What's the catch with The Salt Lions?

300 echoes profit every run, plus running wine to them covers my fuel and supply costs, and I end up with net-zero terror at the end of the trip. In my current game it’s practically on London’s doorstep, I don’t know if that’s normal, but on the whole it makes the Chapel of Lights seem completely inconspicuous!

There was that warning abut the stones flooding the hold, but I have yet to have that happen.

Use them as long as you can, they are a conveniently unbalanced goldmine at the moment especially since you can fill your hold to the brim with stone.

I’m pretty sure it’ll get fixed soon, so you can only carry one load like the claymen and colonists or some curse / cosmic horror event happening, after all they are deconstructing second city relics there.

Yeah, I’m assuming they’ll be nerfed soon. sigh

Also I’m pretty sure the Arrant Limpet isn’t meant to show up there, since that’s the shop from Gaider’s Mourn.

It sounds like you might have closer Lions than I do though, or else a bigger boat, I can only just fit the 20 stone in the hold and still have enough fuel/supplies.

Mine are east of the Mourn, but i got the freighter who can make the trip with 12 fuel and 8 provisions giving me 80 free hold spaces for wine to the Lions and stones back to London.

Really hoping for more backstory to them, glimpses at the second city are a rare treat.

I do believe the ones paying for tearing them down are the Masters, I wonder what is is about the salt lions that dont sit well with them.

It’s from the second city and the Masters really don’t like the second city, any surviving remnants of the second city, or anyone mentioning the second city.

Aside from that isn’t the text for when you dive off the Lions quite interesting?

I started a new game so I could be sure of seeing all the new stuff sooner, so I’ve been making runs in the tramp steamer with barely 20 holds avaiable, even so at this rate I’m going to be able to buy a new ship very soon.

You know… a thought occurs… what does London want with busted up salt lion rubble anyway? Why not just toss it into the zee? I started playing Sunless Sea before Fallen London, and I still don’t know much of the lore… what’s so special about the second city anyway?
edited by Rilauven on 8/1/2014

The second city fought the masters… and won.

The second city business wasn’t pretty, a certain royal family cheated the masters out of their deal and staged a coup with or without the help of a certain entity. Somehow the masters regained control and spent their time hunting down and removing every trace of the involved parties and the city itself. Chisseling faces of sphinxes is just one of them.

The diving text was one of those where I was really longing for a &quotrecord to journal&quot button, but I think it’s not connected to the city, they just accidentaly turned the whole site into one giant altar to the salt by defacing it.

I hate to admit this but the Salt Lions need to be rebalanced or nerfed somehow. There’s way too much money to be made in them. I’ve currently got the Caligo Cruiser, both Caminus Yards Guns, the Judgement Resonator and the Admiralty Special Engine. Terror is just an annoyance to be bought off whenever I’m in London.
edited by Rilauven on 8/4/2014

I guess it depends on where the Lions are for you. Mine are really far East so the cost is just barely balancing out. ^^

300 echoes isn’t that much - you need 1000 each for the Caminus Yard Guns; 7000 for a merchant ship. That is a lot of Salt Lion trips. If you are lucky you can get Captivating Treasures fighting a few things (or save scumming the Riddle you get in certain ports) so I don’t think the Salt Lions are overly profitable even if they are really close to London.

I agree that the Salt Lions (and I suppose other tiles, perhaps in construction) are a game-changer depending on their position…

Perhaps they should consider the idea of a “reshuffling by tiles”… that is, not a completely random reshuffling but linking specific tiles to stay at a certain distance from the coastline. I think it could also be reasonable story-wise (just to make an example, I cannot really see Polythreme being farther than two-three tiles from the coast, considering all the exchange that is in place between it and London).

I’ve yet to see the text for diving off the Lions. How do you get it?

You need to have Salt’s Favor and SAY. I think something else too but I don’t remember.