Thief — an All Difficulty Level complete-loot walkthrough (Original Thief and Thief Gold)

This mission uses a version number (starting with 1.0) independent of the main document.

At several places, additional information is available as tool tips. Usually they are the books and scrolls you can read. Move the mouse on the Information will appear as tooltips like thiswords looking like these to see them.

In this mission, players at Normal Difficulty will find one more key than other players (but the extra key is not a pickpocket), so that they can access the Throne Room easier. Also, higher Difficulty Levels have more mission objectives to satisfy. In particular, they have to leave the Manor after getting the Sceptre. Otherwise, the game is identical in all three Difficulty Levels.

Since you do not need to leave the Manor at Normal Difficulty, the sequence of places to visit is slightly different. This is necessary to make sure you get everything before the mission suddenly completes — the mission completes when you fulfil all your objectives, it does not care whether you have collected all the loots or seen all the places. Therefore, some places that Hard and Expert players will visit on their way out of the Manor must be visited in advance by Normal players. During the walkthrough, you will be directed to jump forward and back (following hyperlinks) as required. Once you correctly set the difficulty level in the drop box above, the cumulative loot and pick count will be adjusted to follow you jumping around.

The most promising acolyte left us,
not out of the lesser folly of sentiment,
but the greater folly of anger.
His heart was clouded, and his balance was lost,
but his abilities were unmatched.

Even then, we knew to watch him most carefully.

  — Keeper Annals The quote at the beginning of the mission briefing isn’t easy to understand, but I can assure you that they can be even more cryptic. Anyway, it is flattening that the Keeper Annals referred to you as the “most promising acolyte” whose “abilities were unmatched”. And they will watch you “most carefully”, but if you think they watch you to see if they need to help you, you really don’t understand the Keepers.

You decided to leave the Keepers and get rich with your talents. Your fence, Cutty, asked you to steal the Sceptre from the Throne Room of Lord Bafford’s Manor.

It is the same mission that you have enjoyed in the demo (but with better graphics). Although the mission is nearly the same in three Difficulty Levels, your mission objectives are different. Try to play this mission with all three difficulties. It may be a bit too much to ask, but the same mission presents different challenges at higher Difficulty Levels. For example in Normal mode you can try to kill every guard, but you do not have a chance to leave the Mansion (the mission ends as soon as you grab the Sceptre).

Throughout much of the game, the designers have paid a tremendous amount of attention to details to make the environment as realistic as possible. As you play, notice the little touches: the servants at this hour of the night stick to their quarters and the kitchens; common guards use only the very plainest footlockers (officers have better quarters); fine wine is found in, well, wine racks and wine cellars, when not being drunk. One example of attention to details is a letter in the library mentioning that Tarquis the moneylender has been arrested by the Hammerites. In a later mission, you will find Tarquis in cell block 3 of the Cragscleft Prison. Life exists whether Garrett is there or not (unlike e.g. Doom or Dark Stone, where the wandering monsters and traps exist only for you).

You will be facing human guards. Nothing is really necessary, but the more equipment you have, the easier is your task. Buy all Water Arrows. For the rest, buy Broadhead Arrows: although Experts have little use of them, you don’t have enough cash to buy the Healing Potions.

By the way, how much money did you start with? If you have completed the Mission 1: A Keeper’s Training and got the Green Vase there, you will have 350 for shopping. Otherwise, you have only 300.

Explore around the city and find the Well House mentioned in the mission briefing. On your way, explore the two sewer systems — one accessible from the city streets, one inside the Manor.

You start near the Front Gate of the Bafford Manor, on the West side of the city map. Approach the arch (actually a carriage entrance) leading to the Front Gate, and the three guards will start chatting. Stay outside in the street, and they will not bother you. Stand on the left side of the entrance. Look at the brownish wall on the right side, behind the lamp post. There is a red lever on the wall. If you get rid of the guards, you can operate the lever to open the front gate. But do not do that.

When they are finished, trying moving through the arch towards them. They will tell you to go away, which you should oblige. Outside the arch, go North (and follow the turns) to have a look. Not far away, the street is blocked by an iron gate you cannot open. Refer to the map, the city streets are divided into two parts. You start from the West Streets, and can go all the way East along the South side of the Manor. You cannot reach the North Streets directly from the starting position, because of the locked gates in between. However, once inside the Manor, you can reach the Manor’s North Gate and reach the North Streets from there.

Go back to your starting location, and this time go South. You will soon find a junction, where you should continue forward (ie do not turn left). As the map shows you, the street forms a small loop here. The branch on your left is shorter, but you will miss the Arrow Cache.

Along the winding street, you pass by a noisy machine and arrive at a stone arch. When passing under the arch, look left to locate the Arrow Cache, where you will find 12 Broadhead Arrows and 4 Water Arrows. Note that you only see a single arrow, and on picking up, get 12. Similarly, you see a blue crystal, and on picking up, gets 4 Water Arrows. You cannot tell the quantity of stuff you will get until you have collected them into your inventory (and only if you remember how many of them you had before doing so). The item you picked up will always become active — look at the lower corners and you know at least what you have just picked up.

At about this time, a servant walks down the street. No need to panic, because he will ignore you. When his back is towards you, knock him down with Blackjack. It is just a precaution: left undisturbed, he would have entered the Manor and go to places where you would prefer to be empty (more on this later). There is no need to hide his body because nobody else comes here. If instead you follow him, you would find that he goes back to the Front Gate, and the guards would raise the portcullis for him.

Continue forward and pass under a metal arch. After a left turn, you will see a flare lamp (it is not a standard name — I mean those street lamps with open a flare and four metal “claws”). Next to it you can find a sewer cover. Use it (right mouse click) and it will open. Peek down and ignore it. The sewers are connected, and we’ll explore them later.

Turn left and you can see the street forks. Straight ahead of you (North), the street goes on and then turns left. That street goes back to the Front Gate, forming the small loop on your map. Go there for a quick look if you wish, and come back here. Note that on that street (near the corner on the North) is another sewer cover that you can also ignore.

Back at the first sewer cover, follow the right fork to go towards the East. Soon you will pass another stone arch. This one is thick, and “inside” it, there is a small lamp on your right. After you pass the arch, look right. On the other side of a tall street lamp lies the third sewer entrance. At about this time, a guard walks down the street and greets you. No need to panic neither, because it is legal to wander around the city streets. He only patrols these streets, and will not interfere with your job inside the Manor. Ignore him or knock him down, and continue forward.

After a left and then right turn, you can see a drunken guard in front of the Well House. This is the back door mentioned in the briefing and objectives. The drunken guard won’t interfere with you as long as you don’t attack him. Notice the sewer manhole to the left of the Wellhouse, behind the drunken guard. Hmm. Tha Well House can wait. Look around the area, for we’ll be leaving streets. At the far corner, another iron gate blocks the North part of the city from you.

Let’s explore the sewers now. Return to the third sewer cover (the one next to the thick stone arch), open it and climb down the ladder. Walk a few steps North and you’ll arrive at a four way junction. If you turn left, you will go to a T-junction, where each branch leads to one of the two other sewer covers you have seen before. After you have given them a look, go East or North at the four way junction. Both lead you to the same metal gate, and a wooden door to the right of the gate. Unfortunately, the metal gate will not open, so enter the wooden door and explore.

Search the floor of the flooded room carefully and you will find your first loot: a lying under water. Look up and locate the lever on the wall. Flip it and you hear the sound of metal moving. Leave the room and turn right — the metal gate is now opened.

Pass through the metal gate and climb the ladder near the end of the tunnel. Open the sewer cover. You find yourself behind the drunken guard.

Pick the key on his belt. Turn around and use the key on the door of the Well House. That will open it. Enter the Well House and shut the door behind you. Jump into the well.

After you drop into water, resurface to catch your breath. Look around. On one side is the end of the underground river, so follow the other direction. When you arrive at a big round area (instead of the narrow river all along) with water dripping from above, look under water. There is a tunnel down there. Save game and dive into it.

At the end of the underwater tunnel, resurface quietly. On the shore are four Sewer Spiders (three for Hard Difficulty, two for Normal Difficulty). They have poor eyesight, and probably have not yet noticed your arrival. Behind them, in the corner, is a Foot Locker. In the past, I tempted fate and rush to the Foot Locker (fighting Sewer Spiders with Sword is too difficult, because you have to crouch to reach them). Or I would try to lure them into water and drown them.

Heath Campbell made an observation that turns this into solid science. After you rose to the water surface, swim to the northeast corner. Climb ashore on the north (left). They won’t see you. Shoot them with your Broadhead Arrows, starting with the one closest to you. That is the most important part of Campbell’s observation. If you started shooting from the far (south) spider, you would alert every one of them and they would rush to you. Start with the near (north) spider, and you can drop them one by one (if your aim accurately, that is). In case you miss and the spiders jump on your head, just dive under water and they will drown.

When shooting Spiders, aim at their belly. Target the tail end of the belly (Spiders don’t have tails, but target the rear end nonetheless). Head shots are useless. Also, learn the way they spin around. They always pause at same direction, so observe and wait for the next time it pauses there. After they are all dead, look around to collect the arrows that missed the targets.

Take the inside the Foot Locker (just use/open the Foot Locker and the Gem Ring will enter your possession). Get back into water. Dive down to the tunnel and swim back to the big round area. Continue West along the direction of the current. Before the end of the river, you find a big cave on your right. Mantle and climb up the slope to enter the Basement.

Explore the Basement and find your way up.

Move quietly through the empty room and open the door. Locate a Foot Locker facing the door and get a Healing Potion from within. Move along the dark areas to approach the doorway on the Northeast corner of the room. Crouch at the shadows and peek at the outside.

After the right turn, continue forward and enter the Basement Quarters.

The Basement Quarters consist of four big, dark rooms arranged in a square formation. Nothing of value is placed here. On your left, you can see a guard beyond the doorway. He is standing in a lit corridor, the exit of the Basement Quarters. He is one of the two talking guards you met earlier.

The floor near the doorway is metal. Either crawl slowing towards him, or you can go there via the other three connected rooms (the four doorways that lead from one room to another are very close together). Have a quick look around and move towards the guard. Knock him down and open the Foot Locker to get two Flash Bombs (it blinds your enemies a few seconds, enough for you to escape or knock them down). Follow the corridor to arrive at the stairwell. Go up.

Now that we arrived at the East end of the First Floor, we will start moving around. The North and South halves of Manor is nearly symmetrical about its central (East-West) axis.

We will leave the East side and go West. And there, we will first go to the South half of the Manor.

When we arrive at the South Hall, which is the South half of the central region, we will proceed upstairs via the SW Tower.

At the top is a small room with two Foot Lockers. The one lying flat on the ground has a useless vase, and if you open this Foot Locker, you will have difficulty dropping the vase quietly. The other Foot Locker has a . Take it and leave the room via the only doorway.

You are now in the 1/F East Corridor, which runs North-South. It is the eastmost side of the building, also known as the Backside (becasue the Front is on the West). We will move South and go to the middle part of the building, coming back later to the East in excursions.

Turn right to move South. On your right, you soon find a T-junction with a passage going West. There are four 1/F E-W Corridors going West from the 1/F East Corridor, and this is the second of them (start counting from the North). We will visit it later, so ignore the (2nd) 1/F E-W Corridor and move quietly across the next room with a noisy sleeper. Explore his room if you wish, but there is nothing useful inside. Continue South and stop at the next T-junction, which is the 3rd 1/F E-W Corridor. Two servants are in the next room. Lean forward to have a look — they will start talking when you get close enough. Sometimes there is a third servant, who does not participate in the conversation (more about him later). Do not walk across their doorway, you may alarm them if you are not careful. Instead, step back and go West on the 3rd 1/F E-W Corridor (ie the one between the noisy sleeper and the two talking servants).

The West end of the the 3rd 1/F E-W Corridor is connected to 1/F South L-Shaped Corridor. There are two L-Shaped Corridors nearby, symmetrically placed (though you cannot see the other one from here). This one goes South from you and turn West, 1/F North L-Shaped Corridor on the North will go North and turn West. 1/F South L-Shaped Corridor is connected to the 3rd and 4th 1/F E-W Corridors, while 1/F North L-Shaped Corridor is connected to the 1st and 2nd 1/F E-W Corridors.

Move to the door ahead, slightly on your right.

Open the door and you will see the Kitchen with a servant standing with the back to you. Save your game, carefully move towards him to knock him out.

Do you remember we met a servant early on in the streets outside the Manor? If you had not knocked him down, he would have entered the Manor. He could have gone to two possible locations, one of which is here in the Kitchen. He would be facing the servant you just knocked down. If either of them sees you, they will scream for help and start running away. With two people standing still facing each other like that, it would be next to impossible to handle quietly. Therefore it is best to stop that servant from entering the Manor in the first place.

A second possible destination for the servant from the streets is the Backside room with two talking servants That is why sometimes you would meet three servants inside.

On the North wall, find a on the shelf. Go to the West wall and find a Cedric —
Please speak to Cook about last night’s dinner. While,
technically, the menu conformed to my instructions, I
suspect that the lamb was somewhat older than this spring’s,
and I am in no way fooled by his practice of warming the
salad to disguise wilting. If Cook is incapable of finding
adequate ingredients, he can be replaced — and if he offers
those same excuses about the Stonemarket shortages, please
remind him that the grocery budget is a good fifty percent
above last year’s figures, and even he should be able to procure
adequate victuals at those prices.
  — Lord Bafford Poster Scroll on the wall near the doorway on the right. If the servants are watching, you can still take the Gold Vase by leaning from the door, but you won’t be able to read the Bafford complaint.

Ignore the other two exits (will visit them later) and leave via the East door from which you arrived. Back in the 1/F South L-Shaped Corridor, turn right to go South. The first passage immediately on your left is the 3rd 1/F E-W Corridor (that is where you came from). Near the end, you find a second passge on your left, which is the 4th 1/F E-W Corridor. If you want to, go down it as an excursion and see the room with talking servants from the other direction (but come back here to continue). Turn right at the corner to go West on the 1/F South L-Shaped Corridor. Stop at the door at the end of the corridor and save your game.

A guard patrols the region, and at the nearest point he walks close to this door. Open the door. The room is covered with nice (quiet) carpet. Your location is dark enough as long as you are standing still. Move forward as long as you can stay in the shadow. When he arrives and turns around, run behind him to knock him down.

This room is what I call the South Room. Approach the other end of South Room. A doorway opens to South Hall, a big rectangular hall. Another guard is patroling a large area, including South Hall and North Hall. He will arrive and leave via a metal door near the Northwest corner of the hall.

When the other guard is not in the hall, sneak from the South Room doorway and hide into the doorway on your left. Do not go up the stairs. Turn around to face the hall, stick to the left (West) wall and move forward as much as the shadow allows. Wait for the guard to arrive from the left side. When he is returning from your right side, he is walking very close to the South wall of the hall. Ready your Blackjack. When he is in front of you, lean forward and knock him down to make the hall safe for you.

There are four towers in the building, and they can be confusing. After the steps and a short dark walkway, you will arrive at a round room. That is the 1/F of the Southwest Tower The rooms of the four towers are half a floor higher than the rooms in the main building, but it would be even more confusing if I call it Southwest Tower 0.5/F.

Take the on top of the bookshelf. Follow the other set of stairs on the East to go up to a similar round room. You have just passed from Southwest Tower 1/F to Southeast Tower 2/F. Get another on the table.

The corridor ahead is guarded when playing in Hard or Expert Difficulties. Descend the other stairs (towards the North, not the one you came from) carefully. Instead of entering the corridor directly, stop, lean and peek. Locate the guard patroling this area, but don’t be scared by the statues next to you. The guard will walk along the corridor running your left and right, and also leave it via an opening on your front right to go to the South Garden. When he is approaching from the left (West), lean forward and use the Blackjack on him.

Go West quietly on the 2/F South Corridor. At the West end, there is another set of stairs on your left. It goes up to the Southwest Tower 2/F. Go up to have a look — it is empty up there, with no place to hide.

Return to the West end of 2/F South Corridor. Turn North into the 2/F West Corridor.

Now that we have moved to the Front Side, we will visit everything on the West before moving to the North half of the building. First, we will visit the Front Side rooms on 2/F. After despatching the guards there, it is safe to descend to the Foyer to look around. Then we pass through the South Lounge for a second look at South Hall. At the end, we go North through Gallery to visit North Louge and arrive at North Hall.

Save game and approach the first doorway on your left. Listen and locate the guards. Inside the doorway is a big room (South Front Side Room). On the right, it has a doorway to a smaller room — the South Guard Post. Two gaurds are inside the smaller room: one standing watching the Foyer below, one walking around (the walking guard is absent in Normal Difficulty).

Move carefully to the side of the doorway (of the Guard Post). If you have a walking guard, knock him out when he comes outside. The other guard won’t notice. Enter the South Guard Post and use Water Arrow on the torch. Walk up quietly and knock down the standing guard. Even in Normal Difficulty you must use the Blackjack on him instead of Broadhead Arrows. If you kill him, his death scream will alarm nearby guards.

From where he stands, you can look down at the Foyer and also the North Guard Post to the North. Leave the South Guard Post, and go up stairs in the South Front Side Room, which goes up to the South Attic. Move to the far end and get a from a Foot Locker. Go back to the 2/F West Corridor.

Turn left and go North. The first opening on your left is a spiral staircase. Skip it and continue North to North Front Side Room, which is a mirror image of the one on the South. Repeat the same on the guard(s) in the North Guard Post (this time, the Guard Post is on the left side, not the right). Go upstairs to find another in another Foot Locker.

Back to 2/F West Corridor, turn right and go back towards the South. Turn right again into the spiral staircase between the two Front Side Rooms. Descend to the bottom. You have arrived at the Foyer.

Open the metal door and move inside. This is the South Lounge. At the far left side, take the on the bench. Notice that while Looking Glass Studios called it purple, it looks more like gold and black to me. Reader RampagingKestrel told me the black is actually a purple, with the color of red wine. Streamer Rockn-Roll further explained that if I had tuned up my monitor gamma, then it would have looked purple to me (I have tuned the screen very dark according to the instructions from Looking Glass).

This is the Gallery, with paintings that you cannot take. Go to the bench on your far right hand side (Northeast corner of the room) to take the and the . Exit via the other door (North) and you arrived at the North Hall, which is a mirror image of the South Hall. Open the metal door on your left to enter the North Lounge. Go to the table on the far left hand corner to get a . Leave via the other door (on the West), and you get back to the Foyer. Turn right and go North. At the North end, follow the carpeted Northwest Corridor to get back to North Hall.

Arriving at the North Hall, we first take excursions to round up all the places on 1/F. Then we take the Northwest Tower to go upstairs. There, we enter the Garden in the central part of 2/F and visit a secret passage there.

After you have completed the excursions, enter the dark doorway on the Northwest heading to Northwest Tower 1/F. Stop before you enter the round room. This one is under patrol. A guard patrols 2/F North Corridor and walks all the way down here. First, locate the stairs on your right that go up to Northeast Tower 2/F. Then douse the torch opposite, and move to crouch next to the stairs going up. Wait for the guard to appear, and knock him down.

Open the Foot Locker to get a . Follow the stairs to Northeast Tower 2/F. Descend via the other stairs down to 2/F North Corridor. As an excursion, turn right and go to the West end of the corridor. Take a look at the Northwest Tower 2/F on your right, and on your left is the 2/F West Corridor you visited earlier.

From the 2/F North Corridor, enter the doorway midway on its South wall into the North Garden. There is nothing useful here. On the South side of the Garden is a doorway to a small area overlooking the Pool. Back to the Garden and take the stairs on the West to go to the upper level. On the Southeast is a balcony looking down to the Pool below. On the Southwest is a hallway that goes South. In the middle of the hallway is a West-facing balcony, which also looks down on the Pool. The end of the hallway connects to the upper level of the South Garden.

Like its mirror image, the upper level of South Garden also has a balcony on the Northeast. Look carefully at the big banner on the East wall of the South Upper Garden. Did you notice that it does not look the same as the one in the North Upper Garden? Not the banner itself, but look at the stone structure around them. Compare this picture of the East Banner on the North Upper Garden with this picture of the East Banner on the South Upper Garden. See the difference? In the North Upper Garden, the grey stone banister is continuous behind the banner; whereas in the South Upper Garden, there is no grey stone banister between the banner and the brown wall.

Go to the East Banner on the South Upper Garden. Slash it with your Sword. A secret passage!

Follow the passage to its end. You shall be overlooking a large room with a guard below. Do not alarm him.

Drop quietly on the rafter. Send Water Arrows to douse the four torches. Retrace your steps back to the Garden. Why should we want to do this? First, because I want to visit the secret passage. Second, it is easier to douse the torches from above.

Descend the stairs down the South Garden (the side with the secret passage, not the side you started from). Leave via the doorway on the South to enter the 2/F South Corridor. Turn left and go towards the metal door at the end. Open and enter.

Finally we arrived at the heart of the Manor. On 2/F, the East side is connected with the West by two big rooms: Sitting Room (on the South) and Library (on the North). So, we pass through the Sitting Room to work with the patroling guards. Then, we have a look at the other rooms accessible from there. Most important, you can now access the Ledger Room.

After we have enough, we enter the Throne Room to dispatch the last guard of the manor. Players at Normal Difficulty must go and visit the Library before they grab the Sceptre, because taking the Sceptre completes their mission. The others will continue with the next and last section to get back to the streets.

You are safe in this room. Try to find out by yourself where the Signet (a small ring) is. You can do anything here. Just don’t leave the room and don’t make excessive noise. The Signet is not covered or contained by anything, but it is very small. After you have found it (or have given up), click here to reveal the exact locations. Click here to hide the exact locations.

Now we proceed to some patrol area. Save your game and move to the door on the South. Carefully open the door and peek outside.

Outside is a small corridor with a dead end on your right. Move out to the carpeted area and stay in the shadows. Turn left to look North.

The short corridor is connected to the Rectangular Corridor, which takes the shape of a great rectangle. The rectangle consists of Bathroom East Corridor (where you are now at) and Bathroom West Corridor, with two short corridors joining them. In Hard and Expert Difficulty, two guards are patroling the Rectangular Corridor in the counter clockwise direction. That is, they will arrive from your left, turn left and go away from you (with the back towards you). Each of the guards carry a Bronze Key for you.

In Normal Difficulty, only one of the two guards is present. So you have only one Bronze Key to pick.

When safe, crawl to the next segment of carpet. Hide in the shadows on the right hand side of the carpet. When a guard walks past you, grab his Bronze Key and bring him down. Take him to a corner and wait for the other.

Make sure you have enough time to hide the body. Time the two guards well — the two time intervals (between their arrivals) may not be equal. For example, if guard two passes shortly after guard one passed, then you should knock guard two first (and get plenty of time to hide his body).

After you have hidden both bodies, move North along the corridor and you will soon see a metal door on your right. Note that the door leaks light! Anyway, enter. It is the Dining Room. On the table aginst the right wall, get . Leave the room, turn right and continue North. Then you arrive at the middle of Bathroom East Corridor. On your left is a doorway to the Bathroom. On your right are a few steps leading down to a pair doors, which we will visit a bit later.

When playing at Hard or Expert Difficulties, just continue with the . If you are playing at Normal Difficulty, jump instead to this section (Library) first. Otherwise, the mission will end as soon as you get the Sceptre, and you won’t have a chance to visit the Library. After you have been to the Library, you will come back and continue with the others.

Before getting the Sceptre, we will first visit the Ledger Room.

Start at the Bathroom and leave by the doorway on the West (that is, the other side, because you have been on the carpetted Bathroom East Corridor). Just on the other side of the tiled Bathroom West Corridor is a doorway. Enter it.

It is a long trip, and nobody is around. Just run down the stairs until you reach the very bottom (or until you get dizzy). At the bottom of the spiral stairs, follow the corridor to a small room. Do you know where you now are? Look through the slit on the wall and guess.

You are in the Basement. Remember that, when you were in a corridor in the Basement, I have told you to peek into a room you did not have access to? You are now in the Ledger Room, looking back through the slit into the corridor of Basement West.

Grab the Key on the wall (which is identical with the other keys you already have). Open the Foot Locker on the floor to get a . Read the [after two pages of figures...]
What the hell is going on with Dreckboun? Even if Ginny’s
grafting, he damn well ought to be more subtle than this!
If it’s not turned around in another week, toss it up to
Ramirez as breach. Hand Written Ledger on the table. So, Lord Bafford suspects Ginny is obtaining money from Dreckboun. He directed Dominic to investigate. You will find (if playing Normal Difficulty, “already have found”) Dominic’s report in the Library. Lord Ramirez and Lord Bafford operate quite a number of money-marking houses. You will meet Lord Ramirez in a Mission 5: Assassins.

Leave the way you came, back to Bathroom West Corridor.

There is nothing else on the Bathroom West Corridor. Traverse Bathroom again to get back to Bathroom East Corridor. Descend the steps on the East to the two doors we ignored earlier. Use your key (all your keys in this mission are identical) to unlock either of the doors. Save game, open door and enter quietly.

Inside the door is a small room leading to a big hall, with a guard on the far side in front of a doorway. If you have not yet douced the four torches from the rafter above, use Water Arrows on them now. Some torches are out of your reach from your current position. Go back out of the door and unlock the other one to get a clear shot at them. When all the torches are extinguished, the hall is pretty dark. Do a quick save and walk towards the guard. Move behind him. Pick the key on his belt and knock him down with your Blackjack. In the previous editions, I have forgotten to mention this pick. Thanks to reader RampagingKestrel for pointing it out to me.

Notice the two gongs in the hall? If the guard sees you, he will ring the gong, and the two guards outside would rush in to greet you. Since all of them are asleep, you can save game, walk to a gong and use it. Or for more fun, restore an earlier game with the guards and try to hit the gong.

Enter the doorway into the Throne Room. Have a good look around, and take the Sceptre. Players at Normal Difficulty will end their mission here. For the rest, you still need to get out of here alive. Leave the Throne Room, cross the hall and back to Bathroom East Corridor.

On our way out, we visit the Library. The rest is simple, for there isn’t any more guards inside the Manor. You only need to remember where the exit is: North Hall.

Starting from the middle of Bathroom East Corridor near the Bathroom, do not descend the steps but continue North. Enter the single metal door on your right. This is the Bedroom.

Go to the left wall. On top of the table, get a and two . Ignore the vase, for it is useless. Go to the opposite wall if you are playing at Normal Difficulty Level, for another Bronze Key is waiting for you on the table there. Look around and leave the room. Continue North all the way (ie do not turn left to complete the rectangle, but continue forward towards the dead end). Open the metal door on your left to enter the Library.

There are four tables here. Read the Lord Bafford:

A recent delivery of antiquities from Bohn contains several
items which we felt might be of interest to you. Descriptions
follow, but you are welcome to drop by our shop to examine
them, or our other goods, in person.

An ornamental sceptre, three feet in length. The body of the
stave is weirwood, carved in the star and dot pattern. Six
inches of the ferrule, and five inches of the grip, are bound
with burnished copper overlaid by an ink-and-glaze cracqudare
varnish. The crowning feature of this magnificent piece, however,
is the six inch teardrop-cut
——
cloudstone, one of the finest of its type we have seen.

A treasure-box of two feet by three feet, of silver birchwood.
The lid is of inlaid pearline and onyx, in a maze pattern carved
into the wood. The feet are lion-paws, each clutching a crystal
globe. The inside of the box contains two principal compartments,
one with glass shelves, and one without. Beneath the compartments
is a lockable two-inch false bottom for your most valuable treasures.

Grimworth and de Perrin,
Fine Antiquities and Precious Relics Grey Book on the purple table in front of you. It took me quite some time to to search for the “treasure box with a false bottom” mentioned, but I have never found it. Recently, reader aka_66 told me why I can’t find it: Lord Bafford has not yet bought the box! Perhaps Lord Bafford planned to buy it to store his Sceptre, but he won’t need it any more…

Go North towards the windows, and pick up the on the wood desk. Go West to the other wood desk and read the Lord Bafford:

Milordy Bafford —

Speaksie sel to Ginny, did you bid. Dreckboun, the Hammer-hearts
ha’ been afoot, askulk, aferreting about, grabbing many a one
to vanish in the coldstone down below their forgey-chained
cells. Tooks they your dealer Tarquis in their clutches night
past, and two patrons as well, named of Lisalle and Ryen, skupped
up as they left — and these not the first, cries Ginny.
——
Little wonder, then, if Dreckboun grows sparse-come these days.
Of course, the lack o’ blame to one hand, but I gave Ginny a
firm understandsey, blood and doom and the whole book, so he’ll
be learning himmun all he can about how to turn the Hammers off
him, never you fear.

About your Victoria, nothing yet. Walks she an inch above the
ground, for all the dirt of her footprints have I found.

  — Dominic Papyrus there. It is not easy to understand. Seems Ginny is running a casino and his tribute is getting less and less. Dominic investigated the situation and reported the findings to Lord Bafford. The note also refers to the Hammerites who have imprisoned many of their people. In particular, they have taken Tarquis, whom you will meet one day. Finally, it talks about a Victoria, although it is not clear whether Lord Bafford is inquiring about the same Viktoria whom you will meet on a still later day.

The last table has nothing useful on it. If you are playing Normal Difficult Level, follow this link to resume your interrupted quest with Ledger Room. Otherwise, continue with the next section to leave the Manor.

Leave the library via the other door (on the West). If you think you can go back to the sewers, you have probably forgotten that you jumped down a well to access the sewers. There is no way to climb from the seweres back to the streets.

Remember that there are still guards at the Front Gate. You can toss a Flash Bombs at the Front Gate and run for your life, but the more elegant way is to keep away from the West side and leave quietly via North Hall.

From 2/F North Corridor, continue West and enter the first doorway on your right. Take the steps up to the Northeast Tower 2/F. Follow the other set of steps to descend to Northwest Tower 1/F, and down to North Hall. Turn left and enter the North Hallway on your left via one of the four doorways.

Go North along the walkway. Midway, there is a lever on your right. If you have not yet opened the gate in front of you, pull the lever to open it. Leave via the gate and the mission will soon complete.