Fifth Scholar

The Black Wind comes. It shall take you all, feast upon you, in a way I never could. Beware its voice, for it sounds your doom with the vicious whispers it pours into your ears. It comes. It comes.

If we could be reasoned with? The presumptuous attitudes of this race would never cease to amaze him. Were not they the unreasoning ones, singlemindedly attaching themselves to the irrelevant status of “humanity” when their own survival would be assured if they simply consented to being, as they themselves put it, “infected?” What a blessèd disease to have contracted! Clearer sight and purpose, amicable relations with one’s fellow beings, longer life and enhanced mental acuity—were not all these qualities which men themselves sought? Why, then, did they resist them so? Yet Friedrich would persist. Negotiations would work, if undertaken. He now hoped only that the people had the wisdom to see it.

Nothing, unfortunately. And while the second Tineye being on our side would be nice, it’s by no means a guarantee. Perhaps, though that’s not saying Aonar didn’t claim earlier; regardless, my suspicion for Lum remains, as the post still defends Xino in the hedgy way I associate with Eliminators.

Right. Here I go with delayed analysis and last minute voting again, but I’m setting aside my suspicion of Ventyl for now. I feel like there hasn’t been enough notable pressure in the opposite direction to justify his lynch right now, though would put him on a team with Stick if he is still evil, and upon re-examining the thread yesterday and today I’ve found far more reason to suspect Lumgol. Here are the posts which make me suspicious: This is classic hedging, as I pointed out at the time, and it’s notable that Lumgol takes care to press Aman, without ever committing to a vote, and mostly hiding behind the D1 lynch discussion which was completely NAI in nature. One of the things I thought about the most was PMs, and the one-per-round limit—the reason I was incentivising people to contact me in certain cycles was that if I got multiple PMs, I could be reasonably sure that most were from villagers, as Elims wouldn’t waste the resources to double-tap me. Similarly, I expected Eliminators to take some rounds off from PMing so they could claim contact with a teammate should they need to; I suspect that’s what happened here, particularly given Lum’s carefree attitude towards sharing what would be normally private information; it seems like an agenda at play here. Lum’s analysis here brings up nothing new against Fura, hedges on Aman while trying to subtly cast him in a village light, and allows her to contribute while remaining below the radar. I’m not sure what I think of this comment. It feels pocket-y, but may be genuine; I’d also suspect Ventyl a bit if Lum flips evil. Pokes Aman here, pointing out an interesting discrepancy but failing to back off from the sorta-trust she’d given him all game. Response to a comment from Aonar, and the most clearly evil post she’s made. If the Elims knew this early that Aonar was a killer of some sort, and I believe they did, then this would be a way of trying to keep Xino, a teammate, out of his crosshairs. Lum’s Sart vote didn’t feel great, but I can’t really fault anyone for that lynch considering how badly I messed up. First, Lum goes from “Aman is not the SK” to voting on Rath next turn. Second, while she does condemn Aman here, she ties his alignment to Devotary’s, which I don’t like the look of—if Lum flips evil I suspect Devotary to be clean.

Friedrich, or the person who had once been Friedrich, stood up slowly from the kneeling posture he had been assuming on the ground. Dimly, he registered a stick in his hands, impaling a corpse which bled crimson from every pore. Truly, his fellow zombie had been ripped to shreds by the unenlightened mobs of humanity. He had participated in this foolish exercise himself. But no more. The wound on his arm seemed to bring him the clarity he needed to complete a work which had already begun in earnest. Friedrich had naïvely assumed that zombies were brainless brutes, driven by bloodlust and passion, and unsuitable to form any sort of community or organised effort. How startlingly wrong, how presumptuous, he had been! The humans were truly the ones which lacked strategy and coordination. Had they—had he—possessed the immense stupidity to come within infection range of a foe? Or to antagonise a herd of sacred calf that trampled those who opposed them? Surely, if all humanity merely possessed the enlightenment which this new state conferred upon him, the world would be infinitely better for it! Was he dominated by his lust for brains to consume? He had felt inclinations, true, and an immense irritation and loathing towards humanity, but he was not slave to these passions. Not as the humans were slaves to their desire for “preservation” and “survival,” or for their mindless prejudice against a race of beings they would never understand. And their petty squabbles! The division, the lack of unity among this supposed higher race! He tested his vocal chords, confident he could remain intelligible, and addressed Leon. Friedrich had thought him the most sensible of the group; perhaps he alone would see reason. “Friend, you see that you fight a losing cause,” Friedrich croaked out. His voice was too raspy for his liking—he winced internally. “Submit yourselves to us, and we may end this bloodshed, this senseless conflict, with a unity which transcends any truce or understanding you may form as mere humans, but with the true oneness of purpose which your new station shall confer upon you.”

The worst mistake in British spelling. I’ll admit maneuver looks nicer, but British spellings are a package deal when it comes to autocorrect, and as everything else looks infinitely nicer I’ll let this one go.

Hmm. I dislike these manoeuvres with a passion, as while I’m a fan of gambits, I’ve never particularly understood the mindset which leads people to troll like this. Whether as a villager or Eliminator, it makes me disinclined to view Ventyl favourably, and pending further analysis, which will hopefully appear tonight or tomorrow, I’m fine leaving my vote here. @Ventyl, rather than trolling, would you mind sharing your thoughts beyond a simple roleclaim?

Ah, perfect. Alright then, to lay out my brief thoughts: -Even if Lum is a symptom of a greater problem, and I believe that she is, I would like her dead if only to see what Zombies can do, as that’s presumably something we’d discover upon killing her. I’d also like to see how many more people fall to this blight this cycle, which might help determine OoA if zombies have a conversion ability. -I’m currently engaging in raids for supplies and weaponry, as well as attacking Lum with my stick to make sure she’s truly dead. If something happens to me as a result of the latter, that may be informative.

I’m...reminded why I don’t usually join QFs: I’ve been MIA these last twelve hours trying to help my sister move into her new house and had no time or capacity to check the Shard. I’ll see what I can contribute before rollover, which is in...eight minutes? Great. Yeah, thoughts coming next cycle

Right. So. @StrikerEZ What are the abilities of the Kandra? Clearly it had passive scan defence, but now that it’s dead, shouldn’t we know what it does? Pending clarification that the Kandra had an unblockable kill or something, the fact remains that Aman died last night, and he really, really shouldn’t have. He was a Lurcher, able to self-protect against any attacks against him. Therefore, the only assumption I can make is that Aman was protecting someone who was more valuable than he, and was also at greater risk of being Coinshot. The only people I can think of are Devotary, Ventyl, and potentially one of Stick, Straw or Snip if any hold valuable roles. One good thing is that with eight players left, and likely only two remaining Eliminators, we have some breathing room. That said, we need to lynch the correct person today; if not for Aonar, we’d be dead right now. So. Here’s the current playerlist, and my brief thoughts on each player still alive: 1) Lumgol. Neutral for now. I’d be leaning village with the role she claimed, if it wasn’t for her extensive interactions with Aman that make me suspect the two were working together—additionally, her roleclaim was never verified. 2) Myself. Village from personal knowledge, though I understand people may be wary given how wrong I was on Fura and Rath. I was right about Aman, but silenced my “paranoia” instead of inflaming it. 3) Araris. Village, and my strongest read right now. This might come back to haunt me, but I simply see no reason for him to be evil. 4) Ventyl. Neutral leaning evil. I’ve already said that I don’t expect two village soothers, though we still don’t know much about him. If there’s no Eliminator Smoker, though, I’m inclined to view him in a much more positive light. 5) Devotary. Neutral, as an Eliminator Seeker fabricating results which benefit their team is a distinct possibility, and I’m always paranoid of Devotary given the number of successful pockets she’s pulled off on me. I think Devotary and Ventyl, or Devotary and Lumgol, make the most sense if she is actually evil. Particularly, I don’t like Aman scanning her as village, nor do I like him backing off the idea of her lynch at the last second D3. 6) Stick—Neutral leaning village. Probably my largest suspicion for an Eliminator Smoker, but otherwise her record, while not clean, looks honest. 7) Snipexe—Leaning Eliminator, for reasons I will set out later when I do another full analysis (hopefully) of all remaining players. 8) Straw—Neutral. Ultimately, I don’t have enough content to accurately judge Straw yet, and would like to see a bit more out of him. I initially suspected him for his participation in the D2 lynch, but now realise that it’s a bit dumb and hypocritical.

Well, I’m not exactly sure what the lynch does, but we could try using it on Lumgol and see what happens? Maybe attack her with sharpened sticks for good measure?

I’m a little confused at what you’re saying here. Even if you find my idea ill-advised, what more important matters would I be distracting from? To me, the most important matters are not dying of starvation, and being able to hold off the zombie hordes. As I will be foraging today, and as I’ve given an idea for how to hold off the attacking horde and fight them, I’m not sure what other important matter you believe I’m trying to overlook. That said, my vote on Maill, which was a poke in RP, can be removed.

The idea isn’t a permanent structure—it’s essentially having lightweight bundles of sharpened sticks we can carry around and set up as a defensive structure from day to day, or use as weapons in a pinch.

I roleclaimed to Aman, but did so twice with different roles, and have claimed at least four roles this game to various people, some of which I believe are Eliminators. As such, to ensure that confusion on my role continues within the Eliminator doc, I will not state which of my claims is actually true, or if any of them are at all.

An interesting idea to do with Maill’s axe, as he’s apparently going to be cutting down trees, is to form some kind of portable palisade—we could lash the spears together with vines, use it as a barrier to defend our camp, and then grab the spears and use them should our structure be overrun.

I’m currently gathering water and foraging, though this could be changed should it need to be. I’ve got a third action open, and would be fine helping somebody else with a plan of theirs.

Yeah, he should shoot you. Just for the fun of it. Depending on how IKYK-y Aman was feeling, I see Aman-Ventyl-Snip or Aman-Devotary-Lum as possible teams. Also, to the SK once this game is over, I’m going to be seriously miffed that you never counterclaimed Aman. Because of you, the Eliminators might just win this from sheer voting power.

Friedrich looked around. “Well...I suppose the only people I can blame for this whole zombie crisis right now is the military. Manny (Maill), you said you were in the military? And that we all are? Why haven’t you had us taking decisive action against these monsters?”

1. Impressive. 2. Thank you for pointing that out! I forgot to announce, I’ve decided to keep the doc open as a public chatroom about the game if people want to keep reflecting on it Well, apparently some fool went and locked it up, and I’m too lazy to fix it again, so not anymore

Rath, while you raise an interesting point, I feel the unlikelihood of there being two village Soothers, the fact that if you are left alive longer as an Eliminator, you may have the votes to hammer next cycle, and the suspicion I’ve had for you which isn’t tied up in Aman’s supposed scan are factors which contribute to my decision to delay an Aman lynch. Could it be a stalling tactic? Of course. But the alternative is letting the Eliminators possibly get the upper hand through voting, with your Soothing, and village deaths from inactivity tonight.

Agreed to the first bit. Luckily, I know quite a few people who aren’t Coinshots, so PoE might help narrow down the actual suspect. Rath is a Soother irrespective of whether or not Aman is telling the truth.

Hmmmm. Okay. Amanuensis, I take back what I said earlier. You can still talk me out of your lynch. But only for one more cycle. The logic here is that if Aman is telling the truth, Rath is not only an Eliminator but also a Soother, and killing him will cripple the evil team’s voting power and ability to hammer. Tomorrow, unless something truly crazy comes up, I will continue to support an Aman lynch though. More thoughts on this in a bit.

Right. Aman promised me in a PM that he would protect Drake tonight. That clearly didn’t happen. So. In conjunction with everything I said last night, Amanuensis. I know he’ll try to explain that he was hazekilled so that a presumed Eliminator team with myself on it could kill Drake. The actual Eliminators, of which Aman is almost certainly one, probably set this kill up to frame me in such a manner, and I refuse to allow it, which is why I’m heading it off now. Anyone curious about my role and actions last night should PM me and I’ll tell them. Luckily, I had the sense not to tell my true role to Aman, even when suggesting the gambit.

I’m looking closer at Aman/Rath and Aman/Lum theories but could pursue this line should you wish me to.

Tonight works too, though I admire Aman’s persistence in trying to do the exact thing I said he would. After your comments last cycle, you can hardly blame anyone in the village for this outcome—your own decision brought this down upon your head.