Castle of Grief (synopsis)
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.
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.
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.)
Previous episode: Heresiarch's Seminary
Next document: Castle of Grief: the
Clock
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