Thief Gold -- Down in the Bonehoard

What the heck, let's try the new Supreme Ghost mode for this playthrough. And Perfect Thief as well. Click through the loadout. Garrett begins the mission with the following: three Healing Potion vials; three Holy Water vials; fifty Broadhead arrows; twelve Water arrows; and, eight Rope arrows. Rule 13 states "Keep a Clean Inventory: Don’t pick up what you don’t need and return what is not usable." I suppose Garret might drop the vials and fire the arrows off into oblivion at the start. This may be taking it a bit too far though. At the very least I like the option of stacking the vials to raise Garrett up. And is that literally "using" the potions? As long as the vials are retrieved I think that's okay.

There's a goblet worth fifteen goods on the floor in the crypt above and to the left at the start. The entrance opens out into the South Upper Vaults. A series of Rope arrows across the ceiling of the second vault is a quiet way in. Place the Rope arrows close enough together to turn back and retrieve the previous Rope arrows while jumping from Rope to Rope across the vault. There's a Rope hanging down in the first vault with the Zombie that can be used also. Actually, I had pretty good luck just sliding off the ledge in this second vault onto the statues below. Once safely down work around back up to the balcony above the Zombie. There's a chest just viewable through a hole in the wall with eight Water arrows. Remember to close the chest. Of course, for Supreme Ghost mode just leave the Water arrows were they are. Can't use them anyway.

One of the chambers nearby has a Thief corpse and a diary of one of a group of grave robbers that have broken into the crypts. It sounds like they're all dead already except maybe Felix. Anyhow, keep an eye out for Marcus. He drowned but took some loot with him. The journal also talks about some X-shaped marks on the cave walls. Keep an eye out for these too. And whatever marks the grave robbers might have made. The Horn of Quintus may be north of the vaults in what the map refers to as the Halls of Echoing Repose. Be alert for an arrow trap in an octagonal vault.

The first of the North Upper Vaults has a golden urn worth one hundred gold. The first challenge to Supreme Ghosting this mission comes in a nearby vault with a Zombie on the floor near a chest with one hundred gems. Inch along the wall with the hole through to the chest. Well before being able to see the chest, lean forward to just barely spot the chest and loot it. Any further and the Zombie will groan and stand. Remember to close the chest.

Exit the water into a chamber with a couple of chests sitting atop what are obvious arrow traps. In fact the chests are linked to the traps and opening either of them results in the traps being tripped. This is a Supreme Ghost mode bust. So, the single Speed potion and the six Fire arrows are left behind. Even though the trap arrows seem to disappear, picking up items that cannot be used is forbidden. The Speed potion vial may be useful for stacking and climbing.

Exit this vault with the pair of chests down a ladder. There's a pressure plate at the bottom of the ladder that drops a large rock onto the plate. It's not really much trouble to avoid injury by jumping off the ladder and continuing forward off the plate before the rock lands. But for Supreme Ghosting this is a bust. Rule 9 says "No Triggering of Traps that cause Alerts or leave evidence of a Thief’s passage." The rock sitting on the pressure plate is "evidence of a Thief's passage." There are only six items in inventory at this point that might be used to work around this -- three Healing potion vials and three Holy Water vials. I could find no configuration of these that would get me off the ladder and past without tripping the trap. In fact, the weight of two vials, on their own, seemed enough to trip the trap. Garrett can lean while on the ladder and drop these vials in almost any position around the trap. And there's a skull in one of the North Upper Vaults that could be brought here that might also facilitate avoiding the trap. I didn't try that. Problem is the skull would have to be returned to its original location and then the trap would have to be bypassed again without it. Unless there's a skull or other object on the Repose side of the trap, this wouldn't work either. I tried quite a few times simply jumping off the ladder and once got over safely but I could not repeat this even one more time let alone with any consistancy. And I tried enough times that I started to doubt I ever had made it.

Onward to the Burrick caves. Another dead grave robber in a well trapped room with a purse worth one hundred gold. And a note warning of needing Fire arrows to get The Mystic's Soul gem. This room shows as "Where am I?" on the map. The dead grave robber's note identifies this room as the lowest oubliette. Remember to replace the note after reading it. Leave the six Fire arrows on the shelf. Back into the water and climb out into more caves. Essentially getting back up to the level before the fall down into the water. Some grey caves with a crossroads. The left turn winds up with some bones and a nugget worth fifty gold. The right paths lead ultimately to a sleeping Burrick which I could not get past. Beyond this Burrick and up a Rope another dead grave robber with another note about The Mystic's Heart being in a room with statues who's look is death and six more Water arrows. For Supreme Ghost skip this Burrick and reload back over to the Burrick-Go-Round. Some have reported difficulties with these Burricks. I did too when one of the Burricks was being beset by the flies. This seemed to arouse them all. Very tough to get by them like this. But if they're just roaming around they're not too hard to pass. Try straffe-running as high up on the cave walls as possible. This seemed the easiest height to jump onto the Rope anyway. The Burricks will pass quite close with no notice most times.

I'm picking up the Golden Bones as I come across them in the Halls of Echoing Repose. I'm entering the Halls via the Trickster room. There's another entrance via the water lower down. One of the Golden Bones is in the water so this spot will have to be accessed anyway but I found the ground entrance more straightforward. Loot targets of opportunity are a vase atop a raised crypt at the top of a ladder and a golden goblet atop another rasied crypt at the top of another ladder in a vault with a sleeping Hammer Zombie. The Horn of Quintus requires more Burrick sneaking. Getting in seems easy enough but there's a little snag leaving. There's a small rise that needs to be mantled up with no footsteps. The screenshot was taken just after this mantle looking back toward the two Burricks through to the rooms with the Horn. Pick up the Golden Bone in the vault with the sleeping Zombies. I left the vase there since I couldn't seem to get close enough without waking at least one of the Zombies even though he just stood there. If not Supreme Ghosting the vase can be taken. The vault with the sleeping Hammer Zombie is possibly a problem. There are spitball traps all over and this room has them. They seem activated by Garrett's proximity so no amount of stealth will circumvent them. Since they're spitballs I'm concluding they're leaving no evidence to bust the Supreme Ghost. I'll continue to work around the Echoing Halls until I've a good memory of where everything is and all the pathways to move about and perhaps I can find some ways to avoid some or all of the projectiles firing.

There are two rooms of particular note. The Boulder-Trap room, and the Sleeping Zombie room. The Boulder-Trap room, like the ladder trap between the Upper Vaults and the Burrick Caves, is a Supreme Ghost bust. Once the door is opened the Boulders fall and they cannot be replaced. This is evidence of a Thief's passage. However, the room can be Ghosted. The Boulders themselves are the key. Sort of a nemesis deal. Thanks to Lytha's observant play, it seems Sleeping Zombies don't notice much above floor level. So, hopping from Boulder to Boulder across the rooms goes unremarked. The vases in both these rooms can be gotten this way without the Zombies knowledge. At least two Boulders are required. For Supreme Ghosting the Boulder-Trap room must be avoided killing any chance of Perfecting the mission. And that means any Boulders used in the Sleeping Zombie room must come from elsewhere. There are a couple in the tunnel between the Upper Vaults and the Burrick Caves. And they'll need to be replaced. I've replaced all the Boulders and closed the door to the Boulder-Trap room. Actually, the Boulder-Trap room can be done without using the Boulders. There is enough time to run over to the niche with the vase which nets a groan from the zombies but they don't stand. Wait in the niche a bit, grab the vase, then rush back out through the door which gets another groan but that's only a first alert so Ghost Mode is good.

The Mystic's Heart and Soul

The Mystic's Soul is quite a bit more difficult. You can position yourself quite close to the shaft with the ladder and still remain in complete darkness. In fact, if the Fire Shadow comes by he won't light you up nor notice you even if he bumps into you. If he's stuck on you just move quietly aside a bit and he'll work his way around. Just creep forward and under the shaft and start dropping the stuff and jumping on top until you're high enough to jump onto the ladder. You'll probably have to experiment a bit with just where to start the stack. The shaft is a tight fit and if the stack is even a little bit off you won't be able to get high enough to grab the ladder. I saved and jumped back down onto the floor to take the screenshot showing the stack of vials and Golden Bones. The Bones are noisy if they're stacked on top of each other so I alternated the vials with the bones. This took a bit of practice. The Fire Shadow can notice you from the other room so you've got to work quickly and I had to flip around in my inventory to switch between the vials and Bones. I'd bet Lytha's Boulder stack base made this quit a bit easier. The Golden Bones do have the advantage of being in Garrett's inventory though. The Mystic's Soul is sitting on a pressure sensitive dais. I placed a nearby skull on the plate before grabbing the gem. Back out the way I came. It's a little tricky jumping off the ladder and onto the stack of vials and Bones. I never did get onto the top vial but the Bone underneath it. One slip onto the tiled floor and everyone hears it. I just retrieved the stuff and allowed myself to drop down onto the floor as the stack shrunk. It seems the Golden Bones aren't useful for Supreme Ghosting except possibly for this job. I'll have to run around and replace the Golden Bones where I found them. And I'll have to figure where with a reload from a save before I picked any of them up. The vials were all included in Garrett's inventory at the beginning of the mission.

On further reflection I guess this stack of vials and Golden Bones is a Supreme Ghost bust. Rule 7 states, in part, "You cannot stack boxes to gain access to an area when your stack is on the patrol path of an AI." The Fire Shadow bumps these on his patrol and I doubt the Soul can be gotten in the time between his trips by the stack.

Loot

Other Pick Ups

Okay, that's about it. For Supreme modes, Perfect is not possible until I figure a way past the ladder trap between the Upper Vaults and the Burrick Caves. Also the Boulder-Trap room will have to be figured out. Perhaps transmigration of the door would do but this is against Supreme rules so I don't know. I tried from nearby walls to grab the vase from outside the Boulder-Trap vault without success. Anyway, leave the Boulder-Trap vault for last and just leave it for Supreme Ghost. This is only my second time playing this mission and it's been quite a while so I had some difficulty in the Halls of Echoing Repose so I made a map.

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