WE DIDN'T EVEN NEED THE FUCKING REAGENT. Why the fuck Velvet's bullshit luck is so random?
when I see those rolls, I console myself that, you know, butterfly effect. If we didn't use the edge reagent maybe Bird would have rolled a couple seconds earlier or later, resulting in a different roll.
Oh my glob he does free guard actions? And we can't befriend him? And we can pay for him to stay?
Murder Grandpa is the best, there, I said it.
But I am sad we can't save him from the Colonel like Comet Feet.
It's sad that we can't befriend him, but don't say his situation is sad. We don't even know what he thinks of it.
For all we know he's perfectly fine being the Colonel's soldier/slave.
I mean, the difference is basically 100 bits for two actions—since one of the three is spent—or 120 for two. Except the 120 bits means we not only get those actions immediately, but also that we don't lose the guard action in the meantime.
it's not even really 120 for two. it's 120 for FOUR.
It's just that two of the four are always guard actions... but 60 bits for 1 guard action (from someone
that at max power is stronger than Celestia) IN ADDITION to an extra action that can be either him attacking someone for us (COPPER, WINDY, EXPEDITIONS FULL OF COMBAT) OR even just a "our level" edge lesson, which will soon be lvl 5, and would in book form be worth 120 bits...)...
well, it's an extremely good deal IF we can afford it.
We really need to get in touch with Steppes to sell our unneeded loot for us though, or for Cadance to give us some more funds. Expenses are piling up, and while we can afford 60 bits per turn on Biedde (we get 160 income, 40 to 60 from Rarity, and then 100+ from Rarity every 3 turns on average, so conservatively something like 230 or 240 bits per turn on average...), that's still quite a bit.
In short, Biedde eats a full 4th of our income to keep. It's worth it, and we can save some money by paying the "100 bits for 2 turns + 1 turn downtime", but ideally we won't do that often.
If we can afford keeping him, AND are not going to use him for anything else, we might even reach Edge 6 and
even 7 (assuming quest lasts that long, which basically requires it to continue post-tricuspid).
...fun fact: Comet has +39 combat without AotL and influences.
10 more than us.
He also has 4 health.
This means that, IF WE WANT TO, we can basically gift him an Edge Sacrament. All he and us need to do is use Biedde's action on giving him an influence, AND for him to use some AotL rituals.
with 4 health, he should be able to do 1 health damage even without AotL if he used the Influence.
now, do we want to do that? I'm not against it, IF the talk with him goes well this turn AND he's still interested AND he can offer us something worthwhile in exchange.
The cost to us is fairly low, really. Biedde's action for one turn.
Ooooooooh, what do you guys think the odds of Comet succeeding at Biedde's Sacrament would be? I wouldn't want to do it before his secondary Lore is revealed, but I am curious as to the math.
Oh! Shining Armor too! I bet he's got an Edge Affinity as well!
if we give him Biedde's influence for the attempt, he's near certain to make it. He has better odds than US, really, as he has +10 combat and +2 health compared to us (+1 if we first heal the scar).
It has been stated that Velvet just thinks that equalizing Grail levels will make Rarity no longer a minion. She's in denial about the situation.
well, to be fair there ARE some things Rarity likely wouldn't do for us.
Things like, say, Asking her to kill Sweetie Belle for no reason.
so, the kind of things we'd never ask her to do.
so...
yeah, she's EFFECTIVELY a minion. So is Jade.
Fluttershy I'd argue is ACTUALLY just a Confidant though, and so is Cadance.
Considering that his base roll for combat is +25 I'd say he'd have a very good shot, especially with AotL and a max Influence. If he's Edge primary (and therefore viable for Biedde's Sacrament) then he'd be rolling +45 base, +65 with AotL, and +105 with both AotL and max Edge Influence.
Shining Armor has the potential to be a very scary combatant if he's Edge primary.
Very true.
though there's a decent chance Shining is Edge secondary instead of primary, which would make him a fair bit less impressive.
Then again I imagine if he was, say, Heart primary, his realization would likely translate to strengthening his shield barriers, maybe as a "apply heart to combat only for the purpose of defending" talent?
I do have to say, I also find the differences in how Biedde appears to Velvet between the Wake and the Mansus interesting. And I think that the main difference is that, well… he's an ally now. He's a subordinate. So of course he's not going to seem dangerous, or even scary, to someone who he is now bound to guard. All of his sharp edges are pointed away.
a good way to put it.
and the way Steppes was
terrified shows how it looks us from the knife's pointy end.
Now that we can see Baldomare's Lantern Sacrament, I think it's actually fairly "moral", in the sense that we would technically just need to blow the Bits required for two Mares-in-the-Light in order to do it, which is a good bit better than killing someone to drain them of the information their bodies and brains contain. If we do have the time for a second Sacrament after the SH one, Lantern with Baldomare would be a good choice.
We've been able to see it for some time, but yes, it's relatively simple.
That said, we're closer to Knock and Edge than Lantern, as for Knock we're 3/4 scraps, for Edge 2/4 (and can get them both with an influence, which we ALSO need for Biedde's test anyway so we can do both at the same time) and for Lantern we're 0/4 (though we can get 2 from an influence from Baldomare at once).
I mean, we don't even really need Mares. We could send DoA and either of our other two Names. It doesn't cost their actions after all. It's pretty much just a question of having the scraps and a free Baldomare action.
True, though Name actions are more valuable.
Frankly Baldomare Sacrament is kind of useless now, we can just pay scholars to translate stuff, if not just give the books to Cadance, and have her people translate it for free, she can call it the best experts in Equestra easily. We are in the upper echelons of power for a major country, stuff like tranlating text is for people with specialized knowledge, lower on the overall totem poll.
we can't yet "use" Cadance for favours, and even so having scholars translate for us is a bit problematic as the books can contain sensitive stuff.
Also some languages are just likely to be forgotten, especially for the highest rank books.
That said... we're not aiming for Baldomare Sacrament because we expect it to be
better, but mostly because it's less morally problematic. no sacrifice for it, you see.
Good fripping luck finding someone who can read Deep Mandic, or Fucine, or Killasimi. Or for that matter, explaining anything written in such languages. So far we've piddled around gleaning scraps of enlightenment from common sources, but now we're on the cusp of needing to find stranger insights. Universal comprehension would save us so much time, and allow us to maintain information security. Honestly, right now I'm pretty sure using our Lantern realization to comprehend books is giving us a malus or limited returns, that journal probably would have been even more effective if we could read it outright.
Ultimately though, we can't reach greater heights without first achieving the sacrament, so it needs doing.
Nah, our realization mechanically just helps us study more stuff at once, nothing more, nothing less. 3 books, 2 artifacts, or 1 book and 1 artifact for one action.
I admittedly don't remember how many books/artifacts we could read BEFORE Lantern 3 though.
In any case, the "Baldomare Lantern let us bypass deciphering rolls" is only our guess. For all we know it outright removes the need for study rolls!
Called it, pure distilled Yamamoto energy, [One Who Is Terrible].
As I said,
Old Man Genocide.
Velvet: Wait, so you guard my family automatically?
Biedde: That is the bare minimum of what I do, yes.
Velvet: Sir, I don't care what else you can do, just please never leave!
well, we DO Care, but just that alone would make him worth the cost!
Edge didn't help us in the red church last time. It seems silly to assume it will now? Unless bird said otherwise. And I missed it.
eh, we're going deeper, and there WAS a roll or two using edge I think.
There.
Now that I've had a snack, expressed the weird expression about Biedde, let's move onto what we want him to do.
I see two options.
The first, is the one most people tend to be leaning right now. Ask for an Influence of Edge. It's useful, we are Manus exploring, and it gives flavor to the interaction with Comet.
The second, is sending Biedde to search for the outsider in Canterlot. This is something that needs to happen, and while, yes, we can expect Baldomare to get like... 70% of the way there, having the first 30% or so done for us more or less freely is very very useful.
Personally, I lean towards having him searching for the Outsider.
Thoughts from y'all?
Sending Biedde to do that feels a bit like a waste, but I'm not SUPER opposed to it.
there's also option 3 though, send him to find expedition sites. Or to scout for Copper's Cult.
aaand I'll post this while I'm reading the rest!
