Someone you loved is dead. You swore you'd scour the world for the killer. Your search brought you under the world.
Unlocked: Watchful 6
Necessary qualities: Watchful and Dangerous.
Starts at Ladybones Road.
There will be a reckoning.
What is red honey?
Something to do with prisoner's honey? Whatever it is, it's forbidden to buy or sell it in a city where very little is outright forbidden. Even the sale of souls is licensed.
Sidebar text.
Ambition: Nemesis [Begin!]
[Location: Watchmaker's Hill]
Someone you loved is dead. You swore you'd scour the world for the killer. Your search brought you under the world.
Unlocks: Watchful 6
There will be a reckoning.
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 Watchful and Dangerous qualities are most important for this Ambition.
You have chosen this Ambition.
You have crossed oceans and spent your whole inheritance to find this man. You even had yourself sent to New Newgate, as the quickest route down here to the Neath. Surely the hardest parts are behind you?
Rewards :
Boldly done! You have chosen an Ambition! Ambition: Nemesis
Ambition: Nemesis [Continue 1]
[Location: Watchmaker's Hill]
You have just two clues: a name and an envelope of dried flower petals. The name is 'Scathewick'. The petals were found by the body.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 1
Option 1: Start with the petals.
They come from a rose that grows in the Neath. You know that much.
Modest: Watchful ?
Straightforward: Watchful ?
You have an address!
The petals look to be from the flower called exile's rose: but they're red. Exile's rose is black. One of the old women who sells candied mushrooms by Hangman's Arch directs you to a Mumbling Bee-keeper, out on the edge of the city by Watchmaker's Hill. Travel to Watchmaker's Hill to find out more.
Rewards :
Ambition: Nemesis increases
Ambition: Nemesis [Continue 2]
[Location: Watchmaker's Hill]
The Mumbling Bee-keeper drinks at the Medusa's Head, where the rat-catchers and monster-hunters gather.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 2
Option 1: Not a welcoming place…
A dozen smoky tables full of surly monster-hunters and possible footpads. A kind word won't get you very far. Show them you're serious.
Modest: Dangerous 7?
Straightforward: Dangerous 11?
'He's over there…'
You and one of the monster-hunters face off, exchanging cold stares and menacing monosyllables. This goes on for a while. Suddenly one of them cracks a grin. It's infectious, and soon the whole table's roaring. He waves you towards a withered, wild-eyed man at the back: the Mumbling Beekeeper.
Rewards :
Ambition: Nemesis increases
Nemesis [Continue 3]
[Location: Watchmaker's Hill]
The Mumbling Bee-keeper's stinking shack is out in the desolate fields behind Watchmaker's Hill. A low, threatening murmur rises from the sleeping hives of lamplighter bees as you approach. They fizz with sleepy phosphorescence.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 3, Appointment with a Mumbling Bee-keeper 1
Option 1: Work out what the hell he's talking about
Getting here was the easy part. He seems willing enough to talk, but besides his distorted speech, he seems half-mad. Too many bee-stings, perhaps.
Modest: Watchful ?
Straightforward: Watchful ?
Eventually he starts to make sense
The petals you brought him are from a rare and deadly flower: something you get when you cross-breed exile's rose with a flower they brought out of Hell. Who 'they' are isn't clear, but twenty years ago they had him raise his bees on this flower.
The honey the bees produced, he says, was 'something special'. But when he says it he starts laughing and can't stop. Eventually he subsides, shaking his head. He goes to the window and points at one of his hives, barely visible in the moonish light from the Neath's roof. 'There,' he says. You can't get anything else out of him.
Rewards:
Ambition: Nemesis increases
Ambition: Nemesis [Continue 4]
[Location: Watchmaker's Hill]
You have the repellent to keep bees off you while you search the Mumbling Bee-keeper's hive. You'll need to be very quick and very careful.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 4, Foxfire Bee-Repellent 1
Option 1: Light the candles, go in
You should be able to survive a couple of stings, but you daren't take too many chances.
Modest: Dangerous ?
Straightforward: Dangerous ?
Got…something
Working with speed and precision, you extract the frames one by one from the beehive. There is nothing remarkable in any of them. Bees crawl over your body, buzzing ill-temperedly. You feel a sharp stab of pain in the back of your hand… then something glints in the green light of your candles, in the hollow space at the bottom.
You reach in and grasp it delicately between thumb and forefinger: a key. That must be it! You withdraw quickly and carefully, taking a moment to scoop a dab of honey from the hive. Let the Mumbling Bee-Keeper put the frames back. You're finished here.
Rewards :
Ambition: Nemesis increases
Mumbling Bee-Keeper's Key x 1
Drop of Prisoner's Honey x 2
Ambition: Nemesis [Continue 5]
[Location: Watchmaker's Hill]
You have a key. But there are a great many locks in Fallen London. What now?
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 5, Mumbling Bee-keeper's Key 1
Option 1: Look for leads around Watchmaker's Hill
The trail is long cold.
Modest: Watchful ?
Straightforward: Watchful ?
Someone remembers a locksmith from Veilgarden, named Mackay, who used to visit the Mumbling Beekeeper
He used to buy honey from the Beekeeper, for the toffs up in Veilgarden. It was years ago. It's not much of a lead. But you have a name, and a location: Veilgarden.
Rewards :
Ambition: Nemesis increases
Subtle increases
Option 2: Look for leads around Watchmaker's Hill
Beat the information out of the Mumbling Beekeeper
Modest: Dangerous ?
Straightforward: Dangerous ?
REWARD2 HEADER
REWARD2 TEXT
Rewards :
Ambition: Nemesis increases
Ruthless increases
Nemesis - Finding Mackay
[Location: Veilgarden]
Veilgarden. A thousand windows glowing with wine and song and good fellowship and delicious scandal. Ten thousand people. And your quarry.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 6
Option 1: Find the locksmith, Mackay.
The trail is what, twenty years old? It will not deter you.
Modest: Watchful ?
Straightforward: Watchful ?
An address…
REWARD1 TEXT
Rewards :
LOOT
Nemesis - Reaching Mackay
[Location: Veilgarden]
Honey-dens are well-guarded. And Mackay is a favoured customer with a private room. You'll need a way to get in there.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 7
Option 1: Pose as a new honey-supplier
You'll need a shipment to sell. Honey is not illegal, but the trade is tightly controlled by the Bazaar Master known as Mr Spices.
Unlocks: Prisoner's Honey x 120
That was easier than you feared
You arrange a temptingly low price for your honey. The honey-den owner is eager to make you feel at home…
Rewards :
Lost Prisoner's Honey x 60
Prisoner's Honey order x 1
Whispered Secret x 40
Ambition: Nemesis increases
Nemesis – Interrogate McKay
[Location: Veilgarden]
NOTE: A very large section in the middle of this ambition has not been recorded. The following spoilers are copy pasted from the "reminisce" option on one's profile, and therefore only showing one pathway through each challenge. The pathway shown is the Watchful Option.
POST-NOTE: I am currently working through this Ambition, and will be updating as I go, starting with part 9.
Find Mackay in the honey-dens of Hollow Street. Learn what he can tell you about this damnable flower.
Find Mackay in dreams
Prisoner's honey physically transports its eaters to a dream-world. If your wits are very keen, you may be able to navigate through dreams and find Mackay, without resorting to unpleasantness in the real world. But there will be distractions…
There were worse ways to reach your goal…
You wander in a hedge maze of wild roses, amid delicious and intoxicating scents, in the company of youths and maidens of extraordinary beauty and friendliness. You sense Mackay is close. Eventually you find your way to him though a confusion of bright sunshine and scented hair, you manage to find him, relaxed and garrulous.
He's happy to reminisce, apparently assuming you're part of his dream. 'Terrible times,' he says. He was paid to carry honey up from Watchmaker's Hill, twenty years ago. He doesn't know why they were cross-breeding exile's rose with flowers from hell. He doesn't know where the money came from. But he does know that the woman he delivered the honey to was one of the staff at the Shuttered Palace, where the Traitor Empress still lives. She never told him her name, but he saw her slip in and out.
The key? That unlocks a crypt in the Forgotten Quarter where he stored a jar of the red honey. When you ask him what it is that the stuff does, he begins to sob brokenly. 'The boy', he says, 'the boy - ' And then he wakes, and is gone from the dream.//
Rewards:
You now have 1 x Mackay's Story
You've gained a new quality: Hedonist at 2. (From 0)
Nemesis – who was it?
[Location: any]
Who was it who died, that night?
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 9
Option 1: Your spouse
All those years, gone in a moment.
Option 2: Your lover
And now you'll never know.
Option 3: Your brother
Twenty heartbeats sooner, and you'd have heard his last words.
You will have vengeance.
A twist in your tale! You are now Tragedy: Death of a Brother.
Option 3: Your daughter
You couldn't protect her.
A twist in your tale! You are now Tragedy: Death of a Daughter.
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter [Continue 9-F]
[Location: Forgotten Quarter]
In the Forgotten Quarter, there's a crypt where Mackay stored the red honey he transported from Watchmaker's Hill.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 9
Shadows lie black in the moonish light
From your left, and then ahead of you, you hear a clicking whistle. Devils, out for an evening's sport. Have you done something to attract their attention? Or were you just unlucky?
Unlocks: Dangerous 37
Straightforward: ?? (Modest at 43)
A game of cat-and-mouse
There's a flicker of movement and a whiff of sulphurous cologne, and then you're surrounded by smiling devils. You feint towards the first, dodging a blow from behind, and then break through the ring of them! There are too many to fight; you take to your heels. For almost an hour they pursue you in and out of the ruins of broken temples and palaces, laughing and calling advice to each other. You fling rocks at those incautious enough to show their heads.
Finally you knock off a devil's hat! He gives an anguished cry and scrabbles for the damaged hat in the dust. The others gather round him to commiserate. You take the opportunity to slip away, deeper into the Quarter.
Rewards:
Dangerous increases
Boldly done! You have chosen an Ambition! Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter [Continue 9-F1]
[Location: Forgotten Quarter]
Somewhere in the Forgotten Quarter, there's a crypt where Mackay stored the red honey he transported from Watchmaker's Hill.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 9, Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter 1
Find the crypt
You have directions, but they were given to you in the dark by a sobbing broken honey-dreamer who hadn't been here in years. Also, you think you might have drawn the map upside down.
Unlocks: Watchful 38
Straightforward: ?? (Almost impossible at 38)
It's not like any crypt you've ever seen.
Mossy pagan stones heaped above, an earthy bank below. But there is a door of more recent manufacture, set slantwise into the ground. There's a keyhole in the door.
Rewards:
Watchful increases
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter has increased to 2!
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter [Continue 9-F2]
[Location: Forgotten Quarter]
You've found the crypt where Mackay stored the honey. Unfortunately there's an unexpected difficulty. Coiled bonelessly around a nearby balustrade, like a serpent in pink crinoline, is a smirking deviless.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 9, Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter 2, Mumbling Bee-keeper's Key 1
Never bribe a lady?
'You know,' she adds wistfully, 'the souls up here are so cold. It's been a long time since I had a nice warm soul all to myself.'
Unlocks: Souls 50
A satisfactory exchange
She eyes your bribe expertly. 'Too cold,' she grumbles. 'But filling, I suppose. In you go.'
You slip the key into the door of the tomb.
Rewards:
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter has increased to 3!
You've lost 50 x Souls
Never strike a lady?
'I adore this place,' she says. 'You're not allowed to be here, though. I hope you're going away again.' She stops to think about that. 'Actually: I hope you're going to try to stay.'
Unlocks: Dangerous 42
Straightforward: ?? (Almost impossible at 42)
Kindred spirits?
'I do get bored out here,' she confesses. 'Tell me a story. Something with a charming hero and a considerable quantity of screaming.'
Unlocks: Persuasive 40
Straightforward: ??
A friend in need
You sit on the broken stones and chat for an hour or two. Devils are always entertaining company. Entertaining for someone, anyway.
At last she yawns and closes her eyes. 'I may take a short nap,' she says languidly. 'I'm sure you won't go near that tomb or anything silly. You have an honest face.'
You slip the key into the door of the tomb.
Persuasive increasing
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter has increased to 3!
Connected: Hell increasing
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter [Continue 9-F3]
[Location: Forgotten Quarter]
The crypt where Mackay stored the honey is a grim, low-ceilinged place. Its original occupant lies in state in a soapstone sarcophagus, spear and sword and helmet and breastplate and amulets all in place, like an engraving in an illustrated magazine. The rats haven't touched it.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 9, Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter 3
Search the crypt
A child's skeleton lies near the door in a tumble of bones, as if someone had kicked it carelessly aside on entering. There are rows of empty wooden shelves, traces of candlewax, a writing-desk spattered with ink: but no-one's been here in a while.
Unlocks: Watchful 43
Straightforward: ?? (Almost impossible at 44)
A find…
Among the litter of Fourth City relics, rat-corpses and sorrow-spiders so long dead that they're almost transparent, you unearth a single jar that might once have contained honey. A label reads: 'O.T.T. Jun. MDCCCLXXXIV'. In order to fit the Roman numerals on, the writer has had to crab their writing up small and curl it round the edge of the label.
Rewards:
You now have 1 x Traces of Red Honey
You've Relic of the Fourth City
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter has increased to 4!
Ambition: Nemesis – last traces
[Location: Anywhere]
The interior of the jar you found is streaked with faint traces of dried honey. After all these years, are these traces still any use?
**Unlocks: Traces of Red Honey 1, Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter 4 **
Call in favours
This substance must be illegal, or at least sinister. Do your connections in the underworld know something? That is, the under-underworld?
Unlocks: Connected: Criminals 15
A tenuous hope
'All I have for you, Sir, is this: a Junior Fellow of Esoteric Cryptozoology at the University has an interest in a funny kind of bee. Now we're finished. My debt is paid. Good day.'
[You can unlock the way to the University in your Lodgings, if you haven't already.]
Rewards:
Connected: Criminals has dropped to 14!
Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter has increased to 5!
Find someone who can help
This will require specialist expertise, to say the least.
Unlocks: Watchful 55
Straightforward: ??
A tenuous hope
One name keeps coming up: a Junior Fellow of Esoteric Cryptozoology at the University. He has an interest in peculiar bees. Some sort of scandal attaches. It sounds like a possibility.
[You can unlock the way to the University in your Lodgings, if you haven't already.]
Ambition: Nemesis – searching the ruins
[Location: Forgotten Quarter]
Is there anything left here besides the traces you found in the crypt?
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis - Forgotten Quarter 5
Search by candle-light
Crawling shadows. Fallen pillars. Very distant, a horn of brass.
Unlocks: Watchful 50
Straightforward: 55
Bones and fragments
You find a few relics to finance your search, but nothing else. Perhaps you should follow your other lead at the Shuttered Palace.
Rewards:
Watchful is increasing…
You've gained 10 x Relic of the Fourth City.
The Shuttered Palace & The Cage-Garden
The Shuttered Palace, where the servant took Mackay's deliveries of honey. You have her description. With luck the years won't have changed her too much -
Observe the servantry
Most servants use an entrance at the side of the palace beside the kitchen gardens. If you have appropriate garb, you can linger in the gardens and watch the servants come and go.
There! Is it -
That woman in black, with the armful of cut flowers and the jingling bunch of keys at her waist. She matches Mackay's description. Where is she going?
You think you've found the Jingling Servant - the woman with the tremendous bunch of jingling keys, to whom Mackay used to deliver honey, all those years before. Every day, she goes somewhere in the Palace gardens.
Follow her
The drifting mists from the Stolen River and the strange vitality of the Palace shrubberies offer cover. But those d—ned gravel paths do crunch so underfoot.
The walled garden
You follow your jingling quarry through distant regions of the gardens, beneath dripping arbours and across terraces alive with scurrying movement; down narrow steps to phosphorescent grottoes, skirting the edges of algae-choked ponds.
In a far corner where the stars above glow dim and even the squeaks of the bats are hushed, a brick-walled garden lies. The walls are slippery with moss and decorated with a menacing frieze of spikes. The Jingling Servant opens three locks on the door, each with a separate key from the tremendous bunch at her waist, and slips through the door…
Each day, the Jingling Servant visits the walled garden with her bunch of keys. What happens in that place? Will it uncover the mystery of the flower-petal you found by the body? Is Scathewick in there?
Take the keys from her by force, ruthlessly
You need the keys she carries in order to enter the walled garden. Willingly or not, she will give them to you. She must be implicated in this: you care nothing for her safety.
A tidy outcome
You conceal yourself among the dark fronds of a hulking fungus and wait until the Jingling Servant appears. She hears your footsteps behind her, but she's barely begun to turn before you're on her! She'll recover from her death in an hour or so, but you have the keys now.
The Jingling Servant held the keys to a walled garden of sinister aspect, but they are yours now. The secrets of red honey must lie within.
A triple lock
Stern guards in black masks patrol the perimeter of the garden. In a gap between patrols, you hurry to the door. Which of these accursed keys fits which lock?
A match… a turn… a match!
The last key slides home. You are through the door and into…a brick passageway between walls. Another door! No keyhole here. Too stout to smash down, and the guards would hear you anyway. All you can do is knock.
A second door bars your way to the walled garden. You knock. A bored voice says: 'What is the taste?'
Answer the question
You have plumbed more of London's mysteries than any sane [genderdescription] should. You know the answer.
'Taste is the key.'
You taste blood in your mouth as you speak. You paid dearly for those words. Bolts are drawn back, one after another. The door opens. The Cage-Garden lies before you.
A dank but serene place with a mossy fountain at its heart. Dark hives of bees humming on the far side. Dozens of cages stacked in rows and ranks: each has its prisoner, woman or man, their dull, hollow faces turned to you. Bees buzz to and from the cages -
'Ah, [gendertitle]! You're our friend from the tomb-colonies, I suppose? A marvellous evening! Would you like to begin with the tour?'
Allow yourself to be shown the cages
Yes. Learn what you can from the Simpering Cage-keeper.
Exotic blooms
'This one was a zailor. His memories, I'm told, are extraordinary in their variety… ah, the grandmother from the Hill. If you're looking for cosy domestic dreams, her honey is the sweetest…'
The Simpering Cage-keeper leads you past rows of cages filled with wretched prisoners: well-fed but shrunk with despair. Black bees drone busily around them, crawling into eyes and noses, out of ears and mouths, harvesting them like flowers.
'The appetites of our patrons at the Palace grow day by day,' the Cage-keeper confides. 'And our precious, ah, our precious blossoms here must be carefully picked. So as not to arouse attention, you see? If Carrywell can provide - ha! - lilies from the tomb-lands… we can pay well, you know. Marvellously well.'
The Cage-Garden: when they stopped taking the honey deliveries from the Hill, they farmed their own here. Mackay's honey carried the dreams and memories of the damned. This honey bears the dreams and memories of the living.
Question the Simpering Cage-keeper
All this is very well, but what about Scathewick? Can you bring the conversation round to the man you're hunting?
Another link in the chain
'Scathewick! The man's a nuisance and no mistake. I've spoken to Carrywell about him. Not once but several times. If he'd only stay there with her, we'd let him be. Remind her of that, when you return to the tomb-colonies. We can't stomach his interference any longer. No matter how useful he may have been.'
He looks oddly at you. 'But you know this…don't you?'
Time to make an exit. Or to deal with the man.
Finally! Scathewick, the murderer you seek, works with someone called Carrywell. The eaters of red honey don't seem entirely happy with either of them.
Where is Carrywell?
Somewhere in the tomb-colonies, if you understand correctly. But there's more than one tomb-colony. Where to begin?
'Carrywell? The Permanent Surgeon?'
A sub-editor at the Unexpurgated London Gazette knows her only too well. She writes enraged letters to the Gazette, complaining about a series of articles they published on her home colony of Venderbight. She rejects the 'dark': they have gas-light! She rejects the 'miserable': they have piano-recitals! She rejects the 'doomed': they are optimists! The 'reeking and bandaged' drove her into an ungovernable rage that left the remainder of her last letter unreadable.
You need to go Wolfstack Docks. There you can take a steamer to Venderbight.
The University
Ambition: Nemesis – the Junior Fellow
[Location: University]
Your desperate mission has brought you to the University. Laughing students hurry home in the Neathy fog. Black-gowned scholars argue energetically in mushroomed quadrangles. None of this is your concern. You must speak to the Junior Fellow of Esoteric Cryptozoology. But he seems unwilling to speak to you.
Unlocks: Traces of Red Honey 1
Impress the Fellow with secret knowledge
'Hm? No time. Saint-beetles! Colony. Irretrievable. Irretrievable! …what? What's that?'
Unlocks: Appalling Secret 5, Cryptic Clue 100
Secrets for secrets
'Exchange of information! Capital.'
'This stuff. Gaoler's honey. Cross-bred, flower from Hell. Drives bees quite insane. Oh, you know? Odd effect on us. Get into dreams, memories of damned. Crawl around and enjoy them. No fun for the damned! Terrible pain. Ghastly. Fascinating. Sample here. Dried. Crystallised. No use to me.'
He hands you a tiny specimen pot with a familiar reddish residue.
Rewards:
You've lost 5 x Appalling Secret.
You've lost 100 x Cryptic Clue.
You've gained 1 x Traces of Red Honey (new total 2)
Compel the Fellow's attention through violence
You don't have time for this! If he won't listen, you'll make him listen! But you'll need to be very swift. Violence in the University is discouraged, and being caught could get you in trouble.
Unlocks: Dangerous 55
Straightforward: 73
Shake the poor fellow until his teeth rattle
'Yes! Yes! What? ah! wait! Why didn't you say that before?'
'This stuff. Gaoler's honey. Cross-bred, flower from Hell. Drives bees quite insane. Oh, you know? Odd effect on us. Get into dreams, memories of damned. Crawl around and enjoy them. No fun for the damned! Terrible pain. Ghastly. Fascinating. Sample here. Dried. Crystallised. No use to me.'
He hands you a tiny specimen pot with a familiar reddish residue.
Dangerous increase
Ruthless increase
You've gained 1 x Traces of Red Honey (new total 2).
Brewing up gaoler's honey
[Location: University]
You have two pots streaked with dried red honey - what the Junior Fellow of Esoteric Cryptozoology calls 'gaolers' honey'. Is this helpful?
Unlocks: Traces of Red Honey 2
Reactivate the honey
Do you need it for something? Or is this a morbid and terrible curiosity? If you can provide the raw materials for the process - and a little something for his trouble - the Cryptozoologist can perform… a scientific procedure of some sort. It sounds complicated. 'Reconstitution' is the shortest word he uses.
Unlocks: 350 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey, 10 x Bottled Oblivion , 5 x F.F. Gebrandt's Tincture of Vigour, 100 x Jade Fragment.
An evening of pacing
You prowl the mossy corridors outside the Cryptozoologist's study as he retires within. The work is performed in near-darkness. There are no flashes of light. There are no puffs of coloured smoke. There are no unearthly wails, except once when a proctor catches a student sneaking a paramour up the back stairs. Nevertheless, the small hairs on your neck erect themselves, one by one. Hell is touching the living world, here.
The Cryptozoologist emerges from his study as dawn approaches. His face is shadowed and his eyes are wide. 'Here,' he says. 'Take it away. Please.'
[Should you so wish, you can sample the honey by clicking it in your inventory.]
Rewards:
You've lost 5 x F.F. Gebrandt's Tincture of Vigour.
You've lost 350 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey.
You've lost 10 x Bottled Oblivion.
You've lost 100 x Jade Fragment .
You've lost 2 x Traces of Red Honey.
You now have 1 x Drop of Gaoler's Honey
Ambition: Nemesis - To Venderbight
A listing, rusting steamer is taking on silent, bandaged passengers, baggage, and coffins. You should disguise yourself as a tomb-colonist. You can't afford to draw attention.
Go gently
Unlock: Ambition: Nemesis 11, 120 x Silk Scrap, 500 x Glim
Disappears at Ambition: Nemesis 15
Gather silk for bandages. Gather glim to pay your passage. Keep to yourself throughout the voyage. [Warning: you may be spending some little time abroad.]
An eye in the shadows
You sit apart and listen to your fellow-passengers tell grimly boastful stories of their many deaths. Nasty stuff. But Carrywell's name does come up once. It's a lead of sorts.
To Venderbight Again
Wind a bandage round your face. Count the glim. Shudder at the thought of those endless crumbling colonnades. Here we go once more.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 15, 120 x Silk Scrap, 500 x Glim
A solitary journey
You are the only one outgoing on the ship. It makes it easier to maintain your disguise, at least. Each mealtime you eat alone at the long table. Afterwards you pace the deck and watch the false-stars of the Neath reflected in the dark and passing water.
You've moved to a new area:
The tomb-colony of Venderbight
Nightmares decrease
Go Boldly
text unknown
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 11, Persuasive 60, 120 x Silk Scrap, 500 x Glim
Rewards unknown
The Scent of Suspicion
Your fellow-passengers display a mordant sort of wit. Meal-times pass as each takes it in turn to describe the manner of their many deaths. Everyone else enjoys the events, but you find the dim lighting and soft chuckling remarkably offputting. You plead sea-sickness when your turn comes. No-one says anything, but several other passengers eye you suspiciously.
You've moved to a new area: The tomb-colony of Venderbight
Suspicion increase
Ambition: Nemesis - learning about the Iron Republic
[Location: Ladybones Road]
Scathewick has gone to the Iron Republic. This is apparently a colony of Hell. So you probably need to learn a little more about the place before you go.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 24
Option 1: Call in favours at the Embassy
Straight from the horse's fangs.
(unlocked with Connected: Hell 10)
The Iron Republic
'The Iron Republic. Delightful place. I have a summer house there. Not that there's much of a summer. Unless there is. You see, much like the old country' -he pauses to sigh nostalgically and sulphurously - ' the Iron Republic was founded on the eradication of privilege. Laws are meant to be broken. All laws, even those of nature. Fascinating place. I miss it.
'If you want to go there - and I highly recommend it - there's a scholar at the University you should contact. Benthic College, of course.'
[You have reached a content boundary! More Ambition: Nemesis is coming very soon - the trail will continue to the Iron Republic and beyond…]
Rewards:
Connected: Hell has dropped. (by ~1)
Ambition: Nemesis has increased to 25!
Option 2: Call in favours with anarchists
You've heard a rumour that anarchists and revolutionaries have ties with the Iron Republic.
(unlocked with Connected: Revolutionaries 10)
The Iron Republic
'Oh… what a place. They say that there's no law there that lasts a week. No ruler that lasts a day. They say that not even Hell tries to govern it. Paradise. I know one bloke says he's been there. Mad as you like, but if you believe him, sometimes rain falls up and time runs backwards. Not even the tyranny of nature rules in the Iron Republic. Imagine that! True freedom for all!.
'If you want to go there, there's a scholar at the University who knows his stuff. Benthic College, of course.'
[You have reached a content boundary! More Ambition: Nemesis is coming very soon - the trail will continue to the Iron Republic and beyond…]
Connected: Revolutionaries has dropped. (maybe 10 change points?)
Ambition: Nemesis has increased to 25!
Option 3: Bribe your way to knowledge
Money, as ever, has the sweetest voice.
(unlocked with Rostygold 1000)
Ambition: Nemesis - Finding the Dreaming Scholar
[Location: University]
'An authority on the Iron Republic? That would be the Dreaming Scholar. If you can find her.'
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 25
A frosty reception
Your previous honesty in academic matters has left you with few friends at the university. Finding the Dreaming Scholar could be difficult.
(unlocked with Watchful 110, unlocked with unwelcome at the University 1)
A low-risk challenge for your Watchful quality at 120
Cake and honey
The Saturnine Registrar pours tea and slices up a Battenberg cake before talking business. 'Yes, our authority on the Iron Republic is the Dreaming Scholar. I couldn't tell you whether she's actually been there, but she's certainly been to dreams of the place. Which is more than anyone with any sense can say. Even dreams of the Republic are terribly dangerous.'
He gnaws thoughtfully on his cake before continuing. You note that he hasn't offered you any yet. 'She's splendidly knowledgeable on the subject of dreams, but the study is not without… a cost. Of late, the Dreaming Scholar has been missing lectures, and she's not published anything in two terms. I fear she's lost in the honey-dens. She may even be honey-mazed.'
Finally, some Battenberg. A rather paltry slice, though. 'A bad business, honey-mazing. The honey-mazed often end up under carriages, or in the river, or as prey for villains. Terrible business.' The Battenberg is finished. There is no more to say.
[Seek out the honey-dens of London to continue.]
Watchful increase
An occurrence! Your 'Ambition: Nemesis' Quality is now 26!
Ambition: Nemesis - Meeting the Dreaming Scholar
[Location: Veilgarden]
The Dreaming Scholar must be somewhere in the numberless honey dens of Veilgarden. Best start near Hollow Street.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 26
A rough business
Half a dozen honey-mazed maniacs prowl Hollow Street. It will be their misfortune to interfere with your search for the Dreaming Scholar.
(unlocked with Dangerous 110)
Waiting for the Scholar
These maniacs must be dreaming of wars never fought, of monsters that cannot exist, of duels with giants. They scream and leap at you. After a few minutes of this, you cease to be gentle with them.
It's her! That must be the Dreaming Scholar. She's honey-mazed. Like the others, her body has returned from a honey-dream before her mind. She dances down the pavement, chuckling to herself. You grab her just before she moves into the path of a hurtling phaeton. Her eyes are blank, but she smiles and laughs. At least she's not trying to strangle you. You call a hansom and bundle her in. You tell the driver to head back to the university.
On the journey back, the Dreaming Scholar lazes on the seat, sometimes moaning gently to herself. Whatever her dream, she seems to be enjoying it. All you can do is to take her body to her quarters in a corner of the university and wait.
She rejoins her body when the quadrangle clocks have struck out three hours. She is grateful, but somewhat embarrassed to have been found in such a condition. If you return to the university tomorrow she'll be glad to tell you about the Iron Republic.
Dangerous increase
An occurrence! Your 'Ambition: Nemesis' Quality is now 27!
Ambition: Nemesis - The Dreaming Spires
[Location: University]
The Dreaming Scholar awaits you in her neglected study. She will tell you about the Iron Republic, where Scathewick is hiding.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 27
The cost of doing business
The Dreaming Scholar's studies have bankrupted her. There's the matter of a debt to a Hollow Street honey-den to pay before she can devote herself to your problems.
Unlocks: 2000 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
The smell of honey
The Dreaming Scholar moves a stack of honey-smeared papers so you can sit down. She looks quite respectable now that she's had a night's rest. 'So, you're hunting this fellow Scathewick, and he's run off to the Iron Republic. My advice to you is to give up. What could be worth braving that awful place?'
What indeed? Blood and revenge and, perhaps, peace.
'Ah. Well. I see you are not to be dissuaded easily. I have an idea. I will show you the Iron Republic in a dream. That will make you see sense. And if it doesn't, at least you'll have had a taste of the… peculiarities of the place. I'll come to your lodgings tomorrow night, and I'll bring some of this marvellous honey you've provided. And then we shall see if your appetite for revenge can be blunted. The Iron Republic is wrong.'
An occurrence! Your 'Ambition: Nemesis' Quality is now 28!
Lose 2000 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
Ambition: Nemesis - A Dream of the Iron Republic
[Location: Lodgings]
You arrange two chaises longues and a low table to facilitate dreaming. The Scholar will be here soon.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 28
A scholarly vice
The Dreaming Scholar arrives with a prodigious honey jar. She approves of your arrangements, but suggests you lock yourselves in before the work begins in earnest.
(unlocked with Watchful 115)
A dream about a garden
You dream. A garden. Thick, sweet musk and vibrant green. Roses grow where they may. A cluster of them are discussing Aristotle over the bones of a lion.
Over the garden, a rainbow arches down towards a pretty stream. Black waterwheels spin in the current.
The roses grow thickest near a table. An altar, perhaps. On the table lies a key carved from grey stone, with curved tines that could be tentacles or knives. The roses fall silent and turn to you. Are you taking the key from them? Do you need it as they do?
The Dreaming Scholar is not here, but this is no mere paraphrase of waking cares or fancies. You'll have to speak to her about this, if you can ever find her.
Watchful increase
An occurrence! Your 'Ambition: Nemesis' Quality is now 29!
Ambition: Nemesis - Keep Dreaming
[Location: Lodgings]
You need to search for the Dreaming Scholar.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 29
Back to it
The Dreaming Scholar hasn't returned. Take another scoop from the honey jar and find her. Let us hope your body can cope with the abuse of extended absence.
(unlocked with Dangerous 115)
A Dream of the Iron Republic
There she is! The Dreaming Scholar sits on a bench shaped from doves. She's looking out over the Unterzee. At the quay, the water is thick, yellow and sweet-smelling. It thins and darkens towards the horizon.
The city behind you could almost be any of a dozen European capitals. But the elegant ladies of Paris have faces. And the merchants of Vienna don't sob over the mathematics of the Gulden.
You hear coughing. The air smells of rust and almonds. The devils walking past in their great-coats and golden epaulettes don't seem perturbed. But the humans of this city are choking. Carriage drivers and street hawkers turn grey and twitch. Two small children, apparently unaffected, play in a gutter amidst the bodies. The Dreaming Scholar turns to you and shrugs. 'Poisoned air and money with no value. A calm day, for the Iron Republic.'
[Travel to Ladybones Road to continue your Ambition.]
Dangerous increase
An occurrence! Your 'Ambition: Nemesis' Quality is now 30!
Ambition: Nemesis - The Analysis of Dreams
[Location: Ladybones Road]
You are back from your dreams of the Iron Republic and of another, unknown place. Somewhere with a key and a rose garden.
Unlocks: Ambition: Nemesis 30
What was the business with the key?
The Dreaming Scholar would be happy to analyse your dreams. Her commercial rates are steep, but the currency for the transaction should not surprise you.
Unlocks: 1500 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
The key of… something
'These are the true dreams. One must take the greatest notice of them. Perhaps some part of you knows about this key. I advise you in the strongest terms to find it. It is entirely possible that this key will be your salvation in the Iron Republic, if what little I could show you hasn't spoiled your appetite for the place.'
The Dreaming Scholar gathers her things. 'Perhaps we shall meet again in Veilgarden, or in dreams,' she says. 'I've enjoyed our time together. And one last thing. Stay away from Schlomo. The man's a fool!' Your door closes quietly behind her.
[You have reached a content boundary! More Ambition: Nemesis is coming very soon - the trail will continue to the Iron Republic and beyond…]
Lose 1500 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
An occurrence! Your 'Ambition: Nemesis' Quality is now 31!
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