DeTess

Ranatar Looked around in desperation as he stumbled to a halt. He needed more Stormlight! There, a couple of steps back, the body of a dead spearman lay slumped on the ground. A little light was leaking from a pouch at his belt. Ranatar breathed in the Stormlight. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. He picked up the man’s spear as well. Ranatar turned back to the situation ahead. The rest of the initiates had been advancing slowly on the Voidbringers, Prince Adolin taking the centre. Shallan was behind them. Adolin appeared to be setting himself up to face the enemy Shardbearer. It was the right thing to do. He could go toe-to-toe with the Voidbringer, and the rest of the initiates could probably fore their way through the Voidbringers, though it would be difficult and slow going. Ranatar looked over Adolin again. His shardplate had been damaged in places during the fight, while his opponent would be mostly fresh, and as much as having two Shardbearers face off against each other was the right thing to do, it wasn't the logical thing to do. Ranatar quickly rushed to catch up, drawing more Stormlight from the reserves of the initiates. He expected he’d need it more than they did, shortly. “Brightlord, push through those Voidbringers as fast as you can, then get the captain. You can worry about taking down the shardbearer once the job is done.” Ranatar said to the prince as he rushed past him, leaving him no time to respond. Ranatar switched his new spear to his offhand, then threw his dagger. It wasn’t balanced for throwing, and even if it was, Ranatar had no experience with such things. It was either luck, or some skill imparted by the Stormlight, That caused the blade to bounce of the Voidbringer General’s helmet. “You must be the runt of the litter.” Ranatar shouted once he'd gotten it's attention. “None of the other Voidbringers we slaughtered to get there bothered with Shardplate.” Ranatar just barely dodged a thrown bolt of lightning. The enemy shardbearer was glancing between him and the prince, seemingly unsure of who to come after. Ranatar startled circling to the right as he continued his taunting. “Despite all the power your plate and blade have given you, you’ve just cowered here, doing nothing as your men died for you. It’s clear what kind of leader you are. The kind that has no problem with sacrificing its people for a little glory and power.” That last remark seemed to have hit home. The Shardbearer rushed towards him, and Ranatar moved backwards, pulling it away from the other Voidbringers and giving the rest a chance to push through them and reach the rock. Ranatar managed to dodge the first of the Voidbringer’s swipes, and jabbed with his spear, aiming for its faceplate. The monster deflected the blow with its arm, then struck again. From that point onward, all Ranatar could do was dodge the creatures strikes. It was steadily forcing him back, striking fast enough to deny Ranatar any chance to retaliate. Then, suddenly, it stopped advancing and looked back, at where the initiates where busy tearing through the Voidbringers. With an angry shout it turned around and started to head back to the fight. Ranatar rushed up behind it, discarding his spear and drawing his sword, aiming for one of the Shardplate’s leg-joints. With strength born of Stormlight and desperation, he Slammed his blade through the joint. The voidbringer roared in pain, then struck at Ranaatr with its unarmed fist, hitting the side of his head. Ranatar was thrown to the ground, and for a sickening moment, he lost all control and feeling in his body. Pain and control of his limbs quickly returned, but healing that damage had drained him of the last of his Stormlight. Now he was lying prone on the ground, unarmed, his body hurting from exhaustion, as the Voidbringer general slowly limped over to him, Shardblade raised for the killing blow. @DroughtBringer, one Damsel in distress, delivered. Also, I'm switching my vote to Alvron. Unless the majority of the current inactives are Unjust, we probably don't have too large a margin to win this vote on, especially if we consider the possibility of an unjust Willshaper. Therefore, whoever we go for, we'll have to do it with as many votes as we can get, to stop the unjust from being able to pick who they want.

Ranatar could feel his time slipping away. Second after second, the remains of his Stormlight reserve drained out of him. He tried to make the best of it while it lasted, fighting like a man possessed. He’d killed several Voidbringers, but more continually moved up to replace their losses. Ranatar kept on fighting, dodging lightning bolts, pushing through hits from mundane weapons, trusting the Stormlight to keep him in the fight. His reserves kept on depleting, untill… Ranatar blinked. The area before him was clear of voidbringers. He looked to his left and right and saw other initiates, squires, and Shallan, the Lightweaver, look around themselves with similar surprised expressions. They had made it! Behind them the fight continued, but they had almost a clear run to the rock. There was a small group of voidbringers clustered around the base of the rock formation, but there were less than a dozen of them. As the initiates surged forward again, the voidbringers took up a defensive stance. Then, from behind them, a single Voidbringer stepped forward. It was clad in gleaming Shardplate and carried a Shardblade. Their leader had finally come out to fight. And Ranatar's stormlight ran out. So, who feels like going one-on-one against Eshonai?

Arinian, could you explain a bit more why you picked ecthellion over any of the others you listed? As I understand it, you've picked ecth mainly because he didn't vote in the last cycle and posted mostly RP. There is, however, another player that did post but did not vote that cycle. If I counted correctly he has as many posts last cycle as ecth. He did a little bit of RP in two of his posts, and moved his vote for the pardon/execution of Drake around a bit. His other contribution was agreeing with you that going after DA for the stated reasons was a waste. So why didn't you talk about mage not voting? Why is Ecth more suspicious than Mage? And why does this make ecth more suspicious than for example Alvron? Anyway, I think it's worth another shot, so Drake. Also Shqueeves. If it looks like the Drake pardon won't pull through, and his execution looks like it might, I'll switch my votes to executing him.

The initiates, Squires and Shardberear had originally formed a wedge to try and push through the Voidbringers. This had had some success, but more Voidbringers had come rushing into their flanks, and had almost broken the side of the wedge. Fighting them off had stalled their progress towards the rock, and several initiates had momentarily been blocked from Ranatar’s sight by advancing Voidbringers. When these where pushed back again, he spotted Kintas running back towards the edge of the plateau, carrying the limp body of the shin. Another Voidbringer attack forced Ranatar’s attention back to his immediate surroundings. The wedge of initiates had been slowed down almost to a standstill, and Ranatar had little doubt that their entire force was moving into position to stop them from reaching the rock. Several intense seconds followed as Ranatar fought for his life. When next he had a little time to look around he noticed that Sareth had been delivered to the back line and that an army surgeon was looking him over. There was no sign of Kintas, however. ‘Wait, there!’ Ranatar spotted the slumped form of Kintas lying on the ground not too far back from the wedge of initiates. Ranatar couldn’t see him well enough to determine in how bad a state he was, but his lack of movement and the fact that his Stormlight had faded out almost completely wasn’t a good sign. For a moment, Ranatar considered breaking the line and getting back to help him, but he immediately realized this would put their formation at an even greater risk. Instead, he breathed in what Stormlight he could, then handed the pouch containing his spheres and the remainder of his Stormlight to one of the spearman that formed the second rank of their formation. Ranatar pointed the fallen form of Kintas out to the man, then send him on his way to help the fallen initiate.

Okay, so Jonly will get freed automatically. Good, that saves us a discussion. It might be a smart idea to have a stonewarden block him though, as this could be a two-turn setup for a hit on Jonly by the elims. Or... @Amanuensis, could an imprisoned elsecaller switch someone in and someone out of prison? Or would he have to target two prisoners?

@AmanuensisShould we be pardoning Jonly now? Or will the wardens of the prison eventually realize that they've got the wrong guy in there and set him free? edit: wrong mention edit2: do we even want to pardon Joe? I guess we do, as he's been somewhat active, and despite choosing to bandwagon on a couple of his votes hasn't sown anything to indicate he's an elim.

Quiver(unnecessary at this point, but might as well put it in). Shame about not getting Drake. Let's hope this doesn't come and bite us in the chull.

Apologies if the following piece of RP moves us forward in the timeline a bit to fast. If you feel that's the case, please say so, and I'll be open to changing or removing it. Bridge One and their accompanying soldiers waited. Crimson lightning lit up the sky two plateaus away. The plateau they currently occupied had been turned into a bowl with a raised edge by water and wind, and the edges blocked view of what was happening beyond their plateau. They could see the horse-shaped rock formation rising above the ledge though. Two scouts had been send forward to observe, and where now hurrying back. Ranatar moved forward to overhear their report to the officer in charge of their group. “There are at least a 100 Voidbringers that we can see up there, sir.” One of the scouts began once they’d reached their officer. “They currently surround the rock formation we believe Captain Stormblessed has taken refugee in. Part of their forces are obscured, but we estimate there could be another 40 where we can’t see them.” “They are just surrounding it, not attacking?” The light-eyed officer asked. “Yes sir.” The second scout responded. “There are a number of corpses around a shallow entrance into the rock formation. Barely one of the monsters can fit through at a time. Right now, they just stand there, and occasionally bombard the rock with lightning.” The man’s words where punctuated by another crimson flash and the rumbling of thunder. “We’ve seen no sign of their Shardbearer, but-“ the first scout was cut off as another man came running up. He’d been part of a pair of scouts watching their flank. “There’s a group of 20 Voidbringers hurrying towards the rock formation. They’re four plateaus out, and it looks like their Shardbearer is among them.” The man spoke quickly, barely bothering to salute first. “Can we intercept them?” The officer asked. The scout nodded, hesitantly. “We can. We’d have to do so on the plateau right to the north of the one with the main Voidbringer force though.” The officer cursed softly. By now, Highpince Aladar had moved up to hear the report himself. He looked dangerous in his shardplate, but Ranatar knew he lacked the Blade to go with it. The officer quickly explained the situation to him. While that happened, Ranatar quickly looked over their forces. Six initiates, 1 half shardbearer and a couple a hundred men. They outnumbered the Voidbrinegrs, but he doubted they outnumbered them by enough for a decisive win. If their leader managed to join up, the fight would be almost impossible, unless some of the initiates had progressed far further than they’d shown. It wasn’t the fight itself that worried him though, but- “You, initiate.” The highprince was pointing at him. “Will you and the others be able to get the bridge onto the occupied plateau, no matter what the Voidbringers decide to throw at you?” Ranatar knew the answer that was expected. He also knew the importance of honesty. “Sir, no amount of Stormlight will be able to protect us if we have to face the fury of all 100 of them while carrying a bridge. If- “ He was cut off as another scout joined the group. He’d been watching the other flank. “We’ve spotted bridges Two and Three, Brightlord. They're one plateau out and headed here." The Highprince nodded, then turned back to Ranatar. “If you’re not facing their entire force, but merely a third?” Ranatar nodded. “It could be done, I think, Brightlord.” The Highpince nodded. “Then you and the other initiates should prepare.” I'm going off now. I'm planning to try and be back shortly before turnover. If necessary, I'll change my vote then, or sling one on quiver if we do manage to pull through with the pardon.

I'll get some RP up later today. For now, there is one thing I'd like to ask. How much longer are we willing to wait in the hope that some of the (semi-)inactives come by and vote on the drake pardon? Currently, there are 8 votes for pardon, and 2 for execution. Even if those who voted for for execution switch over, and the willshaper decides to throw his power behind the pardon, we'll still need another 3 votes (more likely, we'll still need 6). So what I'd like to hear is 1 or 2 opinions on how much longer we plan to wait and hope for the best. Storms, now I feel like one of those inept sci-fi fleet admirals. "There's no way he could have survived this long. Let's nuke the place and be done with it." However, I do think it needs to be said. There's some time yet, but it will run out eventually.

@Arinian, shqueeves did in fact vote (though admittedly after my vote change). You could see me going after DA as a bandwagon vote, but I had in fact voted on him last cycle, and at that time no one felt it nessecary to point out that what I thought was syspicious was his usual playstyle ( I'm not sure if I properly indicated why I suspected him though).

@Jondesu, you've missed my switch to JUQ and shqueeves votes. Everything else looks fine. edit: also arinians switch to voting on you.

Okay, so there's two possibilities. Either you're right (which I can't really determine as I don't know DA's playstyle, being a first-timer myself), or you, arin and DA are all part of the elim team (actually, there are like 5 other options, in many of which you guys are not all elims). I kinda want to stick with my impression here, but on the other hand, I've let Elbereth's post about alvron allay the somewhat bad feeling I had about him. Since Shqueeves has responded, I also don't really feel like going after him again right now, so for the same reason (inactivity, possible lurking) JUQ.

Right, I've just had an answer to my PM with Drake. If it looks like the pardon won't pull through, I'll switch back to executing him (provided I don't oversleep. Getting up in time for turnover means waking up about half an hour earlier than I normally would). I will also switch my vote to Darkness Ascendant. He's the only person I've had a bad gut feeling on that hasn't diminished through subsequent posts (either his own or someone elses). Plus, trying to blackmail someone in participating isn't actually something I want to do now that I think about it some more (sorry, Shqueeves, unless you're actually an elim, then I'm not sorry).

Don't worry about it. If I've got time, I'll add a short little rp in which you decent from above with a more suitable tool. If I don't have time, @Ecthelion III, you can include Ranatar just taking this in his stride in your RP.

@Jondesu, eh, that'll work better than the dagger I offered him a couple of posts back :P.

I'll (re)move my vote once he's actually voted on the pardon/execution of drake. As I see it right now, we need to do one or another, as a stalemate will almost cetainly only benefit the elims, since it frees up dustbringer and gives us no info. Therefore, anyone who is aware of the situations but refuses to vote one way or another will seem somewhat suspicious. Once shqueeves votes, I'll probably move my vote to someone else who is remaining indecisive on this matter. I've also PM'd Drake, as I'm curious to see his calculations, and it might sway me to vote for his pardon instead.

I don't think that's a good idea. Drake has indicated through Doc12 that he'd lose his role next cycle, so keeping him imprisoned will only result in dustbringer getting loose again, and potentially ending (again) with an elim. It's better to just execute him in that case, so we know his alignment and can make decisions based on that. If you don't believe in his guilt, it's better to join the vote for pardon.

Well, since the other bridges have been rather silent, it's up to Bridge One to save the day. "Does anyone have a tool that can make marks on stone?" Fifth called. "A chisel, perhaps?" Ranatar looked aside to the initiate that had joined him. The man had had a variety of tricks up his sleeve during the previous days battles. at first Ranatar had thought that he must have been a shardbearer, but the weapons had behaved like mundane ones after he had seemingly pulled them out of thin air. Given how little Ranatar knew of his capabilities, he might as well decide to humor the nameless man. He certainly seemed confident that he could somehow use the cut to locate Kaladin. Ranatar pulled a dagger from his belt and held it out to the man. "Will this do?" I might as well put a vote in. Hopefully that'll get others to consider doing so as well. Unfortunately, I don't have any solid leads, so for now I'll cast my vote on Shqueeves, for pretty much the same reasons as arinian. If someone has a better target (or if @Shqueeves has a good defense), I'll be open to switching, of course.

Even with Stormlight, carrying a bridge for several hours was wearying work. Sure, your muscles didn’t tire, but Stormlight continually pushed you to move. It pushed you to run, to fight, to act. Instead, they were required to carry a bridge from one point to another, which required everyone to neatly move in tandem, locked to the pace of the slowest. It might not have been hard on the body, but it was certainly wearying for the mind. In an attempt to give himself some variation, Ranatar had offered to accompany the scouts down when next Bridge One stopped. He now stood at the bottom of the chasm. Now that he wasn’t running away from Voidbringers or fighting a greatshell, he had a chance to appreciate just how alive this place was. The plateaus where mostly barren, but down here life thrived, with many types of plants all around him. Sudden movement attracted his attention as one frond of plants retracted back into its pod. Ranatar approached it to see what had disturbed it. At first glance, nothing was visible, but just above eye-level, Ranatar noted a horizontal crack in the wall. He poked his finger at it, and was rewarded with a sudden pain as something bit through his glove and into his hand. He withdrew his hand quickly, but the creature didn’t release him and was pulled out of the crack. Ranatar smacked it against the chasm wall, then punched it using his free hand for good measure. The small cremling released his hand and fell to the ground in a broken heap. “Storming critter” Ranatar muttered to himself as he surveyed the damage to his hand. The wound had already mostly closed due to the Stormlight he had reflexively breathed in the moment the creature had bitten him. As he looked up again, he noticed that his sudden movements to dislodge the creature had caused many of the plants to retreat, revealing the entirety of the crack. It ran completely straight, starting about two meters to his left and running another three meters to his right, where it ended at an indentation in the wall. At the indentation, it appeared to be at least half a meter deep. It was less than half a centimeter deep along its entire length, and it’s inside wall was completely smooth, and clear of plant matter and other detritus that would normally gather in a place like this. Ranatar quickly turned to the scouts. “I’ve found a shard-blade cut! It looks recent.” Regarding the Drake matter, I can see a couple of possibilities. He's an honorable Dustbringer. If we execute him, we'll lose a Dustbringer, which would have been a very helpful asset if we could determine suitable targets. Mage will most likely inherit the spren, and if he doesn't, there aren't too many other people with enough honor to do so (and who haven't claimed another spren). Therefore we can figure out who has it quickly, and if the new dustbringer goes on an unexplained killing rampage, we should be able to get hold of the one who has it fairly quickly and lynch him. If we pardon him, we've lost a source of information, but at least we've got a dustbringer on our side. He's an unjust Dustbringer. If we kill him, we've just killed an unjust with a dangerous Spren. If another unjust manages to catch it, then the same situation as with an honorable dustbringer occurs: we should be able to determine who has it reasonably quickly. If we pardon him, we've just unleashed an unjust dustbringer, and didn't get any information about his alignment (though that would probably changeshortly after as people start catching fire). He's an honorable initiate. If we kill him, we'll know his alignment, but we've lost another initiate. No dangerous spren is released back into the wild. If we pardon him, we won't get information about his alignment. Furthermore, if it comes out he lied about his spren, we'll probably end up imprisoning him again, because lying about this is a suspicious thing to do. We do not loose another initiate however. He's an unjust initiate. If we kill him, we know his alignment and have finally killed an unjust. If we pardon him, we do not find out about his alignment, and the unjust remain at full strength,however many that may be. Anyway, to make a long story short, I believe the downsides of pardoning him if he's unjust outweigh the consequences of killing him if he's an initiate, so my vote will remain where it is for now. However, I can understand not wanting to risk the Dustbringer spren disappearing again. If we do free him and he turns out bad, we know exactly who we need to catch and execute, so that worst-case scenario could be ended pretty quickly (though not before he manages to get his two kills, one that warns us he's bad, and the other on the turn we imprison him). I also didn't consider the possibility of him having some other spren than dustbringer. I guess it could be possible, but I can't figure out why he would claim dustbringer in that case (at least if he is honorable). edit: Finished post

This is the best thing I've seen on the shard today. Well done!

I don't think getting a darker skin is the only possible evolutionary defense against UV-radiation. Since Bavadin has likely done some meddling in the humans on his/her/its(their?) planet it could quite possibly be she's built some other defense into their system. Dark skin could have developed on darkside as a form of camouflage against predators. Darkside seems to be more advanced in technology than lightside (including firearms), which might mean they face some form of heightened hostility in their ecosystem.

That makes perfect sense.

“Highprince, if I might make a suggestion?” Dalinar’s stern look fixed on Ranatar, and he could hear disapproving mutters from one a couple of the light-eyed officers. He ignored it and pushed on. “The voidbringers weren’t intent on taking prisoners when they attacked us, so it is extremely unlikely that they have taken captain Stormblessed. This also means that he has managed to break contact with them while badly wounded. As he hasn’t been able to get to the gate, this most likely means he got caught up in the flood that almost swept us away. The floodwaters will have flown away from the centre of the plains, and along paths that can be predicted if we have a good map. If we start checking the most likely routes the waters would have followed, we have a decent chance of picking up on teh captain's trail trail.” The highprince nodded thoughtfully as Ranatar explained his reasoning. When Ranatar had finished, the highprince looked at his officers and the other initiates. “Does anyone have a better suggestion for where to start looking?” His voice carrying easily across the staging grounds and despite being worded as a question, the command was clear. Ranatar, having spoken his piece, headed to the bridge he'd been assigned to. I agree that we should lynch Drake. Knowing his alignment would help in determining who is honorable and who isn't. If he's unjust, Arinian seems like an interesting target to follow up on. If Drake's honorable, Alvron could quite possibly not be. So Drake, it would really help if you could inform us of any planned jail-breaks, so we do not make plans because we expect information that isn't going to come. edit: Oops, RP got slightly ninja'd. HH's situation and my suggestion don't necessarily disagree, as long as people don't mind seeing my part is having happened before his.

I'm not 100% sure that this kill is the result of an unjust truthwatcher, though by all means, hunt him/her down as I want that Spren (And you mentioned you had invested in truthwatcher as well, so could this be a ploy to get your hands on it?). The reason I think this doesn't have to have been the result of a truthwatcher is that there are only about 8 characters with maximum or almost maximum honour, so that would give the elims better than 50-50 odds on targeting someone holding a spren. Add to that that some people indicated in thread that they didn't have a spren but someone else did get it, and process of elimination could significantly increase the odds. edit: Though the specific Spren to have been targeted is unfortunate and/or suspicious. In my opinion, of the available spren, only dustbringer and potentially willshaper would be more problematic in unjust hands (and we can't really rule out any of those being in their hands at this point).

I've noticed that, It just (for me at least) makes it a little harder to get a good feeling of what exactly the person behind Ralaani/Ralaanar is actually thinking and planning. I don't think there is anything inherently bad at doing it this way, and some of the conversations are quite fun, it just makes it harder for me to get a read on you.