THE BLACK FROG

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Mission 5

The Black Frog

 

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The campaign culminates in the best mission of the bunch. And that says a lot, given the quality of missions 2 and 4. Unfortunately, it contains several forced Ghost busts, but that doesn’t take anything away from the wonderful experience I’ve had through this mission pack. I will take excellent non-Ghosting missions before crappy Ghost-friendlies any day of the week. Thank you Gaëtane!

 

 

Since Emilie trapped us at the end of the last mission, we found ourselves kidnapped in a locked bedroom. The objectives were simple: 1) Find lockpicks, 2) find a sword, and 3) find the Black Frog.

 

Manor

Entered the adjacent bedroom easily enough. The dog in the courtyard could spot me and hear the window lockpick, so timing was important. The windows on the south wall led to multiple patrollers on the inside. They needed to be well timed, plus their comments were difficult to hear. I fetched the invisibility potion above the courtyard shed seeing as I was here (left image below). It was most probably needed later. If not, I could always return it. Found the proper lockpicks and started looting the house.

 

Traversing the upstairs was straight forward. First, I picked up the map to help me navigate. I could drop it back immediately, while still having it accessible from the menu. Photographic memory, Garrett? Found two hidden coin stacks in that same bedroom (right image below).

 

            

 

I wanted to do as much as possible before overhearing the conversation from the barracks. I basically cleaned the proper for loot, save the last piece in Emilie’s apartment. The only real tough piece was the purse on the beam in the great hall. I found you could jump on top of the chandelier and grab both the purse and the rope from the shade (left image below). This helped me a lot. To get back down I jumped onto the west side of the pitch black main rafter and flung an arrow into the next one north (right image below). Attached to this line, I could jump onto the wooden windowsill in the northwest, grabbing the arrow along the way. There was a patch of shade here also. Then dropped to the floor silently.

 

            

 

The main floor was definitely more populated than upstairs, but there were plenty of shadows and patrols long enough to present frequent opportunities of relocation. I eventually found my way to the guards’ quarters which presented the first Ghost bust. A pickable door was boarded up and necessitated property damage to advance. I tried transmigration using my rope arrow, but couldn’t even get properly attached to the boards. There was no way to enter the door in the front yard using this method either. I had to slide the painting back up to avoid alerts when breaking the board.

 

Listened to the conversation and stole the key off Bazil. It stuck to my inventory and couldn’t be dropped back. Entered Emilie’s apartment and used the mirror key to enter the frog world.

 

Black Frog World

I guess you can argue busts in this place not to count, as it is simply a figment of Garrett/Emilie’s imagination; a nightmarish reflection of reality. I still treated it as a normal part of the mission. Reading the first book was necessary to spawn the objective to escape. The other keeper messages were needless.

 

Frobbing the eyes made a sound that alerted anyone in the near vicinity. The creeping skeletons didn’t have first alerts, but they made slow hunt and alarm movements. The Charaka had all the alerts like normal. The first eye was in the room where I found the first old pen lockpick in the beginning of the mission. I waited for Charaka’s thumps to disappear and then frobbed it. This made the northern part of this floor accessible, where I found the second eye in the far northwest corner. This spawned a hammer haunt in the adjacent room. It was in hunt mode to begin with, although I couldn’t tell whether this was my doing or a scripted event. It settled down to restful mode after a while. I could utilize the south wall in this room to exit safely (left image below). I didn’t consider slashing the big eye further east as property damage, since I took the small eye into possession afterwards. Although it did count as 1 backstab, 10 damage dealt and 1 iron beast killed in the stats. I guess anything considered damage technically constitutes a bust, so I reported it as such.

 

            

 

The eye could now be used to break the seal that protected Emilie’s apartment (right image above). This looked and sounded like glass breaking, so more property damage was inflicted. Note that property “damage” doesn’t show up in the stats as such. It is just a term indicating destroyed objects rather than organisms. Replaying the scenario I also noted there were several variations of the sound emitted when breaking the seal. Some were louder than others. The quieter (or less noisy) one didn’t alert the Charaka or the skeletons if they were some distance away. I was determined to avoid being seen or heard despite the prior busts. I see those as “harder” busts to the spirit of the Ghost mode than property damage or forced busts that doesn’t involve enemies.

 

Inside the apartment the doll upstairs spawned a total of five frogs by the downstairs entrance. Not only that, but the entrance got blocked and an alternate passage had opened up in the nearby corner. Like I said, I was determined to avoid as many busts as possible. This was the reason for bringing the invisibility potion along. I could travel a fair ways down the stairs before hitting the lit-up section (left image below). Drinking the potion I quickly inched down onto the carpet and made a hop onto the table to the left. Any sound on the wood triggered chirps from pretty much all the critters. After a few tries I managed to reach the dark portion of the table just in time for the potion to wear off (right image below). I know frobbing the painting in the next room would kill them all, but at least that was out of my control. It didn’t count as further kills or more damage either.

 

            

 

Two new areas had now opened up. One led to a basement section with a doll part. The floating heads were the creepiest thing I’ve seen in a long time. They didn’t have first alerts and dealt damage upon impact, even if unintentional. There were several places around the cage room where I was safe (left image below). I had to flip two body parts to access the doll. Made sure to flip them back afterwards.

 

            

 

The second section was accessible from upstairs and led to the attic. It had one hall where you had to jump-mantle a rather large gap in the floor. Another floating eye was down below, but I don’t think he heard my feet tapping the tile as I leapt across (right image above).

 

The two doll pieces had to be placed in the garden lava to spawn Emilie the Doll Monster. She spawned in hunt mode but I was still determined to avoid alerts. I made sure to drop the pieces when the Charaka was roaming upstairs, away from possible alerts. He was the least of my worries now though. There was no time to hide between the second piece hitting the lava and the doll appearing; that trigger was instantaneous. Neither was the doll piece throwable, which would have made it possible to spawn her while concealed. Instead I placed the second piece (the head) on top of the fencing and looked for items to toss onto it, thereby pushing it into the lava. The flower pot in Emilie’s apartment was the perfect tool (left image below). Leaning out from the tunnel shadows, I could hit the doll piece into the burning liquid, while the pot landed in the snow to the west. I eventually found the precise angle in order to make that scenario happen repeatedly. The large doll appeared and hunted for a while. It took about 30 seconds before she settled. I replayed the toss until she stopped with her back turned, facing west along the southern wall. I waited for her to settle further and snuck out as slow as possible. No movement so far. I crept up to the wall, drew my sword and whack! She disappeared instantly and left behind the frog key (right image below). This was obviously a bust, adding 1 backstab, 30 damage and 1 iron beast kill to my stats. However, I was able to do it without a single additional alert. I returned the flower pot to its original location afterwards.

 

            

 

Back In the Manor

Returned the mirror key and got ready to finish things off. Belmont’s men had now invaded the premises, and things looked distinctly different from before. I imagine the various scenarios can play out in different ways, but things were pretty straight forward for me. The dog got tempted inside where it fell to a swordsman. I moved counterclockwise and entered the Priest’s Temple. Two guardians had spawned protecting two keys. I grabbed both quite unbothered. The inner patroller had a stop at either end of his route, making things surprisingly easy. Neither of these guys first alerted.

 

Made my way to the upper floor via the kitchen. Found Garivaldi’s negative crystal behind a panel in the corner of his bedroom (left image below). Lock-blocked the tunnels door before I returned both keys to the temple. No big deal. The inner patroller didn’t do the stops along his route any longer; not that it prevented me from moving unobserved.

 

            

 

Managed to prevent the Charaka from appearing, though I don’t really know how. I crept slowly through the halls, along the left side. When I reached the slope, I walked like normal, and I never saw or heard it. This was a relief, as I would’ve had to cover the place with moss to prevent busts. Nevertheless, I was free to exchange the blue crystal with the red one. I could flip the gate lever twice and still make it up the ledge if mantling (right image above). The ladder was too slow.

 

The ending was highly rewarding. Emilie got what she deserved. In retrospect, mission 5 was more fun during normal play than Ghosting. Mission 4 was the other way around. Despite all the busts, this was the perfect ending to a superb mission pack. J

 

Thank you for one of the highlights of my Thief career, Gaëtane!

 

 

Statistics:

Time: 1:39:43

Loot: 710 out of 710

Pickpockets: 1 out of 3

Secrets: 5 out of 9

Locks Picked: 4

Backstabs: 2

Damage Dealt: 40 Damage Taken: 0

Iron Beasts Destroyed: 2

Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 3

Consumables: 1 Invisibility Potion

Ghost: Failed!

Perfect Thief: Failed!

Supreme Ghost: Failed!

Perfect Supreme Ghost: Failed!

 

 

Notes:

-          Had to break one of the boards blocking the door to the basement. This is required to overhear the conversation between Emilie and Bazil (I guess it’s more of a monologue than a conversation per se). This is property damage and a bust to all modes. [Also couldn’t prevent the door from disappearing, but that is no bust.]

-          The hammer haunt in the frog world seemingly spawned into hunt mode. I am unsure whether this was a scripted event or as a result of me frobbing the eye. I vote for no bust here.

-          Slashing the big eye counted as 1 backstab, 10 damage dealt and 1 iron beast killed in the stats. More Ghost busts.

-          More property damage was inflicted when breaking the “seal” to Emilie’s apartment in the Black Frog World.

-          Used an invisibility potion to avoid the frogs in Emile’s apartment after frobbing the doll upstairs. I valued not getting seen more than not using the potion.

-          Had to kill Emilie’s doll beast in order to retrieve the frog key and escape the dream world. This was a bust, but was completed without any further alerts or violations to the rules. 1 backstab, 1 iron beast destroyed and 30 damage got added to the ending stats.

-          Breaking the frog mirror to leave the Black Frog World might also be considered property damage, and if so, another bust.

-          The bodies discovered are from the clash Belmont’s guards and Emilie’s men. It had nothing to do with me.

 

 

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