Grandmauden on 16/1/2016 at 21:23
FM:
The Seventh Crystal (v2)
Game:
TMAPlay Mode: Supreme Ghost (
Success!!), Perfect Supreme (
Failed...)
-Acts 1 & 4-
These are just camvator sequences, so statistics are irrelevant
-Act 2-
Time – 1:39:16
Loot – 2203/2303 (2303 for regular Ghost)
Pockets Picked – 0/9, Locks Picked – 4
Back Stabs – 0, Knockouts – 0
Damage Dealt – 0, Damage Taken – 0, Healing Taken – 0
Innocents/Others Killed – 0, Iron Beasts Destroyed/Disabled – 0
Bodies Discovered – 0
Secrets – 0/0
Consumables – None
-Act 3-
Time – 0:08:37
Loot – 2403/2403 (actually 200/200; Act 2's loot carries over)
Pockets Picked – 0/0, Locks Picked – 0
Back Stabs – 0, Knockouts – 0
Damage Dealt – 0, Damage Taken – 0, Healing Taken – 0
Innocents/Others Killed – 0, Iron Beasts Destroyed/Disabled – 0
Bodies Discovered – 0
Secrets – 0/0
Consumables – None
Comments:
Having played this campaign several times before, I knew that the guard in Lord Saturnine's war museum sometimes got stuck on a pedestal, which would make it impossible to steal the Cerulean Sapphire from there without busting Supreme. Therefore, to avoid any issues with him, I felt it was mandatory to steal the sapphire as soon as possible and worry about the out-of-the-way loot afterwards.
The guards outside gave me no trouble as I picked the lock on the side entrance. Two more guards were circling between the basement and the kitchen above. There was slightly more time after one guard went by before the next one returned than vice versa, so I waited for that guard to come by before moving to the next shadow. In the kitchen, the female servant was facing towards every exit except the northwest hallway. No matter which staircase I took from the basement to the kitchen, she would first alert as I crept towards that hallway. Thus, the elevator was the only possible route (see image below). I had to time my ascent so that neither of the patrolling guards noticed me on their way through the kitchen. No need to send the elevator back down, because it was at the topmost position when I found it.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/RZoEvim.pngThe majority of Saturnine's mansion – namely, the two grand staircases and the central courtyard – were chock full of guards on random patrols. The best way to get around was by using the hallways surrounding these areas, and even then, a couple of spots were unusable due to stationary guards. The hallway right in front of the entrance hall was also unfavorable due to high traffic, so the tile balcony on the floor above was my best bet. I rode the elevator to the game room and sent it down. I waited to creep across the tile balcony until the coast was clear, then crouched past the library windows to avoid detection from the guards inside. Then, it was back downstairs.
The conservatory, where Seraphina had hidden a stash for me, proved to be the first major obstacle, but not in the way you might expect. For whatever reason, the sound didn't propagate correctly between the lower floor, where I was, and the upper floor, where two pivoting guards stood on opposite balconies. Thus, it was very hard to hear any first alert comments (has anyone else had this problem?). The stash was behind the middle of three statues, but I would have to cross into the light to reach it, so I needed to wait until the guards turned away in order to minimize any chance of a first alert.
Initially, I approached from the west, because that balcony had a nice shadow under it. However, the guard on the east balcony always noticed me step from the bright doorway into the shadow, even if he was facing north or south. I wasn't sure if the east entrance would be any better, due to a lack of shadow, but it turned out to be the key to victory. Namely, the east guard never first alerted as I moved towards the stash – I must've been just below his cone of vision or something. This meant I only needed to worry about the west guard, and because he sometimes turned west and looked away from the conservatory, I could easily run in to reach the stash when he did so (see image below). Seraphina had left me a map of the mansion, a purse with some money, a key to the library, and a note saying that the servant Bradey had the key to the war museum. This checked off the objective to find Seraphina's stash, but because it only specified the map and the money, I would have to return the key later. I left the note where it was, waited for the west guard to turn away again, and left the way I came.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/DrUxsYH.pngThe library was right nearby, and therefore next on the agenda. Inside were three guards: one on the lower level staring at the fireplace, and two circling around the upper level. The center of the library was brightly lit, so I had trouble moving around without being noticed by the patrollers upstairs. As I sat and waited, though, I noticed one of the guards seemed to walk faster than the other, and indeed he did: sometimes they would be on opposite ends of the room, and sometimes they would be right next to each other. Naturally, I wanted them to be together so I could have more time to move once they were patrolling away. I found a safe spot by the post at the bottom of the stairs (see image below), then moved to the shadow halfway up. At the top, I followed the swordsmen around the room, crawling slowly to avoid being seen by the guards out the windows or the guy at the fireplace. I picked open Lord Saturnine's safe and found a bunch of loot, a key to the attic, and a diary mentioning a secret crypt under the mansion. I tailed the guards back around the library and left through the door on the second floor.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/6c16jKL.pngBack at the tile balcony from earlier, I unlocked the attic door and triggered the conversation between Bradey and Liz. Although Bradey intended to lock himself in his room for the night, I knew he wouldn't make it off the third floor. I got back down to the first floor via the northwest stairs, cut through the dining room, and tailed the swordsman in this hallway south to the staircase. Unfortunately, at the top of the stairs were two stationary guards behind a glass door, and they commented on me every time. Fortunately, the ceiling was made of wood, so I simply had to shoot a rope arrow up and hop over the railing to avoid them (left image below).
I ducked through the curtain to enter the room with those two swordsmen unseen. The entire floor was tile, but they seemed to have poor hearing, as I could accidentally make a solid footstep on the tile and they wouldn't respond. I took it slow and steady anyway, just to be safe. The guards stood right in front of the stairs to the third floor, so I'd have to try and climb the railing to get up. I mantled the railing on the lower part of the stairs, only to come down hard on tile – and they definitely heard that. Instead, I shot a rope arrow towards the upper part of the stairs (right image below), and when I mantled up here, I landed on carpet. Outside of Alexandria's room were Bradey and Liz, unconscious. Liz had Alexandria's room key, and Bradey had the war museum key and his own room key. My objective specified that I had to take both of Bradey's keys, so I didn't have to bring them back, but I did return Alexandria's key after pilfering her bedroom. I carefully stepped off the staircase railing to the tile floor, then descended the other staircase to the first floor with another rope arrow.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/ASCGcJs.png Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/80BWITL.pngNow it was time to tackle the guards' quarters. The two patrollers in the hallway were also together at times and apart at other times, but this was caused by them bumping into each other while rounding a corner. I hugged the west wall and darted from shadow to shadow whenever I found a chance. There was a purse in a locked chest in the barracks, but when I picked it open, the sleeping guard at the table made a comment. Therefore, Perfect Supreme was no longer possible. I picked open the door to Lorcan's office and threw the lever, which granted me access to another lever that raised the cage in the museum surrounding the chest with the sapphire. I could hear the guard's footsteps down there, so he hadn't gotten stuck yet. Phew.
I got back out past the two guards and entered the museum itself. When I could hear the guard's footsteps fade away, I carefully inched across the tile floor. Once his footsteps got close, though, I hid in a shadow by one of the beams along the wall. Once I reached the chest in the center room, I stood to the side so I could pick it open without being seen as the guard patrolled past (see image below). With that, the Cerulean Sapphire was mine! I exited the museum in the same way, then returned to the guards' quarters and flipped both of the levers back. Now that I didn't have to worry about whether that guard got stuck or not, I was free to take my time.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/MVruTcj.pngSomeone had unlocked the door to the servants' quarters while I was in the museum, and judging by the card on the ground, it must've been the same person who ambushed Bradey and Liz. I found Bradey's room and took Saturnine's room key, as well as the rosary beads he used to ward off the spiders in the crypt. There was also a silver flute behind his window curtain that was easy to miss.
I made my way back up to the third floor using the same route as before. After looting the guest rooms, one of which had a gem ring on the bathroom sink that was hard to spot (see image below), I entered Saturnine's room. A switch under his bed revealed a secret attic above the library, and another switch in here caused one of the desks in the library below to slide away and uncover the entrance to the crypt. However, this is where things got a little complicated. The mission will only end once I step into the crypt entrance. Supreme rule #7 requires that everything is returned to its original location, and that includes the desk. The thing is, the lever up in this attic is the only one that toggles the desk; there's no corresponding lever down below. Therefore, I would have to block the desk as it was closing so I could slip in, then pick up the blocking item so the desk could finish closing behind me. This would be tedious, but nothing mind-boggling.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/URxKSHA.pngBack at the stairs between the second and third floors, I dropped off the other side of the stairs so I could reach the bar and the ballroom. The only loot in the ballroom was a silver flute on the brightly lit stage, but there was a guard on the north side facing the room. I wasn't sure if I could nab the flute – and it wouldn't even be necessary, since Perfect Supreme was already busted and there was no loot objective – but I decided to give it a try anyway. I carefully crawled down the stairs, hugging the railing so I was out of sight. Halfway down, I climbed over the railing and dropped onto the stage, and amazingly, the swordsman didn't react. There weren't any sound propagation issues in this room, either – I could clearly hear him comment if he gave a first alert, and yet, he didn't give one here. I leaned forward and swiped the flute (see image below), but this was only half the battle. I tried mantling back over the railing, but then he definitely first alerted. Instead, I carefully creeped off the stage, hugging the railing, and crawled all the way up the stairs from the bottom. Somehow, I managed to pull this off without any first alerts. How that guy failed to notice me, I may never know.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/TGVGR5q.pngI climbed back over the stairs on the second floor and descended to the first floor. Entering the central courtyard, I went through the north door to the grand staircase and stole the gold vases, using the cubby under the stairs for cover. I exited back onto the courtyard and made my way to the library again. My first order of business was to return the attic key, but I then discovered that one of the guards on the upper level had now gotten stuck. He wasn't on a pedestal or table or anything; he had just stopped patrolling for whatever reason. Unfortunately, that meant I could no longer reach the safe to drop the key back without a first alert. Thus, I was forced to reload an earlier save to bring the key back before he got stuck, in addition to repeating everything I had done in the meantime. The attic key couldn't be placed in the safe itself, so I left it on the floor right in front of the safe (in hindsight, there was really no need to hold onto this key for so long; I could've replaced it immediately after I visited the attic and avoided all this trouble).
At first, I thought the silver fire poker might be another loot item unavailable for Supreme, but if I crept to the right spot, I could lean forward and take it without being seen by the guard right next to me or either guard upstairs. This meant the purse in the guard quarters was the only piece of loot standing between me and a Perfect Supreme run. So close, yet so far.
Now I turned my attention to the desk and the crypt entrance. Because the Supreme rules forbid any unnecessary pickups, I could only use items from my starting inventory to block the desk. This meant my options were limited to a healing potion, six flares, a mine, and a gas mine. The two mines quickly proved unusable, as the guards heard me drop them, even though it was a carpet floor. I placed the healing potion instead.
After lock-blocking one of the library doors and confirming that the others were locked and shut tight, I returned to the conservatory and replaced the library key. Then, I went all the way back up to Saturnine's room and flipped the switch to close the desk. Sure enough, the desk was stopped by the healing potion...and then the candlestick on top of it kept on going to where it had originally been (see image below). Weird, but that shouldn't be a problem. I locked Saturnine's room and brought the key back to Bradey's room, locking that as well, and made my last trip to the library.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/x4z01xm.pngOnly then did I discover that the candlestick was, indeed, a big problem. For some reason, the candlestick's collision box was much larger than the candlestick itself. Thus, even though there was clearly enough room for me to drop down into the crypt entrance, the floating candlestick was blocking me from doing so! Clearly, I was being given a taste of my own medicine...
So the candlestick had to be blocked, as well. I flipped the lever in Saturnine's attic again, then tried to put a flare on the desk in front of the candlestick. Sadly, the candlestick's collision box was so large that there was no room on the desk to put the flare, so I needed another strategy.
What I came up with is this: start with both the desk and the candlestick in their original closed positions. Drop the healing potion a little ways in front of the desk, then pull the attic lever. The candlestick will move all the way, but the desk will start to move and get stopped by the potion (left image below). Drop a flare on the desk in front of the candlestick. Pick up the healing potion so the desk fully opens, then drop the potion between the desk and the crypt entrance. Pull the lever again so they both start to close and get stopped by the objects. As you drop down into the crypt entrance, grab the potion and the flare above you, and the desk and candlestick will continue back to their original positions (right image below). With that, I was on my way to Act 3 with Supreme intact!
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/YUlys3L.png Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/wCy1nkw.pngNot much to say about Act 3, though there are a couple of extra steps I had to take for Supreme. Obviously, sending each elevator back to where they were is first on the list. Next came the staircase at the bottom of the mausoleum that lowers when you pull the big lever. Once again, I had to close it behind me, but there wasn't a corresponding lever on the other side. So, with the staircase lowered, I pulled the lever to start raising it, mantled onto the balcony railing, jumped to the next balcony, carefully dropped down without taking damage, and fell through the elevating steps just as they sealed up behind me (see image below).
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/iZhyvAI.pngThe only thing left was to enter the dark chapel. Not sure if the skull that pushes you back counts as a trap, but I hopped over the pews to avoid triggering it anyway. I grabbed the mage's book after seeing a terrible vision, enjoyed the epilogue, and the campaign was complete!
Notes:
- Had to skip the purse in the guard barracks for Supreme. The nearby guard comments when you pick the lock on the chest.
- The nine pickpockets in Act 2 are all keys. Three are the keys on Bradey and Liz (which don't count because they're unconscious) and the other six are held by the guards at the entrance or the servants sleeping in their rooms, all of which are unnecessary.