James StAnthony
Administrator
Posts: 28
9/26/2019
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The Exceptional Story for October is here!
London is awash with fresh flowers! Is it a passing floral fad, or does something rotten lurk beneath the petals? Intercept coded bouquets, spy on spies, and investigate intrigue along the Cumaean Canal.
Say it With Flowers is the second story in the Season of Propinquity, and was written by Olivia Wood. In this season you will experience three stories of affinity, proximity (for good or ill), and the ties that bind.
Begin with the Season of Propinquity card available throughout London.
Editing and QA: James Chew
Art: Paul Arendt
Exceptional Friendship
In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:
- Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private members’ club on the Stolen River, packed with content
- An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six!
- A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once!
Finishing all three stories in the Season of Bargains will make you eligible for an additional opportunity, to follow.
If you want to keep an Exceptional Story beyond its release month, you must complete the related storylet in the current Season’s card. This will save it for you to return to another time.
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loredeluxe
Posts: 106
9/27/2019
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This story was rather light on any real revelations, but it did finally confirm without a doubt a common theory among the player base.
WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!
[spoiler]The Captivating Princess is a colossal bitch.[/spoiler]
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Lady Karnstein
Posts: 278
10/1/2019
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I really do feel the Princess has been flanderized recently. [spoiler] In the stuff with the Salon and Feast of the Rose, she seemed mysterious and seductive, and for those who discovered the truth of red honey you saw an even darker side. The Gift further made her a first rate villain without compromising her seductive or mysterious qualities. And she was fine in The Empress's Shadow. Her run as a mayoral candidate and portrayal in this story and My Kingdom For A Pig have been frankly petulant. A spoiled, powerful child so much unlike the refined horror she had been. I kinda hate it, because I loved the seductive monster she was, which pitted Caroline's morality at war with her *ahem* fun side, shall we say? Now she is easy to defy and even fun because she is just a bitch with little going for her.[/spoiler]
edited by Lady Karnstein on 10/1/2019
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Lady Caroline Karnstein, The Moral Hedonist (Description)
Infamous writer, artist, and courtesan. Unrepentant Invert. Hesperidean.
Paramount Presence, Correspondent, Nocturnal. Poet Laureate of the Neath, Ambassador to Arbor
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Jolanda Swan
Posts: 1783
10/8/2019
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Lady Karnstein wrote:
I really do feel the Princess has been flanderized recently. [spoiler] In the stuff with the Salon and Feast of the Rose, she seemed mysterious and seductive, and for those who discovered the truth of red honey you saw an even darker side. The Gift further made her a first rate villain without compromising her seductive or mysterious qualities. And she was fine in The Empress's Shadow. Her run as a mayoral candidate and portrayal in this story and My Kingdom For A Pig have been frankly petulant. A spoiled, powerful child so much unlike the refined horror she had been. I kinda hate it, because I loved the seductive monster she was, which pitted Caroline's morality at war with her *ahem* fun side, shall we say? Now she is easy to defy and even fun because she is just a bitch with little going for her.[/spoiler]
This is my impression of her too, as of late. As if the elections were a turning point for her character, rendering her from a mature monster of feminine shape into a petulant teenager, whose monstrosity lies in being incredibly spoiled to the point of lacking empathy. Garden variety evil as opposed to her previous truly monstous incarnation.
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Lover of all things beautiful, secret admirer of ugly truths, fond of the Parabola Sun... and always delighted to role play.
http://fallenlondon.com/profile/Jolanda%20Swan
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Ultirian Yggnarsial
Posts: 9
10/4/2019
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Can anyone tell me what the various message combinations are? I'm at the part of the story where[spoiler] I need to create a bouquet for Mary, but I'm a bit confused as the meaning relayed with all the various combinations available.[/spoiler]
I will say, though, that this is one of my favorite Exceptional Stories for quite a while. I grew attached to the Spinstress as the story continued, where normally I don't find myself getting attached to most characters. She is a very fun character to read. Also, this is my first ever community post! I've been playing since about March and have 'fallen' in love with the entire Fallen London Universe.
edited by Ultirian Yggnarsial on 10/4/2019
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Always a delicious friend. Accepting Cats in Boxes, and whatever else you'd wish to send. <3
Ultirian Yggnarsial
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Ultirian%20Yggnarsial
Alaur Onwald
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Alaur%20Onwald
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Lady Karnstein
Posts: 278
9/26/2019
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Okay I give up. Just someone please tell me what I need to be sure to do [spoiler] Save the lovers [/spoiler]
ETA: See my answer below
edited by Lady Karnstein on 9/27/2019
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Lady Caroline Karnstein, The Moral Hedonist (Description)
Infamous writer, artist, and courtesan. Unrepentant Invert. Hesperidean.
Paramount Presence, Correspondent, Nocturnal. Poet Laureate of the Neath, Ambassador to Arbor
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Jonathan Dunn
Posts: 14
9/26/2019
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Lady Karnstein wrote:
Okay I give up. Just someone please tell me what I need to be sure to do [spoiler] Save the lovers [/spoilers]
I too am interested in the answer to this.
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Charming. Criminal. Hedonist. Well Respected Member of Society. Sympathy and Taste. Not a Man to Cross.
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Jolanda Swan
Posts: 1783
9/26/2019
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The story is great, so much so that I am getting cold feet! I am going to wait so others have played it and can spoiler some things for me, even if it means wasting some actions.
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Lover of all things beautiful, secret admirer of ugly truths, fond of the Parabola Sun... and always delighted to role play.
http://fallenlondon.com/profile/Jolanda%20Swan
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Lady Karnstein
Posts: 278
9/27/2019
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I do want to add perhaps it is because I am such a sucker for [spoiler] Sapphic Love Stories[/spoiler] but I (and Caroline) got very emotionally invested this time, much more than usual. I would like to say I agonized over the ending, but I did not hesitate.
Well done.
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Lady Caroline Karnstein, The Moral Hedonist (Description)
Infamous writer, artist, and courtesan. Unrepentant Invert. Hesperidean.
Paramount Presence, Correspondent, Nocturnal. Poet Laureate of the Neath, Ambassador to Arbor
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Amalgamate
Posts: 435
9/30/2019
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The ending confused me. I don't think I had the option to send both of them to the surface, or to send the true message without the two lovers as messengers, or to go to the surface myself.
I think some choices I made up in the canal must have locked me out of some endings, but I have no idea what they were or why they had that effect.
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http://www.fallenlondon.com/Profile/amalgamate
Social invitations of all kinds welcome, especially games of chess and deadly sparring!
Also happy to help with nightmares, send sips of Cider, and plant battle.
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Catherine Raymond
Posts: 2518
9/30/2019
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loredeluxe wrote:
This story was rather light on any real revelations, but it did finally confirm without a doubt a common theory among the player base.
WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!
[spoiler]The Captivating Princess is a colossal bitch.[/spoiler]
No kidding. :-)
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Cathy Raymond
http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/cathyr19355
Catherine Raymond aka Mrs. Rykar Malkus http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond (Gone NORTH)
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0bsidian Fire
Posts: 117
9/27/2019
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Here's my ending with sending Mary to the Surface: https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Kharagal%20Mierqid/16878090 to the end of the ES.
[spoiler]I felt like the key to this entire ES for me were these two Echoes: https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Kharagal%20Mierqid/16875590
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Kharagal%20Mierqid/16875618
I was pretty happy with my ending. The Shadow Empress got the real message and shut down the staging point. The workers from the surface aren't trapped in the Neath. Mary is on the Surface. And the Spinster is back playing the Great Game and messing with the Princess' plans. All in all, about as well as things can go when you have three royal siblings involved.[/spoiler]
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Kharagal Mierqid - Bohemian Correspondent who is obsessed with the Language of Stars...
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Lady Karnstein
Posts: 278
9/26/2019
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Jolanda Swan wrote:
The story is great, so much so that I am getting cold feet! I am going to wait so others have played it and can spoiler some things for me, even if it means wasting some actions.
You can't do that that is my plan!
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Lady Caroline Karnstein, The Moral Hedonist (Description)
Infamous writer, artist, and courtesan. Unrepentant Invert. Hesperidean.
Paramount Presence, Correspondent, Nocturnal. Poet Laureate of the Neath, Ambassador to Arbor
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Optimatum
Posts: 3666
10/4/2019
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Ultirian Yggnarsial wrote:
Can anyone tell me what the various message combinations are? I'm at the part of the story where -snip-
[spoiler]You can choose three flowers, each of which will either encourage caution—i.e. Mary giving up on the Spinster—or daring. The overall message will be whichever quality is higher. When you're first given the option to create a bouquet, you only have flowers that mean caution, but can postpone the decision to find other flowers during the rest of the story. If you choose to wait you'll automatically be prompted at the right time, so it's not possible to miss anything.[/spoiler]
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Optimatum, a ruthless and merciful gentleman. No plant battles, Affluent Photographer requests, or healing offers; all other social actions welcome.
 Want a sip of Cider? Just say hi!
PM me for information enigmatic or Fated. Though the forum please, not FL itself.
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Vavakx Nonexus
Posts: 892
10/7/2019
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Senforza wrote:
Scienceandponies wrote:
More importantly, can anybody tell me what awaits if I return to a certain area after having been warned? How...irrevocable are these consequences?
Menaces? Stat damage? Locked story options? Indignities not to be spoken of?
[spoiler] I entered a forbidden area once. No menaces, no stat damage, no immediate or obvious consequences at all, but it definitely ends up altering the story’s end-choice; I have a suspicion if I had done it one more time, I might not have had an end-choice at all. If you want more details PM me. [/spoiler]
edited by Senforza on 9/28/2019
Going to the abovementioned area a second will lock off the Spinster from sending the message, leaving you with Mary and the Captain's agent as your only options. You don't get anything for doing it, beyond even more warnings from the Enforcers. It is entirely unworthwhile.
Frankly, I am unsure why the ability to do so is even part of the ES, as it does not add anything to the experience and only punishes players for wanting to get the most content for their money and engage with the location they're presented with. It does not strengthen the themes of the story, and severely hampers the players' ability to engage with one of the two main plotlines (what happens to Mary and the Spinster).
It singlehandedly dropped my evaluation of this ES a few rungs.
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Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own.
Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness.
Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?
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Arcengal
Posts: 196
10/8/2019
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I liked this one. It started out very slow from my point of view, but after you-know-who entered the picture it picked up very quickly and suddenly things got interesting indeed.
[spoiler] I chose to take the message myself. I'm assuming at this point that the thing I "lost" was my memories of the event, given Lilac's involvement. Either that, or there was no "you finished the story" item that I remember seeing previously. I assume the seasonal ending will track my Say It With Flowers 1000 rather than any kind of item.
I'm pretty sure that if you go backstage twice and really rile people up, Lilac just won't be there, given that she required the quality that was reduced when they gave me the warning to not mess about any more.[/spoiler]
I also loved the writing for the epilogue, particularly when I was told that my SPIRE EMPORIUM IN THE ECHO BAZAAR was poor housing and, at first, being dismissed from my own home before she was corrected.
edited by Arcengal on 10/8/2019
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https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Arcengal
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0bsidian Fire
Posts: 117
10/14/2019
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I feel like the Princess characterization from the Election onward is a set-up for how she is in Sunless Skies. And maybe a set-up for how she'll be in future ESs.
[spoiler]In Skies, the Princess is much more like her "seductive monster" characterization, but with a twist. When you ask her why she is traveling, she tells you the goal of any princess is not to remain so. That is, to stop being a princess and become a queen. Only with Victoria the way she is in Skies, she can't become the Queen of London/Albion. The Princess' story in Skies is about how she becomes a queen and how you either help her or stop her. It's very much a story about her being a monster, but also about her being your monster and you being responsible for how she ends up and certain... things she leaves behind. In some endings, you can end up acting like her even.
What I had been wondering though, was how she got to the point she wanted to be Queen. And loosing the Election and finding out people in London don't like her wouldn't be the worst starting point.[/spoiler]
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Kharagal Mierqid - Bohemian Correspondent who is obsessed with the Language of Stars...
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Jolanda Swan
Posts: 1783
10/15/2019
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Well, by that age,
[spoiler] she would be an actual queen somewhere, so given her ambitious nature it's not unthinkable that she would be running out of patience, especially in a place where Death does not work normally [/spoiler].
edited by Jolanda Swan on 10/15/2019
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Lover of all things beautiful, secret admirer of ugly truths, fond of the Parabola Sun... and always delighted to role play.
http://fallenlondon.com/profile/Jolanda%20Swan
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Pnakotic
Posts: 266
10/27/2019
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Lady Karnstein wrote:
I really do feel the Princess has been flanderized recently. [spoiler] In the stuff with the Salon and Feast of the Rose, she seemed mysterious and seductive, and for those who discovered the truth of red honey you saw an even darker side. The Gift further made her a first rate villain without compromising her seductive or mysterious qualities. And she was fine in The Empress's Shadow. Her run as a mayoral candidate and portrayal in this story and My Kingdom For A Pig have been frankly petulant. A spoiled, powerful child so much unlike the refined horror she had been. I kinda hate it, because I loved the seductive monster she was, which pitted Caroline's morality at war with her *ahem* fun side, shall we say? Now she is easy to defy and even fun because she is just a bitch with little going for her.[/spoiler]
edited by Lady Karnstein on 10/1/2019
From beautiful half-eldritch horror to... Daisy Buchanan, eating fried chicken by the bucketful.
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J. Ward Dunn, Glassman
Book of All Hours 9:99: Journey's end in lover's meeting. Progress is ascendancy.
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morestory
Posts: 2
9/26/2019
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I'm so torn about which bouquet to give to Mary! Any advice?
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The Ambivalent Dynamo
Posts: 41
9/26/2019
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I'll keep this as vague as possible, but this was a very enjoyable exceptional story. I enjoyed the premise, interacting with the characters, and got to see more interesting sights and places that may not have been explored in depth in a certain other failbetter game. And when the story led me to make a clear choice with clear consequences, it took me a long awhile to make it. Kudos, Olivia Wood and the failbettergames team! I had a good read and a good time. My only regret was not having a good cup of tea while reading it hehe.
edited by The Ambivalent Dynamo on 9/26/2019
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https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/The%20Ambivalent%20Dynamo Happy to take most social actions except plant-related ones. Don't hesitate to send one.
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Lady Karnstein
Posts: 278
9/27/2019
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This is the answer to my own question
[spoiler] To save the Couple, Caroline gave Mary flowers suggesting remaining together, then gave the message to the Brooding Captain's agent. I am unsure if other combinations result in them agreeing to stay together or not[/spoiler]
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Lady Caroline Karnstein, The Moral Hedonist (Description)
Infamous writer, artist, and courtesan. Unrepentant Invert. Hesperidean.
Paramount Presence, Correspondent, Nocturnal. Poet Laureate of the Neath, Ambassador to Arbor
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morestory
Posts: 2
9/27/2019
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I chose to take the message myself.
[spoiler]The last thing I remember is the Lady in Lilac before finding myself back on a ship to London. The Princess was thwarted, the message was switched with her none the wiser, and presumably the workers continue to suffer. At least the couple didn't go to the Surface. Hopefully the Princess won't find them. What have I lost?[/spoiler]
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Jolanda Swan
Posts: 1783
9/29/2019
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In the end, I chose to
[spoiler] persuade the couple to stay together and head for the Surface, come what may. I also took the message myself, to end the situation in the Canal. I am in good terms with the Brooding Captain, and I tell the Princess to get bent any opportunity I find, but in the end this wasn't about them; allowing the workers' plight to continue would weigh too heavily on my conscience. [/spoiler]
It was a pity that even though Jolanda has a Cider, she wasn't given an opportunity to use it in this case and make the end she chose a bit happier - theoretically, it could happen. It seemed a good use for an item that is otherwise rarely used.
edited by Jolanda Swan on 9/29/2019
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Lover of all things beautiful, secret admirer of ugly truths, fond of the Parabola Sun... and always delighted to role play.
http://fallenlondon.com/profile/Jolanda%20Swan
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Harjavaldar
Posts: 30
9/29/2019
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I have not yet reached that point, but it is disappointing that the Cider cannot be used, considering the sidebar text even hints that the only way to safely get back up is via Cider.
However, as the Captivating Princess clearly didn't recognise me, despite my acquaintance with her - well, I am disappointed, but other than that, so far, the story's been very good.
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Harjavaldar - A gentleman of many interests - most social actions welcome (no Affluent Photographer).
Would you like a sip of cider? Send an in-game request. See an_ocelot's guide here, for how to easiest do so.
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/John_Wax - Found what they sought, down a Well.
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Ixc
Posts: 365
10/1/2019
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WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!
[spoiler]The Captivating Princess is a colossal bitch.[/spoiler]
This is incredibly shocking.
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Pleased to meet you. Ixc, spy and detective. Inventor of the Correspondence Cannon.
Are you a Paramount Presence? Record your name here. For posterity, of course.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
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Soapy
Posts: 1
9/27/2019
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Great story, lots of lore and truly touching love story. Maby I missed it, but what exactly are workers doing there?
[spoiler] I personally sent both lovers to the surface, up up and away from Princes's wicked clutch, they may die, but they at least will be together in it.[/spoiler]
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