NETHERMORE CASTLE

Level by Maxx

Authorized Walkthrough by Jorge Lopez

You begin this level in a small courtyard somewhere in a Scottish castle. As you move forward through an opening into a passage, a rat crosses your path. On the right of the passage is a locked door - you'll need a key.

To the left is a covered area with piers. Go to the left under cover and pick up a med pack and kill a bat. You see the light of an adjoining room filter through the windows. Walk down under the cover by the piers and down a slope. There's a pool of water with an underwater gate in this room as well as an unlit torch. Remember both. Through a black wrought iron door you can see another courtyard. Leave the room for now you cannot do anything here yet.

Back in the main passageway go straight across. It leads down through some steps to a crypt. Nothing can be done here at the moment. Go back to the main passageway.

You need to get inside the castle. Facing the piers, jump up and grab to the edge of the roof. Then jumping back and forth from roof to roof, jump towards a flat surface. This is the upper balcony. Walk across the balcony and into an opening. Walk down the hall. Notice the closed trap door on the right. At the end of the hall up a few steps is a room with a fireplace in the corner and a large mirror. Standing next to the mirror and facing the fireplace, you can see in the reflection a high opening in the wall adjacent to the fire place. Climb up into it to pick up some explosive arrows. Drop back down and leave the room. As you leave take note of the bird statue in the niche.

Back in the hall there's a lever. Pull it and you can open the trap door. Drop down to the room below. You land on a table. In one corner is a jump switch which will open a door to the dungeon. Go up a few steps and open the doors on top. A rat crosses your path. It opens up into another hallway. Turning right down the hall you can open another set of doors into a chapel. At the far end of the chapel are two gem puzzles. In the corner adjacent from the door you came in is an alcove with a ladder up to a closed trap door. The gem puzzles will activate this door. Leave this room and go back down the hallway.

On the left in the hallway past the room with the table there is a flight of steps going up to a ladder and another closed trap door. We'll be coming back here later. At the end of the hall is an opening to the right to a landing with steps leading down to a courtyard. Kill the bats as you come into the courtyard. Straight ahead at the bottom of the stairs is the black wrought iron door leading to the room with the unlit torch and pool of water. With your back to the wrought iron door walk down the courtyard. Straight ahead is a gate leading upwards. To the left is a covered area with another closed gate leading to another courtyard. And finally to the right is an opening. This was the closed gate that was opened by the jump switch earlier. Go down the steps into the dungeon.

In the first room of the dungeon is a caged skeleton over an unlit fire pit. Up a few steps is another area with a lit fire pit, a pool of water and some more jailed skeletons. In one corner of this room is an open cell. Walk in and crawl up into an area to pick up a med pack.

Looking in the pool of water, you see a kind of inscription reading "1213 II 1345 II". What seems to be just a couple of numbers (years) actually is the solution to the following switch puzzle. (Reading the roman "II" as "2" gives the shortest order: 1213 2 1345 2).

Return to the room with the caged skeleton over the pit. Straight ahead, under the stairs leads you to a hall with the switch puzzle. Notice you pass by a gate to get to the end of the hall. This is going to be difficult to write - just keep track of the switches. At the end of the hall are two switches - one behind a gate. The accessible one will be called s1. The one behind the gate will be s2. Pull s1, which opens the gate to s2. Pull s2, then s1 again. This opens the gate you passed by. In the room is another switch. Let's call this one s3. Once inside the room, pull s3; the gate closes and another gate opens to another room with another switch, s4. Pull s4 and two gates go up. One gate is timed (a very short time, too). The timed gate is the other door off the room with s3. The other gate brings you back to s1 and s2. Pull s2, s1, s3. Then pull s4, turn and make a dash through the timed door.

Here is another room with a raised gate and a switch, s5. Pull s5 then go back to s2. Pull s2. Pull s4 and dash back to the room with s5. The gate is now open. Climb up and you have the torch. Go back to the room with the caged skeleton. Light the torch with one the already wall mounted lit torch. Light the fire pit under the cage. The skeleton blows up. The cage opens and there is the key that is needed. Can't get it yet, though - the cage is on fire!

Before you leave the dungeon area go back up to the room with the other jailed skeletons. The fire pit is now unlit. Climb up the chimney to get more explosive arrows. Leave the dungeon carrying the lit torch.

Drop off the torch by the wrought iron door in the courtyard. We'll be coming back to it later. The gate in the covered area is now open. Go through the gate into another courtyard and the gate closes behind you. On the left of where you came in is a balcony with a switch on one end and a bridge somewhat in the middle. Directly in front is a wooden door.

There's another wooden door to its right. On the right is a closed gate. Remember this gate's location. Above this gate is a low roof. Climb onto this low roof and jump/grab the roof over the balcony. Shimmy along the roof until you are over the bridge. Drop down and flip the switch. It opens the gate to the roof tower.

Go into the roof tower. Kill a couple of bats. Jump into the water below (you can't do anything going up yet). Swim around to an adjacent room that you can get out of the water onto a pier. Standing on the short end you can jump into the hole above and grab onto a climbable surface. Once up on the top position yourself across a grille platform.

You can jump across the hole to the grille platform. Shoot the box and jump grab a ledge. Shimmy 3/4 of the way across the room onto a small landing. Pull yourself up. Jump across and grab shimmy left to another platform. Pull up. Don't shoot the box - it only contains a sprite.

From the platform, jump and grab a wood platform. Here is the crowbar. You'll make good use of it. As you pick it up you will drop into the water below. Swim back to the tower and pull yourself out of the water.

Go back to the bridge. Jump down to the courtyard below. Use the crowbar on the door opposite the entrance. Go up the steps and pull the floor switch to empty the water out of the adjacent room. As you leave this room the gate you came in as well as the other wood door opens up.

Go through the wooden door. Go to the lever that was underwater. Up left from the lever is a small ledge which has a med pack. Drop back down and pull the lever. It opens a hatch in the roof above. Climb up the tower all the way to the roof. Pick up some more explosive arrows. Go back down and out of this room.

Go back to the dungeon. It is now half submerged with water. The fire under the cage is extinguished. Go in and pick up the key. Head back out to the courtyard and up the stairs back into the hall. Go up the stairs to the trap door. It is now open. Pull yourself up into another hall.

At the end of the hall is a library. Jump across the top ledges of the library to get another explosive arrow. By now you must be wondering why you need all those arrows... Drop down to the lower level of the library and push the globe. A wall swings open to reveal a chamber and a corridor below it to a climbable surface. The surface is at the end of the corridor to the left. Climb up. At the top, to your right is a closed gated door. Take note of the location of this gated door. Go down the hallway in the corner, climb up the ledge, crawl to the end. You are at the backside of the mirror.

There is a pedestal here with one of the blue belltower gems you will need. Pick it up. Go through the mirror. Immediately a wraith appears.

Run out of this room and back to the passage at the beginning of the level. Go down to the room with the unlit torch and the water. Jump in and wait for the wraith to extinguish itself.

Get out of the water and open the black wrought iron gate with your crowbar. Pick up the lit torch on the other side of the door. Go back and light the unlit torch. The gate in the water opens. Swim through the opening and down an underwater passage. You emerge into a hidden cistern. You've found a secret. Pick up the arrows and crossbow (you're gonna want it). Also pick up a med pack. Go back through the underwater passage and head back towards the passage at the beginning of the level.

Open the locked door with your key. You are now entering the catacombs. Walk past the niches and slide down to the lower level. Turn right and crawl through an opening. Turn immediately right and crawl through another hole. Once you can stand, pull yourself up. Jump across the lower level to an upper platform. Crawl to another cell and pull the lever. It opens a trap door. Drop down to the lower level and crawl through the right opening again. This time turn left. Pull yourself up. Go right. Drop down to a lower cell. Spikes appear. Get across by using the grated ceiling as monkey swing. You end up in a cell with a trap door. Go down another passage which will lead you to another switch. Pull it. The trap door opens. Pull yourself up and pick up the scroll. Go back to the switch to close this trap door again. For the way back past the spikes, the ground in front of the spikes to the right is sloped upwards. A simple running jump over the spikes from almost the highest part of the ground in front of them will have Lara loose a minimal amount of health.

Drop down and head back towards the first switch you pulled in the catacombs. Pull it. A trap door closes and another opens. Drop down to the lower level and crawl through the right opening one more time. Turn left. Pull yourself up. Go further right than before. Drop down. Go straight for a short way. Pick up a med pack on the left, then pull up.

At the top you hear a door open. On your right is the place where you picked up the crossbow, don't need to go down that way, a spiked ball will stop you. Head left and up a ramp. You will exit in the library. Place the scroll on the stand. A gate in the courtyard opens.

Get out of the library climbing up, through the hall and back out into the courtyard. Go through the gate and up the slope. At the top is another pedestal with another blue belltower gem. As you near the pedestal some darts start shooting. Try to avoid them. As you pick up the blue belltower gem another wraith appears. You will need to run back to the bird statue in the hall just outside the mirror room. [If you have trouble getting back there, scroll down a couple of paragraphs and refer to the bracketed directions.] Once you get there the wraith explodes.

Now that you have both belltower gems, go back down the trap door to the chapel. Place the belltower gems in their slots and the trap door in the back of the chapel opens up. Climb up to the top. You are in the bell tower. Shoot a couple of bats. Pull on the rope. The bell rings. The slab over the crypt opens up to reveal the gold skull and a scroll called The Roll of Agony.

Go to the crypt and pick up the scroll. [To get there, drop back down the hole and run through the passageway and past the doorway to your left. Take the next left and run up the steps. Climb up through the open trap door to the next higher level. Run straight ahead to the balcony area overlooking the scroll and globe room below. Jump over the balcony to the lower area. Exit through the south opening and circle your way around to the left until you reach a lower level and find an opening to your left. Climb up the ladder into the open air. Turn left and go through the SW hallway and left down the stairs. Pull up into the crawl space ahead and crawl around until you reach the back side of the mirror. Stand up, run through the the mirror into the next room and turn left. Go down the stairs, continue down the passageway and past the open trap door to your left. Emerge on the balcony near the area where you began this level. Safety drop to the courtyard below from the far end of the balcony, then turn to your right and locate the SE opening that's only partially blocked. Run through the opening down into the crypt.]

Leave this area. As you leave, a gate closes and you hear maniacal laughter. You are trapped as an un-dead knight and a host of skeletons come out of the woodwork to finish you off (thank goodness for the crossbow). The scroll is a hint of where you need to go to escape. It reads: "And Thou Shalt Find, as Bound for Thee, Thy Fate, Not Blind Though, Never See Thyself, but Path to Wisdom. You need to head back to the backside of the mirror where you never see yourself through the library which is the path to wisdom."

Actually, along the way you will see the exit but the scroll gives you enough hints, albeit cryptic, to get you going in the right direction.

A platform has been raised in the steps going down to the crypt. Jump and grab the platform and then up to a roof. Jump and grab to a ledge. Crawl through and drop down to the passageway in which you started this level. Do not try to go back through the black iron gate because there is a spike trap there. Instead, climb up to the roof above the piers to the upper balcony. Drop down the trap door. Go through the hall and back up the steps to the library trap door. Kill any skeletons that may appear. Pull yourself up and head towards the library. With your crossbow, kill a skeleton that jumps out. Go down into the lower library, through the door that the globe opened, down the hall and back up the climbable surface. At the top, to your right the once closed gated door is now open.

Go into the small courtyard with low roofs. A spike trap appears. As you enter, turn right. Position yourself about one floor tile away from the gate entrance. Jump and grab the roof. Pull yourself up, then do a backward jump to the low roof in back and an immediate jump off that roof to grab another roof. A bat will bother you as you shimmy across. Pull yourself up as you reach the ledge with an opening. Crawl through and you are back in the room adjacent to the roof tower.

Work your way down to the once flooded lower level and exit through the wood door into the courtyard with the balcony. Walk towards the entrance to this courtyard. The gate on your left is now open; go through and slide down to a wharf and the end of a great level.