I followed the path of counterfeit emotions and got Miser companion (+1 KT). What other people got?
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I chose to do it without safety, and now have a violant moon-miser. Heâs a little puppy.
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Thanks for the info. I was about to ask what will happen if you do it without the Oil of Companionship. I was afraid of harsh or permanent penalties.
For me, I need this, and itâs bottlenecked by progress in the Clay Highwayman quest. So no OoC for me.
You can cook these up in your lab. Itâs not even that hard!
Edit: apparently you need one to research the recipe. Is that new? It feels like I had the recipe long before I met the Clay HighwaymanâŚ
On another note: I find the required items to Tell her it is time to be poorly chosen (from a design perspective). Carrying one of them locks you out of acquiring the prerequisite for the other. For players not accustomed to how Station VIII functions (and honestly, itâs not a place many frequent regularly, is it?) , this is a needles possible frustration.
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So aside from a Consignment of Scintillack, an Oil of Companionship and 5k Stuivers, is there anything else I need to prepare before starting this chapter?
Itâs an Oil of Companionship and a Vindication of Faith. The Consignment is a requirement for the Oil. And those are optional. As far as I can tell from this thread, using them leads to a companion with Kataleptic Toxicology, while not using them leads to a companion with Shapeling Arts.
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Good to know, anyway my KT is too d_mn high and SA is slightly deficient. Suits me nicely.
To cook in the lab (Manufacturing Supplies), I need at least ONE of that stuff. That was the dealbreaker for me. Too many actions involved.
Anyway I was just trying to confirm the risks of not using the Oil of Companionship before stepping inside, turns out you only get a slightly different companion from Zenith.
So now I only need to get an Eyeless Skull and Iâm good to go.
Wow! Really cool shit going on, feels like itâs becoming a really big, dramatic conflict of a sort I donât think weâve seen outside of Estivals, still really loving how much Firmament involves spending time with and developing our crew characters, and my moon miser came back!!! 
On the negative side, as with Ch 1, there were some bits I found a little too far to the side of mysterious and left too confused. And I felt like the big choice at the end was significantly too unclear and unsignposted; I had no idea what only destroying one or zero memories would do, which makes it not very satisfying as an option, and the option I chose, destroying two memories while leaving Love, was quite different from what the various info weâd gathered lead me to expect. Not only did I not think there was anything on the table like reviving the Immanentâs prince, presumably Storm, when it spoke only of burying & mourning, and nothing else weâve encountered would make me think that might be possible, given that (as far as I understand it, which may not be far enough) it apparently had died because of having broken the law with love, possibly in dream/Is-not, and thus being unable to exist, I would have assumed at the very least, remembering Love, and thus the law broken, would have made revival impossible. So I felt kind of mislead.
Fallen London does often play pretty loose in choices with what it leads you to expect and what actually happens, which I generally accept though I donât always love it, but this one felt more unsatisfyingly unclear at choice-point and more deceptive in result than the norm. I also didnât really understand the Forlorn Shepherdâs reaction there.
But on the whole, Iâm still really enjoying Firmament! And the updates have felt really big, and itâs satisfying how much there is still to do once youâve finished the chapter. I hope the amount of character development and connection weâre getting with the crew is a bit of a new direction for Failbetter, it adds so much and is a nice balance for Big Things-heavy and mysterious storylines.
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I donât think Iâve ever encountered a FL story Iâve disliked as much as this chapter of Firmament. A complete narrative railroad full of unexplained forced choices and deliberately obtuse verbiage.
Currently stuck at a âyou canât proceed unless you say why you want to save the Immanentâ gate. I donât want to âsave the Immanentâ at all. Based on Ch1 of Firmament, interacting with big winged things trapped in stalactites leads to nothing but trouble. This story has not given me a single reason to know or care about Big Fire Guy.
Any chance if I ignore it for a few weeks, Failbetter will notice the rapidly expanding mass of âI donât understand any of thisâ reddit posts and rewrite things a bit?
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If I had a complaint, it would be when removing memories, there is an option to see if removing one memory is enough, and that it could only be attempted once. To me it implied I should do one of the other branches first, then check back. Apparently not.
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Same! I assumed that, if I clicked it before removing a memory, Iâd be locked out of that path forever. Instead, it turned out that removing a memory before clicking it locked me out of that path forever.
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I just left the High Sancta and I guess: that happened?
The writing left me behind intellectually, like some parts in evolution did. I doubt the writing is bad, it is just not as accessible as I would require. It read like Murakami, but the pages were out of order and I had no cultural context.
The other parts of Zenith were very enjoyable, down to the most fringe vignettes. But the part steeped in Violant felt more like a chore. And I do second the notion, that
helping The Immanent escape is utterly unmotivated. A simple choice of why the player helped would have been enough. It was my only way out could have been one of those choices.
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Is it part of the intended design that there is no Bazaar at Zenith, unlike the previous two locations of Firmament?
If I remember correctly, there was no difference between removing one or two memories (removing two gave you an extra chunk of story text).
What differed in the outcome was if you chose to remove all three, or not remove any at all. And whether you leaned towards the Forlorn Shepherd having revelations or doubts earlier on in the chapter.
And the reward companion you receive at the end depended on whether you used the Oil of Companionship before stepping into Zenith for the first time.
Finally, once youâve finished this chapter, a new Stacks grind option is unlocked, allowing you get get some Devilbone Dice. Previously it was a bit hard/tricky to get them, too much RNG involved.
Seems to be-- itâs a place that seems to have kept itself to itself, and doesnât have many ties (in the travel and economic sense) to the other locations.
I agree (at least, with what I assume youâre implying) that a market there would be nice, because hey, new items, but it makes sense for it not to have one. Itâs only an action or two to go back to the Moon or the Throat to though.
Right, done with the main path, now to complete the side ones.
I freed the Immanent for two reasons.
First one was that I wanted to keep my Shepherd. Iâve grown attached to him, damnit!
Second one was that I could. So I did.
Third one is Iâm a Revolutionist. So I see this as a chance to kill two agents of the Judgements, rather than leave them to linger.
I freed him because I made a promise to do so when first meeting him.
I freed him simply because I did not think he should be imprisoned at the expense of so many people and creatures.