Did I lose 8 stat points for NOTHING? (SPOILER)

Sunless Skies
1

I’m going to put this whole thing in spoilers because it happens late in the game and is completely optional. But this one pretty much broke me.

I love this game. I want to make that clear. And I get that one of the themes is helping people escape judgment. But this…

At Piranesi, you can help free the Servitor by going on a fetch quest for Mr. Barleycorn. Then you have to convince the servitor to actually leave. One way to do this is to offer to be his &quotscapegoat&quot. Which means permanently losing five points in one stat, three in another, with no way save leveling to get those points back (and I was already at 20 when I did this). It’s a huge price, and you’re given plenty of chances to back out. I thought, okay, this is the whole point of the game–I’ve helped worse people and paid high prices to do it.

When you make the sacrifice, the Servitor doesn’t thank you. He won’t even talk to you, and doesn’t appear to even leave Piranesi. Mr. Barleycorn doesn’t even acknowledge what you’ve done. There is literally nothing behind this wall.

Once or twice in the game, I thought, okay, shame on me for thinking I deserved a reward for helping people in need. I should do it out of the goodness of my Hearts. I’ll even do the self destructive stuff, just to see what happens–I went full SMEN in FL.

This is pretty rough, I won’t lie. It’s worse than the nonsense in the Blue Kingdom. I’m a fan of the game, and all Failbetter games, and I’ll get over it, but it was enough to make me rethink my decisions going forward.

Enough venting. Let me turn this into a question. Does anyone know if there’s a point to this storyline? Does it go somewhere in the long run, and I just need to be patient? I want to believe.
edited by naraoia on 2/12/2019
edited by naraoia on 2/12/2019

2

I remember that this quest was pretty abrupt during the beta when I did it the slow way.

When I freed the servitor, I took him to New Winchester where he disembarked and just kind of left. This might be a long shot, but maybe try New Winchester? I did all of this by convincing him to change through Hearts checks, and it sounds like that was longer but less painful.

Either way, ow. That’s rough.

3

Thanks. I think I was just getting too worked up over this. Maybe I should just chill.

4

it’s cool. There are some pretty rough stat losses in the game at places like Traitor’s Wood and the Avid Horizon, and it’s no fun losing a full facet’s worth of a stat without knowing what you’re getting into. The only place where this really bothers me is

gaining access to the highest level of the Calendar Council in Pan. All of the factions have some manner of loss or risk attached to their ultimate rewards, but a guaranteed 5 point loss to one of your stats is really punishing, and the trade in Moments of Inspiration in Corncrake House is pretty overpriced. Granted this was in the beta, and I haven’t joined the Anarchists in the full release - maybe things have changed a bit?