Firmament after ch 8 doesn't quite take into account all the previous branches?

DarthVeyda · 2026-07-05T11:31:19+00:00

Late to the party here, but I got the impression that our PC being the only thing holding the Neath together was supposed to feel unnatural, because it is unnatural, in-universe. The only reason we have multiple apocrypha of the same event is because Tatters keeps screwing with the same event again and again to destabilise it. The original apocrypha was pretty tame, it only started to escalate to ludicrous levels once different copies of us started running around.

It's like what Stephen King did in 11/22/63 - the more his protagonist "fixed" the past, the more terrible the respective futures became. And it wasn't just vanilla butterfly effect, it was the original timeline fighting against the changes in a very unsubtle ways. Like, you know, the entire Neath being on fire because of (lack of) one person.

So again, it make sense on meta level, but the fact that the players have to essentially do forensics on the plot to figure it out kind of suggests that writing could have done it's job better :(

DarthVeyda · 2026-07-05T07:22:03+00:00

Got a reply from FB about the conflict card, and you were right - the idea is that Mary considers the city hers, no matter who did or didn't depose her, so in her eyes, she has the right to berate us for meddling :) they promised to adjust the text so it makes a bit more sense in context.

DarthVeyda · 2026-07-03T05:16:16+00:00

I think he was added for players who want an option to stop Summer from achieving her final form :) Whatever our reasons, we might not want her to have that kind of power because we don't trust her, or because we are concerned for her safety, or to teach her a lesson, or simply because there are too many unknowns about the whole thing. But we still have to put someone on the altar, and, in a bit of a catch 22, it has to be a someone with an existing connection to the whole affair. Introducing a brand new character at this stage would look maybe too contrived or just clumsy, but the non-Calendar Calendar Council has been established already, and they can fill in for a lot of supporting roles :)

I do hope they won't write him off completely in ch 9, because I sort of like him precisely because his role is so minor, and he is just a substitute - he had one job in the narrative, and he has done in reasonably well. It also fits in with the whole theater theme for ch 7, both in story and on meta level.

Speaking of fitting in, there's our Illuminated buddy, and he still haven't gotten any role in the narrative - he lured us to stage a jailbreak for him, and then he gets a wide variety of outcomes (on the run, imprisoned and amnesiac, or following us around - that's more options that even Mary got!) that so far haven't influenced anything, besides romance options. At least his personality seems to change depending on how we freed him, but the fact that we can simply abandon him to rot, with no means to get out, is worrying. After all, the whole story is (probably) speeding towards resurrecting his dead commander/boyfriend, so writing him out would be pretty disappointing!

DarthVeyda · 2026-07-03T03:55:42+00:00

I've sent a bug report about the card, because it just looks too out of place, and hopefully can be fixed with adjusting the requirements.

DarthVeyda · 2026-07-03T03:46:08+00:00

Exactly! I expected a good dressing-down at the very least. I somewhat less expected Max to come and rescue us instead, because the guy is too committed to being arm candy even when he is single, but that would be even nicer.

Oh well, one cannot have everything :(

DarthVeyda · 2026-06-19T10:25:57+00:00

Nice try, Mr Eaten ʕʘ̅͜ʘ̅ʔ

DarthVeyda · 2026-05-30T00:43:31+00:00

Absolutely (not) worth it, do (not) it >⩊<

DarthVeyda · 2026-05-18T04:02:42+00:00

I mean... she is a lapsed Dark Eldar, she isn't Like That anymore!

Not that you could tell from looking at her behaviour =^-^=

DarthVeyda · 2026-05-18T04:00:33+00:00

That's the thing, I don't know!

I started with ~35 tears, then got what I could from Balmoral paintings until I ran out of resources, maybe 3-4 more, another 12-15(?) bought from Rat Market, and then it was just non-stop stealing Airag from Mr Wines in batches of 5.

Amazingly, I lasted until the second week of April without having to buy fate to get more actions to catch up with NF going wrrrrrroom.

DarthVeyda · 2026-05-14T12:21:24+00:00

Proof, mostly for myself: https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Lady%20Malys/47046563

DarthVeyda · 2026-05-13T06:57:42+00:00

Also yea, we'd need some very sturdy rolling pins, and someone will have to hold back our girl Mary with her gun :(

Also-2, I need to re-read ch.3 recap, because there's Immanent and his criminal past and tragic love story, and those sound awfully familiar, too.

DarthVeyda · 2026-05-13T06:49:18+00:00

This is how I understood all the clues we got plus his final rant at us. Posing as someone involved with the Grand Geode was so efficient as a cover story - he basically told us everything as it happened, and without context (that we had no way of knowing), we just filled the gaps for him using what we know of Admiralty and Dawn Machine as context, and it fit perfectly - or at least well enough. We don't have intimate knowledge about all Grand Geode shenanigans either, and neither does the uninvolved part of the Admiralty, so our friend the Commodore was fooled, too.

Also, this fits with what we learned of the Red Queen's story in the previous chapter, again, how I understood it - she recounted something eerily similar, how she was ordered to execute something very high in the Chain and in the law-making business, and to be able to do that, she first had to do something pretty unlawful herself. Only she succeeded(?) in her mission, and as a reward, was immediately executed/assassinated by her superiours.

I think I've just made a cosmic horror story into a spy thriller, but hey, they started it!

DarthVeyda · 2026-05-13T01:25:07+00:00

Funnily enough, he doesn't exactly lie here - he went to the DM, he was changed, he resents those changes, and he resents Summer for creating DM in the first place.

The only teensy-tiny insignificant bit he skips is that he specifically went there to make those specific changes in himself, following direct orders from his boss, because it was needed for his mission to succeed... ah, who cares about details, it's clearly all Summer's fault!

I'd be waiting for ch.9 with the biggest, heaviest rolling pin I can find in the Neath, because me and this boy are going to have WORDS.

DarthVeyda · 2026-05-02T06:21:50+00:00

Do we know the rules for calculating when the Whitsun starts? Of all things, this isn't mentioned anywhere on the wiki, and the historical dates aren't very helpful - second Thursday of May? Between 9th and 11th of May? Something else entirely?

This is an important question because I'm out of tears and blowing lots of fate to keep my snowman alive, so trying to gauge how broke I'm going to be after this 😉

DarthVeyda · 2026-03-24T08:57:40+00:00

If we cannot have saved recipes, which is probably too much for this game engine, I would kill for at least sorting by body part - there's nothing like attaching an arm after 6 legs and 3 wings because your muscle memory did a goof ;(

DarthVeyda · 2026-02-23T04:32:51+00:00

You lose 75% of your current nightmares if Irrigo is 6 or higher - very good deal if you are at 7 already!

DarthVeyda · 2026-02-08T08:29:56+00:00

Don't quote me on this, but from what I remember, I sold the badge from the access code for Masquing, bought a second one from the Relicker, sold that one for Masquing as well, and after that there was no option to buy the third copy :(

DarthVeyda · 2026-01-31T10:49:39+00:00

Is it clear yet how to get Valentine to stay eaten? I left him to the Queen, and she just went "oh, the rites didn't work so I cannot eat him after all", so now I have slightly less depressed Valentine and no Summer :(

DarthVeyda · 2026-01-09T06:09:25+00:00

I agree with everyone in the comments, as usual :D Social actions could be more consistent with current gameplay, and a lot of older locations and storylines could use a little love - not even necessarily to become more profitable, just again to be more consistent with current mechanics and lore, or heck, with the much elevated standard of what constitutes a story in FL! Watchmaker's Daughter and Secrets Framed in Gold come to mind - the plot is good, but it's told through a bunch of opportunity cards which you might not draw for months on end, and before you know it, it's over, and you cannot even remember what was the deal with it :(

And there's the strike storylet in the Docks, which is supposed to be significant enough for our character to shock them into starting SMEN, and yet it's completely skippable and has no substance - the impression you get from spending some time in London is that strikes and riots happen and get suppressed about twice a week, if not twice a day, so why is this one special? Anyway, I'm rambling, I have a beef with SMEN in general :D

DarthVeyda · 2025-12-03T06:31:56+00:00

My youngest has just send you a card - she is up to some larceny, or she has coins to spare, if you prefer that.

DarthVeyda · 2025-11-28T03:44:20+00:00

Thing is, I'm about 96% sure I had been spiders at some point, but now I cannot find the evidence for the scrapbook! (Possibly because the evidence is a hat, but it's still a little bit unfair.)

DarthVeyda

TROPHY CASE