Hexen - Death Kings of the Dark Citadel - Story

Hexen - Death Kings of the Dark Citadel

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Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel

Ruined Village is the start of the hub. Pyre is the "secret level" that you don't really have to visit to beat the hub. Blight is the main center of all the other levels.

Sump, Brackenwood, Badlands, and Catacomb are all main wings of the center (Blight). Each must be solved to get a jewel to place in the diagram on Blight. Each one can be beaten seperately in any order. Each of these four levels has a portal back to Blight and to two of the remaining three levels. Constables Gate is the beginning of the next hub and is only reached after leaving this hub permanently.

Step one : Ruined Village

First, step into one of the alcoves to open them up and find your weapon. The small room at the end of the hall (with a serpent in it) can be opened from the back (the door kinda blends with the wall). Inside there is a switch that opens a door behind you. Through that door there are stairs with pillars on either side. As you climb the stairs serpents will teleport around you.

On the second flight of stairs, step behind the pillars on the right side. Behind them there is a section of wall with more decorations than the rest. It will open up and lead up to the first segment of your superweapon.

At the top of the stairs you see a ruined wall and (behind it) some wooden shacks. There is a well, if you fall in you will get hurt a little, but you get a porkulator and the water will rise up so you can get out.

Go to the stream behind all the buildings (you'll have to break some trees). Go up the river and find the switch. Once you hit it, two more rooms open up in the shack nearest the stream. Go in there, turn the wheel, and a message tells you the waterfall has opened. Go back upstream, and enter the waterfall. Don't let the current sweep you away (it will dump you at the start of the level, plus hurt you a bit). In that room (left once you enter the falls) you will find another switch. This one says a door opened in the chapel. Go back almost to the start of the level and two pillars have risen revealing a room with a teleporter. The teleporter takes you to a closed room. Push on the left side of the stone wall and it will lower. Step on and you will rise up and see the silver key on table. Grab it and go to the very beginning of the level where the locked door was. Enter and push the button you find there to open the portal to Blight.

Main Hub : Blight

You start in a tower in the center of the level. The diagram that the jewels fit into is ahead of you. There are four winddows to jump out of. Any is as good as the next, though you can choose them by the design of the locked doors that you can see from the windows - the green design leads to brackenwood, the skull leads to Badlands, the frog leads to Sump and the mottled one to Catacomb. Fighters should start with Brackenwood. Mages should start with Catacomb. I havn't tried with the cleric yet ;)

Each window leads to a quarter of the map. Each quarter has 4 exits - two doors leading to the neighboring quarters (these are closed and locked), a locked door needing a key, and an open passage to a cave or corridor of some type depending on which quadrent you are in.

Each corridor leads to some trap room where you find the key to that quadrant's locked door, and a switch (or switches) to let you back out. The switches also openthe doors between quadrants, but only to the ones you have also pulled the switches in. Thus, the first quadrant you visit will not open any of the doors, but if the second one you visit is next to the first one, then the door between those two will open next time.

Each quadrant has different traps to kill you with when you try and get the keys, but they are all pretty straightforward. Some of them will trap you until you pull more than one switch, but they are not hidden (just usually at the four corners of the room or something obvious like that).

Each of the four main branch levels has a certain puzzle to be solved in order to reach the gem at the end. None of the levels affect each other in any way however - you can do them in any order and each level has everything needed to solve it within itself.

A : Sump

You must find three firemasks to place into the pillar near the levels start. First, find a mucky room with a large jello-mold of slime standing up by itself on one end. At the top of it you will find the first firemask. When you place it, one of the three rivers nearby will lower, allowing access to a new room. These rooms can be done in any order, but each one will have some important switch at the end. The first two of these will open up paths (near that first jello-mold) to reach another firemask. The third one you complete will raise the swamp around a piller near the center of the level to let you grab the jewel. Then you can leave and never come back to Sump ;)

One of the three rooms is a pretty straight fight. It is a glowing room with a serpent in it. When you kill it, another level lowers with another serpent on it, and it repeats until you empty the whole room. Another part is a swampy maze with a few hidden holes that are deep enough to kill you. The third is a pentagram in a pool of lava. Once you pull the switch you can jump down to it to teleport out.

B : Catacomb

This one has four firemasks to find, but unlike Sump you can do it in most any order you feel like. Before you do anything you have to take the lower caves till you find the river. Follow this out and to the right there will be some stairs leading up to the area where the firemasks must be placed. There is a blue gem hanging in the air above a pit, but if you try and jump to it you get teleported back to the start of the level. There is a button down on the river that will open up the first area. If you are the mage, the 3rd weapon will be up here as well. Once it is opened, go back to the start of the level and take the high road up to the shaking room with the unstable pillars. With some careful jumping, you must reach three doors around this room. In each one you have to kill some serpents and pull a switch. After doing all three a firemask is revealed.

Another mask can be reached if you take the elevator beyond the gem room. It has two stops besides the one where you start. One has a wooden door that leads to a ruined temple. Use a broken pillar as stairs to find a switch that lowers another firemask.

The other two masks are near eachother, on the bottom stop of that elevator. To the left is a wooden floor that drops out from under you (making you die, so don't go there yet). To the right are some ice caves that lead to a room full of lava. At the top of this room there are some rocks that you can use to hop across the lava stream and pull a switch. The switch opens up a grate at the bottom of the stream. If you enter there, there are two side passages, one with a firemask, the other with a porkalator. But if you step too far down the stream, you fall and die!

The wooden floor room can be reached safely if you go around and find the back entrance, and hit a switch up there to stabilize it. Once you are on the floor, a switch there will make it drop very far, but slow enough for you to ride it safely. At the bottom is the final firemask and a teleporter.

Once all four masks are placed, you can safely jump the pit to grab the gem, but make sure you go all the way across, or you fall and die ;)

C : Badlands

After fighting your way to the central area of the map, jump across to the stone colomn in the center of the swamp. On one edge of it, there is a hidden ledge that you must drop down to (the ledge will not show up at all on your automap, so it may be best to look for it first from down in the swamp). Down there is a switch and a bunch of bodies to blow up. Once you are there the statue up above will light up, and a bell is revealed near the start of the level. Ringing the bell will make a nearby wall crumble, leading to a teleporter that takes you to an area with more switches and bad guys. After finishing that part, a wooden pillar back inside the stone colomn will raise and lower, leading you to the green gem.

D : Brackenwood

This level is a ring around a large pit. In the pit is a platform with some goodies (including the fighters hammer). Above that there is a gem being suspended above a flame froma crane. Outside the big ring is a large area divvied up into four sections with a Death Wyvern flying in each one ;)

There is a button inside the ring that starts the process... once it is hit a staircase opens up leading to the outer area. Next to the staircase a small box is raised with a symbol on it... note the symbol and remember it.

Outside, as you flee like mad from the Wyverns, you will find a small raised section in each of the large sections. These raised tiers have four statues at the corners. In one section, the tier will have a blank box up in the middle and a switch revelaed next to the box. You can push the box to make it lower and re-raise with a different symbol on it. Do this until it matches the symbol you saw before, and THEN hit the switch nearby. If the wrong symbol is showing, monsters warp in. If it is the right one, then one forth of the puzzle is solved and some quartz flasks warp in.

Now go back to where you first saw the symbol, and see if it has changed. Note the new symbol and find the next raised tier and repeat the process in each of the four large zones. Once you do all four, you can hit the switch in the large inner pit to make a bridge to the gem. Grab it and go ;)

Ending : Finishing Blight

Once all four gems are in place on the diagram, a portal opens behind you and some wings appear. The portal leads to the next hub, so if you go through it you will lose the wings! So, before moving on to the next hub, scour the previous levels with the wings to reach all those hard to reach places. I know you can get an extra Icon of the Defender in Badlands, and some more goodies in Brackenwood once you can fly.


1. Constable's Gate.

You start in a large open area with a lot of slaughtaurs. Go through the door to the North. Inside there's a heresiarch which is a tough start to the hub. Once inside you cannot get back out through the same doors. You'll have to go up the stairs on either side of the room and jump out. You might find it easier to deal with the heresiarch from the doorway, without entering the room. Once it's dead go to the passage to the East of the room and up onto the raised section of the room. Pick up Yorrick's skull here. You need three of these before going to the Locus Requiescat level. Activate the switches in the rooms to the West and East. A new door will open on the West of the room. Go through this door (the more Northerly of the two on the West side) and activate the switch on the south side of this room. Activate the 6 switches in the alcoves on each side of the room. Now go through the newly opened door to the North and pull switch on East of doorway. Go up the stairs ahead and activate switch on the east wall to the left of where you see the inter-level teleporter. This gives you access to the short range teleporter you can see behind you. Go into the room to your South and turn the wheel. You now have access to the sewage system. Go back down the stairs and jump into the East side of the sewer. You will be swept along to the East. Leave sewer via platform you'll see on the South of the sewer. In the first room go through the door to the North/East. Turn the more Northern of the two wheels on the West wall. This lowers the water level outside. Go back out to the sewer and go through the new entrance to the North. You will have to run against the current. Take the stairs to the West and turn the wheel at the top. Go back down the stairs and then up the newly opened stairs to the North. Activate switch on the South side of the room at the top (which is shaped like a backward C. The room, not the switch!). Go back down stairs and into room which has opened to the East. There are 2 teleporters here. The inter-level one goes to the Locus Requiescat. Take the local transporter and then exit through the nearby inter-level transporter. You should now be in the "Marketplace"

2. Marketplace

Smash window nearest to door on South side. Exit through window Go back to top of stairs and open door. Return down the stairs and up the tower in the South/East corner. Pick up the Steel Key. Follow the East wall round and enter the first door which is at the North end of the area. Activate switch at the top of the stairs. Now go into room to the West, up the stairs and throw switch at the end of the corridor. This opens access to the central structure outside. It also sets of a trap of fireballs. You'll have to time it right and/or run fast!. (If you activate the switch in the room to the East a door will temporarily open in the first room of the level where you can pick up a few goodies.) Go back outside and enter the central structure. Collect a second Yorrick's skull in here. Now go to the building on the North/West of the play area. Go up the steps and activate switch on West wall of the curved room. Go through doors both to North and South of this room. In each room you must activate the switch. Now step onto the local teleporter back in the curved room and exit the level through the teleporter in front of you.

3. Constable's Gate (again)

Go back to the first room you entered in Constable's Gate. Take the Southern of the two doors on the West wall. Turn left (South) and open the wall to a teleporter.

4. Ordeal

Go down the steps. Smash the first window to North and go inside. You can jump up into the opening under which a dead man is sitting. There's an Icon of the Defender up here. Returning to the bottom of the stairs at the start of the level, turn South. Passing between two faces which spit fire at each other, you will be in a long corridor. Take the first entrance to the West. The South wall of the room at the end can be opened. Return to the main corridor and explore the area to the East. (It isn't necessary to visit either, nor the earlier bit behind the window.) Go to the South end of the corridor along the narrow path. Don't worry if you fall. There's a switch at the bottom that will lower a section of the path and get you back up. At the end, jump into the opening to the East. Go to the end and open the door. Activate switches at the top of both sets of stairs to the South, and the one up the stairs to the North on the East wall. Behind the teleporter, back downstairs, you will find the 3rd Yorrick's Skull. Enter Teleporter.

5. Constable's Gate (again)

Make your way to the inter-level teleporter at the North East corner of the level. Enter it.

6. Locus Requiescat

You are in a diamond shaped graveyard. Enter passage in South/East or South/West and go up to diamond shaped room. Jump out of door to the North onto platform and activate switch. A teleporter will be revealed in the room you've just left and the trees which blocked your exit to the North have vanished. The centre of the level is a pth arond an octagonal wall. Going clockwise round the path, take the first exit to the West, to the Western quadrant of the level. Put one of your Yorrick's skulls on the statue. you now have access to the rest of this Western quadrant (the trees have gone). Go into the passage in the South corner of the quadrant. Killing the occupants of the 6 side rooms opens a door to the West of this passage. Go West and pull switch. Make your way up to the North of the quadrant and pull switch. The teleporters will take you to some goodies in the hallway with 6 side-rooms. Return to the central pathway and enter the Northern Quadrant. Repeat the stuff with the skull. Go to the passage on the North/East bounday and pull switch at the end. 6 side chambers will have opened along the passageway. Walk through the wall at the back of one of these (see you map). Pull the switch at the end. Now go to the Eastern quadrant and repeat the stuff with the skull. Climb to the top of the rocks where you will see one of those twinkling blue paths leading to a room to the East. A corridor leads off this to the North. At the end there are three small alcoves arond a tree with mushrooms? growing in them. Destroy the tree and the mushrooms. This opens a passage to the East in the room you've just left. Pull the switch to complete the puzzle.

The "Crypt" at the centre of the level is now open. Jump up into the middle and collect the Castle Key (beware of the arrows). Return to the teleporter at the start of the level.

7. Constable's Gate (again)

Go to the "Ordeal" level again. (see above).

8. Ordeal (again)

Go to the room at the end of the level from which you teleported out before. Go up the stairs to the North, unlock the door and activate the switch. Return along the passageway towards the main North/South corridor. The door on the left (to the South/West) is now open. You now have a very tricky bit where you have to jump over lava pits while the walls spit fire at you. In the room full of columns at the end, activate the switch in the middle of the East wall. This gives access to transporter on the West wall. Enter it.

9. Treasury

You start off in water. Go South and leave the water on the platform to the East. Pull switch straight ahead. This raises stairs heading South. Go up the stairs. Take the first turning to the South. Pull the switch at the end to raise more stairs. Head West and up the stairs. Take the first turn to the West and activate swicth in the 1st room to the South. Return to the top of the stairs and take the 2nd turn to the West (the one after the blue candles). Activate switch in the last room to the North from this passage. Returning towards main passage you can now enter the area behind the blue candles to the South. Activate the switch in there. More stairs will be raised along the main passage to the North. Go up them. Turn East at the top and pull the switch where the path opens out over the water below to the South. Now head back North and up the stairs. Trun left (North) at the top and follow the path. Kill everything in sight and then return to the top of the stairs. Head South and take the 1st turning to the East and then immeidiately to the South. Follow the path up more steps. At the top use teleporter to North.

10. Constable's Gate (last time)

Head South into the room surrounded by cages. In the middle of the room is a lift shaft. Enter it and exit at the top. There you will find the "Heart of d'Sparil". Jump down into the open space at the start of the hub and go back into the very first room through the door to the North. Go up onto the raised part at the North of the room and put the heart on the pedestal. You can now pick up some wings and fly about before ending the hub through the alcove to the North.