MR72 Aftermath: The Truth in The Sickness

[Ashbringer he/him]

MR72 Aftermath: The Truth in The Sickness

“Why did we have to go this way?” Lyra said, giving a wry grin that shifted back into her show of pouting.

Kanirah rolled his eyes, trying to hide his own grin. “Because Stridefar deemed it so, Lyra. We’ve had this conversation before.”

“Then why did Stridefar deem it so?” she replied, as ever.

“Because he’s not named Stridefar the Distant for nothing,” Kanirah said, as they both shared a smile. And indeed, Stridefar did like to take the less traveled by pathway. He also was one of the Court who was more inclined to put up with the questions of one of his priest’s daughters.

“Besides, you’ve been to the Elidian province what, 6 times?”

“Once a year since I turned seventeen, dad. Just like everywhere else.”

They were there and everywhere frequently, that was true. Usually on brighter terms. Usually, Stridefar traveled simply to inspire the people who lived there, who rarely saw a Returned, let alone a member of the Court of the Gods. But this year there’d been plague. T’Telir hadn’t heard an update from the border cities in a few weeks, and they needed to know how bad things were.

From what they’d seen… bad.

- - -

Whatever arrangement Starkeeper had managed to make, it bought them another week to figure things out. But no treaty work was done, no distant plans were made. Kanirah had more pressing concerns, even past his own sudden depletion of soul and Genda’s sudden weakness of spirit. They had no tricks up their sleeves anymore.

Allegedly, one of the Idrians had finally located a merchant from T’Telir that had managed to achieve the First Heightening without being barred from trade in Idris. He was being sent for. It would take time, time they didn’t have – perhaps a month, if they arrived unharried. Which meant the remains of the volunteers and delegation had to solve the problem of the assassins within their halls. Now.

Elidyr’s death had given them some leads. Not nearly as many as Carmine had wanted, but enough that they had some things to follow.

Genda didn’t bother making an appeal at their next meeting. It had to be early anyway, as Starkeeper had gotten a Breath off of schedule. But then Evinir accused Wizard.

Who apparently had more than just that name.

- - -

The town Stridefar had chosen to walk through today was nearly deserted. Houses had been boarded up. Refuse crowded the streets. Kanirah wasn’t sure where the living had gone, if they’d fled for Pahn Kahl as some greater cities had or if they’d gone further inland. Or, he wondered, if there’d not been any survivors at all.

Kanirah was wrong on that front. There were survivors, if one could call them that. There were some true survivors peaking heads out of hastily shut windows, or true Lifeless roaming the streets carrying out whatever orders they had once been given, but the majority of the town’s inhabitants lined alleyways, collapsed on porches, were occasionally in the streets along with corpses. The dying. The yet to be dead.

“Water,” some said. “Hurts,” was all some could manage. “HELP US,” was the resounding cry.

Lyra shuddered, and Kanirah and the rest of their troop seemed to agree. Stridefar was immune to disease, but the rest of them had to make do with a handful of cloths over the mouth and physical distance. They had some limited medical supplies, but those were largely exhausted by previous towns and what little they could spare for the ones who looked like they could fight through the disease. Plague didn’t have a cure.

Except for one, Kanirah remembered, as the dying began to look past the assembled escort and to the Returned accompanying them.

“HEAL US,” the yet to be dead began to roar, surging almost like a wave cresting a beachhead as they stirred, roiling and waving but staying on the banks of the street gutters as Stridefar’s expedition passed by. “HEAL US.” Kan looked at the Returned. Stridefar had always been level-headed; he hadn’t found his moment, but he seemed at least partially moved.

“Your Worship, you’re not considering…”

Stridefar shook his head, a look of some shame on his face. “I could. I wish it would change something. But I am no God-King; I could restore but one. I can do much more by returning to the Court and petitioning the God-King himself to act.”

“Heal me!”

A corpse suddenly rose to his knees, gnarled hand reaching out. Reaching for Lyra, who blocked the way to Stridefar.

Kanirah started forward.

“I can’t. We can’t. I’m sor-“ Lyra began.

“PLEASE!” the dying man said, grabbing her wrist. Kanirah could see his nails digging into his daughter’s arm. Lyra jumped back, and the man nearly flew with her before one of Stridefar’s guards shoved him back into the ground. Kanirah arrived a moment late.

“Are you alright?”

Lyra looked shaken, looking at her wrist, then at the dying man. It seemed like that had been the last of his strength. “I… I think so. It’s just a scratch.”

A drop of tear welled in her eye.

A drop of blood welled in her skin.

 - - -

The remaining individuals in Genda’s courtroom dove for cover as Evinir and the Wizard dueled. Kan had no idea how the Wizard had the power of a thunderstorm in his hands, but he seemed to be adept at using it as the electricity curved into a screaming Evinir, then right over Carmine’s head, then just past a too-quick Starkeeper. The Wizard cackled, then swiftly turned to a gurgle as Evinir’s knife managed to land somewhere in his shoulder blade.

“I won’t let you!” the man said as the Wizard twisted, trying to shake the diplomat. Something dark seemed to blot out from under the magician. Colors, was he an Awakener? No, he was Idrian. This was something else. Something darker.

“I will have my power! I will not stand for this pretender!”

“No!”

Genda gave a shout. Out of the corner of his eye, Kanirah saw Timmy unsheathe his own knife and inch towards Twinstorm. The Wizard struck another blow, this time with a spark of night that hit Evinir in the leg, nearly collapsing him. Evinir howled, then lashed out again, slicing the Wizard somewhere across the chest and palm.

Kanirah and Carmine both gave a nod to each other, and stood. Carmine drew a javelin and Kan balled his fists, ready to fight, ready to die.

“NO!”

The room was struck by a hurricane of dark blue and force. Carmine, Kanirah, Evinir, and Twinstorm were picked up, pushed down gently. Timmy was tossed head over heels into a wall. Then Kan saw a single image of Starkeeper, sweet Starkeeper, slamming her fist into the Wizard’s snapping jawbone with an anger he hadn’t seen since… since that day. No, not even before. She stood alone, resolute, bright.

A god.

“ENOUGH!”

- - -

Kanirah ran to Stridefar’s medical tent as soon as he heard. They’d been heading back to Hallendren ever since that day a few weeks ago. The day they found the town of the yet to be dead. The day Lyra had gotten hurt. The day Lyra had caught plague.

She was… it was bad. And it’d just gotten worse.

Kan nearly barreled over the tent’s single guard in his way in, with him stammering something about risks, as he entered the alcove where their available physician and two guards-turned-apprentices stood around his daughter, lying there, whiter than the sheets she was contorted into.

“Kanirah…” the physician began, then paused, searching for the right words. “Lyra’s…”

“What?!” Kan bellowed.

“She’s been… asleep for days at this point. We’re not sure if she can hear us… hear you. But if you have anything you want to say to her before… now would be the time.”

Kanirah’s heart jumped into his throat.

He knew, of course. Lyra had deteriorated too quickly. There was no medicine left, no way to treat plague. But to hear it said, or left unsaid…

“Lyra…”

He reached for her. Then ran out of the room. Ran to the largest of the tents.

Stridefar took one look at the priest who had just invaded his chambers, sweating, panting, desperate. The two of them shared no words. Stridefar knew of Lyra’s illness. He was the one who encouraged Kanirah to adopt her in the first place. The Returned rose silently, and strode forward, keeping an even pace walking with how far Kanirah’s drained sprint could take him. No words were said, but the God of Wandering taking the most direct route possible was worth more than any statements or scripture.

The two arrived to the nurse-apprentices covering Lyra’s face with a sheet.

Kanirah’s mouth opened, and no sound came out. Stridefar walked to her bedside, reached and felt her hand. He shook his head. “She’s gone.”

“… but your Breath… you can heal…” Kan stammered, still unwilling to hear what had been said and seen.

“Not this,” the Returned said. “I’m sorry.” He turned away, to begin to leave.

Kanirah collapsed to the dust.

Then his daughter’s body erupted with color.

- - -

Starkeeper still looked pale, ill. But she was still a Returned, more than humans could reach. She stood still for a moment before she flared to life.

“STOP fighting! STOP fighting for me! Just… ENOUGH!”

The Wizard coughed on the ground, but he was grinning. He wouldn’t stop. They nearly had what they were after, especially if Starkeeper had been right about who was currently a Drab or not. They would never stop.

Kan groaned.

Starkeeper gave him a quick look of concern, then stared at the four remaining volunteers. “It’s over. No one is coming. You win, and you lose. You did as soon as we chose these rules. So just. Stop. You already got what you wanted. Stop killing the people who just want to help!”

The Wizard laughed and wheezed. “We… win. We always did.”

Starkeeper looked at him with a glance that communicated… Kanirah wasn’t sure what. Not anger. Pity?

“No, you don’t. I’m here to make sure you don’t lose in the worst way,” Starkeeper said. “And it starts with you.”

She turned to the only other standing individual in the room. Genda.

What?

“You’re sick,” she said. “You’ve been trying to hide it for a few weeks now, trying and failing. But I saw it in your portrait in the town hall. You’re sick. Very sick.”

“Every Returned comes back for some reason. I Returned in the middle of the Elidian Plague, the one that Susebron the Fourth gave his life to keep at bay. For a long time I had no idea why, and then I learned. Plague is not gone. You have it.”

Evinir gasped. Kanirah couldn’t move. That… that couldn’t be. Genda looked pale… gaunt… but plague was gone. Forever. “Star, what are you saying?”

“The Court of the Gods foresaw this months ago. There would be plague. With it would come war, between Hallendren and Idris and many other nations. Spreading famine. Spreading plague. Death. Nalthis… Nalthis would never be the same.”

Genda looked as if she would go even more pale if her sunken skin would allow. “Is that true?”

“I’m here to stop this. I had come here as if it my job to stop the war. It was instead my job to stop the plague. It is a good thing that I did come, to help save the life of such a leader of Idris, and to save the lives of many many more. That a Returned such as I would give my life for someone outside of T’Telir, let alone Hallendren. Surely Hallendren will see it the same way, as a gift given to you.”

Pieces fell into place in Kanirah’s mind as Genda’s quivering hand reached for her mouth. “Starkeeper, is that true?!” she insisted.

Suddenly Starkeeper looked much smaller, duller. Less like a Returned and more like the human she used to be.

“Does it matter?” she said quietly. “Perhaps I saw that I could avert a crisis, of plague, or of war. Or perhaps I am a dying Returned seeking to make the most of a situation where my needless death could lead to them all happening anyway. Or perhaps it’s just you. For once, someone I can save. The truth? The truth is what we make it.”

She took a step forward. Placed her hand on Genda’s shoulder.

“No,” Kanirah croaked.

Starkeeper looked at him. Colors, she still looked like Lyra.

“I’m dead, Kan,” she said, trying and failing to meet his eyes. “I… I died a long time ago. I know it hurts. But I need to do this. For everyone.”

She whispered the words.

And the room turned alight.

- - -

Regent Genda blinked her eyes open, trying to remove the spots from her vision. Had… could Starkeeper have been telling the truth? She’d been sick, for certain, and it hadn’t been getting better… but plague?

No. Best to push such thoughts away. Starkeeper had found an opportunity, a way to spin the events that had occurred in this building into a story that just might stop Hallendren from declaring war. She hadn’t needed to, as she was right – Starkeeper was dead either way. She’d died long ago. Several years, from the Idrian’s perspective – but again several weeks ago. She’d just taken extra time to catch up.

Genda looked at what remained of her courtroom. The Wizard had vanished entirely; perhaps Starkeeper’s choice and its ramifications had wiped him from existence, or Austere had intervened, or more likely he had some eldritch Awakener exit. It didn’t matter. Evinir, Timmy, and TwinStorm seemed all collectively in a daze, and Carmine didn’t look much better, though the guard had seen fit to confiscate Evinir’s and Timmy’s knives from them.

She tried not to look at the corpse of the woman – Austere forgive her, the god – that had saved her life and her kingdom. She tried not to look at the wreck of a man that was sobbing into her hair.

Kanirah was a belligerent fool who insisted on his way over centuries of Idrian tradition and religion. But he was no hypocrite. There was a good man, buried in there… someone who had lost everything more than once. But his story would have to be told by someone else.

“All of you,” she said to the three remaining volunteers, “are under arrest until we can figure out what this means for Idris and the surrounding nations. I thank you for what you’ve done for your country, whether well or mis-intentioned. But word of this stays here until we can create a proper response and determine the truth. Carmine, I trust I can count upon your aid in this?”

Carmine said nothing, but escorted the three remaining away.

“Thank you,” Regent Genda whispered.

 

- - -

 

Hoid Slayer was arrested (executed)! They were an Idrian Diplomat!

TwinStorm was arrested (killed)! They were an Idrian Diplomat!

BridgeBoi was arrested (to inactivity / lore)! They were an Assassin!

Starkeeper did not receive a Breath, and has died!

 

The Assassins have won! Congratulations to @KelsierApologist, @BridgeBoi, and @The Wandering Wizard! I'd also like to thank Wizard and @Hoid Slayer for making the endgame much more interesting!

I do have some GM thoughts - most of them can be found in the dead doc, but the TL;DR is that this last cycle was already somewhat of an Elim win and just sticking the landing, and how perhaps that shouldn't be, but I already wrote... uh... a bit too much.

Elim Doc

Spec Doc

Master Spreadsheet

 

Player List:

Spoiler

Players:

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

Pinch Hitters:

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

Spectators:

1. @Terrisman
2. @Aeoryi

 

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

Thanks Polly and BridgeBoi for being awesome teammates  

And thanks Hoid Slayer for that fun last day  

And of course to Ash for running the game  

[Stick. she/her]

gg thanks for the game 

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

Okay!

Thanks to @Ashbringer for the awesome GMing (especially the writeups (is that what they're called? ), they were great )

We were doomed from pretty early on, but still managed to hang on a little longer. In the end, I think it was innactivity that killed us. I planned to have either @TwinStorm or @BridgeBoi give up their breaths C4, but without telling the main thread, and then when they get killed in C5, I give up MY breath, thus keeping the game going until C6 when our breaths run out. Sadly, that didn't work out 

I was reading the spec doc, and it was hilarious 

did not expect my breath shenanigans drawing so much attention 

kinda made me regret killing Stick and Kaz early on...

Also thanks to @KelsierApologist and @The Wandering Wizard for making the endgame fun when everyone else practically disappeared 

Also, apologies to Polly for constantly misgendering Elydir, something I only realized near the end and tried to fix

Evinir opened his eyes to a new day. Stuck in the cramped walls of his dull, grey cell, he knew he should feel more sad. His career was ruined; he would never be able to run for governor now, and the Assembly had practically been skinned. But at last, there would be peace. Starkeeper's sacrifice, while not ideal, ensured that. It wasn't the type of peace Evinir had wanted - the move was likely to strengthen the bonds between the two nations - but it was peace nonetheless.

In a few days, he should be let out of here. It wouldn't take long for the authorities to verify his innocence, and then he could go. But go where? Evinir had no future ahead of him. He was a drab. His political aspirations were wrecked. His parents had cut ties with him long ago; he couldn't bare to face his uncle. Instead of lamenting over the future, however, Evinir's mind was stuck on the words of men now dead or gone. Threnody. Evinir had no clue what it was, but it excited him. And Wiz - no, Darth Wizard - had demonstrated powers far beyond anything Evinir had known was possible. And then there was the matter of the third traitor; Timmy. Timmy had been a shy and unassuming diplomat, but just because he had yet to demonstrate any incredible abilities didn't mean he didn't have access to them. And all this just made Evinir want to know more.

Suddenly, his musings were interrupted by the footsteps of a visitor arriving at his cell. Evinir raised his head, tired, expecting a guard with the morning gruel. His face took on an aspect of shock as he stared right into the eyes of his uncle. A stern, balding man, the look on Lendir Cragborn's face was one of utter distaste. Evinir sat up, and raised his chin high. And received a vicious slap.

"Idiot boy!" his uncle growled. "You have ruined everything! I shouldn't have expected any better. Of course, the one seemingly good person in that family turns out to be the same scum as the rest. Kneel! Kneel, boy!" His uncle slapped him again, and Evinir took it all without flinching, even as he began to taste blood on the inside of his mouth. He got down on his knees, withholding himself from fighting back. His uncle continued to hit him, and Evinir wondered where were the guards. Probably waiting outside, counting the gold that had somehow found its way into their pockets. After what felt like an eternity, with Evinir crumpled on the floor in a pool of his own patheticness, the blows stopped coming. He cautiously raised his head, nose dripping with blood, to see his uncle looking down on him with a disdainful grimace.

"You weakling," Lendir spit out. "I can't stand to be with you anymore. Do not even consider coming crying back to me, or I will have your head." And with that, his uncle was gone. Evinir stayed there for a few minutes, lying on the hard rock and thinking. He knew his uncle was right. He was a failure. He always had been. So why did it hurt so much?

The door opened again, and Evinir didn't bother to look up this time.

"Storms, you look like you're in bad shape." The jarring accent caused Evinir to finally sit upright. The speaker was a tall, lanky man with slick white hair and a playful glint in his eyes. He had a faint, shimmering aura around him... colors, this man was an awakener.

"Who are you?" Evinir asked, awed. The man smiled, emphasizing the angular shape of his face.

"Yes, we're going to have a lot of fun, you and I."

Thank everyone for making this an amazing first game! 

Edited April 19, 2025 by Hoid Slayer
My 500th post!

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

Thank you @Ashbringer for running this very fun game. Congratulations elims, all hail Darth Wiz! Also, great job @Hoid Slayer!

I went semi-inactive at a really unfortunate time there, but what can you do. 

[OoklaApologist She/her]

Thank you @Ashbringer for the just amazing writeups, and thanks @The Wandering Wizard and @BridgeBoi for being amazing teammates.

@Hoid Slayer, you totally scammed me. Impressive. The village almost pulled it back there if it wasn’t for inactivity.

Finally, @STINK, @TheRavenHasLanded, @The Wandering Wizard, and especially  @Hoid Slayer, thank you for the awesome PM conversations along the way.

[Ookla de los Cuervos he/him]

20 minutes ago, KelsierApologist said:

Thank you @Ashbringer for the just amazing writeups, and thanks @The Wandering Wizard and @BridgeBoi for being amazing teammates.

@Hoid Slayer, you totally scammed me. Impressive. The village almost pulled it back there if it wasn’t for inactivity.

Finally, @STINK, @TheRavenHasLanded, @The Wandering Wizard, and especially  @Hoid Slayer, thank you for the awesome PM conversations along the way.

YALL PUNKED ME SIUGFDYDUHFK But good to know, i know what not to do in the future. 

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

2 hours ago, Hoid Slayer said:

Also thanks to @KelsierApologist and @The Wandering Wizard for making the endgame fun when everyone else practically disappeared 

 

Of course, I loved bringing Darth Wizard back  

2 hours ago, The Unknown Area said:

Thank you @Ashbringer for running this very fun game. Congratulations elims, all hail Darth Wiz! Also, great job @Hoid Slayer!

I went semi-inactive at a really unfortunate time there, but what can you do. 

It was very beneficial to us that you went inactive

Made it much easier to lead the village on a crusade, one could even say a contribution crusade

 

Darth Wizard hurtled through the atmosphere and crashed into the woods. Well damnation, he'd offended another sliver of god. 

Shaking his head, he froze as glowing red eyes appeared around him. "Bloody damnation, I'm back here agan."

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

22 minutes ago, The Wandering Wizard said:

Of course, I loved bringing Darth Wizard back  

It was very beneficial to us that you went inactive

Made it much easier to lead the village on a crusade, one could even say a contribution crusade

 

Darth Wizard hurtled through the atmosphere and crashed into the woods. Well damnation, he'd offended another sliver of god. 

Shaking his head, he froze as glowing red eyes appeared around him. "Bloody damnation, I'm back here agan."

All roads lead to Threnody…

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

4 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said:

All roads lead to Threnody…

He has a history with some shades and paranoia in Threnody  

[OoklaApologist She/her]

2 hours ago, TheRavenHasLanded said:

YALL PUNKED ME SIUGFDYDUHFK But good to know, i know what not to do in the future. 

Thank you @TheRavenHasLanded, @Stick., and @The Unknown Area for being punkable. we couldn’t have done it without you.

[Ashbringer he/him]

So a couple of GM thoughts:

I like this ruleset. It's fun to wrap your mind around, not too complicated, and interesting for writeups as well as discussion. That being said, it is a very Elim-favoring ruleset, because only the Elims benefit from the Breath (outside of minor plays to find out if people lie about giving Breath... which only a Villager did this game). I had originally planned on giving the Elims a weaker team to compensate, player-count wise... but 12 is an awkward number to do that with. 2 Elims would mean that the Village has 4.5 chances to exe one Elim and cut the team in half, while 3 is more standard... for a balanced ruleset.

Ultimately I went with 3, seeing as even a large Elim team in the LG led to multiple elims dying quickly. Here it did... not 

So, yeah. And that does run into the issue of how this game works, with Breath management - you only have so many chances to get the exe right before Breath's a problem too. How many, math fails me, but how this game turned out, technically the Elims were set to win as soon as a Breath wasn't sent in on C3. There were only three Breaths remaining, and three Elims to execute - technically enough as long as the Elims didn't submit any kills on people with Breath, but they were already doing that. C4 ended with Hoid Slayer submitting in a Breath to save the day, but then there was a single Breath (TwinStorm's) and two Elims.

After asking around, I decided to run C4 anyway - it is good to make sure the Elims manage to make it work, as they'd submitted Breath before and also seemed to think they were ending the game after killing ruler, which... well yes but technically no.

So, yeah. Apologies to @Hoid Slayer, as I couldn't really say why I wasn't going to sub BridgeBoi/TwinStorm out - but it was one Villager one Elim, so getting both replaced wouldn't change the vote outcome, and at that point the Elims were going to win regardless. I probably should've looked at subbing them out earlier / had a better Pinch Hitter mechanic since I had 3 in the wings, but that's more a me as a GM thing.

 

I had fun GMing though! And I'm glad you all had fun playing. I definitely enjoyed writing far too long of an aftermath 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

21 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

So a couple of GM thoughts:

I like this ruleset. It's fun to wrap your mind around, not too complicated, and interesting for writeups as well as discussion. That being said, it is a very Elim-favoring ruleset, because only the Elims benefit from the Breath (outside of minor plays to find out if people lie about giving Breath... which only a Villager did this game). I had originally planned on giving the Elims a weaker team to compensate, player-count wise... but 12 is an awkward number to do that with. 2 Elims would mean that the Village has 4.5 chances to exe one Elim and cut the team in half, while 3 is more standard... for a balanced ruleset.

Ultimately I went with 3, seeing as even a large Elim team in the LG led to multiple elims dying quickly. Here it did... not 

So, yeah. And that does run into the issue of how this game works, with Breath management - you only have so many chances to get the exe right before Breath's a problem too. How many, math fails me, but how this game turned out, technically the Elims were set to win as soon as a Breath wasn't sent in on C3. There were only three Breaths remaining, and three Elims to execute - technically enough as long as the Elims didn't submit any kills on people with Breath, but they were already doing that. C4 ended with Hoid Slayer submitting in a Breath to save the day, but then there was a single Breath (TwinStorm's) and two Elims.

After asking around, I decided to run C4 anyway - it is good to make sure the Elims manage to make it work, as they'd submitted Breath before and also seemed to think they were ending the game after killing ruler, which... well yes but technically no.

So, yeah. Apologies to @Hoid Slayer, as I couldn't really say why I wasn't going to sub BridgeBoi/TwinStorm out - but it was one Villager one Elim, so getting both replaced wouldn't change the vote outcome, and at that point the Elims were going to win regardless. I probably should've looked at subbing them out earlier / had a better Pinch Hitter mechanic since I had 3 in the wings, but that's more a me as a GM thing.

 

I had fun GMing though! And I'm glad you all had fun playing. I definitely enjoyed writing far too long of an aftermath 

I wonder if randomly giving some players more Breaths would help a bit. Let a couple have 2-3, giving some more mind game potential. 

Also taking this time to shamelessly self promote my game that is in sign-ups! It's a very odd sort of Long Game set in the world of Annihilation. Come check it out!

[Ashbringer he/him]

36 minutes ago, The Unknown Area said:

I wonder if randomly giving some players more Breaths would help a bit. Let a couple have 2-3, giving some more mind game potential. 

Possibly - a more in depth Awakening game wouldn't be too hard to make, but in a game like that, the Returned dying probably can't be a hard loss condition.

One possible solution would be if a Villager is exed, they can give their Breath to the Returned - that adds another level of mindgames and some insurance against what happened here.

Although, to be honest and if BB was active, the Elims could have also won by parity instead of exeing Polly. So maybe it's less a problem than I'm making it out to be and more a question of what to do if the village runs out of Breath.

[|TJ| he/him]

Thanks for running this Ash. Now I can put this game behind me >>

[Kasimir he/him]

I was so tired with roster I forgot to check back in.

Thanks for running the game, @Ashbringer! I really enjoyed your write-ups

Great first game, @Hoid Slayer! Your RP was fun to read and I thought it was a strong opening as a player 

On 4/22/2025 at 1:46 AM, |TJ| said:

Thanks for running this Ash. Now I can put this game behind me >>

Lmao you think I'm gonna let you live that down?  

Spoiler

 

[|TJ| he/him]

3 hours ago, Kasimir said:

Lmao you think I'm gonna let you live that down?  

Sigh >> :P.