Chiropterous Hoarder

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Chiropterous Hoarder
Category	Officers
Position	Quartermaster
Effects	+6 Veils +2 Mirrors +1 Affiliation: Bohemia
Data ID	132942
Interaction ID	315800

Chiropterous Hoarder is considered a Officer Quartermaster in Sunless Skies.

Description

"Swaddled in vermillion, it is a lean and spindly horror with the most velvety of ears."

Obtaining

After speaking to the Auroral Sommelier at Port Avon about Hesperidean cider Hunt for the shop that the Auroral Sommelier mentioned in London and follow the dialogue there to recruit the Chiropterous Hoarder.

The Chiropterous Hoarder

The Chiropterous Hoarder colonises your pantry, half the cargo bay, and one of the cupboards in the galley. It fills these spaces with velvet-wrapped boxes of varying sizes, opaque mason jars which sometimes ring with tapping from within, glass displays populated by half-dead and unblinking things.

Periodically, the Chiropterous Hoarder can be found in the cabin it has been assigned, hunched over a new item, a new acquisition.

Interactions

Actions	Requirements	Effects			Notes
Ask about the Hoarder's luggage It is your right as Captain to at least have some knowledge of what you're transporting.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 20 [The Chiropterous Hoarder has joined your crew. Speak to them aboard your engine]	The Chiropterous Hoarder glowers, its expression glacial. When it becomes clear that it cannot intimidate you into leaving, your Quartermaster sighs and relents. "A jellyfish, still alive," it whispers, voice sawed down to a growl. As it speaks, the Hoarder trails a claw along each item. "A dream of freedom, piped into glass. Verdant spores that will never die. Everything immortal or that aspires to be immortal. I am making an inventory of them." Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 25 [Get to know your new officer. Your rations are now its demesne, after all]
Compliment the Chiropterous Hoarder on its collection It's best to have the Quartermaster on your side.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 25 [Get to know your new officer. Your rations are now its demesne, after all] Savage Secret ≥ 1 Veils challenge (67 for 100%)	Failed event
		It stays suspicious It shrinks into a corner of the cabin. There, it almost seems to spread: frame splaying, flattening into the wall. The Chiropterous Hoarder's shoulders writhe beneath its cape, and uncomfortable angles puppet the fabric into a suggestion of nightmares. "It's mine." -1 x Savage Secret
		Successful event
		Flattery gets you somewhere "You can't have it," it hisses at you from under its oversized cowl. You explain that compliments are not meant to be transactions. The Chiropterous Hoarder is initially distrustful of your exposition and then transported at this epiphany. Appreciation without condition! What a winsome novelty! "It's not like that where I come from – before London, long before. They just take, and take, and take." Teeth slant into view. "But that's acceptable. I take their things, too." Whose things? And where did it come from? "Here. The Wilderness – lush and velveted with so many treasures, so many hungry tastes. There were others with me, yes. But none of them were as clever as me. I know how to make immortality. I know how to make collections that last." Its ears flatten. "And this is why I must be careful, be small now." -1 x Savage Secret Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 30 [Trust in your officers is contingent on your understanding of them. Probe the Chiropterous Hoarder's ambitions]
Bring the Chiropterous Hoarder a gift How do you build rapport with someone who wants everything? You give them more.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 25 [Get to know your new officer. Your rations are now its demesne, after all] 1 x Gourd of Chorister Nectar	Sweet like honey Your present is received with poor grace and rich suspicion. "Joy is lost when something is given away." it admonishes. "Your species is ridiculous." Despite its truculence, there is a tenderness in the way the Chiropterous Hoarder cradles your gift. -1 x Gourd of Chorister Nectar Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 30 [Trust in your officers is contingent on your understanding of them. Probe the Chiropterous Hoarder's ambitions]
Talk about its interests What does it care about? Perhaps you will find common ground.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 30 [Trust in your officers is contingent on your understanding of them. Probe the Chiropterous Hoarder's ambitions]	To build something that lasts forever "I have a dream," it confides, picking at the hem of its claret cloak. An ear, long and velveteen, droops from its cowl. "An old dream, an excellent dream. I would make my collection perfect. To do this, there is a corpse that I must visit. Your kind named it Faith's Fall. Appropriate, I think. If I could travel there, if I had help and bronzewood, I could build the thing that I need." For a moment, its eyes are the universe, garbed and glorious with stars. "But you couldn't spare the crew, or the timber, or the time. Not for me. No, not for me." It ducks its head. Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 40 [The Chiropterous Hoarder wishes to build... something at Faith's Fall, in the Reach. It needs bodies and bronzewood both] The Hoarder's Needs = 1 [The Chiropterous Hoarder has requested that you bring six pieces of bronzewood and five spare crew to Faith's Fall, in the Reach]
Ask the Hoarder about other glands Faith's Fall couldn't have been its only chance. The universe is too massive for such small despairs to be true.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 60 [The gland your crew found was dried up and almost worthless. But the Curator does not seem without hope. Speak to it aboard your engine]	A gland rots, another should be found The Chiropterous Hoarder has gouged its frustration onto the walls. The marks are an inch-deep, at least. At your question, it glares and claws a fresh shape onto an unmarked section of its quarters: another messenger-corpse, its necrosis somehow captured in a few immaculate scratches. "The House of Rods and Chains," it growls. "If we went there, I'm sure we'll find another gland. If not, I will dig through its necrotising flesh until agony causes it to fruit another just to make me stop." Game note: You will need an Unlicensed Chart or two Visions of the Heavens. Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 70 [The Chiropterous Hoarder wants to travel to the House of Rods and Chains, in Eleutheria. You will need an Unlicensed Chart or two Visions of the Heavens]
Investigate the Hoarder's work The Chiropterous Hoarder has cloistered itself within its room since you delivered the fluids. Peculiar scents – wildflowers bathed and brined in bile – radiate from under the door. Augurs of its labours, perhaps? You should check in on it.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 90 [The Chiropterous Hoarder has hurried back to your engine with the gland it extracted]	A confession You find the Chiropterous Hoarder darting between stations, each of them set with glassware like something made by a deranged glassblower and filled with nacreous reagents. "I tried once to hold immortality in a bottle. The cider. But it wasn't the same. My customers were convinced, but I knew the truth. You can't just drink eternity. It goes away, you see?" "But this is different. I got the idea from... an associate of mine? They liked spices. I thought, 'What if!'" The Chiropterous Hoarder jabs a finger at the ceiling. "'What if?' and then I thought, 'Why not?'" Those massive eyes turn again to you, brilliant as filigreed eternities. "Will you be my first subject?"	Agree to let it test on you You took to the High Wilderness for adventure – or at least, rare and irreplaceable experiences.	The Chiropterous Hoarder is ecstatic with your decisions. Its speech degenerates into piercing, albeit rhythmic, shrieking. The experiments can begin when you are ready. Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 110 [You have agreed to be the Chiropterous Hoarder's test subject] +1 x Propinquity with a Curator
			Refuse to let it perform tests on you Absolutely not.	Was that a flicker of hurt? It doesn't matter. The Chiropterous Hoarder glares at you with an imperious chill. "Coward," it says, receding into the shadows. Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 105 [You refused to be the Chiropterous Hoarder's test subject. Someone else will have to do in your stead]
Let the Chiropterous Hoarder test on a crewmember The Chiropterous Hoarder needs a volunteer. But whom?	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 105 [You refused to be the Chiropterous Hoarder's test subject. Someone else will have to do in your stead] Crew ≥ 1	A reluctant crew The crew seethes over your request. Their contracts indemnify you of many things, but there is nothing in the legalese, your crew curtly observes, about being experimented on. If something dire occurs, they will expect compensation. In the end, it is one of the young men: quiet, hauntingly attractive, exquisitely decorated, his skin frescoed with crocodilian gods. "Perhaps I'll meet one of them this way," he whispers without irony, his eyes lamp-lit by hunger. -1 x Crew Triggers event:  Tests Must Be Performed
You are ready to be experimented on At least, as prepared as anyone can be.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 110 [You have agreed to be the Chiropterous Hoarder's test subject]	This is going to be uncomfortable The Chiropterous Hoarder is careful, even compassionate in its handling of your person. Almost like you were a cornerstone of its collection. "Come on, come on." It leads you aside, away to the things it planned. Triggers event:  Tests Must Be Performed
Appease the crew They're murmuring darkly of indifferent captains, of responsibilities shirked and forsaken comrades, and of throwing both you and the Hoarder off the engine. You cannot permit their dissatisfaction to grow.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 125 [The Chiropterous Hoarder's experiment is underway. The crew is distressed. You will need to appease them] 3 x Supplies	Libations for everyone! Only one answer is acceptable here: rum. Rum sweetened with apricots, heavy with vanilla. Rum clear as a guiltless heart and rum black as regret. You tell your crew to abscond with the best of what you have, a command they take to with absurd glee. Somewhere amid their celebrations, the young man emerges from his incarceration: his manner flattened, his skin not unalike the hide his tattoos had sought to emulate. He does not smile. He cannot. His face is rictused, gnarled as the belly of an old oak. Something is very, very wrong. "Forever is difficult," he tells you quietly. You don't see him again after that. Game note: Speak to the Chiropterous Hoarder to continue. -3 x Supplies Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 200 [The Chiropterous Hoarder's experiment did not succeed, but it has made progress. Persuade it to share its next scheme]
Let the Hoarder make amends Ever since you took part in its experiment, the Chiropterous Hoarder haunts you, forlorn, endlessly murmuring of its failures. If you're ever to have peace again, you'll need to distract it.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 130 [The Chiropterous Hoarder's experiment is complete. It was not an unmitigated success]	A recovery, albeit slow "It'll go away. Like everything, it melts away." It traces the longitude between your wrist and the spoke of your elbow, its touch ethereally light. The Chiropterous Hoarder's ears droop. "You will continue. But what is the word that I should say? Repentance. I am very sorry. A gift will follow." Regardless of your answer, you find a firkin of red honey balanced against the door to your cabin the next day. Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 200 [The Chiropterous Hoarder's experiment did not succeed, but it has made progress. Persuade it to share its next scheme]	Keep the Red Honey for trade Perhaps you can find use for it in London or New Winchester. Game note: Be warned: carrying contraband across regions or into a central station risks attracting the attention of the Revenue Men.	A lesser captain would imbibe of their gift, but you know better. Someone will pay dearly for the stuff, you need to be sure it reaches them first. The cost of discovery is too much. Game note: Speak to the Chiropterous Hoarder to continue. +1 x Firkin of Red Honey
			Use the Red Honey yourself Better to inhabit a dream while your mind fills with the agony of transformation.	As the red honey fills you, your mind clouds with images you do not recognise: a life, a place, a pleasant existence entirely not your own. Someone holds a child pressed to their breast, smiling down onto the tow-headed babe. Their thoughts crowd your mouth, your head. A name, a hope, a lifetime of waiting, wanting, wishing made real in this delicate creature. Once hers. But yours now. And only yours. You awake soon after on your engine, stolen grief caulking your throat. Game note: Speak to the Chiropterous Hoarder to continue. +3 x Savage Secret
Encourage the Chiropterous Hoarder into sharing the next steps It will not cease muttering with a scholastic rabidity, pacing to and fro.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 200 [The Chiropterous Hoarder's experiment did not succeed, but it has made progress. Persuade it to share its next scheme]	What does it want? "I require something eternal." It swats at a clergy of vials, sending them crashing onto the floor. "Something that lasts. Not like these reagents, which age and sour and fade. I need to make a culture from one that has loved voraciously, loved in a fashion that even time and death cannot dilute." Light blooms in the Chiropterous Hoarder's gaze, ravenous as kings. "And whose eternal love is better than Victoria's? Oh, yes. She built such a beautiful tomb for hers. I want a piece of her beloved, the Consort. Something to cook and simmer and distil into precious oils. Take me to the Most Serene Mausoleum, in Albion." Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 220 [The Chiropterous Hoarder is interested in love. It wishes to go to the Most Serene Mausoleum, to the tomb of Albert]
Allow the Chiropterous Hoarder to express its gratitude After what it has demanded of you, the experimentation and the acquisition of flesh and fluids, the smells it inflicted on your locomotive, it is only right for it to show appreciation.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 300 [Speak to the Hoarder aboard your engine to discover what it desires to do next]	What a sight! You enter the Chiropterous Hoarder's cabin to discover the space transformed, chandeliered by strings of blister-glow crystal. The floor is a labyrinth of cushions, tasselled and richly damasked. But all this is undeserving of comment compared to the spread that the Chiropterous Hoarder prepared. Unctuous meats, roasted and smoked and confited just so. Delicate stews, profane desserts, the most ribald of cocktails. Your host spared no expense, allowed no decorum. You eat and indulge while the Chiropterous Hoarder whispers, quietly, of stories that seem almost true. Then, when you are drowsy with pleasure, it touches a shy hand to your knee. "You are pleased?" it asks. "I wish to show more, do more, please more. Yesss?" Is it... proposing an exchange of intimacies?	Yes, indulge in an assignation with the Hoarder. Experimentation is what provides life with its flavour. This will at least be an instructive memory.	The Chiropterous Hoarder, you discover, possesses an exceptionally acrobatic tongue. Its length and its prehensility, coupled with your bedmate's fascination with your physique, make for transcendent explorations. True to character, the Chiropterous Hoarder is voracious. What surprises is how eager it is to supply pleasure, how excited it is to savour and tease until exhaustion claims you from its attentions. Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 345 [The Chiropterous Hoarder has been quiet of late. Speak to it aboard your engine to discover if all is well] +3 x Propinquity with a Curator
			Er, no... How about cribbage instead?	To its credit, the Chiropterous Hoarder doesn't appear remotely displeased. Your rejection is acknowledged with a shrug, a change of topic. There are no hurt feelings here. You two descend instead into a decorous evening of vices and virtues, interspaced with several byzantine discussions of rules and the necessity of following rules. Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 360 [The Chiropterous Hoarder has been quiet of late. Speak to it aboard your engine to discover if all is well]
Does it need any more components for its quest? The Chiropterous Hoarder has been uncommonly quiet.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 345 and ≤ 360	The moment is finally right "No. It's ready." The texture of its scrutiny has changed. No longer are you a curiosity or captain. Instead, it regards you as it might an item from its collection. "Ready at precious last. And it's you, all you, to thank for this. I won't forget this and you will be glad that I will not." The Chiropterous Hoarder's voice plunges low, velveted with urgency. "To Faith's Fall again, yes? One last time." +20 x Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder
Check on the Chiropterous Hoarder A courtesy call. Certainly, not a surreptitious check to see if anything has been stolen for its collection.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 30 [Trust in your officers is contingent on your understanding of them. Probe the Chiropterous Hoarder's ambitions]	What is going on? The Chiropterous Hoarder stands in a drift of gleaming curios: brass and glass and bronze polished to incandescence. It is stacking something. Many somethings, in fact. But there is no time to accurately identify them – noticing your appearance, the Chiropterous Hoarder launches itself towards you, a waking nightmare of membrane and red cloth. "Out! Out! You cannot look! This is mine, mine! Out!"
Ask about the other Masters? Indeed, what happened to the other Masters of old London?	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 40 [The Chiropterous Hoarder wishes to build... something at Faith's Fall, in the Reach. It needs bodies and bronzewood both]	Complications happened, to say the least "Her Majesty came to regret her arrangement with us. She reneged, and fled the Fifth City for the sky. Most of my colleagues remained behind, fat and sleek and content at the heart of the new Sixth City. But a few of us had languished long enough in the dark. We saw the chance to return home, to the heavens. "So in secret, a few of us followed you to the sky. Most of us did so quietly. One of us made too much noise, and Her Renewed Majesty overheard. It has a job now." The Hoarder sniffs. "Tragic."
Show it the seal of Mr Barleycorn You recall the curator's desolate request. No reason to leave it unfulfilled.	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 40 [The Chiropterous Hoarder wishes to build... something at Faith's Fall, in the Reach. It needs bodies and bronzewood both] The Seal of Mr Barleycorn ≥ 1 [You have the seal of Mr Barleycorn] Spoken of Barleycorn ≤ 1	Sympathy for monsters The Chiropterous Hoarder gazes long at the seal, its expression impossible to decode. At long last, it sighs. "I would talk with Mr Barleycorn and dig his knowledge of the stars from his heart. But I am not the one he wants, not from its flock. It will only be more morose from our meeting." It pauses. "If you meet it again, tell it that I understand what it is like to be incomplete, to have what you want out of reach." Spoken of Barleycorn = 1
Ask if it knows Mr Pennies Or at least, the thing that was Mr Pennies.	Lustrum: The Mountain Beckons ≥ 10 [You have found something in the Mother of Mountains] Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 40 [The Chiropterous Hoarder wishes to build... something at Faith's Fall, in the Reach. It needs bodies and bronzewood both]	It lives? "I hope it dies," says the Chiropterous Hoarder, uncharacteristically ferocious. Fury beats so wildly in its throat that it does nothing for a minute, only strangles its neck with both hands. "I hope it dies, is allowed to lay down at last and be dead."
Ask if it knows Mr Menagerie Perhaps, the Curators are acquainted with each other.	Mr Menagerie's Last Voyage ≥ 1 [Mr Menagerie has left New Winchester] Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 40 [The Chiropterous Hoarder wishes to build... something at Faith's Fall, in the Reach. It needs bodies and bronzewood both]	Hmm... Silence, the kind not unalike a man trying to recall a favourite meal, overtakes the Chiropterous Hoarder for an interval. At last, it brightens. "It sells delicious things."

Quality status

Chiropterous Hoarder has different statuses according to your actions, defined by the comment in front of the quality.

Interaction description

These desciptions appear specifically when the value changes.

• [0] The Chiropterous Hoarder is transformed.
• [1] The Chiropterous Hoarder has joined your crew as an officer.

Interactions

Interactions in Brief

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Interaction	Action	Result Type	Change
An Ill-Designed Shop	'Recruit the Chiropterous Hoarder'	Default / Challenge Fail	= 1
Resolution	'Bid your officer a temporary farewell'	Default / Challenge Fail	= 0
Resolution	'Bid your officer a temporary farewell'	Default / Challenge Fail	= 0

Interactions in Detail

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Story	Action	Required	Effect
An Ill-Designed Shop	Recruit the Chiropterous Hoarder	Searching for Hesperidean Cider = 20 [[COMPLETE]You found Mr Apples] Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≤ 19	Default: Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder = 20 [The Chiropterous Hoarder has joined your crew. Speak to them aboard your engine] Chiropterous Hoarder = 1 [The Chiropterous Hoarder has joined your crew as an officer.] Hoarder Recruited = 1 Searching for Hesperidean Cider = 21 [[COMPLETE]You found Mr Apples]
Resolution	Bid your officer a temporary farewell	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 765 ≤ 780 Propinquity with a Curator ≥ 3	Default: Multiplicitous Hoarder = 1 [The Multiplicitous Hoarder will still serve as your officer.] Chiropterous Hoarder = 0 [The Chiropterous Hoarder is transformed.] Hoarder's End = 1 +10 x Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder +1000 x Experience +3 x Date
	Bid your officer a temporary farewell	Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 765 ≤ 780 Propinquity with a Curator ≤ 2	Default: Chiropterous Hoarder = 0 [The Chiropterous Hoarder is transformed.] Hoarder's End = 1 +10 x Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder +1000 x Experience Immutable Hoarder = 1 [The Immutable Hoarder will still serve as your officer.] +3 x Date

Triggered Events

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Story	Requirements	Type	Location
The Auroral Sommelier	Chiropterous Hoarder ≤ 0 Multiplicitous Hoarder ≤ 0 Immutable Hoarder ≤ 0 Hoarder Recruited ≤ 0 Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≤ 0 Searching for Hesperidean Cider ≤ 0	Story Event (Always :100%)	The Village Green
The Chiropterous Hoarder	Chiropterous Hoarder ≥ 1	Story Event (Always :100%)	Limbo
Recruit the Multiplicitous Hoarder	Chiropterous Hoarder ≤ 0 Multiplicitous Hoarder ≤ 0 Immutable Hoarder ≤ 0 Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≤ 0 Hoarder Recruited ≤ 0 Hoarder's End ≥ 1	Story Event (Always :100%)	King's Idyll Station
Recruit the Immutable Hoarder	Chiropterous Hoarder ≤ 0 Multiplicitous Hoarder ≤ 0 Immutable Hoarder ≤ 0 Learning about the Chiropterous Hoarder ≤ 0 Hoarder Recruited ≤ 0 Hoarder's End ≥ 2	Story Event (Always :100%)	King's Idyll Station