“I feel I should be upfront with you,” says the Deputy. “I’m expecting you to fail. Writers are less dangerous than crocodiles, but a lot more annoying. This is a lost cause.”
Heroes, one of London’s most rip-roaring and cheaply printed penny dreadfuls, is going out of business. The Overburdened Deputy has one last issue to put together, but her writers have – horror of horrors! – missed their deadlines. Famed Detective Crufton Bleak has not yet solved his final case; the Bigsby family are suspended in unresolved peril; the intrepid Samson Harper’s last escapade ended mid-adventure. It is up to you to chase down their errant authors, and bring home each story’s final chapter. Narrative closure hangs in the balance!
Curious about Exceptional Friendship? You can now play the Exceptional Story Reunion for free, as a taster! Look for ‘An Exceptional Story: Reunion’ anywhere in London. You’ll unlock it when you’ve achieved level 5 in each of the four Making Your Name storylines.
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
Four additional outfit slots
The ability to run an additional concurrent plot, once Agents are unlocked
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 they’ve played from a monthly menu
Harry, Luke, whoever came up with the line about the penny dreadfuls being undercut by the ‘ha’penny dreadfullers’ - I want you imagine me walking over there and shaking you firmly, congratulatorily, by the hand.
I haven’t gotten a chance to start this ES yet, but I grinned and did a happy little dance at my desk when I saw that the writer is Harry Tuffs. I’m really looking forward to playing through this story soon!
This may be the funniest ES Failbetter has ever published. “Tiger, tiger, kerning right” indeed! It goes to show that a great ES does not need to tell us more about Fallen London and the universe in which it resides. Bravo!
I really enjoyed this! Fallen London’s audience being so literary means a story about stories is always welcome, but this one was particularly well-executed. I had to stop to laugh out loud and read passages to whoever was nearby like five times. Plus, the instigating incident being capital trying to disrupt the industry by flooding it with operators running at losses - nice bit of commentary there. Top work all round!
I’m kind of curious what the possible endings were for the guy that escaped from Parabola, whatever his name was, and his author. What were the options there?
I think I shot him in the house of mirrors but it was hard to tell if I got it right.
This story is beyond exceptional! It is on par with The Sandman in its interrogation of fiction, writing, and the many travails thereof. I adore it when the craft is celebrated, both at its heights and at its lows. Every sentencemonger can relate to these writers. And speaking as someone with an inordinate fondness for Imperial Adventure stories, Conan, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the Continental Op, and the Swiss Family Robinson, I am target, recipient and Ground Zero for this story. It might even be graced with the adjective “Exceptional.”.
I also thought this story was excellent. Many hilarious yet exciting moments and I felt very invested in helping these authors get their stories out. I was very happy to see my final edition be a great success. While it was so so tempting to make the Bigsbys end in a bloodbath it ultimately didn’t feel right. Sadly there was no room to publish the foul story so poor Mr Pages was very disappointed. But I couldn’t very well leave out any of the stories I worked hard to get finished.
I’m pretty sure I missed shooting Samson because in the end it seems like he takes out his helmet to go on a new adventure. No idea how I was supposed to pick the right one
I picked the odd one out, there was one description that was different from all the others. I no longer remember what that difference was though, which is why I’m not sure I got it right.
I got duped by Harper messing with the description text I think — interesting that if you manage to hit him Pensman kills him off, while Harper gives himself a happy ending he seems to have no inclination to actually pursue irl
Does anyone have a link to the non-bloodbath ending for the Workhorse’s story? If you let him go for it you get this when he turns it in.
This was a really fantastic story! Endings are always such tricky things that can make or break an entire series. The kinds of dilemmas about how to end the stories in Heroes felt very familiar to books I’ve read in real life and the ways their endings did or didn’t measure up.
I’m curious about what other possibilities there are for the results of the stories.
I was very pleased to get a satisfying ending to the Crufton Bleak mystery, but I wonder what other results there are based on the choices you make in advising the author, and whether anything that happens in the Samson Harper chase scene after the she shows up affects it.
I let the Workhorse go with the bloodbath ending, though ultimately I regretted that one a bit, so I’m curious what the other option there looks like.
Does anything other than whether you shoot the right Harper affect the ending of the Harper story?
I didn’t print Mrs. Frontispiece’s story. I was thinking of letting the Workhorse’s story go unpublished but that wasn’t an option. Though I probably would have made the same choices, I didn’t realize that talking to the two remaining finished authors would immediately lock in their stories for publication, so some extra mechanical hint text there might be a nice thing to add.
i made my dicision(bloody story,shoot the wrong mirror and make a new story) get a normal end,i think.just curios ,what will hanppen if i pubnish the story made by master page(by the way, i think he has trouble in his or their mind,that is why i choose to be a revolutor at most time),actually i am curious of all ends.
I’m really looking forward to playing through this story soon!
it ultimately didn’t feel right. Sadly there was no room to publish the foul story so poor Mr Pages was very disappointed. But I couldn’t very well leave out any of the stories I worked hard to get finished.