Mid-Range Game 29: A Midsummer Night with No Moon

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

Gaskana sighed, more exhausted than defiant. "Do you truly believe Haliax to be the great evil you make him out to be, Ruach? There can be no morality without autonomy. We erase all knowledge of our existence because we must. The Sithe annihilate all those who approach the Cthaeh because they must. There is only one evil here; the same being responsible for corrupting us all. The Cthaeh causes misery and pain because it wants to, not out of any sense of necessity. We now have a chance to stop it. The Cthaeh may by nigh-omniscient and immortal, but its power is limited while trapped in the tree. The Cthaeh can see all possible futures, but that won't help it if all futures lead to defeat."

"If the Cthaeh cannot be destroyed, it's influence must be contained. You believe approaching the Cthaeh will ensure our deaths, and the deaths of countless others? Perhaps, perhaps you are right. No matter. I am Pale Alenta, and I bring the blight." She gestured, and five enormous Scrael emerged from Alenta's tent, skittering across the ground and coming to a rest at Alenta's feet.

"Even if containment is the only option, using sapient, powerful beings to guard an entity that can corrupt with a word will only end in sorrow. There is a better way. The Scrael are nearly mindless. Only I have dominion over them; the Cthaeh will not be able to control or corrupt such creatures. I will send them to guard the tree. The Namer among the troupe members can create an iron barricade to ensure they remain at their post."

Alenta turned to the spear wielder. "You ask whether the Sithe will kill us all? I can assure you, they will see no other choice. This troupe has come too close to the Cthaeh. Everyone here is already corrupted. The Chandrian and the Sithe are in its thrall. We traveled the realm in secret, but the Sithe stayed to prevent anyone else from being corrupted as they had, and over time have become mere puppets, no longer the Cthaeh's jailers but its doorkeepers. It's time for this era to end in flames. I shall die, the Sithe shall die, and the Cthaeh shall remain contained by iron and Scrael while new barriers can be put in place by your troupe members. If you want to ensure that the malign influence affecting the troupe ends here, you too will step onto the pyre when your preparations are complete."

Fifth Scholar, old friend, would you like to be the first to join me as we burn to death, properly this time?

[Snipexe]

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Thanks Devotary, I was about to produce actual analysis, for pretty much the first time, but......yeah, devotary

Edited June 2, 2018 by Snipexe
Stupid html tags, ill post rp later

[Walin]

Darn, I didn’t know rollover was so close. Walin.

Whoops on that. Anyone have a lynch target they mean to hit tonight? We only have twenty minutes.

Also, so as to not double post, I’m pretty sure Orlok is the Namer because of how the last message was worded. Anyone else get the message? I’ll share it next cycle if I’m able to do so.

Edited June 2, 2018 by Walin
40-second-edit

[Eternum]

A soft flute melody wove through the air, slow and calm and melancholy. It was a song of pain, suffering and of endless conflict. It was.. part of a song about the Chandrian.

Few heard the music, thanks to the debate going on, but suddenly Enerin stopped. He stood, flute in hand, but did not speak. What was there to say? The tumult went on, whispers and shouts and the old-as-time debate between the Sithe and the Chandrian taking place in the middle of their troupe. It almost felt staged, like a performance. What else could explain such madness?

Then again, he had witnessed much madness in the years it took him to compose his song. It was not meant for a flute, that was obvious, but it was meant for no human minds either. And it was not meant to be sung, for the Chandrian would come calling. He knew, for that was exactly what they'd done.

Most interesingly, he felt no guilt. Multiple troupe members had died, but they had died for music and family. What better way was there, for the Edema Ruh? Locke.. he almost remembered that name. Almost.

He felt no guilt, but he did feel sadness. And so, swept up by his own thoughts, part of him wondered where his feet were taking him as he stepped into the woods.

—————————————

Well then. That was an interesting bunch of messages to wake up to.

I'm going to vote Devotary. 

[Snipexe]

Since people posted, I'm not going to edit this in the previous post

........................................................................................................................

The shouts from the campfire echoed deep into the woods, bringing the sounds of anger and violence. Snip stood silently there,took a deep breath, and relaxed. He picked up three balls, and began to work into a rhythm. They whirled and spun, silently in the air, and soon Snip added a fourth, and fifth. He kept them going. He breathed. Suddenly a dear ran through the clearing in which Snip was standing. "****" he yelled, dropping his balls. he slowly picked them up, sighed, and then walked back to camp.

Edited June 2, 2018 by Snipexe

[Eternum]

..Sigh. There's no point anymore, is there, eh? I lose, and so do the elims.

I am the Cthaeh. 

[DeTess]

Thank you, one and all, for attending this rendition of 

A Midsummer Night with No Moon

in 5 acts.

Join us after the break for the epilogue.

[DrakeMarshall]

"Tak reflects the subtle turning of the world. It is a mirror we hold to life. No one wins a dance, boy. The point of dancing is the motion that a body makes."

 

Alenta raised her voice. "You ask whether the Sithe will kill us all? I can assure you, they will see no other choice. This troupe has come too close to the Cthaeh. Everyone here is already corrupted. The Chandrian and the Sithe are in its thrall. We traveled the realm in secret, but the Sithe stayed to prevent anyone else from being corrupted as they had, and over time have become mere puppets, no longer the Cthaeh's jailers but its doorkeepers. It's time for this era to end in flames. I shall die, the Sithe shall die, and the Cthaeh shall remain contained by iron and Scrael while new barriers can be put in place by your troupe members. If you want to ensure that the malign influence affecting the troupe ends here, you too will step onto the pyre when your preparations are complete."

Kirel answered by drawing a knife.

"So this is how it's going to be?" Alenta spoke, her glammourie slowly burning away to expose a paler likeness, wreathed in a cold, sickening light.

Kirel, too, shed the last of his glammourie, revealing a pair of huge wings formed of fire and shadow, extending out behind him.

Kirel lunged forwards, knifepoint angling towards Alenta like the needle of a compass. She called the name of stone, and the earth shook around them, throwing Kirel off balance and allowing her to sidestep the blow with ease.

Scrael began to emerge from the darkness around them, moving with a disturbing grace and speed to swarm around Alenta. She willed a barrier of writhing Scrael to encircle her opponent, smothering him. Kirel steadied himself, and sang out the name of fire, incinerating one of the Scrael that ventured too close to him. Many more took its place. He took a step back, only to hear the clattering of their sharp legs behind him as well, blocking retreat. They pressed in, threatening to crush him.

 

Kirel indisposed, Alenta turned her attention to Alev charging from the sidelines, holding high a spear forged of copper. With a gesture, Alenta sent a Scraeling to trip the trouper up, sending her sprawling across the forest floor. Alenta took a step towards her, picking up the copper spear the trouper had dropped, feeling the balance of it for a moment.

"I don't want to kill you, human," Alenta called out. "That would be the Sithe."

"Liar! You don't know anything about the Sithe!" Alev cried, struggling to get to her feet only to be held down by Scrael. She called the name of the wind, commanding it to strike Alenta...

And Alenta spoke a different, unrecognizable name. Instantly, the wind around them stilled to a deadly calm.

Alenta sighed. "You don't have a place in this fight. You were wise to bring a copper weapon, but your copper is gone. Go in peace, namer."

"Not the only copper I brought," Alev answered, calling the name of the wind again. This time, to send a message to someone across the woods...

A copper-tipped arrow flew true through the air, guided by the winds. A fletching sprouted from Alenta's heart.

"damnation you," Alenta said, staggering back, hissing in pain.

. . .

A crimson butterfly fluttered across the grove, landing on a strikingly beautiful flower that grew on a massive forest tree in a clearing.

The butterfly was dashed to pieces as the Cthaeh reached out lazily and plucked it from the air.

"You're probably wondering," it spoke, clearly addressing the audience. "Why am I letting the Chandrian die like this?"

"See, as it turns out, there are no possible futures where everybody gathered in these woods dies," Cthaeh explained.

"But trust me, this is the next best outcome," it said, smirking.

"I'm getting ahead of myself though. Alenta isn't dead yet," it said dryly, glancing over at a severed flower-stem.

. . .

Alenta latched on to the fletching and tore the arrow from her body. A thin trickle of blood poured from the wound.

"That hurt," she explained, kicking Alev in the face. The namer lost consciousness, no longer attempting to regain her feet.

Alenta's wound sealed over as she made a gesture towards the source of the arrow. Throughout the darkness, more Scrael yet unseen raced and clattered through the woods, converging on the archer's vantage.

Itiah stepped out from the woods, eyes gradually darkening to a shade black as coal.

"Cinder," Alenta greeted him. "I am glad you are finally here. Basically everyone is trying to kill us: the Amyr, the Sithe, all of Tehlu's angels, and a horde of angry Edema Ruh."

She turned towards Kirel. Laon the priest stood by the angel's side, a red-hot iron in hand. The corpses of Scrael littered the forest floor around them, other Scrael pushed back and scattered.

No words were necessary. The pairs advanced on each other.

The fight was short and hectic, as most serious fights are inclined towards.

Cinder attacked first, sword lashing out against the priest.

Kirel deflected the blade with flame and shadow.

Alenta struck Kirel's barrier with the copper spearhead, collapsing it.

Cinder struck again, impaling Laon and pinning him to the tree behind.

Laon swung his iron down atop Cinder's head.

Cinder collapsed from the blow, iron smoking as it made contact. Laon continued to strike Cinder.

Kirel soared through the air and struck Alenta, felling her.

"You hypocrite," Alenta hissed, examining the mountain-glass dagger that had killed her. A cursed blade. "We both know where you got that."

Alenta passed, imparting the Scrael with a last command to guard the Cthaeh's grove at all costs.

And so the Chandrian were broken.

. . .

 

It was night again. The forest lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.

The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking. If there had been a fire, it might have crackled in the abandoned firepit, sent small animals scampering away from its blue rays, and burned the silence to ash. If there had been observers, they would have seen the hand that was slowly reforming as it reached out from a pool of shadows gathered around the firepit, and uttered a sharp cry of alarm, startling the silence and bidding it flee. If there had been music... But no, of course there was no music. In fact, there were none of these things, and so the silence remained.

Outside the Rhinna grove, the noise of a distant skirmish blew faintly through the trees. The rattle of Scrael. Muffled shouts. Hoof-beats and the twang of Sithe bowstrings. But the sound was slender as a thread, and a shift in the wind broke it, leaving only rustling leaves and something almost like the far-off laughter of an ancient being. That faded too, leaving nothing but the second silence, waiting like an endless indrawn breath.

The third silence was not an easy thing to notice. If you listened for an hour, you might begin to feel it in the motionless, worn-out wagon-wheels of a troupe camped on the other side, outside the Fae realm. It lay in the four wooden headstones lined up neatly over four shallow graves, and the pained or listless expressions of the living. It was in the untouched bedroll that once belonged to Locke, and most of all in the bewildered expression of a mother as she gazed at a child's bed, feeling an inexplicable void as she wondered who had slept there. It was the greatest silence of the three, wrapping the others inside itself. it was deep and wide as autumn's ending. It was heavy as a great river-smooth stone. It was the patient, cut-flower sound of mourning.

. . .

If we shadows have offended, 
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

THE END

Edited June 6, 2018 by Drake Marshall

[DrakeMarshall]

This has been A Midsummer Night with No Moon!

Good has won the day! We hope you have enjoyed yourselves.

Please give a round of applause to the cast:
Elandera as Cyphus
Eternum as Cthaeh
Droughtbringer as Actor and Lover with Xinoehp512
Aonar as Lutist
Devotary of Spontaniety as Scraeling Master
Walin as Jester
Fifth Scholar as Kirel
Snipexe as Sithe Archer and Lover with Arraenae
Alvron as Tehlin Monk
Steeldancer as Flutist
Megasif as Acrobat
Xinoehp512 as Tinker and Lover with Droughtbringer
Arinian as Singer
Orlok as Singer's Child
I think I am here as Cinder
Arraenae as Namer and Lover with SnipExe
Bort as Sithe Hunter
Wonko the Sane as Encanis
Cadmium Compounder as Actor's Child and Ciridae
Young Bard as Juggler

Additionally, a big round of applause to Randuir, who totally made this game happen.

Also, to our IM Seonid, who also provided feedback on game balance alongside Joe.

Also feel free to take a peek backstage:

• Master Spreadsheet
• Secret Rules
• Spec Doc
• Dead Doc
• Elim Doc
• Cthaeh Doc

You can expect a retrospective in a little bit.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Drake Marshall
fixed elim doc link

[Bort]

Good game. Well played all. Especially Fifth, who seemed to put all of the pieces together.

Also, now the game is done, what happened to Orlok? Banished with the Encanis?

[DeTess]

25 minutes ago, Bort said:

Good game. Well played all. Especially Fifth, who seemed to put all of the pieces together.

Also, now the game is done, what happened to Orlok? Banished with the Encanis?

from the secret rules

Quote

Encanis

"Last there is the lord of the seven: Hated. Hopeless. Sleepless. Sane. Alaxel bears the shadow's hame."

*Action: Single-use, unstoppable, undetectable kill. Target is roleblocked, vote-nulled, and killed with no alignment flip. Target is removed from the player list with no announcement, and is effectively retconned from the game. Action is blocked if targeting the Cthaeh.

*Intrinsic: Possesses an extra life (appears to have healed injuries). On death, is "banished" instead of "killed".

*Intrinsic: Knows that the rhinna flower that grows around the Cthaeh has healing properties. Knows that Kirel can grant powerful protection, but with some kind of restriction.

 

[Elandera]

Congratulations to the Edema Rue and the Sithe! You had some helpful skill and a whole lot of luck on your side. It was fun for me while it lasted. I learned I am a terrible Elim , though it was only my first time and I was only given one cycle to test my abilities (thanks Orlok, I partially blame you).

28 minutes ago, Bort said:

Also, now the game is done, what happened to Orlok? Banished with the Encanis?

That answer will probably be in the Secret Rules doc (I haven't read it yet myself), but it was one of Encanis' secret abilities. They had an unblockable "kill" that banished someone from existence. Essentially, they became a spectator (even got sent to the spec doc instead of the dead doc).

I want to congratulate @Devotary of Spontaneity for her excellent playing despite losing teammates so quickly. The odds really were stacked against you. It was fun reading your monologue in the elim doc. Sorry for creeping so much!

Edited June 6, 2018 by Elandera
Ninja'd by Rand

[Eternum]

Yes, Orlok was banished by Encanis.

Good game, everyone! Orlok, Alv, Fifth and Devotary in particular.

Orlok caught me on cycle one. No joke. I had misread the rules and mobile formatting was weird, so I thought the rules said that the Tinker had secrets, not the particular item. So, I pretended to be a Tinker, forgot there were no Storytellers in the game and overall didn't play my cards right. He called my bluff and basically blackmailed me. Well, to be fair we were blackmailing each-other, but that's a different story. I tried to sow chaos through him. Keyword: tried. I don't quite remember why Wonko targeted him, but honestly I was glad

Alv.. Oh, Alv. This is a weird one. You see, this game alone has made me heavily consider beginning to worship the Gods of Luck and Chance. For those that don't know, he roleblocked Elandera, Wonko and Devotary through RNG.  He can explain it better than I can, but.. yeah. 

Fifth played very well near the end there, catching Devotary (With Bort's help, admittedly). However, the last few cycles would have gone far differently if Bard hadn't.. well.. You have no idea how hard I laughed when this happened, but Bard accidentally killed himself by juggling Itiah when they sent in the kill against Xino. In the meantime, I was trying to convince Fifth to kill Bard with a (admittedly cursed) knife I gave him, and which he never suspected for some reason? That weirded me out, but it worked in my favor... To a point. See, had Itiah's kill actually gone through, I think this game would have ended differently. Devotary's claim of having used a Lodestone on Wonko would be impossible to dispute. Fifty can confirm or deny whether he would attack Bard in that scenario. Still, hindsight is 20/20.

Devotary gets mad props for going as far as she did with an inactive teammate and two others who died so early-on, it's almost unfair. The moment in the elim doc when I finally manage to contact her will seem pretty weird to y'all I couldn't create PMs at all, so.. getting in contact with them was impossible. I managed to communicate by highlighting sentences in the elim doc 

I very much enjoyed this game, but I do feel it had problems. For starters, there were too many roleblocks/protects, and far too many of them were included in the game. Also, in my opinion, the Tehlin Monk should have been immune to the Skindancer, not the Scrael. Either way, there was no Skindancer in the game, so.. Moot point, I suppose. Still, it was fun! I consider this a win, to be honest Nobody that I know of even suspected me after Orlok, I managed to infiltrate the villager trust group and I didn't die!

Looking forward to killing you all again in future games! 

Edited June 6, 2018 by Eternum

[Fifth Scholar]

That was fun. 

I said this in PM with Devotary, but I think this game had a balance issue of confirmed good roles being easily proven. It let the Cthaeh slip through the cracks, but I was able to quickly narrow down the Elim team by sheer process of elimination (how ironic). 

I originally thought the undercover Cthaeh was Alv, but eventually when I realized a Storyteller claim was very convenient for someone with access to the master spreadsheet, I also started looking at Eternum. The Cursed Knife made me more suspicious, and I actually PM’d Alv to see what he thought about it. Then I looked at my PM with Eternum and saw all the we’s and our’s and began to see the successful pocket he had pulled off. At that point the game was over, though. 

Devotary, I don’t know what you would have thought had I told you that I didn’t have an Archer lined up to kill you, only a Knife that put three votes on me when I used it and a Monk I was trusting to roleblock you. That Snipexe happened to be an Archer was just a happy accident, as he never claimed to me. 

Finally, thanks to Drake and Randuir for running the game. The writeups were consistently excellent, and it was very enjoyable and tense throughout.

[DeTess]

Apparently the link to the elim doc is currently malfunctioning. This one should work though.

[Eternum]

52 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

I originally thought the undercover Cthaeh was Alv, but eventually when I realized a Storyteller claim was very convenient for someone with access to the master spreadsheet, I also started looking at Eternum. The Cursed Knife made me more suspicious, and I actually PM’d Alv to see what he thought about it. Then I looked at my PM with Eternum and saw all the we’s and our’s and began to see the successful pocket he had pulled off. At that point the game was over, though. 

[I think I am here.]

Thanks, this was a really good game, and I feel bad I couldn't devote as much time to it as I usually do.  

[CadCom]

I found this game fun! So as you all know, I was the Ciridae. And, as many of you can expect, I just got lucky D1 with choosing the lynch target. I didn't really suspect Elandera based off any post, but my Gut read told me to choose him. Also I put that order in about 13 hours before rollover, and the D1 lynch changed a lot after that, so really, it just was complete luck. Other than that, I didn't really have a whole lot of a good idea what was going on, and I partially blame that to not knowing the real story, and being a bit busy. I hope everyone I was able to associate with enjoyed the insight that I was able to give them.

[Bort]

@Devotary of Spontaneity - I just finished reading the elim doc, and I thought your monologues were great.

[Elandera]

1 hour ago, Cadmium Compounder said:

I found this game fun! So as you all know, I was the Ciridae. And, as many of you can expect, I just got lucky D1 with choosing the lynch target. I didn't really suspect Elandera based off any post, but my Gut read told me to choose him. Also I put that order in about 13 hours before rollover, and the D1 lynch changed a lot after that, so really, it just was complete luck. Other than that, I didn't really have a whole lot of a good idea what was going on, and I partially blame that to not knowing the real story, and being a bit busy. I hope everyone I was able to associate with enjoyed the insight that I was able to give them.

13 hours? I was wondering when that order was placed. And it was a perfect storm against me, with a roleblock, vote manipulation, and your Ciridae choice. @xinoehp512, why was it you chose to put Drought's vote on me?

(And CadCom, I'm female . Don't worry about it, I've made that mistake plenty of times and you're not the first to have made it with me.)

[Fifth Scholar]

1 hour ago, Bort said:

@Devotary of Spontaneity - I just finished reading the elim doc, and I thought your monologues were great.

I second this. I was crying at some points, I was laughing so hard. (I really should be an Elim one of these days, so I can do fun things in docs.) I’d also like to thank Devotary for doing the RP exchange with me. It was very entertaining, and certainly made the end of the last cycle interesting, giving people the chance to mess with the vote count and get me lynched  

[Steeldancer]

Squick will return. Obviously, being a squid brings about entertaining write-ups. This was a fun game. 

[Alvron]

12 hours ago, Eternum said:

Alv.. Oh, Alv. This is a weird one. You see, this game alone has made me heavily consider beginning to worship the Gods of Luck and Chance. For those that don't know, he roleblocked Elandera, Wonko and Devotary through RNG.  He can explain it better than I can, but.. yeah. 

You really should try it.  They don't ask for much and the benefits are quite rewarding.
For those unaware, Orlok contacted me C1 and asked my opinion on four players, closer to the end of the cycle, I had no idea who to roleblock so I took the four names Orlok gave me and rolled a die resulting in blocking the kill from Elandera.
Next cycle, I asked Orlok for four more names and again rolled the die blocking Wonko making the kill.
C3 Orlok gave me four new names along with listing Wonko four times.  I flipped a coin to decide which list I go with and it came up with the Wonko list.
C4, no Orlok.  Very sad.  Asked others for names but they didn't give any so I took the names Orlok had given me in prior cycles, took out the dead ones to get a new list and ended up blocking Devotary.
C5 I blocked Devotary by choice since Fifth was planning on stabbing them and we wanted to insure there wouldn't be any passive abilities that might be lingering.
I'm sorry?  
 

Quote

Alvron’s having terrible luck with claiming to people. Every time they claim to someone, the person they claim to dies shortly after.

There is always a cost to being a follower of the Gods of Luck and Chance.  The more Luck one has, the higher the cost elsewhere.
 

Quote

Also, I notice that Alvron’s vote wasn’t nullified. A Tehlin Monk perhaps?

/sadface  I had such fun thinking about team evil going mad trying to work out who the Monk was and you all basically knew from the start of C2.
 

Quote

Orlok and Alvron’s 4-sided die are OP.

Indeed. The combo of my die and Orlok being Orlok combined extremely well this game.

This was a very enjoyable game Drake and Rand.  I hope to see it run again albeit with a couple of changes.
Drake, your write ups were a delight to read.  Thank you for putting in the time and effort for them.  It's very appreciated.

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

Sadly, our spool of chaos thread was only enough to last us five cycles, but it was fun while it lasted. I tried to annotate the elim doc so observers could figure out what was going on those last couple of cycles,  but there were still a few gaps that I can fill in.

@Young Bard, Fifth Scholar knew that you had protected the tinker with your death because I told Fifth Scholar that we had tried to kill Drought/Xino that cycle. 

21 minutes ago, Alvron said:

/sadface  I had such fun thinking about team evil going mad trying to work out who the Monk was and you all basically knew from the start of C2.

I nullified your vote with Scrael the first cycle because of what you said about being willing to burn all your passes early. Were you in contact with Fifth and/or Bort when you asked whether I was the Monk? I had already false-claimed to both of them by then.

13 hours ago, Fifth Scholar said:

Devotary, I don’t know what you would have thought had I told you that I didn’t have an Archer lined up to kill you, only a Knife that put three votes on me when I used it and a Monk I was trusting to roleblock you. That Snipexe happened to be an Archer was just a happy accident, as he never claimed to me. 

A knife and a Monk would have been enough to kill me, as your second life ensured that you couldn't be killed before you had the chance to stab me. Confessing just made me extra-dead. If Eternum had decided to give me an extra life with a rhinna flower before giving you a weapon to kill me, I likely would have stayed silent that last cycle.

@Drake Marshall and @randuir, why were extra lives considered to be passive immunities? Could Kirel's extra life have been stripped by a Monk? Would Alvron have been able to bypass my rhinna flower if I'd had one? It might have been for the best, as I would have died even faster if Bort had seen me target someone who's vote had gotten nullified, but Wonko's unexpected death caused me a lot of confusion.

 

[DrakeMarshall]

The extra lives of both Kirel and Encanis were intrinsic immunities and could be negated by a Monk. The Rhinna Flower's extra life on the other hand would not have been negated.