Hub 4: Castle of Grief (map)



The Castle of Grief is the first map in the hub of the same name.

Walkthrough
Castle of Grief is the first map in the fourth hub. After taunting (and having a potential attack from a minion through his visage), you will start at the north of the map.

There are two tasks on this map - first is to reach the Forsaken Outpost, then obtain four gears required to reach Gibbet. Further visits to this level can be used to collect spare items, or as a means to head to other maps.

To Forsaken Outpost
The moat prevents you from entering the castle, but you can raise stairs to the main castle. Pull switches to the left and right of the drawbridge to raise them.

There are plenty of enemies between you and the portal to Forsaken Outpost, including some which may attack from behind. There are also enemies that may attack from above - if you want to engage them closely, you can enter the central tower and flip a switch on the eastern edge to activate the lifts to the surrounding ramparts.

The portal is located in the south-east corner of the map.

To Gibbet
There are four gears within this map that you need in order to activate a lift.


 * 1) The first gear is directly west of the central tower.  Retrieving it activates a trap where four Dark Bishops attack.
 * 2) The second gear is within the tower, but approaching it activates a trap where the surrounding faces launch various projectiles.  Running through the trap is the best option.
 * 3) On the outside of the castle walls, there are four moon switches hidden next to some of the towers.  When you activate all four, the gear will be found in the northern part of the central tower.
 * 4) In the tower, press the button on the eastern part of the room to activate the lifts leading to the castle wall.  On each of the surrounding five towers, there is a switch that needs to be flipped - exercise caution with the central pit, as it is a fatal drop.  When you have all five, enter the building in the south-east of the castle, and head down the stairs to get the fourth gear.  This activates a fire trap, but you can use disks of repulsion to reduce damage.

With all four gears, enter the south-west building inside the castle. Place all four gears in the correct location, and a lift will lower in the tower. This lift provides a means to reach Gibbet, by pressing a switch that transports you.

Trivia
Due to a mapping oversight, an early version (1.0.) of this level includes a major shortcut. It allows for many of the hub's puzzles to be disregarded and also lets one skip the Dungeons completely. To access the shortcut, the player must turn into a pig, by either being shot with a Porkalator projectile in the tower or by bouncing an own Porkalator bullet back from a shield of a Slaughtaur in order to get hit by the bullet.

While being in pig's form, the player can slip through a low opening at the eastern end of the moat in front of the castle. Behind the opening, there is a portal to Effluvium that transports him to a position in the level that lies fairly near to another portal to the Forsaken Outpost. By traveling through the latter portal, the player is about to solve the most crucial puzzle of the hub, the Axe key puzzle. Once the player walks over a certain line in the hall where he had teleported to, the Axe key gets released in Gibbet. After the triggering, he must return to Effluvium where he can continue to Gibbet. When he gets there, he only needs to go to pick up the Axe key and enter the Axe door for the boss fight and the next hub.

By using the intended way to pass the hub, the player would appear to Castle of Grief from Effluvium after having solved the majority of puzzles and fought the way through the Dungeons. In an updated version of Hexen, the shortcut was blocked.