Literature / Legend of the Shadow Warriors

Trick or Treat?

"Shadow Warriors
On streets infernal,
riding even faster
Uprooting tree and breaking stone,
Searching for their Master"

Legend of the Shadow Warriors is the 44^th entry on the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks, and the second book from Stephen Hand.

Gallantaria, once a prosperous province, has been ravaged by war against its neighbouring countries. You are a mercenary and a veteran of said wars, now looking for a new job in Royal Lendle, the capital, when you're approached in an Inn by some scared farmers from the distant village of Karnstein. According to them, the five dreaded Shadow Warriors, thought to be nothing but a legend, have appeared and have attacked the village multiple times. Thinking of an hoax, you decided to lend them your help. However, you're about to discover that the Shadow Warriors are far from being a legend, and your quest will soon become vital in order to stop the five infernal riders and their master, the Voivod, from unleashing endless pain and death over Gallantaria and Titan.

Legend of the Shadow Warriors combines Hand's typical immersive atmosphere and unique character to the more traditional styles of Jackson and Livingstone: this time you lack special skills like in Dead of Night or Moonrunner and so are more dependent on items which may prove useful or not, sometimes more than once. You can also choose two different paths, each with his uniques encounters and events, which allows you to replay the book in a different way. Also remembered for its surprisingly deep and touching finale.

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Legend of the Shadow Warriors provides examples of:

• Achilles' Heel:
  • You can kill Haggworths by aiming for their big heads.
  • Shadow Warriors can be permanently killed if you remove their masks after defeating them.
• Anti-Frustration Features: You can choose between two possible paths, but both of them, while not easy, give you the chance to find the necessary MacGuffin needed to end the game.
• Armor Is Useless: Zigzagged: you can wear different types of armor to decrease part of the damage you receive in combat, but can only take a limited number of blows before breaking into pieces. Also, some enemies (like the Shadow Warriors) may have armor-ignoring attacks.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Pan-Terric Behemoth is a colossal skeleton monster that can influence other people around it and drive them mad. If you join Guignol's expedition you must face and destroy the monster.
• Big Bad: The Voivod, master of the five Shadow Warriors and ultimate threat to the land.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Kauderwelsch" is German for "gibberish".
• Bazaar of the Bizarre: At the start of the book you have the option of visiting a market selling fairly standard adventuring gear, and another one selling more unique and magical stuff.
• Blob Monster: If you run away from the guards in Royal Lendle's sewer system you're cornered by a disgustingly mutated magical sludge.
• Boss Rush: The final battle has you rush past a field of rising zombies, take on the remaining Shadow Warriors one after the other and duel their lord, the Voivod.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • The Pan-Terric Behemoth can influence people even as it's struck in the rock and turn them into dangerous maniacs, which happens to Guignol the archeologist.
  • The Man-Orc assassin in the Burning Balrog Inn has turned some of your old friends against you.
• Came Back Strong: Urtha is a dead Vampire who was resurrected by the forces of the wild as an even stronger, Nigh-Invulnerable Wampyre.
• Chekhov's Gun: Most of the items you can buy in Royal Lendle, sometimes they can even be Chekhov's Boomerang if they are required more than once.
• Circus of Fear: The Circus of Dreams is actually composed of Mandrakes, who infiltrates even more Mandrakes in every place they visit.
• Co-Dragons: The five Shadow Warriors to their master, the Voivod.
• Continuity Nod: Your adventure starts again in Royal Lendle, just like in Hand's former book Dead of Night
• Cool Mask: Each Shadow Warrior wear a golden-plated mask. Removing it is the only way to make sure that the Warrior is Deader than Dead.
• Covers Always Lie: The ominous figures on the cover are not the Shadows Warriors, and are not related to them in any way.
• Doomed Hometown: Not for you, anyway, by the time you reach Karnstein the Shadow Warriors have killed everyone.
• Elemental Embodiment: It's revealed that Haggworths are the embodiment of Nature's wrath against humanity.
• Enemy Civil War: In the mountains you can run afoul of some Orcish tribes feuding with each other, and they may drag you in.
• The Fair Folk: Your enigmatic allies in the form of Druids, Jack-in-the-Green and the Horned God himself, who wants to stop the Voivod.
• Fighting Your Friend: Minor example, if you visit the hermit Hammicus, he will be visited by an envoy of the Voivod impersonating his long-dead son, and you have to fight (non-lethally) Hammicus to keep him from opening the door.
• Flechette Storm: The Murderous Orb is an assassin weapon which breaks upon impact and releases a stream of blades and spikes around.
• Forced Transformation: The woman ranting against the wizards in Royal Lendle is turned into a frog by a well-aimed magic bolt.
• Foregone Conclusion: Your first encounter with the Shadow Warriors themselves. A hardened mercenary you are, but you're still no match for five immortal heralds of doom. The book gives you a few chances to realize what a bad idea fighting them would be, but if you insist, you're immediately overwhelmed.
• Frankenstein Monster: Doktor Kauderwelsch is working on one, aptly named the Kauderwelsch Monster. She wants to add your brain to the equation.
• Gaia's Vengeance: The Haggsworth were caused by the anger of nature against humans, so they're not actually evil. The Wampyre controlling them on the other hand...
• Heel–Face Turn: Infusing the force of life in the Voivod result in him being reborn as the good, peaceful man he once was.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: You can turn the Wampyre's Haggworths against her if you take her amulet. Also, Doktor Kauderwelsch meets her end in a fire started by her monster.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The first time you meet the Shadow Warriors they're five, on horse, against you alone: the advisable action is to run away, which means that only one of them will fight you. Also the Voivod, if you failed to use the Spear against him.
• I'm Melting!: What happens to the Shadow Warriors when they die for real.
• Kill and Replace: Mandrakes do this, killing people and taking their shape. If unchecked they can do this to whole towns.
• Kill It with Fire: Mandrakes turn back into pods and revive after being killed, so the only permanently way to deal with them is fire. A whole town infested by them meet its end in a fiery inferno to destroy the replicants.
• Luck-Based Mission: Navigating the darkened maze of the Master of Nightmares under the mountains. You have no way to know which way is right, and you may die if you walk in the wrong direction at the wrong time.
• MacGuffin: You need to find and obtain the Spear of Doom and the Astrakkaan Numeris in order to fight the Voivod and know where to find him.
• Mad Scientist: Doktor Kauderwelsch made serveral inhuman experiments to achieve immortality, but she's slowly becoming a reptilian-woman due to a failed experiment. Currently, she's trying to transfer her mind in her Monster to avoid death.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: You can unmask Mandrakes by looking at their reflection in a mirror.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The dreaded Kandali monster kept by the Dark Elves cult. He's so skilled that chaining two of his hands together barely slows him down. If you chain its feet together on the other hand...
• Nemean Skinning: Smegg the Goblin wears the pelt of a skinned Giant Spider as his only clothing.
• No-Sell:
  • Urtha the Wampyre is immune to all traditional vampire-slaying methods and weaknesses.
  • The Dark Elves' temple also hides a magical amulet that nullifies the Shadow Warrior's unique powers.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Taking too long to reach Karnstein, being unable to locate the Voivod and killing the Voivod triggers one where the forces of Death advance on the world of the living.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Wampyres are revenant Vampires fueled by the forces of Nature, and immune to conventional vampire weaknesses. However, they can be killed by the same source of energy that gave them un-life.
• Plant People: Mandrakes, who impersonate people after killing them, and Haggworths, pumpking-headed servants of Mother Nature.
• Pumpkin Person: The Haggworths, as shown on the front cover.
• Puzzle Boss: To defeat the Voivod you have to unleash the life-giving surges of the Spear of Doom in him until he's fully brought back to life.
• Race Against the Clock: You must get to Karnstein in time, though how much time is expired is determinated by a couple of encounters and by which route you took (for example, travelling with the Circus of Dreams lets you gain some time). If you waste too much time, you lose.
• Random Encounters: Whenever you're faced by a Shadow Warrior, you must roll your dice to see which one of the five you meet.
• Recurring Boss: The Shadow Warriors, though you fight them one at the time and so they're not always the same.
• Religion of Evil: The demonic cult of Dark Elves under the mountains.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Doktor Kauderwelsch tampered with lizard material in her experiments and now her skin hides patches of growing scaly hide which is taking over her body.
• Revive Kills Zombie: How you defeat the Voivod for real and end the game.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: One of the speakers in Royal Lendle is secretly an agent of Chaos who's trying to charm the crowd and urge it to revolt. If you kill him, the city guards chasing you will be grateful and let you go.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Voivod was one, and also the Pan-Terric Behemoth, a gigantic undead fossil who's being brought to light by some archeologists.
• Skyward Scream: You, if you kill the Voivod and realize that its demise won't stop the hordes of undead he's been summoning.
• Shout-Out:
  • Plentiful: for starters, the titular Shadow Warriors looks incredibly similar to the villains from The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.
  • The village of Karnstein is named after the surname of the titular vampire in Carmilla.
  • You can enter the "Burning Balrog Inn" in Royal Lendle.
  • Doktor Kauderwelsch is an obvious expy of good old Doktor Frankenstein.
  • Smegg bares a notable resemblance to Smeagol.
• Somewhere, an Entomologist Is Crying: Even in a fantasy setting, a spider-pelt sounds a bit implausible, considering that spiders, technically, don't have a "fur" as mammals do.
• Spikes of Villainy: The Voivod wears a spiked armor, especially on his only weapon: his gauntlets.
• Taken for Granite: If you took the Circus of Dream path, at one point you have to venture into a cavern where a Gorgon was revived. This can happen to you or to her if you brought a mirror.
• Tears of Joy: The resurrected Voivod, crying streams of tears over the simple joy of being alive again.
• Tempting Fate: The young woman publicy ranting against the wizards of Royal Lendle may be a victim of Disproportionate Retribution, but had it coming.
• Tin Tyrant: The Voivod is clad from head to toe in a steel armour, kinda like Lord Mortis before him.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Urtha the Wampyre will give you a chance at killing her, knowing very well that she's almost immortal. One of the action you can perform is asking for her amulet, which actually does destroy her as the uncontrolled Haggworths toss her in her own hearth.
  • Trusting Smegg the Goblin can only end in tears...
• Undeath Always Ends: For both the Shadow Warriors and the Voivod, who's resurrected by the Spear of Doom, releasing him from the grasp of Death.
• Violence is the Only Option: Averted, at one point Jack-in-the-Green tells you that violence is not an answer. In fact, the best way to deal with Urtha is to use your wits and killing the Voivod won't stop the ritual from summoning endless zombies from the ancient battlefield.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Each of the Five Shadow Warriors has a different weapon with different bonuses:
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: The First Shadow Warrior is unarmed, but uses martial arts to strike twice in a round.
  • Psycho Knife Nut: The Second Shadow Warrior carries a bandolier of throwing daggers: at the start of each round of combat he tosses one at you, potentially damaging you further.
  • Dual Wielding: The Third Shadow Warrior wields two broadswords with deadly precision, dealing twice the damage.
  • Epic Flail: The Fourth Shadow Warrior is armed with a massive, multi-headed morningstar which can either disarm you or deal absurd damage on the first round of combat.
  • Poisoned Weapon: The Fifth Shadow Warrior is armed with throwing stars and opens the combat by throwing a highly-poisoned one at you, which results in an One-Hit Kill if you fail a Luck roll.
• What Have I Become?: You can defeat the Kauderwelsch Monster by showing him a mirror: realizing the true extent of her experiments and remembering his old life, the monster will go crazy and start a fire which will destroy Kauderwelsch and her tower.
• When Trees Attack: At one point, as a violent storm rages, you can run into a living, pissed-off tree.
• Zombie Apocalypse: What the Voivod has in mind, and the result of a Non-Standard Game Over.

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