Upwards (Guide)

FATE-locked Mid PoSI Content

Upwards Summary
Locked Limited-Length Activity
Setup				Progress				End
1 A				5+ A				1 A
Progress Details			Raise your Dig Progress to 5 two times.
Items Inputs/Outputs Inputs Cartographer's Hoard Boosting Favour in High Places Nodule of Warm Amber Outputs 1 x Pentagrammic Skull 1900 x Bone Fragments 1 x Five-Pointed Ribcage
Raw EPA						3.5

Note: Upwards is Fate-locked. This means that no narrative text may be recorded on the wiki. As such, this is a purely mechanical guide with images instead.

Upwards is a story that can either be picked up from The Bone Market or from the Purchase Stories tab on the Fate page for 25 Fate.

Getting There

You will need the following items in order to complete the first run through the dig:
3 x Parabolan Orange-apple
3 x Strong-Backed Labour
3 x Favour in High Places
2 x Uncanny Incunabulum

Ideally, you should be able to reliably pass Difficulty 150-160 Dangerous and Persuasive checks. If you don't have 230+ in both of those stats, it might be useful to stock up on Favours: Hell, Favours: Bohemians, Favour in High Places, and Nodule of Warm Amber. You can bypass some checks by spending those favours, and skip a full cycle once per dig with a Favour in High Places.

1. The story starts in the Bone Market.
2. Go to the Department of Menace Eradication, look for the next storylet. You will spend the Apples, Labour, Favours, and Incunabulum at this point to put together supplies for the dig.
3. Once done with all that, head to the Forgotten Quarter. Players often miss the story text guiding them to go here, and end up lost looking for the next step. But once you have completed the step at the Department of Menace Eradication, you want to go to the Forgotten Quarter.
4. Complete three cycles of Dig Level to get to complete the dig.
5. Finish the path up the Ossuary, make a choice (the choice has no mechanical impact), and return to London. Enjoy your Five-Pointed Ribcage reward.

Digging

There are three qualities you care about during the dig:

• Dig Level - This is how many cycles you've finished. You need 3 to complete the first dig, and 2 for subsequent ones.
• Dig Progress - You need to get this to 5 to increase your Dig Level.
• Effrontery of the Starved Men - (ESM) A pseudo-Menace. When this gets to 4, your dig ends.
  

When you're on a dig, you have the following options:

Storylet image	Challenge / Requirements	Reward
	Persuasive 150 + 10 * ESM	+2 Dig Progress +1 ESM No progress on failure.
	Dangerous 150 + 10 * ESM	+1 Dig Progress -1 ESM No progress and +1 ESM instead of -1 on failure.
	Favour in High Places Only once per dig	+5 Dig Progress -3 ESM
	Favours: Bohemians	+2 Dig Progress +1 ESM
	Favours: Hell	+2 Dig Progress +1 ESM
	x 25 Nodule of Warm Amber	-1 ESM
	Dig Progress x 5	Dig Level +1
	Dig Level 2	Pentagrammic Skull x 1900 Bone Fragments
	Dig Level 2	Five-Pointed Ribcage
		Ends the dig, returns to London, costs 0 Actions.

Second Dig

Once you finish your first dig, you can return to the Forgotten Quarter to do more. In order to unlock the ability to do further digs, you need to spend either x 1 Cellar of Wine and x 2 Vital Intelligence, or x 1 Blackmail Material and x 2 Uncanny Incunabulum, depending on a choice made at the end (intervened or agreed respectively). You can get Vital Intelligence by Hunting Bees in Old Newgate. 100 Bees can be turned in for a Vital Intelligence. After paying this cost, starting a new dig is free.

If you want to get another Five-Pointed Ribcage, you'll need to bring a Cartographer's Hoard with you. You spend the Hoard at the end of the dig when you're choosing a reward.

Strategy

When first completing the dig, the fastest and cheapest way to finish the dig is to alternate between Persuasive and Dangerous checks, doing 2 Persuasive and 1 Dangerous for each Dig Level. Start with Persuasive checks, and for Dig Levels 2 and 3, do the Dangerous check first. If you ever fail a check, either spend Amber or Favours in High Places to reduce ESM and try again.

On subsequent digs, you can do much the same thing, but since you only need 2 Dig Levels, it's much faster and safer. A pattern of Persuasive, Dangerous, Persuasive, Dangerous, Persuasive, Persuasive minimises the value of ESM and makes the checks a bit easier.

You can stay at the dig site as long as you want. It costs 1 action to travel there, but once there, you can do as many digs as you want before returning to London. You'll need one Cartographer's Hoard for each Five-Pointed Ribcage you want, but you can get Pentagrammic Skulls for free.

It takes 1 action to start a dig, 4 for each Dig Level, and 1 to claim a reward. Your first Skull in each dig session costs 10 actions, each subsequent one costs 9. If you're a Licentiate or otherwise have an abundance of Headless Skeletons, it will take 4 actions to assemble and sell a basic Humanoid with a Pentagrammic Skull. This will give you 22.5 in Nightsoil of the Bazaar and Basket of Rubbery Pies if you trade it to the Rubbery Collector, for a total of 41.5 in 13 actions, for 3.19 EPA.