anolki wrote:

Ok so for a few days I'd had an option that just says "Die" and since it was annoying me taking up space on my screen I clicked it. I kinda knew it was a foolish choice from the beginning but I figured it was gonna be pretty easy to get out of. But I'm kinda stuck in a slow boat passing a dark beach on a silent river. What's the best/quickest way to get out of there? Is there even a way you can recover from having wounds 8?

Yes; part of the point of Fallen London is that Death is a Menace area that can be left, just like Venderbight (for Scandal), the Royal Bethlehem (for Nightmares) and New Newgate (for Suspicion i.e. criminal conduct). The quickest way to get out is to be able to give the Boatman some furry animal/s in exchange for yourself (weasels or bats work). If you don't have any, there will be a deck of opportunity cards. Playing most of them (there are a few that will keep you deeper into Death) will gradually bring down your 8 (or more; more is possible in rare instances) Wounds and when your Wounds are back to 0, you will wake up at your Lodgings.

Playing Chess with the Boatman will also reduce Wounds, but ONLY if you can win against him. If your Watchful isn't very high yet, you may want to avoid this option.

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I have Watchful 88+16, is that enough? Also thank you for the advice! That's actually very helpful.
edited by anolki on 8/3/2019

Playing chess with the boatman increases in difficulty as you play. At first it's balanced for brand new players, so you shouldn't have any trouble with it. Eventually it'll get challenging, but you'll get new text and lore the more you play. (Some people even intentionally max out the quality tracking your victories.) If your chance of winning drops below 50%, you can play dice with him instead, which heals slightly more on victory than it hurts on losing.

Contrary to Cathy's advice, I would recommend not giving the Boatman your Weasels or Bats. For some reason those options take all of the relevant pet but give a flat Wounds reduction no matter how many you gave.


Finally, a generally-applicable tip. Red-bordered cards consume an action if you have one, but since they activate the moment you click on them, you can use them even without an action. The slow boat only uses these cards, so use up your actions with the Boatman first and you can play the cards for free. Other menace areas have these cards too, but mix them with regular cards, so this strategy isn't as relevant.