Mid-Range Game 7: Eighty Splendid Suns

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Which one? We had two, once upon a time...

Don't know what you're talking about there, I'm the only one of us who's Spooked >>. Unless you forgot to mention it, of course. If it helps, it was the Discovery one.

Edited July 5, 2015 by Wyrmhero

[Guest]

Aight, cool. I'll go check it.

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

So, Kipper is in Discovery?

[Haelbarde he/him]

Hey there o/

 

Moderation checking in. (Well, Moderation Veteran, anyway).

 

So, what's going on with Moderation?

 

Tbh, last cycle was confusion. I'm thinking people were busy, because as compared to the first couple cycles, last cycle was very slow. We had a whole bunch of different suggestions and ideas, but not much discussion on them.

 

The fact that Moderation has not stepped forward with any information, were planning on partnering with Discovery and took it a step farther and protected Wyrm pretty much seals the deal in my mind.

 

Bort I think our factions could work well together.

 

Zas, I have to agree with you on the lynch for Wyrm.

 

The reason why Moderation hasn't stepped forward yet (beyond Kipper), is we've lost most of our talky players, and I was asleep.

 

In regards to Discovery, sure we considered the idea (wouldn't you want bonus info?), but Wyrm has yet to offer up any info, so I'd hardly call it an alliance. 

In regards to protecting him, I really can't sure if we did or not. Sure, we did suggest it at one point, but we didn't come to a decision. We also suggested roleblocking potential Striker targets from Glory, seeing as we were asked by Heritage to focus on you.

 

---

I have no idea what people did regarding the lynch. The suggestion was Zas, so I can only presume that's what people voted for. Which is then interesting that he still seems to be standing. Discovery working with Glory, or Teullu warrior?

 

---

EDIT:

Realized there was something else I was going to address. People were wondering about who killed Maill? We are looking for a cycle 2 kill action rather than a cycle 3 kill action. The rules say Diplomats have a cycle to bleed out, So it means Maill was killed in cycle 2, and so was bleeding out in cycle 3, dying at turn over.  

Edited July 6, 2015 by Haelbarde

[neodymium]

I can confirm everything that Hael said from Moderation.  

[dowanx]

As for what happened last cycle in Moderation, Joe can you chime in?

[Araris Valerian he/him]

I am in Moderation, and I don't think anything very cohesive happened. I was lurking a bit, since this game is confusing and I'm also trying to get a job IRL, but I didn't recognize a clear decision for who to lynch or to bribe in about 5 minutes of skimming the last 2 pages or so.

[Guest]

@The Only Joe

No, I am not Discovery. Was just messing around with Wyrm

[Haelbarde he/him]

Unless you're now channeling troll along side Wyrm...

[Bort he/him]

Joe, Hael, thanks for clarifying about Maill. I had completely forgotten about the Diplomat having an extra cycle to get their affairs in order.

 

Now what makes no sense if why Maill went all cryptic on us, making just about everyone in Glory wonder if he was Discovery, when he could have just said "I'm a Diplomat, but I was killed last cycle. I die at the end of this one."

[Guest]

Joe, Hael, thanks for clarifying about Maill. I had completely forgotten about the Diplomat having an extra cycle to get their affairs in order.

 

Now what makes no sense if why Maill went all cryptic on us, making just about everyone in Glory wonder if he was Discovery, when he could have just said "I'm a Diplomat, but I was killed last cycle. I die at the end of this one."

Exactly. Which is why I thought he was Discovery.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

So, last Cycle Kipper complained that I wasn't helping the Glory Faction as much as I was helping the others. Well, now they're no longer ahead, I can help them (you're welcome Kipper!). How? Very simple. I mean, it looks quite a bit like I'm going to maybe snuff it this turn, so why not take advantage of that? The Tellu Warrior can't save me from the lynch, but they can use their power to kill one of the people who kills me.

 

So, who wants a free kill? Don't even have to lift a proverbial finger - And before you say anything, Kas has confirmed that the Tellu Warrior cannot protect from a lynch, though they do kill a random player who voted for it if they protect the lynched player.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Wyrmhero

[Bort he/him]

Wow Wyrm, that wasn't even very good trolling. I'm ashamed of you

 

If Heritage and Glory are working together to kill you, why would we ask the Teullu to protect you, when there is just as much chance that one of our own will die, and literally every chance that someone who voted for you would die?

 

It may backfire later on, but for survival, our best chance is for Glory and Heritage to work together, and NOT stab each other in the back.

 

Heritage, for now, until we have  the DiscoMod alliance down to manageable numbers at least, should we put aside our differences and concentrate on obliterating Moderation, while we root out remaining Discoverers from our ranks?

[Kasimir he/him]

So, last Cycle Kipper complained that I wasn't helping the Glory Faction as much as I was helping the others. Well, now they're no longer ahead, I can help them (you're welcome Kipper!). How? Very simple. I mean, it looks quite a bit like I'm going to maybe snuff it this turn, so why not take advantage of that? The Tellu Warrior can't save me from the lynch, but they can use their power to kill one of the people who kills me.

 

So, who wants a free kill? Don't even have to lift a proverbial finger - And before you say anything, Kas has confirmed that the Tellu Warrior cannot protect from a lynch, though they do kill a random player who voted for it if they protect the lynched player.

Point of order, Wyrm--I've clarified the Teullu Warrior can protect from the lynch--and they kill a random player who voted for the lynchee. The Forger can also protect from the lynch. That's about it.

Please carry on, Dunkelzahn. This has been most amusing

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Point of order, Wyrm--I've clarified the Teullu Warrior can protect from the lynch--and they kill a random player who voted for the lynchee. The Forger can also protect from the lynch. That's about it.

 

Wait, you said they could? Hm. Okay then. Carry on, I guess. Nothing to see here.

 

Also... You guys are aware that there isn't a Discovery/Moderation alliance, right? You know exactly what I suggested to them yesterday, and I just gave them a little info. I wasn't expecting to survive last Cycle, I was just getting sensitive information out there.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Wyrmhero

[Haelbarde he/him]

 

Wow Wyrm, that wasn't even very good trolling. I'm ashamed of you 

 

If Heritage and Glory are working together to kill you, why would we ask the Teullu to protect you, when there is just as much chance that one of our own will die, and literally every chance that someone who voted for you would die?

 

It may backfire later on, but for survival, our best chance is for Glory and Heritage to work together, and NOT stab each other in the back.

 

Heritage, for now, until we have  the DiscoMod alliance down to manageable numbers at least, should we put aside our differences and concentrate on obliterating Moderation, while we root out remaining Discoverers from our ranks?

I must say I'm curious what 'manageable' means. Ignoring the fact, with so many kills and actions are unaccounted for in the last cycle, and the fact that even if we ended up directly resealing Wyrm (which is far from certain), he's certainly not giving us any exclusive information, at least not that I've seen. I can't comment from where you're sitting, but being in Moderation, I certainly don't see us as working with Discovery. You seem to think that Discovery has agreed to vote on who we vote for? Really, as you presumably start lynching Moderation, do you not think that Discovery will be voting alongside you?

As for hunting down Discovery, I'm going to suggest Adamir scans Bort, now that they are in different factions. As far as I can tell, he's one of the few players left on Glory to not have a role suggested for him, and the most active. He's also needlessly calling for one of the non-discovery factions to be focused down, something that'll likely help Discovery out. He seems a good enough candidate to be discovery from where I'm standing.

[Bort he/him]

Sure, Adamir, go ahead and scan me instead of Shallan, although, if you do so, please add Shallan to your scan list for the next cycle. Do me a favour though, don't mention my role, if I have one (unless, of course, I'm secretly a Blasphemous Scholar - Then I kind of expect that you will tell everyone, and I'll be an idiot for requesting a scan ), just confirm for Hael whether or not I can be trusted.

 

I'd have thought 'manageable' would be pretty self evident. Too many people have spoke up about a potential alliance between Moderation and Discovery for us not to be worried about it, and between Moderation and Discovery, there is a good chance that you can control enough votes to control the lynch. You may not be there just yet, but you're very close. 'Manageable' refers to getting Moderation and Discovery down to few enough members so everyone in Glory and Heritage no longer have to worry about this.

 

If Moderation would like to cooperate with this, and start lynching Discovery members, then I'd welcome that, and look forward to the day when the three factions can honourably face each other on the field of battle, without having to worry about infiltrators.

 

Edit: Also, Hael, how suspicious do you think it looks for you to call out one of the most active people in attempting to persuade the factions to work together to get rid of Discovery? It wasn't until the DiscoMod alliance (whether or not it's a real thing) came to light that I started advocating Moderation Open Season.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Bort

[Haelbarde he/him]

Advocating hunting Discovery personnel is something that can be done by a Discovery player just as much as any other player can. Just means people trust you more. I want to be certain that your call was genuinely out of concern for a Moderation-Discovery alliance rather than a Discovery's attempted at sowing chaos. 

 

Like you said, you/Glory has advocated faction unity, focusing Discovery down. Getting distracted killing a faction isn't the best way of doing that. Maybe I'm overreacting, but calling for Moderation to get culled has me understandably concerned. Maybe Wyrm is still here because of us, but that was a mistake. It has certainly not gained us anything. 

Edited July 6, 2015 by Haelbarde

[Bort he/him]

You are right, advocating hunting down Discovery may be a ploy to gain trust and position myself to stab everyone else in the back once Wyrm gives the signal (or anyone else in Discovery, but Wyrm is the only confirmed member so far), but that is one thing.

 

Going so far as to point out the major reason why even discovered Discoverers are a major threat (complete with bolding to draw people's attention to it), something that I'm sure the Discoverers hoped would quietly slip under the radar (namely, that they are not quite as useless as Wyrm claimed once they are no longer part of another faction, and that it is quite possible for them to control the lynch), is quite something else.

 

Yeah, view the first person with some suspicion (Aanwolf did this masterfully in the last game), but the second? I think that is far too much info on the Discoverers to be dismissed as 'just out to gain trust'.

 

Also, in the spirit of cooperation, I think I have almost worked out who the other faction Discoverers are (about 90% sure). Assuming each faction had two Discovery infiltrators at the start of the game, Moderation's Discoverers are two of the following three people:

 

Haelbarde, Neodymium, or Clanky,

 

And Heritage's Discoverers are two of these five people:

 

Phattemer, Dowanx, Zephrer, Pixie or Alvron.*

 

For the sake of completeness, possible Discoverers in Glory (my current belief is that we are now Discoverer free, but I'm not really willing to blindly trust that):

 

Zas, Paranoid King, or Shallan.

 

Would anyone like to comment on these names? Seonid, and Orlok, I'd especially like to hear from you two please.

 

Edit: *Added Pixie's name to the list. Fairly sure he isn't, but not confirmed.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Bort

[Paranoid King he/him]

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I didn't want to spend the sabbath discussing who to kill.
 
Many are curious about how I solved the code. Even in my own faction, people are suggesting that I must have been discovery because the code was "impossible" to solve. I wish to stop these rumors. As a former bodyguard, I know they can be deadlier than poison.
 
Before I explain how I solved the code, let me clarify that Mailliw did not betray his faction. He was simply overconfident in the code's impossibility to break (as is everyone else, it seems.)
 
How I solved the code.

Firstly, I knew the lettering of the first posted code my Mailliw. (Bhqssmgoguwiohgcztdvqoxtihonn)
Secondly, Mailliw told the entire Glory faction three things:

1. The type of code was One Time Pad. Without knowing this, I could not have solved the code.
2. The code phrase was something from the Moderation faction doc. I took this to mean "an intelligible phrase"
3. The basic gist of his message was "I am dead. Don't bribe me back."

With this info, anyone from Glory could have solved the code. I'm just glad I could solve it first and claim the Glory for the Glory faction.

Here's how I went about it. One Time Pad takes the difference between a message and the code word and turns that number into a letter. So I simply needed to try different variants of "I am dead. Don't bribe me back" to solve the code.
The first three letters what Mailliw said were "Iam." The first three letters of the message were "Bhq". The difference between I and B is 19. In the code, a counts as changing 0 letters, so the letters A-Z are represented by 0-25. So letter 19 is T.
Continuing on, we find that the difference between A and H is 7, so the next letter is H. I could continue to translate for the first word, but I guessed that the last letter was "E". By double-checking, I could see I was correct.
So now I have the word "The". This is perfect. The first letters of his phrase were correct. Now came the hard part. I tried the first three letters of almost 10 different phrases before discovering the next word was "going", not "dead".
The phrase "I am going to die" led to the codeword of "The meeting tak-" I finished the word "takes" and found that he had said "Do" at the beginning of his next message.
By counting up the letters, I discovered that the phrase "I am going to die. Don't bribe me back" was one letter shorter than "Bhqssmgoguwiohgcztdvqoxtihonn" This was easily remedied by changing "don't" to "do not".
The rest of his message checked out, and I now had the code phrase "The meeting takes place in the gold."
By looking at other coded messages by wyrm, I tried completing words in the message and code phrase until I had as much of the code as I could get. Unfortunately, the code was changed and I was only ably to decode 4 messages. (1 by Mailliw, 1 from Moderation asking for clarification, and 2 from Wyrn.)

I am not from Discovery, I simply made use of the info I had to solve the code. As a former bodyguard, I have had experience with this sort of thing before.

By revealing this, I am diminishing my own awesomeness (8 hours to solve 1 phrase? Really?) But if I am not pointlessly lynched, it might be worth it.

 

EDIT: minor format and grammar changes

Edited July 6, 2015 by Paranoid King

[Bort he/him]

Maill did betray his faction... he was Glory when he sent that message... Covert communication with the enemy... That's betrayal

 

(Well, ok, maybe not. Not really anyways).

 

Edit:

Ok, with regards to my previous post... The names I put forward for possible Discoverers in Glory. Two of these names have now been cleared to my satisfaction, leaving only Shallan as a potential Discoverer in Glory.

 

It also means that either Kipper is Discovery, or Pixie is. My money is on the former.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Bort

[Zephrer he/him]

Hey Guys, I'm responding to Bort's claim that I may be Discovery Faction. It's understandable that he might think as such due to my inactivity on the thread. And I'm not even all that active on the docs as well. In my defense this is my first game, and I'm uncomfortable posting on the thread (and a little so in the doc as well). But that hardly makes me discovery. I'm not going to reveal my role to prove my innocence, to do so would be in my eyes extremely unwise. But I will tell you, that I am certainly not Discovery Faction.

You may scan me if you wish, you're free to do so. I have nothing to hide.
 

[Paranoid King he/him]

Well, Maill didn't betray any secrets of his current faction. He just sent a dying message that he was dying.

[Bort he/him]

Thanks for replying Zephrer. Note, I'm not saying you are definitely Discovery, only that your name was one of the ones I wasn't able to clear.

 

@Paranoid King: I really wasn't being serious about considering Maill's message a betrayal.

[Zephrer he/him]

And while I'm posting, I suppose I'll put up my Role play. Hope you guys all enjoy it
 

Kartesh’s heart pounded with excitement. He always felt this way right before and during a duel. Oh how he loved the thrill of fighting.

The gong rang.

Kartesh struck out swiftly with his sword in an attempt to disarm his opponent, his sword meeting resistance as the other duelist parried his blade. He struck again, his blade making a metallic clang as it was once again blocked by his opponent.

He’s better than I am He thought. I’d better try to finish him quickly, or else this could turn ugly for me…
 

He let his thoughts slide free, not wanting to think of what failure meant. Blades met again and again in blinding speeds, but Kartesh was losing ground. Kartesh’s opponent, a man named Emerlai, pressed his attacks with relentless and almost effortless efficiency, his face never betraying an outward emotion.
 

I’m going to die Kartesh thought. Well, I might as well make a good show if it.

He deliberately began to slow his attacks and act like he was tiring. It was an old trick of his; one he hoped would lure Emerlai into making a fatal mistake… Or speed up Emerlai’s killing him…

He looked desperately for an opening, and in doing so inadvertently opened himself up to an attack. Pain lanced down his arm as Emerlai’s sword stabbed deep into the bicep muscle of his sword arm. Screaming in pain, he dropped his sword, and slipped on his own blood now flowing freely from his arm. He fell, narrowly avoiding a slash that would have easily decapitated him. The crowd roared with approval at the narrow escape, and many now jeered at Emerlai for missing such a helpless adversary with little space to run.

Kartesh pushed off with his feet against the edge of the ring and slid between Emerlai’s legs. Once through, he rolled to the left and snatched up his sword with his uninjured hand. He frowned at the immobility of his non-dominant hand and slashed his blade through the air experimentally a few times.
 

Emerlai was on his guard now, and was slowly circling Kartesh, like a bird of prey. He Leaped at Kartesh with an uppercut that narrowly missed his nose, shearing free a few hairs from his head.
Kartesh took advantage of his opponent temporary imbalance to knock one of his legs out from under him.
 

Emerlai sprawled face first, and recovered in a graceful roll to face Kartesh again, blood streaming from his now broken nose. Anger burned in his eyes as he dove for Kartesh, slamming into him with his shoulder and sending Kartesh careening into the ring wall.

Dazed, and in pain, Kartesh realized that he had again dropped his sword. Vaguely aware of Emerlai standing over him, he tried to roll out of the way, only to be painfully shoved back against the wall.

“You are more trouble than you are worth, filth.” Emerlai spat. “Prepare to die!”

He raised his sword and brought in down intending to ram in through Kartesh’s Heart, but at the last moment Kartesh had dodged and swept his legs out from under him. In a blurring motion Kartesh seized Emerlai’s sword and plunged it through its owner’s face.

 

The crowd was silent.
 

After what seemed an eternity, the crowd exploded into cheers, and men began looking for those they had bet against to collect their winnings.

Through it all, Kartesh swayed for a moment and thought I cannot believe that I won… That was… unexpected…

 

The pain became too much. The cobblestones rushed up to meet him as his consciousness fled.