Tbh, even for those that want to go for Mareinette's Sacrament... I'd say just treat the Spoiled Rich thing as something completely separate. There's really no reason to use her for both, just ask Biedde or DoA to capture a prisoner for us if/when the time arises instead of trying to do this weird dance of using her for both at the same time.
I... Gegh. I am worried about what we don't know about Biedde and the Edge Sacrament. And part of me wants to ply for the personal Secret Histories Sacrament instead. But the utility of those study actions are more important. Here. Even if it risks wounds.
While this is probably the smarter plan, I... Personally want to try to do the weird dance for the dumbest reason.
I'd say befriend her.
Seems pretty similar to what I currently have in my plan skeleton, pending Bird's comments on when artifacts can start being used relative to when they're studied. Though I'll note that despite having the prepwork for the Edge Sacrament in your plan, it's not actually present in the Velvet actions.
It is quite literally impossible for Selene to fail the SH check. She rolls a baseline of +60, due to her +30 general bonus combined with the +30 from our SH3 artifact.
... Somehow I straight up forgot about the General Bonus Selene has.
I mean... will she? I kind of feel like she'll just become Mareinette's friend in truth instead of her friend by body-double, considering the sheer extent of Mareinette's Grailness. Also, please no kidnapping any more Elements of Harmony, I'm sure we can find a perfectly good kidnapping victim that the thread wouldn't be emotionally attached to and that aren't somewhat metaphysically important to the setting.
We need to prepare for Mareinette rebinding either way. If we make her stay with us at the farm she may ask for a higher price so we show commitment or hurry with her Sacrament. Still maybe price increase is fixed, but to be safe better to assume that it at least doubles. And it will happen at the end of next turn!
We need money more than AP. We will need money for Book 7 expedition and everything else. Mareinette can get us money.
...I mean she can do multi-socials, it's a perfectly legal action. The downside of trying to social multiple people at the same time is that they're supposed to be less effective, but Mareinette rolls so high in social situations that the decreased efficiency doesn't really matter. It was legal for one of last turn's potential plans, and it was legal for the very first social she did with both Filthy and Spoiled.
She can do that next turn, after we have our Moth Sacrament ready to go and Filthy either at Confidant or very close to.
But didn't people wanted to start mass summoning Mare-in-lights the moment we get Lantern 4 artifact studied? Both Luna and DoA can easily do it. Each summon costs 55 bits. The more money we have the more MitL we can bring, the more AP we can get. Money is AP.
It literally is though. Bird looked at a plan that included this exact action last turn, a combined Spoiled + Filthy social action via Mareinette, and went "yep no problems here". Also she only needs to go up one stage, because Close Friend + Leash is sufficient for the Moth Sacrament, and she's currently at Friend.
Gotta find a summoning site first. I have Selene looking for one in my future plan, but that doesn't mean she'll succeed at it or that it won't be locked behind an expedition. Or that another plan that doesn't have anyone looking for a 3-circle site won't win. Mundane Confidants also have the benefit of not needing constant bits upkeep to maintain their AP, so enough mundane followers to consistently hit +2 AP seems pretty good to me even if we're also wringing AP out of summoned spirits.
In case you forgot Rich and Spoiled are heading to what amounts to a divorce. To the point they have already asked Velvet whom she is going to support. And we really do need Spoiled to be a Minion as their will be a gap between the Moth and Grail Sacraments. And we cannot just imprison Spoiled as just a close friend without spending someone's action.
You're literally spending someone's action either way. Either for someone to guard her, someone to kidnap her, or for someone to kidnap someone else. So no, I'm not particularly inclined to get Spoiled to Minion instead of Confidant just so we can do this weird-ass plan of going "mask off" then eating her like some kind of two-bit horror movie villain instead of just taking the two Sacraments as two separate things.
I made a mistake in writing that plan and edited it, but basically that last 5th action in my opinion should be the Edge Sacrament (which I forgot to add).
Yeah, I somehow forgot to add it in, and edited it now.
Seems Fine.
Did we need to ahve researched the artifact? Because if not we could definitely give her one of the ones we have yet to study.
not without letting her off the leash. I think we were told with the moral constraints a Name action might get us something like 40 bits? IF we let them do whatever they want (which likely includes theft and murder) THEN we could probably get significantly more.
No going to Tall Tale?!
We literally do NOT know what the Changelings have, but bits and artifacts sound likely. If Velvet is there she can acquire those.
Not what happened, that would only be a thing if Mareinette had chosen this option:
She didn't, instead Spoiled will treat her marriage as an investment, not loving Filthy but also not hating him.
It's funny. I am also reminded of that discussion around possession. Betting on harmony makes me think of betting the Master will be oh so impressed. Sure, maybe. But we're dealing with Monsters here.
Technically, technically we could probably make it if we send DoA to go get a prisoner and we have the Forge Name build a cell this turn, since taking Mareinette's Sacrament as her renewal option doesn't spend any AP iirc. But it would be a pretty tight crunch and require some pretty specific actions.
Ehhhh. While her career is fine, it's also been noted that Rarity taking commissions is very stressful for her, so I'd really rather not take it twice in a row for narrative reasons.
Plus, if we're rocking a max Edge and Lantern Influence at the same time, we're basically the changelings' nightmare manifest
You... Have a point. Several even.
she can deal with stress. Velvet did, Selene did, Jade did, she can too.
and we could easily add a grail influence there too, as long as we were willing to use the free social to continue the Spoiled Rich projectPlus, if we're rocking a max Edge and Lantern Influence at the same time, we're basically the changelings' nightmare manifest
I just don't think the Grail Influence would be nearly as impactful, and I'd really rather we spend Velvet's personal social actions on people we actually intend to keep around.
Yes, it need to be studied
We can have her sell low level artifacts. Allow her to gaslight people as much as needed so they are convinced that they are ancient relicts or something, but overall it is not too amorally I think. Or maybe Cadance will buy them.
First Velvet eats pony with Mareinette. Then she eats pony with Rarity when she teaches her lvl5. Then she eats pony with Cadance...
Normally, I am all for solving problems well ahead of them rearing their head. But this is a bit much even for me.