Picture this:
You’re chasing Jack. You’ve followed the trail to Polythreme, you found the workshop and talked to it’s owner. Now you need to get your Investigating to twelve by the time Unnatural Exuberance reaches one. You’re having a hard time, but you find you can bribe your way there. You spend all your silk, research and romantic notions to improve your Investigating. You hit twelve investigating, but Unnatural Exuberance is still at two. You look carefully at your options, because you’ll have to spend one more action. You choose the one that says "This will improve your Fascinating".
Except it doesn’t improve your Fascinating. It lowers your Investigating to eleven…
I love this game. I’m a POSI, I’ve got my own zubmarine, orphanage and newspaper. I’ve spend an unreasonable amount of time clicking cards. But just the thought of going all the way back to London, grinding more resources, zailing back here and starting the whole circus again makes me want to scream. I’m really, really close at ragequitting this mess.
As stated, you can grind what you need at Polythreme, but bribery may not be necessary. Have you seen the guide on the wiki? If you start ‘a little spy work’ on the end of your next carousel, it’ll add an extra card to the opportunity deck that gives investigation from a shadowy check, not a luck roll. Can be handy.
I just had my first trip to Polythreme this week, so I know exactly how you feel. My very first time through the carousel I managed to hit 12 Investigating through blind luck alone so I thought maybe this place was pretty cool. Then my next six tries, I couldn’t manage to scrape together enough Investing or Fascinating for any of the rewards. Then I read the guide (and took a long break to build my actions back up) and my success rate shot way up. Polythreme still isn’t my favorite place in the game, but I no longer want to burn the whole thing to the ground.