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Al-Rabisu is one of the five main Order targets in Assassin’s Creed Mirage and like his cohorts, the final mission to take him down is a big one. As it’s the final part of the game’s Abbasiyah storyline, you’ll receive the mission to take down Al-Rabisu – the Demon – after digging into rumors of corruption in the House of Wisdom and finding the missing Banu Musa brother.
How to Complete the Mastermind in the Shadows Quest in Assassin’s Creed Mirage
After you’ve completed the Book Burner Investigation and the Ahmad Ibn Musa Investigation, you’ll be given one final quest in the Abbasiyah storyline, titled “Mastermind in the Shadows”. Your task is to track down Al-Rabisu, the head of the Order in this district, confirm his identity, and put an end to his schemes.
After reporting to the Rafiq, the investigation will lead you back to the House of Wisdom for the Great Symposium, where Fazil the Great Scholar – who Basim suspects is actually Al-Rabisu – will be giving a lecture. Make sure you’re stocked up on tools and elixirs before entering the Symposium, because there’s no turning back once you do.
Once you arrive at the House of Wisdom, speak to the attendant. He’ll inform you that Fazil’s lecture will begin shortly, but until it does you’re free to mingle with the other guests. There are two opportunities here to investigate Al-Rabisu’s identity: Nehal and the poet Arib.
First things first, there are some women having a conversation to the left of the main fountain. Sit on the bench nearby to eavesdrop and you’ll learn that Arib, the famous and mysterious poet, is attending the Symposium and is in the eastern courtyard. You can follow up on this later – for now, you have a little more investigating to do.
Near the steps to the right of the fountain, you’ll find none other than Nehal. Speak to her, and then follow her to Ahmad Ibn Musa’s office. Use Eagle Vision to find and examine the three schematics posted on the walls around the room.
When you’re ready, approach the final diagram on the wall near the door you came in. A short cutscene will play in which Basim and Nehal discuss the artifact they found in the Caliph’s palace in the game’s prologue.
Once the cutscene ends, leave Ahmad’s office and return to the main courtyard. There are two more NPCs you can talk to here: the translator you rescued from the Scriptorium, and an elderly astronomer. Both are highlighted in Eagle Vision, and neither one is necessary to eliminate Al-Rabisu.
When you’re done mingling, make your way east and you’ll enter another courtyard with a gazebo. The woman on the gazebo is Arib, the poet the women were talking about earlier and whose works keep ending up in the Order’s hands. Speak to her and you’ll have a short conversation about her poetry, after which Fazil’s lecture will finally begin.
Return to the main courtyard and follow the quest marker north of the fountain. Speak to the attendant and he’ll let you into the lecture. A short cutscene will play out, wherein Basim confirms Al-Rabisu’s identity as Fazil the Great Scholar, only for the man to cut the lecture short and flee.
Now you’ll have to find where Al-Rabisu is hiding, and there are two opportunities to do that. We’ll go through both.
Stealing the Gardener’s Key
Back in the main courtyard, you’ll find some people between the fountain and a refreshment table discussing Fazil’s unexpected exit. Sit on the nearby bench to eavesdrop, and you’ll find out that he’s probably fled to the secret basement underneath the House of Wisdom and the rooftop gardener has the key.
To find the secret entrance to the basement, find the man who let you into the lecture earlier. Speak to him, and initially, he’ll pretend like he has no idea what you’re talking about. However, hand over a Scholar Token if you have one, and he’ll suddenly remember that there’s a hatch leading to the basement in the western courtyard. Follow the new icon to the western courtyard, where you’ll find the hatch under the trellis in the picture below.
Unfortunately, the hatch is locked, and the gardener with the key is up on the roof. You can use Enkidu to locate him on the southern corner of the House of Wisdom’s roof.
To get to the gardener, circle around to the southern side of the building, then climb up the walls until you’re right below the patio where the gardener is working. This is a restricted area and he’s surrounded by guards, so you’re going to need to be quick about getting the key. Hide in the bushes until the guards walk away, then jump over the railing, pickpocket the gardener, and return to the bushes before anyone notices anything.
Climb down and return to the secret entrance in the western courtyard. Use the key to unlock the hatch, then make your way into the basement.
When you first drop in, there’ll be some stairs just ahead of you and a room with a divider, a patrolling guard, and some metal bars separating you from a guard sitting down. Sneak down the stairs and hide behind the divider until the patrolling guard walks past, then kill him and turn left down the hallway.
At the end of the hallway, stop and wait for the guard to approach. Once he does, take him out and continue forward, following the hallway and eliminating the guards that are posted in the side hallways. Most of them are either sitting down or have their backs turned, making for easy targets.
At the end of the hallway, you’ll see a big room with four guards in it – this is where the two opportunities to assassinate Al-Rabisu merge once again.
Learn the Passphrase
Back in the main courtyard, head north of the fountain. Behind the giant astronomical device, you’ll find a man standing guard in front of a door. Speak to him, and he’ll request a passphrase – of course, you don’t know what it is, but this is what you need to get into the basement.
To learn the passphrase, turn right to go up the stairs. Here, you’ll find two scholars upset over something related to Fazil. Sit on the bench to eavesdrop and you’ll learn that one of the scholars has lost one of Fazil’s most important works, and Basim will infer it has information about the passphrase.
Follow the scholars through the door they went through and you’ll find yourself in the library. It’s a restricted area, so be cautious going forward. Make sure to loot the chest directly in front of you if you’re low on tools, then follow the hallway around to the right.
Take out the guard inspecting the bookcase, then use the column to climb up to the rafters above your head. There’s a guard patrolling the hallway beneath you – wait for him to notice his friend’s corpse, then drop down to kill him.
Moving up the hallway, you’ll need to take out the guard standing next to the hiding spot on the right. Once he’s dead, climb on top of the hiding spot and onto another set of rafters. Parkour your way from one set of rafters to another until you’re looking down at a large room with three guards in it.
If you have three charges of Assassin’s Focus handy, use it to take all of the guards out at once. If you don’t, smoke bombs work just as well to cause enough chaos to let you take them out simultaneously, even the big armored guard. After all three guards are dead, read the note to your left and then continue down the hallway.
Sneak down the hallway, taking out guards as you go, until you reach an open doorway to a room with three guards in it. Hide behind the door and whistle to attract the guard in the doorway, then assassinate him and climb the bookshelf to air assassinate the other two guards.
Inside the room, use Eagle Vision to highlight a note that mentions a private reading balcony for Fazil to the northwest. Basim will guess that’s where the lost book is, so that’s where you need to go.
Unbar the door just behind the table where you found the note and go through to find yourself in the west wing of the library. Follow the hallway and take out the two patrolling guards, then exit to the balcony through the doorway about two-thirds of the way down the hallway.
On the balcony, follow the quest marker to the lost book sitting on a bench. Interact with it, and you’ll discover the passphrase: “Those Who Came Before are Those Who Shall Return.”
Armed with the passphrase, jump down off the balcony, return to the main courtyard, and find the man guarding the door. Give him the right passphrase and he’ll let you into a room full of books. There are a bunch of lore-filled documents here, but you’re looking for one of the bookshelves on the left. Use Eagle Vision to find the right one, then move it out of the way to reveal the secret basement entrance.
In the basement, go down the stairs. Take out the guard at the bottom of the stairs, then turn right. Kill the guard that’s patrolling the hallway, then take a left and go forward, taking out the guard that’s sitting down in a side passage.
From here, you’ll be faced with a large room with four guards – this is where the two opportunities to assassinate Al-Rabisu merge.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Assassinating Al-Rabisu
No matter which opportunity you took to get here, you’ll find yourself just outside a large room with four guards in it. Throw a throwing knife at the large oil jar in the middle of the room. The explosion should kill all four guards, but if it doesn’t, throw another knife at the second oil jar in the room to take out the remaining guards.
Once the room is empty, follow the hallway left until you come to the door to a holding cell. Enter, and you’ll find a note on top of a crate warning that all patients must be in the correct robes from this point forward.
To get a set of robes and disguise yourself, enter the cell with the iron door and crouch to get through the opening in the right wall. There’s a dead body in this cell – interact with it to get a set of patient robes, then exit the cell.
Continue down the hallway until you come across a guard with the quest marker. Follow him into the experimentation room where Fazil, or Al-Rabisu, is waiting with a giant, circular machine of some sort. Approach the machine and press triangle/Y to blend in with it.
A cutscene will start as Fazil gives a speech about the pursuit of knowledge above all else. Near the end of the cutscene, he’ll come and lean over you. Press R1/RB when prompted to deliver a one-liner and assassinate Al-Rabisu for good.
You’ll get the usual scene in the post-assassination dreamworld, then exit the House of Wisdom through a door to the left. All that’s left to do now is return to the Abbasiyah Bureau and report your success.
Congratulations, you’ve assassinated Al-Rabisu in Assassin’s Creed Mirage. For a visual walkthrough of the mission, check out this video:
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is currently available for PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
