Did anybody else feel this way after reading the papyrus?
I really wanted a fifth option to ‘Fuss at the Duchess’ because of what I learned. I thought she was actually committed to her horrible sack of poison, not that she turned him into it for convenience’s sake. I’m a little salty over her betrayal.
[li]
edited by Johny Topside on 7/28/2016
The reveal confused more than angered me, actually.
Why would she sell her city to the Masters to save the life a guy she not only disliked, but attempted to murder in the first place? And why does she seem so devoted to the Cantigaster when we see the two of them together?
I think she had a plan involving the neath, since the bazaar was stuck with her city for longer than it wanted.
Alright, time to collect all the ending rewards.
Delivering the Papyrus to the cat: 1 Parabola-Linen Scrap, 12 Ostentatious Diamonds, plus more from epilogue?
Returning it: 1 Searing Enigma, 1 Touching Love Story, 2? Extraordinary Implications
Looting and lingering put me up 5 or 6 CP of Suspicion when I did it, and didn’t give me many benefits. Depending on how many of x items you have already, it may just lead to lots of "x hasn’t changed, because it’s higher than y" messages.
Pretty sure it’s just random as to whether you get the things, not based on how many you have. I got many "X is unchanged at Y" messages followed by getting the items on another attempt.
edited by Optimatum on 7/28/2016
[quote=Optimatum]Alright, time to collect all the ending rewards.
spoiler[/quote]
I have delivered the text to Mr Pages. My rewards was…
1 Collection of Curiosities and 1250 Pence.
P.S. Seriously, 2 times in a row! When will I stop forgetting about the No-Double-Spoiler Law?
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 7/28/2016
[quote=RandomWalker]Love the story, and the lore. So each book corresponds with a member of the council then? Has anyone matched them up with what we know about the council?
spoiler
[/quote]
I wrote some nonsense here:
http://community.failbettergames.com/topic22807-august-exceptional-story-the-calendar-code.aspx?Page=1#post157522
I must admit that the association between December and astronomy book is a bold assumption, too bold to be true, ignore it, please.
The Bazaar mention of March as "lolloping buffoon" is here https://twitter.com/echobazaar/status/366231650062958592 , though the only thing I know about him is that he gives coffee and the former March might be poisoned by a doctor we know.
And a further note and speculation for the cipher book and the empty book:
There are some other revolutionary characters which may or may not in the council: the Revolutionary Firebrand, the Secular Missionary, the Affluent Photographer, the Jovial Contrarian and the Curt Relicker. Some of them came Neath in recent, the missionary and the firebrand; they are unlikely to be Months. The Affluent Photographer is not a Month according to herself ("The Calendar Council. I’m not on it, of course"). The Jovial Contrarian might be associated with that of polemic, as I mentioned before.
The Curt Relicker "was ejected from the council after falling in love with December" according to Wikia and Spacemarine9, I suspect him to be related with the book of ciphers for what he usually does (e.g. "The Curt Relicker takes an armful of old newspapers and pauses. ‘Wait! I can see the code here. Well, almost. Monty, get the books! We decrrypt!’ "). Though it seems to have nothing to do with Mr Pages.
For the empty book: I suspect you, sorry, the player character. In one of the destiny after LoN, "The Council still meets in secret. This, you tell each other, is only a prologue, a trial.", sounds like you are one of the Months. And, in the text of the empty book ("Will they tell of your deeds?"), the word "your" is italic. Since the player character may or may not support LoN, I think this is just an implication of an empty seat (can be reserved for you) in the Council. But it is weird that this book is related to the quirk of Austere and 2 x Inkling of Identity.
I think I might have found a bug.
In "The Summer Collection" part of the library, the stroylet option "A gap on the shelves" is unlocked for me. One of the unlock requirements says "Unlocked when Lost In Reflections is:" and then a list of options, but none of them are checked for me. I haven’t played Lost In Reflections yet, because I started subscribing to EF a handful of months after that ES was released. I’ve played the storylet and gotten 1 carnival ticket from it. Is that what it does for people who have played Lost In Reflections too? Or is it different? Is it a bug that the storylet is unlocked for me?
That sounds like a bug. Got the same thing having completed LiR.
Edit: Nevermind.
edited by suinicide on 7/29/2016
Be wary of this one, lest you knock your Steadfast 15 back down to 14 and have to bloody grind it back up all over again.
The papyrus adds evidence to the identities of the Duchess and her father.
"He refers to her with these symbos: the sun-disk, above a cutting tool embedded in a wood block. And here: the youngest of six daughter."
The Aten is the disk of sun and Akhenaton is "Effective for Aten".
The Duchess is definitely Princess Setepenre, the sixth daughter of Akehenaten and Nefertiti, here is her name in hieroglyphs: the sun disk, the tool cut in wood block. That is the adze-
on-block, stp, for "chosen".
But if the Duchess is Setepenre, who was her husband-to-be? Tutankhamun has never married with her in our history. And the scribe knows "they will find out, and they will come for him", who are they? The other daughters for the betrayal of the loyal family? The masters for a fake lovestory between Duchess and her husband?
I’m surprised how wrongly I interpreted the papyrus.
I was so certain the scribe was the Bazaar, the noble girl the Sun, and the Snake a Fingerking, what with that combination of love and wrongdoing (amalgamy).
Apparently, I’m dead wrong. And now I gave the document to the wrong party.
[quote=Natan]I think I might have found a bug.
In "The Summer Collection" part of the library, the stroylet option "A gap on the shelves" is unlocked for me. One of the unlock requirements says "Unlocked when Lost In Reflections is:" and then a list of options, but none of them are checked for me. I haven’t played Lost In Reflections yet, because I started subscribing to EF a handful of months after that ES was released. I’ve played the storylet and gotten 1 carnival ticket from it. Is that what it does for people who have played Lost In Reflections too? Or is it different? Is it a bug that the storylet is unlocked for me?
Probably not a bug. As far as I can tell, that option is open for anyone who didn’t play Lost in Reflections and choose one ending. Presumably the book might be there with that ending.[li]
Speaking of which, has anyone who returned a certain mirror played and echoed the equivalent option that presumably exists?
I returned the mirror. The option in the Room of Summer is Read an account of an uprising, and the description is: "One book stands out from a crowded section about radical movements in Europe." T[/li]
[quote=RandomWalker]Love the story, and the lore. So each book corresponds with a member of the council then? Has anyone matched them up with what we know about the council?
[/quote]
My own thoughts and notes:
Winter
[ul][li]An astronomer, familiar with the Judgements. Madame Shoshanna? Or the Enterprising Astronomer? Or the Shivering Relicker?[/li]
[li]An academic, interested in radicalizing students. The Professor Denunciata of Infernal Rarefactions?
[li]A duelist or adventurer, used to fighting dirty. Most likely February.[/li][/ul]
Spring
[ul][li]A fool… or one who plays a fool? And talks in riddles. The Topsy King? Silas? The Capering Relicker?[/li]
[li]An expert on artillery and improvised ordinance. Colonel Pommery?[/li]
[li]A romantic, writing tales of strange love in the neath. Including the stone heart of the Manager? Of the Wry functionariy’s love lost over the dark waters? Sinning Jenny? Or Lilac? Who else would have access to the strange love stories the Bazaar covets? Maybe the Coquettish Relicker?[/li]
There is a mechanism in the room like the Liberation of Night, shutting out all light, and showing a soft purple glow over the map of london - perhaps connected to Irrigo and the cave of the nadir?[/ul]
Summer
[ul][li]Frivolous games and party planning are a facade over a desperate need for distraction. His Amused Lordship?[/li]
[li]A vision of a revolution - past or yet to come? Paris 1908? The Exceptional story of July?[/li]
[li]A volume of polemic, or the joy of argument… the Jovial Contrarian.[/li][/ul]
Another mechanism to shutter the room, an immense device with wheels of fire - another part of the Liberation machinery, or the Dawn Machine?
Autumn
[ul][li]A cryptographer analyzing the speech patterns of Mr Pages, and finding strange connections to cosmology. Curt Relicker?[/li]
[li]A collection of nightmares confessed to physician and priests, and an analysis of how to use them to manipulate. Dr. Schlomo? Or the Manager of the Royal Beth?[/li]
[li]A blank book, of a future yet to be written. But whose deeds will be recorded, and who will record them?[/li][/ul]
Another darkness mechanism, and a ceiling of surface stars. A return to the surface, or a return to the stars (The Road destiny)?
I’m kind of intrigued by being able to fit the Relickers into some of these roles - though the Coquettish Relicker fits a little awkwardly, the others all make pretty good sense.
Oh, I quite like this one, it’s certainly contending for top 3 (though I think Lost in Reflections and obviously Flint still have it beat). Anyways, lots of interesting implications as to the members of everyone’s favorite Council based on the books (see everyone’s suggestions above - I’m especially intrigued with the possibility that the Contrarian is a month what with that book of polemic and all). I am however more than a little angry at myself for choosing the "return" option at the end. Being the idiot who can’t make connections and/or read the text that I am, I assumed that "return" meant return it to the subject of the story, not the library. I now realize that I should have given it to a certain 4 legged agent of said person. Oh well, I suppose I shall have to wait a few months and go through it again.
edited by Crazycryodude on 7/29/2016
edited by Crazycryodude on 7/29/2016
I’ve played through to the end, and I have to say, this Exceptional Story was exceptional. Exactly the sort of thing I’d love to see more of. But I was left with a question:
Does anyone have any thoughts on what happened to the Scribe—the poor, betrayed third party of this particular love story? Typically, all members of the love story around the Fall of a city are shown survive, whether they want to or not. But this one seems entirely absent. Could the Scribe have actually perished, since this love story seems to be a manufactured one, or has someone seen any lore about that this tickles? I have some thoughts, but zero proof, so I’d like to see if anyone else has a line of similar or different thoughts.
[quote=tsukinofaerii]I’ve played through to the end, and I have to say, this Exceptional Story was exceptional. Exactly the sort of thing I’d love to see more of. But I was left with a question:
Does anyone have any thoughts on what happened to the Scribe—the poor, betrayed third party of this particular love story? Typically, all members of the love story around the Fall of a city are shown survive, whether they want to or not. But this one seems entirely absent. Could the Scribe have actually perished, since this love story seems to be a manufactured one, or has someone seen any lore about that this tickles? I have some thoughts, but zero proof, so I’d like to see if anyone else has a line of similar or different thoughts.
Considering how long ago it happened, I’d say he’s clearly dead. There’s no reason he would have been a part of the deal to sell the city. I don’t think the story is manufactured either, the only previous instance of manufactured love stories known is a case of a Master trying to create an environment specifically to create stories.
I didn’t even get my steadfast back when I gave the thing to the original commissioner. >:|
[quote=Kukapetal]The reveal confused more than angered me, actually.
[/quote]
[spoiler]She never loved the scribe. She loved the man who became the Cantigaster. She pretended to murder him to manufacture a love story that the Bazaar couldn’t use (because it was false, and premeditated) which is why the Masters hate her, and hate Egypt. Aten’s daughters ‘lured the Bazaar to them,’ though I’m not clear on why they wanted to capture it.* The Masters were stuck with her city and no progress towards their goals for a thousand years, I think, before they were able to acquire the Third City.
*Actually, I thought about it some more, and I think maybe they were deliberately trying to hold the Bazaar back so that the message it has for the Sun wouldn’t cause it to self-destruct. But this is just conjecture.[/spoiler]
edited by Lamia Lawless on 7/29/2016
Help help the text snippet links are broken oh god oh god.