Long Game 104: The Flame of Tar Valon

[Terrisman]

36 minutes ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Oh! So it's really happening! My first Sanderson Elimination Game is starting! 

That makes 2 of us

[|TJ| he/him]

Night 0 - Death of a Flame

Jarna was pacing down the corridors of the White Tower, resolute in the decision she'd just finished making. It was a difficult one, not because of what she had to do, but because it meant exposing herself and confirming the existence of the Black Ajah. But Gitara's Foretelling had forced their hand. Possessing the knowledge of the Foretelling and what it meant was imperative. They just knew it was about the Dragon, and they needed to know more. If the rumours of his rebirth are true, then caution is for the wind. Amyrlin was the only one who had heard Gitara's Foretelling to her knowledge. Taking a deep breath, she rounded a corner and entered the Amyrlin's chambers. 

Tamra Ospenya was a light sleeper, even before the whole Dragon Prophecy re-telling. She had already appointed searchers and she needed to be the first one to find the Dragon. Moiraine and Siuan would help, of course but we would need more. It was a wonder then, that particular night, she slept through everything and woke up to find herself Shielded and at dagger point.

"Jarna, what is the meaning of this- "

"Shhhh, Mother. I am going to take you to a far-off place, and you will spill all your secrets to me. And yes, that includes everything about the Dragon Reborn..."

Tamra knew she was not going to survive this. She was a dead person walking. The Black Ajah Myth had to stay a myth.

***

Alright, we're off the mark finally! Welcome to LG104! I hope you enjoy the game, and make sure everyone is having fun as well! As a reminder, Ajah members are not public knowledge, you do not get to know who is grouped with whom or which Ajah they belong to. You can choose to hide or claim it, totally up to you. Please do not use your GM PMs wordings or copy/paste it elsewhere as it would be against the rules. Couple more things, I have edited the rules in the original thread to change the ajah numbers to actual ajah names. It is updated in the rules doc as well. I will make this public knowledge, Red Ajah are NOT in the game as we did not get 21 players. 18 players are grouped equally into 6 Ajahs - 3 members in each. Please remember to nominate your choice for the Sitter in your respective Ajah docs. You cannot nominate yourself. If at the end of Night 0, you have nominated yourself, your vote will not be counted and you will be disqualified from running for the Amyrlin Seat (others nomination votes on you will not be counted).

As we have quite a few new players with us, please welcome them and ensure they have fun. As a(nother) reminder, please do not edit your posts to change your sentences/remove phrases/alter meaning or any of the sort. If you need to make an edit, make it at the end of your post and clearly state that it is an edit. Fixing small typos is okay. 

I have decided that as it is an extended sign-ups game, players might not turn up in the first 24 hours, so only Night 0 would be ~48 hours. Rest of the nights would your regular 24 hours. As such, Night 0 will end on 23:00 GMT on 21st March 2025. Well, that was quite long, and that should be it, I'll be back if I remember to add something I forgot :P. Go have fun, and do not hesitate to tag me for anything! :). 

Player List:

Spoiler

1. @The Wandering Wizard - Evelyn Rosemary
2. @KelsierApologist - Coprolite
3. @TwinStorm - Melian
4. @Experience
5. @Ashbringer
6. @Steeldancer - John Steel
7. @Kasimir - Kamil Lovric
8. @The Unknown Flame - Verde
9. @ThatOneWorldhopper - Alkarii Tay'TerTüne
10. @DrakeMarshall
11. @Mark IV
12. @BridgeBoi - Taimon
13. @Terrisman - Terri
14. @Teldris Anuar - Tesan Alruddin
15. @Sart - Sartala
16. @STINK - Rasmuht
17. @xxGaea - Altea O’Canavan, aka Nameless Whisper
18. @A Jo in the Bush - Emmett

Edited March 20, 2025 by |TJ|

[Steeldancer he/him]

John- wait no, Jane Steel scrubbed the floor quietly, trying to remain unnoticed. The Amyrlin seat had gone missing, and the tower had gone into a tizzy trying to figure what was going on. 

And she had to keep her head down, because she had a terrible secret. 

She, was a he. And he, was a channeler. And if anyone found out, he'd wish he was dead. 

So he did the best thing he could- never use the Power, and hide in plain sight, pretending to be an Aes Sedai. 

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

Emmett stalked through the corridors, following where he thought that Aes Sedai had gone. Jane Steel was her name, and he had once overheard her talking about being a Black Ajah. Now that the Amyrlin Seat had vanished, presumed kidnapped or killed, jokes like that couldn't be taken as jokes. Jane would have to be thoroughly investigated.

**

This will be a fun game I hope. Did anyone else immediately change their Doc color to be the color of their Ajah? I did and then it was changed back to White, lol. If anyone wants to RP, feel free to stop a wandering wolfbrother in the halls.

[Steeldancer he/him]

1 minute ago, A Jo in the Bush said:

Emmett stalked through the corridors, following where he thought that Aes Sedai had gone. Jane Steel was her name, and he had once overheard her talking about being a Black Ajah. Now that the Amyrlin Seat had vanished, presumed kidnapped or killed, jokes like that couldn't be taken as jokes. Jane would have to be thoroughly investigated.

**

This will be a fun game I hope. Did anyone else immediately change their Doc color to be the color of their Ajah? I did and then it was changed back to White, lol. If anyone wants to RP, feel free to stop a wandering wolfbrother in the halls.

Oh I see, so you're not a white Ajah 

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

2 minutes ago, Steeldancer said:

Oh I see, so you're not a white Ajah 

. . .

Wait, there's a White Ajah? I need to go reread the Rules. What are the swears used in WoT?

[Steeldancer he/him]

Just now, A Jo in the Bush said:

. . .

Wait, there's a White Ajah? I need to go reread the Rules. What are the swears used in WoT?

Hahaha

Honestly I don't remember, it's been many MANY years since I read the series. 

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

Evelyn Rose was not one who tolerated any small talk. It was bloody difficult wrangling her warder as things were. They would have to have a chat about what she had found, soon, very soon.

Her expression soured as she stalked the halls, seeming a vengeful vulture than the graceful swan of most Aes Sedai.

~~~

I think Bloody ashes is one, been a while though since I've read them.

[TwinStorm He/Him]

Melian sighed, fingering her ring. The Amyrlin was missing. What with the Foretellings and all, it was worrying to her. If this went on . . . there had to be someone behind this. A Black Ajah, hiding in plain sight, serving the Dark One. Light protect us, she thought to herself. " All Glory be to the Creator, and to the Light, and to he who shall be born again. May the Light save us from him." she mumbled, unaware of what she was saying. The Karaethon Cycle. A nervous habit to recite it in times of need, inherited from her mother.

11 minutes ago, A Jo in the Bush said:

. . .

Wait, there's a White Ajah? I need to go reread the Rules. What are the swears used in WoT?

bloody, blood and bloody ashes, burn us, Light burn us, etc.

[Terrisman]

15 minutes ago, Steeldancer said:

Oh I see, so you're not a white Ajah 

Unless he's trying to convince you he isn't

[TwinStorm He/Him]

2 minutes ago, Terrisman said:

Unless he's trying to convince you he isn't

that would be genius

somehow I doubt it 

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

Alkarii Tay'TerTüne slipped out of the nook that he had somehow found. He had a knack for figuring out where those would be. He added this one to his collection.

Useful one, he thought. Nice, comfy, and best of all, behind the wolfman. 

He had heard the rumors about Jane, of course. He knew all of the gossip. Of course, he, being the reasonably intelligent man that he was, didn't believe them. As he stalked behind the wolfman, he briefly wondered what he was doing. If you die, the Secret... he mentally slapped himself. Fool! Even your thoughts can get you killed here! 

He thought that the wolfman was a viable suspect. Those that are so quick to point fingers are often guilty themselves. His footsteps, virtually silent to untrained ears, seemed echoing to Alkarii. He forced himself to go on. The Black Ajah must not win! They mustn't know that... Fool!

***

Is there special formatting for in and out of game? I thought I read that somewhere. 

First game! I'm so excited that it finally started!

[Terrisman]

Terri just sat in her room. She was a relatively new Aes Sedai and wasn't so comfortable with the subterfuge and politicking that guided every encounter in the Tower. 

"We need a plan" she thought to herself. "These are dangerous times. How can we be sure who walks in the Light and who is a darkfriend?"

[BridgeBoi]

Taimon walked the halls of the Tower, muttering to herself. Bloody Aes Sedai and their light-cursed delicacy! Well, she was of the Blue Ajah. And she would not stand aside while the Tower fell apart.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

46 minutes ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Alkarii Tay'TerTüne slipped out of the nook that he had somehow found. He had a knack for figuring out where those would be. He added this one to his collection.

Useful one, he thought. Nice, comfy, and best of all, behind the wolfman. 

He had heard the rumors about Jane, of course. He knew all of the gossip. Of course, he, being the reasonably intelligent man that he was, didn't believe them. As he stalked behind the wolfman, he briefly wondered what he was doing. If you die, the Secret... he mentally slapped himself. Fool! Even your thoughts can get you killed here! 

He thought that the wolfman was a viable suspect. Those that are so quick to point fingers are often guilty themselves. His footsteps, virtually silent to untrained ears, seemed echoing to Alkarii. He forced himself to go on. The Black Ajah must not win! They mustn't know that... Fool!

***

Is there special formatting for in and out of game? I thought I read that somewhere. 

First game! I'm so excited that it finally started!

Technically old school was anything not blue was role-play, but now blue text is strictly out of game stuff, like if you have a rl event that would affect your activity. 

Some people who heavily roleplay will denote out of character stuff with [brackets], but there's not any official system.

[Terrisman]

3 minutes ago, BridgeBoi said:

Taimon walked the halls of the Tower, muttering to herself. Bloody Aes Sedai and their light-cursed delicacy! Well, she was of the Blue Ajah. And she would not stand aside while the Tower fell apart.

Blue? You sure?

[BridgeBoi]

12 minutes ago, Terrisman said:

Blue? You sure?

Thats what the mod said.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

14 minutes ago, BridgeBoi said:

Thats what the mod said.

But you see why we can never really be sure. 

Arrrrggggghhhhh! This game is making me second guess everything!

[Terrisman]

Just now, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

But you see why we can never really be sure. 

Arrrrggggghhhhh! This game is making me second guess everything!

What else is it making you second guess?

[Kasimir he/him]

2 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Is there special formatting for in and out of game? I thought I read that somewhere. 

 

No, there isn't. There's blue text but that's for specific OOG RL stuff that relate to you being unable to play the game. Blue is like the special text - it's an honour code system where you don't lie about blue text things so no one pushes that button unless they really got to. Some players (myself included) prefer not to use blue text when mentioning RL because we think it creates an expectation that any RL mention not in blue can be a lie and leads to an unproductive slippery slope, but the short of it is if it's in blue, it's not supposed to be a lie, and it's something the GM and IM will probably enforce.

Examples of blue text cases:

I won't be able to get back for the rest of this cycle because I have three meetings back-to-back so I'm going to vote for TJ

My power just got cut and I'm currently using my mobile but don't expect to be very available this cycle.

Edited to add:

I'll RP in a bit, but I wanted to drop some general cross-Ajah recommendations in the thread: we are essentially having micro-elections in each Ajah doc tonight and I think it's worth trying to read how your Ajah-mates approach the whole voting process. There are probably worse things the Village can do than letting it rand, but I think at least some Black Ajah will be trying to get nominated or pushing back against more unexeable players getting nominated, so it's worth looking out for voting dispositions.

tldr; remember that while we have Ajah docs, this is not a faction game, we are all one Village unless you're Black Ajah in which case, rough, so there's no reason to be focusing on the docs alone and not establishing in-thread communication.

Edited to add 2:

@|TJ| Bhai, is N0 a zero-kill night? Seem to recall it is but unsure if that's something we discussed when building this ruleset or if I'm confusing this with the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game I ran. Nothing particularly at stake here other than how obnoxious I want to be to the Elims >:P 

Edited to add 3:

How does everyone feel about an Ajah-mate massclaim? 4-5 Elims, maybe 6 tops depending on how TJ views the dynamic of this game (Sitters etc) seems likely to me; we probably have one or two uninfiltrated Ajahs, but the Black Ajah knows more than we do, so might as well close that gap.

(Note: I'm not asking people to do it, I'm asking for your thoughts on it. Might as well get started aggressively even if this is N0.)

Adding as well I'm tempted to weakly V!lean Worldhopper here for that sort of question in thread. Concede it's hard to tell with a newcomer though since Worldhopper should have an Ajah doc regardless of Black Ajah status.

Edited March 20, 2025 by Kasimir

[Terrisman]

2 hours ago, Kasimir said:

I'll RP in a bit, but I wanted to drop some general cross-Ajah recommendations in the thread: we are essentially having micro-elections in each Ajah doc tonight and I think it's worth trying to read how your Ajah-mates approach the whole voting process. There are probably worse things the Village can do than letting it rand, but I think at least some Black Ajah will be trying to get nominated or pushing back against more unexeable players getting nominated, so it's worth looking out for voting dispositions.

tldr; remember that while we have Ajah docs, this is not a faction game, we are all one Village unless you're Black Ajah in which case, rough, so there's no reason to be focusing on the docs alone and not establishing in-thread communication.

From what I can tell it seems like the Black ajah has much more to gain from getting nominated than Village so if someone is trying to sway those votes…

[Kasimir he/him]

Just now, Terrisman said:

From what I can tell it seems like the Black ajah has much more to gain from getting nominated than Village so if someone is trying to sway those votes…

They do, but not all players are comfortable self-hustling in doc. On the other hand, sometimes players just want to survive and therefore want to become a Sitter to get some immunity. The trick is figuring out where it's alignment-indicative and where it's player idiosyncracies.

I'm currently side-eyeing an Ajah-mate for hustling for the nomination, but also acknowledge it's well within the E!meta for the one who doesn't want it. But it's early in the Night, and I hope to get a better lock on them, and to see how everyone in thread feels about outing Ajah-mates (I lean yes but will wait to hear from everyone about thoughts.) 

Fortunately I have 48 hours to decide which of them to vote for, or if I'm gonna advocate letting it rand

[Steeldancer he/him]

I'm against claiming Ajahs for now. From my math, the black ajah can only have infiltrated at most 5 of the 6 ajahs, and I'm currently guessing between 3-4 given 18 players, 5 seems a bit too high to me, and that's also assuming 1 black ajah per each other ajah, and that they don't have a majority in any single ajah. Meaning, the black ajahs probably know about half of the distribution at the moment, and them not knowing what the other half is seems wise to me for now. This might change down the line, but N0 claiming seems rash. 

[Kasimir he/him]

1 minute ago, Steeldancer said:

I'm against claiming Ajahs for now. From my math, the black ajah can only have infiltrated at most 5 of the 6 ajahs, and I'm currently guessing between 3-4 given 18 players, 5 seems a bit too high to me, and that's also assuming 1 black ajah per each other ajah, and that they don't have a majority in any single ajah. Meaning, the black ajahs probably know about half of the distribution at the moment, and them not knowing what the other half is seems wise to me for now. This might change down the line, but N0 claiming seems rash. 

Don't forget every Ajah elects a Sitter and Sitters are immune to the NK and the exe unless Stilled. This means that 1/3 of the game starts out on N1 as being unkillable, depending on what TJ's response to my N0 comment is. It also means for each Ajah that elects a Black Ajah Sitter, we have to essentially exe them twice to get rid of them.

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

The hair all over Emmett's body stood up on end, but he didn't slow or react. Someone was watching him. Who? Why? Was it suspicious that he was stalking someone through the halls? Yes, certainly, but it was his job to be suspicious. He weighed his options. Continue following Jane Steel, or lay a trap for whomever was following him?

He walked around the corner, then pressed up against the wall and crouched, holding his breath. Jane was getting further away, but Emmett needed to know who was following him. He waited. Footsteps sounded around the corner. He tensed, and as soon as a person started to walk around the corner, Emmett laurched forward, grabbing them and pushing them against the wall.

"Why are you following me?" He hissed into their face.

(This can be anyone.)

**

1 hour ago, Kasimir said:

How does everyone feel about an Ajah-mate massclaim? 4-5 Elims, maybe 6 tops depending on how TJ views the dynamic of this game (Sitters etc) seems likely to me; we probably have one or two uninfiltrated Ajahs, but the Black Ajah knows more than we do, so might as well close that gap.

To start off, the Brown, Green, Yellow, and White Ajah's have abilities that require unanimous agreement to use, so if there are two Black Ajah in those docs, they are incentivized to kill their third if they want to have complete certainty over when that power is being used. If there are 3, then they already have that certainty. If there is only 1, they can prevent it from being used, or try to convince their doc-mates to use it to their advantage. I'm of too many minds to count about how this would affect distribution, so I will largely ignore it in my remaining thoughts.

Counting actual number of Elims, I agree that there are between 4 and 6. 7 feels a little bit too powerful, as that is too many votes and a swingy election can result in game over with that kind of numbers.

A doc can have 0, 1, 2, or 3 Black Ajah in it. I'm going to try to think about this from a design perspective. I could see a hypothetical situation in which 6 Eliminators were split between 3 or even 2 docs. They would be guaranteed at least 2 sitters if they so chose, which would allow them to ignore the preliminary stages of the game, and guarantee they wouldn't be immediately prevented from one of their three routes to victory on N0. At the same time, that sounds a little bit less fun to watch/run. If instead no doc has more than 1 black Ajah, then the Eliminators have to carefully fight to become Sitters. This would be more entertaining N0, and would also lead to a more swingy game. They could lose one of their routes to victory on N0 if none of them become Sitters.

If it were me running this game, I think I would go with a single doc that had two Eliminators in it, and the rest of the elims alone in their Ajahs. That way they're still guaranteed to have 1 sitter at least, with the option for more, while the majority of sitters will still be Townies.

So, the number of Compromised Docs is probably 1 less than the number of Eliminators. I think. That means, if there are 4 Eliminators, then they don't know the contents of half of the docs. Is that an advantage for the Town?

What would the Eliminators want to do about that. They could target Townies in the compromised Ajah's for death, to give them better control over the Ajah powers, or they could try to blind-fire into the docs that aren't compromised if they're aiming to remove certain abilities before they can interfere. Of the Ajah Abilities, if GREEN is compromised, I think they would focus fire on this Ajah to try to take control of that extra pseudo-kill. If WHITE or GREY are compromised, they don't need to worry too much about focusing on them. YELLOW and BLUE could be annoying to them, but I don't see the Eliminators specifically fearing them. TBH, I don't see the benefit of BROWN in most games.

So here is what I think. It is more beneficial for the Eliminators to Mass-Claim. The Village is never going to be able to truly coordinate while the Eliminators are alive, but the Eliminators can and will. If they do not know who is in certain docs, even if I'm wrong about them specifically wanting Green members to die, then they will have a harder time removing specific abilities. If they do know those docs, then we lose nothing and gain nothing from Mass-Claiming. I am against Mass-Claiming. Thank you for asking that question Kas, I know understand this game a lot better.

That said, it is an hour past my bedtime right now, so someone please point out all the wholes in my rambly logic so I can patch them tomorrow.