Video Game / Hedon

HeadOn! Apply directly to the forehead!

Hedon is an "old school" First-Person Shooter made by a solo indie developer who goes by Zan or HedonDev. You play as Zan "the Bonebreaker", a half-orc/half-demon lady who wakes up in a cavern with no memory of how she got there, and quickly learns that her underground home is under siege from the forces of Hell.

Originally titled Hedon, the original game was released March 20, 2019. It was retroactively dubbed Hedon: Crystal Heart once its sequel, Hedon: Bloodrite, was released August 30, 2021, as a free update to the original game. A free demo and the full game are both available on Steam and itch.io.

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Hedon contains examples of:

• Abandoned Hospital: "Research and Decay" is set in a witch clinic that has been overtaken by Meat Moss and filled with explosive pods and hibernating Golems, with the only other living creatures being cultists locked in cages. Lith, a Mad Scientist, took over the clinic and created the corruption and its related creatures using various captives, as part of a demented super-soldier program.
• All There in the Manual: There exists an official Hedon wiki on Fandom.com. Most entries are penned by HedonDev, with additional info that sheds light on much of the setting's background.
• And I Must Scream: The fate of an unlucky Lancer encountered in "Place Afoul" during Bloodrite. She's been sealed inside a painting by the succubus Yzbeth, unable to do anything more than plead for Zan to save her. The only way to rescue her, she reveals, is to retrieve a Voodoo Doll hidden somewhere in the mansion and somehow place it within the world of the painting. The "painting" is actually a window into a hidden chamber within the level, but the Lancer is being kept in her pose through magical paralysis until you bring the doll there.
• Apocalyptic Log: Several readable notes in Crystal Heart detail the goings-on of the day the invasion happened, with people noticing that something is off (like the worm sightings) but not knowing the whole picture. Others were written as the onslaught was happening, with hiding or trapped orcs giving their last words or detailing plans of action (and you often find the authors dead nearby or at the place they were preparing to head for).
• Armor Meter: Styled as 'Armor Amulets', which use Power Crystals that form an invisible shield capable of minimizing damage by absorbing some of the impact. Armour is seperate to hitpoints, and there are several different types of amulets that provide varying levels of power and damage reduction, ranging from 35% to 60%.
• Alternate Fire: All weapons within the game contain have one. They included a shotgun whose alt turns it into a deadly flamethrower, a demonic gauntlet that fires hellish magic or can throw a proximity mine and minigun whose alt sacrifices firing speed for better accuracy and shorter windup.
• Bad Future: The Blue Baron attempts to break Zan's spirit by trapping her in an illusionary world where she failed to defeat him and the Iron Division was forced to retreat from Hell, and the demon hordes and the Meat Moss consumed the world. Zan wakes up in a ruined version of the Grove from Crystal Heart, where the last handful of survivors from the Iron Division cower inside the Great Stump and wait for the end to come, as demonic emissaries occasionally visit to take individuals away for an unknown purpose. The illusion breaks down when Zan slays the emissaries and inspires the orcs to fight back despite the odds.
• Bag of Holding: An upgrade which increases the ammo storage of all your weapons, equaling two extra clips of each gun, including the ability to carry two extra axes for throwing. In Crystal Heart the bag is hidden in a secret, while in Bloodrite it's purchased from the Shady Fixer for three-hundred gold coins.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind:
  • In Crystal Heart, the game's first Boss Battle is against the sorceress Nithriel, who invades Zan's mind in an attempt to destroy her.
  • In Bloodrite, the Blue Baron uses his Psychic Powers during the Final Boss battle to periodically trap Zan in mental illusions. These include a strange ocean hinted to be a vision of the Baron's homeworld; a high-tech version of the lower arena where he attempts to blast Zan to shreds with a spray of psionic projectiles; a bottomless pit lined with shredding sawblades and filled with pools of lava; and finally a Bad Future that attempts to trick Zan into believing she lost the fight. During all of these, Abhaoth intervenes to protect Zan and give her the means to fight back.
• Big Bad: Nithriel, an elvish Evil Sorcerer who leads the demon cult in their assault on Valc.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Bloodrite pairs Nithriel with the Blue Baron, a powerful Psi Demon and the current Evil Overlord of Hell.
• Big Red Devil: The Pitlord and the Hellblaze are both this. The Pitlord taking obvious inspiration from more traditional examples with their bipedal stature. Crystal Heart concludes with a Boss Battle against a gigantic "Pit Lord Alpha" summoned by the Big Bad.
• Bizarrchitecture: Yzbeth's mansion in Bloodrite features perspective-trick puzzles using mirrors, a hall of doors that are all different sizes (one of which opens into another mirror where the reflection steps out and attacks you), a library compacted into itself so that bookshelves and tables stand on the walls and ceilings, and an art gallery featuring an unfortunate Lancer who's been trapped inside a painting (actually a window into a hidden chamber, where she's been left paralyzed and unable to move). It gets worse after you create an amulet of True Sight attuned to the Matron's secrets, as parts of the estate connect to an Acid-Trip Dimension rooted in Yzbeth's consciousness.
• Brick Joke: In Bloodrite, one of the bear warriors in "Beseiged" is impressed by Zan's heroic tale and hopes to see the severed head of the Pit Lord Alpha, the Final Boss of Crystal Heart, mounted in Valc's tavern after they get home. In the last shot of the epilogue montage, where the cast is shown celebrating in the tavern, the Alpha's skull can be seen mounted over the door.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: The orcs favor axes in melee, and the player gets to have one as their first proper weapon, which can be thrown with alt-fire. The melee-only Bearzerker difficulty provides two additional axe weapons — the Great Axe, a weapon enchanted to give the wielder a passive damage reduction and melee Attack Reflector, with an alt-fire Spin Attack; and the Hatchet & Shield, which allows the player to block attacks using alt-fire.
• The Cameo: In Bloodrite, Duke Nukem appears in a secret, with a voice clip provided by Jon St. John himself.
• Challenge Run: The special "Bearzerker" difficulty is similar to "Brutalizing", but replaces all weapons past the basic Axe with a variety of extra melee weapons unique to the mode, completely altering the flow of combat.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Bosses cannot be frozen by time shards, though their ranged projectiles are still paused at the moment they're performed.
• Cosmic Keystone: The Precursor Disc kept in the Lancer Temple, which the demon cult invades Valc in an attempt to steal. It's the source of all the Power Crystals in the underground, and when Nithriel runs off with it, crystals across the dome fall dark. This quickly starts killing the plant life that relied on the ambient light of the crystals, leading to a famine that threatens to wipe out the civilizations that call the underground home.
• Dead Guy on Display:
  • The demons enjoy doing this, to their own human slaves and cult members. Their bodies can be found hanging in many locations through the demon-controlled sections of the underground and Hell itself.
  • The art gallery in Yzbeth's mansion features statues of Iron Division warriors who, as a nearby note reveals, are once-living captives that Yzbeth petrified for her own amusement.
• Death by Materialism: Nearly the fate of the Shady Fixer, who deliberately gets herself banished to the Primarch of Gold's inescapable Treasure Room, intending to use a chaotic artifact to teleport out with a haul of valuables. Unfortunately, the Primarch figured out her plan and drained the relic before banishing her, leaving her trapped. Even after helping the Shady Fixer restore the artifact and get out, she still isn't happy, because the artifact whisked them off before she had finished stuffing her boots with coins.
• Defector from Decadence: Late in Bloodrite, you come across rebels from the demon cult, who led a slave revolt that's been crushed by the time the Iron Division reaches Hell. The last survivors (a repentant slave trader named Abedun, a mute sculptor named Scrawn, and a nameless Old Orc) are holed up in an elemental shrine in the crypts adjacent to the salt mines, using illusion magic copied from Yzbeth's mansion to conceal themselves. They're aware of Zan's reputation and quickly offer their aid in bringing down the Blue Baron, proving helpful in solving two of the Primarchs' challenges, as well as providing an artifact that saves Zan's life in the penultimate level. In the epilogue, the rebels leave Hell and start new lives, rebuilding another elemental shrine.
• Degraded Boss: In Bloodrite, the cavernous salt mine in "Salt and Blood" contains a Pit Lord Alpha (previously the Final Boss of Crystal Heart) and two Giant Cerberi. Not only are they slightly weaker, but the massive environment and extremely high vantage points neuter most of their attacks, enabling the player to simply stay out of their reach.
• Deus Sex Machina: In Bloodrite, the Demon Primarch of Lust challenges Zan to bed a fellow demon-blooded in return for her Mark of the Beast, which is necessary to complete the game. The most straightforward way to achieve this is to accept Matron Yzbeth's invitation to bed after playing along with her antics and gathering the soul keys. Alternatively, the player may stand Yzbeth up, which unlocks an alternate path to resolve the Primarch's challenge by bedding Eraanthe instead, who begrudgingly offers to "help" in return for helping her solve the Primarch of Pride's challenge. While the screen quickly fades to black in both cases, Zan's Expressive Health Bar wears a sultry grin and then falls asleep until gameplay resumes.
• Dishonored Dead: Lith the witch, who served Nithriel as The Mole and conducted nightmarish experiments in her clinic, is said in Crystal Heart's epilogue to have been cremated rather than given a proper burial.
• Door to Before: Most maps are designed to loop back on themselves constantly through pathways opened by keys, switches, plot items or setpiece triggers, with only a scarce handful of truly linear levels.
• The End... Or Is It?: Despite the triumphant tone, Bloodrite concludes with "The End..?" and the sound of demons teleporting.
• Expressive Health Bar: Like many of its inspirations, Hedon makes use of a character head on the HUD, with Zan's face becoming more injured and bloody as she loses health.
• Expy:
  • Forge Elementals are robotic Cacodemons with the Mook Maker ability of Pain Elementals. Correspondingly, the Forge Urchins they spit out are analogous to Lost Souls.
  • Psi Demons in the sequel are mind flayers, being robed, purple-skinned Cthulhumanoids with Psychic Powers. Their primary attack, a hit-scan strike with a telegraphed build-up that requires the player to quickly break line of sight to avoid, is very similar to the arch-vile of Doom II.
• Fantastic Caste System: The Iron Division divides their society into Lancers (the ruling caste), Earth Mothers (druids and healers), Witches (alchemists and scientists), Bear Warriors (the military), Reavers (spies, assassins and scouts) and Fixers (engineers and laborers). Orcs dominate the Iron Division and occupy the most influential castes, while the smaller goblins populate the Reavers and Fixers.
• Fantasy Aliens: The Precursor elves are revealed at the very last moment of Bloodrite to be aliens, complete with Shiny-Looking Spaceships. Unfortunately, Nithriel's attempt to contact the rest of her people by teleporting to a mothership reveals that the elves were wiped out by the same bioweapon the demon cult had recovered from their terrestrial ruins, leaving the vessel derelict.
• Fantasy Gun Control: In-universe, the Iron Division produces tons of sophisticated Magitek firearms, but the Lancer Council refuses to allow them (or the related Power Crystals) to be traded with other nations, preventing their proliferation. When the demon cult invades Valc, some Apocalyptic Logs express concern that their enemies might try to steal the tech for themselves — which is exactly what happens partway through the sequel, with the introduction of demonic Hellions armed with Painguns.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Fragfire Gun's alternate function shoots a rapid stream of fire projectiles at medium range, which set enemies ablaze upon fatal damage. It can be used to ignite clouds left by the toxic potion launcher, and in Bloodrite it becomes a necessary tool to burn away path-obstructing vine tangles. However, certain enemies (like forge elementals, and most demons) are immune to flamethrower attacks.
• Gatling Good: The three-barrelled Paingun in Bloodrite, an attempt by the demons to reverse-engineer orcish Power Crystal firearms in conjunction with a black powder analogue called "hell powder". Painguns are belt-fed and don't need reloading, at the cost of chewing through ammo very quickly — pressing and holding the reload button instead pre-spins the barrels. The Alternate Fire is a slower, but more accurate, firing speed.
• The Goomba: Conscripts are the cannon fodder of the demon cult; frail, malnourished humans clad in rags and armed only with knives, who die quickly to any damage. Cultists are only slightly better off, armed with throwing spikes for a ranged attack.
• Hard Mode Perks: Playing on Brutalizing alters combat encounters to include advanced monsters earlier, but also gives the player advanced weapons earlier to compensate. You can also encounter some added friendly NPCs who'll join your squad and provide unique dialogue as you explore together.
• Have a Nice Death: Each enemy type has a unique text popup when they successfully kill Zan, ranging from "sacrificed by a Warlock" to "driven insane by a Psi Demon".
• Hellhound: The Cerberus is an early demon enemy that approaches the player in a zig-zagging pattern, before trying to bite or breathe fire in a trident spread. Upon death they drop half-full Fragfire Gun canisters, as their fire-breathing ability is powered by fragfire cans surgically grafted into their lungs. Rarely, they'll give the player a Collar of the Beast as well. A King Mook variant, the Giant Cerberus, is Bloodrite's halfway-mark Boss Battle, with the added ability to perform a Dash Attack that leaves behind a damaging trail of fire.
• Horny Devils: Succubi form the ranks of the Hellion enemy type introduced in Bloodrite, having grown bored with simply seducing people in favor of taking to the battlefield with Painguns. Off the battlefield, succubi are said to serve the Legions of Hell as Torture Technicians. You also get to meet a succubus demon lord by the name of Matron Yzbeth, who spends the entire level flirting with Zan and can be slept with to complete one of the Primarchs' challenges.
• Hub Level: Two of them over the course of Bloodrite, where the second and third act are centered around batches of interconnected levels. Both hubs include an Iron Division encampment that serves as a safe haven, with NPCs to interact with (who often provide sidequests or will reward the delivery of special items), a replenishing cache of healing pickups, and shops run by a blacksmith and The Scrounger.
• Joke Weapon: The white porcupine-rat praaks can be picked up if you punch them. Besides being a cute Easter Egg and meme reference, praaks can be thrown at enemies to deal Damage Over Time for a few seconds, enough to kill low-level goons.
• King Mook: Each of the games' bosses is based on a regular enemy type, albeit much larger and armed with additional or modified attacks.
• Late to the Tragedy: In Crystal Heart, Zan wakes up at the beginning to find the defenders of Valc already slaughtered by an unexpected invasion, and the story of what exactly happened needs to be pieced together by reading various Apocalyptic Logs.
• Mad Scientist: Lith, chieftain-adjutant of the witch caste. After her proposal for a super-soldier program was rejected by Witch Chieftain Zura and the Lancer Council, Nithriel psychically contacted Lith and twisted her mind, forcing the witch to become her mole in the Iron Division and perform illegal experiments on her fellow greenskins to recreate the precursor bioweapon. By the time Zan returns to Valc late in Crystal Heart, Lith has taken over the witch clinic and continued her work — being gifted a small army of cultist slaves by Nithriel to experiment on, after the witch ran out of orcs and goblins — to create the humanoid Golems, which she considers the end-point of her research. Lith manages to capture the half-demon and locks her in a flooding experiment tube, clearly intending to mutate her into a golem as well, but fortunately Zan is rescued by Tiati, who puts a bullet in Lith's brain.
• Mauve Shirt: In Bloodrite, friendly NPC allies are much more common, with a number of semi-unique characters to boot. They can die in combat like other Red Shirts, but keeping them alive often yields rewards later down the road.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: After stealing the Disc and fleeing to Hell, Nithriel completes the beacon ritual when the Blue Baron falls, and Zan and Abhoath can only watch as the sorceress is teleported away to an orbiting space vessel belonging to the precursor elves. Nithriel's triumph is short-lived, however, as she realizes the ship has been overtaken by the precursor bioweapon, and the elves aboard are long dead, leaving her alone and stranded in space while Zan returns home with the Cosmic Keystone.
• Meat Moss: Partway through the game, you'll start coming upon areas coated in a fungus-like purple-black material with pulsating yellow pods, which the demon cult uses to sabotage a portal in the Grove. It originates from the corpses of people killed by a Precursor bioweapon, which Nithriel tasked Lith with recreating. Ironpeak, whose inhabitants were poisoned by Lith, has a growing cavern of meat moss in the well where the corpses were disposed of. Lith's lair in the witch clinic is so overgrown with the stuff that it resembles a xenomorph hive, complete with pulsating acid "eggs" and the uncanny humanoid forms of Golems cocooned on the walls. The elvish mothership seen in the twist ending of Bloodrite is similarly overgrown, with the remains of elves in hazmat suits filled to bursting with the ooze.
• Modular Epilogue: In the sequel, after the main ending, extra scenes are added during the credits depending on how many unique characters survived to the final push against the Blue Baron's lair.
• The Mole: Abhaoth claims that the demon cult had inside help getting through the Iron Division's defences, though they don't know who the traitor is. It turns out to be a rogue Mad Scientist named Lith, who suffered a mental breakdown after her super-soldier pet project was rejected by the Lancers. She created the crawler worms that chewed through the crystal barriers of the underground, tricked the garrison of the Parapet into deactivating the magical wards preventing mass teleportation, and poisoned the dwarves at Ironpeak to cut off any potential reinforcements.
• Nostalgia Level: The Final Boss of Bloodrite includes a phase where Zan is trapped in an illusionary Bad Future created by the Blue Baron, showing a post-apocalyptic version of "Grove" from Crystal Heart narrowed down to the Great Stump and part of the Reaver Headquarters.
• Number of the Beast: With the Bag of Holding ammo upgrade, the Paingun (a gatling gun manufactured by the forces of Hell) holds 666 bullets.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Stock fantasy dwarves form one half of the Iron Division's primary allies, the Earthborn. They're short, bearded, wear mithril gear and have horned helmets, and once ruled a powerful underground nation. The only living dwarf you meet in Crystal Heart, Andrik, is dying of poison when you find him, and is cured through the consumption of a tankard of "dragonbrew", a dwarf beverage so potent it's joked that it could bring back the dead.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: The other half of the Earthborn, minotaurs used to be one of the dominant powers of the underground alongside their rivals-turned-allies, the dwarves. They're shown to be a very shamanistic people, ruled by a priesthood of pyromancers.
• Our Orcs Are Different: The Iron Division is populated by a race of technologically advanced orcs and goblins, who have a Fantastic Caste System and are, by all appearances, a One-Gender Race. They used to be a normal tribe of greenskins, until they lost their menfolk to inter-tribal war. Unwilling to submit to the victors in spite of the looming extinction of the clan, Warlord Grund violated ancestral laws and sought out the Fountain of Life, which granted her people the beauty and agelessness of the elves. For their transgression, the Iron Division was banished, and their search for a new home eventually led them to the crystal dome far underground, where they discovered the Disc and become further Touched by Vorlons.
• Physical Hell: Rather than being another dimension or plane of existence, Hell is simply a place deep, deep beneath the surface of the world, with the Core of Hell being an island in a lava sea that can be reached by boat.
• Portal Cut: The demon cult sabotages the portal network when the Iron Division seeks to regroup at the Lancer Temple, and two unlucky bear warriors from Captain Dura's party are spat out in the Grove, one losing her leg (which can later be found in "Research and Decay", when the player reaches the warriors' intended destination).
• Power Crystal: The basis of the orcs' technology, which can only be found in the underground where they live. Many devices you interact with are visbly powered by clumps of crystal, and at times you'll need to find replacements to get something working again.
• Precursors: The elves once ruled a powerful and technologically advanced civilization, and the underground (even Hell) is filled with ruined elvish structures, as well as artifacts like their Power Crystals, the Disc and a fragmentary Portal Network. The end of Bloodrite reveals that the elves were a spacefaring civilization, with a derelict mothership still orbiting the planet. Nithriel is speculated to be one of the last elves left, and her ultimate motive is to contact others of her kind, wherever they might be, and summon them back to the world. Unfortunately, it seems they were wiped out by a virulent pathogen they were studying, which ironically became the basis of the Meat Moss weaponized by Nithriel on her mad quest.
• Psychic Powers: Wielded by Mentalists, Psi Demons and the Blue Baron in Bloodrite, psychic attacks ignore your Armor Meter and always deal direct health damage. According to Earth Mother Bendi, the damage is proportional to the victim's intelligence, as a bear warrior dumb enough to try blocking a mental attack with her shield suffered only a migraine. A special Psi Crown item can block psychic attacks, but it has a limited charge and there's only a few opportunities in the game to replenish it.
• The Rival: Bloodrite introduces Eraanthe, "the Queen of Wrath", a half-demon mercenary hired by the Iron Division to help topple the Blue Baron, since only those with demon blood can reach the innermost sanctum of Hell. Motivated solely by revenge against the Baron, Eraanthe is hostile and condescending towards Zan, who she views as a threat to her goals. No-one in the army particularly likes her, with multiple characters hoping that Zan gets to the finish line first. She ultimately fails regardless of what the player does — Eraanthe gets stuck at the Primarch of Pride's challenge (who demands that she surrender her sword, to her adamant refusal), and even if Zan helps her out, she's humiliated by the Blue Baron and forced to retreat from the final battle.
• Scenery Porn: Many areas within the game are designed to look and feel like areas that are lived in or of function, leading to a large amount of detail scattered throughout the massive maps.
• The Scrounger: In Bloodrite, which adds Hub Levels and RPG-lite mechanics, a keptomaniac goblin girl called the Shady Fixer becomes one of the game's primary stores. In Act II, she sells the player items that Fell Off the Back of a Truck (like night-vision goggles stolen from the camp maid), while in Act III she turns to scavenging supplies left over from the first attempt to invade Hell. She only accepts gold coins as payment and seems to suffer from Gold Fever in general, which drives her to attempt a heist on the Gold Primarch's legendary treasure vault.
• Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere: The Primarch of Gold double-crosses Zan after granting his mark, and banishes her into a Treasure Room to languish for the rest of her days. The Shady Fixer is also stuck there, in possession of a non-functioning magical relic she had hoped would get her out of there after stuffing her pockets. Luckily, a talisman of True Sight on a high shelf (beyond the goblin's short reach, to her irritation) reveals a logic puzzle the pair can solve to open a new path, containing a Blood Magic altar that can charge the Fixer's relic and teleport them both out.
• Sequel Hook: At the end of Bloodrite, Nithriel is left stranded on an orbiting mothership belonging to Fantasy Aliens, which is badly damaged by Meat Moss but appears to still be mostly functional. Meanwhile, the civil war that erupts in Hell after the Blue Baron's death is hinted to eventually be won by Matron Yzbeth. The final shot of the cutscene goes as far as to indulge in a The End... Or Is It? note, with the sound of demons teleporting offscreen.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: Iron Maidens are cult infantry who haul tower shields, which will block small-arms fire (like the spike gun, fragfire gun and paingun) from the front, and reflect certain projectiles like thrown axes and explosive crushbow bolts.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Shady Fixer's plan to escape the Gold Primarch's sealed treasure room involves using a "chaotic artifact" to teleport out, referencing the chaos device item of Hexen and Heretic, which returns the player to the start of a given map. Sure enough, the artifact sends the player right back to the main entrance of the level.
• Spike Shooter: The workhorse of the Iron Division is the spike gun, which fires metal darts superheated by a Power Crystal core. In-universe, it's nicknamed the "Praak", after the tiny, porcupine-like white rats that can be found in the underground. It serves as the game's equivalent to a typical assault rifle.
• The Starscream: Yzbeth the succubus matron is entrusted by the Blue Baron to guard the three keys to his vault at her estate, but playfully offers to look the other way if Zan manages to find the keys on her own. The epilogue montage implies that this was a deliberate ploy to start an Evil Power Vacuum and seize control over Hell.
• Stealthy Mook: The Golem. Thanks to their acrobatic speed, small stature compared to other enemies, their entirely dark purple coloration, and being encountered most often within dark or shadowed areas. It’s not uncommon to lose track of them, besides the sound of their darting footsteps and flechette attacks.
• Straight for the Commander: In Bloodrite, the goal evolves from simply catching up to Nithriel to also entering Hell and slaying the Blue Baron, who holds the title of Icon. According to multiple characters, the Icon's immense power is the only thing keeping the capricious demons united, and his death would leave Hell in disarray as all the Demon Lords and Archdevils waste their time on power plays and infighting.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Earth Mothers can use their magic to breathe underwater, allowing one of them to accompany Zan through "Deep Calls". Unfortunately, Warlocks and Psi Demons can do the same thing, which they're using to explore the Underwater Ruins.
• Teleport Interdiction:
  • Zan attempts to use a portal corrupted by Meat Moss to reach the Lancer Temple, after clearing away the worst of the gunk, only to find herself trapped in a dream-world and forced to have a Battle in the Center of the Mind with the Big Bad. When she finally wakes up, Zan finds to her dismay that she's been dumped onto the surface mountainside, with no choice but to march up the slopes and seek an alternate entrance to Valc.
  • Valc's "crystal ward" normally prevents intrusions by teleportation, and the cult had to find a way to bypass it to launch their attack, which was accomplished by having The Mole dupe the guards into turning it off. When Zan fixes it, you're treated to the sight of cult squads attempting to 'port in as usual, only to arrive as bloody chunks.
• To Be Continued: The end of Crystal Heart. Despite the player's efforts, Nithriel successfully steals the Disc and flees to Hell through a portal, and Zan jumps in after her, leaving the Iron Division behind to mop up the stragglers of the cult army and slowly rebuild their home. The final screen thanks the player for completing "Chapter 1" of Hedon.
• To Hell and Back: Crystal Heart starts with a flashback sequence of a failed invasion of Hell by the Iron Division, before Zan wakes up back in the higher reaches of the underground. In the sequel they return for the entire second half of the game, only leaving once their goal of tearing down the demon leadership and reclaiming their stolen property is complete.
• Touched by Vorlons: The Disc found at the heart of the crystal dome expanded the minds of the tribal orcs and goblins who would later form the Iron Division, bestowing them with knowledge of advanced science and mathmatics. This uplifting, along with easy access to Power Crystals in their new home, is what gives the Iron Division their tremendous technological advantage.
• Turned Against Their Masters: The Forge Elementals used to be tame by the favor of the gods, but the demons somehow corrupted them and turned them against their former masters. The Elementals suddenly turning hostile is what spelled the doom of the campaign into Hell, as they torched the main encampment and left the allied army too weak to continue or retreat safely. After the demons are defeated, however, it's shown that the forge elementals once again became docile enough to be put to work rebuilding Valc.
• The Unfought: At the end of Bloodrite, Nithriel heavily mutates herself with the Seed of Corruption, but this is only done so she can interface with the teleporter beacon and reach the elvish mothership. The final battle is against the Blue Baron alone, while Nithriel is safe behind a glass barrier inside the beacon, warping away after the Baron dies.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: At the Iron Division camp in "Besieged", a witch is hard at work brewing healing potions for the warriors, which serves as a replenishing supply for the player's convenience. Smash the breakable objects in her field laboratory, however, and she'll refuse to give you any more healing.
  Witch Brewer: "Okay dipshit, you wanna screw us over?! Fine, no more healing for you!"
• Xenomorph Xerox: Golems, enemies that resemble featureless female humanoids made of the same purple-black material that forms the Meat Moss, are first encountered in an area dramatically overtaken by the black gunk, looking for all the world like a xenomorph hive from Alien. The golems are seen suspended in fleshy pods attached to the walls, along with pulsating "eggs" on the floor (actually pods of acid that explode if you get too close).
• Zerg Rush: In-universe, the demon cult's strategy to conquer Valc is to take down the wards preventing teleportation, and then warp in hordes of disposable Mooks to overwhelm the surprised and under-staffed defenders. An Apocalyptic Log in the Barracks laments that an attempt to Hold the Line there ended with the defenders eventually running out of ammo and being slaughtered.

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