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[THIEF ANNIVERSARY CONTEST] - WEAK LINKS ‘Weak Links’ was my next
to last anniversary mission. It had been a nice journey through the contestants’
creations, but I still had a couple of gems left. This was the 5th
place entry, made by Ghost in the Shell. I had to steal Lord Victor’s
exhibition valuables, 1,250 in loot and figure out what happened to my
contact, honest Timmy. An optional objective to break into Victor’s safe was
also included. The hardest difficulty was called ‘Noiseless’, due to the
built in Ghosting requirement. There were several ways into Victor’s manor. I started by way of the
armory. Multiple patrollers covered the near vicinity, but gaining entrance
wasn’t too hard. Both armory doors were pickable. I found the secret vault
early on by frobbing an unlit torch, but I needed to return to complete that
objective later. Unlocking it required a 4-digit code that I was sure could
be picked up somewhere. Made my way to the basement
instead. Here, the kitchen was the biggest deal. Sporadic patches of light
and two patrolling servants made it a fair bit troublesome. Flipping the
light switch behind the crates would have helped, but Supreme doesn’t allow
removal of light sources. Cleaned the barracks and found Timmy dead in the
dungeon. That objective ticked off and a new one appeared. I was to avenge
Timmy’s death, which ultimately meant killing Victor. Soon after I found some
rat poison on the kitchen shelf. It didn’t take long to put two and two
together. The kitchen counter had a couple of dark spots where I was safe
from both servants (left image below). From there I could calmly steal the
various pieces of loot off the shelves. The two patrolling guards at the top of the basement tended to get
stuck. Either that or they really liked each other. Luckily they always untangled
themselves after a while. I snuck upstairs between their patrols. The dining hall at the top
was rather intimidating at first. On the top floor was a plateau with a
camera staring in my direction. From this distance it was tough to tell
whether it gave alerts, so I skipped crossing the room from the west side. I
knew of a different way around anyway. Instead I cleaned Hannah’s and Victor’s
rooms. The Lord’s wine sat on the nightstand ready to be poisoned (right
image above). Just beside it was a button uncovering an alcove with a diary,
some loot and the armory key. I also found a dungeon key on the dresser.
Seeing as I had recently picked open those doors, I figured these keys were
needed to relock them. Supreme requires relocking doors even if they’re
pickable. The readable also proved Victor’s involvement in Timmy’s murder. I got to the east side of the second floor by ascending the northern
balcony. Stole the valuables from the dining hall fairly easily from this
side (left image below). The upper guard seemed oblivious to all activity
below. I had a hard time even getting a first alert out of him. Sometimes he
gave settling remarks, but overall he didn’t pose much of a threat. Perhaps
the fence beam blocked his view or something. My biggest problem upstairs
was retrieving Victor’s artifact collection without alerting the security
camera. The upper guard had a key that turned it off, but that isn’t allowed.
I felt this was the last bump in the road towards a rare Perfect Supreme, so
I wanted to experiment. I quickly realized the stairs to the gallery couldn’t
be climbed normally. The camera had a fairly short swing to the south, so
coming up around the railing was out of the question. Fortunately, I had 3
rope arrows in my possession, and the ceiling was deliciously wooden. I
fastened two ropes as shown below and clutched on to the nearest while timing
the camera. As it swung away, I climbed up and leaped forward. I could grab
hold of the second rope and drop below the camera off the marbled table
without any alerts. From here I could snag all the artifacts. Occasionally
the patrolling guard below gave a grumble, but the sentry across the dining hall
remained silent. I even repeated all the moves with the security system off
just to listen for alerts, but he kept utterly quiet through everything. Returning
to the stairs required a well-angled jump over the railing. With a little
luck I got a soft landing. I ascended the ropes again to retrieve the arrows,
but all in all I was home free. I found the vault code in one of the library books. The vault itself
contained the rest of my loot. Relocked the armory and the dungeon before
returning both keys to Victor’s bedroom. I even returned the rat poison to
the kitchen shelf alert free! Statistics: Time: 39:06 Loot: 3224 out of 3224 Pickpockets: 1 out of 4 Secrets: 3 out of 4 Locks Picked: 4 Damage Dealt: 0 Damage
Taken: 0 Consumables: None Ghost: Success! Perfect Thief: Success! Supreme Thief: Success! Perfect Supreme Thief:
Success! |
