The Seven Portals
This level is a 'hub' level which leads to several sub-levels. To solve this
level you need to solve puzzles in the sub-levels.
For convenience, from now on I will refer to each of the seven gates in this
level by a number. The first gate on the left as you enter the level is
Gate 1, the second gate on the left is Gate 2, and so on, going in a clockwise
order around the level. Each gate leads to a portal that takes you to one of
three sub-levels.
The first three gates
The first gate that you'll open is Gate 2. This is opened by pulling the
switch on the pillar in front of the gate. You need to kill the chaos serpents
behind the gate first; then a quartz flask will appear in front of a window
at the far end of the room. Pick up the quartz flask, and two passages at the
side will open. A portal will rise in the icy room beyond. This portal leads
to the Guardian of Ice.
Guardian of Ice (1)
At this point, many passages are still inaccessible in the Guardian of Ice,
and the only way you can go is to the room at the far end of the level. This
room has four pillars. Pull the switch at the end of the room and these pillars
will rise and fall for a while. Then they will all stop and a white arrow will
appear on the ground, pointing to one of the pillars. This is the teleport to
go back to the Seven Portals. DO NOT STEP INTO ANY OTHER PILLAR!! They will
crush you. Note that this teleport is randomly picked; you
should always watch for the arrow each time you play the game. For now, step
into the teleport.
This takes you back to Seven Portals, but now Gates 1 and 3 are open. There
is a switch behind each gate which opens a portal. The portal in Gate 1
leads to the Guardian of Fire; the portal in Gate 3 goes to the
Guardian of Steel. Here, I'll take you through Gate 1 first (of course, you
can always go to Gate 3 first, if you want to).
Step into the portal in Gate 1 and you will go to:
The first room you see in front of you looks innocent... until you step into
it. Well, you have to go through it, so go in and see what happens. After
things have calmed down, enter the doorway to the right which leads to a room
with a lava pool. You'll find a switch in a niche on the right side of the
room. Pull it. This is one of three switches you need in order to open Gate
6 in the Seven Portals.
Now go to the room with the lava pillar. There is a wall with a mask on it
to the left. This is a secret door that leads to a long room with a bridge
in the middle. There are lots of flechettes on the bridge.
- If you're greedy for flechettes (like me), aim very
carefully for the far end of the bridge and run across the bridge as fast as
you can! Do not swerve to either side; you will drop to your death! When you
reach the other side, clutch the door in fright until things calm down :) Now
jump to the narrow ledge on the left and carefully walk down
the ledge until you come to a new opening that leads back to the room with
the lava pool.
- Or, if you're less confident, step onto the bridge quickly, and step back.
You can now watch the fun without having to be in it. :) Now, go back to the
room with the lava pool. A new passage has opened.
There is a switch in the newly-opened passage; pull it to open the door at the
end of the bridge that closed when you stepped on the bridge. Walk along
the ledge on the left side of the bridge room, and enter the door. Take the
Flame Mask. Jump back on the ledge (I pity all you who are sacred of heights!)
and go back to the room with the lava pool.
That's all you can do on this level at this point. Go back to the portal that
leads to the Seven Portals. If you haven't been to the Guardian of Steel yet,
step into the portal in Gate 3 now. Otherwise, you can proceed to
Gate 6.
You start in a room that opens into a corridor with stairs on both sides.
Each flight of stairs lead to a similar chamber with a switch and a fast door.
Remember these two rooms: you need to fiddle with the switches later. For now,
enter go to either room and enter the fast door. You will see two
flights of stairs; one leading up and one leading down. Take the one leading
up and you'll get to what I call the central room in the Guardian of Steel.
You get to this same room no matter which way you took.
There are two doors here, besides the two flights of stairs.
One of them needs the Steel Key: you don't have it yet. So, enter the
other door. This is an elevator. Another door opens when the
elevator reaches the bottom. Go out and you'll find yourself in a corridor.
One end of the corridor will be blocked; go to the other end and you will
see a room with a switch. Pull this switch. This is another one of the three
switches you need to pull in order to open Gate 6 on the Seven Portals.
Now, go back to the two rooms with the fast doors.
The switch in one of them -- I leave it to you to find out which --
will open the blocked part of the corridor and close the other part where you
just went and pulled the switch. Go to where the corridor just opened and pull
the switch inside there. This switch is the third switch that you need to pull
in order to open Gate 6 on the Seven Portals.
That's all you can do here for now. Go back to the Seven Portals.
If you haven't gone to the Guardian of Fire yet, do it now by stepping into
the portal behind Gate 1. Otherwise, proceed to:
If you've pulled the switch on the Guardian of Fire and the two switches on
the Guardian of Steel, Gate 6 at the Seven Portals should be open. Again, you
must kill all the Chaos Serpents before the portal at the far end of the
room behind Gate 6 will open. Be careful
on your way to the portal, though. Do not step on those bright
patches on the icy floor! Those are traps. Or, if you're good enough,
run across them so that you won't ever step into them accidentally again
(don't try this if you're not fast enough though). Enter the portal, and
you'll find yourself in a new part of the Guardian of Ice.
Guardian of Ice (2)
Go forward into the room in front and pull the switch. This switch raises
stairs in the room you just came from. Go back there and pull the two switches
at the top of each of the stairs that were just raised. Now, the highest flight
of stairs in the middle of the Seven Portals will be raised. Some ettins will
also teleport into the room you're in. Now, take the passage that
leads to an open area on the left. There's a room on the right.
Enter that room (be careful of the trap in the room),
and follow the passage. This will take you on a winding flight of stairs that
has windows looking out to the open area you saw earlier. If you explored that
open area and slipped and fell, there is an elevator that takes you up to
the middle of this flight of stairs.
Go the top of the stairs and pull the switch. Take the platform up and you'll
find yourself in the room behind the dark room where you first entered the
Guardian of Ice from Gate 2. Go all the way to the room with the four pillars.
Now two new bright arrows on the ground will be pointing at two doors which
you can now enter.
The Fire Key
The door on the right leads to the room with the Fire Key. To get the key,
place the Flame Mask on the wall on the far end of the room. This wall looks
exactly like other walls with similar masks except that the mask is missing.
Placing the mask there will lower the pillar with the Fire Key on it.
The Steel Key
The door on the left leads to a large icy room. If you're playing a difficult
level, run as fast as you can to the left corner of the room.
Parts of the floor and ceiling will start to move. After a while, a switch
appears in the corner where you have run to; pull this switch. More ice
movements. The room now has deep crevasses in the floor; so be careful as you
make your next moves.
Go along the ledge on the left and jump into the next icy room. The Steel Key
is resting top of some icy steps. Grab the key and watch out as the ice in
this room begins rising and dropping too (a pillar of ice may even crush you
if you're standing on the wrong spot). Some enemies will appear. You can
either kill them or flee back to the first room (be careful as you jump
though!)
Carefully make your way back to the entrance (you need good jumping skills
here... the ice is slippery too!) and get out of the room. Step on the teleport
that goes back to the Seven Portals.
Gates 5 and 7
Gates 5 and 7 should now be open. Again, you have a choice of where to go
first: Gate 5, which has a portal leading to another part of the
Guardian of Steel, or Gate 7, which leads to the room
with the lava pool on the Guardian of Fire.
Now that you have the Fire Key, you can open the two doors in the room with
the lava pillar. In either room, you will find a switch. Pull this switch and
a platform lowers to ground level. Step on the platform and it takes you to
the area beyond the lava river which is blocked by pillars (you can see this
place vaguely from the room with the lava pillar). Kill the monsters here and
the pillars on the lava river opens. If you ever need to get back to the room
with the lava pillar this is the way out. But for now, go to the other side
of the room where there's a wall with a fire mask symbol on it.
Two elevators will lower on either side of you. Step into one of them and you
get to an area with several connected corridors. There is a teleport here;
step into it. This takes you to a room with a switch. Pull the switch. Note
that if you open the walls with the fire mask symbol on them, you will get
back to the connected corridors with the teleport. For now, go back to the
room with the switch, and look behind where you teleported into the room.
There's a teleport symbol there: activate it and you'll be taken back to the
Seven Portals.
If you've entered Gate 5 already, you're ready to solve the
puzzle on the Seven Portals.
The new area on the Guardian of Steel where Gate 5 takes you is very similar
to where Gate 3 takes you. However, this area is on the opposite side of the
level. Again, there are two rooms with fast doors and switches. The stairs
from these two rooms lead to the central room. Note that these stairs were
blocked when you first came here from Gate 3; now they are open.
Since you have the Steel Key now, open the steel door. Again, there is an
elevator that takes you to a corridor. One side of the corridor is blocked;
the other side leads to a room with a switch. Pull this switch and a message
tells you to look for another switch. This other switch is in the room behind
where the corridor is blocked. Now... you guessed it! One of the switches in
the two rooms with fast doors will open this area. Go figure out which one it
is, and pull the switch in the room. More stairs have raised on the Seven
Portals.
If you have not been to Gate 7 yet, do it now.
You have almost solved the puzzle! Go back to the Seven Portals. By now, three
flight of stairs have risen. The highest of them leads to a switch and
Dragonskin Bracers (your reward!). Pull this switch. This is one of three
switches you need to pull to open Gate 4. The other two switches are at the
top of the other two stairs. There are two switches at the top of each of
these stairs. The ones that look like a cow's head are the ones that open
Gate 4; the other two switches open two doors on the Guardian of Ice. This
is related to the secret level of this episode.
After you pull all three switches, Gate 4 will be open. This opens the arena
for the final encounter in episode one. Go inside Gate 4 and kill the monsters
there. There is a switch beside the big doors at the far end of the room;
pull this switch to open the doors. Beyond the doors you can see
a portal on the other side of a huge chasm. This portal takes you to episode 2.
But to get to the portal, you must first kill the centaurs. After they are
killed, a magic blue bridge will appear across the chasm.
Cross this transparent bridge (don't worry! it won't break :)
and the portal to episode 2 is waiting. There are lots of goodies around, so
take a break from your slaughtering and collect the stuff around here.
You find the first segment of your 4th weapon here, and
there is a combined mana hidden behind the portal.
For those of you who are more adventurous and those of you who noticed
something on the map: you can jump
across the chasm to a narrow passage on the east side of the chasm (look at
the map to make sure... "look before you leap!"). You get a close encounter
with some chaos serpents on your way up the passage. At the top, you can find
a pair of Wings of Wrath on a ledge. Jump down the ledge to get back to the
area overlooking the chasm. If you're paranoid about the magic bridge,
you can use the wings to fly across the chasm. Or use them to explore some
other areas in this episode.
Now, take a deep breath, brace yourself, and step into the portal, which will
take you to Episode 2: Shadow Wood. Or, you may want to visit the
secret level first, if you haven't done so yet.
Previous level: Winnowing Hall
Next episode: Shadow Wood (Episode 2)
Secret level: Bright Crucible
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