A Correspondence machine gun is only the beginning of my realistic technogical dreams. First dream: the Rolls-Royce Armoured Car. 4.7 tonnes of art, equipped with a Vickers machine gun, which can fire 450-500 rounds per minute. You say, "Oh, this is from WW1, and the timeline diverged in 1861/2, so there’s (fortunately) no way that madman can get his hands on it." Incorrect! I can purchase it from Hell, using souls. It’s a wonder there are no infernal automobiles on the streets of London yet. Anyways, this hellish version of it I shall dub the Rolls-Ramiel Armoured Automobile, equipped with a Vassago machine gun! But this is only the beginning of my hellish deals!
Second Dream: an aircraft carrier. So, the USS Langley was one of the first aircraft carriers, and electric-powered! You say, "There’s no way this madman can get his hands on an aircraft carrier Oh God Oh God save us." It’s perfectly obtainable! The price to construct it came up to around 1.4 million USD, which most likely has been adjusted for inflation. Now, I transfer that to regular British Pounds, and back to Echoes, which the value of has been figured out by postal rates. The total comes up to… 709210.40 echoes. Less than 5 Hespidarian Cider . Or 2259.8 Corsucating Souls. I’ll up that to 2260 to get it fully equipped and with the 32 biplanes, and enough weaponry to equip the 450+ crew. You say, "Oh God save us he has a way to get PLANES is nothing sacred anymore? Well, at least he won’t get nukes." You’re right there. Unfortunately. Until someone figures out the secrets of the stars. There are many applications of the USS Langley! Like slaying the Dawn Machine! If killing a star is possible with late 19th century weapons, then it’s perfectly possible to kill a monster clockwork star built by ants using post-WW1 weapons! Another application is destroying the Empire of Hands, and just… endlessly… shelling… the… spiders… Enough with that! Nidah is a juicy target, and if I have an aircraft carrier, I can blow the melee-armed immortal population to bits from above! No giant crabs! Of course, this is really hard to get, even harder than the end-game grind, and Failbetter would never implement it.
Dream 3: Ford Model ✞.
Rolls-Ramiel Armored Audomobiles and other common hellish cars are a must to upgrade your status from the horse-pulled carriages of normal society! The Ford Model T was 395 USD in 1920- adjusted, you get 30.64 echoes in Fallen London, 61 Brilliant Souls, or 1532 regular souls. Probably some paperwork as well. But if this holds promise for actual implementation, I suggest the price being 12 Queer Souls, due to the current uses of them being non-existent. This is as far the crazy train goes… for now. edited by GoingFTL on 8/4/2017
"What kind of art? Paintings? Statues?"
"Dunno, the guy didn’t say."
"Give it a shake."
You feel your vehicle rising up. Moments later, you are assaulted by sharp pain as your body is smashed against the walls of the compartment, again and again. You hear something crack.
"Something’s in there alright."
"Let’s open it up, Frank."
The car slams down on the ground, delivering another painful shock. The cupola opens and an unfriendly stone face leers at your broken form:
"Don’t see no paintings in there, Jasper."
This also has flaws (un?)fortunately. This is information from the future, no one in this city is going to know about WW1, cars, aircraft carriers, or Nukes. I’m not sure if anyone here knows how to sail an aircraft carrier or pilot planes. Besides, if Hell is the only supplier of these things, they can set the price as high as they want. edited by Carns on 8/4/2017
The fact that it’s not happening indicates that Hell does not want it to happen. Hell either has a vested interest in not advancing London this way, or no compelling reason to do so. They’re already doing quite well for themselves claiming souls, offering high technology in exchange would be overkill.
On top of which, in the Season of Skies, Hell did aid a mortal with their advanced technology, and the mortal’s soul was merely the preliminary to open negotiations. The actual price of the technology in question required them to allow their memories to be rendered into red honey, basically condemning themself to eternal torture in the way we used to think of selling our souls. So, it’s a much bigger price than a soul, and there’s evidently no pawning that price off on someone else.
Hell won’t sell its future tech to Londoners. Not for souls. Not for anything. If cars or planes could be bought, someone would have bought them. Probably someone from the Cider Club.
Hell doesn’t sell its future tech because, if they did, then we’d have it. We’d take it apart, figure out how to use it and then their technological superiority is gone. The only reason to do it is some kind of ironic punishment like in Sunless Skies. So if your way to get planes is "I buy them" I don’t think that’s something you can hand wave away so easily.
So no planes. No automobiles.
And nothing destroys the Dawn Machine. It cannot be destroyed, only opposed.
Even were all that not so, it’s likely that as soon as your pilots saw the Dawn Machine, they will be enslaved by the Dawn Machine. Now you’ve just given the Dawn Machine future weapons. Well done.
But if you want to shell the Empire of Hands, you can do that now. Go buy a Dreadnaught and a Heart Eater and go nuts.
Fair warning: They live in a jungle and, historically, shelling jungle has very little effect on the war or populace. The US dropped twice as many bombs on Vietnam as were used in the totality of the Second World War. To little effect.
The jungle after you bomb the crap out of it looks remarkably like the jungle before you bomb the crap out of it.
If you really want a armoured "car" I think Clay Men are the way forward.
Your Ratwork Velocipede already has a maxim gun. Get some Rattus to take it apart and figure out how to make it. Now make one big enough for a Clay Man. Put a big, armoured wall on one side. Make 12. Attach them all in a big circle. Put a sedan chair in the middle to steer.
Perhaps you could try getting something from the Iron Republic that has infinite ammo. They could probably do that, though I doubt it would come without weird side effects or downsides. Perhaps you could try something that messes with time, so you could fire the bullet, do some time stuff, and fire the same bullet again and again. The bullet would eventually wear down and I’m not sure where you’d find such a thing, but if you could manage it, you would quite literally get more bang for your buck.