no points for guessing my T3 specialization

Fallen London sideblog! Main is @maybemoss

[teratomancer]

finally updated monroe’s reference!

hello! this is a fallen london sideblog! i previously posted fl stuff on my main @maybemoss so refer to that for more context on monroe if you’d like

Basic rundown: Monroe Oss is my BaL PC, a biologist who originally came to the Neath in an ill-conceived research trip and ended up dying there. Following their death, they immediately threw themself deeper into the research they came here for — cataloguing the creatures of the Neath — to avoid processing what happened, which eventually led to them seeking out all sorts of monsters including, of course, the Vake. They can often be seen around the Bone Market, both buying and selling.

They also have a… complicated relationship with Seeking. Let’s just say they have more personal reasons for their Ambition as well.

(feel free to send a calling card!)

[thegreatyin]

so i figured out what those patch notes were about...

[thegreatyin]

okay, so, before the update, biting mr fires looked like this;

with the shadowy check increasing proportional to your repeat dentistry quality- IE; the more you bit mr fires, the harder this check became, until you literally couldn't succeed at it anymore. this screenshot was taken at the exact point i hit 0%.

but. post update. the option has changed. it now looks like this.

and the new requirement... is this.

and the success text...

this gives an exclusive burden.

i have no idea when this started triggering. i have no idea how this started triggering. i only know that i have done it.

i have officially gone further than anyone has ever gone before.

[coffeethathurtsyou]

Edits my reblog because I needed to immediately draw this. I wasn't going to be able to live my life without getting this out of my head first.

[thegreatyin]

CRYINGBNN

[destinys-engine]

now I have to acknowledge that axel's death by rat attack IS narratively satisfying for ratkind as a whole (due to, yknow, the statistically high number of rats they've eaten in the past.) However ☝️,

[the-totally-reliable-narrator]

The House Always Wins

All have reached verdict and vote, that the killer among you must be Hood. The clues are numerous and damning, and your aim sure.

The Constable among you, bearing stiffer cuffs than New Newgate could ever purloin, instructs each remaining body to assist in pinning him down. Colfox and Brine, having finished their chess matches, loiter in the doorway as the commotion ensues.

While restraining them, you find a satchel of the dark, inky pollen, the knife used to stab the host, and Brine's stolen calling card from the Over-Jaunty Lordship.

[ You have found your Jack. ]

[ You may take this time to deliberate and discuss while the rest of the epliogue is published. ]

[the-sunless-garden]

Hood's expressions, that before appeared to have been so affected by what was happening, now, have gone back to how they were at the very start, his normal self. It seems it was all an act.

Only giggles can be heard from him now, with their hood down and with no regret at all for what was done.

That was fun!!!! I suppose i got a bit distracted from what i originally came here to do... Heheheheh! See ya later my friends! (人 ⁠.⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

I hate that Garreth was killed though. Not my rat.

[unforgettableirrigoman]

"Checkmate." He sighs. "Finally. It's time to put everything back into the box. So... Anyone wants to relax by playing cards?"

[teratomancer]

Monroe sighs, exhausted from hauling Axel’s body up the stairs. “Oh, why not.” A smile begins to play on their lips. “It is a party after all.”

[the-sunless-garden]

HOOD HOOD HOOD HOOD HOOD!!!

[brine-patchfelt]

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

As fate, or passion, or perhaps funds would have it, for tomorrow's game, you have drawn the lot of...

Licentiate

[ Publish this ask after the game to come clean about your role. ]

i figured id only use this towards the endgame if at all! assuming i survived hehe. likee i loved the interactions between everyone so much!! would've hated to pull the trigger too early if at all :3c

[the-whole-neathy-lot]

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

Whether by due or debt or simply for the very hell of it, your player in the coming game has been assigned the role of...

Trickster

[ You may publish this ask at the end of the game to come clean. ]

Silas will never deny the allure of being the one in control, the one who gets the final say. But in their line of work, one must learn to be flexible with the roles they play.

Besides, there’s a certain type of fun in playing the accomplice, isn’t there? While she may not be the one stabbing with the metaphorical knife, she’s certainly handing it over.

[destinys-engine]

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

The need for answers can be found burning, drowning, sinking, swimming... It is a choice of poisons, what you will put your vessel through for the sake of the mind. Perhaps you chase justice. Perhaps knowing itself is justice. You are...

The Detective

[ Post this ask after the game to come clean about your role. ]

quite POSSIBLY the most accurate role for Axel to get and i'm being so honest here

they're just always naturally like that ^ by the way. didn't have to stretch the description at all. that's their whole deal I fear

PERFECTLY on brand for them to go all

on everyone, in the middle of a situation no one should be doing that in, and then instantly die while attempting to eat a rat (Seeker style, I daresay), by all the other rats.

and now they get a nice little vacation while everyone else is evacuating :]

yes @teratomancer they were in fact the detective .. sorry for checking if you were the Jack first lmao. i wanted to clear you so they could plot and scheme together 👍

[the-sunless-garden]

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

Perhaps curiosity found it's cat. Or maybe you have greater, grander motivations. Then again, what beauty can surpass the velvet hues of violence? From herein, you are...

The Jack

[ Publish this ask after the game to come clean about your role. ]

Welp! Hood was the Jack, as... Guessed hehe.

They initially came to the party, alongside Silas (who had a calling card for the party), as a little intruder, and planned to steal the lordship's horticulture specimens along the way.

But. As Hood is used to doing, he added a Lot of extra steps to this robbery, which ended up becoming a little game in killing all the other guests. (⁠✷⁠‿⁠✷⁠)

Most kills were done using the help of friendly rats behind the scenes. They were called to action by the closest of Hood's ratty friends, Garreth.

[unforgettableirrigoman]

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

Come rain, come shine, you just wanted a pinch of delight. You are, as draw permits...

A Guest

[ Post this ask after the game to come clean about your role. ]

I was just an uninvited guest! Why I was the first one to be voted out?

[the-totally-reliable-narrator]

The House Always Wins

All have reached verdict and vote, that the killer among you must be Hood. The clues are numerous and damning, and your aim sure.

The Constable among you, bearing stiffer cuffs than New Newgate could ever purloin, instructs each remaining body to assist in pinning him down. Colfox and Brine, having finished their chess matches, loiter in the doorway as the commotion ensues.

While restraining them, you find a satchel of the dark, inky pollen, the knife used to stab the host, and Brine's stolen calling card from the Over-Jaunty Lordship.

[ You have found your Jack. ]

[ You may take this time to deliberate and discuss while the rest of the epliogue is published. ]

[the-sunless-garden]

Hood's expressions, that before appeared to have been so affected by what was happening, now, have gone back to how they were at the very start, his normal self. It seems it was all an act.

Only giggles can be heard from him now, with their hood down and with no regret at all for what was done.

That was fun!!!! I suppose i got a bit distracted from what i originally came here to do... Heheheheh! See ya later my friends! (人 ⁠.⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

I hate that Garreth was killed though. Not my rat.

[the-totally-reliable-narrator]

Not his rat. Also not the *last* of the rats, if the hurried scurrying through the walls, now in clusters that bring plaster and wood to shutter, is any indication of anything.

The ceilings quake above you, at first in small shudders, creaking. Then cracking, debris, falling shards of 'marble'—which shouldn't be possible. Unless the marble wasn't real marble in the first place...

Then, smoke, from the basement. Flickering lights from above, like crackling strikes of lightning. From somewhere deeper, a mass of hard pops and them loud bursts—booms, cacophony.

Some of your pests must've been of the Rattus Faber variety. Apparently, they're not happy with this outcome of things, not at all.

The house is, as such, now on *fire*. Well, hopefully, the Over-Jaunty Lordship remains, um. Optimistic in disposition, as you all flee, dragging Hood and carrying Axel.

And yet, what about the lead record? The plants most fatal? Perhaps another game will be hosted, in a... less bomb-able home.

[the-totally-reliable-narrator]

A Possibly Fruitless Endeavor : Success

Out if the remaining lot, it is Monroe that takes charge of the recovery process, both bodily and verbally, first to offer themselves. First to take the deeper breath, and re-open the door.

[ Dangerous challenge, hard difficulty, 32% ]

[ Oxygen : 90% ]

There's the matter of having to brush away the boards and living rats from Axel's body, kicking and bucking them off without inhaling the over-toxic air—and then the matter of the body itself.

Lungs and legs are already sore from the mad dash back up the stairs. The first gauntlet. It weakens their usual might just a tad more than preferable.

[ Oxygen : 75% ]

Then, the heft. Heaving Axel's body across the shoulders, with splintered boards and more scurrying beasts, biting at the legs.

Does the pollen not affect rats? Why? No time to think about it fully.

[ Oxygen : 60% ]

Then, one must get purchase with feet and arms, into the stone wall the staircase was built into.

[ Dangerous challenge, modest difficulty, 65% ]

[ Failed check ]

Monroe leaps once, hand solidly around a stone a foot about their head. It's a good start, until the stone pops out of the wall itself, and there both bodies skid.

The motion and lack thereof, bring about a blur. A small setback.

[ Oxygen : 45% ]

[ Retry Dangerous challenge, modest difficulty, 67% ]

Triumph, as a hand this time, is found and reached. Limbs scramble in combined effort, pulling, tugging—the force is secondary to the churning of heat in the chest.

[ CW : animal death ]

Everyone gives Axel's body a wide berth, cause for concern, of course, contamination. And secondly, the dead rat in their mouth, killed not by the pollen, but brought down with the detective themselves.

Some might recognize it as having hid behind the dining room curtain.

[teratomancer]

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

So much for a beautiful evening. And you just ironed this outfit. Well, not all is lost. After all, you are...

A Guest

[ Post this ask after the game to come clean about your role. ]

So much carnage! And Monroe had only hoped for a nice, relaxing evening. But, well, that’s a party in London for you.

[teratomancer]

[ Private Knowledge : share at your own discretion ]

Alright, alright, there's currently five of you, counting the Constable—though who really counts the law, in these matters—*one* of you must be the killer... But strictly speaking, are all the hints concrete with such a fuzzy mind?

Your calling card has your name listed on it, a small note from the host proper. 'I would love nothing more than to implore your thoughts further on our shared subjects, Dr. Oss.'

So wouldn't everyone else have such a regard on theirs? When you think of it, it's really not a solid hint, is it? With all these dead bodies around—someone could just aquire whatever card they wanted.

A brief flash is belonging, if one angles the wrist correctly.

[ Bring up this clue to trigger a Confessional Challenge ]

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

Monroe produces the calling card from their pockets once more, displaying it to the group in full view. A show of good faith.

“I think,” their eyes flicker to Hood, where they stay, “we’d ought to take a better look at these cards.”

[teratomancer]

[ Private Knowledge : share at your own discretion ]

You had noticed on the way out of the dining room, that some people seemed a touch... too calm, once outside of the immediate spotlight. Silas, for one, doesn't seem as alarmed as she should be. Nor Harry, or Hood. As if there's at least, a subconscious awareness of how far away one needs to be to avoid the danger.

Or perhaps, simply the hurry has them stiff. Perhaps.

Some members of your party have mentioned being invited by the lord before, and some certainly had reason to be here. Is a lack of invitation simply a matter of pre-planning, or the betrayal of a so-thought 'friend'?

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

Out of the dining room, away from the growing number of corpses. It isn’t the relief it ought to be.

Monroe remains on edge the entire journey. They pace their steps, try to remain at the back of the crowd, try to keep as many people in sight as possible. As the group makes to the foyer, their eyes dart from person to person, never lingering on one long enough to be suspicious.

Silas, Harry, and Hood don’t appear very rattled by the events of the day. Perhaps it simply speaks to a stronger disposition; hardly an uncommon trait in the neath. Still, something feels off about that assumption. All three of them lacked an invite. All three of them were close enough to have poisoned Colfox.

Hood and Harry were close enough to the scene of the first murder.

Monroe bites their lip. Perhaps their suspicions aren’t so misplaced, after all.

[alex-the-bard]

honestly i love the symbolism and metaphors in Fallen London, specifically around the nature of free will, the divine, and the self.

you come across a young woman, in the process of being petrified by her lover(?), a golem of living clay. her eyes, the only organic thing left of her, say she is terrified, but the Clay Man says she asked him to do this. do you free her, and in the event she does want it, deal with her anger, or leave her to her fate that she may or may not want?

if the stars and their light are actively malevolent, is darkness more moral than their tyranny? is utter chaos, lit only by impossible colors and prowled by things that should not exist, preferable to an oppressive, but orderly, comfortable, and relatively safe rule by spiteful gods, eventually damned to have your soul consumed by the stars? is either preferable?

you are twisted into uncountable variations of yourself, a hundred thousand million possible futures. in one, you are immolated by the raging death throes of a god. in another, you survive eternity, becoming the final Law, that No Thing Shall Be. another, you are the captain of a vessel that sails to the resting place of a sealed god, to be consumed by it. yet another, you march an army to the gates of the Garden of Eden, and batter down the walls to secure the secret of immortality to do with what you will. are all these myriad, infinite futures you? do you want them to be? do you want to be a conqueror, a saviour, a nobody? do you really have a choice?

you learn that the divine is not untouchable. the gods are awful, vulnerable to slights, wars, and petty jealousy. and they can be killed. both the highest gods of the Wilderness and the minor gods of the Zee. does that bring them down to the level of mortal, or elevate the mortal to the divine?

do you ever really have a choice?

does anyone?

if given the opportunity to wrench free from your shackles, would you take it, no matter how terrible the consequences, the pain it would take to be free?

would you?

would they?

would anyone?

[the-totally-reliable-narrator]

First Loss

Someone falls to the floor, and there is initially, a lack of affair. No choking. No gasping. No grasping at the tablecloth. Your mind may suggest a lingering affect of the otherworldly music inflicted upon you all.

But no. Alas.

Upon checking the host's wine to discern more clues, Colfox has quickly dropped.

She does not breathe. Or twitch. It is a sudden, labor free death. There is poison in the glass.

@knife-and-candle has met the Boatman.

One murder by the Jack has occurred.

One player has been protected.

[teratomancer]

While everyone had been busy discussing the murder, Monroe had, unfortunately, gotten rather distracted by the items on display. How easily time slips away. So many knives! How fascinating!

So it comes as quite the shock when they return to find a body.

They grimace, suddenly relieved that they hadn’t partaken in the wine. But there are much more urgent things at hand. Already, accusations are being made, and they get the sense that they may be a little late to the conversation. Fortunately, they don’t seem to be a prime suspect anymore. They ask around, and begin to build a better understanding of what happened. Five suspects, poisoned wine, pollen…

Alright. Oh dear.