Quick Fix 66: Full River Red

[Amanuensis he/him]

9 minutes ago, |TJ| said:

Nope you're falsely representing my actions. I mentioned it last cycle itself that I had a gut-feeling that JNV could have been a bus as you and xino knew about the scan result beforehand. 

Well on that note Xino is dead, so TKN is the only possible busser, as I'm fairly certain Alpha is village which leaves the only possible team combinations as:

• TJ and Fifth
• TJ and TKN
• TJ and Aman
• Fifth and TKN
• Fifth and Aman
• TKN and Aman

I'm not yet willing to entertain a bus world, so I won't vote TKN today, though I am wary of him (mostly because I don't think e!TKN should ever be underestimated). So what to do then? We kill his partner first!

50/50 odds of Fifth or TJ seem pretty good, with a potential 100% if y'all are teamed

Edited May 26, 2023 by Amanuensis

[The Paradoxical Phenomenon he/him]

Okay guys, my vote is on Fifth. We all need to coordinate our votes to the same person, and the only other person im going to vote for this cycle is TJ. Kolo?

[Kasimir he/him]

Water trickles through the clock.

Another Hour has ended!

Kolo?

[Kasimir he/him]

Aftermath: Forsworn

Water trickled through the clock.

Two dead men before him, and the accusing gazes of the company on him. Ripling breathed and studied the crowd assembled before him. Or about him. A single man—borne by the Emperor’s mercy—in a crowd at night, beneath the flickering torches. The sort of image that stuck with you, that might be carefully, painstakingly polished into a poem. The post of lieutenant might have been wine in a jewelled cup. Or it might have been poison. A powerful image: you never knew which the world presented to you. Only the Emperor, in his beneficence. You had to cling to that, to that bedrock.

Ripling’d lied about the search he’d conducted with the Captain’s signet seal. But no one had to know. No one, apart from John Bluhm, who’d been so silent that in speaking up now, he appeared to be almost a different man.

Perhaps it was just the night.

“I had a dream,” Ripling whispered.

Lost in the noise, as the others, Mallard, Gaovaris, Fletcher, and John Bluhm all argued about what to do with him. Squabbling beneath the wavering light of the torches. Above, the silver light of the moon, and the quiet trickle of water through the clock.

The sort of thing you might have expected the Banished Immortal himself to have captured in his poetry. A sort of immanence, just shy of transcendence. It was all in the ephemerality of it, the transience. (Only the Emperor himself, the splendid scion of the Eighty Suns, was eternal.)

Breathing in, Ripling enjoyed what might well be his final moments alive. 

“I had a dream!” he declared aloud.

Blinking, they all turned to stare at him.

“Eh?” Mallard managed, at last.

Odd, that. You’d think those people’d dreamed more often.

“I dreamed that Fletcher was trying to kill me,” Ripling said. Not a lie, this. Odd dream, but one that had remained with him, this Hour. Supposed he should’ve demanded the search, instead of trying to get a spot of sleep.

Some remnant of it remained with him, even now. You could imagine dreams were messengers, whispers of the eternal realm. Fragments of the world where the Emperors resided, after they passed from this world and returned to the Eighty Suns in glory. “Kill me, if you must. The Emperor smiles upon me, even in death. Can any of you say the same of yourselves?”

 

 

Water trickled through the clock.

Fletcher the Fetcher had lived a very long time.

He wasn’t loyal to the one they called the General. He hadn’t been loyal for a very long time, not since the day his oaths had died. 

You believed in things, once. You would die, would surrender anything, just anything for your cause.

He collected artefacts now, sold some of them.

There was a trace of that in Yuen’s remaining loyal soldiers. You could see it in the way they spoke, in the way a man five years dead still moved them to betray new oaths sworn, and to kill. Some part of him wanted that, that memory of what it felt like to believe without constraint, with all his heart, in something.

Anything.

But there was Kezin too. Cold, they’d said, when he executed Randen without a moment’s hesitation. No doubt that Kezin would kill every last one of them, if he felt it was necessary. 

Dead eyes. Fletcher knew what it was like, to be forsworn.

All of which meant he needed to cut and run. Fletcher did consider it. Not enough Investiture, though. He’d had a little jar of unkeyed Dor, buried at the bottom of his pack. Not enough to get off Sel, perhaps. Maybe enough to get out of this camp.

He’d stayed because…because…

Well. Enough of that anyway. This was cutting things too close.

He reached into his pack for the jar of unkeyed Dor. No point trying to stay, now. Time in the Rose Empire had been good to him, and there was a seal he had been trying to acquire, but it was clearly time to move on.

A flash of pain in his fingers.

The jar, breaking.

Radiance spilling out, leaking. Rolling like quicksilver on the floorboards, among the glass shards.

Clutching at his fingers, Fletcher swore. Blood leaked through his fingers, mixing with the Dor.

A small jar of unkeyed Dor. Once, it would have been enough.

Fletcher breathed.

 

 

Water trickled through the clock.

“He was trying to escape, Captain,” Gaovaris reported. Kezin remembered Jiang’s reports on the man: sloppy swordsman. That’d have to be reviewed, among other things, afterwards. If there was an afterwards.

Fletcher sprawled on the dirt of the courtyard, bleeding out.

“There was a strange substance on the floor of the sleeping quarters,” Ripling reported. “Bright enough to illuminate, as though it were the Emperor’s eighty virtues. But it was elusive to the touch, and…rolled, despite being liquid.”

“So you have no idea if it was a poison and you touched it anyway.”

“Sir, we used a stick,” Mallard said. “That wasn’t a duck we wanted to leave about, if we could.”

Kezin grunted.

“So he was trying to escape. And you know this how?”

“Packed his things,” Mallard said. “Gaovaris saw him slip off while everyone was debating. John Bluhm’s dead, by the way. Almost forgot.”

Kezin himself had almost forgotten that Bluhm existed. The man had been far too quiet. “And you think Fletcher did it?”

“We have an alibi for everyone except Fletcher, sir,” Ripling reported. Largely because everyone in the courtyard had been trying to kill him but the Captain certainly didn’t need to know that.

Kezin considered it. “Good enough,” he said. He looked down at Fletcher. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Fletcher looked at him. For a moment, Kezin saw his own eyes reflected: the tiredness that had sunk into his bones, going on. Betrayals that could never be taken back. You were forsworn. And then life, however unfairly, went on. Sometimes you were even rewarded for doing so.

Sometimes, oaths were the most cruel thing you could do to a man.

Fletcher shrugged. “Gaovaris was trying to kill me,” he said.

Kezin didn’t bother glancing over. “Gaovaris?”

“He lies, sir,” Gaovaris spat. “I was never alone with him, and didn’t need to hit him in the hand with a knife if I was trying to kill him. As the Sagacious Ci said in his Washing Away of Wrongs, when the testimonies of three are coherent and one is not, the one that is inconsistent is the liar. Sir.”

Fade was at the back of the crowd. Kezin met his eyes. Fade nodded.

Kezin drew his sword. A single swift stroke. A sharp glint as the keen blade flashed.

Fletcher collapsed, blood spraying.

“Good work,” Kezin said. “I believe this is the last of them. Someone clean that up, and I want one squad stationed on alert. Otherwise, I think we are in the clear now.”

He watched the way they held themselves: the way Gaovaris’s shoulders instantly slumped, the way Ripling drew himself up and started calling out orders in the Emperor’s name, the way Mallard sighed in relief.

Enough had died, Kezin thought. The General was dead, five years ago. He’d obeyed an order to betray his oaths, to stand down. He’d clashed with Fade, that day, all the same. He’d watched the corpse drag out, felt the hammering of his heart in his chest.

Enough had died.

“We are sworn to the Empire, Lieutenant,” General Yuen had said. “Not to me.”

There was the implication: the Empire demanded cruel things. Or the factions did. Perhaps they were all unworthy of her.

Enough would continue to die.

The eighty suns continued, one after another, to bless the Empire with their life-giving light, a single day at a time, before retreating beneath the world, where they fought the darkness, emerging triumphant in glory, in radiance, in light ever after.

 

 

Quote

|TJ| (2): Fifth Scholar, The Known Novel
Fifth Scholar (1): TheAlpha929
The Known Novel (1): |TJ

Fletcher the Fetcher / @|TJ| was executed. He was a Yuen Loyalist!

John Bluhm / @Amanuensis was killed! He was a Discovery Soldier!

The game has ended! Congratulations to the Village for a near-sweep! And thanks to @Araris Valerian for being an excellent IM  I now have filled my dance card with every IM except Striker  

Edited May 26, 2023 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis he/him]

Good job team o7

ED1T:

Forgor about the second OP post  sorry Kas <3

Edited May 26, 2023 by Amanuensis

[Kasimir he/him]

Player List:

Spoiler

1. Wiz - Rambleton (Poet) Discovery Soldier
2. @TheAlpha929 - Mallard G. Wingworth IV (Duck Wrangler) Discovery Soldier
3. @Fifth Scholar - Kudyard Ripling (Imperialist Poet) Discovery Soldier
4. @The Known Novel - Gaovaris Solumnant (Scholar) Discovery Soldier
5. Amaneunsis - John Bluhm (Spy) Discovery Soldier
6. Archer - Georg Wasintown (Farmer) Discovery Soldier
7. xino - Krow Nelcaf (Yuen Sympathiser and Veteran) Discovery Soldier
8. Devo - Left & Right (Spy and Defector) Discovery Soldier [Yuen Loyalist]
9. Szeth - Randen (Card Sharp and Bodyguard and Mistaken Identity) Discovery Soldier
10. JNV - Jiang Zhangrong (Lieutenant) Yuen Loyalist
11. TJ - Fletcher the Fetcher (Fence) Yuen Loyalist

Dossiers

Spoiler

• GM Spreadsheet
• Yuen Loyalist Doc
• Dead Doc

I'll post the GM's AAR after I take some painkillers.

[|TJ| he/him]

2 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

Fletcher the Fetcher / @|TJ| was executed. He was a Yuen Loyalist!

Still so weird to see red next to my name smh >>

Good game village! Alas, we never really got going. Nonetheless it was fun to play evil for the first time with Devo and JNV, and sorry for messing up the last cycle. Really should have self-pressed -.-''

Thanks Kas, twas fun, my activity was low but I did mention I'd be busy, ideally I would have a liked to spend a lot more time on this game. 

[Kasimir he/him]

After-Action Report

• Inactives

I flag this first because Araris and I had a conversation about this, and Araris wanted this brought up. At the start of the game, when I did the rands, Hoid was Evil in nine out of ten rands, to the point I wondered if my Python script needed an exorcist. There were two main rands in contention that Araris and I were considering: A) Devo/Hoid/TJ, and B ) TKN/JNV/Wiz.

Team B was risky - they'd be a low to middling activity team in a game where Seeking was activity-driven. This had its advantages but could also be innately problematic for the Elims. Team A...I just didn't like having Devo be a staple Elim. I had similar reasons for discarding the E!Archer and E!Fifth rands, but at the same time, the reason why the Devo/Hoid/TJ distro was in consideration is it gave Hoid two stable teammates for support. Araris was of the view this was a good introduction for a new player to SE. I didn't disagree, since my LG5 had basically been that way, via Awes and Alv.

Problem was, Hoid had not signed into the Shard for three days by the time the game was about to start. I consulted Araris and in the end, we made the swap from Hoid to JNV, feeling that it would probably be worse if we allowed the Hoid distro, Hoid really went inactive, and then we had Aman replace Hoid, which would play merry hell with balance.

Is there a good answer to this? Not particularly. Inactives always mess with a game. I've said this enough times. The point Araris wanted brought up for discussion is whether a GM should have the right, subject to IM approval, to eject an inactive from the game prior to kick-off. The main red flag here would be prolonged inactivity and the lack of a response prior to the game starting. (Note that I sent Hoid a check-in PM before the game started, but sort of wish I'd done so earlier and could see that being part of the checks if a GM wishes to utilise this expulsion option.)

• Balance

I want to address this separate from the mechanics, largely because I think this is a separate discussion, and also because Drake and I had been talking about making a simulation of this ruleset. Do I think this was balanced? Ehhhhh.

First thing to mention is the history of the anon voting + PMs format. As I mentioned, there have been three iterations of this ruleset, with some small differences: QF1, QF11, QF43. The Village has lost all of them. This is the first Village win. But in all fairness, this is not a faithful rerun, due to the fact you can't shut down PMs (but PMs weren't always shut down) and the fact the Village Seeker has become the signet bid.

I think there's something to be said for trying to avoid expectations too much. In a set-up with a Seek and PMs and anon voting, arguably I should have run a rand with a thread controller and a PM spider (preferably packaged in the same player.) Realistically this was bringing me back to either E!Archer or E!Fifth rands.

But there's also something to be said, IMO, for how a lot of the domino-sweep that tumbled out from this game is directly attributable to a single decision point here: the Elim decision to go low info kill C1. Archer himself expressed surprise he wasn't killed, and in the world Archer gets killed, JNV doesn't get scanned, and Devo and TJ aren't exposed trying to save JNV because of what happens C2. I think I had quite a bit to say about Elim credulity in the dead doc, but I also think that if a player is blatantly networking or shenaniganing in PMs and you know points = Seek and your team goes for a player with a low points count, you are setting yourself up for trouble in the next round. I don't know about how much I want to attribute this to a balance issue but I think this has to be confronted.

I think I would say this: if you are a GM running a small game with a Seek, it's better to give the Elims thread control / PM sight. It's too easy to get blindsided otherwise. It's unfortunate that's predictable, but predictability should always come second to a game that is more robustly balanced. (I will note there is a side issue here where players should maybe not feed this by refusing to meta-game the GM's psychology.)

I will also note that the small size of this game did add to volatility. I think this would be true even if I just ran a complete QF1 set-up.

• PMs + Anon Voting

I don't really disagree that Archer used that to brutal effect this game. I also am not sure about the extent to which I'd assent to the claim this is inherently Village-leaning. I've been on both sides of the anon voting end (I'll agree not the PM end) and the reason I was so ambivalent about it in LG94 boils down to a few things: anon voting let me lie about the timing of my Striker bus vote as an Elim, which most players simply bought. Not being able to do preference analysis because you only know final votes can be painful for the Village. That's less information you have, especially if you aren't a post reader. The flip side of that coin is that as a Villager, you can blindside the Elims with an anon vote out of nowhere, or leave ambiguity about the final trains. This is what happened in LG94, with my sudden VitC onto Mat, and in QF59, where we just hesitated about whether or not to bus Striker because we had no good sense of train volumes.

And E!me used anon voting to just sort of murder Ash so.

But largely I'm more sceptical: I also feel you do sacrifice the ability to place pressure on players in a significant way, which is again, a Village tool.

In a world where Archer was wrong (suppose the Elims stamped JNV, even), that's two cycles wasted to lack of sharp discussion and players just voting whatever. I think that's a different kind of objection from E!TJ's accountability: it's not about accountability but the whole point of an exe - apply pressure, get reactions, do preference analysis, watch how players shift in response to the developing exe and trains. If this information isn't there, it's not an exe anymore, just a glorified vig kill. I'd say more that the way this turned out was a high risk/high reward kind of situation. I'm not a fan of gutting the Village exe discussion.

...I have at least been consistent about this  FWIW I don't agree with Young!Kas about abstaining from exeing even in a LG, but I think the point about the point of a discussed lynch is what I'm driving at here.

I think the Seek did make up for it in this game, which is maybe why I am not sure about having a bidding Seek mechanic go alongside PMs and anon voting. I don't think the three work together as well.

Fundamentally, I suppose this sounds like the wishy-washy cop-out I accused Aman of giving in LG94 but I don't feel there's a straightforward assessment. I do feel players kneejerk into reading these mech as more E than they should be, but I also think that players downplay how much they can cost the Village at their peril.

• Rotating Seek

I wanted to see if we could make a Seek that wasn't tied to a single player. Part of this is to let other players in on the fun of Seeking. The downside is that this more or less ensures that there will be a Seek into endgame, where the Seek can become disproportionately powerful. I don't really feel the signet is a good control here. I do have thoughts about whether it's worth trying to save this by giving Elims a Seek discount into endgame, or simply shutting the mechanic once a certain fraction of players are dead. I think both are decent options. (This didn't happen, but imagine TJ in a final five where he didn't control the Seek. That's more problematic to deal with.)

I am fine with the RP gate, but also actually feel I should have dropped the threshold to 100 words given I was asking for five posts. In a QF, 200 words RP is brutal for players who don't do this regularly.

My recommendation would actually be: drop the rotating Seek, and go back to V!Seeker. But I think if any GM wants to try adapting this, you need to think about what that sort of Seek could be like at endgame. Because it more or less seems to imply a solo Elim is screwed.

Anyway, I think that's about it from me in terms of thoughts. Once again, thanks to everyone for playing, and thanks to @Araris Valerian for being a great IM

This game taught me a lot about QUERY on spreadsheets >>

Edited May 26, 2023 by Kasimir

[Mat he/him]

Was fun to spectate, even though I frequently had no idea what was going on  Good game, village

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

Thank you to @Kasimir for the excellent GMing and @Araris Valerian for IMing.

Good job all. Especially to Devo, those last couple of posts made me not even consider the stamp, and Archer for that excellent coordination. 

I'm sorry TJ(/kinda JNV), I stand by it, elims are almost always the first ones to vote me. It is eerily accurate as an e!indicator.

2 hours ago, Amanuensis said:

Well on that note Xino is dead, so TKN is the only possible busser, as I'm fairly certain Alpha is village which leaves the only possible team combinations as:

• TJ and Fifth
• TJ and TKN
• TJ and Aman
• Fifth and TKN
• Fifth and Aman
• TKN and Aman

I'm not yet willing to entertain a bus world, so I won't vote TKN today, though I am wary of him (mostly because I don't think e!TKN should ever be underestimated). So what to do then? We kill his partner first!

50/50 odds of Fifth or TJ seem pretty good, with a potential 100% if y'all are teamed

Thank you.

[Amanuensis he/him]

36 minutes ago, The Known Novel said:

Thank you to @Kasimir for the excellent GMing and @Araris Valerian for IMing.

Good job all. Especially to Devo, those last couple of posts made me not even consider the stamp, and Archer for that excellent coordination. 

I'm sorry TJ(/kinda JNV), I stand by it, elims are almost always the first ones to vote me. It is eerily accurate as an e!indicator.

Thank you.

TY Kas and Araris

Seconded on Devo’s last few posts making me v lean her enough to vote Fifth instead and not even doubt she was Stamped. Well played o7

I’d have voted TJ regardless of me getting pulled away to handle groceries, so I’m very glad that my failing to vote didn’t cost us the game :phew:

No problem TKN  any time

Also shout out to @TheAlpha929 for being a great villager this game o7 glad I didn’t convince you to spare Devo over Fifth

Edited May 26, 2023 by Amanuensis

[The Paradoxical Phenomenon he/him]

25 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

Also shout out to @TheAlpha929 for being a great villager this game o7 glad I didn’t convince you to spare Devo over Fifth

Thanks!

@Archer, I never contacted Wiz xD I didn’t say that I didn’t, be cause it was one of the reasons you were village reading me 

Good game everyone! That QF felt so SHORT compared to LG94 

[Kasimir he/him]

14 minutes ago, TheAlpha929 said:

Good game everyone! That QF felt so SHORT compared to LG94 

It's a QF...it's in the title  

[Mat he/him]

17 minutes ago, TheAlpha929 said:

Good game everyone! That QF felt so SHORT compared to LG94 

Don't worry, we have LG95 next  

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

1 minute ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Don't worry, we have LG95 next  

Oh goodness. 

Kas, can I borrow some of your painkillers?

[Kasimir he/him]

6 minutes ago, The Known Novel said:

Oh goodness. 

Kas, can I borrow some of your painkillers?

The correct attitude to LG95 is to go method acting!

Who needs rules anyway just have fun.

[The Paradoxical Phenomenon he/him]

4 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

Who needs rules anyway just have fun.

For real! That’s what I said when I bid my 1 SP!

[Kasimir he/him]

Just now, TheAlpha929 said:

For real! That’s what I said when I bid my 1 SP!

Two, sir. You bid two SP  

[The Paradoxical Phenomenon he/him]

Just now, Kasimir said:

Two, sir. You bid two SP  

Oh yeah? In that second post, did I mention duck wrangling? Cuz now that o think about it, I don’t think I did. 

[Kasimir he/him]

1 minute ago, TheAlpha929 said:

Oh yeah? In that second post, did I mention duck wrangling? Cuz now that o think about it, I don’t think I did. 

No, but I've been interpreting my rules according to the intent in order to allow the IC style Archer used. I'm about increasing RP. The cosmetic roles give players a simple way to do it, but I generally do not care too hard as long as you're clearly sort of in your role. And you were, enough for me.

[The Paradoxical Phenomenon he/him]

2 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

No, but I've been interpreting my rules according to the intent in order to allow the IC style Archer used. I'm about increasing RP. The cosmetic roles give players a simple way to do it, but I generally do not care too hard as long as you're clearly sort of in your role. And you were, enough for me.

Okay, makes sense.

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

Thanks Kas. Yay village!

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

New voting plan

Spoiler

Anyway, thanks a lot to Kas for running this, and Araris for IMing. I still think three was a bit much (if Archer was killed C1, or had scanned anyone else, we were pretty much toast), but hey, it worked out, thanks to some expert Village lying (again, good work Archer, even if you unjustly barred me from the truth twice ). Also thank you to everyone who sparred with Ripling, verbally and otherwise. You were all true poets.  Hail the Emperor!

[Archer he/him]

7 hours ago, Kasimir said:

 

• Rotating Seek

I wanted to see if we could make a Seek that wasn't tied to a single player. Part of this is to let other players in on the fun of Seeking. The downside is that this more or less ensures that there will be a Seek into endgame, where the Seek can become disproportionately powerful. I don't really feel the signet is a good control here. I do have thoughts about whether it's worth trying to save this by giving Elims a Seek discount into endgame, or simply shutting the mechanic once a certain fraction of players are dead. I think both are decent options. (This didn't happen, but imagine TJ in a final five where he didn't control the Seek. That's more problematic to deal with.)

I am fine with the RP gate, but also actually feel I should have dropped the threshold to 100 words given I was asking for five posts. In a QF, 200 words RP is brutal for players who don't do this regularly.

My recommendation would actually be: drop the rotating Seek, and go back to V!Seeker. But I think if any GM wants to try adapting this, you need to think about what that sort of Seek could be like at endgame. Because it more or less seems to imply a solo Elim is screwed.

 

I liked that the threshold was high enough that not everyone hit the maximum every round. The game is more interesting that way. 

The points thing also made it easier to guess who was Seeking, versus hunting for a single, unknowable player the whole game. It also made it so that an inactive Seeker wasn't an issue, or a mayor Seeker. 

I think 11 players is always going to be fought with difficulties, balance wise. It's just a bad number for a QF. 

Biggest comment would be that no one intuitively understood that the stamp affects exe flips too, and that's an important element. 

6 hours ago, TheAlpha929 said:

Thanks!

@Archer, I never contacted Wiz xD I didn’t say that I didn’t, be cause it was one of the reasons you were village reading me 

How dare you lie in PMs to a fellow villager 

1 hour ago, Fifth Scholar said:

 (again, good work Archer, even if you unjustly barred me from the truth twice ). 

And well done you for *checks notes* discovering the final elim via dream. :D. 

 

Good game, team. That was possibly my best ever village game, so it was a nice palette cleanser. 

Thanks for running this, GM, IM

[The Paradoxical Phenomenon he/him]

2 minutes ago, Archer said:

How dare you lie in PMs to a fellow villager 

And never said I did