Thief II: The Metal Age -- Masks

First Floor Northeast Guards

There are two patrolling guards and one stationary in this corner of the first floor. You've got to get by them in order to get the loot in the small barracks in this corner of the building. It's not really necessary to Ghost the guard room but it is fun. The first shot shows the two patrolling guards. I picked their keys here. A key is required to get into the barracks. I came across a couple of odd things. The second of these two guards is snoring and he sometimes stops moving. Every time he got stuck a save and reload freed him up to continue his rounds. The second odd thing was the lock on the barracks door. I had first to use the key on this door. It sounded like the key did not work. Then I tried the lockpick and that did work. I've tried to lockpick without the key first and that did not work! Anyhow, the first difficulty Ghosting this area is getting past the stationary guard to start with. All actions here have to be timed with the patrol. There is a small shadow just in the first doorway just before the guard room guard. I stopped here, crouched and when the patrol started back for the barracks I ran across to another shadow just across from the door to the guardroom. I had to reload and do this a few times before I got by with only a comment from the guardroom guard. When the patrol returns from the barracks and goes into the guardroom I dashed down and looted the barracks. I jumped up onto a shadow on a bed and waited for the patrol to return as shown in the second screenshot. When they turned and headed back to the guardroom I worked my way out to the end of the carpet runner to watch them until they leave the guardroom. When they left the guardroom I rushed down and opened the guardroom door. Creeping baby steps across the tile to the doorway and immediatedly hard left against the wall. All these moves while crouched. Then run back toward the lamp and across behind the guardroom guard and pick his pocket. Wait for the patrol to return back toward the barrack and rush out of the guardroom the same way I came in. I did a save at this point since I suspected I may have to reload several times until I got by the guardroom guard unnoticed on my way out. I did need to reload a few times but rushing past in front of him and right back into that shadow I had started at seemed to work. Turns out this can all be done without putting out any of the gas lights or using any moss. There seemed plenty of time to avoid the patrol.

First Floor North Storage Room

There is absolutely no need to go into this room unless you want to use the stairway. I couldn't manage from the first floor doorway. There is a civilian and a Hammerite in here and as soon as I crossed the threshold they alerted. I wanted to open the door between the northwest Ballroom balcony and the second floor north hallway so I used the beams in the Ballroom to access the second floor of this storage area and to take this screenshot. The door to the second floor hallway will not open with key or lockpick so there was no need but I got this shot anyway. These two are sensitive and alert for footsteps upstairs so tip-toe while up there.

Second Floor Northeast Watcher and Turret

The controls for this Watcher and friend are through the arched doorway. The second shot shows the guard in the guard station taken from the archway just out of view of the Watcher. He's sitting at a desk and his head and eyes are just visible in the lower right hand corner of the opening.

I have been unable to get any further in without him spotting me. He alerts and comments on seeing something then stands and does the hand over the eyes search for a bit and then faces away from the opening. But it's too late by then. He's already been alerted. I don't know yet if I can even crouch along that opening while he's seated without being seen. Do I need to turn this Watcher off or can I work around it? We'll see. There is no loot through that arch just the Watcher controls. The first screenshot was taken from a shadow near the door to the office across from the Watcher and secret passage entrance. I'll see if I can get into this office without spooking the Watcher. If not, perhaps I can access this office from the first floor.

There's an opening I may be able to rope up to. Although I have a vague memory of trying this before, I don't think I was ever able to fit through that opening. Well, there's no way to pick the office door lock in the time that Watcher is looking away. Roping up to the opening to this office from the first floor turns out to be doable. The trick was to look down when jumping off the rope to fit into the opening. This is contrary to most all other jumps from ropes I've ever done before where I've always had to look up. There is loot in this office so it must be done. I've done a trial run up into this office but am having a devil of a time getting out. There's a couch under the opening and I can't seem to get out that way. I have tried once to sneak out the door but the Watcher spotted me and yellow alerted. I'll try this a few more times and see if maybe. The shadow I took the first shot from is only a few feet left of the doorway so it should be doable. Okay, I've tried exiting this office through the doorway and have had no luck after several attempts. The problem is the Watcher never looks away more than ninety degrees, which I figure is its peripheral vision range, long enough for Garrett to move from the doorway to the shadow and he's too well lit up to stop halfway and wait. No matter, I went back to the opening and have figured out how to negotiate this. Got up onto the couch but back from the edge of the wall of the opening. Angle into the opening, crouch, run, jump, crouch before landing gets me past the edge and into the opening. Put a rope into the ceiling outside and walk onto it and down. I also wanted to retrieve the rope arrow. I placed it far enough out from the opening that climbing another rope just inside the railing of the raised platform entrance to the Ballroom allowed me to fetch the first arrow, lower myself down as far as possible on the second rope and then retrieve it dropping onto the railing for no damage and no sound to disturb the guards patrolling nearby.

Second Floor Southeast Guardroom

Wow, this one is tough. There is a very, very small shadow in the doorway. I got to it by creeping in on the right side of the doorway until I could see the guard's right arm and then dashing over to the shadow against the left side of the doorway. This took many attempts to get one that the guard would accept without alert. One of the problems is that to get from the right to the left side of the doorway quickly enough you've got to take a footstep. I've noticed that, generally, the AI will accept a single footstep. This works here too. You can stand up here and even though the light-gem brightens up a notch the guard will still accept it. From here it's a dash over against the banner on the left hand wall. Although the light-gem is fully lit at this point Garrett must be outside the guard's peripheral vision. From there looting the chest is no problem. Getting back out is even easier as it turns out. Walk over to the desk, mantle up onto it, crouch, and creep through the opening dropping down onto the hallway floor. Sure wish I could find a box or two in this mission. I could easily get into this room from on a box just like exiting from on the desk. I've done this once but the mantle didn't take and I alerted the guard. I've tried another bunch of times but every time he's spotted me rushing out of the doorway shadow. It happened once, it'll happen again. I've tried a bunch more times with no success so I've gotten by him for now letting him alert. I'll have to come back to this. For now, on to the third floor and the Masks.

Basement

In a book beside a safe in the office in the northeast corner of the second floor. "From the Desk of Steward Duma ... Remind Sgt. Porter to add security to basement, there seem to have been intruders down there recently ... " I have yet to be able to access this basement. Perhaps under the library? Or it could be that Looking Glass Studios scrapped the basement during crunch time. They should have put it back in with the patch though. We'll see.

Statistics

Perfect: Yes
Time: 2:49:57
Loot: 3,667 of 3,667
Pockets: 11 of 12
Locks: 37
Secrets: 11 of 11
Consumables: none