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

[Arrkhon]

Then again, it feels likely that the response to "your savior and master pulls off the mask and abandons you" is suicide rather than making a new life...

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Thankfully there's a really nice support group for changeling victims in Ponyville, we could subtly send him there!

 

[spiderhellian]

Bah. And again, Bah I say!

What is there to learn from reading a blank book?
What is there to taste from gnawing the bones of another's meal?
What is there to hide from a face who never knew?

By strict definitions these may apply, but what an unsatisfying resolution they would bring.

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This really reminds me of the time we "tricked" the Master, sacrificing iirc a Risen and delaying our first sacrifice of a living thing...

What is there to gnaw on in an unearthed corpse? What is there to learn in breaking what you made? What are you hiding, little Velvet...

Which is to say, disappointing Eldritch Beings by way of following the letter, but not the spirit, of the rules is quintessential Velvet behaviour.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

I am adamantly against using the prisoner for our Moth Sacrament because that would ruin the arc we have set up for Spoiled to realize that Mareinette was her actual friend all along.

 

[Sveta08]

This really reminds me of the time we "tricked" the Master, sacrificing iirc a Risen and delaying our first sacrifice of a living thing...

What is there to gnaw on in an unearthed corpse? What is there to learn in breaking what you made? What are you hiding, little Velvet...

Which is to say, disappointing Eldritch Beings by way of following the letter, but not the spirit, of the rules is quintessential Velvet behaviour.

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Of all the things to be consistent about.

Let's not be consistently disappointing. : p

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

Whew! This update fought me for a while. Doubly so given how little time and energy I had until today.

Anyways, pings. One thing at a time.



In general:

Also hilarious at the QM potshots at the redeemed changeling character designs. I laughed.

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I am actually quite happy with how the changeling lore turned out for the canon of this quest. And even if you don't have enough time to get to the bottom of it before reaching Glory, I am excited to give as many glimpses as you earn

@OurLadyOfWires Just checking, neither Sorting the Prisoners or Screening for Doppelgängers would qualify as a project involving the effort of several ponies? Administering the processing of lots or people, cross-referencing sources from Tall Tale, coordinating capture and/or restitution..?

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I also thought about that (i usually re-read Velvet's character sheet before mechanic-heavy turns like that).

But Mare Administrator is more for "long term, sitting in an office and organizing several disparate limbs that could otherwise not be pulling in the same direction."

Here, you are overseeing a few hours of "put the prisoners in a line and let me look at them one at a time," and then "get these cutie marks, and have former police officers do a well-oiled break-and-enter-and-apprehend".

Not the kind of thing I envision triggering it, and not the span of time it would need either.

To put it in perspective, if Cadance handed you the throne for a turn for her to unwind and you had to roll a "Run Equestria" dice. Or if running the Bureau was COMPLETELY boiled down to a single "run the Bureau" roll (rather than a complex multitude of votes and micromanaging) it would definitely trigger Queen Princess Mare Administrator.

But not this. Sorry.

I wonder if distracting Celestia with other lores to level up would work?

@OurLadyOfWires ?

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A bit of "maybe, it is legitimately possible," and a bit of "you just don't know".

It's not enough of a certain "no" for me to say "Velvet doesn't think so, so don't bother." But neither I nor Velvet can guarantee that "Voting to give it to Eclipse = gain 1 more turn for Doom Clock." Which, in truth, would be the best case scenario.

So, unknown. But not impossible.



Regarding the prisoner.

@OurLadyOfWires if we Leash the prisoner, could we commit to using him for Mareinette's sacrament and reassign DoA's (and maybe Cherenkolt's) AP, since they only reason they're doing what they're doing is because we needed a sacrifice? I assume needing to Leash him wouldn't interfere with the Moth Sacrament, since we could just switch the Leash target mid-turn after doing Grail?

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mh... I kinda wonder... @OurLadyOfWires if we had somehow achieved Velvet's Grail Sacrament before meeting Mareinette, would friendship with her have become impossible? Or would we have needed to do the dinner with no other benefit from it?

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So.

Mr. Prisoner is not a walking, brain-dead, "philosophical zombie" thing. He is a living, breathing pony with a life of his own. I am saying this clearly to make sure you all know that "morality-free sacrifice" will not apply to him.

So, to put it very simply, I will give you three perspectives to consider when you think about him.

From a NARRATIVE perspective:
-He is a living pony who was kidnapped by the changelings, and had [something] done to him.
-You will have the option to look into that [something], if it interests you, but it's not really essential to your Glory-climbing.
-He also has a past, and that can also be good (or bad) depending on where you take things.

From a MECHANICAL perspective:
-If you pick him, you will quite literally be given a list of options to vote from.
-I can guarantee you will AT LEAST be allowed to vote for one of his Lore affinities. But depending on interest and availability, I will certainly make things more entertaining than just that.
-Among other things, he is meant to be an interesting "build-a-minion" option. Something that could have happened more often if you went on a "wider" recruitment-heavy build, or if you had your own cult. But since you never did that, and this chance presented itself, I decided to offer this here.

From a TIMING perspective:
-Mr. Prisoner, if leashed, will come to you around (approximately) the MIDDLE of next turn.
-He will NOT be available for any Sacrament attempts next turn (but will be available for the following turn, since he is a sacrificable minion).
-The idea is that you choose him now. "Build" him and get introduced to him next turn, and he is completely available starting Turn 24 as a regular minion.
-In practice, this means he would have to keep the Leash until AT LEAST the beginning of Turn 24 (and on Turn 24, you will be able to sacrifice him, or do whatever else that involves the Leash coming off and you switching it around).



That seems to be it, but I could have missed something.

Kindly let me know if you have any more questions. And I hope you are all doing well!

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

Now, as for everything else:

I don't care about the map, all you'll find is half-thawed corpses at the Hive. It was thoroughly scoured and purged.

If truly empty-minded, I guess we can give the empty one purpose. I'd still feel better if Axe gets us a child predator to feast upon though. Karmic retribution and all that.

Stealing 53 Bits just feels so... petty, for lack of a better term. Usually when Velvet does evil things they are huge, sweeping acts that mar the world. This feels beneath us, even though it is undoubtedly useful.

As for the weird flowering thing... take it. Worst comes to worse, Celestia yoinks it and gets some Grail and stuff, which we do not care about; doom tracker only cares about Lantern. Best case scenario the Bureau learns something, and becomes that much more useful to us.

EDIT: QM came in with the steel chair of knowledge and I must reconsider things.

 

[Greymere]

So, to put it very simply, I will give you three perspectives to consider when you think about him.

From a NARRATIVE perspective:
-He is a living pony who was kidnapped by the changelings, and had [something] done to him.
-You will have the option to look into that [something], if it interests you, but it's not really essential to your Glory-climbing.
-He also has a past, and that can also be good (or bad) depending on where you take things.

From a MECHANICAL perspective:
-If you pick him, you will quite literally be given a list of options to vote from.
-I can guarantee you will AT LEAST be allowed to vote for one of his Lore affinities. But depending on interest and availability, I will certainly make things more entertaining than just that.
-Among other things, he is meant to be an interesting "build-a-minion" option. Something that could have happened more often if you went on a "wider" recruitment-heavy build, or if you had your own cult. But since you never did that, and this chance presented itself, I decided to offer this here.

From a TIMING perspective:
-Mr. Prisoner, if leashed, will come to you around (approximately) the MIDDLE of next turn.
-He will NOT be available for any Sacrament attempts next turn (but will be available for the following turn, since he is a sacrificable minion).
-The idea is that you choose him now. "Build" him and get introduced to him next turn, and he is completely available starting Turn 24 as a regular minion.
-In practice, this means he would have to keep the Leash until AT LEAST the beginning of Turn 24 (and on Turn 24, you will be able to sacrifice him, or do whatever else that involves the Leash coming off and you switching it around).

Click to shrink...

So basically, it locks up our Leash indefinitely in exchange for a customizable (normal pony) minion.

Yeah, not worth it. We need the Leash to stick on Spoiled for our Moth Sacrament, and spending the Leash on acquiring +1 Follower AP is something we can already do by applying it to a Close Friend if we really need it.

Well this expedition has been underwhelming. No Worthy Opponent, no Lore loot, barely any bits (but only if we're willing to steal from the prisoners!). As expected though, considering Bird outright told us it wasn't a loot vault.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

It was fun to read though. Shame we arrived too late to fight the Husk and too early to fight an eldritch plant monster, though.

 

[Greymere]

[] Plan: Don't Bother With the Small Stuff
-[] (MAP) Let the Bureau have it.
-[] (PRISONER) Leave him.
-[] (LOOT) I will do the right thing, and not steal.
-[] (THING) Capture it.

 

[spiderhellian]

@OurLadyOfWires What would happen if we eventually took the Leash off him..? Even for a "quick-leash-Spoiled-and-spook-her" moment? Is that a "You don't know"?

I dunno, a free Minion is valuable (and playing with Minion-making mechanics seems fun), and we've been actively passing up the Leash recently. We need it ever-so-briefly for Spoiled, but I really do wonder if that's manageable...