I don't love either of these choices, but better to be the ruler than the ruled.
[X]Spend one Willpower, accepting ritual initiation into his priesthood and the burden of speaking with royal authority: Add this card to your Pneuma. Gain one Triumphant Initiation. Convert any number of Supernal resources you have into any other Supernal resources.
-[X]Supernals 1 experience for 1 force
We have 2 connections and 0 force, so swapping one over gives us protection against events that require us to spend force or willpower. I wish we could move something over to insight, but we don't have enough supernals for both full coverage and buffing insight.
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
Triumphant Initiations make perils harder so we should probably avoid them.
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X]Spend one Willpower, accepting ritual initiation into his priesthood and the burden of speaking with royal authority: Add this card to your Pneuma. Gain one Triumphant Initiation. Convert any number of Supernal resources you have into any other Supernal resources.
-[X]Supernals 1 connection for 1 force
[X]Spend one Willpower, accepting ritual initiation into his priesthood and the burden of speaking with royal authority: Add this card to your Pneuma. Gain one Triumphant Initiation. Convert any number of Supernal resources you have into any other Supernal resources.
-[X]Supernals 1 connection for 1 force
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
Ash seems much more a teacher (even if still learning) than a ruler. I do not think the "burden of speaking with royal authority" is one that is desirable.
We have 2 connections and 0 force, so swapping one over gives us protection against events that require us to spend force or willpower. I wish we could move something over to insight, but we don't have enough supernals for both full coverage and buffing insight.
I think we had 2 connection, but then we used the Transmutation to gain 1 experience and expanded 1 connection on beating the Sweetsickness witch. So you should probably change your vote to '1 experience for 1 force'.
Anyway...mechanically, the second option is not great. Gaining a Triumphant Initiation will make any Perils harder to beat, and as we are we can just bearly beat a Cups challenge (and it'll require us to burn the Ace of Cups, which I'm really not a fan of). On the other hand, a longer night means more chances to gain and use Auras, and getting this early in the night is especially useful. Obviously it also means more chances to encounter Perils and unavoidable Willpower expenditures, but this is still strictly better than waking up and going back to the Ascent, which still has the same risks but with less Auras in our back-pocket.
But it's the narrative that makes the first option a no-brainer in my opinion, because I don't think Ash wants the "burden of speaking with royal authority". This guy seems nice enough, but he really doesn't feel like a force that aligns with Ash's current personality and desires. I'm happy to have a chat with him, but "ritual initiation into his priesthood" seems like a bit much.
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
This is kinda important. I won't ping anyone, but if you're reading this and voting for the latter option, please consider editing your vote to switching an Experience for Force, not Connection.
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
I don't understand Triumphant Initiations but I know we shouldn't be trading away a Connection. Should be Experience.
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
Ok, so we are now guaranteed to get a Peril this night?
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
I thought this was right, but upon checking it seems we actually have 1 connection and 2 experience.
I think we had 2 connection, but then we used the Transmutation to gain 1 experience and expanded 1 connection on beating the Sweetsickness witch. So you should probably change your vote to '1 experience for 1 force'.
Thankfully I don't think any such events actually exist. If we meet a court card that would require Force then we may have to simply Aura it instead, which would be a shame, but unless Kings or Nines function in this exact way (contrary to established patterns) we're probably in the clear on that front.
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
Also I do very much enjoy the Theme the deck has decided to feed us and look forward to meeting a King soon to continue it (please? ).
Voting closed. I was going to be busy today but I hurt my foot like an idiot and leaving the apartment is contraindicated, so on the plus side expect an update in the next few hours.
Scheduled vote count started by picklepikkl on May 31, 2024 at 2:50 PM, finished with 15 posts and 12 votes.
[X] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[X]Spend one Willpower, accepting ritual initiation into his priesthood and the burden of speaking with royal authority: Add this card to your Pneuma. Gain one Triumphant Initiation. Convert any number of Supernal resources you have into any other Supernal resources.
-[X]Supernals 1 connection for 1 force
[X]Spend one Willpower, accepting ritual initiation into his priesthood and the burden of speaking with royal authority: Add this card to your Pneuma. Gain one Triumphant Initiation. Convert any number of Supernal resources you have into any other Supernal resources.
-[X]Supernals 1 experience for 1 force
[*] Spend one Willpower, discussing your skills, determination, and readiness with Lord Ammon: Add this card to your Pneuma. During this night only, you can Explore up to three additional times (to a maximum of nine instead of six).
[*][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
You must be honest with yourself: you respond well to praise from authority figures, even as you are uncomfortable dealing with them. Lord Ammon's words, simply spoken, are made more meaningful by the throne on which he sits.
But that doesn't change the fact that you aren't going to kneel before him.
"Lord," you say, because that is his title and politeness costs you nothing, "I'm honored by your appraisal of my worth and willingness to teach me that which you have to teach. But if you have seen me and watched me, you know that I've already struggled mightily in my Ascent, and won insights and power thereby. I have initiated myself into the mysteries that lie in the heights, and I prefer it that way. Counsel and guidance are one thing," you've already accepted it tonight from the Archimandrite, for that matter, "but... I have no desire to bow my head before you or anyone, or to become a ruler in my own right. Or, at least, not in those ways. A teacher is not a king, and a prophet is not a god."
He inclines his head at that: a nod of acceptance and understanding. He does not seem upset or offended, you think, though that steady expression is difficult to read. "Fairly spoken. I did not think you would choose this path. But you had earned the right to be asked."
Well. That's pretty cool, honestly. You could leave it at that and just leave, but... a positively-inclined greater dream entity is not an opportunity to be wasted. You clear your throat. "If there is nothing else that requires your attention, lord, I would still be interested in discussing the Ascent with you, before I depart."
"By all means," he says gravely (but with a hint of warmth?), and gestures. A chair appears beside you; you cannot tell whether it was simply transported here by his power, or whether he created it for you, or whether there's even a difference in the dreaming-realm. It is smaller and less grand than his throne, but that is appropriate: you are, after all, a guest in his court.
You sit, and consider where to begin. While you're thinking, your mouth opens and you speak more honestly than you had planned. "I worry that I'm running out of time." He wordlessly invites you to continue, so you do. "I've seen and done... really quite a lot, so far. But it's tiring. I don't know how much longer I can last up here before I have to admit defeat. I don't know what I'll find before then."
"Do you intend to compromise on your goals, then?" His voice is smooth and deep.
You shake your head. "No. Or, at least, I can't speak to the future with certainty, I can't say what I might do with new information, but I've had two opportunities to turn aside. I didn't take either of them, despite my sense of... flagging, you could call it. They weren't..." you grope for words, "they didn't answer the sort of thing that I had come to the Ascent seeking resolution to. Triumph, yes, but not the kind that feels consonant with what I value. But I don't even know what I'm looking for, properly, let alone what might be atop the mountain to find, let alone if the two match in any way at all."
The god leans his scepter of office against his throne and folds his hands in his lap. "Aspirant," he says, "there are ways to surmount the weariness of which you speak, but I do not think that is your deepest concern. You worry whether the prize is worth the effort. To that I say: the supernal is found in many forms. No two who have come down from the peaks have been changed in quite the same way. And you know by now that becoming Ascendant is not the only glory available to you. The high reaches are littered with those who did not attain the summit, but who come anyway to work toward other goals. Spiritual work is never done: not in your world nor in this one. Will you permit me a word of instruction, not from master to servant but from sage to seeker?"
Put like that, you can hardly refuse. You nod.
"There are different kinds of spiritual advancement. There is the methodical work of the day, where you know what virtues you wish to inculcate and which vices you wish to expunge, and there is nothing to be done but the doing. And also there is the revolutionary leap, the moment of enlightenment that redefines and transcends the self entirely. The nature of the latter is that it is in darkness to you until it is not. It may be fair to you, or it may be foul. I do not counsel you to drink foulness for the sake of quenching thirst. But what waits atop the mountains will undoubtedly be a strange draught, the likes of which you have not tasted, for it is not to be found in your world."
II THE HIGH PRIESTESS
You leave strangely energized. That was better than you had any right to expect, and to be honest, the chance to give your legs a rest was almost as good as getting a pep talk from a literal god-king. You feel... not at peace, precisely, because you don't want to be at rest, you want to move. Open, perhaps? You're not sure, but rather than thinking about what it is you're feeling, it seems better to feel it and keep going.
So you follow the best available paths, and you aren't too aggravated when the paths begin to consistently dip downwards. Whatever the Ascent has to show you, it will show you; it doesn't mean you're regressing.
You can't help but suppress a sigh, though, as you are led to another temple. So it's going to be one of those nights, huh. This one, in contrast to the last two, is set directly into the mountainside, and as you pass through the outer gates you notice that it feels different. The walls are lined with images and glyphs that... loom, somehow, in your perception. The halls continue to lead into the mountain, transitioning from edifice to cave, and your steps are once again taking you lower. Far from the eremitic monofocus or stately grandeur you'd previously encountered, this feels vaguely sinister. Primordial. Chthonic.
And then you reach the sanctuary, and behold the temple's attendant.
The sibyl, sitting on her tripod between a pillar of black stone and a pillar of white stone, is impossibly beautiful. Beautiful in the ethereal way that only dying things can be beautiful. She is gowned in white, and it's slinky and diaphanous, and even so it reminds you of a shroud. The floor beneath her seat is a grate. Thick clouds of vapor, heavy with moisture, swirl all around her. You can smell the poison in the gas from where you stand.
You have met an Oracle once already. Now you see that of which she and her sisters are made in the image and likeness. Your mind races as you consider whether to ask her to point your way and, if so, to what.
She looks at you with impossibly knowing eyes and smiles. "My wisdom comes from below. That's the trick of it. But surely you knew that already. At the heart of creation, a dragon gnaws at the foundations of the dream, for hunger and for hate. He knows everything, because he is coiled around the origin of everything, and it all unfolds before his ancient eyes. This is his temple. I am his chosen prophetess. The vapor that surrounds me is his breath, and it carries with it all his knowledge and all his venom.
"I can tell you what lies in wait. I can tell you who you truly are. My understanding does not come from the light of reason, or from a grasp of the supernal; it comes from the oldest horror, from the poisonous monster that lies at the very root of you. That is my gift, and that is my doom.
"Do you understand? Will you hear?"
[] Spend one Willpower, talking to the sibyl about your hopes without asking her to prophesy: Add this card to your Pneuma.
[] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck.
[][PROPHECY] Write-in a card currently in your Ascent Deck
[][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
[][ASCENT] Wake up, ending the Night.
Decks and Resources: Character Sheet Night-specific information: 3/max 9 Explorations
THE DECK HAS A THEME TONIGHT AND WE ARE STILL HELPLESS IN ITS GRASP.
[jk] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck.
[jk][PROPHECY] XXI The World
[jk][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
Give me the world or give me death! (jk jk, the deck has a great theme tonight)
[X] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck.
[X][PROPHECY] VI The Lovers
[X][PROPHECY] X Wheel of Fortune
[X][PROPHECY] XX Judgement
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
I want to go to one of the three Trial-gated cards. We have three Triumphant Initiations, and it (normally) takes two to gain one of them. So I think that should likely be plenty enough for whatever we find there.
[X] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck
[X][PROPHECY] 9 of Wands
[jk][PROPHECY] The Tower (This is a Peril)
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
Like, we're going to have 3 Willpower left after this. Time's running out and it's running out fast. This might be our only shot at hitting the endgame. And while I am curious about what the other cards do, after the quest ends we can just ask Pickle what they would've done. But we've only get this one run of the game to try and succeed.
We're running out of time. It's very very lucky that we found this card, because now we can find [GLORY].
[X] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck
[X][PROPHECY] XX Judgement
[X] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck.
[X][PROPHECY] XXI The World
[X][PROPHECY] XIV Temperance
[X][PROPHECY] XVII The Star
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
Now to my actual vote, just going off of vibes tbh. Temperance might, and keyword is might, give us willpower. All vibes based analysis tho.
Oof. I'm not entirely sure I want this, but if she needed rescue, I would like to think that she could ask for it.
[X] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck.
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
[X][PROPHECY] XX Judgement
[X][PROPHECY] XVII The Star
"I can tell you what lies in wait. I can tell you who you truly are. My understanding does not come from the light of reason, or from a grasp of the supernal; it comes from the oldest horror, from the poisonous monster that lies at the very root of you. That is my gift, and that is my doom.
It would have been very mean to do in a singular one-shot Quest format but I could absolutely see the dilemma of Agony of Being Seen (By Prophecy) manifesting in the vote instead be "Pick Two Prophecies and [The Tower]. Shuffle them and put the winner on top of the Ascent Deck" for an actual game.
As it is though:
[X] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck.
[X][PROPHECY] X Wheel of Fortune
[X][PROPHECY] XVII The Star
[X][PROPHECY] XX Judgement
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
[X] Spend one Willpower, asking her for a prophecy: Add this card to your Pneuma. Put the winner of the [PROPHECY] vote on top of the Ascent Deck.
[X][PROPHECY] VI The Lovers
[X][PROPHECY] X Wheel of Fortune
[X][PROPHECY] XX Judgement
[X][ASCENT] Keep exploring.
