Quick Fix Game 9: The Court of The Gods

[A Joe in the Bush]

I find it odd that so many people are jumping on Wyrm for voting for Meta, when I was the one that started accusing him. I was the one that tried to foil his plan when I thought it wouldn't work. I think either bort or smart.guy are using it as an excuse to vote for a dangerous player. Bort seems to have a better reasoning for voting for wyrm, so I'll vote for Smart guy.

Yes, I know that won't colour my vote, but I can't remember what the mobile coding is. Could a mod change that?

Edit: ninja'd by bort, but now I'mm even more inclined to think smart guy is a rebel.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Metacognition

[Bort]

Joe, it's Text[/color=red.] minus the dots.

[Metacognition]

 

 

Who or what is a WGG?

 

Wilson and I both did a great job of explaining what the WGG is in the AMA. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them there! Well, best of luck everyone! 

[Mailliw73]

My next thought is that I would like to hear from Mailliw73. I know he's around right now from PMs, so he's got a bit of time on his hands at the present. He's also a really experienced player. So why didn't you vote during the previous Cycle?

Yeah, sorry about that. This morning and yesterday, I just had a couple minutes to pop on and reply to PMs, but not enough to jump on this and vote. That discussion between Wyrm/Joe and Meta was very interesting, but at its core, I think, was just a differing of opinion on rules. 

 

My vote's going on Gancho to see what his thoughts are.

[TheMightyLopen]

Hmmm. My thoughts, huh? Well, I think I agree with you about Wyrm and Meta's discussion. To me, it didn't really feel like Wyrm was trying to sow dissension like a smart guy was saying. I thought he just disagreed with Meta.

 

So I guess that kinda makes me suspicious of a smart guy.

[Vauhsoj]

Funweaver sat in his overly decorated palace wearing a sparkly party hat that glowed with his divine aura.

"It must be frustrating being on a different schedule from the other gods," Daryk, his high priest mused.

"But Daryk, it's the only way I can attend so many parties!  But I do understand what you mean.  Everything exciting around here lately has happened when I'm asleep.  I close my eyes, and when I wake up the others have discovered one of the rebels!  And poor Metacognition.  Old thoughtful was a good guy, even if he was no fun at parties."

"Have you given any thought to who else might be a rebel, my lord?"

"I haven't seen Heavenpest at any parties lately.  Maybe he has been meeting secretly with the other evil rebels somewhere deep under his dreary palace, plotting our violent and horrible deaths!"

"My lord, you are hyperventilating!  You should breathe into this bag until you calm down!"

All this discussion is really interesting.  I really hope that we can keep this discussion going!  However, like Funweaver, I am usually asleep when the rollover is scheduled.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Vauhsoj

[Wyrmhero]

Yeah, sorry about that. This morning and yesterday, I just had a couple minutes to pop on and reply to PMs, but not enough to jump on this and vote. That discussion between Wyrm/Joe and Meta was very interesting, but at its core, I think, was just a differing of opinion on rules. 

 

My vote's going on Gancho to see what his thoughts are.

 

Thanks Mailliw. It's good to know not only the reason for your somewhat inactive nature last Turn, as well as what your current thoughts on the status of the game are. I must admit to hoping for a little more here, but we got something tangible and that is good. Hopefully we get even more discussion going on overnight. Make use of those votes, people!

 

I am now heading off to bed, so I am placing my vote on Jain to see what he says this Cycle, since I gave him a slight benefit of the doubt last time round.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Wyrmhero

[Sart]

...and this is why I should be more careful reading. I mistakenly remembered Wyrm suggesting that an Eliminator would enact a plan that would benefit the village, in order to become more trusted. I had forgotten that Wyrm had said that in jest.    That colored my reading of some of her other posts. Namely, her wanting to not focus on inactives, when an inactive was actually an eliminator. While I can't trust her completely, that doesn't warrant a lynch. Unfortunately, now I'm in the hot seat for rashly posting. Therefore, I'm going to tie up the votes by changing my vote to Phattemer. It's nothing personal, but you haven't been active at all. We already know one of the Eliminators was inactive, so it can't hurt to lynch another one. Either he's not helping the village consciously, or he's not helping the village unconsciously.

[Kipper]

Man, I'm glad I didn't do what I planned. I realized that Shallan hadn't even been online since game start, and felt a twinge of remorse at starting a bandwagon on her in her absence. I was about to request a switch from her to another, but then I didn't.

I agree that Raven is relatively clear, for reasons mentioned by others. I also believe that objectively speaking, I should be relatively clear, for pushing the lynch on her, but that's for you guys to decide. The I Know You Know is strong with this one.

Adamir is slightly suspicious, but very slightly, as I've seen Eliminators place the first poke vote on each other before. In fact, my suspicion of him barely approaches suspicion at all, but neither do I trust him.

I'll hold off on my vote for right now.

[RavenRadient7]

...Why do I have a feeling that, since two people think I'm cleared, I'm dead next round?

 

It's looking like most of the votes so far are poke votes, as far as I can tell in a quick check, so it's looking like we're just down to a smart guy and Phattemer at the moment.

 

At this point I'm leaving my vote on Ven, to see if he ever does show up, but I might vote again to break the tie if no one else does in the next hour or so. I'm not leaning any particular way at the moment, so hopefully Phattemer will show up at some point soon and give an explanation.

[Sir Jerric]

Interesting thing I spotted today at work - Sir Jerric and A Smart Guy seem to be taking turns sitting in the thread, I assume watching for activity or lurkers, but it happened several times today. At one look, I'd see Sir Jerric in the thread, and the next time I checked, he'd be gone, and A Smart Guy was in his place. Or vice versa. It may be a total coincidence, I'll admit, probably is, but it did strike me as something odd, especially since neither of them were posting.

 

Of course, A Smart Guy has now posted, but Sir Jerric still hasn't.

 

Wyrm, you've answered my question for now. I might come back to you later though, depending on what others say, but for now...

 

Sir Jerric, are you and A Smart Guy conspiring?

So if I am reading this correctly, you are accusing me on suspicion of conspiring with another player to subtly expose ourselves as having the ability to conspire?

 

More seriously, I would like to know what the eliminators are meant to gain by watching the thread tag-team. And what you expect them to gain from activity monitoring either. If they want to know who isn't going to be on for a few hours to defend themselves from a bandwagon vote, all they would need to do is read people's posts. At least three people have indicated their sleep schedules thus far.

 

From the eliminators' perspective, any kill is a valid kill. This game has no roles to use as priority targets, and thus we see the common technique of hitting adept players like Meta. And any lynch that hits a villager role narrows their margin. As in most games of this type, this is going to be a matter of removing the active eliminators as soon as possible. While it was nice to get Lynchtarget out of the way, we didn't learn much from that.

 

An inactive villager is a boost to the villager body count, even if they aren't being helpful directly. Lynching them gives the eliminators a turn to kill without a threat against their acting players. As Wyrm has already pointed out, we really need to be targeting actives more than inactives. So I'd like A Smart Guy to explain why he is arguing for killing inactives, an approach explicitly condemned in the same post that contains Wyrm's "jest". Surely you are aware of that argument?

Edit: Vote Tally:

Haelbarde - 0: Wyrm

Wyrmhero - 0: Bort, smart guy

Mailliw73 - 0: Wyrm

Venture Mistborn - 1: Raven

Sir Jerric - 1: Bort

a smart guy - 3: Joe, Lopen, Jerric

TheMightyLopen - 1: Mailliw

Phattemer - 2: Vauhsoj, smart guy

Jain - 1: Wyrm

Edited August 4, 2015 by Sir Jerric

[RavenRadient7]

It looks like a smart guy got off a little while ago, so we probably won't be hearing any answers from him for a bit. Venture hasn't been on since yesterday, and Phattemer hasn't show up since the game started. I'm still looking for an answer from Ven once he makes it back to the game, so I'm going to keep the vote on him for now, but I'm watching a smart guy for the moment.

 

I'm getting off for the night. I'm hoping to be back on tomorrow morning before the lynch, in order to see what a smart guy has to say about all this, but at the moment I'm not voting for him. Hopefully, we'll find some answers soon.

[Sir Jerric]

While I am going to leave my vote on Smart Guy, my question does apply to Vauhsoj as well, if you wish to head off my next move. =)

[Kipper]

Sir Jerric, about the Eliminator kill:

While all Eliminator kills are valid, from the perspective of the village body count rising, they are not equally good. The Eliminators will always leave alive villagers who have the slightest suspicion on them. It is my opinion that Meta was simply fearkilled, as happened in his previous game, because the village had no real suspicions at that point.

Take this situation:

Person A, Person B, Person X, Person Y, and Person Z comprise the pool of villagers that our Eliminator can kill.

Person A and Person B have publicly and forcefully expressed suspicion of Person X. Person X has strongly defended himself. Person Y has been mild-mannered and has posted, but has no strong suspicions. Person has been inactive.

A smart Eliminator, in this case, would kill Person Y, to better enable a lynch train on Person X, a villager. Persons A and B will still suspect Person X, and Person Z has a high likelihood of popping in near the end, asking for a summary, and then joining the lynch train.

I believe that the best Eliminator strategy in this game (and the one we will see) will be the killing off of semi-active players, who post some, but not as much as very active players. The Eliminators, I believe, will strategically avoid those villagers with suspicion placed on their heads. They should also avoid killing inactives, as the village will likely take care them, as villages tend to do.

..and I completely lost track of where I was going with this post.

Edit: I still plan to not vote this Cycle, and will be off for the rest of it.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Kipper

[phattemer]

Sorry about that! Some weird thing stopped me from being on. I must say, it is amusing that Lynchbait the Innocent was Lynchbait and not innocent. Anyway, I need to go read day 1 and should be back in a while.

Heh heh. Anyone remember QF6? And read the aftermath? And read my question which read "Hey (I think joe or kas was gm) GM, remember the day where everyone voted for that one guy? Could I have killed them, voted for Stephen Leeds, disqualified the votes of everyone but me, and won the game for the Eliminators?" No? Just me? Ok.

But anyway. This has just started but besides my obligatory "well I'm a villager and smart guy might not be so better vote for him" post, I have no idea where to go with any of this. (But oh well. I mean, just 'cause it's obligatory doesn't mean it's not true. Smart guy

Edited August 4, 2015 by phattemer

[Vauhsoj]

Jerric, I just wanted to poke Phattemer to see if he'd respond.  Since this game is going to be about dialog, I figured it is good to have a lot of players participating.

That's a useful observation, Kipper.  You've obviously played this before.

Ugh, I need to sleep, and I won't be up again before the changeover.  I think I'll just join the bandwagon against A Smart Guy.

Talk to you all in the morning.

Funweaver the Festive walked into his chamber and promptly slumped in a glittery heap on his pink and yellow bed.

"Woah, that party was crazy!"

Daryk walked in carrying a pair of pink and yellow pajamas.

"My lord, it was just you and that awakened lamp."

"I know, but anywhere I go is a party.  I'm the god of parties, remember?"

Darryk gave his god a flat look.

"My lord, the others wish to know if you have any ideas on who the rebels might be."

"How should I know?  I was just partying with a lamp."

"You at least need to vote."

"Oh, ok.  Who's got the most votes?"

"My lord, that's not..."

"Just put my vote on him for now."

"But my lord..."

"Go away.  I need to sleep."

"As you wish, my lord.  Goodnight."

Edited August 4, 2015 by Vauhsoj

[A Joe in the Bush]

There are now five votes on Smart Guy, with absolutely no one defending him. To me that means he's probably innocent. However, he has been on since there were three votes on him, and did not defend himself. That means he's either uncaring about being lynched, and therefore doesn't deserve to live, or is an eliminator and can't think of a defense, and hopes inactivity will defend him. I will leave my vote on him, but I would like to express suspicion on Lopen, who has followed my lead twice now. Lopen, do you have any suspicions besides the players I point out?

 

EDIT: Just realized he did kind of defend himself. And the votes were tied when he got off. I am retracting my vote on Smart Guy, since it does seem like he's innocent now, and will vote for Lopen.

Edited August 4, 2015 by The Only Joe

[phattemer]

I mean, I didn't think it was going to get this ugly. After reading day 1, I would have to say that Wyrm seems very suspicious. smart guy

[A Joe in the Bush]

Phattemer, why did you vote for Smart guy in the first place? And why exactly does Wyrm seem suspicious?

[phattemer]

Dang it. Apparently if you leave a page for a minute on iOS it unloads it and loses typing progress. Basically: I voted for smart bc he had voted for me and I think it was tied between us then. Wyrm's posts so far are:

Poke on Jain

Argues against Meta's plan after joe already has.

This is the big one to me. Meta's plan, while it won't work anymore, was a good one and there isn't a reason why joe or Wyrm would assume that the lynch target would go to number 2. It seems like joe's reaction was a bit less thought-out, awhile wyrm's seemed like an attempt to discredit the plan by filling space with contrary arguments. Besides that, I don't have anything, but it's better than what I have in anyone else.

[TheMightyLopen]

There are now five votes on Smart Guy, with absolutely no one defending him. To me that means he's probably innocent. However, he has been on since there were three votes on him, and did not defend himself. That means he's either uncaring about being lynched, and therefore doesn't deserve to live, or is an eliminator and can't think of a defense, and hopes inactivity will defend him. I will leave my vote on him, but I would like to express suspicion on Lopen, who has followed my lead twice now. Lopen, do you have any suspicions besides the players I point out?

 

EDIT: Just realized he did kind of defend himself. And the votes were tied when he got off. I am retracting my vote on Smart Guy, since it does seem like he's innocent now, and will vote for Lopen.

 

Well, in regards to following your lead, the first cycle I thought Meta was acting a little too much, "I'm Innocent." But I didn't really suspect him, or anyone else for that matter, on the first cycle, so I didn't vote at all.

 

I thought a smart guy was a little suspect for voting for Wyrm, since I didn't feel like Wyrm had said anything worth voting against. Then when he defended himself, I thought his excuse was a little flimsy. The whole point of this game is analyzing the posts, so to say he "forgot" something seemed a bit strange to me.

 

I can't say I've been very suspicious of anyone yet. Since it seems pretty early in the game, I don't want to make assumptions either way.

[Bort]

So if I am reading this correctly, you are accusing me on suspicion of conspiring with another player to subtly expose ourselves as having the ability to conspire?

 

More seriously, I would like to know what the eliminators are meant to gain by watching the thread tag-team. And what you expect them to gain from activity monitoring either. If they want to know who isn't going to be on for a few hours to defend themselves from a bandwagon vote, all they would need to do is read people's posts. At least three people have indicated their sleep schedules thus far.

 

From the eliminators' perspective, any kill is a valid kill. This game has no roles to use as priority targets, and thus we see the common technique of hitting adept players like Meta. And any lynch that hits a villager role narrows their margin. As in most games of this type, this is going to be a matter of removing the active eliminators as soon as possible. While it was nice to get Lynchtarget out of the way, we didn't learn much from that.

 

It was more of a poke to see what you'd post than any real accusation. Like I said in the "accusing" post, your timing was most likely coincidence.

 

That said, you do agree that the only way forward in this game is to analyze the posts made, so in that case, why did you wait until someone poked you before posting? I find this more suspicious than your timing with A Smart Guy.

 

As for what an Eliminator could gain by lurking in the thread, they get to build up time frames for when players are commonly on ("Sir Jerric should now be in bed and won't be back until after the rollover. Let's see if we can get a bandwagon started on him," for example). You said yourself that three people have said when they are on or not, but that is only maybe a fifth of the players the Eliminators would have to dispose of.

 

Plus, any relevant comments that are made, if someone is lurking in the thread, they can quickly move those comments into the Eliminator doc to begin discussion, which in turn gives them more time for planning.

 

In a game where there are no roles besides innocent and guilty, any source of information or time is valuable.

 

So, for now I'm leaving my vote where it is. It may be you've not played a game like this before, or it may be that you are trying to cover up the obvious. With only one vote on you, you won't be lynched, but I haven't seen enough from you to think you are innocent.

[Wyrmhero]

For reference, Smart Guy, I am male .

 

Hmm... No response from Jain. I am not sure whether leaving my vote on him is worthwhile late in the day. Certainly I don't want to put him up for the lynch if he is actually too ill to post on the forum (not that he is in any danger, it must be said). Removing my vote for now, though I don't know who else is on at this point in time. With the Cycle ending soon-ish, the only thing I might be able to do is ask about something for next Cycle.

 

We have a lot of people this Cycle who haven't made votes, or even posted. Haelbarde and Kipper haven't placed lasting votes anywhere, but I'm far more concerned with Orlok, Venture Mistborn, Adamir, Alvron and Panda all being absent this Cycle.

 

Oh! I know someone who might be awake now. Orlok. You posted quite a bit during the first Cycle, but appear to have dialled it down to nothing this time around. Are you very busy, or just letting things develop as they will without your influence?

[Bort]

I was hoping I could get this finished and out this cycle. It's nothing important, just a spot of RP.

 

Bortholemew the Blind waited, muttering under his breath. His high priest quickly finished scribing, then picked up the footstool and moved it to the floor in front of the next painting. The midget's beard reached out and grabbed the stool, twisting and moving until Bortholemew stood on it, frowning thoughtfully at the image displayed on the canvas. His long eyebrows stretched forward like antennae, almost brushing the painting.

 

It was an abstract scene, one of Hallandren's main plazas, quite well detailed, yet everything in the painting was fuzzy, as though not quite in focus. This was the fourth painting today for Bortholemew to interpret. Unfortunately, being supposedly blind did not get one out of one's divine duties.

 

The midget stared at the painting for another minute or so, then took a breath to make something up. To him, it was a street in the city, a patch of grass and a few of Kalad's Phantoms. Fortunately, his beardspren, Luma, had better eyesight. She tugged on a strand of his beard and pointed, her translucent hand coming out of the beard itself. 

 

"Bortholemew, look," she said.

"What?" the beardomancer asked, still oblivious to what she was seeing.

"Here," his beard extended out into a small platform by the painting, then it opened up and a small female figure rose up and out of the beard. She pointed again. "The Phantom's spear, the clock, and that window."

 

With someone pointing it out, the resemblance was uncanny. "It's... the clock tower," Bortholemew said, sounding a little unnerved.

"Looking Southwest," confirmed Luma.

 

Bortholemew the blind spun, nearly falling off the stool he was stood on. "Haribo!"

His high priest, already stood beside him, looked up from the scroll he was scribing Bortholemew's words onto. "Yes, my Lord?"

"Find the person who painted this," the midget demanded. "I must speak with them."

 

"But, My Lord, surely I can arrange for a message..." Haribo was cut off mid-sentence by a small glowing figure slapping him with a length of beard. "You dare disobey your God?" Luma asked, sounding and looking furious.

 

"No, of course not. I'll find the painter immediately, My Lord," Haribo walked away from Bortholemew as the midget shook his head. "You know, Luma, sometimes you can be far too mean. Do you think this is it? Is this the clue we are here to find?"

 

"It's too much of a coincidence to be anything else, Bortholemew," the beardspren replied, as his beard slowly and gently writhed back into it's usual place. "We need to check it out."

 

The midget nodded, his massive eyebrows swaying gently, as though caught in the breeze. He waved over his other priests. "Remove them, but keep this one," Bortholemew commanded. "Bring it to my chambers." Beardomancy was a powerful art, he could use it to send this painting back to the Awkwardmother.

[Gamma Fiend]

Artweave the Painter sat in his art studio, a room he had attached to his godly palace years ago. The walls coated in his unique colors, brown and mint green mixing together perfectly, complimenting each other in a subtle contrast that both drew the eye and was pleasant to look at. As one of the older Returned in the court, he could afford to spend his afternoons painting for as long as he wanted, his servants and divine duties waiting on him, and not the other way around. To be fair, he was doing his best in hunting down the Rebel scum that would dare assault the Court of the Gods so blatantly. It wasn't his fault that the rest of the gods were fools, so he had instead decided to retire to his palace, being struck by a sudden inspiration.

He attacked the canvas with a surprising fury, splashing colors all over the place, colors mixing and melding together, his heightened BioChroma able to make out each tiny change in shade and hue as they did so, his paintbrush slashing wildly, roughly sketching outlines of strange, abstract and unseen figures. There was only one thing clear about the painting, it was almost all completely red, all of the lines and contrast just a slightly different shade that wouldn't even be recognizable if it weren't for the gift of the Perfect Color Recognition, one wouldn't even be able to see it.

The work of art was a masterpiece. It also promised death.

He turned to get his Priests' interpretation of the painting when he realized how silent everything was. A shadow fell across the doorway, blocking the only entrance and exit to the room. It was the Court of the Gods, arrived to dispense the justice of the God King -- as they saw fit.

Before Artweave had a chance to even defend himself one last time he was surrounded and hand his hands and feet bound while they held him down. The last thing he could see was the red-hot knife, still glowing from the heat of the forge, a beautiful shade of simmering red, cooled down from the fading bright, yellow-orange glow it must have held in the flames, speckled by the blackened splotches of slag and rust. He passed out before the pain became too intense.

***

With the unconscious Artweave delivered into the hands of the God King's Priests, the gods of the court all returned to their respective palaces, patting themselves on the back for another job well done, and inviting each other to their planned parties and feasts. Aleck the Smart, however, had a clever idea of his own. His purple and green robes shimmered in the light from the posts, popping out even more from the heightened aura. He had found the painting that Artweave was working on earlier when they captured him to be quite fascinating. A little morbid, sure, but good art was good art.

Even if he was caught, he knew he could just say he was searching for something that helped cement Artweave's assured guilt. And he would relieve his now godless servants of the burden of having to find somewhere to put all of the deceased god's exquisite art collection. Surely they wouldn't even notice a dozen or so masterpieces missing. He entered the empty room and saw the painting sitting there, some of the red paint still drying in the heavier patches the artist had globbed onto it.

It really was a true work of art, and one of the most beautiful paintings he had ever seen. The reds were so vivid, the delicate blending of colors and shades to form the phantom images lurking in the darker shadows of the piece. He couldn't quite tell what about the painting enticed him so, when he saw the dagger. It was almost hidden in one of the darkest patches of the red, just a few drops of blue away from being called purple even, it looked like it had been painted over with a fresher, more raw smear of red.

Then he realized with a dread what it meant as he remembered this picture exactly. This scene exactly, blood and death. Daggers in the back. And a voice asking him if he wanted to try and prevent it. Only this time, he was too late.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" A voice asked from behind him. "I knew what this painting meant, even when Artweave was being carted away. Thank you for killing one of your own and making this even easier." They thanked him before driving the dagger in, cupping his mouth to prevent him from screaming out.

--------------------

Artweave the Painter and Aleck the Smart were Returned Gods!

Day 3 has begun! it will last 24 hours until 9AM EST, Wednesday August 5th!

Edited October 26, 2016 by Alvron