September Exceptional Story: Homecoming

Fallen London
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[color=rgb(194, 194, 194)]Exceptional Story for September: Homecoming
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A spate of sunburn affects Londoners – an improbable affliction for a city underground. What can be causing it– and is there a connection to the newly opened Nostros Hotel and its very mysterious management?[/color][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][font=facitweb-1, facitweb-2, &quotLucida Sans Unicode&quot, &quotLucida Grande&quot, sans-serif][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]
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[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Written by [color=#ffffff]M[/color]ary Goodden[/color]
[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Art by Paul Arendt[/color]
[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Editing & QA: Olivia Woodand James Chew[/color]

EXCEPTIONAL FRIENDSHIP

[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:[/color]

[/font][/color][ul][li][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private member’s club on the Stolen River, packed with content[/color][/li][li][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Access to Mr Chimes’ Lost & Found, a shop in the Bazaar where you can exchange currency earned through playing Exceptional Stories for exclusive companions and items[/color][/li][li][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six![/color][/li][li][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once![/color][/li][/ul][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]
You no longer need to log in to claim your Exceptional Stories! If you have an active subscription when one is available, you’ll receive it automatically.[/color][/color]

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There’s an option a decent ways into this Story that requires having played The Attendants to select. As I did not meet this requirement and you can’t Perhaps Not at that point in the story (ngl I would’ve totally done so just to buy the other story lol), I’m wondering if anyone who’s able to can post an echo of its results?

tiny edit, also I have no idea why this part isn’t spoilering properly: as best as I can tell it’s just a &quotget extra lore&quot selection and not a choice point, and at the bare minimum you can select all the other options before picking it, though I obviously can’t be certain about if it impacts later parts of the story, for anyone nervous about getting locked out of other options
edited by Xorph on 8/27/2020

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@Xorph: The forum software allows only one spoiler tag per post ;)

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[quote=Xorph]There’s an option a decent ways into this Story that requires having played The Attendants to select. As I did not meet this requirement and you can’t Perhaps Not at that point in the story (ngl I would’ve totally done so just to buy the other story lol), I’m wondering if anyone who’s able to can post an echo of its results?

tiny edit, also I have no idea why this part isn’t spoilering properly: as best as I can tell it’s just a &quotget extra lore&quot selection and not a choice point, and at the bare minimum you can select all the other options before picking it, though I obviously can’t be certain about if it impacts later parts of the story, for anyone nervous about getting locked out of other options
edited by Xorph on 8/27/2020[/quote]

I’ve played it and got it! It’s echoed on my journal. Mr. Spices was not happy I didn’t try to smash the thing.

Mr. Spices refused to explain anything and more importantly did not respect the fact that I HAVE KILLED THE VAKE so I ended the story by humiliating it as badly as possible and selling it out to Wines. I spent most of the story hoping an opportunity to saddle up Curator Veils and hunt it down like kine would pop up, and was sadly disappointed. At least Isery was useful earlier.

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Note for anyone involved: if you get Cosmogone Burning by taking a special option, you will get a chance to recover as long as you have Thirsty Bombazine and keep drawing cards

[spoiler] As much as I like Wines and the Bazaar, I think it’s in my best interest to let Mr Spices’ scheme continue. The Bazaar hasn’t been very active as of late due to the consumption of this drug, so allowing it to suffer some withdrawal should get it to take the matter more seriously. At the same time, keeping both Wines and Spices as my potential allies will be useful when pursuing my own bid for Master of Dreams, as being distracted with their plots will be useful in the meantime. Spices may leave eventually, but so will Pages and the rest of the Masters and I will certainly come up with something to deal with the power vacuum.

To understand the Bazaar and its desires is important for completing the greater mission in preparing for the Reckoning, and the possible intoxication of the hotel inhabitants is an acceptable price for that goal. [/spoiler]

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Ack, I’m definitely enjoying this one a lot, but I can’t decide on what to do with the… bag. Do I take the thing out of the bag or not? What will happen? The agony!

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C’mon, take it out of the bag! You know you want to!

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Is anyone ejse stuck? I searched the desk, spoke to every person, seemingly explored every inch, but I always end up cycling around wasting actions, unsure how to proceed or go back :-S

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Sleep. Or, to be more detailed…

Switch to night-time, go to your room, and sleep. Each time you sleep is different.

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Wow, I completely messed this one up. The choices were so unclear to me – maybe I wasn’t smart enough or paying attention sufficiently – but I wound up doing the opposite of what I wanted because the choices were so muddled, to me, as to where they would lead at the end. I am sad that I am either stuck with crappy choices or that I have to pay to play it over. Ugh!

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Well hey, as a SSeas player, I guess now I know what the hell happened to all the Sphinxstone I kept dropping off.

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I haven’t finished this ES but I enjoyed the tie-in-- I don’t think it happens all that much, outside of some places like Mutton Island and a few other places on the Unterzee. Or, okay, maybe it does, but enjoyed that this was a new one.

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I absolutely adored this story.

I was a little confused at a midway point, but - with hindsight of the in-game advice, and what was said here - I think it was more an issue on my part. Overall, the story was easy to follow, with interesting mechanics and choices (amazing lore and insight into my favourite group of characters, too). The end rewards also seemed fair.

I’m just a little disappointed there wasn’t a chance to gain Connected: Masters, as it’s so very hard to find and grind (and this would have been an amazingly natural place to earn such a very rare connection). I was also a little sad it seemed disconnected from the player character, too (like my character would have walked away when asked, and true, these things can’t always be predicted or accounted for, but his completed Ambition is a very big thing that most players have done/are doing, so acknowledging that would have been more immersive and fun, too).

Definitely 9/10. I’d have liked a little bit more connection to my character, but can’t fault it overall, and I had a lot of fun, too.

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So I was unfortunately a bit too curious when given the chance to inspect the sphinxstones at the end of the story, and now find myself unable to use my cards at all.

Is this supposed to be happening?
edited by Nephemiah Hamilton on 8/28/2020

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[quote=Frederick ]So I was unfortunately a bit too curious when given the chance to inspect the sphinxstones at the end of the story, and now find myself unable to use my cards at all.

Is this supposed to be happening?
edited by Nephemiah Hamilton on 8/28/2020[/quote]

I was also stuck unable to use cards or access storylets or see options, but a quick move to another location fixed everything.

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Just gonna say how delighted I was with the conjured mental image of a Master biting and sucking on a stone block with my hand along with it. That alone made this month’s story for me.

And sure the Great Hotelier art, the extra lore on the Masters stay at the Second City, the answer to what was happening to all the stones I was delivering in SSeas and this new mistery with the sphinxstones was nice.
edited by Sarmatios on 8/28/2020
edited by Sarmatios on 8/28/2020

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Well, now my skin has an orange cast to it. Does that mean I glow orange? It’d be a nice addition to all the other odd changes to my body.
edited by Winthropx on 8/29/2020

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Damnit! I missed the choice at the end. That really was poorly set marked as an either/or conclusion.

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Do you lose the burning quality if you succeed at the 10% luck check?

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[quote=Winthropx]Do you lose the burning quality if you succeed at the 10% luck check?[/quote]Yes, I got it on my second try. Here is the journal entry if you’re curious.