The Missing Candle is a reliably quiet pub in Veilgarden – the drinks are cheap, the food is… extant. These days it is best known as the meeting place of a very exclusive club – one that happens to include you.
The Candlefinder Society – the five greatest detectives in London – regularly meet to talk shop. Sometimes, you join forces to unravel the city’s most unusual mysteries. Today we’re releasing another new case for you to solve: the Case of the Pince-Nez Pirates.
Somebody has absconded with the Implacable Detective’s second-best pince-nez, and the Urchin Detective is determined that they’ll not get away with it! The crime may be trivial, but the chase is not – the trail leads down to the docks, and across the wide Unterzee. What could possibly be the motive for a crime such as this?
This case is available for free, and requires a measure of progress in the Evolution storyline to access.
Getting Started
Candlefinder mysteries are episodic stories set in London, available from the midgame onwards. To unlock the Candlefinder Society:
Complete ‘A Name in Seven Secret Alphabets’ (raise that quality to 7)
Complete ‘A Name Whispered in Darkness’ (raise that quality to 7)
Raise your unmodified Watchful to 90 or more
If you meet those conditions, you can gain access to the Candlefinder Society by drawing a guaranteed card in London. Once started, cases must be finished before you can start another one or replay a past case. Some, like this one, require additional progress in other storylines, or higher stats, to begin. Cases can be replayed; Fate cases don’t cost anything to replay. The reward for completing a given case for the first time is more substantial.
The cases are so much fun! Always happy to see a new one. And the artwork for the case might be my favorite of all the Fallen London pieces. The Society room looks so cozy, even with a tiger … or because of a tiger.
I think Candlefinder Mysteries are at their best when they’re about the detectives rather than the mysteries, and this one is delivering. Excellent banter between the detectives, even when one of them isn’t even in the scene. I love it when the Urchin Detective solves cases by being an Urchin, in ways the FLPC believably couldn’t or wouldn’t. Make a case breakthrough by getting distracted playing with a pile of lamp-cats, amazing.
Something I’m starting to appreciate is these stories let characters talk to each other, instead of just the FLPC, which gives the writers some different opportunities. I see new parts of both characters that I think wouldn’t come out in a conversation with my character. Especially for more expansive definitions of “character.”
This one was delightful! I second both that getting to know the detectives better and to see them interact with each other is the best part of these, and that it’s fun getting a reason to go back to activities and places I haven’t had cause to visit in a while.
The Urchin with the lamp cats and our cat-wrangling was just delightful, I was grinning the whole time! And how totally, genuinely aggravating she was throughout was perfect to balance out the adorableness and not let it get too twee; a good balance of childish obliviousness and unexpected sharpness, too. I did think they gave the game away a little early with the note in Port Cecil this time, but it didn’t spoil the fun for me. Really charming.
For sure one of my faves. I only twigged to what was going on when we hit godfall, but agreed across the board on the quality of the writing in this one.
Still extremely linear and non-interactive. But the story itself is very well written, especially comical elements and lighthearted atmosphere. Clearly the best of free Candlefinder stories.
That was awfully sweet. Whoever wrote this definitely seems like they’ve been around kids - but kids are annoying like this because they’re young and growing. Especially an urchin kid without parents or teachers to look after her. The cat wrangling was fun, and it really made me want to tell her that in September I’d help her get ONE lamp cat friend.
The Urchin and the Tiger are by far the most appealing of the detectives, and this had both. A brilliant treat, and very amusing. The Urchin especially had at least three quotes that are crying out to be added to our list of great (comic) FL writing. (“I never touched her dessert…!”)
The combination of playing this case this week with the snowball fight World Event being on is making me realize how tired I am of the “cute” urchin portrayals in modern FL. The hyperactivity, the speech impediments, the perky precociousness… I feel like early FL did contain these aspects, but they were more subdued and concise, so that they did not disproportionately dominate the stories that they appeared in. Now, reading any story with urchins in it is like getting your main course at dinner and then dumping an entire container of table sugar over it.
That’s an interesting point. Thinking back – maybe I haven’t been here long enough (a decade or so) to remember urchins ever being different. My early memories are mainly of ES, and certainly the characters in HOJOTOHO are not comical (though they are ex-urchins with a mission). And Mudlarks falls into a similar slot.
In the midst of body horror and general grossness, I’m always quite glad of a little comic relief. Smart, witty dialogue is one of my reasons to play. But it would be interesting to hear what others think.
Dunno. Urchin that gives out prophet birds to corsairs? No hyperactivity, no speech impediments, perky precociousness… maybe? Not sweet or comical anyway.
I guess there is a real overlap between Urchins and comic relief characters, but it’s not absolute. There have been comic relief rubberies, adults and even numbers in recent memory.
Do Urchins lend themselves to the role? Sure. Are they exclusively in that role? I didn’t think so.
