A Keeper of the Prophecies

a Thief 2 campaign by frobber


Episode 1: The Enterprise (2 Parts)

Episode 2: Hallucinations (2 Parts)

Episode 3: The Insurrection

Episode 4: Oracle of the Prophets

Episode 5: The Other Side of Time

Episode 6: Reversing the Order

Episode 7: Moving Day

Episode 8: The Inheritance

Episode 9: Under the Raven Moon



KotP1-9_v1a.zip – July 20, 2005

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RECOMMENDED: CLOSE ALL OTHER PROGRAMS AND PLAY ONLY ON A FRESH RE-BOOT

==========================================================================


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W A R N I N G (Episode 3, only.)

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VISUALLY-INDUCED SEIZURES ARE POSSIBLE!


DO NOT PLAY THIS FAN MISSION IF FLASHING


LIGHTS CAN TRIGGER YOU.


This is NOT a joke!


===========================================


Supported Features:


Weather and fog

EAX (environmental sound)


Absolute Bare Minimum System Requirements:


600 Mhz CPU

TNT2 graphics card (or equivalent)

128 MB RAM

Thief 2 Patched to Version 1.18


(The original version 1.07 may prevent some missions from winning)


Minimum Recommended System:


1.2 GHz CPU or faster

GeForce 4+ graphics card (equivalent or faster)

256 MB RAM or more



CREDITS

Voice Acting


SlyFoxx – Garrett, Franticius, Harroleous, Listus, Kevel, Arcelious, The Oracle, Karras

Lizanneh – Alisha, Little Girl

Saturnine – Vicar Feluxis, High Priest Encellon, The Evil Mechanist, Cavador

frobber – Keeper Orlet, Crastus, Nobleman 2, Solustice, Pontis, Cog, Karras

Msledd – Kevel’s wife

Komag – Keeper Calif

Broken Arts – Aida, Medifney

The Thief – Timitus

Goober – Vocal Effects

Story Consultants


Lizanneh

Freddy Fox

Gloria Creep

rastas (aka Anthony Walker)

theBlackman

Gumdrop

Moghedian

Brad Pfouts


See ScreenPlay.zip inside the release file for a working copy of the story.


Design Elements


Shadowspawn – extensive custom objects (including animated AI)

Lazarus – AVI briefings and cutscenes

Thorin Oakenshield – AVI 'movie' animations

David Gurrea Hernandez – custom textures

Purah – custom textures from the Calendra's series

Thumper – custom script (cl.osm as used in Calendra's Legacy)

Cyberblutch – custom AI models

MsLedd – custom AI (Alisha)

von.Eins – custom objects (from his release-pack into the public domain)

Saturnine – "CamVator" invention (as first seen in the "7th Crystal")

Telliamed – custom scripts (see copyright.txt)

SilentSleep – fade-up from black technology

Schwaa – custom AI, objects, and textures

Ymochel – hats and AI models from The Ancient Crown

Daemonite – enhanced Thief 1 AI skins (from his public release-pack)

GOB and MOG – wood texture borrowed and altered, from their Contest 4 mission The Bar

R Soul – comments on how to name campaigns for Darkloader

Tomi – custom map base texture (from his public release-pack)

Goober – comments and suggestions


Play Testers


Albert R. Conklin

azrarhn

Daedalus

Dafydd ab Hugh

Dennis Nixon

diana50322

elkston

Freddy Fox

Gloria Creep

Goober

Griffin

Hawklette

Jericho

jimm1

Lizanneh

Madwolf

maloo

Marycwmbach

MsLedd

Musopticon?

Nightwalker

Peter Smith

Ponterbee

Renanse

Shadowspawn

Silent Warrior

SilentSleep

SlyFoxx

Spitter

Suttytx

TheNightTerror

Vanguard



Story Disclaimer


As a responsible adult, I must say how you should not take any of this story literally or personally. I am no

fan of brutality, and it can keep me awake at night to think about the details of such things. If you are less

than 12 years old you probably shouldn’t be playing this mission.



Thief 2 Patch


To check for this…


Right-click on thief2.exe
Click 'properties'
Select the version tab
Click on Product Version

This should display a value of 1.18.


If not, then goto http://www.thief-thecircle.com/media/patches/



Windows Media Player


Using Windows Media Player often prevents Thief movies from playing. If you have been running

Windows Media Player prior to playing Thief, you may need to re-boot your computer to fix this.



Playing Notes…


Episode 1: The Enterprise


Overview


The Trickster is dead. The world has been saved from his evil. And yet strangely I have grown darker these

past weeks. But Why? Comfort from old wine cellars has been easy enough to find, and loot at the expense

of my rich neighbors still pays the bills. It is the simple life I had always wanted for myself.


No surprises – and no world in need of rescue!


The Hammerites have promised a new mechanical eye. But what good is having their machine vision?

Even when I had two perfectly normal human eyes I wasn't any richer than I am tonight!


Yet, as I write this, I am beginning to feel a shift in the air ...and not simply the rumbling of distant thunder.

Perhaps it is just another crazy dream, but I can feel an inner gnawing saying that my fortunes are about to

change ...that the BIG one is just around the corner where I'll finally know the true comfort and peace of

mind that comes with becoming a genuinely wealthy man!

Playing Information for The Enterprise


The Enterprise is a two-part mission. The first part is small, and the second part very large.


The Thief 2 fog setting is entirely optional – it looks cool either way. But setting for rain fall is a good

idea since the sound of rain will be there whether or not you have Thief 2 set for rain.


The lighting may seem a tad bright. This done because not all machines display the game brightly enough.

Use the - minus and + plus keys to adjust your screen for the right on-screen feeling.


EAX ambient sound is recommended. Adjusting Audio in the Thief 2 configuration screen may help

headphone and other 2-speaker systems sound better.


Except for growing annoyances, there is no real differences between Normal, Hard, and Expert. So it’s

really a matter of how long you want to play, and how annoyed you are willing to become.


Oddities and minor bugs that won’t be fixed


Sometimes Garrett will sink through a large descending freight lift platform while walking around if the

platform is still moving. This doesn’t seem to happen if you stay put and just enjoy the ride. It also does

not seem to happen when ascending.


Sometimes on some computers there is no bashing sound when black-jacking an AI. In one case there was

also a report about a loot item which made no sound when grabbed, and other rare instances of sound

drop-outs. This only happens on some machines, and only rarely (I hope). Try setting audio channels in the

Thief configuration to 16 instead of 24 if this is happening on your machine – it might help.


Some of the workers may run off yet never find their way home – mainly because “home” is atop some

workbench, and AI don’t seem to mark that as a place to call home. If you’re ghosting or otherwise

bashing your way through, then you’ll rarely see this.


Frame rate on Expert may be a bit choppy – this is mainly due to AI programming. Bashing AI will help

a lot. A fairly ordinary rig should have no problems, but if you do have screen chop, then only play on a

fresh re-boot and don’t run any other programs – and play on Hard if you’re machine is still sucking wind.

You won’t be missing anything other than a few bored guards.



Episode 2: Hallucinations


=====================================

He was corrupted without his knowing

for he failed to perceive his danger.

But his folly was meant to be

and his journey would be no accident.

From the Last Book of Amahus

=====================================


Playing Information for Hallucinations


"To-Be-Continued"


Hallucinations is a "to-be-continued" mission. The next mission is called The Insurrection.


Clocks


This is a timed mission. The clocks really do keep time. And if you run out of time, the mission will 'fail.'

On Normal you will have just over two hours (which should be plenty of time). On Hard, you'll have

95 minutes, and on Expert, just 65 minutes. The clock, however, stops running when you review the map

or open a scroll to read (in scroll-mode) -- so there is no time penalty when examining books and scrolls.


Reloading during conversations


Some AI are a bit long-winded, and if you happen to save during their speeches, things may not seem quite

right when you reload the mission. You may see gestures which do not match the speech – but nothing

more harmful than that.


"Rushing" the mission


After having played once, there is a good chance that you may not want to hear all the conversations again.

I understand this, and if you do run away before the AI finish talking, nothing terrible will happen.


However, some objectives may get skipped, and at least one "New Objective" may trigger long after you

have left the area. Also, there are a few cases where Garrett may not say things or listen to things at the

most sensible times.


Ways to Crash the Mission (as in crashing the game or your computer)


Hallucinations includes a very complicated set of terrain and I have spent months trying to simplify the

structure to prevent overloading disasters. I understand, however, that some people are quite imaginative

when it comes to breaking through barriers or climbing higher than I can support. So if you plan to struggle

your way to someplace which is obviously off-limits, I'd advise that you first save your mission.


Here are places that I have blocked (so that you are properly forewarned)...



An Easter Egg or two still in this new re-release of Hallucinations?


Yes, that is true – THERE ARE TWO EASTER EGGS (things that are cool, but not a sensible part of

the mission).


One egg has a slightly more sensible result than before. Originally, I managed to create a –boatload– of

confusion by returning the player to a spot which allowed exploration of the unfinished cathedral. More

than one player felt that accessing the cathedral was part of this mission and that somehow this extremely

odd method for reaching the cathedral area was just a pleasant shortcut – rather than what it was: a back-

stage look at things to come.


Except by unplanned and extreme methods, the cathedral area in Hallucinations can no longer be reached.

The next mission has now been released – The Insurrection. And this one has the whole cathedral built out

in final detail. So please no complaints that you can't get in there anymore in Hallucinations. You get there

in the next mission.


As to my clues now, they are only here inside this very text file – both to keep this from confusing people

when in-game, and also as a way to reward those willing to slog through all of this drivel.


Keep in mind that I am lousy at riddles – both writing them and solving them ...



Somebody will, no doubt, breeze through this like butter – so I expect spoilers to become available on the

various Thief forums. I will not give any more clues myself unless I have somehow managed to confuse

everyone!


Please do not complain about how these eggs are "Soooooo inconsistent" with the rest of the story, because

they are –not intended– to be consistent. They are there as an extra bit of fun for those who might like to

attempt a wider range of playing styles than I had planned for this story.



Episode 3: The Insurrection


===========================================

W A R N I N G

===========================================


VISUALLY-INDUCED SEIZURES ARE POSSIBLE!


DO NOT PLAY THIS FAN MISSION IF FLASHING


LIGHTS CAN TRIGGER YOU.


This is NOT a joke!


===========================================


SCREEN FRAMERATE -- IMPORTANT NOTE:


During the first few minutes the screen frame rate may be lousy.

This should improve fairly quickly, and by the time you really

need better frame rate, it should be a lot smoother.


It is recommended that you play this mission on a recent re-boot.

But only bother to do this if you are having excessive screen

chop or outright lagging.


Playing Information for The Insurrection


"To-Be-Continued…"


… Book 1 is only Book 1 – there is more to come… If you win Episode 3, there will be a "to be continued"

screen at the end. You have been warned!


Background story


The Insurrection is a continuation from Hallucination (Episode 2) where Garrett is trying to gain access to

the cathedral because he is poisoned and dying. He has been told by some Keepers that the solution to his

problem lies in accessing a certain Precursor Portal located somewhere inside the Hammerite area which

will lead him to a place where he can get some help.


This goal is not intended to be the end of the campaign, since accessing the portal is only a gateway to the

next mission – Oracle of the Prophets.


First few minutes


During the first minute of a bit longer, just about any machine might run a little choppy. This is because

A real battle is taking place and the engine needs to devote resources to these fights between AI. Once

the dust settles a bit, the game should much better after this.

Reloading during conversations


Some AI are a bit long-winded, and if you happen to save during their speeches, things may not seem quite

right when you reload the mission. You may see gestures which do not match the speech – but nothing

more harmful than that.


Lock picks and land mines


It would be handy to learn (or remember) that lock picks can be used to disarm proximity mines (not true in

all missions, though).


Audio notes


An EAX environmental sound card is not required, but it is highly recommended due to cool effects inside

the cathedral. It is perhaps the only place I have ever heard where the longest echo setting possible actually

sounds exactly right. If you have ever been to a real cathedral or stone building of this size, you will

understand what I mean.


About the cathedral


The terrain is loosely based on a detailed study of Cathedral de Chartres in France including interior and

exterior dimensions that are within a few percent of the real cathedral. Stain glass windows and exterior

"roses" are also from Chartres. Much of the exterior doors, windows, and stone texture is from a humble

Catholic church located in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.


Clocks and Megatfree's Watch


This is a timed mission. The clocks really keep time. And if you run out of time, the mission will 'fail.' On

NORMAL you will have almost two hours (which should be plenty of time). On HARD, you'll have 80

minutes, and on EXPERT, just 65 minutes. The clock, however, stops running when you review the map or

open a scroll to read (in scroll-mode).


Ways to Crash the Mission (as in crashing the game or your computer)


So far, I know of only a few areas that might cause a game crash:


1. The upper (green portion) roof of the cathedral near the gable ends.

Without a speed potion (or some fancy trick) you can't get up there anyhow,

but somebody is bound to try.


2. Jumping through the ice and looking back up at the cathedral. This is probably

okay -- but in theory it might be a problem. At any rate, if you jump through

the ice, Garrett will die anyway due to the current which sweeps him away and the

freezing water.


3. Scouting orbs have a wider field of view than the normal screen, and in some

places this was causing screen complexity crashes -- so they have been removed.

Speed potions were removed because this would allow access to all sorts of

evil locations (with respect to screen complexity).


A way for Garrett to die (unplanned or expected)


Seems Mr. SlyFoxx (and I) have gotten into the habit of dumping knocked-out Mechanists through the

balcony openings onto the main floor below. But wouldn't you know that leaning out through such a

narrow space while holding a body will confuse the dickens out the Dark Engine. Most likely (if anything

happens), Garrett will get launched out into the space above the main sanctuary, which is not healthy at all!


No way to fix this other than putting a warning here.



Episode 4: Oracle of the Prophets


Overview


The Keepers have sent you to the “other side of time” – wherever that may be! Since time in the normal

sense does not seem to exist in this place, your pocket watch is frozen and you are no longer getting sicker.


But all is not well.


A permanent antidote can be found here somewhere. That is what the Keepers had hoped. So you must

now explore this strange world to find what the answer may be – and a way home.


Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.


Playing Information for Oracle of the Prophets


Do not save and reload when Garrett is attached to a CamVator. There are two CamVators in this mission

and in both cases he will stop at the end and stay attached for a while. If you save and reload, at best, things

may seem screwy; and at worst, you may break the mission so it can not be won. (For those not sure

of what I mean – “CamVator” is short for camera elevator, where Garrett is attached to an invisible moving

platform so the player’s viewpoint can be transported as though watching a movie).


Gravity is that of another world – about the same as Mars. It is part of the design to assume that Garrett can

therefore climb on very steep angles and jump down from very high places which normally would be out of

the question. Just because something looks nearly impossible, it may not be – and may, in fact, be required.


Some odd fogging effects are implemented using a custom technique, so it does not matter if you have

these settings on or off in the Thief 2 configuration screen. It will work either way.


The lighting may seem a tad bright. This is done for those machines which display the game too darkly.

If you usually run at maximum brightness, your game may not appear as realistic as I have planned. Use the

minus (-) and plus (+) keys to adjust your screen for a proper on-screen feeling.


Because of the complexity of the terrain, EAX ambient sound is highly recommended. Typical 2-speaker

or headphone use simply may not tell you enough about your threat situation, and you will be at a decided

disadvantage. Having said this, I have most definitely tweaked audio for 2-speaker and headphone use – it

just isn’t as useful as EAX 4-speaker sound.


In four cases, the player must touch (frob) an object from the inside. This may be mentioned in a mission

journal, but not always – so I also mention it here to limit confusion.


As with all of my missions, except for the level of annoyance, there is no real difference between Normal,

Hard, and Expert. So it’s really a matter of how long you want to play, and how annoyed you are willing

to become.


There is still more to come… If you win this mission, there will be a "to be continued" screen at the end.

You have been warned!


Oddities and minor bugs that won’t be fixed


GeForce 2 graphics cards may cause the sky effect to flash with an occasional dark triangle. This is a

graphics board issue, and I have not seen it on other machines. It only happens rarely, and since I have

limited the CPU needed to run the sky effect as much as I can bare, this will remain as it is.


The sky sometimes changes brightness abruptly. At first I tried to fix this, but have decided that it merely

adds to the odd feeling of the place – and since I can’t fix this, I declare it a “feature” rather than a bug.



Episodes 5-9: ‘The Finale’…


It will be no secret that Garrett has returned to the great Hammerite cathedral, just as it is already no secret

that the Oracle has sent him here. And it may not remain a secret much longer how Garrett must act to save

himself – now that he has returned with the mysterious words of that Guardian still ringing in his ears.


The antidote lies in reversing the

order. And when you are successful,

then all will be as it should have been.


Once the destroyer has been destroyed

...the one who poisons you... and once

you have acted in accordance with your

own knowledge of the future,

then all will be restored.


Yet the truest meaning of these words may remain shrouded in darkness for a time – how Garrett has been

given a power greater than anything ever given before – a power to alter what should have been, and by his

own thoughts and actions, a power to challenge the very nature of destiny itself.

Finale Playing Information


Episodes 5 through 9 are the last parts of the series. This is really one long mission, and so I present them

here together. There will be no separate installments for these five missions.


Items can be carried over from Episode 5 to 6 and from Episode 7 to 8. Hoarding items found in Episodes 5

and 7 is not required – but it certainly won’t hurt your chances!


There is one scroll in The Other Side of Time (Episode 5) that implies how you should come back later – so

I suggest finishing all other explorations before entering this room. Once you enter this room you will have

about five minutes before the mission ends.


Some non-English versions of Thief 2 have been known to lose the master clock timer in Reversing the

order (Episode 6) – so I added backup triggers to make ‘timed’ events happen in other ways. If you do not

hear the town clock chimes then you should wander around and read scrolls and books. That will trigger

events needed to win this mission.


The lighting may seem a tad bright. This is done for those machines that display the game too darkly.

If you usually run at maximum brightness, your game may not appear as realistic as I had planned. Use the

minus (-) and plus (+) keys to adjust your screen for a proper on-screen feeling.


Rain sounds may seem overwhelming depending on your sound card and whether or not you are using

EAX audio – don’t forget how Thief 2 has an audio adjustment for ambient sound volume.


Oddities and minor bugs that won’t be fixed


Do not save and reload when Garrett is attached to a CamVator. There are several CamVators in this

mission and in some cases he may stop at the end and stay attached for a while. If you save and reload, at

best, things may seem screwy; and at worst, you may break the mission so it can not be won. (For those not

sure of what I mean – “CamVator” is short for camera elevator, where your view is attached to an invisible

moving platform so the player’s viewpoint can be transported as though watching a movie).


Garrett also may be overhearing conversations. If you save and reload during these they may not restart and

play properly. The game will continue, but you may not hear useful clues if you don’t listen through the

first time.


In some missions all water may vanish due to overloading the game engine. The water is still there for

swimming and will show up again the next time the game is restarted from Windows.


In one case some AI may wake up from being knocked out and wander around harmlessly like ghosts.

This is either a bug or a feature – depending on how you want to see it!


It is also possible that the audio might crash in one of these missions. Only one computer has done this

for me – an old laptop. But if sound does crash, then save the game, exit and restart the game.


After two and a half hours the town clock will no long play chimes. After that point, the master event clock

runs out of time, although the clock hands will keep moving. In theory, the town timekeeper has been

bribed so people can sleep. In practice the game’s own internal master clock stops running.



General Information


Game: Thief 2: The Metal Age

Mission Title: KotP Campaign

Filename: KotP1-9_v1a.zip / miss17.mis – miss27.mis

Difficulty Settings: Yes

Equipment store: Nothing for sale

Map / automap: Simple Maps

Fog: Yes/No

Weather: Yes/No

New graphics: Yes

New sounds: Yes

New objects: Yes

New AI: Yes

New motions: Yes

Terrain: Mostly built from scratch. Some stolen from Thief 1 and Thief 2

Build time: 5000 hours

Multi language support: English

CamVators: Yes, in several places

Movie AVIs: Yes



Revision History for KotP Campaign


KotP1-9_v1a.zip – July 17, 2005


Copyright


Subject to the copyright limitations specified on the Thief 2 game CD...


All original content of this fan mission is copyright (c) 2000-2005 by frobber, a.k.a., Ken Ramsley.


Hosting of this fan mission is allowed on any public or private network so long as distribution is at no extra

charge (beyond normal access to the network) and the zip file is kept intact and unmodified. Re-distribution

of an altered version of this mission including changes to any supporting files is not permitted.


Without my permission, an unaltered version of this fan mission may be included on a CD/DVD-release

mission pack, provided that this CD is sold for the cost of production and shipping only, or is a freebie

given away in some other form such as a magazine-published mission pack promo.


See copyright.txt for Telliamed’s usage statement.



Disclaimers


Any resemblance in the real world to events or people found in this fan mission are entirely unintended,

purely coincidental, and a complete figment of your imagination.


This fan mission is not made by nor supported by Looking Glass Studios (RIP), Eidos Interactive, or Ion

Storm of Austin, TX (RIP).



Support


Post a message in one the following locations. Someone there will have an answer to most questions:


Fan Mission section of the TTLG forums

http://www.ttlg.com/forums (post to the forums or send a private message)


If are really stuck, you can write to me… frobber@edanet.com … and I’ll see if I can help.

(I also enjoy feedback, criticism, and any other sort of player mail.)



BTW


Here are some of the places where this mission was built and tested…


Commuter train, Ashland to Boston, MA

South Station in Boston.

Flying to and from Washington.

Various airline terminals.

Accela train Boston to Washington DC

Union Station Washington DC.

Various restaurants while waiting for food.

Various hotel rooms instead of sleeping.

Back seat of various limousines.

(Occasionally) at home in my office or living room.



Enjoy!