Fifth Scholar

Alright then, Aman. Right. Can we get confirmation that you can’t use a Day and Night action during the same cycle, @Straw? Regardless, you could still do a lot of damage by being left alive for a while, most notably getting off several lynches in a row. So you agree with me? That’s a start, at least. However, I’m coming at this from the perspective of a villager frustrated at what could be termed a cycle of inaction, and earlier statements by Aman which seemed to indicate he would be fine with letting the Inquisitor access most conversions unimpeded—while he’s since backed down from this, his comments—and my point—stand, I believe. If you agree with my stance, then why do you believe it is the sign of an Eliminator to hold it? I’ve merely vocalised it, and you have not, which remains the difference between us. I’ll agree that Lumgol is suspicious, and your vote is fine, but I disagree with keeping a balance in the votes; people should vote where they feel suspicious, and not waste it trying to balance an already balanced lynch. If it tips one way or the other, that tells us something too, so I’d not try to maintain a certain state of affairs without cause. I...take several issues with the logic of your post. First, you’ve essentially condemned anyone who does anything in response to your claims and advocation of a Misting lynch, and those who do nothing, which would be...the whole game. Plenty of people are defending you, ignoring you or challenging you, as those are the only three significant options beyond taking a wishy-washy middle ground, which I would find more suspicious than a stronger stance. Also, you ignore the facts that the Inquisitor could respond in basically any way to your claims, that villagers have motives to do all three of the things you find suspicious, potentially more than Elims do, and that our mission should be to find the Inquisitor as early as possible, because killing him is what will win us the game; you’re essentially targeting me because I’m prosecuting the village win condition, and not delaying in its execution. Finally, while a vote on me for being the Inquisitor is consistent with my statements, it certainly isn’t anywhere close to yours, and I think you’d accept your own logic and systems of analysis over others’: as such, I’m curious why you’re now abandoning it. I’m comfortable where my vote is, and if I die, would encourage people to look into the lesser-active players if Aman also flips village, as I’m fairly confident the Inquisitor is hiding there if it’s not Aman.

That’s a fundamental misinterpretation of my post; I believe in pursuing the Inquisitor, and not Mistings, as conversation about the latter will be useless when we go back to analyse later, and it’s discussion surrounding the former which will draw Elims out of the woodwork anyway. But I certainly support a lynch. Depending on how many Unsnapped and Vanilla are in the game, there may be a decent chance of hitting a Misting by complete accident when lynching for the Inquisitor, but I feel like you’re essentially announcing to the Inquisitor that it’s in the village’s interests for him to convert; while I don’t necessarily disagree with you, unless you’re going for some weird reverse-pyschology angle, your comments are only less likely to support the result you desire. I do. I don’t intend to throw this game for the first few cycles, and not hunting for the largest threat currently extant would, in my view, constitute exactly that. Such a strategy would essentially be allowing the Spiked three cycles of free shots at villagers, which I’m not willing to countenance. Besides, even if the Elims did only get one or two conversions off because of finding an Eliminator early, it would still be a fairly exciting hunt. Same! As I said before, I have no intention of delaying the game, but would instead like to create the kind of analysable content that drives it. What I do not advocate is sitting still and playing into the Inquisitor’s hands, and actively working towards conditions which allow him to convert seems to me to be counterintuitive. I’d rather look for the Inquisitor himself. Just because it’s difficult to catch doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try; while Doc has said that you’re trying to push the game forward, and I suppose I understand the desire for a fun game, to me, an Inquisitor would have less fun if the village sat on their hands and allowed him to get a head start. Our only advantage in this game is the one we hold right now—namely, our overwhelming numbers. The Elims only get more powerful over time, and we get weaker, so we should actively be looking to hit the Elims at their lowest, and when we are the strongest, even if a miss ends up hitting ourselves. Anything less just lets the Elims seize the initiative. I agree wholeheartedly, and for pointing this out Bard and Devotary earn the status of likely-not-Inquisitor as were this a standard village-elim game I would read both posts as village. Again, I admire the sentiment but disagree with the approach. First, even if it means a short game, I’d like to kill the Inquisitor today if possible; it would still let them convert, most likely, and would put us on very good footing for later in the game without ending it. I don’t believe your approach is preemptive; to me, you seem to want to idle and allow the Eliminators to establish themselves in a manner of their choosing, while I would rather create the atmosphere of pressure which serious lynch discussion invites, and is one of the only ways to, as you put it, keep the Eliminators on the back foot. I don’t want to force a night kill, but I’d rather not force a conversion either, which seems to be what you advocate; rather, an informed lynch should be forced, and the victim thereof will determine the course of action during the Night.

I’m against this, somewhat—forcing the Eliminators to kill N1 actually speeds the game along, and can be informative; for instance, if you’re killed, we know the Inquisitor was just hunting the ability to convert. We’d also learn something if people are killed after being on the certain side of some lynch, the activity level they demonstrate, etc., and after a cycle of Night roles being used there’d be information there too. And that’s not even mentioning the value of discussion we get from lynches; in short, while speeding the conversion process may work out for us, it has equal potential to stifle discussion or leave players confused. Further, a. the Inquisitor is under no obligation to convert, and b. if possible, I’d rather get the Inquisitor before all their conversions are used up.

Re: UberSteel, I’ve already clarified with Straw that the Inquisitor begins with access to the Spiked faction kill, which makes me highly doubt its existence in its previous form. I had forgotten that the last Spike being removed would kill the Inquisitor, though, so 3 probably is a likely estimate but may not be the highest we should plan for; 4 is. It’s probably worth seeking clarification if the Inquisitor can suicide to convert a final player; @Straw, is this possible? If not, then 4 is probably a better estimate. @Lumgol In addition to the point Bard brought up in his post, Lum, I’d note that a Thug lynch is incredibly useful because any Thug is a potential Inquisitor, and the lynched player can be checked by Seekers at night to confirm whether or not a Thug actually is evil. As for my jumping into the abilities, there was little else to discuss, and as Bard and Hael correctly note I was drawing mostly from past games, as I have the advantage of having read over both LG2 and 32 several times. Again, it was meant mostly as a kick-starter, and I think my points on increased PM safety and number of spikes had merit besides restating past abilities and speculating.

There are far too many exciting things about this game, even with a crammed schedule, for me not to sign up... I’ll be in as Machi A. Velli, a newly elected, hopeless idealist who just wants the people to love and respect him. That’s what he says, anyway[/color

After LG56, I feel like I’m willing to accept this sacrifice. More seriously, I’m slightly unsure why you’d want to kill a Misting today—the Inquisitor is under no mandate to convert, and I think lynching a vanilla and watching where the Inquisitor chooses to kill might grant us more information than a lynch and a conversion, which is only one alignment flip and says little about the convert or the Inquisitor. Finally, a Misting claim, while consistent with your stated intent of hurrying along the conversion process, could also be consistent with an Inquisitor’s attempt to remain below suspicion. As such, and to test his willingness to follow through on his promise, Amanuensis. Oh joy. The challenge. >> Aman, I hope you realise this could end very much like last time if the Inquisitor isn’t in a sporting mood.

Hey all! Excited to get back into a game after a while, and it seems as though this’ll be a lot of fun; LG2 and 32 were great games, and are certainly good reads if you have the time, and can give a general idea of what to expect from this one. The difference will probably end up being size—with only eighteen players, the Inquisitor will have fewer spikes and abilities, which is good news for us in some ways, as there’ll only be three spikes at the most to worry about, but unfortunately it also makes which Spikes the Inquisitor has a lot more vague. We can still speculate, though. Before I do, though, it’s worth mentioning a few things: -I’m normally a fierce advocate of roleclaims, even in conversion games, but would advise people to be a little more careful in this game because of the possibility of UberTin spying on your PMs. On that note, again because of UberTin, I’d advise a guarded approach to any PMs you receive, though don’t be paranoid to the point of not using them effectively. I’d not share roles or vital information there that you aren’t comfortable also posting in thread, though. -Two quick questions for @Straw: Does the Inquisitor, by himself, have access to the Spiked faction kill? And are conversions publicly announced? -The Inquisitor has maybe two, but probably three Spikes, if this has been balanced out correctly. Obviously we should assume three to be on the safe side. Regardless, it should be emphasised that the Eliminators have an advantage because it gets easier to reach parity over time, and our reads have to change every time a conversion occurs. That’s why it’s important to find the Inquisitor early, so we can lock the game into a set Elim team, and why we need to start lynching now. -I’m in agreement with Aman that we need a lynch today. Even if we don’t have great odds, any delay in lynch discussion in a game this small will cost us dearly. -On to speculation about metals: UberPewter: I’m almost certain this exists. There’s no way we’ll be able to get a lucky kill or lynch off on the Inquisitor and just end the game. This normally takes the form of two extra lives, though it might have been modified for this smaller playercount (maybe one extra life and one passive defence against a night kill, so we don’t have to spend three lynches getting rid of the Inquisitor). Any player who survives a lynch should be Seeked, and in a reasonable length of time the Seeker themself should probably be Coinshot or lynched to make sure they weren’t just lying. UberCopper: Another one I’m relatively sure is a thing. It’d be ridiculous for a scan to show “the Inquisitor,” so I’d expect this role to either portray the Inquisitor as vanilla or as a role of his choosing. Seekers beware with your scan results! Getting into more speculation, the Inquisitor has one metal left: UberIron: Immunity to night kills/Redirect? UberSteel: Kill ability, likely only relevant if Inquisitor can’t access faction kill UberTin: PM spying UberBrass: Double soothe/roleblock? UberZinc: Rioting without negating your own vote/redirect? UberBronze: Coppercloud penetration when Seeking I find the order of likelihood to be Brass/Zinc/Bronze/Iron/Tin/Steel, though this is obviously all conjecture. I anticipate that this will be the first metal given up, so hopefully we’ll learn about it soon.

The first point of feedback is that this looks very neat, and makes me want to read Codex Alera. I suppose my principal concern is that all factions seem highly dependent on their kill roles; while it’s not too much of an issue for the Canim, as any Bloodspeaker can call lightning (wouldn’t that make killing a little easy for them, or am I misunderstanding the BP system out of ignorance of the source material?), the Marat would suffer if their Herdsbane member was killed, and the Earth player dying in the Aleran faction would be ruinous, particularly as that faction can’t even use Whelps to recoup the kill role, as the Marat perhaps could. As an LG, every player gets one action per cycle? So a Fire/Earth Aleran, for instance, couldn’t manipulate a vote with Fire during the Day, then turn around and kill someone the following Night?

Continuing to try to keep on top of older games a little better, it’s time to close this QF up as well. Many thanks to Bard for inventing and running this game—despite a slightly smaller playercount, I feel it’s safe to say that everyone enjoyed the Breath mechanics which were employed. Congrats to the village, particularly Joe’s intuition, for their victory, and to Steel, Rand and Kidpen for a well-fought ending. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. Not only will we get you added to the list, but we'd also be more than willing to help out in any way we can. You can also ask questions and get some hints and feedback from everyone in our Art of Game Creation thread. With all the games that we've run so far, we have plenty of experienced GMs that can help you refine any game you're thinking about. If you would rather keep some detail secret, or are self-conscious about posting in thread (there's really no need to be; while we do slaughter each other, we are very polite about it), then I'm sure one of our fantastic committee members (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) would be more than willing to help you out in private. Thanks again to everyone that played, and we look forward to killing seeing you in future games!

As this game begins to fall off the first page, and with discussion having concluded, it’s time to preserve this for the ages. Many thanks to Steel and Maill for the innovative game mechanics; despite the slightly open-ended nature of the Essence Item system, I believe it worked well enough, and the spren abilities were similarly well-designed. Congratulations to Lumgol and her Children for their flawless victory, and to the village for a reasonably good fight even after somebody (naming no names) failed to adequately kill Sja’anat and then revealed all the roles. And well done to both of our new SE players, Levitaph and Dr Dapper. We’d love to see you return for more chances to kill your fellow Sharders! As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. Not only will we get you added to the list, but we'd also be more than willing to help out in any way we can. You can also ask questions and get some hints and feedback from everyone in our Art of Game Creation thread. With all the games that we've run so far, we have plenty of experienced GMs that can help you refine any game you're thinking about. If you would rather keep some detail secret, or are self-conscious about posting in thread (there's really no need to be; while we do slaughter each other, we are very polite about it), then I'm sure one of our fantastic committee members (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) would be more than willing to help you out in private. Thanks again to everyone that played, and we look forward to killing seeing you in future games!

With about four months having elapsed since its conclusion, it’s far past time to wrap this game up. A huge thank you belongs to Sart for another excellent item Rithmatist game, his specialty, and the new twists he put into both the story and mechanics enhanced an already well-built structure. Finally, congratulations to the village for a hard-fought win, though both losing factions certainly should be commended for their efforts; Joe as the thief, who came very close to achieving his goal before he was killed, and the Forgotten, who made the most of a bad start and put Elandera into a position in which she would have won were it not for a bad coinflip. All around, an excellent game. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. Not only will we get you added to the list, but we'd also be more than willing to help out in any way we can. You can also ask questions and get some hints and feedback from everyone in our Art of Game Creation thread. With all the games that we've run so far, we have plenty of experienced GMs that can help you refine any game you're thinking about. If you would rather keep some detail secret, or are self-conscious about posting in thread (there's really no need to be; while we do slaughter each other, we are very polite about it), then I'm sure one of our fantastic committee members (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) would be more than willing to help you out in private. Thanks again to everyone that played, and we look forward to killing seeing you in future games!

Lerdar, a child who months ago was a mere petty thief, is taking his next step towards splendour and a sinister power.

Right. So, rereading the docs, I feel as though I should clarify a few things: -I did not lynch Fura because of the Seeker false-claim. I did so because of the analysis I posted in-thread. -My gambits were basically designed to get better reads on people, and I mostly claimed Smoker to have a consistent fallback. I claimed Thug to Aman in the end in hopes of getting the Kandra, and to mislead him if he was evil. -Stick, I’d like to again congratulate you on your play. -My focus on Devotary at the end of D6 was both due to Araris’ flip, and because I felt I was being set up for a mislynch when Devotary claimed the Hazekiller. -My analysis actually wasn’t awful this game. I just need to re-learn a distrust of Aman, and that if I find a player suspicious C2 for working with a known Eliminator (Snip), I should look further into that instead of dropping it and hunting elsewhere. I was kind of thrown by the end of the game because everyone seemed suspicious, and I couldn’t sort through it all coherently despite doing more and more analysing and rereading the thread (which was responsible for my brief suspicions of Lum and Ventyl). -Thanks to Striker and Maill for running this, and putting up with my disfocused ramblings.

Note: I’ve not yet read the docs, so this reflection will be a little incomplete until I do. ...good job, Elims. That was a great deal of fun, and you all played very, very well. Especially Aman. I hate how I knew from the start how slippery and devilish Elim!Aman was, but still let myself be taken in. Gah. And Snip/Coop too. I called both the Eliminator Tineye and that Snip was evil back in C2, and never acted on that either. Gah again. And Stick...just well played. Devotary, I feel like I owe my biggest apology to you, as had we worked together instead of constantly mistrusting each other, this game could have gone a lot differently...but seriously, @StrikerEZ, why did we have a backwards Smoker? I felt...betrayed when Devotary flipped village.

With a little over two months since discussion died down here, it’s time to close this game up. Many thanks to Joe and Gaea for this wonderfully meta game. Between the proselytising for various SE religions, and the username changes which many employed, it’s safe to say people enjoyed and engaged with the setting. Congrats to the actual Sharders for their cleansing of the forum, and to the Spambots for putting up a valiant fight against long odds in the shadow of the banhammer. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. Not only will we get you added to the list, but we'd also be more than willing to help out in any way we can. You can also ask questions and get some hints and feedback from everyone in our Art of Game Creation thread. With all the games that we've run so far, we have plenty of experienced GMs that can help you refine any game you're thinking about. If you would rather keep some detail secret, or are self-conscious about posting in thread (there's really no need to be; while we do slaughter each other, we are very polite about it), then I'm sure one of our fantastic committee members (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) would be more than willing to help you out in private. Thanks again to everyone that played, and we look forward to killing seeing you in future games!

How did we all get Sharpened Sticks? Was that Maill’s work? I felt like I was the third person in the Monty Python “Self Defence Against Fresh Fruit” sketch, especially as a zombie, when I worried that I was going to get mobbed by refugees attacking me with the pointed sticks. I guess the cow did learn how to adequately defend itself, though

That was interesting—congrats to the refugees on their win. I was responsible for most of the anon messages, if anyone was wondering about that. I was disappointed that my ritual didn’t awaken the zombies in the graveyard, but otherwise found this game wonderful, and would like to thank Alv for running it.

Stick. I don’t really care that it’s the Night turn. Devotary was village, which unfortunately means she was telling the truth and that I’m once again a complete fool. As that means she was hazekilled and Araris was killed, Ventyl is indeed hard-cleared, and as Coop is certainly the Tineye (though I suspect an Eliminator one), Stick is the Eliminator Hazekiller (though she will claim, probably, that I am). I don’t deserve to be trusted after today’s lynch, perhaps, but I’m simply flabbergasted that we were handed a backwards Smoker in the form of Araris, and this irregularity essentially ruined my role analysis.

The reason would be to get me killed, while conveniently not needing to provide scan results on a cycle when they’d be the most informative; additionally, if we assume a team of yourself and Ventyl, it allows you to submit the Eliminator kill unimpeded. The issue with Devotary’s claim is that it’s not possible unless both she and Ventyl are evil. 1) We know there’s a village Smoker; therefore, because there needs to be a reason for that Smoker’s existence, one of Devotary and Ventyl are evil. 2) Devotary lays out a scenario in which both she and Ventyl are village; in this scenario, a third Hazekiller, which has somehow escaped detection this entire game, and another player, use their actions to roleblock her and kill Araris. 3) Since 1) and 2) contradict each other, Devotary is lying about what happened last night, and therefore is evil. Ignoring the wisdom of you issuing this claim, which I still think is something you would do, its logic falls apart; either we as a village received a Smoker which can only harm us, which makes zero sense, or Devotary is lying, which doesn’t make complete sense but makes a lot more sense than a backwards Smoker. Ventyl isn’t even necessarily evil with her, though I suspect that to be the case. Stick, Aman and Araris. Most of which are now dead. Araris did not roleclaim to me, though I’ve suspected he was a Smoker for quite a while based on PoE, and implications from statements he made in our PM when I started pressing him on his role. And it was possible, and something I continued to consider. I tend to play with a very paranoid playstyle, so while Drake/Rath soothing conspiracy was unlikely, it was still possible, particularly with the inference I made regarding Smoker!Araris. Regardless of what alignment you believe myself and Devotary to be, the conflict which both of us have essentially forced is sane from whichever alignment we’ve drawn up to be. This is the deciding lynch. If the Elims get a mislynch here, they needn’t worry about future lynches, which is why your support for Devotary should you be her teammate makes sense. If you two can lynch today and kill tonight, you win. In terms of my mentality shifting, it was partly because Devotary forced this to come to a head, but with my fears of a village Smoker confirmed, I’d probably be in the same place I am now even had she not pulled this gambit. Also, it’s hardly accurate to say I had you as completely village before today; I’d been souring on your alignment since the end of D4.

Is there a reason for your sudden confidence in my alignment? I’ll admit my voting history has been subpar, but so has everyone’s; we’re only alive right now because of Aonar. Meanwhile, I was one of the only voices who reserved a modicum of distrust for Aman and his WGG when it was first mentioned, and though I ended up on the wrong side of things later, that was due to me listening too much to the voices telling me to trust him, and not enough to my inner paranoia. I understand I’ll likely be lynched next cycle if I’m wrong, though as the game will likely be over thanks to an Eliminator vote majority of you and whoever else your teammate is, or perhaps two of Lum/Coop/Stick, I don’t think it’ll particularly matter.

Scanning me as Roleless would prove nothing, though. You know this; it would be consistent with my Smoker claims and you’d not have any meaningful lynch to push. But claiming to have been blocked by a Hazekiller is much more powerful of an assertion, allowing you to cast immediate suspicion on a group of people who I mostly trust; however, given that Coop is a non-Hazekiller role, and that Stick and Lum contacted me with their claims as early as C1 and C2 and haven’t changed them, I’m inclined to believe that you’ve completely fabricated this Hazekiller. The only player it would make sense for, should it be real, would be Stick or Lum, and even if one of them are lying, that still doesn’t answer why we have a Smoker; it would make Ventyl evil instead of you, as that’s the only reason a village Smoker makes any amount of sense. All this added up makes me fairly happy where my vote is, though there’s a compelling argument for lynching Ventyl and then killing a Devotary on a coin flip if we’re wrong; one of the two is evil if we’ve got a Smoker around.

I did, but that was really just so you could scan me as Roleless. And now that you’ve done so, you presumably can’t stand to tell the truth? Or you could never scan in the first place, and Ventyl was your teammate? I find a third Hazekiller incredibly implausible, even for the Eliminators, and knowing that I’m Roleless, it’d mean that one of Lumgol, Stick and Coop is lying; while that’s not impossible, if they are all telling the truth about their roles, then you’re the one who’s lying to us. Which I find far more likely. I’m willing to lynch you now, because you’ve essentially used a ploy and a gambit to frame me. I’m pretty sure you’re on a team with Ventyl, so while I would like him dead, you’re a higher priority target as I’m far more confident that you’re evil. With the assumption that I’m a rebel Hazekiller, you ignore several facts which destroy the idea of me being an evil Hazekiller with yourself as the village Seeker. If I was truly concerned about being scanned as a Hazekiller, I’d have killed you one of these last two nights over a shot in the dark like Araris, or even a cleared villager like Drake; without a village Lurcher, the PRs would be a higher priority for the Elim kill. You also bring up no evidence as to why I’m evil outside a situation in which only you and I can attest as to what actually happened; knowing that I’m not a Hazekiller, I’m forced to conclude you made the entire situation up to frame me, and therefore view you as evil for it. Also, if I’m the Hazekiller, why wouldn’t I be worried about being scanned on cycles other than this one? Sure, I’d claimed Smoker to you, but any one of a few people I’d told my actual role to could have told you that was a lie, and you could have called my bluff any time you wanted. Killing you far earlier would make sense if I was on such a team. Yet here you are, having survived as an essentially outed Seeker for three cycles without Lurcher protection. Right, so Ventyl is not hard-cleared; in fact, he’s probably your teammate, but let’s play along in a world where I was Elim and did all the things you mentioned. Again, if I was so concerned about your Seeking, why not kill you and accept Araris’ presence as probably-village rather than killing him and creating the situation you mention, which creates two cleared villagers, reveals an Eliminator role, and an Eliminator as well? It simply makes no sense at all. As an Elim, I don’t have to lynch Araris; I just have to string up Lum, Stick or Coop (whichever isn’t on my team in your world), kill Araris or Ventyl and cruise to victory. Assuming an Eliminator team acting rationally, your version of events doesn’t hold up to inspection. It does make perfect sense, however, if you were an Eliminator yourself, and want to get a final mislynch off on a player who is already cast in a poor light from earlier lynches. @_Stick_ @Coop772 @Lumgol I don’t trust you guys fully, but if I’m right about my Devotary/Ventyl team we need to all vote against Devotary if we want this lynch to succeed.

Right. So it’s probably high time I came clean with my role, or rather my lack thereof; I’m Roleless. I’ve been claiming Smoker to all and sundry to try and draw the Elim kill, but at this point it’s basically an exercise in futility, as apparently I’m to survive and watch all my village reads slowly dying. To start, I’m going to go with Devotary, as I don’t buy her claim of being hazekilled, as with no remaining Lurchers, killing her as an outed Seeker would have been a far more effective strategy than eliminating Araris, who never said much of anything about his role. It’s clear that one of her and Ventyl is evil, as otherwise there’s little point to having a Smoker. Perhaps both, if Stick is what I think she is. @_Stick_, do you stand by what you roleclaimed to me, or would you like to modify your claim and publicise it? Similarly, what are you, @Coop772?

Right. I was suspicious of Straw, no denying it, but...I did not want this result from the lynch. Two police Hazekiller strengthens my convictions that an Eliminator Thug and an Eliminator Lurcher would be possible—with Hazekillers to block their abilities, they’d not have been as hard to kill, which again points me toward Lum. In a quite frustrating manner, the vote patterns have given us little to work with—Devotary voted late enough in the cycle that Coop was forced to vote in self-preservation, though I’m curious that he chose Straw over Lum. I suppose it somewhat makes sense, though we may have to have a wasted lynch at some point if Lum is actually evil.

Friedrich smiled softly to himself. The capacity for amusement had not been lost on him in his transition, and seeing the humans coming closer, turning to their higher natures in droves, was truly wonderful. He looked at Ian, who seemed to wish to negotiate while remaining human. Friedrich frowned. Couldn’t they see that the terms on his side involved the removal of their older, inferior natures? He spoke to Leon, who had come to his senses and joined him. “That fool,” he rasped, pointing to Ian. “He will soon be one of us, and no better for his resistance. Can they not see that by fighting, they only enter into their new states weakened and disadvantaged?”