May Exceptional Story: The Pentecost Predicament

Say, since we acquired the captain’s debt and still have it at the end of the story… what prevents us from foreclosing on his mansion? I could use a nice upgrade from my townhouse. :p

The Apes’ scheme was foiled by the one factor they never accounted for… mortgage repayments.

That reminds me. My personal theory is that the apes relocated their colony to… Whatshername who opposed the blockade.

I wish we could have seen more of the Devastating Zoologist. At the end of the soiree she was talking to The Delightful Adventuress and as I managed to meet the Adventuress later so I presumed that the zoologist was also in the house somewhere but I didn’t manage to find her before I dealt with Vespasian.

[quote=Hark DeGaul]Domitian is in the smoking room. I think he appears there a little after midnight.
edited by Hark DeGaul on 4/29/2016[/quote]

I have attempted to play through the sequence twice and even though it says I’ve unlocked the smoking room as an explorable area, it never shows up on the list of options.

question:

if I poison the wine do I HAVE to use it, or do I retain the option to not serve it to Vespasian later?

You retain the option to do something else instead, an_ocelot. ;)

thanks!

Tiny critique: I would like it if the storylets that take you to deal with characters in the Mansion were zero-action.

Kind of sad that I didn’t get the chance to help my Pentacost Ape find love for a night. Don’t know if that’s a glitch or if it was on a specific time on the clock. Does anyone have a link to their profile using the action?

Also, I suppose that’s the end of this trio of Exceptional Stories. Anyone have any ideas for when Failbetter will come out with an option to use the three special items?

My echoes start here, and are collected in the link in my signature.

Sir Joseph, here’s the echo you’re looking for, though there’s not much to it.

General thoughts:

Like many, I didn’t feel that the Flash Lay was an interesting component of the story, but I quite liked the exploration of the house and the increasing moral complexity of the situation, also that as far as I can tell, it was eminently possible to explore everything within the allotted time. And I definitely want to know more about the Apes and what they’re planning.

I felt that it was awfully short but good regardless.
It was nice to see the Adventuress and her clay companion again. I hope maybe the Zoologist shows up in Sunless Sea.

This is either totally obvious or totally reaching, but

The apes are named after Roman personalities, so this is all a reference to Caesar from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, right?

I just have to bring it up.

Ooooh, aren’t you just the clever one. Good catch, I bet you’re right.

Did anyone take Vespasian’s side and let him stay in London?
I’d be curious to see the text! (I suppose it doesn’t give any special reward as for the other choices)

[quote=Dungerson]This is either totally obvious or totally reaching, but

The apes are named after Roman personalities, so this is all a reference to Caesar from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, right?

I just have to bring it up.[/quote]
I actually thought it referred to the fact we’re dealing with products of an Empire (the Empire of Hands), so for association the apes named themselves after roman emperors (and a very famous wife of one of them).

Is there a risk of stat loss in this? I’m planning to do save this for after I’ve overcapped Dangerous because I’ve found a good pace for getting there right now, and I don’t want to see my painstakingly raised stats disappear straightaway…

I don’t believe so. I mean, I wasn’t exactly watching for it, but I don’t recall any.

But I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I lost a significant amount of stats, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

I also think there was none, so go for it.

I thought the Flash Lay mechanic worked well with the Governess story, but it seems out of place here. Which is odd, because in the Governess’s story the character is only seeking information and admittance to the Parthenaeum, but in this one the character really is trying to take valuable property by deceit–i.e., the Merchant Captain’s debt. Still, for some reason the Flash Lay felt out of place to me.