Experimental Object/Text Variations

This sub-page catalogues textual variations which depend in Experimental Object, and which are shared by more than one card in the University Laboratory. Text variations that occur on only action should be confined to the page for that action. Text variations shared by multiple actions on the same card should live on the page for that card, such as on Work with your Profound Student.

Research Description

These pieces of text can be complete Success Descriptions (or Failure Descriptions) in their own right, although they sometimes have additional text before or after. Examples:

• Look closely at your current project (from Work with your Equipment)
• Perform a comparatively simple experiment (from Engage in some Empirical Research)
• Several options from Work with your Shifty Student and Work with your Meticulous Student

Experimental Object	Description
10	The Correspondence Sigils that specify the function of the Bomb are written in mirror-writing.
20	There are telltale chips in the surface. Scratches. Significant marks. Or has it just not been cleaned well enough?
30	The letters are unfamiliar, and so is the pattern of scales.
40	Some details of the blueprints that hadn't made sense until now.
110	The blade you are working looks old even though you are making it now. Hold it to the mirror, and the reflection looks brand new. Time is treacherous.
120, 130	This could be made more lethal to the victim, and less dangerous to the person wielding it.
140 - 160	The Principle's debts are binding upon the gifts bestowed upon the body of the Principle, which in Parabola is congruent with its personhood. But should those gifts be themselves altered, would the debts not be paid?
210	If a mirror frame is deformed just so, but not broken, in the presence of a live cat, while all light is excluded, then... yes. This is suggestive. Insufficient, but suggestive.
220 - 250	Under magnification, this drawing looks much less like furious cross-hatching and much more like a street map.
310	The principles behind the design of a Whirring Contraption can be scaled up to good purpose.
320, 330, 350, 360	Besides the Brass, the machine uses joy-sensitive alloys in several places.
410	Aim a beam of light straight into the middle of the animal, the twisted centre where a body should be and isn't. The bit you can't really look at. And then measure how that light fractures and scatters away.
420 - 440, 460, 465	Note behaviour. Chart food consumption. Track apparent mood.
450	You don't understand how the ligneous bones form a viable skeleton, but you will.
470	Some test subjects barely react to the drug. Others are very responsive. You will discover why.
480, 490	Measure diameter. Test shell thickness. Submerge in a barrel and observe how bubbles form on the surface.
485	Measure diameter. Test membrane flexibility. Submerge in a barrel and observe how it makes the water look somehow deeper.
495	Track pulse rate and blood loss. Note the light dispersion from the diamond.
510	You measure the length and sharpness of the thorns, and note their composition. Not only ordinary bone; this is resilient and very sharp even after ageing.
520, 530	If you place the Betrayer incorrectly, the wrong parts of the torso grow; or they shrink instead of expanding; or the resizing is inconsistent. Time of day and duration of exposure matter more than one might think.
540, 610	Is it still entirely bone, or is it bone that has been replaced by rock? What is this scoring at one end? The correct chemicals are very informative.
810	There are telltale chips in the surface. Scratches. Significant marks. Or has it just not been cleaned well enough?
820	With the right reagents, you can make a guess at the mineral composition of the stone, and make an educated estimate at where in the Neath it might have come from.
830	The liquid catches the light in particular ways; it is very faintly iridescent.
910	With the right reagents, you can make a guess at the effects […] It becomes rapidly apparent that the selection of perfume has effects beyond the aesthetic. You will, hopefully, regrow your eyebrows. But in the meantime, your forehead smells delightful.
920, 930	This reagent fizzes; that one glows an outraged shade of apocyan before going dark.
940	Carefully sifting distinguishes the different components, as the scintillack grinds finer than any other ingredient.
950	With the right lenses and the aid of a furnace, you sear away the scarlet attar into its component dusts. Vapours rise from the attar, heady as perfume and thick as strangling death.
970	You scrape samples off the shell, fill test tubes with some of the fine hairs to examine their chemical composition. Is it toxic? Reactive? Flammable?
980	The material is quite hard, and difficult to take samples of with a scribing tool. The engraved words keep staring at you: "ONE DAY YOU WILL FORGIVE."
990	The tears are unusually reactive – not in the chemical sense, but in the sense that they squirm in their vials, trying to escape or responding to the quality of the light.
1010 - 1040	Two pages of notes, and when you get to the bottom it's all pure swearing.
1050	If you interpret the redder bricks as significant and the paler bricks as gaps, does it look like a sign?
1210	Fill flask after flask with reagents. Heat them, cool them, feed them to small animals. Take copious notes. You are getting somewhere, slowly.
1320	Sketch all the artefacts at your disposal, and arrange them according to their size and style, material and degree of wear, their find locations...
1340	Take full account of its dimensions and motility. Document every mark upon its surface, be that incidental chip or fragmentation, or the intentional designs of ornament or writing.
1350	Scrub any incidental dirt off [...] Study the signs of damage as well as [...] intentional markings. Identify the materials used in the straps, the padding, the stitching. Note the way the sun-blazon flares under your touch; how it wakens a furious indignation.

Research Questions

These text variations show up when the character is coming up with research ideas for the project at hand. Examples:

• Review the possibilities (from Form New Hypotheses)
• Give them a line of inquiry to follow up on (from Directing your Team)

Currently, all of these options are only available on experiments requiring at least 200 Research.

Experimental Object	Description
40	What kind of engine design would it employ? What is the most efficient type of coal tender?
130	What materials are most suitable? How thick must the barrel be to contain the pressure of firing?
140 - 160	What materials are most suitable? What blade shape ensures maximum effectiveness?
230, 240	How reliable are the maps and charts you have gathered? What can we truly infer about the territory from reading them?
310, 320, 350, 360	What materials will you need? What are the manufacturing tolerances?
410 - 470, 495	How can its anatomy be classified? How would one go about physical examination? How to best keep it contained?
510, 520, 530	How old is it? What kind of animal did it belong to?
540	How long can it be stretched? Will it shatter, or simply melt?
820	What geological strata does it come from? What is its chemical composition?
920, 930, 950, 990	What are the practical considerations of manufacture? Will the process work economically with larger batches?
1010, 1030, 1040, 1050	What are the boundaries of the possible? Which Laws must be observed? Which can be split apart?
1210	Where does it come from? How does it grow? How does it survive in the absence of sunlight?
1320, 1340	Who made it? Out of what? For what purpose?
1350	What if the cuirass had the power to make the wearer obedient to the Sun?

Object of Study

A short phrase for an object which is the focus of attention in the lab. Used in:

• Use your nightmares as inspiration
• failures on any of the Work with your Profound Student options, except the hunch

Experimental Object	Research Object
10	leftmost Correspondence symbol
20	chemical composition chart
30	worn printing on the reverse
40	engine check valve
110, 120, 130	carved handle
140 - 160	Parabolan debts
210	mirror frames
220	street plans
230 - 250	contour drawings
310 - 330, 350 360	technical designs
410 - 470, 485 - 495	feeding plans
510 - 520, 540	charts of bone densities
810 - 830	charts of rock types
910 - 950, 970 - 990	notes on chemical composition
1010 - 1050	mathematical notes
1210	botanical notes
1320	site drawings
1340	animate statuary
1350	notes on historic arms and armour

Supplies

A word or phrase for common materials used in the process of experimentation. Often used in the context of obtaining more materials.

Experimental Object	Item
10	screams
40	bessemer steel
110, 120, 130	blades
140 - 160	invisible and almost insoluble bonds of debt, obligation and favours
210	mirrors of glass and polished metal
220	dig site diagrams
230 - 250	fragmentary maps and surveying equipment
310, 320, 350, 360	cogs and pinions
410, 430	raw goldfish
420	scarabs and legal briefs
440	chilled fish
470 - 495	fresh meat
510, 540	calipers
520, 530, 610	bone saws
810, 820	chisels
910 - 990	beakers
1010 - 1030, 1040, 1050	parchment sheets
1210	botanical drawings
1320, 1340, 1350	cleaning fluid

Books

The title of a book on the subject of your current experiment. Examples:

• Leave your student to their own devices (From Work with your Visionary Student)
• Look for a novel angle (From Preparing for a brief Experiment)

This article is incomplete. You can help the Fallen London Wiki by expanding it. Reason: Missing data for: 490, 970

Experimental Object	Title
10, 20, 30, 40	Lefacheux' Complete Manual of Laboratory Procedure.
110 - 160	The Admiralty Standard's Complete Guide to Naval & Infantry Weapons Present and Historical
210, 220, 230, 240, 250	F.G. ____'s Theory on Subchthonic Surveying & Cartography, Revised Edition
310, 320, 330, 350, 360	Brass Machinist's Handbook & Hymnal
410 - 470, 480, 485, 495	Theory on the Origins of Monsters & Their Shapes
510, 520, 530, 540, 610	Complete Natural History of the Neath, Revised 5th Edition
810, 820, 830	Practical Geologist's Rock Identification Manual, Unabridged 4th Edition
910, 920, 930, 940, 950, 980, 990	Theory & Practice of Polymer Formation
1010 - 1050	Debates in Modern Physics, Year XVII
1210	L. Moore's Practical Guide to the Raising of Uncooperative Plants
1320, 1340	Illustrated Encyclopedia of Prelapsarian Architecture, Unabridged 1st Edition
1350	Encyclopaedia of Protective Fashions Through the Ages (specifically, the Codpiece-Greave volume)