Quick Fix Game 3: Shadowed Secrets

[Mailliw73]

Sorry guys. This is around the time I'll be most active. Today I'm going to be busy, so this will probably be my only post. I may manage to get one or two more in,but not until way later.

I'm going to start off with a vote on Joseph. He is experienced and, what? There's no hard feelings from LG8, what are you talking about?

Wilim was listening to Snipe continue his arrogant rants. He shot a glance at Araris, seeing what he thought of the condescending man. Wikis stayed to listen, only because he had nothing better to do at night. He itched to run, to feel the wind in his face, but he knew he had to constrain it. Running made him feel free. He tended to run at midday, so that there could be no argument made that he was running at night. The Shades scared him, but he loved running more, so he was careful, but he still ran.

[luckat]

There’s not really much to discuss yet. There’s not enough to go on to vote for anyone, and everyone who hasn’t posted yet has been called out already (if you count the ‘vote’ on Ryfe that wasn’t an official unofficial one). I don’t have time for RP right now, but I’ll try to promote some discussion.

One thing we could discuss is the Messaging system. Obviously, we don’t want to let it distract us from votes or suspicious behavior, but discussing it could give us more to go on than everyone just placing activity-check ‘votes’. Based on how it works, I think messages are way more useful for the Convicts than for us. We don’t have a pair of good people who know who each other are who might want to use it, and even the person with the Glowsap can’t be sure of the people they track until the Gang Leader is dead. I don’t think testing people out in messages is very effective. Our best use of them might be to try to intercept them and hope to catch some of the Convicts’ communications. Even though each person would only be able to do that once every other cycle if they never change their votes, there would be a decent chance of catching the Convicts’ Messages if everyone except for the people with useful items did it.

 

Here’s the current vote tally, so we can stay up to date
Navor (1): Wern, Araris
Joseph (1): Wilim

And here’s the current ‘vote’ tally, if anyone cares to keep track
Raze: Snipe
Jain: Joseph, Araris
Wilim: Kasir
Luce: Tryel
Araris: Wern
Ryfe: Wern

[Gamma Fiend]

A quick bunch of questions I compiled and numbered for convenience sake.

 

1. If someone votes and then retracts the vote, but doesn’t vote again, do they still get the ration for voting?
2. Do the Gang Leader’s Letters that can’t be intercepted follow the other rules of Messages (i.e. cost a ration, counts as the single action allowed in a cycle, maximum length of 1000 characters)?
3. Is it possible to transfer items? What happens to an item when its owner dies?
4. If someone has only one ration left, do they eat it and then become Hungry so they have no rations and still need to eat two rations the next day, so one goes to waste because the same thing would happen if they have none? Would it be possible to give that one ration away?
5. Is it possible to use so many rations the day that you get them that you don’t have enough to eat and become Hungry?
6. Does Fenwood Sap have any effect on votes or receiving rations?
7. Does lynching someone prevent them from using the Murder Hood or Convict Kill?
8. Do any actions other than Messaging or Message Interception cost rations?

 

 

1) Yes, they would still be counted as having placed a vote, since they did initially cast it.

2)Yes, all Message mechanics work the same for everybody.
3)Items can not be transferred, they go to the Innkeeper upon death.

4)Correct, if somebody at only one Ration, they would be Hungry and would still need to eat 2 Rations the next day to no longer be hungry. And yes, you can give that Ration away. Just remember when you become Hungry, you can not perform any Actions until you are not Hungry anymore.

5)Yes, say if you would have 3 Rations at the end of Day 2, and you intercepted a Message, it would bring you down to 1 Ration and you would be hungry for the next Cycle.

You can't use more Rations than you have, though.
6)Votes will not be negated by Fenweed Sap, and you would still receive your Rations. You just can't perform any Actions that night (Item use, Messaging/Intercepting, Sharing Rations, Convict Kill, etc.)
7) Yes, lynching would prevent Kill Actions, since it goes first on the Stack.
8)Only Messaging mechanics and changing your vote costs Rations.

[Theorymaker]

Ryfe was very scared. It wasn't really the fact that there was a killer in the waystop that scared him, but it was seeing all the shades outside that scared him. Ryfe had hid in his room for a long time before realizing that the shades couldn't make it past the ring of silver. Once he made that realization he tried to count the shades so that he could mark on his map how many were in the area. Ryfe eventually gave up and just wrote down "a lot". After doing that Ryfe went downstairs so that he could eat and socialize.
 
I'm sorry that it took so long for me to come on today, I was just really busy. Hopefully, I will be on more tomorrow and maybe later tonight.

[Tulir]

Thanks for posting, as well as adding a tally, Luce.  I am leaning to vote Ryfe, simply because 6 games without being an Eliminator is amazing.  I acknowledge this isn't really logic, but still   

[Renegade]

Well, I’m about to head off until after the rollover, so I’d better go ahead and vote. And, well, there really isn’t any decent information circulating at this point. The problem here is that if everyone starts voting a few hours away from the write-up, people like me aren’t going to get up at 5 in the morning to do anything about it.

 

Now, as for the vote, I… have no storming clue. Without permanent votes and all, it’s very difficult to actually see how people react and vote. And since most of the votes haven’t come in yet, there’s nothing I can do right now. I might as well vote for Jain for taking so long. If we are going to get discussion going, we can't have people take so long to post.

 

As I've said, we need more discussion!  Glowsap may be one way of exposing the Convicts, but discussion can be even more potent.

[Ashiok]

I'm going to be signing off for the cycle, so I'll vote Red: Ash, then retract the vote on Green:Ash, if that nets me a ration. If not, nobody stands out to me, and I'll vote for an inactive as a "safe" vote.

[Alvron]

"I'm going to throw my vote on Raze, he seems like the type who enjoys taunting the shades.  I wouldn't put it past him to kill that poor boy in front of the shades just because he could."

 

Navor hated it when people were looking at him, it made it so much harder to steal.  He knew he was good enough to steal their eyes right from the skulls while they watched him but why tempt fate.  Sliding up to the bar Navor dumped several gold coins into the innkeepers hands.

 

"Drinks for everyone until that runs dry." That should buy a few friends.

 

Gold meant nothing to him, after all, the gold came from the doctor.  Too bad the doctor didn't know he had made such a generous donation.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Alvron

[A Joe in the Bush]

I'm going to Red my vote for Jain Because he still hasn't posted and he's usually Erratic when he does Post.

 

And Mailliw, how is my being experienced evidence against me?

[navybrandt]

Seems to me that voting for inactives doesn't do much good as they will die of starvation anyway.  We really need to see what happens after the cycle ends, but for now I'll vote Raze (sorry).

[Lightsworn Panda]

This has to be some kind of cruel joke. 8 Games (or 7, if you happened not to be a Merchant in MR1), and in all of them I HAVE BEEN ON TEAM GOOD!!! WHAT IS THIS BLACK MAGIC THAT HAS SO CRUELLY CONDEMNED ME ASDFGHJKL. WHY AM I NEVER IN THE ELIMINATORS TEAM!?!? THIS IS ALMOST AS BAD AS MALLIW'S STREAK OF LUCK!

 

Cough.

 

​(Breaks down crying in the saddest way a panda can)

 

Sniffle.

 

Sorry for the inactivity. I'm finally home, except I was briefly called away again. This should be my final hiatus over and done with.

 

Now for some RP.

 

Jain didn't like the Forests of Hell much. Or, more precisely, Jain didn't like the Rules. 

 

Not shedding someone's else's blood wasn't that much of a problem. You just had to be careful with sharp objects around others. 

 

Not running at night was a tad inconvenient, since desperate late night toilet trips had to be confined to a slow and unbearable pace, and some fool had thought it would be a good idea to put the inn's toilets far outside the actual building.

 

Not kindling flame was the biggest problem to Jain. Smoking was out of the question, baths had to be cold, and food was never hot. One never truly appreciated the conveniences of fire until it was taken away. At least the inn had a hearth fire.

 

Jain had only come to the Forests of Hell as he had heard rumors of a giant panda lurking in the forests. What a giant panda was doing outside of its natural habitat of bamboo forest was a question Jain couldn't answer. However, Jain had an almost fervent panda-object collector who had traveled far to collect his artifacts, including toys, paintings and even a real live baby panda, one which he carried with him wherever he went. It was currently clinging to his head, sniffing curiously at the bar around it. A giant panda was a must-add to Jain's collection, and even if he couldn't capture it, he had resolved to catch a glimpse of it.

 

Reaching up to ease the baby panda off his head, Jain plopped the toy panda onto the table before him. The baby panda looked back up at him with adorable, sparkling eyes. Eyes of crimson red that were filled with an endless pool of evil.

 

Now, nothing personal, but I need my rations. Snipe, I'll be voting you (you just happened to be the post above me  )

 

Edit: Colour

Edited September 20, 2014 by Lightsworn Panda

[A Joe in the Bush]

Now normally I would say that you're over acting the part and obviously an Eliminator, but it's you, and you never have been Evil. So I don't know? I'm just going to leave my vote on you for now, until I figure some stuff out.

[Wyrmhero]

Must admit, if I hadn't already voted, that would have pushed me to vote Jain.

[Kasimir]

Agreed with the general thing about not focusing too much on messages. Interception might pan out being more useful, it might not. Discussion seems to be the best bet here. First, the list of actual votes to put on top of the rest:

 

Jain (3): Raze, Joseph, Kasir

Raze (2): Navor, Snipe

Snipe (1): Jain

Joseph (1): Wilim

Navor (1): Araris

 

Hopefully, this won't be horseplay because I'm going to throw my vote on Jain. Yes, I know: it's the guy who weeps and gnashes teeth everytime he doesn't get a (useful) role or evil. At the same time, he's never been evil before. Yet an understanding of probability tells us: A) his previous incidences of being good are probabilistically independent of this case, B ) he has exactly the same chance of being evil this time. Not less.

 

It's a first day vote, so it's going to be somewhat blind. If Jain is evil, his previous trend would form a perfect shield to convince us that he is 'good'. And I don't like making too many assumptions based on past behaviour without comparing them to the reality of the game. Here we go. Let's see what comes of it.

 

Edited for formatting.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Kasimir

[Gamma Fiend]

Apologies for the delayed write-up! The Cycle has been over for an hour or so, and I shall hopefully get started on the write-up promptly!

[Gamma Fiend]

Shadowed Secrets Day 2: Stab Wounds

The stranger glanced down at the empty mugs in front of them, seeming to contemplate for a moment on whether to take the Innkeeper up on the offer or not. “Second round it is, then.” They said after a moment of consideration.

“Sounds good to me,” the Innkeeper happily replied, getting up to refill the drinks. He must have cracked another joke to himself, as he stood there silently laughing to himself.

“So where was I?” He asked, sitting back down with two frosty, foaming mugs, ignoring the stranger's quizzical look.

“Somebody spilled blood, right? I mean, you had to have found out who it was, right? How else would you be here?”

“Slow down there, the story is just starting to warm up and get to the good parts! Shame, it would be, to rush such a grand tale as this one.”

He sat there for a few moments, either gathering up the memories, or dozing off. The stranger wasn't certain which and was about to say something when the Innkeeper opened his eyes back up, his eyes blazing in the reflection of the fire that sat flickering in the hearth. His voice dropped the raspy qualities and once again took on a grander volume fit for storytelling that helped ensnare the audience. Even if it was just one man.

“Somebody spilled blood, aye, breaking the most sacred and important rule that we simple folk must abide by in these here Forests. Suicidal tendencies aside, it soon become apparent that the Convicts must have been more competent that initially given credit for, for more bodies soon began to drop.....”
 

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

The patrons of Shady's Waystop stood gathered around the fresh corpse, incredulity and fear plainly visible on everybody's face. Blood had been spilled, and there would be satiating the enraged Shades that had swarmed around the protective ring that surrounded them all. Just a few inches of silver was the only barrier and salvation the patrons had to count on.

“Stop standing there and gawking!” Shady spat at the bewildered guests who were stunned into silence. “Seta was a good lad, and his corpse deserves proper respect!” The regulars had never seen the Innkeeper so emotional and angry before, and before he could yell at them again, a small team of people rushed into action – albeit a slow rush, just not to enrage the Shades any more than need be. Despite it being daytime, the blood red eyes of the Shades was a stark reminder of what was exactly at stake.

Shady marched everybody back into the inn after a small, shallow grave had been bug, and Seta was unceremoniously dropped into the hole.

“Shadows preserve whoever did this, for I will not abide by it. Start giving me some names,” he said, addressing everybody. “Sometime by the end of the night, we will get Justice, even if it died in the Homeland!”

The trapped patrons of the bar silently sat at the bar, nervously eying each other up and down. It wasn't long until accusations started to fly. Soon enough the crowd had decided to focus on two main characters, both of them being equally shady and crazy enough to warrant suspicion.

It was nearing nightfall when Shady strode back into the room. “So, have ye all reached a decision?” He asked, not asking for explanations or excuses. He just wanted swift retribution.

A silence fell across the room, but not immediately noticed by everybody. Soon enough only Jain's voice could be heard above the thickening quiet as he continued to rant on and on about some strange beast that nobody around him had ever seen, let alone heard of.

“What about that guy?” Somebody asked. A couple more voices pitched in, using some sort of nonsense to argue against him.

Statistics and erratic behaviours? Sparks, these people barely even know each other! Shady wasn't entirely convinced, but it appeared that there were no other major suspects at the moment to go off of.

He walked up to the young man named Jain and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Seeya.” Was all he said, as he walked the speechless eccentric out of the inn and led him towards the ring of silver.

“Sacrifices must be made,” He said, giving Jain a small push and sending the man tumbling over the safe barrier of silver, into the awaiting grasp of the Shades.

He didn't even cry out as he was attacked by the ferocious spirits, their spectral touch withering away his flesh down to the bone wherever they touched him. The rest of the patrons stood by silently watching the execution – for that's what it was – , hoping they had made the right choice. After a few short, horrific moments, the spectacle ended, but the Shades looked no less enraged, their eyes still a deep crimson. Perhaps the color was even a few shades darker than before.

Sighing, Shady solemnly spoke to the rest of his guests. “Start praying, for it looks like we were wrong, and this isn't finished by a long shot.” He silently turned around and strode back to his inn to start cleaning up Jain's now vacant room. While cleaning up and searching the room for clues, Shady found a small burlap sack, lined with tar on the inside, stowed away among the unfortunate lad's former belongings. Seems like he won't be needing this anymore, Shady laughed to himself.

He turned to leave out of the room and head back downstairs when the door hit something blocking it's path, preventing it from opening up all the way into the hallway. After struggling for a second, Shady heaved into it and pushed the obstruction out of the way. It was only when he stepped over the large mess when he realized what it was.

Another corpse. And that of Wern. The famed hunter and tracker was lying flat on his back, motionless eyes staring straight up at the ceiling, warm blood still flowing from the multiple stab wounds from the man's stomach. Clutched inside Wern's hands were two small, intricately carved and sacred Silver Wards. For optimal protection from Shade attacks, but completely useless against knives.

“Seriously?!” Shady yelled loudly. He could almost feel the gathering menace from the growing crowd of Shades stationed outside of the inn, their blood lust slowly infecting all of the people trapped within the circle.

“Storm it, here we go again!”
 

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

The Innkeeper lowered his once again empty mug, finishing off the second chapter in his story.

The stranger at the bar sat there confused. “So.... there was another murder? And everyone was wrong about who one of the Convicts were? Seems rather..... anti-climactic....”They said, almost sounding disappointing.

“Serendipity strikes, as they like to say, but sometimes, it doesn't always strike the right people.” The Innkeeper replied bitterly and sitting there quietly for a few moments.

“So!” He exclaimed suddenly, slamming both his hands on the counter top and causing the stranger to jump in their seat. “Storytelling sure does dry a man's throat out, mind spotting me another drink?” He tapped his finger on the once again empty mug in front of him. “Strange as it sounds, the story just gets better and better from here, I promise.”
 

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

Jain was a Civilian who had a Murder Hood!
Wern was murdered, and was found to be a Civilian with Silver Wards!

Jain (3) - Raze, Joseph, Kasir
Raze (2) - Snipe, Navor
Navor (1) - Araris
Snipe (1) - Jain

Joseph (1) - Wilim

Edit: Fixed the vote count. Sorry about that. There are no mechanics that change interfere with voting this game.

Cycle 2 will last for 24 hours and will end at 8:30AM EST, Sunday, September 21st.
Apologies for the late write-up, and I hope I will be able to keep the write-ups at a semi-consistent time going forward.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Alvron

[Kasimir]

As the innkeeper silently carried down the body of Wern, ex-hunter and ex-trapper, glaring at the gathered people, Kasir sighed. "Alas, poor Wern," he said, mostly to himself, raising the glass of gillywater in a silent salute to the body. "I knew him, Seris."

 

The knife tucked away at the small of his back was silent; unamused, even. "The silver did protect him after all," Kasir pointed out. "Just as I told you. Less than one percent silver, and he didn't die from a Shade. And I don't even have to give him a refund!"

 

More silence. Kasir stared at his glass. "Seriously, it's hard to get anything without alcohol in it on some of these worlds," he told the knife. "Think about it. You'd think they'd at least care about people who can't take alcohol without feeling miserable for days." Seris hummed disapproval.

 

"I really meant to go back to Nalthis," Kasir groused. "Or Sel; there's so much interesting things to be done there if you have a few MaiPon contacts. But no, that storming noble had to rush me and I didn't even notice where I'd fled to. It's hard to do good business here, what with that pickpocket who thinks he knows what he's doing, and the scholar and..." Just as well he'd kept most of his goods somewhere else. "It's awfully storming hard to go sell things to people who are more interested in killing each other," he grumbled. Or maybe there was some coin to be made there: the spheres would surely come in handy--some Stormlight yet lurked in their depths. Perhaps he could tell them all it helped to keep Shades off, or let people do some glowing and regenerating...

[Renegade]

Raze stared at the wall of Shades outside of the waystop. Smokes, they were terrifying. Eyes of red, trying to reach inside…

 

Can’t believe this isn’t even my fault, for once, Raze thought, watching the Shades circle around the waystop. But how am I going to get out of here, once this is all done? Raze looked down at the body of Werm.  Will I even be alive, once all of this is done? Raze frowned, and walked back to one of the tables. A very nice table, Raze noted. Wooden. Great for a fire.

 

Well, obviously, that was not the best outcome for us. Not much we could've done about it, though. I do find it troubling that I received two votes on me for RP reasons. I mean, RP-wise, Raze might be pretty shifty, but still, two votes seems a little unnecessary, unless there was an actual motive behind it.

 

But yes, we've lost a player with a Murder Hood. My guess would be that he was the only player with the Hood, considering the small number of players. Either that, or there are two Murder Hoods with only 1 use or something. Either way, that's a significant blow to us.

 

But what worries me is that of the 12 players remaining, only 7 voted yesterday. That means that 5 players (Ash, Tyrel, Ryfe, Aoran, and Luce) definitely have 0 rations coming into this cycle. (Actually, Ash might have one, depending on if his “voting-and-unvoting-for-himself” worked. I doubt it, but I could be wrong.) Hopefully, now that we have a bit more evidence on the table, more people will come forward to vote. We do need to stay active throughout the game.

 

As to my temporary vote, I’m going for Aoran for now, just for being quieter than normal.

 

Edit: Color

Edited September 20, 2014 by Renegade

[Kasimir]

TBH, Ren, I'd say that losing the Murder Hood was a serious blow, but then I'm a bit more concerned about the Silver Wards. Considering the kill-judgements Jain had a tendency to make (no, I'm not bitter, why do you ask? ) I'm not sure I'm particularly big about it. As the items can't be transferred, I can't say which I am more immediately worried about losing.

 

Either way, we're down a player with a Murder Hood and a player with Silver Wards, so Team Evil's gotten pretty lucky on the first cycle. Throw in some players who tried for an intercept or messaging stuff, on top of not having voted, and they could be hungry.

 

I'm going to quasi-vote for Navor at the moment. And as we can quasi-vote for more than one person (I guess?) I will also note that I'd like to hear from Snipe about stacking that second vote on Raze. Surely that seems rather dangerous, even if you needed the rations. He was one of the players being actively useful and attempting to encourage discussion: why endanger him instead of tying the votes by putting the vote on someone who hadn't been very vocal yet and hadn't any votes on them at that point in time?

[Tulir]

Yup, Ren, I completely forgot I needed to get on and vote again, which sucks for me today.  Wilim, you are normally more active than this, could you speak up?

[Ashiok]

How would I know if I got the extra ration? Also, Tulir is right about Wilim. Where are you, Wilim? 

[Renegade]

As to Silver Wards, I'm not entirely sure of how useful they are. At many points, they can be a hindrance. The lack of lynches in QF 2 was a big factor as to why the Villagers lost. The Silver Ward is basically doing the same thing. The only reason you'd want to use a Silver Ward is if you are almost completely sure that a target player is clean, and the only reason for doing that is if you know the target was Glowsapped (and cleared). But even in that case, there's still a chance they're the Convict Leader. I mean, there are instances when the Silver Ward could be used, but for the most part, I don't think it will help. In all likelihood, the same person will be lynched the following day, which basically prevents us from getting any lynch-info for a cycle.

 

How would I know if I got the extra ration?

 

It should tell you that you have 1 leftover ration in this day's PM (unless you used an action that requires rations).

[Kasimir]

Ren: Perhaps, but I believe the point about the Murder Hood should stand. We've like as lost our ability to retaliate, to be sure, but I'm not exactly sure I'm comforted by the notion that the Murder Hood was in Jain's hands.

 

In addition, I am going to reveal to all that I have received a message. I don't know if I'm allowed to paste it in this thread (Gamma, could you confirm this, please? I'd also appreciate clarification about whether our PMs include a notification of how many rations we have as I didn't get anything of that sort.) I was asked to keep the message secret, and I am vascillating about revealing the identity of the purported sender, who I am currently going to refer to as X while I think this through.

 

However, here's what makes me awfully suspicious of this:

 

1. The last time I checked, Joe was the one who had issues with capitalising words. To be sure, this could be someone else pretending to be Joe pretending to be X (what a levels clusterstorm! Just Aonar's thing!) As such, I find it rather interesting that X was capitalising odd words mid-sentence like "Money" and "Message". Granted, many players have capitalised 'Message' because of the game mechanic, but nonetheless, we all know that Joe's verbal tic is his consistent capitalisations. I'd like some answer about that.

 

2. Something strange in how I was asked to respond to the given message. I was asked to offer a delayed response. I see no purpose in that. In short, it seems I've been asked to respond to a message that effectively said nothing, and therefore to do nothing except confirm that I have received the message. Why then keep it secret? It helps no one.

 

More importantly, I want to take this at face value for now. The odd way the message was spelled (the capitalisations and so on) leads me to have to bring this up: why message me, Joe? Why pretend to be X?

[Mailliw73]

Sorry, I don't have much time right now. I should be able,e to get on again later today, though. Ash, why did you jump on a quasi-vote for me so quickly? That was weird to me.

Also, no one said anything so far, but my vote isn't in the write up...

[Theorymaker]

A general message to everyone: If it looks like you are going to be lynched and you have an important item, like the murder hood, then tell everyone in thread. Yes, it might make you a target for the Convicts, but hopefully someone will have a Silver Ward and will protect you from being killed.
 
Now Ryfe was even more scared. The murderers were starting to kill guests, and the Shades still stood around outside waiting to kill anyone who tried to leave. Trapped and with nothing else to do Ryfe went back to working on his map.