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 What is this game? Sunless Sea is a game made by Failbetter Games, creator of the browser-based game Fallen London. It's the story of a captain who zails the Unterzee, a massive, still lake that the now-underground city of London sits by. It's one part merchant ship simulator, one part choose-your-own-adventure game, and just a touch of rogue-like and real-time naval combat, all wrapped up in really nice storytelling and a vibrant setting. In it, we will explore the Unterzee, visit fantastic places, make a pile of money, and only possibly be devoured by a terrifying Zee-beast. We might also go crazy and eat one another instead! While the game play itself isn't more than average, the setting of Sunless Sea is amazing, and I hope we can all enjoy a trip through it. Together. How will this LP work? This LP will be in screenshot format, with a narration written in the style of the captain's journal – This should permit a interesting investigation of the setting. However, since the game is very open-ended, there is going to be ample audience participation! It can be divided into two categories - First – Direction. I know the game well, and seeing me make my normal rounds would get boring fast, so I'll regularly be looking to the thread for advice about where to go and what to do, especially when we have important, irreversible choices to make in port. We will have to make important choices about who to help and what goals to pursue, many of which are mutually exclusive. I'll be trusting you in these cases to guide our captain to victory (The poor shlub). I'll do my best to keep us alive between these choices, but no promises – plus, dying leads to the inheritance mechanic! Second – Zailors. You can't zail the zee without zailors. I'll be taking applications for Zailors, in a manner similar to signing up for dwarfing in Dwarf Fortress. Individual zailors are rarely brought up, but having names for them will add narrative consistency to the ship, and besides, maybe you can be the lucky one to get eaten by Blemmigans. Saying a few words about why you are crazy enough to go to zee with a captain who plans to sail beyond the Tomb-Colonies would be pleasant as well. I will also be doing my best to keep things informative as we go – Comments from me will be kept in italics, with major mechanics drops in quotes. Spoiler policy This is a very story-driven game. Please do not talk about things that haven't come up in-game that are usually considered 'secret' in the setting. If the Special Constables wouldn't let a newspaper print it, don't talk about it. Journal entries - Entry zero – The making of a captain The Journal of captain Petra Blackwood Entry one - A new Correspondent's course Entry two - Venderbight Entry three - Finding Pigmote Entry four - Rats and boxes Entry five - The Mourn and mutton Entry six - The Inner-Sea Loop, part one Entry seven - The Inner-Sea Loop, part two. Entry eight - Northern exploration Entry nine - A long way home Entry ten - Up in flames Entry eleven - A most particular smell Entry twelve - Checkerboard dreams Entry thirteen - Faffing about in Fallen London Entry fourteen - A bloody voyage Entry fifteen - Masks Entry sixteen - Irem always waits Entry seventeen - Monkey business Entry eighteen - A risky thing Entry nineteen - Serious firepower Entry twenty - Inexcusable company Entry twenty one - Quickly home again Entry twenty two - Zafari Entry twenty three - The deep South Entry twenty four - Scintillating Entry twenty five - Deja-vu Entry twenty six - Dissolution Entry twenty seven - Additional monkeys Entry twenty eight - That which came before Entry twenty nine - Brilliantly glowing Entry thirty - A light, still glowing Entry thirty one - Great and terrible truths Entry thirty two - Twisty little passages, all the same Entry thirty three - HE SUN THE SUN THE SUN TH Entry thirty four - Imeplled Entry thirty five - The Highest Wilderness Entry thirty six - Final preparations Entry thirty seven - Filial piety Entry thirty eight - A backwards approach Entry thirty nine - Officer's day in Entry forty - The Stigma of the West Entry forty one - Loyalties Entry forty two - The Scars of the North Entry forty three - The Mark of the East Entry forty four - The Light of the Sun Entry forty five - The Touch of the South Entry forty six - The Name-Which-Burns A loose letter - The Last Horizon Black Wombat fucked around with this message at 09:06 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 19:48
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 skoolmunkee posted:from the Evening Tidings, back page, Happenings section: The Neathbow posted:A wakes APOCYAN, the blue memory of brightest coral. Black Wombat fucked around with this message at 19:07 on May 30, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 19:49
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Entry zero – The making of a captain It takes a special kind of person to zail the zee. Courage, greed, curiosity and desperation have sent many ships out into those still, inky waters – Almost all return scarred, if they return at all. Today, a new captain is setting out to zee. What kind of stories will be told of them?  This shows the main method of interacting with things in Sunless Sea – selecting choices in your ship's log. Naturally, we're going to be creating our character now.   Our first choice is who we were prior to being a zee-captain. Each choice comes with a very large increase to one of our stats. Let's take a minute to talk about stats. Statistics posted:Like all roguelikes, Sunless Sea has statistics. However, the ones you'll find here are far more abstract than usual, and named after the Masters, the unusual, faceless merchant-kings who run the Bazaar. Many of them are used in the zailing part of the game, and all of them are occasionally checked against in a pass/fail scenario while having adventures in port.  Every captain sets out with a reason. Our captain today is no different. Long ago, the zee had taken someone important out of their life; today, they set out to bring them back... Or whatever is left of them. This screen lets us determine our own win condition. Both 'Acquire Wealth' and 'Be the greatest explorer of all time' are simply resource-gathering ambitions, with no unique stories, and are consequentially kinda boring. We will be choosing 'Your father's bones'.   One last bit of paperwork was all that was left to file, and then the voyage could be underway. Sunless Sea, much like Fallen London, is very friendly to the concept of gender fluidity. Our title here does not establish a gender, and gender never actually comes up. Take what sounds best.  And so began the story of a brave new captain. Finally, we choose our name and our portrait. There are seven feminine, seven masculine, and seven non-gendered portraits to choose from. Below is an image of all of them.  So, we need to know... Who are we? I'll be taking submissions! Things up for choice are History, Title, Name, and Portrait. We also need a name for our ship! I strongly encourage anyone interesting in determining our future also write a few words about who our captain is. Black Wombat fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Feb 21, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 19:52
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So far so good! I should point out, I will be making my decision at noon, PST, tomorrow - in other words, about 22 hours from this post. The first journal entry should be up not long after that. I look forward to seeing what shape our next captain takes!
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Feb 20, 2015 23:10
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Alright! I'll be starting the first journal entry now. If your captain didn't make it, don't worry. There's certainly a chance something will happen to our brave captain, and I'll have to choose another of these poor souls to follow in her wake. If you want to get aboard as a Zailor in the original eight, now is the time to pipe up.
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Feb 21, 2015 21:05
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I just realized - Those of you requesting to be a Zailor should specify a gender, should you care. I'll be looking back through previous posts, so feel free to simply edit those. And beyond the eighth person, I am sorry, you will not be on this voyage. For certainly nothing will ever happen to our original zailors that will require them to be replaced.
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Feb 21, 2015 22:37
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Journal entry one – A new Correspondent's course From The journal of Captain Petra Blackwood November 27th, 1887 While preparing for my voyage overseas, I noticed a very particular thing in the newspaper today. The Gracious Widow had commissioned a fair-sized obituary for my long-lost father in The Magazine Formerly Known as the London Magazine. (The new name is rather a mouthful, isn't it?) I went to speak to her about this matter – I had no idea why the Widow would care so much about my father, so I went to speak with her. She claims information about him, but would not part with it easily.  She requires that I provide her with scintillack, the mesmeric coral. You cannot find scintillack in London – it is more important than ever that I receive my sailing papers. November 30th, 1887 – Morning I received the notice from the Admiralty yesterday afternoon. Finally, all my paperwork has cleared. They have been convinced I am neither spy nor traitor and will be permitted to sail the Unterzee! I can barely contain my excitement! And it comes not a moment too soon. Daddy's money is almost gone; I barely had enough echos to lease a room above the Blind Helmsman for a night in preparation for my departure.  But just because I am eager does not mean I can deviate from my routines. Routines fortify the mind. I took breakfast as I usually did, while reading the morning papers. I must admit to eating faster than I normally do, but one cannot blame me for my eagerness. Soon, all my preparations and study will come to a fruition! I am beyond excited to finally test some of my theories.  Your lodgings are is the best place to get rest. Resting is good at getting rid of Wounds, and poor at getting rid of Terror. Once we have some Echos in our pockets, we can upgrade to a proper house and do a bit more here. For now, let's move on. Fortified by a proper meal of fishcake and fungus, I ventured out into London to make my final preparations.   The central London card is mostly used to repair your hull and restore crew, and meet new NPCs, who get their own cards once we know them. My first stop was the Admiralty office. They informed me they would pay for information about goings-on at other ports in the Unterzee. While I am not exactly interested in compiling reports for the benefit of others, they will pay for them, and zailing is not a cheap endeavor. So long as I am compiling reports, I may as well make second copies for the Admiralty and make a few Echos on the side. They told me they especially needed a report on conditions at Gaider's Mourn. I made a note of that, thanked them, and back to London.   It is time to gather my crew. I had already recruited them, of course – Most zailors are unwilling to go on a voyage with a new captain into the unknown, so I did not tell them those things. It made recruiting far simpler, and I would not let myself be straddled with delays for my departure. In particular, a friend of mine, who studied with me at Benthic, has come aboard.  The second button is supposed to have a 'Chat with the Plausible Surgeon' tag besides it... All the other starting companions have it.  He apparently wants to visit some sort of beast-corpse repository, far to the east. While I admire his willingness to take risks in the pursuit of knowledge, I do wish he was seeking more dignified knowledge. November 30th, 1887 – Afternoon Finding my men was no difficult task. They are a diverse lot; the sort who are willing to sign on to voyages far from London usually are. The most dependable-looking of the lot is a man who calls himself Grandalt. I've elected him as my boatswain, and set him with most of the tasks of preparing the Correspondence for launch. As my ship was preparing for departure, a ragged-looking tomb-colonist approached one of my zailors and asked to speak to me. He asked for transport to Venderblight, a city not far too the north. It seemed to be a good first trip for the Correspondence, and agreed to give him passage. (I think it was a him. It can be hard to tell with colonists.)  It was only after Jones and Meis carried him aboard did I realize it was traditional for tomb-colonists to travel in coffins. With final preparations underway, I decided to walk the ship and examine the state of things myself.  The Correspondence may not be the finest ship on the Zee, but she's dependable enough. Her engine is old but serviceable, and her deck gun enough to deal with any threats we'll encounter close to London. The Ligeia-class steamer is, as one would expect from our starter, a bad ship. It's got a small cargo hold, is fragile, lacks any optional equipment slots, and starts with a peashooter. We should avoid any but the easiest of fights until we get upgrades. The weapon statics are, in order – Damage to boats, damage to zee-monsters, crew damage, firing rate, and stun duration. And with that, we were off.  This is the full-sized view of the game. This is the screen where zailing and combat happen, and what you'll be looking at for most of the game. Let's talk about what we're seeing here. The HUD posted:In the upper-left, you have the speed indicator and health indicator making up the upper- and lower-halves of the circle. To the right, you have our Fuel, Supply, and Terror gauges. We currently have 10 barrels of fuel (9 in reserve and a whole one in the engine), 5 crates of Supplies, and 0 terror. Running out of Fuel is disastrous, but supplies can be converted into fuel at a 2:1 ratio. Running out of Supplies is bad, unless you're into cannibalism. As Terror goes up, bad things start happening – Getting progressively worse until we reach 100, at which point – well. It's bad. Let's say that.  November 30th, 1887 – Evening   We'd barely left London when we saw a island rising from the inky blackness of the Neath. Hunter's Keep, home of the three Sisters. Supposedly, they collect stories and relics from far across the zee. Supposedly, sometimes, strange singing is heard and odd lights are seen. So naturally as a gracious zee-captain and envoy for Her Enduring Majesty, I felt it my responsibility to check in on the occupants of Hunter's Keep.    We also have an option to spy on the house, but our Veils is too low to have a good chance of pulling it off. Besides, Captain Blackwood isn't one to snoop on people like this. Despite the relatively late hour, the sisters invited me in for lunch. Of course, with no sun, who can say it is not lunch? Perhaps it is they who know best.  And here we have our first choice! I honestly don't know if which of the Sisters you dine with, or what order you do it in on subsequent visits, changes the fate of Hunter's Keep... But perhaps it does. Who should we dine with today? And, for that matter, is there someone we should snub on future visits? And once we've had our lunch, should we continue north, to Venderblight? Or turn east, and try to find Port Cecil for the Widow?
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Feb 21, 2015 23:26
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Small Frozen Thing posted:Also, I realize it's part of the game mechanics, but it strikes me as somewhat amusing that we and our crew are among the least durable folks in the Neath. I mean, I can understand crew being lost to explosions or going overboard and sinking or being devoured by a monster or something, but I've had a captain die for good via getting jabbed by a spear. And not even an eldritch or uncanny one, just a pointy stick. It's mentioned one or twice in this game that for some reason dying at Zee makes you far more likely to die for real than when on land. Whatever it is that keeps death away from London (and a few other places) doesn't hold at zee.
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Feb 22, 2015 00:38
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Coolguye posted:Bug workaround I did not know that. I'll get that done. Meiteron posted:I'm still hoping they're going to get the soundtrack of the game released soon; they've said it's on the way, but no set date yet. Sunless Sea actually has really good, atmospheric music and it adds a lot hearing some of it as you approach certain ports. Even London! The London music is actually incredible. It is noticeably relaxing when you hear that come over your speakers after a long zee-trip. I'm using manual saves, but mostly so I can ask questions in the middle of visiting a port. If Petra dies, she dies. And sometimes, failing stat checks changes content in memorable, if not positive, ways.
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Feb 22, 2015 03:30
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Coolguye posted:Do it sooner rather than later. The only thing you can do is start a fresh game if you've got an issue. Oh, don't worry, it's already done. Speaking of things being done - I'll be collecting votes tomorrow at noon, which is about 14 hours from now. Next update will hit either tomorrow evening or Monday.
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Feb 22, 2015 07:46
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Votes have been collected! Hopefully I'll be able to get the next journal entry done this evening. If not, it'll happen tomorrow.
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Feb 22, 2015 21:20
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Entry two – Venderbight The Journal of Petra Blackwood November 30th, 1887 – Evening The sisters were as all sisters all – especially ones kept in a small space. Contentious. Each invited me to lunch, but it was clear they were not interested in lunching with one another. I accepted Lucy's offer, in the end; if I am to walk among the dead in a few day's time, I don't need to start my depression early.  Oh look, one of the gods of the Zee has noticed us. That's good... sometimes. Also, if we'd had any Terror, this would have reduced it by up to 10. She was a delight; I cannot imagine why a woman like her would choose to live out here, rather than in London. Surely she could have easily worked her charms at the salons in Veilgarden! But I suppose the same could be said of me. When I returned to the ship, I found Grandalt finishing breaking up an argument. It seems that "Big Daddy" Jones and A.J. Kalan considered another of our zailors back luck – Helios, with his large sun tattoo. Zailors are such queer folk. They said the Zee would take offense at a zailor with an image of the surface engraved upon him. Helios, for his part, claimed the Sun had been denied him, and the least he could do to remember it was engrave it on his body. Jones and A.J. were given an extra shift of furnace-stoking duty for the ruckus as we left Hunter's Keep.  There is here a small irregularity in the dates. Let's go ahead and chalk it up to the Zee being awfully mysterious, and not me having to do a bug work-around off camera. December 8th, 1887 -  We had our first taste of real danger this afternoon. Galaxia was on watch and let up the call – A ship flying a black flag had been sighted to the north-west, and closing on us!  It was no real fighter. Honestly, it looked more like a tugboat someone had strapped a cannon too. And when they saw how much ship was attached to our deck lamp, they turned and started trying to avoid us. And we know they've seen us. The bubble on the upper-left of their health bar tells us so – A blank one means they're blissfully unaware of us, a '?' means they've got some idea and are searching for us, a '!' means they know where we are, and a '!!!' means they're preparing to fire on us.  I was furious. As if I would let them get away and lay in wait for some other more helpless ship to come along! I ordered crew to battle positions and took my place at the helm. I don't knot a lot about naval tactics, but I knew this much; keep our ship where their gun isn't pointing, and their ship where our gun is. Seems easy enough. After a few short seconds, Grandalt reported we had a firing solution. I told them to take the shot.   This is seriously all ship v. ship in this game breaks down too. You can see the red arc of our deck gun; we can't see the enemy's arc, but it's similar. Keeping an enemy in that arc makes the bar around our gun fill, and when it's full, we can fire on them; It fills faster if we also keep them in the beam of our deck light. It's usually easy to stay behind our enemies and blast them to death with no return fire (until we get end-game, and enemy ships start having aft guns, but by then the damage those do to you will be negligible). BUT, since time doesn't stop in combat, you continue to consume fuel and supplies and gain terror. Some ships take long enough to kill that taking them out is still a losing proposition... Until we get better guns. Also, sometimes we'll be outnumbered. That's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Best to run. The fight was short. The pinnace was outgunned and out-maneuvered. It never even fired a shot at us before we sent it to the deep.   As the wreckage broke apart, we sailed among it; I sent Kraken and 'Doc' Snark down to see what could be found.   They were able to salvage a supply of coal coke. Everything else the Zee claimed. Whenever you sink a ship, you get a roll on a loot table specific to that ship. Two fuel is a fairly average haul. Larger ships, of course, can give much more and better loot – Some of it quite valuable, but fuel and supplies are the most common. Hunting pirates can help supplement stocks of those on long trips. There was a certain jubilance among the crew as I ordered a stand-down from combat; we had been tested for the first time, I had proven myself as a captain, even if it was in a relatively low-danger situation. The Zee hadn't swallowed us whole for daring to have Helios aboard. As the engines returned to full-steam, I couldn't help but think nothing but good would come of this trip. Whenever you defeat an enemy, you lose a little Terror. This is VERY important on long voyages. December 9th, 1887 -    We entered the realm of the Tomb-Colonies today. We passed the southern end of Venderbight mid-morning, passing between Carissa's Point and Hornman's Stag. Beyond them, a beautiful old temple-complex sat on a lonely island, shrouded in mist. Such beauty. Such majesty. There is a stillness here that you can't find in London, and I can understand the appeal – especially to someone who's dead.  Not long after, we arrived at Venderbight. As we pulled into the harbor, I gave the order for our passenger to be dislodged from the cargo hold. We carried him down onto the dock and it was only then that he finally deigned to rise up and speak to us.  He had a further commission for us, to bring a friend of his here from the Mangrove Collage. I told him that should we ever pass that way, we would try to track her down. He seemed to think that wasn't good enough, and eventually refused to even pay for his passage to Venderbight until we'd brought this woman to him! Kraken said we should nail him back into his coffin and throw him into the Zee, but I didn't want to start making enemies this early in my career. I told him we'd find his woman, and parted ways. Such impertinence. I could have stayed home if I wanted to be treated like that. In any case, I granted the crew the remainder of the day off. I'd always wanted to visit Venderbight. It is an ancient place. Older than London. Perhaps even older than the cities that came before London. I knew we would have to return to zee soon, but I shall try to pry a few secrets from this place before we go. December 10th, 1887 Venderbight is everything I hoped it would be. Still, ancient, dusty, quiet. I visited the parlors and shops of the quarter open to the 'Silk-skins', as they call us, and learned what I could. Most of them were more eager to talk about the present than the past, but someone will care about this.  As I wandered Venderbight, I noticed a flyer saying that the First Curator sought Zee-captains for a job. I would have been a fool to have passed up this chance, to meet with one of the oldest and wisest colonists still... Alive, such as they are. I wore appropriate attire for meeting one of such a station, and then departed to his residence.      He seemed in far worse shape that I would have thought. He seemed as old as the colonies, as old as the mountains. And for the knowledge of such a being, I would do many things... But I had not been expecting to be asked to gather colors. Of course, I'd heard of the colors that only dwell in the Neath before; I can't say I've ever experienced them and it sounds like maybe the Curator hasn't, either. The only clue I was given was a copy of a children's book, the Neathbow. I can't say I've ever seen a copy of this in London. Perhaps this is banned? If it is, then this mission is far more interesting than it seems. The Neathbow posted:A wakes APOCYAN, the blue memory of brightest coral. With the book in hand, I decided to wander a little longer before returning to the ship. I had no real direction; I simply meandered among the ancient buildings. After some time, I became aware of a feeling of being watched. At first, I thought it must be the Colonists, but even when I was alone on a street I could not shake the feeling.  When I returned to the Correspondence, the crew told me a box left for us. None had seen who left it. It looks like a coffin, and knocks roused no motion inside, and it was properly nailed shut – so perhaps it wasn't some prank being played on a sleeping tomb-colonist. I was about to have my men open it when Meis pointed out it had delivery instructions. It was to be delivered to "Depot A, Station III". Well, I am no mail service, but I suspect whoever this belongs too would be irritated if I opened it. I will keep this box, and find this 'Station III', and have my answers. As we all returned to our bunks, Grandalt reminded everyone to sleep with a candle lit nearby, or the Frost-Moths would climb down your throat looking for heat instead. The zailors took this warning to heart, and so did I; this was prudent. When I woke today, there were dozens of moths warming themselves on the light of my little flame. I shooed them away, but they did not scatter like I thought they would. Only when I extinguished the fire did they depart, with an indignity usually only found in princesses and cats. We put out to zee early this morning. I'm setting a course to the east; We seek the Mourn, to collect information for the Admiralty. And should we find other places, well – They will have their secrets to give, as well.
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Feb 23, 2015 09:43
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SSNeoman posted:Well gently caress you too, coffin guy. It's really not too bad. Each color requires an item - sometimes one of several possible choices. And you can bring them one at a time - he pays for each separately. And he's serious when he says he'll pay well. It's totally worth the effort it takes. I'll be expecting you all to keep an eye open for possible sources of the colors and to tell me to go back, when you think we have something.
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Feb 23, 2015 11:07
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Nuramor posted:Is there an actual time limit on this quest? Or any other, for that matter? The game does track how many days have passed, but I don't think any quests have fail states related to that. Some do get harder as time goes on, however - and some quests do have a 'Don't come back without finishing this' and they mean it. Ephemeron posted:Selling your soul is no big deal, I did it eight times. You'll be happy to know, you can do it in this game, too. Although, as far as I know, not to devils, oddly enough. Petra seems like the type who might not mind parting with it. ousire posted:This has only just started off but it's already making me seriously consider picking the game up for myself. I'm a big fan of both roguelikes and lovecraft, and this seems to hit both of that at once. You're very much the target audience. The gameplay is kinda 'meh', and really requires you to game the system in order to get ahead - but that's sort of the appeal of roguelikes, isn't it? Fallen London is wonderfully Lovecraftian, however, and very worth exploring, as is the Unterzee. Part of me wishes they'd just made a CYOA-style game, though. That really seems to be where their hearts are.
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Feb 23, 2015 19:20
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Entry three – Discovering Pigmote The Journal of Petra Blackwood December 10th, 1887 As my crew finish final preparations to depart, I paid one last visit ashore. I wanted to assess if Venderbight would be a place we could refuel and restock, if we needed too.    A new update hit today! That 'Monstrous Almanac' is new to me. Exciting! I discovered a place that would pay well for those bringing stories from distant places, and another place where a tomb-colonist would sell me what my ship needed to keep going at a premium. While it's nice to know I can restock here, I hope I never need too. After being out to zee only a short time, a call went out from the upper deck – Bats. As I emerged from my quarters, I saw the crew already getting into combat positions. Grandalt told me the lookout had spotted a swarm of blood-sucking bats descending towards the Correspondence. Fortunately, our ship is equipped to deal with this; I gave the order to prepare our grapeshot, and the men got ready.    The little flying vermin dove upon our ship, but the crew was ready for them, and fended the beasts away. They attempted to flee into the darkness for another pass, but I did not let them. We pursued them closely until the cannon was loaded and a second shot killed enough that the swarm disbanded.   Ship v. monster combat is fairly similar to ship v. ship, except that instead of firing a gun, a monster will charge you when it has a firing solution. There's a very simple way to deal with this; their charge has a minimum range. Plow into them. Stick to them and do not let go. You can defeat almost every zee-beast (with a few notable exceptions) like this without taking damage, except possibly one charge on the way in, if you can pull it off – they'll try to juke you, but usually not very well.   The remains of our battle were littered all over the deck. The crew seemed rather put-off by it all, but I saw it as an opportunity. I ordered the zailors to collect them and bring them to the galley. There was some grumbling, but they went along with it. Fresh meat – especially meat that isn't fish – is rare out here, and I think the unpleasantness of having to deal with all the little carcasses will be made up for by the taste of real meat.   The whole event reminded me of another tool we had at our disposal. I ordered our bat-keeper, Kalan, to fetch our zee-bat and send it out. It returned a short time later, letting us know there was no-place worth stopping nearby. When exploring new areas, the zee-bat is your best friend. It can be dispatched at will, and is the little bat-button on the lower control bar. You can see it zipping off to the east in the first image, and returning from the south-west in the second. If there's a port nearby, it has a chance to notice it and tell you what direction it's in, even mark it on your map! The larger the port, the higher the chance of the bat seeing it, and the farther it sees it from. We continued west. December 10th, near midnight  I was awoken by the night watch shouting an alarm near a place I was later told is named Lick-a-monkey crag. A crab had been sighted.   It was enormous, and I had no desire to fight it. I ordered a the deck light to be turned off, in hopes that we could slip away under cover of darkness. As large as it was, it was also slow and lumbering. Without our deck light on, it lost track of us, and we slipped away into the night.  I had heard many stories of monsters out at zee, but seeing one for the first time is a real experience! That creature was nearly as large as our ship. I should return to sleep, but am writing this instead, while the memory is fresh in my mind. There is a sigil for beasts like that. "A creature so large/dangerous/unusual seeing it changes one's opinions". Now I understand what that means a little better. December 11th, 1887. Early morning.   We spotted land early this morning. The island, called Pigmote island, is strange; it looks inhabited, from a distance, but there was no town to greet us at the docks. Instead, there was something far more unusual.       Two warrior nations of rodents both desired the aid of myself and my crew. I could make a valuable ally here, if I chose wisely – if it was worth the effort at all. Okay, decision time! Do we side with the regal Cavies, or the ingenious Rattus Faber?
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Feb 23, 2015 21:10
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By the way, voting will cut off at 8 PM PST tomorrow. Journal update will be tomorrow or Wednesday evening. So get them votes in! **Stolen shamelessly from the Failbetter Games twitter stream. Totes worth checking out. Black Wombat fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Feb 23, 2015 |
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Feb 23, 2015 23:08
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Small Frozen Thing posted:*Hunts rats for 5 days* An accurate representation of Fallen London's gameplay. I mostly log in, use all my event cards, and leave a few times a day. If anyone wants to add me in Fallen London, BTW, my username there is BlackWombat. The Feast of the Exceptional Rose is going on, we could trade cards! Ephemeron posted:Order must be maintained - with a neddy stick, if necessary. Republics must be crushed, lest they become Iron. Side with the cavies. The Iron Republic is the best evidence that republics should not be allowed to exist. I do often wonder if Hell's takeover of the Republic happened after or before the war on Hell. Black Wombat fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Feb 24, 2015 |
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Feb 24, 2015 00:50
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mcclay posted:Should we link our Fallen London profiles for when you hire more men back at port? I think it will be less confusing for everyone if we use SA names, rather than Fallen London names, for zailors. I am still taking applications, of course! I mean, should something happen to the Correspondence, after all, we'll need a whole new roster... Or if we trade it up, we'll need to increase our crew to staff a bigger boat.
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Feb 24, 2015 08:03
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While I am greatly disappointed you all have not recognized the clear superiority of the Cavy people, it looks like we'll be siding with the rats. Update likely to be out late this evening.
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Feb 25, 2015 04:59
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Journal Entry 4 – Rats and boxes The Journal of Captain Petra Blackwood Continues from last entry After a short time considering, I decided to side with the Chief Engineer. While I've never been a huge fan of the LB's, at least they're a known quantity.  He took me and showed me around their camp. It was rather impressive, for a bunch of cast-away rodents.      The last option just says 'And then you met with the War Council' and cuts the following screen. Eventually, of course, the exact nature of how I could help was brought up.   It was clear, from the appraisal I'd heard earlier, the rats needed one of two things; they either needed a military genius to lead them to victory over a superior foe, or someone to give them parts to make guns. Fortunately, it takes remarkably little to make a rat-sized gun.  I had my crew carry one of our swivel-guns into the camp, along with a box of shot and powder. I took this chance to examine the "Rat star" a little closer. It was beautiful. Just looking at it made me feel at ease, peaceful in a way I rarely feel. Even the crew seemed to be affected by it, showing remarkable ease and comfort, even surrounded by rats – although I did hear Jones ask Helios why he couldn't have gotten a tattoo of this thing, instead. The camp had become a flurry of activity; equipped with proper parts and ammo, the rats seemed overjoyed. The rat who'd been introduced to me as their chief strategist said that the Cavies were done for, and that I would scarcely recognize the island when I came back.   Having heard of the prowess of the LBs before, I extended an offer to join my crew to anyone who'd wish it. I was rather hoping a ratty astronomer would come with us, desiring to see new false-stars, but I will not scoff at the young rat who did decide to come. I think he will be useful.  Shortly thereafter, we departed, watching the rats make their preparations. I hope all goes well for them. If not, I suspect we may not be welcome here in the future.  We have a new officer! He'll replace the mascot we started with. I'll take +2 Veils over +1 Hearts any day.  I decided to head south. We still seek the Mourn, and it isn't supposed to be far from London. December 12th, 1887 - evening  As we traveled through the darkness, near an island not far from Pigmote, Snark rang the alarm bell. He'd spotted a Jillyfleur. They're an immature form of the proper Jillyfish, and mostly harmless. But I've heard a rumor... The crew was rather surprised when I told them to get to combat positions.    Even in this game, which has very easy combat, the Jillyfleur has uniquely incompetent AI. I barely had to move as it swam circles around me and got shot to death. But they sometimes come in packs, so this might be intentional. As it stopped moving, I pulled the ship up besides it and called the crew around to look close.   There was a face, clear as Snark's! Speaking of it, Snark did not look happy about this. In fact, none of the crew seemed as excited as I did. So I am recording here, journal, that this is an exceptional thing! Perhaps someday, we will discover the owner of this face, and prove a sympathetic link between zee-life and other life in the Neath! But for now, we continued on our way.  Shortly after passing the Jillyfleur, we passed Crabcake Island. It did, from a distance, sort of resemble a crabcake, and while I would have once said a crabcake that large could never exist, I am no longer so sure. In any case, it was uninhabited, and we steamed on. December 13th, 1887 – Morning None of us saw the frigate come up on us. It had its light on us before we could adjust our course or try to hide. A ship that large had a larger engine, and while we could have thrown more coal in the boiler and tried to outrun it, it might have damaged the engine. The crew was not looking confident as I ordered them to combat positions.  Didn't get a good shot of this one approaching, but it came from almost due south pointed straight at us. At low Veils scores, enemies can easily see you from off-screen, which happened here. Also worth noting – there is no ramming damage in this game if you hit enemies.   While they were larger, we were able to pull tighter turns – once more, we got behind it, and it was destroyed without much problem. Are these really the pirates we've heard so much about? Terrorizing shipping lanes? I'm underwhelmed. I set my crew to gather what they could from the wreck and retired to my quarters. Grandalt told me they were able to recover some fuel and supplies, and a journal so water-logged as to be mostly unreadable. What was left, though, was fascinating.    Pirate frigates always give 1-2 Fuel and 1-2 Supplies, in addition to whatever is in the hold. They're a very useful find and almost always worth hunting. December 14th, 1887 – Afternoon We followed our Zee-bat east, and discovered something very interesting! Station III lays here. We had to fight a steam-pinnace to get there, but it went much as our last confrontation with one. We sunk it, we looted it, and moved on.   Station III is a strange-looking place; it seemed highly-fortified and cutting edge, but we had something that belonged to them and I knew they would let us in.      A brief reconnoiter from the outside didn't tell me much. The remains of industrial work and strange architecture give few clues. I ordered the crew to remove the box from the hold, and to bring it onto the island, although it was a difficult arrangement.  Once we had gotten it to the top of the stairs leading to the dock, I felt our share of work was done, and sent my crew back to the ship – except Kraken and Galaxia, who I left to guard the box. I resolved to find someone to do the remainder of the carrying for us.  All that's getting cut off here is us being told we will almost certainly fail the Irons challenge to carry the box farther.  When I got to the main building, I met a very unusual woman. She seemed to be a artisan of some kind, and sent a group of clay-men down to fetch the box from below. We also got a point of 'Acolyte's Favor' from this, which is all that was cut off.   As the reached the box, I dismissed Kraken and Galaxia back to the ship. I could have returned as well, I suppose, but I simply must see what is inside of this box.     I was not disappointed. The crate contained a corpse, as we had all suspected! And the corpse contained a unusual metal ball, and that was what she was seeking. She sung constantly as she worked, as though that was as important as her knives or goggles. It was fascinating, absolutely fascinating. I rather suspect my crew might not agree. I don't think I will share what happened in here unless they press. Of course, maybe I'd find someone with a similar interest. That would be amazing! In any case, I hope we happen across more of these boxes – I simply must know what they do with that metal. But for now, there's nothing to do but return to zee; the presence of so many pirates suggest we must be near Corsair's Forest. I will set out westward, and maybe find our destination. 
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Feb 25, 2015 10:25
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Lokapala posted:West coast (that contains London and Venderbight) is fixed: it always has the same locations and ports and they are always in the same place. South coast, and all the corners of the map are fixed too. The rest is divided into 5 regions: they each contain a set of locations, but these can appear anywhere within the region, and the specific elements within the location can be placed differently. As far as I know, all possible regions are always on your map. I can! I'll start that from the next time we depart London. Although, for what its worth, I don't think we're 'Near home waters'. I like to think of each area as a tile. The 'Near home waters' tile only includes London, Hunter's Keep and another island we haven't seen (Although Fallen London veterans will know it as the home of Rubbery Lumps.) There is a ring of other tiles that are always adjacent to London, in kind of a semicircle, but their locations can change. (We've seen The Snares, where Pigmote was, and Shepard's Wash, where Station III is. The Coursair's Forest, home of the Morn, is the last - so I'm pretty sure I know where it is.)
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Feb 26, 2015 08:55
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my dad posted:Captain, can I throw Sunny overboard? Pretty please? No throwing people overboard unless they've done something to deserve it! Or are already dead. Or are secretly a Snuffer. DOWN JACKET FETISH posted:The metal sphere's a bad example because literally all you have to do is hang around Station III until Something Awaits You and then just bumble in and do stuff. Rinse, repeat. That's not entirely true - you also need to deliver more Longboxes, and get a certain officer to get the WHOLE story. But yes, many ports are designed to feed their stories over multiple visits, or only when you're on certain quests. Which is good, because we'll be visiting these ports many times. You will notice the red dotted lines of our voyages getting longer as this LP continues. Coolguye posted:For what it's worth, those of you who were talking about brokering peace? Yeah that is impossible on Pigmote. If you try, both sides basically go "Oh yes quite so I'm delighted someone so enlightened could come by and help us work out all of our blood-soaked differences We DID take the 'Paragon' path, for what its worth. Although, if this was a Bioware game, the Cavy would have been clearly wearing rat-pelts at at some point called the rats 'chattel'. Their rewards are superior, though. Anyway! Gameplay is done for the next post, I'm working on writing the journal. Should be up in a few hours.
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Feb 26, 2015 23:50
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Journal entry 5 – The Mourn and Mutton The Journal of Captain Petra Blackwood December 15th, 1887 We left Station III in the late afternoon, as our chronometer reckoned. As we left the station, a steam-pinnace bore down on us. Perhaps a confederate of the last one we sunk? If I'd ran, I could have outpaced him, but he likely could have fired several times from behind us. Instead, I charged him; we exchanged one volley, and then I fell into pursuit and he sank without further difficulty.     We then continued west; we could see the pillars of Corsair's Forest looming in the darkness. Our goal was within. December 16th, 1887   Slightly before midnight, we crossed into the Corsair's Forest. I ordered double watches. A fleet of pirates are known to operate between these enormous stone pillars, and I would not have us caught off-guard.  My precautions turned out to be for nothing, however – we made it all the way to Gaider's Mourn without seeing a single other deck lamp. My father used to tell me stories of this place – that it was rough-and-tumble and not a place for proper British men and women. My crew, however, seemed eager to spend some time ashore. Perhaps we are not as proper as we would like to be.    My first order of business was to track down my contact – he demanded a small sum of Echos as hazard pay. Hazard pay! Where does he think he is, the Khanate? The Admiralty's spies are not what I thought they would be.  While the Mourn is not the kind of place that normally interests me, I admit reluctance to simply depart. Partly because I think my crew would like a little more time ashore, and partly because standing in this place my father so vehemently wished I would never be gave me a small thrill. I decided to explore the spire a little before we left.  It was not a terrible time. I had to step quickly to avoid one or two pedestrian brawls, and I purchased lunch from a street vendor.   Petra has a lower-than-20% chance of passing the other options. She's not going to be too wild, today. The second option is locked behind a trait called 'Unaccountably peckish'. However would we get that? I then went to check on the remainder of my crew. They had been drinking at an establishment called the Arrant Limpet. However, most of them were already departing by the time I arrived. Galaxia informed me they didn't 'Care for their type'. I noticed Jones had bruised knuckles on our way back to the Correspondence. It might be wise for us to be departing, now.  We could try for a port report, but doing so requires a Veils check. Petra is no good at those, so we'll pass for now.  December 17th - The crew did not complain when I maintained double watches on our way out of the Forest; I think they were on edge after the encounter at the Limpet. This time, it proved prudent; as we left the Mourn, we spotted a Steam-pinnacre coming around one of the pillars. I had our deck light extinguished – we snuck up on it in darkness and then proceeded to destroy them before they could turn about on us.     We had barely disengaged from the Pinnace when we encountered a frigate, having some sort of navigation issues. I considered showing mercy, but then considered what they would have done to our ship, in the same situation, and took appropriate action.     The AI is sometimes really bad. That said, the Corsair's Forest can be tricky. The enemies spawn close enough that you can agrro 2-3 of them at once if you're not careful, but the frigates that spawn here do wonders for flagging stores. We encountered no other difficulties leaving the Forest. I think keeping the crew away from the wine and honey we took from the pirates will be a greater challenge than the pirates themselves, so I've told everyone that any that is missing without my personal approval shall be deducted from the collective wages of the crew. I will approve Snark's use of a little honey, if he approaches me. The man has not been well since he saw the Jellyfleur. Perhaps the face reminded him of someone? Hmm. I should ask him about that. December 18th - We arrived in the sovereign waters of London today. We paid a small stop outside of London to visit Mutton Island.  Also visiting Mutton Island was a large (but not extremely large) crab. It did not bother us as we put into port.    I kept our visit short. I, at least, was eager to return to London. I questioned the fisherman about enough information that the Admiralty would be interested, and then set my zailors back to work. They were displeased, but the news that we would be in London by early tomorrow appeased them. You might be wondering about why I didn't do the other options at Mutton Island. Well, that's because of a little mechanic called 'Something awaits you at port'. The 'Something awaits you at port!' mechanic is designed so you can't sail around in tiny little circles at certain ports and just generate almost unlimited supplies. Many options at ports require you to have, and consumes, the 'Something awaits you' quality. Its represented by a little house shrouded in green fog – clearly seen on the 'Explore the shore' option on Mutton Island. When you use it up, it will return after you have sailed for a while. The length of time it takes to return is variable; sometimes, it seems to happen almost instantly. Other times, it seems like you can go halfway across the Neath without it coming back. Whenever it returns, it comes with the sound of a bell and a snippit of text – and the appearance of a streetlight at the edge of your log. You can clearly see it happen in the first two screenshots of December 16th. Since I can't guarantee it'll come back between here and London, and I really want it at London, I'm conserving it. Knowing where best to use your 'Something awaits you at port!' is a major part of surviving the on the Zee. As we put back to see, I ordered us to leave with our light off. We followed the edge of Mutton Island and by the time the crab knew we were there, we were too far away to stop.   December 19th -   London theme music. We arrived in London shortly after midnight. Not a single zailor had slept tonight; every eye was on the glittering gas-lamps as we approached. We put in at port, and the disembarking process started. We had a visit from the Customs men, but we had nothing of interest to them.   I then checked in with the harbormaster, who told me several messages had been left for me while I was away. News that a captain was voyaging far into the Unterzee had spread, and several individuals wanted to join me.  This is why I wanted 'Something awaits' in London. When you return to London with it, you get a chance to recruit an officer. When I returned to check on my crew's progress at the ship, I discovered my bo'sun staring disapprovingly at a one-eyed man standing besides a pallet filled with coal and supplies.   He offered a gift that sounded an awful lot like a business proposal; I told him I'd think about it. He said he'd return another day. Grandalt said the man looked like trouble, and I agree, but so does Jones and I hired him. I'll have plenty of time to consider his proposal at zee. The Blind Bruiser will only make this offer if you're below a certain threshold of supplies and coal; since I get above said threshold before I leave port, the offer is retracted, but will be offered again next time we're in London with an empty hold. With unloading completed and their pay distributed, I released my crew into Wolfstack docks to enjoy some merriment before we departed again. I, however, had more business to do. Heavy is the head that wears whatever that kind of hat it is that captains always wear. I first visited the Admiralty office; I had much for me.   I'm only going to post these when they're noteworthy; most of them look an awful lot like that. You get 1 fuel, and between 5 and 40 echos, depending on how distant or interesting the port is. You can gather them more than once, but only get the Admiralty's Favor the first time you turn in any given port.  This report gives 100 echos, but can only be submitted once. Eventually, I completed giving my reports, and told them I had picked up the information from the contact in the Mourn. It appears the clerk was not important enough to give that too, and instead ushered me upstairs to speak to the Admiral. I delivered my report, and then conversed with him about how I could further help London.    He told me he needed someone to visit Mt. Palmerston, home of the exiles from Hell. I told him it'd be my pleasure. He seemed unconvinced. I then visited the Wolfstack markets, to sell the wine and honey we'd collected.   In case you're curious, here's all the things we can sell in London, and for how much. I'll go over what we can buy when we're a bit more affluent. Finally, I set about finding the person who'd requested a space on my ship – I found her by the docks. She seemed to be in a hurry.  I have no doubt she'll be very useful.  Normally, I'd have us vote on which Officer to take. But we're eventually going to get all of them, and Maybe's Daughter is possibly the single best first officer to get, so we'll be taking her. The third option there, by the way, is 'Get 1 zailor for 1 echo', only useful if you can't afford or already have all other officers. However! There is still a vote to be had. Should we accept the Blind Bruiser's offer? Black Wombat fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Feb 27, 2015 |
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Feb 27, 2015 01:30
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RickVoid posted:Can anyone vote, or just the active crew? Anyone, of course. Sadly, we can't learn anything more than I've shown here. We have to choose if we want to accept loot from a shady patron with this information alone. That said, if we say no, I think it means no forever. We could just keep him hanging until we need him, of course, if we hit a hard row.
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Feb 27, 2015 05:07
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akulanization posted:I like that they added fuel for port reports, that really alleviates some of the supply crunch. Also why is Maybe's Daughter the best first officer in your opinion? More engine power is okay, but I alway found fuel to be a big limitation for the starter ship and I hate burning more of it to go the same distance. Yeah, the fuel thing is required. I feel like a lot of people who complain this game is too hard might be ignoring port reports? You should never sail straight anywhere, in Sunless Sea; you should go port-to-port the whole way, and you'll regain like 75% of the coal you use at the end, most of the time. On long trips, it can earn a few hundred echos, too. If you avoid taking damage, port reports alone should make most trips profit-neutral. Maybe's Daughter is good because, first, she gives Veils, which is probably the most important stat when you have a weak ship and slipping by enemies unnoticed is very important. Second, her quest line (which we will be starting next session) gives small payouts repeatedly, rather than one large one at the end, making it helpful for jump-starting your ship upgrades. The other possible most-valuable officers are also engineers, interestingly. Maybe I'm biased, but one of them offers a good way to make echos, and the other offers a really good engine upgrade for their quests.
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Feb 27, 2015 07:53
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WELP. There's an issue with the save file. I forgot that turning on manual saves turns off auto-saving, by all appearances. So, what does this mean? Not a lot. I save at every major port, so I only have to replay from the Mourn. Not a lot has changed - the frigate was even ramming himself into a different column, bless their scurvy-addled brains. In effect, only two things will change - 1 - Where the Admirality wants us to collect information from. 2 - Which officers we have to recruit. I'll be updating the changes in the next journal. But in short, we now have two reasons to go to Port Cecil, and we're getting a different Engineer, because the other option is the worst guy.
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Feb 27, 2015 09:02
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Lokapala posted:The image of submitting Hunter's Keep report has Quality: Table-Breaking, unfortunately. Whoops, fixed that. And I agree, 20-25 fuel is a safe amount. But it leaves little room for loot you collect near the start of the trip, so I usually depart with less and trust that I'll come across some at zee. I usually leave with about 15 coal, and I've yet to run out (although I did once get back with 0 coal and 2 supplies left. Close one, that.) Also, I usually roll with the light off. Don't tell the crew. They'll be finding out soon enough.  I wanted to ask, how do people feel about the length of the posts? I'm going to be phasing out things we've seen a lot, but there's simply still a lot of bulk to be had.
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Feb 28, 2015 00:57
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Journal entry 6 – The Inner-Sea Loop, part one The Journal of Petra Blackwood December 19th, 1887 - Morning I lead our new officer, the Genial Magician, back onto the ship. I showed him his quarters, which I think he found adequate, and the engine, which I think he found barely satisfactory. In any case, it will be good to have someone with serious engineering know-how looking after the engine full-time. And who am I to hold only having one hand against someone? And perhaps he will lend a certain air of style to the ship we otherwise lack.   While he got settled, I did a little catching up on the news about London. A promotional sent me to Mrs. Plenty's provisions, and while there, I laid a few echos to bolster our supplies. We didn't have enough for a longer trip.   My crew came back in the wee hours of the morning, mostly under their own power. I, of course, was eager to be back to Zee, and wasted no time in casting off, regardless of the grumblings of my crew. One small thing that makes it hard to keep narrative flow – no time passes in port except for a very specific few events. I could rest in my lodgings ten times, and no time would pass. Let's add this to the pile of things we blame the Zee for.  December 19th, 1887 – Afternoon As we set out, I spoke a little while to my new officer. He seems capable, and very polite, but something about him is setting the crew on edge and they won't tell me what.   Yes, you can, in fact, sleep with most (non-mascot) officers – including two of the five starters. Each one has a 'X must be 20 higher than Y' requirement. Maybe Petra will find her soul-mate someday. We spoke for a while about his old profession. It was an illuminating discussion. Sometime, when we're less busy, I'll have to inquire more about his past.  I burnt 5 Secrets to improve our veils by 5. On the way out of London, I stopped by Hunter's Keep to pay the sisters a visit, Once more, they offered me lunch, and I chose to lunch with Cynthia. She reminds me of myself, in a way – If I had permitted myself to be consumed by the loss of my father, and my isolation, and the comfort of books. Those things strengthened me, while similar things seem to have hollowed Cynthia out inside, and filled her with darkness.  Perhaps I will lunch with her again. We will be traveling north-east from here, to Pigmote island. December 19th, 1887 – Evening We have come across a very particular place! Between Hunter's Keep and Pigmote Island is a small collection of islands, upon which seems to have been built some kind of maze. Grandalt told me it was called the Labyrinth of Eels, but would not offer any reason for why. That caused every zailor on deck to come forth and give me a reason.  This persisted until we saw the shark.   It was half as long as the ship, and bound in the most particular irons. As soon as it saw us, it turned and headed straight for us. With the Labyrinth hemming us in, we had little choice but to fight it – and to kill such a beast is a mercy, besides.   Once it realized that we weren't helpless, it tried to flee – it got precariously close to a nearby whirlpool. It ran us nearly to Pigmote and back. But in the end, we won the day – Kraken, in particular, seemed pleased, even as the hunt drug on. But everyone was proud when we pulled the largest of its teeth free as a trophy.    They were less happy about my choice to have some of the less-than-prime cuts served as a victory celebration. Some of them even claimed they screamed as they cut in! Hogwash. Mine was perfectly silent.  This fight is like all others – rub your face against them until they're dead. When defeated, if butchered, larger zee-beasts give a random quantity of 'An unprepossessing mass', with stronger ones having higher ranges. The more you get, the better your reward. You don't get anything interesting until you hit a pretty high level, though – Most levels give supplies, at best. Also, repair and resupply in London? No time. Fight a shark? Two days. That's the Zee for you. With that, it was on to Pigmote isle. December 21st, 1887 – Morning Things had changed since our last visit. It appears the supplies we gave to the rodents was enough for them to dethrone the king of the Cavies. And while I wasn't foolish enough to ask about the fate of the leaders, it seemed the rank-and-file had been adopted into ratty civilization. They didn't look terribly happy about it, but I saw them and rats working shoulder-to-shoulder, rebuilding the cavy's tent city. The Chief Engineer was happy to see me. He was eager to show me and my crew around – he wanted to share all the amazing things we'd made possible. He even offered to have some of his rats repair our ship while we waited, and how could I say no to that? We spent a few comfortable hours under the glow of the Rat-Star, listening to their plans for renovating the island. The entire island. With machines. It sounded outlandish, but I've heard crazier stories.     Eventually, our repairs were done, and we returned to Zee. It's nice to know, however, we have a safe port here, even if it is among rats. We continued east, looking for Port Cecil. December 21st, 1887 – Afternoon Half a day east of the rats, we encountered a Lighthouse boat, amid a shoal of stones and fog.  We had arrived just in time. A pirate pinnacre had been about to try an unwise attack; unwise, of course, because we were present. They were no challenge to us, and soon sank, leaving valuable supplies for the picking.  I'm going to go ahead and stop covering fights with things we've already seen unless they manage to do a fair amount of damage. Like the two bat swarms I've run into. I have also issued an order for us to change course and head south, instead. A.J. Kalan insists that the Zee-bat is implying that the Khanate lies due east of us. How she knows that the bat thinks its the Khanate, and not some other port, I couldn't tell you, but she seemed insistant and she's always been right before about these things. I don't want to get too close to the khanate. They dislike Londoners profoundly, and I would rather not get caught up in their politics if I don't have too. December 23rd, 1887 – Morning  We arrived at Abbey Rock today, home of The Sisterhood. They're an order of militant nuns that are supposed to be the best fighters in the Neath – possibly a few Tomb-colonists and Elder continent detizens who've had centuries to practice.     Neither me, nor any of my crew, felt like disturbing them without good reason. Instead, we checked near the dock for signs of activity, while I watched the Sisters training upon the battlements of their abbey (Do most abbeys have battlements? This one certainly does.). Doc found something tucked away under the dock. The remains of some poor soul wearing a frog mask, holding a map. It looked like he'd been here quite a long time. In any case, though, I collected what remained of him – that which might be of value, at least – and returned to the ship. The last event there used up our 'Beginner's luck', which lets us do something cool, once. I'd never used to here before. This one is... Decent. At least all that can be turned around quickly. We went south from here, still seeking Port Cecil.  December 23rd, 1887 - afternoon   Ignore the date on the second one – I missed it on the first pass and had to go back and get a better screenshot. Not long after, we arrived at the Abbey's southern neighbor, the Shepard Isles. I was told they have no shepherds, I saw they had no real industry or production, but what they did have was enormous quantities of absolutely ridiculous stories.      While listening to the men, I couldn't help but notice someone who did not fit in. He was quiet, and had a very unusual tattoo. I recognized it, vaguely – while I did not know the exact symbol, I was certain it was a sigil of the Correspondence! How could he have had it committed to his flesh without combustion? I could barely contain my eagerness when he approached me and asked to come aboard my ship! He's even useful, a skilled navigator. While I do decently, having a dedicated professional will help immensely. Oh, I'm so excited to find out the man's secrets! For now, though, I have my duties, and we were due to leave the island, with only one or two of the Zailors asking to investigate Thornwell Croft.   Our Officer list is starting to fill out nicely! December 25th, 1887 - Christmas has happened, day of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, savior of all the damned who live by his rules. It all seems so far away, down here, in the Neath, although the Bishop of Southwark wouldn't agree. Someone smuggled aboard something alcoholic. I don't have it in my heart to take it away from them. We stopped briefly near the Bonny Reef, and someone started singing carols. Most of the crew joined in. We swapped tales of Christmasses past, and many of them were surprised to learn that I'd been born and raised in the Neath. Helios looked horrified. But no matter.  I insisted we get zailing again before too long passed; the deck lamp burns fuel, after all, and we don't want to be stuck out here in the dark. December 26th, 1887 - We've arrived at Demeaux island, home of the Iron and Misery Funging station. The name couldn't be more appropriate, as a small army of workers wages a constant war against a fungal forest to cut and process the morels that keeps London going. It's hard to tell if they're winning.    The whole place has an air of desperation that I find off-putting. It also has air filled with spores that my crew objected too. And while I could tolerate it well enough, I felt it might cling if we dawdled too long. With our supplies of fuel dwindling, we had no choice but to turn west and head back towards London. I hope the trip home is as relatively uneventful as the trip out. 
Black Wombat fucked around with this message at 11:23 on Feb 28, 2015 |
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Feb 28, 2015 09:50
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Maugrim posted:I think you linked the wrong final screenshot for December 23rd - it's the same as the preceding one. So I did. It's been fixed. I'm glad you're enjoying it! We've still got a long way to go, but Petra is getting close to being out of the dying-early stage of the game. Sometimes things just get arranged such that it's hard to get started.
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Feb 28, 2015 11:24
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Kacie posted:Do you have tips on how to make money? I've done the Admiralty missions as I can, I'm on my 3rd and this time I don't know where the island is. They're getting farther away. Yeah, the first one is always nearby, and after that it's always a random island that isn't on a tile adjacent to London. As for making money, well... I'll be honest, I never had a huge problem with this game? It's all about being very efficient. Visiting a lot of ports, with as little resources spent as possible. I advise you to do the Sphinxstone quests early, if you can scrape together 200 echos. Avoid damage as best you can, of course - Hopefully you should know how to fight things without really getting hurt by now, and you can get some serious loot that way. Run with your light off a lot - it's easier to lower terror than find fuel, since fighting things lowers terror. In short, get good at fighting. Learn to exploit the dumb, dumb AI. It gives you every resource AND lowers terror. Charge face-first into danger.
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Mar 1, 2015 04:32
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Coolguye posted:The funniest thing about the Z bullshit is that the lore even acknowledges that it's a load of bullshit. http://www.failbettergames.com/z/ It seems like exactly the sort of thing that the group of people willing to sail a body of water known to be home to crabs that could eat a small house would embrace whole-heartedly. And then be VERY snippy about. Crane Fist posted:Of course on my last run out I found a way to go mad anyway. I've come awfully close to that for the same reason, but managed to drag myself back from the brink. My poor captain had nightmares for like a month. Anyway! Update will probably be out late this evening. Might be a short one - just back to London, and then faffing about the city. Finally getting some ship upgrades. Picking up my favorite officer. E: Also, we're heading north next. Just, you know. In case someone was wondering. Black Wombat fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Mar 1, 2015 |
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Mar 1, 2015 19:09
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Journal entry 07 – The Inner-Sea Loop, part two The Journal of Captain Petra Blackwood Some entries expunged December 27th, 1887 -  The first leg of our trip home has been rather quiet. We left the funging station in the early morning, and sailed west-by-northwest. We sailed for almost a day – along we way, we encountered a small pirate ship that did not get out of our way fast enough. We discovered a remarkable crate of fabric in the wreckage, and I trust it will fetch a good price – although I almost wish I could just keep it and stare at the patterns. They are enthralling.  This afternoon, we arrived at the Salt Lions. Massive structures, which predate London significantly – and, if I don't miss my guess, will outlive it as well, despite our best efforts. The monuments are surrounded by a delicate lattice of boards and metal rods that support men prying free stones with crude tools.      Like always, I made careful note of the things I thought would be of interest to the admiralty. I then ascended to the top of the northern Sphinx. From here I could hear someone, someone very distant, as though they were whispering. I couldn't make out the words, but I could make out the intent, and by the time I realized what was happening I was plunging down into the waters below.  I think I heard one of my crewmen scream. But I knew what I was doing. Of course I know what I was doing. Why would they think I didn't? The water gave me a secret. It told me remarkable things. It was well worth having the sadness seep into my clothes and the tears of this evening. Once I had recomposed myself, I went back onto the docks and learned what I could of the place, beyond the comings and goings of ships. The Unmaker, the man in charge of dismantling the sphinx, said he would consign a delivery of sphinxstone to me, if I had the echos for a deposit; said they'd pay well in London. I had the echos, and the hold space, and told them to wheel the stones aboard.  With our hold full of stone, we headed north-west, towards London proper. December 28th, 1887 -  Sailed through the Corsair's Forest without seeing a single pirate ship. This is problematic, in its way. I was relying on a 'donation' or two from pirates to stretch our fuel supply a little. Instead, we will have to simply return to London with our deck light off. It should only be about another day and a half – no problem at all. December 30th, 1887 -  We arrived in London mid-morning. The crew was all glad, I think, to be back in the comforting light of Wolfstack harbor, and while they were all eager to go running off and do whatever they do when they aren't working for me, first, they had to help me unload the Sphinxstone. The Special Constables visited our ship on their own, for a 'random search', fortunately – and sent for the man to collect it.   I then released my crew to their proclivities, and checked in with the harbor master. It seemed another poor, yet well-qualified, soul was interested in joining our little crew; meeting him took top priority.   He was a very... Energetic man. I am certain he will keep the crew on their toes, if his experiments don't sink us. The Irrepressible Cannoneer is my favorite officer. He's just so... Enthusiastic.  Once he started to get settled, I went ashore to go meet a scholar of my acquaintance. I used to be rather well-known around Benthic University, and I happen to know the location of the Office of Marine Acquisitions. I went today and introduced myself to the Alarming Scholar, a the rather unusual individual who runs the office.   The Alarming Scholar is useful. He (She?) will buy various items from you that you can't sell normally at the Wolfstack exchange. Some are totally worth it, others you should hold on to – for example, the three basic stories – Zee-stories, Tales of Terror, and Memories of Distant Shores – only sell for 10 echos each. Which is 100% not worth it. But...      As far as I know, you cannot get a Macaw of Memories. Tragic, isn't it? The Scholar paid good echos for quite a few things; with this money – and the money I collected turning in my port reports to the admiralty – I decided it was time to give the Correspondence a small upgrade. With all the danger we had encountered, I figured having slightly better armaments wouldn't go wrong. So having MUCH better ones would be even better.  For comparison, or previous gun had a base damage of 8. This will help immensely.    While I was shopping, I was approached by a unusual individual. He had the air of a dreamer about him, but his eyes were sharp, and he told me he needed a zee-captain to retrieve things for him from distant ports, as part of some plan. I don't know what he'd do with mutersalt or the devilbone dice, but either way, he's willing to pay quite a premium for them. The merchant here shows up any time you're in London after day 10. He's always looking for one of two sets of goods. Almost all of them can be got from some other port and sold here and a huge profit. Once you fulfill enough contracts, he'll have another job for you – but we'll get there when we get there! Both Wither and Mt. Palmerstone lie to the north – And would not be too difficult to get too, I reckon. The dice, especially, would be an excellent profit. Once my crew return, we will depart immediately. 
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Mar 2, 2015 08:24
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SSNeoman posted:Fuuuuuuck our terror level keeps rising. I assume having it at 50 is "not good"? Most of these bars seem to not matter until they max out, so I guess we're not gonna go "THE SKEWERED EYE WEEPS AND SUCKS THE MARROW FROM BONES THE END OF THE WORLD I SEE NOW FOOLS ALL OF YOU" for at least a short while longer. Unlike the others, Terror actually does do things before 100! The higher terror is, the more likely you are to get random events at zee. And the worse those events can be. Having Terror get to 100 is certainly a failure state, but things do get messy before then. Somewhere around 80, the really nasty stuff starts to come out to play.
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Mar 2, 2015 09:41
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Abyssal Lurker posted:You bought the bad expensive gun instead of the good cheap one. Was that on purpose? Nope, you're totally right. I'd never even noticed that before. I'm going to sell the good one and buy the cheap one, which will actually have the effect of me paying about 500 echos for the second-best gun in the Bazaar, which seems like it was their intention. Small Frozen Thing posted:The Ministry of Public Decency and Special Constables are such delightfully English names for secret police in service to alien usurpers. I love that their badge is literally a burning book. Dr. Snark posted:So I've noticed that our Terror level is starting to get particularly high, and I was wondering if there was a way to lower it by a significant degree or does it function as a soft time limit? There are ways. First, every time you return to London, it always drops to 50, no matter how high it is - assuming you have 'Something awaits you!' when you dock there. Any port that allows for shore leave will lower it, to varying amounts - usually not enough for how much it costs (London, the best of em', gives -5 for 30 Echos. I think the worst is -1 for 50? Except for a few where you can get unlucky and gain Terror instead.) A few places offer 'Something awaits you!' events that lower Terror as well. Killing zee-monsters and sinking pirates lowers Terror. The nastier the enemy, the more terror, but I think even the real big stuff is like... 5 points. As you get higher, events will pop up that will let you do things to lower Terror - often costing supplies or requiring a check. Failure to do so will, of course, increase Terror.
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Mar 2, 2015 22:02
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Glazius posted:A good restaurant is one of those tools to recover hunger and terror, right? Makes sense to be a sort of treasure in its own right. Oh, you know. Sometimes. Depends how experimental the chef is feeling that day. It isn't always as relaxing as you might hope.
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Mar 3, 2015 12:12
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Journal entry eight – Northern exploration The journal of Captain Petra Blackwood December 30th, 1887 -  We set off today with much grumbling from the crew. They wanted to stay and celebrate the new year ashore; if I permitted though, however, I might have to wait for a week for them to be sober enough to depart, and that would be very undesirable. I stopped by Hunter's Keep on our way out. I had yet to grace Phobe's table with my presence, and so today took lunch with her. She is a more gifted storyteller than her sisters, I feel. I lost myself in what she had to say. I hope to take lunch with her again sometime.   Something has changed, it seems. But Hunter's Keep never changes. Nothing good can come of this. December 31st, 1887 –  We arrived in Venderbight this afternoon. The crew was not very appreciative of my offer to let them celebrate the New Year's here, which is rather too bad, since I might have enjoyed it. I put ashore to spend a little time among the colonists, and track down that restaurant I'd heard about on the I&M Funging station.   It was not quite what I was expecting. The chef came out and greeted me, and we sat and enjoyed a very... Unorthodox tea. He explained that while he enjoyed his work, and he loved his restaurant, he felt the Tomb-Colonies were culinarily stagnant – as they are in so many other ways – and sought a way to cook as he traveled the Neath. I offered him a position on my crew, of course – He was obviously skilled – but when he started explaining the equipment he would need to do his job, I told him I did not have the funds to provide, and he said he would wait. He made sure to let me know that tomb-colonists were very good at being patient. We don't have a cook, but this guy costs 300 echos to recruit. We're going to need that money more for other things. Better to wait. After that, I spent some time in Venderbight, just enjoying the evening. There were New Year's celebrations going on, no matter what my crew said, and I enjoyed one quite greatly.  With that behind us, we put back out to zee, into the unknown north.  January 1st, 1888 -Morning  The trip north was not simple. After departing Venderbight, we passed Pickett's Bluff. Not long after we'd past that point, during one of my rounds, I noticed several of the crewmen sleeping fitfully. I chose to make no further mention of it; although I would love to know of what they dreamed, I am the captain, and must present certain appearances.   In my experience, this event is kind of a trap. Passing the Pages challenge causes you to GAIN terror – Sometimes up to 10! You also gain some fragments, but whatever, it's not nearly worth it. Near the end of the third watch, Jones put out a warning cry. He'd spotted a Lifeburg. Just as the snow in the Neath isn't really snow, when you compress enough not-snow together it becomes not-ice. And get enough of this not-ice, and set it afloat, and you get a lifeburg. Just as capable of sinking ships as their surface counterparts, but with a much worse attitude. I immediately ordered my zailors to cut the lights and run as silently as we could. We would try to sneak past it.      Fortunately, it did not see us. We passed under Censor's Arch and into Wither without difficulty. Janurary 1st, 1888 - Afternoon  Wither is infuriating. Living this far north, they must know so many interesting things! But no-one, no-one in this town will answer a simple question! It is always more questions, and more, and more, like makeup on a vain old woman who's only just realized she's old.  I can't even purchase the Mutersalt I need! Certainly, they sell it, but not for echos, no. They want stories. Many stories. More than I know. We'll just have to carry on and get the Devil bone dice.   Frustrated with that, I spent a little time walking the salt-fields. It is cold up here, yes. Very cold indeed. But I enjoyed the time alone. It was an enlightening experience, in a way.  I think that is all I will be able to take from this place. It's time to move on. I realize I didn't get a shot of the main city card. The only thing we didn't do was shore leave. We need our echos, thank you! Janurary 1st, 1888 – Evening  It turns on 'Moving on' didn't mean going very far. Scarcely more than the distance of Censor's Arch, we came across Codex. A place for those who answer too many questions, I've heard. But they were no more useful than those from Wither; Other than a few old men on the docks selling supplies, nobody on this island will speak to me. Oh, they'll attempt to communicate through some sort of interpretive dance, but that's not an optimal method of conveying information.   But at least they're trying. From here, we go east. January 1st, 1888 – Night   Things do not go easy in the North. Shortly after leaving Codex, we spotted a pirate ship. They were riding in a cruiser of Infernal design. It was not a fight I wanted to have. I ordered my men to kill the lights.  But it was too late. They spotted us. We were in a bad position to be starting this fight; with few other choices, I ordered the engine crew to run dangerously hot and get us out as fast as we could go. FULL POWER lets you go fast. Like, REALLY fast. You consume a large chunk of fuel to initiate it, and then you book it faster than basically anything can chase you. Downside – Your engine temp spikes, and doesn't really lower unless you stop. The longer you run at higher temperatures, the higher the odds of having a small explosion.   They were apparently unwilling to run a similar risk, and let us go. As soon as we'd gotten a good distance away, I paused and let our engine cool down; we then continued around the island and docked at Mt. Palmerson. January 2nd, 1888 -  Mt. Palmerson is an unpleasant place; Hot and sulfurous, the whole place reeks of brimstone. I'm certain the devils who live here feel just at home. There's a collection of humans living here as well, clustered mostly around a dock near the zee.     I spent some time speaking to those who live near the port, collecting information about what happens here, and then journeyed into the hinterlands to poke around a short time. While exploring a village that was half-buried under ash, I discovered a colony of blemmigans. I managed to get close without being seen, and observed them for a little while. Such curious creatures. I had time to do all this because my crew was busy loading our ship with a stock of coal and devil bone dice.  With our supplies still high, I've chosen to not yet return to London. We're quite a ways out, and exploring a bit farther would do us well. We continue East. January 3rd, 1888 -  We've arrived at Frostfound. An icy castle of almost unimaginable size, Frostfound has to be seen to be believed. It's beautiful and overwhelming all at once. There's a small port with a surprisingly large permanent population here, of very unusual people.     Unusual, but not unwelcoming. There's an attitude of jovial competition, somehow, despite the freezing temperatures, and I must say I enjoyed my time taking tea with them – even if the Withern people are still frustrating, even this far from home. Still, a small welcome can go a long way.    While at dinner, I met a man who said he was a ship mechanic. I got to talking, and he eventually offered to come aboard my ship for a remarkably small fee. He said having more work to do would do him good. We spoke at length, long after the Withern and Irene people had fallen into questions and riddles, and he told me he had some sort of problem sleeping. He said if I was so inclined, I could assist him. Normally, I would not be interested, but any cure that involves such things as he needs is worth observing! I spoke with this man quickly, while I've kind of ignored the others, for very good reason. You need to do his side-quest, at least once, or something bad can happen. Plus, it's a fair profit! With a new officer aboard and my new friends waving goodbye, I decided to head north, and see the rest of Frostfound up close to admire it's beauty. Frostfound, unlike many places, is actually broken up into something like six 'locations'. You get fragments for discovering each of them. Making a circuit around Frostfound earns you more than one full secret.    Things did not go well. As we passed under the castle's massive bridge, we started to encounter heavy blusters of snow from the north. And even worse, a Lifeburg was spotted. I ordered our light turned off, and for us to hug Frostfound as we attempted to turn around.  Unfortunately, even with our light off, the Lifeburg noticed us. And even worse, the snowstorm started hampering our engine, slowing our possible escape. You'll notice, on our speed gauge, the '2' is blacked out. While in heavy snow, you're limited to half speed.  Fortunately, while Lifeburgs are enormous and dangerous, they are not particularly fast. Even wit the snow against us, we soon outpaced it, and continued east. January 5th, 1888 - Morning  We continued east, after skirting the snowstorm. In the early morning, our lookout reported two landmasses coming into view at the same time, one to our north, one to our east. Once I took to the deck and looked at what had been seen, however, it was clear – the mass to the north was moving. We'd found Mt. Nomad.  Once more, I ordered the ship into silent running, and hoped the other island we'd seen had a safe harbor. I swear, the entire crew barely dared to breath as we passed.   Fortunately, the massive mountain did not care about our tiny ship. We continued and docked unchallenged. Mt. Nomad will one-shot us. While it has the same AI as other Lifeburgs, and could be defeated without damage with similar tactics, you have no leeway for error unless you have an upgraded ship. Also, it has 1,000 HP. We don't want to mess with that. January 5th, 1888 – Noon  A strange church, in the middle of nowhere. It also has a surprising number of visitors, given its remote location. But maybe there is a good reason; the Smiling Priest is a warm and inviting character, unlike most clergymen I know in London. He welcomed me and my crew in for a feast. Many among my crew seemed skeptical, but the smells coming from the kitchen convinced me, at least. I offered them to return to another meal of dried fish and fungus-cakes, and to my surprise, quite a few did. It's a tragedy for them – The meal was rich and delicious. I've never had anything like it before. I am satisfied in a way I have never known. I will have to return here again someday. Soon.  
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Mar 3, 2015 23:26
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Coolguye posted:If you're willing to be a little gamey (and if you aren't, why the gently caress are you playing this poorly balanced game), Terror is a complete non-issue. I'm going to be avoiding doing this this ridiculously broken in this LP - But I certainly don't entirely think it's a bad idea for people playing the game. I've heard more than a few stories of people who were hating this game, and simply edited their save and gave themselves a billion echos and then went out and just enjoyed all the stories. Like I said before, the 'Gameplay' of this game is more about plotting out trips and deciding where to go than it is anything else, and if that doesn't appeal to you - or you think the learning curve is too steep, and that's a fair argument - You aren't missing a lot to just make yourself filthy rich and then go enjoy the world. Deadmeat5150 posted:Both. I will be getting Captain Petra involved into as many things as I can, generally speaking. Abyssal Lurker posted:Nope, it's random. However since it inexplicably doesn't consume SAY, you can just spam it until it triggers. There's two possible things that can happen - Each one simply describes different food, and one happens to give Unaccountable Peckish. The one we didn't see has ripe tomatoes, which seems utterly impossible for a frost-bound, subterranean chapel. Something's up. Like, way up.
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Mar 5, 2015 21:41
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Journal entry nine – A long way home The journal of Captain Petra Blackwood January 5th, 1888 -  We departed the Chapel of Lights and headed north. According to Kalan and her bats, there was a large landmass up there – other than Mt. Nomad – and there was only one thing that it could be. I wanted to see it dearly. We had to travel without a light on, as a precaution against Mt. Nomad, but it was a small price to pay.   It is cold beyond reason, at the Avid Horizon. The farthest north one can go in the Neath. I've had to relocate to the engine room to keep my ink warm enough to write with while I make this entry. But there is a beauty here; the false-stars shine gorgeously, and sometimes twist high on the roof. The door itself is beyond ancient and must hold secrets worth dying for. The crew do not like it here, for various reasons. That it's as cold as Hell is hot is enough of one, I suppose. Then there's the wind – constant, omnipresent. Very different from the rest of the Neath. I've heard this is what it is like, on the surface – Breezy, all the time. I can scarcely imagine it. When I announced I was going to make landfall, everyone was dreading being chosen to accompany me. Fortunately for them, I chose to go alone – There is no danger here, in this place. No need to inconvenience them more than they already were.      I even took a small souvenir with me. Once I returned to the ship, the crew was more than happy to depart. We left to the south-east.  January 7th, 1888  A still image does not quite do this place justice. It's important to note that the yellow dots all over those frogs all blink. They're eyes. All of those dots are eyes. With our progress east blocked by a large snowstorm, I chose to divert our exploration south – And it has started to yield bounties, of a type. Today, we entered the sea of lilies. There are supposedly great secrets here, guarded by the amphibian knot-oracles. That may be true, but it is true that there is a Khanate prison here. Which is also guarded by knot-oracles.  It is called Wisdom, a name that must be some sort of Khanate joke, as those who wind up in prisons are not known for wisdom. (I feel obliged to mention here that I am not saying all criminals are unwise – Merely the ones who wind up in prisons.) Unlike most other Khanate holdings, they had no problems with me docking. I used the chance to record a little information about the goings-on at port, but they had little else to offer.    The ways to spring someone are varied and difficult; Just getting 3,000 echos is basically the more sure way. We continued south, from here. We are still searching for the Khanate and Polythreme, to try to secure what the Engineer needs for his little task. January 8th, 1888 Things have gotten... Strange since we left the Sea of Lillies. The LB we brought aboard from Pigmote has gotten it into his head to tell us how great rats are. Galaxian has been saying there's something 'ratsey' about, whatever that means, and it's making the vermin in the hold extra-brave. I have to admit, our little LB has been quite useful, but this area is starting to be more trouble than its worth. However, as we approached the island of Nuncio, I started to get a clue about what was happening.   Including one full-sized journal page because it's the best way to see that statue, leering at us from over the journal. Nuncio is somewhat famous in London. Everyone's heard of someone's brother's friend's postman who's run away to the island, home to... To what, exactly? I'm not sure, even now.         I went ashore and spent a little time in the postal worker's tavern. I spoke to them of the particularities of their jobs and of the island, but even so, I don't feel like I've really come away understanding what's happening any better. They invited me to spend a shift working on the island. Perhaps that would help answer some of my questions, but right now, I'm not quite that curious. I had the crew prepare the ship for departure.  January 10th, 1888 - Morning  We've entered the domain of the Khanate. I never really wanted to come here – they're uncouth barbarians, these folks – And even worse, naturally suspicious of Londoners. I've heard they assume we're spies until proven otherwise, and don't care much to test that theory.  Fortunately, we aren't going into the Khanate proper. A little to the south sets this mass of ships and dissolution – Khan's Shadow. Formed of those who didn't fit in when the Khanate went 'Civilized', they're people who barbarians think are too barbaric. I have little desire to fraternize here, but they have something I need.     I set a few of my men to collecting the port report while I visited the market. They sell some remarkable things, here. Beautiful things and strange things. However, those are not what I'm here for; I'm here to purchase a mirrorcatch box, a device normally used to hold sunlight. I suspect that is not going to be this box's fate, but I don't doubt it'll eventually get filled with something. I also took the chance on buying more fuel. We'd been starting to get low, and if we want a chance to find Polythreme, we'll need a full hold. I have spent my last echo on these supplies – if things go poorly, things will go very poorly. I met Jones, Kraken and Meis back on the port. They had some exceptional stories to report. The zailors here know the goings-on in the Khanate fairly well, and are happy to share the information. I am sure the admiralty will be happy with this. With these supplies, I'm setting a course south. We'll find the living island yet. January 10th, 1888 – Night  Everything is going ideally. I was awoken by Kalan, who was on watch, to report that there was something of a groaning noise coming from... Somewhere. She couldn't find it. When I came to the deck, I realized it was coming from the sea itself. We've entered the tides of appetite, and that means we're in the sea of voices. Soon, we'll have the clay men we need.  Still images don't really do the Tides justice. Those mouths on the seafloor open and close very slowly – Enough that one might mistake it for some kind of water effect at first, but on closer observation realize they are absolutely moving.  Perhaps the moaning entered the dreams of my crew, for several were complaining of restless sleep the night before. I simply gave them orders to put into port.  January 11th, 1888 - Polythreme is an unnerving place. From the moment of our arrival, watching the mooring ropes squirm like sedated snakes, one is keenly aware of one's surroundings there. My crew, perhaps not unwisely, chose not to leave the ship as I went inland.     I spoke to numerous clay men near the docks. They were all very helpful, and directed me to the Londoner's Ward, where lines of motionless clay men wait to be transported – Standing transfixed and staring at nothing. When I said I was to bring some of them to London, a half-dozen of them came with me back to the ship. I'm certain London won't miss one no matter who they say they are for. I also visited a building that made a noise like a man driving railroad spikes. Known as the Temple of Labors, I was not allowed far in, but the clay man in front told me he would purchase the materials they need. Materials for what, he was not clear, but materials. He also offered to sell me the services of clay-men coal-stokers; Expensive, but probably a valuable investment, someday. On the way back to the Correspondence, I encountered a lovely clothes-colony that had in it a scarf not unlike something my mother used to wear. I was so smitten for it I traded the thing my gloves and pendant for it. It squirms somewhat, but that is comforting, in its own way. I am quite happy, and think I might make quite a splash next time I visit Veilgarden! Several entries here omitted – Containing unnoteworthy visits to Gaider's Morn and Shepard's Wash, the sinking of two pirate ships and one Jillyfleur Janurary 14th, 1888 - We're nearly home again. I think the crew are glad for it. We've been away for more than two weeks, and that's a long time to be in the dark. I'm mostly eager, however, to get to Hunter's Keep, and see what must be done with this clay-man. First, though, we will stop in on Mutton Island, to collect information about the goings-on.    To my surprise, as we disembarked, a small group of zailors went down towards the shore with some very strange things in-hand. When asked about their plans, Grandalt explained they were going to put on some kind of musical performance. I certainly could not be seen to skip such a thing. I went down by the beach with the rest of the crew, and we sat and listened to some joyous sounds – and maybe also a little music.  By the time it was finished, evening had set in, and the local fishermen had returned to their homes. With no one to ask about the nature of events at port, I simply returned to my ship – I cannot say, however, it was a bad evening. Getting a port report here costs 1 echo. I don't even have that. Oh well! On our way north, we stopped to clear out one of those pests that swarm the waters near London. I had it brought on-board for a scientific dissection.   One fragment is almost kind of insulting, given that it takes (500-Pages) fragments to make a Secret. I mean, you can one-shot these things with a decent gun, sure, but it's still hardly worth your time. January 15th – Late afternoon  We arrived at Hunter's Keep just in time for lunch. Today, I brought the Tireless Mechanic in with me. We took lunch with Lucy – I thought her particular manner of storytelling might do him good, but he seemed distracted for the whole meal.  Almost as soon as the yellow-eyed maid had cleared the plates, the Mechanic leaped on the real reason for our visit.    The sisters were amenable to the idea, at a reasonable price. As we descended, it became clear that we were walking in halls far older than the house above. At the very bottom of it, we encountered a very unusual spring. The Mechanic seemed to know much about these things, and said this was one of the tributaries of Parabola, and that it would somehow let the clay-man permit him a night of sleep. When we returned to the ship, I advised him that maybe he should use the distance between here and London to get some rest. He seemed eager. I posted a Jones and Galaxian, at his urging, in case something goes wrong and am going to sleep myself. I will have much to do in London.  January 16th, early morning  I was awoken by screaming. When I arrived at the Tireless Mechanic's cabin, there was what could only be described as a fracas going on.  The clay man was imbued with some terrible force, glowing a fierce green the likes of which I have only seen in the far corner of dark mirrors. Jones and Galaxian were both strong men, the strongest on board, but even together they are no match for a clay man. I arrived in time to see Galaxian struck against a wall as Jones finally managed to wrestle the box closed. It was too late for Galaxian, however. The creature had driven him so hard into the bulkhead that there was not much of him left between his shoulders and his pelvis. Everything between those had been crushed like jelly by the clay man's fist. The crew did not take this well. We are so close to London. But I do not think their ire is directed at me – It is directed at the mechanic. I will be staying aboard until he awakens, for he slept peacefully through this whole ordeal. I will have very sharp questions for him, about what happened. 
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Mar 5, 2015 21:57
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VolticSurge posted:Does that mean I can enlist now? I've been recording everyone's position in the order they've made their desires known and will be going down it in order. You're currently 6th in line. Which sounds like a fair ways down, because I treat my crew as precious and try to avoid killing them off, but ultimately I'm going to need more than that to get through the game. I mean, even discounting the ridiculously huge final ship that we won't ever need, I think our crew capacity will eventually be 25.
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Mar 5, 2015 22:39
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Small Frozen Thing posted:And we got to visit some of the weirder places now. I'm a little conflicted about them, honestly. Some of them I want to know more about, but I also feel like explaining them too much would make them less interesting. The vast majority of places, I think never get fully explained - At least, not enough that they seem mundane. Places like Frostfound and Polythreme are never explored enough to make them less wonderous, and even the ones where you learn most of what there is to learn stay just weird enough that I like em'. my dad posted:No kidding. I think only the Iron Republic beats it in the HolyShitTM department. I haven't even decided how I'm going to write the journal entry for the Republic yet. It's so messed up you can't even write about it. Inferior posted:Everywhere has a terrible secret. Everywhere has a secret. Weather or not they are terrible depends on your point of view. Exception - Saviour's rocks. Objectively terrible upon arrival. Becomes more terrible as you explore.
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Mar 5, 2015 23:43
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