November Exceptional Story: The Committee

Fallen London
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[color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]The Exceptional Story for November is here![/color]

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[color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]Something is rotten in the state of London. An old man refuses to go gracefully to the Tomb-Colonies. He claims to have unfinished business. Delve into secrets best left buried and uncover the last regret of a once brilliant servant.[/color]
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[color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]The Committee is the final story in the Season of Propinquity, and was written by Gavin Inglis. [/color][/color][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]In this season you will experience three stories of affinity, proximity (for good or ill), and the ties that bind.[/color][/color]

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Begin with the Season of Propinquity card available throughout London.

Editing and QA: James Chewand Olivia Wood
Art: Paul Arendt

Exceptional Friendship

In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:

[/color][/font][/color][ul][li][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private members’ club on the Stolen River, packed with content[/color][/li][li][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six![/color][/li][li][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once![/color][/li][/ul][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][font=facitweb-1, facitweb-2, &quotLucida Sans Unicode&quot, &quotLucida Grande&quot, sans-serif][color=rgb(0, 51, 255)]
Finishing all three stories in the Season of Bargains will make you eligible for an additional opportunity, to follow.

If you want to keep an Exceptional Story beyond its release month, you must complete the related storylet in the current Season’s card. This will save it for you to return to another time.[/color][/font][/color]

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The dead linger!
Because I’m way behind with ES, could someone keep me posted if this story uses any items/qualities? Posting in this old thread is more than welcome so we can keep this sheet updated!

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Am I the only one who felt that this ES was much, much shorter than usual?

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The rooftop pursuit of the crackswoman is some Assassins’ Creed s__t

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It was a fun story, on the short side. Interesting quirky characters, straightforward mechanics. The implication at the end was huge, I admit.
To be honest, I am glad it was shorter than others, since this is Hallowmass, and I wanted to get back to my parties!

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I don’t know why people say this was rather short. I didn’t count the words, but it sure didn’t feel short!

I thought it was very good. Lots of action, lots of fun, especially the Convivial Cryptographer’s antics. And a glimpse into deep lore.
I liked that the four investigations didn’t all work exactly the same, there was enough variation in the mechanics to make them not feel repetitive.

@Jolanda: I see you chose the ending at the Palace. May I ask what your reward was?

I decided to make the story public and got 1x Night-Whisper. You can read my echo of that ending here.

Let’s say it did not go entirely to plan… damn the Chameleon! … or should I say, the (new) Civet? ::

Echoes and reward information for the other two endings appreciated! :)
edited by phryne on 11/2/2019

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I did the palace ending myself, having magically forgotten how UK politics works and that the crown delegates decisions to parliament so it was ultimately pointless to go there. I left with a sour taste in my mouth, 2 Personal Recommendations, 4 Favours in High Places and some wine (Broken Giant I think).

This story really needed an Act 2 to be good, I feel. I felt like more was going to happen after I got the document together and was expecting the Chameleon to show up and be act 2 but apparently they only show up under specific circumstances.

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I, too, was naive enough to believe the Queen would talk to me. It seems to me that whatever ending you picked, it wouldn’t matter that much - the implications of the story lore-wise are huge, but the PC’s actions have little real weight here.
I was a little disappointed, because the characters were interesting and the chase on the roofs was wonderful… Letting the Tormentor die felt like much more of a pivotal choice to me than dealing with what was potentially an explosive secret.

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Has anyone killed it or reburied the secret?

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I reburied it and got five Antique Mysteries.

I enjoyed this ES, but the whole thing felt somewhat generic. My character is given a task just because. There’s four characters whose help I need, with similar mechanics for each. (The order definitely made a big difference here, since going after the Cryptographer first meant I was going back and forth to find other characters too, which was more interesting mechanically. The Chameleon’s section was disappointingly short though, especially as it didn’t tie in elsewhere.) The secret was interesting flavor, but wasn’t enough to make the final decision meaningful by itself—maybe if I had been more invested in the Committee’s emotions over it. And then it was over.

A pity there wasn’t any epilogue. The final choice was pretty significant in-universe, so seeing some effects would make it feel more meaningful.

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Huh, I miraculsously did them in an order that didn’t ask for any back and forth at all.
I also expected a second act after getting back the document. Someone trying to kill me, to say the least. Becoming the target of a chase myself, as I had tragetted the Committee. Meeting the Chameleon (a great addition to further celebartions? A lovely companion for next Hallowmass?). But as I said, this being Hallowmass I paid little attention to my dissapointment. On any other occasion, I would probably nag a bit.
Having said that, I will nag a bit about not showing us the Moth moment a bit more. Having played Sunless Sea I felt like I knew what was happening, but I am guessing anyone who hasn’t must have felt extremely confused - not because of the lore, but because the scene was only half-conveyed.

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[quote=Jolanda Swan]Having said that, I will nag a bit about not showing us the Moth moment a bit more. Having played Sunless Sea I felt like I knew what was happening, but I am guessing anyone who hasn’t must have felt extremely confused - not because of the lore, but because the scene was only half-conveyed.[/quote]I didn’t realize this until reading your comment, but you’re completely right. I was sent from the moment of the Emergence directly to Mr Huffam’s offices. I didn’t pay any attention to it at the time, but the Emergence itself - and the Moth - weren’t described or explained in any way that would’ve made sense to a player knowing nothing about Neathy Moth-lore. Though I guess it’s pretty impossible to do that for all the deep lore referenced in Exceptional Stories… still, dragging that moment out for another few storylets would’ve been nice. After all, an Emergence isn’t something Fallen Londonders witness every day. I agree that this part could’ve been written a little bit better.
edited by phryne on 11/3/2019

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I liked this one quite a bit. The structure was nothing special, just a series of fetch quests leading to a payoff. Fortunately, I thought the payoff was very worth it, and I had A Moment when I realized what the Committee actually did. I ended up going to HEM with the secret, and I see the reward from it as payment for my silence.

It was interesting to see so many Quirk checks, since I tend to see very few of them in my regular misadventures. I don’t know if this is a theme for exceptional stories, but I wouldn’t mind testing my personality as well as my stats are luck more often.

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I killed it, I got 5 silent souls.

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[quote=phryne][quote=Jolanda Swan]Having said that, I will nag a bit about not showing us the Moth moment a bit more. Having played Sunless Sea I felt like I knew what was happening, but I am guessing anyone who hasn’t must have felt extremely confused - not because of the lore, but because the scene was only half-conveyed.[/quote]I didn’t realize this until reading your comment, but you’re completely right. I was sent from the moment of the Emergence directly to Mr Huffam’s offices. I didn’t pay any attention to it at the time, but the Emergence itself - and the Moth - weren’t described or explained in any way that would’ve made sense to a player knowing nothing about Neathy Moth-lore. Though I guess it’s pretty impossible to do that for all the deep lore referenced in Exceptional Stories… still, dragging that moment out for another few storylets would’ve been nice. After all, an Emergence isn’t something Fallen Londonders witness every day. I agree that this part could’ve been written a little bit better.

edited by phryne on 11/3/2019[/quote]

There is another ES story that delves much more in to the moths. I suppose if one were to do this story & be very taken with the moth, they could pay the fate & do the &quotAll Things Must End&quot ES (I believe that’s the one with all the moth lore).

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The point is that someone playing this won’t realize what’s up with the moth at all. What moth? What chest? Kill what now?
It’s not the lack of lore that’s a problem: it’s not having any description of what your character, who is present at the scene, just saw.

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ARGH I hate everything. My browser glitched and I completely missed

the chairman telling me why they decided not to warn people they had 7 days to evacuate before the fall

does anyone have an echo of that?

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[quote=Lorelai ]ARGH I hate everything. My browser glitched and I completely missed

(a spoilery thing)

does anyone have an echo of that?[/quote]

I got you, delicious friend.

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Thank you!

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Huh. That was an interesting bit of lore, but I was a bit miffed that my final choice didn’t matter at all. Not even in principle - I went to tell someone about it and the document just gets nicked? Can I steal it back, go chameleon-hunting? No? Why not?