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

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spiderhellian said:
We don't need a reagent for a MitL… and some plans do have 6 Velvet actions, right?
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Yeah I guess. I just don't really expect the people who would want to call a SH influence for the Sacrament actions to not also want to stick in more SH-using actions. I may end up being surprised, though.
 
Greymere said:
Yeah I guess. I just don't really expect the people who would want to call a SH influence for the Sacrament actions to not also want to stick in more SH-using actions. I may end up being surprised, though.
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Whole point of Velvet's SH influence is that it stays for two turns. And doing two sacrament actions in one turn is too dangerous since we may run out of rerolls
 
Nevermort said:
Whole point of Velvet's SH influence is that it stays for two turns. And doing two sacrament actions in one turn is too dangerous since we may run out of rerolls
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We can probably do a conditional action of Sacrament if we still have the reroll and searching Canterlot for the Outsider otherwise.
 
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Pittauro said:
Nothing stops anyone from proposing a "Call of Influnce SH, SH Reagent, 2 Sacrament actions" for the next voting session. It would mean giving up on Biedde and accepting a lower chance of scrying success for Jade's scrying ritual I think?
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It would also involve a large amount of risk, the last DC was 110, even if it rises by 10 the second action will have a DC of 130 and our bonus with a T3 influence would be 84. Doing two in one turn would be a coin flip as to both succeeding. Even when reaching the DC we may still get a dangerous Velvet.

And the entire point of doing CoI beyond the Baldomare action being needed elsewhere was that we could then divide the actions into two turns.
 
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spiderhellian said:
We can probably do a conditional action of Sacrament if we still have the reroll and searching Canterlot for the Outsider otherwise…
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I would rather we summon the MitL and stick it on Outsider duty while Velvet RotTs for the evidence.

If we try for the Sacrament then that's two actions, one for the CoI and the other for the sacrament, it also means the chances of the level 6 book RotT drops to a coin flip, Jade has a presumed magic bonus of 10 +/- 2 and the DC to pass is 60.

If we do put off the Sacrament then the freed AP can be put towards something else like exploring the Mansus and visiting the depths of the Church or hitting up the Malleary.

The Church is probably where we'll get the Moth Prophet equivalents and the Malleary is, imo, the most likely location for the Forge Name. Plus in CS you could get what would be for us a T6 Forge reagent by visiting it.
 
spiderhellian said:
Don't forget we have the SH artefact! That's +30.
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I thought it's only bonus was the +5-15 for studying?

Also even if the book has a +30 bonus I would rather the T2 reagent go to Jade regardless because the T6 book RotT succeeding in one go would be great.
 
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Pittauro said:
we're likely going to try for Biedde either this turn or the next. I don't expect her to get him that quickly.

and we're growing stronger faster than Copper I think. We're one lore short of all-4, and by the end of this turn we'll have 4 to 5 Name-tier followers (Baldomare, Axe, Mareinette, Selene (though she's not at full strength until end of next turn), MAYBE Biedde)

She has one. AND we're protected from EiB, as we can always just ask for more Wrong Keys.

She can definitely make problems for us, worst case is a Windigo attack on the mansion I think, but She's not really growing faster than us.
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Copper's not held back by morals and things like not causing mass damage. She almost certainly Grail 5 already. And Copper wins an engagement so long as she manages to escape, not hard for a flyer, preferably with the Winter Name but not necessary. She can rebuild from nothing, without issue, she doesn't have stuff she cannot move or replace. Our win condition against Copper is her death everything else is incidental, Coppers is not to die. The chance of her escape goes up every turn, Copper knows that Velvet knows where she is, she might even have already started moving her operations, to prevent the hit with several names problem.
 
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Greymere said:
And no Mare-in-the-Light :(
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we can do that without reagents, really. lower chance, but still viable.

Summoning requirements: LANTERN 80, KNOCK 60, EDGE 60.

Velvet rolls +53 with rerolls on Lantern and Knock. That's fairly good, even if an edge 1 lantern 2 reagent would help.

Unless we don't have enough bits. I didn't check that, admittedly.

Greymere said:
Yeah I guess. I just don't really expect the people who would want to call a SH influence for the Sacrament actions to not also want to stick in more SH-using actions. I may end up being surprised, though.
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well, a ritually-called influence lasts two turns, so some of it can be delayed.

I also still think that Outsider search can be done by our followers. PARTICULARLY Baldomare, but Selene and fluttershy also don't really have other urgent stuff to do. and if we get Mares summons, they can do that too I suppose, they'd just roll with their general bonus (which is likely higher than Fluttershy's anyway).

Every 1d100 counts. On average 4d100 without bonuses would be enough.

spiderhellian said:
We can probably do a conditional action of Sacrament if we still have the reroll and searching Canterlot for the Outsider otherwise.
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This is actually a good point, and sure, why couldn't we?

Earth-Destroyer said:
Copper's not held back by morals and things like not causing mass damage. She almost certainly Grail 5 already. And Copper wins an engagement so long as she manages to escape, not hard for a flyer, preferably with the Winter Name but not necessary. She can rebuild from nothing, without issue, she doesn't have stuff she cannot move or replace. Our win condition against Copper is her death everything else is incidental, Coppers is not to die.
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Copper also now has to deal with the Wolfed woods (Ashen Lands? I forget the name), and mass damage is kind of a concern because she doesn't want to get too much public attention.

on grail 5... probably, admittedly.

and if Copper has to start form scratch, she still has to restart from scratch.

Even with Grail 5, re-establishing a cult from nothing is going to take multiple turns. much less getting any of the new recruits good for anything.

Especially if she doesn't get to bring copies of all the books with her.

and if she escapes and has nothing, then a new scrying ritual is fairly easy to do.
 
Iustus Vitea said:
I thought it's only bonus was the +5-15 for studying?
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Artefacts can be used in place to provide a Knowledge bonus! It's one of the strongest things about them. And especially important for followers who will tend to only have one/two Lores they have bonuses in.

OurLadyOfWires said:
KNOWLEDGE bonus is the measurement of how intimate you are with said Lore, how well you understand it, or how much of its power you carry.
-Your Knowledge bonus is always your Lore level times 10, OR the level of your strongest Aspect-related Artifact available (also times ten).
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OurLadyOfWires said:
Yes, you may completely neglect leveling up an Aspect if you carry around an Artifact of sufficiently high level as a "focus", both for Mansus traversing and Ritual performing. But an Artifact is a physical object, and knowledge is not.
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Iustus Vitea said:
I thought it's only bonus was the +5-15 for studying?

Also even if the book has a +30 bonus I would rather the T2 reagent go to Jade regardless because the T6 book RotT succeeding in one go would be great.
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That's its unique property. Artifacts in general can be used to sub in for Lore Knowledge bonuses, which is the kind used for rituals. So Jade gets to act like she has SH3 for the purposes of ritual rolls.

It's part of why getting Frangiclave would be incredibly useful for us even beyond DoA friendship, because it would mean that we and all our Confidants could pretend to have Knock 6 for every single Knock-using ritual. Such as summons.

Edit: Unrelated to the current topic, but I would like to remind everyone that if we don't get lucky and BtRC gives us more ritual spaces, we do have to actually find a permanent 3-circle ritual space at some point. Just to keep in mind.
 
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Greymere said:
That's its unique property. Artifacts in general can be used to sub in for Lore Knowledge bonuses, which is the kind used for rituals. So Jade gets to act like she has SH3 for the purposes of ritual rolls.

It's part of why getting Frangiclave would be incredibly useful for us even beyond DoA friendship, because it would mean that we and all our Confidants could pretend to have Knock 6 for every single Knock-using ritual. Such as summons.
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and also, of course, it's presumably a powerful artifact. I imagine it would be able to break any seal and barrier, narratively speaking. It should effectively work as well as a keyblade in that sense, shouldn't it? Only thing that the Frangiclave should NOT be able to open would be the Mansus doors.

Studying it once we're at knock 5 would sadly only give 1 scrap though... and we'll likely want a knock lesson and sacrament from Axe first, to not "waste" the artifact study...

...then again, let's be real: we'll never reach a lore at 6. It's just not going to happen unless the quest lasts a LONG while.
 
Greymere said:
Edit: Unrelated to the current topic, but I would like to remind everyone that if we don't get lucky and BtRC gives us more ritual spaces, we do have to actually find a permanent 3-circle ritual space at some point. Just to keep in mind.
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Tbh I'm not sure we will ever find one. Suspicion is a resource like bits and AP that limits and constrains our actions. If a Baldomare search 'only' bought us two turns, I think it'll be hard to get something perfect.

Due to a combination of luck (eg the Investigator fizzling out) and some decision making we've avoided suspicion being a concern, but I think eventually we may have to accept some/put other effort into dispelling it.
 
spiderhellian said:
Artefacts can be used in place to provide a Knowledge bonus! It's one of the strongest things about them. And especially important for followers who will tend to only have one/two Lores they have bonuses in.
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Wait, are you saying you want to sacrifice our SH artifact? Because to get +30 I think you would need to do that.
OurLadyOfWires said:
ARTIFACT
Destroy an artifact, and its Level will be applied (with a factor of +10 per level) on the Ritual.
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Pittauro said:
and also, of course, it's presumably a powerful artifact. I imagine it would be able to break any seal and barrier, narratively speaking. It should effectively work as well as a keyblade in that sense, shouldn't it? Only thing that the Frangiclave should NOT be able to open would be the Mansus doors.

Studying it once we're at knock 5 would sadly only give 1 scrap though... and we'll likely want a knock lesson and sacrament from Axe first, to not "waste" the artifact study...

...then again, let's be real: we'll never reach a lore at 6. It's just not going to happen unless the quest lasts a LONG while.
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Frangiclave is the way to open the Peacock Door without having to spend resources, so uh it actually literally opens a door in the Mansus. Just not the one we want to open.

That being said going for the Peacock door might actually be valuable, especially if it can teach Vak or the equivalent thereof in the quest. That is if things are they way they are in CS
 
spiderhellian said:
Tbh I'm not sure we will ever find one. Suspicion is a resource like bits and AP that limits and constrains our actions. If a Baldomare search 'only' bought us two turns, I think it'll be hard to get something perfect.

Due to a combination of luck (eg the Investigator fizzling out) and some decision making we've avoided suspicion being a concern, but I think eventually we may have to accept some/put other effort into dispelling it.
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...WAIT

WE NOW HAVE A WAY

AN EASY WAY TOO!

Just ask Selene to search for an expedition site, she'll likely direct us to the Castle of the Royal Sisters in the Everfree forest.

We could use that one! Velvet is definitely good enough to reach it quickly (Moth 4 and Edge 4 to avoid and sense enemies), and that one is definitely large enough for rituals.

and we can probably find artifacts and stuff there. I haven't forgotten the Inspiration Manifestation magical/cursed book, that's quite obviously a Forge Artifact of some kind.
 
Paintmaster said:
Frangiclave is the way to open the Peacock Door without having to spend resources, so uh it actually literally opens a door in the Mansus. Just not the one we want to open.

That being said going for the Peacock door might actually be valuable, especially if it can teach Vak or the equivalent thereof in the quest. That is if things are they way they are in CS
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The Peacock Door equivalent is uhhh.

Not around anymore.

Courtesy of the Forge-of-Days.
 
Paintmaster said:
Frangiclave is the way to open the Peacock Door without having to spend resources, so uh it actually literally opens a door in the Mansus. Just not the one we want to open.

That being said going for the Peacock door might actually be valuable, especially if it can teach Vak or the equivalent thereof in the quest. That is if things are they way they are in CS
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We already saw the broken Mirror Door, remember? It's the door the Forge of Days broken on her way to the Tricuspid.

and I know Frangiclave can open that door. It can't open the OTHER doors, though. Blank/White, Branding/Stag, Tribal/Spider.

and of course, even a "normal" Tricuspid.
 
spiderhellian said:
Hahahaha no. Look at the quotes immediately below that statement!
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... So we can apply the level of an artifact without destroying it but there is also an option to sacrifice it and get a bonus of +10 per level.

That sounds confusing at first, but it makes sense.
 
DelightedOne said:
... So we can apply the level of an artifact without destroying it but there is also an option to sacrifice it and get a bonus of +10 per level.

That sounds confusing at first, but it makes sense.
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basically an artifact can replace our lore for KNOWLEDGE rolls (mostly rituals, SOME mansus rolls, and apparently sacrament rolls if SH is a good example) OR you can use it as a reagent.

It's not clear to me if you can use it as both in the same ritual though, replacing your lore before being sacrificed
 
Pittauro said:
and we can probably find artifacts and stuff there. I haven't forgotten the Inspiration Manifestation magical/cursed book, that's quite obviously a Forge Artifact of some kind.
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High level book right there. I'm going to laugh and laugh if the "find a level six book" scrying returns "go do some local expeditions ya dipshit".
 
Venerable Ro said:
High level book right there. I'm going to laugh and laugh if the "find a level six book" scrying returns "go do some local expeditions ya dipshit".
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I think the funniest outcome would be "You want a place with a Level 6 book, easily accessed, where the only guard is apathetic? Ransack the Golden Oak library!" :V :V :V
 
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spiderhellian said:
I think the funniest outcome would be "You want a place with a Level 6 book, easily accessed, where the only guard is apathetic? Ransack the Golden Oak library!" :V :V :V
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Ah yes, the book. The special book. The rare, first-edition out-of-print (with author's signature!) book that Twilight Sparkle might have given as a token of admiration to a trusted mentor and confidante.

That book?
 
Pittauro said:
basically an artifact can replace our lore for KNOWLEDGE rolls (mostly rituals, SOME mansus rolls, and apparently sacrament rolls if SH is a good example) OR you can use it as a reagent.
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It's worth noting for the peanut gallery, one of the best (hypothetical) uses for an artifact would be giving a follower a leg up in an area they themselves aren't proficient in. Take the humble Noonstone from the base game for example, it's a, level two Lantern artifact I think it was, wouldn't do us or Jade much good at all, but if we gave one to Rarity when sending her off on an intrigue mission she'd be able to access level 2 Lantern insight rolls to help her Grail along. The base game makes gifting an artifact permanent, fortunately ponies aren't quite so covetous and we can get them back as needed. The only reason we haven't done much with this concept yet to my knowledge is that we just don't have very portable or field-useful artifacts yet.

Aside from the rug, MVP artifact right there.
 
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