Long Game 66: A Struggle for Power

[|TJ| he/him]

If you need someone to post so you can post

[Magestar he/him]

2 hours ago, Lahilt said:

Magestar what I wanted to ask was did you roleclaim to Pyro in PM giving the Elims a reason to use a steel trap on you.

Pyro knew I was an Augur if that's what you're asking.

27 minutes ago, TJ Shade said:

If you need someone to post so you can post

Thanks TJ.    

So, here are a couple of odd things. The Elims have done a lot of things that seem a little random, or a little odd.  First, it looks like they go after inactives.  Then their MO changes, and they hit a few active players.  They attack me twice, for some reason.  The weirdest thing to me is the Ventyl lynch.  Pyro pushes a lynch on Ventyl, bringing up the fact that the whole "they lied about their role" thing, despite being their teammate.

There's a couple possible explanations here.  First off, Pyro could have revealed early Ash's suspicions in order to weaken them, knowing that Ventyl was in fact a Leecher.  Kind of odd given that Pyro continued to push that lynch.  A possibility, though.

The second possible explanation is that the whole thing was a ploy by Ash and Pyro and Ventyl, all being Elims, to bus Ventyl and clear themselves.  This would be a little odd given how vehemently Ventyl defended themselves, and subsequently attacked Ash.

The whole situation was odd.  I don't really know what's more likely.  Given that Pyro bused, I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if Ash was part of it.  But I'm unsure.  It could have been a botched attempt at a bus or a sort of gambit. 

Pyro also put "the deciding vote" on Ventyl.  I think this was likely a ploy, given the canceled vote that cycle was likely from Pyro storing.  But the problem with that is that if Pyro hadn't stored, and had put their vote on Mist, they could have tied the lynch.  I guess that Pyro could have been worried about being implicated if they voted for Mist but Ventyl got lynched.  It just seems odd to me.  Ventyl was active, and many Elims were not; why bus them?

Finally, I’m going to note that if I’m assuming the Elims may have bused Ventyl, my reasons for having a village read on Lahilt basically go out the window.  All I'm really left with is a village gut read.

Here's another thing; I feel we've been ignoring the possibility that the last Elim and the Kandra are the same individual.  It's a definite possibility.

Jeez I’m feeling paranoid.  I'm going to put a vote on Mist for the moment.  If these past couple posts look a little odd, it's probably because I wrote them all as one giant post over the course of several hours and then segmented them, posted parts of them, and edited the later parts as I went.   

To lighten the mood a little, here's some RP!  With some creative liberties.  Striker I hope you don't mind me doing out the attack on me.  It was kind of mentioned that I was "attacked but survived" as part of the Kandra attack, but I wanted to write a fight scene.   

---

---

Reginald grit his teeth in frustration.  A child?  A child?  The Loyalists had recruited a child!  And now Darson had her, and who knew what he was going to do to her.  Reginald had barely managed to haul the Kandra off of Pyria with Lumen's help, and now she was gone again.  A child!  What sort of monster recruited a child?

Reginald had spent the evening storing his strength while recovering from the tainted gold.  He had decided to wait to burn the last of the vial he'd found, and now he was glad of the decision.  He'd need it in the future.  He'd barely managed to survive, emptying one of his metalminds just to fend off the Kandra.  What a monstrous creature.  Reginald calmed himself, letting the warmth from the reserve of gold within him soak through his body.  He wouldn't tap it, not yet.  There was other work to be done.  Reginald stalked down the hallway, heading towards the main room.  He would have to speak with Lumen.  He could trust the person who had helped him save Pyria.  Then he would have to -

Suddenly a dagger flew out of the darkness, striking Reginald in the chest.  Immediately he tapped strength, feeling the reservoir in his final metalmind drop precipitously as his arms and legs suddenly swelled with power.  The dagger bounced off of the mail shirt hidden underneath his suit and clattered to the ground.  Reginald fell back into a defensive stance as a dark figure swept silently down the hallway, a second blade in it's hand.  Harmony's Bands!  Darson had been right.  There were other loyalists left.

The figure moved forward, dagger held out offensively, free hand held slightly back, palm open.  This man knew how to fight.  Reginald cursed.  There wasn't time to get to the others.  In moments, his assailant was on him, the knife flashing forwards in quick strokes and quicker strikes.  Reginald stepped back quickly, his heavy body now a disadvantage.  He wouldn't be able to dodge the knife for very long.  He'd have to make a move.  Reginald stopped backing up, instead moving in and to the side.  He growled, letting the knife glance off his mail coat, and dealt a heavy blow to his assailant's side.  The man grunted, stepping back as Reginald twisted, throwing and landing another punch.  The knife swept out, gouged a chunk of flesh from Reginald's arm.  Reginald grimaced. 

The man stepped back, shaken by the blows.  He was wary now, and adopted a more defensive posture, circling Reginald slowly.

Reginald stopped tapping strength, storing it instead.  He felt his body shudder and shrink.  Despite his size, Reginald was not really a fat man.  Most of his mass was muscle, a useful trait in a Brute ferring.  There was a common misconception about storing strength; that doing so made you weak.  Reginald knew better.  By storing only a portion of his strength, his muscle mass decreased, taking his body from the size of a heavyweight fighter to a lighter weight class in mere moments.  He was weaker now - this was true.  His punches would pack less power.

But he was also faster.

The attacker leapt at him, the dagger streaking towards Reginald's chest.  An obvious feint; the attacker knew Reginald wore mail by now.  His face was now the only viable target.  Any other target, and the man knew Reginald would kill him with one blow.  Reginald moved quickly, anticipating the upward stroke of the blade.  The shadowy man, anticipating a slower Reginald, overreached just slightly in his attack, the tip of the blade only nicking Reginald's cheek.  Reginald exhaled, time slowing as he tapped the remainder of the strength in his metalminds.  His body swelled tremendously, his muscles creaking as he countered the assailant's strike.  The man went flying, but rolled as he hit the ground.  He took the blow marvelously well.  But the fight was over.  Reginald watched as the man retreated.  He'd taken too much damage to continue.

Reginald's muscles deflated like an empty balloon.  He grinned.  That was how fights should be.  Reginald had an advantage in most fights, his Brutish nature granting him power over his opponents.  But against a knife, all advantages were gone.  One misstep, and he would have died.  If not for the mail vest, he would already be dead.

He had survived.  But his reserves of strength were gone.  It would be the last time he fought like this.

He needed to get out.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Magestar

[|TJ| he/him]

Pyro also knew I was targeting Kidpen and did not do anything about it. 

[Magestar he/him]

Yeah.  It’s a little odd.  I guess in my case they could have thought I was bluffing about the vest.  For kidpen, maybe they just missed it?  That could be the case for either, really.

Idk.

[Ashbringer he/him]

Sorry, I've been forced into bouncing between mobile and computer, and between the QF and other things.

I believe TJ is Village, because him being the Coinshot makes sense and giving the Elims a Coinshot and not the Village makes no sense whatsoever.

Mage could be faking a roleblock to incriminate Mist - perhaps as an Oracle rather than an Augur - but that's a tinfoil and a half. I need to trust that Mage is Village at this point, because otherwise our "Village Core" would be 50% Eliminators, and nothing he's directly done has been really suspicious besides outing himself as an Augur to the whole thread, which was a mistake.

Pyro was the one I chose to reveal my plan to, and he did reveal it prematurely (and before Emi could clarify to me whether she had used an action or not) after I told him not to do that, which he shrugged off. But he also seemed very emphatic about bussing people: Hatz at the very beginning, Ventyl once enough confusion about him popped up, and maybe Kynedath. I feel like if Pyro, Ventyl, and I were all in on bussing Ventyl, there could have been a much more effective way of doing it than what I did.

Karnage hasn't been active enough to post, but he's evidently reading the threads and he's active enough to submit actions. He could be the Kandra, or trying to feign disconnection as an Elim, but I have no idea what to think of him right now. He can wait.

Lahilt I can't read. But we can do some work with process of elimination. (Pun semi-intended.)

Mist I believe has been active enough to post as well, but hasn't posted even when under suspicion. Please say something. But if Mist isn't the Elim for targeting Mage, then I have no idea who it could be. Mage, I guess. Or maybe Lahilt/Karnage.

I don't know who to trust besides TJ, but I also don't know who to not trust.

 

My question is, what was Pyro doing with all his Boxings. He would be the most likely Elim to get the lerasium, but he also seemed to want other people to buy things for him (including TJ to buy the Bead, apparently). That doesn't make sense.

Now that I think about it, Pyro was probably going to let Drake steal a bunch and then kill him for his Boxings to buy the lerasium, or just kill him once he got it. I guess that way Lorena Blackburn got the Last Laugh after all...

Hopefully I can add some Faleast RP to this. He really did trust Pyria.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Ashbringer

[Mist she/her]

I think there may be an elim!Slider. I targeted someone to roleblock with a steel trap. It ended up on Magestar.

Magestar: he claimed Augur-Brute. It appears as though he has been attacked twice by the elims.

TJ Shade: he has claimed Coinshot. Appears to be telling the truth. Likely not elim, especially since 6 elims, one of whom is a Coinshot, would be unbalanced. 

Ashbringer: I Brought up relevant statements today. More elim than Magestar and TJ. At the start, Pyro pushed them to reveal the plan that brought suspicion on Ventyl.

Karnage: he hasn't been very active at all. I'm guessing he's no longer participating. Ventyl voted on them, and they on Ventyl. Less likely to be an elim, although this group of elims seems to have bussed a lot, so that's not definitive. 

Lahilt: Ventyl chose not to roleblock them. I can't really read them. At this point, that's a problem.

I'm watching the thread, so I'll see if you ask me any questions.

[Magestar he/him]

31 minutes ago, Mist said:

I think there may be an elim!Slider. I targeted someone to roleblock with a steel trap. It ended up on Magestar.

Well.

Now would be a good time to say who you targeted.  Really no reason not to.

[Mist she/her]

Sorry. Dinner.

I targeted Lahilt. I voted on them, didn't I? I didn't know if it was them, someone working with them, or even a villager trying to protect them. It could be any of those three. It could be unbalanced to have a Lurcher and a Slider on the same team.

[Lahilt he/him]

1 hour ago, Mist said:

Sorry. Dinner.

I targeted Lahilt. I voted on them, didn't I? I didn't know if it was them, someone working with them, or even a villager trying to protect them. It could be any of those three. It could be unbalanced to have a Lurcher and a Slider on the same team.

I am not a slider. I actually roleclaimed to pyro last cycle. after pyro voted for me I was worried that they were kandra and also claimed to someone else so that this information would not be lost on my death.

As for me working with a slider we would have to assume two Elims left. At this point we know the abilities of TJ Shade and Magestar. I have roleclaimed to one of you and if I was a slider why would I have lied about it last cycle? Mist claimed thug I believe.

If there is a slider out there please roleclaim.

 Also I think that a slider has already been killed, which means we are assuming two slider roles.

@Mist did Pyro know that you planned to steel trap me before you did it?

Edited June 23, 2020 by Lahilt

[Ashbringer he/him]

Lerasium would fix the missing Slider problem, although I don’t know if having used it would show up in the death role reveal. And I doubt Pyro or anyone could have bought the lerasium, used it to make himself a Slider, then use the Slider ability, all in one turn.

And I don’t think any spikes besides mine were missing, although a sneaky Elim!Hemalurgist could manage to cover it up...

Actually, now that I think about it, that could very well have happened. The Hemalurgists don’t start with an Uncharged Spike, they start with a kill that will put a spike in the shop. So a Hemalurgist could buy a spike the same turn they use their kill and none would be the wiser. Plus spikes were supposed to sometimes generate on player death, so maybe we do have a missing spike.

Missing spike =/= Elim Slider, but it would explain some of the oddities going on around certain events.

{Aborting tinfoil.exe}

As for why I started suspecting Pyro so late, I didn’t get info until “so late”. Emi had PM’d me her role easily, which made our last lynch not make sense, and I had been thinking for a while there could be an Elim Tineye. I didn’t put it together what that meant until the leak suggested an Elim in our Village Core.

Plus TBH I was still trying to figure out whether our “leak” was Pyro or you (Mage), or something else. I guess now we know.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Ashbringer

[|TJ| he/him]

@Ashbringer, willing to NB me?

@Magestar, so we only have Pyro's word to believe about Lahilt's role. He could easily have been lying about following Lahilt to cover the fact the Lahilt is a Slider. I really do not know. Also, do you want to get rid of the kandra first? To prevent the kandra from siding with the elim during voting? 

[Lahilt he/him]

 If I was a Slider then the steel trap would have been randomly redirected. This would mean that the Elims would not have known where it landed, making an attack on Magestar extremely stupid as they already knew his role.

I find it far more likely that Mist used the trap on Magestar and is now trying to deflect the blame on me. 

Also we have no evidence of a slider still being alive. Nothing has been redirected that  i know of.

[Magestar he/him]

7 hours ago, TJ Shade said:

@Magestar, so we only have Pyro's word to believe about Lahilt's role. He could easily have been lying about following Lahilt to cover the fact the Lahilt is a Slider. I really do not know. Also, do you want to get rid of the kandra first? To prevent the kandra from siding with the elim during voting? 

I actually think we should just lynch Mist.  I don't know if Mist is an Elim, but unless there were seven Elims, as long as you and I are both alive they can't win, right?  So we should be pretty good.  I just need you to not Lander the last player you mention on the seventh page of our PM with Pyro before Pyro says LOL.    You can pick another player you think it might be useful to Lander, just not that one.

I don't know what's up with this whole slider thing.  Didn't we have info that Lahilt self-targeted, making their role claim pretty likely?

What I don't understand is Mist's claim.  Why would you even use an RB on Lahilt?  It doesn't make a lot of sense.  Especially since the trap was used during the day cycle.  It makes me even more suspicious of Mist.

I'm kind of in a weird place though because if we kill Mist today and they're the last Elim, the game ends.    And I'm kinda enjoying it too much to want it to end.

8 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

As for why I started suspecting Pyro so late, I didn’t get info until “so late”. Emi had PM’d me her role easily, which made our last lynch not make sense, and I had been thinking for a while there could be an Elim Tineye. I didn’t put it together what that meant until the leak suggested an Elim in our Village Core.

That makes sense.  Looking back, an Elim Tineye makes a lot of sense.  Too bad I didn't see it sooner.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Magestar

[|TJ| he/him]

22 minutes ago, Magestar said:

Didn't we have info that Lahilt self-targeted, making their role claim pretty likely?

That info came from Pyro.

22 minutes ago, Magestar said:

Looking back, an Elim Tineye makes a lot of sense.  Too bad I didn't see it sooner.

Gahh, I told you this as soon as Emi flipped village Tineye. 

Edit: I agree we should stick with Mist, though an elim team of 6 with a Thug is basically too powerful. Maybe the Thug is to counter the kandra likely to hit elims earlier in the game than villagers.

Edited June 23, 2020 by TJ Shade

[Magestar he/him]

1 hour ago, TJ Shade said:

Gahh, I told you this as soon as Emi flipped village Tineye. 

I thought you were doubting the likelihood of two Tineyes existing.    My bad.  Not like it would really have changed what we'd done anyway.  It wasn't anything we could prove, and role-based alignment guessing isn't always super accurate.   I don't think being a tineye is necessarily alignment indicative.

edit: I realize that such an assumption also makes no sense, since PMs were still open.  -sigh-

Edited June 23, 2020 by Magestar

[|TJ| he/him]

Pyria...Pyria had betrayed him. He had taken taken effort to make sure she was safe, especially since he felt responsible for her friend's death but, she's been taking full advantage of him. I killed so many innocents and I was actually saving a.. a what? A criminal? No..she was just a kid. They used her like a tool just like they use everyone else. He wouldn't blame her, and he certainly wouldn't blame himself for wanting to protect the young girl. He had no idea how this would turn out, with the kandra and the last Loyalist still about. But he'd try. For now, he set out to search for Reginald as he felt like all this was his fault and he roped Reginald into it needlessly. He owed Reginald at least an apology. 

He was roaming around the corridor when he heard a grunt and the sound of footsteps approaching his way. He warily checked around the corner to see a dark figure running towards him. 

As a hazekiller, TJ needed to hide his ability very well to avoid his role among them. This was helped by a special ability he had perfected since a very young age. He could regurgitate items in his stomach back to his mouth. As such, he always swallowed 3 coins and kept them as a reserve in his stomach. Seeing the unknown person, he immediately brought the coin straight from his stomach to his mouth and held it between his teeth. He waited for his moment and spit it out while simultaneously Pushing on it. What he had failed to notice was a small side-opening in the walls into which the assaulter swerved into, but not before taking a shot in the shoulder. He ran to the spot where he had disappeared, but there was no trace of the assailant or the side opening. He'd worry about this person later. For now, he needed to make sure Reginald was alright. They both needed to survive in order to see this through.

[Ashbringer he/him]

15 hours ago, TJ Shade said:

@Ashbringer, willing to NB me?

Blast, how did my brain look over this twice. I'm on it.

 

As for anything else to say... Mage, why do you suddenly think I'm suspicious? I Pulsed last night as requested, and it appears to have worked. 

Also, isn't Lahilt's apparent role always self-target? Or did Pyro tell us different things?

 

[Magestar he/him]

1 hour ago, Ashbringer said:

As for anything else to say... Mage, why do you suddenly think I'm suspicious? I Pulsed last night as requested, and it appears to have worked. 

What do you mean it appears to have worked? 

And for what it's worth, I'm not suddenly suspicious of you, I've been moderately suspicious of you on and off all game.    I'm also pretty sure I haven't expressed very many new suspicions of you this cycle... do you have something specific in mind?

1 hour ago, Ashbringer said:

Also, isn't Lahilt's apparent role always self-target? Or did Pyro tell us different things?

The question is whether or not we can trust Pyro's info.

[Ashbringer he/him]

You know... fair. I’ve always been up in the lynch for most cycles.

You know who I Pulsed last night (or the one everyone was suggesting me to, if I didn’t say it outright in the PM), and it seems to have let the Flip go off correctly.

Maybe Lahilt should just threadclaim? I feel like the role I think he has isn’t the same you think, unless you know his F-role.

[Mist she/her]

You don't have to lynch me.

[Magestar he/him]

20 minutes ago, Mist said:

You don't have to lynch me.

Are you admitting to being the last Elim?   

[Lahilt he/him]

53 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

You know... fair. I’ve always been up in the lynch for most cycles.

You know who I Pulsed last night (or the one everyone was suggesting me to, if I didn’t say it outright in the PM), and it seems to have let the Flip go off correctly.

Maybe Lahilt should just threadclaim? I feel like the role I think he has isn’t the same you think, unless you know his F-role.

Who did you pulse last night? If you can share that information. 

The reason i did not roleclaim in thread is that i thought the Kandra might not know my allomantic power but I think that they would have realized what it is by now.

I am an Oracle/Skimmer twinborn I burned Electrum and stored steel every night cycle. Pyro was the first player to target me. This last cycle my steel storing was succesful but it canceled out my Electrum.  Mist

[Mist she/her]

7 minutes ago, Magestar said:

Are you admitting to being the last Elim?   

No. I'm just up for the lynch. Edit:

Edited June 24, 2020 by Mist

[Ashbringer he/him]

Hmm. Oracle is what Pyro told us. Skimmer storing is iron, but that makes sense... I think. So because your Skimming let you evade the action, the Oracle power couldn’t catch who did it? Did anyone use an action on Lahilt last night?

I guess I’ll say my end of this. TJ wanted to be able to lynch Mist if needed, and he was worried that Mist was Thug/Skimmer, so I Pulsed him to prevent him possibly dodging the Coinshotting.

There’s also [REDACTED], but I don’t think that matters anymore.

[Magestar he/him]

1 minute ago, Mist said:

No. I'm just up for the lynch. Edit:

Well if Lahilt hadn't voted for you I'd have tied up the lynch for the lols.    Kinda too late now tho.

I believe the vote count is currently:

Mist (4): TJ Shade, Magestar, Ashbringer, Lahilt

Lahilt: (1): Mist