Long Game 30: Journey Before Destination

[Ecthelion III]

The more useful of the two Temporal powers is Memory. This power grants access to the memories of the Connected individual, though not always the memories you seek. Foresight is the other side of the same coin, and it allows glimpses into the destiny of another, but again, as it is not an exact art, it is rarely useful, especially in specific situations.

-

His ears caught a new noise: a low rumble, a faint rushing, like a hidden river. His eyes widened. A river... oh Truth have mercy... Sareth broke into a sprint and yelled to the other Initiates. "Run, for all you have! RUN!" 

Fifth kicked up his speed by another notch, but as the sound of water continued to grow louder and louder, it became clear to him that this was not a problem which could merely be outrun. He came to an abrupt halt, shouting to the other Initiates, "There's no outrunning this thing. Prepare yourselves!"

He set Rea down on the ground and began unstrapping the large shield from his back. "Can you swim?"

Edited February 16, 2017 by Ecthelion III

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

Sareth looked behind him and stopped in shock. A black wall of water, churning, raging water, was blasting towards them, crashing through everything that stood in its way. At first it was a ways off, then it had engulfed the furthest back, and then...

Brace yourself

...

FLOOM

Sareth was swept away by the unyielding current, spinning and spinning in the darkness, the cold water pressing the air from his lungs and tugging at his clothes, his cloak, his staff. Chunks of stone sped past him, banging into his limbs with brutal force, making him cry out in pain, only to have cold dark water rush into his mouth. His eyes bulged, and the water stung them. This is evil water, intent on killing us...

Gasp! His head broke the surface for an instant, filling his lungs with beautiful, precious air. In the second that he had, he saw the red lightning flash above, and then he was sucked under for more torture. He was thrown against the chasm wall, his back scrapped against it, his face bashed against the stone. And then he was somersaulting, up is down and down is up, through the abyss, swirling and swirling into the cold vortex of death. Was there no escape? How could it be, that after such a hard fought victory that fate must come back and slap us across the face for good measure? The Voidbringers were one thing, a foe that could be fought, but the mighty hand of nature? So magnificent and powerful, that not even the face of the land can stand before it. The wise plants hide themselves from the wrath of a highstorm. And we were fools, to come here and beat ourselves, calling it "training". Is it training if when you leave, you are so broken that the next day is your last? Is it training if you see your friend die? No! No, that is not training, that is torture! No sane man would do that to his soldiers. Captain Kaladin is not sane... and neither is nature.

More glorious air! It rushed down Sareth's greedy throat, before the waters filled it in. He glimpsed the outer world, a solid ground. Why... he thought, and slipped into blackness.

...

Sareth, do not doubt.

But why? I told that nature is Truth, but how can I say that something such as that, which threatened our lives, is Truth? It is madness, I tell you. Truth is not madness! It is order, peace, not chaos and destruction! Oh why, why, why, must this happen to me? My faith could have been firm, safe in my body somewhere else, where nothing is trying to kill me. But no, I am here, probably dead, with an internal struggle of faith that is tearing me apart!

If Truth is peace, then seek the peace. Be calm. Have faith. You will survive.

How can you say that? How can you be sure? I thought I was sure, before I almost died. I thought that the book was pure and True, nothing amiss. How can I explain this in the Truth?

You said it yourself, that the Truth is eternal, no matter what man does. The misconceptions of men will not change infinity. Your new knowledge will benefit many. If those Truthseekers of old did not face what you are, then glory to you! Share this, write it down, so that future generations may know all sides of the Truth.

But... you are right. Thank you for bringing reason to my soul.

It is what I do. Now return...

...

Gasp! Sareth found himself lying on stone. Where was he? He looked around and saw only puddles and rubble on stone.

---

Well, that was a long one. For the timeline's sake, consider the final line to occur sometime after the flash flood wipes through. Good luck surviving the flood!

Edited February 16, 2017 by Hemalurgic_Headshot
extra letter

[Assassin in Burgundy]

"Voidbringers!"

About time. Araon had been curious about these creatures even before the Radiant's returned; he would be happy to examine one closely. Especially the insides. 

He quickly unslung his claymore, and was glad that he hadn't left it behind. It would be especially adept at smashing through carapace, as it had proved on the chasmfiend. 

Some people ran. Araon was tempted, until he saw Ranatar, Sareth, and a few others take down a handful of the creatures. He smiled, and turned around, sword in hand. He stabbed forward in a textbook Flamestance, and was pleased as the tip of his sword darkened. The creature growled at him, and its red eyes seemed to flash. Araon swung his sword around, easily deflecting the mace that had spun towards his head. The Voidbringer was strong, no doubt, but was slow. Araon slashed towards its arm, but it bounced off the creature's carapace. He used the momentum that now directed his sword and spun it around blindingly fast. The Voidbringer's eyes barely widened in shock before Araon's sword met his neck, severing it completely. 

He smiled at his handiwork, but was jerked back to reality when three more of the creatures burst out of a stairwell nearby. Araon grimaced, and hurled the fallen Voidbringer's mace into the face of the nearest one. They tumbled down the stairs, but that would only slow them for a little bit. He then executed the only smart choice he could make at the time. He ran. 

[Ecthelion III]

The two Enhancement powers are perhaps the most mysterious. One is an Investiture Link, which connects you to another and gives you access to the same reserves of Investiture which that person has. These links are notoriously hard to forge and run out quickly. The other is an Energy Link, which is similar in that it gives you access to that being’s energy without taking any away from them. (Note: The latter has not been tried on inanimate objects and is not recommended, as it may have unforseen consequences.)

I was going to wait to post this until later, but after HH's RP, now's as good a time as any.

The torrent of water grew louder and louder until suddenly, he could see the floodwall approaching. With his few remaining seconds, he held tight to Rea with one arm, the shield with the other, and jumped.

FLOOM!

The current hit like a highstorm, strong and unyielding. It threw him from side to side, tossing and turning, depriving him of the breath of life. He was at nature's mercy. Yet, somehow, through Fate or Providence or whatever it was, he still managed to keep a hold of both Rea and the shield. With tremendous effort, he jammed the shield against a rock outcropping, parallel to the water level. Water pulled at him and threatened to wash him away, but with all of the power of his muscles, he lifted himself and Rea up onto the large shield.

No, he thought, not a shield anymore.

A ship.

The rushing waves finally tore the makeshift raft away from its position lodged into the outcropping, and it zoomed down the waterway. Fifth and Rea were atop it.

Fifth turned around and looked back to where the main group of Initiates had been. He could see none of them. He then scanned the water ahead of the shield-raft. Sareth, Ranatar, and Kintas had run ahead of him to clear the way of Voidbringers, but they were nowhere to be found, either. I dearly hope they...

Wait? What is that in the water? He spotted the facedown form of the Shin man Sareth. As the shield-raft sped by, Fifth grabbed one of his arms. Rea grabbed the other with a surprising amount of strength considering his small stature, and the two of them hauled Sareth onto the raft.

Fifth smiled his classic half-smile. "I hope you can drive a ship, little one." Then he fainted, leaving only Rea atop the shield with the two unconscious men.

I know, a little far-fetched, but riding a shield down a flooding chasm seemed too good to resist.

@TheSilverDragon

[Arrae]

Looks like things have been a little quiet. Tintalle (Elbereth), Hashiv (DA), Lyna (The Lazy Anarchist), and Hess (JUQ) haven't said anything recently. They're not helping us find the Unjust. Speak up!

 

[Jondesu]

I'm gonna write up an awesome save in a bit. @randuir, mind if I have Ranatar slay a Voidbringer and get rescued from the water?

Edit: NM, got too eager to wait. I can adjust if you'd like. If anyone doesn't want to have been rescued this way, just do your own thing, I tried not to force it on anyone the way I wrote it.

---

Kintas took the spear from Ranatar calmly, belying his pounding nerves. He knew he couldn't take the Voidbringer on his own, but the other man was right, they were running out of time as well as Stormlight. He heard shouts of alarm behind him, but didn't have the attention to spare to make out what they were saying. 

Nodding to Ranatar, Kintas dove from cover, drawing a bolt of lightning from each of the remaining Parshendi, which were attracted instead to the sword laying in a puddle of water he'd seen and placed to his right. He spun his spear in what he hoped was a menacing fashion, and crouched into a combat stance. 

Which gave Ranatar plenty of distraction time. He bounded over the rock and came spinning down into the warpair, his sword leaving twin heads bouncing to the rocks at their owners feet. The stunned Voidbringers barely had time to register a permanent look of surprise on their faces first. 

Turning and breathing a sigh, Kintas felt the breath go out of him again suddenly as he realized what was happening. The storm the Parshendi were generating was no highstorm; they hadn't had long enough to do that. But it was more than enough to send a fifteen foot high flood crashing through the canyon with nearly the force of a stormwall, and nowhere to go except through them. He didn't have much time, but he could help those closest. He pulled a long rope from his waist pouch, a heavy weight attached to one end along with a short stout piece of cloth.

"Ranatar, Jonly, Raalani, Hithon, everyone who can, grab onto the rope! Leave some space between you, but hold tight!"

Turning, he spied an outcropping of rock anchored by vines, which he had to hope would hold. He reclaimed the Breaths in the sash around his waist, which was already touching his skin to make them easy to access, and then touched the cloth attached to the weight.

"Hold when thrown." 

He heaved the weight towards the rock with Stormlight-enhanced strength, almost missing it, but the cloth snapped out and held tightly to it. He gave it a quick tug, but the water was nearly on them. He shifted his hand up the rope itself.

"Hold, then lift."

The green drained entirely from his tunic to fuel this Awakening, even though it was as simple as he could picture it. The rope wound itself around each person's arm, looking like muscles and fingers grasping at them, then bent like a giant arm. All of them were lifted into the air, as high as the rope could achieve based on its anchor point, and suspended there. Kintas watched the flood waters rushing at them and hoped they were high enough.

Edited February 16, 2017 by Jondesu

[DrakeMarshall]

...And I've found the time to RP! Hooray. Disclaimer: it's probably going to be long since I'm catching up on 2 days worth of RP.

 

Through their combined efforts, the chasmfiend was finished.

Uther successfully made his way to the severed leg he had sighted and stabbed his still poison-coated blade into the open wound. The chasmfiend, already failing and attacked from many directions, barely reacted, letting out a sort of strangled bellow.

We're going to kill the beast... And I haven't seen any casualties yet, though there have been close calls...

 

Uther looked up. Damnation. Several tons of dying chasmfiend was rolling over on top of him, blotting out the rays of sun filtering down the chasm walls. And the creature's back was, of coarse, covered in razor sharp spikes.

Uther started running... No. Won't make it in time. Need to avoid the spikes... Uther threw himself on the ground in a spot that he guessed wouldn't be pierced by a spike. I haven't been on the best terms with the Almighty, but if there was ever a time to pray it would be now...

An instant before the chasmfiend fell, he saw Hithon, still disassembling one of the chasmfiend's legs with those daggers of his. "Hithon get down!"

Then the chasmfiend landed on them with a crash.

 

...I'm alive. Uther was protected between two spikes; a dark little nook underneath the creature's body. What in damnation did I sign myself up for...

He couldn't see what had become of Hithon... He crawled over to where he had seen the man standing. Don't be dead. Your not storming dying on me this close to pulling through this mess.

He saw Hithon's crumpled form, sheltered in the crook of two of the fiend's ridges. Breathing. That's a good sign. I guess he managed to hit the ground in time... And not impaled by a spike, to boot. Hithon had a nasty looking cut on the back of his head, but this quickly mended when Uther brought the last of his scavenged spheres near.

We need to get out from under... Uther grabbed hold of the still unconscious Hithon and started crawling along the ridge, towards the light...

Something lifted the chasmfiend's corpse. Light streamed down from the top of the chasm, and Uther saw four of Captain Kaladin's squires holding it.

 

---

 

Everyone had made it. Storms. That was incredible.

That doesn't mean it was a good idea, mister Windrunner...

The initiates were all talking about the recent fight. Uther participated as much as could be expected of him, but was preoccupied with thoughts about the initiates' path to radiancy... And the murderer that seemed intent on stopping it.

As Uther thought, and observed the others... He noticed he wasn't the only one on edge about the murder. Many of the initiates looked either worried or suspicious. Paranoia was already setting in for some of them.

 

It didn't take long for the tension to boil over. In a matter of seconds, it seemed like a ring of initiates had formed around Aronium, all of them giving accusations against him. That doesn't feel right... Surely they can't be serious; those accusations are almost laughable. Apparently Captain Kaladin didn't feel that way, since he ended up immobilizing the man with some surgebinding trick and having him taken back to Urithiru.

Uther narrowed his eyes. There was something off about that whole turn of events... Sure, some of the participants might just be in mob mentality... But it felt too coordinated, and the first accusations were too weak to warrant such a reaction against Aronium...

Who looked like they were trying too hard to get Aronium detained... Ralaani. Seemed like a decent enough initiate to me, but I will definitely have to keep an eye on that one when we get back to Urithiru.

 

---

 

Captain storming Kaladin looked anxious for some reason. Maybe it's all this suspicion among the initiates... Or maybe because the world is ending... Lots to be anxious about, really.

“Voidbringers!” an initiate shouted, pointing up to the top of the chasm.

Uther's head snapped up. There, assembled in a terrifying host. A legion of crimson eyes, chanting to a terrible, violent rhythm, arms crackling with red lightning. At the fore stood a full shardbearer. Twin red stars shone ominously from its faceplate, and a tempest of blood red thunderbolts crackled around the suit of perfectly formed shardplate. The vanguard of damnation itself.

And so... These are the enemy. These are the ones who I must face. My life was spared so I could fight them.

And right now, it doesn't matter. We are storming well dead. We barely beat that chasmfiend on full stormlight... This doesn't even compare.

 

Kaladin started to glow brightly. He addressed them: “Initiates, behind me! Rock, take them to the Spire and up to the Oathgate. Teft, Drehy! Protect their rear and their flanks! Try to prevent as many of the Parshendi from reaching them as you can! And Initiates… watch each other’s backs. There’s no guarantee that the scouts will report this in time to do us any good, so don’t hope for reinforcements. Just get to the Oathgate as fast as you can. I’ll meet you there.”

Then he took off towards the pack of voidbringers. Bolts of red lightning cut through the air towards Kaladin. Mist condensed in his hand. He deflected them with a faintly glowing, silver... Shard-shield?

The spren that followed Uther was emitting a painfully bright glow and making a strange, dissonant humming.

We need to get back to Urithiru. NOW.

“Wounded and non-combatants to the front!” He shouted.  “Everyone else, form up behind them. Stay together, cover each other’s backs and don’t charge of alone.”

Good advice, that. Uther moved towards the back of the pack, sword ready. He hoped mundane things like swords and poison could hurt these monstrosities.

 

Inevitably, their demonic assailants started slipping past Kaladin. They're after us, not him. Uther was tempted to be impressed. This was a tactically sound attack. Kill all the future radiants before they were fully dangerous radiants, while they were exposed and worn down by a chasmfiend. Storms...

Uther stopped dead in his retreat. A single voidbringer had slipped through, and the twin pits of braize fixed in its eyes were glaring at him. A deep hatred was written across its face, but also a challenge. It recited a faint but threatening chant. Tiny bands of red thunder were building up along its arms. He had seen the ominous red arcs of power before and knew what they meant. If Uther kept running, he would most likely take a thunderbolt to the back.

He turned around and faced the nightmare, sword raised wardingly. He sucked in the last of his stormlight, not even enough to give him a visible glow. Uther thought he saw anticipation in the creature's face. Uther swung. There was a red flash as an arc of energy connected with Uther's sword.

Pain. He was on the ground, muscles spasming in protest, his weapon discarded beside him. Smoke curled up from Uther's shoulder. All his stormlight was gone. The demon stood over him, preparing to finish Uther off with another bolt of red lightning. Without any stormlight, Uther had no doubt the next bolt would kill him.

He snatched the knife from his belt and stabbed it towards the voidbringer in one fluid motion. Another arc of red lightning connected with the knife in a blinding flash... But it was too late. The knife had already left Uther's hand, and after spinning once around lodged itself in the voidbringers throat. Not falling for that trick twice.

This time, it was the voidbringer who was spasming on the chasm floor, as the poison quickly took effect. Well, apparently mundane weapons do hurt them. Uther forced himself back on his feet, retrieved both his fallen sword and the knife in the voidbringer's corpse, and started jogging back to catch up with the main group. If a pack of those horrors caught him separated from the main group of initiates...

A bolt of lightning arced towards Uther as he retreated... Then struck the ground in front of him. Not very accurate, then. A pair of voidbringers were advancing on Uther. He ran the last few meters to join the main group. The pair hung back once he was no longer alone, wary of exposing themselves to such a large group until others came.

 

It started raining. Well, a refreshing rain is welcome at this point... The voidbringers glowed a baleful red in the twilight of the cloud-blanketed chasms. More and more of them were breaking through past Kaladin, advancing on the initiates like a hungry wolf pack.

Suddenly, one of the more reckless voidbringers darted out towards Uther, who was still relatively exposed at the very back of the group of initiates. Uther waited. He saw the telltale arcs of energy crackling around the creature, building up, building up... Uther threw his knife on the floor at the charging voidbringer's feet. Moments later, a thunderbolt flew from the voidbringer and arced straight into the ground in front of it, hitting the metal dagger. The fury on the creature's face was momentarily mixed with confusion. Then it was replaced by pain as Uther cut it down with his sword. I can't keep this up for very long...

 

The rain was hammering down on them, harder then ever. I've never been in the chasms during a rain... Probably because... Oh storms. Probably because of the flooding. Uther heard the roaring in the distance before he saw it. A river of flood water sweeping through the chasms. A voice shouted in the storm and chaos, "Run, for all you have! RUN!" Almighty... You've got to be joking. Just our storming luck.

Without any stormlight and at the back of the initiates, Uther didn't stand any chance outrunning the flood waters. He leaped up along the side of the chasm and latched on to a tangle of vines along the wall. They sagged under his weight but held up. Uther managed to climb a few meters before the waters hit.

On the bright side, at least the voidbringers might be forced to retreat...

Uther wrapped the vines around his arms to brace for the initial impact of the flood.

It's been a long day...

Edited February 16, 2017 by Drake Marshall

[Darkness Ascendant]

SE keeps getting boring and boring 

why???

[TheMightyLopen]

13 hours ago, Doc12 said:

 

---

 

Heh. Well. Yes, Lopen, I am trying hard to be helpful. If you've noticed, I have been making it a point to post every single night for this game, a promise I made to myself for my activity. Is that what you mean by trying too hard to be helpful? Seeing as I was only able to post once a day, I try to collect everything that happened in the morning and comment on each of them, as not to miss anything. I am actually liking this system very much, and honestly I feel that I've been doing very well in this game in terms of developing my analysis and arguments as compared to previous game. So...yeah? I'm not sure what to say when being accused of being too helpful  

Anyway, update on Arin. Arin cannot create PMs while he's in jail. Seeing as how I was the only one to have made a PM with him on cycle 1, he's been talking through me. Of course, we've found that just because he can't PM us doesn't mean we can't PM him, so if you want to talk to Arin, feel free. 

What's he's basically been saying is that he still suspects Alv, and he has trouble reading Rae, but think she looks suspicious for now. He had no defense for himself, saying that he's already said all that needs to be said in the last cycle and repeating it isn't going to make the situation any better. He's also really confused as to why the Unjust killed Sheep, and thinks that they are all investigating or trying to bond spren. 

This cycle has been quiet, guys. Try to get some more talk going, yeah?

Well, it wasn't that you were too helpful. Just that I thought something felt off about your posts. And really, my main reason for voting on you was that I was hoping to get some reactions from voting on the most active player, but it seems everyone has abandoned the search for the Unjust...

I'm gonna use the lack of activity as proof that we need to lynch every Cycle and we need to execute those we lynch. Because if we don't? We'll have Cycles like this, where the information flow is cut off and we get absolutely nothing done because no one knows what to talk about. :/ I know everyone is having fun with the RP side of things(and since I haven't said this yet - great writeups Aman! They have all been extremely impressive. ), but it is really helpful to just add your opinion on any subject or go back to an earlier Cycle and see if you can pick out someone you think acted in a suspicious way. And then vote! That is very important.

So please, can we execute Arinian now??? We need like 76 more votes or something. (no hard feelings to Arinian, I'd just really like to know his alignment)

On that note, here is the aforementioned list. I'm starting this really late, so it might not be as detailed as I'd like, but hopefully it can do some good:

1. Joe - Neutral.  Sorry, I did my analysis from the bottom of the player list to the top for some reason(well, it was actually a lot more mixed up than that), so you're the last player I need to say something about and I don't really remember much of your posts. >.< He did vote on Arinian last Cycle, so if Arin is Unjust, my guess would be Honorable. If Arin is an Honorable, then I've no idea.
2. Assassin - I haven't seen a lot from him that really struck me as suspicious, but I don't have a very good read on him. Neutral.
3. Elbereth - Nothing noteworthy comes to mind, tbh. Neutral
4. Jondesu - I'm still wary of him. I really keep going back and forth on whether I truly suspect him, but I just can't shake the feeling that something's off with him. Leaning Unjust.
5. Randuir - Have had a village read on him for a while. He's been one of the most active, helpful players, IMO. Leaning Honorable.
6. HH - Ummmm, don't remember a lot of what he's done, but I had a small village gut/tone read on him early. Leaning Honorable.
7. SD - Has been consistently active, which is awesome! Keep it up. Oh right, I'm supposed to say which side I think he's on. Hrm. The side of activity!  Okay, joking aside, I'm not really sure. From what I remember of his posts, I'm guessing Honorable.
8. Ecthelion - I don't have a good read on Ecth. He's been pretty active and voting fairly often, which is definitely a good thing. I'd have to go over his posts in detail to give a more solid conclusion. Neutral.
9. Arinian - let's execute him and find out shall we?
10. JUQ - Pretty inactive from what I remember. I believe he's done a little RP so far, but I don't think he's earned any Honor.  Neutral
11. Quiver - Completely inactive, also no Honor. Neutral/Honorable if Doc is Unjust/possibly Unjust if Arin is Honorable?
12. Shqueeves - More active than Quiver and JUQ, but not a lot of posts. I've seen him around multiple times, so I'm a little concerned he's lurking, but since he's new, I'll cut him some slack and won't bother him for a Cycle or so.  Neutral/leaning Unjust
13. Doc - Like I said, a lot of posts with a lot of content, but I've got a strange feeling about him. Too much to really analyze at this time of night, but he was against lynching Arinian it seemed(he voted on Quiver because of how fast the bandwagon on him formed) and hasn't voted to execute Arinian this Cycle. Has also stated suspicion of Jondesu, Alvron(his vote this Cycle), and...Ecthelion, though he said earlier this Cycle that his suspicion against Jon and Ecth isn't as strong now. I don't remember much else off the top of my head and I don't feel like going through the whole thread tonight. Neutral/gut is leaning Unjust.
14. Mage - Has only posted some RP this Cycle. Other than that...I don't remember a whole lot. >.> Actually! He didn't agree with the suspicion on Arinian, but didn't vote on Quiver to save him(well, at first he did, but then he removed it). I remember I had a small village read on him from early on though(once I voted on him, which caused me to go back a little while after and review his first few posts ). So, leaning village.
15. Arraenae - One of the first players to contact me through PM's. I, don't really know what I think about her. Not really suspicious of her, but I haven't got any reason to trust her(yet. if Arinian turns out to be an Unjust, that's a point in her favor). Based on Rae's response to Drake, I highly doubt they are elims together. So either one is a villager and the other isn't, or they're both villagers. Probably. >>
16. Lopen - That's me.
17. Drake - I have had a village gut read on Drake since C1. I should probably look over his posts some more though, since I haven't paid him much attention. Ha, ninja'd by Drake. Wow, that is one long RP. o.o
18. Sheep - Honorable Initiate.
19. Lazy Anarchist - Has done some RP, but I think that's it. I PM'd her on C2, but she has yet to respond or even view the message. I don't think she's even been online for a week. Which is really too bad. :/
20. Alvron - To be honest, I actually am a little suspicious of Alv. Mostly for his comment this Cycle about not executing Arinian. Because I feel like it's really important that we get players alignments, so him suggesting we not execute players makes me question his motives. If everyone was extremely active and analyzing then maybe we'd be able to catch irregularities without the hard proof of executed players alignments, but not everyone is, so I think it would be really hard to get villagers to rally together enough to imprison all of the Unjust without solid evidence. If Arinian is an Unjust though, I'm not sure how that would make me feel about Alv, given Arin has repeatedly stated suspicion against Alv and Alv was the first vote on Arin.
21. Drought - Like Drake, I've had a village read on him since C1. Not much else to say about him, except he also voted on Arin.
22. DA - Like Rae pointed out, he's been kind of inactive lately. Other than that, not really much to say. If Alv is Unjust, maybe DA isn't? Because at one point Alv said he was thinking of moving his vote to him. But that's not really worth much at this point, since Alv is alive and he didn't even vote on him. So meh.

White text

Vote tally:

Rae(1): Drake
Alvron(2): Doc, Lopen
Doc(0): Lopen
El(1): Rae

Execute Arinian(4/10): Drake, Rae, Lopen, Jondesu

Alvron. Might as well make a leading lynch candidate!

[A Joe in the Bush]

15 hours ago, Arraenae said:

Ralaanar was scooped up by Jonly and carried away from the Voidbringers. Ralaanar let out a sigh of relief. That... that had been too close.

Ralaanar mumbled out thanks, but Jonly cut him off. "Right, let's get back to the others, Ralaa."

Ralaa? Did Jonly know?

"I, um, I can run from here," Ralaanar said. He squirmed out of Jonly's grasp.

"Then rusting run this time girl." Jonly snapped, dropping her and pushing her ahead of himself. "I'm not picking you up again."

There was a rushing sound from behind them, like the sound of a waterfall, or rapids. He shot a glance over his shoulder, then skidded to a halt, grabbing Ralaani again. There was a rusting flood coming down the canyons towards them. He gritted his teeth and jerked around, searching for a place to climb. Could the girl climb as well?

"Ranatar, Jonly, Raalani, Hithon, everyone who can, grab onto the rope! Leave some space between you, but hold tight!" His head snapped to the side. Kintas, the Lie made Flesh, was doing something to a rope. He threw it into the air, and it stuck to the canyon wall.

"Awakening? Ha!" Jonly grinned. even in this situation, he got new information. The man was returned. He was a liar. "Come on Ralaa!" She squeaked again, as he grabbed onto the rope, and tossed the end to her. The rope wrapped around them, and yanked them into the air, along with several other initiates. Some of his favorites actually. The stormwarden, the Blind monster, and the girl.

"Kintas, he called over the sounds of flood and fighting. "Do us all a favor and make sure Naihar doesn't get up here. I suspect the same of him as I did of Arionium." He grinned, "In return, I'll pretend you're from Roshar, eh?"

---

Alvron Arinain

 

[DeTess]

@Jondesu, sure no problem. That 'little' rope-trick is really going to interest the scholar inside Ranatar, once he surfaces again.

Since I hadn't gotten around to it yet, arinian. There is an issue I have with the Alvron and arrae interrogations. Both of their status probably depends in part on Arin's status. If arin is honorable, one or both of them could likely be an unjust, but if he's unjust I would expect both of them to be honorable. Given the problems pardoning someone will have given the amount of people who currently are mostly inactive(not too many, but probably enough to block a vote requiring 75%), I'm going to suggest interrogating an inactive for this cycle, and once Arin has been executed, we can base our next interrogations on his alignment. So, quiver. If this vote triggers an avalanche of votes on Alvorn, well, we'll have learned something as well.

[TheSilverDragon]

Rea wasn't sure if what he was seeing was actually real, because it was too ludicrous to be anything else but a dream. He was stranded on top of a large silver shield, which he remembered had recently been a coin, that was floating along on a raging river of water, bodies of human and Storming VOIDBRINDERS! Yes, voidbringers. Rea prayed to all ten heralds that this was a dream and he hadn't woken up from getting sat on by an oversized cremling in the middle of a war zone. Even my luck isn't that bad. Rea thought ruefully to himself. He reached down and gently prodded the two men in front of her. They didn't respond. He slapped both of them a bit, but to no avail. 

Well, this isn't looking too good. Rea thought as he watched as two of the voidbringers look towards the makeshift raft he was on. I really don't have anything to fight with, stuck in the middle of a spontaneously made river, with two unconscious men. He franticly began to search for something he could use as a weapon. Then he remembered, the man who saved him had made this shield from a coin. He must have others, he thought desperately to himself as he threw himself over to the unconscious man and began to rifle through his pockets. His fingers closed on the cold hard surface of a coin, and he pulled it free of the pocket it had been in.

There were some squiggly lines on the coin, but he really didn't get a chance to see what they were because the coin disappeared in a flash of light, and a small sized dagger rested in his hand. It took all of his self-control not to throw it into the water as soon as he saw what it was. Come on Rea, this is a life or death situation, face your fears. He told himself. But that what happened last time as well, and look where that got me. He retorted. With a shake of his head, he focused on the here and now, and got ready to fight of the two voidbringers.

---

And I will lfinish this RP once I get done with work... in 14 hours  

[Magestar]

3 hours ago, TheMightyLopen said:

14. Mage - Has only posted some RP this Cycle. Other than that...I don't remember a whole lot. >.> Actually! He didn't agree with the suspicion on Arinian, but didn't vote on Quiver to save him(well, at first he did, but then he removed it). I remember I had a small village read on him from early on though(once I voted on him, which caused me to go back a little while after and review his first few posts ). So, leaning village.

Sorry 'bout the activity.  I'll tend to be slightly less active during the week - especially tuesday - thursday.

I need to catch up on the thread, and although I'm not sure we should be killing Arinian, (Don't know why we imprisoned him, actually), I do think we should start killing the imprisoned.  It doesn't make a lot of sense to just leave all of them there.  Some, however, we can just put in there for safe keeping.  Probably.

[Alvron]

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I've been a little caught up playing Mass Effect 1&2 in preparation for ME:4 next month.

I'm going to vote for Quiver.  The speed in which Ari was lynched when Quiver was leading the votes concerns me.  I would be most interested in seeing his alignment over anyone elses.  Personally I would rather keep Ari alive this cycle and kill Quiver next, if Quiver is an elim like I suspect then it's highly likely that Ari is innocent.  However, if everyone wants to kill Ari this round, I'll add my vote albeit reluctantly.

[Doc12]

His ears recognized the sound before any of the others, of course. Before Sareth had started screaming, Hithon had been running faster, blood draining from his face. 

What was this day? A chasmfiend, then voidbringers, now a storming flood in the chasms? He breathed in as much Stormlight as he could spare, using it to fuel his pace. 
Inwardly he knew he was being stupid. They were in a chasm. No amount of running would have allowed him to outrun a flood. The wise thing to do would have been simply to climb upwards of the cliff face and hope to sit out the torrent. 

But that would require him slowing to feel the walls, and with the screams of the Voidbringers and the roar of the raging torrent, he could not bring himself to slow down. 

A voice screamed. Kintas.

"Ranatar, Jonly, Raalani, Hithon, everyone who can, grab onto the rope! Leave some space between you, but hold tight!"

Hithon growled. What rope??! Kintas' voice had come from ahead, but without his eyes grabbing a rope in the middle of a chasm would require an event such as a hundred chasmfiends marching in unison and singing an ode to someone's magnificence - a lovely, if weird dream. For all he knew, he had already ran past the rope.

A hum 

On his shoulder, his left one. Somehow, he realized what he had to do, and darted left with outstretched arms. 

To his shock, his fingers brushed against cloth, and with a few quick tugs he confirmed its sturdiness. But how did a rope - Never mind, questions later. For now, he only needed to survive. 

Clutching a rope so tightly his palms burned, swinging so wildly he felt sick, listening to the fury of the torrent down below, getting stung by the torrential rain, After listening to the Voidbringers growl and curse as they found themselves caught up in the flood, and after listening to the Initiates screaming at each other, shrinking from the sharp drops of rain,Hithon had to work very hard to shake the thought that kept coming back to him. 

He was going to die. 

---

Firstly, seriously guys? An entire day, and all that's posted is RP? I mean sure, RP is great, and I really enjoyed reading it, but where's the discussion? The only people who were analyzing today were Lopen, Joe and Randuir. Last cycle was a whole lot more active than this :/  I want to call out @Hemalurgic_Headshot, @TheSilverDragon, @Jondesu and @Ecthelion III for having the opportunity to post, sometimes more than once, but choosing only to RP. Of course, I get that some of you may only have time for Rp and not discussion, but come on! At least throw a vote? Talk a little? I would want to watch you as Unjust posting RP to seem active but not really contributing. 

8 hours ago, TheMightyLopen said:

13. Doc - Like I said, a lot of posts with a lot of content, but I've got a strange feeling about him. Too much to really analyze at this time of night, but he was against lynching Arinian it seemed(he voted on Quiver because of how fast the bandwagon on him formed) and hasn't voted to execute Arinian this Cycle. Has also stated suspicion of Jondesu, Alvron(his vote this Cycle), and...Ecthelion, though he said earlier this Cycle that his suspicion against Jon and Ecth isn't as strong now. I don't remember much else off the top of my head and I don't feel like going through the whole thread tonight. Neutral/gut is leaning Unjust.

Anyways, I felt that the reasons for lynching Arin weren't that strong, and yes, I was suspicious of how quickly the votes on him piled up. I don't have anything to disagree with in your post, except that I'm going to vote for Arin's lynch. I was holding off last night because I was still chatting with him in PMs, but seeing as he has nothing more to say other than repeating the same things, I'm willing to let him go. 

I have...nothing else to respond to. Huh. I suppose I'll get a table of reads like Lopen up tomorrow night. For now there doesn't seem to be anything else to say. 

Oh wait, the bonds! Currently 5 bonds have been formed, meaning that we should begin to see some interesting things happening. The current people with honor above 5 and most likely to be holding spren are Alvron, Drake, Drought, Rae, me, Jondesu, Ecth, Headshot, Mage, Randuir and Lopen. If there's been a Truthwatcher or Windrunner formed already, I would advise starting to scan or block people from among this group to find those with spren. That's about all I have to say?

Goodnight. 

[DrakeMarshall]

Have some commentary. The more people voice their opinions, the more information we will have.

 

8 hours ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Alvron Arinain

 

I understand and agree with the necessity of executing Arin... (although if I had the choice I'd rather we execute someone else because my read of Arin is leaning on village)

But if you don't mind... Could you elaborate slightly on your reasons for voting Alv?

Alv has been kind of flying under my radar so far, which kind of worries me. I definitely need to review his posts.

 

8 hours ago, randuir said:

@Jondesu, sure no problem. That 'little' rope-trick is really going to interest the scholar inside Ranatar, once he surfaces again.

Since I hadn't gotten around to it yet, arinian. There is an issue I have with the Alvron and arrae interrogations. Both of their status probably depends in part on Arin's status. If arin is honorable, one or both of them could likely be an unjust, but if he's unjust I would expect both of them to be honorable. Given the problems pardoning someone will have given the amount of people who currently are mostly inactive(not too many, but probably enough to block a vote requiring 75%), I'm going to suggest interrogating an inactive for this cycle, and once Arin has been executed, we can base our next interrogations on his alignment. So, quiver. If this vote triggers an avalanche of votes on Alvorn, well, we'll have learned something as well.

You raise a very good point. However, while elims might be able to block a 75% pardon vote, I doubt they would be willing to. Everyone who didn't vote to pardon would be at least somewhat suspect, and I can't imagine why an elim would think its worth it to expose themselves just to keep one innocent in jail.

So I'm keeping my vote on Rae. But I absolutely agree that the validity of that vote will depend on the outcome of Arin's execution.

 

2 hours ago, Alvron said:

I'm going to vote for Quiver.  The speed in which Ari was lynched when Quiver was leading the votes concerns me.  I would be most interested in seeing his alignment over anyone elses.  Personally I would rather keep Ari alive this cycle and kill Quiver next, if Quiver is an elim like I suspect then it's highly likely that Ari is innocent.  However, if everyone wants to kill Ari this round, I'll add my vote albeit reluctantly.

I'd be willing to jail quiver at some point, just by merit of being inactive. But I want to wait until we have real information that we can contemplate for two cycles before I waste a vote on an inactive.

It is possible that the bandwagon on Arin was a ploy to save quiver (though by no means certain)... But even if that is the case, it isn't a bad idea to pursue one of the more suspicious votes on Arin, since that's probably still one of the elims.

 

22 minutes ago, Doc12 said:

Oh wait, the bonds! Currently 5 bonds have been formed, meaning that we should begin to see some interesting things happening. The current people with honor above 5 and most likely to be holding spren are Alvron, Drake, Drought, Rae, me, Jondesu, Ecth, Headshot, Mage, Randuir and Lopen. If there's been a Truthwatcher or Windrunner formed already, I would advise starting to scan or block people from among this group to find those with spren. That's about all I have to say?

If someone wants to scan me, go ahead. I don't see it as much of a risk for me to reveal that right now I don't have a spren, and I'd be willing to confirm that to the truthwatcher. You probably shouldn't take me for my word on this, since if I did have a bond I'd probably be saying something very similar to what I am saying right now.

Anyways... I would also recommend that whoever gets stoneward protect the least suspicious individuals on that list. Honorable who have a high probability of being radiants are a pretty natural target for elims.

 

I was going to add some RP here but my computer's about to die so I'll post it a bit later today.

Edited February 16, 2017 by Drake Marshall

[Magestar]

23 minutes ago, Doc12 said:

Firstly, seriously guys? An entire day, and all that's posted is RP? I mean sure, RP is great, and I really enjoyed reading it, but where's the discussion? The only people who were analyzing today were Lopen, Joe and Randuir. Last cycle was a whole lot more active than this :/  I want to call out @Hemalurgic_Headshot, @TheSilverDragon, @Jondesu and @Ecthelion III for having the opportunity to post, sometimes more than once, but choosing only to RP. Of course, I get that some of you may only have time for Rp and not discussion, but come on! At least throw a vote? Talk a little? I would want to watch you as Unjust posting RP to seem active but not really contributing. 

Again, sorry.  Like I said, Tuesday - Thursday's are usually pretty busy for me.

23 minutes ago, Doc12 said:

Oh wait, the bonds! Currently 5 bonds have been formed, meaning that we should begin to see some interesting things happening. The current people with honor above 5 and most likely to be holding spren are Alvron, Drake, Drought, Rae, me, Jondesu, Ecth, Headshot, Mage, Randuir and Lopen. If there's been a Truthwatcher or Windrunner formed already, I would advise starting to scan or block people from among this group to find those with spren. That's about all I have to say?

I can tell you that, despite my best efforts, I do not yet have a Spren.  I've decided which one to go for, I think, and intend to go through with it at some point in the next few cycles.

---

Balthazar opened his eyes, and found himself covered in Chasmfiend gore.   He was still holding the gemheart, and some... thing was trying to pry it from his fingertips.  He looked up, and to his horror he saw a dreaded face;  one of the Voidbringers which Captain Kaladin had told him about.  Spewing bile in the things face, Balthazar rolled over, bringing his sword – still in his hand, thank the almighty – up, cutting deep into the creatures shell.    Scrabbling with his left hand for his other sword, Balthazar lashed out with his foot in an effort to keep the creature off of him.  Grasping his other sword, he brought it around into the creatures head.  Balthazar stood up, grunting.  More Voidbringers were slowly surrounding him.  He turned towards the Chasmfiend.  It would be easy to defend the top of that thing.  Slinging the gemheart across his back, Balthazar gripped his swords.  This could get messy.

[Shqueeves]

9 hours ago, TheMightyLopen said:

12. Shqueeves - More active than Quiver and JUQ, but not a lot of posts. I've seen him around multiple times, so I'm a little concerned he's lurking, but since he's new, I'll cut him some slack and won't bother him for a Cycle or so.  Neutral/leaning Unjust

I think the reason that you've been seeing me on is that I'm on mobile a lot, and as far as I can tell, it says I'm currently viewing whatever the last thing I viewed, even if I'm not on. 

Also, lurking is in my nature. 

RP will come later today

[Jondesu]

@Doc12, I suppose you missed the large chunk of my first post that was discussion, and then my second post that was discussion only including a vote? I'd appreciate not being called out for only doing RP when it's not true.

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

3 hours ago, Doc12 said:

Firstly, seriously guys? An entire day, and all that's posted is RP? I mean sure, RP is great, and I really enjoyed reading it, but where's the discussion? The only people who were analyzing today were Lopen, Joe and Randuir. Last cycle was a whole lot more active than this :/  I want to call out @Hemalurgic_Headshot, @TheSilverDragon, @Jondesu and @Ecthelion III for having the opportunity to post, sometimes more than once, but choosing only to RP. Of course, I get that some of you may only have time for Rp and not discussion, but come on! At least throw a vote? Talk a little? I would want to watch you as Unjust posting RP to seem active but not really contributing. 

 

Okay, fine, you caught me. I have been posting solely RP (because I love it so much! This is why I joined this game), and so I am going to devote some time to discussion. First, with my vote.

Quiver

It seemed like there was a strong push for imprisoning (why is everyone calling it lynching? It is imprisonment) Quiver last cycle, but instead it was Arinian. Why? This seems a little suspicious, and there is not a reason not to if Quiver is inactive. Remember, in this game, activity is paramount! As for executions, I can't say that I want to execute anyone, but seeing how things are looking at this point, Arinian. I have a few suspicions right now, but first let's get Quiver imprisoned.

That alright for you Doc?

[Jondesu]

Considering I have no suspicions I think are worth acting on yet, I'm going to also vote to imprison the inactive quiver.

Edited February 16, 2017 by Jondesu
Fixed color

[Arrae]

Last cycle, I voted on Arinian. The timing of my vote might have looked like bandwagoning, but it wasn't intentional bandwagoning. (It might have been unintentional bandwagoning, since I'm kind of susceptible to groupthink, especially if I don't have notes of my own, but that's besides the point).

I was suspicious of Arinian since C2, mostly for bad gut feeling and because of what he said. I didn't vote for him then, because there were quite a few votes on him and I didn't want to bandwagon. Of course, that was rendered a moot point C3. Arinian was the best lead I had, shakey as it was. So I voted on him.

If I'm an elim, then Arinian probably isn't one. If he is, this I'm probably not one. So if you think I'm an elim and Arinian is village, then interrogate me and vote to pardon him. Why let a player get executed if you think they're village? If you're not sure, then vote to execute him. Knowing Arinian's alignment will give us a lot more info to work with. Whatever you think, pick something and stick with it. Either vote to pardon or execute him. Don't stay silent.

[Alvron]

Naihar looked around.  He had been cut off from the rest of the Initiates when he ran down the wrong chasm path and now there was a group of Voidbringers heading his way.

A quick check of his inventory revealed that he was severely outmatched.  A coil of strung together vines, a pouch of half infused spheres, three knives and his bodysuit made from the skin of a Midnight Essence that he had hidden under his outer clothes.

---

I think there are 9 votes to kill Ari.  Well, ten now and while I still have my reservations, the information could be useful.  I still don't feel right about it though.

[DeTess]

21 minutes ago, Alvron said:

 

I think there are 9 votes to kill Ari.  Well, ten now and while I still have my reservations, the information could be useful.  I still don't feel right about it though.

By my count, we're still short one vote, so if we want to get that information, we'll need one more.

[Magestar]

-sigh-  I hope I don't regret this.  Ari.  If you're a villager, well, sorry mate.