What's up with Station III?

[everything hurts]

I haven't played this game in a while so when I got back to Station III I was fairly confused as to what was going on. I know the Acolytes extract heartmetal or whatever from the bodies inside the longboxes, but I don't know who the Acolytes are, what heartmetal is, how it got there, what it does, or anything else relating to Station III. Could someone please shead some light in this sunless corner of the Zee?

[Cedarcomb]

The following is from part of the TVTropes article on Sunless Sea; I can't verify it myself since I don't think I've played the necessary parts of the story.

The place's main operation is heartmetal production, for use in naval weapons. The metals can only be obtained in useful quantity from letting them grow in human hearts. This result in the Soothe & Cooper Tonics, which are pain tonics that have minute quantities of heartmetal in them. When people consume the Tonics, the heartmetal will start to build up in their hearts. This will eventually kill the user, permanently. After that, their corpse will be locked into a longbox, then shipped to the Station for extraction.

[TheTome56]

You can buy the Soothe and Cooper Longboxes from Irem for 3 Secrets each. If you take enough of them to Station III, you'll uncover the story of that place.

[Thamalandis]

You actually only need 1 to uncover it, if you use SAY and do the challenges and dialogues right. It rises automatically.
But if you need to exchange heartmetal, for example in the Christmastide or the Officer story, you can also buy it for 1 treasure in the Iron Republic. Far cheaper than secrets if you wait for the shops to rotate.

[everything hurts]

Originally posted by Cedarcomb:

The following is from part of the TVTropes article on Sunless Sea; I can't verify it myself since I don't think I've played the necessary parts of the story.

The place's main operation is heartmetal production, for use in naval weapons. The metals can only be obtained in useful quantity from letting them grow in human hearts. This result in the Soothe & Cooper Tonics, which are pain tonics that have minute quantities of heartmetal in them. When people consume the Tonics, the heartmetal will start to build up in their hearts. This will eventually kill the user, permanently. After that, their corpse will be locked into a longbox, then shipped to the Station for extraction.

Well doesn't that sound corrupted and manipulative. I suppose the people don't actually know what's in the tonics, or else they'd stop drinking them.

[Wlerin]

Originally posted by Urban, not Rural:

Well doesn't that sound corrupted and manipulative. I suppose the people don't actually know what's in the tonics, or else they'd stop drinking them.

If they don't die from the tonics they'll just end up in the vats anyway.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Cedarcomb:

The following is from part of the TVTropes article on Sunless Sea; I can't verify it myself since I don't think I've played the necessary parts of the story.

The place's main operation is heartmetal production, for use in naval weapons. The metals can only be obtained in useful quantity from letting them grow in human hearts. This result in the Soothe & Cooper Tonics, which are pain tonics that have minute quantities of heartmetal in them. When people consume the Tonics, the heartmetal will start to build up in their hearts. This will eventually kill the user, permanently. After that, their corpse will be locked into a longbox, then shipped to the Station for extraction.

It doesn't explicitly say that the tonics actually kill them. It could be that they die of whatever condition causes the pain the tonics treat. It's still pretty manipulative.

[the-truthseeker]

Technically, I don't have the text anymore, but I can say they don't necessarily die from it, but are manipulated to drink the tonics removing your pains in secret exchange to grow the metal they do not know about. it also somehow becomes able to be tracked so when the imbibers eventually die, their bodies can be shipped off to retrieve the metal.