Thief Gold FM -- Calendra's Cistern

Tuesday, February 13th, 2001, 09:28
Well, I'm deeply into attempting to Perfect Thief "Calendra's Cistern." So far, so good.

The first shot was the toughest spot so far, the last goblet on the table was a chore. In the end, what it took was a balance of speed and stillness. Mostly, luck too, I'm afraid. You have to wait until most everyone is out of the room and hope that none return before you're finished. I looted here in pieces, returning to the spot where I took the shot after each -- the chest, the first two goblets and the scroll, the third goblet, and, finally, the fourth goblet.

Alas, I seem to have hit a brick wall! The second shot is of an exploding frog. I've only tried five or ten times so far but I can't seem to get into the water and past without alerting him. This occurs just after meeting Mercedes for the second time. I've tried going back to the Weeping Angel Tavern via the route I used to get here but the large room with the thick pipes seems a one-way ticket. I've tried both speed and stealth but I've got to get by those first couple of mushroom lights. Any suggestions please?

13:17
Wait a minute! Can I do everything I need to before leaving the party so I don't need to go back to it? No, in order to get to the second meeting with Mercedes I'm stuck here with only one way out past that frog. Do I need to bother with this second meeting? That may be it. Let me work on that for a bit. What happens if I skip this meeting? Will she still be there at the end?

It's just that there have been several very, very close shaves with Ghosting this mission, so far. I've come to believe the authors made a way to do it. I've also still got that speed potion from the beginning.

14:12
I got it! I got it! Eureka! Hallelujah, brother! Told you so! Yipee! The authors did make a way! Bless me Father for I have sinned. I thought maybe they stuck it to me. Sorry I doubted you.

You're all not going to believe this one. Take a good close look at those mushrooms. There's a visual clue too. They're blinking. They're not normal. You can wack 'em out with the blackjack. 'Cept I couldn't get close enough without setting that friggin' frog off so I used a couple of broadheads. Had to use a rope arrow to get into the water quietly enough too.

HAHAHAHAhahahaha ...

Wednesday, February 14th, 04:33
This is Lord Wimple's. Number five on the map. The map also says "Hit twice already in past 6 months ... Wimple's nerves and bank are like." This second phrase makes no sense to me so I must have the words wrong. I thought maybe "like" is actually "lite" but there are other "t"s in the line and they don't have the horizontal bit at the top of the "t." Any ideas? The window on the left is glass. Breaking the glass brings him out of the bedroom. When he notices the broken glass he goes through a little nerve attack and faints. There is 25 loot in the bedroom. There is a single door inside between this room and the bedroom to the right. The only other possible way in would be a secret passage entering the rooms from behind a painting or the fireplace in the bedroom. If there is I haven't found an entrance to the passage. This would seem to bust any Perfect Thief attempt. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Thursday, February 15th, 2001, 07:07
Some notes on my progress so far.

I thought I'd leave Ragnor until I've finished with Mercedes so I could take him by way of her apartment to the art collectors place. Alas, you've got a fairly long underwater spot that way and he drowns so he's got to go back the other way by Wimple's.

The gatekeeper is inconsistent. Sometimes he gets a little too close to the switch. Anyhow, I'm guessing he can be Ghosted no matter where he is or which way he's facing. You may have to fiddle with the gate to get the AI working the way you want them. For whatever reason, sometimes the gatekeeper gets out of synch or something and ends up taking a walk over to the gate to have a look around. Sometimes this happens on a reload. I've had good luck waiting in the angled hallway for him to take this walk and rushing into the shrine then when his back is to me. Alternately, the time it takes him to swivel and pull the switch for someone going out is enough for this dash. Once to unlock the shrine door and again to go through it.

In the shrine, the fight between Brimstone and Calendra can have various outcomes. I've had it end before Calendra summons the zombie. This is a nice turn, not having to work around him. If you leave the shrine door open, the AI above will alert to the commotion and come down and mix it up too. Ultimately, though, both Brimstone and Calendra will end up dead.

The zombie will ultimately settle down and station himself. This seems a bit inconsistent too so how you cope with him may vary. This time he ended on Calendra's side of the tunnel but facing away from the tunnel so I was pretty much able to just amble in, get the relic, and amble back out again. The beams overhead are handy for going over top of him if needed. If he ends up facing inward you may have to douse the torch in the tunnel or the zombie will spot you returning with the relic. My luck with the zombie in the shrine meant I didn't need to douse the torch in the tunnel.

Good thing too since I used my water arrows back at the party. There are only two water arrows that I've come up with so far. One you start with and one in an aquaduct on the way to the party. I used both in the circular area around the well at the party. One on the torch on the goblet, inner circle side and the other on the bottle, outer circle side. This seemed mimimal to allow me to get around this spot to get Calendra's key. I still haven't attempted to grab the two AI's pockets nor the loot in the inner circle.

It seemed getting the relic was all that was needed to get Mercedes to open the gate on the way to her place. However, I was unable to get to the gate near the art collector without Mercedes walking down the ramp and triggering the Tommyrot ambush so be prepared to deal with these guys. I found the blackjack good enough to finish off the archer and Mercedes managed his pal. I probably should have gone and picked the broadheads or the gas arrow on my way to the party so I could use them here but I'm trying to get all the events overwith as quickly as possible so I can take my time cleaning everything up. In an earlier attempt I also had a gas mine which I used on the archer from above before Mercedes headed down but I've not come across this gas mine again.

Don't go into Mercedes' bedroom until you've completed all the objectives. The mission will fail if you do.

Well, on to the combination safe at the art collectors. Hope I haven't left it too long and it's munged again.

Friday, February 16th, 2001, 04:45
The Observatory
Some seemed to have difficulty working through the observatory in some of the old postings about this mission so I thought I'd set out how I did it which is quite straight forward to me. I found it quite easy to jump and mantle up into the hole opposite the ring side but was never able to slide down into the observatory without the door spider alerting. I was never able to figure a function for the red switched machine inside the observatory.

There are some wooden beams and some metal ones supporting the observatory. Mantle up onto the wooden beam to the view in the first shot. Jump and mantle up onto the metal beam. You'll want to time this so the patrolling spider doesn't spot you. Also you'll be working with metal underfoot so take care. Just jump toward the metal beam and turn to face directly into it before landing. Turn and face the metal beam in the second shot. Jump and mantle up onto this metal beam.

Face the ring. Move forward and jump up onto the ring. Take care with the noise. I find it a softer landing if I release the jump key before landing. Move silently over the ring and down onto the far metal beam close to the hole in the wall ahead. The second shot is a view of the spider guarding the observatory doorway as seen from the position on this last metal beam.

Jump and mantle into the wall opening. Follow the tunnel around to the opening through into the observatory. You can walk across onto the ring but the gap between the ring and the observatory will have to be jumped. (ed. I've had better luck since crouch-running off the ring and pressing the jump/mantle key as soon as I drop through the gap here. This way you end up on the hole in the wall and can slide down onto the floor silently.) I landed in the red bowl inside and the spider guarding the doorway was okay with that but you may have to play around a bit with the jump to get it quiet enough.

Go ahead and do your business in the observatory. I just crept out through the doorway. There are two switches on the wall. The highlighted one in the shot is the switch for the door. Don't do the other switch. That's for the lights and the spider will spot you. The last shot is just after sliding down onto the doorway platform. I just dropped down to get out of this area. No need for a rope arrow.

09:25
Ghosted!
Time: 02:29:06
Loot: 4,385 of 4,922 (short 537)
Pockets: 9 of 9
Locks: 17
Knock Outs: 1 (Ragnor, objective requirement)
Damage Dealt: 1
Consumables: 3 water arrows, 1 rope arrow

I ended up with two gas arrows which I used to dispatch Tommyrot and Woodworm. I'll be wandering around here looking for loot I've missed. I've not spent anything at the store. In fact, I ended up with one water arrow left over. I used three water arrows on the well area at the party and the single rope arrow I had to leave behind at the exploding frog. Suggestions, please.

Some other outstanding items. I've left Wimple's which has 25 loot which I will pick up as soon as I get a Ghost okay. I have no idea about Brother Adrius. I couldn't get into the chests at the art dealer. I found a key in Calendra's that is tagged "Lady Calendra's key" but it doesn't open them. BTW, that means I've got two of these keys but they come up separately in my inventory. I don't know what use a key inside her bedroom is when the bedroom door is locked with it. The five switches in the foundry. One changes a light source to a gas arrow, one makes the water arrow(s) accessible, one puts a fire arrow inside a furnace as well as putting a large green spider nearby, and one puts a small green spider in a nearby room. I haven't figured out what the fifth switch does.

A couple of final difficulties at the end. When I took Ragnor to the art dealer's the barrel had vanished so I lugged a couple of boxes from The Weeping Angel. I still needed to get out to go to Mercedes' bedroom. Although, come to think of it now, I could have exited from the secret room, I guess. Oh well. And Mercedes was waiting for me on the ramp but wouldn't acknowledge my presence so I ended up going to the bedroom alone. What else is new?

Sunday, February 18th, 2001, 09:53
I've finished up with Adrius. Watched him butcher the party guests. What happens if Adrius kills Ragnor? The only objective I have not completed is to go to Mercedes' new apartment but I did get my sword and gas Tommyrot and Wormwood. And for Perfect Thief I need 250 more loot.

To do: get the sunburst device and try to get at the Hammer Temple with it from various adjacent spots; search the entire level for more artwork loot since most that I have grabbed was sort of a by-the-way thing.

In case I can't come up with the remaining loot I'll take this opportunity to thank the authors of this fan mission now. Terrific job people. I've spent over an entire week playing this and enjoyed every minute of it. That's way beyond anything the other FM's I've played have given me. Boy, I wish there wasn't such a review problem and that you all could do another. The next one would have been impossible to anticipate. Thanks again.

Players please don't get sidetracked by the rating of this or any other fan mission. It may not relate to playability in any meaningful way. It didn't for me.

Monday, February 19th, 2001, 06:26
I've found another 125 loot. A gold bottle on a windowsill above the river in the River District worth 50 loot. This one was pointed out by Nightwalker earlier. I went looking for it and found a gold bottle on the higher ledge around the tower in the River District and figured that was Nightwalker's bottle and she'd just mispoke about the windowsill. No, there is a bottle on a windowsill too. The second piece I found was a gold hammer on the floor at the top of the bell tower of the Old Abbey worth 75 loot. So, I now have 4,797 of 4,922 loot, short 125 only!

Saturday, February 24th, 2001, 04:54
I think I'm going to retire from this mission for now. That's two full weeks I've spent on it. Pretty much the entire time looking for that last, elusive 25 loot. I'll probably come back to it now and then but I don't know when. Thanks to Nightwalker, Time Pilot, Sneak, Chiefdreams, howie, Lyril, and MsLedd for all your help.

And, of course, thanks to Team Calendra for a good time.