Things to do at The Shuttered Palace...

When your Persuasive is 71-80 As your Persuasive rises, more storylets are available to you.

Persuasive 57-70

Persuasive 81-90

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…Further into Fallen London

Mahogany Hall

The University

The Antiquarian Footman

The Shuttered Palace is crammed with rare and beautiful things. You hear rumours that a footman is disgruntled. It is inevitable that you will try to turn this situation to your advantage.
[Unlocked with Persuasive 71]

Offer the fellow a partnership

He supplies the antiques, you supply the expertise. Persuade him that he needs your help in valuing his acquisitions and finding a fence.

_ challenge

Success spoiler

This is working out nicely.

The footman turns out to be good at palming curiosities, concealing rare sketches rolled up in his trousers, and hiding silverware in his hat. You, meanwhile, tuck a learned looking tome under your arm, get out your monocle and seek out a few trusted acquaintances at the Syphilitic Parrot.

You are a genius at feigned expertise. You undervalue the trinkets to the footman - 'Ah. Not genuine rococo, sadly,' - and overvalue them to the fences. 'Antique filigree silver snuff-box. Spanish. Very collectible, you know.' You're making it all up, but you're also making a killing, and besides, everyone is happy.

Persuasive increase
Gain: 37 x Greyfields 1882

Failure spoiler

The footman lacks the eye for this.

You have talked up your new contact, and fences around the city are expecting some high-quality goods. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the first item your friend retrieves is a rather lewd figurine first. Its lewdness is not the problem. The problem would be the fact that it is clearly, even to the least educated eye, coated in blue paint and lacquer, rather than the promised glim leaf. It was an honest mistake, as far as that is possible, but you have lost a great deal of trust and it sets your business back weeks.

Persuasive increase
Scandal increase

Double-cross him!

You have no attachment to this footman. You do have a deep attachment to expensive, sparkly items. Honour among thieves? What nonsense is this? This plan will take a little research, though.
[Unlocked with 15 x Cryptic Clue]

_ challenge

Success spoiler

You are a brilliant actor.

Even though you do say so yourself. First, you establish your trustworthiness. You gently steer the mark towards the idea of getting revenge and making a little cash on top. You teach him the tricks of the trade he needs to purloin some of the Palace's valuables. You play the role of partner-in-crime with consummate poise. And then you swoop. Not only do you trick your partner into giving you some very fine stolen goods, but you also take advance payments from fences you have promised them to.

It is a simple matter to tell the criminals that the footman did not deliver the goods, and step out of the way as nature takes its course.

Persuasive increase
Lose: 15 x Cryptic Clue
Gain: 78 x Deep Amber
Heartless increase

Failure spoiler

Double-crossed by your own mark.

You did not see that coming. The footman is not the simple soul you took him for. That's just what he wanted you to think. He listened to your secrets with such naive awe, and you fell for it. Now he has made off with the profits from a particularly good haul, after dropping hints all around the Palace that you are some sort of kleptomaniac. People start clutching their valuables to their chests when they see you. And you cannot go anywhere these days without being followed by a very large butler.

Persuasive increase
Lose: 15 x Cryptic Clue
Scandal increase

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Green Fingers

The Shuttered Palace is rightly proud of its gardens. Now the word on the street is that some of them are to be redesigned. No one is saying exactly why. But it's a lucrative contract to bid for.
Unlocked with Persuasive 73

Bid for a straightforward design job

The grand ornamental beds at the front of the Palace are looking a bit tired. Someone with your creative flair should be able to make them special.

Success spoiler

What an elegant display of decorative fungus

These beds at the front of the Palace are the first thing most visitors see, so they have a duty to impress. Luckily, you have a keen eye for colour and pattern, and the budget the Palace gardeners allocate is enough to import some deliciously unusual fungi. When you have finished, finely branching honey fungus intertwines with gently waving flagella; fairy rings of delicate, fluted toadstools gleam with a soft blue luminescence. Moths dance prettily, attracted by the glow. And all obtained from a contact at a discount that lets you pocket a tidy profit.
Persuasive increase
Gain: 73 x Jade Fragment

Failure spoiler

Perhaps you should have done your homework.

You spend your budget on some gorgeously elaborate fungi, with fruiting bodies as tall as a man covered in wide, red structures that almost resemble lilies. Lilies are a distant, longed-for memory. What you did not know is that these imitations breathe a poisonous gas at certain times of day, and their fronds have a nasty habit of lashing out and stinging passers-by. Having to dig up and burn the lot will not help your creative reputation, sadly.
Persuasive increase
Scandal increase

Design something that will last

Forget fungi. Fungi are ephemeral. You have grander plans. You know where you can exchange a few secrets for a rare book of historic maze designs.
Unlocked with Cryptic Secret x 15
(Persuasive Challenge, Straightforward at 81) 

Success spoiler

A labyrinthine masterpiece!

That arcane text was worth every secret. You outdo yourself, adapting the classical designs to create a beautifully intricate little maze. When it is finished, its dark, thorny hedges form loops and traps, winding paths and dead-ends. There are treacherous water-holes and little carved imps leering out of unexpected places. And at the centre, a truly disturbing statue. The children adore ambushing each other. Their elders find it a wonderfully private place for all sorts of clandestine activities. You are hailed as something of a genius.
Persuasive increase
Gain: 76 x Jade Fragment
Lose: 15 x Cryptic Secret

Failure spoiler

An unfortunate incident

Your maze looks perfect on paper. You have chosen a very ancient design to copy, elegant in its apparent simplicity. Sadly, you did not take the time to read the accompanying text (well, the writing was so very cramped!) and you were unaware of the special properties of this particular kind of formal symmetry. People soon begin to go missing in the maze, only emerging days later with their wits quite, quite addled. The Palace is unlikely to recommend you for future commissions.
Persuasive increase
Lose: 15 x Cryptic Clue
Scandal increase
Nightmares increase

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Become a trader in antiques

Although what would be the point of real antiques, when fake ones are so much easier to come by? The trick is in the selling, anyway.
[Unlocked with Persuasive 74, no longer available at 89]

Deal in pretty trinkets

The bored, enervated ladies that frequent the Palace's social activities are like magpies. Easily distracted by things that sparkle.

_ challenge

Success spoiler

Easy money

You obtain a case of fake cloisonne eggs, made by rat forgers. They're very good; delicate, intricately patterned, and, best of all, they come with adorable little wooden display stands. Aren't they dear? You rather like them yourself. The masterstroke you come up with, though, is attaching a romantic story to the eggs. Lovers make them, you say, in the Near East, as symbols of steadfastness. Their love will not fail until the egg is broken. Demand is high: when once one lady has purchased one, all the rest must immediately do the same. You sell out quickly.

Persuasive increase
Gain: 78 x Jade Fragment

Failure spoiler

Never trust a zailor

You purchase a crate of decorative figurines. The little porcelain lizard that you are shown as a sample is very sweet, and you sell quite a few boxed ones to your circle of society ladies. Sadly, the boxes turn out to contain cheap plaster parrots. No one wants a plaster parrot. Indeed, several ladies find them quite horrifying and have to be revived. You have no choice but to refund their money. The disgrace clings.

Persuasive increase
Scandal increase

Deal in serious "antiques"

There is a craze at the moment amongst Fallen London society for little ormolu carriage clocks. You will need to invest some moon-pearls of your own, as even reproductions need to tell the right time, but it should be worth it.

_ challenge

[Unlocked with 30 x Moon-pearl]

Success spoiler

Very well sold.

Your risk has paid off. You took some moon-pearls down to a shady workshop you know near the docks, and had them placed in some very nice fake - I do apologise, replica clock casings. They are a nice weight in the hand, and the enamel-and-gilt detailing is good enough to pass a reasonable investigation. You appeal to the vanity of the clergy and nobility you target - "But indeed, a drawing-room without one looks so…common, now," - and you sell the lot.

Persuasive increase
Gain: 81 x Jade Fragment
Lose: 30 x Moon-pearl

Failure spoiler

The vagaries of fashion

Apparently, the reason ormolu has been so coveted is because making it is so dangerous. There is a certain frisson to be gained from knowing that your ornament was made so pretty by burning mercury and killing gilders. And indeed, you are careful to breathe shallowly when you pick up your shipment of clocks. However, just as you are about to start selling them, your customers discover vermeil instead. Just as deadly a process, but with even more expensive ingredients. You cannot sweet-talk your way past this reasoning. Disgusted, you sell the clocks to dockers for less than you paid for them. Dockers' mothers mind less about things like fashion.

Persuasive increase
Scandal increase
Lose: 30 x Moon-pearl

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Start a chemist's business

F.F. Gebrandt's name is known and mostly trusted in Fallen London. Nevertheless, society's wealthier hypochondriacs always welcome alternatives. Especially at the Shuttered Palace, where children are prone to strange sicknesses…
[Unlocked with Persuasive 76, no longer available at 92]

Offer cures for coughs and colds

Persuade anxious mothers and nursery-maids to buy your patented Wintergreen and Camphor Cough-drops. These lozenges are a pleasingly virulent colour, which helps your sales pitch immensely.

_ challenge

Success spoiler

They bring tears to the eyes. Marvellous.

These peppery little devils don't just take your cough away, they take your very breath! Excellent. People appreciate a good cure all the more if they have to suffer a little whilst it takes effect. You've sold the lot in no time, and tongues all over London are turning a bright acidic green.

Persuasive increase
Gain: 81 x Jade Fragment

Failure spoiler

Your recipe needs some work.

This batch of lozenges has turned out smelling more like saddle-soap. And the side-effects are unfortunate. You end up disposing of them in the Stolen River, which bubbles and burps a little greenly as it swallows them.

Persuasive increase
Scandal increase

Offer cures for gout, dropsy and scrofula

One of the Palace nursery-maids asks if you can do anything for some rather more unpleasant diseases. The Librarian at the University will let you look at some medical texts, if you can help satiate his appetite for scandal. You can obtain an Intriguing Gossip by using other Influence items in your inventory.

_ challenge

[Unlocked with 2 x Intriguing Gossip]

Success spoiler

An astounding scientific advance!

You pored over the ancient medical texts (such as there were. Where did the Egyptian ones go?) In several antique herbals you find information about London's most abundant resource - mushrooms. Your first patient is a cantankerous, gout-crippled colonel. You apply some of your liniment - hold your breath - and watch in relief as the swelling lessens visibly! You see tears in the eyes of the colonel's wife as she pays you. She will recommend you all around town.

Persuasive increase
Gain: 124 x Jade Fragment
Lose: 2 x Intriguing Gossip

Failure spoiler

That was rather unpleasant.

Your gossip bought you knowledge, to be sure, and you consulted old texts and herbals until you had convinced yourself that you could use fungus from London's marshes to come up with a panacea for oedematous ailments. What a shame, then, that one agaric should so closely resemble another, yet be so different in toxicity. You had best stay away from society for a while. It is going to be a long time before anyone forgets that colonel's leg just dropping off like that.

Persuasive increase
Scandal increase
Lose: 2 x Intriguing Gossip

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