These Opportunity Cards appear when your Watchful quality reaches a certain level. They generally challenge the Watchful quality but some have options which test other Qualities. The links below will jump to the section of the page describing Cards which unlock at that level of Watchful Quality.
Cards which unlock between 0 and 9
A protector of cats (Std)
Cat-chasing is a tradition in Fallen London, but lately the practice has become a fad. Few are stupid enough to injure the cats, but the Duchess disapproves nonetheless.
[Unlocked with Watchful 4 and no more than 20]
[Unlocked with Persuasive no more than 20]
[Unlocked with Dangerous no more than 20]
[Unlocked with Shadowy no more than 20]
Rouse the city’s residents in defence of the cats
Is London not a city of animal-lovers? An inspiring pamphlet ought to do the trick.
_  Persuasive challenge (8.5% per point) |
Your catalogue of the feline virtues may have been too thorough
Persuasive increase
Take to the alleys and defend the cats yourself
Let the cat-wranglers beware.
_  Dangerous challenge (5% per point) |
There's no standing against a good fad
Dangerous increase
An intriguing rumour (Std)
A gentleman of the Orient hiding something near Dead Monk's Bridge? Surely worth investigating.
[Unlocked with Watchful no more than 27]
Now, where was it?
The gentleman in question is a representative of an organisation that does not embrace publicity. Just where is the stash?
_  Watchful challenge (5% per point) |
Just who is Blue Jack? (Std)
A notorious pickpocket that usually haunts Spite - but his identity is a mystery. You think you just spotted him at work.
[Unlocked with Watchful no more than 27]
There might be a reward…
Perhaps you can describe the man you saw well enough that the Constables will reward you.
| _ Watchful challenge (5% per point) |
Two eyes, a nose…er…definitely a nose…
Watchful increase
Eavesdropping in the gardens (Std)
Taking a detour through Tyrant's Gardens, you spot a bandaged woman and a priest deep in conversation…
[Unlocked with Watchful no more than 27]
This has to be worth listening to
Perhaps you can sneak a little closer and hear what they are saying.
| _ Watchful challenge (5% per point) |
I was admiring the mushrooms!
Watchful increase
An unsolved riddle (Std)
On a hunch, you pick up a battered journal, claimed to belong to an Exiled Russian Princess, for a half-echo at an auction. Its contents are in cipher: there might be valuable secrets in here…
[Unlocked with Watchful 9]
Decipher the cipher
Bend your intellectual weaponry to the task.
| _ Watchful challenge (6.6% per point) |
What? There are two ciphers?
This is a remarkably subtle text. Or you are seeing patterns where there are none.
| _ Watchful challenge (2.5% per point) |
Cracked it!
You've broken the code, for all the good it does you. What in God's name is a Snuffer? And why would it pretend to be a clergyman?
Watchful increase
Gain: 12 x Cryptic Clue
Cleaning up the neighbourhood (Std)
The area near your lodgings is rife with footpads and burglars. Something must be done!
[Unlocked with Watchful 9-39]
Ensure your own security
If the Constables cannot ensure your safety, you will have to see to it yourself.
| _ Watchful challenge (6.6% per point) |
A concerned citizen
The Constables cannot be relied upon for patient evidence gathering required to catch the whole gang. You must do that yourself.
| _ Watchful challenge (2.5% per point) |
Cards which unlock between 10 and 19
A little omen [Rare]
Something colourful! …
Unlocked with Watchful 10
Choose the crimson card
It has a luxuriant rose on the other side.
[Unlocked with Watchful 10]
Choose the turquoise card
The one with a picture of a sparkling diamond.
[Unlocked with Watchful 10]
Choose the amber card
It bears a picture of a calmly unblinking eye.
[Unlocked with Watchful 10]
You are clever
Sharp, cunning and possibly even devious. Perhaps you knew in advance these cards were to be found here: perhaps you had your own reasons for picking one up.
Subtle increase
Someone is Coming increase
Watchful increase
You now have 1 of this: 'Preternaturally Intent'
You'll lose any Moods in about an hour. Make the most of it!
Choose the black card
On the other side is a picture of a bright-eyed raven.
[Unlocked with Watchful 10]
Choose the knife-card
A message about the Game of Knife-and-Candle! You are permitted to change a form or choose a target..
[Unlocked with A Participant in the Underground Leagues of Knife-and-Candle 1]
[This storylet will not cost you an action!]
A dusty bookshop
It's a quiet, particularly dank afternoon when you stumble on a little bookshop lurking in a cobbled lane. Some peaceful browsing will help pass the time…
Unlocked with Watchful 10
Browse tales of pirates
Pirates, scimitars, treasure chests; heaving bosoms a-plenty - you are looking for pure escapism.
A taste for danger
Evidently you wish you lived more like the heroes of these lurid tales. Pillaging ships on the high seas and leaving tearful lovers broken-hearted in your wake! That's how you see yourself!
Heartless increase OR
Heartless hasn't changed, because it's higher than 8
Shadowy increase
Someone is Coming is increasing…
Browse the natural philosophy section
Erudite tomes on mycological taxonomy, that's what you feel like today.
A particularly noble courage
Yours is a remarkable brand of heroism. You are the sort of person who braves swamps, inaccessible crags and foul caverns to track down the specimens you crave. And there is no shortage of wide-eyed students who find that simply thrilling.
Making Waves increase
(3 points? Confirmation?
Someone is Coming is increasing…
Browse the society romances
Frocks, bonnets, fainting ladies, devilishly handsome heirs, wicked stepfathers; all life is here. All life that is normally found in genteel parlours, anyway.
You are wiser than you look
You can learn a lot about the human condition from romantic novels. The social stratum depicted is shallow, but wide. And you always feel so well-disposed towards others after reading about the trials of the idle rich.
Magnanimous increase OR
Magnanimous hasn't changed, because it's higher than 8
Persuasive increase
Someone is Coming is increasing…
Browse the military history
You've always admired Tacitus. You find meditations on martial strategy terribly fascinating.
You can learn such a lot
from the great generals of the past. Your eye is keener. Your mind is quicker. You know a peculiar mode of attack in chess that is usually practiced only by poets, madmen and fakirs.
Ruthless increase OR
Ruthless hasn't changed, because it's higher than 8
Someone is Coming is increasing…
Cards which unlock between 20 and 29
You've said that there's a certain well-known tree…'
that grows from nothing in a day….lives only as a sapling, dies just at its prime, when good men raise it as their idol…' That tree's blossoms are ears that drink the secrets of the city. The tree is flowering now, they say, somewhere in the Forgotten Quarter…
Unlocked with Watchful 20
Find it. Its secrets must be worth hearing
It won't be easy to track down…
(Watchful challenge; chancy at 25)
You press your own ear to its slimy trunk, and learn…
It's heard a great deal of gossip…and a handful of valuable secrets.
Gain: 3 x Whispered Secret
Gain: 20 x Cryptic Clue
Gain: 10 x Appalling Secret
When I did this, I got:
Gain: 20 x Whispered Secret
Gain: 10 x Cryptic Clue
Find it. It can put me on the trail of my quarry.
You'll need to find it first…
Unlocked with Seeking… 1
You press your own ear to its slimy bark, and learn…
It's heard interesting things about the target of your hunt.
Watchful increase
Seeking increase
(From 1 to 5)
Someone is Coming is increasing…
Find it. It can tell me what I need to know about my target.
It won't be easy to track down…
Unlocked with Investigating… 1
You press your own ear to its slimy trunk, and learn…
It's heard interesting things about the target of your investigations.
Watchful increase
Investigating. increase
(From 1 to 5)
Someone is Coming is increasing…
A face from the past
You catch sight of a young beauty sitting with a Clay Man in a Veilgarden tavern. They remind you of another ill-matched couple you once knew…
Unlocked with Watchful 20, a Finder of Heiresses 1
You do not wish to be reminded of them.
Try to sidle out of the public house before you see any more. You do not wish to be depressed any further.
You cannot help but overhear
The tavern is small. You overhear a brief exchange, but it is enough to tell you that the two of them are living in impoverished circumstances, but very, very happily. Their words are loving, and even the Clay Man's eyes are alive with joy. You are not sure how this makes you feel about what you did to the Comtessa.
Melancholy increase
Direct increase
You are intrigued by the resemblance.
Stay quiet and see what you can gather about their relationship.
Lessons about love
You overhear snippets of their conversation. Enough to gather that life is by no means easy for the two of them. Poverty is tough, and they seem to be finding that true love is not always enough to overcome the grind of deprivation. In short, you overhear enough to make you question everything you thought was true about love, and everything you did in the affair of the poor young Comtessa.
Gain: 3 x Whispered Secret
Melancholy increase
Subtle increase
The secrets of rats (Std)
A human gunsmith seeks a discreet agent to learn the secrets of his Rattus Faber competitor.
[Unlocked with Watchful 21-51]
How do they do that?
Rat gunsmiths are renowned, so much so that a human gunsmith has given up trying to compete fairly. He wants you to discover the tricks of their trade.
(Watchful challenge; modest at 22)
Tiny secrets and honey
Watchful increase
Gain: 21 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Figure it out for yourself
A …whatever you are of genius such as yourself can surely replicate the advances of mere rodents, if you can find a weapon to experiment on.
Unlocked with 1 x Ancient Hunting Rifle
All a matter of size
Gain: 36 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Divining the dirigibles
A wealthy, secretive individual requires an investigative genius to deduce the pattern behind the occult New Newgate Prison dirigible schedule.
Unlocked with Watchful 21
Cracking the timetable
It's based on no sane calendar, but the dirigible schedule does seem to have some pattern to it. This is going to take considerable upward observation.
(Watchful challenge; low-risk at 24)
Bats! It’s all about the bats!
After eliminating the tides, the seasons, the unseen movement of planets and no fewer than fourteen different calendars from your hypotheses you deduce the truth. The prison dirigible schedule is based around the movements of the largest flocks of bats in the cavern above the city. What you’re not sure of is whether this link is based on the practicality of flying dirigibles into bat swarms or something more symbolic. Whatever it is, you rub your aching neck and are paid as agreed.
Watchful increase
Gain: 11 x Primordial Shriek
Connected: The Great Game increase
I’ve got it! No – wait, what’s that one doing there?
Strain and try as you might, the thinking behind the dirigible timetable remains infuriatingly elusive. Whoever is in charge of the schedule must be completely insane or solidly dedicated to the destruction of your reason. You expect your employer to be disgruntled by your failure, but she is instead curiously satisfied as she departs. You remain unpaid, alas.
Watchful increase
Hang on, where's that one going?
One particular dirigible doesn't visit New Newgate Prison at all. Where is it going?
(Watchful challenge)
Putting up stars?
It takes the dirigible most of a day to climb to the ceiling of the cavern. At that distance it is difficult to be sure, but was that glimmering light there before? Did the occupants of the dirigible just add another 'star' to the ceiling? A thick swarm of bats greets the craft as it returns towards the ground: you are not sure where it landed.
Watchful increase
Gain: 18 x
Cryptic Clue
The smugglers' grave
In a city where death is a temporary inconvenience, graves are often empty and graveyards quiet. They make ideal spots for smugglers to store their loot. This will use up some of your Connected: Criminals.
[Unlocked with Watchful 21, Connected: Criminals 10]
One stone in a thousand
Now, if I were a grave filled with illicit goods transported at night out of the sight of the Constables, which grave would I be?
A challenge for your Watchful quality. [straightforward at 27]
Eliza Trove, beloved mother? That was foolish of them.
It takes a few days of careful observation and an hour’s furtive, frantic spadework to uncover the smuggler's cache. You come away from the operation a little wealthier, although you can’t help but wonder why this particular commodity is coming in across the Unterzee.
Watchful increase
Gain: 250 x
Soul
Connected: Criminals decrease [~60 cp]
Try to glimpse a notorious smuggler
Persistent rumours have placed a Notorious Honey-smuggler at the graveyard. The Constables would pay for a detailed description.
A challenge for your Watchful quality. [chancy at 39]
Seeing his face
Days of persistent surveillance pay off. The Notorious Honey-smuggler meets a pair of tomb-colonists in the dead of night. His quick, quiet steps are hard to follow, but you catch a glimpse of him: pale skin and a wispy beard. He sees you! The smuggler bolts, and you give chase.
He flings something at you: it's a substantial patch of skin. Enough for a face. It has wispy whiskers on it. You drop the horrid thing, and the smuggler escapes. Despite its macabre nature, the Constables will be interested in your story.
Watchful increase
Connected: the Constables increase
< 12cp
Gain: 18 x Ragged Clothing
Connected: Criminals decrease
~100cp
Gain: 1 x
Appalling Secret
Gain: 1 x
Tale of Terror!!
Gain 200 x Rostygold
Nothing visible
It takes a few days of vigilance before the Notorious Honey-smuggler shows his face. Well, he doesn't actually show his face at all: he's bundled up in scarves and his hat is pulled low. He meets a pair of tomb-colonists in the dead of night. As they leave, the smuggler throws something casually into the bush you are hiding in. It is the stump of a candle. It is covered in teeth marks.
Watchful increase
Panning the Unterzee
Jewel fragments fall into the Unterzee from the lofty cavern roof. A tin pan and a quick eye could provide riches for a bold sea-skimmer.
Unlocked with Watchful 21
Sea skimming
Panning the 'Glim' from the shallows takes nerve as much as good eyes. Smugglers, pirates and natural hazards are in good supply.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 34)
Beauty won from murky waters
You manage to slip past the shallows-folk and set to panning in a quiet cove. Your calculations prove accurate – there is Glim here and you've beaten them to it! You retrieve some very pretty but disturbingly organic shards of the stuff from the muddy, oily water. You crave more, but there is something wrong here. Surely that black coral was further away when you started. Those crustaceans are scuttling a little too quickly. You pack up and head back, casting nervous glances back at the quiet shoreline.
Watchful increase
Gain: 36 x Glim
Finding a rich spot
It is said that glim falls according to some hidden pattern. Breaking even a small part of that code could bring riches.
(Watchful challenge; high-risk at 34)
A good day for glim
It is seldom that glim falls over…
Watchful increase
Gain: 36 x Glim
Too late…
Arriving at the shallows, you are dismayed to see that you are not the only one who can calculate Glim-fall. There is a little tent village out here, and a series of elaborately staked and signed claims along the shoreline. Eyes narrow as you approach, and you're rapidly convinced that the good spots have all been claimed. As you return home, you can't help but wonder why the sea skimmers are taking the trouble to smash up the black coral near their claims with pickaxes. You shiver as you leave.
Watchful increase
Night duty at Concord Square
The Constables at Concord Square are undermanned, and need vigilant citizens to make up the numbers for the night.
Unlocked with Watchful 21
Take up your badge and truncheon
Most of the regular Constables have been called away to an affray at the docks. You’re left in charge of the night shift at an out of the way station. What will the night bring?
(Watchful challenge; chancy at 21, straightforward at 41)
What's all this then?
Well, that was quite a night. In addition to the usual parade of vagrants and drunkards you dealt with: two pickpockets, an arson attack on a publisher's office, a spate of mysterious cat-burglaries and a honey-mazed maniac chopping a butcher's shop to pieces. You stagger exhausted to your lodgings after being commended for a fine job and rewarded with the clothes of hanged men.
Watchful increase
Gain: 10 x Ragged Clothing
Consult with detectives
There is a shortage of skilled medical examiners. Could you give informed opinions on such matters as stab wounds and poison?
(Watchful challenge; low-risk at 40)
An educated opinion
This one was run over by a horse at the gallop. That one has been stabbed by a pair of dwarfs. The lady was fed a poison extracted only from beetles. The detectives are rapt, hanging on your every word. Perhaps there is a career to be made in this?
Watchful increase
Gain: 36 x Rostygold
An opinion of sorts
This one was run over by a horse at the gallop. That one has been stabbed by a pair of dwarfs. The lady was fed a poison extracted only from beetles. You are making most of this up and the detectives are not convinced.
Watchful increase
The devil’s parrot
That devil was eccentric in many ways, and when she was recalled to Hell she left her pet parrot behind. That bird must know things. Secret things.
Unlocked with Watchful 21
Chastity want a cracker?
The bird was present for many secret meetings. Surely careful observation and the application of Mr. Murgatroyd's Fungal Crackers will yield some infernal tidbits.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 41)
'Awk! Buried alive in Spite! Caw!'
The bird is wary, and has been somewhat neglected. Gaining its trust is hardly difficult, but your patience is sorely tried as you attempt to make sense of the endless stream of juicy but infuriatingly vague snippets that emerge from its beak. Your diligence pays off, however, and you manage to put together something of real substance. It all clicks into place and your blood chills as you realise the importance of your find.
Watchful increase
Gain: 1 x Appalling Secret
Gain: 3 x Cryptic Clue
Nightmares increase
A bold approach
Perhaps the bird's memory can be jogged if you show it one of the alphabets of hell. Surely the creature will recognise it?
(Watchful challenge; modest at 37)
'SQUAAAAAWK!'
The bird emits a shriek that borders on the, well, infernal. It starts talking. The things it knows! The things it has seen! It won't shut up!
Watchful increase
Gain: 2 x Appalling Secret
Gain: 3 x Cryptic Clue
Nightmares increase
A commotion above!
Somebody is clumping around on the roof of your lodgings. Several somebodies, judging by the rain of roof-tiles whizzing past your front window. A hessian sack thumps into your firepace, throwing soot everywhere. What do you think is inside?
This is a Rare Opportunity - you lucky thing! Allowing your Menaces to get too high, or leaving Fallen London, may mean losing this card. Use it wisely!
Unlocked with Watchful 25
You must be at your Lodgings to receive or play
Jewels!
See how they coruscate in the moonish light from your window.
Schadenfreude
Somewhere on the high rooftops of the Flit, some thief or courier is having a really rotten afternoon. Well, that'll teach them to ruin your tiles, won't it?
Gain: 10 x Diamond
Gain: 5 x Sapphire
Gain: 4 x Venom-Ruby
Wine!
Enough for a riotous party with all your friends, or several months of debilitating alcoholic abuse all by yourself.
Beetles!
Disgusting, but profitable.
The Shivering Relicker and Pinnock are Trundling By
Relickers are the rag-and-bone men of Mr Cups. They salvage junk and occasionally pay for it. The Shivering Relicker and her rat companion Pinnock deal in screams and secret things.
Unlocked with Watchful 25
There are several Relickers and each trade in many different things. All of the cards and actions involving them are on their own page.
Cards which unlock between 30 and 39
1000 Nevercold Brass wanted! Will pay handsomely!
An elegant, enigmatic, honey-voiced woman of a certain age needs 1000 Nevercold Brass for reasons she does not care to discuss. She is prepared to offer 500 inherited Cryptic Clues, and future favours, in exchange. (Making this exchange will increase your Connected: The Great Game, which may open other doors for you…)
Unlocked with Watchful 30; only playable in Ladybones Road
Make the exchange
Exchange 1000 Nevercold Brass for 500 Cryptic Clues.
Unlocked with Nevercold Brass Sliver 1000
Done!
The exchange is made successfully. No-one has swindled anyone! How nice.
Lose: 1000 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Gain: 500 x Cryptic Clue
Persuasive increase
Connected: The Great Game increase (15cp)
Make the trade - and convince her to tell you what this is all about
There's a secret here. Don't we all adore secrets? But this woman is as close-mouthed as a locksmith's confessor.
Unlocked with Nevercold Brass Sliver 1000, Connected: The Great Game 10
(Persuasive challenge, straightforward at 105)
Rumours of war
A surface power - she names it, and you blink in shock - intends to mint its currency with infernal brass! They hope to harness their economy thereby to the driving engines of Hell. There have been arrangements made at ministerial level.
Valuable secrets. And you've made the trade, besides.
Persuasive increase
Gain: 6 x Appalling Secret
Gain: 500 x Cryptic Clue
Lose: 1000 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
A long slow reptilian blink
Your efforts at flirtation are politely ignored. Your hints about bribery provoke steely amusement.
Lose: 1000 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Gain: 500 x Cryptic Clue
Digging in the city
There are rumours of a find of Fourth City relics near Ladybones Road. Intriguing.
Unlocked with Watchful 33
Swift archaeology
It's not obvious where the relics might be and there is pressure from the other amateur archaeologists.
(Watchful challenge; modest at 34, straightforward at 53)
A find!
Your investigations lead you to a venerable and abandoned stone stable, and in the filthy floor of the place you unearth a trove of relics from the Fourth City. Wherever the city was in its surface days, it was definitely somewhere closer to Samarkand than Rome. Fascinating, and reasonably profitable.
Watchful increase
Gain: 10 x Relic of the Fourth City
A score of archaeologists
How can one city have so many investigators of the past? You track down the find with little difficulty, but by the time you arrive two respectable academics are having a screaming match that borders on fisticuffs, and a number of handlers of antiquities are hanging about hopefully with sacks. You leave the tawdry scene with not so much as a potsherd to your credit.
Watchful increase
Make a deal for knowledge
Agree to help out another archaeologist in return for information about the Fourth City.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 53)
A little chat about business
You spend a trying day with brushes and trowel, working on behalf of the archaeologist who was first to arrive at the site. The site is a rich one and a creditable pile of horseheads and potsherds accumulate on her table.
At the end of the day, you speak of antiquities and archaeology. She once went to the Forgotten Quarter to seek out relics, but found the experience too harrowing. There are packs of devils that hunt there. They are not above carrying a lonely scholar off to some helllish fate. Also, if you should come across any Second City items, the Duchess is always interested.
Watchful increase
Gain: 48 x Whispered Secret
Get off out of it
The archaeologists are in no mood to deal with you or each other. The mood at the dig is rather ugly and you retreat before fisticuffs break out.
Watchful increase
Tracking the thief
A notorious dragsman has gone to ground in a huge, squalid rookery. Can you find him?
Unlocked with Watchful 33
The bold detective
The Constables won't go in there, but perhaps you will.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 53)
Like a bloodhound
Nobody in a rookery would trust such a sterling citizen as yourself, so you take on a disguise of a hopeless gin-addled wretch and enter the terrible place. You avoid the disease, the almost casual stabbings and the occasional sorrow-spider and get to work. Despite your best efforts, your good health and clear eyes mark you both as outsiders, and it doesn't take long for you to pick up his trail and find him. The dragsman puts up little resistance when he is apprehended: surely, even New Newgate is better than this.
Watchful increase
Gain: 48 x Jade Fragment
Connected: The Constables increase
Death in the rookery
Nobody in a rookery would trust such a sterling citizen as yourself, so you take on a disguise of a hopeless gin-addled wretch and enter the terrible place. You avoid the disease, the almost casual stabbings and the occasional sorrow-spider and get to work. By the time you get to him, though, the dragsman has been killed in a dispute over a cup of foul spirits with a toothless harridan. It is with no little relief that you make your way back to civilisation.
Watchful increase
Strike a deal with him
Perhaps he will turn and provide evidence on the other inhabitants of the rookery. If you can find him.
(Watchful challenge; chancy at 47)
Tales from the rookery
It is a matter of little consequence…
Watchful increase
You've gained 48 x Whispered Secret
Death in the rookery
Nobody in a rookery would trust such a sterling citizen as yourself, so you take on a disguise of a hopeless gin-addled wretch and enter the terrible place. You avoid the disease, the almost casual stabbings and the occasional sorrow-spider and get to work. By the time you get to him, though, the dragsman has been killed in a dispute over a cup of foul spirits with a toothless harridan. It is with no little relief that you make your way back to civilisation.
Watchful increase
Unravelling arson
An arson attack is a serious concern. The Constables are willing to bring in a consulting detective.
Unlocked with Watchful 33
Burning curiosity
An infamously brutal landlord is suspected. There could be peril in the collection of evidence.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 53)
Fire and smoke
The landlord is complicit: you know it, and the Constables know it. The issue is evidence. Most of the locals are too cowed to talk, and the hired agent who actually lit the match is long gone. The fellow knows his business, but you manage to dredge up evidence of lesser crimes - intimidation and a little extortion. It wasn't the result the Constables were after, but they're satisfied enough and reward you with some of the landlord's confiscated property.
Watchful increase
Gain: 15 x Greyfields 1882
Connected: The Constables increase
Find the hired arsonist
The match was lit by a hired agent. The trail is cold, but you may be able to find something.
(Watchful challenge)
A most peculiar person
You do not find the arsonist, but the things you hear of them! A series of jewellery shop robberies. A passing acquaintance with high society. A series of wins at the ring fights. Entanglements with surface folk. Even forays into the arts of detection. Just who is this complex individual?
Watchful increase
Gain: 48 x Whispered Secret
A most peculiar feeling
No traces remain. The hired agent is as a ghost. But… the case disturbs you. You dream of ceaseless pursuit. Are you chasing or being chased?
Watchful increase
Nightmares increase
Stealth watch repair
A Near-Sighted Horologist is repairing an antique watch for a prominent citizen. The Brass Embassy wants you to replace the mainspring with another - indistinguishable by sight, just a little warmer to the touch. This calls for an accomplice.
[Unlocked with Connected: Hell 5, Watchful 35]
Let's make this sporting
The Talkative Rattus Faber is a liability; the spice of unpredictability in an otherwise routine housebreaking. He's bound to chatter about the watch, though. You might learn something.
A challenge for your Shadowy quality.
[Unlocked with 1 x Talkative Rattus Faber]
Enough about baking
Who would have guessed? When he gets to the watch itself, he's all business. The old mainspring is out and the new one in before he has time to tell you more than half the recipe for morelcap and Cheddar scones.
Shadowy increase
Gain: 55 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
A more sensitive timepiece
The Talkative Rattus Faber can't stop himself speculating as he fits the new mainspring. All about resonances and escapements and joy-sensitive alloys. And something about it being a lot of effort just to make a man two minutes late to weddings and three early to funerals. He's on the wrong track, of course, but you can draw your own conclusions about what the devils are up to.
Shadowy increase
Gain: 55 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Gain: 1 x
Appalling Secret
A calculated risk
More experienced than most rats, but not too proud for this kind of work. If his old wounds don't trouble him that night, it should go without a hitch. If it goes badly and the devils hear you took an inappropriate companion, however, your reputation will suffer.
A matter of luck: a long shot…but you might win.
[Unlocked with 1 x Disgraced Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief]
Slow but steady
He works less quickly than some of his kin, but he knows the business and doesn't compromise the mission. The devils are satisfied and your Disgraced Bandit-Chief looks a little more confident.
Gain: 55 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Not too impressed
Thanks to a collapse at the wrong moment, the watch winds up entirely ruined. The devils hear more of the tale than you hoped.
Connected: Hell decrease
It's beneath his dignity, but…
You've never known him to be particularly interested in watches, let alone ones made by human fingers. Still, the Bandit-Chief has a way of making things profitable.
A challenge for your Persuasive quality.
[Unlocked with 1 x Rattus Faber Bandit-Chief]
Masked lightning
The Rattus Faber Bandit-chief gets through the mainspring replacement in a trice, and emerges from the Near-sighted Horologist's desk with a bulging sack of other trinkets. Leftovers, he says, from settings and clock faces. Nothing that will be missed.
Persuasive increase
Gain: 55 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Gain: 1 x Diamond
Gain: 25 x Moon-pearl
Gain: 1 x Sapphire
You'll have to stand guard
The Working Rat can do the job, given time. You'll have to guard the corridors for him. Make sure the cats don't wake and the clocks don't chime.
A challenge for your Watchful quality.
[Unlocked with 1 x Working Rat]
Easy in, easy out
It's a quick businesslike job. The Near-sighted Horologist's mechanical genius does not extend to locks. The devils pay well. The Working Rat is strangely melancholy afterward, but a lump of Stilton cheers him up.
Watchful increase
Gain: 55 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
Maybe she'll find it comforting
This is the sort of thing she was born to do. Of course, an all-white rat does show up better in the darkness. Success here is not guaranteed.
A challenge for your Shadowy quality.
[Unlocked with 1 x Albino Rat]
Requires 1 Fate
Fate-locked content must not be placed on the wiki, per the developers.
Cards which unlock between 40 and 49
Miniature mausoleums
In the garden of the Shuttered Palace is a maze of tombs and gravestones, none of them bigger than a foot high. Why not take a stroll?
Unlocked with Watchful 45
You must be at The Shuttered Palace to receive or play
Examine the inscriptions
The stones are covered in carvings; someone had a lot to say, but what are they saying?
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 60)
Worth a thousand…
The symbols on the gravestones aren't words at all, they are rows and rows of precisely-carved images. Stylised hawks and oversized lizards; something which must surely be the sun; a boat with a single sail; water poured from a jar. Everywhere, twined around and between everything, there are cats curled up as if asleep. And what's that in the corner of the oldest stone? A row of tiny cloaked and hooded figures, one bearing a goblet?
Watchful increase
Gain: 24 x Cryptic Clue
A spot of grave-robbery
The only way to find out more is to get your hands dirty.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 65)
Digging up the dirt
It's only a matter of moments to lift a layer of earth and prise open the lid of a small coffer. You catch a strong whiff of dust and rotting fish. Inside is a bundle surrounded by a number of interesting trinkets. You pocket a few to examine later on. The bundle is wrapped in yellowing fabric and is terribly thin, with a narrow neck, a triangular head, and no limbs. A painted scene on the inside of the coffer shows a boat with a single sail, and a sleeping cat.
Watchful increase
You've gained 4 x Relic of the Second City.
The Ways of the Forgotten Quarter
Empty avenues of dust and memory. The remains of the Fourth City.
Unlocked with Watchful 40
Quite the find
Good Lord! Your local bookseller has a copy of Wilberforce's The Forgotten Roads of the Forgotten Quarter! You'll be strolling around the ruins in no time!
Requires 5 Fate
Fate-locked content must not be placed on the wiki, per the developers.
A trip to the Forgotten Quarter
A devil would be pleased to show you around the Forgotten Quarter, if you could make the trip worth his time.
Unlocks with 50 x Soul
Off you go
The devil sweeps the bottles into his overcoat. He sets a fast pace towards the Forgotten Quarter. 'Best be gone by the time the hunt starts.'
[You're heading to The Forgotten Quarter. When you leave, you won't be able to return unless you open up the route at your lodgings or find another devil like this one. The Forgotten Quarter is most interesting for those who have Watchful 60+.]
You've moved to a new area:
The Forgotten Quarter
Lose: 50 x Soul
Watchful increase
An unusual job
An anonymous agent wants you to photograph devils in the Forgotten Quarter while they're out hunting. She won't say who the client is. Are you ready for an excursion?
Unlocked with: Route: The Forgotten Quarter 1
A hunting we will go
The devils are too swift to capture on your limited plates, so you photograph their route and the remains of their victims instead. The agent is satisfied, and presents you with a fine packet of church candles.
Watchful increase
You've moved to a new area:
The Forgotten Quarter
You've gained 60 x Foxfire Candle Stub.
A day in the garden
Tyrant's Gardens are pretty, and thick with the meetings of spies and other clandestine types.
Unlocked with Watchful 45
A pleasant walk
It might be worth your while to take an extended stroll and do a little eavesdropping.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 65)
'… and then the ambassador grabbed the parrot…'
A tomb-colonist is speaking to an Oriental lady about steel prices. Two zailors are arguing about the validity of a treasure map near the roses. A well dressed banker is meeting a pair of devils on a misty bridge. A gaggle of academics are discussing the theft of ancient tablets at their picnic. The place just hums with little secrets. You come way with many snippets and a pleasing sense of the brisk business going on around you.
Watchful increase
Gain: 60 x Whispered Secret
Not a day for scandal and intrigue
A tomb-colonist is speaking to an Oriental lady about his pet rat. Two zailors are arguing about a debt measured in pennies. A well dressed banker is meeting another well dressed banker on a misty bridge. A gaggle of academics are discussing the laxity of students. The place entirely fails to hum with little secrets. You come away wondering what has happened to the Neath. Has everyone become honest while you weren't looking?
Watchful increase
Undertakings
A Troubled Undertaker needs help with his corpses.
Unlocked with Watchful 45
A second eye on the dead
The Troubled Undertaker needs a keen eye to help discern the very-actually-dead from those who might return.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 65)
Dead. Dead. Not dead.
The Troubled Undertaker is in a certain degree of legal difficulty. Several of his clients have proved to be not actually dead and objected to being buried. While he has a day in court, you spend a macabre afternoon assaying corpses for any signs of remaining life. You soon pick up on the signs to look for, and you're sure that you haven't made any mistakes. The Troubled Undertaker returns from court a free man, albeit a poorer one. You suggest the adoption of a belled coffin to mitigate subsequent troubles.
Watchful increase
Gain: 60 x Foxfire Candle
An inconveniently imprisoned employer
The Troubled Undertaker is in a certain degree of legal difficulty. Several of his clients have proved to be not actually dead and objected to being buried. While he has a day in court, you spend a macabre afternoon assaying corpses for any signs of remaining life. You soon pick up on the signs to look for, and you're sure that you haven't made any mistakes. You are concerned when your employer fails to return that evening. It transpires that he is on his way to New Newgate for kidnapping, and you are unlikely to be paid.
Watchful increase
The Dean's distress
The Dean of Infernal Rarefactions is concerned that there may be revolutionaries among his students.
Unlocked with Watchful 45
Enter the detective
The Dean is prepared to hire a consulting detective to investigate his concerns
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 65)
The visiting scholar
You soon learn that the study of Infernal Rarefactions has application in the construction of bombs, and set about infiltrating the department as a visiting scholar. You learn a little of the subject and manage to keep up with conversations in the various common rooms and lecture halls without damaging your cover. You confirm the suspicions of the Dean: several of the students are there to further the revolutionary cause with their knowledge of dangerously unstable compounds, rather than for the pure, clean love for that knowledge. You turn in your report and are paid.
Watchful increase
Gain: 60 x Foxfire Candle
'The purification of the… substance, with the… thing…'
You… set about infiltrating the department as a visiting scholar. Alas your knowledge of the subject lets you down, and rumours that you are an interloper in the department soon start spreading.
Watchful increase
Stone by stone
The Fragrant Academic is studying the Third City. Perhaps you can help?
[Unlocked with Watchful 45]
[This card can only be drawn in The University]
Seduce him
Playing around
The two of you spend a honey-fuelled evening where you do everything you can to distract him from his studies. Sometime in the early hours you have the opportunity to study the scraps of paper on his desk very closely. Amongst them is a small piece of cardboard with the picture of a smiling child on it, painted in bright colours. How intriguing. Still, your mind’s on other things.
An occurrence! Your '
Playing with Broken Toys' Quality is now 1!
Hedonist increase
Lead him astray
A supply of artifacts from the Third City, and a naïve academic? Wonderful.
_ challenge
Extra-curricular activity
Over the course of a few days you drip-feed him juicy clues, and he invites you to spend several honey-fuelled evenings in speculation. You pick his brains, paying careful attention to his ideas — skyglass knives, black mirrors, and well-attended sporting events? Fascinating! After a pleasant week you offer to take some of his relics away for further study. These academic types are so gullible.
Watchful increase
Gain: 7 x Relic of the Third City
Further his research
You've stumbled upon a few artifacts that may be helpful.
Unlocked with 5 x Relic of the Third City
Smoke and mirrors
The two of you spend a honey-fuelled evening in speculation and study. By the early hours of the morning, you are both absolutely certain you know where the Third City was and why it fell. Sadly, when the hangovers wear off, neither of you can remember anything but fragments. Was it something about black mirrors? Or well-attended sporting events? Still, you've learned a lot.
You've lost 5 x Relic of the Third City.
You've Gained 30 x Cryptic Clue
Coals and souls
A boat with tattered sails glides into the same dock once a week. A group of vagrants boards as sacks of coal are unloaded. What's going on here?
Unlocked with Watchful 45
Investigate the sacks
Perhaps there'll be a clue
A piece of a puzzle?
You recover a coal-stained scrap of cardboard. On it is a picture of a smiling child, painted in bright colours. It looks to have been torn from the lid of a box.
An occurrence! Your 'Playing with Broken Toys' Quality is now 1!
A word to the neddy men
Smuggling on the dockside? Mr Fires, who runs the docks, should be told.
(Watchful challenge)
Mum's the word
You seek out a neddy man and tell him about the ship. He stares at you for a full minute. Then he winks. He digs into his pocket, and presses a leather purse into your hand. "Least said, fewest dead, right?" A sharp whistle, and he's joined by two of his mates. Sticks in hand, they saunter off towards the dock in question.
Watchful increase
1 x Scarlet Stockings of Dubious Origin I got 2 x Relic of the Second City, so either changed or a random reward
Stow away
What's a little discomfort when there are secrets to be learned?
(Watchful challenge)
All aboard
A dock in a sewer-mouth underneath the spires of the University. A long table, where the vagrants sit down to a meal of beef and dumplings while the zailors load the coal. A black iron door with three locks, which opens to reveal a passageway, along which the diners are led after their meal. From your hiding place amongst the barrels you can't see where it leads. Perhaps it's better that way.
Watchful increase
Gain: 60 x Whispered Secret
Infiltrate a gentlemen's club
London may now be subterranean, but gentlemen still need somewhere to smoke, gamble and socialise in peace. The clubs guard their privacy jealously; but you and your collection of fake moustaches enjoy a challenge.
Unlocked with Watchful 45
Start with a more sedate gentlemen's haunt
The Parthenium is a place where the most exciting thing that happens of an evening is a game of billiards, but these austerely grand surroundings do attract a great number of men of power. Dressing up and getting in is the easy bit; now to try to obtain some useful tidbits of information. And some port. The port is very, very nice here.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 65)
One of the chaps already
You bluff your way nicely into a conversation between two red-faced old fellows, both of whom are so, not to put too fine a point on it, soused, and so delighted at the prospect of a fresh listener that they share all manner of confidences with you. In fact, they gossip like fishwives! A very profitable evening indeed.
Watchful increase
Gain: 22 x Cryptic Clue
You prefer a livelier sort of place
The Young Stags' Club is a much friskier sort of place. The racy young clientele make easy marks, to be sure, but the fun and larks to be had do shade towards the illegal and ill-advised. Dress in your eccentric best and off you go to attempt the basic initiation ritual.
Unlocked with Watchful 50
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 75)
You fit right in!
Ah, what jolly japes. The young gallants are impressed by your flair for hilarious pranks. You steal bloomers from washing-lines. You reassign them to statues of distinguished philanthropists. You wobble unsteadily home with a crate of Mr Wines’ finest and some very choice gossip.
Watchful increase
Gain: 30 x Greyfields 1882
Connected: Bohemian increase
I say. Not quite the right sort of fellow, what?
Oh dear. You were rumbled straightaway. What gave you away? It seems the way you knot your cravat went out of fashion last week. No self-respecting fop would be seen dead like that.
Watchful increase
Gain acceptance to the Stags' most exclusive clique
The rite of acceptance to Beau Britches' fashionable inner circle at the Stags involves dressing up as Jack-of-Smiles and leaping cackling out of dark corners to frighten young ladies.
Unlocked with Watchful 55
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 80)
Ah-ha-ha-ha!
Your robust appetite for fun impresses the chaps. And fainting ladies do tend to lose track of their jewels and handkerchiefs. You are not above palming some trinkets even as you ever-so-solicitously loosen their bodices.
Watchful increase
Gain: 30 x Silk Scrap
Gain: 30 x Jade Fragment
Connected: Society increase
That may have gone a little too far
Jack-of-Smiles does not take kindly to being impersonated. Oh no. Especially not by the sort of brainless dandy that frequents the Young Stags. You spend most of the evening stitching your comrades back together.
Watchful increase
Nightmares increase
1 change point
Wounds increase
1 change point
Recapturing a prison escapee
It seems that someone has escaped from New Newgate Prison! Someone other than you, that is.
Unlocked with Watchful 57
Well, you do know how this is done…
Assuming you can keep a straight face, you attend to the serious business of recapturing the felon.
(Watchful challenge; straightforward at 77)
How on earth did you do it?
The escapee went out of New Newgate in the same manner that you did when you were last there. Recapturing her is too easy: you have to make a show of working things out for the watching Constables. They think you are a genius! They move to shower you with more work as a consulting detective.
Watchful increase
Connected: The Constables 36+ change points
Too many memories
You return to New Newgate on an official dirigible, and… there are too many here who know you from your days as a prisoner. You have to get out. You refuse the case, and your dreams for nights afterwards are of that old dripstone cell and the heavy footfalls of gaolers.
Watchful increase
Nightmares increase
1 change point
Cards which unlock between 50 and 59
The mechanics of progress [Standard]
The Dean of Infernal Rarefactions has heard that you know a thing or two about dangerously unstable compounds.
Unlocked with Watchful 57
Would you care to give a guest lecture?
The students are keen. The staff are coolly intruiged by your theories. F.F. Gebrandt may be in the audience.
| _ Watchful challenge |
What exactly is below this hall?
Well, your concoction doesn't…
Watchful increase
Gain: 36 x
Cryptic Clue
It doesn't seem to work
Your concoction doesn't explode…
Watchful increase
Lies below the Palace
'Lies below the Palace' is a thoroughly scandalous novel set in and below the Shuttered Palace.
Unlocked with Watchful 57
An insider's knowledge
It is thought to have been written by a palace functionary and to contain all manner of secrets. Of course, getting a copy is hardly easy.
A challenge for your Watchful quality. [high-risk at 70, straightforward at 77]
A proper page-turner
An anarchist hears of your interest and arranges for a copy to make its way to you. The book is for the most part a coy bodice-ripper, but has some interesting passages that might be based on truth. Why do the Palace cellars have five locks? What causes the strange hootings and moanings that can be heard below the Palace? Is that really where the Rubbery Men come from?
Watchful increase
Gain: 18 x
Proscribed Material
Apparently not
The usual bookshops: no. The unusual bookshops: no. Contacts in the underworld: no. Scouring of obscure private libraries: no. Not even a begging letter to Mr. Pages produces the book. Perhaps it no longer exists? Will your works be suppressed so thoroughly? An awful thought.
Watchful increase
Nightmares increase
Gain: 12 x 
Gain: 1 x Faded Morning Suit
Gain: 1 x 
Gain: 1 x 
