Amanuensis

I think it's a great opportunity that we shouldn't hesitate to take. It may even help our community grow a little, if the representative shows off our methods, love for RP, and traditions. Plus, like with Hael last time, it may allow the representative to learn something that they can bring back with them.

I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen thought #2 mentioned before. Specifically, the part about measuring. My thought is that it's unlikely radiant spren are used to make the Plate like they are the Blades. If they were, I believe screams would have been mentioned when Kaladin took a pauldron and used it as a gauntlet in the arena battle of WoR. My guess is that if the theory is true, the Radiants used the mundane spren to accomplish it. One problem we'd need to address is how they made the spren solid like the Blades. Maybe it would require some kind of combination with freezing a ton of spren and then using either words or pictures to bond them together into Plate? Making them solid might just be an issue of density, or perhaps, a matter of literally drawing them into the Physical Realm from the Cognitive. Good thinking, Guck. Have an upvote, and a welcome.

I don't have much to add regarding Aesudan being involved with one of Roshar's secret societies, but I have a couple thoughts regarding her paranoia with the Almighty that I want to mention. I won't bother quoting the exact text and relevant WoB since they've both been put in this thread already, but specifically I'm going to be referring to the implications of Aesudan's paranoia and Deana's question about Odium influencing her. So, paranoia. Who else do we know is having trouble with paranoia? Elhokar, Aesudan's husband. Is it possible that whatever is tormenting him is also tormenting his wife? If so, why them? The immediate assumption is to destabilize Alethkar. The King and Queen are currently separated (and thus more vulnerable if we assume their marriage was one born of love rather than political maneuverings), and they are in positions where they're capable of doing a lot of damage. Considering Alethkar is where things are taking place to begin with and where most of the primary characters are from / centralized in, I expect that means it's because the Alethi are the most significant threat to Odium. If Odium, or more likely one of his Unmade, are explicitly targeting Alethkar's leaders, this makes quite a bit of sense. That being said, I don't think Odium/the Unmade have much to do why Jasnah was preparing to assassinate her, as at the time of Gavilar's death, she doesn't seem as Cosmere aware as she is in the present timeline. Also, before someone brings up the fact that Elhokar's description of what he sees in the mirrors is similar to the true form of Cryptics, I'm somewhat skeptical that he's being watched by them, let alone considered for bonding. Nothing about Elhokar's personality really implies Lightweaver, in my mind, and I don't get the impression that Elhokar is hiding a lot of "tasty" lies for them to go feast on. I'm not dismissing that possibility, but now that I think about Aesudan's problems and her relationship with Elhokar, I think there's a chance the two might be related. Plus it wouldn't be the first time Brandon's dropped red herrings on us, and I wouldn't put it past the Unmade to bear similarities to Spren, let alone disguise themselves as specific ones. I have another theory on what's going on with Aesudan, though. Not one that I think has a lot of evidence, or is even very likely, but is an interesting thought. It involves something we learned in / after the release of Arcanum Unbounded via WoB, so I'll put it in spoilers. Just some thoughts I figured worth mentioning. Can't say I necessarily believe either, but I can see either being set up and both have a lot of potential for an interesting plotline, in my honest opinion.

Hm. That is bothersome. I didn't follow last year's championship, so this is my first time hearing about the lack of etiquette and moderation. If anything, that makes me want our community to be heavily involved this year, if only to make a memorable impression on the other players and affect a change in them so when they return to their forums they can spread the peace. As for the nomination, thank you. I am capable of doing it and would be proud to represent us. In retaliation, however, I will vote for Lopen, as he's been around longer than I have, tends to be more amiable than me, is just as good if not better at analysis and rallying villagers (from either alignment), and is consistently active enough that I have no doubts he could manage ten posts a day, as required. @TheMightyLopen, are you available to participate?

Dang. Is it that time of the year already? Thinking back to the last invitation, we had players volunteer if they are available and get voted for by the rest, right? I think that system worked well enough that we should try again. It's too bad Mailliw isn't back or I'd vote for him

CHAPTER TEN Well guys. I'm really sorry for taking so long for this. Been a pretty hectic month for me, and I'll admit I got really slack with myself since I no longer had designated turnovers to apply pressure on me. I didn't even manage to write everything I wanted to, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get it done soon, so I've decided to split things up. This, at least, will lead to the "aftermath" of the battle. You guys can even roleplay the victory if you want. The final scene I planned on having for this game is going to be a memorial for all of the characters who died in the Battle of Rysharock (so that I can highlight their crimes) as well as a dramatic face off between the remaining Initiates and the Acolytes. When I've finished that, I'll post it as an "Interlude" chapter. I'm also planning another Interlude chapter to bridge this game with it's sequel, but that's very far away so I won't talk too much about that. I'm pretty confident I've mentioned a lot of my issues with how things had unfolded this game in other threads or the various docs associated with it, but ultimately it boils down to inactivity. Especially in a game like this where team balance directly correlates with activity, it just can't be a factor. I know that a part of distribution is to make sure games are not unbalanced, but I do really like the idea of having power correlate with effort. There are definitely some mechanics that I had for this game that I wouldn't do in a sequel, such as imprisonment, or the eliminators being able to control an inactive teammate, but those are mostly small things I didn't plan on doing again, or really don't need me getting into. Anyway, I hope ya'll had fun. As always, my master spreadsheet isn't particularly interesting for this game (since I hand write most of my notes), but I'll go ahead and include a link for it in case anyone cares to take a gander at it. The dead doc was, well, mostly dead, but that's pretty typical since we began using Discord for most of our out-of-game discussion. The elim doc, on the other hand, was pretty fun. It might even be one of the largest ones, although there's probably some parts where the Unjust cheated in making it longer than it should be. OH! AND IN CASE IT WASN'T CLEAR! THE UNJUST WON!!! INITIATES Assassin in Burgundy as Araon Darkblade the Honorable Dustbringer TheSilverDragon as Rea the Honorable Initiate JUQ as Hess the Honorable Initiate Elbereth as Tintallë Iurnu the Honorable Initiate ACOLYTES randuir as Ranatar the Unjust Elsecaller Ecthelion III as Fifth Nameless the Unjust Acolyte (Ex-Truthwatcher) Doc12 as Hithon the Unjust Acolyte (Ex-Lightweaver) The lazy anarchist as Lyna Telavalet the Unjust Acolyte Alvron as Naihar the Unjust Edgedancer PRISONERS Veriq the Honorable Initiate, Guilty of Cowardice and Being an Accomplice to Murder Shinon the Honorable Initiate, Guilty of Multiple Accounts of Aggravated Assault, Negligent Discharge, and Theft Leif the Honorable Initiate, Guilty of Multiple Accounts of Desertion The Phantom Stranger the Honorable Initiate, Guilty of Murder, Hemalurgy, and Multiple Counts of Being Strange Teresh the Honorable Initiate (Ex-Dustbringer), Guilty of Murder, Murder, and More Murder CASUALTIES Lomot the Honorable Initiate Ashetvl the Honorable Initiate Ralaanar the Honorable Lightweaver Sareth-son-Erneth the Honorable Initiate Balthazar the Honorable Initiate Arionium the Honorable Initiate (Ex-Edgedancer) Petrik the Honorable Stoneward Kintas the Honorable Willshaper Jonly the Honorable Truthwatcher

Nergaoul was in control. Eshonai roared as the Unmade took over her body from within, a wave of hatred and darkness bursting from the middle of her chest. Tendrils of malicious energy smoked from her body as she grew so large that her Plate began to tear apart at its seams. She had never felt so hot in her life. Every nerve in her body screamed with pain as her bones melted and her flesh bubbled. No matter how hard she tried to close her eyes, It forced them open so she could watch her monstrous transformation. I AM SORRY, LITTLE ONE. THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO TO EASE YOUR SUFFERING. The Rider. He had not spoken to Eshonai since the angerspren corrupted her soul. Why acknowledge her now, moments before one of her ancient gods possessed her completely? Buried inside her, the listener’s muffled voice howled into the shadows that endeavored to consume her. Nergaoul answered her with an earth shattering laugh, her body quaking with masochistic delight as it broke through her Plate and cast its molten shards across the plateau, a few of the sharper bits raining down on Alethi and listeners alike, piercing hearts and severing a few limbs. WHY ARE YOU CRYING? ISN’T THIS FUN? Eshonai shuddered at the sound of the infernal voice, tears leaking from her eyes and turning to steam before they finished rolling down her cheeks. All around her, the tiny humans began attacking each other, overwhelmed by the enmity that radiated from her body like some kind of odious aura. As for the listeners, the dark god’s presence empowered them, the echoes of his voice resonating with the angerspren roiling inside them. STOP FIGHTING. IT ONLY HURTS MORE IF YOU FIGHT. Was she fighting? Eshonai didn’t feel like she was. Besides terror and torment, she couldn’t feel much else. There was sorrow, too, when the rain stopped pouring onto the battlefield to wash the once beautiful, but now bloodstained, stone. Unbidden, a memory of her exploring the Shattered Plains as a youth surfaced in her mind. She could recall with divine clarity the day she discovered the Alethi and met their king for the very first time. YES! YES! REMEMBER THE KING! THE ONE WHO BROUGHT US BACK! THE ONE WHO STARTED THIS ALL! Gavilar. This was his fault. His, and his followers. The listeners never wanted to awaken their old gods, nor did they wish to start a war. But King Gavilar forced them into a corner and left them with very few options. The old Council of Five made a choice to sacrifice their lives to stop him. The King died, but his plans did not, and now look what came of them. The Alethi brought the Last Desolation upon themselves. Upon the listeners. Upon the world. Eshonai would punish them for their indiscretions. Would bring the real monsters here to justice, even if it cost her honor and her soul. Like a sudden flood over a raging inferno, relief surged through her. In the place of the pain, Eshonai felt peace. Pleasure. FINALLY! I AM FREE AT LAST! Nergaoul was in control. ‘A vicious cyclone enclosed the plateau, warding off the brunt of the Everstorm.’ Was the cyclone really vicious? Lyna glanced at the shield of wind once more, then crossed the word out. The cyclone was powerful, that much was obvious, but vicious implied violent intent, which contradicted its very nature to protect the people within it. ‘Beyond the rocky precipice, two winds danced. One of Honor, the other Unmade.’ Ooo, Lyna cooed to herself. She liked that. Only problem was, where could she go from there? Glancing up at the crimson eye in the sky and the shining man floating below it, Lyna had a surge of inspiration. ‘Kaladin was no longer human, Syl no longer a spren. Together, they had became something more: a living storm.’ Were they really a living storm? Lyna supposed not, but she knew no other way to put it. The honorspren danced around her Windrunner so fast that her body was starting to blur, grey stormclouds flocking to her and turning white, purified by her light. Pleased by her stream of thoughts, Lyna continued to write. Funny how it took her surviving two unnatural storms and an army of hideous monsters attacking her friends to demolish the writer’s block that had suffocated her for so long. Convenient, too, that Stormblessed’s power was keeping the rain from falling on the plateau, and thus consequently, from soaking her paper. It was as if the Stormfather Himself was urging her to finish her work. “Lyna!” a familiar voice called her name, but she paid it no mind. The woman was too overcome by her creative trance to look away from the looseleaf notebook clenched tightly in her gloved safehand. It felt weird not having a sleeve covering her entire left arm, but the uniform of the Initiates wasn’t very accommodating for females, so she had to make do with what she was given. “Lyna!” the voice yelled again, this time closer and loud enough to rouse her. “Give me a minute!” she responded, freehand scribbling relentlessly into the pages of her journal. In the last few minutes, she had managed to fill nearly three pages with simplified glyphs. She would have to translate them into women’s script later, when she had more time. Something crashed and threw Lyna to her knees, her journal and quill flying from her hands into a shallow puddle. Without her to hold on to them, the cyclone began to pull them towards the ledge. “Lyna! Forget them! Hithon is in trouble!” Hithon? Lyna froze, gulping loudly as she watched her quill roll off the plateau into the storm. A moment later, the journal followed it into the spinning wind, pages fluttering open and ripping from its spine before vanishing completely. She wanted to cry, to wail, but suddenly Ranatar was at her side, helping her to her feet and pulling her towards the massive Voidbringer and the two men fighting at its feet. As soon as she saw the enraged Hithon, her pen and paper vanished from her mind. Nergaoul was alive again at last. After all this time, It finally had a body of Its own. Just as Odium had promised. From above the battlefield, It watched Its body flex its muscles, crimson electricity sparking along the length of Its left arm, gathering into Its palm and condensing into an immense blade of jagged lightning. Human scum fought off Its children with rabid desperation, though a few had turned on one another, enticed by Odium’s power and influence. Even a Defier had succumbed to the darkness, which drew the Unmade’s eye. Nergaoul recognized the taint on him. ONE OF DAI-GONARTHIS’ PLAY THINGS? It thought. Would the Black Fisher be mad if Nergaoul broke Its toy? PROBABLY, It laughed. Dai-gonarthis was a Sliver of Hatred, too, and prone to violent outbursts, especially when slighted. Not that either of them cared. The Black Fisher would embrace the rage, and Nergaoul would accept the consequences with a smile upon Its face. Raising Its weapon above Its head, Nergaoul aimed for the Defiers at Its feet. Those with enough sense to watch It rather than get distracted by their allies sudden betrayal were able to react by splitting off in several directions, making it harder for Nergaoul to kill them all with a single blow. Fortunately, they had not yelled a warning to the others, allowing the Unmade to focus on the Defiers locked in battle. Nergaoul’s movements, however, were sluggish. By the time Its strike hit the earth, all but one of the Defiers had gotten out of the way. At least the attack had killed one, except… The human had deflected Its blow. But how? Nergaoul bent Its head to look closer, and found one of the humans clutching a bleeding arm, a claymore lying nearby, bent halfway down its blade. Unarmed and wounded, the Defier would be helpless if It struck again. Smiling, Nergaoul lifted Its weapon and plummeted it at him again. This time, It would kill him. But no. Souls drifted into the Cognitive, but not the Defier’s. This time when Nergaoul’s blow landed, it was met with even more resistance. Eyes burning with fury, the Unmade looked again, and found a fragmented shield in the Defier’s hands, held together by Stormlight. The light in the shield was flickering, however. There’s no way it could survive another blow. Raising Its weapon a third time, but only half way, Nergaoul threw all its weight forward and managed to find purchase in the earth. It didn’t need to crane Its head to see the Defier roll out of the way, grab his bent claymore and back into the stone monolith. Realizing he could run no further, the human’s face twisted with fear. Instead of swinging again, Nergaoul pointed the tip of Its sword at the Defier and brought Its hand to Its face. Grinning, It lunged at the shield clutched before him. An explosion burst from the impact, strong enough to force the Unmade to step back and scatter chunks of silver all over the battlefield. Nergaoul roared, infuriated by the human’s tenaciousness. It would kill him. Now, or never. Holding the weapon horizontally, the Unmade dragged it across his body, then swung. With ease, the weapon cleaved through giant rock, the blade sparking as it slid straight for the human. A moment too late, Nergaoul noticed a spren whispering in the Defier’s ear as he rose to his feet, then crouched low. NO! NO! The human jumped. No. Flew. A Windrunner, like Stormblessed? But that wasn’t an honorspren sitting on his shoulder. A Skybreaker, then. Odium had said they might be involved. But why was he fighting with the Defiers? Weren’t they supposed to be on the side of hatred? Odium had said as much. Apparently Odium was wrong. The Skybreaker brought his second hand to the hilt of his claymore and rested its bent blade against his shoulder as he aimed for Its eyes. Nergaoul turned, letting go of Its weapon and allowing the concentrated lightning to dissipate, the stone leaning sideways with nothing between its crack to hold it up. Seething, the Unmade watched as the Skybreaker flew past his face, the bent edge of his claymore scraping against Its brow. Without chitin to protect Its face, the weapon gouged Its flesh. Orange blood leaked into Its left eye, but all It could see was red. Above the battlefield, Its massive eye shut, two folds as black as the night closing over Its iris, then Its pupil. Along the thin slit where the two folds met, a bloody light shone through, brightening with every passing second until it colored the entire plateau scarlet. Nergaoul opened Its eye and released Its gathered power. Ninety-nine bolts of abhorrence and indignation erupted forth, showering upon the plateau, killing both humans and listeners alike. The charred remains of their bodies launched into the air and rained back down onto the cowering survivors, drenching them with a mixture of gore and blood. Regaining control of Its body, the Unmade summoned another blade of lightning and turned around to face the Defiers. How kind they were to gather in one place once more. “I’ve got a plan,” Ranatar told the others. It was difficult keeping track of both the situation with Hithon and the possessed Voidbringer, but with Lyna and Fifth’s help, he was given enough time to ponder their next move. Pausing long enough so that the rest of the Initiates could gather closer, presumably to make him easier to hear over the constant whirring of the cyclone and sounds of battle in the distance, Ranatar observed the giant monstress with interest. It was difficult to tell while she wore her Plate, but it was clear now that the Voidbringer was a woman. In the past, Ranatar might have scoffed at the idea of a female Shardbearer, but after dealing with female Radiants, he quickly realized the fault in his culture’s assumptions regarding the genders. You’re getting distracted, Ranatar told himself. Focus on the problem at hand. Contemplate the faults of society later. The monstress no longer wielded a sword of lightning, but the crimson energy still coursed along the ridges of her body until they converged at the tips of her fingers. A thick drop of orange blood fell from her chin and landed on the ground between her feet moments before she pressed her hand against her forehead, a loud hissing sound filling the air as soon as it made contact. Cauterizing a wound, eh? Ranatar didn’t have to see the Voidbringer’s face to guess what happened to her. Besides Kaladin, Fifth was the only fighter here who could strike that high, discounting Shinon, of course, but the archer was nowhere to be seen. Speaking of, where was he? Ranatar had lost track of both him and the Squires after the Stormwarden severed Kintas’ living rope with an Elsecalled dagger. Ah well. It would have been nice to have their help, but Ranatar would have to make due without them. Him and his fellow Acolytes had come this far on their own. Gained the strength of not one order, but four. If anyone could win this battle, it would be them. As for the Initiates, they’d have to make an excellent distraction. “Teresh. I see you have your powers, still. Think you can blind the Voidbringer by hurling balls of flame at its head?” Teresh stared at Ranatar, frowning deeply. Instead of nodding, the man clenched his jaw, contemplating his options. Teresh had trusted not one, but two of the “Unjust.” Ranatar suspected Teresh blamed himself for the deaths of his fellow Initiates, and was eager to avenge them. Ranatar didn’t need to be a mind reader to hear his thoughts. “Don’t even consider it. I could teleport my allies and I to safety before your flames reached us, and for some reason I doubt your control is very fine. As close as we all are now, you could easily kill Araon, or Rea. If you didn’t, I’m sure the Voidbringer would finish the job,” Ranatar said while pointing towards the giant, who was now staring at the sky. “You’re wrong,” said a voice. Not Teresh, but Araon. Ranatar did not bother to look at the man, choosing instead to follow the Voidbringer’s gaze up to the eye in the sky. Slowly, a void closed around it from two sides. Was the horror retreating? Had Kaladin won? Araon continued talking, despite not being addressed. “My spren tells me that I’m immune to the powers of other Releasers.” Ranatar jolted at the admission. When he looked at Araon, he found a firespren that resembled a young child, its gender uncertain, sulking as it floated above the warrior’s head. Unlike Keph, the spren looked young and frail. Tiny globs of lava dripped from its fingers and toes, as if it were melting. Now that he did not expect. Ranatar had always been good at math, but predicting Bonds was very different than predicting Highstorms. It was very possible he made a mistake somewhere along the line. But if he was wrong about Araon, was it possible he was wrong about someone else? Rather than reply, he looked to the child. Rea. “Don’t suppose you’re a Windrunner?” The boy - no, girl, Ranatar had to remind himself of the information they found during Rea’s investigation - shook her head and shrugged. The girl had the potential, but for some reason had yet to speak the words. Oh well. She might not be very helpful now, but it made his future plans a little safer. There was a noticeable dimming as the giant eye finished shutting, then a sudden, violent brightening that painted the entire plateau red. Each of the Initiates and Acolytes looked to the sky at once and stared at the line of scarlet light crackling along its center, dividing the void in half. Ranatar had no idea what was happening, but he could make an educated guess. “Brace yourselves!” he screamed, and to the others credit, they didn’t hesitate to obey. It seemed that, with these circumstances, the Initiates would accept a temporary alliance. Folding inward to make himself smaller and wrapping his arms around his head to cover his ears, Ranatar waited for an explosion. Instead, his hair stirred and his ears filled with the sound of whistling air. Curious, he raised his head and peeked over his forearm. A dome of wind had started to circle the Initiates. Was Fifth doing this? Ranatar glanced sideways at the Skybreaker, though judging by the furrow of his brow, Fifth was equally confused. It was hard to see beyond the dome, but Ranatar could make out a few vague shapes. Four figures obscured by white light stood around it, one standing in each cardinal direction, based on the looming shadow of the monstress just ahead. The Stormwarden fit the pieces together. Kaladin’s Squires had returned, and like their Captain, they learned how to create shields from the winds. It was at that unfortunate moment that the sky erupted and he watched one of them die. Even through the nebulous dome of wind, Ranatar could see the bolts of lightning with clarity. Subconsciously he tried to count them, but they were much too fast, and the havoc caused by their descent overwhelmed his attention quickly. He watched, with wide eyes, as one of the bolts plunged straight for him and reflected off the dome into one of the Squires. A splash of blood hit the whirlwind, dying it a vivid red, seconds before it slowed and stopped completely, the remaining three Squires unable to hold it together on their own, or perhaps unwilling. Teft, Leyten and Drehy ran to the smoldering crater where their friend once stood, not too long ago. Teft was the first to look in. As soon as he did, he straightened and looked away. Drehy slid to his knees and began to clutch his chest, while Leyten stepped beside him, bent his head and closed his eyes, before reciting a silent prayer. Ranatar heard someone vomit behind him, but chose to ignore it. Skar’s death was horrifying, but if the giant Voidbringer wasn’t defeated soon, he suspected there would be more like it. Stepping towards the smoking crater, Ranatar prepared to interrupt the Squire’s warning, only for a loud shout to come from above. Kaladin had felt his Squire die, and judging by his response, he wasn’t happy. The windshield that surrounded him slowly became less round as Syl’s body turned into energy. From this angle, it seemed the winds were shaping themselves into a spearhead. The honorspren appeared to be fusing with it, manifesting into a silvery mist with cerulean accents. Whatever that eye belonged to, it looked like the Windrunner intended to blind it, or worse. That gave Ranatar an idea. “Listen up!” the Stormwarden yelled, his words punctuated by a loud crash as the giant Voidbringer started lumbering in a circle to face the Initiates. “If we don’t end this fast, more good men are going to die! It looks like our beloved Captain is aiming to finish his battle! I think it’s about time we do the same! “Teresh! And Araon too, I suppose. Can you two blind the Voidbringer with flame or not?” Keph spun around her Dustbringer’s hand, forming a glove of flame. “I don’t believe I can shoot that high. Keph says my range is limited to 15 meters.” “And I’m kind of new to this,” Araon continued, “so I doubt I could fire even half that distance.” Ranatar would have sighed if not for his backup plan. “Can either of you tell me the melting temperature of rock?” Araon frowned at him. “Is this really time for a school lesson?” “1200 degrees,” Teresh replied before Ranatar could answer. The look on his face suggested that he knew that Ranatar was going to say next. “Keph says that with Araon, we can manage it. But it’s going to take some time.” “That’s fine. While you’re creating a lava pit, Fifth can-” “-Ceol,” Fifth interrupted. “Pardon?” “My name is Ceol.” Ranatar couldn’t stop himself from sighing this time. “Fine. Ceol. Can you fly around the Voidbringer’s head without putting yourself at risk? What I’m planning is going to take a while to set up and it won’t be very effective if the monster sees it coming. I don’t need you hurting the Voidbringer, just pestering it. Keep its eyes away from the ground for as long as possible.” “Got it.” Ranatar turned to look at who’s next. “Jonly… I’m not actually sure what you’re capable of.” The man laughed, though it came out more like a bark. “Anything you are, and more.” “In that case, do you see those spines protruding from the Voidbringer’s back?” Together, everyone looked at the giant, who moved slow enough that she had only yet to turn halfway. Jonly nodded. “I want you and the Squires to try scaling them. If you’re strong enough, you should be able to throw yourself from one to the other, almost like climbing the rungs of a really big ladder. The monster might not be wearing Plate any more, but it’s got chitin covering everything but its face. If we’re going to do any meaningful damage, it’s going to be done there. Think you can manage it?” Jonly grunted. “What about you three? Teft. Leyten. Drehy! You shook up too much to fight?” “Of course not!” replied Drehy. Before Ranatar could ask, Teft answered his next question. “We heard you, and it sounds solid. Not sure what else we could do without being able to fly.” At that, Leyten looked at Ceol with jealousy. “While this is happening, what are you going to do?” asked Teresh. “Rea and I, we’re the safest to traverse the battlefield. He’s a small target and I can teleport out of the way of danger. I don’t know where Naihar is, but with his powers, he’s the best chance we have at tripping the monster, unless anyone else has a ton of firepower they’ve been keeping from the rest of us.” That last statement was met with an equal number of head-shakes and incredulous stares. In the background, Ranatar noticed the Voidbringer was almost facing them completely. He would have to make this last part quick. “Lyna. Stay with Hithon. It doesn’t look like the Stormlight is healing as fast as the rest of us, and it's not like he can see, so we need you to look out for anything that we might not expect. If you need to get anyone’s attention, just scream.” Rather than speak, his fellow Acolyte nodded. “What about us?” Oh. Right. Ranatar had forgotten about Hess and Tintallë. The man was a natural recluse, and the woman always seemed to be drifting off into her own little world. Of course, Ranatar knew the reasons why from his research, but he also knew these two wouldn’t be able to do much good. “See if you two can find any of the Radiants. Make sure they’re okay, provide any support you can. And if they’re fine, send them to help. I’m sure we could make use of their powers.” As an afterthought, Ranatar added: “Oh, and Hess. Make sure nobody touches Tintallë, no matter what. It won’t end well. Trust me.” The man’s reluctant nod would have to be enough. The Voidbringer was staring at them now, her swordarm gradually raising the lightning blade above her head. “Everyone!” Ranatar yelled. “You know what to do! Now scatter!” “So,” Shallan said, breaking the awkward silence. “You going to tell me what just came over you?” Adolin had already been sitting on the ground, slouched over, his head resting against the groove left in the cavern wall from where his Blade pierced it before being dismissed. And yet when Shallan addressed him, the prince somehow managed to deflate even more. She had avoided getting too close to him, partly because she was worried he might attack her too, not to mention the fact that her betrothed was covered in thick, orange blood. She cared little about stains, but she couldn’t help but be intimidated, seeing him like that. Shallan hadn’t felt this afraid of a man since… well. Since her father. She swallowed hard at the realization. “I wish I knew,” Adolin said, then sighed. He looked as if he was about to cry but refusing to let the tears run free. There was a pang of regret in his voice, too. One that seemed more repressed than the guilt you’d have from killing dozens of monsters to save the world, or turning on a man who could arguably be his best friend. “This wasn’t the first time you lost control, was it?” Shallan asked, not meaning for it to sound like an accusation. The burst of outrage Adolin demonstrated made it seem like an accusation anyway. He grabbed her wrist so fast and hard that Shallan nearly leapt out of her skin. “He told you!” Adolin shouted, then pulled. The look on his face was almost rabid. Shallan shook her head. “No one told me anything, Adolin!” she said with a yelp, resisting the urge to summon Pattern, but unable to escape the feeling in her gut that told her she should. She did not like being defenseless. Fortunately she didn’t have to say another word, the pain on her face enough to snap Adolin back to his senses. “I’m sorry…” he mumbled as he let go and shied further into the corner of the cave. “I don’t know why this is happening to me…” Shallan didn’t know either. All the same, she decided to take a leap of faith. Grabbing the prince’s wrist and dragging it over her shoulders, she settled herself into the crook of his arm, then rested her head on his chest. For minutes they sat like that in silence. Neither was oblivious to the sounds of the approaching storm, nor the bright flash of light, or the quiet rumbling that gradually became a violent quake. And yet neither made an effort to move, as if they were to content to die like this, pressed to each other in a cold, dark cave, sheathed in blood and sweat. When the quake stopped, Adolin finally spoke. “I killed Sadeas.” How was Shallan supposed to respond to that? Adolin was broken, that much was clear, and in his current state, the wrong words could set him off again, drive him to violence. Instead of replying or flinching away, Shallan nestled closer. “Since it happened, I’ve come up with a hundred justifications. The man was a monster. His betrayal at the Tower had killed thousands of good men, ruined the lives of their families. All so that he could remove my father and seize this kingdom. When that failed, he continued to plot. Did everything he could to undermine us. There was no other way to stop him. Someone had to do it. “But the truth is, there was only one reason I killed him, Shallan. In that moment it was because I wanted to. I couldn’t make him suffer the same way he made my family all these years. He was heirless and there was no way I could bring myself to harm his wife, even if she is just as conniving as him. I wanted to hurt him. To kill him. And so I did. As simple as that. “Does that make me a bad person?” Again, Shallan was clueless. This matter was too grave for her wit, and she had been sharpening her tongue for so long, she doubted there was anything she could say anything that would actually help him. So instead she grabbed his chin with her freehand, tilted her head towards his and kissed him. At first the contact was soft, like a gentle breeze. Then her hand slid to the back of his neck and pulled him into her hard. His lips tasted like salt and iron, but she didn’t mind. A minute passed. Perhaps two. Three. By the time they were finished, Shallan had lost count. She smiled, uncaring, and Adolin smiled back. The prince was still hurting, but the anger was gone. Whatever Shallan had done, it grounded Adolin. Brought him back. “Thank you,” he said, then groaned as he shifted positions. Apparently the way he had been lying before wasn’t very comfortable. Shallan sniffed loudly, then pinched her nose. “That smell… no! You didn’t!” she said, trying not to laugh. Suddenly nervous, Adolin perked up and began wiggling in his Plate. “I! What? No!” he stuttered, then sagged with relief. Giggling, Shallan let go of her nose and leaned in for another kiss, which Adolin quickly swat away. “Nope. No more kisses for you. You ruined the moment.” “Can you really blame me?” she replied with a smile. Rather than answer, Adolin closed his eyes and leaned his head back. If not for his haphazard breathing, Shallan would have guessed he was falling asleep. “The Herald of Justice approached me, the night of the gala,” Adolin began. This time it was Shallan who perked up. Unsure of the cause, that information made her nervous. “He said he just wanted to talk. I’m not sure if I believe that was always his intention. The conversation, it felt like he was trying to get a read on me. If I said the wrong thing, I think he might have killed me. “He didn’t, though. Obviously. He actually approved of me bringing Sadeas to ‘Justice.’ Told me I reminded him of himself, in his youth, and that he’d be watching to see what I did next. Before he left, he implied he’d come see me again, but when he did, we’d either be friends or enemies. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to be careful. No sane man wants a Herald as a foe, and with what’s coming, I think we need him as an ally. But for whatever reason, my gut told me that something was wrong with him. It was almost like… like he had no soul. His voice, his laughter. It was all just too cold and empty. “If I remind him of himself, does that mean that someday, I’ll be empty too?” For once, Shallan knew what to say. “So long as you have me, no. Never.” It was a lie on two fronts, but it seemed to do the trick. Adolin leaned his head against Shallan’s and kissed her hair before truly falling asleep. Shallan was left alone and awake, listening to a song of war and storms with a lot of things to ponder. Trying not to stir so much that she woke the prince, Shallan fiddled with the chain Adolin had given her. The one that belonged to his mother. Adolin didn’t awaken when a mighty roar shook the earth, nor when a flash of light filled the cave as a bolt of lightning impacted the stone just beyond the entrance she carved. She imagined the prince had spent quite a few nights lying in bed, desperately searching for answers and finding none. A lack of sleep, coupled with the mess he just fought through to get here… How much time had passed since she rescued Kaladin? It was no longer raining, but she could still hear claps of thunder, rushing wind, and the screams of men, and Voidbringers, being cut down by their enemies. Kaladin had said he would take care of things from here, but that didn’t make her feel any less guilty for just lying here, in the darkness, safe from whatever happened outside. And what about Pattern? After she finished cutting her way into the cave to free Kaladin, the Cryptic had disappeared, buzzing about something horrible. Something undone, she thought she heard, but she couldn’t remember that well. She had been a bit distracted, running into a crazed Adolin and a wounded Kaladin. Curious, she reached out for the spren and found him cowering on the ceiling, drawn in so tight that he was barely the size of a sphere. What on Roshar could have gotten the Cryptic so scared? Before she could ask, she was interrupted by the entire world lurching forward, throwing Adolin and her onto their faces. “What the?” Adolin yelled in surprise. Shallan didn’t see what happened next, but in the corner of her eye, she recognized the movement. A tiny pebble landed on her head, followed by a shower of stones, and next thing she knew, Adolin was grunting, throwing himself on top of her. Isn’t Plate supposed to be light? She thought, gasping for breath as the prince shifted to make her more comfortable. There was a moment of relief, followed by a loud smash, the sound of glass breaking, and the sensation of hot wax dripping onto her back. In the process, the weight on her back had doubled, then nearly doubled again. Pinned down and barely able to breathe, the dreadful realization had finally settled within Shalan. The rock had finally collapsed on top of them. Idiot, she thought, chastising herself. I’m a storming idiot. Although Dalinar was sure his face was as hard and emotionless as a statue, he could not but feel pride as he watched the Initiates fight from across the plateau. In a moment like this, he wished the Stormfather wasn’t so stubborn. If the Sliver had not refused to become a Blade or teach him the secret of forging Plate, Dalinar would be out there right now, fighting alongside them. Earlier he had managed to do some good, keeping Balthazar alive, but the reckless Initiate was nowhere to be seen, which gave Dalinar a creeping suspicion that his efforts had been for all for naught. The man must have died sometime after the Bondsmith lost track of him, and for some reason he thought Balthazar wasn’t the only one. How many deaths have there been already? How many more would die before this day was done? What could Dalinar do to help? At least the Voidbringer was distracted. One of the Initiates had learned to fly and used that power to strike the Voidbringer’s face, who he now recognized. What was her name again? Dalinar couldn’t remember. He could have sworn he heard it once - maybe during one of their battles, or perhaps a longer time ago in passing - but like the name and face of his wife, it was hard to grasp it. Trying only made it harder to recall, though it wasn’t like water seeping through fingers. It felt more like a wall, and whenever he attempted to pry it down, he only felt sick. Did it have something to do with the Voidbringer’s transformation? Either way, the woman was distracted. Lightning gathered at her fingers and she pressed it to her forehead to seal the wound shut before wiping a thick coat of orange blood from her left eye. Blinking to clear the last of the blood from her vision, the Voidbringer looked up, straight at the huge eye in the sky just as it began to shut. “We need to run!” yelled Renarin. “Forty feet, north north-west. Hurry!” Renarin’s urgent tone suggested there was no time delay. With the cyclone surrounding the plateau and the void where the sky used to be, Dalinar could not look towards the sun to figure out which direction was which. The Bondsmith hesitated to remember where his shadow pointed when they had arrived, but fortunately he didn’t need to think hard as his son quickly broke off from the group, presumably to lead them to safety. By the time they reached the spot Renarin identified, his son fell to the ground, gasping. The boy was never very fit, and today he didn’t have the added stamina granted by his Plate. Earlier, Adolin had requested that Renarin lend the armor to one of his lieutenants, believing an extra set would be more useful in the frontal assault. As smart of a decision as it was, Dalinar wasn’t pleased with how vulnerable that made his son. When the Honor Guard finished catching up, a shadow had fallen over the plateau, followed by a ray of scarlet light that quickly brightened until it bathed the entire world red. Curious, Dalinar nearly looked up towards the source, but then Renarin slumped over and began to convulse. No matter how much the Bondsmith wanted to be aware of what was happening, there was no way he could turn away from his own child in their time of need. Fearing the worst, he held down the boy and pried his mouth open to make sure he didn’t choke on his tongue. Countless thunderclaps roared at once, accompanied by a blood curdling static. Behind them, something crashed into the plateau, casting earth into the air. A shower of hot stones fell upon Dalinar’s back, but fortunately none landed on Renarin. Beside him, one of his Honor Guard began to dance and scream, while another quickly ran to him and helped unclasp his breastplate to free one of the smoldering rocks from where it fell between the armor and his shoulder blade. “Woah,” another one of his men - the most talkative of them, Peet - had said. “Just barely got of the way there, didn’t we?” A white froth leaked out of Renarin’s mouth, but otherwise he was still and gaining lucidity. Assured that his son was okay, Dalinar spared a glance behind him and found a massive, smoldering crater a few steps behind him. It was hard to see through the smoke, but the crater reached all the way to where they had been standing just a few seconds ago, and seemed to go on well beyond there. “Father,” Renarin choked, then spit out the last of the viscous liquid in his mouth. “We’ve got to end this.” Dalinar returned his gaze to his son and frowned. He wanted desperately to speak, but only one word came to mind. How? As if Renarin could hear his thoughts, he answered. “The Stormfather.” If not for the gravity of the situation, Dalinar would have laughed. Since forming their bond, the Stormfather had done little else but goad him. In some ways the Sliver was like Elhokar. Too stubborn, or prideful, to listen to reason. At least with the King, however, Dalinar could coerce him with violence. Unfortunately the Bondsmith had no such leverage over the Shadow of the Almighty. Again, Renarin spoke as if Dalinar’s mind was a open book. “He is not a force to be commanded, but guided.” In what kind of world would man guide god? This time Renarin didn’t answer, just looked to the sky. Sighing, Dalinar raised himself onto his haunches and followed his son’s gaze. “Stormfather,” he began, then paused to think of the words to say. Would saying another oath help? Probably. But realizing that didn’t help him find the right words, anyway. He was much too new to this. Clueless, he defaulted to an old argument, despite knowing he’d receive the same response as always. “Now would be a perfect time for you to become my Blade.” I TOLD YOU. I WILL NOT COME AS YOU CALL. THIS WAR IS YOURS TO LOSE. IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO END THIS WAY. “For a god, you’re awfully pessimistic. Have you no faith?” NONE. MY FAITH DIED WHEN MAN LOST HONOR. “Honor? Who are you to speak of honor? You who has the power to save the world, but instead watches as evils like these rip it to shreds?” “Father…” Renarin grabbed Dalinar’s wrist, trying to soothe his anger. Finally realizing his irritation and exhaustion, Dalinar bowed his head and closed his eyes. Renarin was right. Anger was not the solution to this dilemma. If anything, it was the cause. For a long moment, the Bondsmith remained just like that. Motionless as the earth quaked to the immense Voidbringer’s every step. Even without looking at the monster and the Initiates who gathered at her feet, Dalinar could sense the tension in the air. It was a burden so heavy that gravity felt like it had been turned up three times its regular strength. There was something else, though. A sensation the Bondsmith had never really felt before. Opening his eyes, he turned to face the scene just as it unfolded. Ranatar, accompanied by his fellow Initiates and three of Kaladin’s Squires, were squared off against the monstress, ready for a fight. Dalinar closed his eyes and could still see the warriors, each of them silhouette by a bright, white light. Standing together as they did, their auras blended into one great luminescence. In their presence, the darkness stood no chance. Without meaning to, Dalinar took a deep breath, then stoked their light with his own power until it shined as bright as the sun. When he opened his eyes once last time, he noticed each of the Initiates were standing a little bit taller. Their stances had become more relaxed, yet their muscles seemed more rigid. It as then that the true battle began. What he saw… Dalinar could not help but stare in awe. The Nameless Initiate shot into the air, swiping his bent claymore at the Voidbringer’s eyes. Anticipating the move, the Voidbringer staggered back, opening a gap between its legs for Jonly and the Squires to run between. Despite her chitinous shell, the Voidbringer must have felt the four men leap onto the spines of her lower back, for as soon as the first one landed, she thrust her hips outward, attempting to shake him free. Meanwhile, Ranatar and Rea split off in separate directions, leaving Araon and Teresh facing one another, their bodies radiating not with smoking light, but shimmering heat. Arms thrust before them, flame started to literally fire from their palms, though instead of the monster they aimed for the ground. Slowly, the rock melted into lava, a pit forming and growing steadily until the two men were forced to start moving backwards. Each step deliberate with a long pause between them to ensure they didn’t lose their balance when the earth shook in the wake of the Voidbringer’s hasty movements. Without relent, Fifth continued to harry the Voidbringer’s face, keeping her from looking anywhere but eye level. Another quick shake revealed Jonly and the Squires jumping between the third and fourth spines of her back. Unlike the Squires, Jonly was struggling to hold on, but they used their Lashings to keep him bound to the stone until he gathered the strength to leap again. Out of nowhere, Naihar and Ranatar appeared, a flourishing vine of incredible width and length pulled taut between them. Fearless, they ran circles around the Voidbringer’s legs, attempting to tangle her feet to limit her movements. It wasn’t perfect, but a combination of that and a swath of light left in the wake of Naihar’s bare footsteps caused the Voidbringer to start losing her balance. By then, her face had been marred by several bleeding wounds, and the three Squires plus Jonly had perched themselves upon her shoulders, two on each and winding their arms back. The pit of lava had grown significantly large for what only seemed like a few minutes at most, but Dalinar knew that it had been at least a half an hour since the fight began. For an observer, battles of this scale just felt like they went by in a flash. For the fighters, it might have felt like a century. Ranatar yelled a command, grabbed Naihar, and then summoned a circle of light that quickly vanished them away. Using the streams of flame to propel their bodies, Araon and Teresh rocketed to safety just in time for Ceol to grab a wounded Hithon and distraught Lyna and fly them away. At once, Jonly and the Squires swung at the back of the Voidbringer’s head with all their might, sending the monstress plummeting towards the lava pit face-first. The sheer force of their blow simultaneously threw them backwards. Dalinar couldn’t tell for sure, but judging by the direction, they should have landed on top of the stone monolith at the plateau’s center. Unable to control the direction in which she fell, the Voidbringer collided with the superhot trench. Her wail was immediate, a desperate cry as she struggled to claw herself free, although the lava made quick work of her chitinous armor and was already eating away at the muscle beneath. Writhing in pain, she let out one last scream before her body gave up completely, either due to the blood loss or utter shock. With her body melted halfway into the plateau, the Voidbringer resembled a massive skeleton, frozen in time as it tried to crawl out of its molten grave. Allowing a moment for the chaos to settle, Dalinar finally looked up to the sky. “You say man lost honor.” he muttered under his breath as he watched Kaladin and his spren, Sylphrena, fuse to become a spear of radiant light. “If that were true, then what do you call this?” The Stormfather had no words. Instead, the sky rumbled as Kaladin launched himself into the heavens and pierced the malicious crimson eye of Nergaoul the Unmade. A moment later a Highstorm came to wash away the bloody tears It shed.

In preparation of this game, I've done a little research into Rithmatist via the Coppermind, as I know next-to-nothing about the setting. As such, I've decided to have my character be a reflection of that. His name is Cole, a recruit from the small town Chester on the minor isle Connec (found between New Holland and Rhodes). He's young and ignorant of the world, to include the nature of Rithmatics and the United Isles of America. It's not that the boy is stupid, he was just unfortunate enough to grow up in a place that was too isolated and obscure to teach him any better. Enlisting in the military was his way of fulfilling his dreams of exploration and achieving his hopes of learning, but unfortunately, his recruiter never told him just how dangerous the job really was. A pacifist at heart, he was eventually discharged as a result of him refusing to take up arms against other living beings (including Chalklings). Instead of sending him back home, he was stranded on an unfamiliar island, eventually to be happened upon and adopted by Samuel and his crew.

If I die in the next minute, good luck against the Spiked, everyone. I'll very likely write post-death RP to be approved by the GMs before I eventually post it.

I think I'm going to need to write some roleplay soon. I'm looking forward to responding to this. Just in case the Inquisitor decides to kill me tonight, though, I'll save it for the next day turn, because if Elosa's going to die, I'd rather it not happen immediately after Mykal comes to the rescue. Besides, it's going to take some time for my character to find where she was brought too, anyway. If it was one of the voters, the only ones that really make sense are Drought, Ecth or Silverblade. Drought because he was the one who made the killing vote, Ecth and Silverblade for being potential Rioters. That being said, I'm inclined to believe that Ecth is telling the truth about not being responsible for Lopen's vote. I can't say the same for Silverblade, unfortunately, but no other voter makes sense for that criteria, since they weren't deciding factors in the kill. Unless Uber-Brass makes it so they can redirect a vote without their own vote being negated, it's most likely the Rioter is among those who didn't vote. Depending on if the Inquisitor uses their kill tonight, we're very likely to know if it was a villager Rioter or not, so we should probably wait until next turn to discuss that possibility. What he's saying is that you voting for Ecth might have been a tell of the Uber-Brass ability. His idea is that Uber-Brass can negate the vote of a player of the Inquisitor's choice (or, specifically, the player the Inquisitor votes for) instead of your own vote to fuel the redirection of another vote. It's actually an interesting upgrade for the power, too, now that I think about it. Slightly more powerful than the interpretation I came up with, but still not unbalanced.

As Rand said above, the Inquisitor can't use more than one action a cycle, disregarding the conversion. If you assume the Inquisitor was the Rioter and that his Uber-Brass makes it so that his own vote doesn't get negated (that's actually a pretty good upgrade, now that I think about it), then you'd have to ask yourself, why would I bother? I was active at the very end of the cycle and could clearly see that Sart was going to die, as he was leading the votes. Plus, as Rand also said, that's incredibly risky because there's no reason the Inquisitor should believe Sart had a role. I even doubted he did in my PM with Kipper, if @Kipper wants to confirm it, because of the fact he voted for himself in the first place. Then again, I didn't realize he literally claimed roleless until after the turn was done, so I guess that point is null. Whether I or anyone else is the Inquisitor, it would make a lot more sense that he save his action for tonight so he could kill an additional player. That being said, I'll admit 100% that I wanted a Misting to die. I've been saying it all day. I wanted the Inquisitor to convert someone tonight because I don't want another day turn where there's only one eliminator among a horde of villagers. The way I see it, the sooner players are Spiked, the sooner the real game can begin. Otherwise the lynch is pretty dang pointless. So, with those motivations, could I be the Inquisitor? For sure. But I'm not. Not really any reason to believe I am, either. That being said, it could be Drought, but I doubt it. He voted on Sart for "self-preservation" (exact quote) but when he voted, Sart, Mark and Drought were all tied with 2 votes, so that doesn't really make sense. I know Drought pretty well, though, so I think he said that because he wasn't exactly caught up on the entire thread, just knew that he was in danger, especially since I was the player who messaged him asking if he was going to post because I was thinking about voting on him for inactivity. This next message is directed towards the actual Inquisitor. I want to propose you a challenge. Do not kill me tonight. Do not convert me tomorrow. Instead, let's have a good old fashioned battle of wits. Why should you accept this? Well, whether you consider my reputation or not, I've put myself in a position where I'm likely to be scanned. There may not be a village Seeker this game, but if there is, chances are they're going to take a gander at me at some point. If they do, I'm going to ask they NOT reveal their identity to me and that they check me again randomly to ensure that I have not turned to the dark side. That way you can't even convert me to find out their identity, or without wasting your conversion on someone who is very likely to get found out. As for killing me... that's the easy route to take. Sure, I might be dangerous, but wouldn't it be a lot more fun if you amassed your team and pit them against me instead? If you do not accept my challenge, kill me tonight. I promise you that I am a Misting, so killing me will get you a conversion for tomorrow night. But if you do accept my challenge, I ask that you kill Dalinar Kholin or Iamspartacus. Neither have been online since before the game began, so their deaths would not harm the village and there's as decent a chance as any that either of them are Mistings, too. If you kill one and they fail to be a Misting, I will vote on the other one tomorrow, as lynching active players at this stage in the game is utterly pointless until you have a Spiked or two working alongside you. In the spirit of this challenge, I ask that any and all potential village Lurchers do not use their ability on me, Dalinar or Spar tonight. I look forward to seeing your answer either way.

Alright, I'm actually going to bed now, but at least there's two bright sides that came out of this: no one active died, and Sart now has more time to run the next MR.

Anddd I'm an idiot. Sigh. I didn't reread Sart's post until after the turn was already over, in which he very obviously claimed to not be a Misting. Lynching no one would have been a better alternative than lynching a Regular. If I realized that, I would have either retracted my vote or tried to direct the lynch elsewhere. @Ecthelion III, you may have just put a target on your head. If I was the Inquisitor I would probably attack you tonight for exercising your role, since it's a guarantee to get him/her a conversion next cycle. Unless you're about to claim that you're not the one who rioted Lopen's vote to Sart? I'm going to bed. Goodnight, all.

Sigh... A few things I want to say, but it probably wouldn't be my place too, so I'll just move onto the things relevant to the game that I want to comment on. Regarding Drake's statements, I don't think that a playstyle change between games is as indicative as you think. People make mistakes and learn from them, they evolve or simply want to try new things. Sometimes, too, real life or specific game mechanics make them more or less active, and frankly all of these things are hard to pick up on. Look at the difference in my playstyle between LG31 and QF22, for example. I was a villager in both, but in the first game I was the most frequent poster and driver of discussion, and in the second I only posted once. Granted, there were extenuating circumstances that affected by activity in the QF, but I'm not always extremely active, regardless of what alignment I am. While I won't say you shouldn't pay attention to trends and take notes of tells, I think you'll end up becoming consumed by paranoia fast if you suspect everyone who acts a little differently. As for DA himself, the fact that you described him as helpful probably means you shouldn't vote for him. Even if he was the Inquisitor, it's better to let him continue to be helpful for a few turns and then confront him if you find something that is genuinely worrying. Regarding DA's statement, that's a large part of why I wanted to get as many players talking as possible, and why I'm glad so many touched upon so many different subjects. It should hopefully limit the kinds of stances future Spiked players can take later on (to the benefit of the village), or give us some evidence of a shift in "style, tone, ideas, thoughts, plans" as well as suspicions. Glad to have you here. I hope you'll be more active in the future. Like Rand, I don't exactly understand what you're proposing. This is a good time for me to bring up something Hero mentioned earlier that I finally got clarification on from the GMs, though. Towards the beginning of the game, Hero said this (emphasis mine): Orlok confirmed this rule to be true. So, if a Misting gets converted by the Inquisitor, they will always lose their original power, regardless of if they gain a new one. If we were to do roleclaims, I would say the only strategic way to do it would be to make sure everyone's role is known by at least two living people of their choice, so that in case a conversion happens we can test to see if each Misting still has their power. Only this might not always work, due to the Inquisitors own powers, and honestly I think that would be really unfun. So I still am of the opinion that roleclaiming is not wise unless said player is about to get lynched and they have a useful power that the village wouldn't want in the Spiked's hands. Okay so. I've said this in PMs to a couple players, but I personally want players to be converted. I don't find the idea of 29 villagers running around trying to find a single Inquisitor particularly fun. I would rather the Inquisitor use his conversions sooner rather than later so he has less options and information to create an extremely powerful team, and also because I think trying to find connections between players is enjoyable. Day One Vote Tally (0) OmeGaster: Arraenae, (0) Arraenae: Amanuensis, (3) Sart: Sart, Amanuensis, Ornstein, DroughtBringer, (0) Elenion: Jondesu, (0) little wilson: Amanuensis, Mark IV, (0) Drake Marshall: TheMightyLopen, (2) Mark IV: Arinian, Jondesu, Ecthelion III, (1) Aonar Faileas: Silverblade5, (1) Ecthelion III: Mark IV, (2) DroughtBringer: Elenion, Arinian, (1) Silverblade5: randuir,

In order to officially vote for Sart, you need to color his name in red. If you're mobile and don't have the drop down menu you can do this by typing: [color=red]Sart[/color] Assuming that you color his name, or that the GMs count your vote anyway, I've put the vote tally down below. Which with Arinian's vote change means that you're not actually saving Mark, just making sure that Sart dies rather than let the lynch be nullified by a tie. EDITED to remove Ornstein's "vote" since he "retracted" it in the next post Day One Vote Tally (0) OmeGaster: Arraenae, (0) Arraenae: Amanuensis, (2) Sart: Sart, Amanuensis, Ornstein, (0) Elenion: Jondesu, (0) little wilson: Amanuensis, Mark IV, (1) Drake Marshall: TheMightyLopen, (2) Mark IV: Arinian, Jondesu, Ecthelion III, (1) Aonar Faileas: Silverblade5, (1) Ecthelion III: Mark IV, (2) DroughtBringer: Elenion, Arinian, (1) Silverblade5: randuir,

Ah, yeah. Sorry. I didn't mean to necessarily direct that at you, it was just the train of thought I was having that brought me there. For the record, the primary reason I voted on you when I did is because we are two players that are associated with scary reputation, so I figured that it would spark more discussion. -If the Seeker scans a player and they show up as a Regular Villager, I would advise they not reveal themselves to them just in case. If said Seeker has other scanned villagers with roles to talk to, it would be better that they discuss the "Regular" first. That being said, I'm not a fan of situations where people are specifically hunted down because they are a certain role. I've been a victim of that just because other villagers believed the eliminators had to have a certain role, and they were wrong. Not fun when you get killed while innocent and having no suspicious evidence against you. -There's been games in the past with an insane number of a particular role. The game I meant just above, I believe LG14, there were a lot of "lurcher" type roles, and none were evil. In the most recent AG3 there were a ton of Thugs, and in in the AG before that, there were a ton of Smokers. So, without more clues on this game's distribution, I hesitate to make any plans regarding higher-than-expected numbers. Plus, as I've said before, it's a really bad idea for any Thugs to reveal, let alone any role, regardless of if they're a Misting or not. I would rather we all wait until the Inquisitor uses all of his conversions before we risk opening that flood gate. Also, @OrlokTsubodai, this games rules don't mention Mistborn, but LG2 did and had one. Does that mean you removed Mistborn from this game? -I'm not sure if I understand what you're suggesting here, exactly, but like I said, I'd rather the Inquisitor be clueless about who has what roles, and since we don't know who the Inquisitor is or who he/she will decide to convert, it's better that players keep that information to themselves, or else we put ourselves at risk of the Spiked removing our stronger powers from the game before we can take advantage of them, or worse, stealing those same powers to use against us. Everyone who was on that side wins, regardless of if they died. This is a team game, and even dying helps those who live by giving them more information to help figure out the game's role and alignment distribution. Also, I know Randuir has said this to you before, but be careful with double posting. It's not exactly against the rules, but it's frowned upon by the 17th Shard Moderators. All you need to do is edit your last post, preferablly with the word EDIT capitalized and in bold before it, as other players will likely see it even if someone else posts after. Yeah, that's partly my fault, and I'm sorry. I'll try to contribute to the RP soon, as I really like the ideas I have for Mykal and Elosa. But I should warn you that these games are not like most roleplay games. There is strategy to it, and I think a majority of people usually play for the tactical aspect over the narrative.

It's hard for me to say. There's the statistics, of course, but specifically for me it's a tonal thing. I'm not sure when it began, but most of the games I play with Ecth, I get a feeling for what alignment he is very quickly, and so far it hasn't been wrong. I've actually been experiencing the same thing with Joe, lately, so I've been learning to put more faith in my gut. I personally believe Inquisitor has one of the uber-versions of emotional Allomancy, but probably not both. I don't think that uber-brass would allow them to change two separate votes, but maybe move one vote while also making it worth two. Considering that rioting nullifies the users own vote, though, your interpretation might be right, and that's not even factoring in the potential for several village Smokers. I'm not a fan of option two, since I'm in support of a lynch. Given the fact that 96.7% of players right now are Villagers, however, I'm also of the opinion that if we lynch someone it should be a player who's not really contributing, an if possible, is the least likely to participate a lot in the future. Between 1 and 3, I'm not very picky. 3 has the potential to give us more information, but if we were to let that happen, I would prefer that no active players be at risk at all, and it's likely pointless anyway since the only person the Inquisitor should care about not getting lynched is him/herself. Considering the odds, there's a very good chance the Inquisitor hasn't even received a vote, yet, so he/she probably wouldn't get involved if it means denying us information.

For what it's worth, I'm on Mark's side, here. Before he even mentioned that Joe quote, I was of the opinion that he was just a villager making a few suggestions that he thought might be helpful without thinking them entirely through. I even said as much in a PM or two. That logic fits well when you consider his response to Wilson's post. His conclusions there were not thoroughly considered either, which I made sure to point out shortly after he posted them. Like my response to Randuir's post when he expressed suspicion towards Wilson, I think there is a fine difference between a player having thoughts or ideas that clash with your own, and them being genuinely suspicious. There's nothing inherently wrong with having an unpopular opinion or even making a mistake. One of the main points of discussion, after all, is players expressing these things so we can collectively decide which are worth developing and which should be discarded. Plus, from what I know about Mark (I like to think I know him rather well), if he was the Inquisitor, he wouldn't have attempted to manipulate the village by selling ideas that weren't fully deliberated on. I may be a little biased, though, as I haven't played a game with Mark in a while and would like to, so my opinion of him may be colored a bit in his favor. Honestly, if I were to seriously advocate someone die today, it would be a player who is lurking or inactive. I would rather the Inquisitor start using their conversions sooner rather than later, but I'd also rather not lynch a villager who's actually participating in the game, whether it be the discussion or the narrative. In the spirit of that, I'll remove my vote from Wilson, as she's satisfied the initial conditions of my vote, even if she is frustrated with herself for getting involved. I understand where she's coming from, about not wanting to take the game too seriously, but I do wholeheartedly believe every player has a responsibility to put some effort into a game if they sign up for it. If they don't, what's the point in living while the players who want to participate die? Hence right now I'm looking at the three players who haven't posted yet (Dalinar Kholin, DroughtBringer and Iamspartacus), as well as the four players who currently have votes while participating minimally this turn (Sart, Drake Marshall, Aonar Faileas, Ecthelion III). @Dalinar Kholin hasn't been online since Friday, so for now I'm willing to leave him be under the assumption that he's busy with real life and will return soon. If he doesn't, we'll either find out he's the Inquisitor for a lack of kill and conversion, or he won't be converted anyway. @DroughtBringer hasn't been on the forums in 16 hours, which means he's at least seen his GM PM, and I know I've seen him active on Discord, so I'm going to try reaching out to him to see what's up. If he continues to lurk after that, I may advocate his death. @Iamspartacus is a first timer, so that automatically means I'll give her a few turns worth of amnesty, and she also hasn't been on the website since Friday, so she deserves as much leeway as Dalinar, imo. Like Drought, however, she is a member of the SE Discord Server, so I'll see if I can reach out to her too. @Sart was last online 5 hours ago, but hasn't posted since four hours after the game began, in which he voted for himself. Earlier this turn I @mentioned him and asked that clarify why he did that. He might not have noticed it because I did it when I edited a post, but I'm pretty sure people still receive a new notification when that happens. @Drake Marshall I've confronted as well, although he at least said if he would be more active later. I'm willing to trust it when he says that, especially since he told us he was sick before the game began. @Aonar Faileas is a relatively safe option since his first post was essentially him offering himself up. But like Mark, I haven't played with Aonar in a while and even if he's not got the motivation for proper analysis right now, I would like to see him get to that point. I think it would be a shame to kill him before he had the chance. @Ecthelion III I'm pretty dang certain is village, plus considering how often he dies early in games and how upsetting I know that can be, I don't want to help perpetuate that. So, of those seven, I think I'd rather lynch Drought or Sart. Since Sart has been active on the forums and already has a vote, I guess I'll choose him for now, with hopes of pushing him to at least defend himself. Day One Vote Tally (0) OmeGaster: Arraenae, (0) Arraenae: Amanuensis, (2) Sart: Sart, Amanuensis, (0) Elenion: Jondesu, (0) little wilson: Amanuensis, Mark IV, (1) Drake Marshall: TheMightyLopen, (3) Mark IV: Arinian, Jondesu, Ecthelion III, (1) Aonar Faileas: Silverblade5, (1) Ecthelion III: Mark IV,

I clipped many of the following quotes so i could just respond to what's relevant. I disagree with this a lot, but really I think that comes down to you considering what's useful for you. as opposed to what's useful for other players. Let me refer you to LG31 in which I caught two eliminators within the first day turn. Based on thread discussion alone, I became certain that Ecth was an eliminator and was suspicious of Joe due to analysis and tone alone and thus put them both at the top of my kill list (just alt+f "I am suspicious of Ecth" to see why). Does this happen every game? No. But I just gave you one example and I'm certain I can come up with more (the first day of LG15b when we nearly lynched Bridge Boy before Wilson went out of her way to save him, which inevitably cost them both of their lives, for another example). Your point about there only being one evil person in this game right now is valid. It renders those specific scenarios impossible. However there are plenty of other things to look out for, and without a lack of significant discussion before anyone is converted, we will have much fewer examples of player's talking to compare and contrast with future posts. I have more to say on this, but it'll connect with other posts I'm quoting, so I'll go more in depth on that in a moment. No one was trying to minimize that. At least I know I wasn't, and that I don't think anyone else was. I just asked you what you would rather us talk about, because if I say and do everything than this game becomes pointless for the other players. I ask questions that I could easily answer myself because it's important for repertoires to be established and that everyone comes out of their comfort zone at least a little so people can get accurate reads on each other. It's almost an inverted mindset to what you had when you said "it's not my job to figure that out for you." I'm of the opinion that it's everyones job to figure those things out together. The most dangerous thing the village can ever do is sit back and not act. Why is a D1 lynch this game absolutely critical? Well, I don't think anyone has said it was critical, but Arinian said perfectly why I think it's important, so I'll quote him and expand on it. This. We took why lynching the Inquisitor Day 1 to it's logical end and that had 3.3% chance of happening. How about we do the same thing for if we don't lynch anyone today? So, N1 begins and no one is dead. The Inquisitor has no choice but to use their kill, which could land on a regular or a misting. Either way. D2 begins and no one is converted, meaning there's only the Inquisitor. Do we refuse to use the lynch again? The odds are no better, and depending on perspective, they're even worse as both the mistings and the Inquisitor have less cover. If the Inquisitor was unlucky and hit a regular N1 and we refuse to lynch D2, then he/she still can't convert anyone, and when D3 begins we're in the exact same situation. It's inevitable that the Inquisitor kills a Misting himself and converts another. so what does delaying it really accomplish? We have the potential for trust groups to form, but there's no guarantee of a village Seeker this game, and there's plenty of opportunity for one of those trusted players to get compromised in the future and thus get the Seeker killed anyway, so I'm personally not a fan of waiting around for things to happen. It's the difference between being proactive versus reactive, and I believe wholeheartedly that the former beats the latter in nine scenarios out of ten. This is it, exactly. It's about momentum. I've seen too many games suffer from passivity and the village lose as a result. If I can help it, I'll argue that we not let that happen, here. On the surface, I agree. A Day 1 lynch this game helps the Inquisitor more than it does the village. But as I've said above, in the long term scheme of things, I believe having no lynch discussion today will hurt the village more than it will help. And when it comes to reading into early kills made by eliminators, I don't believe that it's as informative as you think. Most kills this early in the game are fear kills, or kills that are intended to give the village the least amount of information. And besides. Regardless of if we do lynch someone or not, the Inquisitor is going to kill someone, anyway. It's not really a matter of no lynch giving us no information, but that we'll have less information to work with when it will matter the most.

Fair. I just wanted to comment more on the situation because the last thing I want is to unintentionally start a bandwagon on Wilson when I don't have much reason to believe she's the Inquisitor. While this is a rerun of LG2, that doesn't mean the Inquisitor has to have the same number of conversions, just like it doesn't mean the village needs to have the exact same roles. I would advocate that a Coinshot finish the job, and if they didn't, I would vote on the player again as well, unless I had a reason to believe they were innocent or had sufficient evidence of another player being an eliminator. I would say that Lopen would very likely agree with that, too. Regarding scanning, there's no guarantee that there's a Seeker in this game, let alone a village one. Personally I would rather depend on the game mechanics I do know are available (the lynch) before I sit around and wait for a role that might not exist to make a move. By making sure to finish off any Thugs that survive the lynch, we effectively strip the Inquisitor of claiming Thug as a safety net. No idea. It's happened to me a few times before, but I could never figure out why, and it took me deleting the entire post and rewriting it from scratch to keep it from happening (I personally didn't want the quotes to split). I don't think any role should claim, personally. Having an extra life is more valuable if the eliminators don't know about it, as it allows the Thug in question to work extra hard to bait the Inquisitor into attacking them, and thus buy the village more time. Plus, like me saying that vanilla players should not claim because it tells the Inquisitor who to attack if they want to convert others, Thugs claiming simultaneously allows the Inquisitor to narrow down other roles that he/she may want more, such as Lurcher or Coinshot. The only scenario that I would say a Thug should claim is if they are about to be lynched so that the village can think whether or not it's worth following through. Otherwise it hurts the village more than it helps, as Thug is one of the more likely roles an Inquisitor would claim to begin with, and there's likely many players who aren't Thugs that he could hide among if he decided to claim another role. Editing to say that I'm home and am going to go to bed. After finally getting some sleep, I intend to focus entirely on the LG30 Finale, so don't expect me to be as active as I have been thus far until it's finished, polished and posted. I hope that while I'm asleep / writing, this trend of activity continues. Speaking of activity, if someone doesn't mind, can you please @mention every player who hasn't posted yet, like Hero attempted to do earlier? I would do it myself, but I'm exhausted.

Emphasis mine. Not necessarily. The number of conversions that the Inquisitor has is very reliant on village role distribution. I think 5 conversions in a safe number to guess, but I wouldn't say it's the max. Plus, one thing to consider is that every time a conversion happens, it's revealed in the write up, along with what metal power was gained via the Spike. This fact alone provides the village with extremely useful information while potentially tying the eliminator's hands, which makes it reasonable for the Inquisitor to have more conversions available than usual. Eh. I wouldn't read into that sentence too much, Mark. I think along those same lines as a villager all the time. Talking about things like this openly does have the potential to impact the eliminator's playstyle, and given we're talking about trying to predict how the Inquisitor will act, it's a natural conclusion to reach. I'm pretty sure that in LG31, I made a comment about Stick tending to avoid participation in the main lynch when she is an eliminator, followed by me making a similar comment. Here, I even found the post where I did it, so read it if you want proof. It's in the third paragraph after where I @mention Szeth Son-Son Mallano. You acknowledge that the point is weak already, but I just wanted to point out that what she did isn't particularly alignment indicative. Regarding Wilson's contradiction, I had a similar thought, at first. But like with the day one lynch in general, and like the business with Len and the Inquisitor's "special powers," I thought about the situation a little more thoroughly, and think I understand what she meant as a result. Let's assume that we managed to lynch the Inquisitor today, and they had an extra life. Would they die? No. But what would happen next? I would guess that players might advocate that a Coinshot attack the player to finish the job (Lopen and myself included), as a lynch is essentially pointless if it's not followed through. Because no misting was lynched, the Inquisitor would be unable to convert anyone that night, so regardless of if they have two lives and die that night, or three and survive until the next day, they're going to be confirmed as the Inquisitor, and they're going to die before they get the chance to convert anyone. So yeah, nothing about the scenario is particularly fun, and if I had to guess, this is what Wilson was thinking but just didn't say everything she could have, likely because she was tired and wanted to go to bed. Considering this, however, there is an inherent clash in logic with her not wanting to give the Inquisitor an opportunity to convert tonight rather than kill. Until a Misting dies and the Inquisitor is able to convert someone to his team, he/she is going to be alone, and at risk of this same scenario occurring, just at a later date. From my point of view, there seems to be dissonance here, which could be telling, but might just be a matter of her not considering it. Personally I would rather accelerate the time table of the conversions than let it stagnate, as otherwise the village isn't really making any progress. Who the Inquisitor chooses to convert and allowing the two players to interact in thread a lot more informative than us just waiting to see who the Inquisitor kills. Especially this early in the game, there is so little to learn from who the eliminator's decide to target, first. I'm not sure on the exact statistics, but in more cases than not, they either go for a player that is deemed dangerous, or they remove someone low-active or inactive enough to keep us from learning anything significant. Since you're the second player to take my vote on Wilson further (even if you don't vote on her), I feel it necessary to say that I don't believe her stance on the lynch is necessarily suspicious. While I have considered the possibility of her being an Inquisitor who wanted to start the game by subverting expectations (suggesting a plan that an Inquisitor would naturally want to avoid), it's also possible she's an honest villager who believes that a lynch today is a bad idea, or that she's a villager who's only pretending to feel this way in order to spark discussion. Even if you or I disagree with her, I don't feel it's as indicative of her alignment as you seem to think it is.

Checks player list. Whoops. Carry on, then

I'll keep this all in mind although I feel it necessary to advise you that some things are better left unsaid. Specifically, if a player sends you a PM and asks you for your role, I recommend you wait a couple turns before you say anything about it, to make sure that player is trustworthy first. Even the Inquisitor finding out who isn't a Misting is useful information because it will likely convince them to kill someone else who might be a Misting. Considering this is a conversion game, it's important to keep in mind that a villager you claim to can become an eliminator later on. For that reason I think it might be best if most Mistings and all roleless don't claim anything at all. A Seeker is the only role I believe would really benefit from claiming, and that's mostly because they have the ability to clear players. On that subject, anyone who gets contacted by a Seeker, I suggest you don't tell anyone uncleared by them. I recall AG2 when myself and several other players who had been confirmed good by a Seeker were killed by the eliminators to prevent a trust group from forming. The benefit of openly being cleared is not much in most scenarios, especially early on in the game, and association with a Seeker paints an unnecessary target on your back, either for assassination or conversion. Likely the second, as then the Inquisitor would learn the Seeker's identity so they can kill or convert them, too. Yes, this covers most of my questions. While I cannot argue that your first post kicked off discussion, I'm hesitant to credit you for it, since I can't say for sure if anyone else would have responded the way I did. I'm sorry to hear about you being sleep deprived. Hope you can get some rest soon. As for what else you could have done besides a poke vote... plenty of things, really, but I don't blame you for not feeling up to it. As for seeing you ask people questions like I did, I've never seen you do it, but that wasn't really the point I was trying to make. I just wanted to show you that for the intentions you seemed to have, there are more effective ways to accomplish what you want. I'm going to go on a limb here and say that I disagree about Len, but I'll talk about this more in a second, when I respond to Bugsy. Likewise, I'll talk about my opinion on whether or not we should lynch anyone today after I quote Wilson. Personally I don't think Len's post was suspicious. Considering the fact that I've only seen people mention the Inquisitor's "special powers" in LG2, I'm of the opinion that he has read the rules for that game, just not enough of the game itself to have any context. I, myself, was also confused about what "special powers" meant exactly, but instead of asking, I just thought about the concept thoroughly enough to figure out what the original wording meant to convey. I could be wrong about this, but through my eyes, my conclusion is more logical / likely than yours. That being said, @Elenion, don't take me defending you as an excuse to shrug off Bugsy's question. I'd also like to ask who you were specifically referring to when you mentioned people referencing them. Fair enough. I look forward to seeing what you do have to say in the morning. To clarify, you're referring to this post, yes? I just want to point out that logically there's no reason to be suspicious of Arinian for this post. Considering he was the first to point out the delay in the GM PMs being sent out, I trust that he did not indeed know his alignment at the time of posting this. That being said, @Arinian, any more thoughts now that you know your role? I was considering bringing this subject up myself after seeing Jondesu's post, but I wanted to see if anyone else would if I didn't. When I first thought about it, I was of the same opinion as you (that it may be better to not end up lynching anyone today) for the very reasons you've mentioned, but I believe it's important that we treat this day like we should kill someone. Now that I've thought more about it, I think that it would be a waste not to try. The lynch is the most useful way for the village to gather information, not necessarily because of the lynchee's role and alignment being revealed upon death, but because of the ability to see player's opinions and the way they interact with one another. While there is a 96.7% that the lynchee will be a villager, and an indeterminable-but-decent risk that said lynchee will be a Misting and thus allow the Inquisitor to convert tonight, I would prefer we not waste any time getting discussion started. For that reason, I'll retract my vote on Arraenae and vote on you, Wilson. If we come to the consensus that no one should be lynched today, what do you propose we talk about instead? @TheMightyLopen, I've seen you viewing the thread quite a few times, including right now. I'm guessing you're in the process of writing a post, but just in case you're not, I figured I'd mention you to get you talking. What are you thinking so far? @Mark IV, same thing applies to you, now that I've checked the player list to see you're in. I was about to mention El too, since she's following the thread, but apparently she's spectating this one. @_Stick_, as of 1 minute ago, you're using personal messager. I'm assuming you're looking at your GM PM, so I hope that means you'll chime in soon. @OrlokTsubodai, are you following this thread invisibly? I see that 6 people are following it, but one of the names is not mentioned. Day One Vote Tally (1) OmeGaster: Arraenae, (0) Arraenae: Amanuensis, (1) Sart: Sart, (1) Elenion: Jondesu, (1) little wilson: Amanuensis,

Why are you not going to be as active this cycle compared to the next?

Regarding the story, I hadn't anticipated our characters being kidnapped. It's given me what I think is a great idea for roleplay, but unfortunately my brain isn't being cooperative right now, and I need to take care of the LG30 finale before I tackle this game seriously, anyway. Until I can get RP up, I'll inform everyone that the character I'm playing, Mykal, is not currently present. Elosa Renaud was the person invited by Lord Tekiel and, after refusing to participate in his test, was inevitably taken against her will. She is not happy about the situation, and the stress on her is apparent. In case anyone wants to reference her, you should know that the Renaud family is an offshoot of House Renoux. The Renauds are not well known as their primary responsibilities are managing several plantations on the fringe of the Final Empire, which means that most, or perhaps all other characters, will not recognize her. As for her appearance, she has short, blonde hair (imagine Cersei Lannister's haircut in Season 5 of Game of Thrones) and has amber-colored eyes. For a Noble Lady, she is not very lady like, preferring to wear more practical clothing (like that of a skaa worker, except higher quality and stylized) rather than dresses. She doesn't wear make up, so the wrinkles on her face are noticeable. It's not that she's very old, just that she's had a rough few years since her parents died, so characters may be surprised to learn she's only 32. Tobacco is the main source of income at her late father's plantation, and as you can guess, growing up there inevitably led her to becoming addicted to the stuff, so chances are you will usually find her puffing from a long, thin cigarette in the corner of the room. As for the game... Arraenae. This subject was talked about quite a bit on the first day of LG31 so I'll try to keep my point short. What do you think poke votes accomplish? Judging by your post, I can infer that you're using it to get a new player involved in the game sooner rather than later. If that's the case, shouldn't @mentioning them be enough? Furthermore, why not @mention the other new players, or all of the players who have yet to post? Is there a specific reason you chose Ome from the twenty+ others who haven't? As for the vote, while it may give the target a little more incentive to respond, don't you think the lack of any substantial reasoning for it makes it unlikely that your target will do more than say hey, I'm here? Wouldn't it be better to ask Ome a question so that we can all get a feel about his perspective on things? For example, why not do this: @OmeGaster, have you played any games of mafia before? If so, tell us about your experiences. If not, do you have any questions? @Ornstein, I saw you express confusion a few times before the game began. Is there anything I can help clarify for you? @Yitzi2, @Iamspartacus, same questions apply to you. This game is your first, which makes you both potentially dangerous if you're the Inquisitor, or later converted, as we have no past interactions to refer to when trying to figure out your alignment. Can you help the village by giving us some insight into your minds? @Arraenae, what reason do I have to believe you're not the Inquisitor trying to hide in plain sight? Poke votes are, in my opinion, unhelpful. Personally I think the only real benefit of poke votes is that they make a player seem more active and interested in promoting activity than they actually are, which is ideal for eliminators. Do you disagree? If so, why? EDIT: @Ecthelion III, and anyone else who cares. I've tried to work on the LG30 finale, but I'm sleep deprived and unable to rest because I'm currently working night shift. Just wanted to let you know that I won't be able to finish it tonight like I hoped. Just writing this post took me three hours, which is ridiculous considering how short it is. I have no plans or commitments tomorrow, so after I get home I will go straight to bed, and immediately begin writing after I wake up. I would really like to RP for this game, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get both the finale and Mykal / Elosa's introductions done before this turn is over. Since I mentioned you, I might as well ask you something, too. How do you think that the Inquisitor would handle this game? For example, do you think they'd post infrequently, or lurk outright? How likely do you think they have posted already (not statistically, but strategically)? Although I've directed these questions at Ecth, does anyone else want to weigh in on this? How about you, @Sart? You ninja'd me while I was editing this post so I know you're around. I guess I should also ask you what you hope to accomplish in voting on yourself. Your roleplay implies that you're trying to get people to vote, but can you explain how voting on yourself helps that?