Mid-Range Game 9: The Steel Ministry

[little wilson she/her]

Kyza will also, unfortunately, have to withdraw. I've got some real life things I've got to deal with and focus on for a good portion of the start of this game (got in an accident yesterday and even though it's not my fault, insurance companies kind of suck), and it's best if I'm not distracted by the game. Or inactive because of #life. Sorry!

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Dang it, Kas and Wilson gone in less than an hour? I look forward to our next game, guys.

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

Joel tormander has finally received his invitation, thiugh it was actually sent to someone else. But Joel needed it more.

I can't promise normal levels of activity. I'll post at least once per turn, but I'm going to be busier than usual during the next few weeks.

[Zephrer he/him]

I'd like to join up as Serech of house Huxer, a bloodthirsty minor nobleman from the northern dominance. He "received" his invitation and saw an opportunity slaughter his political enemies. Mwahahaha!!!!

[nicocoberru she/her]

*whispers* What timezone will we be using?

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Sign-ups will be open until 11:59PM, Sunday October 18th, Eastern Standard Timezone. (So, about ~19 hours from when this post is made). I will admit, my work/time schedule will be rather odd for most players, but I will make sure each Cycle lasts at least 48 hours. Extensions can be requested via PM with the GM, and will only be granted if multiple players from both teams are requesting such.) Or if the GM is busy/lazy from work.

[Kasimir he/him]

Sign-ups will be open until 11:59PM, Sunday October 18th, Eastern Standard Timezone. (So, about ~19 hours from when this post is made). I will admit, my work/time schedule will be rather odd for most players, but I will make sure each Cycle lasts at least 48 hours. Extensions can be requested via PM with the GM, and will only be granted if multiple players from both teams are requesting such.) Or if the GM is busy/lazy from work.

I got to admit, Great Lord, I really like it when you GM because you're about 12 hours apart from my timezone. It makes calculation real easy

Also, close-reading, Maili  Kendrick Erikell withdrew. I never said I was withdrawing, even though my activity level will undoubtedly suffer...

-

 

Koschei Jerzy watched as the looming form of the Inquisitor sat calmly in the adjacent cubicle--Wyrm's cubicle, he reminded himself sourly--long fingers smoothly carressing the hilt of an obsidian knife. He gripped the steel sheet in his hands and did his best to conceal any trace of emotion--anticipation, nervousness, ambition--as he studied the letters painstakingly scratched into the metal.

 

Three days ago, Wyrm Heron had received just such an invitation from the Canton of Inquisition. One did not, he thought, simply decline such invitations. Not when you were an obligator in the Canton of Finance, doomed to forever go through dusty reports, checking for accounting errors and hints of more nefarious activity. Lady Verlaine, it was charged, was secretly bankrolling skaa rebels. Certainly, he could not uncover any signs of where the missing funds had gone to, and he had instead begun to suspect a lover on the side. There were many more mundane reasons as to why a House's Lady would siphon off her House's funds...

 

None of which would endear him to his superiors, much less the Canton of Inquisition. No, they demanded results. And Wyrm Heron, that rusting fanatical maniac that he was, always delivered them.

 

It was hard keeping up with the latest key performance indicators, but somehow, Wyrm Heron managed all of that with an ease that made Koschei have a stomachache to think about. He hadn't been surprised when Wyrm had received an invitation to join the Canton of Finance--he'd only been surprised that a similar invitation had come for himself, a few days later.

 

He'd hoped that with Wyrm out of the way, his prospects of promotion would be higher. Now, they were non-existent. He resisted the urge to put his head in his hands in frustration.

 

You were supposed to give up all loyalty to your House, when you joined the Steel Ministry. The Lord Ruler's obligators were impartial; they served as extensions of their god and master--you gave up your former name, and all claims to your loyalties that your House might ever have had. They told you this, again and again, as they etched the tattoos into your skin around your eyes, marking you forever as the Lord Ruler's property. They told you this when you were first an acolyte, and again, as obligators proper, and tested you.

In theory.

 

He'd never heard of a Lord Prelan who wasn't a Heron, a Tekiel, an Izenry, an Erikell--one of the few influential and powerful Houses in Luthadel which everyone called 'Great'. House Jerzy, on the other hand, was a minor House, a distance away from Tremredare in the Western Dominance. They grew grapes and made fine wines; bred swift horses. But the House Jerzy he'd grown up with had been impoverished: the best of the vines struck by the stem-rust and shrivelling, their herds thinned by raiders. "Skaa," the other Houses in the Western Dominance said. But House Jerzy knew better. So did Koschei.

 

You gave up your House name when you joined the Steel Ministry, but Koschei knew better than to think that you left your House behind. Some prelans were good at looking the other way, at proposing the best deals for a House which just so happened to be theirs, or a proxy for their House.

He looked at the steel plate he held, re-read the words. It was clear, he thought now, with a strange sense of resigned calm. He wasn't going to be offered a choice. The obsidian knife in the Inquisitor's hand said as much. Scritch went the knife; he was going to join or he was going to die. No one refused the Canton of Inquisition. And perhaps it was some sort of twisted punishment. He was going to be Lord Prelan, he was going to find a way to save House Jerzy. All gone now; all snatches of mist twisting out of his fingers.

 

He looked at the Inquisitor--the woman, if the term still applied--gone preternaturally still, the spike-tipped eyes regarding him, silently.

"I accept the invitation," he said. And even managed to make it sound as if he was genuinely grateful for the opportunity. The Inquisitor stood up and nodded to him. The obsidian knife vanished into a sheath. The Inquisitor gestured. Numbly, Koschei packed up his scant belongings and followed.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Kasimir

[Meandbooks she/her]

Been lurking for a bit, and this looks like fun. I'd like to join as Ailyth.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Gamma, any idea when the average rollover time will be?

[DeathClutch19 he/him]

Shi Kuratchi is signing up i just heard about this and im excited to join! 

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

So If I know anything about Time Zone Conversions (I don't.) I think sign ups are now over. When will the game itself start?

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Sign-ups are closed (for 2 hours now, oops ) The game will begin shortly, as soon as I can get the write-up finished and PMs sent out.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Dawn had greeted the Final Empire the same as it always had for hundreds of years, the dense and ever present mists slowly receded as the blighted red sun peaked it's head over the horizon and turning the sky an even more sinister shade of crimson. As always, ash continued to rain from the sky.

Grim, on the other hand, had greeted dawn with sore muscles and stiff joints, the result of his dutiful work throughout the entire night. He burned pewter, the metal reserve in his stomach lighting up like a kindled fire, filling him with warmth and strength as his aches and pains vanished almost instantly. He also burned tin. Just a quick, light flare to jolt him with an intense wave of awareness, as the heightened sights, smells, and sounds crashed over him like a wave. It was best he not show any wariness in front of the Canton of Inquisitions newest recruits.

Of course, it had been rough and bloody work. But such was the Art of Hemalurgy. The Lord Ruler's most coveted secret, and source of power for his most powerful and fearsome agents. People whispered in frightened huddles about the dreaded and terrible koloss, but nobody dared speak or gossip about an Inquisitor. Not if they valued their life, that was. However bleak and miserable it may be.

He turned his back on the rising sun and headed back into the entrance of the cavern, a small fissure in the ground, one among many cave entrances in the complex Arguois caverns system here in the Central Dominance. This particular cave however had only one entrance and exit, as all others had been sealed off. Here it was where Grim's mission had gone it's undertaking. To raise and recruit a new class of Inquisitors.

He had been pleasantly surprised at how many had willingly accepted the invitation, and had actually almost worried about not having not enough sacrifices for the ritual until a couple of volunteers with second thoughts tried backing out at the last minute.

There was no refusing the Inquisition.

"You have all been given great gifts!," he said to the recruits, his voice booming in the large cave, bouncing back off the jagged, rocky walls and repeating half a dozen times over. "Each of your powers have been supplemented, made stronger by the mercy and grace of The Lord Ruler, Sliver of Infinity. Now, you won't receive the full blessings of the Canton of Inquisition just yet....," he said with a sly grin, using his best unnerving gaze.

He knew the eyespikes of the Inquisitors would continue instilling fear and paranoia into the hearts of the supplicants. Right up until the moment they were drilled into their own eye sockets and out the back of their skull.

He let them all rest for now, so as to recover quickly so they could all soon be to training and testing. It was still a big Canton secret of how much rest an Inquisitor actually needed to maintain their stamina.

Grim was awoken many hours later by a tremendous crashing sound that set the cavern walls shaking, sending pockets of dust and dirt to fall from the ceiling. He had his obsidian ax in his hand within a moment and was already flying through the air, burning iron and steel and pushing and pulling himself off a series of metallic brackets he had drilled into the cave walls at various intervals. His tattered mistcloak flailed around him as he rounded the corner and landed adroitly, burning tin to try and see through all of the dust that had been kicked up.

It took him a moment to realize what was wrong, and that it was too dim in the cave. The entrance had been sealed off by a large rock somehow, and after a minute of his eyes adjusting to the cloudy darkness, his eyes full upon the two dead bodies near the cave entrance. Only they hadn't been crushed or killed by the falling rock or crash. He was plainly able to see the pools of blood forming out around their heads. Their eye and back spikes had been ripped out.

The students had all awoken with the crashing sound as well, and they all slowly and groggily formed up behind up asking what happened and what to do next.

Grim whirled on them in an instant. He knew that this could be a potential risk, the threat of skaa or skaa-sympathizers getting mixed in within the bunch somehow, and he had a back-up plan worked out for this. He let out a wild and savage laugh. Sometimes he loved his job, as what came next also happened to be his favorite part about his job.

"What do we do next?" He said, repeating them. "Why, we have some more rough and bloody work to do!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 1 Begins!  Remember, NO Private Messages between players for the game! The Cycle will last 48 hours and will end at 4AM EST Wednesday October 21st! (Yeah, I know, GM has weird time schedules ) Also please try and remember to place your votes in Red and if you later retract them, color them in Green in the original post as well!

Edit: ALL PMs should be sent out! If you haven't received one, or this is an error or issue, please let me know immediately! Also, anybody who wants a link to the Spec Doc feel free to shoot me a PM for it!

Player List

 

1. Wyrmhero - Wyrm Heron
2. IrulelikeSTINK - No Name
3. Alvom Halbin - Andierre Reynaud
4. RippleGylf - Marie Lepinceau
5. Venture Mistborn - Maxisum
6. Orlok - Locke Tekiel
7. Winter Cloud - Sophia Erikell
8. Mailliw73 - Milon Bulvier
9. Araris Valerian - Arad Penrod
10. Alvron - Jak
11. Creccio - Inor Haze
12. The Honey Badger - Dagbert Honerion
13. TheMightyLopen - Kellam Lyre
14. polkinghornbd - Elijah
15. Nicocoberru - Coco
16. Alfa - Ashbringer Fadraux
17. Kasimir - Koschei Jerzy
18. Phattemer - Axies
19. Kipper - Kipper
20. Clanky - Lan
21. Sart - Mar
22. Shallan - Citona Vinid
23. The Only Joe - Joel Tormander
24. Zephrer - Serech of House Huxer
25. Meandbooks - Ailyth
26. Deathclutch10 - Shi Kuratchi

 

Edited October 29, 2016 by Alvron

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

I am going to hold off on my vote for now, and see what other people say.

[Zephrer he/him]

Let's get down to business, shall we? All Skaa step forward and raise your hands so we can kill you. Don't worry, We'll make it as painful as possible.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

I am going to hold off on my vote for now, and see what other people say.

 

 What can other people say? It's not as though we have any evidence to go off on the first Cycle. Well, aside from what people post. But that's an incredibly reactionary way to play the game. If everyone said that, then no-one would actually say anything. We need more discussion, not less, and it always has to start somewhere. Venture Mistborn sounds like as good a place as any to begin.

 

Also, are we going to have to retread the same debate about whether a first Cycle lynch is a good idea? I suppose it's as much preference as anything else (I don't know if/how one could prove which was better), but if we don't have a unanimous decision, then it's a pointless thing to attempt. Anyone can prevent this by voting, after all. And it's not as though we can Seek the Skaa out either. The lynch is our only real way to find them, unless we happen to get lucky enough for a Tineye to be hit by the Skaa kill and a Lurcher all at once. So discussion is our main weapon - let's use it.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Wyrmhero

[Amanuensis he/him]

@Gamma: to mitigate any future confusion, may you please change my name from Alvom Halbin to Adavantos in the player list? Thank you.

 

Before I say anything else, I want to bring something to all the inquisitors attention. Since we are unable to utilize personal messages this game we are at a severe disadvantage compared to the skaa. Instead of each Cycle being divided into a Day and Night Turn they are combined, which means that the skaa have constant access to their private document. Therefore it is essentially impossible for us to coordinate [without the skaa knowing] while they can conspire all they want without risk of their plans leaking out to us [unless they deliberately release anything in-thread]. With this in mind I ask all inquisitors be especially wary of manipulation, paying close attention to all player’s voting patterns and communicative tendencies throughout the course of the game.

 

I think a “debate” on whether or not we should lynch someone on the first cycle is a good idea, as typically it keeps people talking. Though doing so likely won’t reveal anyone, as I believe that most people’s opinions on this subject will transcend their alignment, the sooner we begin establishing a rapport as a group the better.

 

So on that subject I could swing either way. Personally I am not fond of player’s being lynched without solid evidence set against them, and the chance of us hitting a skaa with our first vote is extremely unlikely [varies on the reason why we chose the target]. However, as Winter has pointed out, we don’t really gain any information from doing nothing either. Instead we end up waiting to see who the skaa kill, which will likely tell us little to nothing because they’ll either take out a more experienced player [also known as a fear kill], someone who has been openly opposed by their fellow inquisitors [in order to implicate them], or someone who hasn’t posted much, if at all, so that we learn nothing or nothing of note.

 

Unless something significant develops in the next ~40 hours, a first day lynch is going to ultimately be little more than a numbers game. Which is why I think we should also toss out thoughts about the alignment and role distribution.

 

Given there are a total of 26 players, it can be reasoned that 5 or 6 of those are skaa, depending on the percentage of total player’s Gamma decided to use. It’s also possible that there are only 4 total if they were ‘stacked’ with powerful roles. Personally I am going to assume 6 until it is proven otherwise, for the sake of keeping me on my toes.

 

There are a total of nine guaranteed roles, with the potential of a tenth (atium) that’d likely only go to one player. As I only received 1 allomantic ability I am going to also assume that there are no players with two hemalurgic spikes sticking out of them. I can’t remember if this has been asked or specified already, but Gamma, can we know if there are any players who received no abilities? As there are a limited number of charges, I would not be surprised if there are multiple coinshots and rioters, though I severely doubt there are more than two of them. I would then guess that the other seven roles would have 3 each, bringing us to our total number of players.

 

This would offer the most variety of roles among the group without breaking the game (I think) but it is likely extremely off. While it may be what I have done if I were GM, I am neither experienced or knowledgeable enough to know if this would work. So I would like to ask all players who have run a game or two [a few] in the past, what they may have done if they were in charge, and what monkey-wrenches they would expect Gamma to throw in, if he would throw any.

 

If we end up selecting a player to lynch randomly or on a whim, there is a 75-80% chance we will kill one of our own. Then there’s also the danger of us taking out a role that might be useful to the inquisitors. Though the 20-25% of removing a skaa from the game might be tempting, it’d likely do more harm than good.

 

While I am against the Contribution Crusade in its current form, I support my interpretation of it wholeheartedly. Targeting inactives is not a particularly helpful strategy. A lot of us have lives that exist beyond this forum that require disparate amounts of attention, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who realizes how unpredictable it can be. I think it’s wrong to kill someone because they can’t contribute, but I am all for it if they won’t. What I am referring to is the lurkers and those who post comments of little to no worth.

 

If we are unable to weed out skaa among those who give something of themselves to the conversation, than those we need to question are the silent observers and the off-topic talkers. On the latter’s note, there is nothing wrong with making the occasional joke, rant or tangent, but I ask that if you’re going to post it, don’t post it alone. You don’t have to tell us all of your secrets, but please try to be open with some of your thoughts.

 

We have a lot of time to sort out our first move as a collective and as individuals. Let’s try not to squander it, yeah?

 

 

 

EDITED TO FIX GRAMMAR / SPELLING

Edited October 19, 2015 by Adavantos

[Sart he/him]

"Hmm..."

Mar loved a good mystery. A skaa hiding among the Steel Inquisition was fascinating. What did they hope to gain from it? They couldn't succeed versus the might of the Inquisition. Still, the hunt was always fun. It was almost as fun as the punishment. Not quite as fun as the pain, but almost. He couldn't wait to hear their screams. Stupid skaa. It would be easy for him to find them. The obvious suspects were people he hadn't recognized. If they were still hiding, well, it wouldn't end well for them. He did love the smell of blood in the morning.

 

He stood up from examining the body.

"Right then, Ailyth, where have you been hiding? I want to see your pretty face again."

 

He grinned lecherously, and hobbled away.

 

We have a lot of new players this game, which is awesome. However, I want to make sure all of you contribute to this game. Just post to this thread with some roleplay or discussion and I'll take my vote off of you. Remember, you're about a fourth of the village, so we need your help.

[Guest]

Venture Mistborn sounds like as good a place as any to begin.

Wyrm, that's an incredibly reactionary way to play the game. Literally all Venture Mistborn did was say that he was not going to vote. How does voting for him foster discussion? It's not like he can come back and thoroughly defend himself, because he's done absolutely nothing. I don't like D1 lynches, and I especially don't like them when the reasons for votes are cleverly masked in a call for more "discussion," without actually discussing anything at all. You say you want discussion, but when it comes down to it, you call out someone else for not discussing, and do not actually provide discussion.

 

Edit: And ninja'd x4

 

Edit the Second: Retracted vote on Wyrm.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Guest

[Amanuensis he/him]

@Winter: I was not aware that most of our games here include a 24/7 Evil Doc. I suppose that impression was left on me by my first game, further supplemented by my understanding of the original mafia and my temporary obsession of ToS.

 

P1: Yes, this is usually [or at least should be] what we do. However - as mentioned by Sart - there is a noticeable number of new players this game, so I was mainly trying to draw their attention to a fact they may have overlooked and provide some guidance on what they should do throughout the course of the game.

 

P4: Is it important? Maybe not. I personally believe it’s worth considering so that we may realize what advantages we have versus what the skaa can use against us. Because of the fact that the Seeker can only find out what metal a player is burning / if they targeted someone or only themselves, it would be useful for them to have an idea of what roles the enemy might possess.

P5: Though I agree it isn’t necessarily a sign of an eliminator, I believe that - just as Hero was attempting to inspire players to be active by killing inactives - it will inspire players to attempt some kind of helpful contribution, which should mostly benefit the village. A skaa obligated to speak may end up slipping, or a player who would otherwise be quiet may bring a new perspective that other players would have never found on their own.

 

 

 

EDITED FOR JUSTIFICATION

Edited October 19, 2015 by Adavantos

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

"Right then, Ailyth, where have you been hiding? I want to see your pretty face again."

We have a lot of new players this game, which is awesome. However, I want to make sure all of you contribute to this game. Just post to this thread with some roleplay or discussion and I'll take my vote off of you. Remember, you're about a fourth of the village, so we need your help.

Usually you're a Smart guy, but in this case you're not. Poke votes like that are useless. A player can post some irrelevant RP without contributing, and have that vote removed. If you're going to vote, than vote. I won't be removing this vote unless I find a good reason to suspect someone, or there's a tie, in which case I'll ensure a lynch.

Edit: Sart when did you change your name?

Edit: retracted vote.

Edited October 21, 2015 by The Only Joe

[Creccio he/him]

I am not a fan of day 1 lynches. We have no information to base our decisions on and no one has had a chance to actually gain information. We might just kill a Skaa, yes, but we might also kill the one player with the Atium powers.

 

Day 1 is a coin toss and I'm firmly against lynching anyone today. It makes no sense from a information point of view and from a math point of view, lets put it like this, we have 5 boxes, one of them is a Skaa, do you trust yourself enough to pick the right one? Mind you i believe there is 5, not 6 as Adavantos has pointed out, and, 5/26 = 0.19 or 19%, so even my box example is giving us a 1% advantage.

 

I think we should not kill anyone today, that's just depriving any information they might have for tomorrow.

[STINK he/him]

But on day one there is so little information to get from that, as everyone gets the mentality of "We voted for someone and they were evil, so therefore everyone who didn't vote for them is really suspicious" or "We voted for someone and they were innocent, so therefore whoever voted for them is more suspicious". 

[Sart he/him]

 

Usually you're a Smart guy, but in this case you're not. Poke votes like that are useless. A player can post some irrelevant RP without contributing, and have that vote removed. If you're going to vote, than vote. I won't be removing this vote unless I find a good reason to suspect someone, or there's a tie, in which case I'll ensure a lynch.

Edit: Sart when did you change your name?

 

 

 

I just changed it after the last quick fix. One of my eliminator teammates got confused by my nickname, and advocated voting for "a smart guy" since he didn't realize we were on the same team. I decided to change it after that. Plus, my old nickname was kind of presumptuous.

 

Anyways, you're misunderstanding the purpose of the vote. I just want the new players to read the thread. I hate it when we have a player come back on Day 5 and ask, "What did I miss?" If we have the new players posting Day 1, we can be reasonably sure they will be active, and in the future they might have some insight. It's in the village's best interest for everyone to be active, especially because of the limited uses of metal. I don't expect us to get much accomplished today, so I just want to make sure every player has seen this thread. Yes, it doesn't help the village right now, but it can definitely help in the long run.

[Amanuensis he/him]

@Kipper. Based on the context of Wyrm’s post, I don’t believe he was trying to imply that we should lynch Venture, but discuss him. I’m going to go ahead and guess that the reason he added the vote to it was to emphasize it and see how people would react. I don’t think anyone would honestly suspect Venture to be evil off of that first sentence alone. It’s just as Winter said, he did that to instigate conversation. Though you’re right, he didn’t provide any real discussion on that subject in particular, he did bring up a few other things of note. We already have players putting down their opinions of a first day lynch (or in some cases, implications). There is something else that he said worth drawing attention to, though.

 

@Wyrm: To clarify, burning tin will only tell the user one random player who visited them, so there is no guarantee that even that would give us a solid lead, as it’s possible the person he sees is the lurcher who saved him. That makes me wonder, Gamma; if a lurcher saves someone, who do you tell? Both players? Only the Lurcher? Only the target? Is it announced in the following write-up?

 

@Sart: Does this post mean you support day one lynch's, as well as [some interpretation of] the Contribution Crusade? Though I always appreciate RP, it’s not very helpful on its own. And while I believe it’s noble of you to encourage new players to participate, I think the way you are going about it is wrong, let alone poorly timed.

 

@Joe: I take it you support a day one lynch then, Joe? [based on you’re last statement of ensuring a lynch].  If so, could you explain to me why?

 

@Sart [again]: I fail to understand your logic in your second post. Just because you put a player’s name in red doesn’t mean they’re suddenly going to be aware of the thread. It’s still very early in this cycle and unless you know more about Meandbooks than I do, they could very likely be in a timezone far away and still asleep or preoccupied with work at the moment. As such, I think this poke vote makes the least sense of all. If you are going to poke anyone in order to get them to talk, how about you target the players like Orlok or Clanky, who I have caught viewing this thread several times but still haven’t said anything?

 

 

 

EDITED FOR COLOR CHANGE

Edited October 19, 2015 by Adavantos