Semper Ad Meliora (Code Geass/Britannian Royalty Quest)

[Hawkmoon]

I wish that were true. At times it looks like it could happen. But no, actions where we meet with Schniezel and Guinevere, two people we more or less will need to talk to because one is the prime minister and the other is both one of the front runners to the throne and someone who might decide to make our life... difficult should we snub her after becoming the Emperor Consort have only been available in the realm of Personal Actions. As their own, individual, actions.

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I would like to point out something when it comes to bringing up Guinevere and snubbing her. With our actions in Indonesia combined with our mutual support to Schneizel/Cornelia faction going to her would have required snubbing her advances in person.
She was trying to lure both us and Milly (there were advances directly to Milly for some projects) to lure us into her camp. That was what the unofficial invitation to crash her party was about. Not taking it allowed us to not try and play both sides (as I doubt the voters would agree to cut ties with Schneizel) or officially refuse her. She just decided we aren't worth the effort to recruit. And we have bad luck in messing with her PR.
I think it was even stated that she was hoping to recruit Euphy through us after we recruited her (which was the main catalyst for her inviting us to crash her party).
Like with everything Personal Actions are about choices. We will never make everyone happy. After us messing up her big pregnancy reveal with the stunts at both conferences we wouldn't have been her favorite person. At least not without jumping fully to her faction.

This quest is really good because it forces us to make choices. And rarely do we get to keep our cake and eat it at the same time. Just look at the amounts of discussions around some votes or how close some votes are. While the dice gods tend to laugh with mad abandon at our plans (or even the QMs plans) we choose a path forward every turn.

And even Euphy mentioned that there often will be choices between the private life and the requirements of our station. She just doesn't want us to abandon the family life for power completely. While Charles' choice made a rather toxic family life he also most likely had to make hard choices to stabilize the Empire in the wake of a civil war and lost wars with the EU (Russia). Not to mention the work he is doing to prepare for the threats from space (the project to rebuild the thought elevators).

Our only hope is to manage to strike a balance with what we can take and our ambitions. Which is troublesome while playing Lelouch. If we wanted a mostly quiet quest focused on building up then we would have gone with Hannes.

 

[Fireofargentis]

Animal Testing: 92+25= 117+15 (SL & Previous Project) = 132 // Crit: 88+32= 120 // Crit2: 54+20= 74

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Spoiler: what i hope we will found

i mean, i know its very unlikely, but well i can hope, besides, i dont have no idea how otherwise we could get with that.

 

[Randino Treviani]

I would like to point out something when it comes to bringing up Guinevere and snubbing her. With our actions in Indonesia combined with our mutual support to Schneizel/Cornelia faction going to her would have required snubbing her advances in person.
She was trying to lure both us and Milly (there were advances directly to Milly for some projects) to lure us into her camp. That was what the unofficial invitation to crash her party was about. Not taking it allowed us to not try and play both sides (as I doubt the voters would agree to cut ties with Schneizel) or officially refuse her. She just decided we aren't worth the effort to recruit. And we have bad luck in messing with her PR.
I think it was even stated that she was hoping to recruit Euphy through us after we recruited her (which was the main catalyst for her inviting us to crash her party).
Like with everything Personal Actions are about choices. We will never make everyone happy. After us messing up her big pregnancy reveal with the stunts at both conferences we wouldn't have been her favorite person. At least not without jumping fully to her faction.

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It was answered in one of the 100 pages questions tabs. Euphy through Lelouch and Cornelia through her, and Yeah, scandal spotlight stealing has made her pretty ticked with lelouch's group. Whether she doesn't change her mind or grow even more hateful towards a Lelouch who is Emperor Consort of China is open to speculation. If a coronation diplomacy action see's him extend the invitation to certain royals, and she isn't one of them, it will very much be total war I imagine.

Cutting ties isn't necessary, as Schneizel wants Guin and Ody to to take the thrown, so he can marry Cornelia and handle the diplomacy and stewardship of her conquered territory. At best we'd have substituted for Ody as potential emperor as our prestige grew. If we'd built ties with her before, it's likely she'd have worked her way into Euphemia's date tour and even had Lelouch hold her daughter in an attempt to up the scandal game, regardless of RO status.

 

[Hawkmoon]

Cutting ties isn't necessary, as Schneizel wants Guin and Ody to to take the thrown, so he can marry Cornelia and handle the diplomacy and stewardship of her conquered territory. At best we'd have substituted for Ody as potential emperor as our prestige grew. If we'd built ties with her before, it's likely she'd have worked her way into Euphemia's date tour and even had Lelouch hold her daughter in an attempt to up the scandal game, regardless of RO status.

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We as the players know it from OOC answers. Lelouch wouldn't know Schneizel contingencies and would only have options based on his curent knowledge. So it would be a choice between, Guinevere, Schneizel or playing both sides. And I think the OOC answers came after the personal action could have been taken so we wouldn't have Guinevere goals. And most decidedly we wouldn't have Schneizel goals.
The problem with the OOC Q&A sessions is that we gain knowledge but our character acts on what he knows. So while we might try and guide him towards some interesting options the choices we get are dependent on the IC knowledge of the situation.
And even when acting on OOC knowledge we can't be sure how other characters react to our actions. Because while Schneizel has his plans he also needs to play the role of a serious contender. And even with the glimpses of OOC knowledge we don't have the full picture.

 

[Darkcore41]

If Lelouch becomes consort he will probably have to sort out things with his father or Scheinzel first year just to touch base. I don't think he'll constantly have to do it since he's would have become a leader of a country not a vassel. He won't have to send in constant reports and ask for orders. Also saying hell get bogged down doesn't make sense as a justification. He would have eventually reached that point by becoming king of Australia.

I don't get why were acting like the empress marriage would be the only one up to this point effected by politics. If I remember correctly the Kallen relationship is the only one where politics didn't matter. When Lelouch talked to Millie has talked about the political realities of each potential marriage. When he had that tea party with Kaguya he talked about why that relationship was difficult due to the politics involved.

The lore in quest supports royals taking multiple wives. I don't understand why it's suddenly become an issue when we've profited off of some of the relationships. Kallen with her father, Euphie with the Vi line, Kaguya with her connections, etc. Granted I don't think I participated in any romance vote aside from Kallen and if I have I don't remember it.

If we wanted something soley due to romance we should have done the sameyhing as Nunally and avoided politics.

Edit: I don wonder how Lelouch from left field becoming powerful either as a serious contender or consort will change Prime minister plans?

 

[Slayer Anderson]

If Lelouch becomes consort he will probably have to sort out things with his father or Scheinzel first year just to touch base.

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No matter what, interfering in China earns you a sit-down chat with both of them. The contents depends on the fallout of your operation.

Consequences happen, either rewards or repercussions.

The lore in quest supports royals taking multiple wives.

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Emperor/Empress gets multiple spouses, royals and high nobility can have, but do not *have to* have multiple partners. Mistresses or beaus.

You can have a second/third/fourth marriage in another nation, but it won't 'count' by Britannian law if you're already married in the Empire.

If I remember correctly the Kallen relationship is the only one where politics didn't matter.

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Kallen doesn't care about politics. Politics does care about Kallen.

 

[UlseDovThur]

No matter what, interfering in China earns you a sit-down chat with both of them. The contents depends on the fallout of your operation.

Consequences happen, either rewards or repercussions.

Emperor/Empress gets multiple spouses, royals and high nobility can have, but do not *have to* have multiple partners. Mistresses or beaus.

You can have a second/third/fourth marriage in another nation, but it won't 'count' by Britannian law if you're already married in the Empire.

Kallen doesn't care about politics. Politics does care about Kallen.

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God I cannot wait for the conversation.

 

[inukai44]

God I cannot wait for the conversation.

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I'm not because it could result in our disowning and exile if we lose this.

 

[Randino Treviani]

No matter what, interfering in China earns you a sit-down chat with both of them. The contents depends on the fallout of your operation.

Consequences happen, either rewards or repercussions.

Click to shrink...

Excellent. No need to use a personal action on it. It makes a certain sense. This something of a literal continent shifting outcome. Given the fact that the stakes continue to rise on this endeavour, I'd like to again push for consolidating our dual efforts of Military and Espionage invasion of the Chinese Federation in mainland china rather than splitting them. Anything significant enough to make a difference in seperate actions is going to be a little overt. Best to focus on our actions in a single theater of war so our effort can feed into eachother rather than need to succeed on their own.

I'm not because it could result in our disowning and exile if we lose this.

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Which was pointed out turn 10 phase 2. Lelouch very clearly outlines the potential loss of nearly all he's built, leaving him to take the path of pirate himself. We've made our gamble, now, we wait on the dice. At this point it's a matter of how we act. I favor using our critically successful infiltration to steal Enoch intelligence Cyphers and use them lay a trap for one of the Enoch fleets to the north.

 

[Darik29]

I'll be honest. I would be entirely happy to not become the Empress Consort. I am entirely happy with L's current crop of harem.

That said, when papa C and Big S sit us down and ask us why the frick we yolo'd into possibly one of the biggest shit pits of the current age, i anticipate some Major props entirely because we literally jumped on this with zero hesitation. Just, wham bam, instant jump into hell face first no brakes.

If we actually Pull Off shutting down the Eunuchs and restoring the Empress to actual power, i will be so gods damned amazed. Like no shit, this shit is Anazing to witness!

Continue your excellent writing boss!

 

[Darkcore41]

Don't we have a gun to India's head? I'm thinking we can trade that as a get out of jail free card. Either that or secure it for the empress if she needs a fall back position.

 

[Randino Treviani]

I'll be honest. I would be entirely happy to not become the Empress Consort. I am entirely happy with L's current crop of harem.

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It's less about the harem, and more about the perks, perks possibly 10 to 15 turns out depending on when Charles bites the dust. We'll only have two chances to add the title emperor of one of the worlds 3 greater powers to lelouch title and the next one is going to be a long time coming.

 

[Wiggy]

Well, it was explained right at the beginning of the quest, win and you're a hero, lose and you're destroyed. The die is cast and we'll have to wait and see where our ambitions take us. I'm personally okay with not going for the emperor of china route for a number of reasons, but it probably is a lot easier a way to become an emperor compared to knife fighting for the brittanian throne.

 

[UlseDovThur]

Excellent. No need to use a personal action on it. It makes a certain sense. This something of a literal continent shifting outcome. Given the fact that the stakes continue to rise on this endeavour, I'd like to again push for consolidating our dual efforts of Military and Espionage invasion of the Chinese Federation in mainland china rather than splitting them. Anything significant enough to make a difference in seperate actions is going to be a little overt. Best to focus on our actions in a single theater of war so our effort can feed into eachother rather than need to succeed on their own.

Which was pointed out turn 10 phase 2. Lelouch very clearly outlines the potential loss of nearly all he's built, leaving him to take the path of pirate himself. We've made our gamble, now, we wait on the dice. At this point it's a matter of how we act. I favor using our critically successful infiltration to steal Enoch intelligence Cyphers and use them lay a trap for one of the Enoch fleets to the north.

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I'm not really super concerned with the fleets. Ultimately the most they can do in this fight is act as supply ships and troop transports from one coastal area to another. But with most of the fight happening in the north of China there's very little they can do besides blockading the coastal areas Tianzi has control of.

Maybe they could conduct some kind of naval invasion? But with how panicked the Eunuchs are and how they're throwing troops at Tianzi I really don't see them having the organizational ability to actually pull of such a thing.

I also don't see a whole lot of use just peeling away one of their fleets when they have quite a few to maintain the blockade.

I would prefer sabotaging the Eunuchs land forces as those are the ones actually contesting Tianzi's own forces. Maybe off some of their actually competent generals and commanders. Or perhaps contrive a situation that forces the Eunuchs to divert a large portion of their army away from Tianzi.

 

[Darkcore41]

I don't think we were ever going to be in the running for the throne without something like this happening. Even now if we get out hat in the ring as a viable alternative, the issue is forming the political block that would back us. Which is gonna be a considerable amount of catch up. Our other option was become Area leader once Australia is taken or king of Australia. Both options would just have us be a minor power on the world stage. China is our best chance to claim a seat in the big boys table.

 

[bluefur87]

I'll be honest. I would be entirely happy to not become the Empress Consort. I am entirely happy with L's current crop of harem.

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As much as I don't like the drawbacks for becoming Tianzi's consort in the utter nightmare it is likely to make our personal actions and have talked against that, it really can not be expressed how much of a windfall such a fallout would be for both Lelouch and Britannia at large.

It is, objectively, pure win for both parties. It's just going to create some very serious problems that I utterly hate.

I don't want to vote for it if we get the chance, but I'm likely to despite all my grumbling and considering it a poison chalice. Becoming one of the leaders of one of the world's super powers is purely astounding beyond belief.

In part, I'm raising these concerns now in hopes that Slayer will take them into account when Lelouch is weighing the pros and cons and, should any actions he should reasonably be able to take present themselves, he'll hopefully mention them then. We've already been assured we'll get a sit down with Schniezal and Charles, which is the bigger of my worries of having to spend an action on.

My worries are able to be mitigated, it's just a question of will the quest design allow it.

Don't we have a gun to India's head? I'm thinking we can trade that as a get out of jail free card. Either that or secure it for the empress if she needs a fall back position.

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The intrigue action was more general. Some amount of people (hard to tell) voted for it with the intent of using it to support our operations in China. I support this because that's where the war is going to be won.

This entire thing is incredibly dangerous and we should leverage as many of our assets to taking the critical objective of taking China itself, where the immediate and greatest danger is. Our ability to deploy our assets there is one of the reasons I'm backing the idea of invading China at all.

 

[Randino Treviani]

Don't we have a gun to India's head? I'm thinking we can trade that as a get out of jail free card. Either that or secure it for the empress if she needs a fall back position.

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We have crit successed into clearing both DCs of our Espionage invasion of the Chinese federation. Our target and goals will be set through voting options in Turn 10 Phase 3 results. One of the options is to split our efforts between India and China, presumably to use a Stealth Victory in India as a backup if the military invasion fails. It seems rather foolish to me given the info here...

There is a single fleet guarding the south east of China outside Guangzhou. It's the same fleet Xingke highjacked to rescue Indonesia. All the rest of the fleets are blockading the north. The only reason that fleet hasn't joined them is because they worry that it would defect to Lihua's side of the conflict given recent events. hint-hint

Almost everything the Eunuchs have is being thrown, desperately, at Lihua right now. There's still an army group defending each of the main cities of Shanghai, Wuhan, and Guangzhou, but they're under-strength and under-equipped, having been stripped nearly to the bone to keep the peace as the battles in the north rage on.

You will be able to land virtually unopposed anywhere except Guangzhou, where you will have to deal with that fleet in some way

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Given Lelouchs talk about Xingke acting as a Rally point for the federation, he likely already plans to flip this fleet as one of his options. It gives us an entire second fleet, and just like lelouch could have traded Xingke to the Enochs, he can also bait them, defeat a fleet, and then still pull off a land invasion afterward. This is not the only option of course, just a classic lelouch bait and crush I'm rather fond of.

I would prefer sabotaging the Eunuchs land forces as those are the ones actually contesting Tianzi's own forces. Maybe off some of their actually competent generals and commanders. Or perhaps contrive a situation that forces the Eunuchs to divert a large portion of their army away from Tianzi.

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Agreed. sabotage and counter intelligence so we can sneak our mercenaries though the country to flank them are also options. Frankly I'm fine with just about any approach, as long as it's focused on the actual conflict in china and not aimed toward india in some backup move. Between Nunnally, Jeanne, Kallen, and Greta, we have quite a lot going for our odds in military combat, but compounded success in the wars main theater will have afar greater payout.

When changing the course of history and putting everything on the line, you don't send your super ninja's to infiltrate a completely different part of the continent, you send them to do something to better your odds in the battle your throwing everything and the kitchen sink at.

 

[LuxEterna]

When changing the course of history and putting everything on the line, you don't send your super ninja's to infiltrate a completely different part of the continent, you send them to do something to better your odds in the battle your throwing everything and the kitchen sink at

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Especially if the consort position, everyone is lusting after, is for doing something exceptional and not just follpwing in the wake of victorious general li xingke

On another note if we succeed, it might be funny if schneizel as thanks for creating another miracle and stabilising the entire region again might offer to habe our PA and staff trained by Kanon, which would give us another personal action

 

[Darkcore41]

Especially if the consort position, everyone is lusting after, is for doing something exceptional and not just follpwing in the wake of victorious general li xingke

On another note if we succeed, it might be funny if schneizel as thanks for creating another miracle and stabilising the entire region again might offer to habe our PA and staff trained by Kanon, which would give us another personal action

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I think the better position for the ninja's is India. Its a possible fall back if we fail and if this can be leveraged to force them to declare for the empress then its a sizable distraction. Between Lelouch and India they would have to split three ways.

 

[Randino Treviani]

I think the better position for the ninja's is India. Its a possible fall back if we fail and if this can be leveraged to force them to declare for the empress then its a sizable distraction. Between Lelouch and India they would have to split three ways.

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You don't plan to fail on your all out gamble. The point of ninja's is to go unnoticed. There better off acting as a force multiplier for our military invasion or a detriment to the Enochs main forces. Both of our actions have a better chance of succeeding if we combine them than if we split them apart.

 

[Dark0]

In terms of the harem management, I think we really should take "Red" as one of our Personal actions next turn, to find out what Kallen and Jeanne really want. It's especially important due to us having a child with Sayoko, so I don't think that we should wait with it for to long.

 

[meianmaru]

Continuing to speculate on the Animal Testing, I'm thinking that this would be a good representation what probably happened:

Spoiler: Transcendence

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwmeH6Rnj2E&ab_channel=Doriitostv

...Oh no. I just realized.

While we have just been throwing jokes and memes, do you realize what having a cat involved with Lelouch would be? Having a cat just lounge around or on his lap which he could pet would make him code even harder as the villain of the story.

Also, a human-level sapient cat (or other animal) that is a psychic would be one hell of a power move if we do not go for the spy animal angle. Consider the sheer burn of "even my cat is a more powerful psychic than the best ones you have access to" and it not being a hyperbole when negotiating with someone regarding our expertise about the psychics.

 

[Slayer Anderson]

So, just as an FYI, I'm planning to finish out the results for the last phase by the end of the week/weekend as per is becoming the new usual.

After that, though, there will be an interlude giving a complete rundown of how the Chinese Federation actually works so that you guys can make an informed decision on war aims. That's going to be a pain because I'm currently scraping my notes for relevant details and I'll need to pair it down substantially in the meantime. Once that's done, though, I'll be moving on to the combat mini-turns.

At some point in the next week or two, I'll also have an omake done detailing an EU university student visiting a rural Britannian town as part of her independent research. That... looks like it's going to balloon into a two or three parter in and of itself.

Anyway, that's what's coming down the pipe at the moment. Don't expect anything until Friday at the earliest, and more than likely it will be Sunday like it has been the last two weeks.

 

[Hawkmoon]

Also, a human-level sapient cat (or other animal) that is a psychic would be one hell of a power move if we do not go for the spy animal angle. Consider the sheer burn of "even my cat is a more powerful psychic than the best ones you have access to" and it not being a hyperbole when negotiating with someone regarding our expertise about the psychics.

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It can be worse. We might get the Cat from Red Dwarf.

Spoiler: Cat videos

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjFItQPBF3E

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8w2ohMbNOU

Or Lelouch could get turned into a catboy and gain cat based superpowers.

Spoiler: Catboy Lelouch

EDIT: Another interesting factor I'm curious about is how the crits in this research chain will influence future work.
Turn 5: Madman Thesis: rolled 80 - average result that started us on Jeager's work
Turn 6: Psionic Energy Studies: Crit 117 - Additional (+10) Bonus to Animal & Human Testing Actions.
Turn 8: Psionic Computing: Crit 182 - Jeager's prototypes are compact enough to replace the 'brains' of conventional KMF units. Advanced KMF research options open without need for further refinement of the technology.
Turn 10: Animal Testing: Crit2 274 - unknown result

That means up to now we have been rather successful on Jeager's research path. Not as good as the Mantle quest (even if we had a really bad Remember roll there to offset our luck), but a really good run. As the psionic computing tree is the basis for other Jeager tech (the sensor to amplifier tree) I wonder what the effects there could be and how it would change from what Jeager was expecting at the start when he wrote his Madman Thesis.

Just for comparison our personal psionic path leading to the mantle quest went like this (even if that was only because most of the exploding crits happened before the rule for omake bonuses was changed):
Turn 1: Parlor Tricks: 39+6 = 45 - Trait Gained, Psionic (+2) Piety. Other Piety options open.
Turn 2: Gospel: 98+8 = 106 // Crit: 100+6 = 106 // Crit2: 73+6=79 - ??? Trait: +3 Piety, ??? Trait: ??? Effects, Psychic Artifact/Personal Record & Memories of ??? Piety & Learning Options Increase IMMENSELY.
Turn 3: Remember: 80+11=91- Trait Partially Revealed – Reservoir *( ^)$(!%# &^$*@(. Trait Gain – Alchemist – +1/6 of Piety to Stewardship. +1 Piety. Other Options Open. Questline Opens: Architect's Mantle (1/???) to Completion; Rewards: Inheritance of the Mantle of the Architect of the Mind, Rediscovery of ???, Development of ???
Turn 4: Remember: 29+12+15(Omake Bonus)=56- +1 Piety, Unknown Trait reveal progresses marginally. Option locked for 1 turn due to near-failure. DC revealed at 55
Turn 6: Remember: 95+15=110 // Crit: 82+10+10 (Omake Bonus) =102 // Crit2: 15+2=17 - List of potential dig sites available, very promising. Unique Piety actions available. Crystal Orb plundered of available Knowledge. Mantle Activation Quest Line Unlocked. Reservoir of Ancient Wisdom Trait Revealed - (+5) Piety.
Turn 9: The Crystalline Orb: 89+22= 111 // Crit: 30+11= 41(+10 Omake Bonus)= 51 - General site of the orb's construction located with some certainty, expedition can now be mounted. Area is held tenuously by an allied royal of Britannia, but located in a region of fierce conflict.

Rolls in the 250+ range often had character changing traits rewarded for them. This makes me really curious how that roll will influence our path. A breakthrough into that range on a simple information gathering action (Gospel) put us on the path of reclaiming the Architect's Mantle.
I'm curious if this will open another secret on that level we might want to follow up on. Of course that quest will also be an action hog like the Architect's Mantle activation quest. And that quest is another reason I want Lelouch to have some time to at least visit the expedition site.

 

[bluefur87]

Rolls in the 250+ range often had character changing traits rewarded for them. This makes me really curious how that roll will influence our path. A breakthrough into that range on a simple information gathering action (Gospel) put us on the path of reclaiming the Architect's Mantle.
I'm curious if this will open another secret on that level we might want to follow up on. Of course that quest will also be an action hog like the Architect's Mantle activation quest. And that quest is another reason I want Lelouch to have some time to at least visit the expedition site.

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I mean, to be fair you only listed one such roll so that isn't much to go off of. Though the only other time I can think of this happening was... yeah, when we got our shinobi team together. Which was organization defining.

Both actions required multiple follow ups to fully capitalize on their successes, so I'm guessing it might open up a new series of actions to follow. Perhaps a series of actions we can choose from.

Creating psionic animals is the obvious and both impressive enough that it would be in the crit range, while not super impressive in and of itself that I would imagine it would stop there in the 250+ crit range.

My two best guesses would be... well, actually creating psionic animals. As in, we drastically increased the psionic power of animals, thus giving us a path of research for increasing the raw psionic power of beings. The second guess would be animal familiars that would then need to be trained and such over the course of several turns in order to get the full benefit from.

...honestly, it could be both.