Wyrmhero

I'd say its a good thing that we're getting more people signing up. Hopefully they've enjoyed watching our previous struggles

I must admit, I couldn't resist making Khas vote for himself, and it sounds as though you (as a group) couldn't resist making Jim vote for himself either

Oh, really? I didn't realise that hitting it with both would destroy it like that. Well, it certainly wasn't our intention to destroy your plate, I must admit. Maybe we can pick the pieces up and fix it, given time and the skills of our Artifabrian.

I agree with Awes' points on the whole 'secret guessing' thing, but I would also like to add that the whole time-sensitive aspect of it makes it really awkward if you don't sync up with the schedule of the person in charge. So, for instance, I had no chance to get the shield at all, because the reward was offered at around midnight or later in my timezone, and then all were claimed three hours later. Thus it can be rather unfair if the competition only begins later on in the game. Though that will always be true due to the clues coming in at specific times in the day. In addition, it does basically mean that the first group in discussion to find it who are all online get it, if there's more than one prize being offered. I'm surprised that didn't happen here, really. I'm not sure how this can be fixed if there are multiple rewards offered though. On the subject of rewards, I feel that Claincy's reward of a single Breath was fine, because it was a much more minor prize than a shield or Shardhammer. Items shouldn't be game-changing on their own like that (though just for clarity's sake, the Shardhammer is actually a delayed-kill item, not that it really makes much of a difference here). At the very least, I feel that the Shardhammer should have been a single-use item, and that the items offered should either have been listed at the start so we knew of their existence, or have been items taken from the general list.

Well, my thoughts were that we could rush fixing the plate for the fight. The hammer lending should've been Ace though, yeah. Also, Khas, how can I do anything but upvote that?

D&D was so difficult to sit through, with me wanting to figure out what happened here. We got lucky with Humperdink yesterday, but today's actions were all calculated with no guesses involved, I'm pleased to say. What's best about this is that everyone, and I mean everyone played their parts, even if it wasn't a wholly necessary one in the end. Sprenil Painrialed me in case you decided to attack and if Meta did turn out to be traitor. I'm not in a PM with him though, so I'm afraid I don't know the full extent of his help. Ace ShardMAced Awes, and was working very hard behind the scenes to make up for my blindness at times. I attempted to kill Alv, and Spied on Khas' Shardblade (since he gave away all his items to avoid being Soulcast, I suspected I'd see and confirm it even if the Soulcast failed). Tion set up so many Spanreed conversations last night for us. We took a risk on relying on him, and we knew that if he was evil, then he could see all our actions and plan accordingly. But he didn't, and its thanks to him that we could co-ordinate so many actions last night. He also sent a Shardplate to me, just in case. Jim stole a Reverser, which helps to cement our victory, and he Pain Knifed Awes. More importantly, it was his theft of the Painrial which allowed us to confirm both Alv's guilt, and Tion's innocence (since Tion suggested it). Saritu seconded my vote for Humperdink yesterday, allowing us to lynch a Ghostblood and proving his innocence at the same time. I posthumously honour him. Cara Soulcast Khas and provided new items. Not much else has to be said about her contribution, since that speaks for itself. Lucal Pain Knifed Alv for us, preventing the Ghostbloods getting their normal kill for definite. Like Sprenil, I unfortunately don't know how else to thank him, since I wasn't directly in a conversation with him over the game. The only way this night's course of actions could have been better is that I would've liked to changed my action to me killing Khas and Soulcasting Alv. I think we could've surprise-killed Awes with that. But alas, I was in bed at the time and couldn't explain. Ah well. So what's nice about this ending is that the victory doesn't belong to a few people scheming in the shadows. It belongs to all the innocents, working together to achieve this ending. In a game in which lies are a matter of course, I think that this is rather special. I'd like to thank you all for being so willing to work together, and I hope that I didn't keep you in the dark too much. I tried not to wherever possible, and I think I did a decent job of it even if it was a bit risky. I would especially like to thank my partner-in-justice at the end there, Ace. We discussed so much at the end, guessing and second-guessing Meta and everyone else, and the sudden guess at the secret hidden within the write-ups that got him that ShardMAce was well timed - I am afraid I am the one who suggested that pun. We actually guessed 'The Lopen' from the first three letters of the white text - we didn't notice the rest. Regardless, Ace, we couldn't have done it without you. You made good choices with who to trust this game, and it paid off immensely near the end. Of course, there is another group that this couldn't have been possible without: The Ghostbloods. People often forget that the purpose of the antagonists is to weave a fun game to play, with all the successes, frustrations and failures that implies. This may only be my second game, but I am extremely impressed with your playing throughout this. You kept us guessing for so long with your actions, particularly since we never even considered that you had a Spy. Your protection of Awes really threw me and Ace for a loop, and we almost immediately lynched Tion. I am, of course, now extremely glad that we didn't. We managed to hit Awes because I was actually the Noble Spy as well as the Grandbow holder, and I saw Awes' Emotion Bracelet. I originally trusted Tion because he threw you up for discussion on our new PM group, and I immediately leapt on that information as proof that Tion was innocent, since I knew Awes to be evil. I didn't think he would even let us consider a Ghostblood that easily, and I was vindicated in the end, even if we suspected him for a long time afterwards. Also, Awes, I enjoyed our debate as well. We thought we had Jim backing us up through the PMs, and I am obviously glad that he did in the end, but I couldn't just let that challenge you made go unanswered. I'm glad I didn't, because it was so storming fun bantering with someone I knew was evil! Something I must ask though - Why did you go after Fnorf? Random chance? I'm still surprised that we managed to get Humperdink yesterday though, especially since I had no proof at all. I like to think people trusted my judgement on that matter, but that's hard to believe since I didn't know my own judgement myself.. Indeed, I expected the vote to be turned back onto Tion easily, since at that time I only knew of Awes' evilness. If Sprenil had gone for Tion as he had two nights previous, and Awes' had changed his vote to Tion too, it would have at least been a dead even lynch between the two, if not a victory depending on your actions. Alv and Khas were somewhat harder though. Ace and I spent a long time thinking about it, with Ace tossing Saritu's name out, and me thinking about Alv, since he voted for Tion consistantly over three nights, trying to force a lynch. I disagreed with Ace on the matter of Saritu, and eventually I managed to convince him for the better. Eventually, it was Jim who gave us the vital clue, that he had stolen a Painrial from Sprenil the day before. That led us to both trust Meta and to pin down Alv as evil. At that point, it was just a matter of seeing who had voted alongside Alv the previous night to save Humperdink, and it was a choice between Jim and Khas. We knew it couldn't be our friendly neighbourhood thief, Jim, since he had been helping us with enquiries. Thus, we went for Khas. We weren't sure about him though, which is why we Soulcast him instead at first. Again, would have liked to change that, but I am a slave to the rotation of the sun in the sky, sadly. So well played, gentlemen. You gave us a very good run for our money. I had as good as written the game off when you got the Shardblade, never expecting us to get it back. I admit that we haven't won yet, but we are in the final processes of doing so. I am very pleased that it ended this close, as all the best games end like this. Thank you for an enjoyable game. And finally, and most importantly, thank you to Mailliw for putting up with me changing my mind for so long. The rules have been extremely different to what I was used to after the Nalthis game, and I'm glad to say that the only complaint I really have about the game is that you don't run on GMT. Thank you for running the game. It was an enjoyable experience, and I've had a lot of fun, despite the frustrations and failures. It has made me think and reassess a lot over the last days, and often I had to stop myself from thinking more about it than I did on my exams these last two weeks - It was certainly more fun that blasted nuclear physics, I can tell you. So, once again, thank you Mailliw for setting this up and running it. I can only imagine how hard it is to remain impartial and to avoid casting judgement while not playing and seeing all our mistakes and the consequences they have. Let this be a message to all of you - Don't leave new people out of PM groups! The thing about Wurum's Grandbow that no-one really seemed to notice was how different it was to normal Grandbows, if one could call the weapons more appropriate for siege than a battle 'normal'. It was a mess of convoluted levers and gears, devised by his father's best engineering Ardents before the fall of the House. The 'compound' bow, they had named it, for the compounding effect the gears had on the draw and the force the arrow was launched at. The bow itself was technically a family heirloom - The last one belonging to the House of Heron. It was designed such that even a man outside of Shardplate could use it, something he had thankfully not had to test, with the help of his newfound allies and their gifts. He'd never let anyone know, but this was the true cause of his house's downfall - Research into a weapon on par with a true Grandbow that any soldier could use. This was the last prototype they had left, and he was pleased to be able to report that it worked. Now he just had to convince people to invest in the idea. Shouldn't be too hard, after these events. The Shardplate itself, though... It still made him feel awkward, particularly since he had worn two different sets of it these last two days, and neither really fitted. He suspected Awes' Plate would fit him better, but that was another matter entirely.. Regardless, it made him feel different when he wore it. It made him feel more powerful, more alive. He felt like a very different man to the one he was not even two weeks ago. He crunched up the path in the encampent to where the three of them were sitting, waiting. Awes, Alv, and Khas. They knew there was no running - How could there be, when their plans had almost all been countered last night? It was a shame that they hadn't managed to save Saritu as well, but it was too late now. He felt as though Humperdink's body should have been there, just to make the complete set. But that would have been disrespectful. "We will kill you today, Khas, and your friends won't be far behind you." Wurum turned back to the rest of the nobles still left here. They were tough and strong people, and despite the gruesome happenings of the last few weeks, they were cheerful. They were certainly more cohesive and friendly than before. In that, at least, the Ghostbloods had utterly failed. "Jim, it sounds as though Khas is trying to kill you. But I feel that the Almighty would want us to be fair. Awes, lend your friend your Shardplate for the duel. Don't worry, you'll get it back no matter the outcome. Jim, you may borrow my Shardplate. I'm sure Ace will let you use his Shardhammer for the fight. Show him that we are not afraid. Show him what we think of their attempts to divide us. Show him that they have lost." He then turned to the other two sitting there. "But I am Alethi, and I respect my enemies in defeat, even ones that hide in the shadows like you. We will not kill you immediately after killing your compatriot. It wouldn't be... Honourable. You will have that last chance tonight, Awes, Alv. We will fight you tonight, Ace and I, and we will kill you. Do either of you have any preferences as to which of us is the one to kill you?"

Storm it, first it was while I was asleep, and this time it's in the middle of D&D for me. Do you enjoy making me suffer, Mailliw?

Dammit, the father never gets custody

My kind? Now I see your reasoning. Your goals are not defined by any sort of nobility or at least half-decent reasoning. You've just served the nobility so long that you hate them. Was tending horses not enough in life for you? I'm pretty sure that usurping the rightful king of Alethkar is against your Calling. How did you manage to cajole your allies into joining you, in such an evil and unholy task? What did you promise them? Can you even keep up with all the promises you are making? I suppose at least that the more of your allies that die, the less you need to spread those promises out. That was Xerxes of Persia, wasn't it? Though I suspect such a thing is possible, fighting OceanSpren or something. And while such a thing has been fun, unfortunately I'm off to bed. Night

Do you really want to make people worry that there will be another Heirocracy then? The people wouldn't stand for the Ardentia getting a single bit of power, let alone complete freedom. You'd have a riot within a few weeks across the entire country. I'd agree with the fact that you shouldn't be king though. Definitely not. I remember some emperor* or other that made his horse senator. Terrible idea. He just voted down all the proposals. Never said 'yea' to anything. Why would Jim want to thieve anyway, if he is given such prizes? He would be one of the most powerful men in the world! And then he can do like every good, decent, honest Lighteyes and steal from the poor instead, which is perfectly legal. *No prize to anyone who guesses. Also, I am having way too much fun with this

Why would you want a Soulcaster? You need to be an Ardent to use one. Do you want to become an Ardent, Jim? To become the property of His Majesty, King Awes, or one of his Highprince Lackeys? Oh, he'll make use of your 'special' talents, I admit, but even then all you'd be doing is following orders. We don't want you to follow orders. In fact, we want you to use your special talents as you see fit for our benefit. Side with us, Jim, and we'll pardon you for the thieving you've done, and even make you a Highprince, with your own set of Shardplate. I'm afraid it may need to be fixed a little and scrubbed to get rid of Awes' blood, but you won't notice the difference, I swear it!

Dammit, Jim. One of the Ghostbloods has a Shardplate, and another a Shardblade. Either of those is worth a kingdom, and I'm sure we'll get our hands on at least one of them by the time this is all over. If you don't steal my bow, then I'm sure we can come to some kind of arrangement over this sort of thing. At the very least, wait one more day and see how things change. After all, we've identified half of them. Who knows what the night will bring? It's not as if we're going to lynch you in the morning, and if they kill you, then its not as if you'd want to steal from them anyway. And if that didn't convince you, well, I suppose at least it's in the hands of a noble rather than a Ghostblood.

Well, the way things are going, Scotland might object to that... Personally, I'd say use 'United Kingdom', and then people can specify which part they come from, but really, you're better off asking someone from Wales, Scotland or NI, since they're the ones who'll be affected by everyone assuming they're English, with all that implies

I never introduced myself on the greetings subforum, so I might as well do it here and now It's difficult to pin down where exactly I live in England, since I spend half my time at university, and the other half at home, but for the sake of simplicity, put me down for the South of England (or near-London, since it's pretty much just an hour's train away from both my university and my actual home).

I would guess then that your little flunkies (my apologies to those flunkies, nothing personal) weren't able to get on early enough to place a vote for someone else. I was just surprised that everyone jumped on my vote so quickly without any evidence at all rather than a single post. Just to correct you, I didn't have it in for Humperdink, just everyone who wasn't voting. I do find it amusing though that after two weeks of telling him to vote, I ended up lynchtraining him for voting. Please, Gleeman, don't take offence that I seem to always want to kill you >>. Also... Is it wrong that I'm absolutely loving the fact that I can have a discussion with someone who tried to kill me in the open like this? Imagine the RP. 'Hello, you tried to kill me'. 'Well, you tried to kill me first'. We should have some unkillable evil person in every game

Amusingly, if Gleeman had stayed inactive, I'd have probably not voted for him and just chalked his lack of appearance up to disinterest and have gone for someone else entirely. It was a lucky lynch, and frankly I'm amazed that it got through in the first place. Not just because there were no calls against Humperdink beforehand, but because you kind of let it develop on its own.

So it did. I don't recall Alv voting for Humperdink either? Or did he do that and I missed it? We've bought some time here. It's now 8 vs. 3, by my counting. That gives us another day at least. And now I shall get the sleep I desperately need for tomorrow's exam. Night all.

Hmm, that's interesting. I am so glad we salvaged some Honour here, getting rid of one of them, at least. I'll take a 50% detection rate as at least a partial victory. Shame he didn't have anything particularly noteworthy. Seems he was the last killer then. Seems they didn't get the Soulcaster, pleasingly.

So now I'm expecting Humperdink to be innocent and you're just pulling our legs again >>

I might be able to go to the signing, depending on work over the Summer. Certainly, if I can do, I'll be there

Storm you, Awesomeness. Have an upvote.

We decided to attack Awes last night because we thought he'd die from it, simply enough. We never expected to have to vote, as we weren't aware he had a Shardplate. If he hadn't been saved by a Painrial, he'd be dancing the hemp fandango by now anyway. However, since he does have a Shardplate, he's somewhat hard to lynch. Tion is right about them not being able to protect Awes with a Painrial tonight. I had misunderstood its protective qualities, and wish I'd checked sooner. I was assuming that they worked like the Lurcher role from the Mistborn games. If I'd thought about it yesterday, I'd have called a duel between myself and Awes to finish it in a respectful and dignified manner. I would agree that Ace is not evil as well, since as you say, he gave me his plate. He could be playing a very long game, but it's far too convoluted for what the Ghostblood need at this point in the game, since if I was killed they'd probably have the bow by now and have won. Particularly since Ace was definitely aware that I had a Half-Shard the previous night, and thus could've killed me with a normal attack. The 'information that could only be gained from our group' was not the fact that I had a Grandbow, since they could've just gone for me randomly or Spied the Grandbow, but the fact that I was going to hit Awes at all. We just found it highly suspicious that the most protected member of the Ghostbloods had further protection on him than a Shardplate. We can't exactly get information on why they did that though, unfortunately. I definitely want to read the Spiked Pahn Kahl Ghostblood document now though.

I will reiterate, there is no point voting for Awes until we can get the Painrial off him. Cracking his Shardplate won't matter if I can't hit him tonight anyway. A vote for Awes is a wasted vote. Worse, since it gives the Ghostbloods control of the lynch as we are right now. I would also request you to change your vote if you voted for Sprenil. At the very least, if we can give them a choice between Tion and Humperdink, that choice will tell us something. In fact, if its left where it is, then we don't get ANYTHING from this lynch. They save Awes with his unbroken Shardplate, and don't have to even lift a finger to manipulate us.

You wouldn't know you were Pain Knifed unless you had an Alerter, I believe. ...Though confirmation would be nice, Mailliw? I also agree with Ace about Sprenil not being a Ghostblood, based on that logic. I suspect that Sprenil was so cavalier on the first day because he had no role (this is speculation, mind) and no items (which has been confirmed, at least recently), and so thought that he wouldn't really be missing out on much if he did die early. That also explains his inactiveness, for the most part.

Very glad to see Luckat's long post with his thoughts there. The problem with lynching and then allowing me to take another shot at him though is that they will just protect him again. We'd need to get rid of the Ghostblood with a Painrial first of all, before we can deal with a Ghostblood in Shardplate. I am still suspicious as to why they Painrialed a Shardplate wielder though. Starting to wonder if that suggests there are only two Ghostbloods in the entire game, and we're nowhere near as finished as we think... But your analysis of the writeup also makes sense in telling us that there are four. I would guess that, since the three prizes were all claimed quickly while I was asleep, they were all claimed by Ghostbloods sharing the answer, which is a bit of a flaw in the system. Do we get to know what they received for their collusion? Really, Gleeman? Your first vote of the entire game (five days in at that) and you vote for someone just because they've been less active than some players? She's voted twice before today, which is twice more than you've voted. She also didn't disappear and not read a PM group she explicitly asked to be in for three days. I accept you had things going on, I'm just pointing it out. But this is a hypocritical way to vote, trying to find a way - any way - to jump on the Cara bandwagon (not that there is one yet). With the death of Faialen, he claims to have known that he had a Spanreed. This despite not being in any PM groups, as he wants to be within one just before posting his claim. I would like to hear why you thought Faialen had a Spanreed so strongly, and what reason you wanted to be in a PM group considering you never did anything in it. As such, I am voting to lynch Humperdink.