Mint Heron

...soddit, I'm just going to pretend that never happened >>

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/64489-anniversary-game-4anonymous-game-1-a-fresh-start/?do=findComment&comment=670445 TBH, I'm playing this game in complete chill mode right now, so a lot of my posts are RP and general advice instead of actual analysis. I don't blame you for your read, since I haven't been doing a whole lot. We have sixteen players, and five or six Sympathisers. Assuming worst-case scenario, that puts our village-to-Sympathiser ratio at 11:6. The Sympathisers win when they outnumber the village. If one villager dies every night and a mislynch happens every cycle, the game should play out like this: Day Seven: 10 villagers and 6 Sympathisers Night Seven: 9 villagers and 6 Sympathisers Day Eight: 8 villagers and 6 Sympathisers -- at this point the Sympathisers practically have control over the lynch, barring a last-minute village rally Night Eight: 7 villagers and 6 Sympathisers Day Nine: 6 villagers and 6 Sympathisers -- parity, any possible Sympathiser lynch will end in a tie with whoever the Sympathisers dogpile onto and no-one will die Night Nine: 5 villagers and 6 Sympathisers -- villagers lose the game If there are five Sympathisers we lose the game at Day Ten. In other words, we're not near endgame, we're in endgame. After looking at the votes of the players the Sympathisers killed, there doesn't seem to be a common pattern, except that both Rhinoceros and Gecko voted on Flamingo. I don't think it's a smoking gun, as I have a village read from Squawk (Flamingo). She's made actions consistent with a newcomer that doesn't have the support of a team that feel very natural for a new player. (For the same reason, I have a slight village lean on Nolan (Dragonfly), but to a lesser degree, as Nolan's errors don't come across as automatically genuine and could be faked more easily.) Edit: Scenario was wrong due to an arithmetic error, please see below for updated scenario. Day Seven: 9 villagers and 6 Sympathisers Night Seven: 8 villagers and 6 Sympathisers -- at this point the Sympathisers practically have control over the lynch, barring a last-minute village rally Day Eight: 7 villagers and 6 Sympathisers Night Eight: 6 villagers and 6 Sympathisers -- parity, game over because the Sympathisers will get a kill or a lynch through at some point even if there's protection

No, I'm not just concerned by PM readers, though they do make everything worse >> Ah well. I would rather not derail this thread but this is worth saying. It'll probably reveal who I am, but I haven't been that careful about that this game. Besides we all know what Hume said about the passions, amirite? Let me tell you a story. It's a good one, I promise, full of magic and broness and, of course, betrayal. (Isn't that what we're here for, after all?) It's a little funny, and just a bit sad, and mostly true. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away there was this guy called Heron -- smart, handsome, charming, you know the type -- in a rioting faction warzone. But things were okay, because he had a great friend, a bro named Kasimar together with him in his faction. As the game progressed they talked and they bantered and they cracked jokes, and all seemed well. Then a whole bunch of people killed Kasimar. But things were okay, because Kasimar was a Voidbringer, which meant he was a Seeker, and had mad PM skillz the day he was meant to die. And so he reached across the void to call Heron, and as the blood pooled around his body, gasped out everything he had found out about other people's factions and all of his suspicions. Heron swore eternal vengeance on Kasimar's killers and smote them all with the mighty power of the lynch, thus avenging Kasimar. (Hahaha, no.) As it turned out, all had not been well, for Heron had, in fact, been a traitor to Kasimar's faction. Heron had, in fact, happily taken all of the information Kasimar freely gave him, smiled a traitorous smile, and pushed his true faction to kill Kasimar. And Heron had, in fact, used that information to bring down Kasimar's faction for once and for all. On that day Heron saw the true power of PMs, and swore never, ever, ever, to trust again the same way that Kasimar had. For Heron, while not wise, did not wish to become a fool. THE END. tl;dr don't be stupid, evil players can make PMs too, it's a lot of fun getting innocent villagers to trust you.

Oh, there have been inactive evil players before. I'd list examples but frankly anything I have is from really old games. Lynching the GM in this game shouldn't do anything except give the GM a perfect excuse to troll you, and if that happens you'll only have yourself to blame.

1. We can't assume we have two of each role. There's no evidence to support it and it's a completely arbitrary assumption. In AG2, there were eight all-village smokers meant to counter a ridiculous amount of Spiked vote manipulation. That said, I think it's likely that the Sympathisers would have some form of protection to balance out our village Dustbringer, as kill roles can swing the game dramatically. There's interesting implications in the fact that we had at least two village Lightweavers, but whether those would be meant to counter Sympathiser vote manipulation or a Skybreaker is unclear. 2. ...what happened to PM safety, guys? >> 3. Weasel lived through the lynch, so role-wise they're more likely to be evil, if they're an Elsecaller. ( @Orlok Tsubodai, clarification: did Night Five's writeup confirm that Weasel is an Elsecaller, or did it merely say that Weasel survived because of an Elsecaller power?) TBH I don't have much of an opinion on Weasel otherwise. I'd like to hear the new Weasel speak before deciding either way on them. 2. Worldhoppers are generally considered powerful roles, so I don't think we have more than one of them.

“So, how have things been for you?” Kharsis asked. First rule of staying alive: never get involved Helina’s mouth twisted. “Terrible. The town’s gone bloody mad.” Ah. You see, the first trap is to actually sign up for their games Kharsis raised an eyebrow. “How?” he asked, taking a sip of his tea. If you refuse to play their games “Every night for the past five night’s someone’s died,” Helina said, nostrils flaring. She pounded her fist against the table. “Sometimes multiple people. It’s obviously murder, but no one knows why. So when the day comes everyone wakes up to see who the newest victim is and then point their fingers at each other and casts suspicion for the littlest things.” They can’t win “It’s not like that, Helina,” Elion said, though his voice lacked conviction. He went to the window and drew the curtains closed. “At least keep your voice down so the neighbors won’t hear.” They can’t kill you “Fine,” Helina continued, a little more quietly than before, but no less vehement. “It gets worse from there. After they tally up all of their finger-pointing, their ‘votes’ -- they have a system now, that’s how sick it is -- they storming hang the person with the most votes!” You’ll go on living, exactly like you want to No. He wouldn’t believe it. He set down his cup. “You know I lived here,” Kharsis said flatly. “This is Rennan, not some godforsaken superstitious town of primitives, and I’m not that gullible.” This was the type of story that children told each other at night when a Highstorm howled overhead, not something that actually happened in real life. You’ll be happy “It’s real,” Helina insisted. “Elyle was among the first to go. Ask his son if you think I’m lying. Or go look at his inn tomorrow, The Thoughtful Skyeel. Back when it started he offered it up as a place where we could talk it out together, for all the good it did him.” So, you’re saying the way to survive is to refuse to play Their games “Don’t,” Elion interjected. “It’s not safe there. It’s better here, at the edge of town, but there’s no guarantees.” Yes Helina’s angry, honest face warred in Kharsis’s mind with the sheer absurdity of the idea. He wouldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe it. And the way Elion was responding...well, at six years old Kharsis’s brother could have an angelically innocent face when pulling someone’s leg. Perhaps he had retained that ability over the years. Then Kharsis remembered what Drelan had said, when he first entered town. “There’s been a few murders lately,” he’d said. No mention of the hangings, but it was close enough. A wave of awful familiarity passed over Kharsis. He felt sick at the thought of it: townsperson turning on townsperson, saboteurs sneaking in the night, an army of monsters advancing in the distance. Everywhere death and slaughter and bloodshed, repeating over and over across lifetimes and universes. A fatal fall from a roof, flames eating at a body, a Shardblade rammed through the spine... Kharsis brought himself back to the here-and-now. “So it’s true then,” he said. I really don’t see it, Asim. “It is,” Helina said. “Still going, too. We haven’t been accused of anything yet, but it’s only a matter of time.” I mean, would any of us even be alive, if it weren’t for the Game? “You could leave,” Elion suggested. “The Watch is supposed to keep everybody in but I’m sure Drelan will let you out.” The Game created us, Asim Oh, how Kharsis longed to do so! His instincts screamed for him to escape; he knew what would happen if he stayed. Drowning in a pool of water, dissolving at the touch of a shadow made life. Death. He had no reason to stay, as he had made up with Elion and certainly wouldn’t be able to sell much here. And yet...his stomach turned at the thought of running again. Or at least we were created for it He shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “I came in after the murders started, so there’s no way I could be doing it. I should be safe from the crowd.” He downed the rest of his tea, wishing it was something stronger instead. “Might even try to find who the murderers are too.” We’ve all got some sort of purpose, I reckon “You can’t,” Elion said. “They’ll -- they’ll eat you up alive.” And if we ran away from the Game, would we even live? This is how he survived, isn’t it? Kharsis thought. Elion hunkered down and didn’t attract the wrong type of attention. That’s how he coped after I abandoned him. I mean “Maybe they’d do that,” Kharsis said. “But this is my hometown too, and I want the murderers out as much as anyone else. I’ll go tomorrow, see how it works.” It’s better to live, for even a few days, than to never have lived at all, isn’t it? Storming colour editor >>

Elion, it turned out, was married to a family friend, Helina, and had two girls, Larsah and Adani. The sight of little Adani crawling around shook Kharsis more than he could ever admit; in all these years he’d somehow never imagined that Elion would marry, let alone have children. There is a tale of five blind men And now they had invited him over for dinner. Kharsis sniffed the air appreciatively and sighed in contentment; he hadn’t smelled this tangy mixture of spices in the air since what felt like a lifetime ago. It brought back memories of the times when Dad had still been alive, when Mum hadn’t spent all her time in the betting rings. Those had been good times. Who finally acknowledge the elephant in the room Perhaps it really had been a lifetime ago. Those memories felt like they belonged to a different person, now. “The elephant is like a study pillar,” claims the first man As he thought, Kharsis ate his curry. It tasted of pure joy in his mouth, something that let him know that he had truly come home. Almighty above, he hadn’t had green rockbud curry in so long. He took his time, savoring every bite. “No, you are mistaken,” cries the second. “The elephant is like a solid pipe.” “Where’re you from, Uncle?” Larsah asked. “No,” a third says from slightly further away. “The elephant is like a wall.” Kharsis’s spoon clattered in his bowl, falling from his open fingers. That’s right, Kharsis realised with a jolt. I wasn’t here when Larsah was born. As far as she knows I might as well be from New Amia. A lump rose in his throat. “I came from Rennan,” Kharsis said, thinking of the best way to explain it all to this child. He glanced at Elion and hesitantly added, “Things weren’t so good for me or your dad when we were younger, but, uh, it’s much better now. I left to get away and see the world. Roshar is so big, and Rennan is just a tiny part of it.” The fourth asks why there is an elephant on Roshar. “Where did you go?” Larsah said. And the fifth barely knows there is an elephant at all. Kharsis cast his mind back. “Alethkar, Jah Keved, Thaylenah,” he said, ticking off his fingers. “The Reshi Isles too.” A mighty king and a wise man, for the two are often separable, comes by and listens to the clamour. “Wow,” Larsah said, eyes wide. There was a note of awe in her voice. “What was it like?” He listens, and thinks to himself, All of them are right. “Let him eat, Larsah,” Helina chided. The blind men cannot understand this Gratefully, Kharsis picked up his spoon. The truth, the king muses, has many aspects “Kharsis, you never did finish that story in the tavern,” Elion said. “How did you end up getting to Thaylen City?” Next to him, Larsah perked up in her seat. Just as each of the blind men has touched one part of the elephant and claimed to know the entire elephant from it. Kharsis set his spoon down again mournfully. “Well, I still needed to earn enough money for the boat fare,” he began. “It doesn’t sound like it, but delivering messages through Kharbranth can be downright dangerous. There was that time, when I tried to take a shortcut through a dark alley, when I saw three men -- heavily armed -- walking towards me…” All right. But, uh, if what you’re saying is correct, then what is the elephant? The elephant is not the point Edited for format.

1. Sure, you can put it that way. I also didn't see anything very villagery either, and at this point in the game I'm not inclined to trust that. 2. Whoops, didn't notice at the time. 3. TBH I haven't been keeping up too much with this game. A lot of my suspicions were based off of the assumption that Jai was a Sympathiser, which he clearly wasn't. I chose to look at you first because your name is first on my no-reads list. You look like you're not committing to the game, so I figured I might as well park my vote on you and provoke a response if I could. It's 5am so srs!me has gone away and he prolly won't be back until evening. I probably can't get much analysis done but I'll be free to talk if anyone's willing.

I'm not too familiar with the metagame anymore, but from QF29 it looks like players don't analyse evil kills. If so, it would be a viable strategy for the Sympathisers to kill anyone who is too suspicious of them, with the expectation that nobody will look at the kills much. 'Course, I could be completely wrong about how things are. Aside from QF29 I haven't been here for a long time.

...I know that Vulture just posted saying she's been very busy, but I've just gone over her posts and, well, they don't look too good. They don't look too bad either, and at this point I'm going to be wary of null reads. In her first post, she speculates over the experience levels (and by extension the identities) of Kangaroo and Nolan (Dragonfly). She's making clear efforts to present herself as experienced and defended Chameleon on the basis of this experience. After Elyle (Swan)'s lynch, she said that she would have voted for Elyle had she been online and that Beagle was making a bad village play. Her sparse activity, at least, supports that statement. Her village Beagle read stayed consistent up until he died. She also claimed to have a strong village read on Kangaroo "since day one", but I don't remember seeing it. The funny thing is, Vulture hasn't said much of substance beyond that. Sure she's making posts, but they don't actually say much in them. I get the struggles of trying to juggle SE and life at the same time (grad school life is hard), but it seems like she ought to have more to say than this. I don't have any read on her and by Day Five that's a little suspicious in itself. Other thoughts: Practice safe PM use, people! Role reveals even over PMs can come to haunt you later. Even if you have no role, it helps the Sympathisers know who the people who do have roles are, and who to kill in the Night, and who to not, etcetera. So, if you're thinking about telling people your role: Cease and desist!

Friendly reminder that I, Mint Heron, exist in this game. Seems like not too many people have looked at me and I'd hate to slip through the cracks. I wanna share in the analysis love too. :>

I'm on mobile now so I'll keep it short -- this post sounds evil as heck. It's appeasement and downplaying without a real defense.

I agree with Rhino and all the others who've said Meerkat is likely evil. When I read Meerkat's post saying that they had deliberately added bogus reasons to their argument to lynch Elyle, it was a big red flag, but as I was still spectating the game then I couldn't do much about it.

The rest brought calm to Kharsis’s mind, and with it, clarity. He knew what he had to do. The old familiar pull tugged at his feet again and he abandoned himself to it, knowing where it would take him. - The door was new, lovingly carved with intricate designs that looked like vines. It looked so radically different from what he’d expected that for a moment Kharsis thought that he had come to the wrong house -- but no, it was clearly the house used to live in, now Elion’s house. Kharsis thought back to the old door, worn over the years, battered almost into oblivion. The last time he’d seen it, the hinges had squeaked horribly whenever the door was opened. Now they looked shiny and well oiled. Strange, he thought. I escaped this place, but Elion reclaimed it. You could always come back Kharsis knocked on the door hesitantly. The boundaries between life and death are particularly permeable here It opened and Elion’s face peeked out. His brother’s eyes widened. “Kharsis,” he said. It sounded strange coming off his tongue, as if Elion hadn’t said it in a long time. Or perhaps it was just the first time in a while he had said it without cursing, or spitting, or anger in it. “Elion.” Kharsis said. “I’m sorry.” Then, as if those words had been a dam that had now been breached, the rest of his words came flooding out, one over the other. “I shouldn’t have left you then, it was a real crem thing to do. I knew you and Mum needed the support, especially you, you were just a kid at the time.” Elion’s eyes held a guarded air that almost was enough to cover up old scars. “Why did you leave?” he asked. The flow died off at the source. “I, uh,” Kharsis began. A hundred answers rose to his tongue, each of them containing some of the truths, none of them containing all of it. How could he possibly explain everything that had run through his head during those years, building to his final escape from Rennan? He hesitated. “I, I couldn’t stay anymore. Dad was gone, and, you know what Mum was like, with her storming gambling, losing every single sphere we had and more --” He stopped and took a breath. The old claustrophobia fell on his shoulders again, the fear at the pit of his stomach that had clung sickly to him and made him start at every shadow. Memories sprung at him, unbidden: the baker unceremoniously hauling him off from his first potential meal in days just as he’d surreptitiously dipped a hand into a basket, sweating under the blistering sun knowing that whatever spheres he earned today in the fields would be spent by tomorrow night, crying with hunched shoulders over the grave they hadn’t been able to afford a marker for, Mum ransacking the house in the dead of night looking for where he’d hid his spheres. “I couldn’t bear to stay,” Kharsis finally admitted, “and -- you were too young to come with me.” The decision had been hard to face, but in the end he’d been pragmatic. At six years old Elion was in no condition to wander around Roshar. Could Elion ever forgive him for that? Elion punched Kharsis in the face, hard. “That’s for leaving without telling me.” “Ow!” Kharsis held his nose ruefully; it hurt like Braize. Out of all the ways he’d feared this would go, a punch in the face was hardly the worst thing that could have happened. “I guess I deserved that.” Elion’s mouth twisted. “No, you didn’t.” Opposing emotions warred across his face, giving his face the odd expression he’d worn in the tavern. He’s been anticipating this for so long, Kharsis thought. Things probably aren’t going the way he thought they would either. Something warm dripped onto Kharsis’s hand. He looked down and saw a burst of vivid crimson staining his palm. “You’re bleeding,” Elion said, with a startled air. “Hold on, I’ll get you a handkerchief.” He turned back towards his house, stopped, and then looked back at Kharsis. “Why don’t you come in with me, it’ll be quicker that way.” Kharsis followed, a hand pinching his nose shut. Was this really happening? The air held an unreal, dreamlike quality to it, a contrast to the stinging pain in his nose. Tears gathered in his eyes and he blinked them back, holding back a curse. No, thank you For the first time in twenty-six years he finally felt free. I actually like it here - Penguin's recent posts sound stiff and unnatural, particularly the post that is (currently) above mine. His reaction sounds contrived and less villagery for it. However, he does bring up a good point about the Dustbringer kills. Obviously we had at least one Dustbringer up until he died this Night. I know I said that AG distributions are always troll, but there might be something worth getting from analysing what happened this night. I laid out my assumptions to help show my thought process. [ASSUMPTION 1]: Distribution this game is balanced. [COROLLARY 1a]: To balance out a Sympathiser Dustbringer, the village would have a lot of Windrunners and Elsecallers. [COROLLARY 1b]: Since we haven't seen any Windrunners or Elsecallers, the Sympathisers cannot have a Dustbringer. Not certain, but I would hold it to be true unless a lot of protects and extra lives started popping up. [COROLLARY 1c]: Three Dustbringers is not balanced at all. [ASSUMPTION 2]: There are no secret roles or mechanics. The game works exactly as specified in the rules and clarifications. (I know, I know, but it had to be said. ) [ASSUMPTION 3]: A single Dustbringer made the kills of Night One and Two. They killed again on Night Three, and their victim was either Jai (Beagle) or Gorilla. [COROLLARY 3a]: Gorilla may have been our fire-happy Dustbringer. If so, he did not target himself. There are several ways I could see last Night working out. 1. The Sympathisers killed Gecko. Gorilla killed Jai to sort out suspicions about the Elyle (Swan) lynch. A village Worldhopper got a Dustbringer power and killed Gorilla. (?) - Seems somewhat unlikely, as Gorilla wasn't under a lot of suspicion and wasn't the most non-commital of low-activity posters. 2. The Sympathisers killed Gecko. Gorilla killed Jai to sort out suspicions about the Elyle (Swan) lynch. A Sympathiser Worldhopper got a Dustbringer power and killed Gorilla. Gorilla doesn't seem too out of line with the Sympathiser kills we've seen so far. It's possible that the Sympathisers could have a Worldhopper, as it's been done in an AG before, but as it's been done before it seems less likely. 3. The Sympathisers killed Gecko. Gorilla didn't kill anybody. A village Dustbringer killed someone, and a village Worldhopper with Dustbringer powers killed the other. Again, it seems a little unlikely for the same reasons as 1. 4. The Sympathisers killed Gecko. Gorilla didn't kill anybody. A village Dustbringer killed someone, likely Jai, and a Sympathiser Worldhopper killed Gorilla. Less likely, as one Dustbringer can decimate the evil team by themselves if they are a good player/lucky. If this is what happened the Sympathiser team likely has more protection to make up for it. I know you'd all prefer analysis of players, but I still have a lot of coursework and TBH this is a lot easier for my poor, tired brain. Don't expect much tomorrow, as I'll be busy for the entire day >>

@Onyx Flamingo, please remove the quote from that PM, as it's against the rules. Paraphrasing is fine, copying and pasting is not.

Can we have confirmation of whether the Sympathisers or a Dustbringer power killed Jai (Beagle), Gecko, and Gorilla? - Kharsis made it to a back alley simultaneously relieved and feeling worse than ever. Thank the Almighty for windows with latches, he thought faintly. He glanced at the tavern, then quickly glanced away. Lively, raucous laughter emanated from the open window, but he rejected its enticing invitation. He had to get out of here, so Elion couldn’t find him. And then -- and then he could think about what to do. This is why I run He snuck to the front of the tavern, where he had left his cart, chained to a post, still laden with all of the goods he had hoped to sell here. He swiftly unlocked it and ran. Because my own life is more precious to me than to be lost in Their Games In his panic he neglected to form a plan and simply hurtled down the streets, turning at random, thinking only to put distance between himself and the tavern. Kharsis passed by familiar landmarks: the large street sign whose glyphs he always wondered at, the house at the end of the street with a small ornamental garden he used to play in, the inn with the painted exterior he still marveled at. His cart bounced up and down the uneven streets, bells jangling discordantly in his ears. He had to get away. He had to. I know Finally, he could run no longer. He slowed down to a brisk walk at the edge of a marketplace, and when he could no longer walk, he stopped and leaned against his cart, winded. Elion wouldn’t dare confront him in a place this crowded, he hoped. There were too many people here to witness what ought to be a family matter. But one day, it will knock on your door, old friend Kharsis buried his face in his hands. He’d stay here and rest, he decided. Then, at some point when Elion wouldn’t be watching, he would leave Rennan. But for now he would have to stay. He breathed out a deep sigh and remained at his cart, from where he watched the movement of the market, thinking. And what will you do then? Ghostly laughter echoed in his head, still calling him. - So far, I haven't had many thoughts on Penguin, Vulture, Falcon, Ostrich, Crocodile, Chameleon, and Zebra. I'll take a look at them later, when I have time. Apologies for my reduced activity; I thought I would have more time with the end of QF29 but my coursework has decided to prove me wrong >> Edited for grammar.

I agree with Crocodile that the lynch on Day Two is still worth discussing. Dragonfly, Squawk (Flamingo), Jai (Beagle), and anyone else who was in it, can you give an accounting of how things in the PMs went, starting from the beginning? You three keep on saying that it looks bad without the context of the PM, and but then you neglect to tell us in detail what happened in the PM. Without further information, the idea that four or five players were all able to agree that one particular player was village enough to swing a lynch off of at the last minute is hard to swallow; perhaps since Dragonfly is new he has a lower trust threshold, but that doesn't explain everyone else. The mere existence of a PM is not enough explanation as the Sympathisers were every bit as capable of making PMs as villagers at that point in the game. Late but important message from the House of Paranoia: PM safety is king, kids! The Sympathisers can't cozy up to you and shank you in your sleep if you never let them get close Don't let the Sympathisers getcha!

Strange, huh? On Wednesday 5:49 AM SGT (9:49 PM UTC ) Squawk PMed me and said he was suspicious of Jai and to go after him if Squawk died. Timing's prolly important but I don't have time to figure it out now. I have a lot of writing today I need to get done >>

Usually the evil team is 1/5 or the square root of the total number of players. 30/5 is 6 and 30^(1/2) is 5.477, so we should have between five or six Sympathisers. That's a bad assumption to make, Dragonfly >> First, evil players can have any number of activity levels. I've seen evil players who were almost completely inactive and evil players who were among the chattiest in the game. In a normal game, if an evil player who normally speaks a lot wanted to remain undetected, the first thing to do would be to maintain a similar level of activity, because if their activity level was to suddenly drop it would be obvious as hell, and while they're in the spotlight, they may as well exploit it. Which brings me to my second point. There are benefits to being a chatty evil player. Sometimes, because of they are so active, evil players are placed above suspicion because villagers think, whyever would an evil player put in so much effort to help the village? From there they can misdirect the village and redirect them to fellow villagers while keeping the lynch away from their teammates. It's happened before in games I was in >> For an active evil player to provide us with tons of information after they are dead, they have to die first, and the only way that can happen is through the lynch or a Coinshot kill. (I suppose the evil team could kill one of their own, but it's not something we can rely on :P) That means that people have to see beyond the initial smokescreen of activity and think the active person is suspicious. A village Skybreaker could scan them, maybe. That also is not something we can rely on, since team evil might choose to constantly smoke them (it looks bad but Smoking has been used offensively before), or the village might not have a Skybreaker, or the Skybreaker might be dead. The gist is that there are potential rewards for a Sympathiser to be active this game. Note: There are many ways the Sympathisers can play this. I'm just bringing up a possibility. But I just brought this up because I'd like to mention that in this game, if we assume the Sympathisers are all or mostly lurking, it can come back and bite us all in the collective chull.

Just as I can devote my full time to this, the conversation slows down. Sometimes I hate my timezone >> - Kharsis looked out at Drelan, Akedar, and a few interested kids he didn’t recognise: his audience. “There I was in the boat, hiding between some barrels of grain, and all of a sudden this deckhand found me,” Kharsis said. “Big, tall, hulking, probably able to crush me to a pulp without trying. I got on my knees, begged him not to tell the shipmaster. He said he’d do it, if I give him fifteen diamond marks. Of course, if I had fifteen marks I wouldn’t have to sneak myself to Thaylen City, so I haggled with him and he brought it down to five.” He set the tankard down and lowered his voice dramatically. His audience instinctively drew closer. “For the rest of the day I thought I was safe, so I fell asleep. And then... when I woke up, next thing I knew, the shipmaster was hauling me off. Stinking cheat, he sold me out! After I paid him and everything!” Uh, hello? Besides him, Akedar made sounds of disgust. Drelan grinned. “Of course man, you think the shipmaster was going to tolerate your ugly mug on his ship? It’s a wonder he didn’t kick you off sooner.” Do, uh, do I know you? Kharsis rolled his eyes. “Pfff, you’re just jealous of my astonishingly good looks. The ladies absolutely swarmed me in Kharbranth.” “You, good looking?” Akedar said with a snort. “Do you even realize how old you are?” “Yup,” Kharsis said. “Almost three years younger than you, so whatever I look like, you’re far worse.” He looked at Drelan and Akedar’s identical grins and hastily changed the subject. “Anyways, I after that I decided being a stowaway was too risky. I had to find another way instead.” The door to the bar creaked open. Kharsis glanced over -- and stumbled in his story. “I’d have to find another way,” he repeated. Storms! What was Elion doing here? “That’s how, how I ended up taking a gig to ferry messages around Kharbranth. Folks without spanreeds...they’d ask me to send messages from to someone else, and, uh, if I got my delivery in faster than expected I might earn a bonus or two.” Elion took a seat at a table, just beyond the ring of listeners around Kharsis. He leaned back in his chair and looked intently at Kharsis with an odd expression on his face. What if you don’t have a choice? Kharsis focused on Drelan’s and Akedar’s faces instead, but he could still see Elion at the edge of his vision; watching him, judging him. “It was, was, hard work, running from place to place all day. Good for stamina, that is, but exhausting. I’d go from, from one side of Kharbranth to the other side, and all the way back, and then, uh, back to the beginning again.” Kharsis broke off. He couldn’t do this, not with Elion breathing down his neck and intruding on time meant for catching up and bantering. He lowered his voice and spoke to Drelan. “Elion’s here. Can you distract him long enough to let me get away?” He asked. Drelan nooded. Kharsis stood up. “Sorry about that, have to go relieve myself,” he said in a louder voice. “Akedar, watch my drink, okay?” By the time it happened He’d spent so many years avoiding his family; he could spend a few more days avoiding them. Just the sight of his brother brought down a weight on Kharsis’s shoulders and made him want to be somewhere, anywhere, other than here. What madness had made him come back here, to be ambushed like this at any moment? Now that Kharsis was back, Elion wouldn’t let him leave Rennan without talking to him first. I was up in it to my neck For good reason, too. Elion had things to say, things that had probably festered inside him for the past twenty-six years, things he deserved to say if only to get some peace of mind, things that hadn’t been made right by the passing of time. Things that Kharsis had no answers for. I was a corrupted agent of evil -- and I always had been And so Kharsis ran, if only for a short respite. He ran as he always had and always would, and deep down Kharsis hated himself for that. Can’t run away from that

After looking at Day Two thread, the Elyle (Swan) lynch looks rather strange. To be honest, I couldn't follow any of the reasoning for it. Weasel's and Elephant's votes rely on a mischaracterisation of Elyle’s argument, as they suggested that Elyle was only majorly suspicious of Gecko, even when Elyle said he suspected that a Sympathiser Jai (Beagle) and Albatross were trying to save their teammate Squawk (Flamingo). The other reasoning given for the votes is even sparser. Looking at the results of the lynch, I can’t help but wonder if Jai and Albatross were trying to swing the lynch off of Squawk, as they voted in unison on the Axolotl lynch and the Elyle lynch. Jai, your method of swinging the lynch was unnecessarily sneaky and thus, suspicious. Why did you choose to PM players and ask them to swing a lynch? Why not do it in-thread, where everybody could see your reasoning?

Flamingo, that's a dangerous line of thought. First, a village Skybreaker (especially one who can't use a cleared intermediary now that PMs are down) shouldn't reveal themselves this early in the game, unless they fancy becoming dead very, very quickly. Second, that's assuming the Skybreaker is village or even exists. In past games, evil Seekers have presented themselves to the village and gained a lot of trust simply for being a Seeker. Skybreakers are not and should never be treated as safe roles. And all that is even assuming we have a Skybreaker this game; AGs are known for troll role distributions and I wouldn't expect that to change even if Meta's not running this one. Appreciated, guv.

I'm surprised this vote is still on me; I thought the post I made showed that I'm more active now. (I'll be much more active when I catch up on what happened Day 2.) To make it clear: every night when someone sleeps, they wake up a slightly different version of the original, and after last Night, I woke up a very different version of myself. It's as if I've been replaced by a new person.

As the sun slipped below the hills of Rennan, Kharsis the peddler pushed a cart up the winding path that connected the rest of the world to the village of Rennan. The bells on his cart jingled merrily, at odds with the effort it took to ascend the hill. He wasn’t as young as he used to be, and this hill felt much steeper than he remembered. But he continued to follow where his feet took him, huffing and puffing as the familiar scenery rolled by. “Who’s there?” A voice called from the top of a wall. There were two men standing there, both silhouetted against the morning sun. For the first time that Kharsis could remember, the gates to Rennan were closed. Barred from the inside, as if they were seeking to keep something out. For the thousandth time, he stopped and prepared to turn around without answering. He didn’t need to come here; there was hardly any money to be made in Rennan, and he would hardly be welcome when they realised who he was… No, he thought. I can’t run away. Not again. He would just drop in for a few days to settle some matters, and then he could move on with the rest of his life, and that would be the end of that. He steeled himself. “Who’s there?” The voice repeated. For the first time, he continued pushing his cart and answered. “Kharsis the peddler,” he said, “Here to sell some goods and share some news, if you’ll have me.” “Hands up and step away from that cart,” the voice commanded. Kharsis complied. Something about that voice tickled at the back of his mind, poking at memories from long ago. He knew this voice; it belonged to his friend, the one who could do fancy tricks with a spear, the one named… “Drelan! Drelan, they selected you for the Watch?” he called. “Congratulations!” “...Kharsis?” Drelan called back, with an air of amazement. “Is that...we thought you were dead, man!” “Well I’m not,” Kharsis said. “Are you going to let me in or not, you chullhead?” Teys said something to the guard behind him, and then slipped down into the guardhouse. A moment later, the gates opened, allowing Kharsis to see Rennan for the first time in decades. Golden light spilled from the roofs and the streets onto his head. He inhaled the scents of his hometown -- the musky scent of chulls, the wheaty scent of grain, the traditional curry that only Rennans made -- and the part of him that had never stopped missing Rennan smiled. “I’ve left old Teys up there, so the Captain can’t complain that I’ve abandoned my post,” Drelan said. “Storms man, where have you been?” He’d been a lot of places, Kharsis said with a grin, launching into a story of the time he tried to smuggle himself from Kharbranth to Thaylen City. “So, what’s life like on the Watch?” Kharsis asked, “How’ve you avoided getting bored out of your mind, just standing there and doing nothing?” Drelan sighed. “There’s been a few murders recently,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out who’s doing it. The Captain’s paired us all up on our shifts now, so we can keep an eye inside too.” “Oh,” Kharsis said. A cold wind pricked at the back of his neck. “Who died?” The first sign “Metam, Emalia, Cannoc,” Drelan said. He hesitated. “Elyle too. It’s not pretty.” Is when someone inexplicably drops dead They walked in silence for a while. Strange, Kharsis thought. I can barely remember them, let alone feel sad about their deaths. Am I supposed to mourn them? Should it make a difference, whether I knew them or not? All he could muster up was a cold, hollow feeling. “Eh, let’s not get too caught up on that, man,” Drelan said. “You’re back, we should celebrate that instead. Gimme two hours to organize a party at the tavern, yeah?” That’s your sign to get out of there, as fast as you can “Sounds good,” Kharsis said. “See you there.” I tried, but you wouldn’t listen. Good luck. - Some questions for the GMs: 1. If a player is protected and attacked, will it be revealed in the writeup? 2. Can a Lightweaver choose not to use Illumination on themselves for a Night? 3. What happens if both a Bondsmith and a Willshaper use their abilities on the same player’s vote? Edited for format.

I haven't been contributing that much, mainly because I was overwhelmed with the sheer number of strangers and couldn't keep track of who was saying what. I've read through the day 1 thread, and am going to try and take Beagle's advice of making a list or spreadsheet in order to keep people straight. I barely showed up in the thread, and got lost when i tried to read it, but this should help me become more helpful, at least.