Exotica

Items available in and for use in the Game of Knife and Candle.

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Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist

Obviously an inferior imitation. But it will tell you the secrets of the dead. 1x Whispered Secret when you make a kill.

Do…something…with your Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist

You know its use in Knife-and-Candle. But does it serve any other purposes?

Set it by your bed when you sleep

Who, you wonder, makes these heads? Are they real flesh? Are they the victims of some wretched murderer? Are they peculiarly pliable wax? And why do you think you might find the answer in your dreams?
Unlocked with Having Recurring Dreams: Death by Water 5

Rewards spoiler

NORTH

In your dream, the head beside your bed sits atop your shoulders, and you watch your own head speak. Your head speaks of a treachery committed in water. It speaks of a betrayal remembered only by a few. It mentions a place where heads can be dug from the ground like turnips. It speaks knowledgeably of the phases of the moon. It tells you urgently that it must be caged in silver. It says, and the room vibrates buzzingly with the strength of the word, North,
When you awake, your belly is growling with peculiar hunger, and the head is quite gone…
Rewards:
Unaccountably Peckish increase (1 change point)
having Recurring Dreams: Death by Water increase (5 change points)
Lose: 1 x Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist
Gain: 1 x Appalling Secret

Employ it in practical jokes

'Sir! Would you bring my friend his hat?' And other possibly hilarious japes.
Unlocked with Heartless 1
Luck and Persuasive challenge

Rewards spoiler

Oh you wicked wicked ah, Si-, er, Mad-, er, yes

Revolting though your pranks may be, you are charming and lucky enough to carry them off with aplomb. Ladies swoon, but they giggle. Gentleman swear terrible oaths, but they grin. After your 'friend' is discovered leering at an impressionable countess from the depths of her handbag, there is a brief and lunatic fashion among young blades for carrying imitation leather stuffed heads. The fashion is eventually discouraged when Jack-of-Smiles makes a special habit - for his own incomprehensible reasons - of targetting the carriers of counterfeit Counterfeit Heads of John the Baptist, but you have made your mark.
Rewards :
Admired increase
Persuasive increase
Connected: Bohemian increase

Failure spoiler

No-one seems to think it's funny

Not even the head on the table in the covered dish. Not even, excuse me madam, is this your bag? Not even, good evening, Constable! My friend's pocket has been picked!
In fact, the unsmiling Constable confiscates your head altogether. It is clearly an exotica-prize, not a murder victim reduced to constituent parts, so you are spared arrest. But he seems to be trying hard to find something illegal you're guilty of. Eventually he stalks off, leaving you with only a besmirched reputation and a number of nostalgic bloodstains.

Rewards :
Persuasive increase
Lose 1 x Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist
Scandal increase
Suspicion increase
Connected: The Constables decrease

Kiss its cold blue lips

ah, Si-, er, Mad-, er, yes! What depravity is this? Are there no depths you will not plumb in your quest for sensation?
Unlocked with Hedonist 12
A matter of luck: a long shot…but you might win.

Lucky spoiler

'

unlucky spoiler

presumably unlucky, but it doesn't say

A seven-day scandal

When you kiss the head, does it afford you some particular tingle? Is there a taste you cannot find on the lips of others? Does it infect you with a subtle and creeping madness? Or do you just like causing a fuss in public?
Whatever the reasons, you are seen in public with the head. It accompanies you to dinner. It is with you when you attend dances. You are seen to caress its hair and whisper in its withered ear. What are you playing at?
An aura of macabre glamour descends around you: you cause a tremendous stir. This cannot be tolerated, even in Fallen London. One night a mob of concerned citizens descends on your lodgings and chases you down to the docks, where you take ship for the tomb-colonies. In the haste, you are forced to leave your head behind. Perhaps that's for the best.
Nightmares increase (1 change point)
Connected: Bohemian increase (58-93 change points)
Connected: Society decrease (1-99 change points)
Hedonist increase (5 change points)
You've gained a new quality: Scandal at 8 - UNTHINKABLE! (36 change pointsl)
Lose 1 x Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist

Old Rewards spoiler

A seven-day scandal

When you kiss the head, does it afford you some particular tingle? Is there a taste you cannot find on the lips of others? Does it infect you with a subtle and creeping madness? Or do you just like causing a fuss in public?

Whatever the reasons, you are seen in public with the head. It accompanies you to dinner. It is with you when you attend dances. You are seen to caress its hair and whisper in its withered ear. What are you playing at?

An aura of macabre glamour descends around you: you cause a tremendous stir. This cannot be tolerated, even in Fallen London. One night a mob of concerned citizens descends on your lodgings and chases you down to the docks, where you take ship for the tomb-colonies. In the haste, you are forced to leave your head behind. Perhaps that's for the best.

Rewards :
WAS Immediate move to Disgraced exile in the Tomb-Colonies!, is now very large increase in Scandal, perhaps 45-50 change points?
Nightmares increase
Connected: Bohemian increase
Connected: Society decrease
Hedonist increase
Scandal increase (substantial)
Lose 1 x Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist

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Giggling Mandrake

Deranged and barely controllable, but it can convert the blood of the freshly dead into red gold.
1x Rostygold when you make a kill.

Play with your Giggling Mandrake

You know its use in Knife-and-Candle. But does it serve any other purposes?

Play with the thing

Perhaps it's bored.
Luck challenge: the odds are against you

Rewards spoiler

The cunning little devil

You enjoy a series of diverting play-fights with the mandrake, until with a dazzling series of feints it stabs you in the neck with a darning-needle it must have concealed earlier. Cursing, you return it to its cage-pot. Still, you've learnt a few things.

Rewards :
Dangerous increase
Wounds increase

Set it to fighting!

Let it fight against your other pet mandrake. Risky indeed. Very possibly you'll lose one of them. But it might be fun to see the little devils fight.
Unlocked with Deshrieked Mandrake 1
Luck challenge: the odds are against you

Rewards spoiler

A battle royal

There are a series of savage scuffles. Again and again, the Giggling Mandrake gets the better of your meeker Deshrieked Mandrake. At last the Deshrieked Mandrake is backed into a corner: the Giggling Mandrake charges it! The Deshrieked Mandrake dodges, the Giggling Mandrake smacks into a wardrobe, the wardrobe topples and smashes the Giggling Mandrake into mandrake pate. Had the Deshrieked Mandrake planned it all along?
Good news: the Giggling Mandrake appears to be full of rostygold. And you've learnt something by watching. Bad news: mandrake pate does not appear to be edible.
Dangerous increase
Gain: 25 x Rostygold
Lose: 1 x Giggling Mandrake
Ruthless increase
Hedonist increase

Feed it your own blood

A foolish idea. Genuinely a foolish idea. But the poor thing seems so cold and hungry. A few drops can't hurt.
Unlocked with Magnanimous 12

Rewards spoiler

A terrible laughter

When you finally wrench the Mandrake away from your arm and fling it into the far corner, it's laughing like the unburied dead should laugh, like the thunder should laugh, like the Bazaar would laugh if it had a voice…
You cover your ears. Madness rushes over you like a crimson wave. But you think, as you sink into it: there is gratitude in that laughter…
Rewards :
Immediate move to a State of Some Confusion!
Magnanimous increase
Wounds increase
Lose: 1 x Giggling Mandrake
Gain: 1 x Appalling Secret
Nightmares increase

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Nephrite Lens
This has many uses, none of them safe. In the Game of Knife-and-Candle, it can sharpen your mind but slow your hand…

Experiment with your Nephrite Lens

It's fragile: how will you make use of it while it lasts?

View a candleflame through the lens

At the Cottage, the players speak of a curious use of the Lens; one that expands your mind but slows your hand. This will slightly increase Baroque, but decrease Elusive and Savage. You'll lose the modifiers if you change or lose your Form.
[Unlocked with 1 x Nephrite Lens]
[Unlocked when Knife-and-Candle Form is: The Spiralled Shadow: an Elusive form, The Night-Lamp: a Balanced form, The Egg Imponderable: a Baroque form, The Fatal-Clawed Bat]

Reward spoiler

View a mirror through the lens

A curious notion! Whatever put it into your head?
[Unlocked with 1 x Nephrite Lens]
[Unlocked with having Recurring Dreams: Is Someone There? 5]

Rewards spoiler

Something is wrong with your reflection…

That's not the lens you see in your hand: it's a rose. A white rose. No: a red rose. You think: It's difficult with all these colours. No: a squirming serpent! You drop it in shock.

Only a lens! and now it's shattered. The shards are sharp as glass. You suck your finger. Just before the snake disappeared, you thought you heard it hiss something. A word. A name. 'Parabola'?

Lose: 1 x Nephrite Lens
having Recurring Dreams: Is Someone There? increase
Watchful increase
Wounds increase
Gain: 10 x Jade Fragment

Use the lens on your own heart's blood…

You'd have to be kill yourself to do that. And they say the lens operates on the energies of the human soul. Do you have the ruthlessness to arrange an experiment of this kind?
[Unlocked with 1 x Nephrite Lens]
[Unlocked with Ruthless 12]

Rewards spoiler

You are the captain of your soul

Pain; then blood; then an extraordinary flash of light, like the sun glimpsed through a shard of green glass. You pass out.

You are somewhere you haven't seen even in dreams or paintings: a forest of black-and-white trees. Are the trees black, and are those moonlit spaces between them? Or are the trees white, and the space between them is black as the Bazaar? You lower your eyes, dazzled. You are walking on bones. A skull shatters beneath your foot. On one of the shards, on the inside surface of the cranium, you see words inscribed: AND THIS IS EDEN…

You awaken…somewhere else. The lens is shattered. Your clothes are soaked with blood. But you have seen something that few have seen.

Immediate move to A slow boat
Watchful increase
Nightmares increase
Wounds increase [10+ change points]
Lose: 1 x Nephrite Lens
Gain: 1 x Appalling Secret
Gain: 10 x Jade Fragment

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Calamitous Parrot

This parrot will prophesy menacingly after a kill.
1x Appalling Secret when you make a kill - thanks to Rowan Beetje for the info

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