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| The Stone-Faced Court | |
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| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 303377 |
The Stone-Faced Court is a Sunless Skies Story Event.
Guide[]
This is a location in The White Well.
Watching a Trial of the Dead has 3 outcomes, one of which allows a difficult hearts challenge to gain 1 Condemned Experiment.
Having your soul judged costs 1 Gemstones and 1 Moment of Inspiration, requires less than 3 soul flaws and less than 60 terror, and earns you 1 Testament of Roses.
Being declared dead costs 100 sovereigns and 3 Sky-Stories, and changes your status from Invisible to Antedeceased.
Being audited changes your status from Ephemera to Antedeceased and gets you 1 Testament of Salt. Failing the difficult hearts challenge inflicts -1 hearts.
Story description[]
Trials take place in a grand chamber at the Court's heart, dominated by a colossal, basalt statue of a sphinx. Judges are distinguished not just by their horned crowns, but by the hoard of gemstones embedded in their skulls. As you enter, the Jewelled Judge is deliberating atop her throne. A masked spirit stands in the docks before her, placidly awaiting its fate. Blue Kingdom Status(trial_stone_faced_court) "Dead," pronounces the Judge finally.
Trigger conditions[]
Location: The White Well
Area: Limbo
Frequency: Always (100%)
Interactions[]
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
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| Ask the Judge about the Industrialist's Lost Love
You give her all the details the Industrialist told you. Not too many details, unfortunately. It pained him to relay them.
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Dismissed
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| Write a Port Report
What is there to say about the city outside? The dead wait, the snow falls, the days pass. The Court is where things happen.
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A Court Report
You sit down with one of the skull-headed Graven and ask her what she's heard about recent developments at the Court. Two hours and three of your notebooks later she's still talking about the recent doomed efforts at bureaucratic reform, which have inevitably made everything more complicated.
Several put-upon mid-level administrators have cracked under the strain, regrown their faces, and fled the White Well to try to 'enjoy life'. She whispers the latter with a note of genuine bafflement.
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| Watch the Trials of the Dead
Surely an interesting case will come along. Any moment now.
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The trials continue
For every trial, the routine is the same. The Judge will bow deeply to the sphinx-statue behind her throne, and beseech the Watcher to lend her wisdom. A spirit will be brought forth, and measured and prodded and weighed. The Judge will declare it Dead.
Eventually a spirit is ushered forth whose case has unique complications.
 The Trials of the Dead
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Advanced query needs investigation
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| Submit your own soul for judgement
The Judge is unfathomably busy. But there are a few spots left unadorned on her sparkling skull.
Game note: The Judge will measure the quality of your soul, the power of your ideas, the texture of your terror. If you are judged worthy, you will receive a Testament of Roses, but it will cost you a Moment of Inspiration. |
Facing Judgement
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| Ask the Official to formally declare you 'Antedeceased'
You are currently Invisible, but would prefer to be seen.
Game note: If successful, this will change your Status to Antedeceased: confirming to the Blue Kingdom that you are, lamentably, alive. |
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A change in status
The Official sighs and pinches the spot where the bridge of his nose used to be. "Always me, isn't it? Well, I suppose it will cause less trouble for us both in the long run."
A Status More Befitting
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| Ask to be formally declared 'Antedeceased'
You are currently Ephemera, but would prefer that the Blue Kingdom recognises your lamentably pre-mortem status.
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An absurd request
"Am I understanding you correctly? You wish to stop being dead?" Despite wearing an expressionless mask, the Ombudsman manages to perfectly convey bafflement. "Is this some manner of antic, foolery, or jape?"
He snaps his fingers. "Or is it a subterfuge? Are you hoping to use this to get closer to uncovering the secrets of the Judge? I suppose in that case I can help, although I still find the whole idea a little hard to wrap my head around."
A Significant Demotion
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| Ask the Ombudsman how you can obtain an invitation
The Chorea Machabaeorum is usually off-limits to all except the Graven, but the Ombudsman has an idea. He leans in conspiratorially.
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The Ombudsman's plan
"I happen to know that the Carious Official has received an invitation to the Machabaeorum, but he doesn't plan to attend," says the Ombudsman.
"I expect he'll be happy to give it to you. In order to get him to meet you, though, your Status must be Invisible or Antedeceased... So I suppose that's impossible." He sighs. "In which case you'll need to flatter the Judge with a gift of gemstones and hope she sees fit to invite you."
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| Ask the Official how you can obtain an invitation to the Judge's ball
He sighs. If he had eyes, he'd be rolling them.
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The Carious Official
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| Pour a cascade of Gemstones for the Judge
In exchange, she might grant you an invitation to the Chorea Machabaeorum.
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An invitation
You manage to catch the Jewelled Judge during one of her rare breaks. She raises a hand to shoo you away, but her mouth falls open when you start pouring gemstones at her feet.
"Well, you certainly have my attention," she says primly. When you explain your desire, she takes a step back and sizes you up. "I suppose having someone with a face in attendance will be a novelty. And you have an admirably direct approach." She retrieves an amethyst-studded envelope from her magisterial robes and hands it to you with a nod.
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| Attend the Chorea Machabaeorum
Every few months, at a grand ballroom within the deepest bowels of the Court, the skull-headed Graven gather for a dance.
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The Chorea Machabaeorum
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Advanced query needs investigation
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| Inform the Judge that you got rid of the Ombudsman
You wait for a break in the proceedings, then ascend to her quarters.
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A conclusion, of sorts
The Judge sits at her desk, signing papers as she speaks. "He's gone? I'm grateful. He was incompetent, but relentlessly so." She tosses you a small silver key and gestures to a locked drawer.
Opening it, you discover a leather-bound 'Nth Folio'. A collection of Shakespeare plays, written after his death. "The upper echelons are very familiar with the polite arrangement we have at the Well," continues the Judge as though her gift isn't worth commenting on. "If the Watcher died it would uproot centuries of tradition. Everyone considers it convenient for us to continue to hear the Watcher, and so we oblige."
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| Inform the Judge that you got rid of the Ombudsman
You wait for a break in the proceedings, then ascend to her quarters.
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A conclusion, of sorts
The Judge sits at her desk, signing papers as she speaks. "He's gone? I'm grateful. He was incompetent, but relentlessly so." She tosses you a small silver key and gestures to a locked drawer.
Opening it, you discover a leather-bound 'Nth Folio'. A collection of Shakespeare plays, written after his death. "The upper echelons are very familiar with the polite arrangement we have at the Well," continues the Judge as though her gift isn't worth commenting on. "If the Watcher died it would uproot centuries of tradition. Everyone considers it convenient for us to continue to hear the Watcher, and so we oblige."
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| Buy your crew a few rounds at the tavern
The Stone-Faced Court boasts several breweries, and provides a daily ration of beer for all the Graven within its walls.
Game note: This will reduce Terror. |
A raucous good time
After a long day's work at the Court, the Graven gather here. To avoid spillage, most of them tip their drinks directly down their exposed throat, bypassing the mouth entirely.
"It's all vanity," one of the Graven drunkenly tells you. "The Sapphir'd King granted us an exemption from the usual laws of death, so we could carve the flesh off our faces and not die. Ha! We try so hard to obscure the fact we're alive, but the tragedy of it is, the skulls don't fool anyone."
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| Ask to be formally declared 'Antedeceased'
You are currently Ephemera, but would prefer that the Blue Kingdom recognises your lamentably pre-mortem status.
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An onerous request
"Oh, of course," grumbles the Official. "Just change your Status again, why don't you? For fun, perhaps you could make yourself one of the Failed Dead – so I can chuck you down the well?"
A Painful Demotion
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| Return to the city outside
It's not like the Court provides much shelter from the freezing winds. Its empty stone corridors whistle with draughts.
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 Urd
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Links[]
Links In[]
A Dutiful Chaperone, The Trials of the Dead, A Significant Demotion, A Status More Befitting, Facing Judgement, The Carious Official, The Chorea Machabaeorum, The Ombudsman's Request, A Designated Chaperone, A Painful Demotion, Dismissed
Links Out[]
The Trials of the Dead, Facing Judgement, A Status More Befitting, A Significant Demotion, The Carious Official, The Chorea Machabaeorum, Urd, A Painful Demotion, Dismissed
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