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

[OurLadyOfWires]

Ah yes, turn planning in all its terrible glory.

Now imagine if we had people not voting for a plan where Velvet does X, because they disagree that Baldomare will do Y. Actually, no need to imagine that, I am sure this has happened before.

Anyways.

Though, a question @OurLadyOfWires. Can a summoner (without the players' benefit of directly seeing the rolls) tell the difference between "a failed summoning because you failed to meet the DCs" and "a failed summoning because someone else won a contested summoning"? I assume you can, since otherwise Copper would just keep trying every turn until she eventually succeeded.

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A summoner can almost surely tell they did "enough". So, when they do enough and realize the summoning didn't work, they can wonder why that happened and reach their own conclusion.

So yes, they can definitely tell if they failed or succeeded in the requisite CDs. They cannot, however, tell why the summoning failed altogether. Names can deny summonings, or perhaps something else happened.

Actually, Daughter-of-Axes is just great in general.

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I agree with this statement.

Right. I have a couple of questions. @OurLadyOfWires since the Comet Feet FO is about talking to him, is it possible to do it with our free social action?
Just to confirm it is still possible since the last time we asked, can we use the gifts from Pride to craft a reagent and use it this turn instead of the one we already have? I am asking mostly to make sure there won't be an issue mechanically since we are choosing to summon DoA at the begining of the turn.

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Great question, I did not consider that possibility. But I'll decide that "no". Because this fleeting opportunity "is not that kind of social action".

Still, legitimately good point. But for now I'll keep to the idea that these kinds of things, such as the FleetOp to talk to your brother, need their own AP.

Velvet's free social actions really should be her off time, or more informal occasions.

EDIT: Forgot to answer your second question.
For starters, yes you can use Pride's gifts to craft a reagent.
So, for the sake of easing turn planning and not slowly bleeding Velvet actions into this, let's do it like this: If you choose to "Yes, summon Axe" (regardless if it's you or Luna), then we will summon her with a Wrong Key, a Pride Gift and your latest Reagent (the Knock 2, Edge 1 you just made).
And if during Velvet's Phase you decide to craft a reagent using Pride's Gift, I am entirely fine with the idea that you used your "new" reagent (the one that uses Pride's Gift) to summon DoA.
So basically, if you choose to summon Axe now, and Velvet creates a suitable reagent (either another Knock 2 Edge 1, or an Edge 2 Knock 1), I'll "retcon/adapt" the results to be as convenient as possible for you.

Is this a reasonable arrangement?

I feel that Bird would mention it if the MitL outright couldn't do rituals especially when our turn planning hinges on it

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I don't mean this in a bad way, but I definitely wouldn't.

What Greymere said right after your post. You know that "Unintelligent" summons exist. You know that "Proud" summons exist. And you explicitly know that you don't have the full sheet of a summons until you summon it at least once.

So, this is making decisions with incomplete information. Intentionally so.



Good day to us all.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

Honestly I am thinking we should just Summon both Ax and Edge names, and just have them destroy Copper's cult. Let just remove the main issue entirely. And get the Painting for the Winter name on top of that.

As for Comet I am pretty darn sure he will agree to a permanent alliance if we let him get the Sacrament from from the Edge name.

 

[Solace2117]

I still think it's a mistake to put off the SH Sacrament. Honestly I think we can put off the Outsider actions for a turn or two. The Wedding vote gave us a head start, so it's not immediately pressing. I think we're better off securing our bases. Thus, gather materials, befriend some Names, and grow in Lore. A lot of our issues come from the fact Velvet forced herself up through pure talent. Most of the issues have come from not having a better base to respond to the unexpected.

For the same reason I think we're better off waiting on Biedde. Yes that one action would be great, but unless we're able to summon him near the beginning, there's no difference between the end of this turn and the beginning of next.

 

[Clueless777]

Nice, one less plate to juggle, and with someone competent we can trust for once. I want to open up communications with Copper if possible before we escalate further. After all, the only thing we really know about her is from one sidestory. It'd be a lot easier if we could talk her into making this war cold again, because 1) I'm sure she has some contingency plans that would be annoying to deal with and 2) I don't think she's as unreasonable as this thread is making her out to be.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

I don't think this is the turn for searching the Mansus for a spot to extract Outsider Blood, mostly because we are very far from having an Outsider to extract blood from and we really need more reagents and artifacts and influences and bits and other nice things. Which are (other than Bits) things we know can be found in the Mansus.

Honestly we really need to be focused on increasing our income more than anything else if we want to continue throwing out nigh-guaranteed summons and scries while also sending ponies out on expeditions. And the best lead anyone has come up with on that is Rich. Assuming Cadance doesn't try to yeet a sack of 500 bits into our hooves again, anyways.

 

[Pittauro]

No. Considering we do want to finish our SH Sacrament in a somewhat reasonable timeframe, I want Baldomare's action to be open next turn to channel a max SH Influence on us, and we'll probably also want her action free on T21 to channel an Influence for Frangiclave expedition.

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In that case I'd delay the Outsider Search until AFTER we get the sacrament. Or just have others search for him.

Instead of Baldomare or Velvet doing it, have something like Fluttershy + Selene on turn 20, and maybe again on turn 21.

Basically while Baldomare and Velvet are better at searching, their actions are also worth more. Baldomare gets a +80, so I'm fine using it on this search. But Velvet's actions are too precious. I'd definitely not "waste" Velvet actions on Outsider Search until she's at least done with the Sacrament, which I consider more important in the short term.

I think he's referring to the Mansus expedition, which isn't gated by a Grail Sacrament.

I imagine completing the Depths of the Ruined Church (or w/e it was called) will unlock the area with the Grail Sacrament gate though.

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it might, it might also not. And it's likely we'd still get some reward before reaching that point.

See the Orchard of Light. We got 1 Lantern Scrap AND summons from it. I think we were expecting Red Church to give us those shadow-beings as summons, as they were potential encounters in there?

I still think it's a mistake to put off the SH Sacrament. Honestly I think we can put off the Outsider actions for a turn or two. The Wedding vote gave us a head start, so it's not immediately pressing. I think we're better off securing our bases. Thus, gather materials, befriend some Names, and grow in Lore. A lot of our issues come from the fact Velvet forced herself up through pure talent. Most of the issues have come from not having a better base to respond to the unexpected.

For the same reason I think we're better off waiting on Biedde. Yes that one action would be great, but unless we're able to summon him near the beginning, there's no difference between the end of this turn and the beginning of next.

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Very much this.

Outside is something that we can rush whenever we want through number of followers actions, basically, AND it's not a super-urgent priority.

Once Baldomare is "secured", she can do it in 2 actions on her own, or 1 of hers + a couple worse followers (Fluttershy, Maybe the Mares in the Light...).

in the meantime a Sacrament is likely to give us a new and very powerful tool, and we're just two actions away from it. I believe we should do it either this turn (Call an Influence + 2 SH Sacraments actions) or next turn (Baldomare Influence + 2 SH Sacrament Actions).


As for Biedde... this turn or next, both are fine. I'd prefer this turn, but next is acceptable.

Nice, one less plate to juggle, and with someone competent we can trust for once. I want to open up communications with Copper if possible before we escalate further. After all, the only thing we really know about her is from one sidestory. It'd be a lot easier if we could talk her into making this war cold again, because 1) I'm sure she has some contingency plans that would be annoying to deal with and 2) I don't think she's as unreasonable as this thread is making her out to be.

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Eh, Copper is now likely to be fairly desperate. She'll have failed to get both Baldomare and Axe, she failed to kill us with EiB, and if she's still alive she's likely shaken from our sanity-damage ritual.

Right now she only has two cards to play: The manifests as some kind of "mutual destruction" card, and a physical attack on us (even as she KNOWS we have at least one Name that can fight, Axe, and un unknown number of other defenses).

I'm not sure if we can talk. Though I acknowledge it might be possible

I don't think this is the turn for searching the Mansus for a spot to extract Outsider Blood, mostly because we are very far from having an Outsider to extract blood from and we really need more reagents and artifacts and influences and bits and other nice things. Which are (other than Bits) things we know can be found in the Mansus.

Honestly we really need to be focused on increasing our income more than anything else if we want to continue throwing out nigh-guaranteed summons and scries while also sending ponies out on expeditions.

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Agreed on outsider blood (and outsider search, really) not being a priority THIS turn.

As for income... there's not much more we can do there, except MAYBE getting Cadance or Filthy Rich on our side. That's the only thing I can think of.

that said, things are actually better than they were before, and should become a bit better still.

We no longer want or should have to buy books and artifacts. Expeditions give more for cheaper.

Rarity can do Commissions, ideally once every 3 turns. That's AT LEAST an extra 100 bits, and likely a fair bit more.

Our wage is fairly high at 160.

Rarity's bits have gone up a bit since the beginning. It's 55 bits now, she gave closer to 40 a few turns ago. And if we teach her her career is likely to improve a bit more too.

 

[Solace2117]

in the meantime a Sacrament is likely to give us a new and very powerful tool, and we're just two actions away from it. I believe we should do it either this turn (Call an Influence + 2 SH Sacraments actions) or next turn (Baldomare Influence + 2 SH Sacrament Actions).

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An influence lasts two turns. Why not spread it out in case we need the re roll. Also there is the roll to learn something. Even if we succeed we potentially burn up to 3 re rolls in one turn.

 

[Sveta08]

Good morning folks. I won't be as active today because work claims me.

But, there were two things that came to mind in reading over people's plannings.
Broadly? I agree with the lot of it, but will quibble over sending Marinette and not Ax on the expedition. Ax is good at these things, Nd Canterlot is very Knock heavy with its tunnels. I would recommend swapping those, having Mareinnete guard.

And the second.... And this will probably be controversial, but our Manus actions shouldn't be searching for a place for the outsiders blood. Not this turn at least. We need to explore the Red Church (Crimson Chappel? [Grail] [Heart])

The reason is irritating but plain. Mareinnete will be unbound this turn. If we want something to better put odds for her giving more favorable re-binding terms, that's where we should search. Shoot, she might even give advice of where to look.
It could net Heart Scraps which we need (eventually) as well as reagents or just info or so on. Either way, thems my two cents

 

[angelsadvocate666]

I'll ask again, cause I don't remember and nobody answered me: do we still have the free AotL? I remember we lost it after we left the cult, did we get it back at some point?

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Nah. Bird was going to take it away, but eventually decided it was simple and innocuous that Velvet could probably squeeze one out for free just fine.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

An influence lasts two turns. Why not spread it out in case we need the re roll. Also there is the roll to learn something. Even if we succeed we potentially burn up to 3 re rolls in one turn.

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Influence from a name only last 1 turn.

Nah. Bird was going to take it away, but eventually decided it was simple and innocuous that Velvet could probably squeeze one out for free just fine.

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We do that in our room it only a 1 circle ritual

 

[spiderhellian]

Why do you want Biedde this turn? Is there anything urgent we want him on or is it only security? Because if it is that we might as well summon MitL instead. Is it expeditions? Summoning two names on top of other rituals would leave us little money for them. Is it fear that Copper might summon him if we dont? That would assume that Copper already got past the church and that seems unlikely.

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I think he'll be very useful as a guard and offensively, and I really want to know more about him.

Fair point about a MitL for guarding though. I like that idea.

MitL w/ a Lantern 1 reagent + Torn Risen sacrifices

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Summon MitL (Sacrifice Torn Risen)

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Just for the record — we have an 87% chance of MitL success without any sacrifice! Do we really need to sacrifice a Torn Risen (extremely useful for Biedde) or even use our reagent making action on it?

 

[Gyldir]

Hmmm, a thought i just had. I wonder what someone could do with the Blood of the Wolf. There is only a small oceans worth of the stuff pouring into the remains of the Woods. Ritually this would be more pertinent if we were someone like Windy. A caustic blood grenade? Only a small chance of possession. May cause bouts of paranoia or suicidal ideations.

Imagine if there was a site underneath all that blood. You'd have to invent some kind of fully contained diving suit or a bell sphere just to get there. In a lake that actively hates you.

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Free Edge/Winter reagents!
Just need to scoop a glass full out of a river/lake that actively wants to kill you and everything else.

Very much this.

Outside is something that we can rush whenever we want through number of followers actions, basically, AND it's not a super-urgent priority.

Once Baldomare is "secured", she can do it in 2 actions on her own, or 1 of hers + a couple worse followers (Fluttershy, Maybe the Mares in the Light...).

in the meantime a Sacrament is likely to give us a new and very powerful tool, and we're just two actions away from it. I believe we should do it either this turn (Call an Influence + 2 SH Sacraments actions) or next turn (Baldomare Influence + 2 SH Sacrament Actions).


As for Biedde... this turn or next, both are fine. I'd prefer this turn, but next is acceptable.

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While I agree with Sacrament work being important and SH sac being more immediate than Outsider, i have significant doubts if doing both actions in 1 turn is a good idea.
I'd much rather spread them out over 2 turns, so we have better opportunities to react to something going wrong in first action (plus if action 1 takes our re-roll, in a 1 turn plan we'd have no re-roll to deal with *vaguely waves at dangerous action* of action 2)

 

[Pittauro]

I was checking if we could already vote, but it should be another 9 hours or so I think.

-[] Nothing brings a family together like SUMMONING ALIEN GODS (Selene will perform the Ritual instead of Velvet, costs one SELENE action)

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...shame she has somewhat low odds, so I'm not willing to. @OurLadyOfWires can we still have Selene present for narrative reasoning? I'd like Axe to just see her right when she comes back. Maybe make her doubt her bad impressions of Velvet.

So, HERE IS MY TENTATIVE PLAN.

-[] Axe, yes! (Costs one VELVET action)

BUREAU

-[] [DETECTIVES] The dangers in the dark come from outside of Ponykind as well. Listen to the rumors. Study the myths. Look for the threats from without. (Search for Expedition Sites for your later consideration. Additionally, keep an ear on the ground for other "foreign" threats)

-[] [CONSTABLES] It is less paperwork for you if they just help with the investigations. (NO ACTION from the Constables. GAIN one VELVET action for the next phase)

-[] [COMMISSIONER] The Bureau is more than an institution, it is a gathering of dedicated ponies working towards a unified goal. Ingrain yourself with them. (Establish, increase, or salvage the loyalty of the Bureau towards you personally.)


Reasoning: we need the AP. I want to both check if there's foreign threats around (Storm King, Gauntlet of Fire, Crystal Empire/Sombra) AND get a potential expedition site

And if we get the Bureau loyal enough we could potentially introduce Luna to them, and reveal we have a sacred mission to save Celestia from her inner demons. Especially if we also get Cadance and Shining Armor on our side to vouch for us in a "this is TOTALLY NOT betraying the country we swear!".

FOLLOWERS

Mareinette: 1
Velvet Axe: 1

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EXCLUSIVE ACTIONS

-[] [RARITY] Take a commission. (Gain at least 100 bits immediately, will "fail" her career roll)

-[] [SELENE] Realize something about Edge. (Unlock her Edge skill) (TRAINING ACTION)
-[] [SELENE] Realize something about Knock. (Unlock her Knock skill) (TRAINING ACTION)

from Rarity, we need bits.

From Selene, we need her to get SWOLE. and FAST.

GENERAL ACTIONS!

-[] One extra Velvet action! (Costs 2 follower actions)

do we pick, or Bird picks like for other General actions? In any case, expectation is Fluttershy and Servants

-[] You need somepony to perform this ritual… (Reflection of the Tapestry, search for "The Key that Only Opens" the Daughter of Axe wants)
--[] To be performed on the safe place Baldomare directed you to. (Will expire at the end of turn 20)

presumably done by Baldomare.

-[] You need somepony to perform this ritual… (Reflection of the Tapestry, search for "the easiest lvl 5 book we can get for Baldomare")
--[] To be performed on the safe place Baldomare directed you to. (Will expire at the end of turn 20)

Presumably done by Jade. side note... if we know where a book is, we can probably steal it, right? Biedde is Moth 3, he probably can do it for us... or maybe Luna could. Basically, there's no real reason why a "book in a shop" can't turn in a simple expedition to steal the book instead.

-[] WRITE IN: Canterlot part 2 expedition)

Either Axe or Mareinette, I imagine.

-[] Attack your foe, or defend yourself. In war, there is no other option.
--[] [GUARD] You would very much like to keep this safe.

Either Axe or Mareinette, I think.

---

So, what is the plan above actually doing?

Well, it's

AXE: yes

BUREAU: +1 AP, Bureau Loyalty, foreign threats+ expedition site.

FOLLOWERS:

SPECIFIC: Rarity Commission, Selene double Training, and then we leave it to Bird to optimize for

GENERAL:

+1 AP (likely gives up Fluttershy and Servant actions)

Scrying for Frangiclave (likely Baldomare) and lvl 5 book (Likely Jade)

Canterlot expedition and Guard the house (Bird/Our Lady of Wires can pick who's better for what, it doesn't matter much).


And this plan delays many heavy choices TO THE NEXT VOTE.


Do we call an influence? Summon Biedde or a Mare of Light? Search for the Outsider, or do the Sacrament? that, and plenty more, it's NOT OUR CONCERN RIGHT NOW.

only thing I might change, I think, is getting a body for the Risen that some want to use as a reagent for Mare in the Light. Though honestly, we could probably try without reagents if we really wanted to.

An influence lasts two turns. Why not spread it out in case we need the re roll. Also there is the roll to learn something. Even if we succeed we potentially burn up to 3 re rolls in one turn.

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If we're doing the ritual (tier 2 to 4 depending on our bonuses and luck), sure, we could.

If we're doing Baldomare (tier 4 for certain), we can't, that one lasts one turn.

But, there were two things that came to mind in reading over people's plannings.
Broadly? I agree with the lot of it, but will quibble over sending Marinette and not Ax on the expedition. Ax is good at these things, Nd Canterlot is very Knock heavy with its tunnels. I would recommend swapping those, having Mareinnete guard.

And the second.... And this will probably be controversial, but our Manus actions shouldn't be searching for a place for the outsiders blood. Not this turn at least. We need to explore the Red Church (Crimson Chappel? [Grail] [Heart])

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mostly irrelevant.

Bird picks the general actions, so he'd pick the best between Axe and Mareinette for the expedition, right? Also generally speaking the bonus is not THAT different. Axe has +50, Mareinette has +40 BUT more health in case she fails a roll (and can deal with social actions, but it's unlikely there would be social obstacles in there).

as for Mansus... that's also something we vote on NEXT VOTING SESSION, as it's a Velvet action. We can talk about that later.

Nah. Bird was going to take it away, but eventually decided it was simple and innocuous that Velvet could probably squeeze one out for free just fine.

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ah, nice.

Just for the record — we have an 87% chance of MitL success without any sacrifice! Do we really need to sacrifice a Torn Risen (extremely useful for Biedde) or even use our reagent making action on it?

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without any?

In that case I'd just skip on the Risen (which we can get next turn if we're not summoning Biedde now anyway)

 

[Solace2117]

If we're doing the ritual (tier 2 to 4 depending on our bonuses and luck), sure, we could.

If we're doing Baldomare (tier 4 for certain), we can't, that one lasts one turn

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I think we should consider Velvet doing it because it leaves Baldomare open for scrying and preserves re rolls.

 

[Bakkasama]

Eh, Copper is now likely to be fairly desperate. She'll have failed to get both Baldomare and Axe, she failed to kill us with EiB, and if she's still alive she's likely shaken from our sanity-damage ritual.

Right now she only has two cards to play: The manifests as some kind of "mutual destruction" card, and a physical attack on us (even as she KNOWS we have at least one Name that can fight, Axe, and un unknown number of other defenses).

I'm not sure if we can talk. Though I acknowledge it might be possible

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The manifests are not a card that Copper can play anytime soon. They don't prove that we did anything illegal. They prove that we were involved with the cult at some point (which is only relevant if the cult is already under investigation) and that we were involved in occult stuff (which is only relevant if people know about occult stuff already).

From her point of view, there are likely two possibilities. Either the Lunar Bureau already knows about occult stuff, probably because we ratted the cult out (in which case, they already know about our involvement with them) or we became the head of the Lunar Bureau to make it easier for us to tamper evidence and keep our involvement hidden (in which case, the manifests are useless since we would just make the evidence disappear. The only reason they are a mayor issue is because we made our job difficult ourselves and why the hay would she assume we would do that?

 

[DelightedOne]

Since there is about 8 hours till voting begins and A Memory of Light did not make an appearance in any plan I saw, here is the second version of my plan for the follower phase.

Follower phase(9 AP):
- Summon Axe
- Detectives: Investigate Changelings
- Constables: Nothing
- Comissioner: Midday Dew
- Rarity: Comission
- Jade: A Memory of Light
- Fluttershy & Servants: Cover our bases
- Baldomare: Scry for Frangiclave
- Mareinette: Infiltrate Coppers Cult to get our manuscripts back
- Canterlot expedition
- Selene: Edge Realization and Knock Realization

Changes:
Selene now does 2 Realizations.
Fluttershy and the Servants now sacrifice their actions to give Velvet 1 more of her own.
Baldomare now scries for the Frangiclave instead of looking for her book.

I would appreciate any feedback and am willing to compromise on anything that isn't A Memory of Light or summoning Axe.
As I said before I have no idea what I'm doing so if there is anything wrong here please tell me.

 

[spiderhellian]

@OurLadyOfWires Btw, can we sacrifice Lantern Dust for any effect? A +1 on Lantern rolls?

(And can we obtain Lantern dust for free?)

 

[Pittauro]

I think we should consider Velvet doing it because it leaves Baldomare open for scrying and preserves re rolls.

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we can decide later.

if we're doing it now and this turn, it's up to the next vote.

if we're doing it turn 21, well, we never know how things might change.

The manifests are not a card that Copper can play anytime soon. They don't prove that we did anything illegal. They prove that we were involved with the cult at some point (which is only relevant if the cult is already under investigation) and that we were involved in occult stuff (which is only relevant if people know about occult stuff already).

From her point of view, there are likely two possibilities. Either the Lunar Bureau already knows about occult stuff, probably because we ratted the cult out (in which case, they already know about our involvement with them) or we became the head of the Lunar Bureau to make it easier for us to tamper evidence and keep our involvement hidden (in which case, the manifests are useless since we would just make the evidence disappear. The only reason they are a mayor issue is because we made our job difficult ourselves and why the hay would she assume we would do that?

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this is a good point.

 

[AuthorTransient]

I think we can all agree that we are going for the Frangiclave, so now we have to decide who is scrying for it.

Actually, I would like to ask: if we successfully scry for a level 5 book for Baldomare, do we have to reserve a follower action to get it?

 

[Iustus Vitea]

-snip

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Your plan is almost the exact same as the one Grey and I cooked up. We've compromised with each other can you meet us in the middle too? The only difference that really matters is one of the Selene actions.

I don't care either way about the specific Detectives action even if I think going foreign threats for the purpose of getting an expedition site is useless because we already have one we need to complete, two we're scrying for and a potential third.

 

[Sveta08]

-snip

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Agreed.
Voting hasn't begun, but this will be my +1

 

[Bakkasama]

Actually, I want to ask just inncase. Can Risen cover our bases @OurLadyOfWires ? Since they are not that smart I wouldn't think so, but...

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

do we pick, or Bird picks like for other General actions? In any case, expectation is Fluttershy and Servants

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Don't specify who does what. Unless the action is exclusive, and has the pony's name saying that "[RARITY] Take a commission" I'll pick whoever is best for a task.
That's the idea behind this new system, also.

...shame she has somewhat low odds, so I'm not willing to. @OurLadyOfWires can we still have Selene present for narrative reasoning? I'd like Axe to just see her right when she comes back. Maybe make her doubt her bad impressions of Velvet.

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What bad impressions?

You mean the ones you only know from interludes or out-of-characters scene?

Because as far as Velvet is concerned, Axe is a foul-mouthed, unreasonable, spoiled brat who she won't let anywhere near her daughters! So of course Selene will not be present if Velvet is the one summoning Axe.

Jokes aside, leave the narrative part to me. And again, jokes aside, Velvet doesn't know about any "impressions" Axe has of her, other than what Velvet's own POV scenes allowed her.

There are ways to get what you want, but trying to push Selene into an action she's not mechanically involved is not it.

Actually, I want to ask just inncase. Can Risen cover our bases @OurLadyOfWires ? Since they are not that smart I wouldn't think so, but...

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Sure, I don't see why not.

A quick glance tells me that there are no mechanical bars to a Risen doing it. And the math suggests it's impossible to abuse this system. Even if you go full necromancer, you'd just be wasting actions after the first Free Risen. Since they only last two turns and such.

 

[Steady Gaze]

eh, if we're willing to have her do illegal stuff (maybe we can send her to do such to Manehattan actually?), she'd likely give us a fair bit of money. and we NEED the bits!

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This is definitely dubious moral reasoning, but I'd be fine voting for a plan where we send Mareinette to a foreign land (like Griffonstone, for example) or at least a city in Equestria that's not Ponyville and let her off the leash there .

-[] [SELENE] Realize something about Edge. (Unlock her Edge skill) (TRAINING ACTION)
-[] [SELENE] Realize something about Knock. (Unlock her Knock skill) (TRAINING ACTION)

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From Selene, we need her to get SWOLE. and FAST.

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Learning Edge seems prudent. The "learn Winter first for mental stability" thing doesn't matter anymore, yes? I agree it'll probably be fine, like if we want Knock for summonings and such.

 

[Greymere]

Just for the record — we have an 87% chance of MitL success without any sacrifice! Do we really need to sacrifice a Torn Risen (extremely useful for Biedde) or even use our reagent making action on it?

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Current version of the outline doesn't spend a reagent, and we can always just raise another Torn Risen for Biedde.

 

[angelsadvocate666]

Learning Edge seems prudent. The "learn Winter first for mental stability" thing doesn't matter anymore, yes? I agree it'll probably be fine, like if we want Knock for summonings and such.

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Well, it doesn't matter for Selene's mental stability. There have been some suspicions about how the skills are supposed to help her deal with Celestia's mental stability.

 

[Zxzx24]

Good day to you as well Bird

 

[Greymere]

So, what is the plan above actually doing?

Click to shrink...

I suppose I could vote for this. I don't like that it doesn't follow up on the changelings at all, considering that's kind of our main job atm, but most of the mechanical bits are fine. Don't like that there's no evidence scry, but I suppose I can try and convince people into summoning a MitL on Velvet phase and have the Mare do it.

Quick quibble though, could you change the book search to specify that we want the book to be from an expedition, and not a purchase? Because the overall easiest would likely be a purchased level 5 book, which would be more expensive.

 

[Bakkasama]

Ok, so I can't go in much detail since I am at work, but I was thinking something along the lines of:

Velvet summons DoA

9 confidant actions -2 (cover bases) -2 (Two RotT, one for key and one for books) - 1 (expedition) -1 (Mareinnete social) - 1 (guard) - 1 (Luna trains her general bonus) - 1 (grave robbing)

Money: 16 bits + 160 (job) + 55 (Rarity) - 55 (summon MitL, no reagents) - 70 (expedition UtRC) - 60 (2 RotT) = 46 (enough for a reagent if we want).

Velvet AP (4 - 1 (Doa) + 1 (Cover bases) - 1 (summon MitL) - 1 (Comet Feet FO))= 2



We end the turn hopefully with a Torn Risen, a MitL and a good friend that we can minionize next turn for 2 (soon 3) extra confidant AP and we can have Rarity do a commission next turn since we will have the big expenses of Biedde plus expedition.


Edit: I think that the Bureau should follow up on last turn investigations so that our membee actually feel like they are doing something.

Also, I think that the priority for Luna's training should be her +5 to general bonus. That is a +5 to everything she does, which would make her more useful.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

This is what I want, getting both Ax and Biedde summoned and have them take out Copper. Remove the threat of the Manuals, capture the painting of the Winter name, and whatever random artifacts Copper has gotten.


-[] One extra Velvet action! (Costs 2 follower actions)
-[] Axe, yes! (Costs one VELVET action)
-[] [DETECTIVES] (FOLLOW UP) There are still changelings out there. Hunt them. Look for them, and for the ponies who colluded with them. (One of the chief expectations of the Bureau. Avert a future Catastrophe)
-[] [CONSTABLES] (FOLLOW UP) Your detectives need to start breaking some very tough doors before they can start asking some very tough questions. Have your constables do what needs to be done.
-[] [COMMISSIONER] The Bureau is more than an institution, it is a gathering of dedicated ponies working towards a unified goal. Ingrain yourself with them. (Establish, increase, or salvage the loyalty of the Bureau towards you personally.)
-[] [RARITY] Take a commission. (Gain at least 100 bits immediately, will "fail" her career roll)
-[] [JADE] Research "A Memory of Light" (Current progress 0/100, uses Learning and LANTERN)
-[] [BALDOMARE] Something else? (Scry the Key that Only Opens)
-[] [MAREINETTE] You need her to talk to… (Flithy Rich)
-[] [AXE] Something else? (Attack Copper)
-[] [Biedde] Something else? (Attack Copper)