Mid-Range Game 29: A Midsummer Night with No Moon

[DrakeMarshall]

16 hours ago, Bort said:

But it is up to the GM, therefore you shouldn't assume.

I would say just remember to retract your vote when you place a new one

For future reference, I don't really mind if you cast a new vote without retracting.

[DrakeMarshall]

I hope you are enjoying your first day(?) in the Fae realm.

Or perhaps I should say I hope you have enjoyed it, as it just ended.

Don't worry though, the next one will start soonish.

[DrakeMarshall]

Phase 2: The Greater Good

"A word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself."

Ahnya scrambled with the other performers to extinguish the brilliant blue flames that consumed Shreya's tent, clothed in glammourie to look like one of them. The trouper's eyes slid right past the false-face of Ahnya, not suspecting a thing. The occasional whisper of a name kept the flames burning brighter and hotter than they should, for a good long while. The occasional whisper of a name carried taunts and laughter on the wind to the firefighters as they worked. By the time the flames cleared, there were not even bones left behind, let alone evidence... For the seven never left behind evidence. Haliax demanded it. If the Sithe or the Amyr caught wind of this... It didn't bear thinking about.

Ahnya stood over the burnt wreckage alongside the other troupers, eyes sifting through the various performers, seeking a new target as the crowd dispersed. Her power was not so subtle as those of the other six, but it was very well suited to cleaning up a camp of edema ruh, in the wrong place at the wrong time. She gave a curt nod to another one of the seven he crossed paths with, also enrobed in glammourie, but also similarly unable to completely hide the signs. She noticed as one of the performers wandered off on their own, and decided to close in after them.

. . .

The Amyr stood over the ashes of Shreya's tent. Her death was a shame, but it would serve the greater good. The Amyr had originally joined the troupe to keep an eye on the spread of certain stories, but this... This was a trail that lead straight to the Chandrian, not yet gone cold. They produced a candle, struck a flint, and lit it. The flame burned a bright, saturated shade of blue. The Amyr began to walk swiftly, and the flame began to glow a more intense shade of blue as they walked. Cyphus was nearby.

The troupe had made an effort to find the killer. A capable effort, but their discussion had reached a gridlock. They were getting nowhere, unable to decide between two suspects. It was time for a judgment.

. . .

Ahnya closed in on the target, gathering flames around herself. She moved forward, about to close the gap...

A searing pain as the iron teeth of a trap closed around her leg, smoke curling off the thing where it touched her skin. Slowly, her glammourie began to unravel...

"Cyphus," a voice spoke, stepping forward from the trees. "I did not expect to see you here."

"Nor I you," Cyphus snarled, noting the intricate red tattoos that adorned the trouper's now exposed arm. He spoke softly, but his voice carried across the winds to the Amyr. "One of the Ciridae, no less... Disguised in such an underwhelming package," he spat.

"As one of the seven, for the greater good, I sentence you to death," the Amyr spoke, approaching.

Cyphus began to speak a long string of names, uttering each one like a curse in a foreign tongue. The winds around him stirred, battering the Ciridae. The flames that wreathed him grew in size and intensity, enveloping Cyphus and sending out waves of heat, slowly beginning to melt the trap that held him in place. Still, the Ciridae advanced.

Cyphus screamed in defiance as the Ciridae approached, the iron snare that held his leg glowing orange and buckling, but still holding. A crown of blue flames rested on his brow, and the forest around him raged with flames... But it was not enough to stop the copper blade that pierced his heart.

And thus the Seven became Six.

. . .

Elandera has been lynched! They were Cyphus!

 

Vote Count
Elandera (3)- Droughtbringer, Orlok, Bort
Steeldancer (3)- Fifth Scholar, Snipexe, Arraenae
Arraenae (2)- Alvron, Cadmium Compounder
Arinian (1)- Elandera
Alvron (1)- Eternum
Snipexe (1)- Devotary of Spontaneity
Cadmium Compounder (1)- Steeldancer
Megasif (1)- Xinohp
Aonar (1)- Wonko the Sane
Fifth Scholar (1)- Young Bard
Walin (0)- Walin

 

Cast

1. Elandera as Ahnya Cyphus
2. Eternum as Enerin
3. Droughtbringer as Pyra Mainiak
4. Aonar Faileas as Aorais Kipthorn
5. Devotary of Spontaneity as Gaskana
6. Walin as Nelden Dastardly
7. Fifth Scholar as Marne
8. Snipexe as Snip
9. Alvron as Laon
10. Steeldancer as Squick
11. Megasif as Mega
12. Xinoehp512 as Reyalp Nwoknu
13. Arinian as Ray Fox
14. Orlok as Locke
15. I think I am here as Itiah II
16. Arraenae as Alev
17. Bort as Master Ash
18. Wonko the Sane as Fifth Daughter Resterford
19. Cadmium Compounder as Deric Watar
20. Young Bard as Neris

Countdown

[Steeldancer]

I'm assuming that because Elandera is red, that she was an elim and that therefore she was a much better choice to lynch besides me. Heck, she tried to full on pocket me! (No, I can't check the rules, because I'm on a bus and the wifi sucks.) Also, thank you for random lynches. I guess I'll just have to live to die another day. We shall see how long until people get sick of me again

[Young Bard]

Huh. Excellent. Good thing I wasn't around at rollover - I would have likely voted to lynch Steel over Elandara. (Well played, Elan - I didn't suspect you at all.)

Speaking of things that didn't happen at rollover - there's no kill, which is strange - Drake, if there'd been a kill and it had been protected, would it have been announced in the write-up? In the OoA, kills are before the lynch, so that's not an explanation. It's possible some of the Eliminators are borderline inactive, so I'm going to place a poke vote on Droughtbringer, who didn't post or vote last cycle. Even if they're not an Eliminator, it would be good to hear them post more about the game so far, and any reads they have.

Also, we can now, presumably, trust that Namer messages come from Namers, and not from Cyphus, which is excellent - whoever the Namer was, can you confirm tonight you sent the message and not Cyphus before they died?

 

 

[CadCom]

If the write up is indicitave of anything more than RP, then it seems like Elandera was chosen by the Ciridae, which would make sense, because it was a tie vote. 

But that could also mean that we have 6 more Elims to worry about. That seems like an unusually large number, but I suppose there are quite a lot of roles in the game, so certain abilities may balance that out? Or maybe it's some sort of reference to the book? I haven't read the book, so I wouldnt know.

Edit:

1 hour ago, Young Bard said:

Speaking of things that didn't happen at rollover - there's no kill, which is strange - Drake, if there'd been a kill and it had been protected, would it have been announced in the write-up? In the OoA, kills are before the lynch, so that's not an explanation. It's possible some of the Eliminators are borderline inactive, so I'm going to place a poke vote on Droughtbringer, who didn't post or vote last cycle. Even if they're not an Eliminator, it would be good to hear them post more about the game so far, and any reads they have.

So, Drought didn't vote or post, but someone did manipulate his vote, because he is listed as voting on Elandera, bringing Elandera back up to 3.

Just to let you all know, on any given day, the chances of me being on After 3 pm Mountain time is small. I will at least try to check on rollover days so as to provide final insight, but I cannot promise that that will happen.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Cadmium Compounder

[Arrae]

Orlok's pretty obviously village, for the way he jumped on Elandera.

I'd say the person who did the vote manipulation and the person who chose Elandera to die are probably village, though there is the issue of how the Ciridae knew there would be a tie to choose between.

@Drake Marshall @randuir, is the Ciridae immediately contacted in case of a tie to decide at rollover, or do they have to send in the order during the cycle to have it take effect at rollover?

[DeTess]

4 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

 

@Drake Marshall @randuir, is the Ciridae immediately contacted in case of a tie to decide at rollover, or do they have to send in the order during the cycle to have it take effect at rollover?

The ciridae is expected to send this in before roll-over.

[xinoehp512]

I'm posting here to get notified of future posts. I think it's the results of last round were interesting.

[Bort]

Not bad for a poke vote. Day one and already an eliminator dead

So, did anyone else get an anonymous message last night, asking for secrets?

Also, I noticed Wonko's Walin's vote seems to have been cancelled.

@Drake Marshall - Can you vote for yourself, or does it not count?

Edit 2:

Itiah II. Just because he hasn't been in to vote yet. @I think I am here.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Bort
Walin, not Wonko.

[Arrae]

@Bort, I got it too.

[DeTess]

29 minutes ago, Bort said:

 

@Drake Marshall - Can you vote for yourself, or does it not count?

You are allowed to vote for yourself.

[Steeldancer]

According to the PM, everyone got it, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise. 

My activity will be down for the next day and a half. I have a music competition, and Cedar Point, so I won't really be focusing on SE while music-ing and screaming my lungs out on roller coasters. 

 

Edited May 25, 2018 by Steeldancer

[Eternum]

@Cadmium Compounder, the seven thing is a reference to the books. The Chandrian are 7.. beings, for lack of a better word. 7 elims in a game of 20 people is just poor balance. So we can rule that one out.

@Arraenae I think the Ciridae got lucky in this case. There does not seem to have been any vote tampering, as far as I can see, aside from Walin's shenanigans.

@Bort I also got it. Is it possible for a Namer to send a message to everyone? I wonder.

I think Walin is a Jester-- his vote wasn't nullified, its weight was set to 0 which, as far as I know, only the Jester can do.

EDIT: Storms, Steel's post didn't show up. Yes, according to the message everyone got it, now that I actually read it. Hrm. 

Edited May 25, 2018 by Eternum

[CadCom]

13 minutes ago, Eternum said:

@Bort I also got it. Is it possible for a Namer to send a message to everyone? I wonder.

Here is an exerpt from the rules

Quote

Intrinsic: May call on the wind to send anonymous messages (send message and recipient(s) in GM PM and the recipient(s) will see the message at the beginning of next cycle).

So yes, because it's an intrinsic ability. 

I also noticed this in the rules, which I didn't notice originally.

Quote

Open PMs between individual players, no group PMs.

I imagine that we do have to include the GM's though. I didn't notice that part of the rules until today, so you can expect me to be PMing some of you within the next couple of days. I just don't know who yet. 

[Arrae]

Alev thrust the spear forward.

"Kill!" she yelled.

A dozen men shouted alongside her in unison. They moved together, as if they were one person, one mind, one body.

Alev thrust the spear forward.

"Kill!" she yelled.

The ground shook with the force of their ferocity. They were together, as one, here under the hot sun in bootcamp. Unstoppable.

Bravo Squad thrust their spears forward.

"Kill!" they yelled.

A dozen imaginary enemies were pierced by spears. Their corpses collapsed to the ground, utterly vanquished.

"What is the spirit of the spear?" The drill sergeant asked.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" they yelled.

"Alright! Drill's over. Put your spears away and give me four laps," the drill sergeant said.

Alev groaned, but she followed the rest of the squad to the track. Once her feet hit the rough dirt circle, her stride widened, her breathing deepened, and she shook off the remains of the drill. Her legs complained, but she ignored it -- she was used to pain now, and anyways it was better than another mind-numbing spear drill. Out here, running on the track, she was free, as long as she kept pace with everyone else.

Another few weeks in bootcamp and she'd be done. Then Alev could start sending money back to Ma and Azlin. And if Alev had to put up with a few pointless spear drills in the process, so be it.

Alev woke with a start. Spear drills, ugh. But in the end, she'd put those lessons to good use. In the midst of battle, she'd thrust out with her spear, just as trained, and it had found soft flesh -- 

Alev wrenched herself away from that line of thought, trying to look away from the image in her mind's eye. Her mouth twisted, and she opened the tent flap to go outside.

The night air caressed Alev's skin, cool and soothing. She walked out, looking up at the stars...but of course she couldn't recognize any constellations. Still, the sight caused her hands to unclench and the tightness in her mouth to smooth out.

She couldn't quite run anymore, not after...well, after that incident, but she'd take advantage of the scenery around her. Alev closed her tent and set off at a brisk walk.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Arraenae
Formatting+bayonets are not spears >.>

[Walin]

Alright, I seem to have been either targeted by a Jester-Skindancer pair, or I am a Jester myself.

Also, we don’t know if the pair targeted me through collusion, or because the Skindancer wanted to scan the Jester.

Well, either way, I’m going to share part my message from Rand. I’m not good at decoding letters, but I will keep a bit back. The first five letters of the message are: BHUSZ

——————

Nelden sat in his tent, practicing the movements for a quick piece he remembered from back then. When he wasn’t in this forest, wondering when he’d be killed.

He saw an orchestra in front of him, watching his fingers and stick to see what they had to do. He saw the horn get dented as someone sneezed and dropped it.

He saw the orchestra carry on, despite all hiccups; Nelden left the memory. This troupe would survive the forest. He would make sure of it.

“My name isn’t Dastardly for nothing,” Nelden said to himself as he emerged from his tent.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Walin

[Arrae]

Looking back at C1:

The biggest lynch trains were on Elandera, Steel, and me. Unfortunately, I don't think the Steel train and the one on me will give us sure reads, since most of them formed before Elandera was put up for the lynch.

In the pre-manipulation vote count, Bort and Orlok voted on Elandera. Orlok called out Elandera for acting like an elim, so I'd say he's pretty much cleared of being an elim. I don't know if Bort was online during rollover, but if he was, he's probably not an elim either. The face that he threw a joke vote on Elandera and never took it off means that he's probably not an elim. Of course, it's possible that he's an elim who didn't expect vote manipulation or that the Ciridae would step in, so he's not as cleared.

[Orlok Tsubodai]

Locke crept out of the wagon, taking care not to disturb his parents. It was late, and with the recent murmurs of ill news and skindancers in the air, he’d get in even more trouble for sneaking around at night.

A few fires were lit, and Locke tiptoed nearby. Figures sat talking, and he was desperate to find out what was going on. The troupe had been on edge lately, and conversations stopped abruptly whenever he or the other children came nearby. As he approached the fire, though, the voices continued, and he was able to catch the occasional word.

“Encanis....Rhinna...Banish...”

Locke startled - he knew the name Encanis. As he drew nearer, the voices became more distinct, and Locke settled behind a tent to listen.

There he stayed, until a heavy, hand clamped down on his shoulder, pulling him back, an iron dagger behind his throat.

A moment later, the hand relaxed, and Locke was spun round to see a visibly relieved Alev. “Demonsin Locke, you scared me! Come on, back to your tent. You shouldn't be out so late at night.”

Locke, startled, took a moment to respond, and when he came too was shocked to notice the voices - and the fire, had gone. “You’re out, too”, Locke replied, falling back into habits of impertinence. “Anyway, there were voices, and a fire - just here, I swear!” Locke turned once more, as if to check that his mind hadn’t tricked him, sure that they couldn’t have been his imagination. “They were talking about Encanis - they seemed terrified. One of them said something about a Rhinna flower, too. Have you heard of them?”

---

Setting my fledgling attempts at RP aside, I’ve been contacted by three separate individuals with very similar claims about game secrets, and think there’s little harm in revealing them.

1) Encanis seems to be “difficult to banish”.

2) Encanis has an unblockable kill.

3) The Rhinna Flower has healing properties.

[Droughtbringer]

12 hours ago, Young Bard said:

Huh. Excellent. Good thing I wasn't around at rollover - I would have likely voted to lynch Steel over Elandara. (Well played, Elan - I didn't suspect you at all.)

Speaking of things that didn't happen at rollover - there's no kill, which is strange - Drake, if there'd been a kill and it had been protected, would it have been announced in the write-up? In the OoA, kills are before the lynch, so that's not an explanation. It's possible some of the Eliminators are borderline inactive, so I'm going to place a poke vote on Droughtbringer, who didn't post or vote last cycle. Even if they're not an Eliminator, it would be good to hear them post more about the game so far, and any reads they have.

Also, we can now, presumably, trust that Namer messages come from Namers, and not from Cyphus, which is excellent - whoever the Namer was, can you confirm tonight you sent the message and not Cyphus before they died?

 

Sorry, I forgot that this game was running...

I will be finishing up what I'm doing now (shouldn't take more than an hour) then go through last cycles thread, and see what's up/

[Alvron]

Snipexe.  You took your vote off Elandera last cycle when it was tied with Rae and added it to Steel bring him into the tie instead.  Elandera then promptly took theirs off Rae leaving Steel as the lead lynchee.  Not long afterwards Rae added her vote to Steel making him the clear leader with double the number of votes anyone had.  Thankfully Eternum took his? vote off Steel and someone got Drought to vote resulting in a dead elim but I can't help but wonder if you and Elandera are teammates and planned the vote swing in a Doc.  The timing seems to fit together just a little too well.

[Arrae]

47 minutes ago, Orlok Tsubodai said:

“They were talking about Encanis - they seemed terrified. One of them said something about a Rhinna flower, too. Have you heard of them?”

Alev sighed. "I grew up in Ralien, Locke. You probably know more about these things than me." She thought about the stories Ma had told, but the more she tried to remember details, the more they slipped away from her. All she could remember was scraps of Ma's low, comforting voice, telling her and Azlin about how Encanis, for all his murderous power, was still limited, or how the Cthaeh could heal, somehow. But...no, it didn't matter, the little bugger was trying to distract her!

Alev firmly clamped her arm around Locke's shoulders and herded him towards the tents. "Anyways, you should go to sleep now. If you're quiet and don't run away, I won't tell your parents. Fair?"

Edited May 26, 2018 by Arraenae
Added a phrase of RP, later spelling

[Wonko the Sane]

Fithy looked around uncomfortably. She really hated being the center of attention, but...

"I guess I'm our de facto expert on the Fae, huh? Well, I once heard a story about how a peasant boy once picked a Rhinna flower for the princess of the Fae, to save her life. In the story, the flower grew upon the tree of the Cthaeh."

16 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

I grew up in Ralian, Locke.

Ralian? Did you make this place up, or is this just some KKC trivia I don't know about?

[Arrae]

6 minutes ago, Wonko the Sane said:

Ralian? Did you make this place up, or is this just some KKC trivia I don't know about?

I asked Orlok for a KKC city, and he gave me that.

Edit: he says it's spelled Ralien, not Ralian. Going to edit that in my RP now.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Arraenae

[Fifth Scholar]

Thoughts!

(Yeah after realizing PMs were open I just kinda spent the whole day there and didn’t really contribute here. Hopefully will change that)

So I am in fairly strong agreement about Orlok being cleared- I wouldn’t put a complete bus of a teammate beneath him to gain trust, but it would be unusual, and his post accusing Elandera doesn’t look like a setup, so unless I have very good reason to suspect him I will treat him as cleared. I will also clear Eternum and Bort, though to a far lesser degree.

I read through the rules again, specifically Elim team roles. Looking at them and assuming a four-player Elim team, a likely number for this game, we know of the existence of Cyphus and now Encanis. In addition, there are so many mechanics revolving around scrael and skindancers that I would be very surprised if neither of those roles existed. So for now, I’m treating Cinder as if he didn’t exist, because in my view he probably doesn’t. 

Lack of an elim kill is strange, but I see it more likely as the result of abstinence by the Elims than successful use of a Monk or Namer roleblock, as it seems like most of the namers used their anonymous messages and the probability of a Monk catching the Elim sending in the kill is...low. I’m not sure why the Elims refrained from killing, other than perhaps to reduce the amount of information available to us.

I’m in support of the idea behind the PM chain, though I think routing everything to Orlok is probably our best bet, since if he has all the information he can vet it for its truthfulness and report all his findings to the thread. (Thought behind this is that false information could easily be spread by one source if it wasn’t checked or ratified by anyone.) This will give the village information as well as allowing Sithe to claim without fear to someone who’s mostly village-read. If our Sithe do begin dropping with alarming frequency, we know who to blame. (But Orlok seems village.)

Finally, with the whole “Encanis is difficult to kill” thing, I wouldn’t be surprised if we needed a Tehlin Monk and some good old-fashioned holly and iron to banish him permanently. 

A vote shall come later this cycle, I suppose.