"Finally now you see me my skin my bone as I am – you will not live to thwart me! I have gathered all I need, talismans tomes artifacts writings, I have them beyond your grasp. I trace I discover I read, and soon I shall come to the last of all glyphs, that you seek stumble follow but shall never find... I'm afraid we're going to have to rip a few pages from the Book of Names..."
- The Shalebridge Cradle is a non-stop ride through this trope, being filled to the brim with ghostly whispers, flickering electrical systems, tortured and mindless inmates that won't stay dead and so much more. Oh yes, and the building itself is alive and it hates you, and your only ally defines Creepy Child.
- Say the words "Shalebridge Cradle" to any Thief veteran and you'll probably get a deer-in-the-headlights look and a hiss of fright. The level, set in an orphanage which had been converted into an insane asylum, yet still kept the functions of both. It had developed a malevolent sentience after being burnt down by a pyromaniac inmate. There were several moments in the level which were nothing short of viscerally terrifying, including:
- A section where you hear a quiet knocking on a door upstairs, which gets progressively louder and more frantic the closer you get to it. When you open it, nothing's there. Even creepier: The sound is quite likely the Cradle's memory of Lauryl's frantic attempts at escape as the Hag came for her.
- The entire first half of the level for the simple reason that there is not a single enemy (or sentient being save Lauryl) before you reach the Inner Cradle. This means that, thanks to your less-than-comforting briefing, and the bone-chilling discoveries you make in the first area, you'll at least spend the entirety of the Outer Cradle creeping around corners and jumping at every single damn shadow, but never having Garret's fears validated. Of course, if you played before or read about it, the edge is taken off. The first time is hell though.
- Speaking of bone-chilling discoveries in the first half, how about the fact that you're not entirely told the Cradle's true nature. It's up to you to put the pieces together using a scrawled page from a child's notebook and realise that the Shalebridge Cradle was not just an orphanage and then an asylum, but in its later years both things at once... Cue brain shifting gears without a clutch.
- A section where you enter the inner area of the asylum. As you walk up to the front desk, the sound of clocks gets louder and louder, and a shadowy figure slowly passes right in front of a window behind the reception room.
- A section where you need to travel into the past using artifacts left by the asylum's insane inmates. These include a birdhouse, a gramophone which plays ghostly music and the ashes of a cremated baby.
- For most levels you are advised to track down a map of the level before you actually enter it. Most of these maps are in ordinary places, libraries, desks, ect. In the case of The Cradle, you literally have to pry the map out of its architect's cold, dead fingers. Not creeped out yet? He's entombed in a zombie-infested catacomb!
- There's even something off about the entrance to the level. It's just an ordinary wooden gate, like so many others you've seen throughout the game - with one subtle differance: On either side is a statue in an austere, religious-like pose. And they are faceless. Creepy. And once you finish the Cradle, they disappear... (thanks to Gamall bringing them to life later in the game)
- Most of the first area is the attic covered in metallic floor. Nothing like being scared shitless and cursing the game for not allowing you to sneak.
- Jacob's Ladder-esque puppets (which may be animated by the Cradle, in the same way a child would play with toys) which twitch in a deeply unsettling manner and cause the lights nearby to flicker. Bring lots of Fire Arrows, and don't be afraid to use them. They sometimes don't make an alert noise when they see you, and when they do, it's a very short and quiet snarl, so if you aren't careful, they can sneak up on you and proceed to bash your skull in while terrifying the hell out of you at the same time. It's especially horrifying when you are picking a lock, only to have the light above start flickering and realize that one of them is RIGHT BEHIND YOU.
- That sickly, gasping, groaning noise made when you enter the Cradle's memories.
- While nobody could be as scary as those puppets, a close second for "the game's scariest enemy" award would have to be the Cradle's "staff" in its dark flashback sequences. They are literally walking shadows, voids of pure, faceless blackness that walk around like people. And they do have one thing over the puppet inmates - they can kill you instantly with a single touch. It takes the puppets three or four swipes to accomplish the same thing.
- Also somewhat disconcerting is the way the staff walk around leisurely, like it's just another day at the office, WHILE THE BUILDING'S ENGULFED IN FLAMES!
- Deeply distressing reports of various "treatments" used on inmates.
- Fridge Brilliance of the game's designers for sowing the seeds of The Cradle's atmosphere throughout the game right up until you actually play it.
- If you've been paying attention up till now during the game, the Cradle will probably have already made an impression. Various conversations you overhear and notes and books you find mention the Cradle, and its vague but definite darkness. The fact that the whole city is terrified of it becomes blatantly obvious. At first the mentions of it make you curious about it and perhaps eager to explore it. But you soon begin to realize that it is not so intriguing as it is fearsome. Still, by the way its name keeps crossing your path, you just know, that at some point, the game will make you venture inside.
- A letter you can optionally steal reveals that the reason this long-burnt-out-husk-of-a-building is still standing is because no construction company in the City is brave or stupid enough to go near it!
- The wet-wrap treatment room for three specific reasons
- First, the fact that, when you first enter the room, you'll see a puppet in the distance crouching in a corner, the lights flickering as is typical by now, and it seems to be... eating something. But upon closer inspection, you'll see that it's 'eating' from a pile of rubble and debris...
- Secondly, what Lauryl has to say when you enter the room: "Once I saw a man in one of the basins, all wrapped up in wet bandages. He heard me come in and started making... screaming noises."
- Also the fact that, like many things in the Cradle, we don't know exactly what wet-wrap treatment was, or what it involved, or what purpose it served. It involved large bed-sized basins for water (we assume) and towels. In Lauryl's quote above, she didn't say 'he started screaming', she said 'he started making SCREAMING NOISES', as if he couldn't actually speak. She even paused, as if to work out what to say specifically. From all this, it's safe to assume that it was something along the lines of water-boarding, wrapping a patient in wet bandages and then maybe just leaving them like that.
- And doesn't innocent little Lauryl sound so undisturbed when she explains this to you?
- The reason you're venturing inside is because it is one of the few places where there had been a confirmed sighting of the supernatural hag who can bring statues to life. The last time you met her, was a Nightmare Fuel in itself! It's not just the building that's terrifying, but the mission itself is, as well. Specifically, the sighting that your investigating involved the hag killing a child.
- The fact that Garrett, usually completely unfazed by all the bizarre and horrible things he encounters, sounds deeply unnerved in the opening briefing before he even enters the damn place."I'm used to the dark, but this feels like a house with bad dreams."
- Garrett's voice actor does a lot with his minimal lines to show just how unsettled he is.
- When he checks the way he came in and finds it locked... "It won't open. That's not a good sign."
- Then, when he finds Lauryl's blood: "This must be hers. It's still warm. Great..."
- While sneaking around, avoiding the God forsaken mockeries of what are left of the nine most extreme patients, you'll eventually have to start looking in the various patients' rooms to track down Lauryl's stuff. Besides the fact the puppets are near-relentless in ripping you apart, once you get near their rooms you get to hear their reactions to the place burning. Some of them are quiet, but a lot of the patients are shrieking in abject horror or bawling their eyes out. It just goes to show, even if they're predatory beasts now, the ghosts of these monsters were once human, just like you, and their spirits will constantly be reliving the day the fire came.
- Lauryl's nightie is locked inside ONE OF THE PATIENTS' ROOMS! Papers you can find in the Staff Tower will tell you that room belonged to a voyeuristic painter admitted to the Cradle for murdering sitters who wouldn't keep still while he was painting them. There's a portrait of Lauryl in the attic.note
- While in the morgue, take a good, long look at the design of the floor. There's a series of metal grilles to walk on, as there are in many places... except beneath this one is a river of (what appears to be) blood.
- Your final dash to freedom requires you to run right through the middle of a gathering of administrators who have the ability to kill you permanently, rather than sending you out of the patient's incarnation, and pray that they won't be able to react quickly enough to stop you.
- The fact that pretending to commit suicide is the only way you have of actually escaping this nightmarish level. There is also the subtle, unspoken possibility that you never actually escape, and that the Cradle is toying with you - forever.
- Say the words "Shalebridge Cradle" to any Thief veteran and you'll probably get a deer-in-the-headlights look and a hiss of fright. The level, set in an orphanage which had been converted into an insane asylum, yet still kept the functions of both. It had developed a malevolent sentience after being burnt down by a pyromaniac inmate. There were several moments in the level which were nothing short of viscerally terrifying, including:
- The Statues of the later levels are also rather disconcerting, in the way that they move and speak.
- "FIND AND KILL AND FIND AND KILL AND FIND..."
- "THE SOUND AGAIN AND FIND THE SOUND AND KILL AND KILL AND CRUSH..."
- "KILL AND MAIM AND KILL AND MAIM"
- Also just the fact that the statues are moving. Imagine all the statues you passed during the game, such as in the Hammerite Cathedral or the Keeper Compound. Now imagine Gamall's magic bringing them to life, one by one, every statue you ever saw suddenly beginning to move, and killing anything they see as an enemy (meaning basically anything they see)
- Another terrifying moment is right before the cutscene where The Hag brings the statues to life. Beforehand, you enter a room that has 4 gargoyle statues. After you watch that cutscene and go back, One of the statues is missing. And then you realize that it's too late.
- The first time you come across a zombie. What you see and hear is an odd, loudly snoring person that lies on the ground. You are most likely confused by this and want to know what the hell that thing is. Thus, you try to get closer. As soon as you do, the "person" gets up in a millisecond and jumps at you.
- Definitely not the worst part of the third game, but what about that haunted ship level? On your first playthough, it's definitely the worst part of the game up to that point. The level contains another instance of the "never truly explained" fear, as you never learn exactly why the ship's crew were all turned into zombies. The only "clue" you get is an otherwise normal log entry by the captain that cuts off in mid-sentence. Bonus points to the captain's quarters, which when you first enter appears totally deserted... until you see, in the distance, a staggering, stumbling zombie, moving around near a large hole in the wall which, on closer inspection, appears to have been caused by someone being thrown through it. What actually happened here anyway?!
- The room in the Overlook Manor with the mad, rambling captain's widow is also quite unnerving. Of course, she just sits there rambling away while you go through the room, but you stay on edge, not knowing if she will do something, or how dangerous she will be. Which pretty much sums up in a nutshell why there's so much stigma against crazy people in real life.
- The Eye. Yes, it's back. And it is still freaky as hell, with that breathy, whispering voice making disturbing comments all the time."Did they cry? Your quasi-brethren? Did they scream: 'Do not do this thing! It will destroy us all!' I suppose that's what they must believe... and I suppose they are right."
- If you thought Hammer Haunts were scary in the previous 2 games, oh boy, did they make them even more so in this game. Now not only do they still have the rattling chains, whispers and evil laughs from the previous games, they make a player bowel-voiding shriek of pure hatred at the top of their lungs whenever they spot you, attack or are killed. Have fun sleeping after hearing it and having them sprint at you at full speed.
- The introductory cutscene for the Keepers
. It shows a Keeper scribe writing down glyphs. Then the symbol he just wrote down changes before his eyes, and there is suddenly whispering, like the writing itself was trying to speak into his mind, or perhaps something is reaching out through the writing. The Keeper tears off the entire page, and the whispering cuts off completely.
