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Tread carefully, traveller, as that distant moaning is not the whisper of the icy winds, or the thunderous heaving of the ground beneath your feet, or even the agony of the guests at the Grieving Burrick Inn as I hang my socks above the bar to dry. It is the cry of the undead, groping at the soil and clumps of grass as they heave their rotting corpses out of the stale earth, their tired limbs imbued with a new strength, their empty sockets flicking to life as the mists of blindness roll back and the pale, glinting moon is revealed to them in all its horrid splendour.

It is under that same moon that we toil tonight.

It has been a dead week at the Hammerite Imperium, yet we have been quite busy. Our dreams have been dark, troubled by strange apparitions; wights, sirens, mummies, swamp zombies, phantoms, and one tardy ghost of Christmas future who arrived too late for Alexius to repent his evil ways and give us all the day off. Luckily however, we have been able to channel these dark meanderings into the Hammerite Imperium mission pack, so we can scare the skin off of you!

I know that the first question you ask when you think of the Imperium is ‘How doth its progress proceed?’ So far the only inkling you have had is a number of ambigious percentages on the official website. Therefore I shall give you a quick breakdown of the progress of the entire campaign so far, so that you know exactly how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.

The first chapter is rapidly approaching the finishing line, with 99% of the architecture complete and 75% object placement. What remains to be done is some of the movie making, and much of the scripting and AI placement. You should start officially looking forward to its release now, decorating your desktop with concept art and taking to wearing a pious habit to work. But we'd rather it be ready and good than give you a poor level. Another two months of work is as good a prediction as any.

The second chapter of the Hammerite Imperium used to be two missions, but since both take place in the same location, and because levels further down the road have been cut into two or more ‘chunks’, we have decided to call it one Chapter and leave it at that. Alexius was forced to slice it into two because of its utter massiveness, much like the missions in Thief 3, but seventy two hundred times as vast.

A large nugget of the third chapter has been built, but it’s changed hands between Dromeders as often than a hot potato in a carnivore convention. Some designers have simply vanished into thin air, leading us to believe that the level is cursed. But we have yet to tell Speesh, who has now taken over production of the entire mission.

Alexius and DenThief are working on the fourth chapter. Much of the mission has been planned out in Dromed, but only a few areas have been honed to the architectural quality of Chapters one and two. What has been finished looks very good. Biohazard and Fingernail were hard at work on the fifth chapter, but Biohazard stopped working on it a long ago and Fingernail is too busy with the amazing Dark Mod. Like the level preceding it, a large chunk of the mission has already been created in Dromed, though the rest is waiting patiently for a committed Dromeder to finish it off.

I am working on the sixth chapter. Such is its hugeness that it has been cut into three very different parts. The plot, as created by Ibsen’s Ghost and Alexius, is one of the best, so I’m having a lot of fun. I’m working on it right now, in fact, with my left hand grasping the mouse on another computer. If only you could see what I’m seeing… you could, of course, if you joined our campaign.

All chapters beyond that are being worked on, but are yet too far away to be discussed in any detail. Each mission is unique, stretching over a vast number of different locations, all tying in to an epic storyline of love, betrayal, gods, monsters, and trench foot. We shall give you some specific details about the content of individual missions as their release dates approach.

A sample of Alexius’ and DenThief’s work on the fourth chapter for you this week. Have a lovely weekend.



- Macsen, Jack of All Trades But Master of None.