Playing as a stealth/crossbow build, I was able to assassinate all of the Thugs near the entrance to the Wormhole, one at a time without any of them showing the slightest concern for my doing so. I would go into combat, then activate stealth (I'd use special tactics at this point just in case), use snipe, then aimed shot and kill them in one round. None of the other thugs payed any attention to me doing so. Once I forgot to activate combat mode before I took a shot at a thug and the other thugs reacted properly. Apparently there's some loophole in their AI that allows you to kill them in one round of combat mode without the others becoming aggressive. I killed every single one of them in this way, although I had to stand well away from the NPC that talks to you so I wouldn't queue his conversation and aggro them. The only NPC that became aggressive was the last guard, standing next to the gate with a dog. His aggression seemed to be more to do with my proximity than my having killed all of his companions however. I was able to enter combat mode and snipe/aimed shot him as well, so long as I didn't get too close to the gate.
