1.)   The chase through The City

The deadly arrow of the assassins is triggered as soon as you leave the carpet, or draw a weapon. Hope that you will be one of the few people who have seen Farkus survive his assassination (we are talking about a chance of 1:10000, I would dare to calculate), and then hurry to his corpse and get all the pretty equipment that you find in his shop. Especially the rope arrows will be handy.

Now follow Quince & Jacow. The odds are still quite good that they will take the quick way (left after the bridge), but it seemed to me that the odds for one of the longer ways are increased in Thief Gold. However, basically, you want to stay in the shadows, maybe even walk ducked, and you don't want to move much closer to them when they are searching around.

Once you are infront of Ramirez' Mansion, your objectives will change.

2.)   Getting into the Mansion in the most stylish way

To make things more difficult, approach the front entrance and listen to the conversation about Cragscleft. These two Guards will patrol in the garden from now on, and make things more difficult for you.

However, you want to head back to the house in the E, shoot a rope arrow into the wall of its 2nd floor, mantle yourself on the wall, get the rope arrow back, hop down into the small gap between this house and the outer walls, climb the ladder, lean left, and mantle yourself onto the wall.

In this position, you may want to wait that there is no Guard on patrol just down of you. Then slide down. If you are careful enough, you will take no damages of this fall, or just a few.

Enter the tower just E of you, and ignore the "Is someone there?" of the Archer. Go up to the 2nd floor, and hurry to the tower in the N. From here, you can hop on the roof ahead of you (in the W), and from there on the balcony of the library. Pick the locks of the doors of the library, and sneak in.

3.)   The E of the Mansion

Because you want all the pickpockets, you should now hurry to the door in the W, open it, douze the torch ahead of you, and snatch the key from the male Servant before the conversation is finished (pickpockets 1 of 9).

While you are at it, enter the room in the S, unlock the chest, and get the speed potion. Sneak back into the library.

It is a perfect time now to make the Guards in the basement start their patrol, so head to the fireplace, find the frobable book in the shelf right of it, and open the secret passage. Follow the secret passage, listen to the conversation, and then get the loot from this storage room plus from the two rooms in the E. If a Guard should patrol around here at this time, then wait until he goes to the N. Don't forget to steal his key.

Head back into the storage room, and climb back into the library. Get the items from the 2nd floor of the library, and then head out of it, to the room in the N. Get all the loot from the shelf, and then head back into the corridor.

4.)   The W of the Mansion

Head to the S, trigger the conversation of the two Guards in the garden (one of them has a key, and you want to steal his key later in this mission), and find the shadow in the corridor's very SW. This is the ideal place to wait that Guards pass by (there are now 3 Guards on patrol in the corridors of the Mansion), but if that bores you, you can just move on.

The two doors in the W are locked, so you may want to ready your square-toothed lockpick when running towards them. Get the loot, read the letter, and head in an appropriate moment to the bedroom of Ramirez (in the NW). Douze the torch that lightens the corridor infront of the bedroom, snatch the key from one of the eventual Guards that pass by, and enter the bedroom.

Get all his loot, and don't bother to pick the chest in his room. The basement key is not necessary for you, but it is always a pleasure to have all the keys. Don't forget the vase at the top of the fireplace. Find the secret passage in the fireplace, and get the goodies from in there.

Before you head back into the corridors now, you may want to steal the mines and the flashbomb from the tower in the outer wall, just W of the balcony of the bedroom. Hop down into the garden, pick the lock, get the items, and hop back in. If you are good, no one will have noticed you.

5.)   Getting down to the basement

Because you want all of the pickpockets, you want now to head back to that handy shadow in the very SW of the corridors of the 2nd floor. When the Guard in the entrance hall has his back turned (and of course, when you can't hear the footsteps of any Guards down there), the time is ripe for you to slide down. If you took some damages, rest assured that this is pretty normal here. Drink your healing potion, if you purchased one, or continue playing with the reduced amount of health (this adds definitely more fun, too. ;-) )

As soon as you are slided down into the 1rst floor, head into the shadowy hallway in the N. If you want to read everything in the mission, then make a short visit in the garden and snatch the scroll. Head back into the shadowy hallway.

When the Guard in the entrance hall has his back turned, hurry to him and steal his key. Then hurry back to the hallway.

This hallway is the perfect place to wait that the 3 patrolling Guards pass by. If you have not yet all of their keys, you may want to wait here that they pass by (pickpockets 5 of 9).

Now you want to head to the W, and to enter the Guards' bedroom. The best way to enter this bedroom is the door opposite to the trophy room where the two Guards are talking about the pretty trap mechanisms. Open the door to the barracks, and hurry in.

Being in a room with 6 Guards is always a pleasure, so enjoy it and steal the keys (pickpockets 7 of 9).

Once you are finished, head to the door in the N, lean right to douze the torch, get the key from the table, wonder what "evil spirit stone" may be (that is, listen to the conversation of the two Servants), and head to the kitchen in the N.

The Servant will be busy preparing some food for Ramirez at this time. Sneak slowly to the stairs, wait that he passes by, and get his key (pickpockets 8 of 9). Then follow him; he will lead you directly to the counting room.

6.)   The counting room

Stay in the shadow at the table with the water and moss arrows, snatch them, and make a nice moss carpet on the floor. Then wait until Ramirez is meditating at the button for more foor, and head to the shadow just ahead of you, from where you can easily grab the key, the potion, and the flash bomb. You can also unlock the chest from here, and steal the coins from it. Read the notes about people whom Ramirez does not like at all, and duck down again.

Wait in this shadow until Ramirez is again meditating at his button for more food, and head to the shadow just left of you (from where you can snatch the coins from the desk).

Same procedure as usual, you should wait for an appropriate moment to leave this shadow again, and to head back to your shadow at the table. (In none of the two shadows in the counting room is the Servant able to see you. And if you are hidden cleverly, then also Ramirez will not take any notice of you).

Open the chest with the scroll, and get it. Same as the chest with the coins, this chest can be opened with Ramirez' blue masterkey. Read the scroll, and pad yourself on your back for how clever you are.

Now, if you haven't done it already, you want to steal the purse from Ramirez' belt. Wait that he comes into reach, and grab it (pickpockets 9 of 9).

7.)   Leaving the Mansion

This is a trickier part: Leaving the Mansion without getting seen.

Leave the basement, and head left. This will get you to the NW staircases. It is typically, that there will be a Guard coming from the 2nd floor, just when you decided that you want to sneak up now. So, be prepared to hurry back into these handy shadowy rooms in the basement.

Now head back to the 2nd floor, and hurry to the library in the E. Hop off the balcony into the water, and swim out as quick as you can. If you have done everything right, the mission will end now.

8.)   Heading back to Home Turf

If you haven't done everything right, you will now be confronted with a nasty new objective. Leave the water, head down to the metal floor tiles of the wooden bridge, and wait in that shadow.

There will be lots of Guards to the right now, but this is also the easiest way back home - if you are in a hurry, then just run to there, head to Farkus' shop, and be amazed of your dodging skills (or reload...) ;-)

At Farkus' shop, head to the metal bridge, open the door, and run down the stairs. Right of this hallway, you will find a wooden bridge over the water. Either you head over this bridge now (and will most probably run into several annoyed Archers), or you jump into the water. Left of the wooden bridge is a perfect shadow, where you can wait a few minutes.

Once you have the feeling that everything is fine and clear now, mantle yourself out of the water. Home Turf can be reached, if you head right now whereever you have the choice. And even though there may be more than 1 Archer on your track now, you are in "safety" as soon as you are in the area past the well.