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:
...damn it!

We Could, in theory, send DoA and Rarity, and free an action for forge ritual... but we still can't make the ritual safe enough!

:cry:


Another single action could make things so much easier...
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If only we weren't such a nice pony and had to go to work. Legitimately, we're spending one action there, and it's all we need.

Honestly, what I would do in your plan—if we really didn't want to go ourselves—is use that free action to do another CoI ritual on Rarity, with no reagent because we want a lesser Influence so she doesn't get overwhelmed. But we would probably get better effect just going along with so we can throw our full weight instead of just a lesser Influence buff.
 
Or, spend that extra action on the reagent crafting and just store the third reagent for later use. Maybe make it a Heart thing for Selene's future ritual, or our own to remove Frightened.
 
"safe enough"

We could just bite the bullet and accept that there's an awful lot of risks and this one is less critical to mitigate?
 
I guess if we really didn't want to use DoA's action on making Wrong Keys this turn for whatever reason, but also don't want her leading the Jailbreak expedition, we could have her clear out Beneath the Royal Castle? Not that it's urgent (like, at all) but it is technically an option.

Or maybe have her cook our books for us to get more of those tasty, tasty bits :V
 
Greymere said:
I guess if we really didn't want to use DoA's action on making Wrong Keys this turn for whatever reason, but also don't want her leading the Jailbreak expedition, we could have her clear out Beneath the Royal Castle? Not that it's urgent (like, at all) but it is technically an option.

Or maybe have her cook our books for us to get more of those tasty, tasty bits :V
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Inb4 there's a fucking Level Five Forge Artifact in there. And a Heart 5 too, just to fuck with us.
 
Greymere said:
...that kind of makes me want to do it, because what if there is something super useful in there?? Or even just moderately useful!
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It honestly might not be a bad idea. We don't really need the Keys right now—not unless something goes horribly wrong, and we're screwed for a lot more reasons in that case—and that only really leaves three options. A Knock Influence—which is overkill for the expedition and questionably useful for any Mansus actions—sending her on the exepedition alone and freeing an action, or doing the Canterlot expedition.

And, let's be honest. We've missed out on a lot by skimping over expeditions. One in the depths of the royal catacombs? Chances are there's some neat shit in there. More artifacts or even books would be so freaking useful…
 
Greymere said:
I guess if we really didn't want to use DoA's action on making Wrong Keys this turn for whatever reason, but also don't want her leading the Jailbreak expedition, we could have her clear out Beneath the Royal Castle? Not that it's urgent (like, at all) but it is technically an option.

Or maybe have her cook our books for us to get more of those tasty, tasty bits :V
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We could have her clean Jade's house?
 
Aranfan said:
We could have her clean Jade's house?
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…That might not be a bad idea. On the one hand, it's still basically a relative stranger going through it, which is why we've refrained from having the Hintchasers do it. On the other, she's still a Minion of Velvet, and much better than a Risen.

On the third hoof, however, using the house also necessitates that Velvet be the one doing the ritual, because there's no way Jade will go in there.
 
Another thing to note about that is that chances are she would do it before the Jailbreak expedition, which means any Artifacts she finds could be used on said expedition. And possibly even our Mansus expedition when we do that. Not garunteed, of course, but it's possible.
 
Skelm said:
Hmm, it looks like most of the plans being thrown around are pretty okay. I guess all that time drafting them earlier has paid off.
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Yeah, pretty much everyone knows what they want, and have whittled things down to get as many as possible. Any knife fights will probably be over what extra stuff we can eke out on the sides, or how exactly to prepare for the big stuff.
 
Ericwinter said:
Yeah, pretty much everyone knows what they want, and have whittled things down to get as many as possible. Any knife fights will probably be over what extra stuff we can eke out on the sides, or how exactly to prepare for the big stuff.
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it doesn't help that the objectively obligated actions make up a good 80% of our action economy at the very least.

One of the things we'll likely fight a bit about is the mansus action. I (and I think you too) believe we're prepared enough for the Red Church (Grail influence, winter 4, possibly knock influence...), others might think it's a risk we shouldn't take with everything else going on.




About the canterlot expedition, if we send Velvet Axe there we probably can't send her to Twilight though. if normally going over the 5 days means losing the Name's action, I assume in THIS case going on two expeditions would accomplish the same.

I SUPPOSE we could have Velvet and Rarity go to find Twilight, and send DoA to Canterlot alone... but that seems like a waste.

Canterlot expedition will likely have to wait a turn or two, and same for the keys in my opinion.
 
I for one am torn between having the DoA scout so we can slap Jade on the Memory of Light, or have her solo the Royal catacombs for useful bling so that our various followers can do more useful things.

Edit: Oh if it means she can't go Twilight saving then never mind.
 
Pittauro said:
About the canterlot expedition, if we send Velvet Axe there we probably can't send her to Twilight though. if normally going over the 5 days means losing the Name's action, I assume in THIS case going on two expeditions would accomplish the same.

I SUPPOSE we could have Velvet and Rarity go to find Twilight, and send DoA to Canterlot alone... but that seems like a waste.

Canterlot expedition will likely have to wait a turn or two, and same for the keys in my opinion.
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@BirdBodhisattva can you confirm whether or not sending Velvet Axe to clear the Canterlot expedition on her own would prevent her from coming on the Twilight one?
 
Talon TigerDino said:
I for one am torn between having the DoA scout so we can slap Jade on the Memory of Light, or have her solo the Royal catacombs for useful bling so that our various followers can do more useful things.

Edit: Oh if it means she can't go Twilight saving then never mind.
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The scouting action is also a good option, admittedly. Saves us time, the ritual cost, and the chance of Jade botching out on it.
 
Ericwinter said:
The scouting action is also a good option, admittedly. Saves us time, the ritual cost, and the chance of Jade botching out on it.
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It costs the same amount of bits as RotT, actually. But yeah, it would still let us reassign Jade to something else.

Edit: It would also let us dodge the question of whose suspicion we want to increase, since the two 'better' options to do the RotT are at the club w/o Cadre (increase cult suspicion) or our house (increase regular suspicion).
 
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Greymere said:
It costs the same amount of bits as RotT, actually. But yeah, it would still let us reassign Jade to something else.

Edit: It would also let us dodge the question of whose suspicion we want to increase, since the two 'better' options to do the RotT are at the club w/o Cadre (increase cult suspicion) or our house (increase regular suspicion).
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That is a really good point, yeah. No ritual in our house would alleviate some concerns. We do save money on the reagents, too, if a plan was going to use those. And I kinda do really want to do the Memory investigation, since we won't have many chances before awakening Luna, and it would be nice to know what it's all about.

Heck, aside from Luna herself it's basically our one lead on Harmony, IIRC. If we could find a way to use it as an excuse for Jade's inactivity…
 
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Pittauro said:
One of the things we'll likely fight a bit about is the mansus action. I (and I think you too) believe we're prepared enough for the Red Church (Grail influence, winter 4, possibly knock influence...), others might think it's a risk we shouldn't take with everything else going on.
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Might I suggest a compromise? Attempt the Ruined Church if we reach the end of the turn without any Wounds or Maluses, otherwise explore the Woods.
Pittauro said:
About the canterlot expedition, if we send Velvet Axe there we probably can't send her to Twilight though. if normally going over the 5 days means losing the Name's action, I assume in THIS case going on two expeditions would accomplish the same.
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I believe the proposal is that Velvet Axe's action is the Canterlot Expedition. We can take her as a follower on another Expedition without loosing her action, I don't see any reason Canterlot Expedition should be special in that regard.
 
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