I did in fact forget changing outfits unequips the shell, but corrected that posthaste. Now after, hell, what feels like 60+ actions of aimless meandering I suddenly got 3 Jellyfish in rapid succession. Either they actually upped the jellyfish drop rate, or the RNG decided to have mercy on me.
The Abyss awaits.
Edit: CONFOUND IT, if only it were legal to drink Hesperidean Cider while zailing…
Edit 2: Bless the Pillared Sea offering you the opportunity to capsize your own ship. There is something fundamentally wrong with the idea of drowning to optimise your action efficiency, but I have taken full advantage of this mysterious Treachery.
I’m really enjoying Evolution, and still having a blast committing acts of piracy - er, privateering - against ships of the Khanate! However I arrived at the Court of the Wakeful Eye to gather things for the diving bell (with no turns left, so waiting for my candle to regenerate), and picked up a bit of an earworm:
In the Jungle,
The Fungal Jungle,
The Tigers meet tonight!
In the Jungle,
The Fungal Jungle,
The Tigers meet tonight!
Just thought I’d share. And again, I’m truly DELIGHTED with this story!
The abyss has been plumbed! There is a Regret-Beyond-Death, the greatest regret of the Flukes, that somehow lives under the Boatman’s river. And the stone tentacle keys moulted shells, old bodies it discards. The Naturalist shall have his funding, come Hell or high water. And it turns out the Implacable Detective has had 8 spare stone tentacle-keys up her sleeve all this time.
I really like how instead of giving you, I don’t know, an item called Khanate Diving Bell parts or something like that to construct the diving bell you get actual items that previously existed, like the lightbulbs and the crackling devices. It makes everything feel so much more connected and real.
I, for one, feel totally comfortable about the idea of descending into the vast pressure of the depths in a diving bell constructed from old light bulbs and things that crackle. What could possibly go wrong?
At last, confusing things begin to be elucidated. The Boatman’s river lies below all but one, and yet everything connects to it.December was always seeking to break the Chain, was always seeking to rebel.Curiosity drives even the most staunch of all of us.Irem was always the end, will always be the end, is the end. The Traveler will always return (is returning, was returning). North and East and to the horizon of death itself. The Chain was always broken. Or perhaps it was never broken at all.
I can’t wait to see how this ends. This entire story was enrapturing, even as I built further and further into the Hinterlands, approaching Hell itself with steam and Red Science. This entire story, however, has been nothing short of a treat. The new mechanics are amazing, the use of old ones genius. Even the likes of the end of Cricket, Anyone? didn’t match up to my excitement as the Naturalist and I went deeper and deeper. From what little we’ve seen of Irem already, this is going to be nothing short of one of Fallen London’s best stories. Thank you Failbetter Writing Team!
Okay, so I’ve died twice and I’m beginning to remember why I hated Zee Travel so much.
Also now having the Naturalist on board your ship doesn’t get you sent back to the surface with a working ship if you meet the Fathomking, they should probably put that back in.
And another thing, our Zailing Hand should be the same size as our everywhere else Hand.
While the first half was a little action heavy, I didn’t much mind. And everything from we start to dive was amazing! But amazing writing, fantastic ideas and the revelations we got when got deepest down.
This story has been spectacular. By far my favourite piece of content since the ending of the Ambitions.
And this hints that things might tie into one of the Destines just makes me brim with excitement!
I doubt that will happen in the last chapter, and is possible something else coming down the road, but I’m delighted regardless.
This story has been wonderful and I certainly how that Failbetter will make more larger segmented stories in the vein of this and the Railway going forward. If so then I’m so thrilled at the prospect of what is to come.
Enjoyed the dive, and what came after it.
Did not particularly enjoy the preceding part of zailing in stop-start circles, cancelling and restarting trips over and over again until I eventually finally either drew the card or had to visit a safe port to stave off disaster.
The scavenger hunt for parts was mostly fine (had a hell of a time finding the fleet of truth), but the mapping bit just went too far. Should have at least boosted the frequency of the card more.
I really liked the dive and the descriptions of regions (long winded descriptions of terrifying/beautiful things is kind of why I play the game). I can’t decide whether the actions counting up and taking longer and longer to dive was a fantastic way to use the game engine to give a sense of slow, lengthy progress or a frustrating action sink, but I’m glad that it continued to a point then swapped for a different mechanic. I wish I’d known I was going to need nightmares, scandal, suspicion etc (I cleared them all before diving).
And again, I’m truly DELIGHTED with this story!