Mid-Range Game 8: Highborn Intrigue

[Adamir he/him]

Well, should we say a eulogy for Seonid? There is no one else the Eliminators could reasonably target who was putting as much effort into thwarting them. Now, who should the Brightlords, myself among them, vote for?

[Orlok Tsubodai]

I have returned - apologies for this protracted absence. I have not had an easy time at home, and it has got harder to come back the longer this game has gone on for without my following it closely.

I shall read through the thread today, but if anyone wants to send me their analysis, it would be much appreciated as a starting point

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Brightlord votes? I don't really know. I've been wrong about most of my suspicions so far, so your guess is as good(or better) as mine is. I need to look back through everything again and see if I can connect the remaining eliminators together somehow. I agree with Seonid that we're losing because people have been so quiet. It seemed like after the 4th or 5th cycle people got really quiet for some reason. I don't know what that reason is, but it seems like a lot of players have gone inactive at one point or another in this game.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Yeah, I never understood why we went from Lopen and Alvom one lynch cycle to a runaway vote on Haelbarde on the next one, honestly. >.> From the minor skimming of the main thread I've made, it does look like Lopen kind of putzed around on the initial voting swing against Hero a cycle or two before he was finally lynched, which could be another possible indication of being an eliminator, not sure though. Adamir was also pinging the suspicion radar a little bit, but not more than a gut feeling really.

I honestly don't have too much in the way of deep-thread analysis or vote breakdowns or any of that, that was always more Wilson's style than mine. Might try and find some time for RP in a little bit before the roll-over, but we'll see, got some other things been coming up. :/

[Renegade he/him]

2 hours left!

[Renegade he/him]

Day 10: Left in the Dark

The assassin hung outside of Caesarae’s window, waiting.  It seemed like the man was speaking with someone else inside, though the assassin couldn’t catch what their words were.

Caesarae was a darkeyes.  The assassin had learned of this fact on the previous night.  Caesarae must’ve been some sort of con artist -- or perhaps an artifabrian -- for he used some sort of clear device to lighten his eye color.  Regardless of whether or not Caesarae was actually working for Sadeas, this man could quite easily destabilize all of Vorinism, if those things he wore over his eyes were revealed to the public.  And so, he would need to be killed.

The assassin slunk to the ground, retrieving a small rock.  Taking a deep breath, he hurled the rock through the window, shattering it and eliciting yells from Caesarae and the person he was talking with.  The assassin stooped below the window to avoid being seen, hoping that one of the two would take a peek outside.

Several moments later, Caesarae did so.  The assassin grabbed the man and hauled him through the window, before he was able to yell for help.

This will have to be quick, the assassin thought, bringing out a long knife from his side and standing over Caesarae.  However, the darkeyed man immediately lashed out at the assassin’s legs, tripping them onto the crem-laden ground.  Almost instantly, Caesarae rose, deftly swiping the knife from the assassin’s hand, and stood in the position that the assassin was a moment ago.

“You’ve messed with the wrong person,” Caesarae said, slowly lowering the knife towards the assassin’s heart.  “By now, you’ve probably figured out I’m a darkeyes.  What you haven’t yet figured out is that I am the best thief on the Shattered Plains.  Just because I’m lower in rank than you doesn’t mean I’m less experienced.”

“Darkeyed scum,” the assassin spat.  Then, deftly, the assassin seized Caesarae’s knife arm, slowly pushing it out and away from his heart.  Caesarae struggled in vain, but could not bring the knife closer.  The assassin used the opportunity to let go of Caesarae’s arm and quickly roll over, causing Caesarae to bring his knife into the ground with a lurch.  The assassin kicked at Caesarae’s ribs as he tried to extract the knife from the crem.

The assassin stood up, flicking the knife up from the crem, and stabbed it into Caesarae’s back without a moment of hesitation.  The assassin then quickly turned over Caesarae’s body, and took out the clear mechanisms from the darkeyed man’s eyes.  Throwing them to the ground, the assassin ground them up with their boots.

As the assassin left, the other man from inside quickly ran to Caesarae’s side, and hauled him away.  Caesarae was bleeding heavily, but he could still possibly be healed.  Definitely not without injury, but alive.

-----

Starspren soared above as Owain finished his last delivery of the evening.  It seemed like there were a lot less messages to be carried now, with the loss of so many lighteyes.  The fact itself unnerved Owain, as he knew that his position made him a prime target for the conspirators.

Sure enough, about halfway back home, Owain spotted a figure in the darkness, almost imperceptible.  However, the billowing of their cape in the light nighttime breeze revealed their presence.  Owain unconsciously took a step back, fearspren rising from the ground and crawling around him by the dozens.

The figure, sheathed in darkness, slowly walked forward, a Shardblade coalescing in their hand.

Run, something inside of Owain said, and he immediately complied, running off through the warcamp.  He looked back briefly, to see the image of the cloaked figure running towards him at an almost inhuman rate.  Owain finally had the sense to scream out for help, but this seemed to only give the figure more urgency to get Owain killed quickly.

Owain shuddered as a large black thing sailed through the air, right by his head.  The next thing he knew, his right arm fell down to his side, limp and useless.  Owain rushed forward towards the black object, but knew what it was almost instantly.  The figure’s Shardblade.

The Blade disappeared as Owain approached it, and the figure loomed above him.  He’d have ten heartbeats left to live.  Ten heartbeats…

The conspirator stepped on Owain's stomach, preventing him from breathing.  As fast as his heart was beating, the ten heartbeats seemed like an eternity.  Fourteen heartbeats later, a Shardblade finally materialized in the conspirator's hands.

Trapped under the conspirator’s foot, Owain struggled to take in one final breath as the Shardblade rammed into his spine.  Then, all faded to darkness.

---

Caesarae was assassinated!  He was a Noble Con Artist!
Owain was killed by the conspirators!  He was a Noble Courier!
Nobody received an extra vote today.

Day 10 begins now and will end in 24 hours, unless an extension is asked for.  PMs are now open.  Good luck!

Edited October 28, 2016 by Alvron

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Well that doesn't make things look too good. >.> I'll have to re-look through the thread, as those two were some of my suspects, so my radar is just way off. Going to call out a vote on Alvom now though, so we can at least get some sort of lynch/discussion going. For past reasons mentioned, and to basically follow through with the tied lynch the other day, which could possibly have been tied up to save you, perhaps? I'll need to look back at the tallies once I get some sleep.

[Seonid he/him]

Gamma, that would be a sensible analysis except - there were 2 votes on Lopen that tied up the lynch on Alvom. Those were Caesarae (now dead, and a Villager), and yourself. So unless you are, in fact, the Eliminator who saved Alvom, then there weren't Eliminator shenanigans on that lynch. I need to reread the lynch vote order and stuff to be sure of that, of course.

[Seonid he/him]

Alright. Here's our list of people.

 

Seonid (me!)

The Silver Dragon

Bort

Macen

Shallan

Gamma

Orlok

Paranoid King

Venture

Alvom

Feligon

 

Of these, Bort, Feligon, Venture, and SilverDragon haven't been here for ages. Macen, Orlok, and Shallan have barely been active, and Alvom hasn't talked much for several cycles. It's almost a monologue at this point. I don't care.

 

3 or 4 of these people are Eliminators. If we used Meta's square root method, we'd have 5 of them total with this size of cast. 6 if several were inexperienced. The two we know of so far were Hero and Ripple, a veteran and a newbie. My fear is that all 3 or 4 of them are active, which would lead them to outnumbering us in the lynch vote (if there are 4) unless inactives come back.

 

If we lynch wrongly today, I think we've irreparably lost. I think Alvom is suspicious, and certainly worth lynching to find out. But I expected to have one more villager than we currently have during this lynch. We don't have the luxury of lynching to find out. At this point, we lynch correctly or die. So, I'd like to see the arguments for lynching Alvom enumerated clearly. "Just following through on earlier lynches" won't cut it for us. Not now.

 

My vote for now is going on one of our almost-inactives, using the reasoning that it might jolt him into response. Macen, what do you have to add to the discussion?

[Macen he/him]

I have voted most days, I just never got caught up on this game - sorry! I would agree, and say that we need everyone possible voting so that maybe we get something done. I just don't have any suggestions on who to vote for. I'll go back and look at my messages with Clanky and Kipper and see who they had voiced suspicion in (that are still alive).

*EDIT* I went back through my chats and it appears I had mentioned Shallan as being suspicious in the past, but I had no concrete evidence and Clanky didn't argue with it as a suspicion, so I'm going to go with that.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Macen

[Seonid he/him]

Alright, Macen. I just PMed almost every player left in the game (every one who hasn't been saying anything in recent cycles). Hopefully it brings some inactives back. Feligon and SilverDragon haven't been on the Shard in weeks. Bort, Venture, and Orlok have all been on today at some time. Shallan hasn't been on since last night, and Alvom hasn't been on in 4 days. Hopefully it helps.

 

Next target, Paranoid King. Contribute!!! I summon thee!

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

Alright Alvom. My vote is on you. Sorry I have not been very active lately guys. Just been reading the threads and thinking. 

[Paranoid King he/him]

My only *sure* suspicions are Venture Mistborn or Alvorn. I'm also a little bit suspicious of Macen. Why didn't you vote during the first 4 days?

[Shallan she/her]

Before he died, Lopen sent me a PM last day saying he suspected Gamma because he wasn't dead yet. The Eliminators have killed all the experienced active/semi-active people(no fair, eliminators   ) except him. However, he always was sure Adamir was evil so I don't think I'll put a vote on him. Instead, I'll go with Orlok, and hopefully he will read this.

The most interesting part about the write-up to me was the assassin kill. I think it is pretty well determined that the Eliminators don't have an Assassin/Guardsman since this would have to be the first kill from them in 10 cycles, so if we have an Artifabrian and a Guardsman/Assassin left, we can get a protection. That is desperately needed. I'll ask that either of those roles PM either me or Seonid. Please include whether you're corrupt, because only 6/8 of the possible combinations work for a protection.

[Orlok Tsubodai]

Shallan, I have read it, and will do my best to remain active for the remainder of this game.

Other than calling me out for activity, do you have any other reason to vote for me?

[Seonid he/him]

Thank you, Paranoid King and Shallan. Hopefully this discussion isn't too little too late.

I can get behind Shallan's request for a surviving artifabrian or guardsmen/assassin to contact either myself or her. I should already have a PM with you (I'm pretty sure I have one with everyone now).

EDIT: Nobody's posted since me, so I'll edit in a vote. Alvom. Here's my gamble.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Seonid

[Renegade he/him]

Just a reminder: there are 2 hours left, unless an extension is granted!

[Paranoid King he/him]

I'm going to take my vote off gamma and put it on Alvom (on mobile, don't remember how to change color.)

[Shallan she/her]

No, I did not, Orlok, and welcome back to the circle of trust. Orlok

I will also vote for Alvom to prevent any Worldsinger vote shenanigans(if there is a Worldsinger)

Alvom

[Renegade he/him]

Night 11: Poisoned Justice

“Apparently, my executioner can no longer be trusted to not execute people,” Dalinar spoke to the small group of gathered nobles.  Only a handful of them had survived, and of those, only six of them had bothered to show up today.  It instilled a chill down their spines as to the precarious nature of their situation.  More than one of them had considered running off from the Shattered Plains, despite Dalinar’s urging that all would be fine.

However, much to the relief of all of the remaining nobles, Rengar was not with them today.  “I have made sure that he stays out of these affairs,” Dalinar explained.  “He now knows that his place is the execution of those who I have decreed to be executed.  Which will be him next, if he pulls off something like he did yesterday.”  Dalinar scowled at the memory of Draela Heb’s limp form in her cell, a large sword gash struck across her stomach.  “So…”

“Hello!” a cheerful voice said.

“Lady Elendel?” Sheon Idris asked suspiciously.  “You haven’t been around in ages!  What have you been up to?”

“I forgot to show up to these meetings,” Lady Elendel admitted sheepishly, eliciting a stern glare from Dalinar.

“As I was saying,” Dalinar continued, “there will be no execution of any one of you until you have been proven guilty.  So if you have a suspect, please do not hesitate to…”

“EFRIHM!” shouted the majority of the gathered nobles.  Lady Elendel joined in as well.

“I see you’ve been thinking about this,” Dalinar said, raising an eyebrow in surprise.  “Do any of you happen to know where he is at this moment?”

A disconcerting silence followed.

-----

“Dalinar,” Rengar mumbled to himself, “is always making things difficult for me.  I really need to hurry up and go to Kholinar sometime soon.  Plenty of opportunities there.”

Rengar quieted as a brightlord walked into the bar that Rengar was serving.  It originally had belonged to a Horneater, but after tracing the backbreaker powder that had killed Arilir, he had found and murdered the Horneater.  Hopefully, nobody would notice the difference between the two.  On the bright side, it also gave Rengar access to a bit of the backbreaker powder himself.

Efrihm -- the brightlord -- walked up to Rengar.  Apparently, he hadn’t identified Rengar under the disguise.  “Some bread will be fine with me,” Efrihm said.

“Ah, good choice!” Rengar rumbled, choosing a loaf that had previously been sprinkled with backbreaker powder and placing it on the counter in front of Efrihm.  “That’s a firechip, please.”  Rengar winced at his own accent.

Efrihm paused for a moment, scrutinizing the loaf, before taking out a sphere and handing it into Rengar’s giant hands.

“Thank you, sir!” Rengar said cheerfully as the brightlord walked away with the bread, taking a bite as he exited the bar.  He promptly heard screams outside, and the form of Efrihm fell to the ground.

“Finally, this backbreaker powder has some use for good,” Rengar whispered, smiling at his clever means of justice.

-----

When the brightlords finally came across Efrihm, it was almost dusk.  “He’s dead!” Eradin shouted, pointing at the dead man outside the door of a bar.

“And at the same place Arilir died, too,” Nivina Odict frowned.  “I don’t think he was one of the conspirators.”  The others sighed, nodding wanly in agreement.  Time was running short.  Soon, they might all be dead.

---

Vote Tally
Efrihm (5): Sheon Idris, Nivina Odict, Maggus, Eradin, Vin Elendel
Nivina Odict (1): Mace

Efrihm was executed!  He was a Noble Brightlord!

Night 11 has begun!  PMs are now closed, and the turn will end in 24 hours.  Good luck!

Edited October 28, 2016 by Alvron

[Seonid he/him]

Storm it! Ok, retooling time. I don't expect to survive the night, so I'm going to post all of my suspicions and analysis.

Two people are completely inactive. I hope that one of them is an eliminator, but I will proceed under the assumption that they are not, because that is the worst-case scenario. Feligon and SilverDragon won't show up at all.

Bort has been active on the shard, but I believe he has quit the game. In any case, I believe he is/was good, based on the Shardplate incident.

That leaves 7 people. I know my alignment, and after the eliminators lol me, you'll know it too. That leaves 6, with either 3 or 4 conspirators among them.

Of them, I believe that I can trust Shallan implicitly. Paranoid King is likely good, in my estimation. Orlok doesn't make sense as an eliminator. He was inactive, but they didn't need him to come back. They are winning well enough, a better tactic would have been to fly under the radar.

That leaves its with venture, gamma, and macen. There's only 3 of them, and maybe 4 eliminators, so either I've been deceived, an eliminator is inactive, or there are only 3. (The best scenario would be: there's only 3 more eliminators and one or more is inactive, but that's pushing credulity)

My heaviest suspicion tonight falls on gamma. I formally suggest him as a target for the assassin. He's hit the sweet spot of seeming to be active without really being helpful. In addition, he's the mist experienced player left, and it grows increasingly improbable that he hasn't been singled out as a threat by the eliminators. Unless he was one of them.

That's my swan song. Hope it helps. If I live through this, I'll analyze more.

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

Alvom wasn't a conspirator! Who is!

[Renegade he/him]

Just under 2 hours left!

[Renegade he/him]

Time is up!  Write-up coming soon!

[Renegade he/him]

Day 11: The Vanishing Act

Maggus knew he was being followed.  He liked to think that it was a secret trick deep within the depths of the magician’s handbook that gave them the power to know when someone was following him, but in this case, he knew because he saw the figure with his own eyes.  From his magician’s intuition (and not the fact that almost twenty of his fellow lighteyes had been killed), he felt that this figure meant to do him harm.  Perhaps they would try to perform the Ultimate Disappearance Act on him, banishing him from the physical world.  Maggus had read that such a thing was rather painful.

No matter, Maggus thought with glee.  I shall make haste to my homestead, and grab my magic cloak.  Nodding to himself, Maggus jogged homeward (in a dignified manner, of course), with the shadowed figure in stealthy pursuit.

This fine fellow, Maggus thought, dashing through the warcamps to his homestead, or lady, perhaps, appears to enjoy the art of concealment.  Of smoke and mirrors!  Perhaps if they were in a better mood, I would give them a few pointers from an old pro.  Maggus chuckled, rounding a corner and rushing towards his home.

Without hesitation, Maggus slammed through his door (which he kept unlocked) and barred it, before making his way to his magician’s room.

The room glistened from the light of all ten of the polestones, shedding ten different shades of color onto the walls of the rotund room.  In the center, the lights from the gemstones combined to make a great white light, on which his magic cloak lay.

The “magic cloak” was actually the chestplate of a piece of Shardplate, along with its right gauntlet.  Maggus had found the rest of the pieces relatively useless, and sold them off for a few hundred emerald broams.  Who even cared about the boots of a set of Shardplate?  Apparently, someone with a large sum of spheres did.

Maggus slipped on the Shardplate within a minute, which was far faster than any other Shardbearers he knew.  Of course, most of the Shardbearers in Dalinar’s warcamp were now either deprived of their Plate, or dead.  Maggus shivered, slipping his singular gauntlet onto his right hand.

A loud crash emanated from outside of the magician’s room.  Not friendly, Maggus decided, opening the room’s door with a flourish of his gloved hand.

The figure stood in the hallway next to Maggus, clearly surprised by his grand entrance.  Wasting no time, Maggus twirled his left hand in the air.  He then slammed his right fist, with the gauntlet on it, into the assassin.  Misdirection, Maggus smiled.  He fell for that like an amateur.

The assassin rolled with the blow, taking out a long blade as they regained their balance several steps away from Maggus.  Nevertheless, a hit from a piece of Shardplate hurt, and the assassin faltered as they put up their sword.

Maggus yawned, tipping a large bucket that was situated over the assassin’s head.  A pile of glitter floated down onto the assassin, and soon after, Maggus’s fist.

“Out with you, I say!” Maggus shouted at the assassin.  “I banish thee!  Go flee!  Go!  Shoo!”

The assassin looked more irritated than anything else, and after taking a moment to recover, lashed out at Maggus’s feet.  Maggus quickly brought down his right arm to block the attack, but the assassin then stabbed at his shoulder joint, causing some stormlight to leak out of the Plate’s gems.

“How dare you!” Maggus shouted.  The assassin continued to attack that joint, causing the stormlight in Maggus’s right arm to settle into the shoulder joint.  “Great!” Maggus shouted.  “Now I can’t move my arm!  Time for a vanishing act, I think…”

Maggus pulled a string from above, releasing the floor beneath him.  “Aha!” Maggus shouted as he fell… onto a bed of spikes.  His Shardplate shattered almost instantly.  “Gah, I thought I removed the spikes last week!” Maggus complained.  “Bah, I’ll be back!  Bwahahaha!”  Maggus’s voice echoed giddily as he journeyed down a dark corridor.

The assassin sighed, clearly not willing to make the journey into that dark, spiked room, and whatever lay beyond.

---

Maggus was attacked by an assassin, but survived with Shardplate!
Vin Elendel received an extra vote today!

Day 11 begins now and will end in 23 hours and 45 minutes.  PMs are now open.  Good luck!

Edited October 28, 2016 by Alvron