Thief Mission Writeups Continued: "Songs of the Cavern"

Thief Mission Writeups Continued

Completing the work of my advanced project blog by writing on each Thief mission…see thiefdesign.blogspot.com and morethiefdesign,blogspot.com…

Thief Gold, mission 10: Songs of the Cavern

            My favorite Thief Gold addition to The Dark Project’s mission suite is the opera house level, or, “Songs of the Cavern”. It has one my favorite atmospheres and some of my favorite side stories. So put down your brochure, pop-up those pretentious spectacle things, and…no, I’m not going to keep up the opera house metaphor thing. I need to get to the writeup.

            To get the Talisman of Water, Garrett needs to navigate some underwater caverns where the Keepers set up some booby traps when they locked the talisman away down there. There shouldn’t be anything more than a few poisonous spiders, so it should be a simple job. Garrett even has an old pal, Giry, to ask for help. Giry, a has-been ticket-teller at the local opera house, lives in the caverns Garrett must travel through, and so can help Garrett navigate them.

            Things aren’t so easy for Garrett. The “few poisonous spiders” have wrapped up and sucked dry old Giry, and so Garrett is on his own. The cavern is also home to a few ravenous craymen, adding to the danger. Even still, the caverns, on their own, don’t make for a very satisfying Thief mission. There’s some watery tunnels, some craymen, a few booby traps…the Talisman of Water is nothing to get! But wait—the chest is empty! And there’s a note written by a certain “Lady V.”, dropped by a dead guardsman, that details how they, Lady V.’s guards, should procure a valuable artifact. And, off in the distance, there’s a man singing opera…

            Okay—the mission is just beginning!

            Raul is a crazy old hermit who once was one of the owners of the opera house. Lady Valerius, also of the opera house, cheated him out of it. Now he lives in a shack in the tunnels beneath the opera house. This much is gathered from his crazed singing. Raul sees in Garrett an agent of revenge. So he hands Garrett a map of the opera house and a key to several of its doors. He directs Garrett up a nearby rope that hangs down from an opening into the sewers that lead to a secret entrance in the opera house, sending him up to nab Lady Valerius’ newfound prized possession—the Talisman of Water. Garrett can avenge Raul and continue his quest in one swoop.

            Some of my favorite atmospheric moments in Thief come from Garrett entering the opera house. Just as you come up into it from the sewer tunnels, a heavy, deep ambient noise—a stereo version of the ‘indoor wind noise’—sets in, and the immensity of the opera house rises around you. This is just the basement you’re in, but it’s humongous, and large set pieces from different acts fill many of the rooms. String plucks and violin sound occasionally filter in, as if ghostly noises from the opera house’s past. The whole mood of the basement is ghostly, in fact—you feel this opera house has a few phantoms that could jump out at any moment. But, as it is, no such phantoms are here—or, at least, they don’t jump out.

            As Garrett ascends into the opera house above, different ambiances play. The heaviness of the basement dies down into a more subtle ambiance, and trumpet noises, suggesting a performance, filter in. Garrett may walk around the public areas upfront—with a beautiful fountain and décor—or duck into the private rooms and backstage area. He may also cross into the performance hall, and tip toe across the stage even—in full light—at which point he says, “I’d love to stay for the show, but I’ve got a feeling it’s time to move along now.” I always wondered what the audience thinks as they see a cloaked figure run across the stage (most likely they mutter “Is someone there? Hm, probably rats.”).

            A few of my favorite conversations can be heard in the opera house. There’s Benny and straight-guard-guy with the “cloak-check girl” conversation; there’s Cribs, the in-house playwright, tutoring a young singer, who proceeds to mutter the greatest insult in Thief dialogue; and there’s a couple of snobby upper crusts, one of whom lays out a cheesily funny insult to the other. On the topic of humor, I love how the map of the opera house, drawn up by Raul, exudes of his characters (“CRIBS!” marks Cribs’ room; similar for Lady Valerius’ room).

            The Talisman is simple to get once players nab the appropriate key. A secret passage, one which old Raul likely used, leads to Lady Valerius’ chambers, where the Talisman is kept. In typical Talisman fashion, it emits its element—water bubbles rise up from the chest. (What isn’t so simple is fulfilling the loot requirement, especially on expert.)

            Garrett’s opera house adventure is a fun romp with memorable characters and a ‘renaissance Phantom of the Opera’ vibe that melds well with the rest of Thief I’s dark medieval atmosphere. I think it, along with Guild and Mage Towers, makes The Dark Project a more complete journey. And who couldn’t love Raul?