Polythreme (Guide)

(Click here to see the old guide to Polythreme by PotatoEngineer)

PreparationsEdit

Before leaving consider that while in Polythreme:

• you cannot access the Bazaar
• you cannot use item from your inventory except changing gear
• you cannot send, get or answer social actions
• you cannot reduce menaces (if one rises to 8 you will feel the consequences the second you get back to London)
• you cannot gain second chances

Here is a spoiler free list of items that you might want to aquire before heading out to avoid leaving Polythreme not having done what you came for. Continue reading the guide to find out what they are for if you will.

• Screaming Map (!)
• Mysteries of the Elder Continent
• Volume of Collated Research
• Battered Grey Overcoat
• Exceptional Hat
• The Jack-of-Smiles Case 10
• Ambition: Heart's Desire! 13
• Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise

Getting to PolythremeEdit

There are two ways to reach the Polythreme Streets:

1. The first is to buy a ticket on the tramp steamer at Wolfstack Docks using 150 Map Scraps. Then build your Approaching Journey's End quality to 9, using the various cards and storylets aboard the Tramp Steamer. Once it is at 9, the There at last! storylet will open up. Selecting Polythreme there will place you in the Polythreme Streets.

1. The second method requires a ship of your own (check the PoSI Item Crafting guide to see how to get one) and an assembled Screaming Map. Put to Zee! at Wolfstack Docks and enter The Broad Unterzee with its own cards. Raise Approaching Journey's End to 7, then select The Sea of Voices to move on. Again, this Sea has its own cards. Complete another journey and once Across the Sea of Voices, pick Polythreme in order to finally arrive at Polythreme Streets.

Story LinesEdit

There are a handful of storylines to follow:

• The Jack-of-Smiles Case winds through Polythreme.
• The Heart's Desire Ambition requires a visit to Polythreme.
• Turn an Exceptional Hat into an Unfinished Hat by learning about Unfinished Men via An Unfinished Story .

• Turn a Battered Grey Overcoat into a Moderately Co-operative Clothes Colony at The Clothes-Colony.

• Do A Little Spy Work, adding Fractious Furniture to the opportunity card deck.

• Take A Guided Tour of Polythreme, adding The Zailors at Polythreme's Harbour to the opportunity card deck.

Basic Mechanics and ActionsEdit

And here is how: Polythreme revolves around Fascinating... (F) and Investigating... (I) as there are only two things to do that do not concern with these progress qualities:

Leaving the IslandEdit

• board the Tramp Steamer for 80 Surface-Silk Scraps (8.00 Echoes)

• journey home on your own ship

One Might Profit Even in Such a PlaceEdit

Pick up Surface-Silk Scraps and Romantic Notions here to grind or spend extra actions.

Option	Challenge	Success	Failure
Make off with a box of silks	Dangerous 80	+8 Surface-Silk Scrap	1 CP Suspicion
Observe the camaraderie of objects	Watchful 80	+8 Romantic Notion	1 CP Nightmares
Soft to the touch	Persuasive 120	+12 Surface-Silk Scrap	1 CP Scandal
Lurk in the eaves	Shadowy 120	+12 Romantic Notion	-

Unnatural Exuberance CarouselEdit

To access or advance any of the Polythreme Story Lines you need to complete a 12 action carousel consisting of Beginning your Polythremic Promenade (giving you 11 Unnatural Exuberance (UE), 10 actions reducing these to 1 while changing your F/I and a last action to collect rewards or advance a story.

Raising Fascinating and InvestigatingEdit

The various ways to increase F/I are:

• The entire opportunity card deck consists of F/I changing actions, most of them luck-based (see Opportunity Cards Overview). Note that you can add/remove the Fractious Furniture and The Zailors at Polythreme's Harbour cards to/from the deck by starting/finishing the A Little Spy Work and A Guided Tour of Polythreme stories. Since the opportunity card deck in Polythreme is only between 6 and 8 cards thick this makes a great difference. So think about your stats and what you want to do before adding these to the deck.

• You can exchange Fascinating for Investigating (A Clay Man of Wealth and Influence) or vice versa (Robes and Belts and Masks And Mantles) as soon as you have a single (!) CP of one of them. This costs up to 10 CP of the undesired quality and gain 12 or 8 CP on the other side (50/50).
• Buy F/I at Paying Your Way. Here you can pay to dependably raise Fascinating... or Investigating... by 10 CP. All options are 50/50 luck challenges that, if successful, will raise the other quality by 10 CP also. Note that you can get most of the items needed on the One Might Profit Even in Such a Place storylet, which doesn't cost UE.

UE range	Cost	raise Fascinating...	raise Investigating...
11-8 (4)	25 Surface-Silk Scraps (2.50 Echoes)	Give surface-silk to Clay Men	Offer silks to a clothes-colony
7-5 (3)	50 Romantic Notions (5.00)	Spread tales of love and glamour	Speak of romance to an empty garden
4-2 (3)	25 Mysteries of the Elder Continent (12.50)	Speak of the Elder Continent at Arcimboldo's
4-2 (3)	5 Volumes of Collated Research (12.50)		Present your findings to an academic gone native

Spending Fascinating and InvestigatingEdit

Once you reach your last UE you cash in whatever F/I you gathered:

• Spending your Time

The required number of CP for the relevant levels are (91 CP for lvl13), (78 for 12), (36 for 8) and (28 for 7). It therefore seems easier to get F8/I8 than F12 or I12 (36+36=72 vs 78) but since most cards raise one quality while reducing the other it is not.

The highest rewards, easily obtainable if you draw the right opportunity cards, will result in 2.08 Echoes per action. However, this number decreases dramatically if you have to discard cards because each opportunity cards you do not play means an unused action that you have to sink into One Might Profit Even in Such a Place for 1.20 E/A. your overall performance in Polythreme therefore depends significantly on your Lodgings since having more cards slots means you can keep more unwanted cards in your hand and hopefully draw a useful one from a smaller deck.

[Insert heaps of math concerning what cards to play and what luck challenges can be failed while still reaching F/I13 here. There's some discussion on this here.]

• Advancing Stories

All of the listed storylets become available with exactly 1 UE. Playing any option will remove that last one and finish the cycle.

Story	Storylet	Progress	Option	Requirement	Reward
The Jack-of-Smiles Case	Jack's House	10 -> 11	Found it	12	-
	The Ironmonger's Workshop	11 -> 12	Find out its history	12	-
	The rest of this story here does not require F/I
Ambition: Heart's Desire	Heart's Desire - Seeking the Manager's Beloved	13 -> 14	Clay wisdom	12	-
	Heart's Desire - Gaining an Audience	14 -> 15	A gift for a king	12	-1 Bottle of Fourth City Airag
	Heart's Desire - Meeting the King	15 -> 16	Upwards	12	-
	Heart's Desire - Walking in the Garden	16 -> 17	Looking in the garden	12	+100 CP Walking the Falling Cities
	Heart's Desire - The End of Memory	17 -> 18	Meeting the King	12	1 First City Coin
An Unfinished Story	A Clay Snub	0 -> 1	A Clay Pariah	12	5 Identities Uncovered
	Investigating the Unfinished	1 -> 2	Go looking	12	5 Extraordinary Implications
	An Unusual Approach to Reproduction	2 -> 3	How literal were his words?	12	5 Extraordinary Implications
	The Unfinished Birth	3 -> 4	But where?	12	5 Touching Love Stories, +100 CP Touched by Fingerwork
	Eyes Everywhere	4 -> 5	From across white walls	12	5 Extraordinary Implications
	The Unfinished Fugitive	5 -> 6	Agree to his bargain	12	upgrade Exceptional Hat
		5 -> 7	Refuse him	12, Ruthless 1	40 Whisper-Satin Scraps, +(1-2) CP The Masters, +? CP Ruthless, Mired in Clay 1 - Hated
The Clothes-Colony			A helping hem	12	upgrade Battered Grey Overcoat
Spying on Polythreme	A Little Spy Work	0 -> 1	Find out who's here	12	26 Memories of Distant Shores, (unlocks Fractious Furniture)
			Get more details about the players	13, PoSI	51 Memories of Distant Shores, (unlocks Fractious Furniture)
	Looking a Little Deeper	1 -> 2	Ask around	12	26 Memories of Distant Shores
			Look to buildings	13, PoSI	51 Memories of Distant Shores
	Making your Report	2 -> 0	For your own records	12	26 Memories of Distant Shores
			Report to the Masters of the Bazaar	13, PoSI	51 Memories of Distant Shores
			Report to Revolutionaries	13, PoSI	51 Memories of Distant Shores, 1 Revolutionaries
			Report to the Brass Embassy	13, PoSI	51 Memories of Distant Shores, 1 Hell
Writing of your Polythreme Travels	A Guided Tour of Polythreme	0 -> 1	Speak to a few natives	12	26 Memories of Distant Shores, (unlocks The Zailors...)
			Speak to everyone you meet	13, PoSI	51 Memories of Distant Shores, (unlocks The Zailors...)
	The Deeper Questions	1 -> 2	Speak to those who'll offer opinions	12	26 Memories of Distant Shores
			Speak to those who know	13, PoSI	51 Memories of Distant Shores
	Finishing your Travelogue	2 -> 0	An island of importunate horrors	12	26 Memories of Distant Shores, Mired in Clay 2 - Feared
			A strange place, but no better or worse than any other	12	26 Memories of Distant Shores, Mired in Clay 3 - An Enigma
			A wonderland	12	26 Memories of Distant Shores, Mired in Clay 4 - Respected

Note that all of the story lines require F12 or I12 but not all offer a PoSI option needing F13 or I13. Therefore; it is smart to spend a lvl12 round on a story that only has a lvl12 option even if it is not the one you wanted to advance right now (or just get a lvl13 reward from Spending your Time). But you would rob yourself of the chance to advance that story with a lvl13 round for double the item reward just as it would be a huge waste of a lvl13 round to advance a lvl12-only story since you throw away half of your item reward. Regardless of how you cash in your F/I, you will lose all of it with your last UE. There is no way to Begin your Polythremic Promenade with any amount of F/I.

If, maybe because of bad luck, you will reach neither F7/I7, F12 nor I12 you can spend small amounts of F/I via some of the opportunity cards to increase the round's revenue. Picking up 20 Surface-Silk Scraps requires 10 CP of F or I, while getting 60 Romantic Notions requires at least F8 or I8 and costs all of it. Remember that you will be able to gain 65 Maniac's Prayers at Spending your Time no matter how low your F/I is.

Opportunity Cards OverviewEdit

	Card	Option	Req	Challenge	Success	Failure
	At the Market	Attract attention at the market		Luck 70%	+10 CP -5 CP	+5 CP -5 CP
		Wander around the market	4		-10 CP 20
	The Temple	Have a look around the temple		Luck 70%	+10 CP -5 CP	+5 CP  -5 CP
		Poke around the grounds	4		-10 CP 20
	The Priest at the Temple	Speak of his spiritual work		Luck 50%	+15 CP	+2 CP -10 CP
		Speak to the Clay priest of matters romantic	8		Reset 60
	The Ruin	The walls are rattling		Luck 50%	+15 CP	+2 CP -10 CP
		What's that fluttering?	8		Reset 60
	Fractious Furniture - Examine the carvings		Spying on Polythreme 1	Shadowy 120	+10 CP -5 CP	-
	The Zailors at Polythreme's Harbour - Speak with the zailors		Writing of your Polythreme Travels 1	Persuasive 120	+10 CP -5 CP	-
	The Masked Man - Bid him a good morning			Luck 70%	+5 CP +5 CP	-
	The Wax Wind Comes - Crouching in a low stone building			Luck 50%	+5 CP	+5 CP