Book Three · The Walkthrough · 1

The Labyrinth Gardens

Link 1 · the bat run, the Height, the crows and the Man of Secrets

Ubi puer Wick in cloaca dormit.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · built (G0 to G2); the Man of Secrets’ late content is designed

6 standing

The PleasanceIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the King’s Labyrinth, the Height, the Pleasance
Earns: the crows (from the Singing Saint)
Rule taught: bats go through gates; crows fly over hedges
Boss: the Penitent of the Height
Cinematics: arrival, the low road (17 s); departure, the high road (19 s)
Calm: the Pleasance, and the Man of Secrets
Length: 12 to 18 minutes on a first play

This is the pattern the whole guided road follows: a boss gives a form, a level is built on that form’s rule, a cinematic gives the place its meaning, a boss with a story, a new power and a second cinematic, the power reopens the level by a new exit, and a calm place with a voice before you go on.

The maps

The King's Labyrinth — SCREEN 1-1The King’s LabyrinthLong straights and hard turns. The lantern-lit serpentine is the feast; the four iron gates in the hedge lines are the blaze. The mountain gate is at the bottom left; the hedged garden and its door at the far right.The dressed map, as the game draws it (v72)

SCREEN 1-2The HeightA short stair, a checkpoint, and the terrace: an oval arena with a drop on three sides.The dressed map (v72)

SCREEN 1-3The PleasanceParterres, the great fountain, the Walk of the Founders, the four vista marks and the grotto.The dressed map (v72)

The route

Land as the bat. Through the court gate’s bars, Wick lands in the King’s garden still in bat form. The god and Wick trade a line about flying low and feeding as you pass.
Choose your way: the feast or the blaze. The lit serpentine is five long straights with a lone gardener or watchman at the end of each: nine meals, about 18 s of pure dash plus the bites. Four locked iron garden gates in the hedge lines, each with a red bat sign, are the bat’s shortcuts: through all four, the way is less than half as long, with one sure meal on it. Any mix is fine. The first gate is 11 tiles into the first straight.
Dash, turn, bite. Hold a direction for half a second and the bat dashes. Turns cost speed. A bite on a lone body drains it in under a second, and he keeps most of his speed.
Notice the hedged garden. At the end of the first straight, a garden walled in hedge shows a statue and a dim crow sign, and no gate anywhere. You cannot reach its door yet.
The mountain gate. Tall iron, chained, at the bottom left. The bat goes through; the cinematic the low road plays.
The Height. A short climb past two lone pilgrims’ guards (the bat’s warm-up) to the checkpoint at the stair’s top. Rest.
The Penitent. On the terrace, a giant monk with a gilded cage chained to his back. Break the cage’s three hasps. See the boss below.
The saint. The cage breaks; she rises, sings her three lines and becomes the crows. Wick bursts at once (free, her gift).
The Penitent kneels. Drink him (a full orb) or leave him to walk down the mountain.
The high road. The flock rises past the moon, crosses the city and dives into the maze. Control returns in crow form.
The crow run. Fly the diagonal over the hedges to the hedged garden. Hounds walk the maze now and can bite the flock; go round the fountain and the two stone pavilions.
The hedged garden’s door. Land inside it and walk through the door in the wall. The music turns calm.
The Pleasance. Walk the allée. Four vista marks (lattice rings) light one after another and lead to the grotto. Pass the six founders and the seventh plinth.
The Man of Secrets. Talk to the old man with the lantern (Interact). The first talk is free: he tells you about the old water-gate behind him and steps aside from it.
The water-gate. Its grille is bars, so the bat goes through. A bat sign lights on it after the talk.
The chandlery yard. The old conduit comes out under the yard’s wall in the gutter, by the vats where he was named. He re-forms on his feet.

SHOT W1-01phase B: to capture

The first straight of the maze as the bat at full dash, the camera leading, a lone gardener at the far end of the lane. Map gd_maze, first pass. Play field only.

SHOT W1-02phase B: to capture

The bat passing through the first iron garden gate in the hedge, its red bat sign lit on the post. Map gd_maze, 11 tiles into the first straight.

SHOT W1-03phase B: to capture

The hedged garden seen through its hedge from the end of the first straight, the statue inside and the dim crow sign, no gate. Map gd_maze, first pass.

CLIP W1-04phase B: to capture

The blaze: the four gates taken in one run from the landing to the mountain gate, about 10 s, ending as the bat folds through the mountain gate’s bars.

CLIP W1-05phase B: to capture

Cinematic 1, the low road, in full (17 s), from the gate’s bars to the bat re-forming at the shrine’s foot. Skip never pressed.

THE ONE BELOW

The King locks his garden with bars. Bars are for men.

god_gd_gate

WICK

Between the bars, then. The King can keep his keys.

ans_gd_gate

The boss: the Penitent

The full panel is in The Bosses. In short:

The cage, not the man. His wounds do not end the fight; the third hasp does.
Hit a hasp from behind, or during the Prostration’s recovery, when he lies face down for 1.4 s and the cage glints gold.
The Litany summons two kneeling flagellants: bite them as the bat for blood.
In phase 3 he tears the cage off and swings it: the gold arc is the cage itself.

SCREEN 1-4The cage swingThe third phase. The yellow arc on the stair is where the cage will land.In-game, the Height (v73), play field

CLIP W1-06phase B: to capture

The Prostration taught: he throws himself down (the purple ring), Wick steps out, runs behind, two blows on a hasp while the cage glints gold. About 8 s.

CLIP W1-07phase B: to capture

The saint’s freeing: the third hasp, the cage springing, the girl rising and singing her three lines, the birds flying into Wick, the burst. About 20 s, captions on.

CLIP W1-08phase B: to capture

Cinematic 2, the high road, in full (19 s): the moon, the city from above, the dive into the maze.

THE SAINT

And never under a roof. I was under one a hundred years.

saint_free_3

The crow run and the Pleasance

SHOT W1-09phase B: to capture

The crow run: the flock over the hedges on the diagonal at full speed, a hound below leaping at the birds. Map gd_maze, crow pass. Play field only.

SHOT W1-10phase B: to capture

The Pleasance’s allée with the second vista mark lit and the Walk of the Founders behind, the seventh plinth bare. Map pl_garden.

SHOT W1-11phase B: to capture

The grotto: Ambry with his lantern at the back, the water-gate’s grille behind him, Wick at the mouth. Map pl_grotto. Ambry’s face never in the HUD window: crop to the play field.

SHOT W1-12phase B: to capture

The chandlery yard as Wick re-forms out of the conduit’s grate, the vats behind him. Map: the gutter, the arrival from the Pleasance.

AMBRY

This one is free. The water-gate behind me. The fountain’s water ran out through it to the river once, and under the chandler’s yard. Forty years shut. Bars, my lord, and you are not a man for bars.

secrets_meet_2

TIPAmbry: the hint you can always buy

Whenever you are lost, come back to the grotto. Through the Pleasance’s south-east door, which opens onto the gutter’s west road after the first talk, it is a short walk. Ask “Where now?” and he names the next place and locks the gold pointer to it for a while. His price: free the first time; a little blood (0.10 of the orb) in the first act; blood or the whole mana orb in the second; mana and blood, or a task, in the third; a hunt late in the game. He never takes your blood below a quarter, and the god’s own nudge always works for nothing.

Ways back

The Pleasance’s south-east door (solid oak) opens from inside after the first talk, onto the gutter’s west road.
The maze can be re-entered from the Pleasance’s west door, on foot or as crows.
The Height is reached again only by the crows’ fast travel, once its roost is learned TBD: the roost feather is designed, not built.
After the crows, the watch shuts the mountain gatehouse’s solid doors behind the bars: the bat can no longer leave that way.

Secrets

Sealed · After the first houseIn the gardensBreak the seal to read

The fountain court has a mark and the maze’s checkpoint, in its west wing.
The Penitent, spared, walks down the mountain. Later he is a new gardener in the Pleasance who does not know Wick TBD: designed for a later pass.
The fountain island in the middle of the maze is running water all round. Come back with the tide (Link 5): a relic, and something that will make one of Ambry’s hunts easier.
The four vista marks each have a line; stand on all four.

Sealed · The endingThe man with no reflectionBreak the seal to read

In the great basin, the grotto’s lantern shows, swinging, and the man who carries it does not. Ambry never eats or drinks; the roses on his door are red “for the roses”; he says he knew your first founder’s mother. He is older than the houses, and late in the game he can be challenged. See Walkthrough 13.

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The bat run is the fastest-feeling minute in the game. Try the blaze on camera.
Both cinematics are in-engine and short; let them play.
The saint’s three lines are the emotional peak of the first hour. Keep captions on.
Ambry is where the chat will ask “is he a vampire?” Do not answer.