Walk-Through for "The Varyx Obelisk" by xarax (Jeffrey D. Smith) 2001 MAY 9 (updated version 1.4b) Thief1 and Thief Gold This mission is a sneaker. If you play slash-n-dash, it will be over before you know it. On higher levels, you're not allowed to cause much damage to the AI, including gassing and knock-out. You start the mission in the town of Eldevir, looking at 2 guards talking. You have a note from Ybynwan, which you should read to learn more about one of your objectives. On the last page, Ybynwan mentions a red book, which you must find and read to finish the mission. On Normal Difficulty (i.e., Ruffian), you have a sword, blackjack, waterarrows, broadheads. On Hard Difficulty (i.e., Professional), the sword is not in your inventory; you must search for it. On Expert Difficulty (i.e., Virtuoso), the sword and blackjack are not in your inventory; you must search for them. However, on the higher difficulties, only the blackjack is useful. On Expert Difficulty, you can only use the blackjack to knock out humans; you cannot harm any non-human AI at all. You are not allowed to kill the non-human AI on Hard Difficulty, and on Expert Difficulty you are not allowed to harm non-human AI at all, which includes knock-out and gassing. You must sneak past non-human AI. All AI, humans, animals, etc. are hostile, so avoid them or deal with them as enemies. Explore the small city ward area. There is only one exit door from the city, which is locked. The lock is pickable, and there is no key for the door. One of the guards in Eldevir has a purse on his belt. The guards are suspicious. They will investigate the secure door when you come near to it. So, be quick to pick the lock. Pick the lock, proceed down the ramp to the next door and pick the lock. You are now outside the city limits of Eldevir. Find the tunnel underground, go through it to emerge above ground in a garden area. Search the area for power-ups. Find a locked door and pick it open. Enter the structure and hear a Voice Over (VO) explaining that this place was built by the Keepers. Go through the sliding door into a room with four niche alcoves in a center column. Always check all niches for power-ups, quest items, and clues. The north niche has a scroll that gives a hint about a secret hallway. On the right (southeast) side is a locked door that you cannot open now. On the left (northeast) is a sliding door that opens to a hallway with a flickering walllight. In the next hallway with the flickering light, there is a note in the niche that describes the sentinels guarding the Talismans. That's a clue that you're looking for Talismans. Proceed forward to another "niche room" with one metal door. If you walk around the left (north) side of the column, you'll hear Garrett grunt "hmmm". That's an indication that Garrett senses something out of the ordinary. Explore the walls and you'll find that a section is fake (an illusionary wall). Proceed through the fake wall to find 2 locked doors. You can pick one of these locks or find the keys that open them. One of the keys (Basement Key) is in the hallways somewhere or in the garden near the lamppost. The other key (Control Room Key) is in an attic of a store house in another Eldevir ward; you'll want to check the attic for clues and a possible power-up weapon. Once the doors in the secret hallway are open, their corresponding keys vanish. So, don't bother looking for the keys after you've opened the doors. Even though you may find the Basement Key, you should proceed through the keeper halls to a room with astrocharts on the walls. Go up the long staircase, across the bridge, and down the other staircase. At landing, pull the wall switch to turn off light. Step quietly to left (west) wall; a secret door will open automatically. You'll exit to a back alley, which is patrolled by one sword guard. Look for the rope arrow and a noisemaker arrow. Proceed through the alley to a narrow arched tunnel and emerge into the city ward. The alley swordsman also patrols this area, and there is a stationary swordsman guarding a store house. The stationary guard is very aware. When you approach, he will look in your direction. On normal and hard difficulties, he has a key on his belt for the storehouse door. On expert difficulty you must pick open the door by getting close to the house in the shadows. When the door opens, the guard will notice it and go inside to investigate. Be sure you are not too near the doorway, otherwise he will bump into you. Stay in the shadows and time your sneak up to the stationary guard. There is a moss arrow in a dark recessed area near the flickering streetlamp. Take his key and use it (or pick the lock) to open the front door of the house; the key vanishes when the door is opened. Just inside the door to the right (east) is a switch to turn off the interior lights of the first room. Shut the door, turn off the lights, and proceed through the house to find the access hole to the attic. Use the rope arrow (or stack some crates and barrels) to get up into the attic. The attic "floor" is noisy metal, so use the moss arrow to silence the noise. Up in the attic, you can pick open a footlocker to get the Control Room Key that opens one of the doors that are behind the fake wall. This attic may also have a power-up weapon. There is also a keeper journal that you can read. Proceed back to the alley where you found the noisemaker. Enter the secret door in the wall to let you back into the keeper halls. Go back to the secret hallway and open the control room with the Control Room Key. Pull the big floor lever. The Basement Key may be in this room, in a niche somewhere, on the table in the astrochart room, or in the garden near the lamppost. After pulling the big floor lever, exit the secret hallway through the fake wall. Go through the swinging metal door and proceed slowly through the dark hallway. You should see a glyph hilight. Proceed past the glyph to get "New Objectives" and a secret door opens to a portal room. Inside the portal room is the "Sub Basement Key", which you need to get the Air Talisman. Take the "Sub Basement Key" and find the "Basement Key". Return to the secret hallway and unlock the basement door (or pick open the lock). The basement key will vanish when you open the basement door. The door opened by the Basement Key leads far down to a sliding metal door and a room with junk. There may be a power-up weapon in this room, so be sure to check the room. On higher difficulties, there will be a useable sword in this room, unless you found the power-up weapon elsewhere. You'll also find a clue note about squishable mushrooms; you can frob them or shoot them with arrows to extinguish them. Only a few mushrooms can be extinguished; their appearance is noticeably different from the "permanent" kind of mushroom. There is a big floor lever that opens a portcullis just outside and above this room. Exit the room and look up to see an overhead ledge. Mantle up and take the egress to a flooded area. Swim through, mantle up and out, follow the glowing mushrooms to a ladder. Climb the ladder and follow the hallway to another mantle ledge. Mantle up and over; jump down to the hallway. Follow the hallway to a room with a lever, and elevator control panel. Pulling the lever enables a secret door exit in the hallway that leads out to the back alley. Don't leave just yet. Take the elevator down. At the bottom of the elevator shaft, follow the ramp down, looking for power-ups on the floor and in the niches. You will hear the elevator automatically return to the top. Don't worry, the elevator will return when you approach the landing or by pressing the elevator button. Some mushrooms are extinguishable (throughout the mission) by frobbing them or striking them with an arrow. This is an important consideration in sneaking through some areas of the mission. Frobbable mushrooms have a unique appearance as opposed to the "permanent" mushroom. You'll notice some small dead spiders. That's a hint of what's coming up. Use the "Sub Basement Key" to unlock the lockbox. Go through the sliding door, follow the hallway to the left to see a huge dead spider on Normal Difficulty. On higher difficulties, the spider is alive and patrolling the hallway. You will notice a half-height tunnel with a frobbable mushroom just inside the doorway. You can shoot the mushroom, and time your sneak to get to the tunnel. Use the tunnel to avoid the patrolling spider. Extinguish the wall torches as necessary. You want to get to the other end of the L-shaped hallway to see a ledge overhead. The stone keeper key may be in this L-shaped hallway. So, check the niches. In the half-height tunnel, there is a cross window that you can look through to see the huge brown spider Stella. If you are illuminated (check your light gem), then Stella can also see you! Remember that large spiders can open doors and are attracted to the sound of an opening door! Quietly mantle up to a T-intersection. Going forward (west) there is a nasty huge spider, named Stella, down below near the torch. Go to the right (north) to avoid the spider and quietly jump down to the other hallway; use moss arrows or a very slow side-step off the ledge. You may also use a rope arrow; the upper lever ceiling is wooden. Extinguish the torches at either end of the hallway to conceal your presence. Check the niches for power-ups. Proceed west toward the huge spider Stella which is at one end of a T-intersection. You'll notice a half-height tunnel that leads downward sharply. You can go down that shaft to a small L-shaped hallway. The stone keeper key may be in a niche in this lower hallway. Find the ladder and climb back up; be sure to extinguish the squishable mushroom at the top so that Stella cannot see you emerge. Kill Stella (only on Normal difficult) or avoid her by extinguishing the torches and carefully go into the room with sliding metal door. There is another huge spider, Gertrude, protecting this room. You can kill the spider by arrow or you can sneak into the room, staying to the right (south) in the shadows. You want to get to the other side to get the key and any power-ups. Remember, on higher difficulties, you cannot kill any creatures or humans. On Expert Difficulty, you cannot harm any AI at all; you must sneak past them. The spider in the room is protecting a key. You must get the key that is on the metal corner shelf at the other end of the room. Stella will investigate this room periodically when you are in it, so be careful to time your exit. Leave the room and proceed down the hallway to see a web-encased body and a bug cloud. Keep a safe distance and shoot a water arrow at the torch to extinguish the torch and disperse the bug cloud. The red book may be here at the body. There is a tough sentinel spider "Queen Arachnia" patrolling the niche room at the end of the hallway. You can avoid her on higher difficulties. On Normal Difficulty you can also kill her, or gas her. Examine the niche column for a Keeper's Key. You must get to the other side (east) of the niche column and open the sliding door. Proceed down the staircase to a room with a wooden table. The stone keeper key may be on this table. Find the wallsafe, pick it open, and take the Air Talisman. When you enter the large room, Stella (the huge brown spider) may come in to investigate. Find a shadow and wait for her to leave. Stella will continue to come into the room periodically until you leave the room. At the bottom of the ramp you can actually stand in the corner and not be noticed by Stella. Be sure you have the ward room key, the stone keeper key, and the talisman. Go all the way back to the elevator. The elevator is *smart*. It will come down automatically when you approach. It will also return to the top when you leave the it. At the top of the elevator shaft, exit the room, turn right (east) and proceed to the secret door that you activated by pulling the big floor lever. You will exit to the back alley. Go back to the other secret door to get back into the Keeper halls. Once inside the Keeper halls, there is a sliding metal door just across from the secret door. Proceed through that door, down the hallway to a locked door. Use the key from the spider room to open the door. There is a Ward Of Air in the room. Use the talisman to unlock the ward. Exit the room, proceed up the staircase, across the bridge, down the other staircase to a room with astro charts on the walls and a wooden table with gadgets on it. There is a keeper journal on the table. Proceed through the sliding metal door. You'll see a glyph on the wall, which hilights. Go to the secret door that automatically opens to the portal room (the room where you found the "Sub Basement Key"). Proceed into the room to see an inactive portal. Use the keeper key to turn it on. The keeper key will vanish. Step through the portal to go to the Lothronien Junction (LJ). At the LJ, there are 4 active portals, each is numbered and has a large plaque describing the destination. At this point, you can choose any path you wish. All paths must be completed by finding the talisman, activating its ward, and finding the keeper key that will turn on the portal allowing you to return to the LJ. You've already finished path 1, Eldevir. Path 2 is Daitillian (Fire Talisman). Path 3 is Viowen (Earth Talisman). Path 4 is Anartillian (Water Talisman). Paths 2 and 4 are undead and beast. Path 3 is human and beast. Daitillian: Approach the exit, crouch, creep through and immediate go left (west) to shadows. There is a Fire Shadow patrolling this area (except on Normal difficulty). You can avoid it by proceeding through the dark hallway (do not go up the staircase). Collect the power-ups in the hallway and the niche room. Continue through the hallway, searching the niches for power-ups, until you get to a sliding metal door. Open the door and proceed into a large room. There is a locked keeper door that requires a key held by the sentinel, "Lothgoryn Nemis". You can view the sentinel through a cross window at the far end of the room. Find the half-height tunnel and go down the shaft to a lower tunnel. This tunnel is patrolled by a nasty spider. This spider is very suspicious and will investigate the area to try to find you. The spider patrols between two ladders. The east ladder goes up to a cross-window where you can see a secret room. The west ladder goes up to an oblong manhole cover, which must be unlocked by a lever at the bottom of the ladder in a niche. Check the niches for power-ups, unlock the manhole cover and leave. You need to mantle up to the next level via a ledge and proceed through the upper hallway. Be very quiet to avoid alerting the fire shadow that is nearby (not on Normal Difficulty). The Fire Shadow is guarding a burning body. The red book may be here at the body. Depending on difficulty, there may be a big floor lever in this hallway. Pulling the floor lever is part of the puzzle to enable a fireball launcher. The launcher is controlled by a button hidden in the sentinel hallway. Proceed through the upper hallway until you see some bones on the floor and Garrett says, "Creepy". Crouch and sneak down the darkened hallway to a ledge. You can look down and see the hallway that is patrolled by the sentinel. Quietly drop down and stay in the shadows at the end of the hallway. A gate will shut above you. Analyze the sentinel's patrol timing. At either end of the sentinel's T-intersection hallway, there are half-height tunnels that are blocked by gates. You must proceed forward (North), then right (East) to find the secret half-height fake wall. Garrett will say "Hmm" when you are near enough. Crouch and go through the fake wall to a room with a table. Inspect the niches; you'll find a switch that will open the gates. On Normal difficulty you'll also find a jumperswitch that is part of the puzzle to enable the fireball launcher. There may also be an Oubliette key in a niche that will unlock the metal door at the end of the sentinel hallway. Go back to the base end (south) of the hallway where you first dropped down. At this point, there is half-height tunnel with a squishable mushroom at the end. Only on Normal Difficulty, there is a button that launches fireballs at your position. However, the appropriate switches must be thrown to make it work. The fireball launches has a limited charge. Once exhausted, the switches will turn off. You can recharge the fireball launcher by turning on both switches again. Go through the tunnel and inspect the rooms. There is a light switch. The Fire Talisman may be in this room, or in another room at the end of the sentinel's hallway. There is a ladder leading up to an oubliette. In the oubliette, there is a sliding door and a staircase up to an octagonal room with a couple of readable objects, a window, a moss arrow, and maybe a power-up weapon. Back in the sentinel hallway, which forms a T-intersection, time the sentinel's patrol so that you can proceed forward (north) and to the left (west) at the intersection. You'll see a niche maybe with a keeper key to activate the portal for return to the LJ. There is another half-height tunnel, which leads to a dark hallway and a niche, which may contain the Fire Talisman or possibly a power-up gasmine. Take the key from the sentinel. There is a locked door at the end of the sentinel hallway that can be unlocked (and relocked) with the Oubliette key that is found in the secret room or the lower tunnel (described above). Go to the keeper door, unlock it. Enter the ward room and use the Fire Talisman to activate the ward. You can proceed back to the burning body (use the ledge to avoid the FireShadow) at the top of the staircase to check for the red book. Return to the portal room and turn on the portal with the keeper key. Return to the LJ. Viowen: You'll notice the portal room has a tile floor with some carpeting. This is a hint that you must be quiet. Proceed through the secret door. Garrett will say something about noisey tile. There is swordguard nearby with very good hearing. Quietly proceed left (west) through a sliding metal door. Stay on the carpet and in the shadows. There is a small room at the end of the hallway with a window cross in the wall. The guard will stop and look through window during his patrol. Wait until he leaves the area, then enter the room and collect the power-ups. Pick open the footlocker for loot. You should have just enough time before the guard returns. Take the hallway around to the other side of the "guard room". Wait for the guard to leave, then quietly enter the room and turn off the wall light using the switch. On Normal Difficulty, the wall light is already off. If you wish, you can wait in the shadows for the guard to return and K.O. him. (On Expert difficulty you don't yet have the blackjack, because it's upstairs in the main house.) Exit the room to the hallway where the guard went. The hallway leads to 2 staircases; one goes up, the other goes down. The guard went down to the basement. You need to go down to the basement. In the basement, the keeper key is at the far end (east) up high on a wooden beam, near the lighted torch. You have to climb up to get it. There are 2 footlockers at this end with power-ups. There are broadheads and maybe a moss arrow on the floor. Explore the area thoroughly looking for a fake wall (Garrett will say "hmmm" when you are near enough). Go through the fake wall, collect the power-ups, and open the footlocker for loot. Exit the basement and proceed up both flights of stairs. On Hard Difficulty, the basement door to the house is locked. The guard in the basement has the key, or you can pick the lock. On Expert Difficulty, there is no key. You must pick the lock. On the other side is more tile floor and some carpeting. The amount of carpeting on the first floor varies randomly. Usually, though, you'll need a moss arrow, because there won't be enough carpeting nearby for jumping. There is a guard patrolling the house, and one more guard patrolling the street outside the house. On Expert Difficulty, the blackjack is in a footlocker upstairs. There is plenty of loot upstairs, as well as the earth talisman in the attic. There may also be a power-up weapon in the attic if you haven't already found it elsewhere. You can find a rope arrow in the basement near the portal room, or you can stack a crate and mantle up to the attic. The attic floor is very noisey. Get the talisman. Proceed outside the house to the street after you collected the talisman. The street guard has a key to the portcullis at the east end of the street. You can also pick the lockbox to open the portcullis. Enter the hallway, collect the power-ups in the niches (none on expert), and proceed down the ramp. Open the sliding metal door, proceed down to the watery area and find some watercrystals underwater. You'll soon see a torch, a dead bug beast, and maybe a bug cloud. Shoot a water arrow at the torch to extinguish the torch and disperse the bug cloud. Mantle up and proceed east to the end of the T-intersection. Go right (south) and quietly drop down to see a crayman patrolling the hallway. You can extinguish the torch. Proceed to the niche room at the end of the hallway and search for the fake wall (Garrett says "hmmm"). Go through the fake wall and collect the power-ups and the key to the keeper door. Throw the lever in the niche to open the portcullis gate. Go back to the T-intersection. Go left (north) at the T-intersection to a short hallway patrolled by the bug beast "Venus Malicia". There is an extinguishable mushroom below, which you can take out with a broadhead. Quietly drop down, crouch low, and crawl into the alcove shadow. The red book may be in this alcove tunnel on the floor. Use the alcove to get to the other (west) end of the hallway without being seen by the sentinel. Extinguish the torch by leaning outward and sniping with a water arrow. You should have enough darkness to unlock the keeper door with the key. Enter the ward room, turn off the lights using the switch by the door. Unlock the Ward of Earth using the talisman. The sentinel will enter the room to investigate, but won't turn on the lights. Return to the portal room, then to the LJ. Anartillian: Exit the portal room to see stairs leading up to the left and down to the right. The ward room is down to the right. You want to go up to left. Proceed through the secret door at the top of the stairs. Enter the hallway and proceed right (east) to the T-intersection. Mantle up to the right (south), proceed around the corner (left turn) to see a niche room below bombarded by firebolts and a burning pile of bones. Time the firebolts and quietly proceed down into the niche room. You should be able to hear an Apparition or FireShadow patrolling nearby. Inspect each of the niches for power-ups. One of the niches may contain a jumper switch already in the ON position; be sure to turn it off. Exit the niche room at the other end, being careful to wait for the Apparition or FireShadow to leave the area. Mantle up to another niche room and inspect all of the niches. Hide in the shadows, and follow to Apparition or FireShadow to a large room. On Expert difficulty, the large room is also patrolled by a FireElement. The Apparition or FireShadow will walk to a smaller adjoining room and immediately return. Go into the room and find a key on a metal shelf. On the far (east) wall there may be a jumper switch. Be sure to turn off all jumper switches that you find. There are nuggets on the floor. There is also a hallway that is accessible via a half-height tunnel. The hallway is patrolled by a horrible spider. On higher difficulties, you may need to search the hallway for a jumper switch. There are portcullis gates at either end of the hallway that are controlled by switches. One switch is a big floor lever in the large room. The other switch is in the hallway near the east end. Another item of interest in the hallway may be a power-up weapon. On higher difficulties, you cannot kill the spider, and on Expert you cannot harm it all. Getting past the spider without detection requires stealthy timing, so you may have to backtrack to other gate (by following the apparition back to the niche room) in order to search all of the hallway. (Don't forget to open the west gate by pulling the switch near the east gate.) Exit the large room and turn right (east). Garrett should say, "hmmm", indicating a fake wall. Go through the fake wall, proceed up the noisey ramp and inspect the niches midway. The keeper key is in one of the niches. Go to the top of the ramp and climb the ladder. At the top of the ladder is a small room with a speed potion. There may also be a jumper switch on the wall behind the oblong manhole cover. If there is a jumper switch, be sure it is turned off. Return all the way to the first T-intersection and go left (north). Proceed around the corner (right turn) and open the door at the end of the hallway. A FireShadow may be patrolling this area. The FireShadow is easy to avoid by hiding in shadows. To the left is a short hallway leading to a room with water crystal power-ups. Proceed rightward to large irregularly shaped room that has a table with some gadgets on it. Look for power-ups in the niches. Go down the dark hallway, inspecting the niches for power-ups. There is a half-height tunnel. Go into the tunnel. Notice the fireball launchers mounted on the walls and ceiling. You should be able to hear the sentinel "Morthril Daewen" by now. Quietly mantle up. Enter the room and look down from the ledge into another room that is patrolled by the sentinel "Morthril Daewen". At the far end (north east) of the sentinel room is a half-height tunnel. The tunnel is a four-way intersection. To the left (north) is a room with a treasure chest and possibly a niche containing the red book. To the right (south) is a room that may have some power-ups, depending on difficulty. Forward (east) leads to a room with a wooden table, a lockbox on the wall, and the Water Talisman. The talisman is booby trapped. Unlock the lockbox with the key that you took from the Apparition room (or pick the lock). You'll hear a door open somewhere. You need to go back through the sentinel room, mantle up, and find the half-height secret door that just opened. There is a big floor lever on the other side, which you must turn off. Go back to the room with Talisman and take it. If you have disabled all jumper switches and the floor lever, then you will hear a sound indicating that the fireball mechanism is disabled. Otherwise, when you take the talisman, the fireball launchers will activate. Escaping while the launchers are active is very difficult. Be sure to take the key from the sentinel. Return to the keeper door and open it with the key that you took from the sentinel. Activate the Ward Of Water with the talisman. If you have found and read the red book, found Black Blade (on higher difficulties) and unlocked all of the wards, then you'll receive "New Objectives". Return to the LJ to see a treasure key floating within the obelisk in the center of the room. Take the key and return through portal 1 to Eldevir. Exit the portal room, turn right (west), open the spinny metal door, and go back through the niche room. Continue down the hallway (west) with the flickering wall light. Turn left (south) and proceed to the locked door that you couldn't open before. Use the treasure key to open the door. Enter and immediately turn right (south) and follow the meandering hallway until you hear Garrett say "hmmm" and search for the fake wall. Enter the room and turn off the big floor lever. You should hear a sound indicating that the mechanism is disabled. Go back to where you unlocked the door and proceed through the other hallway. You'll see a burning pile of bones and a metal door. There is a gold plaque on the wall, "Mystic Treasure Room". Use the treasure key to unlock the lockbox. Enter the treasure room, get the Mystic Soul and Mystic Heart gems. If you did not disable the floor lever, when you open the treasure door, two massive firebolts (tiltowait) are launched at you. When you get the two special gems (and the loot requirement), the mission ends.