A peaceful place
Hunter's Keep
A rambling old house sits on a half-drowned hill. Well-tended gardens stretch down to the shore, but it's the house that dominates. Rows of curtained windows stare blankly out to zee.
Who lives at Hunter's Keep?
Some say a coven of witches. Some say a community of cats. Some say it's haunted by the spirits of disgruntled vicars.
Sidebar text
Here at Hunter's Keep you will find three sisters, Phoebe, Lucy, and Cynthia, living alone in a big house with only a strange maid to serve them. As you search the isle, will you discover the secrets in the well or those hidden by the sisters three?
As Time passes more options will open to you, but in many cases only the Dramatic Tension of knowing something about the ladies in question will bring out the truth. (Dramatic Tension cannot exceeed 2, and increasing to 2 does not open any additional options.)
Your opportunity deck is not available here; however when you return to Zee any cards that were in your Troubled Waters hand will still be there. There is no access to the Bazaar from Hunter's Keep.
Leaving Hunter's Keep
You have everything you need from this place for now. The house sits at the top of the hill, indifferent. Time to depart.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 1
Find your ship
Hopefully it's still where you left it. [Leaving the island will remove your Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago quality].
Wave goodbye?
As you glide away from the jetty, you take one last look back. A yellow-eyed figure stands at the dock. Watching and smiling.
Your Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago Quality has gone!
You've moved to a new area: the Broad Unterzee
Your Dramatic Tension Quality is unaffected - but will be immediately lost on entering the Broad Unterzee.
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 0-6
Landing at Hunter's Keep
The dark hump of rock looms out of the Unterzee mist. You can see the house at the top of the hill, windows lit up like the teeth of an All Hallows' Eve pumpkin.
Disembark
And have a look around
Peaceful
You step off the jetty onto a neatly gravelled path. The mossy lawns here are beautifully kept, and there's a hint of lavender on the breeze. Here's a crossroads.
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago shows your progress in the Venture.
Nightmares decrease (~4 change points)
Go up to the house
Talk to the inhabitants of the island…
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 1
Knock at the door
Put on your brightest smile.
(Persuasive challenge; high-risk at 108, straightforward at 120)
'Not today, thank you.'
The polished brass door-knocker is shaped like an octopus, and you have to lift the beak to knock. The door opens an inch or two, but is then slammed in your face. It's a shame you were standing so close. And that the octopus-beak is at eye-level.
Persuasive increase
Wounds increase
Investigate the gardens
The climate is slightly different here in the Archipelago. All those zee breezes make for a different kind of landscape. (But how does the grass grow so green and lush, so far from the Sun?)
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 2
Explore that mysterious hollow
What lies in that fold in the hill? Where you glimpsed the white light when you first arrived?
(A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 120)
A crumbling old well
It's noticeably darker in this tiny valley. A well sits at the bottom, cradled in the hollow like a pebble in the palm of a hand. There's no light down here at the moment, and you don't stay long. The well still has its original wooden cover, which has been carefully looked after. The same cannot be said for the well itself. There are small, solid puddles of wax lying like coins on the ground, and a strong medicinal scent lingers on the air.
Gain: 50 x
Lamplighter Beeswax
Gain: 1 x
Memory of Distant Shores
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
(2 change points)
Walk along the beach
The gardens slope down on all sides to meet the zee with abrupt, pebbly beaches.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 122
Exploring the island
The garden is crisscrossed with meandering paths. Some don't seem to go anywhere in particular, but one leads to a small boathouse.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 2
Have a look in the boathouse
People leave all sorts of things in boathouses.
(A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 117)
A spiders' nest
Boathouse seems like too grandiose a term for this dilapidated old shack. You push, and the door creaks open with difficulty, the hinges rusted by the zee-air. Inside is a jumble of oars and boathooks and netting, all festooned in swathes of silken threads. You don't want to think about how many sorrow-spiders must live in here.
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 110 x
Silk Scrap
Walk around the garden for a while
It's so pleasant here in the warm breeze. The island is tiny; try to walk all the way around it.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 115
Extremely pleasant
You wander around for a while, taking in the pleasant scents and sights of the garden. The paths keep meeting at little crossroads, but you manage to circle the island without getting too lost. On the far side from the jetty, there's a clear white light shining from a dip in the ground. What could it be?
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 2 x
Memory of Distant Shores
Take high tea with the ladies
There will be crustless sandwiches, tiny cakes, and polite conversation. The grandfather clock chimes four just as the first crumpet is served.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 3
Tell them about yourself
They do seem very keen to hear your story. Perhaps they will reciprocate with secrets of their own.
unlocked with 50 x Whispered Secret.
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 125
Look around the house
The sisters that live here have invited you to stay. It's a good thing they did, since it's the only house on the island.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 3
What's on the ground floor?
Have a look round the kitchen, pantry and scullery.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 117
Some interesting titbits
You snoop casually around the kitchen, opening drawers and peering into pots. There are teetering piles of books on tables and chairs. There are some bunches of musty leaves hanging from a rail that smell like no herbs you know. But it's in the scullery that you make the real find. Letters, tucked into a box of soap-flakes. Scandalous letters, from someone called Patrick.
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 2 x
Compromising Document
What's in the attic?
Apart from rats and spiders, that is.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 119
A treasure trove
The larger part of the attic is where the ladies store cobwebbed rocking-horses and dust-mantled hatstands and other things that properly live in attics. Ornately carved wooden staves rub shoulders with antique musical instruments. There are trunkfuls of books, too. You lift the lid of an elaborately gilded portmanteau. It's full of diaries. Diaries belonging to all sorts of people, well-known and unknown. There are details of love affairs in here that would set London buzzing!
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 1 x
Appalling Secret
Gain: 2 x
Incendiary Gossip
What's on the first floor?
It's a little trickier to look round the bedrooms, but probably more revealing.
Unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 118
All sorts of little things
You prowl the first floor, pawing through wardrobes and rummaging through dressing-tables. The sisters have a lot of junk. There's a shepherd's crook in the corner of one bedroom; in another, a set of painted masks line the walls. But what they mostly have is books. A lot of books. Including one or two volumes that the Ministry of Public Decency would definitely not approve of…
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 2 x
A Journal of Infamy
Talk to Phoebe
There will be crustless sandwiches, tiny cakes, and polite conversation. The grandfather clock chimes four just as the first crumpet is served.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 3
Listen to her play the violin
Phoebe's quite the musician, they say. Ask her to play you something.
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 120
Listen to her sing
Join the sisters around the piano one evening.
Unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 122
Talk to Lucy
The middle sister, Lucy, is always smiling. Chatting to her should be a pleasant experience. And you might learn something interesting.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 3
Talk to her
Make sure you are seated next to her at lunch.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 119
A delightful conversation
The maid ladles mock-octopus soup from a silver tureen into your bowl. She manages to do this balefully. Lucy pays no attention to her, as she's too busy sharing her views on everything from religion and politics to contemporary opera and science. She's well-informed for someone who lives outside of London itself. And she's interested in your news.
'The foggy charms of London!' she says. 'I had an admirer there, you know. The things that used to happen to him! Once, he fell down the steps outside the Young Stags', and tore the seat right out of his trousers! The Constables arrested him for indecent exposure.'
She chuckles into her soup. 'Anyway,' she says, 'I bet I know what you're looking for. There's something in your life. An ambition.'
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 2 x Incendiary Gossip
Gain: 7 x Cryptic Clue
Ask her to take a stroll with you
Such pleasant gardens deserve to be enjoyed.
Unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 1121
'Ah, this reminds me…'
Lucy takes your arm and shows you the gardens, pointing out scented bracket fungus here, coppery rock-grass and blue moss there. As you walk, she tells you a little more of her story. 'It was all just a terrible misunderstanding, you know. It wasn't his fault the Rubbery Lump seller got head-butted by the goat. Look - he gave me this spinning-top he won guessing the number of spines on the hedgehog.' You look back at the house. The silent maidservant is watching you from one of the bedrooms. You can feel her eyes on you from here.
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 116 x
Whispered Secret
'Not that way.'
Lucy takes your arm and starts to tell you about the gardens. But when you ask her if she can show you the herb patch, she changes the subject and steers you back to the house.
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Talk to Cynthia
Cynthia is the eldest of the sisters who live on Hunter's Keep. Perhaps she would like to share a glass of wine with you.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 3
Charm her
Maybe you can learn some of her secrets.
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 119
'Let me tell you something.'
Cynthia has large blue eyes and a spider's-nest of unkempt dark hair. She's prone to sighing and clasping her hands. 'I wish I could return to London,' she says, staring out of the window at the blank black zee. 'Where my beloved languishes still. Such terrible things happened to me there, you know.' The silent maidservant stares reproachfully at you with her sulphurous eyes as she refills your glasses. 'But this place is sacred to… well, that thing, which is no doubt why you're here,' Cynthia continues, 'and I still have my existence, my own penance here.' She speaks of that existence, of life on the island: tales of sly breezes, spying spiders, words written on driftwood by the drowned…
Persuasive increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
(2 change points)
Gain: 57 x
Cryptic Clue
Swap stories with her
If you offer her an exchange of confidences, perhaps she'll be more forthcoming.
Unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1, Melancholy 2
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 121
A sad story
You offer Cynthia a sorrowful fragment of memory. In return, she tells you a little more about her beloved in London. 'His father was a vicious old goat, you know. And he was faced with an impossible choice. And all I have now is this spinning-top.' It's a plain little wooden thing, but she holds it as if it were a sapphire.
Persuasive increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
(2 change points)
Gain: 58 x
Cryptic Clue
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 7-8
Dine with the ladies
Someone has slipped a note under your door, inviting you to dine en famille tonight.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 7
Charm the ladies
There is surely still more you can Gain: from them, in terms of secrets as well as hospitality.
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 127
A rather theatrical evening
When the sisters are all together, the room feels more crowded than it should. There are so many different personae fighting for space. Cynthia sighs and talks of death and fate. Lucy laughs and discusses forgiveness and politics. Phoebe flirts and speaks of innocence and nature.
There's competition in the air, but the sisters are at ease with one another as well. This display has the feel of a long-established routine. And the after-dinner drinks are excellent and plentiful.
Gain: 2 x
Strangling Willow Absinthe
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
(2 change points)
Try all the dishes
There are some very enticing and unusual aromas coming from the platters on the sideboard.
Unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 126
Delicious
You sample soups and stews, breads and vegetable dishes. Each is unique, like nothing you have tried before, almost perfumed. The sisters watch you as you eat. 'Do you care for my herbs?' says Cynthia. 'I gather them by the light of our moon. They are marvellously restorative, aren't they?' It is true. You are feeling stronger and healthier already. 'The princess used them to put the old king back together again,' says Phoebe. 'Shame it gave him such a terrible stomach upset into the bargain!' says Lucy. The conversation turns grislier at that point: but it's a cheerful sort of grisliness. Still, you hadn't expected the sisters to be quite so sanguine about blood.
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
(2 change points)
Wounds decrease
Gain: 2 x
Tale of Terror!!
Examine the books
The sisters accumulate books like china figurines accumulate dust. They're everywhere - on shelves, in drawers and cupboards, in drunken leaning piles on the floors. What can you learn from them?
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 7
Look for something significant
Riffle through some of the volumes. You never know what you might find.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 126
Search for a diary
Look for something handwritten. You might find out more of the sisters' secrets.
Unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 127
Shocking and scandalous?
You rummage through the stacks of books in the bedrooms. Right at the bottom of one pile is a promising journal, dated a few years ago. You begin to read, but it's so boring. The writer chronicles a chaste love affair with a young man. He sounds pleasant enough, if unremarkable, but the prose is flat, and very little happens. A trip to Mrs Plenty's Carnival was the highlight of the romance, and it ended after his father insisted he take a job as a legal clerk.
There's no indication of which sister kept this journal. You slip it into your pocket, just in case, along with an unusual ledger bound in imitation Vake-skin. Probably imitation, anyway.
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 2 x
Compromising Document
Find out more of Cynthia's story
Cynthia's sitting on a rock, looking out to zee. She spends a lot of time doing this.
Try to cheer her up
She's always moping and sighing. It's not healthy.
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 124
'I suppose you are right.'
You venture a couple of gentle witticisms, and Cynthia finally rewards you with a smile. 'It's just that I was thinking about my beloved in London,' she says. 'So far over the water. Cold and alone. Betrayed. The fortune-teller drew the Gibbet at his reading, you know. You could see the shock in her eyes. Even her goat shied away from him.'
You listen, appalled, as she goes on to share stories of grotesquerie and horror: of streets and serpents, of gibbets and crossroads and black dogs barking. At last she shakes herself. 'But let me ask about you. Have you searched the wellspring yet?'
Persuasive increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 2 x
Tale of Terror!!
'Please go away.'
You try to be jolly, but it's not easy in the face of Cynthia's unrelenting gloom. There's only so much sighing and wistfulness one can take.
Persuasive increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Nightmares increase
Talk to her seriously
Perhaps she will welcome a shoulder to cry on.
unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 126
'It was all such a long time ago.'
You offer Cynthia a sympathetic ear. 'The Fates are such cruel creatures,' she sighs. 'Everything that happened was beyond my control. His feud with his brother. His brother's house burning down. I remember the hot ashes floating down like snow.' At her feet, there's a shovel and a vase. 'And these things are all I have left,' she says. She speaks of ashes, of time, of beloved features twisting like candlewax in a fire roaring like red lions…
Persuasive increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
(2 change points)
Gain: 10 x
Cryptic Clue
Gain: 2 x
Tale of Terror!!
Find out more of Phoebe's story
When she's not at the piano, she'll be sketching or reading or embroidering something. Or she might be in the garden. The fog seems a little less dank wherever she is.
Look for her in the parlour
Perhaps she's working on her needlepoint.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 123
What a delightful sampler
Phoebe is listlessly engaged in some flat gobelin-stitch, and is only too happy to be interrupted. She points out the detail in her previous work, and teaches you to see the complex patterns underlying even the simplest-seeming needlework: patterns like life or time. She tells you stories of her past, too. 'You know, I used to do such delightful embroidery. French knotwork. Honeycombs. I'd sit in the shade by the stream and my beloved and I would make-believe we were nymph and shepherd. He would sing until dusk.' Her eyes look through you, to some faraway place. 'By the way,' she says, 'are you here looking for something? You have ambition, don't you?'
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago is increasing…
Gain: 59 x
Cryptic Clue
Look for her in the garden
Maybe she's making watercolour sketches outside.
unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 125
A limited palette
Phoebe's perched on a rock with a jam-jar of paintbrushes and a sketchbook. She's working on a zeescape in varying shades of grey and green: colours of astonishing subtlety and variation. A rainbow of soft colours. You feel you can distinguish shades you'd never imagined before. She smiles when she sees you. 'Have you ever seen such a peaceful sight? The natural landscape is the proper setting for romantic love. But my beloved could not resist his father's wishes, and he abandoned me to work in the smoke and fog of the city. Just dark clouds on my horizon, now.'
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 10 x
Whispered Secret
Gain: 2 x
Memory of Distant Shores
Find out more of Lucy's story
Lucy likes to bake, so you'll probably find her in the kitchen.
Talk to her
She's always smiling and cheerful, and she always seems happy to see you.
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 123
A nice chat
Lucy's kneading dough at the huge stone table that dominates the kitchen. She smiles widely when she sees you. 'Come and have a rock cake,' she says. 'Fresh from the oven.' While you eat, she starts to talk about her old life.
'Once, my beloved was hiding from his father. Just a misdemeanour, of course. Didn't want to go to work. But he had to swap trousers with his manservant and ended up in court, mistaken for a runaway zailor!'
Perhaps you had to be there. 'Anyway,' she says. 'Have you found what you're looking for yet? I've seen you outside in the hollow.'
Persuasive increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 2 x
Incendiary Gossip
Wounds decrease (1 change point)
Bring her a little gift
Some freshly gathered herbs for her baking?
unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 125
'Why, thank you.'
The island is dotted with little mossy beds and rockeries, and you gather up some leaves. They're poor, underground, salty things, but they're aromatic. Lucy seems pleased. She teaches you the names of the herbs: she tells you tales about each, its genesis and distribution, the granny-stories that cluster around each one. She tells you more ribald stories, too. 'I use these to flavour cakes. Goats love them, though, so you have to be careful. My sweetheart was carrying one in his pocket once, and a nanny goat bit the seat right out of his trousers to get at it. He had to run all the way down Childcake Street wearing a dress he stole from a market-stall!'
Persuasive increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago increase
Gain: 1 x
Incendiary Gossip
Gain: 70 x
Whispered Secret
Look more closely at the well
The white light is shining tonight from the garden. It's definitely coming from the hollow where you found the well.
Look directly into the well
Your stomach is growling, hungry for whatever's down there.
unlocked with Unaccountably Peckish 3
A searing hunger
The cover is tight across the top of the well. You approach, faint with hunger, and push it an inch or two to one side. Blinding white light flies out, and a thousand frost-moths clatter sparkling into the sky. You pull handfuls of mud and wax from the ground and eat and eat and eat, but the hunger won't abate.
Unaccountably Peckish increase
Wounds increase
Nightmares increase
Investigate
There must be something interesting happening there.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 126
An ersatz moon
From an upstairs window, you spot the maidservant waiting on the terrace like a black chess-pawn in the moonlight. You skirt round the back and make your way down the path into the little valley. As you get closer, it's clear that the cold, white light is coming from the inside the well. The cover's been moved to one side, and from above, the light suggests the shape of a crescent moon. The light is alive, moving like a cloud of insects lit from within. Still a poor substitute for the real moon, but what else do the sisters have? And what else is down there? You can't get too close while the light is shining, it's so bright. You'll have to come back.
Watchful increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago is increasing…
Gain: 60 x
Cryptic Clue
A warning
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago is increasing…
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 9
Prepare to look down the well
The sisters have been dropping hints for a while now that there's something you should be looking for, and that it's probably in the well.
Equip yourself for a fishing expedition
You'll need to find a way to keep from being blinded by the light of the faux-moon. And to keep the mud from staining your clothes.
unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
(Watchful challenge)
Oilskins and smoked glass
You sneak around the house, opening drawers and looking into cupboards. You find a weathered old oilskin and a pair of galoshes at the top of the cellar stairs, and you remember to check the shoes for spiders. Upstairs in the servant's quarters, there's an ornate smoked-glass lorgnette lying on the lowboy. Not something you'd expect her to have. So you don't need to feel too bad about stealing it.
Watchful increase
Gain: 70 x
Jade Fragment
Gain: 30 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Go to the well
Whatever's to be had there must be worth the risk of falling in. Make sure you have prepared properly first.
Fish in the well
Trust in your smoked glasses' protection. Borrow the shepherd's crook and see what you can catch.
unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1
(Dangerous challenge)
A key!
You perch your smoked glasses on your nose, take a deep breath and push the cover off the well. As light floods out, you are enveloped in glowing white fireflies and frost-moths. They disperse slowly, so with the help of your glasses, you can peer into the well. Whatever's making the light is big. Very big. You can see a humped, furred shape at the bottom, light streaming from its sides. It's breathing: very slowly.
You lower the crook into the well and start to feel around its oily black sides. Its tip scrapes on the mossy brick, then hooks onto something. You start to pull. It's heavy. Really heavy.
Something fanged flies out at you, red eyes burning even in the faux-moonlight! Claws close around your neck. But you have kept hold of the crook, and you use it to fight off your attacker. Thump, thump, crack - and you're free. It's the maidservant. She hisses at you and growls, but she doesn't make a move. Eventually, she turns and disappears off into the shadows.
You try again, breathing heavily. Brass scrapes on brick. Then - a different clink. You look. There's a small bag suspended, just out of reach. You haul it up with your hook and open it to reveal a key. A stone key, with a nasty, organic shape to it. It must be what the sisters were pushing you to find.
Dangerous increase
Gain: 1 x Stone Tentacle-Key
Your
Dramatic Tension Quality has gone!
Ugh
Holding the smoked-glass lorgnette over your eyes, you dig around inside the well with the brass crook. Its tip scrapes on the mossy brick, then hooks onto something. You start to pull. It's heavy. Really heavy.
Suddenly, something fanged flies out at you, red eyes burning even in the faux-moonlight. Claws close around your neck. But you have kept hold of the crook, and you use it to fight off your attacker. Thump, thump, crack - and you're free. It's the maidservant. She jumps up, hissing and growling, and a taloned hand flashes out and rakes across your face. Then she's chasing you, all the way back to the house. Best get some rest and try again another time.
Dangerous increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago is increasing…
Wounds increase
Once you have the Stone Tentacle-Key, the previous two storylets will no longer appear and the two below will appear. Characters who acquired the Stone Tentacle-Key from the Duchess will also need to 'Investigate' the well to unlock these stories.
Prepare to find out what the well has to offer
Cynthia comes to talk to you. 'I know you have a Tentacle-Key,' she says. 'But you might benefit from a visit to the well anyway.'
unlocked with Dramatic Tension 1, Stone Tentacle-Key 1
Prepare yourself
There might be something valuable to be gained.
Persuasive challenge, straightforward at 128
'You must be careful.'
'Do be aware that the well will eat you if you try to fish in it,' says Cynthia. 'I suggest you take this net and stretch it over the top, instead. Who knows what you might catch? Oh, and make sure you take these smoked-glass spectacles.'
Persuasive increase
Gain: 2 x
Tale of Terror!!
Take your net to the well
Find out what falls down the well. Make sure you have prepared properly first.
unlocked with Stone Tentacle-Key 1, Dramatic Tension 1
Trust Cynthia's advice
Find out what falls down the well.
A straightforward challenge for your Watchful quality at 130
Glim! So much glim!
You push the wooden cover aside, averting your eyes as the light streams out, carrying a whirling cloud of white fireflies and frost-moths. Your smoked glasses protect you and let you peer down into the well. There at the bottom is the source of the light - a vast, humped, furred shape, quietly crouching. And hanging from a ledge halfway down, something else. Something with burning, molten yellow eyes. The maidservant. 'If you so much as put a finger in, she'll eat you in one gulp,' says a cheerful voice. Lucy. 'Here, I'll help you.'
Together, you stretch the net across the well. 'Come back in an hour,' says Lucy. 'She eats the glim that falls in, you see, but she can spare a bit here and there.' Which one is 'she'? Lucy skips away before you can ask your questions. But sure enough, an hour later you've collected all the glim you can carry.
Watchful increase
Gain: 1000 x
Glim
Your
Dramatic Tension Quality has gone!
The fires of truth
You push the wooden cover aside, averting your eyes as the light streams out, carrying a whirling cloud of white fireflies and frost-moths. Your smoked glasses protect you and let you peer down into the well.
Something is rising from the well: a vast, furred shape, blazing with silver radiance. It comes up like the moon over a tropical ocean. The skin on your face crackles and tautens. You cover your goggled eyes with your hands, but the light streams through as if they too were only glass. The thing is almost at the mouth of the well. For a moment you look into its great faceted eyes: in the moment before the light overwhelms you, you see a Secret.
The light is gone. You are awake: lying in the cold mud by the well. Your skin stings all over. The Secret nestles in your mind like a burning coal in a grate.
Watchful increase
Your
Dramatic Tension Quality has gone!
Gain: 1 x Searing Enigma
Wounds increase (2 change points)
Ouch!
You push the well cover to one side, and lean back as the light and the thousands of little white fireflies pour out. You're about to look down the well when a voice cries out, 'No! She'll eat you right up!' Phoebe's hurrying towards you. 'Careful!' Your hand is dangling just inside the well. Snap! Your reflexes pull your arm away before you even know it. but something's grazed the skin quite badly. A sharp stinging scrape, the kind you might receive from a saw's teeth.
Wounds increase
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 10
A game of charades
After dinner, the ladies like to play parlour games. Tonight, they are dressed in Grecian tunics, their hair braided and garlanded with herbs. You must guess who they are. Where will you roll the golden apple?
The three Graces?
Guess that they are the Charities, goddesses of charm, beauty and creativity.
The Furies?
Perhaps they are the terrible goddesses of vengeance!
'Alas!'
'Yes! Fear us!' cries Cynthia. 'We are the Kindly Ones! The Angry Ones! We will haunt you!' Lucy and Phoebe roll their eyes. 'Typical,' says Lucy. 'Now we're in for it. Best start weeping and wailing.'
Your
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago Quality is now 12!
Dangerous increase
(5 change points)
Nightmares increase
(1 change point)
Daring increase
(3 change points)
The faces of Hecate?
Say they represent the three-faced goddess of the moon, crossroads, and witchcraft.
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 11
Lucy finishes her story
You decided that the sisters were playing the three wise and witty Graces, which was what Lucy wanted. So it is her turn to tell her story.
unlocked with Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 11
Gather round the piano
Prepare to enjoy Lucy's storytelling.
Persuasive challenge, straightforward at 128
'And when he opened the carpet-bag, it was full of weasels!'
Phoebe plays a little incidental music and Lucy talks. She gestures wildly - and crudely - and fills her narrative with jokes and biting satire. 'My beloved was a kind man, but no match for his servant in intelligence. He was a Young Stag - very appropriately, if you know what I mean! And it was the only place in London he could wear bloomers in peace. But then I lost his inheritance gambling at Chimes' place - the sort of thing that could happen to anyone - so he had to take a job assisting a bald old playwright. Well, his father nearly had an apoplexy when he found out! He'd never liked me, and that was the end of that little romance.' Even Cynthia is laughing by now. 'All's well that ends well, anyway,' says Lucy, turning to you. 'Have you found what you're looking for yet? You won't forget us when you're off adventuring, will you?'
Persuasive increase
Your
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago Quality is now 3!
Dramatic Tension shows your progress in the Venture.
Gain: 1 x Sudden Insight
Gain: 1 x
Extraordinary Implication
'And when he opened the carpet-bag, it was full of weasels!'
Phoebe plays a little incidental music and Lucy talks. She gestures wildly - and crudely - and fills her narrative with jokes and biting satire. 'My beloved was a kind man, but no match for his servant in intelligence. He was a Young Stag - very appropriately, if you know what I mean! And it was the only place in London he could wear bloomers in peace. But then I lost his inheritance gambling at Chimes' place - the sort of thing that could happen to anyone - so he had to take a job assisting a bald old playwright. Well, his father nearly had an apoplexy when he found out! He'd never liked me, and that was the end of that little romance.' Even Cynthia is laughing by now. 'All's well that ends well, anyway,' says Lucy, turning to you. 'Have you found what you're looking for yet? You won't forget us when you're off adventuring, will you?'
Persuasive failed in a challenge!
Your
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago Quality is now 3!
Dramatic Tension shows your progress in the Venture.
Gain: 1 x Sudden Insight
Gain: 1 x
Extraordinary Implication
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 12
Cynthia finishes her story
You decided the sisters were dressing up as the three Furies, the goddesses that wreak terrible vengeance on sinners. How dramatic. This is what Cynthia wanted, so now she gets to tell her version of the story.
Take part in the chorus
Cynthia insists you follow her to the well. Apparently, you are to clasp your hands and sigh at her story, and it works better down there.
'Woe is me!'
The sisters have moved the cover aside, so the faux-moon shining from the bottom of the well is full tonight. Frost-moths and white fireflies spin circles around the well, glinting and shimmering. Cynthia finds the best light and strikes a dramatic pose. 'My story is a sad one,' she intones. 'I tell it here at this place that is sacred to that one that we shall not name. My beloved and I were separated by the cruel Fates. We were powerless, pawns in their game. And when we dared challenge them, they wrenched us apart. Alas! What a dreadful day!'
'He was a good man, but his father was a monster, and the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the sons, as they say. The wrath of his father was boundless! He dragged my beloved away to rot in a clerk's office, there to stab himself with his silver inkpen!' This goes on for some time. Lucy whispers in your ear. 'There was probably no stabbing,' she says. 'Cynthia is a little bit prone to exaggeration.' Cynthia turns on you. 'Be quiet, Lucina! And you - beware!' she cries. 'Take what you find and continue your questing, lest tragedy strike!' Phoebe rolls her eyes from safely behind Cynthia's back.
Your
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago Quality is now 3!
Dramatic Tension shows your progress in the Venture.
(2 change points) or
Dramatic Tension increase
but no higher than 2
Gain: 1 x Sudden Insight
Gain: 1 x
Extraordinary Implication
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 13
Phoebe finishes her story
You decided to say the sisters were playing Hecate, goddess of the moon. This was Phoebe's choice too, so she will finish telling you her story.
Join the sisters in the herb-garden
Listen to Phoebe's tale.
A straightforward challenge for your Persuasive quality at 125
A tale of innocence
The scent of herbs is cloying and medicinal on the night air. You arrange yourselves around the rockery and Phoebe tells her story. 'He sang to me, told me stories of innocents who knew nothing of life and love,' she says. 'He tried to tell me how he felt, using other poets' words. But when we lost the sky and the moon, we lost each other. We couldn't be innocents any more, not after the Fall. His father sent him into the city to wear a grey suit all day, exchanging crook for quill.' The bright white light shines upwards to the cavern roof. Phoebe smiles. 'That world of innocence is still there, though, in the songs. You must seek out a place where it is still real, if you wish to keep seeking. Once you have gained all you need from us, of course.'
Persuasive increase
Your
Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago Quality is now 3!
Dramatic Tension shows your progress in the Venture.
Gain: 1 x Sudden Insight
Gain: 1 x
Extraordinary Implication
should your Wounds reach 8 while at Hunter's Keep (frex from the Rare success on "Take your net to the well") the following occurs:
What happened?
You wake up, dizzy and disoriented. Lucy is sitting by your bed, holding a bowl of water and a cloth. 'Tsk,' she says, brightly. 'You've not been very well, have you? It's lucky we have all the herbs we needed in our garden.' You look across at the mirror. Now you know where the expression 'green about the gills' comes from. Still, you're feeling better.
Wounds has dropped to 5 - Bandages and Ointments! (21 change points)
Your Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago Quality is now 3!
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Gain: 11 x 
Gain: 2 x 
Gain: 2 x An Unusual Love Story
Hedonist increase but no higher than 15
Melancholy increase but no higher than 15
