This is probably the most tragic ES ever. Red Honey is terrible. :(
The story is great, it has just one big mistake:
How can there not be an option to deal with the Mnesomyne Den? And to destroy their Red Honey stock? Seriously? (or, for more ruthless characters, the option to keep the Den as a permanent location to buy Red Honey)
I mean, I got beaten up for telling the proprietor in his face what I thought of him. And then, that’s it? I just go home and suck it up?
I was actually searching all through London for some option I might have missed, waiting for another Epilogue card, whatever. Anything.
Make no mistake, the rest of the story was A+. But to leave this hanging? That’s terrible. You can’t just have the PC discover a crime ring of this magnitude, where people are blackmailed and tortured and everything, and then not offer any kind of closure. Any decision on what to do about all that.
Yea, no, this one left me feeling rather bitter. edited by phryne on 1/1/2018
For anyone who is interested, I’d like to get together a RP group to write our own epilogue to Steeped In Honey. An epilogue that will, in all likelihood, put an end to Mnemosyne’s, the Gimlet-Eyed Proprietor, and a good chunk of the red honey trade.
Seeing as the Red Honey situation seems to be of particular interest to so many players, it might even warrant its own story; something in the style of A Trade in Souls. I’m sure people would appreciate the opportunity to commit there characters to an ongoing story of fighting against the dealers, and Amsfield (and presumably others players, hope I’m not alone in this) would like the opportunity to be more regular users of the Neath’s most illicit high and to add an element of transgression to our hedonistic ways.
I’m guessing that none of the two “accidentally knock over the viles” compleatly get rid of the vagabonds honey?
I’m also going to guess that I couldn’t have have done both of them?
I have a question: what was the reward for this story? Because I definitely finished it (sent the Vagabond home), but I don’t see anything in my inventory. Weren’t we supposed to recover a coin? I only have the one from January…
I’m also not seeing anything under my Story drop-down menu relating to this story. Getting a bit worried now.
Nobody has yet mentioned the rewards for this story, other than
a Searing Enigma for sending the Vagabond to the surface. Would anybody happen to have a list? In particular, does any choice give a Dreadful Surmise (since I collect those)?
[ul][li]taking her to the honey den gives a Brass Skull[/li][li]sending her to the surface gives a Searing Enigma[/li][li]taking her home gives a Rookery Password
[/li][/ul][/spoiler]
Technical question. I started this story on the old site and finished it on the new site. When everyone else finished it, did it leave an icon in your Stories journal? Because upon conclusion it didn’t leave an icon in my Stories journal (or anywhere else) and I’m wondering if that’s a bug…
I finished it shortly after it came out and I don’t have anything under "Stories" related to it, either. I vaguely remember that, for a couple of EFs, the story trackers were hidden qualities. It’s possible this was one of those.
This was a fantastic story, and a very emotional one. It also sheds more light on the predicament of the royal court, who all became (physical) monsters after sampling a bad batch of red honey, which means that their affliction is not due to bad luck while being hedonistic, but rather while cruelly torturing other people.
While snooping around the charity house, you learn that at least one other Unfortunate wanted to abuse the Mistress’ generosity, but they were all swayed by her kind character and honest actions. In the case of the Repentant Rogue, though, that change came too late.
At the end I was very conflicted what to choose. Almost always I go for the truth, even if it hurts. But in this case it seemed there was very little to gain from the truth (she’ll never be able to be duped like that again anyway), and choosing to protect her emotional wellbeing instead would mean she’d have some peace of mind, she’d be able to preserve some of the personality she had before, and she’ll be taken cared of by people who love her.
As others wrote before, the lack of a choice about what to do with Mnemosyne feels like a glaring error. For comparison: I recently played Cut with Moonlight, and at the end you had a choice to call the constables on the meeting and have everyone arrested. Even though it felt tacked on since I didn’t speak with the constables even once in the story and it retroactively states that I was working undercover all this time, at least it gave a conclusion that was reasonable to expect and want.
I think it would have been easy to add choices like:
a. Burn / sabotage Mnemosyne and thus destroy all it’s current red honey stock (and possibly the bees as well).
b. Expose the Gimlet-Eyed Proprietor to the Constables / Ministry of Public Decency and let them dismantle the operation.
c. Blackmail the Gimlet-Eyed Proprietor.