Shadows of Darkness: Whisking Through the Whispering Woods

Lots of screens in the game look like this.

      

I pick up the game from outside the cave. At the end of the path leading to the cave is a stone obelisk with the figure of a squid on top. Beyond the obelisk is a bonsai tree growing in the rocks. I try to reach it, but the obelisk blocks the way. I try to move the obelisk, but I'm not strong enough. I mark the location for a return visit. 

  

Moving west (the only way to go), I find myself at the edge of a swamp. My paladin's "danger sense" goes into overdrive, but as usual, I hardly need it: I can see the disembodied limbs rising from the swamp waters and grasping for me. Lights dance on the far edge like a bunch of will-o-wisps. I head north and leave the swamp for later.

        

Later, I get in some rock-throwing practice with one of the limbs.

     

Six squares of pleasant forest follow, some with babbling brooks or rolling hillsides. A hawk flies on and off screen. I pick up some rocks and flowers (just because the game will let me). My journey ends in a square with a thick tree. I can proceed no further north, so I go east. I have just enough time to note the stone wall of a town in the distance before I'm attacked by a "necrotaur," a fierce monsters with sharp claws and teeth. "Despite their appearance," the magazine Hero notes, "necrotaurs are not actually undead creatures." Undead or not, this one nearly kills me. My health bar is down to nothing when I finally strike the killing blow. I immediately use my paladin healing ability.

      

The first random combat nearly kills me.

    

Moving north, I see the town gates. I want to pause on this screen--although I could easily choose many others--to note what a wonderful job the authors did giving detailed descriptions to everything on the screen. This tradition goes back to So You Want to Be a Hero. On this particular screen, there are separate descriptive paragraphs for the stump, the trees, the town walls, the boulders that shore up the town walls, the pumpkins, the scarecrow, the corn, the bridge, the gully beneath the bridge, and the towers. I don't know that I need John Rhys-Davies narrating every word of description, but I do appreciate the text.

   

One of the many textual descriptions on this single screen.

     

I grab an ear of corn as I cross the bridge into town. The gate opens into a town square, dominated by a large rock with a staff driven into its apex. The serene theme that plays can only have something to do with Erana. I walk up and grasp the staff and hear an eerie voice in my head: "This I must first do--the sacrifice of life for one of love." I try talking to the staff, and the feminine voice elaborates: "My destiny is not yet fulfilled. One life for a death, and one death for a life." (Erana is voiced by Diane Pershing.) I like the idea that the mysterious Erana may yet have a role to play. I can't figure out anything else to do here for now, so I move east.

 

I also like that an experienced Quest for Glory player can identify Erana's influence just through visual cues.

    

I arrive in an area with a couple of quaint houses. An old man in what looks like sleeping attire is either doing calisthenics or looking for something. It turns out to be the latter. When I approach him and talk, he introduces himself as Nikolai and asks if I've seen "his" Anna. All conversation options just lead to him going on about Anna, so I soon say goodbye. Conversation in Shadows is a bit different than the last game. You can either click on yourself to "tell" the NPC something, or on the NPC to "ask" something, but you can't switch between them in the same window the way you could in Wages of War.

  

There are two doors on the screen. The left is locked, and no one comes to it when I knock. Clicking on the right brings up a little screen with six bells. Five of them play a tone in sequence--I think it's the tune the aliens play repeatedly in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I just have to ring the bells to match the tune, and the door opens. 

  

I enter a stone hallway with a tiled floor. A bust is on one wall, a painting on the other. (The bust periodically blows and pops bubblegum bubbles.) A weird device on the floor is labeled "Transcendental Receiving Animal Processor" ("be careful; that might be a TRAP," Rhys-Davies offers). A sign on a far door reads: "Dr. Cranium's Private Laboratory. Entrance by prior appointment or demonstration of superior intelligence only."

         

I recover on the floor while small antwerps bounce away.

     

I fiddle with the TRAP, which indicates that it can help me identify an animal, analyze the proper bait to use for it, and then catch it. This is nothing I have need for right now, but I take note of it. I listen at the right door and hear a bunch of "bouncing." Even though I suspect what will greet me when I open it, I do so anyway. A bunch of small antwerps jump out and knock me to the floor. "Fortunately, these were just baby antwerps," Rhys-Davies says, "so the attack wasn't fatal." The door closes, and if I try to open it again, the same thing happens. Opening the left door just notes that the room contains a rat maze, missing the rat.

  

A voice invites me to "come on in!" at the far door, but it's locked. Trying to unlock it brings up a little picture puzzle involving keys and keyholes. I can arrange the tiles into the shape of a keyhole, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

     

I presume I need a key before this will really work.

     

I go back to the TRAP. When it said it could identify an animal, I thought it meant based on some fur or scat or something. Instead, it asks questions, starting with "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" I try to get it to identify some of the monsters in the game by answering accordingly, but it just keeps quitting with silly answers. If I answer in a way consistent with baby antwerps, however, it identifies them correctly and tells me to feed them avocado. Having none, I leave.

   

The TRAP wastes my time.

   

I walk along to the north end of town. The game says I'm hungry, so I nibble at some corn, but it doesn't seem to do any good because I soon get a message that I'm starving. I thus ignore the large castle gate and abandoned building and head south to the center of town. There, I find, in a row, the burgomeister's office, a general store, and an inn. Darkness falls as I study the signs, so I enter the "small but nicely-furnished country inn." The game has me automatically pay the 15 kopeks per day requested by the portly innkeeper. As instructed, I sit down by the kitchen, and a woman shuffles out with a helping of chicken paprikash. 

    

That's pretty much the same as anywhere.

      

My stomach sated, I talk to the innkeeper in more detail. He calls himself Yuri Markarov; his wife's name is Bella; the inn is called the Hotel Mordavia, "the only place to be when darkness falls." He warns that I should always be back in town before dusk and the inn before sunset. He doesn't have much else to offer except that the local monastery has a bad reputation.

   

The mazurka that plays when you enter the inn is my favorite composition in the game so far. (I might be wrong that it's a mazurka. It feels like the right word. It could just be a waltz.) Yuri is voiced by Stu Rosen, who died a couple of years ago at age 80. 

      

A well-drawn screen. The Quest for Glory team really knows how to draw inns.

      

I move on to the three other patrons: Hans, a farmer; Ivan, an elephant herder ("unfortunately, there are no more elephants in Mordavia, so business has kind of fallen off a tad"); and Franz, a wealthy garlic grower. These characters are voiced by Neil Ross and Jess Harnell. I hope no one minds that I keep mentioning the voice actors, but this is just an incredible list of people early in their careers. None of them are exactly giving the performances of their lives, but video game acting must have been a new thing, and they were reading lines that had been written a year earlier, probably without consideration that actors would eventually read them. Anyway, the three patrons are reserved and cagey. They don't trust a stranger, nor my claims to be a hero. Eventually, I turn in for the night, have breakfast the next morning (a garlic souffle), and head out. 

   

Dmitri Ivanov, the burgomeister (voice: Gregg Berger), is leaning out his window when I exit the inn. He demands to know who I am and how I got there. I tell him my story, but he refuses to believe that the cave was even open, let alone that I could walk out alive. He also refuses to believe that I'm a prince of Shapeir. "The sooner you leave, the better for all," he says. "We certainly do not need a stranger to stir up new troubles." How different a welcome I'm receiving in Mordavia versus Spielburg, Shapeir, and Tarna! He does give me the key to the old adventurers' guild at the north end of town, long closed. he also tells me of "strangers" who moved into the old Castle Borgov.

       

This seems like the kind of guy who would ban all toys.

     

I head into the shop, which is run by a "sturdy" woman, Olga Stovich, in a rocking chair, and swarming with black cats. Olga is the most talkative NPC so far (voice by Susan Silo). She tells me that Bella, the innkeeper's wife, lost the couple's only child. There are werewolves in the area, and Olga thinks they are gypsies from a local camp. Her own husband passed away some time ago.

    

I have no idea what I'll need a hand broom for, but this is part adventure game.

     

Olga sells trail rations (sandwiches), candy, cloves of garlic, shopping bags, flasks of oil, pie pans, and small hand brooms. I buy everything, including five trail rations, five pieces of candy, and two cloves of garlic, and still have five gold crowns leftover (from a starting 15). 

   

When I return to the north end of town, there is now a stonecarver working on a headstone. His name is Igor (voice: Jeff Bennett). He makes a bunch of gravedigging jokes but otherwise doesn't have much to offer.

     

Finally! A funny gravedigger.

    

Using the burgomeister's key, I enter the old adventurers' guild. The dilapidated building has a moose head on the wall, an exercise machine, and some books on a shelf. Using the machine swiftly drains my stamina but improves my strength. (My "Communicate" and "Intelligence" attributes have also increased from the conversations.) I pick up a rope-and-grapnel set, which I assume is more useful for thieves. A case on the wall has a fine long sword, and I break the case and take it.

  

I sign the logbook "with a flourish." The logbook holds the account of a Piotyr and his battle against the cultists of the Dark One. Erana perished or disappeared in the battle, leaving her staff behind. Piotyr brought the staff back to town and planted it in the square. He then headed off to battle the remnants of the cult, and apparently never returned. 

      

The Adventurers' Guild.

      

The bookcase has copies of Hero magazine (which the game encourages me to read in full), some tips on spellcasting, a silly brochure having to do with Dr. Cranium, a book about "Talk Fu," and a manual describing how to use the stair-stepper. My "Strength" and "Magic" attributes go up.

  

Back outside, Igor warns me against walking up to the monastery, but I do so anyway and suffer my first character death when the stone octopus above the gate comes to life and strangles me with his tentacles. Fortunately, I had saved just before.

  

Having exhausted things to do in town (until I find some avocado), I return to the forest and start exploring to the west. A couple squares west and one north, I find a gate blocking the path to Castle Borgov. A gatekeeper stands in a window next to the gate. He welcomes me to Mordavia, noting how rarely they get "fresh blood" here. He introduces himself as Boris Stovich (voice: Jim Cummings), which is confusing because that would suggest he's Olga's husband, and Olga said her husband was dead. He recounts that the head of the Borgov family were the Boyars of Mordavia for centuries, but the last Borgov disappeared years ago. He says that the castle is now occupied by the "master," the master's daughter, the "foreigner," and some "strange guards." His description of the foreigner indicates that it's almost certainly Ad Avis. Anyway, he says he can't open the gate for me without orders from the master, and I can't force it or climb it right in front of him. I move on.

       

Guys, I think he might be a vampire.

      

I skirt along the western edge of the game map (further movement blocked by thick forest and rocks) until I reach a lakeside and my paladin danger sense goes off. A nude woman, her long hair strategically placed, rises out of the lake. She says she's cold and asks me to come in and "help her be warm again." This is one of those situations where you know what's going to happen, but you have to see it anyway. I enter the water, and of course she drowns me in the lake.

    

In real life, there would be 100 guys with SCUBA gear lined up here every morning.

     

Reloading, I speak to her. She introduces herself as "the Rusalka." Hero warned me about her, a "spirit of a young woman who died drowning." There is supposed to be a way to release her. I'll have to find it.

  

The borders turn east (I skip the path leading to the cave). I defeat another necrotaur, though again it nearly wipes me out. In a southern forest square, I find a strange bush with "blood-red berries and tentacle-like branches." I find that a few thrown rocks get the bush to drop some berries, but it swats me every time I try to pick them up. If I were a wizard, I'd use "fetch." The grapnel is of no help. While I'm trying to figure it out, I'm attacked by a "vorpal bunny," one of the game's dumber enemies, and kill it quickly. I vow to return to the bush when I have a solution or I'm healthier.

    

This doesn't feel like my most heroic moment.

     

Dusk starts to fall before I get to the map's eastern edge, so I head back to town. But before I get there, I find a small pond with an island in the middle. The game notes that I feel a sense of peace. That, coupled with the music, indicates that I'm in Erana's Garden. I stretch out on the grass intending to sleep until morning. But my peaceful sleep turns into a nightmare:

    

You feel the sensation of floating freely in a swirling cloud of magic. You feel as if you were suddenly totally alive. You can remember every happy moment of your past, taste every favorite sensation, hear all the colors of the universe. This is the true joy of living.

  

Suddenly, you find yourself trapped by darkness. You cannot breathe. The darkness is tearing the warmth, life, and magic from your body. Pain--the agony of lungs without air, the burning cold of a body trapped in ice, the terror of helplessness as death approaches. You float, cold and lifeless. You wake in a cold sweat. You remember every detail of the nightmare as though it had really happened to you.

    

Despite the nightmare, I awake with full health, stamina, and magic meters, so something must have gone right.

     

On the one hand, I have horrible nightmares. On the other, I wake up at sunrise fully rested. Where do I sign?

       

I find nothing else to do in Erana's Garden. The fruit tree won't even let me pick anything from it. I continue east, finding a lot of blank forest squares and dead ends as I hit the eastern border and turn north. Another vorpal bunny wastes my time. 

  

I reach a forest square that has six bushes. The mewing of a kitten comes from one shaking bush. As I approach, the mewing turns into a roar. Then a giggling voice asks: "One and one and one make three; tell me what you make of me? Reading, writing, riddling game; can you tell me what's my name?" Hero alerted me to this: a spirit of the forest with "a very mischievous nature." It's called Leshy. I answer such. The creature is disappointed and the bushes disappear. "Leshy, Leshy, riddle rhyme," the thing says. "Can you solve it every time?" Then it vanishes. I leave the screen and return, and the bushes are back. I touch them one by one, causing them to disappear, and Leshy stands up again. "If you save a plant from goo," it says, "I can help you with a clue." That plant may be the bonsai tree outside the cave, which I have a note to return to.

    

I think you're a poor substitute for a meep.

      

East of the city, I find a cemetery. I read the gravestones. One, to an "Elyssa," is probably the name of the Rusalka--it indicates that she found a "watery grave." I don't know whether her name will be enough to release her. Her "lost true love," Janos, lies in the grave beside her empty one. Other inscriptions to Ligeia Poe, Pasha Sperry, Mikhail Mehd, Arken Tenna, Kari Naishon, and Barnie Blue are simply occasions for silly poems or puns.

   

He presumably saw Dela wearing her new jersey.

        

I open a mausoleum on the right, and a body falls out, but I otherwise can't do anything. The one on the left is to the Borgov family. It is locked and won't budge.

  

As I continue to the east, I am killed by a wyvern and have to reload. I should mention that the "death' screens make fun of you in the best Quest for Glory tradition.

     

They aren't quite as helpful as in the first game, though.

     

It takes me a couple more tries to defeat him. I learn that I have to block low until he gets sick of casting fireballs, then attack high. He still nearly kills me and leaves me poisoned. I have to rest a few hours to restore stamina, which allows me to use my paladin healing ability. It eventually wears off.

A wyvern blasts me with a fireball.

      

I still haven't decided if I like the new combat system. The timing of attacks and parries seems to matter a lot more than in the previous games, but the enemies are so fast that it's hard to actually react to their movements. I'm eager to try it with a wizard and his arsenal of spells.

    

In the northeast corner of the map, I reach a gypsy camp. A man comes out of a wagon as wolves crowd around me. He orders me to leave, threatens me with the wolves, and refuses to answer any of my questions. I try to offer him various things, but nothing works. Eventually, I turn and leave.

   

No one's got a swell cleft in his chin like this gypsy.

     

With that, I seem to have explored the entire outdoor area. It's no bigger than Spielburg. I've annotated a number of puzzles. There are a few things on my list to try next:

   

• Return to town and speak to everyone again. Maybe the things I've seen will open up new dialogue options.

• Re-explore the wilderness at night. Sometimes there are different encounters at night.

• Return to the woman in the lake and see if I can get anywhere with her name or her lover's.

• See if I'm strong enough now to push over the monolith guarding the bonsai tree, which may allow me to get Leshy's hint.

• Try to climb or force the castle gates at night.

• Try to get the berries from the bush while at full health so at least it won't kill me.

      

My map of the game so far.

     

I don't think I need any hints just yet. I always like this part of the game, once I've established the basic lay of the land and can focus on solving puzzles.

  

Time so far: 5 hours