Shareella, best known as the Snow Witch, is the primary antagonist of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Caverns of the Snow Witch. She is a highly powerful vampire witch aiming to bring a new Ice Age over the continent of Allansia. Shareella is the most famous among the - few - villainesses of the series, due to the two confrontations against her and her death at the middle of the story, with breaking her Death Spell as the final task of the game.
Background[]
In Caverns of the Snow Witch, the witch is only referred to by her title. Like many villains of the series, her name and her background were revealed in guidebooks such as Out of the Pit or Titan-The Fighting Fantasy World.
Shareella was born in the city of Zengis in Allansia, the most featured continent of the world of Titan. Zengis is famous for having the biggest religious activity in the entire Allansia, and like everyone else here, she was raised to assume a spiritual role. In Shareella's case, she was chosen to become a mage.
Shareella was at first a particularly talented student, until the fated day when she was ordered to travel in the snowy heights of the Icefinger Mountains for her training. There, she ventured in a valley where she found a huge statue of ice representing a demon, or so it seemed.
In fact, there was no statue but an actual Ice Demon, who corrupted her. In the following years, the demon taught Shareella Dark Magic and Necromancy, completing her corruption until redemption was no longer possible.
Now the evil Snow Witch, Shareella took command of the tribes of orcs, goblins and evil creatures that worshipped the Ice Demon, and had them dig the Crystal Caverns, her base of operations. She later began sending them to kidnap people from the nearby towns to be her slaves, binding them to her will with bewitched collars.
At some point, Shareella relinquished her humanity and became a vampire, becoming immortal and further increasing her already great magical powers.
She spent many years gathering her forces and honing her skills, with the ultimate goal to cast a new Ice Age over Allansia, (and possibly the entire world of Titan) where she would rule as an empress and where the Ice Demons would dwell freely. To that end, she recruited many powerful followers, including a morally dubious mercenary named Jamut Mantrapper, and an Illusionist Mage.
About the Snow Witch[]
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A close up on the Snow Witch's face.
The Snow Witch is unsurprisingly a formidable spellcaster, with exceptional powers and mastery of Ice Magic, much mightier than the Ice Demon who corrupted her. She controls ice, snow and winter, she can cause hailstorms and blizzards at will, and almost every cold-dwelling creature (found in great numbers in the Icefinger Mountains) such as the dangerous Yeti obey her.
She is one of the most powerful evil mages of the series, on par or even higher than Oldoran Zagor, Balthus Dire, Zharradan Marr and Zanbar Bone, to the point that fighting her directly is not an option. She is enormously skilled in Dark Magic, as evidenced by her mastery of the dreadful Death Spell, the magical creatures she created and the collars of enslavement she crafted. (She can monitor, torture or kill any of her slaves through the collar.) She is also skilled in Necromancy, being able to raise undeads and to create zombie clones of her slaves.
She can summon supernatural beings and spirits, cast illusion magic to cloak the entrance of her lair or make acid look like water, animate statues of carved quartz into powerful crystal warriors or turn a small statuette into a metal soldier, turn a mere rat into a mighty ice-breathing White Dragon, and fire lightning bolts or energy blasts potent enough to kill a well-built man in one shot, among others.
Being a vampire, the Snow Witch must rest all day in her coffin and feed on blood, but has the great physical strength and hypnotizing gaze of such beings. Should her body be destroyed, she bewitched a crystal orb which would house her spirit, and which can only be destroyed through a magical mean.
A skimpier depiction of the Snow Witch.
Shareella was once a wise and lawful young woman, if too curious for her (and Allansia's) own good. Alas, she is now malevolent, ambitious and viciously sadistic, but collected, poised, well-spoken, sarcastic and twistedly playful. She loves torturing people, physically or through foul mind games.
She is also overconfident, as she enjoys playing life-threatening games against her foes and enjoys those game too much to back down from a challenge, putting herself at risk for she cannot conceive losing, eventually proving her undoing.
The Snow Witch is still associated with the Ice Demon who corrupted her, who is worshipped by her armies and watches over her domains while she rests. While she is now much more powerful than him, and clearly in charge, it is unclear whether or not he now obeys her. He might be an emissary of the Demon Princes of Titan she likely worships.
Still, it can be guessed that they merely work together towards a common goal. The Snow Witch wanting to rule the continent and the demon wanting to take a territory from the Gods' influence for his kind to dwell.
Caverns of the Snow Witch[]
The playable character starts working for the rich merchant Big Jim Sun, escorting and protecting his horse-drawn carts. The story begins when Big Jim offers them 50 gold coins if they kill the yeti that slaughtered his business partners.
So starts the hero's journey in the Icefinger Mountains, following the monster's tracks. The powerful yeti has 11 in skill (power level) and 12 in stamina (life-points), but it can be wounded, and weakened, with a spear. After slaying it, the hero meets a dying man named Harlak Erlisson, who tells them about the Crystal Caves he just escaped at the cost of his life, the dreadful Snow Witch, and the enormous treasure she ransacked. Motivated by both sense of duty and greed, the hero resolves to put an end to her threat.
When sneaking into the Crystal Caves, after unveiling the spell hiding their entrance thanks to Harlak's indications, the hero witnesses the Witch's army and the countless slaves compelled to work for her. Should they get caught, the monsters put a collar of enslavement on them, ending their quest.
The hero must compliment the witch's Minstrel on his music to get healed, or else he paralyzes them with a magic tune and puts a slave collar on them. There are also many monsters that must be fought, including a powerful Air Elemental that can only be banished with a magic incantation, a powerful, demonic night stalker with 11 in skill and 8 in stamina, and none other than the Ice Demon who corrupted Shareella in the first place.
- Surprisingly enough, the Ice Demon is weaker than other monsters, but he remains a dangerous enemy with 9 in skill and 11 in stamina, who can deal additional damage with his icy breath.
The White Dragon
Then, the hero must defeat the tricky Illusionist who guards the Snow Witch's inner sanctum, whose power source is the prism he is holding. Upon reaching the Snow Witch's vault, they must face her powerful Crystal Warriors, and her pet rat that turns into a mighty White Dragon.
- The Illusionist conjures two images of himself and strikes with a dagger. If the hero attacks an image he stabs them, costing 2 stamina points. They must attack the illusionist on the right and immediately shatter his prism, lest he breaks their sword. He then flees, and a Genie emerges from the Crystal, granting them invisibility for one occasion.
- The Crystal Warrior is a powerful enemy with 11 in skill and 13 in stamina, immune to swords. The hero needs a mace to destroy it, or to turn invisible thanks to the Genie, in order to live.
- The White Dragon has 12 in skill (the maximum available) 14 in stamina, and attacks with its claws and an ice breath which can cost 3 additional damage, making it the most dangerous enemy of the game. The fight can be avoided by dispelling the transformation with ground minotaur horn, and the ice breath can be countered with a gold ring.
Confronting the Snow Witch[]
Like Zanbar Bone before her, the Snow Witch is one of the few Fighting Fantasy villains not defeated in an actual battle. She rises from her tomb and tries to hypnotize the hero, who must overcome it by wearing garlic or winning a test of skill. The hero needs an ornate stake to kill her, lest she turns them to her vampire slave. Then, they need at least 10 in skill to pierce the Witch in the heart and destroy her, lest she pries the stake off their hands and vampirizes them.
Escaping the Crystal Caves[]
Having slain the Snow Witch, the hero has to escape the Crystal Caves, while tracked down by all her angry minions. They eventually find her treasure chest, guarded by a statuette that turns into an animated metal warrior.
- The Sentinel guarding the treasure is a dangerous enemy with 9 in skill and 9 in stamina, but it fortunately lacks additional powers.
The hero can abandon stuff to store a fortune in gold coins. Next, they can choose between continuing the adventure or escaping back to Big Jim Sun's caravan to claim the reward, without knowing that the threat is not over.
If they press on, they befriend two former slaves still sporting the collar, the elf Redswift and the dwarf Stubble. In their escape, the three come across the crystal orb housing Shareella's spirit. Even with her undead body destroyed, the Snow Witch is still alive and as dangerous as ever.
Second Confrontation[]
Shareella's crystal orb.
The hero must test their skill to knock down her orb with a sling, then test their luck to avoid her energy blast. Even when unlucky, they survive if they have over 10 stamina points left, but lose 4 stamina points and 1 skill point and have to try again. Fleeing or attacking only leads to a painful demise.
As the Witch is torturing their friends through their collars, the hero angrily challenges her and she accepts. She creates two zombie clones of Redswift and Stubb who must be taken down, but they are fortunately quite weak. This being done, she starts a game of discs. If the hero lacks discs or loses the game, she kills them with a bolt of lightning.
Each disk sports a figure (star, square, and circle), with one beating another in a Rock-Paper-Scissors-like fashion. The hero hides a disc and the Witch will name a figure. If they hide the figure that beats her own, she dies. If they hide the figure she names, the turn is void but she makes the second turn harder, killing them if they do not hide the figure that beats her own. She first names Circle so Square must be hidden, and second names Star so Circle must be hidden. If the hero wins, the orb shatters alongside the Witch's evil spirit, destroying her once and for all.
The Death Spell[]
With the Snow Witch dead and gone, the three friends return to the warmer regions of central Allansia. When they come near Stubb's dwarven village of Stonebridge, they discover that King Gillibran's magic hammer has been stolen, and that without it the village is threatened by the nearby troll tribes. Stubb then bids farewell to his friends and takes part in the search.
Unfortunately, the hero and Redswift find out shortly after that they are victims of a Death Spell cast by the Snow Witch. Their strength and life-force itself are gradually fading, leaving them little time to time to find a cure. The only one who can help is the legendary Healer, who lives as a recluse after he got badly cursed by powerful necromancers, for saving his friend the legendary wizard Arakor Nicodemus from the same Death Spell. (The Healer is in fact be Pen Ty Kora, one of the mightiest and most benevolent mages of Titan, like Nicodemus and Gereth Yaztromo with whom he learnt magic.)
The more the story progresses the more the two friends' strength decreases, and if without drinking the life-potion taken from a dark elf they had to fight, the game is lost. Alas, there was not enough potion for Redswift, and nothing can prevent his demise.
Upon encountering the Healer, the hero must accomplish a long ritual to undo the curse, including many trials, such as an encounter with a Banshee who predicts their death, which is fought if they listen to her.
- The Banshee is a very powerful undead with 12 in skill and 12 in stamina. If you have dragon eggs, the Healer can make a calming draught that will make you ignore her.
Then, the hero must climb their way towards the summit of Firetop Mountain (the infamous hideout of the dreaded warlock Zagor, who was slain some time ago by an adventurer), so as to watch the sunrise surrounded by the red plants growing there, to complete the ritual. If the hero has a silver item, the Healer can summon a Pegasus to take them to the summit, and help them avoid a very arduous climbing. There, they must not fall asleep to watch, or else they miss the sunrise and die.
After being relieved of the curse by the Healer and his powerful Phoenix, the hero decides to venture towards Stonebridge to see Stubb again and help his people. After all, they are now more than rich enough to do whatever they please. And they have many other adventures to live.
Trivia[]
- The fact that the magical hammer of the king of Stonebridge is lost and must be retrieved is the plotline of the gamebook Forest of Doom, which was continued by the gamebook Temple of Terror. In spite of having been written later, this gamebook is thus the first part of a trilogy of the author Ian Livingstone, consisting of Caverns of the Snow Witch, Forest of Doom and Temple of Terror.
External Links[]
- Shareella's page on Titannica the Fighting Fantasy Wiki: http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Shareella.
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 Villains
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Dark Gods Demon Princes of Titan Allansia Khul Old World Others | ||