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.

Now that you have got the Talismans of Fire and Water (and of Earth if you are playing Gold) from the preceding mission(s), time to visit the Hammerites who guard the Talismans of Air and, if you are playing Original Thief, the Talisman of Earth. After an exhausting trip, you are rewarded with the easiest mission in the whole game. One that you should try to do without a walkthrough. Or just read the overviews of each section and explore by yourself before reading the details.

The Original Thief is nearly identical to Thief Gold here, except for two things. Thief Gold players already have got the Talisman of Earth from the Mage Tower. Therefore, they have only the Talisman of Air sitting in the cage, instead of both the Talismans of Air and Earth. Then the guards in Thief Gold behave in general a little different from the ones before. Although the difference in this mission is minute.

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

There is nothing to pick (that counts toward the pick count in the mission statistic) in this mission.

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.

With two Talismans in hand (3 if you are playing Thief Gold), you need the other two (or one) that are kept by the Hammerites in their Temple. Being an Keeper Initiate (even though you deserted them) hired by the Order of the Vine, there is nothing to stop you to disguise as a Hammer novice. Novice aren’t suppose to know anything, and that is easy to pretend. The only trouble is that novice aren’t suppose to enter certain parts of the Temple neither.

Remember that you wanted to go after this challenging and lucrative place long ago, but the plan was put aside when Quince and Jacow tried to kill you? Now time to really go to the Temple. You can see how challenging and lucrative the mission is. You will meet Hammerites, the High Priest, and the Inquisitor.

Since you are undercover, you can roam around the Hammer Temple safely. Forget about hiding in dark corners, just walk up to your target, follow him around, and when nobody is watching, knock him out. All you must bear in mind is never to break your cover. When somebody is watching, do not

• hit anybody
• take anything
• enter any restricted area
• arm a weapon (it is OK to select your weapon, just don’t arm it such a drawing an arrow or raising your Blackjack) — while doing so does not arouse the guards, it is against the intention of the game because novices are not allowed to carry weapons

All you need is the Blackjack. With human everywhere, I really do not know what to do with the money. Buy all the Gas Arrows and Gas Mines. Though not absolutely necessary, they will save you a lot of work. The walkthrough will use two Gas Arrows and one Gas Mine. You decide what to do with the extras. For the remaining cash, use them on Healing Potion and/or Moss Arrows.

Entering via Upper Level, we will clear all the guards (except the ones in the two Barracks) and descend to Lower Level. While the sequence is not important, doing it in the right order gives you an easier life. Many Hammerite pairs wait till you arrive to start talking. That means they effectively does not exist until you wake them up. Therefore, you should knock down the other guards first, and avoid getting near these Hammerite pairs. When all the others are gone, listen to each pair in turn. After listening to each pair, they will start patroling and it is your time to knock them. And then repeating with the other pairs.

I deliberately avoided the Library and the balcony next to it. The Library has a locked door containing an unpickable Chest. As for the balcony, your presence will wake up the Hammerite pair down in the Graveyard, giving you more patrolling guards in Lower Level. So we had better visit them when we have cleared Lower Level guards and got the key for the Chest.

While it is not really necessary to knock down all the guards (for example, you can leave the one at Front Gate), sending all to sleep eases your way out: as soon as you got the Talisman(s), all guards will be on alert looking for you.

The city consists of a upper level and a lower level. The entry to the Hammer Temple is on the upper level, into the Upper Level of the temple. The Garden and Graveyard of the Hammer Temple is on Lower Level, but is isolated from the lower level by high walls, so there is no point going to the lower level.

Just run from the starting location. The first left branch descends to the Western lower level. Go there to have a look if you wish. Go forward and you see the Temple entrance beyond a doom on your left. If you ignore the doom and go forward, there is another ramp down to the Eastern lower level. Down on the Eastern lower level, there is a city gate on East. That gate will not open, and leads to nowhere.

If you visited either side of the lower level, reload your game: your trip down there brings you very near several guards and may wake them up. Restart the game to enter the Temple directly to avoid complications.

Approach the entrance gate and the Hammerite asks for your credentials. Read the scroll you are carrying and he will open the gate for you. The scroll also tells you that any room marked with an inverted hammer are restricted areas for you. So do not enter these rooms if you can be seen.

Enter the gate to the Foyer. Ignore everything, a pair of guards is soon starting to talk. In Original Thief, they wait till I have entered the Main Hall before talking. In Thief Gold, they seem to start much earlier. Whatever I try to do in the Foyer nearly always trigger them to start talking. To listen to the full conversation, we had better go and listen first, and then come back here.

Leave via the North door of the Foyer to the Upper Level Corridor: a corridor running East West. There are doors on both ends of the corridor. Ignore them and pass the North doorway into the Main Hall.

The Main Hall has a big staircase in the middle, going downstairs to Lower Level. Listen to the talking Hammerites. When they are finished, one descends the stairs to Lower Level, while the other starts patrolling Upper Level. Practice your Blackjack with the guard remaining on Upper Level and toss his body to a dark corner. The South East corner of the Main Hall is a good option.

In Original Thief, the second guard often come back to the Main Hall, but it seems in Thief Gold he is more likely to stay downstairs. Anyway it may just be random, because he may or may not be trapped in the Garden below. Wait for a while, give up if he does not come back. And remember whether you have him down or not. Go back to the Foyer to complete our unfinished business.

Stand behind the Hammerite at the South East corner of the Foyer. Knock him down and keep him there. Go to the Hammerite guarding the Front Gate. They are so nice that they never mind your being right behind them. Knock him with your Blackjack and take him away (across the bridge to the street outside). Come back and carry the other unconscious Hammerite away.

Go back to the Foyer. Heath Campbell pointed out that there is one important caveat in this mission: do not close the Front Gate. Just leave it open. If you are so good mannered as to close the gate behind you, you may get into trouble later. At several locations, it is possible to jump out of the building and land onto the streets. If you Front Gate is closed, there is no way to get back to complete the mission! Also, closing the gate will slow you down when you are leaving.

In the Foyer is a big hammer. From under the big hammer, grab the small Gold Hammer (75;0;0).

In the Temple there are plenty red buttons, like the ones in the Cragscleft Prison: they sound alarms so do not push them. Read the Poster Scroll on the West wall: your trip to the Cragscleft Prison resulted in doubling of patrols here. On either side of the Foyer are doors to the barracks. Try enter them: a Hammerite will tell you to leave the room (nothing bad will happen so it is safe to try). Yet if you do not listen to them and insist to stay, they will find out who you are.

Instead of leaving the Hammerites in the barracks alone, a reader suggested to wipe them out. The reward is that you can walk away peacefully when you are leaving the Temple. You need two Gas Arrows and a Gas Mine for this. Therefore you should do this after you have cleared all Hammerites, by then you know whether you have so many powerups to spare. Yet you must do this before you start flipping the switches to get the Talisman. Once you get the Talisman, the three Hammerites in the barracks (if left alone) will block the exit. Even if you let them block the exit, it is easy to get pass them. So it is all up to you.

If you want to clean the barracks, try save two Gas Arrows and a Gas Mine for this. When you are ready for action, save game first. Start with the barrack on the East, where only a single Hammerite stands. Go to the East wall, and stand on the left side of the door. Open it and quietly move North (away from the door) until you reach the pillar. Start moving West so that the pillar stands between the door and yourself. Lean right and make sure you arrived at the right place, you should be able to shoot at the Hammerite through the opened door when leaning right. When you are well positioned, armed a Gas Arrow, lean and shoot.

Then the other barrack. Move to the West wall, and again crouch on the left side of the door. Save game and open the door. As long as you stay outside the door, they won’t bother with you. One Hammerite is on the left side (you cannot easily see him from your position), and the other is on the right, facing you. Plant a Gas Mine in the middle of the doorway (you cannot plant the mine before opening the door, or the door will trigger it). Move backwards, while keeping the (visible) Hammerite in your line of sight through the doorway. When you can retreat no more, shoot a Gas Arrow at the Hammerite. The other one will run out of the barrack and step on the Gas Mine. Now both rooms are yours.

Reader Roman has a simpler method for the barrack on the West. All you need is a Blackjack. Run up to the one on your right, knock him out. Quickly (or you can crawl if you want to) get behind the last remaining one, and knock him out.

Go back to the Upper Level Corridor and enter the door on your right into the East Chapel. Go to the table at the far corner to find a pypyrus on the table. Take it, it is the Wall Builder’s Prayer. We need it to get the Talisman(s). The book next to it is the Hammerite Compendium of of Precepts, Rituals and Rules of Conduct. There are plenty of these (thick and thin) throughout the Temple, and I am not going to bore you with their contents.

Leave via the other door (on the South East) and proceed to East Balcony overlooking the Garden. From the balcony, look South. There is a stone ledge you can jump to. No need to jump there, but you can leave the temple by dropping from the ledge to the city lower level. Continue North into the Reliquary where another pair of Hammerites will start talking. When they are finished, one will remain here, and the other will start patroling the Upper Level. Follow him. Do not hit him when he is near the balcony: the guard behind or another guard down in the Garden may hear him scream. Wait till you are back to the Upper Level Corridor. Make sure the door is closed behind you, and knock him when he is near the doorway to the Main Hall. Carry him to the dark corner.

Go to the North East corner: a North-South short hallway leads to two doors. Open the right one (East) and back to the Reliquary. Walk behind the remaining Hammerite and put him to sleep. Take him to his two friends (or just leave him here if you dare).

Come back to explore the Reliquary. The big hammer and the bell are useless, although knocking them sometimes arouses suspicsions. At the North wall are three pedestals. Read the plates behind them:

• The one on the left is “The Forge’s Child”. This Hammer was the first to be cast out of a mold. It was brought into the world by Father Tennor, now sainted. It is a holy relic but is useless to you.
• The middle one is “The First Hammer”. It is an ancient holy relic, symbol of their ascent from the Trickster’s shadow. Take it, since it is part of the mission objective.
• The one on the right is the sacred Skull of St. Yora, a builder of vision and devout keeper of the faith. Behind the pedestal, locate a red switch but do not flip it.

Leave the Reliquary via the door on North West. Enter the door in front of you, into the Main Church.

Walk around and find the golden hammer at the altar (looks more like a metal coffin). Two annoying Hammerites are watching the altar closely. They will talk for a while and never keep their eyes off each other. They can never be distracted: not even with Noisemaker Arrows right next to them. It could have been very tough, because once you arouse them, they run to sound alarms.

But didn’t I tell you how nice the Gas Arrows and Gas Mines are? Plant a Gas Mine in the central aisle. Since they don’t mine noises, just go to where you want it planted, look down and drop the mine (and walk back). Retreat and walk along the right side of the Main Church to the Hammerite on the right. Use the Blackjack on him. If Original Thief, the next step is usually not necessary: run back to the entrance of the Main Church, making sure the other Hammerite is running along the central aisle after you. If you omit this running in Thief Gold, very often the other Hammerite will run directly towards you, and misses our well planted Gas Mine.

When they second Hammerite has run into the Gas Mine we planted, get the Gold Hammer (75;0;0) from the altar.

However, if you wish to put down the three Hammerites near the Temple entrance, you need to preserve your Gas Mines. A reader taught me how to use a simple Blackjack to handle them. First let them talk, and then they will turn and stand still. Move to the East (right) side of the Hammerite on the East. Position yourself so that you are on the direct right hand side of the other guard. The near guard should have the back facing your, and the far guard has his right face facing you. Guards do not have 180° vision, so both of them cannot see you. Save game, and move forward to Blackjack the near guard. Press forward, so that as soon as the collapsed guard allows you to move past him, approach the far guard and knock him down.

Leave the Main Church through the South West door (the other door). Again, the short corridor on your left goes to the Main Hall. The doorway in front of you leads to the Library, but do not enter yet. Now is time to go downstairs.

Again, there is not much order here. All you need to do is to knock down all five guards, plus the High Priest. You can do it in any sequence, but it is easier if you try not to wake up the Hammerite pair in the Graveyard before his friends are sound asleep.

In the quarters on East and West side of this level, there are bedrooms with treasures and three keys. Any of these keys opens the unpickable chest in the Library. Or you can use the Master Key from the High Priest.

Study the map (what? you haven’t yet done so?!). The central part of Lower Level consists of 4 corridors (N/E/S/W) surrounding the High Priest Room. Save your game and descend the stairs. You are on the North Corridor.

A pair of Hammerites on your left starts talking. Turn right and approach a restricted door ahead (I hope this increases the chance the two Hammerites will stay in the corridors instead of going North for long walks). After they finished their chat, they start wandering. Your aim is to knock them down when they are walking on the East or West Corridor (because you are too exposed in the North Corridor or in the Sparring Room). And they hardly ever go to the South Corridor or anything beyond there. In any case, do not go beyond the Sparring Room because you will wake up more guards and make it more difficult to ambush them.

If a Hammerite walks into the East or West Corridor, follow him and check whether anybody is behind you. When he is near the end, knock him down and hide him into any room with a door (other than the High Priest Room!). If they all left the corridors, use the spare time to look around. Along the East and West Corridors, there are several rooms without doors, and all of them are empty (visit them as you see fit). For the rooms with doors, they are quarters: none is locked but all of them are restricted. The door and window of the High Priest Room opens to the East Corridor. Look inside the window and you will see him inside an inner room, standing with his back towards you.

To the South of the South Corridor are the Dining Room and the Kitchen. If nobody is watching and you have nothing else to do, take the three bottles of Fine Wine (0;0;50) from the dining table. Go to the Kitchen on the West. Read the red Hammer Book on the upper shelf near the South West corner: they are converting the old kitchen into Treasury, that means if you can find the old kitchen downstairs, you will get lots of treasures.

The South Corridor extends to the left and right, forming a rectangle of its own. I call the Southern part of this rectangle the Talisman Corridor. In the middle of it is the Talisman Hall: we will be there later. On both sides of the South Corridor are stairs going down to the Storage Rooms. Ignore them for now. Go back to the 4 corridors.

There are a total of four Hammerites on this level (five if the one from above didn’t go back upstairs). The two you have seen are now wandering around, two are waiting in the Graveyard (if you have not waken them), and the fifth if present is usually trapped in the Garden. So for now you only need to handle two, but sometimes one of them just disappear forever. Very likely he has gone to the Garden and get stuck there. So if you have got both, or have got one and have waited long enough, go to the Garden at the North East.

It is also a good time to count your weapons. You need at most two Gas Arrows: one for the High Priest and one for the Inquisitor. If you have more, use it here. After Lower Level, there are only three more Hammerites and they are even easier to handle than the ones here.

Go North to the Sparring Room. Go East to the Garden to find the lone Hammerite (or maybe a second one trapped here if you have not yet hit two). If you have two Hammerites here, keep standing in front of them and hope that he will go away. When one finally leaves the Garden, just follow him (unless he goes to the Graveyard, in which case you should wait for him to come back) and hit him anywhere convenient.

Sometimes the last guard is stuck among the trees, then you can easily knock him. If he is walking on short patrol between two obstacles, it is very difficult to hit him (because if you were slow he will have turned around and seen you raising the Blackjack). In those cases, stand right in front of him and see if he could be redirected to walk somewhere else (or throw some hammers to distract him). Once he start walking in anything other than a short patrol, you should not have any difficulty to tail and hit him. Save his body anywhere dark in the Garden or in the empty East Novice Quarters on your North.

After he is done with, examine the ledge of the East wall. Behind the big tree (they say it is a Keystone Tree but I am no botonist) in the center (the wall above also protrudes a bit in the center region), find another red switch. There are several more to be located.

Now go to the Graveyard on the West side of the Sparring Room. The two Hammerites will start talking. When they are finished, one will go North and the other go South. Follow the South-going guard (or go there in advance to wait for him). Hit him and forget about his body. Go out to handle the last Hammerite.

Do not bother to hide the last body (if you insist in hiding, the corner of the South West Graveyard is very nice. Examine each grave: there are five bigger graves (that looks like a box without a cover, with roof and sides) and several grave stones (standing like a biscuit). In all five graves (two in the North section, one in the middle section, and two in the South section) get a total of five Gold Vases (100;0;0). The graves also have a metal plate stating who the inhabitant is: Brother Dale, Mason, Terrence, Theol, and Wainwright. At the grave of Brother Mason (at the North West corner of the South section), find the third red switch (you need to crouch and look up to see it). Do not mistake the red inverted hammer as the switch!

On the North side of the Graveyard is West Novice Quarters, which again do not have anything useful.

Now that all guards are gone, go back to the East Corridor to see the High Priest. He usually stays at either of two places: at the far room where you can see from the window, or on the right side of the door. If you cannot see him, he is on the right. Anyway save the game, open the door and listen to where he is.

Walk near the door opening but do not enter it (no need to crouch, you are allowed to stay there as long as you do not cross the border). Soon the High Priest will walk in front of you, giving you an opportunity to lean and knock him (you are ignored as long as your feet are not inside his room). If you find this difficult or dangerous, you can shoot a Gas Arrow at him when you can see him via the window. However, leave one Gas Arrow for the Inquisitor if you can afford it. If you only have one Gas Arrow left and do not have any Gas Mine, it is up to you: if you do not gas the Inquisitor, you need to patiently crawl around; if you do not gas the High Priest, you need to skillfully knock him. I gassed neither when I first played the mission.

Just leave the body where it is and loot the room. From the outer room, get the bottle of Fine Wine (0;0;50) on top of the bookcase facing the door. Take the hammer on shrine at the South East corner. It is the Holy Symbol of the Temple, and you need it to get the Talisman(s). Get a Gemstone (0;100;0) inside the Foot Locker.

Enter the inner room to collect a Gold Hammer (75;0;0) and a bottle of Fine Wine (0;0;50) on the table. Get the Master Key, which opens every door in the Temple (actually you do not really need it). Leave the High Priest room to loot the the Priest Quarters.

Turn right and start with the South-most door on the East side of the East Corridor. In this room (Priest Quarters E3), get the Key on the table and a Healing Potion from inside the Foot Locker. Leave the room and enter the room on your right (Priest Quarters E2). Take a bottle of Fine Wine (0;0;50) from the Foot Locker and a Tiara (75;50;0) on the bookcase. Leave the room, turn right and enter the last room on your right (Priest Quarters E1). Take the Key by the bed, and pick the Foot Locker to get the Purse (100;0;0) inside (you can also use any of your two Keys to unlock it, faster if you are not concerned with the “locks picked” statistics).

Now move to the West Corridor and start travelling South. Enter the first room on your right (Priest Quarters W1) to get a Purse (100;0;0) from a Foot Locker. Then move South to the next room with a door Priest Quarters W2 to get a third key and a Gold Goblet (25;0;0) on top the bookcase. If you want to, there are two more rooms on this corridor South of you, neither has a door, both are empty.

Now we have finished this area. Time to go back upstairs (make sure you have not forgotten the three bottles of fine wine in the Dining Room.

Now it is time to find out how to get the Talisman(s). First we find the details from the Library, then go and have a look at the Talisman Hall.

We then explore the rest of the Temple to get all loots and wipe out all guards. Then we can put our hands on the Talisman(s) unhindered.

Go back upstairs. In the Main Hall, go South into the Upper Level Corridor and turn right. Enter the door at the West end into West Chapel, a long room with nothing useful. Leave via the door at South West and follow the tile floor South. When you pass the West Balcony, look down to see the Graveyard below. There are wall tops you can climb on but they lead to nothing. Look South, there is a stone ledge like the one on the East Balcony. When you are leaving the Temple, you can do it via either balcony dropping down from the stone ledge to the lower level of the city.

Enter the door on the North into the Library. Read the books on the tables. While most of them are useless, the first Hammer Book on the left (on the lower shelf) tells you about keys. You already have three Keys and a Master Key so you can unlock anything other than the Talisman(s).

Unlock the door on North West (with an inverted hammer sign). Get two bottles of Fine Wine (0;0;50) from the shelf on the right. The books on the left are again useless. Unlock the Foot Locker (again using either Key) to read the Hammer Scroll inside (Taliman(s) with "s" in Original Thief, without "s" in Thief Gold). It tells you the most important secret of the Temple — how to get the Talisman(s). To do so, you need to flip five switches (in any order) within five minutes. The scroll also tells you where the five switches are, three of which you have already seen:

• one resides with Brother Mason (in the Graveyard)
• one is behind the skull of St Yora (in the Reliquary)
• one is in the kitchen by the oven (it means the old kitchen, now the Treasury)
• one is behind the rack which loosens men’s tongues (what else do you think the Inquisitor is responsible for?)
• one is behind the keystone tree (in the Garden)

Five minutes is ample time, as long as you take out the guards before flipping the first switch. Let us first have a look at where the Talisman(s) are.

Descend the stairs, turn right and go South along the East Corridor. At the South Corridor turn left and follow the corridor to the Talisman Corridor, ignoring the stairs going down to the Storage Rooms. There is only one doorway in the Southern part of the South Corridor.

You are on a ledge and the Talisman(s) is/are in the cage directly in front of you. How to fly across? If you are playing Normal (difficulty), you can climb to the cage from the floor below using a Rope Arrow. Unfortunately, Hard and Experts do not have any Rope Arrows (haven’t you noticed that).

See the hammer sign on the floor? Walk on it. Since you are carrying the hammer of the High Priest, a bridge is automatically extended for you to access the cage. Yet the cages are closed. Inside the left cage you can see a switch: not our usual red switches, but a switch to open the right cage. After you have flipped all five red switches, the left cage will open and you can open the right cage yourself.

Incidentally, if you do not like the hammer, you can still access the cage even without Rope Arrows. There are plenty of wooden boxes in the Temple (many of them are available at the Storage Rooms. Pile them up from below and you can mantle up to the cage. However, there is little point to do this.

So much for now, go back outside and go North to the Sparring Room. Go to the North side of the Sparring Room and descend the stairs.

Down to the dark Crypts and your map says “Location Unknown”, the only unmapped region of the Temple. You are arriving into the Crypts via the North entrance. It is not a restricted area so no need to be afraid of the Hammerites.

The word crypt came from the Greek meaning ”hidden“. Traditionally, the crypt was the chamber beneath the main level of a church, used as a meeting place or burial place. It developed from the catacombs used by early Christians as hiding places from persecution, as shrines to saints and martyrs, as funeral memorials. Early churches often were constructed over the tombs of martyrs.

As soon as you arrive downstairs, you should find a Hammerite patrolling. Go to your left, there is a dead end corner on North East. Wait till he comes back (or to hunt him down) and knock him.

Again four main tunnels form a small square, with each side a little longer than a coffer. You are at the North East corner. Go South to the end and you see the South exit — stairs going up to the East Storage Room. Ignore the exit, turn right and go West until you arrive at the 4-way junction: it is the South West corner of the square (with more tunnels on the South and on the West). Ahead of you is a ramp going North (towards your right): we will come back from there. Up the ramp is the last Hammerite chanting, but just ignore him for now. Turn left to go South, and you have a coffer on your left. Get the Gold Vase (100;0;0) on top of the coffer.

From that coffer, turn West. It is a long and slightly upgoing corridor. From the coffer on your left, get another Gold Vase (100;0;0) on its right. There are five Gold Vases in the Crypts and this is the only one not on top of a coffer. Go all the way up to a T-junction: Inquisitor is on the left (South). Ignore it since that is our return path after getting the Talisman(s). Turn right and go to the end, turn right and the chanting Hammerite is looking at you.

Walk towards him. On top of the coffer on your left is the third Gold Vase (100;0;0), but don’t take it in front of the Hammerite! Walk behind him and knock him down first. On top of the coffer behind him is the fourth Gold Vase (100;0;0) (and remember to take the third one). From where he was standing, go North. After a left turn, you find the fifth and last Gold Vase (100;0;0) on top of the coffer on your right. There is one more coffer ahead but it has nothing to offer.

Go back down to where the guard was, descend the ramp (going South). After the left turn, you are back to the 4-way junction. Continue forward and on your right is the South Exit you have seen before. Climb up to the East Storage Room.

Arriving at the East Storage Room of the Basement, look around. In front of you (slight to your left) behind the barrel is stair case going up to the 1/F South Corridor. On your right are two doorways: the West doorway enters the Basement Corridor (there is only one in this whole Basement), the South doorway goes to the next storage room. Note: the East Storage Room consists of two rooms, and similarly the West Storage Room consists of two rooms. And the West Storage Room has a similar staircase going up to the 1/F South Corridor. All four rooms have many Foot Lockers but all are empty, at least in the Expert level.

In the Basement, turn right (go North). Beyond the corner, you can see the Treasury door with an inverted hammer. Listen to the only patrolling Hammerite. Wait for him to come and knock him down as usual, and do not bother hiding him.

Unlock (using the Master Key) or pick the door and enter. On the far (South) wall are three Foot Lockers. From the first Foot Locker on the left get a Purse (100;0;0). Get another Purse (100;0;0) from the second Foot Locker. From the third, get a Gemstone (0;100;0).

Next to the last Foot Locker are stacks of coins shining before you. Right click madly to collect 8 Goin Coin Stacks (25;0;0), 8 Silver Coin Stacks (12;0;0) and finally 15 Copper Coin Stacks (5;0;0). Go to the West half of the Treasury. Above the shelves is the fourth red switch you have been looking for. Leave the Treasury now.

Walk around the corridor and listen to the snorting Inquisitor. Doorway to his room is on the middle of the South corridor (door to Treasury is on the East end of the North corridor). Enter the doorway into his bedroom. He will be mad at you if you wake him up. If you have saved a Gas Arrow, shoot at the sleeping Inquisitor now. Otherwise, either ignore him or crawl quietly towards him and Blackjack him.

Go to the table on the left (East) to collect a Silver Coin Stack (12;0;0) next to another Hammerite Compendium. Enter the next room at the end of the carpet. This is, eh, the Inquisition Chamber. The floor is metal, so you need to be very careful if you haven’t gassed the Inquisitor.

On your right is the rack, and the Inquisitor obviously has been successful in loosening tongues. Behind the rack is the fifth switch you needed. On the South side of the Inquisition Chamber are two doorways. Save the game (it is not dangerous, just spends a little time), go and have a look.

The left doorway goes to several prison cells. In the right (West) doorway, you have a side tunnel on the right (North). It descends to the Crypts. If you ignore the branch and continue forward, there is a 180 degrees turn and then enters the Talisman Hall. Now time to do some running.

The rest is straight forward: flip all switches, take the Talisman(s), and get away!

To open the cage holding the Talisman(s), you need to flip all five switches within five mintues. You can flip the five switches in any sequence, and should have lots of time to spare. Yet if you wish to explore around, save your game and visit the two Storage Rooms and their staircases going up to the Lower Level South Corridor before you start to flip the switches.

Since we are at the Inquisition Chamber, let’s start from here. Flip the switch on the West wall and run back to the Treasury. Flip the switch next to the oven. Run to either of the Storage Rooms and ride the staircase going up to the 1/F South Corridor. Go up to 2/F to flip the switch behind the Skull of St. Yora in the Reliquary. Now if you are in a real hurry, leave the Reliquary via the door on the South and from the balcony jump down to the Garden. Otherwise, just run back down the stairs to get there. Flip the switch behind the central tree and run to the Graveyard to flip the last switch at Brother Mason.

When all is done, run to the Talisman Hall on the Talisman Corridor beyond the South Corridor. Run past the bridge. The left cage is now opened. Flip the switch inside to open the right cage and save your game.

Have you got the Talisman(s)? Sorry, you acted too fast.

There is white smoky stuff protecting the Talisman(s), and it hurts if you try to grab them. Get out your Wall Builder’s Prayer, you need it to unseal the Talisman(s). Get inside: it doesn’t hurt to get close. Do NOT look at the Talisman(s). Look down, make sure the papyrus is selected (bigger than usual) instead of the Talisman. If you have been looking at the Talisman(s), right clicking grabs them, and it hurts. It is annoying that the use button perform both functions.

Right click to read the Wall Builder’s Prayer Papyrus. You do not read it aloud, but after you have seen its contents here, the protection layer is gone. Grab the Talisman(s). The alarm sounds. Turn around and leave. Except that the bridge is now gone (for Expert Difficulty): it disappeared as soon as you opened the right cage. And since only Normal Difficulty has Rope Arrows, your only option is to jump down.

Incidentally, the three guards in the barrack at the Foyer are alerted and start wandering around looking for you. If you have not wiped them out, one of them is in the Foyer near the Front Gate. For now, leave via the only exit. Instead of going all the way to the Inquisition Chamber, take the branch on your left to descend North down to the Crypts.

Run forward and make a right turn as soon as you can (now facing East). You should recognize the place by now. At the end, turn left and then take the second right back to the stairs going up to the Sparring Room. Run to the North Corridor and up the stairs to Main Hall.

One of the guards will now be in the Foyer waiting for you. If you do not want to meet him, go to either balcony (East Balcony or West Balcony): from there you can jump on the the stone ledge on the South and drop to the lower level of the city to complete the mission. Or simply do a quick save, run to the Foyer: it is easy to evade him and run outside. Once you get outside, the mission is successfully completed.