Long Game 18: Holly and Iron

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

Reader pushed the door open, covering his eyes and the sunlight flooded it. He blinked, squinting until his eyes adjusted, before gingerly stepping out of his room. His whole body ached, and his throat burned, but burn it if he hadn't already missed several months of studying. He couldn't stay cooped up any longer. His tuition was high enough from missing so many classes. And who knew what else he had missed?

 

He made his way to the mess hall, one hand on the wall at all times. It was mostly empty, but a few others sat at the tables, eating late meals. He picked up his own, just a small loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese, and sat down to eat. While he did so, he pulled out a book, En Temerant Voistra, and continued reading.

 

He was interrupted partway through by the main doors banging open and two students walking in, complaining loudly about why they hadn't been elevated yet. Which brought to mind his own rank. There were so many books available once a Master elevated you. But none of the masters had seen fit to elevate him. Favoritism is what it was. Nothing but favoritism.

 

He closed his book with a huff, slipping back into his pocket to finish later. He stuffed the last mouthful of cheese into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. What was he going to do for the rest of the day? He needed to find something to do.

 

List of true statements:

I am not a Skindancer

Still recovering from sickness.

Currently rereading Wise man's Fear

 

Question for GMs: What If somebody says something that the GM does not know if it's true or not?

Question for those who have been elevated: Did any of you travel to Imre before your elevation?

[Aonar he/him]

Question for GMs: What If somebody says something that the GM does not know if it's true or not?

Question for those who have been elevated: Did any of you travel to Imre before your elevation?

 

We will default to true on any situation where we are uncertain. However, with anything game-related you can assume that we will have a reasonable amount of certainty.

[Danosaur he/him]

So the only real information we have right now is that a Vintish Nobleman (clanky), an Aturan Nobleman (ostrichofevil?) have gone insane. This has to be by sabotage from the skindancers. It is most likely that there social class was the reason they were sabotoged so they are likely students. Also the following players were murdered: aturan nobleman (Neo) and a cealdish commoner (Mashadar) have been killed by mercenaries. They were confirmed as students.

 

We started the game with 24 players, and 4 students have been removed at this point.

 

Also last round the following students were elevated: Touka Kirishima, Amari, Haelbarde, Pyra Ghetti, Mind of Akasha, Delta

This round the elevated students are: Wilem, Touka, Acaelus, Varda, Mind of Akasha, and Marcos Mayweather

 

So Touka, and MoA have been elevated twice.

 

EDIT:

 

I am not a skindancer

Edited March 6, 2016 by Danosaur

[Elbereth she/her]

Thanks, DC! I was wishing for that last cycle when I was doing my history homework and wanted to be writing RP instead... But now I can write instead of homework that I should be doing! Yay!

Touka brought Varda to her room, small but comfortable, obviously well lived in. "Pick out whatever you want from the closet and have it," said Touka happily. She looked around, apparently a bit embarrassed, and tried to straighten a few things. "Oh, and sorry for the mess. I've been too busy studying to bother with cleaning up." There wasn't really too much of a mess, nothing that ten minutes of cleaning couldn't fix.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," Varda said, walking towards the closet. Touka stood stiffly to one side, looking unsure what to do. Varda opened the closet and looked at the clothes inside, awkwardly going through them as Touka watched equally awkwardly. She didn't want to be too picky, or take anything Touka really liked, but she didn't want to be ungrateful. She looked through the clothes for something that wasn't worst thing in the closet, but on the low end, as far as she could tell from the dress of the girls she'd seen out and about. Finally she picked out a mediocre light blue dress, nothing fancy, but certainly modest enough to suit her. "Will this do? I don't want to take anything that's special to you, and I don't need much."

[Wonko the Sane he/him]

Failed sabotages (and insanity rolls that would put the person over but are adjusted by a roll to help the person) are shown in the writeup and the results will simply say that someone started showing signs of cracking, but took steps to mitigate that. It's not said which one it is. This was not the case here, since it's not in the results.

 

Yes, to both. At least, if the protection fought off the sabotage, the player would be informed of it. Otherwise, they have no idea that they were protected.

 

So this was not a failed sabotage. Interesting. I see two options: one, the Skindancers are kicking themselves right now because they forgot to sabotage somebody, or two, someone last turn used an action-block ability and happened to hit Skindancer with the sabotage action. Of the two, I favor the second; I really can't imagine that they'd honestly just forget.

 

So, whoever out there blocked somebody's action's last round, be advised that your target is a Skindancer.

[Elbereth she/her]

Question for those who have been elevated: Did any of you travel to Imre before your elevation?

I personally did not. Is there a reason for asking?

So this was not a failed sabotage. Interesting. I see two options: one, the Skindancers are kicking themselves right now because they forgot to sabotage somebody, or two, someone last turn used an action-block ability and happened to hit Skindancer with the sabotage action. Of the two, I favor the second; I really can't imagine that they'd honestly just forget.

 

So, whoever out there blocked somebody's action's last round, be advised that your target is a Skindancer.

I would favor the first, actually, unless someone publicly comes out and says that they blocked someone. It is entirely possible for them to forget, particularly depending on the makeup of the eliminator team. I mean (although I doubt Wilson would put this team together): put, say, DC, Thisismyusername, Mark, Weaving Webs, and, I don't know, Kipper, on a team, and then have them debate for too long about who to kill without putting in an order, until no one's sure if an order's been put in or not. Or have someone say they'll put in an order but never do. It happens far more often than you'd think. But either scenario is possible.

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

I personally did not. Is there a reason for asking?

Because spending a month in Imre would have given you 5 EP less to be elevated with, so Im just iddly trying to figure out how likely it would be for someone who has yet to be elevated but did go to IMre to get Elevated.

 

I would favor the first, actually, unless someone publicly comes out and says that they blocked someone. It is entirely possible for them to forget, particularly depending on the makeup of the eliminator team. I mean (although I doubt Wilson would put this team together): put, say, DC, Thisismyusername, Mark, Weaving Webs, and, I don't know, Kipper, on a team, and then have them debate for too long about who to kill without putting in an order, until no one's sure if an order's been put in or not. Or have someone say they'll put in an order but never do. It happens far more often than you'd think. But either scenario is possible.

I agree with this. I think I've been part of eliminator teams before in which this happened, but I can't think of a specific instance. But, If somebody did do a roleblock, they might want to tell the village.

[Burnt Spaghetti she/her]

Ugh… This is just great. There is NO WAY i’m going to afford tuition now. Thanks BB. You made a broke player even broker than broke… So unless I post like, 32 big enough rp posts (taking into account the averaging), tuition is now impossible (that’s like, almost 10,000 words…. I am not writing a book just to pay for tuition. I don’t have that much time). You sir, are a pain. I would advise that you stay away from Pyra or else she may start screaming in rage at you and throwing books. Just saying. What kind of person invokes tuition inflations with one of the two poorest players? You monster. I am frowning at you. BB

[Elbereth she/her]

Because spending a month in Imre would have given you 5 EP less to be elevated with, so Im just iddly trying to figure out how likely it would be for someone who has yet to be elevated but did go to IMre to get Elevated.

 

I agree with this. I think I've been part of eliminator teams before in which this happened, but I can't think of a specific instance. But, If somebody did do a roleblock, they might want to tell the village.

Okay. I don't know how useful that information is going to be, but it makes sense.

I'm pretty sure specifically forgetting a kill happened during MR11, at least. I'd have to go back and check, though. Forgetfulness and mistakes have happened in basically every eliminator team, though, so just go read any of those. (I'd suggest that anyway, Wonko, if you haven't already, just for general knowledge purposes of how eliminator teams tend to work and how much chance goes into them.)

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Joe, I hadn't yet been to Imre either.

This lack of a kill is interesting. I doubt there's enough members who are inactive enough to not put one in yet, but I don't think forgetting is the most likely reason either. If the team had more important things to do and neglected the kill. Say one or two were in Imre and saw a nice contract that'd give them money or a cheap assassin or something. I'd also bet that at least one if not two of the skin dancers have been elevated now. So that'd give them other powers to use.

[Elbereth she/her]

A combination of those things, perhaps. They would obviously try to get a sabotage in if at all possible. But that does cut down on the number of people that would have to forget the kill. Regardless. Blocking is not the only, or even necessarily the most likely, reason for no kill, basically.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

A combination of those things, perhaps. They would obviously try to get a sabotage in if at all possible. But that does cut down on the number of people that would have to forget the kill. Regardless. Blocking is not the only, or even necessarily the most likely, reason for no kill, basically.

Yes, by no means am I eliminating the other possibilities. Just sharing what, from my experience has been one of the reasons.

[Wonko the Sane he/him]

All right, I'll concede to your greater experience; I've never actually even been an Eliminator before. If you say forgetting is more probable, I'll take you at your word. It just seems odd to me.

 

I can't really bring myself to accept the idea that they were just too busy. I would have thought the sabotage to be the most vital part of a turn for the Skindancers. What actions could they possibly be taking that they would consider more important? Apart from a kill, which obviously didn't happen, I can't think of any.

[Elbereth she/her]

All right, I'll concede to your greater experience; I've never actually even been an Eliminator before. If you say forgetting is more probable, I'll take you at your word. It just seems odd to me.

 

I can't really bring myself to accept the idea that they were just too busy. I would have thought the sabotage to be the most vital part of a turn for the Skindancers. What actions could they possibly be taking that they would consider more important? Apart from a kill, which obviously didn't happen, I can't think of any.

Oh, you're right, it's very odd. Whenever I read an evil doc I'm always startled by how much chance and mistake goes into the loss or the win. But it's something that does happen, so you just have to get used to it.

How do you know that one of the kills wasn't done by an eliminator? Answer: we don't. And a kill is generally more effective than a sabotage, so that could theoretically take priority.

[Wonko the Sane he/him]

Because they were both killed by mercenaries, and the only place the rules mention mercenaries is regarding the death risk for living on the streets. Mashadar got put on the streets because he quit, and according to the site's records, Neo hasn't even been on 17th Shard since the 2nd, so he probably missed renewing his lodging.

[Mark IV he/him]

It's not that it's not most important, just that in all the discussing, killing sometimes gets sidetracked, or the person who is to put in the order says they'll do it in a bit, and then forgets.

Anyways, I had been to Imre, but I did not buy assassins. They're 12 talents for me. Too expensive.

Anyways,

----------

"Who exactly does the book belong to?"

"Some Seventh Son of something. You know this person?" Marcos asked Acaelus.

"Nope. I don't really know anyone here." Acaelus replied

"Nevermind then. Judging by the cover, I'd guess this seventh son lives at The Horse and Four. What do you think?" Marcos asked Acaelus, showing him the book cover.

"Yes, it does seem to be a nobleman's book." Acaelus said.

"Let's get going then, shall we?"

Edited March 6, 2016 by Mark IV

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

I was checking all the players, and everyone posted last Month except for Weaving Webs, The Only Joe and Thisismyusername. Weaving Webs was last online about 3 hours after last Month started though. Joe's sick. Thisismyusername was last online about 17 hours ago.

 

So since most everyone was pretty active, it seems unlikely for the lack of a sabotage to have been caused by inactivity. Forgetfulness is possible I guess. I'm still trying to look into ALL the possibilities for this situation though, so I might post about this again if I figure out anything worth saying.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

I'd judge buying assassins or using Naming or sympathy or artificery or alchemy over the sabotage if it came to the right opportunity. It's possible that one or two Skindancers were using their roles and then the other was in Imre or just forgot and the last was inactive/less active.

[Mark IV he/him]

Oh! I almost forgot!

BB, care to expound on the motive of your well thought out votes on Burnt and me??

[Mailliw73 he/him]

To those in a PM with me, my ratio is a bit high for me being out of town, so I probably won't be answering much right now. 

[Firemuffin42]

Mac stared down at the bowl before him with disbelief. He had done it… he had actually done it! He tasted the contents of the bowl a second time and grinned, nodding his head. He laughed hysterically in glee. After months of hiding in his room, avoiding human conact, he had finally done it. He had figured out the best, most delicious way to combine noodles and cheese. He looked around at the cluttered room he sat in, it was disgusting, months of neglect leaving the room in absolute chaos. He sighed and finished his bowl of noodles, thinking that maybe he could name it after himself. He cleaned his room and Stepped back outside, blinking as his adjusted and he was faced with society.

As he walked to a class he was 3 months tardy for, he heard some rather disturbing rumors. Skindancers… students killed… and not only that, but people were blaming him! He shook his head trying to conceive as to why they would think a simple son of a cheese maker would be a skindancer. After all, he had been pretty oblivious to the outside world, doing just enough to remain alive as he worked on the solution to his noodle problem. He sighed and opened his textbook, flicking a fragment of noodle thafrom the corner and scanning the text within.

After writing that… realized maybe it sounds like I'm a skindancer, but guess what? I'm not. Sorry for the inactivity and everything.

[Wonko the Sane he/him]

BY THE GODS, IT LIVES!!! Thank you for finally joining us, Mac.

Mark, he's not a seventh son (or, well, he is, but that's not the point), his name is Seventh Son. His parents ran out of names before they ran out of children. That's what Sev is mortified that someone will find out. That his name is ridiculous and stupid.

Unless you already got this, and are just having Marcos misinterpret, in which case, ignore my prattlings.

[Mark IV he/him]

Yes, I'm just having Marcos misinterpret. Don't worry. I realised that's his real name.

[little wilson she/her]

Talent Pipes are passable once and only once, so if you give someone your Talent Pipes, you cannot get them back.

[DeathClutch19 he/him]

Touka looked over at the dress Varda had picked out "That one is a little old and cheap, but if that is the one you want then go for it" she said. Touka was a little excited, so much so that she couldn't stop smiling. For the first time in forever Touka was on the verge of making a friend!

 

"You can change in here, i'll just step outside for a second" Touka said quite softly. She stood there for a second not wanting to expose her medals on the wall but eventually she walked out of the room.  "Just come out when you're done" she exclaimed just before the door shut behind her.

 

Hopefully she doesn't look around the room too much, she thought to her self. Touka was leaning on the wall next to the door. She got a little bored so she started singing " Me and you got a whole lot of history, we could be the greatest thing,,,". Singing was something Touka loved to do, just not in front of people she didn't know.