Kasimir

Luckat: Quick point of order here--kandra cannot use the bodies of people taken off by the inquisitors. Only victims of night kills can be used. I agree with the idea of informant coordination. And I'd like more clarification from King about this, but it seems that it might actually be better if we get people from the same House checking on each other. Or if we keep asking about the same people we've already asked about, as you've mentioned. In the first case, we would rule out people getting trivial information such as the target's House, as the Informant does not give you already-known information.

If Aonar, the Lord of Trolling and Gambits was fooled, I now don't feel so bad about having been tricked too Awesome! We actually got our first skaa!

So, I've gotten back from a long, tiring, and draggy committee meeting and have finally scrounged up the energy to go through these things. My question is how much we want to leave this open to Emotional Allomancers and injuries playing merry Braize with the votes. Just as importantly, I point out that three GH Lords have voted. Gamma has claimed House Urbain does not have a kandra, and none of his House have gainsaid him. But Cat and Asyr are also both HLs and have stacked votes together on Fain. I suggest we consider that to be 3 votes just to be safe as we don't know who TelZaan is with. As I've said previously (maybe not in this game, too exhausted to check), there's no real rush for a Day One lynch. But so far, we've gotten lots of dross from the Informant action. Sifting things out is proving to be problematic. For me, the key players this right sorry mess points to are Racine and Cat. ...In all honesty, I think Aonar is right, and the more I look through the situation and the arguments, the more I think Racine is innocent. The problem with Informant information at the moment is that we have two layers of testimony to question: 1. Is the person in the thread reporting truthfully? 2. Has the person who originally submitted the information now under examination lied? While I will say that our current evidence seems to indicate Racine did go to the Informant (and yes, I will confirm now that Racine's evidence reflects the information I gave the Informant), Cat could be right. Based on the rules about the Informant pool, Racine could be giving out information another skaa found out. But the fact remains that for Ren to have received a GM fact about Racine being skaa (that is to say, if we assume that fact is true), Racine had to have given no information out at all. That strikes me as a strange move for skaa, unless Racine had used that action slot to make a skaa kill. What then do we make of the two other facts (necessarily so, given the rule about the Informant action and the initial assumption that Racine is skaa) raised in this thread? On the other hand, I find Cat's recent post most suspicious; disingenuous even. I note that while she points out flaws in Aonar's defence of Racine, she is content to side-step having to press a lynch for Racine entirely and instead votes Fain for information, when Fain already had a vote on him. Given 24 hours more in this cycle, I would happily place my vote for Cat. ...But it is 2am. I need sleep, and I am dead exhausted. I am not absolutely certain about Racine, but my priorities at this point would be to stabilise the vote, avoiding shenanigans. In addition, we need information. This would, for me, boil it down to Racine or Cat, in order to sift out the dross. If Jae would like to share with the class why he voted for Cat, I'd swap my vote over if he can convince someone else to swap to Cat. At this point in the Turn, I'm not sure I can :/

Araris: So, tell me, how do you come by the knowledge that there are only two people in House Elariel?

Ash, a Coinshot kill doesn't reveal allegiance. Neither does a skaa kill. (To be precise, a skaa kill will always reveal House and role but never allegiance, i.e. skaa-ness.) The only kill in this game that reveals allegiance is the lynch. Also, Araris, lynches do not destroy House powers unless the House powers go to a lynching skaa. The powers go to one of the random lynchees. In any case: I am not entirely certain what to make of this puzzle, and I have to head out for most of today, so to avoid any untoward accidents: Racine.

"What are you doing here?" Kassel hissed. Drax looked supremely pleased with himself as he juggled a small pouch. Carrying his metals, no doubt. "Keeping an eye on you. Can you believe Dorran?" He held out the pouch. Kassel raised an eyebrow. "I hardly need a nursemaid." "It's green," Drax said. "I've never even seen steel that colour before." He worked open the pouch and spilled a little fine metal dust out onto his palm. "See that?" Kassel winced. "Lord Ruler," he muttered. "I've seen mould that wasn't half as green as this." "Exactly!" Drax announced, brushing the metal dust from his hands and tying the pouch shut again. Then the pouch was gone; secreted about somewhere. Kassel knew Drax's ill-fitting suit was one of those meant for Mistborn: sewn with multiple hidden pockets and straps for metal vials and glass knives. "So, is there a reason you have that with you?" Drax's expression was not reassuring. "I thought it'd be fun." Kassel barely hid his sigh. "And my uncle thought you'd be a great nursemaid." "Well," Drax said, with a beatific smile, "I suppose he just thought I'd be great at taking care of my baby brother." "Younger half-brother," Kassel insisted, folding his arms across his chest. This, he thought, was shaping up to be a very long evening and the night hadn't even started yet. Probably, Drax's rare public presence meant that his uncle had heard of the murder of Lady Elariel, and had decided to take...precautions. It also explained his uncle's insistence that he attend the ball, rather than dispatching Lissel. He doesn't want to risk his heir. He, on the other hand, was perfectly expendable. As always. "Mmhmm," Drax said, unbothered. "Also, if you're curious, Lady Monrinthe--" he glanced, for a moment, across the ballroom at the person of whom he was speaking, "rather old for a ball, don't you think?--is telling the others that she knew what you did last night. Really, Kas, I didn't know you were that bored--" "I was ironing out the Renoux contract," Kassel said, hurriedly, before Drax could start on one of his tangents. "Lord Ruler, that old lady!" He frowned. What was her game? I'm just getting some RP in first. I'll contribute later, after one or two clarifications I've run past our GM come back. Thanks for the response, Racine. However, I am, for now, keeping my vote in place until I get responses from King and can assess the situation better.

I am rather interested to know why, when deciding to be cautious about Informant information received, Racine considered it unproblematic to reveal information (I neither confirm nor deny this) about my metal action. Considering that Gamma has reported to neither being injured nor is he (rather obviously) dead, it seems to me I don't quite follow her reasoning for choosing to favour one piece of information over the other. Gamma, would you please confirm that you have not been injured? (Assuming, of course, that you are in fact uninjured, and that you are inclined to report an injury.) Edit: Colour changed because I would really like to hear an answer, and so I will make it worth Racine's while to answer.

Maili has a point. What's with the orange, Gamma? Araris: However I die, feel free to get yourself a spike after that I would say dismissing option 2) is too hasty. I have spoken with the GM and gotten back the clarification (speaking of which; where do you put the fresh clarifications, King, since you said they'll be public?) that when the Lord of a Great House falls, their successor will be publicly announced. So it would, in effect, be possible for the skaa to depopulate an uninfiltrated Great House.

Fair enough; I greatly enjoy her books, but I've also heard some criticism about how she's handled some issues, so with regard to recommending her books, I guess I'm somewhat divided

Or alternatively: that they had a Rioter, but the Rioter hit a Smoker. Speaking of which, the Smokers should probably start Smoking people tonight. The more people we have under Copperclouds, the less likely it is that Emotional Allomancy can play merry Braize with our votes. Kassel paused before his study and sighed. This, he thought, was why he didn't like balls. All that talking and assessing people, of all things. It was tiring, and it'd been fairly inconclusive apart from learning that half the nobility on Luthadel didn't have their heads nailed on right. And that he'd already known, even before the ball. The night was still young, and he had work to do. He should've been going through the specifics of that Renoux contract, trying to sift through the logistics and ensure that everything fell into place. The contact from House Renoux was, in that regard, disorganised and unhelpful. He pushed open the door, stifling a yawn. Drax sat on the old chair before the lit fireplace, flipping through a book. His mistcloak was gone; Kassel briefly wondered where he'd stashed it. Perhaps he was burning tin; he glanced up as soon as Kassel entered, although he'd been quiet. "Lord Hadrian Penrod?" Drax asked, an eyebrow raised. "Really?" Kassel sighed. "Word of the ball should be everywhere by now, then. Wouldn't be surprised to see everyone looking for a decent informant later tonight." He shed his suit jacket with relief, tossing it over the back of another empty chair. The skaa servant must've come in when word came that he'd returned; there was a cup of warm tea on the table. He picked it up, sipped from it and made a face at its bitter, ashy taste. He didn't know why he still drank tea. Nasty drink. He rubbed at the earring in his left ear; nothing more than a small bronze loop. "There's going to be another purge, then," Drax continued. Kassel nodded. "Yes." As in two-value logics, there were only two answers this time, he thought. You were either skaa or a noble. Nothing, or something. Sometimes, though, there were multi-value logics. An newer piece by Erns Ratsthiel had been interesting in that regard. He found himself stifling another yawn, and frowned, tapping bronze. Tonight, he thought, was going to be a long night. Just could not resist making a joking reference to finally being a Ferring. Semi-appropriate for this game!

If you had not posted a strategy that would be congruent with the ideal strategy for skaa, I would likely not have voted at all. (Although I admit I have a question for Kal Dell which I'd probably have placed a vote on him to get him to answer. If you're looking at this, Kal: there were two informational votes on Newan by that point in the game. Why add a third if you only want him to respond, rather than to actually kill him?) As I mentioned previously, I don't tend to vote on Day One unless something strongly catches my attention. (QF2 was an exception and that was because we generally can't afford to not lynch at all on Day One in a QF.) As people have pointed out previously (not in this game), we get information first and foremost from the lynch discussion. While it is inevitable that we need to lynch sooner or later, I don't feel particularly strongly or urgently about a Day One lynch in this Long Game. Are you contributing? Yes. I can't deny that. But I can't just ask if you're contributing. Just as you've said, almost everyone in this dog-and-pony show has been contributing, to differing degrees. It's just as important to actually look at the content of the contributions so far. Am I certain you're skaa? No. I'm not sure what to make of you. (And many people in this game can attest to the fact I'm pants at reading people and assessing motivations.) But as I've said, your strategies are consistent with the aims of skaa. I don't think that's evidence for your being skaa. It's way too early for evidence, and it being consistent with your being skaa does not imply or in any way 'prove' that you must be skaa. (To say otherwise would be bad logic.) But nonetheless, that is certainly something I wish to flag. And as Ash requested: Jae (1): Aonar Ash (2): Fien, Jain Tonul (1): Meta Meta (1): Shiv Jain (1): Hadrian Newan (2): Cat, Kaldin Fien (1): Racine Hadrian (2): Kas, Maili

Convince me that suggesting we collectively target a House Lord is the same thing as preventing vote-changes. And if you've argued earlier that we have a poor chance of finding skaa on Day One, that is absolutely correct. I'm going to stay agnostic on the issue of a Day One lynch, especially because I don't want to bring up that tired old debate again. So here is where I disagree with you: 1. Don't forget, we have Smokers too. I don't know how many of them there are, but this will also be better tomorrow if all Smokers start Smoking someone, which I really hope they will do. Still, we're arguing about what course of action to take today. 2. Really? Is it so bad if a skaa soother/rioter controls the vote? If they do, it gives us information. You yourself have acknowledged we don't have much information on Day One, so it's all a shot in the dark. Any vote shenanigans gives us information with which to work with. We know that they're trying to direct heat away from people, and towards people. Right now, we don't know anything about their intentions, or their strategies, or how they're trying to play. 3. You're also asking us to create a vote dogpile. And the thing is, a collectively-negotiated dogpile gives us almost no information at all; looking at who voted for whom isn't as helpful in such a scenario. It creates more noise than signal. does remain and I submit it is fair to say that it creates noise.] 4. Even if I were to agree about the issue of creating a vote dogpile (I most certainly don't), creating a vote dogpile is a separate issue altogether from a strategy of going for the House Lords (of the GHs/sGHs, yes, I know.) I therefore think it slightly disingenuous to suggest that your strategy of targeting House Lords is to prevent vote shenanigans. My vote stands.

I really hope you aren't joking. In two out of three of your scenarios, you're asking us to kill a noble--and a noble in a position to use their House powers to our benefit, without invoking the 1/3 chance of passing the power to the skaa if the House was skaa-infiltrated. I don't see how we're using a similar amount of information to the skaa here, by going after the House Lords of GHs. I think it unlikely a House Lord is skaa. It's not an impossibility: King has said that there are no safe roles. But here's my reasoning: skaa House Lords can destroy House powers. If they're the only skaa in their House, better to destroy the powers and deny them to us than to keep them around and use them should they be in danger of dying. Giving the skaa the House powers and the ability to destroy them from the very start seems a bit unbalanced, given the skaa already have an advantage. But granted, this is an assumption about game balance. So let's say we go with your plan. I submit that it would further incentivise, in possibility 3), our skaa HL to destroy the House power, unless we succeed in a 1/4 chance in finding them. No. That's bad odds. This is the second time Araris has suggested a plan that runs somewhat counter-intuitive, if we are to be charitable. That looks rather wanton and deliberately so, if we are to be uncharitable. I don't usually vote on Day One, but when I do, it appears I vote for Hadrian Penrod, once again.

I have to admit that The Black Prism and The Dragon's Path are both on my to-read list, so those flew past me a little >> If you're considering Shadowdance, then you should probably know Dalglish has a whole wider fantasy series anyway, so if Shadowdance turns out being to your taste, that might be something for you. Just to throw out even more possibilities: if your idea of 'fantasy' includes the Napoleonic wars, then you can consider the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. Listing the rest: -David Gemmell's Troy series (Gemmell can write a bit dark, so there's that. He's definitely not grimdark though.) -Fire of Heaven trilogy by Russell Kirkpatrick (It begins a bit like your typical high fantasy, so be warned. But there are no elves or dwarves.) -Tamora Pierce (I hesitate to suggest this, since these are pitched at a YA audience, but she definitely writes clean fantasy.) -Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov (Interesting setting, I'd say, and pretty clean. Can't remember what the series is called though.) -Dennis L. McKiernan (Generally clean, but YMMV with regard to how good you find his writing. Can get repetitive after a while, same problem as Lackey.) -Deborah Chester (In particular, 'The Sword', 'The Ring', and 'The Chalice', as I think there's one point later on in following books where it gets a bit fishy in terms of implied dubious consent, so I'd say stop there if you want me to be conservative about an estimated recommendation.) I think you're swimming in recs enough to last you for half a year at the moment, so I'll leave it at that And I've always thought it was Riyria, but no idea how to pronounce it either.

Atilium, I do feel you in this regard because I used to be particular about clean fantasy. These days, I just flip and keep flipping (I kind of feel the need to clarify that it's really just because those things sort of bore me...) You asked about Peter V. Brett, about Downum's Necromancer Chronicles, Dalgish's Shadowdance, and Blood Song. These at least are the ones I've read, but I'm going to leave a disclaimer here: it's been a while since I read some of them, so I can't entirely be certain. Also, I flip, as I've said, so I might be mistaken. I'm going to read your mention of "full-on" scenes as being steamy, or on the borderline of PWP, for the purposes of this analysis. 1. Peter V. Brett My impression is, in the first book, there's a bit going on between two characters, at one point, near the ending but I think it can be bypassed without too much trouble. With regard to the second and third book, I can't recall. 2. Necromancer Chronicles Yes, there are a few encounters going on in here. I actually admire Downum's writing, but I have to admit her characters really do get around. It's nothing especially prolonged or explicit, and can be flipped past, but it's most definitely not 'clean' fantasy. In fact, I think I'd say it's been on a few lists for queer fantasy (as a side-note; not related to it being clean or not being clean.) 3. Shadowdance Another one that's been a while for me. I don't remember any scenes, in particular, but there might've been, and I'd further say that it's still pretty dark, given it's set in a city's underworld, so as to speak. 4. Blood Song Pretty clean. Rather interesting too, I'd say.

"My Lord?" the steward waited until Kassel had glanced up and nodded, giving him permission to continue. "Lady Seeris and Lord Tormander extend their invitation to join them at their table." The steward frowned down at the smudged tablecloth, and Kassel found himself sheepishly trying to hide his scrawlings with his hand, further smudging ink everywhere. "I understand," he said. "Please tell the esteemed Lord and Lady that I will be joining them shortly." He frowned. What could it be? First, I agree with everyone else that we don't stand to gain much from your plan, Araris. We've had GM confirmation of the House membership numbers, and from there, we can easily work out concrete House numbers. The mathematics doesn't lie In fact, the worry is that it serves to easily identify and put members of Lesser Houses at risk, given there's only two of them. (Assuming we are even being truthful.) My suspicion is that the skaa will be aiming primarily for unpenetrated Houses, particularly unpenetrated Great Houses. Here's my reasoning. There are only three in-game (exluding good ol' reasoning) ways of determining if someone is skaa. 1. Lynching them. (Very terminal, very permanent.) 2. Obligation. Use it right, and you'll be able to get an answer of the player's allegiances. 3. Genealogy. If I were a Great House Lord, I wouldn't speak of my powers in case my House was skaa-penetrated. No point in making it easier for them. But in which case, I think it makes unpenetrated Great Houses a particular threat. If the skaa want to deny us effectiveness in having those powers used, the first thing would be to take down the unpenetrated Great Houses (if any) for fear of the fact they hold those powers, and to flood the other Houses with powers and to bring them into skaa-controlled Houses, where they stand a better chance of being misdirected or destroyed. Note: There are many other ways the skaa could play this. I'm just bringing up a possibility. But I just brought this up because I'd like to mention that even in this picture, unpenetrated Lesser Houses do suffer quite a risk, whether from skaa or their fellow nobles. Which brings me to my second point. Maybe let's go for the elephant in the room. I absolutely agree: we need to focus on finding and removing the skaa. At the same time, given this metagame, I can understand why we're all still being somewhat cagey. No offense, but the last time I got an alliance together to work against the 17S, Maili broke it because he wanted his faction to win. I can understand his position. Awes was willing to use Wilson to whittle down the Idrians before the colossal backstabs happened. And Meta noted that if we'd offered to make him King of Alethkar, he would've been greatly tempted to work with the Ghostbloods. It's by no means a condemnation. Frankly, all I care about is us finding and removing the skaa. And preferably, I'd like to do so effectively without the worry of anyone making deals with the skaa or doing all sorts of things to get their House ahead which could mess with us trying to find the skaa and actually take them out. The knowledge that this has happened in factional games (or at least games with a factional win condition, even if secondary) is going to make everyone especially wary about putting themselves on the line. To be perfectly honest, I think treaties, RP or otherwise, are meaningless. You have no reason to believe the other person will honour them, and if you do have reason, then you never needed the treaty to begin with. But if it gives people the psychological comfort we need to get to work and actually focus on finding the skaa among us, who am I to gainsay that?

Just got back. I'd like to say I think luckat's right though. The lynchpin assumption of all those I've made is that the Great Houses have equal numbers of members. Which may or may not be legit, as luckat has pointed out. (I've listed as many assumptions as explicitly as I could so that if there's one that should be properly rejected, it's far easier to find it and to revise the reasoning process from there.) Also because I'm just not going to go down the dark path of guessing what King has in that head of his. (As Nietzsche's oft-(mis)-quoted line about the abyss goes... ) Frankly, I really wasn't after getting House membership numbers right as trying to set out how many Houses there likely were for the purposes of figuring the extent of skaa penetration into the Houses. (The latter, of course, does partly depend on the former.) As I mentioned earlier, I'm a bit reluctant to consider the skaa base occurrence rate, because it seems to hinge on a few assumptions with regard to King's sorting algorithm and that's quite beyond me. Edit: And yes, I know, King has clarified it. Thank you, GM Almighty

I've realised there's one more thing I sort of want to address before I head out. Anyone feel up for a bit of morning mathematics? At the beginning of the Day Turn (!!! Kas is using new terminology! Much wow!), we had three Great Houses, of whom the three House Lords (henceforth referred to as HL) are known. The other nineteen are of unknown affiliation and listed as such. (The kandra is a special case, but as he's in there to even out the numbers, let's count him in.) Each Lesser House should have two people each. Let's throw in six assumptions, one of which backs that up. [ASSUMPTION 1] : As much as he enjoys a good troll, Wyrm/King is not going to put lots of people into one-people docs. [Corollary 1a]: The kandra is more likely to be part of a Great House. (?) --Questionable and I'm not going to put too much weight on this, given the last set of clarifications. [ASSUMPTION 2]: Before the intrepid doc-hopping incident, there were more Lesser Houses than Great Houses. It seems like a reasonable assumption to me, given the faction set-up. More Lesser Houses to offset not getting powers. [ASSUMPTION 3]: There are more people in a Great House than in a Lesser House. [ASSUMPTION 4]: Semi-Great Houses have 3 people. This is because Wyrm put Sart with the Lesser House he'd accidentally popped in on to form a Semi-Great House. [ASSUMPTION 5]: Each House of each classification has exactly the same number of members as its contemporaries. [ASSUMPTION 6]: Great Houses have more people than Semi-Great Houses. I think this is a reasonable assumption, or they wouldn't be labelled Semi-Great. [Corollary 6a]: Great Houses have 4-5 people. [Corollary 6b]: Assume the original House Tuy had 4 people. Losing Sart and being promoted to a Semi-Great House [Elariel] would result in 3 people left, also one more than a Lesser House. This is a picture that makes sense. [Corollary 6c]: Assume the original House Tuy had 5 people. Losing Sart and being promoted to a Semi-Great House [Elariel] would result in the following distribution, assuming that 5 is the norm for a Great House: Elariel: 4 Tuy: 3 Seeris: 5 Fien: 5 Total = 4+3+5+5 = 17 That's majorly unbalanced: 22 - 17 = 5. It also doesn't give us a way to work with Lesser House numbers, and it's generally just a messy picture. That looks to be unlikely, giving more weight to the credence that Corollary 6b is correct. From these, this is the House picture I'm seeing: Great Houses generally have 4 people each, with the exception of Tuy and Elariel. Lesser Houses have 2. I don't know where the kandra is and for the purposes of these calculations, it's irrelevant anyway. So, solving for the number of Houses: Number of Lesser Houses: [22 - (4 x 3) ]/2 = 5 Total number of Houses: 5 + 3 = 8 This only matters because within this game, I'm guessing we have 4-5 skaa. Probably 4. That gives us 1/2 of the Houses that have been unpenetrated by skaa, if we assume there is no skaa doubling-up. (The likelihood of a House's being penetrated by skaa infiltrators is another issue altogether, and I hate considering probability in this game because it always seems to go by Murphy's Law ) The whole point of this exercise was just with regard to Araris's comment: the skaa do have a surprising amount of knowledge, and it's definitely enough to blow ours out of the park, but at their very best, they still will be doing some guesswork with blind spots in some Houses. The main question I'm considering is how that can help us. Edit: My apologies to Tulir and Sart. I keep seeing 'Tuy' and thinking 'Tulir.' Just like I keep seeing Fain and thinking someone is referring to me >>

Sorry, Maili, just that for me, there's no out of game in this thread per se unless I do something really strange like talk about the latest cricket results on this thread, which you guys probably don't want me doing. (Wasn't my World Cup celebration enough? ) [Even then, that's still probably part of Daes Dae'Mar! But we don't need this tangent. Just noting.] And for blur people like me, marking OOC and IC helps, so unless we get a designated OOC colour, that's where I'm staying. "Why, thank you, Lord Penrod," said Kassel, sticking the pen into the pocket of his jacket. He'd have to test it out later, he thought, see how that actually worked. Business, after all, over pleasure. "As far as I'm concerned, I am reluctant to discuss what to make of Lord Phantomhive. He delights in being particularly unhelpful, and the best way to avoid being played is to not play his game." Not, he thought darkly, that he's the only one. He looked around, and in the welter of conversation that had long ensued since, decided to stay silent and to simply listen for the moment. At least at my current quick/rough glance, everyone who hasn't spoken up of their own accord has been encouraged to speak up with helpful red burns on their names, so I'm going to read through the stuff after I get back and then decide.

Although the gathered nobles had been slow to pledge themselves to Lord Heron's cause, some were swift to turn on each other, throwing loud accusations to and fro of being skaa or harbouring skaa. Kassel shook his head, slowly. Already, this had become a mess. Fear drove them; fear and greed. Lissel would've told him that there was a logic there, nonetheless, driving their actions. He couldn't see it. He was terrible at reading people. They weren't as open as logic formulations set out on a sheet of paper. In those, you could trace the flow, feel the elegance of a single proof that spanned pages. Truth, Kassel thought, could be so elegant. So simple. And there was none of it here. Not for the first time, he wished it wasn't him at the Heron house ball. That his uncle had sent Lissel instead. And then he shoved away that feeling, pushed it into a tiny room in his mind and locked the door. It wasn't helpful. He uncapped his fountain pen, shifted the tablecloth around, and careful not to smudge the half-finished Telian square of opposition, added what he'd heard of the exchange so far. Besides all the names, he examined the nobles who'd remained silent so far, closed his eyes, and jabbed his pen at one of them. Hadrian Penrod. He added the name to the list, with a question mark beside it. Fien (0): Mesist Alden (0): Fain Mesist (0): Tonul Fain (1): Fien Sylinia (1): Mailu Lord Heron (1): Jain Ash (1): Ash Jain (1): Hyrun Kalden (1): Tonul Hadrian? (1): Kas. It would be poor of me not to practise what I've preached. And at this point in time, I'm placing a vote on Hadrian (partly at random, as Kassel has done), but more importantly, because I've learned from King the value of lighting up a name in red when you'd like to encourage some discussion and in-thread activity. I've said it, and a few others have said it: hiding in our 40k docs gets us nowhere. I'd like to drop a gentle PSA/reminder: as Meta has clarified with King, only lynches give us certified information about a dead player's allegiances. The victims of all skaa kills show up as skaa unconfirmed, nonetheless. Coinshot kills show nothing at all (yes, I know they have to stack, etc.) Could it be a big deal? Maybe. I don't think it's likely, but then again, I suppose I've never considered Wounded Princess Gambits to be worth the risk. But as King has acknowledged: this means that this time around, a WPG can be done. Just for much higher stakes. Make what you will of this. Edit: Sigh. Never going to youtube and type on this forum ever again. Brb burying face in shame.

Rust, Kassel thought, all thoughts of responding to his companion fleeing from his head. If Wyrm burned the documents, House Erikell would be rusted. Wyrm had the power here, and he knew it. He wasn't sure he had the power or the authority to make such a deal, but all the same, he had to. He stood up, almost-unconsciously adjusting his suit jacket. "We will, Lord Heron," he said, with as much dignity as he could summon, inclining his head in a gesture of respect to the newest Lord of House Heron. "House Erikell heeds your call. We will find the skaa among us. I assume we are to deliver them to the Steel Ministry?" His uncle was going to kill him, when he heard. But he'd probably stay his hand when he heard that Wyrm was threatening to destroy their contracts. The skaa...he kept his eyes from the streak of blood on the ballroom floor. He'd heard of Wilson Heron, heir to the House. He'd seen her at a few parties; never quite spoken. To know that there were skaa in their midst was sobering; to know that they'd killed a House Lord, much less of a House as established and powerful as House Heron was yet another thing altogether. How many of them are there? Kassel wondered. For some reason, he saw nothing, but a sea of blood stretching out in the days ahead of them. It was a frightening thought. I would hope, Aonar, that we're not all scheming in our Google Docs. Such a strategy served the 17S far too well in MR1, and worked to the detriment of all others. In the same way: we probably have no reason to trust each other (and this goes to everyone). But I would make an early recommendation not to sit tight in those docs and say nothing here. The skaa can kill. Their night kill is more lethal than the mere injury of a Coinshot. They have a large informational advantage over us because they have a presence in two docs: a House doc, and their skaa doc. Basically, all I just want to say, because it's really late and I need sleep, is that we need discussion if we're going to be able to find them, so please, let's not have that same situation shape up again. I'd like to link everyone to Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who but it's a forgone conclusion that some fooling will be done, so...

Kassel looked up. Young noble, he thought. Mostly in his twenties, which put them both in the same age-set. He hadn't seen him around, but that didn't mean anything. He wasn't really one for the house balls and parties. For all he knew, Mailu could be frequenting them all. He replied, "Well, I'll just have to cunningly smuggle the tablecloth with me on my way out, won't I?" He capped the pen, slipped it back into his jacket pocket. So much for a quiet start to the evening, he thought. But then, he was at this ball for a reason. "Still, thank you for not telling anyone. I'm Kassel." He didn't bother asking the man's House. He'd find out, sooner or later.

Amor fati.