January Exceptional Story: Fine Dining

Fallen London
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[color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]The Exceptional Story for January is here![/color][/color]

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[/color][color=#0000ff]It’s opening night at Dolly’s, one of London’s most exclusive restaurants. The critics are in, pens sharpened to make mincemeat of the new set menu. Tempers will fray; pots will boil. Can you survive a night in the kitchen? You’ll have to wait for the reviews to come in…[/color]
[color=rgb(0, 51, 255)][color=rgb(29, 28, 29)]
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[color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]Fine Dining is the second story in the Season of Animals and was written by Jack de Quidt. [/color][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]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.[/color][/color]

[color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][font=facitweb-1, facitweb-2, &quotLucida Sans Unicode&quot, &quotLucida Grande&quot, sans-serif][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]
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:

[/color][/font][/color][ul][li][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private members’ club on the Stolen River, packed with content[/color][/li][li][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six![/color][/li][li][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once![/color][/li][/ul][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][font=facitweb-1, facitweb-2, &quotLucida Sans Unicode&quot, &quotLucida Grande&quot, sans-serif][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]
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][/font][/color]
edited by James StAnthony on 12/27/2019

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But is it the one with the weasels?


Just joking. It’s fun so far.

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[quote=James StAnthony][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]snip[/color]
[color=#0000ff]Tempers will fray; pots will boil.[/color][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)][color=rgb(29, 28, 29)][/color][/color]
[color=rgb(0, 51, 255)][color=rgb(29, 28, 29)][/color][/color]
[color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]snip[/color]
[color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]…Season of Animals…[/color][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)] bonds between human and beast[/color][/color]
[color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]snip[/color][/color][/color]
[/quote]

Hmmm…! Wonder what kind of bons will be prepared in this ES.
Do remember to bump the ES item and qualities thread.

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There are going to be a few rare and hard-to-obtain echoes in this story thanks to some of the challenges; you’ll know it when you see them. If you’re lucky (or unlucky) enough to get one of these, it would be greatly appreciated if you recorded it and shared here!

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Cutting choux pastry? Isn’t it more typically piped into shape?

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Oh god, everything has gone wrong. Please let me know if there is a way for everything not to go horribly wrong.

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I found no way to actually do right. No skills mattered; luck was reasonably on my side yet still a disaster; the slightest ‘wrong’ choice (no way to tell wrong from right either) was simply ruinous. I loved the Closed Market but other than that a clever, fun setup ended up being… Decidedly unfun and annoying to say the least.

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Oh dear. I am at the point where I have to decide which one will obtain the toque. The comments scare me.

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[li]Here is the echo for the extremely-difficult special meat & cheese board.
[/li][li]I tried this story with both Den Blackwell and the Lethal Nightmare, both to apparent successes. Luck is definitely a part of it, but certain risks must be taken. Den Blackwell failed dessert (mainly because I was overambitious and was wondering if the high chance for failure for the extremely-difficult option was for show), but aced it with two difficult courses and 1 extremely-difficult course.
[/li][li]The Lethal Nightmare played it safer since I wanted to see what would happen if I could get all four courses successfully. With three fairly-dicey courses and 1 difficult course completed successfully, it also seems to be a hit.
[/li][li]It’s strange for a Paramount Presence to be completely at the mercy at arbitrary RNG once again, but then again, no Profession actually involves cooking. Good luck to the mad lads.[/li]
edited by The Curious Watcher on 2/23/2021

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[li] P.S: In case anyone in the future is wondering, the Tiger is indeed 100%, absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt allergic to the regular meat that would be assigned to you by the critic (I even have a a totally-authentic-and-not-taken-out-of-context Echo to prove so). This is definitely not a malicious ploy to persuade gullible cooks to select the genuinely-fishy-and-not-at-all-strange meat recommended by the Butcher. Not at all.

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Dirae Erinyes reports that this is the worst date that they have ever taken their wife on. It was supposed to be a relaxing dinner at Dollys Instead, Dirae Erinyes plundered through cooking (to be fair, they only really know how to make treat candles) while Evensong had flashbacks to the Parisian incident. Not romantic at all.
Okay, roleplaying aside, I did not like this one. This has nothing to do with the quality or that great situational humor others might find. This has everything to do with the fact I found it deeply stressful because it recreated on my most common and terrifying nightmares. Literarily. Cannibalism? Cool. Being chased in a boobytrapped labyrinth by a monster? Great Fun. But this? True horror.
But if there is a bright side, I will make a thread in Slowcakes about everyone sharing terrible neathy recipes. I loved the look of the food culture this gave us and I think it would be fun to see what other dishes people would come up with after getting a taste here.

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I am still in progress with the story, but from what I’m seeing so far I love seeing something i normally don’t get to see in Fallen London: a focus on the cuisine, the people, and how to get key ingredients. I love the worldbuilding elements that were introduced that help broaden the underground city into a wider environment.

While it’s not as epic in scale to say, last month’s story, it was a pleasant tale to play through.

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I’m going to sound like a sore loser and to a large extent that’s what I am but: I had no damn way to figure out how to manage the percentages to maximise the probability of a good meal. I’ve been so accustomed to twist endings I fully expected the Critic to be trying to sabotage the dinner and completely ignored her. I had no way of discerning whether the black marketeer or the bandaged poisonner was making up the tiger’s allergy, and frankly I have no idea why the latter had any sensible reason to offer me ACTUAL HUMAN FLESH without even specifying what it was. And then I went on to have some unlucky rolls because I picked two 56~% options and botched both of them.

This isn’t my favourite story for a number of reasons, but mostly because it’s central conflict left me to the mercy of the RNG.

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[quote=Hattington]

This isn’t my favourite story for a number of reasons, but mostly because it’s central conflict left me to the mercy of the RNG.[/quote]

Oddly, that is why I liked this story. Having everything RNG based really brought home that you were thrown into a situation about which you knew nothing and only a miracle was going to bring anything good at the end.

It did hit one of my major squicks though. I could have done without that.

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[quote=Hattington]I’m going to sound like a sore loser and to a large extent that’s what I am but: I had no damn way to figure out how to manage the percentages to maximise the probability of a good meal. I’ve been so accustomed to twist endings I fully expected the Critic to be trying to sabotage the dinner and completely ignored her. I had no way of discerning whether the black marketeer or the bandaged poisonner was making up the tiger’s allergy, and frankly I have no idea why the latter had any sensible reason to offer me ACTUAL HUMAN FLESH without even specifying what it was. And then I went on to have some unlucky rolls because I picked two 56~% options and botched both of them.

This isn’t my favourite story for a number of reasons, but mostly because it’s central conflict left me to the mercy of the RNG.[/quote]
Maybe we are supposed to suspect anyone connected to the zee is a cannibal?

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As far as the actual narrative goes, I was ecstatic. Thematically, it was both the culinary and epicurean content I had been sorely waiting for and the depictions of each location were both delightful and immersive.

The mechanics of this ES were frustrating. The ending was far too weighted on repeated gambling and felt like an illusion of choice. If the risks and high rate of failure were supposed to impart some sort of message or cautionary tale to the reader, I can’t say I was able to pick up on those ideas from the writing. Only because this is paid content, I feel players should be warned either by narrative suggestion or mechanical disclaimer if they are going to be set up for ultimate failure (or cannibalism), as previous ES’s have been good about this in the past.

I really appreciated the new characters in many ways. They were all compelling personalities with engaging and organically constructed motivations. The added element of mystery was very elegantly conveyed. Not being quite sure whether I could trust these new characters and being presented conflicting but flexible evidence of motive made for a POV that felt surprisingly natural and not like I had suddenly entered a crime drama. I did not get an awkward impression from the writing that any of the characters were fighting for the reader’s attention, despite handling a broad ensemble cast. In regards to the inclusivity, it was great to see women and people of color having respected roles in the culinary industry.

Thank you for this story. I would love to visit the market again, or have another opportunity for my character to collect ingredients. That was very fun and I hope it can be incorporated into future/regular content.
edited by thepetitecouturier on 12/27/2019

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Cora has many talents, but cooking is clearly not one of them. Things could have gone slightly worse for Dolly’s, but only just. I was pretty ride or die with the Pastry Chef, so I wonder what would have happened had I trusted the Critic more, or if I had given either the Sous Chef or the Line Cooks more autonomy.

This seems like a pretty polarizing story. I didn’t mind failing, although it makes it hard to tell what choices would have helped the Tiger like my meal better. The market was a fun location, and it was interesting to decide what members of the staff would make the best impression on the diners with no real experience to base judgments on. It wasn’t my favorite ES, but I’m glad I got to play it.

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I actually enjoyed the purely dice-roll nature of this one. Particulalry given it’s a story where I was more or less thrust into the midst of a collection of eccentric people where I had to choose sides without getting to know their motivations. There are few things I like less than having to utterly guess at the intentions of my companions and make SERIOUS CHOICES WITH CONSEQUENCES. Just leads to wanting to watch otehr people’s outcomes and game the result. Here, no deep angst or agonizing, I’m just along for the ride. I gambled and… pretty much everyone else lost while I fumbled through preparing their ill-conceived avant-garde gustatory monstrosities. The restaurant review, echoed here, was a smoking crater of epic scale which I’m actually rather proud of.

And honestly, if you call yourself a chef and can’t tell when your bloody produce has gone off it’s nothing less than what you deserve. Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I think something is burning in my EZ-Bake Mirrorcatch Box…

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The choices that didn’t depend on RNG all seemed to go well for me judging by their immediate results, but I got the complete disaster ending anyway because I failed two courses, one of which was even the easiest choice available which I took because I didn’t want to risk failing another. I don’t really mind getting the bad ending, but I don’t think these mechanics present any interesting choices and consequences to the reader. The subject wasn’t my favorite in the first place so maybe I’m being too harsh, the writing itself was fine.

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When raw, yes, or handled with two spoons. However, when baked/dried out, you cut it open with scissors and optionally remove any soft innards.

Not played this yet, so can’t say if the cutting is sheer choux ignorance. If so, one should probably report it as an error.