Shadow Hands (Game)

## Premise

As aphotic creatures known as Shadow Demons begin to fill the halls of the Losaffi Castle, the King's son, Quint, and his friends, become the Shadow Hands to investigate their presence and unravel a dark mystery which may threaten the kingdom.

## Synopsis

A green-haired man clad in a blue suit approaches Quint with a pair of dark figures with ruby-red eyes to threaten his life. As Quint is about to be struck by the beings, he is awoken by his blue-tailed friend Leaf in his house who informs him that the King's daily meeting is about to start.They exit Quint's house and make their way around to botany that lines the gardens before stumbling upon a living mass of tangled vines plastered with spikes. The Spike Vine Monster assaults Leaf and Quint, trapping Leaf in a hole. Leaf tosses up Quint's sword for him to slay the beast and he does.

Now late for the meeting, the two friends rush inside the Great Losaffi Castle. Leaf climbs ahead and Quint witnesses the dark monster from his nightmare float by the hall. Without time to think about what he's seen, he arrives at the meeting where King Gomo Pallitax resigns from the crown after 14 years. Quint's father, Mouse, is assigned as the new King once more which makes Quint the Defender of the Royal Gardens. Leaf's brother Gard will begin tutoring and training Quint first thing in the morning.

On his way home, Quint finds another dark being stalking the Royal Gardens which he hides from inside his house. Night passes and Gard arrives to collect him in the morning. He teaches the young defender how to properly wield his sword on spike vines, use the magic book to provide contextual answers to situations, and how to shoot a crossbow. After a long day's training, Gard provides one last task in which he is to battle with Quint with the use of several weapons he's equipped a poisonous tree with. The two skirmish before Quint captured a barrage of daggers in his magical tome and fans them back at Gard defeating him. Gard dismissed him and Quint departs for the castle where he meets up with Leaf and his friend Grimlock.

They ask him to join their secret group called the Shadow Hands which are investigating the appearance of the Shadow Demons which Leaf sites as existing due to the interference of an evil cult that's attempting to summon an old king. Quint is accosted more aggressively by a Shadow Demon when he retreats back to his home in the vespertine. Upon awaking the following morning, he joins Gard once more for another round of training. Gard leads Quint through a maze of spike vines and begins his lesson within the castle walls.

In a long hall, a Shadow Demon glides by and Leaf shoots it with a magic orb he conjures, destroying it. Gard compliments his brother and asks if he wants to join the Royal Garden Guards. Grimlock refuses for Leaf and tells him to butt out. Quint and Gard continue their path through the castle and Quint bears witness to a man named Vlix torturing a victim in the torture chambers to death asking for information on the Shadow Hands.Quint parts and follows Gard to a hallway where a Shadow Demon suddenly emerges and grasps Gard. In order to kill the monster, Leaf is forced to blast both it and his brother with magic which kills them both.

A funeral is held promptly where the inhabitants of Losaffi pay their respects. Vlix sneers at the gathering and remarks that Gard's body should be used for dark arts instead of being buried. Leaf becomes agitated and confronts Vlix ending in Vlix being punches to the floor after announcing that he's just waiting for King Mouse and Celios, the first in line to be king, to die so he can be king. A Shadow Demon rises from the grave shockingly and Leaf, Grimlock, and Quint abscond for an impromptu meeting.

The Shadow Hands decide to split up and search the torture chambers, the royal garden, and the bell tower for clues. Quint is tasked with the investigation of the bell tower and leaves for the castle. Quint finds the castle defiled with odious graffiti wishing death on the Shadow Hands that stretches from the main gate all the way to the bell tower itself. Along the path, Quint is met by a new type of Shadow Demon that appears as a massive eyeball trailed with tendrils of darkness which rushes towards Quint as he manages to escape. After twelve chimes of the bell, a comet emerges and launches itself towards the royal gardens.

Quint regroups with the group as they survey the damage. Quint's house is destroyed as is Gard's grave. They discover a hidden crypt below the dirt where they are encountered by several Shadow Demons, one which eats Gard's rotting corpse. They fend off the demons and make their way further down the crypt and stumble upon Vlix who summons the old king Count Morti through a dark ritual between worlds. Count Morti recognizes Quint as "King Mouse" and is corrected that this is his son. He smirks and believes he can get his revenge at long last on King Mouse. Vlix tasks Count Morti with the murders of Celios and King Mouse so he can become king of Losaffi. The Shadow Hands disperse and admonish the inhabitants of Losaffi to evacuate the kingdom. They do so and name the large travel group "The Shadow Hands".

The party make their way to The Floating Kingdoms and pass through a lethiferous forest known as the Dark Woods which is suffused with purple poison clouds. Some casualties are had in the trek and Leaf becomes delirious and chases after the ghost of his brother, succumbing to the poison. Celios places Leaf in a healing pool of water and Quint meets up with his father in a nearby house. King Mouse pleas with a long lost friend named Oiram who was turned into a zombie long ago. The zombie follows them out of the house and is revived into his former self upon touching the waters of Mystical Water Lake, which also cleanses Leaf, and the group advances into the bleak stretches of The Mire. On the edge between the dark woods and the Mire, Gomo pursues a mirage of his dead brother Arch and is lost to the madness of the forest.

Quickly in the distasteful environment of The Mire, a Losaffian is shot in the neck by a poison dart and dies. A squalid man named Reed with the Dark Mark on his sullied armor emerges and offers the traveling group passage across the dangerous landscape. They pay him and follow his lead. In the night, Quint has a nightmare where Count Morti captures him and is about to kill him before Leaf wakes him up with urgency as the group has been disbanded and only Grimlock, himself, and Quint remain.

On their pursuit to find the rest of the gang, Quint is accosted by a large worm creature which battles him intensely before being defeating as Quint pushes his sword through the monster's eyes. Quint finds Reed as he decapitates as Losaffian. Reed then confronts Quint before making a deal with him for his father, King Mouse, to guarantee him a job back in the Floating Kingdoms when they arrive. He promises as such and the rest of the group reunite and press on to the Floating Kingdoms.

The group is met by a guard of the Floating Kingdoms and the leader, who is the counterpart to Vlix, Knil. Knil allows them access to Floating Kingdoms after warning of what Vlix has been up to. King Mouse and Quint are assured their safety in the kingdoms when Knil shows them the elemental cables which keep the floating city from flying away. To destroy them, one would need to know spells of each of the elements, which King Mouse says Vlix knows, but Knil affirms that Vlix would never be able to make it here and take on the kingdom's guards.

They ride the elevator up into the kingdom and are shown around briefly before Quint meets up with the rest of the group in Knil's tower. Knil is affronted with terrible news that Vlix has arrives with an army of Shadow Demons. This is confirmed as an explosion shakes the tower and Grimlock's blood splattered body streaks crimson across the porcelain floor. Grimlock dies and with his last words wishes the Shadow Hands luck in the war to come.

## Main Characters

### Quint

Son of the newly crowned King Mouse, he is the Defender of the Royal Guards and apprentice to Gard. He joins Leaf and his friend Grimlock in a secret group called Shadow Hands in order to sleuth the mystery of the dark demons appearing around the castle.

### Leaf

Best friend to Quint and a powerful wizard. He and his friend Grimlock create the Shadow Hands.

### Grimlock

Friend to Leaf and co-founder of The Shadow Hands. He has a brash and playful personality and contributes actively to the group.

### Gard

Leaf's brother and warrior of the Royal Garden Guards. He becomes Quint's mentor when it comes to combat and dies when caught off-guard by a Shadow Demon which results in Leaf having to fatally blast him with magic along with the demon.

### Vlix

A dark sorcerer who is second in line to be king behind Celios. He takes part in creating a dark ritual which opens a gate allowing Count Morti access into his world. He plots to kill King Mouse and Celios to become King of Losaffi and has a huge part in the summoning of the Shadow Demons.

## Trivia

* Shadow Hands was the first game to have more of an idea of what it will be about and how it will be structured instead of flying into it idea after idea.
* Leaf's left eyebrow is famously slanted.
* Gard's original appearance in the throne room has been edited in later panels as his crotch guard was a bit too much of a crotch.
* Reed Head-Taker is a reference to "Screed Toe-Taker" from The Edge Chronicles as is the Floating Kingdoms a reference to "Sanctaphrax" which was also a floating, magical kingdom in the series.
* Sort of a design error, Quint was said to look like a mouse, similarly to his father King Mouse, but is actually some type of large man-child as seen in Darkest Night. Count Morti remarks that he looks shockingly similar to his father.
* This game offered the first freely explorable environment with the Great Losaffi Castle's halls at certain sections of the adventure.
* This game introduces fighting mechanics with the Sword, Magic Book, and Crossbow. This would become popularized in every future game of Onni's.
* Vlix can be considered the main antagonist of the entire Powerpoint series considering his number of appearances and events associated with him in other games as well.
* The original idea for Shadow Hands was to take place entirely in the castle's grounds as to unravel the mystery and threat of the Shadow Demons with a mostly fully explorable environment.
* This game was considered one of the lesser ones although an extremely important game which led to the much more enjoyed Raining Ashes along with several other popularized factors down the line, such as the combat system it introduced and Vlix's character.