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

[Nevermort]

I'm in favor of Steppes, artifacts and scrying can happen whenever but our daughter's favorite uncle can't wait on us forever.

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You know, I think you may be right. Her training is complete, time for Luna to become Mafia Princess she was always meant to be.

And with Uncle on board we can ask him for warehouse or another location to conduct three circle rituals. Plus with decision to develop Ponyvile as farming town there is likely new build up of relevant infrastructure and new opportunities for investment.

 

[Sveta08]

Well, this might not be needed, but... Eh, I like putting my thumb on the scale.
Just have to... I know it was somewhere... Normally just... Oh come on now-

Ah ha! Megaphone!

Hey! You! Yes you. You, who are worried or frustrated or concerned about Biedde and his nefarious Moth Edge ways! You who are concerned and morbidly curious what an assassin of a soldier like him can do, what he's up to in the shadows!

If only there was something we could do! Only if there was someone who knows he is terrifying and strong and that he does strange unknowable things! If only we had a Fleeting Opportunity to speak with them, and a free action to do so! If only!

Someone, grab the fainting couch! I need for drama.


But yes. Steeps.

 

[darknessworld]

One or two people might have gone back and edited their original vote instead of posting a new one? It happens sometimes.

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You can edit previous votes. If you check the two most recent tallys there should be one more name on the option to not take Twilight, can't remember who it was though.

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Or the tally can be wrong.
It happened at least once in a SV quest, where it is an integrated feature. I can also link the case if you want.

I'm probably going to do a manual count on it one of this days.

 

[spiderhellian]

Well, this might not be needed, but... Eh, I like putting my thumb on the scale.
Just have to... I know it was somewhere... Normally just... Oh come on now-

Ah ha! Megaphone!

Hey! You! Yes you. You, who are worried or frustrated or concerned about Biedde and his nefarious Moth Edge ways! You who are concerned and morbidly curious what an assassin of a soldier like him can do, what he's up to in the shadows!

If only there was something we could do! Only if there was someone who knows he is terrifying and strong and that he does strange unknowable things! If only we had a Fleeting Opportunity to speak with them, and a free action to do so! If only!

Someone, grab the fainting couch! I need for drama.


But yes. Steeps.

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Huh! I find this mildly convincing. Only mildly, but I'll think about it!

 

[ses]

Well, this might not be needed, but... Eh, I like putting my thumb on the scale.
Just have to... I know it was somewhere... Normally just... Oh come on now-

Ah ha! Megaphone!

Hey! You! Yes you. You, who are worried or frustrated or concerned about Biedde and his nefarious Moth Edge ways! You who are concerned and morbidly curious what an assassin of a soldier like him can do, what he's up to in the shadows!

If only there was something we could do! Only if there was someone who knows he is terrifying and strong and that he does strange unknowable things! If only we had a Fleeting Opportunity to speak with them, and a free action to do so! If only!

Someone, grab the fainting couch! I need for drama.


But yes. Steeps.

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Yeah all the people treating Murder Grampa as an enemy instead of him dropping a narrative hook in our lap and inviting a followup because "can't bring him to All In" are frustrating to me. Biedde has quickly made himself my favorite Special Guest even if I was pretty sore about him sandbagging the guard action too. Cunning is the root of victory, and experience is the root of cunning. There can be no experience without suffering, and seeing as it all worked out in the end I'd be willing to brush it off as an Edge Name doing Edge Name things. Really really looking forward to doing his Sacrament.

I wanna involve him in the Lunar Bureau more so badly. He's so perfect for it.

 

[DelightedOne]

I wanna involve him in the Lunar Bureau more so badly. He's so perfect for it.

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So you want the slave of the embodiment of authoritarian power to be involved with the super police?

There surely won't be any problems coming from that decision.

 

[ses]

So you want the slave of the embodiment of authoritarian power to be involved with the super police?

There surely won't be any problems coming from that decision.

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Literally yes? Names don't have to throw the throttle fully open, the fact that Velvet is the head of a secret police is already super in tune with him and fertile ground for interaction. She doesn't need to paint number by number exactly to the maximum possible interpretation. The Exile DLC in cultist simulator has you betray a rebellion in favor of the regime as exactly the sort of thing the Colonel smiles upon, you don't have to turn it into a carbon copy of the platonic ideal of a Colonel Regime. He'd be perfectly happy to play it how his employer wants him to, we're likely already far above average for a summoner in terms of being on his wavelength: he's not going to force her to be even moreso. Having the Names be cool characters interacting with the other characters in narratively interesting ways is like half the point of the story: the phrase "Name Hotel" gets thrown around for a reason.

 

[Sveta08]

Yeah all the people treating Murder Grampa as an enemy instead of him dropping a narrative hook in our lap and inviting a followup because "can't bring him to All In" are frustrating to me

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Eh, he's Edge.

And I don't mean that he's an Edgy Boi, or that he's sharp. I mean that he's Edge coded.
The parts of him that aren't useful, or aren't purposeful are cut away.
Kindness has use. Authority has utility. Power has a time and place. He isn't so much a person as he is a massive tool.
Heh.

I don't mind it. It's handy even! But... Oh, what's the quote? "Guns don't kill people. I kill people. With Guns."
He's the Gun that kills people. The definition of an imbalanced power dynamic. A person shaped so much like a knifes edge, that they are. Just make certain you are holding it by the handle and don't drop it.


Oh, and know how to use it. That's probably the thing that I've been sitting on that I think we are doing wrong with him. He's not the perfect guard. He's the perfect murderer and assassin.
Yes, he guards automatically, because, of course he does. He's Edge, the weapon at the ready. But he's not made to protect things. Look on at the ... Fear? Problem? Thing?

He can't hold someone's attention. That's Grail. He's a point-and-click problem solver.



Now, as we don't have many things to murder right now, it's kinda up in the air what to have him do then.

 

[Rafuki22]

Now, as we don't have many things to murder right now, it's kinda up in the air what to have him do then.

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We have a possibly WOLF coded problem in the horizon in the shape of Windy.

 

[Venerable Ro]

Oh, and know how to use it. That's probably the thing that I've been sitting on that I think we are doing wrong with him. He's not the perfect guard. He's the perfect murderer and assassin.
Yes, he guards automatically, because, of course he does. He's Edge, the weapon at the ready. But he's not made to protect things. Look on at the ... Fear? Problem? Thing?

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Yeah the whole "didn't get in the way" thing was actually mechanically sound.

[TERRIFYING OPPONENT]: Creatures that are capable of feeling fear will avoid combat with him as much as possible. They will not flee or refuse attacking him, but they will avoid "dogpiling" him whenever possible.

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This ironically makes him a rather poor "tank" in that he simply cannot pull the attention of multiple attackers, they will go around him, they will scatter across the battlefield, they will fight absolutely anything other than him if they have a choice. He's just not meant for defensive fighting. Ambush now, he's great for that, intercepting lone infiltrators, but he cannot be relied upon to stop an assault.

Fortunately now he has backup, some guardsponies that can occupy the chaff while he buzzsaws through the really dangerous things.

 

[Solace2117]

Yeah all the people treating Murder Grampa as an enemy instead of him dropping a narrative hook in our lap and inviting a followup because "can't bring him to All In" are frustrating to me. Biedde has quickly made himself my favorite Special Guest even if I was pretty sore about him sandbagging the guard action too. Cunning is the root of victory, and experience is the root of cunning. There can be no experience without suffering, and seeing as it all worked out in the end I'd be willing to brush it off as an Edge Name doing Edge Name things. Really really looking forward to doing his Sacrament.

I wanna involve him in the Lunar Bureau more so badly. He's so perfect for it.

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I mean both things can be true. I like his character and enjoy reading scenes with him. There's lots of fun narrative overtones and hints about the world when he's involved. At the same time though, I wouldn't be surprised if he turned against Velvet in the end. The complicated villain can often be the most interesting character.
Is going to happen, eh, I think it's possible, other characters have agency and we've been caught off guard before, but at the same time there's no guarantee. I think we should be cautious, but not paranoid.

 

[spiderhellian]

Yeah all the people treating Murder Grampa as an enemy instead of him dropping a narrative hook in our lap and inviting a followup because "can't bring him to All In" are frustrating to me. Biedde has quickly made himself my favorite Special Guest even if I was pretty sore about him sandbagging the guard action too. Cunning is the root of victory, and experience is the root of cunning. There can be no experience without suffering, and seeing as it all worked out in the end I'd be willing to brush it off as an Edge Name doing Edge Name things. Really really looking forward to doing his Sacrament.

I wanna involve him in the Lunar Bureau more so badly. He's so perfect for it.

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I like him! I was a big advocate for summoning him and I'm so happy we did! Getting to know him has been cool!

And because of what we've seen of him, I just really don't trust him!

 

[Pittauro]

ironically, I think there's a chance Biedde is, in his own way, looking out for us.

"It's what you don't know that kill us". It could be his way to teach us to be better. EXACTLY because he might like us, he wants us to be more capable.

After all, as it was mentioned, we're fairly well aligned to the Colonel's ideals. But as we saw from that never-was with Comet Feet...

"I could have said you would have made a fine apprentice, but that would be a lie."

"That would have been a lie, because success, and victory, are self-executing virtues. And that you fell off from the Path is evidence that you were never suited for it."

"I would also have thanked you for sparing me the effort of learning you were made of such brittle material. But I do not thank an unworthy blade for its failure."

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To Biedde, "success and victory are self-executing virtues".

the fact we survived that ambush and killed the assassin, EVEN while already heavily wounded, and that we survived, is a mark of our worthiness.

Of course he's likely fine with either scenario. If we succeed, we prove ourself worthy of being his employer, we prove ourselves interesting.

And if we fail, well, it means we were never meant for greatness.

 

[ses]

ironically, I think there's a chance Biedde is, in his own way, looking out for us.

"It's what you don't know that kill us". It could be his way to teach us to be better. EXACTLY because he might like us, he wants us to be more capable.

After all, as it was mentioned, we're fairly well aligned to the Colonel's ideals. But as we saw from that never-was with Comet Feet...



To Biedde, "success and victory are self-executing virtues".

the fact we survived that ambush and killed the assassin, EVEN while already heavily wounded, and that we survived, is a mark of our worthiness.

Of course he's likely fine with either scenario. If we succeed, we prove ourself worthy of being his employer, we prove ourselves interesting.

And if we fail, well, it means we were never meant for greatness.

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Note that in the alt timeline Biedde popped his Influence immediately while he didn't during the ambush, even though that would have killed the Windigo a turn sooner (and we have confirmation from the QM he would have intercepted the last thug if the windigo was downed).

On another note I keep seeing people talk about how close we are to All In but we got completely obliterated taking one step into the Ruined Church, and All In is the final dungeon. I don't think we need All Sacraments but I think we're a lot of expeditions away from being ready. We don't have a single heirloom after all. We should do more mansus exploration and mansus expeditions now that we have 3 Health alongside working on our Sacraments.

 

[Pittauro]

Note that in the alt timeline Biedde popped his Influence immediately while he didn't during the ambush, even though that would have killed the Windigo a turn sooner (and we have confirmation from the QM he would have intercepted the last thug if the windigo was downed).

On another note I keep seeing people talk about how close we are to All In but we got completely obliterated taking one step into the Ruined Church, and All In is the final dungeon. I don't think we need All Sacraments but I think we're a lot of expeditions away from being ready. We don't have a single heirloom after all. We should do more mansus exploration and mansus expeditions now that we have 3 Health alongside working on our Sacraments.

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That's just not comparable.

In the Mansus, we can ONLY use Velvet. and our Lores are higher than our artifact levels, so they're basically useless too.

When we'll do All In we'll bring enough followers to use ALL of our artifacts, so each lvl of artifact is effectively a +10 to the roll (or +5? I'm not sure right now).

We'll also bring (presumably) Baldomare and Axe, and a few Mares in the Light. Maybe some Risen too, though they don't really help THAT much.

There's even a small chance of Mareinette, depending on if we end up doing her Heart Sacrament or if we somehow get lucky and the Heart Sacrament also gives her friendship and is something we're more willing to take (and that we can get in time).

Keep in mind that failing obstacles is NOT always lethal either. sometimes it's just lost time and a second attempt.

And, most importantly... we just don't have THAT much time, in the end. Unless we decide to aim for a Moth 6 or 7 Artifact, or really rush to lvl 6 moth, our worst case scenario is that we have another 3 turns beside this one basically.

 

[Limabot]

To be honest, I don't think hunting down the highest remaining Moth Artifact would be a bad idea.

 

[Pittauro]

To be honest, I don't think hunting down the highest remaining Moth Artifact would be a bad idea.

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it's not. it's really a better idea than aiming for Moth 6, all things considered.

Then again... scrying for the strongest MOTH artifact.

It's likely to have a really high DC.

Also if there was only one, it's possible it was destroyed already. Remember the Moldywarp's stone? It's not like it was DOOMED to be destroyed from the beginning, if we took different choices we might have gotten our hands on it.

 

[ses]

We really need to learn more Heart thats for sure. It's our weakest Lore and it really really shouldn't be.

 

[Pittauro]

We really need to learn more Heart thats for sure. It's our weakest Lore and it really really shouldn't be.

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well, I think Sacraments are the priority, but ideally we'd also be doing expeditions in the meantime and if we were to find heart artifacts or books to study...

If we're not getting 4 sacraments in the next two turns (22: Edge and Baldomare SH. 23: Personal SH and Moth) we're doing it wrong.

Heart is by comparison less important, though hey, maybe we'll manage to find the time to buy heart books too. We can potentially just send followers to search for them, and we can PROBABLY spare the 60 bits two heart 3 books would cost. (and if we get lucky we also find some expedition books as well)

 

[Sveta08]

If I had to guess, for the upcoming plan and turn...

The only thing I really know is a scry for a Baldomare book, search for the Outsider Extractinator 9000, and run an expedition I believe. Probably by Selene.
But, past that, I can't say what should, or will, happen until we see what Ax does.

 

[Witherbrine2671]

We also have the Soft Sweeps Fleeting Opportunity which I think we should do.

 

[DelightedOne]

Hmmm so next turn for Velvet's Phase could look like this at its most basic form?

-Soft FO
-Baldomare SH Sacrament
-Biedde Edge Sacrament
-A Memory of Light-Step 1 Ritual(Casting)
-Spoiled Rich(Free Social)
-Explore Wastes(Free Knock)

This doesn't include obvious things like AotL or obviously unknown actions at this point in time. It is all a rough outline of the future I have in mind that will probably be crushed by reality.

 

[Pittauro]

Hmmm so next turn for Velvet's Phase could look like this at its most basic form?

-Soft FO
-Baldomare SH Sacrament
-Biedde Edge Sacrament
-A Memory of Light-Step 1 Ritual(Casting)
-Spoiled Rich(Free Social)
-Explore Wastes(Free Knock)

This doesn't include obvious things like AotL or obviously unknown actions at this point in time. It is all a rough outline of the future I have in mind that will probably be crushed by reality.

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well, we don't know if Memory of Light is something we can/want to cast immediately, but sure.

with Biedde giving Edge Sacrament too, of course.

 

[Maer]

I know the focus is on getting Heart Books, and for good reason- but Mareinette can also provide a lesson in Heart every turn, can't she? That might also help speed up the Heart Gain if we decide we aren't using her for our social of Spoiled.

 

[ses]

I suspect our personal SH sacrament will be powerful at obtaining more lore scraps overall regardless. I absolutely want to finish that sacrament ASAP. Comet Feet was ready for his sacrament in his main lore all the way back at the changeling hive assault: Velvet is so far behind in depth only getting her first Sacrament at all now in exchange for the breadth she got. We could have had a SH sacrament ages ago.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

If I had to guess, for the upcoming plan and turn...

The only thing I really know is a scry for a Baldomare book, search for the Outsider Extractinator 9000, and run an expedition I believe. Probably by Selene.

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But we are already searching for the Extractinator this turn.

 

[dcoconeo]

Isn't doing Baldomare Sacrament likely to give us a better chance at succeeding in Personal, due to the way the mechanics work?

 

[Venerable Ro]

Isn't doing Baldomare Sacrament likely to give us a better chance at succeeding in Personal, due to the way the mechanics work?

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We can do both of them, and I seriously doubt that Baldomare would suffer the embarassment of a failed Sacrament.

Actually, we already saw Axe perform a Sacrament, there were no rolls involved at all. The benefits of being a Name, hmm?

 

[ses]

aaaaargh I wanna see the Knock sacrament effect so bad!

 

[ses]

Thinking about a Cadance!Quest negaverse where the paranoid section of the playerbase finally got a vote off the ground to spend AP on a turn long +40 "The Nature Of Loyalty" boost and check over Velvet Covers despite AP hell.

Velvet Covers considers Princess Celestia to be an enemy
Velvet Covers considers Midday Dew to be a potential enemy
Velvet Covers considers Fair Trial to be a potential enemy
Velvet Covers would side with you if you and Princess Celestia came to blows
Velvet Covers would kill to protect you
Velvet Covers would be very likely to do so if you asked her to kill any pony in Equestria not in her immediate family

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Especially if it happened after the wedding but before the Luna reveal. Idk, I'm not good at writing but imagine the reactions.