Ornate Necklace
| Ornate Necklace | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Collection |
| Location | Secret Note #25 |
Reading one of the Secret Notes turns up a confession from Abigail: she borrowed a necklace from her mother and lost it in the water by the bath house. From then on the Ornate Necklace can be fished out of the mountain lake outside the Spa, and it becomes a small errand with a real reward. Only two people in the valley will take it back, and they are the two it belongs to, Caroline and Abigail. Handing it to Abigail is worth twice as much goodwill as handing it to Caroline, which is the game quietly rewarding anyone willing to keep a teenager's secret. It cannot be sold or kept for anything else, so returning it is the only thing to do with it.
Overview
Nothing appears in the lake until the note has been read. Secret Notes themselves only start dropping once the Magnifying Glass has been earned by solving the winter mystery in town, so the necklace sits behind two steps rather than one. After that the note explaining where it went can turn up from any of the usual activities that shake notes loose, and reading it adds the necklace to the pool of things the rod can catch.
The fishing itself is done from the bank outside the Spa, in the mountains north of town, in any season apart from Winter. The necklace comes up as a random find rather than a fish, so it arrives without the fishing minigame. Casting while working through the lake's ordinary catches is the sensible approach, since a dedicated trip can easily go a whole afternoon without producing it. Winter is the one season to leave the lake alone for this purpose.
Delivering it is where the errand goes wrong for most farmers. As long as it sits anywhere in the bag, the game tries to hand it over to the next villager spoken to, whoever that happens to be. Anyone other than Caroline or Abigail simply gets a line about it being the wrong person and the necklace stays put, but the attempt is automatic and there is no confirmation. The practical answer is to go straight to the intended recipient after picking the necklace up, and not to chat with anyone on the walk.
Caroline accepts it as the rightful owner and grants fifty friendship points. Abigail accepts it as the guilty party and grants a hundred. Both are worth having, and the sizes are easier to judge against ordinary friendship: a full heart takes two hundred and fifty points, and a daily conversation is worth twenty. Abigail's reward is therefore close to half a heart in one go, or the equivalent of five days of small talk, which is a solid push for anyone courting her or working towards her heart events. Caroline's share is smaller but still worth more than a couple of gifts, and she is one of the harder villagers to move quickly.
Notes
Abigail is a marriage candidate and Caroline is her mother, so there is a mild comedy in choosing. Returning the necklace to Caroline closes the matter honestly; returning it to Abigail lets her put it back herself and pays better. The game does not judge either way, and the necklace only ever goes to one of them.
All Collections
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
