[color=FF9900] London is awash with dreams as a carefree tiger-prince comes to visit. But is there more to his appetites than his guests imagine? Will you capture his attentions? And, more importantly, should you wish to?
Borrowed Glory is the third story in the Season of Animals and was written by Cassandra Khaw. In this season you will experience three stories of the bonds between human and beast, the fauna of the Neath and the divides between London and the animal kingdom.
Begin with the Season of Animals card available throughout London.
Editing and QA: James Chew and Olivia Wood
Art: Tobias Cook
Exceptional Friendship
In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:
Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private members’ club on the Stolen River, packed with content
An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six!
A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once!
Finishing all three stories in the Season of Animals 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] edited by Chris Gardiner on 1/30/2020 edited by h4nchan on 1/30/2020
I did it! Completed the Prince’s request perfectly, that is. And it was great in a morbid way; honestly if I could I’d have pushed my character to do something similar. I was surprised that it was truly, honestly, what the Seneschal wanted-partly because I spent much of the story wondering who on earth he was love-struck with instead of realising the obvious answer.
I wonder if this will affect interactions with the Court of the Waking Eye going forward, or if you’ll get to visit the Prince’s court in dreams some other time? I was also surprised I didn’t actually see the court escape their half-life or realise it was indefinite-just kind of woke up after the Prince got his new skin.
I was not aware of what I was doing, and I was pretty shocked, dimwitted man that I am, to see that I had no chance at all to rectify what I had done to after having chosen a cut of too high quality.
I’m about four actions into it, and thoroughly engrossed.
I just feel at this point I should link to one of Jorge Luis Borges’ stories. One in particular, “The Circular Ruins.” As many of you are aware, the prominence of tigers, and mirrors, in the Neath is in no small part an influence from Borges.
I must have done something very wrong. What is the Cut thing? I got to the choice with zero chance of success, and have no idea what happened. Should I ask for a reset?
The poor cut gives you a 60% chance of sabotaging the ritual and I failed both. I do so hate it when RNG screws me out of a satisfactory ending. It’s not as bad as fine dining, but it’s still frustrating. In the end, the Courtier treated me with disdain for "staying loyal" to the Prince who took everything from him and for "being a coward" for not daring to even try. I would have at least liked it to register I tried, but now I’m left pissed of and with a bitter taste in my mouth from this Exceptional Story. edited by loredeluxe on 1/30/2020
What Cut… I have no idea what the Cut even is.
The writing was superb, but if this is not a glitch, I don’t know what it is.
As for other flows (though I suspect I only played half the story somehow, for no reason I can think of) it is so much better when the story acknowledges who you are - I have duelled Feducci before, for example. After all these times praising stories who do that, I was hoping it would eventually be included in all stories.
I had a similar experience to loredeluxe, and failed both times. I think there should be an option to complete the sabotage of the ritual at the cost of the Prince’s wrath (considering his oneironic prowess, he could banish the player into a completely unfinished part of his palace, with all the appropriate mental damage that would cause), but still giving the player a chance to do the right thing at a cost, as with what happened in the Magician’s Dream. I was really going for sabotage through the whole story because I thought it would save the Seneschal, but it seems that it was impossible to save the Seneschal regardless. I also have to note it seems that the Oblique Courier, their desire for justice aside, seemed fine with letting the Seneschal be consumed for their own revenge. On the topic of character interpretation, it seems the Seneschal is aware that he hates the Prince; he beats Feducci when he imagines it’s the Prince, and yet, he still goes to his fate. Maybe this, in the end, is what the Prince unexpectedly consumes: he doesn’t see that spark of hatred and clarity in what seems to be a defeated and love-lost tiger.
Honestly, I enjoyed the story, and even the ability to fail at the end (something that is rare for an endgame player), as well as the sense of pervading horror and tragedy throughout the story. edited by Ixc on 1/30/2020
Damn it. I had two 60% chances of success, and failed both. I also still don’t have a Bat with Attitude. Can we please get a plotline that doesn’t depend on the RNG some time in the near future?
(In general, BTW, I loved the writing on this. But let’s face it: being forced to help the Prince when I would rather have died than help him – when I had been dedicated to sabotaging him, consistently, from the very beginning – just because I failed two RNG checks was very, very upsetting.) edited by Tom Davidson on 1/30/2020
That’s the second time in the last few months I feel a pit in my stomach after finishing an Exceptional Story.
In ‘Fine Dining’, I failed miserably and felt quite upset for having let down the Chef, but I was in way over my head and just hoped for the best. Here, I felt I understood the stakes and tried to help the Courtier but had not a single clue on how to achieve that. It was a shock to realize that I had totally missed my chance. Which, after all, is what makes the story that engaging: just like IRL, one can do the wrong thing while trying one’s best and only realize afterwards it was the wrong thing to do…
Still, that’s the second time this week I spent some time in the Parabola. Should I prep for a basecamp? edited by Evariste S. Crumbledon on 1/30/2020 edited by Evariste S. Crumbledon on 1/30/2020
[quote=loredeluxe]The poor cut gives you a 60% chance of sabotaging the ritual and I failed both. I do so hate it when RNG screws me out of a satisfactory ending. It’s not as bad as fine dining, but it’s still frustrating. In the end, the Courtier treated me with disdain for "staying loyal" to the Prince who took everything from him and for "being a coward" for not daring to even try. I would have at least liked it to register I tried, but now I’m left pissed of and with a bitter taste in my mouth from this Exceptional Story. edited by loredeluxe on 1/30/2020[/quote]
The way the Courtier ignores if you tried & failed to sabotage the Prince has honestly landed this Story the position of being the worst I’ve played over 1.5 years of membership. It seems like a massive oversight to not have them recognize your attempt (especially given there’s literally a quality for it), and makes the already underwhelming ending of being screwed over by unavoidable RNG even more sour, not to mention feeling disconnected to the point that it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s some kind of glitch.
I honestly made a forum account just to respond to this. This is my first two months finally wanting to support the game I’ve been playing for over a year, and this has just been a crushingly disappointing quality of material. This month in particular, I was shocked when I saw the note this will end the story, because it was done so quickly I honestly in disbelief. Admittedly, I must have missed something clearly, cause I saw no opportunity to raise my success rate despite thinking I explored the options. I just had a 0% choice at the end, and it was done. People complaining about rng, but I felt almost insulted and stupid that I couldn’t find the opportunities to succeed and then was called a traitor for still going to the 0% chance. I was frustrated with last month’s story too, but at least that one gave some semblance of a chance. And the story seems to just end without any good sense of resolution as well. I’m honestly just very frustrated right now.
[spoiler]At the gallows in Ladybones Road, when you were acquiring parts for the thing. Did you take the expensive meat or the cheap meat?
It was signposted that the cheap meat was pro-sabotage. I feel it did not adequately signpost the stakes. I was expecting other opportunities, with a cumulative effect, not a single quality that varied so greatly.[/soiler]
I loved this story! And the Seneschal. I made the same mistake as almost everyone else here by choosing the highest quality bag of organs as a moral choice. And that ended up with the Seneschal gone. I feel sad about it as well. He’s fantastic. Poor baby.
An earlier post here mentioned something about good intentions not leading to good outcomes. That’s how I’m spinning it, too. To cope, first of all. (Especially for my character who is hopelessly good-willed.) But I also agree that we could have been warned better.
I really do hope we see something of these characters again.
And I wonder, what did the Seneschal use to be like? edited by erudelle on 1/31/2020
I haven’t played this yet, but may I just say how pleased I am to see that this is by Cass Khaw! Well done FB for getting her back (RGN etc. notwithstanding…)
