A question of vanishing options.

At two points in the game i have had options that allowed me to reduce an inconvenient quality to my person that has vanished inexplicably.

Namely, during the black ribbon quest line i was introduced to a fine doctor who could heal my wounds with a minor donation of rostygold to his person, who has vanished within the darkness of the neath. Additionally, at one point during my non-legal acquisition of various goods the topsy king helpfully used his influence to reduce my suspicion with the constables in exchange for catering a feast of fine quality rats.

Both of these options are no longer offered, though I can not discover the reasons for it.

Any help would be appreciated. The doctor’s disappearance is not as much a concern, as i can heal my wounds with rest or useful tinctures of a mysterious nature, but as I know of no other means to reduce my suspicion reliably aside from asking for help from my acquaintances. i would rather love to know why i can no longer participate in the feasts of the topsy knig.

Some things are dependent on your stats or making your name quality.

For suspicion I use Confound the Constables under Opportunism in Spite. You airs of London need to be at the right level to see the option but playing any of the other choices will eventually mean that it will turn up.

&quotNikolas & Sons Instant Ablution Absolution&quot can reduce both suspicion and scandal, too.

Nikolas Pawnbrokers have a drink for every menace !

(sponsored intervention)

I usually take advantage of Counting the Days to reduce Suspicion, and also my Dazed Raven Advisor. Neither is reliable, but I find them both adequate. I used to rely on ablutions, but they no longer seem to be as ridiculously effective as they used to be, even for people of my social standing.

Thank you lady ciel, your information was most useful. I either hadn’t noticed the confound the constables option or more likely i had forgotten it in a grand drinking binge of epic proportions.

The downside to Ablution Absolution is that it stops working after getting arrested too much, so in my naive early days my failure to deal with menaces has locked me out of one of the best ways to deal with them.

I’ve found that the Ablution Absolution is pretty useless for removing scandal. It’s fairly effective for suspicion, unless, of course, your criminal record is too high, as optimatum mentioned.
For scandal, I personally use the Attend a church service found in lodgings. It usually works faster than the ablution absolution and is free. Of course, if the RNG hates me, sometimes I end up with more than I started with…

For those with alts available, the best way to reduce Scandal is duping your alt.

The &quotyounger&quot your profile the harder it is to deal with certain menaces. Namely because you fail actions a whole lot more and gain more menaces over time. This is doubled upon by being randomly locked out of highly useful menace reductions like the Black Ribbon Doctor, not having connections or expensive items to provide you with nice opportunities, and not yet being a PoSI. On my full decked out character I am rarely troubled by any sort of Menaces to the point of needing to actively reduce them. Usually I can wait the week out or use one of my myriad of opportunity cards to clear away whatever I might have built up over the week.

Let me see what cards are available to lower ranked players. I get a lot of nightmare reduction over time from my reprehensible lizard. It is not at all reliable but is quite useful. My tame sorrow spider also helps reducing wounds, though it can increase scandal. The de-shrieked mandrake can also help reduce Nightmares. All of those are gambles, but they are not bad gambles and show up in your opportunity deck quite frequently.

You can work to cultivate relationships with the various NPCs like the Sardonic Music Hall Singer, the Regretful Soldier, and etc since they offer very nice menace reduction if you are hurt. The Sardonic Music Hall Singer removes a lot of nightmares but very little wounds allowing you to hopefully reduce your Nightmares quite a bit. The Regretful soldier does a wonderful job on restoring your wounds. The real advantage to the four acquaintance-NPCs is that there is no luck involved for their Wound treatment.

When you reach watchful 100 you can reduce your nightmares easily by visiting the Mirror Marshes, there is a portal in the house of mirrors. The Mirror Marshes are far less punishing than spending time in the Royal Beth. Once you are a Person of Some importance you can cultivate even better menace reductions, such as joining the Parthaneum for suspicion reduction, God’s Editors for suspicion and nightmare reduction, and you also eventually unlock Dr. Schromo’s counseling as an opportunity card for nightmare reduction. Of course, being a PoSI weakens all of the potions that once were so helpful in keeping you sane.

Honestly, the single best way is to find a few friends (or make an alternate account) and use social actions. If you trade Nightmares back and forth with even just one person eventually you both will be sane again and it is much less action expensive than getting yourself hurt in order to try and reduce them that way or sinking into the Mirror Marshes. No one would use social actions if they were not substantially better than others available to you, the reason they are constantly recommended is that they are always available and so very useful. As someone who went from 5-200 stats without anyone’s help, I’d have managed it so much faster if I had someone to help with menaces or generating second chances with me.
edited by ShroudedInLight on 11/7/2016

[quote=Victor Alexander]
When you reach watchful 100 you can reduce your nightmares easily by visiting the Mirror Marshes, there is a portal in the house of mirrors. The Mirror Marshes are far less punishing than spending time in the Royal Beth. [/quote]

One comment - you don’t need to use the portal, that costs more memories of light I think. You just need to have at least one memory of light when your nightmares go to 8, and you’ll end up in the mirror-marches instead of the royal beth. Mirror-marches are a very pleasant place, I highly recommend.

Having a Lizard, and the beeswax to feed, is a very good thing. If you are lucky you get memories of light and a nightmare reduction.

[quote=Victor Alexander]
When you reach watchful 100 you can reduce your nightmares easily by visiting the Mirror Marshes[/quote]
Just FYI, they’re the Mirror Marches, not marshes. It would make sense if they were marshes, but this is a place on the edge of parabola we’re talking about. It’s not going to make sense.

Marches make perfect sense - the Mirror Marches are the borderland between Parabola and the Neath.

The Marches is the term for the border between Wales and England and Alexis has some connection to Wales so would definitely have known that.

Marches are also the etymological basis for marquises/marquesses and marchionesses (of which we know there are likely quite a few in Parabola)

[quote=lady ciel ]Marches make perfect sense - the Mirror Marches are the borderland between Parabola and the Neath.

The Marches is the term for the border between Wales and England and Alexis has some connection to Wales so would definitely have known that.[/quote]
Aha, well, I was ignorant of that use of the word. Thank you for the explanation!