E2M1: Tocnik Castle

The countryside is calling you to bask in your rich Bohemian heritage. How better than to prowl your way through the fabulous 14th century residence of Wenceslaus IV, a castle above the village of Točník. Beware the White Lady!

# Walkthrough

The Player enters Točník Castle in a chicken yard near the entrance to the first secret. To the right is a shed next to which is a Nu Pagodi game console. Enter the shed to find some bullets and a switch that will open the gate to the castle grounds.

Exit the shed to find a new enemy, a Headsmen, running in your direction with the intent of dismembering you. The Headsmen wear monk's robes with a hood, and there are two types, one which carries a Hussite Combat Axe, and another which carries a Brno Super Shotgun and flings Grenades.

Exit the chicken yard to the yard surrounding the castle where four more Headsmen are patrolling the grounds, one of whom will drop a Brno Super Shotgun when killed. To the left are some shells against the wall, where you can see the third secret, a Lightning Gun, beneath a grate on the ground.

Climb the steps to the castle and enter the doorway to a courtyard. There is another set of steps to the right leading to the battlements, where a Headsman is keeping watch. To the left is a jar, which when broken open will reward you with a tasty Liver Dumpling, a vital part of a healthy diet. To the right of the jar is a door leading into the castle.

Climb the stairs to the battlements where you will find an covered area to the left with a Medkit. To the right is a doorway to a small room with some shells and a Hazmat Suit. You will also see the fifth secret, a Submachine Gun spinning in a window to the left, just out of reach. Proceed through the room out the doorway on the other side to a porch overlooking a yard, where you will find the Common Key.

Enter the castle, where you will find four doorways, two of which are blocked by bollards. The door to the immediate left leads out to a porch, where you will find two Koruna. Return to the first room and proceed through the open doorway to the right to the dining room which has the Common Key door, where two Headsmen and a Hazmat Suit are grousing about the food.

Open the Common Key door and discover that the next room has a Sewer Rat infestation, along with a Soviet Shotgun in a closet. The next room has a wardrobe containing some Tasty Canned Chicken. There is also a painting of a woman in a white dress with a long veil, a pair of pliers, and an enigmatic Latin phrase that says **Trust, but beware of who you trust** (**Fide sed cui fidas vide**). This is another of the game's missable enemies. In order to make the White Lady appear, the Player must scrutinize and interact with the painting. She will join you shortly to discuss your impertinence.

Exit the room and take the stairs down to another room guarded by two Headsmen, which also has some ammo, and the entrance to the second secret and third secrets. Listen closely: you will hear ghostly footsteps on the floor above you! Lookikng around the room, you will also see an homage to another famous game. Walk up the stairs to a landing, past the entrance to the fourth secret. Flip the switch to open the bollard, and find yourself back in the entry room to the castle.

Turn to the left and proceed up a now-open flight of stairs to the battlements, where a Headsman is coming to greet you. Turn right at the top of the stairs and continue along the battlements to where it overlooks a a yard with some trees, where a Konfident is hanging out. There are also some arrows for the Hussite Crossbow, and the trigger for the fifth secret.

Jump down into the yard, where you will find some shells nearby the entrance to the sixth secret. On the right side of the yard you will see the Aluminum Key door, and near some trees it is possible to gain another achievement.

Proceed to the back, where you will find two boards covering a hole with a ladder. Break it open and descend the ladder to reach a tunnel. Continue down the tunnel, which leads down and becomes increasingly filled with water, passing a closed door along the way.

Swim through the submerged tunnel to reach a pool with a Becva and some shells. Swim across to the edge of the pool and turn right to find another Liver Dumpling. In front of you is a double grate, where you can see the AZ-5 button waiting patiently for you to stop playing around. Turn to the left and you will see a valve straight ahead, near the entrance to the seventh secret.

Turning it will open a wall panel, where two craven Hazmat Suits are hiding, and a Headsman will appear on the opposite side of the pool to tell you to stop playing with the valves. Go to where the Headsman was standing to find a second valve that will open the door you passed previously, and some bullets.

Jump into the pool and swim to an open area on the left. There is a small alcove to the left where you will find a Medkit and some shells. To the right is a doorway that has been boarded up. Break them open to find a Hussite Hand Cannon and the Aluminum Key.

Another Headsman will appear to demand that you give the key back. Continue down the tunnel where there another Headsman to oppose you, pass through the door to the ladder, and return to the yard.

Get ready to rock, because the yard now has three War Wagons who are simply dying to shoot you to pieces. This is an excellent opportunity to make use of the sixth secret. Once the War Wagons are destroyed the far wall will open to reveal two Hazmat Suits who have issues with your wanton destruction of their property.

If your Calvaria of Čáslav is ticking down, proceed quickly through the Aluminum Key door and up the steps, perhaps snagging one of the bags of Semi-Skimmed Milk on the ground. A panel is opening at the back of the barn with a Kejdovec standing in it. Swing jump around to the open panel and cross the rafters to where the Rusted Key awaits. Three Konfidents will appear immediately to counter your claim.

Jump down from the rafters to the barn where you will find a Hussite Crossbow, a bag of Semi-Skimmed Milk, and a switch. Flip the switch to open the bollard at the bottom of the stairs beside the barn. Exit the barn through the door to find two Headsmen rushing you from the shed, as well as two Kejdovecs who are hopping down from the roof of the castle.

Proceed down the open stairs between barn and the castle and enter the door at the bottom. Continue down more stairs to find an open area with arches and pillars, where a Headsman is trying to address a Sewer Rat problem. Here you will find a Hussite Hand Cannon and some shells, as well as pass by the entrance to the eighth secret, and a bowl of rotting dung.

To the right are another set of stairs that lead to the Rusted Key door, which is guarded by a Headsman. Take the shells in the corner then open it to get one of the game's jump scares: the rumbling growl of a Bear. Continue to the left, down another flight of stairs to a large open room with no apparent exit, and a switch.

Flip the switch, and an area at the back of the room to release a new enemy, a Bear, along with two Sewer Rats and a Wifebeater. A bollard will also shut the stairs from where you came, so you are trapped until you address resolve your differences with them. The Bear appears to be a little hungry and would like to sate his palate with the Player.

Removing the Bear's burden of existence will open the wall next to the switch. Proceed through it and down another flight of stairs that flanks a pool of water that contains a Medkit. To the left there is a door, and to the right a passageway to another room.

Here you will find Točník Castle's execution chamber, where four Headsmen are hanging by their necks from the ceiling. There is also a switch directly opposite the doorway, and one Koruna in the corner to the right as you enter the room. There is also a moral dilemma: do you put the Headsmen out of their misery or not?

Flip the switch, and another Bear will come barreling at you from the area with the pool, angry at how you treated his kid brother. If you chose not to shoot the Headsmen as part of your solution to the moral dilemma, then they will also join the party in this cramped quarters, and the Player will need to be spry to escape with his life.

The switch opened the door in the room with the pool. Enter the tunnel, where your progress will be blocked by boards that seal a doorway. Break them open, continue down the corridor until you round the corner and come face-to-face with your Indiana Jones moment: a giant Boulder rolling towards you.

This last new enemy is not to be trifled with, as it is sentient and will follow you. So if you run to a location where the Boulder can follow you to your doom, you will be transformed into Player jelly. Discretion is the better part of valor with this enemy, so beat it up the stairs and let it break apart harmlessly.

Once the Boulder is eliminated, proceed back through the tunnel from whence it came to arrive at the room you saw from the underground pool. Smash the AZ-5 button to exit the level.

**Previous:** Kiss Me Gustav

**Next:** E2M2: Uranium Mine

# Secrets

### Secret 1

This secret appears directly at the start of the map. Exit the corridor you find yourself in and turn left to see an electrical panel high on a wall. Shoot it, and return to the corridor to find an open area on the left, where you will find one Koruna and a Hussite Hand Cannon.

### Secret 2

The room with the two Headsmen has a wardrobe near the doorway to the stairs. Break it open to find a set of stairs leading down. Follow them and you will find a small area to the left where you will find a Lightning Gun.

### Secret 3

In the hidden area where you found the Lightning Gun, follow the passage around to the left, where you will find a Headsman in a nook. Interact with the wall to the right where the pattern of rock is different, and the wall will slide open to reveal a ladder. At the top of it you will find a second Pistol.

### Secret 4

The entrance to the secret is on the stairs past the room with the wardrobe and two Headsmen. There is a landing on the steps where they turn left. Interact with the wall at the right, and it will slide open to reveal a hidden room with a Knapsack.

### Secret 5

On the battlements overlooking the training yard, there is a stone switch to the right above your head, just as you enter. Press it and the window with the Submachine Gun will lower so you can take it.

### Secret 6

In the training yard, there is a cracked wall on the left hand side of the yard when you jump down. Blow it open to find a Calvaria of Čáslav, which will be extremely useful later in the level, so it is suggested that you save it.

### Secret 7

Once the Player has descended to the underground pool and turned the first valve, there is an interactive wall to the left of the valve, directly across from the two Hazmat Suits. Open it to find a Land Mine.

### Secret 8

Found in the first room of the area beneath the barn, there is an interactive wall directly opposite the steps. Open it to find a cache of arrows for your Hussite Crossbow.

# Lore

* **Točník Castle** lies in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, in the Beroun District above the village of **Točník**. It was built during the reign of Wenceslaus IV at the end of the 14th century after the large fire at the castle Žebrák, which showed how unsafe it was for the king and how its position was not strategic. The castle was built on a three-part ground plan. Behind the defensive wall is a massive moat with a bridge, which was originally protected by a gate tower. The most important building, situated in the residential section on the L-shaped ground plan, is the Royal Palace with its side wing. The second floor of the palace was taken up with a ceremonial hall, while other floors were residential. During the Hussite wars, when Wenceslaus' brother Sigismund was in power, the castle was besieged by the Hussite army for three days, until it gave up and burnt down the towns **Točník** and **Hořovice** instead. The castle was then mortgaged and handed over from one person to another, but it never found an owner that would keep it for a longer time and so it was gradually reduced to ruins. Jan of Wartenberg initiated the first stage of the Renaissance alterations, which were continued by the Lobkowicz family. In 1594, the castle came once again to the royal property and was administrated by the Bohemian Royal Chamber. The Thirty Years' War contributed greatly to the castle's deterioration. In the year 1923, the castle was sold to the Czech Association of Tourists for 2000 Czechoslovak crowns and now it belongs to the state. Since the 1930s the gradual restoration works continue until this day.

TočníkŽebrák and Točník

* **White Lady** is a reference to Perchta of Rožmberk (c. 1429 –1476), the daughter of Ulrich II, and her fame as a ghost. She was wed against her wishes to Jan von Lichtenstein, and endured an abusive, intolerable marriage. According to legend, as her husband lay dying, he begged her forgiveness. She refused and he cursed her instead, dooming her to become a ghost. She appeared as a ghost at castles in the Rosenberg family, in particular Český Krumlov, her birth place. Perchta became known as the White Lady, wearing a simple white dress with keys around her waist. A smile on her face was a sign of good tidings whereas black gloves in her hands foreshadowed impending disaster or death. Legend has it that whomever can decipher what is written in the secret signs in her portrait will free her, and will be rewarded with a silver treasure. The White Lady is also a main character in Bílá paní, a 1965 Czech film, who emerges from the painting on the wall when someone speaks out a magic formula

* Liver dumplings are a traditional Czech food, often served at weddings.

* In the room after the White Lady where there are stairs blocked by a bollard, three is a trophy of an animal skull hanging on one wall, which is a Wendigo from the 2018 Game of the Year, Dusk. Poor fellow.