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

Reader mode
[X] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.
[X] (MAREINETTE) Accept her "Invitation to Dinner" (Prisoner)
[X] (BOOK) Knock 5
 
[X] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.
[X] (MAREINETTE) Accept her "Invitation to Dinner" (Prisoner)
[X] (BOOK) What did you read again? The Way Home
 
[X] (MAREINETTE) Accept her "Invitation to Dinner"
[X] (BOOK) What did you read again? The Way Home
[X] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.
[X] (SCRY) You do not wish to scry for any expeditions at this point.
 
OurLadyOfWires said:
It enjoys stalking you, you realized. But with a glee that reminds you too much of a foal playing hide-and-seek, even if the pawprint it leaves are those of a predator. Still, it enjoys stalking you nonetheless, and the dead things that call this place home know better than to cross its path.

And for that, you were safe.

Although the unseen licks you felt, every now and then, would not let you forget why that was the case.
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It would be endearing if it wasn't from such a terrifyingly horrible being...
OurLadyOfWires said:
You have discovered the Boiling Swamp.

You have retrieved an item. An unstudied level 1 Heart artifact has been added to your inventory.
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Well,that's a bit disappointing, but we'll make do.
OurLadyOfWires said:
-You can assume you will have 504 bits at the beginning of turn 23: 298 bits (in your current inventory), 160 bits (from your salary), 46 bits (from Rarity's dividends).

-Given the Bureau's current Lore level, you cannot guarantee the Bureau will reap all possible rewards from an expedition if you send them on an expedition. However, if Velvet or a Name Consultant participate in said expedition, you will at least locate items you have scryed for ahead of time.

-You will have a Bureau option to "Analyse your options regarding the Changeling Colony" (can be picked by either Investigator action or Commissioner action)

-You will have a Bureau option to "Study the Husk carcass" (can be picked by Commissioner action, and you can guarantee you will have the husk corpse until the end of turn 23, after that there is a risk Eclipse and Celestia catch wind of it)

-The following Fleeting Opportunities will be available.
--HELP CADANCE (can use Velvet actions, Velvet social action, or Mareinette)
--Contact "Somepony" from Steppes' parting gift (this FO will not disappear, but it will become weaker the more turns you take to pick it)
--An FO on how you want to deal with Filthy Rich (it will be a write-in, and will be a free action, where you specify how to Confidante Filthy Rich)
--Options to deal with your current wound.
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I kind of dislike the idea of using the bureau for expeditions and potentially losing loot, but I can live with that as long as we ensure we get the forge and lantern loot for our Name friendships.

I'd like to study the changeling, but all in all I don't think we can afford it.

Filthy and Stepper's gift would be nice, but again, we probably can't afford them...

An extra confidant would still be nice though. We could probably trade bits for mortal actions for Smiles by having Filthy hire people for us, effectively trading bits for Smiles friendship points. That makes it potentially worth it.

Same for Stepped, sort of. But the 4 actions to help Cadence, as well as an action on moth sacrament and one on grail sacrament, come first.

OurLadyOfWires said:
You have decided to…


[] (ALL IN) You WILL attempt the "All In" expedition immediately. (No other options may be picked)

[] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.



Mareinette came to you, in a place that wasn't quite your dreams, but wasn't quite your home either. She spoke to you about yearning, and about expectations, and about the particular smell that food has when it is ready to be eaten.

You couldn't tell for sure if she was talking about her plans for the future, or if she was talking about you in particular.

You weren't sure if there was a difference.


[] (MAREINETTE) Time
-"Are you not valuable partners? Is it not fair that you spend more time together?"
-Current cost: TWO Velvet action.

[] (MAREINETTE) Resources
-"What will she buy with it? Oh, this and that… Books, maps, lodging… company. Not because she needs the bits, mind you, but because making it transactional is a flavor of its own. "
-Current cost: 150 bits

[] (MAREINETTE) Freedom
-"When it comes to sightseeing, or when it comes to the size of a menu, quantity can be a quality of its own."
-Does not cost any character's action points. You will just give Mareinette some "time off" for herself.
-Current interest: A village, perhaps the size of Ponyville. Not a city, not yet, but no longer a hamlet.

[] (MAREINETTE) Offering
-"Not the cursed one, of course. What kind of host would use a guest as a wastebin? "
-Current cost: A STUDIED artifact of level 4 or higher
-WRITE IN which artifact you will give her

[-] (MAREINETTE) Access
-"Maybe but a few days every week? Every month?"
-VETOED by Selene.

[] (MAREINETTE) Accept her "Invitation to Dinner"
-"Is it time yet?"
-This option will always be available, and will never increase in price.
-This is Mareinette's Grail Sacrament.
-WRITE IN who will be consumed (must be a minion or a prisoner)

[] (MAREINETTE) Nothing
-"Don't forget to write."
-You will voluntarily end your contract with Mareinette.
-She will leave, and will no longer be bound to you.
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Obviously not yet All In.

As for Mareinette... It is time.

The feast is coming. But is Velvet the host, the guest, or the dish? And as she said, is there even a difference here?

Mareinette Will enjoy it. That's the one thing we know for sure.

And, horrifyingly... Velvet probably will too. It's even possible the prisoner will as well, as it's not uncommon for a victim of a Grail feast to find terrifying pleasure in it.

By the way I find the comment on the cursed artifact a bit funny.

Come on. Wouldn't a curse be a nice kind of spice? :V

OurLadyOfWires said:
But of course, words of hope are ever coated by the aftertaste of impatience.
(A "Mood of Mareinette" options does NOT need to be picked if you decide to take Mareinette's Sacrament as her rebinding option.)


[] (MOOD) Mareinette was oh so interested in the Bureau, after your introductions.
-You will not take any particular action this turn.
-From what you hear, Mareinette will be more absent from your home than usual. Something about going over the archives of the Lunar Bureau.
-This is a free action, and will not interfere in Mareinette's ability to serve you.

[] (MOOD) She will acquiesce to your request, yes. But she will expect something in return.
-You will signal to Mareinette that you are still interested in your ongoing relationship. She will hold you for that.
-Mareinette will seek you during this turn, to ask for a "favor."
-This is a free action, and will not interfere in Mareinette's ability to serve you.
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Uh.

I'm actually not sure.

I'm leaning Bureau personally...

Ah, it later notes Moods is only relevant if we don't do Sacrament, so yeah, irrelevant.

OurLadyOfWires said:
[] (BOOK) What did you read again? (WRITE IN one book, you will retroactively use your last Turn 22 reading action on it)



Finally, you are also thinking ahead, even now.


[] (SCRY) What are you looking at? (WRITE IN an expedition you already know, to scry it ahead of time. WRITE IN what character will perform this action.)

[] (SCRY) You do not wish to scry for any expeditions at this point.
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Edge 1 is no longer relevant I think.

So, either we go for Knock 5 if we thing the lantern 7 book is a sure thing, or we go for the hive book.

I'm leaning Knock. Maybe we'll manage to bring the bureau to Knock 3 in time and unlock some interesting infrastructure bonus.

As for scrying... It could allow us to better tailor the Names we send to the Long expeditions, OR we could scry for NEW stuff.

Anything in particular we need? I don't think Moth 6 is a good target to shoot for at this point,

We have decent artifacts for heart, SH, Lantern, winter (even if cursed) and moth, and a kinda bad knock 2 artifact.

Is there any ritual we want to do that would benefit from more artifacts? I suppose getting an edge artifact back would be nice, but probably not worth the effort when we already have 3 long expeditions available, as well as potentially the hive one.

Maybe scrying for a ritual location? Again, not really worth it.

Scrying for an expedition giving. Lots of bits maybe? Also likely not worth it...

...uh. what if we scored for Neighnia? We probably could afford it next turn, though admittedly unless Selene buys us more time it's too late for Sacrament and friendship... But it might still be worth it.



I'll catch up with the thread later
 
[X] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.
[X] (MAREINETTE) Accept her "Invitation to Dinner" (Prisoner)
[X] (BOOK) Knock 5
[X] (SCRY) What are you looking at? (Choked City, Selene)


OurLadyOfWires said:
However, consider the following.

Axe (Order) made Selene (alicorn) promise that Mareinette (Change) would not be allowed near Silky (???).

But what did Silky choose to do, when given the option?

She has a cutie mark, and free will, and a certain skill that she is slowly growing into. And Velvet is probably more attuned to her first daughter's predilections than to the snake's tantrums.

Anyways, I'm going now.
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I had been meaning to comment it at the time, but it was late, but I'm of the opinion that Smiles' level of "Keeping Mareinette away from Silky" is probably the correct one. As an Edge Name, who is friends with Mareinette and thus not unfairly biased against her, but also fully capable and able of not letting her be a Grail-pusher and standing up to her as needed, I think he probably has the best judgement of anyone we've met so far about how she should be handled.

Also the thread and Velvet still has not come to accept the reality that our daughter is a Grail-affinity main.
 
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I feel like the fact he is friends with an entity that eats children speaks to quite a bit of bias in said entity's favor, personally.
 
[X] (MAREINETTE) Resources
[X] (MOOD) Mareinette was oh so interested in the Bureau, after your introductions.
[X] (BOOK) What did you read again? The Way Home
[X] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.
[X] (SCRY) You do not wish to scry for any expeditions at this point.

If anyone can do the math on what books would push the Bureau to Level 3 in a Lore, I'd be willing to change my vote unless it is our Level 5 Back-Up Book.
 
We should have befriended Mareinette long ago.

[X] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.
[X] (MAREINETTE) Accept her "Invitation to Dinner" (Prisoner)
[X] (BOOK) Knock 5
 
I give Mareinette a chaste kiss on the cheek.

[X] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.
[X] (MAREINETTE) Accept her "Invitation to Dinner" (Prisoner)
[X] (BOOK) What did you read again? The Way Home
[X] (SCRY) What are you looking at? (Choked City, Selene)
 
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Oh crap. We should actually be doing a Scry vote.

"We cannot send artifacts on two different Long expeditions"

That means we need to scry one of the expeditions to know what artifacts to send on it, and then put the other artifacts on the other expedition. Dropping a Selene AP on a scry
is actually kind of important. That's up to 27 Lore levels to be divided

Added [] (SCRY) What are you looking at? (Choked City, Selene) to my own vote
 
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ses said:
"We cannot send artifacts on two different Long expeditions"

That means we need to scry one of the expeditions to know what artifacts to send on it, and then put the other artifacts on the other expedition. Dropping a Selene AP on a scry is actually kind of important.
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Not if we use the Bureau they will always get the main objective if we send along a single name or Selene. Thinking send them on the Forge 6 Reagent with Selene. And Names + artifacts after the Level 7 book.
 
[X] (ALL IN) You will NOT attempt the "All In" expedition.
[X] (BOOK) What did you read again? The Way Home
[X] (MAREINETTE) Resources
[X] (MOOD) Mareinette was oh so interested in the Bureau, after your introductions.
[X] (SCRY) What are you looking at? (Choked City, Selene)
 
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ses said:
Oh crap. We should actually be doing a Scry vote.

"We cannot send artifacts on two different Long expeditions"

That means we need to scry one of the expeditions to know what artifacts to send on it, and then put the other artifacts on the other expedition. Dropping a Selene AP on a scry
is actually kind of important. That's up to 27 Lore levels to be divided
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I don't think we do, actually. Selene + Mareinette on Consultation plus introducing the Bureau to Secret Histories means that they have every single Lore covered (and the advantage of numbers for the Bureau-only Lores), so it should be safe to load up DoA and Cherenkolt with our artifacts for the other expedition. Presumably, we'd have the Bureau + Selene + Mareinette on the thrice-cursed Quarry due to having Winter and Heart, while DoA tackles the Choked City with Cherenkolt for his fuel.
 
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Earth-Destroyer said:
Not if we use the Bureau they will always get the main objective if we send along a single name or Selene. Thinking send them on the Forge 6 Reagent with Selene. And Names + artifacts after the Level 7 book.
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I dont think that was the intended way of reading that statement

Greymere said:
I don't think we do, actually. Selene + Mareinette on Consultation plus introducing the Bureau to Secret Histories means that they have every single Lore covered (and the advantage of numbers for the Bureau-only Lores), so it should be safe to load up DoA and Cherenkolt with our artifacts for the other expedition. Presumably, we'd have the Bureau + Selene + Mareinette on the thrice-cursed Quarry due to having Winter and Heart, while DoA tackles the Choked City with Cherenkolt for his fuel.
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"Having Lore covered" really doesn't mean anything? Having full coverage is certainly nice but there's no distinction between "Has lore" and "doesn't have lore" that means anything beyond the exact same difference in levels? Like, it's a +5 per lore level to every check of that lore, no more and no less. The Bureau having a Lore at level N means that they'll add 5N to checks of that lore.

Knowing if the Choked City is going to test Winter means we can give extra winter oomph to Selene+Mareinette if it doesn't. Because Selene's winter reroll is very much already spoken for. If there's multiple Winter checks in Choked City we're just going to need to take the curse next turn and use the Winter 4 artifact. Knowing if the Choked City is going to test Forge means we might consider adding Cherenkolt to the Bureau instead in either Forge/SH or Forge/Winter configuration, and so on and so forth. Possibly even Forge/Lantern? If there are no social hurdles at all in Choked City we might just have DoA solo it, possibly with artifact cherenkolt. But if there is a social hurdle (or multiple Heart hurdles) we'd need to add Smiles. Plus there's a very real chance of higher thresholds giving scry bonuses to hurdles, see Jade's fifth threshold on the copper assault and the Scouting Book for Royal Castle 2.
 
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Earth-Destroyer said:
GM confirmed that Bureau plus Name/Selene/Velvet will always get the target. They might mess other stuff, but we really don't care about that over getting something needed for a befriended Name.
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If they succeed, they will at minimum get the scryed objective of the Expedition.
 
ses said:
"Having Lore covered" really doesn't mean anything? Having full coverage is certainly nice but there's no distinction between "Has lore" and "doesn't have lore" that means anything beyond the exact same difference in levels? Like, it's a +5 per lore level to every check of that lore, no more and no less. The Bureau having a Lore at level N means that they'll add 5N to checks of that lore.

Knowing if the Choked City is going to test Winter means we can give extra winter oomph to Selene+Mareinette if it doesn't. Because Selene's winter reroll is very much already spoken for. If there's multiple Winter checks in Choked City we're just going to need to take the curse next turn and use the Winter 4 artifact. Knowing if the Choked City is going to test Forge means we might consider adding Cherenkolt to the Bureau instead in either Forge/SH or Forge/Winter configuration, and so on and so forth. Possibly even Forge/Lantern? If there are no social hurdles at all in Choked City we might just have DoA solo it, possibly with artifact cherenkolt. But if there is a social hurdle (or multiple Heart hurdles) we'd need to add Smiles. Plus there's a very real chance of higher thresholds giving scry bonuses to hurdles, see Jade's fifth threshold on the copper assault and the Scouting Book for Royal Castle 2.
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Sure, doesn't mean anything except for letting the Bureau expedition match DoA's base expedition bonus, or better if there's more than a singular Lore-initiate on the field, which you seem to find acceptable for a DoA solo situation. And honestly, if we're sending DoA and Cherenkolt to the Choked City, just send Cherenkolt in his fullsized mode. He has the exact same general bonus as Smiles, and meanwhile Smiles can go do one of the Manehattan expeditions or dig up a dead body or summon a MitL for us instead of spending Selene's AP on it or something,

Also, why would we be throwing the Names/Name-adjacents best suited for resisting curses at the Choked City? It's the Quarry that's cursed.

Edit: Or hell, have them both summon a MitL. I think we'd have the bits for it.
 
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Of course, if we're really worried about making sure the Bureau expedition goes off without a hitch while we load up DoA with as many artifacts as she can carry for the Choked City, we could always get our hooves dirty instead of studying the husk. Name stuff is unarguably more important than the husk, we might be able to introduce the Bureau to more Lores anyway via our presence on the expedition and whatever we have the investigators doing, and it's not a guarantee that Eclipse will catch wind and start badgering us for the corpse next turn. We give +20 to every Lore except Heart, which Mareinette would have well in hand, and Knock and Edge (which are +25 instead).
 
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Greymere said:
Name stuff is unarguably more important than the husk, we might be able to give them more Lores anyway, and it's not a guarantee that Eclipse will catch wind and start badgering us for the corpse next turn.
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There is a chance that we could eat the Husk if we get Mareinette Sacrament.

Although i suppose that it would be suspicious for it to disappear.
 
Rafuki22 said:
There is a chance that we could eat the Husk if we get Mareinette Sacrament.
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Yeaaaah, that's not happening even if true. Because we don't actually get the Grail Sacrament power next/this turn - we don't have enough scraps to hit Grail 5. By time we hit Grail 5, if ever, the husk's going to have long since served whatever purpose it could.
 
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