Before you came down here, you heard through a contact here that she had a line on a diamond 'the size of a cow'. She did tend to exaggerate. But even if it's only the size of, say, a pig, or even a kitten, it's worth your time.
Unlocked: Shadowy 6
Necessary qualities: Shadowy and Persuasive.
Starts in Spite.
Find out what happened to your contact, the Fading Music-Hall Singer.
Ambition: Light Fingers! - Begin!
[Location: Spite]
Before you came down here, you heard through a contact here that she had a line on a diamond 'the size of a cow'. She did tend to exaggerate. But even if it's only the size of, say, a pig, or even a kitten, it's worth your time.
Unlocks: Shadowy 6
Find out what happened to your contact, the Fading Music-Hall Singer.
This is an Ambition: a major storyline with enormous rewards if you reach the end. Once you've picked an Ambition, it is very hard to change it. Choose carefully!
Your Shadowy and Persuasive qualities are most important for this Ambition.
You have chosen this Ambition.
Of course, by the time you got out of New Newgate she'd disappeared. No-one seems to know how, or where, or they're not prepared to admit it.
Rewards :
Boldly done! You have chosen an Ambition! Ambition: Light Fingers!
Ambition: Light Fingers! [1]
[Location: Spite]
She used to sing at Mahogany Hall. That'll be the best place to start.
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 1
Find your way backstage to look around.
You're going to need to do some fast talking. Callers generally aren't allowed, and they don't know your face.
Modest: Persuasive ?
Straightforward: Persuasive ?
Someone's willing to be flexible -
The burly fellow at the side entrance will let you in. For a consideration.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Ambition: Light Fingers! [2]
[Location: Spite]
There may be a clue at the Fading Music-Hall Singer's lodgings. But when you find your way there, the house is being watched by the Constables. Interesting. But inconvenient.
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 2, Daguerreotype With Fading Music-Hall Singer's Address 1
Slip in through a window
You'll need to creep into an alley, up an overhanging wall and across the roof. And there's a lot of constables about. This won't be easy.
Modest: Shadowy ?
Straightforward: Shadowy ?
You scramble near-silently over the roof and in through an attic window.
The room is narrow and nearly bare - but in the moonish light slanting through the window behind you, you recognise a dress of hers, and a green Venetian glass dish you gave her in the days when you were - well, closer - and there - an intriguing-looking package in brown paper.
And that long dark stain up the wall looks like blood. You move closer. Long dried. No way to tell if it's hers.
Feet on the stairs! You pad hastily back to the window, snatching up the package you noticed on your way in. You slip out and examine your prize, perched on the roof in the moonish light while cats yowl in the alley below. It's a scrap of canvas in a box. It looks like it was cut from a painting. You don't recognise it, but Veilgarden is full of artist types. Perhaps you should continue your search there.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Painting Fragment x 1
Light Fingers! [3]
[Location: Veilgarden]
You'll need to be careful about this. If the Constables are that interested, flashing the painting fragment around would be unwise.
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 3, Painting Fragment 1
Drop hints until you find someone useful
Don't tip your hand before you're ready.
Modest: Persuasive ?
Straightforward: Persuasive ?
This sounds promising
A Struggling Artist in the Singing Mandrake might be able to help you.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Light Fingers! [4]
[Location: Veilgarden]
Your contact, the one who knew about the gigantic jewel, is missing. You have a clue: a fragment of a painting, something a Ginger-haired Painter in the Elderwick paints over and over.
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 4, Ginger-Haired Fellow's Address 1
Break into the Ginger Painter's studio and search it
You might talk to him later. But let's see what we can find out first, hm?
Unlocks: Shadowy 20
Modest: Shadowy ?
Straightforward: Shadowy ?
Treading carefully
The studio is a mess: materials scattered everywhere, paint trodden underfoot and smeared across the floor, overturned furniture. At first you think someone else has searched the place, but later you realise it's just how he lives. Moving through the place without waking the painter as he snores upstairs is exceptionally difficult.
On the walls hang a dozen copies of the same painting: a hunchbacked figure in a hooded robe and brass crown, beautifully rendered. The figure's right hand holds a lamp. With its left hand, it's unlocking a door. The lamp is identical to the one in your painting fragment.
A search of the studio turns up a visiting card: a business representative of Mr Fires, a Master of the Bazaar who does business down by the docks. Hm. Now you think of it, the figure in the painting is a little hunchbacked, like they say the masters are.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Light Fingers! [5]
[Location: Veilgarden]
The Ginger-Haired Painter had a business card from a representative of Mr Fires. It's a lead, but you don't want to tangle with the Masters just yet.
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 5
Armed with knowledge, talk to the Ginger-Haired Painter.
The man opens the door to you a little grumpily, bleary-eyed and dressing-gowned. He apologises. 'Didn't sleep well last night. Rats in my studio, I think. Keep an eye out. What did you want?'
Unlocks: Persuasive 20
Modest: Persuasive ?
Straightforward: Persuasive ?
Success!
The whole time you're talking to him, his eye keeps wandering to the paintings on the wall. Eventually he comes back to you, but he obviously has no idea what you've been talking about.
You take the plunge. 'Is that Mr Fires?' you ask. 'It's a wonderful likeness.'
He beams. It is! He hadn't realised he was among friends. They've come, he reminds you, to save us. All of us! He assures you that one day the paintings will hang in the Cathedral. He deplores the wickedness and stupidity of men. He speaks with wistful enthusiasm of Mr Fires' generosity and patronage.
You ask about the lamp in the painting. Is it drawn from life? Does Mr Fires carry one? He lays his finger alongside his nose. 'No! But isn't it handsome?'
And that's all you get from him. He abandons your conversation to talk animatedly to his current painting about tea and rats. Time to go to Wolfstack Docks.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Light Fingers! [6]
[Location: Wolfstack Docks]
Your contact had a scrap of a painting, one of a series. The Ginger-Haired Painter did the painting for Mr Fires, or his representative. You have the representative's address.
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 6
Follow Mr Fires' representative
The address is in an annex of Mr Fires' offices: an imposing dripstone building with barred windows. Security will be tight. If you can catch him coming out, perhaps you can follow him home.
**Unlocks: Shadowy 25 **
Modest: Shadowy ?
Straightforward: Shadowy ?
An unmarked grave?
Opposite the building, one of the famous stalagmites of Wolfstack has been converted into a kiosk which sells roast chestnuts and a thin fungoid substitute for coffee. You fold yourself inconspicuously into one of the shadowed crevices in its side, and wait.
At last you hear one of the office doormen call goodnight to him. You drift out of the crevice and follow him through the crowd. He doesn't turn or look back: he doesn't seem to notice you.
At last he takes a quick glance behind him - you duck behind a Fall Memorial - and hops over the wall of a churchyard. He hurries across the ground to an unmarked patch of ground. There's no grave, but he knows where he's going. He stands there for a good ten minutes, head bowed. Do you hear him sobbing?
Then he leaves, and you follow him home without incident. You have his address. But perhaps you should return to the churchyard tomorrow.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Light Fingers! [7]
[Location: Wolfstack Docks]
The Representative of Mr Fires that you were tracking has an interest in a patch of churchyard. An unmarked grave, perhaps?
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 7
Option 1: Bring a spade and shuttered lantern to the graveyard
This will be difficult. The churchyard is well lit and it's just off a busy street. And not all the occupants of all the graves may be entirely dead.
Unlocks: Shadowy 25
Modest: Shadowy ?
Straightforward: Shadowy ?
Your spade strikes wood
A cheap coffin. It can't have been down there long. And a very, very small one. This must be an infant's grave…
You grit your teeth and ease back the lid. The tiny body within is mercifully little more than leather and bones, but you suspect you'll see it again in your dreams. Tangled in the neckbones is a locket on a brass chain. You snatch it and retreat, filling in the grave as best you can.
In the brighter light of the gas-lamps, you examine the locket. The picture within is unmistakably that of your contact, the Fading Music-Hall Singer. Was this her child? And why was Mr Fires' Representative weeping over the grave? Time for some answers.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Nightmares increases
Option 2: Speak to the sexton
The sexton may know something. When you ask, he grins and rubs his fingers together.
**Unlocks: Persuasive 25, Moon-pearl x 100 **
Modest: Persuasive ?
Straightforward: Persuasive ?
REWARD2 HEADER
REWARD2 TEXT
Rewards :
LOOT
Light Fingers! [8]
[Location: Wolfstack Docks]
You have the address of Mr Fires' Representative, who you've seen weeping over the grave of the child of your missing contact, the Fading Music-Hall Singer.
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 9
Find a way into his house
You'll want to be sure your conversation is not disturbed. You'll need a safe way to enter and leave again without attracting attention.
Unlocks: Shadowy 35
Modest: Shadowy ?
Straightforward: Shadowy ?
Well, you'd be wearing black anyway
A useful laziness on his servant's part: the coal-cellar is unlocked two hours before each delivery. You can get in that way, and leave by the same route. You'll need to take a long bath afterwards.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Light Fingers! [9]
[Location: Wolfstack Docks]
You've found a way into the house of the Representative of Mr Fires. Via the coal cellar. This mysterious jewel had better be properly big.
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 10
Creep into the Representative's bedroom and question him
You won't take no for an answer!
Unlocks: Persuasive 35
Modest: Persuasive ?
Straightforward: Persuasive ?
You wake the man from nightmares - but slowly
The child is his, of course. He had a liaison with your contact, the Fading Music-Hall Singer. He refused to acknowledge it, and feels guilty to this day. He is keen to talk about his guilt, but honestly, you're not that interested. Where did she go? What's the business with the painting? That's when he breaks down and begins raving. The hooded men! The light of the world! The Masters' Jewel! Who mapped the Unterzee? You see? The dead follow! The strong woman! Heifer star! Heifer star!
You clap your hand over his mouth, but he keeps screaming 'Heifer star! Heifer star!' You hear a commotion in the servant's quarters. Time to make your exit. You snatch a handful of uncut diamonds from his bedside as you go. (Why does he keep uncut diamonds by his bedside?)
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Diamond x 5
Light Fingers! [10]
[Location: Wolfstack Docks]
[Autofire Card]
"The hooded men! The light of the world! The Masters' Jewel! Who mapped the Unterzee? You see? The dead follow! The strong woman! Heifer star! Heifer star!"
When you cautiously pass by the following evening, the Representative's house is locked and dark and empty. The gossip is that he's lost his mind and been taken off to a sanitarium, but no one seems certain.
'Heifer star'. That meant something to him. Heifer? Cow? Jewel? Star? It's a clue of sorts. But where to start looking?
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 11
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
Ambition: Light Fingers!
"The hooded men! The light of the world! The Masters' Jewel! Who mapped the Unterzee? You see? The dead follow! The strong woman! Heifer star! Heifer star!"
Find someone who can tell you what these ravings mean
You'll need to be cautious and cunning. You don't want to attract attention.
Nothing here, you're sure of it.
The words mean nothing to anyone you talk to. But at least you're certain that whatever it is you're looking for, you won't find it in Wolfstack Docks.
Ambition: Light Fingers!
"The hooded men! The light of the world! The Masters' Jewel! Who mapped the Unterzee? You see? The dead follow! The strong woman! Heifer star! Heifer star!"
Find someone who can tell you what these ravings mean
You'll need to be cautious and cunning. You don't want to attract attention.
There's nothing here.
The words mean nothing to anyone you talk to. But at least you're certain that whatever it is you're looking for, you won't find it in Watchmaker's Hill.
Ambition: Light Fingers! (Continued in Spite)
"The hooded men! The light of the world! The Masters' Jewel! Who mapped the Unterzee? You see? The dead follow! The strong woman! Heifer star! Heifer star!"
Find someone who can tell you what these ravings mean
You'll need to be cautious and cunning. You don't want to attract attention.
Success!
'Heifer star?' wheezes a gin-raddled, rag-wrapped old cag-magger. 'Oh, we likes heifer star. You can sees her at the Mahogany most nights. There, look.'
He points past you. You turn and see the faded, fluttering scraps of a poster. An Amazonian woman lifts a frightened-looking man above her head with one hand. The caption reads 'HEPHAESTA: THE STRONGEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD.'
You recognise the face. It's the strongwoman who scowled at you, that night you searched the dressing-rooms in Mahogany Hall.
Ambition: Light Fingers!
It wasn't 'heifer star'. It was 'Hephaesta.' A strong-woman who does shows at Mahogany Hall. You have a sinking feeling. You didn't misunderstand this business about a jewel the size of a cow?
Sneak into Mahogany Hall
(failure)
The doormen have been warned not to admit you. The place is secured against thieves and overenthusiastic admirers. But they can't expect to keep out a second-story man of your calibre.
Oh, right. Apparently they can expect to keep out a second-story expert of your calibre
At least they can when the drainpipe fittings are rotten and the house opposite is full of barking dogs. You dust yourself off and make one of the quiet exits for which you are justly renowned.
success:
Ambition: Light Fingers!
It wasn't 'heifer star'. It was 'Hephaesta.' A strong-woman who does shows at Mahogany Hall. You have a sinking feeling. You didn't misunderstand this business about a jewel the size of a cow?
Sneak into Mahogany Hall
The doormen have been warned not to admit you. The place is secured against thieves and overenthusiastic admirers. But they can't expect to keep out a second-story man of your calibre.
An audience with Hephaesta
You're waiting behind the door of her dressing room when she comes in. She looks you up and down and sniffs. She doesn't scream.
'Right. I heard you'd bin askin' around. Come to ask me where it is? I don't know where it is. Come to kill me? Like to see you try. Come for an autygraph? I can do you an autygraph.'
You assure her you're only here to find out where the Fading Music-Hall Singer is. You're a friend from the surface. Hephaesta relaxes, but only a very little.
'She had a lot of friends like you. None of them ever did her much good. Tell you what. Meet me at the Mandrake tomorrow. In Veilgarden. We'll see if I think I think I can trust you. Dress nice, like. Don't want you showing me up.'
That's all you get. You leave. But she said 'I don't know where it is.' Did that mean the jewel? At least that means it might be real.
Ambition: Light Fingers!
You are meeting Hephaesta at the Singing Mandrake. She can help you track down the Fading Music-Hall Singer.
Hephaesta is alone
The surly strong-woman sits at a scarred table, drinking cheap wine. Can you convince her to trust you?
Lawks a-mercy
After a half-hour of your charming company and a considerable quantity of the rough stuff that is sold as wine here, Hephaesta warms to you. Well, thaws, a little. She sends an urchin out. Half an hour later, Mrs. Plenty appears. She's the proprietress of the Neath's most notable carnival and a respected figure in Veilgarden, if almost nowhere else. She addresses you:
'She's hiding, dearie. But not from the likes of you. Her sister is up to her neck in some terrible business, and she's been dragged in. It's a fierce shame - they's both sing like angels, so they do. She was s'posed come back from the Forgotten Quarter last week. I fears the worst for her.'
You're well on your way to fearsing the worst too. Fearing the worst. You had better check the Forgotten Quarter. And you didn't know she had a sister.
Ambition: Light Fingers - Searching the Forgotten Quarter
Hephaesta says that the Fading Music-Hall Singer was hiding in the Forgotten Quarter, but has failed to return.
Searching the ruins
Only devils and scholars of antiquities haunt these ruins in any numbers. Perhaps they have seen something. A series of bribes is in order.
the scene of the crime
The scholars are distracted and the devils cryptic, but an observant student tells you what you need after a few bottles of cheap wine. Your friend is hiding out in a ruined stable near the Northwest corner of the quarter: a place within sight of the Royal Bethlehem Hotel.
You rush to the stable down eery and endless avenues under the eyes of ancient statues: but the stables are empty. Someone has been living here, though, and there are signs of a recent struggle: an overturned cooking pot, scuff marks in the bare earth. Dried blood, too. A considerable quantity of it. A quantity that bodes ill for the person it used to be inside.
What is she talking about?
She wasn't far from permanent death when you found her. She may never fully recover. She's often unconscious and the rest of the time she babbles. Can you get any sense out of her?
unlocked with Persuasive 50
A sister and madness
She stops babbling and starts burbling. The burble rises to a sound you barely recognise. Is that a song? Her neck convulses as if the muscles of her throat are in revolt. But the effect is weirdly calming. Each note follows the last like a stylishly dressed assassin: dramatic, unexpected, inevitable. You find yourself nodding along. Even Hephaesta seems relaxed.
The song ends and your friend starts making a little more sense. Someone was hunting her down, but she couldn't abandon her twin sister, the Eccentric Opera Singer. Her sister has been driven mad, though, and is in the place mad people go. Will you make sure she is safe? She pulls a locket from her neck and presses it into your hands before she slumps back into a deep, calm sleep.
[To find her sister, you'll need to increase your Nightmares enough to get into the place that mad people go.]
You succeeded in a Persuasive challenge!
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 18!
You now have 1 x Locket Depicting Twin Sisters [?]
Ambition continues in A State of Some Confusion (remember to bring a dose of vigor tincture, then requires spending 500 Glim in the Wolfstack docks:
More questions than answers
Good God, but that was expensive. A Twitching Engineer agrees to talk to you amid the hissing steam-pipes and slowly turning gears. They don't just sell ships here, y'see. They quietly broker information on the richest locations for glim-fall. There is a colony of Drownies nearby, drowned half-dead who know the tricks of calling glim-fall with song. They know other songs, too.
That can't be a coincidence. It must have been Drownies who taught the two sisters those strange songs. Is this anything to do with the opera singer's pregnancy? Is it these songs that have been causing the trouble? What does all this have to do with the giant jewel? Perhaps the Drownies know.
Rewards :
Ambition: Light Fingers! increases
lose 500 Glim
Ambition: Light Fingers! [21]
The songs of the Drownies are mixed up with the affair of the huge jewel and the Fading Music-Hall singer.
Song under the water
The Drownies sing under the river near the docks. You could listen in if you climbed the great dockside crane that extends far out over the waters.
To unlock, you need Shadowy 55
The music of the drowned
You slip past the Drownie guards at the base of the crane and shimmy up its oily steel strutwork. The boom is low over the water, and after crawling out an alarmingly long way, you can hear the Drownies at their songs.
Their song calls glim to fall from the cavern ceiling above. A glittering shower falls all around you, glinting in the moonish light: a few pieces land on the crane near you. The glim-song is almost the one you heard the Eccentric Opera Singer sing to her baby when you were… confused. How can that be? If the song calls glim, who was that baby's father?
Their next song is of considerable professional interest. It recalls the lightless depths of the deep Unterzee. It brings darkness and silence, even as it chills your blood. You will not forget that song, and you think you might even be able to repeat it.
You rush from the crane to places of warmth and light and company. In the taproom of the Blind Helmsman you receive a note from an urchin. The Fading Music-Hall Singer is awake! She awaits you in Veilgarden.
Rewards:
62 x Glim
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 22!
You now have 1 x Drownie Song of the Deep
Someone has done this before
The Drownies have mounted a guard at the base of the crane. They are alert for all their lack of eyes. They speak hungrily of grabbing passersby and dragging them down beneath the cold waters forever. Time for a warm fire and some lively company away from the water.
Nightmares increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! [22]
The Fading Music-Hall Singer has recovered! She has escaped the lot of a tomb-colonist by inches. For the moment, she lodges with Hephaesta the strong-woman.
Tears and guilt
She is thankful for her rescue, but seems ashamed of the way she treated you. She is reluctant to speak, and weeps a great deal.
unlocked with Persuasive 55
A confession
With infinite care, you calm and soothe the Fading Music-Hall Singer. Eventually, she tells you of her terrible guilt for involving you in this affair, but with vicious thugs on her trail and her sister's madness, she didn't know where else to turn.
She doesn't know where the huge jewel is, but she is certain it is real. She heard a man talking about it when he came to visit her sister. That man was the start of all the trouble. He charmed her twin at the opera stage door, presenting her with expensive glim jewellery. She disappeared with him somewhere - and wasn't seen for months. When the Fading Music-Hall Singer tracked her sister down, she was both pregnant and quite insane. She was singing inhuman songs - her beautiful voice was ruined by them.
Strange men began to hound your friend. Someone important wanted her silenced, and that's when she told you about the jewel. She knew that you would help her to get to it.
She's holding something back: the name of the man who caused all this trouble for her sister. The man who knows where the jewel is.
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 23!
10 x Cryptic Clue
Ambition: Light Fingers! [23]
There's one thing the Fading Music-Hall Singer hasn't told you: the name of the man who knows where the huge jewel is.
A travelling purse
She didn't quite die when the two Clay Man thugs beat her with hammers. She wants to go back to the surface and find a new life for her and her sister. She'll tell you his name if you help fund her escape.
unlocked with 200 x Surface Currency
Done with this place
The Fading Music-Hall singer is done with the Neath, and starts making her preparations to return to the surface. After you hand over the money, she pecks you on the cheek and whispers a name into your ear.
The man you need to find is the one they call Poor Edward.
You bid a fond goodbye. She's a decent sort, even if she did string you along, but you're not sure she'll be able to get her sister out safely.
lose 200 x Surface Currency
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 24!
Ambition: Light Fingers! [24]
Poor Edward has caused misery to the Fading Music-Hall Singer and her sister…
(unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 24)
He is also your only lead on the 'jewel the size of a cow'.
A mysterious gentleman
Nobody knows Poor Edward. Or at the least, nobody admits to knowing him. What are they hiding?
unlocked with Persuasive 60, straightforward < 84
The delightful creature
'…and you didn't hear this from me, you delightful creature. Poor Edward is not someone that anyone as beautiful as you should bother. He goes everywhere masked. Nobody has seen his face. Perhaps he is the same sort of creature as the Masters. Wouldn't that be worth seeing? In any case, few know him or his business. I did hear, though, that a man that used to work for him is now a Star-gazing Roustabout at the carnival. Now, are you going to let me buy you dinner or not…'
Persuasive increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 25!
Continued at Mrs Plenty's Carnival
Ambition: Light Fingers! [25]
The Star-gazing Roustabout can be found at Mrs. Plenty's Most Distracting Carnival. It seems that he used to work for Poor Edward.
Option 1: Bribe the carnies
Money talks. Money shouts, screams and sings at the carnival.
unlocked with Moon-pearl 400
Option 2: Get friendly with the carnies
Someone here must know the Star-gazing Roustabout. A few quips, a bawdy anecdote and a chat by the weasel pit will get it out of them.
unlocked with Persuasive 60, straightforward < 84
Option 3: Sneak around after the Roustabout
The carnival is a complex place and there are many places to hide for someone who does not wish to be found. The Star-gazing Roustabout is wary: stealth and subtlety are called for.
unlocked with Shadowy 60, straightforward at 72
But there are no stars to gaze at -
You buttonhole the Star-gazing Roustabout as he clears up near the tiger cages. He's a twitchy sort and keeps a watch upward, which seems very out of place this far underground.
He starts as you approach, twitching and stammering. He barely looks at you as you speak, straining his eyes upward. What has happened to this man? What has happened to this man? He can tell you about Poor Edward, he says. He'll meet you at his lodgings in Spite. Bring money.
Shadowy increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 26!
Continues at Spite
Ambition: Light Fingers! [26]
You are to meet the Star-gazing Roustabout at his lodgings near the Spite markets…
(unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 26)
A shabby sort of place
You can't help feeling a little nervous carrying this much red gold near the Spite markets, which are crawling with pickpockets. You find the address easily enough.
unlocked with Rostygold 200, Shadowy challenge, an almost impossible challenge at 77, straightforward at 96
Success!
When you open the door at the top of the stairs, the Star-gazing Roustabout isn't there. Poor Edward is, with four burly men of a neddy character. Poor Edward is elegantly dressed but masked: the neddy men - the Masters' enforcers - treat him with respect verging on fear. Edward nods, and they move forward.
Fortunately, a lifetime of quick exits has prepared you for this. You arrange a stumble, knock a milk-jug off a table, stagger sideways and dive neatly through a window. Or try to: Poor Edward moves with unlikely speed, seizing you as you fall. Milky blue eyes bulge behind his mask: the expression in them is not what you expect. Pleading? You hesitate. He takes advantage of the moment to snatch the Fading Music-Hall Singer's locket! There is a tussle, and you sail through the window, landing on a convenient widow. As the widow screams imprecations and Edward's men clatter downstairs, you limp off into the night.
Shadowy increase
You've gained a new quality: Suspicion at 2.
You've lost 1 x Locket Depicting Twin Sisters (new total 0).
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 27!
continues at Mrs Plenty's Carnival
Ambition: Light Fingers! [27]
Free! -
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 27
Now you can locate and chastise the treacherous Star-gazing Roustabout.
Tents and lumps no more
The Star-gazing Roustabout must have learned of your escape. He has bolted from the carnival. Someone knows where he has gone.
unlocked with Persuasive 65
Persuasive challenge, straightforward < 86
To the heath!
'…and you didn't hear this from me, but 'e came from the edge of the city. One one of those places to the South and West, around Winewound Heath. Good luck finding anything there. The fog on the common is thick enough to knit with. Now be off with you, I've a show to run.'
Winewound Heath, eh? That's a good way off. Best go to your lodgings and prepare for an expedition.
Persuasive increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 28!
continues at Lodgings
Ambition: Light Fingers! [28]
The time has come to head out to the very edges of the city, and find the Star-gazing Roustabout, or at least some trace of him…
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 28
Into the wilds with knife and jade
The people at the edges of the city are often poor. Best take some bribery money with you.
unlocked with 400 x Jade Fragment
Drinks around the Heath
The stories about the Winewound Heath fog weren't exaggerating. You keep to the edges of the Heath itself: any further in and you can barely see your own feet in the thick, chilling mist.
The people who live around the edges seem friendly enough, and after paying for a few meals and quite a few drinks you get somewhere. It seems that the Star-gazing Roustabout was once a stonemason but fell in with a bad crowd at the centre of the city. He has been seen with Poor Edward more than once. He's not been seen here for weeks, but you get an address.
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 29!
lose 200 x Jade Fragment
Ambition: Light Fingers! [29]
You have an address near Winewound Heath for the Star-gazing Roustabout, the man who betrayed you to Poor Edward…
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 29
A set of directions, at least. One of the directions is 'leap the fungus pit'.
The cottage
When you get to the fog-shrouded cottage, the place is empty. You get the feeling that the Star-gazing Roustabout won't be coming back. That said, perhaps a gentleman of your talents knows where to look for hidden and secret things.
unlocked with Shadowy 65
Shadowy challenge, straightforward at 77
Secrets under the floorboards
Some very cold ashes. A coal scuttle hosting a family of rats. A memorably malodorous pantry. An intriguing piece of paper hidden under a loose floorboard.
The paper is a torn fragment of a larger piece, and has numbers written in a neat hand. It's a dirigible manifest! There's a charcoal sketch on the back that gives directions across the foggy Heath and a table of times and dates from last year - late at night when honest folk were asleep. Has someone been landing dirigibles on the Heath? Why? The main dirigible station is near Wolfstack Docks: perhaps the answers lie there.
Shadowy increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 30!
continues at Wolfstack Docks
Ambition: Light Fingers! [30]
All you have are a few half-remembered numbers and the suspicion that a dirigible has been landing secrety on Winewound Heath…
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 30
Ask around
Someone around the dirigible stations and hydrogen tanks must know about this.
unlocked with Persuasive 70
Persuasive challenge, straightforward < 86
The Market Beast
You get chatting to an Avuncular Engineer. Between offering you spore-toffees, he tells you of the airship in question.
'You're talking about the Market Beast. She's a sturdy old bird. They made the Institution class to last, so they did. Her pilot wasn't up to much, though. I kept pulling tree branches out of the gondola netting after those little jaunts to the Heath. I did see this masked fellow take the trip, too. The one used to hang round here with a gang of neddy men. Now - I thought I knew where she's berthed now, but I seem to have forgotten.'
He waggles his eyebrows at you expectantly.
Persuasive increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 31!
Ambition: Light Fingers! [31]
You are looking for the dirigible that Poor Edward uses…
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 31
The Avuncular Engineer wants a bribe to tell you about the Market Beast.
Option 1: Pay the man
Avuncular or not, the engineer has some strange tastes. Why does he want that much brass to tell you about Poor Edward's dirigible?
unlocked with Nevercold Brass Sliver 400
Option 2: Look into his peccadillos
A man asking for that much hell-brass must have a few sins, even if he seems harmless enough.
unlocked with Shadowy 70
Shadowy challenge, straightforward at 82
He once helped a spirifer…
'Damn you! How did you know…well then. The Market Beast docks at berth 14. She isn't on any particular route. She gets used by those working for the Masters on… delicate matters. You'll know her when you see her: she's painted the colour of fog. And no, you may not have any spore-toffee.'
Berth 14 isn't far. But, working for the masters? That can't be good.
Shadowy increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 32!
Ambition: Light Fingers! [32]
The Market Beast, the dirigible used by Poor Edward, is housed at berth 14…
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 32
Sneak aboard
There are Constables, dogs and neddy men everywhere. Complex locks and fiercely bright carbide-lamps. Getting to the dirigible will not be easy, even for you.
unlocked with Shadowy 75
Shadowy challenge, straightforward at 87
The Orphanage
You get lucky: as you approach the dirigible stations Mr Fires takes his personal dirigible, Industry, to visit the Bazaar. He must be feeling ostentatious or lazy: the journey is only a few miles. In either case, the Constables and neddy men thin out around berth 14 and you slip in unseen.
As the Avuncular Engineer said, the Market Beast is painted a dull grey. Just the colour to go unnoticed in a fog. She is an old, sturdy model and lacks identifying numerals or even a name plaque. You slip past the few ground staff and board her. The interior is bare: you head to the bridge.
The bridge boasts a safe. It's a good one. It takes you more than two minutes to crack it. Inside is a flight log. Many of the dirigible's activities would be of interest to certain monied parties, but there are two that catch your attention. The first is that the dirigible has been to the cavern roof. What are they doing up there? The second is that when Poor Edward has been aboard, the dirigible has been to the Orphanage several times. The Orphanage? Where is that? The orphans of Spite might know.
Shadowy increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 33!
50 x Cryptic Clue
continued in Spite
Ambition: Light Fingers! [33]
Poor Edward used a dirigible to visit a place called the Orphanage…
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 33
The orphans of Spite
The narrow alleys and rambling rookeries of Spite are full of orphans. Perhaps they know something about this place. Are you enough of an underworld figure to impress them?
unlocked with Shadowy 75
Shadowy challenge, straightforward at 87
The Orphanage
The urchins glance about nervously. They have heard of this place, but none will claim to have been there. They seem genuinely afraid. The Orphanage is supposedly where the wildest and most troublesome orphans are kept, but there's more to it.
There are adults kept there. Adults whose parents were murdered permanently to make them eligible. People who offend the Masters. And other things. Things that the urchins are too scared to speak of clearly. Monsters, they say. They say that the place is hidden in a maze of narrow streets, and it is almost impossible to get in or out without a dirigible.
As you speak to them, a further urchin rushes in with a message. Hephaesta needs to speak with you immediately! She is at her lodgings in Veilgarden.
Shadowy increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 34!
continued in Veilgarden.
Ambition: Light Fingers! [34]
Hephaesta the strong-woman has sent a message that she needs to speak with you urgently…
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 34)
The locket
When you get there, Hephaesta is holding a familiar locket and looking… angry. An angry Hephaesta is not a good person to be around.
unlocked with Persuasive 75
Persuasive challenge, straightforward at 87
The Orphanage, again
You soothe and calm Hephaesta until the furniture-throwing stops. It seems that a masked man - presumably Poor Edward - caught the Fading Music-hall Singer when she went to retrieve her sister. They have been taken to a place called the Orphanage. The masked man arranged for the locket to be returned to you.
Hephaesta impresses upon you the need for the two sisters to be removed from this man's influence, and the need for Poor Edward to be damaged. She is insistent on these matters, and has some detailed suggestions for the latter. The former is left in your hands, however. Getting to the Orphanage? You will need to call in some favours. The villains of Spite are the most promising bet.
Persuasive increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 35!
1 x Locket Depicting Twin Sisters
continued in Spite
Ambition: Light Fingers!
Call in some contacts and find out how to break in to the Orphanage…
unlocked with Ambition: Light Fingers! 35
Finding the Orphanage
The orphanage is infamously difficult to find. You will need friends to help you here. And something to trade.
unlocked with 5 x Hastily Scrawled Warning Note, 250 x Cryptic Clue
The way to the Orphanage
'The Orphanage, eh? You sure you want to go there? Place is a proper labyrinth, so it is, and full of terrible things. Proper madmen and monsters there, so they say. This woman I know. Husband was of the anarchic persuasion if you know what I mean. Both his parents drowned. Mysterious circumstances. Made him an orphan, didn't it? So they hauled him off there. She spent years finding a way in. It can be done, but it aint easy. The way in starts at Elderwick, at a little side alley marked with an eye. That's not the hard bit though. There's something in the labyrinth. Something terrible. If it sees you, that's the end of you and no mistake. You better be quick and quiet if you're heading there.'
Quick and quiet sounds just like you. You should prepare for this journey at your lodgings.
lose 5 x Hastily Scrawled Warning Note
lose 250 x Cryptic Clue
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 36!
Ambition: Light Fingers! Lunching with the Enemy
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 36
A handwritten note arrives with your morning correspondence. 'Time we had a proper chat. Yes? let me buy you lunch at Dante's. No harm will come to you. Yrs Edward.'
Neutral ground
Dante's Grill is always packed at lunch-time. Edward wouldn't try anything in such a public spot. And the devilled kidneys are excellent.
Edward's proposal
Edward is waiting for you at a corner table. He has a plate of garlic moss-balls that he feeds through the lower hole of his mask, one after another. 'I'm glad you came,' he says, between mouthfuls. His voice is most unusual: one moment a soft flute, the next a waterlogged bassoon.
'You are close to making a number of unpleasant discoveries. My employers would prefer that you didn't. If we were on the surface, I would simply kill you. But death is no guarantee of anything around here, and I dislike butchery. I have a more civilised proposal.'
He pushes a small paper packet across the table. 'These are Lethean tea leaves. Very expensive. One brew of these, and you will forget all you have ever learned about glim, and the drownies, and the Orphanage. Especially the Orphanage. That is not a place you would enjoy. I certainly didn't.'
Edward leans back in his chair. Casual movement does not suit him. He looks like a scorpion settling into a slipper. 'You don't have to use them,' he says. 'If you choose not to, I shall arrange instead for you to be buried alive. Take a few moments to consider what that means, down here.
'Shall we say a day and a night to decide? I'll be keeping an eye on you.'
You can use the Lethean Tea Leaves from your inventory. If Edward's offer doesn't appeal, you should head for Spite, and the Orphanage.
An occurrence! Your 'Ambition: Light Fingers!' Quality is now 37!
Gain: 1 x Lethean Tea-Leaves
Clicking on Lethean Tea-Leaves from Inventory
Brewing a Nice Cup of Lethean Tea
The fire is lit. The kettle is on. The cup is warm. The leaves are ready. Everything is prepared. Are you absolutely certain you want to forget your Ambition?
Drink Lethean Tea
WARNING: IF YOU DO THIS YOUR CURRENT AMBITION WILL BE WIPED. YOU WILL LOSE ANY SPECIAL ITEMS YOU GAINED FROM IT. THERE IS NO GOING BACK. DO NOT DRINK THE TEA UNLESS YOU ARE SURE YOU WANT TO DRINK THE TEA.
You drank the tea!
The tea-leaves were steeped in the water of the Lethe some years ago. The taste is as you'd expect from tea that was brewed once already and then left in a cupboard for decades: dreadful. And slightly mouldy.
You put down the rest of the cup untasted. Perhaps it didn't work. Hang on. Perhaps what doesn't work? Why are you drinking mouldy tea? Is something missing? You're in Fallen London, aren't you? What were you doing again exactly?
The remnants of tea sit unregarded on the table while you go about your business.
Your Ambition has been cancelled. You may begin another if you so wish.
You've lost a quality: Ambition: Light Fingers!.
Lose: 1 x Lethean Tea-Leaves
lose 1 x Drownie Song of the Deep (new total 0).
lose 1 x Locket Depicting Twin Sisters (new total 0).
Ambition: Light Fingers! The Labyrinth in Spite
Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 37
So, your plan is to navigate an impossible labyrinth, break into a terrifying Orphanage, and rescue the Fading Music Hall Singer and her sister. Oh, and avoid being buried alive by Poor Edward. Are you sure you wouldn't prefer a a nice cup of Lethean tea?
Into the labyrinth
Unlocks: 800 x Foxfire Candle Stub
The entrance to the labyrinth lies at the darkest end of a forgotten alleyway in Flowerdene. A narrow brick archway, grimy and easy to miss. A breath of sour wind from within the maze blows little eddies in the fog. You wonder whether Edward's agents are watching, even now. [You'll need at least eight hundred candle stubs to get through the Labyrinth. You may want to take more, just in case.]
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All images and directly quoted text are © Failbetter Games Ltd. and are used by permission.
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