A Vatican spy descends to London, leaving chaos in her wake. Why has she surrounded herself with a congregation of adoring Rubbery Men? To what uncertain end does she drive them? And what lies dreaming in the vat she’s left behind, waiting to emerge…[font=facitweb-1, facitweb-2, &quotLucida Sans Unicode", &quotLucida Grande", sans-serif]
Written by Nigel Evans[/font]
Art by Tobias Cook
Editing and QA: James Chew and Olivia Wood
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Anyway, I spared the New Dreamer because I had a pretty good idea of what she really was, and hey-I think I was right at the end! Definitely wasn’t expecting ROMANCE to be on the table and, well, didn’t have the heart to say no to such a charmer. It’s a shame the Marais had to go for her sake, but it was always something of a false construction to begin with. Also silly me, I hauled away the Abbess thinking I could turn her in for a bounty or something.
It’s a shame the New Dreamer went on to do her own thing. I know who I’m definitely saving up Masquing for during next years’s Feast of the Rose in the hope she turns up there.
Wow, I can’t believe I enjoyed this story so much yet again. I really feel like they’ve been on a really great streak for some time now. I’m starting to need too many wives though, first the Zeefarer from a few months ago and now the New Dreamer? If this keeps up Feast of The Rose next year is going to be expensive indeed
Really great story, love me some rubbery content. Dunno if the fate of Axile has been…shown? in so much detail before, but even though I’m a bit sympathetic I gotta agree - F the Flukes. Let the rubberies grow.
Made a friend, sussed out the truth (masters/black coral), didn’t fall for a bad deal, exiled a failure of a spy/person, and would have done more to protect those who were learning to dream if I could.
Side note: lot of typos in this one, more than usual.
“Anyway, I spared the New Dreamer because I had a pretty good idea of what she really was,”
What was she? I didn’t get it.
I also didn’t make her go down to the Flukes, of course; given how they’d just betrayed the Abbess, I had no real reason to trust they wouldn’t just destroy Marais anyway, even if I did send them what they wanted.
[quote=Hattington] Also silly me, I hauled away the Abbess thinking I could turn her in for a bounty or something.
[/quote]
What happens if you haul her away to London? Trying to decide between taking her away and letting the mob get her. I’d rather not leave her in play to become a servant of the flukes.
[quote=Amalgamate]"Anyway, I spared the New Dreamer because I had a pretty good idea of what she really was,"
What was she? I didn’t get it.
I also didn’t make her go down to the Flukes, of course; given how they’d just betrayed the Abbess, I had no real reason to trust they wouldn’t just destroy Marais anyway, even if I did send them what they wanted.[/quote]
Now, I’m entirely sure if this is the case and ostensibly the truth is she’s just some experiment the Abbess cooked up in preparation for her own transfiguration, but a few things didn’t add up to me. She had to flee from Flute Street to do it, which as anyone who’s a regular there (or has played a certain ES) knows is home to all kinds of shenanigans ranging from people turning themselves Rubbery, Rubberies turning themselves into people and whatever process results in the Rubbery Hound. Whatever the Abbess did must have been abhorrent, at least to the locals, even by those standards. More to the point she had a bunch of off the cuff comments that amounted to giving me the impression that if her humanity were to be dissolved by the Flukes’ administrations SOMETHING would have remained, just nothing human. And finally the boldness of the Flukes action here is frankly unprecedented in my memory of Fallen London; the Flute Street Flukes are famous for being LESS militant than the Lorn Flukes of the sea. Which brings us to the matter of how the New Dreamer’s powers are constantly growing, the inchoate being she started out as and how the thing the Flukes want from her is specifically a dream of Axile.
The Flukes themselves are described as a primal form of their race. But what if they weren’t THE original template? The other ES hints at massive leviathans being in their bloodline somewhere. What if…what if the Abbess stole or created something far more valuable than she initially realised, and the New Dreamer is a kind of Jurassic Park-style recreation of the most primordial Axile life? Like a Fluke without the spines and the punishment cast down by the Judgement that may have obscured their memories of home.
[quote=Scienceandponies][quote=Hattington] Also silly me, I hauled away the Abbess thinking I could turn her in for a bounty or something.
[/quote]
What happens if you haul her away to London? Trying to decide between taking her away and letting the mob get her. I’d rather not leave her in play to become a servant of the flukes.[/quote]
Disappointingly, nothing interesting; the story just proceeds as if she had died or been exiled, and she disappears from it but for some disappointment from the Deviless at the end.
Read your echo (had to dig through parabola to find it - lot of content for me to look forward to!) and yeah, seems like all 3 end the Abbes; the difference is just which group gets to do it.
Would love to see what happens if you do take the flukes’ deal, or the differences if anyone chose the monk to be the new dreamer.
I am fully stuck, which seems like I’ve done something wrong, judging from the talk here.
I can get to Marais and I can go through a whole day (three stages) at the lake, main settlement, and under the bridge, but it doesn’t get me anywhere. Am I missing something?
[quote=Jacob Stadtfeld]I am fully stuck, which seems like I’ve done something wrong, judging from the talk here.
I can get to Marais and I can go through a whole day (three stages) at the lake, main settlement, and under the bridge, but it doesn’t get me anywhere. Am I missing something?[/quote]
Edit: I was wrong, see answers below. edited by menaulon on 3/27/2021 edited by menaulon on 3/27/2021
I’d have loved an option to help the occupants of the Marais move somewhere else (perhaps under the protection of the player’s own GHR?), because while I wasn’t going to sacrifice the dreamer (especially given how untrustworthy the Flukes had already shown themselves to be about keeping to bargains), protecting escaped slaves as they explore their freedom is definitely a cause worthy of support.
(Also, THE CRAB.)
I recall that there’s a storylet that will let you set the time of day in Marais to what you want; as you say; evening works to get a conversation with the Abbess.
I chose to send the New Dreamer to Flute Street. I simply could not allow dozens of Rubbery Men to be massacred in the alternative. My only wish is that I could visit them in Flute Street, since I have access there.
If you just arrived there, your goal is to meet the Abbess. She first appears in the evening at the Marais as an additional storylet if I remember correctly.
