Twillford, beyond the ten clients
Your commissions come from ten clients and two spirits, but they talk about a whole town: a duke who dies before the game starts and the nephew everyone now wants to marry, the dressmaker who had your shop before you, a princess nobody can find, three pigeons, and a gossip paper that reviews your work after big events like the funeral.
The Summers: two dukes and a sister
- Duke Donovan Summer
- The old duke. He is dead when the game opens, and his funeral is the first event, three commissions long. The gossip paper names him when it covers the day.
- Duke Hassan Summer
- His nephew and heir, unmarried. Prudence brings the news on her first visit: “As you are no doubt aware, Duke Hassan's uncle died last week.”
- Lady Priya Summer
- Hassan’s sister, and a client. She needs a dress to look sad at the funeral, and is not sad: “He was dreadful. Dukes often are, you know.”
Hassan is talked about more than almost anyone. Prudence wants to marry him, Fiona wants his flower contract, and the paper sums up the funeral this way: “Duke Hassan Summer is, after all, now conspicuously in want of a Duchess.” The three funeral dresses are on the Duke’s funeral.
Dorothy’s three pigeons
Dorothy arrives with three birds and introduces them properly: “My name is Dorothy Parker, and this is Judith, Montgomery, and Egbert.” Egbert goes by Berty, and he is the one deciding whether to adopt you. If he does, he stays in the shop, carries extra orders from clients and brings visiting cards. He also has terms: “He also hopes that you are aware that pigeons require daily petting, and a diet of only the finest grains.”
Dorothy pitches Berty’s orders as a way to deepen friendships: see friendship stars and gifts.
The shop cat
A cat lives in the shop. When Vivian walks in, the cat does not return her fondness, and one of your replies to Vivian’s introduction is simply “Worried about my cat.” None of the cards is for her.
Mina, the dressmaker before you
Twillford has been without a dressmaker for about ten years. Vivian names her. She first says “No one has heard from her since.” and then, a moment later, “Mmm. I suspect you will be even more to my taste than dear departed Mina.”
Princess Sophie is missing
Dorothy brings it up as gossip on the visit where Berty adopts you: “Have you heard that Princess Sophie is missing?” “She vanished from the castle just this week.” The next new client through the door is Adora, who stumbles over her own surname. Some players suspect Adora is the runaway princess; nothing in the story so far confirms it.
Mr Dervisham
Marie’s employer at the embassy, who has travelled to Twillford too. In her words, “he says he wishes to meet with the local community”
Spilt Tea, the paper that reviews your dresses
After big events like the funeral, the game shows a page of Spilt Tea, subtitled “Freshly brewed. Piping hot.” It names the clients and describes the dresses you made them, so a loud dress for Prudence at the funeral is reported as a loud dress. The sporting day issue is less kind to Alice, who it says “was not made for speed, stamina, or strength”. Rose reads the other paper, the Town Herald, which is where your shop advertised: “I saw your advertisement in the Town Herald last week.”
Places the clients mention
| Twillford | The town your shop is in. Prudence already calls herself its future Duchess. |
|---|---|
| The library | Rose’s workplace, and where she pins up a notice for your shop: “The library serves as a meeting place for the whole Twillford community” |
| The hedge maze | Where Alice looks for true love, Dorothy spies on people and Fiona goes along in a loud dress in case they get lost. The cards are under the hedge maze in the story events. |
| The castle | Where Princess Sophie vanished from. |
| Tulleton | The next county over, where Marie grew up. |
| Charmeuse | Abroad. Marie has spent eight years at the embassy there, and she has come back preferring colourful, patterned clothes. |
Who appears in whose story
The clients know each other. These are the cards whose own brief names another client, so the dress you make for one of them is also about the other.
How the shared events fall in order is on story events in order.