Only interesting updates below. Spoilers for the Bazaar follow.

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Description

ArachneJericho, a compelling and sagacious individual of mysterious and indistinct gender.

At least, the order of the words depends on how much of the dazzle versus how much of the detectivey stuff I’ve equipped. I can get a higher level of Persuasive (+14) than Watchful (+10), thus far.

Stats

Dangerous: 25 (up 2 levels, more or less by accident)
Watchful: 90 (still maxed)
Persuasive: 90 (newly maxed!)
Shadowy: 36 (up 10 levels)

I’m working up the Shadowy now that Watchful and Persuasive are maxed. It’s quite interesting; one certainly gets a more eclectic mix of items from the various Shadowy storylets. I like the lottery draws (robbing drunks, robbing people watching a prize fight) the best, because sometimes I get laudanum and Instant Ablution Absolution.

Current Level of Heart’s Desire Ambition

ETA: oops, not that many echoes. But more than any other raw-production storylet I’ve come across yet.

New Stuff

New hat! Beguiling Mask.

New companion! Devious Henchman. And this was when I discovered you could have more than one row of companions, which made me happy.

With my items, I can achieve Watchful +10, Persuasive +14, and Shadowy +10. Persuasive is more easily bonus’d than the other two, with more granular additional “levels” that can be bought at different price tiers. For instance, Persuasive is the only stat for which a +3 item at priced 62 echoes exists (even if it dings your other stats).

This is probably why I’m still coming across Persuasive cards that are “almost impossible” for an effective Persuasive level of 104. Well then. I’m going to have to save up for the Dandy’s Outfit…

By the by, I do see the cards unlocked by my new Dazed Raven Adviser. One of the branches is the only way I know of to boost Steadfast.

Significant Contacts

• Bohemian: 12 (I abuse it for Prisoner’s Honey, so as to fuel the painting I do at the Shuttered Palace to ease my soul of the burden of nightmares.)
• The Great Game: 20 (Might go up with the new Shadowy track I’m taking; it really only goes up with Watchful storylets, and really not Persuasive ones.)
• Constables: 34 (And this is after I abused it a bit for Surface Currency.)
• Church: 23 (Dinged for a lot of candles. About 900. It wasn’t worth it.)
• Criminals: 7 (Curious to see what I can get out of this, since I hadn’t explored it before.)
• Revolutionaries: 18 (Leavings from the Forgotten Quarter.)
• Society: 48 (I haven’t yet needed that much wine or Connected: Duchess.)
• Docks: 8 (Just from weasel fights!)
• Orient: 8
• Duchess: 15 (I haven’t needed to get out of the Tomb Colonies yet)
• Urchins: 2 (new)

A note: it seems quite difficult to work up the Urchins connection, and as such I’m going to try to prize the connection wisely. I burned through my Rubbery Men connection, and am so far advanced down the Watchful track that I have no way of building it up again; it went all the way down to 1, and you need a minimum of 3—or maybe 5—to be able to increase it through cards and storylets in other areas after Watchful 50 or something like that.

Nightmares

• Is Someone There? 14 (Yay, I’m now getting Memories of Light! Whatever they do!)
• Death by Water 9 (And it got more interesting.)
• Burial of the Dead 5 (And it’s stayed boring. I very rarely see cards for it anymore.)
• Fire Sermon 4 (ditto)
• A Game of Chess 11

Nightmare storyline recommendations, assuming you can handle the raising of nightmares: Most anybody can engage in a bit of chess dreaming and have it be useful. Dangerous/Shadowy types will want Death by Water (especially since one of the cards in this story will decrease Persuasive or Watchful). Watchful/Persuasive types can profit from exploring Is Someone There?.

New Story Stuff

• cultivating an acquaintance with His Amused Lordship 2 (the next level is still an “almost impossible” Persuasive challenge for me, but I’ve had to try to get by worse hurdles; don’t be afraid to don as many bonus-granting items as possible and then keep making runs for it until you succeed.)
• exacting the Urchins’ Vengeance 1
• an Occasional Guest at Mr Wines’ Revels 3

Minor Attributes

Subtle 13
Ruthless 4
Heartless 4
Hedonist 10
Magnanimous 19
Melancholy 0
Steadfast 5
Daring 8
Forceful 3

Heartless can be, amusingly, increased in three ways I know of: one is a Persuasive card (with a hard option), one is a Shuttered Palace storylet (double-crossing someone), and one is a non-autofire card part of the Is Someone There? nightmare storyline.

Forceful is also a quality that is amusingly raised via certain Persuasive cards.

As one increases Hedonist, I notice it’s hard to keep Melancholy up, so I stopped trying. (The opposite effect occurs when one increases Melancholy. It’s very cute and in theme.)

Exploiting Special Areas

The Shuttered Palace

If one keeps a profile of around Persuasive 86 (if one is advancing the Shadowy track, doubtless one can get a -4 via Shadowy bonus items), one can usually have a straightforward chance of reducing nightmares little by little in the Shuttered Palace (its highest level storylet, which turns into one of those Inspired… ventures). Oddly, at Persuasive 90, everything disappears except, of course, for the Wry Functionary, the calling in of favors, and that contest I haven’t had the guts to try out yet because I don’t know what “permanently lose Persuasive” means in the context of Echo Bazaar.

For me, the Wry Functionary is the only reliable way to reduce Scandal apart from hoping the red-bordered card of good deeds comes around. He also reduces Suspicion at the same time he reduces Scandal, but as it turns out, there appear to be Shadowy storylets that reduce Suspicion at a rather cheaper price than 200 moon pearls per point.

If you have a way of pumping out cryptic secrets (such as, say, at least 40 cryptic secrets per action), then the Shuttered Palace’s second-highest storylet will yield serious money relatively quickly. It’s a slightly better rate of return (taking into account turns spent for obtaining cryptic secrets for the storylet to consume) than the other storylets I have access to. I think. I suck at math sometimes.

The Forgotten Quarter

The most interesting Forgotten Quarter storylets are available, and almost all easy, at Watchful 90. Keep one of your better hats or gloves around so you can exploit the storylet that yields like five or six significant increases in connections. (Mind you, I tend to keep all my items these days because of the screamingly high-level opportunity cards that keep coming.)

The Forgotten Quarter: useful for secrets, money a bit (though less so since I reached the end of the line in Heart’s Desire!), and Scholar of the Correspondence. And of course, the calling in of favors, but every area has that. The Shuttered Palace is much more fun even after you’ve gone through it.

Plans

1. Saving up for Sumptuous Dandy’s Outfit in the short term, an Overgoat in the long term, and just collecting everything I can for when the Ambition opens up with new content.
2. Rooms at the Bazaar (saving up Whispered Secrets. A lot of Whispered Secrets).
3. Pine for more Heart’s Desire! content, although the Bag a Legend and Nemesis ambitions should be shored up first.
4. Advance Is Someone There?, Death by Water, and A Game of Chess nightmare storylines. And also the other two, in case anything interesting shows up.
5. Continue shepherding souls. This gets easier with the Shadowy track.
6. Die for a while and explore the boat, and see if I can find the mission!
7. Get exiled for a while and explore the tomb colonies.
8. Go to prison for a while and explore it some more.
9. Increase Shadowy to see if more stuff unlocks in the Shepherd of Souls and Cheesemonger storylines.