Thief — an All Difficulty Level complete-loot walkthrough (Original Thief and Thief Gold)

This mission uses a version number (starting with 1.0) independent of the main document.

At several places, additional information is available as tool tips. Move the mouse on the words looking like these to see them.

Some places are worth visiting, but is not needed to achieve your objectives. They do not even get you any powerups, so it is up to you whether to follow them. I will describe the main route like a regular walkthrough. Then at certain points I will mark excursion routes. At these points, if you want to have a look (and you should), save your game and follow the route. Click the excursion heading in this color and style to expand the route. After the voyage, just reload the game you saved at the Excursion starting point to continue the main route (note that many excursions do not bring you back to the starting point). For those who don’t bother to go (I do not understand why anybody should want to skip the excursions), just ignore the milestone and continue straight on.

In this mission, players at Normal Difficulty will find one more key than other players (but the extra key is not a pickpocket), so that they can access the Throne Room easier. Also, higher Difficulty Levels have more mission objectives to satisfy. In particular, they have to leave the Manor after getting the Sceptre. Otherwise, the game is identical in all three Difficulty Levels.

Since you do not need to leave the Manor at Normal Difficulty, the sequence of places to visit is slightly different. This is necessary to make sure you get everything before the mission suddenly completes — the mission completes when you fulfil all your objectives, it does not care whether you have collected all the loots or seen all the places. Therefore, some places that Hard and Expert players will visit on their way out of the Manor must be visited in advance by Normal players. During the walkthrough, you will be directed to jump forward and back (following hyperlinks) as required. If you correctly set the difficulty level in the drop boxes above, the cumulative loot and pick count will be adjusted to follow you jumping around.

The walkthrough is written to make use of the advanced features of IE4 and IE5 browsers. IE4 and IE5 show the same effects, but IE5 rendering much faster.

The quote at the beginning of the mission briefing isn’t easy to understand, but I can assure you that they can be even more cryptic. Anyway, it is flattening that the Keeper Annals referred to you as the “most promising acolyte” whose “abilities were unmatched”. And they will watch you “most carefully” (if you think they watch you to see if they need to help you, you really don’t understand the Keepers).

You decided to leave the Keepers and get rich with your talents. Your fence, Cutty, asked you to steal the Sceptre from the Throne Room of Lord Bafford’s Manor.

It is the same mission you saw the the demo (but with better graphics). Although the mission is nearly the same in three Difficulty Levels, your mission objectives are different. Play this mission with all three difficulties. It may be a bit too much to ask, but the same mission presents different challenges at higher Difficulty Levels. For example in Normal mode you can try to kill every guard, but you do not have a chance to leave the Mansion (the mission ends as soon as you gets the Sceptre).

Throughout much of the game, the designers have paid a tremendous amount of attentionto detail to make the environment as realistic as possible. As you play, notice the little touches: the servants at this hour of the night stick to their quarters and the kitchens; common guards use only the very plainest footlockers (officers have better quarters); fine wine is found in, well, wine racks and wine cellars, when not being drunk. One example of attention to detail is a letter in the library mentioning that Tarquis the moneylender has been arrested by the Hammerites. In a later mission, you will find Tarquis in cell block 3 of the Cragscleft Prison. Life goes on, whether Garrett is there or not (unlike e.g. Doom or Dark Stone, where the wandering monsters and traps exist only to try to kill you).

You will be facing human guards. Nothing is really necessary, but the more equipment you have, the easier is your task. Buy all Water Arrows. For the rest, buy Broadhead Arrows: although Experts have little use of them, you don’t have enough cash to buy the Healing Potions.

By the way, why much money did you start with? If you have completed the Training and got the Green Vase there, you will have 350 for shopping. Otherwise, you only have 300.

Explore around the city and find the Well House mentioned in the mission briefing. On your way, explore the two sewer systems — one accessible from the city streets, one inside the Manor.

You start near the Front Gate of the Bafford Manor, on the West side of the city map. Approach the arch (actually a carriage entrance) leading to the Front Gate, and the three guards will start chatting. Stay outside in the street, and they will not bother you. When they are finished, trying moving through the arch towards them. They will tell you to go away, and you should do so.

Outside the arch, go North (and follow the turns) to have a look. Not far away, the street is blocked by an iron gate you cannot open. Refer to the map, the city streets are divided into two parts. You start from the West Streets, and can go all the way East along the South side of the Manor. You cannot reach the North Streets directly from the starting position, because of the locked gates in between. However, once inside the Manor, you can reach the Manor’s North Gate and reach the North Streets from there.

Go back to your starting location, and this time go South. You will soon find a junction, where you should continue forward (ie do not turn left). As the map shows you, the street forms a small loop here. The branch on your left is shorter, but you will miss the Arrow Cache.

Along the winding street, you pass by a noisy machine and arrive at a stone arch. When passing under the arch, look at your left to locate the Arrow Cache, where you will find 12 Broadhead Arrows and 4 Water Arrows. Note that you only see a single arrow, and on picking up, get 12. Similarly, you see a blue crystal, and on picking up, gets 4 Water Arrows. You cannot tell the number of stuff you will get until you collect them into your inventory (and only if you remember how many of them you had before doing so). the item you picked up will always become active — that is, look at the lower corners and you will know what you have picked up.

At about this time, a servant walks down the street. No need to panic, because he will ignore you. When his back is towards you, knock him down with Blackjack. Just a precaution: left undisturbed, he would have entered the Manor and go to places where you would prefer to be empty (more on this later). There is no need to hide his body because nobody else comes here. If instead you follow him, you will find that he goes back to the Front Gate, and the guards will raise the portcullis for him.

Continue forward and pass under a metal arch. After a left turn, you will see a flare lamp (it is not a standard name — I mean those street lamps with open a flare and four metal “claws”). Next to it you can find a sewer cover. Use it (right mouse click) and it will open. Peek down and ignore it. Turn left and you can see the street forks. Straight ahead of you (North), the street goes on and then turns left. That street goes back to the Front Gate, forming the small loop on your map. Go there for a quick look if you wish, and come back here. Note that on that street (near the corner on the North) is another sewer cover that you can also ignore.

Back at the first sewer cover, follow the right fork to go towards the East. Soon you will pass another stone arch. This one is thick, and “inside” it, there is a small lamp on your right. After you pass the arch, look right. On the other side of a tall street lamp lies the third sewer entrance. At about this time, a guard walks down the street and greets you. No need to panic neither, because it is legal to wander around the city streets. Ignore him (or you may knock him down) and continue forward.

After a left and then right turn, you can see a drunken guard in front of a Well House. This is the back door mentioned in the briefing and objectives. The drunken guard won’t interfere with you as long as you don’t attack him. Notice the sewer manhole to the left of the Wellhouse, behind the drunken guard. Hmm. Tha Well House can wait. Look around the area. At the far corner, an iron gate blocks the North part of the city from you.

Return to the third sewer cover (the one by the stone arch), open it and climb down. You are next to a four way junction. If you turn left, you will go to a T-junction, with each branch leading to one of the two other sewer covers you have seen before. After you have given them a look, go East or North at the four way junction. Both lead you to the same metal gate, with a wooden door in the shadows of the tunnel to the right of the gate. On the other side of the gate, you can see a ladder leading up to another manhole cover, which must be the one you saw earlier near the Well House. The metal gate will not open, so enter the wooden door.

Search the floor of the flooded room carefully and you will find your first loot: a Necklace (100;100;0) lying under water. Look up and locate the switch on the wall. Flip it and you hear the sound of metal moving. Leave the room and turn right — the metal gate is now opened.

Pass through the metal gate and climb the ladder on the far side. Do a running jump to grab the ladder (not easy), and climb up. Open the sewer cover. You find yourself behind the drunken guard!

Pick the key on his belt. Turn around and use the key on the door of the Well House. That will open it. Enter the Well House and shut the door behind you. Jump into the well (you may need a running jump).

After you drop into water, resurface to catch your breath. Look around. On one side is the end of the underground river, so follow the other direction. When you arrive at a big round area (instead of the narrow river) with water dripping from above, look under water. There is a tunnel down there. Save game and dive into it.

At the end of the underwater tunnel, resurface quietly. On the shore are four Sewer Spiders (three for Hard Difficulty, two for Normal Difficulty). They have poor eyesight, and probably have not yet noticed your intrusion. Behind them, in the corner, is a Foot Locker. In the past, I just tempted fate and rush to the Foot Locker (fighting them with your Sword is too difficult, because you have to crouch to reach them). Or I would try to lure them into water and drown them.

Heath Campbell made an observation that turns this into solid science. After you rose to the water surface, swim to the northeast corner. Climb ashore on the north (left). They won’t see you. Shoot them with your Broadhead Arrows, starting with the one closest to you. That is the most important part of Campbell’s observation. If you started shooting from the far (south) spider, you would alert every one of them and they would rush to you. Start with the near (north) spider, and you can drop them one by one (if your aim accurately, that is). In case you miss and the spiders jump on your head, just dive under water and they will drown.

Take the Gem Ring (100;0;0) inside the Foot Locker (just use/open the Foot Locker and the Gem Ring is already in your possession). Get back into water. Dive down to the tunnel and swim back to the big round area and continue West along the direction of the current. Before the end of the river, you find a big cave on your right. Mantle and climb up the slope to enter the Basement.

Explore the Basement and find your way up.

Move quietly through the empty room and open the door. Locate a Foot Locker in front of the door and get a Healing Potion from within. Move along the dark areas to approach the doorway on the North East corner of the room. Crouch at the shadows and peek at the outside.

Not far away from the doorway is a T-junction. Two guards will talk and then start walking. One will go East and leave this area, the other patrols a N-S corridor next to you. Time for a short excursion to the South.

From the T-junction, move quietly towards the East when the guard is busily walking towards South. At the corner where you need to turn right, look left. Through a slit on the wall, you can see a room behind. Keep this in mind, because you will soon find out that you cannot access this room from anywhere in the Basement.

After the right turn, continue forward and enter the Basement Quarters.

The Basement Quarters consist of four big, dark rooms arranged in a sqaure formation. Nothing of value is placed here. On your left, you can see a guard beyond the doorway. He is standing in a lit corridor, the exit of the Basement Quarters. He is one of the two talking guards you met earlier.

The floor near the doorway is metal. Either crawl slowing towards him, or you can go there via the other three connected rooms (the four doorways leading from one room to another are very close together). Have a quick look around and move towards the guard. Knock him down and open the Foot Locker to get two Flash Bombs (it blinds your enemies a few seconds, enough for you to escape or knock them down). Follow the corridor to arrive at the stairwell. Climb up.

Now that we arrived at the East end of the First Floor, we will start moving around. The Manor is rather symmetrical on its East West axis, we will start with the South side. So we will leave the East side and go West to the central part of the building. And there, we will first go to the South half of the Manor. On our way, we will also have a look at a few rooms on the East side, including the Kitchen.

When we arrive at the South Hall, which is the South half of the central region, we will proceed upstairs via the SW Tower. After securing both floors of the East side, we will go and see the West side of the building in the next section.

At the top is a small room with two Foot Lockers. The one lying flat on the ground has a useless vase, and if you open this Foot Locker, you will have difficulty dropping the vase quietly. The other Foot Locker has a Stack of Copper Coins (5;0;0). Take it and leave the room via the only doorway.

You are now in the 1/F East Corridor, which runs North-South. It is the eastmost side of the building, also known as the Backside (becasue the Front is on the West). We will move South and go to the middle part of the building, coming back later to the East in excursions.

Turn right to move South. You find a T-junction with a passage going West. There are four 1/F E-W Corridors connecting to 1/F East Corridor, and this is the second of them (start counting from the North). We will visit it later, so ignore the (2nd) 1/F E-W Corridors and move quietly across the next room with a noisy sleeper. Explore his room if you wish, but there is nothing useful inside. Continue South and stop at the next T-junction, which is the 3rd 1/F E-W Corridors. Two servants are in the next room. Lean forward to have a look — they will start talking when you get close. Sometimes there is a third servant, who does not participate in the conversation (more about him later). Do not walk across their doorway, you may arouse them if you are not careful. Instead, step back and go West on the 3rd 1/F E-W Corridors (ie the one between the noisy sleeper and the two talking servants).

The end of the corridor is 1/F South L-Shaped Corridor. There are two L-Shaped Corridors nearby, symmetrically placed (though you cannot see the other one from here). This one goes South from you and turn West, the other one on the North will go North and turn West, each of them is connected to two of the 1/F E-W Corridors.

Move to the door slightly on your right.

Open the door and you will see the Kitchen with a servant standing with the back to you. Save your game, carefully move towards him and knowk him out.

Remember we met a servant early on in the streets outside the Manor? If you had not knocked him down, he would have entered the Manor. He will have gone to two possible places, and one of them is here in the Kitchen, facing the servant you just knocked down. With two people standing still facing each other, it will be next to impossible to handle quietly. Therefore it was best to stop the servant in the streets from enter the Manor in the first place.

A second possible destination for the servant in the streets is the Backside room with two talking servants. That is why sometimes you meet three servants inside (of course there are always two if you have knocked down the servant in the streets).

On the North wall, find a Gold Vase (100;0;0) on the shelf. Go to the West wall and find a Poster Scroll on the wall near the doorway on the right. Ignore the doorways on either side and leave via the door from which you entered here. Back in the 1/F South L-Shaped Corridor, turn right to follow it. The first passage immediately on your left is the 3rd 1/F E-W Corridors you have used earlier. Near the end, you find a second passge on your left, which is the 4th 1/F E-W Corridors. If you want to, go down it as an excursion and see the room with talking servants from the other direction (but come back here to continue). Turn right at the corner to go West on the 1/F South L-Shaped Corridor. Stop at the door at the end of the corridor and save your game.

Listen at carefully and open the door. A guard patrols the region, and at the nearest point he walks close to this door. Wait for him to come. You can either wait outside the door (which is dark enough) or find a tiny patch of area in the room (on the right side of the door) which is dark enough to hide. When he comes and turns around, move forward to knock him down. Since the room has carpet, you can simply run towards him.

This room is what I call the South Room, because this is the only room near the South Hall. Move to the other side of South Room where you will find a doorway opening to South Hall. It is a big rectangular hall. Another guard is patroling a large area, including this hall. He will arrive and leave via a metal door near the North West corner of the hall. When he is not around (best if you wait him to arrive and leave so you have plenty time to move), leave South Room and move between the pillars in the center of the hall. Use Water Arrow to extinguish the torch on the pillar nearest you, and your area will be dark enough. Save game and wait for the guard to come back, and knock him out when he passes next to you. Now the hall is safe.

If you have a good sound card, you will notice footsteps near you. That is a problem you have to live with. Noises upstairs (or downstairs) sound as if they are next to you. As I frequently say, 3D Sound is actually still 2D, and is not really capable of showing vertical distances or separations. So just ignore the noise, and remember that your foot steps will sound just as noisy to the guards upstairs.

You will notice that there are many openings on the South Hall, we will visit them next time we are here. For now, go West to the last pillar and find a Poster Scroll stick on its West face. Before we go up to 2/F, take an Foyer Preview Excursion.

There are four towers in the building, and they can be confusing. After the steps and a short dark walkway, you will arrive at a round room. That is the 1/F of the South West Tower.

Take the Gold Vase (100;0;0) on top of the bookshelf. Follow the other set of stairs to go up to a similar round room. You have just passed from South West Tower 1/F to South East Tower 2/F. Get another Gold Vase (100;0;0) on the table.

If you are playing Normal Difficulty Level, you can ignore this paragraph and just descend the other stairs (towards the North, not the one you came from) down to the corridor. For Hard and Expert Difficulties, save game and move carefully down the stairs (again towards the North, not the stairs you came from). Crouch and locate the guard patroling this area, but don’t be scared by the statues next to you. The guard will walk along the corridor running your left and right, and also leave it via an opening on your front right to go to the South Garden. When he is walking away to the left, or has gone out to the South Garden, move quite into the corridor, turn right and move towards the metal door at the end. When you get near the torch, quench it with a Water Arrow and dark shadows are all around you. Wait for the guard to walk near you, and use the Blackjack on him.

Now everybody is on the 2/F South Corridor without guards. Go West quietly. On your way, you find another set of stairs on your left. It goes up to the South West Tower 2/F. Go up to have a look — it is empty up there, and up there is no place to hide.

At the West end of 2/F South Corridor, turn right to follow the 2/F West Corridor.

Now that we have moved to the Front Side, we will visit everything on the East before moving to the North half of the building. First, we will visit the Front Side rooms on 2/F. After despatching the guards there, it is safe to descend to the Foyer to look around. Then we pass through the South Lounge for a final look at South Hall. At the end, we go North through Gallery to visit North Louge and arrive at North Hall.

Save game and approach the first doorway on your left. Listen and locate the guards. Inside the doorway is a big room. On the right side is a doorway to a smaller room. Two gaurds are inside the smaller room: one standing watching the Foyer below, one walking around (only the standing guard appears in Normal Difficulty).

Move carefully to the side of the doorway (of the smaller room). If you have a walking guard, wait till he comes and the turn around: move towards him and knock him out. The other guard won’t notice. Enter the smaller room and use Water Arrow on the torch. Walk up quietly and knock down the standing guard as well. Even in Normal Difficulty you must use the Blackjack on him, instead of Broadhead Arrows. If you kill him, his death scream will alarm nearby guards.

From where he stands, you can look down at the Foyer and also the other guard post (in front of you). Leave the smaller room, and find stairs in the big room going up to the South Attic. Move to the far end and get a Stack of Silver Coins (12;0;0) from a Foot Locker. Go back down to the 2/F West Corridor.

Turn left and go North. The first opening on your left is a spiral staircase. Ignore it for now, and continue North to a big room similar to the one on the South. Repeat the same procedure on the one or two guards in the smaller room (this time, the smaller room is on the left side, not the right). Go upstairs to find another Stack of Silver Coins (12;0;0) in another Foot Locker.

Back down on 2/F West Corridor, turn right and go back towards the South. Turn right again into the spiral staircase. Descend to the bottom. You arrived at the Foyer.

Now that the two guards upstairs are gone, it is safer to move around in the Foyer. It is dark and empty, so we are here primarily for sightseeing. Remember where you are, save game and join the Foyer Excursion.

From the center of the Foyer go South past the table to a metal door on your left (East). Before you enter the door, do you see the carpet area at the South end? That is the South West Corridor: you have visited it before from the South Hall to have a look at the guard post above.

Open the door and move inside. Here is the South Lounge. At the far left side, take the Purple Goblet (0;0;15) on the bench (note that while Looking Glass Studios called it purple, it looks more like gold and black; reader RampagingKestrel told me the black is actually a purple, with the color of red wine). Leave via the other (East) door, and you are back in South Hall.

Before we leave the South Hall, let’s have a South Hall Excursion to see the rest of the doorways here.

This is the Gallery, and there are many paintings you can give a look. However, most important is the bench on your left, on which you should take the Gold Plate (50;0;0) and the Green Vase (0;0;50). Exit via the other door (North) and you arrived at the North Hall, which is nearly a mirror image of the South Hall. Open the metal door on your left to enter the North Lounge. Go to the table on the far left hand corner to get a Stack of Silver Coins (12;0;0). Leave via the other door (on the West), and you get back to the Foyer. Turn right and go North. At the North end, follow the carpeted North West Corridor to turn right twice to get back to North Hall.

Arriving at the North Hall, we first take excursions to round up all the places on 1/F. Then we take the North West Tower to go upstairs. There, we enter the Garden in the central part of 2/F and visit a secret passage there. Finally, we will venture into the 2/F East side to approach the Sceptre.

We start this hall with two big excursions. Then we will climb upstairs to continue our journey. First, join the North Hall Excursion.

After you are done with the excursions, enter the dark doorway on the North West to go up towards North West Towers. Stop before you enter the round room. This one is under patrol. A guard patrols the corridor on 2/F, and walks all the way down the stairs to this room. First, locate the stairs going up (it is on your right). Then douse the torch opposite, and move to crouch next to the stairs going up (better on its right, ie, the side nearer your current position). Wait for the guard to appear, and knock him down.

Open the Foot Locker to get a Bottle of Fine Wine (0;0;50). Follow the stairs to go upwards to North East Tower 2/F. Descend via the other stairs down to 2/F North Corridor. As an excursion, turn right and have a look at the North West Tower 2/F. If you go further West, you will arrive at the 2/F West Corridor you visited earlier.

From the 2/F North Corridor, enter the doorway on the South into the North Garden. There is nothing useful here, just a walk around. Take the stairs on the right to go to the upper level. Just explore around. A balcony faces South and looks down to the Pool below. A hallway goes South and connects to the upper level of the South Garden. In the middle of the hallway is another balcony facing West, looking down on the Pool. On the upper level of South Garden, there is a third balcony looking down on the pool.

So much for sight seeing. On the upper level of South Garden, go East and look at the banner hanging at the end. Cut it open with your Sword. A secret passage!

Follow the passage to its end. You shall be overlooking a large room with a guard below. Do not arouse him.

Drop quietly on the rafter and move along. Find a good location to send Water Arrows to douse the four torches. Retrace your steps back to the Garden. Why should we want to do this? First, because I want to visit the secret passage. Second, it is easier to douse the torches from above. But why leave the room without looting it? There is nothing wrong to drop down and loot, but there are other places we need to visit first.

Descend the stairs down the South Garden (the side with the secret passage, not the side you started from). Leave via the doorway on the South to enter the 2/F South Corridor. Turn left and go towards the metal door at the end. Open and enter.

Finally we arrived at the heart of the Manor. On 2/F, the East side is connected with the West by two big rooms: Sitting Room (on the South) and Library (on the North). So, we pass through the Sitting Room to work with the patroling guards. Then, we have a look at the other rooms accessible from there. Most important, you can now access the staircase leading down to the Ledger Room.

After we have enough, we enter the Throne Room to dispatch the last guard of the manor. Players at Normal Difficulty must go and visit the Library before they grab the Sceptre, for this action will complete their mission. The others will continue with the next and last section to get back to the streets.

You are safe in this room. Try to find out by yourself where the Signet (a small ring) is. You can do anything here, but don’t leave the room and don’t make excessive noise. The Signet is not covered or contained by anything, but it is very small. After you have found it (or have given up), click here to see the answer.

Now we proceed to some patrol area. Save your game and move to the door on the South. Carefully open the door and peek outside.

Outside is a small corridor with a dead end on your right. Move out to the carpeted area and stay in the shadows. Turn left to look North.

The short corridor is connected to the Rectangular Corridor, which takes the shape of a great rectangle. The rectangle consists of Bathroom East Corridor (where you are now at) and Bathroom West Corridor, with two short corridors joining them. In Hard and Expert Difficulty, two guards are patroling the Rectangular Corridor in the counter clockwise direction. That is, they will arrive from your left, turn left and go away from you (with the back towards you). Each of the guards carry a Bronze Key for you. Therefore, you should stay in the shadows, and inch forward as much as you can. Wait till they arrive, and lean forward to grab their key. After you have got both keys, then save game and plan for the knocking.

In Normal Difficulty, only one of the two guards is present. So you have only one Bronze Key to pick.

To knock them down, you must make sure you have enough time to hide the body. Therefore, time the two guards well — usually the two time intervals (between their arrivals) are not equal. For example, if guard two passes shortly after guard one passed, then you should knock guard two first (and get plenty of time to hide his body). Once decided, wait till he turns in front of you, and start walking (not run). When close enough, lean and use the Blackjack on him. Then hide him and save game to repeat the same on the other.

After you have hidden both bodies, move North along the corridor and you will soon see a metal door on your right. Note a bug here: the door leaks light! Enter. It is the Dining Room. On the table, get two Bottles of Fine Wine (0;0;50). Leave the room, turn right and continue North. Then you arrive at the middle of Bathroom East Corridor, where you have a doorway on your left (West, opening to the Bathroom — our corridor is called Bathroom East Corridor because it is on the East side of Bathroom). A few steps on your right leads down to two doors, which you should ignore until a bit later.

When playing at Hard or Expert Difficulties, just continue with the next section below (Ledger Room). If you are playing at Normal Difficulty, follow this link (Library) and visit the Library first. Otherwise, the mission will end as soon as you get the Sceptre, and you won’t have a chance to go there. After you have been to the Library, come back and continue with the others.

Leave the Bathroom by the doorway on the East (that is, opposite the doorway leading down to Ledger Room). On the other side of the Bathroom East Corridor is a few steps going down, and then two doors on either side. Use your keys (all your keys in this mission are identical) to unlock either of the doors. Save game, open door and enter quietly.

Inside the door is a small room leading to a big hall, with a guard on the far side in front of a doorway. If you have not yet douced all four torches earlier (from the rafter above), use Water Arrows on all the torches. Some torches may be out of your reach from your current position. In that case, go back out of the door and unlock the other one so that you can give a clear shot to them. When all the torches are extinguished, the hall is pretty dark. Do a quick save and walk towards the guard (stop moving when he is facing you). Get behind him. Pick the key on his belt and knock him down with your Blackjack. In the previous editions, I have forgotten to mention this pick. Thanks to reader RampagingKestrel for pointing it out to me.

After he falls down, the whole building is unguarded. Enter the doorway into the Throne Room. Have a good look around, and then take the Sceptre. Players at Normal Difficulty will end their mission here. For the rest, you still need to get out of here alive. Leave the Throne Room, cross the hall and back to Bathroom East Corridor.

On our way out, we visit the Library. The rest is simple, for there isn’t any more guards inside the Manor. You only need to know where the exit is: North Hall.

Starting from the middle of Bathroom East Corridor near the Bathroom, do not descend the steps but continue North. Enter the single metal door on your right. This is the Bedroom. Go to the left wall. On the top of the table, get a Tiara (75;50;0) and four Stacks of Silver Coins (12;0;0). Ignore the vase, for it is useless. Go to the opposite wall, and if you are playing at Normal Difficulty Level, another Bronze Key is waiting for you on the table. Look around and leave the room. Continue North all the way (ie do not turn left to complete the rectangle, but continue forward towards the dead end). Open the metal door on your left to enter the Library.

There are four tables here. Read the Grey Book on the purple table near you. It took me quite some time to to search for the “treasure box with a false bottom” mentioned. I never found it. Recently, reader aka_66 told me why I can’t find it: Lord Bafford has not yet bought the box! Perhaps Lord Bafford planned to buy it to store his Sceptre, but he won’t need it any more…

Go North towards the windows, and pick up the Necklace (100;100;0) on the wood desk. Go West to the other wood desk and read the Papyrus there. It is not easy to understand. Seems Ginny is running a casino and his tribute is getting less and less. Dominc invested the situation and reported the findings to Lord Bafford. The note also refers to the Hammerites who imprison many of their people. In particular, they have taken Tarquis, whom you will meet one day. Finally, it talks about a Victoria, although it is not clear whether Lord Bafford is inquiring about the same Viktoria whom you will meet on a still later day.

The last table has nothing useful on it. If you are playing Normal Difficult Level, follow this link to resume your interrupted quest with Ledger Room. Otherwise, continue with the next section to leave the Manor.

You can go back to the sewers, but that doesn’ bring you back to the streets. Instead, you should leave via North Hall.

From 2/F North Corridor, continue West and enter the first doorway on your right. Take the steps up to the North East Tower 2/F. Follow the other set of steps to descend to North West Tower 1/F, and down to North Hall. Turn left and enter the North Hallway on your left via one of the four doorways.

Go North along the walkway. Midway, there is a switch on your right. If you have not yet opened the gate in front of you, flip the switch to open it. Leave via the gate and the mission will soon complete.