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

[BritBiscuit]

Hmm actually I wonder if the reason Mareinette could fight 3 mortals at once is due to either her wanting to taste mortal flesh again so getting into fights outnumbered where she normally wouldn't or if she had a Grail trait that made those 3 target her/her target them at once.

Imma let my creativity flow and make a fake trait that I feel could have been used to achieve a 3 v 1 fight where Bleidde could only trigger a 1v1 in this open room brawl scenario...

[A LADY'S INVITATION] : Mareinette may choose to attempt to force combat with her, if the targets fail to beat her in contested Grail rolls they are forced into the combat and suffer a -10 combat score until they receive a wound from Mareinette as they are made to believe this beautiful Lady has invited them for dinner just don't mind the jaws closing around your neck

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Just resaying that this is just my creativity flowing not an actual theory on how this combat was achieved. (also I wonder if Mareinette heals from consuming corpses, maybe even getting more heals for corpses with Lores in them)

 

[Sintonir]

Can Marinette provide a Heart Influence?
I feel like the situation calls for it, though I didn't read most mechanics-related posts. But it should give more chances to recover faster, right?

 

[angelsadvocate666]

- Commissioner: Talks with Shining/ Midnight/ Fair Trial

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Not an option.

Velvet Covers will not have access to her "Commissioner" actions.

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[Quaxotia]

My main concern with letting the Lunar Bureau know is that Velvet's escort will probably not let her out of their sight, which is inconvenient once she recovers and needs to go out to do occult stuff. Though if the mandatory guard to avoid suspicion only lasts 1 turn that could be okay since we definitely aren't doing much occult stuff next turn.

So, here is the thing.

Combat still needs to be remotely possible for both sides.

So, the re-rolls that you receive with Edge happen at a fixed interval. At your level, you ALWAYS roll twice, every six dice. Of course, you keep the largest number. But if you roll 80, and then 70, you keep the 80. And if you roll a 5, and reroll for a 50, you keep the 50.

But if you instead "kept" the re-roll until you lost a contest, that would make combat orders of magnitude more difficult for the other party. And combat still needs to be risky.

Look at Biedded, for example. The Windigo did manage to put an overflow in. Not enough to wound him, but combat needs to involve putting your life on the line, even when you can casually swing a +80 bonus.

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On the bright side, I suppose this means that Velvet has a better chance with Biedde's edge sacrament once she is fully healed and has her scar reforged.

 

[LieutenantSpirit]

If we don't respond to Copper, she will try again. And, as we have already seen, she will hit harder. We need to sic the Detectives on her, but we also need to respond personally.

Hmm actually I wonder if the reason Mareinette could fight 3 mortals at once is due to either her wanting to taste mortal flesh again so getting into fights outnumbered where she normally wouldn't or if she had a Grail trait that made those 3 target her/her target them at once.

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I find the fact she didn't leave us any corpses to be suspicious. I believe she can heal her wounds after consuming a pony, which somewhat matches what she did when she drank from us in the Church.

 

[Sveta08]

Not an option.

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Oh. Whoops! My bad. Thanks for the catch

 

[DelightedOne]

Can Marinette provide a Heart Influence?
I feel like the situation calls for it, though I didn't read most mechanics-related posts. But it should give more chances to recover faster, right?

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She can, the very best in fact. It gives a +40 on every Heart roll which combined with the +30 to healing from our Heart Artifact reaches the DC: 70 of healing one Wound.

 

[Pittauro]

Wait, would we lose the scraps if we got the remaining Max levels from the Names? Because if that happens it is not worth it.

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uh, good question. Though we already got the scraps from Grail and SH, so those two at least are safe.

That actually is a not-bad idea.

Although, anything outside of Ponyville would still be a horrible idea. But slapping an Influence on yourself is a good way to turn one Name action into four "not so useless" Velvet actions, provided you focus all of them on the area of the Influence.

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it's the best I can think of to make her actions not as useless.

what about the question above though Bird? If we go for a Lantern influence do we miss out on the two Lantern scraps?

we can do book search in ponyville (and search for expedition sites maybe), or social in ponyville (family, cherilee, Mayor Mare, Applejack, the Filthies...), or study all our books and artifacts (though we don't have the Lantern Realization, so we're down to 2 books or 1 artifact per action I think instead of the usual 3 or 2 or 1+1)

Yes.

But you haven't ordered her to do anything horrible, so she won't even notice.

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as I expected, but I just wanted to point it out.

- Commissioner: Talks with Shining/ Midnight/ Fair Trial

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I think the update says we lose the Commissioner action.

- Axe: Lesson in Knock

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we might not be able to get scraps while our lores are "non-existant".

so I imagine we should instead get the Keys.

- Mareinette: Talk to XXX as "Not Velvet"

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Alternatively, grail influence on Velvet, and then Velvet can take potentially 4 actions (or more maybe) with the +40. She doesn't get the +20 and reroll from her grail values, but it's still far better than she'd usually have.

- Selene: Training and Guard Velvet

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we could send her to search for the outsider instead.

Those are the general things. Personally, I would also recommend Baldomare give Velvet a Influence of Lantern so that she can still decipher things on this turn. Books, artifacts, you name it.

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problem is, without Lantern Realization we can only study 2 books OR 1 Artifact per action.

It might just be better to get a grail influence instead.

I just realized something.

Has anyone here noticed that Velvet's Heart resolution is extremely blantetly wolf themed?

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it's very much not. Wolf is not Heart.

Wolf is unkillable, because you can't kill a wound. We're just forcing ourselves to stay alive. Completely different thematics.

Nice to know Wolf Selene is still a possibility.

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Nice is NOT the word I'd use here!

Can Marinette provide a Heart Influence?
I feel like the situation calls for it, though I didn't read most mechanics-related posts. But it should give more chances to recover faster, right?

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probably irrelevant. 30 bits (medicine) gives us an automatic 1 health recovery. we can pay a bit more for 2. we can give up actions for extra rolls. We still have the heartifact.

we don't really NEED a heart influence, and we risk losing out on the heart scraps as we don't HAVE a Heart score to raise right now.

 

[Sveta08]

problem is, without Lantern Realization we can only study 2 books OR 1 Artifact per action.

It might just be better to get a grail influence instead.

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While you are right there, I would argue that, if we have the action and our Lores, we are less likely to spend the time on books and artifacts.
Artifacts mind, that could be used by our allies and expeditions that are almost certain to happen soon.

 

[angelsadvocate666]

…Hmm. Completely random question but, what would happen to Celestia's stress levels if she heard that somebody tried to murder the one normal pony she trusts most right now?

Assuming we still hold that title anyways. I'm not sure if one of her other "Councillor" equivalents might have taken the spot.

 

[Sveta08]

…Hmm. Completely random question but, what would happen to Celestia's stress levels if she heard that somebody tried to murder the one normal pony she trusts most right now?

Assuming we still hold that title anyways. I'm not sure if one of her other "Councillor" equivalents might have taken the spot.

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Probably nothing good.

Would you prefer Celestia find out that one of the trusted ponies she set up was hiding the fact she was attacked?

 

[angelsadvocate666]

Probably nothing good.

Would you prefer Celestia find out that one of the trusted ponies she set up was hiding the fact she was attacked?

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Well no. And I'm not even arguing against telling, though I will note that Celestia finding out is… exceedingly unlikely. Maybe if we weren't able to completely control the narrative thanks to Marinette, but we can.

I'm mostly just looking at this situation and thinking "Does this count as ponies failing to govern themselves?"

 

[Quaxotia]

I'm mostly just looking at this situation and thinking "Does this count as ponies failing to govern themselves?"

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I don't think so unless she explicitly learns a pony was responsible for the attack. Else it could have been those dastardly changelings or whatever attacked Luna (please don't let her learn that we directly played a hand in that ).

 

[spiderhellian]

Could grab a Lantern influence from Baldomare and do artefact/book deciphering… sorta fits a recovering Velvet to just be holed up her room studying.

 

[Crystal Violet]

...Right. I definitely seem to have missed a fair bit in the past few hours.

I was not expecting such a delay to our plans, but it's a good thing we aren't dead, at least. The current situation at least leaves us with some time to do other stuff, given we're essentially blocked off from the rather large amounts of more esoteric material that was eating up our time.

That was quite the confluence of many coincidences... If one factor had changed, we'd either be in a much better state or a much worse one. I guess this is what we have to work with now.

I guess the final conclusion is that we really need to work on our health and Heart Lore levels? This was a bit too close in my opinion, certainly not something we would like to risk again. At least, I would hope not...

 

[Venerable Ro]

My main concern with letting the Lunar Bureau know is that Velvet's escort will probably not let her out of their sight, which is inconvenient once she recovers and needs to go out to do occult stuff. Though if the mandatory guard to avoid suspicion only lasts 1 turn that could be okay since we definitely aren't doing much occult stuff next turn.

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I'm thinking we take the opportunity to build our mythos in the Bureau, not quite Chester Pulley perhaps but definitely larger than life and twice as mean. Give them something to admire and tell increasingly unlikely tall tales about to the new recruits. We were wounded defending our home against unknown attackers and survived injuries that would have killed any other pony, we're not suspicious we're a hero.

We're the Bureau's hero.

 

[Steady Gaze]

Actually, another thought that occurred to me: how do the detectives make the connection that Copper is who they must investigate, since they have no idea who she is right now, as far as we know? Though I suppose she might be in their files of bad ponies somewhere. Is there evidence to implicate Copper at the "crime scene"? Or do we have to tell them we know it was Copper who attacked us? And how do we explain that we know it's her? I feel like we would need to be very careful with what we say there, but the option doesn't seem fussed about this, or at least doesn't mention this.

-Your Investigators will gain the option to "Investigate the Commissioner's attackers", which is a specially tailored investigation aimed at Copper Secateur.

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Actually, since it's "Investigate the Commissioner's attackers", not "Investigate Copper Secateur", I kind of assume we will not say that we know it's Copper, so we don't have to worry about that.

Relatedly, what will they find at the "crime scene"? There are no bodies left, but I suppose that isn't a problem. We can just say they left us for dead and got away. But with the bodies consumed and the blood licked off the floor by Mareinette, what evidence do they even have to go off of? The cart outside I guess? Copper made them not take the train, presumably as a precaution against getting found out (an entire windigo jar is probably hard to take on public transit without raising eyebrows), so presumably she made them take other precautions like not bringing anything that would incriminate her on their (now disappeared) bodies?

 

[Shaper47]

But with the bodies consumed and the blood licked off the floor by Mareinette, what evidence do they even have to go off of?

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The weapons.

That bat for instance and Velvet can make a sketch of the perts face.

Baldomare giving out hints.

Personally I'm looking forward to Cadence catching up with us. It's going to be so adorable.

I wonder if we can charge our guards on Bureau buget now or if we'll get hazard pay? Hiring an old expensive monster hunter and his pet monster to guard us was quite costly and he's been asking for hazard pay.

 

[Sveta08]

I'm thinking we take the opportunity to build our mythos in the Bureau, not quite Chester Pulley perhaps but definitely larger than life and twice as mean. Give them something to admire and tell increasingly unlikely tall tales about to the new recruits. We were wounded defending our home against unknown attackers and survived injuries that would have killed any other pony, we're not suspicious we're a hero.

We're the Bureau's hero.

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This?
This is good.
This is why we need to let them know.

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

Personally I'm looking forward to Cadence catching up with us. It's going to be so adorable.

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Spoiler: Large image

"My Princess, they hit the second Love's Chosen."

Edit: Cadance will not react well.

 

[Witherbrine2671]

Well this was a bit of a clusterfuck, but it was good to see the dance

 

[angelsadvocate666]

Spoiler: Large image

"My Princess, they hit the second Love's Chosen."

Edit: Cadance will not react well.

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…Copper had better hope we get to her first.

 

[Venerable Ro]

"My Princess, they hit the second Love's Chosen."

Edit: Cadance will not react well.

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"I promised you I wouldn't leave you Cadance, and I didn't leave it up to chance either. Like a drum my Heart never stops beating."

Yes that was cheesey, still a perfect Heart-themed love song.

 

[Greymere]

Nooooo all my plaaaaans!

Welp, back to the drawing board.

Good thing we had A Resolution, or that could have been a lot worse.

Edit: Also, full social turn does sound good. We only have so much we can do with no Lores, and at least Grail Influence + Socials lets us work on something.

 

[angelsadvocate666]

…Man, I really wish I knew how to edit images, let alone had the tools to do so; because I was just reminded of that one meme. You know the one.

"I lived, bitch."

 

[Solace2117]

Well that sucked even more than the Manse Expedition, but at least Velvet's still alive. Really glad we ended up summoning Biedde.
I'm leaning towards keeping it secret. I'd rather not risk stirring up that hornets nest. As to Mareinette, I'm actually leaning towards freedom. Is it bad, yes, but these options only get more expensive. I'd hate to see this option at the third or fourth binding.
For Velvet I think get a Grail influence and go social.
For followers, a little more complicated, going to have to rely on them more.
Definitely scout Copper.
Probably summon a Mare in the light.
Axe craft Wrong Keys
Potentially scout Changeling hive
Rarity focus on work so we can take a commission next turn
Maybe do two expeditions. The grave for the book and the hive to steal lore objects and potentially bits. It is a city so there should be money around and if the Bureau hits it after no one will be there to complain about the missing bits.
Maybe have the servants work on Jade's house.

 

[Greymere]

Oh yeah, @OurLadyOfWires, you may have already mentioned it and I just missed it, but what happens if we gain a Lore scrap this turn, e.g. from asking DoA for a Lore lesson? Would we retain it once our Lore levels go back up, putting us at 4/4?

 

[spiderhellian]

I am a little worried of how social actions would play out given we're on death's door. I guess asking a friend you haven't seen in a while to call on you while you're deathly ill is kind of sweet, in a way? The Incarnadescence makes things… peculiar, but maybe it'll work out.

Do think I'd prefer Lantern and studying. I guess the worry is it's way less efficient if we can only do 2 books/one artefact?

EDIT: Oh wait, studying is Lantern application, so influence doesn't help?

 

[Greymere]

Do think I'd prefer Lantern and studying. I guess the worry is it's way less efficient if we can only do 2 books/one artefact?

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There's the worry that all the scraps will disappear into the void once we're recovered since we technically have nonexistent Lore levels. I don't think Bird would do that, but it'd still be good to have confirmation one way or another.

We also might want Baldomare available to scry for any incriminating evidence Copper might have on us (like our manuscripts), so there's also that.

Edit: Oh yeah, something I wanted to point out...

[A Confident Certainty: Windigo can reroll one every six dice]

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Windigos have the Level 4 reroll effect. Meaning that any other Level 4+ spirit (that isn't a Name) we summon should also get rerolls on their major Lore.

 

[Quaxotia]

…Man, I really wish I knew how to edit images, let alone had the tools to do so; because I was just reminded of that one meme. You know the one.

"I lived, bitch."

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Behold Paint 0 lore: