LG103: Finale: A Fool's Hope

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

The village was closing in. Every time Jonoh thought he glimpsed a future where the Unmade would remain hidden, the townsfolk would be one step ahead, and it would be too late to do anything. It was galling, really. These were a bunch of innkeepers, sailors, and dispossessed drifters. Sure, some of them might’ve been surgebinders, but only brand new ones barely awakened to what they were capable of. The sort of hapless stormclast fodder who died in droves in desolations past. Not the stuff of great legends, one would think.

And they were banging on his door.

Well, if they wanted a fight, they’d get a fight, by braize. Jonoh was still host to the Unmade. A pair of midnight hands rested comfortingly on his shoulders. They belonged to Re-Shephir, more or less. The midnight mother was nearby. And Moelach, ever the carrion feeder, drawn to those on the brink of death, whispered secrets into his ears now more than ever. Insights and strategies that would help him in the coming struggle. The Unmade were turning up in force to help him. He wasn’t fool enough to think there was any real loyalty there, but they held up their end of the bargain. What was a few pitiful villagers bonded to pitiful spren, in the face of such an ancient malevolence?

 

And he had a secret weapon, an extra trick up his sleeve that nobody would know to expect.

The midnight essence coiled to strike and a shadowy hand shot out, flinging the door open with enough force to rip it free from its hinges. Jonoh walked out, multiple shadows streaming in his wake, grinning to meet the people of Ru Eris. It was time to end this.

✺

Once upon a time, in far off Marabethia, in a small and insignificant fishing village by the name of Ru Eris, the end of everything came knocking.

 

There was an innkeeper, ever quick to hold a debt over your head, but equally quick to forgive one. This served her surprisingly well as an Edgedancer, for she never forgot about anyone she thought owed her (which for practical intents and purposes was everybody), and always listened carefully to everyone’s stories.

There was a stranger from far-off lands, someone who never planned on being here. She tried to board a ship and skip town, but it never quite seemed to work out. As an Elsecaller, she would finally be free. She could travel wherever she pleased.

There was a somehow even stranger stranger, from even further-off lands, someone who was born under an altogether different sun. The cryptics pirated his videos about baiting scammers, were enthralled by the dramatization of lies and truth, and subsequently sent one of their number to get a closer look.

There was a gambler, an opportunist who was always very…. lucky when it came to cards. A free spirit who let neither laws nor the literal end of the world get in the way of making a few spheres on the side. Or coins, as the case may be, if that’s what folks were offering. A straightforward fit for the Willshapers.

There was an assassin, a skulker in black with enough concealed knives on his person that swimming was probably difficult. Most Truthwatchers are scientists, scholars, and bookish types, but the stereotype occasionally proves misleading. Some truths are hands-on affairs. Some truths are only clear-cut because you were willing to wield the knife with a steady hand and do the cutting.

There was a diviner, a stormwarden and a man of education and long words. Beneath the grandiloquence, he pregnosticated the impendinent squalls because he was a careful individual. The point of predicting a storm is ultimately so that you can better prepare and protect against it, and the Honorspren approved.

These people hoped to defend Ru Eris from the Everstorm and the tide of Voidbringers.

They were all complete fools, because only a fool stands in the way of a force of nature.

 

The desolations had already swallowed up far mightier cities than Ru Eris.

✺

But of course, these weren’t quite the only fools in this story.

Once upon a time, much longer ago, there were some who loved Odium, or at least shared in his hatred of the world as it was. There was and is much to be discontent with, and they hoped to free the chained god and uproot the way of things at any costs. The costs, as it turned out, were steep. They usually are, when you’re dealing with someone like Odium.

Loyalty for many lifetimes, loyalty that beggared belief. On Roshar, they were known only as bringers of desolation and death, but the desolations were mere moments in their long existences. Most of the time, they shared in their master’s imprisonment, as it dragged on for thousands upon thousands of years. They longed to break free, to fulfill their purpose.

And then, even when they did break free, their purpose was denied yet again. Again and again and again. They would begin to prepare the world for their master, but the Heralds and the Radiants would rally the peoples of Roshar and fight back, bottle them back up in the same old prison. It was maddening.

And yet, foolishly, they kept trying. Even though it never seemed to work.

✺

There’s always another fool, though.

Perhaps the greatest fool of all was the old stubborn soldier who just refused to crack. The tenth Herald, Tanenel. He endured the Oathpact so that nobody else had to, persevering for millenia even though he couldn’t even see the people he was helping. Such blind hope is surely foolish.

But it gave everyone else generations to grow and thrive without desolations. Perhaps when the True Desolation arrived, the people of Roshar would actually be strong enough to win.

✺

“Who wants to die first? You should’ve brought more people,” Jonoh rasped, holding a hatchet aloft. He had a manic gleam in his eye. Moelach was perhaps taking the reins more than a little.

“According to my arithmulations, you’re outmaneuvered,” Metorem observed. “Eight to one.”

“Six to five, actually!” Jonoh retorted. “Me, a pair of Unmade, and…”

Volomir gasped, surveying the pitchfork tines that were sprouting from his abdomen in pained surprise. At the other end was elder Mashiah. Temmek stood nearby, brandishing a dagger.

“These guys!” Jonoh finished. “They were puppets all along,” he gloated. “See, Latel only went insane because he was trying to fight back. Anyways… by my count… it’s five on five now. And I like those odds.”

“Five and a half,” Volomir made a noise of protest in between gasping for breath. He wasn’t quite down for the count yet, and as long as shock kept him from feeling too much of the pain, he was prepared to make these Unmade take Ru Eris over his dead body. On the off chance he survived, it’d probably be good for his viewer count. Also, not that it mattered, but counting the Unmade in this fight seemed a bit overgenerous in his opinion, because they weren’t exactly reliable. They were spren, cognitive creatures, not exactly the boots-on-the-ground types who could swing a sword.

Skewered on a pitchfork as he was, there weren’t a lot of options for evasion when Re-Shephir, acting on a most ancient grudge against the Order of Lightweavers, forged a sword out of midnight essence and swung it at him. Storming unfair, he thought.

Just before the blade made lethal contact, his vision went white as he disappeared in a burst of Stormlight, replaced by a grinning Giethri who stood ready to parry the blow. The shadows writhed in wordless annoyance, and the fight broke out in earnest. Giethri vanished in another flash of light and appeared mid-swing in front of Jonoh, while Metorem slipped past the points of Mashiah’s pitchfork to punch her in the face as hard as he could. Matoro went after Temmek.

Meanwhile, Volomir’s eyes opened, and he surmised he probably wasn’t dead. In fact, his injuries were hurting less and less by the moment.

“You owe me for this,” Arenta helpfully informed him, as she finished healing him. With that, she headed back towards the unfolding melee.

✺

Giethri’s movement trick was quite annoying, Jonoh thought. Just when you thought you had your enemy outmaneuvered and dead to rights, they’d disappear in a puff of light and Giethri would come swinging at you from some odd new angle.

Then there was that damnable healer, who could keep everyone mostly in fighting shape. It made it hard to actually finish any of the villagers off, even though Jonoh knew he was more than a match for any one of them. Meanwhile, whatever nicks and scratches the pair of elders took, those stuck around.

Still, he reasoned, anything that useful had to have limitations. Anything that flashy had to burn through quite a bit of Stormlight, and how many spheres could these villagers really have? Not many more, he figured. Not many more. Ru Eris wasn’t exactly a big city, they weren’t up to their eyeballs in gemstones. It was a funny thing, though. Voidlight never ran out.

With a well-timed kick, Jonoh sent Giethri sprawling on the ground. And she wasn’t vanishing to Shadesmar, this time, either. There was actual fear there. You’ve run out of Stormlight, he thought triumphantly.

Metorem seemed to realize this as well, and got between Giethri and Jonoh, clutching a carving knife. Jonoh knocked it out of his hands. Matoro tried to flank him, but something vaguely shaped like a whitespine pounced on him. One of Re-Shephir’s spawn.

“It’s over,” Jonoh pronounced, hefting his hatchet.

“I suppose so,” a voice behind Jonoh agreed, before burying a knife in his back.

“O- Oh,” Jonoh uttered.

The illusion wavered and then disintegrated into motes of Stormlight, revealing Sever at the other end of the knife. While certain white-clad relatives made it look like being an assassin was about fighting, the truth is that it was usually the opposite. Most assassins spent most of their time figuring out when and where to strike to minimize any fighting.

“I should have prepared earlier,” Jonoh mused, falling to his knees.

“P.S. I hope Volomirs stream fails because it seems scripted.”

 

With that said, Jonoh breathed his last.

✺

The death of Odium's collaborators hardly solved all of the village's problems, but Ru Eris was safer going forward. The Everstorms kept on coming and occasionally did significant damage, but the townsfolk learned to expect a storm from the west. Metorem claimed to have started developing new equations to predict when it would happen. Nobody was deliberately sabotaging them from the inside anymore, and everyone mostly worked together and looked out for each other when they needed to. As far as the people of Ru Eris were concerned, rumors of the world ending were greatly exaggerated.

✺

Jonoh was executed! He was aligned with the Unmade!

The Marabethians won with a clean sweep! Not something you see every day, that.

Thanks for playing, everyone! And thank you @StrikerEZ for serving as the game's glorious IM!

Sorry the finale was delayed, this wasn't really my week. I suppose seeing as the game was already done it felt like something I could put off, but it still felt important for me to get it done, so here we are hopefully the writeup is fun. I may do post-game thoughts at some point.

Player List

1. @Araris Valerian - Arenta - Surge of Progression, Marabethian
2. @Ookla the Benefflicted - Cillian O'Cillian - Surge of Tension, Unmade
3. @stiltedmoth - Giethri - Surge of Transportation, Marabethian
4. @Kasimir - Volomir Kassarm - Surge of Transformation, Marabethian
5. @Ookla the Irreplaceable - Matoro - Surge of Cohesion, Marabethian
6. @Ookla the Violist - Jonoh - Surge of Abrasion, Unmade
7. @Ookla de los cuervos - Sever - Surge of Illumination, Marabethian
8. @CadCom - Metorem - Surge of Adhesion, Marabethian

Links

Elim Doc
Spec Doc
Master Spreadsheet

[Kasimir he/him]

Thanks to Drake and Striker for running and IMing, and thanks everyone for playing!

Fun game, even though TUN got terribly cursed by RNGesus.

@Lord Spirit - FWIW, you put up a really good defense. You got me to consider the other options and spend forever on a wild Transportation hunt but I've been lynchpin Villager in these scenarios enough to just cling to the knowledge that you have to flip the scan result and work from there.

The Illumination/Transportation play via Moelach could've been interesting to see - Drake taunted me about Nergaoul and it was part of my reasoning for voting Spirit first in the day, under the assumption a Nergaoul bomb if set at all would be primed for CadCom. (That and I wasn't sure about the odds I had Cohesion, meaning CadCom could not have put in the kill, so I didn't want to tunnel on CadCom first thing.)

Ultimately I didn't feel Nergaoul mattered enough to my personal calculus though, it was a future problem

I liked the setup of the several potential oneshot powers for the Elims to have. It kept things fresh and kept Village on our toes a little.

Also, love the write-up, though I laughed so hard and pinged Moth first thing to let her know A. she was the missing Transportation user we were breaking our brains over, and B. it is doubly ironic Giethri can't leave

4 hours ago, DrakeMarshall said:

The cryptics pirated his videos about baiting scammers

Cryptics recognise good content when they see it!

It's also doubly ironic I was worried that Spirit had Transformation and could break the vote except it was me, I was the Transformation user I was worried about  Truly a messy shopper problem.

I kinda liked Volo - a bit more futuristic than Roshar is fully ready for, but I find the silly meme side of the future Cosmere can be pretty fun to play around in. I don't always enjoy RPing these days, I think I get bored with some of the concepts I tried, so it was nice Volo was fun to do.

[Ookla de los Cuervos he/him]

I had spirits butt almost immediately lmao.

[Kasimir he/him]

1 hour ago, Ookla de los cuervos said:

I had spirits butt almost immediately lmao.

A+ scan, most gamechanging move award

[Lord Spirit he/him]

2 hours ago, Ookla de los cuervos said:

I had spirits butt almost immediately lmao.

I need to find a SE with less luck involved. You’re the only person who targeted me, and you had illumination and  Araris was the only villager to target Volo. Cillian got killed in a 1/3 chance. Maybe next game will go better. 

[Araris Valerian he/him]

Thank you Drake and Striker for running this game!

I enjoyed this setup (and was kinda sad that it ended so quickly). Definitely would be interested in a rerun of these rules. Also, is this the first SE game with a flawless village victory?

Next game should be the AG. I'll need to chat with the other mods and see what we're planning for that.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

GG village. Not bitter at all. 

Thanks @DrakeMarshall and @StrikerEZ. This was really a fun ruleset and I would love a rerun where I survive for more than one turn. Thanks for your haste on getting the Aftermath up, I totally didn't refresh the Shard multiple times a day.

Good job Spirit, you did what you could with the horrible hand you were given. Sorry for doing the thing I knew would get me killed. 

2 hours ago, Araris Valerian said:

Thank you Drake and Striker for running this game!

I enjoyed this setup (and was kinda sad that it ended so quickly). Definitely would be interested in a rerun of these rules. Also, is this the first SE game with a flawless village victory?

Next game should be the AG. I'll need to chat with the other mods and see what we're planning for that.

I don't think so (pretty sure I remember another one fairly recently), but it may be the fastest.

[Kasimir he/him]

12 hours ago, Araris Valerian said:

I enjoyed this setup (and was kinda sad that it ended so quickly). Definitely would be interested in a rerun of these rules. Also, is this the first SE game with a flawless village victory?

10 hours ago, Ookla the Benefflicted said:

I don't think so (pretty sure I remember another one fairly recently), but it may be the fastest.

I'm pretty sure the flawless victory achievement has been broken before but may have confused it with a different game I played with Drake. I seem to recall Mat and Devo were involved though. 

10 hours ago, Ookla the Benefflicted said:

Sorry for doing the thing I knew would get me killed. 

Actually I spent the last fifteen minutes before rollover considering a cheeky Sever pivot to Drake. I resisted because I was fine with two suspects being tied. I think if Sevot had happened, we would be in a pretty different gamestate.

Edited December 25, 2024 by Kasimir