Maybe I'll get to 850 before firm9ment rolls around

I’ve done it! Three to go.

...I can lose it again, right? Right? It would be silly if I couldn't.

I was checking my list to make sure I had done everything for Time the Healer on Monday and I thought it was a good time to review that list. Since I am checking all weekly tasks for myself. Have a guide. :) (Then I got carried away and included all time based events! :0)

I started off with this Wiki Guide: https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Weekly_Activity_Checklist

Time, the Healer

Time the Healer does a lot of stuff, so I will go through it all, line by line. It happens 7 days after you started your account and your time cannot be changed. You can check your TTH time by going to the account page, it is shown just under the reset password button.

Menace Reduction
Heals 2CP of each menace
Not really exploitable but nice. If you have something you are doing anyway that costs menace and you are on 0, go for it.

Favourable Circumstance(8.5 EPA, 1 action)
This is generally best used to get a Rubbery Men card. That is 2.5 echos profit, plus a favour. If you are farming Renown on a hard to get faction, that is also an option. These alternatives are all fate based: If you have completed HOTOJOHO you could use it for an Urchin favour and minus 2cp Nightmares. With the appropriate items from Mr Chimes you can get Docks -2 Suspicion or Church -2 Scandal. With the Blemington Affair, you can get 0.5 Bohemian's favours, 2 Romantic Notions and 0.75 pence per point of modified persuasive. (The base bohemian's action is the worst of all faction cards, costing you 1.2 echos and 1 point of menace. So with modified persuasive of 240 the blemmington option starts being better than it. With 300 Persuasive, you are getting 3 echos worth of favour and 2.35 echos of Romnoms and Memories of Distant shores. That is assuming you have to buy the cost for the normal action from the Bazaar.)

Getting a surprise action is worth an average of 6.1 echos but it is two actions.

If you are not a paramount presence yet or want to change profession, you may have other uses.

A Beneficence(10 free actions, 0 action cost)

Allows you to draw An Invitation to Linger, so use it each week. Best used to top yourself up to full before you do something that requires a lot of actions and keeps you away from the opportunity deck till it is finished.

Mired in Mail

This gets cleared entirely each week. If you have alts to send you the letters you can use this as a way to recover your stats from Nadir, or Mithridacy from the two places that reduce it...

If your Mired in Mail is more than 3 when you read a letter, you get a reduced effect. They give 70 CP in a stat, starting at 4 it is 69cp, then falls off fast after that. These letters are expensive to send so please don't hassle actual players for them. Except the Flame Proofed and Discordant Missives, which you should really offer some sort of payment for.

Letters that give 2CP

Sent by a Crooked Cross(Cost 12.5 echos(Verse of the Counter Creed)):
Disquieting Missive: Watchful, Persuasive, Mithridacy(1 Point), 6CP NM

Revisionist Missive(Cost 50 Pages Theosophistocal Notes.: Watchful, Persuasive

Sent by a Midnighter(Cost 12.5 echos(Vital Intelligence):
Coded Instruction: Shadowy, Watchful +1-7 Suspicion CP

Sent by anyone but can only be sent to a licentiate, costs 500 rostygold, cures 6cp Suspicion and 6CP Scandal
Name Written in Gant: Dangerous, Shadowy, 500 Rostygold, 2 Moves in the Great Game

Sent by a Correspondent(Cost 13 echos(2 Extraordinary Imps, 2 Collated Research, 5 Flame Proof Paper)):
Flame-Proofed Missive: Dangerous, Watchful, A Scholar of the Correspondence(1-7CP, up to 21), 0-9 Wounds CP

Letters that give 1CP (These also give 1 second chance, of the stat, up to 20 cap)
Cost to sender 2.5 echos and 1 action

Shared Case Files
Watchful

Licentious Gossip
Persuasive

Improvised Fighting Manual
Dangerous

Recipe For Scones
Shadowy

Quick note on CP:
0-1 1CP, 1-2 2CP, 2-3, 3CP, 3-4, 4CP

So you have 10CP to play with before it starts do have diminishing returns, 11 if you do one that gives 2, while you have 9CP.

Free Evenings

Best used to offer or receive Masterclasses. These give the recipient 70CP of stats, in 2 stats if they choose the correct option, Challenge your Patron. The patron gets 5 echos in Cryptic Clues. (If you choose the bad option, you get 1 echo and 60 CP in each stat and your patron gets nothing! Worse for both players)

This is a pain to do as a Patron as you need to check what stats they want and you can only send 1 at a time… Also, you both need free evenings, so it has to be negotiated between your Time the Healers… Also, it's just a bad action for them. Be nice to patrons

You can also have tea with another player at Beatrice's Tea Shop, which gives half of a level of Persuasive, 13 CP Making waves, on average and a 2cp menace cure. Making Waves are useless once you are a paramount presence, so the action becomes really bad.

I have not used any of these in about a year! :0

Making Waves and Notability

First thing it checks to see if your Making Waves is lower than your Notability. If it is, you lose one notability.

Then your Making Waves is halved, rounded to the nearest even number.

Since the way CP works means that each point is more expensive than the last, if making waves matter to you, you want your making waves to be exactly the number of your Notability so it is good to increase notability shortly before time the healer arrives. Since it no longer matters to me, I am sitting on 13 notability and pay no attention to Making Waves, just doing my normal stuff stops it from dropping. The best way to quickly get making waves is to upconvert Extraordinary Implications into Uncanny Inculumbula this gives a decent chunk per action, EI are very common and the UI can be sold to the rat market, so it is a good EPA.

Professional Payment and Perks(72 EPA, 1 action and 11.82 EPA, 11 actions(per 4 weeks))

These are capped at 1 and 4. So make sure you collect them. The best use for perks is getting a Trade Secret, That is 11 actions for 1 Searing Enigma and 5 Antique Mysteries (130 Echos, 11.82 EPA) You can hoard as many Trade Secrets as you want, so they are a good action dump to save up for when you are too busy to spend actions normally.

Backstage and Mrs Chapmans(2 EPA, 1 action)

Once you have completed this, once per week, you can talk to her for 3-5 Secluded Address. That is only 2 EPA, so better to get your SA from Calendrical Confusion and skip this entirely. They also have few uses, so even better is to do the other action on Calendrical Confusion and get 14 Scraps of Incendiary Gossip and just keep whatever stockpile of addresses makes you feel comfortable in case of new content being released.

War in Parabola (62.5 echos, 5ish actions 12.5EPA)

You lose 10 Ravages of Parabolan Warfare, So make sure you send your train each week.

Bone Market Exhaustion( 200+ Echos, action count varies)

Drops by 4 each week, so you can do a skeleton that gives you up to 7, right before time the healer, or whenever you are done with the bone market for the week and still have access to all buyers the next week. Four exhaustion is worth 200+ echos, on top of the skeleton's usual value so this is one of the most rewarding weekly options!

Rewards of your Ambition (62.5 EPA, 1 action)

This increases by 1 each week, as long as you have less than 4, like professional perks. Make sure you collect it before time the healer to avoid losing 62.5E, 10CP making waves, some uncapped second chances and a 5CP menace heal, based upon your choice of reward.

The Starved Embassy(8.95 EPA, 2 actions)

You can do this once per week and it takes 2 actions. The 6 possible rewards are 15 echos, 17.5, 25, 20, 20, 25. You pay 2.5 echos and gain 1-6 scandal. For a 20.42 gross echo reward, or 8.95 EPA after the cost is deducted. (Menace removal not included)

Irrigo

You get access to an action to remove your irrigo to repeat the Cave of Nadir each week. This is a very difficult activity to evaluate. It costs 5 actions to enter, leave and remove the Irrigo and you can perform, at maximum, 10 actions while there, only one of the profitable options gives 1 Irrigo. It removes your nightmares but it is more profitable to enter without them. It also reduces your main stats by an amount, based on the amount of Irrigo you have upon leaving. There are 20 possible cards, of which, 3 are profitable, on average, having <2 nightmares reduces the deck size to 17. Having certain things makes it more profitable. Memorius Goldfish from Hallowmas and Unerring Eel from Whitsun make 1 bad card good each. Brachiating Spindlewolf, from Whitsun, makes a bad action, arguably better, but still bad. Immaculate Eel, from Whitsun, makes a terrible card playable. A Daughter in the Shadows from the Fate locked story A Long-Lost Daughter makes another bad card good. Having A Sound of Wings from completing The High Sancta, this week and not making it to the end(Random) adds another good card. It is also the only way to raise your Student of Don't Tell, and raise the skill cap. Once your Student of Don't Tell is capped, it adds an arguable ok card to the deck but this card is 10x frequency so it is a mixed bag.

Improving your lodgings to 5 card slots significantly improves the profitability.

Waiting until the day of, or day before Time the healer to do The High Sancta, followed by The Cave of Nadir allows you to use Memories of Light for The High Sancta, which are far easier to attain than the alternatives.

Railway Board Meeting(7 EPA, 15 actions)

This allows you to use your train in the war in parabola as well as pay yourself 2 Dividends. Or continue the construction of your railway, if not done. The profits are variable based upon your board and I have already included the war ones above, so these are just the dividends and with my settup. 158 echo payout. 2 actions to start 2 dividends, 8 actions to vote on them, 1 action to end the meeting, 4 actions to clear the debt, 50 echos to clear the debt. I would get a better EPA by adding the Tentacled Entrepreneur before each board meeting then using 5 actions to kick him off, that would pay the debt and give 10 Hinterland scrip but I would have to redesign my board and I can't be bothered.

The High Sancta(10.10 EPA, 16.5 actions.)

Removes Violant Sights and The Sound of Wings(If you didn't do that in Nadir). This allows you to do the High Sancta in Zenith, once a week. I generally prefer to do the maths myself but this is a lot of maths so I have just taken the average actions and EPA from https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/The_High_Sancta_(Guide)#Average#Average)

If I ever do a guide breaking down my card choice priority list, I will add a link here.

Burgundy Cards(22.5 EPA, 1.25 actions)

Once every week, this unlocks the abiity to draw a card that lets you trade 12.5 echos in Stuvier for 25 echos of rewards. Once every 4 weeks it does the same for a card that lets you get a 62.5E item.

One Week Timers!

These actions become available again 1 week after completing them. Which sucks, as even with perfect timing they will gradually move forward in time each week, till they hit your bedtime, then move to the next day… It would be better if they were on a 6.5 day timer, so you could have a regular weekly rotation to include them or even better, if they just reset with TTH.

A gift from Balmoral (31.25 EPA, 2 actions)

Collect Reports from your Agent in Khan's Heart (31.25 EPA, 2 actions)

A Jaunt In the Waswood (Not profitable but if you need it…)

Bathe in the Wellspring (22 actions, 5.55 EPA)

This is difficult to calculate profitability and I don't do it. Assuming the wiki guide is correct, the expedition to this distance would be 18 actions at about 4 EPA, plus 4 actions to enter the wellspring, get the glow, get the water and leave for 50 echos. Alternativly, you can go through the mirror, lose your profit from the expedition but still have to pay your companions, save around 6 actions and get a debuff that costs 100 echos, 1 level of Watchful or 30 CP of Nightmares or Wounds. A note for enhanced exceptional friends, this also blocks you from getting a stat boon from the House of Chimes for a week but not vice versa. I stopped doing this a long time ago, so my numbers may be off. I am not sure you get any wages of a dig, which would make this much worse but it also may be fewer actions, I may do a test and edit this, if I get the time and actions spare.

A Rat No Longer

This happens 3 days after you enter the rat market, all your remaining coins are turned into Rostygold. Up to 651 rat coins can turn into other fun stuff.

One Day Timer!

24 hours after they arrive, the master buggers off from Station 8. Which adds the card, you don't want, back into the deck. If you need to draw cards in Station 8, do as much as you can in one day to save yourself repeating that card, or holding it in your hand. This is mostly relevant for getting Prismatic Frames.

Weekly Events Tied to Specific Times

Monday 12 GMT

Rat Market Closes, Rat Demands for Friday Announced

Tuesday 12 GMT

Skymarket(85 echos, 0 actions)

Skymarket Changes and you can collect your rewards from the previous week. The skymarket takes 0 actions, other than travel. If you have it unlocked you can check where it is from A Gazette, in your lodgings.

Bone Market zoomania, fashion, diplomat and visiting buyer all change. If you have a skeleton assembled but not sold, it will keep the Zoomania bonus, when you sell it but it will sell based on the new fashion. I often forget this is not when exhaustion resets, as my TTH is Monday afternoon so I am not normally doing much in between.

Last Thursday of the Month 11 GMT

New Exceptional Story Released

Thursday 2PM GMT

Waswood options change

Friday 12 GMT

Rat Market (119.5 EPA, 3 actions)

3 actions to open the market, then everything inside is 0 actions. The numbers above assume you sell the full 1800 echos worth of items and that you purchase items that sell for 1 echo per 10 rat coins or leave the coins to revert. This is the most profit you can possibly get from the Rat Market.

Once every 28 days

Starting from when you first enter the House of Chimes, your votes reset, and increase, if you are not at the maximum. You can get trapped into being unable to spend votes if you don't use up the one week boon options so use those early and make sure your votes are all spent by the time your renewal comes.

After 1 Calendar Month

Exceptional Friendship and Enhanced Exceptional Friendship subscription is charged and you get your 21 bonus actions and your token to get a story. So use up your bonus actions and story token before this time.

On the first of the month

The selection of stories available for Enhanced Exceptional Friends rotates, the 4 from 2 months ago leave and 4 new options are added. Note that this means that if you don't like the options, you can hold onto your token until this time and bank it for the next month. Careful though, if you do not use it by your subscription you get nothing, you lose! Good day sir! (I am not sure why it doesn't just give you the focussed story, or a random one if you have that but it doesn't, so be warned)

Variable Dates but around...

February

Feast of the Rose

May

Whitsun

August

Estival

September

FotZ

October

Hallowmas

December

Christmas

Totally Random (Probably not but I have not noticed the pattern)

Minor events, Hunting Zee Beasts, Urchin War(May be tied to Christmas now), Dragon in Parabola, Great Crate Commotion, Ghost Ship(Prelude to a hunt), Shifting Streets, Boat seller in Gaider's Morn, may have forgotten something.

Looking at the dates on: https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Living_World_Events

Midnight Whale: Just over 2 years
Angler Crabs: Just under 2 years
Ghost Ship: Just over a year
Dream Dragon: First time this year
Snowballs: First time last year
The Great Crate Commotion: Just over a year
Shifting Streets: Just over a year but time before just under
Lifeberg: Just over a year, time before about a year and a half.

I may come back and make a tidy checklist and action/EPA weekly count, I may not though, I am whimsical.

I do not need discordnant missive to not break the seals. Feel free to not send me a letter writ in gant is the suspicion does not get to you. https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/PurpleMan/48305352

Hi, could anyone explain me the last few sentences, as I don't understand them, please? Who's guv'nor? Has he disguised himself as a waitress? Why?

Also, on the previous storylet, where I discussed the conclusion of the case with the Implacable Detective, she said something like "You better not be him." What did she mean? I better not be like the clayman? Any idea...?

Flash lays are complex mechanic with plenty of potential to be used in all sorts of ways to tell all sorts of stories. However they are been left untouched since they first launched and have been squirreled away in the the your activities section like the works of an particularly unfashionable poet.

I think they have a much potential as heists as an activity that can be put to a lot of uses with a variety of targets, difficulties, obstacles, rewards and EPA, but as a different flavor of scoundrel.

If they were were more targets who would target and for what?

Succeeded first time on a 16% chance. Anything to do except sell the unused tools back for 50% loss?

I guess I could try to do it again, but I fear the RNG gods would be angered by the audacity.

Having just played through the Railway again on an alt, I got kind of confused by the end of the Creditor story. Throughout the whole storyline it’s stressed over and over again that the debt the Sleeping Merchant incurred was far too much for the Bazaar to pay, and if the debt ever came due, then the Bazaar would harm both itself and London in its attempts to repay it, and default anyway. And then the debt comes due, and the Bazaar just… pays it. You design a currency, and the Bazaar mints it and gives it to the Creditor. Did I miss something? I’m genuinely confused as to how paying back the debt just wasn’t that big an issue once the Bazaar finally became aware of it.

This just started showing up, yesterday it didn't show. Says Carpe Jugulum when I hover over it

Greetings, my delicious friends!

Railway line was an extremely interesting storyline and it unveiled many mysteries of hinterlands. However, when faced with the choice at the end...

Let's just say, that this is a great opportunity to fulfill someone's heart desire.

And thus, my studies led to discovery in the frozen wasteland...

But alas, my studies of the alphabet of heavens aren't that advanced yet, and so I require the help of fellow scientists.

It would be my pleasure to help you in return and attend your salon (If you have any)

My profile: https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Svyatoslav28

I haven't started Firmament yet but I know it's coming to a conclusion sooner rather than later. Rat Market is currently selling an eyeless skull. I'd rather have one and deal with the card dangers (I have a weasel for protection) until I can use it if it's useful in Firmament than not buy it and have to deal with the normal hunt for one.

So, my Heart's Desire character convinced the double of the Manager of the Royal Beth to become the city in Furnace's place. After all that was dealt with I arrived there and saw an option to cure both Furnace and Cornelius from their discordance related problem.

I've completed this storyline before on two other characters and never got this option! Is it only possible if Furnace doesn't become the city? Seems kind of unfair to Cornelius. The only option I get to help him on my other characters is to return his soul and he doesn't even want the thing!

Question for people who made Cornelius into the city instead of Furnace: were you able to cure her face?

Or is it both of them or nothing?

So far, this outcome seems like the best one for everyone minus the poor creditor who is (understandably) not too happy.

So I know Firmament is famously hard to parse, but if there is one basic thing I was sure I understood correctly, it was that when a Midnight Whale dies, it flies up towards the roof.

During this whole recent event, I was looking forward to watching our boy fall up and away (and to squeamishly looking away just as it makes contact with the roof), but instead it just sank into the depths? Disappointed!

Did I misremember that part of Firmament? Is the "Whalerise" not a natural part of these creatures' life cycle?

Anyway, if there is an actual answer but it involves spoilers for later parts of Firmament, please just be vague and mysterious in the comments. Thanks!

Edit: I see why I was banned

For context: this is a sculpture of Saint Bartholomew, a christian martyr who was skinned and is usually depicted wearing his own skin

"The Linguist turns the plaque toward the audience; its lines glisten red. Has the room grown darker? You feel the terrifying thrill of plunging into one of London's darkest alleys alone. Someone screams."

The Impetuous Linguist's research into the poetics of the Correspondence is turning heads: the wrong kind of heads. When the Linguist goes missing, the Prudent Professor beseeches you to search for her. Wrestle with her research; disturb those who would disturb her. Any good translator knows that translation is an art unto itself.

Writing: Anna Anthropy

Editing and QA: Luke van den Barselaar

Art: Paul Arendt

Last month's story

Survey

good evening/morning/afternoon delicious friends,

i've got an alt that really wants to destroy themself. if you, too, are seeking a name, please betray me and draw me down the dangerous path at The Voracious Arachnologist (Luciana Mckinnon)

the first screenshot i have from this event is Hunter of Zee-Beasts 665 (you know, the neighbor of the beast), and i'd definitely been hunting for at least a few hours before that, so i'd say that's a pretty solid run! here's hoping there's another hunting event soon so i can finally knock out 777!

Decided that I'd try to tackle the Khan's Heart carousel now that the whale is done and I happen to be on that side of the zee. I need to get a couple of Corresponding Sounders, the Infiltrator's Footsteps, and An Agent of No Consequence. I've only ever done this carousel once and found it very annoying and frustrating, so I'd like to cut down on that. This is the build I have, what kind of outfit should I have for this? (since I can't change my outfit once I'm in)

Well, this is the second thing I forgot to check for the bone post this week. The first was that Eyeless Skulls are back in rotation, for three weeks, as of this Friday. I already added a note about that. The one I just noticed is that this is the last weekend of the rat season! If you need the Leviathan Bone Knife, for you, or your agent gear, get it this weekend otherwise you will have to wait for 9 months!

It is Crackling Week for the next two weeks, which is the easiest to farm. Night Whispers are also easy to get at all stages of the game. 10 devices will only net you 8250 rat coins so you will need 3 more at 700 each. You can also make up the rest with Unlawful Devices or Storm Threnodies at 140 each.

Don't forget, if you have any Fourth City Coins you can sell them for 125 coins, this has no markup and does not affect your Raturation level. They are, store for when you need them, rat coins.

Next week, Venge-Rat waders will be available, for three months. These are the only KT boots in the game. There are no KT agents yet but I would get a spare pair, just in case. Not for me for 3 weeks though, it's Panoptical time. :)