Ivica wrote:

Did anyone bring somebody else than Scorundel to meeting with Vandal?
Insurgent or Cognoscente?
I'm interested to read about this endings.

I brought and echoed the results of bringing the Insurgent with you to the last meeting with the Vandal.

Any idea what the rewards are for various endings?

Part of me wants to put this ES among some of my favorite ES storylines. The mystery surrounding the Vandal was an interesting one that pulled on a few more heartstrings than expected, and the story up to that point already had be invested with silly and eccentric characters. I'm always a fan for tasty chunks of lore, and seeing how far the weirdness of the Neath and the forces around it is a main part of why I keep coming back to this game.

That said, the ending keeps me from calling this one of my favorites. To be honest, it nearly does the opposite. I'll fill in my reasoning in a spoiler tag, but it boils down to the ending for such a lovely story being disappointing if not infuriating, and that bad payoff paints the rest of the story in a bad light. Oh well, suppose I'll wait until the season's out to redo it.
[spoiler]It's not that I'm expecting a "happy ending" out of all of this. A woman is determined that suicide is the only option to atone for her life and all the side characters have caused or wish to cause harm to her for their own purposes. Tragedy would be an understatement for this story's set-up, so it's not that the ending's sad that upsets me, but how we came to that conclusion. As someone who brought along the Vandal's dad, likes others have mentioned, how your actions will result in the ending are far too vague. Why do I HAVE to kill the Vandal or her father, assuming I don't just let them murder each other? The PC can wrestle zee beasts and capture spider councils alive, but I can't disarm the situation or subdue one party without killing one off? If, say, she held the blade to her throat and threatened suicide in front of her own dad were you or him to come closer, I could understand the situation being a one-or-the-other scenario. But this was a far simpler scene with a far simpler solution that didn't require such a final outcome. I was prepared to kidnap her kicking and screaming Cheesemonger-style if it meant she wouldn't kill herself over uncaring gods because she thought her birth was a sin. It's fine if I couldn't do such a thing (although I'd argue that itself could make for some good moral questions), I just wish the justification for why I couldn't was warranted.

This story also has a similar issue to that of the ES Steeped in Honey, where there is an evil character that has either done terrible things or continues to do said terrible acts, yet even when giving control in other parts of the story, we can't act where it matters and murder the SOB. I'm all for the Collector's shocking twist for collecting bodies of Neath oddities and wanting the Vandal stuffed, but assuming that I'd even let her near the body of someone I'd have given a limb to protect (I'm a snuffer sympathizer, after all), the sheer fact that I'd be present to see it would drive Marlen to permanently murder her right in that room if not do worse. There's no good reason in-character why an offended player (who is presumed to be horrified by this revelation they've unknowingly taken part in) couldn't add another homicide to the list, but unlike Steeped in Honey's fault in this department, the rest of this story's ending doesn't have the concrete quality to support it and the rest of the story's payoff.

If it seems I'm being too harsh, as I'm willing to admit, it's because the rest of the story was just that damn good. It would be one thing if an unsatisfying ending came from something on par with The Rubbery Murders or the Velocipede's Spinning of the Wheels, but this story was something of a gem up until this point, and it stings to see all that promise end up flat. I honesty look forward to the writer's later work for FL, because they have talent that clearly shows throughout their writing. I only hope that later works have better polished endings with tragedies that cause sympathy and loss rather than annoyance.[/spoiler]
edited by Sir Joseph Marlen on 3/7/2018

All I seem to be doing is feeding bats? What's going on?

Lorelai wrote:

Aw crap, I’ve been having some serious computer troubles this last month plus ive been super busy and I haven’t been able to check FL, but I never halted my subscription. There’s no way for me to play this now is there? My March payment was completely wasted?

Well, when they switched over to having a hub from which to unlock EF stories by season, I managed not to unlock a couple properly, and support were most understanding. I'd certainly drop them a note in hope and see if they are willing to help.