Lytha.com - Thief II: The Metal Age Collection - Missions  
        
 
This is a hastily written and formatted and preliminary Walkthrough for the Mission "Running Interference" in the game "Thief II: The Metal Age" by Looking Glass Studios at Lytha.com. There may be a better one in the future, if you finally allow me a rest from all the emails and requests.

And this is also the last warning for all the people who enjoy contacting owners of webpages - when you continue telling me your corrections about this preliminary walkthrough, I will shut this specific page here down. I will also publish your email adress, your nick, and other informations I have about you here, so that everyone knows who finally made me to shut this page down. Think about it - this page here is visited several hundred times per day.


Walkthrough

  1. Clearing the basement of Guards
  2. Getting the loot
  3. The extra-challenge: The courtyard.
  4. Escorting Basso

1. Clearing the basement

  • When you start the mission, Basso will approach you and tell you that he opened the side entrance of the mansion. After that, he will enter the small house behind you, where he will wait until you give him the signal with the whistle (you find the whistle in your inventory - don't use the whistle rightnow, though.) -- You can enter this small house now together with Basso, if you want to. Later in the mission, the door to the house will be locked, and can be opened with the yellow key.
  • Anyway, there is now only one way in. Go to the E, and you will find the side entrance of the mansion. Explore and loot the first rooms you encounter here. In the second room, you will find a white key lying on the ledge next to the left door. Take this key, it opens both metal doors in this room.
  • Ignore the right door for now, and open the left. This door leads you into the further basement.
  • Behind the first door to the left, you will find more valuables, and a piece of cheese. Food has a 33% chance in Thief II to give you one hitpoint back, so I recommend that you collect all the food that you find. Head now back to the hallway you came from.
  • Behind the next corner is a torch. Stay in the shadow, lean left, and douze the torch with a water arrow. The two Guards behind the window will start a short conversation now, but not relight the torch - take this as a warning, though, that the Guards pay now attention to torches and gaslamps... some may even relight the lights in later missions.
  • Anyway. The room in the S contains nothing of value, so just follow the hallway towards the NW. Enter the first room to your right: This is a bedroom of the Guards, it seems. Douze the gaslight with a water arrow for fun, and loot the chests. You may ignore the two Guards in the room to the S.
  • Head to the Armory N of the bedroom instead, get the flares and the flashbomb, sit down infront of the shelf with the flares, and spot a switch right under the shelf. Frob the switch (secrets: 1 of 3).
  • Now back to the hallway that leads you to the N. You will encounter an Archer there who not only has a purse for you to snatch at his belt (pickpockets 1 of 10), but also will be in the way of Basso. Knock him out (knockouts 1 of 8).
    • Basso and Jenivere don't bother at all when they see an unconcious body on their way out. So, it is not necessary for you to hide the bodies as well as you should in other missions.
    • The room infront of you is the relatively well-lit and contains many crates. If you want to stack some crates here (to reach i.e. the top of the hedges that surround the building), then this is the perfect moment for it.
  • In the N of this room, you see a metal door. Behind this door is the kitchen, inhabited by an unarmed Cook. I recommend to get him out of Basso's way and to snatch his purse (pickpockets 2 of 10, knockouts 2 of 8). Be aware that he has a pretty nervous and random patrol pattern.
  • Once you have him out of your way, head to the wine rack in the room in the E. Get the fine wine bottles, sit down a bit, and get the speed potion from one of the lower wine boxes (secrets 2 of 3).
  • Then head to the hallway NE of the kitchen, and you will find an elevator. Use it to get up to the 1rst floor of the mansion, snatch the yellow key from the Guard (pickpockets 3 of 10), and also get the loot from the table infront of you. Then go back down to the basement.
  • The room in the NW of the kitchen contains, it seems, only a well. Admire the well, and then take the door to the W of the kitchen. Ahead of you is another wooden door, where you can sit safely in the shadow, and wait that the Archer has his back turned. Then get him out of Basso's planned route (knockouts 3 of 8).
  • In this hallway is another wooden door that leads to some quarters. Most of these bedrooms contain nothing at all, but in one room you will find 3 footlockers. Loot them, and then head back to the hallway where you knocked out the last Guard.
  • Follow this hallway into the S direction (you may ignore the stationary Guard in the N of this hallway, because he is not in Basso's way), and you see a metal, locked door to the right. This is Jenivere's cell.
  • That means, you are now -theoretically- finished with the first objective, you have made Basso's way secure. I recommend that you continue looting the mansion, instead of giving him the signal already.

2. Getting the loot

  • Continue to the S. In the rooms right under the stairs that lead up to the 1rst floor, you will find some loot. If you find lots of crates stacked in a very orderly manner as a wall, then have a look behind them.
  • Once you have looted all the rooms in the SW of the basement, take the stairs up to the 1rst floor that you find here in the SW corner of the basement.
  • Directly right of you is a metal door, which can be opened with the yellow key that you stole from the Guard in the dining room. Open it, get the key from the Guard who patrols here, and give him a whack on the head (pickpockets 4 of 10, knockouts 4 of 8). Then loot the rooms that you find here.
  • Follow the stairs up to the 2nd floor, and find the last secret in the bedroom there (there is a switch behind the plant table) (secrets 3 of 3).
  • Once you have what you wanted, you can head back to the 1rst floor, hallway leading to the N. There is a Guard on patrol in this hallway with a purse at his belt. Grab it and send him to sleep (pickpockets 5 of 10, knockouts 5 of 8).
  • Loot the rooms in the W of this hallway, even though here is not much of value. Don't forget to snatch the silver flute from the Music room. Then follow the hallway into the entrance hall.
  • Climb on the ledge of the fireplace, and crouch to the E. In a very small and cleverly hidden niche you will spot a goodie. Take the rings, and now you have found the secret objective.
  • Now ignore the door in the S of the hall, and follow the hallway to the E instead. Here you will encounter 2 Guards on patrol that you can knock out (knockouts 7 of 8).
  • Be careful in this area, when you open the doors to your left - there is the dining room with a Guard that is extremely difficult to knock out. But because you want to prove that you are a great Thief, you may want to choose him as your last target for the blackjack (hint: flashbombs could be found in the basement, armory) (objective complete: 8 knockouts).
  • Follow the hallway to the SE, and loot the rooms that you find there. In the room in the very SE, there is a vase standing on the ledge just above of one of the lamps. It is easier to make out when you switch off the lights in that room (which is a fine and helpful hint that these switches are always lightswitches) (this mission is meant as a Tutorial mission, you know.)
  • Don't forget to enter and to loot the 2nd floor, SE from here.
  • Now you have definitely enough loot, and could go back to Basso and give him the signal. If you don't want to be challenged in quite an extreme way, that is. ;)

3. The extra-challenge: The courtyard

  • Head to the entrance hall, and open the doors in the S with one of your yellow keys. You can get here (theoretically) 4 further pickpockets from the 3 Guards that you see here (pickpockets 9 of 10, meaning that I haven't found the last pickpocket yet).
  • Try to get at least the pickpockets of the stationary Archers - you can perform this by closing only one of the 2 doors (sit in the way of the other door when you frob the door), to get the keys from these Archers into your grasp.
    • You can also knock out these guys, if you prefer having it easy. ;)
  • Getting the loot from the center of the coutryard is a challenge, and definitely easier when you come from the gate in the S. So, head back through the basement, and run to the loot before you give Basso the signal.

4. Escorting Basso

  • Approach the small house that Basso entered at the start of the mission. Use the whistle, and he will come out and run to Jenivere's room, on the way that he marked red on your map. The way is secure now, but you may want to follow him just for fun.
  • Once he has reached the metal door of Jenivere's cell, he will pick the lock, go in, and exchange a few words with her. This is the right moment for you to enter her room, to find the red key, and to wonder why the hell Jenivere didn't leave the room on her own. ;)
  • Follow them back out, and the mission will end as soon as all three of you are outside of the mansion.