Metacognition

Just a warning, if you guys have anything else you'd like to add to this game, do so now! We'll be locking it here in the near future! And I know I said it many times before, but thank you Wyrm for GMing for us! It was an amazing game and your hard work and dedication is truly appreciated!

You know it's impossible and you know that you saw Wurum kill him with a shardblade. There is no returning from that. Still, on the breeze, it's almost as if you can hear Metam's laughter. Good Luck with that guys!

Metam watched as the mob against him grew in size. This wasn't what was supposed to happen! He was supposed to save them from themselves! They were supposed to repent their evil ways and live by the rules of the law! "YOU'RE ALL FOOLS! I HAVE WARNED YOU ABOUT THE COMING DESOLATION AND INSTEAD OF TRYING TO STOP IT, YOU'VE EMBRACED IT WITH OPEN ARMS!" He swung his sign out in front of him, keeping them back. "THE STORMFATHER WAS RIGHT, YOU'RE ALL DOOMED AND YOU'VE DOOMED THE REST OF US WITH YOU!" Metam hoped that they would now finally understand how just his cause was. They would see his righteous zeal for what it was; true devotion to the people of Roshar. He was here to save them, not himself. Instead, his words only seemed to intensify their bloodlust and they tried to approach again. Metam scowled and spat at them. He swung again with his sign. They were blind and rather than allow themselves to be led by one of the few people who could see, they were jealous and sought to pull him down. He had failed them, but they had also failed themselves. "IN THE END, YOU WILL ALL LOOK BACK AT THIS TIME AND WISH YOU HAD LISTENED TO ME! THE FINAL DESOLATION COMES AND WITHOUT ME, YOU CANNOT STOP IT! SOON, YOUR NIGHTMARES WILL TAKE ON LIFE AND YOU WILL KNOW THAT I HAVE SPOKEN TRUTH! ENJOY YOUR HELLISH FUTURE! YOU HAVE CONDEMNED YOURSELVES!" With that, Metam swung one last time to give himself a head start and then leapt into the air, leaving the mob behind. ------------------------- Well, as you guys can put together, that first cycle was absolutely the worst that could have happened to us! C'est la vie though. We've had enough games now that the villagers were bound to get this lucky eventually! To my brethren, Aonar, Gamma, and Mailliw are all squires. I'm listing all of them so that you all know instead of just those that are or will be in there in the future. I'm also pretty sure that Ash might be the Truthwatcher, and he already had scanned me. Thus why he jumped on me so quickly and never let go this cycle. And obviously, Wyrm is a Windrunner. I don't have a good guess as to who the final one is, but I could see Wyrm voting Jain to cover for him. You guys have your work cut out for you now! Best of luck! We can still stop this Desolation, so don't give up hope! To the rest of you: I hate you all now and I will never forgive you. Not really. Good game! I just wish I had had more time to finally be evil! I had such wonderful plans for all of you! Mwahahaha!!!

Is it evil if I agree with Aonar's plan just cause it means I won't die? No, as I said in the Squire Doc, this has gone too far. We've wasted far too much time on this, just like we wasted time on the messaging during the first cycle. If we're not going to lynch me, then we'd have to start arguing over who else is suspicious and we just don't have the time for that. I don't think we'd get that lucky again. Just use this Cycle to find the Skybreakers. At this point, I've given all the more information to them as I'm willing to give in thread. At this point, all I can only hope for some justice.

If I were the Skybreakers, I probably wouldn't have used it either honestly. It'd just help us narrow down suspects unless they hit the Windrunners or the Truthwatcher. In a regular game, sure, not using their double kill would be suicidal, but I think they're hunting. The more of us there are alive, the better chance they have that we'll lynch one of our own, especially since they let Jeno just die without defending him. They're probably looking for something to help them identify the Windrunners instead of just trying to kill us all. At least that's the way I'd do it and since Gamma told people not to send him messages and I said that I hadn't received any, even I figured that I'd at least get one or two messages this last cycle. Seems they figured the same.

I believe that I should've received a message basically because I was told so. I think our Windrunners are likely using some form of code and they got their signals crossed, because I was recruited by one Windrunner and hit by a Full Lashing from the other (it could have been the same one, but then those two actions don't make much sense). One of the other people that was recruited said that they sent me a message last cycle and I didn't receive it. So yeah, pretty sure I was supposed to have gotten one. By all means, go ahead and kill me, if it suits you. I'm probably dead for admitting to this anyway. Just remember, the Skybreakers only have to kill 3 people, not all of us, so my best guess is that they're searching for a way to find those three most likely.

It's more likely they used Reverse Lashing, Aladdin, as I have good reason to suspect that I didn't receive a message that I should have. My 2 best guesses is that they're trying to disrupt our communication or find the Windrunners that way. While I understand why you'd go that route, it's not the only reason that a possible kill was missing and not even the most likely, IMO. Honestly, I'm a bit more suspicious of you at this point. I put in a vote for you yesterday and you didn't even bat an eyelash. In fact, you practically ignored it! That plus you jumping to conclusions makes me think this is some sort of set up to get me lynched.

Okay, so I've looked over the thread one last time and I think my vote is going to have to go to Aladdin. He's been on often enough and seems like he's helping, but if you look back through, none of it really helps us much. He's mainly focused on the scratch marks and Highstorms than anything else. Besides, while I still think Quismet was a little too fast with that response, I'd feel bad if she dies during the first turn two games in a row! Giving her another turn might help see whether that's the right call. ------------------ Metam was preaching nearby when Wurum had some of his men throw Aladdin out of his office. The boy still carried that silly-looking lamp. Obviously, it was a symbol to some pagan god/s. Plus, this child also claimed to have been spoken to by the Stormfather! That urchin? The Stormfather would have never wasted his time with one like that when he could be having a fine, articulate conversation with someone like Metam. Well, articulate if you liked talking about Desolations and repenting. As the boy dusted himself off, Metam rounded on him, bringing with him the full righteousness of his calling. "YOUR PAGAN GODS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SAVE YOU FROM THE DESOLATION, CHILD! THROW AWAY THEIR SINFUL WAYS AND SEEK THE HERALDS! ONLY THEN WILL YOU FIND SALVATION!" He punctuated his rant with a swing of his sign to get the boy moving on his way. With a little luck, Aladdin would be at the Temple before dinner.

I'm on my phone, so please excuse any typos. You have it about right, Twlv. With so many tricks that have been pulled with lurking (like what Fain and I did last game), we need to try to stop any tricks like that as early as possible. While it might be someone using it for the good faction, it could just as easily be the evil faction using it for their own gains. The other factor is the information. As you said, in quicker games, we need all the information we can get and those inactives aren't providing any. At least, if we lynch them, we get SOME information out of them, but the bigger bit is just too get them talking. An empty threat doesn't work though. You need to actually put some pressure on them. It's a trade-off. If we lynch someone that's actively helping, we discourage people to be as active, but we stand a better chance at hitting an active skybreaker. But if we're wrong, then we've lost someone that could've been incredibly useful. If we lynch an inactive, we get less information and we're less likely to hit a more useful skybreaker, but we have more time to figure out who is lying to us. So the moral of this whole bit (and I hope it's coherent. I don't like trying to do complex thoughts on my phone) is STAY ACTIVE! I feel like a broken record, but if we're ever going to win a QF or a MR, we need everyone to help out as much as possible!

Wow, well said, Serji and all that is hard to argue with right now. It could be an elaborate, well-thought-out gambit, but I don't think so. That leaves Quismet that I'd like to hear from. Also, Twlv? I see you constantly checking in, but you haven't said much of anything yet. If we're going to find the Skybreakers, we need all the information we can get, so speak up, cause your lurking bit is making me suspicious.

I think we're focusing too much on the messages and the messaging system. We have Serji's system in place for those that want to use it (While I might use the first part, I don't think I'll use the second. Seems like a lot of work for little gain. If you have a rapport built up enough with someone to be able to notice this code, then if they don't message you during a Cycle, there's a good chance the message was stolen anyways), so we need to move on from that. I was hoping to get Lyce to come in and start talking with my early vote, but since it's been awhile now and no response, she's either lurking or really hasn't checked on. My two main suspects based on everything at this point are Serji and Quismet. Quismet was pretty quick about getting back to Wyrm once a vote was thrown her way and while the coding for the messages does appear helpful, as Mallaw pointed out, this would've been a better topic for Day 1. It could be that the reason he waited to reveal it now was specifically to get us off topic or he might've had help planning it in a Doc... My vote will probably go to one of them unless something else comes up or they can defend themselves adequately.

Metam had come across a bottle of liquor that was evidently left out in the storm the other night, as the good folk of the city ran for shelter. As such, his sign swinging was more crazy than normal. With every swing, he stumbled to the side as well. "THE STORMPERSON HAS SPOKEN TO ME! THE END DRAW CLOSE! DO THAT THING WITH THE SAVING YOUR SOUL THINGY!" He might be drunk, but he still had people to save and save him he would. As he continued his rant, Lyce just happened to stroll past a little too close and got clocked by Metam's sign. Metam stopped his swinging to see who he had hit. "YOU!" He said, pointing at the double image of Lyce. "HAVE YOU RE... REPENTEDED? HAVE YOU FOUND SOUL-LACE IN THE HERALDS? THE FINAL DESOLATION COMES! YOU MUST PREPARE!" ------- Looks like I'm not all that popular either, just to let us know where we stand. I kind of like this idea of revealing messages (or at least who received what) afterwards. By that point, there's nothing that the Skybreakers can do about it, so it's additional information we can use to hunt them down. We won't want to reveal names and there's still the chance that the Skybreakers will try to use it as well, but this seems to be an effective way to use the messaging. We need to get past our idea of trying to do everything behind the scenes. A single message just isn't enough. We need to focus on discussing in thread or we're already dead.

As I said in our PMs, I'll say it here now, you were exactly where we needed you to be, Kas. If the Skaa had hit any of the targets we had you on and you weren't on them, we'd be in a world of hurt. Just because the Skaa didn't hit those targets (shame on you guys! Look what you did to Kas! ) doesn't mean that you weren't helpful. I keep repeating myself, as I know I've said this before, but it's not the role that makes you or anyone else special. It's all about how you use the abilities given to you. It doesn't matter if you have a role or not; you can still be a force to be reckoned with. I need no better example that Aonar and his Doc. By the time I contacted him, he had 80% of the game figured out and I had the benefit of having information from multiple Houses to help me out! Just because you didn't save anyone doesn't make you a bad Lurcher. Just because you kill a lot of Villagers doesn't make you a bad Coinshot. Just because you... well, you get the idea. It's all about the situation and if you were where you needed to be for the situation, then you're a good [insert position here] in my book!

I wish I could grab all my PMs... Kas was always set to Alden, Fien (sorry. habit throughout the game. I came to recognize the players by their characters) for this last night. Your paranoia made us suspect you up to the end. I had Fain on me this last night. Kas was supposed to be on Alden so to make sure we got both of our Genealogy results. :/ Paranoia is a good thing, but when you withhold information (I had to literally drag your House Power out of you), just because.... well, it makes you suspicious. Next we'll find you living in a tinfoil house and telling people to get off your lawn!

Just goes to show, Aonar, if you want to survive, you need to defend more Skaa!

I've been trying to come up with a way to use the Messages to help identify the Skybreakers too, but the problem is that we only get one message per cycle. As such, you can only really have a rapport with one other person. If you try to do more than that, you're effectively behind by too many cycles. The Truthwatcher will likely be contacting people to let them know that they've been scanned and who they are, that way, if they find a Skybreaker, they can subtly make an accusation in thread or something and get them lynched. The Windrunners and Skybreakers will probably be using it for communication, though I suspect that they'll try to keep any sensitive information out of it. Wouldn't want to give away anything if it does get stolen. The best I could come up with for how to use the messaging system to our advantage would be for everyone to send their messages all to one person. That way, that person would know who sent them a message and who didn't, but that would be risky, since the Skybreakers can use that information to know who to Reverse Lash and that defeats the purpose of the Windrunners being able to communicate with it. Plus the Truthwatcher couldn't get into contact with people. And finally, how would we even decide on who? We could just as easily pick a Skybreaker to send everything to. I think our best bet is to use them as a limited PM system. We'll have multiple mini alliances going on in the background and that should allow us to feel out at least one person each. Plus, if a message is stolen, we'll know about it since the messages should just be going back and forth. If you don't have an ability, then communication is your only resource. We probably should've started discussing plans long ago. The better equipped we are going into the next Cycle, then better.

I might get a chance later to write up some ending RP, but I wanted to get in early saying Congrats to everyone and to a well played game by our Skaa! Maill, you're entirely right about the inactivity hurting you guys. You were at a handicap from the very beginning and I think you guys did a great job considering! Wyrm, as I've probably told you before, don't be too hard on yourself. Personally, as an evil GM, I would've made it so that there was an uneven number of roles like that on purpose; specifically to mess with the people thinking it would be symmetric! Also, I think the beginning of the game is always chaotic, so no worries there! It was a great game! Although, if you were going to fix something, you probably shouldn't have given me Tin.

Metam looked around the room. Evidently, many people were still processing the idea of a Desolation coming. It was either that or they were ignoring him, which was ludicrous. He was right after all! Fools, the lot of them. If they had listened to him sooner, they would already know a Desolation was coming! What did they think "Nigh" meant? Decades from now? A Herald had been seen. The Stormfather talked to him. He knew what he had to do. Metam stood straight and tall and hefted his sign. The rain outside hadn't stopped, but that was of little matter. There were people out there that weren't aware of the dangers to come and he would make sure they heard, make sure they weren't caught off guard, like this lot. With determination in every step and conviction in his eyes, Metam shouldered his way out of the tavern and out into the downpour to spread the word. The end wasn't nigh, it was here and they all needed to prepare for it. "RUN! RUN AWAY! THE END IS HERE AND WE'RE ALL DOOMED! REPENT AND BE SAVED! AT LEAST REPENT A LITTLE AND GIVE ME AN OVERHANG TO STAND UNDER! THIS WATER IS FREEZING!"

Ashette, Alden, would you do the honors of finishing this game for us by taking out Mailu? Alden can use Improved Weaponry on Ashette and then the Coinshot attack would be lethal. As far as I'm aware, that's the only way we have available right now.

Ashette: Mailu is my most likely suspect for the final Skaa. Asyr was supposed to hit him last night and you were supposed to hit Hyrun. Well, Hyrun was hit and died; I'm assuming that's because you did what you said you were going to, Ashette. When I found out that Fain was hit, that meant that Asyr didn't follow through with what he said he was going to do. The fact that Mailu came into the thread to "confirm" the hit helped convince me. It was either that or Gamma or Kaldin had lied about what metals they had and they attacked Fain. Beyond that, Gamma was one of the first to vote for Racine and he never switched his vote or really tried to argue for her. So, while he's been paranoid as all getup this game, I don't think he's Skaa. Cat relinquished her House Lord status to Hadrian. Considering their House Power is Genealogy, that would've been a bad move for the Skaa, as it gave us the power to scan her if we so wished, so I don't believe her to be Skaa. Alden argued in defense of Racine too hard IMO to be Skaa and that would mean that there was a Lesser House with two Skaa in it, so I don't believe him to be Skaa. That just leaves you and Mailu. Since you're both being scanned tonight, either way we'll have confirmation of who the last Skaa is. This idea of a leak in the Chain is ridiculous at this point since it would mean that Kas, Hadrian, or myself would have to have helped find and kill two Skaa just to maintain our cover. Not bad within itself, but not worthwhile this late in the game. If that were the case, then we'd be pretty bad at being Skaa, since we didn't use our position to either help protect the other Skaa or use the information to kill off the more important roles. One Skaa, even hidden as well as they would be within the Chain wouldn't be able to kill us all. If they were going to make their move, they would have by now. Kal: I'll be honest with you, if everyone had gone for the idea of killing off your House, I had possible plans to see if Fain and I could come out on top, but my plan with the deal was multi-layered. If everyone didn't go for it, but at least didn't give Mailu a reason to doubt us, then everyone survives (especially those within the Chain who worked hard to make this win possible). If everyone went for it, but only until one of your House died, then the Houses that formed the Alliance of the Chain would be the ones to come out on top. If everyone was willing to actually raze your House to the ground, then I had plans to form an alliance with the final members of the Lesser Houses to kill off all the Great Houses. If I had presented it differently, those plans wouldn't have been possible. Also, it looks like I owe you and apology and as I said I would, I'm sorry for doubting you. Hopefully you can see why I did doubt you though, based on all the information I had and the assumptions I had made. I'm glad we didn't accidentally kill you now. Mailu: Well played and I 100% congratulate you guys on entirely confusing me there at the end. I'd love to know what drove you guys to hit both Fain and Kas on the same night, as that really threw me for a loop!

Okay, this is just crazy. Hadrian, you said that you were good with the idea when I ran it by you before! Now even you're turning on me! And since we're all just revealing stuff in thread now, even though it's night, I'm going to go ahead and just post my argument/rant from last night. For the love of Pete you guys, fine. The main idea of the plan was to keep everyone safe and alive. If Mailu were to hit Kaldin as planned, then he survives due to Atium. That's why I didn't give out his role and just made it a suggestion. We have two scanners for the night and they're on Ashette and Mailu, so the only people that aren't scanned is you two (I'm leave Kas, myself, and Hadrian out of it since we've been the ones actually working together the entire time and finding the Skaa) and Alden (leaving Alden out as that would mean that there was a Lesser House made entirely of Skaa). So unless you're saying one of you two are Skaa, we'll have our confirmation. Both our impromptu scanner and Hadrian are protected, so the Skaa can't kill them even if they hit them. On the other hand, the Skaa could easily hit Kas or Fain and take one of them out, since they're both injured. Now as far as leaked information goes, I still think that Kaldin and Co. did indeed leak the information. How else do you account for the Skaa hitting both Lurchers in the same night? Cat, why would Asyr have to hit someone at all, based on your idea? And if he knew that Fain was lurking on purpose, why would he think that he wouldn't come forward? If he didn't know that Fain was lurking on purpose, then why waste his shot on someone that it wouldn't matter if he was hit or not when he could have doubled up on someone? That's why it's too accurate. They couldn't know if Kas was protected, but they knew that if they wanted a chance, they needed to get rid of our ability to protect ourselves and with us closing in on them, they couldn't afford the time it would take to double up. You're looking at the effects of their attacks in hindsight. This is why I'm fairly certain that the information had to be leaked and the most likely suspect for that is Kaldin, since everyone else already knew about this well ahead of time and this is not information you just sit on since, even if it does implicate you, it gives the rest of your team the knowledge they needed to know to be able to cripple us. So yes, I feel fairly confident that the information was leaked. Kaldin's denial of it makes me think that he was working with Asyr the entire time and thus deserves to be taken down a peg. Not enough to be actually killed, but enough to make a point about what it means to actually go against your own team (No offense, Kal. Heck, I asked Fain right off the bat if he was Skaa too! ), though I would've been willing to go with the actual razing to the ground bit as well. So why am I spilling the beans now rather than waiting till the end of the night? Because it doesn't matter. Since you guys are giving the Skaa a reason to not go for the deal in the first place by making it less certain that we'd even honor such a deal, let the chips fall where they may. If both Ashette and Mailu turn out to be Nobles then either Cat or Gamma are Skaa so we'll have a 50/50 chance of killing the last Skaa in the lynch tomorrow at the very least. So for Mailu, here are your best targets if you want to get in one final kill, unless someone has been lying about where their protection is going: Kas, Fain, Cat, Ashette, Jae. If you hit anyone else, the best you'll do is injure them.

I had a huge, long post written up about how horribly off you guys are, but since it had sensitive information in it, I'm refraining. I left a copy of it in my House Doc though, so you guys can read it after the game ends. Also, if I am wrong about you Kaldin, I will apologize after the game, but I don't think I'll have to (besides, you think I haven't thought about me being a huge target as Spook? I already gave Kas and Genie a code for figuring out targets and confirming results in case I were to die! We did that fairly early! ).

Okay, cards on the table time. I'm Kassel's Spook and after last night's activities, I have a bone to pick with some people. See, last night the Skaa were far too accurate and Asyr coinshot a lurker for apparently no reason... except there was reason. See, Fain and I are in the same House and he saved me from being hit the first night by Asyr. He also saved Kassel from death last night. He's been lurking on my suggestion, since I assumed that the Skaa wouldn't go after a lurker when they had more important targets they'd need to hit. Up until last night, I was right. Why am I laying this out? Because the last person I had contacted before last night was Kaldin, who is in the same House as Asyr. Genie had scanned him as a Noble, so I gave him the full extent of what we had learned and including Fain's hiding trick. I asked him not to reveal what he had learned to his House until after we had confirmation on Asyr's alliance. He says that he hadn't revealed it to his House, but then, the next night, the Skaa happen to be incredibly accurate in their shots. I don't buy it. I think that the reason their House was never hit was because they made a deal with the Skaa to try to go for the House Win. As before, with Tonul, if we're going for the Noble win, betraying us like that is a cruel move, IMO. If the Skaa had figured out who we all were and all that on their own, I'd applaud them and there'd be nothing to it. But for them to just be handed the information by one of our own is just... grrr. So, I and almost everyone I've contacted, have a deal for the final Skaa. We're scanning you tonight, so we will have confirmation of you by the next day turn and there's no way you'll be able to kill us all off or survive the vote if we all go that route. If you help us raze House Tuy to the ground, we won't kill you until afterwards. If anyone else other than House Tuy gets hit, then we just straight up lynch you and be done with it. But if you go after House Tuy (I suggest Kaldin, as he's the biggest threat), you'll at least get to destroy another Great House. Who you attack tonight determines your fate, so anyone looking for a target for the night, we suggest House Tuy. Also, yes, I've already been told I'm horribly vindictive, why do you ask?

That was awesome Asyr; well played. I just have one question for you: why hit Fain of all people?

Mesist had heard the rumors that he was supposed to be a Coinshot, so when he arrived at the Lady Ashette's Keep, he was carrying a sack of clips and every now and then, he would fling on at someone. Of course, after Fien's scare with Cadri, he became a favored target for Mesist. It was his not-so-subtle way of pointing out how ridiculous the idea was and he made sure that anyone that even might have believed it wound up getting hit with a clip right between their eyes. It didn't take long before the accusations started flying again, but there seemed to be a reserve to the surviving members of the Nobility. They seemed to be waiting on something and when Kassel finally stepped forward and proclaimed that Lord Tuy was Skaa, it seemed that was it. Mesist wasn't surprised by the declaration. After House Seeris had fallen the other day, he had a new level of respect for these Skaa. They might not be able to overthrow the Lord Ruler, but they had got them to destroy an entire House! Of course they would be good enough to be able to pull off being a HouseLord. "Alright," he said with a toss of a clip in Asyr's direction. "You got anything to say for yourself there, Asyr? It'd be mighty helpful of you if you'd like to tell us where the rest of your crew is. No? Oh well, it was worth a shot." The thing that did startle Mesist was how cold the rest of the Nobility were being about it. No sooner had they condemned Asyr to death and they were already attacking each other, looking for whatever reason they could to kill another one of their number. This group is starting to consider this normal, he thought with a shake of his head. Lord Ruler, let us finish this mad hunt soon!