Edit: Nevermind. You have to talk to the queen about the king once, then approach her again with the flower in inventory, not equipped. Then you can try to hand it over.
Since the queen mentions "a single subject" when talking to her about the sorceress, I tried beating the Fool on spells, flowers and stars all in a single day, but it doesn't seem to change anything. Also, the Fool seems to just loop around and start on his first subject again once you've done all three.
My original goal today was to get the queen's victory condition with a consort crown already equipped, but then I thought I'd try bowing and got the tech, so sparring with the prince seemed an obvious thing to try. Did eventually get around to giving the queen the draught with the crown equipped and just got another crown.
Going through the whole deal with the sorceress and getting to the point where you can speak on her behalf to the queen, having the sorceress make the draught, and then going to the queen does not give you the opportunity to tell the queen that you're providing it on behalf of the sorceress or anything like that.
With charmed shirt, I still get killed by the guards after poisoning the Queen:
She glares at you for a moment, then waves a hand to dismiss you.
Despite her imperious demeanor, you can tell she's weakening. Unfortunately, it would seem she's not too weak to call the guards, who descend on you as you consider your next action.
The pain is unbearable, like needles digging into your flesh, but it soon passes and you find yourself staring at the world with clearer eyes.
Intimidating the guards via successfully storming the castle, and then approaching the queen the same day after poisoning her with a charmed shirt equipped and Charmed Defense in your deck doesn't prevent you from getting killed.
Various posts above test charmed shirt and Charmed Defence against the poisoning her result, but I don't think it's been tested the "I must consider" result.
Crypto already tried this but this seems really significant like it's hiding something:
She looks thoughtful. "No, I should think not. You may have made my fool look like his title, but knowledge of a single subject does not make you a judge of character."
May be just a hint that you need the consort crown equipped but I did try beating him at all three topics and still no change in text.
The topics that the Fool chooses seems to be at random, I got the following today (took a really long time to get spells):
flowers (2 tries)
flowers (2 tries)
stars (first try)
flowers (2 tries)
stars (2 tries)
flowers (2 tries)
stars (first try)
stars (2 tries)
stars (2 tries)
stars (first try)
spells (2 tries)
I had the Lesson of Spells/Flowers/Stars in my deck and the fool's cap on the whole time. No change in text with the national crown equipped either.
In one day:
- "Speak for the sorceress" failed - with cap of fools
- "Speak for the sorceress" failed - with cap of fools
- Bow my head to the Queen (with cap of fools) - gain 30 Bent Knee
- "Speak for the sorceress" success - with cap of fools
So it seems that Bent Knee can replace the consort crown to be able to succeed there. Open questions:
- Is bowing my head to the Queen today required?
- Or can the Bent Knee effect carry over from previous day?
- Do you need the Bent Knee result or does gaining Royal Decree work? - NO
- Does having Royal Decree in your deck work? - NO, not by itself
- Are there other options where bowing to the Queen / Bent Knee helps things?
I note that the message for poisoning the queen:
"The pain is unbearable, like needles digging into your flesh, but it soon passes and you find yourself staring at the world with clearer eyes."
this is NOT a failure condition (though it was reported as such on the wiki, probably by me), and can be repeated. Also of significance is the other non-failure message:
When the pain stops, you find yourself somewhere entirely different… somewhere simultaneously clearer and more complicated.
For the first message, nothing special with Clear Eyes active. Does Clear Eyes interact anywhere in the dusty encounters? Maybe another thing to test since it's described as "It's amazing how much clearer your vision is with all the grime and smog of city life washed out of it. You could get used to this."