Galaer on 25/7/2021 at 21:40

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HAMMER AND GARRETT

Last mission made by JIS that must be ghosted. Beginning is easy enough. Just move along left side of ramp and walk along right wall to door. Above next double door is First key to Church. Use bottle, then dodge patroller. Factory isn't hard. There is middle bridge, which has good shadow, but sometimes patroller walking near elevator can go there. Ride down and open passage to well. Go to the bottom. Guard will see you, but friendly spiders will kill him (ghost bust #1).

In kitchen is vase and lever. Go down to gamble room. Golden plate is unfrobbable. There is 8 coin stacks on table and you can enter room while crouching, but coin stack behind candle is too far to grab it. Go up and take 2nd key from fast turning guard. On higher floor is patroller that constantly stop and looks in search motion, but it doesn't mean he's alerted. Go to prison and turn off light, then open gate. Go right and sadly you must KO stationary guard (ghost bust #2). Next room I call Control Room.

There is priest in front of middle door and fast turning Hammerite at the center of room. You must go left, so sneak from shadow to shadow, crouch under door and picklock door. Next is corridor with watching pipe, patroller on the left and stationary people on the right. First go left to 2nd door. Take equipment and dodge stationary guard. In left room are chests with 2 flashbombs and 2 gas arrows. In kitchen is 1 water arrow. In flooded corridor is another water arrow. Use it to douse last torch. In small library is book switch for painting with Ancient key inside. Go right. Douse torch near pair of people. Open last door. Gas torch near gate, block left part of gate and close right part, then use last gas arrow to gas torch on the right. Use switch to open double door.

Wait for Hammerite to go to bridge and turn around, then quickly run forward, drop on wooden roof and behind stationary guard. In well is medallion, which summons haunts and turn on light in corridor with watcher. So I'm gonna avoid it. You must nudge guard right all the way to table. This took me 20 min. Take Third key and return all the way to Control Room.

You must use this key on lock, but there is priest in the way. Return to entrance and use pillar's shadow to get to central fence. Go along it left to shadow behind 2nd pillar (priest is visible). Use this shadow to go to left wall and run behind priest to right side of middle door. Here is another pillar's shadow. Use it to get near lock. Stand and lean right, then use key on lock. Crouch and return behind priest. Quickly enter middle room. Send elevator up, then down and quickly drop on it (this way you will fall on it quietly.

Next is area with invisible trigger activating arrows. 2 guards will alert to that. One of them should come into this room and die. 2nd guard will stop searching and will keep patrolling. Wait for him to fully calm down, then use left door and jump over lava. Take water arrow from well. In reception is stationary Hammerite who needs to be KO-ed (ghost bust #3). Ride elevator down, go to guard post and in upstairs chest are 3 water arrows. Use them to douse 4 torches and grab sword from chest. This summons 2 fire elementals, but with so much shadow you should easily get back to elevators. Get back to room with 4 levers and go left. Take 4 water arrows from water passage. You can drop on base of column to drop without using rope arrow. Use switch and sneak to door. Read plaque and fall.

Go into double door and go outside. Use stairs to go down to room with haunt. In haunted church is The Eye, but I don't think it's needed. Go to haunt, grab lantern and put it on crate, then sneak right and grab Hammer key from body. Go to the end and use ceiling switch to unlock door. Now you need to return to well near starting point. Use Hammer key and go to church. You must cut right banner (ghost bust #4) and go into passage. When entering and leaving you will get spotted by priest and Ramirez (ghost bust #5-6). Take Orz key from chest. Return all the way to starting point.

On 2nd floor is door leading to gate opened by Hammer key, then use Orz key and go to last outside area. Just go behind Hammerite to window for last key, open double door and sneak in front of novice to last door.

STATS:

Time: 1:22:50; Loot: 176/251
Pockets Picked: 1/3; Locks Picked: 10
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 2
Damage Dealt: 2; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0

GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE

Galaer on 25/7/2021 at 21:42

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BANE 1: KEEP OF DECEIT

This mission felt harder in my test run to ghost than it really was. To get out from Inn you need to picklock top window near Garrett's room, quietly drop down and mantle on it. Then you jump over guard to roof of Jeweler's House and use window in storage room to get to Weapon Shop. On roof is secret passage to Sewers where you fall into water and alert spiders. I'm gonna use other way instead.

To get to Mechanist Church you must nudge forward stationary Mechanist while avoiding to get spotted by patrolling cop. To get to Docks I'm going outside and rope up to wooden beam with banner near kitchen window, mantle on it, drop on ledge and jump to wall. There is water on south side is Sewer key. I'm using entrance metal ramp passage to get to Sewers.

2 small spiders is the hardest challenge of this mission. You must time them to go right, then go right into corner. You aren't safe in shadow from walking spiders and you must quietly fall into water. You don't have too much time. So you must drop towards ledge while being slightly above water, mantle, cancel mantle and this should allow you to drop into water quietly. In underwater passage is book and key. Take them without leaving water, then go to Book Store and Keeper Compound.

Compound is easy. First go left to room #1 for key, then fall on water and quietly descend. You can grab nugget from pool only if patrollers are away. In basement you can grab nugget from cell #4 behind green spider. In storage room is breath potion, which you must drink to survive long underwater passage to Temple.

After taking Sea Bane there will be explosions. I have no idea if they alert treebeasts in 1st area and I have no way to check what's happening with these monsters. Explosions aren't too close to door and door is closed, so it's possible that they didn't hear it. Because of that I'm gonna assume that I'm fine. Shortly after 2 treebeasts and Bouran will appear. Hide in shadow. They aren't alerted, but soon they see each other and treebeasts will kill Bouran. Afterwards we will get teleported outside.

STATS:

Time: 0:46:41; Loot: 2206/2346
Pockets Picked: 1/4; Locks Picked: 12
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 4/4

GHOST: CHEMICAL SUCCESS. I used breath potion to survive underwater tunnel leading to Temple.
PERFECT GHOST: CHEMICALLY POSSIBLE

BANE 2: CULT OF THE DAMNED

This mission is easier than previous. Front entrance to Mansion is visited by many guards, but it's quite easy to sneak through it. I only had one problem in this mission. I wanted to descend on 1st floor, but archer got stuck on stairs. I was forced to go through nearby window, mantle on banner, drop on gas torch, then on floor and hide behind pillar. Catacombs and Keeper Compound are empty. After taking Earth Bane you must quickly jump into water to escape explosions and fireballs bouncing on water. Quickly return to cave ignoring fight between cult members and 2 treebeasts. All guards are dead and there is couple of cult members patrolling area of the whole mission.

STATS:

Time: 0:39:33; Loot: 4040/4710
Pockets Picked: 8/14; Locks Picked: 4
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 5/5

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: POSSIBLE

klatremus on 31/7/2021 at 00:16

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Game: Thief 2
FM: Bad Debts

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Failed
Supreme Ghost - Success
Perfect Supreme - Failed
Time - 2:27:18
Loot - 3582/3682 (Supreme: 3507)
Pockets Picked - 11/12
Secrets - None
Locks Picked - 4
Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0, Other Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0
Consumables - 1 Water Arrow (to wake Scarmengades, Ghost only)

See the entire report with screenshots (https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts.htm) here!
Loot list (https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts_L.htm) here!
YouTube let's play (https://youtu.be/B52GIvL1hlU) here!

Comments:
I played this mission for the first time back in early 2008. Little did I know then what an important author Melan would prove to be for the community. With later creations of epic proportions such as Disorientation and Rose Garden, Bad Debts takes you back to the beginning, when even Melan was just a rookie. However, this is a stellar city mission with vertical exploration galore. The story is a bit cryptic, but very comprehensive once you take the time to read some of the lengthy diaries.

I had been hired by Timms to obtain his letter of debt from a wealthy usurer called Markus. I simply had to find a way into his place and steal the letter. I also needed to grab 2,400 worth of loot before leaving Downlock. That was all.

Calm Wanderings
The streets were filled with guards, but only a fraction of them reacted to my presence at this point. Only breaking into private property or visibly using weapons would cause any alerts. There would be a crucial point later in the mission that would change all that, even adding new enemies around town. It was thus my goal to do as much as possible before the objectives changed. Prior to that, ghosting was quite straightforward.

First challenge was in the guards’ quarters at Stoll Court. Two stationary swordsmen guarded a pickable chest with a purse upstairs. I couldn’t get to it without passing both their views. In the end I found a line in the middle of the path where I was concealed from all light sources (image below). It didn’t seem to exist, but either guard kept quiet all the way through. There were three light sources, but this path kept me concealed from all of them. I snatched my loot and left.

https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts_files/image001.jpg

As mentioned in previous reports of this mission, the ring in the tower west of the Coronet had to be skipped. A haunt appeared and it could not be evaded. I could take the ring without getting seen (image below), but I couldn’t leave undetected, not even by regular Ghost rules. It can be killed by preventatively drenching the skeleton with holy water, but that is considered a kill even though it doesn’t show up in the stats.

Getting the purse from the nobleman at the Coronet could be done by rushing in behind him and waiting. Although he was neutral, he still had alert levels in case he detected me doing something inappropriate. If fast, about one minute of waiting was enough.

https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts_files/image002.jpg

I don’t regard waking Scarmengades a Ghost bust. It could be done from darkness and without him ever entering hunt mode. He gave a growl as he appeared, but that was not from seeing me. It could be from hearing the water arrow, as he gave a settling remark a few minutes later. Using a gas arrow spawned the same reactions. It could also be from a script triggered upon awakening and would also then be called a first alert, albeit debatably, so I skipped the whole scenario for Supreme. That felt the safest.

Getting the loot and the thieves’ key from their hideout was a little tricky, but nothing more than standard ghosting. The thief didn’t seem to be able to give first alerts, but I don’t think I would’ve triggered any regardless. His key was needed in order to safely end the mission later, but it also had to be returned for Supreme. During my initial ghost run back in 2008, I didn’t find any way to return it without alerting the thief. However, I recently found you can drop it onto the northern part of the book on the table (image below). The southern half drops the key straight through and it makes a loud wooden sound, but the other half is silent, almost carpet-like. Dropping it anywhere on the table would be considered close enough for Supreme, so this was a happy discovery.

https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts_files/image003.jpg

Entered Tomlinson’s through the upper grate. Dropped to the banner and further onto the counter to avoid health loss. Nobody inside was awake, so as long as I snuck carefully on the tiles, I was good. Left through the side door and replaced the armourer’s key on the table.

Sudden Changes
After the double-cross, I was forced to leave through the power tunnels. The entrance there had to be relocked with the power works key from Moriarty’s place, but the key I realized had to be returned before triggering the kill event inside the usurer’s manor. If not, the outside guards heard the key dropping onto the windowsill. So I had to reload to a previous save and lockblock the power station door before finishing at the usurer’s. A bit tedious to have to redo all that, but oh well.

From the power tunnels I could visit Keywell and find the hidden loot stash there. In order to return, I had to pass three armed mines in a storage room. The most Supreme-like way to get past was to hop onto a preplaced rope above the mines, but that was difficult to do (image below). The easier option is to disarm the mines with the lockpicks and replace them afterwards from above. Nothing in the rules forbids disarming mines or traps. Emerged at Timms’ and cleaned his place next. Used the dark back room to time the trips inside. He kept quiet through it all. I couldn’t close the secret entrance to the walkway above Timms’ place from the outside, so I had to go back through that way later in order to reset it for Supreme.

https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts_files/image004.jpg

Over by the Coronet the landlord was the only one alerting, except for the 3 patrollers outside, but they all had fairly long routes. The landlord generally stopped at three fixed spots. When he was at the spot nearest the stairs I got ready (image below). As he turned and headed back I rushed in and stole his key. His place was no problem to Ghost. Dropped his key back in the same manner.

https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts_files/image005.jpg

https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts_files/image006.jpg

I had to approach the hammer seminary coming from the south, meaning I was forced to pass the wary archer at Almsgate. In my original 2008 run, he was always stationed just west of the gate itself (image above). I was then barely able to steal his purse unseen, but could never sneak through the alley northeast undetected. This time, however, he was patrolling east-west outside Tomlinson’s (image below). Checking with other forum members, Fortuni confirmed the archer is indeed supposed to patrol both in versions 1.0 and 1.1, while marbleman reported him stationed in the same spot as in the image above. Well, with the archer patrolling, I can happily report it is no longer an issue passing towards the seminary without first alerts.

https://www.klatremus.org/BadDebts_files/image008.jpg

The priest by the seminary doors was no problem. Crouching against the north side of the door kept me hidden, and with a few steps out I could grab the hammer. The guard by the lower door seemed drugged and hardly reacted to anything, so I could exit peacefully. I had previously locked the thieves’ door in an open state, so I didn’t need any key at this point.

Notes
- Skipped the ring worth 100 in the tower west of the Coronet for all modes. The haunt that appeared could not be evaded.
- Scarmengades gave a growl when awoken, so I skipped his hammer worth 75 for Supreme.

klatremus on 31/7/2021 at 23:34

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I don't think there are Parts 2 and 3 of that mission. It's Part 1 in a 4-part series called Cabal, where the other missions are listed in the unreported list on page 1.
Part 2 is Night of the Long Knives, for example.

Galaer on 1/8/2021 at 17:35

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ACCOUNTANT 1: THIEVES AND HEIRS (TDM)

START

Short and quite easy mission. First part has no enemies. In sewers is area with 3 spiders randomly patrolling lowest level, so it can be tricky to get to secret chest. Street is patrolled by 2 guards and that's pretty much the whole mission. First window leads to room with sleeping person. Don't drop on carpet or he will wake up. Instead go left on crates, drop on table and on carpet. I didn't notice any missing loot alert in this mission, so you can grab paintings and leave empty painting frames ro grab flower vase and leave flowers behind and nobody will alert.

VICKER'S MANSION

Next place is Vicker's Mansion. Here are rooms where you aren't safe for long like Study visited by Lord Vicker and Dining Room visited by servant. In Study you have barely enough time to grab painting and Safe key and leave before Lord Vicker will return and you must also time patroller. In Dining Room you must wait for servant to leave it and patroller to vanish behind corner. You must wait with leaving until patroller will walk away.

On 2nd floor is bath. You can fall into it for ring, but you must be careful to not be heard by Lord Vicker and patroller. Interesting thing is that unlike Thief, you can still crouch in bath full of water. In storage near kitchen you need to shoot water arrow into lever, so you will manage to climb ladder to attic and get necklace from safe. To leave mansion you must quietly drop on cistern. Instead of dropping on pipe, drop on wooden beam on the left and then on lower roof and on street.

MIDDLE OF STREET

Next is apartment plus Clinic. Apartment is locked, so you need to pick lock and there is no shadow in front of door. There is good shadow near Clinic door, but if there will be 2 patrollers walking from other sides, then they will push each other into you and will notice you. That's why it's good to unlock apartment first. Clinic on the other hand is blocked by wooden planks, which you need to remove by frobbing them and moving on street. Luckily patrollers don't alert to planks. After opening Clinic I prefer to bring wooden planks inside.

ELECTRIFIED FLOOR PROBLEM

The end of street is Alchemy Shop (no problem here) and Slumber Apartments. Left apartment requires dousing torch, so you will manage to sneak for chest for money. Upstairs is patrolled by woman, she enters left room with window leading to Electric Tower. In tower there are blueprints needed for one of objectives, but the problem is entrance. Under ceiling is hanging fishing net with crates on top of it, while floor is electrified. Inteded way to progress is by shooting one of ends of rope of fishing net, so fishing net will drop together with crates. I don't think one arrow shot is enough to destroy fishing net, but there is another thing - after touching electrified floor, fishing net vanish. And I have no idea if electrified floor destroyed it or it despawned for convenience of player.

RANT ABOUT MOVING OBJECTS IN TDM

Luckily there is another way to progress. It's done by bringing 2 crates from other place. I didn't think about that, because moving objects in TDM is so awkward, so you want move them as little as possible, possibly only within one room. It really feels that instead of grabbing objects in his hands, thief is using telekinesis spell in which his not very good. It's really similar to body manipulation. By frobbing you can very slowly move them, it's loud and if there is some obstacle, then you drop body. But there is option to shoulder body, which is faster, less noisy and you don't need to worry about obstacles. It really feels that it would be better if there was option to shoulder every object in the game. And by the way, body manipulation through frobbing is useless, so I wonder why it was added. It would be much better to shoulder bodies by frobbing them.

ELECTRIFIED FLOOR PROBLEM SOLVED

In Slumber Apartments on opposite side of room with window there is storage with crates. You must take 2 of them and bring to left room (with window). Before you do that you must frob douse 2 candlesticks (conveniently only by frobbing instead of frobbing, using it to douse it and frobbing again to drop it). If woman notice that door is opened, then she will just close it behind herself without any comment or alert. Put crate on floor under window, mantle on window, grab crate and manipulate it fit window and vent. Drop one crate just below vent and other a bit further on electrified floor. Drop on crate and jump on 2nd crate, turn around, grab 1st crate, turn around and drop it. Repeat this few times until you will manage to get to box with lever disabling electricity. Upstairs are blueprints, then you just need to return to sewers.

STATS:

Time: 1:17:36; Loot: 2727/2912
Damage Dealt: 0; Received: 0; Health Restored: 0
Pockets Picked: 0
AI Killed: 0; AI KOed: 0; Bodies Found by AI: 0
Secrets: 5/6
Stealth Score: 0 (Alert 1 = 12; Alert 2 = 0; Alert 3 = 0; Alert 4 = 0; Alert 5 = 0)

GHOST: SUCCESS
PERFECT GHOST: POSSIBLE