Mid-Range Game 17: Hic Sunt Leones

[AliasSheep]

3 hours ago, Magestar said:

I think it's probably the best idea for finding Elims, even if it does have some flaws. 

After cycle 3 it's basically useless to us unless everyone wants to reveal every item they have and get, which isn't exactly information one might want to share.

[Elbereth]

11 hours ago, Magestar said:

If I ever get enough Merit to get an ionBlade, which seems somewhat unlikely, I'm not sure that I'll want to notify the thread.  I'd be worried that the Elims will start targeting people who have ionBlades, to insure that they are getting the only kill.   It will probably be helpful to clear someone especially for that purpose.   It would work sort of like QF15, except we would actually have cleared the person getting the info.

I like Doc's plan, but I feel we're going to run into some difficulties now that Bugsy has spread it all over the thread.  Not sure that that was such a good idea.  Also, the idea that you could force different people to get the highest merit each cycle would sort of kill discussion depending on who you had do it, and how it was done.  I won't really be able to keep up with some of the other posters here, simply because of scheduling conflicts.  I'm sure that I'm not the only one, either.

I'm not saying you should notify the thread that you just got an ionBlade. I'm saying tell someone that you're getting one, so they can verify you later if you are stolen from. Doing it to the whole thread would be a terrible idea, yes. That's definitely not what I was saying.

And yeah. We would have to handle something like that carefully. I'm not saying the lower volume posters would be required to do a ton more, so much that the highest-activity players would coordinate a bit to make sure that the same person doesn't have the highest Merit twice or three times in a row. 

This is all from Sheep's post, and all out of order. Sorry. 

Quote

In addition, I saw El suggesting that the only reason the highest Merit poster wouldn't have an ionBlade is if it had been stolen, but if I read the rules right, only the Forsworn actually get a chance of the free ionBlade.  Thus, if they don't actually have one then either it was stolen or they never had one in the first place.  And the converse is also true, if they do have one, there's a good chance they're Forsworn.  

Yes, the Forsworn are the only ones with a chance at the free blade. That's the point. If a Julii does not manage to steal an ionBlade from the highest-Merit poster the previous turn, that person is almost certainly not Forsworn because they would by default have had an ionBlade. As I was saying - the only scenario in which this does not clear a player is that in which a Forsworn Julii (assuming they have one) steals the Blade first, and there's a only 50% chance of that happening, which isn't really horrible. 

Quote

Now that I think about it, for the first few turns, this might be a good way of assessing that situation.  The idea of lots of people stealing ionBlades, unfortunately, could obfuscate that in that the highest Merit poster could be a Julii who has just stolen an ionBlade yet is Faithful.  This is possible since only Forsworn would recieve the ionBlades, so the person who actually gets it could be perhaps second or third most in Merit.

And yes, there are special cases in which a Blade could be stolen and it wouldn't be a Forsworn. Those cases, by and large, can be avoided with a little bit of intelligence on everyone's parts. The idea (with my plan, at least), is soft-clearing, not finding eliminators, for the most part. So yes, the Forsworn who gets the ionBlade could have significantly less Merit than the top poster. In which case there's not a very good chance of finding them anyway, so I'd say it's a bit more useful to be able to very nearly clear the highest-Merit poster (which is useful in other respects, since they're also the most contributing player, obviously). 

Quote

I'd prefer not to have ionBlade's overall, if I'm honest, private kills are too far out of the public eye for my liking, but if it becomes necessary, I suppose it would be justified in occuring.  I'd recommend people use their Merit for PMs earlier on however; as enticing as saving up might be, the increase in information is much more useful, and much more longlasting than a single use item.

Also, vigilante kills are actually significantly more accurate than the lynch, on average, so you know. They're a good thing, if someone has strong enough suspicion. 

Quote

This is especially true in the early turns, when it's very unlikely that someone would have enough Merit to purchase an ionBlade (either cycle 3 or cycle 4 at the minimum assuming a Bellona and depending on whether you're allowed to put in orders for items with Merit you're going to recieve that cycle).  

I asked - no, you're not allowed to use Merit you're about to receive to purchase items. 

Quote

I'm sceptical of Doc's plan.  It requires putting too much faith in a small group of people.  

Does it? I mean... This is not the only way to catch eliminators. It is one way we can soft-clear people. This does not by any means mean we can't use the lynch or anything else to find them. It's just an additional tool. So... I'm not sure what you have a problem with?

Other note - this plan only really requires one Julii. Maybe two or three in contact could coordinate on the top few players rather than the top one, but I think it's an equally viable option to just let all the other Julii do as they deem best, and just have Doc/Bugsy's Julii steal from that top player. Opinions on that?

5 minutes ago, AliasSheep said:

After cycle 3 it's basically useless to us unless everyone wants to reveal every item they have and get, which isn't exactly information one might want to share.

Um, what? Why is it useless after C3 again?

[TheMightyLopen]

How exactly are we meant to trust the Julii appointed to steal from the highest Merit earning player? That is the basis of the plan after all, and given that there's no real evidence to trust anyone yet, I'd say that's a fairly big roadblock for the plan. I mean, if Doc/Bugsy think they're Faithful, that's all well and good, but there will always be doubt about them and any player they "soft-clear" using this method. Of course, we could eventually kill the Julii if we get enough soft-cleared people so that if they turn up as village, the soft-cleared group actually becomes soft-cleared, but, it kinda seemed like people are already willing to trust Doc/Bugsy's Julii, which is confusing me. I feel like I'm missing something here.

Edit: Dang, Cycle is ending right now. Well, I do think it's a pretty good plan all things considered, so I'm fine with it the way it stands.

Edited October 12, 2016 by TheMightyLopen

[Doc12]

Thing is, only one Julii has contacted me, which is confusing, as I think that there might have been at least two of every role, unless there are a lot more Thornes than I thought. I was initially hoping for at least two Julii, one of which would have been likely to be forsworn so that I could at least keep an eye on them. But yeah, only one has contacted me, and believe me, Lopen, I'm not that willing to trust him/her this fast, especially with the way the plan was leaked. (If you're really faithful, sorry julii) 

Thing is, it's the only solid plan we have so far, though. Besides the lynch, I really haven't seen a solid tactic to start clearing people. If anyone has another idea, I'll gladly listen, but perhaps it might be better to PM it instead of post it on the thread... 

[Magestar]

Well, the cycle's going to end in like 4 minutes.  I wonder what's going to happen.  

[Amanuensis]

Chapter 1 is now closed. Please refrain from sending PMs until the new Chapter is posted in approximately 2 hours.

[Amanuensis]

Chapter 2 will close on Friday, October 14th at 8PM EST! Chapter 3 will begin two hours later!

---

Chapter 2: Out with the Old

---

From the break of dawn to the cusp of dusk, Tiberius waited, and waited, and waited. Of all his lancers, three had failed to heed his call; to renew their vows. Gregor. Rylos. Morsde. Just thinking about their names made Tiberius tremble with fury. Knuckles white and jugular throbbing, the ArchGovernor of Mars burst from his High Chair and began descending towards the gardens, each step heavy and slow, resounding like the rhythm of a bass drum so loud that every man, woman and child stopped what they were doing to watch him finally join them, all except for one Gold who's own titanic voice drowned out any sound that wasn't his own.

"KAVAX AU TELEMANUS!!!" the Gold shouted before becoming overwhelmed by a fit of laughter. The grizzled old war veteran had been telling a riveting war story from the Moon Lord Rebellion, in which Tiberius, Spartacus, Kavax, Lorn and even Nero had fought together to reclaim Ganymede. It truly was a fascinating tale of outrageous heroics, though his audience did not seem very entertained; not with the ArchGovernor looming behind the old man now, jaw clenched tight with rage. Though he was a head shorter than Kavax, Tiberius seemed to tower over him in that very moment, causing Spartacus to step back plaintively and begin to desperately motion for his new-old-friend to turn around. It took a good minute for Kavax to realize he was the only one laughing, but when he did cease and notice the silence, he did not hesitate to turn. "Oh, well hello there TIberius. I was just tellin' these youngins' about the good old days whe-"

Tiberius decked Kavax au Telemanus so hard that not even his fortified skull could protect him from instant unconsciousness.

Quiet. Not even Tiberius' cherished birds dared to sing, now. To all present, it was as if a picture was taken and they were now living in that photograph, bodies frozen in time by fear. Kavax was one of the most powerful Golds ever to be bred and here he was, sprawled out on the floor with a head cracked open by a single punch, ground drinking the blood leaking from an impossibly large gash behind his left ear.

Somewhere nearby a Forsworn sweat, thinking to himself "This is the god we are expected to topple?"

A gasp from across the garden caught Tiberius' attention as Sophocles, Kavax's pet fox, leaped from the arms of his youngest son, Pax. Just before landing, the devilish creature knocked into a Brown carrying a tray of alcoholic beverages, causing him to stumble and drop a few of the glasses on the ground. While most people watched the glass shatter, Tiberius' eyes lingered a few meters elsewhere, where has youngest daughter, Tarna, and her new best friend, "Tia" were talking with lancer Lumina, who had the most peculiar mass of colors taped to her back. It was a familiar pattern to Tiberius, though it seemed distorted, somehow, and just a bit too dirty...

"MICKEY?!" the ArchGovernor shouted as he charged towards the three young ladies like a rhinoceros in heat. All three of the girls flinched as he approached. Eac expected the man to make an example out of them just like he did Kavax, but instead the they were surprised to find him his knees, gently tugging at the tape that held his favorite bird to the stoic lancer's back. "Tarna..." he said, voice shaking with grief. "How... how could you... Mickey, no..."

In an instant, Pliny was at the ArchGovernor's side, desperately trying to convince the man to hand over the bird's corpse. Instead Tiberius just hugged Mickey into the crook of his neck, sobs racking his chest as a torrent of tears streamed from his eyes. Glancing at "Tia" sternly, Pliny commanded she "bring Tarna to her room immediately" and "wait there until Tiberius is ready to talk with them both." For Lumina, he only asked for her to help him get Tiberius to his own sleeping quarters.

"And someone get Kavax to a Yellow!" Pliny shouted for the first time in his life, voice cracking from the pressure. When no one moved, he yelled an even louder "Now!" then finished with "And spread the news! This party is over! Tiberius expects every. Single. One of you in his war room at zero-six-hundred on the dot. Understand!?"

Whether stricken by fear, or awe, or perhaps even pity for their ArchGovernor, each lancer nodded their heads in agreement.

 

Later that night, Kavax awakened with a moan, a sharp pain throbbing from a bright pink lump on the side of his face. "What.. what happened?" he asked out loud, despite him seeing no one in that dimly lit room along with him. And yet...

"You made a grave mistake this evening, insulting our beloved ArchGovernor," a young Gold said as he stepped out from behind a curtain hanging across the room, head tilted just right so that his face was obscured by shadows.

"Eh? Who are you now? Where are my sons, Daxo and Pax? Step into the light, boy, so I can see your face."

"Light? What light?" the young Gold said with a smile, and suddenly there was only darkness. Darkness, except for the distinct glow of the ionBlade in his hands.

Before Kavax could leap from his bed, the young Gold was suddenly on top of him, jabbing it once, then twice, then a third time into his torso, the first in his gut, the second between his ribs, and the third in the center of his chest.

"Why?" Kavax asked with his dying breath. The young gold answered with a shrug before the old giant's body finally went limp.

"Haven't you heard? It's out with the old, in with the new."

---

The shops are now open, and dueling may now commence! Feel free to send PMs again. You will be receiving updates on your Merit and Items shortly.

• (3) holoCam(s) / holoBox(es), 10 Merit: Give your holoBox to another lancer and every action that you make or that is physically made against you will be recorded and relayed to them.
• (2) jamField(s), 15 Merit: Any device that is used within close proximity of you and another lancer you target is disabled (not destroyed). This can interfere with a Lunes research, but no other House ability.
• (2) stunFist(s), 20 Merit: Stun another lancer, preventing them from taking any further actions this Chapter. If your target is protected by a pulseShield they will not be stunned, although their pulseShield will be destroyed.
• (2) fleshMask(s), 25 Merit: Disguise yourself as another lancer, preventing any action that would be used against you at the cost of potentially becoming the target of an action that would target the lancer you disguise yourself as. Likewise, any further action you take will be observed as being executed by the lancer you impersonate.
• (2) ghostCloak(s), 25 Merit: Stealth yourself, causing any action that targets you to fail. In addition, you can stalk another lancer to discover the targets and actions they make, but you yourself are unable to take any more actions.
• (1) pulseShield(s), 30 Merit: Passively protects you from a single death (includes duels).
• (1) ionBlade(s): 40 Merit: A generic, energy-based weapon that's perfect for assassinations.

---

Dramatis Personae

1. Darkness Ascendant as Brown-Piercing
2. Daniyah as Danii
3. Doctor12 as Spartacus
4. Assassin in Burgundy as The Jackal
5. Magestar as Lucius
6. Wonko the Sane as Sanis
7. Jondesu as Quintus
8. AliasSheep as Nirgal
9. I_am_a_Stick as Stick
10. livinglegend as Rylos
11. Bugsy6912 as Sevro
12. The_Lady_of_Chaos as Tenebrum
13. Elenion as Khazad
14. The Young Bard as Gregor
15. TheMightyLopen as Priam
16. Burnt Spaghetti as Tia
17. Arraenae as Nyanah
18. Elbereth as Lumina
19. Straw as Morsde
20. jefrywlfersn as Jefry

Edited October 13, 2016 by Amanuensis

[Elenion]

Khazad dodged between chatting knights and impeding tables as he tried to reach Lumina before the rotting bird did. Midway, he was swallowed in Sanis' mob of unwilling partners in conversation. Breaking through the other side of the herd, Khazad dodged and weaved his way closer... closer...

Lumina spun, sword suddenly unsheathed and tip arcing toward Khazad's chest.

Dive, you fool!

Khazad dived to the side as the blade swept above him, instead impaling the rotting bird in the center of its decaying chest. Khazad landed awkwardly, rolled under a table by his momentum. Surprisingly, no one seemed to notice his less-than-grateful fall, even when his head hit a table leg with a loud thud.

Oi! Watch yourself there! I'm in this head too!

Khazad shook his head to clear it and rolled back from under the table. In the disturbance, he again went unnoticed as he dusted himself off, walked away, and leaned back against his customary wall.

[The_Lady_of_Chaos]

"So, um...that happened." I spoke as soon as i thought that me and Jefry, still shocked at the events that just happened. 

"Are you ok?" He said in reply. 

"What? Oh, ya, i'm fine. I hope that Kavax is ok... Maybe we should go check on him..." I begun to trail off as i spoke.

"Ya, if it'll put your mind at ease. I think he was moved to the medical bay." Jefry spoke to me leading me down a hallway to the medical bay.

As we walked down we stayed mainly quite. Neither of us really wanted to talk about what just happened. He had a very rare frown on his face. It looked out of place like it didn't belong. We finally made it to the room Kavax was in. I walked into the room and turned on the light. I screamed with a ear piercingly high scream. 

"Tenebrum!" Jefry yelled as he ran to my side. I immediately turned my head from the horrifying sight and hugged my best friend as i began to cry. No, not more death. I looked back through the tears at Kavax's body. There was a pool of blood still forming around him. His skin had yet to go pale meaning he hadn't been dead long. I hugged Jefry once more and continued to sob.

[Arrae]

I earned 4 merit last cycle, so I now have a total of 9 merit.

Bugsy, I find your reveal of Doc's Julii plan suspicious. If you had to tell them that Doc might have been "an SK targeting Juliis" in order to learn about the plan, you should have realized that the plan was probably supposed to be secret. I feel like you might have been trying to contact Foresworn buddies about the plan without using more than the five merit you started with. You've spent at least two merit PMing people: the Julii and I. These probably aren't the only people you've PMed -- maybe you ran out of Merit to use to contact the other Foresworn?

[Elenion]

31 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

maybe you ran out of Merit to use to contact the other Foresworn?

I don't think that would be a thing, because the rules say

Quote

While neither faction will begin the game knowing who their allies are, the Forsworn will start the game with two costless messages between each other in the form of a chain.

I assume that the Forsworn could just relay messages up and down the PM-chain until they found out who everyone was that was in it, without ever needing to use any Merit to do so. Then one of the Forsworn could use their starting merit to start up a group PM that would act just like a doc.

 

I do, however, have a slight elim read on Bugsy, but not from his maneuvering to get Doc's plan. What made me pause is what Bugsy says right here:

Quote

 *sigh* I completely understand if you want to duel me now, although I'd really prefer you didn't considering how fun this game promises to be. 

This use of pathos is what my read is based on. Call me paranoid for it, but the last time that somebody used something like this on me was Aman, in an LG24 PM. I fell for it and Stink and I got him off of the hook. He turned out to be an elim. While this is anything but definite proof that Bugsy's an elim, it does tip my read slightly in that direction.

So while I'm not suspicious enough of Bugsy to advocate killing him based on my read, I trust Rae far more than him, and if this turns out to be the duel getting the most cheers then you can count on my cheer going for Rae.

[Burnt Spaghetti]

Tia had quickly escorted Tarna to her room, the pair of them both being suitably nervous, no, terrified of the potential consequences. They had both waited there as requested, in nervous silence, but when Tiberius arrived, he had sent Tia out, coldly stating he would talk to her separately.  But... he hadn't come. And now there was a meeting she was supposed to attend but... he was going to talk to her first...wasn’t he? At least...That's what he'd said... she felt torn. Did she go to the meeting and risk a public rebuking? Or should she just stay where she was, hide, and hope for the best.... She laughed. Hope for the best...ha... best case scenario he's just decided to completely ignore me and is refusing to speak with me.... cause there's no way I'm getting away with this.... note to self: don't use birds in pranks. She decided to wait it out a little longer before leaving to go to the meeting Tiberius had called. She wasn't excited to run into him anytime soon.

[Jondesu]

Quintus stared in shock as the prank that he'd been watching with Stick took a horrible turn for the worst. He'd had a good view of Kavax being knocked out, too, which had triggered flashbacks from the Passage...

Quintus had been quiet, unassuming, for his whole life, something he'd learned from his mother. He even used her House name when he could: Quintus au Tribellius. The Tribellius family was small, honorable but unimportant. They'd carried out their duties in small colonies or cities without fail, but had never tried to make a name for themselves.

Father, however, had brokered no such thoughts. Without even asking either Quintus or his mother, he'd shipped Quintus off to the Institute after practically faking his test results. Quintus had never heard of that being possible, but he couldn't imagine that he'd done as well as they said he did, even though he wasn't among the top tier candidates by any means.

The Passage had been the big eye opener for him. Of course, it probably was for most Golds, but Quintus had learned something interesting about the expectations placed on him due to his father's house, rather than the one he associated himself with. Looking back, he would have expected to be the weak one placed with a strong opponent, intended to be sacrificed for the sake of a lesson to another Gold; for the sake of the survival and flourishing of the race. Instead, he was placed in a room with one of the smallest kids in the Institute, who barely managed to squirm as Quintus reluctantly fought. That had almost proved his undoing, too. When the kid's survival instinct kicked into high gear and he bit down on Quintus' jugular, he thrown the boy off of him as hard as he could. His neck had only superficial wounds. The other boys' neck snapped on impact, leaving a growing pool of blood from a wound on his head not too dissimilar to Kavax's now. Quintus hadn't meant for that to happen, but he'd told himself he'd never let himself get that close to death again if he could help it. He'd been enslaved very early in the Institute games, and had earned almost no prestige, which made it even more baffling when he was requested as one of Tiberius' own lancers. 

That was, of course, also his father's doing. He wanted a strong and noble son, and failing that, a dead son. What better way to end up with a dead son without dishonor than to place him in a position such as this?

Quintus snapped out of his reverie at the barked command to meet Tiberius at 0600. That was a long enough time to go get some rest, and he was certain he'd need it. He bid farewell to Stick and slipped out into the hallway towards his rooms.

Edit: oh yeah, thanks for the character prompt, @Amanuensis, and for not being mad about my mistake in setting up my character with a house name. 

Edited October 13, 2016 by Jondesu

[Darkness Ascendant]

Pierce heart was thumping harder than Tiberius' steps. What had changed? He had never seen Tiberius so angry in all of his years of service. Perhaps the unease was getting to him harder than Pierce had thought.

Next second, Kalax was on the floor, out cold, Pliny was yelling himself hoarse and Tiberius was walking out of the hall, shaking in rage.

Pierce stood up and stretched, "Great way to end a party aye?" He said to the person standing next to him, then walked away before he could answer, shaking his head.

He walked over to a wall, he had spotted Khazad. He could perhaps fit in a quick chat before he went off to the war-room.

[Bugsy]

7 hours ago, Arraenae said:

Bugsy, I find your reveal of Doc's Julii plan suspicious. If you had to tell them that Doc might have been "an SK targeting Juliis" in order to learn about the plan, you should have realized that the plan was probably supposed to be secret. I feel like you might have been trying to contact Foresworn buddies about the plan without using more than the five merit you started with. You've spent at least two merit PMing people: the Julii and I. These probably aren't the only people you've PMed -- maybe you ran out of Merit to use to contact the other Foresworn?

Yeah, I knew the plan was supposed to be secret when I got it from Doc's contact. I just knew that if I didn't know what the plan was, and they somehow produced a target, there's no way I would have lynched someone proposed by it until I knew exactly what had happened. Also, plans like this make the game slightly less fun because it makes actions rote and predictable for the people involved, even though they're a useful tool when used properly. If I didn't know the plan, I'd be at risk of being Mayored by those who did, which would be even worse.

In addition, if Doctor was the only public link, he could have poisoned the 'well' of information at the source by clearing guilty people and then bussing a teammate. I have a village read on him, but that's no reason to blindly trust his word. Information is also easier to forge in hindsight. Elim!Doc could have held the information back until later turns, so as not to possibly reveal the plan, then release doctored info to make his team look good. Once again, this is unlikely but not impossible

My final point is this: since I posted the plan publicly, everyone has had a chance to improve it. The plan's much better now by virtue of group knowledge, approval, and additional improvement via brainstorming in-thread. Elbereth, specifically, has contributed a lot to the plan, and is my strongest village read right now. Overall, we can produce a lot more constructive criticism than the Elims, simply by virtue of our size. I made a mistake in posting it, but I think it had a net positive effect

PS: You're correct in assuming I've PMed other people. I'll wait for them to come forward at their own discretion, if they so choose. 

[Doc12]

RP

Spartacus had been smiling, talking. Kavax au Telemanus was a large, boisterous man, his laughter infectious, his movements enthusiastic. Kavax had roared at the sight of him, smothered him in a hug, and punched his shoulder almost hard enough to dislocate it. Brother! he had roared, It has been too long!

His laughter rang as he began regaling the surrounding lancers with an obviously very exaggerated tale about a battle, which apparently Spartacus had played a large part in as the leading strategist. The big man described in vivid detail the fights, the tension, and the drama of it all, and how Spartacus was one of the best strategists he had ever had the honor to work with.

Through the conversation, the little fox that the big man carried around had jumped into Spartacus’ hands, seemingly comfortable with him already, nuzzling his pockets for treats.

 

Until today, Spartacus had never met Kavax, but he already felt like he had known him from ages.

Then there were footsteps. Heavy, almost angry footsteps. Spartacus turned to see Tiberius towering behind them, shaking with pure rage. Those listening to Kavax fell into a shocked silence as he was hurled to the ground, his skull cracked open, blood staining the spotless floor.

His future friend, a man who called him ‘brother’, had lain bleeding out in front of him, through not a single fault of his own. Why? Why?

Then the final blow had come. On his way to visit Kavax in the medbay, he had heard Tenebrum’s scream, and realized what it meant.

By the time he had gotten to the medbay, it was already too late for his friend. Sophocles, Kavax’s little red fox, was already bereft, mourning the death of its master. He was gone. This friendly giant, a man brimming with loyalty and joy and life. A man who would have defended Tiberius at the cost of his own life. Whose loyalty could never ever be questioned.

Gone, for laughing too loud. For failing to notice his master’s anger. WHY??

Tiberius had come in shaking with rage. Now it was Spartacus’ turn to shake with rage of his own. He saw red. Blood pounded in his ears. He looked up, and his eyes found the ArchGovernor looking impassively at Kavax’s corpse.

“TIBERIUS AU BELLONA!” he roared.

Ignoring the scene he was creating, ignoring how every eye had swiveled to him, he marched himself straight up to the Archgovernor - who was just beginning to turn - and decked him with everything he had.

---

 

Discussion

You know what's interesting? The idea of 'fun'. It's been brought up many times. Namely by Elbereth, who started by mentioning she could dictate everyone's actions, mentioning the passing items plan she did for the Shades of Threnody quick fix. She then retracted it, saying it wouldn't be fun for the players. Fair, it's a fair point, and I do not fault her for it. I do want to have fun, and mayor games may not be exactly fun. But Elbereth, I am not ruling out the possibility that you might be an eliminator trying to seem helpful by proposing a good plan, then retracting it. It makes you look like you are contributing a lot with possible plans, but at the same time those plans are not likely to be implemented in the first place. Of course, you have helped to vary my original Julii idea into a way to soft clear the Faithful, and I acknowledge that, which is why I still trust you, to a certain extent. I still hope that you're not an eliminator, because you'd be terrifying if you were. We need a faithful El on our side, heh. 

So! Our first duel of the game.

As Elenion has pointed out, Bugsy has also been bringing up the idea of 'fun'. Appealing to our pathos was the word that Elenion used. I can't say for sure that Bugsy is Forsworn. Perhaps the fault also lay with my Julii contact for spilling a secret plan. But there is still the fact that Bugsy basically had to cast suspicion on me in order to get the Julii to tell him the secret. This is, as Rae has pointed out, suspicious. What's interesting is how badly he wanted to find this out. It was as if he assumed that I wasn't going to share it at all, and I would just be telling all the players to lynch someone without suspicion. 

What has Bugsy to say in defense? Well, he has said that he would not have trusted any target that I and the Julii came up with unless presented with absolute proof. He could be a villager, and this could be true, but he's assuming that I wouldn't have shared my plan at all. Under this assumption, it would have been scary for the eliminators, knowing that there is a secret plan out there which could topple them. This fear is sheathed in a meta-worry of there being a Mayor game, in which the select few with information direct the actions of all others. While I could say that I would not have done this, his worry is impossible to truly refute, as the plan is already out, and saying what I would have done or should have done is useless.

Bugsy has also expressed his fear that I may...heh...doctor the information (sorry not sorry). Again, it is something that ultimately cannot be proved or disproved, as the plan is already out. I can't argue with this point. 

Bugsy's final point is that there has been a net benefit in sharing the plan, as it has been improved. Perhaps. But would it have needed to be improved if it had not been shared in the first place? Why did it need to be improved? Because now the plan was out and the eliminators were aware of it, it had to be changed to soft clearing Faithful instead of catching Forsworn.

Bugsy, it may honestly have been a mistake, and you might really be a villager, but if you are a villager you have set us back. If this duel does take off, and you have no further defense, I will add my cheer against you.

---

You know, those of you who are Telemanuses should prepare some RP mourning the death of your patriach, and post them at the end of the game :P. And if there's a Telemanus among the Forsworn, shame on you. Dishonor on you. 

For those who don't know, House Telemanus is basically a family of giants who are fantastically loyal and brave. They may be called simple or stupid or even brutish, but they have an undying loyalty and once you have earned it, will die to protect you. This is why the Telemanus role is to die to protect someone. So I find Tiberius killing off Kavax to be a horrible, horrible thing

Also yes, I punched Tiberius. I punched the GM. Bite me

EDIT: To make it clear, Tiberius did not kill Kavax, I acknowledge that. But if Tiberius had not lashed out in his anger and knocked out his most trusted bodyguard, said bodyguard would never have been killed in the first place. So indirectly, my character holds Tiberius responsible for the death of Kavax.

Edited October 13, 2016 by Doctor12
Grammar mistakes

[Arrae]

Bugsy, did you intentionally post the Julii plan publically or not?

Also, GMs made a mistake. I have 11 merit, not 9.

[Amanuensis]

20 minutes ago, Doctor12 said:

 

 

For those who don't know, House Telemanus is basically a family of giants who are fantastically loyal and brave. They may be called simple or stupid or even brutish, but they have an undying loyalty and once you have earned it, will die to protect you. This is why the Telemanus role is to die to protect someone. So I find Tiberius killing off Kavax to be a horrible, horrible thing

Tiberius didn't kill Kavax. He just punched him. Why would Tiberius send someone to kill one of his most loyal protectors while he was unconscious in a med bay, especially when he's busy grieving over the death of his favorite parrot? It should be pretty obvious he was executed by either a loyal fanatic or a forsworn lancer attempting to generate chaos  but I'll roleplay this later tonight when I'm at work, I'm about to go to sleep.

Edited October 13, 2016 by Amanuensis

[Magestar]

13 minutes ago, Doctor12 said:

You know, those of you who are Telemanuses should prepare some RP mourning the death of your patriach, and post them at the end of the game :P. And if there's a Telemanus among the Forsworn, shame on you. Dishonor on you. 

13 minutes ago, Doctor12 said:

So I find Tiberius killing off Kavax to be a horrible, horrible thing

Wait, aren't the Foresworn trying to overthrow Tiberius?  And so, if Tiberius killed Kavax, why would the Foresworn be dishonored?  Besides being evil, they haven't done anything yet.  Ope.  Ninja'd by Aman.  Now I want to kill the Forsworn. 

Also, it says that darkness entered the room.  Darkness.  Guys, Darkness is an Elim confirmed.   

Alright.  Seriousness now.  I honestly don't know what to think of lynching Bugsy.  I can't think of anyone better; it's D1.  And there are already reasons to lynch him.  I don't see a good reason not to, but I think I'll reserve my vote for now.

29 minutes ago, Doctor12 said:

You know what's interesting? The idea of 'fun'. It's been brought up many times. Namely by Elbereth, who started by mentioning she could dictate everyone's actions, mentioning the passing items plan she did for the Shades of Threnody quick fix. She then retracted it, saying it wouldn't be fun for the players. Fair, it's a fair point, and I do not fault her for it. I do want to have fun, and mayor games may not be exactly fun. But Elbereth, I am not ruling out the possibility that you might be an eliminator trying to seem helpful by proposing a good plan, then retracting it.

This.  This, and the fact that the current lynch suspect has Elbereth on his most trusted list.  I tend to start the game not trusting anyone, so things like this make me wary.  Also, the correlation between the way Bugsy has brought up fun to defend his actions, and Elbereth has done to defend hers.  It just seems like too much of a coincidence to me.  This is one of the reasons I could see it being a good idea to lynch Bugsy, but I don't think I'll cheer for anyone this cycle.  

On another note, it's nice to see how many items there are.  I don't know that anyone will have enough to buy them D1, but it's nice to see that there's plenty.

[Bugsy]

2 hours ago, Arraenae said:

Bugsy, did you intentionally post the Julii plan publically or not?

Also, GMs made a mistake. I have 11 merit, not 9.

I did not. I'm slightly overworked right now, and it slipped my mind that the plan wasn't public when I commented that. Again, I apologize.

Now for some RP: 

The ride to Mars was long, and nearly as dull as a Gray. Sevro amused himself by practicing with his razor, although he still favored his knives. They fit him. He'd need the Razor for any conflict in Agea. He'd really begun to regret taking this cargo ship, since he hadn't had time to stock up on anything before the journey. LowColor food would have to do. He'd lived on worse before -- grilled wolf was not very appetizing, and in memory of that stage of his life he could choke down some bland crackers. As the days wore on, he began to look to other means of entertainment aboard the ship. Fortunately, it was a more advanced model, so he had some internet connection. He browsed quite a bit, sending his favorite finds to Roque and Darrow. Weeks passed, and he finally arrived in Mars. His shuttle touched down, and a crew of Browns came out to unload it. A single Copper followed, likely as a supervisor. The colony had apparently listened when he told them not to send word to of his departure. Good. If Tiberus didn't know he was there, he couldn't very well send him away. 

He slipped off the ship, sliding into the shadows. One of the Browns saw him, and Sevro slid a finger to his lips, the universal sign of silence. The Brown nodded, clearly accustomed to such subterfuge. Apparently more discreet activity happened here than he had thought. Regardless, he was here, and none of the highColors knew. Time to have some fun

Edited October 13, 2016 by Bugsy6912
Changed 'though' to 'thought'

[Burnt Spaghetti]

I feel like i should contribute to game discussion but. Nope. Not at 3am hahaha. Have rp instead :P

---

Tia sighed. She really did love the fun things she did with Tarna but… she knew she really ought to be more careful and more…responsible. So she thought to herself, mildly reluctantly, ‘what would the Vesta I've been told about, do?’. With a heavy sigh she acknowledged the answer. She needed to suck it up and act like a responsible, seasoned lancer and just go face Tiberius. So she neatened her hair and attire and went to find him, in her mind rehearsing her apology for her actions. Well. At the same time as screaming in panic, telling herself that, nope she should run the other direction. She was directed towards the medbay, being told that was where Tiberius was seen last. Weird… She had been so focused on the dead bird prank that she hadn't been aware of the incident with the Kavax guy, so was surprised. But with a shrug and a determined mind, she headed there. She was...unfortunately rather familiar with the medbay and often avoided it where she could so was even more reluctant to go find Tiberius there. When she got near enough to see Tiberius inside, she paused to take in the scene. The corpse of Kavax. Tiberius at his side. Spartacus… huh? I know his name? ... was not much farther ahead of her. He was… wait… what was he-

He was staring at the corpse of Kavax, shaking, literally shaking  with fury. A gathering storm.With a voice as loud as Kavax’s had been, he suddenly bellowed out Tiberius's name and Tia watched as he swung with all his might at the ArchGovernor. She heard a crack, and she winced. That must have shattered the bones in his hand… Suddenly images began bombarding her mind.

--

Red everywhere… so much red. The walls, the floor. She was fighting. More red as her razor sliced through flesh. Red people. Red hair, red eyes, red clothes. Red blood. They fell so easy...oh so easy. As she lost herself in the fight, she felt a tap on the back of her head, and a scream from behind. She paused mid swing, cocking her head curiously. huh? Turning, she saw one of the red people cradling an obviously broken wrist, screaming in pain. She had found that extremely amusing. Idiot. The poor fool had broken his fist on her skull. Her razor twisted around the man's neck, yet she had…paused. A panicked warning reached her ears. A BANG, a blinding FLASH followed by pain… so...much pain.

Tia’s eyes shot open with a gasp.What was that?!? What just… was that a…. Memory? Pale and unnerved by this, Tia found a nearby wall and sat down, breathing heavily. That hadn't happened before. Why did that just happen. Were all her memories like that? Who… Tia was without words as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. One thing was clear to her now though. She did not want to face Tiberius as a shaken mess. She hesitantly stood up. No… she needed some space first….time to breathe. She turned away from the Medbay, intending to return to the room she'd been in before.

[Arrae]

"TIBERIUS AU BELLONA!"

Nyanah turned around. A man who looked ready to burst with rage marched up to the one that the others had been swearing loyalty to. Then, the first man punched the other with an ear-shattering crunch.

Nyanah's Bondsmith instincts kicked into action. She could not -- would not-- allow assault of a leader, no matter how justified. She Lashed both men's shoes to the floor, then made the floor flexible so they slipped.

Nyanah walked forwards until she was only a few meters away from the men. "Whatever quarrel you have with your leader, you can talk it out," she said. She took a breath. "Attacking him won't solve anything."

[jefrywlfersn]

With Tenebrum still clinging to his shirt, Jefry was still trying to comprehend what had just transpired.

1: Kavax was dead in the Medbay after Tiberius had punched him in the head for not renewing his vows.

2: A man had just run up, punched Tiberius, and possibly broken his hand in the process and then suddenly fallen.

3: And one of the girls who put a dead bird on someones back was stumbling over for what he thought was disgust.
As Jefry thought about all of this, he noticed that Tenebrum had stopped sobbing, he looked at her and noticed that she was looking on in shock at what had just transpired.
This was would prove to a be a pretty interesting meeting indeed.

Edited October 13, 2016 by jefrywlfersn
there was a post right before mine and i didnt get it sry

[AliasSheep]

Okay, first responding to @Elbereth.  I can't get proper notificationy quotes working from the closed thread, so this shall have to make do.

Quote

Yes, the Forsworn are the only ones with a chance at the free blade. That's the point. If a Julii does not manage to steal an ionBlade from the highest-Merit poster the previous turn, that person is almost certainly not Forsworn because they would by default have had an ionBlade. As I was saying - the only scenario in which this does not clear a player is that in which a Forsworn Julii (assuming they have one) steals the Blade first, and there's a only 50% chance of that happening, which isn't really horrible. 

Hmm, I'm having an issue understanding your own issue with the plan.  Are you suggesting that a Forsworn Julii would have stolen the blade from their fellow Forsworn who had gained it?

Quote

And yes, there are special cases in which a Blade could be stolen and it wouldn't be a Forsworn. Those cases, by and large, can be avoided with a little bit of intelligence on everyone's parts. The idea (with my plan, at least), is soft-clearing, not finding eliminators, for the most part. So yes, the Forsworn who gets the ionBlade could have significantly less Merit than the top poster. In which case there's not a very good chance of finding them anyway, so I'd say it's a bit more useful to be able to very nearly clear the highest-Merit poster (which is useful in other respects, since they're also the most contributing player, obviously). 

Yeah, I think I misunderstood your idea as trying to find Forsworn. I suppose soft-clearing would work also.  Just out of interest, have you figured out how much merit anyone got last turn?  It'd be nice to know how good your estimates are on that front.

Quote

Also, vigilante kills are actually significantly more accurate than the lynch, on average, so you know. They're a good thing, if someone has strong enough suspicion. 

Huh, fair enough.  I rescind my previous point then.

Quote

Does it? I mean... This is not the only way to catch eliminators. It is one way we can soft-clear people. This does not by any means mean we can't use the lynch or anything else to find them. It's just an additional tool. So... I'm not sure what you have a problem with?

I mean, the plan does require trusting the Julii you decide to enact the plan; given estimates given for how many of each family there are, there's a reasonable chance that a given Julii is also a Forsworn.  The feeding of false information is entirely possible.  Just as long as we don't rely on it, which is what you're suggesting, so all's good.

Quote

Opinions on that?

Hmm... sounds decent.

Quote

Um, what? Why is it useless after C3 again?

So I may have been exaggerating just a little bit there.  It loses its use a bit due to the fact that people will be able to purchase ionBlades, meaning that, especially for the highest Merit poster, it might be possible to get false positives with people buying ionBlades.  There are solutions to that, but most involve revealing information that is useful more to the elims than to the village.

 

Anyhow, now that I've that out the way, a few other comments.

First, I am one of Bugsy's contacts.  I suppose he doesn't mind me coming forward about it, since he said he'd let them come forward.  So far he's said nothing outside of his initial post which was in essence a greeting.  I'm suspicious in addition of how he uses, I'll use Len's term here, pathos, after that argument had already been demonstrated by Elbereth and accepted by the group.  This seems a little oppurtunist - he's seen it works and then uses it for himself.

Regarding him revealing Doc's plan, it kinda defeats the purpose of the plan a little, since now the elims can plan around it, which means it becomes less effective.  I don't know why an eliminator would do that though, unless they're much less co-ordinated than I had previously assumed.  It would make sense if the plan had been passed between them without revealing it to the thread and drawing suspicion.  One possible solution to this issue is that they could be taking advantage of our assumptions of organisation and then using unorgaised-like actions to trick us.  I haven't seen this particular thing done before, but I've seen people's actions defended (and I have defended actions myself) because they seem too.. rash to have been done by an eliminator in communication with others.  I don't think I've seen this taken advantage of before.

For those reasons, I'm going to cheer Rae.

In other news, I gained 5 Merit last turn.  Subtracting the PM I made, that puts me on 9 Merit.  I thought I might as well keep track of it, and if it helps anyone, then that's good.

Now, for a bit of RP!

------

Lots of shouting.  Noises.  These weren't things Nirgal was a fan of.  He enjoyed the rush, but not the noise.  The rush he enjoyed was that of a.. a skilled fight, or a skip across Io.  They had a kind of gravBoots there named skippers that let one spring at high speeds across the volcanic landscape.  He had done that a lot while there, mostly for leisure, though a few times a chase had required it, and he had drank in the rush, the adrenalin, of it.  It was a shame that was over.  He'd even tried stims with it, a fantastic combination, though perhaps not one he should tell his peers about.  He did not seek disapproval.  

He supposed he should have looked for Lumina before now.  Was that her he'd seen in the courtyard.  She'd led the ArchGovernor off, he believed.  Probably she'd be in her rooms now.  It was late after all.  Unless she was still with Tiberius; the old governor might have spent a little longer than necessary getting back to his own affairs after that... commotion.  They likely wouldn't want to be distubed. But, he hadn't seen Lumina for a long time.  How long had it been since they'd been together at the Institution?  Must have been 5 years.  A long time not to see a person.  She'd always been a quiet one.  Perhaps she'd become a bit louder.  Perhaps not.  Regardless, it would be nice to speak to her again.

Nirgal stood up.  He'd fallen asleep a little bit and had spilt that distasteful wine on himself, leaving a red stain down the otherwise pure green side of his shawl.  Ugh.  He could clean it up later.  

The Archgovernor had just entered his quarters when Nirgal caught up with the two.  Lumina was looking as dangerous as ever; Lumina the Silent indeed.  People always regretted making assumptions about her after she'd dealt with them.  Being quiet did not mean she wasn't more skilled than most when she needed to be. Hopefully this wouldn't end in a fight - it wouldn't be him who won.

"Ho, Lumina", he called out, hoping to catch her attention.

[Assassin in Burgundy]

The Jackal stood off to the side, his face a mask. This was no problem to him. He would support the Faithful as long as they got him home. He longed for his palace in T'Telir, though it was likely he would never make it back. He knew this Kavax, but he didn't particularly care either. What mattered was the Healer. He was the key. Getting home wasn't something the Jackal could accomplish through sheer force of will. 

Unless he had help.