Anniversary Game 6/Anonymous Game 7: We Shall All Be Changed

[Plum Rhinoceros]

17 minutes ago, Magenta Albatross said:

There are far more possible village kills than extra elim kills. And even though a lot of the village kills would hit also hit villagers, they would still probably hit a couple elims, severely limiting the elims. 

Precisely. It’s more likely for them to hit the elims if it’s a larger team, which makes it better for it to be a smaller team for balance reasons. But I think discussing elim team sizes is useless, so I’ll stop now.  

20 minutes ago, Magenta Albatross said:

I will if you move your vote off of Iguana.

Interesting. xD 

[Magenta Albatross]

18 minutes ago, Plum Rhinoceros said:

Interesting. xD 

Voting for you does nothing unless I either get more people saying they’ll vote for you or you move your vote. It just puts Toucan and Iguana back in a tied lynch. 

[Pearl Chameleon]

Well then.  The competition for Adolin's hand had thinned.

^^^

Who said RP wasn't good for anything?  Regarding several comments about me, I agree that I absolutely should not be cleared at this point.  However, if you want to lean village on me, I won't complain.

Regarding my suspicions, I don't really have any yet.  Much of that is because I've mostly only been able to skim the thread so far.  Regarding the recent conversation, I'm actually less suspicious of Plum for the 'we can afford a few mislynches' comment.  I honestly don't see an experienced player saying something like as elim...and I'm assuming the majority of the players in this game are at least somewhat experienced at the game.

Looks like Toucan and Iguana are the current vote leaders, so I'll start my analysis with them as I have time.

[Sunburst Toucan]

So I'm busy travelling and dealing with multiple plans, and now my alignment is tied to at least one person?

This logic all seems wishy-washy to me, and I know I haven't done my customary PMs to everyone yet but I haven't even been stonewalling, had a wee chat about gambling with that one fella.

Again, not really anything I can say to these votes, you're all apparently suspicious about one guy and voting for me instead because there's a 'link' I have with them?

Like I don't think any of you are actually suspicious of me, but maybe you are in which case my bad I'll try to be active when I'm back home and new years is over, got two weeks of nothing to do then but did not expect Ireland to be as hectic as it was.

Peace out, y'all

[Violet Axolotl]

Now first up- Apologies if I’m repeating any ideas that have already been said. I’ve read thread, I promise, but it’s a lot of words and none of it sinks in unless I’ve written it myself so here we go!

What happened - end of cycle 1 tldr and thoughts

Spoiler

 

Starting from basically after my post- all the end of cycle votes.

Vote Tally at the time:

• Penguin(2): Gorilla, Toucan
• Toucan(1): Tuatara, 
• Chameleon(1): Swan
• Zebra(2): Chameleon, Penguin
• Flamingo(1): Crocodile
• Iguana(1): Octopus
• Heron(1): Axolotl

So penguin and zebra were tied, Gorilla moves vote off penguin onto self  making zebra the lead lynch (Gorilla likely good). Albatross puts vote on Toucan, re-tying the votes with zebras (potential flag?). Iguana votes albatross shortly after (could be A/I if Albratross flips red). Iguana and Albatross discuss Iguanas vote reason. Iguana changes vote to be on Zebra, making them lead the lynch and one minute later cycle ends.

Final Vote tally before shenanigans applied:

• Zebra(3): Chameleon, Penguin, Iguana
• Toucan(2): Tuatara, Albatross
• Chameleon(1): Swan
• Penguin(1): Toucan
• Flamingo(1): Crocodile
• Iguana(1): Octopus
• Heron(1): Axolotl
• Gorilla(1): Gorilla

Vote Count according to write up

 

• Quartz Zebra (3): Chartreuse Penguin, Pearl Chameleon, Saffron Iguana
• Pearl Chameleon (2): Coral Swan {Tuatara}
• Chartreuse Penguin (1): Sunburst Toucan
• Mint Heron (1): Violet Axolotl
• Onyx Flamingo (1): Mauve Crocodile
• Saffron Iguana (1): Scarlet Octopus
• Sunburst Toucan (0): Cream Tuatara {vote moved to chameleon}, Magenta Albatross {vote cancelled from moving Tuataras}
• Turquoise Gorilla (0): Turquoise Gorilla {<-- Where did this vote go. Did someone put in an action to cancel Gorillas vote back when Penguin was tying? Maybe was just another ‘proving role’ thingy. Probably Irrelevant as penguin flipped good}

---
Iguana condemned Zebra. Albatross interestingly moved the tie from being zebra and toucan, to zebra and Pearl (assuming this was done before the last second vote- Albatross later confirms this was done earlier before the votes became this way, regardless, could have changed targets around). If albatross were evil, I would be highly suspect of Toucan as well. It was a risky play but it essentially could have meant the 50/50 lynch would’ve hit an innocent, opposed to it being two evils. However, equally in that situation, why vote toucan in the first place. So that doesn’t make sense to me. So what does make more sense in a roundabout way, is that albatross was innocent and just doing their thing, proving their role as they claimed, makes sense enough to me. I’m content enough to leave them all be for now.
What doesn't make sense is this:
Why are you proving your role this early. 
Why had you already role claimed to someone.
PM SAFETY PEOPLE >.< 

 

Now onto this cycle

Spoiler

 

• So two dead, another Odium Sympathizer down. Everyone's a worldhopper apparently. Two people were Edgedancers, one talks funny, the other talks loud and codey. I’m tempted to try to crack it, but I half expect to just find a rick roll or something so that can be someone else's problem.
• Iguana suspects dragonfly was targeted due to low activity
• Scorpion brings up the possibility of the lynch being a bus. 
• {My thoughts: Potential. Something I thought about myself. Zebra was getting lynched with 2 votes. Iguana could have tied the vote from voting literally any other vote target at the time, although I note that there was already a tie due to Albatross. This would have meant having a chance of saving zebra 50/50, or if they voted Toucan who also had two votes that would have guaranteed them being saved, but they didn’t seem to agree with that lynch so would have made little sense. 
  Additionally they could have just left the vote as is- as a coin toss. This would have given Zebra a chance at survival without putting Iguana at any risk. Given the last second nature of the vote, it could easily be Iguana giving up all hope of saving Zebra and thinking it better to try to get themselves in better books. 
  Overall though, I personally read that situation as Iguana not liking Albatrosses reasoning behind tying the vote and decided to condemn zebra out of distrust of the Toucan lynch.}
• {note added: Albatross and Penguin were pming. No pm safety involved- full role disclosure happened. Penguin now dead via eliminator kill}
• Falcon is not pro-bus concerning Iguana. Suggests Toucan lynch as a reference point however as would give information on Iguana who is more active than Toucan. {not worst Idea. Would tell us about Albatross too who moved all votes off Toucan.}
• Lion waits for Toucan to speak before voting {wise. The lion should never rush for its prey ahead of time. Better to lie in wait for the correct opportunity and correct target}
• Croc is thinking Iguana good albatross bad due to the vote shenanigans being of a relatively high impact, completely sparing toucan from lynch. {my thoughts probably already covered above}
• Octopus tracked the post counts. I like Octopus. Can we be friends Octopus?
• Octopus talks about Falcon being seemingly aware of people being worldhoppers. I agree that would be a potential red flag, I just don’t personally read that from the linked post. They vote falcon.
• Falcon seems to rather albatross not get lynched, feeling like they’re one of those ‘always lynched early’ players, {which I can understand. And if it is one of those players, well, I’m sorry that that's carried over into an anonymous game too dude.}
• Re:Iguanas comment on my post history- Hopefully today's post is a little more valuable then little more to actually build thoughts on opposed to day 1 where my brain was just “....{dial up noises}...”
• Re: Iguanas question about who do I trust most and least? Most: Spoilers. Least: Odium.   In seriousness though, my leading trust regarding thread actions… probably chameleon for voting zebra? Leading Suspicion… Albatross (sorry) but I have to admit, I am far more curious about Tucan and Iguana, even though I suspect both are innocent
• Iguana votes toucan- lesser active of the potential evils
• Rhino votes Iguana, tying it with Toucan, because in theory, if one is evil, they both are, so why not put up both.

 

For the sake of more discussion and more votes being out there, how about… nah I don’t know who else to vote for right now. The quiet ones have already been pinged with a questions. I’d be tempted to vote heron and ask them about their thoughts on the lynch but that's what I did day one too so let's not I’ll come up with something later. Or actually commit to one of the actually suspicious people who are currently being voted for or something. I don’t know.  If I'm honest I am mostly just curious to see where all that goes. I dunno, I’ll think more later. Probably will vote Albatross. Might not. Might kill pizza, we'll see. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Actually no, why am I not voting. That's dumb. Belay all that, Albatross- Basically {if i recall my own thoughts correctly}, based around the move moving {...*vote moving. This is not Madagascar, you are not a lemur}, which you've explained, the late cycle voting, my general frowning upon those who do not practice pm safety, and Penguins death after you claimed you talked roles. Am I sold on you being evil? No, absolutely not. If i was to rate it on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is you're a cool dude be my friend, and 10 is 'have you met my friend the axe?' i'd rate you a solid 6.2 and a half. Which isn't that high all things considering!

Oh and people keep in mind the vote shenanigan possibilities. So if you reaaaaaaally want someone dead, 2-3 votes on them probably Isn’t going to do it. So if any of you are thinking "oh i'm happy with the lynch as is, it doesn't need any more votes, I can watch" TAKE ACTION and stop the shenanigans before they turn your complacent smile into a D: of "wait I didn't want that other person to be lynched"

Okay I'll stop talking now

Vote Count:
Toucan(3): Falcon, Iguana, albatross
Iguana(2): Scorpion, Rhino
Albatross(2): Mauve, Axolotl
Falcon(1): Octopus

Edited December 30, 2019 by Violet Axolotl
Formatting is the bane of my existence

[Emerald Falcon]

Toucan. Given that they've actually been busy with IRL things, I'd rather hold off on lynching them until they come back.

Have a temporary vote on Opal Lion for now. I disagree with their reasoning and hedging on Iguana and that's all that I can say for now until I do a more in depth analysis.

@Scarlet Octopus, in your table, you include number of mentions. I'm kind of curious about that -- what do you think it'll be useful for?

---

”Sein, I’m gonna be completely honest with you...whatever you are,” he said. “I’ve never heard of any of that. And I’ve been to Nalthis, Scadrial, Threnody, and spent a few years studying in Silverlight. What kind of Investiture do you use?”

"I'm not from your world," Sein said. "If I am, I'm from your far future. I was being chased by enemies and jumped into a portal to escape, that's all. You could say that I'm invested with the power of the Light, but it's such an old way to say it that nobody uses it anymore."

Sein moved towards one of the exits of the hall. "You're all still looking for your lost axehounds, right? If we're going to compare every bit of terminology we might as well cover some ground while we do so. Tell me how these glowy spheres work."

@Amethyst Scorpion @Magenta Albatross

Edited December 30, 2019 by Emerald Falcon
Added a mention

[Coral Swan]

Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for because of these things the wrath of the Stormfather is coming upon the disobedient. So do not be associated with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Stormfather. Live as children of the light for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to Honor. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by then in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible.

Magenta Albatross made my honest vote echo with insincerity. These servants of Odium are cowards; rather than letting their treacherous voice ring loud and clear; instead they are choosing to let the righteous squabble amongst themselves. This cannot stand, and we must make every effort to be steadfast in the Stormfather's light.

[Emerald Falcon]

A look into Opal Lion

Overall, I'm getting a slight elim read.

In their first post, they try to guess at role distributions. NAI, leaning elim. It's the type of thing that an elim can put honest effort into trying to solve, which makes them look active without having to say anything about suspicions and trusts.

Their next few posts are RP.

Then, they cast suspicion on Iguana, but don't vote. As I've said before, I disagree with Lion on Iguana's suspiciousness. Maybe because of that, I find the timing suspicious. A lot of people express suspicion of Iguana, and then Lion adds to the pile, but hedges on a vote.

In their next post, they keep hedging by saying that they think Iguana might not be so suspicious after all, but they won't vote either way until Toucan says something.

All in all, this makes up a picture of little content and low commitment. As things are, I'm happy to keep my vote on Lion. @Opal Lion, now that Toucan has spoken, what do you think? How will you vote? Take a firm stance on something and I might remove my vote.

 

 

[Opal Lion]

42 minutes ago, Emerald Falcon said:

A look into Opal Lion

Overall, I'm getting a slight elim read.

In their first post, they try to guess at role distributions. NAI, leaning elim. It's the type of thing that an elim can put honest effort into trying to solve, which makes them look active without having to say anything about suspicions and trusts.

Their next few posts are RP.

Then, they cast suspicion on Iguana, but don't vote. As I've said before, I disagree with Lion on Iguana's suspiciousness. Maybe because of that, I find the timing suspicious. A lot of people express suspicion of Iguana, and then Lion adds to the pile, but hedges on a vote.

In their next post, they keep hedging by saying that they think Iguana might not be so suspicious after all, but they won't vote either way until Toucan says something.

All in all, this makes up a picture of little content and low commitment. As things are, I'm happy to keep my vote on Lion. @Opal Lion, now that Toucan has spoken, what do you think? How will you vote? Take a firm stance on something and I might remove my vote.

 

 

I find Iguana much less suspicious now, which is why I didn't vote for them. As for Toucan, I agree with your assessment - wait for them to become active - which is why I'm not voting on them either.

I don't have a strong stance on anything, really.  I don't have a lot of content, true, but I rarely ever do. I'd vote on Albatross, but, well... you've said everything I was thinking better than I could.  Maybe I need to review the thread more.

[Taupe Gecko]

OK, so I don't like either of Toucan or Iguana as candidates. Iguana voting on Zebra as a distancing tactic doesn't seem like that great of a strategy since Iguana broke the tie, so they could have easily just voted on someone else and had an extra Elim buddy instead without much more immediate suspicion on them (in fact, judging from this cycle, probably less). Toucan seems to be a more disengaged candidate who's not as analysis-heavy as other players, and doesn't have any interest in being - from what I've seen, whenever players are lynched over playstyle differences they've usually been village because the Elims genuinely try to blend in, whereas villagers generally feel free-er to experiment with more different playstyles. Also, the meta goes back and forth on this, first with Jain, then later with Stink, but I personally find lynching based off playstyle a pretty cremmy thing to do - we're here to have fun, and dictating to others how they should play only diminishes that. There's also the fact that they're inactive, which is a more justifiable reason to try and lynch them, IMO, but they've provided an explanation for why, and a timeframe after which they should be more active, which is good enough for me. Even if they hadn't, if the theory of everyone (or almost everyone) being Dustbringers is right, we can expect 2-3 Dustbringer kills a night, and I'd rather those go towards purging the inactives instead, because lynching based off of inactivity nets very little information for the village.

I'm going to second Falcon's vote on Opal Lion - I also thought they were being a little vague and noncommital with some of their posts, and having another person say it as well makes me think it's probably not just in my head. Admittedly, I can see why they might be struggling to find something to say - I haven't really found many leads to be suspicious of either, but there was something about their posts that seemed like they were never really trying that hard and just wanted to sneak under the radar without saying anything that put them too firmly in one camp or another.

I'm still not sure how I feel about Falcon themself, but I've generally agreed with the vast majority of their analysis up to this point - if they are an Eliminator, then a) I have terrible reads, and b ) Falcon is doing a great job of pocketing me, seemingly without even intending to. Overall, I'm inclined to trust them, but with a healthy dose of paranoia.

A couple of people have PM'ed me and I haven't responded yet - my apologies, I've been busy and tired - I promised myself I'd post something in thread before I went to bed, but I'm tired and going through my PM's to answer all of them individually is too much to ask of me right now, at least if you want a semi-coherent reply. I pinky swear I'll get back to y'all soon (and that goes for anyone else that decides to PM me this Day Cycle as well). Also, hopefully more RP, with these new revelations - I won't say whether my role is a Worldhopper, because too many people have claimed already, IMO, but Brana as a character certainly is, and it will be fun to be a little more overt about that fact.

[Magenta Albatross]

Jonan started following Sein, still not completely sure this wasn’t a dream. He was pretty confident it was real, but at the same time, he’d never heard of time travel in reverse.

”Well, the spheres are an interesting phenomenon,” he said, picking a smokestone out of a nearby bowl of spheres illuminating their pathway. “During a highstorm, which is a massive Investiture-filled storm, the barrier between the three realms becomes thin and Investiture from the Spiritual Realm fills the spheres. You do know about the realms at least, right?”

@Emerald Falcon @Amethyst Scorpion

[Emerald Falcon]

"You mean Ascendant Realms?" Sein asked. He shivered, a mid-air wobble. "Pocket universes that the Hive use to stay alive? Are these spheres filled with the power of the Darkness?"

@Emerald Falcon @Amethyst Scorpion

[Amber Vulture]

Torl is getting anxious, and refuses to tell me why. The neatly organized rings have started to crystallize and form a new shape, a kite shield of tiny loops, packed in so densely that I can't see through one side to the other. Is this in preparation for a Highstorm? The Everstorm, which circles around the world every nine days? Or is this new defensive posture designed to ward off threats of the living variety? Whatever the answer may be, I'll be glad to have some protection for the days to come.

19 hours ago, Amethyst Scorpion said:

I'm still not sure I'm following here. You're saying elim!Iguana (knowing about vote manipulation) would have either voted elim!Toucan or left it on Albatross/random villager, rather than bus elim!Zebra because lynching an elim D1 draws attention?

I guess that makes sense. At the same time, though, how many people immediately cleared Iguana N1 because of the vote? That kind of decision can generate trust rather than suspicion. It's a gamble, as are a lot of elim plays. But if they're successful, they're worth it. 

Elim!Iguana would probably not know about vote manipulation, because vote manipulation easily could have been used to prevent an elim lynch even if both Zebra and Toucan are evil. Iguana/Albatross/Zebra makes no sense, because Albatross would be able to stop Zebra and/or Toucan from being lynched. Unless anyone counterclaims Albatross, the Bondsmith removed Gorilla's vote, which accomplishes nothing in protecting elims since Penguin was village, so I'm assuming the elims did not use either vote manipulation. 

That does mean that I don't believe Albatross to be evil, and Iguana is presumably only evil with Toucan, and even then it's far from definite. There's no particular reason a villager wouldn't decide to break a tied lynch, so I don't think it's worthwhile to lynch Toucan just because of the link to Iguana.

Falcon and Lion both started out by speculating on role distribution. I can see where the conclusion that Falcon knew about everyone being a Worldhopper came from, but I'm not currently convinced. Opal's guesses fell in line with standard distributions, which could be generated as a village worldhopper assuming they were the only one or an elim knowing something strange was going on. I'm not a particular fan of Lion's stance on Iguana, but I'm more suspicious of Rhino. Thanking a successful vigilante is always an interesting thing to note, though not necessarily alignment indicative. The near certainty that if Toucan is evil then Iguana is as well doesn't seem right. It's certainly more likely that Iguana is evil should Toucan be, but breaking a tied lynch at rollover is not alignment indicative and in any case lynching the tiebreaker should not be the first step. Two elim deaths do give us time for mislynches, but also gives us time to investigate other leads. I'm going to vote Plum Rhino for now. 

Albatross(3): Crocodile, Axolotl, Swan
Lion(2): Falcon, Gecko
Toucan(2): Iguana, Albatross
Iguana(2): Scorpion, Rhino
Falcon(1): Octopus
Rhino(1): Vulture

 

[Mint Heron]

Sorry I haven't posted. Relatives were visiting, but they're all gone now. I personally don't know why Toucan and Iguana are the lynch targets, but I skimmed the thread so I might have missed something. I'll edit in a vote once I read the thread more carefully. 

[Scarlet Octopus]

First off, I don't understand half of the post I made last night. I will endeavor to talk myself through it more clearly, while also responding to what has been said since.

21 hours ago, Emerald Falcon said:

Second, @Scarlet Octopus, I stand by my reads on Albatross and Iguana. Albatross's behavior D1 made sense from a villagery standpoint. It also made sense from an elim standpoint, but not overwhelmingly so. I'll admit that I went easy on them -- I keep a mental list of players who I can expect less rational behavior from and/or poorly worded statements from, who all usually end up getting lynched while village in the early part of the cycle. I thought that Albatross might be one of those players and the more they've talked, the stronger the feeling gets, that they're one of the lynch traps that the village always goes after. I might be wrong, but in the interest of promoting fun I thought I'd try not to let them get killed immediately.

I would actually compare Albatross's behavior to Toucan's. Albatross, whatever their faults, gives an appearance of trying, or at least appearing to try. To me, it's plausible that they're one of those players who haven't yet figured how to communicate things in a way that the rest of us get. By contrast, Toucan does not even pretend to try. They feel like they're stonewalling. I tried PMing them and got the same result, too. Maybe it's just their chosen cosmetic role that's rubbing me the wrong way, but I've seen some elims who post and say effectively nothing for the whole game, similar to what Toucan has done so far. At least Albatross says something.

In the light of, kinda day, I do agree that Albatross looks less eliminatory now, and they are speaking up enough that I'd be fine giving them more time to read the thread and post, since they are making an effort.

21 hours ago, Magenta Albatross said:

Like I said, it was just a way to prove to Penguin that I was in fact a Willshaper. I just picked a random player’s vote to move. I put the order in about an hour and a half before rollover, and I didn’t think to change it after some of the votes moved around later in the cycle. 

Yeah, you basically got it exactly right. I knew my vote wouldn’t matter since I was gonna be moving someone else’s vote anyway, so I just picked someone to vote for and came up with a half-decent reason  to vote for them. I will still stand by my statement that Tuatara’s reluctance to answer the question is weird considering how ultimately meaningless of a question it was. But I wouldn’t have voted on them if I hadn’t been a Willshaper trying to prove my role to Penguin.

Your vote makes more sense in that light, I think at this point, I'd only try to lynch you if Toucan is an Eliminator, as your actions did save him from a tie.

17 hours ago, Saffron Iguana said:

Could you provide some examples of the information you'd get from lynching me? I get what you meant by the statistics, but can you provide some concrete examples of what you'd learn if you lynched me and if flipped village? And what would you learn if I flipped elim?

I'm doing damage now, am I ? In all seriousness though, what makes you say that? If anything, I'd argue that someone barely taking part is doing more damage than someone actively around, because they're making it impossible to form reads on them.
Scarlet octopus

Three posts. D1 they posted a bunch of RP, and then called me out for not being too open with my suspicions. I already noted it then but I'll note it again, calling someone out for that without reciprocating looks really off to me. It creates the appearance of activity and taking part in solving the game, without actually doing so.

That having been said, their post D2 is an improvement. Though I'm not convinced about their statistical method (and hope they'll elaborate a bit more once they're awake again), that post does speak off a decent amount off effort put into hunting elims, which I consider a village trait. If this trend continues over the coasting they where doing D1, then I'll probably start leaning village, but as yet I'm undecided.

~--~--~--~

I'd also like to just make a general note on activity. there's 6 players that have contributed extremely little so far, and several more that have said just a bit more, but also haven't been exactly active. We're halfway through D2 and quite a few players have yet to comment at all. This is not good. A game that is only being pulled forward by a couple of players is at a serious risk of dying, as these players are likely to get either night-killed or lynched, because they're the only ones people can form reads on.

Because of this, I'm going to push the lynch of one of the lesser actives this cycle I'm doing this in the hope that it dispels the notion that low activity equals safety to any low activity elims, that it gets the low activity villagers to post more and to avoid this game dying from a lack of active players before it even gets properly started. My vote is going to be on Toucan, to be precise. Several people seem to consider my alignment to be tied with his, and I think there's a tie with albatross as well (if they're village, then albatross is more likely to be village as well, and vice-versa).

Well Iguana. At this point a lot of people are talking bout you. Albatross and Lion are openly defending you, Vulture and Falcon are discrediting the votes on you, Rhino, Scorpion and I are openly trying to get you lynched, your actions saved Toucan during the first lynch, and you have published reads one almost every player. (I'm saying almost because I have not checked to see if you skipped anyone. I really should do that tomorrow.) If we lynch you, or if you die, we get a lot of reads. More if you're an Elim than if you're a Villager. If you're an Elim, that implicates Albatross, Lion, Vulture, Falcon, and Toucan. If you're a Villager, that could mean that Rhino, Scorpion or I are elims, or just that we latched onto a sketchy turn of good fortune. Either way, if you die, we get information.

I don't know why I said you were doing damage. I think I meant it in a corruptive sense? Like that people were listening to you, so if you were an Elim, that would be bad, whereas Toucan hasn't changed how anyone views anyone else? Your guess is as good as mine, and I recommend you ignore that line.

As for your read on me, I don't understand it. I did reciprocate. I explained my reasoning for voting on you in that post. I was attempting to solve the game, but the only information I had at the time wast post count and the vote tally.

Elaborating on my Statistical method; It doesn't quite work yet. I'm trying to get it to work. I'm basing it off a memory of Aonar Faileas doing this at some point in the distant past. He looked at who was interacting with who, and figured out who was working together that way. My logic is that if two people are mentioning the same player, trying to get them lynched, but aren't mentioning eachother, there's a higher chance they're working together. At the same time, if two players are active debating in the thread, like Albatross and Rhino earlier today, they're probably not on the Elim team together. They could still both be village, but they don't have a hidden connection. I need to figure out how to better organize my notes to figure this out.I'm going to change my Mentions column into a 'Defended' 'Accused' and 'Mentioned' section, but I don't really want to do the work to fix all my past notes for this game, so it'll probably only be going forward, if I find the time to make the switch at all.

Finally, I agree that we should start focusing even more on the Players who aren't talking. We have enough time to do that. However, I don't think I want it to be Toucan. I'm no longer thinking you and they are on an elim team together. Too many people, especially you, seem to want to lynch Toucan as a way to prove your alignment. I'm worried we're being set up to lynch Village!Toucan as a way to prove Elim!Iguana. I think that if we lynch Toucan today, we should then lynch you, regardless of alignment. If Toucan is a villager, and you an elim, than we can really look at all the people who actively tied your alignments together.

 

 

13 hours ago, Sunburst Toucan said:

So I'm busy travelling and dealing with multiple plans, and now my alignment is tied to at least one person?

This logic all seems wishy-washy to me, and I know I haven't done my customary PMs to everyone yet but I haven't even been stonewalling, had a wee chat about gambling with that one fella.

Again, not really anything I can say to these votes, you're all apparently suspicious about one guy and voting for me instead because there's a 'link' I have with them?

Like I don't think any of you are actually suspicious of me, but maybe you are in which case my bad I'll try to be active when I'm back home and new years is over, got two weeks of nothing to do then but did not expect Ireland to be as hectic as it was.

Peace out, y'all

Iguana had the chance to choose who would die. You, or Zebra. They chose Zebra. Zebra turned out to be an AFK Elim. People think they bussed Zebra to protect you. So there's literally no way you can defend yourself. It sucks, but the only way to really defend yourself is to be active enough that people decide to lynch Iguana over you. I have no intention of lynching you unless you're the clear leader in votes. Or unless you do something suspicious.

 

13 hours ago, Violet Axolotl said:

Octopus tracked the post counts. I like Octopus. Can we be friends Octopus?

•  

Aww, Sure Axolotl. I'd love to have a friend. You wanna RP together? I've lost track of my RP because of all these stats and I need to get back into it if I want a chance to win the CR challenge so I can run a She-Ra SE game.

13 hours ago, Violet Axolotl said:

Oh and people keep in mind the vote shenanigan possibilities. So if you reaaaaaaally want someone dead, 2-3 votes on them probably Isn’t going to do it. So if any of you are thinking "oh i'm happy with the lynch as is, it doesn't need any more votes, I can watch" TAKE ACTION and stop the shenanigans before they turn your complacent smile into a D: of "wait I didn't want that other person to be lynched"

This is very true. In about 2 hours, I plan to move my vote to whoever has the most votes on them. I would prefer for that to be Falcon.

 

Vote Tally:

Albatross(3): Crocodile, Axolotl, Swan
Lion(2): Falcon, Gecko
Toucan(2): Iguana, Albatross
Iguana(2): Scorpion, Rhino
Falcon(1): Octopus
Rhino(1): Vulture

 

EDIT: There are now 126 posts made by Non-GM's in this game. That means the average post count of all players is at 5.25. Only 6 players have 6 or more posts. Those 6 players have made a total of 69 posts between them (nice). That means that a quarter of the players are responsible for more than half of the posts. Congrats to Scorpion, Falcon, Albatross, Lion, Rhino and Iguana.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Scarlet Octopus
Statistics!

[Cream Tuatara]

Dyfan piped up. "Sorry guys, got lost in my research, and time got away from me. But I have some thoughts."

I'm glad you all thought my question to Toucan (and everyone else) was meaningless (less pleased no one answered my question though...). It was meant to seem that way but it really wasn't meaningless. Outside of actual preferences for the Radiant orders (which many people might not have firm opinions on anyway), people's responses are going to be influenced by their role. Even if they purposefully respond something different to their actual role, it's still a piece of data you have that might be able to make use of later if more solid info is gathered (or as people die and their roles are revealed). So yes, certainly doesn't give immediate actionable info, but it would possibly be useful in the long run.

Given is seem like the majority of players could be Worldhoppers, that strategy likely won't yield any useful info at all. It seemed worth a shot at least.

I was trying to work out how the vote changes made sense during the night cycle and drawing blanks. Honestly, Albatross moving a vote to prove their role claim to someone makes the most sense to me. I'd have either voted on someone else or moved someone else's vote though. I'd buy that as being thoughtless though, rather than any malicious intent. 

Curious about the removal of Gorilla's vote. Earlier in the cycle, Gorilla's vote had put Penguin in the lead for the lynch. At that point, it would have made sense to remove Gorilla's vote to avoid the lynch. Obviously Gorilla eventually moved their vote anyway making it irrelevant. If Penguin were still alive I'd be very curious about the identity of the Bondsmith. I'd have figured that maybe Penguin had the Bondsmith power maybe?

Need to spend a bit more time processing the discussion this cycle, so l'll go do that and vote after I have done so.

[Emerald Falcon]

12 minutes ago, Scarlet Octopus said:

This is very true. In about 2 hours, I plan to move my vote to whoever has the most votes on them. I would prefer for that to be Falcon.

Annoyed sigh.

Would you mind explaining your reasoning for voting on me again? I didn't understand it much the first time around, and now that you say you didn't understand it much either, I'd rather not die to that. After all, dead players can't RP.

If you must know, when I wrote that roles post D1 I had no idea that so many players were worldhoppers. There are many, many ways for distributions to be trollish, and when I wrote it I was thinking of AG2, where the elims had vote manipulation and the villagers had smokers, but the villagers thought that smoking was only useful to the elims. They made the brilliant choice of trying to lynch every single smoker until they hit an elim.

I also don't see how expressing trust of Penguin shortly before their death must have been an elim ploy. Would you have preferred that I do no analysis at all? Is every player who accurately predicts that someone is a villager considered suspicious? Quite honestly, between this an the Iguana thing, I'm starting to wonder if the meta has shifted to punish players who get things right.

I know I'm village, but I don't like the options of who I'd have to vote on to keep myself alive  if you do decide to come after me. At least I suppose I'd get an "I told you" from the dead doc if you lynched me.

[Salmon Meerkat]

I apologize for my inactivity. I've had an unexpected amount of stuff occurring recently. Nothing bad, just busy. I promise I'll get up some basic analysis by tomorrow so everyone an start to get reads on me and I can get reads on all of you. 

I also do have one or 2 PMs that I've been slightly more active in, so if you want more of my opinions. You could also try reaching out to me in PM. I hate to leave people on read. That's true for me both IRL and In SE. 

[Scarlet Octopus]

11 minutes ago, Emerald Falcon said:

 

Annoyed sigh.

Would you mind explaining your reasoning for voting on me again? I didn't understand it much the first time around, and now that you say you didn't understand it much either, I'd rather not die to that. After all, dead players can't RP.

I don't remember. Let me check my notes and last post.

23 hours ago, Scarlet Octopus said:

During my readthrough of the thread, I also came across enough things to be suspicious of Emerald Falcon. On day 1, in retrospect, it looks like Falcon is already aware that we're all Worldhoppers (Side note, if anyone isn't a Worldhopper, would they please speak up?) In their next post, they defend Zebra and Penguin in a NAI way. During Night 1, they state that they trust Penguin and Iguana. Penguin died that night, giving credence to Falcon in a round about way. Falcon then defends Albatross from Iguana, who I will discuss next. Today, they have continued to defend Iguana.

Alright, the Worldhopper thing is really weak, and on reread, I don't really think it's so anymore. Next I said you defended Penguin and Zebra, then said you trusted penguin and Iguana. My notes for that post say "Sneakily defends Penguin and Zebra, asks Gorilla and Chameleon to remove votes. Might be trying to stop D1 Lynch." Then on your next post, you indicate you trust Penguin and Iguana. So I guess my only reason to vote on you is that of the three people you pseudo defended on Day 1, one is widely considered to be clear due to being a key vote in killing an elim, one is a villager who was killed in the night, and one was an Eliminator who was lynched in spite of your defense. It, combined with a gut distrust, paints a picture of you trying to protect Zebra, but failing, maybe because a villager stepped in, maybe because your teammate decided to get themself cleared, and then proving that one of the people you trust (Penguin) was indeed a villager.

As I type that all out, I'm realizing that this case against you only really works if Saffron Iguana is also an Eliminator. It doens't really work if they are an Eliminator. Emerald Falcon, for now I'm going to just toss my vote on, uh... Wow. Albatross, Lion, Toucan, Iguana and Rhino are up for lynch. I've already said why i don't want to lynch Albatross, Toucan or Iguana right now. That leaves Lion and Rhino. I don't like either of them either, they're both pretty active, and I don't have any read on either. But Rhino has less votes and more posts, so I'll put Lion closer to the lead. I don't think I'm going to change my vote to Albatross unless someone else does first.

Vote Tally:

Albatross(3): Crocodile, Axolotl, Swan
Lion(3): Falcon, Gecko, Octopus
Toucan(2): Iguana, Albatross
Iguana(2): Scorpion, Rhino
Rhino(1): Vulture

I think there is 3 and a half hours left?

[Magenta Albatross]

”Well, no,” Jonan said. “I don’t know anything about these Ascendant realms. As for the spheres, they contain Stormlight. Do I really need to explain the three realms to you?”

@Amethyst Scorpion @Emerald Falcon

~

Okay, Toucan Lion. I’m about to go to sleep and definitely will not be able to get on for rollover, so I’m voting in a way that can maybe let me survive.

1 hour ago, Cream Tuatara said:

If Penguin were still alive I'd be very curious about the identity of the Bondsmith. I'd have figured that maybe Penguin had the Bondsmith power maybe?

You must’ve missed the post where I said the first anonymous message had a clue in there that was meant to be a way Penguin could confirm they were an Edgedancer like I’d confirmed I was a Willshaper to them. 

Edited December 31, 2019 by Magenta Albatross

[Sage Kangaroo]

Looking Forward. Looking Inward. Looking Straight Ahead. Eyes Ahead. No Distractions. Eyes Up. Eye Contact. Statuesque. Statue.
Straining. Sterile. Silence. 
Ignition. Heat. Burning. Buildup. Barrage. Rage. Raze. Red. Extinguish. Exhaustion. Empty.
Straining. Sterile. Silence. 

[Turquoise Gorilla]

44 minutes ago, Sage Kangaroo said:

Looking Forward. Looking Inward. Looking Straight Ahead. Eyes Ahead. No Distractions. Eyes Up. Eye Contact. Statuesque. Statue.
Straining. Sterile. Silence. 
Ignition. Heat. Burning. Buildup. Barrage. Rage. Raze. Red. Extinguish. Exhaustion. Empty.
Straining. Sterile. Silence. 

Truly a sage! Are these hints for the Edgedancer code? Sadly I have ruled out about a dozen ciphers and codes already with no luck!

It seems I have been too focused on playing the game and not on solving the game! I am not caught up on the thread and might not be in time to make an educated vote. I feel suspicious of Rhinocerous which is a shame because I have enjoyed our PM and they have been very active in thread! It looked like they were likely to be eliminated where I was reading and I was going to suggest we don't lynch the most active players first. Looking at the lynch it still looks like two other fairly active players are up for the lynch, but I don't know which to save! I guess I get to continue to play the gambler and let the chips fall where they may! I will try to I catch up so I can offer a better analysis!

[Amber Vulture]

Well it doesn't look like the lynch on Rhino is going to go anywhere today, so in the interest of not lynching Albatross I'll switch my vote over to Opal Lion.

[Fifth Scholar]

The cycle is closed! Please stand by for rollover. 

[Elbereth]

Night 2: A Need for Exploration

Right, left, right, left, rightleftrightleftrightleft...

Someone was in the hallway with him. At least one person. There had been a red X a ways back, and then he’d glimpsed a shadowy figure, and now he was... running after them. Like an idiot. He had no idea where he was going, he’d probably get lost, and yet. He couldn’t just not know. That was why he was a Scout - exploring. Discovering new things. Running after them at high speed, even. 

Tnaidar could see the figure ahead of him a little more clearly - a long grayish cloak and dark hair was all he could make out, but he was catching up. He silently thanked all his long, tedious hours of exercising. That fitness could prove vital now. 

Speaking of vital... he grabbed a pouch on his belt as he ran. His escape plan - just in case. 

He’d nearly caught up when he found himself running into a round chamber - with each door blocked. On one side was a man and what looked like... some kind of strange spren that he didn’t recognize. Another, two women looking at him grimly. He recognized both from the camps, but he’d dismissed them as scholarly types. 

As he skidded to a halt, trying to understand what was going on, he heard Max Mercury’s voice from behind him, crying “Now!”

Something went over his head, and his last glimpse was of the two women coming towards him. 

He wasn’t sticking around to find out any more. He broke the item inside the pouch he was still holding - 

And just like that, he was in Shadesmar. Thankfully. Still best to leave the area for a bit, in case anyone could travel here like he could, but... he sighed. 

He’d return eventually. He had to - surely just given a little time, they’d explain what was going on! And besides, his curiosity compelled him. He could always escape again, and until then... he needed to know. To learn. To understand. 

Tnaidar the Scout smiled. Someday, perhaps, he would understand every mystery in the Cosmere. 

---

“...with all due respect, Brightness, I will not allow this matter to rest. Nolan was killed by those...creatures...and even if you did not care for him personally (though that scarcely seems possible), you will surely recognise the wisdom of attempting to discover and neutralise a definite threat to our safety. I propose a thorough search of the thirty-eighth floor with enough Radiants that we can deal with the shadows if they show up. Perhaps Nolan was taken by surprise, but confronting these things head-on is far simpler—I was able to destroy their essence in the Cognitive Realm when they attacked. Give me a team of Elsecallers and we’ll return here with a far safer Urithiru.” 

Radler looked down at Kareana, who was sketching a glyphward in the accumulated dust underneath her. She looked up, feigning surprise. “Oh, are you done?”

Radler sighed. “Brightness—”

Kareana cut in. “I understand your arguments, Radler, as you’re quite fond of repeating them. I’m sorry about your friend, and understand that you want to avenge his death. It’s a noble sentiment. But you are letting your grief cloud your better judgement here. Answer me this: Why should I send a squad of Radiants whose loyalties are still untested (and which we can ill afford to lose) on a mission against a foe we know next to nothing of how to defeat? A foe, moreover, aligned with Odium?”

“I could have been mistaken about—”

“You’re fooling nobody; I trust your initial report of the events, and you said that these shadows were extensions of something whose Investiture is tied to Odium. Unless you want to tell me you lied about that?”

He sighed again. “No.”

“In that case, among a party we know has been infiltrated by those loyal to the Lord of Hate, you would have me bring some of its members into contact with one of his minions, that they might more efficiently coordinate to slaughter the rest of us? No, for the final time, Radler. I will not allow it until at least the reinforcing party has been sent up by Brightlord Kholin, and we are sure that this group remains uncompromised.”

“Very well,” Radler acquiesced. “But I do hope you are aware that you cannot stop me from venturing there alone.”

“I would call it folly of the highest order,” Kareana replied grimly, “but I indeed will not stop you, if only because you would rather martyr yourself than chafe under my restriction. You may go, but I will forbid the other Radiants from joining you, and I do not wish you luck, for it will not help you where you go. Return alive, if you can.”

Radler inclined his head. “I will certainly try, Brightness.” Turning suddenly, he strode off, leaving Kareana with a crudely sketched glyphward in the sand. Mercy. It would be needed in the coming days, for all of them to live. She held out a finger, from which a spark flew, and the flame slowly kindled, spreading along the prayer like a snake and sending it up to the Almighty. He who has ears, let him hear. 

 

---

Radler narrowed his lips into a thin line, careful not to let Kareana see his fury. That cremling! Why was it so hard to see that shadowy creatures killing in the night were a danger? If he was a gambling man, like the dead Taladir, he would pin responsibility for Locke’s death on the odd shadows as well—it was a carbon copy of Naihar’s execution, the throat slit perfectly in the victim’s sleep, and Nolan had taken a knife to the back in the same manner as Aruana. If there were imitation murders, though, why hadn’t Taladir’s death inspired a copycat, or Krask? So much didn’t add up about the shadows, yet something needed to be done. 

He strode over to his satchel, heavy with fully lit spheres and cut gemstones, along with other, smaller quantities of foreign Investiture. He hadn’t had occasion to use it yet, but if anything was going to demand that he be a one-man Radiant army, this was it. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he turned, avoiding Kareana’s gaze by keeping his eyes downcast as he walked. He strode quickly through the meeting ground, keeping to the sides of the wall, when he felt a small tap on his shoulder. Radler kept walking. He was not about to start chatting with Errdal about this decision, or anyone else, for that matter. “Oi!” came the reply, and the sound of jogging footsteps hurrying to catch up to him. “You’re not just ignoring me like that.”

“Actually, I am, Errdal,” Radler said hotly, “and for once I’d like you to not intrude on what I’m doing. Your help has been invaluable, but this mission has to be undertaken alone.”

“The same mission which earlier called for a team of Elsecallers to help you? You’re going to need every man you can against those shadows, Radler, and I’m also not going to stand by and let the leading member of the Council go on a suicide mission without at least being able to report your death with a clean conscience.”

Radler suddenly smiled. “You know, Errdal, I’ve really had my share of arguing for this morning with Kareana. Fine, and your help will be appreciated. But I have one condition of us going together: if anyone’s not getting out of that floor alive, it’s me. Not you, not the person who’s been watching us while pretending to read who clearly wants to join, me. Clear?”

Errdal nodded, a slight smile playing on his lips. “You’re observant as always, Radler, and clear enough, though I wish it were otherwise.” He turned to the young woman who had strode up to them. “Who are you?”

“Ellira,” she said, with no small degree of haughtiness, “and I’m not helping for your friend who got killed. But I do agree that those things up there need to be observed, at the very least, and I’m generally good at staying hidden.” She turned to Radler. “Using Tin to watch my eye movements is downright cheating, by the way.”

Radler grinned. “I suppose it is, at that. Your safety isn’t guaranteed, though, and I hope you have a plan for fighting off those shadowed creatures.”

Ellira rolled her eyes. “I’m aware.”

“Good.” He paused awkwardly, surveying the small team. “Well, best not to waste any more time than we have to.” He turned and set off at a brisk walk to the intact eastern lift system, and the others tailed him, making their way down the tower. 

 

---

“No, I cannot open this door without using Stormlight, and I’m not announcing our presence boldly to whatever’s in there,” Errdal hissed. “If whatever you did with your Scadrian Investiture earlier didn’t work, I’m not sure anything is unjamming it.”

“It’s not jammed, it’s locked, and has two thousand years of crem buildup to boot.” Radler kept his voice down, with some effort. “I’ve removed that, but unlike you seem to think, my line of work never involved lockpicking, and from the sound of it, neither did yours. We’re stuck, as your Shardblade is also, incidentally, a dead giveaway.”

“Well, we aren’t giving up on secrecy now, or you wouldn’t have been so adamant about us entering from the thirty-ninth floor instead of the lift system directly. Is there another door?”

“None that go into this side room, which is the only place on this floor not visible from the central chamber. The lift system would put us too close to the shadows, and the other lift is broken.” Radler threw his hands up, turning to Ellira. “Any insights?”

“I don’t know about insights,” she replied, “but this door is magically locked?” 

“Not magically, no,” Radler said with a frown. “If that were the case, we’d have opened it already.”

“So the lock is conventional?” she said with mock patience. “In that case—” she strode up to the door, thrusting a small, thin object into the keyhole and twisting it—“you really should have made that clearer ten minutes ago.” The door opened slowly under her watch, but surprisingly noiselessly. She bowed. “After you, of course.” 

Errdal shook his head, entering the room with the stealth he could manage. Radler did the same, but was surprised and impressed by Ellira, who was actually noiseless as she crept through the door into the musty chamber. “Now what?” Ellira breathed.

“We observe,” Radler replied equally quietly, “and don’t move or make noise. I’m not rushing in.” Falling silent, he took his own advice, casting his eyes around. They looked to be in a closet or storeroom of sorts, which was not occupied by any inky shadows he could immediately see, thankfully. Or was it a mere storeroom? He almost fancied he could see, through the light filtering in from an open window, the outlines of decaying shelves around him—were those heaps of rot and decay old books? It was a library, or at least it had been one—Nolan would have gone insane thinking about all the knowledge that had been lost to time. Considering it, Radler wasn’t sure that he wasn’t going insane too. 

Another door to the library led out, presumably to the main structure or chamber—what that was, he still had no idea. It was fashioned almost purely of metal, and Ellira was already oiling its hinges. He took the liberty of trying the handle, and to his surprise found it unlocked. He hesitated for a brief moment. “Are we sure that we’re ready?” Two grim nods of assent. There was nothing more to be gained by staying still. Radler breathed deeply, and turned the handle, bracing for a rush of shadows at the very least. Nothing. Perhaps their secrecy had paid off, or the figures somehow needed rest? Either way, he was not about to complain. He motioned Errdal and Ellira to remain silent as they emerged into a...hallway? It was not the enormous round chamber he had expected from his initial glance into the structure when he had grabbed Krask’s bag down by the broken lift next to the main door and ran back to help Nolan—there, the shadows had barred his progress. But they were not down by the main door either. Radler felt his skin crawl. He felt something here, which was choosing to stay unseen. His heart throbbed, but he would not pass up the chance to look around while he could. Glancing left, the hallway continued for a while, and there looked to be tile mosaics of the ten Radiant spren as decoration, with more abstract images closer to a round, bowl-shaped chamber at the end of the hall. The broken lift system was more or less right in front of him, between him and another metal door which he assumed was the other library. So much for secrecy, though we did make less noise than just waltzing in the door. And how many times when going to another level did we pass through this very room quickly, without thinking, when danger lurked here all along? The thought made his skin crawl even more. Looking right, he saw little but the main set of gates he had tried to enter earlier, and another door which led to the other rooms on the level. He assumed the working lift was somewhere in them. The floor was of stone blocks, and the ceiling was far up and poorly lit, though he fancied there were designs painted on it. With no other choice, he looked left again, and swallowed. A Shadow was spreading from out of the chamber, splitting and coalescing into the humanoid figures which had attacked him and Nolan earlier. They were indeed not allowed to go further, it seemed. Beside him, Ellira gripped her daggers, and Errdal summoned his Blade, drawing an eyebrow from the young woman. For his own part, Radler drew his conventional sword and charged, though it was not ordinary steel he would fight with. 

The groups clashed, shadowed figures dissipating as Radler Lightwove challengers for them or destroyed them in the Cognitive Realm. They seemed more...potent...here, but were still defeatable. Errdal’s Shardblade clove a swath around him and Ellira, who he was essentially defending. The girl was quick with her daggers, though, Radler mused, even if they did little damage to the shadowed figures—she saved her own life, and Errdal’s, several times with her defences, though Radler suspected she only did the latter out of necessity; should Errdal fall, she would also in short order. For his own part, he was busy not dying, and quickly returned his focus to the shadows. He blocked a shadowed figure’s sword with his own, then Soulcast its essence—what little it had—out of existence. As he did so, he noticed the crowd of shadowed figures thinning, or perhaps consolidating, as he approached the chamber. He drove his sword into another figure, watching it writhe and fade away, and quickly ducked as Errdal’s Shardblade swung around, taking out a figure who had crept behind him. He nodded thanks, and decided it was high time to get at the heart of what was in the chamber. Drawing in about a quarter of his remaining Stormlight, he sent out a pulse of pure light and energy. Strangely, the shadows dissipated, melting away as they touched the blast of Investiture. In the Cognitive Realm, though, Radler saw them retreat instead, fusing with something much larger. He stepped into the bowl-shaped chamber with trepidation, the wrongness he felt in Shadesmar not gone. The shadows, after the initial assault, had not meant to kill them. Then what would? 

A twenty-foot column of oily black essence greeted him as he entered, seemingly rising out of the stones. WORLDHOPPER, a voice came. GHOSTBLOOD, SHARDBEARER. WELCOME TO MY CHAMBER. A pause. THOUGH YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE DISTURBED MY REST. NONE OF YOU MAY ESCAPE. 

The essence split, and the shadowy figures resurged, Errdal frantically throwing himself in front of Ellira to protect her. Radler stood dumb, feeling a great weight press down upon his mind. At last, however, he recognised his foe: Re-Shephir the Unmade, servant of Odium. Had he been alone, he could perhaps have dealt with her, defending himself while warring in the Cognitive Realm. But with her threatening his friends, he had no choice. He would hold to his word from before. “Errdal, Ellira, flee this spawn of Damnation! I will hold the exit by the stairs.” 

Errdal looked at him aghast, lowering his guard for a brief instant, through which a figure slipped, stabbing him in the side. He swore, chopping it in half with his Blade. “But we came here to—”

“You’re being overwhelmed, you fool! Get out of here, take that fool girl, and let me hold the exit!” He speared another Shadow, desperately trying to keep the hostile presence away from his mind while retaliating against the figures. It was exhausting, and he could only keep it up for so long. “Remember what I told you earlier? What I made you swear?”

Errdal nodded, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Then run!” Radler yelled, doing the same, throwing the Midnight Mother’s pressure off him at last and resuming engagement with her shadows. This time, there really seemed no end to them. Ellira and Errdal were sprinting for the metal door to the library, cutting down everything in their way. Radler back-pedalled slowly, careful not to let any shadows slip past him. His Stormlight was dangerously low, but if he was correct about the shadows being confined mostly to the chamber, there would be no need to save any—Ellira had made it through the door, and Errdal stood at the entrance, vaporising the last oiled black figure which had crept past Radler. Two other emaciated creatures crept past him, which he let by without thinking. Axehounds? He couldn’t waste time thinking about that. Errdal still held the door open, though, peering anxiously out at him. The sound of running footsteps told him Ellira had kept sprinting—she was clearly the one with more brains, out of the two. “Close the storming door!” Radler gasped. “I’ll make it out by the front, or not at all!” His last Lightweavings collapsed. He was out of Stormlight. “GO!” Drawing his sword, whose aluminum coating would still kill anything that went near him, he continued backing towards the front door. The shadows refused to engage, instead circling and advancing slowly. Radler gritted his teeth. He would just have to keep retreating towards the door, face towards his assailants. He stepped backwards one foot at a time, and still the shadows did not engage. But why? They could have easily rushed him by now. Suddenly his back foot stepped on nothing. The empty shaft, of course, how Krask died! He overbalanced, teetering forward, and now the shadows rushed. He tried to hold them back, but without Stormlight it was hopeless. Two of the figures locked swords with him, shoved, and he was weightless, falling into the abyss. A long fall, and a short ending, unless he broke it. Reaching into his belt, he downed the last vial of metals, then dropped his sword, Pushing it past him. He felt it hit ground below, falling through the rapidly growing square at the bottom of the shaft. Before he landed, he Pushed on it with all his might, slowing his descent to a manageable speed. He hit, cracking ribs against the rocky mountaintops. But he was alive—the corpse of Krask next to him wasn’t—and presumed dead. That could prove useful, if he survived the coming days. For now, though, he was without food in the barren mountaintops, and it was a long way down to find humanity. He would make it, though. He had to warn Darrel at the very least of the fresh danger which Odium posed to Roshar’s peace. 

---

Opal Lion (Tnaidar) was lynched, but survived!

Radler is presumed dead! He was a Loyal Knight Radiant! 

Vote Count
Opal Lion (6): Amber Vulture, Emerald Falcon, Magenta Albatross, Scarlet Octopus, Taupe Gecko
Magenta Albatross (2): Coral Swan, Mauve Crocodile, Violet Axolotl
Saffron Iguana (1): Amethyst Scorpion, Plum Rhinoceros
Sunburst Toucan (0): Saffron Iguana

Night 2 has begun and will end in 23 hours, at 1am Pacific on the first day of 2020. 

Player List
1. Amber Vulture: Jashi, Stormwarden
2. Amethyst Scorpion: Jesh, Lost Axehound
3. Chartreuse Penguin: Taladir, Gambler Radiant Worldhopper
4. Coral Swan: Germaine, Scholar
5. Cream Tuatara: Dfyan, Scholar
6. Emerald Falcon: Sein, Inquisitive
7. Indigo Weasel: Adhom Inem, Ardent
8. Ivory Dragonfly: Krask, Conspiracy Theorist Sympathizer Worldhopper
9. Magenta Albatross: Jonan Wikim, Lost Axehound (Gren)
10. Mauve Crocodile: Sernes, Paranoid Scout
11. Mint Heron: Sam, Once a Darkeyes
12. Onyx Flamingo: Kir, Kleptomaniac Scout
13. Opal Lion: Tnaidar, Scout
14. Pearl Chameleon: Purrl, Adolin’s Former Girlfriend
15. Plum Rhinoceros: Logalog, Scholar
16. Quartz Zebra: Arauna Khadal, Adolin’s Former Girlfriend Sympathizer Worldhopper
17. Saffron Iguana: Merinira, Scout
18. Sage Kangaroo: Gilglin, Ardent (Devotary of the Mind)
19. Salmon Meerkat: Cadamum, Ghostblood Recruit
20. Scarlet Octopus: Max Mercury, Past Lives
21. Sunburst Toucan: Tafud, Slightly Crazy
22. Taupe Gecko: Brana, Scholar
23. Turqoise Gorilla: Bomer, Gambler
24. Violet Axolotl: Adi, Anxious

Edited December 31, 2019 by Elbereth