Note: This walkthrough contains hidden "spoilers". To see the text that is concealed by the solid blocks, hold the left mouse button down and drag the cursor across.

Test spoiler: A savage attack they say, but not savage enough for my liking!


Skeletons in the Closet - V2

Walkthrough - Expert Difficulty


Start

You begin in a passageway. Walk down it to a small square patrolled by several guards. To your right is a guard room with an archer standing in it. Sneak up along the wall and take his arrow, then turn around and creep around the perimeter of the square and over to the water trough on the far side. Inside it you'll find 2 water arrows. Continue east along the wall to the door on the left, enter and take a purse (+ 100) from the sleeping guard. Back outside, continue east to the other guard room, where you can pick an arrow from the archer as well as his purse (+56 = 156).

Leave the square by the west passageway, follow it to the end, flip the lever on the wall to open the gate and continue out into another small courtyard. Cross the courtyard and read the notice posted on the wall to the right of the gate. You get a new objective: Find out who killed Gilberto and leave the evidence on Capt. Dubois' desk. Open the gate and go through it into another open courtyard.

Gilberto's

There is a guard standing on the north side of the square right in front of Gilberto's house. Expletive deleted - you need to get in to collect your gear! Stay to the right and go around the square in the shadows. Creep along the front of the house, and when the guard turns away open the door and scurry in. You'll find 2 gold candlesticks (+100 = 256) on the sitting room mantelpiece.

The door on the west side of the room opens into a small room where there is a chest containing your lockpicks. Read the note on the table then go back out to the sitting room and use the lockpicks to unlock the other door. This is the bedroom, where you can collect the rest of your equipment from the round table - Objective complete.

Head back out to the square and over to the fountain on the right side. There are 8 coins (+160 = 416) on the bottom in the water, and also 3 more water arrows. Exit through one of the doorways on the west wall, and you'll see a balcony on the building to your right. Rope up to it, take the purse (+100 = 516) from the table inside the window and read the note.

Descend to the street again and continue west then north up the street towards the passageway. Just before you go through it, turn to the left (W) and climb the ladder to the guard post. Take the arrow from the archer and the gold coinstack (+25 = 541) from the table. Back on the street, head south towards the well. Jump onto the fence (or the rim of the well) and hop over into the small graveyard. Walk to the back where you'll find a gas arrow behind the tomb.

Underwater Tunnels

Climb back over the fence (using the boxes may help), then onto the rim of the well, jump in and swim down to the bottom. There's an opening in the wall that leads to some underwater passages so head in (east then north) and take the first turn to the right (east). You end up in a sewer room where you'll find a speed potion on the bottom. Climb out, avoid the spiders, and reach through the gate on the east wall to pick up a breath potion. There is a purse (+100 = 641) behind the pipe in the SE corner. Jump back into the water, swim out to the junction, turn right and swim to the end - you come up in the city canal by a wooden bridge. Take a breath, swim back down into the tunnels in the reverse direction and then turn right(W).

In the room at the end there is a body lying on the bottom with the "Sewer Key". Help yourself to it then climb out, keeping an eye open for bugbeasts. Explore the hallways and you'll find your way into a room where the sunken area in the middle has a lot of bones in it. Pick up a purse (+200 = 841) from among the bones and climb back out. Head north, jink left then right, climb the ladder and unlock the sewer hatch with the Sewer Key.

Bank Manager's House

Head south, rope up to the wooden ledge on the left (with the plants in window boxes), open the shutters and climb into the Bank Manager's house. There's a purse (+65 = 906) on the table beside a scroll, and a mask (+95 = 1001) on the wall above the desk.

Read the book on the table to get a clue about the security system in the Bank vault, then slash the banner hanging on the wall. Behind it, you'll find the "Vault Key".

Climb back out onto the ledge, turn to your right (N) and look up. There's a wooden ledge sticking out of the next building. Sink a rope arrow into it, climb up on top and enter a small warehouse. Climb down into the lower level where a purse (+35 = 1036) is tucked in behind the boxes. Climb back up, go out onto the ledge and look to the north. You'll see a balcony on the building next door. Get on to it either with a running jump or via a rope arrow shot into the edge of the roof. Inside the room, you'll find a note mentioning that the man across the street has been making a terrible racket and raving about having killed someone. Perhaps he murdered Gilberto? There's a necklace (+450 = 1486) on the dresser along with a healing potion, and you'll notice an ornamental head in a niche in the south wall. Look behind the head to find a ring (+100 = 1586). Now climb back down to the street.

Murderer's House

There is a set of locked shutters opposite the Bank Manager's front door. The "Shutter Key" is behind the plant in the small alcove on the right. Just past the Bank Manager's House is a narrow alley with two boxes at the end. Use the boxes to climb in through the window - it's a tight squeeze.

(There are alternative ways: either climb back up to the wooden ledge opposite and walk down between the buildings, then turn round, and with the aid of a speed potion do a running jump across the street to the balcony - you need to take a really long run and leave the jump to the last instant; or do the same thing from the warehouse balcony.)

Go to the SW corner of the downstairs room, open the door and enter the closet. There are 2 gas arrows on the floor and a safe in the wall. Pick it open - it contains a gem (+180 = 1766) and two rings (+145 = 1911). Back out in the main room, go through the other door, up the stairs and into the murderer's bedroom. You'll find his written confession on the bedside table, which will go into your inventory. Bring a couple of boxes up from downstairs and use them to climb out of the hall window onto a large box stack, then climb down to the street.

The Bank

Across the street is the gate into the Bank grounds. Open the gate, take care of the guard on patrol in front of the doors, pick them open and enter the Bank. There's another guard dozing in a chair to the right. Once you've taken care of him, cross to the far side and go partway down the stairs to the basement. Be careful of the Watcher and Turret down here, as the note you read earlier mentioned that they were malfunctioning. Once you're down far enough to see into the room, use a water arrow to put out the lamp on the far wall, then you can sneak down in the dark and go over to the vault door. (Or you could destroy the Watcher with a fire arrow!)

Unlock the door with the Vault Key - inside there are lots of goodies! Starting from the left, the first big safe contains 7 gold coinstacks (+175 = 2086). In the others, you'll find a gold nugget (+410 = 2496), a gem (+540 = 3036) and a necklace (+2150 = 5186). On the bottom shelf at the far end of the room are 12 silver coinstacks (+144 = 5330), 1 gold coinstack (+25 = 5355) and 10 bronze coinstacks (+100 = 5455). There are 11 silver coinstacks (+132 = 5587) on the top shelf. Leave the Bank, turn right (E) and use the lever on the wall to open the gate out to the street.


The Coffee Shop

>From here on you may encounter one or more patrolling archers - grab their arrows if you can. Go through the gate and climb the stairs on the right to a wooden door with a notice beside it. Pick open the door, go inside and look on the floor behind the table in the NE corner for a ring (+250 = 5837) then open the door and go out onto the balcony.

The Brothel

Hop up and go through the window shutters on the right, into one of the rooms of a brothel. KO the lady standing in the room, go out into the hallway and pick open the door opposite. You'll find a purse (+100 = 5937) on the table in this room. There is a silver coinstack (+12 = 5949) on a table in the next room on the same side of the hallway (the door is locked but can be picked). Downstairs, you can walk out without bothering the people standing in the main room. I presume that you are a regular customer as they don't pay any attention to you leaving!

The Underground Passage

Once back in the street, go past the left corner of the wall ahead then bear right down a wooden ramp to an underground passage. There's a guard carrying a lantern down here and he's wearing a BJ-proof helmet, so you'll either have to sneak around him or use a gas arrow. He is wearing a purse (+250 = 6199). Open the Deliveries door on the left (N), go down a short passage and open the door at the far end.

Tan Hill Inn

This is the Inn kitchen and in the sink are 5 gold plates (+250 = 6449). There's a healing potion on the shelves in the next room, and behind the stairs is a footlocker containing a valuable poker (+200 = 6649). On the shelves above are 2 healing fruit and an invisibilty potion. Go up the stairs into the gaming room, take the 2 gold candlesticks (+100 = 6749) from the mantelpiece and go through into the main room of the Inn.

Immediately on the left is a small alcove with a piece of wood on the wall. There are two "Room Keys" on top of it and there is also an "Inn Key" on the desk which unlocks the front door. Go over to the far side of the room and you'll find a gold wine bottle (+50 = 6799) on a table. On the wall shelves are two plates (+20 = 6819), a gold urn (+100 = 6919), a purple urn (+100 = 7019) and 2 vases (+ 100 = 7119). Read the lables below the casks - they hold some really interesting beverages!

Head upstairs and over to the door in the SW corner. Unlock it with one of the room keys that you found downstairs and inside you'll find a ring (+125 = 7244) on the dresser and a purse (+75 = 7319) behind the chair. Back out on the landing, go into the unlocked room on the east side to get a tiara (+125 = 7444) from the footlocker. Unlock the other room on the same side of the landing with the other room key - there is a healing potion in the chest here.

Climb the ladder to the third floor and go into the bunkroom to the east where you'll find a ring (+75 = 7519) in the locked footlocker. Head over to the room on the west side to get a purse (+100 = 7619) from the locked footlocker here. You're now done with the Inn, so head back down to the kitchen. Go down the ladder into the water, and through the underwater tunnel to emerge by the wooden bridge. Climb out on the north side and go into the room on the left. There is a silver nugget (+50 = 7669) behind the barrels. Now cross the bridge and take a purse (+75 = 7744) from the guard in the room with the fire.

The Fort

Head west to the next street, then turn right - Moot Hall is on your right. The door is unlocked so go in and take the green rolled tapestry (+150 = 7894) from the top of the bookcase. Leave the hall, cross to the other side of the street, turn left and walk south to a wooden door on the right. Pick it open and go into an abandoned thieves' hideout.

Move the boxes piled up on one side of the room and you'll find a trap door underneath. Climb down into the tunnel, follow it to the end, slash the banner and jump down into the lower level of the Fort.

The door to the east takes you into the torture room and prison, but there's nothing of value in there, so go upstairs to the bunkroom on the next floor. The archer patrolling here has an arrow and is wearing the "Armoury Key". This unlocks a metal door on the south side of the room; inside you'll find more equipment, including water arrows, fire arrows, flash mines and gas mines.

The door at the bottom of the stairs is labelled "Capt. Augustus Dubois". Go in and collect a gold coinstack (+25 = 7919) and the "North-West Gate Key" from the desk and replace them with the murderer's confession - Objective Complete. Now pick up the blackmail letter sticking out from under the bed - you get a new objective: Leave the letter on the Mayor's desk. Leave Dubois' room, turn right and go up the stairs to the outer area where the gallows are located.

The small building south of the stairs is a combination barracks and common room. On the gaming table are 6 gold coinstacks (+150 = 8069) - Loot Objective complete - 6 silver coinstacks (+72 = 8141), a bronze coinstack (+5 = 8146), and 6 coins (+120 = 8266) . Go back outside and leave by the exit in the NW corner. This takes you down a sloping street - you come out behind the guards so you can take care of them easily. The guard at the bottom has the "Gate Key" which opens the gates on the right, but before you leave turn left (N).

There's a gate on the left with a lockbox beside it that opens with the north-west gate key. You have been in here already, so turn right instead and go around to the alleyway at the back of the building. You'll find a drunk standing outside a door here. A note on the wall that says someone left the key for him, so go a bit farther down and check the windowsill, where you'll find a red key. Use it to unlock the door and go into the love nest. There is a statue (+15 = 8281) on the small table. Retrace your steps to the gate, open it with the gate key, then head east to the canal and jump in. You'll find 4 water arrows underneath the stone bridge.

The Mayor's House

Swim north as far as you can, passing underneath a building that straddles the canal and pick up a statue (+15 = 8296) from the canal bottom. You can reach the Horn of Quintas through the gate, but it isn't worth anything. Stand up - you are in the middle of a room full of machinery, but proceed carefully because a thief patrols into this room.

Look at the floor around the hole where you are standing and you'll see lots of loot scattered around. It includes a necklace, a flute, a statue, 2 black jars and a green jar (+325 = 8621). When the way is clear, mantle up out of the hole and go out of the door. Turn to the right, walkalong the building and then turn right again, along the back of the Mayor's house. A thief who is wearing a purse (+50 = 8671) is standing below the steps.

Help yourself to the purse, then continue on to the far corner of the house. Look on the ground in the space between the house and the wall and you'll find a gold nugget (+100 = 8771).

Go up the stairs and into the house. The first room on the left is a sitting room where you can collect a silver fire poker (+200 = 8971) and 2 black jars (+40 = 9011 ). The first room on the right is a sitting room occupied by a female thief. There are two gold candlesticks (+100 = 9111) on the mantelpiece. At the far end of the hallway is the front door, which doesn't open, and to the right of that is the Mayor's office, which is locked. Pick it open, go in and place the blackmail letter on the desk - Objective complete.

Read the book then go upstairs, through the door into a hallway and pick open the locked door. Inside the bedroom you'll find a flute (+50 = 9161) and two spice bags (+80 = 9241). Leave the house, go down the stairs (if you want to add a few flares to your equipment, rope arrow up into the storage loft here) and turn right (S) at the corner of the building. Keep going south along the edge of the canal, and then under the arch.

The Slaughtered Lamb

Partway along the passage on the left is a ladder up to small guard post, where you can steal an arrow from the archer and take a gold coinstack (+25 = 9262) from the windowsill. Back outside, head east into the next square which has a raised guard tower in the middle of it. Climb up into the tower, steal the arrow from the archer and take the flashbomb from the chest.

There's a narrow alley in the NE corner of this square, left of the passage down to the canal. Go down the alley, open the shutters on the left, read the note and steal the tiara (+200 = 9462).

Leave this square to the south, then turn left and go into the Slaughtered Lamb Tavern. Look around the barroom for 6 purple goblets (+ 90 = 9556) and a gold coinstack (+25 = 9581). Upstairs in the bedroom you'll find a gold candlestick (+50 = 9631 ) and a gold coinstack (+25 = 9656). When you leave the pub, turn left and go south up the steps towards the well. Make your way back to the first square you entered at the start of the mission, then head east towards the town gates between the two guard posts.

Mission Complete

Nightwalker and Freddy Fox   -   23rd January 2005