DeTess

I can see why that would be supsicious. In my case it is caused by not really having a good idea about who to go for. I don't have a strong enough feeling about drake to feel like joining that lynch, and the actions that seemed somewhat suspicious about alvron to me are more his standard play-style if elbereth is to be believed, which means I'm not sure about him either. Rae doesn't really allow much to be determined about her by sticking mostly to roleplay even for game-decisions, but again that puts her squarely in neutral territory for now. I do have some mild distrust of Darkness Ascendant, if you want a vote, but that one only marginally (accusing assassin on very shaky grounds at the beginning and then being mostly silent on game matters, with some small amount of RP to generate some honour). I don't really see a point to leaving quiver alive apart from seeing if he's targeted by elims this cycle, so since a significant amount of people want him dead, I won't block this. I realize reacting quickly to Lopen's accusation could be a further source of suspicion ('he's just trying to shake suspicion by reacting quickly'), but damned if I do and damned if I don't.

The first bonds formed at the start of cycle 3, so the lowest honor requried could be (3 or ) 4 for at least 2 spren.

@Jondesu, he's certainly welcome to come by. I won't have much time to do RP tonight either, but I should have some time tomorrow. I'll leave the initiative up to you, however.

Ranatar leaned back against his small writing desk and looked over his work. The appear sheets that he’d sued for his calculations now covered the better part of two walls of his room, covered in equations runes and even a rough draft of the map of the world. He’d started work on his storm model at first as a way of distracting him from the fights still to come and the work had quickly consumed him after that. Now, he looked over what was, in essence, a finished model. He’d managed to overcome his final obstacles and had even managed to catch a couple of minor mistakes in the work he’d already done. All that was left was merge the collection of equations and calculations into a single equation that could be used to determine the timing of high storms at any point in time and place. Once that was done, he could start comparing the model with actual Highstorms. Of these, Ecthellion and Shqueeves have both posted last cycle, so I wouldn't consider them inactive yet. @JUQ has last posted in cycle 2, but has been on the forums with some regularity, and @The lazy anarchist hasn't posted since cycle 1 and hasn't been on the forum for a little over a week (or at least not signed in). If we do go after an inactive, I'd personally suggest going after JUQ. There is at least the possibility he is an elim lurker, while Anarchist seems to be legitimately away from the forums. Edit: right, forgot for a moment that the elims could actually give kill-orders to an inactive team-mate, so that means Anarchist can't be ruled out. Arinian claims to have lost his spren, and evidence seems to back it up. @Amanuensis, if multiple people go for the same spren and are all past the minimum honor treshhold, but one of them has less honor invested than the others, is he still eligible to get the spren? For example, person A has 7 honor invested, and persons B and C have 9, could person A still get the spren? If the person with less honor invested is not considered, I don't think it is very likely that arinian gets the edgedancer again, unless none of the other people that have been getting (nearly) all honor have an interest in the edgedancer spren, there is almost certainly someone who has more honor invested, since arinian missed the honor from last cycle, so I don't expect him to slip out again (though I can't rule it out 100%, of course).

I don't blame you for wanting to live. However, it would likely have made a difference if we'd known you weren't going to be lynched last cycle. I brought up the quiver lynch partly because I expected we would have some information (namely, certainty about your alignment) that would allow for some decently targeted interrogating this cycle (so I reasoned it was better to cull another inactive and go after suspects once we had more surety). If I had known you wouldn't die, I might have backed the Rae or Alvron lynches, or alternatively I would have gone through the active players again to see if anyone else stood out to me. I suspect that either Alvron or Rae would have been interrogated last cycle had we known. I also find it a bit hard to believe there is no one in the current group who you'd trust to handle the secret of your order with care. You could have asked Doc to ask a specific player to contact you so you could have informed them. Now, I don't think you're pulling the edgedancer gambit Drake described, but I'm not yet completely convinced you aren't, either. I've quickly gone through the archives again to see if there's someone I can find a clear reason to interrogate. Specifically, I've looked at the people that wanted to lynch sheep because I can't shake the feeling that there must have been something more behind that kill. Though maybe casting suspicions at those 5 was the elims goal? However, none of them stand out as particularly suspicious (Lopen and doc seem village-y to me, Drake probably has the same alignment as Arin (and until we know one, we can't really know the other), and I don't really have a feeling one way or another about assassin and mage). Finally, on the question about lynching quiver, I'm actually somewhat curious about what will happen when we leave him alive for a cycle. The elims where quick to execute sheep and I'm wondering if they'll pick off quiver as well(provided, of course, that quiver is not an elim himself).

After the flood had subsided, the initiates had made their way to the bottom of the spire without too much resistance. Several minutes of intense fighting had followed once they reached the top, but reinforcements had broken the back of the Voidbringer force keeping them hemmed in. No one had died. Now, Ranatar was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He’d washed himself and replaced his dirtied and torn uniform with a clean one. Now, he was alone with his thoughts, no sudden threats to distract him. Yet, the guilt he’d expected, and had felt before the attack of the Voidbringers, did not come. His old ghosts had come back to haunt him, but he realized that, even after emerging from his ruthless and logic-driven state, he still couldn’t find fault with his decisions today. He’d certainly have died today if he hadn’t locked away everything that could slow him down in the heat of the moment. If it hadn’t been the chasmfiend, it would have been the Voidbringers or the flood. And he doubted he’d have been the only one. They’d pulled through by the skin of their teeth, and any mistakes would have been the end of them. Now that he’d seen the enemy, he understood one thing above all: He would have to do everything he possibly could to protect the rest of the world from what was coming. If that meant he’d have to learn from the man he’d been and had come to loathe, well, so be it. There's one thing I'd like to adress in Arinian's post right now (there are other things I'd like to talk about in his posts, but that would take some research, as I prefer not asking people to just take my word on things). I'd like to respond with this quote form a post from elbereth (can't quote a locked thread, but it's in the archive from this game on page 9) So depending on the exact choice, the amount of elims can be 3(15% of 22), 4 (20%), 5(square-root) or 6 (25% rounded up). Admittedly, that post predated your initial claim of 4, but there are several other posts in which the amount of people was discussed after I asked what the usual amount of elims was. After you'd claimed 4 for the first time, I even pointed out to you that if Aman had taken 20% and had rounded it up you'd get 5 players (and with 4.4 being 20% of 22, I don't have any certainty whether he decided to round up or down if he took the 20% convention).

What do you mean, you're sorry? this one, like those before, was amazing! Now, important rules question. how does one go about executing an edgedancer? Can they be brought in for execution again without first having to imprison them? Wether we decide to go after Arin again or not this cycle, it might be important to know at a later point (as I'm fairly certain it was Arin's bond that got broken due to lack of honor to supply his spren with, unless an(other) unjust did something to break his bond). Edit: Also, for those who missed it looking through Aman's post the first time round, we have a vote manipulator who added quiver to the execution tally.

Ranatar had reached for the rope Kintas had tossed towards him as the flood came raging in. He breathed in, packing as much air into his lungs as he could, than grabbed the rope. He almost immediately lost the breath he'd been holding again as the rope curled around his wrist, seemingly taking on a life of its own. Then, as the others grabbed hold of the rope as well, it lifted them up in the air and away from the oncoming flood. Just wanted to quickly establish that Ranatar did, in fact, grab hold of the rope. Good night everyone!

By my count, we're still short one vote, so if we want to get that information, we'll need one more.

@Jondesu, sure no problem. That 'little' rope-trick is really going to interest the scholar inside Ranatar, once he surfaces again. Since I hadn't gotten around to it yet, arinian. There is an issue I have with the Alvron and arrae interrogations. Both of their status probably depends in part on Arin's status. If arin is honorable, one or both of them could likely be an unjust, but if he's unjust I would expect both of them to be honorable. Given the problems pardoning someone will have given the amount of people who currently are mostly inactive(not too many, but probably enough to block a vote requiring 75%), I'm going to suggest interrogating an inactive for this cycle, and once Arin has been executed, we can base our next interrogations on his alignment. So, quiver. If this vote triggers an avalanche of votes on Alvorn, well, we'll have learned something as well.

Kintas had overtaken Ranatar about halfway towards the group of Voidbringers. He was running like he was trying to outrun a Highstorm. He’d probably have managed it too. Kintas quickly got ahead of him and managed to reach the point the Parshendi would sue to drop into the Canyon before they did. He braced his spear against the ground and manage to gut one of the Voidbringers, using its own speed and momentum against it. The three remaining turned to him with shrieks of rage, and he managed to duck behind a boulder in the nick of time. This left an opening for Ranatar, as the three Voidbringers where facing away from him and where focused on Kintas. Ranatar switched his spear to his left hand and drew his sword. He stabbed through the spine of the middle of the three Parshendi, then cut sideways, nicking the arm of the beast to the right of his initial target. The two remaining voidbringers switched their attention to him, but Ranatar quickly ducked between them and dived behind the same boulder Kintas had taken refugee behind. One bolt of crimson lightning seared his shoulder, but Stormlight suppressed the pain from the wound and closed it rapidly. Ranatar breathed in to replenish his supply of Stormlight, but the waning storm inside of him was only strengthened by a small amount. A quick glance at the pouches containing his spheres showed that none of them glowed anymore. 'We'll have to be quick then, before I run entirely out of Stormlight'. A quick glance sideways showed that Kintas was fine, but unarmed, so Ranatar handed his spear over to him. "Two more to go. Let's clear the way for the rest of the initiates." Yeah, @Jondesu, that'll do

Ranatar tried to keep an eye on everything and everyone at once. Before and around him, the other initiates fled. Most had been quick on their feet the moment the shout of alarm came, and those that hadn’t been had been dragged and carried off by their fellow initiates. Voidbringers swarmed on the plateaus behind them, tossing lightning down. Some had jumped down, but they’d been quickly dispatched by Kaladin’s squires and the initiates. Most of the voidbringers seemed focused on the windrunner, but mote than enough of them had given chase. While he looked back at the voidbringers chasing them, he caught a flash of movement from the corner of his eye. Several Parshendi had jumped across a chasm branching off from the one they’d been following and where now racing to get ahead of them. Several moments later they jumped down from their plateau, in the path of the fleeing Initiates. Rather than attacking them head on though they raced ahead. The reason quickly became clear to Ranatar. The entrance to the spire was only just broad enough to allow two men too pass each other. The four parshendi now racing ahead would be able to hold it long enough for their fellow voidbringers to catch up and decimate the group. "Voidbringers ahead, don't let them beat us to the spire!" Ranatar shouted before sprinting after them. So, anyone willing to help me run down some voidbringers? I'll have some discussion about the current suspects and the arinian execution up in a bit.

Hadn't Aman stated you'd be informed if the spren you're putting honor towards has bonded someone else? As I stated in the post, my reason for switching from Quiver to Arin was to prevent a draw (at the moment of switching, the vote was 5-5 between quiver and arin). Given that the vote ended 5-7 against arin, I feel somewhat justified in not leaving my vote on quiver (if nothing else had changed the final vote would have been 6-6). The evidence against arin was just barely good enough to interrogate him on, but I'm not 100% convinced we should execute him. On the one hand, it would give us some information, but on the other hand it is irrevocable (if evidence comes forward about his innocence, we can't un-execute him, and post-humous pardons are just a bit pointless). If he is evil, he's only a threat to others in the prison(which could be problematic, but would become pretty clear pretty quickly). Anyway, those are my reasons for my vote on him previous cycle and my feelings on executing him. I know it's a bit rambling. If we do go after an inactive, Quiver is the only one of these that has indicated he would be going inactive for the rest of the game, the others might come back, so he seems the logical target to vote against if we go that route (at least, if it's just to cull inactives to make execution/pardon votes easier, if we have reasons to suspect any of them of being elim lurkers, that's a different story). If there's a non-inactive that acts suspiciously, it would be better to go after him/her of course.

Ranatar had started on his second bowl of steam, when he finally realized there was something not-quite-right. All around him initiates chatted, happy and relieved. Almost everyone in the group exuded a sense of overwhelming relief at having survived the fight. There were even a few glory-spren spread above the group. Yet Ranatar didn’t feel anything. No relief at having survived, no sense of victory at having helped slay the greatshell… ‘Of course I don’t.’ Realization flooded into Ranatar’s mind. He closed his eyes and focussed inward. One by one, he pried open the castle-doors locking away his emotions, his hopes, his dreams, his… humanity. As he undid those, emotions finally clouded his toughts. Relief at having survived, awe at the fight the initiates had put up, but above that, anger and revulsion at himself. He’d promised not to let himself slip into this abyss again, no matter what. But a simple threat to his life had overcome that decision without any struggle. ‘Balerad would have been proud.’ The thought came unbidden to him. ‘It was necessary. He whispered to himself. Without this, I’m not much use in a fight. I would have died. So would others, maybe…’ The rationale was solid, but hardly convincing. Ranatar knew that the opposite would have been far more likely, that more people would have died while he was like that. His thoughts where interrupted by a sudden shout. “Voidbringers!” Ranatar looked up and saw them arrayed around a plateau to their flank. A flurry of orders came from Kaladin, ordering them all to retreat. For a moment, fear threatened to paralyze him. A simple mental nudge was all it took. The castle doors in his head crashed into place again, locking such useless things as fear and self-recrimination away. Ranatar the Atoner was gone again. In his place, Ranatar the captain leapt up. “Wounded and non-combatants to the front!” He shouted. “Everyone else, form up behind them. Stay together, cover each other’s backs and don’t charge of alone.” Aman, it isn't just the situation that's getting topped everytime, your write-ups also keep getting better, and the very first was already fantastic. Three bonds have been formed, none have been broken, so we should have five active radiants now. I wonder if the remaining three are just very costly, or that a bunch of the people who've been earning full honor have put it all on the same Spren. That is, of course, assuming none of the bonds formed where skybreakers. Aman said he'd put those in as a balancing factor, so it seems unlikely any of those bonds where skybreakers already. There's also Sheep's murder to consider. It seems odd to me, as she's a confirmed inactive which would almost certainly not have a spren, so she wouldn't be much of a threat to the elims or much help to us. She was imprisoned, so maybe the elims just decided to pick up the easy kill (likely)? Maybe the elims are all members of the contribution crusade (less likely)? Or maybe everyone I think of as a likely target is actually an elim (unlikely, I hope)...

If I've been keeping track correctly, at this point the chasmfiend is badly poisoned, blinded, lost its two front claws at its right side and has only barely enough legs left to keep standing. Now might be a good time to have it stand up for a final moment of defiance.

You... you've got a way to top that... Run for your lives, we're all doomed!

The importance of getting them out of the main game lies in the fact that we need the agreement of 50% of all free players to execute, and 75% to pardon. getting these will be hard enough without an inactive player adding to the required minimum. Of course, voting them out is only a priority when there is no one better to target. If I haven't miscounted, there is currently a draw in votes between quiver and arinian. Draws result in no one getting interrogated, and at least for Arinian there are some reasons to interrogate him, so I'm switching my vote to him.

Ranatar had to throw himself aside to avoid getting crushed as the Chasmfiend collapsed, the creature's body and legs missing him by a hairsbreadth. Getting up as quickly as his stormlight-enhanced strength allowed, he looked over the fallen beast, trying to determine what had brought it down. 'There!' A big chunk or rock was resting against the chasmfiend's head. 'It's not big enough to guarantee a kill though.' A quick glance behind him showed that the wound he and the other initiate had caused was still spurting blood, or whatever passed for blood in these creatures. There seemed to be a pulsing rhytm to the blood leaking out. "Its's not dead yet! Its heart is still beating!" Ranatar shouted. The creature was unmoving for the moment, but Ranatar expected that to change shortly. The creatures four massive forelimbs where spread out across the ground, and he could see the weaker joint where they connected to the creatures body. Disabling those would remove one of it's most dangerous appendages. Ranatar quickly moved toward the joint, hoping that all the other initiates would make use of the time they'd gained. As he set to work cutting through the joint, he idly wondered about the fate of the initiates that had climbed the creature. 'Doesn't matter. There's nothing I can do for them right now apart from making sure the beast loses its claws.'

Ranatar took stock of the situation. A moment before, it had looked like the beast would claim its first victim, as the blind man, Hithon, had stumbled around between the legs, disoriented. Only the quick help of another initiate had saved the man. Then something had changed in him. For all the world, he’d looked like he’d regained his sight. He nimbly dodged the next attempts to flatten him, then jumped on one of the legs, slashing a joint before heading up onto the creatures back. The leg he’d slashed had gone limp moments after. Then, the chasmfiend had tried to kill another man, who had brought an enormous sword, easily the size of a shardblade. The man had stumbled and fallen, but a last-ditch stab with his sword had wrecked the leg coming down on him. It’d also left him lying prone and weaponless. Ranatar quickly closed the distance to him, grabbing him by the shoulder and dragging him up. As soon as the initiate had regained his footing, Ranatar handed him the sword he’d brought as back-up to his spear. It was a shortsword, with a thick blade, intended for stabbing through weak spots in armor. Ranatar looked around. There was another leg close by that was currently braced against the chasm wall, keeping the creature upright as it tossed about to dislodge those on its back. Its joints where too high up to easily reach, but if the armor on the lower part of the leg could be cracked, they should be able to disable it. He quickly turned to the man he’d helped up and pointed to his intended target. “We need to get through the armor before the beast starts moving that leg again.” Apologies if you'd already arranged for someone else to help you up again, @Assassin in Burgundy. Otherwise, you're welcome .

As the distraction group charged in, Ranatar spent a last few seconds dividing the remaining initiates in two groups, then ran after the first group, trusting that those in his group would follow. While the distraction group kept the beasts undivided attention, he darted between the beasts larger frontal claws to get at the smaller legs behind that, Stormlight giving him the agility needed to avoid getting crushed. Once among the beasts legs he started stabbing around with his spear, each blow sending a shock through his arms. The soulcast metal haft held, and Ranatar would be able to continue his assault as long as he had Stormlight remaining. Despite his best efforts, the creature's constant movement made it impossible to hit the same spot on the same leg often enough to disable it. Suddenly, a wild trumpeting came from the creature. Ranatar could see the silhouette of the Shin man desperate clinging to the creature’s head. A sound of cracking rock came from his right as the creature braced several of his central legs against the wall as it whipped its head around to shake his assailant. Ranatar’s attention immediately back snapped to the now mostly stationary legs. The middle joint of one hung about three meters above the ground. Not impossible to reach with his spear, especially with Stormlight fueling his attack. He sprinted towards the joint, drawing in as much stormlight as he could hold, then leapt. He rammed the spear through the thinner carapace covering the joint, then used his momentum to tear his spear loose, opening a wound along almost half the circumference of the joint. A cracking noise came from the leg as the pressure the creature applied to it became too much for the damaged leg, and it went limp. ‘One down, thirteen more to go.’

None of those that had already arrived on the chasm floor had spoken against Ranatar’s plan, and several had taken to making their final preparations. More of those still above had started descending. He decided they shouldn’t wait too long, as the only real chance of victory lay in a coordinated attack. One man came tumbling down, if possible even less gracefully than Ranatar himself had descended. He ended several feet above the ground, suspended by vines he had torn loose in his fall. “Ah, a little help?” he asked, pain clear in his voice. Ranatar knew intellectually the fall had been extremely painful, but he felt no pity for him. That too might come after the crisis was over, though he doubted it. He stepped toward the dangling man, drew his sword and cut him loose with a couple of well-placed cuts. “Get up. Prepare yourself.” Ranatar had turned his attention back to the chasm-fiend the moment the man had hit the ground. “Join one of the flanking teams. You might survive another stumble like that if the chasm-fiend isn’t focused on you.” He added before leaving the area in which the rest of the initiates would soon be landing. I'll be leaving for the night. If the attack starts before I get back(and no one suggests a better plan than the one I came up with), you can consider Ranatar to have joined one of the flanking teams. Also, because it can't be said enough, your write-ups really are top-notch, aman.

Okay, so in that case, unless there is some more solid indication that sheep is an elim, it would be a baaaad* idea to kill sheep. * I'm so sorry for that. i don't know what came over me. Please don't kill me for this horrible pun.

Good point. However, I quickly checked the rules and they state that. I don't really see a reason to excecute sheep, or to not excecute her. I'll look at the total vote count for that closer to the end of the cycle to make my decision. personally, I've done it that way because in most other circumstances seen in the book, the one employing stormlight had been using it in some way or another for a long while. That was not the case for my character. I'm also not sure if we can rule out that it is a windrunner thing. Edit: @AmanuensisIn relation to the Unjust win-condition, I assume that the free unjust need to outnumber the free honorable? If that is not the case, we should definitely execute sheep as she could, in the unlikely event that she is an unjust, help them achieve their win-condition. If she is honorable, she won't contribute to our win-condition while imprisoned, and makes voting for an execution harder while free.

Ranatar observed the chasm-fiend, considering how to approach this problem. The initiates where still just a group of individuals with wildly varying backgrounds and experiences, so whatever plan he came up with would have to be simple. Ranatar watched as the chasmfiend started slowly stalking in his direction. Its armored bulk would be almost invincible to mundane weapons, and it’s claws would easily shear through armor. Even shard-plate wouldn’t hold out for long against this creature’s assault. Depending on how coordinated it could move, the creatures many legs would allow it to pose a threat to multiple initiates at once. Those legs where a weak-spot though. They were relatively thin but would have to contain a lot of muscle to support the creature, meaning they should be more thinly armored. If enough legs where disabled, the creature would collapse and finishing it off would be a lot easier. Ranatar took a quick look around. Kintas had joined him, as had the Shin and two others he didn’t immediately recognize. One of them appeared blind, but moved with the determination and purposefulness of someone who could see just fine. Several of the other initiates where preparing to jump down as well. “Alright, listen up everyone.” Ranatar spoke loudly, making sure his voice was heard by the initiates at the top of the cliff as well. “Unless someone has brought a Shardblade, there is no way we can finish this creature with one precise blow.” Ranatar observed the initates carefully as he mentioned the Shardblade, but none of them looked particularly guilty. “Instead we’ll have to bleed it dry with a thousand cuts. This will be a lot easier to do if this creature is no longer able to chase us around, so we’ll have to take out its legs, which aren’t as armored as the rest of the creatures body.” “We’ll split up in three groups. One group keeps the beasts attention while the other two flank it and attack its legs. If the creature decides to go after one of the flanking groups, they’ll take over the distracting role and those that had been distracting it go after the legs instead.” Ranatar’s attention was drawn by Ralaani. Many of the initiates seemed apprehensive, but she seemed to be worse off than the rest. “There might be some among you who, due to your background or previous experience, might believe themselves unsuitable for this fight. Your support will still be invaluable. If you can’t wield weapons, drag those that the beast has wounded away from the fight and get them stormlight if they have run out. If you can’t fight the beast yourself, help those who can fight it to survive this encounter instead.” “There is no way any of us can take this creature alone. This whole exercise isn’t about personal honor or glory, but about working together and surviving as a group, so support each-other, share your stormlight when someone runs out and don’t take stupid risks.” Ranatar took a deep breath, taking in some of his Stormlight to give him the strength he'd need in the coming fight. "If someone sees faults in this plan, or thinks he has a better idea, speak up now. Otherwise, get down here and get your weapons ready." I never said it was a very good plan .