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Ularid was exhausted. Physically, he hadn’t had to exert himself in combat for years, although the Plate had made everything easier. No amount of armour could erase the the sheer panic he’d felt when Tintallë had swung her second Blade to sever his spine, or the sickening shock of Tintallë driving her Blade through her own throat. Ularid found himself reliving those moments continuously as he sat alone in his tent that night. He stamped his foot angrily. He was supposed to be good at this. A master of wiping unwelcome memories from his conscious mind. These days, he managed to never think of how his former home had looked as it was being razed or the screams of the dying, soldiers and civilians alike, or- he shook his head violently and stood up. He needed to be outside, never mind the danger.

Salas had just set, and Ularid could barely see anything in the moonless darkness. Instead, he was treated to yet another recap of the duel’s final moments. He began to sprint through the camp, heedless of any chasms that might be in the area. Running away never solved his lingering resentment towards Gavilar, but it did allow him to dodge the massive arrow that sailed through the air behind him. He froze, as incapable of motion as he’d been while in shattered Shardplate waiting to die. The second arrow whizzed right in front of his face, close enough to clip his nose. Only a Grandbow, or perhaps a ballista, could have fired a projectile of that size. Ularid’s old combat instincts reasserted themselves and he dove to the ground, hiding behind a nearby tent. Surely his attacker wouldn’t notice him or the slowly dripping blood now pouring onto the ground. Holding his nose with his left hand, Ularid slowly snuck into the tent, careful not to startle any of its occupants. All of them were fast asleep, and none stirred at the presence of an intruder. Slowly, he eased himself behind one of the beds, out of the line of fire for a bow. He drew his knife, prepared to defend himself should the assailant come to finish him off. He sat there for hours, crouched on his hands and knees waiting for an attack that never came until he collapsed unconscious as his weariness finally caught up to him.


Sometimes, the quietest people live the longest, Brightlord Arilar mused as he watched the undercurrent of bustling activity in the warcamps, and I have been talking far too much recently

Certainly, it was unlike Arilar to place himself in what he dismissed as “real politics,” the changing of opinions, personal conversations, and generally dangerous intrigue which his masters seemed to relish with unwarranted enthusiasm. He was a silent observer, listening, listening, but never raising his voice more often than he had to. When he did, it was sharp, direct, and quickly forgotten—little wonder he escaped the notice of most, and could retain his position as an active listener with ease. His masters liked it that way. Spying on the Kholins was dangerous, and the ability to keep one’s head down was central in such a task.

Yet he had broken from his usual pattern, this time. This time, his words would not so easily be ignored by his enemies. And the increased presence had done what for him? 

Put a target on his back. 

Arilar sighed, pivoting to face the too-noisy “stalker” behind him. His footpad started, but produced a short, sturdy sword in his right hand almost faster than Arilar could track. In his left came a throwing knife, which left his hand with equal speed. Arilar flattened himself, feeling the steel bend the air around his head—he had just missed that—and unsheathed his own weapon, scrambling to face his attacker. So the Kholins had found out about him after all. He chopped down with the two-handed sword he had, which the footpad barely sidestepped, and a corner of cloth from the man’s jacket came free, exposing the open skin of the shoulder. On it was tattooed three interlocking diamonds. Excellent, Arilar fumed, now the group that hates the king is after me. He swung his sword up again, this time to parry, and the two held that position for a brief second, swords locked. 

And then a sudden pain flared in Arilar’s side, and he looked down, feeling his sword drop from numb fingers. With his spare hand, the Ghostblood had taken another knife from his belt and plunged it into him. Arilar sank, dropping to his knees as his assailant straightened. “You’ll...never win this...you know,” he gasped out. “Whoever you are…” The figure’s hand flew up to the mask, tearing it off in one fluid motion. Recognition dawned instantly, and despite his mortal wound Arilar pushed himself to his feet. “You!” he bellowed. “How, after everything, could—”

The sword swung again, almost lazily, and further words from Arilar’s head were cut short as it rolled to the ground. 


Aman was attacked by a Grandbow, but survived!

Araris was killed by the Ghostbloods! He was a Noble with a half-Shard, a painrial, and a Spanreed! 

Day 5 has begun! It will end in approximately 45 hours on Sunday 24 November, at 9 PM EST.

Good luck!

Player List:

Spoiler

1. Elandera as Brightness Ellarel, a flighty scribe who nonetheless remains tethered to the ground Noble

2. Rathmaskal/Young Bard as Brightlord I.N., whose reversed name conceals his role as a secret member of the Knights of Ni

3. Butt Ad Venture as Brightness Hmynyes, a connoisseur of classical Vorin music Noble

4. Xinoehp512 as Brightlord Rashor, a man who determinedly believes that blue wine is a plague from the Voidbringers Thief

5. Araris Valerian as Brightlord Arilar, a recently arrived spy with ties to the Kholins Noble

6. StrikerEZ as Brightlord Nalakor, a professional chull breeder and racer and close friend of the King’s Wit Noble Spy

7. Furamirionind as Brightness Dohila, a lighteyes who insists on wearing only orange and green lace Noble

8. Hemalurgic Headshot as Rat, a pet of Brightlord Joe and a secret worldhopper

9. Sart as Tleir, a Purelaker trying desperately to impersonate the missing Brightness Drella while House Sebarial hunts for her Ghostblood

10. STINK as Jumae III, a Brightlord whose eccentricity in fashion contrasts sharply with a docile and even temperament 

11. DrakeMarshmallow as Brightlord Ekard, a man at the mercy of the Almighty Himself

12. Amanuensis as Brightlord Ularid Leiken, a man hunting a chull with a green shell which once insulted his mother

13. Coda as Brightness Dejda, one of Adolin’s former girlfriends who now hates the Kholins with a passion

14. Straw as Brightlord Straw, an effigy of Gavilar which was officially recognised as a lighteyes of the fourth dahn 

15. Elbereth as Brightness Tintallë, whose title has come under charges of redundancy by expert Quenya scholars Noble

 

Edited by Devotary of Spontaneity
Edited in Araris’ death
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Wow :( I don't know who attacked me but you should know I was protected by Araris, a now confirmed villager. I made him a Panrial the night before and thankfully he protected me. I'm not sure who hit me but I am confident they are evil. Maybe the elims got an Artifbarian too? And they made a grandbow for his friends?

Either way. HH. I am still sure this is the best bet for the village.

Edited by Amanuensis
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57 minutes ago, Straw said:

Aman, I was the one who protected you with a Painrial. I'm not sure if Araris also protected you, but I felt that you were likely to be targeted by the eliminators.

Huh. Thank you. As far as I know Araris also protected me, but I appreciate that a lot. Who are your suspicions right now?

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10 hours ago, Amanuensis said:

I don't know who attacked me but you should know I was protected by Araris, a now confirmed villager. I made him a Panrial the night before and thankfully he protected me.

Amanuensis.

Yeah turns out he's dead and no painrial? 

So yeah, actually a fairly easy vote.

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STINK's tangent aside, we really need to vote correctly today. With 7 of us left and probably 2 eliminators among them, we are dangerously close to losing the game right now. 

I am not sure what to make of Straw's protection claim yet. My only reasons for suspecting him earlier was Sart's D1 vote and him remaining within my PoE as I've slowly taken others out of it. After hearing that, along with the circumstances surrounding Araris' death, I'm wondering if he is actually being genuine.

Most of you know already that I asked Araris to make some group PMs in order for us to could coordinate with people I thought were village. Among those players were Drake, Coda, Bard and STINK. Araris himself thought it was possible one among them might be evil, and now I worry that he was right, and his fulfillment of my request got him killed. If that's the case I'm sorry Araris. It was really nice being able to work with you for as long as I have. And if I haven't said it before, thank you for protecting me.

In particular, I would like @Young Bard to share with us his thoughts on the game since reentering. I know he shared a little bit the previous night turn, but ideally I'd like to see his thoughts on every player. Not just me.

EDIT:

Also, I've been thinking about the Grand Bow attack more, and I think whoever did it is probably a Villager. If Araris was killed because the elims wanted to prevent him from protecting me, they could have double tapped me with their kill and the Grand Bow instead, thus bypassing the protection. Unless they also used their Pain Knife on Araris with hopes of stopping his Painrial action... which, wait. If that did succeed then Straw would be the only reason I am alive.

Nevermind. I'm back to thinking the Grandbow attack was the eliminators :P thankfully it was only a temporary one, as there's no way the elims have had an extra kill this whole time and not been using it.

Edited by Amanuensis
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16 hours ago, Devotary of Spontaneity said:

Araris did have a painrial at the time of his death, as we mistakenly let him hold two Tier 1D items simultaneously.

Oh, well Amanuensis I guess, what a crazy ride :P

Also apparently y'all got PMs going on / had them so irregardless of any scheming thats occuring, me looked at the player list and though it feels like this thread is me and aman just chilling while the GMs keep throwing stuff in to keep the mix going I haven't seen anything from Coda or Drake so

Coda  for now

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1 hour ago, STINK said:

I haven't seen anything from Coda or Drake so

Coda  for now

I was chatting with Araris and Aman in PM before Araris got killed. I currently agree with Aman about HH for the same reasons. 

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39 minutes ago, STINK said:

This tells me nothing, really. 

Basically, we think HH is elim for general suspicion and Bard is a likely suspect because everyone else seems to be village.

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7 hours ago, Coda said:

Basically, we think HH is elim for general suspicion and Bard is a likely suspect because everyone else seems to be village.

I don't like this 'we' you got going on, person I haven't really interacted with since I got my spanreed way earlier on.

So I'm keeping my vote on you, but I'm heavily tempted to move it to Aman though I'm sure that will do nothing. Actually screw it anyway, going to bed so last chance might as well eh, Coda? 

Aman on the other hand, while the spanreed early on was appreciated as a pretty solid bribe (even though only like 3-4 people actually engaged with me like what's going on there), I've realised that really the items haven't done much, and the fact that I have now been bribed with a painrial that seems like something I should just no-brainer defend you with is pretty odd when why would you choose me and not your clearly village buddy Coda?

Unless, you're not actually village buddies, and someone needs to be doing the killing tonight otherwise the game just gets kinda stagnant. 

Anyway, probably gonna get hammered anyway but yeah Aman + Coda getting mad shade from me rn

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Well, unless I want to die, Aman. Now, the Pain Knife hasn't gone anywhere, so with the votes tied like this it is likely I'm going to die. And if that happens, I would like everyone to kindly lynch Aman, who will have avoided the lynch twice that way.

@Coda I'd like to know your reasoning behind your vote on me. You agree with Aman, but I personally doubt the soundness of Aman's conclusions. Right now, you stand between life and death (my life and death, that is). I'd very much prefer to live.

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You named me your heir, or at least claimed to. If you are lying, you are an elim. If you are telling the truth, I get lots of items and next cycle I will lynch Aman. Win-win for me. I had a PM with Aman, but he didn't reason your death very well. I simply analyzed your benefit to me was more if you were dead. 

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16 minutes ago, Coda said:

You named me your heir, or at least claimed to. If you are lying, you are an elim. If you are telling the truth, I get lots of items and next cycle I will lynch Aman. Win-win for me. I had a PM with Aman, but he didn't reason your death very well. I simply analyzed your benefit to me was more if you were dead. 

Unfortunately, I was roleblocked last night, and my Heiring action was blocked. So you aren’t my heir. 

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If you are lying, my points above still stand, which does not give me any insight into your alignment. If you are telling the truth, there is nothing to be gained by killing you. Given that I cannot know if you are telling the truth, I must therefore assume you are lying. My apologies if your death is unnecessary. 

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Rat squeaked, feeling the tumbling of Joe’s ash taco cart as the man enthusiastically wheeled it ahead of him, heedless of his rodent cargo, which was being jostled about quite severely. He could share in the Brightlord’s thrill, however—who knew ash tacos would sell so well in Roshar, where the warcamps’ only consistent consumption seemed to be wine? Yet it was counted as a foreign delicacy, and Joe’s last worldhopping had brought with him a large supply of the ash so crucial in their construction. The chouta merchants seemed baffled by the innovation, unable to sell their wares as they had in the past, and times seemed to be looking up. Except for the rattling of the cart beneath his claws, of course.

As the cart neared the warcamps, Joe began rambling enthusiastically, addressing Rat in a low voice. “Maybe I’m not completely useless after all!” he exclaimed, gesturing at the full pouch of spheres tucked inside his cart. Having said this, and just after having made the turn into the warcamps proper, Joe tripped, sending the cart rolling along the uneven rocky ground. Miraculously, it remained upright, but even so Rat was nearly thrown from the top of the cart, and was forced to make an awkward scramble and a quick dart under the canvas layering towards the bottom of the stand to remain safe and out of sight. The runaway device did not stop with Rat’s safety, however, and the small rodent found himself jarred by the sudden collision with...something. He couldn’t see anymore. 

“...this cursed ash taco stand!” a bellow came, sounding like Brightlord Ularid. “Joe, storm you! Get over here!” The scurrying sound of footsteps made Rat believe Joe was coming nearer, but the folds of canvas were too heavy. He couldn’t see! He clawed more frantically, looking for a way out. As he squirmed, he could hear raised voices, Joe exchanging words with the crowd of nobility he had apparently interrupted. 

“...no clue why you keep this out-of-control stand in operation any longer. We have infiltrators and spies to root out, at the King’s orders, and your only concern is turning a little profit for yourself!” Definitely still Ularid, who was close by now. 

“Look, I’m useless, okay? Leave me alone; I’m not trying to get anyone hurt here. I tripped and fell, and whatever rocks you have in this area are very unforgiving on the knees.” That was Joe. Scrambling, Rat managed to free himself, and found himself looking up at three figures with weapons drawn, staring at the hapless Joe and his cart. He froze, hoping none of them had noticed his appearance, which was limited to a bulge in the canvas from which two eyes peered out.

One of the three, neither Ularid nor Joe, cast a greedy eye over the pouch of spheres hanging on the cart. “Look,” he said to Joe, “I might not suspect you like Brightlord Ularid does. But we do have the rights to do customs inspections on your merchandise, which we haven’t done yet, unless the Highprince of Investigation has. Have you seen him?” 

Joe gulped. “No.”

“Good,” said the man, and began heading toward the cart. He found his way blocked by the thick arm of Brightlord Jumae. “I don’t think so, my lad,” he said quietly. The tension in the air crackled, but no move was made. Rat grew increasingly uncomfortable with Ularid. Not looking at either Jumae or the Noble he was restraining, and keeping Joe back with one arm, he seemed to be peering...directly at Rat. His eyes narrowed, and his muscles tensed. Too late, Rat tried to scurry away. 

“How now, a rat?” he cried. “Dead for a ducat, dead!” The thrust came; Rat gave one last gibbering shriek, and was forever lost. The last thing he heard were the tears of his faithful master, Joe, and the cries of the other nobles as the cart was overrun and plundered. 

 


Hemalurgic Headshot was lynched! He was a Noble with an Alerter, a Spanreed, and a Painrial!

Vote Count:

HH (3): Aman, Coda, HH

Aman (1): Stink

Night 5 has begun! It will end in approximately 23 hours, on Monday 25 November at 9:00 PM EST. 

New Spanreed PMs may now be opened. If you have a PM open with a player already, it is acceptable to re-open that PM with your spanreed instead of creating a new one with identical membership. 

Good luck!

Player List: 

1. Elandera as Brightness Ellarel, a flighty scribe who nonetheless remains tethered to the ground Noble

2. Rathmaskal/Young Bard as Brightlord I.N., whose reversed name conceals his role as a secret member of the Knights of Ni

3. Butt Ad Venture as Brightness Hmynyes, a connoisseur of classical Vorin music Noble

4. Xinoehp512 as Brightlord Rashor, a man who determinedly believes that blue wine is a plague from the Voidbringers Thief

5. Araris Valerian as Brightlord Arilar, a recently arrived spy with ties to the Kholins Noble

6. StrikerEZ as Brightlord Nalakor, a professional chull breeder and racer and close friend of the King’s Wit Noble Spy

7. Furamirionind as Brightness Dohila, a lighteyes who insists on wearing only orange and green lace Noble

8. Hemalurgic Headshot as Rat, a pet of Brightlord Joe and a secret worldhopper Noble Pet

9. Sart as Tleir, a Purelaker trying desperately to impersonate the missing Brightness Drella while House Sebarial hunts for her Ghostblood

10. STINK as Jumae III, a Brightlord whose eccentricity in fashion contrasts sharply with a docile and even temperament 

11. DrakeMarshmallow as Brightlord Ekard, a man at the mercy of the Almighty Himself

12. Amanuensis as Brightlord Ularid Leiken, a man hunting a chull with a green shell which once insulted his mother

13. Coda as Brightness Dejda, one of Adolin’s former girlfriends who now hates the Kholins with a passion

14. Straw as Brightlord Straw, an effigy of Gavilar which was officially recognised as a lighteyes of the fourth dahn 

15. Elbereth as Brightness Tintallë, whose title has come under charges of redundancy by expert Quenya scholars Noble

Edited by Fifth Scholar
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13 hours ago, Coda said:

I apologize, HH. Rest in peace. Of course, I now doubt Aman. @Amanuensis, defend yourself!

I don't think there is a way I can defend myself. All I can say is believed that HH was an eliminator based on his voting patterns and lack of motivation in analyzing the events of the game so far. It seemed to me more like he was hiding in plain sight / going with the flow of the game, and I apparently made a really bad assumption about Sart getting bus'd by a teammate. When El died, I doubled down on my suspicion of HH when I probably should have listened to him. I admittedly had some doubts when he responded to my accusation post-Striker's death, but I decided that his word wasn't enough. I needed more solid proof.

Now I have it, and I have a lot of regrets. I also dismissed El's line of thought because it was tied heavily to either Araris or myself being evil. I know I'm a Villager, and I was just as confident about Araris being village as I was HH being elim, so I didn't give her theories on the Striker kill enough merit.

But if Sart didn't get killed by his teammates, then my question was, where were they? The inevitable conclusion I have to draw is that they were inactive D2, which makes me even more concerned about Bard, in addition to worrying about Drake.

I realize now that a part of the reason I've been kept alive is because I've been leading the village down a wrong tangent. Now I will probably get lynched for it, which means the elims have no reason to attack me tonight. If someone has a protection item, like @Straw and @STINK, I recommend using it on anyone but me.

And STINK. What were you even talking about bribes? I never bribed you with anything. I never asked you for anything. I gave you a Spanreed N1 because I had no idea what to use my action on and figured you would appreciate it since you were asking for PMs. By the time I was active enough to put in my next order (N3), Araris was one of my top trusts and he had a PM with me, which meant we could coordinate protection. That's the whole reason that I decided it was worth sacrificing El for me. I was hoping to block the elim's only kill that night.

And it was Araris himself who suggested I give the item to someone else. We anticipated him being a potential target and we both thought it was best not to put all of our eggs in a single basket. My list of options was the same I asked HH to PM for me, and I figured you were the best bet because you weren't really active enough to be in danger of the night kill and I'd already established trust for you N2, when you found out my role and nothing happened to me.

I made a really bad assumption regarding Sart's lynch and I'm willing to accept the consequences of my pushing his lynch, however, the numbers are close enough that one more mislynch could mean the end of the game.

On that note, I'm back to doubting Straw again. We know now that HH was honest about being roleblocked by a Pain Knife, which means the elims didn't use it on Araris. That means Araris' protection went through (unless I'm missing something in the Order of Actions), which makes me think Straw was trying to get credit so I'd give him more leeway.

I find it extremely suspicious that no one has also claimed Artifabrian at this point. I'll admit the main reason I don't believe the Grandbow attack on me was perpetrated by a villager is because I don't think any of them would take a gamble like that. The problem is if the elims do have an Artifabrian, that means they've been active as early as N2, I think? Grandbows take two turns to make. Which means the Artifabrian can't be Bard or Drake. But both of them could still be the third culprit.

And can we go back to the bribing thing? Cast your "shade" aside for a second and think. What would you expect me to do if I was a villager? Not try to form a network and coordinate? Maybe if I was evil I'd choose to go the same route, but I'm not so sure. Between my Reverser, which I've proven two turns in a row now (that I also didn't use at any point until my life was in danger), and the Pain Knife the elims got from Elandera, why would I not just make more vote-manipulation items and completely dominate the lynch from N2 onward? Or why would I not make a Grandbow every other turn to accelerate victory?

To me it seems you're only reaching half-formed conclusions and running with them. At this point it's hard for me not to worry that this whole time you've known about my role, you've also been telling the elims to keep me alive until we reach this exact situation. Not to mention the fact you immediately 180'd on me after Araris' death; our alignments had no impact on the others. Which is a part of the reason why I wanted to find a loophole for the duel so we could both live. Her death was wasted, and I'd much rather have gone for HH sooner, that way we could have cleaned up this mess turns ago.

In conclusion, I was wrong. I understand why my being wrong looks bad, but I think you anyone takes the time to read my progression throughout this game, you'll find that it was genuine and natural. Nobody's always right, especially not me, and I think my absence from this forum / lack of time in comparison to the amount I used to have for playing has significantly reduced the accuracy of my reads.

I'm aware that saying this at all is probably a waste of time. After all, in games like this, our word is worth as much as a grain of salt. Had I not backed off Sart on D2 then maybe I would be in a better situation. Sadly this is how the cards have fallen and I have no choice to work with what we've got.

Thinking more on the Artifabrian thing, I don't think it can be anyone but STINK. Bard and Drake were too inactive, Coda had a lull in activity around the time the Grandbow would have been made, if I recall correcty. Straw is still a decent candidate, but I think it's more likely that he was being honest about protecting me than STINK genuinely flopping on me like this. It feels way too sudden / premeditated to me.

That leaves either Drake or Bard as the third teammate. Both "returned" to the game at the same time so it's impossible to determine which one of them was collaborating with the Artifabrian to hit me and Araris at the same time.

Which reminds me. Araris. Why would I request for him to make all of those PMs if I was just going to kill him the same turn? I had no idea they'd be closed, true, but it seems like a huge waste for an eliminator to kill the villager that's been working with him so closely all game.

Most times the simplest explanations are the correct ones. What's more likely? I'm an elim who killed the one friendly, cooperative villager that was constantly helping me, or the elims killed a friendly, cooperative villager to a Village Artifabrian who was clearly setting up contingencies?

Which brings me back to Bard. He's the only one of the four group PMs who never replied. I suspect as soon as he saw it, he told the doc and they decided to kill Araris so the PMs would close.

The worst part of this situation is that both Rath and Bard have been as quiet as ghosts. The one post I do remember about Bard was saying he should have trusted El more, which makes no sense since the vast majority of the thread had already established it was a Village / Village duel.

Whoever has the Shardblade tonight, the game is in your hands. You could either make or break this game depending on who you kill, or if you kill no one at all, give us one more chance to lynch the right person.

ED1T:

@Fifth Scholar, @Devotary of Spontaneity, @Snipexe, can you tell me if the Ghostblood Kill comes before the victim's use of Painrial protection on another player in the Order of Actions?

 

Edited by Amanuensis
Confused the timeline with Elbereth's death, hence the strike out
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