Weekly Fallen London Questions, 02/10/2017

Hey lovely Neatheans! Here’s this week’s thread for quick questions!
edited by Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook on 10/2/2017

What is the best non-card based way to get expedition supplies (still trying to get that amber)?

You’ll always want to use docks favours for supplies, and unfortunately they’re hard to come by outside of opportunity cards. (The other options for gathering supplies are frankly kind of ridiculous.)

If your Airs of London is between 96 and 100 you can visit the Department of Menace Eradication at Watchmaker’s Hill, take the chandleress’ complaint and confide in her for a favour.
If you’re Closest to Bohemians, Great Game, Urchins or Docks, you can do the Secrets and Spending loop and cash in your mark of credit page for one of each favour.
You can grind for them at Mutton Island but… yeesh.

I get most of my docks favours from cards though, helps to have a Taciturn Mynah and an acquaintance with the Regretful Soldier.

Ah yes, my favorite game, Fallen Lond.

Docks favours are indeed the best source of supplies, though Whispered Hints are alright because of the chance for an extra supply. Spending money on supplies turns out to be profitable for Gallery of Serpents expeditions, but since that lowers the total actions it means spending Fate more often.

Wow, I had no idea the whispered hint option could give you two crates. Almost decent!

I really do feel like we need at least one more semi-reliable way to get docks favours. Remember when Jenny was mayor? Good times. Crazy days.

Where do I do Secrets and Spending? Also what’s a Taciturn Mynah?

For Secrets and Spending raise Counting the Days by Menace reduction cards and/or by faction card you are Closed To.
edited by Waterpls on 10/2/2017

This should help with spending secrets info.

A Taciturn Mynah is the connected pet for the docks. You get it by going to watchmaker’s hill and going through a clandestine rendezvous, which requires not having any other connected pets. It unlocks a card that has a few options, one of which gives a favor.

Taciturn Mynah is the Connected Pet for Docks. You can have one Connected Pet at a time, which adds a card to your deck giving (among other options) a free favor from the faction in question. To change Connected Pets, you have to wait for card from your current pet, then play the option that gets rid of it, and select a new one from A Clandestine Rendezvous in Watchmaker’s Hill.

You’re probably more familiar with the names Counting the Days, or the Numismatrix, or Marks of Credit. Secrets and Spending is the card you draw when CtD hits 14, which lets you buy or sell Marks. It’s possible to raise CtD from 0 to 14 without cards, if you satisfy certain prerequisites like the appropriate Closest To: and having one of those ‘your own soul’ thingies.

Confiding in the chandleress is cheap, but not fast. Two actions to follow her, one to confess, and one to turn the favor into 4 supplies comes out to 1 crate per action at £0.00 per crate. Whispered hints are a 50/50 for 1 crate and a map scrap or 2 crates, average 1.5 crates per action at £1.45 per crate. Using strong-backed labor from the Bazaar Side-Streets returns 2.5 crates per action at £2.70 per crate. Hiring clay labor in the Clay Quarters (via “Life on Ladybones Road”) yields 2 to 2.5 crates per action at £2.00 per crate. Accessing the quarters takes an action in itself, so it’s most efficient to buy all the labor you need in one trip. The great downward engineering company takes cash, while clay labor costs 1 identity uncovered, 7 compromising documents, 200 moon-pearls, and 200 rostygold.

The Taciturn Mynah is the Docks connected pet. Secrets and Spending is another name for the Counting the Days carousel. If you’re closest to the Great Game or Bohemians and have your soul, you can grind CtD without any cards except the end reward (which has 5x standard frequency), otherwise you’ll need to use cards like “a restorative” or “an afternoon of good deeds” for part of the carousel.

Speaking of Sinning Jenny, her finishing school is a godsend for cards-based grinds, refilling your opportunity deck every 12 actions. You can also have a chance for a Docks favor if you recruit a zailor into your class, but having an unsuitable student can add a few actions to the length of the carousel.

Lore question here: What are the powers that a servant of the Fingerkings might have? You know, like a Mystic, Glassman, or magician with the Glass? I’m curious about &quotmagic&quot in Fallen London.

We actually found out a little about that in this month’s Exceptional Story!

Combining information from that and other sources: Parabola’s ability to influence what lies on our side of the mirrors is very limited. Most of what someone would be able to do with their help involves travelling into/out of mirrors, and conversing with those on the other side. That conversing is probably where most of the &quotpower&quot would come from: The fingerkings have been around for a long time, and are privy to quite a lot of secrets (and are not so strictly bound by time’s arrow). That may be a somewhat disappointing answer, but remember, knowledge is its own power in Fallen London.

Parabola seems to have some ability to change things that spend time there, in an unspecified scope and manner?

One might also expect some ability to observe and/or influence the dreams and memories of others. The fingerkings can certainly do this themselves, so one could probably broker a deal with them to arrange this. If I’m remember right from Sunless Sea, a human can also do this under the fingerking’s guidance, also as part of a deal.

Expect lots of deals. Expect those deals will take more from you than it first appears.

[quote=Sam Stephens]Lore question here: What are the powers that a servant of the Fingerkings might have? You know, like a Mystic, Glassman, or magician with the Glass? I’m curious about &quotmagic&quot in Fallen London.[/quote]Siding with the Glass in the wars of illusion gives some very direct answers to this question. Here’s all of the relevant Glass/Shroud content on one page.

You may also be interested in this encounter with Mr Pleat, from the gallery of serpents expedition. Pleat’s allegiances are not entirely clear but he seems to be playing both sides as a double agent for the Glass.
edited by Anchovies on 10/2/2017

[quote=Sam Stephens]Lore question here: What are the powers that a servant of the Fingerkings might have? You know, like a Mystic, Glassman, or magician with the Glass? I’m curious about &quotmagic&quot in Fallen London.[/quote]As was brought up before me, the Glass themselves use the ability to enter and exit Parabola to great effect.

Pleat seems to derive hypnotism from an alliance with the Ophidian Gentleman, whose reflection shows up in Pleat’s pocket watch and performs the act. The victim completes whatever task they are told to do, and do not remember what they’ve done after the fact. This may, in fact, be a case of a Fingerking possessing the victim for a short time and controlling them.

Outside of that, Pleat also seems able to create rather believable illusions (turn his cane into a detailed and moving snake), and can induce a trance-like state under which victims also become more responsible to commands (thought not to the level of his hypnosis. The PC can fail at persuading a victim of Pleat’s trance).

The Stone Ghost also mentions The Molting of Pleat’s Eidolon, a performance that involves Pleat entering a mirror and emerging also immediately after having changed. The notable feature is speed: The Idealistic Magician, who has practiced for similar tricks and is able to change quite quickly indeed, cannot replicate Pleat’s speed during the Molting.

LiR provides us with a ton of stuff! The Orts, one of the more dangerous Fingerkings, provides visions of a possible future (namely, the fall of the Sixth City) in exchange for your memories. As Fingerkings seem to treat time differently from us, I’m fairly willing to believe that they’re providing actual prescience.

The Season of Ruins’ turn-in reveals that

[quote]…they can fake [change], through an admittedly convoluted process of birth, gestation, consumption, and then re-integration.[/quote]The snake eggs in the Orts’ Nest hatch first into a weird scaled ostrich, then grow into black ravens with slit eyes, and the Labyrinth of Tigers contains unusually strong humans with slit eyes, who, by this logic, are also mutated Fingerkings that have escaped into the real world.

During one of the destinies, we get to see inside the Castle of Forests, where Fingerkings keep their prisoners. During Hallowmas, when the mirrors grow thin, one of them may be freed from Parabola and returned to the real world. You have (and have always had, and will always have) the position of their Huntsman, which might imply that getting things and beings permanently inside Parabola is easier than getting them out of there.

Also worth mentioning that, once you’re in Parabola, the Fingerkings and you are, existentially, on equal footing. The Genial Magician had his arm bitten off by one of the 'Kings for not completing a task given to him, and suffers further wounds (specifically, bleeding from the eyes) when he returns from a successful fight with one.

One of the Fingerkings’ prisoners in the Castle of Forests is the Red-Handed Queen, who is part of the Chess-dreams, and has, as far as we know, never existed. This implies that Is-Not can cross over to the Is in times and places where mirrors run thin, such as Hallowmas or Irem. As Is-Not can be pretty much anything you come up with, that’s a very potent power to have on your side.

And I think that’s about it when it comes to their powers, as far as I know! I might’ve missed bits and pieces, but this should cover all their major abilities for impacting the Is and its denizens.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 10/2/2017

Ooh! Hallowmas is coming up soon, right? Is it usually the Thursday prior to the 31st?

Can anyone help with a good source of moon pearls? (Working as a footpad in Watchmaker’s Hill at the moment, but pickings are slim.)

Do you have access to mahogany hall? &quotBe daring&quot under &quotbox office burglary&quot gives you 107 per action, which I think is the best source

[quote=Anchovies][quote=Sam Stephens]Lore question here: What are the powers that a servant of the Fingerkings might have? You know, like a Mystic, Glassman, or magician with the Glass? I’m curious about &quotmagic&quot in Fallen London.[/quote]Siding with the Glass in the wars of illusion gives some very direct answers to this question. Here’s all of the relevant Glass/Shroud content on one page.

You may also be interested in this encounter with Mr Pleat, from the gallery of serpents expedition. Pleat’s allegiances are not entirely clear but he seems to be playing both sides as a double agent for the Glass.
edited by Anchovies on 10/2/2017[/quote]

I did side with Glass, so I already knew some of this, but thank you very much for your help! I hadn’t seen that conversation with Mr. Pleat before.

[quote=Vavakx Nonexus][quote=Sam Stephens]Lore question here: What are the powers that a servant of the Fingerkings might have? You know, like a Mystic, Glassman, or magician with the Glass? I’m curious about &quotmagic&quot in Fallen London.[/quote]As was brought up before me, the Glass themselves use the ability to enter and exit Parabola to great effect.

Pleat seems to derive hypnotism from an alliance with the Ophidian Gentleman, whose reflection shows up in Pleat’s pocket watch and performs the act. The victim completes whatever task they are told to do, and do not remember what they’ve done after the fact. This may, in fact, be a case of a Fingerking possessing the victim for a short time and controlling them.

Outside of that, Pleat also seems able to create rather believable illusions (turn his cane into a detailed and moving snake), and can induce a trance-like state under which victims also become more responsible to commands (thought not to the level of his hypnosis. The PC can fail at persuading a victim of Pleat’s trance).

The Stone Ghost also mentions The Molting of Pleat’s Eidolon, a performance that involves Pleat entering a mirror and emerging also immediately after having changed. The notable feature is speed: The Idealistic Magician, who has practiced for similar tricks and is able to change quite quickly indeed, cannot replicate Pleat’s speed during the Molting.

LiR provides us with a ton of stuff! The Orts, one of the more dangerous Fingerkings, provides visions of a possible future (namely, the fall of the Sixth City) in exchange for your memories. As Fingerkings seem to treat time differently from us, I’m fairly willing to believe that they’re providing actual prescience.

The Season of Ruins’ turn-in reveals that

[quote]…they can fake [change], through an admittedly convoluted process of birth, gestation, consumption, and then re-integration.[/quote]The snake eggs in the Orts’ Nest hatch first into a weird scaled ostrich, then grow into black ravens with slit eyes, and the Labyrinth of Tigers contains unusually strong humans with slit eyes, who, by this logic, are also mutated Fingerkings that have escaped into the real world.

During one of the destinies, we get to see inside the Castle of Forests, where Fingerkings keep their prisoners. During Hallowmas, when the mirrors grow thin, one of them may be freed from Parabola and returned to the real world. You have (and have always had, and will always have) the position of their Huntsman, which might imply that getting things and beings permanently inside Parabola is easier than getting them out of there.

Also worth mentioning that, once you’re in Parabola, the Fingerkings and you are, existentially, on equal footing. The Genial Magician had his arm bitten off by one of the 'Kings for not completing a task given to him, and suffers further wounds (specifically, bleeding from the eyes) when he returns from a successful fight with one.

One of the Fingerkings’ prisoners in the Castle of Forests is the Red-Handed Queen, who is part of the Chess-dreams, and has, as far as we know, never existed. This implies that Is-Not can cross over to the Is in times and places where mirrors run thin, such as Hallowmas or Irem. As Is-Not can be pretty much anything you come up with, that’s a very potent power to have on your side.

And I think that’s about it when it comes to their powers, as far as I know! I might’ve missed bits and pieces, but this should cover all their major abilities for impacting the Is and its denizens.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 10/2/2017[/quote]

That’s quite a lot! Thank you very much!

We actually found out a little about that in this month’s Exceptional Story!

Combining information from that and other sources: Parabola’s ability to influence what lies on our side of the mirrors is very limited. Most of what someone would be able to do with their help involves travelling into/out of mirrors, and conversing with those on the other side. That conversing is probably where most of the &quotpower&quot would come from: The fingerkings have been around for a long time, and are privy to quite a lot of secrets (and are not so strictly bound by time’s arrow). That may be a somewhat disappointing answer, but remember, knowledge is its own power in Fallen London.

Parabola seems to have some ability to change things that spend time there, in an unspecified scope and manner?

One might also expect some ability to observe and/or influence the dreams and memories of others. The fingerkings can certainly do this themselves, so one could probably broker a deal with them to arrange this. If I’m remember right from Sunless Sea, a human can also do this under the fingerking’s guidance, also as part of a deal.

Expect lots of deals. Expect those deals will take more from you than it first appears.[/quote]

Interesting… I’m trying to think of the implications this has for the FL tabletop RPG I’m trying to design. It sounds like I’ll add the Fingerkings as a faction with whom only Mystics can have a relationship. That should make them understandable, but difficult to access. Thank you so much for your help!