Ieldra on 12/11/2008 at 10:30

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I have written a somewhat detailed walkthrough for this FM, but before I post it here (is there any reason I shouldn't?), I have some questions about the story:


* What's the name of the player character? From the readme for part II, I would deduce his name is Gellert, but nothing in this mission tells me. He has a staff named "Gheorge's staff", so I considered the possibility his name might be Gheorghe. What's the correct name?
* Is this city supposed to be a specific city? If yes, I'd prefer to use its name instead of referring to it as "the city".
* When you enter Erzsébet's bedroom, there is a whispering voice saying something like "I will ??? you!". I can't understand this (it is quite clearly spoken, but I'm much better at written English) but would like to mention it in the walkthrough for storytelling quality. What does she say?

Further comments:

* I did appreciate the storytelling when I played this FM first, but as I was writing the walkthrough, I noticed just how excellent its storytelling quality truly is. The attention to detail and the flow of the story is exceptional, especially for something told in a single mission.
* Loot locations are fair, no evil hiding places like in "Running Interference". Even so, I spent half an hour at 2480 of 2500 loot before I gave up and looked it up. It's always the coins....
* You can ghost this mission without spending any resources if you're careful (as you can always recover rope arrows), although it's unclear how alert the undead servant in the tower becomes if you don't douse the torch.
* I'm a stickler for pronouncing names correctly, and would like to know how all those names are pronounced in Hungarian. Is there any way to get that knowledge without meeting one who knows the language?

Ieldra on 12/11/2008 at 11:50

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All right and thanks. Then here's the walkthrough. I've used spoiler tags only for the main text, because it's so long you should know where you are. Everyone, feel free to point out any mistakes, in content as well as language use. I don't know if any FM site except Thiefmissions.com includes FM walkthroughs, but feel free to put it there if you think it's useful enough.

Elizabeth Bathory FM campaign chapter 1: a walkthrough

The Mission

You start outside a city with only a staff for knocking out enemies, a compass and your lockpicks. You also have your notes, and your first objective is to read them. It is 1894 AD. Your employer, one Peter Hawkins of London, a lawyer, has been asked to represent an actress named Márta Báthory and help her claim her inheritance, which includes the castle estate in this city. You are to do the legwork, meet the actress, acquire Erzsébet Báthory's lost testament and do anything else which might be necessary in helping her cause. There are other interested parties who try to claim the Báthory estate for themselves, so you can expect some opposition. (objective complete). You will also need to acquire a hand weapon from somewhere, just in case.

Getting into the city

The city is under a curfew - you'll find out why later - and the city gates are closed. Immediately after starting, your guide, who was supposed to bring you into the city, will get himself killed by two guards, who then come running to see what they've killed. Fortunately, they don't see you. With your guide killed, you'll have to get into the city on your own. Walk behind the guards' backs and up the ramp to the city gate. The gate is closed and the drawbridge is up, but you can climb the walls to the left and right of the ramp. The archer in the western cannon post has 3 broadheads, the one in the eastern cannon post 3 broadheads and a purse (100 gold / 100).
Jump into the moat, swim west and pick up 6 water arrows (2 bundles of 3) sticking in the walls, then dive and swim through the hole under the city wall and up a shaft. Pick the lockbox to open the lid at the upper end and climb out, then use the ladder to climb further up and open the door into the guard shack. Use the two big levers to open the city gate and lower the drawbridge. The locked cabinet has 5 broadheads, 10 rope arrows, a slow fall potion, a breath potion, a healing potion and a locked box with a pair of coins (50 gold / 150).
Climb down the ladder again. There is an arrow slit in the south wall (I wonder what an archer is supposed to hit from here) where you can see the wooden beam at the rim of the moat. Shoot a rope arrow into it. Jump into the water and swim out into the moat, then climb up the rope, mantle up and walk over the drawbridge and through the gate into the city (objective complete).

Meeting Márta Báthory

The guard patrolling here has the key to the guard shack, but you don't need it. There are also two more archers somewhere in the streets with 3 broadheads each, but neither should you need those. For now, wait until the guard walks east, then walk up to the wall of the opera house. Turn left and look out for another patrolling guard, then walk up the ramp when he's walking away. At the ramp's upper end, turn right and climb the first four steps or so of the stairs to the guard post overlooking the streets. Look up. You see a short beam with an antenna protruding out of the wall on your left. Shoot a rope arrow into the beam and climb up. Pick the window and jump into the gendarmerie building. Pick the door into Cpt. Hunyadi's Office and read Lt. Ezsterházy's report about the barber's son and his accomplices meeting their death on the castle grounds. Now you know the reason for the extended curfew. Better be careful once you get into the castle... Go back into the corridor and pick up a pair of coins (20 gold / 170) from the floor in front of the door, then open the window opposite the door and carefully climb out onto the flat part of the roof. Walk along the roof and take the ladder into the attic of Márta Báthory's house. Open the hatch in the floor and climb down into a closet. As soon as you open the closet door, you hear the actress cry out. Walk out into her sitting room and you'll see she has been killed, and the assassin is nowhere to be seen. So much for the meeting, and for your assignment here (objective failed). But you can't just walk away from this, can you? (new objective: look for more clues concerning the whereabouts of the testament).


Following the trail

Before you leave, take the gold goblet (50 gold / 220) and the gold wine bottle (50 goods / 270) standing in front of the fireplace. There are also a speed potion and a healing potion on the shelf, and a healing fruit on the plate. Then jump through the window and over the gap onto the next wall. Walk along the roof on your right and pick up the letter the assassin has lost. He is to go to Thurzo house and pick up instructions at the library. Let's follow this trail.

The inn

Turn left and look down into the courtyard. You'll notice a ladder standing at the wall. Jump down onto the ladder and slide or climb down, then sneak through the opposite door into the locksmith's workshop. Take the crowbar and read the note beside it. Walk out again (don't bother with the hatch in the ceiling, it can't be opened) into the courtyard and climb up the ladder to the roof, then turn left and jump over the gap to the balcony of the inn. Use the crowbar to open the doors and enter the inn. Take a pair of dice (120 gold / 390) from the gaming table and a purse (100 gold / 490) from under the table by the staircase. Walk down the stairway to the second floor, then take the next stairway down to a landing where it continues both left and right. Turn right, go down the remaining steps and through the door into the public room. Turn left, read the guest list on the counter and take the clerk's keyring and a healing potion from under it. Leave the room where you went in, go up the few steps to the landing and walk down the other side (N). Open the door in front of you and walk through. You are in another part of the public room. Take a vase (50 goods / 540) from under the counter, a gold wine bottle (50 gold / 590) from the shelf and a plate (10 / 600) from the wall above it. Go back to the staircase. The other door leads to the kitchen but there's nothing there but wrinkled carrots, so walk upstairs to the second floor, where you can now open all doors with the keyring.
The NE door opens to a corridor. There is nothing but a healing fruit in the cupboard of the first room, but in the second you'll find the schoolmistress - and a gold wine bottle (50 gold / 650) on the floor between the table and the cupboard and a heavy purse (250 gold / 900) on the bedframe near the window. The third door off the corridor opens into the bathroom. There's a ruby ring (100 gold / 1000) on the washbasin. Now go back to the stairway, open the door to the north and sneak in. Read the note in front of the guest. What a surprise - it's our escaped assassin! Nothing forbids you to kill him, but at least relieve him of his golden inkpot (200 gold / 1200), the purse (200 gold = 1400) which probably contains his fee, and the Thurzó house key, all on the table in front of him. There's also an ornate dagger (100 gold / 1500) on the bed and a slow-fall potion on the chair. A nice haul for five minutes of work!

The power station

Leave the room and walk up to the third floor (the remaining door opens only to an empty garden). Jump over the gap to the roof and climb down the ladder into the courtyard. Open the door in the north wall with the crowbar and walk through when the guard has passed, then turn right. Walk straight on to the door you can see some distance away and open it with the crowbar. Go through, pick the door to the shack, go in and take a pair of coins (50 gold / 1550) from the shelf around the corner. Go out into the alley again and walk straight on (W) as far as possible, then turn right and immediately left again and follow the alley to the last window on your right. This is the station window mentioned in the note from the locksmith's workshop. Use the crowbar to open the grate, then the window itself, crawl through and jump down onto the conveniently stacked pile of crates and at last down to the floor. You are in the electric power station, a room with three switches on the southern wall, a metal cage with a pump, a closed sewer lid and a door in the north wall. Pick open that door and carefully sneak in. You can take a purse (100 gold = 1650) and the main sewer key from the table right under the electrician's nose and walk out again with no one the wiser. The switches supposedly switch the streetlamps, outside lights and sewers lights on and off, but at a glance I didn't notice any difference. Anyway, the important part is to get the sewers open. There's a lockbox on the pump cage where you can use the key you just acquired to open the sewer lid. Climb down into a small room and through the only opening into the sewers.


Thurzó house

You come out into an elevated intersection. Walk and wade south and turn right at the next intersection. Climb the ladder to the landing and open the sewer lid above you by flipping the switch on the wall. Climb out, turn north and carefully sneak into the alley on your left. Keep sneaking, for there's a guard up on a balcony, and turn left at the next corner. Open the door at the end with the Thurzó house key. You are in a courtyard with a balcony on your left. Shoot a rope arrow into the balcony railing and climb up, then turn right. Pick the window, jump in, turn right and left and pick the lockbox by the showcase. Take the morning star (objective complete). You now have a melee weapon - you'll need it near the end of the mission. Open the door at the end of the corridor and relieve the archer of 3 broadheads and the library key. Walk back to the window, jump out to the balcony and use the key to open the door at its other end. Enter the library. Read the note on the desk with the instructions for the assassin. All right, you now know that the testament is probably in the castle (objective complete). Let's go there (new objective: break into the castle). But first, take the “A sewer lid key” and a golden pen container from the desk (50 gold / 1700 - quite surprising what people pay for such things...). There's also a vase (100 goods / 1800) on the free-standing shelf near the door, and if you want some background information about Erzsébet Báthory, read the upper of two red-backed books on the east wall. The other red-backed book is about Count Dracula, but you can only read its back.


Into the castle.

Jump or climb back down into the courtyard and sneak back to the opened sewer lid. Climb down, turn right at the intersection and follow the sewers all the way to the southernmost exit, always taking the right at any intersection. Climb up to the landing, open the lockbox with the “A sewer lid key” and climb out.
You are in yet another courtyard with various exits. There's a lever by the gate to the city you can use to open said gate. Unfortunately, the portcullis down the ramp can't be opened, and the south gate to the castle estate is locked. We'll need yet another key. Walk up the ramp and read the note the guard is reading. It tells you the key is “in the usual place”. Not very helpful! Walk down again and look under the crate under the ramp. The key isn't there, but you can take a nice silver flute (25 gold, 25 goods / 1850). Go to the other end of the courtyard and look at the tilted crate near the sleeping guard. You can mantle up its side, but staying up is going to be a problem, and with a little bad luck you'll slide down into the sleeping guard. So shoot two rope arrows into the balcony, one directly below the hole in the fence, and another next to the crate. This will wake up the guard, but not alert him. Climb the rope arrow you can reach, jump to the other, take the Estate gate key from the balcony floor directly in front of you and climb up. There's a workbench up there with 5 rope arrows and a chest with a healing potion, just in case you don't have enough of both yet. Jump down from the balcony and slide down the crate to the floor, turn right and open the castle gate. Walk down the stairs and follow the corridor until you reach a wooden walkway (objective complete). You have reached the castle grounds (new objective: find the testament), and it's quite spooky here.


Searching the castle

Follow the walkway to its end, turn left and walk out onto the ledge. Follow it around the house until you come to a window on your right. Climb in and take the healing fruit from the half-withered plant. Go back to the walkway and jump down into the moat. Swim east about halfway to the other end, then dive and take a gem (100 jewels / 1950) from the bottom. It's hard to see, you may need several tries. Climb out at the west end and use a rope arrow to climb back up onto the walkway. Face south and walk to its end again, then turn left and jump down onto the moat wall. Turn 45 degrees right (SE). You'll see some bushes in a corner of the feast hall. Go there and climb into the hole behind the bushes and crawl through into the feast hall. As you climb out of the hole, you'll see a naked and chained girl running through the room, but don't worry, it's only a ghost and vanishes as fast as it appeared.
Walk around in the feast hall. Take the plate from the statue in the eastern niche (50 gold / 2000) and the sign key from the broken chest behind some broken furniture on the raised platform (loot objective complete). Leave the feast hall through the hole, turn left (S) and walk south between the two houses until you reach a wall. Follow the wall east to the next opening and take a golden skull (50 gold, 50 goods / 2100) from above it, then walk through into the cemetery. You'll notice the barber's son's two accomplices mentioned in Lt. Ezsterházy's report. They don't have any loot, but the dead have: take a golden mask (50 gold = 2150) from the big tombstone near the west wall. Then climb up to the statue. Standing east of it, use the sign key on the plate. A trapdoor opens below and you fall down (sometimes only one half opens, then step to the left to jump in).
Follow the chute west, jump down at the end and follow the next part until you come to a subterranean fire pit with tiered walls. Use the switch on the north wall to put out the fire and climb down, but don't walk over the grate, it will still damage you. Crawl into the narrow opening in the west wall of the lowest level and follow the chute to its end. Pick up a tiara (100 gold, 50 jewels / 2300) and a diamond ring (100 gold / 2400) and crawl back into the pit. Mantle up to the uppermost tier - this can be difficult, you might need several tries at different places. Climb into the opening in the west wall, crawl along the chute and jump down into a giant fireplace. The left part of the grate can be opened. Walk out into the lower level of the palace.


Erzsébet's secret

Walk around the pit. If you climb the wall and look down into it, you'll notice you've found the tiara and the ring beneath it - take a minute to reflect upon the probably gruesome fate of their previous owner. Note the door in the north wall - the glyph above it looks like it's made to hold something, but we can do nothing here now. Walk out the opening in the west wall and climb the stairs all the way up, then go through the door into a hallway with a locked double door, an opening into a derelict room and another stairway up. The crate in the derelict room is empty and the double doors are locked, so climb the stairway to the second floor. There are three statues of knights here. Turn the unlit torch in the niche near the wall, and the statue's shield will swing open to reveal a hidden compartment. Take the rosary (100 gold / 2500). Turning around, you might notice a half-rotted portrait of Prince Vlad III of Wallachia (more commonly known by his surname “Draculea”) hanging above the stairway. Walk along the row of knights and turn right at the end into a short corridor. Go through the door on the right into what appears to have been Erzsébet's bedroom. As you go in, you hear a whispering voice saying “They will dissect me.” Like a voice from the far past... More gruesome fates, as if things weren't spooky enough! On the floor in front of the bed you see a fresh corpse. This must be the missing barber's son, but whoever or whatever has killed him is nowhere to be seen. Take the palace key from his corpse - he doesn't need it any more. Read the book on the drawer chest. It contains the last pages of Erzsébet's diary, where she complains about the loss of her servant and her mirror, and says she will be grateful to the one who relieves him (the servant) of his burden and brings her mirror to her. It ends with a part of her famous prayer “Help me, O Clouds. O Clouds, stay by me [...]”. Note the portrait right of the drawer chest, but we're not ready for that yet. Walk farther into the room and read the note on the broken mirror (objective failed - the testament is now unimportant, if it exists at all). It spells out what you're expected to do: (new objective: end the heartbeat of the servant and let the mirror reflect Erzsébet's face). Once you've read the note, you can take the tower key from the mirror frame. The chest is empty.
Leave the palace through the double door on the first floor, using the palace key to open it. Jump down onto the ramp in front of you and climb up the opposite side. Shoot a rope arrow into the beam you see straight on and climb up onto the beam, then jump through the gap in the crenellation onto the walkway. Turn left. Open the tower door with the tower key and carefully walk forward. The red mist is the manifestation of the servant, but you can't fight it directly, so don't alert it. On the left you can see the mirror hanging from a chain, surrounded by more suspicious red fog. It will damage you if you try to take the mirror without having disposed of the servant. Put out the torch high on the south wall and shoot a rope arrow into the beam above. Climb up to the gallery, where you'll find the servant's skeleton on a torture rack. His heart is still whole. Hit it with your morning star until blood starts spraying and the red fog around the mirror disappears, and you can safely take Erzsébet's hand mirror from the chain.
Go back into the palace and up into Erzsébet's bedroom. Use the mirror on the portrait. You'll hear the sound of glass breaking (new objective: Erzsébet said she's grateful. Find out what she meant). Walk over to the broken mirror near the bed, where a compartment has been opened, and take the Rose Relic. Now walk down into the lowest level and use the rose relic on the glyph above the door you walked by earlier. Go into the room and meet the dark lady herself (walk slowly and stop as the door closes behind you, or the mission will end before you hear all of the conversation). She invites you to a glass of wine and proceeds to tell you her story, which will be told in the next missions of this FM campaign. Mission complete. This chapter ends as you ask the inevitable, but at this point incredibly stupid question “Who are you?”


That's it. As I said, everyone, feel free to point out any mistakes. Now I'm looking forward very much to the next chapters. I wonder if we'll see a rain of cats somewhere :cheeky: (oblique reference: in one version of her prayer, Erzsébet prays to the clouds to send her 90 cats to tear out the hearts of her detractors. How anyone can ask such a thing in the name of the holy trinity is a medieval mystery)

Sensut on 12/11/2008 at 12:45

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Good, I'll include this WT in the mission zip. But I would not believe it that this question would be so much stupid here, because when Gellert asks this he does not enquire about her name, since knows it already, but about her personality. :p



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Sensut on 12/11/2008 at 17:16

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:D What? G. walks in and says it that "OK lady, I want to hear your story" ?. He does not know even it that will hear a story, may count on a big fight rather, or on a trap, but not to a story telling.
Anyway the criticism has truth always, but I will not modify it :tsktsk: .

crowemagnon on 16/11/2008 at 05:19

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Sensut, absolutely wonderful mission! Haven't played Thief 2 TMA in awhile and finally getting back into it. Always love to try to "break" a mission, and I did so in this one three different ways. I'll get into more specifics about that if I need to, but I've already done the part where you obtain the mirror, and reflect Elizabeth's face using it, and you get the objective where Elizabeth is grateful, find out what she meant. According to the recent and excellent walkthrough (thanks to the user Ieldra!), next one simply walks over and picks up the Rose Relic. But, it won't frob! Also had trouble with the prize (loot) revealed by the frobbing secret nearby this room (well, not an official secret). Eventually got that using the saved game where the game is thrice-broken, not certain what finally allowed it. Saved another version just before trying this third breaking (which nearly breaks Garrett, had to try over and over until I coordinated things just enough to keep from dying), and proceeded with the twice-broken version, and still no luck getting the Rose Relic to frob, although the place in which to put the relic now frobs (was short on loot in an earlier try, where it won't frob (that was well-established seeing earlier posts)).

Well, Sensut, any help for me, apart from starting over? :) Hoping you could come up with a magical thing to do that would cause a change where all the right things will be satisfied and make the Rose Relic frobbable. Otherwise.... shoot, I'd hate to run through all of that again! Might just move on to Part 2. I've read all through this thread, and this is a unique problem for certain that nobody else has experienced (at least not reported it publicly).

Like I said tho, beautiful and delightfully creepy mission!

--Crowemagnon