Your Father's Bones (Ambition)

=Introduction= So, you've picked Your Father's Bones Ambition? Ok. This is a tough one. It's going to involve exploring a lot of the islands and stories in Sunless Sea, because there are lots of things to get. And each background has a different way to play it. Please be aware, this is spoiler heavy. If you're new to the game, don't read this. Instead, just explore for your first few captains, and get to know the world. Reading this has a very good chance of ruining what makes Sunless Sea the excellent game it is - intrigue, the unknown, and exploration.

And, of course, if you have ideas for additional content, please drop it on the talk page.

Overview
Your Father's Bones: A Cold Trail is used to track this event. Hover over it at any time in your Journal to see the next major step required. It is initially set to the value of Memoirs: Your Past (a number between 1 and 6) and then incremented by 50 or 100 at various stages. Different values require different trips items and locations, e.g Natural Philosopher will be Scintillack and Visage. See below for more details. However, after a certain point, everything converges at the Fathomking's Hold.

Amongst other things, you'll need a lot of Zee-ztories. Get into the habit of dropping Recent News at Light-Ships, and hoarding them. In general, once you know the game, it's a good idea to hoard all the low-cost items like Zee-ztory,  Tale of Terror!! and Memory of Distant Shores

Starting out: A Cold Trail
The first step,Your_Father%27s_Bones:_A_Cold_Trail_(event), will fire from the moment you finish picking your past and ambitions - bring various things to London, depending on Memoirs: Your Past. Might want to check the Map page to see where they roughly are, but I promise it's more fun to explore for yourself. Consult the table below for details and tips.

Once you've completed the first item drop, you'll be onto Your Father's Bones: the Next Step - visit the appropriate port, and there will be an option to interact there. Again, this varies by Your Past.

The Next Step
Find the location detailed in the table above. There are clues in your journal. Mouse over "Your Father's Bones". Don't be afraid to use your Zee-bat. Sailing deep will require plenty of Fuel and Supplies. You may encounter scary Monsters. Don't be afraid to use full power to escape. Stop at all ports along the way to collect Port Reports.


 * The Chelonate is always somewhere against the eastern edge of the map. Watch for the Eater of Names.
 * Nuncio is the trickiest to locate. It'll be somewhere in the right half of the map, from the middle to the top. Zee-bat. Zee-bat. Zee-bat.
 * Kingeater's Castle is the furthest southeast you can go.
 * Avid Horizon is always against the north wall. Watch for Mt Nomad.
 * Visage is usually due east of the Iron Republic (sail south from London 'til you hit it, then due east). It's often near Port Cecil, where you just were.

Visit the Fathomking
All of the above options are dead ends, but you must visit them to progress the story. Then you'll need to track down the Fathomking's Hold. This is generally directly east from the Iron Republic. The Natural Philosopher has had a really time of this so far.

Remember when I said at the top that you need lots of Zee-Ztories? Well, you do. So bring Zee-ztories. Once you track down his lair, use a Zee-ztory to get inside, then Discuss he matter of your father's bones to access The Fathomking's Answer. Explore the story options (some are variable on Your Past). But, ultimately, he'll give you a ridiculous set of demands. Ridiculous. I cannot stress this enough.

The Ridiculous Demands

 * For SS heartwitheredsmall.png Your Father's Bones: a Legend's Heart for the Fathomking, present a Pirate-Poet's Heart, The Merciless Modiste's Heart, The Heart of the Tree of Ages or Mt Nomad's Heart
 * Mt Nomad is easier to find, but be warned that this will make him put Salt's Curse on you, so if you have a sweetheart or a Scion that you want to keep, be prepared to rush back to Whither with the components to get the curse removed. As of the ERIK update you can summon Mt Nomad and the Tree of Ages with a Mountain-sherd and an Element of Dawn respectively.
 * The Merciless Modiste can be found in Mount Palmerston; fight (Veils challenge) and kill her for her heart.
 * The Pirate-Poet's Heart requires (the aptly) named Pirate-Poet DLC, originally available only to Kickstarter Backers, but now part of a free update.


 * For SS mechanismsmall.png Your Father's Bones: a Miracle of Science for the Fathomking, present The Serpentine, Memento Mori, Fulgent Impeller, or Icarus in Black
 * Actually, don't present Icarus in black. He's a trolling you. He won't accept it.
 * Serpentine is easiest, but not guaranteed. However, you can sell one Serpentine and then buy another, so you'll only be out 1200 echoes.
 * Your call on the other two. Both are extended quests, and awesome in their own right, and cannot be re-obtained.


 * For SS keyhole1small.png Your Father's Bones: a Willing Guest for the Fathomking, present Nacreous Survivor, Bandaged Chef-Paramount
 * Nacreous Survivor can be got at end of Principle's End, but you lose out on cool stuff and rules out Eldest's End. Depends if you're rushing this, really.
 * 21 secrets is a nice kicker and the Chef is pretty easy to promote, but might take a while.


 * For SS deathsmall.png Your Father's Bones: an Eldest's End for the Fathomking, present Witnessed: the Curator's End or WIN the chess match at Port Cecil to set Principles' End: Principality = 200
 * Curator's End is just insanely long. Insanely. It's interesting. But will take longer than all of the rest of this bones quest.
 * Principles' End: Principality, on the other hand, is at Port Cecil and boosts pages. At the end of the quest you can chose to lose the match instead for Nacreous Outcast above. But both of these are pretty extended efforts.


 * For SS goldenapplesmall.png Your Father's Bones: Fruit of the Eternal Tree for the Fathomking, present a SS goldenapplesmall.png Hesperidean Apple or an SS amber_redsmall.png Uttershroom Sporule.
 * The SS goldenapplesmall.png Hesperidean Apple is almost certainly easier, requiring a trip to Irem with a Sack of Darkdrop Coffee Beans and a Searing Enigma which you're bound to pick up doing all the other things here.
 * If you're a Blemmigan fan, check out The Uttershroom and Blemmigans Abroad. There are some fun things to do. Remember the Firkin of Prisoner's Honey.


 * For SS sunsetsmall.png Your Father's Bones: a Sky-Light for the Fathomking, present SS boxwhitesmall.png Sunlight-Filled Mirrorcatch Box, SS diamondbluesmall.png Mountain-sherd, SS dawnmachinesmall.png Element of Dawn
 * SS boxwhitesmall.png Sunlight-Filled Mirrorcatch Boxes should be the quickest and cheapest (SS khansshadow_portgaz.png Khan's Shadow and Avernus), but if you're cash-rich, just buy a SS diamondbluesmall.png Mountain-sherd from Port Carnelian. The SS dawnmachinesmall.png Element of Dawn is totally the worst choice. You'll need a Ship capable of 70+ storage, for starters.

Ok. Good luck with all that. See you again in a day or two.

The Fathomking's Key
So, you've done all that? Good work. Honestly. Some of these are very, very difficult and/or confusing. Hand them all in to the Fathomking, and he'll give you, da-daaaaaaaa Your Father's Bones: The Fathomking's Key. And then it's back to wherever you first had to go, before you were sent to the Fathomking. Confused? Check your journal. Or the table up there at the top.

The Bones, the bones!
So, for you most of you, that's almost it. Return to London. Do the bone thing. Win the game. Congratulations!

Priests have one small extra step and need to head to the Chapel of Lights first. You have two possible outcomes. Have you succumbed to the taint?

And Natural Philosophers. Well. They have a super-secret option, but that's a story for another day.

The End
Returning to London will win the game. Hurrah! If you are a natural philosopher and saved your dad (yeah, you can do that, I bet you wish you'd picked that now, huh?) then in legacies, you can pick your father as an officer to carry through to the next game. This will immediately fire up the game win screen on your new game. If you also have 6k echoes, then you can win again.

THis is just so I can cut and paste easily

+100 x Your Father's Bones: A Cold Trail (Fulfil the Fathomking's Requests) Your Father's Bones: a Legend's Heart for the Fathomking = 1 Your Father's Bones: a Miracle of Science for the Fathomking = 1 Your Father's Bones: a Sky-Light for the Fathomking = 1 Your Father's Bones: a Willing Guest for the Fathomking = 1 Your Father's Bones: an Eldest's End for the Fathomking = 1 Your Father's Bones: Fruit of the Eternal Tree for the Fathomking = 1