FMs - Ghost/Perfect Thief Results (Part 9) [SPOILERS]

[Galaer]

THE TEARS OF ST LUCIA (TDM)

Before I start talking about this mission I want to talk about DARKMOD.cfg. This file has some interesting functions. First of all, I found toggle run there. It's not perfect, because after every reload, game resets speed to walk, but it's better changing speed in menu. Another interesting function was door control. While you can't quietly open door, you can quietly close it. Unfortunately later I found out that thanks to this option you can open locked door without using lockpicks and keys. It's broken, so it can't be used.

Next is show alerts. Thanks to that you can learn quickly when enemy alerted and with what alert and how fast he can alert. Thanks to that I learned that one small 1st alert from guard can be actually equal of 4 1st alerts. That's pretty crazy. Also for further alerts you will need spyglass. The problem with this option is you can see everyone level of alert at once through walls. So this can be immersion breaking, but also slowdown the mission. So i disabled this setting. Lastly there are show enemy visibility and show conversation state. I believe they are setting for enemy vision and hearing. Unfortunately it only shows 4th (green arrow) and 5th alerts (red arrow). So it's not that useful. In the end the only setting I enabled was toggle run.

GHOST RUN

City part is quite easy. Moving wooden planks instead of breaking them. No enemies. Also I have problems with descending on ladders. Most of the time I fail grabbing them and fall down. Sewers are also empty, but there is golden plate (worth 50) protected by spider. I think it's possible to grab it without alerting spider, but stealing this loot will spawn 2 spiders in narrow tunnel and they can't be ghosted. So I must skip this plate.

PRIEST (I HATE HIM)

So I quickly climbed ladder into bathroom, but priest heard me. Looks like my climbing ladder can be heard by other people. So I went slowly to top of ladder and he spot me again. How? Well, in trapdoor there is small gap and somehow he noticed me through it. Oh, hardcore sensitivity is just crazy. Priest has key and you can hide in dark corner in corridor and sometimes you are safe and sometimes you aren't. It's random. Pickpocketing him will make him to check his pockets and then he will continue. It doesn't add points to stealth score. Nothing special.

So I went to his room, looted and priest returned to the room. He went to desk, noticed lack of golden hammer and suddenly went into 4th alert, gathered other guards in room and they all went into 4th alert. I reloaded. I decided to check if doused torch can prevent him from noticing lack of loot. And I waited and waited and waited even more. Priest never returned to this room. He just walks all around Cathedral and his patrol route is random. So I just had bad luck. While waiting I opened door and guard went inside to check what's going on. When he left I checked stealth stats and to my huge surprise I noticed that he didn't alert. Usually opening door results in 2nd alert.

I reloaded previous save, doused torch and waited for priest. He came inside, went to portrait, looked at it and left without any alert. I thought that it worked, but noticed that he didn't walk all the way to desk. So I reloaded and didn't douse the torch. Priest went to portrait and left again. Desk isn't that far and yet he didn't notice lack of loot. To notice it he must go all the way to desk, so I tried to recreate this situation, but I failed. All next times he went to portrait and left. I have no idea if dousing torch helps, but I decided to leave torch doused and just go.

DOUSED TORCHES CAN BE RELIGHTEN

This lesson I learned in basement. Though enemies don't light it immediately. They wait couple of min with that. This makes looting basement a really long task. There are 2 patrollers: one enters through door and check one of corridors, other check corridors. Both guards patrol route is random, but 1st guard has shorter patrol route and he always is leaving room. Also I have rant about water arrows. Many times they just go through torch without dousing it. It's really annoying.

YOU CAN DOUSE CANDLE BY SHOOTING ABOVE IT

This I learned in scribe's room. Only that way you can grab golden hammer from shelf in front of him. Then I needed to creep very slowly to grab it without leaning towards it. I had also a situation in front of Dining Room. I was in shadow, guard went very close to me and raised weapon (4th alert), but he didn't attack me. When priest entered this corridor he also spot me, but did nothing with that. I checked my stealth stats and to my huge surprise I didn't notice any alert from them in my stats. TDM is super weird.

LESSON ABOUT VANISHED LOOT

In church there is golden goblet on altar. Grabbing it will 4th alert 2 patrollers no matter if torches and candlestick are doused. Besides it wouldn't work for long, because guards have ability to relight torches. Both actions (noticing lack of loot and relighting torches) takes them couple of minutes to realize. Yup, they went close to altar 3 times, but only noticed lack of goblet on their 4th time. That's annoying, but I decided to skip this loot. Otherwise I would need to wait really long.

I stole another key and waited for them to both go to the other side of church. Here I waited for them to return to altar, doused candlesticks and quickly grabbed both plates. I also moved candlesticks to different spots, so maybe it will prevent from relighting them. To enter room with statue I needed to use right door and blindly time it with stationary guard (he must look away or else he will go to close door). Also a little discovery - if guards will spot us and go into hunt mode immediately, somehow it doesn't add points to stealth score. I have no idea why.

I'M TIRED OF THIS VANISHED LOOT ALERT

In this room taking any loot from well lighten part near statue will result in this annoying 4th alert. So I decided to ignore this loot and go to darker part on the right. Patroller has 2 keys. On statues are valuable jars. For statue near candlestick you need to have stationary guard to look towards door. Also I learned that there is a difference between grabbing ladder while standing and while crouching. When you are crouching you move slower, but also you are less visible.

MAKING THE ACCIDENT HAPPEN

I climbed ladder to walkway and climbed to giant stone hammer. To complete objective with sabotaging statue in the way that it will look as accident, I need to push this giant hammer. This will create huge noise and all enemies will go into 4th alert. It also doesn't count to stealth score. But in Thief games I would classify this as a ghost bust and I think I will do it here as well. So alerting guards in statue room by destroying statue I count as ghost bust #1. And when we are talking about ghost busts, by now priest probably noticed lack of loot on desk in his room and gathered all guards in his room, so that's a possible ghost bust #2.

Now that all objectives are finished time to leave through small balcony leading to cemetery. The only challenge is avoiding lantern guard and closing one door at front entrance. Then you just need to run to starting point.

STATS:

Time: 1:04:54; Loot: 2210/2830
Damage Dealt: 1 (?); Received: 0; Health Restored: 0
Pockets Picked: 0
AI Killed: 0; AI KOed: 0; Bodies Found by AI: 0
Stealth Score: 0 (Alert 1 = 23; Alert 2 = 0; Alert 3 = 0; Alert 4 = 0; Alert 5 = 0)

GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE

FINAL NOTES

For 2nd introductory mission this is huge difficulty spike. Though the whole challenge is in 2nd part of mission. I'm guessing this kind of difficulty will be normal for the rest of FMs. I have no idea what's with this 1 damage dealt in stats. I didn't hurt anyone and yet I have this one point. Is it because I damaged the statue? Or maybe falling hammer bounce out of statue and earthquake effect hit a guard. I really have no idea. This game is really unclear for me and looks like stealth stat with all these hunt modes not adding to stealth score, is far from perfect. Still I was reloading when this happened.

[Galaer]

DOOM (T1)

At the beginning you lose 7 HP due to fall damage. It's unavoidable, because you start high midair. That's why I don't count that as a ghost bust. This is a maze mission, but you just need to go up. Woman can be tricky to get, because you need to strafe run along right wall and then climb to her and go to shadow near archer. Wait for him to turn away of wall and go past him. Wait for him to look away and enter corridor.

The challenge is to sneak up while carrying body. Killing wizard is easy, but it alerts some guards below (ghost bust #1). If you reload game guards will return quietly to their positions, so maybe their alert is scripted. For more chance to succeed you need to wait for guards to come to wizard's body, then drop down and use woman's body as a cushion (you need to stand while dropping, if you drop in crouch position, dropping girl will still kill you). Exit is past guards. There is archer, so I jump twice in place to 2nd alert guards (ghost bust #2), run past them and mantle behind pillars. This means that guards will go into hunt mode (ghost bust #3). Wait for them to calm down and again use girl as a cushion. Sneak to exit.

STATS:

Time: 0:13:46; Loot: 2305/2705
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 1; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 30; Damage Taken: 7; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 1

GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE

[marbleman]

Game: Thief Gold
FM: The Scarlet Cascabel: Meeting at the Salty Strumpet (V2)

Ghost - Failed
Perfect Thief - Failed
Time - 58:13
Loot - 2604/2604
Pockets Picked - 1/1
Locks Picked - 20
Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0, Other Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0
Consumables - 1 water arrow, 4 moss arrows

See the report in video format here: https://youtu.be/ZVaVwsgy8jo

Notes
- The ultimate bust is blowing up the barricade to the haunted mine, which is required to complete one of the objectives.
- The Lash Lobotomy bonus basically incapacitates an AI. Might be a bust, but doesn't matter in the grand scheme.


* * *

Game: Thief Gold
FM: The Scarlet Cascabel (V2)

Ghost - Failed
Perfect Thief - Failed
Time - 1:33:24
Loot - 5650/5650
Pockets Picked - 7/7
Locks Picked - 20
Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0, Other Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0
Consumables - 5 water arrows

See the report in video format here: https://youtu.be/UVA9-9kElxs

Notes
- The ultimate bust is destroying the mirror to free Elizabeth.


* * *

Game: Thief Gold
FM: Catacombs of Knoss Remastered: Part 1

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 42:34
Loot - 4172/4172
Pockets Picked - 4/4
Locks Picked - 2
Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0, Other Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0
Consumables - 1 water arrow, 1 moss arrow

See the report in video format here: https://youtu.be/p8QsL7eZAIU


* * *

Game: Thief Gold
FM: Catacombs of Knoss Remastered: Part 2

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 43:12
Loot - 4973/4973
Locks Picked - 0
Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0, Other Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0
Consumables - 1 broadhead arrow, 1 water arrow

See the report in video format here: https://youtu.be/wkKIvNSiAPU

[Galaer]

CATACLYSMIC REVELATIONS

4 mission campaign based on OMs. Author must really love RotC, because he uses this map 3 times (twice in Mission 1 and third time in Mission 2). 3rd mission is using Into the Maw of Chaos as a base. This is surprising knowing how small number of people like this mission. Last mission is just watching Builder's dance. There is no ghosting challenge there at all.

MISSION 1 - CATACLYSMIC REVELATIONS

At the beginning is Hammerite under right hammer statue. To get his purse you must lean along hammer statue and wait for him to slightly move his body towards you during one of his idle animations. Dropping into chute in St Tennor may be a bit tricky. In St Vale is annoying sister who starts patrolling only after 1st alerting to us. St Yora's 2nd floor is the hardest to ghost. There are 4 patrollers in these narrow corridors. It's really tough.

Teleportation to undead version of Cathedral is weird. Priest will cast as there by trying to shoot us. When his projectile will hit space between statues, we will get teleported. Priest gets 3rd alerted, but since his alert is needed for script to work, I'm gonna excuse this unavoidable alert.

Undead version of Cathedral is much harder. Light switches gone and bind of water arrows doesn't work anymore, so you need to move through all weapons manually. In Sewers you only have access to St Tennor and St Vale. Zombie is blocking way to other buildings. St Vale has 2 haunts patrollers and patrolling archer on 2nd floor and stationary zombie. You must douse all torches and fire on tables. There is one of Scrolls of Virtue on table. Getting to chest isn't that hard, because archer may not see us. But there is secret flash mine on 2nd floor above entrance and it's much harder. It's possible for lightning to stun enemies, but if you stay too long, lightning will stop appearing. To fix that save and load game. Go to corner and rope up. You must time 3 patrollers and have luck with lightning to stun archer and haunt, run to flash mine, take it and run down to shadow.

St Tennor is much easier place. i forge 3 frag bombs cores. Dropping on chute is easier due to moss. Can't get to Cemetery yet. Next is St Jenel. You will be forced to break chain with staff to spawn one of Scrolls of Virtue (needed for objective, so it's excused damage property). Also visit small building with pool of blood for water arrow and lab for more loot.

St Yora is much harder due to hunts having lanterns. You will also need to douse all fire at the entrance. 2nd floor just like before is the hardest part of mission. There is just a lot of haunts with lanterns. At the beginning is stationary haunt with lantern. He can get hurt by fire, but most likely he will not die. Douse all fire possible. I learned that I can douse lanterns carried by haunts by shooting water arrow in haunts (into part of their body near lantern). This way you will also douse fire near haunt. In 2nd room is spider, leave door open and lean for urn. Thanks to dousing lanterns I can more easily grab water arrow from courtyard.

Cathedral isn't too hard place. There is ring behind zombie in basement that can't be grabbed, because zombie will spot you. To enter last room on 2nd floor you must do stack of 2 crates and climb them from church. In pit you just go behind executioner. There is optional objective to kill him, but it's impossible to do it in one hit, so I skip it. Outside you must douse all torches. 2 torches on the side can be shot from behind haunts. For right torch you must stand and shoot lightly into torch. Haunts can go forward when they stunned by lightning. If this will not happen you need to strafe jump over small part of light.

Return to lab and create 3 frag bombs, then go to Cemetery for last Scrolls of Virtue. Entrance to Cemetery is tricky. You must douse torches inside. For right torch near entrance you must lean towards left part when you close it, so it will not close entirely and you will manage to douse torch. Douse all torches, because opening side coffins will spawn zombies. Escape quickly to shadow. In Sewers is new skeleton walking near secret passage. Wait for him to go right and go to Inquisitor's Room. Another bizzare teleportation will happen.

Put scrolls and go to Cemetery. Frob yours body. This will end mission. 4 optional objectives will fail (loot objective, history of Four Saints and 2 objectives about holy bombs). Also ultimate secret objective and escape objective will fail. And obviously slaying beast objective will fail. But it doesn't fail the mission.

STATS:

Time: 2:23:22; Loot: 10888/12663
Pockets Picked: 18/18; Locks Picked: 35
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 4/7

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE. Ring behind zombie in basement of Cathedral isn't obtainable, because zombie will spot you if you try to enter toilet.

MISSION 2 - THE MISSION

At the beginning I do the race to each red sign. When bell tolls demon shows up together with Scroll of Virtue. Beginning is tricky, because enemies at Cloister are more sensitive due to explosion that happened at the beginning of mission. And to get to Cemetery you must jump on part of wall that has fallen. Patrolling spider has no problem with stepping on it. St Jenel can be tricky to enter, because spider has tendency to get blocked on door. Luckily there is hole on the side, but it's tricky to jump through it quietly. Cathedral and St Yora points are easy, though sign #5 is in secret passage, so it may be hard to find. St Tennor and Cloister signs are also easy. Afterwards I'm looting this place, which is easy due to a lot of shadow.

The proper ghost run start after leaving Cathedral. You must use explosive device on rock and explode it. Explosion itself doesn't alert anyone, but if you use fire arrow, enemies will hear it. Just throw flare at it. Due to ratman patrolling nearby you must lean right while behind wall to throw it. Then go to lamppost by jump from left side or mantling on building and dropping there. Here is stationary zombie looking at you, but if you use speed potion you can end with just 1st alert. Then just strafe run to passage leading to Keepers.

Zombie exploded for some reason. Even though I scored no 2nd alerts from anyone. To get nugget near smoking rock near 2 baby burricks, you can douse smoking rock. To open passage to Keepers stand on metal keyhole sign and throw flares at torches, then jump to ladder and to passage to get 2 Keeper keys. To go to next area of city, first douse torches near statue, then descend to water and swim to light post. From here shoot rope arrow at wooden building above bridge (you can't shoot it from the front, because baby burrick will go into search mode). Go to edge and strafe run to bridge. Then jump to rope for more loot.

South part of ruins are easy to ghost. For west part you need to have collected 4 flares, 4 food chests and 4 water bottles. I couldn't get to 2nd house without alert from zombie. Because of that I'm skipping diamond (worth 100 loot) from there. Rope up to roof of 1st house and get to building above street. Here is last bottle of water. Climb on wall above chest and drop+mantle on building behind zombie. Drop near crates and get last food chest from house. Douse rock and go along wall to opened door. Here you just need to dodge fire shadow and use 2 Keeper keys to finish mission.

STATS:

Time: 0:59:22; Loot: 5425/6750
Pockets Picked: 0/0; Locks Picked: 13
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 4/8

GHOST: CHEMICAL SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE. Couldn't grab diamond (worth 100) in 2nd house on west street, because stationary zombie spot me every time.

MISSION 3 - SALVATION

When first time reaching lava you must fall on lower ledge, but it's observed by skeleton. You must moss lower ledge and strafe run to it. Unfortunately later is a well lighten hole watched by haunts and it can't be ghosted (ghost bust #1). I have objective to kill "all seeing eyes". That's eyeballs enemies. When they die, shattering glass sound will happen, but it doesn't alert anyone. Also most of them leave behind small spiders, so you need to back off quickly.

At ritual place you must kill 3 demons. Since each death gives keys for Hammerites cell and we have objective to free Hammerites, I excused this murder. But it's impossible to kill demon without alerting other 2 demons (ghost bust #2). Smaller enemies appearing after killing demons don't react to us killing demons, also we don't need to kill them. All enemies alert though to Trickster shooting projectile into bell. After freeing Hammerites small enemies will also alert when cursed Hammerites fall in lava and their bones will hit ceiling. Because it's easy to get stuck at cursed Hammerites cell, I decided to kill demon while in front of Hammerites cell. After freeing Hammerites you need to wait 10 min before mission will complete. Also I failed objective about collecting weapons. I still could continue mission though.

STATS:

Time: 1:01:55; Loot: 0/0
Pockets Picked: 0/0; Locks Picked: 27
Back Stabs: 9 (?); Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 345; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 7
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 5/9

No idea why game shows so many back stabs. I used sword to kill eyeballs. But there was no 9 of them. For demons I used holy knife. Maybe killing enemies with knives add to the back stabs.

GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE

MISSION 4 - SHINE ON YOU

Builder congratulates you. Rest is dancing. No ghosting here.

STATS:

Time: 0:00:39; Loot: 0/0
Pockets Picked: 0/0; Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 0/0

SUPREME GHOST: SUCCESS

[Galaer]

SOUND ALERT AND BLACKJACK TRAINER (TDM)

Another training mission made by TDM Team. Based on name I thought it will be display of all sound alerts of all enemies in TDM. Also I thought it will be impossible to hurt player. Instead there are only 2 kinds of enemies: normal city guards and Hammerites. They are in rooms with different surfaces. That's all. Also they can attack you. So this mission is a bit disappointing for me and definitely not very helpful.

From ghosting perspective mission has no loot, no way to finish it, you only can restarted by hitting lever. This means that ghost of this mission is completely pointless.

[Galaer]

SWING (TDM)

GHOST RUN

This is parkour mission without any enemies. Lots of moving platforms, you will also get catapulted high into air twice. Very tricky to proceed, but also very impressive. I barely completed loot objective (get 8/10 bottles) I didn't found 1 bottle and other bottle I skipped is at the very bottom. I tried to jump down on rope arrow, but it hurts me, so I abandoned this one bottle. I also had big problem with noticing crown hanging on chain. Also I left 2 rope arrows, so I failed supreme. No idea if it's possible to get back all rope arrows.

STATS:

Time: 0:22:41; Loot: 800/1000
Damage Dealt: 0; Received: 0; Health Restored: 0
Pockets Picked: 0
AI Killed: 0; AI KOed: 0; Bodies Found by AI: 0
Stealth Score: 0 (Alert 1 = 0; Alert 2 = 0; Alert 3 = 0; Alert 4 = 0; Alert 5 = 0)

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE? One of bottles is under swing and falling on rope from high place will hurt you.
SUPREME GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE. You need rope arrow to descend to 2nd catapult to use it and return back to path leading downward. So you must leave at least 1 rope arrow and leave 2nd catapult used.

SUPREME GHOST RUN

Ah, screw it. I decided to try to supreme ghost this mission anyway. I have some idea how to deal with 2nd catapult. Also I learned where is located last bottle. Supreme ghost challenge really starts after grabbing 3 rope arrows. It's impossible to drop them on table and they are necessary to beat this mission. So my 1st target is getting to 2nd catapult.

ROPE TUTORIAL

Ropes in this game are more reliable. They are easier to grab and you don't drop from them when you descend too low. Also you can descend much lower than in Thief (it actually feels like you are levitating in air). To get out of rope you can hold crouch to fall down and crouch at the end or jump. Unlike in Thief games you jump downwards.

GETTING TO 2ND CATAPULT

Shoot rope arrow into wooden beam. Not too high, so you will manage to grab it and not too low, because you must jump and mantle on metal square of top carousel. Afterwards quickly crouch and drop on pipe. Here is really hard part, because you must shoot 2 rope arrows above 2nd catapult: one to the highest spot of wooden beam, so later you will manage to mantle on it, second rope should be shot at the bottom of this wooden beam. You will need few rounds around to make shots, then drop on higher rope. It's not easy, because momentum of carousel is really strong and it will push you in it's direction. Descend and jump on lower rope, descend to the bottom and jump down on stairs. Use catapult and grab fake crown.

ROPE TUTORIAL 2

You can grab rope when it is shot to the top of ledge you are standing on. Method is the same like in Thief, but more reliable. You just crouch and go backwards to rope. Frobbing range is very short in TDM, so in order to retrieve rope arrows you need to shot other rope arrow much closer to 1st rope arrow than in Thief. Also from what I noticed, it's impossible (or much harder) to jump out of rope and quickly grab rope arrow. It's probably because of short range of frobbing and downwards jump. What's interesting is you can actually lean while on rope.

RETRIEVING ROPE ARROWS

Return to top carousel. From there you should easily grab lower rope arrow. Drop on higher rope and mantle on wooden beam. Grab 2nd rope arrow. Now you need to return to 1st shot rope arrow. You must shoot one rope arrow close to the rope arrow you want to pick up and 2nd rope arrow. Pick 1 rope arrow, then return to higher rope and climb to wooden beam. Shoot rope arrows until you will manage to grab rope arrow from higher rope. Afterwards grab last rope arrow.

RESETTING 2ND CATAPULT

Go on wooden beam part above 2nd catapult. You must shot rope arrow into tiny switch below. Crouch and strafe to the side as close to the edge as possible. Thanks to that you will not need to lean to the side. Tiny switch operating catapult is very far away and occasionally your shot may be blocked by top carousel. Distance is much larger than in Training Mission and you need 2 rope arrows for bottom bottle, so you can use only 1 rope arrow here. After shooting switch, rope arrow will break in half and drop on ground. It may look ugly, but after discussion this method has been allowed.

Shot is very precise. I had a lot of luck managing to shoot it relatively fast, but when I was checking my previous save if catapult really got reset, then instead of loading save after hitting switch, I overwritten it. It really made me cry. I needed another 30 min to achieve the same task. Really frustrating and the hardest challenge in this mission.

GOING DOWN

Time to get out. My target was to descend on platform with red pipes. It's slightly higher than platform with 3 rope arrows on table. I shot rope arrow on top of wooden beam above said platform and used this rope to descend on platform. Then I shot other rope arrow slightly lower, so I could retrieve higher rope arrow and I kept doing that until I could retrieve both rope arrows and fall on platform without taking any damage.

I used metal beam to get on the other side of swing and returned to 1st catapult. I hit switch to reset it, then I ride elevator to top (that's where it was located. I descended to the bottom and used roof of house as a shortcut. The last challenge was getting bottle under swing. I needed to shoot rope arrow on top of wooden floor and 2nd rope on the bottom of wooden platform. This way I could descend on stairs, take last bottle and return to top while grabbing both rope arrows. Then I just went to exit.

STATS:

Time: 0:36:03; Loot: 1000/1000
Damage Dealt: 0; Received: 0; Health Restored: 0
Pockets Picked: 0
AI Killed: 0; AI KOed: 0; Bodies Found by AI: 0
Stealth Score: 0 (Alert 1 = 0; Alert 2 = 0; Alert 3 = 0; Alert 4 = 0; Alert 5 = 0)

SUPREME GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT SUPREME: SUCCESS

[Galaer]

LA FETE DU VOLEUR (THE THIEF'S CHRISTMAS EVE)

City mission with very sensitive guards. Luckily to most locations you can go through Sewers. I ignored shop near Cathedral, because it was observed by walking cop stuck on stationary cop. One of sewers exit leads to dark alley. I waited there to grab all purses from people and KO female thief. Then I took her to dark alley near starting point.

For Cathedral is used invisibility contraption. It gives invisibility effect for 5 min (actually for more than that). Since it's a device and not a potion, I don't count it as chemical run. Also saving and loading game will make you visible, so you are forced to ironman the whole invisibility run. At the beginning there is explosion and it alerts priest and novices from church. Afterwards just run to 2nd floor. Grab office key near hammer statue on top of stairs. In 1st room crouch run for loot and kitchen key. In 2nd room take key from office. In kitchen I ignored bottle and 2 goblets on highest shelf, because it's quite easy to miss mantle on counter, which leads to making loud noise. In attic there are 2 candlesticks and holy water.

Then I'm returning to 1st floor, take priest's purse and go to confession for crypt key. Then go quickly to crypt, take 2 candlesticks and use less visible passage. Throw holy water on giant hammer statue and take 4 pieces of loot. Quickly leave from Cathedral. My invisibility didn't run out, so I could go to shop I ignored earlier, but I decided to go to sewers and finish this mission instead.

STATS:

Time: 0:25:55; Loot: 4007/4793
Pockets Picked: 12/13; Locks Picked: 9
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 1
Damage Dealt: 1; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 0/0

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: POSSIBLE?

[marbleman]

Game: The Dark Mod
FM: Crucible of Omens: Behind Closed Doors

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Success
Supreme Ghost - Success
Perfect Supreme - Success
Time - 1:12:39
Times saved - 59
Damage dealt - 0, Damage received - 0
Health restored - 0
Pockets picked - 2
Loot - 7838/7838
Killed by the player - 0
KOed by the player - 0
Bodies found by AI - 0
Alerts - 0 suspicious, 0 searches, 0 sightings
Stealth score - 0
Consumables - none

Behind Closed Doors is a prologue mission to what would have been a massive campaign titled Crucible of Omens, which unfortunately never saw the light of day. However, the one mission we got to play is incredible, and one ultimately good thing about it is that it doesn’t end on any cliffhanger, and as such doesn’t feel incomplete like so many other missions from unfinished campaigns do.

Our goals in this mission revolve around dealing with a local thieves guild leader, a woman named Lazarova. Additional objectives are added as the mission progresses, but to begin with, the only objective related to the main plot is to break into the Old Mill Tavern and search for information about Lazarova’s whereabouts. We also need to steal 5500 loot, and there are two optional objectives: breaking into a Builder storehouse and into the local inventors’ guild.

Immediately went up the ladder east of the Great Staircase, which quickly led me to the Builder Storehouse. Checking off my first optional objective right away, continued north along Canal Walk. The underpass at the end of Canal Walk can be accessed quite easily from the north side through a pickable door, which was my only “unnecessary” picked lock in the mission. The only other way of reaching this underpass requires going through water and, naturally, making a lot of noise. Even if it’s possible, it’s more trouble than it’s worth.



Going through Balakin Manor, arrived at the inn. There were several potential ways in, but most involved picking a lock. Straight ahead was an open window leading to Leonard’s room. I had to enter it to get a piece of loot inside, but the door leading to the rest of the inn was locked, so I went back outside and proceeded to another window. This one allowed me to access the entire inn without any lockpicking. Interestingly, the objective to learn Lazarova’s whereabouts checked off as soon as I entered the inn, which doesn’t seem quite right. I haven’t actually discovered anything yet. I also got a new objective: find and steal the thieves’ stash.



My main goal inside the inn was to get into the hidden basement, where both the stash and the information I need are found. There are two ways to access it: a pickable hatch and a secret door opened with a coathook lever nearby. Needless to say, I chose the latter. The bar area was chock full of guests, so I had to avoid it and the hall right outside, but I could navigate the rest of the inn quite easily. I also had to pick two keys here: the jewelry box key and the cash box key. These open two containers with loot, and since there are keys, I had to re-lock them. All of the keys in the mission cannot be dropped, so they remained in my inventory. I was also glad that the loose brick in the basement (not to be confused with the secret basement) was easy to put back in once I took the piece of loot behind it since it didn’t make a lot of noise. Having cleared the secret basement, I got my next objective: access Allodric Manor. Before I would get to it though, I still had to loot a few city blocks.



First was the Hoarders area. Getting loot around here was pretty straightforward, but one place is quite interesting: the thugs’ house in the middle. There are two doors leading in, both pickable. There is also a thug who uses both of them once in a while. In Thief, I would have waited for him to unlock the door for me and halted it, but in TDM, this trick doesn’t work. What’s interesting is that picking a lock on either door doesn’t even matter as the next time the thug uses them, he would re-lock each, without giving any remarks on them being unlocked. I guess this would have been a sufficiently fine method for Supreme, but there is another way in: a window on the third floor. It can be reached by picking two vent gratings, but also by doing a bit of tricky climbing. That last jump involving mantling a fence on the rooftop is especially inconsistent, but it is possible to pull off. There is also an apartment between Rattlebones Way and the Hoarders, but I was only able to access it from the former’s side because the Builder guard overlooking the Hoarders was nigh impossible to fool.



Next, I made my way to Shingle Plaza, which I expected to be quite tough. The guard you see walking into a wall on the screenshot is supposed to be patrolling in and out of the guardhouse on the left, which makes both pickpocketing him and getting the loot inside the guardhouse really tricky. This time, he got stuck, however, which made my life a lot easier. I will say though that I ghosted this place without any alerts before, so I know it’s possible. Then, I entered the inventors’ guild, which checked off my second optional objective and immediately added a new one: to find something of value on the upper floor, which I did soon afterwards.



Now it was finally time for Allodric Manor. My preferred entry point is the top floor bathroom as it’s really close to the master bedroom. Checked off the objective to get inside and got a new one: to follow Lazarova around and to see if I can find anything to use against her. This objective is misleading though, as it’s not necessary at all to follow her around. Additionally, entering the bedroom triggers a comment about there being something useful there from the player character, which is untrue as well. All I had to do is pickpocket a safe key off a noblewoman wearing a night gown, who I assume is Lazarova. Right next to the bedroom is the library, where I could find a secret passage into a room where the safe is. Inside was a gold ingot worth 800 and a readable, taking which checked off my main objective.



Now I just had to loot the rest of the manor and finish the mission, which was pretty easy. There were a few lit gold candlesticks, which I could take without actually putting the candles out. Had to take a cupboard key to access a piece of loot inside. Finally, I also got a bonus objective simply by picking up and reading the Tome of Pagan Folklore in the observatory. This felt a bit random, and I tried for a while to figure out whether there are any other bonus objectives as a lot of readables go into the inventory, but I couldn’t trigger any.

[klatremus]

Awesome work! I've wanted to play this one, and the campaign that wasn't to be always sounded tempting. It seems like we are able to ghost quite a few of these with zero stealth scores. I have done a few recently that I will release once I get to recording them. This tells me that requiring hardcore difficulty isn't too demanding after all.

[marbleman]

Oh, you've written some reports too? I'm dying to read them (or at least know which missions you did ).

Do play Behind Closed Doors, it's amazing.

[marbleman]

Game: The Dark Mod
FM: Talbot 2: Return to the City

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Success
Supreme Ghost - Success
Perfect Supreme - Success
Time - 29:15
Times saved - 27
Damage dealt - 0, Damage received - 0
Health restored - 0
Pockets picked - 0
Loot - 2580/2580
Killed by the player - 0
KOed by the player - 0
Bodies found by AI - 0
Alerts - 0 suspicious, 0 searches, 0 sightings
Stealth score - 0
Consumables - none

Not counting the three missions that serve as introduction to TDM, Return to the City was the very first mission I played. Naturally, I was trying to ghost it as best I could, but because I was still learning the engine, my run was ultimately unsuccessful. Now, I’ve decided to revisit it and am happy to announce that it’s Perfect Supremeable!

Story-wise, this mission, along with Fiasco at Fauchard Street, takes place after Prowler of the Dark and before Bad Debts. Our goals are to steal some explosives from the Builders’ storehouse, get 1500 loot, and, optionally, find a way to divert the Builders’ attention so that they wouldn’t come after us.

Looting the city is pretty straightforward, and none of the pieces are too hard to get. Sykes Manor, on the other hand, is worth discussing. First, to get into a basement, I had to pick at least one lock, and I chose to get in from the outside as the other option would involve going through the kitchen, which is well-lit and cramped. In the basement, I got the hastily written note, which I would soon use to complete the optional objective. The rest of the manor I had to approach from the top floor window. Getting in was easy enough, but getting the two candlesticks on the fireplace in the sitting room involves the toughest move in the mission. Taking the loot pieces themselves is easy: I just had to mantle the fireplace. It’s getting down from there without making noise that’s troublesome, and the only way I’ve found was to jump over to the wooden railing and mantle it. I still can’t tell if there’s a trick to it as my success rate was very random, but one in every thirty attempts, I wouldn’t make any sound whatsoever, which was important as the slightest noise would trigger a first alert from the woman sitting in the room.



I should also mention that I’ve found two places where I could end the mission: a courtyard accessible through the Builders’ storehouse and the alleyway just south of it. With that in mind, I decided to clear the latter so that I wouldn’t have to exit the storehouse once I’m inside as doing so is quite tricky, and the only reliable way is to go through the attic. As for the storehouse itself, it’s really straightforward and just requires timing patrols. I do like the object manipulation-based puzzle to complete the main objective, I think it’s a nice touch. With that done, I just had to return to the attic and use the other window to exit the mission.

[klatremus]

Lol, I started playing this mission last night! Dont wanna read too much, but a Melan mission in TDM was too tempting to pass up.

[marbleman]

Game: The Dark Mod
FM: Talbot 3: Fiasco at Fauchard Street

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Success
Supreme Ghost - Success
Perfect Supreme - Success
Time - 31:48
Times saved - 22
Damage dealt - 0, Damage received - 0
Health restored - 0
Pockets picked - 0
Loot - 1685/1685
Killed by the player - 0
KOed by the player - 0
Bodies found by AI - 0
Alerts - 0 suspicious, 0 searches, 0 sightings
Stealth score - 0
Consumables - none

Fiasco at Fauchard Street is a sequel to Return to the City. This mission was made in a week or so, and thus it’s a lot less polished than the previous one, but it's still fun and I quite enjoyed playing it casually. Supreme is a different story though. Don’t be fooled by the length of this report. This mission is tough to Supreme, often frustratingly so. Our objectives are to steal Lord Lendermanns’s pouch of opals and to get 1000 loot.

Despite what the briefing says, the front door is a viable way in, and for Supreme it ends up being the best one. The balcony above the main entrance is impossible to use without making noise and spawning first alerts (it’s possible to leave this way though), and the backyard entrance requires picking a lock, which can be avoided. One of the biggest hurdles in this mission is getting through the underpass between the southern and the northern parts of Fauchard Street. Between three guards with long but interlocking patrols, waiting for an opening can take anywhere between one minute and ten. At least the woman down the street is neutral. No issues in the manor itself, except plot-related ones. Someone had already stolen the bag of opals but left me a note about a stash of loot in the flophouse across the street and a key that I could use to access it. Thus, got a new objective to raid that cash. Dropped off the note, but couldn’t drop the key. Completing this new objective was rather uneventful.



Another major difficulty of this mission is platforming. There are several loot pieces on ledges of buildings, and getting each of them is a tiny nightmare. A case in point is a gold candlestick across Groasse & Swill. Getting to it requires a very precise jump from the metal bridge, then a silent drop onto metal pipes, and finally a not very intuitive way to get down to the street without taking damage. I assume this is a byproduct of the mission being a speed build and not a case of intentional cruelty. This mission is also where I learnt that it’s possible to stand on the narrowest of ledges in TDM. In fact, getting all the loot around the flophouse requires this.

[Galaer]

GODBREAKER

MISSION 1 - SLIPPING AWAY

The only problem is getting to Tumble Gate. You don't have any rope arrows in this mission, so you can't go from North Tower. You can't go through priest's apartment, because priest is standing on top of stairs and he's impossible to ghost. From roof leading to priest's apartment jump to tiny ledge at north and then jump+mantle on west roof. Priest can't be nudged, but you can shoot water arrow into light switch, go along left wall and grab loot. To escape this part, from Tumble Gate roof drop+mantle on wooden beam leading to North Tower.

STATS:

Time: 0:23:22; Loot: 1822/1862
Pockets Picked: 5/5; Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 1/1

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: POSSIBLE

MISSION 2 - IMPIOUS PILGRIMAGE

This mission is giant swamp. To get all secrets and complete all objectives you will be forced to do a lot of journeys back and forth. Mission also has "cleaning whole areas from enemies" objectives, which can be solved by fights between monsters. That's the reason why I score Body Discoveries stat. From enemies the hardest is to dodge eyeball plant. In this mission it's hostile and can throw poison balls at you, so it must be avoided at all cost.

On 2nd floor of prison there is coin in corner of 2nd room. I need to run near flies to grab it and it's easy to get hurt by it. In prison I freed crayman, because there is nugget in his cell. Crayman will start battle with ratmen, kill few and then die. This will alert all enemies from this area.

There is objective to destroy all enemies in Crayman Temple. I kill single craymen from entrance to temp[le and from basement. Other craymen shouldn't hear it. In basement is also urn with ashes. Take it to room on 2nd floor above throne room. Also earlier come closer to throne room, so braziers will get relighten. Lever will open throne room and spawn undead. Use ashes and flint on brazier and hide on top of chest. Wait for fire elementals to kill all undead. It will also alert craymen, but they will not come here. Afterwards douse brazier, so fire elementals will get killed (this is excused by objective of killing every creature in temple).

Edit: So looks like I misunderstood rule #5 of ghost rules. Looks like other ghosters understand it as causing AI to infight is forbidden. This rule could be better written. So looks like summoning fire elementals is still forbidden, because it leads to other Ai alerting to them (ghost bust). Is it impossible to ghost this mission, then? I don't remember this mission too much, but objective of killing all enemies in Crayman Temple is optional. So maybe you can just skip it.

Take 2nd urn of ashes from throne room. Since craymen are sensitive I went closer to Pagan Village and returned to temple. Then I went to 2nd floor to launch 2nd brazier and hid in room nearby. After couple of minutes fire elementals will kill all craymen, so douse brazier to kill elementals and complete objective. Destroy also craymen eggs for bonus objective.

In giant moths nest we have 2 objectives: to save girl (holding her make you run faster) and destruction of nest objective. You need to put explosive device and use flint on fuse, take girl, go south and right to exit. Most likely there will be moth stuck on crystal near exit. It turns, so you must time him when it doesn't look towards exit and leave. Explosion doesn't alert anyone, but it will kill all moths and bugbeasts inside and outside of nest.

STATS:

Time: 1:59:56; Loot: 4870/5230
Pockets Picked: 2/2; Locks Picked: 7
Back Stabs: 2; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 60; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 2
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 2
Secrets: 6/6

GHOST: FAILED, but I think it may be possible, because objective to kill all enemies in Crayman Temple is optional.

MISSION 3 - THE TRICKSTER'S TAIL

Short betrayal scene. No gameplay here.

STATS:

Time: 0:04:10; Loot: 0/0
Pockets Picked: 0/0; Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 0/0

SUPREME GHOST: SUCCESS

MISSION 4 - THE FINAL THREAD

Conall is poisoned, but guard offers help in exchange of his necklace. Because we are poisoned, during conversation with guard we will lose 5 HP, then guard will heal us 3 HP, then we will lose 1 HP. It's unavoidable damage. During run through mansion poison will attack few times. Poison is much faster than in Keeper of Prophecies and it's unavoidable (in KotP it was possible to reload game few times to avoid poison damage, in this mission it's not possible). Just like in KotP you shout when you get hurt by poison and it alerts nearby enemies. Also when poison will hurt you, you will randomly lose 1 or 2 HP. It's possible to complete necklace objective without healing yourself. You get antidote because of that. Since I have stated in objectives to drink it, I don't call it chemical run. Similar goes for healing potion used by guard during conversation. Since it wasn't me who used that, it's not chemical run yet.

Thief at the bottom of street is tricky. You can get to him, but to get out you must rope up to metal railing. Near this place is window near balcony. To dodge guard inside you must jump on top of fireplace. In red tower and area with balconies I kept hearing "That's a clever taffer in place. Gonna take you down! Ha, ha, ha..." from guard. Guard shouldn't see me, so A) it's scripted or B) guard alerts to somebody else.

In Library in Mages Hideout I'm forced to skip Scroll of Dispersal, because mage notice it's miss and alert others into search mode. And since this scroll is needed to obtain Veil of Illuz (item that deals you 4 damage and it's not connected to any objective or secret), I'm gonna skip it too. I waited with freeing prisoner under street until the end of mission, because I was worrying that enemies will alert to him. It wasn't needed worry, because he quickly vanish in city gate.

STATS:

Time: 2:10:40; Loot: 6473/6918
Pockets Picked: 20/26; Locks Picked: 24
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 10; Healing Taken: 3
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 3/3

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: POSSIBLE

[Galaer]

THE CURSE

To make my life a bit easier I read Henry's Letter after looting the whole house. This way zombies spawn on 1st floor and outside will not be very big problem. In Crypt I'm forced to run on metal floor through poison gas room to open hatch. Room is well lighten and there are 2 zombies, who will see me and I also lose 2 HP due to poison gas. That's the only ghost bust in this mission.

STATS:

Time: 0:49:45; Loot: 1147/1452
Pockets Picked: 0/1; Locks Picked: 8
Back Stabs: 4; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 40; Damage Taken: 2; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 1
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 4/5

GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE

[Galaer]

HAMMER AND GARRETT

Last mission made by JIS that must be ghosted. Beginning is easy enough. Just move along left side of ramp and walk along right wall to door. Above next double door is First key to Church. Use bottle, then dodge patroller. Factory isn't hard. There is middle bridge, which has good shadow, but sometimes patroller walking near elevator can go there. Ride down and open passage to well. Go to the bottom. Guard will see you, but friendly spiders will kill him (ghost bust #1).

In kitchen is vase and lever. Go down to gamble room. Golden plate is unfrobbable. There is 8 coin stacks on table and you can enter room while crouching, but coin stack behind candle is too far to grab it. Go up and take 2nd key from fast turning guard. On higher floor is patroller that constantly stop and looks in search motion, but it doesn't mean he's alerted. Go to prison and turn off light, then open gate. Go right and sadly you must KO stationary guard (ghost bust #2). Next room I call Control Room.

There is priest in front of middle door and fast turning Hammerite at the center of room. You must go left, so sneak from shadow to shadow, crouch under door and picklock door. Next is corridor with watching pipe, patroller on the left and stationary people on the right. First go left to 2nd door. Take equipment and dodge stationary guard. In left room are chests with 2 flashbombs and 2 gas arrows. In kitchen is 1 water arrow. In flooded corridor is another water arrow. Use it to douse last torch. In small library is book switch for painting with Ancient key inside. Go right. Douse torch near pair of people. Open last door. Gas torch near gate, block left part of gate and close right part, then use last gas arrow to gas torch on the right. Use switch to open double door.

Wait for Hammerite to go to bridge and turn around, then quickly run forward, drop on wooden roof and behind stationary guard. In well is medallion, which summons haunts and turn on light in corridor with watcher. So I'm gonna avoid it. You must nudge guard right all the way to table. This took me 20 min. Take Third key and return all the way to Control Room.

You must use this key on lock, but there is priest in the way. Return to entrance and use pillar's shadow to get to central fence. Go along it left to shadow behind 2nd pillar (priest is visible). Use this shadow to go to left wall and run behind priest to right side of middle door. Here is another pillar's shadow. Use it to get near lock. Stand and lean right, then use key on lock. Crouch and return behind priest. Quickly enter middle room. Send elevator up, then down and quickly drop on it (this way you will fall on it quietly.

Next is area with invisible trigger activating arrows. 2 guards will alert to that. One of them should come into this room and die. 2nd guard will stop searching and will keep patrolling. Wait for him to fully calm down, then use left door and jump over lava. Take water arrow from well. In reception is stationary Hammerite who needs to be KO-ed (ghost bust #3). Ride elevator down, go to guard post and in upstairs chest are 3 water arrows. Use them to douse 4 torches and grab sword from chest. This summons 2 fire elementals, but with so much shadow you should easily get back to elevators. Get back to room with 4 levers and go left. Take 4 water arrows from water passage. You can drop on base of column to drop without using rope arrow. Use switch and sneak to door. Read plaque and fall.

Go into double door and go outside. Use stairs to go down to room with haunt. In haunted church is The Eye, but I don't think it's needed. Go to haunt, grab lantern and put it on crate, then sneak right and grab Hammer key from body. Go to the end and use ceiling switch to unlock door. Now you need to return to well near starting point. Use Hammer key and go to church. You must cut right banner (ghost bust #4) and go into passage. When entering and leaving you will get spotted by priest and Ramirez (ghost bust #5-6). Take Orz key from chest. Return all the way to starting point.

On 2nd floor is door leading to gate opened by Hammer key, then use Orz key and go to last outside area. Just go behind Hammerite to window for last key, open double door and sneak in front of novice to last door.

STATS:

Time: 1:22:50; Loot: 176/251
Pockets Picked: 1/3; Locks Picked: 10
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 2
Damage Dealt: 2; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0

GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE

[Galaer]

HORROR IN ST URBAIN

Very short mission. To go past guards you must mantle on wall and then on metal fence, drop on signs, then on wall and ground. District is empty until you will summon dragon. To kill it place explosive device on dragon's path and while being behind it shoot fire arrow into it. You don't need to worry about guards hearing explosion, because when dragon appeared, they despawn. So you can easily return to starting point.

STATS:

Time: 0:16:16; Loot: 2335/2880
Pockets Picked: 0/1; Locks Picked: 4
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 0/0

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: POSSIBLE

Weirdly enough my stats shows that I didn't deal any damage or kill anyone when I used explosive device against dragon.

[Galaer]

BANE 1: KEEP OF DECEIT

This mission felt harder in my test run to ghost than it really was. To get out from Inn you need to picklock top window near Garrett's room, quietly drop down and mantle on it. Then you jump over guard to roof of Jeweler's House and use window in storage room to get to Weapon Shop. On roof is secret passage to Sewers where you fall into water and alert spiders. I'm gonna use other way instead.

To get to Mechanist Church you must nudge forward stationary Mechanist while avoiding to get spotted by patrolling cop. To get to Docks I'm going outside and rope up to wooden beam with banner near kitchen window, mantle on it, drop on ledge and jump to wall. There is water on south side is Sewer key. I'm using entrance metal ramp passage to get to Sewers.

2 small spiders is the hardest challenge of this mission. You must time them to go right, then go right into corner. You aren't safe in shadow from walking spiders and you must quietly fall into water. You don't have too much time. So you must drop towards ledge while being slightly above water, mantle, cancel mantle and this should allow you to drop into water quietly. In underwater passage is book and key. Take them without leaving water, then go to Book Store and Keeper Compound.

Compound is easy. First go left to room #1 for key, then fall on water and quietly descend. You can grab nugget from pool only if patrollers are away. In basement you can grab nugget from cell #4 behind green spider. In storage room is breath potion, which you must drink to survive long underwater passage to Temple.

After taking Sea Bane there will be explosions. I have no idea if they alert treebeasts in 1st area and I have no way to check what's happening with these monsters. Explosions aren't too close to door and door is closed, so it's possible that they didn't hear it. Because of that I'm gonna assume that I'm fine. Shortly after 2 treebeasts and Bouran will appear. Hide in shadow. They aren't alerted, but soon they see each other and treebeasts will kill Bouran. Afterwards we will get teleported outside.

STATS:

Time: 0:46:41; Loot: 2206/2346
Pockets Picked: 1/4; Locks Picked: 12
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 4/4

GHOST: CHEMICAL SUCCESS. I used breath potion to survive underwater tunnel leading to Temple.
PERFECT GHOST: CHEMICALLY POSSIBLE

BANE 2: CULT OF THE DAMNED

This mission is easier than previous. Front entrance to Mansion is visited by many guards, but it's quite easy to sneak through it. I only had one problem in this mission. I wanted to descend on 1st floor, but archer got stuck on stairs. I was forced to go through nearby window, mantle on banner, drop on gas torch, then on floor and hide behind pillar. Catacombs and Keeper Compound are empty. After taking Earth Bane you must quickly jump into water to escape explosions and fireballs bouncing on water. Quickly return to cave ignoring fight between cult members and 2 treebeasts. All guards are dead and there is couple of cult members patrolling area of the whole mission.

STATS:

Time: 0:39:33; Loot: 4040/4710
Pockets Picked: 8/14; Locks Picked: 4
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 5/5

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: POSSIBLE

[Galaer]

HAMMERITE DEATHMATCH!

MISSION 1 - LAST MAN STANDING!

This mission is quite easy, because it requires waiting for only 1 enemy to live and then you can summon helper to kill him. Though I activated my helper too early and I ended killing last survivor with poison arrow (to kill him without scoring alert you must shot arrow into him). Stats show that there is 5 secrets, but I get bonus objective for finding all 4 of them. I also got bonus objective for finding Staff of Yandros. Mission doesn't end, so I'm forced to use cheat to skip mission.

STATS:

Lives Remaining - Garrett: 10
RSoul: 0, TNT: 0, Otto: 0
Nightwalker: 0, SlyFoxx: 0, John D.: 0
NV: 0, Telliamed: 0, Moghedian: 0
SlipTip: 0, FreddyFox: 0, Peter Smith: 0

Time: 0:22:54
Damage Dealt: 0; Back Stabs: 0
Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Total Killed: 1
Secrets: 4/5

GHOST: SUCCESS

MISSION 2 - DEATHMATCH!

2nd mission is a race to kill 25 enemies before others. I prioritized using poison arrows and also using them on people fighting with other enemies. On single enemies I used Staff of Yandros, which helped me a lot. Because everyone is alerted it's hard to detect if anyone alerted to me killing enemies. That's why my successful ghost could be debatable. Mission doesn't end again, so I'm using cheat to skip it.

STATS:

Kills - Garrett: 26
RSoul: 11, TNT: 13, Otto: 14
Nightwalker: 4, SlyFoxx: 23, John D.: 15
NV: 14, Telliamed: 13, Moghedian: 12
SlipTip: 14, FreddyFox: 16, Peter Smith: 20

Time: 0:17:52
Damage Dealt: 595; Back Stabs: 0
Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Secrets: 4/5

GHOST: SUCCESS?

[klatremus]

Game: Thief 2
FM: Bad Debts

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Failed
Supreme Ghost - Success
Perfect Supreme - Failed
Time - 2:27:18
Loot - 3582/3682 (Supreme: 3507)
Pockets Picked - 11/12
Secrets - None
Locks Picked - 4
Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0, Other Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0
Consumables - 1 Water Arrow (to wake Scarmengades, Ghost only)

See the entire report with screenshots here!
Loot list here!
YouTube let's play here!

Comments:
I played this mission for the first time back in early 2008. Little did I know then what an important author Melan would prove to be for the community. With later creations of epic proportions such as Disorientation and Rose Garden, Bad Debts takes you back to the beginning, when even Melan was just a rookie. However, this is a stellar city mission with vertical exploration galore. The story is a bit cryptic, but very comprehensive once you take the time to read some of the lengthy diaries.

I had been hired by Timms to obtain his letter of debt from a wealthy usurer called Markus. I simply had to find a way into his place and steal the letter. I also needed to grab 2,400 worth of loot before leaving Downlock. That was all.

Calm Wanderings
The streets were filled with guards, but only a fraction of them reacted to my presence at this point. Only breaking into private property or visibly using weapons would cause any alerts. There would be a crucial point later in the mission that would change all that, even adding new enemies around town. It was thus my goal to do as much as possible before the objectives changed. Prior to that, ghosting was quite straightforward.

First challenge was in the guards’ quarters at Stoll Court. Two stationary swordsmen guarded a pickable chest with a purse upstairs. I couldn’t get to it without passing both their views. In the end I found a line in the middle of the path where I was concealed from all light sources (image below). It didn’t seem to exist, but either guard kept quiet all the way through. There were three light sources, but this path kept me concealed from all of them. I snatched my loot and left.



As mentioned in previous reports of this mission, the ring in the tower west of the Coronet had to be skipped. A haunt appeared and it could not be evaded. I could take the ring without getting seen (image below), but I couldn’t leave undetected, not even by regular Ghost rules. It can be killed by preventatively drenching the skeleton with holy water, but that is considered a kill even though it doesn’t show up in the stats.

Getting the purse from the nobleman at the Coronet could be done by rushing in behind him and waiting. Although he was neutral, he still had alert levels in case he detected me doing something inappropriate. If fast, about one minute of waiting was enough.



I don’t regard waking Scarmengades a Ghost bust. It could be done from darkness and without him ever entering hunt mode. He gave a growl as he appeared, but that was not from seeing me. It could be from hearing the water arrow, as he gave a settling remark a few minutes later. Using a gas arrow spawned the same reactions. It could also be from a script triggered upon awakening and would also then be called a first alert, albeit debatably, so I skipped the whole scenario for Supreme. That felt the safest.

Getting the loot and the thieves’ key from their hideout was a little tricky, but nothing more than standard ghosting. The thief didn’t seem to be able to give first alerts, but I don’t think I would’ve triggered any regardless. His key was needed in order to safely end the mission later, but it also had to be returned for Supreme. During my initial ghost run back in 2008, I didn’t find any way to return it without alerting the thief. However, I recently found you can drop it onto the northern part of the book on the table (image below). The southern half drops the key straight through and it makes a loud wooden sound, but the other half is silent, almost carpet-like. Dropping it anywhere on the table would be considered close enough for Supreme, so this was a happy discovery.



Entered Tomlinson’s through the upper grate. Dropped to the banner and further onto the counter to avoid health loss. Nobody inside was awake, so as long as I snuck carefully on the tiles, I was good. Left through the side door and replaced the armourer’s key on the table.

Sudden Changes
After the double-cross, I was forced to leave through the power tunnels. The entrance there had to be relocked with the power works key from Moriarty’s place, but the key I realized had to be returned before triggering the kill event inside the usurer’s manor. If not, the outside guards heard the key dropping onto the windowsill. So I had to reload to a previous save and lockblock the power station door before finishing at the usurer’s. A bit tedious to have to redo all that, but oh well.

From the power tunnels I could visit Keywell and find the hidden loot stash there. In order to return, I had to pass three armed mines in a storage room. The most Supreme-like way to get past was to hop onto a preplaced rope above the mines, but that was difficult to do (image below). The easier option is to disarm the mines with the lockpicks and replace them afterwards from above. Nothing in the rules forbids disarming mines or traps. Emerged at Timms’ and cleaned his place next. Used the dark back room to time the trips inside. He kept quiet through it all. I couldn’t close the secret entrance to the walkway above Timms’ place from the outside, so I had to go back through that way later in order to reset it for Supreme.



Over by the Coronet the landlord was the only one alerting, except for the 3 patrollers outside, but they all had fairly long routes. The landlord generally stopped at three fixed spots. When he was at the spot nearest the stairs I got ready (image below). As he turned and headed back I rushed in and stole his key. His place was no problem to Ghost. Dropped his key back in the same manner.





I had to approach the hammer seminary coming from the south, meaning I was forced to pass the wary archer at Almsgate. In my original 2008 run, he was always stationed just west of the gate itself (image above). I was then barely able to steal his purse unseen, but could never sneak through the alley northeast undetected. This time, however, he was patrolling east-west outside Tomlinson’s (image below). Checking with other forum members, Fortuni confirmed the archer is indeed supposed to patrol both in versions 1.0 and 1.1, while marbleman reported him stationed in the same spot as in the image above. Well, with the archer patrolling, I can happily report it is no longer an issue passing towards the seminary without first alerts.



The priest by the seminary doors was no problem. Crouching against the north side of the door kept me hidden, and with a few steps out I could grab the hammer. The guard by the lower door seemed drugged and hardly reacted to anything, so I could exit peacefully. I had previously locked the thieves’ door in an open state, so I didn’t need any key at this point.

Notes
- Skipped the ring worth 100 in the tower west of the Coronet for all modes. The haunt that appeared could not be evaded.
- Scarmengades gave a growl when awoken, so I skipped his hammer worth 75 for Supreme.

[Galaer]

Because Cigam mentioned T3 reports, I checked the only existing report made by Old Man about Furious Flames and looks like he only reported Part 1. Part 2 and 3 hasn't been reported yet.

[klatremus]

I don't think there are Parts 2 and 3 of that mission. It's Part 1 in a 4-part series called Cabal, where the other missions are listed in the unreported list on page 1.
Part 2 is Night of the Long Knives, for example.

[Galaer]

THE LIBRARY OF BABEL

Small puzzle mission. There are only 2 special situations. In first you need to throw rock at cobweb to get cheese. It's allowed, because cobweb isn't anyone's property. Second situation is debatable. It's about laser mask destruction. Mask probably belongs to somebody, so it's property. It shoots laser and blocks passage, so it must be destroyed. It's done by putting hand mirror on pedestal and deflecting laser back at mask that way. So, damage is done, but it's not really done by Garrett. Since maks was destroyed by it's laser, it means that mask destroyed itself. In other words, even though property was destroyed, damage wasn't made directly by Garrett, so damage property rule doesn't apply in this situation.

STATS:

Time: 0:09:32; Loot: 0/0
Pockets Picked: 0/0; Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 0/0

GHOST: SUCCESS

[Galaer]

ACCOUNTANT 1: THIEVES AND HEIRS (TDM)

START

Short and quite easy mission. First part has no enemies. In sewers is area with 3 spiders randomly patrolling lowest level, so it can be tricky to get to secret chest. Street is patrolled by 2 guards and that's pretty much the whole mission. First window leads to room with sleeping person. Don't drop on carpet or he will wake up. Instead go left on crates, drop on table and on carpet. I didn't notice any missing loot alert in this mission, so you can grab paintings and leave empty painting frames ro grab flower vase and leave flowers behind and nobody will alert.

VICKER'S MANSION

Next place is Vicker's Mansion. Here are rooms where you aren't safe for long like Study visited by Lord Vicker and Dining Room visited by servant. In Study you have barely enough time to grab painting and Safe key and leave before Lord Vicker will return and you must also time patroller. In Dining Room you must wait for servant to leave it and patroller to vanish behind corner. You must wait with leaving until patroller will walk away.

On 2nd floor is bath. You can fall into it for ring, but you must be careful to not be heard by Lord Vicker and patroller. Interesting thing is that unlike Thief, you can still crouch in bath full of water. In storage near kitchen you need to shoot water arrow into lever, so you will manage to climb ladder to attic and get necklace from safe. To leave mansion you must quietly drop on cistern. Instead of dropping on pipe, drop on wooden beam on the left and then on lower roof and on street.

MIDDLE OF STREET

Next is apartment plus Clinic. Apartment is locked, so you need to pick lock and there is no shadow in front of door. There is good shadow near Clinic door, but if there will be 2 patrollers walking from other sides, then they will push each other into you and will notice you. That's why it's good to unlock apartment first. Clinic on the other hand is blocked by wooden planks, which you need to remove by frobbing them and moving on street. Luckily patrollers don't alert to planks. After opening Clinic I prefer to bring wooden planks inside.

ELECTRIFIED FLOOR PROBLEM

The end of street is Alchemy Shop (no problem here) and Slumber Apartments. Left apartment requires dousing torch, so you will manage to sneak for chest for money. Upstairs is patrolled by woman, she enters left room with window leading to Electric Tower. In tower there are blueprints needed for one of objectives, but the problem is entrance. Under ceiling is hanging fishing net with crates on top of it, while floor is electrified. Inteded way to progress is by shooting one of ends of rope of fishing net, so fishing net will drop together with crates. I don't think one arrow shot is enough to destroy fishing net, but there is another thing - after touching electrified floor, fishing net vanish. And I have no idea if electrified floor destroyed it or it despawned for convenience of player.

RANT ABOUT MOVING OBJECTS IN TDM

Luckily there is another way to progress. It's done by bringing 2 crates from other place. I didn't think about that, because moving objects in TDM is so awkward, so you want move them as little as possible, possibly only within one room. It really feels that instead of grabbing objects in his hands, thief is using telekinesis spell in which his not very good. It's really similar to body manipulation. By frobbing you can very slowly move them, it's loud and if there is some obstacle, then you drop body. But there is option to shoulder body, which is faster, less noisy and you don't need to worry about obstacles. It really feels that it would be better if there was option to shoulder every object in the game. And by the way, body manipulation through frobbing is useless, so I wonder why it was added. It would be much better to shoulder bodies by frobbing them.

ELECTRIFIED FLOOR PROBLEM SOLVED

In Slumber Apartments on opposite side of room with window there is storage with crates. You must take 2 of them and bring to left room (with window). Before you do that you must frob douse 2 candlesticks (conveniently only by frobbing instead of frobbing, using it to douse it and frobbing again to drop it). If woman notice that door is opened, then she will just close it behind herself without any comment or alert. Put crate on floor under window, mantle on window, grab crate and manipulate it fit window and vent. Drop one crate just below vent and other a bit further on electrified floor. Drop on crate and jump on 2nd crate, turn around, grab 1st crate, turn around and drop it. Repeat this few times until you will manage to get to box with lever disabling electricity. Upstairs are blueprints, then you just need to return to sewers.

STATS:

Time: 1:17:36; Loot: 2727/2912
Damage Dealt: 0; Received: 0; Health Restored: 0
Pockets Picked: 0
AI Killed: 0; AI KOed: 0; Bodies Found by AI: 0
Secrets: 5/6
Stealth Score: 0 (Alert 1 = 12; Alert 2 = 0; Alert 3 = 0; Alert 4 = 0; Alert 5 = 0)

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: POSSIBLE

[Galaer]

MAKING A PROFIT

In Argaux House on 2nd floor is room protected by mine. You can safely jump over it. Market Square can be difficult to ghost mainly because archer on bridge has very long range of view. Prophet Hand requires you to frob douse light mushrooms. For one on ceiling you can use broadhead arrow. In Priest Headquarters are secret coin stacks behind banner. It's impossible to grab them without cutting banner in this mission. Because of that I'm skipping 150 loot. In Mansion on 2nd floor is chest in sleeping guy room. If you picklock it, he will wake up and start patrolling 3 rooms on this floor, so it's better to loot other 2 rooms before that. In Tower you can safely drop and close secret passage by mantling on wooden beam or bouncing out of it towards and landing on torch or lower wooden beam.

Ritual is impossible to ghost. First there is time limit, there is a lot of monsters and lady Rupi walking around Anax's body. You must save Anax and steal Prophet's Hand, but pickpocketing lady Rupi will result in search mode when she will get closer to Anax. If you save Anax first, then monsters will notice loss of his body when light will return and will go into search mode. It's impossible to lmake cave dark forever without destroying crystals permanently, but unfortunately it's loud.

There is also another way to stop ritual - by KO-ing lady Rupi. Monsters will still notice that ritual has stopped and will go into eternal search mode (monsters will never calm down). If you KO lady Rupi when it's dark, then darkness will stay forever in this cave. This still leads to search mode (ghost bust #1). Afterwards steal Prophet's Hands and save Anax.

There are 2 troublesome secrets in this mission. One at the Docks requires you to make stack of 2 crates on barrels near sleeping guy, mantle on wall and jump on south buildings to get to west balcony. That's pretty tough platforming. 2nd secret is finding Hammerite Relic, which also gives bonus objective. You must fist grab radar (you can only carry it in your hands just like crate) from Forge in Hammerites Cathedral, then use it to find relic. Relic is hidden in random place. In my ghost run it was high window above Tavern and to drop down I was forced to drop on walking servant.

STATS:

Time: 1:48:44; Loot: 2909/3264
Pockets Picked: 24/29; Locks Picked: 19
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 2
Damage Dealt: 2; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Secrets: 23/24

GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE