Moonrunner is the 48th book of the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks and the last one penned by Stephen Hand, after Dead of Night and Legend of the Shadow Warriors.
The War of the Four Kingdoms which has plagued Gallantaria is now over, but most of the generals and masterminds involved in this bloody conflict have escaped their punishment and went into hiding. Among them there's the uncanningly dangerous Karam Gruul, Inquisitor General of Bricia and a genius master of crime, who seemingly died during the war. However, the diabolical inquisitor faked his demise and, like many other criminals, escaped to the wretched town of Blackhaven in the "Badlands", where he's plotting something. It's up to an incredibly skilled and resourceful bounty hunter like you to reach the city, capture Gruul and make sure he's brought to justice. Armed with your sword, wits and knowledge of magic, you'll have to face supernatural threats, dangerous maniacs and the threat of the Cabal to get at Karam Gruul and make sure he pays for his crimes.
With Moonrunner, Hand returns to a gameplay closer to Dead of Night, which means that the player has to rely more on his actual skills and talents rather than only on items he can find, and once again the game features multiple paths and side-quests to victory. The atmosphere of the game is this time a mix of Hand's fantasy/gothic horror pastiche and investigation series, with plentiful of quotes and nods to various popular characters and situations along the way in this urban adventure.
Moonrunner provides examples of:
- Action Dad: At the very end it's revealed that the player character has a family waiting for him at home.
- Actually a Doombot: The first time you face "Karam Gruul" he's actually a trapped puppet. The second time it's a Mandrake taking his appearence.
- The Atoner: You. You were the Moonrunner, Gruul's personal beast-like servant, but freed yourself from his grasp and regained your humanity. This quest is your way to make amends for that past.
- Bedlam House: You can investigate into one, either by forging a document or by disguising yourself as a warden. Unfortunately the owner, Doktor Welsch, secretly dissects the inmates for his secret project.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Mister Hogg and Mister Kilmarney may look and sounds like Abbot and Costello, but are more than willing to backstab you at the first chance and sell your corpse to the highest bidder.
- Big Bad: Karam Gruul, Inquisitor General of Bricia and diabolical leader of the Cabal of the Werewolf.
- Black Magic: Specifically, a form known as "Notura", which Karam Gruul has studied, described as a "perverse mixture of magic, alchemy and physiology." Its hexes can be repelled with magical amulets.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: In the Non-Standard Game Over, Karam Gruul manages to put you back under mind control as his faithful Moonrunner.
- Buried Alive: Argolis the immortal demon was imprisoned this way. If you release her but don't destroy her permanently the magic chain does this to you instead.
- Bystander Syndrome: Averted in the Waxhouse — upon defeating Conrad, you can make your escape because the crowd gathered there rushes at the revenant assassin before he can stand up again.
- Call-Back: The story is once again settled in Gallantaria and Mandrakes reappear. There's also Doktor Kauderwelsch's son in town, who mentions how his mother died in a mysterious fire (as seen in Legend of the Shadow Warriors).
- The Cavalry: During the fight against Kauderwelsch's Monster (Mother), after some time the other inmates will break the door and storm the monster, tearing him apart. After capturing Gruul, a division of Gallantarian soldiers will attack Hope's End, but you're not forced to help them out.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Invoked with the skill "Combat", which allows you to fight better against multiple enemies and attack each opponent in battle.
- Cool Old Lady: Doctor Van Heldenghast has a great knowledge of Notura and talismans, but can also duel you with a swordstick if you are foolish enough to attack her.
- Covers Always Lie: While the book does feature a burning mill, the Obsidian Predator pictured above is not fought there, but at an old stone circle.
- Crazy-Prepared: Karam Gruul took myriad precautions for his evil plan, laying traps and obstacles everywhere just for your arrival and using a body double mandrake to direct his minions while he safely waits behind the scenes.
- Death by Materialism: After defeating the Corpse Master, going after the alluring treasure chest in the backstage will cause you to die when the place is engulfed by fire.
- Diabolical Mastermind: Karam Gruul, who is more of a menacing offscreen prescence orchestrating events compared to the usual villains of the series. Even the final confrontation is entirely a matter of which precautions you have taken, rather than the traditional swordfight.
- The Dragon: The Magus Radu is one to his master Gruul.
- Eldritch Abomination: Minor examples with The Shocker and the Ectoplasmic Lurker: both are incredibly grotesque and horrifying creatures (the former is so horrifying you cannot even distinguish its features). Those examples are "minor" since while monstrous you can still fight them on equal ground and kill them.
- Empowered Badass Normal: The true nature of your character: as the magically-altered Moonrunner, he's much stronger, swifter and more perceptive than usual.
- Evil Genius: Karam Gruul, former Inquisitor, war criminal, master of multiple secret cults, mad scientist and Evil Sorcerer wannabe.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: The final clash against Gruul and the Cabal takes place inside a ruined tower in a place called "Hope's End", where the Cabal is reunited to prepare Gruul's superweapon aimed at Royal Lendle.
- Exploring the Evil Lair: The Mill, which is Conrad Zaar's hideout.
- Expy: Even more than Legend of the Shadow Warriors:
- Karam Gruul is clearly one to Fu Manchu.
- Conrad Zaar is essentially Jason Voorhees in a fantasy setting.
- The Corpse Master mixes The Phantom of the Opera with traits of Freddy Krueger.
- Like mother like son, Doktor Welsch is one to Frankenstein and, due to the bedlam house, to Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.
- Mister Hogg and Mister Kilmarney are the real-life "resurrection men" Burke and Hare, as played by Laurel and Hardy.
- The Fogwalkers are likely an homage to the Living Dead Series.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: The whole plot of the book consists of capturing Karam Gruul so that he can be put on trial for his hideous war crimes.
- Fantastic Noir: This book, being essentially an investigation set in a great, dark city, verges into this genre.
- Fed to the Beast: If you're captured by Gruul, he will try to dispose of you by releasing a swarm of hungry rats in the room.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: When visiting a sorcerer who is a veteran of visiting nightmarish dimensions to acquire a talisman required to confront Gruul, have a little patience and just wait a little in the comfortable sitting room while he goes there to acquire said artifact. Because one look at what's behind the door is so unimaginably, indescribably horrid to those inexperienced in exploring alien dimensions that one look is enough to drive you irrevocably mad.
- Gratuitous Ninja: The Jai-Hulud is a flying, Asian-looking sorcerer assassin who wields two swords and seemingly pops out of nowhere to battle you.
- Guile Hero: You are a bounty hunter, and most of your skills involves "rogueish" abilities such as quick thinking, sleight of hand, nimble feet and tracking. The book has far fewer unavoidable combats than most in the series.
- Hand of Glory: One of the talismans you can craft against Gruul's Notura — you need the hand of a hanged corpse, which you have to get enchanted by a friendly neighbourhood Necromancer.
- Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: Ok, the chainsaw is out of question, but still doesn't stop Conrad from pulling a metal faceplate which uncanningly looks like the former and serves the same purpose.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: If you disguise yourself as a Vampire to scare Hogg and Kilmarney, they will gather an angry mob who think you're a real Vampire. In the end, Gruul is captured by his former servant and creation, the Moonrunner.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The book takes place in a region called Badlands. Most of the events occur in the town of Blackhaven, which has such lovely places to visit as Hook Lane and the Three Broken Fingers tavern. The real prize though goes to the place where Karam Gruul's stronghold is located - Hope's End.
- Implacable Man: Conrad Zaar, as soon as he switches to his Maniac Guard persona, becomes a deathless, implacable behemoth who chases relentlessly after you. Not even being left in a burning and crumbling building slowed him down.
- It's Personal: It turns out near the end that capturing Karam Gruul, your former master, was this to you.
- Kaizo Trap: Even after defeating Gruul for real, you can still meet an untimely bad ending if you mess up.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Doktor Welsch has chopped up the inmates of his Asylum to built a Monster that could host his beloved mother's brain. Said monster is eventually destroyed when the released inmates storm the room and tear it apart.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Like turning a shifty Man-Orc sentinel into a nign-unstoppable refugee from a Slasher Movie.
- Living MacGuffin: Well, Undying MacGuffin with the talking (and often extremely annoying) Skull of Mora Tao, which demands life force to sustain itself and will penalize you multiple times on your quest in certain situations, but can also save your ass from one of Gruul's deadliest spells.
- Luck-Based Mission: The final battle with Gruul has him throwing at you a series of Notura-fueled spells, and both the spells and Gruul's Notura Score are randomly determined by a dice roll. Hence, depending on which talismans you took with you, this can be a Curb-Stomp Battle where you No-Sell everything he throws at you or one where you're annihilated by a spell.
- Machete Mayhem: Yes, it's highly doubtful that someone in a counterpart of medieval Europe would need a machete, but Conrad Zaar is a traditionalist, and so he gets to wield a machete against you.
- Mad Scientist: Doktor (Kauder)Welsch runs an Asylum where he secretly butchers the patients to create a new body to resurrect his beloved mother.
- Mind Rape: The Shocker is so horrible to look at that it throws you and your team of men into fear and terror with just one look.
- The Mole: Conrad Zaar is known as a Man-Orc city guard who's passing information to Gruul, and is also an undead serial killer.
- Necromantic: Dr. Welsch really loves his mother, and wants to revive her and complete her dream at the same time by reviving her into a Flesh Golem which needs your brain to fully function.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If you ends up releasing Milescu by mistake and lack an appropriate way to keep him at bay or stake him, it's not a game over. However, the narration treats you with this, as it mentions how Milescu feeds on you to regain some of his strength and then flees, ready to restart his kingdom of terror anew.
- Noun Verber
- Oculothorax: The only discernible if haunting detail of the Shocker.
- Oh, Crap!: Your implied reaction pretty much everytime you're cornered by a revenge-filled Conrad, almost to ridicolous levels inside the Waxhouse.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Not only the series' standard Voodoo Zombie are present as Gruul's manservants (at one point you can even disguise yourself as one), but you can also run into the Fog Walkers, which are more like Plague Zombie type and can infect you, leading to a Non-Standard Game Over. Also, one could argue that Conrad is a Revenant Zombie, though at first he seems to be alive.
- Pest Controller: The Corpse Master can command the hordes of rats living in the abandoned theater.
- Plot Coupon: Upon meeting Doctor Von Heldenghaster, you learn of Gruul's dabbling with Notura and are given the option to look after a series of talismans which may help you in your quest, each acting as a protection against Gruul's sorcery, and given limited time to gather them. However, this is strictly optional and sometimes more dangerous (though they do make the end battle easier).
- Recurring Boss: Being a relentless killer machine, Conrad (if encountered at all) won't give up the chance of chopping you to pieces.
- Resurrected Murderer: Conrad Zaar used to be a man-orc and a murderer who died sometime in the backstory. But the main villain, Karam Gruul, have necromantic abilities and revives Conrad as one of his main enforcers, with the revived murderer now spending every scene clad in a hockey mask for good measure.
- The Reveal: Near the end, you reveal to a captured Gruul (and to the audience) that you are the titular Moonrunner, a were-creature made by Gruul to be his personal assassin, who has gained human form and a free will. However, this can give Karam Gruul the chance to hypnotize you into being the Moonrunner again.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Doktor Kauderwelsch, in the picture where he's about to sic his "mother" at you.
- Sealed Evil in a Can:
- The Demothrax Argolis was an ancient and powerful demon sealed under an abandoned Gaol, near a hellish pit. You can unseal her to recover her Chain, a Notura-proof talisman, but then you must deal with the monster permanently.
- Another talisman is a vial containing the blood of the Vampire Lord Milescu. However, if you accidentally broke it, the Vampire will rise again, forcing you to destroy it.
- Secret Circle of Secrets: The Eternal Fraternity of the Rosy Chalice, a secret society which is actually manipulated by Gruul's own sect, the Cabal of the Werewolf. At one point you have to infiltrate their lines and pass their test.
- Serial Killer: Conrad the Maniac Guard, the true (and possibly undead) identity of Conrad Zaar. Now complete with metal mask, machete and utter refusal to bite the dust.
- The Shocker is an optional one you can run into, but is actually a terrifying monster preying on the citizens of Blackhaven.
- Shout-Out: The Cabal of the Werewolf calls to mind another, evil sect, namely the Brotherhood of the Wolf.
- Squishy Wizard: Karam Gruul is a guile bastard, but by no means a man of action: once his Notura score drops to 0, you can easily get the better of him.
- Super-Strength: Conrad the Maniac Guard, while not unbeatable, is described as unnaturally strong and resilient.
- Tempting Fate: If you kill Conrad in the Waxhouse, the other visitors will rush in and a particularly annoying one will claim that the whole scene (Conrad's corpse, bloodied machete and butchered victims) are a badly-done fake. Cue to Conrad's machete stabbing his guts while the maniac guard rises once more.
- Undead Laborers: The Cabal seems to use zombies as cheap slaves for the manual tasks.
- Villainous Breakdown: Doktor Welsch is left as a sobbing mess as his own patients proceed to tear his "mother" apart.
- Villainous Rescue: If you tricked the Corpse Master into believing that Gruul wanted to kill him, he will appear during the final battle and force Gruul to waste all his Notura points on him.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The deadly Fog Walkers, for some reason, are driven back by the sound of the bell.
- Wretched Hive: Blackhaven, a city so dangerous and dark that guards only patrol the streets in groups of ten.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The village outside Blackhaven is currently attecked by a horde of contagious Fog Walkers.
