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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Dear reader! Whether you are new here, archive-reading and whatnot, or you are already someone who has been with us for quite a while, I would like to say a few words that I believe are best kept close to mind.

-This is an MLP quest. And more importantly, none of us are gratuitously cruel. So good things will happen on this quest, and I hope that enough good things have already happened to prove that.
-This is also a horror quest, so bad things will happen. Bad things might happen to good characters if you are not able to protect them, and you most certainly will not be able to intervene if you lack the tools to do so.
-And finally, this is a quest in which you jostle with powers greater than yourself, with all that it entails.

Please, do keep those things in mind as you go forward. But ultimately, this is also a quest in which it is hoped we all have fun! So if any of the above points is not exactly your cup of tea, or somehow make the experience as a whole "not worth it", then this quest might not be for you. Which is fine! Individual tastes are a thing, so don't think any more about it if you don't want to read anymore. And regardless, I hope you have a lovely day!

Kaelor said:
PSA for whoever needs to hear it:

Readers should take their own mental health into consideration when voting and not subject themselves to triggering narrative elements like rape or constant mental torture of a friend just for the Greatest Good of a world that doesn't exist.

If those are fine for you or Regrettable is even more triggering, then GREAT! More power to you. But you aren't a bad or selfish person for picking the option that keeps the characters you've emotionally connected with safe. [REDACTED for spoiler warning]

This is a high intensity quest that doesn't hold back when it comes to horror and negative consequences. Take care of yourself.
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(Quote slightly edited to avoid spoilers)
 
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Pittauro said:
is it even possible to summon an Hour with just a level 3 ritual? As far as I know the strongest summon in the game were names. I kinda feel like an Hour would require something more.
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I'd say it would depend on the form we end up summoning.

A willing chalice, the essence of the Master, and the right Influence would be enough to summon her inhibiting a corpse. Not enough to release all sorts of pandemonium through Lores.

But to direct the cult? To spread her word, darken Equestria that bit more and more as time goes on?

It would be more than enough.
 
Indivisible said:
Heart is the Lore you need for when summonings go wrong, right? I think we just got an in character reason to get Heart up to 3.
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we might not be able to get it to 3 next turn, though. we need 3 scraps, so if we fail even just one book...

And that's if we even FIND at least one more book.


Still, let's first see how Velvet reacts to Winter. If she takes it well we can consider it next turn.


...also, I nearly forgot, but we are likely going to get the summoning ritual THIS TURN.

We DON'T HAVE TIME TO PREPARE. and the master will more than likely KNOW the moment we find it, as he KNEW the moment we found the 2 circles ones.

soo... we'll probably have to decide on a course of action by the end of this turn, or the start of the next one at most. Probably this one, as I expect a turn interrupt for his summoning, like he did for Luna's ritual.

which means that, if we want to negotiate or deny him, we'll have to do it NOW.

alternatively.. I suppose we could just summon it, but then work with Velvet on a banishing ritual instead, as insurance
 
Pittauro said:
recursive summoning, how worrying
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A funny fact: in order to summon a Raw Prophet, you need Knock 2, Moth 2 and Grail 6. Raw Prophet has Moth 8 and Grail 8, and can be an assistant in rituals. Which means that just with smallest possible scrap of knock lore, once you summon one, you can summon them indefinitely by asking Prophet to bring his friends!
 
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Pittauro said:
...also, I nearly forgot, but we are likely going to get the summoning ritual THIS TURN.

We DON'T HAVE TIME TO PREPARE. and the master will more than likely KNOW the moment we find it, as he KNEW the moment we found the 2 circles ones.
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Wow, you're putting Velvet's odds of answering Ghirbi's riddle in her first try that high, huh?

I wouldn't be quite so sure, myself, though I DO expect the Master to hurry us up to go through the Stag Door at the turn's end.

Reckon we've got two turns, three Max, to figure out a PoA.
 
Mage of Eyes said:
A funny fact: in order to summon a Raw Prophet, you need Knock 2, Moth 2 and Grail 6. Raw Prophet has Moth 8 and Grail 8, and can be an assistant in rituals. Which means that just with smallest possible scrap of knock lore, once you summon one, you can summon them indefinitely by asking Prophet to bring his friends!
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Fitting for a prophet, he foretells the coming of his friends!
DawnOfBoom said:
Wow, you're putting Velvet's odds of answering Ghirbi's riddle in her first try that high, huh?

I wouldn't be quite so sure, myself, though I DO expect the Master to hurry us up to go through the Stag Door at the turn's end.

Reckon we've got two turns, three Max, to figure out a PoA.
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well, we might have as much as two attempts if we can reach the door in the first place, and we have FIVE lores at lvl 3!

Yes, I think we can do it. It's not really that hard of a hurdle, i basically went through it nearly by chance without even knowing what I was doing in the game! (and then stopped playing soon after)
 
Mage of Eyes said:
A funny fact: in order to summon a Raw Prophet, you need Knock 2, Moth 2 and Grail 6. Raw Prophet has Moth 8 and Grail 8, and can be an assistant in rituals. Which means that just with smallest possible scrap of knock lore, once you summon one, you can summon them indefinitely by asking Prophet to bring his friends!
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Pretty sure you can do that for a Maid in the Mirror too.
 
Pittauro said:
well, we might have as much as two attempts if we can reach the door in the first place, and we have FIVE lores at lvl 3!

Yes, I think we can do it. It's not really that hard of a hurdle, i basically went through it nearly by chance without even knowing what I was doing in the game! (and then stopped playing soon after)
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In that case, we better hope we get the riddle which we don't have Lvl 3 in.

If BirdoBod makes one for the lores not covered in game, that gives us a 4/9 odds of getting a riddle we can't answer yet.

If not... we better hope we get the Grail one.

And that Copper can't just tell us the answer for Velvet to go through the Door.
 
Hopefully, whatever ritual the Master needs to be summoned needs a rare lore. We will likely have to be the ones performing it as the ones with greatest Knock and Moth lores, so we might be able to delay.
 
I'm honestly just worried that if we do figure it out, the Master will use an Influence like he did before and force us to use it.

The only defense to which is just not knowing the piece of information, which we don't have the option to avoid if we do manage to solve the Stag Door this turn.
 
DawnOfBoom said:
In that case, we better hope we get the riddle which we don't have Lvl 3 in.

If BirdoBod makes one for the lores not covered in game, that gives us a 4/9 odds of getting a riddle we can't answer yet.

If not... we better hope we get the Grail one.

And that Copper can't just tell us the answer for Velvet to go through the Door.
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That's assuming going through the door actually works like that.

Maybe it's just one riddle, but it has multiple answers (one for each lore).

Maybe Ghirbi's not there anymore, and there's something different instead.
Bakkasama said:
Hopefully, whatever ritual the Master needs to be summoned needs a rare lore. We will likely have to be the ones performing it as the ones with greatest Knock and Moth lores, so we might be able to delay.
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mh.. if he wants us to be certain to succeed, he might want us to find artifacts and/or ponies to sacrifice to boost our odds of success.

Then again, if the ritual can be attempted multiple times with little or no side-effects if failed, maybe he'll simply have us try it as many times as it takes, basically consuming multiple actions worth of time.

We might be able to convince him NOT to use live sacrifices by raising the " we don't want to attract attention" point, hopefully.

jason1stlegion said:
I'm honestly just worried that if we do figure it out, the Master will use an Influence like he did before and force us to use it.

The only defense to which is just not knowing the piece of information, which we don't have the option to avoid if we do manage to solve the Stag Door this turn.
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That's certainly a possibility.

At the very least, even IF we might just be able to resist the influence by now, we have to expect he'll KNOW.

And if we say no, we better have a good excuse/argument for it.


I think, by the end of this turn, we'll be FORCED to make a choice of some kind on how to deal with him.

He's a monster, but he's a ...somewhat reasonable monster. I think we just might be able to reach an agreement, but it might be hard.

who knows, maybe we'll have to admit about Selene, and try and convince him what we're doing is the best way to get Harmony to cooperate with us willingly.

You catch more flies with hony and all that, basically.

An appropriate saying for a Moth Name, isn't it?

it means giving up some power/control, but if the alicorns learnt of the Lores that would certainly make defending/hiding Equestria easier.

And if we found the rituals mentioned in a few CS books to defend the world from the Worms... well, having the rulers on our side means that these rituals could be held easily, no matter how complicated they actually are! We'd have all the resources needed!

Of course this might all go badly. we'll see what happens, I suppose.
 
To briefly stick my head in.

If we do successfully get the ritual, and have jade on our side.

Well...

We could be in no better position to get awnsers from the master, because we will have leverage.
 
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zxzx24 said:
To briefly stick my head in.

If we do successfully get the ritual, and have jade on our side.

Well...

We could be in no better position to get awnsers from the master, because we will have leverage.
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well, some leverage, yes, but there's a limit.

Jade is replaceable, and she would have ALREADY trained the cadre.

We'd be less so, as WE'd be the one with the ritual.. but the master ALSO has a lot of leverage on us. Our family, to start with. And that's if he doesn't pull the same trick he did for the nightmare ritual, though we're MUCH stronger now. 5 lores at 3, while I don't think we had even the FIRST one at 3 yet there, and Winter was just a lvl 1 I think.

zxzx24 said:
Also is it not possible to control the beings you summon from the mansus?
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that... I REALLY hope it's like that, but I think it might be too convenient.

Maybe he believes we're loyal enough that that's not a problem, in which case... well, he'd basically be giving us an easy win, as long as Comet doesn't decide to kill us before we can give the Master any specific order.

But I think he might instead ask us to modify the summoning ritual so that he wouldn't have to obey the summoner, or to make the summon permanent.

Or maybe summons simply work differently than we hope for, or there's multiple variants of self-evident summoning rituals

zxzx24 said:
We never took the time to learn about the master, and now it is nearly too late. This is getting predictable.
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Let's be fair, we've been so damn pressed for time!

Just these last few turns we got a near suicide from Jade, THEN she learned about Selene, THEN Twilight got crazy (partially our fault, again BECAUSE WE HAD TO DEAL WITH OUR HUSBAND!), THEN we also went crazy for an afternoon or so...


We've been putting out one fire after the other, and often doing that stoked the flames somewhere else...

Still, at least it makes for an interesting story, doesn't it? It's not out of the question that Velvet will die at some point, and we'll change character. It would certainly fit the CS setting, and we already have a few possible characters I think would be interesting to play

And in this world, death is not necessarily the end..
 
Firstly, I just want to note how good BirdBotthisattva is. Just once we started to think that we can keep up with the pace, the Master's summoning issue is raised. The fact that no one thought about using summon ritual this way is very much notable, too.

And, of course, it was in general a good update with good writing, thank you for it!

But back to the whole "Master is coming" issue. Let's try to enumerate our options:

1. We can do nothing and hope nothing will happen to us too. If the Master won't pay that much of attention, it might even work. Default option, and I think the variant that end up winning, "Innocent betrayal" and stuff. Stull, I do not like it, because it can screw us up so much - well, lets just use relevant quote:
BirdBodhisattva said:
-You have no way of knowing how your Master will react to this, if he finds out;
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1b. That, and willingly show Selene to Master. She is likely to punish us. She is likely to take Selene away. Basically, this.

Personally? No. Just no.

2. We can vanish without a trace. Will start a hidden war with the Cult, but one that is conventional. Will ignite the conflict with other members of the Cult, but one that can, theoretically, can be snuffed out. Will break Velvet's family (and her heart), because we have to continue to teach Selene, e.g. take her with us, which will endanger her bond with Silky Stream and break our pact with Stormchaser.

Will make the quest way more tragic and spike the difficulty, but can, theoretically, work.

3. We can try to separate us from the cult peacefully. Closest to "keeping the status quo" option. Most dangerous option, given that is basically "rebel, but hope the Master is ok with it". Will greatly endanger our family. Will greatly endanger ourselves. Will either rip our bond with Jade or endanger her too. Option that may be made even less likely by the fact that the Jade is our confidant now, given that it could be seen as spreading the rebellion rather than fully "peaceful option".

I think it's too dangerous to attempt, but I am not the Senate the thread to decide.

4. We can start open, violent conflict with the cult - try to End is Beautiful Comet Feet, Path through Nightmares Windy, etc etc. Unlikely to win, given that neither us nor jade secured any significant number of loyal low level cult members. Very, very dangerous. Cult will attempt to reach to our family. All other kinds of horrible implications.

Really dangerous, even more so than option 2.

Finally, options 2b, 3b and 4b are to do the same, but also to reach for Celestia. Option 3b is unlikely to work, but 2b and 4b might. Will ruin any image of peacefulness. May or may not break our family (through likely it still will). Too complex and too dependent on the first impression on Celestia. Risky, but pile up some of that risk in one pile, and as a whole might be even a little bit less dangerous. Secure us some measure of safety. Secure us support of numerous guard. May shift the quest to "cult-building", if Celestia will ask us to teach the Lores to other ponies.

Personally, my (current) favorites are 1, 2b and 4b, but I am not sure. Maybe I even missing some possibility altogether.

Thoughts?



DawnOfBoom said:
Of course.

In the same way that Teresa had Christopher beside her when we met her, which suggests he might yet live.
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Actually, in CS Christopher lived until 1982 at least, while the game itself takes place in 1920s. It looks like here he instead died earlier, or maybe that Baldomare pursued a variant ending.
 
To be fair to Ghirbi, I think a giant golden human head would fit right in as a horrific eldritch being for Velvet to encounter. Because humans don't exist in Equestria. :V
 
zxzx24 said:
Also is it not possible to control the beings you summon from the mansus?
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You can control them. You also can fail controlling them. It's supposedly easier to control them when they are summoned: the chances of failing to control a smoky caligne (one of many) and failing to control the mighty King Crucible (a name of the Forge of Days) are equal, hinting at the fact that's its more about your skill and less about the might of the spirit.
 
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Pittauro said:
Jade is replaceable, and she would have ALREADY trained the cadre.
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We are just as replaceable as Jade, it just makes things harder. Potentially much, much harder.

If we dont cast the ritual, and jade does not. Then who?

Pittauro said:
Let's be fair, we've been so damn pressed for time!
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I was told many times it was a waste because there is no way we could get anything useful from the master.

I even tried pushing for a free question, but it was too risky. Though it seemed more like most people thought it was simply wasted breath.
 
zxzx24 said:
We could be in no better position to get awnsers from the master, because we will have leverage.
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Except the fact that during/right after the summoning we'll prob be surrounded by dozens upon dozens of ponies that worship him, and by extension, the Inner Circle.

And since a lot can go wrong with a summoning, all the Master would need to say is "She's been compromised. Capture her."

And then we're up shit creek without a paddle.

Pittauro said:
that... I REALLY hope it's like that, but I think it might be too convenient.
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Many Moth summons have a Deceiver score, that shows how much havoc they would unleash should the summoning go wrong and they claim freedom.

As such, I would hazard a guess that ownership, while being part of the ritual, can be omitted.

Though why someone would do that...

Well, we shall see, shan't we?
Starlit Horizon said:
Actually, in CS Christopher lived until 1982 at least, while the game itself takes place in 1920s.
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Insofar as CS is concerned, Teresa hasn't seen him for 10 years.

In contrast, when we met her at the Lodge, She introduced us to him, which would suggest that either:

A. He died very recently.

Or

B. He's still alive and crossing the White Door to meet up with her.

My bet's on the 2nd option, because introducing us suggests he would be missing from the Lodge at times, which Teresa wouldn't let happen if he was dead-dead.

zxzx24 said:
I even tried pushing for a free question, but it was too risky. Though it seemed more like most people thought it was simply wasted breath.
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I actually remember one of those suggestion being after we found out that combining training and questions makes things harder on both ends, and people didn't want to risk it.
 
DawnOfBoom said:
Except the fact that during/right after the summoning we'll prob be surrounded by dozens upon dozens of ponies that worship him, and by extension, the Inner Circle.
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We definetly should not involve anyone except Jade if we intend to betray the master. Or leverage them.

DawnOfBoom said:
I actually remember one of those suggestion being after we found out that combining training and questions makes things harder on both ends, and people didn't want to risk it.
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That's cool. I just object to saying "we didnt have time/opportunities."

We chose ignorance. Maybe because it was coupled with safety but it was still our choice.
 
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zxzx24 said:
We definetly should not involve anyone except Jade if we intend to betray the master. Or leverage them.
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I mean, I am 75% certain the ritual will end up requiring an actual sacrifice, so not exactly sure how you propose we end up doing it ourselves, since I find it highly unlikely Velvet's got the guts to do the deed.

... and no, no we will not put Windy on the chopping block just because.
 
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