The Black Parade Mission 4: Death's Dominion

agrash on 12/12/2023 at 20:04

Quote Posted by sub-res

Took me a bit to figure out, but for those wondering here's how to open the plaque door. Apologies in advance for this CIA document looking post:

Grimworth: shoot his sarcophagus with a holy water arrow - a hilt will appear near the exit of the Grimworth tomb

I'm stuck, i can't seem to find his sarcophagus. Or even his named tomb

bob_doe_nz on 12/12/2023 at 22:57

Quote Posted by agrash

I'm stuck, i can't seem to find his sarcophagus. Or even his named tomb

It's sorta early on in the level. When you first enter the area, you have the dead thief, and if you jump across, a damaged holy water fountain. Between these is a small overlook below. If you go down it and follow it, you should get to a walkway surrounded by water, with 2? planks floating near the end of it. The area you're after is a vertical stair lined area, with the tomb in the middle part way up.

agrash on 13/12/2023 at 06:45

Quote Posted by bob_doe_nz

Thank you! You're a lifesaver ^^
I was thinking he was buried deeper in the level like the others. I did however run back a few times earlier towards the entry point, but it seems I had missed that place entirely.
I'm glad I got my shiny new sword

I have another question about a certain enemy:
During my search for the sword parts, I encountered a special hammer haunt enemy and I think he had a crossbow in his hands. He didn't get time to use his weapon, since I immediately unloaded my explosive weaponry on it. >_<
I found him lurking around the area with the big rock hanging on the chains (not far from the tomb where you can find the red gem for the main objective)
Did I miss something, or was that an enemy that spawned a bit later (after completing an objective?) I mean, I was surprised because I think I killed most if not all undead foes and it sorta came out of nowhere. To my understanding, it's also not an enemy that's in the base game.
I only found one of its "type", aside from a couple of regular hammer haunts

All in all, another great mission. Tomb raids/bone hoard style missions aren't usually my favorite of the bunch, but I had a blast playing through it from start to finish.
Looking forwards to the next one!

Komag on 13/12/2023 at 22:10

Hey, I'm playing this mission still, and just had a very odd thing happen, seems buggy. I'm in the South Lower Tombs, on the east side of the higher section, in a room with a "fence", which is near a trap that drops a large rock. On the E side of the room there is a little display with two bushes, a hammer, and three skulls sitting on top, the skull in the middle being larger. In the NE corner of the room, just to the left of the display, is a statue. I was trying to climb on this statue and jump up to mantle onto the top of the fence to explore up high. I grabbed the rock from the nearby trap and was jumping around on top of the statue trying to drop the rock to get a bit higher up, but my angle must have been bad and the rock wasn't dropping (I managed it later after a reload). What happened next is the statue suddenly disappeared, and near the three skulls was a floating blade, which I grabbed it said "sword blade" or something like that. I didn't know what to make of it, so I reloaded and couldn't repeat it! I tried attacking the statue, throwing the rock at it, etc, to no avail. I assume I'll discover this sword deal later on, but figured I'd report this strange bug here (if it is a bug).

bob_doe_nz on 13/12/2023 at 23:16

Komag:

You're on the money on what it's for... Did you find a mosiac of an entity hitting an anvil with a large wall of text next to it?... Which leads me to...

Regarding the skulls thing, that is where you needed to 'pray'. If you reload and go back there to before you picked up the blade, crouch and look at the hammer. It glows and then the sword bit appears...

Komag on 14/12/2023 at 06:14

WOW, just finished!!! 6:50, the most time I've ever spent on any mission ever! I absolutely loved it, such tremendous exploration and pouring over the map and orienting myself. And the verticality! I love coming back to an area from another side and recognizing it, especially if I'm now up high or down low, getting a whole new perspective.

The quest for the special treasure with parts at the end was well done. I avoided spoilers mostly, but read a hint about praying. Then I figured the others out, except I didn't use holy water, just a normal water arrow, and had to read about that. I was extremely lucky to find one last piece of food because I had already eaten everything else before starting the quest (in a bid to heal up).

I actually didn't love the gambling den - I mean, it was cool, tying in to game lore and all, but it broke the mood for me, as I found it in the middle of my playthrough, before going back down to the tombs again.

Anyone know why there is a super tall pit above the Belor room in the back corner?

The snake things (sweels?) are too hard to hit with my sword, miss too much when it looks like I'm hitting.

The use of sound was tremendous, immersive stuff, extremely well done there.

And I got to use rope arrows a lot, which was tons of fun and very satisfying.

That freaky fire monster was scary, and tough, it was nerve wracking (in a good way) trying to get through that part.

Oh, and I got the biggest scare that I can remember, at least for several years. In a low section I had roped down (near the beginning), not noticing one of the bandaged zombies lying down there, I got some loot and was reading the plaque of a worker who got lost and died, and the bandage man snuck up on me and I turned around casually just as he started to attack in my face!!! It freaked me out like crazy, mouth uttering unintelligible lizard-brain fear/dying sounds, heart pumping hard, made my wife wonder what on earth just happened! It was about five times worse than turning around to find a creeper about to blow up in Minecraft, LOL!

Whoever was the primary designer of this mission, kudos to you. I've never spent this long on a mission! And Bonehoard was my all time favorite OM, very reminiscent.

EDIT - PS - I felt I did very well hunting loot, but was still about 250 short! But good enough :-)

Marvin on 14/12/2023 at 10:17

About 380 short, but that's fine with me given the enormity of the level.

Probably one of the best Thief missions I ever played. So much care given to make the player feel like they are descending into a neverending abyss, having to concentrate hard to not lose their bearings - just exceptional. I also wouldn't have guessed that an undead in a Thief game could still scare me after all those years, but there you go. It's a great example of how the game's low-poly graphics can work to its advantage, in that you brain wants to figure out what kind of abomination it's looking at but can't, which makes it scarier.

Kin on 15/12/2023 at 05:46

I am having a hard time finding Noirequier's tomb (on expert). Either I am missing something obvious or have been there and didn't realize it. Direct hints please.

DirkBogan on 15/12/2023 at 06:42

Quote Posted by Kin

I am having a hard time finding Noirequier's tomb (on expert). Either I am missing something obvious or have been there and didn't realize it. Direct hints please.

Have you seen the large waterfall, surrounded by a stone ramp and feeding into a pool of water? From the ground level at the pool, head directly north and take the first path to the right.

Komag on 15/12/2023 at 13:23

There is a skeleton riding a fake horse in its entryway