QF65: More Deception: Murder in the Cosmere

[Ookla the Raveness]

@TheAlpha929 this is the QF that starts in two days. The rule set is in the opening post. I will note that this is a different format than most SE games but it'll still be fun!

[Araris Valerian]

Just under 26 hours before the game starts!

[TheOokla929]

Sorry for the late notice, but I would like to join as Jorazh

[Araris Valerian]

Note, there was an error in both the rules doc and the posted rules; all players will receive 5 Methods of Evidence and 5 Pieces of Evidence rather than 4. This is in line with QF33b, which was considered more balanced than the first run of the game.

[TheOokla929]

@Araris Valerian you said it would start at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time? Or Eastern Daylight Time?

[Amanuensis]

7 minutes ago, TheAlpha929 said:

@Araris Valerian you said it would start at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time? Or Eastern Daylight Time?

It should start in 1 hour and 1 minute, I think

[Araris Valerian]

7 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

It should start in 1 hour and 1 minute, I think

That's correct. Whatever time the Eastern US is currently on is what I'm using.

[Araris Valerian]

Okay, that's it! Signups are closed, and the zeroth cycle will be posted shortly!

[Araris Valerian]

The Ja could sense a change in the Cosmere. Someone was about to be killed, and it was too late to prevent it. He focused his willpower on the hostile intentions, hoping to perceive the details of the crime.

Meanwhile, Investigators of the Silverlight Police Force were paying Jourth of the Jwilight (@Devotary of Spontaneity's character) a visit. Jourth was well known as a trader in oddities from all across the Cosmere, with a specific penchant for frivolous uses of quite dangerous objects. There were rumors that she'd been seen selling a tank of deathants, and that wasn't  even the most... deadly of her wares. The SPF was hoping to procure a collection of these dangerous items, purely for educational purposes of course.

---

Cycle 0 has begun, and will end at 5PM EST on Friday the 17th! PMs are closed (and will never be open in this game).

Right now the player list has been set and everyone has been randomly assigned their Methods and Evidences. The starting tiles have not been chosen yet, so you can disregard those for now. You can view all of this in the game's spreadsheet, or click on the spoiler tag below:

Spoiler

#	Player Name	Methods of Murder	Pieces of Evidence
1	xinoehp512	Hemalurgic Chimera, Aon Daa (Power), Kandra Digestive Acids, Deepwalker, Firesnap Lizards	Words Inscribed in Steel, Halfshard shield, Dust, Horseshoes, False Beard
2	JNV	Swampvine, Awakened Rope, The Shaod, Buried Alive, Silver Knife	Skaze, Riddle, Spanreed, Mistcoat, Picture of a Flower
3	Cinnamon	Venomous Bite ,Martial Arts, Explosion, Garotte, Deathants	Metal Flakes, Forged Painting, Potted Grass, Axehound Pup, Withered Hand
4	The Wandering Wizard	Aon Ehe (Fire), Patji’s Finger, Dagger, Scarf, Black Frayn	Ash Stains, Bullet Casings, Gum, Grand Robe, Ink
5	The Known Novel	Toxic Fungus, The Bands of Mourning, Atium, Burned at the Stake, Meekers	Spectacles, Bright Green Hat, God Beyond Shrine, Children’s Book, Crab Legs
6	StrikerEZ	Poisoned Wine, Rifle, Acid, Shardplate, Rope	Larkin Corpse, Shu-Korath Pendant, Letter, Soulcast Metal, MaiPon Sticks
7	Ashbringer	Birchbane, Nightmaw, Punch, Whitespine, Stone	Hidden Message, Journal, Chicken, Hairpin, RaiDel Pepper
8	Sart	Spear, Blackbane Leaf, Soulcasting, Backbreaker Powder, Coins	Tears of Edgli Flowers, Grey Patch, Ettmetal Cube, Hoofprints, Hoid’s flute
9	Matrim's Dice	Steelrunning, Hemalurgic Spike, Chasmfiend, Dakhor Ritual, Highstorm	Atium Bead, Discarded Weapon, Half-Eaten Pancakes, Bay Wrap, Mug of Ale
10	Amanuensis	Koloss Blade, Tompher Poison, Rathbore Monk, Fire, Parshendi	Aluminum Ingots, Fancy Dress, Glow Paste, Aon Kii, Infused Spheres
11	Kasimir	Poisoned Needle, Surgebinding, Bare Hands, Pistol, Booby Trap	Mastrell Sash, Wine Bottle, Fruit Juice, Abstract Art, Black Sphere
12	Archer	Cliff, Aon Tia (Transportation), Aon Sheo (Death), Poisonous Sting, Shades	Cracked Gemstone, Footprint, Ancient Text, Rotspren, Child's Toy
13	|TJ|	Blood Loss, Aimian, Grandbow, Essence Marks, Enhanced Strength	Religious Text, Aonic Dictionary, Portrait, Musical Instrument, Wig
14	The Bookwym	Dismemberment, Rioting, Air-powered Crossbow, Poisoned Dart, Disease	Survivor Pendant, Ragged Cloak, Silver Dust, Cremlings, Blood
15	Fifth Scholar	Cut-away Vines, Obsidian Axe, Kick, Metal Poisoning, Midnight Essence	Writing Board, Wooden Coins, Aon Reod, Hallandren Dyes, Aluminum Hat
16	Shining Sihoeutte	Lifeless Soldier, Suffocation, Drowning, Mistwraith, Betrayal	Handkerchief, Lifeless Squirrel, Uniform, Water Bottle, A'kar's Symbol
17	TheAlpha929	Duel, Hammer, Fenweed Poison, Bloodsealing, Beheading	Map, Saddle Strap, Boxings, Empty Vial, Book

Feel free to chat and RP as you like while the Assassin makes their selections!

All roles are present in the game, and everyone should have received a PM from me with your alignment, role, and Evidences+Methods.

Player List:

Spoiler

1. @xinoehp512 - Jacob
2. @JNV - Jen
3. @Cinnamon - Jude
4. @The Wandering Wizard - Jango
5. @The Known Novel - Jounger Gerri
6. @StrikerEZ - Jariel
7. @Ashbringer - Jekyl
8. @Sart - Jerome
9. @Matrim's Dice - Jatrim
10. @Amanuensis - J'aman
11. @Kasimir - Jean-Guy Chrétien
12. @Archer - Jello
13. @|TJ| - JJ
14. @The Bookwyrm - Jerald
15. @Fifth Scholar - Just Judge Jehoshaphat
16. @Shining Silhouette - Jaculiferous Jack
17. @TheAlpha929 - Jorazh

 

[Fifth Scholar]

…I think I need to go read some Coppermind articles  

[Ookla the Paradigm]

I'll confess that I'm not very good at this sort of game, so my plan is just to knock out two of the possibilities as soon as I get a sense for who the bad guy is. I'll just do the first two on the list there, Chimera + Words of Steel. 

*

Jello enjoyed injesting challenging questjons in pursuit of justice. But no one had died recently, so he was just chilling. In the fridge. 

[Kasimir]

There was always going to be a murder.

Jean-Guy Chrétien was a pragmatic enough guy, and figured that this attachment to the Silverlight Police Force wasn't going to do his career any harm. Get off Scadrial, see the Cosmere a bit. Still, he wasn't used to this idea, that they were just going to sit around and wait for the murder to happen, because apparently the Ja (good for him), had some sort of secret intel that was classified above Jean-Guy's head, and suddenly all of that meant that they were going to catch the perp after the murder, rather than do a sweep and stop the murder from happening in the first place.

Sort of cold, if you asked him. But Jean-Guy had started to think the Silverlighters were plain kayana. Could never trust them, those people on Silverlight. Maybe it was something about the Cognitive Realm and the melting pot of worlds that made them hard to trust.

And he was one to point fingers, what with how murders were handled on Scadrial. There was a reason the old classic joke back in the good old CSF was the Scadrian village that'd cordoned itself off after a murder happened and then slaughtered half their members trying to figure out who the killers among them were.

Bemused, Jean-Guy thought to himself that at least they weren't living one of those jokes right now.

[OOC: I think it'd be pretty much helpful/necessary to work out a matrix to visually check for consistency with Araris's hints as a first cut PoE, though undoubtedly we won't be allowed to share the results of that matrix - @Araris Valerian / @Devotary of Spontaneity? That's going to be a next cycle problem though.]

[Ookla the Destined]

9 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

…I think I need to go read some Coppermind articles  

Moood xD

Got track practice but I’ll be back in a few hours. Not much to do today though.

[Kasimir]

10 minutes ago, Archer said:

I'll confess that I'm not very good at this sort of game, so my plan is just to knock out two of the possibilities as soon as I get a sense for who the bad guy is. I'll just do the first two on the list there, Chimera + Words of Steel. 

[OOC: Not sure how this helps. The actual Method and Piece of Evidence has to come from the original five the Assassin has. So this only makes sense as a guess if you think Xino is the Assassin, which opens a whole IKYK about whether Xino would pick it after what you've said. That's low value as a guess.]

Edited to add:

It's too early in the game for me to feel comfortable with saying this derp clears Archer  

Edited March 16 by Kasimir

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

14 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

[OOC: I think it'd be pretty much helpful/necessary to work out a matrix to visually check for consistency with Araris's hints as a first cut PoE, though undoubtedly we won't be allowed to share the results of that matrix - @Araris Valerian / @Devotary of Spontaneity? That's going to be a next cycle problem though.]

Everyone's free to post pictures of the spreadsheet edited to show which clues they think are/aren't likely.

[Ookla the Paradigm]

I will accept derp clears in a game that's supposed to be exclusively based on mechanical analysis. :P. 

To check my understanding here, the Assassin is picking five tiles from their limited selection of ones associated with them. Then Araris will give us hints based on how he thinks the evidence/methods fit into the world. So for Hemalurgic Chimera he might say Loss of blood etc then we PoE our way towards that conclusion. And everyone with a Chimera card is a suspect, so we throw them in. 

@ evil Xino pick Chimera + Steel, I dare you

[Ookla the Reborn]

What do we think about compiling a list of what cause of death each weapon would match?

[StrikerEZ]

Just putting out a wild first guess: it’s Archer.

[TheOokla929]

^^That sounds smart, I could get started on a list of cause of death/weapon.

^Sounds about right, wouldn’t be surprised if it was Archer. Not sure why, but it feels right.

Edited March 16 by TheAlpha929
Accidentally forgot to quote, so arrows

[Ookla the Starship Ranger]

Jude lived a quiet life these days. Once, in her youth, she had been lively and adventurous. Back in MaiPon she’d been known as a wild child always running around with some new idea or begging any Forgers she met to take her on as their apprentice. She sighed at the thought. She’d failed in that  endeavour. Now this is not to say no one would take her on, no indeed. She just couldn’t do it. The Dor would not come to her, despite the skill Jude had at carving the beautiful stamps that was all they had ever been; beautiful stamps. After three Forgers had cast her off she had finally accepted her fate not to be what she dreamed and as a young woman she had devoted her life to studying the Dor and all kinds of magic. One day she’d discovered a worldhopper, quite by accident I tell you. The poor man a had revealed what he was to her because she looked rather like a fellow Worldhopper friend of his. Jude, ever sharp minded had brought him to her home and filled him up with as much alcohol as she could and pumped him for information about the nature of his occupation. Being young and naive, she believed she knew everything there was to know and when three years later she found this “Perpendicularity” and hopped to Roshar she was on top of the world. That was where she had stayed ever since. Not out of love for the world. No. Rather, because she had no idea how to get home. Now with her axehound pup Jao she could be said to be somewhat content in her life. She longed for something to do though, an adventure, a mystery to solve, perhaps even a murder. Little did she know she was about to get what she wished for and it was not going to be how she expected. Not at all.

11 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

What do we think about compiling a list of what cause of death each weapon would match?

Yeah, I think this would be a good idea.

Edited March 16 by Cinnamon

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

6 minutes ago, Archer said:

To check my understanding here, the Assassin is picking five tiles from their limited selection of ones associated with them. Then Araris will give us hints based on how he thinks the evidence/methods fit into the world. So for Hemalurgic Chimera he might say Loss of blood etc then we PoE our way towards that conclusion. And everyone with a Chimera card is a suspect, so we throw them in. 

Every player has five unique methods of murder and five unique pieces of evidence. For instance, yours are

12

Archer

Cliff, Aon Tia (Transportation), Aon Sheo (Death), Poisonous Sting, Shades

Cracked Gemstone, Footprint, Ancient Text, Rotspren, Child's Toy

The assassin picks one clue from their methods of murder and one clue from their pieces of evidence. Araris then provides clues leading to that specific combination of assassin identity + murder method + piece of evidence.

[Kasimir]

32 minutes ago, Archer said:

I will accept derp clears in a game that's supposed to be exclusively based on mechanical analysis. :P. 

Yes, but I basically believe that this game style is different enough from standard SE I think early game confusion on how this works is perfectly consistent with either alignment (or, which we're more interested in, Assassin/Not-Assassin.)

32 minutes ago, Archer said:

To check my understanding here, the Assassin is picking five tiles from their limited selection of ones associated with them. Then Araris will give us hints based on how he thinks the evidence/methods fit into the world. So for Hemalurgic Chimera he might say Loss of blood etc then we PoE our way towards that conclusion. And everyone with a Chimera card is a suspect, so we throw them in. 

Yes. But the caveat/the point I was making is just that since we only win if one of us IDs the Assassin + Method + Evidence correctly, there is no point guessing a Method + Evidence that doesn't even fit with the player you think is the Assassin - that's just de facto/prima facie wrong and a wasted guess that doesn't help us  

In terms of solving, we'd really be working out PoE from Araris's clues and failed solves and going from there.

31 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

What do we think about compiling a list of what cause of death each weapon would match?

Can get behind it if someone else does it, though then fact-checking sounds necessary. Feels like a lot of work and I'd rather hit the ground running based off Araris's clues. I'm lazy today I think  

Edited to add 2:

@xinoehp512 - Lazy counterproposal: Do it at least for your own and then share. People can agree/disagree so there's an honesty check here but it also helps split the work out. It's not really helpful to us because we know our own role but hey, splitting the work makes me happy  

Mine:

Spoiler

 

Disputations welcome. Colour-coded by strong consistency, moderate consistency, weak consistency (which I also interpret as 'inconsistent with'.) My rationale, briefly spelled out:

-Poisoned Needle: Poisoning the obvious cause of death here, accident is plausible but unlikely (i.e. poked self with own poisoned needle by accident), unlikely to cause severe injury, unlikely to be a case of loss of blood, suffocation maybe makes sense depending on type of poison but am willing to mark this with a red as well, and extremely unlikely to be supernatural.

-Surgebinding: Clear case of supernatural cause, potential for accident due to shenanigans with illusions, poisoning I deem unlikely, suffocation theoretically possible if you transport someone underwater or soulcast their lungs into stone or something, loss of blood theoretically possible using raw division, ditto for severe injury.

-Bare Hands: Points to suffocation being likely, potentially severe injury (neck snap? Not sure.) Loss of blood very unlikely cause of death, similar for supernatural, inconsistent with poisoning/sickness also, could see a push on a flight of stairs by accident being bare hands and accident but a bit contrived, so yellow.

-Pistol: Gunshot wounds. My favourite part of first aid training. Severe injury theoretically possible, ditto for loss of blood and trauma injuries, suffocation very unlikely excluding a contrived lung collapse sort of case, supernatural and poisoning inconsistent, accident maybe in a world where the gun discharged by accident.

-Booby trap: Depends a lot on the trap. Could see suffocation and injury maybe playing in, can accept injury maybe should be a red here. Accident is possible as well (can accept it should be a yellow), poisoned trap is maybe possible but close to red, supernatural unlikely unless it's a special trap Aon or something, loss of blood unlikely as well unless it's some kind of poisoned spear pit trap (what even.)

 

 

Edited March 16 by Kasimir

[Ookla the Raveness]

Jango turned away the first set of detectives with a well placed blaster shot.

Jango had always known they'd come for him. It was his help they were after, but he'd retired years ago. It'd been hard enough to fake his death with that Jedi trying to kill him, but he'd proved the perfect method in the end. Because when the Jedi killed, their victims always stayed dead, right? Well as far as he knew, he was the only one.

Turning around, Jango hung up the blaster. His finger leaving a sparkle of silver under the coating of dust. It'd been a long time and the itch had been awoken. Ironically chasing away the detectives had awoken his hunting instinct. There was prey to be hunted, they'd killed in his town and that was going to be their last mistake.

Jango descended the stair, heading into the basement, looking for his armor. 

"Dank farrik," muttered Jango. "Chasaming beast, thinking it's a chew toy."

[OOC: I mean, we could all just do our own weapons and cause of death for them. Excited as this smells of Clue to me, albeit with a twist. But it's gonna be fun!

ED1T: Ninja'd by Kas with the same idea XD]

Edited March 16 by The Wandering Wizard

[Kasimir]

1 hour ago, Kasimir said:

Yes. But the caveat/the point I was making is just that since we only win if one of us IDs the Assassin + Method + Evidence correctly, there is no point guessing a Method + Evidence that doesn't even fit with the player you think is the Assassin - that's just de facto/prima facie wrong and a wasted guess that doesn't help us  

[OOC: That and to be fair, the Witness issue. Since we know the Witness is in the game, reminder to anyone who is Village that it is crucial we muddy the waters as far as possible. Think Winzik/Reform Spy/Tineye/Merlin mechanic all over again - if we guess right but the Elims find the Witness, we're kinda screwed anyway.]

Edited to add:

It's the problem with this kind of games but a necessary balance factor, I think. Village wincon is conjunctive, Elim wincon is disjunctive. Gambling on IDing the Witness right can be rough (Elims got the Tineye/Reform Spy wrong in both my games, and I don't remember a successful Witness identification in the one time I played Murder in HK with my IRL group, but that was a group used to playing A:tR so I sort of feel there's a confounding factor there.) Still, important for us to remember we can't let our guard down - IDing Assassin + Method + Evidence is half the win. Witness must be successfully concealed, which means we, too, have to go for misdirection play.

Edited March 16 by Kasimir

[Sart]

9 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

[OOC: That and to be fair, the Witness issue. Since we know the Witness is in the game, reminder to anyone who is Village that it is crucial we muddy the waters as far as possible. Think Winzik/Reform Spy/Tineye/Merlin mechanic all over again - if we guess right but the Elims find the Witness, we're kinda screwed anyway.]

Wait, how do we know the Witness is in the game? Doesn't it depend on the distribution?