I can’t seem to ever get more than 1 for the value of "Conspiring on the Pyres". Am I doing something wrong?
Nevermind, I didn’t realize you had to talk to the wife one last time after determining what was going on in both camps.
I will be redoing this story, I am not happy with how it went.
[quote=TeslaWalker]Received a notification about nine minutes ago in my messages tab:
"The dust. The sun in your eyes. Everything changes. Everything stays the same. Moving."
I’ve never seen this before and as I’ve just completed the story this felt like the right place to mention it and ask: Does anyone know what this is about?[/quote]
[li]
How curious. As someone who supported the Visionary, convinced him to stay where he was, returned the mistress to London and convinced the Bluejacket to donate to the Visionary I seem to have received no messages of note.
Is there anything other than the Evening Ritual’s ive done Glimpses of the Future But even after some other little One of a time options i don’t have an additional card and those two are left to me as a choice.
I was a huge fan of this exceptional story. I like that it was primarily character-driven, as that’s the sort of story I actually like to read, especially in the realm of Interactive Fiction. The characters felt realistic, well-rounded, and interesting, and I enjoyed learning more about them, and having my feelings for them grow more tangled and complex as a result. I think the story was paced excellently, and I really enjoyed how simple and straightforward the structure was. It left room for excellent characters, complex webs of friendship and obligation, and several of the most difficult choices in the game, for me at least.
[li]
I may have to play the story again just to hang out more with the Abiding Wife. She was super cool. I intended to work with her and intrigue against both cults at first, but I ended up falling head over heels for the Visionary. (I love how nuanced the choices got toward the end. I was so happy when I found that you could advise him to stay on the island). I ended up bringing the Iconoclast back to London, out of a sense of obligation to the Bluejacket, and because I didn’t want her dead, but when it came time to give her the Bequeathment, I found I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I loved the Visionary so much, and I couldn’t bear to leave him with so little. It was kind of a heart wrenching decision, especially since I really cared about the Abiding Wife, and the option to try and mend things between her and her husband seemed like such a kind and beautiful thing to do, but in the end, I knew who I cared for more.
[li]
edited by Gul al-Ahlaam on 9/30/2016
[quote=folklore364]Hmmm, I was sowing a bit of chaos between the two groups and received this line.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour"
…I’ve seen that exact line before in a message but it was definitely not related to this story. In fact, it wasn’t related to any story, so to speak.
Given the previous story was related to a certain Harris, who will quite likely be further featured or expanded upon in Zubmariner, it seems a reasonable guess.
The evening rituals are the way to progress the story, with iirc four being done total. It doesn’t matter which one you choose each night, they both lead to the same event.[li]
edited by Optimatum on 9/30/2016
The writing in this month’s story was simply beautiful.
I sided with the Conflagrati and let the Iconoclast burn. It felt poetic, and befitting her character. Who am I to judge whose dying wishes are more important? (If anything, she’s worked for it a lot harder than anyone else has in this story.)
After that, I gave the Bequeathment to his Wife.
For that I received a Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise, but no message.
I also liked the possible allusion to the sati custom (in atypical Fallen London style) - in this case, the mistress, and not the wife, went before the husband, and by her own accord. Fascinating.
[quote=TeslaWalker][quote=Optimatum]
What ending did you get? I helped the Conflagrati, saved the Iconoclast, and gave the Bequeathment to the wife, and I have no message.[/quote]
Turned them against eachother, told the visionary to leave, brought the iconoclast back, and gave the bequeathment to the wife.
I don’t know if the story and the message were related but I figured I’d post in here incase they were.[/quote]
That message is from another storynexusgame.
So, as a good little Dawn Machine acolyte I decided to help the Visionary and urge him to stick with his original plan. I am a little peeved that I was not given access to an Element of Dawn giving ending, but I felt it was the best thing to do at the time. It was also nice to get to see a New Sequencer who was not either unambiguously evil or completely brainwashed.
So I’ve finished it, and I have to say that was simply delightful. I was charged with getting the bequeathment to the iconoclast and she received it. Almost gave the poor fellow a heart attack.
Has anyone picked the selfish ending yet?
I’m curious to know what it was.
Yeah, you get a Soothe and Copper Longbox.
[quote=Teaspoon]Has anyone picked the selfish ending yet?
I’m curious to know what it was.[/quote]
[quote=Ombler]I chose to take the bequeathment myself because of course I did.
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Ombler?fromEchoId=9737170
Reward was
A Long-Box
I helped the Conflagrati, stopped the Iconoclast from burning up, and told the Bluejacket to leave the money to the Iconoclast. My character’s motivation was fairly straightforward:
-
Do the letter of the job she was hired to do and get the b___dy hell out of there.
-
Crush that New Sequence b__tard and stop the false god from getting a few more converts.
Which she did.
[spoiler]The Conflagrati are fairly nasty, but they’re a new take on an old heresy, the new part being merely an Elder Continent disease that makes your soul burn up (lets leave aside that their heresy is unsettling close to Anne’s own devotion to St. Joshua…). If the Iconoclast had set her cult up in downtown London it would present something of a problem, but since she’s located/quarantined herself on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere and has stated her intent to keep her followers there with her it seems fairly safe to let them burn themselves out (literally). They’ll use the money to presumably erect some sort of reverse-hospital where they inflame the disease rather than starve it.
The Dawn Machine on the other hand is a new god and its servants are organized, armed, and have clear imperial ambitions, so they’re the bigger threat. [/spoiler]
Anyway, review time. There was a lot to like.
This was an intimate and very entertaining glimpse into the viewpoints and practices of two Neathy religions. The writing had my attention throughout. The format was somewhat traditional - two opposing sides, with the balance of power hanging in your grasp, but it worked. Throughout the story I really felt that a lot of things could happen on that ship. I really liked the introduction of the Conflagrati - they may be a death cult, but they have style. The Iconoclast was very intriguingly written, a burning array of contradictions - set on achieving her spiritual conflagration, determined to guide/protect her followers, outwardly fanatical but filled with regrets and secret doubts. I’m glad they kept the zailing part of the story.
The only weak part was the character of the Abiding Wife. She was a major part of the story, but I didn’t really connect with her. In contrast to the complicated Iconoclast, the Wife felt kind of flat and one note? But then other players seem to have liked her, so maybe it’s just me. The Visionary was also flat, but that worked in his favor as he’s a slave to the New Sequence, which makes its followers singlemindedly devoted to the new dawn.
Not one of my favorite stories, but quite enjoyable nonetheless. I can’t wait to see what the long term consequences of my decisions will be with the Bluejacket.
edited by Anne Auclair on 9/30/2016
Honestly, I’m now at the Southern Archipelago and have no idea where to go. I went to the old sailor’s house in London to get the mission brief but promptly forgot where the Pyres island was. Was it behind Mutton island? Am I supposed to go there?[/quote]
There should be a storylet in your lodgings.
You need to head back to London to get there.
Edit: It might be accessible at other locations in London, but I found mine quite far down in the Lodgings - you still have to go through the zailing, but it’ll lead you to your destination (it’s literally the only one that appears, you can’t go anywhere else, so you won’t be able to get it mixed up or miss it in any way).
edited by Robin Alexander on 9/29/2016[/quote]
G_d D___it!
Well, at least I caught a seal…
This story unfortunately didn’t resonate too much with me. The main reason is perhaps mechanically related. I was quite confused as to what I was supposed to do once I reached the wreck, and what you did during the "day" didn’t seem to impact the rituals too much anyways. You were free to choose sides as you wished. I spent more time being confused about how to snap up as much information as possible than actually chewing the cud.
Secondly, the situation seemed somewhat forced to me. We’re on a wreck, there’s this nutty Narcissus who wants to burn up and be left alone, this other dude who thinks he’s a Dawn Machine prophet and a bunch of followers, with on information on how they’re sustaining their communities. The worldbuilding aspect was completely ignored in favour of character building, but somehow the characters didn’t strike me as particularly interesting anyways.
After last months powerstory that completely pivoted my character into an entirely different view of life and philosophy, this was a bit of a letdown. However, seems like there’s lots of other peeps on here who enjoyed it, so I might just have esoteric tastes.
edited by Cantankerous Captain on 10/1/2016
edited by Cantankerous Captain on 10/1/2016
Nothing wrong with that ^_^
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/1/2016
I’m kind of lost with this story. There’s a woman whose…soul is burning up somehow? And she has followers? Do they worship her as well as fire? And then there’s some guy who keeps talking about machines and dawn, and HE has followers too, for some reason. I can’t make out what either of them believe or what they would do if they had support. Both groups seem like fools (burning up souls seems dumb in a place where you can actual buy jars full of them, and why would you worship a machine?). I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I’ve been trying to gather information, but I’m not doing very well at it. I’d like to smash both cults and bring the Iconoclast and the Visionary to their senses, but I doubt that’s possible.
The smashing part is very possible.
You need to raise your status with both factions to get info about the coming confrontation, then after getting said info you need to talk to the abiding wife, then during the confrontation go with the wife’s plan to sabotage both sides.
edited by Anne Auclair on 10/1/2016
Background lore for context:
[spoiler]The Iconoclast has animescence, a rare disease in which her own soul has caught fire and will, eventually, incinerate her. The disease is hastened by emotion and passion, hence why her followers are being very Hedonistic. For some reason there’s a group called the Conflagrati who want to contract animescence themselves and burn up in some kind of transcendental experience. This is very possible - animescence is spread by being near someone with the disease while particularly passionate, ie happy, loving, angry, sad, anything. Animescence came up in Sunless Sea a couple times and is potentially cured once to everyone’s astonishment.
The Visionary worships the Dawn Machine, a mechanical man-made star. Some time ago a faction within the Admiralty, the New Sequence, began construction on the Dawn Machine to rewrite law to their will. Of course, their hubris caught up with them when it became sentient and promptly brainwashed them all. The New Sequence thus want to help complete the Dawn Machine and further its goals, so it can eventually dictate the laws of reality. The Visionary seems to be on the less-severe side of the brainwashing spectrum, from what I’ve read in people’s journals, but not having favored him myself I don’t know the exact details of his character.
Of course, both leaders seem to have their share of regrets and doubts…[/spoiler]
Mechanically, you only have to gather information if you wish to scheme, and that’s done by helping both sides then taking the options to investigate and plan. Time is progressed by helping until you can take an option for the evening rites - which factions’ option you take doesn’t matter as they both lead to the same event.