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

Voting is open for the next 1 day
And would you look at that Mareinette twisted our words to suit her goals. Who would think of that?
You seem to miss how She could do whatever she wants, taste everything she wants to, but refrains.
Despite the slights, despite the plotting.

She is polite and delivers on her promises, now you do the same
 
You seem to miss how She could do whatever she wants, taste everything she wants to, but refrains.
Despite the slights, despite the plotting.

She is polite and delivers on her promises, now you do the same
No I didn't. I said something she did, that is all.

If you want to say other things she did or didn't do, feel free to do it. And polite, really? She broke the rules when she got inside the house, that is extremely rude, Velvet not knowing doesn't change that.

And once again, the "promise" is not a promise, just Velvet signaling her that she is still interested and that can change.
 
A blessing, of company, until our mutual friend returns.
A kindness
Unspoken privileges. Unnamed privileges. Barely a nod of a head, or a shift in the mood. But, to a listener as attentive as she, more than enough to convey true meaning.

Because she knows… she knows, and she smells, and she sees, and she senses, that she is still welcome here. That she is desired here.
And a reminder. For those who seem unwilling to hear. Or perhaps willfully blind.
Lies are mere words that mask a want.

But should I be unclear, let me make myself known.
So, with a merry stride on her bony hoofs, Mareinette makes her way through the central gardens. Unmolested by the battering storm, and undisturbed by the shivering wind. She leaves the side building where she made her abode, and practically makes a beeline towards the mansion itself.
So, with the grace of a noble and the morbidity of a great spider, she climbs to the second floor of the mansion. And she caresses a particular window until it opens.
Her cloak is warm and dry, by the time she crosses the open window. And both the floor and the air barely notice her presence.

These are kindnesses. These are entreaties. These are promises and reverence and understandings.
These are the tools of Mareinette. And they are not limited merely to the body, and the living or dead.
 
You seem to miss how She could do whatever she wants, taste everything she wants to, but refrains.
Despite the slights, despite the plotting.

She is polite and delivers on her promises, now you do the same
We only promised being interested in her. There are different kinds of interest. She seems interested in our fillies for example. If we trust that her intentions are positive then there is sure no problems with befriending her.

I am sorry?
I am certain the Name of Endurance and Hunger will not at all be be cognizant of the dangers. Wouldn't recognize that Velvet wants her dead, wouldn't recognize that the setup for the meal is an ambush, that Velvet never really wanted to take her up on the offer.
And a reminder. For those who seem unwilling to hear. Or perhaps willfully blind.
Lies are mere words that mask a want.
Idea with bait was that we will have option to decide eat or not to eat at the last moment, with few Names just guarding prisoners while others preparing to go on some other task if we don't signal them to interfere. Mareinette would not be able to guess our intentions if we themselves are not aware about them. If it comes to such vote I'll be fine with any outcome and I find it sufficiently Mothy to potentially work. Moth beats Grail after all.
So no. No, I think it is incredibly foolish to presume you would be able to successfully hide an Ambush from Mareinette. I think it would be very foolish to presume she wouldn't catch wind of it and simply leave early. I think....
For goodness sake... People are squeamish about the risks of going to Tall Tale! You think you can take out a Name who is fully summoned? Let alone Her?
People find courage to risk their lives in real life, sometimes with worse odds. I don't know why Velvet being properly heroic for once is such incomprehensible thought.

For goodness sake! This is... This is risking needing to resummon Axe, have turns spent Healing, Potentially risking Biedde's summon, risking Mareinette escaping and causing no end of trouble to us, risking us straight up dying, risking Our Lady of Wires deciding to target Silky Instead, and for... for what?
For -1 AP, presuming everything works.

Forgive me for being blunt. But no.
I dearly hope this is some maneuvering discussion tactic... because otherwise you honestly mean this.
Well primarily I don't want for people to decide that they did not have a choice and it is not Velvet fault that she just need to eat this pony for power. Thus I feel compelled to at least propose alternative. If we decide on being villain we should be proper Villain and forget about not leashing ponies for additional actions and so on. Or be paragon of justice and vanquish a monster. Also please don't be so surprised about people not wanting to have a cannibalistic protag, it is not some outrageous idea, really.

People are voting to kidnap Velvet Hill to eat him. Velvet's brother is his heir. We can probably steal some bits, but adding more objectives adds more chances for potential failed rolls. Velvet Hill is a prominent figure in the capital city. He has guards and servants. People will notice if he disappears. He's Velvet's father, I doubt anyone will blame her, but she will be involved in the fallout. She was just attacked and then her father disappears, that's notable to outsiders. We are already struggling with AP. We don't need more potential complications.
We have a book of potential expeditions from Copper that we can have our Names carry out. Next turn Jade should be able to study Low level artifacts we can sell. We need bits, but the Velvet Hill expedition is a needless risk, that could turn into a greater time sink.
Currently yes, but actual goal would be decided during expedition vote. More objectives is why we send more Names.
And yes we have other potential expedition but they too curry non zero risks . Some of Copper expeditions may actually be some other noble mansions even, if she knew that they have good artifact collection for example.
Plus it is money that does not need Jade action to convert it.

And yes following on it could give us new actions, but I don't see anything that we will be absolutely forced to take and any action is also opportunity. As always we will weight cost and benefits and decide on it. It is not like QM is shy on giving us FO even without it. Most time no one forces us to take them. Most pressing would be potential issues with Velvet allowance, but I think we also be able to increase it with a bit of effort. Maybe one action to make sure that everything runs smoothly or so. Plus without Hill's body to verdict him as being definitely dead I think some time would pass before any problems really arise.
 
We're already struggling to actually get things done. We keep pushing off sacraments cause something new and interesting shows up.

Absolutely completely true.

We really need to stop putting off a SH Sacrament.

Vote for the SH Sacrament plans.

We might have been able to stretch it for another 3 turns to have until turn 29 to prepare if we had taken the Cadance mood and had the timer fall behind the Celestia doom clock, but we didn't take that vote (and are investing selene AP into defusing the celestia doom clock, which is at odds with committing to all in in the next 4 turns as well)

Your reaching here.

The way to deal with the Celestia doom clock is to get Moth Mastery.

Easily possible by Turn 25, though we should save the lantern influence for that turn.
 
Maybe Velvet Hill heard about his granddaughter's cutie mark and sent a congratulatory letter telling her how proud he is of her.

And rainbows will burst forth from our ass as Celestia fillifies herself into Aine after declaring Princess Cadance to be the new Princess Supreme and the wolf-sons are purified by grandfatherly love. Twilight Sparkle will burst into the room in tears saying she forgives us and Windy will send us an invitation to his wedding with Goldy at his peaceful ice sculpture carving business he's been working on this whole time.
and of course that's when Velvet wakes up.

...ah, right, she can't dream anymore...

If artifact price increase is by one level then by next binding it would be only lvl 4 artifact which we can easily pay, while QM said that by third binding price would become too much. Also by claiming that we are interested in her we may have made her more impatient than if we let her spend time with Cadance.
To prevent escaping we will need Baldomare scrying and DoA teleport. It is hard to escape from Names of Knock and SH.
keep in mind that lvl 4 artifacts are RARE. we didn't even have those when Bird first commented on us not being WILLING (and not able, he never said we wouldn't be ABLE to pay) to pay the 3rd price.


Because she knows… she knows, and she smells, and she sees, and she senses, that she is still welcome here. That she is desired here.
considering taking her sacrament is now basically unanimous, with the main disagreement being on the main dish, that's true and fitting.

Her host never said her embargo of entering the house had been lifted.

But certain things need not be said with words.

And her host did (or will, in the near future) signal that Mareinette's presence is still welcome.

So how could she interpret this any other way? How could her host possibly wish for her to remain close, and not allow her some indulgences, without being rude?

The answer is simple. She cannot.
also true. We can't signal interest and friendship and STILL not let her in our home.

That's just not how it works.

But of course, her visit will be brief. It will be brief, and it will go unnoticed. After all, her gracious host herself is not here, and the latest… permanent guest has no love for her.
That's putting it midly.

I think her implied revenge if Mareinette hurts Silky will be a nice deterrent, just in case.

...it's not an insult when it's true and both know and acknowledge it.

Have you come to devour me, the son of my mother?


Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack


I was not aware you had been built with humor.
You know, I can't quite tell what the joke is here. That DOES sounds like a legitimate and reasonable question... well, except that it would be a violation of guest rights, I suppose.

Our mutual friend desires your continuance. I feel she will propose an arrangement very soon.

That would be very kind of mother, if true.
well, yeah, We'll definitely work on it.

Good. The Princess and the Executioner remain intractable. It is good to know there are still some who see sense.

Do they? Even though their defeat happened so long ago? They could learn a little of change… But in a sense, I am glad you did not. I am thankful for the part you played, small as it was. And so was Her. She mentioned how each player would act, before She left. And even your kind was spoken of favorably.


A shiver, a thrill. An unusual display of excitement.


An honor, even if this secret is so very old. You have my thanks.
interesting.

so Axe is confirmed to be a "princess". I think someone mentioned the seven sister-princesses or something? Might have been princes and brothers in canon CS.

and yeah, they're admittedly intractable... though we managed fine enough with Axe (mostly thanks to Silky).

and hey, Mareinette played a role in what happened all that time ago...

May I count on your aid, if the servants of Order draw a line in the sand against us who espouse Change?

Biedde OBVIOUSLY stands for Order. I suppose Axe too.

Where would Baldomare stand, I wonder?

And do Harmony and Chaos (Discord) have a place in all this, or is this only about the ancient factions?

And I for yours. And I will never argue against Her actions. But I am sorry you were not Pardoned.

I am not.

and, predictably, Mareinette does not regret her sins.

So, she begins to work on her own present, for her newfound friend.

With ebony hoofs of white she picks up the delicate clock from the wall, and she carries it towards the door.

She whispers words to it, instructions and suggestions, of what the clock should do next.

She makes her way down the corridor, as the clock rearranges itself into a new form.
...I'm calling it now, if Cherenkov is Pinocchio, she's making a Jiminy Cricket!

The door, she can see, is locked. That door, from which wafts such a pleasant and young smell, is locked. Locked, and marked, and warded, and almost cracked by the great axe that has been sunk into it.
thank you Axe we LOVE you!

It is a shame that the Snake forgot that certain rules simply do not apply to her.
fuck

And with hoofs as gentle as they are hard, she pulls up the covers around the foal… and places the intricate pony-shaped toy, the new shape of the clock, between her forelegs.

The filly, innocent and asleep as she is, hugs and huddles up to the toy almost immediately. Completely unaware of the bony hoofs that are once again tucking her covers. And completely ignorant to the muted tick-tock-tick of the unique toy that she will start playing with come tomorrow.

...I fucking can't believe it.

Silky, with the COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED HELP OF MAREINETTE, starts befriending ANOTHER Name!


Truly, Velvet is the lore polyglot bullshit pony, but it's SILKY that's doing like half of the work in befriending Names on our behalf!

We're doing the mechanical work, she does all of the emotional part!

So.

Hillariously, Velvet has not entirely connected the dots from Steppes "confession".

He told you that "he was the one your father asked to do things". But, since Velvet does not have the OOC knowledge you guys have, she did not connect the dots to think that "My uncle ran a crime empire".

No, seriously, be reasonable. No one would make that leap of logic from just a late-night conversation with a trusted family member. I know the memes are funny, but try to separate OOC knowledge from Velvet's POV.

Now. From a common sense perspective, Velvet is aware that a family head disappearing is... well, a lot of things.

There will be an uproar in the noble community for the authorities to "do something" because "we could be next". The administration of the family will go into disarray for months or even "the foreseeable future". You have NO idea how the documentation stands when it comes to Hill's last will and testament. And then, of course, there's the present issue that "Noble titles die with the current head".

You have not heard of any noble head dying since the Princess' decree so, ironically, your family will be the test subject for what happens then if Hills dies.

So, uh, a big clump of "administrative problems" coupled with "gossip and fear in Canterlot", together with a good serving of "unknown" as always.
quite a decent incentive NOT to do that, really.

We have enough problems that we don't WANT extra chaos.

...especially because... I mean, Discord is still there. there's a low, but NON zero chance that extra chaos might free him faster...

On a Side Note, the moment we run out of Names to Befriend (Baldomare, Cherenkov and Mareinette should all be befriended in the next 3 turns I think) we want to seriously consider if we should trigger All In, even if in theory we have more time left.

Names are the biggest help we can get there, other than more artifacts. It might not be worth it to risk something ELSE happening just to get another expedition, a few artifacts or an extra sacrament ready.

I mean, just off the top of my head

1)Sombra might come back
2)Discord might get free
3)Windy might wolf
4)Someone might discover how to make Ash Ghouls and do that.

and that's ignoring Celestia's countdown.

Man, she's a better guest than we deserve
honestly Mareinette has been a PERFECT Guest to us specifically.

Just as long as we don't forget what she is. (A monster. the answer is a Monster).
 
Idea with bait was that we will have option to decide eat or not to eat at the last moment, with few Names just guarding prisoners while others preparing to go on some other task if we don't signal them to interfere. Mareinette would not be able to guess our intentions if we themselves are not aware about them. If it comes to such vote I'll be fine with any outcome and I find it sufficiently Mothy to potentially work. Moth beats Grail after all.
Because she knows… she knows, and she smells, and she sees, and she senses, that she is still welcome here. That she is desired here.
Yeah I'm sure the Name that can literally smell how we feel about her wouldn't notice the desire to kill her when we invite her to dinner. Surely there's no way that this would just create an enemy out of the Name with arguably the greatest ability to screw us over ten ways to Sunday.

considering taking her sacrament is now basically unanimous, with the main disagreement being on the main dish, that's true and fitting.
Not unanimous by any means (see: the number of voters for Plan: Cannibalism is Cringe). But probably the majority, for one reason or another.
 
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I'm not happy with this vote, but I can recognize when the time has come. To me, a large portion of the quest has been about morality. It's about how much of being a normal pony Velvet is willing to give up on her path toward the Glory. There have been plenty of times in which a "beneficial" action has been just barely passed over due to its tragic moral cost, with the votes for Mirror Twilight and Leashing Filthy being recent examples. Here and now, I don't think we have the luxury of putting this off any longer. Not when the alternatives would result in greater risks. Not when some of those alternatives would effectively lose us a Name and turn that Name into an opponent.

A small bright side to this is that Velvet's father is a lot worse than she thinks. Grabbing a random criminal and grabbing her father are similar actions on a base level, but her father is significantly worse for a variety of reasons.

Also, taking this action gives more context to the conversation Velvet had with her uncle.

"I forgive you, and I do not resent you. Someone else holds all of my resentment."

[X] Plan: Devouring the Sky

(Although, I would really rather be there for the assault of Tall Tale.)

[X] Plan: Graven Commissioner and Commander
 
And yes following on it could give us new actions, but I don't see anything that we will be absolutely forced to take and any action is also opportunity. As always we will weight cost and benefits and decide on it. It is not like QM is shy on giving us FO even without it. Most time no one forces us to take them. Most pressing would be potential issues with Velvet allowance, but I think we also be able to increase it with a bit of effort. Maybe one action to make sure that everything runs smoothly or so. Plus without Hill's body to verdict him as being definitely dead I think some time would pass before any problems really arise.

Now. From a common sense perspective, Velvet is aware that a family head disappearing is... well, a lot of things.

There will be an uproar in the noble community for the authorities to "do something" because "we could be next". The administration of the family will go into disarray for months or even "the foreseeable future". You have NO idea how the documentation stands when it comes to Hill's last will and testament. And then, of course, there's the present issue that "Noble titles die with the current head".

You have not heard of any noble head dying since the Princess' decree so, ironically, your family will be the test subject for what happens then if Hills dies.

So, uh, a big clump of "administrative problems" coupled with "gossip and fear in Canterlot", together with a good serving of "unknown" as always.

Considering this, I doubt it'll be a few turns. Frankly this just screams potential clusterfuck of stupid designed to waste time and trip us up. Yes, Copper's notes could involve other nobles, but I doubt they're plans that involve kidnapping and eating someone Velvet is related to. I mean sure we can just ignore it, but that's generally not worked out great.
Also we get paid by the Bureau, we don't have an allowance anymore.
 
Yeah I'm sure the Name that can literally smell how we feel about her wouldn't notice the desire to kill her when we invite her to dinner. Surely there's no way that this would just create an enemy out of the Name with arguably the greatest ability to screw us over ten ways to Sunday.
And I'm sure that under Velvet's circumstances desire to kill Mareinette would be completely natural and something that Velvet will consider even if she goes with Sacrament option.

On a Side Note, the moment we run out of Names to Befriend (Baldomare, Cherenkov and Mareinette should all be befriended in the next 3 turns I think) we want to seriously consider if we should trigger All In, even if in theory we have more time left.

Names are the biggest help we can get there, other than more artifacts. It might not be worth it to risk something ELSE happening just to get another expedition, a few artifacts or an extra sacrament ready.
Names would be unable to help us in Malleary , except Cherenkolt of course and so we need artifacts and to study higher levels of Lore. Especially as it was implicated that we would need to run Malleay right after All-in. Unless you know of a way to turn other Names into artifacts?
 
. To me, a large portion of the quest has been about morality. It's about how much of being a normal pony Velvet is willing to give up on her path toward the Glory.

'The problem with monsters is that they rarely start that way. The forces that shape them and turn them into such rarely leave them capable of realizing what they have become, and make the immune to the sort of hesitancy of conscience that restrains the rest of us. Turning them back from the path is therefore only possible when you know why they became a monster in the first place.'
 
And do Harmony and Chaos (Discord) have a place in all this, or is this only about the ancient factions?

Change here straightforwardly refers to "The Mansus being sealed away and Harmony ruling the new Era", I don't think there's any other way to possibly interpret it.

and, predictably, Mareinette does not regret her sins.

While she obviously doesn't, that's not quite how I read that statement. The Ligeans may be Criminals, but they're also outside the rules of the Mansus, and we just established that Mareinette was a willing part of the Forge's plan to replace the Lores with Harmony. To her being Pardoned would mean "returning to the Mansus heirarchy proper and working for the status quo"

She may have been holding out for whatever change Harmony brought an era later whatever that may be.

As for fallout... we can literally just put it right on the list of Bureau priorities, just under "changelings" and "whatever comes up next" and see how far that 1 detectives action a turn gets. Paranoia will get a W but that was kinda already priced in.
 
I will note that dream realm is connected to Mansus and I'm moderately sure that there were ways to physically the dream realm with pony magic
 
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So in the interest of dodging Administrative headaches plaguing the place where Velvet lives, I will once more espouse Plan: Cannibalism is Cringe and Plan: Let's Not Kidnap a Prominent Figure From Canterlot. We do not send Pride into a panic. We do not put tremendous political pressure on law enforcement (like the Bureau) to "do something." We don't snap another of Uncle Steppe's Tethers to the world. We don't send Steppes Mafia into a bout of chaos just when Steppes might start milking it to give Velvet nice things. We keep things simple, understandable, and agreeable for the maximum number of parties.

And also hit that hive, I refuse to have Velvet pass on every Changeling infestation, just let her be a hero for a bit please.

Also a vote for Cringe is a vote for more Bits, as a Forge 6 Grail 3 Name will probably be the most business-savvy negotiator on the planet. The Needles will never know what hit them.
 
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So in the interest of dodging Administrative headaches plaguing the place where Velvet lives, I will once more espouse Plan: Cannibalism is Cringe and Plan: Let's Not Kidnap a Prominent Figure From Canterlot. We do not send Pride into a panic. We do not put tremendous political pressure on law enforcement (like the Bureau) to "do something." We don't snap another of Uncle Steppe's Tethers to the world. We don't send Steppes Mafia into a bout of chaos just when Steppes might start milking it to give Velvet nice things. We keep things simple, understandable, and agreeable for the maximum number of parties.
There's also Plan: Prisoner Chomping, which also gets us a random prisoner and scries a Forge 6 reagent but instead focuses on getting usable infrastructure out of the Bureau so we can actually get a cadre and ritual space to summon more AP in a realistic timespan instead of a one-off moment of glory.
 
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Also please don't be so surprised about people not wanting to have a cannibalistic protag, it is not some outrageous idea, really.
...Forgive me, but I believe I have been very careful with my words.

I am not surprised with the discomfort. With the rallying against. With the vitrol and anger and near injustice that, at least to my eyes, some people feel to this vote and the decisions from it. It is understandable. It is reasonable. It is expected even, and welcome. I have said near as much before.
If you are squeamish, are unhappy, are displeased, are angry or irritated or offended by the fact that we are not just entertaining the possibility, but looking at how to go about it and go forward with it... That's reasonable. That's normal.


Mareinette would not be able to guess our intentions if we themselves are not aware about them.
My problem is not with people's offense.
My problem is that you seem to believe Mareinette would be ignorant. Or that we could shanghai our intent until the last moment and make it work out. An action that risks everything for what looks like nearly no benefit.
 
Ah yes, option that Velvet would supposedly feel more guilty over rather than Hill


Still not seeing how that is preferable besides by time-press, think of the story!

There's also Plan: Prisoner Chomping, which also gets us a random prisoner but instead focuses on getting usable infrastructure out of the Bureau so we can actually get a cadre and ritual space to summon more AP instead of a one-off moment of glory.

But I don't want a random prisoner, that's just begging for a Name to throw like, a burglar our way. I specifically want someone who goes after children. We need less child-eating monsters and more child-hurter-eating monsters, I say. And I think the supernatural entities can get us a degree of specificity to our sacrifice.

(Also I'm still hoping the Changeling's top enforcer in Tall Tale counts as a Worthy Opponent and we can recoup an AP that way.)
 
But I don't want a random prisoner, that's just begging for a Name to throw like, a burglar our way. I specifically want someone who goes after children. We need less child-eating monsters and more child-hurter-eating monsters, I say. And I think the supernatural entities can get us a degree of specificity to our sacrifice.
Would you rather have a random prisoner or Hill?
 
Then even less reasons to worry about it. It may be clusterfuck but not ours. Let Pride deal with it.

We live on the same Estate as Pride. We run the Bureau that investigates things like this. It's very optimistic to assume we can just ignore it and it won't affect us in any way. Pride still technically runs the land. Alienating him creates its own issues. He's also probably the heir. Ignoring stuff like this in the background has shot us in the foot multiple times. We've been shown multiple times our actions have consequences even if occasionally we've done enough other things to mitigate the damage. I don't know why this would suddenly be different. If you think it's worth the potential roadblocks fine.
At the end of the day though it just feels like unnecessary complications. For what, maybe a few bits extra. Potential leads on more when we already have leads we can follow up on. We're taking a potentially large risk for relatively little gain.
 
Of the leading plans, I do think Graven Commisioner and Commander is the best. We do the Changeling assault, and we take on our Dad.

[X] Plan: Graven Commissioner and Commander

But we can just... not make that mess. Spoiled Rich is right there.

We save ourselves an expedition, with all its attendant risks. We get a Forge Scrap, which means a Forge Influence readies us for the sacrament. We get an extra action out of DoA -- an expedition to loot in the nearby future.

[X] Plan: Waste Not Want Not
-[X] (Detectives) Follow Up: Dodge City
-[X] (Constables) Follow Up: Tall Tale
-[X] (Commissioner) Get your Hoofs Dirty
-[X] (Director) Lantern
-[X] (Mareinette) Honored Guest: Spoiled Rich & Filthy Rich
-[X] (Biedde) Channel an Edge Influence
-[X] (Baldomare) Channel a Lantern Influence
-[X] (Selene) Soothe the night
-[X] (Selene) Spy on Windy's Dreams
-[X] (Rarity) Focus on her work
-[X] Forge Lesson (Cherenkolt)
-[X] Needs must. Ask somepony to procure you a dead body from the local cemetery.
-[X] Look for Medium difficulty Expeditions
-[X] Perform the Reflection of the Tapestry
--[X] Target: Easiest Level 7 book to acquire
-[X] Edge AotL
-[X] Edge AotL
-[X] Cover your Bases (1 AP)
 
We live on the same Estate as Pride. We run the Bureau that investigates things like this. It's very optimistic to assume we can just ignore it and it won't affect us in any way. Pride still technically runs the land. Alienating him creates its own issues. He's also probably the heir. Ignoring stuff like this in the background has shot us in the foot multiple times. We've been shown multiple times our actions have consequences even if occasionally we've done enough other things to mitigate the damage. I don't know why this would suddenly be different. If you think it's worth the potential roadblocks fine.
At the end of the day though it just feels like unnecessary complications. For what, maybe a few bits extra. Potential leads on more when we already have leads we can follow up on. We're taking a potentially large risk for relatively little gain.

This is just guesswork. There is police and guards if nobles feel the need for protection. They also apparently weren't intimidated when it was Velvet who was brutally attacked, but now they would be worried? Well fuck them, it would be totally reasonable to say that it is not Bureau job.
Pride may need to return to Canterlot at least for a time, so also not a problem. Sure we can take some actions to turn such things to our advantage but if we don't have actions to spare then we don't. Problems of such level on Velvet's radar only if she wishes for them to be there.
Would you rather have a random prisoner or Hill?
Well I was not the one asked but my opinion is if we take Sacrament don't be cheapskate when it come to sacrifice. Power have price and willingness to pay it. If we were sending Biedde after said criminal and were willing to postpone his Sacrament for it I would have been more positive about it as catching criminal is in Biedde's job description and he knows what he is doing. With DoA I can easily imagine her misunderstanding some modern slang and capturing entirely unrelated pony. Higher chance of failure than Hill mission in general.

Or if say instead of living pony Velvet was able to eat pony freshly killed by her, then scrying for criminal who is worthy opponent to her, sending Bieddie to retrieve them or to arrange our meeting and then engaging him in one on one mortal combat for Edge Sacrament only to then have Mareinette prepare our kill while it is still fresh would have been acceptable and reasonable course of action. Except of course it is unlikely that Grail Sacrament works like this.
 
I will laugh if we lose access to Servants during the administrative kerfuffle on the Estate should Hills vanish. It wouldn't be the most massive loss (being effectively 0.5 Velvet AP), but it would be funny.
 
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I will laugh if we lose access to Servants during the administrative kerfuffle on the Estate. It wouldn't be the most massive loss (being effectively 0.5 Velvet AP), but it would be funny.
I think losing the Servants AP in exchange for an extra Name AP is a pretty good deal, if we're looking at just AP gain/loss :V
 
Well I was not the one asked but my opinion is if we take Sacrament don't be cheapskate when it come to sacrifice. Power have price and willingness to pay it. If we were sending Biedde after said criminal and were willing to postpone his Sacrament for it I would have been more positive about it as catching criminal is in Biedde's job description and he knows what he is doing. With DoA I can easily imagine her misunderstanding some modern slang and capturing entirely unrelated pony. Higher chance of failure than Hill mission in general.

The Sacrament doesn't give a single shit who Velvet eats, it only cares that she eats someone. The price is one minion or prisoner, no more and no less. There is no "cheapskating" in regards to the Sacrament.
And I think you are drastically underestimating Axe here. She has a general bonus of +30, which is better than the grearest of mortal detectives and, as a Befriended Name, is going to actually put in the effort to make sure she does things right and in accordance with Velvet's wishes. And hunting is in her job description too, if you recall.
 
I think losing the Servants AP in exchange for an extra Name AP is a pretty good deal, if we're looking at just AP gain/loss :V
Until you compare to a Plan where you gain a Name AP don't lose a Servant AP, of course.
(Also I am willing to vote for your Chomping Plan if you up the specificity of the victim to an acceptable degree, Tall Take is secondary to me compared to preventing Hill-related headaches.)
 
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Would you rather have a random prisoner or Hill?
Hill, but we i don't want to assume that we have the leeway to just delay things more by causing an even bigger mess when the doomclock is ticking.

Is easy to say that causing the mess by killing Hill won't affect us...

*Looks at all the previous votes that the QM certainly knew that they would affect us on the short/long term*

...were are kind of bad at making guesses, overconfident even, something that the Master proved, but people still think that we can keep the hooves somewhat clean.
Until you compare to a Plan where you gain a Name AP don't lose a Servant AP, of course.
I thnik you shouldn't double post.

Edit: Or that isn't a thing here apparently?
 
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The Sacrament doesn't give a single shit who Velvet eats, it only cares that she eats someone. The price is one minion or prisoner, no more and no less. There is no "cheapskating" in regards to the Sacrament.
And I think you are drastically underestimating Axe here. She has a general bonus of +30, which is better than the grearest of mortal detectives and, as a Befriended Name, is going to actually put in the effort to make sure she does things right and in accordance with Velvet's wishes. And hunting is in her job description too, if you recall.
DoA only have +10 for social tasks and you think she can find criminal without talking or interrogating anyone even once? Her being bad with words and ponies also specifically written on her page

Also narrative weight matters. Velvet's decision process matters. Always taking lesser evil road without taking risks or making hard stance will surely lead us somewhere good. /s
 
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