The Treasury Argument
Exposing sunk cost reasoning
What started with the court just got more complicated. Now you need to advise powerful people with integrity even when they don't want to hear it — and the situation is shifting faster than your first approach can handle.
Free to play · No credit card required
Part of this story
The Court
→Ashoka returns to Pataliputra a changed man. The court has not changed. The generals argue that stopping now would mean the deaths in Kalinga were for nothing. You have eight scenes to help the emperor see that argument for what it is.
Part of the quest
Ashoka: The War Within
→261 BCE. The Mauryan Empire is at its peak. You are a young advisor to the most powerful emperor in the ancient world, and he has just made a decision that will cost 100,000 lives. Navigate the Kalinga War, witness a king's transformation, and help shape the edicts that will be carved in stone for 2,300 years.
What you'll learn from The Treasury Argument
This scenario focuses on Exposing sunk cost reasoning — a critical skill inside the broader history domain. You'll face a decision where the instinctive response is often the wrong one. After you make your choice, you'll see exactly what happened in the other person's head and why it mattered. The scenario is part of The Court, a full interactive story inside the Ashoka: The War Within quest.
Skills you'll build in Ashoka: The War Within
More scenarios in this quest
The generals say stopping now would mean Kalinga died for nothing. The sunk cost argument is seductive and logical and completely wrong — and you have eight scenes to help the most powerful man alive see through it.
This is the moment you've been building toward. Sitting with the weight of a choice that has no clean answer — except now the stakes are real and there's no rehearsal. What you do next matters.
You've faced the hardest part. Now turn what you've learned into something sustainable — a way to advise powerful people with integrity even when they don't want to hear it not just today, but every time this situation returns.
Ready to practice Exposing sunk cost reasoning?
Thousands of people use Questly to build the conversation skills that matter most.
Play this scenario free →