Long Game 101: The Edge of Empire

[xinoehp512 he/him]

7 hours ago, DrakeMarshall said:

I'm visiting Ash what about you

Glass shattered, and a conflagration suddenly erupted behind the bar. Relve let out a string of vehement curses. The skin on the left side of his body was flash-seared and he was pretty sure he smelled burning hair, but the pewter took the edge off the pain. I'm gonna get that healed when I get back home, he promised himself. Better than brand new. Gold-driven healing was pretty expensive, but Scadrial took good care of its agents, especially those with successes under their belt.

He hit the emergency duraluminum medallion under his sleeve, and for a blessed moment, the pain was all but gone and he was brimming with overwhelming strength and energy. It demanded to be put to use, before all of the pewter burned up. With a roar of anger, he picked up the entire burning cabinet of liquors and hurled it at Jacks' position.

Wine bottles shattered against tables and chairs, and the entire room began to burn.

Jacks scrambled away from the table in front of him, but there was nowhere to run. Dimly, he realized that some of the alcohol had gotten on his pants legs and was starting to burn. Well. That was going to hurt like Damnation. He pressed the flame against the ground, trying to starve it of air.

Air. There was only so much air in here. Was it already becoming more difficult to breathe? The heat certainly made it feel that way. And the smoke was already starting to fill the room. Jacks fumbled for his mask and put it on. It wasn't one of the fancy Soulcaster ones; this one was just an attractor for oxygen. It wouldn't last forever. But maybe it would last long enough. He only had to outlast Relve, after all.

He fired a few more shots in Relve's direction, still crackling with a slight heat.

 

7 hours ago, DrakeMarshall said:

I'm visiting Ash what about you

Quote

Uh... Not sure how to respond to this

 

[Kasimir he/him]

The cycle/game has ended! Stay tuned to find out which is true!

[Kasimir he/him]

LG101: Day Four - Duel of the Drakes

Tbh I didn't feel like doing a write-up so have a video which more or less captures Drake v. Xino:

Spoiler

"Enough," Jacks said. "We aren't here to talk about war. You want something." Everyone always wanted something, didn’t they? So why did Ara’s face float to the surface of his memory, at this moment? He pushed the thought aside. He couldn’t afford distractions, here and now.

He kept a careful watch on his emotions as he spoke. He'd experienced the manipulations of an Allomancer first hand before; they were subtle, but not impossible to detect.

"Ah, true enough," Relve admitted easily. "I do want something."

He poured two cups of black tea, and set out a pitcher of milk and a bowl of sugar. The quantity of each that went into a man's tea was a deeply personal decision.

"But you know, I think you're mistaken about something. It won't lead to war if you won't be telling anyone that the Scadrians sabotaged the Fourth Bridge."

Relve smiled between sips of tea.

"All kinds of accidents can happen in space, you know? Plenty of mundane things that don't involve convoluted plots and Scadrian sabotage, but which still can royally screw up a space station. Space stations are delicate objects. If the circumstances seem a bit suspicious to some people, well." He chuckled. "Not any more suspicious than the Rosharans setting up a civilian outpost that just happened to be doing heavy surveillance in Scadrian space must have seemed to us, I suppose. Everyone'll just have to deal.”

Relve shrugged.

"The cosmere keeps on turning, somehow."

"I'd be more worried about where you fit into that narrative, honestly. Because an obvious solution to all of this would just be to kill you and throw you out the airlock."

"But see, I think it works out better for both of us if we avoid trying to murder each other."

Relve dropped a disk on the table with a clink. It was quite clearly Scadrian tech, mostly copper, but there were intricate inlays of many other metals too.

"Regrettably, this only works if you do it willingly. Touch the disk and relinquish claim over all your memories from the past few days. You'll come to on an escape pod with a couple of important particulars missing. But, importantly, you'll still be alive."

The device was fairly simple Feruchemy, really. Not that he expected Jacks to understand the principles. The most sophisticated part was verifying that the correct memories were relinquished to fill the empty coppermind.

"Or you can refuse. In that case, I'm afraid our truce will be over."

"That means we'll fight to the death," Relve helpfully clarified.

Jacks stared at the disc. Gleaming in the dim light. The Fourth Bridge was still throwing a tantrum, it seemed. A way out. A path to live another day. And... a way to forget his failures in protecting the crew of the Fourth Bridge.

With this, it could all be over.

"What about the rest of the crew?" he heard himself asking. "Do they all get the same ultimatum?"

"Yes, they all get the same ultimatum," Relve said.

"In exactly one case, it will be a lie," he admitted. "For reasons that I'm afraid I can't disclose even here and now, one more person needs to die."

"But that's it. Everybody else will live."

It's the best I can offer.

"So what'll it be?"

In the burnished metals of the disc, Jacks saw the distortion that was his reflection.

One death. 

One death, and Jacks would be free of everything. A small price to pay, for some. 

But he had made an oath. 

"You've killed my people," Jacks said quietly. "And Damnation take me if I let you kill any more."

Relve sighed.

"One damnation coming right up, then."

 

Kethen started awake and found himself in Braize.

The fire klaxons on the Fourth Bridge were shrieking like the winds of the Everstorm, and his alerter was blinking and vibrating repeatedly. Oh, storms, he cursed and blindly swiped at it. Was it too storming much to ask for that something normal happened on this storming ship? Or that it at least happened when it was someone else’s storming problem?

He was going to murder someone. Multiple someones. As much bloodshed as it took for him to feel fine about the latest state of affairs.

The alerter silenced itself after he batted at it again, staggered out of his bunk, and all but managed to run headlong into the wall trying to get his jacket on. Pain blazed in his forehead, but as far as Kethen could tell, he wasn’t bleeding and hadn’t smacked himself back into unconsciousness. Good enough.

He grabbed his gear and charged out of his quarters, a contemporary lost Radiant heading to some Almightyforsaken battlefield.

The alerter started blinking and vibrating again.

Storm it.

 

 

Relve ducked under the counter, away from the bursts of divisive Stormlight that were eating away at whatever they made contact with. A stray shot shattered a bottle behind him. He grimaced and hurled a bottle of violet over the counter with all his strength.

At the same time, his other hand found the trigger of a gun. Nothing fancy, just a mass-produced aluminum-and-wood shotgun. It was loaded with scattershot, as this was deemed slightly less likely to cause a hull breach on a space station. This gun was loud, but he'd make the shots count.

He crawled down the counter to a different spot, poked his head up, and fired.

Jacks inched across the room, moving from table to table as quietly as he could manage. Relve's shot thunked into the table beside him. He'd turned his deflector fabrial on, but -of course- it hadn't done anything. There seemed to be no end to how shots could be designed to get around protections.

Protections. Relve was hiding behind the counter. Could he be forced out somehow? 

Jacks eyed the spilled violet on the floor, an idea forming in his head. He reached into the mechanisms of his fabrial, slightly dislodging part of the metal cage. An acquaintance of his had once shown him a trick for temporarily modifying the nature of a division fabrial shot. It made it less physically disruptive- but much, much hotter.

The fabrial vibrated in Jacks’s hands, and just as it reached the point where it seemed ready to shake itself apart, he released the shot.

Directly into the cabinet of wines behind the counter.

Glass shattered, and a conflagration suddenly erupted behind the bar. Relve let out a string of vehement curses. The skin on the left side of his body was flash-seared and he was pretty sure he smelled burning hair, but the pewter took the edge off the pain. I'm gonna get that healed when I get back home, he promised himself. Better than brand new. Gold-driven healing was pretty expensive, but Scadrial took good care of its agents, especially those with successes under their belt.

He hit the emergency duraluminum medallion under his sleeve, and for a blessed moment, the pain was all but gone and he was brimming with overwhelming strength and energy. It demanded to be put to use, before all of the pewter burned up. With a roar of anger, he picked up the entire burning cabinet of liquors and hurled it at Jacks' position.

Wine bottles shattered against tables and chairs, and the entire room began to burn.

Jacks scrambled away from the table in front of him, but there was nowhere to run. Dimly, he realized that some of the alcohol had gotten on his pants legs and was starting to burn. Well. That was going to hurt like Damnation. He pressed the flame against the ground, trying to starve it of air.

Air. There was only so much air in here. Was it already becoming more difficult to breathe? The heat certainly made it feel that way. And the smoke was already starting to fill the room. Jacks fumbled for his mask and put it on. It wasn't one of the fancy Soulcaster ones; this one was just an attractor for oxygen. It wouldn't last forever. But maybe it would last long enough. He only had to outlast Relve, after all.

He fired a few more shots in Relve's direction, still crackling with a slight heat.

 

 

If Kethen were a superstitious man, he’d think the 4B was reaching out to him on this night, guiding his path. Light panels flickered—went dark on some corridors, brightened on others. He ran, following the path of the lights, but also the vibrations of the alerter, which went off with increasing intensity as he raced for the recreational sector, and Relve’s bar.

In theory, the shipspren was sentient, and did work to keep the passengers of the Fourth Bridge safe, but things like being guided by the Fourth Bridge in this personal way were the stuff of fanciful drunk stories. Still, the lights guided him through a maintenance walkway, doors hissing open and clanking shut, and Kethen wondered.

Wondered if he believed.

He skidded to a halt outside what looked like a bar, makeshift sign glowing with blinking letters that read OPEN next to what was quite honestly an awful attempt at a cocktail glass in neon lights.

The bar was on fire and it wasn’t his fault. He felt the heat of the flames on his skin, heard the whine of a lethal fabrial going off, again and again. Someone was fighting inside the bar: several someones, probably, and idly Kethen wondered where Relve was, the Chief Steward was probably going to have everyone’s heads for this, the bar was his sacred territory—and the fire klaxons were still shrieking away and the light panels overhead blinked urgently.

Flicker-flicker-stop-flicker-stop-stop.

Kethen knew that maintenance code. He felt as though someone had hit him over the head with a hammer. It felt distinctly unreal. Had someone been teaching 4B the maintenance codes? Had she been watching, learning, even as they underestimated her and what she could do?

None of that really mattered. He raced for the fire suppression panel and whacked it open with a sharp jab and punched the alarm. Again. And again.

The klaxons wailed, seemingly louder and more aggressive.

“Oh, for Kelek’s sake,” Kethen cursed. Of course the storming thing was broken. If it was that easy, the 4B would’ve done it herself, wouldn’t she?

He lunged for the maintenance panel, but it gave way easily at the lightest pressure. Someone had worked it open, and wires hung there, torn out and cut neatly. Fortunately, Kethen had grabbed his tools with him and he could easily repair cut cables in his sleep.

He got his toolkit open and got to work. The klaxons wailed on.

Okay, 4B, Kethen thought. No pressure at all.

He twisted the wires together at last. 

The klaxons stopped.

White chemical mist sprayed throughout the bar, thick like clouds. Kethen thought he could hear the sound of pressurised jets of water deploying as well. The Fourth Bridge seemed to have a massive grudge against fire and was making her feelings known.

As the crackling flames slowly died out, Kethen made out the sight of two figures in the fog. Bent over, coughing. One of them folded over, collapsed. Then the other.

“Someone get a medical officer!” he shouted, and then realised no one was probably going to hear him because only a maniac—or an overworked Third Engineer—ran in the direction of the flames, not away from them.

Work never ended. Kethen needed so much shore leave yesterday.

He ran, looking for a medical officer.

 

 

Nobody died!

The Day has begun and will end in 48 hours at 2330hrs SGT (GMT+8) on the 31st July! Thanks to @xinoehp512 and @DrakeMarshall for magnificent duel RP which helped with the write-up.

Noting in advance that I'm aware the Village will probably request a shortened cycle to get the exes over and done with. However, I am running with a full Day Turn for reasons.

Crew Manifest:

Spoiler

1. Aeternum - Intelligence Officer
2. Aeoryi - Radio Officer
3. Coffeecat - Security Officer
4. @Ashbringer
5. @DrakeMarshall
6. @xinoehp512
7. RoyalBeeMage - Research Officer
8. @The Unknown Order
9. @CadCom

 

Edited July 29, 2024 by Kasimir

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Quote

I...

What

Okay, that worked.

Drake.

[CadCom he/him]

Well... Thanks Xino, whatever you did. Drake. 

 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

alas, my love for dueling has gotten the better of me

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

eh, why not try one last time

@CadCom @Ashbringer

I wasn't really trying to solve this before today but I recently realized that Xino is probably the Fourth Bridge

Evidence:

• Xino tied the vote D2 which significantly prolonged the game.
• Xino has blocked multiple kills at this point (N2, N3). The Medical Officer has a limited-shot protect ability. The Fourth Bridge on the other hand has infinite uses and their pick between protects and roleblocks. You do the math.
• Xino claimed how many shots he had left with his ability without much prompting. Honestly, I feel like a real Medical Officer would be more cagey and paranoid about sharing the limitations of their ability, and the Fourth Bridge would be more tryhard about proving they're a bona fide Medical Officer.
• The above is especially true since Xino never even claimed Medical Officer in the first place, it was me who guessed Xino was the Medical Officer yesterday and Xino just went with it.
• I'm not sure if I actually believe Kas would give Xino 3 shots in a game of this size, which is what Xino is claiming. At that point, why even have a limited number of shots? That's going to cover most or all of the game even if you survive a long time.
• This is like, the third time I've gone "wow Kas is reluctant to call the game early when any reasonable person would." I'm sure Kas will protest that he'd do it no matter what but he's obligated to say that >:P

of course, Xino could be a Medical Officer, it's just very likely that he isn't at this point

if Xino is the Fourth Bridge, then the village cannot win:

• if you lynch me or TUO, there's still 1 elim left, the game keeps going until D5, at which point the Fourth Bridge wins
• if you don't lynch me or TUO, we'll kill somebody on N4, and the Scadrian faction wins

so basically, y'all are kingmakers: you can't win, but you have the power to choose who does win

so! here's my pitch for why you should pick me

• I could have already won last night if I hadn't accepted multiple handicaps - not poisoning Xino and not using the unstoppable kill I had in my back pocket that TUO wanted to just use. Sure I'm kind of an idiot for accepting those handicaps for no reason, but! It was fun
• I think I played a pretty decent elim game here, for whatever that's worth. I mean, I got scanned as evil on D2 and survived all the way up until now, while getting the person who scanned me voted out instead. Not something you see every day, I'd suppose.
• FB!Xino is still lying to you, and not really giving you an informed choice today
• FB!Xino might have just shortcut the duel and roleblocked me last night tbhh, which would be sad

I just don't think FB!Xino should just win automatically here.

The main reason I can see for why you should side with Xino and against me is that Xino still might be the Medical Officer - it may be the village's only shot at winning. I think it's a pretty tiny chance, and if that's your main reason I'm probably going to silently judge you for being a coward and defaulting to the safe, sensible, winconmaxxing option even now when it likely doesn't matter and you've got nothing to lose, but. I won't deny that this makes sense from a purely tactical perspective. And I might be biased

I await your judgement, as I can do no other ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Ashbringer he/him]

Additional piece of evidence: pretty sure no one else in the game could be 4B if there is one 

Sorry Drake, but us Neutrals need to stick together. (Although TBH, I'd prefer a TUO exe here. We don't really know what he can do.)

 

Ara was back at her post. There wasn't many other places for her to be, and Scadrian mutiny or no mutiny, someone had to keep the lights on and everyone breathing. Technically that was 4B's job, but it was also hers. Not that she could do much with it right now. Besides, as much as she enjoyed a good whisky, no drinking on the job. That was supposed to be the plan after ensuring Relve's and Cofi's survival.

Oh, there was plenty that she could do. She had many plans. Most of them involved a central Reactor calibration into a perpendicularity and getting out of dodge. A few of them involved dramatically flopping over dead at the first sign of trouble and taking the shipwoman's funeral. A few of them also involved pulling out a very, very large sword and sticking it somewhere where it hurt. What was not part of her plan was being locked into a box with half of her cognitive abilities and shipped off back to Roshar. That had happened last time and it had been one of the more annoying quick exits she'd had.

But as Ara stared at the panel of Life Support indicators, something changed.

She'd been holding Relve's indicator for the majority of the day. He may have exquisitely stabbed her in the back, but he still had his indicator on him. He was still alive. That was mostly expected, as the pair of Scadrians had control of most areas. But what she wasn't expecting was for someone to set storming fire to the bar that he was in.

Immediately alarms went off throughout the ship, particularly in her own ears. The Fourth Bridge immediately started locking down all the adjacent rooms, and Ara frantically did what she could to assist, while also making an access path for the Engineers to get through. But that was simply her actions; her mind was in a completely different place. Well, both minds were, technically.

Someone was fighting back against this, whether against hope or for it. And she'd be Rust and Ruin if she was going to let them fight it alone. Not this time.

 

Jacks.

You probably don't know me. But I know you and your fight.

I'm here to help, if I can. Even if through only a Command.

SURVIVE.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

1 hour ago, Ashbringer said:

Although TBH, I'd prefer a TUO exe here. We don't really know what he can do.

Quote

You know, that's true now that I consider it. If TUO was telling the truth about being a visit scanner then we do know what he can do, but... elims aren't exactly known for telling the truth

TUO Drake

@Ashbringer @CadCom

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

smhh c'mon Ash, if Xino didn't just rig the duel (...which is very possibly what happened) then the reason I lost it is because I decided not to kill you

anyways pretty sure Xino is just fully outed here, 0% chance of village

I go "Xino is FB"

Ash goes "yes but it's fine I want FB to win"

Xino rolls with it

[Ashbringer he/him]

I'm fine with you stabbing me in the back Drake, but you still stabbed me in the back 

How would 4B!Xino rig the duel? I mean I have an idea, but wouldn't it be kinda obvious?

[Kasimir he/him]

Collection of clarifications, some of which y'all have asked multiple times >>

Quote

 

• "What does a success/failure message mean?"

Basically what it says on the tin. If you receive a success message, you were not roleblocked. Other things could have happened to interfere with your action. If you receive a failure message, you were roleblocked.

• "Can a player have multiple roles?"

I know I GM with Fifth, but in this case, the answer is no  

• "Can a player make a different vote in the cycle if the Intelligence Officer votejacks them?"

Yes and no. Once the Intelligence Officer tells you to shift your vote, I expect you to do so as soon as reasonably practicable. As neither the Intelligence Officer nor their target can time travel, I do not generally expect them to affect any votes the player may have cast prior to being notified by the Intelligence Officer.

• "What does a player see if someone protects from an attack?"

As the rules indicate, survivals are not announced in this game. The player who sent in the protect is told their protect was successful (true as long as not roleblocked), and the attacker is told their kill was successful (true as long as not roleblocked.) The survivor is the only player told they survived an attack.

 

 

Thank you and have a nice day >>

[xinoehp512 he/him]

38 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

I'm fine with you stabbing me in the back Drake, but you still stabbed me in the back 

How would 4B!Xino rig the duel? I mean I have an idea, but wouldn't it be kinda obvious?

Quote

Err...

Did you want to vote TUO, Ash?

@Ashbringer

Edited July 30, 2024 by xinoehp512

[Ashbringer he/him]

Quote

Yes, but I’d want CadCom on board before we do that. Would be real awkward if the Village let the exe get tied 

@CadCom things are a-happening

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Quote

Fair enough.

TUO Drake

[CadCom he/him]

38 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

@CadCom things are a-happening

So it seems. I'll check as I put my kid to sleep in a bit. Or tomorrow morning. I'm sure to have thoughts.

 

[Kasimir he/him]

7 hours ago, DrakeMarshall said:

• This is like, the third time I've gone "wow Kas is reluctant to call the game early when any reasonable person would." I'm sure Kas will protest that he'd do it no matter what but he's obligated to say that >:P

Listen here murderpuppy I completely missed that, I would do this no matter what, and I've talked briefly with IMs past and present about my policy of requiring Elims to stick the landing,  t r u s t 

Edited July 30, 2024 by Kasimir

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

Stop! Hammer time!

Ashbringer. 

[CadCom he/him]

16 hours ago, DrakeMarshall said:

if Xino is the Fourth Bridge, then the village cannot win:

• if you lynch me or TUO, there's still 1 elim left, the game keeps going until D5, at which point the Fourth Bridge wins
• if you don't lynch me or TUO, we'll kill somebody on N4, and the Scadrian faction wins

This might not necessarily be true. If you can self target, we could vote one elim out today, and you could self target at night. 
If you can't self target, Does the 4b need to be alive to win?  @Kasimir If so, then we could vot out Xino, then tonight, you could kill your teammate.

Ok you're probably right. I don't see either of those happening...

So here's what I'm left with. Do I choose to lose to someone who played an excellent elim game? Or do I choose to lose to someone who excellently played RP for an entire game, and still put themselves at a point where they are a cycle away from winning, just like the elims? 

Ash is leaning with Xino, presumably because Neutrals need to stick together. Xino needs me to vote with them to win, hence their vote remaining on Drake

Elims will both need to vote someone, (Same person) If they want to win. And neither of them have cast a vote so far. 

16 hours ago, DrakeMarshall said:

The main reason I can see for why you should side with Xino and against me is that Xino still might be the Medical Officer - it may be the village's only shot at winning. I think it's a pretty tiny chance, and if that's your main reason I'm probably going to silently judge you for being a coward and defaulting to the safe, sensible, winconmaxxing option even now when it likely doesn't matter and you've got nothing to lose, but. I won't deny that this makes sense from a purely tactical perspective. And I might be biased  (Emphasis Added)

Maybe I just have it out for yall 

No really, I'm amazed by how well you played.

16 hours ago, DrakeMarshall said:

Xino tied the vote D2 which significantly prolonged the game

To be fair D2, I could have influenced the vote. I was on after xino, and actually active until the moment of rollover, with a vote ready to be placed in case someone else elected to play a last minute vote, and break the tie. But I did let it happen. The only reason I didn't vote for you D2, is because I didn't feel certain enough yet, and I wanted to have double vote for D3, when I would feel more certain about my vote. 

Aaaand Now, the elims have begun voting. 

To be fair, Xino has played an excellent game as well, including managing to convince Drake to not use all available actions last night and win. 

I'm kindof leaning toward kingmaking in favor of the elims, over  4B, as I feel they rightfully should have won last night

So, for now, Ashbringer, Drake Could change before the day is over. 

 

Edited July 30, 2024 by CadCom

[Kasimir he/him]

2 minutes ago, CadCom said:

Does the 4b need to be alive to win?  @Kasimir

No.

As long as N4 ends with neither the Elims nor the Village able to achieve their wincons, the 4B wins. This statement is not meant to be regarded as confirmation nor denial that the 4B exists.

The implications of this clarification is left as an exercise for the reader.

Good question.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Quote

No why

My heart can't handle the stressss

Cadcom, blink twice if you're being forced to vote against your will...

7 minutes ago, CadCom said:

Ok you're probably right. I don't see either of those happening...

Quote

I mean, do you think that the elims would not screw me over if given the opportunity, considering?  

I've been operating under the assumption that I would lose for the entire last night and most of this day. My only goal right now is to ensure a victory for the village. 

I shot for the moon last night because I believed that even though it was hopeless, I could at least do something to avert the inevitable end. Don't you think that's a cause worth fighting for?

@CadCom

[CadCom he/him]

15 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

My only goal right now is to ensure a victory for the village

Fair. So what mechanics do you plan to use to ensure this victory? Do you claim to be village?

[xinoehp512 he/him]

1 minute ago, CadCom said:

Fair. So what mechanics do you plan to use to ensure this victory? Do you claim to be village?

Quote

I plan to vote out one of the elims.

And then the final elim will shoot themself.

 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

2 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

 

And what makes you think I will shoot myself? 

You've probably played better than the village here.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

4 minutes ago, The Unknown Order said:

And what makes you think I will shoot myself? 

You've probably played better than the village here.

Quote

I'm sure you'll say whatever you think will convince CadCom to vote with you, but at the end of the day, if I hadn't proposed the duel you would have won. It would be poetic justice to prevent me from winning as well.