Haelbarde

Sigh. I post and then things start happening. But given I said twice that I'd put down a complaint on Araris but for him not posting yet, and it spreading out votes, which are no longer relevant, l should put money where my mouth is.

Well I'm awake. I've been trying to read through what's happened over night and decide on if I have any suspicions worth voting on. The votes on Bard and Lopen seem mostly to be based on gut reads, without much explanation. I'd feel more comfortable about those votes if people were able to give more reason why, but I guess that's the nature of gut reads. I'd consider voting on Araris, but I feel like it's a little late to do so when he's so busy, and it would spread out votes further. I'd like to hear from Bard, but I don't want to add a vote to him with a response either, and I assume he'll not be on in the next 20 minutes. I think CadCom's votes have been a bit off, but again, last minute voting a Rug who's already struggling doesn't seem cool. I think I'll fine with tuition if even if I don't put in a complaint this cycle, so I guess I'll abstain for now but make sure to actually put real votes down early next cycle so there's time for discussion around them.

I had been hoping to put a complaint down, but I'm not sure who I'd put one down on. I'd consider Araris, for choosing to push to expell people pretty late in cycle last cycle, but I'd really prefer to see a vote from the first, and if they're busy, I'd rather have a dialogue than vote when he can't really respond. I'd also have liked a vote from Fura, but I don't want to unnecessarily poke vote them... I'll try get back on before the end of cycle and have a closer look at some of the others on the list I've not gotten to.

I'll point out that Talent Pipes cannot be stolen, only given willingly. Coin can be stolen, but even with talent pipes, you're still likely to get more coin by attempting to steal from a noble. Not to say that whether or not someone has gotten talent pipes isn't valuable information that I would think would better to keep to oneself, but it doesn't put someone at risk at getting their pipes stolen. And your comments are entirely fair, because I haven't put any effort into doing so yet. The meat of this game is the interactions possible through the items and abilities you can acquire, and they're only just starting to become available now. Not that's not reason to have actually started solving the game. I really should have been starting to help do that last cycle, but while the first two cycle fell on the weekend and I was able to put in time (and then obsess over attempting to hit zero tuition), it's then been busy at work for the better part of the Term. I'm still writing this post, but I'll try actually get to that starting from now. Oh, that makes sense. I kept on getting a few people mixed up as I scrolled past them - I had a moment of thinking that someone was talking to themself when they were actually two people. Yeah... sorry - like I said, I had time to RP on the weekend, but haven't had the opportunity to since. I hadn't needed you to give the baby up though, but was offering to take it on if you decided you didn't actually want to keep up with using it in RP. Alright, nothing immediately jumps out to me solely considering people's responses in thread this cycle, apart from maybe Striker's comments re: Straw resonating with me a bit. Well, about doing a lot that shows helpfulness without necessarily favouring one side or the other. Although I'm not sure what Striker is referencing rearding him trying to stop people from spreading out votes. He spent the second half of the cycle arguing why it wasn't a good idea to choose to not spread out votes late in the cycle after Araris decided it was time to start being more focused with our votes. So, I'm going to try and do a brief run down of people's interactions by looking through their posts. 1. Haelbarde - (Edema Ruh) - Me. A lot of RP, a few general warnings about being careful of sharing information (your data leaks affect everyone). Hasn't posted much during Term 2 - claims to have been busy. 2. Elandera - (Noble) - 1.1 pointed out the importance of not just having votes on Nobles, with the potential for multiple expelled nobles in that situation. Given the last two games (well definitely LG18, but pretty sure it was the case LG33), the skindancers focused first on expelling all students before worring about finishing off either the fields or killing everyone, I'd agree with Elendara's sentiments here. Though I suppose that it just means it's no different to the lynch normally - eliminators are benefited from the village lynching villagers. I'm leaning village on Elendara. I've also enjoyed their RP. 3. Burnt Spaghetti - (Commoner) - Not a fan of grammar and punctuation. A lot of RP, or general rules advice based on previous experience. Did note the value of the Bribe the Messenger ability. Did at least contribute some reads at the start of the cycle. She's always hard to read as anything beyond an agent of chaos who's just here to have fun, but I think she's more likely to be village than not at this stage (though that itself would be grounds for her being a Skindancer if we were playing the Resistance now...) 4. DeTess - (Commoner) - Generally helpful, active and good at encouraging activity, but I'm not seeing anything that's particulary indicative of alignment. I'd maybe lean elim slightly, but I think that's more due to disagreeing a bit with their thoughts on the info game from lynches, which is really more a difference of playstyle. Basically just reading them as neutral for now. 5. Elkanah - (Edema Ruh) - Keeping quite active (which is certainly going to be helped from their need for tuition reductions as a Ruh). A lot of rule clarifications, some rule theory crafting that makes me lean a little village, shared a few reads. Still mostly a neutral read - need more data. 6. Straw - (Commoner) - RP, shared stats about previous games and previous cycles, which as Striker noted is a good way of getting overlooked. I probably agree more with them about using votes than I do with DeTess or Araris. Slight village read overall. 7. xinoehp512 - (Commoner) - Noted fairly early about that just one vote on all the nobles wasn't a good idea. Their general tone is of a villager trying to solve the game. I'm not sure a skindancer would have suggested the Linguistics Analysis scan idea, unless they were themselves a Linguist. They're active and engaged in the game. I'm reading village. I think that's all I've time for today. I'll continue on with this next cycle. @StrikerEZ, @CadCom and I guess @xinoehp512 , re: Straw. These are his posts from last cycle: Pretty sure you've gotten mixed up with who was saying we should stop spreading out votes. Araris was the one to push it, with DeTess and Fura supporting in principle.

Did you intend to put two votes on GreenRover? Because you've currently put both on them, ensuring they get at least one DP. No, unfortunately. Certainly not publicly, unless people volunteer the information. Think the only other way would be with Naming. Vote Tally Zillah(1): DaTess{1} Araris(1): Silberfaren{1} Rover(2): Karnage{1}, Karnage{2} Lopen(1): Xino{1} Elendera(1): Bard{1} Karnage(1): Coda{1} Devotary(1): Xino{2} Rath(1): Lopen{1} Burnt(1): Lopen{2} Straw(1): Burnt{1} Bard(1): Straw{1} Stink(1): Straw{2} Walin(1): Rath{1} I've not put a complaint down yet. I made enough RP posts last cycle that I can survive without putting in a complaint, but I'm happy to do so if we still want to try and spread out DP is much as possible.

It's never too early to start being suspicious. But for more context - when I most regularly have the time/motivation to generate written content for games like this (whether analysis or RP) is in the evenings, which based on timezones is when americans should be well and truly asleep. The best RP is when you can good back and forths, which is normally isn't a problem to have it spaced out across cycles. But when each cycle represents a month of time's passage, in this game it only really makes sense if you can have the entire scene play out in a cycle, thus favouring RPing with someone who is online at the same time as you. I'm actually not the sort to do much RP at all normally. This game already has more RP in it than I've done for almost any other game I've played I think. Heh. It probably has more RP than one or two of the games I've GM'd. That's mostly because last cycle was on the one freeish weekend I'm likely to have this game, and I needed a creative outlet at the time also. I also really wanted to get as close as I possibly could get to zero tuition. I doubt there's very many people at all who've specifically RP'd with me - probably Wilson and El are the most likely to have. As far as RPing with the baby, I'd had some thoughts about how I'd do some solo RP, which weren't really compatible with what it looked like you were going for with your RP, but didn't really have any ideas for anything more collaborative. Because I know sometimes people try a thing and then abandon it after finding it doesn't work for them, figured I'd at least say I could take the baby on board if you decided that you weren't interesting in continuing on with it.

So I have very mixed feelings about it. It's an excellent observation of the possibilities found within the rules of this game, and I'm assuming that's something you've come up with yourself, so well done. This was actually done in the first iteration of this game (LG18), albeit the first person to get Linguistic Analysis in that game was I believe Burnt who was a skindancer that game (eventually a student got it also and took over once they found out Burnt had been a skindancer). What often happens in these scenarios (or any game with a scanner really), is you have a Village Trust Group form, and the more powerful they get, the more often they start pressuring people to conform to how they want people to play the game. While it can be fun to be part of the core Village Trust Group, being someone who was cleared but isn't part of the group 'doing the work' isn't fun, and being not scanned and being pressured to do what the Trust Group says or else is even less fun. My experience of LG18 (albeit from the view of a skindancer in that game) was that everyone was forced to use the phrase and then not lie at all for the entire rest of the game in the name of trying to catch skindancers. Less important than that forcing people to conform isn't fun for them, but still worthy of note is that some players can do an excellent job as villagers messing with Skindancers by being deceitful, which is something that would be much harder to pull off for them if they're being told to be utterly truthful in addition to saying "I am not a skindancer". To share past!me's thoughts on the matter from the signups to LG33: I stand by that, and will not be saying "I am not a skindancer" in any posts for purposes of being scanned by Linguistic Analysis. If you want to force people to tell the truth, that's the point of Alchemy: The Plum bob does exactly that. Half of Archives is about dealing with Skindancer actions. Sympathy is about dealing with Skindancers. And Naming, given the names, could probably replicate anything any of those other fields could do, in additional to all the other possibilities. Now I want to be clear. I'd like to discourage the scenario from LG18 where the ability was being used to force people to say "I am not a skindancer". I'm against in people in general saying the phrase and making sure to be truthful, because once enough people do it, the choice of 6 people to do a thing ends up forciwong the other 21 people to do the same thing, because they must be skindancers otherwise. I think Lingusitic Analysis works the best when its an invisible thing happening in the background. The linguist can be reading someone's post and think "Hey, that seemed a little weird" or "They've made some claim about being here or doing this and I'm not sure I trust that", and then choose to scan them. Maybe they'll catch someone out in a lie, maybe they'll find they were telling the truth, but either way they've still been able to do something cool. I'd love to get Linguistic Analysis and actually catch someone in a lie. Not because I forced them to say a phrase, but because I was able to notice them something off about what they said. And if you don't want to be as passive as that is, just looking a thread, then head to PMs - Linguistic Analysis works on what is said in PMs with the linguist too. If you've been active in PMs, you can try turn the discussions to topics that encourage the other person to say stuff worth verifying. If you're carefully with how you do it, you can get a ton of info out someone in PMs, and being able to then get the GM to confirm that the person was truthful is very powerful. So anyone who gets their hands on Lingusitic Analysis. Please consider using the ability with finesse - read thread carefully and see if you can spot things that could be lies and use the ability to verify it, or use PMs carefully to learn information that you can verify through your ability. Please use the ability in a way that is fun for everyone, not just you. I was going to volunteer to look after her, but figured my timezone and availability otherwise makes it hard for me to RP along with others beyond Burnt and Bard. Figured I'd wait 24 hours to see if others jumped in first, but... well, you said it better than I would have. But I guess @Karnage got to it eventually - Karnage, I'm not sure if Seoras would help out with someone else looking after her, but if you decided you weren't going to keep RPing with the baby, I could probably take care of it.

(I need sleep at this point so one more post to write Seoras out) "That's quite fair enough. I'm glad we could help out. Hope you didn't mind us having a bit of fun." Seoras turned back to see where Bryn had gotten to just in time to walk right into another student with an arm full of books coming from the other direction, knocking them over and causing books to slide everywhere. "Ah bother." "That's quite fair enough. I'm glad we could help out. Hope you didn't mind us having a bit of fun." Seoras turned back to see where Bryn had gotten to just in time to walk right into another student with an arm full of books coming from the other direction, knocking them over and causing books to slide everywhere. "Ah bother." With a sigh, he set about finding and picking the dropped books. "That was entirely my fault, sorry. Are you okay?" He asked as he helped the other student to recover everything that had been dropped. He supposed he'd probably have to leave Bryn to it. Feeling very conscious of the loud noise that had wrung out though the quiet, he thought maybe now would be a good time to leave. He'd have to leave Bryn and Straw too it, and maybe catch them later. And the assignment wasn't urgent enough to risk any further trouble here for the moment. So after helping the other student up, and dusting himself off, he excused himself quickly. It hadn't ended for him how he'd hoped it might, but it had been fun while it lasted, and he'd made a friend or two in the process he thought. So all in all, not a bad outing.

I'd agree that it is important to be careful about if/how you share any EP/elevations you have. While there may be a time where there's suspicious uses of abilities that we might need to track down, until then any students elevated may have a higher chance of being targeted by the skindancers. Talking about what field you might be studying in or even more what field you may have been elevated in could help the skindancers work out what fields others may have gotten elevated in. Even if your field wasn't particularly dangerous to the skindancers for example, if they know they can ignore you, they've got a greater chance of targeting a more dangerous student ability. Now, you could then I suppose choose to intentionally mislead people in what you were elevated in, which case we then get into more of a IKYK situation, but I feel like for the moment, avoiding sharing is better. For similar reasons, I'd also avoid sharing lodgings. I don't think anyone has done that thus far, but given there is a possibility to move next cycle, I'd still recommend keeping any movements to your self - I can't think why students would need to know where you are staying, but the skindancers would probably find knowing useful.

As the poor man spluttered, looking between Seoras and 'Lady Aria', Seoras stole a look back to Straw to see if he was going to play along. He was pointedly studying the nearest bookshelf trying not get involved. Seoras cracked a slight grin. Probably for the best. The man, deciding it wasn't worth the effort of protesting the situation, deflated as he observed Bryn's unwavering imperious look from down her nose. "It's... uh... sure, I mean. They're just... uh... down here.... It would be... a pleasure...? my pleasure... to help" As it turned out, there was a bound set of physicker journals all of a 15 second walk from where they had been, which really wasn't time enough to mess with the man on the way. Instead Seoras hung back a little to whisper to Straw. "Hey. Did you want me to ask where to find a thing, or do you reckon you heard enough to find what you were after?" Seoras glanced back towards Bryn as she put on airs as the poor librarian (who was more likely some assistant if they were just stacking shelves) hurriedly lead her onwards. Hopefully he'd be able to catch the man before he was able to scurry off... ( @Straw @Burnt Spaghetti)

Excerpts from Seoras' Journal Term 1, Day 1 - Orientation. Practically useless. A whole lot of snow, a whole lot of old people saying all the same things as the last person about the importance of due dates, of the consequences of unbecoming conduct (whatever that meant), the lashings associated with copying someone else's work, and the dangers of the arcane. Like they needed to spend 7 hours to say all that... Term 1, Day 4 - Not a lot more worth commenting on for the past few days. What classes were available don't start teaching anything relevant to the subject until next week apparently. This week was basically alternating boring "Welcome to the <insert non-descript dusty lecture hall room number here>" with silly 'team building' games in failed attempts to get people to actually talk to people. At least tomorrow is a day off... Term 1, Day 15 - Huh. Apparently it's the end of the third week already. After a mind numbing first week, there was barely time to sleep between studying, eating, and completing both the in class work and the copious amounts of homework set on the first day. Really hoping this isn't want the rest of the term looks like. Term 1, Day 32 - Ack. Maybe this is what it's going to be like all year...!?

Seoras watched as Bryn's appearance changed subtly as she noticed the man he'd pointed out. She stood a little straighter, held her head a little higher, adopting a different expression. She was about to play a part. Intrigued, he stood by and followed her lead as he watched her stride up to the worker. "Pardon me good sir, but I am in need of your service, please." Even the way she spoke shifted just slightly, everything to sell the imagine of a self important noble, or maybe the spoilt daughter of a wealthy merchant. There was certainly a lot more to this girl than met the eye. Having given Bryn directions to the journals she was after, the librarian turn to look at Seoras expectantly. Seoras cleared his throat. "Thank you mi'lady - you honour me greatly. Kind sir, if you could but point me towards where I might look for writings on Arem mathematics, I'm sure mi'lady here would be very grateful, though not as greatful as if you were to escort the Lady Aria to the journals afterwhich she had inquired." He figured that if Bryn was going to play to her appearence, then why not do the same and have some harmless fun at this poor man's expense. ( @Burnt Spaghetti Hope you don't mind playing into the act @Straw Hoping you're able to jump in and react to all this still. Figure someone at least can have fun with the mans reaction if they want.)

"Oh ah...aaall of the above...? ish?" He raised his eyebrow as he listened to her list of reasons. Thinking for a moment though, he supposed it made sense. The mornings events had had him worried also. Never hurt to be prepared, and if some one was behind what had happened... "Well, how about this, help me find someone who can show us how to navigate through the stacks to find something so I can write my paper, and then armed with the knowledge of the layout of the archive we can then look for other stuff. At the very least we could ask about books by physickers. That would surely be innocent enough a question." With that, he turned to move deeper into the room. Getting closer to the stacks he could see there was some signage, but half of it didn't really seem to make sense, or was otherwise too general to be all that useful based on the size of sections the labels covered. So, doing it theirself might not work so great just yet. Plan B then - find some who looked like they worked there. Looking around, he saw an older academic who would probably know, though they seemd to be quite invested in their conversation, and Seoras didn't really feel like either waiting or interupting. Walking along looking down a number of the different aisles, he spotted someone who looked like they were reshelving some books. They'll do. He guestured to Bryn and Straw. "Hey, over here." (@Burnt Spaghetti @Straw)

"...Ssssaayrus..." He chuckled. "Seoras is what you were looking for Bryant" he corrected, nodding to Straw, and winking at Bryn. Bryn carried on talking - turns out she was looking for books on insanity? He figured it was maybe worth clarifying what she meant. "By insanity, do you mean how to cause it? What it looks like? How to fix it? Because where ever the information is, I'd imagine you might find those different parts in quite different sections... I'd imagine if there's any physicker journals here, we might be able to find something on how to treat insanity at a pinch." He had a look around to see if there were any section labels. "As for myself, I just got assigned a report on historical Arem numeracy notation, or somehting like that. Figure this is the only place I'm going to find anything about that. Though I'm not convinced that the topic was intentionally chosen to be impossible..." He looked back to Straw. "Don't suppose you're looking for any of the same stuff? I'm guessing probably not, right?" He glanced back towards the stacks. "Do we go ask someone else here, or do we split up and just start pulling books off the shelf at random?" @Burnt Spaghetti @Straw

Not a GM, but I can give you a vote count: Vote Tally Devotary(1): DeTess{1} Lopen(1): Coda{1} Elandera(1): Straw{1} Rover(1): Xino{1} Walin(1): Sart{1} Silberfarben(1): Araris{1} Karnage(1): Elandera{1} Lumgol(1): Devotary{1} DaTess(2): Karnage{1}, Lopen{2} Burnt(1): Sart{2} Rath(1): Lopen{1} Zillah(1): Hael{1} Figure I'll take the opportunity to put down a complaint on Zillah to get the tuition reduction.

As Seoras considered the room before him, he heard footsteps that stopped a pace or two behind him. After a pause, there was a tap on his left should as he heard a rustle to the right. He rolled his eyes. Twisting around to the left, he looked around in mock confusion. "What!? Who's there?" He finshed the motion, piroutting around to face this newcomer with a grin on his face. The figure was a girl, one of the newer students he'd seen around campus. She asked if he knew anything about the organisation of the book, to which he shook his head. "Not exactly. I've not had access to anything like this before coming to the university, and I've tried to spend as little time in here as possible. Maybe we can work it out together then? I'm Seoras, by the way." The words barely out of his mouth and another student worked up, seeming to look for help, introducing themselves as "Straw". Turned out they also were hoping to work out how to find stuff in here. He shifted a little to allow Straw into the conversation. "Well, that makes three of us. Want to join us in figuring it out ourselves?" I think a lot of the time, people have only been on the street due to forgetting to put in lodging orders, rather than by choice (short of maybe Aman). Why Skindancers don't typically spend time on the street is they have the benefit of people in the elim doc reminding them to put in such orders also - you can't just give people coin, I'm pretty sure. So the only way of helping financially is via things like black market contracts, or giving items that could then be sold (or I suppose held temporarily in the case of something like talent pipes). There are betters ways of trying to clear people as village than getting them to spend time on the streets. I suppose yes, if we know for sure someone has survived on the streets for 2-3 terms then yes maybe that's reason to lean village on them but I don't think it's a good idea to put people at risk as a way of trying to test allignment. A reminder though, to everyone. Make sure you put in orders this turn for where you want to lodge next term. Even if you're going to stay in the same place, make sure you put that order in to make sure you don't end up on the streets. Even if you don't end up being able to afford lodging for the chosen venue, you'll at least end up in the next best lodging if you at least put in the order.

Impressing a Master is filing EP (elevation points), yeah. With no elevation required. So yeah, unless you were to go to the Imre for a turn, you can get that 5 jot deduction from filing EP. But then you can get other deduction from going to the Imre, so that balances out if you do go there. For example, if you were to come up with and submit a contract on the black market, that should net you an equivalent 5 jot deduction I think. Provided it was a contract relating to the game and not just roleplay stuff (past games I know there were some random RP contracts available in the Imre). As far as students not being raised by Masters this turn, elevations happen based on the previous cycles EP (so that PC Masters have a cycle to determine who to elevate I suppose). Because at the start of the game we don't start with any EP already filed, we didn't have EP for the masters to elevate us with during 1.1. Elevations will happen starting from this turn however, based on what EP everyone filed last turn (i.e. if you filed EP in one field last turn and a different one this turn, you won't have a chance of getting elevated in the different one this turn. You'll only have a chance of being elevated in the field(s) you put EP into last turn).

Time passed. The air had been too dry to continue to play for too long, so he had put the flute back into its pouch. As he sat, enjoying the warmth of the nearby hearth, he took the opportunity to appreciate the moment of quiet. Moments like this, while easy to find out while roving about the countryside a short distance from your troupe, were few and far between in town, and particularly in the university itself. Soon enough though, the moment passed, and it was time for his next class. ... An hour later, he had less answers and more homework. Great. Because lots of book work is going to help me outside of this building. This part of the university most certainly had not featured any any poem or song about this place. He supposed he could compose such a thing. Maybe even justify it at homework somehow. Somehow, he didn't think a poem would satisfy the requirements of a paper on the history of written numeracy of the Adem. With a sigh, he sent off for the archives. He really didn't want to fall behind in any of his classes, so starting now was as good a time as any. Surely there'd be something in the archives on the subject. It's not like they'd set impossible homework tasks, would they? The dusty smell of old books meant he drew close. Stepping in to see the masses of books, he looked around. He was going to need someone to help him navigate this place.

Seoras shivered. He didn't know if it was due to the cold, or watching a fellow student be dragged struggling out of Archives, seemingly insane and destined for a place in the crockery. Of all the tales of the university he'd collected, he had thought the ones of students rapidly going insane had to have been fiction. That there was more truth to those tales that he thought was definitely unsettling. He shook his head to clear it, not wanting to dwell on what he'd just seen. He reached into his pouch to find the comforting texture of the wooden flute he kept with him. He had some time before his next class. Perhaps he could find a warm spot to sit, play a few melodies, and perhaps catch up with any classmates who happened to wonder by. Leaving the instrument where it was, he slung his bag back over his shoulder, and went hunting for a place to pass the next hour. After a few minutes, he found himself a nice spot. There were a few other students in the area, though none yet that he'd talked to, he thought. Taking a seat and getting out the flute, he played a few lines. No one seemed to object, so on he played. Thanks again for that great writeup. I think I'd agree with Elkanah. A WGG doesn't seem like a great idea - I haven't checked, but I didn't think that any more than maybe 3 people have broken out of the Crockery across LG18 and LG33, and even if someone breaks out, I don't think they can get elevated so they'd be stuck with out abilities. It also feels like you wouldn't give up having a nobles income unless you had a two of them. I'm pretty happy to consider Headshot as student if he does ever break out. I think the final vote tally was: Vote Tally Elandera(1): DeTess{1}, Elkanah{1} Devotary(1): DeTess{2} Lumgol(1): Zillah{1} Karnage(1): Straw{1}, Headshot{1} Headshot(1): Karnage{1} Rover(1): Xino{1] Araris(1): Xino{2}, Exp{1} Straw(1): Elandera{1} Coda(1): Lopen{1} Lopen(1): Silberfarben{1}, Straw{2} Walin(1): Coda{1} Exp(1): Rover{1} Bard(1): Devotary{1} Rathmaskal(1): Hael{1} Burnt(1): Straw{3} DaTess(1): Burnt{1} Sart(1): Karnage{2} Xino(1): Rathmaskal{1} Silberfarben(1): Araris{1} Zillah(1): Exp{2} Stink(1): Striker{1} So, everyone had a vote on them except the Ruh. Spreading out the votes I think was worth it, but as evidenced by Coda's Conduct Unbecoming, still doesn't avoid harsh consequences. As Devotary points out though, it's probably not helped by there being a number of individuals staying in the Golden Pony. The guess of 5-6 of the 20 players with DP (I think order of actions means that Headshot would have gone insane before DP was assigned) seems reasonable, though I feel like Yllish and Aturans are likely to be the more common commoners and nobles so I wouldn't be too surprised if it were more like 7 or even 8. But short of people volunteering where they were staying and voting accordingly, there's not a lot we can do about that, unless people decide to change accomadation. And I wouldn't recommed people sharing where they were lodging anyway, on top of the fact that potentially double voting on people in the Golden Pony would both get the complaint and a DP from having two complaints on them (I don't know if the Golden Pony affects the 2 complaints = 1 DP thing).

Thanks for pointing that out. Updated tally (including your vote): Vote Tally Elandera(1): DeTess{1}, Elkanah{1} Devotary(1): DeTess{2} Lumgol(1): Zillah{1} Karnage(1): Straw{1}, Headshot{1} Headshot(1): Karnage{1} Rover(1): Xino{1] Araris(1): Xino{2} Straw(1): Elandera{1} Coda(1): Lopen{1} Lopen(2): Silberfarben{1}, Straw{2} Walin(1): Coda{1} Exp(1): Rover{1} Bard(1): Devotary{1} Rathmaskal(1): Hael{1} Burnt(1): Straw{3} DaTess(1): Burnt{1} Sart(1): Karnage{2} Xino(1): Rathmaskal{1} Building on Straw's comment about Ruh - I was a Ruh last game. I moved to the Mews for Term 2, and at the end of month 1 of Term 2 I went insane. But equally keep in mind that going insane still leaves you with a (tiny) chance of breaking out of the crockery and returning to the game. Getting unlucky on the streets is just being dead. Seoras, wearing his best raggedy coat, wound his way toward the university. It was not exactly hard to find. He'd found his way there the week before to enrol. The hard part had been talking his way in, securing a place among the soon to start cohort of students. It wouldn't surprise him to having sweet talk his way back in again this morning. This time, he wouldn't even have the coin he'd paid to enrol to back up his claims. Fortune favoured him however. There were enough other new students trecking through the snow in coats of varying degrees of newness for him to fade into the crowd and walk in as one among many, just another set of wide eyes hoping for knowledge or power to take back home. He heard the sounds of music, notes of a voice ringing out in the distance accompanied by a flute of some kind. He smiled. He knew he'd have time for music later. For now, he needed to orient himself and sift fact from fiction from the tales he had heard of this place. After all, one particular tale had insisted the school featured a tower that reached so far into the sky that it's peak was lost in the clouds. Seoras could already see the tops of all the towers in sight - that was one tale for the fiction column. Watching the movment of the other students, he noticed a notice near the pathway to an introductory session of sorts. Pulled that way by current of students, it seem as good a place as any to begin this journey.

I don't think I truly appreciated how invested in becoming Master Rhetorician you were... I did not, but I think I shan't either. The wiki didn't have any examples of Ruh with last names, so I think it's probably appropriate to leave Seoras without one. Well, I'm finally here with time to write a proper post. I had intended to link my post on the financial hardships of the Ruh from LG33, but I think the other Ruh have already covered that quite well enough. If anything, the only thing I'd add would be to lean back the other way - complaints on Ruh hurt, both just the immediate tuition inflation from the complaint, and then further so by being brought on the horns. But all that means is to be mindful when placing votes on a Ruh. If you're only Complaining to get a tuition reduction, then please don't put a vote on a Ruh. However if you are suspicious of a player being a Skindancer, do not let them being Ruh stop you from putting a complaint on them. And don't let them guilt you out of it by playing the "Oh, but I'm so poor and barely scraping by... D:" card. I know others have already done vote tallies, but I like to keep track of the history of votes throughout a cycle, so I've done my on version: Vote Tally Elandera(1): DeTess{1}, Elkanah{1} Devotary(1): DeTess{2} Lumgol(1): Zillah{1} Karnage(1): Straw{1}, Headshot{1} Headshot(1): Karnage{1} Rover(1): Xino{1] Araris(1): Xino{2} Straw(1): Elandera{1} Coda(1): Lopen{1} Lopen(2): Silberfarben{1}, Straw{2} Exp(1): Rover{1} Bard(1): Devotary{1} Rathmaskal(1): Hael{1} I need to reread thread to see if there were other things I wanted to respond to, but that'll come later, along with some attempts at RP. For the moment, I'll just finish by putting a tuition-decreasing poke complaint on Rathmaskal (@Rathmaskal) for not having posted yet.

Woo! Edema Ruh again! Now to find a last name for Seoras and work out how I'm going to make ends meet this game. Oh, and @Elbereth, @little wilson, the player action spreadsheets are very cool.

[Seòras has entered the lobby]

As much as I'd like to try and RP everything, that'll result in me contributing very little. So I'll try and write analysis, comments, and votes in RP if I have the time, but I'm not going to restrict myself to only doing so. So the current Fellowship Candidates are as follows: Fellowship Candidates Hael(1): Hael Kas(0): Kas{1} Coda(1): Coda Elandera(2): Fifth, Elandera Fifth(2): Wonko, Straw Striker(1): Striker STINK(1): Kas{2} I'm no Alv, so I would probably rather avoid a tie. For that reason I'd probably rather put a vote down on Fifth (Hael), more so from their comments about the state of the lynch than the choice to not vote on themselves. I'd see that as simply for the RP. If I had to elect 7 people now, I'd probably choose Burnt, Kas, Young Bard, Aman, Wonko, and Straw, in addition to myself, though mainly that's because they're the people I've played the most with before. But then I don't have game relevant thoughts on most of them (mostly because of no posts), and Wonko I could see going either way (village or elim) so I'd want to hold of voting on him for the moment anyway.

The closing line of a song sprung to mind. “In Mordor where the shadows are…” Beren cleared his throat. "What we gather here to accomplish was attempted by mighty men of old, yet their great armies fell, and only by chance was victory gained. One does not simply walk into Mordor – armies have tried and failed. Yet where armies fail, a small band mayhap prevail. Those of us with the skills to survive the journey should accompany the ringbearer on their journey, but of equal importance is blinding the shadow to the fellowships movements. We represent the free people's of Middle Earth. The connection we each have are equally of importance, that men might band together with elves and dwarves alike to draw the Eye of Mordor's gaze from the search for its ring, and on to the nations he had thought broken." He looked around at those gathered. "I may not have a lot in the way of influence, but I know my way around a blade, and have lived in places many men fear to stray. I, Beren Adaeldah would offer my services to the Ringbearer."