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

[Sk1lz3r]

I do wonder about the other Victories…
We have a straight shot at Glory and a pretty decent understanding of Mother of Wolves.

I wonder how much effort the Moon Victory would have been. SH sacrament and then climb the tower in the blank plains to access to moon and go from there? But the outcome is somewhat expected with returning to how it once was.

What intrigues me the most is the Harmony Victory. What would it have entailed? What would it look like? It is one of the regrets I have that I only found out about this quest so late, having lost the privilige to vote on so many crucial decisions.

 

[DelightedOne]

The Harmony aspect really hasn't been relevant

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Meh, I think living next door to the Tree of Harmony and in the same town as the Elements(even if Magic is dimmed) would make some small difference, Pinkie would definitely notice something about them and start something to make them happier(she clocked Starlight's village/cult the moment she saw their smiles). Could be part of the reason why some of them left.

And I also have this small theory the Elements we befriended change the narrative someway. With Rarity and Fluttershy making some Generosity and Kindness storylines possible, that is also part of the reason I wanted Applejack as a Confidante, some Honesty would go a long way with Velvet.

 

[Pittauro]

Axe was literally designed to solo long expeditions. This is what she's there for.

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I'd argue most Long expeditions are not quite meant to be soloed, but if someone hasto do it, it would definitely be Axe (or Mareinette).

and admittedly we have enough Artifacts as to make it fairly viable.

...I really want to finish Canterlot expedition sometimes...

BTRC3 isn't the key to a Name's permanent loyalty, and it's never been anywhere close to a priority. Long expeditions, especially one for a Level 7 book, are also going to be more difficult. The exact kind of situation where the oomph of sending more than a single Name is absolutely warranted.

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We don't KNOW if it's going to be more difficult, but yeah, it's definitely (and sadly for me) more important.

Name friendships mean they give us a second action (extremely valuable), they become permanent (which saves us money and AP on resummonings), they get a narrative and mechanical buff (see Axe healing 1 wound each turn, using influences more easily, and being more helpful narratively in general)...

and we definitely need to prioritize the Names over Canterlot. Which means lvl 7 book, and lvl 6 forge reagent to make into nuclear fuel an ingot of blue gold.

Getting Names friendly sooner means getting more actions, after all, beside everything else. And of course Loyal Names are the best help we'll get when we go All In.

So, since the narrative side is grey, and the mechanical side tells me "yeah", I'm comfortable with "yes, Risen can lead expeditions."

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Good to know. Feels a bit weird, but I suppose I can see it working as a "The Risen will steal all the needed supplies" and walk through wild land instead of taking the train. I think last time each Name made its own way to Manehattan anyway. Axe at the very least showed narrative teleportation-equivalent (as befits Knock), and I wouldn't be surprised if Baldomare can move at the speed of light / thought.

465 - 140 = 355

You'd need Rarity to gather 155 bits which is more then she's even gotten us via commission and even then the math doesn't add up to send Axe on a Medium and Long term expedition in the same turn.

So you'd probably end up a handful of bits short and definitely one Axe ap short.

Unless of course you think one of the highest level Reagents is going to be found on a short expedition?

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It very well might, admittedly. the lvl 6 book for Baldomare was a short expedition, after all, wasn't it?

If we become desperate enough we could sell artifacts, though of course we should try to avoid that.

Winter gives few bits, Lantern and SH are extremely useful for rituals... I suppose we could in theory sell the Heartifact? that's 200 bits, if it ever makes THAT much of a difference.

I don't want to, but to be fair we're likely to get FAR more out of many expeditions we'd sell it for.

3) It might be short, it might be medium. Who knows. I think it could be a short expedition seeing as we've literally already seen that it is possible for Level 6 items to be found on short (and easy) expeditions. Either way, Selene can handle it. Or if you really don't want to spend 2 AP on a medium expedition, have someone else lead and spend 1 Selene AP to follow. Again, unlikely to actually use up the full bit cost, but honestly I'd rather just eat the -2 Selene AP for the turn. Worth it for Forge Name Friendship.

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Side note, I think like Selene and a name (Axe or Mareinette) alone are more than enough for the Canterlot expedition.

and, in general, I don't think any expedition REALLY requires more than two of our (strong) followers/summons.

We should keep in mind that it's FINE if we lose against SOME obstacles. Most of them just result in delays or minor wounds. Better to pass everything on first attempt, sure, but sometimes the extra AP and bits cost is not worth it.

4) As I said, my suggested team is Mareinette + DoA + Cherenkolt (Mini). This is estimated to cost 240 bits, not 360, and even if you did also send Biedde (or Selene) along to bump the allocated bits up to 360, the chance of them actually using up all of the allocated bits are looooow considering how stacked that team is.

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Mini Cherenkolt means giving up his action though...

And considering we have confirmation they will start killing outside of their mini cult

Yeah, they are getting worse, maybe not regretably but mundanely. And once more we only have ourselves to blame.

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That's not confirmation, Bird is just offering some possible answers.

We don't know which one will be true until it happens. Which is NOT to say they're definitely harmless, they MIGHT very well kill someone.

But they might also not.

I do wonder about the other Victories…
We have a straight shot at Glory and a pretty decent understanding of Mother of Wolves.

I wonder how much effort the Moon Victory would have been. SH sacrament and then climb the tower in the blank plains to access to moon and go from there? But the outcome is somewhat expected with returning to how it once was.

What intrigues me the most is the Harmony Victory. What would it have entailed? What would it look like? It is one of the regrets I have that I only found out about this quest so late, having lost the privilige to vote on so many crucial decisions.

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There's realistically zero chance of us going for Harmony before Glory, obviously... but I wonder if we might be able to fit the Tower that Leads to the Moon in our plans in the next few turns.

Even if we don't go for the House of the Moon ending, there's likely to be some rewards in the way after all.

Lore Scraps, rituals, summons, reagents or artifacts...

 

[Greymere]

Mini Cherenkolt means giving up his action though...

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Mini Cherenkolt also means that he can lend his Lore levels to both the book and the reagent expeditions as a pseudo-artifact, and won't cost anything extra to bring. Note that our only other source of Forge Lore for expeditions is... Rarity. Who is a) Forge 1, and b) much more useful making more bits for us than lending only a +5 to Forge expedition rolls.

 

[Shaper47]

If we become desperate enough we could sell artifacts, though of course we should try to avoid that.

Winter gives few bits, Lantern and SH are extremely useful for rituals... I suppose we could in theory sell the Heartifact? that's 200 bits, if it ever makes THAT much of a difference.

I don't want to, but to be fair we're likely to get FAR more out of many expeditions we'd sell it for.

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I also forgot probable medicine costs (quickly add that in) but yeah befriending our Forge Name first is probably better given our financial state.

I kinda want to gift the Winter artifact to Celestia/Eclipse, might even get some bits from them as reimbursement or at least use it as an excuse to reimburse ourselves with bits from the Bureau.

But yeah just selling it for bits is a valid possibility.

Side note, I think like Selene and a name (Axe or Mareinette) alone are more than enough for the Canterlot expedition.

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For cool emotional reasons I want Velvet and Selene on that expedition. Hell if we had the bits I'd send along Jade.

There's probably secret benefits for sending Selene and Velvet could probably pick up a lore scrap or two from the adventure.

I don't want to, but to be fair we're likely to get FAR more out of many expeditions we'd sell it for.

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Speaking of getting stuff out of expeditions I had an idea.

(P.s. Consider it seriously please on the objective merits not emotional knee-jerks.)

Grab the Watchpony Mirror expedition.

Almost certainly a short expedition so Names being added on for free with one Velvet ap as leader.

We'd need probably Baldomare to scry it (maybe turn 23) for the most likely requirements.

We'd need Celestia distracted.

We'd need a way through the Locks/Wards.

We'd need to convince and trick Eclipse into letting us grab it.

To start with if our Moth Sacrament is anything like what we expect we can probably have Velvet pretend to be Celestia. Mareinette can pretend to be Cadance (preferably while Cadence is publicly seen elsewhere). Our Lady of Wires then can probably convince them to hand the Mirror over to their boss.

For the way through. Velvet has Knock 5 and if we can ask Axe to borrow the Frangiclave (Mareinette will hold it for the expedition) we can almost certainly get in. Silky might have to give her the eyes and it might take up one of Axes ap.

Now for the distraction as Celestia probably the only obstacle unaccounted for so far.

Alright so the Visiting a Competitor mentioned that it was a gang. Which means there's probably around seven ponies there who we (Velvet and Biedde) can knock out and grab. Then just spend a Velvet ap and 25 bits to make/Summon a max level Ash-Ghoul. (Pretty sure they can be used in the turn their summoned.

Boom, just send the Ash-Ghoul at Celestia while Velvet and Mareinette steal the Mirror. (Maybe Biedde as backup distraction if Celestia finishes fast)

We can even divert suspicion onto the Changelings by planting evidence at Tall Tale that the Changelings were planning an attack on Celestia with some sort of bribed Ash monster (Ash-Ghoul).

@OurLadyOfWires This kind of plot valid? I.e. Can we plant evidence at Tall Tale suggesting a planed Changeling attack on Celestia? Can Velvet borrow the Frangiclave from Axe for an expedition? Can Velvet summon an Ash-Ghoul using the gang members from the Visiting a Competitor expedition (i.e. narratively the action would happen straight after the expedition/defeated the gang members so they're not kept prisoner but used straight away).