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

Reader mode
Right, if these rolls are telling me anything, it's that we really shouldn't count on the dice to give us a stay of execution.
 
Greymere said:
Right, if these rolls are telling me anything, it's that we really shouldn't count on the dice to give us a stay of execution.
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I mean, unless Bird uses the same roll thingy as the site I doubt it will be the same vibe.

Mine rolled a 69 at first and then I used the reroll and got a 94 :V.
 
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Rafuki22 said:
Kay, so, next turn do we Soothe the Night or no?
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Sigh, it's the best option we have on the table the moment so yes.

However we really should aim for that Winter Heirloom.

The Moth Velvet's Stone hides secrets, the Lantern Watchpony's Mirror reveals secret. So the Winter Heirloom of the Sun in Rags probably helps with the Suns mental issues.

Scry and use Smiles free assault against Windy to shake him down.

Put on a Winter influence, grab the Winter Sacrament and do the Grave of the Sun Mansus expedition.

Even if it's just a plus ten bonus to Selene's rolls on this that's enough to prevent to worst two outcomes and gives a one in ten chance each roll of fixing the entire thing.
 
Rafuki22 said:
So we Soothe the Night.

One or twice?

Seems unnecessary.

Best to just forget about him for now.
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We can do it more than once?

I think we can only do it once.
OurLadyOfWires said:
[WINTER SKILL]: Selene may spend an action to soothe the nights of Equestria, over the course of an entire turn. If used, Equestria will be slightly more peaceful, and the darkness will be pushed back, for the duration of that turn.
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Rafuki22 said:
Seems unnecessary.

Best to just forget about him for now.
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It costs 1 Selene ap for the scrying and we'll probably get back the bit cost via loot.

The Winter Heirloom has a potential chance of helping deal with Celestia and Windy had a potential chance of having it.

It's basically the best lead we have at the moment for how to deal with the Daybreaker doomclock. So it's totally necessary.
 
ses said:
It's a 52.39% chance of an extra turn. There's no possible way we dont. It's massively positive expected value: one selene ap vs 50% of all our Name and Velvet AP. And a 10% chance of basically fixing the problem.
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I agree it's a good payoff, but it's worth noting that it's only 50% of a turn if you assume Daybreaker is our tightest clock at the moment. Which it probably is! But the caveat seems worth mentioning now that we have a Name of Edge as a Mortal Enemy.

Shaper47 said:
It's basically the best lead we have at the moment for how to deal with the Daybreaker doomclock. So it's totally necessary.
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The best lead we have is Glory. The second-best is Soothe the Night.
 
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(???) The Sun's Final Testament New
OurLadyOfWires said:
[] The Royal Apartment has become distressingly hot, to the point that even Princess Celestia's guards (ceremonial as they were) have been prohibited from approaching it. This has become the most crucial issue on Princess Cadance's agenda.
-You will gain the Fleeting Opportunity "Help Cadance." You will be allowed to dedicate as many Personal Actions (and Social Actions) to address it as you wish. You will not be informed of how many actions you "should" dedicate to it.
-If Cadance succeeds on her efforts, she will "disarm" the current crisis. If Cadance only succeeds "partway," this situation will be delayed for another turn and the Fleeting Opportunity will be offered once more.
-If Princess Cadance fails on her efforts, Princess Celestia will go one "step" down on her previously-rolled reaction scale.
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In which The Sun's final Testamant

Agony.

Agony, you have decided, is the idea and shape of hope.
That witless thing that lurks behind every closed door and every lost dream. Lost to the sands of time and broken beneath the wake.

It was Agony, hope was.



It had been easy, you decided.
Waiting.

No matter how long. No matter how bad. How many sleepless nights, no matter how many gut-wrenching days.
No matter how many friends came and went and were forgotten by all save you and the tomes that swiftly decayed, it was easy. Waiting.
You can't help but do it. Time passes, and waits for no one.

Not even for you.
Not even Celestia.



You see, when you waited, it was easy to simply keep the world turning.
Speak to dignitaries, arrainge the right paths, set the right people to be at the right place at the right time. Guide ponykind. Lead them onward and upward to glory and prosperity. It was easy.
Because it was for her as much as it was for them. It made it easy.

Of course the castle should be well prepaired. It was set to be her home.
Of course the nation should be full of joy. It was to be her home.
Of course the heavens and earth and depths and seas should stand in witness.
It was to be her home.

It was easy to wait. Because you weren't waiting.
You were preparing for a day you knew would come. Eventually. Eventually.
Beg forgiveness, offer the world, and to see and hold your sister again.

Dearest Luna.



But waiting was easy. You knew it would end. One day. Someday. Somehow. Harmony guide, it would end and she would return and it would be...
The world would feel right again.

Poets back when they remembered her tried to write of you two. The bond and kinship and companionship. To have family as ageless and powerful and commanding as oneself. The symbolism both of sisters and the heavens above how they chased each other. They tried with their pale and diluted words to explain love. Kinship. Companionship.
How could they explain it? They have siblings. They have family. But they lack.

They lack the affirmation that is a voice in the distant recesses of the quiet.
They lack the comfort of knowing that even when the sun burns out and the moon grows dim to have someone near.
They lack the breadth and scope and time to realize how much someone means to you when they are gone. To appreciate it when they are near.

They lack. And maybe once, you didn't hold it against them.



But they wounded her.
THEY wounded her.
And now it was not waiting.


It was action at first.
Hunting. Seeking. Finding. Demanding. Wanting. Searching.

For her.
It had to be. You had to. You HAD to. There was no other option.
Every corner. Every depth. Every height. Every mountain and hill and valley and vale that you could dream of. Maye ones you only could dream of. To find her.

And find her you did.
A thief and a monster dressed up in rags. Stolen in to wear her face.
Even now, just... realizing that. Daring to think on it more than in passing... It threatens.
Threatens to overtake and consume and swallow whole everything that ever would be.
That someone dared to... lie.
Someone dared to lie about being her.

No.
No, never again.

You've learned since then.
Never Again.


So the hunt resumed.
It changed it's shape. It changed it's face. And you...
Couldn't.


His name was Brass Cogs. Nine hundred and forty seven years ago you met him. The last account of his works still safely secured in the lower vaults of the Royal Library. Not because they are restricted, no. Simply because it is aged and fragile. Too many eager hooves would ruin what remains of what's left of him. A personal memoir and some guiding instructions from a defthoof and a clock smith.

More like than not, you are the only one who is aware he even existed anymore. Not even a tomb to carry his name or legacy, the graveyard where he had been buried having been renovated in the coming centuries. Made into a park, so even the dead might enjoy some company once and a while. Doubt anyone else even knows where it had been. Who was buried. How long ago.



But he was an instructor. A fairly simple instructor, but a kindly stallion. Even if his words never quite made sense.
... no. Not that they never made sense. It was simply easier to pretend they didn't.

The lesson had been delayed. Or more aptly, canceled. Rather unexpectedly and suddenly. And for a stallion so well versed in timekeeping, it was a strange thing by far.
It was so much easier to be curious back then. So much easier to just ask directly. And so you had.



Oh what a look he gave. Something between a scowl and a sigh, a look you have long come to learn to love. Though, once, you still tempered it with grace.
The look of a teacher who was just asked a question they know how to answer, but that the student won't understand the answer.

He walked you on to the back, and showed you a clock.
Nothing exceptional, the laquor wasn't yet applied, and the chime hadn't been installed, and it still was yet to be wound. But it was a clock. Well made and well constructed, simply lacking in some of the finery that was emblematic of his craft. A well built hanging clock.

And he looked so tired when he spoke.
"You see, whether you are an artist, or a baker, or a smith, or a mason, or any other sort of craftspony, there is a crime that you commit everytime you create something. Something you and you alone will ever see and ever notice. Some may specialize in learning to see these crimes too, and it is usually the better that they do. So even as you see this, it is fine. Good. Serviceable even."

"But, I know how many of those teeth I had to file down to fit just right. I know if I wind it up and let it tick away, I'll be always listening for those little pauses. Even though I've gotten rid of them. Even though it's now fine. I know it wasn't. And I'll always be listening for- "

"-the imperfections."

Brass flowed like water before your eyes. Bronze and brass weaving into a delicate lattice that you alone could feel through your magic. Heated and cooled and perfected and warmed as it danced in the air before you.
What did it matter that the air shimmered and sparked here? No one was permitted in the first place. If this wasn't yours, nothing was.

Thinner than hair, finer than silk each strand of that boiling alloy was held taunt in your magic. Just to the edge where even a breath would shatter it. Spun finer and gentler and looser, wrapping around in thinnest layer by layer.


It twisted on angles that could not be touched. Powered by magic she could hardly grasp, and turned to a direction that wasn't on any map.
But it bent correctly. It turned the world. It moved all the same.
It would suffice.



She knew now what Brass Cogs meant.
She saw it in every pony she met. In every face, in every smile, in every hope and word and creation they made now.
The flaws. The cracks. The misteps and mistakes.

They were weak. And selfish. And shortsighted and cruel and hungry.
They could hardly crawl, let alone walk. And they had wounded her sister.
They had shackled her to this throne.

Her hunt had been stopped. Her focus had been hurt. And no more could she search for Luna now.
Not with such an impudent needing herd at her hooves.
Underhoof.


She had felt her.
She had felt Luna.
And she had awoken.


Then let them have this.
Have this, a final undeserved mercy
A clockwork queen to reign from on high / The regalia for what would be the final day / A monument to their sins and her sister
 
ses said:
52.39% is the chance AFTER applying the reroll

9.75% chance of fixing the Daybreaker problem and moving to Depressed Celestia

2% chance of totally curing Celestia
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On a related note, it's very funny/infuriating that we had a literally less than 1 percent chance (0.81%, to be exact) of getting the outcome that we did.
 
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OurLadyOfWires said:
80-95: "The sweetest dreams, to calm that burning wrath." (Celestia progresses 3 points, vote for a positive opportunity.)

70-89: "A sweet dream, to cool that fiery rage." (Celestia progresses 2 points, Lore learning delayed for one turn.)
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@OurLadyOfWires inaccuracy in the chart here, (not that the distinction changes much in our plans) but what does 80-89 actually mean on soothe the sun? the ranges overlap
 
Shaper47 said:
Sigh, I know I said it was a bad idea but I don't enjoy being proven right.
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It was only a bad idea due to the dice rolling poorly twice. The odds before factoring in a reroll are 51% chance of a favorable outcome, 19% chance of nothing happening, and a 29% chance of a negative outcome. Then you also must take into account that Soothing the Night does benefit Equestria, though the mechanical effects of that are hidden.

One thing that does concern me is the phrasing here:

1: "I regret this." (Celestia loses her battle.)

Lore ponies saying they regret a thing a thing they are going to do sets off entirely too many Wolf-Bells in my head.
 
Well that sucked. I'm voting for Cadence. It feels the most in character, this effects both her and Selene and Velvet has been willing to go to some pretty extreme lengths for both of them. It's just a matter of how many actions. Probably 4.
After that it's just a matter of what else. Grail sacrament to befriend Mareinette because her binding is up. Probably the Moth Sacrament. Baldomare's SH.

That's 3 and 1 follower. 3 and the social for Cadence. 7 Velvet actions. I wonder if we can use Velvet's commissioner action for this. That would let us toss another action for safety or give us some action breathing room. Considering the Bureau's loyalty and the fact at least some of them are aware of Luna, being able to use it to help Cadence with Celestia makes some sense.
 
Rafuki22 said:
Ok, let's see how many times Selene would roll above 49 using 3 actions.

Edit: ...Not good.
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Don't forget her re-roll for Realization!

Now for our negative options because Princess Luna is cursed:

Glare would debuff all of our Expedition Rolls for what presumably will be some very difficult Hurdles in the coming turns, so that's right out.

The Bureau is a constant AP Sink.

The Temperature is a one-time AP spike, which I prefer since the biggest prep-work we can do for All-In is befriend Names, and our current line-up of Befriendings is surprisingly light on Velvet AP for the coming turn. 1 AP to eat a dude, follower AP for Cherenkolt and Baldomare, it's pretty doable.

Mansus is the Wildcard. Makes me wonder if Celestia in that option did cut a deal with Ash who just really wants to see the Wake match his domain more, or maybe did something Regrettable. However she happens to have the power of an Outsider and thus theoretically could blitz the tricuspid and kick that sucker open, which would probably lead to very bad things for everyone in her current mental state.

So I suppose I am inclined to Temperature.
 
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Any thoughts on the Mansus option? It COULD be the best high-paced option. Hard to know. Even Celestia can't climb the Mansus instantly.
 
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Talon Tiger Dino said:
One thing that does concern me is the phrasing here:

1: "I regret this." (Celestia loses her battle.)
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Meh, we may have gotten bitten by a 1 in 100 chance this turn but a nat 1 after reroll is one in ten thousand. That's a hundred Sol Vindictus episodes for every expected double nat1 episode. At some point we do just have to accept that if we roll double nat1s we explode. That's life.

I'm inclined towards Cadance option as well, because we've already done the prepwork on introducing her to the Lores, and we're likely to teach her as part of our AP spending in helping her.
 
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