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 words looking like theseInformation will appear as tooltips like this to see them.

There is nothing to pick (that counts toward the pick count in the mission statistic) in this mission.

The game differs between TG and TDP. You need to follow the hyper links to make appropriate jumps according to the version you are playing. Once you correctly set the verion information in the drop box above, the cumulative loot and pick count will be adjusted accordingly.

Notice that the missions start to be strongly linked together. Though you may not be aware of it, what started in Mission 5 (Assassins) is becoming a long story.

To unseal the Haunted Cathedral, you need four Talismans. If you are playing Thief Gold, you already have the Talisman of Earth from The Mage Towers. The Keepers hid two (only one for Thief Gold) of the Talismans in the Lost City of Karath-din. Few people knows the whereabouts of the city, and even if they know, the city is sealed. So you start your journey with the Stone Key ready to act Indiana Jones, and reap loads of treasure that filled the city.

In Thief Gold, you have heard that the Mages have taken steps to protect the Talismans, because they knew somebody is coming for them with disastrous results. That is why they have come to Karath-din to guard the Fire Talisman. As to how they arrive without the Stone Key? Michele L. Worley explains:

In the mission briefing, you were told that a Keeper expedition came to map the city. During the mission, you discover that they actually came to hide the Talisman(s). They divided into two parties. In Original Thief, each party hides one of the Talismans. In Thief Gold, it turns out that one of the party had pretty nothing to do except to travel afar and get killed.

Notice one special omission in the mission objectives. For the first and only time, Experts are allowed to kill humans. In Original Thief, you do not meet any human being in the mission, so there is no objective saying “do not kill anybody”. In Thief Gold, Craymen are pulled out (actually “not popping up”, you will see why when we come to them) and Mages added in, but nobody remembered to add back the anti-homicide rule. As a result, Experts are free to kill Mages. If they are completely unaware of you, then a Broadhead Arrow will do; otherwise, they are not easy to kill. At times, Land Mine is an attractive option for Mage pairs, unfortunately Mines are only available in Normal and Hard, and even then I still would rather save them for the Burricks.

You will meet Spiders and Burricks in the mission. Plus a new friend, the Fire Elements. They are big balls of fire (looks more like a flying lava ball) that shoot at you if they see you (yes, they do have a front and a back although it is indistinguishable unless you can see their tail). In Original Thief, you also meet Craymen; while in Thief Gold, you also meet Mages. Other than this, Thief Gold is very much like Original Thief, with nice touch ups in many places. But since the Craymen and Mages guards different places and have different behaviours, the parts when they appear is written separately for Original Thief and Thief Gold. Follow the link according to the game version you are running.

The single most important thing you should buy is the Papyrus Sangar —
Let me know if you ever come across any good antiquities in
your, ah, explorations. I’d be particularly interested in any
ritual headresses and masks. The gold and enamel work from
Cyric is increasingly rare, and I needn’t point out that if
you ever found something dating back to the Precursors, I’d
make you a rich man.
        — Bram Gervaisius from Bram Gervaisius. He and his collection of masks turn up again in Thief 2. Without the Papyrus, the three Precursor Masks (artifacts described in the Papyrus) you found during the mission do not worth anything. With the Parayus, your maximum loot is 3205; otherwise, it is only 2845. Update the drop box at the top of the walkthrough to indicate whether you have bought the Papyrus, so that the running total can be computed correctly for you.

Although expensive (500 each), I suggest buying one or two Gas Arrows for the annoying Burricks. You will pick up more Fire Arrows than you can use (and there is not a lot of targets on which they are useful), so don’t buy them. Do not waste money on the Breath Potions: you only dive at the beginning. It is a very challenging dive, but a restore is cheaper. Buy all the Water Arrows available: you will need a lot of them. For the remaining funds, get two Flash Bombs if you want to.

Starting from the Upper City, open the seal and make your way into the Lost City of Karath-din, now completely buried underground.

You start in the Upper City, where the entrance to Karath-din is hidden. You have no enemies here. Just run forward and play with various buildings as you like (such as climbing up walls or jumping into the well).

Do you recognize the streets? It is the Home Turf of the City you have visited in Mission 5: Assassins. Look at the City map a second time. You start this mission at the Southeast corner of the City. In my map, it is right under the words “Home Turf”.

When you reach the river, stop. The entrance to the Lost City is under the river. To your right is more of the Upper City. Go there for an excursion and come back here.

From the river, look West: there is a dark wooden gate under a stone arch. At first, I thought that the area behind the gate was part of the Lost City and I could access it from the inside, but alas it isn’t. Once you enter the Lost City, you no longer have any chance of getting behind the dark gate. You need to do it now, if ever.

Shoot a Rope Arrow to the wooden parts of the wall on your left. If the rope is too close to the stone arch, it is very difficult to climb. You can mantle up a tiny ledge of the stone arch, and then attach to the rope.

Climb up, face West, save game. If this is your only Rope Arrow, do a retrieve and jump (retrieve the arrow and jump immediately); if you have more, then a simple jump is easier to carry out. Do not press run or walk, just jump. Your aim is to land on the wooden boxes right behind the wall, reducing the chance of getting hurt.

Behind the wooden boxes, collect a and a in the midst of other useless items. Behind the cart on the far right, find two Broadhead Arrows (3 and 4 for Hard and Normal Difficulties) and a Rope Arrow (two for Hard and Normal).

That is all here. Getting back is more difficult: a rope over the gate will not reach the ground, while a rope that reaches the ground cannot be easily retrieved. I supposed one could pile up the boxes and jump out, but I have never succeeded.

From the corner behind the cart, shoot two Rope Arrows: one above the gate, one above the boxes. If you had shot from the boxes, the rope would be too close to the wall. Look at this screenshot for the positionning of the two arrows.

Climb the one on the right. Face the rope on the left (refer to this screenshot). Save game, turn around and retrieve the first arrow. Target your jump down like this screenshot. Retrieve your arrow and press jump key (without run key) so that you will drop to the East half of the red thing (outside half of the gate roof) and then fall to the base of the stone wall on the North (instead of banging on the wall). This way, you are less likely to get hurt from the fall.

Reader Roman suggested a very good alternative. Though being a little difficult, though it will you take several few minutes. Simply shoot a Rope Arrow to get into the section, get the loot as above. Take the boxes and stack them all up on the side of the wooden cart, but much closer to the mini roof. Shoot a Rope Arrow to get on top of them, grab the first Rope Arrow back (the one you used to get inside the area) when on top of the stack. Save, and with lots of reloads you can jump over to the other side and get back the arrow that you left on that side.

Refer to the annotated map. You will start your journey to the Talisman(s) from the Market Place at the center of the Lost City. And most important, to get out alive (you have to get back to the waterfall to complete the mission). We will be going through the Library twice: into and out of the city.

On the roof, go South to look over the edge of the roof. You can see the area beyond the Library exit: a small lava pool and a ramp heading to the Residential Area on the South.

From the roof of the Library, turn left Locate a hole at the Northeast corner of the roof. Listen, and drop through the hole to solidified lava, and you will immediately learn the green feature of the Lost City. Rooms turn on their lights when you enter, and turn them off when you leave. The good news is, you can easily tell where the Burricks are, because they turn on/off the light in the same way. Bad news is, you can never hide in the dark. If you really want some shadow, you can crouch in the doorway between two rooms. The room will still light up when the Burrick arrives, so you cannot ambush Burricks this way.

A Burrick is patroling this floor (2/F). It is not difficult to play hide and seek with the Burrick, but since we are coming back on the same route, it is more comfortable to have the path cleared.

The rooms form a big ring: most rooms have two doorways, which connect to the previous and next room on the ring. Your current room is the only exception — it has a third doorway to the only room with treasure. The North doorway visit the ring counterclockwise, while the West doorway do it clockwise. Treasure is behind the South doorway, but let’s deal with the Burrick first.

Check whether the Burrick is nearby. Leave via the North doorway to an empty room. Find a doorway on your left and enter a U-shaped hallway. You can see three windows on the wall in front of you, and on the other arm of the U-shape are three more windows. The windows are too small for you. Yet this room is the only one without automatic lighting. Stay here and wait for the Burrick.

When the Burrick is subdued, go back to the 3-doorway room. Clockwise or counterclockwise, as long as you do not go downstairs, you will always find you way back there. From the 3-doorway room, enter the South doorway. This is the only room not on the ring. Get two from the window-sill on the left.

Back to the 3-doorway room, and leave via the West doorway this time and continue West. The second room has large window-like openings overlooking the 1/F. You can get hurt jumping downstairs. Proceed instead to the next room to find the staircase on your left.

The staircase descends to 1/F, and beyond that, leads further down to lava. On 1/F, there are three big halls on the South (West, Central and East: the smallest of them is the West Hall you are in), and two on the North (West and East). They also form a big ring, and is also patrolled by a single Burrick. Again, you can try to evade it. Or better still ambush it because it will give you troubles when you are dealing with the Burricks in the Library Basement. Since no where is really dark, you have to stay near the stairs and run from behind it to Blackjack it.

The North doorway goes to the two empty North rooms (go and have a look). So leave via the door on the East to the 1/F Central Hall. The Library exit is on your right (South) but for now continue forward to the 1/F East Hall. You can see a doorway on your left, which goes to the two empty North rooms. Go all way to the South, and descend the steps between the pillars. Turn right and drop down a small ledge to arrive at the Library Basement. Save the game now.

Peek around the corner into the East Hall. On the far end on the North, a Basement Hallway goes towards the West. Connected to the South side of this hallway are: this East Hall, a narrow Mid Hall, and a deep West Hall. The wall on the North side of the Basement Hallway opens to a large but shallow North Cave and behind it a small lava pool.

Several Burricks guard the basement. One is waiting in the Mid Hall. Two more are waiting in North Cave. One more is patrolling the West Hall, Basement Hallway and East Hall.

Treasures lie in a room at the South end of West Hall. We need to go there and come back. While I can tail the patrolling Burrick into the treasure room, I have never been able to get past the other three unnoticed.

Wait till the patrolling Burrick walks away from you. Run up to knock it down. This part is easy, but his death cry draws the attention his friends.

Run briefly into Mid Hall and North Cave to attract the remaining Burricks. When they follow you, lure them to gather in the East Hall. If you are in real danger, climb back to 1/F. Note that their green breath penetrates walls a bit so you may have to leave the stairs and hide further into the 1/F Central Hall if they get too close. Therefore your life is easier if you have knocked down the 1/F Burrick in advance.

Hopefully you get all three Burricks into the East Hall. One side benefit of knocking the first Burrick here is that, when these three arrive, they are more likely to stay around the unconscious Burrick, making them easier to gas en masse. Shoot a Gas Arrow among them, putting all of them to sleep.

When you can count all four bodies, enter West Hall at the Northwest Corner of the Library Basement. Go all the way South. At the end, turn left into the small room to get a , a , and a from around the coffin. Read the Scroll Beniir has been informed that you ordered the sacrosanct
parchments moved to the archives beneath the great temple-palace, lest
they be destroyed by the angry and fiery breath of the earth. On the
morrow’s eve we shall move ourselves there as well. Do not tarry. to learn more about the City.

Get back to 1/F.

Go West back to the 1/F Central Hall. Go South to the short ramp and read the Keeper Journal Despite hardships, I have welcomed
this opportunity to study the city of the
precursors. Their society was remarkable,
stratified like the bedrock, and seemingly as
stable. Above all was the Emperor, a divine
figure, answerable to none but their gods.
Emperors were seldom seen by the common
people and this distance gave rise to a
powerful and politically charged bureaucracy.
——
The last Emperor but one, Va-Taraq seems to
have been different, an unprecedented
man of the people. on your right about the Precursors. Walk behind the wall openings to find the Library exit. Before you leave, turn around and take a look upstairs. If you had jumped from 2/F via the big window openings, you would have arrived just here.

Now Leave the Library.

By the way, did you notice the three lit torches burning in the brackets at the exit? Who or what lit the torches? Have other people been inside the Library in the past few hours, such as the Hand Brotherhood expedition? Or else it means something living in the Lost City is capable of lighting torches. Did I told you that you are going to make a new friend?

As soon as you step outside the Library, search the small area on your right to find a tiny .

On our way from Upper Residential Area to the South Residential Area, we will take a detour to visit the Lower Residential Area and Resident Square. On our return journey, we will return directly from South Residential Area to Upper Residential Area.

The Residential Area joins the Library and the Market Place in the center of the city. It also goes to the Resident Square on the City East.

Follow the only path to the obelisk. Markings on obelisks match the drawings on your map. A small ramp leads to the Upper Residential Area, where a Burrick is patroling. When it goes left, it is going East into a blind alley and will return very soon. Therefore, wait till it goes South further up the ramp. Enter the district and mantle up on the roof of the first house on your left.

Grab the through the window. Take the Fire Crystal on top of the wall on your right (South).

Wait for the Burrick to come back and then wait till it goes up the ramp to the South again. Drop down and run up to knock him down with a Blackjack. This saves you some sneaking now and on the way back.

After the left turn, go East and enter the doorway on your right (the one not blocked by solidified lava). Go upstairs to find a .

Return downstairs. There is a T-junction next to you on the right. Your street arrives from the West. At the junction, a street goes South to the South Residential Area. We will use that street on our return trip. For now, go North and turn right down a small ramp to the Lower Residential Area.

As long as you do not attract the Burrick to come down here, this area is safe. Locate two brownish grey buildings with same texture on your left. The first building is shorter and the second one is taller. Save game, because you may have to retry the climb and make lots of noises. Turn to face the narrow space between them. At the end of the narrow space is an inclined (natural) wall that works like a short ramp. Run up this ramp as far as you can. When you are at the highest, turn left and mantle up to the roof of the (shorter) building.

Turn around to face the taller building across the narrow space. Jump and mantle to its roof. Turn right and do a running jump to the roof of the building across the street. Drop through the hole in the ceiling to get three Fire Crystals. Drop back to the street via the big hole in the wall facing West.

Throughout the game, you will be picking up quite a number of Fire Crystals. There is not a lot of things you can do with them. So use them on any Burricks and Craymen or Mages for fun, or you will end the mission with lots of them unused.

Continue to go East to a lava pool. There is a building on your left (North). See the slope next to (West of) the building? Run up the slope, turn right and mantle on the building. Save game, enter and go downstairs carefully. Beyond the lava at the bottom of the stairs are three Fire Crystals. Crouch and walk carefully as far as you dare. Lean forward to get them. Return upstairs.

The following path goes to the Market Place via the Resident Square. Since there is nothing to collect in the Resident Square, you can use an alternative route (from Upper Residential Area directly to the South Residential Area via the street we saw a moment ago). In order to show you more places, we use this longer path in the forward journey and use the direct path on our return journey.

Stand carefully on the broken brick railing to climb up to the roof. Drop to the roof of the second building, and mantle up the third. Do a running jump to the last roof and run/drop to solid ground. Follow the tunnel up to the city walls of the Resident Square.

Save. Peek down. You see the big obelisk of Resident Square, and also the two Fire Elements patrolling the area. You are at the Northeast corner, and you can barely see the great gate on the East. The Fire Elements enter the East Gate periodically, but the area inside is flooded with lava and we cannot get inside for a good look. On the opposite side, the West Gate opens to South Residential Area, where three Burricks are hiding. The area beyond the South Gate is small and empty. Look down: if you just drop down, you would fall into lava. To get down, you need to walk on the city wall to the right (West), where you can jump safely to the ground.

Are you still alive? After taking all the time to look around, the Fire Elements below may have shot you down. They can even take a long trip through the Residental Area and give you a surprise attack from behind!

It is easy to handle the Fire Elements (just a Water Arrow will do, if you do not miss) but the Burricks are troublesome. Usually Fire Elements will take the initiative to attack anything in sight. They typically start to attack the Burricks of the South Residential Area when you arrive. If they don’t, shoot a Broadhead Arrow at the stone structures of West Gate. This should wake up the Burricks, making the Fire Elements to start attacking them.

Don’t just sit idly enjoying the battle. When both Fire Elements are occupied with the Burricks, drop from the Westmost side of the wall down to the Resident Square. Run across to the South Gate. Go up a ramp with some lava on your left and look. If you continue to go forward, you would enter an empty hall. Turn right. There is a broken ramp going up. It only leads to the wall of the Resident Square. On the left side of the broken ramp is a natural path going down. Follow it, and turn right at the lava puddle at the corner. Up the stairs to 2/F, saving the game while you are still on the stairs.

You have arrived safely at the South Residential Area. From the 2/F, listen and peek out of the window. Follow from room to room towards the West and then turn right towards the North until you arrive at a balcony (no more roof above your head). Have a look at the street. All the houses here are empty, except the one opposite — the low building with a hole in the ceiling.

Climb on the roof of the next building on your North. Jump to the roof across the street. Drop through the ceiling hole of the neighbour building. Next to the skeleton is a .

Leave the building, turn around and mantle on its roof. Run and jump back to the balcony. Enter the wall opening on the West and follow the only path.

Stop when you see lava ahead. Locate an opening on you left (South). The center of the city is just a few metres from you.

Turning left into the side tunnel may not be the easiest method: you will need to do a big jump, but you can visit more places and get a better snipper position on the Fire Elements. If you go forward, the end of the tunnel is just two metres ahead. You emerge from the broken wall in front of you to the Northeastern part of Market Place (refer to the annotated map). Let me call it wall#1: this is one of the three entrances on the East side of the Market Place. However, you can see Fire Elements flying above lava outside wall#1, so you had better be careful even when you are in the tunnel.

After turning left, you arrive at a small lava pool. On your right is a broken wall: wall#2. The middle part of Market Place is just outside, but we are after something else.

Turn left. Do a running jump across the lava into the tunnel beyond. Follow the tunnel uphill and arrive at the top of a building. This is the Southmost entrance to the East side of Market Place.

Move to the shadows on the right. Below you is a lava lake, and then walls. Behind the walls is the Market Place. Two Fire Elements patrol the central Market Place. You can use Water Arrows on them.

Save game and do a running jump to the top of wall. Instead of runing perpendicular to the wall, run toward the right end of the wall at an oblique direction. Besides giving you a longer landing distance, if case you overshoot, you would be stopped by the cave wall instead of getting hurt from falling off the wall. From the wall, crouch and drop down to the Market Place.

There is a great rock pillar on your right, blocking most of your view. In front of you is the West wall also has a big hole on it. That is our exit for this area. Before going to the hole on West wall, we first take a look around.

On the Southeast corner of the Market Place (on your left) is an extinguished campfire where you find and read a Keeper Journal (Original Thief) We must soon find a supply of water here
in the city. The Talisman of Fire needs to be
cooled, and our attempts to use the Water
Talisman for this purpose have come close to
destroying both of them. We have reached a
point where we must decide whether to drink or
carry the Talismans. Our water crystals have
been saved for emergencies, but we may soon
be forced to rely on them.
——
Hopefully we have not much further to go to the Tower. of the Keeper Expidition. So you know that they are heading towards a tower. Note that in Thief Gold, the content of the Keeper Journal (Thief Gold) We must soon find a supply of water here
in the city. The heat from the magma is
dehydrating us too quickly. Our water crystals
have been saved for emergencies, but we may soon
be forced to rely on them. Hopefully the Tower is not much farther.
——
Hopefully we have not much further to go to the Tower. has been updated to remove the reference to Water Talisman. Incidentally, it makes more sense after deleting the to drink… the Talismans. Anyway, forget about heating, dehydrating, drinking, and any implications to the danger of carrying the Talismans. By the way a bug makes the second page invisible, and therefore you cannot see the last line of the message. Seems that the problem was found in TDP, and therefore an extra sentence is added to the first page of Thief Gold, which is more or less the same as the missing sentence of the second page.

Look further South (beyond the city walls): that is the Civic Center and you can see its obelisk from here. We’ll go there later.

On the North side of the West wall hole is a somewhat broken two-storey building. Enter it via the door on its East (facing the obelisk). Find a Papyrus Dear Mailu

The city is too grand for this unworthy country
lass. I visited the Emperor’s colosseum. Such a
spectacle! The colosseum is bigger than our
village! The cheer is deafening when they extend
the bridge from below the royal balcony. Great
doors open and the combatants enter the
battlefield, a raised island in the middle of the
arena. Hundreds of magical fires float on the
surface of the water. I saw there a gladiator who
wrestled with a pair of lions, and the Emperor’s son
himself tossed him a bag of gold! I will tell you more
later, but Cherok calls.

Naza. to read about a Colosseum bigger than their village. It spells Colosseum most of the time in this mission, but a few scrolls spell Coliseum: Coliseum is the modern word, colosseum is an older word and means specifically arena and amphitheatre. More important, it tells you that they extend the bridge from below the royal balcony to the Colosseum. Keep this in mind when you get there.

You can climb to the upper storey but it is empty. Leave the house: you can see wall#2 right behind the obelisk. There is a large rock collumn on the North, blocking most of the way. Actually, there is a narrow passage between the East side of the column and wall#2. Go there. It leads to the North region of the Market Place.

On your right, you can see wall#1; on the left, several buildings beyond a pair of metal gates. The area between the buildings and the gates is flooded with lava, and is patrolled by a Fire Element. I do not have any success shooting the Fire Element through the gate, so ignore it for now. Study the ground: there is a hump on the right side of the gate. Step back and run towards the hump in a direction perpendicular to the broken wall. Do a jump/mantle onto the top of the wall. Save game and shoot down the Fire Element inside.

Walk to the right end of the wall. From the wall, run and jump across the lava. Look for a big Moss Crystal on your front right, giving you ten Moss Arrows. In Original Thief, you find a second Moss Crystal beneath the big crystal, but in Thief Gold, both are visible to you at the same time.

Explore the buildings. From the first one on the right, get a quiver of 10 Broadhead Arrows. And if playing Normal Difficulty, you have two more Broadhead Arrows on the ground. The second one gives you a . The last one offers a Fire Crystal (at Hard/Normal Difficulties, you get one/two more).

Do a quick save, for this will be the tough part. From the ground in front of the last building, do a running jump back to the wall. If you overshoot, you drop into lava! Therefore, do not run perpendicular to the wall, run towards the pillar on either side of the wall at an oblique direction. Besides giving you a longer landing distance, if case you overshoot, you would be stopped by the pillar instead of falling into lava. From the wall, do a running jump back to the ground outside.

You can see the Market Place wall on your left. Continue forward until you can see Market Place on your left through the South Gate. The road further ahead is a dead end. Turn right towards the Civic Center.

In Original Thief, the Talisman of Water is hidden in the Southeast, inside King’s Tomb. In Thief Gold, the King’s Tomb has only normal treasures. Yet since the Lever for operating the Royal Balcony Drawbridge is also kept there, you have to visit the the Tomb of Va-Taraq first, irrespective of the version of Thief you are playing. You will also find half of the Keeper Expedition, and quite some treasure.

The path there is behind the Civic Center on the South of the Market Place. There are two ways to get there: many walkthroughs first loot the Civic Center and then go to the King’s Tomb. We shall do it in reverse order. For Thief Gold, both work the same, but for Original Thief, you will find out the difference when we come back.

Behind the Civic Center Obelisk is a doorway to the Civic Center Courtyard with two patrolling Fire Elements. Usually, walkthrough goes to the King’s Tomb from the Theatre inside the Civic Center. We are going to do something different.

At the obelisk, turn left: there is an opening to a lava pool. Enter and walk to the left to mantle up. There is no enemy all the way, so run up until the top of the path.

Your path reaches an abrupt end. Look down (if you have not already fallen over). Below, there is a tunnel going South, and there is another tunnel opening on the West. That octagonal tunnel opening on the West wall leads back to the Theatre of the Civic Center. We shall take that on the return trip (because we cannot climb back up to our current path).

Drop down and follow the tunnel going South. You arrive at another obelisk. Check the map, the obelisk bears the marking of the Southeast region.

The street is lined with small houses with crimson roof. Follow the street to the South end. When it turns right, mantle on the roof of a house. In fact, any house would do, but the two at this corner are the easiest to climb. Jump from roof to roof (saving your game as necessary), until you find a house fused to a column of solidified lava. This is the last “high roof”, because the subsequent roofs are lower.

Since the walkthrough for Tomb is quite different between Original Thief and Thief Gold, I write them separately below. For Original Thief, proceed to . For Thief Gold, please skip to .

Save game, do the roof jumping and find your way back to to the hexagonal tunnel opening we mentioned on the forward trip. Since we cannot climb back up to the path we came from, we have to enter the hexagonal tunnel opening on our left. Notice the change in the ground texture. You are now on the roof of the Civic Center. Move past the hole above the Civic Center Courtyard, and continue all the way South to the apparent end of the tunnel. Drop from the ceiling to some natural rocks, turn right to continue on a narrow tunnel down. On your right is the South wall of the Civic Center, and at the extreme West, a broken wall opening.

You are on the 2/F of Civic Center. The floor consists of two long corridors running East to West through the whole length of the building. You are on the West end of the South Corridor. Go East.

You will soon find a corridor on your left going North. This is the Theatre Corridor, which runs behind the rear-most seats of the Theatre. Listen. In Original Thief, three extra friends appeared in the Civic Center when you took the Talisman of Water. Your arrival has waken them up, and the Fire Elements is fighting them. That is why it is better to visit King’s Tomb before Civic Center: if we had already watered the Fire Elements, then we would have to face the Craymen now (which is in fact not really difficult, but why bother?). Further, it is easier to snipper at the Fire Elements from the inside.

Ignore the Theatre Corridor and continue moving forward on the South Corridor. At the East end, turn left and enter the first room there. Pick up a Scroll To honor the life memory of our
departed father and king, Va-Taraq, Son of
the Sky, the coliseum he built for his people
will be closed for a year and a day. Let the
gates be locked and none make merry while
the sky and earth themselves do shake and
cry for their departed brother. This I decree

Va-Toran
Son of the Sky , which tells you that Va-Toran closed the Colosseum for a year and a day. Save game. Leave the room and continue North. Through a wall opening on your left, you can see the Southern part of the Civic Center Courtyard, and the blue shiny thing on the ground.

In Thief Dark Project, two Craymen have arrived at the Courtyard. Check whether the Fire Elements have completed their job. There is also a third Crayman near the obelisk, but it is not easy to engage it.

Snipper at the Fire Elements from the window. Even if you can only shoot down one of them from here, the remaining one will be much easier to handle down there.

The wall opening on the other side looks upon the flight of stairs you are heading to. Continue North and follow the only path to descend the stairs to the Courtyard. When the Fire Elements are not watching, rush out and hide in the dark corner on the left (although it is dark, the Fire Elements will light it up when they approach). Take stock of the situation. In Thief Dark Project, consider shooting a Broadhead Arrow to the entrance and see if you can stir up the Fire Elements to fight with the Crayman outside. Finally, shoot down the remaining Fire Elements so that we can explore in peace.

You just entered the Civic Center Courtyard from the South doorway on the East side. There are two doorways on the East. Enter the other one (the North doorway on the East).

The first room has two exits on the East, both leading to the same room ahead, which has a knee-high barrier separating the left side from the right side. Take the exit on the right to access the right half of the next room, and then turn right into a small hall. Near the brazier, read the Scroll A speech given by Master Ruitan
to the Guild of Enlightenment.

The priests tell the ignorant that the earth
is crying for her departed brother, Va-Taraq.
We know that these tremors signify something
more ominous. Taraq would have listened to
us and evacuated the city, but his son is
less enlightened. The Guild must protect
what we can, by whatever magical and mundane
means we posses. The tower must not fall. : Earth had been crying and people was told that she mourned for Va-Taraq. The Guild knew more and decided to protect the Tower. But you can see the end result: the tears of Earth are all over the city now.

Leave the hall and jump over the knee-high barrier. In front of you is a hole on the wall. Crawl inside to get two Fire Crystals. Get back out and turn left to climb and stairs at the corner up to 2/F.

This is the North Corridor, again running the full length of the center. Run towards the brazier at the West end. Take a look thorugh the small windows on the right to see the obelisk outside the center. Continue forward to the Theatre Corridor, this time on your left.

Enter the Theatre, descend via the seats. Climb on the stage to collect . If you did not purchased the Papyrus (from Bram Gervaisius) when you started the mission, the masks would be worthless objects that you could only throw away.

Leave via the lower exit (the one among the front seats) back to Civic Center Courtyard.

You have returned to the Courtyard via the North doorway on the West side. Like the East, there are two doorways on the West, but the last doorway on your right leads to nothing but lava.

Continue to the South Wall. The only doorway is blocked by solidified lava. Pick up the on the ground. Look around: there are blue gems all along the wall. Take them all: there are on the walls.

In Thief Dark Project, count the dead Craymen. If you have only two, the third one is still waiting for you near the obelisk outside.

Leave Civic Center Courtyard via the only exit towards the obelisk. Instead of entering the city walls of Market Place, turn left and move up the grey ramp.

To get the Talisman of Fire, we will climb the grey ramp on the South of the Market Place to go to the Southwestern side of the City. We have to pass through the Colosseum and meet the second Keeper expedition party. The Talisman of Fire is kept in the Tower you have already seen twice. After we have got it, then we will retrace our steps back to the Market Place and leave.

Go West along the outside of the Market Place walls and up the ramp. At the top, enter the opening on the left. Run along the tunnel. When it reaches the highest point, it turns right (West) and arrives at a big lava pool. The lava pool has a great rectangular pillar in the middle of it. We shall arrive at the other side of this pool, which is part of the Royal Arena.

Turn left to follow the path down the ramp going South. After a right turn, visit the houses ahead on the West before leaving via the opening on the South.

The first house hides nothing, not even on its beams. The smaller house half-soaked in lava has 3 Fire Crystals on the ground. In Thief Dark Project, you can either get them from outside the house (just walk as far as you dare and lean into the doorway), or run inside to get them and run out again. In Thief Gold, you can safely crawl into the house to get them and crawl out again. Leave the area and head to the South.

In the cave on the South are two houses soaked in lava. Climb on the first roof to get two Water Crystals. Jump back to solid ground and ignore the other house.

Now the path starts to head West. Continue to the next cave, with a very narrow bridge over lava. It is safe to cross it, but walk instead along the wall on your left. Press yourself against the wall to avoid falling. Collect four Water Crystals at the far end.

Continue along the path, you start to see the wall of the Colosseum on your right. The path descends down to a lava river. Jump across the lava via the stepping stones. Get inside the building, turn left and go upstairs. All the rooms here are empty: just run forward. Slow down to descend down a ramp. At the bottom, turn right and walk slowly to a building on the East.

Walk forward. There are seats (look like steps) on your right. Just before you enter the building ahead (the Royal Arena), walk up the short ramp on your right. Turn around and have a good view of the big lava lake to your North, and the Battlefield in the middle of it. The Colosseum which Naza said was bigger than their village is all around you, including the seats next to you, and everything on the other side of the lava lake. Nearly all of it has been engulfed by solidified lava.

Note also that a doorway of the Royal Arena faces the Battlefield, but they are not connected. You will need to extend the Drawbridge from under the Royal Balcony to the Battlefield.

Come back down the ramp and prepare to enter the Royal Arena. In Original Thief, the Water Talisman summoned four Craymen to the Royal Arena. In Thief Gold, several Mages are here. So I have to separate the threads again. For Original Thief, proceed to . For Thief Gold, please skip the following section and jump to .

On 1/F, leave the Royal Arena via the exit on the West. Quick check: did you walk over a bridge and then jump over the rim to the Battlefield or did you jump down to the Battlefield directly from the Royal Arena? In Original Thief there are two very unforgiving mistakes you can made (documented in the file thiefpat.txt installed with the v1.33 patch). If you make them, you could only find out very much later. If you are fortunate, you still have a saved game made before committing the mistake. That already means replaying a large part of the game. If you save games often, you may have lost all saved games made before the commit point, and you have to restart the mission from the beginning.

Here is the second of the two unforgiving mistakes: even if you do not extend the Drawbridge, you can still easily jump to the Colosseum. But if you jump across, go all the way to get the Talisman of Fire and come back, you will find out that it is impossible to jump back to the Royal Arena! The distance looks like a jump and mantle is possible, but the doorway is specially designed so that this cannot be done. In that case, hopefully you have kept a game saved before the jump. For the other unforgiving mistake (Mission 4: Horn of Quintus), if you do not keep five Fire Arrows in stock, you will not be able to get the Mystic’s Soul. Without the Mystic’s Soul, you cannot complete the mission. Thief Gold is more lenient in both cases, as we shall see on our way back.

Leave the Battlefield on the other side. Climb on the rocks to the top of walls over lava to the broken walls on the West. Turn right and mantle along the bricks of the wall towards the North. Before climbing to the last brick, look right. In Thief Gold, there is an opening on the rocky wall. We will explore it on our way back.

Continue North into the building. The rooms on both sides of you are empty. At the corner, turn right and go downstairs. At the end, carefully drop to the ledge outside.

You can now see a large area with a great staircase. I wonder whether this is the Temple, but never mind. Go towards your left to climb up. Walk around the area: there is nothing much to see. Descend the steps to the ground level below.

Beyond the opening is a big obelisk resting on the ground. Below its tip is the remains of the second half of the Keeper Expedition. The second Medallion (near the skull) is nearly melted, but still counts good in fulfilling your Mission Goal. Read the Keeper Journal [words in {} are not available in Thief Gold]
{Deven decided to separate the two Talismans, but I argued
that it may not be the most wise thing to do. Nevertheless, not more
than a few hours ago, Shanti led a group back the way we came to
examine an area we passed by. She was more quiet than usual, but
accepted the task. With them, they took the Talisman of Water.
We could bear it no longer. If the heat of burning rock
around us were not enough,
——
the Talisman of Fire was nearly untouchable.}
We had just come upon a tall and sturdy tower, and it was agreed
upon that we should deposit the Talisman there. The staircase to
the top floor had collapsed some time ago which made ascension
difficult. Aeric had pointed out the ledge circling the tower,
suggesting that one of us place the Talisman out there. I laughed
at his comment uncaringly. This disturbs me.
——
Tomorrow we shall head back the way we came. {I assume Shanti and
her company had little trouble in finding a suitable spot for the
Talisman of Water, but} I cannot keep myself from wondering why the
burning elementals stood at bay as we passed. Will they still now
that we no longer carry the Talisman of Fire? near his hand. Note that the first part about the Water Talisman is only available in Original Thief. A bug in the engine hides all but the first page. Therefore you can only see part of the message.

Then both versions talk about the Tower. You have seen the Tower earlier (in two excursions above) so the journal now confirms you that the Fire Talisman is inside that Tower. It also tells you how to climb up there.

Finally it explains why the Fire Elements have been rather passive. You are not yet hunted by the “Roaming Elementals” because you are not carrying the Fire Talisman. It hinted that they will appear from their hiding place when you have the Fire Talisman with you.

Collect from their remains 5 Water Arrows and 3 Rope Arrows. Continue to make a big right turn around the corner and run towards the South. Near the end where the skeleton lies, there is a cave opening on your left. Enter.

Walk forward till you see the creepy Statue in front of you. If you have read books from H. P. Lovecraft, you would have recognized it as the status of Cthulhu. There are buildings on both sides of you. You cannot enter any of the ones on your left (North). Give them a try (there is a slope on the West side, but doesn’t help much).

So we proceed with the South buildings. On your right are two houses. The first one is tall while the second one is short. Look through the window of the shorter house. You will see two shinny stuff. Bravely run into the house to collect two , and run back out again.

Enter the taller house and look up. Shoot a Rope Arrow at the beam and climb/jump to the remains of the second floor. Retrieve your Rope Arrow and do a running jump to the roof of the short house. Turn around. Jump (vertically) upwards and look. Something shiny is on the roof of the taller house.

Save your game. From the Northwest corner of the (shorter house) roof, mantle on the roof of the taller house. Take the two Fire Arrows and the shiny . Drop back down to the roof of the shorter house.

Do a running jump towards the Northeast to the area behind the statue. Follow the path around to the broken wall, we are going to visit the North buildings now. Enter the hole and drop carefully to a dark triangular ledge below and to the right. Look through the window slit on your right, you can see the Tower and the patroling Fire Elements now. Jump to the platform ahead and mantle up the ledge behind. Walk across the roof of the second building and into the third. Save your game and drop down to the solidified lava below, descending to ground level. Hide yourself on either side of the doorway.

Outside the building you can see the Tower that the Guild of Enlightenment tried to save. If Garrett have not seen the Tower in the earlier excursions (or you have restored after the excursions), he will mutter so this is the lost city, it’s now lost no more again. The Tower is surrounded by a lava moat on the other three sides. A Fire Element is patroling around the Tower, two more are standing on the lava pool on the right (East). Unless you have doused some of them when you took .

When the Fire Element has past you, run into the Tower. While not necessary, you may consider using Water Arrows on the Fire Elements here. Because there will be more of them on your way out.

Climb the stairs all the way up to Level 3. Near the Southeast corner collect a and from behind the broken Chest a . Read the Scroll Fire rains upon us from the sky. At the Temple of N’Lahotep,
four hallowed geldings were offered to appease the acrimonious earth.
The sanguine overture has done nothing to pacify her. at the Southwest corner about what the priests did in response to Earth crying . N’lahotep is a god of Karath-din. You may have recognized that it is a reference to the Temple of Nyarlathotep from the books of H. P. Lovecraft. But it is never mentioned where the temple actually is.

The stairs to Level 4 is broken, so you had better try elsewhere. If you could read all the pages of the Tower Party Keeper journal , then you would know how to proceed. Save your game and climb outside the North window and carefully lower to the ledge outside. Be careful because it is a long way down. In front of you and a little to the right, you can see a tunnel opening on the wall beyond the lava lake. That is the tunnel from the initial waterfall (if you took ). Look down and you can locate two Fire Elements just above the lava.

Look up: there are windows on Level 4, but there is no way to get up there. Walk towards the right (East) to find out that the ledge is broken at the corner (and Garrett will tell you that I’d better off looking for another way round). Turn around and walk back towards the West (counter clockwise around the Tower). After the corner, you notice that there is a beam above the window. So you will be able to shoot a Rope Arrow to climb up to that window. Hope you didn’t.

Remember what is there behind the window? The broken staircase! You can barely jump from the window to Level 4, but I have reload the game several times to do it. Better turn two more corners to the East wall, taking the opportunity to have a good look around. On the South side, you can see the buildings through which you arrive at the Tower. On the East side, you can see another tunnel opening on the rocky wall. This time, the opening is very low, near the lava lake. It is the tunnel from the Market Place (tunnel beyond the hole on the West wall in the Market Place excursion).

Shoot a Rope Arrow up to the beam over the window. Carefully climb up the rope (I always find it difficult to climb on a rope, especially here where there isn’t enough space to stand on — so save game first) and get into the window. And this Rope Arrow is not retrievable; well at least not worth retrieving, becuase you do not need it any more (unless you are attempting the quick way to leave, which needs several). There are several chests on Level 4, but all of them are empty in Expert difficulty (the one near the broken staircase contains a Healing Potion in Normal and Hard). Simply grab the Talisman of Fire in the center. I am surprised that grabing it doesn’t seem to trigger any traps. Actually the trap is more subtle, and you will learn that soon.

Before you leave the room, look at the drawings on the wall. Wind Blows. When you are descending down the tower, note the design of each level. 2/F has water and waves, 1/F has a earth like look (same as the one at the Theatre of the Civic Center), and G/F has a shining sun. The people here loves the four elements as much as the Mages. I have heard a speculation that both the Mages and the Keepers were descendent of the Guild of Enlightenment. You decide whether to believe in it.

Time to get out of the city alive. There are two methods: first, the long way starting in the next section, retracing your way back to the Library. You will have a minor surprises on the way. Here is another method suggested by reader Chris Proctor.

After you’ve gotten the Talisman of Fire, lean out the window opposite the door in the talisman room. Shoot a Rope Arrow near the top of one of the blocks above the window. Climb the rope (save first, it’s tricky), mantle onto the block, and then onto the roof of the Tower.

A few things you can do from here. Firstly, you can shoot rope arrows into two places, just above and just below the high tunnel (the one on the far North, leading to the initial waterfall). Above, aim for the lip just above the top of the tunnel. Below, aim for a bit of the pavement stuff just before the tunnel ends. Whether either of these helps is debatable.

Do a super-speed jump starting from the opposite edge: run, jump, jump (the second jump has to be right from the edge) and you fly straight into the tunnel. It might be possible to catch a rope if you don’t make it into the tunnel entrance. From there, you can directly run back to the waterfall and finish the mission.

Just retrace back to Market Place. From Tower Level 4, you can either drop down to Level 3 via the broken stairs, or if you are afraid of getting hurt, down via outside the window (dropping from the rope down to the ledge is just as frightening). Back to ground level.

Now that you have taken the Fire Talisman, the Fire Elements become restless, so be careful. Ten new Fire Elements have appeared, two of them around the Tower. You can basically assume every pool of lava has one waiting for you.

When the Fire Elements are not watching, get back to the building with solidified lava and climb back up to the roof of the building next to it. Drop down to the Statue Area, run back to the Keeper campsite carefully. Taking the Talisman of Fire triggers new friends waiting for you, so do not run into them on your return journey thinking that the path is void of AIs. A Fire Element is either near the Keeper campsite or around the great staircase. Since you are meeting it head on, you had better use a Water Arrow on it.

Find you way back to the Colosseum. Original Thief players need to use the Drawbridge to go back to the Royal Arena If you haven’t extended the Drawbridge, reload the game before you leave the Royal Arena — there is no other way back. Cross the bridge and skip to

Thief Gold players can now return to the Royal Arena via an alternate route, without using the Drawbridge. Remember the rocky wall openning I pointed out in our forward journey? When you get back to the broken wall, turn left and jump over the lava into the openning.

It is a tunnel, run till the end. At the other end, you can see the walls of the Northern part of the Royal Arena. Look up to see the blocked balcony you have seen earlier from inside Royal Arena 2/F.

Climb the rocks till you arrive at the balcony. You cannot enter via the blocked balcony. You can however go to its (North) side wall and mantle to its top. Drop through the ceiling hole and arrive at Royal Arena 2/F. Go South to the Royal Balcony and drop down to the Royal Arena 1/F..

Refer to the annotated map. Find your way back to the Market Place. Travers South Residential Area and Upper Residential Area to return to the Library and escape to the waterfall.

Go South on the Royal Arena Main Corridor. At the brazier, turn right into the Initial Corridor. At the West end, turn right into the room to leave the Royal Arena. Continue your way back by going West and then turn left up the ramp, turn left through the Colosseum building and then down the stairs. When you leave the building to the lava river with stepping stones, a Fire Element is patroling around. Just wait till it moves to the left side and jump along the stepping stones (or of course you can douce the Fire Element but there are more on the way).

After crossing the lava river, follow the path up and across the narrow bridge. Another Fire Element is ahead. When it turns away, move forward to the shadows between your cave (with narrow bridge) and the next (the one with two houses soaked in lava). Douse the Fire Element, because this one is not as easy to sneak past. Continue your way back. Stop before you reach the top of the path. On your left is a lava pool with a great rectangular pillar in the middle, now with a Fire Element wandering. Wait till it turns away and run past the area to go back. Descend the grey ramp and arrive back at the Market Place.

Enter the Market Place via the South. A new Fire Element is patroling here so watch out. Go North past the Keeper campsite on your right, past the rock pillar on your left, past the wall-hole on your left, past another rock pillar on your right, past the building on your left, to the obelisk. Before arriving at the obelisk, turn right and go to the hole on the East wall. It is wall#2. From far away, it looks as if it were completely lava inside. When you walk closer, you can see solid ground behind the wall. Climb through the hole, follow the tunnel on the left to wall#1, turn right and follow the up-going tunnel to leave Market Place.

Follow the tunnel back to the balcony of the South Residential Area. We will leave via a path different from the one we came.

While there are new Fire Elements in Resident Sqaure and in Lower Residential Area, there is no new ones here. But how about the old ones? Check the streets. If it is not patrolled by Fire Elements or Burricks, drop to the ground and go left (North). After the right turn and the left turn, you will arrive back at the Upper Residential Area.

If the streets are not safe, you can either shoot down whoever is still here, or you can travel via the roofs. From the balcony, mantle on the roof on the North. Go North from roof to roof until the last building, and then follow the roofs to go East. At the East end, wait till the street is clear to drop down and return to the Upper Residential Area.

Pick up the path through Upper Residential Area back to the Library. After a left turn and a right turn, you descend the ramp to the obelisk in front of the Library. A final Fire Element is waiting in the tiny lava pool between Upper Residential Area and the Library. Douse it and enter the Library.

What have you done to the Burricks on Library Levels 1 and 2? Sneak if they are still around, run otherwise. From the main hall, go left to access the stairs up to Level 2. Leave via either doorway and go all the way East back to the room with a hole in the ceiling. Climb on the solidified lava to mantle up to the roof.

Run down the tunnel. At the junction, turn right, heading towards the waterfall (if you continued forward, you would head to the opening overlooking the Tower). When you reach the ledge overlooking the river, the mission ends.

Did you expect gratitude from the Keepers? You know better than that. A “You have returned to us what is ours” is all you will receive for all your troubles. You should be grateful they did not complain about the melted Medallion. Anyway, you now have two Talismans (Fire and Water if you are playing regular Thief, Earth and Fire if you are playing Thief Gold) — half way to unsealing the Haunted Cathedral.