[quote=Amsfield]I was trying to guess the Assistant’s agenda and what betrayal they had planned against me and possibly perpetrated against my former lover. I was a little disappointed that it was all relatively benign.
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Yes, that was a small thing that disappointed me a little as well. (not a lot, I’m splitting hairs at this point.)
What was the point of the warning we got in the golden book? He said that the game was rigged and that we were not meant to win. But there seemed to be no tampering with the game, everything was fair if challenging. And even if you lose you are simply brought in alongside the others anyway. The Courteous Assistant are clearly displeased that you are in there, but it seems more like she is just a sore loser at games than that you were actually spoiling some sinister scheme of hers.
Another thing I really liked about this story is how you could chose your relation to the Antiquarian and that it was noticed by the other guests, it gave another dimension of immersion to the story. The fact that I was investigating a mystery concerning a distant and slightly eccentric but fond cousin made my even more invested in the story. . edited by Akernis on 7/28/2017
Just finished the story myself. I, too, loved it except for the end.
I had thought that I was just making sure whether or not everyone wanted to stay, not trying to make them leave. Honestly, if the Antiquarian hadn’t asked, I would’ve left them there in Parabola. I saw no ill-intent from letting them stay. Not to mention, for my character, sticking it to the Masters would’ve been a bonus for her.
I hope I did the spoiler tags right. I can’t see in preview. >< If not, I’ll edit.
In the end I think it’s more a matter of probing their own feelings, as is the wish of the Antiquarian. Despite being tempted to just leave everyone to rebuild that nifty temple, I talked to everyone and all except the Courteous Assistant (who was just unreasonably piqued over my briefly binding a portion of her essence to a simulacrum) decided to leave with me.
In addition to having very high Persuasive, I also worked up to rank 10 in Friendship of the Company. Not sure if that was used for the final choices, but if it wasn’t I have no idea what other purpose it served in this story!
Thanks for the echo. It seems there’s no appreciable difference. I decided to just leave without trying to convince anyone and the result was exactly the same, sans the very first sentence about not leaving alone. Now I’m just curious as to what that OTHER flag filled option was all about. I would think the regular leave option would be sufficient if you failed to convince everyone. Not sure what the point is of having another option for specifically failing to convince each person. Unless I misunderstood what those flags meant.[/quote]
I think the flags just mean everyone has decided, not that they’ve all chosen to leave. Each person you speak to gives you a decision quality with a numeric value, and the Courteous Assistant chose differently than the others. One option for leaving doesn’t require any decisions, the other requires all of them. I think it might still be possible to leave via that second option without them all having decided to join you, just so long as they made their decision.
[quote=Tofan Bogdan]What to choose first from Midnight Hallways:
Explore the Ground Floor
Explore the Upper Floor
Explore the grounds?
If you wish you can PM me, please.[/quote]
I don’t think it really matters, there’s resources you need everywhere, and places to use them everywhere. I guess maybe upstairs, useful item there? edited by Amsfield on 7/28/2017 edited by Amsfield on 7/28/2017
[quote=Akernis]Another thing I really liked about this story is how you could chose your relation to the Antiquarian and that it was noticed by the other guests, it gave another dimension of immersion to the story. The fact that I was investigating a mystery concerning a distant and slightly eccentric but fond cousin made my even more invested in the story.[/quote]I agree, this was definitely a nice touch. That, and the option to argue, mediate, or drink during dinner. Little story choices which allow for a bit of characterizing role-playing without concern for rewards or consequences.
In the end, I sabotaged her work and took all of them I could from the forgotten dream of the sun-filled temple. There are matter of love and matter of dreams, but the Masters cannot take city on their own. The City was sold, not stolen. They never are stolen.
One day, for my people, I will swim among the stars and stab those who deserve it in the back. The inescapable shall devour him who hurt the one who has been kind. Prehaps we all have crimes we have to be judged for… no, not prehaps.
But maybe, just maybe… if we will be together and take care of each other.
Issue with that is that I don’t think everybody HAS the Ushabti. I don’t think acquiring it is a required part of the story. That’d also explain why it’s chilling in our Story qualities instead of, say, in our Curiosity items. So I’m not sure what the Exceptional Item is this time… maybe it’s in an epilogue card? Except no such card was mentioned in the end of the story, and nobody here’s mentioned such a card… Worrying. edited by ReusedNPC on 7/28/2017[/quote]
You actually do have an ushabti. It’s a required part of the story.
[quote=Fadewalker]I love this story. The fate of the six daughters of Pharaoh and the reflections of a long-gone city. It reminds me of Calendar Code and Gift, for the use of deduction and speculation. A very delicious puzzle game with charming writing and tension-building mechanics. One of the most enjoyable stories for me.
(Is the menace of A Stiff Drink an entirely new thing? I haven’t met or noticed it before. I kept drinking and drinking all the way during the party and throughout the squabbles, but nothing terrible happened except "A Stiff Drink has not changed from 6 because it’s higher than 5". Just wonder if there is something hidden.)
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The only effect of drinking I noticed was that I got different storylet texts from playing cards during the initial reception party.
During the dinner drinking also provided a way to avoid gaining any Friendship of the Company, effectively moving you further from the old friends and closer to the Assistant. I’m still not sure what ramifications that has on the overall story, and if it affects your ability to persuade them to leave with you.
I had one question about the results, since so many others seem to have chosen to leave the temple without speaking to the other guests.
I took the option to leave after getting a decision from everyone, and my reward was a Searing Enigma. Did anyone get something different for making the other choice?
Also, did anyone choose the sabotage option, and did it affect the final choices in any way?
So just so I’m clear. If I get a decision from one of them they will automatically leave? I’m happy to talk to them about the decision but I’d rather leave them here if talking to them makes them leave.
Along with just being pissed at this motley crew tricking you, some people don’t like anything to do with Parabola due to how dangerous it’s been for many cities and groups. With that and the base fear of "new crazy magic shenanigans! scary!", talk of a new sun may frighten players wary of replacement suns (I mean, the Dawn Machine wasn’t exactly a good start for that concept). Other than those reasons that are stretching logic to rationalize it, yeah, it pretty much feels like a dick move for the sake of being a dick. Part of me wishes that they’d have given better reasoning for messing with the daughter’s plans, even if they weren’t great or concrete reasons, but I also like the idea of the options being "being evil for evil’s sake VS being a decent person with no self-sacrifice required" in a game where those kind of options aren’t always a constant.
You could make a better argument for convincing the members of the party to leave, but to me it just seemed like needlessly convincing people what they wanted wasn’t in their best interest when they were already happy with the outcome. I think it was partly a tie-in to the fictional king’s / the daughters’ willingness to give up their lives to follow their dreams and desires, though I don’t have much reason to think their aspirations are any less valuable as their usual lives. Still, though, it was a nice tie-in.[/quote]
[li]
This more or less mirrors, no pun intended, my thoughts exactly. I think the clincher is how goshdarned NICE all parties involved are about the whole thing: The partygoers genuinely seem more like bumbling dorks than the kind of people who’d deliberately try to get you too drunk to win the game, all things considered the Assistant is a good sport about having her voice nicked (admittedly my character has killed for less. Far, far less) and the woman behind it all? Is incredibly courteous and kind for someone whose dad was a solar god-king.
Even if I didn’t think raising artificial cute baby suns and terraforming Parabola was totally awesome, I can’t help but think the sabotage option stood out as an RP-targetted thing. As a new player, I’d definitely consider this place as an option better than being squished under a new city.
Anyway, as you probably figured-I did NOT behave like an awful, awful guest. Though I did talk the others out; maybe I chose to be an outsider to the Antiquarian but I didn’t really feel invested in him, it more or less struck me as a whim since if they seemed like goofballs in every other area, i figured they probably hadn’t thought through their decision to leave reality either.
And pleasantly surprised things ended civilly with the Assistant! She was a bit of a tedious action sink, but I can respect dedication.
Firstly the story is extraordinary. I didn’t expect there’re still other survivors from the Second City [spoiler]and the sun skin in Parabola is failing, I think this means much more than I can conclude now but I’ll put it aside for now. I didn’t interrupt her work. Probably she can finally finish it with in my character’s lifespan.
But his story also raised more questions about the true identity of Duchess. What I concluded from the evidences and OA’s words contradicts with those from previous stores:
Bag a Legend, Mother Superior: "Kept the youngest sister hostage while the rest of us ran for it. We ended up here." The hostage is said to be the youngest
Calendar Code epilogue, the letter bears the signature of a sun disk above a tool. The sun disk being "Re" and the tool "Stp", with which the only match is Setepenre, the youngest daughter.
From the two pieces above I concludes that the Duchess is the youngest daughter and the hostage. But from this ES, OA says the youngest one perished on Surface. This put the Duchess’s identity into mystery again. A wild guess could be the sisters traded their identities secretly and they are still doing this way til today. But still OA’s words are different from MS’s, and both of them survived the second city so there’s no way one of them know the identity trade but the other doesn’t.
And this time the hostage is the fourth daughter. The note came with the key of "into the vengence" said the "Perhaps this ought to go third", and later the doors also confirmed the guess. The third door bears a poisen-green indent, which likely refers to Cantigaster’s poison, and since the order of doors is reversed, the Duchess is the fourth daughter.
So who is the Duchess? It is either like OA is the lier (she knew so much that I can hardly think she doesn’t know who the Duchess really is), or both the Duchess and MS (which then means OA is telling the truth and thus betraying her sisters)[/spoiler]. edited by Delta67 on 7/29/2017 edited by Delta67 on 7/29/2017
Like others in this thread, I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the ending. As a glassman and given my destiny (Or, at least, I recall a destiny leading folks into Parabola… doesn’t seem to match the one I actually have. Did I dream that?), letting them remain behind the mirror is VERY much in character for me. They like it there, and get to survive whatever horrors happen in the Neath. And yet because of that, my ending is I just shrug and leave. It feels… anti-climactic. edited by Urthdigger on 7/29/2017
Oh, let it be anticlimactic for once! Let all shall be well! Too many times we have to go back in our lodgings searching the cupboards for absinthe - this time we just witnessed a groupf of friends do something dangerous and wonderful, and got back in time for dinner. I for one am fine with that.
It’s quite possible to have a story end with "all is well" and yet feel satisfying.
In this case, all that was needed was an option to discuss with each character what they want to do, and only then make the choice whether to convince them to leave it not.