E5M8: R'lyeh Rising (Strange Aeons)

Strange Aeons maps
The Shattered City M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9
The Stagnant Fortress M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9
The Land That Time Forgot M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9
The Plateau of Leng M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9
Out of the Aeons E5M1: Rigorous Mortis E5M2: Drought Station Acheron E5M3: The Vaults of Zin E5M4: Man Flesh Processing E5M5: Valley of Death E5M6: Cthonian Planet E5M7: The House of Dagon E5M8: R'lyeh Rising E5M9: Mysterious Island

This level occupies the map slot E5M8. For other maps which occupy this slot, see Category:E5M8.

E5M8: R'lyeh Rising is the fifth boss map of Strange Aeons, and the final map of the megawad. It concludes the storyline of the bonus episode, Out of the Aeons, added in 2016. It was designed by Mike MacDee (Impie) and uses the music track "Dark Moon" from DeathMask CD32. The par time defined in MAPINFO is 1:00.

Walkthrough

Map of R'lyeh Rising

Letters in italics refer to marked spots on the map. Sector, thing, and linedef numbers in boldface are secrets which count toward the end-of-level tally.

Essentials

You have roughly ten seconds before the waters rise, turning the map into a watery arena filled with gangs of poison-spewing vulgars. Shortly thereafter, the tower collapses into the floor and unleashes the Children of Cthulhu upon you: anywhere from 2 to 3, depending on the difficulty. Killing them all reveals the exit slipgate.

Boss: Children of Cthulhu

These towering, tentacled abominations are not the toughest boss monsters in the megawad, but their attacks are quite deadly. Their main attack consists of repeatedly firing green seeker projectiles at you until you die or reach cover behind a soapstone pillar. They periodically turn invisible to confuse your aim. They move slowly, but if they manage to get next to you, their tentacles will murder you in one or two hits.

Alarmingly the Children of Cthulhu can also revive dead monsters just like the arch-vile. Unlike the arch-vile, they can even revive each other, making this boss fight a tag-team match of sorts. Your best chance of survival is to get all the powerups and separate the bosses before killing them one by one, or softening them all up before finishing them off in rapid succession.

Secrets

There is a switch hidden behind the soul sphere. Flip it to reveal another behind the green armor. The new switch lowers the ammo spheres which sit out of reach atop the soapstone pillars, the southern one of which is the secret. (sector 86)

Areas / screenshots

• 

  The eerie tower of Cthulhu.

• 

  The Children of Cthulhu amidst a sea of Vulgars.

Speedrunning

Current records

The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

Run	Time	Player	Date	File	Notes
UV speed
NM speed
UV max
NM 100S
UV -fast
UV -respawn
UV Tyson
UV pacifist

The (absence of) data was last verified in its entirety on June 29, 2022.

Statistics

Map data

Things	144
Vertices	544
Linedefs	612
Sidedefs	1160
Sectors	92

Things

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

Single-player
Monsters	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Vulgar	4	4	21	21	21	21	21	21
Grell	0	0	0	4	4	4	4	4
Roach	0	0	0	4	4	4	4	4
Star spawn	1	1	2	3	3	3	3	3
Weapons	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Shotgun	1
Rocket launcher	1
AK47 assault rifle	1
Ammunition	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Box of bullets	8
Box of shotgun shells	4
Rocket	16
Box of rockets	9
Energy cell	4
Health & Armor	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Medikit	3
Armor	1
Items	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Health bonus	16
Supercharge	1
Backpack	1
Berserk	1
Ammo sphere	2
Miscellaneous	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Voodoo doll	1