TSR, $4.95, ISBN 1-56076-887-8
Fantasy Horror, 1994

Christie Golden’s The Enemy Within is disadvantaged even before I turn to the first page. Even if I were not aware of Ravenloft lore, the back cover synopsis and the cover art all make it clear that our protagonist Sir Tristan Hiregaard and his nemesis Malken are the Dr Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde respectively of the story.

That’s a shame, because the grand revelation that Tristan and Malken are one and the same would have been even a little shocking if this hadn’t been telegraphed already everywhere and anywhere.

Sir Tristan Hiregaard is a man in his early 50s. He’s one of the four noblemen of a land called Nova Vaasa, charged to be the regents of the new ruler, the spoiled brat Othmar until that brat turns 25. His problem begins when he stops Othmar from killing a Vistani boy, and in return he gets cursed by the boy’s psychotic sister.

Then, a series of murders begin taking place. Meanwhile, Tristan’s son is lured into a cult run by a man called Malken, who turns out to be the villain responsible for many of the things going wrong in the neighborhood. Who says that Nova Vaasa is a dull place to spend time in?

Now, Tristan is a problematic character from the start, because while he is clearly Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde plunked into the dark fantasy setting of Ravenloft, the people at TSR decide to ramp up Malken’s villainy from mere murders to being an over the top gangster boss on top of being a serial killer to boot.

Well, while all this may seem fine on paper, it makes little sense from a logistic point of view. Assuming that Malken is the dominant personality for a few hours each day, how on earth does he find the time to do all those gangster boss and Jack the Ripper things? It’s perplexing how Malken’s enterprises all seem to spring out of nowhere here, when it’d need plenty of subterfuge and time to get these things set up in the first place without anyone noticing.

The bigger problem is that a darklord, in Ravenloft canon, is trapped in their own domain as a prisoner, tortured to relive their sins and taste their failures over and over. Here, Tristan appears more of a victim of the usual psychotic Vistani people that seem to think they can unleash disproportionately terrible curses on anyone that even look at them funny. Why isn’t Rozalia, the psychotic Vistani in this story, the darklord instead?

Sure, one can argue that Tristan’s actions toward the end may justify him being the darklord, but come on. He’s pushed to the limit by the other psychos here, so saying that he deserves it is like saying one is guilty after he’s entrapped into committing the crime in the first place.

Perhaps it’s for the best that The Enemy Within is not considered a canon Ravenloft novel because poor Tristan, indeed. Oh yes, this one is considered non-canon because of Tristan knowing magic stuff and the setting of Nova Vaasa being very different from that in the original tabletop RPG materials. I like this Nova Vaasa, to be honest, as it feels more alive and has more creative juices poured into its creation compared to the bland setting in the canon materials, but in this story, Tristan feels more like a victim than darklord material.

Still, the rest of the story is actually rock solid. Folks looking for a more action-packed story will likely find this one on the slow moving side, but I find it a pretty good tale of psychological horror, as poor Tristan experiences a slow emotional breakdown as everything goes wrong for him in all the worst ways here. The author does a good job in getting me inside Tristan’s head. While the foundation of the story is on very shaky grounds, the elements of psychological horror and suspense are solid. Well, whatever little suspense present, that is, considering that the story has its biggest spoiler revealed in the front and back covers, hmmph.

In the end, this story sort of proves my point that Tristan Hiregaard and Malken are both terrible darklords. I’m surprised as to why TSR stuck with these two for so long, when they have a much better and probable Jekyll-and-Hyde darklord in Diamabel of Pharazia.

Anyway, this one. It’s a terrible Ravenloft story, but a pretty gripping and entertaining story if it had been placed inside any other sandbox.