Update 6, part 2
EJ: Next we get this card yet again, and I’m not even going to bother replicating the options because at this point we’ve seen almost all of them, except the one we’re taking this time:
Gunfire games
This used to be a outdoors theater for pixel puppeteers. At the moment, however, two people—undoubtedly members of the notorious Circle of Bullets—are using it for a duel while several people watch.
If you’re going to involve yourself in the duels, you want to make sure you have a worthy opponent. One of the men carries himself with the air of a seasoned fighter. He’s the one you are determined to approach.
Playing this option will get you 3x Caught in the Circle of Bullets and 10x Oddment of Honor.
Success!
Is it your imagination, or does the man pause slightly in his assessment of you? But he’s willing to accept your challenge, and that’s what matters.
The duelmaster duly paces out the circle, shrouding the boundary in bright-edged shadows. Like you, the man accepts the pistol that the duelmaster provides. You learn later that this is a great courtesy, as the man had the right to use his own weapon in the duel.
Your first shot goes wide by a hair; his grazes your shoulder. After that all you remember is the sound of something ricocheting against ice and glass and metal, like bells in a fallen world.
You are alone with the duelmaster when you awake the next morning with a new scar over your heart. Apparently this art is how the Circle sustains itself despite its consuming interest in a lethal sport. “You acquitted yourself well,” he says simply. “I trust we will see you again.”
You’ve gained 3 x Caught in the Circle of Bullets (new total 4).
You’ve gained 10 x Oddment of Honor (new total 13).
Force has increased to 3!
EJ: It’s sort of funny it has that “Success” header despite not actually being a skill check. Leaving that aside, this does address one of my questions about duelists from earlier; it seems they don’t automatically revive, but rather that this is something duelmasters do. Still many questions that we probably will not be answering in this playthrough, though!
After this we get another copy of A run-in with a delegation of thorns and I choose the same option that I did in the first instance in this update, assuming (as previously mentioned, incorrectly) that we’ve seen everything we can see on this card. We also get A children’s game, where we really do have no unseen options. And then, our first actual midgame card!
Fossils in reverse (Unlocked with Winterlocked 2 – you have 2)
A wall in what used to be the archivists’ district contains fossils. More accurately, what used to be a wall. The structure has been eaten away by whorls and ripples of ice, not unlike the process by which petrified wood is formed. The fossils are clearly visible, if distorted.
The ironbird isn’t looking at the wall, but at the diffracted light thrown across the floor.
The ironbird’s mien is, of all things, famished. You wonder if one of those fossils would sate it.
Playing this option will get you 20x Fleeting Merriment.
[This branch is now free to play]
The ironbird’s interest in spectacles like this one unnerves you. It might be best to end your association. (An almost impossible challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 10% chance of success.) [LOCKED – You need Force 5 (you have 3)]
EJ: Since the thread voted not to trust the ironbird, we will not be feeding it a fossil, leaving only one option:
Each fossil is mapped into lines of blue-edged light. The lines resemble nothing so much as city defense plans.
You’ve gained 1 x Memory of Far-Flung Stars (new total 4).
You’ve gained 1 x Dubious Omen (new total 20).
EJ: Next up, we get another new card!
A dispute over a dueling ground (Unlocked with Winterlocked 2 – you have 2)
A squad of Ocular Guards is threatening to shut down a duel. Not just any dueling ground, either. This hill-shrine is a favorite of the Circle’s.
You wouldn’t profane a gun with this, but if you felled the Guards’ leader, the rest should lose heart. (A very chancy challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 50% chance of success.) [You need Resolve 4 (you have 8); You need 5 x Oddment of Honor (you have 13)]
There are fallen Guards and duelists scattered about the hill-shrine like so much red tinsel. They’re unlikely to need their possessions.
No one is paying attention to the hill-shrine’s intended purpose. What would happen if you sat down to meditate, even in these conditions?
Playing this option will get you 20x Dubious Omen, and you will lose 5x Ice.
[This branch is now free to play]
You spy an assassin making for the Guards’ leader. Someone has to stop them from getting through. (An almost impossible challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 10% chance of success.) [LOCKED – You need Force 4 (you have 3); You need 5 x Spark of Camaraderie (you have 3)]
A dead Guard some distance from your position has a tempest-stone in her outflung hand. Too dangerous to purloin it, but if you set it off from here, you’ll catch both Guards and duelists in the blast. The confusion will be diverting. (An almost impossible challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 10% chance of success.) [LOCKED – You need Force 4 (you have 3); You need Gunslinger 1]
EJ: Well, my first PC was a “most of 'em are goners so they won’t miss much” type, but I don’t think Rosal is, and while not strongly affiliated with either faction here, through the whims of the RNG they have spent quite a lot of time hanging out with the duelists, so I guess…
You wouldn’t profane a gun with this, but if you felled the Guards’ leader, the rest should lose heart.
Success!
You make your way around the side of the hill-shrine, taking advantage of the trees for cover. Stealth is not much valued in the dueling circle, but it has its applications.
You hear the crackle-thunder of gunfire, and you worry that you’ll be too late to prevent the Guards from breaking the circle. However, your patience pays off. When you strike their leader from behind a tree, he doesn’t rise. His comrades shout in dismay and fire at you, but you are already darting to the next tree. In this way you distract them long enough for the duelists to finish their business.
Resolve is increasing…
You succeeded in a Resolve challenge! (Risky challenges mean you learn more.)
You’ve gained 1 x Caught in the Circle of Bullets (new total 5).
You now have 1 x Duelist’s Credo.
You’ve lost 5 x Oddment of Honor (new total 8).
EJ: We then get a few cards we’ve seen before where we take actions that we’ve taken before—again, I’ll do a roundup of our stats and inventory at the end so you can see the impact. Our next new card is this:
A dusty parlor
Some people prefer to ignore the evidence of winter’s crescendo and while away their hours in parlors like this one, exchanging banter and showing each other the oddling treasures they’ve scavenged.
You’re here to see if anyone is telling stories of birds, or beaks, or things with any such avian nature.
While everyone is occupied with card games or flirtation or canapés, you make your way over to an undefended box on a side table. It’s made of mahogany, with a nine-tailed fox carved upon the lid, its eyes picked out in gold leaf. In one corner, almost as an afterthought, is a moth in silver. [You need 1 x Petaled Key (you have 1)]
The shipshard mirror has an honest streak at times. What will it show you today?
Playing this option will get you 10x Oddment of Honor.
[You need 1 x Shipshard Mirror (you have 1)]
The map tells you that the parlor used to be no such thing, but once belonged to a Stentorian Councilor. Nowhere to be found these days, of course. You wonder what else the map can tell you.
This will earn 10x Labyrinth crystals.
[You need 1 x Map of Iria (you have 1)]
It’s as good a time as any to page through the book. What strange ideas lie within?
A cluster of ravenfolk spot your weapon and speak in low voices among themselves. You can’t help but overhear some of their words. [LOCKED – You need 1 x Scintillant Gun (you have 0)]
It’s not an indulgence you often permit yourself, but you take out your emberstone and cup it in your hands. [LOCKED – You need 1 x Emberstone (you have 0)]
EJ: A lot of options here, including trading in (I think?) our Shipshard Mirror or Map of Iria! But for starters, I can’t resist seeing what our Petaled Key unlocks:
The Petaled Key whispers to the box, and it opens with an understated click. The box is not precisely empty. Rather, its interior is painted with a scene in deep, rich colors: a hexagonal room, dark as the starry deeps, and two men dancing a stately dance. One is smiling; the other is not.
The inside of the lid shows the blueprint for a space station in miniature, tiny fine lines of gold and livid silver. Impossible to tell the thing’s size, except you were there a lifetime ago. Still, it’s far away, and your former masters can’t hurt you with this now.
You’ve gained 1 x Memory of Far-Flung Stars (new total 6).
EJ: “Your former masters can’t hurt you with this now” is a tantalizing bit about the PC’s backstory that I think is unlikely to ever be paid off.
Also, for those not aware, the nine-tailed fox is the vulpine folkloric creature I mentioned earlier, a gumiho. They can appear as multi-tailed foxes or as humans, often with foxlike features. Not that important but I just think they’re neat!
We get another few cards we’ve seen before with outcomes we’ve seen before, and then this one, which is actually a Winterlocked 1 card that just happened to not come up before:
A wounded duelist
A duelist lies fallen in the shadows of a garden. After a moment you realize that she is still breathing, even if the blood has frozen like a rose over her heart.
If she’s not dead and her comrades have abandoned her, it’s because the duel was fouled somehow. The kindest thing you can do for her now is to administer the coup de grâce. (A very modest challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 80% chance of success.) [You need Resolve 2 (you have 8)]
While it’s clear her previous duel was fouled, perhaps there’s a way to salvage the situation: let her die in combat, the way a true duelist would desire, instead of lingering like this. (A very modest challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 80% chance of success.) [You need Resolve 2 (you have 8)]
You can’t offer her a true duelist’s circle, but you can offer her a last flirtation with gunfire.
Playing this option will get you 3x Caught in the Circle of Bullets, 1x Roseate Pistol, 1x Gunslinger, and 10x Spark of Camaraderie.
[This branch is now free to play]
[You need Resolve 3 (you have 8)]
It’s clear what happened here, even if you don’t know the specifics. She dueled poorly. She lost. There’s no need for you to get involved.
The woman clearly needs medical attention. She is likely to resist your charity, however. (A tough challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 40% chance of success.) [You need Force 1 (you have 3)]
While it’s clear her previous duel was fouled, perhaps there’s a way to salvage the situation: let her die in combat, the way a true duelist would desire, instead of lingering like this.
Success!
The duelist’s mouth twists in an wry smile. “All right,” she says, “it’s not much, but it’s the best I can get.” She struggles upright—you know better than to help her—and offers you the use of a knife. “No guns,” she adds, “that’s over with now.”
It’s quick, and quite one-sided. But when she falls, it’s with a smile.
Resolve has increased to 9!
You succeeded in a Resolve challenge! (Simple challenges mean you don’t learn so much.)
You’ve gained 1 x Caught in the Circle of Bullets (new total 6).
You’ve gained 1 x Spark of Camaraderie (new total 4). Onward
EJ: A somewhat troubling little episode, and an interesting one. Let me know if there are any options you’d particularly like to see if this comes up again—it’s helpful for me to know what to prioritize with rarer cards that have a lot of options that are open to us.
After this we get a few more repeats, including multiple copies of Music in an old concert hall, which seems to be the RNG’s favorite card of the day. This is very annoying because we still have only one option available on it, so I can’t even mix things up to get different resources and make things more fun for myself. But here’s another new card!
A museum’s ruins
The museum is still guarded by two-headed robot serpents, although their eyes are crowded over by frost, and their plasma-breath is pale and anemic. You are strolling through the galleries in a desultory fashion when you startle a vision-reaver. He is contemplating a great curving portrait that probably used to be flat—and yet there’s a certain aesthetic pleasure to be found in the distortion.
In your peregrinations, you’ve seen works of art that would put this pallid portrait to shame. You’d like to offer one of those memories to this Vision-Reaver. (A chancy challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 60% chance of success.) [You need Resolve 4 (you have 9); You need 5 x Memory of Far-Flung Stars (you have 6)]
The Vision-Reavers’ practice of plundering memories from people troubles you. There must be a way to free those memories. (An almost impossible challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 10% chance of success.) [You need Force 3 (you have 3)]
It’s not the Vision-Reaver’s occupation so much as the man himself who intrigues you. (A chancy challenge – Your Finesse quality gives you a 60% chance of success.) [You need Finesse 3 (you have 8)]
Viewing an unmoving piece of art isn’t the only way to enjoy an aesthetic experience.
Playing this option will get you 10x Fleeting Merriment, and, if your Connection is 0, 1x Connection - A Vision-Reaver.
[This branch is now free to play]
[You need Finesse 5 (you have 8)]
Actually, a sculpture just down the hall, draped with drifting snow, catches your attention.
It’s not the Vision-Reaver’s occupation so much as the man himself who intrigues you.
Success!
You nod cordially to the Vision-Reaver and make a remark on the artful use of infrared pigments in the portrait. He smiles prettily at you and asks you if you’ve seen a particular work by another painter who the portrait’s artist was attempting to emulate. You haven’t, but the two of you have an animated discussion about the proper relationship between master and apprentice.
When it comes time to part, he mentions a part of the city that you would be better off avoiding, and hints that he would welcome seeing you again.
Finesse is increasing…
You succeeded in a Finesse challenge!
You now have 1 x Connection: A Vision-Reaver.
You’ve gained 1 x Brittle Rumor (new total 7).
EJ: That gave us a new pinned card, similar to the one we have for the Pale Archivist, but we’ll check on that in a minute. First we’ve got another new card from the deck… which I again failed to capture the options for and instead got two copies of the outcome. That’s happened a few times in this update, although fortunately this is the first time it’s mattered very much. I must not be giving Josh’s script enough time to run. I’ll be more careful in the future!
(I also missed saving the cat icon! So sorry!) A Meticulous Ocicat
There’s a house with a garden less frost-chained than those around it. A Meticulous Ocicat lives in the house, and though you never catch her arranging the parlor’s books, or the starship figurines with their winking lights, or the trays of sugar cookies and tea, everything is always in perfect order.
One of the Ocicat’s books draws your eye. In fact, her shelves reveal that she is widely read, a lover of lore, although the occasional adventure novel peeks out in between weighty tomes of stellate scholarship. You could pass an hour or three here, sheltered from Iria’s tumult, reading.
The Ocicat approves of a fellow reader, and curls up in the chair next to yours, a book propped up so she can easily peruse the pages. She purrs quietly when she encounters some particularly fine morsel of prose. You almost catch yourself doing the same.
You’ve gained 1 x Spark of Camaraderie (new total 5).
EJ: The foxfolk, ravenfolk, and swanfolk have seemed to be humanoid beings that maybe have some animal-like features, but the Meticulous Ocicat appears to just be… a regular cat. Well, a somewhat fancy breed of cat, but one that, you know, walks on all fours and doesn’t talk or have opposable thumbs. She reads books, though!
Anyway, let’s look at our new pinned card:
A Vision-Reaver
The Vision-Reaver won’t share his spoils except with staggeringly wealthy clients, but on occasion he can be persuaded to critique artworks and fashions.
There’s a display of fractal ice sculptures along one of the promenades. He’s sure to show up. (A very chancy challenge – Your Finesse quality gives you a 50% chance of success.) [You need Connection: A Vision-Reaver 1 and Connection: A Vision-Reaver no more than 1 (you have 1); You need Finesse 4 (you have 8)]
You grow curious about one of the Vision-Reaver’s rivals, who specializes in aural delicacies. Maybe it would be instructive to seek her out.
Playing this option will get you 20x Brittle Rumor and 1x Spared the Voice-Reaver’s Lure; the latter locks off this branch in the future.
[This branch is now free to play]
[LOCKED – You need Connection: A Vision-Reaver 2 (you have 1)]
EJ: Let’s see if we can reach the next level here…
You become engrossed by a statue made not of ice but of insectines preserved in amber. The warmth of the amber stands in contrast to the blue and gray hues of the ice all around you, yet you can’t help but think that they represent the same thing. Some time later you remember to search for the Vision-Reaver, but no luck: if he’s been here, you’ve already missed him.
Finesse is increasing…
Finesse 8 failed in a challenge! (When you try a challenge that’s difficult for you, you learn more even when you fail.)
EJ: Welp, guess we’ll come back to it later! We can also take a stab at Coldhouse flowers before we go, just in case:
Coldhouse flowers
The Architects wish to make sure of your commitment. Their tattoos can’t be removed, after all.
The Pale Archivist requires coldhouse flowers for the next stage of your initiation. She even tells you where to find them, instead of leaving you to research that for yourself.
You should have known better than to take an Architect’s directions for granted. At least next time you’ll know better than to turn left at that fork, especially when the air reeks of decaying positron sludge.
Finesse is increasing…
Finesse 8 failed in a challenge! (When you try a challenge that’s difficult for you, you learn more even when you fail.)
EJ: Yeah, we’ll have to come back to that later, too.
Here are our current stats:
We’ve also got the following new inventory items:
- Ironbird’s Regard x 10: The ironbird has declared a certain affection for you. At least, you think it’s affection.
- Map of Iria x 1: More accurately, of Iria as it used to be. But the thing admits a certain historical fascination.
- Tome of Scattered Ideals x 1: The writing almost hangs together, but every time you set the book aside, its theories dissolve into cacophony.
- Scholarly Wonderment x 1: There’s no end to the things you learn. Some of it makes your marrow cold, which is as it should be.
- Duelist’s Credo x 1: It’s not just fighting, it’s fighting by the code.
We also have 6x Memory of Far-Flung Stars, 23x Dubious Omen, 13x Evanescent Treat, 7x Spark of Camaraderie, 3x Fleeting Merriment, and 9x Oddment of Honor. Quantities of anything else are unchanged from before.
Before we go, a question: To get to the next connection level with the Pale Archivist, we need 10 x Enigmatic Gadget. I have yet to encounter any sources of Enigmatic Gadgets on this playthrough… except one, which we saw earlier this update, on the A question of comfort card. If that comes up again anytime soon, we could be where we need to be for the Archivist very fast. But it does contradict our chosen “wary but non-aggressive” approach to the ironbird.
- Yes
- No