Shhwonk Fortress

Shhwonk Fortress
First appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Latest appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) (2024)
Greater location	Petal Meadows
Ruler	Gold Fuzzy
Inhabitants	Fuzzies, Bristles, Clefts, Bald Clefts

“If you've come all the way here to Shhwonk Fortress, you must want stone keys. And if THAT'S the case, then you must compete against me.”

—Thwomp, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Shhwonk Fortress is an underground fortress in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door where the Moon Stone and the Sun Stone are kept. It is beyond Petalburg and a few smaller stone fortresses. The Stone Keys found inside are used to open the pipe to Hooktail Castle.

Long ago, Shhwonk Fortress was a place of relief from monster invasions for Petalburg residents, but more recently it has been invaded by monsters and traversing to the ruins was recently outlawed without permission from Mayor Kroop. It is unknown when the fortress was built, but at least one of the fortresses located in the path to it is estimated by Goombella to be about a thousand years old.

Before Mario is allowed entry, he must participate in the 65th Trivia Quiz-Off hosted by a Thwomp guarding an entrance pipe. After passing the quiz or defeating four Clefts (if Mario fails the quiz), Mario is granted access into the fortress, which is infested with Fuzzies. After collecting the Sun Stone and the Moon Stone, Mario must fight a Gold Fuzzy and its Fuzzy Horde in order to exit the fortress.

Areas

This section is under construction. Therefore, please excuse its informal appearance while it is being worked on. We hope to have it completed as soon as possible.

Mario and Goombella make their way into the entrance with a Save Block. They walk up to a stony Thwomp on a pedestal and it wakes up, surprised that Mario and Goombella are the first visitors to come to the fortress and find the stone keys. However, the Thwomp does not let them pass unless they compete against it in the 65th Trivia Quiz-Off. After the quiz, the Thwomp reveals the Warp Pipe and the pair can proceed.

Mario and Goombella arrive in the sewers via the Warp Pipe where the ground is flooded with water. The player can spot a red ? Block that contains the Multibounce badge. The duo can either go left or right to collect the two stone keys. Both corridors have two Fuzzies along the way to the keys. When they reach the end rooms to collect the Sun and Moon Stones, Fuzzies appear and battle them.

After collecting the stone keys, the duo come back to the entrance to find a Gold Fuzzy, which becomes angry at Mario and Goombella for trespassing its place. An optional boss battle commences and the Gold Fuzzy summons out a horde of Fuzzies to outnumber them. After defeating the leader and the horde, they can exit out of the fortress.

Enemies

• Bald Cleft
• Bristle
• Cleft (if Mario fails the quiz)
• Fuzzy
• Gold Fuzzy (Mid-Boss)

Formations

For enemy formations in Shhwonk Fortress, see here.

Items

Item	Location	Images
		GameCube	Switch
Fire Flower	In a ? Block two screens to the right of the entrance.	N/A
Multibounce	In the red ? block in the entrance screen underground.
Mushroom	In a ? Block two screens to the left of the entrance.	N/A
Sun Stone	Two screens to the right of the entrance. Guarded by four Fuzzies.
Moon Stone	Two screens to the left of the entrance. Guarded by four Fuzzies.

Area Tattles

• "This is Shhwonk Fortress. Suspicious statue...I'm pretty sure it's a Thwomp bust. Hey, I just remembered something I read about this place in a book! Whenever the villagers were confronted with a monster, they'd hide in this fortress...I guess there's a little bit of history everywhere you look, huh, Mario."
• "We're in Shhwonk Fortress. My shoes are totally soaked through now...Just great. Plus, it's dark, and cramped, and it smells totally bad... This place is not cool, Mario."
• "There sure are a lot of Fuzzies living here in Shhwonk Fortress...I saw one a minute ago, and I thought it was a ghost! I totally hate dark places..."
• "We're in Shhwonk Fortress. All this water has made this place a little cold...I wouldn't mind getting out of here for some fresh air soon, you know what I mean?"
• "All this moisture makes this place really moldy-smelling. And what's that other stink? Is that what wet Fuzzy smells like? I think I'm gonna barf."
• "We're in Shhwonk Fortress. This room is damp and moldy, too. Like every other one. Jeepers creepers...I just wanna see the sun again. Is that so wrong?"

Gallery

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  The entrance

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  The above area.

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  The Thwomp that hosts the quiz.

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  Failed the quiz

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  The sewers

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  The underground area.

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  Gold Fuzzy encounter

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  Gold Fuzzy battle

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  Fuzzy Horde

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  Superguard killed Gold Fuzzy

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  Mario gets ambushed by a Fuzzy

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  Fuzzy Horde in the remake

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	スットンとりで[?] Sutton Toride	Play on "stone" and anagram of「ドッスン」(Dossun, "Thwomp") +「とりで」(toride, "fortress")
Chinese	石咚城寨[?] Shídōng Chéng Zhài	Play on 「石」 (shí, "stone") and 「咚咚」 (Dōngdōng, "Thwomp") + 「城寨」 (chéng zhài, "walled city")
Dutch	Fort Beukestein[?]	From beuken ("to pound") and "Boekenstein" (a historical castle and Dutch family name)
French	Fort Baroc[?]	Pun on "Baroque" and roc ("rock")
German	Geröllburg[?]	Rubble Fortress
Italian	Rocca Selvaggia[?]	Wild fortress
Korean	스톤 요새[?] Seuton Yosae	Stone Fortress
Spanish	Fortaleza de Piedra[?]	Stone Fortress