Game play Related Article: Robbing the Cradle
If there's a way to cram more misery into one building's history, I can't think of it.
Garrett on the Cradle
The Shalebridge Cradle is an abandoned and haunted building located in Old Quarter, first seen in Thief: Deadly Shadows. The story of the Cradle is known by many residents of the City, and most of them tend to avoid approaching it.
History[]
I could tell you where it is, but that would spoil all the fun...
This page contains spoilers! Read on your own peril.
The Shalebrige Cradle was designed by the architect Moresy Blander, who considered the building to be his life's work. The Cradle was originally an orphanage, but was later converted into an insane asylum; however, for a period of time it functioned as both. The children were moved to a separate ward, but shared much of the space with the asylum patients.
One night, a fire started in the staff wing. No one knows how, but much can be deduced from the facts that the staff were callous and brutal in their treatment of patients, one of the inmates was a pyromaniac, and a lone chair was subsequently found in the ruins, placed so that the sitter would be looking directly at the tower as it burned. The fire destroyed some of the upper portion of the building. After this the building was abandoned. Before the orphanage was closed, two orphans had an encounter with a being called The Hag. One of the orphans, Lauryl, was killed, and the other one, Drept, survived, later joining the Hammerites and spending his life researching the Grey Lady that had killed his friend.
Recent history[]
During the events of Thief: Deadly Shadows, Garrett ventures inside the Cradle and encounters the ghost of Lauryl, who asks for his assistance in freeing her soul from the malevolent building's clutches; the Cradle, which had seemingly gained some form of sentience over the years of its tragic history, is capable of "remembering" its denizens, and similarly "knew" Lauryl. In order to release the girl's soul, Garrett has to remove or destroy several of her personal objects from her life remaining there - a vial of her (still warm) blood, her diary, and her nightgown - to make the Cradle "forget" her.
Depending on the chosen difficulty of the mission, the Cradle is inhabited by eight to nine Puppets, the (seemingly) Undead former asylum inmates; Garrett also visits a past version of the Cradle, which he finds inhabited by shadowy revenants of the Cradle staff. All of the Puppets are found within the Inner Cradle. Additionally, the building has its own memory, mind and will. There is a school of thought that this is the only consciousness present in the building, and that the puppets and staff are not actually undead, animated by some life-force of their own, but simply dead, and manipulated by the Cradle itself as a child might play with a doll. It is even capable of holding anyone who entered it for eternity unless they are freed by outside forces. The only way to leave on your own once trapped, is to convince the Cradle that its victim is dead. Garrett does this by entering the Cradle's past and jumping out of the highest point in the Staff Tower.
Treatment methods[]
Several draconian methods of treatment and therapy were practiced by the staff of the Cradle.
- Minor cases were prescribed rest and observation in a low security wing. Medicines like sedatives would sometimes be used in treatments.
- Doctor Hanscomb invented and wrote about heat therapy in his book, Heat Therapy to Ameliorate Dampness in Hyper-Emotive Patients.[1]
- Doctor Pettihue was known for using water therapy, specifically "submerging".[2]
- Notably, both heat and water therapies at the time were not validated; the doctors were essentially experimenting on their patients.
- Electroshock therapy was used, sometimes with disastrous results. A. Solzer, whether because of an accident or foul play, was administered shock therapy and received permanent brain damage.[3] Wet wraps would be applied either during or after shock therapy.
- Lobotomies were used on dangerous cases, though little regard was given to the patients' well-being. Members of the medical staff entertained the idea that botched lobotomies could potentially yield more information about the patients' condition, going so far as to purposely "keep the training to a minimum" in order to increase their knowledge.[4][5]
Known Inhabitants[]
Staff/Doctors[]
- Arthur, Miss
- Desmond
- Hanscomb, Doctor
- Lovewell, Nurse (disfigured by patient E. Poshtoll)[6]
- Pettihue, Doctor
- Ranker, Doctor
- Riley, Treasurer
- Sandbridge, Doctor
- Sorrel, Nurse (dead)[6]
- Stu
Patients[]
- Elliot, V. (Case No. 8)
- Gunter, M. (Case No. 2)
- Izen, S. (Case No. 3)
- Nuvio, J. (Case No. 5)
- Pins, C. (Case No. 7)
- Poshtoll, E. (Case No. 1)
- Solzer, A. (Case No. 4)
- Topper, F. (Case No. 6)
- Wrenfeld, A. (Case No. 9)
Orphans[]
Other[]
Behind the Scenes[]
Shalebridge Cradle may be a reference to the (1999) remake of House on Haunted Hill. The film's plot revolves around a party where the guests are at a house which was formerly an sanatorium until a fire many decades before. The characters are trapped when the old lock down system activates and are picked off one by one by the house and each other until it is learned that all the guests are the descendants of the original staff who had escaped the fire. Shortly after the darkness is released, which kills and entraps all but two who manage to escape (out of an attic window). The sequel film explains that an evil idol was responsible for trapping the souls of the patients as well as the other victims in the house. Its removal from the house via a drainage pipe allows the souls to escape.