Just some content

1. My inconvenient aunt just got carried away to the Brass Embassy. She'd signed a contract; I would have read it over first (at which function I have some experience) and warned her off, if she'd mentioned it to me, but she didn't. Now, so says the game, I'll never see her again, except in nightmares.

She was, yes, inconvenient, but it was only because of her enthusiasm for novelty, a quality I admire.

2. I'm investigating an arson in my neighborhood, piecing together the clues and signs, and I find myself on the trail of quite a storied individual. Evidently this arsonist has done [a list of accomplishments and notable episodes from my own history]. Come to think of it, I have on occasion burned down the odd tenement, haven't I?

3. All I want in this beautiful world is to be in tight with the bohemians. Oh my god. A rather decadent evening? That opportunity motivated me through 10 levels of Persuasive and untold misadventures.

-Vincent

May I ask what the source material for this hack is? I've seen something about Echo Bazaar somewhere, but when I googled that, I got some slightly confusing results (is it an MMORPG? Is that based on something else?). Everything I've seen so far here has been super tantalizing, and I'd like to find out more so I can follow the stuff y'all post in a more educated fashion.

It's a browser game sort-of connected to Twitter.

It is super addictive. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/

Thank you kindly (both for the warning and the link)

I tracked down a missing comtessa, which led me to the clay quarters. I found her being transformed into a clay statue so she and the clay man could always be together. So said the clay man. Her eyes were frightened. I took his money to keep silent.

I decided yesterday to do an AW conversion of the GOTHIC/ECHO game I conducted briefly as a pbp game on Snail's Pace and then some tabletop last weekend.  I'm excited about the prospect and I thought I saw a little overlap between GOTHIC/ECHO's setting (the city of Meridian) and "Knife & Candle."

So after avoiding it forever, I just joined twitter today explicitly to try out this echo bazaar thing.  You are devils.  Any warnings provided should be insufficient to clear your conscience for another echo bazaar enslaving.

Please work faster so I can get on with the thievery.

also, please friend me (or however it works) if you'd like a fellow echo bazaar traveller.

Aaaand I'm mad again.

Does anybody know if anything happens if I get, like, "having Recurring Dreams: The Fire Sermon" up high before I go mad? I got one of the Recurring Dreams up to 7, and it seemed to create no opportunities nor offer any interesting pursuits. If I get it up to 8 next time will something happen? Or am I wasting my efforts?

-Vincent

Update: I just burnt down the hotel, which is novel, and it removed the Fire Sermon quality, so that's interesting. They're obviously connected.

-Vincent

Yeah, that's about the only thing I've noticed that it does for me: having one or the other of the madnesses gives you some different options when you head off to the hotel.  Other than that, I can't really think of anything.

I spent some time the first time around trying to avoid going mad.  At this point, I just accept it as something that's going to happen.  An interesting bit of flavour for the world, honestly, that I should just assume I'm going to go mad on a regular basis.

Well, according to the an entry in the failbetter blog, the dreams are leading somewhere.  Yasmeen dropped this little tease at the end of her post Chess, cats, genre:

Me, I'd like to say to those of you that are wondering where your nightmares might be leading you - please keep dreaming. You'll find out.

So is anyone out there playing Pass the Cat?

I got passed a nearly unwrapped cat and unwrapped it to discover a sorrow spider that jumped me.

I am curious what the positive result is so that I can properly stat up the custom move When you unwrap a nearly unwrapped cat...

I've unwrapped the cat 2-3 times, and every time it's given me connection with the Duchess, but a wound from the cat inside.  (You don't actually see the cat, but you get scratched by something as it dashes out the window.)

I might have gotten magnanimous too, can't remember...

Highlight the spoiler:

Black as a spirifer's heart

A velvety black cat struggles free of the wrappings. It blinks at you. 'About time. Well, we move as the game wills. Here-'
It whispers something to you, and the room spins about you. When you steady yourself, it's quite gone.

(Watchful + Appalling Secrets)

I just got it again, I can verify the standard "good" result:


Spoilers!


-Loss of box
-Connection with Duchess (probably 2 change points)
-Magnanimous (quantity?)
-Wounds (1)


Slice and tear!

You whip out a pair of scissors and plough hastily through the multiple parcel layers. The creature inside bursts free! Your eyes are full of brown paper and string, and you don't see what it is. But it gives you a nasty scratch on its way to the window. Farewell, boxed creature!

I've unwraped a box once to find The Starveling Cat.
It's horrible. All it does is run around my room. Playing with it seems to be useful if you want to go mad or dead.