The Black Frog, Mission 5

-The Black Frog, Mission 5: The Black Frog

            The titular Mission #5 is a fine Thief mission as well. It hosts the theme of ‘two worlds bleeding together’, as was seen, for example, in ‘Cragscleft’. The two worlds are Emilie Victor’s estate, and the world of the Black Frog.

            The previous mission ended with Garrett running into a tight room, on the other side of a pit, with a gate closing behind him. He narrowly escaped the Charaka (maybe some players didn’t!). But, after reading a note from Emilie, addressed to him and proclaiming her ‘victory’, gas fills the room, and Garrett passes out. He wakes up in a room in Emilie Victor’s estate. A pleasant ambiance plays; it’s daylight outside. But underneath this seemingly bright mission, a dark secret lies. A letter on a desk contains one last plead from Emilie, to Garrett, not to go after the Black Frog. But Garrett is a thief with a big job on the line, so after it he goes. The player uses an “old pen” to pick open the lock on one of the windows—and it’s off on one last, grand adventure in Gaetane’s excellent campaign.

            The first sign the player may receive that there is darkness underlying this place comes in a secret room. In this room, behind a bookcase, a dark skeleton is chained to the wall, the symbol of the Black Frog behind it, and below it, a scroll with the Black Frog’s ominous poem written on it. The creepy ambiance associated with the Black Frog also plays. Like in the last mission, Gaetae uses a subtle method—a secret room—to introduce what will later be a bigger theme.

            The player may also read a note by one of the servants, “Kezo”. He is an island native, writing to “Aliza”. He writes on his fear of the Black Frog, and the “strange atmosphere” overhanging Emilie’s estate.

            In this mission, there’s another mechanism the player will need to use, the final device protecting the Black Frog. Like in the prior mission, the player learns of its operation through a readable, this one a set of instructions in the room of one of the ‘priests of the Black Frog’. It contains key hints that the player will need to know later on in the mission when needing to operate this machine.

            Eventually, after swiping a key from Emilie’s unusually tall servant, “Bazil”, the player may enter Emilie’s apartments. Once inside, the central ambiance of the Black Frog plays. In Emilie’s apartments is the ‘Mirror Room’, where the Black Frog is supposedly kept. After getting the key for it from Emilie’s bedroom, the player may enter the Mirror Room. Once inside, the creepy ambiance that played in the empty bedroom in mission #2 sets in. Upon using the Black Frog, a mirror floating in the air, the player is transported to the world of the Black Frog. It’s a bizarre world, with excellent art and ambiance, and clever references to the stories of the first two Thief games—this world is, after all, partly a reflection of Garrett’s memories.

            It’s also a reflection of Emilie’s memories, and one of her most valuable ones involves a small, toy doll. Finding the pieces to the doll is one task of this segment; exploring Garrett’s memories, another; and avoiding the Charaka, which is rumbling around here, another. Also in this world are sobbing, wandering skeletons—lost souls trapped in this world.

This world is the same structure as Emilie’s estate—like an imprint on it. In the real-world estate, Sir Garivaldi’s bedroom was locked. In the Black Frog-world-estate, his room is open, and inside the player may see the sobbing soul of Sir Garivaldi, slowly wandering. This was the poor man’s fate after his suicide.

Throughout this segment of the mission, and just after it, the player will also hear some haunting laughter of Emilie’s. One of my favorite elements, from any game series, is far off, haunting laughter of a nemesis. It’s done excellently here.
*WARNING*: I give in and toss a few flash bombs in this recording; there are flashing lights from 20:16 to 20:22. If this triggers you, skip over that part.

            The audio cues and other tie-ins to earlier parts of the campaign pay off now that the player is actually in the world of the Black Frog. The whole campaign’s story, on paper, would make a nice, interesting fairy tale, but through the vehicle of a Thief mission campaign, it is more effective. Readables and audio cues, each introducing and continuing to bring back themes in each of the missions, make the story more effective than what it would be on paper. Thief’s gameplay of exploration brings the world to life.

            After escaping the world of the Black Frog, Garrett, so perturbed by it, now wants to destroy this artifact, despite the Keeper’s offer of a huge sum if he brought it to them. This is quite a change of character for the usually business-minded Master Thief.

            So, in the final stages of the mission, the player must destroy this “abomination”. After the player has returned to the real-world estate, the place is rife with action as Sir Belmont’s men have attacked it. There’s also one last encounter with the Charaka. Going through the underground machine tunnels, the player sees piles of heads—and knows exactly what it means by this point. Sure enough, here comes the great beast itself. After an exhilarating run from it, the player has a chance at opening a fire pit that will destroy the creature once and for all. This is a great end to what had been a great story arc throughout the campaign.
*WARNING*: I was careless - I give in and toss a few flash bombs again, in this recording; there are flashing lights from 12:00 to 12:15. If this triggers you, skip over that part.

            There is a face-to-face encounter with Emilie Victor right at the end of the mission. And when the credits first rolled, I enjoyed the satisfaction of having experienced one of the top, most memorable Thief experiences made. I covered Gaetane’s “The Black Frog” campaign in this project because, through its several narrative themes that weave in and out of the five missions in the campaign, it demonstrates, excellently, the potential of Thief’s design principles to make a great narrative experience.