The London Horticultural Show (historical)

It's 1899 (again), and London's rose blooms on. It seems that a celebration of the city's endurance – its survival – is in order. Lady ______ has generously donated the use of her private glasshouse to the London Horticultural Society. For the first time since the Fall, the London Horticultural Show has returned!

The London Horticultural Show was a one-off festival in Fallen London, which began on the 31st of July 1899 (2023). As with the previous year's Estival, the Prelapsarian Exhibition, five new items and various items from the Exhibition, the Grand Clearing Out and the elections were available to purchase for Estival Tokens, and players were given 30 of these at the beginning of the festival.

31st July

"Fallen London is currently running more server instances than we ever have before thanks to your enthusiasm for plants. Never a normal day here, honestly."

– Failbetter Games

The new items introduced for the event were:

• Conspicuously Liveried Carriage, a Mithridacy Transport
• Extensive Collections of Mayoral Campaign Buttons, a Mithridacy Clothing
• Surplussed Giftschrank, a Kataleptic Toxicology Home Comfort
• Heavily Annotated Timetables, an A Player of Chess Weapon
• Khatun-class Electric Launch, an A Player of Chess Transport

Some of the items had game instructions noting they had equivalent stats to other seasonal items; it was elaborated that they were for different roleplayers to have access to their stats. There was a great deal of consternation on the Discord as to why the Electric Launches, a boat, didn't go in the Ship slot, to which the devs replied: "because a boat isn't a ship."

The Show began with the opening of a new carousel, In the Glasshouse, which allowed players to grow plants to compete in the Show. Doing so increased the World Quality Advancing the Horticultural Arts, which unlocked new plants to grow and options for growing them, as well as rewarding players with Horticultural Prestige.

It was revealed via game instructions that the next stage of the event would begin at 12 noon UTC the following day, with the opening ceremony of the show.

1st August

"Sorry I forgot it's estival time and if I make jokes they'll become gospel truth"

– LukeFBG (aka Barse)

The early hours of the morning brought discussions of how difficult it was to read the Advancing the Horticultural Arts requirement on 'Violant wing' lily-caps due to the lack of commas. The situation was not helped when, at 6:05 UTC, Advancing the Horticultural Arts reached 10000, unlocking the 'Violant wing' lily-caps and revealing the Cautionary Orchids with a requirement of 1000000.

The Opening Ceremony

"who's ready to have some nibbles and a glass of something nice"

– HannahFBG

The Opening Ceremony began at 12:00 UTC. His Amused Lordship provided attendees with some wine and gave a speech. Unfortunately, his speech was interrupted when a stalactite fell from the Roof, crushing the Show's greenhouses and a number of bystanders.

Then, because that apparently wasn't bad enough, the stalactite peeled open to reveal an army of Starved Men.

London, Falling

"✍️ add... TLU city... then... destroy it... next... estival..."

– Bruno (FBG)

Everything changed when the Starved Men attacked. It was no longer possible to grow plants for the show, on account of the giant stalactite having crushed the greenhouse. Instead, players could now attempt to help Londoners with various opportunity cards; success on these cards would reduce a new World Quality, London's Ruin - however, London's Ruin also increased passively over time, massively outpacing the player's efforts and rapidly reaching and remaining at its cap of 1 million.

The attack also had an effect on the routes in and out of London. In Moloch Street, players had to gain either Scandal or Wounds to travel to the Hinterlands, and in the Docks they had to either pass a Persuasive check or have a Khatun-class Electric Launch to get to their ships. Initially, there were some issues with the unlocks on the Docks storylet, making it possible for players without a ship to Put to Zee!. This was swiftly corrected, and a storylet added to bring them back to dry land.

In addition to the opportunity cards, players could petition various factions for aid - the Masters, the Palace, the Admiralty, Hell and Sinning Jenny - filling up respective World Qualities. At 14:53 UTC (probably upon their petitioning quality reaching 1.5% of its maximum), the option to petition the Masters switched to being locked by Appealed to the Masters, a quality given by appealing to them - in other words, players were limited to petitioning them once only. At 17:24 UTC, appealing to the Empress similarly locked at 2.5% of its maximum. At 19:03 UTC (and 5%) the option to petition Hell also became single-use only.

At the same time, the text for appealing to Jenny and the Admiralty changed with their World Qualities, with the Admiralty getting more enthusiastic about artillery and Jenny (who was busy running a field hospital) growing ever more despairing at the failure of those with responsibilities to London to actually do anything.

On the Discord, it was revealed that the horticulture activity was essentially a facade, with most of the options and flowers not actually implemented, and that it might or might not return in future. The entire Horticulture Show was just there to allow the event to be advertised without spoiling the surprise inherent in a surprise attack. Also revealed was the real event poster, shown above.

At 21:44, the Admiralty reached 10%, changing the reward for appealing to them from Memory of Distant Shores to Service to London and giving new text. A minute or so later, Jenny also crossed the 10% mark and switched to Service. The amount of Service gained was revealed to depend on in-game progression, with breakpoints at acquiring a ship and reaching Ealing Gardens - and a little later on, a further breakpoint was added for reaching the Hurlers..

Throughout this time, the game had a number of performance issues, with many people unable to login. This was due to the actual underlying database being at maximum capacity for input/output.

2nd August

"I retract all of my previous statements and apologize to Sinning Jenny. This woman is more of a Paramount Presence than I ever could hope or dream to be."

– Sacchi Hikaru

At 4:29 UTC, the Appeals for Aid World Quality for appealing to Jenny reached 100%. At 5:35 UTC, Appeals for Arms also reached 100%, beginning the next stage of the event.. In a dramatic scene, Sinning Jenny arrived at the head of a crowd of people (giving a new Boon, London's Many Hands), beginning to work on helping the injured and repairing the buildings - only to be set upon by the Starved Men. Fortunately, they were saved by the intervention of the Admiralty, in the form of shelling the area.

This opened up new options; the storylet Tending London's Wounds, which gave options to help with the relief efforts, decreasing London's Ruin; and the storylet Fighting London's War, which gave options to fight back against the Starved, raising both London's Ruin and The Defence of London. Options in both storylets rewarded players with Service to London, which could now be exchanged for a variety of rewards in a new storylet, Materials and Materiel.

One option, Lay a botanical trap for the Starved Men, gave both a substantial amount of Service and a vanity quality ( Not So Starved) - however, it was one-time-only and required Attending to the Needs of a Singular Plant 19. Later on in the day the requirements were relaxed so it was also accessible with a Cryptobotanical Rosette.

The Clue Hunt

"The major issue that was causing the entire game to thrash earlier in the event has been resolved by widening the furnace's weasel intake pipe by a factor of 2x, but we are continuing to monitor."

– Bruno (FBG)

From 10 UTC to 11:50, Fallen London had planned downtime to deal with the stability issues that had plagued it the afternoon prior. Unfortunately, the in-universe London had no such stabilisation, a fact noted when, at 15:07 UTC, Jenny confronted the Admiralty leadership about the fact that repeatedly firing artillery at your own city to fight enemies more than capable of surviving artillery blasts was counterproductive. It was decided that what was needed was more information on the enemy - and so the clue hunt returned once more. Much like the Exhibition's hunt, once one player had found and reported a given clue a cryptic hint as to its location would become visible in-game; unlike the last year, however, no amount of turn-ins would convert the hint to an explicit location, and it wasn't necessary to find all the clues to progress the story. Most clues, once turned in enough times, opened up new options on Tending London's Wounds or Fighting London's War, which were much more effective than the originally-available options.

Some clues opened up new options on Materials and Materiel, including Claim an assortment of Starved remains, the first non-FATE-locked source of Rubbery Skulls. Shortly after it was unlocked, people remembered that the skulls could be sold for 62.5 worth of Nightsoil of the Bazaar, making this a ~12 EPA grind. This would be fixed at 2:23 UTC the next day, by making the option only give a skull the first time it was played.

Out of the 20 total clues, 19 of them were found that same day:

• Hidden behind closed doors. - In Mrs Chapmans' Boarding House. First reported to the Discord by Choleric (FL: Name Thief) at 15:18 UTC
• !kathakathoti! - On the Rubbery Men faction card. First reported by The Revered Abolitionist at 15:36 UTC
• Among ruins. - At the end of a Forgotten Quarter expedition. First reported by I'm Also Salt (Amets Estibariz) at 15:28 UTC
• Among the lights and laughter. - In Mrs Plenty's Carnival. First reported to the Discord by 🃏Mr. Cards🃏(IGN: Sans Cipher) at 15:13 UTC
• Where oars bend to water. - On a slow boat. First report unclear.
• Beneath the loam. - In Underclay. First reported by Unsatiable at 15:26 UTC
• Under moonish light. - At Port Cecil. First reported on Discord by Pinstripeowl at 18:59 UTC
• Forgotten. - In the Nadir. First reported by The Revered Abolitionist at 15:58 UTC
• At the tip of a fallen temple. - In Godfall. First reported by LordPaido at 15:22 UTC
• At the frontiers of knowledge. - An experiment in the University Laboratory. First reported to Discord by 🃏Mr. Cards🃏(IGN: Sans Cipher) at 17:01 UTC
• Deep in memory – if you have the right past. - In the Waswood, for players with the Light Fingers Ambition. Reported at 15:14 UTC by DrBones (Prickfinger Flores)
• Downstairs. - In Helicon House. First reported by IGN: Captain Nicholas Lime at 15:18 UTC
• In dreams. - In the Viric Jungle. First reported to the Discord by (IGN) Ambrosine Eathellreda at 15:13 UTC
• Beneath justice. - Diving in the Magistracy of the Evenlode. First report unclear
• In a time yet to come. In the Neon Future of Irem. First reported to the Discord by Finn' at 15:45 UTC
• Through gunsmoke and fire. - Piracy on the Unterzee. First reported to the Discord by 🃏Mr. Cards🃏(IGN: Sans Cipher) at 16:15 UTC
• Deep, and down. - In Flute Street. First reported by Kislev (IGN) at 15:17 UTC
• Up. - In the Ossuary from Upwards, a FATE-locked story. First reported to the Discord by Finn' at 15:12 UTC
• Somewhere meteorological. - On Weather at last for those who had played Written in the Glim. First reported on the forum by sebastianolmen at 15:45 UTC

It was soon confirmed that the reward for finding clues was nothing more than a vanity quality, with its description changing at 1, 3, 6 and 10 clues turned in.

Initially it was possible to miss the Nadir card due to bad luck with the cards; as such, at 16:12 UTC the frequency was raised to High Urgency to guarantee drawing, and FBG offered to wipe the irrigo of anyone who went in there looking for it but missed it

3rd August

"we had to do it to em"

– HannahFBG

The hunt for the final clue continued, with Bruno giving various hints

At 12:23 UTC, a screenshot was posted to the Discord showing that all 20 clues had been discovered. As nobody had reported this discovery, the hint for the clue - Somewhere fungal. - prompted frantic speculation. Eventually, at 12:43 UTC the clue was reported to the Discord by Kislev. It had been missed on prior searches of Mangrove College as it appeared in a storylet only available after completing the FATE-locked Philosofruits carousel seven times, zailing away from the island and then returning.

The final clue's World Quality, Spreading the Word: A Dream of Dancing Lights, reached 100% with the fourth turn-in of the clue at around 13:05 UTC.

During the latter part of the day, it was realised by some who had yet to play the opening ceremony and continued to garden that there was a cap on Advancing the Horticultural Arts of 499999, meaning that the 1000000 needed to unlock the Cautionary Orchids was actually impossible..

Throughout the day, the increased effectiveness of the repairing options brought on by the clues led to London's Ruin tumbling from a million at around 4:55 UTC to 0 at around 6:45 UTC and hovering around there for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, the value of The Defence of London rose from just shy of 700,000 (7%) to around 3,800,000 (38%) over the course of the day.

4th August

"you know, I don't know if the admiralty _really_ needed me to go out to the roof of the neath and blow up a whole raft of the twisty men just to inform them "They're vulnerable to massed cannon fire and getting shot in the face.""

– BrokenLeg

Relatively little happened on this day. The Defence of London continued to rise, and it was revealed that not much would happen initially when it reached 100%, so the devs didn't have to work on the weekend (5th-6th). By the end of the day it had reached around 8,650,000, 86.5%.

Over on Reddit, it was discovered by u/MissBreaker that the Dangerous requirement for the locked Endure option on Stalactite was 500.

5th August

"I can't really see how London is meant to go back to the previous status quo. Like, at all. Our closest trading partner(Hell) did nothing to help, the opulent upper-class did nothing to help, the *Masters did nothing to help*. Instead, London was helped by a sex worker/revolutionary/nun and by an Admiralty they dragged kicking and screaming into actually doing something useful. How would they, logically, ever be able to go back to believing in the previous hierarchy? The French Revolution seems downright sensible under these circumstances"

– Sh0 (The Light-Struck Idealist)

"italians *are* also vulnerable to massed cannon fire. I think you might be onto something."

– BrokenLeg

Very little continued to happen for the first part of the day, with the Discord playing host to a discussion on how people in the Neath might trans their genders. At 6:03 UTC, however, The Defence of London finally reached 100%. A small new stage was unlocked, with the Starved Men mostly driven off or killed and the last few surrendering. Once players moved on to this stage, it was no longer possible for them to find or turn in clues or play Fighting London's War, although Tending London's Wounds remained.

Despite the fact it was a weekend, George FBG made some minor tweaks to the event to make things better for those who had yet to move on to the new stage. He first confirmed that London's Ruin should no longer be increasing over time, and then made changes based around the fact it was now permanently at 0 - he removed the London's Ruin requirement on the previous stage's cards and fiddled around with All Aboard: A Fresh Stoppage to make it less punishing based on stage.

He also confirmed that the new payout option for Godfall, Break fast with Saint Stalactite, would remain available post-event.

6th August

"I still love that the Admiralty decided they couldn't fire the Lost Research Assistant from a cannon, so instead they packed them into a crate for storage... lol"

- Anoran | Doctor Eckhart

"The Assistant, from inside the crate: "Still better then trying to get funding""

- LordPaido

Again, very little happened. At 13:56 UTC, it was confirmed that the next stage would begin at 12 noon UTC the next day.

7th August

"Feed the weasels coffee!!!!"

- Matcha | (FL) Lionel Whittaker

"There is a sign in the server room that expressly forbids that. The weasels keep trying to remove it, but I don't know why."

- George FBG

At 12 UTC, the next stage of the event began. One of the captured Starved shaped themselves to be capable of ordinary speech, and explained that their attack had been an attempt to save the city from "[t]he change of flooding and falling" by reshaping what it was and could be. However, there was another faction of Starved Men who sought to prevent this change by more drastic means - by opening a hole in the Roof and subjecting the city to the light of the Sun.

This was widely agreed to be a Very Bad Thing, and so the Admiralty began construction on an airship fleet to take the fight to the Roof. Players could participate by using options in Station IX (Provisional) to raise the new Disposition of the Air Fleet World Quality, or by going to various nations of the Neath to ask for their aid against this existential threat - which would raise the cap on Disposition of the Air Fleet.

Raising Disposition of the Air Fleet also increased Contributions to the Fleet, which 10 of would unlock a unique item later on. Beginning the new stage also gave players who had participated in Tending London's Wounds a reward for getting London's Ruin to 0, A Hard-Earned Knack for Repair, and locked Tending London's Wounds.

Three of the six nations or factions that could be petitioned - Polythreme, Hell and the Khanate - were soon deduced from newly-visible (but still locked) new options on Materials and Materiel. At 12:10 UTC, Finn' reported an option to petition the Docks. At 12:15, scog and suinicide (Sunnytime) reported options for Godfall and Gaider's Mourn respectively.

• London's Overtures: Hell reached its maximum shortly after 14:00 UTC
• London's Overtures: The Docks reached its maximum shortly after 17:10 UTC
• London's Overtures: Khanate reached its maximum shortly after 17:50 UTC
• London's Overtures: Gaider's Mourn reached its maximum shortly after 18:55 UTC
• London's Overtures: Polythreme reached its maximum shortly after 19:35 UTC

When the new Materials and Materiel options were unlocked, it was soon realised that the Hell option was very profitable due to the fact that five of its main payout, an Eyeless Skull, could be converted into a Ray-Drenched Cinder worth 312.5 , whereas the option valued them at about 30 apiece. At 16:47 UTC, the outrageous profits of this second skull-related EPA miscalculation were bought to a close, with the option being limited so it could only be used 10 times.

Before London's Overtures: Godfall could reach its maximum, Disposition of the Air Fleet reached 10,000,000 at 19:45 UTC, unlocking a new activity. Players could gain a new Affiliation, The Rank of Flight Captain, and lead scouting missions to the Roof in an airship. This lowered Disposition of the Air Fleet but raised Aerial Surveillance, as well as being remarkably profitable. Each of the three airship classes available - the Sparrow-class, the Vigilant-class and the Obliterator-class - was represented by a Boon conferring Aerial Prowess and Aerial Armament corresponding to the speed and weaponry of the class. These qualities were then used in checks in the new scouting activity in At the Command of the (Airship Name). Much excitement was had at the new banner art for the setting of the activity, Warring on the Roof, and at the many, many randomised airship names.

Players with an airship command could spend 20000 Service to London with Perform above and beyond in the field of duty to gain The Admiration of Station IX, which was promised to unlock a unique item later in the event.

Eventually, people realised that the fast, lightly-armed Sparrow, the Employ stealth option and generally avoiding combat was the best strategy for scouting.. In fact, the gap was so large that the Obliterator was buffed at 20:34 UTC, after which there was some discussion of whether it was a good idea to deliberately aim to fail combat checks to make progress whilst gaining Damage to your Airship rather than Fuel Depletion of your Airship in order to travel further.

London's Overtures: Godfall reached its maximum shortly after 21:10 UTC.

Also someone made a remarkably accurate prediction about the final stage of the event.

8th August

"the crew are dying, dead, panicking. Some of them pray to Storm, Stone, Salt, the Drowned Man, anyone please! Some in desperation offer themselves up to the Starved, who accept with but a graceful nod of absolution and a fluke-sign painted over their faces in baptismal amber. Some curse the Starved; others the Admiralty; others your name.

You, meanwhile, await your solo return to London with nothing more but contemplation. Let’s see, based on the distance travel and the landmarks seen…how many more echoes will you be walking away from the crash with this time?"

– Hespiderean, Spiderpope

Not much happened, with Aerial Surveillance rising from 4.8% at the start of the day to 44.5% and Disposition of the Air Fleet rising from 69.5% to 96.5%. At some point, the cap on Disposition of the Air Fleet was raised to 26,000,000, although the target value remained the same..

9th August

"BTW i spent 10 actions changing my ship name from Obliteraor to the "Ran out of Zee to plunder" I was going to try for a badass name, but i feel that works as one kinda. "YEah, i stole so much from the zee there's fucking nothing left there, so i'm coming for you roof bastards""

– Kylestien

Both World Qualities continued to rise, with Disposition reaching its target at 4:23 UTC. At 15:44 UTC, when Surveillance was around 72.7%, George dropped in to say that if the target was reached before noon UTC the next day, the next stage would be delayed until that time to save the devs from having to work unsociable hours.

10th August

"Nah, final phase is getting back to gardening with a single shaft of sunlight hitting the greenhouse through smoked glass, with little holes cut out for the plants that want to photosynthesize."

- Finvaara (IGN: Professor Varald)

"Photosynthesis? That's a myth made by envious surface horticulturalists..."

- IGN: Qu1cKsAnD (Correspondent)

Excitement built as the next stage approached, with at least one prophetic joke and Aerial Surveillance reaching the target at 6:25 UTC.

Into the Cold, Black Yonder

"Is something happening today? I forget."

- George FBG

At 12:00 UTC, the next stage of the attack began. Players could receive the plan of attack from the Overworked Commodore (and speculate luridly about the grisly nature of the weapon), before the tail end of the briefing was interrupted by Mr Pages, Mr Iron and Mr Fires finally turning up to help. The Air Fleet then set off, fighting their way through the Starved Men to reach the weapon, with various beneficial options being unlocked by having recruited allies. The Masters took flight and killed a great many Starved Men, and finally the player broke free and could get in shelling range of the weapon.

It was a giant eyeball, intended to focus and disperse the sunlight across London. As it slowly opened, firing at it proved ineffective - and with their airships taking heavy damage, players were left with only two options: set their airship on a collision course with the eye and jump off, to die safely on the Neath floor; or to crash into it and go down with their ships.

Both courses of action gave the player 80 Wounds, and sent them to the Boatman. There they met with the Starved Lithologer, and the Boatman revealed that London had indeed survived. Many chose to celebrate this by standing up, hollering, and singing an extended series of boisterous songs.

Epilogue

"The ending of this event was so good it made me not stick around for EPA. It made me, the high epa want guy, not strick around for higher then usual epa."

- Kylestien

Players had one last chance to turn in Service to London before playing the epilogue. The people of London had, without anyone particularly deciding it should happen, created a community garden out of airship debris, which the players could visit. Shortly after, a Starved Man arrived and, despite the natural tension, planted a Starved Rose as a gesture of peace and goodwill.

Afterwards, players could visit the new Starved Embassy to exchange gifts with the Starved Men. Doing so raised A Shaper of Starved Culture, which at 6 unlocked an option to obtain an event-specific item, the Amber Ambassador's Seal. However, as this could only be done once per Time the Healer, it was soon realised it would take a while for this to happen.. Also available was a card, Rocs' Graveyard, unlocked by The Admiration of Station IX, on which players could visit the wreckage of their airship, and recieve the reward item The Final Resting Place of an Old Friend. Finally, they could attend the London Horticultural Show Awards Ceremony and recieve Honorary Membership in the London Horticultural Society and their Horticultural Prestige paid out in wines from His Amused Lordship's stockpile.

An announcement was made that it would remain possible to begin the event until Monday the 14th, and possible to complete it until the 21st..

21st August

The event closed on the 21st of August, with the World Qualities at these their final values:

• Advancing the Horticultural Arts: 269500
• Appeals for Aid: 2146634, 214.7% of the target
• Appeals for Arms: 2047320, 204.7% of the target
• Appeals for Amnesty: 59470, 5.9% of the 'target'
• Appeals for Assistance: 78680, 7.9% of the 'target'
• Appeals to Authority: 54000, 5.4% of the 'target'
• Disposition of the Air Fleet: 32228779, 161.1% of the target
• Aerial Surveillance: 23696050, 237.0% of the target

References