"The interior of the Questionable has a noisy, almost raucous atmosphere. It’s inevitable – in such tight confines, trapped in this metal coffin, sound cannot escape, and men make jokes to keep the fear at bay. But when the bell sounds and the officers gather in the bridge, a hush falls over the ship. Descent is, to the zubmariner, a sacrament."
The Unsanctioned Zubmariner has one last voyage to make – and, through the Admiralty’s machinations, you’ve just been promoted to First Officer. Embark on an ill-advised, officially unacknowledged expedition beneath the dark waves. Follow a trail of blood to the very heart of the Unterzee. Try not to crack under the pressure.
The admiralty just shows up at the start and end. Most of the story is not about them.
ETA: By now I guess you figured this out, but if others are wondering…
You have the opportunity to get a way to cash them out, for a very good value, but you don’t get to keep them otherwise, as far as I could see. Oops. I mean that you get to keep them only as an item of no value (and not sellable to the Bazaar) or you can cash them out
First of all let me just say that from a structural point of view, this is basically the perfect ES from me. No searching London. No action sinks or deck-reliant cards I have to hope are drawn. Just wham, bam, off to sea ma’am. CONSTANT tension which again, GOOD-actually feels like I’m on some kind of tense nautical voyage. And apologies to new players because I know they’re nightmarish, but as a years-long player LOVE these tough late game checks giving me something to do with my outfit arsenals.
Now uh, the plot. It’s a strange matter where the concept is insanely cool but…I also feel like the voyage while it was actually ongoing was more interesting than what happened at the start or finish? The part where you have the option to sell the Unsanctioned Zubmariner’s doppelganger on the wonders of London made me seriously question how socially awkward the Unsanctioned Zubmariner herself must be to have never tried it before. I mean, there wasn’t even a Persuasive check, it wasn’t difficult at all. Likewise between being deliberately misleading about the whole of the matter and vague about what their actual intentions were, I ultimately felt no loyalty or investment in whatever the Admiralty was trying to accomplish. Did I glimpse an allusion to the Thief-of-Faces briefly? The doppelganger definitely comes across like some sort of Snuffer-relative given her…fecundity
Don’t get me wrong though, the voyage itself was heaps of fun so this was definitely a solid ES even if it did ring a little more hollow than I’d hoped.
Also as a bonus: I rarely if ever feel much attraction to Fallen London NPCs. The Unsanctioned Zubmariner is very much an exception despite the limited look into her personal life because the moment we killed a blood man-eel thing together really charmed me, and honestly that’s the only reason I didn’t sell everyone out to the Admiralty. If you’re reading this FB, please make her an option at the next Feast of the Rose or attainable from Mr. Chimes’ Lost and Found or…something.
I found it very enjoyable, I liked the new difficulties being related to your stats, and, though they probably wouldn’t fit with all checks, they are very enjoyable to succeed and fail. I hope the Zubmariner’s [spoiler/] friendship can be connected at a future point, and the adoptive child grow/is seen again [spoiler]
Now standing before the final choice in the Epilogue. And I´m totally indecisive which one to pick.
Any hints/ideas/suggestions? Keep another batch of U&U*-items, which may become useful in a few years by some Failbetter mood? Or just cashing it in for something that I already have?
There’s the one with the sounder, which is what was on my mind. It’s called out as Significant. But now there is the curiosity about faking her death. Or, rather, not.
I’m not quite into the meat of the story yet but these skill checks are surprising considering ES’s being available to all Exceptional Friends— 80% chance of success with Watchful at almost 300 (that I failed of course)? On top of that it references me having a ship. Is the storyline actually dependent on the player’s progress in the game??
Speaking of the Watchful check, if anyone happens to have the Journal entry of successfully figuring out how prevaricating the Overworked Commodore is being then I would not be remiss to read it. (Spoiler’d just in case but it’s from the beginning of the story)
Enjoyed the tough checks and did not see the part with the captain swinging the axe lol. That was too good. Decided to keep the rubies as a memento. I also didn’t betray the captain at the end but curious to know what would happen if you did.
