Long Game 6: Daes Dae'Mar, The Great Game

[Awesomeness Summoned]

As the sound faded and the house stopped rattling, Waes glanced out the window to see that The Voice was right. It was getting quite late. Time to fix some dinner. Waes often got so caught up in his work that he'd go entire days without remembering to eat but The Voice was making it much easier for him to manage his diet. It had been disconcerting at first but now that he knew everyone else seemed to hear the great timekeeper as well, a disembodied voice wasn't any stranger than everything else that was happening in the world. It seemed to be more helpful than anything so why worry about it?

[Ashiok]

Hmm... Mysterious voices... Trimat thought. Is it the voice of the Dark One?

"Don't you dare try to corrupt me, Dark One!"

"Friends, Comrades, DO NOT listen to the voice in your head. It is a lie!"

[Shivertongue]

Way to crush my hopes and dreams, shiv

 

Yeah, I do that.

[Alvron]

6 hours until sunrise folks.  Make sure you've got your orders in.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Alvron

[A Joe in the Bush]

Unless you're a darkfriend of Padan Fain. Then don't send in your orders.

[Gamma Fiend]

Night 1 has officially ended! Write-up coming soon!

[Gamma Fiend]

Day 2: Shadows Waiting CYCLE WILL END AT 6AM EST SUNDAY, JUNE 22^ND 

Night had fallen over the silent and dreary village of Drell's Crossing once more, and for the first time in memory, villagers had begun locking their doors when they retired for the evening. After the inn-keeper, a man who had devoted his entire life to hunting down and eliminating evil, was wrongly accused of being a Darkfriend and lynched, most of the villagers had lost their heart for vengeance. They brooded deep inside the comforts of their own homes, and prayed for the Light to hear their prayers and let them survive until the morning.

Waes had decided to spend his evening out doors instead. He was not going to hide and cower and fear and wait for the Shadow to come and claim him. No. You could only know how strong a shoe was by putting it to rugged tests and various levels of stress. If it was a well-made shoe, it would hold together and not break down after repeated trials. But if there was something wrong with the integrity of the shoe, then there was just no fixing it. The cobbler had believed the same could be said about a man's mettle.

Lost in his own thoughts, he tried to follow the day's chain of events in his mind once more, trying to make some sense of it all. The villagers should have known better than to elect a fool for Mayor. What had they honestly expected to happen? He couldn't help but feel like he was partly responsible for Gade's death. He passed by the Spruce Thicket, the late inn-keeper's pride and joy he had built with his own hands when he had passed into town many years ago and spent all of his time running and maintaining.

Waes frowned. The building had lay vacant for less than half a day, but he could already see signs of vandalism. The door was hanging slightly ajar, and some words had been scrawled into burnished oak doors.
 

“There's only one Dreamwalker. She's a Villager “

He shook his head and closed the door with a slam. If Mayor Twim was alive, none of this nonsense would still be happening. He swore he had even seen Ralv sneaking around earlier in the night, carrying a sack with filled to the top with it's sides bulging.

That's what we get when a fool with no wits is in charge. He grumbled to himself again, continuing to move on. He had been out for walking for a few hours already, and the sun was going to be rising soon if the lightening sky on the horizon was any indication. He was walking past the stables when he paused yet again, hearing some sort of rustling off to his right. He peered into the darkness, his heart racing a little bit faster. He gingerly stepper forward, staring intensely, trying to penetrate the darkness. As his eyes adjusted, shadows began to solidify into solid shapes, and when Bela let out a sudden whicker, Waes nearly jumped straight out of his perfectly crafted shoes.

“Bloody ashes!” He cried out, trying to regain control of himself. “Light, you nearly scared me half to death. Wait, what's this?-” He cut off as he noticed a Dragon's Fang had been painted onto the post in Bela's stable, with the fresh red paint still drying as small rivulets dripped down from the bottom.

Waes frowned yet again, although he wasn't surprised that the horse had been accused of being a Darkfriend. He asked himself the question he had heard many other villagers themselves had posited throughout the night. Where did that horse find that noose earlier?

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't hear the sound of somebody approaching from behind him, although he did feel the pain as the small dagger punched into his back, causing him to yell out in surprise and pain. The sudden noise and movement startled Bela, causing her to rear up and begin to neigh loudly. This caught both Waes and his attacker off guard, but the grip on Waes' shoes allowed him to regain his footing just a second before he stumbled, and he took his advantage to start running.

“Darkfriends!” He yelled, dashing madly through the village, not even checking to see if he was being followed. “Bloody murder in the streets!” He made it all the way back to the Spruce Thicket before the slow, spreading pain in his sides began to overcome him, and he collapsed against the doorway, taking slow, ragged breaths. Torches appeared off in the distance, and Waes could hear the shouts and yells of alarm spreading throughout the village as he closed his eyes.

****

As the sun peaked it's head out on the horizon, bringing with it a brand new day, the villagers of Drell's Crossing were already wide awake. Waes had been found, unconscious and breathing shallowly at the doors of the inn and was brought inside for immediate medical attention. It wasn't until things had calmed down that somebody had noticed a note had been tacked up to the inside of the door, and on it was a poem:


Bloodstains in my fingerprints.
Screams inside my head.
Memories of imagination.
I'm dancing with the dead.
Whisper in the shadows.
Death waits upon the eve.
I've come to love the darkness.
The night is when I feed.
11 1 55 149 6 49  11 10 4 149 12 25 4 25
Black, it is my very soul.
The devil kneels to me.
But like a stone, my heart was thrown.
Into hell, eternity.
9 1 6 j 6 7 10 55 14 7 10 12 1 34 10 11 4 7?
Cursed by the maker.
Made to live among the dead.
Collecting souls has made me old.
Yet death is what I'm fed.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Waes survived an attack! A Dragon's Fang was found scrawled on Bela's stable! Day 2 Begins! It will last 48hours!

If anybody who's not playing the game wants to follow along and speculate about it, feel free to send me a PM and I will give you a link to a Speculation Doc, where discussion and breakdowns of the game have been going on!

Player List^TM

 

1)(Kasimir) - Kaim, a retired Thief-Taker
2)(Little Wilson) - Witless, the Town Fool
3)(Lightsworn Panda) - Jain, Random Traveler
4)(TheoryMaker) - Nath, an Average Guy
5)(Kal Dell) - Dellan, Quiet Countryman
6)(Alvron) - Ralv, a Passing Wanderer
7)(Only Joe) - Joel, Antisocial Hermit
8)(Leonardus) - Lam, Street Sweeper
9)(Shivertongue) - Khamsi Zareef, Domani Gleewoman
10)(Mailliw73) - Malai, Horse Breeder
11)(Grey Pilgrim) - Grimlar al'Pil, Town Drunk
12)(Renegade) - Gade, Innkeeper - Villager Whitecloak
13)(Adolin Dustbringer) - Jim Bob Dirt,  Dirt Salesman
14)(AonarFaileas) - Leas Fel, Aiel War Veteran
15)(Lev) - Bela, A Shaggy Mare?
16)(New One) - Newan, a Seanchan morat'raken
17)(Awesomeness Summoned) - Waes, Cobbler
18)(Ashiok) - Trimat, Manure Salesman
19)(twelfthrootoftwo) - Douza, Blacksmith Apprentice
20)(Sphinx) - Senna, Village Weaver
21)(Jaelre) - Jae, Inn Hall Boy
22)(Aspren) - Sprell Hanaar, Village Carpenter
23)(Binnut) - Bunnt Nibbel, Quiet Farmer
24)(Sir Jerric) - Erik, Homesick Borderlander
25)(QuiteContrary) - Rishi, Tavern Maid

 

[GreyPilgrim]

Excellent write up, Gamma! Very interesting. Unfortunately, in trying to up vote it, I accidentally down voted it. I guess that's what I get for trying to up vote on mobile. I'm sure the down vote will be corrected many times over, but sorry anyways. Edited June 20, 2014 by GreyPilgrim

[Aspren]

I want to request that all plain villagers contact me either through a PM or by replying to me here (though I think a PM would probably be best). I'm hoping that that we'll be able to coordinate ourselves rather than have it become a game controlled by the few people with information and power roles. I obviously can't stop someone from pretending to be a normal villager, but at-least there are means of counteracting that. 

Edited June 20, 2014 by Aspren

[Awesomeness Summoned]

Well that went quite well. To answer your questions from yesterday @Grimlar and @Ralv, I may have slightly exaggerated the certainty that someone would be able to identify me as corrupted (though enough people know things about me that it is still probable I'd be identified eventually). I did however draw enough attention to myself for the DF's to waste a kill last night so you're welcome

 

It's rather interesting that a dreamwalker is claiming to be the only one but the writeup clearly shows that is not the case. I'm not too happy about the fact that first dreamwalker pretty much announced they were a female character as well. That narrows down the field considerable and makes it easier for the DF to eliminate one of our lines of communication. Yes, they could be lying about that to throw off the DF but seems like an unnecessary bit of information to include in the message.

 

@Aspren, while I can understand the urge for the regular villager to band together, that would be giving the DF/Fain a huge amount of information. Knowing who the regular villagers are narrows down the list of people with roles and the regular villagers are the ones Fain is most likely to go after since they are the lowest risk of being identified after being corrupted. You'd essentially be gathering all his prime targets together. If the villagers do decide to go through with this, please do not make a large pm group with all of you in it because I guarantee at least one DF or Fain will be among them.

[Binnut]

Bunnt woke to the commotion that surrounded Waes attempted murder. This was not good, Waes had survived, and that was good, but this really meant that the one that had killed the Major the night before really meant to kill them all! It had seemed that way before too, but he had not wished to believe it. But now, there were no doubts. Bunnt went around and listened to a few people talking about what had happened, and then he went to his fields to work and think. Better work now, and then go with the others and discuss later. Or rather go and listen to the others later as speaking made him feel vulnerable. But this was important, so he might even voice a opinion for once.

 

Congratulations on surviving Awes! It's not fun to be targeted, but at least you survived.

I think the second message is written as if he/she was Fain, but as Fain does not have that ability I'ts probably not a important observation. I am surprised that we do not have any mention of white fog or Mashadar, since I took for granted that Padan Fain would convert someone this first night. Or did I miss something?

I wonder what tactic he is using. Or did he get blocked in any way maybe?

 

I agree with Waes that identifying all normal villagers could be dangerous if not done carefully. Both Padan Fain and the DF could get lots of important information from knowing who are normal. And if everyone is sending it to you and you distribute, what is to tell us that you aren't asking for this to gather information for such a cause? I'm not casting blame, I'm just trying to be careful.

 

Edit: It was blue! I promise!

Edited June 20, 2014 by Binnut

[Kasimir]

Someone had attempted to kill Waes. Kaim sucked on his pipe, thinking wistfully of the last time he'd managed to scrounge up some of that sweet Sharan leaf. Retirement, he thought, had its downsides as well, to be sure. He'd watched as Waes was treated and stayed only long enough to make sure the man was still alive before walking out into the bright morning light.
 
Those patrols weren't going to walk themselves, and he thought he could see Leas in the distance. He shook his head, as if to clear it, and wondered if he should join the man.
 
No, Kaim decided. He'd become rather fond of his morning smoke and some peace, and with the attempted murder of Waes and the Dragon's Fang appearing--of all things!--on the stable post, or so word had it, he wanted some time to himself.

My read is that both messages are from Dreamwalkers. As I've never been in this style of game, I'd prefer to leave it to those who have to tell us if it's likely that both are Village Dreamwalkers. My personal suspicion is that we have one Village Dreamwalker, and one Darkfriend Dreamwalker. That Fain didn't convert anyone off the bat isn't particularly mysterious. I'd say that if Fain had converted on Day One, I'd have suspected he was someone in over his head. Remember: the rules say he has a limited number of conversions, scaled to player number. I'd be very astonished if he was throwing them around like free candy. But he could also have been blocked. Which might indicate Channeller action, or that he hit the Forsaken. I'm hoping it's not the latter, as it might not be good for us.

I agree with Awes and Binnt about identifying all regular villagers. It could be good if done cleverly--granting the ability, for one, to coordinate Fangings. At the same time, I am very hesitant because I think such a gathering would be feeding time in the Serengeti for Fain. (In addition to inadvertently revealing role information.) I don't necessarily think this game will be controlled by power roles per se, and my personal perspective is: we're in this together as the village. I want to be mobilised in a way that best helps us get rid of the DFs and Fain and if that results in my death, so be it. So I have to admit, I'm a bit curious to know why the villagers would need a PM rather than a collective agreement in the thread "Whoever who can Fang, Fang X." That would be closer to the tactics we employed in QF2 to counter the 17s. Like a lynch discussion, I suspect arguing over who to Fang in the main thread (with the understanding that we may not actually be a regular villager) would give the Viewer and Thief-Tracker some idea of who best to target; who is suspicious, who has insisted on Fanging people who later turn out to be innocent, etc.

And if it's all the same to everyone, I take it most of us don't generally like the idea of our souls--whether or not we may be regular villagers--being bait on a fishing line.

 

Edit: Embarrassing typo. You never saw it >>.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Kasimir

[Mailliw73]

When I have more time, I'll try to decode more of the second message, but currently, the italicized letters spell "trolled". Do what you will with that.

[Ashiok]

I was thinking Cesar cipher, 1337, or referencing letters in the paragraphs. (for the second code)

[A Joe in the Bush]

Wounded Gazelle Gambit anyone?

 

So, if the Channeler roleblocked Padan Fain, they probably need to tell someone in secret, so that we can get him/her early on. If Padan Fain tried the Forsaken, well, you should try to reveal who the forsaken is, but I don't know how you'd do that with out revealing yourself. so you proably won't.

[Aspren]

@Aspren, while I can understand the urge for the regular villager to band together, that would be giving the DF/Fain a huge amount of information. Knowing who the regular villagers are narrows down the list of people with roles and the regular villagers are the ones Fain is most likely to go after since they are the lowest risk of being identified after being corrupted.

 

Good point, though that's just as much a reason to do this as it is a deterrent. At this stage in the game the difference in ease of identification is negligible exactly because none of us knows each other's roles. 

 

You'd essentially be gathering all his prime targets together. If the villagers do decide to go through with this, please do not make a large pm group with all of you in it because I guarantee at least one DF or Fain will be among them.

 

I agree. That's the last thing I would ever do.

 

EDIT: I keep on forgetting to put it in blue.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Aspren

[Kasimir]

The Only Joe, on 20 Jun 2014 - 10:56 PM, said:

Wounded Gazelle Gambit anyone?

So, if the Channeler roleblocked Padan Fain, they probably need to tell someone in secret, so that we can get him/her early on. If Padan Fain tried the Forsaken, well, you should try to reveal who the forsaken is, but I don't know how you'd do that with out revealing yourself. so you proably won't.

Storm it, guys, this is so unfair. I suggest in Game 5 that Meta totally got himself hit in a Wounded Gazelle Gambit and no one believed me even though Plate was totally rechargable. (Ignore, for a while, the fact that I was actually evil that game.) Aiel-blooded don't recharge and this flies?

Where is the justice in this game?

[little wilson]

I highly doubt it's the Wounded Gazelle gambit. There are only two possible roles Waes could have now to survive an attempt on his life, without the Wisdom getting involved. And either of those two roles aren't ones the Darkfriends would want to whip out and use this early. The last time the Wounded Gazelle gambit was tried was when the player could take a total of 3 attempts on their life before dying, and that was her first hit. If he's Aiel-blooded, the Darkfriends just wasted their extra hit. He's now normal. If he's a Channeler, they just wasted their Hands of Air Weave for essentially nothing....I mean, okay, it's an attempt to get Waes more trusted, but that's far too high a risk for far too little a reward. He's now wide open (at least assuming he's not the Channeler).

 

I'm more curious about the Dreamwalkers. Looks like we've got a Villager and a Darkfriend, and either could be either one. Personally, I'm inclined to think that the Darkfriend is trolling us, by saying they're a villager and female. Or maybe they're trolling us by putting trolled in italicized letters....who knows.

 

As for Aspren's idea. I do not think it wise at all to start PMing one player to coordinate the Fanging. That means that all Fain has to do is convert Aspren and he has all the identities of all the vanilla villagers. It doesn't even take a large PM group. We need to discuss this openly. It keeps the vanilla villagers anonymous, and they can still decide to not follow the group's decision if they don't want to (which is something they'd still be able to do in a PM group).

[A Joe in the Bush]

Yeah, I don't really think Waes is a Darkfriend, and I hope he's not the channeler. (That wouldd be really stupid if he was.)

 

Any way. Right no is my last chance to get online, before about halfway through Night 2. So I'm going to cast my Vote now, for Lev (Bela the Horse). In day one, we had a deadlock. Everyone had one vote, and we had plebty of Information. We didn't need to lynch anyone untill today. But with about 3 hours left to go, Bela gave the killing vote.

[Ashiok]

Who are we electing as second mayor? Witless, if you don't give up the post, I'm pretty sure somebody WILL kill you tonight. Not a threat, just what I think

 

Edit: I HATE BLUE!

Edited June 20, 2014 by Ashiok

[Newan]

Yeah wow a wounded gazelle gambit. That's, um, that's really something.  

I'm still new here, but I'm guessing that a wounded gazelle gambit is when darkfriends injure one of their own to gain him some village trust...?

 

I suppose he could have been a darkfriend hit by a darkfriend, or a darkfriend hit by Fain's kill action, but I doubt it.  He has been giving great advice to new players on how to beat the darkfriends, so I think the bad guys would just want to try to take him out of the game.  Remember, he was all for discussion in the first round, but he didn't think we should actually go through with it and lynch.  

 

Now, concerning Bela and Grimlar:  I don't think that wanting to lynch somebody on the first round makes you evil.  Remember that in Game 3, Meta led the charge on a first round lynch that turned out to be one of the spiked.  Gade seemed very suspicious when he tried to vilify the first person to make any kind of accusation, and while lynching him turned out to be a mistake, I'm not convinced it was done with ill intent.  

 

I really hope I'm not accidentally defending any darkfriends/fain right now.  I personally think that most of the bad guys will be flying a little more under the radar.  Like Senna, or Jain, or Erik.  

 

Edit: blue da ba dee, da ba die

 

EDIT: PS that's not a complete list of people who I think are flying under the radar.  I just quickly looked back at the day one, and wrote down a few names that I saw didn't really defend or accuse anyone.  

Edited June 20, 2014 by New One

[Awesomeness Summoned]

For the hundredth time Waes asked himself why going out at night alone had seemed like a good idea. 

 

-scratch- -scratch- -scratch-

 

He was alive but a part of him wished he hadn’t survived. The pain was excruciating. The wisdom had done a fine job keeping him alive despite the serious injuries but not even the best herbs could completely numb wounds like the ones he’d sustained. At least they’d helped him sleep a dreamless sleep. 

 

-scratch- -scratch- -scratch-

 

That was until the incessant scratching had started. Waes didn’t want to even open his eyes to determine where the noise was coming from but no matter how strongly he willed it to go away, the sound was still there invading his attempts to continue sleeping.

 

It seemed to take all the strength left in his body but he managed to flutter one eye open and look in the direction the sound was coming from. He regretted it immediately. Sitting on the desk next to his bed, chomping happily away on the meal left by the wisdom, was the biggest rat Waes had ever seen.

 

-scratch- -scratch- -scratch-

 

“Great. As if my day wasn’t bad enough already.” Dark friends trying to kill me. A fool in charge of the town. Rats stealing my lunch. All we need now is a Forsaken to stroll into town and life will be perfect.

 

“Shew! Get off there!” The rat just stared back and continued eating.

 

Despite his body's protest, Waes slipped his belt off and slapped it across the table. Again, he regretted the decision. It scared the mangy rodent away but it felt like he’d been stabbed all over again.

 

He decided defeating the rat was enough of an accomplishment for now. He closed his eyes again, tried to ignore the pain, and attempted to drift back to sleep.

 

At the moment, I’m still deciding who I feel strongest about voting to lynch so I’ll hold off on that for now. As for the events of last night, you can either believe I’m playing the lame duck as has been suggested or you can believe I was legitimately attacked last night which would mean I am not team evil or Fain. 

 

I’d really like to get some effective strategizing going so if you think last night proves me a villager and would like to strategize with me, feel free to message me.

 

Edit: really wish copying color text from a text editor worked 

Edited June 20, 2014 by Awesomeness Summoned

[little wilson]

Who are we electing as second mayor? Witless, if you don't give up the post, I'm pretty sure somebody WILL kill you tonight. Not a threat, just what I think

 

I'd thought we were going to wait til tomorrow, so the double vote actually has a chance to be of use, and continue that. Two-day term for the mayor, so to speak. If we don't want to do that, that's perfectly fine with me. I know who I'd be most comfortable with as my replacement. But if we want to pass it around every day without the double vote even having a point, we might as well not even have a mayor. I'll step down and we can choose to elect no one. My point about passing it around before was so we could make use of the double vote but not put a target on anyone's back for very long. Daily elections only puts an unnecessary target on someone's back. The villagers gain nothing from it.

 

 

I really hope I'm not accidentally defending any darkfriends/fain right now.  I personally think that most of the bad guys will be flying a little more under the radar.  Like Senna, or Jain, or Erik.  

 

EDIT: PS that's not a complete list of people who I think are flying under the radar.  I just quickly looked back at the day one, and wrote down a few names that I saw didn't really defend or accuse anyone.  

 

Not necessarily. It depends on who the DFs are. Most of the time there is at least one eliminator who is very vocal. Sometimes there are more. The rest participate a bit--either from 1 post a day to 3, but never usually more than that. And occasionally, there are eliminators who participate heavily in the doc but don't participate at all in the thread, or if they do it is very irregularly. It's typically a good idea to run on the assumption that there's a mix.

 

That means that one of the highly vocal people is a DF. According to my notes, the most active people yesterday and last night (either at least 5 on one half-cycle or at least 6 posts between the night and the day) were me, Kaim, Dellan, Joel, Newan, Waes, and Jae. The least active (at most 2 posts total) were Nath, Lam, Jim Bob (who hasn't posted at all), Leas Fel, Bela, Douza, Senna, and Rishi. That's just going solely off of post count, rather than post content. I plan on taking a bit of time this weekend to do more analysis about that along with all my PMs.

 

I'm not sure if those numbers there give any help whatsoever, since there's probably at least one DF in either group, plus at least one more in the semi-active group (so basically, it's still keep your eye on everyone, regardless of their thread activity). You'll also want to watch for people who are particularly active in PMs but only at most semi-active in the thread. That's not a fool-proof way to catch eliminators, but sometimes they like to limit what they say publicly because they're worried the more analytical people will see something wrong with it. Again, not foolproof, because some people just don't like to plan publicly and have the eliminators see. But it's at least something.

[Mailliw73]

If only there was a reference to use to decode the second message's numbers. I'm pretty sure it's Mr. T's code again, i just need a reference to use.

 

Edit: Scratch that, it's exactly Mr. T's code. Our second Dreamwalker is a troll. The message says, "how much time did you just waste on this?"

 

Not much, Dreamwalker.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Mailliw73

[GreyPilgrim]

Ok. So, possibilities on Waes:

1. He is Aiel-blooded.

2. The/a Wisdom/s anticipated a potential Night Kill so saved him.

3. The/a Channeler/s used Air to so the same. (Appears not to have happened as it would have been revealed.)

4. He is a Channeler and used Earth on himself.

In order for there to have been a Wounded Gazelle gambit, there would have to be any of those three roles among the DFs, Waes possibly being Aiel-blooded. I am assuming there are five DFs, including the Forsaken, based on the 1/5 precedent of past games. I also assume that there is at least one Vanilla DF, statistically speaking, and the Forsaken has no role. I agree that one of the Dreamwalkers is a DF as well. That leaves us two more with Roles, if of course Waes has no role. I am disinclined to believe there is a Channeler among the evil, as having the extra Night Kill ability, even if it is only once a game, seems gratuitous, and it is a hard role to identify. This could still be the case, however. I am more inclined to believe either Waes is Aiel or there is a Wisdom. I would say that overall it is fairly unlikely that the DFs would try something so risky, as it narrows their abilities significantly. So I'm nixing the Gazelle.

Overall, I find it unlikely anyone saved Waes. Plus, the OP of the game says Air would have been revealed in the write-up. So that's actually not even a possibility, I now realize, unless I misread the post and it will only be revealed that someone was saved by Air, not that it was used. But I don't think that is what was meant. Clarification would be nice.

So my money goes on Waes's being either Aiel-blooded or saving himself.

Edited June 20, 2014 by GreyPilgrim