I have a Merchant of Souls 3, and it’s been about a month of card-flipping. My last hint was simply that I needed to wait for the devils to get back to me. Is there a specific place I need to be?
[quote=Alexander von Brennenburg]I do apologize for bothering those of you who are implicated in a struggle against hell, but even after acquiring an ocelot, hound and stallion, that thick-headed priest still won’t let me know about his no doubt insane plan.
Which, I find, to tell the truth, rather frustating.[/quote]
Its a card that shows up eventually. That particular story kind of just takes forever.
Can’t you force your way onto the storyline using a storylet from the clay coalman?
Yeah, that’s how I did it.
At last, it seems I am finished with Secrets Framed in Gold. I chose to trust the Forger when he told me that it was the last layer of paint, and sold it. It would be most dangerous to allow oneself to slip into paranoia and madness from dealing with the Neath’s secrets… Of course, I now can’t help wondering if that was the proper choice. Has my caution caused me to miss out on some tantalizing lore?
I don’t remember exactly what happened when I finished it, but I don’t recall there being a significant amount revealed about the Bazaar or its secrets.
spoiler: [color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]A Master comes to take it away once the last layer is done. It happened rather abruptly for me, actually: my quality went from about 9 to 53 all at once, and i’d wondered if I’d missed something. You do get some amount of Connected: Masters and a large quantity of something else - possibly Proscribed Materials?[/color]
I won’t spoil to much but I will tell you this. [color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]That wasn’t the last layer.[/color]
When the forger tells you that he’s done everything, he’s right - there’s nothing left under the paint bar the canvas itself. There is no sane reason to strip the last layer of paint away. Doing so will bring no joy - only grief. There are things that we are not meant to know.
I made the same decision as you, and I stand by it. The Forger did me a damn good turn, and I wasn’t going to antagonise him. Maybe there was something written on the canvas - but there are a lot of mysteries in the Neath, and only a few good friends.
Not to undermine your noble ideals, but my Acquaintance with the Repentant Forger seems to have survived the whole ordeal thoroughly intact (rather strange, considering the sorts of suffering I put him through). I’m not sure if this was an error, or if there will be another use for it, but that’s how it is.
Oh, I let my forger go mad from playing with things that man shall not wot of, and then picked up another on my next visit to New Newgate. After all, it’s not like there’s a shortage of them.
[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)](Why yes, I am remarkably Heartless and Ruthless. Thank you for noticing)[/color]
Ah, the ever-present lure of insanity. It’s a pity to hear that I’ve potentially missed another step of the story, but I’m content in the knowledge that I will not needlessly self-destruct for the base instinct of curiosity.
Is the Secrets Framed with Gold line not repeatable?
~MF
A Lady keeping a forger in drink
No. It’s a once-only storyline.
It’s complicated. But if you start off with 1,000 souls and want to convert them to Brilliant Souls:
The Soul Trade costs 1 action and gives 20 Brilliant Souls. If you just want a few now, this is better, but you’re losing out in the long term. If you want a full 40 (and have access to Unfinished Business) that will cost you another 21 actions. (farm another 1,000 and trade those in too)
Item conversion (50 souls) costs 24 actions and gives you 40 Brilliant Souls, some misc goods when you’re lucky and possibly some rares. So, for a few more actions, you get much more in the way of incidental goods.
Item conversion (500 souls) costs you 6 actions and gives you 40 Brilliant Souls and very few additional goods or rares. It’s the quickest way to get to 40 BS, but you don’t get much extra.
All things considered, it’s not a bad balance.
There are three routes that you can take if you have 1,000 souls. Two of these provide 40 BS and the other provides 20 BS. So, if you want to bring your BS up to par with the others, you’ll need to get another 1,000 souls. The current best source of Souls is through Unfinished Business in Spite, as it provides 50 Souls/action. The next best is the Ladybones Road spirifer who provides 27, so collecting a thousand will take significantly longer. But you will need to be a PoSI to get the Unfinished Business.
Is the content for retrieving your soul if you’ve sold it to Devils worth the cost? I’m not interested in selling my soul for monetary value, but as it’s about to get unpleasantly stained searching for the name, I suspect this will be my last chance to sell the thing and see that part of the game. I do so hate to miss content… but at the same time if there isn’t much to see, I can just get on with the business of dooming myself in the insane search for the name…
Selling your soul to devils has little effect, especially after you get it back. The process of retrieving it is fairly simple and uneventful, actually. Although if you feel like getting some Devilbone Dice (they don’t do anything, but they’re kind of neat), I think that’s the only way.
Hmm… Thanks for the information; it sounds like one I will skip. There are much better appreciated 15 point fate stories, like the black painting framed in gold. Or to retrieve the starveling cats; even they have more sense than to pursue the name it seems…
There aren’t many suggestions that we can give you, since you’re really asking for spoilers.
But go on, I’m sure that you want to know what will happen if you force the forger to destroy the picture. You’re just reluctant to be so heartless. You’ll break him, of course. And you won’t have the painting to sell, obviously. And it is a rather valuable picture. But if you sell it, you’ll always wonder just what you missed.
So, go on. Break him. It’s not like he’s someone important, after all. People like him can be replaced so easily. After all, he may have lied when he said that there was nothing left to reveal. There might be further secrets to uncover.
Or there might not.
Choose.