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

[ses]

Why the Stairways? We should still have one more Wastes location to explore.

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We have two data points now that the Wastes don't give us scraps. That's why. Might as well start work on the Stairways location.

Quite frankly, if 5 AP helping Cadance ends up being insufficient to defuse Celestia, we're going to have to find an alternative solution real quick - either that, or sprint full speed towards Glory to get the power needed to deal with an unleashed Daybreaker.

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Yeah I agree on 5 AP.

 

[Greymere]

[] Plan: A Song of Light
-[] (Detectives) Search for foreign threats
-[] (Constables) Expedition: The Quarry of Yuxtabai
-[] (Commissioner) Get your hooves dirty
-[] (Director) Heart
-[] (Mareinette) Honored Guest: Mayor Mare
-[] (Baldomare) Lantern lesson
-[] (DoA) Consult
-[] (Smiles-Free) Lead an expedition: Is It Free Real Estate?
-[] (Cherenkolt) Consult
--[] Recalibrate: Grail
-[] (Selene) Soothe the night
-[] (Jade) Study Moth 3 artifact
-[] Summon a Mare-in-the-Light
--[] In a barn on our estate
-[] Help Smiles (x2)
-[] Cover your bases (-5 Follower AP, +2 Velvet AP)

[] Plan: A Song of Even More Light
-[] (Detectives) Search for foreign threats
-[] (Constables) Expedition: The Quarry of Yuxtabai
-[] (Commissioner) Get your hooves dirty
-[] (Director) Heart
-[] (Mareinette) Honored Guest: Mayor Mare
-[] (Baldomare) Lantern lesson
-[] (DoA) Consult
-[] (Smiles-Free) Lead an expedition: Is It Free Real Estate?
-[] (Cherenkolt) Consult
--[] Recalibrate: Grail
-[] (Selene) Soothe the night
-[] (Jade) Study Moth 3 artifact
-[] Summon a Mare-in-the-Light (x2)
-[] Help Smiles
-[] Cover your bases (-5 Follower AP, +2 Velvet AP)

Both of these assume that the following will be use for Cover Your Bases: Risen, Servants, Rarity, Fluttershy, Smiles. The primary difference is that "A Song of Light" spends 1 DoA AP on summoning a MitL and 2 Selene AP on helping Smiles, while "Even More Light" spends 1 DoA and 1 Selene AP on summoning and 1 Selene AP on helping.

Alternatively, for those who don't wish to risk doing 3-circle summons in the barn:

[] Plan: Expeditions 'Hoy!
-[] (Detectives) Search for foreign threats
-[] (Constables) Expedition: The Quarry of Yuxtabai
-[] (Commissioner) Get your hooves dirty
-[] (Director) Heart
-[] (Mareinette) Honored Guest: Mayor Mare
-[] (Baldomare) Lantern lesson
-[] (DoA) Consult
-[] (Smiles-Free) Lead an expedition: Visiting a Competitor
-[] (Cherenkolt) Consult
--[] Recalibrate: Grail
-[] (Selene) Soothe the night
-[] (Jade) Study Moth 3 artifact
-[] Lead an expedition: Is It Free Real Estate?
-[] Help Smiles (x2)
-[] Cover your bases (-5 Follower AP, +2 Velvet AP)

As "A Song of Light", but with DoA on an expedition instead of summoning.

All three of these provide us with enough AP that we can spend 5 AP helping Cadance, or 4 AP helping and 1 doing something else if it swings that way. All three also assume that we are making the Forge reagent ourselves.

 

[ses]

Plan: Befriending and Soothing
-[] [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)
-[] [CONSTABLES] Plan and execute a raid. Within Equestria, or anywhere else that is needed. (Quarry)
-[] [COMMISSIONER] Get your hoofs dirty. (Participate in the "Investigators" and "Constables" actions.)
-[] [DIRECTOR] Introduce another Lore to the Lunar Bureau. (Heart)
-[] [RARITY] Take a commission. (Gain at least 100 bits immediately, will "fail" her career roll)
-[] [JADE] Research an artifact (Moth 3)
-[] [BALDOMARE] Ask for a lesson on the Lores. (Lantern)
-[] [MAREINETTE] [FLEETING OPPORTUNITY] Have her aid Cadance.
-[] [AXE] Consult to the Lunar Bureau
-[] [CHERENKOLT] "Recalibrating." (Grail)
-[] [CHERENKOLT] Consult to the Lunar Bureau
-[] [SMILES] (TROUBLEMAKER) Tell him you need something broken. (Is It Free Real Estate?) (FREE ACTION)
-[] [SELENE] Soothe the night. (Her Winter realization. Unknown effects, if any.)
-[] Needs must. Ask somepony to procure you a dead body from the local cemetery.
-[] You need somepony to perform this ritual… (Summon a Mare-in-the-Light)
--[] To be performed... somewhere, where you hope nopony will catch wind of it.
-[] You need somepony to perform this ritual… (Summon a Mare-in-the-Light, sacrificing a Wrong Key)
--[] To be performed... somewhere, where you hope nopony will catch wind of it.
-[] (NEW OPTION) Smiles needs help with something, please go do what he asks... within reason of course. (Aid Smiles' Progression Bar. QM will decide who is optimal, unless you write-in the characters) 4x
-[] You need this to be done. Send a pony on an expedition. (Visiting a Competitor)
-[] One extra Velvet action! (Costs 2 follower actions)
-[] If summoning rituals or graverob fails, lose Visiting a Competitor, followed by Smiles actions

This gets us 5 Cadance AP, +10 Smiles progress from followers, and 2 MITLs and a Risen.

Yes, but it depends.

If you "Get your Hooves Dirty" and your investigator/constable actions are long and complicated, you might not help husk study at all. It will be a balancing act. Conversely, if your investigators and bureaus do well, and you only give them minimal aid, Velvet will use the extra time to help the Bureau in "secondary" actions like studying the husk.

"Try and find out" and all that.

As long as you understand getting your hooves dirty will prioritize contables/investigators, and that "the action to study the Husk is the action to study the Husk" you are fine.

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That makes sense, but I had been mostly wondering about our SH3 artifact that gives a notable bonus to Study actions

 

[Pittauro]

Sunday came and went, but finally the update is here

And good Baldomare knew everything, so how could she ever be wrong?

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Baldomare sometimes doesn't realize what she knows though. Like how she didn't realize she knew how to get through the Tricuspid!

"Very nice? Fluttershy, you look better than Cadance did at her own wedding."

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...FLUTTERSHY IS GETTING MARRIED (TO COMET)?!

...well, I'm happy for them. Comet took Stormchaser's advice in the end.

And to her own surprise, she found all of that to be… pleasant. Not exciting, but not just quaint either. Pleasant. She would even venture to say that she was in good company, and that she wouldn't mind staying there until the tea went cold.

The Wake, that Wake, did have a way of drawing them in, after all.

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...I somewhat regret taking this chance from Biedde...

"That makes sense, I wonder if Pride… well, that's not the point right now

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Let's not talk of that. Worth remembering Velvet still doesn't know about the Crime of the Sky though.

"That makes sense, I wonder if Pride… well, that's not the point right now," Velvet continued. "You also said you weren't sure what kind of tiara to put on this dress? Why not a laurel, or a crown of branches? And really, look at how lovely Fluttershy is. Why not call this piece something like a wedding in the garden, and name the rest of the series something similar to that?"

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...ah, she's only modeling for Rarity.

...shame

There would be no point in telling them that she shouldn't tighten Fluttershy's corset that much. It wasn't doing any harm at that moment, and Fluttershy herself would find out about it in a few weeks.

There would be no point in telling them that the brute Smiles was about to barge into Stormchaser's conversation with Comet. After all-

CRACK

"Did… did something just break somewhere?"​

-well, after all Baldomare never really liked the vase that just fell to the ground, when the Name barged into the nearby room.

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...truly, to be Baldomare is to know that you know nearly everything, and that yet you should share as little as possible most of the time.

I'm reminder of this one... story? html game? SCP? Not sure, it was about a "cursed" item, I think some kind of cap or jewel, that gives you advice on how to do things, and while the advice is never "perfect", it will ALWAYS be better than what you'd be able to come up with on your own.

Obviously, it becomes addictive. and as you get used to it, the item stops talking to you with words, and starts talking to you in a weird series of clicks you just understand.

And then, one day, the perform an autopsy on the person who wore this item, and apparently its brain had deteriorated so much from just following instructions that basically it would have been impossible near the end for that person to make ANY kind of choice. Because thanks to the instructions of this weird item he had basically lived most of his life on autopilot.

Baldomare is kind of like that item, but she knows better than to fully direct someone's life, basically.

And being able to read a few pages ahead is not the same as knowing what is going to happen.

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or to put it another way, if you remove the conflict in episode 4, then the MC might not be ready for the larger challenge in ep 10.

Since this was a mistake from the QM, and a reasonable interpretation from readers, I will explicitly "waive" the action point cost, since the alternative would be to reopen a vote with the clarification of "this should cost an action."
The results of the previous votes will stand, regarding Mareinette's Sacrament, and will be performed for no action point cost.

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uh. That's nice. basically one extra AP for us then, which helps a lot.

-The following Fleeting Opportunities will be available this turn:
--A silent crisis will happen in the Royal Castle, involving Princess Celestia. Princess Cadance will ask for your help. (May use as many personal actions as you wish. May use social actions and Mareinette).
--Uncle Steppes left you a contact. (May use social actions or Mareinette. Will not disappear, but will grow weaker every turn it is not picked)
--Filthy Rich confided to you that his relationship is failing. You have the option to do something about in order to completely gain his trust. (Free action)

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I'd love to take Uncle Steppes, but it's probably not viable.

Still, I have not quite fully given up hope yet. We DID invest a fair bit in getting his gift, and it should be something useful.

Bureau: well, we mostly decided to use the constables for one of our Name-related expeditions. Not sure beyond that.

It was just confusing since it seems like the sort of thing [OLD INTELLIGENCE] was made for to avoid Mareinette's action being worse than Velvet's at the thing Honored Guest was made to do. I honestly dont think the thread, and certainly not myself, would have minded if Mareinette had just picked an option herself last turn. But we're getting a free Velvet AP this turn so that is a helluva balm.


I feel pretty attached to "Make a forge reagent, Axe and Cherenkolt on Consult, Hoofs Dirty, 5 Help Cadance AP", but with the addition of the extra Velvet AP I dont think we necessarily need to go up to 6 Help Cadance... so what do we use Mareinette for?

Options:
Help Cadance
+5 Smiles
Mayor Mare
Heart lesson

I still think it's just plain irresponsible to prioritize Mayor Mare over helping Cadance. While I dont think going from 5 to 6 is a top level priority the way "Only dip down to 4 Cadance AP if we have no other choice" would have helping cadance be a priority for me, I dont think I could justify spending it on Mayor Mare just because we know her name. Similarly I dont think we take the Heart lesson over just getting the +5 Smiles out of the way now and freeing up AP next turn.

Do we still do 2 Cover Your Bases AP? I think we might not.

Attention: Secret Histories
Grail: Spoiled Rich
Forge: Forge 4
Winter: Torn Risen
Knock: Shattered Stairways
Social: Help Cadance
Velvet: Moth Sacrament
Velvet: Help Cadance
Velvet: Purify Forge Reagent
Velvet: Help Cadance
Bases: Help Cadance

Baldomare: Lantern Lesson
Axe: Consult with the Bureau
Axe: Summon a MITL
Mareinette: Help Cadance
Troublemaker: Manehattan
Smiles: Summon a MITL(Wrong Key)
Cherenkolt(Grail): Consult with the Bureau
Selene: Soothe the Night
Selene: Smiles
Selene: Smiles

Comet: Smiles
Rarity: Commission
Jade: Study Artifact (Moth 3)

MITL: Graverob
MITL: Manehattan
Risen: Cover Your Bases
Risen: Cover Your Bases
Servants: Smiles

Detectives: Windy Flakes/Search for Expeditions?
Constables: Quarry
Commissioner: Get Your Hoofs Dirty
Director: Heart


Something like this? There's no real point to the 2nd Cover Your Bases AP since Servants+Comet give +4 Smiles progress already, and the leftover MITL can just ferry a Name to a Manehatten expedition if both summoning succeed, and this way there's no awkwardness if one of them fails the 90% chance. This gives us 5 Help Cadance AP and +10 Smiles from followers, while probably getting an extra short expedition for studyables as well as keeping our flow of bodies going.

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seems like a good plan for the most part.

After this, if all goes well, Next turn we can any 2 of the following 3: "Baldomare SH, Baldomare Lantern, Personal SH", as we should have 2 Baldomare actions to use (on SH influence, on SH expedition, and/or on Lantern Expedition).

We should also be ready for the Cherenkolt, Baldomare AND Smiles friendship if all goes well...

then we'll probably have some loot to study, maybe we'll consider Forge/Winter sacraments too... but that's for later.

Awwww, Fluttershy is pregnant!

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...

It completely flew over my head.

Awwww, Fluttershy is pregnant!

After the glimpse we got of her future son, in a sadder history, that's very sweet.

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wait, when?

We have two data points now that the Wastes don't give us scraps. That's why. Might as well start work on the Stairways location.

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Well, it IS still a low-level area. Kind of surprising the Ash Ghoul are there, considering how strong they are all things considered. I suppose it's "balanced" by how unpractical they are to use.



I'll look at the other plans later on

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

...ah, she's only modeling for Rarity.

...shame

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...FLUTTERSHY IS GETTING MARRIED (TO COMET)?!

...well, I'm happy for them. Comet took Stormchaser's advice in the end.

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Ironically, my original draft went in another direction entirely.

Something along the lines of Rarity asking "so, when are you marrying tall dark and handsome?" and Fluttershy answering "we are not in that kind of relationship."
Only for, at the end, Comet Feet enter the room to take Fluttershy home, Baldomare mention vaguely about her condition, and Velvet and Rarity connecting the dots that "we are not in that kind of relationship" meant "we are the kind of ponies that skip marriage."

There was also going to be a short skit of Velvet asking Rarity why she didn't ask Velvet to model for that dress, and Baldomare's thought-seeing Lantern would let her see that Rarity's true answer was something along the lines of "seeing you in a wedding dress that I designed would be too painful of a forbidden fruit" or something dramatic like that.

But alas, the update came out as it came out, so none of that ever happened (as in, I just didn't have the time today to write all that)

 

[spiderhellian]

wait, when?

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Don't know the chapter, but it was the time Stormchaser and Comet got very drunk on Hawthorn wine, and a SH Sacramented-Stormchaser visited.

 

[ses]

Don't know the chapter, but it was the time Stormchaser and Comet got very drunk on Hawthorn wine, and a SH Sacramented-Stormchaser visited.

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[Threadmarks: There's not a word yet]

I'm reminder of this one... story? html game? SCP? Not sure, it was about a "cursed" item, I think some kind of cap or jewel, that gives you advice on how to do things, and while the advice is never "perfect", it will ALWAYS be better than what you'd be able to come up with on your own.

Obviously, it becomes addictive. and as you get used to it, the item stops talking to you with words, and starts talking to you in a weird series of clicks you just understand.

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"The Whispering Earring" short story by Scott Alexander

There was also going to be a short skit of Velvet asking Rarity why she didn't ask Velvet to model for that dress, and Baldomare's thought-seeing Lantern would let her see that Rarity's true answer was something along the lines of "seeing you in a wedding dress that I designed would be too painful of a forbidden fruit" or something dramatic like that.

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You got me messed up, stressed, depressed
Rotting in my bed, overthinking every single word you said
Cause I'm too invested, I feel possessed
Am I crazy for wanting us to be mutually obsessed?

Look me in the eye, say you need me to survive
Anything to make you mine, even if it's only one more night
So do you think life is hell and I'm your one stroke of luck?
Or do you know that I can tell that you don't really give a f-

Oh I think, I'm addicted, I'm addicted to love
I wanna scream, so conflicted, but you're making me blush
Oh-oh I think, I'm addicted, the adrenaline rush
I know you're lying to my face but I won't ever call your bluff
And I know that it's a waste of time
But I can't survive without the high
So-oh I think I'm addicted to the concept of us
But with the way you look at him, I know I'll never be enough

 

[Shaper47]

[] Plan: Moth Mastery
-[] Leash Spoiled Milk
-[] (Detectives) Analyse your options regarding the Changeling Colon
-[] (Constables) Expedition: The Choked City
-[] (Commissioner) Cadance
-[] (Director) Moth
-[] (Mareinette) Honored Guest: Cadance
-[] (DoA) Expedition: The Quarry of Yuxtabai
-[] (Smiles) Consult
-[] (Smiles-Free) Lead an expedition: Is It Free Real Estate?
-[] (Cherenkolt) Consult
--[] Recalibrate: Grail
-[] (Selene) Soothe the night
-[] (Jade) Study Moth 3 artifact
-[] (Rarity) Focus on her work
-[] Scry Moth 5 Book (x 3)
-[] Grab a corpse for a Risen
-[] Cover your bases (-2 Follower AP, +1 Velvet AP)

Can scry for (3 (followers ap) + 3 (Velvet ap) = 6) 6 level 5 moth books this turn. Do a bunch of expeditions and get Baldomare's Lantern Sacrament Turn 24 and achieve Moth Mastery Turn 25.

[] Plan: Befriending Smiles
-[] Leash Spoiled Milk
-[] (Detectives) Analyse your options regarding the Changeling Colon
-[] (Constables) Expedition: The Choked City
-[] (Commissioner) Cadance
-[] (Director) Moth
-[] (Mareinette) Honored Guest: Cadance
-[] (Baldomare) Lantern lesson
-[] (DoA) Expedition: The Quarry of Yuxtabai
-[] (Selene) The Quarry of Yuxtabai (2 AP)
-[] (Smiles) Consult
-[] (Smiles-Free) Lead an expedition: Is It Free Real Estate?
-[] (Cherenkolt) Consult
--[] Recalibrate: Grail
-[] (Selene) Soothe the night
-[] (Rarity) Focus on her work
-[] Grab a corpse for a Risen
-[] Cover your bases (-2 Follower AP, +1 Velvet AP)

4 Velvet Actions free for Smiles Befriending so 21/40.

Mareinette: 1

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Huh, I thought we got two actions from befriended Names (or equivalent) not one?

@OurLadyOfWires 2 ap for Befriended Mareinette or one?

Clarification on Bureau expeditions ap costs and Velvet corpse scrying would also be nice .

 

[Wise Wolf]

Once more, this is not the reason. It is to make sure the Wolf Cult won't get as much influence over Ponyville.

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Again, there's not any direct statement that this action will do that. As far as we have been told, all this does is keep "Mayor Mare ([ACQUAINTANCE])" on our contacts list. I'm not denying that narrative effects exist, but this sacrifices quite a bit just to save an innocent life. Mareiennete actions are powerful. If we switch that to Cadence, and drop one Velvet AP, we could instead have Smiles summon a MITL, Rarity earn us 100 bits, and Fluttershy help Smiles. I don't think we would be willing to sacrifice a MITL, 100 bits, and some Name befriending progress to save Mayor Mare. The price tag is too high for me.

Speaking of Name befriending...

Comet: Smiles

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You spelled Fluttershy wrong.

Fluttershy helping Smiles spread the good word of troublemaking and freedom is way too fun to skip.

 

[Pittauro]

There was also going to be a short skit of Velvet asking Rarity why she didn't ask Velvet to model for that dress, and Baldomare's thought-seeing Lantern would let her see that Rarity's true answer was something along the lines of "seeing you in a wedding dress that I designed would be too painful of a forbidden fruit" or something dramatic like that.

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...no.

Bird, you can't do this to me! You know I'm basically a RarityXVelvet shipper (I'm sorry Stormchaser!), you can't tease me like this!

 

[DelightedOne]

I'm not denying that narrative effects exist, but this sacrifices quite a bit just to save an innocent life.

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NOT. JUST. ONE. LIFE!

It is power we are ceding to Soft's cult, it is Influence we are letting go by letting them put Soft Sweeps(or somepony else from the cult) as the new mayor.

That vote should have been a lesson about not being willing to use AP when we need it. To not look for the easy way out because it has a cost higher than the alternative.

Instead it seems to have done the opposite and I am very much NOT willing to have this mentality make us have a bullet hole in our foot later.

 

[Wise Wolf]

NOT. JUST. ONE. LIFE!

It is power we are ceding to Soft's cult, it is Influence we are letting go by letting them put Soft Sweeps(or somepony else from the cult) as the new mayor.

That vote should have been a lesson about not being willing to use AP when we need it. To not look for the easy way out because it has a cost higher than the alternative.

Instead it seems to have done the opposite and I am very much NOT willing to have this mentality make us have a bullet hole in our foot later.

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First off, you're still relying on your own speculation about the relative impacts of the two paths. The QM did not say we were "ceding [power] to Soft's cult." That's your own inference. And I personally don't think it's likely that the cult will be much more powerful one way than the other. I also don't think that Softy as Major of Ponyville would have terrible metaphysical consequences anyhow. I don't think the stakes here are remotely worth 100 bits and a summon.

More generally.

The most common lesson I took from reading through this quest was not 'Velvet is unwilling to use AP on allies/friends/acquaintances/strangers'. Velvet spent a great deal of time doing that. It was instead 'Velvet is unwilling to use AP on climbing the mansus/befriending names/gaining power, and so is forced into hard decisions with Regrettable choices.' See, for instance, the Master deciding to let the wendigos "douse the lights" and destroying the Moth changeling artifact, triggering [Dies Irae]. Eventually leading to our current doom clock and then burning the woods.

Why did the Master go scorched earth?

"If the Queen makes an enemy out of us, then time is precisely the one thing I do not have. The Moon Princess is not here, so she is certainly dead. Harmony, then, is unachievable. The cult, also, only has a hooffull of Branded. Perhaps their species' eyes have grown dull to the Glory, for they seem uninterested in seeking it. And the Moon… we have no idea of how to reach it. Only one path remains, then."

"Huh. Regrettable."

"Yes. The very definition of it."

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Because he was out of options. Because he couldn't find any way to stop the Worms. Because he couldn't find Luna (we'd hidden her), and because we'd spent precious little time improving the cult OR climbing for Glory ourselves, so a Mansus victory seemed impossible too.

Not seeking victory led to almost all of our current urgent problems, a regrettable action by the Master and at least one of our regrettable actions.