GAME SOLUTION: Shadowgate
From: Len Stys (aa399)
Date: 02/23/90-11:49:27 PM Z
From: aa399 (Len Stys)
Subject: GAME SOLUTION: Shadowgate
Date: Fri Feb 23 23:49:27 1990
Shadowgate - Part 1
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A Walkthru by Kiran S. Kedlaya
Welcome to Shadowgate, and particularly this walkthru. This walkthru is designed
to ease you through whatever stumps you in Shadowgate. Keep in mind that this
walkthru contains not just hints, but explicit directions as well. Don't come
back unless you're absolutely stuck.
Having said that, before we begin let me touch on three major issues in
Shadowgate. First of all, you die often. Really often. (Even more than in
Uninvited, for those who have played it.) Save a lot (but use the Save As
command, otherwise you will overwrite your last save.) The next issue is light.
This game takes place well before Edison, so to see where you're going you'll
need a flaming torch. However, each torch has a limited life. Torches are stuck
in the walls of most of the rooms, and you can pick them up and bring them with
you, but you can't carry ALL of them, so knowing where another torch can be
found is crucial. Also note that a torch will flicker momentarily 6 turns before
going out (except the torch you start out with, which only lasts about ten
turns), so when you get the flicker, light another torch. The last issue is
secret doors. Not all entrances in this game are apparent, or even shown in the
Exits window. Sometimes a passage is hidden in a scene, or moving a loose brick
will uncover a hidden passage. Keep your eyes out for them.
Okay, let's go! Here we are, at the entrance to Castle Shadowgate. But before
you open the door, take a look at that skull. Well, there's no welcome mat to
hide a key under, so maybe the skull holds it. Open the skull. Voila! Pick up
the key. Now open the door (you won't need the key to do it). And wouldn't you
know it, it creaks (shades of Uninvited here). Let's go inside.
Now, the first thing to do here is light one of those torches before yours goes
out (that's OPERATE the lit torch on the unlit one). You can now drop your torch
and pick up the one in the wall. If you like, go ahead and set fire to the rug
(people who went through Uninvited hitting every window with the battle axe will
have fun here). The key won't open the side door, but it will unlock the double
doors, so unlock those and go through.
Here we are at another hallway. Grab the funny-looking torch, and save here.
We're going to do a couple of interesting things now. First, light the funny
looking torch and examine it. Greenish tint, eh? That might come in handy soon,
but we don't need it now, so don't save here. Now pick up one of the candles, or
the book. Whoops! Enjoy the funeral dirge (soon it will start to drive you
insane). Now open your saved game (funny how the default is to start from the
beginning, and not from a save file) and don't pick up anything from the shelf.
But just because we can't take the book doesn't mean we can't read it... Open up
the book. Aha! A key! Grab that, and go back to the first hallway.
Now we have the key to unlock the other door. Do that, and go through (you can
drop both keys now). You now should be in a closet, and two nice armaments are
sitting on the shelves-a sword and a slingshot. Grab both (note that you can
click on one, and then hold down Shift and click on the other, and you will
select both; but release Shift before dragging them) and go back to the second
hallway.
Look at the far wall. Something fishy about that stone there... open it. A
secret passage! Head through it. Now we are in a chamber with a large exit. You
can't get through that (go ahead and try it), but there is another exit from
this room. First pick up the arrow, and note which way it's pointing. Hmm...
that torch on the left wall won't come out. Perhaps it's attached to something?
Maybe if we pull it... Operate the torch (on itself). Ta-dah! Another hidden
entrance! Go down there now.
Two bridges, but which to take? For now, don't try to cross the rickety skull
bridge. Stick with the sturdy one.
Uh-oh. Good time for a save. That wraith won't kill you immediately (unlike
everything else in this game), but will instead curse you. This is to be
avoided. There is a way to destroy the wraith. Like many mystical creatures, the
key to victory lies in the occult. In other words, try some smoke. If you
operate your torch on him, he shudders. Maybe some particular kind of smoke?
Green smoke? Fire up the oddball torch and fry him with it. Now you can pick up
the cloak and go thru the door (the exit in the upper-right of the exit window
is totally useless).
Cages? (More shades of Uninvited here) Don't bother trying to open them; it
can't be done. Instead, read the scroll on the shelf (you don't need the scroll
itself, just the information). This little rhyme basically states the object of
the game: to find the bladed sun, the silver orb, the staff of ages, the golden
thorn, and the platinum horn. We will be coming back here later, but now let's
leave through the top exit. Wait! You can't reach it? Try climbing. The rope, in
particular. But how to get it up there? Read the sign. "EPOR"? What does that
spell backwards? "ROPE"! Perhaps it's a magic word... Say "EPOR" to the rope.
Now we can climb it.
Mirrors, mirrors, on the wall, who's the bravest of them all? Anyway, right now
you can leave this room alone. Just open the back door and go through.
Here we have a bunch of coffins. Actually, most of them are safe to open. The
only one to avoid is the middle one on the left side. But the others, we can
open. Try the left front. Close call, there! Now the back right. Nothing... the
back middle, now. Those coins are useless; leave them alone. Now, the right
front. Ah, now things are getting interesting! That mummy is holding something
useful. But how to get it? Maybe we can remove the mummy's rags. Don't bother
trying to unravel them; burn them off with your trusty torch. Now grab that
scepter (it's not the Staff of Ages, by the way) and head through the back door.
Go through the right door.
Shadowgate - Part 2
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A Walkthru by Kiran S. Kedlaya
ThereUs a shark in the lake! Don't worry about that yet. Go through the door on
the far wall. Those stones would be good ammo for the slingshot. Grab one and
load it (either operate it on the slingshot, or open the slingshot and put it
in). For a chuckle, try putting in something else while the stone is in the
sling. Now comes one of the nastiest parts of Shadowgate: a secret door. See the
black space under the waterfall (right of the rockslide, which is for all
practical purposes impassable)? Go through it. A secret room, and a rock. Take a
look at the rock. Try whacking it. Grab the bag revealed and open it. Gems!
(Uninvited players have a slight advantage here-the gems look like the Blothney
gem, and are used the same way.) Go back to the fork now; we can't do much here
yet.
At the fork, take the left door. Ignore the rat; we have better things to do
than chase rodents. See the gem-shaped hole in the door? A gem would fit in that
nicely, wouldn't it? Put the lightest-shaded gem in the hole (you can drag the
gem over the hole, or operate it on the hole). That sphere is not the silver
orb, but is useful anyway. Examine it. Brrrr! Pick it up and return to the lake
(don't try the trapdoor).
Now we have to try to grab that object (a skeleton key, in fact) from the
skeleton. Swimming is suicidal (try it, if you desire and have a save handy).
Time to think here... the shark can swim in the water, but if the water weren't
water... Maybe if it were ice, he would be stuck. But how can we freeze the
water? The sphere! Operate it on the lake. Now how do we get it back? Melt the
ice a bit. Your torch will do nicely. Now take the sphere and the key, and
return to the pedestal room. Open the door and go through.
Oh boy. Time to save your place, because one false step and you're fried
adventurer. If you were to take something, the dragon at the far end of the room
would roast you. You need some way of blocking his fire. What's here that can do
that? The shield. Snatch it up (if it's too big, go back out, drop some stuff,
and come back; don't drop anything in here). Now grab the hammer, the spear, and
the helmet. We can't get any more here, so leave (you can drop the shield now
it's totally useless for any other purpose). You can get more room in your
inventory by wearing the helmet and the cloak. Now it's time to head for the
mirror room, where your adventure really begins.
One of these mirrors holds a surprise. But which one? The middle one. Smash it
with the hammer (nothing else will do it). Don't worry about seven years of bad
luck; you won't last that long if you don't do it. The hammer will do you no
good anymore, so drop it. Open the door and go through. Whoa! It's locked, so
use the skeleton key to get it open.
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen--or find something
protective. If you aren't already, wear the cloak. That will enable you to
tolerate the flames. Now open the door. Uh-oh... it's a firedrake! This creature
feeds on fire. But if there's no fire... put out the fire with the chilling
ball. Whew! Now you can take off the cloak, and drop it too. Oh, well, so much
for that, but no time to waste, go through the door.
Cross the bridge. Wouldn't you know it, there's a troll guarding this bridge.
Don't worry about the toll (for a laugh, get the coins from the coffin and pay
the toll); instead, dispatch him with your trusty spear. That will take care of
him... for now. In any case, head on down the bridge.
Another nastie! This time it's a cyclops. Thirteen feet tall... kinda reminds
you of Goliath, doesn't he? So treat him the same way. Nail him with the
slingshot. Bull's-eye! He's out cold, but he's not dead. If you really want to
kill him, stab him with the sword. Neither the sword nor the sling will be
useful anymore, so drop them.There's a well here, too. Anything inside? Operate
the well on itself and find out? A bucket, but what's inside? Open it up and
find out. A metal glove (technically a gauntlet). Hang on to that, but now open
the door and enter another area of the castle.
This hallway, judging by the rug stretching across the hall, is the entrance to
the main area of the castle. Leave the broom here-you may or may not need it,
but if you do you can always come back for it. Go ahead and burn the rug if you
please, but don't waste too much time; let's head down the front left passage.
This library is pretty well stocked. The most important book, though, is the one
on the desk, so grab that. Also look inside the desk. Take everything in there
you'll need all of it. Now it's time for a little light reading. The only book
of interest to us is the thick book on the bottom left shelf, third from the
left. (However, go ahead and read them all; there's some interesting and funny
stuff in there.) Open that book up and copy down the stuff about scrolls and
books (a text editor DA would be great for this, as well as for reading this
walkthru). Incidentally, while you're at it, read the scrolls and the big book.
Terra Terrakk and Instantum Illuminaris (yet another item borrowed from
Uninvited) are easy enough to decipher, but what about that book? You can't read
it right now, but don't trash that item yet. In any case, there's a gem-shaped
hole in the wall. Just slide in the medium-shade gem and go inside.
Here's another rug to burn, but that's not the important thing here. Look at
that globe. Try to open it. If we can't open it with our mortal powers, maybe
some more power would help... Remember "the key to the world"? Use the Terra
Terrakk scroll on the globe (brace yourself for some nasty puns, too). Pick up
the key (the bottle is a cure for the wraith's curse, which is there so that
people wouldn't have to know the obscure bit about the green smoke) and close
the globe. The rest of the stuff you can leave here, so go back to the main
hallway and take the far left passage.
Welcome to the laboratory. If you want to die, open the cage or drink some of
the jars on the shelf. If not, examine the stone on the floor. Doesn't that look
like a handle? Indeed, you can pull it. Operate the stone on itself (although
Open should work, it doesn't) and take the holy water. Now head downstairs into
the garden.
Shadowgate Part - 3
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A Walkthru by Kiran S. Kedlaya
Examine the fountain. There's a flute in there. But the fountain is gushing
acid, so we can't get it or drink it (go ahead and try it, if you dare). Maybe
if our hand was protected from the acid, we could grab the flute. Put the glove
on and take the flute. Now it's time to remember one of the minor rules of
adventuring: "Use it where you found it." Play the flute (operate it on itself)
and pick up the ring. The flute and the gauntlet can both be dropped, and
there's nothing more here, so return to the main hallway.
Now let's explore the right doorway. Lots of nice stuff here, so pick up
whatever you like... uh-oh. I guess that wasn't such a good idea. Get out of
here before those hobgoblins rip you apart (there is no way to get the stuff,
which may be just as well). Instead, open the door and enter the banquet hall.
What could that be under the rug? Probably something useful. We can't move the
rug, so we have to remove it. This particular spot is fun for the belligerent,
because guess what-you have to burn the rug. Do so, but don't bother taking the
key-unlock the lower door (in the center of the picture) with it. The other two
keys you picked up here unlock the other two doors, so get those open and get
rid of those two keys. Now take the door on the right.
The picture of this room is very important. Either save here, and use a
distinctive name like "Sphinx", or take a screen dump, and keep either one
handy. In any case, this is a Sphinx, and (you guessed it) it will ask you some
riddles. There are a total of six riddles, and which one is chosen is totally
random. Try to figure them out yourself, but if you're stuck, the answers to the
riddles are listed below:
"Eyeless tho' that I may be...": Skull (from the library)
"It has towns, but no houses;" Map (from the library)
"First I was burnt..." Horseshoe (from the laboratory)
"If you look at me..." Mirror (from the banquet hall)
"I at fires attend..." Bellows (from the study)
"Long neck and no hands..." Broom (from the mirror room)
Once you know what the answer to the riddle is, go back and get that object, and
give it to the Sphinx (dropping it will suffice). You may now go up the stairs
into the observatory.
The scroll is useless, but the map is not so. Examine the shooting star. It's
not part of the map, so you can remove it. Take that, and then open the map.
That rod will be of use to you, so take it. Now let's go up into the turret.
That odd-shaped object on the floor is indeed the golden thorn, but getting it
is not so simple. Save here, and then pick it up. Gee, I guess that beautiful
lady isn't so beautiful after all... well, there is a surefire way to kill a
werewolf, and that is with a silver object (usually a bullet). We don't have a
bullet, but we have got that arrow, so operate the sucker on the lady/werewolf.
Now take the spike and return to the banquet hall.
Take the left passage now. This chamber seems innocent enough, but... there's
the platinum horn, there on the floor. Pick that up. Maybe that wasn't so smart.
This hellhound definitely will not let you get near the horn while it's around.
We ought to send it back to the devilish place where it came from. And what
better way to destroy a hell-spawned creature than with holy water? Use that on
the hellhound, then get rid of it and get the horn. That's two out of five-not
bad, but there's still a ways to go. Climb the stairs.
Another artifact! This time it's the bladed sun, and this time a wyvern (a close
relative of the dragon) is guarding it. The solution to this puzzle is sort of a
throwaway, so don't feel low if you don't get it. Operate the shooting star on
the wyvern. Now you can pick up the bladed sun and go back to the banquet hall.
Now take the middle passage, and from there take the left doorway. The lightning
is awfully menacing, but we can control it. What better way to control lightning
than with a lightning rod! Typically such things are made of metals, such as
iron. We do indeed have an iron rod, so stick that in the hole. Blammo! The hand
seems to have something for you. Take the wand, and have a look at it. A serpent
on the side, huh? That may serve us well eventually. Take the stairs down, but
DON'T take the pot of gold; that's the oldest trick in the book. The bag is
safe, so you can get it. Now go up the stairs, back to the hallway, and through
the right doorway.
Sir Doogan is quite dead, so you don't have to worry about him. However, there
are some neat things here. Look at that panel on the right. Perhaps it's
movable. Open it, and admire the small hole. What would fit in the hole? Not a
gem, but something a bit smaller. Like a ring. Stick the ring in the hole. Now
look at Sir Doogan. He looks a little plain without a kingly object in his hand.
What of yours befits a man of such greatness? Try the scepter. Give it to
Doogan. Aha! A secret tunnel... head down it.
Shadowgate - Part 4
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A Walkthru by Kiran S. Kedlaya
In the secret hallway under Doogan, watch out for the passage on the left; going
that way makes for a crushing experience. Instead, take the passage straight
ahead. The gargoyles will leave you alone as long as you don't try to get past
them, but that's fine for now; just take the side path.
Now we really need some magic. Remember the book? The book on magic stated that
books come with extra protections. What would help us read anything, the book in
particular? Maybe we need our eyes checked... but that's not necessary; just put
on the glasses and read the book. The stuff in the book is important to keep, so
copy that down. But "A bridge to form amidst burning death, a demon to guard"?
The lava seems pretty deadly to me. The book is for this particular location.
Use it on the demon, then drop the book and the glasses and cross the bridge
(toll-free, even).
The switches here will open the cylinder, but if you throw them in the wrong
combination the beastie in the hole will have you for breakfast, so think before
you flip. Now is the time for the saved game or screen dump of the Sphinx'
chamber. See those little lines on the staircase? Those lines are a diagram of
which switches to throw. Flip the right switch, the middle, then the right again
to open the cylinder. Take the silver orb. That makes four out of five.
Unfortunately, the fifth of the five is on the other side of the troll's bridge,
so we have to do some major backtracking here. Head back all the way to the
second hallway by double-clicking the back exit (the one on the bottom of the
exits window) and return to the bridge room.
What we seek lies across the rickety bridge, but it will fall under too much
weight, so drop everything but your lit torch and go across. The snake is merely
a statue, so don't panic. However, we have seen a snake before-on the wand. Go
back and get that, and go back across. Operate the wand on the snake. Aha! The
staff of ages! Take that, ditch the wand, and go back across. Once on the other
side, grab everything and go back to the "EPOR" room.
Look at the back wall closely. See the loose stone in the center. Open it and go
through. Here's the third gem-shaped hole, so stick your last gem in it. The
wizard's words are important, so keep a record of those. Take the scroll as
well, and read it. If you're puzzled, "Ulterior Humana" translates to "Hidden
Human". The scroll is an invisibility spell! That will be really useful soon.
Now go out, go up the rope and back to the troll bridge. Cross the bridge. Well,
the troll doesn't want you to cross. But if he can't see you, he can't stop you!
Use Ulterior Humana on yourself, and stride past him.
If you didn't kill the Cyclops before, he will be aroused again, but you're
still invisible, so no matter. Just pass him and go back to the room with the
gargoyles. An interesting fact about gargoyles: they are extremely irritable to
light. This gives you a good weapon against them: Instantum Illuminaris. Use it
on them, then go straight past them.
The door on the left is impossible to open, so don't worry about it. Instead,
turn the crank to open the well. Guess what? This is a wishing well. Got any
coins? Check the bag. Look at that big coin. Got a picture of a well on it, eh?
Toss that into the well. The wind means you may now jump in the well, so do so.
Here's the River Styx (yet another cliche; this game thrives on them). Perhaps the gong is a service gong. Try banging it with the mallet. That ferryman is
Charon (the game calls it Kros), for you mythology buffs. He wants a fare of one
coin, so give him one of the coins from the bag.
Almost done! This is a good time for a save; dying is none too difficult. The bladed sun looks like it would fit in one of those niches. But which one?
Remember the message in the book? "Where the sword is hung, thou shalt put the
key" or something to that effect. Stuff the bladed sun in the left hole. Now
about the staff. Recall the scroll: "Five to find, three are one." Also recall
"Three for the staff, one to be the key, and one to be thy pathway." We need to
put together some stuff, the staff being one of the three items in question.
Stick the orb and the staff together, then add the spike to that. Ta-dah! The
staff is now ready for action. Now how to get inside. "One to be thy pathway."
The only one of the five we haven't used is the horn. Blow it. Besides a few
eerie notes, you may now enter the skeleton, and have a rendezvous with your
destiny.
Oh boy. Here's the Warlock Lord, and there's the Behemoth (sounds kinda like a piece of heavy machinery, doesn't it?) Now, annihilate the Behemoth by zapping
him with the staff. Kerblam! You've saved the world from a horrible fate. Enjoy
the winning music (I preferred the music for Uninvited, but to each his own) and
the princess (the game assumes you're male-one final cliche). Also don't forget
to print out a certificate of achievement, acknowledging your heroic feat.
--
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