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[/color] [color=#ff0000]A sensitive Ministry operation gone wrong. A secretive Revolutionary cell blown open. Journey to a farther shore to discover a secret lost beyond retrieve? Will you take up the Boatman’s oar? [/color]
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[color=#ff0000]The Shallows is the third story in the Season of Bargains, and was written by Gavin Inglis. In this season you will experience three stories of desperate deals, precarious alliances and prices that must be paid.
Begin with the Season of Bargains card, available throughout London.
In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:
[/color][ul][li][color=#ff0000]Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private members’ club on the Stolen River, packed with content[/color][/li][li][color=#ff0000]An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six![/color][/li][li][color=#ff0000]A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once![/color][/li][/ul][color=#ff0000]
Finishing all three stories in the Season of Bargains will make you eligible for an additional opportunity, to follow.
If you want to keep an Exceptional Story beyond its release month, you must complete the related storylet in the current Season’s card. This will save it for you to return to another time.[/color]
Immediate shout-out to Tobias Cook for the art - the Boatman looks delectably grisly in the dim candlelight, and all the little cracks and scratches and other details are a delight!
I was just blown away by the art and the style! Congratulations to Tobias Cook!
[quote=James StAnthony][color=#ff0000]Journey to a farther shore to discover a secret lost beyond retrieve? Will you take up the Boatman’s oar? [/color][/quote]I do wonder what kind of shore we are talking about.
Because I am far behind ES, please post here if you find any rare qualities or item requirements for this one!
The Boatman appears to have briefly considered becoming the protagonist of Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. Which is, I grant you, a good way to meet interesting people.
Here’s the big revelation from this month’s Exceptional Story. Be warned it will likely change how you look at certain characters.
It turns out that Mr Mirrors has been dead all along. A mysterious woman, I presume to be the Red Handed Queen from the chess dreams, has gained great power over dream and uses nightmares as her weapons. She used this power to lure in Mr Mirrors and destroy him, gaining greater dominion over mirrors in the Neath. For anyone who’s played the Nemesis Ambition, you will know Mr Mirrors are Mr Cups are supposed to be the same being. This heavily implies that there were two separate Masters but Cup took over the role of Mirrors after the real Mirrors died.
This was easily the scariest Fallen London story I ever played. I loved it. The writing, the locations, the new characters, the flow, the lore, everything. It was also relatively straightforward -full of decisions and deliberations, but there was no danger of losing something because you forgot to turn one corner in a storylet. Congratulations!
Well, this is convenient! The starting decision gave me my last Constable Favor needed to get the Constable 40 Renown Item (The Place Where They Bury the Bodies) and the story then sent me right to the River where I would need to go to get the item anyway!
This was a really excellent ES, with some great lore about what follows the river. I do wonder if it’s possible to win the match at the end, and if it changes your reward. (Apologies for no spoiler text, I’m new enough I don’t know how to do it. Although I’ve been vague enough, I hope.)
Win? Yes. Though I couldn’t say if the reward was any different.
Quite enjoyed the story. Might have to drop by the boatman a bit more often, after this.
Although… The story doesn’t quite seem to be over. Strange dreams ahead.
This was easy my favourite Exceptional Story in months.The art is gorgeous and I’d be tempted to get a print of it if my roommates weren’t so judgmental.
But asides from that, massive lore drops, being able to toy with two opposing factions, and a lovely piece of equipment.
[spoiler]Winning the match gives the Boatman’s Lantern instead of the hat. As both are 2 BDR the hat is probably better, since there’s no free hats that match it.
It does look like it may be possible to tie the game though! We’ll have to wait and see what that does.[/spoiler]
In the “Progress” Section in the Myself tab, it shows a quality called “Clues to a Controller” and “Mortal Exchange” for story trackers.
After completing the story, I drew a card from the “Controller” saying to stop the investigation. It is possible that there are more dreams.
Also, I assumed that you couldn’t lose the chess match no matter what, after I broke every Boatman rule and refused to repent on principle. Finding out that you could get a hat shows how far the writer thought it out.
[quote=The Curious Watcher]In the "Progress" Section in the Myself tab, it shows a quality called "Clues to a Controller" and "Mortal Exchange" for story trackers.
After completing the story, I drew a card from the "Controller" saying to stop the investigation. It is possible that there are more dreams.[/quote]My character’s "Clue to a Controller" quality also hasn’t been wiped even after playing the epilogue, so I agree that more content is very possible; or they could keep this as a quality to reference in future content outside of this ES with the character, since I find it hard to believe that Failbetter will be able to finish Nemesis without this
