Those of you who want an introduction to Hexen should look at the
Hexen FAQ maintained by Arne Michaelsen. You may also want to
see Raven's page for the background story, hardware and software
requirements, etc..
NOTE: This walkthrough concentrates mainly on the puzzle side of
the game. So, with the exception of boss monsters and some tricky
places, the presence of monsters is mostly omitted in the directions;
you are expected to be able to deal with them yourself.
Corrections/updates since the last version (dated 5 Dec 95):
Corrected some directional mistakes in Episode 2.
I've received a message from Raven's Game Design Manager, Michael
Raymond-Judy, saying that the shortcut in Episode 4 has
been corrected. So it WAS an unintentional slip by the level
designers, apparently. This short-cut will be removed in due
time.
Included a little short-cut in Level 1, for the Mage only. You
don't really need to get the silver key... another slip by the
level designers?
As usual, made those endless minor polishings here and there, etc..
Thanks to all those who took the trouble to mail me about errors,
omissions, and tips.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Episode 1: Seven Portals
Winnowing Hall
Seven portals: solving the puzzle
The secret level: Bright Crucible
Episode 2: Shadow Wood
Synopsis of the puzzle
Solving the puzzle
Getting the Keys
Finding the puzzle switches
The Hypostyle
The secret level: Sacred Grove
Episode 3: Heresiarch's Seminary
Synopsis of the puzzle
The planets
The three chapels
The fourth (secret) chapel: Deathwind Chapel
Episode 4: Castle of Grief
Synopsis of the puzzle
The Clock
The puzzle of the Gibbet
The secret level: Desolate Garden
Episode 5: Necropolis
Synopsis of the puzzle
The (almost secret) level: Vivarium
Tomb of Zedek
Tomb of Menelkir
Tomb of Traductus
This information is already embedded in the text; but it's indexed
here for those who want a quick glance. (Note: this only applies to
single-player mode; for multi-player mode this information may not
be correct.)
1. The first segment of the fourth weapon is at the end of the
Seven Portals (Episode 1), in front of the portal that leads
to Episode 2.
2. The second segment is in one of the rooms in the Hypostyle
(end of Episode 2).
3. The last segment is in the room full of pitchers in the Heresiarch's
Seminary (Episode 3). Note that ALL THREE SEGMENTS of the fourth
weapon can also be found in the Desolate Garden (Episode 4).
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This is the first level in Hexen. You start in front of some kind
of chapel. This level is very simple, so here's a sketch of how to
complete the level (the full solution is in the next section):
1. Get the Emerald Key from within the chapel
2. Open the door that requires the Emerald Key, and get the Silver
Key
3. Ring the bell at the top of the tower
4. Go back into the chapel, step into the teleport and enter the
portal to the next level.
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Getting the Emerald Key
The key is in a secret area somewhere in the chapel. Hint: vandalize
the chapel! (ie. smash the stained glass).
Once you find the secret passage, pull the switch inside to open
those big yellow slabs. Enter the now revealed door, and look for
a switch. This will lower the pillar in the centre of the room to
reveal the Emerald Key. Once you get the key, the big yellow slabs
begin to move. Careful! It's a trap. You will get crushed by the
slabs unless you run through when all of them are open. You need
to time yourself carefully for this.
NOTE: one of the yellow doors in the room will open if you're playing
deathmatch. The teleport inside takes you up to the top of the cliff
outside the chapel, where there's an item or two. This only applies
to deathmatch games, though. So far, I've not been able to open this
area in single-player mode.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WONDER WHAT THOSE SWITCHES BEHIND THE FIREBALL
TRAPS DO... it's simple. Those switches simply re-activates the walls
in case you get stuck behind them when they are deactivated. The
switches don't do anything when the trap is active.
Getting the Silver Key
Open the big door at the foot of the fort with the Emerald Key. Pull
a switch inside to open a door that leads to the battlements. Now,
go up to the battlements and walk to the mini-tower. When you get
there, a switch will pop out of the floor. Pull this switch to open
the inner door in the fort.
Tip: there's a platinum helmet somewhere on the battlements which
will increase your armor class: see if you can find it!
Now, enter the courtyard with the bell tower. Somewhere on the right
is the entrance to the cave with the silver key. Be careful once
you get the key, though, because another trap will be activated.
The easiest way to get out is to step in front of the first crusher,
and when it slams together, RUN forward against it. Once it opens,
you'll be running against the second crusher, and so on. This works
because of the way the crushers are timed.
Ringing the Bell
This one is easy. :) Use the Silver Key you just found to get into
the bell tower. Climb to the top and strike the bell (or shoot at
it if you're a mage). The bell will ring, and will cause the teleport
inside the chapel to be opened.
NOTE: I noticed that with the Mage, there's a bug here that lets
you shoot at the bell from outside, without ever getting the Silver
Key. It's a little harder than in the Demo version of Hexen, but
it's still possible. I wonder if this is a slip by the level designers.
Now simply go back to the chapel and step into the teleport, which
will take you to a small room with the portal leading to the next
level, the Seven Portals. Stepping close to the portal opens a passage
to the right that leads back to the front of the chapel.
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This level is a 'hub' level which leads to several sub-levels. To
solve this level you need to solve puzzles in the sub-levels.
For convenience, from now on I will refer to each of the seven gates
in this level by a number. The first gate on the left as you enter
the level is Gate 1, the second gate on the left is Gate 2, and so
on, going in a clockwise order around the level. Each gate leads
to a portal that takes you to one of three sub-levels.
The first three gates
The first gate that you'll open is Gate 2. This is opened by pulling
the switch on the pillar in front of the gate. You need to kill the
chaos serpents behind the gate first; then a quartz flask will appear
in front of a window at the far end of the room. Pick up the quartz
flask, and two passages at the side will open. A portal will rise
in the icy room beyond. This portal leads to the Guardian of Ice.
Guardian of Ice (1)
At this point, many passages are still inaccessible in the Guardian
of Ice, and the only way you can go is to the room at the far end
of the level. This room has four pillars. Pull the switch at the
end of the room and these pillars will rise and fall for a while.
Then they will all stop and a white arrow will appear on the ground,
pointing to one of the pillars. This is the teleport to go back to
the Seven Portals. DO NOT STEP INTO ANY OTHER PILLAR!! They will
crush you. Note that this teleport is RANDOMLY picked; you should
always watch for the arrow each time you play the game. For now,
step into the teleport.
This takes you back to Seven Portals, but now Gates 1 and 3 are open.
There is a switch behind each gate which opens a portal. The portal
in Gate 1 leads to the Guardian of Fire; the portal in Gate 3 goes
to the Guardian of Steel. Here, I'll take you through Gate 1 first
(of course, you can always go to Gate 3 first, if you want to).
Step into the portal in Gate 1 and you will go to:
Guardian of Fire (1)
The first room you see in front of you looks innocent... until you
step into it. Well, you have to go through it, so go in and see what
happens. After things have calmed down, enter the doorway to the
right which leads to a room with a lava pool. You'll find a switch
in a niche on the right side of the room. Pull it. This is one of
three switches you need in order to open Gate 6 in the Seven Portals.
Now go to the room with the lava pillar. There is a wall with a mask
on it to the left. This is a secret door that leads to a long room
with a bridge in the middle. There are lots of flechettes on the
bridge.
1. If you're greedy for flechettes (like me), aim VERY carefully
for the far end of the bridge and run across the bridge as fast as
you can! Do not swerve to either side; you will drop to your death!
When you reach the other side, clutch the door in fright until
things calm down :) Now jump to the narrow ledge on the left and
CAREFULLY walk down the ledge until you come to a new opening that
leads back to the room with the lava pool.
2. Or, if you're less confident, step onto the bridge quickly,
and step back. You can now watch the fun without having to be in
it. :) Now, go back to the room with the lava pool. A new passage
has opened. There is a switch in the newly-opened passage; pull it
to open the door at the end of the bridge that closed when you stepped
on the bridge. Walk along the ledge on the left side of the bridge
room, and enter the door. Take the Flame Mask. Jump back on the ledge
(I pity all you who are sacred of heights!) and go back to the room
with the lava pool.
That's all you can do on this level at this point. Go back to the
portal that leads to the Seven Portals. If you haven't been to the
Guardian of Steel yet, step into the portal in Gate 3 now. Otherwise,
you can proceed to Gate 6.
Guardian of Steel (1)
You start in a room that opens into a corridor with stairs on both
sides. Each flight of stairs lead to a similar chamber with a switch
and a fast door. Remember these two rooms: you need to fiddle with
the switches later. For now, enter go to either room and enter the
fast door. You will see two flights of stairs; one leading up and
one leading down. Take the one leading up and you'll get to what
I call the central room in the Guardian of Steel. You get to this
same room no matter which way you took.
There are two doors here, besides the two flights of stairs. One
of them needs the Steel Key: you don't have it yet. So, enter the
other door. This is an elevator. Another door opens when the elevator
reaches the bottom. Go out and you'll find yourself in a corridor.
One end of the corridor will be blocked; go to the other end and
you will see a room with a switch. Pull this switch. This is another
one of the three switches you need to pull in order to open Gate
6 on the Seven Portals.
Now, go back to the two rooms with the fast doors. The switch in
one of them--I leave it to you to find out which--will open the
blocked part of the corridor and close the other part where you just
went and pulled the switch. Go to where the corridor just opened
and pull the switch inside there. This switch is the third switch
that you need to pull in order to open Gate 6 on the Seven Portals.
That's all you can do here for now. Go back to the Seven Portals.
If you haven't gone to the Guardian of Fire yet, do it now by stepping
into the portal behind Gate 1. Otherwise, proceed to:
Gate 6
If you've pulled the switch on the Guardian of Fire and the two switches
on the Guardian of Steel, Gate 6 at the Seven Portals should be open.
Again, you must kill all the Chaos Serpents before the portal at
the far end of the room behind Gate 6 will open. Be careful on your
way to the portal, though. DO NOT STEP ON THOSE BRIGHT PATCHES ON
THE ICY FLOOR! Those are traps. Or, if you're good enough, run across
them so that you won't ever step into them accidentally again (don't
try this if you're not fast enough though). Enter the portal, and
you'll find yourself in a new part of the Guardian of Ice.
Guardian of Ice (2)
Go forward into the room in front and pull the switch. This switch
raises stairs in the room you just came from. Go back there and pull
the two switches at the top of each of the stairs that were just
raised. Now, the highest flight of stairs in the middle of the Seven
Portals will be raised. Some ettins will also teleport into the room
you're in. Now, take the passage that leads to an open area on the
left. There's a room on the right.
Enter that room (be careful of the trap in the room), and follow
the passage. This will take you on a winding flight of stairs that
has windows looking out to the open area you saw earlier. If you
explored that open area and slipped and fell, there is an elevator
that takes you up to the middle of this flight of stairs. Go the
top of the stairs and pull the switch. Take the platform up and you'll
find yourself in the room behind the dark room where you first entered
the Guardian of Ice from Gate 2. Go all the way to the room with
the four pillars. Now two new bright arrows on the ground will be
pointing at two doors which you can now enter.
The Fire Key
The door on the right leads to the room with the Fire Key. To get
the key, place the Flame Mask on the wall on the far end of the room.
This wall looks exactly like other walls with similar masks except
that the mask is missing. Placing the mask there will lower the pillar
with the Fire Key on it.
The Steel Key
The door on the left leads to a large icy room. If you're playing
a difficult level, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN TO THE LEFT CORNER OF THE
ROOM. Parts of the floor and ceiling will start to move. After a
while, a switch appears in the corner where you have run to; pull
this switch. More ice movements. The room now has deep crevasses
in the floor; so be careful as you make your next moves.
Go along the ledge on the left and jump into the next icy room. The
Steel Key is resting top of some icy steps. Grab the key and watch
out as the ice in this room begins rising and dropping too (a pillar
of ice may even crush you if you're standing on the wrong spot).
Some enemies will appear. You can either kill them or flee back to
the first room (be careful as you jump though!) Carefully make your
way back to the entrance (you need good jumping skills here... the
ice is slippery too!) and get out of the room. Step on the teleport
that goes back to the Seven Portals.
Gates 5 and 7
Gates 5 and 7 should now be open. Again, you have a choice of where
to go first: Gate 5, which has a portal leading to another part of
the Guardian of Steel, or Gate 7, which leads to the room with
the lava pool on the Guardian of Fire.
The Guardian of Fire (2)
Now that you have the Fire Key, you can open the two doors in the
room with the lava pillar. In either room, you will find a switch.
Pull this switch and a platform lowers to ground level. Step on the
platform and it takes you to the area beyond the lava river which
is blocked by pillars (you can see this place vaguely from the room
with the lava pillar). Kill the monsters here and the pillars on
the lava river opens. If you ever need to get back to the room with
the lava pillar this is the way out. But for now, go to the other
side of the room where there's a wall with a fire mask symbol on
it.
Two elevators will lower on either side of you. Step into one of
them and you get to an area with several connected corridors. There
is a teleport here; step into it. This takes you to a room with a
switch. Pull the switch. Note that if you open the walls with the
fire mask symbol on them, you will get back to the connected corridors
with the teleport. For now, go back to the room with the switch,
and look behind where you teleported into the room. There's a teleport
symbol there: activate it and you'll be taken back to the Seven Portals.
If you've entered Gate 5 already, you're ready to solve the puzzle
on the Seven Portals.
The Guardian of Steel (2)
The new area on the Guardian of Steel where Gate 5 takes you is very
similar to where Gate 3 takes you. However, this area is on the opposite
side of the level. Again, there are two rooms with fast doors and
switches. The stairs from these two rooms lead to the central room.
Note that these stairs were blocked when you first came here from
Gate 3; now they are open.
Since you have the Steel Key now, open the steel door. Again, there
is an elevator that takes you to a corridor. One side of the corridor
is blocked; the other side leads to a room with a switch. Pull this
switch and a message tells you to look for another switch. This other
switch is in the room behind where the corridor is blocked. Now...
you guessed it! One of the switches in the two rooms with fast doors
will open this area. Go figure out which one it is, and pull the
switch in the room. More stairs have raised on the Seven Portals.
If you have not been to Gate 7 yet, do it now.
Gate 4: the Final Encounter
You have almost solved the puzzle! Go back to the Seven Portals.
By now, three flight of stairs have risen. The highest of them leads
to a switch and Dragonskin Bracers (your reward!). Pull this switch.
This is one of three switches you need to pull to open Gate 4. The
other two switches are at the top of the other two stairs. There
are two switches at the top of each of these stairs. The ones that
look like a cow's head are the ones that open Gate 4; the other two
switches open two doors on the Guardian of Ice. This is related to
the secret level of this episode.
After you pull all three switches, Gate 4 will be open. This opens
the arena for the final encounter in episode one. Go inside Gate
4 and kill the monsters there. There is a switch beside the big doors
at the far end of the room; pull this switch to open the doors. Beyond
the doors you can see a portal on the other side of a huge chasm.
This portal takes you to episode 2. But to get to the portal, you
must first kill the centaurs. After they are killed, a magic blue
bridge will appear across the chasm. Cross this transparent bridge
(don't worry! it won't break :) and the portal to episode 2 is waiting.
There are lots of goodies around, so take a break from your slaughtering
and collect the stuff around here. You find the first segment of
your 4th weapon here, and there is a combined mana hidden behind
the portal.
For those of you who are more adventurous and those of you who noticed
something on the map: you can jump across the chasm to a narrow passage
on the east side of the chasm (look at the map to make sure... "look
before you leap!"). You get a close encounter with some chaos serpents
on your way up the passage. At the top, you can find a pair of Wings
of Wrath on a ledge. Jump down the ledge to get back to the area
overlooking the chasm. If you're paranoid about the magic bridge,
you can use the wings to fly across the chasm. Or use them to explore
some other areas in this episode.
Now, take a deep breath, brace yourself, and step into the portal,
which will take you to Episode 2: Shadow Wood. Or, you may want to
visit the secret level first, if you haven't done so yet.
To get to the secret level, you need to solve a few more puzzles
on the Seven Portals.
First, don't forget to pull the switches on top of the two stairs
on the Seven Portals (not the ones that open Gate 4, but the ones
that give you a message that doors are opening on the Guardian of
Ice). After you pull both switches, enter the portal in Gate 2 to
go to the Guardian of Ice.
Guardian of Ice (3)
Two doors have opened outside the dark room where you enter the Guardian
of Ice. You can go to either room first, but I recommend the one
on the right since the Afrits in there might sneak up on you from
behind while you're busy doing something in the other room.
The Afrit Room
Go into the room on the right and get rid of the Afrits. Go down
the stairs on the right and pull the switch. Fireballs will start
to spew in the pit in the middle of the room. You need to run up
the stairs and jump across the pit to the opposite side. There's
a switch the small room here: pull it, and a portal behind this small
room opens. Now, jump back across the pit and go behind this small
room. Enter the portal, which takes you to a new are in the Guardian
of Fire.
The Traps Room
This is the room on the left. Don't rush inside; as soon as you step
in, the traps on the side walls activate. Time yourself carefully
(notice the pattern that the balls of spikes are shot across the
room) and go across to the end of the room. There is an icy room
on the left with a pillar in the middle. The other side of the pillar
has a switch you should pull. But DON'T JUST STAND THERE AFTER PULLING
THE SWITCH! You'll get poison darts on your back. You need to kill
the centaurs that appear before the door of the room opens again.
Leave the icy room and you'll see a portal that just opened. Get
your weapons ready, and your healing potions handy (yes, it's a very
nasty place inside there!) and step in to get to a new area in the
Guardian of Steel.
Guardian of Fire (3)
You start in a small room. The wall in front will open as you step
in. Go into the room and follow the ledge on the left. Be careful
on the way: there's a wall here that will push you into the lava
pit in the middle of the room: run fast to get past it. Now wait
a moment and the lava in the pit will rise. Now, go to the pillar
in the middle of the room and pull the switch. Jump back to the side
of the room and exit the room. You'll find yourself in the room with
the lava pillar. If you haven't been to the left room on the Guardian
of Ice, or haven't entered the portal there, go there now. If
you have activated the switch on the Guardian of Steel, go back to
the Seven Portals.
Guardian of Steel (3)
The portal in the Traps Room on the Guardian of Ice takes you to
an icy room on the Guardian of Steel. For those playing on high difficulty
settings: have PLENTY of healing potions in hand, and run around
and fire wildly as soon as you enter this place. After killing the
Wendigos here, the walls will lower to reveal a larger room. You
probably have seen this larger room from the central room in the
Guardian of Steel. Unless you're very, very expert in the game, don't
expect to kill the wendigos in the room (also, more will teleport
in after you kill them, so don't waste your energy): RUN for the
elevators (look at the map to find out where they are) and get out
before you get killed!
The two elevators take you to the two rooms behind the fast doors.
Now go to the other two rooms behind the fast doors and take the
elevators there. This will take you to the other area you can see
from the central room on this level. This place has a lot of crushers.
Always time yourself carefully when crossing these crushers. Look
for a switch somewhere inside here (it's behind a crusher... look
at the map to see where the switch is). Activate this switch.
Now go back to the central room in this level. Some walls have opened
in the area in the centre. Climb inside there, where there's a torch
on a dark pedestal. Jump on the pedestal and grab the torch. This
triggers something, and you'll get a message that stones are grinding
on the Seven Portals.
If you haven't been to the right room on the Guardian of Ice yet,
or haven't entered the portal there that takes you to the new are
in the Guardian of Fire, go there now.
The portal to the Bright Crucible
If you've pulled the switches in the Guardian of Fire and the Guardian
of Steel, go to the Seven Portals. The area behind the highest stairs
should now open. Go inside this area and jump into the water. There
is an invisible portal here that takes you to the Bright Crucible.
Solving the Puzzle on the Bright Crucible
Note: there are MANY horrible monsters here; you should figure out
a way of getting rid of them before you continue. Wings of Wrath
would be very helpful here (you can find them behind Gate 4 in the
Seven Portals).
When you start, you are facing SOUTH. Turn right (face WEST) and
jump into the muck. Or, if you've already jumped down somewhere in
the process of killing the monsters, go to the WEST side of the level.
Step on the elevator in front of the ledge on the NORTHWEST wall
(the one with the Chaos Serpent). Enter the tunnel behind the ledge,
and keep going until you come to a room with spewing fireballs. In
the centre of the room there's a red object. Run into the room and
grab it.
This is the Heart of D'Sparil (for those of you who don't know: D'Sparil
was the first of the three serpent riders. He was the last boss monster
in the game Heretic). The fireballs will cease once you picked up
this object. Now, go outside to the EAST side of the level and take
another elevator on the NORTHEAST ledge where a chaos serpent is.
Go into the tunnel behind the ledge once you get up there, and follow
the corridor all the way to the end, where there is a stained glass
wall blocking entrance into a room spewing with fireballs. To get
into the room, you need to BARGE through it; just shooting at it
is not enough. Run against it, push it, and shoot at it (some combination
of these) and it will shatter. Now unless you want to get burned
by the fireballs, quickly place D'Sparil's Heart on the stand in
the centre of the room.
The fireballs will stop. If you like, you can barge through the other
stained glass wall too, which will take you up to another ledge where
another Chaos Serpent was shooting at you. Anyway, after placing
D'Sparil's Heart on the stand, a long flight of stairs will rise
from the muck in the south part of the level, all the way up to where
you first teleported in. Also, a hidden area on the north side of
the level has opened (behind where you teleported in). There are
a few serpents in there, and you can also find an Icon of the Defender.
Now, go down the long flight of stairs into the muck. Follow the
flow of the muck and go underground. Here's a portal that will take
you back to the Seven Portals.
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So, you've finished episode 1 and are ready to tackle episode 2.
Before I go into the details of how to solve this episode, here's
a birds'-eye view of what is going on:
Basically, you are heading for the Hypostyle, which is the conclusion
of episode 2. The portal to the Hypostyle is behind a gate inside
the temple on Shadow Wood. There are three panels on either side
of this gate. Each of the three pairs of panels have a different
symbol: the Swamp symbol (green), the Horn symbol (yellow) and the
Cave symbol (grey).
Each panel corresponds to a switch somewhere on this episode which
you must activate, and the symbol on the panel indicates which key
is needed to get to the switch. So, there are two switches which
need the Swamp key to get to, two switches which need the Horn key
and two switches which need the Cave key. Every time you activate
one of the six switches the corresponding panel will brighten up.
This way you can monitor your progress in solving the puzzle.
Once you find all these switches, the gate opens, and you will enter
the portal to the Hypostyle.
Here's how to get to the temple on Shadow Wood and see the six panels:
follow the left wall as you come out of the room where you start.
Go through the doorway on the left and go up the stairs. This is
the entrance to the temple. Go inside the temple, turn right and
go to the end of the corridor. Open the metal wall on your left,
and go down the corridor behind it. This leads to the room with the
six switches and the gate. Since you haven't solved any puzzles yet
at this point, the six panels will be dark (you need to walk up to
a panel to see the symbol on it if it hasn't brightened up yet).
OK, that's enough introduction. Time to actually solve the puzzles.
Since you need the three keys in order to get to the six switches,
you have to first find the keys.
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There are three keys which you need in order to solve the puzzle.
You actually need a fourth key in order to get to one of the three
keys. The three keys are:
The Horn key
The Swamp key
The Cave key
(Note: I have arranged the order of finding the keys so that you
can get to one of the six switches nearby while finding another key;
so I suggest that you follow this order. Of course, I have included
hypertext links in the text for those of you who rather do things
your own order.)
The Horn Key
The Horn Key is in the Wastelands. You need to first open the portal
that takes you there. So, in Shadow Wood, go to the place where there
is a deep, deep drop and a narrow ledge. This is somewhere beside
the river. Now you need to carefully jump from ledge to ledge. Keep
going until you reach the end, where there is a switch (practice
your jumping skills here! Or, save your game a lot because it's very
easy to slip and fall to your death). Pull this switch. It opens
a wall somewhere along the narrow ledge you have just passed, so
start jumping back (have fun). The portal to the Wastelands is behind
the wall. Also, another wall opens to the main area in Shadow Wood.
If you go there, you'll find that yet another wall has opened to
reveal lots of ammo and healing potions. You probably need this before
you enter the Wastelands. Now, brace yourself and step into the portal.
In the wastelands, go down the steps to the exit from the sad-looking
area where the portal took you. If you look down the exit, this is
WEST. (Sorry for giving the wrong direction in previous versions!
So I DID get you lost. :) Thanks to Remy Horton for pointing this
out.) It's very easy to get lost here, so keep your map handy. I'll
be using the compass a lot. The exit leads to a ledge with brown
serpents on an opposite ledge. BE VERY CAREFUL IN THIS LEVEL; AVOID
STANDING ON THOSE PILES OF DIRT ON THE GROUND... Now take the descending
passage on the left and this takes you to the area between the two
ledges. Enter the tunnel on the left (EAST). The tunnel will fork
into two; take the right one. This goes on for quite some time. As
you go on, watch for an exit to the right (SOUTH)--you may miss
it if you're not looking.
This exit leads to what I call the Two Portals room. It has a closed
portal and a blocked teleport. You need the Cave Key to open these
two; if you don't have it, go back to the tunnel and continue down
the tunnel. This time, keep an eye on the LEFT (NORTH) wall. Somewhere
along the way you'll see a square wall with a different texture from
the tunnel walls. If you reach an open area before you see this,
YOU'VE MISSED IT: go back into the tunnel and look for it.
This square wall is a revolving door. Open it and enter. Watch for
the brown beastie waiting on the other side, though. Go up the winding
path to a big open area. Go left (EAST), and you'll find a narrow
walkway with lava on both sides. Go to the end of the walkway and
you'll find the Horn Key. Note that once you get the key, the walkway
breaks into pillars. You must jump from pillar to pillar all the
way back if you don't want to fall and get burned by the lava.
If you ever fall into the lava, simply follow the walkway until you
reach the beginning, and pull the switch. This lowers a platform
to take you out of the fire.
If you're following my order of getting the keys, go back to Shadow
Wood now (retrace your steps through the tunnel, and back to the
starting room).
The Swamp Key
Go to the river in Shadow Wood, and walk downstream. Don't worry
if you see a wall ahead; it will open. Go all the way until you reach
metal bars that block your way. There are stairs to the left which
lead to a high cliff with a green swamp below. There is a tower in
the middle of the swamp; run and jump onto the base of the tower.
Pull the switch there. This will raise several metal pillars on the
sides of the swamp. Now, jump into the swamp and look for a switch
on the wall. Pull this switch. This opens the metal bars blocking
the river, so now you can jump back to the river. Climb up the stairs
again, and this time, turn left and jump on the pillars you just
raised. These pillars lead to a high area where the chaos serpents
were firing at you earlier. Don't panic if a poison dart hits you;
it's almost unavoidable. Of course, don't get hit by too many darts,
otherwise your life may get too low.
(Alternatively, after pulling the switch at the base of the tower,
run to the rising pillars and get on one of them. This way, you can
reach the high area without getting hit by the traps. This may not
work with the Mage because he's too slow to get to the pillar before
it's too high to reach. Thanks to Jeff Rife for providing this tidbit.)
There's a switch on the high area that raises steps to go up the
tower. Jump to the base of the tower (don't drop down to the swamp;
it's just a LITTLE too high and you'll get hurt). Now climb up the
tower and pull the switch. Now the portal beside the swamp is open.
This portal takes you to the Darkmere.
Smash down the rotten trees in front of you when you first enter
the Darkmere. Enter the building and go to the room flooded with
muck. Now, look for a piece of furniture that is different from the
rest (you can find out what it is yourself, I won't spoil the fun
here). Go up to it and activate it. This opens the door next to it.
Activate the switch behind the door, and the other door in the room
opens.
Enter the door, and go left. At the end of the corridor, open the
door and activate the switch inside. Now go back and take the corridor
opposite the door. The first switch has opened a room here; go inside
and activate the switch. Now go along the last corridor which leads
outside to the swamp.
Go into the porch of the small building here, and activate the switch
there. If you look into the window, you'll see the Castle Key which
you need in order to get to the Swamp key. However, the door to the
building is not open yet, so follow the current of the muck and you'll
get to a big open area with a castle. DON'T DRIFT WITH THE CURRENT
NOW; THE MUCK FLOWS INTO A VERY DEEP CHASM AND YOU'LL GET KILLED
BY THE FALL. Go to the front of the castle and pull the switch. This
lowers the bridge into the castle. DON'T FALL OFF THE BRIDGE AS THE
MONSTERS COME CHARGING OUT! Go inside the courtyard, and look for
the room with a well.
Jump into the well and activate a switch. This raises the water level
so that you can get out again, and at the same time, it opens the
door in the small building with the Castle Key. You need the Castle
key to open the room at the top of the tower in the courtyard, so
go get it now. Climb up the tower and open the door. There is a hidden
switch here: see if you can find it! Hint: vandalize the room! (ie.,
smash everything you can). This switch opens the door to the lower
level of the castle.
Go to the lower level of the castle (the entrance is somewhere in
the courtyard of the castle), until you get to what looks like a
dining room. NOTE: if you have the Horn Key, you can reach one
of the six puzzle switches from here. Now, look for where a fireplace
is SUPPOSED to be but isn't. Open the secret wall behind, and a secret
passage will be revealed. Go along the passage and pull the switch
at the end. This lowers an elevator that takes you to the room with
the Swamp Key.
As you approach the key, walls will rise and block you, and the masks
on the wall starts shooting poison darts. You CANNOT avoid getting
hit by the darts, so run as fast as you can along the zig-zag walls
to minimize the damage. Now get the swamp key. The walls will re-
arrange to form three rows, two rows with fireballs spewing from
the ground and the last row with the poison darts trap. ONE of these
rows is the one you must run through to get out; if you run through
the other two rows, you'll be teleported back to where the Swamp
Key was. Note that this is RANDOMLY PICKED, so you've to try it out
each time you play the game. (This time this had BETTER be correct...
I've changed this about four or five times by now.)
If you're following my order of getting the keys, go back to Shadow
Wood now, using the portal beside the small building with the Castle
key.
The Cave Key
The Cave Key is in the Caves of Circe. Go to the temple in Shadow
Wood, to the room with the six panels. If you look at the map, you'll
notice that there are two passages that lead to this room from the
front of the temple. Go to where the north passage enters the room.
Walk in front of the black mask there. This activates many traps
in the temple, and also raises stairs in the front corridor. Run
back to the front corridor and go up the new stairs that just raised.
(This is NORTH of the entrance to the temple.) Be careful! Don't
fall of the last step: you need to jump (actually running will do)
into the opening on the right at the top of the stairs. This goes
into the room where the chaos serpents are, which overlooks the room
with the six panels. Go to the centre of the room and look for a
small manhole near the west wall. Jump inside and pull the switch.
Now, go back to the opening at the top of the stairs where you came
in (NOT the other opening which also leads to another part of the
temple's front corridor). The switch you just pulled has lowered
the stairs below ground level. Jump down and go to the bottom of
the steps. There's a secret opening here which shuts behind you as
soon as you enter it. Don't worry; follow the short passage into
a large room with lots of goodies.
HOLD IT THERE! DON'T BE GREEDY! Carefully step into the room and
stop. Floors and ceilings will start to move; some pillars will crush
down from the ceiling. Deep pits will form in the room. When things
have calmed down, you can follow the right ledge, which will lead
you to a room with the portal to the Caves of Circe.
Alternatively, follow the left ledge (you need some jumping around
for this route), until you come to a switch on the wall. Activate
this switch, and the deep pits will be removed, partially restoring
the room. (Thanks to Michael W. Daniels for telling me about this
switch!) Now you can walk around the room and collect the goodies
here. After collecting the goodies, look for the room with the symbol
of Korax and step into the portal.
This takes you to the Caves of Circe. Turn right and jump down from
the ledge where you start, and turn right again. Jump down the hole
with bats flying out. Now you are in what I call the Ettin Cave (you
have to put up with my silly names because I'll be referring to them
when giving you directions). There are three exits from here; take
the leftmost one, which leads to Skylight Cave. I call it that because
you can see the sky through the big crack in the ceiling. Turn right
when you enter the Skylight Cave, and jump into the hole at the end
of the passage (or fall into it if you didn't see it!). This is a
small cave that opens out to a corridor. Go out on the corridor and
turn right. Take the first left turn. This takes you to what I call
the Middle Cave. The Cave Key is here.
NOTE: you MUST jump into that small cave before the Middle Cave opens,
even though there are many ways of reaching the Middle Cave from
the Ettin Cave. Sorry for the mistake I made in the previous version
of this walkthrough, when I thought that you can reach the Middle
Cave without going to the small cave.
If you have the Horn Key, you can reach one of the six puzzle
switches from here. If you have the Swamp Key, you can also get
to another puzzle switch from here.
If you don't have any of these keys, here's how to get back to Shadow
Wood: Go back to the Ettin Cave. This time, take the right exit.
You'll get to a cave with a bright open area at the far end overlooking
a deep chasm (this is NOT the pit with water flowing down the sides).
Walk along the ledge on the left, and make your way across the chasm.
There's a Porkalator along the way... see if you dare to get it :
) At the end of the path, there's a room with some goodies and a
teleport. This teleport takes you to where you started when you came
to the Caves of Circe. Step into the portal there that takes you
back to Shadow Wood. To get out of the room under the temple in Shadow
Wood, find a switch in the room. This lowers an elevator that takes
you back to the main floor of the temple. Now you can get out.
Go to the Dining Room in the castle at the Darkmere (see the directions
to get to the Swamp Key). Look for a switch hidden in one of the
fireplaces (don't worry... the fireplace doesn't burn you for some
reason). Pulling this switch opens a secret flight of stairs behind
the fireplace. Go to the top of the stairs and enter the revolving
door with the Horn Key. Climb up the steps that lead to a ledge opposite
another ledge with a portal. The puzzle switch is on the wall. The
portal on the opposite side leads to the Wastelands.
Switches requiring the Horn Key (2)
Go to the Skylight Cave in the Caves of Circe (see directions on
getting the Cave Key). If you got here from the Ettin Cave, go
straight to the end of the cave and follow the passage. Look for
a partially hidden exit on your left. Climb up the narrow steps,
and open the door at the top with the Horn Key. There's a portal
inside here that takes you to the Wastelands. The puzzle switch is
on the wall beside the portal.
Switches requiring the Cave Key (1)
Go to the courtyard of the castle in the Darkmere (see directions
for getting to the Swamp Key). Open the door that needs the Cave
Key. Pull the switch inside, and take the elevator up. Now, jump
down into the muck. You WILL get hurt when you jump down (I don't
know why the level designers did this. If you know how NOT to get
hurt here, please tell me). Now, follow the passage and take the
right tunnel when it forks. (The left tunnel takes you to the deep
chasm outside the castle; a magic bridge will appear when you step
near the edge. It takes you back to the muck in front of the castle.)
This right tunnel will lead to a cavern with many exits. Most of
the passages lead to impassible pits: don't try to jump them; you
can't do it. One of the passages lead to a portal. Don't go into
the portal yet; the puzzle switch is somewhere along the passage.
Hint: people don't put statues in caves for no reason. :) The portal
here will take you to the Caves of Circe.
Switches requiring the Cave Key (2)
Go to the Two Portals room in the Wastelands (see directions for
getting to the Horn Key). Use your Cave Key here to open the portal
and the teleport. Step into the teleport (NOT the portal! The portal
will take you to the Caves of Circe, which is not where you want
to go at this point). This takes you to a room with a lava lake.
Kill the Afrits and walk around the lava. A magic bridge will appear.
Climb up the bridge (careful at the turns). Go inside the room at
the top and pull the puzzle switch.
NOTE: some people have written me about problems with gaps in the
magic blue bridge. I've finally found out what's the cause of this
problem. In this room, the magic bridge appears after you kill a
certain number of Afrits. If you kill the LAST Afrit when it's flying
where the bridge would appear, then when the bridge appears, there
will be a gap where the Afrit is. So far, I don't know of any solution
to this problem, unless the gap happens to be somewhere that you
can jump over. You probably have to reload a previously saved game
and try again. So, my advice is, STAY AWAY from where the bridge
will appear when you kill the Afrits.
Now, go down the bridge and enter the exit at the bottom. Climb up
the passage to the top and open the door using the Cave Key.
Switches requiring the Swamp Key (1)
Go to the Middle Cave in the Caves of Circe (see directions for getting
the Cave Key). Look for a passage that goes upwards (there is
only one that goes up). Note: be careful of pits in the floor here...
unless you like close encounters with hungry monsters. This passage
leads to the Upper Cave. If you want to get the platinum helmet,
I advise you to do it as fast as you can move. Otherwise you won't
like the consequences! (Thanks to Ron Garrison for telling me that
it's actually possible to get it in the first place.)
There's a fast-flowing river on the left. Beside this river is a
door that needs the Swamp Key. Open it and climb up the passage.
Take the first left tunnel, which leads to a room with the puzzle
switch. The other tunnel leads to a portal that takes you to the
Darkmere.
Switches requiring the Swamp Key (2)
Go to the Wastelands (see the directions for getting the Horn
Key). Go WEST to the place with the serpents on the opposite ledge.
(I mixed up the directions here in previous versions... sorry! And
thanks to Remy Horton who pointed it out to me). This time, take
the RIGHT (NORTH) tunnel (you went to the south tunnel to get the
Horn Key). Along the way, you'll see a grey tunnel on the left.
If this is not open yet, go kill some ettins. I finally found out
which ettins are responsible. You need to kill ettins around this
level, and when you've killed enough of them, the grey tunnel will
open. (I found this out by de-compiling the BEHAVIOR for this level).
Once this is open, go along it and take the right tunnel when it
forks. (the left tunnel leads to the ledge with the serpents. There's
a Krater of Might on the ledge). Now you're in a long, winding path
with centaurs.
Keep going until you reach a place where the path splits into three
(this is AFTER a dead-end tunnel on your left). Kill the centaurs
here and a large swampy area opens nearby. Go to the far end of the
swamp and climb up the stairs. Open the door with your Swamp Key.
Go inside and pull the switch in the farthest room. This opens a
large temple-like place near the swamp. (The long path with centaurs
is actually the perimeter of this place; this switch lowers the entire
right wall of the path to reveal it.) Go up the stairs to the main
door in this temple-like place. Open the main door. (Hint: you may
need to push it hard and try to open it at the same time). Go inside
the building and go BEHIND the portal. The puzzle switch is there.
The portal here takes you to the Darkmere.
Now, you have solved the puzzle of the six switches on Shadow Wood!
Brace yourself, and go to the room with the six panels in the temple
on Shadow Wood. All six panels should be bright now (if not, you
haven't pulled all six switches yet--pull them first!). The
gate to the portal should now be open. Take a deep breath, get your
weapons ready (yes, you're not done yet!) and step into the portal.
The portal will take you to the Hypostyle. There's a four-pointed
star in the centre of the Hypostyle. One of the points will be raised:
this points to which room you should enter next. Note that the order
that the rooms are opened is RANDOM, so you must always follow where
the star points. There are four possible rooms:
The Serpent Room
This is the one with many chaos serpents. Go to the far end of the
room, and activate the switch there. Come back to the door (which
closed when you entered the room), and pull the switch in front of
it. This lets you out of the room and opens a door to another room.
Look at the star to find out where this next room is.
NOTE: if you're playing the fighter, the second part of your fourth
weapon is in this room.
The Centaur Room
This is the room with many centaurs a many crushing pillars. Go to
the left side of the room and press the switch behind the wall. (Monsters
will teleport in.) Now go to the right side and press the switch
behind the wall there. (More monsters.) Now go to the end of the
room and press the switch there. This lets you out of the room and
opens the next room. Again, look at the star to find out which is
the next room.
NOTE: if you're playing the cleric, the second part of your fourth
weapon is in this room.
The Lava Room
This is the room with many moving pillars on a lava lake (NOT the
one with the bridge; I call that the Bridge Room). You can jump from
pillar to pillar to get to the end of the room where the switch is,
or, go down the steps to the edge of the lava, and wait until the
last pillar is almost fully down. Run across the lava and get on
the pillar before it rises out of reach. Now you can jump to the
ledge with the switch. This switch lets you out of the room and opens
the next room.
NOTE: if you're playing the mage, the second part of your fourth
weapon is in this room.
The Bridge Room
This is the room with a long bridge in the middle and lava on either
side. When you enter the room, press the switch on your LEFT. Then,
look to your RIGHT. There's a symbol on the raised floor there: REMEMBER
THIS SYMBOL!! Now, go across the bridge and activate the panel with
the SAME symbol. This opens the door of the room. Make sure you do
this first, before you read on. (Note: this symbol is also randomly
picked, so you should always check it each time you play this level.)
Now, to avoid getting hit by the traps that also activated, press
one of the other panels. This teleports you to the door directly.
(Actually, this is intended as a punishment to those who didn't look
at the symbol; because if you didn't press the panel with the correct
symbol, the door is still closed and you'll have to run through the
fireball traps to get to the panels again.)
The Final Encounter
If you've completed all four rooms, none of the four points on the
star in the centre of the Hypostyle should be raised now. Two doors,
on the southeast and southwest side of the Hypostyle, are open. Both
lead to a large chamber with a lava lake. Before you enter, get your
best weapons ready! You will now face the wrath of the Death Wyvern.
Have fun!! :)
Here are some tips on fighting the Death Wyvern, for those of you
who are having trouble with it:
Be careful of the ground where the fire-breath of the Wyvern hits,
because his fire has secondary explosions which occur after
one or two seconds after the initial impact--this can be deceiving,
because the explosions from the initial impact may have finished
and the ground looks safe, but a second later, it will explode
in flames again. You'll get burned if you step on the ground
too quickly. The safest bet is to wait three or four seconds
before stepping on that part of the ground again.
There's a pair of Wings of Wrath on the ledge on the far side of
the lava lake, when you're playing single player mode. You can
grab them and fly around to chase the Death Wyvern! If you're
good enough, you can always keep behind it so that you won't
get hit. (I owe Arne this neat trick... I've noticed the Wings
before, but I didn't think of using them to chase the Wyvern
from behind.)
After you kill the Death Wyvern, the portal on the southwest of the
Hypostyle will be open. It will take you to episode 3. Or, if you
want to go to the secret level in the current episode, enter the
portal on the southEAST, which takes you back to Shadow Wood. You
can then visit the secret level, Sacred Grove. (Advice: if you
want to go to the secret level in Episode 4, you MUST go to the Sacred
Grove.)
To get to the Sacred Grove, you must first solve all six puzzle switches
on episode 2. Once all six switches are activated, the hidden portal
to Sacred Grove opens.
This portal is on Shadow Wood: go outside the temple on Shadow Wood,
where there's a high rocky place. There are tall steps here that
lets you climb to a high ledge near the top of the rocky place. Just
before you reach the top, there's an opening to the right; the portal
is inside there. Note that you won't be able to enter this opening
until the six puzzle switches are pulled. Step into the portal...
The Switch on Sacred Grove
First, kill all the ettins that come charging at you as soon as you
enter the level. After you kill them, something opens at the base
of the pillar in the centre of the level. Go to the pillar, and look
for a switch. Pull it. This switch is the one that Raven said will
trigger something several levels ahead. IT ACTIVATES SOMETHING IN
THE FORSAKEN OUTPOST, WHICH IS IN EPISODE 4. You MUST pull this switch
if you want to get to the secret level in Episode 4.
Three Mystic Urns
I was wrong in the previous walkthrough when I said that there's
nothing else left in this level!! I've found out that besides the
goodies scattered around this level, there are THREE Mystic Urns
hidden in three EXTREMELY secret places on this level! They're so
secret that they don't even show on the map. (No, not even after
you've found them!) Well, I'll let you figure out where they are
yourself, since this level is small enough. :) Hint: look VERY carefully
at those roots on the walls.
After you've found the three Mystic Urns (what a bonus!), or you
give up, :) step into the portal back to Shadow Wood and continue
with your quest.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Heresiarch's Seminary! You're going to have a really
bad nightmare here (especially if you play the hardest difficulty
setting). Anyway, the main emphasis of this walkthrough is the puzzle,
so I'll skip the horrific superlatives and tell you about the puzzle
in this episode.
There are two distinct phases in this episode:
1. Solving the puzzle of the planets
In the main hall in the Heresiarch's Seminary, there's a chart with
circles and triangles on the wall. This is some kind of astrological
chart with a symbol for the sun in the centre. You can also see a
little red gem on the lower left corner, representing one of the
planets. Five other spots for other planets are scattered across
the chart, except that the gems representing those planets are missing.
Your goal is to find these missing planets and fit them on the chart.
2. Solving the puzzle of the chapels
The second puzzle involves NINE sub-puzzles. Some are switches that
you must pull, others are places that you must cross. These puzzles
are scattered across three chapels: the Griffin Chapel, the Dragon
Chapel, and the Wolf Chapel. After you find solve all nine puzzles,
the Heresiarch himself will appear...
Heresiarch's Seminary: Solving the Puzzle of the Planets
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before you start looking for the missing planets, you first need
to get into the Seminary. The portal from the Hypostyle in episode
2 takes you to a tower in front of the Seminary (as the story tells
you). Take the elevators down and enter the Seminary, which is very,
very dark at this point. (Watch out for the Dark Bishops!) You need
to enter some distance into the Seminary, and then a small earthquake
occurs and the lights in the hall will light up. The chart with the
missing planets are on the other side of the wall facing the entrance
to the Seminary.
As an interesting aside, go to the north part of the Seminary (the
far end), where there's a hole in the ceiling with a roughly square
wall under it. This is a magical area; stepping close to the wall
lowers it and randomly teleports monsters AND goodies into the area
enclosed by the wall. To get the goodies (some of them are quite
worth the trouble... such as Kraters of Might), you must get inside
the area enclosed by the walls before the walls rise again, because
after they rise, they won't lower again for quite some time. Once
inside, you can collect all the stuff, and the walls can be opened
from the inside when you want to get out again. (Note: if you are
low on life/ammo, you shouldn't try this because the monsters that
teleport in are among the tougher ones.)
OK, back to solving the puzzle. The five planets that you need are
not found in the Heresiarch's Seminary itself, but on two sub-levels:
Orchard of Lamentations (two planets)
Silent Refectory (three planets)
There are stained glass walls on the northeastern and northwestern
corner of the Seminary. Go and smash these glass walls and pull the
switches behind them (there should be six switches). This opens the
corridors on the northeast and southeast corners of the Seminary.
Silent Refectory
Go down the northeast corridor that just opened in the Seminary.
At the end of the corridor, there's a switch on the wall on the left.
Pull this switch, and quickly RUN to the far end of the corridor,
and jump on the elevator that is lowering. You have to get on the
elevator QUICKLY, otherwise it'll be too far down and you'll get
hurt jumping on it.
In some difficulty settings, there may be a nasty surprise waiting
for you when the elevator reaches the bottom, so prepare your weapons...
At the bottom, you'll see the portal leading to the Silent Refectory.
The switch on the wall is to lower the elevator so that you can get
out when you come back from the Silent Refectory.
The Silent Refectory looks like some kind of storage area with piles
of wooden boxes. But the name is misleading, though... just take
a few steps forward and you'll see what I mean :)
Emerald Planet
From where you start in the Refectory, turn right and go south. Jump
up onto the box in front of you, and turn left (east). Go straight
and jump into the corridor. Now turn right and go south. When you
reach the stack of boxes in front of you, follow the right side of
the boxes (you should be going south here). When you reach the wall,
turn left and look into the dark area. Pull the switch inside there.
Now go east, around the boxes hiding the switch, and stairs should
have lowered. The portal at the bottom of the stairs takes you back
to the Heresiarch's Seminary. Don't enter the portal now; go to the
room behind the portal where the Dark Bishops are. There's a switch
on the raised walkway at the far end of the room. Pull this switch,
and a small area behind the portal opens. One of the Emerald Planets
is on the shelf inside.
Sapphire Planet
Go to where the portal is and climb up the stairs. Now turn right
and go all the way until boxes block your way. Turn right, and you
should see a stack of two boxes marked with some symbol. Jump on
the boxes on your right (south of you), and go inside the dark area.
The switch inside here lowers the pile of marked boxes I just mentioned.
Pull the switch and quickly climb out of the dark area. Jump into
the hole where the marked boxes have lowered (of course, if you prefer
to shoot at the slaughtaurs from above, you can always go pull the
switch again when the boxes rise up.) Climb up the spiral staircase,
brace yourself (you can guess what's coming...) and pull the switch
at the top. If you survive the surprise (find out what it is yourself
:) go back to where the marked boxes are and activate it. The boxes
will lower. Step on it and it will take you back to the area with
many boxes.
After you step off the marked boxes, go west and turn right (face
north). Climb over the box in front of you and go all the way to
the northern wall. Turn left and jump on the box that's also marked
with a symbol. Walk on the boxes into the small at the back, and
pull the switch there. (If I've lost you, this switch is on the northwest
corner of this storage area.) Now, a door is open on the northern
wall next to the marked box. Go into the room behind this door, which
has windows looking into some kind of dining room. Enter the dining
room and go to the southern end. There should be an opening here
(the switch you pulled in the room with the spiral staircase opens
this). This opening leads to an ascending passage which has windows
looking into the room with the spiral stairs (you've probably been
shot at from here when you were in that room).
At the end of the passage there's a switch that opens a door on the
east side of the dining room. Pull the switch, go back to the dining
room and enter the opening on the east side. There's a large pillar
rising from the pit in the middle of the room. When you approach
the edge of the pit, the pillar begins to open, and reveal a Sapphire
Planet on a smaller pillar inside. To get the Sapphire Planet, aim
carefully and jump onto the pillar. DON'T PANIC! The pillar will
start to lower when you jump on it. (I guess this is for those who
missed and fell into the pit). Just wait a while and it will rise
again. Jump back out, and return to the dining room.
As an aside, go to the northern wall of the dining room and push
the wall with a purple dot a the top (push, ie., walk against it).
If you push far enough, you'll see a small hole on the right with
an item in it (I think it's a Banishment Device).
Ruby Planet
OK, back to your quest. Enter the door on the west side of the dining
room. There are two doors here; you can pick either one. The one
on the left goes into a room with a lava pool and the one on the
right into a room with a water pool. Each of these rooms has a revolving
door (which is not automatic... you have to push it to open it),
which leads into a chamber with the Ruby Planet on a shelf. A word
of warning: be careful when you grab the Ruby Planet: don't just
stand there and admire it...
That's all for the Silent Refectory. Now it's time to go to the Orchard
of Lamentations. Note: if you go to the room with the lava pool,
notice that one of the dark openings is taller than the rest. This
is a hidden passage that leads right back to where you first enter
this level. Go to the portal now and get back to the Heresiarch's
Seminary.
Orchard of Lamentations
Go down the southeast corridor in the Seminary. Look for a switch
on your right (BEFORE you come to the end of the corridor). Pull
this switch, and turn around. After a short pause, the stairs you
just came down on will lower, revealing a secret passage on the south
wall beside the stairs. Go inside this secret passage, and climb
up the stairs. Kill the Dark Bishops here. The southern wall of the
room will open to the area outside the Seminary.
Now, a similar room will open on the OTHER side (the WEST side) of
the Seminary. Go west (OUTSIDE the Seminary) and enter the room there.
Go down the stairs, and follow the zig-zagging passage. Note that
this passage is MAGICAL; after going along it for a distance you'll
find yourself on the ledge at the east side of the Seminary, at the
end of the southeast corridor, where the slaughtaurs are. (Actually
what happened is that in the middle of the zig-zagging passage there
is an invisible teleport that warps you to a similar passage behind
the ledge where the slaughtaurs are.) There is a switch on the ledge;
pull it, and a door will open on the wall in the area below the ledge.
The portal behind this wall takes you to the Orchard of Lamentations.
Emerald Planet
Don't worry, I didn't make a mistake. There are two Emerald Planets
and two Sapphire Planets. In fact, there are two Ruby Planets too,
except that one of them is already on the chart, so you only need
to find the other one. So, now, in the Orchard, follow the path from
the portal (there's nowhere else to go). Be careful of the muck here
(you know why). You'll reach an area with slaughtaurs on two high
ledges. Go further, and go down to the roundish area with ettins,
slaughtaurs and quite a few poison mushrooms. Go down the stairs
on the south side of this area.
Now you have to very, very fast in making your moves. Pull the switch,
which you lower the platform at the end of the path. Quickly jump
down and run as fast as possible to the nearest corner, before the
entire floor rises and crushes you to death! Now you'll be in a small
room with a switch that lowers the floor again. Your goal is to reach
the MIDDLE, SOUTHERN room in this place (look at the map). You do
this by pulling the switch in each of the rooms and going quickly
from room to room as the floor lowers and rises. When you reach the
middle, southern room, there should be two switches. The switch on
the east wall opens the central room in this crushing-floor area
(look at the map and you'll know what I mean). Once this is opened,
you can reach it from any of the seven rooms. There are also two
switches in this room; one of them activates something on this level,
and the other lowers the floor so that you can get out.
Once you pulled the switch, lower the floor and run to the north
side where the exit is. Go back to the area with the slaughtaurs
on the two ledges. The high place on the east has lowered; climb
all the way up until you reach the slimy river at the very top. The
Emerald Planet you're looking for is near the edge of the slime-falls
(don't fall though, it hurts).
Sapphire Planet
Go to the raised ledge in front of the slimy river. You should be
able to see one of the ledges with the slaughtaurs. Now, aim carefully,
run as fast as you can and jump onto that ledge. If you can't make
it, keep trying! (Hint: holding down your jump key longer helps.)
Once on the ledge, enter the misty passage behind it. This is a magical
passage similar to the one in the Heresiarch's Seminary: it teleports
you somewhere along the way to a similar passage that leads into
the west side of the area with the four paths.
If you're greedy, or feel like bashing up some baddies, notice that
the northern wall here has opened. Get your weapons ready, and go
grab the porkalator. Monsters will appear at the sides where two
other walls will open.
Whether you're greedy or not, notice that the east side of this area
is also open now. Go down the stairs into the misty passage. This
is another of those magical passages. It teleports you to the OTHER
ledge with the slaughtaurs. The Sapphire Planet is here. Grab it,
and jump down the ledge.
There's nothing much else to do here, so go back to the portal and
return to the Heresiarch's Seminary.
The Last Segment of your Fourth Weapon
This is an aside... but since finding the parts of your fourth weapon
is also a puzzle, I guess I'll include this one as well.
At this point, you should have found the first two parts of your
fourth weapon. Go to the end of the southeast passage in the Heresiarch's
Seminary. There's a switch here that you must pull: see if you can
find it! (no, it's not the one on the ledge that opens the portal
to the Orchard of Lamentations.) Hint: remember the first thing you
did when you entered the Darkmere in Episode 2? (Remember what those
trees looked like??) This switch will start rotating the four doors
along the passage. Two of these doors lead to the ledges with the
Chaos Serpents overlooking this area. The door we're interested in
here is the southwestern one.
It leads to a room with many pitchers. The last segment of your fourth
weapon is in this room. The pitchers also have lots of ammo in them.
But watch out, though. One of them contains no ammo but a nasty,
nasty surprise (I won't tell you which one it is: find out yourself...
hehe)
Icon of the Defender
Another aside... (if you're itching to solve the puzzle, you can
skip this section).
So, you're greedy to get the Icon of the Defender. Well, go through
the northwestern door on the southeast passage in the Seminary (see
the previous section). This leads to a U-shaped passage that goes
around the area with many Chaos Serpents (you've probably seen them
through the window from the main hall of the Seminary). At each end
of the passage there's a wall with a purple gem at the top. Activating
either of these walls lowers elevators around the passage that takes
you right into the room with the Chaos Serpents (have fun!). The
Icon is on the water in the middle of the room.
Fitting the Planets on the Chart
Go to the chart, select a planet, and use it on the chart. You should
be able to figure out which planet belongs where on the chart: the
game won't let you put a planet in the wrong place so just try another
spot if it says "you can't use this here". Before you go on, check
that you've fitted FIVE planets on the chart. There should be six
planets on the chart now, including one of the Ruby Planet that was
already there before.
Once you've fitted in all the planets, go to the north part of the
Seminary where the magical area is. Doors will open on the side walls
and on the wall behind the area. The door behind the magical area
leads to a room with three portals and nine panels on the wall. Now,
it's time to solve the next puzzle in this episode: the puzzle
of the chapels.
Heresiarch's Seminary: Solving the Puzzle of the Chapels
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
You should have reached the area with three portals at the northern
end of the Heresiarch's Seminary. If you look at the south wall,
you'll see nine dark panels. Just as in Shadow Wood, each of these
panels corresponds to one of the nine puzzles you must solve in the
chapels. Each of the three portals lead to a different chapel. The
portal with the symbol of a wolf leads to the Wolf Chapel; the portal
with the dragon head symbol leads to the Dragon Chapel, and the portal
with the griffin leads to the Griffin Chapel. Note that each chapel
has three portals, each leading to the other two chapels and the
Seminary. As you guessed, those portals also have the corresponding
symbols on them to indicate where they go to. The portal leading
to the Seminary has no symbol on it.
The three chapels are quite intricately connected with each other;
pulling puzzle switches in one chapel may open new areas in other
chapels. This can become very confusing; so I recommend that you
simply solve the nine puzzles in the order that I present them. This
time it's not the best way of doing things though. In many places
you can solve more than one puzzle without leaving the chapel, but
for the sake of neatness, I'm doing things the long way. Of course,
for those of you who want to do things your own way and don't mind
getting confused, :) I've included many cross-links in this document.
The First Three Puzzles
Griffin Chapel (1)
Go to the Griffin Chapel. There are two cages with Chaos Serpents
on the northwest and northeast corners of the hall here, as well
as another cage with another Chaos Serpent on the south side. On
the south side, there are two staircases on the south, with really
HIGH steps. These are blocked with bars unless you've solved the
first puzzle in the Wolf Chapel. If you did, you can solve the second
puzzle in this chapel. There are also bars on the north side, which
leads a deep chasm. If you've solved the first puzzle in the Dragon
Chapel, you can solve the third puzzle in this chapel.
Go to the west side of the hall where there's a wall with a purple
diamond at the top. This is a secret door; open it and pull the switch
inside. This is the first puzzle switch in the Griffin Chapel. Besides
solving the puzzle, it also opens:
two pillars next to the two Serpent cages in the hall. The switches
inside these pillars opens the cages.
the door on the north side of the hallway in the Wolf Chapel,
which leads to the second puzzle in the Wolf Chapel.
the northern pair of rotating pillars on the west side of the Dragon
Chapel, which leads you to the second puzzle switch in
that chapel, and also open the bars blocking the northern passage
on the east side of that chapel.
Wolf Chapel (1)
Go to the Wolf Chapel. The portal takes you to a small room with
the three portals, outside the chapel building. Go to the southwest
corner of the level, where there's a small staircase leading to a
door in the building. Go inside and pull the switch inside. This
switch opens the door on the south side of the building, which leads
to long hallway.
If you've solved the first puzzle in the Griffin Chapel, you can
solve the second puzzle in this chapel from here; and if you've
solved the first puzzle in the Dragon Chapel, you can also solve
the third puzzle.
Turn right when you enter this place, and open another door there.
The switch inside is the first puzzle switch in this chapel. Besides
solving one of the nine puzzles, this switch will:
open the bars blocking the staircases with high steps, in the Griffin
Chapel. This leads to the second puzzle in that chapel.
open the southern pair of rotating pillars on the west side of
the Dragon Chapel, as well as the bars blocking the south passage
on the east side of that chapel. This south passage leads to
the third puzzle switch in that chapel.
Dragon Chapel (1)
When you first enter the Dragon Chapel, BEWARE of the crystal vials
on the ledges at the sides of the room. If you decide to grab them,
be ready for a nasty encounter. Also, watch out for slaughtaurs inside
the main hall of the chapel: there are many of them here. There's
a circle of unlit lamps in the front of the hall. If you've solved
the first puzzles in the other two chapels, the lamps will be lit,
and a Krater of Might will teleport into this circle after a while(how
nice!). Go up the steps leading to the swamp pool, and go grab the
goodies behind the pool. Kill the Dark Bishops that appear. Now two
doors have opened on the east and west sides of the hall. Be careful
when you enter one of these doors, because monsters behind the other
door will be sneaking up behind you.
The east door leads to a short corridor with two passages on the
sides, the northern passage and the southern passage. These will
be blocked with iron bars unless you've solved the first puzzles
on the other two chapels. If you've solved the first puzzle in the
Wolf Chapel, you can solve the third puzzle in this chapel from
here.
The west door leads to a short corridor with two pairs of rotating
pillars on the north and south sides, which block the passages behind
them. You cannot pass these pillars unless you've solved the first
puzzles on the other two chapels. If you've solved the first puzzle
in the Griffin Chapel, you can solve the second puzzle in this
chapel from here. There's a switch on the left wall. This is the
first puzzle switch in this chapel. Just as in the other two chapels,
this switch also opens:
a door on the east and a door on the west side of the hallway in
the Wolf Chapel. The west door leads to a series of dark corridors
and a room with the third puzzle switch in that chapel.
The bars on the north side of the hall in the Griffin Chapel, which
leads to a huge pit with lava at the bottom (yes, I was stupid
enough to jump down just to see what's at the bottom!) This
place leads to the third puzzle switch in that chapel.
The other six puzzles
Griffin Chapel (2)
To solve the second puzzle in the Griffin Chapel, you need to solve
the first puzzle in the Wolf Chapel. This opens the two staircases
on the south side of the hall in the Griffin Chapel.
Go to the Griffin Chapel, and down the stairs on the south side of
the hall. Climb up the passage on your right. This leads to an open
area with a deep chasm on either side of a walkway. Walk to the end
of the walkway where it widens out into a round ledge. When you walk
here, a trigger is activated. This is the second puzzle.
Across the chasm on the east side, there's a stained glass wall.
If you break the stained glass, a wall will open on the west side
across the chasm. This leads to the room with the Porkalator, in
front of the ledge. Note that this stained glass takes good aim to
break. I've found out that it's possible to break this glass with
all the character classes. You need very good aim, that's all. Try
strafing to the sides and shooting from different angles if you've
trouble breaking the glass. (Thanks to Arco Vermaat for telling me
that it's possible with the fighter's hammer.)
Griffin Chapel (3)
To solve this puzzle, you must first solve the first puzzle in
the Dragon Chapel. This opens the bars that lead to the huge pit
with lava at the bottom. If you noticed, there's a small black arrow
on the floor pointing at the pit. Now, take a deep breath, and walk
over the edge in that direction!
Presto! a magic blue bridge appears at your feet, leading to two
openings across the deep chasm. If this doesn't seem to work for
you (ie., you fall into the chasm and die when the bridge appears,
or it doesn't appear at all), note that: you must WALK over the edge,
not crawl like a coward. There's a small gap between the edge and
the bridge; if you crawl too slowly, you'll fall through the gap
to your death. Also, you must walk off the edge EXACTLY where the
arrow is. If you walk off elsewhere, you'll miss the bridge and die
(or the bridge may not even appear).
Now go to the opening on the right first, and press the switch there.
This will open the bars that are blocking the opening on the left.
After you press the switch, go to the opening on the left and enter
the teleport. This teleport takes you to the southwest corner of
the chasm, near the bottom. Follow the narrow passage and jump across
the small section of the chasm. The passage on the other side leads
to what I call the Crazy Walls Room.
There are many walls in this room that move back and forth. If you're
not careful, you'll be crushed between moving walls! The puzzle switch
is at the far end of the room. But DON'T RUN THERE YET! If you do
that now, the ceiling wall fall on top of you and kill you. You must
first find four switches in this Crazy Walls Room. The switches are
behind walls with a purple diamond at the top. They are located near
the four corners of the room.
NOTE: Several times when I played this level I had problems with
walls that seemed to be stuck, and in places close to these walls
I seem to be able to "see through" them (DOOM level writers call
this the Hall of Mirrors Effect). The reason seemed to be that some
ettins are stuck between the walls, and for some reason--I think
it's a bug--the walls cannot move and this causes the wall-moving
script to malfunction (my guess). This is especially irritating when
one of the four switches are behind the stuck wall! The way to cure
this bug is to either kill the ettin and quickly move out of the
way before the wall crushes you, or use the Disk of Repulsion on
the ettin. For some reason this kills it, and the walls go back to
normal.
After you have activated all four switches, go to the end of the
room where the puzzle switch is. The ceiling won't fall down now.
After you pull the switch, the "Crazy Walls" move into some fixed
position and then stops moving.
Wolf Chapel (2)
You must solve the first puzzle in the Griffin Chapel before you
come here; it opens the north door in the hallway in the Wolf Chapel.
There's a long corridor behind this door. Be careful of the stained
glass walls and ceilings. They've unexpected surprises for you!
At the end of the corridor is a big auditorium, with a triangular
symbol at the front and two pillars at the sides. You need to run
and jump on BOTH pillars. This solves the second puzzle in this chapel.
Before you stop to congratulate yourself, some monsters are jealous
of your progress...
Solving this puzzle also raises the floor where the triangular symbol
is marked. Now you can jump from this raised floor onto the small
ledge with the Krater of Might.
Wolf Chapel (3)
The switch that solves this puzzle is in one of the rooms in the
dark corridors on the western part of the Wolf Chapel.
If you have solved the first puzzles in both the Dragon Chapel and
the Griffin Chapel, you can enter the Wolf Chapel using the west
entrance. From there, enter the first door on the right.
Otherwise, go to the main hallway of the Wolf Chapel and enter the
door on the west, where there's a room with a deep pit with a pillar
in the middle. (I still don't know what this pillar is for. If you
know, please tell me.) Enter the door on the left, which leads
to dark corridors. Go left when you enter the door, and go inside
another door on the left.
Now you should be in the room with two pillars and some Dark Bishops.
The door on the opposite side leads to a room with the puzzle switch.
Once you pull the puzzle switch, four platforms at the corners of
the room will lower, with some ettins on them. The two pillars in
the first room will also lower, with some Dark Bishops on them.
One of the platforms will rise when you step on it, and will take
you to a small secret room with an Icon of the Defender.
For those of you who are adventurous, you might want to try exploring
other rooms along the dark corridors. There's a room with something
that looks like a fireplace. Anyone knows what this is for? There's
also a room which has three raised ledges with Discs of Repulsion
on them. Each time you take the Disc, the ledge lowers into the floor.
Once all three have lowered, Dark Bishops will teleport into the
dark corridors outside. By the way, the map seems to show that there's
a door from this room into one of the side rooms in the long hallway
with stained glass, but I can't get it to open. Anyone has any ideas?
Please tell me if you know anything about this.
Dragon Chapel (2)
To solve this puzzle you must first solve the first puzzle in
the Griffin Chapel. This opens the northern pair of rotating pillars
in the Dragon Chapel.
If you haven't solved the first puzzle in the Dragon Chapel yet,
do it now. Go to the west corridor where the rotating pillars
are (this is also where the first puzzle switch is). Go past the
northern pair of pillars. There's a wall with a dragon symbol on
it. You need to open this door by pulling a switch upstairs. Turn
right and activate the wall where the texture is different. This
lowers an elevator which takes you to the ledge where a slaughtaur
was. There's a wall with a dragon symbol on the left: open it and
go up the stairs. Now you are on the high ledge in the northwest
corner of the chapel. There's a switch near the edge. Pull this switch
and the door downstairs that I mentioned will open. Now go back down
the stairs and jump down into the main hall of the chapel. Note:
DON'T jump down straight from the high ledge. You'll get hurt.
Now go back past the northern pair of rotating pillars and go through
the door that just opened. Go all the way to the end and pull the
switch there. This is the second puzzle switch. If you look through
the window here, you'll see a swampy pool with lots of goodies. You
can get in there from the main hall of the chapel outside. Go to
the swamp pool and strike the northern wall (strike, not open). This
lowers the pool into this area behind the window.
Dragon Chapel (3)
You should solve the first puzzle in the Wolf Chapel before you
come here. When you solve the first puzzle in the Wolf Chapel, the
bars blocking the south passage on the east side of the Dragon Chapel
will be opened.
Go to the east corridor and down the south passage. Activate the
wall with the dragon symbols. This is an elevator that takes you
to the highest ledge in the southeast corner of the chapel. From
there, jump down to the lower ledge on the north (NOT back into the
main hall!). A wall will open on the right, with some baddies. The
switch inside is the third puzzle switch in this chapel.
The Heresiarch
So, you've solved the puzzle of the three chapels. Now, go back to
the Heresiarch's Seminary. All nine panels on the wall should be
bright by now. Pull out your best weapons and go into the main hall.
The battle begins! You must face the Heresiarch before you can get
out of this place.
Although this document is supposed to concentrate on the puzzle side
of the game, I think a few tips on fighting the Heresiarch should
be included here since it's an important juncture in the game.
The Heresiarch has several modes of attack: he can fire a wavy trail
of large purple fireballs that are extremely damaging (they explode,
too, so stay away from them even when they miss you and hit the floor),
or he can summon bouncing blobs of fire that chase you. These blobs
of fire look like skulls and stay around for quite a long time before
they disappear, if they don't hit you. When the Heresiarch is badly
hurt, he'll also summon Dark Bishops to help him. Note that the Heresiarch
can freeze into an invulnerable mode (when he has those purple swirly
things around him, not necessarily when he raises his arms--thanks
to Arne for correcting me on this point). In this mode, all attacks
are blocked, and most magical weapons are actually reflected back
at you.
Here are some strategies in fighting the Heresiarch:
Since you should have an ample supply of quartz flasks by this
time, just ignore the homing bouncing fire blobs (they don't cost
too much life); concentrate your attention on attacking the Heresiarch.
Stay away from the purple fireballs, though. These may drain too
much life and exhaust all your healing potions.
Don't just fire at the Heresiarch from one direction; move about
and fire from different angles. This way, you've a much better
chance of hitting him because shooting at him from the same angle
simply causes him to freeze into invulnerable mode and your ammo
will be wasted.
Don't be too distracted by the Dark Bishops when the Heresiarch
starts summoning them. Just kill enough of them to keep their
spiralling fireballs from draining too much life; don't spend
all your ammo on them since the Heresiarch is going to summon
more anyway. Instead, CONCENTRATE ON ATTACKING THE HERESIARCH.
His summoning the Bishops show that he's quite badly hurt already.
Kill him first, then you can take care of the remaining Dark Bishops.
Also, DON'T TOUCH THOSE BOUNCING MANA CUBES when the Heresiarch
dies! They are very explosive and may kill you if you're greedy
and think that they'll increase your mana points.
After the Heresiarch dies, the Seminary will start to quake and tremble.
Just stay still in a safe place until things calm down again. Hint:
watch out for ettins that teleport in after you kill the Heresiarch.
You're probably very low on life at this point, and they like to
come just at this wrong time to beat you up from behind. Now, several
places on the west side of the Seminary have opened. Go there now,
and enter the inner sanctum of the Heresiarch. Be careful! The Heresiarch
is dead, but his followers are still around seeking revenge, so don't
put away your weapons yet!
Jump inside the room where the Chaos Serpent was (you've probably
seen this place from the outside before). The wall on the corridor
behind you will open, and the portal leading to the next episode
is standing there, waiting for you. Before you enter, you may want
to explore the secret level first. If you're ready to enter the
portal, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH HEALTH AND AMMO LEFT, otherwise
you're not going to survive the next episode (yes, it's that horrible!).
You must kill the Heresiarch before you can get to this secret
chapel. After you kill him, go to the north part of the Seminary
where the magical walls area is. The pillars south of this area are
now opening and closing. Go behind the pillars and take the elevator
down. The portal at the bottom takes you to the Deathwind Chapel.
Solving the Deathwind Chapel
There are three sections in this chapel, the Lava area, the Centaur
Room, and the Goodies area. When you first come into the chapel,
only the Lava area is open. This place is behind the door on your
left as you enter the chapel.
The Lava Area
There are several Dark Bishops in the room, so be prepared before
you open the door! After you get rid of them, activate the switch
at the far end of the room. Stairs will rise on your left. Climb
up these stairs to the top, where there's a ledge with lava below.
You need to jump into the lava and run to the opening on the right
(make sure you see where it is before you jump! It's not fun walking
around on lava looking for something you can't find). There's a narrow
staircase here that leads into a dark room with Dark Bishops. Activate
the switch in this room. This switch activates the elevator in the
next place you go to.
Now, go back down to the lava, and run across to the opening. Go
inside the room with a pillar. Step on the elevator behind the pillar,
which takes you to two rooms where Dark Bishops were shooting at
you earlier. There's a door in the room on the right which takes
you back to the room where you activated the elevator switch. Go
to the room on the left and down the dark passage to another room
with Dark Bishops.
Activate the switch in this room. This opens something in the pillar
in the elevator room. Go back there and examine the pillar. Activate
the skull switch. Now a wall has opened on another side of the lava,
which leads back to the first room in the Lava area. Run across the
lava into the room. Now stairs have lowered on the other side of
the room.
Go down the stairs to a room with a large pit. Follow the ledge on
the left carefully. There's a pillar in the middle of the pit with
a platinum helmet on it. Go to the ledge nearest to the pillar and
jump on the pillar. Stairs will rise and join this pillar to the
entrance of this room. Go back to the entrance, and now follow the
ledge in the other direction. This leads to a switch which opens
a wall back to the first room and also opens the door to the Centaur
Room.
The Centaur Room
Go back to the room where you entered this chapel, and enter the
Centaur Room. BE CAREFUL OF THE PILLARS INSIDE... They will start
to rotate and move about. You have to time yourself carefully and
run past them to the far end of the room. Don't get crushed by the
pillars! (You can also run past them before they start to move about).
Pull the switch at the far end of the room. Walls will open, with
goodies inside and more Centaurs. You have to run past the rotating
pillars again to get out of the room.
Goodies area
Now, the third door in the portal room should be open. DON'T RUSH
INSIDE! You'll be stampeded to death by hordes of monsters. The best
strategy here is to run inside quickly and get out again, and stand
at the doorway; then either put traps (like poison clouds from the
flechettes if you're playing the Cleric) or whack away like mad at
anything that tries to come out of the door.
After you bash the guts out of the monsters, go inside the room.
There are two teleports here, one on each of the dark sides of the
room. Each teleport takes you to a small area which overlooks a courtyard
with a statue in the middle. Pull the switches in both of these areas.
This will open the door at the far end of the room, which leads to
the courtyard with the statue. There are lots of goodies here, with
a Krater of Might in an opening at the far end of the room.
That's all there is to this level. Collect all the goodies and ammo
here and step into the portal that leads back to the Heresiarch's
Seminary. Now you're probably more equipped for the next episode!
Step into the portal that leads to the next episode, the Castle
of Grief.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Castle of Grief: synopsis of the puzzle
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm skipping the horrific superlatives again... (I looked at the
monster count: over 100 in this single level!) It's so crazy that
even while Korax is giving you a polite little speech, a Chaos Serpent
is breathing fireballs at you behind the wall--you'll be fried
unless you strafe to the side! Just as in the Heresiarch's Seminary
(episode 3), there are two phases in this episode. Your ultimate
goal is to find the other Heresiarch and kill him (yes, you've to
face another one of 'em!!). As the story says, "somewhere within,
your enemies are waiting." Somewhere in this castle episode, the
Heresiarch is waiting.
1. The Clock
One of the buildings inside the castle has a big clock in the wall.
When you first enter this episode, the clock is not working. Some
gears are missing from the clockwork machinery. You can see parts
of the machinery behind the four rusty panels in this room. A gear
is missing from the machinery behind each panel. You have to find
the four gears, which are scattered across the castle, and fit
them back into the machinery. Once the clock is repaired, it will
start to move. OK, you ask, so what? Well, once the clock starts
to move, an elevator in the middle of the castle is activated,
which takes you to a portal leading to the Gibbet.
2. The Gibbet
So, you've managed to find the way into the Heresiarch's hideout.
But you're not done yet! The Heresiarch is not so easy to deal
with. He's waiting somewhere behind the Axe door. But where's the
Axe key? How do you get to the key?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Spoiler
NOTE: I've received a message from Raven's Game Design Manager, Michael
Raymond-Judy, saying that this shortcut has been corrected. It was
an unintentional slip by the level designers, apparently. So, the
following information will expire soon.
This shortcut lets you skip the entire Clock puzzle, and also skip
almost all of the puzzles on the Gibbet. In effect, you've hardly
played the episode at all!
Here's how it goes: in the centre of the Castle, there's a room with
many traps in the centre. One of these traps is a Porkalator; if
you stand there, you might get porkalated (ie., turned into a pig).
The trick to this short-cut is that you DELIBERATELY stand in the
middle of these traps to get porkalated. Or, if you're quick, watch
for the yellow, roundish projectile--that's the porkalator projectile
-- and deliberately get hit by it when you see it. When you become
a pig, you can fit through many places you aren't supposed to fit
through in human form! (Another way of getting porkalated is if you
have a porkalator yourself. Go whack a Centaur until he freezes into
defense mode, then throw the porkalator. The Centaur's shield will
reflect the Porkalator back at you and porkalate you.) Run out to
the front of the castle, and run under the hole on the east side
of the moat. There's a portal here that leads to the Effluvium. In
fact, if you're not using this short-cut, you can get here from the
Effluvium much later in the game. The hole where you crawled through
can be opened from the inside so that it's big enough for you to
fit through in human form.
The portal takes you to a room with four mini-tanks of muck in the
Effluvium. (Actually, you need to open the wall in a small space
where you teleport in.) Jump to the tank on your right, and turn
the winch on the side, which will drain out the muck. Jump inside
the tank, and go through the opening. Open the wall with a handle
on the opposite side. Jump over the hole in front of you, and enter
the room where the Brown Serpent is. There's another wall with a
handle where the Serpent is standing; open it to reveal a portal
to the Forsaken Outpost. Now, you've come to where it would take
a much longer time to reach without using this shortcut! In fact,
you've almost solved the puzzle of the Axe Key, without actually
solving the puzzles themselves! But you missed all the fun you would
have had otherwise, though. :)
(This short-cut was told to me by Rob Viren and Greg Hewgill.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of course, before you start looking for the gears, you must get into
the castle first! You need to raise the bridge that leads to the
front entrance of the castle. The switches to raise the bridge are
in two small niches in the water on either side of the bridge. Pull
both of them, and steps will be raised. Now you can get into the
castle.
As mentioned before, you need four gears. You can get them in any
order you want, but I suggest that you follow my order, because I've
arranged them so that you go from one part of the castle to another
progressively.
Silver Gear
Silver-rimmed Yellow Gear
Yellow Gear
Yellow-rimmed Silver Gear
If you want, you can see the room with the Clock and fiddle with
the panels now. Or, if you're not in a hurry, read on. I'll get you
there eventually.
Silver Gear
This gear is the easiest to find. From the front entrance of the
castle, go inside and go right (WEST). Enter the dark room on the
west (I call this the West Room). The Silver Gear is sitting in the
middle of the room. WARNING: NEVER STAND THERE AND ADMIRE THE BEAUTIFUL,
INTRICATELY MADE GEAR ONCE YOU PICK IT UP. THIS IS NOT A MUSEUM!
Silver-rimmed Yellow Gear
This one is also easy. It's in the big round room in the centre of
the castle, opposite the West Room (see the section above on the
Silver Gear). I call this the Gibbet Room because this is where
the portal to the Gibbet is. The entrance to that room is on the
south. The gear is in the middle, where there's a circle of eight
pillars with masks on them. NOTE: AGAIN, THIS PLACE AIN'T A MUSEUM!
GET OUTTA THERE ONCE YOU GRAB THE GEAR. IT'S NOT ARCHAEOLOGISTS WHO
PUT THOSE MASKS THERE...
Yellow-rimmed Silver Gear
This gear is in the room on the southeast corner of the castle. You
need to activate five switches in order to get it. Each of the five
switches are in one of the five towers of the castle.
Getting up to the Battlements
Go to the Gibbet Room in the centre of the castle (the round one
where the Silver-rimmed Yellow Gear is). Jump on the window sill
on the east side of the room. There's a switch behind the pillar
here: pull it and the four elevators in the front and back of the
castle will be activated.
The Battlements
The battlements of the castle are split into two parts, the one along
the eastern wall, and the one along the western wall. The eastern
battlements connects three towers, and the western battlements connect
the other two. Just take the elevators up to the battlements, and
look for a switch that looks like a skull in each of the five towers.
You should activate FIVE switches. After all of them are activated,
go to the southeast room in the castle. Stairs should have lowered
at one corner of the room. The Yellow-rimmed Silver Gear is on the
shelf at the bottom of the stairs. Once you get the gear, fireball
traps on the floor will activate. Run through them quickly to get
back into the courtyard of the castle.
The Clock Room
While you're finding switches on the battlements, you may want to
visit the room with the infamous Clock. The room is in the SOUTHWEST
corner of the castle. The entrance is on the south side. Be careful
when you get there. Some monsters are jealously guarding their broken
toy clock...
Yellow Gear
The Yellow Gear is also in the Gibbet Room, but it's on a platform
that you cannot reach. To lower this platform, you need to press
FOUR switches on the OUTSIDE of the castle. Follow the side of the
wall carefully; some of the switches are quite well hidden. After
you activate all four switches, the platform in the Gibbet Room will
lower, with the Yellow Gear on it.
Interlude: portal to the Forsaken Outpost
While you're looking for the four switches outside the castle walls,
you've probably noticed the small opening on the southeast corner
of the level with a portal inside. This portal leads to the Forsaken
Outpost. There are some items there which you need to solve the puzzle
of the Gibbet; so you should go and get them now. Also, there's plenty
of ammo there, for those of you who are running short of firepower.
Fixing the Clock
Go to the Clock Room. The infamous Clock is here, not moving at
this point. There are four panels in this room; each panel has the
picture of a gear above it. This picture indicates which of the four
gears you should fit into the machinery behind the panel. (The game
won't allow you to place a wrong gear into the machinery, so don't
worry too much about this.)
After all four gears are fitted in, the clock starts to move. Who
cares, though? What you really want is the message that says that
something has lowered in the Gibbet Room. Go there now, and get on
the elevator that was activated. When the elevator gets to the top,
activate the eight-pointed switch. This teleports you to the Gibbet.
When you first come to the Gibbet, there's a switch in front of you.
Pull the switch, and turn around! The switch lowers the floor you're
on, down into the Central Room. Monsters will attack you from behind
if you don't turn around.
The Gibbet has several rooms and places:
Central Room
This is where you start. There's a portal here that takes you back
to the Castle of Grief, and a spire of stone on the pool in the
middle.
Axe Key Room
As the name indicates, the Axe Key Room is where the Axe Key is.
This room is on the north of the Gibbet. You need the Axe Key to
open the door to the Heresiarch's Lair. But don't be deceived!
This doesn't at all mean that getting the Axe Key is easy. You
can SEE where the Axe Key is, but to OPEN the cage where it is,
you have to solve a string of other puzzles.
Statue Room
This is the room with many Dark Bishops, on the east side of the
Gibbet. There's a statue at one end of the room, and a deep fissure
in the floor. The presence of the fissure suggests that the floor
in this room may be unstable...
Heresiarch's Lair
This is the west room in the Gibbet. You need the Axe Key to get
in. It's some kind of throne room, because it has a jasper throne
in the middle and many lamps and pillars around. As you guessed,
the Heresiarch is somewhere inside here. Of course, you need to
get the Axe Key first, before you can enter this room to face the
Heresiarch.
Library Area
This area is on the south side of the Gibbet. There's a library here,
with bookshelves and study tables; and another area which has a
door that requires the Dungeon Key.
To solve the puzzles to open the cage where the Axe Key is, you must
first get some required items from the Forsaken Outpost. If you have
done so already, you can skip to the next step. If not, go back
to the Castle of Grief. Go to the southeast corner, OUTSIDE the castle.
There's an opening here with a portal that takes you to the Forsaken
Outpost.
Forsaken Outpost (1)
Liber Oscura
You start in a dark cavern, with many monsters around. Go to where
these caves opens into an open area with a deep chasm (there aren't
too many caves here, so you should be able to find your way around
pretty easily). Follow the ledge on the right that goes to the doors
where the Chaos Serpents are.
Note: there's a pillar in the chasm with many Repulsion Discs. You
can jump to it, but only if you're very expert. I suggest that you
solve puzzles here first, and then come back, because a magic bridge
will appear after you solve the puzzle.
Enter the doors, which lead into a courtyard with a statue in the
middle. There are two small rooms on the left and on the right. There's
nothing in them yet, so go to the far end of the courtyard where
there's a dark corridor. The big doors in front require the Rusted
Key, which you'll get later. If you go right on the corridor, it
will lead to the ledge where the Chaos Serpent is. There's a platinum
helmet here. If you go left on the corridor, it will fork into two.
The left turn goes to the other ledge with the Chaos Serpent, where
there's a quartz flask. Follow the right turn, which leads into a
small dark room with a switch.
Pull this switch. This opens a new room at the corner of the passage
where you came in. Go inside the room and kill the ettins there.
There's a book lying on a pedestal in the middle. WAIT! Don't forget
to pull out your weapons before you grab the Liber Oscura. This mystic
book has many jealous guardians! It's one of the items you need in
the Gibbet.
Daemon Codex
There's a passage at the far end of the room which leads to one of
the small rooms in the courtyard through a newly-opened exit. If
you noticed, a wall has opened in the courtyard. The switch there
lowers two platforms at the sides which lead to a small room with
some items. Now, go to the other small room. A new passage has also
opened here, as well as a wall with the Rusted Key inside. You can
grab the Rusted Key now.
The new passage leads into a dark room with a shallow chasm in the
middle, and some Dark Bishops. Jump from pillar to pillar to get
to the ledge at the other side of the room where there's a switch
and a Porkalator. Unlike many other places in this game, don't worry
if you fall into the chasm. It's quite shallow, and there are some
high steps that let you climb back up (the steps are high, so you
need to jump in some parts). Pull the switch on the ledge.
If you're observant enough, you'll notice a grey ball lying on another
ledge in this room. This is a sleeping Afrit... unfortunately you
can't kill it yet. It's invulnerable in this "ball" mode.
After pulling the switch, another area has opened in this dark room.
There's some ammo there and a secret window which looks into the
room behind the door that needs the Rusted Key (it's a secret window
because you can't see it from the other side). There's also a door
here that will open much later.
Go back to the courtyard now, and open the big doors with the Rusted
Key. WATCH OUT, though. There are many unpleasant monsters behind
the doors.
The doors lead to a big room with many crystal vials and quartz flasks.
There's also lots of ammo at the far corners. At the far end of the
room, there's rusty pillar. You need to open it by pulling four switches.
The four switches are in four small rooms at the sides of this room.
You must kill the monsters inside here before the rooms open. Once
they open, go inside and pull the four switches. The rusty pillar
will split into two, move to the side, and the wall behind it will
slowly lower. There's a book lying on the floor beyond. This is the
Daemon Codex, which you need in the Gibbet.
Desolate Garden
If you've pulled the switch in the Sacred Grove back in Episode
2, when you grab the Daemon Codex, a portal will open behind it.
This portal leads to the secret level in this episode, Desolate
Garden. It WON'T open unless you pulled the switch in Episode 2;
so if you didn't pull the switch back then, forget about going to
the Desolate Garden.
Now that you have both the Liber Oscura and the Daemon Codex, go
back to the portal that leads to the Castle of Grief. Along the way,
you might want to grab the Discs of Repulsion on the pillar in the
deep chasm. Note that you must JUMP onto the blue magic bridge, and
JUMP back; it's not really a bridge but just some kind of 'stepping
stone' that helps you get to the pillar. Be prepared for some jealous
monsters while you're grabbing the Discs, though.
Go back to the Castle of Grief, and from there, go to the Gibbet:
you're now ready to solve the next puzzle. (Or, finish solving the
puzzle of the Clock first in order to get to the Gibbet, if you haven't
done so already.)
Yorick's Skull
Go to the Library Area in the Gibbet. There are two bookshelves on
the wall here; these are actually rotating doors in disguise. The
door on the left leads to the library; this is where you should go
now.
The library has many bookshelves. For some reason, there are several
ettins here (I don't know for what. In my opinion, they are really
stupid blockheads; so dumb even though they've two heads. So it's
surprising to find them in a library!!). Look for the bookshelf that
has a demon mask at the top. (Hint: this bookshelf is the last one
in its row, so it's facing the wall.) There are two empty slots between
the books. You guessed it! This is where the Liber Oscura and the
Daemon Codex belongs. If you look carefully, the letters on some
of the books on the shelf spell out K-R-X. Notice that the Daemon
Codex has the letter 'O' and the Liber Oscura has the letter 'A'.
Pull them out of your pocket, and slide them into the empty slots
on the shelf, so that the letters spell out K-O-R-A-X! The lights
go out. Whip out your weapons and prepare for another battle...
Several of the bookshelves have lowered into the floor. ONE of them
has a skull with horns on it. Pick up this skull. This is Yorick's
Skull. Just like the two books, this skull also belongs somewhere...
can you think of where?
Go to the Statue Room now. If you haven't been here yet, go and smash
all the stained glass walls around here! Behind one of the stained
glass walls there's a switch. Pull this switch. Now the broken bridge
that leads to the statue is repaired. Walk up to the statue. Notice
anything unusual?
OK, you guessed it. Return Yorick his skull. WATCH YOUR STEP NOW!
Remember I warned you about tectonic instability here...? When things
have calmed down, walk back on the path and leave the room. The tremor
has created a leak somewhere. Go to the Central Room now. The pool
here is leaking through some leak near the black pillar. Go down
to the pillar and you'll see an eight-pointed star. Flip this symbol,
and oops...! You've been sucked into:
Effluvium (1)
This is some kind of stinking sewer, with lots of slime, grime and
muck (hence the name Effluvium, which means a bad, repulsive smell).
Just the kind of place for those slimy Stalkers! This is probably
their favorite hangout: there are lots of them swishing around in
the muck here.
You start in some kind of drain, which flows ahead into a pool of
muck in the room at the far end. Before you go there, you need to
look for a switch in one of the small ledges on the side of the drain.
If you're observant, you'll notice doors and walls in the other ledges
that look like they MIGHT lead somewhere interesting. They do; however,
you can't open these places yet, at this point, so just find the
switch and activate it.
The switch opens a portal back to the Gibbet in one of the other
ledges, and also lowers another drain on the other side of the room
with the muck pool (which lets in some nasty shooting Stalkers as
well). Jump into the muck pool, and go to the end of this other drain.
There's a ledge on the right, which leads into another room filled
with muck. There are windows in this room that look out to the outside
world. The door at the end of the room lets you out to breath some
fresh air. :) If you look carefully enough, one of the windows has
something on its sill on the outside. This is the Dungeon Key. Go
out the door and turn left. Walk over to where the windows are and
grab the Dungeon Key.
This is about all you can do in the Effluvium at this point. Go back
and step into the portal that the switch opened earlier, to get back
to the Gibbet.
Dungeons
The Portal
Now go to the Library Area in the Gibbet again, and go through the
rotating bookshelf on the right. You're now in a room with a cage
in front, something that looks like a bed on one side, a bookshelf
in one corner, and a wooden ledge with a switch at the end. There's
also a door that needs the Dungeon Key.
Kill the Slaughtaur in the cage, and a wall beside the cage opens.
This leads inside the cage itself, as well as into a room with many
barrels. There's a secret passage in this barrel room that isn't
open yet, so go back to the room outside the cage.
The bookshelf in the corner lowers a platform underneath you if you
activate it. This leads to a short passage with some monsters and
a window beyond your reach that looks into a room with Dark Bishops.
That room is behind the door that needs the Dungeon Key. To get out
of this passage, pull the switch near the platform, which lowers
it and takes you back to the first room.
You need to pull the switch at the end of the wooden ledge. WATCH
OUT! As soon as you pull the switch, the wooden ledge collapses into
a really deep pit! NO! you DON'T try to run back after you pull the
switch. The ledge collapses too fast for that. Rather, you must stand
on the tiny piece of wood that's left in front of the switch! Then,
slowly turn around, and jump as hard as you can to get back on solid
floor! (Hint: holding down the Jump key longer will help here...
also, try to RUN forward at the same time.) This switch opens the
room with the Dark Bishops that you saw earlier.
Now, open the door with the Dungeon Key. Go inside the place that
looks like a torture chamber, and turn right. The wall here should
have opened (when you pulled that switch), and the room with the
Dark Bishops is beyond. Go inside that room and pull the switch there.
This lowers stairs in the room with barrels. Go to the room with
the barrels now, which is behind the secret passage beside the cage
in the first room.
Go down the stairs at the far end of the room. BE CAREFUL HERE! At
the bottom of the stairs, turn RIGHT. There's a very deep hole on
the left, so DON'T EVER BACK UP INTO IT! There's a portal in the
room here, which leads to the Dungeons. Step into the portal now.
The Dungeons
You start in a small room with the portal that leads back to the
Gibbet. The exit of the room opens to a very large, dark room with
a lava pool in the middle. Go there, and climb down the stairs. On
the south side of this room, there's a passage blocked with bars.
Opposite the bars, there's a wooden pillar with a switch that's blocked
by another piece of wood. You need to open both the bars and this
switch.
Go to the west side of the room now, where there are stairs leading
into a really dark torture chamber. Go inside the chamber (watch
out for monsters!) and go the west end. There's a switch here you
must activate. This switch opens the other switch on the pillar in
the large room with the lava, and also opens the bars blocking the
south passage.
Go back to the large room and enter the south passage that is now
accessible. This leads into a round area with seven cages. In the
centre of the cages there's a wooden pillar. A switch is hidden in
this pillar, but it won't open just yet. Go back out to the lava
room, and press the switch on the wooden pillar. Each time you press
this switch, one of the seven cages open. You can either open them
all by pressing the switch seven times all at once, or, (recommended)
press it once at a time, go to the opened cage and kill the slaughtaur
first, before you come back to press the switch the next time. After
all seven cages are opened, another switch appears in the pillar
in the centre of the seven cages. Go and press this switch. This
opens two new passages on the west side of the lava room.
These new passages lead to the walkway above the really dark torture
chamber. You can jump on the pillars with the goodies from here which
you couldn't reach before. There's also a couple of secret doors
on the pillars that lead to the goodies on the high ledge that you
can see from the lava room.
Go up the stairs on the southern passage, and take the first left
turn. This leads to two rooms with ettins. There's a porkalator in
the farthest room. Come back out and continue along the passage.
The second left turn leads to two cages with some nasties inside.
The switch on the wall is worth mentioning here: if you pull it once,
it opens the door to one of the cages. The second time you pull it,
it opens the other cage. The third time you pull it, (notice the
red eyes this time) it closes both cages.
Continue along the passage, which turns a corner at this point. Take
the left turn, and you'll get to a room with small cages and mutilated
bodies in them. There's ammo at the far end of the room. Go back
to the passage and continue. The next left turn leads to four rooms.
The farthest room, on the northwest, (the one with many chains) has
a secret door on the west wall, which leads to a long corridor that
takes you to the room with the slaughtaurs at the end of the passage
outside. There's plated armor here. Activate the switch, and the
windows will open so that you can get out without having to retrace
your steps.
Go east now, along the northern ledge. A new passage has opened on
the left, which has a different wall texture. Go down the passage
to a room with a gang of Chaos Serpents and several cages at the
sides. There's another passage on the right that leads to another
room with Chaos Serpents and cages at the sides. Stairs from one
of those cages lead to the room on the east of the lava room. If
you go down the stairs at the far end of that room, you'll get back
to the lava room.
Bottomless Pit
For now, come back to the first room with the Chaos Serpents and
the cages at the sides. Examine the cages CAREFULLY. There's a well-
hidden switch in one of them. Pull this switch. Now a new passage
has opened somewhere along the passage that you came in. This is
very hidden, and won't even show on your map unless you've looked
in its direction. Go back along the passage where you came in and
look carefully on the left. Walk down the steps in the new passage,
to a curved room with a slimy river. Jump into the river now and
follow it downstream. Yes, right into the pitch black tunnel. Keep
going, keep going... don't hesitate...
AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHH... !!!!!! You've fallen into a pit! NO! don't
reload your game! Just hang on while you tumble into the bottomless
pit...
Effluvium (2)
Miracle! You're still alive after all that drop! You're now in a
new part of the Effluvium. Many new places have opened on this level
at this point, and it's time to explore them! Go out the room and
jump into the muck. Follow the current downstream. Along the way,
you'll come through a room with ettins. The door on the right takes
you to the drain where you first entered the Effluvium earlier on,
from the Gibbet.
If you can't wait to solve the puzzle, go there now and skip the
following digressions.
Interesting Places in the Effluvium
So, you want to muck around. :) So, continue downstream in the room
with the ettins (and of course, watch out for those Stalkers that
are enjoying themselves in the muck and dirt).
At the end of the journey, you'll come to a very high room filled
with muck. On the opposite wall, the muck is draining out from the
room through a drainhole. There's a winch on the left. Turn this
winch now, and the hole closes. The muck will start to fill up the
room... until the water level (or muck level, to be precise!) reaches
two overflow-drainholes at the top of the room. You can now reach
the ledge on the right side of the room where there's a Mystic Urn
and another winch. Grab the Urn, and turn the winch. Quickly jump
back into the muck; the winch has re-opened the drainhole at the
bottom of the room, and the water level (muck level) is dropping
back to its normal level. If you don't jump back now, the water level
will be so low that you'll get hurt jumping back in.
OK, that's enough disruption of sewer operation. :) Go back to the
room with ettins and go to the place where the portal to the Gibbet
is. A wall has opened on the ledge opposite the portal. There's a
labyrinth of muck rivers beyond. Go inside there now. If you look
carefully, you'll notice a Porkalator on the other side of a drain
hole. You'll get there shortly... Now, go down the drain the leads
from this room. It branches into three. Don't worry; it's not as
confusing as it may seem.
On the left, those walls are the walls of a room with a torch in
it. I call this the Torch Room, because there's a torch inside to
help you see more clearly in these dark drains. The entrance is on
the other side. If you look up in that room, you'll see that you're
looking up through a sewer grating.
The walls on the right are walls of another room, which I call the
Dragonskin room. It's not opened yet, so now, follow the drain on
the right, and keep to the right wall. You'll see the walls of a
third room on your left. Look along the wall on your right carefully.
Open the wall where there's a rusty handle. There are two such walls;
one leads into a room with a switch and a window looking out of the
sewer, and the other leads to a platform that actually takes you
outside. Activate the switch, and the walls of the third room lowers.
There might be some monsters in that room. Now, the Dragonskin Room
is open. There's an elevator there that takes you up on a ledge with
Dragonskin Bracers.
Go to the platform that takes you outside to a small dark area with
some trees. Look for another sewer hole in this area, and jump down
into it. Go right. There, you got the Porkalator you saw earlier
on. To get back, climb on the rusty platform which takes you back
out to the area with trees. Jump back into the hole where the three
rooms are. Now go back to where the portal to the Gibbet is.
Back to Solving the Puzzle
Go down the drain beside the portal to the Gibbet. Jump into the
pool of muck at the end of the drain, just like before, and walk
up the other drain on the opposite side. Now, the ledge on the left
has opened. Climb on it, and go into the big, dark room. Be careful
here: there are Brown Serpents around. There are four tanks of muck
here. Jump on the one closest to the top of the stairs where you
came into the room (the southeast one). Now you can reach the other
two tanks on the north side by jumping from here.
There's a winch between the two tanks on the north side. Turn it
now, and the muck will drain way from the two tanks. Jump into the
northeast one. There's a falcon shield in a small room to the north.
The pillar on the south side of the tank is an elevator; activate
it to get back out. Now jump into the northwest tank. There's a portal
in the room beyond that takes you to back to the Castle of Grief.
You'll come out in a hidden room at one end of the Castle's moat.
You can raise the wall to get out onto the moat and into the Castle.
For now, step back into the portal to get back to the Effluvium.
The portal will take you to the west side of the room with the four
tanks. Jump onto the southwest tank now. There's also a winch between
this tank and the southeast tank. Turn the winch to drain out both
tanks. The southeast tank leads to a small chamber that sometimes
has an item. Again, the pillar in the tank is an elevator to take
you back out. Go to the southwest tank. There's a wall with a handle
in the room beyond. Open this wall, and you'll see another room behind
the muck drain, with a Brown Serpent. WATCH YOUR STEP HERE! There's
a PIT right in front of you! You must jump over it to get to the
room with the Brown Serpent.
This room has a waterfall (muck falls, to be precise). There's also
a rusty pillar which is an elevator. Activate it to lower it, and
it will take you up to a door which opens into one of the ledges
beside the drain with the portal to the Gibbet. Don't go back to
the Gibbet now; you haven't solved the puzzle yet. Go back to the
room with the muck falls. Climb on the ledge where the Brown Serpent
was. Notice the wall here that has a handle on it. Pull it open to
reveal a portal. Step inside.
Forsaken Outpost (2)
The portal takes you to a new room on the Forsaken Outpost. Unless
you feel like bashing up more monsters, don't break the stained glass
walls. There are baddies behind them but only one or two goodies.
:) The rusty wall at the end of the room opens out to the room with
the secret window. As you approach the rusty wall, you'll get a message
that something has opened on the Gibbet.
Step back into the portal that leads back to the Effluvium, and take
the portal in the Effluvium that goes to the Gibbet. Now you're ready
to solve the final puzzle in this episode!
Heresiarch's Lair
Go to the Axe Key room in the north side of the Gibbet. On the left,
there's a circular wall with flechettes on green pillars. If you
want to grab the flechettes, be careful that you don't get crushed...
If you walk to the south side of the circular wall, a small room
will open in the circular wall, with some Afrits and some items inside.
On the right side of the room there's a cage with some monsters inside
and a pillar. If you've solved all the puzzles so far, the southeast
corner of this cage will be open. Go inside and the pillar lowers,
revealing the long-sought Axe Key. Grab the Axe Key, and go to the
door of the Heresiarch's Lair. Now you're ready to face the Heresiarch!
Open the Heresiarch's Lair with the Axe Key. Note that the door will
close after a short time, and IT CANNOT BE OPENED FROM THE INSIDE.
You must make sure you have enough health potions and ammo to face
the Heresiarch plus lots of monsters before you enter this door.
Once you go in, there's no return until you kill the Heresiarch (unless
you have the Chaos Device, of course).
NOTE: Some people, including myself, have experienced problems in
this room, where some script malfunctions and the Heresiarch doesn't
appear. So I advise you to save your game before you enter the Heresiarch's
Lair, in case something goes wrong and you're stuck. I'm not sure
exactly what causes this problem; many people have mailed me about
this, but everyone seems to have a slightly different version of
the problem. For my case, I must jump ON TOP OF the throne where
the Icon of the Defender is, AS SOON AS I ENTER THE ROOM. Just grabbing
the Icon without jumping on the throne or jumping on it after the
Afrits appear seems to be the cause of my problem. Other people have
mailed me different solutions, including avoiding the god-mode cheat,
opening the Axe door more than once, etc.. If anyone knows the real
answer to this, please tell me!
Enter the Heresiarch's Lair and kill the monsters there. Now, go
up to the throne and JUMP ON TOP OF IT when you grab the Icon of
the Defender (see the note above). This opens pillars at the sides
of the room with lots of Afrits. Kill all the Afrits, and Chaos Serpents
will teleport into the room around the throne.
Now, here is where the malfunction I mentioned above may occur. If
after you kill the Chaos Serpents and waited a long time, and the
Dark Bishops haven't appeared yet, something's wrong. You should
reload your saved game and try again. You must kill all the Chaos
Serpents as well as all the Dark Bishops.
Then, a wall behind the throne opens, with a big star of lava on
the floor and lots of quartz flasks lying around. The Heresiarch
is standing on top of the star, prepared to beat the life out of
you! You might want to review the tips on fighting the Heresiarch
which I gave in Episode 3.
After you kill the Heresiarch, the portal behind the lava star opens.
This portal leads to episode 5, Necropolis. Also, the door to
this room is opened momentarily when the Heresiarch dies. If you
want to get out of this room to explore other parts of this episode,
you should RUN to the door as soon as the Heresiarch dies. Once the
door closes again, there's absolutely no way out of this room except
with the Chaos Device.
NOTE: in order to reach this level you MUST pull the switch in the
Sacred Grove (Episode 2). If you don't pull that switch, the portal
to this level won't open. Also, some people have mailed me saying
that the portal doesn't open even though they pulled the switch on
the Sacred Grove. I'm not very sure about this because so far I haven't
encountered the same problem. But using the VISIT cheat code or the
CASPER cheat code may cause you to miss certain trigger lines on
the levels, and mess up the script that opens this portal. This COULD
be a possible cause of the problem.
The portal to this level is in the Forsaken Outpost.
Eight Switches
You start in a desolate garden. :) Watch out, though. If you stand
there too long enjoying the lonely breeze, a pretty spiral of yellowish-
green may JUST come creeping out the window on the opposite far wall
and float towards you... And don't forget that while fighting those
Dark Bishops behind the window, there just MIGHT be a gift or two
from some kind soul behind you. You'd better make sure you 'reward'
that kind soul for the gift! ;)
OK, jokes aside. If you look at the ground, you'll notice eight switches
around the garden. These pop out of the ground randomly and pop back
in. You need to catch each of the eight switches when they pop out
and pull them. Well, you may think this is a funny game, but the
switches don't think so, so be prepared as some monster teleports
in each time you pull a switch...
After all eight switches are pulled, the elevators on the north and
south sides of the garden are activated, and the stairs there are
opened as well, leading to new places to explore.
The Ninth Switch
Also, pulling all eight switches makes the switch in the pond in
the middle of the garden rise out of the water. This switch opens
the room with the portal back to the Forsaken Outpost. Some jealous
'gardeners' may appear too... :)
Don't Drown
The stairs on the north and south sides of the garden lead to the
room where the Dark Bishops were. This room is opened only if you
pulled the ninth switch. The portal here takes you back to the Forsaken
Outpost. Behind the portal, where the window is, you can find one
of the three parts of your fourth weapon. There's also another room
across the drain on the other side of the corridor.
If you look carefully, there are drainholes on the floor in this
other room, and there's a pillar on the far side of the room. One
of the three parts of your fourth weapon is here too. UH-OH! muck
is overflowing from the pillar into the room! The water level (or
muck level) is getting higher and higher... the ceiling is getting
closer and closer... Hurry up and run BEHIND the pillar at the far
end of the room. Activate the switch there. This switch stops the
overflowing muck coming from the pillar, and the muck in the room
will drain away through the drainholes on the floor.
That's not all, though. A jealous Chaos Serpent will appear in a
newly opened area opposite the door of the room. One of the parts
of your fourth weapon is inside.
Krater of Might
The elevators on the north and south sides of the garden take you
up to where the west side of the garden where some monsters were
shooting at you earlier on. Be careful here, because there are more
of them than you saw through the window. At first, the room here
is split into two sections, one on the north side and one on the
south. You can find your second and third weapons here, one on each
section, as well as some ammo.
If you go to BOTH the two sections, a hidden area will open, joining
the two sections, as you LEAVE. There's a Krater of Might inside.
That's about all you can do in this level. Grab all the goodies and
items lying around, and step into the portal to the Forsaken Outpost
to continue your quest.
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So, you've come this far. You've destroyed the Death Wyvern, and
you've killed the two Heresiarchs. Korax has enough meddling from
you.
"Are you strong enough to face your own masters?"
Your former masters (see the story at Raven's page), Zedek, Marshal
of the Legion; Traductus, Grand Patriarch of the Church; and Menelkir,
Arch-Mage of the Arcanum, are waiting for you in their tombs. (Korax
gave them the gift of Unlife. My guess is that since "undead" means
the living dead, Unlife means the "dead living"... which is probably
why these three masters are in their tombs.) Each of them represents
one of the three character classes in the game. Zedek represents
the Fighter; Traductus, the Cleric; and Menelkir, the Mage. You must
enter their tombs and defeat each of them. Then only you can reach
your goal: to enter Korax's stronghold, and destroy Korax himself.
However, finding your three former masters in their tombs isn't as
easy as you think. Each of the tombs has its own puzzles, traps,
and monsters which you have to deal with before you actually fight
the master.
The Living Dead
When you first enter the Necropolis, you'll meet the Reivers in swarms.
Note that after you kill a certain number of them, more will rise
from the ground. But don't worry; they don't keep coming forever.
Once they rise from the ground once or twice there will be no more
of them. You should walk around the whole graveyard and kill all
of them so that they won't interfere when you're trying to solve
the puzzles.
Before you start solving the puzzles in the three tombs, however,
you might want to visit the Vivarium. Note that it's accessible
only BEFORE YOU ENTER ANY OF THE TOMBS. After you enter any one of
the tombs, the portal to the Vivarium will be sealed off forever.
There's a fair amount of goodies in there (and LOTS of monsters),
so you might want to go there to 'stock up' on useful items before
you fight the three masters and Korax himself.
The Tombs
The three tombs are:
The Tomb of Zedek
The Tomb of Menelkir
The Tomb of Traductus
(Click on each of the above to solve each of the three puzzles.)
Epilogue
Once you've finished the three tombs, there's only the Big Bad Guy
left. You should have obtained the three special items from the tombs:
the Glaive Seal, Sigil of the Magus, and the Holy Relic. (If not,
go back to the tombs and get them!) You need these three items to
continue.
Now go to the northwest of the Necropolis, where there's a door with
a panel at the side. There are three outlines on this panel, each
matching one of the Glaive Seal, the Sigil of the Magus, and the
Holy Relic. Fit these on the panel, and the door opens. There's a
portal behind the door. Collect the mana here (there should be plenty
-- and you need them!), gather all your resources together, and prepare
for the final battle. Enter the portal to the Dark Crucible, the
stronghold of Korax: your final objective.
REMINDER: This level is accessible only BEFORE YOU ENTER ANY OF THE
THREE MASTERS' TOMBS. After you enter any one of their tombs, the
portal to the Vivarium will be closed forever.
The portal to the Vivarium is on the southeast corner of the Necropolis.
This shouldn't be too hard to find, unless, of course, the portal
is already closed; in which case you'll see a door that won't open
no matter what you do. Get your best weapons ready before stepping
into the portal! The Vivarium isn't a nice place when its inhabitants
are still alive...
Goodies
There are four crushers in the centre of the Vivarium. There's combined
mana in the crushers; when they open, quickly jump on them, grab
the mana and get out before you get crushed.
There's a large area with many, many goodies on the south side of
the Vivarium. This is behind you when you first enter the Vivarium.
There are two ways of getting in there:
1. Blast the wall with many symbols, behind you when you start,
with a PROJECTILE WEAPON. Note that there's a PARTICULAR SPOT
on the wall which you need to hit; and since this is picked at
random, you may need to try several times. Once you hit the correct
spot, the entire wall swings back to reveal a large area full of
goodies. I found that ALL the mage's weapons will work here; for
the fighter, only the Hammer and the Quietus works; and for the
Cleric, the Serpent Staff and the Firestorm works. For some reason,
the Wraithverge doesn't work (it SEEMS to work sometimes, but I'm
not sure when).
2. Go to the east or west sides of the Vivarium where there are
a lot of traps. Watch for the round, yellow projectile that is
fired sometimes. This is the PORKALATOR; you DELIBERATELY get hit
by it so that you turn into a pig. As a pig, jump out of the traps
area and crawl through the hole on the east side of the wall with
many symbols. This also leads to the area with many goodies, but
it doesn't open the wall to let the baddies in! After the effect
of the porkalator wears off, you can get out by opening the wall
with many symbols from the inside. (I owe Arne this alternative
way of getting into this area.) On the east and west sides of the
Vivarium there are areas with traps. If you look carefully, there's
a stained glass wall in the north side of each of these areas. Jump
through the window to get into each of the traps area (watch out
for the traps!), and PUSH (ie., run against it, not activate) the
stained glass wall. It's a rotating door. The stairs behind it lead
to the each of the two ledges overlooking the centre of the Vivarium.
There's usually an item or two on these ledges.
The Exit
The north side of the Vivarium has a dark area with some monsters
shooting at you. Shoot at the walls under the dark area (or punch
it if you're close enough) and it will lower. Step on it. When it
rises again, walk to the pillar in the middle, where there's a maulotaur
statue. Walking up in front of it lights it up and opens a door behind
you. Watch out; there's usually a few baddies inside who will blast
you from the back. There's a portal behind this door that leads back
to the Necropolis. Before you enter the portal, walk BEHIND it. There's
a porkalator there for the more observant people who don't rush into
any portals in sight! :)
After you collect the goodies in the Vivarium, step into the portal
back to the Necropolis, and continue your quest.
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The portal to the Tomb of Menelkir is on the east side of the Necropolis.
Enter the door with the pillars at the sides. NOTE: opening this
door will close the portal to the Vivarium for good.
There's a big door at the far end of the room. Go and open it. It
will start to open, and then close again, and you get a message saying,
"The portal has been sealed. Choose your fate." Eight switches will
appear in the room. One of these switches will open the door; the
others will open small rooms at the sides with Dark Bishops in them.
So far, I haven't been able to tell which switch opens the door;
I simply pull all of them and kill the Dark Bishops.
Once the door is open, go inside, grab the Krater of Might and step
into the portal.
Eight Symbols
You start in a circular room with four symbols on the wall. LOOK
AT THE PILLAR IN THE CENTRE OF THE ROOM. There's a symbol on it.
Find the symbol on the wall that matches this one, and activate it.
This will open the next room. If you activate the wrong symbol, a
gang of ettins will teleport in to bash you up.
The next room is an icy circular room with two pools and four switches.
There are four different symbols on the switches. Now, LOOK AT THE
MAP! What does this room look like on the map? Find the switch with
a symbol of this shape. Activate it, and the four switches sink into
the water. This is one fourth of the puzzle in this tomb. (Note:
I made a mistake here in the previous version of the walkthrough:
activating this switch does not open the third room; the third room
is always open. But this switch is related to solving the puzzle
in this tomb to get to Menelkir. Thanks to Hiram Lester Jr. for pointing
this out.)
Go to the third room now. Again, activating the wrong switch teleports
in a gang of ettins to punish you for your mistake. :)
The third room is a triangular room. Again, there's a symbol on the
pillar in the middle. Find the matching symbol on the wall and activate
it to open the next room.
The fourth room is a circular room with a deep pit. There's a magic
blue bridge that lets you get to the pillar in the middle, which
has four symbols on it. Again, LOOK AT THE MAP! What does this room
look like? Find the symbol with this shape and activate it.
Now, go to the fifth room, which is another triangular room. By now,
you should now what to do: activate the symbol on the wall that matches
the symbol on the pillar in the middle.
The sixth room is another circular room. I don't think I need to
repeat myself here. You should know which switch is the right one.
Another triangular room... same story goes for this one.
Another circular room... same old story. But this time, after you
activate the switch, something happens. (Provided of course, that
you've activated the correct switches in the other circular rooms.)
Four new switches have appeared, one in each of the four circular
rooms. You can press any of these four switches; all of them do the
same thing: they activate four elevators in all four circular rooms.
Step on one of the elevators, which will take you to:
Menelkir
There's a pillar in the room, which will open layer by layer. Menelkir
is standing there, ready to for battle! Depending on which character
class you're playing and what difficulty setting you use, Menelkir
may either be using his Bloodscourge or his Arc of Death.
Kill him, and a pillar will lower with the Sigil of the Magus on
it, that looks like a mini-Bloodscourge. You need this, so get it.
A portal will also open now, which takes you back to the Necropolis.
The portal to the Tomb of Traductus is on the northeast of the Necropolis.
Open the door there that leads to a dark chamber. NOTE: opening this
door will lock the portal to the Vivarium for good.
There's a rusty crate in this room that's different from the rest.
(For those of you who can't find it, it's at the northeast corner
of the room.) Step on it, and it will lower. There's a switch at
the bottom: pull it. Now a wall has opened in the room. There's an
elevator behind the wall. Pull the switch there to lower the elevator.
Be careful here, though. Quite a few Brown Serpents are waiting for
you at the bottom.
There's an opening at the north side of the rocky area at the bottom.
Go through the opening and turn left. There are stairs here that
take you up on the ledge where a Brown Serpent was shooting at you
earlier on. Go right on the ledge. There's a switch in the corner.
Pull this switch, and the portal to the Tomb of Traductus opens downstairs.
Go back down the stairs and enter the Tomb of Traductus.
Three switches
You start in a dark cavern. Follow the passage and turn right when
it forks. (If you turn left, this leads to the portal that returns
you to the Necropolis.) Watch out for Brown Serpents when the passage
opens out into a room. The entrance to the Tomb is in front.
Go down the long passage. There's a secret passage on the right at
the first pair of stained glass walls, which leads to a dark room
with some Dark Bishops and quartz flasks. At the second pair of stained
glass walls, the stained glass on the left is actually a one-way
wall. You can walk through it into another secret room with some
health potions. Usually there's a Dark Bishop or two hiding behind
the one-way wall, shooting at you.
If you walk to the end of the passage, the floor will lower. Usually
I run there and quickly run back before the floor lowers, because
there are many Dark Bishops down there!
After killing the Dark Bishops, jump down to the bottom. This is
a triangular area; there's a door on the north side of the triangle.
Enter the door there. There are three switches behind the door. The
middle switch opens the area inside the triangle, where Traductus
is. The other two switches open two other areas on the east and west
sides of the triangle. It's not a good idea to pull all three switches,
because there are Dark Bishops in the other two areas, and they might
interfere when you're fighting Traductus.
The area on the west is a spiral staircase with a Falcon Shield at
the top. But there's a trap there: when you get the Falcon Shield
rooms full of Dark Bishops will open beside the stairs.
The area on the east also has stairs, that lead to a few small rooms.
Walking inside the first room will open a few other rooms. You can
find the Icon of the Defender here, among other things.
Traductus
Once you pull the middle switch, the area inside the triangle opens,
and Traductus appears. Watch out for his Wraithverge! You need Discs
of Repulsion to keep those ghosties away. After you kill Traductus,
a pillar lowers, with a Holy Relic on it, that looks like a mini-
Wraithverge. Don't forget to take it with you.
That's about it. The elevator on the south end of the triangle is
activated now, so go back up and step into the portal that takes
you back to the Necropolis. To get out of the Brown Serpents area
in the Necropolis, pull the switch opposite the portal. This lowers
the elevator where you came down on. Now you can continue your
quest.
There's a door on the southwest of the Necropolis. This door leads
to a long corridor with lots of centaurs. The portal to the Tomb
of Zedek is at the end of the corridor. NOTE: after you open this
door, the portal to the Vivarium will be closed and locked.
The Puzzle
When you first enter the Tomb of Zedek, it's a long corridor with
some rusty pillars some way towards the end. If you look at the map,
the shape looks like a giant Quietus!
Walk to the end of the corridor where there's a door. WATCH OUT when
you approach the rusty pillars on the way! When you come near, the
pillars will begin to move to the side. When all the pillars have
moved to the side !CRASH! the ceiling slams down, and slowly rises
after a while. The pillars will move back to their original position.
Now it's safe to cross over.
There's a dark room behind the door, with many pillars. Activate
the switch on the east wall, and go back to the corridor. Now, a
semi-circular corridor has opened on the east side of the Tomb. Go
to the middle of the semi-circle and activate another switch there.
This opens small rooms along the circular corridor with monsters
inside them, and also opens another semi-circular corridor on the
west side of the Tomb. Go to the middle of the semi-circle on the
west, and activate the switch there. Just like the other switch,
this opens small rooms along this corridor with monsters inside.
Now, go to the room on the west, where there's a switch a three grey
squares on the wall.
When you activate the switch here, the three grey squares start to
rotate. When they stop rotating, MEMORIZE THE SYMBOLS ON THEM. Make
sure you remember the symbols, and also the order of the symbols
on the three grey squares!
Now, go back to the large room with pillars. This time, the door
will shut behind you. The ceiling will start to move down slowly!
You've only a limited time now. Go to the west side of this room,
where there's also three grey squares. Turn these squares so that
the symbols on them matches the symbols you've just seen on the other
three grey squares in the other room. Note that you MUST get the
order right too. Once you got the correct order of symbols, the ceiling
will rise again.
Zedek
Now, the door on the north side of the room will open. Pull out your
best weapon, and enter the door. The tomb slowly opens, and Zedek
steps forward... to give you a sound beating!
After you kill him, a pillar will lower, with a Glaive Seal on it
that looks like a mini-version of the Quietus. Pick this up; you'll
need it later on. That's it. You've finished this tomb. Go back to
the portal and return to the Necropolis. NOTE: for those of you
who have trouble killing Zedek, here's a dirty trick I use to get
the first shot at him: when you enter the room, quickly run to the
OPPOSITE side, and wait there. When Zedek appears, his back will
be facing you, so he won't see you and attack immediately. Now, take
a careful aim, and give him a good blast! However, this doesn't guarantee
that he'll be killed. You still need to fight him, but at least you
can hurt him first before he attacks you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The entrance to Korax's stronghold looks really eerie! Crimson red
sky, pitch black shadows, and corpses on spears. Even the bridge
is swinging. But you've come this far, and there's no turning back.
Go across the bridge and enter the door.
There are three switches here: one by the stairs, and two at the
sides of the room. If you pull the two switches at the sides, and
then pull the switch by the stairs, mana will appear in front of
the two switches. Exactly what type of mana is generated is random.
This is for those who don't have enough mana to face Korax! On rare
occasions, you may even get a Krater of Might or a Mystic Urn. Be
careful, though. If you do this too many times, some Dark Bishops
might teleport in to join the switch-pulling fun... :) However, after
the second hall opens later, this room will be closed, and you won't
be able to come back again for the mana. Anyway, thanks to the MANY
people who told me about this. I don't have much time now, so I wouldn't
have figured it out myself.
Korax
The strange echoing sound that you heard when you first entered the
Dark Crucible is the sound of Korax. Open the door in front, and
there's a big hall in front. And on the opposite side is none other
than the long-sought Korax! DON'T just stand there and stare at him.
He hates that, and you'll find out real soon that it's not different
flavours of ice-cream he's throwing at you... :) Be extremely careful
of his fireballs! He shoots many fireballs with his many arms and
the fireballs converge into a single blob of death that can kill
you with one hit! He uses the fireballs of different monsters: the
yellow ones the Chaos Serpents breath, the light green ones Brown
Serpents breath, the blue ones Slaughtaurs shoot, the green ones
Stalkers throw, the fiery ones Reivers throw, and the yellow ones
Afrits shoot. (Hmm... did I miss any?) I don't know if he also uses
the frost shards Wendigos shoot... probably not.
Another word of advice: don't walk up to him to discuss your differences
either: that brownish trail isn't a carpet! :) And he also hates
uninvited people treading his hall. He can fire lightning upwards
with his arm to control different traps in the hall, such as activating
fireball spitting devices on the ceiling, or turning almost all the
floor in the hall into lava! Beside these, there are also crushers
scattered around the hall.
After you hurt him enough, he teleports away like the coward that
he is. And he opens two pairs of really packed rooms on the far east
and west sides of the hall. These rooms are jam-packed with countless
ettins and centaurs! They'll come swarming on top of you, the ettins
first, followed by the centaurs, after you've killed all the ettins.
You probably need many Discs of Repulsion to keep them from stampeding
you to death as you shoot at them.
Once you finish off these troops, the doors on the north side of
the hall opens to reveal another big hall beyond. Korax now teleports
between several locations in both halls, and sends more of his troops
from another two pairs of jam-packed rooms in the second hall. This
time, they are Chaos Serpents (perhaps with Brown Serpents mixed
in as well). Watch out as they literally rain fireballs on you! Also,
be careful when you're running back and forth attacking the monsters.
Korax can turn most of the floors in the two halls into lava, and
activate fireball traps.
After you litter the two halls with the carcasses of the Serpents,
Korax will begin to summon more monsters. Dark Bishops will appear,
as well as invisible Chaos Serpents (that shoot the more damaging
green fireballs like Brown Serpents!) and invisible centaurs. These
invisible monsters don't leave any carcasses when they die: they
simply disappear. When you reach this point, DON'T WASTE YOUR AMMO
ON THESE MONSTERS! Kill just enough of them to keep them from getting
in your way, and CONCENTRATE ON KORAX! You should have kept enough
Kraters of Might to keep you going (there are also a few scattered
around the two halls).
Conclusion
When Korax finally dies, the Dark Crucible quakes and trembles, and
a portal opens at the far end of the second hall. STAY AWAY from
him when you kill him! When he dies, a swarm of ghosts explodes from
his carcass, something like what the Cleric's Wraithverge does (fortunately,
these don't stay around for as long). After the ghosts are gone,
you can go look at the big fat carcass of the late, lamented Korax.
:)
Now, gather yourself together, and step into the portal. After all
the excitement in the final battle, you can at last sit back and
watch the conclusion.
Thanks to the following people who mailed me corrections, additional
tips, etc.: Arne Michaelsen, Michael G. Bush, Michael W. Daniels,
John Renaud, David Madsen, Greg D. Spurr, Rob Viren, Greg Hewgill,
Jeff Rife, Hiram Lester Jr., Ron Garrison, Arco Vermaat, Remy Horton.
Special thanks to David Madsen for converting the first text version of
this walkthrough.
And of course, credits go to Raven Software and ID Software for making
the game itself.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you find any errors in this walkthrough, please let me know. Write
to me at:
yu107955@laurel.yorku.ca.
