Lady Taffer on 8/11/2008 at 03:46

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I can't find the library, even with these instructions! :(
Am I just incredibly stupid or am I in the wrong part of the house entirely? I'm downstairs where the two drunk guards are (the one with the bucket on his head, etc) and there's no passageway off the dining room or anything that would indicate a library.

The problem with this, the English version is that there's no map. Why is this? Since it's mostly a visual layout of the mansion, I don't see how a map with a few French labels on it would be all that difficult for anyone to understand. Why leave it out?? :(

Arrg. . .sorry about all that, I'm just frustrated. This looks like such a fun engaging mission and I keep getting stuck and am unable to understand any of the advice here. .

So yeah, need to know where the library is.

Also, I need to find DeLoret's notes and. . apparently some kind of agenda? I don't know where to find either. I think I made it into his office and I get the sense that I'm supposed to move the painting that's next to the desk, but I don't know how to do it. I think someone said earlier that you have to climb on top of the bookcase and frob a button. . and I did climb up, only there was no button in sight.

northeast on 9/11/2008 at 01:18

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I think all of the L'Arsene series (though, this mission is a tangent that is followed up with the greatly anticipated the Black Frog) has walkthroughs at Thiefmissions.com. Well, all but the first.

(http://thiefmissions.com/walkthroughs/EmilieVictor.html) http://thiefmissions.com/walkthroughs/EmilieVictor.html

I'd have helped directly, but it's been a while and I forget. ;)

jiansonz on 10/11/2008 at 10:22

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I must have played this one when it was quite new, and it did not leave a long-lasting impression that time (I really only remembered the meeting with Emilie) but now I have replayed it, and this time, it was very memorable and fun!

I had forgotten everything about the layout of the place (very unusual, I really wonder how the heck I could have been so absent-minded last time...) so it was like playing a entirely new mission. :D

I kept my first (no-reloads) attemt alive for almost an hour, but failed that one as an indirect consequence of not finding the spiral staircase to the second floor. It was simply too hard and dangerous to progress up through the main staircase, and there are only so many times you can shake off a host of angry guards before you slip or your luck runs out...
(I still did not find the spiral staircase until later - I finally progressed by killing the two guards by the stairs with arrows (many minutes between them!) fired from a dark spot just outside the front doors

After finding my way into the armory, progress was steady until I had to find the secret button behind the statue in the lady´s quarters. Spent 40 minutes all over the place looking for a way to progress, until I accidently hit the right spot with 'blind frobbing'. :rolleyes:

Twice, I got rewarded for my compulsory 'slash every banner in sight' approach. :D

Then it was smooth sailing until I entered the Other World. I had lots of trouble here, with (IMO) oversensitive ghost guards (especially when they had been alerted some time before - the slightest glimpse of me or one semi-muffled step on marble and they went to full alert and attacked me!). When I play Thief, I generally have an escape plan if I get spotted. I try to remember places where I can shake off guards, usually involving any of:
- crawlspace
- ladder/rope (sometimes I place an 'escape rope' in a dark area myself)
- water
- large dark places (usually outdoors)
- places where you can drop down (or mantle up), and a chasing guard will then have a long way to run in order to get to you

I happened to alert a bunch of guards, and immediately came to think about the pool of water into which I entered the Other World. Took the guards there. The ones who followed were Mr. Hunchback and the Haunt-sounding, Garrett-looking dude. Hunchback fell into the water almost right away but I had to coax, tease and work on the other guy for a very long time. While I was in the water, with my head by his feet, I saw that he had a key. What luck - it would probably have taken me a looong time to find that key otherwise. Eventually, he feel into the pool. He ran around on the bottom of the pool for quite some time. I sighed. Was I screwed now? If I moved away and let him calm down, would it really be possible to dive into the pool without him noticing, so I could steal the key? Hmm, he does release occasional sounds that might be shrieks of pain... Then, after more than 2 minutes in the water, he died! His skull friend that had been hopping in place was at the bottom, not moving anymore. I thought that was kind of cute. :angel:

Later, three more guards joined the pile of dead bodies in this pool. :ebil:


I had to get help from this thread about what to do in the 'howling statues' room. I can safely say that I would NEVER had figured that out by myself. :tsktsk: I thought I had tried everything here. Trying to think outside the box in so many different ways, but evetually failing because I was apparently stuck in thinking that the central plinth was not a statue...
(This is my one gripe with this mission - there really needed to be some less obscure hints here.)

When I finished and looked at my stats, my jaw fell down when I saw I that had missed FIVE secrets. But I had only missed 12 units of loot so I was a happy taffer anyway. :D


Overall, a fantastic mission. :thumb: In the L´Arsene series, I rank this mission as the second best (it doesn´t beat The Den, which I think is an immortal masterpiece, easily in my Top 10 missions of all time).

Ieldra on 11/11/2008 at 23:29

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I don't think so. It's one of my favorite FMs. Nice storyline. I've lost patience with some FMs, but not with this one.

aithena on 18/3/2010 at 09:02

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I had shot the evil dude with the hammer before he could do something bad and he run away. I had to care about Tancred by myself. Is there important for the scenary if I take the key from the unconsciousness body or from the poor guy's corpse?