Long Game 63: The Set

[Rathmaskal he/him]

3 hours ago, Alvron said:

Do we have any idea who Zillah roleblocked?

As far as I know, no...  Don't think there are any PMs for Zillah to have passed on that information to anyone outside thread, but nothing definite in thread.

[Guest Coda]

So, given that I'm dying today, I am giving one last effort to convince the population using the dominant strategy equilibrium. There are four outcomes. You lynch me and I'm a villager, you lynch me and I'm an elim, you lynch Rath and he's a villager, and you lynch Rath and he's an elim. If you lynch me and I'm a villager, Rath will kill someone tonight, and you will not be able to lynch him because of his vote manipulation powers. If you lynch me and I'm an elim, you win. If you lynch Rath and he's a villager, I will kill someone tonight, and you will still be able to lynch me with a 2-1 majority because I have no vote manipulation powers. If you lynch Rath and he's an elim, you win. If you lynch Rath you win. If you lynch me, you win if I'm an elim but lose if I'm a villager. Choose wisely.

Also, I'm just going to RP because this game has been sorely lacking in that department.

Catamire Dagaleth sat in the meeting room, advocating for his life, as a matter of course. It was between him and Rathmaskal, his bitter enemy. He knew it would come to this. Catamire spoke of victory being assured if Rath died, of failure coming from his own death. He pretended to be certain, all the while fearing his inevitable death. As he sat in the uncomfortable chair, he wrote some quick farewells to those he was in communications with, then remembered that they were all dead. There was nothing left to do but wait.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Coda
Typo

[Alvron he/him]

1 hour ago, Coda said:

So, given that I'm dying today, I am giving one last effort to convince the population using the dominant strategy equilibrium. There are four outcomes. You lynch me and I'm a villager, you lynch me and I'm an elim, you lynch Rath and he's a villager, and you lynch Rath and he's an elim. If you lynch me and I'm a villager, Rath will kill someone tonight, and you will not be able to lynch him because of his vote manipulation powers. If you lynch me and I'm an elim, you win. If you lynch Rath and he's a villager, I will kill someone tonight, and you will still be able to lynch me with a 2-1 majority because I have no vote manipulation powers. If you lynch Rath and he's an elim, you win. If you lynch Rath you win. If you lynch me, you win if I'm an elim but lose if I'm a villager. Choose wisely.

You are positing that only you or Rath can be evil when Abs is also a possibility.

If we lynch you and Rath is evil, we still have a 50% chance of winning assuming @Abstrusity is active.
If we lynch Rath and you are evil, Village wins if Abs is active.
If we lynch either of you and Abs is evil, evil wins.

On paper our best bet is to lynch Rath.  But still...
This would be so much easier if we knew who was roleblocked.

[Guest Coda]

True, but we cannot get a clear majority on Abstrusity since Rath and I are voting on each other. Also, Rath is suspected for the attempted vote on Abstrusity way back on D2, so Abstrusity is probably not evil. Probably.

[Alvron he/him]

Rath.  Lynching you gives the village the best chance at winning.  Honestly, it's a coin toss at this stage as for which of you is the last EBI.

[Guest Coda]

@Abstrusity We need you to vote Rath to have a chance at victory because of Rath's vote manipulation, and then it will be a coin toss. 

[DeTess she/her]

This cycle is now closed. The new thread will be up in a bit, but it might take a bit longer than usual.

[DeTess she/her]

Catamire Dalageth was once again in the spotlight, though not quite in the same way as they were the day before.

“...And this, ladies and gentlemen of the Set, is why Rathmaskal has to be the final EBI agent!” Catamire concluded the speech to general acclaim. As much as there could be a general acclaim given the few remaining members of the Set present, at any rate.

Rathmaskal had known this would come, and had prepared his defense as best as possible. He had witness statements placing him far away from any agent-related activity, and several testimonies as to his good character. And yet he doubted it’d be enough. Details like that had yet to save any of those that needed saving, after all.

Even as he made his faltering defense, he could see that one Scalar who’d made pivotal speeches on many of the days preparing himself for another, and he knew it was all over.

A shot rang out.

And Catamire pitched face-first onto the wooden floor.

“Their certainty and self-righteousness made it obvious they were the last agent trying to finish the job.” Pete said to the stunned crowd as he put his gun back in its holster The rest of the crowd slowly nodded their assent to as he knelt down to search the body for a badge.

But try as he might, he couldn't find any.
***

Coda has been lynched. They were a loyal gold ferring and suit in the communications subset.

The communications subset has been wiped out. The communications subset could create one PM with any number of players every night. Previously created PM's remain open.

Vote tally:

Rath(0): Coda, Alv

Coda(2): Rath

Player list:

Spoiler

1. Kynedath as Victoria Stadtt The Set's Sequence (and also a gold Ferring)
2. Xinoehp512 as Yarra, loyal suit in the PR subset
3. Butt ad Venture as Esualpla Dowenger, EBI agent and array in the communications subset
4. Elkanah as Ned, a pencil mustached cane wielder who is definitely neither a creep nor EBI!, loyal copper Ferring array in the 'involuntary holidays' Subset.
5. Coda as Catamire Dalageth, loyal gold ferring and suit in the communications subset
6. Alvron as Pete Zahutt
7. Rathmaskal
8. Shanerockes, who doesn't know if they'll have a character yet, but we shall see Thug EBI agent and Suit in the research subset
9. The_god_king, Copper Ferring Array in the research Subset
10. Elandera,  copper Ferring EBI agent and an Array in the Legal Subset
11. Kidpen, loyal suit in the research subset
12. Young Bard as Mister Bubblegum, someone with a fondness (though unfortunately not a talent) for secret names array in the 'Involuntary Holidays' subset
13. Abstrusity as Mundric Pentasum, errant purveyor of hats with a troubled past.
14. Zillah loyal thug and suit of the 'involuntary holidays' subset.
15. EXPERIENCE_THE_SHARD as Drahs Xperienc(the x is silent) Gold Ferring Suit in the legal subset

Night 7 has begun. It'll end in a little under 24 hours on the 16th of march, 7 PM EST or midnight CET

[Alvron he/him]

Well, chull dung.

Well done Rath.  Your actions on D3 won you the game.

[Rathmaskal he/him]

?

The villain must be Abstrusity!

[DeTess she/her]

This cycle is now clowed. Next cycle should be up very shortly!

[DeTess she/her]

Things were quickly turning sour for Pete after he’d shot Catamire. The lack of a badge on the corpse had apparently convinced a lot of the lower-ranking members that he had to be the actual agent. The situation was getting heated and several people were in the process of drawing their guns.

And then things got worse.

The doors of the warehouse in which the set had been meeting came down with a crash, followed by shouts of “drop your weapons!” and “you’re all under arrest!”. These shouts were quickly answered with bullets by the hotheads that had already drawn their weapons.

Pete liked a a gamble, but he also knew when to fold them. So he ducked down, and made for the nearest exit as bullets whizzed by. He sprinted down a narrow flight of stairs into a dark tunnel that had been excavated for this very situation and which would lead him to another warehouse further up the docks.

After a two minute brisk walk he ascended another set of stairs and arrived at a closed door. Before opening he quickly took a look through the key-hole to ensure the coast was clear. Which it wasn’t. Several constables were spread out through the warehouse, searching for something.

Pete cursed quietly, then turned around to make his way back into the tunnel, hoping to hide out there until everything blew over. However, behind him another one of the few remaining leaders of the set had ascended the stairs, their gun drawn and pointing at Pete.

“Listen, I’m not the EBI agent, but behind that door are a whole bunch of constables, so how about we go down those stairs and talk this out quietly?” Pete whispered.

“Oh, I know you’re not the agent.” The other officer made no attempt at being quiet whatsoever. “Oi, Boys! That secret exit I mentioned is over here!” The Suit shouted, and moments later the door behind Pete got ripped open and a gaggle of constables descended upon him.
***

The next day was a busy one for Elednel’s constabulary. They’d been mobilized to catch what members of the Set they could before they all went to ground.

Yet against the backdrop of this chaos, two Suits were still heading to a pre-appointed meeting spot. Unlike the previous week, they weren’t coming to talk and investigate. Both knew who the last EBI agent was, and neither had any intention of letting the other one leave the meeting spot alive.

The time for legalese and stirring speeches was done. The time for a final showdown of steel and lead had come.
***

Alvron has been lynched he was a loyal gold Ferring and array in the PR subset

player list:

Spoiler

1. Kynedath as Victoria Stadtt The Set's Sequence (and also a gold Ferring)
2. Xinoehp512 as Yarra, loyal suit in the PR subset
3. Butt ad Venture as Esualpla Dowenger, EBI agent and array in the communications subset
4. Elkanah as Ned, a pencil mustached cane wielder who is definitely neither a creep nor EBI!, loyal copper Ferring array in the 'involuntary holidays' Subset.
5. Coda as Catamire Dalageth, loyal gold ferring and suit in the communications subset
6. Alvron as Pete Zahutt loyal gold Ferring and array in the PR subset
7. Rathmaskal
8. Shanerockes, who doesn't know if they'll have a character yet, but we shall see Thug EBI agent and Suit in the research subset
9. The_god_king, Copper Ferring Array in the research Subset
10. Elandera,  copper Ferring EBI agent and an Array in the Legal Subset
11. Kidpen, loyal suit in the research subset
12. Young Bard as Mister Bubblegum, someone with a fondness (though unfortunately not a talent) for secret names array in the 'Involuntary Holidays' subset
13. Abstrusity as Mundric Pentasum, errant purveyor of hats with a troubled past.
14. Zillah loyal thug and suit of the 'involuntary holidays' subset.
15. EXPERIENCE_THE_SHARD as Drahs Xperienc(the x is silent) Gold Ferring Suit in the legal subset

Day 8 has begun. It'll end in a little under 47 hours on march 17th at  6 PM EST, 11PM CET. This is one hour earlier than usual!

Alternatively, this cycle will end once all relevant votes and actions have been submitted and I have time to do the write-up, whichever comes first.

Edited March 17, 2020 by DeTess

[Rathmaskal he/him]

Abstrusity!

Well played.  You have kept me fooled for this long!  Alas!  No longer!

[Abstrusity]

Rath!

Farewell, old friend. *tips bowler hat* Farewell.

[Rathmaskal he/him]

@DeTess - I think we're set.

[DeTess she/her]

The cycle is closed, and the game is over! Final write-up will be up in an hour or so!

Edited March 18, 2020 by DeTess

[DeTess she/her]

Mundric Pentasum made his way to the meating spot through a city that, somehow, felt very different. Even a few days ago, Elendel had still been wrapped around his fingers, but now all that was falling apart. The EBI and the Constabulary where raiding warehouses, safe-houses and the private houses of members of the Set, and arrests were happening all over the city.

But the tide could still be turned. Mundric had figured out how the so-called Law had gained all the information they were now acting on. Oh, the infiltrating agents had figured out some things, but what was happening now wasn’t the work of an EBI agent. No, it was the work of a traitor. And like any traitor, knowledge was the only currency Rathmaskal had to buy his own freedom. And so he’d have spent it sparingly. And if Mundric could take him down now, all the secrets that the man had not revealed yet, would go with him to his grave.

The meeting spot was a small square in one of the poorer districts surrounded by blind walls. Rathmaskal was already waiting for him, alone. Mundric wasn’t too worried. He’d gotten plenty of experience with guns, back before the Set recruited him and sent him to Elendel, while Rathmaskal was only a glorified lawyer.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” The loyalist asked the traitor.

“Just that you should have done the same. I suppose that this is the end of the line though.” Rathmaskal responded.

“It is.” Mundric tipped his head to his opponent. “Farewell, old friend.” With practiced skill Mundric drew his gun.

A shot rang out.

And Mundric collapsed like a puppet whose strings were cut.
***
Rathmaskal breathed out a sigh of relief as he waved at the constable that’d taken the killing shot against Mundric from one of the roofs surrounding the square. He wasn’t really trained for this kind of thing, and without the help he doubted he’d have won the stand-off. Other constables entered the square now. “Any problem with his henchmen?” rathmaskal asked the man in charge of them.

“Well, that’s the thing. He actually came alone.” The man responded. “It made things here easier, but it means we’ve still got to hunt down the rest of his crew.”

“Well, I’ll leave that in your hands.” Rathmaskal tipped his hat to the constables, then left the square for the carriage that would be waiting to take him back to the headquarters of the EBI. He still had a report to write, after all.
***
The commissioner stretched in her chair. To the east, the sky was already slowly becoming brighter as dawn approached. Though the hunt for the last few members of the Set continued, the report concluded that the organisation as a whole had been thoroughly neutralized. She was about to close the report when someone knocked on her office door.

“Come in!” She called, and a moment later Rathmaskal, the last of the agents involved in this operation, entered her office.

“What can I do for you?” She asked.

“There was a little something I wanted to add to the report.” Rathmaskal responded. “A final off-the-record debriefing, if you will.”

The commissioner motioned for him to continue. “As you know, I used to be part of the subset handling legal matters, and unlike the EBI agents I’ve been a member of the organization for long enough that I could spot certain...patterns. We’d get warnings before the constabulary or the EBI made a move against someone important, allowing us to prepare and create covers for our people. These warnings were attributed to a wide variety of sources, but their timing was odd. Always arriving in the morning of the second day of the week. Obviously, whoever was responsible for these warnings tended to learn these things on the first day. Something that regular implies it’s someone that gets briefed on all these operations as a matter of routine.”

“What are you implying?” The commissioner asked tersely.

“Everything, suit, Everything.” A quick smile crossed Rathmaskal’s face, but quickly disappeared again. “Of course, I can’t directly prove this, at least, not in a way that’d stand up in court. And even if I tried, I bet you could make me disappear pretty quickly if you wanted to. So instead I’ve left a little evidence behind where the remnants of the Set will find it, implying that you were behind the whole operation from the start, and that you tipping off the set about Ervine was merely part of a ploy to ensure that no one would be able to figure out your role in this. Who knows, maybe it’s even true.” He shrugged.

“By this time, I suspect a sizable bounty has been placed on your head. The Set never wanted for funds, after all.”

“And how, exactly, would this ploy of yours protect you from retaliation by me?” The commissioner asked.

“It doesn’t, but you’re a pragmatic woman. As long as I’m alive, the Set will be sponsoring a bounty on me as well. If I end up dead, that money will go towards your demise instead.”

“The commissioner cursed, then got to her feet. After a moment’s deliberation, she put the gun she’d drawn from her desk back on the table. “Very well, if that’s the way things will be. Just answer me this. Why warn me at all?”

Rathmaskal shrugged again. “Because I wanted to know. Was this just a private operation by some agents that got too far before you learned about it? Or was it a power struggle between you and Stadtt?” 

The commissioner didn’t deign to give him an answer as she marched out of her office.
***
In the back room of a small boarding house in Rashekin an unusual meeting had taken place. The meeting was attended by a group of people from all walks of life. People who, up until that meeting, had been content to just follow orders. People with lowly titles like ‘Scalar’ and ‘Vector’. When the meeting finally ended, the people that left held quite different titles though. ‘Array’, for some. ‘Suit’ for others. And for one enterprising Scalar from the PR subset: ‘Sequence’.

***

Abstrusity has been lynched. They were a loyal thug and suit of the PR subset

The game has ended! The EBI Agents have narrowly won!

Vota tally
Rathmaskal(0): Abstrusity
Abstrusity(1): Rathmaskal
 

Subset docs:

PR Subset

Legal Subset

research Subset

Kidnapping 'Involuntary holidays' subset

Communications subset

Suit-Sequence communcations:

PR Suit

Legal Suit

research Suit

Kidnapping 'Involuntary holidays' Suit

Communications Suit

Misc. docs

Elim Doc

dead doc

master sheet

[DeTess she/her]

I'll have a more involved set of game thoughts coming later, but for now I'd like to give a quick shout-out to @Araris Valerian for helping me check the rules and filling in for write-up writing duty when I really wasn't awake enough to do one myself.

Edited March 18, 2020 by DeTess

[Guest Coda]

I knew this day would come. Losing is painful, but this was fun. Rathmaskal, wonderful job. Alvron, if you hadn't suspected me, we might have won. DeTess, thank you for a wonderful game.

[Rathmaskal he/him]

Wow, what a great game.  Getting notified that I was switching sides after N2 was definitely interesting.  When Alvron mentioned to me that my actions on D3? had won me the game, I had to look back to see which side I was on at that point...haha.

To my fellow elims, Venture, didn't get to work with you for very long...Elandera, sorry I had to bus you so soon after joining, but it got us the game eventually?  shanerocks, unfortunate end for you, you played a great game though.

Zillah, Coda, Alvron, Abstrusity, wow...what a tense ending.  Honestly, Coda, I think if you'd been on the side of convincing Zillah to mention who was getting role blocked, I would have lost.  I'm at least mildly certain that was a factor in Alvron siding with me.  You could have had a confirmed villager with the night kill/arrest occurring.  Honestly, the biggest thing I was concerned with at that point in the game was whether I was too quick in changing from supporting Coda to supporting Alvron.  My logic was fairly sound, but it had to have been what got Coda onto me.

Lastly, magnificent write-ups from DeTess.  I enjoyed every one.

Hope to see everyone again next game!

[shanerockes]

What a game y'all. Definitely the best game I've had, though I haven't had many, and was the most exciting to play. Definite shout out to my teammate Venture, Elandera, and Rathmaskal. Couldn't have done it without y'all. Shout out to Kidpen and TGK for being totally awesome in the subset doc and having wonderful ideas, even if we were on opposing sides. And finally, thank you to DeTess and Araris for running this wonderful game and having wonderful write-ups. Can't wait for the next one and hopefully many more from me. 

[Elandera she/her]

36 minutes ago, Rathmaskal said:

Elandera, sorry I had to bus you so soon after joining, but it got us the game eventually?

It was time for me to be the one bussed rather than bussing. I'm cool with it, even if it hadn't led to our victory. The win makes it more satisfying, for sure. You did fantastic carrying through the end.

22 minutes ago, shanerockes said:

Definite shout out to my teammate Venture, Elandera, and Rathmaskal. Couldn't have done it without y'all.

You did fantastic! I'm glad you were one of the last of us to die, since your information from the Research doc was key in who we chose to kill.

@Butt Ad Venture, Even through it was for a few cycles, it was awesome playing with you. You had some great ideas that helped us early game.

@DeTess and @Araris Valerian, thank you both for running this game. It was a blast!

[DeTess she/her]

Alright, I've got time for some more thoughts now.

First, regarding game balance, I think things worked out fairly well, despite the final role division being something I had to knock together in about 5 minutes because the last minute sign-ups increased numbers to the point that I needed to add an extra subset. The research Subset was somewhat more powerful than a regular scan because three people got the scan results instead of one, but having an elim in there made it a decidedly double-edged sword. The two vote manipulation subsets could also create a larger swing than usual, but because only one had an agent infiltrating their ranks, they could balance eachother out. In the 13 and 14 player setups, the PR subset wasn't included, but I'd made the legal subset have four members to make it a bit more difficult for the elims to seize control. Lastly, I do think it's a shame that the Sequence died so early, because that was the only element that didn't really get to play out in full.

Activity-wise, things went a bit less well, with a couple of people becoming very quiet, pretty quickly. I get that a blackout game can make it a bit more difficult to gather information, but if you haven't got a clue about what's going, you should be posting more, not less! Only by posting and asking questions will you be able to figure out what's going on. I am often as clueless as anyone else in the opening stages of a game, but by posting a lot I both appear more knowledgeable (I hope, at any rate XD) and I can actually gather information by a asking questions. Just as important, if you post and talk a lot, it should become easier for other people to figure out your alignment, so  that's something villagers should definitely strive for.

So tl;dr: activity is good, m'kay? Even if you don't think you've got anything to say.

Lastly, I really loved how this game came down to the wire, especially the plot twist at the end of D7. I really thought Rathmaskal was done for before I took a peak at the PR doc and saw what Alvron had cooked up.

I also liked seeing the early-game speculation. The gold Ferring worked nicely as a red herring (though if there had been a couple more players a bit earlier in the sign-up process there would have been a subset with a kill-role), and some of the other more out-there theories would have worked out to being correct if I'd run the other rule-set I had for this game. that one needed a minimum of 15 players and some pretty careful balancing though, and we didn't reach that treshhold quite in time.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now   I'm certain I'll have some more thoughts at a later point.

[Young Bard he/him]

Thanks Tess for running this game, and congratulations to the Elims for their victory. Special congratulations to Rath, who started in a very poor situation after his teammates got murdered, and managed to eke out a win anyway. 

[Kynedath]

I'm sad I died so early, I had so many plans. But kudos to the elims for randomly killing the person with the most info night one! Legit, I had figured out all the faction powers, and who was in each faction except for five players. I was super duper excited to play as the sequence, but it appears the EBI had different plans! I'd love to see this game run again, it was fascinating and I loved it! Thanks to DeTess for running it!