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Esquestria: The House of the Sun - A pony cultist experience

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[X] Plan: Goodbye Uncle Steppes
 
[X] Plan: Goodbye Uncle Steppes
[X] Plan: The Blade and the Crimson Quill
 
Talon Tiger Dino said:
Maybe we should just scry for "the item that will best enable Luna to calm Celestia the fuck down," because I really don't think we can level Moth faster than Celestia levels Lantern. We need to keep collecting more and more high quality Scraps while she can mostly just nab baby stuff still.

Plus she's got like, an entire Research Cult to call on.
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Does Celestia even have a way to get high level lore knowledge?

Like, I agree with you that the lower level knowledge isn't that hard for her to grab but high level lore knowledge is hard to get especially with her using up her highest level source on the lower levels.

She can't scry and doesn't have Baldomare afterall.
 
Why do so many people want the Uncle Steppes option when we get a reward from him no matter what? We've already assuaged his one big concern regarding Velvet, and we're rather crunched for time and resources. Rather than spend an AP to choose a reward, we can spend that AP to secure a reward in addition to whatever Steppes will give us.

And I really am worried that meeting Steppes this last time will be the final step to getting his affairs in order for Biedde.
 
Talon Tiger Dino said:
And I really am worried that meeting Steppes this last time will be the final step to getting his affairs in order for Biedde.
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How optimistic of you to think that not deciding on the specifics of our gift will postpone the inevitable. We've already had our Big Conversation with Steppes. This gift is a farewell, whether it is us or Steppes doing the choosing.
 
[X] Plan: Goodbye Uncle Steppes

As entertaining as Velvet In Combat could be, I don't think we'd forgive ourselves if we gave this up, eventually at least. We'll have the Sacrament anyway to see Velvet being cool and Edgey.
 
I mean, I could definitely forgive myself. If others are correct, then Steppes is done for no matter what. Those assaulting Tall Tale are not. Velvet's intervention there could easily lower casualties.
 
Getting the Tall Tale expedition is potentially hundreds of bits in loot. There's zero chance that Steppes FO will be worth the AP.

jason1stlegion said:
As entertaining as Velvet In Combat could be, I don't think we'd forgive ourselves if we gave this up, eventually at least. We'll have the Sacrament anyway to see Velvet being cool and Edgey.
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The thread has absolutely zero track record of predicting Names behavior. Steppes isn't going to die, that makes no sense. Biedde wants him to be doing stuff for him as his first cultist. We really cannot afford to be wasting our AP when we're so close to endgame.
 
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ses said:
What the actual fuck is happening? Getting the Tall Tale expedition is potentially hundreds of bits in loot. There's zero chance that Steppes FO will be worth the AP.
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Also maybe grabbing a corpse if we go to Tall Tale.

It's free Risen material afterall.

ses said:
We really cannot afford to be wasting our AP when we're so close to endgame.
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Tall Tale or visiting the Mansus for a Lantern scrap attempt make use of our lantern influence.

That's something I like to see because watching a plan happen where we have a high level influence and we have actions that we could do that would really benefit from that influence only to watch some unrelated action happen hurts.

So I'm all for enjoying things if Follow the Plan, Promises are Painful, Killing Changelings in the Name of the Moon or IM FROM PONYVILLE AND I SAY KILL EM ALL end up winning. They're all great plans.

Not to say I don't understand and sympathize with our babe Rarity but for efficiency reasons I must support taking maximum advantage of our influences.
 
jason1stlegion said:
As entertaining as Velvet In Combat could be, I don't think we'd forgive ourselves if we gave this up, eventually at least. We'll have the Sacrament anyway to see Velvet being cool and Edgey.
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But that will be a scene of intense brutal fighting trying to eke out a single wound, not bringing a bazooka to a knife fight… :(

All I want is some more of the badass!Velvet we saw taking down the Windigo. "Back to the pit!"

Well that and the Silver Key roll of the dice! :V
 
[X] Plan: IM FROM PONYVILLE AND I SAY KILL EM ALL

Haven't got much to say that hasn't already been said. I agree with the points that the Tall Tale assault will most likely be profitable and most likely be really cool to watch.

Also, not really a special feature of this plan in particular, but I'm very excited to learn about the Ashen Wastes.

Hope everyone is doing well.
 
ses said:
The thread has absolutely zero track record of predicting Names behavior.
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I'm pretty sure some people in the old thread predicted the Master would return in turn 18.

There is also Mareinette building a cult(being obvious), so that is at least 2.😊

And if we are talking about Names, when are we getting Neighnia? Because a Name in the Wake that isn't ours isn't good.
 
Greymere said:
Better not pick freedom then, elsewise it's really not ever going to happen.
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Why? If we clear the Lantern 4 Artifact we will have Selene do the scrying(or Baldomare if we are not doing her Sacrament) and she will still have one action left(cause we need to sooth the night every turn to get rid of the doom clock).

I think there is some heavy underestimation of our forces, like, the only reason the current vote is this contentious is for entertainment purposes, not AP hell.
 
Saying something is important is insufficient.

Our AP is already limited enough that we are forced to let multiple important things fall by the wayside already and roll with what punches come. We simply do not have enough AP to handle everything important. That's why we should not spend a Velvet AP on customizing steppes' gift. Getting the loot from Tall Tale is important because bits are our biggest limiter, almost more than AP itself. Getting bits, artifacts, or books valued at hundred of bits would be massive in giving us a bit more bandwidth to be able to afford to do things like handle Windy due to being more capable of handling Expeditions with minions without Name-bombing half our follower AP into overkilling it, or being able to do more summoning rituals, or otherwise handling issues for us.

DelightedOne said:
Why? If we clear the Lantern 4 Artifact we will have Selene do the scrying(or Baldomare if we are not doing her Sacrament) and she will still have one action left(cause we need to sooth the night every turn to get rid of the doom clock).

I think there is some heavy underestimation of our forces, like, the only reason the current vote is this contentious is for entertainment purposes, not AP hell.
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Selene and Baldomare already have lots of important things to do already: We intend to have Selene handle all our scrying needs and summoning Mares in the Light to hopefully get us less limited on AP, and Baldomare is going to be helping us with sacraments for the next few turns. I'm not saying windy isn't important. He is important. But frankly he's likely to get cut next turn just like he got cut this turn because Name Befriendings and Sacraments are even higher high-priorities.

Actually, once we have access to generic MITLs, Windy is probably a good use for them: It's completely valid to toss followers at "investigate an Opponent" and they will simply spend their effort on information gathering and investigation. And our Name/Selene AP is too valuable to spend on that but MITL is both capable of investigating while not being too expensive to spend on it.
 
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DelightedOne said:
and she will still have one action left(cause we need to sooth the night every turn to get rid of the doom clock).
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Let's see what Selene has too say about this before we start making wild ridiculous claims.

DelightedOne said:
Why? If we clear the Lantern 4 Artifact we will have Selene do the scrying(or Baldomare if we are not doing her Sacrament)
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Moth 6 priority and scrying for an expedition with lots of bits are greater short term concerns.

Maybe summoning Mares in the Light if we're not broke (do have a non sus place to summon them anyways?)

DelightedOne said:
I think there is some heavy underestimation of our forces, like, the only reason the current vote is this contentious is for entertainment purposes, not AP hell.
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We did teach him how to summon Windigos remember.

And underestimating an unbound Name is a bad idea.
 
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DelightedOne said:
Why? If we clear the Lantern 4 Artifact we will have Selene do the scrying(or Baldomare if we are not doing her Sacrament) and she will still have one action left(cause we need to sooth the night every turn to get rid of the doom clock).
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Just finding Neighnia is hardly going to be the end of solving the Neighnia-isn't-ours problem, for one, so going "Selene can just scry her" is both correct and yet does not actually solve the problem you're talking about.

ses said:
Actually, once we have access to generic MITLs, Windy is probably a good use for them: It's completely valid to toss followers at "investigate an Opponent" and they will simply spend their effort on information gathering and investigation. And our Name/Selene AP is too valuable to spend on that but MITL is both capable of investigating while not being too expensive to spend on it.
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Might be capable. We don't actually know what their stat block looks like yet.
 
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ses said:
I'm not saying windy isn't important. He is important. But frankly he's likely to get cut next turn just like he got cut this turn because Name Befriendings and Sacraments are even higher high-priorities.
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To be fair going after him late does have a chance of us getting some real good loot.
 
Talon Tiger Dino said:
Maybe we should just scry for "the item that will best enable Luna to calm Celestia the fuck down," because I really don't think we can level Moth faster than Celestia levels Lantern. We need to keep collecting more and more high quality Scraps while she can mostly just nab baby stuff still.
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we can definitely get Moth 5. There's a CHANCE for moth 6 if we want to gain another turn, but even if we make it we'd be gaining one to three turns at best.

We don't even know how quickly Celestia will gain Lantern. Worst Case scenario it's one level per turn and so Moth 6 is just not worth it. Best case she slows down once the levels get higher.

It might very well be that the only feasible solution to Celestia is to get through the Tricuspid and gain enough raw power to be able to assist Selene in actual combat.

Selene, Biedde, Axe, Mareinette and an ascended Velvet (even if she doesn't become a Hour she'd AT LEAST be a Name) might be able to capture her so that we could then do an Incision on her, assuming the Elements aren't an option. Or maybe Selene can gain access to an "Harmonic" ritual kinda like the Ritual of the Mother and Father, but meant to help Celestia...

Shaper47 said:
Does Celestia even have a way to get high level lore knowledge?

Like, I agree with you that the lower level knowledge isn't that hard for her to grab but high level lore knowledge is hard to get especially with her using up her highest level source on the lower levels.

She can't scry and doesn't have Baldomare afterall.
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She's not Velvet. she's not necessarily restricted by our mechanics.

She seems to have an innate talent for Lantern. For all we know she can just bask in the light of the Mirror and climb the ranks that way.

...Which makes me wonder if she's at risk of Fascinations actually.

ses said:
Getting the Tall Tale expedition is potentially hundreds of bits in loot. There's zero chance that Steppes FO will be worth the AP.
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I don't think it's zero, but it's low.

Like, Steppes gift could be something useless to US specifically, which we could have turned into something useful.

Random extreme example: A library full of lvl 3 books is objectively worth a lot of bits, but it's pointless to us.

A group of 10 thugs we can order to do whatever we want are objectively worth a lot, but to us they're worth less than they would to others as we need high-lore followers more than raw numbers (though they can still be used to convert follower APs to Velvet APs, of course).

an income stream (like control of a shop or activity) is nice, but we might prefer a lump sum instead.

Stuff like that.

...I still expect Tall Tale to be more rewarding to us, though.

Shaper47 said:
Maybe summoning Mares in the Light if we're not broke (do have a non sus place to summon them anyways?)
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I'll restate my old point: I fully expect a summoning location to be at the end of the Canterlot expedition, if we ever get around to it.

Maybe we'll be able to afford sending, say, Selene + Biedde + Axe?
 
Pittauro said:
I'll restate my old point: I fully expect a summoning location to be at the end of the Canterlot expedition, if we ever get around to it.

Maybe we'll be able to afford sending, say, Selene + Biedde + Axe?
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Well, it's not happening next turn that's for sure. We're already going to have two, potentially three expeditions to send them after.
 
I think that we've been playing too safe with servant suspicion anyway.

The barn is approximately 50% suspicion risk for the servants.

We no longer have suspicion risk with our husband.
We no longer are dependent on Velvet Hills randomly screwing us over
Cadance is part of Velvet's faction
Celestia is explicitly isolated from information because no one is willing to approach her outside of extreme emergencies and rumors among the servants aren't going to be a Celestia risk
The Bureau is now at max loyalty and Reproach is our cultist

Suspicion among the servants is frankly no longer dangerous to us the way it used to be early in the quest. We can absolutely toss a MITL summon out of the barn and not worry about the risk if we have a spare Selene AP next turn.
 
ses said:
Selene and Baldomare already have lots of important things to do already: We intend to have Selene handle all our scrying needs and summoning Mares in the Light to hopefully get us less limited on AP, and Baldomare is going to be helping us with sacraments for the next few turns. I'm not saying windy isn't important. He is important. But frankly he's likely to get cut next turn just like he got cut this turn because Name Befriendings and Sacraments are even higher high-priorities.
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Which important things? Cause we are almost done scrying everything we immediately need from Baldomare.

I would think DoA is the one we will fight for her AP, considering there is 2 Name befriending materials being searched for in Expeditions. So unless they are both short, there will be some discussion.

We are also planning on befriending 3 Names so that is +3 Name actions if everything goes well.

Look, I'm just not worried about AP. It feels more like we can't do some stuff than us not having time to do stuff, especially when we think of Bits.

Shaper47 said:
Let's see what Selene has too say about this before we start making wild ridiculous claims.
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She asked to keep doing it, she kept an eye on Celestia while doing it, she says she thinks she is doing something good, she said she will decide how to deal with Celestia.

It is not rocket science.

Shaper47 said:
Moth 6 priority and scrying for an expedition with lots of bits are greater short term concerns.

Maybe summoning Mares in the Light if we're not broke (do have a non sus place to summon them anyways?)
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Moth 6 is more of a way to buy more time than a need(I'm pretty sure just befriending the Names should suffice for All In, maybe a couple of Sacraments too), the bits could be useful, but it will depend on what we have in future turns(and how fast Celestia can learn).

We will most likely be broke with the amount of expeditions, rituals, sacraments(Forge in particular) and other miscellaneous things.

And no, we do not have a 3-circle spot... which is why I propose we get the wolf cult so they can look for it. Our followers are too busy with important things, leave that to the peasants.

Shaper47 said:
We did teach him how to summon Windigos remember.

And underestimating an unbound Name is a bad idea.
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I... my point is literally that we should not underestimate Neighnia by leaving her alone for too long. And you just agreed with it by the way.

Greymere said:
Just finding Neighnia is hardly going to be the end of solving the Neighnia-isn't-ours problem, for one, so going "Selene can just scry her" is both correct and yet does not actually solve the problem you're talking about.


Might. We don't actually know what their stat block looks like yet.
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I was more focused on the fact that it is implied Velvet would use her AP for that, when it will more likely be Biedde or DoA(stealing a painting seems like an Expedition for me).

Edit: Apparently, acquiring Neighnia's cooperation will take more than stealing her, but establishing contact could still happen through one of the Names("My employer is interested in your services"). Thank you for informing me.
 
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We had this discussion during the Copper assault. We were told by the QM that Neighnia isn't just a painting and that getting her bindings would be WAY more complicated than "steal a painting"

We dont have the slightest inkling of where to even start on it. Either Neighnia's bindings haven't been maintained since Copper was killed and we'd need to go on the same quest-chain Copper did to summon her (which was explicitly time intensive and expensive, and took Copper's entire cult multiple months of effort in the aftermath of the Wildhoof club breaking up) after we make contact with her, or her bindings are in Windy's hooves and we absolutely cannot simply "steal" her.
 
DelightedOne said:
I was more focused on the fact that it is implied Velvet would use her AP for that, when it will more likely be Biedde or DoA(stealing a painting seems like an Expedition for me).
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I seem to recall Bird doing a bit of "Lol. Lmao even" at the idea that one could simply pick up Neighnia and walk away with her. Color me doubtful that it would be as easy as sending the Names to steal a painting.
 
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