Saving the Jeweler

[MistyDP]

In Stonemarket on Day One there is an incident where You find two thugs who are after Crowley because he stole part of a jewel he cut up for them..

I spent about 30 minutes last night trying to prevent his death. Don't ask me why, I let him rot on my first time through the game, for some reason I want to save him.

I tried everything I could think of. If you attack the goons too soon, Crowley calls the guards on Garrett, too late and he's dead.

Any ideas?

[tealsmith]

From the shadows, toss an oil flask at the goons when they go after him. They should slip down, he'll go running for help, and no one will know you were there.

[MistyDP]

Excellent idea!

[ChowYunFat]

Hi MistyDP. I can appreciate your efforts to save the jeweler since I always try to spare as many lives when playing Thief as I can. On one of the early Thief Gold missions I had a kind of epiphany upon hearing a Hammer guard humming quietly to himself while on his lonely post in a dark basement & I realized that the AI were real enough that I didn't want to kill them.

If you want to get the jeweler's loot without having him get killed, here's a suggestion to try. I haven't actually done this for certain but some variation of it must surely be possible:
You find out about the location of the gems from a note in an upstairs bedroom of his house. So, try to get up to that bedroom without passing through the area downstairs that triggers the confrontation. You could either get onto his balcony & enter through his upper level door, or go through the downstairs but avoid doing whatever it is that triggers the fatal conversation. When re-playing this part of the game recently, I think I was able to get through the lower part of the house without causing the script to trigger but I'm not 100% sure. It'll take a litlte more research on my part. Good luck & happy taffing.

[MajorHealy]

The first time I played, I unlocked + opened the door before the thugs/jeweler arrived. He was able to escape into the streets and the guards took out the thugs when they chased him.

The second time I played, I unlocked but didn't open the door, and the thugs killed him before he could escape - looks like in the time it takes him to open the door they kill him. Never tried the oil flask thing, though - I like that idea :).

[ChowYunFat]

Actually, MajorHealy has the best idea, although dropping an oil flask sounds like fun. The first time I played the game I entered the building through the front door & the jeweler was able to escape when the thugs attacked him. This led to a big battle on the streets in front of the place as reinforcements kept coming in until about six people were dead. This is a bust if you're ghosting though which is why I've been trying to get the gems without triggering the conversation.

[Madigan]

while they were discussing, i mad a noise in the adjacent room, and the jeweller stopped his mumbling, and went to look. the two thugs standed there waiting, and then, when the jeweller came back without finding what it was, they just stood there all zombi like staring at each other.. guess the thugs forgot about their little problem with the jeweller... :) no deaths! (and i still consider this ghosting since the jeweller came back thinking the sound was his imagination.

[fpk]

Yes, a little distraction can stop their convo. Make a nice jump on stairs and hide immediately, Crowley will stop and ask whose there and soon they will be back, looking at each other without talking.