Mid-Range Game 66: Knights of Wind and Truth

[STINK he/him]

Right goodnight everyone hope you all get a good nights sleep

 

[Aeoryi she/her]

Will I be able to see the dead doc before the aftermath or is that a no generally speaking in general will i

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

This cycle will close in roughly 19 minutes at the hour. There is a chance I will not be on exactly at 9:00; the cycle will close at that time regardless.  

[Kasimir he/him]

4 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

This cycle will close in roughly 19 minutes at the hour. There is a chance I will not be on exactly at 9:00; the cycle will close at that time regardless.  

Jawohl, Herr GM!

[ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ he/him]

I change  my vote to Raven

[Kasimir he/him]

Ffs i s2g

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

That is the cycle!

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

Callar stared at the blank slate of stone, and sucked in Stormlight.

It raged through him, fury and light and life. Every Radiant Callar'd ever talked to described the feeling of Stormlight infusing you in a different way. To Callar, he felt as though he wanted to leap, dance, to laugh and move. The storm swept through him, filling him to the brim with energy, and he placed his hand to the slate and let it ripple, as though it were made of simple cloth.

Rough figures—he was short on time and didn't fancy himself enough of a sculptor, for all the work he'd spent on Aradon's grave—slowly shaped themselves in the stone. As though he was revealing what was already there, Callar thought.

Images—memories, crusted with the pain of the past few days—swam through his mind, and his Surges gave life to them in stone. Jenel, sitting cross-legged, listening to their spren. Phil Swift, leaping into combat, sword in hand. Here, Aradon, weaving intricate images out of light; finer, blurred strokes in the stone possible only through Cohesion suggested something that wasn't quite real, such as the outline of a honorspren. To his side, another blurring of lines for the patterns of his Cryptic, Spark. Gen-ku, listening patiently as the vague images of two squadmates appeared to argue: Death-daughter-Time on the one side, and Bailis on the other.

Callar bowed his head.

This one was the freshest, the most recent loss.

Keleran emerged through the blank surface of the stone. Face resolute, with the steel Callar had seen in him in recent days. Ellublade grounded at his feet as he stood at parade rest.

Unmoveable.

Exactly as a Stoneward should be

-

"Report," Callar said.

Galatar drew in a deep breath, and tried to keep the accusation out of his voice. "Keleran is dead. Sir. I figured Orotha and Wit should be separated for a while—TBD is guarding the accused."

"Saffron," Callar grunted. Keleran'd said something about Saffron having admitted to being affiliated with the traitors, though containing a Dustbringer was no easy task. Fortunately, Keleran seemed to have had a plan.

"He admitted it, sir," Galatar said, looking Callar directly in the eyes. "Are we to send her away, then? For investigation?"

Callar nodded. "He'll be escorted under guard for further investigation—which should be quick, given what you've said. A complement of independent Skybreakers, affiliated with Gen-ku, are arriving shortly from Urithiru. The Blackthorn will pass sentence."

"Sir," Galatar said, hotly, in spite of himself. "Saffron's friends murdered Keleran." Old friend, he found himself thinking, you saw this, didn't you? Keleran'd talked about this, when they went over the plan.

"I'm sorry," Keleran had said at last. His lips pressed together in frustration or distaste. He spread the plans out further on the stone. "I don't have the resources to protect you." His gaze went distant, and for a moment, he seemed to be someplace else. "You know what Callar always says in tactics class?"

"Know your conditions of victory," Galatar said. The memory came swift; he'd always been the better of the two of them at studies. Still, he thought, it'd never been about which of them was better. They worked well together, so Callar'd kept pairing them off for exercises and manuevers.

Keleran nodded. Ellu slipped down from his shoulder and turned into a tiny pebble at the edge of the plan.

"We win if TBD lives," he said, simply. "Which means TBD must live. No matter the cost."

He looked over at his spren, and they seemed to exchange a moment of silent communication. Keleran steeled his shoulders. "TBD is an experienced Skybreaker. I've listed out the most likely co-conspirators, but I imagine he'll use his own judgement. We need him, or we won't be able to stop what they're planning. The Lashings are invaluable, here."

"No matter the cost," Galatar repeated, slowly.

"I'm sorry," Keleran said. "I have to protect TBD."

Galatar looked at the rest of the detail. Meant to escort Saffron to Callar as the latest accused, so a search could be conducted. The flaw in the plan was immediately obvious: everyone was protecting someone else.

Except Galatar.

And that Galatar absolutely did not trust the Elsecaller who was set to be covering Keleran.

It should be me, he thought, fiercely. After all those exercises. After all those maneuvers, even if he couldn't summon his spren as a Shardblade. Even if he'd spoken so painfully few Oaths.

Keleran shook his head. "You can't," he said, and the gentleness and understanding seemed to cut deeper than a Shardblade. "You can't summon a Blade or Plate, Galatar. Which is why you can't be tasked there."

"And Orotha can?" 

Keleran said, "So she claims."

"Someone knifed Kel," Galatar said, flatly. Back in the captain's office, reporting to Callar. Jarred abruptly out of memory by Callar's hand waving in front of his face. "Pretty much betting it had to be Saffron's friends, sir. He didn't run, because he was guarding TBD and he didn't want to let them past him. I think it had to be someone's Blade, because it went right through like butter."

Or so he thought. It'd all happened so fast, Galatar struggled to process it. Living one moment. Dead the next. Keleran shouting for him to make sure TBD was fine.

Storming idiot.

And Galatar had no Shards. And Galatar had taken too long to suck in Stormlight, and to stick them to the ground with Adhesion, by which point the damage had been done.

And now his friend was dead.

"Sir," he said, when Callar said nothing, but hadn't dismissed him. "Permission to speak?"

Callar waved him on, absently. Galatar wondered if he felt the loss at all, even of a fellow Stoneward. His face was impassive.

"It was your storming job sir, if you'll excuse the profanities," Galatar said, bluntly. "You're our Captain. Not Keleran. Kel kept saying it was what Stonewards did, about how you've got to be there. We needed you. You weren't there. We had him. And he tried so storming hard to be enough because you weren't there."

The words hung in the air, a sharpness, an accusation, hurled into the brightness of the morning light. He could not take them back.

"Galatar," Callar said.

Galatar supposed he was in for it now.

"Dismissed." Which sounded very much like an icy 'get out.' Galatar supposed he'd deserved that.

"Sir," Galatar said, before he left. "We're your squad. People are dying. Every single day. Yesterday, it was Kel. Who knows who it'll be tomorrow? We need you."

He left, closing the office door behind him.

-

"Callar."

Head bowed in grief, Callar took a moment to respond. Days of losing member after member of his squad, to infighting and to argument. He had been busy. There were reports to address, other patrols that needed to be diverted to account for the fact his squad was sequestered and not at full strength.

And then Madilan had insisted he work on his own training, his own Surges.

Now, Madilan called him, as Callar grieved silently for those Knights he had lost, and the ones that might be lost still.

"Callar!"

Callar composed himself, drawing himself together with the ferocious discipline that had seen the Blackthorn install him as squad captain. "Yes?" he wanted to know.

"The Bondsmith is right," Madilan stated. His spren was never one for mincing words, one way or another. So very different from Ellu. Something about the difference between whatever peakspren Madilan was and Kasiden peakspren from the east. "They are your squad, Callar. You must be there for them, especially now."

So he had sworn.

He felt the weight of his Oaths, and the burden of command.

I am the first into battle, and the last to leave it. I will not surrender those under my command. I will never abandon a companion, though I will honour sacrifice freely given.

"One moment," he said, and words swam up through the stone, hewn roughly. 

The missing members of his squad stared at him, their gazes blank and stone-wrought. Callar did not know if it was in accusation.

I WILL STAND WITH MY ALLIES. THEY ARE MY STRENGTH, JUST AS I AM THEIR STRENGTH. 

WE RISE TOGETHER.

Callar looked at the words for a last, long moment.

"Let us go," he said, to Madilan. There was to be a reckoning, then.

-

"I spent so much of my time at Jah Keved worrying that I wasn't good enough to be a Stoneward, that Ellu had made a mistake. Then I spent the time worrying that I wasn't good enough for my squadmates. Ellu says I'm being an idiot. They needed me. I was there. The rest is dust and sand."

—Small infused topaz, found in storage box 29-267-3c of the Jah Keved campaign fought under the Blackthorn's Coalition.

All credit to the amazing @Kasimir

---

Aeoryi (Saffron Iguana) was executed! She was a Traitorous Knight Dustbringer of the Second Ideal!

Vote Count

Aeoryi (5): Aeoryi, Kasimir, Devotary of Spontaneity, |TJ|, STINK

Raven (0): Wit

Kasimir (Keleran) was killed by the traitors! He was a Loyal Knight Radiant Stoneward of the Fourth Ideal!

Cycle Five has begun! It will end in 46 hours on Tuesday 14 November at 9:00 PM EST.

I apologise for being a bad GM this game (long rollovers/response times, clerical errors, lack of clear OoA at times). Will have more to say on this once/if the game ends but I probably shouldn't have tried an MR of this complexity without help given my shift schedule. Sorry y'all. Taking a short sabbatical from the Shard for the next ~24 hours, so that I can hopefully get myself in order. The Ideal mistake was just one of several things weighing on me a bit. 

There is an Exe today.

Good luck!

Player List:

1. Aeoryi as Saffron Iguana Dustbringer

2. Amanuensis/Experience as Gen-ku Skybreaker

3. Ravenclawjedi42 as Death-daughter-Time Edgedancer

4. |TJ| as Galatar 

5. Ashbringer as Bailis Willshaper

6. Matrim’s Dice as Shay Edgedancer

7. Archer as Phil Swift Windrunner

8. Kasimir as Keleran Stoneward

9. STINK as TBD

10. Araris Valerian as Aradon Lightweaver

11. JNV Truthwatcher

12. Psiti?tēebe?t

13. Devotary of Spontaneity as Taliat/Orotha and Iolea

Edited November 15, 2023 by Fifth Scholar

[|TJ| he/him]

Aight, let's bring this home. Lemme check who were supposed to do what - 

1. STINK - RBs Aeo. Forces Aeo to use Abrasion. 
2. TJ - Used Tension on Wit
3. Kas - Used Tension on Devotary
4. Devo - Supposed to Protect Kas
5. Wit - Redirect all actions to Aeo. 

Obviously something happened to the protect on Kas and the simplest answer is that Devo just killed Kas instead of protecting him.

Edited November 13, 2023 by |TJ|

[ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ he/him]

Yep that is right. 
Devo

[STINK he/him]

Yeah Devo

Does make me wonder why Aeo was so keen on RPing like they're the last elim alive when as it turns out they weren't

Currently waiting on a clarification from Fifth on something that's like fully commitment worthy but otherwise I mean yeah maybe the dead doc / elim doc will judge me for this but I don't see a world where it's Wit or TJ really since either one just would have done more tbh

Well that goes more so for Wit than TJ but you get what I mean

[ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ he/him]

7 hours ago, STINK said:

Yeah Devo

Does make me wonder why Aeo was so keen on RPing like they're the last elim alive when as it turns out they weren't

Currently waiting on a clarification from Fifth on something that's like fully commitment worthy but otherwise I mean yeah maybe the dead doc / elim doc will judge me for this but I don't see a world where it's Wit or TJ really since either one just would have done more tbh

Well that goes more so for Wit than TJ but you get what I mean

Yep it isn’t me!

 

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

Should've killed Wit instead since I was tensioned. But it wouldn't matter either way, since even if I got TJ exed today I would be unable to beat Kas + Stink. So good shot STINK back on C2. Having to rely on Mat to submit the kill because Aeoryi couldn't be around for rollover sunk us. If we'd shot Kas C3, if Aeoryi had been third ideal or if I'd been exed yesterday instead of her, we might have won. No doubt the village could have improved as well.

 

Taliat had failed Shay, the proud Edgedancer whose fury could not be restrained to mere words. When her attempt to strike a blow for the Singers was stopped by a Skybreaker, executor of laws that stood as a monument to untold millions of corpses, Taliat had discarded her. Sacrificed her to ensure the death of the Windrunner Shay had wanted killed all along Perhaps this failure was why Saffron hadn't trusted her to defend him. When the knives came out, as always they did for every Knight Radiant who sought to defy their oaths and orders, Saffron had chosen to throw himself on the Knights' mercy rather count on Taliat to shield her. At least his death had been swift, and in the end perhaps both options would have lead to the same end. One lone surgebinder, individually powerful but no match for the collective might of the remaining Knights.

"We can still escape!" Iolea urged. "Flee to Shadesmar, where none of these Knights can follow us."

"We cannot," Taliat replied, searching her possessions for her spanreed to write one last message as the three remaining Knights plus their commander steadily approached her. "The battle to retake these lands will begin imminently, and you must be there to fight."

"What?" "How?"

Taliat finished her final update, inscribing only the notations for three rhythms, Lost, Despair, and finally Consolation.

"Choose a nearby Singer for your next surgebinder, won't you? Give Slani the report I never learned how to write. Return here at the head of a liberating army, and make sure as few as possible Singers die for victory."

". . . I understand. Goodbye, Taliat."

Iolea manifested as a knife, a small, one-handed weapon suited for assassination rather than battle. Together, the two looked out at the four Knights who surrounded them.

"I once believed that everyone had the capacity for self-improvement, the ability to choose to be a better person than they once were and make up for the harm they've caused," Taliat began. "I see now that this is not true. All of you would have a place among the Singers, performing any task you were suited for while enjoying the rights and resources of full citizenship. Yet you would have neither the wealth nor power as the Coalition offers you. Leadership of a new noble house, a large city's worth of land, a thousand soldiers to enforce your will, a lifetime supply of Stormlit spheres, for these material benefits have you agreed to slaughter Singers until none remain on their rightful land save corpses and slaves. As you switch from passive beneficiary to active enforcer of millennia of violence, you hide behind your Oaths and pretend your actions are justified, even righteous. Your improvement can only be brought about by force."

Taliat guided the Iolea-dagger towards her throat with her gloved hand, while her right hand summoned up all her remaining Stormlight and focused it inwards for the last Transformation she'd ever perform. Let an entire body's worth of blood foretell the fate of any Knight or soldier who stood against the Singers.

 

[STINK he/him]

Well I dunno about anyone else but I'm not really sure what else we're meant to do this cycle

I guess when Fifth is back we could maybe end the thread/cycle a bit early if that's not too inconvenient for anyone or like someone wants to bang out some RP?

Maybe I finally write TBD taking the stage with his insane breakdancing moves 

[ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ he/him]

2 hours ago, STINK said:

Well I dunno about anyone else but I'm not really sure what else we're meant to do this cycle

I guess when Fifth is back we could maybe end the thread/cycle a bit early if that's not too inconvenient for anyone or like someone wants to bang out some RP?

Maybe I finally write TBD taking the stage with his insane breakdancing moves 

Yes!

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

The cycle, and the game, is over. Thank you all tremendously for playing. Allow me about 48 hours for an aftermath thread (I want to pre-write my GM thoughts and such or they simply won't happen), and in the meantime enjoy the writing of @Kasimir, which has been inserted into the opening post of this cycle, and shower him with upvotes and praise.  

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

Blood in covered hands,

The killer, a Knight by birth:

To die she goes. She dies

To birth by night a killer,

The hands covered in blood.

- Ketek written by Callar, to commemorate the passing of Taliat and the end of the threat of the traitors

---

MR66 is over! Devotary of Spontaneity (Taliat) self-immolated, but was also executed and killed. She was a Traitorous Knight Elsecaller of the Fifth Ideal!

The LOYAL KNIGHTS RADIANT are victorious.

Links:

Spoiler

The Knights Errant

The Knight Will Soon Be Ending

Master Spreadsheet

Player List:

Spoiler

1. Aeoryi as Saffron Iguana Dustbringer

2. Amanuensis/Experience as Gen-ku Skybreaker

3. Ravenclawjedi42 as Death-daughter-Time Edgedancer

4. |TJ| as Galatar Bondsmith

5. Ashbringer as Bailis Willshaper

6. Matrim’s Dice as Shay Edgedancer

7. Archer as Phil Swift Windrunner

8. Kasimir as Keleran Stoneward

9. STINK as TBD Skybreaker

10. Araris Valerian as Aradon Lightweaver

11. JNV Truthwatcher

12. Psiti?tēebe?t Lightweaver

13. Devotary of Spontaneity as Taliat/Orotha and Iolea Elsecaller

Reduced GM thoughts because the last few days have been a bit of a mess:

1. I don't regret the balance, significantly. Village had a lot of firepower, especially late-game, but it was justified considering Devo jumped from Second to Fifth Ideal in one cycle and all the other elims had opportunities to do similarly. And there was a funny PtV which was there for her even with the way things shook out mechanically. More specific distro thoughts are in dead doc, but the only choice I really regret was Village Skybreaker 2. I feel that with the way the game went, the village could have been fine with an Elsecaller or even a DB of their own, considering how much protection power I loaded onto the elim team. But the roleblock and kill potential made it a little nasty - I thought people would read evil into that power combination but good job on y'all for not making assumptions.

2. Action system was a bit of a mess. Having the stacking of 4LW>Abrasion>Tension>Gravitation/Illumination/Transformation/4SW before ordinary people even get to take actions was a little head-wrenching. That said, I think it still worked, with Tension being unexpectedly helpful late-game. Turns out that's what happens when you don't brutally slaughter Smokers  Take that, all those who derided Bondsmiths and Stonewards! 

3. Both teams fought well and are strong and wise and I am very proud of them.

4. If you need a pinch-hitter for RL reasons, please tell your GM sooner rather than later. We'll get it done (as evidenced by my airlifting Aman in the middle of C1 so y'all could kill him ). And if we don't have one and you can't keep up with the game, don't overburden yourself. Talk to the IM or GM briefly and then dip. We'll sort out what needs to be done. Take care of yourselves first.

5. I'd love to rerun this with some minor fixes (changing a few Knight-specific Ideal progressions (RIP Bondsmiths), cooler 4th ideal powers for some roles (thinking Willshaper and Elsecaller in particular)). Would love your thoughts on how you as players felt the Ideal system worked and whether you felt incentivised to keep progressing.

6. Sorry for being more absent as a GM than I usually am. Would have loved to engage more with all your wonderful RP and plotting but sadly RL hit me hard unexpectedly and it was really all I could do to keep the show going.

Thank you all for playing. See/murder you in the next one  

Edited November 17, 2023 by Fifth Scholar

[Aeoryi she/her]

Welp, this was definitely my worst game. Self destruction was definitely not the way to go.

   I had a good C1-3, however:

If I had gotten the third Ideal from RP then:

1. Would've been able to kill stink, abrasion myself, kill Kas, and leave with a 2 v 1 with Devo 5EC vs Wit LW and TJ, where the lynch is a tie or TJ doesn't use tension and gets RB'd

2. Kas probably wouldn't suspect me for a post made at 10PM 

So yeah. Definitely should've gotten a PH

Secondly, distrowise, I feel like it was fine, although having a LW instead of a EC might have been a better choice to combat the high RB/rd power of the village

Thirdly, I felt like the game was well made. The ruleset was pretty fun, and I liked the idea behind each role being unique. The ideal rewards were great with extra action slots, and how to get ideals was fine, although I would make the RP ideal take effect immediately.

[Kasimir he/him]

@Fifth Scholar Neither you, me, nor Devo saw it. I love that my calling it a hoover inadvertently gaslit us all

Good showing everyone! Was fun!

[JNV]

This was a fun game it was nice to be around even if my evil radar is still completely useless and my protecting abilities arent the best congrats to the village yay for us um great game from the evils it was looking dicey for a while there and yeah Holy Ruin Destroyer of Worlds and Elims who didnt really destroy any elims out

[Aeoryi she/her]

1 minute ago, JNV said:

This was a fun game it was nice to be around even if my evil radar is still completely useless and my protecting abilities arent the best congrats to the village yay for us um great game from the evils it was looking dicey for a while there and yeah Holy Ruin Destroyer of Worlds and Elims who didnt really destroy any elims out

It all went downhill after STINK rb'd mat. It was going to be perfect

Oh yeah and the Raven kill was very unaccounted for.

[Kasimir he/him]

@Devotary of Spontaneity - In short you were not wrong but I can't be making mass lying plays every game  Especially not with how much FUD was costing me in reads stability this round. Nice parallel to QF62 here where I also suffered reads stability issues after coming back off a month's break.

Something that very nearly did happen, i.e. not wrong:

-I was quietly making more extensive anti-Aeo cases to TJ and STINK to sell them on it, along with the fact you were the most likely E!partner.
-My plan was to get STINK and TJ on board to split the vote and, in a nice tribute to you, V!hammer Aeo after you all were content with the thought we were complacently exeing TJ with Aeo in 2exe to gain an Ideal promotion.
-In the end we discarded this, or rather I unliterally dumped the plan without asking them to go for it because rollover was at 2AM for STINK and TJ which was rough.
-Also, there was Wit to consider: I didn't know if I could get Wit to go with a hammer especially with how new he was. The flip side of my V play you might forget is I try to minimise lying to my own team because this just confuses and alienates everyone who wasn't in on it, and if I were Wit, I'd certainly lose my chull at a hammer out of nowhere! I was concerned the Village couldn't recover from a potential catastrophic lack of trust, regardless of Aeo's flip, and the votes were too close to necessarily expect the hammer to carry through.

[Aeoryi she/her]

10 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

@Devotary of Spontaneity - In short you were not wrong but I can't be making mass lying plays every game  Especially not with how much FUD was costing me in reads stability this round. Nice parallel to QF62 here where I also suffered reads stability issues after coming back off a month's break.

Something that very nearly did happen, i.e. not wrong:

-I was quietly making more extensive anti-Aeo cases to TJ and STINK to sell them on it, along with the fact you were the most likely E!partner.
-My plan was to get STINK and TJ on board to split the vote and, in a nice tribute to you, V!hammer Aeo after you all were content with the thought we were complacently exeing TJ with Aeo in 2exe to gain an Ideal promotion.
-In the end we discarded this, or rather I unliterally dumped the plan without asking them to go for it because rollover was at 2AM for STINK and TJ which was rough.
-Also, there was Wit to consider: I didn't know if I could get Wit to go with a hammer especially with how new he was. The flip side of my V play you might forget is I try to minimise lying to my own team because this just confuses and alienates everyone who wasn't in on it, and if I were Wit, I'd certainly lose my chull at a hammer out of nowhere! I was concerned the Village couldn't recover from a potential catastrophic lack of trust, regardless of Aeo's flip, and the votes were too close to necessarily expect the hammer to carry through.

Tbh it was not catastrophic. I felt as if I wasn't quite V but was very close in people's eyes. Raven saw that, and that's probably why he got killed

[Kasimir he/him]

8 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Tbh it was not catastrophic. I felt as if I wasn't quite V but was very close in people's eyes. Raven saw that, and that's probably why he got killed

This was not referring to you, but Wit's reaction to watching a hammer go down that he knew nothing about. IMO the natural Village reaction to seeing a hammer is to think E!hammer - V!hammers are more rare, and Wit believing he's witnessing a E!hammer opens up a new layer of unpredictability for Village.

Edited to add:

The issue with making a play like that is if it's say, Archer, there's a decent sense of how he'd respond and adapt. With Wit, there isn't. This risks opening Wit into the third front/pivot of the game, where everyone is basically fighting to get Wit on board. That's pretty overwhelming for him potentially, which also re-opens the risks we don't know where the endgame was going to go.

Fundamentally, keeping Wit onside was more important than fancy V!hammer tricks.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Kasimir

[Aeoryi she/her]

9 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

This was not referring to you, but Wit's reaction to watching a hammer go down that he knew nothing about. IMO the natural Village reaction to seeing a hammer is to think E!hammer - V!hammers are more rare, and Wit believing he's witnessing a E!hammer opens up a new layer of unpredictability for Village.

Edited to add:

The issue with making a play like that is if it's say, Archer, there's a decent sense of how he'd respond and adapt. With Wit, there isn't. This risks opening Wit into the third front/pivot of the game, where everyone is basically fighting to get Wit on board. That's pretty overwhelming for him potentially, which also re-opens the risks we don't know where the endgame was going to go.

Fundamentally, keeping Wit onside was more important than fancy V!hammer tricks.

Shoulda killed the stonewards smh Mat