Charon Doesn't Make Change
From Traxus
Contents |
Storyline Impact
It is on this exploration mission that Durandal reveals that he is looking for a way to contact the eleventh S'pht clan, or the S'pht'Kr. You explore an excavation area in hopes of finding information that the Pfhor have already unearthed about the clan, but instead learn only background information about the F'lickta and the departure of the S'pht'Kr. From here, we continue on to What About Bob?, where we begin striking at Pfhor military targets.
Map
Walkthrough
You teleport into the level in a room on the second story of the complex with an open window leading to the ground outside. Take that window out and head left. Follow the linear path fairly cautiously, and hang back once you see the ground dip down to reveal sewage. If you haven't been spotted by the Fighters and you wait long enough (in the Mac version, anyway), all the Pfhor will teleport out at the far end of this room. Once this is accomplished (or you get impatient and waste them all), head back into the first floor of the complex via the large door that you see coming just around the corner. Kill off the F'lickta inside, then go back outside and jump into the sewage. To your left are a few F'lickta and a dead end. Head right to find a small staircase, a polygon with lots of Flow Strength that takes some amount of footwork to avoid, and a F'lickta on the stairs. After punching this F'lickta to death (you're underwater and not left with a choice), take the elevator he's guarding up to a ledge that runs around the top of the level. You'll find a small ammo cache and then begin your descent into the basement.
Kill any F'lickta you find, and try to stay to the right side of the path (the left side just ends in little windows you can't quite fit through). When you come to a point where you fall down a series of stairs and end up in waist-high sewage, turn right and use your Run key to jump from step to step. If you climb all the way up, you'll be rewarded with more ammo, an oxygen recharger, and a 2x health recharger. Once you've replenished your supplies, fall back down into the sewage below and walk down the long corridor. The hallway will dump out to the left onto a couple steps. Climb these and kill the Tick and F'lickta in this room. Don't read the terminal yet! There's a gray door on the far end of the room that you should open and explore. It's a dead end and doesn't contain much, but it does have some information about the F'lickta on a terminal you're allowed to read and a cage that kills enemies. From here, walk back through the gray door and turn right. Walk up and down this staircase to trigger some of Marathon's required polygon checks. Then read the terminal you ignored earlier.
This will teleport you into a closed room with lots and lots of F'lickta. If it suits you, kill all of them. The major target of this area is first the lit octagonal room. Standing in this room triggers a platform on the other side of the area (you can see the platform if you look out across the sewage) that opens to reveal a series of terminals. Reading all of these terminals from left to right will complete this area. You're teleported again to another room. Walk near the inlay in the wall that's textured differently and it will begin to open automatically. Wait until the entire set of platforms is done moving, then proceed into the following room to kill the awaiting F'lickta. Reading the yellow S'pht terminal to gather more storyline information. Read the red Pfhor terminal to be teleported back to the first teleporter, near the 2x charger. I recommend instead that you skip the Pfhor terminal, walk up the stairs in the back of the room, and out onto the dry plateau just outside of the window. An ammo cache will teleport in. From here, you can walk into one of the windows and you'll find yourself back on the first floor of the main complex. Working your way back to the beginning of the level and reading the first terminal will allow you to exit.
Secrets, Tips, and Tricks
If you head all the way to the east (according to the automap) on the first level of the complex and try to use the gray door recess waaaay back into the wall, it should open to reveal a second magnum. There are reports of being able to access this weapon without an assault rifle to grenade hop with, but grenade hopping is by far the easier way to go.
Terminals
| ssg//4647.2.52.414.14<extrnt.4> |
| The S'pht have preserved a myth, throughout their long period of slavery, about a lost clan of their race which abandoned Lh'owon before the Pfhor invaded. The ten clans which stayed were destroyed or disbanded after the S'pht were conquered, the survivors scattered as slaves throughout the Pfhor empire. If this mythical eleventh clan survived, then it has had a thousand years to grow and learn since leaving Lh'owon. My S'pht believe that there is a way to contact them somewhere on the planet, and that is what we are searching for. The S'pht rebellion against the tyranny of the Pfhor will certainly fail unless the lost clan is located. Explore the area and return here. |
|
| ssg//4647.2.52.414.14<extrnt.4> |
|
| ssg//4647.2.52.414.14<extrnt.4> |
| The Pfhor have been on Lh'owon for nearly fifteen years, waiting for us to arrive. I was hoping that their science corps might have found some information about the eleventh clan. but they know nothing and we must search elsewhere. Amusingly enough, morale in the Pfhor garrison is terrible. The Pfhor navy has been sending their worst officers to Lh'owon as punishment for nearly nine years. They have no idea how important this world is. I have compiled a list of areas the Pfhor searched during their recent occupation of Lh'owon, and will be sending you to the sections they missed after we deal with their garrison. |
|
| ssg//4647.2.52.414.14<extrnt.4> |
| Remote Tecibon 05fc392d |
| /-/Pfhor-Translator-Active/-/ Report from Science Manager 7 ZONE 29-s [Lh'owon Garrison] We have explored many of the surrounding caves, but continually find the combative creatures the S'pht call F'lickta. Archeological evidence suggests that this was a center of S'pht life, though it appears to have been abandoned after an ancient battle. The quality of the machinery is quite extraordinary, and most of the computer terminals are still functional even after two thousand years. |
|
| /-/Pfhor-Translator-Active/-/ Report from Science Manager 7 ZONE 29-s [Lh'owon Garrison] This terminal is teleport-linked to others that we installed in caves that are not easily accessible. We also found some additional tunnels by blasting away barricades that were apparently erected during the ancient battle. |
| $"0000 0000 000F F800 001F FF00 0071 FF80" $"00C1 FFE0 0181 FDF0 0901 FCF8 1203 FE78" $"3A01 FF7C 3C07 FF7C 7C0B FF3E 7CFF FF3E" $"FCFF FF7E FCFF FF7E FE7F FE7F FE7F FEFF" $"FF3F FCFF FF9F F9FE FFE7 C7FF 7FF8 1FFE" $"7FFE 7FFE 7FFE 7FFE 3FFE 7FFC 3FFE 7FFC" $"1FFE 7FF8 1FFE 7FF8 0FFE 7FF0 07FE 7FE0" $"01FE 7F80 00FE 7F00 001E 7800 0000 0000" $"0007 F000 003F FE00 00FF FF80 03FF FFC0" $"07FF FFE0 0FFF FFF0 1FFF FFF8 3FFF FFFC" $"3FFF FFFC 7FFF FFFE 7FFF FFFE FFFF FFFF" $"FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF" $"FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF" $"FFFF FFFF 7FFF FFFE 7FFF FFFE 3FFF FFFC" $"3FFF FFFC 1FFF FFF8 0FFF FFF8 07FF FFE0" $"03FF FFC0 01FF FF80 007F FE00 0000 0000" TELEPORTATION ACTIVATED [escape to abort] |
|
| Remote Tecibon 05fc392d |
|
| lhwefsson.yeihtifna.151 |
|
| /-/Pfhor-Translator-Active/-/ Directive from Garrison Command//Hlford To: Leader, Station 29-s Warning: Damage to dam on the Minor River has caused severe damage to the water system in zone 6, and flooding of this same river could cause catastrophic damage (?sarcasm) to station 29-s within two hours Station 29-s has been ordered to evacuate to Garrison Command |
|
| lhwefsson.yeihtifna.151 |
|
| lhwefsson.yeihtifna.151 |
| /-/Pfhor-Translator-Active/-/ Report from Science Manager 7 ZONE 29-s [Lh'owon Garrison] We've been studying these beasts for some time, but periodically we've been forced to kill our specimens and capture new ones because they become unpredictably upset at our presence. It has been difficult to study them for any length of time, but their numbers in the surrounding caves are impressive. The caves must go deeper than we have been able to ascertain. Our scientific studies have revealed that these creatures are genetic ancestors of the S'pht, although in morphological terms this is absurd. |
|
| /-/Pfhor-Translator-Active/-/ Report from Science Manager 7 ZONE 29-s [Lh'owon Garrison] Also they don't eat. They take energy from the sludge that surrounds them, using a method of energy transfer that is unknown to us and beyond our depth of study. Variations of these creatures live in the active volcanic regions of Lh'owon and there have been two sightings deep in the Central Garrison's geothermal station. In no cases were the creatures aggressive like they are here. |
|
| lhwefsson.yeihtifna.151 |
| 392.c93@!39&95@7 |
| /-/Spht-Translator-Active/-/ The S'pht'Mnr attacked us. S'bhuth is entranced, and we are powerless to fight back. The outer villages have been slaughtered without their defenders. The attackers have overrun and killed most of us who were in the compound. |
| /-/Spht-Translator-Active/-/ Only those of us in the central chamber have survived. They won't likely find these chambers, but we cannot survive here forever. |
|
| 392.c93@!39&95@7 |
|
| @93!094<39 2!23@194 |
|
| /-/Spht-Translator-Active/-/ I felt S'bhuth at burning dawn The endless war rages about us, and yet we, the S'pht'Kr, cannot fight. S'bhuth stops us. He bled on me, straining. He says to not let more S'pht feel him. He says more will destroy him, that he was meant not to be alone. |
|
| @93! 094<392!23@194 |
|
| 3.@93/45!2949cxo |
|
| /-/Spht-Translator-Active/-/ We leave this message for any who might find it, but we have barricaded off this area, to make it difficult S'bhuth has gone into a deep trance; we know that we'll soon be leaving Lh'owon but we don't know how. The border fighting has ceased, the other clans know something is going on, but can't see the grass for the fires. We have sent emmissaries to the other clans, but only S'bhuth knows what messages they carry. |
|
| DCI3/19F.C3 |
|
| CI32LCOC.c |
|
| /-/Spht-Translator-Active/-/ We are leaving behind many F'lickta to keep the ducts clean and working. They should be able to build one of their stable societies here- there is plenty of food. We would ask that if another clan comes here that they would respect these creatures and leave them to continue their work and preserve our home on Lh'owon. |
|
| CI32LCOC.A |
Level Architecture
Charon Doesn't Make Change is a fairly boring level as far as architecture is concerned. The outdoors areas are fairly basic, the indoors are simply connected, and no serious tricks were performed with the geometry. There is one nice touch-up in the sealed off area. The bottom of the wall is recessed slightly to reveal lit sewage sliding down it. It's a neat effect and adds to the expansive feel of that area.
History and Background
Charon Doesn't Make Change was originally a level title for Pathways into Darkness that never made it into the game. The level name was reused here in Marathon 2. Charon of Greek mythology was the ferryman of the rivers Styx and Acheron. When the Greeks buried their dead, they would place a coin in the mouth of the departed to pay for the crossing. Charon not making change is just a joke played off of that myth; he'll take all of what he can get.
Charon Doesn't Make Change was probably created by Jason Jones, as deduced at the Marathon Story Page.[citation needed]
Alternate version
The level underwent some amount of remodelling when it was ported for the release of Marathon 2 on Win95. Some polygons were split up and changed to allow for new shadow shading. The textures were also reassigned and realigned on the interior of the building. The steps that rise out of the floor in the first version now sink into the floor, complete with skeletons. The gap in the pillar in the first terminal room was filled in the revised version, and the alien teleporter on the far end of the outdoors area was also removed. However, the top of the building is now both reachable and filled with Goal Polygons, so the Pfhor head up there to be teleported out instead. Some of the stairways have been slightly reshaped and retextured, but no serious changes were made there. Finally, the teleporter that brings you into the sealed area was realigned and sends you to one of the ends near the locked doors rather than in between the doors in the middle.
