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

[Greymere]

...and I'm still worried about Sombra potentially appearing. It's been nearly 2 years in setting, shouldn't the Crystal Empire be back REALLY soon?

If we go meta and assume 1 show season = 1 year, Sombra is beginning of season 3, so 3rd year...

and we're on turn 22. There's a very real chance we might get Sombra in 3 turns or so.

Click to shrink...

Actually. Regarding this. We may want to consider having our detectives investigate "threats from outside" next turn while our Constables are (probably) handling Dodge City.

-[] [DETECTIVES] The dangers in the dark come from outside of Ponykind as well. Listen to the rumors. Study the myths. Look for the threats from without. (Search for Expedition Sites for your later consideration. Additionally, keep an ear on the ground for other "foreign" threats)

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At worst, we'll just get an expedition site(s) that we can raid for loot. But Pittauro is right that we seem to be coming up on the time for Sombra to reappear, and this might be pretty much the only way for us to get some advance warning before we suddenly have to deal with a powerful, ancient tyrant.

 

[DelightedOne]

Actually. Regarding this. We may want to consider having our detectives investigate "threats from outside" next turn while our Constables are (probably) handling Dodge City.

Click to shrink...

I did some math on that.

Turn 9 was Hearts warming so turn 21 should have been it. Turn 9 was in season 1 so we were in season 2 ep 11 in turn 21.

The Crystal Empire only returns in the first episode of season 3, so we have quite a bit of time left.

 

[Solace2117]

I'm generally pretty pro expeditions, they're great ways to get the resources we desperately need. The fact it is a Bureau one though does make it a little more complicated because I don't know that we can just take everything like we normally would. Yes they're now our Cult and we can definitely benefit, but they do have to operate at least somewhat through official channels on these, which means Celestia and the other government groups will know most of it for good and ill. No matter what we pick it'll be nice to see if/how Bureau expeditions differ from others.
Going personally though probably gives us some options to grab a few choice things and guide the narrative on the ground, which honestly may be just as important. Velvet is still the head of the bureau, but the fact she wasn't involved in the set up will likely limit what she could gain and her influence a bit.
As cool as I think her going with the influence could be, I do worry about injuries. Not in a game over kind of way, more just setting us back on Biedde's sacrament attempt.

 

[Greymere]

I did some math on that.

Turn 9 was Hearts warming so turn 21 should have been it. Turn 9 was in season 1 so we were in season 2 ep 11 in turn 21.

The Crystal Empire only returns in the first episode of season 3, so we have quite a bit of time left.

Click to shrink...

On one hand, that would be good if true. Less things for us to deal with.

On the other hand, do you really want to rely on Bird keeping the timeline exactly the same in order to not get blindsided?

 

[Pittauro]

I did some math on that.

Turn 9 was Hearts warming so turn 21 should have been it. Turn 9 was in season 1 so we were in season 2 ep 11 in turn 21.

The Crystal Empire only returns in the first episode of season 3, so we have quite a bit of time left.

Click to shrink...

On one hand, that would be good if true. Less things for us to deal with.

On the other hand, do you really want to rely on Bird keeping the timeline exactly the same in order to not get blindsided?

Click to shrink...

Also I think it's pretty clear that the show is not in perfect order. And it's not like we have an heartwarming episode each season,for example.

The making things that are DEFINITELY in order if say are the season starters and Ender's. Which are usually (though not quite always) villain conflicts. I think the only exception is S1 with the grand galloping gala?

In any case, we definitely went beyond S1 end (the gala that never happened here), we passed beyond Discord's release (and who knows what's going on with him. Maybe being moved from the garden made the petrification last longer), and we kinda accelerated Chrysalis.

That leaves Sombra.

Other than him there should also be Tired later on in theory... But I think the fanon assumption is that he escaped when Cerberus left Tartarus in the episode where Twilight does time travel... So we should notice that if/when it happens?

Oh, and there's always starlight too. He's actually most likely already out there's and could EASILY be a cultist that uses a lore ritual (or a lore sacrament/realization power maybe?) to steal cutie marks, if we assume it's not just a "normal" spell...

 

[ses]

I think we already have plenty to keep our plate full

 

[Greymere]

I think we already have plenty to keep our plate full

Click to shrink...

Not like that's ever stopped Things From Happening outside of our control, unfortunately.

Edit:

-The Most Precious Treasure Hunt Ever (Selene's Expedition)
50 bits spent. Obtained alicorn moon princess daughter. Payoff priceless, at least worth 500 bits.
-Crepuscule Jailbreak
36 bits spent. Obtained the sun princess's personal student and main character of the show (us fucking it up afterwards wasn't the expedition's fault). Let's say that saving Twilight was worth at least 360 bits (We gave up 500 bits at the wedding just for a chance at saving her)
-Beneath the Royal Castle, pt. 1
15 bits spent. Knock 2 artifact, Heart 4 reagent. 100 bits for a Knock 2 artifact and 80 bits for a Heart 4 reagent for 180 bits of loot.
-Beneath the Royal Castle, pt. 2
63 bits spent. Level 4 artifact, level 4 reagent, 2 level 5 books obtained. Obviously more than 630 bits of value.
-The Grave on the Hill
20 bits spent. A freaking level 6 book obtained.
-Copper Secateur The Amazing Grail Pinata
Exploded into 700 bits worth of blackmail plus a Winter 4 artifact plus like 300 bits worth of assorted lower level artifacts.

Do you see the pattern? Expeditions frequently pay off an order of magnitude more than their cost in assorted loot. We were specifically offered the chance to Name-bomb the place for goodies and specifically warned about the constables getting rid of the expedition once we sent them. Now. Things have changed since then. The bureau is at max loyalty now, and are our personal cult.

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You know, considering our perpetual bit problems, why don't we just... scry an expedition who's primary reward is just bits? If Copper could explode into a 700-bit equivalent pinata, surely we can scry some old treasure vault or forgotten and buried treasure that we can claim for ourselves. Rare gems and magical reagents. Just, stuff that's easily sellable without needing to study it.

Not necessarily this turn, since I think people are already pretty set in what sorts of things they want from what is essentially our single flex slot.

 

[Solace2117]

You know, considering our perpetual bit problems, why don't we just... scry an expedition who's primary reward is just bits? If Copper could explode into a 700-bit equivalent pinata, surely we can scry some old treasure vault or forgotten and buried treasure that we can claim for ourselves. Rare gems and magical reagents. Just, stuff that's easily sellable without needing to study it.

Not necessarily this turn, since I think people are already pretty set in what sorts of things they want from what is essentially our single flex slot. Unless people would be interested in a plan that does that?

Click to shrink...

Considering where we found it and the description, there's a good chance that's what the Manehatten book is.

Also I think it's pretty clear that the show is not in perfect order. And it's not like we have an heartwarming episode each season,for example.

The making things that are DEFINITELY in order if say are the season starters and Ender's. Which are usually (though not quite always) villain conflicts. I think the only exception is S1 with the grand galloping gala?

In any case, we definitely went beyond S1 end (the gala that never happened here), we passed beyond Discord's release (and who knows what's going on with him. Maybe being moved from the garden made the petrification last longer), and we kinda accelerated Chrysalis.

That leaves Sombra.

Other than him there should also be Tired later on in theory... But I think the fanon assumption is that he escaped when Cerberus left Tartarus in the episode where Twilight does time travel... So we should notice that if/when it happens?

Oh, and there's always starlight too. He's actually most likely already out there's and could EASILY be a cultist that uses a lore ritual (or a lore sacrament/realization power maybe?) to steal cutie marks, if we assume it's not just a "normal" spell...

Click to shrink...

In fairness cannon has gone a bit off the rails in general. We can probably find a an expedition for him, but I don't know if it'll be something we need to worry about right now. I think he was mentioned as one of the potential false Outsiders if we had failed the roll that led us to Discord, though I don't remember for sure. I don't think there's any harm in having the Bureau search for outside threats, but probably not something we'll have to personally deal with soon.

 

[ses]

I don't think "Gift her Freedom" is just a trade for 1 Velvet AP for 1 minion AP. I don't think that would make sense? The options are intended to be Soft Sweeps 'halping', in a way that's probably genuinely beneficial from the point of view of if we were only concerned about Glory, and frankly speaking genuinely beneficial in general, while making us be scared and horrified at the shenanigans they get up to because QM likes to flex his horror writing chops. Same argument goes for gifting Tools and gifting Influence as well.

Especially since like, the QM has made kind of multiple statements to the effect of being frustrated that we've gone most of the game in the game about cults without actually running a real cult. And I'm pretty sure these options were written before we decided what do to with the Copper blackmail folder.

I feel like Freedom was intended to be a viable method of gaining a cult of our own if we hadn't invested in [The Director of the Lunar Bureau]. Full cult benefits at the cost of -1 Velvet AP per turn, or our choice of a big chunk of the benefits of a cult via "the influence that the Wildhoof Club and the Gardeners used to be able to get by delegating to their Intrigue advisor and having access to an Outer Circle" and "the sort of magical mojo that the Wildhoofs/Gardeners used to be able to get access to via the magic of having a cadre and minions and a Magic advisor".

Like, coming from a prior assumption that the options are meant to be genuinely helpful to us if we're willing to sit through occasional scenes of Bad Things happening to ponies who aren't us, I dont think it's going to be a matter of the Wolf Club randomly unleashing ash ghouls and windigoes willy nilly? Soft Sweeps wants to help us. And fuck, this is a support group for ponies whose families got murdered by changelings and we can teach them to summon Mares in the Light.

I think that's a bigger thing to think of than just "oh noes windigoes". Remember how like... most of the tragedies that happened with our old cult would have never happened if we had explored the Mansus more thoroughly and taught the cult MITLs, rather than Windigoes being the literally only summon we brought them giving them 'all you have is a hammer' syndrome?

(Also by the option as written this also means that Softy's cult will learn how to summon Biedde and will attempt to do so if we leave him unattended lmao)

"-You will not give her any directions of what to do, exactly. And she will understand that you trust her, and that this is a test."