Stilton Manor

Mission 7 – A Crack In the Slab

No waking up aboard the Wale this time, it's straight to business. Funny business, as it turns out- the Mansion seems to sap you of your power. Corvo says he can feel the Void leaking in. In any case, you're without so much as Dark Vision to mark your path, so you'll have spot your own lootables for a while. The first such spot is just inside the main door, where one of those popular non-locking safes holds some coin and whalebone.

There are no enemies on the grounds, so explore at your own pace (though there is a nest keeper behind a grate on the second floor- he can't attack but he can detect you, so ghosters should step lightly). The Heart still works here, though she has little to say about the place. Let her guide you upstairs to the nearest rune, and your first of the level (Rune 1/4). Not that runes are a lot of help right now.

Note: The Heart can only detect runes and charms in whatever timeframe it occupies- if you're in the past, it won't tell you that the safe you just opened holds a Rune in the present. However, since some items are in the same place at both times, it's easy to lose track of exactly what's what. A good practice is to switch frequently between times to get a sense of both when and where everything is. An even better practice is to keep reading this guide.

When you're done exploring, make your way to the master bedroom on the second floor, and drop through the gaping hole in the floorboards to pay a visit on Master Stilton.

He's not a well man.

Listen to his raving until the Outsider makes an appearance. To make up for his earlier, less helpful visitations, this time he gives you a device that allows timetravel. Even better, you can use its bladelike lenses to peer into your destination time for threats before making the actual leap. Magnifique.

Your first jaunt into the past leaves you still locked up in the piano room, albeit much better furnished. Grab the jewelry box by the door, and listen to the guard's conversation for some handy tips about who has which codes around here. Take the calendar by the door as a souvenir, then flip to the present to step past the ruined door, and flip again to reach the hallway. Turn around to snag a note from the door, then glance down the corridor and flip back to the present.

Creep forward and make for the the doors on your right, which lead into the kitchen.

Choke out the kitchen staff immediately- it's just good tradecraft. You can't carry bodies into the future, so hide them behind a counter. There are a few coins on the counter, and a pouch in a cabinet under the counter. Don't worry about looting it now- it's gone in the present either way. In fact, it's been replaced by the kitchen key.

Use the key to unlock the small room at the back of the kitchen, and loot whatever you deem appropriate. Note the dead guy with the pistol in the present, and the window behind him- we're not going through now, but we'll be back.

Walk back to the main hall, using the fanblades on the Timepiece to keep track of the guard patrols in the past.

When the guard is looking away, slip into the past, though the dining room doors, and back to the present. Scoop up some loose change from the sideboard, then crouch under the table and zip back to the past. From right here you should be able to pickpocket a veteran, take a money pouch from the bench, and scoop up the master key- for both mansion access and an achievement (Under the Table).

Zoop over to the present, and exit to the slim hallway by the fallen chandelier (not the door you entered by).

Theorizing that you can time-travel within your own lifetime, step into the broken vault and vanish. Appearing instantly in the past, surrounded by loot. Open up the lockless safe for some gold ingots (which travel effortlessly through time, thankyouverymuch), some coin, and some masterwork blueprints for a Firing Chamber Pivot (Blueprint 1/1).

You can also snag your first painting of the level here as well (Painting 1/2). Easy to see why they took it out of the dining room.

Finish off your heist with a bit of smashing- first of the glass cabinet to free a blood amber urn, then the elevator-esque connector holding the statue. It's blocking a passageway in the present, but won't be once we destroy it in the past. Flip to the present and follow the newly exposed tunnel.

Flip back and pocket some copper wire from the workbench. Follow the corridor around the corner to a desk, which has both money and sleep darts. Note the way the space under the desk is, curiously, just inside the odd rubbly enclosure in the present.

Crawl into the the former to timeskip inside the latter. You'll find a small room full of bloodflies, but don't break out the incendiaries quite yet. Instead, skip to the past to find the source of the infestation- in this case an infected wolfhound. Pop it in the furnace and press the ignition to change history.

Back in the present, the infestation is gone. Moreover, the safe is now in ruins.

Glance at its fallen door for the combination, then flip to the past to put that info to use. You'll get a map, some coin, an ingot, and a Black Bonecharm for your troubles (Bonecharm 1/7).

Pockets full, exit the room and unlock the double doors here, then enter the large hall in the present (You might take a moment to unboard the doors in the present, once you're on the right side). Use sleep darts to take out the feral wolfhounds.

Hide their bodies and then choke out the nest keeper on the balcony atop the dust pile. Unlike the two in the Dust District, he actually can be choked; just be sure to lure him away from the hive masses first.

Ignore the combination and the study for now. Facing back to the entrance, move along the right balcony here, using the Timepiece to get a drop on the Nestkeeper in the present (you can also snag a map of the manor here in the past, if you didn't loot/buy it from the black market in the previous chapter).

This Nestkeeper is perfectly chokable as well, though there's also a single sleep dart lodged in a podium here if you need it. Turn right at the end of the corridor, away from the hives, and take a glance this room.

Remember it, because, we'll be back shortly, but first clear the hives from this floor, and scoop up a bounty of bloodamber. All the hives here are are within swordsreach if you're low on flammables- just remember to keep checking overhead for hidden hives.

Go downstairs and clear out the poolroom hives the same way, then use the fan to scout it in the past. Crawling with guards, but easily enough defeated. Start with the blueshirt closest to the pool when he's in the corner, then the patrolling redshirt. Shift into the present to get behind the blue shirt standing guard in front of the changing room.

There are some bath salts and healing elixir here. Go back up to that bedroom from just before we started our extermination work. Use the Timepiece to reveal a guard and two workers visible in the past- climb the cabinetry up to the moulding, and cross over.

Eavesdrop and, when the guard is gone, choke out the workmen. That'll teach them to..do…. stuff. Back in the present, that window has been derepaired. Climb through and over the railing (the steam is harmless).

In the corner with the broken pipe, look right to see a window into the silvergraph studio. There's a rune in the past here, but the three guards here are tough to take to take down without at least one noticing a body on the way.

Luckily, you don't have to take them out, just take a position to the left of the pilfering guard, zip pastward, grab the Rune and read a diary, then zip back forward (Rune 2/4).

Unbolt the door before you leave, then exit onto that railing again, and to the far balcony. Zip to the past, and be ready to choke out the guard here the moment his conversation is complete.

The closet here can be looted in both times, and has a few pouches of coins, and rewire tool and sleep dart, collectively. Just past the balcony, in the past, are two guards chatting about books. In the present, climb up atop the bookcases for a vantage point in the past, where you can eavesdrop on the guards, and dispatch them after.

Also be sure to claim the painting in this corner (Painting 2/2).

Dump the bodies in the little laboratory here, which can be looted for healing elixir, incendiary and sleep bolts, and a book of songs which is there in both past & present (not even worth looting, apparently). Loot the rest of the area, including some whalebone amongst the stacked luggage, and unlatch the door in past and present.

Go through in the present, and cross the hall, down the sandpile to the basement stairs.

The ratswarm may actually attack you (friends of Paolo?), but are easily sworded into submission. Bear left to the elevator. In the past, ride it up to level 1, then flip to the present to collect a bonecharm from the elevator roof (Bonecharm 2/7). Transition back to fall a short distance down the shaft. Use the red release button to reenter the cellar. In the past, make your way to the cellar proper, where you can hear two guards discussing grand larceny and bloodflies. Let them finish, then use the Timepiece to stalk them in the present and choke them out in the past.

Peek through the hole in the wall- it's too small to enter in the past, and with that hive in the way, perhaps it's for the best. Use a bottle (though not one from the basement- they're all empty or low-proof) or incendiary dart to take out the main hive. To the left of the hole in the basement is a display case with a crank wheel.

Grab it and chuck it through the wall, then follow it through in the present, and return to the past to swim it over to the valve, and drain the water (You can use the top of the wardrobe here to switch time zones, but you can't attach the wheel in the present- it always washes up on the wrong side of the gate). When the waters recede, claim your Rune, which is also good for a special action (Rune 3/4).

Return to the balcony you reached via the steam pipes (across from the silvergraph studio).

In the past there is an elite soldier patrolling below- knock her out and stash the body. The balcony is actually supported by a few of those 'please shoot me' red connectors, so go ahead and shoot them. This yields the Achievement 'Dilapidated' and collapses the balcony in the present.

At the end of the room opposite the balcony, a small window leads back into the kitchen, bringing us back near full circle. You now have access to virtually all parts of the manor, but there are still a few we've yet to actually visit, mostly on the second floor.

Go up the stairs by the main entrance, to the room with the mining cart where you found the first rune. In the present, there's corner with an open safe- in the past this safe is hidden behind a painting, but unlocked.

Open the painting for some ingots and a valuable map. Just outside this room, in the present, is an alcove with some disturbing mannequins.

The past version hides some whale bones, and also has a small window up to the moulding, which can be useful for ambushes (Note- there's a civilian here in the past, Trevor, who may be the one who wrote that searing love letter to Mindy. He can be looted for her possible response).

Head toward the dining room, choking out the elite guard in the past. Do NOT hide her body by the trunks here, instead stashing it in the far dining room balcony. Creep back to and through the double doors here to listen to a guard and a harp tuner have the same conversation about Stilton that every single one of his employees is having about Stilton.

When they're done, choke them out and loot the environs, including the bathroom here. Head back to the dining room balcony and look for a panel with three levers.

Push them all to the uppermost position – a display that elicits no comment from the soldiers below. Leap from the nearest chandelier, to the middle, to the last, then zip to the present, and haul yourself up in the collapsed attic space.

Here you'll find a charm and some coin, as well some bolts and a spring razor in the past (Bonecharm 3/7).

We're about to wreak a little havoc with timespace, so now is a good time to take a last pass through the mansion for things you want to loot- some of them might not be here shortly. In particular, you'll want to make sure you checked each room in past and present, and consulted the Heart in both time strata as well.

When you're ready, return to the pool and use the small door in the corner to enter the back courtyard, in the past.

Your enemies here are three feral dogs and assorted bloodflies in the present, and three stationary elite with one patrolling blueguard in the past. Sleep dart the dogs (you can refill at the desk by the furnace room), ignore the hives, and use the Timepiece to pick off the guards (the leaning guard near Stilton is hard to choke out- either lure away her from that railing, or use the ornamental urn to get enough height for a drop-stop.

Stilton himself is just as easily picked off. This marks a turning point for the level, so keep a savegame handy.

Once you choke out Stilton, he avoids whatever scarred him previously, and the manor in the present becomes a lively, functional place, but one with far fewer nooks and crannies for occult treasure as well. There's no real reason to choke out all three servants that appear in the courtyard here, but better safe than sorry. The one you will want to make a point of offing is the workman on the platform with the dangling chain above.

Once you've combed the grounds here for lootable, use this new chain and scaffolding to climb up the second level and re-enter the mansion (Note- there is a guard on the balcony in the past with preternatural hearing. Choke him out immediately after transitioning, if you want to claim the coins he is either depositing or removing from the couch cushions.

The present day mansion is now lousy with hired help, but they choke as easy as anyone. Evade or asphyxiate the maid here, and at long last enter the study. There's a special action for entering without using the combination, and you can snag this by simply smashing away the boards in this new present. You're pretty much just a spectator for this next part, though you there are assorted items to loot as the phantasm rolls.

Once the past has played out in full, return to the mansion (note that you can't just open the door as normal- use the red button to the left to activate it).

Back in the present, produce the Heart. You'll notice a new charm, on your cardiac radar- follow it to Stilton's new office, and retrieve it from the desk (Bonecharm 4/7).

If you're truly committed to looting then you'll want to go over the revivified mansion room-by-room, but the high points (apart from this new office), are going to be the safe in the vault off the dining room, and the safe hidden behind a painting in the mine car room, both of which have been refilled.

Your next stop is back through the Jindosh gate to the Dust District (though, like the Clockwork Mansion, you can return here later in the mission if you wish). Your journey is intercepted by the Outsider, who takes you a place very close to his heart. Or where his heart used to be.

It's actually an interesting snippet of lore, but there's nothing to loot or change, so just go along with it until the last portal spits you out in a very abbreviated Dust District.

You're cut off from just about everything except this plaza and the way back to the skiff, but what remains still has some treasures for us. Consult the heart to see it blazing with new signals.

The first Bonecharm is an easy get- just hop up into the open window where the Wall used to be and snag it from a box (Bonecharm 5/7). Continue through this apartment for a chat with Lucia Pastor. She's not your biggest fan, but she does give you an interesting insight for your next mission.

The new Rune is a little farther on, across from the roof where the windmill used to be. Blink up to the space between the wooden barricade and wall here to find a cubby with some sleep darts and the Rune (Rune 4/4)

Blink or jump over to the windmill roof itself to score a bonecharm from the sink (Bonecharm 6/7).

The last new charm is a black bonecharm just before the skiff, by those fans we passed earlier.

Meagan and Sokolov are waiting for you (and Meagan's looking… well). If you're done here, hop aboard the skiff for another night on the Wale.

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