October Exceptional Story: Our Lady of Pyres

[color=#ff6600]Delicious friends, the Exceptional Story for October is here! Meet the Sear Eyed Visionary and the Brazen Iconoclast in Our Lady of Pyres![/color]
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[color=#ff6600]Journey to a wrecked ship where two faiths are at war. Conspire against the New Sequence and the Conflagrati. Arbitrate in disputes. Hear confessions. Root out false converts. Deliver the Severe Bluejacket’s bequeathment to his former mistress.[/color]
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Our Lady of Pyres is the second story in the Season of Wrecks, and was written by James Chew. The Season of Wrecks will be three linked stories that send you to deal with three very different shipwrecks at the behest of a dying Severe Bluejacket.

All players will be able to visit the Bluejacket and his household. Exceptional Friends may, over the next three months, help him settle his final regrets. Each month’s story stands alone, but playing all three will unlock the season’s bonus content.

Editing and QA: Olivia Wood, Cash DeCuir, and Chris Gardiner.
Art by Paul Arendt.

EXCEPTIONAL FRIENDSHIP

  • In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:[/li][li]Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private member’s club on the Stolen River, packed with content[/li][li]An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six![/li][li]A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once!

Finishing all three stories in the Season of Wrecks will make you eligible for an additional opportunity, to follow.

If you want to keep an Exceptional Story beyond the month it’s for, you must complete the related storylet in the House of Chimes. This will save it for you to return to another time.
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[quote=James StAnthony][color=#ff6600][color=#ff6600]snip
[/color]Exceptional Friends may, over the next three months, help him settle his final regrets. Each month’s story stands alone, but playing all three will unlock the season’s bonus content.
snip
Finishing all three stories in the Season of Wrecks will make you eligible for an additional opportunity, to follow.
[/color][color=#ff6600]snip[/color][/quote]
Will these be two different things and will a player need to finish all the 3 stories within 3 months to acces the first part?
Cheers!
edited by Skinnyman on 9/29/2016

:The Fate of the Sear-Eyed Visionary.Well, this is in my messages, along with a bunch of spoilers I would say, I can’t access it though since I need to be in a specific place and I can’t cancel it because im not in that place, note, I was never an exceptional friend so…

edit:It’s gone now.
edited by The Master on 9/29/2016
edited by The Master on 9/29/2016

Oh, you were fast, Robin!
I read that last month’s ES doesn’t erase qualities (Investigation, DT, etc) when moving to the sea, but does this one erase them?

[quote=Skinnyman]Oh, you were fast, Robin!
I read that last month’s ES doesn’t erase qualities (Investigation, DT, etc) when moving to the sea, but does this one erase them?[/quote]
It did for me.

[quote=Skinnyman][quote=James StAnthony][color=#ff6600][color=#ff6600]snip
[/color]Exceptional Friends may, over the next three months, help him settle his final regrets. Each month’s story stands alone, but playing all three will unlock the season’s bonus content.
snip
Finishing all three stories in the Season of Wrecks will make you eligible for an additional opportunity, to follow.
[/color][color=#ff6600]snip[/color][/quote]
Will these be two different things and will a player need to finish all the 3 stories within 3 months to acces the first part?
Cheers![/quote]I strongly believe that the &quotbonus content&quot and the &quotadditional opportunity&quot are the same thing.

Concerning your second question: there is no time limit to accessing the seasonal rewards. Simply playing the 3 relevant stories - whether via subscription or bought with Fate - unlocks the reward storylet, and that storylet will remain open until you choose to play it!

A question of my own: have the &quotConflagrati&quot ever been mentioned before? The term seems strangely familiar, though I can’t say where from…
edited by phryne on 9/29/2016

[quote=Robin Alexander][quote=Skinnyman]Oh, you were fast, Robin!
I read that last month’s ES doesn’t erase qualities (Investigation, DT, etc) when moving to the sea, but does this one erase them?[/quote]

To be fair, I skim-read stories that don’t interest me, which helps with speed XD

The ones I love take me ages, as I pore over every last word.

I didn’t notice any quality changes, but I wasn’t particularly looking for them. I took the special option in my Lodgings, after doing the same biz as last time to unlock the story itself, and I think I managed to avoid any quality losses by doing so, but if someone were to take the usual zee-route through Wolfstack Docks, I’d imagine they’d lose it then (and it probably wouldn’t work in getting you to your destination, anyway, as that sets your zailing difficulty to 6).

Edit: BlabberingMat just reported losing progress, so I could very well be wrong.
edited by Robin Alexander on 9/29/2016[/quote]
Scratch that, actually. Due to the weird server hiccup, I completely missed out the part of getting quality necessary for proceeding with the story, so I went to the Zee with my ship, because I was at loss what happened. After a ton of actions sunk, I had to go back to London and actually start the story…-_-.

As PSA, until something is fixed (which I imagine will be soon) do not raise any Fervours past 5 - I am currently stuck in storylet I can’t perhaps not out of, unable to play any options. (Support email sent, of course, but maybe this will help some others from hitting a similar roadblock.)

EDIT - Already fixed, leaving this here just in case people saw it and get confused by its deletion. Everything is fine, go about your business.
edited by Barselaar on 9/29/2016

I’m mostly in agreement with Robin-with one exception for just this installment in particular. I like the Dawn Machine a whole bunch and am pleased to have had an opportunity to advance its’ hand just a little more, so I think this one will be the highlight for me of the whole set. Glory to the Machine. The Machine spins on.

I have but one potential regret: Did I make the right choice in telling the Visionary to remain with his flock? I remember Mr. Irons mentioned ages ago on Twitter he’s stocking weapons in preparation for the Machine’s advance, and besides-the Visionary seemed a little flaky beneath the fervor. So I thought it might be in the Machine’s best interests to build a stable foothold instead of extend its’ reach beyond its’ grasp.[li]

I still got the Dawn Element. I hope that’s a good sign.
edited by Hattington on 9/29/2016[/li][li]
edited by Hattington on 9/29/2016

Damn I forgot already where I was supposed to zail. Any help?

I enjoyed this one! I’m pleased that each of the Wrecks stories seem be differentiating themselves from one another well - this is about a far as one can get from the chilly wastes of last month. More New Sequence text is always a welcome thing, and I felt that the options left me latitude to side with and/or mess with each faction as I wanted, rather than railroading me into picking one of a list of options that didn’t resonate.

I’m feeling increasingly bad for the poor Bluejacket - please don’t break my heart next month!
edited by Barselaar on 9/29/2016

Raising both Ascendancies to 10 and Glimpsing the Future will allow you to conspire with the Bluejacket’s wife, unlocking the middle-of-the-road options once you get to the festival parts (it’s my understanding that it doesn’t matter whether you pick the Conflagrati or New Sequence intro storylet to these events, I think they lead to the same thing).
edited by Barselaar on 9/29/2016

Zailing Difficulty changes the challenge level for stat-based challenges on Zailing cards. E.g. the Fleet of Truth card has a Dangerous check on it. For normal Zailing, this is a Blue challenge for me at 160ish Dangerous, but during the Exceptional Stories, it has been a White challenge even when I push my Dangerous down to 100ish.

I think it may also alter the value of Bundles of Oddities you gain from piracy, but I’m not sure.

[quote=Hattington]I’m mostly in agreement with Robin-with one exception for just this installment in particular. I like the Dawn Machine a whole bunch and am pleased to have had an opportunity to advance its’ hand just a little more, so I think this one will be the highlight for me of the whole set. Glory to the Machine. The Machine spins on.

I have but one potential regret: Did I make the right choice in telling the Visionary to remain with his flock? I remember Mr. Irons mentioned ages ago on Twitter he’s stocking weapons in preparation for the Machine’s advance, and besides-the Visionary seemed a little flaky beneath the fervor. So I thought it might be in the Machine’s best interests to build s table foothold instead of extend its’ reach beyond its’ grasp.

I still got the Dawn Element. I hope that’s a good sign.
edited by Hattington on 9/29/2016[/quote]

If you don’t mind, could you PM what option gave you the Element. I wouldn’t want to miss to gain such a rare item in my playthrough (and it’s good to know what one has to do to assist the Dawn).

I always feel a bit sad doing these and not being able to play them through multiple times to see all text.

I am still doing it and I am playing both sides as both seem mad to me.

The issue is that as a new player of this wonderful game I have no clue on what either side represents and I cant say there is a lot of info in the story itself…

As such, I really have no reason to support either from an RP perspective. My character is self centered and wants to make the most out of this situation and gain the most… I hope I am not shafted for trying to play both of them.

I am having a wonderful time with this story so far. I got hooked into this world through Sunless Sea, and seeing hints of the Dawn Machine and learning more about animescence (or aminescence? I note that this story is spelling it ‘ami’ but I believe SS had it flipped) is getting me pretty revved up. I had a memorable shock during SS when I lost the Brisk Campaigner due to the progression of her animescence, right when I started grasping the conversion economies well enough to prepare to get her the right fixes. Perhaps I am somehow hoping to redeem this slippery failure through this story… In any case, I am enjoying the slow reveals, the crisp yet gradual outlining of forms and factions and desires. It is very promising, and I wish I’d left myself more actions to burn through before starting it!

I’m enjoying myself- although I spotted a typo at the point where you scheme with the Abiding Wife -

&quotYou’ve conspired with the Abiding Wife to sew dissent in the upcoming ritual.&quot

as well as at :

The Evening RItual is here
edited by radicalace on 9/29/2016

[quote=radicalace]I’m enjoying myself- although I spotted a typo at the point where you scheme with the Abiding Wife -

&quotYou’ve conspired with the Abiding Wife to sew dissent in the upcoming ritual.&quot

as well as at :

The Evening RItual is here
edited by radicalace on 9/29/2016[/quote]

[color=#e53e00]The person responsible has been keelhauled.[/color]

Honestly, I’m now at the Southern Archipelago and have no idea where to go. I went to the old sailor’s house in London to get the mission brief but promptly forgot where the Pyres island was. Was it behind Mutton island? Am I supposed to go there?

There should be a storylet in your lodgings.

You need to head back to London to get there.

Edit: It might be accessible at other locations in London, but I found mine quite far down in the Lodgings - you still have to go through the zailing, but it’ll lead you to your destination (it’s literally the only one that appears, you can’t go anywhere else, so you won’t be able to get it mixed up or miss it in any way).
edited by Robin Alexander on 9/29/2016[/quote]

Well this was an unnecessary zee voyage then. :) Oh well, always nice to smell the zalt I guess.

Thanks for the info.