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

[Greymere]

Now that we've got more than a few plans up and running, here is the full list of currently 'active' plans (i.e. have at least one vote) because someone will probably want to check at some point.

Spoiler: Current Plans

Note: Since literally every plan so far takes both the Family FO and Friends FO, I am omitting them from this overview. Assume that both are in the plans unless otherwise stated.

[] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid)

• Lantern AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Summit
• 6x Knock Sacrament

[] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes

• Secret Histories AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Ashen Wastes
• 6x Knock Sacrament

[] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Summit

• Secret Histories AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Summit
• 6x Knock Sacrament

[] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes and SH Sacrament

• Secret Histories AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Ashen Wastes
• 5x Knock Sacrament
• 1x Secret Histories Sacrament

[] Plan All on Snake

• Grail AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Ashen Wastes
• 6x Knock Sacrament

[] Plan Responsible KISSing

• Lantern AotL
• Reserved reagent
• Explores the Summit
• Teaches Selene
• 5x Knock Sacrament

[] Plan Grail opportunity

• Grail AotL
• Reserved reagent
• Explores the Summit
• Teaches Selene
• 5x Knock Sacrament

[] Plan Prudent KISSing

• Lantern AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Summit
• Teaches Selene
• Performs Forge's Redemption
• 4x Knock Sacrament

[] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent

• Lantern AotL
• Forge 4 reagent
• Explores the Summit
• Teaches Selene
• Performs Forge's Redemption
• 4x Knock Sacrament

[] Plan Taking a Chance

• Lantern AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Summit
• 4x Knock Sacrament
• 2x Secret Histories Sacrament

[] Plan Living on the line

• Grail AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Ashen Wastes
• 4x Knock Sacrament
• 2x Secret Histories Sacrament

[] Plan: SH + Selene + Health

• Secret Histories AotL
• Forge 3 reagent
• Explores the Summit
• Performs the Forge's Redemption
• Teaches Selene
• 3x Knock Sacrament
• 1x Secret Histories Sacrament

Spoiler: Plans By Specific Task

6x Knock Sacrament

• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid)
• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes
• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Summit
• [] Plan All on Snake

5x Knock Sacrament

• [] Plan Responsible KISSing
• [] Plan Grail opportunity
• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes and SH Sacrament

4x Knock Sacrament

• [] Plan Prudent KISSing
• [] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent
• [] Plan Taking a Chance
• [] Living on the line

3x Knock Sacrament

• [] Plan: SH + Selene + Health

Secret Histories Sacrament

• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes and SH Sacrament (1x)
• [] Plan Taking a Chance (2x)
• [] Plan Living on the line (2x)
• [] Plan: SH + Selene + Health (1x)

Explores the Summit

• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid)
• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Summit
• [] Plan Responsible KISSing
• [] Plan Grail opportunity
• [] Plan Prudent KISSing
• [] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent
• [] Plan Taking a Chance
• [] Plan: SH + Selene + Health

Explores the Wastes

• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes
• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes and SH Sacrament
• [] Plan All on Snake
• [] Plan Living on the line

Teaches Selene

• [] Plan Responsible KISSing
• [] Plan Prudent KISSing
• [] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent
• [] Plan: SH + Selene + Health

Performs the Forge's Redemption

• [] Plan Prudent KISSing (w/ Forge 3 reagent)
• [] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent (w/ Forge 4 reagent)
• [] Plan: SH + Selene + Health (w/ Forge 3 reagent)

AotL: Lantern

• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid)
• [] Plan Responsible KISSing
• [] Plan Prudent KISSing
• [] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent
• [] Plan Taking a Chance

AotL: Secret Histories

• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes
• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Summit
• [] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes and SH Sacrament
• [] Plan: SH + Selene + Health

AotL: Grail

• [] Plan All on Snake
• [] Plan Grail opportunity
• [] Plan Living on the line

 

[Potdl]

[X] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes and SH Sacrament
[X] Plan Taking a Chance
[X] Plan Living on the line

Can any one tell me why we are doing the Knock sacrament so many times. Do we even know if we need to do it multiple times cause if we ending up only to need to do this one or twice we are really wasting a lot of our actions here.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

[X] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes and SH Sacrament
[X] Plan Taking a Chance
[X] Plan Living on the line

Can any one tell me why we are doing the Knock sacrament so many times. Do we even know if we need to do it multiple times cause if we ending up only to need to do this one or twice we are really wasting a lot of our actions here.

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Because it takes an unknown number of actions and if we finish under the number of assigned actions we get a refund for the difference.

 

[AuthorTransient]

[X] Plan Prudent KISSing

Well, we could try for Under the Royal Castle pt. 3 to get another Moth book and then up into Moth 6

 

[Flaregamer82253]

[X] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid)
[X] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Wastes
[X] Plan KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid) + Summit
[X] Plan Responsible KISSing (Forge Variant)
[X] Plan Prudent KISSing
[X] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent
[X] Plan Elopement

"And our contestants have really started in the ring with earnest here, with everyone ready to KISS each other until only a gorgeous, amazing one remains!"
"Rarity, you're drooling..."
"Ahem! Yes, thank you Jade. Now then- Wait, a new contestant has entered the ring! By Celestia, it's Prudence with a level 4 Reagent!"

(I couldn't help but notice that 7 of the 11 currently active plans are named KISS.)

In any case, I've explained my rationales before on the Forge's Redemption, so it or six DoA actions (for best potential guarantee) is a must for my vote. Among the latter plans, I don't see Grail AotL being as useful when we already have a reroll in the back anyways and only 3 relatively simple social actions, so I'm not too keen on All on Snake.

 

[Portec]

[X] Plan Taking a Chance

Influence seems for me the ideal circumstance to work on both sacraments.

 

[des-pair-2]

I haven't seen this variation yet.

[X] Plan: SH + Selene + Health
-[X] (AotL) Secret Histories
-[X] (Forge) Forge 3 reagent
-[X] (Knock) Explore the Summit
-[X] (Winter) Summon a Risen
-[X] "The Forge's Redemption"
--[X] Sacrifice Forge 3 reagent
--[X] At Jade's old house
-[X] FO Family
-[X] (Social) FO Friends
-[X] Teach Selene, and make her something more.
-[X] personal SH Sacrament
-[X] DoA Sacrament x 3

EDIT: Added that in Forge's Redemption we are sacrificing the reagent and doing it at Jade's old house.

 

[Pittauro]

I'm just talking about the SH Sacrement action. Which is harder than almost anything we've seen, which is explicitly DANGEROUS, where we have precisely two ways of boosting our chances (influence and reroll) and nothing else makes a difference.

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technically a high level artifact would also help. So if we wanted a boost to a sacrament attempt, we could try searching for lvl 5, 6 or 7 artifacts to help.

Of course influences (especially from Names we already have summoned, but from ritual too) and rerolls (which we get at lvl 4) are far easier to get.

Can any one tell me why we are doing the Knock sacrament so many times. Do we even know if we need to do it multiple times cause if we ending up only to need to do this one or twice we are really wasting a lot of our actions here.

Click to shrink...

Because it takes an unknown number of actions and if we finish under the number of assigned actions we get a refund for the difference.

Click to shrink...

Also to add up to this, our estimate is that it will probably take 3 actions, 4 at most, unless we roll pretty badly.

Mostly because we've seen quite a few sacraments costing 1 to 3 actions, but none explicitly costing more than that (assuming you don't fail rolls)

Personal SH and Personal Winter are 3 actions each, for example, assuming you don't fail the rolls, while some like Biedde's Edge or Personal Moth are just 1... but the requirements to take those obviously take more actions to satisfy. For example bringing a random pony from stranger to confidant takes a MINIMUM of 2 actions, and most likely at least 3 (Acquaintance, Friend, Good Friend, Confidant)

[X] Plan Taking a Chance

Influence seems for me the ideal circumstance to work on both sacraments.

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Keep in mind the general assumption is that, unless we're wounded or cursed, and ESPECIALLY if we still have the SH reroll, we're likely going to use freed actions from finishing Axe earlier for the SH sacrament AFTER in most plans.

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

@OurLadyOfWires copyedit delivery! Some of these have already been pointed out by others, so ignore those if you've gotten to them already.

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Thank you kindly! Much appreciated as always.

I swear to God, I'll have Cheerilee mention that the school hired an assistant teacher called Focused Gaze or something one of these days

@OurLadyOfWires If we hit SH 5 this turn, would that help with Axe's errand?

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How... how would you ever know?

Could the same thing apply to Baldomare and her Noncombatant trait?

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It is almost as if someone planned the story innit?

because someone will probably want to check at some point.

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So... much... KISSing! You are all incorrigible. All of you!

Much appreciated the gathering post.



And I don't see any specific pings for me, so happy voting everyone!

 

[Greymere]

So... much... KISSing! You are all incorrigible. All of you!

Much appreciated the gathering post.

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Blame Spider, they started it!

 

[spiderhellian]

Blame Spider, he started it!

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I just wanted to keep it simple! I didn't expect it to inundate us with a bevy of non-simple plans

But I do appreciate the value of a good plan name to persuasion!

 

[Pittauro]

It is almost as if someone planned the story innit?

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mh...

Baldomare PRETENDS to be a Noncombatant, but she's actually hurt.

Axe PRETENDS to be Uninterested, but actually she's a prisoner without a choice.

Biedde... Will Not Be Released from the Colonel's service (if he's even alive yet. He might be following his last order).

Mareinette doesn't want her Age asked (secret traits, and she doesn't even pretend she doesn't have such secrets)


I have to wonder what the Forge Name will be like. Or what the Master's trait might have been, had we not picked the Moth Sacrament.

oh, and of course Neighnia's.

 

[spiderhellian]

I have to wonder what the Forge Name will be like. Or what the Master's trait might have been, had we not picked the Moth Sacrament.

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This might be totally the domain of Wasn'ts, but I agree I'm so curious what the Will of the Woods would have been like as a summonable Name! What on earth would his friendship quest have been...

 

[LieutenantSpirit]

[X] Plan Prudent KISSing
[X] Plan: KISS (Keep it Snake, Stupid)
[X] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent

 

[Solace2117]

Keep in mind the general assumption is that, unless we're wounded or cursed, and ESPECIALLY if we still have the SH reroll, we're likely going to use freed actions from finishing Axe earlier for the SH sacrament AFTER in most plans.

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As I've pointed out, the idea is that if SH is useful for DoA's sacrament, getting to level 5 helps with that. We know Foggy Mirror is more of a time thing so having more high rolls could partially offset the loss of the re roll. It takes the chance that'll only take max 4 actions for DoA, but so do a lot of plans. The benefit is that if we can get both Sacraments it frees up Baldomare next turn so we don't have to cast the same influence to complete the Sacrament.
Honestly, it also forces the issue in what I think is a more optimal way. We keep pushing off the Sacrament. It's a little annoying how high the DC seems like it'll be for the final step, but nothing we can do about it.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

technically a high level artifact would also help. So if we wanted a boost to a sacrament attempt, we could try searching for lvl 5, 6 or 7 artifacts to help.

Of course influences (especially from Names we already have summoned, but from ritual too) and rerolls (which we get at lvl 4) are far easier to get.





Also to add up to this, our estimate is that it will probably take 3 actions, 4 at most, unless we roll pretty badly.

Mostly because we've seen quite a few sacraments costing 1 to 3 actions, but none explicitly costing more than that (assuming you don't fail rolls)

Personal SH and Personal Winter are 3 actions each, for example, assuming you don't fail the rolls, while some like Biedde's Edge or Personal Moth are just 1... but the requirements to take those obviously take more actions to satisfy. For example bringing a random pony from stranger to confidant takes a MINIMUM of 2 actions, and most likely at least 3 (Acquaintance, Friend, Good Friend, Confidant)


Keep in mind the general assumption is that, unless we're wounded or cursed, and ESPECIALLY if we still have the SH reroll, we're likely going to use freed actions from finishing Axe earlier for the SH sacrament AFTER in most plans.

Click to shrink...

But we also have our super-secret-bonus-objective of finding the Key in addition to the Sacrament, so I'm tending to err on the side of more actions than less.

 

[Shaper47]

This might be totally the domain of Wasn'ts, but I agree I'm so curious what the Will of the Woods would have been like as a summonable Name! What on earth would his friendship quest have been...

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Well the Woods was being destroyed and had been for a while.

So maybe something to do with that.

 

[DelightedOne]

Well the Woods was being destroyed and had been for a while.

So maybe something to do with that.

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No it wasn't, the Woods were fine. The Mansus was broken in the higher levels.

 

[Shaper47]

No it wasn't, the Woods were fine. The Mansus was broken in the higher levels.

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The Woods were being devoured, constantly unmade, eaten alive slowly while they suffered unable to act.

I wouldn't call the Woods fine.

 

[DelightedOne]

The Woods were being devoured, constantly unmade, eaten alive slowly while they suffered unable to act.

I wouldn't call the Woods fine.

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*Sigh* I know I will regret this... but how were the Woods being "devoured, constantly unmade, eaten alive slowly while they suffered unable to act"?

 

[Pittauro]

*Sigh* I know I will regret this... but how were the Woods being "devoured, constantly unmade, eaten alive slowly while they suffered unable to act"?

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don't you know? Evil meany Harmony was eating the poor innocent woods through the Dreamlands

(actually, wasn't the portal explicitly AWAY from the Woods? like, complete opposite direction from the Crossroads, so technically it hadn't even started to eat the woods?)

 

[Shaper47]

*Sigh* I know I will regret this... but how were the Woods being "devoured, constantly unmade, eaten alive slowly while they suffered unable to act"?

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Here you go.

You soon realize that it does not have a shine of its own, instead it bleeds light into the world you are in. For some reason you can't help but to feel revulsion for it, several detestable comments of your Master about the Dreamlands resurfacing in your mind with that realization.

It was like a small corrupted pool, like the tip of a chimney slowly belching poison and smog. It didn't matter that the Mansus was surrounded by an infinite plane, or by the Woods, or the fact that the mountains in the far horizons had no paths that connected to them. During one brief moment, all that mattered was that the pool of water was right there, slowly spreading its essence into the air. Slowly bringing more of itself and its light and its essence into the Mansus, causing the very air around it to become itself.

And you knew during that short moment that if the Dreamlands ever had things its own way, one day it would surely turn the Mansus into itself.

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You feel that same revulsion, again only for a split second, that you are instead looking at a festering wound, or perhaps at a crack on the roof that is slowly letting water drip into your house. But again that impression is gone before you can properly address it.

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You can see the Crossroads, and the vile fumes that bleed from the Dreamlands, and the faraway mountains that exist beyond everything.

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[Flaregamer82253]

You soon realize that it does not have a shine of its own, instead it bleeds light into the world you are in. For some reason you can't help but to feel revulsion for it, several detestable comments of your Master about the Dreamlands resurfacing in your mind with that realization.

It was like a small corrupted pool, like the tip of a chimney slowly belching poison and smog. It didn't matter that the Mansus was surrounded by an infinite plane, or by the Woods, or the fact that the mountains in the far horizons had no paths that connected to them. During one brief moment, all that mattered was that the pool of water was right there, slowly spreading its essence into the air. Slowly bringing more of itself and its light and its essence into the Mansus, causing the very air around it to become itself.

And you knew during that short moment that if the Dreamlands ever had things its own way, one day it would surely turn the Mansus into itself.

Click to shrink...

Not exactly a wrong assessment.

 

[DelightedOne]

Here you go.

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Thank you for reminding us the Dreamlands weren't even close to the Woods back then, thus making it impossible for any devouring/subversion/conquest to be in progress at that moment in time.

Not exactly a wrong assessment.

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If you look at what Shaper wrote it was explicitly said the Woods were under direct attack:

The Woods were being devoured, constantly unmade, eaten alive slowly while they suffered unable to act.

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However, the evidence brought to the attention of the thread proves the Dreamlands had not even reached the Crossroads yet(provided by Shaper himself) refuting the previously given statement and shows that at most there was a possible threat to the Woods and not the devouring, unmaking and comsumption of any parts of it happening at that moment(that came from the Wolf).

So it is a wrong assessment.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

And yet the Will of the Woods was willing to go diving into a Harmony being headfirst and becoming an Alicorn of all things, so I guess she got over his revulsion at some point.

 

[Waela]

[X] Plan Responsible KISSing
[X] Plan Prudent KISSing
[X] Plan Prudent KISSing but even more prudent

 

[Shaper47]

Snip

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You misunderstand everything.

When I said that it was happening "slowly" I meant slowly. The Woods had being slowly devoured for over a thousand years at that point and the process was only speeding up.

Entire areas were gone.

You can't claim the devouring was not a thing just because the Woods were only half eaten instead of nearly fully eaten.

And yet the Will of the Woods was willing to go diving into a Harmony being headfirst and becoming an Alicorn of all things, so I guess she got over his revulsion at some point.

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More they wanted not to die.

Desperation in the face of the end no matter how regretful or revulting.

 

[DelightedOne]

You misunderstand everything.

When I said that it was happening "slowly" I meant slowly. The Woods had being slowly devoured for over a thousand years at that point and the process was only speeding up.

Entire areas were gone.

You can't claim the devouring was not a thing just because the Woods were only half eaten instead of nearly fully eaten.

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My most sincere apologies to you if I did not understand what you meant.

But... which areas had been devoured? The Woods were whole, in fact they were the only "level" of the Mansus that was seen where neither us or Velvet noticed anything wrong with it.

 

[Pororurin]

[X] Plan Prudent KISSing

 

[Shaper47]

Ok so we have an SH influence.

Why then do people want to do everything but our SH Sacrament?!?

Doing the Prudent and Responsible thing and going for 6 DoA AP makes sense but going for 4 DoA AP that's not time sensitive. It's like people here don't want any sacraments at all.