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

What was the DC Bird said was practically impossible for mortals? 150 right? It has to be way way above that to be difficult for the Lantern and Secret Histories Name. Like 250 minimum kind of way above.
 
normal mortals roll 1d100 + stat (15 for a professional, 20 for a once-in-a-generation-master, like Say a fully realized Twilight with Magic) + traits.

Shining Armor is one of the strongest ponies, he's a good example for peak-mortal in combat. And he rolled...

+25 total. so presumably +15 from Martial, and +10 from training.

Let's add another +10 for the truly peak mortal, That's maybe a +35.

So I'd argue DC 135 or DC 140 is already basically impossible for a mortal.
 
150 was the number stated. See Here for examples.

There have, however, been some thresholds like 160 and 180, and it's worth noting that she was probably taking things like sacrifices into consideration as well, since she knows Velvet can easily provide those.

I would also consider how exactly the defenses would be formed. IIRC we've seen examples of Lore-based wards before, and how they influenced roll DCs.
 
the goal is 200, she has a plus 110, there for she needs to rool a 90 or above, aka a 1/10 chance of getting it in one turn.
You're conflating searching Canterlot with scrying for Discord. We have no idea what the DC is to break through whatever anti-scry wards he's under.

As for searching Canterlot, this might not be something we can scry at all and we might have to physically search Canterlot using our senses to try to locate what Discord feels like. An intrigue roll to get into places we're not supposed to be and a SH roll to see if Discord is there.

Edit: I could also see intrigue being used to determine if we are able to search without attracting suspicion.
 
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I think using magic is a pretty reasonable way to surpass the usual dice issues.
 
@OurLadyOfWires: your regular delivery of copyedits :D.

Because Although the festivities ended several hours ago
Because although

Of course, you were worried about him, but only until her reminded you that
only until he

After all, you don't really think anypony will be happening in Canterlot for the next few days.
you don't really think anything

Velvet Covers has discovered than an Outsider, perhaps the only you will ever find in your lifetime, exists somewhere in Canterlot.
perhaps the only one you will ever find

The cryptic and recluse, but undeniably genius, designer who was currently releasing hit after hit for the Needle family, under her exclusive line of Designs By Rarity.
I wanted to say it has to be "reclusive", but the dictionary says it has an adjective meaning that means the same thing. I personally have only ever seen "recluse" used as a noun, but eh.

I believe it's hooficured (it's a made up word I know)
I didn't really have any dramatic reactions to the update. The 100 bits option is really nice to have, and I always love how these gameplay mechanics are always delivered in a way that makes sense in the story.

"Yes, yes, I know. And I am thankful to her, don't get me wrong. But still… telling our carriage-pullers that taking us home was a matter of national security…?"

"It just goes to show how much she cares about you."

"… and then threatening to fire them if any one of us got sky-sick during the trip…?"
I was debating in my head whether I believed this made our character just a tiny bit mean, or whether she is just a bit extra sometimes 😅.

It's not really THAT many pages? Start from the last "ported" update, and it's around 15 pages.

I'm going through worse in a pokemon quest on Spacebattles, where we're averaging 100 pages every week or two. Somehow.
Oh, it's all relative. I have a life, and only so much energy 😂; I don't want to be spending it all on (reading and replying on) forums. (Sidenote: There is a bit of self-selection as on every "social media" that people who like and have the time for a platform will be overrepresented, sometimes in a Pareto-like way.)
 
that was very much not the reason.

I don't remember anything at all about the rape thing, though it's been quite some time so I might remember wrong.

Oh no the voice against rape was very much the reason.

I had been a very loud voice saying that rape would be totally out of character and thus wouldn't happen (I was wrong about the QM). To prevent my anti rape stance from being disruptive when he introduced more rape Bird kicked me out of the thread.

It didn't really work out all that well for him even without me there.

From what I remember, you're continuous comments that could be simplified and summarized as "Harmony Bad, Wolf Good, Don't Trust Harmony, Go for Wolf" were judged to be a bit disruptive.

It takes two to tango and compared to how others were acting I was way less disrupting. Besides I'd already stopped from replying to that argument for months before I got banned in advance for thinking rape would be out of character.
 
Oh no the voice against rape was very much the reason.

I had been a very loud voice saying that rape would be totally out of character and thus wouldn't happen (I was wrong about the QM). To prevent my anti rape stance from being disruptive when he introduced more rape Bird kicked me out of the thread.

It didn't really work out all that well for him even without me there.



It takes two to tango and compared to how others were acting I was way less disrupting. Besides I'd already stopped from replying to that argument for months before I got banned in advance for thinking rape would be out of character.
Nice headcanon!

But there are already other threads to discuss this sort if thing. So please take that conversation there.
 
So it probably wasn't Celestia that moved it, unless she just got lucky and built her vaults inside an ancient warded ritual site or something.

I mean she keeps high-level artifacts around without lighting up peoples' Eldritch senses, so I'm going to hazard that her vaults have some pretty strong warding.

assuming she doesn't just surpass us at the last moment.

That's the real reason why we need to friend those Names; to stop them from dashing past us as the last moment!
 
Oh no the voice against rape was very much the reason.

I had been a very loud voice saying that rape would be totally out of character and thus wouldn't happen (I was wrong about the QM). To prevent my anti rape stance from being disruptive when he introduced more rape Bird kicked me out of the thread.

It didn't really work out all that well for him even without me there.
Shaper, It was NOT about that. It was 90% that you went wolf apologist, Harmony evil, and, to put it bluntly, you often came out as a troll. Whenever you speak about the Wolf and Harmony I can honestly never tell if you're being 100% serious, or playing the role.

There were PLENTY of people thinking that Bird wouldn't go for the rape thing. There were plenty that were considering the option in some specific scenarios (like Cadance and Master), there were many against it no matter what, and plenty of people uncomfortable with the topic.

Your ban was NOT about that

Nice headcanon!

But there are already other threads to discuss this sort if thing. So please take that conversation there.
to make it 100% clear, Shaper, Bird here is very not subtly telling you you're wrong, and that THAT wasn't the reason.

You're obviously free to not believe him, but in that case... why are you even here? If you don't trust the QM to be fair with you, then I can't imagine you'd actually have fun being here.

And if you behave exactly like you did in the previous thread, there's a good chance you'll just end up threadbanned again.
 
Or it would have fizzled out and given us no information at all and we'd have wasted a Baldomare action (and possibly an expensive reagent) that we could have instead used for something else.
Mh.
Baldomare described a specific way of looking for it being weird ("like looking through a caleidoscope").
So fizzle seems unlikely, imho.
 
So, i wont go into numbers, to spare you guys from "we should have picked another option" debates.

But the first step for searching for an Outsider would have been "difficult".
Scrying for it would be "hard", with hidden cd breakpoints. And unless Baldomare herself rolled very high, you would have reached something worse than a failure.

You would have reached a false positive. A very believable false positive.

And until you reached the place you THOUGHT you should have gone to, that would have been its own timesink.

Picking this option did exactly what it promised. You progressed towards finding an Outsider, at the expense of the other things you did not pick.
 
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…Damn. I mean, yeah, I can easily see how certain lore defences could lead to false positives—and man that's going to have me worried when we search for other high level stuff—but that is a nasty defense. High level Lore wards are no joke, huh.
 
So, i wont go into numbers, to spare you guys from "we should have picked another option" debates.

But the first step for searching for an Outsider would have been "difficult".
Scrying for it would be "hard", with hidden cd breakpoints. And unless Baldomare herself rolled very high, you would have reached something worse than a failure.

You would have reached a false positive. A very believable false positive.

And until you reached the place you THOUGHT you should have gone to, that would have been its own timesink.

Picking this option did exactly what it promised. You progressed towards finding an Outsider, at the expense of the other things you did not pick.
Just as a guess (and I don't expect Bird to actually confirm this), but I'd assume the other two victories would have equally difficult steps somewhere in the process. I'd imagine for the Moon victory it would be finding the method to switch the two Houses. Not sure what it would be for Harmony; developing a way to actually communicate with something that has a debatable amount of sapience?
 
Just as a guess (and I don't expect Bird to actually confirm this), but I'd assume the other two victories would have equally difficult steps somewhere in the process. I'd imagine for the Moon victory it would be finding the method to switch the two Houses. Not sure what it would be for Harmony; developing a way to actually communicate with something that has a debatable amount of sapience?
I wont confirm anything, for obvious reasons. But this is actually very close.

I mean. Canon CS you just have to reach the Triscupid Gate and accumulate 36 Lore to open it. Whereas here you found the Crucible Lock curveball.

So yes, this is actually very close to certain marks.
 
to make it 100% clear, Shaper, Bird here is very not subtly telling you you're wrong, and that THAT wasn't the reason.

Your wrong he's telling me I'm right on but really this isn't the thread of this.

It was 90% that you went wolf apologist, Harmony evil, and, to put it bluntly, you often came out as a troll. Whenever you speak about the Wolf and Harmony I can honestly never tell if you're being 100% serious, or playing the role.

I wasn't nearly as trolling as you but honestly it was not so much pro Wolf as pro lores.

I was playing the role but it was more role playing with what we knew in character instead of taking what seemed pretty wild out of character information.

Part of it was the fact that Harmony seemed to be acting really Crowned-Growthlike and it wasn't intill a QM word of God with the out of character information that a lot of the good things we assumed were the lores was actually Harmony.
 
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I mean, what little we have to go on for either of those options is kinda ridiculous in its own way. Get an SH Sacrament just to start the Moon path after exploring the entire Blank Plains, and Harmony… hell, if it weren't for Jade popping a nat100 at the incrediblt opportune time of meeting Selene we would have nothing. If I recall correctly anyways. Not to mention the several actions needed to even get to the point of doing the Memory Research.

Also having to be informed of either option by the Master after they did… something. I remember them basically fucking off for a turn or two at some point?
 
I mean, what little we have to go on for either of those options is kinda ridiculous in its own way. Get an SH Sacrament just to start the Moon path after exploring the entire Blank Plains, and Harmony… hell, if it weren't for Jade popping a nat100 at the incrediblt opportune time of meeting Selene we would have nothing. If I recall correctly anyways. Not to mention the several actions needed to even get to the point of doing the Memory Research.
And technically, the Tower serving as the entrance to the House of the Moon is still an assumption on our part. It's not a baseless assumption, but we don't have confirmation that's actually what it is either.
 
Your wrong he's telling me I'm right on but really this isn't the thread of this.

...I have no idea how you can get THAT from his post, so I'll just give up this talk

So, i wont go into numbers, to spare you guys from "we should have picked another option" debates.

But the first step for searching for an Outsider would have been "difficult".
Scrying for it would be "hard", with hidden cd breakpoints. And unless Baldomare herself rolled very high, you would have reached something worse than a failure.

You would have reached a false positive. A very believable false positive.

And until you reached the place you THOUGHT you should have gone to, that would have been its own timesink.

Picking this option did exactly what it promised. You progressed towards finding an Outsider, at the expense of the other things you did not pick.
oh, a false positive would have been devastating.

Well, we'll see how things go now.
 
So, i wont go into numbers, to spare you guys from "we should have picked another option" debates.

But the first step for searching for an Outsider would have been "difficult".
Scrying for it would be "hard", with hidden cd breakpoints. And unless Baldomare herself rolled very high, you would have reached something worse than a failure.

You would have reached a false positive. A very believable false positive.

And until you reached the place you THOUGHT you should have gone to, that would have been its own timesink.

Picking this option did exactly what it promised. You progressed towards finding an Outsider, at the expense of the other things you did not pick.
So not just somewhat positive, but a massive help. Good to know, thank you.
Your wrong he's telling me I'm right on but really this isn't the thread of this.
Telling someone "Nice headcanon" is the opposite of telling someone they are right.
 
Now I'm wondering what's out there that looks kind of like an Outsider to the scrying eye, but isn't.
Beings from Nowhere. Beings of Power in general, like for example Chrysalis (now dead), Sombra, Cerberus, an Ursa Major...

Some artifact that was MADE by an Outsider, maybe. the Alicorn Amulet maybe?
 
I mean, Kaleidoscopic defenses makes me think that it would totally be the actual Outsider we're looking for. It would just, you know, register as being in the wrong place. Because Secret Histories, and something that exists in all of them in a place defended by reflective wards? Hell, it's even a really good use against Lantern, given how Baldomare had mirror motifs and stuff, and the idea of using a mirror to show what is technically a truth but in the wrong place makes sense by reflecting light makes sense.
 
Now I'm wondering what's out there that looks kind of like an Outsider to the scrying eye, but isn't.
Beings from Nowhere. Beings of Power in general, like for example Chrysalis (now dead), Sombra, Cerberus, an Ursa Major...

Some artifact that was MADE by an Outsider, maybe. the Alicorn Amulet maybe?
Could also be that Outsiders just kind of fuck w/ RotT's effects. It's the Reflection of the Tapestry, after all, and Outsiders who didn't make a pact to enter the world 'properly' seem to interact with the Histories in a strange way, if Discord is anything to go by.
 
Your wrong he's telling me I'm right on but really this isn't the thread of this.
...

Well then.

Shaper, I will try to explain this as clearly and publicly as possible.

First, I had you threadbanned from the SV thread, and then put you on "ignore", because you were causing problems to other players.
You consistently tried to push theories that made very little sense given the narrative of the quest, and you were frequently rude to other people.
And most egregiously of all, players who disagreed were being quietly temporarily-threadbanned. And that happened enough players, and "conveniently" right after they responded to one of your messages, to make it clear that you were reporting them for "personal attacks", and the more stringent moderators of the old site were happy to comply.

It came to the point that several other players, separately and out of their own volition sent DMs to me asking me to do something about you.

A quest is a community effort. I am a story-seller who hopes clients will come for my update-kebabs, and who hopes they will like it enough to come again some other time. For free. And if you come into my small charity shop and start making everyone else's experience worse, my only reaction will be to ask you to leave.



Second, I didn't mind you participating in this thread because, to put it simply, there are no SV moderators here to "mysteriously" punish people who get into arguments with you.

However, one of the first things you did when you entered this thread was to-
It's a shame you lack the reading compression to
-be gratuitously rude to someone else.

And right now you felt the need to-
I had been a very loud voice saying that rape would be totally out of character
(I was wrong about the QM).
To prevent my anti rape stance from being disruptive when he introduced more rape Bird kicked me out of the thread.
-paint an image that I kicked you out because you were "vocally against rape". Which in turn -and pardon me if I lack reading comprehension- would mean that I was trying to (1) push a story that was pro-rape, and (2) that I am in the habit of threadbanning readers who disagree with me.

I will be very clear. I do not mind criticism directed towards my writing. I do not mind people disagreeing with me. But I very much do not like it when people paint a false image of me... for no cognizable reason other than their own skewed interpretation of events.



SO.

Let me be very clear.

I have nothing against you personally. But if you keep derailing the thread conversation away from the story itself, I'll either put you on "ignore", ask a moderator if they can threadban you, or both.

Anyhow. If you want to continue this conversation, take it to one of the rant threads I have previously linked to.

And please, stop discussing it here. This is a thread for the quest. And there is a silent majority who is here just to read about the ongoing story. I do not want them to be inconvenienced by this unnecessary drama.

Good day to us all. I will go do something productive like writing the next update. Nothing better to make this become water under the river than making more water flow.
 
Like seriously, Lantern/Secret Histories wards actually seem like the best defense against something like Reflections of the Tapestry, since it uses the rituals own strengths against it.
 
Now I'm wondering what's out there that looks kind of like an Outsider to the scrying eye, but isn't.
I mean. This is completely off the top of my head.

But if you (or better yet, Baldomare) did the ritual, and I hid the roll "because it involves an Outsider".

And then I proceeded to give you a vague description, and an actionable Expedition, that took place in:
-"A faraway pit of smoke and fire, filled with bars and cages" (Tartarus)
-"An old ruin, rank with the stink of Nowhere" (Pony of Shadows)
-"A snow-covered mountain, from which an old bell chimes" (Grogar's bell)

Any of those would have made enough sense for people to believe it was true, no?

And all of them would have led you nowhere (with a lowercase N). Or at least, all of them would have been costly, dangerous and high-level expeditions that would NOT net you an Outsider for your final objective. Only for you to return home, and scry again, but this time even more paranoid about "well, is this REALLY working?"

That is the wild goose chase you just skipped. But don't worry, that's just one of the steps towards the key to this door.
 

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