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	Message: : : : Tempus Irae 12 The Revealing Science of God & Repository Eight : Last time on Tour of Duty , we ran around an Italian town in something of a : storm, carried off in impressive fashion with our engine being what it is. : There were Enforcers on distant raised platforms, buildings that we were : able to join by way of their windows, pools of water, waterfalls with : secrets, and destructible panels. The writeup revealed that the terminal : actually gave clues to solving the puzzles presented by the level, which : was a revelation for me at least! Anyway, we then delivered the manuscript : we found, and were told that the Pfhor command mecha was based on patterns : of Tycho mixed with patterns of ourselves, from when we were saving on the : Pfhor ship way back. And of course, we were told of yet another manuscript : - that room is getting pretty full now! : We start in rather close quarters, proper Marathon style! I've been spending : a lot of time in Halo MCC recently, up to 384/600 achievements done, and : one of the Halo 4 playlists was called "Tight Corridors", and : that made me think immediately of Marathon. I certainly have been : neglecting it, and this! So here we go. Close quarters. A door that : doesn't want to open, another Marathon staple :). A switch! Which opens a : door just there, and also, cleverly, one behind us. But that one closes : again because it is actually controlled by a switch behind it, which can : be shut off again to keep the door open. The little hallway in there also : gives us a 2x shield canister. : Before we head through the other door, a couple of Drones catch our : attention, behind some bars in a window to the left. And then a Hunter, to : the right, circling a pillar behind a low wall, but not low enough for us : to get over. The map makes it out to be a platform ... hmmm. : For this level it is super handy to have all polygons showing on the map, as : there are a few secrets about the place, more Wolfenstein 3D style with : random bits of wall actionable, but this area at least is also a bit of a : maze, with more opening up as we progress and open doors from their : backsides. So let's have a look at the map. : : : A rather large map with a lot of long connecting corridors - let's see how it : plays out! Thinking about secrets as we were, for a start, just over to : the left from here, a large section of wall "opens" revealing a : Fusion Pistol, a Flechette, a 1x shield canister, and some ammo. And : that's as much of this area as we can open for now. Through that other : door, we find another 1x shield canister - they're being quite generous so : far! - and follow corridors around to an ambush on both sides by : Enforcers, and there go our shields. Then a door that actually does open : reveals a terminal, in book on a table form, and a pattern buffer. The : terminal is from Leonardo again, no more pages from other people's : diaries. He has had the dreamy, shadowy figure talking in Italian for : once, and feels that the usual process has been inverted, with it trying : to understand him, and not the other way around - curious. : : : : : : : Outside is another door that won't open, and further around we open up one of : those connections in the maze that I mentioned, with another switch we : have to remember to turn off. And then we're outside! There has been the : sound of wind about, I just forgot to mention it. This semi-circular room : has a small pillar in the middle with a switch embedded. It opens a door : just further around, but only briefly, and this one can't be forced open. : There is more around the bend just before we go in there - it looks like a : dead-end but somehow we can walk through a mesh wall, and find some ammo : and another 2x recharge canister! And then back to the door. It takes us : to a room with a long table like structure most of the way across, with : more ammo and weapons, great for the scratchstarter I guess. There are a : couple of Troopers in an area behind a low wall, like the Hunter at the : start, and there is a switch in there with them. I found I hit it with my : shotgun while taking out the Troopers, without even noticing - it opens a : door around the back of that table, to outside again. A few Fighters spawn : in just ahead of us, and then to the right is an overlook on a courtyard : wherein a Juggernaut! : There is also a SPNKR and some ammo for it, and a platform going up and down : just to the left, to get us back out when we drop down, but also to enable : access to a 1x recharge canister on a raised platform just opposite. : Benefits of bothering with the Juggernaut and venturing down into the : courtyard are ammo and a 3x recharge canister! After this encounter we : continue on around the wall of the previous room, spawning in Fighters as : we go, as well as a Trooper, and another one in that area the other two : were contained in just before, for whatever reason. Going right around we : find that another door opened at some point, and we join back up to the : maze. : When it seems like we missed something, we head back out to the start area, : to find that wall we hmmmed at earlier, dropping into the floor, and : revealing a switch behind the Hunter's pillar, opening up our next area, : which is wetter. The passage loops back around to open yet another link to : the starting area, via another locked door, to keep things in -balance-, : but the other way, arches open us out onto a river with a waterfall that : involves itself in a staircase on either side, which would get us back up : to the start area. That's right, it's a waterfall with a horizontal : component! The river is just wide enough that we usually fall in trying to : jump across it, and has an odd tiny opening at surface level that gives it : an inaccessible overflow kind of area. : The corridor leaving this area takes us to another maze-like, with some : Fighters, a Hunter through a window, a staircase that leads us eventually : to a large locked door, a door that takes us to a dead-end, but also a : switch that lowers an obstacle in an area we will presumably get to later : ... and another river courtyard. This time there is a Blue Hunter on guard : along with some Drones. There are a few channels of water not going : anywhere fast, some handy raised grass areas, and one larger river leading : out, but it ends with a rather tall waterfall with a secret looking room : beyond, but the spoiler guide doesn't mention this ... and as it does : mention a secret room that requires double rocket jumping (wtf?) for no : reward at all, I figure it probably isn't worth trying this one lol. : Speaking of the spoiler guide, it reveals that this is another level named : for a song - they did a great job with names in this scenario IMO - and : that it was unique in being designed by one person, then aesthetically : tuned with lighting and such by another. And also unique in having : respawning ammo drops, which I guess explains why I keep getting : "bong" sounds when revisiting areas - I thought it might be just : because I'm playing on Kindergarten now to speed stuff up, or I might : never bother (shhh, don't tell anyone!). : Back to our own read, there is also a corridor leading off the wet courtyard. : It leads yet again to a door that opens and one that does not. The one : that does reveals a room with three pillars, an Enforcer, another : uncooperative door, and another one a ways off to the left, for which : there is a switch, and this just links us back up to the previous area! So : I guess, again, that it did something else that we have to reveal. And : indeed, using the staircase around the waterfall back up to the start area : finds us a newly open door, with an awesome checkerboard tiled floor : inside, along with various Fighters, with more to come as we run around : the room. Stairs to a raised walkway offer a window view through to a : later room, and a small jump to the immediate next area, which starts with : a pattern buffer - what -do- we have in store!? : Well first a partly concealed switch opens a door just beyond here, to a room : with Hunters, and a large pillar in the centre. A switch on the wall has : that pillar drop away and replaces it with another Blue Hunter, which was : quite a surprise to me just now on next to no shields. There is a 2x : recharge canister next to him, but still. And there is also a key card, or : is it a key graphic and mine are just playing up again? Well anyway, other : than that, this room is a dead-end, and back out we head to another grassy : courtyard - no Juggernaut this time though. : This one is blatantly, and rather prettily, laid out with watchtowers : opposite us, and our side is very like castle walls - nice job! Hunters : man the watchtowers, Fighters take the low ground, and an Enforcer fires : away at us from a high window opposite. Down at grass level we find that : one of the towers has stairs for our ascent, and then after a bit of : headscratching and looking at the map, and thinking it looks suspiciously : like there should be a switch on the other tower, we find that we can take : the very narrow ledge and do a smooth leap out and back in to get up : there! And yes, there's our switch, and a 1x recharge canister. : The switch raises a platform so we can get across to where the Enforcer was - : not exactly a drawbridge, but still cool. And the resulting room has the : door for that key. It leads to a wide corridor with a box in the corner - : there's ammo inside and we seem to be able to grab it quite happily, but a : nearby picture on the wall looks too far recessed on the map, and does : actioning that drop the sides on the box ... or it something else? Along : the corridor carrying on are a series of platforms that raise out of the : floor and are quite happy to crush us into the ceiling, interspersed with : Fighters. And then we find ourselves on a spiral staircase overlooking a : courtyard that we're heading to one way or another. : In it are Hunters, some pockets of ammo, and only one way out, via water, : which was a worry as I was rather low on oxygen, but not to worry, it was : just a water curtain, hmmm, leading to a wadeable passage with occasional : Drones on platforms, some of which don't seem to be sleeping. Around here : I was showing the fact that I've been playing Halo, as I was trying to : reload mid-magazine ... dammit. : We end up taking a lift up to meet more Hunters and Troopers, on the other : side of the window from the first checkerboard room. And then just in : time, through another door we find a pattern buffer, 2x shield recharge : canister, and our manuscript! So I guess we're on the home stretch now! : Just back out of this nook, we find a corridor that does another masterful : joining up of everything. It's a bit of a gauntlet run - there's a secret : room off to the left early on, but I think it just lets some Hunters out : after we go past, and then several more spawn behind us as we go, but we : can really just run, and the only thing that comes in front of us is a : Cyborg, which is rather a surprise to see! : We rejoin the second maze arae through the large door we once saw the other : side of, and suddenly we think back to another door we never got through, : in the three pillar room which is rather close by! And it is indeed open : now. It takes us to a small room with water pools and a Hunter. The larger : pool hides a 2x recharge canister. A proper dead-end nearby confirms one : door that wasn't really a door after all. And then a corridor leads us to : the final room, which has a checkerboard floor for the most part, and as : we proceed across it, a Blue Hunter is brought down on a platform to the : left. The far end of the room takes us outside, where the exit teleporter : is revealed out of the landscape, and an Enforcer takes longshots at us : from way off to the right - I guess that is the balcony we're supposed to : land on to see a cool room. I gave it a number of tries with the SPNKR but : ones that just about take 2x health off throw you too far, and I'm no good : with the ones that just give a harmless boost - oh well. I think the : Rampancy boys did that extra, so I'll check that out. : Oh wait, it looks like they did a secret term for another level instead. : Damn. And looking at lhowon.org, and just the map, duh, it seems there is : a terminal in that nice looking room that I'm missing out on. For now I'll : just report it from those pics, but I'll keep trying :). : : : : : Poetry. In motion. A little Binging suggests this is an excerpt from : Francesco Petrarch's "The Canzoniere". A slightly different : translation from what I found elsewhere, but either way, it doesn't seem : at all out of place in Marathon :). : And then we're back in the Repository Room. And the Pfhor are on a boat! : : : : : :
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