Robbing the Cradle

~Thief III, Mission #9: "Robbing the Cradle"

            Thief III’s “Robbing the Cradle” is well-regarded in the gaming community as one of the finest horror experiences in games. It’s my favorite one, not just in games, but in entertainment overall (the only close competition coming from “Rose Cottage”). It’s a harrowing experience, and a mission that demonstrates how Thief’s design principles make for prime horror.

            Before delving into the mission itself, it’s necessary to setup the story. Now, I won’t go in detail over all of Thief III’s story leading up to the “Cradle”. It is the second to last mission in the game, and so setting it up completely would take a while.

In short, Garrett, while deep in the dark portion of a story arc involving the Keepers, comes across an old, gray hag, who tries to kill him. This hag, or “Gray Lady”, is an urban myth in Thief III’s City, cited by both old and young as the perpetrator of all the gruesome, unsolved murders that have occurred in the City.

            Garrett, not wanting to be the Gray Lady’s next victim, pays Inspector Drept a visit. If you watched all of the gameplay footage for “St. Edgar’s Eve”, you may remember Drept being introduced there. He is a Hammerite, but primarily an inspector. His life-long obsession is finding out about the Gray Lady, ever since he witnessed one of his childhood friends murdered by a gray hag.

            In the video below, Garrett pays Drept a visit, in which he learns that his best lead on the Gray Lady is the Shalebridge Cradle, a former orphanage and insane asylum housed in one institution that ceased operation after a great fire. I also include the briefing in the video below; check it out:

                                                           

            Any sane citizen of the City wouldn’t go near the Cradle; Drept won’t, even as obsessed as he is with the hag. The Cradle remained once the fire died away, though it was scorched and ruined. Everyone who had been there died in the fire. It was closed off, and avoided by all as it became terribly haunted.

But Garrett’s been through crypts, catacombs, and a haunted cathedral. He’s used to dealing with spirits and the undead. He can take it. Right? Problem is, Garrett’s in for more than he’s aware of, and his night in the Cradle will be his longest. As Garrett says in the briefing to the mission, the Cradle seems “a house of bad dreams.” Indeed it is, as the player will discover.

As with my “Rose Cottage” section, I encourage you to watch my playthrough here in full screen, and with headphones and the volume turned up. If possible, turning down the lights wouldn’t hurt either.

I’ll also be citing highlights from an excellent feature article written on “Robbing the Cradle”, in the post below this initial one.

Now, let’s enter the Cradle.

The mission begins not with an even-plane, level view, as other Thief missions do, but with the player facing upwards to the front façade of the Shalebridge Cradle. It towers above, looking downwards at its approaching victim.

Eric Brosius—Thief series audio-man—shows his full genius in the Cradle. While standing outside this deserted and forlorn structure, a hollow wind howls; a crow shrieks; somewhere in the distance it seems a horn blows out a pitiful tune; and a low, subtle growling pervades the air. This last noise is surely the Shalebridge Cradle itself, hungering for and anticipating its next meal.

The front door is barred shut, so Garrett must enter the Cradle by way of a side door. A short flight of steps leads down inside. As soon as the player is in, dread descends; one of the best compilations of ambient audio in the series plays in the Cradle. It’s a twisted concoction of ghostly voices, children laughing and singing, screams and cries, pounding, creaks, and other noises impossible to define. Brosius really summoned the demons on this one.

One of the player’s first tasks is to find a fuse box for the power generator in the basement, and turn the power on. I love how the article, which I cite and highlight below, explains this: so scared of the dark interior of the Cradle, players may look forward to getting the power generator up and running, and all the lights turned on. But the loud grinding of the power generator and the flickering on of all the lights does little to allay player’s fears. For, whatever’s in this place knows someone else has come in now, too.

In the first ‘zone’ of the Cradle—the “Outer Cradle”—there are no enemies. Of course, the player doesn't know this on a first playthrough, and part of the Cradle’s effect is to put the player always on edge. Something must be around the corner—but there’s nothing. The Cradle executes perfectly on Thief’s approach to horror: never in-your-face, but always subtle, atmospheric, and contained. The ruined, haunted interior of the Cradle—burned, marred walls, and creepy décor—completes the visual half of a chilling marriage between visual and audio.

The second zone, the “Inner Cradle,” is different, though. Here, denizens of the Cradle lurk, cursed to roam its halls. Garrett sees a darkened silhouette of one cross the path behind the registrar’s desk in the distance, near the start of the Inner Cradle. I felt quite a sense of dread here. I finally knew that, after all, I’m not really in the Cradle by myself.

The undead that haunt the Cradle are unique. The game’s data files dubs them “puppets.” They are the remains of the asylum’s former inmates. They wear straight-jackets. They also wear strange iron cages around their hands and heads. Their faces are all the same—empty eyes and gaping mouth. Jittery in their movements, they walk as if having electrocution passing through their bodies. As an added effect, the lights begin to flicker and buzz whenever one is around. So if a player suddenly notices light bulbs flickering—a puppet’s nearby!

It also doesn’t help that the Cradle’s puppets have a nasty habit of getting back up. A player may knife one down—a sloppy player, that is, if they are using the dagger at all—only to have the corpse rear up again later, should the player walk near it. In some areas, a puppet is crouched in a corner, jittery all the same. Others are just standing solitary. Their presence is a key part of the disturbed experience of the Cradle.

In this first video of my playthrough, I explore around outside, enter into the Outer Cradle, and then delve into the Inner Cradle:

Also part of the disturbed experience of the Cradle are the back stories of its patients. These are learned from readables, such as doctors’ log entries on the patients, and from the patients’ cells. One cell has been decorated by the patient to resemble, as a log entry puts it, “the murder scene.” Another cell has a crib in it, and in this crib, an urn. This patient kept the urn, filled with her baby’s ashes, with her at all times. Another patient had hidden the shirt of one of the orphans in a secret place in his wall. Noises accompany each cell—the cell of a pyromaniac is accompanied with horrible screams, as of someone being burned, and the cell with the crib is complemented with a baby’s cries.

Other hints of the patient’s stories are embedded here and there. One patient liked to paint, and in the observatory players observe a series of paintings. Each of them have blood smeared across the face. In the observatory a lone puppet stands watch—this must have been the painting patient.

In the second part of my playthrough, I visit the patients’ cells, while narrowly avoiding confrontation with the puppets:

The player’s ultimate quest in the Cradle ends up being to aid the ghost of Lauryl, Drept’s friend who had been killed by the hag. Readables indicate that the staff believed she had been murdered by one of the inmates, though they were wrong.

The player first discover Lauryl’s ghost in the attic. (The attic is part of the Outer Cradle.) While walking up the stairs to the attic, a sudden, loud pounding noise comes from the other side of the doorway into the attic. This, at least in my case, caused the player to race back down the stairs that go to the attic, and towards the door they came in. But, it’s no go—bars now block the only known way of exit from the Cradle. So it’s back to the attic.

In the attic is a painting of a little girl. (From readables in the mission, players may learn that this painting was done by one of the asylum’s inmates.) If player’s “use” the painting—right-click when the painting is highlighted—a ghostly voice will begin to speak to Garrett. It’s the voice of Lauryl. Like Brother Murus in Thief I’s haunted Hammerite cathedral, Lauryl will lead Garrett on a number of small quests, and ultimately help him escape the Cradle. Though, of course, the Cradle is more sinister than the haunted Hammerite cathedral; and Lauryl doesn’t have quite the same charm as Brother Murus.

Lauryl first has Garrett destroy any of her remains that are still present in the Cradle. (She is trapped in the Cradle because it ‘remembers’ her, and does so because these remains are still there.) An example is a vial of her blood, stored in the basement. “It’s still warm,” Garrett mutters as he grabs it; he soon tosses it out a storm drain.

Lauryl’s fetch quests have players go all over the dark nooks-and-crannies of this house of bad dreams. But to get rid of all of Lauryl’s things, players must enter the Cradle’s memory, as Lauryl explains it (yes, this building has “memories”).

Garrett accomplishes this by ‘using’ certain objects adored by the inmates. Each inmate had a special object. One adored a set of forks and knives; another, a white mask; another, referenced above, an urn with her babies’ ashes in it. These serve as links for Garrett to enter the past of the Cradle.

The Cradle’s past changes the appearance of the Cradle into a colorless palette, like an old photograph. The building also reverts to being undamaged, the way it was before the fire. Ghostly forms of the asylum’s staff members patrol the place. To the staff members, Garrett appears as the patient whose item Garrett used to link into the building’s past. So they will run after him if they see him.

Once the player has destroyed all of Lauryl’s remains, and the players have satisfied the “Find more info on the hag” objective (which comes in a readable found in the past), the player may leave. But there’s a problem—they can’t.

Garrett follows Lauryl’s ghost to the front door, while in the Cradle’s memories, to leave with her. But as Garrett walks to the front door, in a flash, the world of the Cradle’s memories disappears, and Garrett is left once again in the present, ruined Cradle, with barred entries and exits. “Oh no,” Lauryl moans. “The Cradle must remember you now too.” Garrett’s stuck here.

But there’s hope. Garrett has to trick the Cradle into thinking that he has died. Lauryl tells him this, and guides him on how to do this. First, Garrett must go back into the Cradle’s past, and this time, Garrett must sneak up into the staff tower. From the top of this, he must jump—and trick the Cradle that he’s killing himself. Through some bizarre science of haunted building’s memories, this works, and Garrett lands, alive, outside of the present-day Cradle.

In the third part of my playthrough, I meet Lauryl’s ghost, carry out her tasks, and then, finally, escape that crazy place. Note in the following video the new ghost voices that join the Cradle’s chorus; this addition to the auditory ambiance comes once you’ve met Lauryl. Perhaps it’s the voices of the other children trapped there, trying to ask you to help them, as well:

Well! To quote Garrett in the debriefing, it’s good to be out of that “place.” “Robbing the Cradle” is certainly the best haunted, official Thief mission, and it accomplishes its sense of horror through great use of ambient noises, visuals, and pacing. The lack of any AI combatants in the first area is especially effective. The disturbing backstories of each of the patients is a strong part of the experience. Then there’s little Lauryl—the ghost of a small girl, killed by an old hag, who must help Garrett make the Cradle “forget” her, and then also him. The Cradle’s a rare, unique gaming experience, and could have only been done with Thief-style design.