Island of Iron pt 1: FORTRESS OF STEEL ================================================= January 2003 ================================================= Author : Dark Assassin Homepage : None Date of Release : Final Release (English version) January 25, 2003 Description : My 4th T2 FM! Story: (sequel to A Brawl in the Tombs) Damn! What a wild night! Passing through the Thieves Hideout, and making my exit by way of the river valley, I soon snuck back into town and met with my contact in the area. The thieves whose base their Chief, a man named Willy, allowed me support and safe passage through were there too. To put it mildly, they were pissed off. When they had raided the tombs, they found that I already cleaned the place out! All their growling about having taken so many risks for nothing quickly faded when I gave the their cut of the profits that I had promised Willy in order to work with them. (Actually I let them have a bigger percentage than I originally planned, but I have enough enemies already so I wanted to keep those guys happy for safety's sake) I gave the Dark Sword I had found in the tomb of Lysander to Willy as well as the Gold Skull I found in the Hammer tombs, to thank him for his support. After that, everyone was satisfied and I make a quick exit with my health intact. (and still enough gold to make a nice contribution to my retirement fund.) Making my way back to the city, I thought about the terrifying things I had witnessed. I knew the tomb job was going to be risky, but my little trip into the underground tombs of Lithscon made getting the eye out of the Haunted Cathedral seem like an easy task. Sneaking past the undead, I had found a secret way into the Hammer controlled area of the tombs. The Hammers and their hired thugs had gathered quite a bit of treasure from the disturbed tombs and locked them away in a secured room, but with most of their men manning the 'front lines' it was a simple matter to sneak in and fill my loot bag (it was a bit more than I needed to carry, but after moving all of those f***ing steel plates I hauled to the machines of Soulforge to manufacture the tools of Karras's destruction, I found my burden to be rather light in comparison!) Despite the frightening experience of dodging bands of undead in the rooms and tunnels, my most unnerving discoveries had to do with the living.... After finding a group of Mech Watchers and turrets guarding a well lit tunnel which had been dug there from the basement of one of the local nobles, I snuck around until I discovered a secret entrance to the basement, which the local thieves had discovered not long before the crap hit the fan. Entering, I found the body of Ken, one of the local thieves, who had decided to make his own little treasure hunt into the tombs before his buddies from the Thieves hideout made their own loot grab. Entering the basement through the secret way, I discovered it to be crawling with Mechanists. And then I found it....A small room in the basement, locked away even from other Mechanists, that had been converted into a macabre laboratory of horrors.....undead kept in cages or bolted to tables for all kinds of ungodly experiments! Opening a wall safe in there, I found out who was behind it all, a Mechanist called Friend Arbez.... I was all too familiar with the man; not long before, in another one of my rather adventuresome forays, this time in an underwater base the Mechs were using as a staging point in their current operations on the Island of Iron, I found references to him in several notes. Apparently our 'Friend' is a rather psycho character, responsible for the murders of several servants and even fellow Mechanists who had stepped out of line. From what I found in his notes, our "friend" used to be one of the mages of the Hand Brotherhood. Looks like he was too crazy and ruthless in his experiments even for the Hand (sick bastard has even used children!), so they kicked him out. Now he is in the ranks of the Mechanists, helping to advance their technology while pursuing his own sinister agenda......When I left the whole mess, I had a sick feeling in my gut that I would be dealing with this character soon... And here I am, standing on the shoreline a few miles from the seaside village, just outside the City. It's been nearly two months since my little trip to Lithscon. After laying low in the City for a while, while the Wardens fought each other. Sheriff Mosely had finally been able to restore a semblance of order. With things calm again in the City, I could finally come out from under a rock and get down to business. Journeying to the seaside village I began preparations. After my last trip to the Island of Iron seeming ages ago, I always knew in my heart I would have to back there.... after seeing the great castle and factory there, I knew that untold riches just had to be lying somewhere inside... (if you could just get around the resident undead horrors!) But this time it's not for the money.... it's for blood! I've seen to much terror, too much tragedy, too much horror in my lifetime to sit back and do nothing while 'friend' Arbez is doing Builder-knows- what in his terrible experiments he is now undoubtedly doing on the Island of Iron. The Keepers have been showing me things in their books as of late...never telling me everything of course... but from what I can gather, there's some big, bad events happening real soon! When I first met Constantine, I just thought he was an eccentric art collector. When I met Karras when he a Hammer Priest, I just thought he was an eccentric but inventive engineer. In both cases I ended up nearly dying at their hands of their henchmen. I've just heard and read about Arbez, and I KNOW he's trouble looming up ahead for myself and a lot of innocent people......... He's going down.......Tonight! From information I have stolen from the Hammers and Mechanists, and various clues from the Keepers, (who have been unusually active in helping me) I know that the center of Mechanist activity on the Island of Iron is located in what is called the Fortress of Steel. The Fortress lies on the very tip of the narrow southeastern peninsula of the Island of Iron with its back almost to the jagged edge of the sea-cliffs. Although the location is at the opposite end of the Island from the old hammer facilities, the Mechanists chose it because of it's natural defensibility, plus it's easy to reach with men and supplies from Markham's Isle. Reconnaissance of the area revealed none of the large graveyards and underground tombs that honeycombed the rest of the Island (explains the large numbers of undead there, apparently the place was used as some kind of secure burial ground for centuries before the Hammers and others began living and working in the area.) From a intelligence dossier I lifted from Thoren's headquarters on my nocturnal visit, the Mechanists had initially planned to sweep through the Island in a matter of days, destroying the undead and securing it's mineral resources for themselves. (yeah that's just what we all need, Mechanists getting more ore to create new killer toys in the titanic factories of New Soulforge.) Doubly bad with Brother Cavador back in the mix as a member of good standing in the 'Mechanist Council'-Karras's successors which consisted of the best and brightest of that crazy bunch. So Victoria didn't kill him after all........I just hope he didn't get a good look at my face when I snatched his ass back in the Lost City.... The Mechanists found out the hard way, that dark forces are not so easily overthrown, especially in large numbers! After a series of titanic battles and heavy losses, the Mechs have only gained so far the possession of the area surrounding the Fortress and some besieged outposts in the southern half of the Island. I'm sure Friend Arbez is there, in the heart of the Fortress, safely tucked away doing Builder-knows-what .....getting to him wont be easy. The Fortress is a fairly big place, and the outside is supposed to be lit up like the sun, with a batteries of watchers, turrets, bots and fanatics to keep away unwanted guests. But there's another way in.... The Keepers tell me that underneath the fortress lies a small sea-cave that is connected to the Fortress by an elevator shaft drilled through the rock. The Mechanists channel supplies from Markham's Isle and their aquatic facilities through the tunnel. Because the cave's only entrance is by way of the sea, the Mech's haven't placed as many defenses there since zombies aren't known for their ability to swim. That's where I'll make my entry. Since I'll be in deep in Mech territory with pure stealth being the only way to survive, I'm leaving the sword behind....If I can catch Arbez alone and unaware.. seven inches of double-edged steel in the form of my trusty dagger should be enough to express my feelings about his diabolical activities! It's time.....TO KILL! ================================================== *Playing Information* Game : Thief 2 TMA Mission Title : Island of Iron pt 1 File name : miss20 Difficulty Settings : Yes Equipment Store : No Map : No Auto Map : No New Graphics : HELL YES! From Dromed Deluxe! New Sounds : A little voice work of my own.. Multiple Languages : Not in this version Briefing : No ================================================== *Construction* Base : From Scratch (from my evil thoughts hehe) Build Time : Just over 3 months ======================================================== *Loading Info* Copy into FM folder and run Darkloader ======================================================== *Special Thanks* To EVERYONE who has given me support and encouragement by TTLG forum or E-mail! Especially with the terrible framerate problems of the first beta (thanks to amievil and Domarius for ideas on how to fix it). To the guys at the TTLG editing forum a BIG THANK YOU! There have been literally dozens of people who have given me helpful tips there! Without your help THIS LEVEL WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE! Here's a few of them: Avalon-creator of the Thief Objective Wizard Thorin Oakenshield- T2 Object List Hit Diety-FX list, various tips raestel-showing me what the monolog was (VERY HELPFUL TOOL!) d'Spair and Mopgoblin-info on Quest Var traps-now I have my FIRST INVISIBLE OBJECTIVE! GayleSaver, YcatX, Domarius amievil and many, many others! THANK YOU! =========================================================== Before I forget! This mission was created with the Help of Rob Hicks Dromed Deluxe! I used many textures and objects from DEDx in this mission, Since I didnt really keep track of what all I used, I'm just going to put the full credit list right here! Antonio Salazar - Web Master and Goad AWang - Sounds BlackRuin - Sculptor Clichéman - Unknown Contribution Daemonite - Sculptor and Artist DarkArrow - Sculptor and Artist DemonReaver - Artist Dhin - Texture Converter Epithumia - Web Host Ernie - Sculptor and Artist Gaylesaver - Script Guru Nameless Voice - Sculptor and Artist Phantom - Sculptor and Artist Schwaa - Sculptor Guru and Artist ShadowTemplar - Sculptor and Artist Von Eins - Sculptor and Artist YcatX - Sculptor, Artist and Inspirational Madman Thanks Guys! ============================================================ *Tips and Bugs* Best to be quiet....making a lot of noise is a quick way to die! I set up a simple track for the bots to follow, they dont seen to listen to me too well, so they tend to wander around! watch your back! You should have a couple of new items in your inventory, dagger, flash arrows, to access them you have to use the weapon select keys. (mine are set to - and + keys) I was told that the voice work is a little loud, unfortunatley I had already deleted my original wavs I had before I turned up the volume, so I left the sounds as they were. Think I got the spelling errors corrected though. ============================================================ Special thanks to all of my betatesters! Big round of applause for... Nightwalker Hawkette Glenn Italiano Jericho LJT Sexypat Dinksmallwood ============================================================ *Copyright Information* Distribution of this level is allowed as long as it is free and the package kept intact. You may not include this level to any map pack without my permission (Komag is free to put it on his FM CD's though) No one may edit and re-distribute this mission without my express permission. If permission is given, full credit must be given to the people who produced the artwork and models used from DEDx as well as the author. This level was not made and is not suported by Looking Glass Studios or Edios Interactive USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!....If you start babbaling 'The Words of Karras, The Words of Karras' uncontrollably IT'S NOT MY FAULT!