smack you in the forehead!! The impact is enough to cause your head to cave in. The reaper sighs, shaking his head in aggitation as he carries you away.

Oh, it's nothing earth-shattering, anyway.