Long Game 73: The Forgotten Coup

[Mat]

Aight, as I said before I'm not going to be as active, but there will be chunks of time where I probably am. But if y'all write 10 pages in the morning hours I'm likely not gonna read it all  

I think 4 elims is the most likely number, though five is also possible.

[Sart]

Okay, all role PMs should now be sent out. Let me know if you did not get yours.

[Araris Valerian]

Well, since the last several games I played with Gears involved me strongly arguing that we shouldn't vote him out D1, and this is the Twilight Zone, guess my vote is on Gears  (but actually, he's just as good a D1 kill as anyone right now). I also think that any discussion about whether to actually kill someone should happen far later in the cycle, after we've had a chance to make some folks uncomfortable.

@Alvron, I guess you need to start grabbing Maps.

Defense is weird. I guess we shouldn't settle on a plan yet, since that will make it harder for the elims to optimize a way to stop us.

[Condensation]

I probably won't be able to be so active as well - my classes should be pretty intense. And, y'know, I'm trying to post less. But I'll be on as much as I can and if you need to ask me something, I'll likely be able to reply quickly.

I'm already regretting joining this, but I've committed. At least it's not a QF.

[STINK]

Send me PMs peeps I'm not making any for like 12 hours probably im tired

[Ashbringer]

Last time Faleast was here, things didn't go so well. This time was supposed to be simpler. And yet... it was also much more complicated.

Think about it, Faleast! A Shadowblaze! They're essentially a spren bond without the Stormlight, and we can get that already. We don't even have to play with the Investiture tricks to get it out of here!

"Chalklings whenever we want does sound... promising. But there's also Forgotten here, and I'd really rather avoid messing with those after what... happened last time,"

You're just nervous that Lamentation's going to figure out that there's something even bigger than the Multiverse.

"He probably already knows," Faleast said. "But the Gods Beyond are what made Him. I doubt His vision extends that far."

Maybe. But you still didn't tell him. And why are you capitalizing his? His name, yeah, but Lamentation's just a guy like you. Sure, a guy who holds approximately one-eighth of the net power of one universe, but still.

Faleast shuddered slightly. "So what's our plan?"

I don't know.

"... great. Thank you for the assist."

Neither of us are acting in charge. In my opinion, that means that Lamentation doesn't really care what we do here. But getting a Shadowblaze makes doing... whatever it is we'll be doing much easier.

"Well," Faleast said, tilting his head. "I don't exactly see any piles of Shadowblazes lying around. So do you have a plan to get one?"

Sure, first we... oh, right. Step one no peeking no peeking no peeking no peeking, and wait for Alvron to no peeking no peeking no peeking no peeking. Then step two, no peeking no peeking no peeking be a LITTLE chaotic no peeking no peeking no peeking no peeking grab maps no peeking no peeking no peeking no peeking message people no peeking no peeking no peeking no peeking and try not to let no peeking do no peeking no peeking no peeking. Step four, we grab the Shadowblaze, run like Ishar's chasing us, and profit.

"... what did you just do?" Faleast asked.

White text. Fool's em every time. Especially this time.

"But you can just highlight it and see what it says."

That's why I encrypted it. So they won't be able to read it.

"I don't think that's how encryption works, AraRaash."

Well, either I'm right and that IS how encryption works, or the God Beyond controlling my thought process has no idea what he's talking about. And no, I'm not capitalizing that either.

"In any case," Faleast huffed, "where's step three?"

???

"You have step one, step two, step four."

Yeah.

"What's step three?"

???

"AraRaash"

I'm being serious. That's how you do it. Step One you do this, Step Two you do that, Step Three is ???, Step Four is Profit. Works every time.

Faleast sighed and wandered into camp.

This was definitely not one of Lamentation's priorities.

 

 

TL;DR,am still going for the Shadowblaze.

[Kasimir]

[OOC: Have to go to work. Busy morning. Back later to catch up. Dynamic entry vote time — Gears.

Edited to add: I keep thinking this should be in blue. I blame the games I've been reading and my old man brain :P] 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Kasimir

[Mist]

Random Bystander.[/s] RNG has spoken, hello, welcome to the game! 

oops I hit a random bystander guess I'd better fix my aim

edit: ooopsss hehehe. Sowwy. Forgot the close tag.

Edited January 29, 2021 by Mist

[---]

Illwei walked through the hall, wary of the people around her. She felt...small. Getting to see the front lines was hard when you weren't a Rithmatist- they didn't just let anyone up here. Still- she felt the strange looks as she grabbed her food. They knew she didn't belong.
--
I've decided to put a little faith in RNG this game: Kasimir

Edited January 29, 2021 by Illwei

[|TJ|]

2 minutes ago, Illwei said:

Illwei walked through the hall, wary of the people around her. She felt...small. Getting to see the front lines was hard when you weren't a Rithmatist- they didn't just let anyone up here. Still- she felt the strange looks as she grabbed her food.
--
I've decided to put a little faith in RNG this game: Kasimir

*tip toe tip toe tip toe* *looks left* *looks right* *steals the vote* Kasimir I stole that vote, it's now null and void

[Quintessential]

1 minute ago, TJ Shade said:

*tip toe tip toe tip toe* *looks left* *looks right* *steals the vote* Kasimir I stole that vote, it's now null and void

Ooooo did TJ just claim Thief?

[|TJ|]

9 minutes ago, Quinn0928 said:

Ooooo did TJ just claim Thief?

Hehehe, I told I'm RPing as a thief in the sign-ups

[Quintessential]

Just now, TJ Shade said:

Hehehe, I told I'm RPing as a thief in the sign-ups

Ohhhh right sorry... your post threw me off because I expected you to be stealing hearts, not votes. I'm disappointed, ngl XD

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

1 hour ago, Gears said:

Non-Rithmatist: That one wise mentor guy who can’t use magic but knows everything about it. Plot twist: This guy can use magic in very specific circumstances. Village until the Shadowblaze is acquired. Do not trust. Actually, couldn’t the non-Rithmatist just claim to everyone in a one-on-one PM [but not tell everyone that they’re doing it to everyone], so the Rithmatists will avoid giving them the Shadowblaze and trust them a little, but the Forgotten will give them the Shadowblaze, and then the non-Rithmatist has everyone slightly on their side?

Thief: Gain 5 Valuable items. Steal 1 random item from a Player. Good luck, deserter. We don’t really want you to get away with all of these Valuable items, so keep your head down low and foster capitalist intent.

Lantern: Somewhat useful? Seems better for elims, as a way to gauge acid per cycle

Shadowblaze: Everyone wants it. Thief can get 2 for 1, Rithmatist can get Defense, Forgotten can reduce defense, non-Rithmatist will get chalk powers. If you die with it, it dies too. Do not die with it. If you have an action to spare, you can play keep-away with it. Only if you trust them, though. Beware. 

Ornate Clock: Stop the Chalklings for a night. Use in the case of dire emergency. Do not waste. Perhaps if we have failed to coordinate and are now low on both acid and chalk.

Line of Warding: Add 1 to defense. Special: Defense += 2; Coordinate lines! Overusing is pointless!

Line of Making: Learn player’s target. Mildly useless unless specialed. Special: Learn action taken.

---

We need to coordinate what we take from the camp supply. Current Strength: 1. Assume the worst, Forgotten have Shadowblaze, +1. We need +2. So two people draw Lines of Warding. Those people need to be the ones who get chalk first, with everyone else as a second. Other people need to get Acid. We have to coordinate or everything will be ruined. Lanterns are good for accountability and to keep out of elim!hands. 

---

 

The non-rithmatist claiming is how the village lost last time when the conversion ability of the Shadowblaze was a secret. Right now the non-rithmatist is a villager and I don't think it's beneficial to immediately let the elims know who to target if they ever get the Shadowblaze.

People have treated the thief as somewhat hostile in previous Rithmatist games but the benefit of having such a high player count in this game is that there's so many more items, including six valuable items right there in the camp supply, that any harm the thief causes by bailing with items is minimised.

Lanterns are good if defenses get coordinated. Three people say they're going to contribute to the defense but then only two defense actually manifests, the lantern wielder knows that something went wrong and for right now everyone knows whether they got roleblocked.

I know people have differing opinions on this, but I would disapprove of the specifically village non-Rithmatist purposefully converting themselves to the elim side by grabbing the Shadowblaze.

The ornate clock doesn't automatically prevent the camp from being overrun if the elims have the Shadowblaze, but we'll have some indication as to whether that's a possibility.

The elims can roleblock people from adding defense, so we'll need more than openly claiming the exact amount needed to protect the camp every night.

There's only so many actions you can or should target other players with, and watching someone target a player who winds up dead is always suspicious.

I assume that the thief and non-Rithmatist start with nothing while everybody else has one piece of chalk. Every other item has to be claimed from the supply. A Shadowblaze probably won't be introduced unless someone uses a map. It's hard to predict how much defense we'll end up needing over the course of the game, but we have 16-17 now, 10 available in the supply, three maps which can potentially get more defense options, and a non-rithmatist who can grant people double strength lines of warding, so I think we do have the budget for two defense tonight just to be safe.

[Quintessential]

4 minutes ago, Devotary of Spontaneity said:

Lanterns are good if defenses get coordinated. Three people say they're going to contribute to the defense but then only two defense actually manifests, the lantern wielder knows that something went wrong and for right now everyone knows whether they got roleblocked.

This... isn't necessarily the case. I don't mind too much saying that I started with a Specialization. It's possible one of the elims did too. They might already be able to roleblock without us knowing.

[Mat]

Noting Illwei's claim, though it's likely an offshoot of what she said at the end of signups.

Anyone else not like the Gears train, or is it just me? We all know that the claim is NAI and we all know how Gears reacts to a lot of votes early D1 because we do it every single time  

Quinn for no specific reason.

[Quintessential]

8 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Anyone else not like the Gears train, or is it just me? We all know that the claim is NAI and we all know how Gears reacts to a lot of votes early D1 because we do it every single time  

Quinn for no specific reason.

You're right, the Gears train is odd. I'll join you on Quinn  

[Alvron]

2 hours ago, Araris Valerian said:

@Alvron, I guess you need to start grabbing Maps.

Possible but even if there was a Gun, I wouldn't have gone for it as Analytical!Alv isn't RandomFun!Alv and has to do things logically.  

And of course @Gears does another great starting post, which is why I enjoy playing with them, but they said basically everything I was going to say.

IMO I believe we should all be going for Chalk, Acid and Maps in that order.  Chalk and Acid for defense while the Maps need to be used asap to fill the camp supply as much as possible so there's more resources and less likely someone misses out if too many go for essential items.
While I can see the uses for the Specialization books, they will likely paint targets on the backs of those that go for them.

Part of the reason the Village lost the last time this game was run was because we only worked on getting the exact defense we needed to, we didn't really bother with extras in case of roleblocks and we tended to go after fun or interesting items from the camp.  So long as we can keep a good supply of chalk flowing both into and out of the camp we should have an easier time of defense later down the line.

[Mist]

(By the way I'll be using copious excessive some amounts of RNG hehehe this game.)

[|TJ|]

1 hour ago, Quinn0928 said:

Ohhhh right sorry... your post threw me off because I expected you to be stealing hearts, not votes. I'm disappointed, ngl XD

Hey, let's start with something small eh? Can't be going around stealing hearts from the get go, lest they.. err get distracted from playing the game ;), Needs a lot of sweet talkin', ya see. So by the time all is said and done, I hope to have stolen some hearts :P. 

Say, do you want me to steal someone's heart for ya? I'm as good as a matchmaker as I am a thief! :D.

[+Lotus]

The swirling portal dropped Daughter of the Prime Forest ten feet into the air. In the brief moments as she fell, she noticed the strange circle of-was that chalk?

As soon as her feet touched the ground, small plants began to nudge up from the ground below her. With a mental push she shoved the plants away, though a few continued to twine around her feet. Where was she? She had been walking through the village, on the way to lecture the children...

Hmm. That portal had the stench of the Mad God all over it. She cocked her head, focusing. Yes, he was here. Was this an illusion? No, she had gotten good at sensing his tricks over the past few years. This was no illusion.

She set off through the arrangement of tents and tarps, noticing as she did so that people were staring at her oddly.

It did seem that they wore very different clothes than she did. She would have to find some to match.

Daughter was pretending to examine a piece of chalk at a stand when his voice came behind her.

“Salutations, Daughter of the Prime Forest,” Daughter grimaced with his tone. The Mad god's power was unatural. “I welcome you to this land and to this realm.”

She turned to see him standing there, already clothed in the native style.

“What brings you here?” 

"I think a better question is why you brought us here. That portal had the stench of the Mad God all over it."

[Gears]

1 minute ago, Lotus said:

"I think a better question is why you brought us here. That portal had the stench of the Mad God all over it."

The Servant of the Mad God laughed with wild abandon and swept the Daughter of the Prime Forest into a merry waltz as faint music began to play. "Twas not me, though I cannot speak for others who Serve. I do enjoy my laboratory back in the Native Realm." He grinned and let the earth hum along with the song that wove itself around them in a strange yet not unpleasant resonance. "Let the plants grow," he said, glancing at the greenery twining around her feet. "They love you."

Chalk dust fell to the ground as he moved, remnants of his earlier experiments. It quivered on the ground, but the plants quickly swallowed it whole. An interesting trial run of the effects of the substance on plants. Perhaps it would do something new. 

The plants began to writhe slowly, splitting and spiralling as the mad chalk dust began to integrate. Perfect. He took notes surreptitiously and waited for the Daughter of the Prime Forest to notice.

[StrikerEZ]

Okay, off to a great start, went to spend time with my girlfriend and come back to see we’ve gained a whole page+ in about 3.5 hours. Good.

Anyway, I think we can afford to overprotect the camp right now. Later we will need to allocate our resources very efficiently, but for now: if you can, you should protect the camp. Most players should have chalk to start off with, so if like...2-3 decide to protect tonight, we should be good. Maybe even four to be safe. Though I don’t think we should be claiming in thread. Way too easy for the elims to counteract that.

Speaking of the elims, there’s 23 total right? 21, ignoring the thief and the non-rithmatist. So, I’m betting there’s 5 elims. A little less than a quarter of the amount of players in the game.

Anyway, I’ll be going for one of the books, so if everyone could just not do that as well, that’d be greatly appreciated!

[+Lotus]

3 minutes ago, Gears said:

The plants began to writhe slowly, splitting and spiralling as the mad chalk dust began to integrate. Perfect. He took notes surreptitiously and waited for the Daughter of the Prime Forest to notice.

Daughter let herself be pulled along to the dance. There was no use protesting when the Servant of the Mad god was involved. Reluctantly, at her urging, she let the plants creep up beneath them. The dance floor was soon covered in small purple flowers, reaching up to wrap themselves around her bare feet wherever she stepped.

"Why is there so much chalk here," she murmured. It was so unusual.

There was something... wrong about that chalk. It tickled at her senses, but it wasn't until the plants around her began to climb further and further up her legs, the flowers blooming in all sorts of patterns that she finally realized.

"Servant of the Mad God. If you really want to do experiments on plants, you should perhaps do some on ones that are not under my power as well? You'll get confounding results there."

[Mat]

6 minutes ago, StrikerEZ said:

Okay, off to a great start, went to spend time with my girlfriend and come back to see we’ve gained a whole page+ in about 3.5 hours. Good.

Anyway, I think we can afford to overprotect the camp right now. Later we will need to allocate our resources very efficiently, but for now: if you can, you should protect the camp. Most players should have chalk to start off with, so if like...2-3 decide to protect tonight, we should be good. Maybe even four to be safe. Though I don’t think we should be claiming in thread. Way too easy for the elims to counteract that.

Speaking of the elims, there’s 23 total right? 21, ignoring the thief and the non-rithmatist. So, I’m betting there’s 5 elims. A little less than a quarter of the amount of players in the game.

Anyway, I’ll be going for one of the books, so if everyone could just not do that as well, that’d be greatly appreciated!

Quinn

So, I don't think we can to afford to overprotect if we don't have to. Later cycles we'll be very sorry if we've used up all of our chalk, and the more paranoid folks should have us covered until then.

And didn't Alv say that going for a book puts a target on your back? Striker! Welcome to the game