Mission 10: ...of Ill Repute

Mission 10: …Of Ill Repute

[This report has been updated for TFix/NewDark 1.27. Situations affected by these patches and differences between them and OldDark have been inserted in green. All screenshots have been updated, and new ones have been added.]

This is one of my favorite missions in the whole campaign. Although the brothel itself doesn’t cover that much real estate, it compensates by having tons of entries on multiple levels, which also increases replayability. The streets have multiple fun places to visit, and the brothel is full of hidden goodies and fun surprises. A light-hearted, but well-built mission that stands the test of time.

I had to make my way into the brothel and locate Sheriff Truart’s diary. My main task was to find some information about Kedar’s possible whereabouts. This had to be done without disturbing Truart in any way. I also needed to read the guest book, and grab 1,400 worth of valuables, including madame Volari’s stash from her gambling den.

Outside

Decided to clean the whole outside area first. There was a secret room accessible from the sewers. It involved the watchman’s key found on the sleeping guard in the northwest, used to access the closed-off section of town. The double gates accessing the area couldn’t be relocked due to the key’s disappearance upon use, so I thought of a different way. The merchant (who I assume to be curator Limes) inside the northwest entrance to the brothel also had access to these gates. Once he finished his conversation with the lady, he exited the building and headed towards the gates. I followed him, creep-crawling past the front door guards, and stopping the gates from locking up. I made sure to leave them wide open, since the merchant returned here later on, and I didn’t want to be stuck in there. In NewDark, you can just mantle over the entire gate, which of course makes this whole scenario effortless. Crossing the sewage river required an ice arrow in OldDark. In NewDark, you can either push the floating barrel and mantle it to get across, or you can leap onto the drain pipe on the left and do a difficult mantle-hop over to the other side. During my stay in the sewers, the merchant on the surface headed back to the brothel and positioned himself outside the bar, close to where I appeared leaving the sewers the intended way. I was unable to sneak past the guards like this without comments, so I backtracked to my entry route to avoid the attention. If you avoid the merchant in NewDark, you can exit to the streets directly from the sewers, but it’s quite difficult to close the sewer door from the outside. You also have to avoid settling remarks from the front door guards, which I did by mantling the closest barrel and carefully crossing the northern wall.

Got alerts from the spider guarding the eggs in the old abandoned building close to the entry gates (left image below). The two mushrooms upstairs lit the room too much to emerge unseen. I ascended the rafters and got the eggs alert-free, but arriving and leaving by the ladder both spawned spider chirps. I did manage to get these eggs without alerts in NewDark, using a vine arrow from the top rafter hanging all the way down next to the ladder. I was also able to climb back down without a chirp after having retrieved my arrow. I’m not sure if this is due to it being NewDark, or simply because I used a different method.

With 3 crates and a well-placed vine arrow, I could enter Trixie’s room to the west of the brothel’s front doors (right image above). It contained a broken bow upgrade! In NewDark, you can mantle the little ledge below her window, and therefore only need a vine arrow to get in.

The key for the Arch Store also vanished; hence I was unable to relock the door. There was a piece of loot inside a partly opened window in the south. Used a vine arrow on the sloped roof and mantled onto the metal pipe (left image below). Could lean in and grab the auger from there.

The Brothel

Entered the backyards and cleaned the security room beyond the burrick pits. Found the smelly gambling safe key in the beast’s droppings, yuck! Broke into the brothel by the well in the west courtyard. The basement and first floor didn’t cause any ghosting problems. Just dodging guards and picking up loot mostly. Found a secret switch in the boiler room that opened a panel by the back entrance (left image below). It was abnormal for a secret to open something so far away. Flipped the switch again to close it. Both keys (safe- and office key) disappeared after use. Some easy to miss coins lay in the windowsill by a sleeping prostitute in the north (right image below). A well-hidden moss arrow hung from the stairs in the tiny closet to the southeast.

The second floor posed a few problems. Found a secret hatch in the ceiling in the northwest. It led to a dirty library with some lucky coins. Some servant dressed in an ape costume was stationed in the north. I had to crawl quietly to grab the nugget from the plant, but managed to take it without any alerts (left image below). If I leaned over from near the bed, he didn’t see me. Close to this area were two other bedrooms with prostitutes. In the northern one I had to traverse across the bed to steal the earrings from the closet. I could reach the loot without falling off the bed. That was important as it was difficult to get back onto the bed without a first alert. The next room had a girl staring straight at me. I thought at first the urn on the table had to be skipped for Supreme, as she always commented on me passing the doorway. There was a tiny strip of light in the middle, and no matter how fast or slow I crossed it, she saw me. I realized though, that I could lean around the door frame before reaching this strip of light and reach the loot like this. Alternately, I could open the door just a tad so that it blocked her view, but enough for me to pass the light strip.

Entered Truart’s room from the rafters above. Found an entryway via a ladder in the next door closet. Sweeping the stuff here was easy enough; all it took was a bit of patience. Located a gas arrow in a depression on the roof. The slick noisy tiles were painful, but I managed to get back and forth without alerting Truart or lady Volari.

That was it!

STATISTICS:

Time: 1:27:12

Loot: 2464 out of 2464

Pickpockets: 2 out of 2

Secrets Found: 4 out of 4

Locks Picked: 8

Damage Dealt: 0 Damage Taken: 0

Consumables: 1 Ice Arrow to cross sewage river (OldDark only)

Ghost: Success!

Perfect Thief: Success!

Supreme Thief: Success!

Perfect Supreme Thief: Success! J

Norwegian Thief: Success!