Painting in Balmoral (Guide)

Late Railroad Content

Painting in Balmoral Summary
Fixed-Length Conversion Activity
Setup				Progress				End
1 A				6 A				2* A
Progress Details			Raise Nostalgic, Luminosity, and Incendiary while you can add Painter's Progress as required for desired payout.
Items Inputs/Outputs Inputs Moonlit Memory of a Much Lesser Self Memory of Light Vital Intelligence Touching Love Story Outputs 2.5 : Thirsty Bombazine Scrap Mourning Candle Sworn Statement Vienna Opening Muscaria Brandy 12.5 : Skeleton with Seven Necks Blackmail Material Cellar of Wine Bazaar Permit Silent Soul Direful Reflection Favour in High Places 62.5 : Night-Whisper Discordant Soul Parabola-Linen Scrap Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise
Raw EPA			5.37			Raw SPA			5

General

Balmoral is found at the fourth station of the Railway. Apart from visiting the local forest (the Moonlit Woods, where you can gain Moonlit for painting) and Balmoral Castle, you can join the artist in the old Distillery in Crathie and take up commissions for Her Enduring Majesty. She has neglected to visit the place since the Fall, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone.

Painting Progress

Your progress towards a finished piece is tracked by Painter's Progress. It is set to 1 when beginning a new commission and when it reaches 7, the painting is finished. This means you have 6 actions to contribute to your work and it takes 8 actions to fully begin and finish a painting. Your painting's style (the reward) is determined by the combinations of Painting: Luminosity, Painting: Nostalgic and Painting: Incendiary.

You have 6 actions to influence your work for every painting. Both success and failure increase Painter's Progress by 1.

Option	Cost	~In	Challenge	Success	Fail
Painter's Progress 0
Undertake a commission
Painter's Progress 1-6
With Moonlight	Moonlit 2 2 x Memory of a Much Lesser Self 10 x Memory of Light	~11.60	Persuasive 200	Luminosity 1	Nostalgic 1
In a subversive cast	1 x Vital Intelligence	12.50	A Player of Chess 4	Incendiary 1	Nostalgic 1
Paint!	5 x Touching Love Story	12.50	Persuasive 200	Nostalgic 1	Incendiary 1
Painter's Progress 7
Complete a commission				Completed Painting

Creating a painting is essentially a 70-75 investment in order to gain different items.

Since both success and failure add one of the three attributes, your painting will always end up with 6 marks in total. The amount and combinations of these determine the rewards.

You must present your Completed Painting before starting another one!

There are small additional rewards for the success of each option:

• Inspired... (+1 CP) for Paint with Moonlight
• 15 x Romantic Notion for Paint Balmoral in a subversive cast and Paint!

Failure consumes the items as well, except for "Paint!" where the penalty is only 3 x Touching Love Stories.

Finishing a painting also increases the Painter of Fine Art quality by 1, tracking the number of paintings you completed and your reputation as an artist.

Rewards

Return to either London or the Helicon House in Ealing Gardens to present your painting. Only a Completed Painting may be presented.

Requirements	Reward	Value ( )
London - Presenting your Painting
Nostalgic at least 4	1 x Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise 1 x Cellar of Wine 2 x Sworn Statement	80
Luminosity at least 4	5 x Vienna Opening 5 x Sworn Statement 1 x Parabola-Linen Scrap 1 x Bazaar Permit	100.20 122.7 w/ Ratket
Incendiary at least 4	1 x Skeleton with Seven Necks 1 x Silent Soul 2 x Thirsty Bombazine Scrap	80
Incendiary 3 Nostalgic 3	1 x Discordant Soul 1 x Direful Reflection 2 x Mourning Candle	17.50 + 1 x Discordant Soul
Incendiary 3 Luminosity 3	1 x Night-Whisper 5 x Vienna Opening 5 x Thirsty Bombazine Scrap 1 x Blackmail Material	100.20 122.7 w/ Ratket
Nostalgic 3 Luminosity 3	1 x Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise 10 x Mourning Candle 1 x Favour in High Places	100
Any other combination	1 x Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise 2 x Favours: Society (up to 7) 5 x Muscaria Brandy	75 + 2 x Favours: Society
A Nascent Opportunity 1 (only once, during story)	Scandal (+5 CP) 5 x Vienna Opening 5 x Sworn Statement	25.20
Helicon House - Display your own painting
Any combination	125 x Hinterland Scrip Inspired... (+ Painting: Luminosity CP) Fitting in at Helicon House + ( Painting: Incendiary - Painting: Nostalgic)

Analysis

Each painting essentially takes at least 9 Actions: one to begin, six to paint, one to complete, and one to sell.

• Traveling to sell your paintings will take 3 Actions, irrelevant on your preference of selling method ( London or The Helicon House).

You have six chances to influence your painting, with each option giving a point of Painter's Progress. Failing checks is not only likely, but encouraged, if you are looking for the best EpA. The following are the listed actions needed for sourcing the necessary items for each option:

• Paint with Moonlight — 4 Actions + 2 x Moonlit (see Irem (Guide) for sourcing)
  • This option presents difficulty as it pretends to Moonlit as a prerequisite. For the time being, it was ignored for the purposes of the guide, but if a compelling method is found, it will be factored in.

• Paint in a subversive cast — 6 Actions (see Old Newgate (Guide) for sourcing)
  • This option is by far the most expensive in terms of Actions and the less rewarding, as both its success and failure offer points in styles easier to gain through the other methods.

• Paint! — 5 Actions (see Irem (Guide) for sourcing)
  • Even so, as mentioned above, the failure on the option to Paint! consumes only 3 x Touching Love Story for one progress and 1 x Incendiary
  • Failure can be used as a cheap option to fill the rest of a painting after gathering 4 of any other desired painting styles.
  • This can be improved through the use of your Kraken in the Lofty Tower card to source 1.5 x Touching Love Stories per Action.

The following is a table detailing the EpA, or SpA, of any end option, using the factors above:

London - Presenting your Painting
Requirements	EPA
Nostalgic at least 4	2.42 2.58 w/ Kraken
Luminosity at least 4	3.03 3.61 w/ Ratket 3.83 w/ Kraken
Incendiary at least 4	4.74 w/ Strategy & Ratket 5.37 w/ Kraken
Incendiary 3 Nostalgic 3	2.5 2.55 w/ Discordant Studies 2.8 w/ Kraken
Incendiary 3 Luminosity 3	3.13 3.72 w/ Ratket 4.09 w/ Kraken
Nostalgic 3 Luminosity 3	2.88
Any other combination	~3.32 w/ Kraken
A Nascent Opportunity 1 (only once, during story)	0.87 1.1 w/ Kraken
Helicon House - Display your own painting
Requirements	SPA
Any combination	4 5 w/ Kraken

Strategy

Considering all prior sourcing, methods, and payment, we can conclude that failure on Paint! six times, and the 4 Incendiary payment are our the best options for EpA:

• Assuming: an initial investment of 7 Brass Skulls, so a start of 437.5 , and that The Diplomat's Current Fascination is birds or skeletons with many skulls.

• One cycle of painting failure (through the use of a Woesel) will cost 18 x Touching Love Story.
  • Thus, with our 6 Incendiary we can choose the payment for 4 Incendiary, which will give us 1 x Skeleton with Seven Necks and 17.5 worth of sellable goods.

• We turn to the Bone Market for a worthy recipe for a Skeleton with Seven Necks.
  • Diplomatic Bird recipe:
    • Skeleton with Seven Necks ✓
    • 7 Brass Skulls ✓
    • 2 Wing of a Young Terror Bird (sourced from Hunting in Burrow or A Composed Composer) ✓

• Traveling to the Khanate (requires a Khaganian Safe-Conduct):
  • Sell your Bird to the Diplomat. This will gain you 1011 Khaganian Coinage.
  • Buy Crackling Devices at a rate of 130 x Khaganian Coinage per device. This will produce around 7.77 Crackling Devices per trip, as this is rounded for multiple trips where coinage adds up.
  • A visit to the Rat Market, if it is in season for Crackling Devices:
    • Sell all your Crackling Devices (7.77 in our given case) for 660.45 as your final payment.

• Total: 4.74 EpA
  • • This can be further improved through the use of the Kraken method.
• Up to 5.37 EpA

If some are wondering about the second best source of EpA, or the best use of Luminosity, that is the 3 x Incendiary, 3 x Luminosity option.

• Total: 3.72 EpA

• • This can be further improved through the use the Kraken method.
• Up to 4.09 EpA

Please note that travel actions were not included for the London - Khanate route