Complaining again. This time about nightmares. Specifically, the social action to unload them.
I don’t think it should cost an Insight to discuss them. Is there any reason it does? I don’t think it costs Notes or Smiles to ask for help with Suspicion or Scandal. Unless it does and I’m forgetting. We should be able to request help for Wounds, too, rather than wait for someone to offer. But I guess I can see why it’s done that way.
To get rid of Nightmares, you either take Laudanum, which increases wounds, or you talk about them, which costs an Insight that could be better spent increasing Watchful. So I think it shouldn’t cost anything but the standard action to send a request out.[li]
Edit: Does the Veilgarden honey-den decrease nightmares? If not, it should. This way, people have another alternative that hopefully doesn’t give Wounds, though would of course increase tolerance to Honey instead of Laudanum. :P edited by Taleria on 7/20/2014
That being said, the action reduces more cp than the suspicion one does, and can occasionally give a tale of terror. As for the wounds action, if you get someone to have an offer for you all the time and replenish it when you’ve used it, this works rather well =)
You can also clear menaces with opportunity cards, but that obviously takes longer time.
Edit: No, they don’t. Time in bed is another alternative, assuming you can get wounds.
Other alternative: Sacrificing appalling secrets edited by Aximillio on 7/20/2014
Even if the nightmares option costs a sudden insight, I don’t often use it because it’s more useful for me to let nightmares hit 8. I can use the Mirror Marches to grind memories of light. And even if I want to avoid the menace area, I can also use the bejeweled cane in conjuction with the goldfish. The additional two levels of leeway are more than enough to tide me over until Time.
So it’s possible to avoid using the social action. But if it’s not possible for you, then I guess you’ll either have to use laudanum or stock up on second chances. In which case you can use the second round of University storylets to grind those, if chess is no longer a good source.
Haven’t yet encountered any bejeweled cane. And the University is a long way off. I am Watchful 60. But good to know Insights can be farmed there. Chess is still a good source, since I often lose. LOL
Wow! Sacrificing Secrets takes off a great deal of CP. Though I wonder how long it takes to get a success.
I never use the Wounds storylet because it takes too many actions to be worth it. I can just use the Tincture and get guaranteed reductions for the same actions.
Good to know I can attempt to forget Secrets, though. That looks like the best option since I find Secrets are easier to come by than Insights. And Laudanum is not too expensive in any case. Certainly less than Absolution and that doesn’t even work as well all the time. I guess I will just have to find what works best for me.
The Bejewelled Cane can be made at the end of the Keen-Eyed Lapidary’s storyline. Goldfish, of course, are available in the Bazaar, and a bargain for helping prevent unplanned reservations at a certain hotel.
[quote=Taleria]Haven’t yet encountered any bejeweled cane. And the University is a long way off. I am Watchful 60. But good to know Insights can be farmed there. Chess is still a good source, since I often lose. LOL
Wow! Sacrificing Secrets takes off a great deal of CP. Though I wonder how long it takes to get a success. …[/quote]
that was my preferred choice of reducing nightmares( forgeting secrets) until "time the healer" was implemented along with some church-related cards which reduced nightmares too. otherwise i also use a combination of laudanum and tincture to reduce nightmares reliably.
[quote=empirimancer]Once you hire a Winsome Orphan you will be swimming in laudanum.[/quote]I never did that and I’m still swimming in laudanum. Mostly from telling F.F. Gebrandt ‘everything’, over and over and over. (And I should have let that remain the end of it, to avoid "Providing for the revels". But I wanted to keep my options open.) After reaching the Fourth Coil in the Labyrinth of Tigers there’s also a Master coming by with free bottles that I don’t need. Though I suppose that would end if I got more involved. Lots of free laudanum to be had, and I never used much of it even when I had nightmares. A familiar face by the school railings saw to that. And the occasional Time for a little relaxation.
You can also shed off nightmares by siding with the Urchins in the Urchins VS Widow conflict card.
Another option it to hire a cute Lizard and play her card - there should be an average loss of 0.5-1 nightmare, plus a good deal of profit for a starting character.
Oh, I did encounter the opportunity cards to reduce nightmares. They do help. Just that I’d rather not rely on them because of the randomness of when they’ll show up.
The lizard card was actually quite memorable. Surprisingly warm and fuzzy. I enjoyed it.
I find that I tend to resort to Laudanum as the most self-sufficient means, though more expensive than acquiring insights. Will definitely try using Appalling Secrets when Nightmares get out of hand again.
I’m playing the Recurring Dreams stories, though. Would really hate to lose progress, since those are solely from opportunity cards.
Are the Recurring Dreams - “Burial of the Dead,” “Death by Water,” “What the Thunder Said,” etc - connected with the ‘Eyes of Icarus,’ Touched by Fingerwork, ‘Fallen Cities,’ and ‘Gates of the Garden?’ All of those are fascinating.
You can keep most of your dream progress as long as you have a Memory of Light, which will send you to the Mirror Marshes instead of the Royal Bethlehem. Takes a bit longer to get out of, but it won’t take away your dream progress (except for “Is Someone There?”)