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

[X] You gave him an ultimatum.
[x] Open it.
[x] Banish it.
 
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[X] You gave him nothing.
[X] You gave him a warning.
[X] Open it.
 
[X] You gave him a warning.
[X] Open it.
 
I don't have a problem with the fact what we picked, but I disagree that we don't have time to focus an action on Reproach. Considering the Bureau actions are separate from regular turn AP I think it's definitely worth using the Bureau social on him next turn considering all we've done to secure the overall loyalty. He's the one loose end and getting him personally loyal ties up the one loose end and considering his competency could be very useful.
We already have a path to make Reproach "loyal"(as in not gonna tell Celestia Velvet is shady) by having all of the Bureau respect us, bringing Selene and maybe also getting Cadance to stand on our side while that happens. Of course having him be personally loyal would be nice but I don't think we can afford it at the moment so "loyal" is better than nothing.

We could consider having a Selene action next turn on her Reveal version of her Knock action, the one where she goes BE NOT AFRAID and brings divine moon revelations and commandments. Considering the double shot of Bureau loyalty and street cred from the greenhoofs and the presumable windigo snoot-booping, that should frankly be more than enough to make Reproach personally loyal to Velvet. IIRC Celestia's orders for Velvet specifically puts Luna above Celestia herself in the chain of who Velvet answers to. Not worth much for not getting Formula Fissive'd via sunbeam, but it actually factually makes us completely justified in telling Roach to commit to keeping secrets from Celestia by virtue of "Luna said so" before being allowed to learn the secrets he really wants to know about.

This isn't the final build, but if you order Selene to visit a character's dream, you can expect an additional mid-turn vote where you will decide if:
[-] Selene will only OBSERVE their dreams (attempt to gain intelligence, only)
[-] Selene will attempt to CONTACT them, in their dreams (write-in what you want Selene to try to discover, or what message you would like her to convey. But no guarantees)
[-] Selene will REVEAL herself to them (Princess Luna will reveal herself in this character's dream, write-in what goal you want her to try to achieve)

The third option is, basically, the second option, but with the whomp of an alicorn. It is the equivalent of having an angel reveal itself to someone with a message, ESPECIALLY while Selene is still hiding her presence, and Equestria believes Luna is still missing. Might work, might not work, might backfire, but it's an option.

Still, that's what you should expect from a dream-visit. Either observation, attempt to talk to a pony's subconscious and hope they let something spill, or really show your colors. All of that based on a write-in of what you want Selene to try, and the rest comes down to how well she performs.

"Velvet Covers is to be the Commissioner of the Lunar Bureau. You will all communicate any matter of importance directly to her, and you will all cooperate with her with anything she requires. She will answer to my sister first, myself second, and to nopony else."

Like, QM specifically was tempted to just declare the omake where Velvet did the Luna reveal to him as canon and add it to the main threadmarks. Investing a Selene AP into wresting that outcome into the Tapestry should be perfectly viable.
 
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We could consider having a Selene action next turn on her Reveal version of her Knock action, the one where she goes BE NOT AFRAID and brings divine moon revelations and commandments. Considering the double shot of Bureau loyalty and street cred from the greenhoofs and the presumable windigo snoot-booping, that should frankly be more than enough to make Reproach personally loyal to Velvet. IIRC Celestia's orders for Velvet specifically puts Luna above Celestia herself in the chain of who Velvet answers to. Not worth much for not getting Formula Fissive'd via sunbeam, but it actually factually makes us completely justified in telling Roach to commit to keeping secrets from Celestia by virtue of "Luna said so" before being allowed to learn the secrets he really wants to know about.
We actually might get the chance to do that next turn(or be forced to do it) if the hints we have seen are not smokescreens for something else.

More importantly, you feel that you finally will be able to…
So Beyond Reproach is not investigating your brother. He is investigating you. He is looking at your ledgers, and your paperwork.

Beyond Reproach is already investigating Velvet and we just got a massive amount of respect fron the Bureau(and are going to get more when we kill the Windigo) so a Luna reveal is basicaly guaranteed from what I can see.
 
If we kill the Windigo, not to be pesimistic, but more bodies means more rolls means more chances of a nat 1's...also of nat 100's, but what are the chances of us having actual good luck for once?
Heck yeah. Time to unveil the Windigos' three hidden skills, that include multi-combat, explosion upon death, and a one-combat +25 combat stats :V
 
Heck yeah. Time to unveil the Windigos' three hidden skills, that include multi-combat, explosion upon death, and a one-combat +25 combat stats :V

We have Wrong Keys. "Nah, I'd win"

Also, @OurLadyOfWires, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GIVE US THE KNOCK SACRAMENT IM DYINNNNNNG. YOU PROMISED! IVE BEEN PATIENT! SOON IS IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR! IT WAS ALREADY SOON! PLEEEEEASE
 
Scheduled vote count started by OurLadyOfWires on Mar 16, 2025 at 11:44 PM, finished with 76 posts and 38 votes.
 
This is going to hurt us later, not getting rid of him.

we keep taking half measure after half measures, only being willing to put our hoof down after we've had our eye blackened and nose bloodied, only when we've either been stolen from or had a terrible threat be close to coming true for Velvet to ever do anything that is more permanent or final. And some of y'all wonder why we're constantly on the verge of a game over, and now we're in this situation with Celestia.

When can we stop being so fucking half-assed?

Morals is gonna do Velvet a whole lotta good when she's dead. (Not)
 
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When can we stop being so fucking half-assed?
You call it half-assing, i call it not angering Celestia more by killing the head of Eclipse.

At the end of the day, rolls are mostly what matters.

Even if we have a good plan, it might as well be trash with bad rolls.

Consequently, even being at the edge of a Game Over can be overcome with good rolls.

So complain more to RNG than to morality.
 
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Morals is gonna do Velvet a whole lotta good when she's dead. (Not)
Is this about morals or generally bad choices from a gameplay perspective?

Because some choices were bad and immoral(using a PtN against Copper) and some were bad and moral(having Rarity design Cadance's dress instead of bringing the Names).

I understand the frustration in not being able to play a character the way you want to, but attributing our failures to a moral compass isn't exactly correct. Characters have their agency, randomness exists and us players as human beings can make bad choices for a multitude of reasons.
 
I've been so damned BUSY... I've actually very quickly skimmed the update, and kind of regret not being able to be PROPERLY suprised by... things.

But well, let's see what actually happened. I actually only know basically three things:

1) The vote is about how to deal with Windigo Jars
2) We're, I think, meeting Cadance... though maybe we're stopped by bureau stuff before that?
3) The MASTER somehow survived, if changed and he hates us, and I actually don't blame them.


Shining Armor is learning, and that makes you glad.

Of course, you don't mean to sound arrogant when you say that a former captain of the Royal Guard is "learning" to do anything. You know how competent he is, and you are aware that Cadance didn't fall in love with him just for his looks.
though I'm certain they didn't hurt!

so, back from the dream, Bureau stuff went well enough...

Because despite your position as the Commissioner of the Lunar Bureau, you weren't even able to pass through the first door. The first time you tried to meet with Midday, you retraced the steps you took with Princess Celestia to reach that underground part of the Royal Castle, but you were quite literally blocked from going any further. By guards who had been directly ordered not to let anypony in. Not even you.
well, it's not completely unexpected.

Your opinion of him was that he was a very self-conscious pony, with not a lot of confidence in himself. And for all that you didn't think he was anti-social, you could definitely see him more at ease while alone with a book, or perhaps inside a lab, than in a conversation with somepony else.
so largely a more grown up Twilight?

After all, why would he bother to pay attention to a small conversation with you, when he is thinking about… about the Mansus, and the Climb, and Glory? Why would he care about something as dull and normal as the Wake, when he could be dreaming about so much more?
well, for the same reason Velvet does, I suppose.

But I get what she means.

[Roll omitted. Intrigue and "Beautiful" applied. No Lores used.]



You start by making some small conversation, about this and that.

And then you tell him about your work.

And then you try to get him to tell you about his work.

And when that fails, you accept that he will not tell you anything that you really want to know. Not even a hint. Not even a slip of the tongue that could help you confirm something you already suspect.
That's worthy of respect. It's not exactly easy to keep up with Velvet this way.

But what did you tell him?



[] You gave him your blessings.
"Safe passage through the Wastes may only exist with the Mother's consent. But this one, and this one alone, seems to carry her mark."

[] You gave him some advice.
"The trickiest part is saying something that sounds innocent enough not to implicate you, but that will still click with him when the time comes."

[] You gave him nothing.
"Success defines worthiness. If he wishes to Climb, let him."

[] You gave him a warning.
"You are known to be trustworthy. So, even if he thinks you are a laypony, any discouragement coming from you ought to carry some weight. You think. You hope."

[] You gave him an ultimatum.
"He will think his conversation with you was a dream, but that does not matter to you. The next time he steps upon the ashes will be his last."

mh... I don't know... I really can't decide here. there's consequences to both helping and hindering his climb, after all.

I'm not willing to do the ultimatum, but anything else is acceptable to me.

"Little…"

"Little…"


"Velvet."


Your blood freezes inside your veins, as you hear the unmistakable tone of that voice. Of her voice.
yeah, this definitely surprised me when I Accidentally skimmed through.

this, and the other words...

But more importantly…

Worst of all…

There is a voice coming from inside that jar.

And you recognize it.



"Did you think you would get rid of me so easily? Did you think I was done with you? Oh no, quite on the contrary. I lived, Little Velvet. I lived, and I live, and I will live forevermore."
and I'm again kinda sorta regretting that regrettable action...

I'd PROBABLY do it again, but I was already tempted to try for something else... and ideally if I went further back I'd try to give us more options.

So, of course, she would also manifest in the spawns of that thing. Of course she would live on, in the Windigos and the nightmares and all the bad things that stalk this world.
Well, except Ash (and the Wolf sons). Ash "loves" us, after all...

"Even if the bark of my body turned to ashes. Even if I was forced to change form by fire and hate. I live. I LIVE. And I will spend the rest of my existence hunting you and hating you aND STALKING YOU AND MAKING SURE YOU NEVER AGAIN HAVE A MOMENT OF-"
I SUSPECT that we might want to NEVER again summon a Windigo.

"Thank Celestia… you looked a bit out of it for a moment, but you didn't react nearly as bad as some of my ponies. But as I was saying… I think you can feel it as well?" he asks, giving a hesitant wave of the hoof towards the jar. "We checked with each other, and we all said the same thing. Everypony hears something different. We all heard something that… well, something personal, and bad. We think its curse is related to some mental magic spell."

...this nearly makes me hope that no, it's not ACTUALLY the master... but I don't think we're that lucky.

[] Open it.
-Velvet Covers and a team of 6 (six) Lunar Bureau Constables will fight against a Windigo. You will first move the jar to a safer place, and make preparations to ensure the creature cannot easily escape during combat, and that it will have no choice but fight to the death.
-Pros: Success will greatly improve your standing with the Lunar Bureau, and will deal with this issue.
-Cons: Combat is always dangerous.

I think we might need to bite the bullet on this. with 7 ponies and Velvet to lead, we can probably manage.

Health: 3
General bonus: +20
Actions that will harm ponies: +30
Aspects: EDGE 5, WINTER 5
Windigo should have 3 health and an effective +55 to combat. With reroll AT LEAST every 6 rounds.

There MIGHT be more (they ARE edge and winter 5), but it's possible those edge-winter traits are the ones that make them break free of bindings when in high numbers and give them the "heal after combat" trait.

so... +55.



On the other side, we'd have

Velvet: +29, reroll every 6 rolls

6 guards. Shining was at +25, so I think we can assume they'd be somewhere between +15 and +20.

12 to 15 martial and a +5 combat trait would indicate a peak-tier guard, and we DID go for quality over quantity for our bureau.

@OurLadyOfWires just to be sure, if the Windigo rolls... say an 80 total, and we have a guard that rolls 90 total and everyone else <80, is the Windigo the ONLY one that gets damage?


[] Banish it.
-Velvet Covers will undo the summoning of the sealed Windigo. This will happen without any risk of failure.
-Pros: You will deal with this issue.
-Cons: You will order everypony to leave, and when they return they will find you, alone, with a now-empty cursed jar. Such a sight, surely, will be extremely suspicious. Especially since you will not give anypony any explanations.

I don't think we can afford this. It's just too much suspicion.

[] Take it back.
-Velvet Covers will order the sealed jar returned to the Lunar Bureau.
-Pros: You will at least remove this dangerous artifact from Manehattan.
-Cons: You will have to decide, later, how and when to renew its bindings. Furthermore, this very dangerous item will now be in the Lunar Bureau. And finally, Eclipse might catch wind of this.

if we do this I think our hope would be EXACTLY for Eclipse to deal with it. Ideally with Celestia right there ready to kill it with lots of fire.

Then again... do we WANT that?
 
Phew, just mind fuckery. And hey we found the jars, guess all that is left is desummoning them. Good thing we asked the Bureau to call us immediately if they found it.

except...
The Master's Invitation: "Ah, excellent. You have come far. Come, little Velvet, follow me. I shall teach you how to reach where the light of Glory shines not, where the trees grow too thick for anything but shadows to exist."
-Accompany the Master into the "The Depths of the Woods" location, situated in the Woods.
-You must reach 4/4 scraps of Moth before taking this action.
-UNAVAILABLE: to the best of your knowledge, the Master is gone.

-UNAVAILABLE: The Master is gone.

-UNAVAILABLE: The Master is gone.

:eek::eek::eek:



in regards to wrong keys... can we even use them "subtly"?


Because if they notice it's hardly less suspicious than banishment.

You got the right of it on the second vote (Edit: ) post. Windigo will have a -30 due to facing seven enemies.

Also, I am not big on doing "gotchas" with surprise mechanics. So you can trust that a Windigo doesn't have any skill you are not aware of, since you have knowledge of its full sheet and it doesn't have any "multicombat" skill (something like No Holds Barred that lets you target multiple enemies).
that's fairly reassuring.

Anywhere from 10 to around 20ish. Not decided the upper limit yet. But definitely under 25 since Shining only has that becasue he is a hero.
keep in mind we recruited the top 1%, basically. I think 15 to 20ish is more reasonable, why would we bring guards that are not EXCELLENT to the fight?

definitely nothing like Shining at +25, but it would feel weird to bring someone under 15 to this fight I think unless we're really that short on capable guards.


side note, that was actually a fairly ingenious trap. to reach that door, you needed dark magic. but using dark magic against the door just triggered the nightmare I think.

Wait a second, this introduces a problem, it doesn't solve one.

The Bureau thinks Velvet used the ice magic when she was attacked by thugs. That she's some terrifyingly competent cryomancer. Now they'll be fighting a foe who is clearly the one that wields it.

The obvious inference is that no, Velvet wasn't responsible for all that ice magic… it was the vicious creature. And it introduces the question of how on earth the Commissioner fought off what would normally require 6 constables and herself to conquer.

…I still think we should fight it. But this is a problem, not a strong point, I think.
fighting by their side will still likely build up trust, but you have a point.

It only costs 6 Moth scraps.

That only two turns of Selene actions on scrying and two turns of Axe on back to back short expeditions and 2-3 Velvet AP reading the books with a Lantern influence.

It's not that hard.
an expedition for moth 6 sacrament is probably more doable, I think, but yeah, it IS in theory doable.

I still would prefer just going for All In at that point though.

That's the penalty on the outnumbered combatant. But each combatant in the group still makes their own attack rolls, sharing an overflow value, see here (again from Twilight expedition):
so only one person at a time is harmed? That's good! It improves our chances significantly if ALL 7 need to fail the challenge for us to get any damage!


...seems like I missed the vote.

oh well, I'm fine with what won.

Hopefully we don't get hurt so we CAN do Biedde next turn... I'm not too worried about Midday Dew all things considered.

a warning is probably a decent pick. the main danger from him at this point would be if he reached the Branding Door and noticed we're branded. anything else doesn't matter THAT much.
 
so only one person at a time is harmed? That's good! It improves our chances significantly if ALL 7 need to fail the challenge for us to get any damage!

No, if the windigo rolls better than Velvet it gets overflow towards wounding velvet. If any of the guards roll higher than the windigo Team Velvet gains progress towards scoring a wound, but if the guards roll lower than the windigo nothing happens. If the guards roll high and Velvet rolls low then the windigo damages velvet and the team damages the windigo simultaneously. The guards roll to see if they contribute damage but do nothing in reducing velvet's damage taken (other than ending the fight and giving the outnumbered penalty).

Also the Master is dead. It was just windigo mindfuckery psychological torment.
 
Or we could go poking around for a three circle ritual site while we wait to heal. Or we could go with the Baldomare for her Sacrament. Or we could work on mastering the Snekrament.
 
on the off chance we get injured we can just get the Wolf Sacrament instead of the Colonel Sacrament.

Even if we don't get injured, doing this Sacrament makes far more sense to be honest, it's too good of a deal that allows us to not only save time and resources, but we also don't need to get into another crazy fight that we don't need to. (Plus I've never trusted Biede, he's felt off to me ever since he was introduced)

We're getting to a point where time wasted is critical, spending the most valuable resource we have on trying to skirt around doing harmful things. Isn't our Winter Sacrament that we have to kill someone? Our Grail is to basically kill someone's ego and enslave them mentally right? which isn't much better. Moth if I remember correctly is stealing someone's face? No matter what, we'll end up doing terrible things to further our goals, one way or another.
 
Or we could focus on acquiring Artifacts instead of Sacraments, since another +10 to a Lore from hitting Lore 5 is less of an overall bonus to an Expedition than just chucking a Level 2 Artifact at a follower.
 
Even if we don't get injured, doing this Sacrament makes far more sense to be honest, it's too good of a deal that allows us to not only save time and resources, but we also don't need to get into another crazy fight that we don't need to. (Plus I've never trusted Biede, he's felt off to me ever since he was introduced)

We're getting to a point where time wasted is critical, spending the most valuable resource we have on trying to skirt around doing harmful things. Isn't our Winter Sacrament that we have to kill someone? Our Grail is to basically kill someone's ego and enslave them mentally right? which isn't much better. Moth if I remember correctly is stealing someone's face? No matter what, we'll end up doing terrible things to further our goals, one way or another.
One piece here is that, well, Wolf actions are also incredibly valuable. One got through a door. One killed the Quest's BBEG at the apex of his plan. They're not something to be spent lightly, even considering them purely as a resource and not, y'know, ceding power and influence to literal metaphysical evil!
 
Nonono, these ideas are solid.

I am a sane QM, and i can be trusted with a fourth Regrettable Action which will also push us over the 50% threshold :V

Jokes aside. Ive been dastardly busy. Like, reeeeeally have a lot of stuff going on. Next update already exists in my mind, but havent had the time to sit down and write it. I hope to be able to do so this coming weekend.

I hope you are all doing well! Stay well everyone.
 
I am a sane QM, and i can be trusted with a fourth Regrettable Action which will also push us over the 50% threshold :V
I trust you to be yourself, so i can alredy guess.

Maybe if the situation gets close to be FUBAR or a game over, but until then...
 
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I can already see the RA of awakening Softy to save our family from Mareinette in my mind. It is so, so, vivid.
 
Can Shattered Risen cast AotL's on our behalf? I'm not sure on the rules for AotL so sorry if that's a dumb question. Are we allowed to do Turn 22 "Comet digs up a body, Winter-revive, both Risens cast Edge AotL's, Velvet uses her free AotL for Edge, go into Edge Sacrament with triple AotL"?

But yeah are there any options for getting BtRC pt 3 completed next turn? The loot from expeditions is consistently massive in value and I really want to raid BtRC3 asap. I'm pretty sure this isn't an "Axe can solo this expedition" sort of mission, so can we afford to send Velvet? The fact that our Lores stack with Axe's general bonus makes the two of them much more capable of crushing any tests than Axe/Selene or Axe/Name where the general bonuses don't stack, and we're intended to send Velvet on Expeditions and get rewarded for doing so, QM described being forced to promise to never go on one as a huge and crippling restriction so I think it'll be worth the AP to make sure btrc gets crushed and we get the huge goodies at the bottom of it. If Axe isn't back next turn we can Velvet/Mareinette instead for basically the same outcome.
 
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