Hub 2: Constable's Gate

Constable's Gate is the central map of the second hub in Deathkings of the Dark Citadel.

Essentials
You begin on a high ledge looking down over several foes and the gate itself. But don't sit there ogling at the scenery as there are another couple of ledges in sight with chaos serpents on them. Note the crystal sitting on the closet ledge: the Heart of D'Sparil, which is your primary objective this hub; though of course you have to complete the entire hub to get it.

Below are several centaurs that will be alerted as soon as you fire a weapon. There is also a single slaughtaur among them that may take you be surprise if you choose to hang up on the ledge to pick the centaurs off.

Once the area is sufficiently clear, jump down and go to the gate. Behind it are a few slaughtaurs. But the bigger threat here is the Heresiarch that appears as soon as you enter a little way in.

You can battle the Heresiarch or, given that you won't need to go back out, you can lure him outside the gate where he is unable to get back in if the door shuts.

Up in the room the Heresiarch emerged from is the first part of your first task this hub; collecting three Yorick's Skull artifacts. Behind the skull is also where you must place the Heart of D'Sparil once you have it. There are two wooden doors leading off the grass area behind the gate. The one nearest the gate leads to a currently sealed off portal. So enter the other one. A pair of ettins will ambush you as you reach the door. Behind the door is a large room with a switch on the back of a raised platform. Pressing it will open several alcoves with more ettins inside. Several of the alcoves also contain switches. Press them all and the door to the next area will open at the far end of the room.

Cross the bridge watching for the stalkers in the slime on either side and head up the front stairs and follow the passage around to find a valve (note the portal you can see through one of the windows). Turning it will open the sewer gates at the far end of the slime on the right side of the bridge (pressing it again will close the gate, and again open it etc), which you must go through. There will be a narrow corridor to your right. Travel down it and through the door to a room of afrits. You can find a segment of your forth weapon at the back of this room.

Enter the only other door to find two more valves. The northern valve lowers the slime in front of you while the other southern valve resets the sewer gate. Though don't worry about resetting the gate, as like the other gate switch, this one is also re-usable, and even if you trap yourself in the lowered slime, you can still use a teleporter to reach the other side of the gate.

Go back outside to the slime and enter the newly revealed passage to be presented with three passageways, two of which are currently sealed. Travel up the open one to find a switch which opens the bars blocking one of the other two passages. Up this second passage is a switch that opens the door blocking the third passage. Go up the lift behind the third passage to be presented with a teleporter and another portal just around the corner.

The portal will take you to where you will ultimately need to place the three Yorick's Skulls: Locus Requiescat, and also one of two keys you require to unseal the portal back at the gate: the Axe key.

Returning with the Axe Key
You're back, with the Axe key. Now go through the above mentioned teleporter to be taken to the room containing the portal you could see through the window back at the start of the slime area. Enter it to enter the Market Place, where you can pick up another Yorick's Skull and also the second key you need to unblock the portal back at the gate; the Steel key.

Returning with the Steel Key
Head back to the gate and use both the Axe and Steel keys to unlock the portal to Ordeal. Here you can collect the final Yorick's Skull.

Returning with all three Yorick's Skulls
At this point you should have all three skulls. Head to the Locus Requiescat to place them.

Returning with the Castle Key
After returning here from the Locus Requiescat with the Castle key, head to Ordeal to use it.

Returning through the portal from Treasury
You'll appear in a new, but fortunately small area of the map. You can turn left to find a portal back to Treasury and also a door leading to a part of the level you've already been to.

However, you want to take the lift directly in front of you which will take up to a small passage way which leads to the ledge with the Heart of D'Sparil on it. Pick it up and return to the room the Heresiarch emerged from right back at the start of the hub and place it on the pedestal. A switch will be revealed that completes the hub.

Bugs

 * Green Chaos Serpent at -544, 1408 (northwest teleporter) is stuck against a barrel.
 * If you enter (or exit) the elevator leading to the Heart of D'Sparil on the left side while it is descending, the elevator script will break by lowering itself below ground level. If the heart was not collected, progress is blocked until you retrieve Wings of Wrath from Armory
 * There is a locked portal leading to Ordeal that requires two keys (Axe key and Steel key), but the wall blocking the portal can be opened even without the keys, thus a portion of the game can be shortened.
 * The whole hub can be skipped. With the Boots of Speed the player can use a strife-jump from the platform on the very beginning to the platform with Heart of D'Sparil.

Routes and tricks
At the start of the level, you can attempt to jump across the southern ledges. This eventually leads to the south-east corner, which opens up a secret passage. This leads to a lava-pit separating you and a stained-glass platform, which you can jump on to get an alternate path. If you choose this path, you can continue with the game as normal and bypass some combat sections, although you will still need Yorick's Skull from the Heresiarch area. Also, this route doesn't require opening the alcoves in the western room, thus blocking a path if you arrive from the Treasury map.

Deathmatch
Warrior:
 * Timon's Axe: Starting area, middle of south wall.
 * Hammer of Retribution: Near gate separating two slime sections
 * Quietus: Piece 1 in eastern stained-glass room, Piece 2 past south-west elevator leading to Heart of D'Sparil, Piece 3 in area leading to Market Place.

Cleric:
 * Serpent staff is in the eastern area.
 * Firestorm in portal leading to Ordeal
 * Wraithverge: Piece 1 behind Market Place portal, Piece 2 near hub exit, Piece 3 near elevator leading to Heart of D'sparil.

Mage:
 * Frost Shards: Northwest area, in front of switch that opens north-west teleporter
 * Arc of Death: In central area, before heresiarch.
 * Bloodscourge: Piece 1 near portal to Locus Requiescat Piece 2 in south-west elevator area, Piece 3 in southern starting area near the south-east corner.

Items of note:
 * From the normal map starting point, jump across to the ledges on the south edge of the map. If done properly, you can reach the south east platform, which opens the backdoor path as normal.  The stained glass floor holds an Icon of the Defender.

Player spawns
This level contains eight spawn points:
 * 1) facing north-east. (thing 92)
 * 2) facing east. (thing 93)
 * 3) facing south. (thing 94)
 * 4) facing south. (thing 95)
 * 5) facing south. (thing 96)
 * 6) facing north. (thing 97)
 * 7) facing north-west. (thing 98)
 * 8) facing north. (thing 99)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:

Trivia

 * When the respawn script activates, the selected points have a 70% chance of creating centaurs, 20% chance of green chaos serpents, and 10% chance for slaughtaurs. One exception is a point that exclusively generates stalkers.