Long Game 86: A Stricken Match

[Archer]

Hey howdy. I forgot to mention that I'll be very busy today and so last night was me trying to solidify where my vote will land and likely stay for the remainder of the round. 

Unfortunately I'm in an awkward position because I'm partially basing my vote on Secret Information. But between my shortlist pointing there and my other suspects acting downright villagery, I'm going to take the opportunity to stab Araris in the back. :P. No seriously I'm 90% positive he's evil. 

He's a PMer. Filled D1, which means no teammates on the line. But then he burned all his charges and PMed me (and someone he won't identify) during the Night. I asked why not wait until 5 charges, he said I'm Araris, I hate PMs. (So why'd you PM me...) Then I asked if he planned on charging up any more and he said no, I want my vote to count. 

But guys. He hasn't really been using the PM to bounce ideas off me or anything. It's mostly been me asking him questions. So why not play silent rounds and then see at the end if your vote is needed or if you can fill. Remembering that there's a role that needs to be PMed as well. And leaving yourself the option of filling allows you to drop your vote secretly. 

I think he's actually wary of filling because it means he can't talk in the elim doc. He's playing this role in the most elimmy way, so it has my hackles up. 

Anyway, I will also mention that I caused my own vote to disappear D1 but somebody put one back in its place. So there's a chance the elims were actually uncomfortable with the way the exe was going and tried to hit Alvron. But what I can't understand is why Alvron 

Again, info dumping here because I will not be around, so good luck! 

[Mat]

Ngl when you said you were 90% confident he was elim I was expecting something a little more… concrete, I guess? Like it makes sense but it also reminds me of Illwei’s xino clear in that I don’t necessarily find that as convincing as you do. A lot of your Araris case is circumstantial, but it’s enough of a case that I’m not against him dying.

I think I’ll go back to Illwei though, I feel better there than on xino. My xino vote felt useless. I’m aware this looks like me trying to ensure that Araris doesn’t die or something but I’d switch back regardless :P.

[Elandera]

@JNV, it wasn't a poke vote in the traditional sense. It looks like a distancing vote. A vote placed with a prompt to act, and then removed after no response and no reason for the replacement vote. 

[Araris Valerian]

I've never done a "massive" multiquote, but figured after champs that I may as well. Here's all the D1 posts by or mentioning Stick, along with my thoughts.

Spoiler

On 5/31/2022 at 4:04 AM, _Stick_ said:

What do you mean? This feels like something an elim should ask their teammates xD I would say that as a rule of thumb, claiming early-game is bad. But this question just feels kinda like…forced contribution(?) The Unknown Novel 

Trying to work out whether I feel like Striker/Mat E/E based on that interaction.

This is a light attack on TUN, Striker, and Mat

On 5/31/2022 at 10:40 AM, Matrim's Dice said:

I like Stick’s TUN read. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I like it.

Tbh I feel something similar about Elan asking caution; that’s definitely something a villager says but I gut read it as elim anyway :P.

Mat is backing up Stick, so lower probability of e/e distancing

On 5/31/2022 at 1:17 PM, The Unknown Novel said:

Why assume role madness? Most of these roles are pretty powerful given time, so increasing the chance of one happening could change the balance. Also, roleless can still put in actions in this game, so that makes them even more likely in my eyes.

It's been a topic of discussion decently recently whether vanilla/roleless should claim. Roles claiming is generally a no no, but roleless goes back and forth.

Tthis post is a response to Stick's vote. Not really anything to glean here.

On 5/31/2022 at 3:07 PM, _Stick_ said:

I’m pretty sure you can be a Feruchemist and a Synod member simultaneously 

Hm I’ll admit this is a decent point, but my GM PM told me stuff about my role so it’s possible that Steel just went off the info in his GM PM? 

Non-committal comment about Steel

On 5/31/2022 at 5:30 PM, _Stick_ said:

The elims I think will definitely go for the kill right? Since it’s essentially a free, anonymous kill. So some of us have to also go for the kill to lower their chances of getting it. Except we’re more likely to hit a villager anyway especially on C1 so it’s probably a lose/lose for us but we can pray to RNGesus 

Mild village reading Steel for rules but…it’s been too long since I’ve played with E!Steel so some caution ig

There are some strategy implications here, but they are probably void now that Stick has flipped. Elims were probably going to focus on non-kill actions N1.

On 5/31/2022 at 11:57 PM, Matrim's Dice said:

Jeral bit his lip nervously, and a bit harder than he intended to. Under the eyes of his opponents, he refused to wince, which was easy. The drops of blood that sprang from the self-inflicted cut tasted like sweet motivation rather than pain. He tossed some dice, though they weren't his own. Those, unfortunately, had been confiscated. Again.

Roll, roll, roll. A two and a three. Rusts. If he wanted that golden Stick he was going to have to do better than that.

---

That's a real vote. I don't like how Stick mentioned the village's 'unlikelihood of success', so to speak, since in the recent history that has proven to be false, and I also don't agree with the village read on Steel.

More Mat/Stick interactions. I agree with Mat, village will hit elims with the kill far more than elims hit elims with it, so it's good for the village to use the kill.

On 6/1/2022 at 5:21 AM, _Stick_ said:

I wasn’t talking about the exe  I meant the freelance kill, statistically. 

Yeah, that was my line of thought more or less. I’m not putting too much stock into it, so it’s only a slight village lean. Additionally, Steel’s post recent post reminds me of LG83!Steel.

What’s your current read on Steel? 

TUN never really claimed roleless so curious how you got that, plus this game is role madness so all roles are important roles. Also this entire paragraph reads entirely noncommittal to me. Like “this person did this suspicious thing but also not”. I’m starting to see a pattern in my JNV reads lately  Nevertheless JNV do you have some actual reads? A vote?

I also don’t fully understand why people are village reading TUN - what I’m struggling to see is the purpose of a villager posing that question to the thread. Claiming roleless is the same as claiming a role because it narrows down the pool, like people have pointed out. I guess I can buy that they didn’t know the game was rolemadness (I was unsure too, though the way Fifth’s game advert on discord was phrased did imply role madness so I asked Kas to confirm).

Attack against Steel (but vote is still on TUN)

On 6/1/2022 at 5:44 AM, Elandera said:

Stick, I'm not sure it's a village read of TUN, as much as it is a NAI read from that particular suggestion. I haven't played with them much, but I think that sort of thing lines up with how they've played in the past regardless of alignment. 

Elandera is justifying not being suspicious of TUN, not much here

On 6/1/2022 at 9:55 AM, Matrim's Dice said:

Stick, Jeral stands corrected

My read of Steel is NAI, as I’ve mentioned. I would say evil only because I disagree with people v reading him but that’s not how reads work so just NAI

My read of TUN is less that what they did is villagery by itself and more that it fits with their v meta, imo

More back and forth with Stick.

On 6/1/2022 at 10:07 AM, xinoehp512 said:

Bucket Time. (Shard, no eating my post this time. >:( )

Good Bucket

  Reveal hidden contents

Archer

JNV

Steel

Elandera

Araris

Illwei

Ashbringer

Bad Bucket

  Reveal hidden contents

Striker

Matrim

Stick

Alvron

TUN

As for Copper storage... it's all well and good to say they can just fake it this cycle, but that only works for so long. You can bet your buckets that the elims will have a list of possible Copper candidates, and given the general tendency to quote, that list might not be very long. Ideally, we give our power roles as much cover as possible.

That means voting also. Three roles result in a cancellation of one's own vote - copper, zinc, and tin. Any of those roles would be a good target for elims.

Current VC:
JNV (1): Stick
Araris (1): Archer
Steel (1): Araris
Striker (1): Xino
I will vote Striker- I am suspicious of the stance that we should avoid discussion of fillcons. It is almost certain that the elims will have their own discussion in their doc, so avoiding such discussion in the thread is useless. Of course people should not claim, but discussion is not claiming.

Notable things here: Xino votes on Striker, who was NKed, and suspects Stick. Light village read on Xino for both things.

On 6/1/2022 at 4:53 PM, Illwei said:

I don't feel very pushed to discussion from that vote, Mat.

What I do feel is that TUN's last post feels like TMI in a way. He is way too self-aware about how mat might percieve him in a way that feels completely unnatural.

Mat, Stick, Striker, Araris, Steel all V.

Of everyone so far I am most comfortable voting Xino still, I think.

My village reads on Stick and Steel are probably not the weakest of the lot, but the ones i would most likely vote on if for some reason all my village reads were the only viable candidates.

Archer, Elan, and Alv are all on my radar right now, as is JNV, but of those three? JNV is the only person I would vote on today.

I'd probably stick Elan in a temporary category of village, lower down.

There is definitely bias in me of wanting to suspect people who are using quotes more than I should, which is basically where most of my suspicion on Elandera comes in-though why I don't apply that to stick right now is beyond me.

EDIT:

Now Mat, A JNV vote I can kind of get behind.

This is the post from Illwei that I flagged earlier.

On 6/1/2022 at 8:30 PM, Matrim's Dice said:

Reread time! I feel like I finally understand the thread for the first time today.

Trying a new format, because it's a goal of mine to use a different one every time >> Liked/didn't like should equate to village/not, but I make no promises :P.

Pg 1:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Things I liked

  Reveal hidden contents

• I still find the question about rolelessness to be within TUN's village meta. Whether it's also within their elim meta is another question, but I stand by what I said about that question more likely coming from an elim on this site in general
• Stick's vote reads village to me
• Araris' engagement and most of his posts themselves I'm liking

Things I didn't

  Reveal hidden contents

• TUN implying they were going to edit in or post thoughts about the rules, and then only posting about rolelessness and a question about Copper is weird but eh probably not worth exploring
• Elan mentioning the obvious regarding kills. Mentioning the obvious always flags me.

 

 

 

 

Pg 2:

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Things I liked

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• Alv's clear thought process on TUN, as opposed to a straight suspicion
• Archer. Almost. (see below)

Things I didn't

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• TUN deliberately being confusing about filling- better not to mention it at all
• Everyone village reading Steel because of finding the rules doc (not to say that these people are elim) since I still just think that was NAI
• Archer mentioning that the elims will spam Protect- seems obvious to me that they will go for the kill as much as possible unless a teammate is specifically under fire. I feel like this is a weird route for Archer to think
• JNV's ratio of rules thoughts to game thoughts

 

 

 

 

Pg 3:

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Things I liked

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• Steel commenting on the weirdness of people reading him despite people mainly reading him village- an elim would likely surf the village reads happily
• xino's buckets being different from the main threadstate (if there is a main threadstate)
• Illwei's Striker commentary
• Stick's vote on me :P.
• Steel's post, reads unaligned to me. As in teammateless. As in village. Vibes are hard to explain :P.

Things I didn't

  Reveal hidden contents

• Vibes from Elan that I'm mostly ignoring... probably because I'm reading her posts as saying things without really saying things, if you know what I mean
• xino's Striker vote. Likely because I'm biased from agreeing with Striker.
• Illwei suddenly flopping from ' v. TUN' to voting them, despite saying xino is their preferred vote

 

 

 

 

Pg 4:

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Things I liked

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• Araris' vote. I agree with it.
• Archer's reads list
• The fact that there's no vote minimum

Things I didn't

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• The vote count

 

 

 

 

Araris, Steel
Alv, Stick
Striker, xino
Archer, Illwei, JNV, TUN
Ash, Elan

Interesting how that's the read list I ended up with. Am I allowed to say that I didn't expect that going into my reread? :P.

Ashbringer, though I don't like it. Idk if there's a vote that I would. I wish the trains were just finite at this point, I don't even necessarily care who they are on xD

Here Mat gives a village read on Stick and on Striker.

Okay, so there wasn't too much going on there, but I'm not a fan of what I saw from Mat. It looked like his interactions with Stick were performative. One counterpoint is how Mat pushed back against what Stick was saying about the generic kill, but I think they are competent enough to distance like this.

I don't have a response to Archer, except that perhaps this sort of thing is why I'm justified in disliking PMs  (the Gods of Kas and Fifth like to curse me with PM roles apparently)

And no, I won't be taking PM requests. Artwyn is old and tired and won't be delivering any other messages.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Araris Valerian

[Mat]

You said it was all the posts from Stick, but you missed the one where Stick voted me and kept that vote there through the whole turn, even when the VC never consolidated. And if you’re arguing that I’m e/e with Stick, that’s a key thing you missed  

[Araris Valerian]

35 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

You said it was all the posts from Stick, but you missed the one where Stick voted me and kept that vote there through the whole turn, even when the VC never consolidated. And if you’re arguing that I’m e/e with Stick, that’s a key thing you missed  

Well. Tired old guys have bad eyesight, I guess. Yeah, I still hold that we should look outside the pool of people that got voted on D1. But I'm not going to retract any of what I've said, in case it needs to be revisited.

[---]

Archer that sounds exactly like what happened in AG7 with Araris so like, not really concerning. He had prudence open a PM with me iirc and then proceeded to not use it at all. (before i became pru, i think?) @Elandera can you help me remember if this is true lmfao

But yeah, that's just. Araris.

EDIT:

Elandera (1): Ashbringer
>> JNV (3): Araris Valerian, Elandera, Illwei
Archer (1): Steeldancer
Araris Valerian (1): Archer
Illwei (1): Matrim's Dice

And here I thought that we were more consolidated than yesterday.

I don't understand the suspicion on Araris, but I don't think I can tell if it's fabricated enough or if I think Archer believes it. Regardless I still think that JNV is the best exe for today so not really something I need to think much about.

Not filling because it would negate your vote isn't really AI, but all the villagers should definitely be thinking about NOT filling. again, I say. Actions are fun, and fine, and some of them might be worth it depending on how much you need to fill, but also, not enough to forfeit village's only kp.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Illwei

[Elandera]

I really wish I could remember  My memory is not all that great. But I think most of the PMs I created were random rather than requested.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Elandera

[Mat]

I’ll probably move to Elan around EoD if nothing changes but I guess the only thing I have against JNV is the people voting them

[Alvron]

8 hours ago, Archer said:

Anyway, I will also mention that I caused my own vote to disappear D1 but somebody put one back in its place. So there's a chance the elims were actually uncomfortable with the way the exe was going and tried to hit Alvron. But what I can't understand is why Alvron 

You haven't played with me much, but some players will want me dead simply for who I am.  I have no issue with randomly killing which as you can see has the habit of taking out elims so the elims wanting me removed early is kinda normal.  Especially if they happen to be someone I've done it to before. (Araris, Steel or Elandera for example)


I haven't really been paying attention this cycle due to work and life so my vote will not be very informed.  Like at all.  I made a long post about why I didn't trust Araris based on his vote disappearing and Archer revealing he has a PMM with them but after checking the rules, it turns out my reasoning was wrong so I scrapped it and have now run out of time to write up another post so I'm going to go with my second suspicion and vote for Wei.  Hopefully I can explain more when I get back in about 6 hours.

[Steeldancer]

I don't trust Archer, so I don't trust his suspicion.

JNV, I genuinely cannot make heads or tails of some parts of your post. Is English not your first language? Not upset or anything, I just... Can't figure out what you're trying to say. 

I have a grand total of No Pms. Whee. 

[---]

If people want to elaborate on their suspicions of me that would be nice. Unfort I think that that both people on me right now are village, but if you haven't been able to find me off of my posting this cycle then I don't think you ever will.

I've been obviously village this cycle with my progressions and solving. If I am an elim I have narrowed down my PoE to 4 people (and now three as I say i think Elan is village. I really like her updating with her current reads as they change in every post.) which means I'd have to insanely backtrack on some of my reads if i was an Elim. No one is forcing me to make these village reads, a lot of people don't have them. do you think an Elim chooses to narrow down who they can get away with voting easily?

Don't shrug this off saying "yeah an elim could say that sure" because this isn't about what someone /can/ do as an Elim. I could do anything as an Elim. I could also get executed as an Elim. It's what an Elim /would/ do, which involves staying townread but not enough to gain suspicion- enough to not get voted out. It involves keeping your options open enough so that when whoever you're pushing flips village you have plenty of options for the next exe so people don't figure out it's you, it involves keeping your partners wherever you like them- whether that be at arms length or in your pocket. It involves more often than not a number of calculated choices that ensures you and your teammates stay alive.

A villager doesn't have to think about all these things. A villager will vote who they want when they want because they think it's who should die, a villager may or may not be interested in their personal survival, but more often than not will not fight in the same way an Elim will depending on who else is a viable candidate for the exe.

Most of the time with Elims, definitely if they're active, you'll be able to see a visible Agenda. Maybe not in the moment, but at the very least once you know and zoom out. IE: Maill and me and our actions in LG74. Keeping eachother at arms length so we would look good upon the other's flip, but also using our positions as both widely village read and widely elim read to control the exe.

A lot of the time it will be visible in the game, which is what I think Archer is right now with his vote switches.

I've rambled and walked away from my computer and walked back more than once so if this is a little all over the place that's why.

EDIT:

On 6/3/2022 at 1:00 PM, Matrim's Dice said:

Illwei said she was going to join the Stick vote (never did) despite later putting Stick as village, and said she was most comfortable voting xino, yet voted TUN. Reads as distancing and not actually wanting to vote a teammate, respectively.

Also there was no stick vote to join when i said that. I hopped in thread and was writing a post when you ninja'd me iirc

Edited June 4, 2022 by Illwei

[Mat]

I’ve already explained my vote, I feel like there’s enough potential for you to be e/e with Stick but honestly at this point it’s more that yes, your progression is there but none of the conclusions I find all that compelling if you know what I mean. Like I can get behind all of them but if you hadn’t mentioned them I wouldn’t have gone there.
(I did know that Stick had zero votes at that point, but imo that doesn’t really change my point. If anything it strengthens it, you could have voted Stick when she was a train but chose not to mention it until after she wasn’t. But I dunno if timestamps work with that)

I don’t think narrowing a PoE to only four people on D2 is necessarily a village move either, seems a bit small to me. I recognize that you probably know when to reconsider but off the top of my head I’d have as my PoE [you, Elan, xino, JNV, Araris(?)] and probably someone else I’m forgetting.

It’s also kinda hard for me to accept an argument of ‘I’ve been obviously village because of x’ when something we all agree on is that competent elims tend to be able to act villagery, especially early game. So yes, progression is good, but certainly not unfakeable. No one is forcing you to make those village reads but if someone doesn’t have village reads at all, that draws attention.

There’s one thing that makes me pause though. That alone makes me reconsider. I am intentionally not saying what it is :P.

Idk, nothing I’ve said in this post is meant to reflect e!Illwei, just refute the points for v!Illwei. Decent chance I end on Elan though. Maybe not decent actually. Slight chance I guess.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Matrim's Dice

[---]

Your point against me not voting stick is really "you could have voted her and then just said you didn't" instead of looking at anything else going on there?

11 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

It’s also kinda hard for me to accept an argument of ‘I’ve been obviously village because of x’ when something we all agree on is that competent elims tend to be able to act villagery, especially early game. So yes, progression is good, but certainly not unfakeable. No one is forcing you to make those village reads but if someone doesn’t have village reads at all, that draws attention.

You cant possibly pretend to say you think I'm a competent Elim? Look at any of my games and first of all there's an obvious difference.

You suspect me absolutely every game for things i do when i'm obviously village and then say "you could be doing this as an elim"

I don't even know how to talk about this because I don't think you get how tilting this is. I can't play any game because everyone assumes i am a competent elim who is constantly fooling them. People are either going "illwei seems village but I'm not going to village read them" "Illwei is probably an Elim but I can't say why because I don't have reasoning" "Illwei isn't someone I want to follow with votes because maybe they're an Elim"

Stop second guessing absolutely everything that both you and I are doing. If I'm an Elim where are my teammates in my reads? What was my approach to Stick? Why do I claim to have been voting a village read? Why do i even flip on TUN there if a teammate isn't up and I'm not trying to save them? If I am trying to save them by building a wagon on TUN then who is it? And Why don't I flip to someone else? Where is my teammate defending me? If my teammate is too scared to defend me, where do you think their hiding?

[Mat]

Well that’s why I said nothing about my post meant e!Illwei. I’m not reading you based on that, village or elim.

To answer your point, though, yes I think you’re a competent elim. Take the compliment  But that doesn’t make me elim read you more in this game or any other, and you rightly point out that it shouldn’t. It was never meant to be an argument against you, just illustrate why pointing out your own villageness isn’t always effective.

I mostly try to read you by votes, and I don’t have a lot of that D2. I can’t remember what pinged me in Ash’s LG, but maybe I should go check that.

Eh. Illwei. The other thing I’ve thought of that points to v!Illwei keeps coming to mind, and the frustration here feels genuine. Frustration isn’t village exclusive but it feels more like that here to me.

Elan

[---]

This is going to be a little messy, it's just me thinking out loud.

Ashbringer hasn't been around, hasn't voted at all, keeps coming back and saying "i forgot it ended this early"
Mat is the top poster, advocated for the vig to claim, advocated for everyone to claim to "provide cover", went "that's too bad" when the nk flipped two good roles, But he was voted on by stick, voted /on/ stick on D1. He never revisited it and didn't go back even when i expressed interest in a stick vote, but has agreed with basically everything i have said yet still wants to vote on me? Said i was convincing him on xino v and then voted xino, still hasn't given a read on my top elim read officially despite definitely expressing a wolfread in so many posts

Steel is strangely confident in everything he is doing, while shooting down village reads on him for stupid reasons. The thing is there that no one was actually village reading him for not reading the rules besides Stick it seems? I don't even think Stick was village reading him though. Mat, and JNV called it NAI, Archer called it villagery,  no one else commented on it. Implies the team is not mat/jnv? steel is so normally cautious and uneasy sounding, so that's the one reason i don't trust him. but even when he was an Elim with me he was still uneasy. That was his first game back though and he's played since then so it's irrelevant

Archer has flipped three times today on three different people who are in my PoE (well, if i was in my PoE) but still isn't voting Jnv. Archer isn't really anti-bus but he's not an avid busser, which is why it really feels like he's trying to frantically find anything other than the JNV exe. I village read him for doing a complete 180 on Araris mid-d1 but then all of a sudden he comes out at near EoD with a "i actually have solid proof and here it is" it wasn't a complete 180, just a "I guess he wasn't really in his Elim meta like i thought he was on d1" and then back around to a "but i actually have solid proof" and honestly on a reread of his araris posts I have 0 clue what his conclusion was. but then he comes back again and Stronger on Araris with a "here's solid proof" but really all it is is that Araris PMd him with his one PM, and then decided not to use his ability again (which means he gets to keep his vote) and while there might really be something there i have no clue what Im supposed to read into about people wanting to keep their votes or not. because everyone kinda should. Like losing your vote for a shot at a night action that doesn't even do much isn't worth it 90% of the time? and using that as a basis to push someone is just incredibly bizzare to me. I can't say it's village. I just don't know if it feels fully fabricated or not. it's just ??

JNV hasn't even voted once and has only posted twice. I shouldn't think he's an Elim as much as I do? Is most of it based on Archer's reaction to JNV? He seemed oblivious to the game being role madness but that's nothing that couldn't be faked so not worth caring about. JNV is the first person that Stick voted (and then 'tried to get to vote on someone') so if I clear mat for that why don't i clear him? and why is everyone so happy to jump on JNV? He defended stick from Mat's accusation in which mat misunderstood something that Stick had said, and he downplayed one of what i consider to be the more valuable roles in the game. I suppose it's only worth it if you start off with 2 charges and then can use copper on the 3rd day but still seeing someone's role and entire action history even if realistically you can only use it once isn't a bad role? I think now that I'm just going too hard on JNV but also they haven't even voted and talk in run on sentences that last a whole paragraph. which isn't how they always talk? They're usually understandable? but "understandable" isn't a village category that has any wieght.

Araris again hasn't done much but I just don't feel any agenda from them is all i have on that. I just want to believe in my read of them because I'm a pretty >rand Araris reader recently. they have also been voting basically purely the people who village read them which i don't think is a good strategy but also a strange one for an Elim to have?

Xino hasn't really done anything even thought I've spend quite a few posts defending them from Mat today. Really just boils down to Stick correcting me on my suspicion on TUN and telling me i'm talking about Xino instead at a time when she wasn't in thread at all and didn't need to even acknoledge my post. I don't think that Mat is teamed with stick as well again because of how much he has pushed Xino today in comparison to how much I've defended Xino? Idk something there is probably wrong. Idk. Mat fought against me, claimed he felt like he was playing devils advocate when arguing for an E!Xino, and then ended back up voting Xino later. Could it be an Elim and an extreme TMI slip with knowing Xino was village and still calling then an Elim and voting on them?.....

@Matrim's Dice your post earlier was yeah, just discrediting any reason to village read me and not anything about why people should be elim reading me. I think you're a villager based on Stick interactions, and if you are, don't discredit reasons to village read someone, counter reasons to village read people with reasons they are an Elim instead.

I'm going to a play tonight so I won't be around after 7 pst. in an hour I suppose.

[Mat]

Where did you get the idea I wanted everyone to claim anything xD

[JNV]

Ill be honest Id prefer to vote for steeldancer I had that whole post and sorry Steeldancer that you couldnt understand it if you point to specific bits I can try to say it better but like seeing Elanderas reason for their vote on me just seems... weird? Like they say it was a poke vote trying to get me to do something but then they also say it was removed after no response then they also say there was no reason for the vote on Matrim after and... there kinda was? Like you have to infer it a bit but it came idrectly after a really weird vote by Matrim and was followed by Matrim acknowedgeing the vote as a chide for the bad vote so...  Elandera for life and limb and a suspicion and raised eyebrows and stuff like I just dont get it and if you have time id appreciate a bit more thorough questioning 

Can anyone actally say whats been suspicious about me that hasnt been Stick doing weird stuff? Cause Sticks been doing weird stuff in relation to a lot of people and I dont appreciate being singled out like this 

Id love to actually do a post of substance but I really have to go Im being called away fro family game night and Im like legally not allowed to miss that so see you on the other side I guess bye 

[Fifth Scholar]

Turn over! Night to come soon.

[Kasimir]

Night Two: Striking Sparks

The Frebarind Finisher was, evidently, not yet finished.

“Lamentations!” Faleast cried out, in the streets. “Dreadful lamentations! Two bodies discovered—”

“—Praise the Ja!” Eiwlil interjected, punctuating each syllable with a vigorous shake of her head.

“—likely victims of the Frebarind Finisher!”

“Praise the Ja!”

“Death stalks the streets of Frebarind!”

“Praise the Ja!”

“A hundred boxings to the one who can put an end to the scourge of the Frebarind Finisher!”

“Praise the Ja!”

“Dreadful, woeful, tragic lamentations!”

“Praise the Ja!”

Except, Landis thought, the outlook was at once both more dire and hopeful than expected. One of their own, though thankfully not a member of the Synod, had proven to be Spiked. He remembered Stick: peculiarly, both the President and the Treasurer of the Tathingdwen Tautological Society of Tautology were named Stick. No doubt President Stick would be grieved to hear of Treasurer Stick’s passing. Even worse to know that Treasurer Stick had become an informant for the Steel Inquisition, spying on the other Feruchemists.

They have so many eyes among us, he thought to himself, dismayed. Worms in the rotten core of an apple.

Last night, when the death was reported. He’d willed the other members of the Synod to listen. To understand what this meant. To act. If the Steel Inquisition had suborned a full Feruchemist, they could suborn anyone at all. No one was beyond suspicion.

“It doesn’t matter,” another in the Synod had said. Landis knew who the man was, although he wore a mask. Most of the Synod did, these days. They believed the enemy could not see them, could not work out their identities at the meetings. As though they did not all know who their fellow Synod members were, even. “Can we even be truly sure that Stick was working for the Steel Inquisition?” 

“Those puncture wounds didn’t kill,” said another, who had elected to wear a headband instead of a mask. Landis wasn’t sure why. “They were inflicted before death, and there was very little bleeding around them. She was an agent of the Inquisition.”

“But then where are the spikes?” asked a third, apparently confident enough in the anonymity provided by a domino mask. “Spikes do not disappear on their own.”

“The answer,” said Landis, having had enough, “Is fairly obvious, isn’t it?”

He looked at them, at the men and women of the Synod, hidden beneath their masks and that lone headband, and the others who stood among them, playing their games, burying their heads in the sand, and felt tired and frustrated and irritated. Hadn’t they lost enough? Hadn’t they all lost enough of their number?

Ias and Hazen and Pashan and Radur, and the person they’d sent to check up on him had reported that Vardenwith had been killed. Did they know? Landis wondered. It wasn’t the first time he’d considered the Synod had to be compromised, and no doubt Vardenwith was killed for the seat he was filling in. Radur’s seat.

“An accomplice,” said Raven. She nodded to him, as she strode into the meeting-place. “Inadeus was killed by a swift toxin of unknown provenance.”

“What does that mean?” demanded one of the masked Synod members present.

“It means an assassin,” snapped Landis.

“It means the Steel Ministry,” Raven said. Calmly. Evenly. “It means that whoever killed Inadeus, that assassin procured a poison that is rare and proscribed enough that I can’t recognise it, which means that person has access and connections.”

The room erupted.

“But does that mean Steel Inquisition?” one of the Synod asked, who wore no mask. Confident, no doubt, in all gathered there.

“How much of poisons do you know, Raven?”

“Enough,” Raven replied.

“Enough,” Landis said, in the same heartbeat, an echo of hers. “Which of us has an enemy—any enemy—that would pay for our deaths with an assassin, and one who knows and has access to rare poisons?”

Silence.

“The Steel Inquisition,” said the one wearing the domino mask.

“The Steel Inquisition,” Landis agreed, grimly. “Stick was suborned. Stick was working for the Steel Inquisition. But there is another.”

 

 

 

“You seem to know much of what transpired with the Frebarind Synod,” Olaf said. “And with Landis.”

Kais shrugged. “One does not journey at the speed of thought. It took me time to travel down to Frebarind, time from when the letters were dispatched, and news of Hazen’s death. And then I had to investigate intensively, to assess the situation on the ground, and to understand what had happened in the days following Hazen’s death, and Landis’s leadership of the Synod. I did not arrive in Frebarind until several days after Inadeus’s death.”

“A full Feruchemist suborned…” Olaf said, letting his voice trail off. The thought was horrendous, but Olaf knew as well as any House Lord that loyalty could be bought. Any man could be bought, in the end. The real question was one of price.

Kais’s mention of the Synod and their interest in rare metals had brought him here. The Jerzy wine deal was interesting—an opportunity to diversify House Ffnord’s portfolio—but it was the suggestion of the Synod and the hint of knowledge, that the Feruchemists knew more about metals than even Allomancers, that had lured him all the way out to the Terris Dominance, and the Sign of Fire.

Every man had his price.

This was Olaf’s.

“I suspect the spikes are capable of subverting a person’s will,” Kais said. “But I don’t think we can really know for sure. In any case, it seemed the Steel Inquisition was offering Stick a bounty on Feruchemical spikes brought back to their agents. And the Tathingdwen Tautological Society of Tautology had been in the red for some time…”

“Ah. That explains it. You followed the boxings.”

“As one does.”

Olaf wondered, idly, if the bounty on Feruchemical spikes was still active. But he abandoned the thought; the prospect of metallurgical knowledge for the moment was sufficient draw, and while everyone knew the standard proportions for Allomantic metals, still, metallurgists always hoarded their secrets, seeking alloys of interest.

And if the Synod had access to metals or alloys he hadn’t yet heard of…

No, Olaf thought, the bounty wasn’t particularly enticing.

He smiled toothily. “Well, what happened to the spikes?”

The noblewoman at the next table over was nursing her drink. She’d been there the whole time since they’d come in, and something about her stuck out to Olaf. Probably nothing. And yet…

“The Synod wasn’t able to establish this,” Kais answered. “But it takes a certain sort of person to recognise the spikes for what they are—to infiltrate Frebarind, the Steel Inquisition, we’d later discover, utilised spikes that were less conventional and therefore less recognisable than those employed by the Inquisitors. And of course, this meant they were easier to conceal. And it takes a certain sort of person to recognise the spikes and harvest them, all the same…”

 

 

Frebarind didn’t know.

That fact leaped out at Landis as he watched the crowd gather in the marketplace, Eiwlil shaking her head vigorously as she exhorted the masses to praise the Ja, and as Faleast did his own preaching, crying lamentations and the news of the day.

As far as Frebarind knew, the Frebarind Finisher was just a single killer. And last night, the Finisher had struck again, claiming the lives of both Stick and Vardenwith.

Unless someone corrected them. Unless someone told them the truth.

He was under no illusions as to how they would react. They would be afraid. The Frebarind Finisher had showed that no one was safe; not full Feruchemists. Not the head of the Synod-in-Frebarind himself. No one at all was safe.

But that was the point, Landis thought. Sometimes, you had to be cruel to be kind.

“A moment,” he said, laying a hand on Faleast’s shoulder.

The town crier glanced at him with a sly smile. Many members of the Synod had privately commented they’d found Faleast…unsettling. Not for the first time, Landis could see why. There was something about Faleast’s eyes, something that wasn’t quite right.

“Lamentations,” Faleast said, as if it was a greeting, as though he took some secretive joy in the word. “What is it that you need, Landis?”

“The Frebarind Finisher is dead,” Landis stated.

“And how do you know this?”

“Puncture wounds,” Landis said. “But she didn’t die from them.”

Faleast’s mind worked quickly, Landis would give him that. “Spikes? Torture?”

“Spikes.”

“Lamentation,” said Faleast. Landis had the impression the man said the word the way a skaa would have sworn by the Lord Ruler’s name. “And you want them to know this.”

“I want them to know they are not safe.”

 

 

“Lamentations! Dreadful lamentations!” Faleast was shouting the news in the marketplace, punctuated by Eiwlil’s preaching. “Stick was the Frebarind Finisher!”

“I knew that,” Izzy Dedyet declared, proudly, as a crowd stopped and milled about, listening to Faleast. “I put out the kill contract myself.”

“I…” Jeral said. Izzy’s smile was just a little too bright, reminding him of a sword. His knuckles tightened about the hilt of his cane-sword. It wasn’t the golden-hilted cane-sword though. It was just a regular cane-sword, a gentleman’s fashionable gentlething, that Jeral had taken to carrying through the streets to feel a little safer.

Safety, security, and peace.

Frebarind had none of that right now.

“...I can actually believe that.”

“Praise the Ja!” Eiwlil intoned, shaking her head warningly. “The Ja has struck down the Frebarind Finisher! Praise the Ja! If Izzy lies, the Ja will strike her down too! Praise the Ja! Or whoever did the actual deed will silence her for good. Praise the Ja!”

“Izzy says she’s reformed,” Steel muttered, after a long, mostly-mumbled diatribe on stab-happy Izzy Dedyet, with the air of a man reliving long-buried trauma. “I’d sooner believe that the Lord Ruler himself has turned Jaist.”

“Well,” Izzy said, advancing on Faleast. “Where’s my hundred boxings?”

“Claim it from the watch,” Faleast informed her.

“I plan to.”

“Right,” said Jeral, after a pause. “So I guess we know that Izzy isn’t the Frebarind Finisher. That’s great.”

“The Frebarind Finisher ist dead, then!” X exclaimed, nodding approvingly. Her dogs milled about on their leashes. “This ist very good. Ve need to kill even more people!”

“What,” said Steel, flatly.

“Actually, about that…” Faleast coughed. “Lamentations! Joyful lamentations!” he raised his volume back to an all-out shout, meant to carry across the market square. “Frebarind Finisher had accomplice! No one in Frebarind is safe until this phantom menace is stopped!”

“I say we go to Artwyn’s store and ransack it,” Stann said, loudly. “Artwyn dropped by my place for a chat last night, and he said he’d made it to someone else’s home too.” Stann was paging idly through an immaculately-maintained flipbook, as though in boredom. “Old man like him, where’s he get the energy to run about so quickly? I bet you anything he’s lying.”

“Lying doesn’t make someone the accomplice of the Frebarind Finisher,” Jeral said, sensibly. Though he certainly thought there was a decently-sized chance that the accomplice of the Frebarind Finisher would lie.

“Well, yes,” Stann admitted. “But it’s bloody unnatural.”

Artwyn scowled at the clerk. “I exercise,” he snapped. “I use a personal planner to schedule my day, and I hydrate.” 

“Unnatural isn’t the problem,” Steel interjected. “Evil is. Izzy’s unnatural but that doesn’t mean Izzy works with the Frebarind Finisher. If anything, I’m pretty sure we all agree that getting someone to stab Stick means that Izzy’s got her heart in the right place. …If she has one.”

That last bit was said very, very quietly.

“Look,” Stann said. “I don’t have much time today to stand around the marketplace and start yelling to and fro until we decide to take matters in our own hands, save ourselves, and go find the Frebarind Finisher—well, the Frebarind Finisher’s accomplice. What about we skip the argument and get to the bit where we show up to ransack Artwyn’s shop with torches and pitchforks?”

 

 

Sparky was awake and peering out the window when the crowd arrived, though without torches, and in one case, armed with a plain-hilted cane-sword.

“I still think this is a mistake,” Jeral grumbled. “We should be looking at someone more suspicious, like Eran. Giving out cookies like that is suspicious.”

“Mmmfffm,” said Steel, brushing crumbs off his fingers.

“I think,” said Stann, “We should be applying pressure to Artwyn. What are we even doing here?”

Eran smiled beatifically, a basket of freshly-baked cookies tucked under an arm. “You don’t think Stick was too quick to distance herself from Sparky?”

“Lord Ruler,” Sparky muttered, unable to look away. They felt their knees go weak. It wasn’t torches and pitchforks but having a mob at their door made their heart sink to the pit of their stomach. Stick hadn’t even stood a chance. 

If they tried, they could make a break for it. They had a back door.

“This is the end, isn’t it?” Sparky said aloud, scrubbing furiously at their eyes with the back of their hand. They thought about the others, left alone, left to fend for themselves in this cruel world.

Run away, the spikes whispered. Save yourself.

But Sparky was rooted to the spot with horror, with fear, with anxiety, and with regret for those they would be leaving behind.

“So this is how it ends…” they whispered.

 

 

“Sparky!” Artwyn called out. He thwacked the door briskly with his staff. “Sparky, we know you’re in there! Come on out now, make it easier on yourself.”

Jeral gripped the hilt of his cane-sword, alert, ready for anything. He wondered if the agents of the Steel Inquisition were among them, laughing. “Praise the Ja!” Eiwlil was screaming, shaking her head aggressively at the door as Artwyn thwacked it. He resolved to keep a closer eye on her; Eiwlil was too bloodthirsty for Jeral’s tastes.

There was no response.

Artwyn, his patience evidently at an end, smashed the door in at the hinges.

“He’s too strong for an old man!” Stann complained, as the mob entered Vedel manor.

“Lord Ruler, Stann,” Steel said, exasperated. “We need to find Sparky immediately.”

“They’re running, or maybe they’re hiding like a rat!” X shouted, and let her hounds loose. “Ve vill find them, won’t ve, my lovelies? Ve vill!”

Eventually, they found the room overlooking the porch.

“Don’t move,” Sparky said. They levelled the tip of their sword at Jeral, who was in the lead. The hounds were baying now, and the sword in Sparky’s hand trembled.

“Come on,” Jeral said, and now he let go of his cane-sword. “Sparky, we can talk about this, I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding—”

“It isn’t a misunderstanding!” Sparky snapped. “You killed Stick and now you’re here to brutally murder me too just because I listened to a great story, a very good story from that Inquisitor and he told me I was doing the right thing and maybe it would matter, and I would matter, and I would make a difference, and I regret everything, not the killing, no, you all had to be stopped, but that you’ve found me and it’s going to end like this and I’m going to leave them all alone. I never really had a chance, did I? I wasn’t going to live!”

Jeral blinked at the unexpected diatribe.

“Er,” he said, intelligently.

“I knew it! You’ve come for me, to hunt me down like an animal!” Sparky’s eyes were wild. “Well, I’m not going to go down without a fight, I’m not helpless, I’m going to make Stick proud!”

Sparky lunged.

Almost without thought, working on reflex, Jeral drew and turned. 

He felt the hot sting as Sparky’s sword slashed past him. He heard the hiss of the sword-stroke turn into the meatier sound of sword meeting flesh, watched as Sparky crumpled to the floor, a scarlet line opening from left ear to right collarbone.

“It mattered…” Sparky wheezed, and then Sparky was dead.

“Please tell me they were spiked,” Jeral said, aloud, as the other inhabitants of Frebarind gaped behind him. “Because if not, I’ve just killed a kid, and I think I’m about to be sick.”

 

 

JNV / Sparky was struck down with a cane-sword! They were a Spiked Sentry!

Vote Count:

Quote

JNV (3)
Elandera (2)
Steeldancer (1)
Archer (1)
Araris Valerian (0)
Illwei (0)

Night Two has begun! It will end in a little over 23 hours, on Sunday 5 June 2022 at 10:00 PM EDT (-4:00 UTC). Get those actions in! Thank you to @Fifth Scholar for handling PMs and spreadsheet actions. This write-up was brought to you by apparently too much interaction with Wyrm.

If you tapped or filled a metalmind, you should be receiving a PM shortly. Please be patient as we send those out.

Good luck!

 

 

Player List:

Spoiler

1. @Ashbringer as Faleast, a town crier surprisingly enthusiastic about announcing woeful tidings and most bitter lamentation as the destroyer comes upon us

2. The Unknown Novel as ExMach Inadeus, an otherworldly visitor and luck epic who claims power over chromium…at the very least Village Brute

3. @Matrim's Dice as Jeral, a older gentleman who recklessly flouts the local gambling laws in hope of one day buying that gold-hilted cane-sword he covets

4. @Steeldancer as Steel, a street beggar with a shadowy past and a desire to one day join the Tathingdwen Tautological Society of Tautology 

5. @Archer as Stann, a clerk with patchily dyed blue hair and immaculately maintained blue flipbooks

6. _Stick_ as Stick, Treasurer of the Tathingdwen Tautological Society of Tautology Spiked Full Feruchemist

7. @Elandera as Eran, an old woman who misses her twin sister who lives outside Tathingdwen and hopes her garden is doing okay

8. StrikerEZ as Vardenwith, a Terris steward in training who is sadly not catching on very well Village Brute; Synod

9. JNV as Venel “Sparky,” a noble kid who occasionally gets too emotional for their own good Spiked Sentry

10. @Araris Valerian as Artwyn, a tired old carpenter

11. @xinoehp512 as X the Executioner, a middle-aged lady who yells at her four bloodhounds in a thick accent 

12. @Alvron as Izzy Dedyet, who promises she has reformed her ways

13. @Illwei as Eiwlil, an avid Jaist missionary who emphasises vigorous head-shaking in her preaching

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by Kasimir

[---]

Lol

Nice work team

[Mat]

Yeah

I played that wrong but yeah

Especially since JNV’s last post made my null read turn to a village lean

@GMs can we get a VC? Assuming you didn’t edit it in, I mean.

In the meantime I’ll reread again

[Kasimir]

2 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

@GMs can we get a VC? Assuming you didn’t edit it in, I mean.

I forgot :|

Also taking the chance to remind everyone that full metalminds cannot store additional charges. The maximum capacity of a metalmind is based off the cost of the full tap ability.

[Elandera]

That makes me feel significantly better. Archer has definitely slid to a solid elim, and I'm fighting with my read on Matrim. Stick leaving the vote there makes me lean village, but some of their arguments last turn really set off the elim bells. 

Current reads:

Illwei = Village

Alv = Village

Xino = Village

Archer = Elim

Matrim = Very mild elim

Steel and Araris = Neutral (which makes me a little  )

Ash = Light village

[Steeldancer]

Wow

If my prediction on 3 elims was correct, that means we've got only one left. 

My bets are still on Archer