E1M7: Underground Stream

Underground Stream is the seventh mission in HROT Episode 1 — Kiss Me Gustav. It recreates one of Prague's most iconic structures, has the game's first switch lock puzzle, and bottle factory with a moving conveyer belt.

# Walkthrough

The Player exits from the pier at the end of Vyšehrad Castle to a room behind two locked doors. Behind you to the right are some stairs leading down to to a room with a switch that will unlock the doors. A Miner will appear to explain to you that those doors were locked for a reason.

Proceed through the doors to find a Medkit and Hussite Hand Cannon. Continue down the hall which leads to a dock on a branch of the Vltava River, flowing between the Masaryk Embankment and Slavonic Island. Above stands the Mánes Exhibition Hall, along with a Hazmat Suit.

Across the water are two Hazmat Suits and two Konfidents who do not care for your manner of sightseeing. In the river is a Becva, some bullets and shells, a submerged channel that is the underground stream, and the entrance to the first secret.

Cross the river and enter a door at the end of the dock, where you will find a Submachine Gun. Climb the stairs up the embankment, where you will find some bullets, and the entrance to the exhibition hall blocked by two bollards with an electrical panel behind them. Shoot the panel and then the two Smaskous inside the gallery who are gazing at the artwork. At the back wall is a large canvas that says **World Peace** (**Světu Mír**).

Exit through the second door to a promenade that overlooks the Vltava, where a Kejdovec and a Hazmat Suit are strolling and contemplating the meaning of existence. There is a valve at the end of the promenade that will lower the water level to reveal the underground stream, a bag of Semi-Skimmed Milk, and also the entrance to the second secret.

Jump into the river and swim into the channel. Around the first bend you will find a small room that is offset from the main water course with some steps leading to a Land Mine and some Tasty Canned Chicken. Continue all the way to the end and turn left to enter an open area with a canal, some stairs, and a Soviet Shotgun.

At the top of the steps are two Smaskous guarding the Rusted Key door, long with another around the corner. This Smaskou is standing next to a door with the game's first switch lock puzzle, which can be opened by flipping the two middle switches.

Enter the door and ascend the steps behind it to a room with the Rusted Key. Taking it will lower the walls on two sides to reveal several Smaskous who wish to discuss your refusal to pay KSČ party dues. The entrance to the third secret is also nearby.

Return to the Rusted Key door, where there is a Konfident who is wondering who in hell dismissed the sentries. Open the door and a Miner will come running to thank you for setting him free. Inside the room is a switch, which will lower the wall in front of the Rusted Key door.

Behind the door is a Smaskou aimlessly wandering the canal, along with two Miners. Jump into the water and continue forward, and a portion of the wall ahead will lower to reveal two Konfidents and a Kejdovec. On the ledge where they are standing are shelves with shotgun shells.

Continue along the canal until it opens, where you will find two Konfidents out for an evening stroll. Around the corner is a Kejdovec who is guarding the Common Key door, as well as a second one who is coming towards you near an exploding barrel.

Further down you will encounter a line of Smaskous, one guarding a bag of Semi-Skimmed Milk, another some clips of ammunition, and two others guarding a hallway. At the end of the hallway is a sign that says **Exit** (**Východ**), pointing to some stairs at right. To the left is a room with a block and tackle overlooked by a ledge, where a Konfident is guarding a switch. There is also a bag of Semi-Skimmed Milk and two cans of Tasty Canned Chicken.

At the top of the stairs is a plaza being patrolled by a Skapucí and a Smaskou. There is a bottle factory with the Aluminum Key door to the right, and the maintenance and store rooms for the canal at left, with another lurking Konfident, some Tasty Canned Chicken, and the entrance to the fourth secret.

Enter the maintenance room at the left and proceed past the Electric Cabinet until you reach an open doorway on your left, and a closed door on your right. Proceed through the open doorway where you will find a Medkit and a switch that will open the closed door directly behind you, where you will find the Aluminum Key. Taking the key will cause a two Konfidents, a Miner, and a Kejdovec to appear, wishing to inform you that access to the bottle factory is only granted to authorized personnel.

Open the Aluminum Key door to be greeted by a Turret overlooking a room with a conveyor belt, and a sign that says **Thinking Workers Do Not Drink; Drinking Workers Do Not Think** (**Myslící dělníci nepijí; Pijící dělníci nemyslí**). Proceed down the stairs to a hall with a ventilation duct, where a Miner rushes at you.

Beyond this, the conveyor belt will lead you to the bottling room, which is being operated by two Konfidents. You will also find some shotgun shells and the Common Key. Return to the ventilation duct, break it open, and follow the duct back to the canal. The duct will exit in front of the Common Key door where it is now being guarded by a Konfident.

Behind the Common Key door is an elevator that descends to a tunnel leading to an industrial room with a drain in the middle of the floor, some Tasty Canned Chicken, and a ventilation duct in the far right corner. Walk over the duct and prepare to meet Overgrown Skull Spider, the queen mother of Skull Spiders. This is a relatively minor miniboss, but when killed, walls on two sides will open to release a number of Hazmat Suits and Skull Spiders to make sure you do not escape.

Break open the ventilation duct and follow it until it drops you some ancient steps, far underground. Follow the steps up until they end and you can go no farther to find a bag of Semi-Skimmed Milk. Turn around and descend to find two cans of Tasty Canned Chicken, one on the steps, and one in front of the A3-5 button that ends the level.

**Previous:** E1M6: Vysehrad Castle

**Next:** E1M8: Mausoleum

# Secrets

### Secret 1

Visible from the dock near the start of the map is a cracked wall to the right, just above the river's water line. Blow it open, enter the hole and float down to the bottom to find one Koruna. Make sure you do this before you turn the valve on the patio outside Mánes, otherwise the water level will be too low for you to reach it.

### Secret 2

This secret is found on the promenade on the other side of the Mánes gallery, where you find the valve to lower the river. There are some crates stacked to the right. Interact with the middle one to find one Koruna.

### Secret 3

This area can only be accessed once the Rusted Key has been taken. When you enter the room with the Rusted Key, there is an interactive section of the wall on the right, about three-quarters of the way down. A panel will slide open to reveal a ladder. At the bottom there is a Wifebeater at the right, then some shells, some Tasty Canned Chicken, and a radio which is jamming your ability to listen to Bananaramma and the Bangles. There is also graffiti that says **We Stand Firmly Behind Svoboda and Dubček** (**Stojíme pevně za Svobodou a Dubčekem**).

### Secret 4

There is a long fence on the plaza that appears to the left of the bottle factory. At the far left end is an electrical panel visible on a wall. Shoot it, and a panel will open in the store room on the right. You will find one Koruna in the newly open area in the corner next to a wall.

# Lore

* Opened in 1930, Mánes Exhibition Hall, located on the right bank of the Vltava river is one of only two buildings in Prague that were expressly designed to house art. It remains today a major space whose mission is to support all forms of visual arts. It was built by the Mánes Union of Fine Arts, a well-known and established group of artists, which also gave the building its name. It was constructed on land that was originally occupied by the Štítkovský Mill, of which only the preserved Renaissance water tower with bulb dome remains. The functionalist gallery building stands next to it with green neon lettering. It is considered an architectural legend and one of the most important centers of the Prague social and cultural life. In February 1948, the activity of Mánes Union of Fine Arts was forcibly stopped by the Communist Party, and the society property was confiscated. It was revived after the Velvet Revolution in 1990, and went through an extensive reconstruction between 2012-2014. The original restaurant with a terrace and ceiling frescos by Emil Filla were restored, as well as the Steinway grand piano from 1897 that was played by Jaroslav Ježek.

* **Světu Mír** was a political slogan of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), and was used across a wide variety of media, from postage stamps, to posters, fine art, and street decorations.

* Alexander Dubček and Ludvík Svoboda were Czechoslovak politicians who figured prominently in the Prague Spring, before the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces in 1968. Both were popular with the Czech public, and "Dubček! Svoboda!" was a popular refrain of student demonstrations during this period. Dubček served as the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) from January 1968 to April 1969. During his leadership, under the slogan "Socialism with a human face", Czechoslovakia lifted censorship on the media and liberalized Czechoslovak society, fueling the so-called New Wave in Czechoslovak filmography. However, he was put under pressure by Stalinist voices inside the party as well as the Soviet leadership, who disliked the direction the country was taking and feared that Czechoslovakia could loosen ties with the Soviet Union and become more westernized. As a result, the country was invaded by the other Warsaw Pact countries on 20–21 August 1968, ending the Prague Spring. The occupying armies seized control of Prague and the Central Committee's building, taking Dubček and other reformers into custody and eventually to Moscow via Soviet military aircraft. Dubček resigned in April 1969 and was succeeded by Gustáv Husák, who initiated normalization. Dubček was then expelled from the Communist Party in 1970. Svoboda was elected President of Czechoslovakia on 30 March 1968 at the recommendation of Dubček, who was the First Secretary at the time. Svoboda gave consent to the reform process of the new Party leadership until the Warsaw Pact intervention in August 1968. He traveled to Moscow in order to secure the release of Dubček and the other reform leaders, who had been kidnapped by the invading forces. However, when Svoboda arrived, Leonid Brezhnev demanded that he appoint a peasant-workers' government in order to give credence to the planned official line—that hardliners in the KSČ (Czechoslovak Communist Party) had themselves requested the invasion. Svoboda not only refused, but threatened to put a bullet into his head in the presence of Brezhnev unless Dubček and the other reformists were released. Dubček and most of the reformers were returned to Prague on 27 August 1968.