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	Message: : : (WAP parts edited out because there isn't any point in referencing them when : the character sets don't work and they just confuse people who don't : understand the language. I'll try and keep such references down in later : entries) : *New note from last time: the image trouble in the last post was due to my : missing out an equals sign in the image reference code. (oops!) It should : be fixed now. : LOC : Chapter 6: Where’s that DAMN violet crystal? : Last time on Tour of Duty, we followed Feel the Power to the end of its : path, started on the Labyrinth, and killed a Big Blue Baron of Hell what : kicked our friends asses. Seems our buddies are dead. : We now tackle the Labyrinth proper and get the violet crystal in the centre. : Our next path is Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'Intrate or Abandon Hope : All Ye Who Enter Here, which is something I saw on a stone sign in the : Loch Ness castle levels in the expansion pack of Tomb Raider 3. : Sorry for these long hiatus’s, but college work, Christmas and time with my : family has been an obstacle in these writeups, as has other games. I : currently start not long before New Year. It turns out it wasn’t Friday : 13th May 1994, nor December 21 2012 that was supposed to be the beginning : of Armageddon: it was going to be a series of unfortunate events : throughout 2016 all along. : Anyway, we start by the ladder to the labyrinth. This is sort of what it : looks like: : : Now, only the corner most areas matter on this floor. All the rest is : randomised except for the centre area where the violet crystal spawns. : Getting there is a challenge and we will be hounded by Rovers all the way. : : : Now this is going to be difficult. It is now half past eight on Sunday night : and it is a horrible night to be trapped underground and hunted by : ayakashi. If you're wondering what those are, they are monsters or demons : born out of people's nightmares. I think that's an appropriate description : of PIDs monster though they aren't the same as the mythical demons. The : shocking spheres are immune to crystals and we will need all : our SMG ammo to fight them off. : : : I had to reboot the game after starting as the audio went out of sync in the : time it took to make the entry screenshot. After minutes of wandering : trippy halls with the occasional mushroom colony or puddle, I finally find : the violet crystal in the dead end I’m at in the map above. An ambush in : the final hallway forced me to drink a silver bottle to stay in good : shape. I now have 21 XP and 20 HP. : : : : : This crystal pulses charges of lightning between a cone of monsters and deals : more damage than the red crystal. We will be using this more often but : will fall back to the red one from time to time. : It’s a relatively short stroll to the ladder and I would have escaped from a : shocking sphere that started chasing me if another one didn’t clip : straight through the wall. It came out right beside the corner too, and : not around it. I couldn’t get a snip before I killed it so I can’t prove : it guys, sorry. : : : Oh boy. These spider things are called skitters. They shoot balls of web : soaked with *ahem* stuff in it and will eat you if they “kill” you. Why : their webs deal damage when those guys aren’t venomous I have no idea. : Maybe they shoot the webbing so fast it gives you a concussion? : : : We need to go to Watch your Step to proceed because the way is blocked. The : green crystal is on that floor and we will need it to get past the guys : stopping us. : : : As you can see, the columns are replaced with towers of skitter webs and : piles of blue silk occasionally litter the floor. Ahead is a blue potion : but it is guarded by this asshole: : : Feel free to discuss who these guys are. They might be worshippers of the : W’rkncacnter who protect certain rooms on a couple of floors. Those monks : generate an energy shield that stops us going past. Ayakashi can pass and : fire through the shield undisturbed. : : : They can only be killed with the Green crystal so we will have to come back. : I find a couple of dead ends and kill some skeletons. I didn’t think we’d : see those guys this far down. Since I’m an expert machine gunner, they die : pretty quickly. Sure it should be quic… : : : What was that?! That’s actually a ghast, not a normal skeleton. The : German on Ascension warned us about those; they yell and reach their arms : out to cause earthquakes. That is why my health is now low. : : : This red velvet bag is a Forever Bag; a container whose inside is on the : astral plane, allowing for an infinite amount of items to be stored. I : think it would have been easier to use 5D space instead but I guess that : is reserved for the space anomalies on the Marathon and the inside of : TARDISs. I store my HE grenades and my treasure and German stuff bags : inside it to make some more general inventory room. : It’s mentioned on the story page that this might have been the solution to a : weight puzzle involving the gold cache upstairs that was cut from the : final game. Hmmm… : : : Now, the next floor looks like this. Both the two ladders made of skitter web : in the south centre corners lead there but they come out very far apart. : This floor is also littered with purple pods that look a little like copies : of Twilight Sparkle’s bum all smashed together. They explode when : we step over them, and they can kill us so let’s leave them be. : : : Shit！Now what? Oh, forgot about them. These lizard things are like : the rats in the walls back in the watery floors except running away or : turning our torch off won’t help us. To get rid of them we have to…*sigh* : step on the pods and blow them away. : I’ll need a drink of Colloidal Silver after this to heal up. Right, we are : headed to the south. I came in via the left ladder which put me on the : east side of the map. There are two sapphires in the middle of this floor : but only one will give us XP of which we have 21 after getting the Forever : Bag. We still get the treasure value from the other one however, and that : means more bonus points at the end so let’s get them both. : I end up electrocuting a group of skitters and a ghast while under attack : from the lizards. Guess I’ll need my drink now. : : : The green Isfet Crystal triggers earthquakes that damage monsters in a radius : around you and also deals more damage than the violet one, even through : walls. : I mentioned in my review that aside from the monks, you will never ever use : this crystal. It takes too long to charge, there are not as many charges : as the others, it’s unlikely to kill any monsters except really weak ones : when you use it, and there is no telling that there are any monsters : behind you or around walls, besides the ones in front of you, so using it : is likely wasting charges. : We cannot let this run out until we kill all the monk guys, a couple of which : guard a very special item on this floor, and the save rune. : : : Urm, that is actually a ruby but OK, they’re the same mineral anyway. Also, : counting this and the crystal, we now have 32 XP. I find a passage way : blocked by a monk and I crush him in a quake. He makes a funny noise and : pulls a funny face before he falls over. There is a save rune at the end : of the webby hall which I make use of. : : : Oh come on. This leads to the special item we need. I’ll need to deal with : those guys too. Naturally, the green crystal will take a week to charge up : so I’ll need to use my gun alone if the earthquake doesn’t kill all the : skitters as well. I also get attacked by Lizard Squad again just as I turn : back into the hallway after dodging. Isn’t that nice? : There is a dead solider at the end of the hall. I accidently use the green : crystal trying to speak to him because I rearranged my yellow crystal to : go with the rest and forgot to equip it. Oops. : : : : : Hey, it’s Greg! I have so many questions! What happened to Duality? Are you : and the guys gonna get back together for some new Marathon titles? Can we : get a Pathways into Darkness PC port and a full remake? Remakes of the : Marathon Trilogy too? Where have you been all these years, have you been : abducted by the Jjaro? Will you do the writing for all the new Marathon games : and Remakes? Are you still ali… oh. : : : : : : : : : : : : : That dishwasher incident is real by the way, in case anyone asks, courtesy of : the story page for that information. That’s funny how he mentions street : fighter, I guess the dishwasher bruise made it hard to concentrate. : : : Greg also informs us that Steven changed the code if we haven’t already found : out. He hid the bomb in one of those pods for some reason. It just : absorbed it without exploding. Those pony clones must feel pretty : uncomfortable with such explosive diarrhoea waiting up there. : Sorry, that one was terrible. : : : Interesting, but we have to set it off before we can get it. Oh boy. : : : This is the pod. Here we go. : : : : : : : We can’t arm it here, we’ll need to descend lower and it’s not going to be : easy. : I head back up to Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'Intrate and retrieve the : silver from the first path before heading around the hallways to the : ladder. More monks lie in wait and I’ll spare you the journey as the : passages look the same. : I do say that the walls and floors resemble an Egyptian pyramid or temple, : what with the hieroglyphics in the walls, ceiling and floor. You could say : this cave is not a natural formation: someone built it. Maybe those monks : made it in honour of their sleepy god? Or did it make this place and those : guys too? I can certainly see where this place gets its zombified : skeletons from, Ghasts and the normal kind. : : : This is the ladder to the next area, I’d Rather Be Surfing. Now I’m walking : into the Skitter webs. (leave a message and I’ll call you back) : : : Oh for God’s sake. : Chapter 6 Part 2: Monky Business : Jesus effing Christ, I took way longer than usual to get back to this, sorry. : It is now 25.9.17 and 20 to 11 Sunday night in game. I didn’t use the : Reset cheat so I’m surprised that I made it this far in the time I did. : : : These doors are important: behind the one on the left, is the exit we will : take from the final floor on our escape to the surface. : If we ate our Easter Egg before now, we would have warped to the final boss : but that left door would be locked as it only opens from this side, and : we’d have screwed over the entire game except for any backup saves, and : we’d be missing the bomb, as well as something else to help us get out : alive. : Anyway, I kill the skitters and three ghasts behind the doors and now I : present the map. : : : There’s only one silver potion on this floor and a body in the northeast room : before the ladder. Another monk guards the passage around the corner and : the save rune to the north. There are a lot of monsters in the pillared : hallway to the south. : The two paths to the west and east of the first save rune are dead ends and : skitters are hiding in them so we need to go south. I take a quick nap to : heal and make more grenades. : I noticed that there are a lot of bones on this floor, are enough humans : blundering down here to keep the skitters well fed? Or are they the : remains of other monsters? There’s no infighting in Pathways so what’s the : reason besides spooky decoration? : : : I only just noticed the ghast when taking the snipshot as the game was not : paused. I discovered that I can still shoot through the monk’s force : fields like the monsters can; just not pass through. The second save rune : is at the end of the hallway, in a room full of skitter webs. : : : What is that skeleton? Some sort of bird thing, talons, a couple of Xenomorph : tails… any ideas? : : : The exit ladder is just across this room. We should loot the body too… : : : : : Chapter 6 part 3: Airlock Love : We are now locked in and there is no way out. Leaving one of the crystals : won’t buy us out so let’s talk to the corpse in the corner. : : : : : : : So it wasn’t monsters that killed him; he suffocated to death, but why is he : bleeding? Did he commit suicide like he suggested we try, or did those : skitters nibble on his body before we arrived? : This man is Pedro. He was part of the Spanish tomb raider group who took : Walter’s gold key. His companions made it through the door but Pedro was : trapped in here, despite his 5 friends’ efforts to get him out. Pedro says : that the doors will only open hours later, after we’ve used up the oxygen : in this room and wait to kill someone else. : : : : : : : We will meet those three momentarily. Sleeping here will allow us to make : more ammo but Pedro is right. : : : There is one way to get out of here alive. Remember the cloak we found in the : monster closet where Muller’s Nazi group died off? Well we need that in : order to survive this room as it speeds up time for everything else except : us. : I have to say that the red cloak is a good example of an adventure game : puzzle as it’s a mostly useless item that only comes in handy once, but : unlike many adventure games, it actually gives us a hint on the solution : i.e. Pedro’s dialog, and any experimentation with the cloak beforehand. : So now I put on the cloak and rest to make more ammo while I wait. It takes : about 3 hours or so for the door to open. : I take a longer sleep after making enough grenades and I hear the door open : in my sleep. We need to be quick to wake up and take the cloak off as : there are ghasts and skitters waiting for us. : : : Or not? At the bottom of the ladder we get ambushed by a ghast but kill him : before he triggers an earthquake. The next floor is Warning: Earthquake : Zone, which means there are a lot of these guys. The poo monsters AKA : oozes also return badder and stinkier than ever. : With any luck and less distractions, join me next time on PID Tour of Duty : for Chapter 7: THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!
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