Update 4: Your Rust-Colored Companion
EJ: I’m getting out an update real quick since I’m about to go out of town for a few days and won’t have time—let’s burn through some more cards and see if the RNG sees fit to let us encounter the Architects of Ink at all!
A question of comfort
It’s time to seek some lodgings, however temporary. But there’s the troublesome matter of your ferrous companion.
You don’t have to put up with the ironbird’s presence. If you can’t lose it, surely you can find a way to barricade it from your eventual home. (A tough challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 40% chance of success)
The best plan is to ambush the ironbird after it thinks itself welcome. It’s a simple plan, but sometimes simplicity is the right call. (A high-risk challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 20% chance of success)
It won’t be enough to knock the ironbird out of commission. You’re starting to be curious about its inner workings.
Playing this option will get you 10x Ice and 10x Enigmatic Gadget. [THIS BRANCH IS NOW FREE TO PLAY]
The ironbird seems to know where it’s going. Why not let it choose the night’s shelter?
EJ: It’s serendipitous that we happen to have drawn this card at the beginning of this play session, because this is one of the reasons I did that ironbird poll. I think the option that best aligns with the thread’s wary-but-not-hostile approach is the first one, so let’s try it:
You think you’ve lost it in the desolation of Iria’s streets, and you even think you’ve managed to lock all doors, stop up any openings large enough for a fledgling to fold itself through. You are dismayed, then, when the next morning you are woken by its rusty crooning. But you notice that it’s perched just out of reach, with a surveyor’s exacting eye for distance.
Resolve is increasing…
Resolve 3 failed in a challenge! (When you try a challenge that’s difficult for you, you learn more even when you fail.)
EJ: And hey, guess what, here’s the other relevant card!
A moment’s birdsong
The ironbird has been flitting in and out of your company, but now, as you pass beneath an arch curtained with sheets of blue-pale ice, you hear it singing a tinsel melody that scratches at your memory.
EJ: Since the thread voted not to trust it, we’ll be sticking mostly to the first two options on this card, and definitely not feeding it our blood. We saw the first option last time, so let’s see the second:
More than the fact of its music-making, the marks the ironbird leaves in its wake intrigue you.
You don’t hear the ironbird’s wings dragging over the street as it flies. Nevertheless, momentary cracks appear and disappear in its shadow over the silvered ice. You pause for a moment to inspect the ice more closely. Nothing.
EJ: Well, that was a bit of a letdown. Anyway, though, I didn’t want to say this before the poll was over, but I’m happy that the thread did not decide to go all in on befriending the ironbird, because I did that on my first playthrough so it’s more exciting for me to try something different. I’m not averse to showing off what happens if you do in a later playthrough, though, if we get that far.
An artist’s curiosity
A Canny Artist has spotted your rust-colored companion. His admiration has a predatory cast.
Ask him straight-out what his interest is. If nothing else, your scowl should dissuade him. (A high-risk challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 20% chance of success)
Charm is the way to go, especially with pretentious fools like this one. (A very chancy challenge – Your Finesse quality gives you a 50% chance of success)
You meet his eyes with a cold stare. You can keep this up indefinitely. (A tough challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 40% chance of success)
EJ: Wow, a full first hand of ironbird-themed cards! Although this one’s not really germane to the vote as it’s just three different ways of telling this guy to go kick rocks. While we’re on a card with options for all three stats, I will take a moment to say that I completely agree with Draconis that it would be more pleasing if Resolve were called Fortitude. We’re so close to full alliteration, come on!
Anyway, of course we’ll be taking the Finesse option here:
You remark upon one of the Artist’s works, which you thought you had seen recently at a gallery hung around with sated icicles. However, your memory has betrayed you: the lambent collage of moth wings and coral cabochons and tinted glass tubes that you speak of with such admiration was actually by one of the Artist’s chief rivals. He stomps off without a further word.
Finesse is increasing…
Finesse 4 failed in a challenge! (When you try a challenge that’s difficult for you, you learn more even when you fail.)
EJ: Wow, it’s really not our day today. Okay, time for a new hand of cards. First off, we get A children’s game again, but we’ve already seen the one option we have available on that card right now, so I won’t repeat it. We get another 1 x Fleeting Merriment. Then we get An invitation to duel, choosing the same option we did last time, but this time we are not so lucky:
You don’t express your interest with sufficient enthusiasm, and the duelmaster shakes her head. “Perhaps another time,” she says.
Resolve is increasing…
Resolve 3 failed in a challenge! (When you try a challenge that’s difficult for you, you learn more even when you fail.)
EJ: Next up, finally something new:
An attack on a dream refinery
Four members of the Ocular Guard are fending off two armored figures in front of a dream refinery. You can hear the whining of the power armor and, more faintly in the background, the swirling sound of dreams being distilled and spun.
Assist the Ocular Guard
The Guard represents order, albeit of a stentorian nature. You ought to do your part to help them out. (A high-risk challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 30% chance of success)
You’re not convinced that the Guards, for all their ferocity, are fighting optimally. Perhaps they would benefit from some guidance.
Playing this option spend [sic] 5 Nex and earn you 3x Seen with the Ocular Guard and 10x Oddment of Honor. [THIS BRANCH IS NOW FREE TO PLAY]
The Guards with their piercing eyes make you uneasy, and you have never liked the practice of spinning dreams into anesthetics. Perhaps the armored figures can use your help. (A high-risk challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 30% chance of success)
The two sides don’t seem to be paying attention to anyone else. Which leaves an interesting opportunity for a resourceful individual like yourself. That side entrance, in particular, doesn’t look to be guarded. (A chancy challenge – Your Finesse quality gives you a 60% chance of success)
EJ: We’re not pursuing the Ocular Guard and I don’t think those armored folks are the Architects of Ink either, so our obvious option is that last one:
Success!
While the fighting continues, you ease the entrance open. It once had sophisticated biometric locks, but all of them are pierced through with ice and are no longer any barrier.
The wavering-sweet smell of dreamstuff is very strong inside, and you know now why the Guards are so keen on securing the location. It’s a wonder that they didn’t send more than four people. The refinery isn’t just producing dream-anesthetic, it’s producing the kind of drug that people use at reveries and parties.
Sadly, the refinery’s functioning was affected by the winterstrike. Still you’re able to salvage a couple doses of the stuff before you have to slip out lest whoever’s outside traps you in here.
Finesse is increasing…
You succeeded in a Finesse challenge!
You now have 3 x Evanescent Treat.
EJ: Freakin’ finally! And in another thing I’ve been waiting for, the first card in our new hand is…
A starship carcass
Any number of starships were ruined when the winterstrike hit Iria. From a small distance you see the hulk in fragments of silver and blue-black, the hull pitted and crumpled and marked by crystals of ice like tiny gnawing teeth.
EJ: By thread request, we’ll be taking the formerly Nex-locked option:
A section of the hull has broken off, which isn’t what catches your attention so much as the fact that it’s entirely free of ice. It almost warms you just looking at it.
EJ: And the result:
The hull section appears to diminish as you walk closer and closer, as though you’re traveling backwards through a telescope. You almost expect it to vanish entirely, but no: when you reach it, you find a convex shard, glimmering with its own light and capturing your reflection in the most flattering manner.
You now have 1 x Shipshard Mirror.
Resolve has increased to 4!
EJ: Not bad—we got a nice stat boost out of it too!
Next we have A question of comfort again; we try the same option as before and fail again, but our resolve does increase another level, to 5, so that spaceship stat boost must have been very nice indeed. It’s actually ahead of our Finesse now! But I’ll still try to build up Finesse more when I can instead of pivoting to our new high stat.
Now, let’s do one last new card for the night:
Music in an old concert hall (Unlocked with Finesse 4 – you have 4)
A concert hall has survived slantwise. All the walls lean against each other in a crazed fashion, and they are additionally supported by pillars of ice with shining facets. Dancers step nimbly amid the cracked wineglasses and petrified blossoms while musicians play a suite of velvet harmonies.
Occasionally some of the dancers pause to chatter among themselves. You might learn something if you keep an ear out.
You have certain musical talents yourself. They are sure to welcome your contribution. [LOCKED – You need Finesse 4 (you have 4); You need 5 x Spark of Camaraderie (you have 1)
The echoes in this hall are soft and strange. You wonder what you might learn from them. [LOCKED – You need Ice 5]
It’s a sure bet that this party was sponsored by the Scarf and Feather Society, or its friends. But you have a few things to show these people about the artistry of destruction.
Playing this option will reduce Flirtation with the Scarf and Feather Society by 3, and increase Ice by 3. [LOCKED – You need Force 6 (you have 1)]
EJ: This is the first card we’ve seen with an option that gives you Ice that wasn’t supposed to be Nex-locked, although we still couldn’t take it even if we wanted to. There really just don’t seem to be a lot of Ice opportunities in the early game. In fact, only the first option is open to us right now, so here goes:
Some of the dancers speak in hushed voices of a Woman with Tiger Guns, who has killed three-and-three opponents in the past week. Someone not to cross lightly.
Smokewater is growing more and more dear in Iria, and hunger gnaws at the city, although plundered wealth means that the hosts of parties like this one will feel the pinch last.
Before you leave, you hear one last murmur about books written in binary upon human skins, but the speaker becomes suddenly silent before you can learn more.
You now have 1 x Brittle Rumor.
EJ: And now for today’s stats snapshot:
And the new inventory items:
1 x Shipshard Mirror: The metal is suffused with an inviting light, but you’re sure you’ve never smiled like that.
1 x Brittle Rumor: The city is full of stories. Some of them might shatter with one more telling.
EJ: And with that, I’ll see you next week!
(… Still no Architects of Ink, though. Womp womp.)