Mid-Range Game 72: A Breath of Fresh Air

[Ashbringer he/him]

MR72 Signups: A Breath of Fresh Air

Kanirah rushed towards the sounds of a clash. They'd only been in Bevalis for a handful of days, and while Starkeeper hadn't exactly been welcomed with open arms in the kingdom of Idris, the king had agreed to her presence in the new negotiations for clearing the southern routes of trade after that fire. He'd made plans. He'd hired guards. He'd never imagined this.

"Star!" he yelled as the scuffle died down into a horrific silence, pushing past the crowd streaming to get out of the way, Carmine behind trying to force his way through without getting his javelins caught on a passerby. "Kan!" sounded a reply, and relief flooded through the priest. The pair forced their way into the impromtu clearing, where there Starkeeper stood, wobbling, towering over the corpses surrounding her. It was hard to tell on her navy traveller's dress, but there were darker stains on the once-pristine fabric.

"Star! Are you hurt? What happened?" Beyond, if she died here in Idris... if he lost her...

"No!" Starkeeper said, almost surprised, but catching on quickly. "No this is... I didn't know I could..." she gestured limply at one of the two corpses that didn't match the escort guard Carmine had left her with. One of the attackers had fallen to Barrow's blade, but another had their skull seemingly caved in. Kan caught Carmine looking at the blades and spears the fallen men had carried, to Starkeeper's still-clenched fist with a red coat.

Colors.

"They came from the crowd, mostly north. There... there were more. But they left. None of them even attacked me, just Barrow and Lester and... they didn't want me dead, did they? I killed one but that didn't scare them."

What? Kanirah couldn't make heads or tails of that. Attacking a Returned in Idris would be bold, sure, but not doing anything to...

The three came to the realization at about the same time. Kanirah's blood became ice. Carmine sprang to check the faces of the slain, seeing priests among soldiers. Starkeeper, blessed Starkeeper the Bright, simply asked a question.

"Kanirah, how much Breath did you bring with you?"

 

Welcome to MR72: A Breath of Fresh Air! This is a mostly-vanilla MR with an additional wincon for the players to keep track of in the form of the prolonged life of the Returned Starkeeper. I @Ashbringer will be your GM, and __ will be your IM. The rules are contained below:

Basics:

Spoiler

• Cycles will be split into 48-hour Turns (combined, so no Days or Nights), with rollover occurring at 10:00 PM PST. 
• The Idrian Diplomats form the Village faction, and must execute all of the Assassins while having Starkeeper alive to win.
• The Assassins form the Eliminator faction, and must outnumber the Idrian Diplomats at the end of any turn to win or have Starkeeper die. 
  • They have an Elim Google Doc to plan in secret and a factional Kill each Cycle.
• PMs are open (but no group PMs). 
  • PMs between two living players can be created at will, but must contain the GM (Ashbringer) and IM () along with the two players. As with the Eliminator Doc, don't use these PMs during rollover.
• There is a vote for a player to be Executed every Cycle.
  • There is no vote minimum, and any vote ties will result in a random tied player being Executed.
  • Votes are made in-thread by stating a player name in red to vote and green to retract. Please also bold your votes to help them stand out, if possible, and do not edit votes into or out of posts.
• All players also start with 1 Breath, but will not have any other Roles.

Breath and Starkeeper:

Spoiler

• Starkeeper is the Returned sent to Idris as a diplomat. While ordinarily these rare Returned negotiators are given Breath to live from their priests, all of them have been killed. As such, negotiations must continue while Starkeeper is kept alive long enough for the Assassins to be removed and support from Hallendren to arrive. 
  • Note: Gameplay-wise, Starkeeper is a mechanic, and not a role; they cannot be targeted by the execution or Elim Kill.
• Every player starts the game with 1 Breath. During the Night turn, a player may choose to give up their Breath to Starkeeper. 
  • You cannot gain more than 1 Breath.
  • Whether or not you have Breath is not public.
• Starkeeper must consume at least 1 Breath each Cycle. The first time Starkeeper does not receive a Breath, her handler Kanirah will give up his own Breath to save her, which will be announced in the thread; the second time Starkeeper does not receive a Breath, she will die and the Assassins win.
  • Starkeeper will consume any and all Breath passed to her during the Night - so she can consume more than one Breath in a cycle, but this does not give any buffer for the next cycle.
  • Giving up Breath occurs after the Execution and the Assassins Kill, so players removed by either of these cannot successfully give up their Breath.
  • An Assassin may both give up their Breath and submit the factional Kill in the same turn.

 

This game is designed to work at any player count, but I'd prefer at minimum 10 people and ideally more. If we reach 10 players, signups will close on Tuesday, April 8th at 10:00 PM PST. It's also possible this time may be altered, based on my own schedule, but I'll try to be on to close and open the thread at that time.

 

Participants:

Spoiler

Players:

1. @|TJ|
2. @The Unknown Flame
3. @TwinStorm
4. @Updog. - Elidyr
5. @BridgeBoi - Timmy
6. @Kasimir - Izmir
7. @The Wandering Wizard
8. @ruler of the mists
9. @TheRavenHasLanded - Gandor
10. @Stick.
11. @STINK - Simon
12. @Hoid Slayer - Evinir

Pinch Hitters:

1. @Aeternum
2. @Illwei
3. @Ookla the Arbiter

Spectators:

1. @Terrisman

Quick Links:

Spoiler

1. Cycle 1: Weakening
2. Cycle 2: Sacrifice
3. Cycle 3: Quandary
4. Cycle 4: Constriction
5. Cycle 5: Sacrifice
6. Aftermath

 

Edited May 31, 2025 by Araris Valerian

[|TJ| he/him]

Sign me up! 

Any way we can increase our Breath count? 

Also, @Gudrean, @ThatOneCrayonChick, @Teldris Anuar, @ThatOneWorldhopper - new game alert!

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

I would also like to join! I think this will end before mine starts. 

[TwinStorm He/Him]

Sign me up!

@BridgeBoi new game btw

Edited March 31, 2025 by TwinStorm

[OoklaApologist She/her]

new game just dropped.

I’m all in

[Ashbringer he/him]

4 hours ago, |TJ| said:

Any way we can increase our Breath count? 

Nope, you've just got the one. (Or don't, if you've already given it to Starkeeper, but everyone starts with 1 and then either has it or doesn't.)

[Kasimir he/him]

@ruler of the mists Hello! You asked about when a game was opening up!

[|TJ| he/him]

6 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Nope, you've just got the one. (Or don't, if you've already given it to Starkeeper, but everyone starts with 1 and then either has it or doesn't.)

Wait, we don't die when we give the Breath away right?

[BridgeBoi]

I’m down.

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

Is it public information if someone has 1 or 0 breaths? I assume it is from context of the assassins being able to give up breath and do a kill same turn, but i would like confirmation.

[Ashbringer he/him]

7 hours ago, |TJ| said:

Wait, we don't die when we give the Breath away right?

You do not.

(Well, you are all Idrians, so there may be some level of spiritual/emotional turmoil, but mechanically all that happens is you no longer have a Breath to give.)

21 minutes ago, A Jo in the Bush said:

Is it public information if someone has 1 or 0 breaths? I assume it is from context of the assassins being able to give up breath and do a kill same turn, but i would like confirmation.

Good question, Breath-holding is not public. Mostly that clarification is in the case an Elim chooses to give their Breath to Starkeeper.

[Ookla de los Cuervos he/him]

put me down as spec for now.

[Kasimir he/him]

On the one hand, I'm tired af. Just came off what, my eighth game in three months and I'm just flat burned out.

On the other hand:

1. One of my favourite GMs.

2. Simple/fun ruleset.

3. I did promise to support SE games as best as I could.

4.

On 3/31/2025 at 7:09 AM, |TJ| said:

Sign me up! 

TJ bhai is playing.

Ah fierfek.

Signing up as Izmir, an aging Idrian diplomatic attache with a mid-life crisis feeling the pressure to make an actual breakthrough and save his stagnating career. Someone yell at me to actually RP this time, I feel like I didn't get very much done with Kamil which is annoying. RP drought/blck is real, sigh.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

Elidyr is scared. 

Starkeeper's aegis and a slight presumption of diplomatic honor is all that protects her from the Idrians, and she knows it. They all know it. 

Despite that, she perseveres. She walks forward, in her flowing sunset skirts and bright silk blouse, confidently directing Starkeeper and her guards back to the townhouse in which they'd been lodging. Chin up, eyes up, ignore the glares and harsh looks, Elidyr just kept doing what she needs to. Left foot back, right foot forward, she remembered that stupid fish in the children's stories she read when she first learned to read Hallandren. Just keep swimming. She didn't think about how her people hate her, how they curse her name, how Elidyr's very existence, an Idrian face in colorful robes, was an affront to her culture, to her people, and to Austre. 

Elidyr arrives at the townhouse first, a grand affair, for Starkeeper and her closest advisors, and Alais, the First Translator. Alais was an old fogey's old fogey. He hated all Idrians, and worked exclusively with them. When he wasn't working, he napped. Elidyr would have bet money he was napping then. Sometimes, she wished he would die so she could get his lodging accommodations. 

Carmine stepped up on the porch next to her, and unlocked the door. "You're not dismissed," he said. "You have to deal with the aftermath. Wait in the sitting room."

She took a seat, and waited as distressed dignitaries and stoic guards filed in after her, then finally, the glowing form of Starkeeper herself, obviously trying to keep her composure. Some sat with her, and some, including Starkeeper, went upstairs.

Elidyr took a deep breath. All there was to do was wait.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

Double post, but @ruler of the mists, if you want to sign up, you can do it here.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

39 minutes ago, Updog. said:

Double post, but @ruler of the mists, if you want to sign up, you can do it here.

Polly, I thought you were a new player. Why must you be this way

[Terrisman]

Can I spec?

[OoklaApologist She/her]

2 hours ago, The Unknown Flame said:

Polly, I thought you were a new player. Why must you be this way

I wanted to do ligma but figured I’d get banned for that

[Aeternum]

I can pinch hit, probably.

[|TJ| he/him]

18 hours ago, Kasimir said:

TJ bhai is playing.

It's been so long since we've villaged togetherr ;-;

[Kasimir he/him]

14 minutes ago, |TJ| said:

It's been so long since we've villaged togetherr ;-;

It has ;-;

[|TJ| he/him]

7 hours ago, Kasimir said:

It has ;-;

Ash has the chance to do the funniest thing ever :P.

Edited April 2, 2025 by |TJ|

[Kasimir he/him]

1 hour ago, |TJ| said:

Ash has the chance to the funniest thing ever :P.

DON'T YOU F-ING DARE HOLY CHULL I AM RETIRING FROM SE THIS INSTANT

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

I'll join though at low effort so less likely for paranoia unless I'm left alive long  

[Illwei]

Put me down as a PHer, but can join the game if you need more people later.