T2 FM: The Ritual (Dec. 4, 2000)

Clock on 12/9/2002 at 15:19

How exactly can you complete the mission, if the AI keep re-generating.

When you pick Merrilee up, it slows you down considerably. In fact, I can't survive the underwater section because I'm swimming so slowly. I tried using the breath potion, but I can't take it with my hands full of Merrilee. If I drop her while in the water, she sinks and dies. If I drag her the long way around, avoiding the underwater route, I have to try to outrun the pig people, and so far I've lost every time. If I let her down and run, she tries to follow me, and gets killed. If she would only stay put where I drop her, I could contend with the enemy methodically, come back, and we could both walk to the exit point quite casually. But I guess that is what makes this FM distinct, so I shouldn't complain.

[SPOILER]I'm going to try setting her down before the tomb gate and using some unconscious pigs to trigger the gate open, then clean up the route to the exit on my own. Hopefully she doesn't try to follow me or wakes up and runs away somewhere.[/SPOILER]

If there is a more direct or easier way to complete this mission, maybe somebody could mention what I'm doing wrong. If that plan of action I described works, I'll pass the information on later.

diana50322 on 12/9/2002 at 16:14

Clock - to clarify, the AI only re-appear once that I know of. If memory serves me right, Merrilee only wakes up when taken outside the bounderies of the spell or something. So like you I did what you said in the spoiler. When I went back to get her she was gone. I searched the whole place and never found her again. That's why I say "forced victory". When a glitch in the mission prevents it from being completed "officially" I mark it finished on darkloader. I have always ruled-out the water routes when carrying someone because they always drown. But that's just me.

One suggestion: you could find someone who has completed this one on the thread "List your completed missions" and PM them to see what they did.

Clock on 12/9/2002 at 16:44

Yes <sigh>...I just now did what you did. When I returned to pick up Merrilee from the podium? she had disappeared yet again. Before... I had picked her up for a short spell, then set her down, and she promptly ran away, never to be seen again.

Nice to know that they only re-generate the once. But the problem still remains.

Here's my take on how the mission is "supposed" to end, based upon information from a walkthrough
(http://) http://www.3dactionplanet.com/thief/t2/info/fm/ritual/Ritual_Walkthrough.html

Apparently...[SPOILER]You are supposed to leave the guards in the chapel alone so they can melee with the druizites? later on. Now you can sneak past them while they're battling each other. Hopefully the guards win because they'll leave Merrilee alone. Now you can either run for it, or deal with the guards freely while Merilee waits by merrily.[/SPOILER]

Of coarse, I can't do this because I blackjacked ALL the guards except for the one with the helmut. In hindsight, I had no real reason to bother the guards in the chapel, and that would have been to my advantage.

diana50322 on 12/9/2002 at 21:54

Sounds like I will have to play this one again!

Thanks for the link.

Norman Druart on 12/9/2002 at 22:14

You think that's bad? When I played, Merrilee didn't appear at all. I had to read a walkthrough to find out where she should have been but wasn't. I was so annoyed that I didn't bother to try again.

Clock on 13/9/2002 at 02:11

I finally finished it. Here's how I handled the situation, given that I was NOT able to utilize any guards as distractions. Be warned that this entire message should be considered spoiler material.

First off, you can't leave Merrilee alone without her running off to who knows where. So you're committed to bringing her out of the tomb where she thanks you for saving her. Now she follows you, constantly. You can club three pig people, even with Merrilee making lots of noise beside you. I did it from the rampway upwards toward the chapel. Now, lead Merrilee into the chapel and lock her in so she can't follow you.

Now, finish off the remaining pig people or whatever they are at your leisure. You're left with one guard who will not harm Merrilee. Sometimes the guard gets killed. Other times he just disappears, probably to the same place Merrilee goes (is there a Horton's Donuts in this level?).

Fetch Merrilee from the chapel and make your way to the beginning of the level. I just ran past the guard and hid in the shadows while Merrilee trotted toward me and the finish line.

I was 100 shy of total loot, but I have no intention on finding it. This level is OVER :)

diana50322 on 13/9/2002 at 06:10

Congrats Clock!!!

I decided to re-play this mission and finally got an official victory though I too was about 100 shy of max loot. Yes, I agree that the only way to finish is with little Merimee at your side. I let the Druzilites and guards duke it out to thin the croud, then threw a couple frog beast eggs down that last lane and kept Merimee away until they exploded. Too many restarts when she would get stuck somewhere. But I"M DONE!!!!

Clock on 13/9/2002 at 14:57

hmmm....I wonder if we both missed the same loot. Finding most of it was actually pretty easy.
The only one that I missed initially was 3 goblets on top of a coffin situated on the roof of that vine encrusted building, the one containing the levers that opened one of the tombs. And THAT tomb was one of the two places I didn't hang around and snoop in. Those huge masks freak me out, so I just ran past them, grabbed the loot in the second room, then ran back out. I noticed that there was something else floating in the yellow light in that second room, but it wouldn't pick up. The other place I didn't examine too closely was the acid pond and trigger pads room, followed by the sliding panel of death.
I guess its also possible that something was at the bottom of that underwater area you swim across at the very beginning of the tomb section, but I spent some time there looking, and never found anything. The walkthrough page I highlighted on a previous message lists all the loot, but not it's direct location.

Frustrating though this FM was, I thought it quite unique and enjoyable.

diana50322 on 13/9/2002 at 16:38

When I played this the first time (without the walk-through) I thoroughly searched EVERYTHING!!! I noticed that the walk-through did not take you to every location in the mission only those needed for completion of the objectives. Also the first time I played, I knocked out everyone I came across so I could wander through the place at my leasure. (That also explains why I did not use the water route.) I think the missing loot is in one of the areas the walk-through didn't take us. If memory serves me right the only loot I missed when I played this originally was the necklace in the sarcophagus and I got that this time so I haven't a clue where to begin looking. Or even IF I'm going to look. :laff:

Didn't you find yourself wishing you could say to the guards, "Hey, I'm trying to save a little girl, SO BACK OFF!?!?!"

Clock on 13/9/2002 at 18:51

There seems to be a discrepency between the total loot as stated in the walkthrough, with the total loot found in the stats. One says 1790, the other 1740. Now I found 45 in loot that I never picked up. This happens when you save a lot. You forget to go back and pick up something. But I'm still missing either 50 or 100, depending on which total value is correct. And I have gotten EVERYTHING the walkthrough mentions, but for some reason, I'm totalling 1690. I double checked everything except the loot at the end of the sliding wall panel section. I can't seem to survive that ordeal anymore.

So I don't know what to think. It's a minor thing, really. I think I have a firm grip on executing this FM successfully, so I'll probably just leave it for now.