The Summoners one or seeking the Egg. Summoners because I want that tower, A LOT. Angels just seem like they'll be incredibly helpful in a wide range of ways, plus their residual traces feel likely to be useful and less likely than the Devils to be, well, actively hazardous. The words and wisdom of angels feels like it could be useful even with the angels themselves long gone.
I would like to have her pass on her knowledge first, yeah, which limits our choices to forgotten violence or the Arenas, and I don't think Arenas would quite do what I want. I want her to do at least a little teaching so we don't fully lose her capabilities with her death. Though given her whole... Shtick now that I think about it she might end up having a lifespan longer than most mundanes due to her transgression into the realm of Philosophy. Excellent physical fitness, and a combat style that specifically pushes beyond the mundane, she might be a bit longer lived than would normally be possible.
Hm, let's take a look at the expiditions then, and why i think we should do an expidition first! So, we've had options for expiditions for a while, but haven't done them because we wanted to build up stuff. We have allready done that, with founding the past-dwellers, creating Xipe Topec as well as a temple to bring him into the world of matter. The past-dwellers are also, despite mostly being a mortal Guild, still filled with Philospher-historians(Mostly from the Tower that Think, is my guess), and we got the Hive Knights with the Singing Shepards.
I think, while we could still do more preperation, we are at the cusp of the cycle of discovery, and we've made alot of preperations. We should do an expedition, and find out what it entails. I'll also note that
New actions will be unlocked after at least one successful expedition
There are actions locked behind actually completing one, which i think we got a decent shot at doing, with the Temple-Maze, Philosphers, Singing Shepards and Past-dwellers! So, i'd heavily recommend doing one now, even without the Second Weaponmaster or not(If we're putting her on something else as an example.
[] Constructive Rebirth of Forgotten Violences [Sundial Tower] [Path of History] [Mundane] [0/1] NEW
Amongst the more martial inclined Mundane trained as assistant and historians by the Past-Delvers, an idea as spread to restore forgotten ways of battles, from the stories of long-dead warriors and the traditions carried by line of soldiers once sworn to fallen Kingdoms.
Increase martial capacity of the Past-Delvers, trigger a roll on a prepared loot table.
So, looking at the action here, it's noted as restoring forgotten ways of battle from ancient kingdoms, right? I think, this action would probally get better if we did some of the kingdom battle delving first, so the history that would be restored would be more complete when we are doing this action. While martial capacity is good, i also think we got enough that we can start poking at the smaller exeditions first.
Also, thinking further on it, in terms of Second Weaponmaster, i think this would primarly work as her training them to be better at violence, rather then passing on her art, since this action is spesifically about "restoring" old martial traditions, rather then passing on a new one. I'd suspect we'd need to do the arena or something else, if that's the goal rather then this. Either way, i don't think this is the path, if that's the goal.
Now, as for the actual expiditions themself, they are generally sorted into three categories.
Those that destroyed themselves
Before the Order could be founded, two lesser orders, one of angel summoners, one of demons binders, destroyed each other in a senseless war, turning themselves into Sorcerers in the process. Ruins of their works remain, carefully quarantined by the Order. We could dare delve into them.
The First category, which is about other tower's outside the order. I'd suspect these are amongst the more dangerous one, due to fact that it would contain works of Philosphy, and Philosphy the Order wouldn't be as familiar with. This one is probaly more about the Order learning how other tower works, and using that as a basis into establishing those Tower. I think, that would be the primary benefit here, and we'd not expect much else from it(But, a Tower is an immense reward).
[] Fallen Chains [0/1] [Path of Binding]
Once, in the northwest of Cradle, there was a land of mountains and dark forests, filled with hatred, wars between neighbors, poverty and plagues. Then one hermit from a burned village found the names and faces of the demons that plagues this land, and began the work of binding them.
Years laters, his successors binded all the evil of this land into one Tower of Chains, and the sun once again shone into scarred, but free people.
Now the chains lie broken on the ground, in a land lifeless, devils bound and blinded whispering their pains on the wind. Shall we dare explore those Chains ?
Explore the ruins of the Tower of Chains, home of the Binders.
[] No longer Holy [0/1] [Path of Summoning]
Once, in a kingdom of mountains ruled by one King, there was a temple on a mountaintop, and a person in it. The person prayed so that the King and people would be guided by virtues and not ambitions, that workers would build road and terrace fields for the people and not the King's conquering armies. Then, prayers brought a light into the world, and this light was an angel called Rightful Rule.
From one person and one angel, many others were birthed, until beings of virtues guided the weak and strong toward felicity, and faithful summoners Worked without vice.
Now, the temple of light is a ruin, and the angels have left this world, shamed and disgusted. Shall we dare delve into the ruin of fallen virtues ?
Explore the ruins of the Temple of Light, home of the Summoners.
So, we got both the Tower of Chains, and Tower of Heaven, both being Theurgy type Towers, if the First Work post is accurate to this. Which it might not be to the Order that stands today.
That being said, i do think we actually want to wait with doing these. We know there are some degree's of rolling with this, and while we do want to do expidtions now, we probaly want to complete a few expiditions first, so the Order can unlock actions towards improving the Past-Dwellers and understand more how it works, so we can make sure we are doing these properly.
I also think, we've spend an entire turn poking at the Tower of Mountains, and while getting more Tower is always great, we don't want to mono-focus on that. I'd really like us to turn our attention to other stuff first, so doing this later would fit more into that. My conclusion, is that we'd want to get a few expiditions, and their releated results under our belts first.
Our precursors
Those who inspired the Order, those we still honor. The ruins of their success and failure wait for us.
The second category, one that focuses on the precoursers for the Order. We'll probaly expect to find relevant Tower upgrades here, for the differnet Towers, while probaly still dangerous because Workings(Even if lesser), this is Philosphy the Tower should be a lot more aquinted with, and so i think while dangerous this is a lot less then the Chain and Heaven Towers action might be. This could be a good starting point.
[] Once a Garden [0/1] [Path of History]
Once, in the Southwest of Cradle, between two lakes, there were wise users of herbs, healers of men, beasts and crops. They built a garden of the world as it should be, free from pain, all the bounty offered, and some of their numbers , seeing signs of coming doom, left and joined a young Order.
Now, the garden of those that once healed King and slave is an overgrowth island filled with monsters and poisons. What happened ?
Explore the garden of those whose legacy live in the Living Tower.
[] Valley of the Nameless King [0/1] [Path of History]
Once, in the great land fed by the greatest river of Cradle, there was a King, lord of a dying land. For the desert was growing, and the great river's water turned slowly into a blood-colored poisson. The King sought a way to save his Kingdom, to make it survive poisson and drought, in texts forbidden, bounty of long-slain Sorcerers.
The King learned much, faster than all could expect, and soon he took on a new name, and inscribed it on every building of his Kingdoms, and his subjects that could see it were bound to him, obeying and working despite hunger and thirst.
The King, with his army and knowledge, enslaved every wise one he could find, binding them to his name, and filling their dreams with orders and painfull learning. Soon, subjects and wises worked on one grand project, in an auspicious valley, to build a grand tomb-palace complex, of pyramids and tunnels, all in the name of the King, so that once build, the King would persist beyond death, and with him his Kingdom, and all is subjects, bound even as dried corpses.
But a few of the wises he enslaved worked against him, and with a subtle act of cunning, altered the work, by weaving two concepts together. The King became the Kingdom, the Kingdom the Palace-tomb and the Valley, and all beyond became beyond the reach of the King, all the engraving and amulet of his name fading to dust, for his name was now the name of the Valley, and the Valley had no name in the tongues of man.
So the wises fled their deathless lord, to join a young Order.
Now, the Valley and the Palace and the King still are, untouched by time.
Explore the Valley of the Nameless King, whose legacy live in the Tower that Think
[] The Perfect Fallen City [0/1] [Path of History]
Once, there was a land under an Emperor, field with feuding noblemen, where unity did not bring peace. In it walked a Philosopher, who shared a dream. Of a land bound by impartial laws and perfect infrastructure, where the evils of men were contained by the work of mind like a river tamed.
Many listened to his message, and built a city according to his teachings, where each law and each building was ordered.
In this city of perfected order, however, all punishments were the same. Death for murder, death for thief, death for being late. For the Philosopher desired to reach his visions at all cost.
He ruled and punished until those once loyal rose against him, and a few left, guided by a woman who vowed to guide and never force.
Now the city is ruined, perfect order and laws turning to dust. Shall we dare face fallen dreams of impossible Order ?
Explore the city of one whose legacy lives in the Sundial Tower.
The Garden, is between two lakes, and sounds remarkable similar to the healing city. We'd probaly uncover herbs and healer techquies here, and it would serve to help us with the foundation and creation of Health actions, and maybe into how to create monsters(Spawn-improvements?) and poisons. So, this could be really good, given we are getting a Alchemist Hero soon, and are probaly going to start poking at the alchemist actions.
The valley of the king, is hmm. We talked about how a God of memory might contain the shards and knowledge of the Order beyond their lifespan. This actually sounds somewhat similar to that, in creating an undying idea/concept. It's also noted as being sorcerrours in origin though, so the extend to which it's going to be usefull to us is also in the air.(Also, it might trigger the flaw of the Tower that think, so we'll have to consider this one carefully, when we are doing it)
The perfect city. This one would probaly unlock heavenly city upgrades, or something along those lines. But, it's one that goes really heavily into the flaws of the Sundial Tower, but we've allready(espesically with the latest update on straightening the World), made the Sundial Tower learn to the extend which their "perfection", isn't always clearsighted. I think this might have been dangerous for us once upon a time then, but now should a lot safer to explore. So, i'd put this one tentatively high. It might also come in relevant for the Havens actions, we are doing. Since those are about creating a perfect society right? So, it might give us a lot of clues on how to handle that.
Beyond Philosophy
Theirs are ruins and secrets beyond those that inspired our Order. There are many secrets worthy of being undiscovered, there are many threats worthy of being destroyed.
So, here are the more mundane expedition actions and the third category. Ones that don't concern any of the tower's super peticulary.
[] The Lessers, the Unfound [0/2] [Mundane]
There are many ruins on Cradle, buried in the desert, isolated on mountain's peak, or under the seas. Ruins almost untouched by greater ills and deeds, but still filled with the past, ready to be uncovered.
+1 Reliques
[] Seek the Egg [0/1][Path of History]
Neter nature nor a merciful creator brought humanity to Cradle, but a cruel Egg, creating and destroying in service of one vision. Thanks to Fate, the Egg now lies broken in the depths of the seas, and our kind was able to grow without the Egg's presence and cruel judgements.
Like a boy wounded by his father, and now a man, it is time for us to seek the Egg, reach it, and demand answers.
Why were we made ? Where do the Egg and our kind come from ? Why was the reason for the Egg's cruelty ?
Seek the Egg, and extract answers from it.
[Second Circle of Divination]
Even wounded, the Egg can still destroy. Be prepared.
[] Into the Deep [0/?]
Below the World-Spine lie lands unseen and creatures undiscovered. Life that seems not kin to us. The secrets of Cradle's own past. Shall we dare face the deep ?
Explore the depths of the Underworld and seek the first lives.
The lesser seems more like a generic exploration action. It might be repetable? But, it does cost two points to do, so it's not exactly "free" so to speak. Gives us a reliques, which does unlock variation of actions(Like we saw with the Storm one). Also potentially destroyable for an AP, so if this is repeatable it might be consider a way of trading in 2 MAP for 1 AP. I think, a reliques is all we're getting from this though, so no other actions unlocked.
The Egg. The egg is a mysterious lootbox, what will we learn, how will it affect us? Who's to say! I think, we might consider doing this on the last turn of the Second Weaponmaster. We should have hopefully done a few exploration, and gained experience at that point, and since this seems to be a combat expedition, with the Divination warning, the second weaponmaster would probaly help a lot here. So, on the last turn of the Second Weaponmaster is when i'd want to do this.
Into the Deep. This is probaly one that might unlock really weird stuff, since we'd encounter things that doesn't have a "Human" origin so to speak. I think, this is one that's going to have a really large and wide impact, on what it could potentially unlock, but one that we are not fully sure on what exactly it's going to unlock. It's also a mystery action at (0/?) in progress.
So then, what do i think we should do. I'm currently leaning towards us doing one of the precourser tower actions. The Tower of Chains/Heavens can wait a bit, and untill we are more prepared, while the precourser would be easier to start poking at.
I think the Once a garden, is the most promising of those. We are getting an alchemist Hero, the City of Health, has a health releated action, and this is probaly going to be more options(upgrade the actions there) for that. It's one that's relevant, we are most likely going to be spending actions on anyway, so it fits a lot of what we'd want. So, this is what i'd recommend as our first expeditions, and what we should start on doing next turn!
The perfect city, is a good second option. Since we are doing fortress-city and the Havens, and this might be relevant in terms of those. And leaves us with more to do in terms of actual City-Building and understanding.
The third potential option, is into the Deep. The reason why it's only third, is because of the ? progression required, and while that isn't super terrible. We want to actually do one sucesfull expedition, since that is noted as having actions locked behind it. So, we'd want to do something [0/1] first, before we start going into the Deep. But once, we've done one or two, i'm gonna start debating for this.
Honestly, if we had some mundane kingdoms, i might have wanted to do that first, but we don't(or more accuratly, it's probally part of the "lesser and unfound" action), but since we don't, i think the Garden should be our first goal. A problem, with unlocking actions, is that it cost AP, and we kinda need to do a lot of space actions, but since we are most likely going to be pursuing health/alchemist actions anyway, this is going to slide in nicely there. Though, i suppose there is an argument to be made for waiting, so we can put our Alchemist action on the Garden exploration. Even if i think, that argument isn't enough for delaying it!