you know, full disclosure: If I actually WAS Velvet, I'd be tempted to give up and commit suicide via sun goddess.
I don't think I'd be able to deal with the stress she must be under, I'd just... give up and hope someone else can do this.
Or, maybe... I might not have betrayed the cult at all, and just murdered my conscience. It would be so
easy to basically stay the second-in-command of the cult, slowly establish an ample powerbase, and maybe become the actual leader later on... or just focus a few turns on only the mansus, reach the top, become a god, and fuck everything that dies in the meantime.
Doing plans this turn will be a herculean task.
2. Move our family. We can start the preprations with a servant action now looking for other property, but reassigning Stormy's job will be complex. The best place to be would move to Canterlot or Clousdale, and with the job we have an excuse. This is the most reasonable, but would also require us to take a huge chunk of the stimulus package from our dad to buy said property. Basically it is bound by bits.
Can unicorns even
live in Cloudsdale? Sure, there's cloud-walking spells/shoes, but moving around without being able to flying is bound to be complicated, AND it means we'd NEVER be able to remove the shoes (or whatever we wear that applies the charm).
We also need to think about our sacraments. If we want to do our own. Or decide to not do our own sacraments and take invitations
We can't dropp getting more powerful as we make more enemies.
right now we don't have
time for sacraments.
That said, in the next 2-3 turns we should probably try and find the time to pursue our SH one, the only lore currently at his hard cap. The other ones can wait.
Tapestry counts as scouting Manehattan, yes.
About the horn, you honestly don't know. IC, Velvet has absolutely zero experience with Redemption of the Forge beyond the theoretical, so she has no idea if that would have any influence.
OOC, Cultist Simulator could say that it made a difference, due to symbolism, while it could also say that there is no difference, because "the more grim of the two settings". And Redemption of the Forge being a CS-based ritual, would Harmony have any say in it?
So really, you have absolutely no idea about this, and I don't think even an educated guess could be made OOC. This, unfortunately, really is in the realm of "specific to this setting", and I'm afraid I can't really dip my finger into it without plainly giving the answer in WoG.
That's annoying. I suppose we can use it on the tapestry ritual with Twilight, because I don't see us being willing to risk using it on the forge ritual when we can only use a single reagent on it.
And that's if we even DO the forge ritual at all!
-When it comes to Trigger Events. To be honest, the absolute earliest I see one happening is at the end of this turn, and only if something goes catastrophically bad with the Twilight Rescue, OR in the aftermath of said rescue even if it goes well. After all, Shining will be coming to Ponyville, and Royal Guard on a Cult-heavy town will definitely make the Cult nervous.
-DOUBLY so because, if you think about it, the only Inner Circle members in town will be you, Jade and Comet (two-thirds in cahoots to leave the cult). When Shining comes, Windy will already have left, and so will Starry.
-If everything goes well, then you will probably have another full month clear. Unless somepony makes a really big fuss about Jade not having summoned Windigos (IF she doesn't summon them). But really, you think you have enough grace to not get a knife on your back if you ignore your orders this whole month. You have no idea about the next one though...
this pushes me to NOT make Wrong Keys this turn, but instead the next.
THIS ONE we instead get Velvet Axe to summon an influence OR to help us with the other actions.
Influence can help with Expedition AND, if we go with it, the mansus (red church and normal mansus). And having her do normal actions would possibly alleviate our action economy woes, if we find the right actions for her.
I'll check later for what actions our confidants would be really good at, Rarity is probably busy but Jade and Velvet Axe might be worth using for those.
-When it comes to moving to another town... this is actually a deeper hole than you initially thought. Depending on how Soft Sweeps feels, living in Canterlot might be fully vetoed. And if not Canterlot, than any other town actually comes into the menu, seeing how any other town shares the quality of "not being your future place of work". Plus, this will be quite a time-consuming change in your lifestyle if you do end up moving away. Honestly, it's best to iron out the details of your posting in the Lunar Bureau before beginning to look into this.
-You really think Velvet Axe (gotta get used to calling her that) can solo Twilight's rescue. The only true problem would be how to interact her, depending on her state. Doubly so because Velvet Axe is clearly not good with "interacting" as a whole.
-And finally, you think it's best to focus on a single aspect of your cult-retirement. Either "dissociate" by cutting your name from it, "sabotage" it so the Ponyville branch becomes less stable, or try to "convert" as much as you can to have a power base when you actually split (although the most likely next move following this would be more overt conflict with the Cult. Because if you form a splitting cult, with followers stolen from the Wildhoof Club, you suddenly become competition)
mh.. if we want to move to Canterlot, we'll likely want to take the Soft Sweeps action at the very least.
as a reminder, this turn GRAIL is going to be our best friend.
I'm also completely unwilling to send Axe alone to Twilight, we HAVE to be there. Maybe Rarity too, if we want to try to persuade Twilight to trust us.
I'm not sure what I want to do with the cult.
If our rivals are out in other cities and we get comet, we taking over the whole cult in ponyville might be the best option. Powerbase plus current home advantages.
ANd what about when the master comes back?
and yet... with Comet, it might be worth a shot. and if we put the Master in front of a done takeover, as long as we're
still pushing for our success... it might actually be possible.
We'd need a way to at least make a direct confrontation undesirable for her, though. Maybe give a wrong key to Comet too?
...and if we were to "conquer" the local cult, then MAYBE we'd get some leverage over the councilors that are not on our side...
…This is actually a really good point! We COULD decide to try and subvert the entire Ponyville branch of the Cult as a way to continue to stay in the town we have roots and connections in.
It's comes with its own complications though. I think the thread majority wants to accept the position on the Lunar Buerau, and well….juggling that and Secret Cult Leader comes with the huge risk of The Wrong Person finding out.
On the other hand, being the head of the lunar bureau AND having stolen the cult as the Loremaster might make us TOO VALUABLE for the Master to just dispose of, even after a takeover, as long as we're pursuing objectives she'd agree with.
Considering how there's really no way to be 100% safe from the Master no matter what we do, there might actually be a point in being so daring...
I wonder... maybe convincing Comet that "if we were in charge, we could stop the cult from doing its worst acts" might convince him, especially with Fluttershy there.
The problem remains how we'd deal with the Master at the next meeting though. In her place of power, I wouldn't be surprised if we were totally at her mercy. Maybe have a failsafe ready of the "if you kill me now everything we've done will be told to Celestia"?
... it's kinda tempting to try and
blackmail a demigod. Reminds me of Dr Strange with Dormammu.
Here's my current idea:
Rarity on her job
Jade on RotT at our house - Sacrifice Lantern 1
Hintchasers get a body
Risen steal the manuscripts
DoA/Velvet Axe on Wrong Key crafting
Servants on... looking for expeditions, I guess?
Knock boon on the Woods
Forge boon on Grail 3 reagent
Winter boon on Flourishing Risen (w/ body from Hintchasers)
Winter for Selene (obviously)
Velvet's actions:
CoI (Grail) - Sacrifice Grail 3
Comet Feet - With Fluttershy, not in reserve
Soft Sweeps
Lore lessons for the family - Conditional to drop if RotT fails
Dissociate from the cult
Rescue Twilight
I'd argue that we can wait for the keys for next turn, and this turn we can use DoA for something else. Maybe knock influence, and then we have velvet do the red church? With knock and grail influence, and our various lvl 4s, we should have pretty good chances. We even have Winter 4, which was what I wanted the most in there!
It's a minor risk, but I think we need to be a little less caurious in our mansus progress. I'd devote another action to it if we just could afford to.
about lores... maybe teaching Rarity would be better than teaching our family right now. We really need another grail helper, and it will also help with Rarity's job.
Someone would probably notice spooky magic things happening inside it, even if we probably could break in undetected.
...
how about Windy's house then? He's leaving Ponyville after all.
@BirdBodhisattva could we use Windy's house for our rituals once he leaves town? or Starry's, if we can find it?
or... the house of that one old pony that died doing farmwork for us, and had no family?
The only reason I'm leery of doing the Church this turn is cause. Well. We pretty much have no idea what next turn is going to look like. Risking dealing with a Fascination/Dread/Wound on the turn that is either going to be our last chance of prep or our first turn as an open traitor seems unnecessarily risky, imo.
I kind of assumed that Bird would just refund the AP and open a vote on what to do with it. I think he said something along those lines earlier?
we have winter 4, one or two influences actives, everything at either lvl 3 or 4.
THe risk is relatively low, and I think we need it.
