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THE BLACK FROG - Mission 5 The Black Frog The
campaign culminates in the best mission of the bunch. And that says a lot, given
the quality of missions 2 and 4. Unfortunately, it contains several forced
Ghost busts, but that doesn’t take anything away from the wonderful
experience I’ve had through this mission pack. I will take excellent
non-Ghosting missions before crappy Ghost-friendlies any day of the week.
Thank you Gaëtane! Since
Emilie trapped us at the end of the last mission, we found ourselves
kidnapped in a locked bedroom. The objectives were simple: 1) Find lockpicks,
2) find a sword, and 3) find the Black Frog. Manor Entered
the adjacent bedroom easily enough. The dog in the courtyard could spot me
and hear the window lockpick, so timing was important. The windows on the
south wall led to multiple patrollers on the inside. They needed to be well
timed, plus their comments were difficult to hear. I fetched the invisibility
potion above the courtyard shed seeing as I was here (left image below). It
was most probably needed later. If not, I could always return it. Found the
proper lockpicks and started looting the house. Traversing
the upstairs was straight forward. First, I picked up the map to help me
navigate. I could drop it back immediately, while still having it accessible
from the menu. Photographic memory, Garrett? Found two hidden coin stacks in
that same bedroom (right image below). I
wanted to do as much as possible before overhearing the conversation from the
barracks. I basically cleaned the proper for loot, save the last piece in
Emilie’s apartment. The only real tough piece was the purse on the beam in
the great hall. I found you could jump on top of the chandelier and grab both
the purse and the rope from the shade (left image below). This helped me a
lot. To get back down I jumped onto the west side of the pitch black main
rafter and flung an arrow into the next one north (right image below). Attached
to this line, I could jump onto the wooden windowsill in the northwest,
grabbing the arrow along the way. There was a patch of shade here also. Then
dropped to the floor silently. The
main floor was definitely more populated than upstairs, but there were plenty
of shadows and patrols long enough to present frequent opportunities of
relocation. I eventually found my way to the guards’ quarters which presented
the first Ghost bust. A pickable door was boarded up and necessitated
property damage to advance. I tried transmigration using my rope arrow, but
couldn’t even get properly attached to the boards. There was no way to enter
the door in the front yard using this method either. I had to slide the
painting back up to avoid alerts when breaking the board. Listened
to the conversation and stole the key off Bazil. It stuck to my inventory and
couldn’t be dropped back. Entered Emilie’s apartment and used the mirror key
to enter the frog world. Black Frog World I
guess you can argue busts in this place not to count, as it is simply a
figment of Garrett/Emilie’s imagination; a nightmarish reflection of reality.
I still treated it as a normal part of the mission. Reading the first book
was necessary to spawn the objective to escape. The other keeper messages
were needless. Frobbing
the eyes made a sound that alerted anyone in the near vicinity. The creeping
skeletons didn’t have first alerts, but they made slow hunt and alarm
movements. The Charaka had all the alerts like normal. The first eye was in
the room where I found the first old pen lockpick in the beginning of the
mission. I waited for Charaka’s thumps to disappear and then frobbed it. This
made the northern part of this floor accessible, where I found the second eye
in the far northwest corner. This spawned a hammer haunt in the adjacent
room. It was in hunt mode to begin with, although I couldn’t tell whether
this was my doing or a scripted event. It settled down to restful mode after
a while. I could utilize the south wall in this room to exit safely (left
image below). I didn’t consider slashing the big eye further east as property
damage, since I took the small eye into possession afterwards. Although it
did count as 1 backstab, 10 damage dealt and 1 iron beast killed in the
stats. I guess anything considered damage technically constitutes a bust, so
I reported it as such. The
eye could now be used to break the seal that protected Emilie’s apartment
(right image above). This looked and sounded like glass breaking, so more
property damage was inflicted. Note that property “damage” doesn’t show up in
the stats as such. It is just a term indicating destroyed objects rather than organisms.
Replaying the scenario I also noted there were several variations of the
sound emitted when breaking the seal. Some were louder than others. The
quieter (or less noisy) one didn’t alert the Charaka or the skeletons if they
were some distance away. I was determined to avoid being seen or heard
despite the prior busts. I see those as “harder” busts to the spirit of the
Ghost mode than property damage or forced busts that doesn’t involve enemies. Inside
the apartment the doll upstairs spawned a total of five frogs by the
downstairs entrance. Not only that, but the entrance got blocked and an
alternate passage had opened up in the nearby corner. Like I said, I was
determined to avoid as many busts as possible. This was the reason for
bringing the invisibility potion along. I could travel a fair ways down the
stairs before hitting the lit-up section (left image below). Drinking the
potion I quickly inched down onto the carpet and made a hop onto the table to
the left. Any sound on the wood triggered chirps from pretty much all the
critters. After a few tries I managed to reach the dark portion of the table
just in time for the potion to wear off (right image below). I know frobbing
the painting in the next room would kill them all, but at least that was out
of my control. It didn’t count as further kills or more damage either. Two
new areas had now opened up. One led to a basement section with a doll part. The
floating heads were the creepiest thing I’ve seen in a long time. They didn’t
have first alerts and dealt damage upon impact, even if unintentional. There
were several places around the cage room where I was safe (left image below).
I had to flip two body parts to access the doll. Made sure to flip them back
afterwards. The
second section was accessible from upstairs and led to the attic. It had one
hall where you had to jump-mantle a rather large gap in the floor. Another
floating eye was down below, but I don’t think he heard my feet tapping the
tile as I leapt across (right image above). The
two doll pieces had to be placed in the garden lava to spawn Emilie the Doll
Monster. She spawned in hunt mode but I was still determined to avoid alerts.
I made sure to drop the pieces when the Charaka was roaming upstairs, away
from possible alerts. He was the least of my worries now though. There was no
time to hide between the second piece hitting the lava and the doll
appearing; that trigger was instantaneous. Neither was the doll piece
throwable, which would have made it possible to spawn her while concealed.
Instead I placed the second piece (the head) on top of the fencing and looked
for items to toss onto it, thereby pushing it into the lava. The flower pot
in Emilie’s apartment was the perfect tool (left image below). Leaning out
from the tunnel shadows, I could hit the doll piece into the burning liquid,
while the pot landed in the snow to the west. I eventually found the precise
angle in order to make that scenario happen repeatedly. The large doll
appeared and hunted for a while. It took about 30 seconds before she settled.
I replayed the toss until she stopped with her back turned, facing west along
the southern wall. I waited for her to settle further and snuck out as slow
as possible. No movement so far. I crept up to the wall, drew my sword and
whack! She disappeared instantly and left behind the frog key (right image below).
This was obviously a bust, adding 1 backstab, 30 damage and 1 iron beast kill
to my stats. However, I was able to do it without a single additional alert.
I returned the flower pot to its original location afterwards. Back In the Manor Returned
the mirror key and got ready to finish things off. Belmont’s men had now
invaded the premises, and things looked distinctly different from before. I
imagine the various scenarios can play out in different ways, but things were
pretty straight forward for me. The dog got tempted inside where it fell to a
swordsman. I moved counterclockwise and entered the Priest’s Temple. Two
guardians had spawned protecting two keys. I grabbed both quite unbothered.
The inner patroller had a stop at either end of his route, making things
surprisingly easy. Neither of these guys first alerted. Made
my way to the upper floor via the kitchen. Found Garivaldi’s negative crystal
behind a panel in the corner of his bedroom (left image below). Lock-blocked
the tunnels door before I returned both keys to the temple. No big deal. The
inner patroller didn’t do the stops along his route any longer; not that it
prevented me from moving unobserved. Managed
to prevent the Charaka from appearing, though I don’t really know how. I
crept slowly through the halls, along the left side. When I reached the
slope, I walked like normal, and I never saw or heard it. This was a relief,
as I would’ve had to cover the place with moss to prevent busts.
Nevertheless, I was free to exchange the blue crystal with the red one. I
could flip the gate lever twice and still make it up the ledge if mantling
(right image above). The ladder was too slow. The
ending was highly rewarding. Emilie got what she deserved. In retrospect,
mission 5 was more fun during normal play than Ghosting. Mission 4 was the
other way around. Despite all the busts, this was the perfect ending to a
superb mission pack. J Thank
you for one of the highlights of my Thief career, Gaëtane! Statistics: Time:
1:39:43 Loot:
710 out of 710 Pickpockets:
1 out of 3 Secrets:
5 out of 9 Locks
Picked: 4 Backstabs:
2 Damage
Dealt: 40 Damage Taken: 0 Iron
Beasts Destroyed: 2 Bodies
Discovered by Enemies: 3 Consumables:
1 Invisibility Potion Ghost:
Failed! Perfect
Thief: Failed! Supreme
Ghost: Failed! Perfect
Supreme Ghost: Failed! Notes: -
Had to break
one of the boards blocking the door to the basement. This is required to
overhear the conversation between Emilie and Bazil (I guess it’s more of a
monologue than a conversation per se).
This is property damage and a bust to all modes. [Also couldn’t prevent the
door from disappearing, but that is no bust.] -
The hammer
haunt in the frog world seemingly spawned into hunt mode. I am unsure whether
this was a scripted event or as a result of me frobbing the eye. I vote for
no bust here. -
Slashing the
big eye counted as 1 backstab, 10 damage dealt and 1 iron beast killed in the
stats. More Ghost busts. -
More property
damage was inflicted when breaking the “seal” to Emilie’s apartment in the
Black Frog World. -
Used an
invisibility potion to avoid the frogs in Emile’s apartment after frobbing
the doll upstairs. I valued not getting seen more than not using the potion. -
Had to kill
Emilie’s doll beast in order to retrieve the frog key and escape the dream
world. This was a bust, but was completed without any further alerts or
violations to the rules. 1 backstab, 1 iron beast destroyed and 30 damage got
added to the ending stats. -
Breaking the
frog mirror to leave the Black Frog World might also be considered property
damage, and if so, another bust. -
The bodies
discovered are from the clash Belmont’s guards and Emilie’s men. It had
nothing to do with me. |
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