MAP09: Castle Gardens (Alien Vendetta)

MAP09: Castle Gardens is the ninth map of the megawad Alien Vendetta. It was designed by Kim "Mutator" Malde in 1996 with DEU 2 and DETH v4.16B. It was the author's first map for Doom II, and was one of the few maps to remain unchanged from the first release to the second.

The map uses an MIDI rendition of "Dracoid Ruins: Battle" from Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, which was composed by David Arkenstone and Frank Klepacki.



Walkthrough
At the start, go forward through the door. Follow the hallway. In the first room you come to, make a right, then make another right into the passageway with the stairs. Follow the stairs to the top of the castle. Pick up the red key and jump back into the room you started in. Go back through the hallway into the room you made 2 rights in. This time, make a left. Follow the hall, which curves to the right, and when you reach the first intersection, open the door (to the left). Go either direction after the door and follow straight until you reach the next room with two ways to go. Go to the left, then turn to the right to enter the room with the bookcases. Pick up the blue key and proceed back to where the 2-choice room was, but continue to the passage on the other side. Press the switch in this room and then reenter the center of the 2-choice room. Turn right and go down the newly opened lift. Proceed through the slime tunnels and you will find the blue door at the end. When you walk into it, the level will end automatically.

Secrets

 * 1) In the starting area there is a walkway leading to a door, flanked by pools of blood on either side. Drop into the right-hand blood pool. Along the outer wall, starting near a box of ammo, is a thin stairway ledge leading back out of the blood pool. Start following it upwards, and about halfway up a door will open in the wall. Inside are some health and armor bonuses and a stairway leading up to a ledge overlooking the starting area. On this ledge is a combat armor tucked away in an alcove.
 * 2) Behind the first door is a courtyard with a brown brick structure surrounded by six torches - five red, and one green. Press the use key while facing the green torch, and - as quickly as possible - run through the northern opening in this courtyard and take a right down the stairs. You should see an opening in the floor in this hallway, against the left-hand wall. You need to drop down this hole before the floor rises again. It may take a few tries to do it correctly. Once successfully in the chamber below the sinking floor, ride a second lift up to one of the castle's parapets, where a soul sphere lies waiting.
 * 3) In the second courtyard there is a fountain of blood. In the center of the fountain is a thick, seemingly impassible column of falling blood. The eastern face of this "column" can be walked through, however, to get a hidden BFG 9000.
 * 4) In the same yard (with the blood fountain), a portion of the northern wall is textured differently than the rest of it. Open this wall to get a berserk pack.
 * 5) After getting the berserk pack in secret 3, another secret becomes accessible in the blood fountain yard. Just follow the pathway around to the southeast corner and you'll find a hidden room with some health and armor bonuses, as well as a couple medikits.
 * 6) A little way beyond the red key door, there is a split in the path, with the left way leading to a library area harboring a blue skull key, and the right leading to a room with a satyr-faced switch that opens another passage. Enter the library and search the outer edges of the bookshelves for a switch located on one of them. After flipping it, run back to the fork in the path, and go down the right-hand hallway. A timed wall will have lowered in the corner of the passage. Ride it up to a small room with a teleporter.
 * 7) Step into the teleporter in secret 6 to be taken to a platform overlooking a walkway from earlier in the level. There is a blur sphere and some ammo here.

Speedrunning
See:
 * Alien Vendetta at Compet-N
 * Alien Vendetta at the Doom Speed Demos Archive