Quick Fix Game 25: A Sundered Sky

[Elithanathile he/him]

Sebas felt two hands shoving him roughly into the scattered courtyard, and any attempts to backpaddle were quickly met with a rough wooden pole to his backside. Casting betrayed looks at him comrades in mops, who gave back very unhelpful thumbs ups in response, he slowly shuffled out into the courtyard, trying to slide from shadow to shadow the best he could, taking cover behind pillars and such.

Eventually he had to reach the open clearing set aside for training purposes and, taking a deep breath, dashed out into the middle ground. Just because he'd wished he could have been out there with them didn't mean he wanted this, for damnation's sake! Making it to the pair of bodies, Sebas took a deep breath and hefted up the brightness with a deep grunt of exertion, laying her body on top of his own. She might be dead, but she could still save one life at least!

Also who got the shardplate?

Well it wouldn't be going to him, so the question was null. Casting an eye towards the sky in hopes of spotting an arrow before it impacted, Sebas wondered if it would be moral to just drop the other body into the chasms, or if he actually had to bring him inside. He'd be a lot more revealed if he tried to take him inside, and he couldn't carry both bodies. Decisions decisions...

[Paranoid King he/him]

15 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

"Brightness Kenara is -- she's dead!" Malnar said. "Who here is next in command?"

Spiff waited a moment. No hands went up. That was fine with him.

"I call it!"

He was met with blank stares. Well, someone needed to step up, didn't they? And while he'd never technically held a command position before, he'd had an old squad leader who he could imitate.

"Alright, you lazy bunch of meatbags, let's see if you can handle the stress of the navy. I want to see 50 pushups each!"

Most of the people started complaining. A few wandered off to do their own thing. One or two actually started doing pushups. Nice. Better than he'd expected, at least. He ignored the protests and started yelling at his motley crew.

"You call those pushups? I call them wimp-ups! Because it looks like you're just standing there! Hah! If you need me, I'll be in my tent, doing officer things." He stalked off, leaving a confused lot of people behind.

[Orlok Tsubodai]

33 minutes ago, Ecthelion III said:

So! First order of business: is this just El being a troll?

" Due to later game balance thoughts, the no-secret-alignment-or-role question is now a PAFO.  "

@Ecthelion III, this is a QF, which should limit El's options if she isn't being a troll. (She is a troll, as a heads up. I know this from a great deal of time spent with her.) Regardless, I think a hidden faction is incredibly unlikely.

Current thoughts are something to do with the Truthless (potentially having to be killed by the Truthless, or keeping the Truthless alive), and the standard neutral roles (Serial Killer and Survival).

Impact wise, I'm not terribly worried about anything except the serial killer, which would become obvious in 24 hours time, at the start of C2. Someone voting in every lynch might lead to a mislynch, but won't cost us the game, and probably wouldn't materially impact the game much either. Keeping the Truthless alive would be more problematic, as we'd likely start drawing connections between the two players, leading to a potential lynch for one of them, which isn't useful if it is the Truthless lynched.

A Survival role might add a potential vote to the eliminator team, or might just help the village. I think enough of us have learnt enough from LG35 about neutrals not to antagonise a neutral player with a survival role, though.

Ultimately, we'll find out tomorrow whether El is being a troll in a way that will materially impact the game.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Orlok Tsubodai

[Arraenae]

The clarifications post, which now says that questions on secret roles or alignments is PAFO, was updated 8 hours ago, if it helps.

[Elbereth she/her]

Reminder: Please add me to any and all PMs you make. 

Clarification: New Recruit is a vanilla role. While they can pick the order they want to study, they will not gain that role. (It's over the course of a single day and they're only squires without a Radiant to teach them. They're not going to be able to pick up that much.) 

[Arraenae]

@TheMightyLopen! I see you viewing the thread. What thoughts do you have? What alignment did you get from your GM PM, and how do you feel about it?

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Just now, Arraenae said:

@TheMightyLopen! I see you viewing the thread. What thoughts do you have? What alignment did you get from your GM PM, and how do you feel about it?

"This coffee is really tasty." and "I don't really have any thoughts on the game yet." 

Alignment is village, which makes me feel surprised and warm inside(or is that the coffee? ). This is an El game after all, and I've got a history of being evil in her games. >>

[Arraenae]

@Megasif, I also see you viewing the thread. What thoughts do you have? What alignment did you get, and how do you feel about it?

EDIT: you too, @Sami. What alignment did you get and how do you feel about it?

Edited August 3, 2017 by Arraenae
Don't want to double post

[Sami she/her]

I got a village as well. Brightness Aleta will simply have to resign herself to putting up with the other recruits without lopping their heads off  

[Megasif he/him]

8 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

@Megasif, I also see you viewing the thread. What thoughts do you have? What alignment did you get, and how do you feel about it?

Got village. Don't have many thoughts yet. Except that an elim has likely posted already.

While we're on the topic, we haven't seen your thoughts or role yet. Hmm.

[Arraenae]

Okay. I got village (again, I havn't been an elim for maybe a year or so). Currently I'm waiting for more thread discussion to pop up. I'm kind of bored, so I'm prodding people to talk. I saw someone asking similar questions in the MU game, and I figured that it's better than awkward silence where everyone is waiting for others to speak so we have something to analyze.

You're not getting my role out of me this early.

EDIT: @Orlok Tsubodai, I see you viewing the thread too. You said you wanted discussion, so what are your thoughts, alignment, and feelings about getting that alignment?

EDIT 2: @Paranoid King, you're here, so why don't you do that too?

Edited August 3, 2017 by Arraenae
Don't want to double post

[Orlok Tsubodai]

15 minutes ago, Megasif said:

Got village. Don't have many thoughts yet. Except that an elim has likely posted already.

While we're on the topic, we haven't seen your thoughts or role yet. Hmm.

@Megasif, we're still in the very early morning for Europe, and the middle of the night for the East coast of the US. WHat makes you so certain that an eliminator has commented already? 

Seven players had posted before you, so it is statistically likely that one has posted, I suppose. I'm struggling to understand why you bring this up, though. Would you care to explain?

10 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

Okay. I got village (again, I havn't been an elim for maybe a year or so). Currently I'm waiting for more thread discussion to pop up. I'm kind of bored, so I'm prodding people to talk. I saw someone asking similar questions in the MU game, and I figured that it's better than awkward silence where everyone is waiting for others to speak so we have something to analyze.

You're not getting my role out of me this early.

@Orlok Tsubodai, I see you viewing the thread too. You said you wanted discussion, so what are your thoughts, alignment, and feelings about getting that alignment?

I did indeed, and am surprised to see you generating it so proactively. 

Thoughts: This is a different playstyle for you, but is positive, and something I want to encourage, despite the change of style being potentially suspicious. I'm not sure why you'd bring up that you haven't been an eliminator for a year, nor why it's relevant to this game. Something minor, but worth highlighting at this stage of the game. I very much approve of your not claiming, and hope that you'd consider "New Recruit" a role, and are not indicating that you have a role. You've played enough games to know the value of role safety.

Alignment: Village.

Thoughts on getting the alignment: Being a villager takes more time and effort, and my activity may be somewhat variable as I travel over the next week. I'm planning on trying to replicate the approach I took in LG31 D1, and LG36, and seeing if an inquisitorial approach will be as helpful in a Quick Fix. I'm not planning on an analysis of the sort I did in AG3, QF22, or LG33, as I'm still in the US with El, and want some time with her.

[Paranoid King he/him]

I like my role. It makes sense for me RP-wise. Alignment-wise, I'm a villager, just like everyone else wink wink nudge nudge.

[Arraenae]

2 minutes ago, Orlok Tsubodai said:

@Megasif

Alignment: Village.

Thoughts on getting the alignment: Being a villager takes more time and effort, and my activity may be somewhat variable as I travel over the next week. I'm planning on trying to replicate the approach I took in LG31 D1, and LG36, and seeing if an inquisitorial approach will be as helpful in a Quick Fix. I'm not planning on an analysis of the sort I did in AG3, QF22, or LG33, as I'm still in the US with El, and want some time with her.

That's interesting, I'd have thought that being an elim would take more time and effort than being village.

[Orlok Tsubodai]

2 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

That's interesting, I'd have thought that being an elim would take more time and effort than being village.

Being a villager you actually have to think about players' actions and alignments, and try to actually solve the game, which for me takes more effort than pretending to try to solve the game. 

[Arraenae]

Good to know, Orlok. So I can measure your alignment by how much free time you seem to have, huh?  About pointing out the lack of elim alignments thing -- I pointed it out because I'm happy I haven't been forced to figure out how to get onto Google Drive on a phone.

@Darkness Ascendant, I see you there. What're your thoughts on the game? What alignment are you and what are your feelings about it?

[Ecthelion III he/him]

Rae outed me for hanging out on Discord She asked me my alignment, which is Squire, though of course I'd say that whichever I was. Also how I feel about it...pretty good, I guess?

*ba dum tss

[Megasif he/him]

42 minutes ago, Orlok Tsubodai said:

@Megasif, we're still in the very early morning for Europe, and the middle of the night for the East coast of the US. WHat makes you so certain that an eliminator has commented already? 

Seven players had posted before you, so it is statistically likely that one has posted, I suppose. I'm struggling to understand why you bring this up, though. Would you care to explain?

Well, I'm not certain but since it's an elim team we're talking about, I'd think it would be an idea for at least one to make an appearance early and try to get on the village side.

I could be totally wrong. I haven't played enough yet (3rd game). Just a thought that occurred so I mentioned it.

And I'm guessing no one's going to say they're an elim right 

Spoiler

Okay. I got village (again, I havn't been an elim for maybe a year or so). Currently I'm waiting for more thread discussion to pop up. I'm kind of bored, so I'm prodding people to talk. I saw someone asking similar questions in the MU game, and I figured that it's better than awkward silence where everyone is waiting for others to speak so we have something to analyze.

That makes sense.

 

Messed up on the editing cuz phone.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Megasif

[STINK he/him]

1 hour ago, Arraenae said:

Okay. I got village (again, I havn't been an elim for maybe a year or so). Currently I'm waiting for more thread discussion to pop up. I'm kind of bored, so I'm prodding people to talk. I saw someone asking similar questions in the MU game, and I figured that it's better than awkward silence where everyone is waiting for others to speak so we have something to analyze.

You're not getting my role out of me this early.

EDIT: @Orlok Tsubodai, I see you viewing the thread too. You said you wanted discussion, so what are your thoughts, alignment, and feelings about getting that alignment?

EDIT 2: @Paranoid King

Accidentally hit quote. So uh, yes this Rae post is V important and I meant for everyone to see it.

Seriously though, straight up asking people of they're an elim? That's such a weird play that I was actually thinking of doing it before the game but now I can't

[Eternum he/him]

DISCLAIMER:

To all whom it concerns, I won't be here for the next cycle and most of the other one, because I'll be out of town. My alignment is village, if anyone was gonna ask.

Anyway.

What's the plan here? We Europeans have a head start, it seems. There don't seem to be many clues, but the one we do have (Kenara getting murdered with a Shardblade wayyy faster than the eye can track) points towards Flash, as somebody else mentioned. I won't vote yet though, maybe there's something else.

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

Brightness Kenara toppled over in front of the squad, her eyes turned to ash.

Well then.

That was an unorthodox way to start training.

 

Aaliyah approached the body. She hastily drew out a death prayer, burning it in front of the two corpses. She bowed her head, wishing them good fortune in the afterlife.

As the last remnants of the prayer went up in flames, she heard the others talking.

"Who here is next in command?" Malnar asked.

As if that were the priority right now.

It was quiet.

"I call it!" Spliff suddenly spoke up. "Alright, you lazy bunch of meatbags, let's see if you can handle the stress of the navy. I want to see 50 pushups each!"

Well, that was quick.

Amazingly, a few members of the squad actually started doing pushups. Aaliyah shrugged.

"You call those pushups? I call them wimp-ups! Because it looks like you're just standing there! Hah! If you need me, I'll be in my tent, doing officer things."

As he walked by the crumpled body of Brightness Kenara, Aaliyah stuck out her leg, tripping him.

Then she pretended to be deeply absorbed in her prayers for the dead.

 

Also:

2 hours ago, Orlok Tsubodai said:

@Ecthelion III, this is a QF, which should limit El's options if she isn't being a troll. (She is a troll, as a heads up. I know this from a great deal of time spent with her.) Regardless, I think a hidden faction is incredibly unlikely.

Current thoughts are something to do with the Truthless (potentially having to be killed by the Truthless, or keeping the Truthless alive), and the standard neutral roles (Serial Killer and Survival).

Impact wise, I'm not terribly worried about anything except the serial killer, which would become obvious in 24 hours time, at the start of C2. Someone voting in every lynch might lead to a mislynch, but won't cost us the game, and probably wouldn't materially impact the game much either. Keeping the Truthless alive would be more problematic, as we'd likely start drawing connections between the two players, leading to a potential lynch for one of them, which isn't useful if it is the Truthless lynched.

A Survival role might add a potential vote to the eliminator team, or might just help the village. I think enough of us have learnt enough from LG35 about neutrals not to antagonise a neutral player with a survival role, though.

Ultimately, we'll find out tomorrow whether El is being a troll in a way that will materially impact the game.

Some thoughts on the secret roles you conjecture.

Having to be killed by the truthless is viable, although I have a hard time imagining what would justify that in terms of RP.

Having to keep the truthless alive doesn't really make sense, unless there's a pretty big catch, because otherwise you'd just claim and reveal the truthless, and get an easy win (as well as destroying the win condition of the truthless).

It is possible there is a survivor role, and, given Elbereth's recent bout with survivor roles, she would probably have given the survivor a good reason not to immediately claim, if that is the case.

I doubt a Serial Killer would be thrown in last second, to be honest. That would cause balancing concerns.

2 hours ago, Paranoid King said:

Hem. Well, hrmm. Most unexpected. Guess we're going home early, guys!

No? Well then.

I'm pretty sure it was Flash, as he was quick enough to do the deed without anyone seeing. We shall avenge. Person. Brightness lady person. I don't know her name. And someone pick up that shardblade before it gets muddy or something!

Roadrunners are pretty fast too you know. He probably could have also committed the murder!

33 minutes ago, Ecthelion III said:

Rae outed me for hanging out on Discord She asked me my alignment, which is Squire, though of course I'd say that whichever I was. Also how I feel about it...pretty good, I guess?

*ba dum tss

It gives me an odd feeling when everybody feels the need to actually declare that they are village...

I will also mention that I don't think the actual word "Squire" appears in the GM PMs sent out to villagers. To my knowledge it only appears in the initial signups post. So you did some research to make this post... 

[Young Bard he/him]

Melonin looked around, suddenly realizing that he had made a very, very bad choice in staying behind. One person tried to take charge, calling for pushups - Melonin moved away quickly from that person. Did he not just realize that someone had just died? (El - the writeup is unclear, but I get the sense that Hael's murder happened somewhere else, so Melonin isn't aware of it yet. Correct me if I'm wrong.) This wasn't the time for pushups! He sighed. "We're doing it all wrong." No-one heard him. No-one turned their heads, to listen to his words. How did the heroes do it, managing to effortlessly sway the crowds without even breaking a sweat?

Melonin looked around, before speaking louder. "We're doing it wrong!" he said again. He didn't dare look around to see whether anyone else was taking notice - he felt that if he did that, he would probably break... whatever it was, right here, right now, that was making him speak, so he rushed on. "We're all here because we're Radiants, right? Or we might be, or something?" By Talenel's stinking breath, this was hard.

"If we're Radiants, maybe we can do something to stop... this", and Melonin stopped to gesture at Brightness Kenara's body. "And perhaps even catch those that did it." He paused for a moment. "There's a very rare text, one of the very few surviving the Hierocracy, from before the fallen Radiants left. It talks about the different orders, and what they can do." (For all the devout Sanderfans out there, yes, I know there's no such text. This is just a way for me to give Melonin the information he needs. He's not lying - I'm just breaking canon briefly in order to get the information I want out.)

"Ummm... There were the Stonewards, rumoured to have the skill and the power of Cohesion - if you think that might be you, then I think we need to know you exist, and that you're with us, without you claiming and perhaps being targeted next by the murderers. So, you should probably use your powers in a subtler way, let us know you're here in a way that doesn't influence anything, at least for now. If you could, say, make two peoples suspicions count as one when the suspicion doesn't change the result of whatever we decide to do, at least for today, that would be fantastic. Umm... who else was there?"

"There were the Dustbringers, capable of Division and Abrasion - I think you should do something similar to the Stonewards - let us know you're among us so we can plan for it, but try not to influence what's going to happen - at least not on this early cycle, anyway."

"There were others... Lightweavers, Elsecallers, but there powers were reported to be subtler, and I have nothing to say about them other than to wish them luck, and to ask them to please use their abilities wisely, and to the best that they are able. Lightweavers, in particular, your actions, while subtle, can only benefit us all no matter who you protect, so please make sure you always use your actions, regardless of everything else that happens. It can only help us."

"There were others, but I, ummm, I can't quite remember them. So, I'll just say, make sure you try and do whatever you do well, whatever order you are."

---

If it's not obvious already, I'm trying to do as much of my posts in RP as possible. Then again, I've said that before, and have failed miserably. If past records are anything to go by, I'll probably swap to analysis on posts once I actually have anything to go on, because RP'ing reasons why someone should be lynched is just hard.

Secondly, I'm a villager, before anyone asks, though frankly I don't see the point in asking/answering, because I can't think of a reason, especially on Day 1, why people wouldn't claim village.

Thirdly, the Truthless. I can't think of a way Melonin would know theres one among us, so I'll post about them here: We need to be wary for the Truthless, but not so wary that we allow ourselves to avoid lynches until the mafia have overtaken us. For that reason, I'm advocating that we still try to lynch someone every day, including Day 1, despite the Truthless, because even false lynches provide us information - who voted for them, who nearly got lynched but didn't due to a last minute voteswap, etc., is generally the best and most accurate way of catching Eliminators that I've found, at least for those people like me that have horrible gut reads.

I'd love to hear all your comments on my advice, and why you agree/disagree, or just where you need more explanation or convincing. If my attempt at RP'ing recommendations was just confusing, here's a plain text version:

Stonewards, Dustbringers: We need to know you exist, but claiming to somebody in particular is probably a bad idea at this stage. I recommend you do your manipulations in such a manner this cycle that is does not influence the result of the lynch, so we know you exist and can offer recommendations in thread without wasting our time. I'll do a vote tally shortly before the cycle ends and compare it with after so we know how many of both of you there are.
Lightweavers: Just put in an action every cycle. It can't hurt, and is very likely to help the more actions you put in. Whatever you do, please don't go inactive.

Reads: Nothing yet. I don't understand why PK, Roadrunner and Eternum are suspicious of Flash - to me, the Shardblade striking Kenara down faster than the eye could see was just a way of preventing us from finding a Skybreaker straight out. I think PK meant it as a joke, but I'm slightly suspicious of Roadrunner and Eternum. Roadrunner already has a vote on him - though I might swap my vote at the end of the cycle if he hasn't responded or if I don't see anything else I find suspicious, and with Eternum, I'm nowhere close enough to suspicious to knock him out on Day 1 of his first game, though.  For now, I'm not going to vote - mainly because I've RP'ed already and I want to get this stuff out before I make another RP on Melonin voting, but I intend to vote before I go to bed tonight (so in the next 5-6 hours or so - it will be there before all the Americans get up tomorrow morning, anyway.)

EDIT: Gah. I forgot the thing I was perhaps most excited to talk about - whether El is trolling us with secret roles and alignments. I have been getting weird vibes from this game, even when she said there weren't any secret roles/alignments in the game. I'd considered all the ways she could be trolling us with the Truthless - she could have multiple Truthless in the game, or none, and just watch how we react to a phantom threat. Strangely, I'm getting the same vibe from her swap from a "There are no secret roles/alignments" to a PAFO - my read on it right now is that she might be trying to make us all ridiculously paranoid in this game without good reason. Joe did something similar in his QF a while back - made everyone think there was *something* going on, when there really wasn't. Then again, there might be - I'm not saying we should rule out any options, just consider the possibility. So, my recommendation with El's PAFO is to be cautious, but not to the extent where it impairs your judgement, if possible.

Edited August 3, 2017 by The Young Bard
Added in an extra paragraph

[Eternum he/him]

Yeah, it was probably a joke Bard, and yeah it was probably a means of preventing us from finding out who it is, but we're Sanderfans. Overanalyzing is what we do. But I didn't cast my vote yet. We honestly don't know enough to be suspicious of anyone. Also, if you managed to lynch me Day 1 of my first game I'd hate you with a passion hotter than the centre of the Sun.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Eternum
Accidentally posted. Freaking phone.

[Sami she/her]

25 minutes ago, Drake Marshall said:

As he walked by the crumpled body of Brightness Kenara, Aaliyah stuck out her leg, tripping him.

Then she pretended to be deeply absorbed in her prayers for the dead.

Aleta saw Spiff  narrowly avoid falling on his face and smirked. She was beginning to like the Brightness Aaliyah.

[Ecthelion III he/him]

@Drake Marshall I received a PM from a player which explicitly requested me to state what alignment I received.