DeTess

That's what happens when you go a-lynching. Sometimes you hit a villager with a role. What really bothers me though is the low voting turn-out so far. The only difference between the voters today and yesterday are that kynedath voted, and Devotary didn't. So if everyone that has been keeping their peace so far could get into the voting game, I'd appreciate it! Regarding votes right now, I'm becoming a bit bothered by Experience's habit of seemingly just following along with someone else's vote, though this is alleviated somewhat at least by the fact that D1 they where the first to vote Joe. For now, I'll be voting them though, at least until they bring out a vote of their own with a bit of reasoning to back it up. Otherwise, I'd be interested in voting on any of the people that haven't voted at all yet this game, but in particular on the god king, who has been a lot more reticent to get stuck in than I'm used to from the previous two games I've seen him play.

@Kynedath (and everyone else that brought this up) what makes you so certain that the elims know who their team-mates are? I've seen several variations on the suspicion 'Tess is trying to get us to disregard information' and everytime I wonder why those that bring it up believe so strongly that that information actually exist. I'm hardly all knowing, so if I missed something, please explain it to me ( @Devotary of Spontaneity, I remember your argument on this in our PM, but I don't think everyone that brought it up has access to that particular bit of insight).

Non-Alignment Indicative. It means something does not provide any clues to someone's alignment. But if all someone posts is NAI, that is in and of itself noteworthy.

Yeah, despite my repeated questioning of them, I'm not particularly suspicious of Experience right now, I'm just trying to get a good enough view on their thoughts and motivations that I can get a better read on them. And asking questions is one way to try to do that. Anyway, I realize there's a bit of an info-drought still, but remaining quiet won't solve it. @Ironfire, @Devotary of Spontaneity, @Zillah, @Kynedath, @The_God_King, @shanerockes, @Rathmaskal, @Sart, @Straw, @StrikerEZ, is there anything you wish to share? And if there isn't, who would you say you trust most and least right now? To answer my own question, I've got a general lack of trusts, but I'm still not particularly wary of Shanerockes. Regarding supicions I'm still a bit wary of Elandera, as well as Straw. Straw mostly just because their only contribution so far was so monumentally NAI.

I can see where you're coming from, but I think that, in particular, declaring people cleared based on votes would be very dangerous because we can't be sure that's an actual way to filter villagers from elims.

@Sart, I might have failed at explaining properly why i think we shouldn't trust wagon analysis as much as usual, so let me give that another go. If we assume that the elims don't know who the other elims are: If the elims actually don't know, then we'll only be using the right information to try and find them If they do know who the others are, we'll not be using all the information we could be using, making things harder for us. If we assume that the elims do know who the other elims are If the elims do know, then we'll be using all the possible information to try and find them. If the elims don't know, then they could get falsely cleared for leading a lynch, and people could get wrongly accused for protecting an elim. I find this last scenario the more problematic one, so I'd prefer to assume they don't know and limit myself than to risk coming to the entirely wrong conclusions based on a wrong assumption. So unless you've got proof that the elims do know the identities of the others, I think its very dangerous to assume they do. @EXPERIENCE, could you explain that hunch you had on joe a bit more? Also, I really recommend against following anyone's vote just because they seem good or knowledgeable. I'm good at seeming both while being neither, so its better if you make your own decisions than try to follow my own votes.

Someone who is good at doing all the things expected of a villager (such as in-depth analysis and the like), while being a wolf. edit: Also, @EXPERIENCE, could you explain a bit more why you decide to go fro Elandera? And is there anyone else you do or don't trust?

Alright, last post in the cycle for me. A couple of thoughts: First, Xinoehp's opening post feels very village to me. There's a bunch of stuff in there that the elim team might prefer we not consider too much (if they don't know eachother), or that'd be harder to spot in the rules if you already know that the elims do know each other. Shanerockes post also feels different than they did in the last game, so I'm very, very tentatively inclined to trust him. Also, to answer the questions from @Ironfire: The elims might not know who eachother are, but we're not sure. Best to assume they don't though, because that way we are unlikely to use faulty information to accuse or clear someone. Regarding a game with more elims than villagers: It's not impossible. I've seen an 'inverse' game being played before, where the apparent roles of village and elims had been reversed. In that game all villagers where in direct contact with each other from the beginning though, and I don't think this game has a role that allows that. Which brings me to my own vote. Everyone has checked in, so there's no point in going for an activity poke. I'm tempted to vote on Devotary because I know they're a pretty good deepwolf, which could be very dangerous if the elims indeed don't know each other, but by that logic I should consider voting for myself as well,a dn I'd prefer not to lynch soeone just because they might be very dangerous. I don't really like Elandera's comment that we should assume business as usual for this game, because that could be very dangerous if the elims don't know eachother, as business as usual could lead to people being cleared that really shouldn't be. That's the only thing that really stood out in a bad way, but I suppose that's where my vote will go.

In that case, we'll have to work under the assumption that they don't know who their other team-mates are, which means we can't trust things like people leading the lynch on an elim or defending one to actually be alignment indicative.

I'd missed this in the in initial read-through of the rules, so thanks for pointing it out! I would encourage everyone to share their vote publicly in most circumstances, as analyzing and reacting to building votes is a pretty important way to gather information in a game like this. I had spotted this one though. @Elkanah, can you confirm whether the elims (by which I mean, the Jeskeri cultists, just in case you're doing something really weird) are aware of each other's identities? And if they're not, can they themselves be the victim to their own kill? If the jeskeri-group do not know each-other's identities then this game will have a pretty odd dynamic, because we're not really hunting an elim team, but a group of serial killers. This in turn would mean that we can't analyze interactions between players much at all, and instead we must look at how each individual player plays, and whether it's more foa village play-style or more of an elim one. This could be very interesting XD I'll have more thoughts once I've gotten a response form Elkanah.

Yeah, I should definitely be able to play in that case! I'll be Lesa, a trader who really should have known better than to try and get a cargo through before the proper start of spring,

Alright, I've got time for some more thoughts now. First, regarding game balance, I think things worked out fairly well, despite the final role division being something I had to knock together in about 5 minutes because the last minute sign-ups increased numbers to the point that I needed to add an extra subset. The research Subset was somewhat more powerful than a regular scan because three people got the scan results instead of one, but having an elim in there made it a decidedly double-edged sword. The two vote manipulation subsets could also create a larger swing than usual, but because only one had an agent infiltrating their ranks, they could balance eachother out. In the 13 and 14 player setups, the PR subset wasn't included, but I'd made the legal subset have four members to make it a bit more difficult for the elims to seize control. Lastly, I do think it's a shame that the Sequence died so early, because that was the only element that didn't really get to play out in full. Activity-wise, things went a bit less well, with a couple of people becoming very quiet, pretty quickly. I get that a blackout game can make it a bit more difficult to gather information, but if you haven't got a clue about what's going, you should be posting more, not less! Only by posting and asking questions will you be able to figure out what's going on. I am often as clueless as anyone else in the opening stages of a game, but by posting a lot I both appear more knowledgeable (I hope, at any rate XD) and I can actually gather information by a asking questions. Just as important, if you post and talk a lot, it should become easier for other people to figure out your alignment, so that's something villagers should definitely strive for. So tl;dr: activity is good, m'kay? Even if you don't think you've got anything to say. Lastly, I really loved how this game came down to the wire, especially the plot twist at the end of D7. I really thought Rathmaskal was done for before I took a peak at the PR doc and saw what Alvron had cooked up. I also liked seeing the early-game speculation. The gold Ferring worked nicely as a red herring (though if there had been a couple more players a bit earlier in the sign-up process there would have been a subset with a kill-role), and some of the other more out-there theories would have worked out to being correct if I'd run the other rule-set I had for this game. that one needed a minimum of 15 players and some pretty careful balancing though, and we didn't reach that treshhold quite in time. Anyway, that's enough rambling for now I'm certain I'll have some more thoughts at a later point.

I'll have a more involved set of game thoughts coming later, but for now I'd like to give a quick shout-out to @Araris Valerian for helping me check the rules and filling in for write-up writing duty when I really wasn't awake enough to do one myself.

Mundric Pentasum made his way to the meating spot through a city that, somehow, felt very different. Even a few days ago, Elendel had still been wrapped around his fingers, but now all that was falling apart. The EBI and the Constabulary where raiding warehouses, safe-houses and the private houses of members of the Set, and arrests were happening all over the city. But the tide could still be turned. Mundric had figured out how the so-called Law had gained all the information they were now acting on. Oh, the infiltrating agents had figured out some things, but what was happening now wasn’t the work of an EBI agent. No, it was the work of a traitor. And like any traitor, knowledge was the only currency Rathmaskal had to buy his own freedom. And so he’d have spent it sparingly. And if Mundric could take him down now, all the secrets that the man had not revealed yet, would go with him to his grave. The meeting spot was a small square in one of the poorer districts surrounded by blind walls. Rathmaskal was already waiting for him, alone. Mundric wasn’t too worried. He’d gotten plenty of experience with guns, back before the Set recruited him and sent him to Elendel, while Rathmaskal was only a glorified lawyer. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?” The loyalist asked the traitor. “Just that you should have done the same. I suppose that this is the end of the line though.” Rathmaskal responded. “It is.” Mundric tipped his head to his opponent. “Farewell, old friend.” With practiced skill Mundric drew his gun. A shot rang out. And Mundric collapsed like a puppet whose strings were cut. *** Rathmaskal breathed out a sigh of relief as he waved at the constable that’d taken the killing shot against Mundric from one of the roofs surrounding the square. He wasn’t really trained for this kind of thing, and without the help he doubted he’d have won the stand-off. Other constables entered the square now. “Any problem with his henchmen?” rathmaskal asked the man in charge of them. “Well, that’s the thing. He actually came alone.” The man responded. “It made things here easier, but it means we’ve still got to hunt down the rest of his crew.” “Well, I’ll leave that in your hands.” Rathmaskal tipped his hat to the constables, then left the square for the carriage that would be waiting to take him back to the headquarters of the EBI. He still had a report to write, after all. *** The commissioner stretched in her chair. To the east, the sky was already slowly becoming brighter as dawn approached. Though the hunt for the last few members of the Set continued, the report concluded that the organisation as a whole had been thoroughly neutralized. She was about to close the report when someone knocked on her office door. “Come in!” She called, and a moment later Rathmaskal, the last of the agents involved in this operation, entered her office. “What can I do for you?” She asked. “There was a little something I wanted to add to the report.” Rathmaskal responded. “A final off-the-record debriefing, if you will.” The commissioner motioned for him to continue. “As you know, I used to be part of the subset handling legal matters, and unlike the EBI agents I’ve been a member of the organization for long enough that I could spot certain...patterns. We’d get warnings before the constabulary or the EBI made a move against someone important, allowing us to prepare and create covers for our people. These warnings were attributed to a wide variety of sources, but their timing was odd. Always arriving in the morning of the second day of the week. Obviously, whoever was responsible for these warnings tended to learn these things on the first day. Something that regular implies it’s someone that gets briefed on all these operations as a matter of routine.” “What are you implying?” The commissioner asked tersely. “Everything, suit, Everything.” A quick smile crossed Rathmaskal’s face, but quickly disappeared again. “Of course, I can’t directly prove this, at least, not in a way that’d stand up in court. And even if I tried, I bet you could make me disappear pretty quickly if you wanted to. So instead I’ve left a little evidence behind where the remnants of the Set will find it, implying that you were behind the whole operation from the start, and that you tipping off the set about Ervine was merely part of a ploy to ensure that no one would be able to figure out your role in this. Who knows, maybe it’s even true.” He shrugged. “By this time, I suspect a sizable bounty has been placed on your head. The Set never wanted for funds, after all.” “And how, exactly, would this ploy of yours protect you from retaliation by me?” The commissioner asked. “It doesn’t, but you’re a pragmatic woman. As long as I’m alive, the Set will be sponsoring a bounty on me as well. If I end up dead, that money will go towards your demise instead.” “The commissioner cursed, then got to her feet. After a moment’s deliberation, she put the gun she’d drawn from her desk back on the table. “Very well, if that’s the way things will be. Just answer me this. Why warn me at all?” Rathmaskal shrugged again. “Because I wanted to know. Was this just a private operation by some agents that got too far before you learned about it? Or was it a power struggle between you and Stadtt?” The commissioner didn’t deign to give him an answer as she marched out of her office. *** In the back room of a small boarding house in Rashekin an unusual meeting had taken place. The meeting was attended by a group of people from all walks of life. People who, up until that meeting, had been content to just follow orders. People with lowly titles like ‘Scalar’ and ‘Vector’. When the meeting finally ended, the people that left held quite different titles though. ‘Array’, for some. ‘Suit’ for others. And for one enterprising Scalar from the PR subset: ‘Sequence’. *** Abstrusity has been lynched. They were a loyal thug and suit of the PR subset The game has ended! The EBI Agents have narrowly won! Vota tally Rathmaskal(0): Abstrusity Abstrusity(1): Rathmaskal Subset docs: PR Subset Legal Subset research Subset Kidnapping 'Involuntary holidays' subset Communications subset Suit-Sequence communcations: PR Suit Legal Suit research Suit Kidnapping 'Involuntary holidays' Suit Communications Suit Misc. docs Elim Doc dead doc master sheet

The cycle is closed, and the game is over! Final write-up will be up in an hour or so!

Things were quickly turning sour for Pete after he’d shot Catamire. The lack of a badge on the corpse had apparently convinced a lot of the lower-ranking members that he had to be the actual agent. The situation was getting heated and several people were in the process of drawing their guns. And then things got worse. The doors of the warehouse in which the set had been meeting came down with a crash, followed by shouts of “drop your weapons!” and “you’re all under arrest!”. These shouts were quickly answered with bullets by the hotheads that had already drawn their weapons. Pete liked a a gamble, but he also knew when to fold them. So he ducked down, and made for the nearest exit as bullets whizzed by. He sprinted down a narrow flight of stairs into a dark tunnel that had been excavated for this very situation and which would lead him to another warehouse further up the docks. After a two minute brisk walk he ascended another set of stairs and arrived at a closed door. Before opening he quickly took a look through the key-hole to ensure the coast was clear. Which it wasn’t. Several constables were spread out through the warehouse, searching for something. Pete cursed quietly, then turned around to make his way back into the tunnel, hoping to hide out there until everything blew over. However, behind him another one of the few remaining leaders of the set had ascended the stairs, their gun drawn and pointing at Pete. “Listen, I’m not the EBI agent, but behind that door are a whole bunch of constables, so how about we go down those stairs and talk this out quietly?” Pete whispered. “Oh, I know you’re not the agent.” The other officer made no attempt at being quiet whatsoever. “Oi, Boys! That secret exit I mentioned is over here!” The Suit shouted, and moments later the door behind Pete got ripped open and a gaggle of constables descended upon him. *** The next day was a busy one for Elednel’s constabulary. They’d been mobilized to catch what members of the Set they could before they all went to ground. Yet against the backdrop of this chaos, two Suits were still heading to a pre-appointed meeting spot. Unlike the previous week, they weren’t coming to talk and investigate. Both knew who the last EBI agent was, and neither had any intention of letting the other one leave the meeting spot alive. The time for legalese and stirring speeches was done. The time for a final showdown of steel and lead had come. *** Alvron has been lynched he was a loyal gold Ferring and array in the PR subset player list: Day 8 has begun. It'll end in a little under 47 hours on march 17th at 6 PM EST, 11PM CET. This is one hour earlier than usual! Alternatively, this cycle will end once all relevant votes and actions have been submitted and I have time to do the write-up, whichever comes first.

This cycle is now clowed. Next cycle should be up very shortly!

Catamire Dalageth was once again in the spotlight, though not quite in the same way as they were the day before. “...And this, ladies and gentlemen of the Set, is why Rathmaskal has to be the final EBI agent!” Catamire concluded the speech to general acclaim. As much as there could be a general acclaim given the few remaining members of the Set present, at any rate. Rathmaskal had known this would come, and had prepared his defense as best as possible. He had witness statements placing him far away from any agent-related activity, and several testimonies as to his good character. And yet he doubted it’d be enough. Details like that had yet to save any of those that needed saving, after all. Even as he made his faltering defense, he could see that one Scalar who’d made pivotal speeches on many of the days preparing himself for another, and he knew it was all over. A shot rang out. And Catamire pitched face-first onto the wooden floor. “Their certainty and self-righteousness made it obvious they were the last agent trying to finish the job.” Pete said to the stunned crowd as he put his gun back in its holster The rest of the crowd slowly nodded their assent to as he knelt down to search the body for a badge. But try as he might, he couldn't find any. *** Coda has been lynched. They were a loyal gold ferring and suit in the communications subset. The communications subset has been wiped out. The communications subset could create one PM with any number of players every night. Previously created PM's remain open. Vote tally: Rath(0): Coda, Alv Coda(2): Rath Player list: Night 7 has begun. It'll end in a little under 24 hours on the 16th of march, 7 PM EST or midnight CET

This cycle is now closed. The new thread will be up in a bit, but it might take a bit longer than usual.

“Nah, nah, y’see, this is way better! Before it was just ‘whack em on the head and sit on em until we say to let’m go’, which‘s boring. But now we’s get to have a little fun!” Henchmen number one asserted as the group made their way back to base early in the morning. He was walking unsteadily and slurring his words thanks to having drunk a lot of wine. “You’re not wrong, but aren’t those we go after supposed to be evil? Or at least they’re not with us!” Henchmen number 2 complained. “We don’t know that.” Number three said, tapping her head. “We just ensure they don’t get up to anything bad! The rest is up to the bosses to figure out.” “Hear, hear! She gets it! We jus’ take them out for the night, so might as well go do something fun, rather than spend all our time in a damp warehouse on the docks.” Number four added. “Guys, why are there a whole lot of uniformed people walking in and out of our headquarters?” This brought the group up short. Their headquarters was indeed bustling with activity, which was quite unusual. Uniformed men and women walked in and out, carrying boxes full of papers or escorting people in handcuffs out to waiting carriages. “Oi, ain’t that the boss that’s being brought out?” Number five said, pointing at the figure being practically carried out of the nondescript building by a pair of clearly kolos-blooded constables. “Looks like she gave them a fight! Not that I know who she is. Or what that building is. Or who any of you are. I bid you a good day!” and former henchwoman number 2 turned around and walked away into a side ally. The rest of the former henchpeople nodded their assent at that statement and without any further words split up and left the site of their former headquarters. *** Zillah has been arrested. They were a loyal thug and suit of the 'involuntary holidays' subset. The 'involuntary holidays' subset has been wiped out! Each night cycle the ‘Involuntary holidays’ subset can submit an action to roleblock a player. If the blocked player is a member of another subset, their vote in their subset’s night action is cancelled. player list: Day seven has begun. It'll end the 15th of march at 7 PM EST/midnight CET

This cycle is now closed, stand by for the next one!

Yarra wasn’t having the best of days. The impromptu pub crawl he’d been ‘invited’ on the previous night had him with a pounding headache. He still wasn’t sure why he’d even agreed to it. Luckily things during the day’s meeting weren’t focussed on him. Catamire and Pete were at each other’s throats, and everyone else seemed to be more concerned about them than about anyone else. Yarra decided this was probably as good a moment as any to catch up on some sleep. *** Yarra woke with a start, but it took him a moment to pinpoint why. After a moment of looking around blearily the cause was pretty clear though. The shouting had stopped, and everyone was looking at him. “So what’s got you so tired?” Pete asked. “Been up all night arresting people, was that it?” Catamire added. “N-now, hold up a minute...” Yarra started, still badly hungover and sleep deprived. “...that’s not it at all!” “So what have you been doing then? You look like you’ve been having a party, and I can’t think of any reason why one of us would want to have a party right now.” Zillah added. The fight between Catamire and Pete seemed to dissolve very quickly, and all that was left was a united front. A front, unfortunately, united against Yarra. “Now listen here, I’ll...” Yarra didn’t get much further than that. A gunshot rang out, taking him down. *** XInoehp has been lynched. He was a loyal suit in the PR subset Vote tally: Alvron (1): Zillah, Rath Xino (3): Coda, Alv Night 6 has begun. It'll end in a little under 24 hours, on the 13th of march at 7PM EST/ midnight CET (if these times don't correspond, assume the CET time is correct).

This cycle is now closed! stand by for the next one!

After the meeting's end, the various members and messengers of the Set took their leave. Ned, however, took his time leaving. He knew that the EBI would be waiting for him, after all. So he took a last look around, took a look in a mirror to ensure his thin mustache looked immaculate and took his time buttoning up his trench-coat. Then, when there was nothing left to do, he dramatically tossed open the door and stepped outside. The door slamming open attracted some attention from passers-by, but no one suddenly pointed a weapon at him, no one shouted to ‘get him’ and most certainly no one was waving a badge around. This troubled Ned. He was certain this would be the moment. But with nothing else for it, he waved down a carriage and started the journey home. Still fretting over the lack of a team of constables to arrest him, it took him awhile to realize that the parts of town the carriage took him through looked rather unfamiliar. He banged the roof of his conveyance, demanding to know where the carriage driver thought he was taking him, though he already knew the answer. Of course the EBI had send a carriage to stealthily carry him away to the gaol, leaving him completely unaware until it was too late. If nothing else, he had to congratulate them for their guile. “My apologies, sir! There was a crash on the main road, so I needed to find a way around. It shouldn’t be too much of a detour though!” The carriage driver called out in response to Ned's demand for information. And so it was. Several minutes later the carriage had returned to the roads Ned was familiar with, and Ned arrived at his home only several minutes later than expected. Ned braced himself as he descended from the carriage. Surely this would be the moment then, the moment in which the EBI descended on him and made their arrest. But no such thing occurred. Nor did Ned find any agents hiding in his house, even after making a thorough search. The creaking floorboards that woke him up a grand total of six times during the night were just the result of his house settling, and not a sign of an impending assault on his bedroom. And the paper he found rolled up on his doorstep the next morning was just his usual broadsheet, rather than an arrest warrant. Suffice to say, Ned was a bit of a wreck when he left his home to attend the day’s meeting. He was so sleep-deprived and occupied by his own thoughts that he failed to notice the two burly men waiting just outside his door and barreled right into them, resulting in an unfortunate fall. It took him a moment to realize that, in addition to helping him back to his feet, one of the men had also slipped a pair of manacles on his hands. When the situation finally registered with him, he had only one thing to say to them. “About rusting time!” *** Elkanah has been arrested! He was a loyal copper Ferring array in the 'involuntary holidays' Subset. He has left an unkeyed coppermind in a safe place, for those wit the ability to read it. Player list: Day 6 has begun. It'll end in a little under 48 hours, on march 12th at 7 PM EST.

Whoops, a couple minutes late. The cycle is now closed! Stand by for the next one!