Tales from the Cleft: Vandal

Walkthrough (Expert difficulty)

Getting In

Walk west along the path and you’ll see the Gatehouse at the end. There’s a Mech worker (Rupert) moving around but if you wait for a few seconds he’ll turn out the light above the door and then disappear. Pick open the door, enter and read the notes and book that are sitting on the desk. You’ll get a new objective saying there must be more information in Hunter’s office. Climb onto the ropes holding up the cargo lift. Climb up to the rafters above and carefully look around. You’ll find a tool box full of flares and a gold pocket watch (+100) that’s been left on top of the machinery on the south side. Climb down the ropes to the cargo lift platform, pick open a chest to find a jar (+20 = 120) then take a mighty leap from the lift southeast to the lower section of broken ladder. At this point it’s obvious that you won't be able to get out the way you got in so that objective is cancelled and a new one to find another way out appears.

Climb down to the bottom, sneak over until you’re underneath the Watcher and jump into the water, which has a very swift current. (If you jump in closer to the waterfall, wait until the Watcher is looking towards the path, or it will probably spot you before you are swept through the open gate and set off an alarm.) If you’re nimble, you can climb out along the side but you don’t have to. Instead, you’ll end up pushed up against a broken gate. Look down into the water, grab a handle that’s come off and "use" it on the gate to unlock it. Once you’re through the current almost disappears and you can swim southeast round to the boathouse entrance. Make sure the Watcher mounted above the entrance doesn’t spot you as you swim in.

Pick open the two storage bins and you’ll find 2 water arrows, 4 moss arrows and a silver nugget (+50 = 170). Ignore the ladder that leads up to the rafters. You’ll be back here later on. Instead, go through the door to the outside and then through the doors on the left out into the main grounds. One of the guards patrolling out here somewhere has a purse (+100 = 270) I’m sure he really won’t miss, at least not until you’re long gone! Walk around to the east side of the building, pick open the coal chute door and drop down into the coal. Objective complete! Make sure you close the door behind you so the guards don’t get suspicious as you need to remain undetected until the alarms are turned off.

Basement

Open the door, go through the next room and into the guards’ common room. Pocket a coin (+20 = 290) that’s been left behind on the table then rifle through the locker contents to come up with a copper coinstack (+5 = 295) and a pair of dice (+50 = 345). Read the scroll in Benny’s locker and you’ll find out he’s in love with the new cook. You’ll receive a new objective to find out more about her. Now "use" the peephole to the left of the extractor fan to look through into the rare book vault. Objective complete! This will also trigger a new objective to get into the vault.

Exit through the door in the northwest corner, turn right and you’ll receive a new objective that states that the north basement has indeed been sealed off. You now need to find out what’s in there. If you walk a little farther you’ll see the bricked up section of hallway on your right. Continue on around the hallway, past the first door on your right (if you try to go through here, you’ll probably be spotted by a guard and fail the mission) and turn right through the next door. This is a storeroom and there’s nothing of interest in here. Turn left, pick open the set of double doors on the south side and enter a small wine cellar. There’s a small blue bottle of brandy (+50 = 395) as well as a bottle of fine wine (+50 = 445) on the shelves. Peer into the water below the elevator and you’ll see a rotting corpse! Yuck! Fish a pipe valve knob out of the putrid water.  You can hear someone walking around above the elevator so that may not be the best way upstairs.

Go back into the storage room and through the west door into a laundry room. Grab some water arrows from the wash tubs.

Now use the knob you found on the plate low down on the pipe to the left of the dryer. Turn it and a panel on the door will open, allowing you access to a small secret room. (You can turn off the dryer and take Dewdrop if you like.) Climb the ladder to the first ledge, frob a small lever and crawl through into the kitchen broom closet. (You can open and close the secret door from inside the closet by frobbing one of the wall hooks.)

Main Floor

The first order of business is to get that alarm turned off so leave the closet, turn left through the kitchen then left again once you’re past the stoves. Go through the dish room then left into a pantry where you can add 3 purple goblets (+45 = 490) to your loot.

Push through the red curtains into a main floor hallway which is patrolled by two guards. Cross to the dining room opposite, pick up 3 gold candlesticks (+150 – 640) then go out the opposite end. Turn right, go through a door into a theatre and out the other door into Lucy's mystic room. Poke around, read a note and gather up a blue crystal (+25 = 665), a gold candlestick (+50 = 715) and a mask (+50 = 765) then leave through the second door. There is a flight of stairs opposite but you’re not done on the main floor yet so turn right and walk along the hallway. You’ll pass the dining room doorway on your right and 2 doors into the kitchen on the left before coming to a set of locked doors on your left. Pick them open, go through the first room and into the second, which is a gallery where you can lift 2 valuable precursor masks (+240 = 1005) from a stand. Open the casket and remove a sword (200 = 1205) which apparently upsets the occupant!

Leave through the north door, turn right and then right again at the corner. The first door on the right opens into the Security room. Read the note on the wall then frob the Emergency Shut off button to disable the alarm system. Objective complete!

Return to the hallway, turn left and enter the Great Room at the end but take care to stay out of sight of the guard on the balcony above. Enter the office on the left and read the notes on the desk. Frob the painting on the wall to expose a wall safe. Pick it open and inside there’s a silver coinstack (+12 = 1217), a gold coinstack (+25 = 1242), some new maps and a rather strange note from the Security company. Objective complete!

The lever under the desk swings open a bookcase, exposing a doorway. The stairs behind lead down to a generator room. Do NOT turn off any of the generators as that will set off the alarm. Walk to the south end of the room, turn left and go through a wooden door into a guard room where you can pick up a flashbomb and take a healing potion from the guard. Go back up the secret stairs to the office and back out into the Great Room. You can switch off the table lamps in here by frobbing them. Gather up a silver statue (+15 = 1257), a purple goblet (+15 = 1272), 2 masks (+240 = 1512) and a vase (+50 = 1562). Make your way around to the door in the alcove on the east side of the room and enter the Library. Check behind the vase on the table and you’ll find a ring (+100 = 1662) then read the books on the shelves.

Upper Floor

Return to the Great Room, head back to the kitchen broom closet and climb the ladders to the very top. Open the hatch with the lever on the wall and enter an attic room where there’s a note to Lucy from the chemist about a bottle of poison. Climb back down one level, frob a lever on the wall to open a secret door and go through into a second floor sitting room.

Pick up 2 purple urns (+200 = 1862) from the mantle, 2 gold candlesticks (+100 = 1962) and a gold plate (+50 = 2012) from the table then open the door in the north wall to the balcony above the atrium. There’s an archer patrolling and a guard standing in an alcove to the left so turn right and walk east to the corner. (There are a couple of dates at the top of the palm trees in the middle that act like healing fruit. You can’t reach them from the balcony. You need to jump onto the trees and climb up a bit to get high enough to pick them.) Turn right into a small side hallway. There’s a balcony to the left at the top of the stairs. Out here you’ll find a gold plate (+50 = 2062) and 4 goblets (+20 = 2082).

Walk back to the main hallway and turn right. The first room on the right is a guest bedroom decorated with 2 vases (+40 = 2219) and 2 plates (+20 = 2239). Adjoining it is a dressing room where you’ll find a vase (+50 = 2289) and a green LC jar (+20 = 2309). Open the door in the southeast corner, climb the stairs to the attic and grab a navigation globe (+100 = 2409) that’s sitting under the table. Return to the dressing room and go through the door to Lord Hunter’s room where he’s lying in his bed. Read the note his granddaughter, Stephanie, left for him and you’ll receive a new objective to find her room as the key she mentioned could be the key you need to get into the North basement. Gather up a purple goblet (+15 = 2424), a vase (+100 = 2524) and a signet ring (+100 = 2624) then exit through the west door but do it quietly as there is a guard outside, standing with his back to you.

Enter the room to the right which is Hunter’s bathroom and rifle through the medicine cabinet (behind the mirror) to find a breath potion and a healing potion. Continue to the right along the main hallway, past the elevator and into the next room which is a sitting room overlooking the Great Room. Beware the guard on the balcony opposite the window! Snag a book (+25 = 2649) from the stand then head through the end door onto a balcony. Here you can acquire 2 gold goblets (+50 = 2699), a gold wine bottle (+50 = 2749) and a music book (+25 = 2774).

Return to the main hallway and proceed west. Enter a linen closet on the right, open a chest to pick up a green tapestry (+150 = 2924) then continue around the shelves, through a red curtain and climb a ladder to an attic room. There’s a ripped painting leaning up against the west well and you can see a blue chest through the tear. Pick it open and you’ll find it contains a gold plate (+150 = 3074). Return to the linen closet, go back out to the hallway, turn right and then right again. Head out onto the balcony to your left. Out here you can collect a gold wine bottle (+50 = 3124), 2 gold goblets (+50 = 3174), a large china plate (+10 = 3184) and 2 small china plates (+10 = 3194).

Yet again, return to the main hallway, turn right and keep walking. The next room on the right is Stephanie’s. Objective complete! Pick up 4 canopic jars (+20 = 3214) then look around and you’ll see her pet sitting on a book on the floor beside the bed.

You might recall in her note to her grandfather, she mentioned Matilda needing to be fed. Open the glass case above the fireplace and take out a bug nest that’s stuck to the top. Drop it on the plate on the floor and the bugs will hatch. (Move out of the way or you’ll get bitten!) The frogbeast will hop over to eat. Read the book which turns out to be Stephanie’s diary then pick up the key she "borrowed" from her grandfather. Objective complete!

Walk through the west door into her mother’s dressing room then through the north door and up the stairs to another section of attic. Go through the rooms until you find one where a young woman is sleeping on the bed. Read the note on the table, pick open the chest to find a copper coinstack (+17 = 3231) then go into the next room. Pick open the chest and read the note inside. Hmmm! Money is hidden in a crate in the freezer? You’ll want to check that out later when you’re in the area.

Return to the dressing room and go through the south door into Lucy’s bedroom. Here you’ll find a necklace (+200 = 3431), 2 gold candlesticks (+100 = 3531) and a couple of things to read. Open the door to the hallway quietly as there’s a guard standing outside, deal with her then walk around the balcony to the elevator.

North Basement and Roof

Ride it down to the main floor where you’ll notice a lockbox on the north wall of the elevator shaft. Use the key you found in Stephanie’s room once and then turn around. If you’re very observant, you’ll notice that the arrow on the button on the south wall is now pointing down instead of up! Tricky Mechanists! Push the button and it will descend to the walled up north basement area. Head west. Objective complete!

You’ll find Stephanie’s grandmother walking around but she’s now a zombie so stay out of her sight and continue west to a desk. Read the book sitting on it and you’ll receive a new objective to investigate the telescope on the roof. Underneath the book you’ll find the roof key. There’s a blue chest on the crates north of the desk that contains a gem (+100 = 3631).

Continue around the corner and pick open a box that’s sitting on top of a crate to get a gold coinstack (+25 = 3656) then pick up a pair of spectacles (+50 = 3706) from the bedside table. Collect a gold candlestick (+50 = 3756), a gold vase (+100 = 3856) and a gold goblet (+25 = 3881) from the table beside the arm chair then walk a bit farther and grab a green tapestry (+150 = 4031). Around the next corner a footlocker on the right contains a gold nugget (+100 = 4131) and the chest on the left holds a blue gem (+15 = 4146).

Ride the elevator up to the first floor, use the elevator key to change the elevator button back to 'up', and then continue up to the top floor, turn left, then left again into Lord Hunter’s bedroom. Go through into the dressing room, climb the stairs to the attic, and then climb the ladder on the wall to a hatch in the ceiling. Unlock it with the Roof key and climb out onto the rooftop. Frob the lever beside the telescope to point it at the boathouse and "use" the eyepiece to look through it. Objective complete! You’ll see Lucy through the boathouse window and receive a new objective to go check out what’s going on over there.

Getting Out

Return to the elevator, ride it down to the main floor and turn left. Walk through the dining room, across the hallway and through the red curtain into the kitchen. Head out the south doors, cross the courtyard and go through the doors to the left of the boathouse. Enter the boathouse (oh dear, it seems that someone else is dead), climb the ladder to the rafters and carefully walk south to the far end. Turn left, climb a ladder and jump off. Crawl through an open hatch into the boathouse attic and have a look around. There’s a green LC tapestry (+150 = 4296) lying on the floor and a gold coinstack (+25 = 4321) down inside a barrel. Read Carina's note that’s lying on the floor at the far end.

Look through the sextant and you’ll see Lucy meeting with a Hammerite in one of the house’s attic rooms. Objective complete! You’ll receive a new objective to go investigate that attic room.

Go back to the ladder but before climbing down, look above your head and you’ll see the boathouse light. Climb the ladder to the light, and read a label that says to protect the lamp from the elements. You also read a note in the Security room that said the Watcher outside only works when the light is functional so it would be to your advantage to have it not working when it’s time to make your escape. Shoot a water arrow at the hot light and it will explode, shutting off the boathouse security. Objective complete!

Return to the kitchen, find the freezer and smash open the boxes to find the purse (+250 = 4571) that was hidden here by the Captain. Considering what you’ve discovered it’s obvious that he and Carina will never be able to use the money as planned. Enter the kitchen broom closet, climb the ladders to the attic room at the very top and go through the west door into another room. Douse the fire with a water arrow and read the note that was tossed in. Objective complete! These two are a really nasty pair! You’ll receive a new objective to go see what Lucy is doing in the kitchen.

Climb back down the ladders to the broom closet, go through the orange door opposite and you’ll see Lucy running away. Don’t bother trying to chase her. Instead, peer through the peephole that’s been cut in the wall behind the door and you’ll see that Benny’s love, the new cook is really Nathan in disguise. Objective complete! You’ll get new objectives to follow Nathan as well as to make sure he doesn’t die. Go back out through the orange door, turn right and enter the cook’s room.

Nathan went into the closet so go on in, frob a hook on the wall and you’ll drop down through a trap in the floor.

Haul yourself out onto the dock and untie the boat. Mission complete!