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Kipper, you never said anything about not understanding the strategy that was suggested. What you did say was that you were "dubious about the ultimate effectiveness of inter-faction cooperation" given that we would eventually be enemies, yet, it seems that working together has been one of the best ways of working out who the Discoverers are.

 

Oh, another reason not to trust you, I forgot about this in my previous post, but when Seonid was being helpful, you tried to get him killed. I've lost the reference to it right now, but I'll find it again later. So, when people in Glory suggest working together to find Discovery, you disagree and tell us 'But we're enemies...', and when Seonid comes out and, basically, suggests the same thing, you try to get him killed.

 

Why am I suspicious of you again? Even disregarding what Wyrm says, which I am more or less doing there is still sufficient reason to be suspicious.

 

As for the declaration about Clanky and Hael revealing themselves in the Moderation doc, and Hael's denial, currently, we don't trust either of you, so that could go either way.

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MR7: Cycle Five - The Fall of Kings

The Gardens of the Sun was strangely deserted when Wurum entered. He hesitated at the doorway. The lantern indicating that the place was open for business had been doused. That itself was unexpected.

Even the neighbouring brothel and gambling den had gone silent.

He didn’t like the look of this.

He held out his hand and summoned his Blade. Ten heartbeats later, Regicide dropped into his waiting hand. It was somewhat difficult to manoeuvre into the cramped space of the teahouse with the Blade ready to hand, but he managed it.

No one was there.

Where had the others gone?

Cautiously, he took one step forward. And then another. Had they left a note?

All of a sudden, he heard a rustle. A shape detached itself from the shadows, strode forward, resolved into a man. “You,” Wurum said.

He recognised that man. Makabaki, most likely: dark-skinned, with just the pale crescent on his cheek. He wore black and silver; not unlike a military uniform, and thick gloves, with stiff cuffs.

And his eyes were cold.

“Yes,” said Darkness. “Me.”

He swept his hand out to the side. A gleaming Shardblade materialised in his waiting hand.

Wurum eyed him and fell into Ironstance, Blade held overhead in a two-handed grip. The last time, he thought, they’d fought and destroyed the old wing of the palace. Granted, he’d wanted it remodelled, but he didn’t really want it all damaged by a Shardblade duel.

Clever words and the intervention of his guards had saved him back then.

There was no one now. He didn’t know if his fellow Scholars (did Wurum even know Scholars?) would be able to confront Darkness.

He was all alone (except for the storming screaming in his head, the one that never went away.) Ready to die.

Teeth bared, Wurum Heron embraced death.

Darkness brought his Blade up, assumed Stonestance. Even now, Wurum thought, there was still room for astonishment. Things changed. The world surprised you, even at the end of all things.

“No more words?” he taunted.

“None for one such as you,” Darkness said, unperturbed. “You’ve hidden for long enough, King.” No contempt, despite the emphasis he placed on the last title.

“I have broken no laws,” Wurum said. “You have no more claim over me.”

“I had to look very hard,” Darkness replied, “To discover an indiscretion.” He nodded; a perfunctory gesture that might have been grudging respect. “You have lived a very clean life since your pardoning yourself. An act permissible by Alethi law.”

“Why, thank you.”

“However.” Darkness’s voice was even, clean like scrubbed ice. “Soul Forgery is a criminal act by the laws of the Rose Empire. A slip you should not have made.”

“I’m not even a citizen here.”

“That is no excuse,” Darkness said. “Justice is blind. Justice is patient. And finally, justice will have its due.”

“Not,” Wurum said, “If I have anything to say about it.”

Both of them moved, all at once. Their Blades met; Darkness slashed, Wurum parried, using the powerful swings of Ironstance to beat aside Darkness’s blade and to attack his midsection.

Darkness anticipated that, somehow. He reversed direction, blocked the blow, and hammered the pommel of his Shardblade home.

Pain.

Wurum staggered backwards, crashing into a table and sweeping off the tray of unattended teacups that was there. They clattered to the floorboards and broke; shattering.

He struggled to regain his equilibrium. The strike with the pommel had unbalanced him, and there was a trickle of dampness above his right eye. He felt for it. A cut. Darkness’s blow had laid open the skin.

“First blood to you,” Wurum said. “But that’s all you’re getting.”

Wordlessly, Darkness struck again. Wurum forced his Blade aside, using brute strength. Ironstance was about force, he thought. Stonestance about immobility. That cost Darkness now, as their two Blades sliced through the table like a heated knife through yak butter.

That last thought was not Wurum’s.

He retaliated, hammering his own pommel strike home, was somewhat displeased to see that Darkness didn’t react at all to having the blunt end of a Shardblade smacking him in the ribs.

In the next moment, Darkness had freed his Blade from the wreckage of the table. He swept down towards Wurum, faster than a normal person should. Wurum steeled himself against the incessant screaming and brought up his Blade to block, but found himself stumbling backwards against the onslaught.

Came to a stop.

His back was to the far wall of the teahouse.

Darkness advanced. Inexorable.

 

I5ZnETC-UOZjfiFvnDHE0W-C9SyvCqcblDZAV2ozgJeVlAIY_7ejfsiLDg7zAyHyIGVBRCeO_LkMZFvI9uqFwmCGhBSMIVl-kXHaAim64JoqxsghPzHk8Zgazmob7JPgIQ

 

King's killing blade—blade killing kings.”

-Collected 10 seconds pre-death. Subject was a nightsoil porter from Telmont. Sample is considered to be useless, despite the elegance of the ketek.

 

I5ZnETC-UOZjfiFvnDHE0W-C9SyvCqcblDZAV2ozgJeVlAIY_7ejfsiLDg7zAyHyIGVBRCeO_LkMZFvI9uqFwmCGhBSMIVl-kXHaAim64JoqxsghPzHk8Zgazmob7JPgIQ

 

Two lives. He remembered both. One was a dream. Perhaps both were.

The man who had been Cang Lu remembered words penned down a long time ago by a dreamer, a philosopher and a sage. A man once had a dream he was a butterfly, said the sage, and when he awoke, he no longer knew if he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man.

The man who had been King Wurum Heron of Alethkar, First of His Name, Protector of the Realm and the Herald of the Storms remembered, for no particular reason, a dying man’s eyes and his last words. “He’s coming,” the assassin had cried out, just before the Shardblade bit into him, killing him. “He’s coming for you. Darkness.”

He looked up, into the emotionless eyes of the man. Darkness. He knew, then, what the assassin had meant.

His arm was bleeding. The wound had reopened. Tiredly, he brought his Shardblade up. He could not fight the inevitable, he knew. But he could not (would not) kneel and wait for the deathstroke to come, either.

“Why?” Wurum asked.

The Makabaki looked at him, the way he would’ve looked at a weed in a garden that needed pruning, thought the part of him that was still Cang Lu. As if he was simply a distasteful task that had to be accomplished.

“What you are is detestable,” the Makabaki said, at last, the words clipped and emotionless. He held his Blade in Smokestance, but did not yet advance. He considered Wurum for a long moment. “You do not even know what you are, do you?”

“I’m King of Alethkar,” Wurum ground out. “First of His Name, Protector of the Realm, and the Herald of the Storms. I’m not going to beg.”

“Just as well,” said the man. “Justice heeds no pleading. You do not even know what a Herald is.”

The Blade screamed and he fought to keep to his stance. The fight was wearing on him.

“What, then?” Wurum demanded.

“It is beyond you,” the Makabaki responded. “Just as the abomination you are is beyond your comprehension.”

He closed in. In Windstance, Wurum parried the first blow, and beat off the second. Blood dripped down his hand and over his eye, but he knew he didn’t have a moment to wipe it away. It was, however, a distraction he did not need, on top of the screaming. Always the screaming.

“How do you deal with it?” he whispered. “The screaming?”

Darkness forced his Blade up with a negligent twist of his wrist, and with horror, Wurum realised he wasn’t going to be able to bring his Blade down in time to defend himself from the next blow.

He threw himself to the side. Darkness’s Blade buried itself in the wall. If it had been a regular sword, that might’ve saved him. But this was a Shardblade, and Darkness retrieved it as easily as though he’d only sliced silk.

“It is what you are,” Darkness replied, at last, his words as clinical as ice. “Surgebinder. Incipient Radiant.” His mouth twisted in an expression that might’ve been cold distaste, if the man felt any emotion at all. “Criminal. You dabble in arts that might return Desolation to the world. You must be stopped.”

He was trapped, behind the counter.

It was always going to end this way, Wurum thought. Blood dripped. So tired. The assassin, the killer of kings had been right, in the end. He laughed. Strange, to hear his own laughter, over the screaming.

He raised his Blade.

Darkness’s Blade came down. Beat his aside. Fell.

Burning.

The world turned dark.

Ended.
 


Cang Lu was Wurum Heron, King of Alethkar, First of His Name, Protector of the Realm and Herald of the Storms a Troll Blasphemous Scholar!

Cycle Five has begun and will end on Thursday, 9th July, 11PM SGT! [=GMT +8]

 
Note: The ketek was Wyrm's, not mine. All credit where it's due :)

 

Edited by Kasimir
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Now would be a good time for a Moderation faction member to confirm who left their faction. By my count, there should have been four kills on discovery members last night. Since none of them actually died, I take this as evidence that somebody was trying to block them, which I find rather suspicious. Neo, would you tell us who's left? Or Araris, if neo got bribed away.

Also, our strongest suspicions for the discoverers in the original Heritage faction are Eowyn and shallan, though we'll know for sure on shallan as soon as Adamir gets on.

The full list of potential suspects is shallan, alvron, phattemer, eowyn, and maybe zephrer, though I now doubt that.

If moderation lost kipper, haelbarde,and clanky last night, then the original heritage discoverers are all that's left, so it's rather important to know this, as you might be able to tell.

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Kipper, Clanky, and I are all on the Moderation doc, along with Eowyn, and Neo. We lost Orlok and Araris. So not sure what's going on there.

 

Edit: Realized I had Kipper on the list twice, so removed one of the entries.

Edited by Haelbarde
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I just got the scan report on Shallan. Congratulations, Bort, she is innocent. Of course, being on an enemy team, I would be happy to offer proof by Striker - but I think you can take me on my word for now. :P

Edited by Adamir
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Kipper, Clanky, and I are all on the Moderation doc, along with Kipper, Eowyn, and Neo. We lost Orlok and Araris. So not sure what's going on there.

Wait, so now there are two Kippers in the Moderation doc? Yikes. Just one posted enough as is. I'm not sure what's going on there, either.

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Wait, so now there are two Kippers in the Moderation doc? Yikes. Just one posted enough as is. I'm not sure what's going on there, either.

I just realized that, and edited it out as you posted.

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You'll forgive me if I don't trust you, haelbarde, discoverer that you are.

I'll wait for neo to confirm, because unless glory was roleblocking our attempts to choose discovery, that's not a live possibility.

Joe, care to confirm?

Also, we lost eowyn and gained orlock. No other changes.

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Well, regardless of how many Kippers there are in Moderation, there's no Hael or Clanky. Those stormin' discoverererers.

 

Also, I'm finally convinced that I'm a Svordish diplomat. Bad day for me

 

Edit: just clarifying, I did get bribed over to Moderation.

Edited by Spooky Eowyn
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Well I know Kipper wanted to have Bort roleblocked, so if he was targetting one of us, that might explain something. We also have a resealer, plus a Forger who has yet to use their essence mark. So there's two more potential protects. How many kills did you throw at moderation?

 

Edit: Aww, come on Eowyn. You're really going to play it like that after I so nicely welcomed you to the Moderation doc? Seems to be quite the sudden change in play style there.

 

Maybe any bonus diplomats we have might find it worth their time scanning Eowyn. Though I am curious, who did you scan, and as what, Eowyn?

 

But this is me signing off. Need sleep D:

Edited by Haelbarde
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Haha, I will confirm what Eowyn said.  Hael and Clanky are no longer a part of our doc.  I sent a kill order on him last cycle, so I am assuming that he has one life left.  Would everyone like him or Clanky to be the target of our lynch this round?  

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Lynch target for this cycle: Haelbarde.

We're going to scan eowyn.

To all non-discovery members of the moderation faction. Help us end discovery, and you will be bribed over to one of the other factions, not killed.

Kipper, neo, (That's all of the cleared members) we'd love to have you on our faction.

And if we can clear you, eowyn, we'd love to have you back.

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Haha, I will confirm what Eowyn said.  Hael and Clanky are no longer a part of our doc.  I sent a kill order on him last cycle, so I am assuming that he has one life left.  Would everyone like him or Clanky to be the target of our lynch this round?  

My lynch vote is for Hael  :)  The more discoverers we can get rid of the better!  

Edited by Pixie
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Whoops- I just edited my post above because I didn't see the new posts. I'll just move it down here.

 

"Haha, nice try, Hael.

I'm willing to share my scans, but I don't want to just because a Disco asked me to. I'm almost certain there's no harm in sharing them, but I do want to double check with everyone else first."

 

Yes please confirm me!!!

I won't be Discovery

That I can promise.

(Add that to the haiku contest :P jk)

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I would prefer to not have to weigh in, but I've seen this mistake made too many times.
 
This is a Faction game. Members of Moderation do not win if Discovery wins. Neither do they win if Glory wins or if Heritage wins. At this point, considering what certain former members of Moderation have put Joe through, I will remind all players that you should be playing to your current Faction's win condition, and not counting on being bribed over. Your win conditions do not change until they do. To play otherwise is to be exceedingly unfair to certain players, particularly Joe, who have been treated in certain ways for intiially refusing to play to his win condition.
 
I have already told Moderation that I am not against giving Discovery Slaughter and letting them go to wild if players continue to attempt to break the game. I reaffirm this commitment.
 
Thank you.
 
-Kas

 

Edit: I have been informed--rightfully so--that not everyone is familiar with what Slaughter is. It is an Awakened Sword in the first incarnation of this game, capable of a double kill, one of them unblockable and instant.

Edited by Kasimir
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In the interests of not giving Kas an excuse to provide Discovery with a kill ability, how about we all murderize Moderation? :P

 

Seriously, though, even if Kas wasn't against the idea, Moderation is suffering because of the alliance. Everyone, literally everyone, is targeting them. Moderation is getting every Arbiter, Striker and Bribe apart from exposed Discovery members.

Edited by Adamir
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