Long Game 14: To Shatter a Shard

[Haelbarde he/him]

And Joe, does Wilson actually have to be poisoned? Can't she just, IDK, almost drink the poison and a Lifeless stops her? Or the Lifeless might somehow finds the antidote?

The poison itself would have been administered previously (most likely), rather than at the same time as the lifeless was assigned to her. The question then would be why does the lifeless get killed.

 

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As the PR rep for The Brightness Ascendant, I would like to thank whoever sacrificed their Lifeless to protect my client.

[Guest]

Mailliw, as others have said, that's a horrible reason to shut down PMs. Discussion was (and is) happening in PMs, and to suggest that they all need to be shut down only benefits the Eliminators.

Also, in what does "stimulating the discussion" with information like that help the village? "Btw, guys, I found someone who I think might be Hoid." Great. Fantastic. So now, the villagers know someone who might be Hoid. Does this help them in any way? No. Does it help the Eliminators decide on a kill? Yes. I don't see a huge potential for discussion based on that reveal anyway.

[STINK he/him]

Every time I go to sleep, I miss out on the best bits

[Mailliw73 he/him]

We want Shards to Invest in Hoid, yes? I'm not sure how that's supposed to happen if they don't know who Hoid is. Now they do, or at least, someone who they can contact to find Hoid. 

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

That won't really cause discussion in the thread though, since I doubt they're going to reveal what Shard they have on here.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

That's a fair point. So what would cause discussion in the thread?

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

That is good question. I'm not sure how to go about finding the eliminators, so I haven't posted much in here. I have been a little more active in PM's(although that's declined a bit since your PM's went down). It does seem like we need more discussion in the thread though, I just can't think of a good way to go about that. People don't want to reveal roles/Shards because that would give the eliminators priority targets, but if everyone stays silent, we're going to have to trust what people say happened in PM's we're not in, and that doesn't sound like a good idea.

[STINK he/him]

During the night? Not much other than about the aftermath of the previous day, which is mostly focused on you.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Here's a question. What do you think the chances that Hoid will turn to the dark side are? He would have to be targeted by Survival, then choose someone that's evil, right?

[Guest]

It would probably depend on the specificity of the situation. Right now, if Hoid turned to the dark side, it might not be a bad move. Later on...impossible to say right now.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Well, I forgot that he has to choose a LIVING player if he wants to switch sides, so that makes it a little less likely right?

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Correct. And he must first be found by Survival, which is now much more likely. But he then also has to find an OC to align with, which is hard.So I don't think the chances are too high yet.

[little wilson she/her]

Since a number of you already know my role and Maill has just outed me, I may as well confirm that I am indeed Cultivation. However, I'm not the tyrant Maill is trying to make me out to be.

 

After learning that Maill wanted me dead and was using Phatt to achieve this, I believed that he was an OC who was trying to draw fire so he could die in a spectacular way that would take Cultivation down with him. On top of this, I was incredibly irritated with him, since I'd given him PMs with every player in the game and he responds by saying that he wants to kill me because he wants discussion to go to the world PMs and the thread. He even has the gall to throw Winter's dying wish in my face, saying that she'd asked him to get rid of any Coalition. I doubt she asked him this, since he'd threatened to kill her with poison. Even if she did, her dying wish to me was for me to trust him, and this is what I get for that trust. So, yes, I cut off his PMs. I'd do it again in an instant.

 

Maill's insistence that this is a Coalition is particularly amusing since a Coalition needs to be able to trust each other completely and he knows well that we do not. He and Kipper talked a great deal about how clever it would be for me to be pulling a long con. And at one point, I told him that I felt like Kipper was an OC and the reason Orlok died--not because the OC's thought he was Cultivation but because they knew he was Devotion. Maill knew that we didn't trust each other. He still knows this. Yet he keeps insisting that it's a Coalition.

 

He also keeps saying that we're keeping information to ourselves. This is another lie. While we may be somewhat of a hub of information, we're not the end of the information. I can name a number of players who know exactly who Hoid is outside of Kipper, Seonid, and I. These people needed to know his identity because they are Shards who needed to invest in him. On top of that, there were quite a number of people who knew my role. Orlok, Kipper, Seonid, Macen, Stink, Alvron, Maill Eol, Quiver, Lopen, Shallan, Phattemer, and Dow. 13 people. Out of 27 players, that not exactly a small number. It's roughly half the players in the game. Not what you'd expect from someone who's keeping information, right? To me, this makes sense, since I've always had an open information policy. Those who need information will get it. If something is necessary for all players to know, I've got no problems sharing information with the thread.

 

That information sharing with the thread does not extend to spiteful role-reveals.

 

Maill holds a great deal of information. Some of it is true. Some of it is false, thanks to misinformation spreading via Seonid and Kipper (Maill was the main target of their misinformation and they used me and my open information policy to spread the misinformation to Maill even more). Most of Maill's information, however, has been gained through threatening players, though he claims he wasn't threatening them. Personally, I think telling some that you've poisoned them and they may as well give you their information because they're dead already even though you haven't poisoned them is a threat. But maybe that's just me. It's definitely deceitful.

 

Ultimately, Maill wanted discussion to be reduced to world PMs and the thread. I gave him what he wanted. I warned him what I was doing, and he said "Great." He didn't try to stop me, but he did eventually admit that he was now convinced I was good, since I don't get as defensive as I was getting with him when I'm not. Yet even with that admission, he came to thread and outed me. What does it benefit the village by outing a good Cultivation to the thread? What purpose does it have? What good does it do? Absolutely none. It is not a help to the village in even the remotest sense. I've no idea why he did, but I do know that he just lost any chance of getting PMs back because he showed he has no self-control. And yes, I was going to give him PMs back. Not all of them. I was going to reopen mine 12 hours later, and then I was going to let him choose a few other PMs to reopen. No more.

 

 

And now, moving past this, I notice there are some questions about Hoid. Let me give my own thoughts on this.

 

On the off-chance that Survival invests in Hoid, I believe the game would have to be rather unbalanced for Hoid to choose to join the OC's. I'm saying this based on who is Hoid and the level of loyalty that I see from them as a person and a player. If they were to go neutral, I'm pretty sure they'd realign themselves with TG rather than Odium. The only situation they would not is if the OC's were the extreme underdog like in LG10. This is simply the read I get from this player. I do not believe they will pull a Gamma just for kicks and giggles. It's not their MO, not from what I've seen.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Maw's angry at Aili's death and wants revenge. He will get it.

 

Now that we're finally discussing, what do we want to discuss? My guilt? Fine so be it. Let's talk then.

 

(Plus, this game hopefully teaches a bit of paranoia to people.)

[little wilson she/her]

Maw's angry at Aili's death and wants revenge. He will get it.

 

Wilkin understands this, but he's not responsible for Aili's death, and he rather wishes Maw would target those who are responsible.

 

Beyond that, even if Wilkin were responsible for Aili's death, Aili was responsible for Wil'son's death, and she died first, so that kind of takes precedence.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Maw is. But he doesn't know who those are yet, so he has to assume it was everyone until proven otherwise. Wilkin has finally proven unlikely to be one of them, along with a select few others, but the majority are still suspects.

[little wilson she/her]

Wilkin is relieved. He may be a Godslayer, but he swears he didn't slay that God.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

The Goddess of Honesty is dead. It all makes sense now.

[Macen he/him]

Lariak is glad something makes sense to someone...

[Shallan she/her]

And I am glad someone knows what's going on.

[Alvron]

The icy bite of the river was a welcome relief for Second.  It meant he was close to his destination.  He waded upstream past lichen covered rocks higher than a man could reach on his own.  The icy river, colder than any other river on the island, helped to cool Seconds pumping blood.  It had taken him far longer than it should have for him to make it here.  Several times he had been forced to double back and find another way after coming across fresh Nightmaw tracks.  Nightmaws are nocturnal hunters.  What are they doing out in the day?  Second thought for not the first time.  Times were changing.  More trappers were coming to Patji ever since word had made it to the mainland that Avair could be found here in abundance.

 

Second made it to his destination.  Patji’s Eye.  A sequestered lake hidden by steep rock walls on each side.  The river was the only way in or out.  Or so Second had once believed.

 

It all started on that fateful day, months ago, when Second had gone looking for his brother.  Instead he found him here.  A tall, thin man with a sharp angular face wearing midnight black attire.  The stranger had introduced himself as Dust and promised to show Second a way to find the answers he was looking for.  And so Second of the Sky had left with Dust, hoping to find out what happened to his brother.  What Dust hadn’t said was that Second would be left with more questions than before.

 

Second shook his head.  Coming here always brought up memories that were best forgotten.  As he approached the middle of the shallow lake he saw a body lying on the far bank.  Exisa, the quick tempered man from Scadrial.  He lay face down with the bottom half of his body lying in the water.  Clutched in his hand was an empty bottle.  There was a small amount of green liquid near the lip.  Second couldn’t see any of the others that were here the last time.

 

It wasn’t the way of Patji to move the dead but to leave the body half in Patji’s Eye felt wrong to Second so he dragged Exisa into the brush nearby before wading back into the lake.

 

The lake was just under three feet deep in the centre so when Second crouched down it still didn’t reach his chin.  Closing his eyes he concentrated as Dust had taught him.  Colours, I hate this part.

 

When the sun rose over the rock walls and the Avair started there chirping the only sign that anyone had been in the lake was a boot sticking out from under a bush.

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

3 minutes until rollover. Get your orders in now!

 

Or panic and yell extension.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Done.

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

You posted Done one minute after the rollover. Was that intentional?

 

Anyway. Writeup will be here very soon. (This one was hilariously easy to write)

[Mailliw73 he/him]

The clock switched as I posted it, but technically, it was exactly 3 minutes after yours.