Appreciation for the Cheesemonger storylet

Good evening, fellow adventurers of the Neath,

A few days ago I reached the endgame of the ‘Agent of the Cheesemonger’ storylet. (Yes, I’m rather slow, both ingame and in real life.)

It took me quite a while because I discarded a lot of the related opportunity cards at first, because I was working through something else and needed some other cards to come up. But once I finally applied myself to it, it was a delightful story - gripping, fun to play, and bittersweet at the end.

I wonder what opportunities my rather grim new status as a Bringer of Death will bring in the future…?

I don’t know about the long term effects of the Bringer of Death quality (I finished the Cheesemonger storyline too, but without permanently killing anybody ^^), but one thing jumps to the eye: the description of Bringer of Death ends with “this may ultimately be the key to your future”. It’s the same phrase I read in another Quality description… I don’t remember exactly, it was something related to devils. Hellfarer, maybe? So probably there will be long term consequences, though at the present time they may not have been written yet.

Also: are there other qualities described with the phrase “this may ultimately be the key to your future”?

There are. I have those two and also Fist of the Bazaar. There may well be others that I don’t have.

Yup, the ability “Empire’s Kingmaker” is also described that way. Interestingly,if memory serves, “Bringer of Death” didn’t always have that at the end if was recently added.

Also, I agree with you that The Cheesemonger storyline is one of the best written in the game.

Bringer of Death used to be an Accomplishment, but now is a Story. It used to track how many times you’d committed true murder. Now, I’m not sure.

And there are multiple ways to get it. The Black Ribbon can give you a rank for instance. I’m currently Bringer of Death 2

Out of curiousity, was there any way to end that storyline where the Cheesemonger [color=#ffffff]didn’t end up dead? I killed her enemies to avoid killing her and/or her daughter, and came back to find her dead anyway. [/color]

Yes: [color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]If you chose not to kill anyone and instead groomed her daughter as a replacement, you can have Alice retire and become a nun, to hide and atone the rest of her days.[/color]

Damn. Oh well. I would have preferred that outcome, but what’s done is done.

i have to agree with @LukeMcMillan. I personally wish that about many of the stories. They really do need better differentiation at the end of some of the major stories.

I would like to jump on the appreciation bandwagon. The story definitely had a profound emotional impact on me – the way things just kept escalating and getting more and more disturbing, then the multiple reveals towards the end…brilliantly executed. My final choice was to [[color=#ffffff]kill the major operatives[/color]] – a terrible choice, I know, but after seeing [[color=#ffffff]what the Game had done to Alice[/color]], I really felt for her. I couldn’t just betray her by [[color=#ffffff]allowing the Game to continue[/color]]. Of course, that’s probably the worst choice overall – [[color=#ffffff]Alice ends up dead anyway and the Game isn’t stopped – the whole thing was meaningless in the end[/color]]. I was absolutely horrified and on the verge of tears when I read the conclusion. Wonderful, wonderful story, I really hope there are more like it later on.
edited by Little The on 3/16/2012

Thank you all for your kind words.

You make me happy.

Nigel.

I cried. Thank you, Mr. Evans.

And I just realized a possibility, as a chaser after the Vake. [Speculative Spoiler] [color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]Alice became a nun. I wasn’t pursuing the Vake at the time and didn’t know how very militant nuns in the Neath could be. Perhaps her quiet and contemplative retirement is not so quiet after all? [/color][Spoiler]
edited by Maddyanne on 3/16/2012
edited by Maddyanne on 3/16/2012

I chose the SPOILER[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]Alice’s monastery retirement[/color]SPOILER option, and in the end I was so happy with it that my character ended up dancing in the streets (on Twitter) quoting the Ninth Doctor. A brilliant storylet, and one that left the player with utmost freedom of choice.

—Just wanted to add, mine were happy tears. I wanted the best ending for Alice I could get so much. It was still fairly early days for me as a player and a lot of my character’s development happened because of the choices I made in this story.

Yeah, my character is the epitome of spoiled rich kid (does what he wants, doesn’t care about others. Sold his soul for the lols), so he killed Alcie

Adding to the thumbs up. I did the ruthless thing, and occasionally take the opportunity card just to feel guilty about it. A crystalising moment for Ambrose after a lot of time spent being shallow at the Palace.

Having fallen madly and irrevocably in love with the Cheesemonger, having sworn to make her happy and carry out her wishes to the letter, and having hoped that the end of this sorry business might make her amenable to settling down together in a quiet handsome little townhouse somewhere…

…the end of that story still weighs heavily on the soul of the Incorrigible Raconteur. And now, of course, he’s up to his neck in the Game anyway. Keep telling your scandalous anecdotes, Raconteur: the louder they laugh, the longer before you remember her face.

Yeah, it was an incredible character-building opportunity for Perrin. The storylet really crystallized his character for me, and I loved the story quite a lot myself.

Because of this thread and nostalgia, I played the opportunity card and got a response I’d never gotten before-- I got Someone is Coming 1 - Distant Footsteps. Is this new? I’m rather excited, regardless. I played the storylet long enough ago that I’m thrilled to have another mystery about it.

EDIT: Ah, it is a new thing! I’m intrigued that I got it from that card.
edited by Perrin May on 3/21/2012

The Cheesemonger was the first victim in the long chain of people whose trust I gained, and whom I subsequently betrayed to the Masters.