In case anyone hasn’t heard of it yet:
There is a a collaborated document discussing the mysteries and answers created by the Fallen London community and contains sources for each entry. It is EXTREMELY helpful in my opinion.
Here’s the link:
From the echoes I read it seems that all those sisters know about the well and the key, so wouldn’t it make more sense if the person who hid the key in the well was someone they all knew? Maybe one of their ‘beloved’, or all of them if they’re all the same person. I guess if I go out there myself for some reason I’d be able to get a better picture of what that place is all about, but the loss of progress qualities is keeping me landlocked for now, as it has since forever.
I hate to ask, but can someone private message me what they think the answers are?
The book attributed to May has some curious connections with the Sisters from Hunter’s Keep:
"These are powerful tales: of hands touching for the first time on carnival rides; of intimacies stolen by doors which listen. The ecstasies captured in the middle section give way to a sombre conclusion: stories of old lovers separated by dark waters, and of hearts turned to stone."
This echo mentions that the romance with their (possibly shared?) Beloved peaked at the Carnival:
"You rummage through the stacks of books in the bedrooms. Right at the bottom of one pile is a promising journal, dated a few years ago. You begin to read, but it’s so boring. The writer chronicles a chaste love affair with a young man. He sounds pleasant enough, if unremarkable, but the prose is flat, and very little happens. A trip to Mrs Plenty’s Carnival was the highlight of the romance, and it ended after his father insisted he take a job as a legal clerk."
And in Sunless Sea we can read the following:
"Phoebe has a story to tell: of two lovers parted by water, of a raven that carried messages, of a fragment of the moon. She beats time on the table as she speaks, as if to a song only she can hear. The effect is hypnotic."
Which sounds like the story of the Manager and the King, except Cynthia (in FL again) says this:
"You venture a couple of gentle witticisms, and Cynthia finally rewards you with a smile. ‘It’s just that I was thinking about my beloved in London,’ she says. ‘So far over the water. Cold and alone. Betrayed. The fortune-teller drew the Gibbet at his reading, you know. You could see the shock in her eyes. Even her goat shied away from him.’"
It’d appear that this book has more in common with the Sisters and their Beloved than with the Manager - unless he is also a part of this? Or their stories are supposed to be similar?
edited by mp on 7/16/2018
What’s the source for "The Bazaar Spoke"? I think it’s pretty clear that this references London’s Fall, but I haven’t been able to find anything about the bazaar speaking out while the city was being stolen. The spreadsheet’s source isn’t helpful there.
I feel like the Key may not have much to do with the sisters (since the Manager is clearly not their Beloved). My best guess is that the Manager gave the key to the Sisters, who hid it in the well for him (as a favour, not out of any deeper purpose for themselves); or he may have hidden it himself.
I’m putting down the sisters as a whole, because I have seen no evidence so far if any single one in particular being responsible and the Manager is already an answer for another question.
EDIT: Has the Maid been discussed as an option already? Because she’s guarding the key, so maybe she was the one to hide it too. It makes some sense in my mind: the Manager "gives it away" (as seen in the echo from HD) to the Sisters because they know each other, the Sisters tell their maid to hide it (that’s what maids are for, after all), the maid sticks it in the well and sets to guarding it.
edited by Dudebro Pyro on 7/16/2018
I chose the Maid for that question. No real proof but she is the only other living thing that you find in the well.
It will be interesting to find out the correct answers to some of these questions.
[quote=Dudebro Pyro]What’s the source for "The Bazaar Spoke"? I think it’s pretty clear that this references London’s Fall, but I haven’t been able to find anything about the bazaar speaking out while the city was being stolen. The spreadsheet’s source isn’t helpful there.[/quote]I think it’s the two different options for basking in sunlight that have different things the voice of the Bazaar said/sang at the end of the Feast of the Exceptional Rose in 2013. Which was roughly half a year before I started playing. So to me this would qualify as a mystery, but to people who were around in those days, maybe not?
But that was in March.
Goddammit - you know what, I never in all this time thought to actually check. It was on the 1st of March, you’re right. Guess we’re talking 'bout the Fall, then.
You make a good point, Barse. But in 2013 February 14 was a Thursday. Two weeks hence would be the 28th, and 1st March is the following day. I can’t recall if the Feast actually began on the 14th in 2013.
Anyway, I think I’m keeping my answer, and if I’m wrong feel free to mock me.
[quote=Catherine Raymond]You make a good point, Barse. But in 2013 February 14 was a Thursday. Two weeks hence would be the 28th, and 1st March is the following day. I can’t recall if the Feast actually began on the 14th in 2013.
Anyway, I think I’m keeping my answer, and if I’m wrong feel free to mock me.[/quote]
The event went on for a short span of hours during the daytime GMT, and I just did some journal-searching for echoes and they were all made on the 1st of March. I think I’ve just been barkin’ up the Feast tree this whole time, completely incorrectly.
[quote=Barse]The event went on for a short span of hours during the daytime GMT, and I just did some journal-searching for echoes and they were all made on the 1st of March. I think I’ve just been barkin’ up the Feast tree this whole time, completely incorrectly.[/quote]Ahh, I went by the last of the comments in the pop-up window for that answer on the spreadsheet, where it linked to a post that implied that the event ended before midnight GMT. I assumed that it was before GMT on February 28th, not on March 1st, since that was the issue being discussed in those comments:
But now that I read the first posts of the forum thread, it does indeed seem as if that ending part of the event started on March 1st and did not end on February 28th. Strange how no one corrected that last claim then.
I looked back at my forum messages and found the thread from the time - http://community.failbettergames.com/topic1537-sunlight.aspx The sunlight event did occur on 1st March
I now need to think of a new answer for that question and I am blank on possibilities
Edit I took too long researching when Prince Albert fell ill to see if that would fit. His final illness was in December 1861 and I don’t remember exactly when London was stolen. If 1861, though he hadn’t been in the best of health I don’t think it was thought life threatening and if 1862 the deal would have involved resurrecting him.
second edit - I’m leaving my feast related answer as I can’t think of anything else. If a better answer turns up before they close the mystery tab I can change it.
edited by reveurciel on 7/16/2018
London fell, I believe, on the week of February 14, 1862, which happens to be Valentine’s Day. Relevant image:
which apparently dates back as promotional material from the Echo Bazaar days. A possible answer for the mystery (and the one I’m going with) is that London fell in the last February of sunlight.
Fallen London was stolen by bats in early February. There’s a newspaper clipping whose origins I forgot, and which is linked in the spreadsheet, dated 14th of February 1862, which reports London being stolen as the cover story.
EDIT: beaten by 51 seconds by a frankly much superior answer
edited by Dudebro Pyro on 7/16/2018
[quote=mp]The book attributed to May has some curious connections with the Sisters from Hunter’s Keep:
"These are powerful tales: of hands touching for the first time on carnival rides; of intimacies stolen by doors which listen. The ecstasies captured in the middle section give way to a sombre conclusion: stories of old lovers separated by dark waters, and of hearts turned to stone."
This echo mentions that the romance with their (possibly shared?) Beloved peaked at the Carnival:
"You rummage through the stacks of books in the bedrooms. Right at the bottom of one pile is a promising journal, dated a few years ago. You begin to read, but it’s so boring. The writer chronicles a chaste love affair with a young man. He sounds pleasant enough, if unremarkable, but the prose is flat, and very little happens. A trip to Mrs Plenty’s Carnival was the highlight of the romance, and it ended after his father insisted he take a job as a legal clerk."
And in Sunless Sea we can read the following:
"Phoebe has a story to tell: of two lovers parted by water, of a raven that carried messages, of a fragment of the moon. She beats time on the table as she speaks, as if to a song only she can hear. The effect is hypnotic."
Which sounds like the story of the Manager and the King, except Cynthia (in FL again) says this:
"You venture a couple of gentle witticisms, and Cynthia finally rewards you with a smile. ‘It’s just that I was thinking about my beloved in London,’ she says. ‘So far over the water. Cold and alone. Betrayed. The fortune-teller drew the Gibbet at his reading, you know. You could see the shock in her eyes. Even her goat shied away from him.’"
It’d appear that this book has more in common with the Sisters and their Beloved than with the Manager - unless he is also a part of this? Or their stories are supposed to be similar?
edited by mp on 7/16/2018[/quote]
I think "lovers separated by water" is just a recurring theme in Fallen London. That raven who carried messages is probably a reference to the Bazaar, in which case the "water" is space, and it has nothing to do with the sisters themselves. Also, if the carnival was the highlight of the romance, their hands probably touched before that.
Today’s access code provides a Great Game favour for no clear reason, right before the mysteries close. Perhaps this is a hint. It certainly fits an existing theme.
What is the Great Game played for? Coffee.
[quote=Optimatum]Today’s access code provides a Great Game favour for no clear reason, right before the mysteries close. Perhaps this is a hint. It certainly fits an existing theme.
What is the Great Game played for? Coffee.[/quote]Aha! Now we know why the Foreign Office and its spies are so interested in maintaining London’s control of the Carnelian Coast: it’s the source of the precious Darkdrop Coffee that fuels their espionage!
"Thirty two hours in, and even Darkdrop Coffee stops helping. The strain is murder. How does the Agent do it? "I learned to sleep with my eyes open." He winks. "Go home, get some rest. I can take the rest from here. Your presence helped.""
Ugh! Everyone knows you should trade your darkdrop coffee for parabola linen at Irem, and then sell the linen at Dahut for maximum profit.
Drinking it is such a waste, and it’s probably made from bat guano besides!
[quote=a Nice Friend]Ugh! Everyone knows you should trade your darkdrop coffee for parabola linen at Irem, and then sell the linen at Dahut for maximum profit.
Drinking it is such a waste, and it’s probably made from bat guano besides![/quote]Ugh! Everyone knows you should use your Darkdrop Coffee to kickstart a colony at Aestival to use as your base of operations for hunting Lorn-Flukes in the far East. Then you can gather supplies on the island, trade those supplies for fuel, terror reduction, and hull repair from your subjects, and staff any newfound vacancies with Khaganians.
You’d think that ancient aliens that speak the Correspondence would be a bit more competent at not dying, but what can you do?