Mid-Range Game 9: The Steel Ministry

[Clanky]

I'm in.

 

Lan is excited that someone has finally seen his potential and is determined to be the most fearsome Inquisitor of all time. 

Edited October 16, 2015 by Clanky

[the winter system]

PMs. Meh. It takes a true eliminator to manipulate without PMs. I haven't done it, but only because I haven't had the opportunity. And, true villager to do the same, but minus manipulation. 

[Kipper]

I don't manipulate in PMs. I get information! I really couldn't care less about manipulating someone; people make enough mistakes on their own (just look at me in LG14)! Manipulation (or attempted manipulation) is much easier to notice in a PM. Manipulating public opinion by using careful word choices, now that's a useful art, best practiced in the main thread.

[the winter system]

I said minus manipulation for villagers. 

[Mailliw73]

I can't actually live without PMs...you'll see...

I'll join, then, fine. I'm Kipper.

You're not the only one. PMs are my first and strongest strategy in these games. But I play them all anyways.

[Sart]

I've been playing since LG4, and yet I'm on no one's hit list. Weird.

 

Anyways, I'll sign up as Mar, a man with a permanent slouch.

[little wilson]

I've been playing since LG4, and yet I'm on no one's hit list. Weird.

 

Anyways, I'll sign up as Mar, a man with a permanent slouch.

 

Oh, you are. You're on mine. For MR5. You took one of my lives. A life I'd struggled to syphon from your teammate and then you shot me. Sure, I arranged your death so you died while shooting me, but hey. Details. 

[Shallan]

I'll join as Citona Vinid, a noblewoman.

[the winter system]

Who's hitlist am I on?

[Kasimir]

Unfortunately, Great Lord, due to reasons and time constraints, I'd like to formally request to withdraw Kendrick Erikell from this game. Thank you!

[little wilson]

Kyza will also, unfortunately, have to withdraw. I've got some real life things I've got to deal with and focus on for a good portion of the start of this game (got in an accident yesterday and even though it's not my fault, insurance companies kind of suck), and it's best if I'm not distracted by the game. Or inactive because of #life. Sorry!

[Mailliw73]

Dang it, Kas and Wilson gone in less than an hour? I look forward to our next game, guys.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Joel tormander has finally received his invitation, thiugh it was actually sent to someone else. But Joel needed it more.

I can't promise normal levels of activity. I'll post at least once per turn, but I'm going to be busier than usual during the next few weeks.

[Zephrer]

I'd like to join up as Serech of house Huxer, a bloodthirsty minor nobleman from the northern dominance. He "received" his invitation and saw an opportunity slaughter his political enemies. Mwahahaha!!!!

[nicocoberru]

*whispers* What timezone will we be using?

[Gamma Fiend]

Sign-ups will be open until 11:59PM, Sunday October 18th, Eastern Standard Timezone. (So, about ~19 hours from when this post is made). I will admit, my work/time schedule will be rather odd for most players, but I will make sure each Cycle lasts at least 48 hours. Extensions can be requested via PM with the GM, and will only be granted if multiple players from both teams are requesting such.) Or if the GM is busy/lazy from work.

[Kasimir]

Sign-ups will be open until 11:59PM, Sunday October 18th, Eastern Standard Timezone. (So, about ~19 hours from when this post is made). I will admit, my work/time schedule will be rather odd for most players, but I will make sure each Cycle lasts at least 48 hours. Extensions can be requested via PM with the GM, and will only be granted if multiple players from both teams are requesting such.) Or if the GM is busy/lazy from work.

I got to admit, Great Lord, I really like it when you GM because you're about 12 hours apart from my timezone. It makes calculation real easy

Also, close-reading, Maili  Kendrick Erikell withdrew. I never said I was withdrawing, even though my activity level will undoubtedly suffer...

-

 

Koschei Jerzy watched as the looming form of the Inquisitor sat calmly in the adjacent cubicle--Wyrm's cubicle, he reminded himself sourly--long fingers smoothly carressing the hilt of an obsidian knife. He gripped the steel sheet in his hands and did his best to conceal any trace of emotion--anticipation, nervousness, ambition--as he studied the letters painstakingly scratched into the metal.

 

Three days ago, Wyrm Heron had received just such an invitation from the Canton of Inquisition. One did not, he thought, simply decline such invitations. Not when you were an obligator in the Canton of Finance, doomed to forever go through dusty reports, checking for accounting errors and hints of more nefarious activity. Lady Verlaine, it was charged, was secretly bankrolling skaa rebels. Certainly, he could not uncover any signs of where the missing funds had gone to, and he had instead begun to suspect a lover on the side. There were many more mundane reasons as to why a House's Lady would siphon off her House's funds...

 

None of which would endear him to his superiors, much less the Canton of Inquisition. No, they demanded results. And Wyrm Heron, that rusting fanatical maniac that he was, always delivered them.

 

It was hard keeping up with the latest key performance indicators, but somehow, Wyrm Heron managed all of that with an ease that made Koschei have a stomachache to think about. He hadn't been surprised when Wyrm had received an invitation to join the Canton of Finance--he'd only been surprised that a similar invitation had come for himself, a few days later.

 

He'd hoped that with Wyrm out of the way, his prospects of promotion would be higher. Now, they were non-existent. He resisted the urge to put his head in his hands in frustration.

 

You were supposed to give up all loyalty to your House, when you joined the Steel Ministry. The Lord Ruler's obligators were impartial; they served as extensions of their god and master--you gave up your former name, and all claims to your loyalties that your House might ever have had. They told you this, again and again, as they etched the tattoos into your skin around your eyes, marking you forever as the Lord Ruler's property. They told you this when you were first an acolyte, and again, as obligators proper, and tested you.

In theory.

 

He'd never heard of a Lord Prelan who wasn't a Heron, a Tekiel, an Izenry, an Erikell--one of the few influential and powerful Houses in Luthadel which everyone called 'Great'. House Jerzy, on the other hand, was a minor House, a distance away from Tremredare in the Western Dominance. They grew grapes and made fine wines; bred swift horses. But the House Jerzy he'd grown up with had been impoverished: the best of the vines struck by the stem-rust and shrivelling, their herds thinned by raiders. "Skaa," the other Houses in the Western Dominance said. But House Jerzy knew better. So did Koschei.

 

You gave up your House name when you joined the Steel Ministry, but Koschei knew better than to think that you left your House behind. Some prelans were good at looking the other way, at proposing the best deals for a House which just so happened to be theirs, or a proxy for their House.

He looked at the steel plate he held, re-read the words. It was clear, he thought now, with a strange sense of resigned calm. He wasn't going to be offered a choice. The obsidian knife in the Inquisitor's hand said as much. Scritch went the knife; he was going to join or he was going to die. No one refused the Canton of Inquisition. And perhaps it was some sort of twisted punishment. He was going to be Lord Prelan, he was going to find a way to save House Jerzy. All gone now; all snatches of mist twisting out of his fingers.

 

He looked at the Inquisitor--the woman, if the term still applied--gone preternaturally still, the spike-tipped eyes regarding him, silently.

"I accept the invitation," he said. And even managed to make it sound as if he was genuinely grateful for the opportunity. The Inquisitor stood up and nodded to him. The obsidian knife vanished into a sheath. The Inquisitor gestured. Numbly, Koschei packed up his scant belongings and followed.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Kasimir

[Meandbooks]

Been lurking for a bit, and this looks like fun. I'd like to join as Ailyth.

[Mailliw73]

Gamma, any idea when the average rollover time will be?

[DeathClutch19]

Shi Kuratchi is signing up i just heard about this and im excited to join! 

[A Joe in the Bush]

So If I know anything about Time Zone Conversions (I don't.) I think sign ups are now over. When will the game itself start?

[Gamma Fiend]

Sign-ups are closed (for 2 hours now, oops ) The game will begin shortly, as soon as I can get the write-up finished and PMs sent out.

[Gamma Fiend]

Dawn had greeted the Final Empire the same as it always had for hundreds of years, the dense and ever present mists slowly receded as the blighted red sun peaked it's head over the horizon and turning the sky an even more sinister shade of crimson. As always, ash continued to rain from the sky.

Grim, on the other hand, had greeted dawn with sore muscles and stiff joints, the result of his dutiful work throughout the entire night. He burned pewter, the metal reserve in his stomach lighting up like a kindled fire, filling him with warmth and strength as his aches and pains vanished almost instantly. He also burned tin. Just a quick, light flare to jolt him with an intense wave of awareness, as the heightened sights, smells, and sounds crashed over him like a wave. It was best he not show any wariness in front of the Canton of Inquisitions newest recruits.

Of course, it had been rough and bloody work. But such was the Art of Hemalurgy. The Lord Ruler's most coveted secret, and source of power for his most powerful and fearsome agents. People whispered in frightened huddles about the dreaded and terrible koloss, but nobody dared speak or gossip about an Inquisitor. Not if they valued their life, that was. However bleak and miserable it may be.

He turned his back on the rising sun and headed back into the entrance of the cavern, a small fissure in the ground, one among many cave entrances in the complex Arguois caverns system here in the Central Dominance. This particular cave however had only one entrance and exit, as all others had been sealed off. Here it was where Grim's mission had gone it's undertaking. To raise and recruit a new class of Inquisitors.

He had been pleasantly surprised at how many had willingly accepted the invitation, and had actually almost worried about not having not enough sacrifices for the ritual until a couple of volunteers with second thoughts tried backing out at the last minute.

There was no refusing the Inquisition.

"You have all been given great gifts!," he said to the recruits, his voice booming in the large cave, bouncing back off the jagged, rocky walls and repeating half a dozen times over. "Each of your powers have been supplemented, made stronger by the mercy and grace of The Lord Ruler, Sliver of Infinity. Now, you won't receive the full blessings of the Canton of Inquisition just yet....," he said with a sly grin, using his best unnerving gaze.

He knew the eyespikes of the Inquisitors would continue instilling fear and paranoia into the hearts of the supplicants. Right up until the moment they were drilled into their own eye sockets and out the back of their skull.

He let them all rest for now, so as to recover quickly so they could all soon be to training and testing. It was still a big Canton secret of how much rest an Inquisitor actually needed to maintain their stamina.

Grim was awoken many hours later by a tremendous crashing sound that set the cavern walls shaking, sending pockets of dust and dirt to fall from the ceiling. He had his obsidian ax in his hand within a moment and was already flying through the air, burning iron and steel and pushing and pulling himself off a series of metallic brackets he had drilled into the cave walls at various intervals. His tattered mistcloak flailed around him as he rounded the corner and landed adroitly, burning tin to try and see through all of the dust that had been kicked up.

It took him a moment to realize what was wrong, and that it was too dim in the cave. The entrance had been sealed off by a large rock somehow, and after a minute of his eyes adjusting to the cloudy darkness, his eyes full upon the two dead bodies near the cave entrance. Only they hadn't been crushed or killed by the falling rock or crash. He was plainly able to see the pools of blood forming out around their heads. Their eye and back spikes had been ripped out.

The students had all awoken with the crashing sound as well, and they all slowly and groggily formed up behind up asking what happened and what to do next.

Grim whirled on them in an instant. He knew that this could be a potential risk, the threat of skaa or skaa-sympathizers getting mixed in within the bunch somehow, and he had a back-up plan worked out for this. He let out a wild and savage laugh. Sometimes he loved his job, as what came next also happened to be his favorite part about his job.

"What do we do next?" He said, repeating them. "Why, we have some more rough and bloody work to do!"

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

Day 1 Begins!  Remember, NO Private Messages between players for the game! The Cycle will last 48 hours and will end at 4AM EST Wednesday October 21st! (Yeah, I know, GM has weird time schedules ) Also please try and remember to place your votes in Red and if you later retract them, color them in Green in the original post as well!

Edit: ALL PMs should be sent out! If you haven't received one, or this is an error or issue, please let me know immediately! Also, anybody who wants a link to the Spec Doc feel free to shoot me a PM for it!

Player List

 

1. Wyrmhero - Wyrm Heron
2. IrulelikeSTINK - No Name
3. Alvom Halbin - Andierre Reynaud
4. RippleGylf - Marie Lepinceau
5. Venture Mistborn - Maxisum
6. Orlok - Locke Tekiel
7. Winter Cloud - Sophia Erikell
8. Mailliw73 - Milon Bulvier
9. Araris Valerian - Arad Penrod
10. Alvron - Jak
11. Creccio - Inor Haze
12. The Honey Badger - Dagbert Honerion
13. TheMightyLopen - Kellam Lyre
14. polkinghornbd - Elijah
15. Nicocoberru - Coco
16. Alfa - Ashbringer Fadraux
17. Kasimir - Koschei Jerzy
18. Phattemer - Axies
19. Kipper - Kipper
20. Clanky - Lan
21. Sart - Mar
22. Shallan - Citona Vinid
23. The Only Joe - Joel Tormander
24. Zephrer - Serech of House Huxer
25. Meandbooks - Ailyth
26. Deathclutch10 - Shi Kuratchi

 

Edited October 29, 2016 by Alvron

[Curious Anamaximder]

I am going to hold off on my vote for now, and see what other people say.

[Zephrer]

Let's get down to business, shall we? All Skaa step forward and raise your hands so we can kill you. Don't worry, We'll make it as painful as possible.