| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/header_85.jpg]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ->''Explore an underground ocean. Battle sea monsters. Discover strange lands. Go insane. Eat your crew.'' |
| 4 | ->''Die.'' |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ''[[http://www.failbettergames.com/sunless/ Sunless Sea]]'' is a RolePlayingGame from Creator/FailbetterGames, the creators of ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', released 6 February 2015, following a crowdfunding campaign on Website/{{Kickstarter}}. Set in the ''Fallen London'' universe, the game casts the player as the captain of a steamship, exploring the Unterzee -- the colossal, largely uncharted [[BeneathTheEarth underground]] lake that surrounds the sunken city. Noted influences include {{roguelike}}s with action elements, like ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' and ''VideoGame/DontStarve''; WideOpenSandbox exploration and trading games like ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'', ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Taipan}}''; ''[[Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife The Crimson Permanent Assurance]]''; and [[Myth/CelticMythology immrama]]. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | The game is very open ended, letting the player build their captain by choosing from a wide variety of backgrounds and ambitions. Said captain then journeys unto the Unterzee with their ship, where they can undertake endeavors such as exploration, the trading of goods, battling enemy ships and "zee monsters", and completing "storylet" quests. There are five stats a player can choose to improve on as they continue their travels the Neath: Iron (fighting prowess, which gives you better damage output in combat and governs how well your captain can handle physical situations in storylets); Mirrors (perception, which enables you to fire your weapons faster in combat and governs how alert your captain is and their ability to pay attention to detail in storylets); Veils (deception, which makes it harder for enemies to detect you out on the Unterzee and governs how good at stealth and telling convicing lies your captain is in storylets); Pages (Knowledge, which allows you to convert Fragments into Secrets faster and governs how good your captain is at overcoming intellectual challenges and puzzles in storylets); and Hearts (Willpower, which governs your captain's ability to overcome tests of their courage and take charge and inspire others in storylets). |
| 9 | |
| 10 | The eventual end-goal is fulfilling the captain's chosen ambition, though it will probably not happen on the first try, as the game very much employs TrialAndErrorGameplay. The player's first few captains are more likely than not to have their quest [[ItsAWonderfulFailure end in resounding failure and meet with a dark and grim fate]], as the player gradually learns the mechanics and finer workings of the game. Subsequent captains can inherit some of their predecessor's possessions, and the player can make their captains draft a will to ensure lodging and wealth for their successors. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | The game is available through Creator/HumbleBundle, Platform/GOGDotCom and Platform/{{Steam}}, and became available for Platform/PlayStation4 in 2018 and the Platform/NintendoSwitch and Platform/XboxOne in 2020. The ''Zubmariner'' expansion pack, featuring underwater exploration, was released on 11 October 2016. A sequel, ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'', came to UsefulNotes/{{Kickstarter}} on February 1st, 2017, and was fully funded within hours of it going live. |
| 13 | ---- |
| 14 | !!This game contains examples of: |
| 15 | |
| 16 | * AbnormalAmmo: The Icarus in Black, which fires ''extremely angry and suicidal monster hunters''. The reason it's actually able to do this at all essentially amounts to [[AWizardDidIt "Made in Iron Republic"]]. It can kill pretty much any monster in the game in one shot -- bosses in two -- but each shot costs the rough equivalent of 1000 Echoes. |
| 17 | * AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Mostly [[AvertedTrope averted]]; the prices of various commodities and essentials varies between ports with reasonable justifications (e.g. London has fair, manageable prices, Surface-food grown freely under the Sun is cheap, fuel from a colony of Hell is cheap, but provisioners on a distant backwater island charge twice as much for fuel and supplies as elsewhere). [[InvokedTrope Invoked,]] however, in Khan's Heart: you will be extorted if you don't have a licence to trade in the city's proper market district (though if you managed to get a proper trading license, their price becomes reasonable, and you'll also get access to wider variety of trade goods). |
| 18 | -->''"The Khanate merchants grin when they see you coming. An unlicensed foreign captain? They'll pick a price and triple it."'' |
| 19 | * AFoggyDayInLondonTown: Even in the Neath, London and its surrounds still have their fogs. Their practical effect, if zailed through, is to impede aiming, and to thoroughly spook your crew. |
| 20 | * TheAlcatraz: Wisdom, a prison in the midst of a sea of enormous lily pads, guarded by huge, [[ExtraEyes multi-eyed]] toads called knot-oracles. To get someone out, you'll need to either pass a ridiculously difficult Veils challenge or pay an exorbitant bribe. |
| 21 | * AlienGeometries: Neath's geography is... weird. [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels Alteration]] is an accepted feature, and then there's the fact that trying to go sufficiently north anywhere in the zee will get you to one of two places: Avid Horizon or Frostfound, and that the zee stretches to the east without end. |
| 22 | -->''The Unterzee has no northern shore. Space is forbidden. Time contracts to a single frozen instant. There is only one way North.'' |
| 23 | * AlienSea: The Neath does not follow all of the same physical laws as the Surface, and its zee is coloured between black and green. |
| 24 | * AnarchyIsChaos: The Anarchist faction, though disjointed, is ultimately after this. The player can choose to assist them. This does not turn out well for London. |
| 25 | * AmbiguousGender: Like in ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', the player can choose to not declare a gender for their Captain. The game's writing style also likes avoiding gender specific pronouns unless absolutely necessary leading to a lot of characters of mysterious and indistinct gender. A conundrum perhaps lampshaded by the very definitely ambiguous Alarming Scholar and Isery. |
| 26 | * AnEntrepreneurIsYou: It might not pay so well as exploring distant kingdoms or hunting pirates, but most captains will spend at least some time ferrying goods and passengers between ports. For example, you can deliver mushroom wine to the Empire of Hands, who will exchange it for coffee beans. The beans can then be [[ChainOfDeals exchanged for parabola-linen]] at Irem. Finally, the linen can be sold back at London or Dahut for roughly three times the value of the wine you purchased (Dahut pays slightly better, assuming you have a zumbarine). If you have have the cargo ship, this can come out to 3000+ Echoes per trip. |
| 27 | * AnOfferYouCantRefuse: The Brimstone Convention is fond of offering people deals that are simply too tempting to refuse, even if it means sacrificing parts of yourself. |
| 28 | --> ''Reader: shun the Brimstone Convention. They will not cheat you. Worse, they will make you offers you cannot bear to refuse...'' |
| 29 | * AndroclesLion: If you've played along with the Monkey Foundling's [[GoneSwimmingClothesStolen little game]] and treated her well, she will come to your rescue in the Tomb of the First Emperor. |
| 30 | * AntiFrustrationFeatures: |
| 31 | ** You can't traverse the Cumaean Canal without at least 22 fuel, which is the bare minimum required to go from the Cumaean Canal to Naples and back without getting stranded. |
| 32 | ** The game will generally tell you if your choices will have consequences in the notes. If it says, "Do not do this", it's a good idea to listen. |
| 33 | * ApocalypticLog: A few random events turn these up. A standout example is an account of the Brimstone Convention's [[DealWithTheDevil irresistible offers]]: a young woman made a pact with the Convention that cost her her hair, her hand, and all her memories before the age of 19; while the narrator is horrified, she simply remarks that [[EyeScream her eyes will be next]] due to the "excellent price" the Convention will offer for them. |
| 34 | * ArcNumber: As in ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', the number Seven comes up rather frequently. |
| 35 | * ArcWords: |
| 36 | ** "[[AxCrazy Lose your mind.]]" and "[[ImAHumanitarian Eat your crew.]]" are [[spoiler:[[NotHyperbole exactly the same words you see when you reached Kingeater's Castle]] and are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what you do according to the logbook]]. Fortunately, it is not mandatory to do so]]. |
| 37 | ** "All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." This specific phrase, in many various forms and variations, carries over from ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' and crops up in many different events. |
| 38 | ** "Is there a sea more sunless?" Doubles as a SequelHook. |
| 39 | * ArmorPiercingQuestion: Finding one of these is the whole point of the Fading Haruspex's quest in the Gant Pole: she was exiled from Whither, where answering questions with anything other than a question is forbidden, because she once gave an answer to stop a child from crying, so she dedicated her life to finding "the fabled Question which can only be answered with the truth". If you help her find it, it turns out to be [[spoiler: "What is more beautiful than home?"]]. |
| 40 | * AscendedMeme: |
| 41 | ** Ratsending. One ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' player decided to amuse themselves by using that game's basic gifting system to send the lead dev thousands of rats, fifty at a time. The mythos of transported rats expanded by degrees and infected the spinoff game; a Pneumatic Ratsender is now available as a ship component.%%And then there's Nuncio, where said player designed the place.%%ZCE. |
| 42 | ** One of the port events on Nuncio features a direct reference to this, with your captain finding a sack of dead rats washed up ashore among all the other lost mail, marked with the words "ACCEPTING NO FURTHER" and an address of "someone of importance". |
| 43 | ** Nuncio itself is this. Those doing the self-destructive quest of seeking Mr. Eaten's Name would eventually end up marooned on an island without any means of getting supplies. Players got around this by using the gift system in intriquite ways that players began joking of the international postage system of mailmen inexplicably ferrying supplies for insane island hermits. The joke served as the basis for the strange compulsion mailmen have in Sunless Sea. |
| 44 | * AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Exaltation]] [[InterfaceSpoiler semi-secret]] ambition. [[MindScrew Whatever, precisely,]] you end up doing, it's enough to get a brief salutation from all the gods of the Zee. |
| 45 | * AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Oversized crabs, fish, jellyfish, eels and such make up much of the zee's monster population, inevitably leading to this trope frequently being enacted on the player. [[spoiler: One of the methods of resolving the siege of Nidah in the Immortality ambition's ending is to employ Temtum, a giant crab to end all giant crabs, as a living siege engine.]] |
| 46 | * AwesomeButImpractical: |
| 47 | ** The Icarus in Black cannon. ''No'' ordinary zee-monster can endure a shot from it, and even the 'bosses' Mt Nomad and the ''Tree of Ages'' will fall in at most two hits. The catch is that this cannon does not fire normal ammunition, but rather Doomed Monster-Hunters, who can only be bought for a Captivating Treasure, Searing Enigma, or an Element of Dawn. The first two are dropped by said respective bosses, but only one each, and the Element of Dawn is even more valuable (and has other drawbacks). Because of this, nothing you can kill with the Icarus in Black is worth more than you paid for the ammunition to do so, making it more of a last resort weapon if you don't feel you're capable of killing the target conventionally. |
| 48 | ** The Caminus Yards 'Compulsion' engine, the second most powerful in the game (after the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Fulgent Impeller]]). It increases your Engine Power by 3500... and comes with no bonus to fuel efficiency. Since stronger engines are less fuel-economic than weaker ones, this engine (which costs a considerable 5000 Echoes and can't be sold back once you have the Fulgent Impeller) will burn through fuel at an alarming rate, making it hardly worth the lowered Terror gain and supply consumption that come with its speed. As a result it is usually better to stick to the Serpentine or one of the weaker engines before you can get the Fulgent Impeller (which has 50% fuel efficiency to compensate for its massive power). |
| 49 | ** The ''Eschatologue''-class Dreadnought. While it's the toughest, strongest ship in the game and has a hold nearly as large as the merchant cruiser, it's also just as slow as the merchant cruiser, requires even more Crew (which means it will eat supplies like none other), absolutely ''kills'' your Veils stat (a whopping '''-25'''), and costs a ridiculous sum (30000 Echoes). All those Echoes are better spent on adorning Your Lodgings with heirlooms or having a huge stockpile of money to pass to your scion. Realistically, the frigate has everything you need. On the other hand, the Dreadnought is extremely powerful in terms of combat, and if you can reach the point where you feel comfortable buying it, earning back the money you spent doing so is almost an afterthought. |
| 50 | ** The two story ships, the ''Leucothea''-class Steam-Yacht and the ''Cladery Heart'', can both only be obtained through lengthy sidequests which must be completed with each new captain (you cannot simply buy them with inherited money like all the other ships). They provide the absolute best passive stat bonuses in the game (the Yacht increases your total stats by 40 and the Heart by 50), but are otherwise JackOfAllStats ships lacking the cargo space of the merchant cruiser and the front-arc weaponry of the corvette and frigate, both of which you can easily earn in the time it takes to unlock either unique ship. The ''Heart'' also has [[HitboxDissonance a wider hitbox than the other ships]] and an enormous Crew requirement while also lacking a forward weapon slot, meaning it can't use the Icarus in Black or Memento Mori. |
| 51 | * BadBoss: You, potentially. Several storylines are most easily advanced by sacrificing your own crew, with zero indication that they've done anything to deserve it. Then again, considering some of those storylines your crew actually expects this, and will be freaked out if you start getting soft. ''Feeding a zailor to a zee-monster that was trying to lure you'' lowers Terror precisely because they saw you're serious about discipline (that zailor was a known troublemaker), while pardoning certain slights will raise it because the Capn's going soft. |
| 52 | * BadSanta: Mr Sacks, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Crimson Beast of Winter]], is ''not'' your friend. He does not hand out presents - the people of Fallen London are supposed to give presents to ''him'' instead. |
| 53 | * BeneathTheEarth: The game takes place almost entirely in the Neath, an enormous underground cavern. The only exception is going through a "canal" to the surface, which lets you play out a few stories in Naples and Vienna, but doesn't let you navigate your boat like you do in the Zee. You also can only spend a limited amount of time on the surface before the sunlight kills you and your crew. |
| 54 | * BenevolentBoss: Also you, potentially (see Bad Boss above). Throughout the game, you have the opportunity as captain to invite your various officers to dinner; talk to them about their problems, desires, or dreams; and in a lot of cases help them get something they're looking for. It's also implied (though never stated outright) that the cost of shore leave at various ports is essentially you picking up your crew's bar tabs. |
| 55 | * BigFirstChoice: The choice of an Ambition is made at character creation and determines the current captain's victory condition. A character who chooses no background cannot pick an Ambition and has to either reveal their past or pick one of the game's secret Ambitions in order to win the game. |
| 56 | * BlessedWithSuck: A [[{{Downplayed}} minor]] example: The Fulgent Impeller is ''ludicrously'' fast, with standard cruising speed being faster than full power on other engines. While this has innumerable advantages, you'll likely be reaching ports before Something Awaits You can reset, and therefore need to sit at the dock for a while. You will also probably [[DrivesLikeCrazy end up crashing into islands constantly due to the ridiculous speed]], which even as ScratchDamage can get annoying. |
| 57 | * BodyHorror: Many instances of all sorts all across the Unterzee, but the [[NightmareFace Shapelings and Snuffers]] and [[WasOnceAMan the Fathomking]] stand out in particular, and then there's also the Starved Men of Godfall, formerly living on the Neath-roof. Other memorable examples are [[ChestBurster the older Tomb-Colonists]], [[EyeScream the sorrow-spiders, and gall-blighter wasps]], the latter of which make nests in your eyes. |
| 58 | * BombThrowingAnarchist: A faction of these present both in the Neath (including both London and the Khanate, in Khan's Shadow, as well as the Iron Republic) and on the Surface, one of the competing powers the player can help or hinder and fairly period-accurate. Notable for taking a few steps further than their real-life counterparts by seeking to [[spoiler: overthrow the Judgements - that is, to say, [[PhysicalGod the stars themselves]]!]]. |
| 59 | * BorderPatrol: Going off the any edge of the map will lead to a story event which leaves you, your ship and your crew the worse for wear and returns you to a nearby port. The output of each cardinal direction is different, and each one leaves you with its own mark (all of which are needed to pursue the GoldenEnding): |
| 60 | ** Try to go too far North, and after days of fruitless, freezing travel you will lose half of your crew and [[AlienGeometries arrive back]] at either [[EldritchLocation Avid Horizon or Frostfound]] as [[ArcWords there is only one way North]]. |
| 61 | ** Zailing South through Adam's Way, you'll find the Mountain of Light bleeding its horribly corrosive (to metal ships) blood into the river, and you have to make a Veils check. Failing [[OneHitKill kills you]], ''succeeding'' costs you all but one crew member (i.e. yourself)[[note]]Officers aren't considered 'crew' for this purpose[[/note]] and [[HPToOne one Hull point]] in exchange for a few goodies and the Touch of the South. You return to Apis Meet, now needing to limp home without touching anything lest you die. |
| 62 | ** Try to go West through Barnsmore's Gap, and the [[MechanicalAbomination Dawn Machine]] will MindRape you and your crew, forcing you to return to the [[UncannyVillage Grand Geode]] - now with the Western Stigma, zero hunger, and a massive Terror spike. |
| 63 | ** Too far to the East, and after some travelling you'll be forced to turn back by an overwhelming force of silence that threatens to crush your vessel. You end up at either Irem, Kingeater's Castle, Hideaway or the Gant Pole depending on whether you were in zubmarine mode or not, bearing the Mark of the East but losing 3 fuel and supplies on the way. [[spoiler:With all the right preparations, you will be able to zail on - triggering the aforementioned final ending.]] |
| 64 | * {{Boundareefs}}: Subverted with the northern edge of the Neath: while there are countless icy rocks standing in the way north in an impossibly straight line, leaving only thin gaps between them, careful navigating can sail boats past them. However, you will soon really regret those rocks didn't stop you from going [[EldritchLocation North]]. |
| 65 | * BossBattle: There exist a number of exceptionally powerful ships and beasts out on the Zee - the [[SpiderSwarm Tree of Ages]] and [[GeniusLoci Mount Nomad]]; the ''[[CoolBoat Irrepressible]]'' and the [[WalkingOssuary Eater of Names]]. Fighting them is ill-advised without preparation, but potentially very rewarding. |
| 66 | * BraggingRightsReward: |
| 67 | ** You have to complete a very long quest line to obtain the ''Leucothea''-class Steam-Yacht. When it is completed, chances are you have been around the map enough and earned enough money to buy the superior ''Caligo''-class Merchant Cruiser or the ''Maenad''-class Frigate. If you know what to do for the quest and bee-line for it, you may get it before those two things happen, but you'll probably upgrade to either of those two ships. |
| 68 | ** The Zong of the Zee is this if your end goal is to become a great explorer. It grants +10 to all five stats, something no other piece of equipment comes ''close'' to doing, but in that ambition the entire point of the campaign was to obtain it in the first place, meaning you've already won the second you get it. Anything you do with it after that is just killing time before you go home and retire (unless you decide to abandon that ambition and go ahead with founding your own colony). For that matter, if you can manage to wrangle together the absolutely massive item requirements needed to craft it, you don't need it to begin with. |
| 69 | * BrutalHonesty: The "Wounding Truth" quality counts how many times you've chosen to tell people the truth, no matter how painful it is. |
| 70 | * BrownNote: Exposure to irrigo tends to cause massive memory loss at the best of times. Prolonged exposure results in [[BodyHorror bone plates growing over your eyes]], and even handling things associated with it tends to degrade your stats. |
| 71 | * BullfightBoss: |
| 72 | ** A fair portion of the monsters have no ranged attacks, only a ramming attack. Unfortunately, all of them are usually fast enough that dodging them is near-impossible without an extremely fast ship. The exception are the Lifebergs, which are so slow that almost any ship can outrun them as long as you're careful and anticipate their attacks. |
| 73 | ** While every boss is capable of heavy ranged attacks, the Tree of Ages' particularly slow turning speed makes avoiding its devastating long-rage attacks by getting close, goading it to charge and continuously dodging it while [[DeathOfAThousandCuts chipping away at it with your deck gun]] the optimal strategy for defeating it. This also makes it the easiest boss to defeat, possible even with starting equipment. |
| 74 | * CallAHitPointASmeerp: |
| 75 | ** Your ship's stats are all named for Fallen London's mysterious rulers, the Masters of the Bazaar - Iron for attacks, Mirrors for observation and illumination, Veils for speed and concealment, Hearts for healing and morale, Pages for knowledge and diplomacy. |
| 76 | ** Your Hull score is essentially a hit point meter; in combat it's usually what soaks up attacks, and when it hits 0 [[GameOver your ship sinks]]. |
| 77 | ** Crew, which functions as currency in some places as well as an overall health meter for land encounters. If your Crew reaches zero, it's game over. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation However, even with just 1 Crew remaining, you can still talk to all of your officers. That doesn't change the fact that one more death renders your ship a lifeless derelict.]] |
| 78 | ** Wounds for your captain, and your captain alone. Three will kill you, and unlike Crew your Wound tolerance can never go higher. Thankfully the game will assume your Captain hides behind your expendable grunts in most on-foot engagements. |
| 79 | * CashGate: The whole point of the Wealth ambition is to amass enough money to buy your own mansion and retire from zeefaring life. |
| 80 | * ChestBurster: Elderly Tomb-Colonists sometimes appear to start incubating a giant moth inside of their chests, which [[BodyHorror uses them as a cocoon and causes them to die when it emerges]]. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane It is not fully clear]] whether the moths simply infest their bodies with their young or whether it is, in fact, a way for the Tomb-Colonist to be "reborn" and extend their life further. |
| 81 | * ChurchMilitant: Abbey Rock, the coastal convent-fortress of the martial Sisterhood, and Godfall, home to the boisterous pirate-monks who follow the ways of "St Stalagmite." The admiralty even classifies the Abbey Rock convent as a military installation. |
| 82 | * CityOnTheWater: The New Khanate's cities are variations on this style: Khan's Heart and Khan's Glory form a stately CityOfCanals on a series of artificial islands, while the other side of the EnemyCivilWar, Khan's Shadow, is a colossal assemblage of ships roped together. |
| 83 | * ColorCodedCharacters: It's a good idea to be wary of people and places with unusually excessive shades of red in their description, they tend to be... [[ImAHumanitarian unaccountably peckish]]. |
| 84 | * CoolBoat: Several, including the trimarans of the New Khanate; the partly-organic ''Cladery Heart''; the submarine ''Irrepressible'', with its [[FictionalColour irrigo-cannon]] and breakfast-pit; and the dreaded ''Tree of Ages'', crewed by [[GiantSpider giant spiders]]. Even your own ship might count, if you buy enough upgrades. The ''Zubmariner'' expansion adds [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin zubmarines.]] They can dive, allow one to truthfully state [[BraggingRightsReward "I own a submarine,"]] and if they're anything like ''Irrepressible'' [[AndYourRewardIsInteriorDecorating they'll have a dedicated breakfast nook.]] |
| 85 | * CosmeticAward: Beating the game with the [[{{Permadeath}} Invictus Token]] does ''nothing'' other than prove you never used a manual save slot. |
| 86 | * CrapsackWorld: The Neath is a horrific place, as evidenced by the existence of the crew's [[SanityMeter Terror Meter]]. The player is at various times in danger from pirates addicted to psychedelic honey; blood-sucking sea-bats; demons; giant sea monsters; snakes that inhabit the world of dreams; a false god created by a military conspiracy; and [[MonsterShapedMountain a giant mountain made out of glass that eat ships]]. To name a few. |
| 87 | * CriticalStaffingShortage: Can happen to you, if your total number of Crew is less than half your ship's maximum capacity. Below that, there are not enough zailors onboard to fully staff the ship's operations, and the ship will be limited to half-throttle as the remaining zailors have to juggle multiple duty stations. |
| 88 | * CrossingTheDesert: If you are an ImmortalitySeeker that chooses to reach Nidah by land, you must find a way to cross three deserts, each more impossible than the last. |
| 89 | * CulturePolice: London's Ministry of Public Decency are tasked with confiscating and destroying things London considers "too illegal to admit the existence of," such as Red Honey or reports on the existence of Station III. |
| 90 | * {{Curse}}: Piss off the wrong person or power, and they might call on one of the Gods of the Zee to lay a curse on you. Stone's is the safest, having no apparent gameplay effect. Storm's will cause the weather to turn foul wherever you go, with more fog banks appearing on the map. Salt's is the worst; it'll either wipe out your Dynasty, or remove your wife and child from the game. |
| 91 | * DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Several officers' storylines involve making such discoveries. Sometimes, you'll have the choice to help them pursue it, with all attendant risks, or to take a safer, less rewarding option. |
| 92 | * DarkIsEvil: The Neath's darkness, due to the way the 'verse works, is occasionally noted to be actively corrosive to reason and reality, and shining a light upon it restores reality and sanity to the world. [[spoiler:[[InvertedTrope The Revolutionaries very much think otherwise]], with their ultimate plan being to snuff out all light on the Zee and then the rest of the universe]]. |
| 93 | * DarknessEqualsDeath: |
| 94 | ** In a similar system to ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'', extinguishing your ship's lights can help you hide from enemies and creep past zee-monsters without waking them, but the darkness prevents you from navigating or seeing foes clearly and drains your crew's SanityMeter. |
| 95 | ** If you choose to explore the Shattered Citadel under Godfall, you'd better make sure you've got enough Foxfire Candles to complete the journey. If you run out, ''it will not be pretty''. |
| 96 | ** The city of Varchas takes this to an extreme - there are no shadows or darkness allowed within the city, ''ever''. [[spoiler:When the lights are extinguished, you learn why]]. |
| 97 | * DeadHandShot: The portrait for all three "death" events (Lost With All Hands, Shipwrecked!, and The Final Blow) is a hand (presumably the Captain's) underwater, reaching toward the surface as several bubbles rise past. |
| 98 | * DeathIsCheap: Averted for your Captain. If you die, the best you can hope for is to become a Drownie, and even that's not a given. Played straight for your Officers, however; regardless of whether they went down with the ship or met their end during their questline, they'll always return alive and well for your next Captain to recruit. Justified in-universe, as death is very rarely permanent in the Neath. |
| 99 | * DefeatingTheUndefeatable: The [[DarkestAfrica Presbyterate]] is likely the most dangerous place in the Neath, and save for its coastal settlements is rightfully considered untouchable by the other major players. [[spoiler:Captains seeking immortality will raise an army, march right up to the walled city of Nidah, storm it and hack their way through the defending forces to claim their prize.]] |
| 100 | * DemonicPossession: Though not by actual devils (despite the setting featuring them as a somewhat common race in the Neath). The dream-serpents, particularly the Fingerkings, are a constant danger to Neath-dwellers, using mirrors to enter unsuspecting dreamers and [[BodySnatcher perform a hostile takeover]]. At least two recruitable officers' stories revolve around finding ways to defeat them or ward them off. |
| 101 | * DescentIntoAddiction: Sunlight, in addition to being [[LightIsNotGood lethally dangerous]], also creates feelings of calm and wonder. This is represented by two mechanical effects: [[SanityMeter terror reduction]], and sunlight addiction. Each time you're exposed to sunlight or the Dawn Machine (in certain interactions), "Menaces: Yearning, Burning" will increase by a point or two. It will increase between four and seven if you fill Mirrorcatch Boxes at the Surface or Aestival. Once this number passes 100, a random event can compel your captain to open a Mirrorcatch Box, gaining a wound. As the number increases, so does the likelihood of the event. Your only choices are to hope you can get back to port and sell off the boxes before your captain kills themselves, or tossing the boxes overboard and losing out on the profit. At 200, attempting to travel to the Surface means [[PressXToDie instant death]]. This number can be reduced by either sleeping off the addiction at your home (defeating the purpose, as it costs as much if not more than the value of the boxes) or letting the Cladery Heir have a go at you (removing all of the addiction, but only once). |
| 102 | -->''The memory of the light is always with you. [[PressXToDie Go on. Open a box.]]'' |
| 103 | * DeusEstMachina: The Dawn Machine is, for all intents and purposes, a fully-functioning artificial ''god''. |
| 104 | * DevelopersForesight: Ordinarily, if your Terror hits 100, your crew will mutiny. However, if you've only got 1 Crew (meaning your captain is alone on the ship), you get [[https://sunlesssea.fandom.com/wiki/The_Drownies%27_Welcome a different event]] where the Drownies come for your captain. |
| 105 | * DifficultButAwesome: Obtaining a Zubmarine conversion in the eponymous DLC, while not really standing out among the game's many, ''many'' other difficult tasks, requires finding rare components and fairly extensive exploration of the ever-dangerous zee (thankfully, this only has to be done once; subsequent captains get the upgrade for free). The ability to dive under the zee-surface in your ship is awesome by itself, but the depths pose their own range of both difficulties starting with limited air, navigational hazards and a constant slow terror gain and up to [[SuperPersistentPredator the Constant Companion]]. However, they also provide rewarding discoveries on the zeefloor, access to new settlements and a way to evade surface enemies such as pirate blockades or, vice versa, flee from underwater ones, as well as a way to ''truly'' travel the Unterzee in style. |
| 106 | * DisappearedDad: One of the possible ambitions of your captain is to find the remains of their father, who disappeared at zee. [[spoiler: If you captain is a Natural Philosopher, their father is discovered to still be alive.]] |
| 107 | * TheDogBitesBack: The only reason [[spoiler: the Delightful Adventuress loses her attempt to cheat you and the Mayor of Port Stanton out of your shares of the Legacy of the First Emperor]] is [[spoiler: her casual betrayal of her DumbMuscle sidekick, the Unfinished Clay Man Barnabas and her poor judgement of just how strong, persistent and durable he is]]. |
| 108 | * DoorToBefore: The bottom of the Shattered Citadel in Godfall drops down to the zee, allowing you to safely exit the place without having to spend Foxfire Candles to retrace your steps. Successfully reaching a treasure payout encounter in the Wisp-Ways on the Mangrove College also safely returns the player to the start without having to take any penalties navigating their way back. Finding the Chamber of the Seven in Scrimshander's Ivory Archives allows you to instantly return to the main hall from it. And no matter what you find in the Writhing Gullet in Nook, you will always return to the Bilious Cleft instantly without using up Tolerance for Nookwater nor the Phosphorescent Nodules needed to navigate it. Note that in all these cases, turning back at any point ''before'' reaching the end ''will'' absolutely require Candles or equivalent for every step backward -- meaning that if you find out halfway through that you can't make the skill checks to continue, you'd better hope you brought twice as many candles as you thought you'd need... |
| 109 | * TheDreaded: |
| 110 | ** The ''Irrepressible'' is described as the most feared vessel on the zee, courtesy of being a souped-up zubmarine with guns firing [[BrownNote mind-destroying Irrigo rounds]] and a crew of {{Mad Artist}}s. The Pianolist (its captain) is a terror in his own right, to the point where even the otherwise gleefully psychotic Merciless Modiste is afraid of him - and for very good reason. |
| 111 | ** The Eater of Names and Tree of Ages aren't far behind in terms of how dreaded they are, due to their sheer aggression and reputation for killing anything that gets too close. Your crew even flatly refuse to commandeer the former if it's defeated and remains intact, even though they're willing to raid the likes of the ''Irrepressible'' for supplies. |
| 112 | ** Lady Black. Merely mentioning her name is enough to send a group of seasoned captains fleeing as fast as their legs will take them. |
| 113 | * TheDreadedDreadnought: |
| 114 | ** The Republican Dreadnoughts, which are amongst the toughest ships patrolling the Unterzee. They possess deck, fore, ''and'' aft cannons (meaning they can shoot you from behind) as well as 400 [=HP=] to soak up punishment, making them a huge threat to the players. Even worse are the EliteMook Glorious Dreadnoughts, their glowing equivalent. |
| 115 | ** You can also have a Dreadnought yourself in the form of the ''Eschatologue''-class, which has the most HP of all the ships you can have and the largest Iron boost for extra damage, along with being the heaviest ship in the game (matching the enormous but poorly armed merchant vessel). It's impractically big in some regards, dropping your Veils stat significantly, but when you need to kill every damn pirate and monstrosity in the Unterzee, accept no substitutes. |
| 116 | * EarlyBirdCameo: Several recruitable officers first appeared as [[HalloweenEpisode Hallowmas]] visitors in Videogame/FallenLondon. |
| 117 | * EarlyGameHell: In the beginning, just making enough Echoes to keep your ship consistently fuelled and provisioned can be a challenge, with a degree of luck required to find the opportunities to break out of that state. Furthermore, your starting equipment makes taking on or being attacked by anything other than [[TheGoomba bats, Jillyfleurs and Megalopses]] a death sentence, so be prepared to flee and hope your engine outruns the enemy or they give up the chase. The difficulty eases up as you unlock Legacy Qualities that increase your starting stats and pass on accumulated wealth to subsequent captains, allowing them to jump over the initial difficulty hump. |
| 118 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: While the Neath is unforgiving and very easy to die in or force your captain to hang up their hat early, it is possible to achieve endings that appear truly happy. Writing the Zong of the Zee will prove your captain is the greatest explorer of their generation. There is the ambition to find your father's bones [[GuideDangIt if your chosen path is Natural Philosopher]], as well as the Immortality ambition and, [[AbstractApotheosis in its own way]], the Uttermost East. Of course, captains with more mundane tastes can be perfectly happy with a massive mansion and a retirement fund big enough to choke Her Enduring Majesty. |
| 119 | * EasyLogistics: Mostly averted, providing much of the game's challenge. Fuel and supplies deplete at a constant rate while under way and running out of either can be a death sentence for you (especially if you run out of fuel; you will then only drift until you run out of food as well). Played straight in that your Crew doesn't need to be paid after initial hiring, and your officers can not only outnumber your crew but don't count against your food use. |
| 120 | * EldritchLocation: The game is really chock full, in every flavour. |
| 121 | ** The Iron Republic, freed from all laws including the laws of physics and reality. Writing a port report has your captain trying to navigate ever-changing roads while the ink on your paper is constantly shifting. When you go to submit the report, it may be completely blank or explosive. |
| 122 | ** Frostfound is half-real at the best of times, and its corridors make little sense. Highlights of the weirdness include rooms where [[TimeCrash time itself is scarred and distorted]], galleries full of frozen [[{{Kaiju}} Zee-beasts large as cities]], and a seeming portal to the High Wilderness (i.e.: outer space). ''Everything'' you do in the Corridors gives you Terror due to how mind-bending this place is; hitting the usually-fatal 100 Terror is the only way to reach its central core. |
| 123 | ** Irem is a place that does and does not exist in the present, leading to massive amounts of TimeTravelTenseTrouble. There's a reason none have ever spoken truthfully of this place. |
| 124 | ** The entirety of the Neath is one unto itself, particularly when considered in [[IncrediblyLamePun light]] of the [[Videogame/FallenLondon setting's]] lore. Individual locations aside, islands seem to have a strange tendency of drifting around and re-arranging themselves over time. |
| 125 | * ElephantGraveyard: [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace The Gant Pole]],[[note]]"Gant" is a [[FictionalColour Neath-colour]] which can be described as "a lack thereof" or, more specifically, "what remains [[spoiler:when all colours are eaten]][[/note]] a place where zee-beasts go to die. And not all ancient beasts of the zee [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld swam]]. |
| 126 | * EveryoneHasStandards: The pirates on Hearthstake Island in the Empire of Hands were shipwrecked there long ago and turned to cannibalism. Not to survive, simply because they longed for the taste of meat. Even then, [[SacredHospitality they refuse to eat a guest]]. Nor will they ask you to take them home; they've all agreed that cannibalism is the MoralEventHorizon. |
| 127 | * FaceStealer: If you let A Raggedy Fellow onto your ship, there's a 1 in 4 chance that he's a Snuffer, a face stealing, candle-eating being who will start killing your crew one by one and start wearing their faces, causing a plot to attempt to find the impostor before it gets out of control. Another sidequest tasks the player with hunting a known Snuffer down. |
| 128 | * FailedState: In the alternate timeline of the game, it appears Vienna (and Austro-Hungary as a whole) is slipping into failed state territory. Vienna itself has become a haven for Revolutionaries with a capital R, BombThrowingAnarchists from London who have taken over so completely that most of the graffiti in the city is in English rather than German, and most of the lamps in the city have been smashed by Liberationists. The crown has been unable to keep this unrest down in their very own capital, leading to poverty (complete with one of the city's most famous cafés being burned down by its debt-threatened, anarchist-opposing owner), and technically foreign agents [[spoiler:(the Gentleman from the Bureau serves some [[SinisterSentientSun very high powers]] indeed)]] are growing their powerbase because they're the only ones getting things done. |
| 129 | * FantasticDrug: |
| 130 | ** Red Honey, a proscribed substance described as "too dangerous to be even properly illegal."[[note]]Because making it illegal would require the government acknowledging that it exists at all. And if they did that they would have to dedicate all of their resources to destroying it instead of protecting London.[[/note]] It is produced by lamplighter bees who feed on the nectar of a particular flower that drives them to madness. It causes them to enter the minds of humans and [[AbstractEater eat memories]], distilling them into the red-staining honey they produce. Every time the honey is tasted, the person it originated from suffers. Needless to say, the [[CulturePolice Ministry of Public Decency]] will wish to have some very sharp words with anyone attempting to smuggling it...which makes smuggling it potentially ''very'' profitable. The comparatively harmless and humane version, Prisoner's Honey, has the power to physically transport the imbiber into their own dreamworld. |
| 131 | ** Sunlight serves as one for Neath-dwellers. It generates strong feelings of pleasure and relaxation when they're exposed to it, either directly or through a Filled Mirrorcatch Box. Unfortunately for the consumer, it's ''extremely'' dangerous to them due to the way it interacts with Neath life; someone exposed too frequently to sunlight will [[DescentIntoAddiction rapidly become addicted and seek it out wherever possible]], burning them until they either die of their mounting injuries or just drop dead on the spot from mounting sunlight exposure. As a result it's strictly prohibited by London, and the Revenue Men are constantly on the lookout for anyone trying to smuggle it into London. |
| 132 | * FantasticalSocialServices: Nuncio has a mystical attraction for [[SuperSargassoSea lost letters and packages]], and [[UnstoppableMailman obsessive postal workers]] to finally deliver them to their destinations. It's nominally a British colony, but the Dead Letter Office believes it is older than London, and based on the number of packages they have to deal with it will likely outlast it as well. [[spoiler:Beneath the Office's back rooms is an unlit hollow shaft that makes the entire island resonate like an infrasonic drum with every wave on the beach; at the bottom is a burning engraving in [[LanguageOfMagic the Correspondence]] ordaining that all things arrive at their destined place, that every secret must be preserved until it is revealed, that an unheard message is a tragedy, [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture that a ray of light can traverse any darkness]] - ''NO WORD LOST''.]] |
| 133 | --> ''DO NOT RETURN, SENDER'' |
| 134 | * FarEast: The New Khanate, though ostensibly the successors of the now-destroyed Fourth City Karakorum, had long since given up the ways of warriors and nomads; their architecture and much of their visible culture is somewhat Chinese, and their overall portrayal ends up a mishmash of everything "Oriental". [[JustifiedTrope Somewhat justified]] by the fact that this perception is comparatively period-accurate for a Londoner from the late 1800s. |
| 135 | * FetchQuest: Admiralty Commissions essentially boil down to "Go to [location], get Strategic Information from a contact, return to London, rinse and repeat at a new location." The Strategic Information and Admiralty's Favour from these missions are required to advance several storylines, such as Your Father's Bones (as a Soldier) and the London/Dawn Machine Supremacy conflict. |
| 136 | * FictionalColour: [[ArcNumber Seven]] of them comprise the Neath's rainbow-equivalent, all of which have their own unusual effects. Finding examples of them all is the aim of a lengthy, but very rewarding quest in Venderbight. |
| 137 | ** Irrigo: The most easily found of the Neathbow colours, and the most overtly dangerous. Irrigo steals away memories, causing severe memory loss and forgetfulness; exposure (for instance, to an Eyeless Skull) risks damaging your stats. It's also associated heavily with Flukes, who store the memories they take in irrigo-saturated cores. |
| 138 | ** Violant: Irrigo's antithesis, the colour of troublesome connections. Anything written in violant tends to be extremely hard to forget. |
| 139 | ** Cosmogone: Associated with fungi and their growth, encouraging their growth when it shines on them. It's also heavily associated with [[DreamLand Parabola]]. |
| 140 | ** Viric: The colour of shallow sleep, associated with Fingerkings - anything possessed by one gains GlowingEyesOfDoom in viric, as will a box filled with angry dream-snakes. |
| 141 | ** Peligin: Darker than black, this is the colour of zee-waters, the flesh of its beasts, and death. Eating zee-beast flesh tends to turn the consumer's eyes peligin, as demonstrated by Doomed Monster Hunters, and [[spoiler:Mariam's skin was turned this colour by the Fathomking as part of an "arrangement" between them]]. |
| 142 | ** Apocyan: The colour of memories and bright coral. It helps retain and store memories, which is part of why blue scintillack is so valuable. It's also heavily associated with the Principles of Coral and its quest to become a mindless lump of coral after so long. |
| 143 | ** Gant: Not so much a colour as it is the lack thereof. Described as "what remains [[spoiler:when all colours are eaten]]," it tends to be found "where shadows are myriad" such as the Avid Horizon's gate, the Eater of Names' figurehead, and the [[ElephantGraveyard Zee-beast graveyard of the Gant Pole]]. |
| 144 | * FinalDeathMode: Unforgiving Mode only allows a single save, which is automatically overwritten upon death. |
| 145 | * FixedForwardFacingWeapon: Several larger ships are capable of mounting a "forward" class of weapons. It is typically much more powerful than deck guns, but has a much more limited firing arc. Some ships can mount a fixed aft-facing gun as well to discourage chasers. |
| 146 | * FlareGun: Flares are used in naval combat -- not as weapons, but to light up the area and allow gunners to achieve a firing solution faster (both you and the enemy alike). The item itself also plays a role in a few encounters, such as a light source and [[spoiler:to ignite the hydrogen in a zeppelin]]. |
| 147 | * FlingALightIntoTheFuture: Each time you die, you establish a Legacy to pass on to your next captain. You can pass on half of the accumulated points of a single stat (two with a Scion) and an associated benefit (half of your wealth on two stats, a piece of equipment, an officer, or your discovered map). You can also write a will to pass on your lodgings and the heirlooms contained within. You could potentially devote one captain's entire life to buffing their successor. |
| 148 | * FounderOfTheKingdom: If you manage to settle Aestival, you can strike an alliance with a major power for them to legally recognise it as a kingdom, with you as its founder. Or you can strike out on your own, essentially setting up your own nation from scratch and telling anyone who disagrees to piss off. |
| 149 | * FragileSpeedster: Cutters are the smallest, lightest and least well-armoured ships available - which makes them terribly fast. That being said, the game is deadly and you don't really need to take unnecessary risks to go fast. Unless if [[spoiler:you're trying to get the Touch of the South, which reduces your Hull and Crew to 1: the low Hull capacity of the Cutter doesn't matter since you only have 1 Hull point anyway, and it only has a crew capacity of 5, which can be reduced to 2 with the WE ARE CLAY auxiliary item, meaning that you can still sail at full speed with 1 Crew and don't need to limp to London at half speed]]. There's also the ''Stymphalos''-class Steam Launch, but it is not recommended to use this OneHitPointWonder unless if you want to kill your current captain. |
| 150 | * FromASingleCell: {{Downplayed}} and {{Invoked}} during the assault on Nidah. The Prester and company can be killed, but they're so full of vital energies that your soldiers have to stop fighting like soldiers and start ''butchering'' them because they ''just won't die'' otherwise. |
| 151 | * FungusHumongous: One of the major life forms of the Neath. The Iron & Misery Company have a station on Demeaux Island dedicated to harvesting them. There's also the Uttershroom, which is the largest Mushroom in an archipelago of them and has a small village on top. |
| 152 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: |
| 153 | ** You can have meet someone, have a child with them, and have the child grow up and run away to zee all within the space of a single year. It makes sense from a gameplay standpoint (allowing your child to replace you when you die) but even accounting for the weirdness of the Neath it's hard to reconcile. |
| 154 | ** You can carry passengers and recruit officers with special abilities and stories to sail with you. They never count toward your crew total, they require no supplies to survive, and they are never harmed by crew death events unless the captain dies first. |
| 155 | * GaslampFantasy: Though GenreBusting extends to the style of the setting as well, when considered overall it falls into the gaslamp spectrum. |
| 156 | * GenreBusting: It's best described as a resource-based survival, choose-your-own-adventure maritime roleplaying game with minor action-RTS elements as its combat system. |
| 157 | * TheGhost: The three gods of the zee - Stone, Storm, and Salt - are never encountered in the flesh. It's possible they don't even exist, but [[InterfaceSpoiler several game mechanics]] reflecting their attention or displeasure seem to indicate they're quite real. [[spoiler: Completing the Uttermost East ending implies that the player character [[MindScrew ''is'', somehow, Salt]]. Also, in the Immortality Ambition, you're breaching Stone to get it.]] |
| 158 | * GiantEnemyCrab: An ubiquitous monster of the zee, appearing in no less than [[UndergroundMonkey four variations]] (including a smaller, juvenile one) across the map. The king of these, however, is Temtum, a crab the size of a big island housing the town of Hideaway on his back. |
| 159 | * GlamourFailure: The Drownie city of Dahut is somehow enchanted to enthrall visitors and possibly residents to see it as a beautiful, idyllic, almost ideal mirror of London. However, it is possible to break through the illusion and see the reality of the city - its stately cathedral is a wrecked clipper ship, its crypts are a prison where people from the surface are held until they agree to be made into Drownies, its gardens are withering seaweed and the water around it is littered with the remains of victims who accidentally left the area of the sea enchanted to be breathable. Curiously enough, not only can you return to the city after seeing through the illusion, but you will be welcomed in it once again. |
| 160 | * GlowingFlora: Varchas, the Mirrored City, harbours an intense aversion towards darkness. Amongst the many light sources found in the city are some omnipresent luminescent "fungal flowers". One of the quests has Varchas' main mirror shattered, stripping the town of most of its lights, and the fungi stopped glowing at the same time. |
| 161 | * GoMadFromTheRevelation: |
| 162 | ** Should you bring the Alarming Scholar seven Searing Enigmas and turn them in at once with a special option, you will lose her ([[AmbiguousGender him?]]) permanently due to this. Thankfully, the interface clearly warns of this outcome in advance, and it rewards a Dread Surmise as part of certain endgame ambitions. |
| 163 | ** A humorous example occurs if you choose to progress your Zubmarine quest by giving the engineers building it an Extraordinary Implication. [[NoodleIncident Whatever]] you casually tell them causes one to undergo a HeroicBSOD, another to weep boiling tears evaporating from their cheeks and a third to quietly leave and be seen burning his collection of books on engineering in the back lot. It does, however, provide some sort of new principles or ideas that make your Zubmarine feasible. |
| 164 | ** This is the reason why many events increase your Terror score, since many of them involve uncovering dread secrets and ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. |
| 165 | * TheGoomba: |
| 166 | ** Auroral Megalops. A ship-sized crab encountered in shallow waters near Fallen London and other early-game ports. They're by far the easiest enemies in the game, with only 20 HP and dealing 2 damage per attack. |
| 167 | ** Jillyfleurs guard the areas slightly outside the London area, being tougher and faster but not quite dangerous enough to be a death sentence. |
| 168 | ** Bat swarms are frailer, but faster enemies that are usually found near Venderbight, which is very often one of the first ports you visit. They're no tougher than the Megalops, but fast enough that they'll probably hit you and steal a unit of supplies doing so. |
| 169 | ** Pirate Steam-Pinnaces are only a little tougher than bat swarms and Megalopses, deal negligible damage, and frequently patrol the waters close to Fallen London. Unlike the previous two, they basically cannot hurt you if you hide behind them. |
| 170 | * GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler: The Dawn Machine - both the DeusEstMachina itself and the plans around it were hatched by a faction of the London Admiralty and government, as a way to break the Bazaar's control over London.]] Suffice to say that it has GoneHorriblyRight. |
| 171 | * GoYeHeroesGoAndDie: The game happily informs you on start that you will probably die and those that follow will succeed, and as far as the win conditions go, isn't lying in the slightest. Most of the potential Ambitions require skill checks you'll likely fail the first time around, but you can pass on portions of your accumulated wealth and stats to future captains, giving them a better chance to succeed. |
| 172 | * HardModePerks: The Unter-Unterzee is dangerous even by Neath-standards, with new enemies that hit like a ton of bricks, constant terror rise, the need to manage oxygen or die, and its habit of rearranging itself more often than the surface. However, as you are one of but a few zubmarine captains, it also holds lucrative trade routes, bounties of shipwrecks and long-dead beasts, and [[YouHaveResearchedBreathing has places you can go fishing.]] |
| 173 | * HeroicSacrifice: One of your father's possible fates in the Bones ambition. With his crew on the brink of starvation, he sacrificed his life [[spoiler:and his flesh to [[ImAHumanitarian the Chapel of Lights' priests]]]] to ensure they would survive. |
| 174 | * HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Several enemy ships will fire off flares in combat, attempting to speed up their fire rate. These speed up the target acquisition for both them ''and'' the player. |
| 175 | * AHomeownerIsYou: You can buy a house in London, which is needed to raise your child, create heirlooms and build the Zong of the Zee. The basic version is an inexpensive townhouse. You can upgrade to a much more expensive mansion, which confers some fringe benefits (a higher heirloom limit and resting there is moderately more effective). |
| 176 | * HonestJohnsDealership: Leadbeater & Stainrod are the Neath's largest, cheapest, least reliable provider of ships, ship components and ship repairs. It's entirely possible that they actually ''want'' you to drown. |
| 177 | * HPToOne: |
| 178 | ** If you successfully zail upstream of Adam's Way, your Crew and Hull are both reduced to one. Better find a way back to a shipyard without being hit once. [[spoiler:Having the Cladery Heart allows you to avoid the Hull damage, though your Crew will still ]]. |
| 179 | ** Reaching the final chamber of Frostfound demands the inverse - you ''need'' to max out your [[SanityMeter Terror]] to access it. Fortunately, the actions taken in the chamber usually restore some or all of it, and Frostfound's SAY options can slowly reduce it with time. |
| 180 | * HumanCannonball: The Icarus in Black has one purpose: To shoot suicidal human Monster-Hunters at giant zee beasts. The monster hunter does not survive. Usually, neither does the beast. |
| 181 | * HumanResources: Crew are sometimes used as trade goods [[ImAHumanitarian or worse.]] Several quests even require you to hand over crew members to other parties to advance. |
| 182 | * HunterOfMonsters: |
| 183 | ** The Chelonate is an entire society of these, consisting of a huge number of Zee-beast hunters occupying the shell of an enormous turtle they slew. |
| 184 | ** Doomed Monster-Hunters are those monster-hunters who've killed so many monsters that they've nothing left to do but [[DeathSeeker find a glorious death]], which you can provide to them through the AwesomeButImpractical Icarus in Black cannon. |
| 185 | * IKnowYourTrueName: [[spoiler:Finding "The Name Which Burns" is the first step to sailing East out of the world. Without the resulting ChainOfDeals, the physics-defying silence will threaten to crush you ship and force you to turn around.]] |
| 186 | * ImAHumanitarian: |
| 187 | ** Always a risk when lost at zee, with limited supplies and a cook who's going quietly insane. And then there's [[spoiler:[[HorrorHunger Unaccountably Peckish...]]]] |
| 188 | ** [[spoiler:If you're both a Priest and Unaccountably Peckish while pursuing Your Father's Bones, it turns out that your father was a debased cannibal who served the Chapel of Lights.]] |
| 189 | ** One of the Presbyterate's kingdoms practices ritual cannibalism of their dead at Adam's Way, as a way of gaining their relatives' traits (intellect, strength, wisdom, etc.) They invite your Captain to join them if they're Unaccountably Peckish, with a particularly hungry Captain getting a place of honour at the table. |
| 190 | * ImmortalitySeeker: You might become one if you choose the Immortality ambition. [[spoiler: Depending on your choices you can achieve it and "democratise death", attain it for yourself and no other, or turn it down in favour of gaining a kingdom.]] |
| 191 | * InfinityMinusOneSword: |
| 192 | ** The Serpentine is the second-best engine and is relatively easy (though not guaranteed) to obtain, requiring you to complete the Genial Magician's storyline and promote him to the Satisfied Magician without running afoul of the final quest's 30% fail chance. By contrast, the Fulgent Impeller is far better ''and'' guaranteed, but requires an extremely drawn-out and somewhat risky quest chain to get. The one advantage the Serpentine has, however, is that the Satisfied Magician can be passed on through Legacy to subsequent captains, allowing you to equip the Serpentine immediately, so long as you can afford it. |
| 193 | ** The ''Maenad''-class Frigate isn't as tough as the Dreadnought and doesn't have as large a hold, but requires a smaller crew (using fewer supplies), is slightly lighter/faster, but still being large and powerful enough to complete late-game missions, and is much cheaper compared to the obscene Echoes cost of the Dreadnought. The Steam-Yacht, meanwhile, has better stat bonuses but isn't as tough, only allows a deck gun and can only be obtained through an extremely lengthy quest. |
| 194 | ** The Caminus Yards Heart-Ender and the Cotterell & Hathersage 'Majesty' forward-facing weapons are roughly tied for second most powerful option after the Memento Mori (Heart-Ender dealing slightly less damage to ships but greater damage to monsters and Majesty doing equal damage to both), available to you without any prior requirements and at a fraction of its cost (the Majesty being available for a laughable 400 Echoes). |
| 195 | * InfinityPlusOneSword: The Memento Mori, the Fulgent Impeller and the Zong of the Zee are Infinity+1 Forward Gun, Engine and Auxiliary Equipment, respectively. Obtaining the Memento Mori requires a fairly long quest chain, the Fulgent Impeller requires an extremely long and drawn-out quest chain, while the Zong of the Zee just requires an obscene amount of resources, especially secrets. |
| 196 | * InsistentTerminology: Any nautical word that starts with an S is written with a Z instead. So it is Zailor (sailor), Zee (sea); people trying to appear more seawise than they actually are will sometimes overdo it with the Z's and stick them in places where they don't belong. |
| 197 | * InterfaceSpoiler: The trading interface shows the existence of certain items and trade goods before you're likely to find them in play. [[spoiler:Notably, the end reward of the Genial Magician's storylet is shown, even before you recruit him.]] |
| 198 | * IslandOfMystery: Would be more straightforward to list the ones that aren't. Irem probably the pick of the bunch for being [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm literally inexplicable]]. |
| 199 | * IstanbulNotConstantinople: Enforced - as in VideoGame/FallenLondon, referring to any of the Stolen Cities or their landmarks by the names they had on the surface is prohibited. (Most prominently, Wolfstack Docks is the former Isle of Dogs, the Thames has become the Stolen River, and now that High Barnet is beneath the Zee it's known as [[PunnyName Low Barnet]].) Downplayed, though, as the Masters of the Bazaar have little authority outside London and this game is focused on the rest of the Unterzee. |
| 200 | * ISurrenderSuckers: The bad ending of a Mutiny where your Hearts weren't enough. You try and talk the mutineers down and [[HopeSpot seemingly get through to the leader, who lays down his weapon, causing you to come out of cover...]] right in time for the mutineers' second-in-command to fatally shoot you. |
| 201 | * ItBelongsInAMuseum: The description for Outlandish Artefacts (moderately valuable treasures, which can be acquired in a variety of ways): |
| 202 | -->''"This belongs in a museum! [[SubvertedTrope Assuming that colonial-imperial appropriation for the purpose of hegemonic taxonomisation is a suitable response to the problem of intercultural contact.]] [[DoubleSubverted Which it probably is, because museums are magnificent institutions.]]"'' |
| 203 | * ItemCaddy: The ''Caligo''-class Merchant Cruiser isn't very expensive (costing only 8000 Echoes), but comes with the largest hold at 120 (compare to the Frigate, which costs 15000 Echoes and has only 70 Hold, and the Dreadnought, which costs 30000 Echoes and has 100 Hold). This vessel allows you to get the maximum value out of trading and makes quests that require large amounts of Hold slots far easier to accommodate (the purchase of Dawn's Law and the construction of the Fulgent Impeller being fine examples). The two drawbacks are that the ship isn't really suitable to combat due to the lack of a Forward cannon mount, and is as heavy as the Dreadnought, so travelling takes a lot of time (unless you have the aforementioned Impeller). |
| 204 | * JokeCharacter: While its stats and behavior is no different from any other enemy of its general tier (i.e. plenty enough to destroy the fragile steamer you start with), it's really, really hard to take a giant zeebeast called the ''Behemoustache'' seriously. Yes, it's a giant deep-sea fish with a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin giant mustache]]. Which you can loot and sell as an Outlandish Artefact, no less. |
| 205 | -->'''Harvest its flesh and moustache''' |
| 206 | -->''The one is oily. The other is both oily and magnificent.'' |
| 207 | * JokeItem: The ''Stymphalos''-class Steam Launch, a OneHitPointWonder of a ship with a tiny hold, no crew quarters, and a massive stat penalty. Normally, you'll only ever get one if you somehow survive losing your existing ship, but you can buy one in London if you really want to. Lampshaded in the game: |
| 208 | -->''Possibly there's a reason you might want to set to zee in a boat the size of a dining-room table. Possibly.'' |
| 209 | * LampshadeHanging: |
| 210 | --> This is what they call Prisoner's Honey, wrung by the lamplighter bee from the exile's rose. "I wonder oo made up all these names," remarks Able Seaman Cargit. "Someone with a slight too many books, I'm finking." |
| 211 | * LanguageOfMagic: The Correspondence, the language of the Bazaar and possibly the Judgements. Overlaps with WordsCanBreakMyBones and BlackSpeech, since actually reading and speaking it may set things (such as the reader) aflame, its sigils are capable of killing or brainwashing people, and opponents such as the Lorn-Flukes and [[ThatsNoMoon Mount]] [[GeniusLoci Nomad]] actively use it as a weapon for naval combat. |
| 212 | * LaserGuidedKarma: The Delightful Adventuress. It's hard not to find the resolution satisfying, provided you [[TheDogBitesBack allowed her sidekick to have a say]]. |
| 213 | * TheLawFirmOfPunPunAndWordplay: Many firms in the naval industry have such names: Cotterell & Hathersage, Leadbeater & Stainrod, Iron & Misery Company, Soothe & Cooper... |
| 214 | * {{Leitmotif}}: Most of the game's soundtrack, in the form of a song appropriate for each area playing whenever you get close to it. |
| 215 | * LemonyNarrator: The narration can become extremely dry, snarky, or understated depending on the circumstances. |
| 216 | * LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: Your captain's encounter with the Monkey Foundling is detailed in their journal using the following three words: "THIS. NEVER. HAPPENED." |
| 217 | * LevelDrain: Some encounters and adventures across the Zee can deduce points from your statistics scores. In particular, when navigating Frostfound, you can opt to drain a point out of each of your primary statistics in order to bypass ''very'' difficult skill checks. Other point-deducing options sometimes occur at important points of storylines, the most likely one to be lost being Hearts. The goal of zailing into the Uttermost East is the king of these. Over the course of the quest chain enabling you to do so, you'll take many hits to various stats, and the voyage itself will ''drop all of your statistics [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower save for Hearts]] to one'', meaning that you won't be able to boost your next captain with them. |
| 218 | * LightIsNotGood: The Dawn Machine is an artificial sun that gives the only day-bright light in the entire zee - and it is ''not'' good or nice to any degree, its objective seeming to be total domination of the Neath. Anything associated with it causes your crew to get extremely nervous and frequently fall into raving about ''E SUN THE SUN THE SUN TH'', and the false dawn it creates is always grounds for an OhCrap reaction; its Glorious fleet is ruthless, piratical and ''very'' well-armed in their glittering ships. Real sunlight is actively hazardous to Neath-dwellers due to the rules of the setting's reality. It can kill someone who'd sustained lethal damage in the Neath but did not die because of its DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist nature, and to any normal person who spent too much time underground (such as the player character and their crew), sunlight is a withering, burning force that can suddenly kill them, wound them and/or drive them to madness. This makes the zee around Aestival, an island located under a breach in the Neath-roof through which sunlight can shine, one of the most dangerous places in the game and rightly feared by zailors. This is because [[spoiler: the Sun, as well as all other stars, are Judgements, the setting's [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]], and the light they emanate is their will and law. The Neath, being hidden from the direct light of the Judgements, is exempt from "a dozen or so" of such laws, including some of the rules of life and death, and creatures that spend too much time outside of those laws become increasingly harmed by the light. As further icing on the cake, the Judgements are ''not'' benevolent entities, being ambiguous, indifferent and neutral at best and [[JerkassGods malicious]] at other times. In this sense, in the world of Fallen London and Sunless Sea, ''the stars are Cthulhu'']]. |
| 219 | * LighthousePoint: Lighthouses (as well as light-ships and light buoys) appear throughout the Zee, and sailing in their lightbeam helps reducing Terror. The most notable one is the Ragged Crow, which is run from the underwater Undercrow and whose lights sadly attract the terrifying [[MothMenace Tyrant-Moths]]... |
| 220 | * LightningBruiser: The Blue Prophets possess serious amounts of health, deal respectable amounts of damage, and have the speed and mobility of [[TheGoomba zee-bats]]. |
| 221 | * LiteraryAllusionTitle: To ''Literature/KublaKhan''. Doubly appropriate, as Xanadu is of established importance in the setting's lore. |
| 222 | -->Where Alph, the sacred river, ran |
| 223 | -->Through caverns measureless to man |
| 224 | -->Down to a sunless sea. |
| 225 | * LittleStowaway: The Monkey Foundling is a young girl [[RaisedByWolves living on an island with semi-intelligent monkeys]]. Depending how the player reacts to her [[GoneSwimmingClothesStolen stealing their clothes]], she can later be discovered as a stowaway on your ship, at which point you have the option to let her stay aboard as a mascot. |
| 226 | * LivingShip: |
| 227 | ** The ''Cladery Heart'', a colossal, living heart-like lobe of the Bazaar, clad in iron and set to sea. |
| 228 | ** The ''Tree of Ages'', a huge congress of sorrow-spiders acting as a powerful, respawnable boss. |
| 229 | ** [[spoiler: One of the options to deliver the Seven Against Nidah and their forces to their destination is to navigate the river to Nidah using Polythremi living ships.]] |
| 230 | * LuckBasedMission: Several challenges are purely luck based, but fortunately they are never mandatory and the player has an idea of their odds when choosing to try them. More generally, surviving the EarlyGameHell requires a certain degree of luck in [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels the zee's Alteration]], coupled with [[GuideDangIt some existing knowledge of the game]]. |
| 231 | * LuringInPrey: One random event while out on the Unterzee has your ship encounter an elegant lady waving and sighing from a rock out at sea. If you head in to investigate -- or send in someone who won't be missed, at your choice -- it turns out to be the cunningly-shaped tail of a sea serpent trying to bait potential meals. |
| 232 | * {{Macrogame}}: When a game ends (either from death, victory, or retirement), the player can begin a new game with a Legacy based on their chosen relation to the previous captain. Depending on the Legacy chosen, the player gains 50% of the points previously earned for a single stat, as well as a secondary benefit based on that stat (one weapon, one officer, the revealed map, or half their Echoes on two different stats). If the player unlocks the Scion, two Legacies can be chosen. There are also a number of Legacy Qualities that provide permanent boosts to the player's starting stats when unlocked through certain in-game actions. Finally, captains who have purchased a home can write a will, allowing their house and some of their wealth (in the form of Heirlooms) to be passed on. The will has to be refreshed for every captain, however. |
| 233 | * MadArtist: |
| 234 | ** The Set, a group of highly eccentric and vicious artist-pirates. One of their former members, the Merciless Modiste, can be recruited as your ship's first officer, and she is excellent with both clothing and murder. She tells you a few tales of the rest, all of them psychopathic or merely insane. And then there's the Irrepressible, their dreaded flagship zubmarine. Built for form and function, and with a main gun that fires [[BrownNote mind-destroying colours]], it's feared with good reason. |
| 235 | ** The Rosegate underwater cigar shop is run by an extremely eccentric tobacconist bent on creating an underwater cigar, which seems to require ''very'' unsavoury and unethical means and ingredients. Further underlined by the fact that actually going through with assisting him enough to complete his cigar nets you a Supremacy point with [[BombThrowingAnarchist the Anarchists]], his final destination being [[RealityIsOutToLunch the Iron Republic]] and cryptic warnings about his work risking "setting the zee aflame". |
| 236 | * MadScientist: In the Neath, it's easier to count scientists who ''aren't'' mad. Even the PlayerCharacter with the Natural Philosopher background seems to qualify. |
| 237 | * MadnessMantra: If you get near the Dawn Machine, the logbook will simply say "THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN". This is even repeated in the Dawn Machine's Supremacy quality description. |
| 238 | * MedalOfDishonor: There are numerous achievements for dying: |
| 239 | ** Dying 1, 5, and 10 times in a single Legacy. |
| 240 | ** Dying by suffocation (running out of air in a zubmarine). |
| 241 | ** Dying by an underwater creature. |
| 242 | ** Dying by the Constant Companion specifically. |
| 243 | ** Dying numerous times in a single Legacy will result in increasingly sarcastic comments when the Lineage: Captains Lost quality is called [[note]]In particular, being persistent enough to lose 100+ Captains results in the description simply changing to [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe "Seriously?"]][[/note]] |
| 244 | * MeaningfulName: Avernus shares its name with a Roman term used to refer to the underworld's entrance, befitting its nature as the main Surface-side entrance to the Neath. This additionally takes on a double meaning when the effect of sunlight is considered - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avernus the real-life crater]] gave off toxic fumes that killed birds which came nearby, similar to how zailors and even the Captain will die if you stay on the Surface too long. |
| 245 | * MegaMaelstrom: Whirlpools appear as environmental hazards; they're not hard to avoid, but ships that sail into one will have their hull battered until they can overcome the currents and escape. |
| 246 | * MenAreTheExpendableGender: Strongly averted. While your generic crew don't have names, most of the gender-specific descriptions refer to them as female and they are quite likely to die at zee. |
| 247 | * MightyGlacier: |
| 248 | ** The ''Eschatologue''-class Dreadnought, as the description reads. Tied for the heaviest and slowest ship in the game, and absolutely ''destroys'' your Veils score, since [[WithCatlikeTread trying to be sneaky with a ship that size is doing it wrong]]. In return, it boosts your Iron score (damage) tremendously, has all three gun mounts available, the second-best hold space, and the toughest hull of any ship. |
| 249 | ** A remarkably literal example are the Lifebergs; although not true icebergs, they're still huge, mobile masses of ice and unknowable substances of the Neath that are actively hostile to ships, moving quite slowly but dishing out heavy ramming damage and boasting a remarkably high health point count. Even their ramming attack is slow enough to be dodged as long as you have a bit of distance. |
| 250 | ** Most of the monsters of the Zee, both above and below the surface, generally operate as either this or LightningBruiser. |
| 251 | * MindScrew: The nature of the setting as a GaslampFantasy LovecraftLite CosmicHorrorStory naturally leads to these being a common occurrence. The most shining examples are the entirety of the fortress of Frostfound and Irem of the Pillared Sea, locations which mess with your captain's head a lot. |
| 252 | * {{Mooks}}: Pirates and zee-beasts are always referred to by generic descriptions. Ships with names are almost always neutral trading vessels except for powerful 'boss' ships such as the ''Eater of Names'', the ''Tree of Ages'' and the ''Irrepressible''. |
| 253 | * MultipleChoicePast: You decide your captain's background, social title, and ambition at the beginning of each game. These influence a number of things throughout the captain's time - which of your stats is initially higher, your starting officer, victory conditions, and a handful of other story directions. You can, however, opt to [[MysteriousPast defer these decisions until a later point in the game.]] |
| 254 | * MultipleEndings: |
| 255 | ** If you don't die at zee, get stranded on the surface or get taken by Mr Sacks, depending on your Ambition, you might end the game either by [[spoiler:retiring from zee-faring to a life of luxury, becoming London's most venerated explorer, finding and burying your father's bones, taking over Nidah and gaining immortality, being rewarded with one of the kingdoms of the Presbyterate, founding your own kingdom at Aestival, or [[GoldenEnding sailing beyond the Zee out of the world to the Uttermost East]]]]. There are also secret endings with no Ambition objective associated with them: [[spoiler:You can accompany the Merchant Venturer and pass through the Avid Horizon to the High Wilderness, steal the Monkey Emperor's Zeppelin, or become the lover of Lady Black]]. |
| 256 | ** Depending on which faction's Supremacy you max out, London can be [[spoiler:returned to something like its former glory, turned into a Khanate PuppetState, brought under Revolutionary control, or taken over completely by the New Sequence]]. |
| 257 | * MundaneLuxury: |
| 258 | ** For Londoners, [[BlackMarketProduce foodstuffs produced from the surface]] such as rye bread, cheese, and fresh fruits and vegetables are considered to be absolute luxuries. If you resupply while in the surface port of Naples, your crew will all look hungrily at the surface food that you purchased. Ironically, it's also the cheapest form of food, as farming is a lot easier on the surface, though getting up there is another matter. |
| 259 | ** Conversely, Vienna pays incredibly well for Neath coffee, more than double the purchase cost. The fuel and food costs to get up there are easily worth it for a few trade runs, up until the shop buying it is burnt down. |
| 260 | * {{Mundanger}}: |
| 261 | ** The biggest, most consistent threats are simple - hunger and fear. Nothing will kill you faster than running out of supplies or letting fear destroy your crew's confidence in you. |
| 262 | ** If you go to the surface, you can take a job running grain across the Mediterranean. Sounds simple, but your ship, captain, and crew are accustomed to the calm waters of the Unterzee, and a simple squall nearly sinks you. |
| 263 | * MushroomMan: The blemmigans, while not humanoid in shape, act somewhat human-like and possess enough intelligence to hold what seems to be philosophical debates in their colonies and even learn (and critique) written poetry. |
| 264 | * MustHaveCaffeine: Darkdrop coffee beans are a trade good in the Neath, and several groups will barter for them. They can be traded for favors in Khan's Glory, sold to the Surface for obscene amounts of money (to a point), and allow access to Irem, just to name a few. |
| 265 | * TheMutiny: A ship's crew may mutiny against their captain if Terror grows too high. If they can't be talked down or beaten down, it's game over for you. |
| 266 | * NewGamePlus: If your captain is killed or retires, the successor is given a starting bonus based on the previous captain -- half of the accumulated points for one of their skills, plus material based on the chosen Legacy; having a Scion lets you select two Legacies and two stats to retain (plus material). A few unique items gained from completing certain {{Story Arc}}s will always be passed down once gained, giving the new captain an immediate +25 stat boost specific to each item and the ability to raise a stat to 65 or 85 (dependent on background). |
| 267 | * NightmareFace: |
| 268 | ** The Tides of Appetite are full of ''writhing, gnawing faces''; given that Polythreme is a place where everything is alive, it has quite a few as well. The island as a whole looks like a skull, and many of the districts have an uncomfortable resemblance to organs. |
| 269 | ** A Snuffer's "real" face is little more than [[TheBlank a bloody, weeping gnarl of skinless flesh]]. |
| 270 | * NightmareFuel - InUniverse: The Unterzee is full of things that can and will traumatise your captain and their crew, from unsettling events to Terror-raising devastating monster attacks. If your Terror score is high enough, your crew starts having recurring nightmares, and should you return to London with your Terror score above 50, so will your captain. |
| 271 | * NoIndoorVoice: The pirate captain on Hearthstake island in the Empire of Hands. Every word he says is in caps, the narration even says that he's louder than his blunderbuss. |
| 272 | * NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: If you're low on food, your crew may resort to eating each other to survive. Furthermore, there are several places where cannibalism is practiced, where you may be introduced to the practice. If you've partaken before, you can actively choose this resort should supplies run out. Some storylines clearly show this as a MoralEventHorizon. |
| 273 | --> ''"Starvation walked the ship. We were merciful; our knives were sharp."'' |
| 274 | * NonstandardGameOver: |
| 275 | ** Provided you have bought a townhouse or better, you can always retire your character in London and achieve a draw. This does not count as a game over, but does not count as a victory either. |
| 276 | ** There are secret endings that aren't part of your ambition that you can achieve. Unusually, these give you items that will assist you in your future playthroughs. [[spoiler:These are going through the Avid Horizon with the Venturer, stealing the Emperor's Zeppelin and going East, or with ''Zubmariner'' installed summoning Lady Black and joining her]]. There are also some more traditional {{Nonstandard Game Over}}s, like [[spoiler:choosing to deliver the Monkey Emperor's Wrath (which is part of things you need to do to get the Zeppelin) then returning to London, getting stuck on the Surface due to lack of fuel, or [[PressXToDie eating your crew at Kingeater Castle]]]]. |
| 277 | * NonstandardSkillLearning: |
| 278 | ** Secrets serve the role of skill points, but they're also a commodity that can be traded, or expended as a part of quests. To actually turn a Secret into a stat increase, one needs to trade it to an Officer who specialises in that stat. The exception is the Pages stat, which increases the rate of Secret accumulation; no Officer increases Pages higher than the beginner range. It can only be raised through certain events. |
| 279 | ** There are five craftable items in your Study at your Townhouse/Mansion that increase an associated stat by seven points in exchange for seven Secrets and seven of a particular item (or just one, for Hearts and Mirrors). This also gives you an auxiliary equipment item that can be equipped to your ship for an additional seven points. If you wish, you can sell the item and then recraft it, which is the only way to boost stats past 150 (200 max), and one of the few reliable ways to boost the Pages stat as long as you can farm Outlandish Artifacts. This is made slightly more difficult by the fact that each item can only be sold at one island in the zee. |
| 280 | ** Completing certain encounters and choosing certain options upon defeating monsters is another way to raise your captain's skills... [[LevelDrain or lower them]]. Exceptional, one-time storybook events can raise or lower your statistics by double digits, defeating certain bosses can award you up to five points (usually Iron), and looting some monsters increases your skill by one. |
| 281 | * NoodleImplements: Some of the Merchant Venturer's requests can get... odd. Some of them make sense, but why does he need romantic literature for a trip [[spoiler:through the Avid Horizon]]? The more esoteric lore of the Fallen London 'verse offers an explanation: [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext bribes for the Judgements or their servants.]]]] |
| 282 | * NotCompletelyUseless: |
| 283 | ** The ''Lampad''-class Cutter is fast and doesn't require much crew, but its fragility, very small hold and the fact you still have to spend Echoes to buy it make it most of the time not worth the investment. Unless if [[spoiler:you're trying to get the Touch of the South]], which reduces your Hull and Crew to 1, then the Cutter is the best ship: its fragility doesn't matter since you only have 1 Hull point anyway, and it only has a crew capacity of 5, which can be reduced to 2 with the WE ARE CLAY auxiliary item, meaning that you can still sail at full speed with 1 Crew and don't need to limp to London at half speed. |
| 284 | ** Alternately, the AwesomeButImpractical Cladery Heart will let you completely skip the Veils check and the hull damage. This still doesn't make the Cladery Heart any better of a ship, unfortunately. |
| 285 | * NothingIsScarier: When searching the wreck of the ''Nocturne'', the player hasn't been told what they are searching for, only that it will be obvious once they find it. Given that your employers are the highly intelligent Sorrow-Spiders, there must surely be a reason they need a third party to perform this task for them, and since it's a late-game storyline, one should expect it to be dangerous. The ship, however, seems to be completely deserted. [[spoiler:And it is. There is nothing on board to threaten the player character or their crew, and the item you find is an unconvincing RedHerring. At worst your Terror will increase slightly if you fail two mandatory Hearts checks. The spiders are only interested in whether the player character felt they were being watched, to determine if a particular [[EldritchAbomination Lorn-Fluke]] they have ties to is near.]] |
| 286 | * NothingLeftToDoButDie: |
| 287 | ** Monster-Hunters that have fought and killed every zee-beast there is to kill will often proclaim themselves Doomed, and go out to seek a glorious death by being... [[ItMakesSenseInContext fired out of a cannon at zee-beasts]]. |
| 288 | ** This is the Principles of Coral's guiding motivation. Countless years of existence have left it utterly exhausted, such that it wants nothing more than to lose its mind and become an essentially inanimate lump of coral. |
| 289 | * NotWhatISignedOnFor: Pillaging merchant shipping, and consequently murdering civilians in cold blood, will sometimes drive one of your zailors to commit suicide in despair. |
| 290 | * OceanMadness: It has less to do with the fact that the zee is inherently maddening and more to do with the fact that it is dark, monster-infested, and prone to [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels rearranging itself]], but Terror will be your constant sanity-draining bane. The darkness of the Unterzee, however, is explicitly described as [[RealityIsOutToLunch cancelling out reason and sanity from the world]] in several encounters, which further reinforces this. |
| 291 | * OceanOfAdventure: The game is set in the Unterzee, a vast dark ocean deep BeneathTheEarth, dotted with many islands and bounded by strange shores, where every port hosts its own peculiar denizens, dark secrets and native dangers. Even if you avoid the worst of the dockside trouble, however, the Zee is a fickle mistress, and your voyages can easily be brought to an untimely end by sea monsters, starvation or fear-induced madness. |
| 292 | * OceanPunk: Very much the setting of the game. The zee makes up most of the map as you sail between islands dealing with various threats such as giant sea creatures, starvation, and madness. |
| 293 | * OldSaveBonus: You can connect the game to your Story Nexus account, and doing certain new storylets in ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' with a linked account can give captains in ''Sunless Sea'' starting advantages. |
| 294 | * OneSteveLimit: Averted. There are two zubmarines named ''Irrepressible'' in the game; however, one is a dreaded vessel crewed by {{Mad Artist}}s that serves as a boss battle, and the other is a storyline-only "experimental" vessel used by the Admiralty [[spoiler:if you tip Port Carnelian's balance of power in favour of them]]. |
| 295 | * OpenSecret: Zubmarine travel is illegal, not that it matters because [[BlatantLies there is nothing of interest down there anyway]]. Once you help the Fierce Philanthropist open her zubmarine workshop, it starts a gold rush of sorts and the Admiralty seems to stop caring in any practical manner. |
| 296 | * OrganizedCrimeSidequest: |
| 297 | ** In Fallen London, you can receive purely optional missions from the Blind Bruiser, a representative of a mysterious crime lord known only as the Cheery Man. Most of these missions involve you receiving generous gifts of money and fuel in exchange for trafficking extremely dangerous and/or illegal goods across the [[OceanOfAdventure Unterzee]], with dire consequences in store should you fail. |
| 298 | ** Similarly, highly unscrupulous ports such as the Isle of Cats allow you to purchase the highly illegal narcotic [[FantasticDrug Red Honey]] and sell it to various interested parties in Khan's Heart, Venderblight, and even Fallen London - if you can smuggle it past the Revenue Men. |
| 299 | * OurMermaidsAreDifferent: There're the Drownies, undead-like beings capable of enthralling songs and illusions and always seeking to turn more humans into their kind. There are also the monstrous "''serpentus sirenesis''", encountered while exploring some islands, who have tails shaped uncannily like a human woman and lie in wait at the shore while the main body of the serpent is hidden underwater. |
| 300 | * {{Overdrive}}: Players can dump extra coke into their boilers to drastically increase speed for a brief time. However this is something best done only rarely, [[ResourcesManagementGameplay since it is very wasteful of fuel]], and doing it too frequently risks the engine [[{{Overheating}} running too hot]] and causing all sorts of bad things. There is a small chance for the overheated engine to push this further and actually gain a massive increase in both power and fuel economy for a short while. |
| 301 | * PermanentlyMissableContent: |
| 302 | ** If any Supremacy value except for London's is raised to maximum, the Dark-Spectacled Admiral, Voracious Diplomat, and Admiralty all become unavailable due to the Khanate/Anarchists/New Sequence hunting them down. This effectively locks you out of delivering Port Reports, gaining Strategic Commissions, or gaining Admiralty Favours. |
| 303 | ** Once certain qualities hit a point, a number of islands start running down a clock until they become inaccessible. [[spoiler:In particular Mutton Island will become inaccessible after "Time: the Healer" hits 40, preventing you from fulfilling any storylets there; Hunter's Keep will also be rendered a charred shell after Sojourning With the Sisters hits a certain level, locking you out of any further interactions with them and possibly preventing you from getting the Scarred Sister]]. |
| 304 | ** Giving the Alarming Scholar [[ArcNumber seven]] Searing Enigmas at once will cause her (him?) to [[GoMadFromTheRevelation descend into babbling insanity]], preventing you from turning in curiosities for profit. At least you get a Dread Surmise from it. This is a separate option from turning in Searing Enigmas individually, so you won't do so by accident. |
| 305 | ** The Genial Magician has a flat 30% chance to [[spoiler:lose to the Fingerking and become [[DemonicPossession the Urbane Magician]] during the last mission of his storyline]]; regardless of whether you keep him around afterward, you won't be able to acquire The Serpentine for that playthrough. The same applies for the Prudent Magician. |
| 306 | ** The Brisk Campaigner's Animescence will kill her once it hits a certain point, locking you out of any storylets relating to her. (Unless you FindTheCure in time, of course. Or pay the Fathomking to bring her BackFromTheDead.) |
| 307 | ** While it's quite clearly telegraphed by the game, the café in Vienna will be burned to the ground when its owner finally breaks under the twin pressures of revolutionary activity and looming bankruptcy. This closes off the Neath-to-Surface Darkdrop Coffee Bean trading loop for the rest of the playthrough. |
| 308 | * PhantasySpelling: Certain words starting with 's' start with 'z' instead in the Neath: 'Unterzee', 'zailor', 'zubmarine', and so on. There's a [[http://www.failbettergames.com/z reason]], which is basically that several plays at Mahogany Hall played off the Dutch accent of one of the greatest explorers of the Zee, and the zailors themselves loved it and stuck with it. Non-zailors are advised to be careful with their 'z's, however, as excess usage annoys them. |
| 309 | * PinataEnemy: |
| 310 | ** Pirate Frigates, and their zubmarine counterparts, Corsair Undergalleys, generally net you 1-2 units ''each'' of supply and fuel, ''plus'' a random loot item like those you get from smaller and larger vessels, and sinking them takes little effort once you can afford a decent weapon + Iron skill. If the RandomNumberGod is feeling unkind, though, all you'll get is a loot item worth a few dozen Echoes. |
| 311 | ** The Pirate-Poet is a tougher variant on [[TheGoomba Steam-Pinnace]] who always grants 1 each of fuel/supplies, between 100-500 Echoes, and a crate drop. She spawns in several places around the map, and respawns infinitely as long as her associated quest isn't finished, making her a good source of Echoes in the early game. |
| 312 | ** Beloveds are fairly slow, not especially dangerous underwater enemies who will always provide 2 supplies, some hunting trophies, and possibly extra food when killed. Apparently they're quite good eating. |
| 313 | ** Two tougher, but even more valuable piñatas are Lifebergs on the surface, and Thalattes below. Both can take a beating, and can deliver a lot of pain, but are ''hugely'' profitable once dead; both offer either plentiful supplies [[labelnote:*]]Lifebergs give both supplies and fuel, Thalattes "just" give you a crapton of supplies[[/labelnote]] or a ton of echoes' worth in valuables [[labelnote:*]]Lifebergs tend to drop Outlandish Artefacts in large amounts, Thalatte organs count as their own Live Specimens which you can sell to the Labyrinth of Tigers[[/labelnote]]. |
| 314 | ** The ultimate pinata enemy of the game is the Lorn-Fluke, a SeaHurtchin that can take quite a beating but drops some of the best loot in the game. A savvy zee-captain can keep their ship at the right distance from a fluke so that it can be brought down quickly while taking ScratchDamage from its ranged attack. The guaranteed reward for doing so is a valuable Colossal Fluke-core (500 echoes if sold directly, 600 if traded for a Judgements' Egg in the Iron Republic). In addition, by successfully passing a moderate Pages check, you earn three Secrets for each fluke -- perhaps the easiest and fastest way to farm Secrets in the entire game. They also happen to have a wide spawning area, making farming them an easy and very profitable endeavour for those skilled in zeefighting. The Dawn Fluke, found underwater near the Dawn Machine, can yield an even more profitable piece of loot through a mild Pages challenge -- a Searing Enigma, worth a thousand echoes if sold to the Scholar in London. Like all enemies, it respawns. |
| 315 | * {{Plunder}}: Battles with enemy ships generally leaves them in no condition to be captured, but something can usually be salvaged before they sink, especially their cargo crates. This also applies to large zee-beasts, which when killed usually float up for a while, allowing them to be harvested by the hunting ship. If by some miracle you actually manage to kill the crew of a ship without sinking it (doing this on purpose requires a specific weapon, and is nearly impossible on smaller ships), it enables a special option where you can have some of your crew seize it, a Luck challenge that can result in a reward delivered to your Lodgings. |
| 316 | * PointOfNoReturn: Averted most of the time; right up until you reach the win condition of an ambition, you can always swap to one of the hidden ambitions instead of completing the one you started with. The exception is the Empire of Hands storyline; the penultimate action requires you to [[spoiler:blow up London]], permanently locking you out of accessing the main port (it's a NonStandardGameOver), but not actually ending the game until you return to the Empire of Hands and complete the story. |
| 317 | * ThePowerOfTheSun: |
| 318 | ** Sunlight is a potent force to the denizens of the Neath, able to kill or grievously harm them should they be exposed to it for any significant time. [[spoiler: This is because sunlight, as well as the light of any other star, is the means by which the will of the stars, the [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]] of the 'verse, is enforced. In this sense, the Power of the Sun is the main underpinning of the 'verse's reality.]] In small amounts, it also acts as a FantasticDrug, and can be captured and sold with Mirrorcatch Boxes if you're willing to run the risk of becoming addicted to it yourself. |
| 319 | ** The Dawn Machine brings its own twist to the trope, its light primarily making creatures and vessels that come in contact with it BrainwashedAndCrazy, but also more powerful than they were before. |
| 320 | * PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Fulgent Impeller is a mass of zee-monster bones with the Unsettling Sage imprisoned in its core. [[spoiler:A fairly uncommon random event implies [[AndIMustScream he's still alive, and screaming, in the heart of the engine]].]] |
| 321 | * PowerGlows: The ships and beasts touched by the Dawn Machine all emit a yellow-orange, incandescent glow, and are some of the most powerful enemies you can find at zee. |
| 322 | * PressXToDie: |
| 323 | ** Choosing "Eat your crew" or "Offer your thoughts at the altar" in Kingeater's Castle are marked with a game note simply reading "Do not do this." [[spoiler:Choosing the first option immediately kills all your officers and crew, wounds you, and gives you a ''massive'' Terror spike. The latter fills your Terror to maximum, prompting an immediate mutiny that kills your captain if they fail a difficult Hearts or Iron check.]] |
| 324 | ** If you visit the Cumaean Canal Staging Area with the "Yearning, Burning" menace above 200, there's an option to "Rise and be lost." Unsurprisingly, choosing it instantly kills you due to sunlight being horribly dangerous to Neath-dwellers even without being addicted to it. The same applies if you sail to Aestival. |
| 325 | * ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Notably averted by the Khanate of the Salt Steppe. Despite being the subterranean remnant of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, they've purged their warrior class, reasoning that their new zeefaring lifestyle doesn't have much use for the steppe warrior mindset. Played straight by the piratical inhabitants of Khan's Shadow, made up of said purged warrior class and anybody else who likes fighting and hates authority. |
| 326 | * PuppetState: London can end up as this if Khanate Supremacy is maxed out. The Admiralty is disbanded, the [[SecretPolice White-and-Golds]] take over policing duties, and Parliament essentially cedes control to the Taimen. |
| 327 | * PurelyAestheticGender: As is standard in Failbetter games, the PlayerCharacter can be addressed as male, female, or any of a number of other descriptors, without limiting their stats, portrait, or [[RomanceSidequest options]] in [[OptionalSexualEncounter dalliances]]. For that matter, if you have a romance with someone in London you can eventually [[http://sunlesssea.gamepedia.com/An_Unexpected_Letter get a letter]] and choose if your character sired a child or will give birth to one, regardless of your portrait or pronouns or those of your lover. There's even an option where your lover has adopted, and a game note saying "Choose this option if you're unlikely to be either a father or mother." And ''then'' you have the option of whether the child calls you Father, Mother, or Captain. |
| 328 | * PuttingTheBandBackTogether: The Immortality ambition largely revolves around reassembling the Seven Against Nidah, the band of adventurers who attempted your quest before and failed. |
| 329 | * RandomlyGeneratedLevels: The surface of the Unterzee is divided into 36 tiles that are rearranged for every new captain (except for the western continent, the Elder Continent and Irem). There are subgroups in these tiles that always remain in particular areas, to maintain a consistent level of difficulty: the north and east tiles always have the same group of islands, just arranged in different orders. [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration Referred to as Alteration by the Londoners]], and it's understandably something newsworthy whenever it occurs. The zee-floor, which is procedurally generated except for the ports and abysses, changes even more often than the surface map does. If the player chooses a particular legacy, they can import their map from the previous captain, locking the terrain in exchange for losing all the fragments they would have gained from rediscovering the landmarks. |
| 330 | * RealityWarper: The Judgements in general, as well as the Dawn Machine. |
| 331 | * RealTimeWithPause: Combat and zailing play out in pausible real time. The clock stops when you have the Gazetteer open, which is usually in a port but can also be done manually or during random events. |
| 332 | * RecurringLocation: Outside of London and the Unterzee (which do not count since they are the main hubs), the Tomb-Colonies, Mutton Island, Hunter's Keep, the Iron Republic, Port Carnelian, Polythreme, the Mirror-Marches, Abbey Rock, Adam's Way and the Chapel of Lights can be visited in both ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' and ''Sunless Sea'', and the Avid Horizon appears in all three Failbetter games. There's also New Newgate Prison, which failed to make it to ''Sunless Sea'' since it was planned to be part of the game's dirigible expansion which didn't manage to be funded via Kickstarter. |
| 333 | * RedemptionQuest: The Admiralty is known to offer traitors and criminals a chance at redeeming themselves by having them make a dangerous pilgrimage to [[EldritchLocation Avid Horizon]], where they record their crimes and useful information on a pillar there. [[FetchQuest Once some poor schmuck of a Zee-captain brings the names there back to London]], they'll then pick those who will be pardoned. |
| 334 | * RedShirts: Your officers are named and [[GameplayAndStorySegregation exempted from crew count and supply consumption]]. The remainder of your crew are nameless and can be blown up in combat, eaten by zee-beasts, or even eaten by fellow crew at your decision. |
| 335 | * ResourcesManagementGameplay: Fuel and supplies are necessary to run the ship and maintain the crew, and their use and conservation must be balanced. The integrity of one's hull must also be carefully monitored, as taking damage at less than 50% hull results in (among other things) the deaths of crew. If your ship has 50% or less than its maximum crew capacity, [[SubsystemDamage your cruising speed will be effectively halved]], which is ''quite'' bad. Worse, if your crew count is 25% or lower, your rate of increasing Terror will ''double''. |
| 336 | * SanityMeter: The Terror and Hunger stats track the crew's mood. An unhappy crew is at greater risk of going mad, killing each other, mutinying, leaping overboard, destroying precious resources/parts of the ship, or resorting to cannibalism. Your captain will also suffer fits of paranoia, uncontrollable screaming, irrational rage, hallucinations and so on. |
| 337 | * SaveGameLimits: There's a cosmetic item (the Invictus Token) if the player chooses to play in Unforgiving mode, which only provides one {{Autosave}}. |
| 338 | * SchmuckBait: "Do Not Do This". It is always good, honest advice. One of the locations found towards the edge of the map is Kingeater's Castle, a mysterious altar that's creepy even by Sunless Sea standards. Two of the options, as well as having activity descriptions that should give most players a clue, are clearly marked "Do Not Do This" by the game. Despite the fact the game has been completely honest with all advice the entire time, forums still contain confused players utterly bewildered at why their game just ended. The one time it ''might'' be a good idea to ignore it is [[spoiler:a certain incident within some of the procedurally-generated shipwrecks, inside the captain's cabin]], and even that one is profoundly creepy and deals some nasty stat damage to the captain. |
| 339 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: How you "defeat" Mt. Nomad - as the "grand-daughter of the Bazaar" (yes, ''that'' one), it's functionally immortal... but isn't immune to serious injury. At zero Health, you inflict such a bad wound that the GeniusLoci decides to cut its losses and submerge to safety underneath the zee until the next Alteration. While you can loot it, it's not you harvesting its corpse so much as sending your crew to get as much from the sinking island as they can before it is fully underwater. |
| 340 | * SeaMine: When underwater, one player can encounter submerged sea mines. Running a Zubmariner into it is a ''very'' bad idea. There are also the Unexploded Unclear Bombs, which have a red glowing dot at their centre (just like the one featured on the main menu) and can be disarmed. |
| 341 | * TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: You can have some really satiating food at the Chapel of Lights, for free! There is a high chance of getting the [[ImAHumanitarian Unaccountably Peckish]] menace from this, however... |
| 342 | * SentientStars: The powerful Judgements are the stars (and the sun is no exception). [[spoiler:The Dawn Machine, being an artificial sun, gained their sentience as well]]. |
| 343 | * SequelHook: "There is a sea more sunless", a phrase you will [[ArcWords repeatedly encounter]] in your travels, particularly in hard-to-reach places. Usually it is presented as a question ("Is there a sea more sunless?", but the Uttermost East GoldenEnding firmly presents it as a statement. The sequel, ''Sunless Skies'', is already being made. |
| 344 | * ShoutOut: |
| 345 | ** The schematics for the ''Irrepressible'' include mention of protective measures [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland "to guard against the bites of sharks".]] |
| 346 | ** The [[Literature/JeevesAndWooster Finknottle]] Abyss. Perhaps there are newts there. |
| 347 | ** There's also a ShoutOut to Coleridge's ''Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner'' if you [[spoiler:ate your crew at Kingeater's Castle]]. |
| 348 | ** On the topic of the Ancient Mariner, it's possible to shoot a white bat that follows your ship. Since the white bat is sacred to the zee-god Salt, just as when the Mariner shot the Albatross, you'll deeply alarm your crew (reflected in huge jump in Terror) and draw the ire of other powers. It's a ''bad'' idea. |
| 349 | ** Gaider's Mourn may be named after former Bioware writer David Gaider, known for having written stories and romances that send players to tears and allegedly feeding off said tears. |
| 350 | ** A rare event (15% chance) can occur in Savior's Rocks when failing a veils check to scout the Scuttering Reaches with a candle. In it, you find a terrified pig in a cave [[Literature/CharlottesWeb surrounded by webs with messages on them, including "HUMBLE" and "RADIANT". After killing the sorrow-spider that spun the web, you gain a few supplies, with your crew overjoyed that their rations tonight will include "some pig."]] |
| 351 | ** One of the tall tales you can tell at Savior's Rocks during the Festival of Silk is about [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings a ring of rostygold forged by leaders of the Iron Republic that can only be destroyed by being dropped into Mt Palmerston]]. Getting this result actually counts as a failure due to a Pedantic Listener asking why [[JustEatGilligan they don't just tie it to a trained zee-bat and send the bat to the volcano]], mirroring the memetic debate about destroying the One Ring. |
| 352 | * SilentRunningMode: Useful for evading enemy ships and slumbering zee-monsters - unfortunately, it requires cutting the lights, and DarknessEqualsDeath. |
| 353 | * TheSixStats: there are five (Iron is Strength, Mirrors is Wisdom, Pages is Intelligence, Hearts is Charisma, and Veils is Dexterity), with "hull", "crew" and "wounds" functioning as a variety of HP meters. |
| 354 | * SmashMook: Most zee-monsters (except for some of the most powerful ones) fight this way. Once you're spotted, they'll continue to charge at you until either they or you are dead, or when they can no longer spot you. |
| 355 | * SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: When you reach 90 points of Terror, an extremely tense song replaces whatever was playing at the moment, and will not stop until you go below 90 once more. |
| 356 | * SoundtrackDissonance: Approaching the Iron Republic, that bastion of [[WorldOfChaos absolute, reality-defying lawlessness and general inexplicably strange events]], is accompanied by a joyful Irish-esque tune that'd be more fitting for an actually pleasant place. Perhaps this place even overwrote whatever laws of narrative made this inappropriate. |
| 357 | * StarfishAliens: [[spoiler: The Lorn-Flukes, the Rubbery Men and several other species of the Neath did not originate on Earth, but came there together with the Bazaar from another world elsewhere in space.]] |
| 358 | * StarfishLanguage: Whatever language [[{{Cthulhumanoid}} the Rubbery Men]] speak, humans cannot seem to make heads or tails of. On top of that, the Rubbery Man recruitable as your officer seems to be one of a very few able to speak a human language. |
| 359 | * {{Steampunk}}: Curiously [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zagged]] and [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] for the most part. [[VideoGame/FallenLondon The parent game]] of Sunless Sea defined itself and the setting it shares as non-steampunk, eschewing outlandish technological inventions and other tropes typical of the genre in favour of [[GaslampFantasy magical and mystical features]], some of them distantly approaching ScienceFantasy territory, and even explicitly [[AffectionateParody referenced]] the steampunk genre in a [[ShowWithinAShow work of in-game fiction]] its players could create. Sunless Sea itself, however, features many things more typical of steampunk, particularly anachronistic and potent technologies like [[StuffBlowingUp thermobaric weapons]], [[UnderwaterCity undersea towns]] created and maintained without relying on magic and [[TransformingVehicle normal seagoing ships modified with extendable overhulls that completely transform them into zubmarines]]. |
| 360 | * StoryBranching: Everything other than directly controlling your ship is done through a digitised gamebook format. |
| 361 | * SubmarinePirates: The Pianolist, one of The Set and captain of the ''Irrepressible''. When exploring the Unter-Unterzee, you might also encounter Corsair Undergalleys and [[PlayingPossum the Wreckships]] of Wrack. |
| 362 | * SummoningArtifact: |
| 363 | ** An Element of Dawn can be used to summon the Tree of Ages to your present location, if for some reason you aren't willing to wait for it to spawn at Savior's Rocks (it won't always spawn based on things that spawn nearby) and are willing to waste a very valuable item. |
| 364 | ** A Mountain-sherd can do the same with Mt. Nomad, which is an even bigger waste because Mt. Nomad is much more reliable and the item can be converted into a Captivating Treasure. |
| 365 | * SupernaturalGoldEyes: People touched by the Dawn Machine have gold-flecked eyes and light-infused glowing irises and are commonly described as "bright-eyed". For this reason, most of them choose to wear SinisterShades and can be identified by them. The Dark-Spectacled Admiral [[spoiler: averts this, though he is keenly aware of the Dawn Machine conspiracy]]. |
| 366 | * SurvivalSandbox: The game is basically a WideOpenSandbox in a procedurally generated world, focused on resources management, and including permadeath. |
| 367 | * TempleOfDoom: The Vault of the First Emperor was built by monkeys who attempted to imitate this trope as seen in human culture, and as such is something of a DeconstructiveParody of this sort of level: |
| 368 | ** The AdventurerArchaeologist who accompanies you [[spoiler: is a selfish GlorySeeker suffering from ChronicBackstabbingDisorder]]. |
| 369 | ** The SnakePit [[spoiler: was built with [[ForgotToFeedTheMonster no means of ensuring that the snakes would be fed]]]]. |
| 370 | ** The TowersOfHanoi lock on one door [[spoiler: is immediately remarked upon as an overused and easy to solve StockPuzzle... were it not for the fact that it uses ''fifteen'' discs, requiring 32,767 moves to solve. And if you actually manage to click 32,767 times (either by save-editing or manually, including an option to reset the puzzle when you're about seven thousand clicks in to thwart autoclickers), the mechanism makes a noise, resets...and the door stays closed]]. |
| 371 | * ThatsNoMoon: |
| 372 | ** Lifebergs look like bits of island. [[SeaMonster They are not]]. What they ''are'' is large, malicious, and extremely hazardous to shipping. |
| 373 | ** Mt Nomad, the Lifebergs' much bigger, much more powerful sister, an actively hostile mobile mountain stalking the seas. |
| 374 | ** There's additionally The Eye, a huge eyeball embedded in the zee-floor. Mercifully, it can't chase or attack you, not that simply witnessing it doesn't pose its own risks. |
| 375 | * ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: A ''trade good'' of the game, coming in several varieties of potency. The Dread Surmise in particular is implied to be this. |
| 376 | * ThreateningShark: Bound-sharks are ''enormous'' and attack any ship that gets too close. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Particularly Tormented Bound-sharks]] epitomise this. |
| 377 | * TooAwesomeToUse: Sure, the Icarus in Black is such a powerful device it can two-shot ''Mount Nomad'', but those [[AbnormalAmmo monster-hunters it fires]] are expensive as hell, and finding places where to hire them in the first place is quite rare too. So aside from Mount Nomad and possibly an emergency, it's wasted on nearly everything else it could easily kill. |
| 378 | * TownWithADarkSecret: Mutton Island is home to a charming fishing community, known for its seafood, apple orchards, and festivals. [[spoiler:The villagers are also cannibals who worship the Drowned Man, perform ritual human sacrifices, and might commit (heavily implied) mass suicide as part of the Fruits of the Zee festival]]. |
| 379 | * TurtleIsland: The Chelonate, a city built on the floating carcass of a colossal turtle. Its inhabitants subsist largely on the the products of the zee - they wear sharks' skin and drink their blood. |
| 380 | * UncertainDoom: |
| 381 | ** If the Wistful Deviless [[spoiler:is a traitor to the Brass Embassy and delivered there, your last sight of her is her being lead off to the ominously-named Excruciation Annex]]. |
| 382 | ** [[spoiler:Maybe's daughter might not return from the Sundered Sea beneath the Bazaar. However, it's not entirely clear whether she dies down there, is stuck down there but still alive, or chooses to leave you of her own volition; even Penstock simply states that "you won't see her again" without elaborating further]]. |
| 383 | ** If [[spoiler:Your Father]] is returned to London without paying his debts, he surrenders himself to the Gracious Widow and you never see him again. The protagonist is left to speculate over his fate. |
| 384 | * TheUndead: Coming in two main, somewhat [[DownplayedTrope subdued]] flavours: |
| 385 | ** The Tomb-Colonists, normal Neath-dwellers who outlived their bodies' capacity to regenerate and sustain themselves but are unable to die because DeathIsCheap in the Neath. They're technically still alive and human in every sense that counts, but they're treated like undead beings, [[TheNeedless don't seem to require sustenance or even air]], tend to wrap themselves in bandages to hide their withering, crumbling forms and resemble mummies or zombies, and normally retire to the Tomb-Colonies, no longer welcome in polite society. |
| 386 | ** The Drownies, humans who drowned and were transformed into [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent siren-like creatures]] with some help from the [[StarfishAliens Lorn-Flukes]]. They are generally neutral to other dwellers of the Neath and able to go onshore, but are capable of entrancing others with their songs to make them jump into the zee and drown and generally tend to scheme to turn more humans into Drownies. |
| 387 | * UndergroundMonkey: Angler Crabs come in three variants: the red Western, the blue Eastern and the orange Elder. Bound-Sharks and Lorn-Flukes appear in two versions each that look identical but have different attributes. |
| 388 | * {{Understatement}}: When contemplating betraying [[spoiler:a Dapper Chap to the Hands-On Diplomat, who is here to ''execute'' him]], the LemonyNarrator has this to say: |
| 389 | --> ''It's safe to say this will end your relationship.'' |
| 390 | * UnderwaterCity: All cities beneath the Unterzee, which can only be visited if you have a zubmarine. |
| 391 | * UnstoppableMailman: The residents of Nuncio are bound and determined to sort through all the mail there, no matter how insurmountable the task. [[DeconstructedTrope This is part of the reason they're all various degrees of burnt out or mentally taxed, as they have to go to incredible lengths or deal with the constant unpleasant sensation of knowing a task is unfilled]]. |
| 392 | * VideoGameCaringPotential: |
| 393 | ** You'll have to move Hell and high water to save the life of the Snow-Child, and there's precious little material reward - but in the end, it's still worth it. |
| 394 | ** All of the Mascots, save for the Comatose Ferret, as most of them are leaving much worse places to join your crew and are generally better off for it. The monkey foundling is among humans and no longer at risk of having her soul stolen, the albino tinkerer gets to ply its trade on the seas, and the Blemmigan Gallivanter despite being a fanged mushroom creature is both happy to be away from the Uttershroom for reasons unknown and also enjoys being tickled which is just adorable. |
| 395 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: |
| 396 | ** The Comatose Ferret, it's just a sad angry creature that wants nothing more then to be off the ship. Yet here it is so you've already canonically done something mean spirited to an animal with no way of resisting. The most you can do is try to play with it in which case it looks moderately annoyed and ignores you. [[spoiler:Or you can eat it, if you get hungry enough, or let the Merciless Modiste turn it into a coat]]. |
| 397 | ** [[https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198029363860/recommended/304650/ No one commits mutiny on my vessel.]] |
| 398 | ** The number of terrible things you can do to your crew and officer corps is actually fairly impressive, ranging from engaging in cannibalism to trading them to red honey suppliers for neat stuff to abandoning them to a slow immolation to permitting at least two officers to be hollowed out by some kind of eldritch force. Some of them are even mechanically encouraged - because having a full crew chews through your supplies faster than a three-quarter crew and doesn't provide much in the way of benefits, there's actually an incentive to get excess crew killed messily so the supplies will last longer (particularly in the case of the Cladery Heart, which automatically fills its full 35-person crew the second you get it). |
| 399 | * VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: A few of the more dickish things you can do - cheating on your partner, turning down a Mute Exile on Codex, and so on - can have comeuppances, such as being dumped or receiving a curse from one of the Gods of the Zee. |
| 400 | * ViewerGenderConfusion: InUniverse the player captain addresses the Scholar in Fallen London as a him (she?). However the player isn't sure she (he?) is a he (she?) and keeps flipflopping between pronouns. |
| 401 | * VillainProtagonist: The player, horrifically so, depending on their choices. You can potentially send unsuspecting ships to their doom to enrich pirate-salvagers, engage in human trafficking, sell trusting tourists as food to sorrow-spiders and destroy peaceful civilian ships. [[spoiler:And then there's the poor Sigil-Eaten Navigator, or just about anything involving willing cannibalism.]] |
| 402 | * ViolationOfCommonSense: Advancing through Frostfound requires you to max out your Terror and/or sacrifice your stat points, though it does reward you with a Searing Enigma (and possibly some other goodies, plus one of three curses) if you finally reach the centre. Particularly pronounced for the [[spoiler:Name-Which-Burns storylet in the Dark Room, which will badly hurt you even if you're successful and requires a long, masochistically difficult questline to be completed before you can access it]]. |
| 403 | * TheWanderingYou: Expect to spend a lot of time just zailing around doing nothing else. |
| 404 | * WeakenedByTheLight: Neath-dwellers are harmed by ThePowerOfTheSun, which makes any kind of extended trip to the surface risky. However, sunlight is also a potent drug in small amounts, so that same risk also makes it potentially very profitable if you have some Mirrorcatch Boxes. |
| 405 | * WeirdWorldWeirdFood: You will probably need to resort to eating the various monstrosities that attack your ship at one point or another. Results will vary very, ''very'' wildly, going from [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood heavenly]] to [[DrivenToSuicide so disgusting tasters have been known to end their lives immediately after tasting without another word]], and that's not getting into the various horrible poisonings. |
| 406 | * WhatAPieceOfJunk: Don't underestimate Wreckships. They may look like the product of a half-assed salvage effort, but they can do a number on your zubmarine and are Dreadnought-level tough. |
| 407 | * WhatTheHellHero: If you release a blemmigan (predatory, carnivorous and self-duplicating fungal beasts that turn into plagues quite fast) in one of the various lightships around the zee, you'll get your propagation point, but no lightship will ever let you dock to them again, and they will tell you this quite bluntly. |
| 408 | -->"Oh, no. No, no, no! We've heard about you. You're Captain Mushroom. ''You'', Captain Mushroom, can turn right around and get back on your ship." |
| 409 | * WhatTheHellPlayer: The game chastises you if you attempt to toss human passengers overboard like cargo. "Captain! What are you thinking?!" |
| 410 | * WhoWantsToLiveForever: |
| 411 | ** One of the final options in the Immortality ambition explores an unexpected downside to immortality: [[spoiler:Everyone ''else'' will want it, and if claiming it means butchering you and ruining your entire empire in the process, they will try until they one day succeed. If immortality didn't beget envy, the Seven wouldn't exist, and you wouldn't be there with them, shelling Nidah to the ground. Your captain can realise this and opt to betray the Seven and side with the Presbyterate at the last second to get a long, leisurely but finite life instead]]. |
| 412 | ** [[spoiler:ZigzaggedTrope: Of course, since the ''entire premise of the venture'' was to "democratize death", i.e. give immortality to ''everyone'' without restriction -- and there is absolutely no indication that that cannot be done or indeed is not what immediately happens -- this rings a little hollow.]] |
| 413 | * WoodenShipsAndIronMen: The ships are iron with hearts of steam, but the vast, dangerous and largely unexplored Unterzee is a setting much more like the Age of sail. Many islands and encounters further prove that while the ships are mostly iron, the men and women sailing them are [[{{Determinator}} even tougher]]. |
| 414 | * WordSalad: One of the possible tips on a loading screen: |
| 415 | -->"In the [[EldritchLocation Iron Republic]], the red night favours the smokes of mind. Eat rain! |
| 416 | * TheWorldIsJustAwesome: If the player makes a trip to the surface, a splash image of a sunrise is shown in place of the regular Zee map for as long as they remain. |
| 417 | * WorldOfChaos: |
| 418 | ** The Iron Republic, where men rebel against the very laws of physics. |
| 419 | ** The Neath itself to a considerably lesser degree, being packed with many locations and objects defying reality, logic and understanding that undergo [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels Alteration]] whenever your [[PlayerCharacter captain]] dies or ends the game through other means. |
| 420 | * WorthyOpponent: The Pirate-Poet is searching for one of these, which you can become. |
| 421 | * WretchedHive: Several islands qualify. |
| 422 | ** Khan's Shadow, specifically built as a haven for all those who don't fit into the New Khanate society and dominated by anarchists, rogues and pirates. The action to compile a port report there even states "So many malcontents, so little time." |
| 423 | ** Gaider's Mourn, a base of zee-pirates and smugglers of all stripes, open to black market trade. Many port actions there involve getting into random fights with varying success. |
| 424 | ** Isle of Cats, home to the Pirate-King and the biggest farm of [[FantasticDrug red honey]], deals in the most forbidden of goods. |
| 425 | ** The Iron Republic takes this to a metaphysical level, warping the laws of nature and reality itself. |
| 426 | ** Even Fallen London itself qualifies to a notable degree, with extremely shady business rife in the city and around it and the remnants of authority largely powerless to stop much of it or directly complicit in it. |
| 427 | * XtremeKoolLetterz: InUniverse, some of the Londoners attempt to imitate the zailors' PhantasySpelling accent in order to appear cool, frequently overdoing it by replacing all of their "s"es with "z"s. This does not amuse the actual zailors. |
| 428 | * YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:Enforced if you deliver the Monkey Emperor's Wrath, thus committing yourself to stealing a Zeppelin. If you return to London afterwards, [[NonstandardGameOver you will die.]]]] |
| 429 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:As part of the Immortality ambition, once you reach Nidah, you might choose to betray the rest of the Seven and seize immortality solely for yourself]]. |
| 430 | * YouNukeEm: [[spoiler:One of the ways to breach Nidah's walls is investing in experimental munitions research, namely thermobaric weapons. While not quite nukes, even in RealLife thermobaric weapons are extremely devastating.]]. |
| 431 | |
| 432 | ---- |
| 433 | |
| 434 | -->''That's all for now'' |
| 435 |
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