Mid-Range Game 8: Highborn Intrigue

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Anyone can be corrupted even the 'vanilla' role of Brightlord so revealing that you are corrupt won't reveal that you have a role, as everyone has a role.   Only that they have a role that has a night action that can be easily shown as corrupt.  For instance a Guardsman trying to protect someone but they ended up dead in the write up.  That would be a fairly good clue that you've been corrupted.

 

Yeah, after Alvron told me this I assumed everyone had a role. Ren, can you confirm this or not?

[Clanky he/him]

I completely forgot about that post.Thanks for bringing it up again.

 

Going back there I also read through the discussion of Kippers first time being attacked being a WGG and how we decided it wasn't worth it for the eliminators. Based on all the info and roles he gained I think we were all wrong and it definitely would have been worthwhile. Doesn't matter anymore but interesting nonetheless .

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Hey Bort! How's it going? 

[Haelbarde he/him]

I am starting to think that everyone in this game has a role. Even if about half of them are brightlord/ladies.

I had read the rules on the Brightlord/ladies as basically confirming that if you weren't anything else, you were a Brightlord/lady.

[Adamir he/him]

I believe we can assume that the conspirators now have too few Brightlords/Brightladies to influence the secret vote, and we don't really discuss anything useful at night. So let me start by proposing we suggest targets for said Brightlords/Brightladies. As I don't have any clear suspects, I won't put my suggestion towards Araris. Thinking it through, he retracted his vote on Stink, which was the main reason I thought he was suspicious. And now to put a code in the public thread, as I can't use PMs at night.

 

01189998819991197253 IT crowd, suspicious white text

Edited September 1, 2015 by Adamir

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Storm it! Bort got off before I posted that last one. I was hoping he was feeling a little better and could add to discussion a little bit. Hopefully he will answer next time he gets on.

 

Edit: ninja'd by Adamir. Hmmm, I believe we still have a few brightlords/ladies, so we should be able to get a majority on whomever we choose(assuming they listen to everyone).

Also, that looks like a barcode. 

Edited September 1, 2015 by TheMightyLopen

[Renegade he/him]

Yeah, after Alvron told me this I assumed everyone had a role. Ren, can you confirm this or not?

 

Yes, everyone has a role in this game.

[Paranoid King he/him]

that's not necessarily the case - hero could have been upholding the contribution crusade for personal beliefs. He could have also done it as a desperate attempt to get inactive Conspirators active again. Or he could have done it as reverse psychology - once he died, we wouldn't believe him, and keep inactives alive.

There's enough reasons for this contribution crusade that I wouldn't assume a specific one of them is true.

[Bort he/him]

"AaaAH-CHOO!"

 

Strands of white hair went streaming out in front of Bortholemew's face, blown that way by the sneeze. Luna, his beardspren, rode the wisps until they settled back down. Living in his beard, Luna could make out all of the muttering he did, every single word of it. Surprisingly few of those words were suitable to be spoken aloud, and some of them, Luna didn't even know the meaning of, and she was considerably more intelligent than her beardomancer.

 

Another mighty sneeze rattled windows and wafted beard hair, and the mumbling coming from beneath the beard definitely sounded disgruntled. Luna put it down to Bortholemew travelling all the way to Roshar to hunt down the next Shardmark clue, only to fall ill to the chull flu within an hour of arriving. Now, he had been bed-ridden for a week, and he had no idea what was going on at Dalinar's feasts. Curse the stupid chull which had infected him.

 

Luna had done her best, taking notes on each day's and night's discussion for him to read, but that was going to take a while, and all the time he took reading up on what had gone before, he would miss yet more info. Bortholemew the Blind sighed, then started to read through Luna's latest notes.

 

Hi guys, I'm back, more or less. I have no idea what is going on though, other than today you found another Eliminator. Congratulations. I'm guessing we're not sure how many more there are, although given the original starting numbers, I'd guess there are 5, maybe 6 in total, which leaves 3-4. So I have something to go on when I go back and read all those pages that came previously, would people be willing to share their current suspicions with me?

 

Edit:

Hi Lopen. I'm getting better. The bell in my head has mostly stopped ringing, which means thinking is once again possible... Thanks for asking

 

I have nothing to add right now, but sometime this evening I'll try to get through all of the posts so far and see what I can come up with. Might take a while though, as I'm also having to find the time to catch up with the other writing/rpg collaboration thing I do. If you like writing, and you like star Trek, give me a shout and I'll tell you more.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Bort

[Macen he/him]

I am starting to think that everyone in this game has a role. Even if about half of them are brightlord/ladies.

Yeah, Brightlord/Brightlady are like the normal villagers. I'm curious as to how many Shardplates0 are out there.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Maggus appeared in a puff of smoke, mysteriously coming from nowhere, and yet being right in the middle of things.

Just a smoke fabrial and perfect timing, along with the use of distraction, he thought, smirking to himself as he did his best to appear as impressive and enigmatic as possible, his rough and faded black cloak, tattered and ragged at the edges, shone radiantly with stormlight. He had taken the tiny gem centers out of hundreds of diamond and sapphire chips and bedazzled them into the fabric itself. It just worked out that he often had to sleep outside somewhere under a hedge or taking shelter wherever he could find during a highstorm, so it always managed to stay charged with stormlight.

 

He hoped it managed to make a dazzling impression, but just noticed everybody standing around and congratulating themselves and patting each other on the back. Some sort of victory? Even more disappointing, they had seemed to completely been unphased by his grand entrance, and barely anybody seemed to have taken not of him. 

What in the Nightmother's name? Maggus thought, slunking back into the shadows. It appeared he was still behind on a few things. He should have known better than trying to make his grand entrance in the very camps of the storming Blackthorne without knowing the political climate. But he had been on a mission to find his apprentice. Some poor, orphaned shin. He had thought he had heard rumours of one in the Kholinar encampment, but that appeared to be a cold trail.

 

Well, I appear to be here now, so might as well make the best of it. He flipped his brightcloak around, not wanting to stand out anymore than necessary, and tried hiding in the background as unremarkably as possibly. There was still a lot of catching up for him to do before he could make his grand appearance.

[Renegade he/him]

59 minutes left until the Night is over!

 

Edit: Time's up!

Edited September 2, 2015 by Renegade

[Renegade he/him]

Day 6: Treachery

Mortago slipped the soulcaster off of his hand, glancing at the foundation of a building that he and several other ardents had helped to soulcast during the night.  Soulcasting was always a secretive operation, and with the rise in deaths in Dalinar’s warcamps lately, Mortago found himself cautious.

So many dead, Mortago thought to himself, shaking his head in the darkness.  Is it war, or the competition of men that kills us more?  Mortago looked up at the night sky, as if seeking guidance from the Almighty himself.  He received no response.

A light danced in the corner of Mortago’s eye.  He blinked, assuming it to be a spren.  However, the light persisted, glowing and burning in rage.

“A fire,” Mortago breathed.  Without a second thought, he rushed towards it.  Perhaps there are some survivors.  While it generally made sense that ardents could not use their fabrials on humans, in this instance, it could be potentially useful.  Of course, Mortago didn’t know how to use a soulcaster to heal flesh anyway, so he’s have to hope that any survivors were not in a critical state.

As Mortago approached, he spotted a cloaked figure running away from the scene.  Was that one of the conspirators?  Unfortunately, there was no way to get a closer look at them, as they were running away far too quickly for Mortago to catch up.  Plus, he had a feeling that the closer he was to one of them, the less likely his chances of surviving the night were.

The building was in a shambles when Mortago reached it, fire burning through some of its upper crossbeams.  It was primed for collapse at any moment.  Almighty, give me strength, Mortago pleaded, entering the burning building.

Mortago almost stepped on someone as he entered.  A darkeyed woman, coughing and groaning loudly.  Crouching down low to avoid the smoke, Mortago pulled on the woman’s arm, taking her out of the building.  Then, he rushed back in, looking for more survivors.  A darkeyed man, about 35 years of age, sat slumped in the middle of a side room.  The man’s skin was charred, firespren dancing around him.  He was dead.

“Almighty,” Mortago gasped at the carnage, accidentally breathing in smoke and coughing.  He continued on to the next room, hearing an audible creak in the ceiling above.  This room -- a kitchen, by the looks of it -- had no bodies.  I need to get out.  I’ve done the best I can.  Reluctantly, Mortago retraced his steps back towards the front door, the house beginning to collapse behind him.

He leapt out of the front doorway as it completely collapsed, a flaming wooden plank crashing to the ground beside Mortago’s feet.  The ardent yelped, jumping back from the fire.  Mortago looked on as the building burned, the flames reaching higher and higher.  Dozens -- hundreds -- of flamespren gathered around the fire, flickering with their own reddish glow.

A force abruptly pushed the ardent from behind, and he tumbled into the conflagration.  Mortago screamed, trying to push off from the rubble to see who had attacked him.  “No!  Almighty, no!”  Mortago looked upon his attacker, and in a moment of terror, identified the face.

“It is what had to be done,” his attacker said, watching the ardent struggle to escape from the flames.  The murderer turned away, leaving Mortago to meet his fate.

-----

Badhab Eony had done a bad thing.  A very bad thing.  He’d killed someone.  No, he’d killed several people.  But most importantly, he'd killed the very man he was supposed to guard.

“Well done, Brightlord Eony,” a voice spoke from beside him.  Badhab reeled back in fear, almost expecting the spirit of Mortago to be haunting him.  Of course, in that case, he’d doubt the spirit of Mortago would be congratulating him.

The person who had spoken, completely covered in a black cloak, continued.  “Your murder of that traitorous ardent was excellently executed.  While I personally wouldn’t have used such a large, bright fire to kill him, it nevertheless served its purpose.  However, to work with us, you must remember that we enjoy working in the dark.”

Badhab cast a sidelong glance at the cloaked figure, and the two walked stormward, towards the Shattered Plains.  Was it the right choice to join these conspirators?  He wasn’t sure.  But he’d just killed an ardent, a servant of the Almighty, so he really had no choice now.  “I, thank you,” Badhab said, not a hint of joy in his voice.  He’d already betrayed Aladar, would he now betray Dalinar too?  Were any of the highprinces really “better” than the others?

“Thanks to Dalinar’s plan, we’ve ended up short a member or two in our little conspiracy.  Sadeas finds himself without the support he wishes.  I have told him that you would make a fine addition to our team.  So far, you haven’t proven me wrong.”

Badhab nodded, unconvinced.

“However, don’t get cocky.”  The cloaked conspirator pointed a finger in Badhab’s face.  “Sadeas doesn’t take kindly to those who are against him, you see, and if you even think about sabotaging us, he will find you, and make sure an… accident occurs.”

Badhab gulped, attempting to regain his composure.  The image of Mortago, burning, his eyes widening as he realized the betrayal, lingered in his mind.  “Can you… remind me why Mortago was a prime target?”

The conspirator nodded.  “He was an ardent with… dangerous thoughts.  A mind unfit for the ardentia.  By killing him, you will have returned order.”

Liar, Badhab immediately thought.  That is not even the same reason they told me earlier.  However, he kept silent, and nodded slowly.

The two of them stopped at the nearest chasm to Dalinar’s warcamp.  It was only a minor crack in the ground, far narrower and shallower than the main ones of the Shattered Plains.  Nevertheless, a fall from this height could easily be fatal.

This isn’t right, Badhab decided.  He stealthily took a knife out of his left pocket, on the side away from the cloaked conspirator.

The conspirator suddenly twisted Badhab’s arm, slamming him to the ground.  “This,” the conspirator said, “was a test of faith.  Frankly, I’m surprised that you tried to pull a dagger on me than to try and push me into the obvious chasm below.”

Badhab stood up, immediately extending his knife towards the conspirator.  The conspirator easily dodged the attack, rolling and sweeping their legs out towards Badhab’s own.  Badhab lost his balance, nearly falling into the chasm, but hanging onto the cliff face with his fingertips.

A Shardblade appeared in the conspirator’s hands, and they swung it through Badhab’s fingers.  They immediately turned gray, unclenching from the cliff face.  Badhab gasped as he fell to his doom.

---

Mortago was assassinated!  He was a Noble Ardent!
Badhab Eony was killed by the Conspirators!  He was a Noble Guardsman!
Nobody received an extra vote today.

Day 6 begins now and will end in 24 hours.  PMs are now open, and the player list in my signature will be updated shortly.  Good luck!

Edited October 28, 2016 by Alvron

[Seonid he/him]

One step forward and 2 back, it seems. The worst part us that we didn't even know who our ardent scanned.

If there is anyone who was in contact with Mortago, please cone forward and reveal his scan results

[Clanky he/him]

I'm willing to bet that Honey Badger was in contact with Sart but that doesn't help us at this point. It does make me think that he did have a network of cleared players he had scanned though.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

It seems like the eliminators were well informed or extremely lucky. I'm guessing they either were in contact with Honey Badger directly or a courier saw something about his role. Then they corrupted him, waited for him to kill someone and then killed him. At this point, I'm really hoping someone knows Sart's scan results.

[Shallan she/her]

Uh, Seonid? What do you mean by one step forward? Our Ardent and probably the last Noble Guardsman are gone. What is good about this situation? Besides that, I'll put a semi-pole vote on (color=red)Orlok(/color). I don't think I've seen him on lately and at this point we need everyone active.

[Clanky he/him]

One step forward was lynching hero I assume

[Haelbarde he/him]

I'm presuming that Seonid's 1 step forward was Hero's death.

Edit: Ninja'd by Doctor McNinja.

 

And I night-voted for Paranoid King. So either I'm corrupted or there's at least one other Brightlord/lady voting.

Edited September 2, 2015 by Haelbarde

[Seonid he/him]

Hero's death was indeed what I meant

[Paranoid King he/him]

So assuming there are two of each role (besides noble), we still have:

2 artifabrans

1 worldsinger

1 assassin

1 ardent

2 con artists

And 10 brightlords/ladies

Does that sound about right?

If so, the likelihood of there being a tie in the vote is rather small. Unless most people aren't planning their votes in the night turn so that they vote for the same people.

[Clanky he/him]

I'm not convinced of two for every role. A single assassin and Ardent are very possible in my mind.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

I seriously doubt those numbers are correct. I know that Seonid(I think it was you) said in LG14 that there might be 2 of each role, is that what you are basing this off of? Because it's very unlikely there is another assassin, and I highly doubt there are that many brightlords/ladies otherwise we would have a secret vote on someone.

 

Edit: ninja'd by Clanky. Yeah, probably only one Ardent as well

 

Edit 2: I thought I would put my thoughts about the eliminator roles:

 

Artifabrian: corrupted

Con Artist

Courier

Brightlord/lady

 

Also, I have just finished re-reading the entire thread(so.......many.......posts), and I think that Araris could possibly be an eliminator. First off, he voted for STINK, who turned out to be innocent. I don't think this is particularly suspicious as it was the first day, but I just thought I would point it out. Then after removing his vote from STINK, he added the 2nd vote onto Honey Badger(also innocent). About 5 minutes later Ripple votes for Honey as well, now Araris has said that it would be "silly" for an eliminator to vote 1 after another like that, but that is exactly what Ripple did with Hero. Hero posted his thoughts and suggested we lynch an inactive(Phattemer), and then about 15 minutes later, Ripple also voted for Phat. As Ripple was an inexperienced player they may have been following their eliminator friends because they said they were in favor of a lynch but hadn't voted yet. They knew they needed to vote on someone but they didn't know who would be a good target so they relied on their allies to escape being lynched. Now, with all that being said, it may have been Ripple just jumping on the top target of the Day so I can't say I'm too sure about Araris being guilty. As I don't really have any other good leads, I'm going to put my vote on Araris.

Edited September 2, 2015 by TheMightyLopen

[Bort he/him]

I didn't get through everything last night, like I intended (own fault, I was distracted watching Castle and forgot).

 

But, from the posts I did read, Shallan may be onto something with Orlok. Hero was the 'Contribution Crusader', and now he is dead, the remaining Eliminators (or some of them, at least) may start to slip towards inactivity and lurking to keep under the radar.

 

I secret-voted last night, but my vote was for Winter.

 

From their posts from this cycle and last, I'd have to say my biggest suspicions are for Seonid, Winter, and Lopen.

 

Each have said things that struck me as a bit off, although that is literally all my suspicions are based on right now. They will probably change once I do finally get through the thread. I suppose I should also put out a vote, so Winter. This will likely change if I get through the thread though, or if Winter can make a suitably impressive defense of her character.

[Bort he/him]

Like I said, I've not gone through all of the posts yet, so my vote is based entirely off your posts from last turn, and this turn. Last turn you said something about Hero's contribution crusade, and how it means that there will be no eliminators in the semi-active group. That is false logic. Hero is now dead, the contribution crusade has taken quite a hit, and besides, Hero was an eliminator too. Do you not think his contribution crusade was stacked to favour the eliminators?