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

Reader mode
Alrighty! Had food, had a sit, had a think. And in that fugue state, I got a basic enough idea. I normally hate looking forward to figure out plans before we get there, but sometimes needs must. So! Prediction as much as plan.


Turn 21 has already been built up something busy, ignoring all the things to come, the fleeting opportunities, all sorts of jazz. So! Let's look at the actions that are, by in large, wanted.
-Progress Axe Sacrament / Friendship Quest
-Outsider Search / Glory Progress
-Forge's Redemption
-Teach Luna
-Talk/work with Cadence/Shining

There are other things sure. But those are all the ones that would eat Velvet Actions... even though I might toss on Study the two rank 4 artifacts and some other things I am betting on. But! That's a lot of gunk already, especially since the first two might take multiple actions, and this isn't even accounting for fleeting opportunities and on and on and on.
Simply put, we are being pulled seven ways to Sunday.


So Plan!

Merchant - Extort for 100 Bits
Assassin - Extort for 5 Follower Actions (2 Velvet Actions)
Noble - Bureau / Mareinette

Simply put, we will need the bits. Not this coming turn, most likely, but the turn after. Scrambling and snagging those bits will help, without costing us much in terms of opportunity. The actions... we always need more actions. Especially since I imagine we are going to have to put 3 Velvet Actions towards Axe's Sacrament if we expect to try and finish it. So, we're gonna need it. And the Noble...
Well, I shall liken him to Insurance. Velvet is Above all Suspicion when it comes to the Princess and the world at large, but by the Bureau, she is forever an unknowable cryptid of wonder. This, would cement her quite fervently as a very very very useful cryptid of wonder.

... or, by Thanking Mareinette for all she has done for Velvet. From letting her live, to recover, to not simply breaking her bonds, and even affording us this opportunity. Besides, I feel this is the way to fast track Heart lore too. Either way for the Noble, I'm happy.
 
I've come down somewhere similar. The one thing I will say about this:

Sveta08 said:
Merchant - Extort for 100 Bits
Assassin - Extort for 5 Follower Actions (2 Velvet Actions)
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It's claiming that next turn's Servants/Fluttercomet/(Rarity/Jade/Luna) actions are worth 100 bits.

I'll note it feels unlikely that those 3 AP, spent getting bits, would get 100 bits.

It's also not obvious what else we'll use those follower actions on.
 
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spiderhellian said:
It's claiming that next turn's Servants/Fluttercomet/(Rarity/Jade/Luna) actions are with 100 bits.

I'll note it feels unlikely that those 3 AP, spent getting bits, would get 100 bits.

It's also not obvious what else we'll use those follower actions on.
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While I will agree with you for the Servants and Fluttershy/Comet...
Rarity could earn the 100 bits herself, Luna is one of the few people we have with good Lores that isn't summoned, and Jade I fully expect to perform a Reflections of the Tapestry. If not for anything that is yet to be found, then scrying ahead of the Canterlot Expedition.

Should we figure a spare one servant action equivilant to toss into there for it, I have no problem swapping those. More Bits is more bits.
 
Shaper47 said:
It seems like the kind of thing that backfires.
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This seems to fall under the no trap options 'rule'.

If it says it'll greatly increase Bureau loyalty, it'll do that, not do-that-and-introduce-a-problem-down-the-road.
Sveta08 said:
Rarity could earn the 100 bits herself, Luna is one of the few people we have with good Lores that isn't summoned, and Jade I fully expect to perform a Reflections of the Tapestry. If not for anything that is yet to be found, then scrying ahead of the Canterlot Expedition.
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Yeah this is valid. Though Rarity AP is more like 60-80 bits — a commission lowers our bit income for the next few turns as well.
 
Shaper47 said:
Not a fan of the narrative.

It just seems a bit suspicious to me and well, I'd rather not get respect for competence though a lie. It seems like the kind of thing that backfires.
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The narrative could be something like: We suspected/found weak evidence of possible betrayal -> the noble found out -> they put a hit on us through the cult -> we got injured-> we recovered -> we found conclusive evidence.
 
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Bakkasama said:
I mean, the Lores can do a lot of heavy lifting there.
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I remember back in the Nat 100 SH Roll update (the branching one) where one of the things Velvet could have done involved essentially breaking and entering into a place and nobody realizing she's not supposed to be there even as she was actively walking through staff-only areas. I presume she would do fairly well in a standard investigation.
 
I say we spike the noble and the murderer.

As the man said, "it's not about the money, it's about sending a message."

The message being, we are not dead, we are not infirm, and we are nowhere near done. So do not screw around with the Lunar Bureau. My favorite Hour is after all, The Colonel, similar to how Bird patrons The Wolf

The bribery I think can be resolved with a scare and a generous donation of manpower, graft being graft it's like being angry at water flowing downhill. You've just got to clean out the gutters on a regular basis.

Limabot said:
I remember back in the Nat 100 SH Roll update (the branching one) where one of the things Velvet could have done involved essentially breaking and entering into a place and nobody realizing she's not supposed to be there even as she was actively walking through staff-only areas. I presume she would do fairly well in a standard investigation.
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There was also the time Velvet visited the family in Canterlot, she noticed Vellum following her on Steppes' orders, led him around for a while, and then snuck up on him in a maneuver that included hopping along a series of lampposts to drop down behind him in an alleyway so she could pull the "so what are we looking at?" prank.

Velvet is at a point where she can move through the civilian world pretty much at will, it would take a remarkable pony like Beyond Reproach to even really pick up on her. Moth/Knock 4 pretty much lets her embody the "carry a clipboard and act like you know where you're going" concept of social infiltration.
 
Shaper47 said:
I'm talking more in they'll expect competency Velvet doesn't have.
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Do to lacking the lore's, Velvet's fluctuates between as good as the best bureau investigator and just being flat out better, thanks in part to our Secret History artifact that gives a big boost to Velvet's search rolls.
 
spiderhellian said:
Ugh, I'm having doubts about giving the Noble to the Bureau.

It kinda feels like a not-lose choice. Not the choice we make on the path to victory. When GLORY is right there.

Maybe we give the servant, and take Mareinette's choice…
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Actions, Bureau, and Mareinette in that order?
Ooooh, that could be quite fun.
 
Sveta08 said:
Actions, Bureau, and Mareinette in that order?
Ooooh, that could be quite fun.
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Actions or bits for the first, but yeah…

The more I think about it the more I really want to trust Mareinette with the noble.

For narrative reasons, honoured guest reasons, and because I think it'll be worth it.
 
spiderhellian said:
Ugh, I'm having doubts about giving the Noble to the Bureau.

It kinda feels like a not-lose choice. Not the choice we make on the path to victory. When GLORY is right there.

Maybe we give the servant, and take Mareinette's choice…
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Baldomare was put on the Outsider search action, there's every chance she'll blow right through that and we'll have the information. The other immediate barrier is the Mansus search for "what we need", which we can throw our doubled up dreaming actions at.

If the Outsider is secured in the depths of the Canterlot Vaults as we suspect it is, we're probably best served by social engineering our way in rather than taking the unspeakable risk of breaking in.

We are in fact pretty well along our way in that regard, and raising our prestige will keep our reputation unimpeachable.
 
spiderhellian said:
Ugh, I'm having doubts about giving the Noble to the Bureau.

It kinda feels like a not-lose choice. Not the choice we make on the path to victory. When GLORY is right there.
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Good point, we don't really need that bonus respect.

We can just get it overtime with our free Bureau actions.

Venerable Ro said:
and raising our prestige will keep our reputation unimpeachable.
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We're already above all suspicion.
 
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Venerable Ro said:
Baldomare was put on the Outsider search action, there's every chance she'll blow right through that and we'll have the information. The other immediate barrier is the Mansus search for "what we need", which we can throw our doubled up dreaming actions at.
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I imagine there will be actions we can take after finding the Outsider but having not yet found the juicer, yes. And that resource/Mareinette goodies will be more useful for those than the Bureau.
Venerable Ro said:
But if we take the chance to max it now then we can work on different/new free Bureau actions enabled by high levels of admiration.
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Sure.

But I cannot imagine the Bureau actions being along the path to Glory.

Also arguing based on assuming extra bonuses seems a little misguided. It's not like the bureau isn't already full of Equestria's best working very hard.

Maxing their loyalty feels like it's avoiding a potential problem, which is not playing to win.
 
spiderhellian said:
Maxing their loyalty feels like it's avoiding a potential problem, which is not playing to win.
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Not at all, it's accruing more opportunities, which leads to more options, which leads to a better chance of success.

We are going to have to go for the Outsider eventually, and we're almost certainly going to have to do it in person. The more connections we have and the more magnificent our reputation the better the chance we can simply march in there like a max-charisma character at the end of Fallout: New Vegas.

We raise our esteem, we demonstrate extreme competence, we invest that political capital in broadening our mandate to include jurisdiction over all hidden threats both mundane and supernatural, and then we audit.
 
For me, the Noble goes either to the Bureau or Mareinette. Both are fine in my book.

One is reinforcing our standing with the Bureau and helping cover some of our hiccup with not being super forthrite with the whole attack and all that jazz.
One is offering kindness to Mareinette after the kindness she herself has offered, and even in getting us this opportunity.

Past that, and for the other two, as long as one of them goes into juicing our actions, and the other bits, I'm content.
 
As much as it sucks to say. Mareinette or the actions I think are the most important.

Unless we need those bits for something next turn. Rising up the ladder of the glory is the most important thing. I think.

Also we ARE spending time with Mareinette this turn. Maybe she will tell us about her "project" if we give her all of them?
 
Sveta08 said:
For me, the Noble goes either to the Bureau or Mareinette. Both are fine in my book.
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Not really a fan of giving anypony to the Bureau but if we were to do so the noble is probably the best choice.

The others really aren't worth giving to the Bureau due to their worth in compassion.

Mareinette is a good choice for the noble though.

I still want bits for a Jade and Selene adventure however.
 
Shaper47 said:
That's not going to fly when the Eclipse is a thing.
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But here's the thing, we (Velvet) don't know that Eclipse is a thing. All we actually know is that Celestia has custody of a Lantern relic and Midday Dew gave us fripping useless candle dust that didn't manage to do a damned thing during the Talltale investigation.

So since we don't know their official mandate due to, as he said, classified information, we'll just do it ourselves and make it a done deal. Report our new discoveries to Celestia while Eclipse is still trying to solve every single Mansus challenge with Lantern 1 (you only get one scrap of lore per studied artifact) and nothing else.
 
Shaper47 said:
That's not going to fly when the Eclipse is a thing.
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Eclipse isn't actually an enemy. Sure, they are currently contributing to Celestia's doom counter, but they don't really know that's what they're doing to us; to them, it's just a new mysterious branch of magic they have to study. I think it would be entirely possibly to raise our reputation with them enough that they would be willing to allow the Bureau to involve itself in their research on the Lore (even if just to learn them).
 
Zxzx24 said:
As much as it sucks to say. Mareinette or the actions I think are the most important.
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If we're going by most value of the blackmail.

Mareinette for noble (she can probably get the most out of him).

Actions from the Public Servant (I don't think it's needed but if there's more fleeting actions then expected or we want some safety room).

Bits from the merchant (actions and reputation are so not worth it for the option and we do need more bits).

Zxzx24 said:
Unless we need those bits for something next turn. Rising up the ladder of the glory is the most important thing. I think.
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Books!!!

We want Heart 3, Heart 4 and Forge 4 Books.

Raising our lore is probably important (or at least helpful) in reaching Glory.

It would allow us to do our personal Forge Sacrament sooner. Paying for and being able to shell out for high level Reagents instead over multiple lower level ones.

Be a good friend to Jade and take her with us on an adventure with Selene and DoV.

Also if we want to pay Biedde.



OurLadyOfWires said:
You wonder if that number means anything. Probably not, you figure.
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The 16th hour is our hour

Limabot said:
I think it would be entirely possibly to raise our reputation with them enough that they would be willing to allow the Bureau
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That's not what giving to the Bureau would do though?

The Bureau and the Eclipse are separate institutions.
 
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