This page is extremely out of date since the Mr. Eaten revamp in 2013. Pretty much everything about the actual parts of the quest no longer apply
Seeking Mr Eaten's Name is one of the more intricate and compelling mysteries presented by Echo Bazaar. It's plump with menace and ripe with joyous consequence for the callow fool brave enough to pursue it. Previously, this page was an attempt to fully catalogue the quest, to serve as a guide and enticement to those interested in the Search, and to serve as an external memory for those of us whose minds have melted long ago due to Name exposure.
Failbetter Games, however, have requested that we take down the accumulated text of the Eaten storyline. Henceforth, this page will be an overview of the search, with a detailed guide of the specific steps and costs at the bottom, but will contain no spoilers for content.
TL;DR: FBG has asked us not to post content on this page anymore. This page is now a guide only, absent of content. Please keep it that way.
Seeking Mr Eaten's Name could once be begun in the Game of Knife and Candle on scoring a kill; however, it has been quite some time since the last reported Search started this way. Most begin the search with an unnatural hunger, finding themselves Unaccountably Peckish and with an unsatiable craving. This hunger follows them at night to their Recurring Dreams, as they dream of Death by Water and look north for answers. Some have been known to go insane if they dreamt too much and did not find the quest they sought, resetting their minds to try again.
Though blinding flashes of insight may happen anywhere, Nameseekers are drawn to the Forgotten Quarter, where chiseled Eaten secrets await those who are sufficiently Watchful to understand them.
Afterwards, paths diverge. Dangerous and intimidating individuals may find that Opportunities attend their pleasures in the gardens of the Shuttered Palace. Those who number the Masters among their friends and value that friendship little find opportunities to flaunt that contempt at the Wolfstack Docks. Those who are willing to lose friends, acquaintances, and connections find the Veilgarden to be of interest; magicians belovéd of the Glass discover dark secrets on Saturday nights.
And only then does the quest begin in earnest. Subsequent progress is halting and rare, and is accompanied by screams of pain, imprisonment, and poverty. The Northridden search in all areas of Fallen London, are seen in the company of spirifers and Starveling cats, and are found beaten to death and robbed of all their valuables.
One who would advance to this stage will be left a broken husk of a man (or woman or squid-thing). And still, the Name is not yet found.
A more detailed guide, with direct spoilers to levels and locations, albeit not to game content, is posted below.
Starting the Search
- Seeking Mr Eaten's Name can apparently (or could once) be begun in the Game of Knife and Candle on scoring a kill; no one seems to have more information on that method than that, and it may no longer be in the game.
- Seeking Mr Eaten's name can apparently be begun through the Wednesday show in the Mahogany Hall; this is unconfirmed, as of yet.
- The standard approach to the Search involves first becoming Unaccountably Peckish, via ways mentioned on the UP page. A Recurring Dreams: Death by Water 7 opportunity will then allow you to begin your quest. Do not advance your Death by Water too high before doing this; otherwise, you may have to go insane to reset it to a low enough level again.
All subsequent steps have a high chance of increasing any or all of your menaces and decreasing your main qualities.
Early steps along the path
- You should get an opportunity card to get from Seeking Mr Eaten's Name 1 to 2. Frequencies of SMEN cards have varied in the past; this may be rapid, or may take quite some time.
- To advance from 2 to 3, look for a storylet in the Forgotten Quarter. You will need to be very Watchful to finish the storyline that allows you to use it (A Scholar of the Correspondence).
- There are multiple options that allow you to advance from 3 to 6, one change point at a time:
- There is an opportunity card which is a difficult Dangerous challenge. It will cost you many wounds, as well as a large amount of points in Shadowy and Dangerous.
- There is an opportunity card which will cost you a large quantity of Connected: the Masters of the Bazaar.
- At Seeking the Name 4, there is an opportunity card which will cost you many connection points in many factions, as well as points in Persuasive. This card seems to raise your Seeking the Name quality by 2 or more points.
- For those who have advanced high in the Glass, there is a storylet in the Saturday show in Mahogany hall. It is a difficult Unaccountably Peckish challenge.
All subsequent steps are guaranteed to significantly increase any or all of your menaces (or instantly send you to exile, death, imprisonment, or insanity), decrease any or all of your main qualities (by multiple LEVELS, even for level-capped characters), or cost you many items.
The Endless Grind
- An opportunity card will appear to take you from 6 to 7. It may take some time to show up. It will cost you all your confident smiles, sudden insights, hastily scrawled warning notes, and hard-earned lessons.
- Four new opportunity cards will become available at 7. The frequencies of these cards have varied as FBG tries to balance their game; for a time, it was common to go many days without seeing one, and it was estimated that going through this section would take many months, even with perfect card-flipping. Since then, FBG has re-increased the frequencies.
- You will require multiple (3?) Starveling Cats (or a single Starveling Cat and use of Fate). They can be acquired via very rare successes in the Pass the Cat game.
- One of the cards will inform you how many you need to collect of 3 different qualities.
- Each of the other 3 will have an option to TRY to collect those qualities, if you get lucky.
- The Soul card will require lots of Laudanum. Success will cost you your soul, and lead you on a chase to get it back. Failure will cost you Silk Scraps.
- Failure on the Mind card will cost you Jade, Moon-pearls, and Rostygold, and give you wounds. Success on the Mind card will cost you a variety of different things - first whispered secrets and cryptic clues, second Glim and Jade and Moon-pearls, then proscribed texts and stolen correspondence, then Greyfields (1789, 1882, and first sporing). Each success will lead to imprisonment in New Newgate - again.
- Early steps of the Body card will require Correspondence Plaques. Success or failure will both give you large amounts of Wounds - success will result in instant death.
- Once you have collected all the necessary pieces, you will be able to advance via an opportunity card; this will cost you 10 levels (500 change points) in each of watchful, dangerous, and persuasive.
Dark Dreams
- An invitation will appear. If accepted, you will gain a new quality: [b]Marsh-Mired in Dreams of Sustenance 1[/b]. This unlocks new opportunity cards.
- The level 1 opportunity card removes this quality, but you can still advance.
- The level 2 opportunity card is a social action that requires sending an invitation to a friend who's currently playing.
