Kasimir

I see: even so, Ash, I'd still seriously like to apologise? I think there are points when game commentary gets entirely out of line, and in my judgement, some of it did get out of line, so I think an apology was called for, one way or another.

Ash, I'd like to apologise, then, for how the commentary in the spec doc came over as. Looking back over it again, I think some of it got a bit overboard at certain points. To be honest, Ren and myself were not especially targeting you--you just happened to be the player making the moves which particularly called attention (and those moves were therefore the ones I commented on in the spec doc.) If Meta, for instance, had been able to play his Truthwatcher gambit, even as Jeno, no doubt I'd have commented more on that move instead. Still, that doesn't detract from the fact that I think some comments were especially harsh, and I apologise for them.

King's just a Pokemon Master--gotta catch 'em all! >>

But if no one here chooses to recognise a rent collector's authority or rent collector-ness, does it matter whether or not he has instated himself as a rent-collector? Maybe you should see if there's some Vashikaran black magic that can help you on that, Panda. Maybe Babaji can hook you up with something

...Strange. Maybe it's just my luck, but back when I was in engineering, and even after I'd swapped over to the humanities, I'd always known quite a few people who were into fantasy. But then again, my sample size is always small, given I don't tend to associate with large groups of people. And although I felt really weird carrying a fantasy book into one of my classes, it turned out that my prof is a really big sci fi and fantasy fan, so things were pretty great. At least the more I look at my experiences, it does seem that in the humanities, there is this stigma to carrying around a fantasy book into class, but at the same time, my profs have generally been fans of fantasy too, to the point I'm starting to wonder if it's just really a personal perception/stereotype. And of course, I never felt weird carrying fantasy books into an engineering tutorial because heaven forbid my TA actually look up and realise we're not carrying a textbook as we enter the classroom. Although on an interesting note: the distribution of GoT fans peaks across the computing and humanities faculties, and is pretty small in engineering. No idea why And yeah, I'm one of those cross-faculty traitors, if it isn't already obvious >>

But...but...the House T-shirts! The bonding session! THE URBAIN INQUISITION

Three months after he found himself standing over his half-brother's corpse in closed carriage, a bloodied steel knife in his hands, Drax left Luthadel by horse. His life, thought Drax, was bisected by the edge of that knife--and he'd known, even as he went to make his report to Lord Heron, his half-brother's blood still warm on his mistcloak, that things weren't going to be the same again. That one did not displease a Lord such as Lord Heron, with his connections to the Canton of Inquisition, was the least of the reasons why. Something had broken inside Lord Heron; Drax wasn't sure about himself. It had taken him a week before he could enter Kassel's room to clear out all the things, forbidding the skaa to touch the notes his brother had carefully laboured over, or the contract Kassel was last working on--now complete. It took him even longer when he found the copy of Iosanth--the bindings cracked--hastily stuffed into the shelf with Kassel's neat, imperious hand making notes of inconsistencies in the margins; one or two quiet critiques of Iosanth's thought. For all of that, Drax thought, this was the last book he'd touched before he died, the obsidian reading pointer still hanging awkwardly between the pages where Kassel hadn't quite set it back right. He'd been preoccupied... Sometimes, said Iosanth, on the page Drax had found the reading pointer on, in careful, painstaking excavation of the bones of the dead, we may find something--a point of interest. The cautious scholar, however, knows better than to press such a point beyond the support of his evidence; this exercise is not unlike a detective's investigation-- It was about as far as he got before he closed the book, feeling the knife-sharpness within. Books, the dronings of dead men--they'd always been Kassel's interest. Never his. He rubbed the intricate ring in his pocket, feeling his vision prickle and blur, even now, not daring to put it on--not yet, with the spires of Kredik Shaw still in sight. He spurred the horse on. It would be a long journey to the Southern Dominance--from there, he intended to find a ship that would take him to the Southern Islands and then past the tip of the Remote Dominance itself. Into...what was there, waiting to be found? Emptiness? He would travel to the very edges of the world, and then beyond: beyond maps, beyond words, beyond memories. And then one day, when Death caught up with him, he had someone to hold to account. Drax rode on.

King: I'd jokingly suggest that TuyDo, the intrepid Doc-Hopper, should count as well, if it isn't a painful moment for you :/ Maili: Actually, that was what tripped a flag for me. You seemed too entirely interested in what I was and coming up with the obviously wrong conclusion, for me to be quite comfortable with it >> I'd already assumed you guys had known I was a Lurcher from Newan, because I told Gamma I was a Lurcher on Day One, and then I told Ren again, on Day Three. As such, I pretended to be a Thug strictly for trolling purposes.

I know that, I just wanted to have saved someone once Being in Gamut's House sure seems like it raises the standards! Yes, skaa, killing me was a mercy, after you sent me into a state of extreme existential crisis about being a Lurcher who never Lurchers! If it wasn't for myself Lurching myself on Night 5, I'd have been the most altruistic Lurcher ever (?) too, having pretty much never Lurched myself, for all the good it did! Also, I should add that I ought to be an Honorary Tineye this game, given all the times I was directly relaying messages between Meta and Gamma! Transcribing those was, at times, a pain >>

Well, sorry, Great Lord (Gamma), I lied about having to Lurch Meta, mostly because I couldn't immediately think of a good reason--at least with regard to why I would be asked to protect Aonar. So I basically lied that I'd had enough and was swapping targets to Lurch Aonar because the poor guy deserves it (which, incidentally, is true, and congratulations on surviving a full game, Aonar!) which avoids the awkward talk about his House power. I just thought it was better to be safe on that front--Aonar was to be scanning Ashette with Genealogy initially (he had Broad Investments) but then, as the plan changed, I figured it was still better to keep that hidden in the worst-case scenario of a fifth skaa as he could still go for a two-shot (Genealogy and Obligation) to clear players Not to mention Hazekillers! I'm very glad to have finally been on the good side for an Elimination game--and congratulations to the skaa for leading us on a merry chase, despite the disadvantages of inactivity In addition: Maili--no worries; I'm slightly miffed you messed my stats of survival but I already knew from the start that King'd mentioned he would be killing me whether or not I was killed by the skaa, so it was only a matter of time. He'd set up for this a few nights back with the message to Lord Heron, so there was no way in Braize I was surviving this game! I did pretend to be a Thug for the heck of it since I decided to troll you given that blatant question. As I almost trolled Ash too but held back on that. To be honest, I'm slightly relieved you "killed" me since I can reflect that rather than have Kassel die by the Inquisition, which was King's plan. And it was the outcome I had hoped for, and anticipated. So I guess that doesn't give me a Lurch success of absolute zero (Gamma and myself were trying to anticipate where the skaa kill would go for purposes of dual-Lurching.) Still though, I swear I've been the most useless Lurcher this game I've never once succeeded in saving a person from a kill or Coinshot! Edit: I am also (relatively) proud of the organisation of the Urbain doc. The chaos made it hard, but the structure at least gave us some chance of figuring where important stuff were, even if we'd sort of stopped doing things intensively since the Urbain Inquisition, and then again, after Ren's death--which, I have to say, really killed the doc

Might I recommend, as we have a confession, that all Mistborn with steel and Coinshots hit Maili tonight? As far as it looks, it seems pointless to me to keep dragging things on so we can wait another 48 hours to see if we've lynched our last skaa. Just have done with. Alternatively, if anyone has Impeived Weaponry, this would be a good time to use it.

More awkward in-thread posts as I can't edit my House doc: Gamma, acknowledged.

Night had fallen. A basket of oranges sat on the table. Typical, Kassel thought. It had taken Fien a night to send him a fruit basket and a curt card advising him to make a swift recovery in eyewateringly purple ink. At least he liked oranges. He picked one up, and peeled it slowly, juices dripping past his fingers onto the stone floor. The first thing Fien had immediately sent him, upon word of the attack, was bandages. Orange bandages. He half-wondered if Fien had just ordered Gamad to shred up a curtain or something. The orange were tart. Fruit out of season...he set the remaining slices down. The skaa servant usually brought in the tea, but this time, Kassel had brewed it himself. It seemed wiser, in times like these. And what did he mean, by 'in times like these'? Restlessly, he padded over to the bookshelf, his hands finding the slim, worn volume by Althus Iosanth and flipping through the pages until he found the slim reading pointer. The obsidian was cold to the touch. A golden age, he read, haltingly in the poor lighting, never lasts. Perhaps the term itself is a misnomer. Enlightenment--what does it mean? The crimes of tyrants whose bones are long dust lie unremembered; we treat them as new horrors, and believe that the wrongs of our times are the greatest. This, then, is why the historian's task... He sighed, and shut the book in a sharp, decisive movement. It wasn't, he thought, a night for reading Iosanth. He had things to do. He returned to his desk. The cup was already there, waiting. He held up the pouch of pewter beads, weighing it in his hand. The pewter, he thought, was a way of explaining his survival. But it wasn't the truth. He'd been taken by surprise and hadn't even had a chance to reach his pewter vial. Someone saved me, thought Kassel, and I don't even know who. Or why. He counted out pewter beads, gleaming wetly in the steady candlelight, and then swallowed them down one by one with the tea. Bitter as noble grudges; he still didn't know why he insisted on drinking it, each night. Kassel held the cup in his hands, studied it. Admired it. It was beautiful and simple--something most artifacts in a noble House were not. A branch family of House Erikell invested in glassware made from the abundant ash that fell. It was, all things considered, a work of art, in a way. He dashed it to pieces against the stone floor, deliberately, and doused the candle. The philosopher Degan, controversial in this modern day and age, came to mind: As soon as man comes to life, he is at once old enough to die. He'd never liked Degan, and his contemporaries. Too sweeping. Too imprecise. On a night such as this, however... So this is how it ends, Kassel thought, tapping bronze.

Kassel awkwardly adjusted the bandages on his arm in the silence that followed Lord Tuy's outburst and departure, feeling strangely tired. Time to end this, he thought. It was long past time; he was tired and sick of balls, of killing, and of the Inquisitors. He was tired of jumping at shadows, of looking over his shoulder, of--of what? He didn't even know. His bronzemind wasn't helping; not against this exhaustion which had stolen over him. He stood up, nudging his way past some of the other nobles to find the one he was looking for. He grimaced; Fien was dressed in what he insisted were Urbain colours--gaudy as always. He wondered briefly where Fien had gotten that idea from--some of the recent historical texts describing the Great Houses of Luthadel had indicated the colours of House Urbain had been different. At least it wasn't hard to pick Fien out in a crowd. "Lord Urbain," he said, quietly. "We need to talk."

Cat: I've only asked about Mailu once. The first time was last night. Hence my getting the Coinshot information. I deem that the information has been placed in the pool, and it would have to be put in by no one else other than Asyr, since there was no way Maili could have placed it on of his own accord on Night Five (it doesn't meet the standards required to be an Informant truth for him, at least), though I don't think he's in the mood to confirm it now. As I said, and if you'll look at the phrasing again, it's terribly specific: "Asyr Coinshot Mailu on Night Five." I'm also not sure why the second case is particularly mysterious. Here's one reason why it would be consistent with Asyr's presumable skaa-ness and in his interests to do so. The Informant mechanic has worked out pretty badly for the skaa with what went on with Racine. This was a non-revealing truth and a godsend since he was explicitly asked to Coinshoot Maili. Storms, he could've just said Mailu was Coinshot on Night 5 and it would've passed muster. That he threw his own name in...well. Ash: Seriously? (This is directed at your reasoning, nothing more.) 1. If the Tineye or the Genie goes down, we'd have been knee-deep in manure, to put it mildly. (This was before revealing Wandrin.) I was the one who could survive a hit and therefore expendable. And as last night demonstrated, it was a pretty good thing too. I must agree I'm not comfortable with the small-group-at-top structure the village tends to take on in these games. But my ethical qualms about how to create/play an inclusive, welcoming, and fun game do not belong in this discussion. However, you have a point and I'm not going to dismiss the possibility of skaa infiltration. 2. Really? Let's go through the scenarios you've listed. 2a. You use the skaa kill on Hyrun. Hyrun dies, no one else does. It becomes clear to us that something isn't quite right here, particularly when no one else would come forward as having survived/blocked the kill. You collect suspicion, not because of Hyrun's death, but because of the missing kill and no way to account for it. 2b. The skaa kill Hyrun to frame you. Quite frankly, in such a case, just as with lev, we would have had to decide based on what evidence we had available, whether it was Case 2a or 2b. That, I grant, would be a handful. And last: my soaking up of the skaa kill seems strange with the plan? Really? Exactly what do you mean by that? My soaking up the skaa kill was not part of the plan (and no, it was not my plan, stop attributing it to me because I did not like the plan and spent a long time arguing with the Tineye and the storming fool in the communication network who came up with it.) It was something I'd hoped would not happen but was expecting would probably eventually happen.

If you're 90% sure, Ash, then why don't you tell us who you think the fourth skaa is? It would help greatly, and there's really no reason, as Gamma said, why we should just be doing pretty much nothing other than waiting for the votes against Asyr to go in.

I'm currently studying for a BA (Hons.) in philosophy (with the philosophy of science and technology as my current areas of specialisation) and working towards a minor in Science, Technology, and Society studies at the same time. At the moment, I'm also working part-time for my professor as a research assistant. So, peon work

It bloody hurt, Kassel thought, with a scowl. He stayed off the wine (not that he drank), and tried not to think about the wound beneath the neatly tied-off bandages. They'd come for him, the skaa, on the night Drax was away. Going after the weak and the ill, Kassel thought. The skaa certainly knew how to pick their targets. It was pewter that had allowed him to survive; pewter that kept him on his feet long after he should've been dead. He grimaced as his Allomantic reserves dwindled, and washed down another pewter bead with water. Pewter burned fast. Too fast, he thought, though Drax mentioned that atium burned faster, and it cost a Lord's ransom. Fien could keep his rusting shirts and declare a different heir. He was contracted out to House Urbain; it didn't mean he had to care about Urbain's politics. To Alden and Hadrian, he said, "Well, my Lords Izenry and Penrod, you will be no doubt pleased to discover that I'd set my contacts to investigating Lord Tuy. I must admit, I had come to similar conclusions, albeit through a different set of propositions. Last night, I was informed that those suspicions were correct: Lord Tuy is skaa." Pretty much what it says on the tin. The Genie has scanned Asyr and has discovered Asyr is skaa.

Maili, you have no idea how much I've wanted to say this ever since King has been using this repeatedly: "I can neither confirm nor deny that Kassel is a Pewterarm."

Info time: 1. Presumably, Ash took down Hyrun. So Hyrun was telling the truth about having been injured on Day Four. The question is, by *whom? 2. I visited the Informant about Mailu and was informed that Asyr Coinshot him on Night Five, as suggested. 3. Lastly and probably most relevant to your calculations: the skaa kill hit me last night. ...I got better. Edit: Corrected for grammar >>

It's not as though I've been exceedingly active/helpful before this, but I'd like to make a note that I will be going quasi-inactive for a while. By this, I mean I will still convey information and go to the Informant and all, but I won't be actively analysing stuff in thread and all. Uni's just started and the registrar managed to superbly mess up my status, resulting in my being stripped of my tuition subsidy and causing me some financial problems. tldr; I have a lot on my plate at the moment, RL-wise. So, quasi-inactivity.

Ren--I apologise, but due to RL reasons, it looks like I'm going to have to pull out of this game. I simply don't think I'm going to have the time to commit even though this looks interesting. However, if you're doing up a spec doc, I'd gladly like to request to be in on it. I hope this doesn't cause any trouble :/