Young Bard

Lahilt retracted their vote, so the vote count is correct, to the best of my knowledge. *heaves a sigh of relief*

Everyone should now have their GM PM's - if not, please let us know ASAP.

A roleblock is when you target a player, and that players actions fail for the cycle. So, what Leechers do is an example of a roleblock.

That's right, yeah. Welcome to SE!

Hello new person! Welcome to the bloodbath piles of kittens! If you have any questions, I and basically anyone here is happy to answer them - we have a General Rules here which gives a good overview of how everything works. We also have a Discord server where we can hang out and chat about things.

Yes please.

I'll take a spec doc, please. I'm tempted to play, with all the new players, but I won't do that to you and make you rebalance the game again, and I probably should spend the time on other things anyway.

Ah, right. I meant to write up a whole bit about Sympathy but forgot. But yeah, I basically agree. Strangely, in the way I was using it, the third level Malfeasance Protection ended up being stronger than the Master Level Malfeasance since I could protect myself and a fellow Skindancer simultaneously (though if I'd gotten to Master level while at the University, I'd probably have used it to draw kills and pass them on to someone else, which would have been as hilarious as it is broken, since literally only a multiple protection-overriding Naming attack could have stopped me. ) A Master Sympathist being able to kill whoever submits the sabotage is just a little bit strong as well - I can see it being a nightmare for the Skindancers, especially if the Master Sympathist had a trust read from the village and some form of protection, like we thought Araris did this game. (Third-level mommets roleblocking a Skindancer are fine, though, IMO.) I'm trying to think of a cool alternative that keeps the 'wow' factor while also not being too broken, though. I remember there being a scene in NotW where Kvothe is in a Sympathy battle and nearly passes out from over-exerting himself - maybe that could be an excuse to do the same patch as Cheating with Death and say it is that strong, but can only be used every second turn, allowing people to stay at least a little vulnerable? I don't know.

That was a great game, everyone. I enjoyed that so much (partly because it's been more than a year since I was last an Elim, and partly because this game is just nuts.) Thanks so much to Wilson and El for running it - I can't believe I missed the past two versions if they're this fun. I want to make some comments about the balance of this game for next time, but I'm honestly don't think there's a point. This game is kind of inherently unbalanceable, but that's OK, because it's hilarious to play anyway. The WGG stunt we pulled this game I'd ordinarily never consider, but something about the madness of this game made me do it anyway. (Hael said something along the same lines) By Araris' and Burnt's actions this last turn, I'm pretty sure the Elims weren't the only one to feel that. Strategically, was the WGG a mistake? Oh yeah, and I think the more cautious part of me knew that even while I pushed for it. But... I don't regret it, honestly. I think in past games, I've been too quick to try and play the game safe, and with how much fun I had this time, I think I'll do that a lot less going forward. This is a rambly mess, but... yeah. There's honestly a hundred tiny thoughts I kind of want to splurge, so, uh... here's the splurge, you can ignore all of this if you want to. Plum Bob - Apparently, this has never been used in either of the previous KKC games? Huh. Being Plum-Bobbed by Devotary, I think mechanically it worked really well, all things considered. It's dangerous, though - if things had gone slightly differently, it could have been much more sour (I had to admit that Lopen and I were Skindancers, but I was basically out anyway, and Lopen was under suspicion, and a Master so safe from expulsion, and being protected by me from kills unless it's a super-protection-overriding attack made by Master Namers. ) If I'd had to give up both of my teammates, or if we'd been a bit more powerless at doing anything about being outed, it would have felt more sour, which is maybe something to watch out for next game? But, as it was, it was an 8/10 Plum Bob. If you're going to be drugged and forced to answer questions against your will, this is the experience I'd recommend. Tuition - I actually really like this 'soft' activity filter, thinking about it. With hard activity filters, it feels like a chore sometimes - "I'm really tired after a long day, but I guess I have to post something if I don't want to get killed off. Ugh." With the soft activity filter, you're still encouraged to post, but you don't feel absolutely forced to, and it also doubles as a carrot - if you post a lot, you have more money which you can use to buy things in Imre. I think that's an idea I might try to figure out how to simplify and then shamelessly steal next time I run a game. Linguistic Analysis - I think the Linguistic Analysis worked really well - when I got caught having told a lie the previous cycle, it wasn't immediately damning, but it was damning enough that it was really tense, which worked brilliantly. If I'd said, "I am not a Skindancer", and found out a lie, I don't think that would have been entertaining for me or anyone else. But that veneer of plausible deniability where I had to lie through my teeth (or actually, imply as many lies as possible without actually explicitly lying, because I'd already been expecting to have a Linguist target me the cycle after the WGG, I just hadn't anticipated it happening the turn before) - and then people have to decide who to trust, and what the truth is. That's mafia at it's best. There's a decent chance that I'll steal this for a game somewhere, probably. Human Psychology/Naming - Not really a balance thing, but I'm fascinated by the fact that so many people went for Naming. There's something about the "You get to do anything so long as you can justify it to the GM's" part that really appeals to people, and I can totally see why. With the increased chance of going insane and it's popularity meaning you're unlikely to get elevated, I'm not actually sure it's the strongest field strategically, but I already wrote a whole paragraph about how this game isn't meant to be played strategically, so... Dunno. I just find it interesting. Pacing - The pacing of this game is... weird, to say the least. The power curve of this game is really steep - in the space from Month 4 to Month 6 as an Elim, it felt as though we went from everyone (on both sides) having useful but still normal-ish skills to basically everyone still at the University to have a game-breaking skill, for some (*cough* Araris *cough*) literally so. I... can't really think of a way you'd fix that - having the ability to find your own way to break the game is part of the fun, so the best you can do is hope that the villagers game-breaking actions roughly balance out with the Skindancers game-breaking actions as you reach the late game.

Matrim's Dice and Shard of Reading, I'll @ you both when signups for the next game go up so you can see if you're interested in playing.

Whoever put out a 2 jot contract for my death, I'm insulted. I'm worth at least a Talent, IMO. Also, congrats to whoever it was that put the assassination on Walin, etc. And now I have a few buddies to drink away the day with now we're no longer at the University, I suppose. Welcome, the three of you. (Though to have such a slow start, and then 3 expulsions and 2, almost 3 deaths is a bit of a turn.)

Nethwyl climbed the podium for the second time in 3 terms to give her public apology. She'd been insanely lucky - a few of the masters seemed to want her expelled anyway, evidence be damned, but at the end of the day she'd had enough plausible deniability to just about get away with it. As a compromise, they'd forced her to give a public apology for missing class, and for 'careless behaviour endangering the safety of other students'. Nethwyl was fairly sure that that last one was made up, but was frankly too exhausted by this point to argue. She looked at the note in front of her. "To all the students at the University, I apologise for my Undignified Mischief over the past few days. I missed class, which is inappropriate behaviour for a student of the Arcanum. This is doubly true given my recent elevation to the rank of El'the, meaning it is my responsibility to be a model pupil for our more junior students. I will endeavour to be more consistent with showing up to class, and with my studies more generally, in future." "I also apologise for being careless in where I was walking. This caused me to slip and fall into the river, forcing my good friend Maern" with that, she shone a forced smile at Maern out in the crowd "to have to try to rescue me, at some risk to himself. I will be more careful not to endanger myself or my fellow students like that again." With that, Nethwyl folded the note and stepped down from the podium. She hoped that would be the last time she was up there, but frankly, she doubted it - most of the Masters seemed to have it out for her now - she'd have to make sure not to get caught with a toe out of line from here on out.

I didn't see @Elkanah's post until after I posted, but I'm pretty sure the fact that I claimed to have started the fire isn't what triggered the Linguistic Analysis. First, I'm pretty sure I have to know it was a lie as I'm writing it for it to count, which in this case, I didn't (if you mentioned you started the fire in thread, I somehow must have missed it? I don't know how that happened.) Second, I don't think I explicitly claimed to have started the fire until this turn - I merely strongly implied it last turn. Thirdly, I'm still not even sure if that's how Linguistic Analysis of RP works, so even if the first and second points were there, it may not have counted anyway. But... yeah. I don't know why I'm arguing against you when you're providing me an alibi, maybe I should just say "Yeah, that's definitely it" and be done with it.

Alright. The fact that the scan revealed I’d lied last turn was as much news to me as it was to everyone else, so I’ll try and analyse my own posts, which is… new. (And for the record, no, I didn't have a PM with Xino last cycle, so that can't have been it.) Ah, right. I think this post has a lie in it. Technically. I knew the Physicker’s identity by this point, and I was somewhat confident that they were one of us, but because it wasn't based on anything in the thread, I didn't share that information. When I said “I’ll list the people I’m not suspicious of”, there are additional names I could have put on that list but chose not to, which is a kind of lie. If that can trip up the Linguistic Analysis detector, then it seems like it's a really borderline case, but oh well. (The other thing, which I didn’t notice until Stink pointed it out, is that my RP could be viewed as me claiming to have ranks in R&L, which I don’t, and never really viewed myself as claiming. I don’t think that would trigger the Linguistic Analysis, but I’m still not really sure what does and does not count as far as RP claims are concerned, so it’s worth mentioning in case.) Lopen jumps fairly quickly to the idea of killing me, but seems to hedge a little about it, like he might be able to distance himself later if I flipped village. Though honestly, thinking about it, it probably isn’t such a bad idea for people who can afford them to start using assassins, since the village really needs the info. I’d prefer it not to be on me, but… such is life. Maybe at least wait until a Linguist can confirm I was telling the truth this cycle before you send the assassins after me. So, I get a slight Skindancer impression from Lopen’s post overall? (Apologies to Xino for some godmodding with your character, but I'm limited by having to get the apology written this turn if I don't want a massive hike in tuition fees, and timezone differences/general busyness mean it's difficult for us to RP together. Otherwise, I'd have loved to have some joint RP with you.) If she could get over to Imre, she'd be safe - she'd head to her inn, get a fresh change of clothes, hide the notebook somewhere secure, and nobody would be able to trace the fire back to her. She'd miss a couple classes, but that was better than being expelled. She was crossing the bridge across the river when she saw a young man was approaching her. "Excuse me, are you Nethwyl?" He had a kind of grin on his face, that meant I'm being nice now, but don't make any sudden moves. "Would you come with me? There are a few people that want to ask you some questions." Nethwyl smiled awkwardly, thinking quickly. "I'd really rather head to my inn first, drop a couple things off -" "They were very insistent." He knew. And if they opened her bag, they'd have all the evidence they needed to expel her. But she didn't have a choice. "I'll be one moment." She slowly walked back over the bridge, the ice-cold river below swirling and eddying past beneath her... River... As she got to the edge of the bridge, where... what was his name - Malm? Marm? Maern, that was it - was waiting for her, she slowly walked a couple steps forward and passed him. And before he could react, she 'tripped', tumbling down the riverbank into the icy waters. Merciful Tehlu, the water was cold. As the cold slowly seep into her bones, Nethwyl's arms involuntarily spasmed, but that only served to splash even more water over her. As she was carried downriver, the bridge passed above her, and she could barely see Maern racing to the other side to try and haul her out. Before she could think twice about the action, she quickly took a deep breath, and dunked her entire body under the water - please, let that be enough to get the smell of smoke off of me. I don't want to have done this for nothing. Sunlight poked through as she reached the other side of the bridge - Maern had managed to grab a vine growing from the side of the bridge and threw it out to her, trying to get her to grab on. Fingers already going slightly numb even from her brief dunk, she clamped on, willing herself not to release the grip as Maern slowly pulled her in. After what felt like an eternity, she belly-flopped onto the riverbank, not bothering to crawl any further away, or do anything but lie there. Maern, for his part, grabbed her backpack and started rifling through it. Rude. He found her notebook, opened it, before throwing it down in disgust. And Nethwyl could see, even from where she was lying, that her crisp, clean handwriting was gone. The only thing left were completely illegible splotches of ink.

Ugh. This is why I shouldn't write posts at past 2am in the morning - I try and proofread, but my brain fills in what I meant to say instead of what it actually says. Yeah, it was going to be something like "2 of Elkanah's posts seem to be something a Skindancer would write." So you almost got it. Nethwyl's clothes smelled of smoke, and her notebook in her bag incriminated her for the fire. If she was found like this, she'd be expelled for sure. She needed to find a way to get rid of the evidence. Nethwyl headed straight for the exit - as she was leaving, she was relieved to see people already heading towards the source of the fire with buckets and what looked to be some kind of sympathy enchantment. She wasn't so relieved, however, that she didn't duck out of the way and hide behind a bookshelf till they passed. As she reached the entrance to the library, she saw no other alternative but just to walk straight through the mostly still oblivious rows of students steadily studying. She walked as quickly as she could while trying not to look like she was hurrying, moving one step in front of the other. The smell of smoke that permeated through her clothes seemed to clog her nostrils, and at any moment, she was sure someone would stop and ask her what she was doing. Still, she was most of the way through now. She only had 20 metres to go now. 10... 5... "Hey." Nethwyl stopped. I was so close. She closed her eyes briefly, before turning around to face the person who would doom her. It was a baby-faced boy who greeted him, who seemed almost scared to be bothering her. Slowly, the boy cleared his throat. "We have a charity drive going, for those Edema Ruh who want to learn but can't afford tuition. We were wondering if you could make a donation - even a jot would go a long way." Nethwyl was so relieved, she quickly pulled out her purse and handed a whole silver talent to the astonished boy. Then she turned, and before the boy could say thanks, she ran off.

Yeah, by all means the Linguists should scan me to make sure I'm telling the truth - I'd do the same in their place. Hmmm... So Tess is going through the list by rank, and Hael is going by the order of signups - just to be different, I'll go by cycle posted, replying to/commenting on whatever catches my eye. 1.1 Elkanah - Recommends the nobles get protection ASAP, and suggests that the Skindancers might target a Noble before they can establish said protection - that seems like fairly basic advice, with a prediction that turned out to be correct (with HH at the end of 1.1, and Lum at the end of... 2.1, I think) - I could imagine a Skindancer Elkanah writing this, to establish brownie points and seem like they're contributing useful advice. Fura - Breaks down the different classes of players - this feels a little more villagery to me. Interesting what he says about the Ruh and how they're able to pay their way - if you assume most Ruh are staying at the Mews, then I'm surprised more haven't already gone insane just by the odds beyond just Striker. The only other possibility is, like CadCom, they've chosen to not attend the University entirely. I should probably do a crosscheck between those who've been elevated, sorted by class - maybe I will later, or maybe someone who's bored can do it for me. (Oh, and there's Talent Pipes as well, which a couple people might have gotten, but the GM's have indicated that there probably aren't many people who were able to get them, so that probably doesn't explain the discrepancy.) Lots of RP. Interestingly, the people you see a lot of in this turn are Xino, Elkanah, and Fura, who seem to have comparatively dropped off in activity now. I'm not sure if that's significant or not... actually, no it's not. All three of them are Edema Ruh, so I'm pretty sure it's just them trying to be extra active for the tuition reductions, and then not being able to keep up that level of commitment for multiple cycles, which is completely understandable. By the top of Page 4, the vote spreading has more or less been tacitly accepted without much discussion - that's probably not too unusual for Day 1, especially given that the lynch doesn't reveal alignment, but it means part of me is tempted to skip straight forward to 2.2 for when there's an actual lynch going on to start analysing again - I might do that next post. Where there is a discussion, it's focused on the details of how the votes should be spread out (whether it should be focused on the nobles, or split evenly between everyone.) I don't see much that's alignment indicative on either side of that debate, tbh - you could make a case for either. Elandera seems to be strangely defensive against the votes being concentrated on Nobles, but it seems a fairly small hill for her to die on as a Skindancer? But then again, that quickly becomes an IKYK. Karnage - Karnage still seems pretty villagery, IMO - he seems to have a genuine interest in solving the game, and a curiosity that I feel would be directed more towards his elim teammates if he had them, if that makes sense. Elkanah - "Yep, I have no intention on voting on two people... maybe ever. I am glad for the second vote, but the first vote gets me a tuition reduction. When I have someone I am actually suspicious of I will happily put both of my votes on the same one to make sure they get DP and, with a little help from the masters, expelled." - Hmmm... Something about that is weird to me. It's one thing to say that you're using your vote for tuition reduction in Term 1 while you don't have any suspicions, but to say that may be the case forever doesn't strike me as something a villager would want. You add the part after about if you're suspicious of someone, you would put both votes on them, but that can easily be waved away indefinitely, since you can always just say you haven't found any suspicions yet. There's a fair bit of RP I'm skipping over here, because the cycle is over if I want to get to all of it. The last interesting thing of this turn, IMO, is a minor dispute between Tess and Striker about fields. Striker suggests that Ruh should go into fields that will provide the most money (Arithmetics or Artificery), while Tess disagrees and says anyone should go into whatever field they choose, regardless of class. Striker seems to accept Tess's points and back down a bit. I can see a village Striker making that kind of argument fairly easily to try and help the village. As for Tess's posts, I'd describe that as generally NAI, I think they'd make a similar argument as either a Villager or an Eliminator. I guess at the end of that, Elkanah, Elkanah, since two seperate posts of theirs seemed to be . I might change that as I keep reading through the cycles, though. ...I was going to put RP here as well, but after reading through a fairly hefty backlog, I'm spent, and it's nearly 3am, so I'm just going to head to bed instead. Hopefully I'll get to it all tomorrow, because in my head I have an RP mini arc vaguely planned in my head, including the Public Apology, so I hope I'm able to get to it all before the turn ends and not have to shave it down. We'll see.

The heat of the fire is difficult to gauge without the proper equipment, wrote Nethwyl. Still, judging by the colour of the flame, it's turned almost white - not from the properties of the compound, as occurred from the copper bromide I noted earlier, but simply from the sheer heat of the flame itself. As such, the compound could be producing flames with temperatures up to 1,300C, the hottest I've achieved yet under these conditions. Left untended, the flame would be likely to spread far and wide in a matter of minutes with any source of flammable material. As an avenue for further experimentation, perhaps we should mix this compound with a solution of... That was when she heard a crack. Nethwyl looked up, confused. She looked out into the corridor, but it was empty, lined only with dusty books that hadn't been touched in decades. She turned back into the small alcove that had been her working lab for the past few weeks. The flame sat, still burning merrily in its bowl. The bowl... surely not. Nethwyl peered closer, and saw one side had cracked, with fractures slowly spider-webbing up across the bowl. "Oh shi-" Before she finished, whatever was holding the bowl together finally gave way, and it splintered, leaving the contents to spill and collapse all over the . A burning ember came flying towards Nethwyl's eye, and she batted it away - a moment later, her hand began to sear as her brain processed the action. Flames were already hungrily licking up the walls of the alcove. Everywhere around her, pages were slowly turning black, curling up as the flames engulfed them. The steady calming sound of the crackling flame was replaced by the rage of the inferno. Nethwyl froze for a couple moments - maybe she could still fix this. Then she saw the wall of the flame jump, and a new bookshelf began to catch light. If she didn't move now, the books would be the least of her problems. Feeling ashamed, Nethwyl turned and ran, the smell of smoke and death following her. (Originally, I wasn't going to have Nethwyl set the fire in the Archives, but I have an idea that would be more narratively dramatic, so... what the hell.) ...Wow, that was interesting to go back and read through. As a side note, rollovers happen at 9am for me, which is earlier than I get up. So when the first serious vote on me occurs at 6:30am that same morning, I’m not going to see it until after the turn is over. While of course it’s up to you, I’d prefer if you wanted to try and get me expelled, you do it at a time I can still respond to your arguments. As for what the arguments themselves, they seemed to be wildly different, so I’ll run through them really quickly: “He’s been fairly inactive/ flying under the rader” (Xino) - True, sorry about that - I hope to fix that going forward. “He voted on Lopen, when I don’t find Lopen suspicious.” (Kynedath) - That’s… also fair. I wasn’t as focused on the game as I’d have liked to be - I’d have probably preferred to have found a different candidate I was more suspicious of, but I just ran out of time. “He’s hedging, only placing one complaint” (Fura) - If I’d had more time to become more solid in who I wanted expelled, I’d have probably used both, but I didn’t. Sorry. Should be fixed going forward. “I want to get someone expelled, and Bard is a better choice than Lopen” (Devotary) - I’d understand this sentiment if expelling revealed alignment, since the village desperately needs information right now, but I don’t think it does except on death (GM's?), which makes this argument less defensible in my opinion. In general, people don’t like me hedging. Which… I don’t know, I think I always tend to hedge (see, I even did it right then. ), so I’m not sure that’s especially alignment indicative for me. But I'll definitely try and contribute more of substance this turn. As for me being attacked but surviving last turn, I had a PM with someone with ranks in Physicking, (which gives them a ‘Cheat Death’ ability blocking sabotages). We both noticed the pattern of Skindancers targeting more inactive players - I fit into this category and was also a Re’lar at the time, so I must have seemed like a good pick for the sabotage. So the Physicker protected me last turn, and I was saved.

The Archives are a great place to conduct experiments, thought Nethwyl. Ever since the little incident in the Fishery, she'd gotten the stink eye whenever she'd gone near the place. Eventually, she took the hint, so she started searching for alternate places to start conducting research. The Archives proved the perfect spot. The sprawling cloisters of books had more nooks and crannies than could be explored in a hundred lifetimes, and it gave Nethwyl more than enough space to work in peace and quiet. She had to be careful not to let light show, or else she'd attract attention, but the one time someone came looking she'd been able to pass it off as just having been lantern light, nothing more. In many ways, her new conditions were good - her surroundings forced her to get more inventive with her materials - what materials burn quietly, and without emitting much light? She took careful notes, noting down each effect as she saw them - Copper Chloride seems to turn flame blue - could be of use to prank small kids with, and make them think the Chandrian are near... Working in this place had more hazards than just being discovered of course - one time the pedestal where she was conducting an experiment tipped over, and the fire singed several doubtless priceless old books - Nethwyl quickly grabbed her canteen and upended the whole lot over the books before it could spread further. That's what Nethwyl found so fascinating about fire. It would only take one tiny slip of the hand, and how easily all these books would be lost to the inferno... Did Nethwyl set the fires? Who knows? Tune in next week to find out! OK, I haven't found anyone I'm kind of suspicious of yet. But I do have a few people that I'm not suspicious of, I think? So I'll start by listing those people, I guess. Xino - they've been posting more than usual, and I've generally gotten a very village read from their posts, like they're not as concerned about how their posts are seen like I'd expect an Elim to be. Karnage - new player, seems like he wants to jump in and be supportive of the village effort. I read him as genuinely trying to figure things out. Straw - this is going to be a controversial one, but in it's own strange way, I feel like a Skindancer Straw might not want to draw attention to themselves by continuing to support the spreading the votes out strategy after Araris disagreed with him over it - the fact he's held to that makes me think he is a villager just with a particular view on the most effective way to play the game - I don't agree, but I don't think he's a Skindancer for saying so. I suppose, in the absence of anyone else, I'll put a vote on Lopen.

Nethwyl was furious. Last she'd heard, Vol would have loved to work on experiments with her, but was just simply too busy right now - maybe after the midterms. Nethwyl had been disappointed, but she'd also had a mountain of homework that she had to complete, so she could see the reasoning behind it. It was a week later, as she was exiting the exam hall after a truly awful midterm exam in Rhetoric & Logic, when she heard a couple of the other University students gossiping. Vol's name came up, and, without really meaning to, Nethwyl drifted closer to listen in on the conversation. "...Vol... yeah, that's right... Undignified Mischief, apparently. They have to give a public apology later this week." "An apology's too good for 'em. Should have given 'em lashings, at the very least. They've always been soft on the nobles." "Still, It will be fun to watch them squirm giving an apology. That sort always seem to think they're better than us - this'll show 'em." So, Vol had gotten up to 'Undignified Mischief', apparently. And, more importantly, she'd left Nethwyl out of it. Well, Nethwyl would go to this public apology, and hear what Vol had to say for themselves.

Oh, I forgot it was May already. It's been a thing on the Shard (and the internet more broadly, though I've mainly seen it here), to tint your profile pic green in May as part of Mental Health Awareness, so I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Since Lum was the only person to go insane this turn, I think we can safely say that this was due to the Skindancers. I'm surprised they didn't go for someone elevated, though.

There was a pause. Nethwyl shuffled her feet, and looked around - her classmates slowly drifted towards their next class, and she'd probably be late as it was. Maybe she'd upset the Noble? She really had to get to her next class - she was just about to apologise for bothering them and walking away when Vol finally responded. "Oh, sorry! Vol, yes; an Alchemist, though not as good as you, E'lir. Did you need something?" Well, that sounded flattering. Unless they were being sarcastic? Nethwyl had been surprised when she'd been elevated so quickly to E'lir, and there was still so much she didn't know. And now, she had even more homework and tasks to perform that it became difficult to continue to find the time to conduct her experiments - doubly so since she didn't want to be brought on the Horns again so soon after last time, and she was very sure that at least a couple of the Masters had it out for her. She tried to figure out whether or how to respond, but flustered, she eventually decided to just ignore the compliment. "I guess I was wondering if - I mean, if you're interested - in working and experimenting together. I've heard you have a skill with Alchemy, and perhaps we could learn from each other." (Ooohh, that's really interesting.)

Nethwyl had heard there was another Alchemy enthusiast staying at the University, someone who called themselves Vol. It seemed like they might have some common interests. How did you go about introducing yourself when your common interest was pyromania, though? "Hey, I heard we both love experimenting and setting fire to things. Want to become friends and blow things up together?" Wasn't that a little too forward, though? I mean, Vol would probably think that was weird, wouldn't they? Who just walks up and asks for their tips on the best ways to produce the largest explosion with the most limited supply of materials? Nethwyl's personal favourite was to hydrogen gas in place of regular air when making the reaction explode, since it sped up the reaction, but with another person out there who'd experimented in these things - especially a Noble who would have been able to purchase rarer supplies, maybe they'd found something better. So, Nethwyl mostly sat back for a term, and continued to work on her experiments privately. It was at the start of the second term, as Nethwyl was heading between classes, that she saw Vol heading in the opposite direction. Say hello now, it can't hurt. If you start a conversation now, you'll be late for class. Do it later. But if you don't now, you never will - you'll just continue thinking about what you might say someday. She paused, almost halting in her tracks - Vol had almost walked by when she finally blurted out "Hi!" There was a pause. "Uhhh... you're Vol, right? The alchemist?" ( @Devotary of Spontaneity - by the way, what gender is Vol?)

...OK, I seriously need to pick up my post count if I want to afford tuition again next term. (Either that or take a trip to Deni's, but that's a really bad idea.) Elandera - I'm just going for a Noble again because I still don't have any particular Elim reads, though I'll try and do some proper analysis later in the cycle, and change my vote if I find anything. I do trust Xinoehp, though - they've been much more active than usual with RP, and I get a generally village read from their posts. There's no particular meaning to HH and Sart's insanity bouts that I can see. As for future targets, I suspect those who've been elevated now have a target painted on their backs, so be careful and if at all possible, find a way to protect yourself - if you're not in Physicking, try getting a Bloodless if you have the money, or if there are any Nobles (which I think is just Lopen?), maybe stay at the Horse and Four. This is basically irrelevant, but I got distracted by Lumgol and Straw's analysis of percentages - if you have k EP to shift around, you're splitting into m fields, and you assume c points have been put into each field by other people, then the general probability of being elevated = 1-(mc/(mc+k))^m - for fixed values of k and c, but where m is a variable, the probability of getting elevated approaches 1-e^(-k/c), which kind of makes sense - the more EP you have, and the less EP others put in, the greater chance you have of being elevated, however, there's also an upper limit on how likely you will get elevated is going to be. (Yes, I'm aware this is not at all realistic to what can actually be done in the game, since there are a finite number of fields and an integer number of EP to be split up, it's just that I was curious and wanted to generalise. And also, to say I had to use L'Hopital's rule to solve a problem in an SE game made me chuckle a little bit, and people here are nerdy enough to appreciate it.)

Nethwyl got up on the podium, feeling absolutely ridiculous. She hadn't even made it one month, and she'd been brought on the Horns for being too lax in her studies, and 'Undignified Mischief'. "I'm, uh, really sorry about being lax with my studies. I'll be more attentive in future. Even in Archiving - I'm sure I'll warm to the idea of studying the postal service of Ancient Cealdan sooner or later." A couple people chuckled under their breath, but mostly people just stared at her. Nethwyl cleared her throat a couple times, then continued. "And, uh, I swear the fire in the Fishery was a complete accident, so, I'm sorry about that. I'm just eager to experiment and learn these things, I really am, so I may have gotten a little... overenthusiastic, you see. But who knew how combustible sulfur was when mixed with hydrogen gas, anyway? So, yeah, um, sorry. Won't happen again, I promise. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like there was too much damage - it doesn't seem like I'm the first person to nearly burn the place down, so... that's good." Was that it? Nethwyl certainly hoped so. She climbed down, greatful that at least she'd managed to avoid lashings, unlike poor Catalan. Still, it's not an experience she wanted to repeat anytime soon. Alright, I'm here - sorry for the delay, still trying to get my head around the rules of this game. I started typing a post last turn (last month? That makes me sound even slower than I actually am. ), but I got the rollover time wrong so wasn't able to post it in time. The 'main' 2 parts of the game seem to be the fields and Imre. As far as the fields go, they're all honestly pretty useful, so I definitely don't think there's a 'wrong' pick in terms of field selection. Others have already discussed the benefits of each one in a fair amount of detail, so I don't feel the need to rehash that. As for Imre, I don't think that's been discussed as much. It seems as though different areas will work for different people - the Talent Pipes are great for the Ruh as an equaliser (assuming they get it), the Loaded Dice are good for the Cealdish. Deni's good for... OK, I'm honestly not sure why people would go to Deni - if you don't have enough money, then it's fairly likely the next term you still won't have enough money and now you have extra debts to pay back. Maybe if you knew you had a windfall coming in and needed to do something urgently, but that's a fairly niche case. Or, of course, people who don't need to worry about mommets of them becoming available, which again, is likely to be fairly niche. Although, maybe you could make the Skindancers waste their coin on a mommet that doesn't work and botch a kill, which would be funny. Or maybe, by posting that, I can second guess them into not buying mommets of people, thereby depriving them of a source of extra kills. IKYK's are fun when you're the one doing them. The most interesting mechanic, to my mind, is the Black Market contracts - it's open-ended enough that you could really do anything with them - I hope they see some use, because they could be fun.

Elbereth, I lend to you Uncertainty, which you gave me so many years ago. May you never blindly trust those that wish you and your allies ill.