Thief Gold — an All Difficulty Level complete-loot walkthrough

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

The walkthrough of this mission is co-authored by Michele L. Worley and Alex Fung. Michele wrote the content and I (Alex) marked it up to conform with other missions. Therefore you would noticed a large change in style. In particular, Michele is doing it in the Lytha style. She got all the loots with minimal violence, minimal evidence. This way to play the game is usually much more difficult than my brute force knock-them-all. However, I would frequently point out ways to get rid of AIs so that you can have a good look at the place.

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 would describe the main route like a regular walkthrough. Then at certain points I would 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 would want to skip the excursions), just ignore the milestone and continue straight on.

In this mission, players at lower Difficulty Levels will get more powerups and less AIs than those at higher Difficulty Levels. At different Difficulty Levels, the location of a few pick pockets are different. Otherwise, all Difficulty Levels nearly see the same thing.

Starting with v1.0 of mission 17, you can change the difficulty level of the walkthrough using the drop box above. By default it is Expert, but if you set it to Normal or Hard, the loot and pick descriptions will be modified to suite your difficulty level. In the past, the cumulative counts only reflect that of the Expert level, now you can see the cumulative counts of any difficulty. Mission 17 is the first mission among my Thief walkthough to implement this code.

Also, the loot code has been changed to display values in {gold; gems; goods} format. Now it is easier to check your loot total against the walkthrough. Again mission 17 is the first mission among my Thief walkthough to implement this code.

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 renders much faster.

Now, time for the third Talisman. It is crazy for the Keepers to store the Talisman of Water in the underground caverns. Left unguarded, this could have been the easiest mission of all. Well, until you find out that there is more to it. I would talk about it when we get there.

Against Sewer Spiders and Crayman, you hardly need anything. However the mission is not as simple as that. So bought everything you need “against” human beings: Water Arrows, Moss Arrows, Flash Bombs and Gas Arrows.

You will also be able to acquire a new type of power up during the mission. Gas Mines arm and detonate in the same way as Land Mines, except they emit gas like Gas Arrows. Therefore, they are non-lethal and are usable against human beings at all Difficulty Levels.

Blindness is the manfools
theys gathers up treasures
and greeders themselves on gold rocks and fetters
the Woodsie One wreaks thems with lilacs and nettles
and gathers theys bones for his porridge and feathers
 — text unattributed, Sumac on parchment

Initial Briefing

Objectives:

• Locate your informant Giry. He may have important information about the caverns for you.
• Use the Keeper’s map to find the Talisman of Water. Remember they’ve probably rigged the place, so be careful.
• Escape from the Caverns after you’ve taken the Talisman, it may not be as easy as you think.
• Loot may be scarce down in the caverns, but an expert thief such as yourself should be able to find at least 200 worth.
• Expert only:
  Humans will be as scarce in the caverns as loot, so if you find your informant Giry, or any people, don’t kill them.

The Keepers’ crude map of the Caverns, while it lacks detailed descriptions of various areas, is actually fairly accurate. The Caverns are linear, as implied by the map. Many of the deeper sections are flooded, so you’ll have a few long swimming sessions. This is just appropriate, considering that Garrett is on the quest for the Talisman of Water.

Giry, as you might expect, lives as close to the surface as possible, in one of the drier areas. We’ll find him before proceeding any further in the hunt for the Talisman.

The City Utility Building is built of brick and has a lot of metallic flooring, but don’t worry — it’s uninhabited. After you have looked around, open the hatchway on the left (the right hatchway is locked and unpickable, and leads nowhere). Go down the ramp (N), then turn right (E) to reach the well. You’ll have to mantle up onto the lip of the well to reach the ladder. Climb down into Giry’s Cavern.

At the bottom of the well, near a glowing mushroom, you’ll find a tunnel (E) leading toward Giry’s Cavern (the tunnel is the only exit, and immediately tends NE). Walk down the tunnel until it turns due E again; you’ll see a torch at the end of the tunnel, where it ends at a different tunnel running N-S. The sound of Spiders will become audible. You’re at the N end of the tunnel, while the Sewer Spiders are at the far S end, so it’s safe to sneak into the torchlit area without putting out the torch. Conserve your Water Arrows for later use.

You arrived at Giry’s Cavern, which is marked with Spiders on the map. Under the torch, you’ll find a dead Sewer Spider, Giry’s possessions (including a Healing Potion and his journal), and… Giry, poor devil. The Spiders left him trussed up like a mummy. Read the journal, for the information about the spider migration is important. Seems he acted one day too late. Your objectives will change at this point; “find Giry” is no longer relevant.

Ignore his bedroll, knife and plate. Run S past the Sewer Spiders into the water (stay near the shore and do not swim away till the next section). Once you’re in water, you’re safe: Spiders can’t swim. If you entice them into the water, they’ll drown very quickly, but you don’t need to.

The Keepers managed to lose one man here when they hid the Talismans fifty years ago, after the Haunted Cathedral was sealed. How did he die? The Keepers drew 2 spiders on the map, showing that spiders lived here even at the time they hid the Talisman of Water. Giry said in his journal that many spiders recently appeared, but we only saw two Sewer Spiders. How to make sense of all this? I can only assume that there have always been lots of spiders, and many more have recently arrived, but all are gone now.

On your map, your location is marked “Abysmal Cavern Swim”. This area is also called the Lake Cavern, which actually better describes the place.

The Giry’s Cavern tunnel ends in a shallow, flooded area opening into a much larger cave. Save your game before you enter the deeper flooded area to the left. At this point, look up to see 3 boulders, which will fall from the roof of the cavern as you approach (be careful to avoid being crushed by the falling rocks). Once the rocks have fallen, dive to the floor of the cavern to retrieve the Water Arrow near the point where the 3 boulders sank.

The cavern consists of two smaller caves surrounding pillars sticking up through the water, forming a figure-8. If you had swum to the right side rather than left around the first pillar, you would have reached the same location. The right and left paths differ slightly, however. The right-hand side is longer and more scenic (more stalactites hanging above), but more confusing to navigate (you might accidentally follow the second loop of the 8 instead of reaching the fallen boulders and the water arrow). Investigate the right side if you like.

From where you got the Water Arrow, swim East (left) and follow the second circle to find the exit at the southeast. The underwater tunnel is next to a dripping stalactite, so you can’t miss it. Dive into the tunnel, picking up another Water Arrow along the way.

Turn right to resurface in a cave with an hourglass-shaped pillar. This kind of pillar appears in many missions; it is formed by a stalactite (rock growing from above) joined with a stalagmite (rock growing from below). See MSN Encarta for a reference.

Wade through the exit to the right of the pillar (not easy to spot, because everything is grey here). At this point, you will begin hearing what lies ahead; prepare to enter the Crayman Cavern. Note: after you leave the Crayman Cavern, you will not be able to return, so make sure you have all the supplies you can pick up en route.

This area appears more complex and threatening than it really is [I can assure you that knocking all of them out will make this place much less threatening — Alex]. It contains a few Craymen, some human bones, and a bundle of Moss Arrows. There is only one other exit, to the SE. Most of the caverns are made of some kind of brown sandstone; the grey patches generally indicate waterholes. The only large area of grey stone is the cave containing the exit.

Just before you enter the brown opening, look at the strange mark on the right hand side of the grey wall. Perhaps the Keepers left it to mark their route. The brown Entrance Tunnel runs NE-SW, ending at the Skull Cave. After you enter it, halt immediately. To your left (E) is a short tunnel leading to a stationary Crayman (Crayman #1), standing by a waterhole. We do not need to enter this tunnel, but if you want to go there [such as knocking out the Crayman — Alex], you should hide inside the small niche at about its mid-point.

Wait until he’s facing away from you, then continue down SE on the Entrance Tunnel. Don’t run, though; the Skull Cave at the end is a patrol area for another Crayman.

On your way towards the Skull Cave, you will find a second tunnel on your left, parallel to the one through which you saw the first Crayman. It connects the Entrance Tunnel with the Parallel Tunnel (also running approximately N-S). When Crayman #1 is facing South, there is no place to hide in the Parallel Tunnel, so do not stay there. The second left tunnel is not a patrol area. It’s a safe place to save game if you haven’t alerted any Craymen.

You may be getting lost among the tunnels, their names, the Craymen and the waterholes. Look at this hand drawn map to get oriented. There are 4 waterholes in this part of the Crayman Cavern. Three of them are connected by a network of flooded tunnels running through the rock beneath you. Those tunnels form a Y shape, connecting the waterhole guarded by Crayman #1, the Skull Cave waterhole, and the waterhole at the opposite end of the parallel tunnel guarded by Crayman #1. Unfortunately, none of these 3 connect with waterhole #4, the only exit from this area (apart from the way you came in).

From the second left tunnel (where you saved game), go back out into the Entrance Tunnel and head SW. Stop in the shadows at the end of the Entrance Tunnel, just before entering the Skull Cave. Watch the patrolling Crayman (Crayman #2) and follow him out of the room along the Hourglass Tunnel once his back is toward you. This is safe because he doesn’t double back on this point of his patrol [of course, I'd tell you that knocking him out is far less troublesome — Alex]. On normal, there are no other Craymen. On Hard, there is one more Crayman. On Expert, there are two more Craymen.

Just after leaving the Skull Cave, Crayman #2 passes through a large stone cavern; on Expert, Crayman #3 is standing there. Fortunately for Lytha-style players, Crayman #3 fidgets. Wait in the shadows just before the stone cavern of Crayman #3, while Crayman #2 moves on without you. When he’s out of the room and Crayman #3 is facing off toward your left, run behind Crayman #3 and across (S) to the grey Hourglass Cave, toward the exit waterhole. You can always do this before Crayman #2 returns to the area, and if you’re careful about timing your run, Crayman #3 won’t even notice. The exit waterhole is at the SE end of the cavern.

When you arrive at the shadows of Hourglass Cave, you are pretty safe (i.e. save game here). Note there is another pillar formed from stalactites and stalagmites. Further ahead of you to the SE is a pile of bones next to the exit waterhole, and the last Crayman (Crayman #4, Hard and Expert only) patrolling the Dead Spider Tunnel. Wait till Crayman enters and leaves, move to the pile of bones to find four Moss Arrows. Drop into the waterhole there. Since the sides are steep and deep, this will be a one-way trip — there is no way to go back. Fortunately, the Craymen can’t follow you.

By the way, there is a dead Sewer Spider in the Dead Spider Tunnel not far from the last waterhole. However, you will run into Crayman #4 if you try to visit the dead Sewer Spider, so forget about it unless you go and knock him out with your Blackjack.

The only way out is to swim. The only tunnel from the Crayman Cavern exit waterhole is underwater, and leads SE. It immediately forks 3 ways, left, right, and center. The right (W) is just an airhole, the center is the Main Tunnel going SE, and the left (E) is an interesting detour.

Take the first left (E) to discover what happened to one of the Keepers lost on the mission to hide the Talisman. The Keeper’s skeleton is lying on the left (N) side of the cave, lying half out of the water. His journal lies to the right (E) of the skeleton, while 1 Breath Potion lies in the water just below the journal. Go ahead and read the Keeper Journal and pick up the Breath Potion (you won’t need the potion to get to the Talisman Cavern, because there are plenty of airholes and it isn’t very far, but it’s good to be prepared).

The Keeper’s lower body (what’s left of it) is resting on the shallow floor of the cave. To either side of the skeleton (W and E) are the two underwater entrances to this cave. Both entrances connect with the Main Tunnel leading SE — the W is the way you came in, in the direction of the Crayman Cavern, while the E turns SW and leads further down the Main Tunnel, closer to the Talisman Cavern.

You can use either exit to reenter the Main Tunnel. For completeness, let’s say you took the W tunnel and went back to the triple fork where you came in. Take the Main Tunnel on your left to go SE. The first left on your way is the E exit from the cave with the dead Keeper; bypass it (you may not notice the entrance, due to the way that side of the tunnel is arranged).

Further down, the Main Tunnel straightens out, leading S, then taking a sharp bend E. Just past the bend to the E, where the tunnel bulges outward a little, look up and surface; this is the next airhole. When Garrett has caught his breath, continue heading E. Remember to check your bearings — I have dived backwards more than once after taking the breath.

Immediately after the airhole you just left, you’ll find a second exit above you. Ignore it, for we would come back to it later. Continue diving forward (E). After a left turn, you would soon arrive at the bottom of a square pool. Remain underwater, and dive to the North edge of the pool. Surface quietly. You have arrived at the Talisman Cavern.

As soon as you enter the Talisman Cavern, you’ll begin hearing the voice of Raoul the Hermit, singing somewhere to the N of you. We’ll get to him after coping with the Talisman Cavern.

Behind you is a Crayman (Hard and Expert) so stay quiet. In front of you is a low-lying, flat stone ledge. Take the Silver Nugget (50;0;0) while you are still in water. Save game and turn around to look at your surroundings.

The Talisman Cavern has 2 staircases leading up, one to the W (on your right, after you have turned around from the North edge to face South), one to the E (on your left). The two staircases flank the square pool you are in. To the S, a second ledge without loot connects the feet of the two staircases. On Hard and Expert, the E staircase (on your far left) is guarded by a crayman standing at the bottom. Sometimes the Crayman is on the E stairs, especially when he has heard you.

You cannot drown a Crayman by luring him into water. I have seen him patroling underwater for minutes. If he falls into the pool, quickly mantle up the shore (something he can’t do).

There are two ways to arrive here.

1. You can enter the shrine from the far right hand (SW) corner if you had passed through the exit we ignored a moment ago. From there, you can go upstairs using the stairs on your right (West).
2. From where you are, you may also mantle directly to the opposite (South) shore and go upstairs. That would probably arouse the Crayman, but we shall soon see that it doesn’t really matter.

This entry provides an easy way to quench the torch on the W side. Just make sure you’re standing out of the water before trying to use your bow. Put out the W torch upstairs. Move quietly to the foot of the W stairs.

From about halfway up the stairs, you should get a good view of the upper cavern, including the arrow-riddled corpse of the Opera House guard. Remember the “nearby Opera House” that the late Giry used to work for? That Opera House.

At the N end of this room, a tunnel leads to another waterhole (the only exit, from which the sound of Raoul’s singing is drifting to you).

In addition to the blue chest at the S end of the room, notice all the suspicious-looking openings in the wall. If they don’t look suspicious to you, you really should have played Mission 4 (Down in the Bonehoard) before skipping to this mission (Song of the Caverns).

On the floor is a plaque, containing the Keepers’ last warning. There are no separate pressure plates in the floor; the entire floor S of the warning is booby-trapped, pretty much. Fortunately, the weapons are mounted at chest-height to a standing, rather than a crouching, thief. As long as you stay crouched, the arrows will pass harmlessly over your head.

Pull the 2 Broadhead Arrows out of the corpse of the Opera House guard, and read the note. Incidentally, if you look at the note without clicking on it, it looks like a book, titled “THE THIEF AND HIS WIFE”. Noting

1. the condition of the body,
2. the slits all around the walls of the room, and
3. the wording of the warning,

If you make enough noise in the upper cavern (e.g. sneaking through the trapped area) you can lure the Crayman up here. If you stay in the SW corner, he is less likely to reach you without being shot enough times to make him flee. Sometimes you can lure him to his death, sometimes not (in those cases, he would flee downstairs).

The chest isn’t locked. Both the Hand Brotherhood and the Hammerites did a better job of protecting their Talismans than what the Keepers have done here. In Garrett’s own words, “Empty. Now what?”.

The chest is empty, now what? There is no way back. So proceed in the only possible direction and see what happens.

Well, you can’t get back out the way you came in — the sides of the exit waterhole back at Crayman Cavern were too steep to climb out. You can hear a man singing in the distance (yes, “the” Song of the Caverns), so follow his voice out toward the only other exit (N). Check around the mouth of the N tunnel for any broadheads shot from the booby traps in the S wall.

Make sure you have your supplies and the Silver Nugget before diving into the next waterhole at the end of the tunnel, because (again) it’s too steep to let you climb back out. Swim in the only direction you can (E) and surface at the end.

Meet Raoul, the ex-owner of the Opera House. Trivia: His voice is provided by none other than Stephen Russell, the Voice of Garrett. Also, reader Roman reminded me that the name "Raoul" is the name of a character in the infamous story “Phantom of the Opera”, and that this story does have a lot to do with the opera.

He’s not only harmless; he’ll help you, so don’t attack him or hide from him. Openly approach him and listen to what he has to say.

I’ve been told that Raoul’s patter can be hard to follow. He says these things randomly, but since he’s continually talking and singing to himself, he’ll say all of them if you wait for awhile.

Once Raoul sees you, he will make a speech, then suggest that you steal “the treasure” from Lady Valerius. He’ll give you a map and a Silver Key (the Hermit’s Key, which unfortunately is not labeled as such in your inventory) toward the end of the speech. While he’s talking, collect the bundle of 2 Moss Arrows from the roof of his hut (left side). The hut itself doesn’t contain anything worth stealing from the poor man.

Make sure you pick up the map and the Hermit’s Key. If you forget to take the key, you would either have to come back (it would be a long walk) to get it, or meet much greater resistance when getting the Talisman. Use the papyrus to add it to your existing map, and you’ll have a pretty good map of the Opera House. Once Raoul finishes, you’ll be able able to climb a rope hanging down from the ceiling where he was standing, and Raoul will go back to his patter. Trivia: until he finishes, he is blocking the way and you cannot climb the rope — unless you jump from the roof of the hut (yet you need to wait for his map and key).

Once you climb the rope, Garrett will make a comment about Raoul as your objectives change.

Click here to see your new list of objectives.

Save the game at the top of the rope. Jump off into the tunnel at the top, and follow the tunnel W, then S, until you reach another rope. Climb down into the sewers, heading S, then W past a drowned spider. When you finally reach the tunnel that branches left (E) and right (W), you’ll find a drowned Sewer Spider underwater and a dead Sewer Spider on the ledge. Next to the dead Sewer Spider is another note from Lady Valerius to Captain Colliard.

Between the notes and Giry’s story, you can piece together what happened. Some spiders got into the Opera House. Lady Valerius sent some of the Opera House guards into the caverns to clear out the spiders (possibly because the spiders were scaring off opera patrons, possibly because they scared her; my guess is the latter). The guards obeyed her, since she threatened to sack them without references if they didn’t. They found the Talisman Cavern by accident, looted it, and took the Talisman of Water back to Lady Valerius. The spiders, meanwhile, fled back toward the Crayman Cavern, and finally into Giry’s Cavern, killing him.

Alex has pointed out that it would be impossible for the spiders to get to Giry’s Cavern from the Opera House without drowning (considering how easy you drowned two of them). I (Michele) put this in the same category as Garrett’s use of the haunted mines to enter Cragscleft to avoid the heavily guarded main entrance, when no such main entrance never existed.

At this point, you can take Raoul’s advice and turn left at the sewer, heading for the Opera House Basement. Anyway, we would ignore him and go for a Cafe and the Alley Excursion.

The Opera House is huge. You are free to roam in the Opera House, so the sequence is just a choice of the walkthrough author. The objectives are clear, and will remain unchanged till the end of the game. Go get all you need.

We start at the Basement, and try to go everywhere before moving up to First Floor. There are many secret passages going up, so while we are visiting them we would also have a look at the area around the other end of the passage. Since the “regular” passages are well guarded, by the time we are done with the Basement, we shall go upstairs using the secret passage in the Central Dining Hall.

The red X marks on the map that Raoul gave you indicate various secret passages in the Opera House. Taking a left at the sewer (E, then N) leads you to the red X on the north end of the Opera House Basement.

The Basement has one key to be pickpocketed, an armory to be plundered, some Water Arrows and Healing Potions, and some Fine Wine in the Wine Cellar. There are several exits, some hidden, some not. The visible exits are

• The B«1 West Stairs, leading up to the Ticket Office.
• The B«1 Spiral Stairs to the south, leading from the Dining Hall Storage Area to the 1/F Kitchen.
• The B«1 Elevator to the NE, which has a stationary guard posted beside it.
• The B«1 SE Stairs, which are guarded and lead to the 1/F Backstage. Warning: The guards standing on the SE stairs will start a conversation as you approach them. After they spoke, one will remain on the stairs while the other goes on patrol in the Basement. It’s in your best interests to loot the Basement thoroughly before stirring up any more guards. Moreover, the moving guard will walk downstairs, it is better to stir them up from above. It’s simplest to loot the Basement before moving on to the higher floors of the Opera House.

The secret passage from the sewers to the Opera House Basement leads to the the Scenery Storage Room. This room is not a patrol area, but the Basement North Corridor (to your right, S) is. Propped against the N wall of the room are some large stage backdrops which provide a landmark as you move through Basement, particularly the large blue winter backdrop. They also provide a hiding place between the scenery and the wall.

To your right (S) is the Basement North Corridor, which runs from the B«1 Elevator at the E end to the Basement West Corridor.

Enter the Basement North Corridor and head West. The wooden door on the right is the Armory. Playing Expert Difficulty, unlock the door with the Silver Key you got at the Watchtower. At Hard or Normal, the Silver Key is with a guard in the Basement West Corridor ahead. You may either come back here after you get his key (read the next section to find out where the guard is, but we would not pick his key until we are on our way to Wine Cellar two more sections later), or just pick the door open. Enter and hide inside.

The Armory, in addition to the red barrels of explosives, contains a few items that are more practical. Incidentally, why does a respectable Opera House need enough explosives to blow up a bridge?

Although the SE area is empty, the SW area contains 2 Fire Arrows. The NW area contains 3 Flash Bombs. Most useful of all are the contents of the NE area: the first Gas Mines available in Thief Gold. On Normal Difficulty, there are 3; on Hard, 2; on Expert, 1 only.

Upon leaving the Armory, be aware of the servant patrolling the Boiler Room Corridor to the S, especially as you head W along the Basement North Corridor, toward the Booth Storage Area.

The area immediately west of the Armory contains a large booth lined with material made to look like a starry sky. The area provides deep shadow and a good view of the Basement West Corridor, which is a patrol area. However, on any difficulty level other than Normal, it is not practical either to approach the B«1 West Stairs or attempt to pickpocket (Normal/Hard only) the Basement West Corridor guard from this direction.

A Poster Scroll is posted on the west wall of the Basement West Corridor near the stairs. Two identical copies are posted elsewhere (in the 1/F Backstage and in the Guardroom), so it is not absolutely necessary to attempt to read this copy. Keep this piece of information carefully in mind. If the guards are put on alert, it will be more difficulty to steal the Talisman quietly.

On Normal, the B«1 West Stairs, leading up to the Ticket Office are unprotected. Only a single guard patrols this area, with a Silver Key on his belt.

On Hard, the guard still has the Silver Key, but another guard is posted at the top of B«1 West Stairs looking down at this area to thwart thieves such as yourself.

On Expert, there are two guards but neither of them have any key (you have already got the Silver Key from the Watchtower guard). One of the guards patrols the area under the stairs like other difficulty levels. The other guard patrols this area and the Boiler Room Corridor. Refer to Raoul’s map: next to the stairs on the left side is a tall rectangle surrounded by corridors on all four sides. The second guard is walking around this rectangle in the clockwise direction. Finally, similar to Hard, there is also a guard on top of B«1 West Stairs to stop you from acting recklessly here.

Rather than approaching the corridor from the north end, we’re going to circle around and approach it from the S. The shadowy area at the south end of the West Corridor provides excellent cover for pickpocketing the guard’s key.

Immediately east of the Basement West Corridor, just S of the Armory, is the Boiler Room Corridor. A servant continually patrols between the Coal Storage Room on the north end, and the Boiler Room itself on the south end. The red X on Raoul’s map indicates a secret passage or room in the vicinity — specifically, in the Boiler Room.

Both the Coal Storage Room and the Boiler Room are floored with riveted metal plates. There are a number of rubbles — if you pick them up, don’t drop them on the metal floor! The boiler itself is made of metal, and has a fire lit. Examining it carefully, you should notice that a ladder leads up the shaft of the boiler just behind the fire.

Wait until the servant is headed into the Coal Storage Room, then sneak into the boiler. You can leave the fire lit, and you don’t need to use a moss arrow if you can move quietly. Jump onto the ladder and climb out of sight before the servant comes back in. Continue climbing up the ladder until you reach the top, then jump onto the next ladder. Continue until you reach the vent at the top, then climb in.

Use your Sword to cut down the tapestry at the end of the vent, and climb out into Raoul’s Secret Room. On the floor to the right of the desk, beneath the vent, you’ll find a green and gold Lost City Tapestry (0;0;150) [looks more like a bamboo]. On the desk are two Gold Candlesticks (50;0;0), flanking Raoul’s journal, which will provide a little more information about the secret passages of the Opera House, and about Raoul’s character.

The dark area at the opposite end of the room leads to a concealed door in the Starburst Ballroom on the Second Floor. The ballroom, which is a patrol area, is brilliantly lit, and has a tile floor only partially covered by carpet. In other words, you’ll be in much less danger if you exit Raoul’s Secret Room the way you came in. If you are inclined to go out now, save your game, open the door to have a look at the ballroom; restore when you are killed.

Mantle up into the vent after checking that you have all 3 pieces of loot. Climbing into a narrow space is not easy, but remember not to press yourself against the wall. Step back a tiny bit and jump forward into the opening. For safety’s sake, you might want to Moss Arrow the floor of the boiler if you have not already done so, but this isn’t absolutely necessary to escape safely. If you want to do this, you would need to do it before climbing onto the ladder — you can’t use your bow when hanging onto the ladder. At the bottom, listen for the servant and the patrols outside. When the area is clear, make your way to the shadows of the Boiler Room Corridor outside. When the servant is calm and headed toward the Coal Storage Room, go S toward the Basement South Corridor and the Wine Cellar. It’s best to follow the guard when you do this.

The Basement South Corridor is a patrol area, but to the SW the patrols are not frequent, so it should be simple to enter the Basement South Corridor and head toward the Basement West Corridor. When the Basement West Corridor patrol aren’t looking, hide in the shadows next to the barrel at the intersection of the South and West Corridors. Wait until the Basement West Corridor guard reaches the south end of his circuit and turns away, then steal his Silver Key. If you are waiting for this key to enter the Armory, go and come back here to continue.

The Wine Cellar is not a single large room as shown on Raoul’s map. When you enter the Wine Cellar, you arrive at a four way junction. The way forward is into the North half of the Wine Cellar. On both sides of you are ramps going up. Both of them will turn South and meet on the other side (the South side of the Wine Cellar), forming a rectangular corridor. A servant constantly patrols the Wine Cellar Corridor, always moving counterclockwise (ie arriving from your left).

Another servant wanders around the whole Opera House. Let’s call him “Voyager”. He would come down to the Wine Cellar, so watch out. I prefer to knock him down on the first opportunity, because you may run into him in many times very many places.

The Wine Cellar contains 4 bottles of fine wine, each in a different storage area, and several useless bottles of cheap wine. Go forward into the North Wine Cellar. You arrive at a second corridor, also running East-West (ie left-right to you). Along this North Wine Cellar Corridor are five openings. The first opening on the left is a doorway into North East Wine Storage. The first opening on the right is a doorway into North West Wine Storage. The remaining three openings leads to the North Central Wine Storage.

The only bottle of Fine Wine (0;0;50) in the North East Wine Storage Room is in the center slot on the bottom row. The North Central Wine Storage Room doesn’t have racks. Follow any of the three openings all the way to the end. Turn left and walk to the end of the small corridor. The Fine Wine (0;0;50) is on the floor. To get the bottle from the North West Wine Storage Room, you’ll need to use a crate, since the Fine Wine (0;0;50) is in the center slot on the top rack. Incidentally, a crate is already available in the room for you (and yet another nearby in the North Wine Cellar Corridor).

To get the last bottle of wine, wait for the servant to walk pass the 4 way junction. Follow him on his rounds to the southernmost area of the Wine Cellar. The last bottle of Fine Wine (0;0;50) is on the floor next to the crate in the shadows of the alcove.

After you have all 4 bottles of wine, exit the Wine Cellar area to the Basement South Corridor. Turn right (East) and work your way toward the area marked “BATH” on Raoul’s map. Enter the first doorway on your left into the Bath.

At the Basement South Corridor, turn right and move East. After you passed the Boiler Room Corridor, continue East and the Basement South Corridor will make a right turn followed by an immediate left turn. Look at the Z-shaped turn of the Basement South Corridor on the map, this type of turn appear on the North and South corridors of Basement, First Floor and Second Floor. It is nice because it means the guard cannot see through the whole corridor, giving you more places to hide.

After the Z turn, continue East and move into the first doorway on your left. You entered the area marked “BATH” on Raoul’s map.

The central block marked “BATH” actually consists of 3 areas: an empty hallway to the north (where you now are), a big central area, and another hallway to the south containing an empty Foot Locker. The whole area is safe, so go in for a look. The big central area has 8 rooms surrounding a pool, arranged in a 3x3 square. Among the 8 rooms, the ones at the 4 corners are connected to the two hallways (N and S). The pool contains 2 Water Arrows for Experts, 3 for Normal and Hard. After retrieving the Water Arrows, go back to the South Hallway. We would explore the North Hallway in a later excursion.

On the South Hallway is an empty Foot Locker, and two doorways on the South opening to Basement South Corridor. You arrived from the doorway on the right (West), go back towards the same doorway. It is not yet safe to use the other one.

From the South Hallway of the BATH, look South and you find another doorway on the other side of the Basement South Corridor. That doorway opens to the West Dining Hall. When playing Normal Difficulty, you can move direclty into the West Dining Hall, but at Hard or Expert, a servant is patroling inside. Wait till he arrives near the doorway, turn around and starts walking back towards the left (East). You would save some trouble if you knock him out, but Michele obviously won’t like it. Dash into the West Dining Hall and hide in the shadows at the corner opposite the entrance (ie the South East corner).

Again, Raoul’s map omitted a few details. The rotunda shown on the map, south of the West Dining Hall, is actually a food storage area containing a spiral staircase leading up to the 1/F Kitchen. Timing your movements to avoid being seen by the servant, pass through the West Dining Hall into the rotunda to the south, and hide in the shadows on the stairs. Climb the stairs until you reach the last shadowy area near the top, and stand still to avoid attracting the cook’s attention.

The Voyager (forgotten who he is? click here) walks down the spiral staircase from the 1/F Kitchen into the Dining Hall. Sometimes he gets stuck in one of the doors on the First Floor, so you may or may not see him. Since he moves down the Basement South Corridor to the Wine Cellar and doubles back through the 1/F Kitchen, he may run into you from above or below.

On the table between you and the cook are two Gold Goblets (25;0;0) and two Gold Plates (50;0;0). You can steal them without leaving the shadows. If you like, you can also steal the food that the cook is working on.

The doorway ahead of you opens onto the 1/F South West Corridor, which is a patrol area. Make sure the guard who patrols the corridor outside is around the corner to the SW of the 1/F Kitchen. Sneak past the cook out to the 1/F South West Corridor, and hide in the deep shadows on the right (just E of the doorway of 1/F Kitchen). Wait for the guard to come back so that you can pickpocket his Bronze Key. Before we go back to the Basement, look around in the 1/F South West Excursion.

Head back down toward the Dining Hall. Stay in the shadows on the lower part of the stairs until the servant are out of the immediate area, then enter the West Dining Hall.

Note that the Central Dining Hall is marked with a red X on Raoul’s map — another secret passage. Go to the north wall and read the posted warning Mr. Cribs (the music director who received a silver Flute last week) wrote to the cook. You can also pick up a few vegetables and bread on the counter, as well as a deer leg on the hearth. Note the ladder leading up the chimney — that’s Raoul’s secret passage. Before taking it to leave the Basement, we shall take an Basement East Excursion during which you would find a Healing Potion.

Now time to leave Basement. Use the shadows by the east archway to work your way over to the Central Dining Hall. Avoid the servant and jump onto the ladder at the back of the chimney to climb to 1st Floor.

We arrived at the South East part of First Floor. Since we have already been to the South West side before (the 1/F South West Corridor near 1/F Kitchen), we would proceed counterclockwise. We go through the Backstage Area and follow the 1/F North West Corridor to access the North West area. Finally, we use the Central Ramps next to the Fountain Room to get upstairs.

The area at the top of the chimney provides access to two rooms. Before we proceed to the Christine’s Dressing Room on your East, take a 1/F SE Sitting Room Excursion on the West.

The table beside Christine and her colleague has a Healing Potion and a Tiara (75;50;0). The 1/F South East Corridor outside is a patrol area. To avoid being seen by the guards or the occupants of the dressing room, stay in the shadows by the doorway until you have put out the torch in the corridor. On your left, the corridor already reaches it end at a metal door opening to the Public Area you just visited in the previous excursion. Once the torch is out, work your way down the corridor towards the right (East).

The next dressing room is empty, but Carmella’s Dressing Room to the East has a an unrolled scroll from Lord B. (is he Bafford or somebody else? it is never mentioned in the mission), who has prepared a valuable gift for Carmella. Hmm.

The last opening on the right leads to B«1 SE Stairs. Since you haven’t previously triggered the guards’ conversation, they will begin when you pass the top of the stairs (if not, descend a few steps to get them started). After you have listened to them, move to the East end of the 1/F South East Corridor and enter the Backstage Area on your left.

Hide in the SE corner of the Backstage Area, near the foot of the ladder. This is a patrol area. An archer patrols the 1/F South East Corridor (where you came from) and 1/F North Corridor (the corridor built symmetrically on the North side). After he is done with one corridor, he passes through the Backstage Area to patrol the other. When he comes near you and pick his Bronze Key. Do this early, because he sometimes gets stuck between the wooden stage (on your left) and the hanging scene, and the location may or may not be easy for you to access. Another swordsman also patrol the area, including part of the stage itself (W of your current position).

You should also note that the metal Catwalk above the Backstage Area are a patrol area. On Normal and Hard Difficulty Levels, a single archer patrols clockwise. On Expert, he is joined by another swordsman who stands still in the middle area.

The center section of the Backstage Area consists of several pieces of scenery suspended from the metal Catwalk above you. The deep shadows in the center of the stack are not a patrol area, and are deep enough to afford a hiding place.

On the western side of the Backstage Area is another copy of Lady Valerius’ order identical to the one posted on the west wall of the Basement West Corridor. Beyond the west wall is the stage itself, which is screened from the audience by the curtain. The small set of controls will turn on the stage lights (on your side of the red curtain); don’t touch them. The harp will play an arpeggio if you touch it; leave it alone. After you have get rid of all the Opera guards and guests, then you can come back to play with the lights and the harp.

From the corner of the stage, next to the edge of the curtain, you can see the Theatre itself. In the middle is an empty Orchestra Pit in front of the stage. Above, you can see the Box Seats (and audiences) on Second Floor and Third Floor. If you carefully use your bow’s zoom function, you can even see an abandoned set of Opera Glasses on the edge of one of the Third Floor Box Seats. In any case, don’t walk into the Orchestra Pit yourself without first getting rid of everybody nearby — the lighting is bright enough to let the entire audience see you. But if you really move forward, Garrett would say “I’d like to stay… it’s time to move on”.

Remember Voyager, the servant with a very long patrol? He starts at the Southmost Box Seats on the Third Floor. If you are very patient (or with a bit of luck), you can see him there. When he gets downstairs to First Floor, he would enter the Theatre using the door on the West. He then crosses the Orchestra Pit and leave via the doorway on the South, on his way to the 1/F South West Corridor and the 1/F Kitchen. His route is very long, so you may not see him. Sometimes he gets stuck on the other side of one of the doors of the Orchestra Pit and aborts his journey.

Work your way over to the N side of the Backstage Area, toward the B«1 Elevator. Hide in the shadows of the NE corner until the patrolling guard have cleared the 1/F North Corridor, then enter it.

The 1/F North Corridor goes West from the elevator. The shelf on your right (North) is empty, the first room (on your right) is empty (but you can climb from this empty room to the next room across the knee high barrier). Open the second wooden door on your right (not the metal door at the end of the corridor!) and enter the storage room. On the shelf running along the western wall, you will find two Indigo Vases (0;0;100).

Once you have them, wait for the corridor outside to clear, then unlock the metal door with a Bronze Key. There are four such metal doors in the Opera House: two on First Floor, two on Second Floor. They cut the North and South corridors into two halves. The East half is the Backstage Area, where the corridor is built from plain stone and lit by torches. The West half is the Public Area with marbles, carpets and candles (sadly, it means they cannot be doused). Open the metal door and head West, into the Public Area of the Opera House.

The 1/F North East Corridor now continues on the Public Area as the 1/F North West Corridor, with a totally different finish and decoration. This corridor is a patrol area for a guard carrying a Bronze Key. It is possible to handle him from the metal door, but since there are a few rooms along the corridor, we would do it from a better location.

The doorway just left (S) of the metal door leads to the Orchestra Pit; you will alarm the audience if you go that way. BTW, each time you try to enter the doorway you would hear the noise of an orchestra tuning their instruments, except that no musician is there… Work your way down the corridor, staying on the carpet and/or in shadow, depending on the guard’s location. There are two viable hiding places before you reach the Ticket Office at the end of the corridor (Junk Cupboard and Plate Room).

The first door on the right (locked and pickable) opens onto a Junk Cupboard. The contents are worthless, but it has value as a hiding place.

Go further West and turn North. Ignore the door in front of you — it is the Guard Room. Turn left (West) and the door on your left opens to the Plate Room, a small room containing a display of plates and vases.

In the Plate Room, three of the plates along the left (East) wall are Gold Plates (50;0;0). The central vase on the S wall is a Green Vase (0;0;50).

Once you’ve looted the room, hide in the shadow of the doorway, and steal the patrolling guard’s Bronze Key when he’s on his way east. Then you may either visit the Guard Room or skip it.

Two guards are inside the Guard Room, along with some equipment but no loot, so you can choose to bypass this room if you wish. It is pretty impossible to enter it without first getting rid of all the guards. Before you start, take a real save slot in a safe location (e.g. Plate Room), since it is dangerous to mess around with the Guard Room.

First, Blackjack the guard patrolling the corridor, so that he won’t run into you at the wrong time. Then crouch in front of the door (as far back as possible), lean forward and open the door. The Guard Room is lit by two torches.

While useless, it is possible to douse the torches. Stay in the corridor and step back as far as possible (ie while you can still lean forward and open the door). Move sideways to the left so that they won’t see you as soon as you open the door. Lean and open the door, then strafe quietly until you can aim at the torch. Note you need quite a wide opening, or the Water Arrow will hit the door frame and alerts the guards with its splashing noise. Move a little forward if necessary. After you have doused a torch, close the door and work on the other. Although the Guard Room is pitch dark, the area in front of the door is still brightly lit by the lamp above.

Theoretically you can make noises to attract them out, but I have never succeeded (either in attracting them out to loot the room, or attracting them out to knock them out). Instead, I did it the quick but expensive way. Plant a Gas Mine at where the corridor and the doorway meet. Prepare your Gas Arrow (you haven’t bought one?! read on for alternatives). Open the door and let them see you. See the doorway is long, he has to run towards you in a straight line, and so you have ample time to draw your arrow and shoot one of the guard down. When the other rushes out, he will trigger the Gas Mine. Instead of my method, reader Roman succeeded to attract them and knock out both of them. So give it a hard try — it is not impossible.

Another reader, David Lawrence made an even better suggestion. Just throw in a Flash Bomb and you can apply the Blackjack to them.

I found out that I have learnt another great method but forgotten to mention. Save game, make noises and rush to the door. Flatten yourself on it. Since it opens outwards, the guards cannot leave the room. Soon, you will see them sticking their hands and heads through the door. Hit their head with the Blackjack: you may hit the door or their head, but you can tell from the noise you made. Even more surprisingly, when they drop down, they frequently do so on your side of the door. When both are down, you can tour their room in leisure.

Inside, you’ll find posted on the wall the third copy of Lady Valerius’ order about protecting her office suite. Also in the room are a Healing Potion, a Speed Potion, 2 Gas Arrows and 6 Broadhead Arrows. Incidentally, the Gas Arrows are presented in the form of a single arrow, not as a crystal.

After you have visited the Guard Room, or have decided to ignore it, sneak down (towards the West) the hall to the door marked “Ticket Office”. Open it, Moss Arrow the floor, and get inside before the guard returns (if he is still patroling the corridor). Note that there is one more door near the end of the corridor — it opens right in front of the ticket collector on duty, so don’t touch it.

The Ticket Office area is floored with tile. Only one ticket taker is on duty, in the easternmost booth (#4, closest to the door opening onto the 1/F North Corridor). A guard patrols the three halls connecting the Ticket Office and the Cloakroom (due south of the Ticket Office). The three halls are, from near to far, North West Entrance Room, Fountain Room, and North East Entrance Room,

The ticket-taking area has 2 exits. The E exit leads to 1/F North West Corridor (where you came from), while the W exit opens onto the top of B«1 West Stairs, leading down to Basement. A guard is posted just outside the W exit on Hard and Expert (go knock him down if you want to).

Using Moss Arrows sparingly (you don’t need them at all if you move quietly enough), open the right-hand safe. The cashbox contains a Stack of Gold Coins (25;0;0). The left-hand safe is empty. Apparently Giry led you up the garden path about the profits to be made here… Once you’ve looted the safe, work your way toward the last booth at the W end. When the guard to the S is out of earshot, mantle up and over the counter quietly, and work your way South.

The public area in front of the booths has 2 exits — a door to the E, and a doorway to the S. The door to the East goes back to 1/F North West Corridor (that’t the last door of the corridor, opening right in front of the ticket collector). The doorway leading South toward the three halls.

The North West Entrance Room is unremarkable, except that the doors to the W lead to the Courtyard, which opens onto the city streets. As with all the rooms on the western side of the First Floor, it has a tile floor with soft linings around the perimeter. You can pass through the room quietly by staying in the shadows at the edges of the room, where the floor has a narrow strip of carpet or panelling.

A guard patrols N - S, S - N through this room, moving between the Cloakroom to the S and the Ticket Office to the N. Violent players should hide in the shadow and knock down the guard patroling here. Continue South towards the Fountain Room.

The Fountain Room contains a very pretty fountain, tile flooring, and a religious statue in a niche to the W. The borders of the room are carpeted with something that will allow you to sneak quietly. If the guard is patroling these rooms, you can’t hide in the N or S doorways for very long at a time. However, the shadow of the doorway to the E (leading to the Lower West Central Ramps) and the shadow of the statue’s niche to the W offer hiding places.

Move to the statue’s niche to the W. Examine it carefully, and take the Tiara (75;50;0) from its head. Move around the room, timing your movements to avoid alerting the guard, until you are on the N end of the room near the fountain. Quickly move up to the fountain and grab the two Water Arrows from the basin (one on either side), and retreat to the shadows of the E doorway before the Cloakroom attendant becomes seriously alarmed.

The next room, South West Entrance Room is very unremarkable because it is nearly the same as the unremarkable North West Entrance Room you were in a moment ago. Therefore, just give it a brief glance and leave the Fountain Room by going to the East and leave First Floor using the Lower West Central Ramps.

Listen and move East to the Central Ramps. Refer to your 1/F and 2/F maps. The Central Ramps consist of three sets of stairs. Two sets of Lower Central Ramps connect First Floor and Second Floor, while the Upper Central Ramp connects Second Floor and Third Floor. The two sets of Lower Central Ramps are situated on the East and West side of the Upper Central Ramps.

The stairs accessible from the Fountain Room is the West set of stairs, hence called Lower West Central Ramps. The other set, the Lower East Central Ramps is not accessible from the corridors — it opens directly to the Theatre.

A guard is patroling the two sets of stairs in the counterclockwise direction. That is, he descends the stairs from your left (North) and then climbs up on your right (South). Hide at the doorway. To get rid of him, just knock him down when you walks past you, and take his body to the niche with statue. Otherwise, sneak up after he passes.

With or without the guard, move up the stairs on your left (North). Although the ramps themselves are paved with tile, the borders of each ramp are panelled with a soft substance that allows you to sneak (provided you don’t stand over a floodlight). As long as you’re careful to stay on the strip and move slowly, the patrolling swordsman won’t notice you, since he sticks to the center of each ramp on his patrols. Go up to Second Floor.

Now on the Second Floor, we start at the North side of the 2/F Ramp Area. After a brief visit to the Reception Rooms, we would move West to the Promenade to see the Battlements. The trip here would diverge a bit depending on whether you want to sneak through the area or to knock everybody out. For each of the two styles, a separate section would cover this area.

Continuing from the South West corner, we will move back to the 2/F Ramp Area, on its South side. This time, we would have a better look at this area, and cross it to reach the 2/F North West Corridor a second time. Going East, we go to the 2/F Box Seat Corridor to see the 2/F Box Seats.

Leaving the 2/F Box Seat Corridor on the South side, we go to the South Rotunda, which provides secret entrance to the Lady Valerius’s Office upstairs. Back down to Second Floor, we move further East to the 2/F South East Corridor in the Backstage Area. Crossing the Backstage Area, we finally arrive at Cribs’ Office to get his Flute.

After we have seen everything on Second Floor, we enter the Library Rotunda to access Third Floor.

Near the top of the stairs, turn around and look back. Overlooking the stairs is a life-size statue in a niche level with the Second Floor. There is another statue on the South side, and two more over the Lower East Central Ramps.

Move to the top of the stairs, and peek into the Upper Central Ramp on your right. At the top is a stationary guard (one on Normal and Hard, two on Expert) watching the stairs. In addition, the roving guards on the Third Floor pass by the top of the ramp on their circuits (but these guards hardly ever look downwards).

You’ll begin hearing a woman humming off to your left (W); she is one of two pickpockets in this area. Turn left (W) through the doorway, and stay in the shadows S of the doorway.

One of the guards patrols this North Reception Room. He also patrols the Starburst Ballroom (South of here), and the matching South Reception Room. Wait for him to pickpocket his Speed Potion. Wait for him to come back so that you can knock him down.

Save your game, and try approaching the couple quietly. It seems it is nearly impossible to get at the couple totally undetected. You cannot crawl along the shadows because a chair midway will force you to move under the light. You are approach them in two ways.

To avoid harming them, you should Moss Arrow the tile floor just this side of the doorway leading to the Starburst Ballroom, and stay in deep shadow, moving toward the doorway. When you get to the edge of the deep shadow, move in a fast crouch over the mossy area before the civilians get really alarmed; they’ll search a little bit if you make noise. Searching might be convenient, as it would get the woman into pickpocket range more quickly. Take her Opera Glasses (25;25;0). However, it would be a bit dangerous to explore the Starburst Ballroom with them standing there.

Much simpler would be the violent method. Instead, Moss Arrow the ground if you like (not necessary). Run directly towards them, take her Opera Glasses (25;25;0) from the lady and knock them down. Do it quickly and they would fall quietly.

We can now explore the ballroom in Starburst Ballroom Excursion before leaving.

The floor at the top of the Lower West Central Ramps is just like that of the ramps themselves — the edges of the floor have some kind of ornamental trim that is quiet to walk on. Behind the archway on the North is the North West Corridor. However a big vase is standing in your way, forcing you to move outside the shadows. Therefore, you need to do this quickly, or else you would arouse the guards on top of the Upper Central Ramps.

First, locate the guard patroling North West Corridor. You would be rushing into the left (West) side of the archway. Therefore, you either wait for him to go East past the archway (then you can move safely since he is heading away) or West (then you need to move slowly behind him). Either way, wait for the right moment and run (while staying crouched) into the archway, turn left and into the first doorway you can see (on the North side of the corridor, not far from you).

The guards on Third Floor will start asking “Did you see something?” when you get into the doorway, but you’re too far away to alarm them if you’re quiet and careful. The room you got into is an empty room with a fireplace. Save game first. Crouching, move into the fireplace without burning yourself, and try mantle up [I never succeeded in this — Alex] and over the partition into the next room. The next room has no loot either. We are just using them to move along the corridor undetected. If you fail to mantle up the partition in the fireplace, just follow the corridor to go West when the patroling guard is not watching. Drop by the next room to have a glance.

In either case, move to the end of the corridor and stay in the darkness there. This is also a good position to knock out the guard.

The corridor has two quick turns and open to the Promenade North Tower. Hide yourself at the shadow of the doorway. Do you recall the letter you found in Carmella’s Dressing Room earlier? Lord B. is meeting Carmella somewhere on the Promenade, and will present her with a valuable gift.

Well, well, well — here are Carmella and Lord B. You’re going to pickpocket his “gift fit for a queen”. The couple are at the NW corner of the Promenade North Tower. When you get close, you can hear Carmella singing. Next to them are the stairs leading down to the Courtyard below (near the Opera House front entrance).

To get through the lit area between you and Lord B (at the corner to your NW, the NE corner of Promenade North Tower), use a fast crouch. The stonework here doesn’t carry sound very well, so you only need to worry about being seen, not heard. Stay crouched and run across the area. If you move slowly, the couple will panic and start to run away screaming.

Lord B’s back is to you, and he is closer than Carmella. Fortunately, he hasn’t yet given her the gift. Pickpocket the Necklace (100;100;0). Now make another fast sneak back to the doorway to the E.

If you really want to knock them down, knock Lord B first. When he falls, move forward to knock Carmella. You should be able to finish off before she starts reacting. In case you are too slow, Carmella may scream and start running towards you. Make sure you block her way and knock her down (ie don’t let her run away).

The way to proceed to South Promenade Tower depends on whether you care to hit people. Lytha style players skip forward to Promenade (Peaceful Version), while the rest continues with the next section.

First, make sure you have get rid of the guard in the 2/F North West Corridor, so that he won’t suddenly appear behind you. At Expert Difficulty, a guard is patroling the Promenade. Since he has a long walk, you would have a long wait. Stay at the doorway opening back to 2/F North West Corridor. When he arrives at the Promenade North Tower, he would turn right (instead of going down the stairs on the left) and go all the way to the NE corner. When he moves in front of the doorway, Blackjack him. Actually, it is a not a bad idea to dispose of these guards before you approach Lord B and Carmella.

The rest of this section (and the next) is a big excursion. We clear the Battlements, down to the Courtyard, and to the streets outside the front entrance. Players at Normal and Hard Difficulties would get a Moss Arrow, but players at Expert Difficulty would get nothing in the trip. So you may choose to skip the rest of the section now — just walk across the Promenade and continue with the 2/F South West Corridor.

The stairs of Promenade North Tower lead down to the Courtyard, and thence to the city streets. We would first lay down the archers in the Battlements before moving outside for a walk. Leave Promenade North Tower and go South into the Promenade. The Promenade forms a rectangle surrounding the Courtyard below. It is brightly lit and floored with marble.

The Promenade is rather noisy. There is the continual opening and closing of doors to the W, and also sounds of guards marching over marble. Don’t let them alarm you into moving quickly. This would be a mistake — the Promenade is no longer a patrol area (there was a guard at Expert Difficulty, but you have already brought him down), and moving quickly would make enough noise to alert the guards nearby. The important thing in this area is silence, not invisibility. The noisy doors are out of sight on your right, and the footsteps come from the courtyard below, not from this level. As long as you are quiet, the guards below and the roving archer in the Battlements will not notice you.

Before you try to enter the Battlements, make sure you have outstanding objectives. Walking on the open areas of the Battlements constitutes leaving the Opera House, and it can lead to ending your mission. However, at this point, it is safe to do so because you haven’t yet got the Talisman of Water — you remember what you came for, don’t you?

The two doors along the right (West) side of the Promenade lead out onto the Battlements. Save game, move to the first door, listen, open the door and peek inside. There are two more doors inside, facing each other. The roving archer is busily moving across the Battlements, opening and shutting these doors. When the roving archer has moved to your right (North), enter and pass through the door on the left (you can also try to ambush him here directly). Behind the left door is a small open area with a machine in the center. Hide in the shadows between the machine and the wall. When the archer comes back, knock him down and leave him here.

Go back via the door now on your North to the small area with three doors. Open the door opposite and continue North. You would see the stationary archer with his back towards you. Note: it is important that you have not stirred up the archers in the Cafe and Alley Excursion when you first arrived at the Opera House. If you had, the stationary archer may have turned around and could be facing you now!

Move quietly towards the archer and knock him down. Have a peek down the streets, and take his body back to the 3-door area. Move South past the small open area, to another 3-door area. Open the South door to find the other archer on the South end of the Battlements. Carry his body back to a 3-door area.

Now that we are secured the Battlements, we can explore the streets outside the Opera House.

Move back to the Promenade North Tower, save game and descend the stairs on your left. Downstairs, locate the doorway on the other side of the statue and peek outside. Two guards walk to and fro the central part of the Courtyard. When neither is watching, sneak into the Courtyard and stay in the shadows along its perimeter.

Study their patrol and note the spot where they turn around. Move to the part of shadows closest to that spot, and apply Moss Arrow between that spot and yourself so that you can run towards the guard. When you have the opportunity, rush out to knock down one of the guards, and carry his body back to the shadows before the other guard turns around. When you succeed, save game and the remaining one would be easy.

After you secured the Courtyard, go to its South side for a brief look. The Promenade South Tower also has a statue standing on First Floor. Unlike the Promenade North Tower, it doesn’t have steps leading upstairs. Go also to the two doubledoors on the East side. They open into the North West Entrance Room and the South West Entrance Room. Finally, go through the exits on the West to get out to the streets.

Stay on the shadowy steps and listen. Most of the time, the patrolling guard is on your far left (South) side. Rush to the building opposite (on your West) where there are lots of shadows behind the pillars. Wait for the guard to come near you to bring him down.

Move South. You’ll see a wooden street-level door in the building to the right. It only opens to a small utility room with some power equipment. Further South, you would arrive at the Fountain Court with a drunkard sleeping nearby. The wines he has are cheap. Knock him out if you want to. For players at Normal and Hard Difficulties, go to the base of the status to find a Moss Arrow.

Coming back to the front entrance, go further North to have a quick look. It leads to the streets we explored in an early Cafe and Alley Excursion.

Return to the Courtyard, and climb the steps of Promenade North Tower back to Second Floor. Go South across the Promenade and arrive at the Promenade South Tower. Leave via the doorway on your left into the 2/F South West Corridor. For a change, it is not patrolled. Skip forward to 2/F South West Corridor to continue.

The stairs in the Promenade North Tower lead down to the Courtyard, and thence to the city streets. You have been there in the Cafe and Alley Excursion when you first arrived at the Opera House.

The rest of the Promenade and the Battlements don’t provide any loot or powerups, but do provide a scenic route to the SW quadrant of the Second Floor, and we aim to provide a complete tour of the scenery in each mission. The Promenade is brightly lit and floored with marble. It forms a rectangle surrounding the Courtyard below.

This area is rather noisy. There is the continual opening and closing of doors to the W, and also sounds of guards marching over marble. Don’t let them alarm you into moving quickly. This would be a mistake — moving quickly would make enough noise to alert the guards nearby. The important thing in this area is silence, not invisibility. The noisy doors are out of sight on your right, and the footsteps come from the courtyard below, not from this level. As long as you are quiet, the guards below and the roving archer on the Battlements will not notice you.

At Expert Difficulty, a guard is patroling the Promenade. He covers the Promenade South Tower, the Promenade itself, and the Promenade North Tower. Wait for him to leave Promenade North Tower and go South into the Promenade. Follow him quietly, although you crawl much slower than he walks, it would need a long time before he can complete the circuit and see you from behind you. The two doors along the W side of the Promenade lead out onto the Battlements. Go to the nearer door and open it carefully. NOTE: entering the area of the Battlements is counted as “escaping to the city streets”, so if you enter this area after fulfilling all your other objectives, the mission will terminate. Since you haven’t got the Talisman of Water (you still remember what you came for, don’t you?), it is safe to go there at this mement.

Stay in the half-light near the entry. A roving archer patrols from N - S, S - N between the positions of the two archers overlooking the alley below. The archer will be focused on following his patrol N-S, so when he passes through, he won’t see you unless you’re directly in front of him, facing him. Wait until he passes through moving S, then head N toward the doorway by which he entered.

In theory, the archer at the far end should be facing out over the street. In practice, if you have stirred him up earlier (when you tried to visit the front entrance of the Opera House in the Cafe and Alley Excursion), he may now be facing toward you. Don’t go out there if he’s facing this way, or he’ll see you and start shooting at you.

Back off, and return to the half-light of the N Entry. Wait for the patrolling archer to return, heading N, then go through the S door. This open area contains a large set of spotlights; ironically enough, just to the left (East) of the mechanism, the shadows are deep enough to hide anything. Wait until the guard passes through on his way S (don’t block his way!), then look over the battlements if you like. The shadows in the SW corner beside the S door are deep enough to hide you quite well.

When the guard passes through on his way N, exit via the S door. To your left (E) will be either an iron door or an empty doorway, just as with the N Entry; both doors are prone to disappear. Keep heading S through the far door.

If the archer on duty here is facing out over the street, you can move safely onto the Battlements. The shadows on the ledge to the E are deep enough to hide you, as long as the guards are not on alert.

When you’re through sightseeing in this area, wait until the patrolling archer passes through, then follow him out to the S Entry, and hide in the half-light near the door on your right. Before you re-enter the Promenade itself, locate the guard if you are playing Expert Difficulty. When it is safe, move South on the Promenade and arrive at the Promenade South Tower. Leave via the doorway on your left into the 2/F South West Corridor. For a change, it is not patrolled.

The 2/F South West Corridor runs from the Promenade South Tower on the west to the 2/F Ramp Area near the rotunda. For now, head E.

On the right-hand side of the corridor are two sitting rooms connected by a narrow room with a fireplace. Enter the first door on your right into the West Sitting Room, and continue to the narrow connecting room with the fire place. The Voyager periodically enters the East Sitting Room and into this narrow connecting room (then turn around and go back to the ramps). If you are unlucky, he may walk into you if you have not yet knocked him out. Anyway, at the near left hand corner is a table with a cheap bottle of wine and Gold Goblet (25;0;0). Move forward and go back to the corridor via the East Sitting Room.

The first doorway on the left (N) opens onto the area S of the 2/F Ramp Area. Move through the doorway and hide in the shadows on the West (left). The guards at the top of the Upper Central Ramps are the same pair that you can see from the N end; they fidget a lot, so they can see both N and S. The guard whose speed potion you stole earlier will also appear periodically — the doorway to the South Reception Room is the S end of his patrol, just as the doorway to the North Reception Room is the N end. As before, use your BowZoom Vision to get a good look at the statue mounted over the ramp; no loot there, just a hiding place if you want to do a little rope-climbing. Move E, past the archway toward the E end of this area.

When you have reached the SE corner, use your BowZoom Vision to check the female statue in the niche over the E ramp. Aha! There’s a nugget up there, lying at the statue’s feet. Stay on the perimeter of the floor, and work your way halfway down the E ramp before stepping off onto the tile floor, so that you are under the statue. If the guard is still walking around here, wait for him to pass through. Rope Arrow up into the niche and grab the Gold Nugget (100;0;0). Climb back down the rope, and when you’re as far down as possible, pull out the rope arrow. You should be able to do this without having to drop onto the tile floor, since the statue’s niche isn’t very high up.

At the foot of the ramp, to the E, is a doorway opening onto the Orchestra Pit. The Voyager sometimes got stuck there, walking into the closed door without trying to open it. If you like, take pity on him; sneak silently over the tiles behind him, and open the unlocked door and take a brief peek through the doorway (don’t walk inside or else guests of the whole Theatre could see you).

Continue N up the ramp (that is, go up to the other side) and around the perimeter of the floor until you reach the N archway. As before, listen for the guard in the corridor on the far side; when he’s headed West, pass through the archway, heading right (East) this time.

Not long after you turn right to move East along the 2/F North West Corridor, it branches at a T-junction. The branch leading back (West) is where you came from, leading toward the Promenade North Tower. The left (North) branch leads to the Library Rotunda, the easiest way to the Third Floor (we’ll get there when we are ready to leave Second Floor). The forward (East) branch leads toward the 2/F Box Seats. For now, take the E branch.

There are 5 box seats on the Second Floor, connected by 4 side corridors to the 2/F Box Seat Corridor running N - S. 2/F Box Seat Corridor is a patrol area for an archer. Hide in the shadows at the N end until the archer is headed back toward the S end. Get rid of him if you want to. Then take the first side corridor on your left and go to the end.

Near the end of the side corridor are entrances to two box seats. While 2/F North West Box Seat on your right is empty, a woman is standing in the 2/F North Box Seat straight ahead. Pick her Opera Glasses (25;25;0). Wait for the archer to pass by in the corridor outside, then move South to the second side corridor.

At the end of this very short side corridor is 2/F Central Box Seat. When you approach, a couple will start a conversation about Cribs’ (remember him? the Director of Music here) operettas. The woman with the back to you has nothing on her, so listen to their discussion (can’t catch part of it? here is a full transcipt) and leave.

The next side corridor (just as short) ends at the other entrance of the 2/F Central Box Seat. This time, you are behind the man, from whom you can get a Purse (100;0;0).

Sneak to the next side corridor. 2/F South West Box Seat on the left is empty, but in 2/F South Box Seat ahead you can pick another set of Opera Glasses (25;25;0). Wait until the archer patrolling 2/F Box Seat Corridor outside heads N, then re-enter the corridor and heading S.

At the end of the 2/F Box Seat Corridor, turn right to continue on the 2/F South West Corridor. A while ago, you visited the West half of this corridor (two sitting rooms connected by a narrow room with a fire place), but when we arrived at the 2/F Ramp Area we went through it to the North side. After traversing the 2/F Box Seats we are back on the 2/F South West Corridor again. This time, we are on the East half of the corridor.

Like the 2/F North West Corridor, there is a T-junction on the East half. If you continue to go West along the 2/F South West Corridor past the T-junction, you will go back to the archway opening to 2/F Ramp Area. Instead, turn left into the unpatrolled South Branch, which soon turns left again to go East. This branch ends in a plain wooden door, and there’s a guard behind it. Before we go there, however, let’s use the South Rotunda to raid Lady Valerius’ Office above. The doorway to the South Rotunda is in the deep shadows on the right (South) side of the corridor.

On a table facing the entrance are 3 worthless plates displayed with three Purple Goblets (0;0;15) (note that while Looking Glass Studios calls 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). Circle the central pillar to find a second table, this time with 3 worthless bowls but three Gold Plates (50;0;0).

Remember what you read from Raoul’s journal back in the Raoul’s Secret Room? Now that we are in the South Rotunda of Second Floor, time to visit Lady Valerius’ Office. As Raoul’s map indicates, the pillar has a secret panel at floor level, on the West side between the two tables. The panel is unlocked; get inside and climb up the spiral stairs.

The secret staircase from the South Rotunda has peepholes at the top. Before opening the secret panel to enter, peek into the office to check whether the guard has been doubled or not. If you have taken reasonable care, the room should be unoccupied; the regular guards are posted outside her office. If all is well, use the grey Hermit Key Raoul gave you (the key is not with you? either you go back to the Hermit Cavern to get it, or you would have to enter this office by its guarded double doors at a later time) on the lock to the left of the secret panel, and step into Lady Valerius’ Office.

The cashbox on the lowest shelf of the bookcase contains a Blue Key, which will unlock the Lost City Chest (the blue light is harmless) on the right. The chest, of course, contains the Talisman of Water. On the right hand side of the chest is the double doors of the office. Don’t touch those doors — picking them would alert the two guards outside.

Continue clockwise around the office you would find Lady Valerius’ desk. Since you already have her Talisman, leave the Blue Key on her desk — it has served its purpose, and is useless for other locks in the mission. Take the Flute Key which is also on her desk. Read the Unrolled Scroll, which is a letter from Cribs, the music director. We would use this key to open the safe in his office on the Second Floor when we get there. Players at Hard and Expert Difficulties would need to get the Flute as one of their objectives. In case you ask, furuncle is a skin infection involving the entire hair follicle and the adjacent subcutaneous tissue. Go to On-line Medical Dictionary for additional details on this conidition.

Before you leave, don’t forget to take the Gem Ring (100;0;0) from the cashbox on the desk. Exit through the secret panel just as you came in — the two guards outside the double doors should be left alone. Even if you want to knock them out, do not do it from here. Don’t forget to relock the panel behind you as you leave; leave a locked room mystery for Lady Valerius and her guards to contemplate later.

Go back downstairs to the corridor, closing the secret panel behind you, and turn right to head over to the plain wooden door at the East end of the corridor.

Stay in the shadows to your right, get as close to the door as you can without getting into the light, and use a Bronze Key to open it.

A guard is standing on the far side. He has a Bronze Key to be pickpocketed. He fidgets, either facing W toward you or N toward the other door. Staying in the shadows, move slowly to the left side (N) of the doorway, until you can Water Arrow the torch in the room. Moss Arrow the tiles between your hiding place and the doorway. When the guard is facing N, move quickly through the doorway into the shadows beyond. Take his Bronze Key. Stay in the shadows along the W wall and head N to the other door, which is unlocked and leads to the Southern part of the Upper Backstage Area.

The 2/F South East Corridor resembles other corridors in the Backstage Area, with stone walls and torches. It is not patrolled, so just move forward. The first doorway opens into an empty room. The next two locked doors on your right open onto a single large storeroom containing various props. Pick open the door closer to you.

The Props Room contains several paintings, a few broken statues, an iron maiden, and some worthless candlesticks. However, along the W wall you will find two Gold Candlesticks (50;0;0) mixed in with the others. On the E side of the center partition you’ll find a Tapestry (0;0;150).

Leave the Props Room, and turn right to go to the East end of the corridor. Go to the narrow ledge where the sandbags are, and find out that it is a niche facing Backstage Area. It is just opposite one of the ladders leading up to the Catwalks. Be careful — the guards below you and on the catwalks will see you if you stay in the light.

The Catwalk would provide a clear, if noisy, path between this area and the 2/F North East Corridor, if only you didn’t have to worry about those pesky archers. Thre are two archers, one stationary (Expert Difficulty only), one roving (all Difficulty Levels). If you don’t mind skipping the Catwalk, you may use the ladder to descend to the floor below. Then sneak to the N side, and use another ladder there to jump to 2/F South East Corridor.

As it happens, the shadows at the S end of the catwalk are deep enough to hide you from the archer, if you stay pressed against the “wall”. The metal portions to the E and W are joined by sections made of wooden planks with nice deep shadows, which will hide you if you crouch. To knock him out, ambush him from here.

You don’t need to use Moss Arrows, if you stay crouched and move quietly over the metal of the Catwalk itself while crossing from one wooden area to the next (there are three of them). The second wooden area has a stationary archer (Expert Difficulty only) who fidgets to face W, then E. If you want to get past him without knocking him out, you would have to

1. Water Arrow the torch on the E wall,
2. use 2 Moss Arrows to pave the metal of the catwalk to the E of his position, to cover the area in his line of sight,
3. run past him while he is facing W and the roving archer isn’t looking your way.

No matter which way you used to reach the N end of the Backstage area (either by walking at lower level or sneaking along the catwalk), get onto the ladder at the N end and jump North to the stone ledge with sandbags. This area is actually the East end of 2/F North East Corridor, similar to the 2/F South East Corridor with the Props Room that you just visited.

Be aware that the stage guards below are smart enough to look up and see you if you remain in the lighted portion of the stone ledge for too long. Also, tossing sandbags around makes enough noise to attract the attention of any nearby guards (e.g. the roving archer on the Catwalk). Move forward into the corridor.

Unlike the 2/F South East Corridor, the 2/F North East Corridor has only one door, leading to Cribs’ Office. Notice that we come here to Cribs’ Office after we have looted Lady Valerius’ Office on the Third Floor because Cribs’ safe is unpickable. It can only be opened with the Flute Key on Lady Valerius’ desk.

Pick the lock on the door of Cribs’ Office. Don’t panic as you enter the room for the first time; the singer is just rehearsing the part of Conandra, the Forest Princess — the female lead in Cribs’ new opera (you would soon find a script for this opera in the Library). Once she and her voice coach finish their conversation, he will remain stationary, but she will begin pacing the floor along the S side of the room.

Read the Unrolled Scroll on the desk, which is a letter from Lady Valerius. You have already read what Ian Cribs did with the Flute. Use the Flute Key to open the safe, and take the Flute (100;0;50).

The Cribs’ Office Excursion shows you the rest of his office.

Leave Cribs’ Office and turn right to head West, away from the ledge leading back to the Catwalk. Ignore the next doorway on your right, because it leads into a long and narrow but empty room. Unlock the plain, wooden door at the end with a Bronze Key. Open it to enter the 2/F North West Corridor.

Back to corridors with carpets, and this section is unguarded. Follow the 2/F North West Corridor to go North and turn left. The first door on your right — the ugly, steel door that doesn’t fit the decor — leads to the Library Rotunda. Pick the lock and enter.

The Library Rotunda is somewhat similar to the South Rotunda that leads up to Lady Valerius’ Office, except that here the central staircase is plainly visible rather than concealed. The Lower Library (where you now are) has nothing of interest, so go upstairs.

On a table at the N end of the Upper Library, you’ll find 2 books. Read the Purple Book on the left hand side, it is the script of “Reginald and Conandra, Forest Princess”, written and scored by Ian Cribs, the Opera’s own music director. This part of Conandra is exactly what the lady in Cribs’ Office was rehearsing.

Take the time to pick open the door to the South. This is the easiest route to the Third Floor, where we’ll get the last few remaining pieces of loot and the last 2 pickpockets.

Finally on the Third Floor. Since we have already completed all our objectives, our job here is to go everywhere and pick up valuable stuff. Arriving at the North East corner, we would first go South to the 3/F Box Seats. Then, we would move around through all the corridors, finally ending at a secret passage going down to the Cloakroom on First Floor (the only place there where we have not yet been to). After that, we are free to leave.

The corridors on Third Floor forms a simple rectangle. Refer to Raoul’s map. There are 4 entrances to the 3rd floor:

1. The big “cross” at the center of the map is a E-W corridor (the 3/F Central Corridor) connecting the rectangle to the Upper Central Ramp. Two guards are stationed at the top of the ramp, so it is not easy to climb up this way.
2. The secret entrance to Lady Valerius’s Office on the lower right hand corner. While it is easy to enter the office from the South Rotunda of Second Floor, it is virtually impossible to sneak out of the office into Third Floor (because of the pair of guards outside her door).
3. The secret passage down to the Cloakroom. It is the red X at the lower left hand corner of the map. However, it is difficult to get into the Cloakroom in the first place.
4. Library Rotunda, the most practical route.

Since the corridors are well carpetted and full of very dark shadows, you would have little prolbem in moving around, knocking people, or hiding bodies. Moreover, most of the guards are on the South side, so this area is relatively quite. However, one of the guards has a very erratic patrol. I am not patient enough to figure out whether he ever repeats his path. Basically, you can consider that he can go everywhere on this floor.

From Upper Library, check the corridor outside. You are at the North East corner of Third Floor. The irregular shapes on the right hand side of the map are the 3/F Box Seats. When it is clear of patrols, move South along the 3/F East Corridor towards there.

A single guard is patroling the 3/F North Box Seats Corridor and the 3/F South Box Seats Corridor. Since he has a rather long walk, it is fairly simple to move past him even though these two corridors are not as dark as the others.

Earlier you may have noticed that while there are 5 box seats on Second Floor, there are only 4 box seats on Third Floor. This is because the 2/F Central Box Seat extends up to the Third Floor. Consequently, you have only 2 box seats here on 3/F North Box Seats Corridor to worry about (and two more on the other corridor).

To your right (S) are the box seats. Inside the one closer to you, the 3/F North West Box Seat, is a man standing alone. Pick his Purse (100;0;0). The other box seat is empty. Go to the alcove to the North of the 3/F North Box Seats Corridor to find a Green Vase (0;0;50) on a table.

Once you have cleared the boxes, exit 3/F North Box Seats Corridor and back to 3/F East Corridor to continue moving South. Take care to avoid the patrolling guards who sweep through this floor, and continue heading South. Notice that the central section of the 3/F East Corridor is visible to the guard(s) at the top of Upper Central Ramp. The ramp guards tend to fidget, so it is possible to use the shadows at either end of 3/F Central Corridor to get out of sight. If you prefer, hide in the shadow along 3/F East Corridor and knock down guards who pass by, but do not tamper with the two gaurds at the Upper Central Ramp until you have got rid of all their patrolling colleagues. The Voyager starts his journey on the 3/F South Box Seat, so remember to count him in.

Both box seats along the 3/F South Box Seats Corridor are unoccupied. Again, enter the one closer to you (3/F South West Box Seat) to collect an abandoned pair of Opera Glasses (25;25;0) that was visible from the stage below. The other box seat and the alcove are both empty.

After looting 3/F Box Seats, work your way N toward the Library again. It is safer and saner to work your way around the building to the SW corner by a roundabout way than to try to sneak past the guards standing in front of Lady Valerius’s Office. Taking the long way also gives you an opportunity to have a look at the North and West sides of this floor. Near the middle of 3/F West Corridor, there is a sitting room on the West, but it is empty.

If you really want to take the shortcut across the office, Moss Arrow the tile floor in the SE corner. Get as close as you can to the left-hand end of the 3/F East Corridor without crossing into the guards’ line of vision. Check that the patrolling guards are out of the way, then stand up and run over the mossy space to the dark shadows of the carpet. This would arouse the guards, but they should not be excited enough to start searching.

When you arrive near the South West corner of the floor (using either method), you would notice a bowman patroling around that corner. Pick a Healing Potion from his belt. If you want to, knock him out. With the Third Floor cleared of patroling guards, you can go to dispose of the two guards at the top of Upper Central Ramp. They are standing apart from each other, with ample shadows around, so they are easy picks. Then come back for the two remaining guards standing outside Lady Valerius’s Office. To get at them, you must first get rid of the patrolling guards, and then make sufficient noise to attrack them to come out for your knocking.

Head down the corridor to the tapestry at the SW corner — the area marked with a red X for the secret passage leading to the Cloakroom on the First Floor. The tapestry on the W wall of the SW corner conceals a duct leading to an area of pipespace. I (Alex) am never good at climbing this type of things. For easily mantling, step back a little and jump into the duct, croaching when you are air borne. This crawlspace leads, via a few ladders, down to a secret panel in the Cloakroom. This is the best way to enter the Cloakroom.

Enter the Cloakroom. Search the shelves for a Purse (100;0;0) located on the rightmost lower shelf. You now have all the loot.

Open the other door for a look at the Cloak-check Girl, but beware of the guard patrolling the rooms between the Ticket Office and the Cloakroom — he may see you if you’re not careful. Or you may try to run towards her back and knock her down.

If you have knocked down all the people, the rest is simple. Just leave the Cloakroom into 1/F South West Corridor, go North to South West Entrance Room and leave via the double doors on your left. They opens to the Courtyard. Cross the Courtyard and leave through the front door on the opposite side to complete the mission.

Otherwise, return to the secret passage and climb the ladders back to Third Floor. When the patrolling guards are out of range, drop to the floor outside, and head N. When you reach the deep shadows in the middle of the 3/F West Corridor, save your game, then continue heading N, and save again when you reach the NW corner safely. The tapestry here, while otherwise identical to the tapestry you just cut down, does not conceal anything.

Avoiding the patrols, head E down the 3/F North Corridor, and re-enter Upper Library. Move quietly down the spiral steps.

Leave Library Rotunda, turn right (West) and follow the corridor until the T-junction. Make sure you’re in deep shadow, and save the game. Lean out to check where the guard is. If he’s headed toward you, wait until he reaches this end of his patrol route, then turns around and heads W again. Turn right (West) and continue on the 2/F North West Corridor towards the 2/F Ramp Area. Work your way W down the corridor, past the archway to the ramps, and duck into the room on your right. It is the empty room with a fireplace, a room that you have been to before. Move through the fireplace to the next room again.

When the guard is headed E again, sneak to the end of the corridor. At the Promenade North Tower, use a fast crouch to go left (South), to the head of the steps leading down. You should be able to do this without panicking Carmella or Lord B. From here, you can move to the Battlements and end the game. But let us move to the real streets.

Move down the steps and head to the shadow of the NE pillar. Watch the guards patrolling the Courtyard. When they’re both headed away, cross to the exit at the SE corner (otherwise, they’ll spot you in the torchlight and come after you). Once through the archway, turn right (W) and sneak over to the steps leading down to the alley. Once you drop to the street, the mission will end.