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THE BLACK FROG - Mission 3 Tears and Sorrow While
not my favorite mission of the pack, it still provides a nice change of scenery
from the first. The creatures are scary and the limited visibility makes each
street corner unpredictable. By letting the player observe the changes to the
city, the story unfolds itself in an effective manner. I wish there had been
some more loot around and that killing the dogs would’ve been optional or
hidden. That takes nothing away from the wonderful mission pack Gaëtane has
put together! I
was simply to meet up with Belmont and give him the painting, then head out
of town by way of a boat. I had a strange feeling it wouldn’t be that easy. Not
a whole lot to report before seeing Belmont. The streets were filled with
five patrolling and three stationary werewolves, or whatever they were. They
were easy enough to dodge. There was plenty of shade and not much to pick up.
Went for my rope arrows first. They were all that was needed for the
objective that would trigger when I got Belmont’s first key. It led to the
window that I managed to reach without a rope arrow in mission one, but alas
then it was locked. Now, however, it was open and provided the second key.
This took me to the Mayor’s house and furthermore to cemetery well. Got the
new objectives and my only piece of loot. I was to unlock the gate at the
dock and kill all the dogs. I
generally don’t like forced kill objectives. This was not an exception and to
me knocked the mission down a notch or two. Regardless, I still had to adhere
to the other rules and not alert anyone in the process. I am not entirely
sure how to interpret Supreme rule #5 when it says “[...] Use nothing that
would leave a trace or remnant of evidence. [...]” This could refer to all
non-retrievable equipment, but then rule #6 goes on to talk about no water or
moss arrow use. Why would these be mentioned in an additional rule if they
were already included under the previous point? I therefore infer #5 to refer
to visible evidence only.
Traditionally, I have viewed Supreme to disallow any and all consumables, but
I guess that is too strict. Especially when the objectives directly calls for
damage to be dealt. The sword was by far the “sneakiest” weapon of choice.
One overhead blow to an unalerted dog would kill it. It was just a matter of
finding good hiding spots. Blood stains would constitute a clear bust to the
aforementioned rule, so I had to redo the blows until no blood showed up. The
blackjack could’ve worked if the beasts had been possible to knock out. Alas,
they were not. The two patrollers by the chapel was taken care of by the
entry gate to Irvin’s sister’s house. The stationary beast by the fallen
metal beam didn’t alert to them dying. If one of the dogs was too close, it
would come looking, which was a clear bust. Three
more patrollers further south stuck fairly close together. I waited by the
archway close to the starting point for them to come by (right image above).
They would occasionally get hooked on the fountain and spread more apart that
way. I had to wait a few loops before they were far enough apart not to
alert. I removed the bodies in between each death, although they usually
didn’t spot them. The dog in the rooftop apartment in the far south was
already alerted to the rat under the cabinet. This meant he needed 4 overhead
blows to die. He didn’t give any visible or auditory indication of alerting
to my sword, so I figured I was good here. At least he had his back turned
the entire time while I stuck to the shade. He was too caught up in his rat
hunt to notice getting killed I guess. The
last two were stationed in the alleys to the east. The one south of the inn
alerted to either of the nearby doors. This was a first alert growl, so plain
Ghost was good. Supreme had to find a different way. The last beast stood
ground just outside the dock gate. Two torches lit up the alley enough to
prevent me from reaching him unseen. I tried flinging rope arrows into the
wooden beams and tarzan my way along the ceiling, but he still gave a growl.
Plain Ghosters shouldn’t have any problems getting behind him for the kill.
It seemed like I needed a different way to access the dock for Supreme, then
come in from his backside. Alas, that mode failed not long after, when I
realized the beast gave a howl when the dock gate opened. There was no way
around this, as opening the gate was an objective. The only solution at this
point was to kill him from the front. A gas arrow or a fire arrow could’ve
worked, but they weren’t present in the mission. Broadhead arrows were
useless as you need more than one arrow and got detected after the first. I
tried flinging a mine into the dog’s feet, but it was far too loud and
alerted him to hunt mode long before it went off. If the ground had been
silent or if moss arrows were allowed, then I guess Supreme could’ve
succeeded, but it wasn’t to be. Come to think of it there were no moss arrows
around either. Instead I took the first alert and looked for a different way
over the fence, to prevent additional busts at least. One
crate took me over the fence south of the inn balcony (left image below).
From here I could access the back alley and kill the dog rummaging around the
trash. I then had to jump the fence again and bring the crate along to access
the outer wall to the south. From here I could reach the docks and kill the
last beast from behind (right image below). Finally,
I returned all the keys and the crate, and went back to the docks to finish
the mission. Statistics: Time:
48:07 Loot:
1000 out of 1000 Pickpockets:
None Secrets:
None Locks
Picked: 2 Damage
Dealt: 300 Damage Taken: 0 Backstabs:
9 Innocents
Killed: None, and others Killed: 10 Consumables:
None Ghost:
Success! Perfect
Thief: Success! Supreme
Ghost: Failed! Perfect
Supreme Ghost: Failed! Notes: -
The beast by the dock gate gave a growl indicating a
first alert when raising the door. There was no way to kill him without
alerts from the front, so this ended up busting Supreme. |
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