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Well, if there are 5 elims, then we're at lylo, and if Drake is an elim he has nothing to lose by misleading us. Buuut, I think 5 is a lot for 18 players, so I'll trust Drake for now and vote for Xino. If Drake is right, that PoE sorta worked, huh. :P 

@Lahilt, who are you protecting this cycle? I'm asking so that we don't double protect someone. 

I'm staying in the Garden.

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Xino

Xino voted Silber, which could maybe indicate that Striker is elim. Certainly not conclusive evidence. 

We drove down to get reception for a bit.

Guys! Discuss! Please! Also, I realized I'll be back halfway through C6.

It seems that active people may all be village, unless Drake is trying to convince us that he's village. Not likely, but possible. 

Someone with Internet want to ping people at 12 hrs remaining? 

If there are 5 elims, we're at parity, unless I'm miscounting. Only items would allow us to win if there are 5 elims.

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19 hours ago, DrakeMarshall said:

1) I am very mad that 3 of my reads were proven wrong all in a single day :angry:

2) I am very confused that the elims killed Devotary, who had a 50/50 chance of being lynched. The elims very nearly threw away their kill, which at this point in the game would kinda make a big difference. Whoever put in the order to kill Devotary can't have been online at the end of last cycle, and assuming they told their elim buddies what they were planning the rest of the elim team probably shouldn't have allowed Devotary to be tied for the lynch. I kind of don't think any of the elim team could have been online at the end of the last cycle, which is really useful information to solve this. It also explains a lot of why we've been struggling to find the elims, if a lot of them haven't been very active.

3) I am very pleased to report that I found an elim, since we kind of need a correct lynch today. Two cycles ago I dug up a rusted over metalmind in the Gardens that functioned as a single-use scanning item, and last cycle I used it and discovered that Xinoehp512 is an elim. That said, I'd rather this didn't kill discussion, because we still have a long road ahead of us. I'll be working on an analysis of all of Xino's prior posts to see who they are connected with, and see where that takes me.

That is all.

Well, shoot.

I know very well I am not elim, although I don't really have anything to prove it.

This must mean that the elims- including Drake- are very confident in winning this turn, even with a total lie.

There's simply no way for me to realistically persuade people off my vote, so...

Guess I lose again :P.

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Drake wasn't in the garden C2 or C3. Was he C4? Edit: he was C4. That's still enough to make me suspicious, although I'm not sure enough to vote. /edit.

Xino

Edited by Mist
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40 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

Well, shoot.

I know very well I am not elim, although I don't really have anything to prove it.

This must mean that the elims- including Drake- are very confident in winning this turn, even with a total lie.

There's simply no way for me to realistically persuade people off my vote, so...

Guess I lose again :P.

Hats off to fighting till the end, but I don't think you're getting out of this. Pretty sure we're not at LyLo yet so they can lynch me tomorrow if I'm lying and the village is on course for winning either way. I don't see how it would make sense for elim!Drake to do this.

30 minutes ago, Mist said:

Drake wasn't in the garden C2 or C3. Was he C4? Edit: he was C4. That's still enough to make me suspicious, although I'm not sure enough to vote. /edit.

Xino

That is correct. You search the room you voted to go to on that same cycle, though. I voted to go to the Gardens and searched them on C3, heard I'd unearthed a battered and rusty metalmind I could use to scan people at the start of C4 (guessing the item flavor comes from the fact that I RP'd Zachary as a Trueself ferring, which is pretty cool :)), and my action for C4 was to use the scan on Xino.

EDIT:

@Orlok Tsubodai @StrikerEZ @Burnt Spaghetti @The_Truthwatcher @Lahilt where are you guys at?

I'm glad about the recent uptick in activity today, but still, it's gotten kinda quiet.

Edited by DrakeMarshall
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I was playing minecraft up until very recently. :P

Anyway, I guess we should vote on xino then? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to make this claim as an elim, unless the elims are absolutely certain that they can win this round. Which would mean they must have...5 players, right? Because I'm pretty sure we're down to 10. 

I'm a little bit suspicious of Lotus. Something about their post just doesn't sit right with me, and if xino flips village, I bet Lotus and Drake are teammates. 

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  • Elbereth unpinned and locked this topic

In addition to scrutinizing Xino's previous activity so we can use it next cycle, which is something I've been working on in a google doc, Kas mentioned that there's a mystery hinted at in the writeups, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the elims, but is kind of a cool and fun easter egg if we could figure it out. Seeing as we've earned a (very temporary) bit of breathing room with Xino, I was wondering if we could try solving it this cycle. The things I was able to pick up from the writeups:

  • C1: The current gardener has a hard time telling apart some of the plants.
  • C1: Lady Prissy wanted to make sure the guests only went where they were supposed to.
  • C2: Breezehome overlooks a cliff over the ocean. Talbot planned a boating excursion, which sparked an argument with Lady Prissy.
  • C2: The gardens contain an herb with star-shaped purple flowers and dark-black leaves, which the old gardener said never to touch, but did not seem to harm one of the guests who touched it.
    • The plant is most likely deadly nightshade. Deadly nightshade has five-pointed purple flowers and is very poisonous, but since it's only the berries that are poisonous (and generally only if ingested), it is also safe to touch.
    • It could also be several plants in the Hellebore genus. Some of them have a similar physical description, and many of them are also poisonous. These are a bit more obscure than deadly nightshade, however.
    • The writeups reference several other herbs growing in Talbot's garden which I wasn't able to confidently identify from the description. There was a different herb that El was found dead with, and another one referenced as growing nearby the study.
    • EDIT: The Gardens PM also says that there's Henbane in Talbot's garden. Henbane is actually a member of the nightshade family, but it also doesn't look very much like deadly nightshade (flowers are kinda a speckled yellow with darker centers). So it looks like there are several plants in Talbot's garden that are known to be poisonous.
  • C2: Talbot Oswin was found dead in the study with his throat slit. Door was unlocked, no signs of struggle except for a broken wine glass. Talbot's final expression was more surprised than scared. Judging by the broken wine glass, chances are this is really where he was cut down, and the body wasn't moved after the fact.
  • C2: At Lady Prissy's orders, nobody was allowed to leave the manor until the killer was found. The manor is still on lockdown.
  • C3: The gardener can't stand the sight of blood.
  • C3: Lord Heron did not have a flattering reputation. A banned book I found on the misdeeds of the Heron family corroborates this.
  • C3: The cook likes to read murder mysteries.
  • C4: The servant Lady Prissy sent to fetch the constables was jumped, knifed, and thrown into a ditch before they could get very far away from the estate.
  • C4: Lady Prissy seemed fairly unsurprised that the servants sent to fetch the constables got killed, and continues to handle the situation calmly.
  • C5: Talbot used to keep the growlerly locked up, with even the servants not allowed to set foot in it. The growlery was open the night Talbot died. But that wasn't where Talbot was found dead.
  • C5: The lock on the growlery appears to have been forced, or at least somebody tried to force it. The legitimate key is nowhere to be found.
  • C5: Lord Ostlin's neck was broken in the bedroom. Takes a lot of strength to break a neck.

All in all? I have no rusting idea :P

I can theorize that maybe there was something important in the growlery. Either somebody forced their way into the room to get at it, or something escaped from the room to get out. Killer might've wanted to get at the room, too, because presumably Talbot was the sole owner to the key, and Lady Prissy said she couldn't find it after Talbot was murdered. Seeing as the lock ended up being forced, though, it seems that either the killer couldn't find the key on Talbot, or that somebody else beat the killer to the punch and forced their way into the growlery.

I can theorize that maybe there was more to Talbot Oswin than meets the eye. It's not everyone who plants multiple herbs one would use to poison people's beverages in their garden, and judging by how comfortable both gardeners were around those plants it's none too likely they chose to put 'em there. Talbot might've been involved in something shady which ended up getting him killed.

I can theorize that Lady Prissy seems awfully calm about the whole affair, keeping everyone on lockdown with a rapidly rising casualty rate and clearly no outside help, and that the circumstances surrounding Talbot's murder heavily implies that the blow came from someone he implicitly trusted. Although it hardly makes sense for her to be involved with the killers since they apparently win by lynching her.

I can theorize that the Herons might not have taken kindly to somebody like Talbot Oswin being attached to them, spending their reputation and money alike. I have some reason to believe the ones pulling the strings of House Heron aren't exactly what you would call nice, and there is a certain logic to cutting off Talbot from the family tree, in a permanent sense.

Idk what do other people think? I think we could use something to talk about right now.

Edited by DrakeMarshall
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Xino as much as I am suspicious of Drake, losing a village rolescan would be very bad for the village at this point in the game. 

Unfortunately my protection Item was for only one cycle so I am going back to searching. lounge

@TJ Shade Perhaps you should protect Drake or yourself. If Drake is Elim he will not get nightkilled anyway and if He is Village we can not afford the loss of his ability.

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9 minutes ago, Lahilt said:

Xino as much as I am suspicious of Drake, losing a village rolescan would be very bad for the village at this point in the game. 

Unfortunately my protection Item was for only one cycle so I am going back to searching. lounge

@TJ Shade Perhaps you should protect Drake or yourself. If Drake is Elim he will not get nightkilled anyway and if He is Village we can not afford the loss of his ability.

It's a single-use role scanning item, which is now used up. I don't really see how elim!Drake would allow a tie between Devotary and Gears, among other things, but by all means, if you suspect me, go ahead and vote for me without fear of depriving the village of a reusable scanning ability. Not gonna lie, it feels like you're an elim bussing on Xino because it's too late to save them.

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Don't mind me, just watching your theorising :ph34r: Carry on with your regularly-scheduled killer identification programme.

TFW Drake comes up with a better storyline than what I had planned, sigh...back to the drawing board... :P 

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I'd be interested to know what you had planned when all this is said and done :) My theories are more a loose collection of entertaining bits of tin foil than a single story or explanation, so I doubt they make as much sense as what you had in mind.

Edited by DrakeMarshall
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4 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

I'd be interested to know what you had planned when all this is said and done :) My theories are more a loose collection of entertaining bits of tin foil than a single story or explanation, so I doubt they make as much sense as what you had in mind.

DWAI. Would say I'm half-joking, half-serious. But I've already planned the meta-plot so one way or another, there's no reason to be changing it right now :) 

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If this is LyLo, then we’re screwed.

But if it isn’t, we might have a shot.

Sophia wandered into the Growlry she rummaged around, looking for some good hard root beer. The servers hadn’t know where it was. Rust and Ruin, when would she be able to go?

Once she found what she was looking for she settled down with the drink, taking deep breaths. Just like when facing a swarm of bees, one had to be calm. She worried about how many people were being killed, but she let that go, and just sat with the drink. It reminded her of how she had once, long ago, converted to Pathianism. She wasn’t very devout.

Edited by MysticLotus
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Well this is interesting

Don't like this at all

Hm.

Methinks the elims have us very much wrapped around their finger. Makes me cautious of drake since he's been a vocal thread leader through this game.

But the scan... That seems legit? I hope? Xino denys it which, well, duh.  Though could argue at this point a lost Elim isn't gonna hurt their team too much. On the other hand a clean sweep is always a nice achievement to hunt for. Regardless, reasoning hasn't gotten us anywhere this game. I'd rather trust a scan at this point. Roll the dice, trust the mechanics.

xino

garden

 

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Zachary Holcomb, acclaimed among fashionable society of Elendel, paid very close attention to appearances. And if one were to look closely at his, they might notice a pair of aluminum cuff links adorning his sleeves, oddly touching his skin, out of place in how expensive they were. If one were to look very closely, they might notice a symbol engraved on each sleeve.
On one hand, the symbol of Leras. On the other, the symbol of Ati.
The Words of Founding taught that Ruin and Preservation flowed in all things. Two oppositional forces twined together to make the form and substance of the universe. One desired only for security. The other desired only for destruction. Of the teachings handed down from the priests, this was always Zachary’s favorite. It explained so much about this world.
Ruin and Preservation flowed in all things, but Ruin colored outside the neat lines of civilization. Humans were supposed to contain more Preservation than Ruin, but Zachary never felt that was true, growing up. The only way to make everybody like him, the only way for a half-noble nobody from the slums of the Seventh Octant to rise up to become one of Elendel’s most respected members of high society, was to bury his Ruin. Bury the uglier impulses that lurked in everyone’s hearts. A piece of his Identity, sheared off and locked away by a rare feruchemical talent, trapped in an aluminum casing. So that he could smile and keep his face towards the sun.
But Ruin could not be imprisoned forever. It ate away at it’s confinement with the inevitable promise of breaking free. It boiled over in it’s fragile casing, the metal at his right wrist feeling as if it burned into his skin with every waking moment. To empty the metalmind would be to court disaster, but by now the blasted trinket contained far too much of his Self for Zachary to bear ever parting with it.
Maybe it was the stress, but he’d lost control, a few hours back. Blacked out. Woke up in the gardens, dirt and flour staining his clothes, knowing something had gone horribly wrong. When he’d heard the Lord Heron he’d talked to before had been blown to pieces, well, he was pretty sure he knew who did it.
And when the other killers had approached Zachary, he didn’t have it in him to refuse their offer. It was the only logical way out. He needed to get away clean with this, and so did they. They would work as a team, in the service of a mysterious benefactor. They would plant rumors and forge evidence, they would work carefully to silence the voices that would tell a different version of events.
And now, their labors had nearly come to fruition.
It was a blessing in disguise, really, that he had been forced to attend such a dull party in a remote manor in Bilming. Far better to lose control here than back in Elendel. And there was still quite a bit of malice stored up that needed releasing. Maybe later he’d find a way to release it in more controlled conditions, ways that didn’t hurt people, but for now, getting away clean was all that mattered to him.
Zachary Holcomb tapped into Ruin.

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Aftermath:

While The Light Lasts

So there’s my tale. Of course, I did promise you the truth about the massacre at the Oswin Manor. I promised you a tale that would last at least a candlemark, and the candle is almost doused.

Won’t you drink with me, milady, while the light lasts?

To Lord Talbot Oswin. I wasn’t lying when I said I’ve had worse employers than your son, my Lady. Worse employers? You know them, my Lady. Your esteemed sister, may Ironeyes take her. They say she’s cast from the mould of Lady Jocasta Heron of Tremredare, who bathed in the blood of her skaa. 

They would be right.

Imagine you’re Johanna Heron, milady. Imagine you’re a ruthless, scheming gixie with a piece of ice for a heart. Imagine that the Heron estates are divided because that fool of a Lord in Elendel decided that the collateral lines weren’t pure enough for his liking, and he gave away the bulk of his estates to an old cantankerous man with no Heron lineage at all.

How dare I?

Milady, you know Johanna Heron. You grew up with her. Did you really think she would not scheme and plot to take back what she saw as hers?

 

cHxBHopirixn2Inz-8nsMHt8M9BymNls8IFuuHyZJtrpYPj8iG4gHb1Vmhja8ZYt91h7dzpLnrXgZlm8qi8MEsX691mPBKZD6SfBQrf_Y7tuLSUZF2f5E0ee_ReiTjxQOoT0jGsI

 

My part in this tangled tale goes back a long way. I was to find a post at your son’s house, and to work there, quietly, for months. I was very good at my job. I have been very good at my job, for years now. You see, nobody expects someone like me to be very clever. As long as I stammer and ask questions and look blank and distressed, people aren’t very suspicious at all.

Of course, I really don’t know all that much about flowers. Convenient, that. But Lord Talbot Oswin had no opening at his Bilming manor, and I needed access to the Bilming manor.

So I slipped in one night and killed the gardener. It was a little less quiet than was ideal, but I broke his neck. The flowers have grown very well since. And he does keep very detailed notes, enough for me to be able to figure out how to muddle along.

To his credit, Lord Oswin saw through me that night. 

I hadn’t planned on killing him at all. But he saw, and he realised what I was. Or I suppose I should say, who I was. Maybe it was the lighting, that night. Or maybe it was the portrait of your esteemed father, Kyrios Heron, on the wall of his study. Later, I removed the portrait and set fire to it in the back of the garden, and threw the blood-stained work gloves away. No one noticed.

He hadn’t seen it before that. Very few people do. Fortunately, I do take very strongly after my father, and that’s enough for most people to write me off as another koloss-blooded lout. 

That night, I’d planned on lifting the key to the Growlery from his pocket. I’d tried to gain access to the Growlery before, but that lock defeated my attempts to pick it open. There was no help for it. I’d have to steal the key from Lord Talbot Oswin.

The party seemed like a good time. By then, I had learned that Lord Oswin was especially wont to be inebriated at parties. And if I was discovered in the Growlery, I could claim that I had found the door open and lay the blame on the guests.

The irony is, I don’t think Lord Oswin really knew what he had in there. I don’t think you realised either, milady. Because if you did, I don’t think you’d ever let him keep it among his historical curiosities.

It’s the old genealogy, milady. The proper one, before the late Lord Heron decided that the collateral lines were not suited to inherit. Before he threw away his estates and gave the lion’s share to his chosen successor. 

It’s an old story. But that Lord Heron wasn’t even supposed to inherit the estate at all. The Herons inherit by birth order, though there was that business pre-Catacendre with a sibling ruling himself out of the succession by joining the Steel Ministry.

Lady Johanna Heron knew that, of course. She had lawyers and historians tracing the documents, and she realised that something was strange about the sudden transfer of the Lordship to the deceased Aralis Heron.

That’s where I came in.

 

cHxBHopirixn2Inz-8nsMHt8M9BymNls8IFuuHyZJtrpYPj8iG4gHb1Vmhja8ZYt91h7dzpLnrXgZlm8qi8MEsX691mPBKZD6SfBQrf_Y7tuLSUZF2f5E0ee_ReiTjxQOoT0jGsI

 

As I said, I hadn’t intended to kill Lord Oswin.

I’ve done my share of wetwork, but anyone can kill. It’s harder to look into things, to find out what needs doing and to do it. That’s what I’ve been doing for Lady Johanna Heron for a number of years now. 

But he was going to cry out, and I covered his mouth with my hand and then the wineglass shattered, and…

And I suppose I panicked. I slit his throat, there and then. I do regret it. Perhaps I could have tied him up or knocked him out. But done is done. No point crying over spilled wine.

I had to kill Phelan and Darrow as well as the Lady El. By then, I knew that Johanna Heron had actually hired people to kill Lord Talbot Oswin. The irony tickled me, I suppose. Lady Johanna has never quite trusted me. If I got the job done, well and good. And if I didn’t, well. She wouldn’t really shed a tear if I got killed, either.

Tough love, I suppose.

As she always says, she brought me into this world, and she can just make another.

I’m not a rightwise son of House Heron, after all. And that makes me utterly expendable.

 

cHxBHopirixn2Inz-8nsMHt8M9BymNls8IFuuHyZJtrpYPj8iG4gHb1Vmhja8ZYt91h7dzpLnrXgZlm8qi8MEsX691mPBKZD6SfBQrf_Y7tuLSUZF2f5E0ee_ReiTjxQOoT0jGsI

 

So, the killers. I went around the house, lying low and gathering information. I figured that things would get dicey if the constables came. Couldn’t have that. I liked Phelan. Didn’t want to have to kill him, but needs must.

As suspicious as the killers were, they were mostly wary of their fellow guests. So it was I discovered a note with the Heron seal amongst their belongings and then my suspicions were confirmed.

I mostly stayed out of their way, and beneath their notice. I did help Lord Holcomb slam the door shut on the sadly-deceased Lord Aralis Heron. I heard him scream and felt the heat from the explosive trap on my skin, as the wood heated up. It didn’t matter to me. I healed fast. And I wasn’t much of a Heron, but it felt just a bit like justice.

I broke Lord Aidan Ostlin’s neck. You shouldn’t really trust the one telling you the story, milady. He was enough of a threat that I didn’t think Lady Johanna wanted him alive either. I’m not sure her hired killers quite realised his degree of kinship to the Herons.

In any case, they seemed to have taken it in their stride. 

We had differing assignments, differing objectives. I kept the Growlery key close to my skin and waited. I did not have enough time to ascertain that the genealogy was complete, as after I had opened the door, the Growlery was often teeming with guests. It was difficult, but I had to move quickly when the guests’ attention were elsewhere. Such as when there was a killing. Or when they occupied separate rooms.

On that last night, when the killers made their move, I had finally collected the entire genealogy and folded it into a weatherproof folio. I then stole away.

My task was done. I wasn’t interested in seeing what else they were up to.

 

cHxBHopirixn2Inz-8nsMHt8M9BymNls8IFuuHyZJtrpYPj8iG4gHb1Vmhja8ZYt91h7dzpLnrXgZlm8qi8MEsX691mPBKZD6SfBQrf_Y7tuLSUZF2f5E0ee_ReiTjxQOoT0jGsI

 

I can guess, of course. I know how Lady Johanna Heron thinks, all too well.

The killers had come for Lord Talbot Oswin and Lord Aralis Heron. The other murders were...an unfortunate series of events. For one, Lady Priscilla Estvaril had insisted on cordoning off the Manor and keeping the guests present for the constables to investigate the murders. This instinct to preserve the scene was commendable but soon became a liability as the entire manor became a series of overlapping crime scenes.

For another, the killers had been getting nervous, and suspecting that others were onto them. They needed to stay alive to enjoy the fruit of their labours, after all. This made them jumpy. And with the other guests investigating and asking questions, trying to discern the killers in their midst...

Well. Lady Johanna Heron hadn’t given instructions that the other guests had to live.

So they planned to kill their way out, one guest at a time. If there were no witnesses, they had no fear of the incompetent Bilming constabulary coming down on their heads like the wrath of Ironeyes Himself. Because even Lady Johanna Heron couldn’t shield them from that; nor was she likely to. As far as Lady Johanna’s concerned, they got themselves into that mess, they can get themselves out of it.

Finally, the servants sent to fetch the constables and the guests who had left were turning up dead. This made them feel all the more trapped—strictly incidental on my part. I needed the uninterrupted time to search the Growlery.

I can tell you who they were: Lord Locke Tekiel, a banker from Elendel, who had done some business with your son before. Ah, you know him? Very good. Lord Zachary Holcomb, a notorious socialite and gossip. There’s a lot of depths to that one, I wouldn’t underestimate him. Lady Amber Ghetti—I’ve passed off as an artist before, myself, and it’s surprising just how much incriminating evidence and murder weapons you can stuff into an artist’s bag and get away with it! And then there was the odd one out: the man who called himself Thaill. I really meant what I said: there’s something off about the man’s expressions and his choice of words. It’s like he’s not from here at all...but what would that even really mean?

Of course, milady, there’s no point in calling for their heads.

That last day, your son’s former lover, Lord Variel Ulring, he fought with Thaill. He actually won, too, and I think he really believed he’d brought Lord Talbot’s killer to justice. Unfortunately for him, he was wrong—and he didn’t look behind him. Lady Ghetti finished him off. 

They made their move that night. I don’t know how long it took them to prepare. 

It was clever too, I’ll give them that. Lord Holcomb presented the hapless Borzen Oeszno as the killer. By then, the guests were terrified, and it’s surprisingly easy to coax terrified people into doing terrible things in the name of their safety.

So they killed Borzen Oeszno. The most Borzen had done was to wander the manor at night—I often encountered him—waving a cushion about as if it were a dueling cane.

But I digress. While the guests rallied against Borzen Oeszno, Lord Holcomb did for the naturalist, Lady Sophia. That wasn’t a pleasant sight, and I’ve seen a number of gruesome murders in my line of work. I’ll spare you the details, milady. At the same time, Lord Variel Ulring had peeled off from the group, and just as Thaill had finished seeing to the former lawman, he caught Thaill—literally bloody-handed.

They fought, of course. Lord Variel Ulring gave a good accounting of himself, as I said. Poor Lord must’ve thought he was seeing to justice for Lord Talbot.

Then there were two left. Three, if you count Lady Priscilla.

I heard the shouts and the screams. I left. I had a genealogy to return to Lady Johanna Heron, after all. And I wasn’t going to stick around to see what happened next.

 

cHxBHopirixn2Inz-8nsMHt8M9BymNls8IFuuHyZJtrpYPj8iG4gHb1Vmhja8ZYt91h7dzpLnrXgZlm8qi8MEsX691mPBKZD6SfBQrf_Y7tuLSUZF2f5E0ee_ReiTjxQOoT0jGsI

 

And there you have it. The tale of the massacre at Oswin manor. And the candle has almost burned its way down to a stub. Soon.

The constabulary came, of course, and they asked plenty of questions. But most of the servants were dead or had fled. And time and time again, no one asked about the gardener, even as the flowers bloomed.

I will be a little sad to leave them without my care.

I think that was the main reason the killers weren’t wary of me, of course. I do pride myself on being inconspicuous. Part of the scenery, you might say.

Of course, we know why I’m telling you this, milady, and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Your sister is ruthless, and you know that, and I know that. I promise it won’t hurt at all. It was in the wine.

It will be gentle. It will be like the first fall of night. It will be like sleep.

For you, then, death will come as the end.

cHxBHopirixn2Inz-8nsMHt8M9BymNls8IFuuHyZJtrpYPj8iG4gHb1Vmhja8ZYt91h7dzpLnrXgZlm8qi8MEsX691mPBKZD6SfBQrf_Y7tuLSUZF2f5E0ee_ReiTjxQOoT0jGsI

So, I had to rewrite this aftermath about three times, because there nearly was another cycle. It's a long story. Drake and compatriots were a little nearly too overconfident. Striker Kalebane, the Terror of GMs, had struck again. This time, valiantly, as the hero of Cycle Five, by being the only Villager to kill an Eliminator and to deny them a clean sweep :P 

As I deleted my pre-written endgame write-up and wrote a Cycle Six writeup instead, another PM came in, this time, from Striker's victim, Lahilt, who decided to send in a kill order. This bounced the cycle back to endgame for the Eliminators, so very well done there :P And yes, I was screaming internally and re-writing the endgame write-up again, but there you have it. This is the story of how I exceeded my NaNo 25k word goals in a fortnight :P 

So the announcement you have been waiting for: The Killers have won!

The actual death toll:

  • Borzen Oeszno was a Guest! Further investigation discovered he was in possession of a comfortable stuffed cushion, a dense pre-Catacendre book on skaa rights authored by House Penrod (single-use), and a delicious pastry!
  • Sophia was a Guest! Further investigation discovered she was in possession of poisonous berries (single-use), a written IOU (single-use), a delicious rhubarb pie, and a concentric ring of stones.
  • Lumen was a Guest! Further investigation discovered she was in possession of a discarded pair of bloodied work gloves, two bright blue ribbons, a delicious blueberry pie, and a single bullet (single-use.)
  • Variel Ulring was a Hero! (j/k he's a Guest but you get the point.) Further investigation discovered he was in possession of a honeyed-apple pastry.
  • Thaill was a Killer! Further investigation discovered he was in possession of a battered wooden chopping board (single-use), and a battered cast-iron figurine of a knight wielding an oversized sword with the words REGICIDE etched into the base.

Whew. What a cycle. GM comments to follow, but for now:

  • This is the full rule-set I was using, which also contains one of the write-ups that was the casualty of this cycle.
  • This is the master spreadsheet tracking player actions.
  • This is the dead/spec doc.
  • This is the updated doc tracking Room PMs and the Killer PM. Please be warned the PMs are screenshots, so beware if you are on data.

Thanks for playing, guys, and I hope you all had fun! :) Special thanks to @Elandera for checking the full ruleset, and @little wilson for more or less being acting-IM and dealing with my panicked yelling every other cycle, such as when RNGesus decided it was gonna be Oprah with kill items. ("You get a kill! And you get a kill! AND YOU GET A KILL!")

Edited by Kasimir
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This was very, very fun. Wonderful writeups, great narrative. One day, I hope to be as good of a writer as Kas. Elims, you did amazing. I only mildly suspected Drake and Lahlit. So close to a wipeout. According to the almighty GM, I was the only one not to get a useable item. 'Tis a shame. 

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5 minutes ago, Gears said:

This was very, very fun. Wonderful writeups, great narrative. One day, I hope to be as good of a writer as Kas. Elims, you did amazing. I only mildly suspected Drake and Lahlit. So close to a wipeout. According to the almighty GM, I was the only one not to get a useable item. 'Tis a shame. 

Thanks! You did good this game, to be honest. Was fun to see you interact with the RP. Also, I rechecked my mastersheet:

Yep, as I mentioned, at the time of your death at the start of Cycle Five, Burnt was the only other person to not have gotten anything at all through Search. :P I don't really count the Villagers who died earlier because not all of them sent in Search actions consistently, and everyone else who died with you in end-Cycle Four/start-Cycle Five had found at least one usable item. Which is pretty surprisingly given at least one of them died from inactivity, and so had sent in fewer Search orders than you did o.O

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Loqlaw Mora vowed never to accept immediate requests or attend fancy parties as he fled Breezing Manor with a red herring in his hand, which he had been using as a protection item xD 

I knew something was wrong with Lahilt claiming he had a protect item too. But I didn't mention my suspicion, because I hoped to ascertain his teammates by coaxing him to reveal them as his protect target. That's why I specifically asked whom he was going to target last cycle. 

Knew something wrong when Burnt praised Lahilt for being "brave"  for reveal his protection item, while seemingly ignoring my claim (me offend :P

Mist was smart enough to figure out something wrong with Drake's scan claim. I totally ignored the possibility of kill items and just assumed the only reason Drake would do what he did was if there were 5 elims, and I didn't think so. 

Huh, Orlok actually killed Windrunner? Disappointed in you Orlok. :P

And I've gone through spec doc, and I seem to have doomed the village without protecting Mist. Welp, sorry guys! 

Buuut, me thief. I'm supposed to be selfish, and I guess it's some consolation that I escaped out alive :P

Thanks Kas! The game was very intriguing and fun to play. I loved your write-ups, and all in all, it was very entertaining to be a part of it. 

Congrats to the elims! 

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Man, I'm kind of proud of myself for being the only kill on an elim. :P And I knew there was something off about Drake's claim. I almost voted on him after seeing xino's response and stuff. And the lack of any trolling from xino as the cycle went on almost made me submit my kill on Drake instead of Lahilt, but I decided that there was still a chance that Drake wasn't lying, so I didn't. Glad to know that I had caught half the elim team in one cycle though. :P I'm still not sure what exactly tipped me off on Lahilt, but it just felt right to me to kill him.

Anyway, thank you so much @Kasimir for running this game! I'm sorry that I didn't RP as much as I had wanted to, but the game was still really fun despite what life decided to throw at me during it. I can't wait to play another game with you, whether you're running it or we're playing together!

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1 minute ago, StrikerEZ said:

Anyway, thank you so much @Kasimir for running this game! I'm sorry that I didn't RP as much as I had wanted to, but the game was still really fun despite what life decided to throw at me during it. I can't wait to play another game with you, whether you're running it or we're playing together!

Thank you for not breaking my game this time :P I appreciate your mercy :P 

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8 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

Thank you for not breaking my game this time :P I appreciate your mercy :P 

I still feel really stupid that I didn't search every cycle. While I'm glad that I found the things I did find, I wish I could've had that one extra item from when I forgot to search for things. 

Also, I forgot to mention, there was a brief period of time where I had considered killing MysitcLotus as well. I'm really glad I kind of ruled out that kill option in favor of either Lahilt or Drake. :P

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