The Whistling of the Gears

 

[Thief: The Dark Project 20th Anniversary Contest]

 

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VIDEO REPORT

 

 

Although I had played The Chalice of Souls before, which Firemage co-authored, this was my first time playing any of his solo creations. To be honest, it started out a bit tedious, but has grown into one of my favorite missions, mostly due to how fun this mission is to ghost. It definitely could have benefited from a few more weeks of testing, as some of the objective choices in my opinion hamper the gameplay. It has tons of Easter eggs and hidden stuff, rewarding thorough completionists like myself. Along the lines of Into the Odd, the reviews for this did split the community some, though I’m definitely in the camp of two thumbs up.

 

 

I was tasked by Lord Morel to sabotage Lord Tudor’s entry into some inventor’s contest, in addition to stealing one of his blueprints. Furthermore, I needed to obtain some incriminating information about Tudor, as well as 1,750 in loot. A different, yet intriguing backstory to a mission, which is always welcome.

 

The Church

I knew damaging Tudor’s core would send me across town retrieving the shards later, so I wanted to head straight for his factory, in order to avoid lengthy backtracking. However, I also knew I needed a holy item in order to damage it. There was a hammer in Tudor’s armory that would do the trick, but that required an unnecessary lockpick on the armory gate. The only other viable option was using a holy water vial. Only two were available in the mission that I knew of, the closest of which was in the hammerite church. That was thus my initial target.

 

The archer right above the starting area had a purse, and although I managed to take it without alerts, I couldn’t quite figure out his alerts. Sometimes he saw me when I was in the streets below, but then wouldn’t even flinch if I was on the pipe directly outside his window. Oh well, he never uttered a word, so I was good. I climbed the roofs by the abandoned factory and made my way east. Dodging a patrolling archer, I planned my church entry. I actually found entering via the ground floor double doors to be the easiest. The outside stationary guard and the patroller that went in and out often ended up both facing west, which is when I made my entry (left image below). Guards rarely alert to doors opening in Thief 1, so this was a fairly safe method.

 

 

 

Since there was no reason to return to the church later, I cleaned the whole compound at this time. The building wasn’t that big and there was only one patroller, a hammerite priest wandering between the floors. I brought along the holy water vial from the bedroom attic and left via the upstairs balcony.

 

I next leapt across north and approached the water tower. There was a hidden coin stack in the corner below, plus a piece of loot in the tower itself. Unfortunately, that item had to be skipped for Supreme. It was a valuable lantern that counted as a light source, which goes against the Supreme rules to remove (right image above). The Perfect status busted early for that mode.

 

Tudor’s Factory

My initial plan was to enter Tudor’s via the balcony just northwest of the water tower, but that got cut short by a stationary archer inside who heard the sliding door. He was stationed in a reception booth just inside the entry. So I scratched that idea and instead entered by way of a window further north, just above the factory delivery entrance. From here, my first goal was to reach the basement factory. I needed a copy of the security key in order to safely reach Tudor’s top floor chambers. I could pick the lock on his entrance door, but that necessitated the Tudor’s Quarters Key in order to relock. Said key was only found in one location, namely directly behind the aforementioned reception booth archer. Even if I would have been able to retrieve that key, there was no chance of returning it to its original location without alerts. The security key, however, would gain access to the security office, which contained a secret passage to Tudor’s top floor. There were a total of eight (!) copies of this key, though six of them were on the wall behind the same archer as before. The seventh was found in a room with a sleeping archer in the barracks, and returning that copy would wake him up. The last copy was on another archer patrolling in the basement factory, thus the reason for my getting there first.

 

 

 

However, the same archer as before again spoiled the party. There was a small flight of stairs down towards basement where he caught me. I honestly thought I would be able to get low enough and have the top of the stairs block his view, but that was not the case. I think I got fooled by his awkward posture. He didn’t stand per se, but leaned nonchalantly against a table, which made it seem like his head was lower than it actually was. His cone of vision was still that of a normal, standing archer. Try as I might, I was not able to sneak or rush down the stairs without at least a first alert (left image above). This was a huge blow, as I honestly thought this was the only way down to the factory. In desperation, my thoughts next went to the delivery entrance gate. There was another stationary archer there, but he acted very differently. He never alerted like a normal enemy, not even if I was brightly lit directly in front of him. Instead, he gave scripted comments as I approached the gate itself. The first time, he gave a comment and a frustration shrug. The second time, he got angry and did a hunt maneuver posture in place. The final reaction was full alarm with attack. I’m not sure if any of these situations definitely would count as busts, but I suspect they do. Supreme rule #4 says: “All AI and devices must remain in their normal state and not react to anything you do or initiate in the game.” Although this was a scripted maneuver, it was directly caused by my presence. Luckily though, he pivoted north, northeast, and east. This was my saving grace. It meant I could drop onto the wooden plateau as he faced north and pick the lock on the gate without triggering a reaction (right image above). He neither alerted to the lockpicks, nor the gate opening. As long as he stayed either north or northeast, I could also leave this plateau and reach street level safely. From here, I snuck over to the gate’s north side and waited for him to face east. The screen capture below to the left shows the closest I could go without triggering his first scripted response. What I could do though, was rush through the gate and into the first room without said response. It seemed not only was the script proximity dependent, but also time dependent. Unless you spent more than a second directly in front of or underneath the gate, the archer remained silent. Perfect!!

 

 

 

The next gate could also be picked open, but there was another guard beyond it that could alert to the lockpicks, so I waited for him to leave. Both these gates could be relocked with the security key or manually closed with levers later. The only thing worth noting in the factory was a crate that fell off the top shelf once I passed a certain line. It acted like a trap, so I avoided it. Fortunately, there was a different gate into the work station that took me to the other side of that gate, so I could get all the loot in here for Supreme. Picked up the security key and the lost key also; I would return both of them later. When leaving, I could again rush out and avoid any remarks from the guard.

 

I reentered Tudor’s via the window I talked about earlier. Since I would return here to replace the core later, I headed straight for the security office. The hidden passage took me to Tudor’s bedroom (right image above). The only thing worth mentioning on this floor was getting the diamond by the plant camera on the floor below. I had to take that coming from above, as it was on the inside of the pickable door that responded to the quarter’s key. I simply used one of the pillars in the staircase to get hardcover from the camera. No big deal.

 

Instead of shooting a holy water arrow at the portal to destroy the core, I manually dropped the vial into it. This was a bit tricky to do without taking damage, but it reduced the use of consumables by one, which is something. Got teleported to the abandoned factory next.

 

The Shards

Moved east from this location, through the old mansion with the arguing couple. It was very difficult to properly detect alerts with them. Usually they only gave settling remarks, but they were definitely hostile. I moved in a clockwise fashion around the room, crossing the fireplace towards the desk, then onto the bed. I sought hardcover from the fireplace behind the bed posts. From here I had to wait for both of them to head up the stairs in order to pick the chest without comments (left image below). They moved around a lot, so it didn’t take too long. Took a similar route out of the room. If they saw me, a guard spawned in the adjacent hallway, but he never showed up when ghosting.

 

 

 

Moved through the museum to the easternmost street. Found the first core shard in an apartment here. I had to cool it off with a water arrow in order to pick it up. I could do it without putting out the fireplace, which would’ve been a Supreme bust. Cleaned the alchemist’s next without issues. His patrol was somewhat random, but nothing too difficult. Left via the vent shaft in the lab. It was difficult to close the vent behind me when emerging in the rooftop storage room, but I got it in the end.

 

Moved my way through town heading west. No issues to report. Took the air shard close to the starting point. Picked up the maintenance key before hitting the shops. It was needed to reach the pottery store, which had tons of loot. None of the other establishments had anything to report besides the pub. I was seen coming through the window, so I had to come through the vent shaft. From the shadows of the tunnel I could reach over and grab the coins on the table without alerts (right image above). If I moved into the light, the bartender commented. I could move over towards the bar counter, but couldn’t pass it without a Supreme bust. There was another panel that connected to an adjacent room, but they also alerted to this panel opening. I eventually found a method of getting upstairs by use of 2 rope arrows, but one can easily leave and approach the scrappers from above as well. The scrappers’ floors were not difficult. I used the ventilation system to get to the top floor, where I found more loot and the earth shard. The metal around the iron vats was loud, but each side had storage rooms where I could hide. Had to grab the nugget from one of the vats from the rope as I ascended to the exit vent.

 

Back to Tudor’s

Looting the rest of Tudor’s facility wasn’t too difficult. The only piece of loot that was outright tough was the ring on the shelf beside the key rack archer. I had to lean around the corner from the bottom of the stairs (left image below). I managed to get it without dousing the torch though, which I’m happy about. The armory had no loot, so I left it be. Used the security passage to get to the top floor machine room to pick up the final shard. Then headed down to the factory by way of the delivery entrance and fixed it in the machine there. Returned the lost key also before leaving. I had to close both gates by using the levers, then rush out as they shut behind me (right image below).

 

 

 

From here, I yet again returned to Tudor’s machine room to replace the core. I had previously grabbed a second copy of security key from the control room, so I returned that before leaving Tudor’s for the last time. Took the streets west and returned the maintenance key, before ending the mission in the south. Supreme success!

 

 

Statistics:

 

Time: 2:09:21

Loot: 3181 out of 3181 (Supreme: 2956 out of 3056)

Pickpockets: 4 out of 4

Locks Picked: 9

Damage Dealt: 0 Damage Taken: 0

Consumables: 1 Holy Water Vial & 1 Water Arrow

Ghost: Success!

Perfect Thief: Success!

Supreme Ghost: Success!

Perfect Supreme Ghost: Failed!

 

Notes:

-          Had to skip a valuable lantern worth 100 in the water tower for Supreme. It emitted light and thus not allowed to remove for that mode.