E2M9: Fortress of Mystery (Doom)

E2M9: Fortress of Mystery is the secret map in The Shores of Hell in Doom, and can be accessed from E2M5. It features some Barons, a horde of Cacodemons and not much else of interest. The map was designed by Sandy Petersen and it uses the music track "Untitled," which bares a striking resemblance to the track "Mouth For War" by heavy metal band [Pantera]. The par time is 2:50.

Walkthrough
When the level starts you will appear in the center of the "star" shaped room (A), facing North, and immediately be attacked by four Barons of Hell located in the northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest "arms" (B). Find a safe spot and take them out with your most powerful weapon. Once they've been taken care of, pick up the various weapons and other goodies in each of the "arms" of the first area. Afterwards, go through the door in the eastern "arm". The next area holds eight Cacodemons (C). Pick up the Soul Sphere in the center of this room if you need it (D). Once all the enemies have been disposed of, head to the eastern end of this "+"-shaped room (E). There are two lion-faced reliefs on this wall. Open the wall between them to reveal the level's exit room (F). Press the skull switch to the left to get the blue key (G), then open the blue door to get the red key (H). Open the red door to get the yellow key (I), and finally open the yellow door to reveal the exit teleporter (J).

A much safer option is to use the apparent dislike between Barons and Cacodemons. If you immediately start running in circles around the Barons of Hell, you will 'shepherd' or round them up and they will follow you as a group. Now run into the eastern arm and do the same with the Cacodemons, running a circle around them - do not fire as this gives them time to zero in on you. Then run back to the Baron room, accept a blast or three from the Barons and Cacodemons, and run into one of the corners. At this point, you can expect to be completely left alone as the Cacodemons and Barons will have hit each other and start a huge infighting sequence. You can sit back and watch, then finish one or two creatures which have been badly damaged. In using the Sphere you'll regain any health lost and more plus won't have lost much (if any) ammo. This seems to be the designers intention, as in each room, there are bodies of the other creature.

An alternative tactic is to immediately turn 90 degrees to your right, run to the door separating the two sections, open it and fire one shot (or punch, or rev the chainsaw) to wake up the Cacodemons. Then turn around, return to the "star" room's center chamber and start walking around the wall. Don't let yourself get trapped in any of the "arm" rooms, and if something blocks your path turn around and circle the other way. The Cacodemons will emerge and mingle with the Barons, stray shots will start them off, and in seconds you will have a grand and noisy mob of battling demons beating on each other and mostly ignoring you. When it's over you should only have to finish off one or two heavily damaged Barons.

Secrets

 * 1) The exit room counts as a secret, despite the fact the allmap is easily found in one of the nooks in the starting room with the Barons.

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Trivia
Prior to entry of the level, the fortress does not appear on the intermission screen. After entering the level, the fortress fades in on the map. Once the level is completed, the fortress disappears again, but the blood splat (which marks that the level was completed) remains in place.

The whole level occurs underground, and the starting area looks not unlike a coal mine. While the other Deimos facilities are slowly being subverted by the forces of hell and feature a mixed techbase/hell theme, the fortress features virtually no use of the techbase textures which suggests that this entire "base" is not man-made.

This level is used as the final level for the Jaguar, GBA and 3DO versions of Doom