Exceptional Story for July: Old, New, Drowned & Blue
"An attempted murder! Upon your person, no less! Death in London is always cheap, but usually the killer has something to gain. Who would want to drown you?"
Somebody has committed that most heinous of crimes – violence upon your person! Recover from an almost drowning, and investigate your own attempted murder. What links your brush with death to a marriage proposal, a mouldering locket, and a spate of missing scions?
All Exceptional Friends receive:
- A new Exceptional Story every month
- Memories of a Tale from each story to spend on exclusive companions and items
- A second candle (up to 40 actions at once)
- An expanded opportunity deck: ten cards instead of six
- Four additional outfit slots
- The ability to run an additional concurrent plot, once Agents are unlocked
- Access to the House of Chimes including monthly gameplay perks
Enhanced Exceptional Friends receive all of the above, plus:
- A past story, or two resets of stories they’ve played from a monthly menu
- Memories of a Tale from every past story or reset
- Extra monthly perks in the House of Chimes
- Another two outfit slots
- Three seven-action refreshes per month
3 Likes
For a moment there, with Auntie in mind, I read that as a plate of missing scones…
2 Likes
This was a fun one! & I would be interested to read the other endings…
2 Likes
Fun, but I really wouldn’t recommend that people spend money on it. I liked the background of the King’s love story.
Interesting one!
Wonder if one of the endings involves pushing her into the sea to become a drownie.
Well! I enjoyed this. I didn’t have high expectations, but if FL takes anything from this one: It’s that having agency can overcome mediocre execution and a dull concept.
I started this expecting to exact a terrible and bloody vengeance on whoever tried to murder me, a feeling only worsened by her apparent smugness and trophy-taking. The moment I found out she was being strongarmed by His Complexity though, as a veteran of SS fetch quests I immediately sympathised and decided that actually, I’ve murdered for less in Hearts’ Game. And that set me on the course to deciding true love SHOULD, against all reason and logic and possibly to long term disappointment, win just this once out of contrarianism. And that led me to seeing His Complexity show an unexpected degree of kindness.
Speaking objectively, I have to say this is a relatively simple and straightforward story that anyone with a couple of ESes under their belt can reasonably predict the major beats of. Speaking subjectively, I also found it reasonably fun; just like appealing to the Fathomking’s charm and romance is the surest way to his heart, referring to old ES accomplishments and actually giving me a CHOICE in the outcome of major story beats is the easiest way to butter me up. If I were a professional critic I might be harsher about how I feel the story errs too strongly in favour of the happy couple, the contrivance by which the other Drownies’ grudges are sunk in the ending I found, and other nitpicks. But I’m not. I’m ultimately a guy who plays this game to enjoy stories. And I enjoyed this one.
5 Likes
