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THE TOWER

 

LOOT LIST

 

 

My time had come to ‘The Tower’ by Lady Rowena. A very talented Italian author, with former creations of epic proportions such as ‘Rowena’s Curse’ and ‘The Seven Sisters’. Despite this being a smaller entry, I knew I was in for a treat. Lady Rowena rarely disappoints.

 

Lord Witherdale’s jewel collection was my main target of the night. Along the way I needed to pick up the golden skull of Lord Balakin and 3,200 in loot.

 

Right off the bat it sounded like all hell was loose. Doors being bashed in and guards complaining. I didn’t find anyone searching or acting funny, so it has to be a sequence of scripts. I didn’t find any broken doors or bodies laying around either.

  The initial streets had four enemies to look out for. Two of the patrollers were a normal swordsman and a thief. The thief covered the staircase to the central tower. Another stationary thief was positioned just inside the tower entry, doing random pivots. Then you had a maid doing a short loop on the south side. I later learned her name to be Melina. There was a convenient ledge circling the base of the tower that helped dodging the guards. From the back I accessed the main floor through a sliding metal panel. There were quite a few of those in various locations around the map; seemingly a common way to control the town’s airflow. I desperately needed Alf’s key to progress. I tried getting to the upper balconies with a single rope arrow from a multitude of angles, but alas they were all unreachable from the streets. I found his key was snaggable from the shade just inside the grate (left image below). I was already worried about how to replace it for Supreme. Normally you need something soft to cushion the drop, like a carpet or a grassy surface, or even a healing vial can do the trick. The rules don’t say how close is close enough, but I figure keys off someone’s belt should be put back by the person’s feet.

 

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I could reach Witherdale’s sitting room by the mentioned tower ledge. I had to mantle the balcony on the far left side to get up. Entered Alf’s apartment by dodging Melina’s rounds. Found a basement key in there and a couple of hints to a missing ring among the readables. Witherdale’s basement was just across the alley, and sure enough the ring was on the floor of the ceiling deck. I replaced the basement key at Alf’s and uncovered his hidden stash of loot from a small switch in the air shaft (right image above).

 

There were three routes from inside the air vents. The first took me through Blaine’s apartment, the husband of cheating Melina. The floors of his house were tiled, but one of the hallways had some dark corners. I waited by the bedroom door until he emerged, blocked the door and rushed in to grab the loot. Getting out was the worst part (left image below). He needed to pivot to his right, otherwise he’d spot me. He had a small stop but then exited. I followed and leaped out the window to the adjacent building. I monitored the thief and guard in the streets below not to get caught.

 

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This was Amos’ mech shop. Not much to report except for some hidden loot in a canister on the shelf (right image above). Kind of a sneaky place to put it. I wish there was more of that in other missions also. Found a key for a mechanist hideout downstairs. Brought it along for later. The cellar had a half-secret switch on the pillar opening a nearby gate yielding some coin stacks.

 

I could now reach the balcony of the tower’s second floor. Not much going on in there, except I could reach another building on the north side. From there I got to the roof. Dodging the patrolling archer by the control tower and the guards below was a little tricky, but highly doable. I snagged his purse and ran into the tower as he left. He had a short wait outside before returning, enough for me to rope arrow up the rafters. There I found his secret stash of life savings (left image below). Not so secret anymore...

 

Traversed a pipe in the northwest corner to reach the notary’s. From here I could reach Witherdale’s roof with a mantle-hop across the streets 50 feet below. No way in hell you’d get me to do that in real life! Found a goblet and some coins on the ground. His patio door was unfrobbable, but the window downstairs was open, and there was a wooden rafter conveniently sticking out from the adjacent building. After cleaning his jewels I made my way back to the notary. I needed the elevator key to access the downstairs office. Both this and the cabinet key from the middle floor disappeared upon use, thus no possibility of putting them back for Supreme. I couldn’t relock the elevator door either, for the same reason. Could the elevator key be considered an “unnecessary pickup”, and therefore break Supreme rule #13? No, because without it I couldn’t have accessed the secret crawlspace at the bottom of the elevator shaft (right image below). I needed the key to enter the shaft after sending the lift up. If there hadn’t been loot down there to justify it, I guess I would have had to pick the lock on the outside door to get to the office. I know I’m nitpicking, but get over it.

 

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Made my way back to the archer’s roof and jumped the gap to the central tower’s third floor balcony. Got some new objectives to save and protect a noblewoman named Leonora from the underground dungeon. Couldn’t enter her cell just yet, but found a key to the top floor throne room where the perpetrator (Balakin) was located. There was a central light source that pulsed on and off regularly. I timed it and ran to the corner with the golden skull without any alerts. It seemed like it was just Balakin’s body in the chair, while his spirit would appear on a first alert. It gave the howling noise typical of a haunt’s comment, so I interprated that to be an alert and hence a Supreme bust. I managed to grab the cells key, the rings, the skull and leave down the hatch without the spirit showing itself (left image below).

  I was now free to fetch Leonora and leave the tower from the second floor balcony. I returned the shaft key, but had to hang on to the cells key from the throne room. There was no way to replace it without stirring Balakin’s attention. In fact, I couldn’t even avoid alerting him to hunt mode. I had hopes of the carpet being silent enough, but it clunked like it was made of wood. I also couldn’t close the access hatch. The spirit appeared the second I frobbed it. Strange how it didn’t alert to me unlocking it...

 

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After leaving Leonora in the alley I ascended the air shaft above Alf’s apartment. There was a mechanist hideout with the last two pieces of loot at the very top. The entire mechanist loot stash was found in one of the chests here, but it was locked and the only key was carried by a guard patrolling a metal walkway above. The sloped ramp was also metal and the guard was facing it for more than half of his route. There were a couple of spots close to the ramp with shade, so I monitored the situation from there for a while. I knew a moss arrow would have easily solved the problem, but I hate leaving such clear evidence of a thief’s passing. Instead I tried a different approach. This upcoming trick is extremely difficult and most players might be unaware of this chink in the dark engine’s otherwise impenetrable armor. Every ledge in Thief has an invisible outer edge, only noticeable if you slowly inch yourself towards the rim. If lucky, you might land on this narrow tip and find that you can actually traverse it along the line of the ledge. This hidden edge is 100% silent. As long as you manage to stay within its boundaries, you won’t make a sound. I’ve practiced the use of this technique many times, so I’ve gotten to know its possibilities. As the guard passed the ramp on the walkway above, I made a gentle leap towards the slope. After quite a few reloads I finally found the speed and angle needed to land safely onto the silent edge. I then quickly inched up the ramp to the shade at the top. From there I crouched into the far corner where I could snag the key as he came by (right image above). Dropping to ground level was no problem, comparatively speaking. The key luckily disappeared upon use.

 

The last thing to take care of was a bonus objective in Louise’s place, a recently widowed pregnant woman next to the mech shop. It was accessible through the air shaft system mentioned earlier. One of the readables mentioned her being in danger of losing her house, much due to that scum of a notary. Leaving his title deed on her table would spawn the new objective. However, I couldn’t close either of the hatches in the air duct without waking the nearby worker. I left them open instead; more Supreme busts. On another note, I had to lean in and drop the deed onto the table from the air duct opening. If not, I would’ve had to exit through her main door which meant taking her key, replacing it and relocking the door. To much hassle, so I took the easier option.

  Alf’s key also couldn’t be returned, as previously indicated. I tried putting it in various locations, but to no avail. A potion would muffle the drop, but when removed still left too much noise for either of the thieves. I kept the key for myself instead.

 

Statistics:

Time: 1:02:21

Loot: 3844 out of 3844

Pickpockets: 4 out of 6

Secrets: 4 out of 4

Locks Picked: 16

Damage Dealt: 0 Damage Taken: 0

Consumables: None

Ghost: Success!

Perfect Thief: Success!

Supreme Thief: Failed!

Perfect Supreme Thief: Failed!

 

Notes:

-          Couldn’t return the cells key to Balakin’s throne room. His spirit alerted to second level hunt mode. This was a bust to Supreme Ghost.

-          Couldn’t close the hatch to Balakin’s throne room. The spirit appeared indicating a first alert. Another Supreme bust.

-          Couldn’t close the two hatches by the sleeping air duct worker. The noise woke him up indicating a first alert. The choice is yours whether you want to leave them open or skip the bonus objective with the pregrant woman. Since Supreme was already busted, I gave Louise her title deed.

-          Couldn’t return Alf’s key to the central tower’s main floor. There was nothing to cushion the drop, so I hung on to it. Another Supreme bust.

 

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