I really enjoyed this ES, although it was a bit soured by the fact that I played it as soon as it dropped, and I was basically playing QA by having to report 3 separate major bugs. Nonetheless this was very much a "no filler" ES and I enjoyed it greatly. As to what I chose to do
I seem to be the only one here who sided with the Brass Embassy, as a result I was given the option to perform the execution myself, which I did. What resulted was getting a Bright Brass Skull on top of the Searing Enigma I received at the end, making this far and away the most profitable ES out there aside from Flint. Additionally it was nice to gain some Renown: Hell out of siding with them.
Often in Exceptional Stories you’ll have to pick between two factions promising a big payday if you side with them. In effect, you always end up with 62.5 echoes of value making the choice pointless from a profiteering standpoint. I’m pleased to see this Exceptional Story bucking the trend and adding another wrinkle into the loyalties you choose. edited by Bovolt on 3/29/2019
Yes, this sounds like better design! I must say though, I hope it’s not always the “evil” (using the word here VERY liberally) choices that get the extra rewards. This is of course a dark game, and the assymetrical rewards tending towards the darkest choices reflect that, but since nothing is a monolith I would hope to see that too.
I must say I had no idea where this story was going until we found that Brass Door. At that point, I admit, I had a short "Oh no, not devils again" moment. Is it just me, or is Hell slowly taking over these Exceptional Stories? :P
Of course, I love archaeology/adventure stories, so I couldn’t not love this one. But I fully agreed with the Classicist’s last words, "That didn’t have as much relevance to Roman history as I’d hoped," and my monster-hunter character was deeply disappointed at the end that the devils wouldn’t take her with them on their hunt. She would’ve loved adding a Prince of Hell to her trophy collection. ;)
I would like to read the echo for unleashing the Unburdened Beast to disrupt the execution, if someone has it on hand. Btw I really hoped I’d be able to bring it with me to London as a pet but I guess that wasn’t possible on any branch of the story?
[quote=phryne]I must say I had no idea where this story was going until we found that Brass Door. At that point, I admit, I had a short "Oh no, not devils again" moment. Is it just me, or is Hell slowly taking over these Exceptional Stories? :P
Of course, I love archaeology/adventure stories, so I couldn’t not love this one. But I fully agreed with the Classicist’s last words, "That didn’t have as much relevance to Roman history as I’d hoped," and my monster-hunter character was deeply disappointed at the end that the devils wouldn’t take her with them on their hunt. She would’ve loved adding a Prince of Hell to her trophy collection. ;)
I would like to read the echo for unleashing the Unburdened Beast to disrupt the execution, if someone has it on hand. Btw I really hoped I’d be able to bring it with me to London as a pet but I guess that wasn’t possible on any branch of the story?[/quote]
I agree with the Classicist too; I wanted more on the Mithraic cult in particular.
I’m not surprised about Hell creeping in, though, as I think they are a linchpin to what is really going on in Fallen London. (And I think that even though I haven’t had the opportunity to play Sunless Sea or Sunless Skies.)
EDIT: I’m not currently an Exceptional Friend, but my husband is, and I watched him play through the Story. edited by cathyr19355 on 4/6/2019
Finally found time to play this story, and I really enjoyed it. Adding actual significance to our choices through the story was very nice—many ESes expect us to just choose every option outside the Decision Points, but here practically all the exploration sections had mutually exclusive possibilities. I very much enjoyed having to consider my actions more carefully, even though it meant a lot of agonizing choices. (My one objection to this was the excavation section at the beginning, where it wasn’t well communicated that there wasn’t time to do everything.)
My one quibble with the pacing was the return to London, which felt very abrupt. Given the amount of time we spent traveling on the road, finding myself back in London in the span of one action was very disconcerting! The text described exploring and evading Parabola’s dangers, but without doing so as separate actions it felt glossed over. I was glad to see that the return wasn’t the end of the story, though, as the actual conclusion was lovely.
A warning to those who are concerned about Renown:
There is a choice near the end of this story that will lower Renown: Hell, if you select a particular option. Doing so lowered my renown from a hard-earned 50 to 49. Narratively it makes sense that such a choice would lower my standing with the faction, but I find myself annoyed that the consequence was not warned for, mechanically.
Yes, I can see that. Especially when you are warned only half of the times, and in half the ES. Even more so, as Renown was supposed to be different than connections: hard to get, impossible to lose.
[quote=Bovolt]I really enjoyed this ES, although it was a bit soured by the fact that I played it as soon as it dropped, and I was basically playing QA by having to report 3 separate major bugs. Nonetheless this was very much a "no filler" ES and I enjoyed it greatly. As to what I chose to do
I seem to be the only one here who sided with the Brass Embassy, as a result I was given the option to perform the execution myself, which I did. What resulted was getting a Bright Brass Skull on top of the Searing Enigma I received at the end, making this far and away the most profitable ES out there aside from Flint. Additionally it was nice to gain some Renown: Hell out of siding with them.
Often in Exceptional Stories you’ll have to pick between two factions promising a big payday if you side with them. In effect, you always end up with 62.5 echoes of value making the choice pointless from a profiteering standpoint. I’m pleased to see this Exceptional Story bucking the trend and adding another wrinkle into the loyalties you choose. edited by Bovolt on 3/29/2019[/quote]
I sided with the Brass Embassy as well, as the Church seems hellbound (pun intended) to make matters worse, not better.
However, I did not get the option to do the deed myself, nor did I get a skull. I think this was cause I made them stop instead of looking on at first?
The instructions are a little unclear. I camped three times with no effect, so I’m pretty sure her eyes hatch when you camp after that quality reaches three.
The instructions are SUPER UNCLEAR FOR A GREAT MANY THINGS, it turns out. I had a bunch of moments where it seemed like someone might die because of a choice, and the moment it was clear about who would die, SOMEONE ELSE ALSO DIED, so I ended up with most everyone dead. Also, despite spoiling myself beforehand because I frankly would rather not redo stories that go super wrong, all advice regarding the creature was rendered completely useless by the fact that there was another option nobody mentioned and that could have been construed as the same thing.
I was told to spare the creature, so I worshiped it to make it go away. Guess what, that doesn’t count, so I had exactly two options in the end and one of them said it would just kill the classicist… but also killed the veteran.
The whole thing was super soured by how unclear the signposting was for big decisions. I was really enjoying every part of it that wasn’t a decision! I really wanted to see more of the creature but only saw it exactly once. I really wanted to like the story, and I really liked it at the start, but by the end, it became one of my least favorites for entirely mechanical reasons. edited by MidnightVoyager on 4/5/2019
I logged in to forums just as I started the story, darting my eyes away from spoilers, to praise the art. Somehow this picture really really moved me. The pose, those eyes, love it.
Watch the Turncoat’s execution[/li][li]Sacrifice the Classicist to facilitate the Turncoat’s escape[/li][li]Unleash the Unburdened Beast to disrupt the devils’ plans
Does anyone know the option to keep the most characters alive? edited by bertrandwins on 4/11/2019
Likewise, I have to praise the art for it’s potency. Though the feelings it evokes in me aren’t love but visceral, gut-churning horror.
I am having huge difficulties completing this story because of her eyes. Her eyes.
The macabre, Cthulhulian narrative of The Ceremony wasn’t a problem for me, I even revelled in the body horror of that story. But this. This. Thank you for, if nothing else, introducing me to one of my limits.
I loved this story. It’s been a long time since I felt actual apprehension and tension while playing Fallen London, and while that’s not really why I play, it was a welcome surprise. The mechanics were strong but not without issue, and I’ll have my thoughts on the narrative beneath the spoiler.
Mechanics
The Hope and Vigour quality was very fun to play with. The survival element and the threat of the Classicist’s death created the tense journey, as every decision had to be evaluated of whether the knowledge gained would be worth the cost. For a story I paid for and can only play through once per playthrough, that’s annoying, but I can’t fault the way it added to the story.[/li][li]There were not enough surprises, though. For me, at least, it’s the threat of a surprise - the possibility of losing all of your Hope and Vigour, for instance - and the lack of knowledge of the Devilbone Road that creates the survival tension of Hope & Vigour.
[spoiler]Narrative
The choice at the execution was easy for my character. She’s an ally of the New Democracy and a revolutionary, and so it was clear that the Turncoat had to die. The temptation of finding a hidden passage to Hell without the devils’ knowledge was enough to avoid informing the Brass Embassy, but she was perfectly willing to stand by and watch the execution. I feel sorry for the Unburdened Beast, though - it never deserved the treatment the devils gave it.
I enjoyed the fact that you couldn’t make it out of the Devilbone Road with everyone alive - that there was no "golden" ending. This makes the choice of who lives and who dies all the more meaningful. From the mortality clock on the Classicist to the shattering of the Abyss of Mirrors, the threat of death imbued the narrative with a sense of meaning, and it was genuinely very incredible to rest immediately after the Abyss of Mirrors and for there to be nothing. This kind of emergent narrative was utilized very well, in my opinion.
The way "Tauroktonos" delves deeper into the Bishop of Southwark is likely to be its lasting legacy, though. For all his lovable idiosyncrasies, the Bishop really is a dark character, haunted by what’s likely post-traumatic stress disorder and willing to condemn London to another brutal, deadly war for the chance to overthrow Hell. He’ll work with the Masters and the Fingerkings alike if it helps achieve his ends. His dealings with the Brimstone Convention aligns with that layer of realistic pragmatism to his spiritual fervor.[/spoiler]
Though with the Bishop of Southwark making a notable appearance here in "Tauroktonos" along with "For All the Saints…", the Feast of the Rose, and the Season of Celebrations ending, we could speculate that Failbetter may be preparing for a greater spotlight - say, a second campaign in Election 1897? I’ll leave that as speculation for now.
This was a pretty good story. I thought the exploration elements struck a good balance between linearity and non-linearity. Also, although I normally try to do everything in Exceptional Stories, knowing that for many options I wouldn’t be able to do everything made the choices feel much more meaningful, especially as the Hope & Vigour quality forced me to weigh the present option against the possibility of not being able to take an option in the future. And I love that this, like many of my favourite Exceptional Stories, starts out seeming like it’s going to be about one thing, then slowly revels itself to be about something different. The ending was a little abrupt, though.
I’m a little disappointed that there was no option to free the Unburdened Beast, but still let the Old Turncoat be executed. My character isn’t a huge fan of either of Hell’s factions, so he wouldn’t have been too upset to see that monarchist executioner receive some poetic justice. However, he didn’t like allowing that adorable little monstrosity to be tormented.
edited by Nudraxon on 4/15/2019 edited by Nudraxon on 4/15/2019