Mid-Range Game 8: Highborn Intrigue

[Araris Valerian he/him]

Well, now we have to decide what we think this all means. Adamir, it is at least nice to know you were telling the truth about your shardplate.

[Clanky he/him]

I was hoping he was lying actually. Then we would know sooner his alignment. No matter what happens from this point onwards I for one want to know his alignment. Adamir was right about taking twice as long to kill him but I'm not sure what else we can do.

[Amanuensis he/him]

At most, 6 Nobles are currently corrupted and a 7th may very well be tonight. We already know that Clanky is one of them, and that he is an Artifabrian.  I really wish Wilson hadn't died so early because a corrupted Guardsman would have been very useful in a situation like this, and I somehow doubt another one exists after the death of Honey. I wonder if there are any roles (corrupt or not) left that we could use to our advantage. I know with me being a Brightlord I am essentially useless at this point. There's nothing we can do to prevent another Noble's death tonight, and as Adamir brought up, if we continue to pursue him and it turns out we lynched another villager then we wasted two more lives. This is my first game and I wonder if we are severely behind, or if it just seems that way. Apparently the last two MRs were both village loses, and I would really like to break that streak. What were some things that were learned from those games, once the Eliminators had been revealed?

[Bort he/him]

Hey guys, sorry, but I've not really been paying attention to the game. I lost too much time while ill, and I don't seem to be able to get into the swing of things. I'm going to skip the rest of this game, and sign up for the next one instead.

 

For the record, I am a Villager Noble, and formerly a Shardbearer, until it was destroyed a cycle or so ago.

[Adamir he/him]

If it relieves suspicion, I am a Brightlord and, until today, a Shardbearer. Would you kindly not string me up on a gibbet? I'll work on some rp for how my character got his Shardplate.

Edited September 7, 2015 by Adamir

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Adamir, what would you do in this situation? Wouldn't you lynch the person that you were trying to lynch last cycle, but they were protected somehow? If you didn't want to die, you could've put forward some suspects earlier in the game. Instead you focused on Araris, and then when I asked if you had any suspicions, you just said you didn't have any. Wouldn't it have been a better idea to throw some accusations around to promote discussion instead of doing nothing? I'm still having trouble finding solid leads, but if a lot of players are silent the eliminators can just slowly pick us off.

[Renegade he/him]

One hour left!

 

Edit: Time's up!

Edited September 8, 2015 by Renegade

[Renegade he/him]

Day 8: The Gauntlet

An alerter fabrial glowed atop Klanal’s bedstand.  The sleepy man groaned, reaching for his hat as he made his way out of his bed.

“Storming conspirators,” he grumbled to himself.  “You’d think that if they’re going around killing people, that might as well have the decency not to do so in the middle of the night.”  Nevertheless, while Klanal was indeed worried about the conspirators, he was excited that this would give him the opportunity to test out his new fabrial traps.

A loud thunk came from the hallway as a large metal blade descended, hopefully cutting off his would-be attacker’s neck.  I really don’t understand why they only allow females to be artifabrians, Klanal thought, keeping an eye on the alerter fabrial, which was still glowing brightly.  Do they just think that we’re only good as human meat shields in wars?  Horribly unfair.  Klanal leaned to the side, sipping a drink from his cup.

Pow, pow, pow, pow.  A series of noises from the hallway indicated that the murderer had reached his arrow trap.  There were so many things one could do with fabrials, which nobody had bothered to experiment with.  Of course, if Klanal survived, he’d now have a number of holes in his wall to repair.  Better than dying, obviously.

Womp.  A section of the hallway’s ceiling fell.  With the augmenter fabrial that Klanal had attached to it, the ceiling tile was harder than steel.  Unfortunately, even after that trap, the alerter fabrial’s glow persisted.  It was time to take extra precautions.

Klanal grabbed a pair of conjoined daggers from his dresser drawer, placing one of the daggers onto a stool beside the door, and holding onto the second one.  He twisted the rubies within the daggers, and tested the dagger in his hand.  The other dagger copied the movements over the stool by the door.  The only disadvantage to this was that the dagger was now twice its normal weight, as he lifting one dagger would require lifting the other, but it was a small price to pay for its usefulness.

Clang!  The murderer had now sprung a series of axes and hammers.  Though, at this point, Klanal doubted that it would stop them.  Glancing over at the fabrial, Klanal’s suspicions were confirmed.  They’d just have to get past one more trap in the hallway before reaching his room, which was locked, and had another trap tied to it.  One could never be too safe.  Hopefully, the next trap would…

BOOM!  A loud explosion sounded in the hallway, rattling the locked door.  If the conspirator managed to get past that, Klanal would be impressed.

A Shardblade appeared through the door, slowly cutting a hole through it.  Klanal raised his span-dagger so that its conjoined pair was hovering just in front of the doorway.  His foot hovered over a fabrial footpad that would activate several arrow launchers, aimed directly at the door.

The conspirator cut down the hole they carved through the door, pushing it forwards.

Klanal put his foot down.

The arrows fired, soaring towards the gap in the door, but struck nothing at all.  Storms! Klanal cursed.  The conspirator must’ve realized that there was going to be a trap at the door.  Where were they getting all of this information?

A cloaked figure flashed straight through the hole in the door, almost so fast that Klanal didn’t notice.  He quickly regained his wits, and jabbed the span-dagger downwards, so that it would jab into the conspirator’s neck.  The conspirator, without looking, grabbed the other span-dagger from thin air.  With a nimble wrist, they flicked the span-dagger around, so that its counterpart was now facing Klanal.  Then, they pushed the span-dagger forwards.

Klanal gasped, struggling to keep his span-dagger from reaching his face.  But it was no use.  The dagger struck the side of his face, and he fell to the ground, moaning.  Black, inky deathspren ominously crawled around Klanal, and he knew that he was no more.  “How?” he mouthed to the conspirator.

The conspirator seemed to give Klanal a smile.  “It was genuinely nice of you to leave your window open during the day.  Allowed me to see what kind of traps you had prepared.  Including that fabrial you’re trying to reach on your dresser, which will collapse this room’s floor onto a large bed of spikes.  Honestly, don’t you worry that will accidentally go off while you’re sleeping?”

Klanal said nothing, retracting his arm from the fabrial he had been trying to reach.  He’d been outmaneuvered by a clever foe.  There was nothing he had left to do.

---

Klanal was killed by the conspirators!  He was a Noble Artifabrian!
Nobody received an extra vote today.

Day 8 begins now and will end in 48 hours, since I’ll be busy tomorrow night.  As usual, PMs are now open again, and the player list will be updated shortly.  Good luck!

Edited October 28, 2016 by Alvron

[Paranoid King he/him]

Great, just great. We've lost an artifabrian. Those guys are almost as valuable as ardents.

Oh, and it appears that I can't contact Hael today. So, whatever courier attempted to eavesdrop, you're corrupt.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Yeah, I figured they would go after Clanky this cycle. I'm pretty sure almost everyone agreed upon his innocence. I'm the courier. I don't know any way to confirm that since the only person I've told was Clanky. There could be one way though. I asked Clanky last cycle to contact the two people I was spying on and ask them if they could message each other or not. He never messaged me back so I'm not sure if he ever messaged them or not. I can name the two people I was spying on last cycle, but I don't even know if I was corrupted last cycle or not so I don't know if that would do any good. I really wish you hadn't revealed who the person was who you couldn't contact PK. Any ideas on how I can confirm I am the courier?

[Haelbarde he/him]

Last cycle, Clanky asked me if I had been contacted by a corrupt Courier. I hadn't and I told Clanky so. Lopen confirmed via PM that he targeted me last cycle, so I can at least confirm that as far as I can tell, he's legit. I'm willing to trust him as a result. 

[Amanuensis he/him]

Considering two Noble Couriers have already been killed, what are the chances of there being a third?

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Now, I know I haven't been doing a good job at all of keeping up in the thread and staying active myself, but I wish I could have gotten on during the Night cycle, if at least to promote some discussion! Even if we're not actively discussing a lynch, we can at least talk about the results of the one that just happened! (Or was supposed to happen!)

I'm still not entirely sure how many have been come across yet, but it seems like a storming lot of shardplates were tossed in this game, either for balance issues, or to troll us -- both are very possible, given the GM.

 

But do we just keep going through each lynch, hitting somebody with a Shardplate, and then moving on? Because at that point, we're effectively just stripping away everybody's layer of protection and leaving us all open to be hit by the Conspirators. This of course is all wrapped up in the WGG discussion that keeps circulating. I honestly feel like that is just a false sense of trust to follow.

 

Same with this whole courier business. Does that role within itself, or with the corruption mechanics prove 100%, that somebody isn't a conspirator? Or is it just a good feeling? Because how I read it, I don't see how Lopen is cleared by proving he is a courier or not -- regardless of corruption.

 

As far as my vote, I'll wait just a lil bit before placing one, for now. But I'll get back on before the rollover.

[Araris Valerian he/him]

Well, I'll start out with a vote on Adamir. I am somewhat responsible for his first lynch, and I agree with what Gamma said about stripping protection away from people. It does make sense for us to follow through with that.

 

However, I am also suspicious of Paranoid King. His "late" vote of Hero could very easily have been a ploy to gain our trust. (I am not trying to draw votes here or anything, just to remind them of an opinion I already expressed)

 

On the same note, I am not comfortable with soft confirming people based of of their role reveals (Lopen). I mean, if we trusted people about their roles and used that as a reason to not lynch then Adamir probably would still have his Plate.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Araris Valerian

[Adamir he/him]

On the same note, I am not comfortable with soft confirming people based of of their role reveals (Lopen). I mean, if we trusted people about their roles and used that as a reason to not lynch then Adamir probably would still have his Plate.

 

I might still have my Plate if I hadn't waited until the next day to reveal my role. On that note, I'd like to put a vote on Araris Valerian, because his reasons for being suspicious of Paranoid King seem a bit contrived. Now that that's done, there's a pitchfork and torch sale going on at the market in Aladar's warcamp, only five diamond chips each. That, and from what I heard, there's a noose you've made just for me. If I die today, Renegade, is there any way for Caesarae to survive the writeup, so I can re-use him in another SE game?

 

That, and there's a particular message I need to send to someone we are completely certain is loyal to the village, or as certain as we can be in these circumstances. Could I ask for a potential candidate?

Edited September 8, 2015 by Adamir

[Renegade he/him]

If I die today, Renegade, is there any way for Caesarae to survive the writeup, so I can re-use him in another SE game?

 

That depends... how much are you paying?  No, I'm just kidding, of course.  If it comes to that, I can pull come strings and make it happen.

[Adamir he/him]

Renegade, thanks - broams are a bit more expensive here compared to on Roshar, so I'll have to offer you a virtual emerald broam that Caesarae 'accidentally' drops as a bribe to the Almighty to not murder him, if possible.

 

Back to votes, we haven't heard from Seonid in a while. I would also like to ask Macen, Venture Mistborn and Feligon to start participating in discussion; its almost as if some of you are deliberately slipping under the radar. The four of you are more suspicious to me than Araris, and I'll admit that his suspicions of Paranoid King do have some validity.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Adamir

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Thanks Hael, but I think Gamma is probably right about this. At first I thought it would kind of confirm me, which is why I wanted to confirm who I was. But now I realize it's not as sure as I thought it would be. I said as much in a PM with you Hael, so I'm pretty surprised you would trust me from so little.

 

Adamir, about saying who we think is most trustworthy. Is that a good idea? Wouldn't that just be painting a target on that person's back for the eliminators to kill next cycle? If you have information, why not tell everyone? Then if you turn out to be innocent, we'll know it's trustworthy. It seems to me that this could be an eliminator ploy to see who they should kill next cycle. This might be a little too paranoid, but I really don't trust you.

 

Also, Adamir was the other person I was spying on last cycle. If anyone wanted to know.

 

Edit: I forgot to add that Feligon and TheSilverDragon haven't even been online in over a week I believe. I was going to put a poke vote on one of them a couple cycle's back but figured it would be pointless since they wouldn't even see it. As for Venture, I don't know why he hasn't been playing. Maybe he forgot about this game or something. I guess we could message him to try to get him back though. 

 

With these three being inactive, and now Bort leaving, I'd say we're in a pretty bad situation right now. Especially if all of them are innocent. If we have 15 people left, and 4 of them are eliminators and another 4 are inactive, then that means we only have 7 good guys actually voting against 4 eliminators. If one of the inactives is an eliminator, then it would be 8 to 3 which wouldn't be quite as bad, but still not good.

Edited September 8, 2015 by TheMightyLopen

[Adamir he/him]

I was requested to send a coded message on Day 7 to someone else; could the recipient, should he/she deem it advantageous for the village, please step forth to explain the meaning behind the code?

 

EDIT: I had originally put in a completely fictional statement that the sender gave me permission to reveal his/her identity should the receiver come forth. My brain was sleeping in, and I didn't realize that it was most likely because a courier may have been spying on them that I had to send the message, and that the recipient most likely knew about who sent it.

 

EDIT II: To quote the site itself, "2 user(s) are currently viewing this topic. 2 members, 0 guests and 0 anonymous users. Adamir, Seonid."

 

No, he hasn't just forgotten about the game. He has been keeping track. That confirms it - deliberate inactivity as a strategy.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Adamir

[Haelbarde he/him]

Should I trust you completely? No. And lets face it, I've already messed up, this game, when I trusted Hero. On top of that, I did say in my post at the end of last cycle (which people may not have seen?) that I expected there to be 3 couriers in the game, with the 3rd being an OC. So that you're a courier isn't reason enough to trust you. I'm willing to trust you based on how you've come across in the last cycle. I should really go back through your posts and compare though.

[Seonid he/him]

Yeah, I'm in that unenviable situation of having just started school and being in two SE games.

I honestly don't have any suspicions right now - I've been barely keeping up on the thread, and haven't been able to go back and analyze at all. If Adamir was suspicious enough to lynch last cycle, then I can't see why not to do so this one.

On the other hand, I'm getting the feel of innocence out of him. Now, my gut could be a Darkfriend, but he seems good.

I'd like to hear more from Gamma. He's normally much more active than this, and normally is much better at doing analyses. In fact, he night be the best player we've got left. If like to hear something substantive out of him.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

I think I should also mention that as soon as someone says they trust someone Gamma has given a reason not to trust them. I think it's safe to say that Bort is good(even though he's still alive, he said he isn't playing anymore), and I know that I am too(which I realize isn't valid in you guys' thinking), but from my perspective it seems suspicious that he's casting doubt on people as soon as they are seen in a good light. He could be trying to cause confusion and mistrust.

[Amanuensis he/him]

Personally I had some reservations about Emerald early on in the game, and with Gamma replacing his position after the unfortunate circumstances that forced him to retire, my wariness has shifted. The point Lopen makes, I think, is valid to some degree, and I almost want to believe the man's a Conspirator. Logically that is a terrible reason to want to see someone killed because Renegade could have asked Gamma to fill the slot in order to help the village rather than the elims, but I still can't shake that feeling.

 

From Day One I have not trusted PK. His initial post in this thread has only amplified my apprehensions. His first three sentences just scream feigned to me. Yes, Artifabrians are important. We all know that. We also all know that Clanky has been corrupt since we lynched Hero, which lessens his usefulness significantly. I'm pretty certain the conspirators didn't kill him because of his role, but because he was generally believed to be innocent. If his kin decided to contact with him and spill everything then it might have been able to give him the power to weave together some loose threads and maybe even establish a network of survivors. As a result, I take full responsibility for his death because I idiotically declared him as someone to be trusted. I did this with Kipper too and got him killed early as a result. As Lopen said, we should not make this mistake again in public, else we will force the elims to target another confirmed noble and continue the cycle of distrust.

 

I would much rather lynch PK or Hael over Adamir. I am not 100% convinced that any of them are conspirators, but I do think the two formers are more likely to be evil than the latter.

 

EDIT: Wrote Alvron instead of Adamir.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Alvom Halbin

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Macen.

Edited September 10, 2015 by TheMightyLopen

[Paranoid King he/him]

Yeah, yeah. I'm guilty because I posted 30 seconds too late and I was in a PM with Clanky. Before a bandwagon starts to form, though, remember - Alvorn has not once voted on a conspirator. (Or even one of my suspected conspirators.)
Currently he is at the top of my suspect list, and I'm ~95% convinced he's guilty. I'm going to have to look back and see how much he's influenced the vote, but for now, my vote's on Alvorn.

EDIT: I don't expect to convince people to vote for Alvorn instead of me - I'm a suspected conspirator, and my word means nothing. Instead, once I'm lynched, if I'm innocent, lynch Alvorn.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Paranoid King