Echo Bazaar

[hwango]

I have officially maxed out Dangerous, Watchful, Persuasive, and Shadowy at 100 each. So, what's left to do now?

Some Opportunity cards still require alarmingly high stats, so I can keep an eye out for those. Even with all of my Shadowy stuff equipped to put me up to 109, my delivering a mirror to the thing under the Shuttered Palace was still a Modest challenge.

I don't seem to be as far along on my dreams as a few of my friends who are playing. I think I must have focused more on Storylets and less on Opportunities. So there's that to work on.

And I think I'm going to try to accumulate the 80,000 Whispered Secrets required to purchase lodgings at the Bazaar. I have 32,887 so far. I suppose I could sell a bunch of stuff and buy them, but I don't want to wipe out my stockpiles of other stuff in case Failbetter gives us some new content and I turn out to need any of it.

So what have I accomplished and accumulated in the last three months playing this silly game?



Accomplishments:

The Darling of the Ambassador's Ball
Free of Surface Ties
A Survivor of the Affair of the Box
Master Thief
A Procurer of Savage Beasts
A Bringer of Death

Acquaintance: Wry Functionary 2

Connections:

The Great Game 12
Hell 20
The Constables 21
Bohemian 25
Criminals 21
The Docks 8
the Tomb Colonies 4
Society 45
Rubbery Men 9
The Church 11
Urchins 8
The Orient 29
Revolutionaries 6
The Duchess 17
Benthic 33 (what can I say, apparently I love cricket)
Summerset 15
The Masters of the Bazaar 1

Recurring Dreams:

Is Someone there? 10
What the Thunder Said 8
Death by Water 8
The Fire Sermon 4
A Game of Chess 8
Burial of the Dead 3

Other Stuff:

Admired 28
Arachnologist 2

Melancholy 5
Magnanimous 6
Ruthless 2
Subtle 26 (man, I'm subtle)
Daring 6
Heartless 2
Hedonist 3
Steadfast 4
Austere 1

A Finder of Heiresses 2
An Agent of the Cheesemonger 5
An Occasional Guest at Mr Wines' Revels 3
The Protege of a Mysterious Benefactor 8
A Scholar of the Correspondence 1
Featuring in the Tales of the University 5
Cultivating an Acquaintance with His Amused Lordship 3
Associating with Radical Academics 3
Embroiled in the Wars of Illusion 10
A Nocturnal Visitor to the Palace Cellars 3
Vermin-Free 1
Duelling with the Black Ribbon 5
Acquiring Exhibits for the Labyrinth of Tigers 5
Assisting a Keen-Eyed Lapidary 1
A Veteran of All Hallow's Eve 1

Stuff!

Sneak-Thief's Mask
41 Ridiculous Hats
Luminous Neathglass Goggles
Pirate Hat
Modish Bonnet
Archaeologist's Hat
Beguiling Mask

Black Felt Garments
Dignified Tailcoat
Fourth City Rags
Workman's Clothes
134 Ragged Clothing
Academic Gown
Sober Dress

Cutpurse's Mittens
Dancemaster's Dabs
Insatiable Glove

Prison Shiv
3 Horsehead Amulets
Bottled Oblivion
Irristible Drum
Patent Scrutinizer Deluxe!

Spidersilk Slippers
Stylish Riding Boots
Mirror-polished Shoes
Vakeskin Boots

Devious Henchman
A Cheerful Goldfish
Reprehensible Lizard
179 Sulky Bats
100 Lucky Weasels
Cardsharp Monkey
Talkative Rattus Faber
Alluring Accomplice
2 Araby Fighting Weasels
Disgraced Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief

Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist
22 F.F. Gebrandt's Superior Ladanum
23 F.F. Gebrandt's Tincture of Vigour
78 First City Coins
3 Greyfields 1868 First Sporing
6 Nikolas & Sons Instant Ablution Absolution
102 Appalling Secrets
14706 Cryptic Clues
32887 Whispered Secrets
A Heavy Iron Box
2 Leathery Human Hearts
113 Abominable Salts
Black Ribbon
20 Carnival Tickets
Correspondence Stones
Note: A Meeting in the Forgotten Quarter
On the Maladies of Goats, volume 1

7 Confident Smiles
3 Hastily Scrawled Warning Notes
13 Sudden Insights

140 Infernal Contracts
4601 Deep Amber
395 Diamonds
6691 Drops of Prisoner's Honey
781 Foxfire Candle Stub
3205 Glim
5661 Greyfields 1879
4259 Greyfields 1882
Intriguing Gossip
7194 Jade Fragment
541 Lamplighter Beeswax
2 Memory of Light
3559 Moon Pearls
3759 Nevercold Brass
14172 Primordial Shriek
1460 Proscribed Material
1708 Rat on a String
17 Relic of the Fourth City
12 Relic of the Second City
34 Relic of the Third City
17149 Rostygold
6844 Silk Scrap
3797 Souls
1392 Stolen Correspondence
42 Surface Currency

Comments

[unferth.livejournal.com]

For comparison, I'm at:
having Recurring Dreams: What the Thunder Said 18
having Recurring Dreams: Is Someone There? 17
having Recurring Dreams: The Fire Sermon 6
having Recurring Dreams: The Burial of the Dead 8
Dreaming Strange Dreams: A Game of Chess 18
having Recurring Dreams: Death by Water 11

And on a few non-dream related tracks:
an agent of the Cheesemonger 15
ascending the Reliables list of Mr Pages 3
a Fearsome Duellist

I seem to be stuck at 2 on Acquiring Exhibits for the Labyrinth of Tigers - I've captured several monsters live recently with no increase. My Dangerous is at 97, and I recently sprang for some Vakeskin Boots, so I'm not expecting more storylets to open up for me.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Dang, I really am way behind on my dreams. And apparently way behind on the Cheesemonger, as well. I definitely wasn't going through Opportunities as often as you.

I know my alt is ascending the Reliables list...I hadn't realized I wasn't doing that with this character until you mention it, though.

I decided I didn't want to actually kill people, so I'm not a Fearsome Duelist. I killed the Drownie for her ribbon because I figure she's a monster, but all of my other time with the Black Ribbon I spent fighting Sorrow Spiders and tigers. My alt murdered people like crazy, though, so it's not like I totally skipped the content.

Have you swapped favors with Mr. Inch? I think that might be how you get those other ranks of Acquiring Exhibits.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

I pretty much always take opportunities, even dreams that mostly just induce nightmares, over the storylets. The storylets will always be there waiting, the opportunities not so much. Plus I can sift through the deck looking for interesting ones even while I'm out of actions.

As I recall you don't actually kill people to earn the Fearsome Duelist trait - all the duel storylets are repeatable, so your victories in what are theoretically duels to the death are generally nonlethal ones in which Feducci awards you the victory due to some contrived (but often entertaining) circumstances. I haven't gone up against Captain Vendrick, since I haven't unlocked the Flit yet, but I beat the rest of 'em.

Some casual googling reveals that Mr. Inch's stories touch on the Shuttered Palace, and I haven't done much there. So that's probably the stumbling point.

Maybe I should shelve those last few points of Dangerous for now and work on Shadowy and Persuasive.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I do seem to recall that many of your "duels to the death" don't result in anyone actually being killed. It was a while ago that I did that part of things with Silas. If I recall correctly, it's duelling Feducci or Chi Lan that gets you the Fearsome Duelist accomplishment. I suppose if I equip my Bottled Oblivion, Ridiculous Hat, and Talkative Rattus Faber I can probably go back and duel one of them.

I think my Opportunities tended to fill in with things I wanted to do later, so I wasn't cycling through them at all for large spans of time. I know the specific cards probably would have come up again, but with some of them I didn't want to chance it. It's particularly unfortunate that I won't be able to benefit from the skill advances from the dreams anymore. Oh, well.