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Good analysis, Elandera. I didn't really think that Straw had anything worth dissecting, but this puts things in a new light. I find that I agree with a lot of it, about both of them. I'll have a look at parts that I think need more discussion, not necessarily which ones I agree and disagree with.

About Burnt:

6 hours ago, Elandera said:

I respond to her read of me by pointing to last comment in PM (This conversation had mostly been about who we thought to be elims. She had doubts about Sart, Snipexe and Walin. Asks me if I think elims would try to get pills from Max. I said probably, but Elbereth seemed inactive, which I thought was sad because a chaotic neutral player could be fun. I said I was also keeping an eye on Sart and Snipexe. Burnt said Elbereth wasn’t totally inactive because she was responding to her PMs. Burnt asks why Fifth was confirmed good, I said because he was key in Randuir lynch and had pushed for it for at least one cycle before it happened. Here’s the part where she was suspicious of me: Snipexe had claimed Giant to me in the last part of the cycle. I knew Burnt had contact with Elbereth and I asked if she’d given pills away, but was pretty vague about it. Burnt gave a vague answer in response. I said I was asking for the giant who though he’d be killed by elims. That’s the response that made her feel a bit better about me, I’m guessing. Looking back on this, I find it interesting that Burnt had known Elbereth’s plan to stop giving away pills due to her relative inactivity. It could have been elim!Burnt attempting to get pills from Elbereth to help her team

She asked a similar question of me. It did feel a little bit like probing for information, which could be either good (trying to catch up) or bad (trying to gauge enemies). The justification for doing that also felt a little weak, and I don't like the near-exclusive activity in PMs. Additionally, why would Burnt go to Elbereth in the first place? A Villager could be trying to get a revive-in-advance, but it's significantly more likely that an Elim was trying to strike a deal for Pills. Right now, when everyone's being read as Village or neutral, is when Pills are the most effective, because we won't be as certain about lynch targets.

6 hours ago, Elandera said:

I find this a bit odd because it could be elim!burnt setting up a reason to mislynch Snipexe. However, that might not work well because the giant can’t die to lynches.

I think that trying to verify the Giant would be pretty critical for the Elims. By lynching the Snipexe, they either get a confirmation of the Giant (and get to kill him that Night) or they lynch a Villager and know that the Giant is still out there. With only two members left, every lynch would count, and they would want to be as accurate as possible.

 

About Straw:

6 hours ago, Elandera said:

Has joking conversation with Mark over voting based on order of list (carryover from a past game) Could be distancing

This would add to a theory that both Burnt and Straw could be Elims. What are your thoughts on that?

6 hours ago, Elandera said:

    Responds to Fifth saying he’s felt he’s been less active than usual, says he doesn’t want to get into IKYK but agrees his “if I was eliminator I wouldn’t do this” argument was faulty, agrees Len/MiB mention does seem elim, says he mistook Spaniard scan as a classic scan, was mildly annoyed by assuming elim by the Len/MiB connection to Bugsy being a deflection, and says it’s unfair to focus on vote saying it was intended to get Sart to take his vote off him, and deflected suspicion to Devotary (placing vote on her) who also voted on Sart, saying that vote made it compete with Len lynch I don’t like his first defence of his Sart vote because Straw wasn’t exactly under threat of lynch. However, there was a low vote count and who knows how it could have swung in the last parts of the turn

Defending against votes is probably reasonable, especially since Straw hasn't been doing much posting, and therefore doesn't have the ability to defend himself other than with votes. And Sart wasn't a mostly-cleared Villager at the time. However, this is interesting because making a mistake and then admitting it could be a way of deflecting suspicion. Fifth gave me an interesting thing to think about in a PM, that the Elims are best spotted by noticing people who know too much. If someone makes an error and then draws attention to that, then they're making it look like they don't have as much information, or suggesting that they know less. This could be Straw trying to draw suspicion away.

6 hours ago, Elandera said:

Randuir places vote on Straw, stating it’s a poke vote to get straw more active and calls out his voting during the Len wagon was suspicious This could have been distancing because Randuir was under a lot of suspicion at the time. Rand may not have expected the lynch train to pick up on Straw especially after calling it a poke-vote

The Doc12 lynch is evidence that poke votes can just be opening the floodgates. Given that there were at least two Elims other than Rand left alive, it's possible that they contributed to the votes on Straw in order to get it to appear so quickly.

6 hours ago, Elandera said:

    States they’ll have to drop out/go inactive because of QF32 that he’s GMing This never happened, he posted just enough to stay around. I know I’m stretching here, but it could have been there was no pinch-hitter found so he stayed around just enough because he was one of two elims left alive

Yeah, that does look a bit weird. But how would he know that there was no pinch-hitter? Unless it came up in a GM PM, there's really no way to know that. If he assumed that there was none and stuck around, then that would probably be slightly AI for me as well.

6 hours ago, Elandera said:

    Dalinar considers Straw and Walin top lynch targets It should be noted Dalinar was killed that night by elims

Yeah, that does look strange. Suspicions were against Straw, Burnt, and Walin, so it may have been protecting one of them, or all of them.

 


 

Well, your reasons are all pretty logical. Another example of your posts vindicating you. But I can't ignore the fact that I don't really trust you, and I don't have anything of my own against Straw. I agree with some of your reasons, but others have some issues and more to them than just alignment indication. I can only trust my own analysis, and I would have to pick apart what Straw has said and done myself to see if I can determine anything. This has, however, raised you above him on my trustworthiness rating.

Burnt Spaghetti is still at the bottom of the list that I stated in my last post. I agree more with your dislike of her than Straw, although that may be confirmation bias playing up. Or perhaps I'm just expecting confirmation bias because I'm overcompensating to avoid these biases... And I'm now having an IKYK with my brain. What have you people done to me? 

I think that Burnt Spaghetti is still a better target. As I've been saying for a while now, we have to vote with the information. And most of mine points at Burnt. Additionally, if she flips Elim, then I know that Elandera is most likely clean, and I can trust her judgement on Straw, which may indeed be enough to lynch him. If she flips Village, then I'll look more closely at Elandera and see if I can spot inconsistencies in what she's said about Straw. I'm confident that it'll give us enough information to dodge LyLo.

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Hm. well im very glad to see that everyones doing a lot of analysis!

Also since its come up a few times, Elbereth was the first person i decided to open a pm with.  This was because since I was new and needed to be caught up with stuff, I decided i'd rather be caught up with a neutral and also with someone i've actually played a lot with since i really haven't played with many of you guys before, or at least not enough for me to really know you, so it was for the sake of familiarity. She was quite open with me tbh, and when i asked for recommendations on who to pm, she told me those who had contacted her and which were more talky than the others. That then made me wonder if an elim was potentially hiding amongst those names. That prompted me to start asking people if they thought elims would contact her. If anyone's interested, most of the people she told me had contacted her are dead, the only ones left that i know of that would have talked to her before she went quiet would be myself and Fifth  who she said had been quite talkative in the pms. I'm not gonna lie, that's made me wary of fifth, regardless of whether or not they helped lynch an elim.

In anycase, I know i said if id lynch anyone for information it would be elandera, but they've done some very nice analysis that i approve of that made me have second thoughts, so im going with option 2: Straw

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This would add to a theory that both Burnt and Straw could be Elims. What are your thoughts on that?

@Mr Doctor, it's part of why I mentioned it. Straw and Burnt are my top two suspects at the moment. Those posts on D1 very well could have been distancing. However, there were a lot of discussions that day.

I still think it's worth it to consider if one flips elim to look at the other.

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4 hours ago, Elandera said:

@Mr Doctor, it's part of why I mentioned it. Straw and Burnt are my top two suspects at the moment. Those posts on D1 very well could have been distancing. However, there were a lot of discussions that day.

I still think it's worth it to consider if one flips elim to look at the other.

Agreed. It's interesting to note that the Elims have been consistently active, and Straw didn't let himself die to the filter. That's not nearly enough to lynch him, but as you say, if Burnt gets lynched then what we learn from that may be enough to sway me for the next Day. We'll see.

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Hmm.

I have some suspicions with both Burnt Spaghetti and Elandera, and not Straw.

Considering how the tie is, I guess I’ll just vote Burnt Spaghetti to avoid usage of iocaine.

My reasons will remain unclear until next cycle, unfortunately.

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Night 10: Celebration
"The seven remaining pirates stared at each other, trying to determine which of them were the last guards. Plaristocrates pointed fingers everywhere, and the Giant sat and waited, remaining quiet. After significant discussion, two targets seemed viable. Burnt, and Straw. But forces were at work, and those accusing Straw found themselves drugged. And so, Plaristocrates found himself with the responsibility of killing Burnt. The Giant held her, and they walked towards a spot in the castle where Plaristocrates had done some work.
'I'm pretty sure you are a guard, so I'll just use this trap on you. I originally set it up to be an actual trap, but whatever. Not like they've been very trappable. Anyway, up in the ceiling, I put something we once stole from a ship. Obviously you wouldn't remember that, because you weren't a pirate, but nobody else wanted the stuff. I found it fascinating, and filled several large sacks with it. I dragged them with me to this place, no idea why. But I figured I could drop it on a guard, and it might even kill them, as they wouldn't be able to breathe under all the stuff. Giant, whack her gently.'
The Giant complied. She dropped to the ground. They positioned her underneath the trap, and then Plaristocrates backed up and pulled a rope. The ceiling opened, and a shining mass of small colorful strips dumped out of the false stones and onto Burnt's prone body. The amount of the stuff was enormous. The Giant looked at Plaristo, and raised an eyebrow, obviously curious why he had brought this stuff all the way from his ship. Plaristocrates simply shrugged. Once it had all fallen, a giant pile of shining colorful strips filled the hallway where Burnt had been lying. It was a shame that Burnt wasn't a guard, or it would have been quite the dramatic statement to the rest of the guards."
"Heh," chuckled Alvron. "The glitter is a celebration not for the pirates, but for the guards."
"Unfortunately, yes."
Burnt Spaghetti (3)- Fifth Scholar, Mr Doctor, Walin
Elandera (2)- Straw, Snipexe
Burnt has died! She was a Pirate with a Parrot. 

Spoiler

1. Walin (Bill Ted)

2. Bort (Asu Wish)  Prince's Guard

3. Manukos Pirate with a Dagger

4. Araris Valerian (Araris) Princess/Buttercup

5. Cadmium Compounder (Indigo Montoya)  Pirate with a Parrot

6. Devotary of Spontaneity (Polydactylous Pterrodactyle)  Spaniard

7. Drake Marshall Pirate

8. Hemalurgic Headshot (Leonard Wilkins) Pirate with a Parrot

9. Snipexe (Exetes the Wandering Artist)

10. Fifth Scholar (Plaristocrates)

11. Jondesu (Q) Pirate with Rum

12. Elenion (Shree King Eelz) Prince's Guard with Parrot

13. Roadwalker (Brutus Kowd) Pirate with a Dagger

14. Doc12 (D. Senfalo) Pirate

15. Dalinar Kholin (Reginald Canuk) Pirate

16. Bugsy (Dread Pirate Cummerbund) Pirate with a Dagger

17. Kidpen (Incan C. Vable) Pirate

18. Straw (Straw)

19. Mr. Doctor (Dead Private Hobbert)

20. Val (Val) Man in Black/ Pirate

21. Randuir (Captain K.C. Grumbleton)  Prince's Guard

22. Sart (Grandpa Lace) Pirate with Rum

23. Elandera

24. Burnt Spaghetti Pirate with a Parrot

25. Elbereth (Elenta) Miracle Max

26. Rebecca (Sir Shrei King Eel)  Pirate

27. Rathmaskal (Rath) Pirate with Rum

gre_1530658800.png

Edited by Steeldancer
forgot the vote count.
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Assuming there aren’t three Elims, and we’re therefore dead tonight, I think I suspect Elandera and one of Mr Doctor/Walin. The first probably more than the second. Straw’s retraction on Burnt, a mislynch candidate, clears him to a reasonable extent. Plus I still think Straw is an easy mislynch. As I should have done last cycle, I’m going to vote for Elandera tomorrow, probably. 

As a side note, that was a terrible mislynch and we better be able to recover from that, or we’re basically screwed. 

Edit: Steel’s game has been moved out of “currently running” on the GM spreadsheet. Wonder if that’s telling...

Edited by Fifth Scholar
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Well, storms. This was the vote at the end of the Day.

Elandera (2): Straw, Snipexe
Straw (2): Elandera, Burnt Spaghetti
Burnt Spaghetti (3): Fifth Scholar, Mr Doctor, Walin

Straw now has no votes on him. If that doesn't incriminate Straw completely, I don't know what does. One Rum I might be able to forgive for protecting himself. Two, when the entire thread believes that he's unsettlingly neutral at best... Yeah, no, not buying it. 

This also doesn't make Elandera look very good. I don't want to throw speculation without much evidence, but the fact that she wanted to lynch Burnt and then switched to Straw, whose survival was guaranteed by that Rum, might be a distancing act. It would be a hell of a gamble, but if Straw and Elandera were trying to distance by voting on each other, and then bussed Straw with Rum, it would be a way of making Elandera look even better. Then next Cycle, everyone wastes time lynching Straw, and Elandera gets two Night kills off. Do I need a tinfoil hat for this?

Let's say that Elandera is Elim. This Cycle, she introduced suspicion of Burnt when people already had suspicions. She and Straw distance, and she doesn't dispel any concerns about Burnt. Burnt gets lynched, and Elandera and Straw use their Rum to make it look like Straw was being saved by his teammate. Elandera kills an active tonight, either Fifth or me, and then next Cycle everyone lynches Straw because he's obvious. Then Elandera kills the other active, and uses her arguments and good writing ability to overcome the less assertive actives and get it to LyLo.

I know, that's very conspiracy-theory, but this game is about conspiring, and I'm not trusting anything or anyone at the moment.

22 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

I think I suspect Elandera and one of Mr Doctor/Walin. The first probably more than the second.

Could you explain why?

23 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

Straw’s retraction on Burnt, a mislynch candidate, clears him to a reasonable extent. Plus I still think Straw is an easy mislynch.

I disagree, or at least, the fact that two Rums got used on him condemns him in my eyes. It's either a misdirection of super-sneaky proportion, or it's Elims overcompensating to save him. Why would the Elims try to misdirect suspicion when he's probably the most consistently suspected player still alive, and therefore a better target than anyone else?

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I understand there's not really anything I can say to make you guys believe me, but I'm not elim. I had no idea rum would be used on Straw, but that tells me they are definitely elim and worried that village might have some rum/knives left.

I moved my vote off Burnt not to distance myself from a mislynch, but because after actually analysing posts, it just didn't feel right. I didn't argue with your choices to vote on Burnt because I still had some suspicion, but I felt Straw was the better candidate.

Walin's vote to seal Burnt's lynch concerns me a bit. I'm now considering a Straw/Walin elim team.

Consider: Straw votes on Burnt with me, then switches because if Burnt ends up dying, he gets a bit of village cred for having sided with her. If I died, then he could cast suspicion on the other voters that came before him.

I write my analysis, and suddenly he's under threat of lynch again. His vote remains on me, helped by Snipexe who understandably remained suspicious of me. The next candidate for lynch is Burnt. Things are all tied up, so Walin places a vote on Burnt. Perhaps they suspected she had rum. They then use two rum on Straw to nearly remove him entirely from threat.

They want Burnt dead because if I died, suddenly I wouldn't be drawing attention away from them. But if either one of us had vote manipulation, it might put us at a tie. Either way, they at least get a village death. 

I'm also suspicious of the complete trust Walin expressed to have in Straw.

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RP continuing on from this post. I said that I would get around to finishing it.


“Yes,” Hobbert said in a grinding tone. The young man turned, and Hobbert punched Death in the face.

The young man stumbled back, letting out a cry of pain as the heavy lump of bone and cold flesh took him across the jaw, and Hobbert advanced. Death looked up, rubbing his jaw. “Why di—”

Hobbert hit him again.

“Now stop that!” Death said, scrambling away from the walking corpse.

“Why,” Hobbert growled, no inflection of a question in his voice.

“I think that this is all quite unnecessary,” the young man said, hopping over corpses as Hobbert marched towards him around the room.

“I agree,” Hobbert said, winding up for another punch.

STOP, Death said in a voice that made every resident of the castle wake from terrible dreams.

Hobbert advanced. Death tripped over the body of Brutus Kowd and fell on the seat of his very expensive-looking suit pants. Hobbert reached down and grabbed the collar of the suit and dragged the young man up until they were face-to-face.

“How are you even doing this?” Death asked. “I’m Death. You can’t touch me.”

In response, Hobbert headbutted him.

“Ow!” Death exclaimed. “Put me down!”

“So we’re going to talk?” Hobbert asked in his grinding voice.

“I’ve already been talking!” Death said. “You’re the one enacting physical violence.”

Hobbert dropped him, and the young man dabbed at his nose, which had started to bleed. Then he looked up at Hobbert. Other than his eyes, he seemed to be an ordinary young man. A face a little too sharp to be overly handsome, hair a bit too messy to be considered styled.

His eyes, though, were like bottomless pits in the ground. One could get vertigo looking into his eyes.

“Oh, I see,” Death said. “You’re an in-betweener. Dead but still walking. That would explain why you could—” he produced a black handkerchief and wiped blood from his nose “—harm me.”

“I want answers,” Hobbert growled.

“So many do,” Death said with a roll of his eyes. “No, I’m not saying if there’s an afterlife. No, I don’t know if all dogs go to it, I subcontract handling the dogs out to someone else. I’m not good enough at board games to play for your soul.”

“Why me?” Hobbert asked.

“Why you what?”

“Why am I here?”

“I assume that you walked,” Death said.

Hobbert raised a fist.

“Alright! Alright!” Death exclaimed, stepping back. “You’re going to need to be more specific. I can’t recall who you are, so I can’t answer your question.”

“Why do I rise,” Hobbert said, “every few decades? Why do I always get drawn back into this hellhole? Why am I dead, but can’t die?”

Death frowned artfully. He stepped forward, and then walked a slow circle around Hobbert, examining the Dead Private. “Oh!” he said. “It’s you! I remember you.”

Hobbert said nothing, made no noise, made no movement. The dead are good at that.

“Yes, you’re the one that comes with every war, aren’t you?” Death said.

“Seems that way,” Hobbert said. “I’m trying to stop one right now, but some strange things happened, and I think that True Love is involved.”

Death made a face. “True Love. Inconvenient technicality, keeps me from doing my job when I want it.”

“It got me thinking,” Hobbert said. “If True Love is affecting me, then maybe I’m not so dead after all. Maybe I’ve got it wrong. But I’m still like this.” He gestured down at himself. His leg was duct-taped on, but it wasn’t actually his. If one were to examine the corpses in the room, one would find that Indigo Montoya was missing his left leg. “All the other walking dead that I’ve met have risen once. Then some angry village chases them down and beats them into little bits, and they go away.”

Death nodded.

“But I’ve been beaten into little bits, I’ve been burned, I’ve been eaten by fish, lions, and dogs. I’ve been consecrated and entombed in stone. But I always come back. And so, I’m asking you, why. Why am I different to the others? Why can’t I rest?”

Death stood quietly for a moment. It was curious to see how ordinary he seemed. With Hobbert, it was clear that something was inhuman about him. Disregarding the rotting flesh, the dripping bits, the limbs on the verge of falling off, he did not move. He had no need to breathe, his muscles did not tire, and he had no pulse in his congealed veins. He was completely still.

Death, on the other hand, shifted his weight occasionally. He sometimes he wrinkled his nose at a strange smell. He blinked a little slower than average. He fiddled with the cuffs of his suit. If one did not look at his eyes, he would seem like a smart young man ready for a job interview.

“What do you know of the in-betweeners?” Death asked finally.

“What?” Hobbert said.

“The undead,” Death said. “The ones who do not rest, like those you have met.”

“Not much,” Hobbert admitted.

“Did you know that they all have a purpose?”

Hobbert thought for a moment. “What sort of purpose is it to stumble around groaning until some people with pitchforks come and pull you to bits in the name of some god?”

Death smiled. “Well, take it from me, they all have a purpose. That’s what draws them back, what powers their bodies when life has left them. Sometimes it’s an old woman getting up from her deathbed to make sure that her cat has enough food. Sometimes it’s a cleaner who slips and falls on wet floor, but rises in time to lock up at the end of his shift. Once their purpose is done, they fall and don’t rise again.”

“So you’re saying that I have a purpose?” Hobbert asked.

“You said as much to your fellow pirates, did you not?” Death asked.

Hobbert grunted. “More of a pep talk.”

“Has it occurred to you that you keep on rising simply because you haven’t completed your purpose yet?”

Hobbert went as still as a corpse hanging from a gibbet.

“You,” Death said with a slight smile on his youthful face, “are my retirement plan.”

“Really?” Hobbert asked. “How. Oh, no, wait. I’ve heard this one before. You’re not actually the real Death. You inherited the title from the previous Death, who retired and has spent the last twenty years living like a king in Patagonia.”

“What?” Death said. “That’s inconceivable. No, not at all. Let me explain. You see, I am not the Reaper, I am Death. I’m not just the bus driver, I am the bus as well.”

“Bus?”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Death said. “After your time. Anyway. I am all of death. All of the dead, they are part of me. And so naturally, I grow whenever a new living creature dies.”

“How is this relevant?” Hobbert asked, his flat tone echoing in the chamber.

“I’m revealing how your world works!” Death said.

“Don’t care,” Hobbert said. “How do I come into it?”

Death made a motion as if he was rolling his eyes, but naturally he had no eyes to roll. “Fine. Fast forward, then. If I left the world to grow and die on its own accord, they would go and develop something irritating like everlasting youth. So in order to keep the harvest healthy, I must…employ farmers to till the fields.”

“You mean me,” Hobbert said.

“Indeed!” Death said with a clap of his long-fingered hands. “Wars are excellently efficient for harvesting. All of the disease, the fighting, the hopelessness.” Death closed his eyes, his young face taking on an expression of some sort of ecstasy. “Having you rise with every war has been perfect for forcing them down more destructive paths. Oh, the fun I have planned for you. Gunpowder, scorched earth policies, chemical weapons… The goal is for you to be my right hand in the world, bringing the harvest to me. I won't have to do a thing!”

“You set me up,” Hobbert growled.

Death opened his empty eyes and frowned. “I don’t think that you understand,” he said. “You are dead, and I am Death. That’s not a metaphor. I’m not the Grim Reaper. I am all of death. And that includes you.”

Death raised a finger. The shadows grew deeper, and Hobbert was suddenly floating a half-metre above the flagstones.

“I am you. And you are me, for you are dead. These…issues that you have are like a droplet not wanting to be part of the ocean.”

Hobbert twisted in the air, but he made no headway. Death lowered his hand, and Hobbert dropped to the floor. The young man stood over the rotting corpse, and smiled.

“I did not set you up,” Death said. “No more than I ‘set up’ my arm to rise when I wish it to. You are part of me.”

Hobbert rose, and stood silently. Something viscous drip, drip, dripped from his body.

The young man smiled sadly, and put a hand on Hobbert’s shoulder. It weighed as much as a shadow, not that Hobbert had nerves to feel it.

“It’s alright, dear Private,” he said. “It’s always hard for a corpse to realise how little free will actually matters. But that’s the issue with being dead. Don’t worry, like all spirits, you’ll eventually get used to it.”

“You mean I’ll die.”

“You’re already dead.”

“No,” Hobbert said. “As long as I’m still thinking, I’m still alive. That’s what living is: it’s knowing what you are. And it’s being unique.”

“I see,” Death said. “Yes, this will fade as well. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly natural. Now, if you would get back to stopping that war…”

“No.” Hobbert did not move.

Death frowned. “I’m afraid you don’t get a choice.”

Hobbert did not move.

The young man sighed. He raised an arm, and said, “You know, we could have kept up the illusion of free will. Very well, off with you.” He flicked his hand, and the darkness leaped like waves under a sudden squall of wind.

Hobbert did not move.

An artful frown appeared on Death’s pale face. “Perhaps you are a bit more stubborn than the rest.” He swirled his hands, and then thrust them forth.

The shadows were suddenly blasted away from the room, from every crack in the flagstones. A mouse squeaked in fright. The darkness and tones of the corpses, both upright and scattered in the circle, whipped away like leaves in a gale.

Hobbert was unmoved. There was no shadow on him, it was all a stark, uniform grey, but he was not moved.

Death’s eyes widened. “What is this?” he asked.

Hobbert took a step forward. His foot went down with the sound of a heavy piece of meat hitting a butcher’s bench.

Death flicked out his hands, and every insect in the castle died in a single spasm. Hobbert took another step.

“You made a mistake,” the walking corpse said through limp lips.

“What is this!” Death said, stumbling back. He tripped over a body, and almost lost his balance.

“I’m dead, sure,” Hobbert said, walking forwards in his awkward, lurching gait. “But I’m still walking. And the dead don’t walk.”

“That’s not how it works! You’re meant to be part of me.” Death hopped over the leg of a dead guardsman.

“I’m caught between,” Hobbert said. “As you said. Not quite dead enough to be still, but just enough to touch you.”

“Yes,” Death said, still walking backwards. “Yes, but dead enough for me to force you!”

Hobbert stopped and grinned. It was a hideous sight, for one could see his teeth even when his mouth was closed, due to the hole in his cheek. “Not when there are…inconvenient technicalities.”

Death’s eyes widened. “No. It doesn’t work that way. You’re not the one in love!”

“But True Love has been here,” Hobbert said. “Something with the power to deny you was here, and even though the lovers are dead, the Love’s echoes remain.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Death snapped. “True Love isn’t like Jehovah’s Witnesses, always at your door when you’re doing other things!”

“I have no idea who witnessed Jehovah doing what,” Hobbert said, stepping over the final corpse, “but I don’t care. True Love isn’t only something to deny you. It’s the power of choice.” He clenched his fist, the one with only two fingers remaining.

Then Hobbert looked up. “And I choose to not be a slave.”

There was no flicker of light. There was no choir of unseen angels. It was as simple as Death’s appearance had been. One moment, Hobbert’s hand was grey and rotted, bones showing through dried flesh. Then it was whole.

Hobbert flexed five fingers, the pink colour of his hand and arm looking strange underneath the dirt-coloured rags.

Death’s face, already pale, went sheet-white.

Hobbert smiled and looked into Death’s eyes. For once, both of Hobbert’s discoloured eyes moved in sync. “How else do you explain these strange happenings?” he asked. “Sudden lisps. Poems. Dramatic speech. Princess Buttercup died, and True Love found no home with her and the Man in Black. So it spread through the castle, finding things empty enough for it to fill.”

Death’s mouth was moving, but no sounds came out. It looked like he was trying to say No, no, no.

Hobbert stretched his hand, coloured the healthy pink of new skin. “The power of choice,” he said, “and the power of Death. And you tried to make me your slave.”

Hobbert reached for the man in the black suit, who suddenly looked so young despite his fathomless eyes.

***

The shadows had come creeping back to the round stone room. Hobbert stood amidst the corpses. In two hands, neither of them grey and desiccated, he held a small brown mouse.

“You are sure that you want this burden?” he asked, his voice still bearing some of the wet grinding that it had before.

The mouse squeaked a few times.

Hobbert smiled. “You are a better man than I,” he said. “And you aren’t even a man.”

The mouse twitched its whiskers.

“I said that you were right,” Hobbert said. “I think that we can do wonderful things. A man who can only dies when he wants to, and a mouse with expanded horizons.”

The Dead—no, now it was just Private Hobbert, knelt and gently put the mouse down on the floor. There were ten bodies in this room, nine being an assorted mix of pirates and guards. But one wore clothes all in shades of black, the tones and shades of darkness all looking the same now.

“I will see you around, my friend,” Hobbert said. “I have some business to attend to.”

The mouse squeaked, the sound echoing in the chamber.

“I know of the coming war,” Hobbert said, “but I swore an oath to the Prince. This castle is still full of good people. I will see them safe from the Man in Black's pirates, then we can leave.”

He turned from the room of death, and strode away, his steps even and purposeful.

The mouse snuffled a bit. Then it was gone.

It was not that it vanished. It was simply that one moment it was there, and the next it had never been there.

It was a strange enough event, but at least one would no longer have to see its eyes, which had depth to them which no mortal could ever know.


Edited by Mr Doctor
Fixed some continuity errors and extraneous words, added some important details.
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10 hours ago, Mr Doctor said:

I disagree, or at least, the fact that two Rums got used on him condemns him in my eyes. It's either a misdirection of super-sneaky proportion, or it's Elims overcompensating to save him. Why would the Elims try to misdirect suspicion when he's probably the most consistently suspected player still alive, and therefore a better target than anyone else?

Far better to try to get a suspected innocent lynched at LyLo than someone who’s been read as village or neutral for most of the game. While Straw may be guilty, rushing into a bandwagon head-on tomorrow isn’t the greatest idea. We should consider the possibility of Straw being framed, as well as other potential Elim teams. The fact that Straw left his vote on Elandera makes me want to lynch her, actually, as it’s either distancing if Straw is an Elim, or a genuine suspicion if he’s village, and if he’s village Elandera is one of the last feasible suspects remaining. 

@Elandera Your Straw/Walin theory intrigued me. I’d like to hear from them both before drawing conclusions, though. 

@Mr Doctor, I suspect Elandera because she has a bad voting history and nothing to clear her, and Walin because he clinched a lynch on Burnt, outside the looking-like-Elims Straw/Elandera pool. I originally suspected you because you joined the Burnt lynch, but my overall village read on you hasn’t really changed because of that, given that I did the same thing. 

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Finale: Into the Sunrise
"This is it, isn't it grandpa?"
"Yup. It is."
Grandpa Steel coughed into his elbow, and began the final chapter of the castle siege. 
"Even up to the last minute, the pirates were desperately trying to complete their objective- defeat the guards. Unfortunately for them, one guard had totally fooled them. He was a new recruit, but single-handedly managed to finish what the Count and the Prince found too hard to do. As the pirates isolated the last people they thought might be Prince and Count, Dead Pirate Hobbert stabbed Plaristocrates in the back. He grimaced as he did it. 'I did enjoy working with you. Or, working against you.' The Prince, Count, and Guard then stood in front of the two remaining pirates. Their faces reflected the horror they felt. Straw, finally able to let his hand out of the gloves he always wore to hide his extra finger, swished his own sword at Elandera and Exetes, the Giant. 'You fought well. But your poor friend Plaristocrates, he trusted when he said he wouldn't trust. I almost pity him, and as such decided to allow Hobbert to give him a quick death. No machine for him. You, giant, however, will be a fascinating specimen. My prince, I take your leave.' With that, the Count waved at the remaining pirates, and Hobbert knocked them out for the Count's study. Bill Ted looked at the slumped bodies. 'I apologize for being so quiet. I found myself... more upset over the death of Buttercup then I thought I would be. We have eliminated the only witnesses, and with all these bodies, it should be more than easy to implicate Gilder. I plan on declaring war on them immediately.' The Count and guard left the Prince to his thoughts."
"The next day, the janitors of the castle were finally brought in to clean up the utter mess that was the castle. At the same time, the army of Florin, for the first time in a generation, went to war with Gilder in the name of their dead princess. Hobbert was promoted to the Royal Information Gatherer, for his important part in the siege. The Count finally published his book, which was declared the best book of the year by the news-criers, who certainly were not paid by the Count. The Prince ended up taking over Gilder, subjecting them to authoritarian rule. He fell in love with the princess of that land, but when he attempted to marry her, she stabbed him to death on their wedding night. As such, Hobbert ended up taking control of both kingdoms, who was in fact the true love of the princess of Gilder. Hobbert and his princess lived a long, happy life, treating the kingdoms far better than they had been before."
Grandpa Steel sighed, and stood up from his chair. Alvron looked at him with a melancholy look upon his face. "Why do people always have to have a happy ending? After all that, I thought we wouldn't have a happy ending."
The wrinkled bard shook his head. "You are entirely too caught up in all the death and destruction. I figured I could show you that even people who do nasty things can still do good things, and end up happy."
"Hm, but perhaps we don't have to have us have a happy ending, hm?"
---
A few minutes later, Grandpa Steel, Alv's sister, Stick (who was the namesake of the Stick the chinchilla liked to chew on), mother Wilson, and Rae the Chinchilla fled from a burning house. As they huddled together, the smoke formed into a dark figure with glowing eyes, and a face that seemed to cackle evilly. 
"What did you read to my brother?!" Stick asked incredulously. 
"An alternate ending to the Princess Bride! I swear this was not what I thought would come of me reading according to some of his suggestions. I think there's only one solution to this." Grandpa Steel stepped forward, and pulled out a handful of dice. He threw them upon the lawn, praying to the gods of luck and chance that their power would help calm down the crazed Alvron. That day, they chose to answer. All 7 dice came up with 1's.
The raging smoke monster stopped, eyes growing wide. "OOH" boomed the fiery Alv. The smoke collapsed, and the fire stopped burning, and coalesced into Alvron upon the lawn, looking down at the fantastic result on the dice.
Steel looked at Wilson. "You really need to get him looked at."
Wilson looked back at Steel. "Next time, stick with the actual ending."

Fifth Scholar has died! He was a Pirate with a Dagger. 

The Guards outnumber the Pirates! The Guards have won the game! 

Spoiler

1. Walin (Bill Ted) -Prince

2. Bort (Asu Wish) - Guard

3. Manukos - Dagger

4. Araris Valerian (Araris) - Princess

5. Cadmium Compounder (Indigo Montoya) - Parrot

6. Devotary of Spontaneity (Polydactylous Pterrodactyle) - Spaniard

7. Drake Marshall - Pirate

8. Hemalurgic Headshot (Leonard Wilkins) - Parrot

9. Snipexe (Exetes the Wandering Artist) - Giant

10. Fifth Scholar (Plaristocrates) - Dagger

11. Jondesu (Q) - Rum

12. Elenion (Shree King Eelz) - Parrot

13. Roadwalker (Brutus Kowd) - Dagger

14. Doc12 (D. Senfalo) - Pirate

15. Dalinar Kholin (Reginald Canuk) - Pirate

16. Bugsy (Dread Pirate Cummerbund) - Dagger

17. Kidpen (Incan C. Vable) - Pirate

18. Straw (Straw) -Count and Rum

19. Mr. Doctor (Dead Private Hobbert) - Rum

20. Val (Val) - Man in Black

21. Randuir (Captain K.C. Grumbleton) - Guard

22. Sart (Grandpa Lace) - Rum

23. Elandera- Pirate

24. Burnt Spaghetti - Parrot

25. Elbereth (Elenta) - Miracle Max

26. Rebecca (Sir Shrei King Eel) - Pirate

27. Rathmaskal (Rath) - Rum

 I will share my game thoughts a bit later, as well as award the various awards. I got a bit behind on the Peanut points, and I will declare the winner when I finish accounting that. 
Eliminator Document
Dead Document
Spectator/Crazy People Document
I've decided to also give up on trying to account all the florins, and joint award the MLT award to Arranae and Stick, who, besides Alvron, made the spectator document very fun. Alvron is in a class of his own, and I think his award is being regaled in a plethora of writeups. :P Rae and Stick, you will get your official "MLT badges" when I get a bit more time. 
Overall, this game was fun to run, even if inactivity was a serious issue. I'll talk about specifics later, but congratulations to the Guard, and well played to the village. I will absolutely be back to GM again.  

Edited by Steeldancer
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@Mr Doctor?!? You lied to me? Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow! But really, you did a fantastic job. There was absolutely nothing you did that made me suspicious. I wouldn't believe this was your first game.

Congratulations to the Guards. You played a great game. I'm terribly sorry to the Pirates for joining and leading us in the wrong directions so many times.

Steel, great theme! I loved the write-ups and only wish I could have been there for the whole game, not just part of it.

And sorry to all those pirates I accidentally got killed.

-----------

Lily awoke with a splitting headache. She tried to sit up but couldn't move. What happened?

Then she remembered. She had been wrong. Terribly wrong. Hobbert had betrayed them.

She looked around, but couldn't move her head. The room was dim, but not too dark. She could hear someone whistling and an albino man walked into her view.

"Good evening, wel-" he was cut short by a cough. "Welcome to the pit of dispair! I hope you enjoy your stay." He laughed like it was some inside joke. "Don't get your hopes up. We've tightened security around here. No one gets in or out without the Count's permission."

Lily struggled against the leather straps holding her down.

"I'll kill you all for this," Kay shouted. "I'll burn this place until it's only ashes."

The albino man just laughed and walked away.

"I will have my revenge," said Drusilla in quiet, dangerous voice.

"Oh shut up," said Lily. "We're not getting out and no one cares enough to rescue us."

The albino walked back into her view and looked at her quizically. 

"You-- you sounded different," he said.

"It's none of your business," said Kay.

"Just get out if my sight," said Amy.

Drusilla simply glared at the man.

"Oh, different personalities all in one petite body. The Count will very much enjoy studying you." 

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Good game! That was a lot of fun, and I'll definitely be coming back to do more. I'll admit that sometimes I had no idea what I was doing, but I guess that it worked out. King Hobbert, formerly Private Hobbert, formerly the Dead Private Hobbert, thanks you for the good time.

1 minute ago, Elandera said:

@Mr Doctor?!? You lied to me? Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow! But really, you did a fantastic job. There was absolutely nothing you did that made me suspicious. I wouldn't believe this was your first game.

I was very concerned that you would spot me in your analysis after seeing how you broke down Straw's activity and figured him out. I had a hard time stopping myself from agreeing entirely with you and voting on Straw, since I wanted to keep my Village persona strong. In the end I just settled for not stating my agreement and having to ignore most of your post :lol:. You did a great job pinch-hitting and firing the thread back up when it looked like everyone (myself included) would succumb to inactivity.

Thanks Steel for running this game.

 

I'm not sure how many people noticed, but you can see evidence of my alignment in my last post of Night 10, here.

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5 minutes ago, Mr Doctor said:

Good game! That was a lot of fun, and I'll definitely be coming back to do more. I'll admit that sometimes I had no idea what I was doing, but I guess that it worked out. King Hobbert, formerly Private Hobbert, formerly the Dead Private Hobbert, thanks you for the good time.

I was very concerned that you would spot me in your analysis after seeing how you broke down Straw's activity and figured him out. I had a hard time stopping myself from agreeing entirely with you and voting on Straw, since I wanted to keep my Village persona strong. In the end I just settled for not stating my agreement and having to ignore most of your post :lol:. You did a great job pinch-hitting and firing the thread back up when it looked like everyone (myself included) would succumb to inactivity.

Thanks Steel for running this game.

 

I'm not sure how many people noticed, but you can see evidence of my alignment in my last post of Night 10, here.

I think the only way I might have caught you was if I'd played the whole game. I just simply didn't think you were elim, aside from an occasional gut feeling which I mentioned a couple of times but largely ignored because I just thought I was being paranoid.

I did kind of notice you seemed to have only skimmed my analysis of Straw, but by then, it was too late.

Also, you deserve a huge congratulations for practically carrying your team on your first game. I just skimmed the elim doc and it really shows how dedicated you were. You deserve the win.

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That was a super fun game. I loved all of your writeups steel, they allways brought a smile to my face. congrats to Mr Doctor for carrying the team.

i wish I could have been more active, but this game just came at a crappy time for me, and while it’s my fault I was super inactive, there were outside circumstances.

so once again, thanks to everyone for an awesome time!!!

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2 hours ago, Steeldancer said:

The raging smoke monster stopped, eyes growing wide. "OOH" boomed the fiery Alv. The smoke collapsed, and the fire stopped burning, and coalesced into Alvron upon the lawn, looking down at the fantastic result on the dice.

Noooo.  I don't want to go back to a mortal body!  Smokeform all the way.
Related image

Great game all.  Congratulations to the Guards for pulling off a good win. 
Mr. Doctor, I can tell you will be one to keep a very close eye on in future games.
Steel, your write ups were vastly entertaining.  I look forward to you GMing some more.

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Things I learned this game: I apparently can predict quite well when an elim needs to be bussed.

Things I need to work on: Using those predictions :P

In all seriousness though, @Mr Doctor did a terrific job carrying us to victory after half the team died and got in some really cool RP as well (go at the very least read the one he linked to from the final night).

It was also nice to see that most of my planned and unplanned misdirections panned out, while little info from my death pointed back to my team-mates. In particular, people immediately listing straw as likely village because I'd been trying to get him lynched was a minor victory in a streak of bad luck.

Edited by randuir
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1 hour ago, Elandera said:

I think the only way I might have caught you was if I'd played the whole game. I just simply didn't think you were elim, aside from an occasional gut feeling which I mentioned a couple of times but largely ignored because I just thought I was being paranoid.

I think that paranoia and gut feelings were the only things that were left at that point. Based on what the other Villagers (except for Fifth Scholar) thought, everyone seemed pretty much neutral by the time that you'd joined.

1 hour ago, Elandera said:

Also, you deserve a huge congratulations for practically carrying your team on your first game. I just skimmed the elim doc and it really shows how dedicated you were. You deserve the win.

Thanks! It was quite close, though. It all came down to the Day Nine lynch, because losing an Elim then would have made it pretty much impossible, but once it was down to 4 Villagers and 3 Elims the outcome was confirmed because of our Rum, unless a Villager had vote manipulation. I'll admit that I was refreshing the Day 10 page over and over again near the end because I was worrying about that possibility.

 

4 minutes ago, randuir said:

In all seriousness though, @Mr Doctor did a terrific job carrying us to victory after half the team died and got in some really cool RP as well (go at the very least read the one he linked to from the final night).

I owe a lot of it to you and Len for explaining things to me early on, so thanks for that. Also, your death was pulled off masterfully so that we all escaped unscathed.

 

4 minutes ago, Alvron said:

Mr. Doctor, I can tell you will be one to keep a very close eye on in future games.

Should I be worried? I should probably be worried. You seem to strike fear into the hearts of everyone else, and I doubt that you would hesitate to lynch a fellow Kiwi.

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