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[THIEF ANNIVERSARY CONTEST] - AN OLD FRIEND My seventh ghost run of
the anniversary contest brought me back to good old Lord Bafford. Apparently
he’d been moving down in the world, now residing among the town’s less
fortunate. My job was to steal his beloved scepter, plus 2,000 gold worth of
loot. The objectives said I needed to return to the starting position, but
the readme.txt informed me this was a mistake. The mission would end as soon
as all the other objectives were met. From my first playthrough I knew
Supreme was far beyond impossible, so I kept it to plain Ghost for this one. The streets The map has some
unrealistic sound propagations. I noticed this right off the bat, with two
nearby guards going straight to hunt mode. I was still inside my quarters
when it happened, way out of sight. I waited for them to settle down and went
on with my business. The initial streets
contained three guards of worry. One stationary archer up the stairs by
Bafford’s main entrance was extremely wary. He was probably the one who
triggered earlier. As long as I stayed east of the bridge I was fine. Another
guard was stationed by the pub, an area I needed to deal with later. The last
guard was circling the canal, with a pit-stop by the recently mentioned
sentry. The armory was tempting, but had an insanely hard front door to pick.
I knew of an alternate way in through the sewers, so I headed southeast to
the only unguarded area of the streets. Underneath a pile of crates was a
manhole leading me to the stinking depths. Underground The home of the sewer
worker posed somewhat of a challenge (left image above). He gave a first
alert upon opening the door, but didn’t see me enough to start hunting. The
doorway was dark with occasional flickers, I think from the mushroom just
outside. He did a strange pivot after a second or so, providing enough time
for me to leap onto the bed behind him. I couldn’t leave without nudging him
off the bed though, so I opted out of that move entirely. Instead I doused
the torch behind him and stole his possessions without any mutters. I needed
the key from his desk to access the wizard’s tower later. Further down the sewers I
passed a patrolling archer and found a secret thief’s den behind a sliding panel (left image below). The
hidden lever was on the backside of a metal pillar at the far end of the
walkway (right image above). The den’s owner was dead, but he’d kindly
provided access to the weapon’s shop above. In addition, there was another
key to the wizard’s tower on the desk. I cleaned the store, including an
annoyingly hard-to-pick lockbox under the counter. Now I could pick the main
door from the inside, which obviously made the job a lot easier. I was aware
of the outside patroller, so I listened for his footsteps while working the
lockpicks. For some reason, the footsteps remained absent and the door opened
without any patroller in sight. I soon realized the numbnut had fallen into the canal and
drowned (right image below). I know this “breaks” the intended street
situation, but I was in no mood to start over. The wizard’s tower was now accessible. I cleaned the upper floors
without trouble. The underground study had a barrel covering the opening. It
was backed too far into the corner to be pushed out. The only way to get rid
of it was to break it, but that’s considered property damage. I had to skip
the coin stacks down there worth 75 gold. Perfect Thief busted. The pub was a different story. The guard outside made it impossible
to Ghost conventionally. I started by dousing the alley torch; that way I
could approach the doorway and peek inside. The customers reacted like normal
enemies. There were no removable light sources and a total of 148 gold on the
counter. An additional 200 were hidden downstairs, way out of reach. None of
the loot in here was needed to make the mission requirement, but I wanted to
see if it was possible nonetheless. The only way to reach any of it was by
the use of the invisibility potion from the wizard’s tower, and even then it
was a tight call. After a couple of tries I got my moves right and left with
the loot and a couple of grumbles only. Keep in mind that this renders the
status ‘Chemical Ghost’, a mode less favored by most thieves. Bafford’s Bafford’s was my last stop. With the patrolling swordsman
“conveniently” out of the way, my only task was to elude the archer in the
stairs. He ended up being easier than first anticipated. I rushed to the
stairs from the east corner and ducked down, only spawning a comment. If
applying enough speed, most AIs can be tricked this way, if going from bright
to dark. He quickly settled and I could plan my next move, which involved
using the same tactic past the west corner. This was more difficult, as I now
was going from dark to bright. It took about five tries before I got it
right. The side door led to a servant’s quarter with some loot and a key.
The key unlocked Bafford’s kitchen door, which opened straight to a
stationary guard and a patrolling maid. Like before, I could rush across the
hall without stirring the guard’s attention. I slipped through the curtains
behind his back and cleaned the upper floors. Nothing to report except for
Bafford who woke up when going for the key on his nightstand. Actually, it
was the commotion from the door that woke him. No worries though, the room
was dark and it only counted as a 1st alert. The area below the kitchen held more loot. It also had a hidden lever
behind some old crates (left image above). The lever opened a hidden
crawlspace under the kitchen stairway (right image above). I passed the maid
easy enough and grabbed the secret loot. The key from Bafford’s bedroom
unlocked the footlocker holding the scepter. Overall, this mission is a very good contest entry. Unfortunately,
there are too many bugs and shortcomings to win a competition like that, but
this is one of those missions I really wish would be rereleased as an
expanded version. The map has a good layout with a nice background story. You
see various interconnected parts of the city, with some interesting readables
and informationals spread around. I hope Lost Soul finds it worthwhile to
elaborate on this gem’s potential. Statistics: Time: 34:20 Loot: 2200 out of 2623
[Chemical: 2348] Pickpockets: 0 out of 3 Secrets: None Locks Picked: 2 Damage Dealt: 0 Damage
Taken: 0 Consumables: 1 Water Arrow
(in sewer worker’s hideout), [Chemical: 1 more Water Arrow & 1
Invisibility Potion (the pub)] Ghost: Success! Perfect Thief: Failed! Supreme Thief: N/A Perfect Supreme Thief: N/A Notes: -
The cointstacks in the wizard’s
underground study was skipped. The barrel blocking the entrance could only be
removed by means of property damage. -
Getting some of the goodies from
the pub (148 gold) solicited the use of an invisibility potion. The success
status is then depicted as ‘Chemical Success’. I opted out of this method,
but included the possibility in my report for completion. |
