Things to do at your Lodgings...
To begin or continue with a story
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See the Protégé of a Mysterious Benefactor
See Seeking the Meaning of the Plaster Face
Pass the Cat: A peculiar tradition
A gently rustling box sits on your dining room table. At least two layers remain. Are you ready to play PASS THE CAT?
Unlocks: A Boxed Cat? x 1
Pass it on!
Unwrap a single layer and post the box on to someone else…
(You will be prompted to select a friend to send the cat to.)
Done!
Perhaps you should ask them what the box contains. Perhaps it's best not to.
Lose: 1 x A Boxed Cat?
Option 2: A wicked game!
And you'll have no part of it. Free the creature!
Slice and tear!
You whip out a pair of scissors and plough hastily through the multiple parcel layers. The creature inside bursts free! Your eyes are full of brown paper and string, and you don't see what it is. But it gives you a nasty scratch on its way to the window. Farewell, boxed creature!
Done!
Lose: 1 x A Boxed Cat?
Magnanimous increase OR Magnanimous hasn't changed, because it's higher than 5
Connected: the Duchess increase (2 change points)
Wounds increase
Pass the Cat: the Unwrapping!
Unlocks: A Nearly Unwrapped Cat?
A gently rustling box sits on your dining room table. Only one layer remains!
Option 1: Behold the cat
Luck Challenge: either way
You catch your breath. The last layer of paper lies within. What's in the box?
Black as a spirifer's heart
A velvety black cat struggles free of the wrappings. It blinks at you. 'About time. Well, we move as the game wills. Here -'
It whispers something to you, and the room spins about you. When you steady yourself, it's quite gone.
Rewards:
Lose 1 x A Nearly Unwrapped Cat?
Watchful increase
Gain 2 x Appalling Secrets
The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat!
They put it in a box! And it hated that! The Starveling Cat bursts out of the box in an avalanche of shredded brown paper. It leaps at your face, fangs bared. You fight it off frantically, sustaining a series of savage cuts. It drops to the floor and snarls like a tiger. Then it climbs your armoire, claws gouging the varnish, and glares at you. It doesn't move until midnight, when it steals into your pantry and wolfs down an entire joint of beef.
Rewards:
Unaccountably Peckish increase
You now have 1 x Starveling Cat
Lose 1 x A Nearly Unwrapped Cat?
Wounds Increase
AARGH!
There is a chittering shriek of rage, and a sorrow-spider launches itself from the remnants of the box! You stagger about the room, trying desperately to tug it free from your hair, while its mandibles snap and its legs dig into your scalp. Finally you cut it free and stamp it into green goo. You have sustained considerable damage both to your scalp and your dignity.
Rewards:
Persuasive decrease
Wounds increase
lose 1 x A Nearly Unwrapped Cat
A rat infestation?
Mysterious scurryings in the walls at night. Rat-holes gnawed in the walls. Food stores ravaged. Definitely a problem.
Unlocked with Troubled by Vermin 20
Worrying signs
This rathole looks sawed, not gnawed. You should investigate more closely.
A serious problem
Definitely sawed. And here's a tiny pick-axe, the size of a human finger. Sometimes at night you hear distant booms as they extend their tunnels with dynamite. They're rattus faber, the sapient rats of Fallen London: L.B.s, to the less sophisticated. No use moving. The little fiends can read a change of address. But they do collect hoards of stolen valuables. There might be opportunity here.
Watchful increase
Dangerous increase
Troubled by Vermin decrease
A bad case of rattus faber
You have rats: and some of the ratholes have been dynamited open, not gnawed. You have an infestation of L.B.s, aka rattus faber! Viciously intelligent rats who set traps for humans! No landlord or Constable will tangle with these. [As your Troubled by Vermin drops, new options to deal with this menace will unlock.]
Unlocked with Troubled by Vermin 19
Begin a campaign of extermination
Not all of them are L.B.s. The ordinary rats that attend them will be easiest to shoot or poison.
(Dangerous challenge)
Another battle won in the war
Fire, poison, traps, bullets! Your wreak havoc among the ranks of the enemy.
Dangerous increase
Gain: 25 x Rat on a String
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Damn the creatures!
With the guidance of the L.B.s, the lesser rats avoid poisoned bait and quench fires. They learn not to enter the room if you have a gun ready. Redoubled efforts are called for!
Dangerous increase
Alternate approach: try to negotiate with the rats.
Perhaps you can convince some of them to go elsewhere.
(Persuasive challenge)
Tea with rats
You call a halt to hostilities and engage in a surprisingly civil discussion with the rats. It seems that they regard your lodgings as their own and are intent on reclaiming it for ratkind. No solution is reached, but you do hear some interesting gossip. That said, it is perhaps a little distressing to realise how often rats are about, listening.
Persuasive increase
Gain: 12 x Whispered Secret
Troubled by Vermin decrease
The rats are growing cautious
You've enjoyed initial successes in your campaign against the rats. Now they're switching tactics. They post watch-rats and employ anti-trap squads.
Unlocked with Troubled by Vermin 14 (No longer available at Troubled by Vermin 20)
Employ a rat-catcher
Rat-catchers prefer to avoid L.B.'s altogether, but here's a surly villain who'll take your money to deal with the creatures.
A matter of luck: pretty good odds
Unlocked with 50 x Rostygold
Effective up to a point
The rat-catcher's manner is offensively familiar and his odour is somewhere between rat and tramp. Nevertheless, he is an effective scourge of ratkind, and the rat-corpses mount up handily. One night, however, you find him guzzling your brandy stores. His language when you require him to stop is inexcusable. You are forced to dismiss the wretch from your service.
Lose: 50 x Rostygold
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Betrayal!
The rat-catcher pots a half-dozen rats quite neatly, but the following night you find him lurking in the pantry playing poker with a number of the more affable watch-rats. There is a nasty scene which ends when you forcibly eject the miscreant from your front door. 'And don't come back!' you shout. Rats cheer drunkenly from an upstairs window. They've found that bottle of brandy you were saving!
Lose: 50 x Rostygold
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Redouble your efforts
You won't be out-foxed by a gang of larcenous vermin!
(Dangerous challenge; modest at 28)
Progress
The rats are more cautious, but you're more accurate. No bullet goes astray. Which is good, because that last rat was standing in front of rather a handsome terracotta vase in the Egyptian style. Not an original, certainly, but let's not sacrifice art willy-nilly to the needs of the moment. Anyway, rat expunged, vase narrowly escaped.
Dangerous increase
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Not out-foxed, but certainly out-ratted
A mixed success. You manage to pot a couple, but fall prey to a decoy strategy that has you chasing a disguised squirrel round the roof for a good hour.
Dangerous increase
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Unleash the Thing from the Wardrobe
It's not doing you any good, squatting up there on the wardrobe. And it seems to eat everything except rats. Perhaps it's time to make it earn its keep. But is that wise?
Unlocked with 1 x Starveling Cat
Success?
With the assistance of a long-handled broom and a quantity of prime cave-trout, you coax the Starveling Cat into the room where the rat-holes are most plentiful. You slam the door and wait.
An unholy tide of noise begins to rise: the chittering battle-cries of rats, the warbling slaty growl of the Starveling Cat. It's punctuated by crashes, by thuds, and by horribly meaty sounds, of the kind that might
emerge at midnight from the store-room of a moon-crazed butcher-king.
A rat-whistle sounds the retreat! You wait a half-minute as the hubbub subsides, then open the door. The place is an appalling mess. Chairs lie shattered. Paintings hang askew, splotched with rat-blood. The
sofa-cushions will need burning, not washing. Rat-parts lie everywhere, jointly and severally. Of the Starveling Cat there is no sign. You lick your lips. Why are you suddenly so damnably hungry?
You were fortunate!
Troubled by Vermin has dropped
You've lost 1 x Starveling Cat.
Unaccountably Peckish increases likely 1 change point
Scandal increases.
A bad case of rattus faber: try for the footsoldiers
You notice some of the ordinary rats are collared with rostygold. These seem to be the ones favoured as pets[1] by the L.B.s
themselves. Let's deal with them next.
[1] Pets…or concubines? Best not think about that.
Unlocked with Troubled by Vermin 11 (No longer available at Troubled by Vermin 19)
Concentrate on the collared rats
They seem sleeker than the others, but no faster or stronger. In some cases, their fur seems to have been combed! What devilish debaucheries are here?
(Dangerous challenge, straightforward < 42)
Hard-won trophies
You cut the collars free of the rat-corpses. Some have been rat-forged - you can see the marks of tiny hammers - but some look to be stolen bracelets. Purloined from a lady's dresser? Or gnawed from dead white arms?
Dangerous increase
Gain: 27 x Rostygold
Troubled by Vermin decrease
A particularly favoured rat
What's this? One of the collared rat-corpses now gracing your parlour is wearing a pretty satin bow. Surely, some aristocratic debutante is missing a trifle from her dressing-table. Well, her loss and your gain.
Dangerous increase
Gain: 1 x Whisper-Satin Scrap
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Filth and misery!
You nearly had one, but an enraged L.B. took a pot-shot at you with a tiny revolver! You ducked, and when you recovered, both were gone.
Dangerous increase
Alternate approach: bait a trap with rostygold
They like rostygold, eh? Perhaps that can be used against them.
Unlocked with 10 x Rostygold
Shadowy challenge, straightforward < 46
Snap!
The rats are by nature wary of traps, but you can see a curious hunger in the eyes of some of them for the rostygold you place in the traps. Avarice overcomes prudence, and you have a pile of furry corpses to add to your collection.
Shadowy increase
Gain: 28 x Rat on a String
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Give that back!
The rats have seen this sort of trap before, it seems. You hear tiny peals of laughter as they scurry off with the rostygold they took from your traps with little jemmies.
Shadowy increase
Lose: 2 x Rostygold
Troubled by Vermin increase
A bad case of rattus faber: the battle for the pantry
The rats are after your victuals! The pantry is a crucial battlefield.
Unlocked with Troubled by Vermin 7 (No longer available at Troubled by Vermin 16)
Starve them out
Keep no food in the lodgings. You can afford to eat out, but only once every two days. Who will crack first?
(Dangerous challenge, straightforward at < 42)
A hollow victory
You're hungry. God, but you're hungry. The rats, however, are starving. You see a few set upon each other in their famishment, and you finish them off. The casualties mount in their ranks. This seems to be working, if you can stick at it.
Dangerous increase
Gain: 27 x Rat on a String
Troubled by Vermin decrease
A tasty enemy?
You're hungry. God, but you're hungry. And the rats don't seem to mind that the cupboard is entirely bare. The furry scum are starting to look fairly tasty themselves. Perhaps a spot of violence is in order. Followed by a stew.
Dangerous increase
Defend the pantry against all comers!
You will protect your last packet of Mr Murgatroyd's Fungal Crackers with your life!
(Dangerous challenge, straightforward at < 42)
A furry carpet in the pantry
It's hard to get a good swing in a small pantry, so you settle for jumping up and down on the horde of rats that come for your comestibles. Your milk jug is smashed in the fracas, but you have shown them! They shall not have your dinner!
Dangerous increase
Gain: 30 x Rat on a String
Troubled by Vermin decrease
An occurrence! Your 'A Name Built in Blood' Quality is now 1!
Something else will happen soon… don't worry. All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.
Oh no! Not that!
They came. They came by the dozen. They came by the hundred. You fought them. You fought like a cornered beast, but there were too many. They took them. Damn the little furry bastards. They took your crackers!
Dangerous increase
Troubled by Vermin increase
Employ the poisons of Dottore Rappacini
Dottore Rappacini's venoms will certainly cause misery to the rats. But what will they do to you?
Unlocked with Troubled by Vermin 4 (No longer available at Troubled by Vermin 16)
Unleash the smokes of unmercy
The Dottore will run copper pipes into the deep crevices of your lodgings. He will then use a patented bellows to pump the fumes of nameless and terrible herbs deep into the rats' tunnels. You are to stand well back.
Unlocked with Rostygold x 100
A nose-curdling stench
You wait a good day before you return to your lodgings. Rat corpses lie everywhere. When you lift one with a gloved hand, it dissolves into slime. You spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning up. Even the traces of the fumes are enough to make you horribly nauseous.
Lose: 100 x Rostygold
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Wounds increase
Don't pay the piper
Let the man run his pipes where he may. Once the rats are dead, why pay him?
The poisoner's vengeance
You wait a good day before you return to your lodgings. Rat corpses lie everywhere. When you lift one with a gloved hand, it dissolves into slime.
Dottore Rappacini frowns and expresses disappointment. He leaves without an argument. He waits a week and then returns to drop a bundle of poisoned rat-corpses down your chimney into the fire. Sticky yellow fumes billow into your kitchen! You claw at your eyes and cough like a …whatever you are with a lung full of iron filings! Somewhere the Dottore is laughing.
Wounds increase
significant
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Locate an L.B. hoard!
They're using your place as a stash-house! Inconvenient for you, but you might be able to locate one of their stashes…
Unlocked with Troubled by Vermin 3 Unavailable at Troubled by Vermin 14
Catch and interrogate an L.B.!
They do speak English, in their nasty piping way.
(Dangerous challenge)
It gave up its secrets
Rats die under forceful interrogation, so you had to promise it its freedom to win the hoard location….but it did give up the information rather easily. They must have several hoards, all dotted around the place
Dangerous increase
Troubled by Vermin decrease
random reward ~26-29pp
It gave up its secrets
Rats die under forceful interrogation. You you had to promise it its freedom to win the hoard location…but, my, it was worth the effort! This is one of the biggest hoards you've seen!
Dangerous increase
Troubled by Vermin decrease
random reward ~160-170pp
Duel the ringleaders!
Impressed by your tenacity, the L.B. ringleaders challenge you to duel them. Of course, a rat-duel is a series of savage ambushes. On the up-side, rats die forever in Fallen London, and humans generally do not.
Unlocked with Troubled by Vermin 3
Attempt to survive the duels unscathed
Their inventiveness is equalled only by their savagery. Be wary.
(Dangerous challenge, straightforward < 44)
A midnight ambush!
A rat swings down from the ceiling on a tiny rope as you sleep, to stab you in the eye with a poisoned needle. But you are alert to its wickedness! You seize it and wring the life from it.
Dangerous increase
Gain: 33 x Rat on a String
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Take on a gang of them at once!
Risky, but you do have something of a weight advantage.
(Dangerous challenge, straightforward < 44)
Splat!
With candlestick and poker, you have mauled your way to grimly legendary status in the stories of rats. They are tricksy and subtle, but they have yet to effectively counter your 'thump with a big metal stick' stratagem.
Dangerous increase
Gain: 39 x Rat on a String
Troubled by Vermin decrease
Your reputation has brought out the Rattus Faber chief
Man versus Rat. Defeat this one and the others will leave.
[Unlocked with Dangerous 39]
Go for the kill
These are more than vermin. They're a menace.
_ challenge
Victory!
There's a reason humans walk above the earth and rats scuttle below. You've demonstrated that today! You generously permit the scattered refugees from the L.B. colony to bear their fallen leader away in peace. You do take the opportunity to slip a strychnine pill into the corpse's mouth. Rats have been known to eat their dead, after all.
Your Lodgings are now free of rats. You may wish to return to Watchmaker's Hill.
Dangerous increase
A living story will begin soon.
[Your A Legend among Ratkind quality is now 1.]
Gain: 1 x
Rattus Faber Rifle
A twist in your tale! You are now
Vermin-Free.
A twist in your tale! You are no longer
Troubled by Vermin.
Try to take him alive
These vermin have been worthy adversaries. And you may be able to wring a ransom out of them if you offer to spare him. But taking him alive will be much harder.
_ challenge
Peace with honour!
The rat-chief struggles in your grasp. You ask a ransom of his followers - they refuse! The cheap brutes! But they're cowed into leaving.
In obvious indignation, the rat-chief vows to repay the favour by saving your life. You find it very hard to take this seriously. And you resolve to watch him carefully at night. But he could be useful…
Your Lodgings are now free of rats. You may wish to return to Watchmaker's Hill.
Dangerous increase
A living story will begin soon.
[Your A Legend among Ratkind Quality is now 1 - Awaiting a message: the rats will bring you something soon!]
Gain: 1 x
Disgraced Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief
A twist in your tale! You are now
Vermin-Free.
Your
Troubled by Vermin Quality has gone!
Dangerous increase
Troubled by Vermin increase
Much, much later…
A letter from Feducci
You receive a letter from Feducci, the notorious ring fight arranger and self-proclaimed tomb-colony prince. The envelope also contains a tiny scrap of black ribbon.
Unlocks: Dangerous 73
'Dear Sir, '
I have been watching your progress through the fighting rings. I believe that you would enhance the Black Ribbon Society. This is my inner circle: a group of duellists who are prepared to duel to the final death in search of glory and sport. Find me near Wolfstack Docks if you have the courage.
Does not test any stats
To the docks!
A society who arrange duels to final, permanent death? Sounds like splendid fun! After all, who could possibly best you? Wolfstack Docks, was it?
Rewards:
A twist in your tale! You are now
Duelling with the Black Ribbon.
This opportunity is available anywhere once your Dangerous reaches 97
A letter from Mr Inch
Unlocks: Dangerous 97
A letter arrives for you. It bears the handwriting of Mr Inch, London's most celebrated purveyor of oversized lizardry.
Open it up
See what the veteran beast-wrangler has to say. [Note: you may wish to finish up any beast-hunting before you do this. Fresh adventures await!]
Does not test any stats
An invitation to the Labyrinth
'I have whispered a few words of praise on your behalf at the Labyrinth of Tigers. May I suggest that you visit? If you can afford the exorbitant entry fee, a man of your talents should find gainful employment. And not a little sport.'
'I am often at the Labyrinth. Find me there and I'll introduce you to the Tiger Keeper.'
[Go to your Lodgings to open the way to the Labyrinth of Tigers.]
A twist in your tale! You are now making progress in the Labyrinth of Tigers.
A night-time conference
Appears to be content added on January 17, 2011
Unlocked with Dangerous 85
Disappears at Sympathetic about Ratly Concerns 4
Coming home early one night, you spy a conference of your rat companions on a dinner plate. A circle of crumbs. Spilled wax. Of course, the Talkative one is in the middle of it.
Hang back and overhear what you can
Unlocked with 1 x Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief , 1 x Working Rat , 1 x Talkative Rattus Faber.
Something about 'defence' and 'candles'. A reference to face removal. Are they turning on you? Aren't the gifts you bring them from Veilgarden's excellent cheese shops enough to ensure their allegiance?
Not about you at all
Cramped in a dark corner, you spy on thirty minutes of discussion. The Talkative one telling tales of the Big Rat. The Working Rat trying to shush him. The Bandit-chief looking inscrutable. (The mask helps.) They're almost grateful when you ostentatiously stumble in and put an end to the conference.
Rewards:
Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… shows your progress in the venture.
One always gets left out
Unlocked with 1 x Disgraced Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief, 1 x Talkative Rattus Faber, 1 x Working Rat , 1 x Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief.
The Disgraced Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief is conspicuously absent from this group. Play on his insecurities. Find out what he knows. Proceed with caution.
Nothing to worry about. Probably.
You make some delicate enquiries. He laughs at your tact. He assures you they're only telling old ratwives' tales about the Big Rat. Nothing of interest except to the L.B.s themselves. But a day or two later you see him (or think you see him) in urgent conversation with the other Bandit-Chief.
Rewards:
You've gained 2 x Cryptic Clue
Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… shows your progress in the venture.
Out-ratting the rats
unlocked with Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… 1, Talkative Rattus Faber 1, Working Rat 1, Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief 1
Can be repeated up to Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… 12
Scraps of paper in the wastepaper basket, covered in tiny handwriting. Chittering in the small hours. Rostygold and Roquefort stashed in ready sacks. Something has your L.B. companions on edge. It would be good to know what.
Bribe them
Unlocked with Rostygold 50
You've never met a rat that didn't like his rostygold.
Gang battles
It's the Working Rat who cracks first. Something about the Big Rat expanding his influence in this area. The wrong sort of L.B. taking up residence next door. Little furry bodies turning up on the stairs.
Rewards:
You've lost 50 x Rostygold
Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… is increasing…
Threaten them
Dangerous Challenge
Straightforward at 90
It's a delicate matter, disciplining rats.
Sinister remains
You hint. Ostentatious displays of rats-on-a-string. Commissions provisionally offered to a ratskin tailor. The Talkative Rattus Faber cracks, and brings you the item that has them so frightened. It's a rat's face, left on the doorstep a few days back. Perhaps it's just a discard from a beggar's feast, but the way it's been removed from the rest of the head looks careful. And unnerving.
Rewards:
Dangerous is increasing…
Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… is increasing…
They're much too frightened of something else
Tedious chores do not wear them down. Withdrawing rations does not break their silence. You can't go further without risking their loyalty entirely.
Dangerous is increasing…
Address the problem of this Big Rat
(unlocked with Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… 5, Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief 1, Talkative Rattus Faber 1, Working Rat 1)
Life would be simpler if your companions could sleep in peace…
Put the offer to your companions
(unlocked with Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… 5)
Progress Challenge
Straightforward at 10
Explain how big in rat terms doesn't mean big in person terms. Offer them the favour of ridding the world of the Big Rat.
At least they hear you out
The others look to the Bandit-Chief. He clears his throat. 'The Big Rat is not a rat. Wears rat faces, that's all. Bit demented.' Oh. Perhaps you won't be able to handle this problem straightaway after all. At least you know a little more now. And your Working Rat is touched that you have offered to help.
Rewards:
You've gained 213 x Cryptic Clue
Your 'Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions…' Quality has gone!
A twist in your tale! You are now Sympathetic about Ratly Concerns.
Can you have been misunderstood?
'We're having a meeting? I like meetings! Sometimes. What's the meeting about? Stop stepping on my tail. I am listening! You want to meet the Big Rat? No one wants to meet the Big Rat. Son, watch out, or one day you'll meet the Big Rat, that's what they say. Not even other things like the Big Rat want to meet the Big Rat!'
Rewards:
Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… has dropped
Find the Big Rat on your own
(unlocked with Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions… 5)
Progress Challenge
Cannot reach Straightforward (Would be 13)
You have an idea where his agents, at least, might be found. [Warning: failure here will cost all of your progress so far.]
Worse than a den
You find a nest of the worst sort of L.B. You spy and follow. But where the trail leads you… the thing that was holding court in that sewer is no rat. No human, either. Its face is a cascade of other faces, a patchwork of rats. You are not equipped to take on something like this. Not today. But you have learned a great deal.
Rewards:
You've gained 510 x Cryptic Clue
Your 'Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions…' Quality has gone!
Hours of foetid waiting
Armed in case of ratwork weapons, you stake out the spots in your neighbourhood where the more vicious L.B. gangs are said to work. You listen. You wait. Nothing.
Rewards:
Your 'Investigating a threat to your Rat Companions…' Quality has gone!
A mysterious box
Someone has left a box in your lodgings…
Unlocks: Shadowy 53, a Survivor of the Affair of the Box 1
Pick it up
You just know that this thing will cause trouble for you. Sometimes you just have to accept things.
(Shadowy challenge, straightforward at 66)
Destiny or villainy?
You sigh and pick up the box. You look around. You think. Actually, it's too heavy to carry. You put it down again, six inches to the left of where it was. It's as good a place as any.
Gain: 1 x A Heavy Iron Box
Think about it for a while
You should consider the matter before doing anything rash. Perhaps you should go for a walk.
(Shadowy challenge, straightforward at 69)
Did it just move, a little?
No. That was definitely a trick of the firelight. One bracing constitutional later, and you're still not sure what to do with the box.
Dangerous increase
1 change point, regardless of level of challenge
Throw the thing in the river
You are simply not going to get involved with this.
