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THE ORDER OF THE
VINE Prologue My only objective was to find the contact somewhere
in the streets. The only guard to worry about was a patrolling hammer. He did
fake searches at certain points, but I was never seen. Perhaps he had a
dislike for the drunks. There was a purse on one of the balconies to the
northwest. I mantled up by the use of a barrel in the street. The barrel was
weak and broke if I rattled around to much. The second piece of loot was a
silver nugget behind an unfrobbable door. The only way to get it was by
bashing the lock open, but that is against Ghost rules so I passed it. The contact turned out to be a renegade hammer. He
told me about the order and their seal. He also gave me a map and some loot.
Then the mission ended. Statistics: Time: 2:31 Loot: 1025 out of 1125 Pickpockets: None Locks Picked: None Damage Dealt: 0 Damage Taken: 0 Consumables: None Ghost: Success! Perfect Thief: Failed! Supreme Thief: Success! Perfect Supreme Thief: Failed! Notes: -
Bashing the door to get the silver nugget is considered
property damage and not allowed, so this loot was skipped for all modes. The Order of the Vine The objectives told me to
enter the order compound, grab the seal from the treasury, find some other
rare item in the east wing, fetch 1,700 in loot, and get out. No more than 8
knockouts were allowed; fairly irrelevant, since I went for Ghost. I noticed
the new sand arrows in the purchase screen. Although they looked tempting, my
arsenal was big enough. I started in the canal.
Nothing to do but follow the strong current. The sides were too high to
mantle at any point. I noticed a boarded up hole on the right quite early in
the ride. Could that be a way out for later? By the bridge stationary archers
watched the above gardens, easily alerting to my swimming. Had to duck and
dive along the bottom to avoid the splashes. The current and the canal
stopped by the power wheel in the northwest. Nowhere else to go but inside. 1st floor The power room. A
stationary swordsman and an unarmed operator. Both enemies faced away, so I
slowly crept up the metal ramp and entered the hallway. [Found secret scroll
#1 behind a panel in the high voltage area] Lurked along the west wall and
approached the swordsmen guarding the double doors. Garrett suggested
sticking to the walls. A servant seemed to have a looping convo with the
swordsmen, don’t think I’ve seen that before. Something about sleeping on
duty. Could filch the guard’s treasury key from here, but I worried about
having to put it back. The concrete floor would surely alert them both.
Perhaps there would be another key elsewhere. Doubtful, but worth a try. Thus
I waited and snuck east. Ccc past the torches to avoid comments. Snagged a
scepter from a desk in the north records room. The writer instantly noticed
it was gone, but no body movements or settling remarks indicated a proper
alert. Went northwest from here
and got the fire-poker from the theatre stage. Entered the library through
the main hall, as the archer covered the western hall too well. Had to skip
the candlesticks in there for Supreme. Snuffing them went against rule #6.
The hall west of here had plenty of shadows. Found the secret portal in the
basement. If the library book was right, I would need Ciollfir’s head (or
hand) to activate it, plus two keys it seemed. Back up. Crossed the carpet to
the garden. A white noble gave me a little trouble exiting the double-doors.
He was quite wary but Crossed the hallway again,
southeast this time. This big living room had more loot. The wall cabinets
were cool, first time I’ve seen those. Their transparency flickered on and
off though. From wide angles they turned opaque, which looked rather odd. The
lavatories northeast of here had a hidden entrance to the sewers. From here I
found the boarded exit I saw running down the canal in the beginning. In the
same spot was the first portal key made of bronze. Also from the sewers I
could enter the bar area, but it left me too exposed, so I backtracked to the
north hallway and approached it from there. One customer was more than a little tipsy
and had recurring visits to the toilet. I could enter without alerts as he
went. [Another secret scroll (#3) was reachable from the rafters] A servant
and a swordsman kept bumping into closed doors on either side of the bar
counter. This wasn’t just a one time error; neither of these could open any
doors on their routes. Strange that this wasn’t fixed during playtesting. I
let the swordsman through to get the loot on the south side. Two more
candlesticks here were skipped for Supreme. I could enter the area between
the bar counters, but the back room was too bright. One of the drunks always
saw me. An elevator shaft seemed to emerge from the basement though, and if I
could find the lower enrance, I might get my hands on the loot in there after
all.
The entire kitchen/dining
area to the north only had a single piece of loot. Found the basement
entrance in the storage room to the east. Two drunken guards randomly limped
around the room. Patiently, I snatched the loot in here and ascended the
shaft in the corner. Now I could steal the quality wines here undetected. [The third secret scroll
was situated beyond a wooden wall outside by the side gate] The armoury was easy if
using the key, but that required dropping it back also. As this alerted both
guards in the area, I wanted to enter through the unlocked door. It was
well-protected by a swordsman circling a dummy, but sliding along the west
wall I could enter unseen. I took the battlements key, not knowing whether it
was necessary or not. Figured I could put it back alert-free later anyway. I
left the armoury eastward to the gambling area, again dodging the practicing
guard. I had to creep the last part, not to alert the shooting archer. The
silver coins I stole from behind the sitting guard. Had to circle the table
along the wall to grab the other stack (see image). Left southward and headed
upstairs. 2nd floor Found loot and a key in
the first bedroom. Figured I would need it, so brought it along. Dodged the
spinning archer in the next hallway and headed north. He turned regularly,
but never faced south. Snuck along the western wall as it was darker. Had to
skip the coins in the left barracks for Supreme, as picking the chest alerted
the sleeping blokes. The last three rooms were easy enough. I backtracked and passed
the stationary archer westward. [Another secret scroll was hidden behind one
of the paintings in a bedroom around here] Found my way to the master bedroom
and unlocked the doors. Took the ancient key from the safe and left. Found
the dining hall in the center of the 2nd floor. I noticed an Arabic shape on
one of the displayed items there. When I tried my recently found ancient key
on it, Ciollfir’s head popped out. That had to be the way to access the portal.
Cleaned the guest rooms in the northwest afterwards. No trouble, besides
having to skip another candle for Supreme. There were two guards
protecting alarm buttons in the servants’ quarters and guards’ quarters;
together they sealed off the southern part of the second floor. The left
image below shows one of these swordsmen guarding the guest rooms in the
southeast. I could not get past them from the north without dousing torches.
This area was thus only accessible from the southwest staircase on the 1st
floor or the main hall walkway (which was very well protected). Using the
southwest stairs forced me to deal with a very inconveniently placed
swordsman, so I chose the latter option. The walkway was easily ascended by
placing a rope arrow into the top part of the southwestern support pillar
(see right image below). I had to land on the railing to retrieve the arrow
afterwards. Reached the southeastern
guest rooms via the battlements area. Guess my key from the armoury came to
use after all. Found a note about a lost ring in the theatre. Couldn’t
remember having seen one down there, so I would be sure to check that later.
One of the rooms was locked, and the door didn’t respond to any key or
lockpick. Found the entryway across a tiny ledge from the neighboring room’s
balcony. Had to skip the candlesticks in both rooms for Supreme. This lowered
the total The last area yet to be
explored on the 2nd floor was the servants’ quarters in the southwest. The
first three bedrooms were easy. One of the female servants was a light
sleeper, so I had to skip more loot for Supreme. The problems came when
approaching Giblen’s double doors. A stationary swordsman at the end of the
hall randomly faced east and south. I could not enter Giblen’s lair without
spawning a comment. I managed to leave once without a grumble, but this was
not repeated. Giblen himself had turned into some bug-magnetized beastie. He
protected the final ancient key located behind him. Two vines from the mossy
ceiling hinted on how to traverse the room unseen. I shot one arrow into the
soft part just after the transition from brick to moss. The other I placed
into the northern part of the upside-down table (see left image). Especially
the leap from the first to the second vine was troublesome. I had to get over
the pointy wood structure growing from the corner. Traversing the lines in
the opposite direction was easier. I had to grab the last arrow from top of
the double doors (not the doorframe, but the door itself), then slide down to
ground level from there. This was all done without any comments from Giblen.
Quite a challenge! Getting down to
business Found the ring worth 30 on
one of the seats in the theatre. Then set up the portal in From here I made my way
through the tunnels to the bottom pit. Found the last two pieces of loot on
the way. The four beasts circling the seal seemed oblivious to most of my
actions. Only the wandering mage alerted normally. The others would jump
straight to hunt mode, but only in plain view and bright light. An additional
objective to bring Horten back to his bedroom triggered upon entering. I took
turns hiding beside the big pillars, coming out to grab the objectives as I saw
it fit. Got a couple of comments from the mage now and then, but nothing I
couldn’t avoid. I gotta say Garrett truly is an athlete, and a brave one at
that. I would like to see any mortal man carry a grown man on his back, fling
from vine to vine 200 feet aboveground and not utter a single complaint.
The archer in the training
grounds had slid around as well, now facing the practice dummy. The
battlements key therefore also couldn’t be replaced. I took two of the library
candles to fulfill the loot requirement. I considered this a smaller bust
than 1st alerts. Brought Horten to his room
and replaced the master bedroom key and Giblen’s key. Exited the compound
through the main gates from the main hall walkway. Could inch over and lower
the bridge without alerts, then leap across the canal in the dark and mantle
the other side. Snuck unseen to right below the archer with the fire arrows.
If fast, I could run around the corner before anyone went into hunt mode.
Think all 4 guards gave comments though. Naturally, I couldn’t lower the gate
or raise the bridge for Supreme. [Nightwalker showed me to
the final secret scroll! In the storage room of the west wing there is a
secret wall-panel. Ironically, the text of the scroll said: “This one was a
bit easy, wasn’t it”] Statistics: Time: 2:24:25 Loot: 2089 out of 2089 (Supreme: 1719) Pickpockets: 4 out of 5 Locks Picked: 10 Damage Dealt: 0 Damage Taken: 0 Consumables: 1 Moss Arrow (to enter the treasury) Ghost: Success! Perfect Thief: Success! Supreme Thief: Failed! Perfect Supreme Thief: Failed! Notes: -
Three candlesticks in the library were skipped for
Supreme. Dousing them is not allowed. (I ended up taking two of them to
fulfill the loot objective) -
Two more candlesticks were also skipped in the southern
bar area, for the same reason as above. -
The copper coins in the guards’ quarters on the 2nd floor
were skipped for Supreme. Picking the chest alerted the sleepers. -
The northwest guest pool on the 2nd floor had another
candlestick that was skipped for Supreme. -
Two more burning candlesticks had to be skipped in the
guest rooms to the southwest. Unfortunately, this meant fulfilling the loot requirement
was impossible without busting Supreme. -
Stealing the rare item spawned a 1st alert from the
sleeping noble. Inevitable, but another Supreme bust. -
A necklace in the southwest servants’ quarters was
skipped for Supreme. Picking the chest alerted the lady sleeping nearby. -
Two 1st alerts couldn’t be avoided entering and leaving
Giblen’s lair. Supreme busts. The lair itself was cleaned without further
alerts. -
Due to the treasury guard’s shifting of position, I had
to use a moss arrow to enter the double doors. Supreme bust. -
Couldn’t drop back the treasury key without alerting the
guards, so I kept it. Supreme bust. -
The battlements key was necessary to leave, but couldn’t
be dropped back because the practicing archer had changed facing angle.
Supreme bust. -
Got comments from all guards by the main entrance when
leaving. 1st alerts. -
Couldn’t lower the bridge and close the main gate for
Supreme. Epilogue Again I had to locate the renegade and avoid any
kills. No loot lying around, so I went straight for the deal. Viktoria was
there, willing to buy the seal for twice the price. Done deal I said, and
that was it. Statistics: Time: 1:14 Loot: 4000 out of 4000 Pickpockets: None Locks Picked: None Damage Dealt: 0 Damage Taken: 0 Consumables: None Ghost: Success! Perfect Thief: Success! Supreme Thief: Success! Perfect Supreme Thief: Success! |
