Long Game 74: You Want It Darker

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

Signing up as Sonnah Cojic, alchemist.

When Sonnah Cojic had lived up by the border between the Northern and Western Dominances, they'd helped a trio of Terris escape their captors and make new lives for themselves. She hadn't really set out to do so, but the three of them had been brought into the noble estate to spend the night and tried to slip away before the escorting guards woke up the next day. The horses sensed their departure and ten year old Sonnah, working late in the stables, discovered them in the process of leaving. They'd been wanting to run away from the estate for years and impulsively decided that this would be her best chance. Surely these three adults, though in retrospect none them could have been over 16, would be able to get away. And so Sonnah had helped them steal horses and make for the Western Dominance across the river. By the time the estate lord put together a search team, they were nowhere to be found. In gratitude for three lives helped, the youngest Terris, a Keeper, had offered Sonnah three lives from her Coppermind. The first was some sort of devotee of a long gone religion, one that didn't make too much sense. The second had been interested in weather patterns, but Sonnah didn't really see the point of that since the ash rain was just sort of inevitable. The last had been some sort of alchemist and this, finally, was interesting. They took the names of the first two to become Sonnah Cojic which sounded respectable to a ten year old but decided to devote her life to unlocking the secrets of alchemy. Upon separating from the Terris in a small town in the Western Dominance, Sonnah began the process of achieving that dream.

[Experience]

Signing up as Shard. 

@Kasimir, Do we have to choose the cosmetic roles that are listed? Or can we choose our own?

EDIT: Just so you know, I'm also going to be changing my name back to Experience on the 26th. Hopefully that's not too confusing. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Experience Animation

[Kasimir]

4 hours ago, Experience Animation said:

Signing up as Shard. 

@Kasimir, Do we have to choose the cosmetic roles that are listed? Or can we choose our own?

EDIT: Just so you know, I'm also going to be changing my name back to Experience on the 26th. Hopefully that's not too confusing. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

I am happy for players to create their own cosmetic roles, or not at all if they're not interested in RPing.

Also, noted with thanks. 

[Mailliw73]

"There is a village where tears fall and falls tear. In this village, blood is more common than water and enemies more than friends. Tyrian Falls, it was named. There was a night, dark, as most nights are, when the drunken old war veteran looked toward the approaching koloss army. Not that he could see them, mind you, but he had heard they were coming. Everyone knew it. Grayv just stared and drank and prepared himself for the storm that was coming. In Dyring's Inn, the town crier Quinn drank miserably--"

Marll was cut off by a pounding on the door. A cobbler's work is never done. Always another pair of feet to tend, he grumbled to himself. He apologized to the nice pair of boots he was working on and promised them that he'd finish the story later. Beetle, a local urchin child looked excited, frazzled, and scared beyond browning his trousers all at the same time. It was those eyes. Those wild eyes. Marll would've sworn that the boy had been a murderer in a past life. He talked about Bartholomew's body almost adoringly. Strange, strange child. 

Marll knew he had to go see for himself. Not out of any perverse desire like this Beetle, but because the town only had one cobbler and everyone needed a good pair of shoes and someone to look to when the nights got darker. He'd throw the dice on getting involved here and hope he landed a pair of the Lord Ruler's sixes. If not, those boots might never hear the rest of the Tragedy of Tyrian Falls.

---

Sign me up as Marll, a gambling cobbler with a story to tell! He almost feels like he's heard this tale before, but the town's name was reversed...

It's been way too long! This game is simple enough and my semester was lighter than expected, so Maill is back for a game! Looking forward to it, Kas! 

[Kasimir]

35 minutes ago, Mailliw73 said:

It's been way too long! This game is simple enough and my semester was lighter than expected, so Maill is back for a game! Looking forward to it, Kas! 

And now my first GM returns to me, to be GMed. Truly, the circle has closed  Glad to have you back, Maili!

One rule clarification question I have received: Does the Seeker scan both role and alignment? Yes. Yes, they do.

I'll also like to highlight something I've forgotten to add (old man brain sorry) -

When the game begins, I will send you your role information in the GM PM (as usual.) I will also make a request for you to PM me a dirty secret or a skeleton in your character's closet. This can be played straight, or for laughs. Players who do not send me one will be at the mercy of my whims and fancies when inventing one  This has no mechanical effect and is purely for flavour.

I will also proactively clarify this as it led to confusion in previous Tyrian Falls games, and I don't have a significant crowd of Tyrian Falls veterans here. You may notice the text for Smokers indicates Smokers have to choose to switch off their Copperclouds. Smokers begin the game with their Coppercloud on. You can do three things:

1. Keep your cloud on and Smoke someone else (you would need to send in an order for this)
2. Switch off your cloud (you will also need to send in an order for this)
3. Keep yourself Smoked (in which case you need not send in an order.)

[Ashbringer]

Now what kind of skeletons would be in AraRaash's closet... hmm...

[StrikerEZ]

Variel dusted his coat off as he walked through the streets of Fallion’s Tears. The ashfalls were lighter today, but it was still enough to dust his coat with a fine layer of ash. The coat itself wasn’t his finest coat in his possession, but he couldn’t let the ash stain this one too badly. He needed to look rugged, sure, but too much ash and dirt on a coat would drive away anyone who might listen to his stories. Not to mention that he needed to keep up appearances to learn what he needed to tell this little town’s story someday. Variel could tell that this story would certainly be an interesting one.

~

I’m bringing Variel back, but as a Storyteller. He’s got all of his old finickiness about his clothing still, but I probably won’t mention that every cycle as it could get tedious. He will be telling a story every cycle, while also keeping his own story a bit of a mystery.

Anyway, I’m way too excited to play this game.

[The Unknown Ajah]

I'll sign up as Obliteration, a Shard inhabiting one of his followers.

[Quintessential]

7 hours ago, Mailliw73 said:

the town crier Quinn drank miserably--"

...does this town crier have any relation to me 

 

[Kasimir]

Just now, Quintessential said:

...does this town crier have any relation to me 

 

Maili's ref-dropping  The very first Tyrian Falls game, also the first SE game ever.

[Quintessential]

Just now, Kasimir said:

Maili's ref-dropping  The very first Tyrian Falls game, also the first SE game ever.

Ah, got it. Hmmm wow my name has been around in SE since the very beginning lol

[Mailliw73]

2 hours ago, Quintessential said:

...does this town crier have any relation to me 

 

Maybe you have some distant relation to Quiver?

[Quintessential]

4 minutes ago, Mailliw73 said:

Maybe you have some distant relation to Quiver?

Hmmm one does see a certain resemblance in the first three letters of our names...

[Experience]

Shard was... different. At least that's what other people said about him. They always thought that his mind was addled, that it didn't work the same as everyone else. They thought that he was stupid. They were correct of course. But he was the smart kind of stupid. The kind that knew how to trick others into thinking he couldn't hear what they said, or what they did. He had been given a task many years before, just before he had come to this backwater town. Listen and report. And that was what he had done all these years. Shard had been content with his new life, not ever needing to remember what he had been before. 

But then the spike had been found and everything started going downhill from there. Shard knew that he would have to continue doing what he had always done. But now, he would report to everyone. Because he no longer knew who he could trust. Better to give the information to both sides then the bad alone. 

Shard is the kid (even though he's in his late 20s) in town that everyone ignores because he's 'crazy'.

[Quintessential]

Sign-up RP! Yay! I'm gonna try to RP a bit more this game I think... not sure how that'll go but we'll see

Tesse Mourn loved her job. The small shop she worked in on the edge of town was also her home: she’d grown up in the apartment above it and lived there still. She’d taken over the family business almost a decade ago, after her mother had finally decided to retire. That was how it had always been: ownership of the shop, and the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain it, passed from mother to eldest daughter in a long line. 

Yes, the Mourns had always owned the shop. Some said even since before the Lord Ruler’s Ascension. That part was nonsense, of course. Tesse knew the real nature of Allomancy far better than most, well enough to know that there had been no use for a shop such as hers before the Ascension. But she never bothered to correct anyone on that point. The important thing was that they all recognized her, and her family, and her shop, as an integral part of Fallion’s Tears. No one ever seemed to question why the shop was there in the first place, or who its patrons were… 

Which was just fine with Tesse. It left her to her experiments. Her mother, and her grandmother, and her great-grandmother, all in a long line, had been convinced that there were more Allomantic metals than just the ten common ones. Of course, it was rather difficult to test new alloys if you didn’t have access to a Mistborn, but they’d tried anyway. Gotten in touch with nobles in the big cities who wished to fund such research in the hopes of gaining a competitive edge over their rivals. So far, the efforts had been in vain. But now… well, Tesse thought she might just have done it. She stared down at the small bar of silvery metal in awe. It was the first time she’d created an alloy with atium that didn’t flake and crumble, that actually acted like a metal. “The Eleventh Metal…” she murmured. 

[Mat]

"Come one, come all! The greatest magician this side of the river!" A crowd was gathering. The people of Fallion's Tears must have been really gullible.

On the stage, which was constructed from old wood scraps, a cloaked figure stood, shrouded in mystery. He had a top hat and a stick painted black with a white tip, and his cape glittered when the light shone on it just right.

Oh Philico, he thought. You've really outdone yourself this time.

"Magic! Mystery! A good time!" Philico shouted to the crowd. "A break from the horrors you live in! This is what I offer! Come! See!" He swept off his hat in an exaggerated bow, and reached his arm inside to dispatch a few hordelings. It was easy to flub magician when you were a being no one on this planet had ever heard of, much less this town.

The hordelings inside the hat banded together, their red carapace smoothing and intertwining with the others to create a fist-sized ball. He took it out of the hat at once and showed it to the crowd, with little reaction.

"Tough crowd." he whispered to himself. And then replaced the hat on his head.

Philico threw the 'ball' up into the air, and splayed out his hand in a flat palm facing upwards. When the ball came down his hand came up, and he high-fived the ball as it fell, mid-trajectory. To the normal person, it would bounce off, but to Philico, he simply let the hordelings dissolve back into him, smoothly, instantly on impact. This received a few gasps and scattered claps, but he could do better.

From the stage, he produced a cloth the size of a bedsheet, and waved it dramatically. Preparing it, he held it up with his arms so that he was standing behind it; so that the crowd could no longer see him, and he dropped the cloth, and for an instant of time he was completely hidden-

-And in that instant, Philico spilt into two forms. His hordelings separated and formed two identical copies of what he had just appeared as- slightly smaller, less dimensional copies, but copies all the same. When the crowd saw the erupted into noise, and Philico bowed with himself simultaneously. The two Philico's which was really one Philico reached down at the same time, mirroring the other, and grabbed the cloth again. He repeated the same cover-throw motion, and when he was revealed again he was one, back to normal. He bowed to the crowd's cheers, and hurried off the stage.

Perhaps that had been a bit... excessive.

[The Windrunner Supreme]

I'll join in as Merritt Cavallo. No idea what role i'll play yet...

[Quivil]

I'll join as myself.

I'll take the Storyteller role.

[Ookla-son-son-Ventyl]

I watched the ashes fall.

It was beautiful in it’s own unique way. The way the black snowflakes stepped down from the skies was a mesmerizing sight; one I always found myself fascinated with. The other boys in Fallion’s Tears had always called me weird, but I hadn’t cared.

Hours, days, maybe even weeks of my life had been spent towards admiring the thin flakes of dust, spewed from the belly of the nearest ash mount. Studying the ash had been an escape from the criticisms of my schoolmates. While they dreamt of flying through the skies like coinshots, I dreamt of falling to the ground with the ash.

When they investigators had burned old man Bartholomew’s corpse, I’d gone to look at his ashes.

Sneaking into the dead man’s home hadn’t been that hard, his widow left the door unlocked in her grief, I assumed. Nevertheless, I tip-toed as stealthy as I could mange through the couples small home—one that just barely managed to claim it wasn’t a skaa hut. The floor creaked regardless of my dexterity, it seemed so loud compared to the sound of falling ash I’d grown accustomed to; everything did.

”Lord Ruler!” An older women shouted, her voicing cracking in fear. “Who’s there?”

It seemed the floorboards had betrayed me, giving away my presence to their haggard mistress. I no longer found any point in trying to hide myself. Leaving the shadows of the dark hallway that lead to the stairs, I said quietly, “It’s me, miss.”

”Oh, Niru,” She said, letting out a sigh filled with tension like the canals filled with ash. “I thought for a moment that they’d co— ah, never mind. What is it you want?”

“I was wondering if I could see them,” I said honestly. It’d be best to get out with it quickly. “His ashes, I mean.”

A few different emotions crossed the kind hag’s face. Surprise, given away by the widening of her brown eyes and the raising of the sagging skin in the area that could be where her eyebrows were. Anger, shown through how her the tightening spreading from her brow all the way to the corners of her eyes and chapped lips. Grief, letting itself be known by her eyes looking straight to the ground, almost as if she wanted to get a peek into hell to look for her dead husband. 

“Ah, that’s right,” She started, respectful contempt blatantly marring her expression. “You like to study ash, don’t you Niru.”

I nodded my head silently, hoping that if I acted diminutively she wouldn’t say no to my stranger request. It worked and the old women led me further into the house. The creaking of the floorboards no longer seemed so loud as I walked mutedly behind her. Sometime along the way she’d grabbed a candle and lit it—illuminating the worn down house with flickering light—allowing me to see relics of a dead man.

Eventually, we reached the main room and the widow plucked a small black vase off of the centerpiece. It seemed ironic that the remains of old man Bartholomew, who’d towered over many of the villages men, fit it such a small container. The soft clang the vase let out as it was set on the table made my anticipation begin to run wild. I waited for only a moment after the women left— not paying attention to whatever she’d said on her way out—and greedily torn the lid off the dark container. What I found lurking in that treasure trove was something I couldn’t fathom. 

Stark against the familiar color of black, were the ashes of a murdered man. 

And they were grey.

——————————————————————

I’ll sign up as Niru. A young man fascinated with the ash. I’ll call my cosmetic role, “Ash Watcher”

Edited February 20, 2021 by Ventyl

[Quintessential]

@Kasimir Questions about the rules: 

Can the Thug survive being voted off, or can they only survive attacks?

Can the Lurcher self-target?

Do I have to bold every question I have if I have more than one?

[Kasimir]

6 minutes ago, Quintessential said:

@Kasimir Questions about the rules: 

Can the Thug survive being voted off, or can they only survive attacks?

Can the Lurcher self-target?

Do I have to bold every question I have if I have more than one?

1. The only correct answer to an or-question is - yes

More helpfully, the Thug can survive an interrogation interview, yes. This is because it is a passive ability.

2. Yes.

3. I like how you're already preparing for potentially being in a doc  I mean, if you bold a whole paragraph of text, nothing will jump out at me, aye? My general rule is: @ me, bold my name (if in a doc), bold at least part of the first question, and demarcate the rest clearly. If I can't see it, I can't answer it in a reasonably fast time, that's all. I'm sure you all will ask me again if I don't answer because I missed it, but this isn't a 'I will whack y'all if you don't follow it' rule, this is a 'please help me make my life and your lives by extension easier' kind of rule, so just be sensible about it.

What you did here is good enough for me.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Kasimir

[Quintessential]

2 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

3. I like how you're already preparing for potentially being in a doc

Of course. RNGesus seems to have wanted my game distribution to be 50% elim in the past, which means I'm due for another elim game 

[StrikerEZ]

So...what do we do now?

We’ve already got 21 players in 1.5 days. Plus my girlfriend will be signing up in the next couple days or so for her first game! Have we ever got this many players signed up for a game this quickly before?

[Mailliw73]

4 hours ago, StrikerEZ said:

So...what do we do now?

We’ve already got 21 players in 1.5 days. Plus my girlfriend will be signing up in the next couple days or so for her first game! Have we ever got this many players signed up for a game this quickly before?

Ever? Probably. Recently? No idea. 

[Kasimir]

17 minutes ago, Mailliw73 said:

Ever? Probably. Recently? No idea. 

I seem to recall LG7 grabbing quite a few players out the gate, but I could be biased there

5 hours ago, StrikerEZ said:

So...what do we do now?

RP, read the rules, ask rule clarifications, think of what dirty secret/skeleton in your character's closet you will be sending me D1, go live your lives, eat an apple... Many options!  I've GMed 30 players before so I don't anticipate too much trouble, as this game is substantially easier to manage than MR7  And I have Wyrm on speed-dial...

Also, new rule clarification I've been asked:

Do Smokers get to send in an action every Turn?

No. Only at Night. This does mean that the Smokers will enter this game with an involuntary switched on Coppercloud D1 - in usual OG Tyrian, the game begins N0 so they could choose to switch it off then. But the Committee was concerned that it might be rough for a player to get NKed without even getting to play the game, and I agree with that assessment, so we are beginning on a Day. As a result, sorry to the Smokers, but your first chance to send in an order on Smoking will be N1.

Please do note I will also be summarising all rule clarifications in the post right after the write-up, so if you think I've said something but can't find it in thread, check that local cache for the Turn. (And please don't post until I've secured the clarifications slot, thanks  )

Edited February 21, 2021 by Kasimir