The London Horticultural Show (Guide)

Join the crowds drifting towards Watchmaker's Hill to see the botanical wonders of the Neath

The London Horticultural Show is London's summer festival in 2023. It commenced on July 31th and completed on August 21st.

• See The London Horticultural Show (historical) for a day to day recap of the events.

Event qualities

Currently active qualities

• is earned by buying as well as the storylet to gain your 30 free ones.
  • are the currency used to purchase event items (see Estival item guide - in progress). All players receive 30 Tokens for free from the storylet Donate some old garden tools, and additional Tokens may be purchased with Fate at a 1:1 exchange rate, or sent to other players at the same cost. Unused Tokens will not disappear after the Show and can be used at next year's summer event.

• indicates that the starved men have begun their attack.
• The state of emergency.
• is increased by playing actions in Station IX (Provisional) and lowered by Engage in a Reconnaissance Flight
• is increased by Engage in a Reconnaissance Flight

Boon

Advancing the story-line up past soliciting for help will grant the following boon:

• Dangerous +10
• Persuasive +10

Several airships can be picked and applied as a boon:

• Aerial Prowess +50
• Aerial Armament +100

• Aerial Prowess +75
• Aerial Armament +75

• Aerial Prowess +100
• Aerial Armament +50

Previously active qualities

• Growing Plants
  • is earned by participating in plant growing in the In the Glasshouse.
• Pleads for assistance - Raise these by talking to the relevant groups.
  • Raised by appealing to the Masters.
  • Raised by appealing to the Admiralty.
  • Raised by appealing to Sinning Jenny.
  • Raised by appealing to the Brass Embassy.
  • Raised by appealing to the Empress' court.
• First Stage of the War
  • is lowered by playing opportunity cards that are generated by the event, or later Tending London's Wounds.
  • is increased by Fighting London's War.
  • is increased by Tending London's Wounds.
• Clues
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• Soliciting Allies
  • - Soliciting the Khanate for help
  • - Soliciting Polythreme for help.
  • - Soliciting Godfall for help
  • - Soliciting Hell for help
  • - Soliciting the dockers for help
  • - Soliciting Pirates for help.

Activities

Currently Active

Station IX

Formerly the University Cricket Field

At , you can take actions to increase the . Some options cost resources, one costs a favour, and some just cost actions, but they all reward . They also all increase your , which allows you to at 10, unlocking Reconnaissance Flights.

Station IX

Option	Cost	Reward	Net Service	World Quality Changes	Requirements
Help the Admiralty Prepare	N/A	50-612 Service (Scaling)
Help the Horticultural Society donate an indispensable amount to the war effort		50-646 Service (Scaling)	-
Supply the Admiralty with provisions		932 Service	692 Service
Provide the Admiralty with powder and ballast		646 Service	396 Service
Call in favours from the Docks		1000 Service	313 Service

Reconnaissance Flights

Once you have a Command, you can choose an Airship. Your choice of airships determines your and , which will be used for challenges on flights.

At the Command of an Airship

Once you have chosen your airship, you can launch it at station IX with and take to the air to scout out the roof.

There are two states to manage: No Danger, and 'Under Attack, and two menaces to watch out for:

• - Most actions increase this
• - Getting attacked will increase this.

If either of these hits 8, you will have to make an emergency landing, and may take wounds. Turning back ends the excursion immediately, but cannot be done while you are under attack.

The difficulty for the various checks will increase the further away from the station you go.

At the Command of an Airship

No Danger
Option	Challenge	Pass	Failure
Employ speed		+3 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion	+2 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion
Employ stealth		+3 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion	+2 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion
Go looking for trouble	At least	+2 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion
Return to base	N/A	Returns to Base Clears Airship Menaces
Under Attack
A success can sometimes lose your attacker.
Option	Challenge	Pass	Failure
Stay at range and return fire		+3 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion	+2 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion +4 CP  Airship Damage
Engage the enemy directly		+3 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion	+2 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion +2 CP  Airship Damage
Evade their attacks		+3 CP  Far Afield +1 CP  Fuel Depletion	+2 CP  Far Afield +4 CP  Airship Damage
Sighting the Castles
Option	Req	Reward
Sight one of the castles on the roof	30/55/80/105
Menaces Hit 8
Option	Challenge	Pass	Failure
Return to base under emergency power 8	50%	Returns to Base Clears Airship Menaces	Returns to Base Clears Airship Menaces
Attempt an emergency retreat! 8		Returns to Base Clears Airship Menaces	Returns to Base Clears Airship Menaces

Once you return back, you will need to turn in your surveys with Report your observations before you are allowed to fly again. This will gain you (10 * Surveys + 1250 * Sightings) x .

Strategy

The Sparrow-class is the best airship option, as outside of combat there are only checks and in combat the available Prowess and Armament checks are of equal difficulty (and harder than the non-combat checks, so it's better to avoid combat).

When traveling, for all but early game characters with low Shadowy, the best option (regardless of airship class) is always Employ stealth, since the Prowess check is easier. The optimal strategy with the Sparrow-class, with any values of Shadowy and Watchful, is to keep going until you hit the third and then turn back, since at that point the chance of entering combat becomes significant, and combat has harder checks, with greater likelihood of failing and making less progress per action. For characters flying non-Sparrow-class airships, it generally makes sense to turn back after the second Landmark instead, though Vigilant pilots with 250+ Shadowy may reasonably go for 3.

If you do enter combat, with the Sparrow-class the best option is to Evade their attacks until you get out of combat.

Previous Activities

Previous activities can be done as long as the player does not advance their war effort past the required stage.

Plant Growing

Come grow plants in the greenhouse and raise your .

is where the plant-growing activities are located. First you select a plant from options with varying levels of . This determines the challenge difficulty as well as the payout at the end. Each action will increase , until it reaches 8, at which point you , which will reward you with , which will be used to turn in for rewards. As well as growing your plant, each action will also increase , which will unlock a new plant and a plant-growing option.

Your choice of plant determines your , but it also determines your and , which unlock certain growing options.

Plant Choices

Option	Requirements	Light Preference	Classification	Difficulty	Prestige
'Purple Maiden' lily-caps		Dark	Fungi	20	491
A cutting from your Singular Plant	10	Shaded	Plantae	50	1617
'Marigold Madness' lily-caps		Dark	Fungi	70	2504
Peppercaps, hopefully prize-winning	1	Dark	Fungi	100	3981
'Violant wing' lily-caps	100000	Dark	Fungi	150	6744
'Golden screamer' mandrakes		Direct Sunlight	Plantae	200	9803
Cautionary Orchids	1000000

The given when you present your plant scales with its , with the formula $Prestige=10\times (Difficulty^{1.3})$.

Different options are available based on your level of , and they have their own requirements and challenges, but they all give 2 CP of Growing a Prized Plant on success.

Plant Growing

Option		Challenge	Requirements
Divine its needs	1-4	Broad
Prepare the soil	1-4	Broad
Secure vital nutrition for your precious plant	2-5	Broad
Sing to it	3-6	Broad
Give it some artificial light	4-7	Broad	Sunlight preference, 10x (the lightbulbs will not be used)
Let it rest in a cool, dark place	4-7	Broad	Dark preference
Employ forbidden horticultural techniques	6-7	Narrow
Dose it with a very gentle application of toxins	6-7	Narrow , unknown difficulty	10000000
Make a legalistic argument about your competition's eligibility	7	Broad , unknown difficulty Narrow , unknown difficulty	Plantae classification
Cajole the judges	7	Broad

Plead for Assistance

You can ask several different people for assistance in the war against the starved men.

• Appeal to the Admiralty in
  • Raises , which caps at 1000000, a global quality.
  • Grants
  • Gives scaling or (after passing 10% of cap)
• Appeal to the Masters in - This becomes locked after you attempt it. The Masters will not help us. They are not coming.
  • Raises , which caps at 1000000, a global quality.
  • Grants
  • Gives scaling
  • Another option Grants if you have
    • Gives scaling instead.
• Appeal to Sinning Jenny in
  • Raises , which caps at 1000000, a global quality.
  • Grants
  • Gives scaling or (after passing 10% of cap)
• Appeal to the Brass Embassy in - This is now locked. Hell will not assist. They are not coming.
  • Raises , which caps at 1000000, a global quality.
  • Grants
  • Gives scaling
• Appeal to the Court in - This is now locked. She will not help us. She is not coming.
  • Raises , which caps at 1000000, a global quality.
  • Grants
  • Gives scaling

London's Ruin Cards

You can help lower London's Ruin by playing opportunity cards created by the event. These cards are unlocked at different levels of Ruin, and can be permanently dimissed at the cost of accepting a Burden.

Card (Unlock)	Burden	Action	Results
(200k Ruin)	: Shadowy -10 Dreaded -1 Increases Nightmares build up.?	(3 Actions)
		Walk on by (0 Actions)
(400k Ruin)	: Shadowy -10 Dreaded -1 Increases Nightmares build up.?
		( Challenge)
(600k Ruin)	: Watchful -10 Respectable -1 Increases Wounds build up.?
		( Challenge)
(600k Ruin)	: Watchful -10 Respectable -1 Increases Wounds build up.?	Intervene ( Challenge)

Tending London's Wounds

You can help with relief efforts in the storylet . All options therein increase and decrease by different amounts, and increase by 1. Some options were opened by the full propagation of certain clues. These will be denoted by the links to the associated qualities in the Requirements section.

Tending London's Wounds

Option	Cost	Reward	Net Service	World Quality Changes	Requirements
Join a search party	None.	100 Service		-30 Ruin
Assemble a repair crew	250 , 3	1550 Service	300 Service	-50 Ruin
Donate food to Jenny's kitchen	5	1680 Service	430 Service	-50 Ruin
Tend to the wounded	90 , 1	300 Service	200 Service	-8 Ruin	Knowledge Fully Disseminated 5
Organise local communities	10 , 2	1050 Service	450 Service	-48 Ruin	Factional Forms
Provide comfort and succour	None, 11 challenge	560 Service		-15 Ruin	Weaknesses of the Enemy 2
Evacuate citizens to safer locales	None.	200 Service		-10 Ruin	Stonefall
Help to decode the scratchy script of the Roof	100 , 3 , 50	1750 Service	400 Service	-175 Ruin	Motivations of the Enemy 2
Offer refugees temporary sanctuary in Parabola	10 , 1	1350 Service	560 Service	-97 Ruin	Pendulum Dreams, Access to a Parabolan Base-Camp

Fighting London's War

You can help fight the Starved Men in the storylet . All options therein increase , , and by different amounts. All options with challenges increase Wounds or Nightmares on failure. Some options were opened by the full propagation of certain clues. These will be denoted by the links to the associated qualities in the Requirements section.

Fighting London's War

Option	Challenge	Success Results	Failure Results	Requirements
Erect barricades	None.	100 Service, +3 Ruin, +3 Defence
Lead a skirmish	150	420 Service, +5 Ruin, +5 Defence	70 Service, +5 Ruin,
Call in gunnery support	11	520 Service, +7 Ruin, +7 Defence	50 Service, +7 Ruin,
Lay a botanical trap for the Starved Men	None.	5000 Service, +7 Ruin, +60 Defence, unique Accomplishment		Requires 19, can only be done once.
Clear the city of amber	None.	200 Service, +3 Ruin, +10 Defence		Metamorphic Catalysts
Flank the enemy by moving troops through the glass	7	450 Service, +5 Ruin, +20 Defence	+5 Ruin,	Knowledge Fully Disseminated 10
Educate fighters on Starved anatomy	11	560 Service, +7 Ruin, +30 Defence	+7 Ruin,	Elastic Limits
Train Unfinished Men to fight	None.	200 Service, +3 Ruin, +30 Defence		A Supply of Soldiers
Offer a rousing speech	150	450 Service, +5 Ruin, +40 Defence	+5 Ruin,	Weaknesses of the Enemy 3
Modify some recruits with the Shapeling Arts	11	600 Service, +7 Ruin, +50 Defence	+7 Ruin,	Ecstasies of Change

Searching for clues:

We must search for clues as to how to defeat the starved men, and what they want.

• Hidden behind closed doors. - Mrs Chapman's Boarding House, Needs backstage 5
• !kathakathoti! - Rubbery Men Card, requires one favour
• Among ruins. - Forgotten Quarter, New expedition
• Among the lights and laughter. - Mrs. Plenty's Festival - Most Educational Anatomy Exibition
• Beneath the loam. - Underclay, 100 convincing falsehoods
• At the tip of a fallen temple. - Godfall, end of a pilgrimage
• Deep in memory – if you have the right past. - Waswood in Lightfingers
• Downstairs. - Helicon House with Admiralty Lacky - Below Stairs, Shapeling Studies 1, Fitting in 5
• In dreams. - In the Viric Jungle, if Cats or Snakes are ascendant
• Beneath justice. - Light in Exile, Diving at Evenlode
• Deep, and down. - Flute Street (FATE locked)
• Up. - Upwards (FATE locked)
• Forgotten. - Nadir - new card “A Reservoir of Forgotten Shapes”
• In a time yet to come. - Irem - A neon Future, needs 20 neo-echoes (Ensure that you collect them in A Near Future)
• Where oars bend to water. - Slow Boat (opp card)”Recall pitched battle against the Starved Men” (Dying)
• Through gunsmoke and fire. - Zee - The Prophet's Call - Hear the name of something lost and misshapen (Piracy)
• Somewhere meteorological - The weather At Last card has a new option if you’ve done Written in the Glim (FATE locked)
• At the frontiers of knowledge. - Laboratory - NEW RESEARCH EXPERIMENT. Requires 550 research, has Shapeling Focus
• Under moonish light - Port Cecil - The Perigee of Silver (Requires Evolution (Naturalist’s Map))
• Somewhere fungal - Mangrove College, complete 7 expeditions and talk to the Hintershroom (FATE locked)

Rewards

Equipment

(Affiliation)

• Watchful +5
• Respectable +2
• Reduces Scandal build up.^?

(Affiliation)

• Dangerous +3
• Dreaded +3
• Monstrous Anatomy +1

(Affiliation)

• Respectable +2
• Dreaded -2
• Bizarre +2

(Affiliation)

• Persuasive +5
• Mithridacy +1
• Reduces Nightmares build up.^?

(Boon)

• Persuasive +10
• Watchful +10

(Boon)

• Dangerous +10
• Persuasive +10

Vanity Qualities

• - Increases by turning in clues.
  • Caps out at 10 with The Seven-Fingered Right Hand of the Commodore
• - Increases by seeking out allies for London after the initial war is won.
  • Caps out at 6 (all six factions called) with an Emissary Exigent
  • Grants access to the titles 'Ambassador' (any level) and 'Emissary' (level 6)
• - A memento of your airship, both hard won and hard lost.

The Admiration of Station IX

You can Perform above and beyond in the field of duty on Station IX (Provisional) if you have and an airship, you can get which promises a unique item at the end of the event. That item being

Materials and Materiel

This allows you to spend on various rewards. It is valued 1:1 with . Some options were opened by the full propagation of certain clues. These will be denoted by the links to the associated qualities in the Requirements section.

Note: If you advance past Visit the community garden, any remaining Service will be turned into at Service/50, and any remainder will become

Analysis

The can be sold for to the Tentacled Servant, making that option worth playing at least once. and are rare items that are otherwise difficult to acquire; however, they also have limited uses and are available in the Rat Market on occasion.

Other good options for cash-out are, in descending order of profit, , as long as will allow, followed by , and ultimately to . Both Khaganian and Polythremean options take full advantage of the Rat Market to maximise their output, so be sure to hold onto them until they can be sold, preferably in bulk, see analysis below.

The options that give bones are fairly unremarkable for a player with a Railway, but they are a good source for midgame players who otherwise have difficulty accessing most of them.

Rejected Ordinance most notably gives , an item otherwise fairly annoying to acquire and so is highly recommended for early and midgame players who still have yet to do most of their PoSI Item Crafting. Players past that point might still want to grab one or two anyway, just in case. can be profitably offloaded at The Rat Market as well. The is not saleable normally, but can be redeemed during . Overall this option is quite profitable, especially if you still haven't done a lot of Sidestreets crafting, but it requires a bit of patience for World Qualities to redeem optimally.

Aside from these, for players without access to Balmoral, the best cash-out option was , which sells to the Bazaar for one echo more than it costs to acquire. For those who do have access to Balmoral, the is worth quite a bit more when arbitraged as in the Khanate and sold to the Rat Market. Also the that comes with the Airag is useful for and , making this a decent cash-out even pre-Balmoral.

Other than the one-time , there is currently no efficient way to exchange for . Players waiting for such may wish to conserve their Service in case one becomes available.

The latest cash-out options are far more profitable than the older ones:

1) Claim the box from Hell is limited to 10 uses per character. However, it is also the most profitable by far.

• 1.7915 pennies / Service: (31250 + 5*100*10 - 420) / (5 * 4000) = 35830 pennies / 20000 Service = 1.7915.
• Optimal conversion requires cashing out the skulls 5 at a time via a fair exchange .
• Action cost for optimal cashing-in: 2 actions per 20000 service = 0.1 actions/1000 service.

2) Claim the crate of Polythremean ammunition is apparently unlimited and second best in profitability. Uniquely, it has two different calculations, because the optimal way to cash it out depends on if your actions are worth more or less than 3.75 Echoes.

If your actions are worth less than 3.75 Echoes apiece, you should sell the Storm-Threnodies 1 at a time, for 200 Rat-Shillings each.

• 1.46875 pennies / Service: (500 * 1 + 5 * 2000 + 25 * 50) / 8000 = 11750 pennies / 8000 Service = 1.46875
• 10000 / 11750 = 85% of those pennies are cashed in as Rat-Shillings.
• Action cost for optimal cashing-in: 5 actions per 8000 service = 0.625 actions / 1000 Service.

If your actions are worth more than 3.75 Echoes apiece, you should sell them 5 at a time, for 850 Rat-Shillings per 5.

• 1.28125 pennies / Service: (500 * 1 + 1 * 8500 + 25 * 50) / 8000 = 10250 pennies / 8000 Service = 1.28125
• 8500 / 10250 = 82% of those pennies are cashed in as Rat-Shillings.
• Action cost for optimal cashing-in: 1 action per 8000 service = 0.125 actions / 1000 Service.

3) Claim the crate of surplus Khaganian materiel is less profitable but more action-efficient than Polythremean ammunition.

• At most 1.277 pennies / Service: (40000 + 375*1250/100) / 35000 = 44687.5 pennies / 35000 Service = 1.277 pennies / Service.
• 40000/44687.5 = 89.5% of those pennies are converted into Rat-Shillings.
• Action cost for optimal cashing-in: 4.75 actions / 35000 Service = 0.135 actions / 1000 Service.

The London Horticultural Show Awards Ceremony

This is where you finally get your rewards for the plants you spent time producing. This is nominally valued at 1 /. All of these will award

Permanent Game Additions

The Horticultural Show has left a few permanent changes to London.

The Starved Embassy

A Cultural Exchange becomes available in Watchmaker's Hill. Once per week--reset with Time, the Healer--you may accompany a delegation of Londoners to the new Starved Embassy. You choose an offering to present to the Starved Men, who will give you something in return. The less valuable your offering is, the more likely you are to gain . After exchanging enough gifts, the Starved Men will present you with an Amber Ambassador's Seal.

Activity Additions

These activities became available during the clue-gathering phase, and closed after that completed, but after the conclusion of the event they have remained as permanent additions to their respective activities.

• Test the elastic limits of flesh and bone, a new Lab Experiment
• Stonefall Copse, a new Forgotten Quarter Expedition
• Saint Stalactite, a new Godfall Pilgrimage ending