Exceptional Story for July: The Goblin Poet
She is no painting you’ve ever seen. Whorls, smears, and stains halo her as a blood-clouded angel. Endless red hair surrounds her, a phantasm of hate. In one hand, she crushes a snake to death. It goes to its squeezing willingly.
A red obsession. A fevered dream. A spate of artists, missing. The Goblin Poet’s brother – one Rugged Paintslinger – is the latest of these bohemians to disappear, each concerned with the same scarlet subject. Follow the art. Enter their dreams. Explore a chequered court, and confront the source of this bloodied inspiration.
- Writing: Baudelaire Welch
- Editing: James Chew
- QA: Michael Bunning
- Art: Paul Arendt
EXCEPTIONAL FRIENDSHIP
Exceptional Friendship is the ideal way to support our work on Fallen London. In exchange for your coin, you 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
- The ability to run a further concurrent plot, once Agents are unlocked
4 Likes
We got Rossettis here, people! Code Rose! Code Rose!
Edit:
False, I’m afraid. Wombats are beautiful and delightful. Everyone should be thankful for the acquaintanceship of a wombat. If you’ll indulge me, I’ll read a short piece from the Wombattist School:
Wombats are marvellous creatures / who dine on grasses and seeds / and if you ask very nicely / they’ll probably feed you some cheese
Wombats smell only of flowers / and will always bring you a gift / so if you speak poorly of wombats / we’ll ensure your exit is swift!
6 Likes
Going from McGonagall to the Rossettis in just one month is definitely a trip.
2 Likes
This one was intriguing. I’m not entirely satisfied with my ending (I rarely seem to be with this particular neath entity) but that seems appropriate given the themes.
I do like the line about what saves your life.
Also, am I reading the implication correctly that said neathly entity begins life as a fingerking? The reference to ‘slithering’ and the lack of lips seemed pointed.
2 Likes
I always thought she was something else given elsewhere she is described as sometimes their prisoner and sometimes their queen, but those references ARE pretty pointed aren’t they? Not the first time we’d have seen a heretical Fingerking like the Prophet-Exile or that one crocodile.
This isn’t quite how I imagined my PC fighting his patron would go, but if she didn’t want me to rip off her face then she shouldn’t have encouraged ambition and treachery in me as her anointed champion AND very specifically told him to avoid one particular room.
3 Likes
Does this one not have an epilogue?
Also if there was a special thing at the end, I missed it.
Do you have an echo for what saves your life?
I really enjoyed this Exceptional Story, and found it to be a superb blend of grim horror and light-hearted levity. I particularly enjoyed how increasingly absurd things got towards the end when I was trying to convince the painters to flee!
I see that this is author Baudelaire Welch’s first Exceptional Story for Fallen London, and I will definitely be looking forward to future stories by this author and also checking out their other games.
2 Likes
I hate it when the story tells me “This is an act most wicked.” It makes me feel as though I am sitting in the courtroom of a Judgement.
1 Like
The right and wrong here hinge on someone else’s point of view — and it is certainly not mine.
The ending leaves me helpless. If I kill her brother, I can only flee from the Goblin Poet or lie to her. All I want is to tell her openly that I am the one who caused her brother’s death.When you commit an act others deem wrong, even if you take pride in what you have done, they will automatically assume you are burdened with guilt. That is the ultimate tyranny of a moralizing narrative: it doesn’t just judge your actions; it refuses to let you own your own sins without shame.
1 Like
