Note: This walkthrough contains hidden "spoilers". To see the text that is concealed by the solid blocks, hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor across.
Test spoiler: You can looksies, but can you sees?

Mixed Messages Walkthrough (Expert Level)


There is no loadout. You start with 6 Broadhead arrows, 5 Water arrows, 4 Moss arrows, 3 Rope arrows, 6 Flares, a Flash Bomb and a Scouting Orb.

Start

Duck down and crawl South through the hole in the wall. Stop and wait until the conversation finishes. Creep round and leave the graveyard to the SW. Go anti-clockwise round the building facing you and steal a purse from the swordsman (15). Now go East and enter the building with the red door. Go upstairs, out of the window, and anti-clockwise round the ledge to the South side. Lean in the open window to steal the money (55 - 70). Go all the way back to the West side and hop across to the sexagonal metal pillar and thence onto the roof of the pumping station. Go through the door and down the ladder to pick up some coins ( 40 - 110).

Climb back up the ladder, turn right and jump across to the metal balcony (this is not easy). Pick the lock, sneak in, steal the Broadheads from the archer and operate the switch. There is a coin pair (20-130) to the left of the ledge in front of the archer (facing the door you just opened). Back on the ground, go round to the NW corner of the building. Stand close to the corner facing South (looking towards the balcony) and shoot a Rope arrow into the eaves about halfway between the corner and the balcony. Climb up, creep through the door and go down the ladder to the left. In the room to the South you will a find a crystal (25 - 155) and a diamond-tipped drill bit (250 - 405). There is also a coin on the ground behind the lh crate under the window (20 - 425). Climb back up the ladder, and the ladder that is now facing you, to open a safe for some money (25 - 450). There is a healing potion in the left corner of the window ledge by the safe. Back on the ground outside, head East. Go carefully through the arch - there is a swordsman on the right. An archer and a swordsman with a purse (30 - 480) patrol this road and a man with a purse (25 - 505) walks down it.

There is a gold canopic jar in the lh tomb in the disused church graveyard (75 - 580). Cut the banner that was under the statue. Go through the tunnel into the abandoned church. You will find a hammer relic on the floor (75 - 655). In the rh tomb you will find a skeleton with a ring on his finger (100 - 755).Through the open window of the next house you can steal some coins (5 - 760). Rope up to the upstairs window of the last house on the right to find a purse (15 - 775). Go round the back and read the note; it is for Rosie, so this must be her home. Walk round the corner and rope up to the window with the Jolly Roger (skull and crossbones flag) to collect money (30 - 805). Lean through the upstairs window of the next house to liberate a pair of spectacles (50 - 855) and through the downstairs window to gather some coins (60 - 915). The plants in the backyard contain some handy moss arrows. Climb through the gatehouse rear window, pick up the Water arrows and pull the lever that opens the gate. Extinguish the torches, creep into the darkened gateway and listen to the guards' conversation to obtain a new objective.

Inside the Gate

Look out for the two patrolling archers, and nip across to the wall on the right of the banner. Face the jail and place a rope arrow in the upstairs railing above the door. When the patrolling guard inside can't see you, run across and climb up to the balcony. Open the door, creep downstairs, get the Jail Key from the guard and look under the stairs for Moss arrows, Water arrows, a hard to see Gas mine and a coin stack (5 - 920).

Leave the jail and go in the door to the East. There is little to see in the bathroom area, so go North to the swimming pool. Rope up at the North end and collect a bottle of fine wine from the loft (50 - 970). Now walk through the combat training areas and leave through the door by the archery targets. Go South, then West. There are two patrolling archers here, and a stationary swordsman in the archway that leads to the Armoury.

Peek through the arch to locate another patrolling archer and a helmeted swordsman. When they are both out of sight, wait until the watcher in the NW corner starts to swing away then sprint into the entrance below it. Climb the ladder, rob the archer (20 - 990) and switch off the watcher. Come back down and sprint across and up the steps. Duck into a corner of the porch, open the door and enter. Creep round to the left, and substitute the description on the Notice Board (objective completed). Now go up the stairs. The sleeping guard has the key to the armoury lockers. Read the papyrus between his bed and the wall. Go clockwise, open the locker opposite the elevator shaft and collect the flares, arrows and money (17 - 1007). Continue clockwise to the other locker and collect the assorted weaponry therein. Back to the elevator and climb up the shaft for a Gas arrow in the chest. Now bring the elevator up and ride it down one floor. Deal with the archers and watchers in the other three corners of the courtyard if you wish. Otherwise, dash out across the courtyard and through the arch.

Turn left (West), and jog down to the T junction; go right and then through the door on the left. There is a kitchen to the right, with a ramp leading down to two rooms. Go to the Eastern one, duck into the fireplace and collect two spice bags from between the fires (80 - 1087). Open the closet, frob the coathook (secret 1), and take coins from the chest (5 - 1092). Back up the ramp, head East. There is nothing upstairs, so go out of the door into the mess hall. Switch the lights off and go through. Cross the passageway into the barracks. There are two sleeping archers. In the chests are an Invisibility potion, Moss and Water arrows, and coins (5 - 1097). Go up the ladder to find a sleeping swordsman, a scroll with information about Rosie, and a pair of spectacles (50 - 1147).

Go out of the East door and down to the basement of the pub. Climb into the dumb waiter, go up and steal the coins from the box (12 - 1159). Put out the fire to find money in the flue (117 - 1276). Leave and make your way round the back of the barracks, then head East to abeam the armoury entrance. Open the double doors to the North, then go South and into the arch with rooms either side. In the room on the right find coins on the table (45 - 1321). The 'H' banner on the wall indicates that this used to be Hagen's room. Cross over into the other room.

The Hive

Look for a switch in the fireplace which opens a secret hatch above the door (secret 2). Inside you will find a Mixed Message, a journal you should read, and another switch (secret 3) which moves the bed to reveal a ladder going down.

This must be Mosley's room, hence the 'M' banner on the wall. Go down the ladder and head NE. There are some interesting machines, one of which is receiving a repetitive telegraphic code. What does it mean? It's Morse Code for 9475

Read everything. That's interesting - Amgine is an anagram of Enigma, which was a World War 2 decoding machine. Also note the numbers in the specifications for the Victrola. 9475 again! Now go back to the ladder and head West, then North. The notice by the strange stone contraption indicates that it is a portal that needs four different things to operate it. Carry on North to the room with the ladder. Read the notice to your right, and look into the rooms on the left to view the sleeping pagans. Climb the ladder and keep going to the end. Mantle up, walk along, climb the next ladder and operate the switch (secret 4) to emerge in the mansion.

The letter on the banner is 'T' (for Truart). Go North, switch out the lights, turn left and enter the first room you come to. There is a painting of nautical flags above the fireplace. Do they spell out a message? Would you believe 9475? Steal the candlestick ( 50 - 1371)and read the journal under the bed. Note the hidden switch between the bed and the wall. This must be Truart's room!

Operate the switch (secret 5) in the fireplace. Go up the ladder on the right, operate another switch (secret 6) and creep out into the chapel. Open the door facing you, frob the coathook (secret 7), and go up another ladder.

On one windowsill are Goldsies and Silvers. Take them. At the other end, the phonograph plays an excellent rendition of "Norwegian Wood". There is a duplicate Victrola specification near it. The ladder in the other opening leads down to a Peeping Tom's paradise. Return to the chapel. Between the two curtains is a box containing money (25 - 1396). Leave by the main door. The next room to the South is the Statue Room. There is a switch (secret 8) behind the SW pillar. Operate it, and pick up RubyEast and RubyWest.

We now have everything we need to operate the portal, so head back there. The quickest way is via the central staircase.

The Woods

Put the pagan jewels into the correct receptacles to activate the portal, then jump through it to emerge in a woodland area. Creep, wait and listen to the ape-beasts. Stumpsie? - Tree stump! Head right to collect a Gas arrow, then go through the opening to the NE. There is a pond straight ahead with Water arrows. Climb up onto the mound to collect a giant ruby from a hollow between the poison-gas pitcher plants (150 - 1546). Loot objective complete. Squeeze between the rocks to the West of the mound and duck into an opening in the foliage. Climb up the vine and go along the passage to collect Scaresie from the far end. Climb back down to ground level and then rope up to the tree platform to your North.

Shoot a Rope arrow into the branch about two-thirds of the distance across to the lighted opening in the next tree. Jump across, climb up and jump across again into the balcony 'basket', which is probably a broken bridge. Drop Scaresie onto the red boulder - this activates a Particle Bridge. Cross the bridge, duck through the opening, go up to the right and then left into the rock tunnel. The vine breaks and drops you into a pool. Climb the vine to the South into a lava area. Carefully hop to the far side of the two rocks and lean forward to reveal a silver nugget and a gold nugget in a small cleft in the wall (150 - 1696).

Back into the pool, and climb the other vine. Follow the tunnel through the rock, up the ramp and emerge into the open. Go straight ahead past the hut. The Amgine missing part is in a hole under the tree stumpsie near the frogbeasts. (It is the only tree stump in this enclosure.) Avoid the other denizens (Treebeast, Apebeasts) and collect some Frogbeast eggs from the corner. There are Water arrows in the pond in the opposite corner of this enclosure. From the pond , go through the opening to the East, turn left and climb up to the lookout post; drop through the hole in the floor to collect Moss and Water arrows and a crystal (25 - 1721). From the lookout post you can see a hut to the East. Walk to it and find a crystal chunk near the back wall (25 - 1746).

Go South from the hut and climb the rocks to another tunnel with a vine in it. Go through, hugging the right wall to avoid falling down the hole again. You emerge at the particle bridge. Retrace your steps all the way through the portal to the Amgine machine. Reattach the missing part to start the machine working. Climb onto the crate to insert the Mixed Message, press the button and retrieve the deciphered message.

The Mansion

Go back up the ladder into Mosley's room and out to the archway. Turn right, then head East towards the archery area. Climb the ladder on the left to view the archer at the end of the tunnel. Deal with him as you wish. Return down the ladder, and go West to another similar ladder, up and through the tunnel to a second archer. Jump down via the hedge to avoid damage, and walk round to the left.

In the first building, go up two ladders to read a papyrus. (We know what is inside the walls now!) There isn't any way to get into the second building. Go into the third building. In the room on the left is a journal that contains an important clue. Upstairs outside on the grass back left of the table is a coin pair (20 - 1766). Pick the back door lock of the next building - another armoury. Take everything. Go round the corner and head East. At the far end is an open shed. Push the barrel away so you can get into the NE corner to climb into the roof for a coin on the table (5 - 1771 and another at the base of the table on the far side (5 - 1776). Carry on round the outside of the mansion and find a ring under the bench (100 - 1876). Pick open the door of the next building. There is money in the box (12 - 1888). Come out of the door, turn right and walk down the ramp to the basement.

Pick the lock, go in and up the ladder to emerge behind the bar where there are four gold cups (100 - 1988) and three bottles of fine wine (150 - 2138). There is a coin pair on the roulette table (20 - 2158). On the card table find another gold cup (25 - 2183), a coin pair (20 - 2203)and gold dice (50 - 2253); on the mantlepiece are two small statues (30 - 2283). The door to the North leads to the library, the ones to the West and South open onto a corridor. Go out to the South. On your left, collect a mask (50 - 2333).

Follow the corridor all the way round - there is little of interest in the rooms until you reach the kitchen. Go in and read the note to Jeeves from Google about the guests. Hint - Jeeves and Google are Internet search engines. On the wall above the fireplace is a plate (10 - 2343), and on the kitchen counter are two fine wines (100 - 2443). Next door is the dining-room with two candlesticks (100 - 2543). Follow the corridor to the other end for another mask (50 - 2593). Retrace your steps and climb the central staircase.

There are pictures of hand signs on the left - they represent 9475 The book on top of the clock contains song lyrics about dandelions and rainbows, and the music that plays on the phonographs are the actual songs. "Have you seen her all in gold?" Look at the decoration on the clock - the girl is swathed in gold, dandelions hide all the numbers except 4,5 7 and 9, and the colours of the numbers are colours of the rainbow. The colours of the rainbow in order are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, so if you sort the numbers by rainbow colour, ie red first, you get 9475

Look into the rooms on the Eastern corridor to see where and how the voyeur was getting his kicks. You have already visited the rooms off the Western corridor, so go downstairs and open the doors at the front of the mansion. When you leave, you will be in a hurry!

Go to Truart's room and operate the switch behind the bed. You must now activate the secret entrance within three minutes! Race out of the front door and straight ahead into the armoury. Take the elevator down. Read the NEWS. The weathervane picture is a clue! Look at your compass and press the switches on the walls in order: North wall, East wall, West wall, South wall (secret 9). If you were quick enough, "Found Secret" will show and you will hear the noise of a hatch opening. Nothing is immediately visible, so look under the elevator platform - success!

Rosie

Climb down the ladder and go East. There is a combination lock round the corner. The poem on the plaque is historical and contains coded references to three noblemen (the blind mice) who were beheaded by Queen Mary 1 of England (the farmer's wife), aka Bloody Mary. The word "blind" in the poem is associated with the dots underneath, which are Braille. They read 9475.

Punch the code in, and two doors open. There is a golden canopic jar inside the one behind you, but don't rush to it - the pedestal is booby-trapped. First, go in to the room with the barred cage and pick up the lump of rubble behind the door. Put it down on the pedestal to make it safe to pick up the statue (75 - 2668). Then go past the cage and operate the Sewer Escape Hatch switch. Pick open the cage door and carry Rosie out.

The Easter Egg

The objective to find a way to decipher the Mixed Message is accomplished by using the Amgine device and reading the decrypted message, but Uncadonego included an Easter Egg here for the very observant. At the end of the Mixed Message, after the writer's initial, there is an extra scrambled sentence in comparison to the decrypted message. That extra sentence remains unrevealed, but it can be solved manually. It is a simple cryptogram where one letter stands for another. Comparing the two messages reveals that the extra sentence Jkmbs Zlpabg Pmijgdlbjsr tpa m hpgqd kjddmnj can be translated into the message: Email Thorin Oakenshield for a bonus message. Upon receiving an e-mail with the solved sentence, Thorin replied with the bonus message:

Congratulations! You are a true taffer! As a reward for solving our "Mixed Message" you may now help yourself to Truart's ill-gotten gains! Rescuing Rosie was a noble deed and it is in that very place where you will be rewarded. Across from her cell door opened a secret door with a pedestal and a Lost City Canopic jar. If you look up very carefully you will see a secret switch. Stand in the narrow room facing out into the hall, just about a foot behind the door line. Look up carefully where the bottom of the door stops, to the right hand side. Frob the switch (secret 10).

This part of the mission was played for a few weeks after the initial release of Mixed Messages, and is now revealed to you. By following the instructions in the bonus message you will find the remaining loot in the mission.

Go back into the cage. Rope up through the opening in the ceiling. Collect all the purses (300 - 2968) and the coin stacks(131 - 3099) then climb down again.

Home Run

Carrying Rosie, make your way South down a long stone passage. When you come to the junction with a passage on the right, put Rosie down and go along it. Climb the ladder, read Karras's journal and do what he says. After you've looked into the church (nothing happens), climb back down, collect Rosie and head South again. Climb the ladder and emerge in a familiar place. Go East along the road and put Rosie on the bed in her house (the last one on the right). Now walk back West, go through the graveyard and out via the hole in the wall. Mission complete!



Freddy Fox - 29th November 2003