This makes me imagine Velvet showing up to work with an Edge influence again… the one from Smiles."Status Quo Enjoyer" Biedde, with a Mandate from the Princesses to hate all changelings, can be quite the influence eh?
Oooh, Velvet's ponycentrism strikes again!
As much as I enjoy the quest and Velvet as a character, I will forever mourn the fact that we will never get to see what the Mansus and the climb to Glory would have looked like from a non-pony perspective.
How do you get giving the Hour of "Making Monsters" free rein making things more peaceful.
Hmmm, as tempting as possible?
Because then we will focus on external threats instead of worrying about internal threats?
Because of this:
We can just keep them away from each other if we really wanted to stay neutral in the Corrivality.
Ah, the option explains:
Trading our Social action for a Name action is well worth the price, after all.
The reason is quite obvious. To piss of his dad.
...well, it is time.
Appropriate for THE Follower of the Colonel.
fair enough.
and we're already 1.5 wounds down!
A very edge mindset, and not completely wrong.
damn it! We're running out of AotL here!
...It's probably now or never... come on...
FINALLY!
Because we scraped him.
why does this sounds like a threat?!
...and so, we're going to visit the Worm Museum.
...and yet... the Worms were not always a thing. and one day, they might stop being a thing...
Not Mansus, but not Nowhere.
...alive?
...I'm extremely worried. The Colonel is not an hour that leaves a light mark on his servants...
First impression is that he's surprisingly approachable.
...It's really scary that the "probably" might very well be there because he might do it accidentally.
I KNEW IT! IT'S THE LIONSMITH!
yep. The Lionsmith is trying to steal the Colonel's new recruit.
...oh.
conscripts YOU (us), not "him".
Because he can steal us from Biedde...
...that makes sense enough to me.
For real!
...to be fair, Biedde DID let that one assassin get through our defenses once. And while Mareinette then "helped" us through the pain, he very much didn't.
Irrelevant if we befriend him, viable if we take the coward's way out.
So, officially the last one?
Well, it didn't make a difference NOW, but it was very close to make one.
Is that on purpose? Because in CS, the Golden General is the Lionsmith, not the Colonel.
Unlikely. The nature of Edge Dyads means your immortality is irrevocably tied to your corrival, both in that for as long as they live so will you, and that you are the only one who can slay them in turn (iirc). Unless the rules have changed, killing Biedde can't realistically be Smiles's friendship condition because it would also kill Smiles in the process.
Smiles is a Name of Lionsmith. Lionsmith in the original source ascended to Hourhood through "secret of betrayal" while Colonel ascended to Hourhood by sacrifice and murder of a monster-hour. It is in nature of Lionsmith to betray and make monsters, it is in the nature of Colonel to oppress and and commit to duties.
Actually, not quite.
Yet.
Velvet is more aligned with the Lionsmith by default by being more aligned with change and by the fact that she has made monsters, even if indirectly. (Also denying Comet to the Colonel)
Ironically that WOULD allow us to get the Sacraments AND to also summon both Names, so mechanically speaking it's actually an interesting options.
Not necessarily true. we'll get a different one, and from someone "lower", but it's hard to say it will actually be a weaker sacrament.
Mh... I think it depends. Maybe if we sent Smiles immediately on a short expedition/Assault to "capture/save" our uncle after scrying him? @OurLadyOfWires would that be at all possible?
I doubt anyone will consider the Wolf.
Smiles is actually better, because he invites enemies to dogpile him. and we can use his action for guarding, and the free action for short expeditions.
a reset would be 3 more turns, not 1.
I wouldn't assume it to be THAT difficult to befriend Smiles.
nobody argued we should have let them do their thing. the whole thing was basically "I just wish there was a better way".
Well, humans don't NEED to feed on other humans. That said, we do much worse than what the changeling did out of necessity, so not much to argue there.
Or as Steppes being killed if he's already bound, admittedly.
That IS kinda tempting.
that IS indeed very convincing!
flawless reasoning
For all we know the full extent of the Colonel's orders to us would be, in the epilogue, to help in killing the Lionsmith, and then just maintain the status quo in Equestria.
Turns out Velvet is not fond of Biedde-assisted suicide. who would have thought!
wait, we need to pay for EACH EXTRA TURN?
even beyond the Tapestry's ritual grasp?
Turns out that Names are not fond of granting power to people they don't trust. What a shock!
There's truly a myth about horse-hybrids with anything it seems....so what you're saying is, is that Smiles is a simhata?
Also a point.
yeah, a possible interpretation is that the Colonel is quite simply... what Velvet wishes she could be. Someone with the authority to impose his views of what is right and wrong, to protect the weak but also enforce her will on everyone.
I tend to agree.
extremely unlikely. Killing a Name is just beyond what any other Names asked, by an order of magnitude at least.