I played it in August and had no idea it could unlock a card if played a certain way. Do we have any links?
This is my echo of the epilogue card. This is the ending that unlocked it.
As you can see, there was half a year between playing the story and getting the card. I had no idea of its existence either and remember being pleasantly surprised by that late epilogue. I had no idea its existence was still such a secret so many years later. :)
Afaik the epilogue card is a one-timer for everyone, but do correct me if Iām wrong.
Hope there arenāt too many spoilers here; first is the result when favouring the Bishop followed by the card pop-over, heading, option and result text.
The Prince-Bishopās gratitude
The Duchess nods. "I concur, Arbiter. The marriage is dissolved. Prince-Bishop: the Misermere is yours." The Viscountess pours, resentfully, from her footstool and prowls from the room. Her crestfallen supporters follow her.
The Prince-Bishop permits you to scratch him under the chin. "My gratitude, Arbiter," he says, through purrs. "You have freed me. Iāll return to the Misermere, where I mean to organise an expedition into the Undiscovered Lands. Perhaps you could join us for part of the journey." He leaves with the Landgrave of the Waswood at his side, their tails a-twine.
You are alone with the Duchess. She stands, stretches, and yawns gracefully. The powders that cake her face crack, revealing a glimpse of dark skin. She covers it quickly with her fingers, and gives you a secret smile.
"Thank you for your efforts. Not a happy occasion, but a necessary one."
(Sets The Court of Cats 100 - You settled in favour of the Prince-Bishop)
An Unpleasant Dream
The nightmare holds you tightā¦
You unlocked this with Nightmares 5, The Court of Cats 100-200
(Very Infrequent frequency)
An Unpleasant Dream
The nightmare holds you tight. A forest of spindly trees. A silver rain, which turns the ground to a mire the colour of snail trails and the consistency of mucus. Something is following you through the trees. Its eyes glow like gas-lamps.
You are lost, but a distant sound offers hope.
Follow the sound of drums to join the Prince-Bishopās march
A procession of leopards stalks through the forest. The thing chasing you hoods its eyes and slinks away.
You unlocked this with Dangerous 100, The Court of Cats exactly 100
Pioneers
At the head of the procession walk the Prince-Bishop of the Dome of Scales and the Landgrave of the Waswood. They are both leopards here, lean and gloriously spotted. "We are striking into the wildnesses in search of unfound lands," the Prince-Bishop says. "Perhaps weāll kill some serpents on the way. Join us."
You accompany them through endless oceans of jungle. You climb blue mountains with shawls of ragged mist. You join in scarlet feasts amidst the stones of viny ruins. You roar with them into the domes of Fingerking shrines, and shatter the rippling mirrors upon the altars. You discover nests of serpents knotted among the branches of a stately forest, and introduce the leopards to the convenience of fire.
You do not remember waking. One moment you are striding beside the Prince-Bishop across a plain of long-shadowed stones. The next you are in your bed, lean from your travails, fevered from your dreams. But the things you have seen!
(Youāve gained 1 x Primaeval Hint, -100 CP Dangerous
Sets The Court of Cats 300 - You travelled with the Prince-Bishop on his expedition)
[quote=phryne]Afaik the epilogue card is a one-timer for everyone, but do correct me if Iām wrong.[/quote]It is locked by picking an the Bishop/Viscountess option. Choosing the other one, doesnāt change any unlock qualities for it.
Do tell if there are other options or echoes. :)
edited by Skinnyman on 10/8/2019
This is a story where I deeply regret choosing the path of compromise. I hate the Fingerkings, dammit! I should have chosen the Prince.
[quote=Jolanda Swan]This is a story where I deeply regret choosing the path of compromise. I hate the Fingerkings, dammit! I should have chosen the Prince.[/quote]Whatās your ES quality level if I may ask?
edited by Skinnyman on 10/9/2019
The Court of Cats 1000 - You convinced the Prince-Bishop and Viscountess to stay together.
Seeing, all the echoes here (thanks, guys!) I at least feel that the Fingerkings are damned no matter what happens. Which is great. And thankfully, the reconciliation path gives the feline nobles a year to rethink, at the end of which they can still break up.
Knowing what I know now, I prefer to imagine they realized they had more in common tham they initially thought in that year.
Having said that, the reconciliation option gives neither the interesting and chilling twist which the Viscountessā option gives in the end, nor an extra card like the Bishop does - though story-wise, it could very well give you both, especially given that it was the most troublesome path to take.
edited by Jolanda Swan on 10/9/2019
[quote=Jolanda Swan]Knowing what I know now, I prefer to imagine they realized they had more in common tham they initially thought in that year.
Having said that, the reconciliation option gives neither the interesting and chilling twist which the Viscountessā option gives in the end, nor an extra card like the Bishop does - though story-wise, it could very well give you both, especially given that it was the most troublesome path to take.[/quote]I wouldnāt agree with them realizing anything; the text implies something else.
But I agree that the Viscountesses option on the card is more interesting than the Bishopās.
About the Epilogue card:
I played this story seven years ago when it came out and like most people, when the card came up I clicked on the option that would progress the story - not knowing that meant never seeing the card again.
I replayed the story now on a different account as part of the Mirrors & Claws story bundle. This time I was careful to choose the other option. Notably, it did not lower my Nightmares, but gave 1 x Tale of Terror and 1 x Memory of Distant Shores. It did not change my Court of Cats story tracker, so Iāll be able to draw this again whenever my Nightmares reach 5. It does have Very Infrequent frequency, so doesnāt come up straight away. Iāll definitely keep it around for a while. 
This was one of the first stories Iāve purchased with Fate, long before I ended up on the forums, so I felt a sweet sentiment seeing the topicā¦
Well, Iām surprised with how much others criticize the story. Maybe it was altered with regards to the outspoken concerns, but my experience was very different.
Also, Iām surprised that there are a lot of discussions about mechanics and rewards, but approximately no discussions on contents and moral side of the story. The case is complicated and offers no plain solutions, which makes it multidimensional and very interesting.
Last but not least: I keep wondering if the Viscountess is The Viscountess, our Cat-Mayor, the Defender of Dreams? I used to think that she is, but there seems to be an inconsistency with the Parabolan forms.
1 Like
Let me pipe up here and say this was always one of my favourite stories, and Iāve played it more than once. Itās quite easy to miss branches, and play-throughs could be very different. I agree on the complexity of the decision making.
And of course, āYay, cats!ā
2 Likes
Iāve only just finished this story for the first time, fresh off āThe Calendar Codeā (I thought Iād continue the Duchess theme). It was all good fun, though the mechanics seemed a bit chaotic at times, at least for someone interested in reading as much of the story as possible. (It is admittedly an old story.)
What confused me the most was one particular element, possibly altered from the original configuration: the branch āPlay for timeā notes that āThis may change which Opportunity is available on this card.ā Itās not a card, though, and it doesnāt actually seem to have a use: changing the Airs doesnāt appear to affect anything in a visible, predictable manner.
checking notesā¦
Maybe the storylet had the term of ācardā, but I can tell for certain that cycling through London Airs changes the available options. There are 4 options for each 25 values of Airs, one with no other requirement, one for each of the cases and one that requires a level lower than 14 and 18 (?) of both Case qualities.
The amount of AP I spent on this ES and I didnāt manage to play all branches, but had to collected them from different sources. Who knows if there are some hidden ones.
And a interesting side note: before Flash Lays were released that year (2015) in December, this storyās mechanics made it possible to refresh your card deck, but at the cost of 6 AP.
I used the branch once or twice but didnāt notice anything changeā¦ Perhaps it happened to be close and within the same range? I feel silly for not trying more. (At least Iāve been able, as you have, to hunt down most of the remaining content here.*)
In my defence, the character witnesses were said (and seemed) to be random, and some developments came suddenly after one or the other partyās Case rose, which seemed to occur fairly rapidly. (Iām glad I did some further questioning before visiting the lake, even though the option had appeared; some players complained that was impossible afterwards.) As Iāve said, it all seemed a bit chaotic.
*It seems unlikely that the game actually tracked whether I wore the Arbiterās robesā¦ It was a funny choice to have the Duchess act annoyed if you donāt wear them, but curiously, reference was made to their pitiful state in the storyās ending (if you choose to reconcile the cats), which would be inapposite had one chosen not to indulge the Courtās customs.
And something else: this Ophidian Manā¦ Is he supposed to be a Fingerking? I know very little about them, and Iām inclined to agree with the commenter on this thread who complained that this wasnāt thematically set up properly. What did that man gain out of keeping both cats close by?
In fact, Iāve recently played āLost in Reflectionsā, and at some point the āBoil of Ortsā was brought up. An extra branch was available to me there: if I had reached level 25 in āEmbroiled in the Wars of Illusionā, I could chose that, and I was supposed to know what this thing was. But I looked back in my records of this story and couldnāt find anything there actually explaining Parabola. My memory didnāt serve, of course; until recently I hadnāt played Fallen London for five years, and this was even further back. So I chose the branch where I was clueless.
I still feel mostly clueless about mirrors, especially in-character. And Iām almost stat-capped!
Bit late, sorry! Iām not so sure about the Ophidian Gentleman, but I think this ES was the first time we ever heard about him.
From @vavakxnonexus from 3 years ago:
He shows up in Court of Cats once, while you visit the Misermere; Otherwise, heās in Renown: Bohemians 40, Parabolan Panther, the Gallery of Serpents, and he asks for the Genial Magicianās confession at Hallowmas.
I know the Fingerkings & Co. are/were his strong point. Maybe the ping will bring him to the forums!
1 Like
Iāve finished this story (favored Viscountess), but did not receive Memory of a Tale. Will there be an Opportunity Card (no luck so far), is it a bug, or are there no Memory of a Tale in the old Exeptional Stories?
You will need to draw the super-rare epilogue card to really finish the story and get your Memory of a Tale. Itās the only Exceptional Story that works this way!
The card is called An Unpleasant Dream and you need Nightmares 5 (or more) to unlock it.
The card has 2 options: the first one, Follow the ticking of your clock, gives 1 x Tale of Terror!! and 1 x Memory of Distant Shores and does not end the story. You can draw the card again and play this option again as often as you like.
The second option ends the story and gives you 1 x Memory of a Tale. You will not draw the card again.
3 Likes