Fan Mission: The Golden Skull by Sotha (2015/10/24)

[Sotha 1908]

The Golden Skull

 

Briefing:

Life has been hard for us after we ran away with my beloved Emily. From the distance, the City looked like it was full of opportunities, but now that we are here... I do not know. No work, no money, no food, the rent is overdue. Soon we will be living in the streets with the cutthroats. Poor Emily, please forgive me. This is not the life I promised you.

 

Fortunately for us, Emily got a temporary job as a helper maid in Lord Mosfort's Manor. This will not solve our financial problems, but presents a much needed opportunity. Lord Mosfort is an eccentric noble, who has filled his home with valuables.

 

Of particular interest is the fabled Golden Skull, which is on display in the main hall of Manor Mosfort. If we could run away and sell it, we would be well off for quite a while. We both know it is wrong: we are no thieves. But we are survivors. We must do this or we die in poverty.

 

My original plan was so simple, I didn't think anything would go wrong. Emily could move in the Manor freely and was supposed to investigate if there are any security measures protecting the Skull. And then, when we would be ready, we would strike.

 

But last night she didn't come home after work and I'm worried sick.

 

I'm breaking into the manor tonight. The plan is to get Emily out, grab the Skull and as much loot as we can carry. Desperate times call for desperate action.

 

 

Info:

This is my entry for the 2015 Halloween speedbuild contest. This mission was built from scratch in 16 hours between 19.10.2015 and 24.10.2015. I did use some modules I had made previously, but retextured them for this mission. Also, I did have an unused custom AI lying around which was put into the mission. Everything else was created during the contest.

 

Big thanks to Goldwell for his voice acting, and bulbastre on freesound.org for custom sound (127005).

 

Enjoy!

 

Link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwR0ORZU5sraS2pLT1BQTjBPSDA/view?usp=sharing

 

*Reserves a room in the Asylum for Burned-out TDM mappers.*

[Oldjim 154]

The download shows up as a number of separate files/folders not as a single pk4 file

[Sotha 1908]

There is a download button in the top part: the arrow downwards witha line. Clicking that should get you the .pk4 file.

[Oldjim 154]

Bollocks - I missed that

[grayman 2889]

"we ran away with my beloved Emily"

 

??

 

How many people ran away?

[Oldjim 154]

Haven't finished yet but I loved the twist after I found Emily

I haven't seen that particular result before

[Nightcrawler 18]

How inventive! Didn't expect a storyline like this!

[VanishedOne 534]

 

I'm afraid it glitched on me: the door on Emily's cell failed to trigger its target properly the first time I opened it. After some experimentation and checking the map in DR I managed to make it work (and tick off the objective) by closing and re-opening the door, allowing me to complete the mission. If nobody else is seeing this then hopefully it was just a random glitch at an unfortunate moment.

 

[Bikerdude 3738]

I will add the mission to the FM page later tomoz, as its 01:26am and Im knackered.

 

Done

[grayman 2889]

 

 

I released Emily, and she followed me upstairs and was killed by some guards when she threatened the sleeping Lady. Not sure how I 'saved' her.

 

After that, the mission dead-ended for me because I got stuck in the skull room. The alerted guards kept wandering in and out, and kept turning the skull display light back on when I managed to turn it off. They only left the room for anywhere between 4 - 10 seconds, so I was never able to unlock the skull's case and complete the mission.

 

I might try again later on in the week. I need to grab the skull first, save Emily second.

 

 

[Abusimplea 163]

Was a nice small mansion mission and i found no bugs. Only the player's voice was too loud.

I am once more impressed by the small amount of time it seems to take for an experienced mapper to make something enjoyable.

 

Played on hard (but guess by the time spent building that there is no difference between difficulties anyway):

 

I blackjacked my way to the dungeon (only left the eleet guard awake) and found emily without seeing her (stand in the shadow behind the opening door). As i realized that she is a zombie i decided to put her to rest for good and followed her upstairs where i killed her with two arrows before she could alert the eleet guard. Then i darkened the foyer with water arrows but decided the annoying eleet guard had to go regardless - so killed him by turning him into a hedgehog wasting a full clip of broadheads. Then i got the skull using the ornate key and some climbing and looted the remaining stuff (got it all).

By then i was sure that i have to behead the noble to prevent him from doing that evilness again. But i stored him right at the starting point with all the other people before entering the dungeon and so the mission ended as i approached him.

 

I liked the well-timed movement patterns of the maid and servant. It felt like they where triggered by approaching a position (but i don't think, they are) and i had difficulties to get em down silently at first. Missed the second story that ceiling suggested to be there. I searched for a stair case leading up but only found that one leading down into the dungeon.

 

 

Edited October 25, 2015 by Abusimplea

[nbohr1more 2023]

Fantastic for a small focused mission release!

 

 

 

 

You really did a good job of building the dread leading up to Emily's discovery.

 

The zombie did catch me off-guard on the first run and caused a hilarious amount of havok by killing guards and such.

 

The skull itself was tricky to acquire but I managed to steadily douse candles and lamps until it was an attainable goal.

It was a sloppy job with lots of alerting and I kept escaping to the rafters. (Something I quite enjoy but it feels a little strange

for the AI to lose you so easily up there.) Still there's nothing quite like hiding in the rafters while the guards scurry below

then firing a noise arrow and jumping down next to an exit while they are distracted.

 

The only bug, if you could call it that, was getting stuck between the dining-room table-top and a seat.

I doubt much can be done about that unless you wanna make the seats immovable and put some playerclip between the table and the seats

 

 

 

[RPGista 602]

That was fast! Definitely goona take a look.

[Cambridge Spy 126]

Here's a playthrough of this mission:

 

[video=youtube]

[Loa4ever 45]

Hello,

I have tried this mission and I like it also, my first ghostable mission on drakMod XD yet... I have to find the 250 lot that I'm missing. Keep on good work Sotha.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Loa4ever

[AluminumHaste 973]

Come on people, use your eyes, there's like 4 things you can click on:

 

[Petike the Taffer 488]

Congratulations to the release, Sotha. :-)

 

I'll play this as soon as I finish Requiem.

[nbohr1more 2023]

Take it easy on your elders AH (his username is not "punk_kid_jim" ), this isn't Rage3D ya know.

[AluminumHaste 973]

I do get angry a lot

[Sotha 1908]

I do get angry a lot

 

Ah! Excellent recruitment material, then?

[Oldjim 154]

Finished with no KO's on hardest - whatever that means

Given that the second lockpick needs to be bought can the mission be completed without it

I took great pleasure in seeing Emily get her revenge

EDIT Played again and this time both lockpicks were in the starting gear - most odd

Edited October 26, 2015 by Oldjim

[Goldwell 2401]

Fantastic little mission Sotha! Amazing that you built that in just 19 hours 16 hours!

 

 

 

It took me too long than I care to admit for finding the secret door too

 

Edited October 26, 2015 by Goldwell

[Oldjim 154]

Re above spoiler

secret door - I found it without even looking because I turned after reading the diary

 

[Sotha 1908]

Fantastic little mission Sotha! Amazing that you built that in just 19 hours.

 

Ahem.. Sixteen hours, dear sir.

 

I'm very glad people have received the mission so well! Thanks!

[Cookie 39]

 

Played through this and I am happy, that you still manage to surprise with your new releases - the sounds while heading down to the dungeon are placed really well, a typical "sotha moment" (an occurence that the player couldn´t have expected in a FM, but is surprising in a positive way), great stuff. I found two small glitches in this mission. For the first one, I got stuck between a chair and something placed on the table for some seconds. The second one happened to the guard with the dagger that went to sleep after I had alerted him and he didn´t find me - I tried to knock him out with the blackjack and he started to float in the air and each strike after the first one put him further up in the air until he got stuck in the ceiling near a corner of the room. Otherwise great job as usual

 

Edited October 26, 2015 by Cookie