Hell is Missing (historical)

Forget the crossword. You work your way backwards. The society pages are devoted to Mr L_______'s latest birthday party. A Feuding Widow is looking for someone to prosecute after finding her detached townhouse up in the Flit. And the front page: HELL IS MISSING.

Hell is Missing was a one-off festival in Fallen London, which began on the 28th of July 1899 (2025). As with previous Estivals, some new items and various items from previous Estivals and the elections were available to purchase for Estival Tokens, and players were given 30 of these at the beginning of the festival. Speculation in the days leading up to the event was fueled by the sparse information given in the announcement; the promise therein that the event would "work a little differently from previous Estivals" and that players should "leave [their] expectations at the threshold"; and various details of the promotional image.

28 July

"Me: I wonder if players are eager for this year's Estiv—

is immediately trampled by a stampeding crowd"

– George FBG

In the leadup to noon BST, preparations began amongst the playerbase, with the usual wild speculation and bingo cards abounding. Due to the untimely demise of the World Quality bot, a sheet was created by Hannah~ on which players could record observed values, as well as a pre-prepared clue hunt sheet prepared by Ulee dreams of bunnies.

The event began at 11:00 UTC, with Tuesday's newspaper turning up on Monday. A series of topological and calendrical oddities made themselves apparent, until the front page of the newspaper made the cause apparent - Hell had gone missing. A noisy hailstorm outside made it hard to concentrate - wait, hail? And then things became even odder.

At this stage, players were given temporary versions of the new Estival items, that would last until the end of the festival:

• Devilish 'Holdeverything' (That You Didn't Buy) - an Artisan of the Red Science Luggage
• Hardy Oilskin (That Just Turned Up) - a Zeefaring and Neathproofed Clothing
• Rooted Chaplet (Found Unexpectedly) - a Chthonosophy Hat
• Labyrinthine Cellarette (Unpaid for) - an A Player of Chess Home Comfort
• Esca-Esque Fascinator (Errant) - a Hat for all four main stats

In addition, they received various unusual items and qualities - A Disruption to the Order of Time, A Reorganisation of Space, A Twisted Ontology, A Confounded Causality, Martyrdom of Saint B______, Embroiled in the Affair of the Severed Twelve, The Kings' Song, Seven, Local Deviation from the Day of the Week and Fragment of Disordered Time.

One could interact with various miniature "stories" linked to these qualities under Fallen London, where everything is as it should be; each of these looped back around to the initial quality value after finishing. Players could also head outside, to observe the jubilation of the Bishop of Southwark, and the concerns of the Implacable Detective about how things were changing without anyone noticing. They also learnt that a messenger was travelling hence, the last to leave Hell before its disappearance, and would arrive on Tuesday. As to when Tuesday would be - well, that was anyone's guess.

Upon heading to Moloch Street, players would discover that the Brass Embassy was missing, and attempting to approach it led to a temporary displacement to A Secluded Coastline. It was soon realised that new storylets to reorient oneself (e.g. Reorienting Yourself in Watchmaker's Hill) were now available in the four starting areas; playing any two would produce a shortcut quality linking the two. Consulting the Gazette revealed that down one of these shortcuts could be found the Embassy - but which one it was changed every hour, and was different for different players. The first to report finding it in the official Discord was hBart; after a period of confusion, not helped by bugs, the descriptions in the Gazette were soon matched up to pairs of locations, making it much easier to track down.

After finding the Brass Embassy and the emergency meeting inside, then promptly being evicted, players could report their findings to the Implacable Detective and the Bishop - only to be rudely interrupted by a reified law in the form of a fearsome beast. However, this led to an insight into how to deal with the chaos - fight back against the laws until they collapsed into a reified form, and then hunt that form down. Hunting the spatial laws reified by finding the Brass Embassy incremented a new World Quality, Spatial Laws Hunted. At some point before 17:45 UTC, Pins Upon the Map - a World Quality tracking the number of people who had found the Embassy - reached 150 and it became possible to spend 50 x Map Scrap to reach the embassy without solving the puzzle.

Separately, and slightly earlier on, it was discovered that 50 x Fragment of Disordered Time could be combined into a Shard of Almost-Ordered Time, which could be used in various ways (including being eaten) to affect your personal day of the week; this prompted speculation that it was possible to reach Tuesday and thus meet Hell's messenger. At 13:01 UTC, this speculation was confirmed by Oculat (IGN), along with earlier speculation based on the promo image that Milton (a devil from Mask of the Rose) would be involved in the event. After a chat with Milton, it became possible to hunt Temporal Laws. At around 16:45 UTC, 100 players had met with Milton, unlocking a new option to spend 7 shards to go directly to Tuesday without needing to engage with the puzzle.

At 14:08 UTC, it was discovered by mouseyMoment that the combination of the event card The Usual Glut of Weather and a burden ( An Awful Migraine) available from Fallen London, where everything is as it should be could open up hunting a further category of law. At some time before 21:15 UTC, 100 people had done this (tracked with Ontological Inclemence), unlocking an option at the start of the card to skip the puzzle.

Other interesting tidbits from the day:

• At 11:41 UTC, u/medeaschariot produced potential solutions to the two cryptic crossword clues included in the newspaper at the event's opening
• An alternate interpretation of the second clue was provided by Shad0 at 19:41 UTC
• Within 7 minutes of the event beginning, it was noticed that the header image for Marigold Station had changed so Hell was no longer visible
• It was also soon verified that players could not enter Hell, travel from their Brass Embassy lodgings to the Embassy as a whole without first finding the Embassy or rob the Embassy
• A World Quality, Reconciliation of Metaphysical Supply with Commercial Demand, with a target of 1,000,000 tracking the number of Estival Tokens claimed or purchased was spotted.
• Various points of interest about the short carousels and options in Fallen London, where everything is as it should be
  • RECALL THE DEATH OF A SAINT lowered a progress quality to zero rather than raising it to a target
  • (Investigate the Affair of the Severed Twelve) varied Embroiled in the Affair of the Severed Twelve randomly
  • Hunt for evidence of elephants was eventually discovered to set No Evidence of Elephants to the player's number of Rat on a String
  • Hear a squeaking melody gives at its conclusion Marked by Kindness
  • RECALL THE DEATH OF A SAINT retold in reverse the martyrdom of w:Saint Boniface

29 July

"can someone with a phd in those monte carlo stacks simulations give us an epa, fully accounting for the change that released 10 seconds ago"

– Vera (Vera Vera Vera Vera Vera V

At 1:08 UTC, an option was spotted to gain a new crew at the conclusion of a law hunt having 20 Laws Hunted; the crew in question, A Ragtag Gang of Outlaws, gave Artisan of the Red Science. At around 4:41 UTC, Ontological Inclemence reached 300, unlocking an option (Experience a glut of weather) to force-draw The Usual Glut of Weather. At around 6:49 UTC, a bug with the weather puzzle skip option was fixed..At 7:34 UTC, hunting laws was updated so that failed checks still gave some progress.

At 6:52 UTC, it was noticed that Puzzle-Damask Scrap was now usable; after a quick bugfix, it transpired that the new action gave Investigating... and linked to the Embroiled in the Affair of the Severed Twelve options in Fallen London, where everything is as it should be. At 7:11 UTC, it was noticed that Read a bundle of investigation notes raised Telling Tales about the Severed Twelve, a quality that lessened the rewards of the options.

At 9:56 UTC, Reconciliation of Metaphysical Supply with Commercial Demand met its target of 1,000,000, unlocking Ask about business and thus allowing for the hunting of ontological laws. After unlocking all four kinds of law hunt, it became possible to meet with Milton, where he explained that the changes were caused by prisoners of war from the Campaign of '68 breaking out and seizing control of a law furnace with the help of a revolutionary faction within Hell. The Bishop of Southwark was deeply affected by this revelation, and the revelation that the prisoners could be heard - the small-caps text that had been present throughout the event.

Meeting with Milton revealed A Snarl of Shredded Time and A Crystallisation of Space. At 10:38 UTC, the number of Temporal Laws Hunted reached 1000, unlocking the activity within the storylet. This allowed players to increase various world qualities ( At War with the Years, Rebuilding a Now, and Digging Through a Timeslip) by reliving events from previous Estivals, analogised with events from the Revolution in Hell. (Which Estival varied over time based on the World Quality An Unappointed Hour, along with the incrementable WQ). One option, Erratum: Melodies, was impossible until a bugfix

Separately, at 10:22 UTC, Ontological Laws Hunted reached 500, revealing The Candied Door - although the activity within would remain locked until 3000 laws had been hunted.

At 13:28 UTC, the difficulty of law hunting checks was significantly reduced.

Rosewater. Rust. Bandage. Crag.

"I love how the biggest sign is that the world is wrong is that fidgeting writer isn’t."

– Biggest Young Stags appreciator

At 15:39 UTC, the number of Spatial Laws Hunted reached 3000, unlocking the activity in A Crystallisation of Space. Players could, by navigating through a distorted space, pin the corners of the Neath back into place; but navigating required clue qualities gathered by travelling places. The first, A Redefinition of West, was received earlier on in A Secluded Coastline. Based on a cryptic hint in the activity ("Rosewater. Rust. Bandage. Crag"), the other three were soon located:

• Another Way Downstairs in disgraced exile in the Tomb-Colonies, at 16:49 UTC by LordPaido
• Right, But Not Correct in The Pillared Sea, at 17:05 UTC by Mrs. Lights
• Wayward Widdershins in The Iron Republic, at 17:29 UTC by Sy

Upon navigating A Crystallisation of Space and pinning the corners of the Neath back into place, Treating the Symptoms would be incremented, which for many meant reaching the level (5) necessary to once more meet with the Implacable Detective and learn of a deal brokered (with Milton's help) for you to enter the Embassy's law-furnace, and to labour therein to restore some stability to London, represented by raising Stability through Combustion

Winding Back the Clocks

"the Unlucky Devil: "hey, it's me, you remember me from the tutorial prison right"
Hotshot, descended to FL in 2015: "who in the blazes are you?""

– Hespiderean/Mr Menagerie

At 19:58 UTC, Causal Laws Hunted reached 1500, and players who had hunted at least one causal law were sent to New Newgate... for the apparent first time. Even more concerningly, in this snarl of causality, Hell was even more missing than it was before, as all mentions of Hell were redacted and the Unlucky Devil appeared not to remember where he was from. In addition, all players who had returned to New Newgate found themselves Acausally Manacled and prevented from interrogating the Unlucky Devil about wayward Hell and its location. Once players had escaped once again (activating a Living Story), it was discovered that The Candied Door would remain locked for some time.

Other tidbits from the day included:

• A brief glimpse at some text intended for later on the event in Contemplate the matter of confounded causality, fixed by George FBG
• Sy would have found Wayward Widdershins around half an hour earlier if not for a bug. They received a Darkdrop Coffee in compensation.

30 July

"My dear sir, there are rogue Laws roaming the streets of Fallen London at this very moment! Rogue Laws! Do you ask them why they are? And yet you waste our time asking us trifling and impertinent questions about our terminology? It is our own business, sir, and I bid you good day."

– Ser Talos [IGN: Dunstan Cassel]

"It is my business now. Case closed."

– Tek, Triple Seeker(Esachael=IGN)

At 9:41 UTC, A Neathwide Understanding of Rightness reached 100, unlocking a skip option for Right, But Not Correct. A skip option for Wayward Widdershins followed at 9:46 UTC, and one for Another Way Downstairs at 9:59 UTC.

At 12:41 UTC, an announcement was posted by Hannah FBG stressing that points of no return would be clearly marked, announcing the split of the #estival Discord channel in two, and revealing some new event art.

At around 16:07 UTC a storylet was added providing hints about how to progress through the event. At around 16:27 UTC, the timelock on The Candied Door was updated to explicitly be 13:00 UTC on the 1st of August.

23 hours after players were first sent back to the tutorial prison, living stories triggered by escaping began coming due and sending people back again. At 19:22 UTC , it was confirmed by Clueless [IGN: Mew777] that having 6 Seven allowed people to escape from the revisited tutorial prison. A little later it was discovered that having gone back twice allowed you to spend some resources to go back again without waiting for the living story. At some point between 22:01 UTC and 23:03 UTC, the tracker quality for the jail puzzle, The Law of Rebeginning, reached 100 and unlocked a skip option for the puzzle.

31 July

"we're just reinventing typing quirks now"

– QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ (aka mouseyMoment)

The 31st was significantly quieter than previous days. As a result, the Discord got a little strange.

At 20:05 UTC, Rebuilding a Now reached 75,000; after a quick bugfix, this unlocked CHAPTER NOT FOUND, which gave 10 Keeper of the Tenfold Second, increasing the progress of Rebuilding a Now made per action by a factor of ten.

Shortly afterwards, at 20:31 UTC Stability through Combustion reached 50,000 and unlocked Remembering '68, which saw the player meet the Bishop of Southwark at a memorial for the war of '68 and discuss whether it might be possible to rescue the prisoners from Hell. George FBG expressed surprise at these unrelated events happening in such quick succession.

1 August

"I hereby semi-officially dedicate this Estival to the Grand Hunt of the Croissant."

– Savato {IGN}

At 00:08 UTC, Digging Through a Timeslip reached 75,000, making available Worker of the Tenfold Self and speeding up progress tenfold. The third Tenfold quality, Singer of the Tenfold Song, became available at 13:44 UTC when At War with the Years reached 75,000. In between the two came the promised opening of The Candied Door.

The Misters

"things i didn't expect:

• this year's estival making me feel really really really sad about mr eaten"
– thegreatyin

At 13:00 UTC, the Candied Door opened. Within, players met Mr Dinners - an urchin girl who had been rendered one of the "misters of the bizarre" by the rogue laws. They learnt from her that the other Misters were out playing hide-and-seek (and that she felt nothing good ever came out of going seeking); and from taking measurements that the law rendering them in charge of London was rapidly weakening, and they needed to all be back in the Bazaar when it petered out. So, it was time for another clue hunt - one that would prove to be rather different from previous clue hunts.

• Mr Tiles was found in Khan's Heart stealing rooftiles at 13:08 UTC by TFF
• At 13:12 UTC, it was noticed that the sidebar ad for Mandrake had been replaced by an image of an urchin in a Master's robe, with the text "TWENTY-ONE GUN SALUTE" at the bottom. Shortly after, Turbo1701 claimed to have found Mr Generals using Fire off your emergency blunderbuss at an unspecified earlier time; after multiple attempts to replicate this failed due to a lack of details, at 13:20 UTC DrCobalt confirmed that firing exactly 21 blunderbusses allowed you to spot Mr Generals.
• (A sighting of) Mr Hot-Cross-Buns was found in Redemptions for a price of 10 x Elided Ellipse at 13:20 UTC by enter namj
• Mr Socks was found in a new use option on Puzzle-Damask Scrap by Bonedrewd Did Nothing Wrong less than a minute later
• Mr Nobody was found in an access code at the end of the Help page by Mr-Hot-Cross-Buns at 13:27 UTC
• (A sighting of) Mr Lemonade was found in Extramural Trading Company for a price of 10 x Elided Ellipse at 13:29 UTC by Mr Minds
• Mr Lures was found listed as an Exceptional Story on the Fate tab by Schmosby less than a minute later
• At 13:35 UTC, a new sidebar snippet was reported as existing by DrCobalt and then subsequently located at 13:36 UTC by Lumian_Murk. Within moments, Zolana located Mr Swears by using what the snippet described as "his favourite word" ("balderdrat") as an access code
• Mr Thunders was found at 13:40 UTC by Mr Minds via an access code (Hollowskull) revealed on his profile page

At 13:44 UTC, Outpacing a Fading Law, the WQ tracking the number of hidden Misters found and reported to Mr Dinners, reached 500. This unlocked an option to join the Misters for a dinner party. As she raised the knife to cut the cake, Mr Dinners began to take on a truly Masterly aspect, and speak of how she "just wanted to dine [...] with you, my siblings from worlds away, who I see so rarely" and how "[a] reckoning cannot be postponed indefinitely" - and then she brought the knife down, and the law broke. The player found themself instead eating the cake on a picnic in the Flit, with now decidedly un-Masterly urchins.

At the same time, reaching Outpacing a Fading Law unlocked hints about the Misters' locations for those still looking. Those who found at least three before attending the dinner party received An Urchin with a Fondness for Cowls and Capes, a Chthonosophy Companion.

After both attending the dinner party and escaping the prison loop, an option appeared on Fallen London, where everything is as it should be to resolve both the case of the Severed Twelve and the Kings' Song by introducing them to one another.

Also around that time, a new paragraph was added to Hunt for evidence of elephants; initially taken to be a hint directed at the Bone Market, it was at 16:41 UTC that its meaning was confirmed by (IGN) Nashira Hez unlocking Encounter an elephant with 12,345 No Evidence of Elephants. The reward for this was An Elephant That Is Yet to Be Refuted a Bizarre and Nightmares-aggravating Home Comfort.

2 August

"I figured that the obvious way to find Mr. Swears would be to send swear words to other players. But after testing it on my alt, sending swear words […] to other players only got my account banned […]

– u/TIMETOGETPHONKY

At 3:19 UTC, Digging Through a Timeslip reached its target of 1,500,000. The Book of All Hours: Cydnidae locked, and the storylet immediately cycled round to The Book of All Hours: Ephemeroptera and At War with the Years. At 20:51 UTC, At War with the Years reached its target - oddly, whilst The Book of All Hours: Isoptera was active, as several players decided to simply remain in the storylet once An Unappointed Hour changed.

3 August

"not a madhouse now. we're the perfect model of good chatters. engaging in civil theorycrafting discussion in the vanguard channel and estimating what we think the secrets of the event are
i assure you FBG, you may simply enjoy your day off"

– Mr Mice (aka mouseyMoment)

As no new content made itself apparent, a consensus was reached that the next stage would be unlocked when FBG returned to work on Monday the 4th. Meanwhile, the only remaining WQ presenting a possibility of unlocking something, Stability through Combustion, rose throughout the day from 133,804 to 196,516.

4 August

"I love how this chat starts panicking if we take more than an hour"

– Asarta

At 11 UTC, it became possible to chat to Milton at Dante's; alas, he was not very forthcoming, only hinting at the necessity of more law-forging. A new option (Consider stones unturned and angles unworked) on fallen london, where something is very, very wrong also mentioned an unclaimed piece of equipment at the Brass Embassy. It was swiftly discovered that a new storylet had been added to the end of law-forging describing something glinting inside the furnace - but the only options were to walk away or instantly die trying to reach it. Some strange text from the lethal option led to speculation there was a puzzle to solve.

It was not until 15:31 UTC that the puzzle was solved by Mr Mice (aka mouseyMoment), by triggering Cheat Death in a way that increased Nightmares, Scandal and Suspicion all to 8 at once to gain Scathless - which had been hinted at in one of the cryptic crossword clues on the first day. At 15:46 UTC, Mr Mice confirmed that Scathless allowed one to retrieve A Shard of Law-Glass from the furnace - although surprisingly the WQ tracker Those who 'scaped the Furnace's Tongue indicated that it was the second person to do so rather than the first. At this point, AEton noticed that the event card (Tomorrow)'s Paper now offered new cryptic crossword clues about the puzzle; these were soon understood to refer to the Cheat Death option. At 16:24 UTC, after Those who 'scaped the Furnace's Tongue reached 10, a skip was unlocked.

Unrelatedly, a patch was made to the Misters' hide-and-seek; it was made impossible to conclude the hunt if you had sightings you hadn't turned in, and anyone who had accidentally missed out on the reward by doing so was given it.

At 18:50 UTC, Stability through Combustion reached 250,000, revealing An Invitation to a Council; however, the option within would remain locked until it reached 350,000 or 11:00 UTC the next day, whichever came last.

5 August

"Screw death, become ungovernable."

– Astraea, Perambulating Dragon

At 10:46 UTC, an announcement was made on the Discord, revealing that the timelock on An Invitation to a Council had been extended until noon the next day, and confirming that both law forging and law hunting would return after the event - not that the changed timelock made much difference, as Stability through Combustion had only reached 333,274 by the end of the day.

6 August

"I did not expect this year to include a CoD lobby""

– Mr Minds (aka Sy)

At 6:11 UTC, Stability through Combustion reached 350,000. At 11:00 UTC, the meeting opened; players could meet with a coalition of devils and clergy intending to resolve the issue. The Meticulous Jurist explained the plan (unless the player decided to upstage her); to forge a law at the Brass Embassy to bring Hell back, and then mount an invasion via its border with Parabola by getting enough Londoners to dream of Hell in the Waswood; this was tracked with the WQ Londoners Who Dream of Hell - and since leaving lowered the quality, the next action required 666 characters all sitting in there at once to unlock.

At 13:01 UTC, the target was reached, and the storming of Hell began. Those without A Shard of Law-Glass were pulled aside by Milton for a word of encouragement. After a dangerous journey, made possible only by the intervention of the prisoners - dragging the players from the "Book of Forked Stems" to the The Book of Stolen Endings, and thence to the law furnace itself. After resolving once and for all the laws plaguing London, either the Bishop or the player pulls the prisoners out of the furnace. All was well.

Well, provided you ignored the fact that they were all still in the middle of Hell. And that the Solicitor-Baroness had just shown up with a number of other devils and goat-demons. She very politely informed the player that, since they'd been helpful, their little invasion would be overlooked and they'd be allowed to leave Hell. The prisoners, however, would not. Fortunately, at this junction something started heating up in the player's pocket; a shard of law-glass (either the one they'd retrieved or one that had somehow come into their possession), which promptly transformed the room into a piece of sovereign territory. After tearful goodbyes, the intruders into Hell left the dozen citizens of the new infernal enclave behind, and were firmly escorted onto a train back to London.

In addition to the reward for completing the Estival - The Founding Principles of an Infernal Enclave, a Chthonosophy Affiliation, players received one of three mementos depending on their response to the event:

• A triumph - Rose-Ringed Regimental Helmet
• Another bl_ody crisis that could have been avoided - Infernal Pocket Square
• The shadow of utopia - The Abstract Idea of Something That Is Certainly Not a Dog

Having discharged its power, A Shard of Law-Glass had its use option locked.

Conclusion

"[...] I think that the building relationship with the Bishop and the humanising of his character was wonderful. The choice of whether to stand by him to save the souls of his comrades or to admit that they belonged in hell for attacking it was substantially more morally complex than parable or renegade, it was built to and earned. It turned that cartoon character that he was into a tragic and understandable figure. I thought the mystery of Milton was a good one as well and the implication is that is not the end of that story. Every step of the way we peeled away [layers] of the mystery and got a deeper glimpse into the motivations of those involved. [...]"

– u/Tamaxlia

After the end of the event began, it was confirmed that it would remain available to begin until 11:00 UTC on the 15th, and possible to play through until the event closed at 11:00 UTC on 1st September.. A couple of minor bugfixes were needed.

Moments after Estival ended, both law-forging and law-hunting returned: the former in Moloch Street, requiring a Hellish Hymn; and the latter in the now-accessible Enclave. Both were slightly less profitable than they were during Estival. In the end, the various World Qualities reached these values:

• Pins Upon the Map: 5768, 3845.3% of the skip unlock value
• 'Successful' Meetings with Hell's Messenger: 8986, 8986% of the skip unlock value
• Reconciliation of Metaphysical Supply with Commercial Demand: 3343773, 334.4% of the target
• Ontological Inclemence: 4385, 4385% of the skip unlock value
• Spatial Laws Hunted: 53015
• Temporal Laws Hunted: 65651
• Causal Laws Hunted: 62275
• Ontological Laws Hunted: 83499
• A Neathwide Understanding of Rightness: 2602, 2602% of the skip unlock value
• A Neathwide Negotiation of Clockwise: 2347, 2347% of the skip unlock value
• A Neathwide Acceptance of Down: 3258, 3258% of the skip unlock value
• At War with the Years: 1500001, 100% of the target
• Rebuilding a Now: 1500039, 100% of the target
• Digging Through a Timeslip: 1500001, 100% of the target
• The Law of Rebeginning: 3508, 3508% of the skip unlock value
• Outpacing a Fading Law: 42573, 8514.6% of the target
• Stability through Combustion: 678762, 193.9% of the target
• Londoners Who Dream of Hell: 7139, 1071.9% of the target
• Those who 'scaped the Furnace's Tongue: 6313, 63130% of the skip unlock value

References