May Exceptional Story: The Why of Eels

Exceptional Story for May: The Why of Eels

Pale flesh pulled taut over malformed bone. A sharp, protruding nose; a twinkling human eye. An endlessly grinning mouth, stretching back well beyond any human jaw. An eel?

Eels: a Fifth City delicacy, and an ichthyological mystery. It is eel migration season in the Neath, and the Stolen River runs black with slippery bodies. But where does their migration end? And why does this specimen have an unsettlingly human face? Eat inadvisable zeefood; track the creatures to their spawning ground; find an answer to the why of eels.

EXCEPTIONAL FRIENDSHIP

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
  • Three additional outfit slots
  • 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 you’ve played from a monthly menu
  • Memories of a Tale from every past story or reset
  • Extra monthly perks in the House of Chimes
  • Three seven-action refreshes per month
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You meet a Saucy Commis, who winks at you prettily; and a Saucier Saucier, who propositions you in a shockingly bold manner.

Fallen London may have spent years establishing the Adjective Noun naming system and setting countless stories in or around kitchens just to set up for making this joke.

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BUT CAN THEY WHY

(Reference to a real world meme group)

Also, do eels reproduce the same in the Neath as on the Surface?

I made a new friend, and had him over for dinner. He had excellent taste.

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Has anyone got the result for ā€˜Shake him off’ (I assume successfully)? My computer skipped that result for some reason, sending me first back to the screen to select it then straight on to the next research section.

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That would be this one, I believe.

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There’s a reason it says ā€œWelcome. Delicious friend.ā€ on the front page of the game…

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Hell of a story! Of all the places it might have gone, I wasn’t expecting it to be The Enigma of Amigara Fault but with eels. ā€˜This is eels’ hole! It was made for eels!’ sort of thing.

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Slight lore thought: Is there a possible connection between the Labyrinth of Eels, Zenith and Piranesi. Obviously Zenith’s wings of change calls itself ā€˜The Law of Piranesi’ but on a more direct level they all seem to have the same mechanic (trapping individuals in the space until they have changed so significantly as to no longer be themselves).

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Important note: the more shocking ending of this (shocking) ES references the (shocking) quality you could get from the (shocking) recent ES Memories of Mozart, also written by Harry Tuffs (shocking). I wonder if there’ll be a third one, to make a nice body horror trilogy?

I said about Memories of Mozart it’s not for the squeamish. I have no idea what to tell the squeamish about this one. For me it was super funny because in real life I find seafood revolting. But this is Fallen London where anything goes, so… Bon appetit! :rofl:

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I’ve run around, so to speak in the Zub department. Can’t get my scandal or suspicion down (and stay down) to petition… And I don’t have one I’m wondering if I should just quit while I’m ahead :sob:

Another Exceptionally Exceptional Story from Harry Tuffs, with bonus gruesome eel artwork. I enjoyed this one immensely – it was engaging and satisfying (in both a narrative and gustatory sense) from the very start. And now I’m very curious about what exactly is going on inside the Labyrinth of Eels. Ruins? Prisoners? A warden? How intriguing!

(Reminder to check out Harry Tuffs’ other games if you enjoyed this story or his several other Exceptional Stories. I strongly recommend A House of Many Doors.)

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One of the best ES I’ve read in a long time! I was already an HT fan but this makes me want to look up everything else he’s done in FL and his other games, too. The writing was great, I didn’t feel railroaded, and I loved the queer ship. Great addition to the general worldbuilding, too.

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It has been a while but I vaguely remember Zenith making oblique references to the Halved, and certainly it has a connection to the Stacks which are almost certainly has some connection to the Pergamon Manse, where the Judgements once kept their laws recorded. Librarians are very, very similar to Scrive-Spinsters, assuming they aren’t actually the same thing. It’s not impossible they could be the same place; Judgement laws can do things like decree two places be the same place and the Halved was/likely still is the Judgement who governed distance and measures. So yeah, I buy it.

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This was one of the coolest ES I’ve played in recent memory! Kudos, Kudos, and more kudos.

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Coincidentally, that (shocking) hat is why I had enough transformations to say, no thank you, I’ve changed enough

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I love when y’all allude to obscure or subjects that aren’t talked about in everyday society; what could he possibly be eating under that table cloth
Delicious friend indeed

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Joining in to express my deep enjoyment of this ES. Just expertly written and crafted from the start to the end!

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One of the really good ones – no surprise given the author. The story moves along at a nice clip, with meaningful decisions at key points. I actually had to go find an acquaintance to say something nice about me to get my hands on the zub, which was a new experience. I’d never clocked that praying only gets you so far. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I thought the Eat-Everything-that-Twitches Strepitious Gourmet (learnt a new word there! Something I really appreciate about FL) was delightfully vile and went out of my way to disoblige him. It was very pleasing to be able to blow his zub up more than once. Would you want to have him in a pie? Nah. But there is clearly an entirely different story if you make common cause with him.

I appreciated the warning once you got to the Labyrinth, but didn’t turn back. The body horror was no worse than some of the options on the roof.

Oh, and ā€œanimals speaking English are hardly unheard ofā€ was just perfect and so funny. I could see Mr Tumnus and Reepicheep in the distance, waving cheerily. Great stuff. And I actually have A House of Many Doors in my Steam library. Must move it up the list.

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