What's the point of going up if we get locked behind Sacrament?
We don't KNOW that the next door requires sacrament. In fact, it's actually unlikely, as each door has been pretty close to the canon ones, requiring in order Health, Knowledge, a living sacrifice (bypassed by Wolf), and the next according to the game should require a mirror (and it has been implied it might require that, or artifacts).
Even so, KNOWING what's the requirement will allow us to focus our efforts on satisfying them.
And if we need to stay there for a couple of turns... ignoring the temple expedition I'd like to do this turn, we'd still have
1)1 wood location
2)1 stairways location
3)Depths of the Ruined Church
which should be around another 4 points or so of exploration, so we'd be fine anyway. if we had to wait.
2 is enough, we still need to guard our home.
We don't have enough bits to RoTT + Canterlot expedition, sadly
it's a once in forever opportunity. 3 is the maximum AND my minimum.
for guards we can ask for Comet, there's Mareinette, we could remove Incision with Mareinette to help... the guards would be worth less than Mareinette, really.
TECHNICALLY we have enough for RotT and 7 days of expedition. And thus far we've completed all expeditions faster than the standard.
Both Canterlot part 1 and Finding Selene took 3 days instead of the 5 expected. Mareinette rolls REALLY well, especially on HEart and Grail obviously, and while I assume Grail won't apply Heart might. So I think 7 days MIGHT be enough, though it's a bet.
Sounds good.
Would say Mareinette Incision (finally getting rid of afraid! Supressed memories, Velvet being useful in groupfights, +10 in fights. The latter two synergizing great with having a guard at home).
Baldo on Frangiclave (get that into dry towels so we can do it once DoA is back (might want to do "Name stomp Copper" first, but probably want to wait to do that until we have Biedde)).
Rarity: Focus on work.
Use the free social on rich or apple. With Leash they'd be Confidant we can ask about a 3circle big place.
Mareinette should probably go on finding the summoning location if we're not doing her expedition. we REALLY need a place to summon DoA in next turn.
If I'm going full wedding I really need to use the free social to actually teach Rarity, so I can't use it on Applejack or Filthy Rich. We also don't know if we can afford to remove the Leash from Shining (though I could see a wedding pick being "You can safely remove the leash from him, he's too happy to notice/you can make Twilight stop reminding him of that one problematic story")
As I understand it, yes, but that means giving her control over whatever the reward is, and apparently nobody trusts her to make any decision ever despite Bird clarifying that she doesn't invent new choices, only chooses out of whatever options Velvet would have been presented herself. Granted, the narrative of what exactly comes out of those choices can be different, but they're the same choices.
Apparently when a QM tries to give you a super social god that you had to work to get and tells you it's fine to use it for its intended purpose, it only breeds suspicion and fear.
yes, that seems about right!
also Mareinette can be useful in
1)finding a ritual place. she has +40 to the search after all
2)remove incision. 20 bits, only fails on nat1 edge or double nat1 heart
3)guarding
4)If we want to risk it, Canterlot part 2 (we can afford 7 days of exploration if paired with Tapestry for Frangiclave, which is BARELY enough in my opinion if we're not unlucky. it only took 3 out of 5 expected days for ALL of our expeditions thus far.
I CHECKED. Selene, Canterlot part 1, Twilight. ALL COMPLETED in 3 days).
It's exactly the narrative differences that I'm worried about. This is a narrative quest; how we go about things can be just as important as the things themselves. As we've already seen in the recent Mareinette apocrypha, she can definitely make a good, useful mechanical decision that is at the same time not something that we want to have happen narratively. Sure, we're enemies with Copper and "disappearing" her is probably a good option with how many sacraments require a prisoner, but I don't think Velvet would decide to keep Copper in a barrel for decades and force her to have children specifically just to eat them later. I don't want to see Mareinette's idea of a great wedding, not without some assurances first that this won't irrevocably change our relationship with Cadence.
We HAVE that assurance. What we don't have is the assurance that, in extreme cases, something more won't be going in the background, like the Copper-Barrel-of-Wine.
Mareinette is not malevolent (towards us. for now) nor stupid. She'd do her best to keep our relationship with Cadence as positive as possible.
I STILL don't want her there, but that's because
I want Velvet to remember these days spent with Cadance, and not have to learn of them THROUGH MAREINETTE.
Also my previous plan with Leash on Filthy Rich, and Rarity directing Marinette to make sure her choice of wedding option is suitable one.
REmoving the Leash is not supposed to be safe yet. It's a stupid risk to take right now.
MAYBE one of the wedding picks will allow us to do it by putting the topic to rest between Twilight and Shining, but
we don't know if that will be an option yet.
I'm definitely posting my own plan in a bit. I'm not quite sure what I want to have Mareinette do, so I might have a couple variants.
the must haves to me
1)Wedding: 3 picks
2)Find a place to summon DoA in next turn (Baldomare if we're fine delaying scrying for the key by ONE turn or Mareinette? Baldomare has the highest bonuses, and it would allow us to have the money for the Canterlot Expedition)
3)Scry for Frangiclave (negotiable. it COULD wait a turn, while nearly everything else in this list can't)
4)Teach Rarity (free social)
5)Some guards. At least Comet, possibly Mareinette too
6)Pride, in person, preferably with Uncle Steppes as a guest
7)if at all possible, 1 mansus exploration, so 2 points "up" and 1 "temple"
8)Incision would be nice, but Mareinette has enough important actions she could do (guarding, find ritual location, expedition) that it probably won't happen.
