Trail of Blood

Mission 9: Trail of Blood

[This report has recently been verified with TFix/NewDark 1.27. Although the original text for OldDark has been preserved, any situations affected by these patches are discussed in green. Keep in mind that there is a difference between playing the game in NewDark with or without TFix. TFix updates the core mission files, as well as applies .dml files that tweak the environment in numerous ways. These changes aren’t supposed to have a significant impact on gameplay, but when ghosting, slight changes could occur. If wanting as close to the “vanilla” experience as possible, install just NewDark, without any further patches. I have ghosted the game 1) in OldDark, 2) in plain NewDark, and 3) in NewDark with TFix.]

A step up from Trace the Courier, but not a huge one. The mystical forest atmosphere sort of got me engaged. Some new enemies also, which I always embrace. The linear style of gameplay doesn’t really fit into the Thief universe though. Overall it’s a nice attempt, but compared to the following mission, it simply doesn’t stand a chance.

Overall score: 6.2/10

I was to keep following the letter by way of the blood trail. I needed to find a map of the area and avoid any kills. Not much to go on, but that’s life.

The entire pagan section was trouble-free. A few items were somewhat hidden, but in terms of Ghosting it wasn’t much of a challenge. I missed the third pair of lucky coins in the hut on the north side the first time around (left image below). There was also a moss arrow tucked away on the river bank in between two large trees. Rounding the entrance corner to the barn was the only spot requiring some patience, as the stationary mechanist did random pivots (right image below). Only one hut was necessary to enter for Supreme; the other items were either on patrollers’ belts or hidden among the foliage. The deal with the ruby stones and the portal was fairly self-explanatory.

The eye plants beyond the portal have been accepted by the ghosting community as no busts. They fall in the same category as rats I guess. It was impossible to pass the caves without them turning anyway.

An excellent challenge for equipment purists was to retrieve the fire arrows from the lake pillars without taking damage. The first one was to the left when entering the main cave. The arrow could be seen from the main walkway, sitting in the northwest opening of the pillar. The lake itself was poisonous, but didn’t do damage on impact. Instead, the damage seemed to come in small waves, sometimes as much as a few seconds apart. Occasionally you’d lose as much as 4-5 bars in one cough, other times you’d be fine. This randomness could be exploited to a certain extent. I had to drop from the walkway above, onto the pillar’s west side (left image below). The base was more slanted here, enough for me to climb up and stay clear of the fumes. I could reach the arrow from here and plan my next move. I needed to rush into the water and quickly mantle up the walkway. This was a longer stretch, but fortunately I could start with a jump. Again, the randomness made me successful after not too long.

The second arrow was worse still. It was in a similar pillar in the west end of the lake. There was a rock next to it, but on the opposite side of the arrow. Reaching the rock was no problem, but retrieving the arrow from here was more difficult. I inched out as far west as I could, but a plain lean wasn’t enough. First I tried grabbing the arrow in mid-air, then rush to the shoreline, but I took damage every time. For some reason, the mantle success rate here was very low. My only successful method came instead by quickly turning around and mantling back up the rock (right image above). I didn’t jump all the way over to the arrow, but sort of guess-frobbed by anticipating Garrett’s reach. The rock was much easier to mantle than the walkway, and from here I could jump back to solid ground.

A tough piece of loot was found in a remote area off to the west. It could only be seen from the high walkway leading to the tree village. There were four rocks unevenly spaced in the lake; probably the route the designers intended. I could reach the area easy enough, by dropping into the lake from high up and quickly mantling up the shore. For some reason, liquid prevents all falling damage, even at two feet deep. Other players have reported the need of a slow-fall potion. That is not only a waste, but it busts Supreme and leaves normal Ghost with a ‘chemical’ success, a less honorable way to beat the mode. The real problem, however, was getting back without taking damage. It is possible to quicksave in the water before the damage kicks in, then reload and be given another few seconds to get to safety, but that is a clear engine exploit and only allowed as a last resort (plus it busts Supreme). You can use this method to traverse the entire lake, if so desired. I rather needed to stay within non-exploitive boundaries. I could easily rush out to the first rock. No damage so far. The longest stretch came next though, reaching the rock further out. The image below shows the area in question. I needed to start with a run-strafe jump. Running and strafing at the same time generates a small momentum boost, crucial in situations like these. When landing, I could repress the jump-key at the perfect instant and increase my momentum a tad more (still strafe-running). The next landing took me almost to the rock, and with a little luck I could mantle up without damage. I experimented for quite a while to get the movements right. There wasn’t much in it, but it is definitely a repeatable move. I’d say I nailed it after about 15-20 tries. The remaining leaps were simple in comparison.

The toughest area of the mission by far was by the entrance to the tree village. Two stationary beastmen guarded the main entrance, and another patrolled a loop further out. His movements were predictable, giving me a certain timeline to work with. First I had to head west to pick up a piece of loot on the cliff edge. Alas, I couldn’t traverse the tunnel without a comment from the nearest sentry. There were torches by the beastmen and a gem in a tunnel alcove, both creating too much illumination. I even tried squeezing south between their light radiuses, but they overlapped too much. Inching along the north wall at the slowest possible speed still spawned a first alert. He settled a few feet further up. The image above is taken at the “sweet spot”, as far west as possible without an alert. So close but yet so far. I even tried reaching the loot by mantling up from the lake level using the long sloped rock outcropping. I got nearly all the way to the top, but the mantle was just too high. I also tried the same move using a speed potion, but with no different result. I had serious hope for that mantle and fiddled for a long time with it, but even perfecting the move and generating quite a bit of speed ascending didn’t seem to help. I knew Supreme (and even plain Ghost) would bust eventually, but I would’ve really liked to get all the loot for that mode. Sadly, I had to skip the crystal worth 25.

Entering the tree village posed more problems. This time I had to approach from the east. Waiting for the patroller to come by, I made my move towards the entrance. I could crouch-walk a fair ways up before the closest beastman uttered a comment. From that point on I had to hold the creep-key to slow my movement. There was one point along the wall (shown by the arrow in the image below to the left) where he seemed to comment most of the time, but not always. The light gem definitely got noticeably brighter, so the detection made sense. However, he didn’t always alert; highly uncharacteristic behavior. Normally, stationary enemies are very predictable when alerting like this. The way to avoid an alert I found was to face the wall, angle slightly west, look up and tap the walk key. Doing this for a few feet seemed to get me out of his trigger view. I then returned to direct forward creep-crouch-walk to increase my speed. The issue was the returning patroller; I’d run out of time before reaching the doorway. Another problem was when I got to the corner Garrett tended to get stuck to the wall. Jumping got me freed, but obviously resulting in alerts. It was basically fifty-fifty whether I got stuck or not, but eventually I rounded the corner successfully. I wasn’t out of the woods yet, for I had to avoid said patroller. I switched to creep-crouch-strafe for the remainder of the stretch, and sprinted to the stairs as soon as I was safely behind the beastmen. I had a few seconds to spare before the patroller emerged from the east. It was definitely a tense few minutes, but rewardingly, Supreme was still intact.

Getting past these monkeymen without first alerts can no longer be done in NewDark. I no longer get embedded in the wall, which seems to be what concealed me enough to avoid the alerts in OldDark. In fact, sneaking slowly along the wall set off the closest beast to full alarm mode. The only way to pass them both was by running, which spawned a first alert from each.

Emerging in the spring village posed further problems, though a tad easier to deal with. Two beastmen had a conversation, whereupon one of them started patrolling. I found no way to sneak in either direction and avoid alerts, so I reverted to a vine arrow into the first large tree on the left (right image above). I had to put it high enough to be able to reach the railing on the wooden walkway, but low enough so that the end of the vine was reachable from ground level. I also had to watch out for the patroller up top, plus the floating star (or whatever it was) illuminating everything around it. The hop onto the railing was usually silent, and I could turn around to quickly retrieve the arrow. Alternately, you can rush out of the spring village entrance during their conversation and avoid the alerts that way. The hut to the north had some shadows next to the sleeper. From here, getting back to ground level to steal the loot was mostly standard sneaking.

In general, a vine arrow had to be used to jump the railings in most of the villages to avoid comments. The summer village had a tree hut with a nugget beyond it that I needed to get to. Had to creep-crouch past the stationary beastman to reach it. I couldn’t exit through the doorway here due to another enemy, so I backtracked to this village’s entrance. I climbed over the south side, flinging a vine arrow into the tree across from it (left image below). That way I could gather the loot and the items from the ground unscathed, then use another vine up to the exit in the northwest (right image below).

The fall village had one trouble spot. The intended exit to ground level was guarded by two stationary beastmen. I couldn’t avoid a comment, so again I had to apply a vine arrow from the walkway. The east railing upon entry served its purpose. I left the vine attached until I had cleaned the ground level, as I needed to ascend in the same place to exit this village. Sneaking by the stationary beastman in the hut up ahead wasn’t too bad.

The winter village was totally devoid of enemies. In the past, breaking the icicles has been considered property damage and thus a Ghost bust. However, clarifications in the rules now define only manufactured objects to be considered property. Breaking the icicles is therefore allowed for all modes. The tree beasts alerted like normal enemies, but not many of them were active. Found a path to the left that circumvented them all. No sweat finishing the mission from here.

Statistics:

Time: 1:01:11

Loot: 2330 out of 2330 (Supreme: 2305)

Pickpockets: 3 out of 4

Locks Picked: None

Secrets: None

Damage Dealt: 0 Damage Taken: 0

Consumables: None

Ghost: Success!

Perfect Thief: Success!

Supreme Thief: Success! [NewDark: Failed!]

Perfect Supreme Thief: Failed!

(Norwegian Thief: Failed!)

Notes:

- Had to skip the crystal and the noisemaker arrow west of the tree village entrance for Supreme. The westernmost beastman commented once when traversing the tunnel.

- Got two first alerts from the beastmen guarding the exit from the maw in NewDark. Supreme busts.

- Impossible to get the fire arrow in the fall village. The two nearby beastmen covered all the angles.