# The Prelapsarian Museum (Guide)

This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
What needs work: needs further analysis of identifying bones for mid-game players

The Museum of Prelapsarian History is a location released during the F.F. Gebrandt's Prelapsarian Exhibition event in the summer of 1899 (2022). It has a variety of options available, most of which focus around Curator's Gratitude. Each point of Gratitude is worth 0.01 , and may be cashed in with the 0-action options available in Speak with Gebrandt, the Museum Curator.

## Curator's Gratitude Gain

Gratitude can be gained in three main ways: by identifying bones in The Osteology Lab, which requires a Volume of your Cryptopalaeontological Work (see Embarking on a Voyage of Scientific Discovery (Guide)) and some bones; by donating relics in The Archaeology Wing; or by hunting and destroying rogue ushabtiu for The Department of Menace Eradication.

### Identifying Bones

Two bones can be identified: Femurs of a Jurassic Beast and Fossilised Forelimbs. Each follows the same process:

1. Build up Identifying... with various options in the storylet, then
2. Either Assert that the specimen is (first option) or Assert that the creature is (second option), which resets Identifying... on success;
3. Repeat this process twice more; and then
4. Complete a monograph on the subject to receive your reward of Gratitude.
Identifying... options Challenge Success Failure
Catalogue its morphology 120  +3 +1
Analyse its composition <4
• +4,
• -10
+1
Compare its anatomy to extant creatures +4 +1
Request help from a University colleague 180  +6 +1

Each of the identification options has a Narrow challenge of Identifying... – that is, your chance of success is one-tenth of your level of Identifying.... The strategy is to only spend one action on Identifying... and then keep Asserting. While the probability seems low, it is actually more efficient to attempt the low probability check than to spend more actions on increasing Identifying... for more than a couple of levels since the CP per level keeps increasing. In general, choose the option that has the highest success chance and get to Identifying... before asserting.

Following this strategy, you'll spend 1 action beginning your identification; then complete 3 cycles of Identifying.../Asserting (each time spending 1 action to gain Identifying... followed by repeated attempts at Asserting[1]); and finally 1 action to Complete a monograph on the subject.

With 200 Watchful (if you are looking at Curator's Gratitude as a source of Bessemer Steel Ingots then you will have this anyway), Catalogue its morphology once and assert an average of 4.04 times. Repeat 3 times for a total of 17.12 actions per bone identified.

If you have Kataleptic Toxicology or higher, it is more efficient EPA-wise to spend 10 x Flask of Abominable Salts once and then assert an average of 3.80 times. Repeat 3 times for a total of 16.40 actions per bone identified. The Monstrous Anatomy check is not worth doing unless you have at least 10 Monstrous Anatomy which is a stretch without event and endgame equipment.

If you have 300 Persuasive the check on Request help from a University colleague is 100%, the optimal strategy is to request once and then assert an average of 3.12 times, for a total of 14.37 actions per bone identified. At lower Persuasive, Request help from a University colleague technically gains more Identifying... than Catalogue its morphology at 120 Persuasive on average, but the idea is to succeed once and move on so unless you are feeling lucky you shouldn't do this (we all know that feeling). It also gives +1 CP Scandal per failure to deal with.

The Femur of a Jurassic Beast has a payout of 6500 x Gratitude, while Fossilised Forelimbs have a payout of 8750 x Gratitude. With the optimal strategy, this reaches 3.13 EPA with Forelimbs purchased from Anning and Daughters[2]. Forelimbs will generally be less efficient than Femurs of a Jurassic Beast, unless your best source requires more than 6.4 actions per Femur on average (unlikely by the time you have access to Anning and Daughters; see Osteology Grinding (Guide) for more information).

The peak for identifying femurs would appear to be 4.28 EPA, if managing 12 Femur of a Jurassic Beast in 10 actions from Brawling with Dockers ( 292 Dangerous required to 100% the checks, Flash your Special Dispensation or MAGCATS option once, then Fight without taking your eye off the goods! 8 times)[3].

1. Calculating the expected number of attempts required is complicated by the fact that failing to Assert that the specimen is (whatever) gives +1 CP Identifying..., and thus your probability of success increases with repeated failures. The precise expected number of assertions is given by the delightful formula
${\displaystyle \sum _{n=x}^{55}\left((1+n-x)\times {\frac {\left\lfloor {\frac {-1+{\sqrt {1+8n}}}{2}}\right\rfloor }{10}}\times \prod _{m=x}^{n-1}\left(1-{\frac {\left\lfloor {\frac {-1+{\sqrt {1+8m}}}{2}}\right\rfloor }{10}}\right)\right)}$
where ${\displaystyle x}$ is your starting CP of Identifying....
2. A Forelimb costs 85 Scrip, equivalent to 4250 Gratitude, so the net gain is 8750 − 4250 = 4500 Gratitude over a 14.37-action identification process, giving approx. 313 Gratitude per action or 3.13 EPA.
3. Assuming 10/12 = 0.83... actions per Femur, the payout is 6500 Gratitude over a 15.20-action identification process, giving approx. 428 Gratitude per action or 4.28 EPA.

### Donating Artefacts

Three kinds of relic can be donated; Second City, Third City and Fourth City. Each option allows you to donate 3 worth of one type of relic, and recieve in return 300+ Base Persuasive Gratitude. Thus, although buying relics from the Bazaar to donate results in a net loss of value, and more endgame options will give better value for the relics, this is reasonably profitable - especially for those with high base stats but without equipment good enough for identifying bones.

### Hunting Ushabtiu

At The Department of Menace Eradication you can accept a contract to hunt down a stray Malicious Ushabti. Choosing to Destroy the d__ned thing! upon successful conclusion of your hunt gives a bounty of 800 Gratitude. See Department of Menace Eradication (Guide) for details.

## Cashing in Gratitude

There are several options for cashing in Gratitude.

Option Gratitude cost Payout
Enter an agreement for the production of steel 1000 x 20
Ask Gebrandt for her help with a chemical conundrum 1250 x 5
Secure a shipment of dubiously preserved food 5200
• x 15
• x 29
Converse on the Correspondence 7600
• x 1
• x 1
Discuss business – yours, specifically 1450
• x 1
• x 10

Note that the food option pays out in items sellable for Hinterland Scrip; as such, bone identification with Fossilised Forelimbs is a self-sustaining 6 SPA grind. This is also the best source of Venom-Rubies in the game by a significant margin, and only slightly underperforms Professional Activities as a source of Bessemer Steel Ingots - and even then has much less strenous requirements.

In addition to these, there is a one-off option to exchange 10000 Gratitude and a full set of 7 filled Mirrorcatch boxes for F.F. Gebrandt's Patent Neathoscope, Containing and Displaying All Seven Colours of Exotic Light (a Home Comfort), and another one-off option to exchange 50000 Gratitude for F.F. Gebrandt's Patent Illuminating Cap (a Monstrous Anatomy Hat).

## Other Actions

There are a variety of other options available within the museum. In The Natural History Wing, Stroll in the garden of bones gives Base Watchful/2 x Cryptic Clues. In The Inorganic Sciences Wing, Have a taste of the Toxicology Exhibit gives an average of 2.4 CP of Wounds, and has a 10% chance of giving an Emetic Revelation, and Gaze into the Neathoscope gives ~1.57 CP of Nightmares along with other minor effects, making these interesting options for Hallowmas.

The Archaeology Wing also has an option to exchange an Unprovenanced Artefact and x 375 Cryptic Clue (total sell value 10 ) for one of 10 random items. Most are worth 12.50 , some are harder to convert into other things, and a couple ( Emetic Revelation and Memory of a Shadow in Varchas) are otherwise difficult to obtain. On a rare success, this instead gives one of 5 random 62.50 items.