The diamond taken to Spite might be the one in Light Fingers. A diamond the size of a small cow? Given the size of the King, it seems pretty plausible for a piece of his heart to be that big.
I am beginning to think that the player probably won’t be able to win the Marvellous, or at least not in the "you get your Heart’s Desire" kind of winning. The focus on other players’ motivations and desires and the way the King with a Hundred Hearts begs you to not let the manager win makes me think that the player is likely to end up deciding who wins, who loses, that sort of thing - and getting a reward out of that instead of winning the Marvellous. There is quite a bit of wriggle room for roleplayers - you can be all mercenary and go for the highest bidder, or just pick the one that strike your fancy, things like that without making a 50-feet storylet picking your Heart’s Desire.
So far we have 5 players out of 7:
You
The Cardsharp Monkey (?)
The Topsy King (wants his Sanity back)
The Bishop of St.Fiarce (?)
The Manager (wants the King)
Buying the room above a gambling den suggest that Penstock is also hoping for the Marvellous, but then again he make references to everything as you buy lodgings. On the other hand there aren’t anyone else popping up. A lady like the Duchess or the Widow to balance out the gender inequality perhaps? Or a Master?
Is it ever specified what you lose if you lose a game of the Marvelous? And if so, would it be similar to that of allowing Beatrice to feast on you in The Gift?
If you’ve played Sunless Sea the monkeys in it are exceptionally hungry for souls, so I assumed that this monkey is no different. Perhaps it wants a large quantity or someone special’s soul? With regards to the Bishop, I’d guess that his desire has something to do with Hell or Devils.
The King described his heart fragment to be like a shard if my memory serves correctly. How does one hide a shard of diamond that large without attracting attention? Or is there something in the Light Finger’s ambition that alludes to that particular detail?
Topsy lost the Marvelous - he had his Sanity as the stake, so he went insane. I don’t think he is soulless, however.
The Cardsharp Monkey did not display any craving of souls - it is not a Pentecoast Ape from the Empire of Hands, so it is not stealing souls. It likes Prisoner’s Honey, is not friendly with the Topsy King, is friendly with his sister Cora, but that is it.
The Bishop of St.Fiarce is a Snuffer, so he isn’t that interested in Hell. I am not sure what he wants - he is already in the Dilmun Club looking for a way back into the Garden, so either Marvellous is his backup plan to get into the Garden, or he has more motivations than other snuffers.
The one interested in Hell is the Bishop of Southwark. He is not involved. Hell doesn’t seems to be involved in the Marvellous either.
I don’t know Light Fingers well, but apparently the diamond was given zero focus beyond the start as the player get dragged into the mess with the Orphanage and Moon-misers and their milk. Looks like their red herring is something important for us.
The bishop also mentions wanting to do another thing to potentially open the gates of the garden again, so its safe to say he’s got more than one plan to get there.
Re: light fingers:
the current content boundary pretty much directly states that the diamond doesn’t exist. …so of course it easily could XD
Looking at the post that announced the Ambitions getting updated, we can see that the first three fragments mentioned there were used in Bag a Legend and Nemesis. Since HD is next, it would seem that The Secret in the Sock and Virginia’s beloved: the Prince of Corpsecage. The first one most likely is connected in some way with the search for the shard, while the other seems to name the next player.
I feel there might be some kind of link up with all the ambitions in the future. I cant think what else the Kings heart could be. but i dont know much about light fingers. i’m guessing that one of the players will be a master right?
The Cardsharp Monkey did not display any craving of souls - it is not a Pentecoast Ape from the Empire of Hands, so it is not stealing souls. It likes Prisoner’s Honey, is not friendly with the Topsy King, is friendly with his sister Cora, but that is it.
The Bishop of St.Fiarce is a Snuffer, so he isn’t that interested in Hell. I am not sure what he wants - he is already in the Dilmun Club looking for a way back into the Garden, so either Marvellous is his backup plan to get into the Garden, or he has more motivations than other snuffers.
The one interested in Hell is the Bishop of Southwark. He is not involved. Hell doesn’t seems to be involved in the Marvellous either.[/quote]
My mistake then. It’s been so long since I’ve done those particular sections. I don’t think I even realized that the Bishop was a snuffer when I initially did his story. I do like the idea of his desire being related to the Gardens though.
I understand that the Cardsharp Monkey currently does not display any traits of a Pentacoast Ape, but neither does your Malevolent Monkey until closer inspection. But I suppose I may be stretching this a bit. Also, the ambition is described as "…a card game where you can gamble your soul and win your heart’s desire.". Is this statement not to be taken that literally? Do Snuffers even have souls? Does the Monkey? Is the player ineligible if they’ve lost their soul?