Long Game 36: State of Being

[Ecthelion III]

“Sometimes I wonder if I am the only real thing in a false world.”

The voice echoed across a curious landscape. It was an island of sorts, surrounded by swirling mists. The ground was dark, smoky stone—that was how man perceived it, at least.

“And other times I wonder if the world is rigid and true and I am what is changing, ever false, ever contradicting.”

The speaker looked up at the sky, which was encompassed in a writhing mass of crimson tendrils pierced only by a too-small dot of light.

“Identity has always puzzled me. Scholars throughout the æons have searched for a way to define who oneself is. Yet it is just who I am…”

The island was covered in short scrubby plants except for a small area around a blazing green fire. A group of spirits stood in the cleared-out space with a cloaked figure at the center beside the fire. When he spoke next, it was with greater intensity.

“…who we are. Is Identity how we were created, or how we choose to create ourselves? Do we bear our own souls, or are we ourselves carried along?”

The cloaked man threw a pinch of dust in the fire, which flared up, illuminating the faces of the spirits. He looked into each one’s eyes.

“Time flows like a river, and the day of proving approaches quickly. When sunset falls, chaos will be upon us. You will need to be prepared.”

He took an ornate wooden box out of his pack. It was clearly aged; the wood was bent and covered in holes which emitted a faint glow. He opened the box, revealing rows of small brightly glowing objects, circular or hexagonal in shape and a couple inches in diameter. Each had a unique and intricate pattern carved into its face.

“It is time to decide who you will be. Who you will fight for, and who you will fight against.”

Above the hooded man, the sky rippled, tendrils casting faint shadows across the stone. One of the spirits stepped forward, reaching into the box and taking a single glowing piece. The others followed.

“Who are you, little ones?”

Lightning crashed, illuminating the red sky.

“You are what the world needs to you to become.”

 

 

 

---

Rules

Ah, yes, right, businessy stuff, that’s my cue. [clears throat] Yes, well, my name is Phil! I’m the voice in your head who’s here to do all the businessy stuff related to this quest. Don’t worry about how I’m talking in your head or whose voice I stole or any of that stuff—I’m just a plot device here to repeatedly infodump you. We cool?

So, the rules. Er, about that… well, you see, Mr. Hooded Cloak over there says I’m technically not supposed to tell you anything. But I’ve always been one to—shall we say bend the rules a little bit (excuse the pun). I mean, you guys have to have some kind of groundwork to go off of, right?

So, to start out with, the game is divided into Day and Night turns which alternate as always. Day turns are 47 hours long with a 1 hour break afterward, and Night turns are 23 hours long, again with a 1 hour break afterward. If you want to be all technical about things, turns will end at 4 AM UTC and the next turn will begin at 5 AM UTC.

You can normally take 2 actions each cycle (Day and Night). You can take both during the Day, both during the Night, or one of each, but no more than 2 actions each cycle, and you can’t use the same action more than once in the same cycle unless otherwise stated. If an ability lets you use more than 2 actions per cycle, there is an absolute maximum of 2 actions in the Day and 2 actions in the Night. Clear as mud, eh?

Boom, order of actions. You’re welcome. There might be more stuff not on here because Mr. Hooded Cloak is so uptight about everything.

You’ll get a notebook to record stuff in too, it’s only a page though so not much of a notebook. It gets shown to everyone once you die. Mr. Hooded Cloak keeps trying to get me to call it a Will but he’s really kind of a morbid guy. Trust me, you don’t want to get to know that git.

Speaking of which, there’s a bunch of random stuff he wanted me to tell you. After you die you’ll return here for a couple cycles before “passing on” (see, morbid guy, right?) during which you’ll be “judged for your actions” and you might potentially change your outlook on life. That one’ll be important if you ever get brought back from the dead. He also told me "tie lynches are random" and “scans aren’t infallible” or something weird like that. And, oddly, he also wanted me to make sure to tell you that Wills aren’t carved in metal.

I should also talk to you for a couple secs about greed and the universal language: gold. You can get 2 pieces of gold each cycle, one for posting some discussion related to the game and another for posting at least 200 words of in-character text.

Here’s a piece of paper that Mr. Hooded Cloak left me listing a few “universal actions” which any of you guys can take:

And that’s about it! Good guys win if they kill the bad guys, bad guys win if there are more of them than the good guys. I’ll let you know later on if I forgot to tell you anything. So, with all of this businessy stuff done, I wish you luck and bid you adieu. Have fun storming the castle!

 

[CoGMs are Elenion and Jondesu. IM is Wilson.]

Quick Links:

 

Prelude: Sunset
Chapter One: The Fires of Elantris
Chapter Two: Eternal Dominion
Chapter 3: Light of the Gods
Chapter 4: The Shattering of Odium
Chapter 5: The Windless Valley
Chapter 6: The Great Court of Unkalaki
Chapter 7: The Wings of Angels
Chapter Eight: Nightwatcher
Epilogue – Ash and Memory

 

[Ecthelion III]

Player List

1. Mr, Red Facemask (Alvron) - likes to use commas
2. An Innocent Man (A Joe in the Bush) - definitely harmless
3. Alvron (Straw) - a very confusing guy
4. Eobard Thawne (The Flash) - DEFINITELY not an evil speedster
5. Lucky Duke (Cloudjumper) - handy with a barrel
6. The Wanderer (Yitzi2) - definitely not Hoid
7. Vulture Sam (asterion137) - a card hustler
8. Jaspian (StrikerEZ) - talks to a stick
9. BrightnessRadiant as Herself - very confused worldhopper
10. Liz Allan (Sami) - terribly confused Marvel fanatic
11. MOrgan ISTer (Manukos) - likes camping
12. Tautali Laust (Megasif) - valiant Radiant on a journey of self-discovery
13. Daniyah as Herself - first blackout game!
14. Dr. C (Clanky) - Rickrolling mad scientist
15. Locke Tekiel (OrlokTsubodai) - I feel like this guy's died before
16. Aralis (Araris Valerian) - former head-thumper back from the dead
17. Aran (Aonar Faileas) - the hunter
18. Requiem (Drake Marshall) - Kyner from the future
19. ______ (Roadwalker) - deep in thought
20. ppil (STINK) - has some beef with Phil

Edited July 17, 2017 by Ecthelion III

[Alvron]

Sign me up as Mr, Red Facemask.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Interesting. I will sign up as An Innocent Man.

So am I just stupidly missing something, or is this another Blackout game?

[Ecthelion III]

9 hours ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Interesting. I will sign up as An Innocent Man.

So am I just stupidly missing something, or is this another Blackout game?

Edit: Ignore me, I don't know terminology 

Edited July 10, 2017 by Ecthelion III

[Straw]

In the interest of making things confusing, I'll sign up as Alvron.

[Steeldancer]

This is... really confusing. Which Flash character have I not signed up as yet... you know what? Ill sign up as Eobard Thawne, DEFINETELY not an evil speedster....

And as I have never played an items game before, I will probably have lots of questions.

Edited July 10, 2017 by The Flash

[Yitzi2]

To clarify: If person A pays 10 gold in an auction, person B pays 5 gold, and nobody else pays anything: Person A gets the item for 10 gold, but is person B still down by 5 gold?  Or is the payment only done by whomever actually gets it?

[A Joe in the Bush]

5 hours ago, Ecthelion III said:

 

 

I don't think you know what i mean by blackout game. . . Do we know any of the roles or items?

[Paranoid King]

I notice there are three GMs.

This is not going to be a simple game.

Can I be included in the spectator doc?

[Steeldancer]

So this is a cosmere game? How absolutely confusing. 

Spoiler

Maybe I'll be an elim so I can figure out what the heck is going on. Which I have no idea. I'm a sucker aren't I 

 

Edited July 10, 2017 by The Flash

[Sparkrunner]

Oh man I really shouldn't sign up for this... I really cannot find the time...

David Arthur Roadrunner. AKA Da Roadrunner.

[cloudjumper]

Signing up as Loden, who is justifiably grumpy.

[Jondesu]

1 hour ago, Paranoid King said:

I notice there are three GMs.

This is not going to be a simple game.

Can I be included in the spectator doc?

Yes indeed it has some significant complexity. I still have to make sure I’m completely confident in my understanding of the rules.

[Yitzi2]

Since this is a Cosmere game, I will join.  I will play as The Wanderer, an enigmatic figure who may or may not be Hoid (but probably not).  He has a bracelet inset with sixteen glowing gems; their purpose is currently unknown to any of the participants but him.

[Elenion]

4 hours ago, Yitzi2 said:

To clarify: If person A pays 10 gold in an auction, person B pays 5 gold, and nobody else pays anything: Person A gets the item for 10 gold, but is person B still down by 5 gold?  Or is the payment only done by whomever actually gets it?

Person B is down by 5 gold. Everyone pays, one person wins.

4 hours ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

I don't think you know what i mean by blackout game. . . Do we know any of the roles or items?

Yes this is blackout.

[DrakeMarshall]

This game looks fascinating.

I get the feeling that it would be a very fun one to play in, but I'm also not sure I have the time.

For now I'll ask to be a spectator. There's a small chance that this changes sometime before signups closes.

[asterion137]

Sign me up as Vulture Sam, a card hustler

Edited July 10, 2017 by asterion137
changed my character since RP is beneficial ingame

[StrikerEZ]

Ugh...this seems so interesting...I dunno if I should sign up though.

Eh, I'll do it anyway. Sign me up as Jaspian, a crazy man who carries around a stick and talks to it as if it's alive...sometimes, it looks like the stick moves when he talks to it....

[BrightnessRadiant]

Severely tempted to sign up as a stick that is being carried around by some crazy guy but maybe I'll leave that for @_Stick_ to do 

Signing up as a terribly confused world hopper who has no idea what she's doing  (aka me) 

[cloudjumper]

Just realized that Loden, my character, sounds a lot like Lopen. Changing to Lucky Duke, who is handy with a barrel.

[Stick.]

7 hours ago, BrightnessRadiant said:

Severely tempted to sign up as a stick that is being carried around by some crazy guy but maybe I'll leave that for @_Stick_ to do 

Heh I would sign up except I don't know if I want to be playing three games at once  

[Steeldancer]

Oh gosh. I just realized I'm going to be in 3 games at once. And I'm starting work today  I might be quiet for a while in this game then. Until it becomes more possible for me to be active. NO CHILL

[manukos]

I wanna join but I will have significantly less time after the 22nd 

When do the sighups close?

[Ecthelion III]

Most likely on the 17th, depending on how many players.