Commiseration: Our most painful failures

I absolutely tought the Gallant Tomb-colonist storyline would end with an opportunity for marriage. The Wiki just destroyed my romantic dreams.
Who will I marry now? He was so lively! So dashing! So fascinating! Can’t we live together in the Tomb-Colony? I visit the dusty place so often, it’s like a second home.

Of all the times I have failed in Fallen London the one that still sticks in my mind as particularly frustrating to this day, for some reason, is when I was uncovering the secrets of the face tailor and failed a shadowy challenge, missing out on the scowling flint idol.

I’ve probably had worse failures but for some reason this one always stuck with me more than anything else.

Camping at the Bazaar’s Sidestreets.
Trying to draw the “Skin of the Bazaar” card.
A week there and still no results.

For me it would be losing my Aunt to devils. She got better, though.

The other time would be when I misclicked and accidentally fed a missionary to my house plant. Then I decided that since I messed up I might as well start feeding coalmen and missionaries to my plant until I realized I am a monster and decided that my plant will have to make do with a diet of sorrow spiders.

Oh, you sweet child of False-Summer… I don’t envy the grind you’ll have to go through at all.

I have an alt who is trying to get his quirks to zero. It’s harder that I thought it would be. I picked up some connected : devils to start a salon, but then wanted to dump them, to clear my deck back up.

Turns out that picking the church option on the conflict card (warn them about the devil’s plot regarding the relic) is somehow austere.

So because of that mistake I now need to convert the austere to hedonist (easy enough), convert that hedonist to melancholy (weather at last card), convert that melancholy to subtle (weather at last, again), convert that subtle to steadfast (the gentlemen in blue), and convert that steadfast into ruthless (plotting against the masters), at which point I can drain it in the carnival mirror.

That one mistake means I have to draw five more specific cards before I reach zero quirks.

All this leads to one question: why is warning the church about sabotage an austere act?!

Sigh.
edited by RandomWalker on 5/6/2016

Packed a little more than 1100 candles to visit Flute Street, used all of them mid-way, had to come back home and try again.

Then, I went to do unfinished business at Veilgarden to get some candles, and, in my first try at the priest storylet, I got precisely 1 (one) candle as a random reward.

To get how angry the RNG was at me, I went to my second trip to Flute Street with 1200 candles and I ended it with more than 600 spare candles when all was said and done.

Probably not my worst failure, but I just ended my second Polythreme Promenade in a row with 77 CP of Investigating.

The goal is level 12, which is 78 CP. It resets for the next go-round, so 77 is no better than 0. If I had known one action sooner that I wasn’t going to make it I could have at least cashed it in for 60 Romantic Notions, but once you’re at the end of the carousel it’s level 12 or bust.

Doing the Affair of the box. I’m in Spite, doing things for or against the Masters to open the damned thing.
Clicked without reading. Apparently, the pro-master option is always the second one in every storylet… Except one.
And now I am a Turncoat. Grrrreat.

My plant went on a losing streak from the Contest of Voices down to the Contest of Cunning.

Hardly in the “most annoying” category, but still frustrating:
I have been trying to work on the Fidgeting Writer story, and had started working on it in batches so I don’t have to keep switching activities as much. I just lost five Deals with a Devil in a row, wiping out all my Glimpses and nearly all my Bright Souls in the process; I think the odds of that are right around 1 in 100.

Been aiming for Professor for my title, finally finished the University story and got my Featuring quality to 30. Did some resource shuffling to get the shit I needed for it like the Uncanny Incunabulum. Accidentally wasted my Connected Urchins card. Since I’m not yet POSI I spent fate to get a favorable circumstances and get the card back.

AND THEN FIND THAT I NEED TO BE A RESPECTED ACADEMIC STILL AND IDK HOW LONG THAT’LL TAKE BUT I’M SURE IT’LL INVOLVE THIS POSI NEEDING NONSENSE WITH THE UNTERZEE AND HIS AMUSED LORDSHIP. Wasted fate, and time, for nothing.

One month. That’s what it took me to get back to being a respectable academic. Then, I needed a whole week to draw the Urchins card again. To be fair, I could have accomplished it earlier, but I wanted to see if I could get the materials to bribe the sneering gentleman without having to grind much.

On the bright side, I had lots of fun grinding the research pages. But then again, I AM a scientist in real life. Researching is fun to me by default.

Not exactly a terrible failure, but my alt lost one of his favourite pets, gotten by a rare success no less, by failing five consecutive times the check to get rid of Plagued by a Popular Song. Oh, and I discarded by accident the Amanuensis card when I just needed one more level of Making Waves to have my first point of Notability. It was less than 24h before TtH. Hooray.

While going through string of Heists to obtain Cider (eventualy I’ll be here, quarter of the way is already through) I eventually met that Suspicion 8 once again, and some really bleak consequences of newly high Criminal Record. Let’s just say it set me back for 1.6 month of farming…

Yep, there’s a reason Heists aren’t a great grind. Profitable, but if you get unlucky…

(Also one reason why you shouldn’t turn items into cash until you’re going to use it.)

Grrrrrr.

Going to write a letter, accidentally click on the wrong button and — POOF I gave up my profession.

After all the . . …

I was so frustrated. I try to write the game, in my RP, but this threw me so badly I wasn’t sure I could/wanted to. In the end I decided it needed to non-canonical to my personal story and that I had to get it back before anyone saw I was missing my glasses.

Spend Fate for more actions – gonna need 'em for what’s coming as I was just about out. Then buy Favorable Circumstances, and Summon the Church, become a campaigner. Buy more FC, Summon the Church, become a Mystic. But MORE FC, Summon the letter, try for Glassman . . . . watch it fail on the first try . . . . cross fingers for the second chance . . . . . and breathe a huge sigh of relief at not needing to buy more Favorable Circumstances and do it again.

So, expenditures of actions and fate complete I can now pretend this never happened.

Well, except for mentioning it here, I guess.

;D

My mistake, it is capped at 20. now i don’t regret it as much.
edited by Grenem on 5/27/2016

Wanted to increase Connected:Urchins, didn’t realize was out of Lucky Weasels, sold them the Location Of The Cave Of Nadir, which I was planning to keep secret.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUU…

I joined the game solely to act as a social action sink for my friend, then she went inactive when I came back. Boo!

I’ve had too many failures on Straightforward and Low-Risk challenges to count. On a note of something that’s my fault, I recall that on one occasion I got some Dramatic Tension, then went Zailing.

Paid for Mr.Wines’s revels and failed at the payment card. TWICE.