Mid-Range Game 9: The Steel Ministry

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

"I want you to take me, sir."

That was something that Grim had never truly expected to hear. He checked to make sure he was burning tin and didn't misunderstand him.

He glared at the student who faced his death fearlessly. "You do realize The Inquisition chooses you, and not the other way around?" But the lines of steel that indicated where everybody else was standing showed that the student's peers were inclined to agree with him by how far back they had moved.

Grim ground his teeth together. He supposed there was nothing left to but to do it, and wordlessly snatched Jo up. As he moved to the doorway to the Long Hallway down he noticed everybody else trying to shuffle out of the room behind him.

"No," he said, stopping everybody in their tracks. "This time you follow, and you watch this one. See where self-sacrifice gets you."

It was many excruciating, blood-stained hours later and Grim was still hard at work. The Art of Inquisition required more than just physical incentive. Grim had always loved the slow and subtle use of emotional allomancy when performing. You of course couldn't negate or enhance the actual pain they felt, but Grim had come to learn the mind was a wondrous thing capable of many amazing feats. The emotional and traumatic shock that came from torture? Why, that was rife for manipulation.

Joel Tormander of course admitted to any and all crimes while under scrutiny. They all did. It was Grim's job -- or pleasure -- to shift through the lies and figuring out when they were just telling him what they wanted to hear. And with the tin he had confiscated from the poor noble when the inquisition began, Grim was able to hear and see plenty.

By the end of it, he could taste the iron in the air. And while Joel may have been guilty of many things, being a skaa was not one of them.

***

Mar had watched the gruesome process with growing trepidation. He knew he had supported the fool's bid to be interrogated as such, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that this is where they were all going to end up eventually. Picked apart, piece by bloody piece, by an obsidian ax wielding madman. He supposed a knife in the back from the skaa would even be a better fate than that at this point. He shuddered at the grim prospects, and continued on his way, unconsciously touching the vials of iron that were in his cloak pocket, inside a special tearaway pouch he had sewn in, just in case.

With a start, he realized that he found himself alone still in the tombs of the cavern somehow, as he had been mindlessly wandering and must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. He went to turn back around and retrace his steps when he heard a noise from up ahead of him, and the flickering light of the torches around the corner showed a pair of dancing shadows and then the light suddenly extinguished.

He went to go investigate, but in his moment of distraction he hadn't even noticed the person who had snuck up behind him until the cold obsidian dagger was pressed against their throat.

"Sacrifices to be made, eh?" They said, and then silently slit Mar's throat with one swift stroke before vanishing back into the shadows.

***

Citona Vinid found herself loving the small freedom she had found inside the tombs of the caverns at night. After watching the foolish Inquisitor butcher his people in spectacular fashion, she decided to just roam the various rooms and tunnels all hidden deep inside the earth. All of the secrets of the Canton of Inquisition for her to discover. It wasn't as if she had to worry about any of her fellow skaa sneaking up on and murdering her. She let out small laugh and went back to her exploring.

She check her supplies of copper, ensuring that they were still safely on hand. She had almost considered burning it earlier when in the room with Grim, as he toyed with the emotions of his subjects and students in that horrific display. But the fear of the rumors and stories of the Inquisitors made her hold back. She knew they were all just silly stories spread by the pathetic, groveling skaa back at home. That was why they had undertaken this endeavor. To find out the secrets of the Steel Ministry and help the skaa to get out from under their grip of terror.

She found herself looking at the intricate artwork that was etched into the wall, even as unsightly as it was. It was a delicately and precisely cut and carved out, the lines and shading magnificent. Even if was depicting a gory scene of a raging band of koloss raiding skaa plantations. She ran her fingers over the engraved caption, it was written in the same strange language that her invitation was written in, the mysterious alphabet of the Steel Ministry. Cracking that secret alone would surely help the cause.

Suddenly her torch went flying out of it's brackets, the flame sputtering as it flew through the air and casting wicked shadows before the torch hit a wall and the flame extinguished. Citona found herself plunged into darkness and frantically reached for her metal vials, only to have them ripped out of her hand. No, she thought, pushed.

She swore under her breath and tried to scramble out around the corner, but felt the stinging bite as coins punched into her back from behind and let out a gasp. She fell to the ground, her body giving out on her as the burning pain became too much. Spitting up a lungful of blood and with her dying breath, she cursed The Lord Ruler one last time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joel Tormander was an Inquisitor Tineye!
Mar was an Inquisitor Lurcher!
Citona Vinid was a Skaa coppercloud!

Stink (3) - Ripple, Alfa, Polk
Ripple (1) - Stink
Zephrer (4) - Clanky, Wyrm, Deathclutch, Books
Jo (5) - Sart, Kipper, Jo, Phat, Orlok

Day 4 Begins! It will last 49 hours until 9PM EST, Wednesday October 28th! Another apology for the super lengthy wait on this rollover, as I was in no state to get it done last night!
This thread will NOT autolock on this rollover at the exact time, however, as I realize that it's an inconvenience for players who maybe want to get some RP in between long rollover times. So just as long as players do not post new votes or edit their posts after the cycle is over, RP posts will be allowed.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Alvron

[polkinghornbd he/him]

Good job whoever coined Citona! I'm going to vote for Stink for the same reason as last cycle because he never responded

Edit: vote change

Edited October 27, 2015 by polkinghornbd

[Clanky he/him]

I am going to put my vote back on to Zephrer. He managed to put off the lynch without really having to do anything because of Jos deathwish and the kindhearted amongst us accommodating him.

 

EDIT: Colour

Edited October 27, 2015 by Clanky

[nicocoberru she/her]

Okay. I am so sorry for my inactivity this past few days. My sister accidentally locked her room with her keys inside... along with our laptop and tablet. It took us a few days before we got to open it.

I'm gonna reread the entire thread now and see what I've missed.

[Zephrer he/him]

Nice job, whoever got Citona

@clanky

Nothing I can say will help me. I've explained that the reason I posted what I did (outside of my accusation of Kas) was to promote discussion, because activity was low on the thread. Yet no one has believed my explanation. I burned a charge of my metal last night in case a seeker was watching, but I doubt this happened.

I don't see what good any further defense would do. If you truly wish me dead as proof, go for it. You will have lost another inquisitor.

But no hard feelings

[polkinghornbd he/him]

is the job of the coinshots just to take shots in the dark (no pun intended) to try to kill skaa?

[DeathClutch19 he/him]

Are you mad that the coin shot took one of your teammates polking?

Edited October 27, 2015 by DeathClutch19

[polkinghornbd he/him]

My teammates?  I just wanted to know if that was how they worked.  This is only my second game, and there wasn't one of these roles in QF 10.  I was just asking for clarification on what the job of that role.

[Creccio he/him]

@Polking 

 

It is ok to ask for clarification...

 

@Nico

 

Extra set of keys man, use them

 

@Zepher

 

What exactly did you burn my friend?

 

@Clutch

 

Pretty bold accusation there.

[Clanky he/him]

@Polking: I asked the coinshots to start taking out people who were lurking to promote activity. I am not sure if that was the case but Shallan certainly fit the lurker part.

 

EDIT: Clarification

Edited October 27, 2015 by Clanky

[Creccio he/him]

I asked the coinshots to start taking out people who were lurking to promote activity. I am not sure if that was the case but Shallan certainly fit that

  It could also be a Zinc user that found a coinshot user and a funny interaction happened

[RippleGylf she/her]

@Clutch Considering you haven't been active this entire game, I wonder how you can sound so confident in your accusation of polking. 

 

I honestly don't know what to make of last round. I haven't had the time to go through and analyze it all, but hopefully I'll find some time. Eventually. Good job to whoever got Citona, by the way.

[DeathClutch19 he/him]

@Ripple Activity has nothing to do with deduction based on previous days. Anyone can read any post from any time at any time.

 
In other news are there any investigative roles that want to come forward and shed some light on the game?

 

Also can anyone tell me what we learn from Joe's death?

"I think we gain sufficient information from his death that I'm going to vote on him without more concrete suspicions. Sorry, Joe" - Orlok

Edited October 27, 2015 by DeathClutch19

[Zephrer he/him]

@creccio

As it stands, I would rather not say what I was burning. Despite the fact that I'll probably end up being lynched, I don't like the idea of revealing my power.

[Creccio he/him]

@creccio

As it stands, I would rather not say what I was burning. Despite the fact that I'll probably end up being lynched, I don't like the idea of revealing my power.

 

If you do believe yourself a villager and do not wanted to be sacrificed to Gamma you should at least share that much. We need more people's opinion on if you deserve to burn or not though...

[polkinghornbd he/him]

Zephrer, you just said you burned your last.  As you can't use it anymore you should be safe, as you can't be any type of threat.

[Creccio he/him]

Zephrer, you just said you burned your last.  As you can't use it anymore you should be safe, as you can't be any type of threat.

 

He said he burned a metal LAST NIGHT, not his last charge... 

 

Did you burn anything my friend? Polk?

[polkinghornbd he/him]

I haven't burned anything because I don't know how to use my metal to help out anyone.  I have copper, and it seems to only be useful for the skaa to remain hidden.  I will not be using it unless I actually see a need, which is difficult as there are no PMs and, even if they were here, I would not be able to tell what side the person I used it on was.

[Creccio he/him]

@Polk

 

I can see some obscure uses of it, but it would require you to have prior knowledge...

[Alvron]

Wow.  I've missed a lot in two/three days.

 

First off, Kas, you have any and all luck I have as well as any brain power you want.  I'm not using it so it might as well go to helping out a friend.  Also, welcome back Ripple.

 

Second, well done coinshot.  Keep it up.

 

Third, I was absent due to work.  For the last three days I was either working or sleeping.  It was labour weekend here and some fellow workers wanted time off to spend with family so I took their shifts in addition to my own which resulted in 16 hour shifts.  Great pay but doesn't leave much time for anything else.  I now have five days off so I should be move active from now on.

 

Fourth, my main suspicion is Wyrm.  He claimed not to see a reason behind the deaths of Maill and Adavantos.  Both players were active and analysed quite a bit so there was plenty of reasons to kill them.  The same can be said about Sart.  You not seeing it when you are a very analytical player yourself is strange and suspicion raising.  Kas/Ripple is next on my list but that was due to things Kas was saying but that can be attributed to his busy life so I'm discounting it for the moment.

 

Edit: Vote colour change.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Alvron

[Zephrer he/him]

We did learn a few things from Joe's death.

First: Joe was not an eliminator. Therefore, the big plan he had was actually him trying to help.
Second: Despite your suspicions that Joe and I were in league together as eliminators, Joe was obviously not involved in a plot to get Kas lynched for eliminator reasons (See Cycle two if you missed that part).

though I wish Joe hadn't died, I will use the evidence to help my defense:
Why would I try to get Kas lynched, with only Joe backing me up (which was not planned, as is now clear)? Shouldn't the other eliminators have tried to defend/assist me, or at least try to support me in the lynching or avert some measure of suspicion?

They almost certainly would try to protect me if I was an eliminator, because it would hurt them to lose an eliminator no matter how inexperienced
Therefore, I think it's rather safe to say that it's reasonable to assume I'm most likely not Skaa.

(granted this is not the best defense, but under the circumstances it is the best I have.)

@Creccio
Despite the fact that the suspicion on me is heavy, I am still an active player and as such will retain the knowledge of my power to myself. Revealing it would only serve to either paint a bigger target on me than I have now, or turn me into a completely useless player allomantically. Neither of which I am willing to become.

However I am becoming increasingly suspicious of you, Creccio. why are so interested in discovering everyone else's power? Why do you want me to reveal it so badly, enough to threaten me with a lynch, when you'd find out if I was lynched anyway?

I think you want suspicion on me to avoid suspicion on actual eliminators, and I think that you are Skaa.

 

Edit: greened out my vote

Edited October 27, 2015 by Zephrer

[DeathClutch19 he/him]

Therefore, I think it's rather safe to say that it's reasonable to assume I'm most likely not Skaa.

 

Zephrer your "I'm not skaa" defense is well..... very skaa.

 

 Also thank you for claiming polk I retracted my vote on you. 

Edited October 28, 2015 by DeathClutch19

[Zephrer he/him]

Idos Domi! what is it going to take for you guys to realize that I'm an inquisitor?

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Idos Domi! 

WORLDHOPPER!!! He can't be an inquisitor! Or a skaa!

[Zephrer he/him]

In all honesty, if I didn't defend myself would I look any less suspicious? I'm darned if I do and darned if I don't.

I've said my defense, I will say no more on it.

But I will name those whom I am currently suspicious of and why.

They are:

Creccio - your actions in the thread have been very suspicious. (Most of my reasoning is in my defense above)

Ripple. - I don't trust you because I didn't trust Kas. I believed Kas to be an eliminator, and you have inherited his role.

Deathclutch - I'm not sure why I don't trust you, but I don't... Hopefully I'll get some evidence to either clear or condemn you before I'm lynched or killed by the Skaa

Wyrm - you said you would have a seeker watch me as I burned a metal last cycle, which conveniently didn't happen. (Granted it's possible that there was a communications issue, and as such I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. So I suspect you the least, but I don't trust you)

Okay, I've presented my intuitions, evidences, etc. take them as you may, but if I'm not a Skaa, as I claim, you would do well to at least look into them.