Seeking Mr Eaten's Name (old)

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This guide is outdated and has been retired!
You can find the current guide at Seeking Mr Eaten's Name (Guide).
This guide has been preserved as an acknowledgment of the history of Fallen London and of the contributions to the wiki.
If you don't think this guide should be retired, please explain in the Comments or at Category talk:Retired.

Beginning the Search[edit]

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So, you've decided to man/woman/other up and join the quest for the Name with other like-minded lunatics like ourselves! Good on you! The road ahead leads only to misery and damnation and woe and personal loss and financial ruin and loneliness and death and imprisonment but no complaining allowed you can't say we didn't warn you.

Unfortunately, you can't just up and decide "Oh I would like to search for the Name now" and start off right away. Every journey has a beginning, and for this one there are several.

  • Death By Water: This is the way most Seekers will have started their quest. At Recurring Dreams: Having Recurring Dreams: Death by Water 7 and Unaccountably Peckish 1, you will unlock a card called "A dream about your home". The Unaccountably Peckish "But the view outside your window isn’t right" option will set you on your first step towards damnation.
  • Mahogany Hall: On the Hall's Wednesday show, there will be an option unlocked with Unaccountably Peckish 3, in which you take to the stage.  Succeeding the challenge will give you your first level of SMEN at the cost of some menaces and connection loss.
  • Mr Sacks: If you're a slowcoach who's started but not finished the Christmas content, you may still have a chance to meet the Mr Eaten Sacks, who offers a single crumb of bread. Taking this will give you a few levels of Unaccountably Peckish, and send you on your way toward the Name.
  • The inks of the undernight: You may receive a social invitation from a Seeker requesting you to come and talk about dark water. While the game itself begs you NOT to accept this invite, I suggest you do. Those invites are very expensive to send out, and accepting it will bring you and another Seeker closer to the Name.


So, you're flirting with disaster, contemplating searching for the Name. Now what? The waiting game begins, already. Grinding for cards is going to become a common feature of your life once you start Seeking, and this is no exception. A gold-bordered card named "A Banner with a Strange Device" will show up...eventually. SMEN (Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name) cards are tricky beasts, expect a wait of up to three days if you're unlucky.

Two of the options on this card will give you another level of Seeking, while the third will make you Free of the Name, pledged to never again embark on such a ruinous quest. Ignore that, that's not what you're here for. Your course is set. You seek the name! "Why?" is a question for later.

First Steps[edit]

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The Northridden should turn their eye to the Forgotten Quarter, where a voice in your dreams calls you to hunt for curios. You will need at least one point of Scholar of the Correspondence, and five levels of Nightmares, to uncover the chiselled-away rune that will lead you further still towards your doom. It is a Watchful challenge, so success is guaranteed if your stats are high enough. This will set you at SMEN 3.

Continuing on from SMEN 3, there are a number of options to help you progress. Each one brings untold misery and woe etc. etc. etc. but you're probably getting used to that at this stage. The worst hasn't even started yet.

To get to the next stage of the search, you need to raise SMEN to 6. Most options give one change point at a time, and are done through opp cards (all but one, I think). It's pretty slow going, depending on your luck it could take weeks, or even months. There are a few branches hidden around the game unlocked with SMEN 3 and above, but those have no real benefit and generally come with crippling penalties. They won't help you progress, so they aren't listed here.

  • A message from the masters: In this gold-bordered opportunity card, you receive a note from Mr Iron. You can choose to heed it's advice and stop your search, or rip it to shreds. Tearing it apart will cause you to lose all, or at the very least most of your Connected: Masters and gain one change point of SMEN. As cards go, this one is probably best ignored.
  • An ivied wall: This Opp card is a dangerous challenge (straightforward at around 150 Dangerous). Succeeding will give you a change point of SMEN at the cost of roughly half a level of Shadowy and Dangerous and some Wounds.
  • Eyes burning your back: Unavailable until SMEN 4, this card allows you to sacrifice large amounts of most connections and half a level of Persuasive to gain two (maybe three) change points of SMEN.
  • Dr Schlomo: An option on the (rather rare) Dr Schlomo "dreams about water card" has an option unlocked with SMEN 3. A success gives a change point or two of SMEN, failure will just give menace.
  • Mahogany Hall: The only non-card option. On the Saturday show, you have an option to sabotage Peppercorn's illusion. It is unlocked with Unaccountably Peckish 3, and is straightforward at around UP 11. If you've sided with the Shroud, you won't be able to use this option, alas. Succeeding will increase all menaces (including Unaccountably Peckish) by 4 change points and increase SMEN by a point. Failure does roughly the same, but without the SMEN increase.
  • The Labyrinth of Tigers: Mr Pages' stall on the ground floor will give 1CP of SMEN on a rare success. But success is very very rare indeed, and most actions will give no reward at all. However, this is the only method of progress that comes with no penalties attached.

Closer to the Name[edit]

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After you've managed to get SMEN to 6, you will have to wait for another card. Entitled "Closer to the Name" this card will allow you to either give up on your search or strike forward on your way to damnation. Opting to continue on your quest will remove ALL of your second chance items (sudden insights etc.) and give you a large Nightmares increase (about 30 CP).

At this stage, you are dancing with damnation. The number of candles is hidden from you. You must mark yourself with the Number, mind, body and soul, in order to light the way to the Name.

SMEN 7 is quite possibly the grindiest thing in Fallen London, bar none. Upon reaching this level, four new opportunities become available. Three of these will increase progress at the cost of many things, while the fourth can be used to quit your Search or continue on to SMEN 8, when you are Marked. These cards are pretty rare: expect to take at least a month to get through this.

Weeping Scars[edit]

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Scars: The first Scar is a luck check, costing seven correspondence plaques. Failure will give you some scandal, while success will kill you stone dead and give you your first Weeping Scar.

For the next three scars, you can use a Skyglass knife to guarantee your death and scarring. The fifth and sixth times are the same, but will increase wounds to 9 instead of 8.

The last scar is obtained by leaping into an obsidian-studded well. Success and failure will both increase wounds to 10, but if you are unlucky you will receive no Scar.

Seven is the number of scars that will never heal.

Stains on your Soul[edit]

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Stains: What could stain a soul? You will need help from a certain Starveling cat. The only two ways to obtain this cat is through playing Pass the Cat with friends or something monstrous, when Opening a Bundle of Oddities. A rare success on unwrapping the box will provide you with a cat. For opening bundles, you need exactly the 99 bundle, which means you should do actions with 99 or higher as max values, a lower bundle being more likely to get you to exactly 99.

You need three (four) of them. Not all the stains take away a cat: one for the first, one for the fifth, and one for the sixth. It may be wise to have a fourth in order to interrogate it to find it again, however.

The first Stain on Your Soul will require five bottles of laudanum. If you succeed the luck check, your soul will be lost and you will have to look for it. (Looking for your soul is a fairly simplistic storyline: I'm not going to go into it). Failure will cost you silk and rats, as well as some wounds.

The requirements for the second to third stains are the same as the first. Failing the luck checks past the first stain will not cost you anything besides the laudanum.

The fourth, fifth and sixth stains will require ten laudanum. The last requires forty. Succeeding at the last will kill you from laudanum overdose, but you will be marked.

Seven is the number of stains that mark your soul.

Warning: If your soul has been stained and you are currently soulless (that is, you have Your very own Infernal Contract), do not enter the Forgotten Quarter. There you may be set upon by devils who will rob you and forcibly insert your soul, with the following results:

Memories of Chains[edit]

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Chains: The first Memory of Chains is a luck check. Failing will give wounds, and take away 500 moon-pearls, jade fragments and rostygold. Succeeding will instantly jail you with 7 suspicion and cost 250 cryptic clues and 500 whispered secrets.

The second, third and fourth chains will cost 500 glim, rostygold and jade and give 8 suspicion. The fifth and sixth take away 250 stolen correspondence and proscribed material.

The seventh mark will cost you all of your First Sporing wine, 500 of each greyfields variant, 20 appalling secrets and 250 cryptic clues, and your suspicion will be set to ten.

Seven is the number of chains that weight your mind.

Seven is the Number[edit]

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The number of candles: Do you know it? At this point, you should. Seven is the number of candles to light the way to the name. Acknowledging this fact will cost you deeply: 500CP of all four main stats (About 8 levels). But you know the Number, you are the Number. Now you know the number of candles, all you need to do is find the candles.

Those who persevere in marking themselves with the Number must then wait. And wait. And wait. Eventually, a mass broadcast Living Story will be sent out to everyone at SMEN 8. The living story now appears to trigger on getting SMEN 8, and launches a few minutes afterwards. This will take you immediately to a storylet with two options: either a difficult dangerous challenge or no challenge at all. Succeeding in the dangerous challenge nets you an extraordinary implication. Either way, you will get some wounds and nightmares.

St Arthur's Candle[edit]

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After that, the Marsh-Mired in Dreams of Sustenance quality will increase to 2: The first smirch. A new card will be added to your opportunity pool: St Arthur's Candle. This card holds the secret of progress. At the cost of one Searing Enigma and another item, you will send an social invitation to talk of dark water with a hapless fool friend. Should they accept this invite, they will get SMEN 1, and you will get another level of Marsh Mired. The costs and names of each betrayal are listed below. (no prizes for guessing the number of betrayals: Seven is the Number in all things)

To be eligible for betrayal, a person will need Watchful 30 and 3 points of Scholar of the Correspondence.

If you are having trouble with getting Searing Enigmas, an option on the card will allow you to get some. It is an odds-strongly-against-you luck challenge which costs 77 Appalling Secrets. Success will give a Searing Enigma at the cost of 77 Appalling Secrets and a chunk of Nightmares and Wounds; Failure will give the same result, but with no Enigma.


There are also other methods to increase the Marsh Mired Quality:

Spousal Betrayal: If you have the Jewel Thief or Artist's Model as your Spouse, you can betray them at the normal cost of 1 Searing Enigma, with no extra item requirement. Betraying your Spouse will give the quality A Bitter Parting, preventing you from re-courting them, as well as one point of Marsh Mired. Once they've been betrayed, they're gone forever.

If you have a Boneless Consort, you can betray them for free at no Searing Enigma cost.

Feline Betrayal: If you have a Midnight Matriarch, you can betray her at the cost of a Searing Enigma to get a point of Marsh Mired at the cost of the Matriarch.

Elemental Secrets: If you have the knowledge of an Elemental Secret, you can gamble it to gain progress. The challenge is easier the more Elemental Secrets you possess; Base odds at one Secret are 50%, and each further Secret you possess improves odds by 10%. Succeeding will give a point of Marsh Mired at the cost of the Elemental Secret; failure will cost the Elemental Secret but will give no progress.

Upon reaching Marsh Mired 9 (The season to be rendered), the St Arthur’s Candle card needs to be drawn again. Once it shows up, you can collect your reward for your betrayals... But it's going to cost you. Cost you 1000CP (about 16 levels) of Dangerous and Persuasive (plus some wounds). After this, you will have it, your candle of promises roasted like flesh.

Possession of St Arthur's Candle opens up a rather nefarious Knife and Candle attack option, but more on that a little later.

Punishment[edit]

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After your first betrayal, an undiscardable punishment card will begin to show up in your deck. A second one will appear after your second betrayal. Each card also offers an avenue of escape from your Search.

A contretemps in a restaurant:
This card has the option to eat wildly at a restaurant, eat discreetly but expensively or eat one of your pets.

  • Choosing to eat wildly (Consume) will cause you to lose tremendous amounts of Connected: Society, Bohemian and Summerset and give you a large increase in wounds and nightmares, as well as two change points of Reputation: Abomination (a quality given only by these cards).
  • Eating discreetly will increase nightmares and Reputation somewhat, at the cost of 1000 Glim, Jade and Rostygold.
  • Eating one of your pets (a Lucky Weasel, Sulky Bat or Talkative Rattus Faber) will increase unaccountably peckish up to 5 and cause you to lose the pet. The lucky weasel option has a chance to cost twenty weasels instead of one.
  • You can choose to abandon your Search through this card, but it will cost you 100 appalling secrets. You also need to reduce your Unaccountably Peckish to 0.


Restitution?:

In this card, you contemplate giving something up as recompense for the harm you have done. You can choose to give to the church, to the poor, to your friends or scream out of a window.

  • Giving to the church will cost 50 glim, and give some Connected: Church, as well as decreasing your abominable reputation.
  • Giving to the poor will cost 50 rostygold and increase Docks and Urchins connections, while decreasing your abominable reputation.
  • Screaming out the window will cause you to lose massive amounts of Connected: Society, increase your nightmares and your abominable reputation.
  • If you have 1000 rats, you can give a massive bag of rats to one of your friends. Although when the transaction is completed, they will only receive 100. It will increase wounds and nightmares for...some reason.
  • Choosing to leave the Search through this option will cost an aeolian scream, 100 jade and 10 connected urchins. It does not require you to lose all of your Unaccountably Peckish.

St Beau's Candle[edit]

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Shortly (or not, depending on your luck) after claiming St Arthur's Candle, you should pull another opportunity card named St Beau’s Candle. You'll find yourself reading a note which you had no recollection of finding. It tells you to come to the Hall of Mirrors in Mrs. Plenty's Carnival at midnight, and is signed only with the Number.

This card has two options to progress: A odds-against-you luck check, or a price of 1000 Appalling Secrets. Failing the luck check will bring you to the regular carnival, and give a few CP of nightmares. Succeeding the luck check, or paying the large Secrets toll, will also take you to the carnival. But something is not quite right...

WARNING: before setting out, make sure you have the following: at least 3330 moon pearls (bring more, just in case) + 150 memories of light

If you fail to bring these, you will be unable to progress and will have to drive yourself insane to escape the carnival.


First things first, you lose all of your carnival tickets. The storylets all look the same at first...but on closer inspection, they're all wrong. Almost all of them cost tickets, but the price for tickets has increased dramatically. Your only option is to pay 330 moon pearls for one ticket. I won't post content spoilers here, but the altered storylets are quite possibly some of the most disturbing content in the game so far.

Of particular note is the "Below the Neath" option. For the price of 50 Fate and 5 carnival tickets, you can ride the wheel far above the false stars, to the surface. Where you will die. The game itself gives you a rather large disclaimer to the matter.

THIS WILL DESTROY YOUR CHARACTER FOR EVER AT A COST OF FIFTY FATE AND FIVE CARNIVAL TICKETS. THERE IS NO TEXT WORTH READING BEHIND THE BRANCH RESULT. IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO PLAY THIS BRANCH TO CONTINUE THE STORY. DO NOT CONTACT SUPPORT TO COMPLAIN IF YOU ARE RASH ENOUGH TO CLICK THIS BUTTON.

Cheerful.

The overall objective is to bring 10 carnival tickets, 7 levels nightmares and 150 memories of light to the Hall of Mirrors. Every story in the Carnival will increase Nightmares by some degree; if you come to the Carnival with a high Nightmares score already, then you won't have to spend long.

These tasks completed, you are ready for your meeting with the Lady of the Well. She will question why you have come this far, and then question your motivations. Two of the options on the first storylet will give you progress, while the third lets you choose again.

In the second storylet, there's 12 options to choose, one of them ambition-specific. Choose whichever you please; there's no real impact.

After this, you get to the crux of the midnight meeting. What might be your last chance to turn back, and certainly your best. Here, you can choose to abandon your search, and gain 1000 moon pearls and 5 Fate.

But you've come this far. Why turn back now?

To progress, you will have to make a sacrifice. Either you let the wind set your table, and lose all your lodgings. Or you abandon fame and fortune, and lose all of your connections. Alternatively, you can sacrifice your destiny, at the cost of 40 Fate. (Quite what this does isn't clear. Some have theorized it'll have a cost in future, while I think it's just a Fate buyout to avoid the massive sacrifice)

Either way, should you choose to sacrifice whatever it is you're going to sacrifice, then you will wake, friendless, lodgingless or with your destiny shredded, St Beau's Candle clutched in hand.

St Cerise's Candle[edit]

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St Cerise's Candle is obtained via the "Restitution?" card. It costs 77 Iron Knife Tokens. The normal cap on Iron Knife tokens is 50.

Fortunately (Or is it unfortunately?) there is an alternative method of obtaining that many tokens. If you have a Waxwail Knife and St Beau's Candle, you can trade in your Waxwail for 77 Iron Knife Tokens. Said tradein also incurs a large amount of Wounds, so be careful not to die and lose all your Tokens!

The Waxwail Knife costs many Silver Prize Tokens; 44, to be exact. You steal one Silver Prize every time you successfully stab someone who possesses them. In other words, you'd need a killstreak of 44 kills, only on people with Silver Prizes, to get the Knife.

Occasionally, but not often, a few Silver Prize Tokens are distributed to every player. But not very many! So it's not really worthwhile to count on them.

There is another, much quicker way to get Silver Prize Tokens, though! If you have St Arthur's Candle and a Searing Enigma, you can betray another player with St Arthur's Candle and take all of their Silver Prize Tokens. This is a very rude thing to do, but it's also very quick. It's your call.

One way or another, you will swap your prizes for a knife, your knife for tokens and your tokens for a candle. St Cerise's Candle. I hope you're proud of yourself.


This candle can also be obtained on Winking Isle, at the cost of 77 Fasting and St Destin's Candle.

St Destin's Candle[edit]

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Currently obtainable only through the Hallowmas event.

Choosing the The Name option on the future provided by the Nacreous Outcast gives this candle, along with the Torment destiny.


Also if another player chooses to 'Let their error be eaten', this will grant this candle to the other person at a cost of approximately 200CP in each skill, as well as halving Confident Smiles/Sudden Insights and HALVING THE SENDERS STATS.


This candle can be obtained by consuming your entry when Slowcake's Amanuensis comes to call; but it will cost you 7 Notability, and you must give up your current profession.


It can also be obtained on Winking Isle, at the cost of 77 Fasting and half your stats.


There will be seven ways in total to get this candle; each is worse than the last.

St Erzulie(?)'s Candle[edit]

Probably linked to the 77 Searing Enigma option on any PoSI card involving God's Editors

St Forthigan's Candle[edit]

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Obtained on Winking Isle, accessible by using Mr Eaten's Calling Card at Wolfstack Docks. Going to the Isle requires 100 echoes and for you to be a PoSI. You also need to succeed a Persuasive challenge, difficulty 150.

On the island, there are several options to increase Fasting and Meditating to a Foolish End. One is a luck challenge; 50/50 odds. Success raises Fasting by between 3-10 points, failure lowers it by roughly the same. Both increase Wounds and Nightmares, and if your menaces get too high you may end up stuck on the island. The other options cost extremely expensive items, such as a Vial of Cantigaster Venom or Veils-Velvet Scraps.

Upon reaching Fasting 77, you can trade in your Fasting quality for St Destin's Candle at the cost of half your stats, St Cerise's Candle at the cost of St Destin's candle, or St Forthigan's Candle at the cost of St Destin's Candle and St Cerise's Candle.


A Rat of Glory may also allow you to steal St Forthigan's Candle, at some mysterious future point, or maybe never.

St Gawain's Candle[edit]

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Probably not possible to obtain yet; unlocks an option on the contretemps at a restaurant card.

May never be possible, going off of the alt-text: You will never obtain this candle, and even if you were to do so, you would lose the very head from your shoulders.

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