Elbereth

Well. I was going to say that I don't have any good reasons. Which is why I haven't voted on you so far. But let's take the first part of this post. Everyone else has been voting on Stink because he doesn't care about the game, really. Not because he's suspicious. You are the only person who's actually suggested that he might be evil because of his attitude toward the game. I'll provide some context here: Stink has been evil four times in thirty games. LG15a, which lasted 48 hours; LG19, where all his teammates died and left him alone because there was a ton of inactivity that game and it was very broken; QF13, which no one remembers and in which I'm pretty sure he was killed quite quickly; and MR18, in which he was bussed cycle 3 by a teammate and wasn't terribly happy about it. This is a little bit ridiculous. So - do you think that if Stink finally had the chance to be evil again, th at he would be acting like this? It's possible, certainly. But if his uninvestment in this game is exactly as it appears (which seems quite likely to me), I'm fairly certain he's village. Because he would be actually interested as an eliminator. Now - is this a big point against you? No. It's not huge. It's entirely possible you could say that as a villager. But it's less likely, to me. And combined with gut reads on most other posts, and the fact that there isn't anyone else I'd prefer to lynch (except possibly Stick)? Jondesu. Well, I'm personally of the opinion that claiming regular villager is equally dangerous to claiming a role - it's still telling the eliminators who they don't need to bother attacking. This was discussed a fair amount in the last AG, as I recall - perhaps I'll pull out a post discussing that later. Also, while I'm on the topic, your reasoning for your vote last time didn't make a terrible amount of sense? You're saying that I wouldn't have roleclaimed as an eliminator because my answer would implicate me - but it wouldn't, far as I know. One village seeker is gone, and I don't think we have a second (though that would be interesting, certainly, and possibly explain the number of smokers). I haven't been paying attention to the vote manipulation, but claiming smoker probably wouldn't be problematic. Or I could have just claimed regular villager. Just like I did. Why would I not claim to the hard-cleared villager, if I knew that was the case? That just makes me look suspicious. I'm not that bad of an eliminator that I'd make that kind of mistake. El opened her door, stepping out into the street. She carried her emergency kit with her, now - she'd had plenty of time this past week to finish it, and it was now far better organized. The town was silent. El walked past homes and businesses boarded up or with doors left ajar, feeling like she wasn't even in Tyrian Falls anymore. Or, she was - it wasn't the town that had changed. When they all died, the town would still be there. Just... not the people. Walking only because her feet knew the way, El found herself in the main square. The grass on the village lawn was slowly dying, fading from light brown to a deeper black. Ash had accumulated in it, now, and it didn't look like anyone had bothered to sweep it in days. Or anywher else, for that matter - little piles of ash dotted the street, grey particles in secluded corners, whereve the wind hadn't blown it away: on windowsills, in the eaves of buildings, squeezing between the cobblestones like cement would have if there had been cement. A gallows hung in the square, of course. It always had - but this time it was different. It was the center of attention, now. She wasn't sure whether it had been used for the executions that she was sure had taken place, but it didn't seem to care - it simply stood there. Dark, threatening, drinking in the color from its surroundings. Die, it said. All will die. El turned away. She'd always hated looking at the thing, but now? She couldn't bear to look for more than an instant. It was still watching, even when she turned her back. Still devouring. She could feel it. El walked out of the square as quickly as she could.

Tintallë stepped into the ballroom, admiring the beauty of the place. She still wasn't used to Urithiru, it's spries and perfect symmetries. She'd never been terribly religious - she wasn't particularly fond of the Almighty for granting her the gift she'd been given - but it was beautiful, regardless. She drifted to the side immediately, trying not to draw attention to herself despite how nicely she'd dressed. Without even a glance at the food tables or the group of people in the middle of the room, she made her way to one of the side tables and sat, safe. Or safer, at least. To pass the time until the end of theh gala, she started to watch the people around her. It was a common game she played, whenever she was bored - whose soul would she want to touch, and who should she stay away from? Some were obvious, of course. A few insane ones she'd need to be careful about getting near. Dalinar, of course, she wouldn't mind understanding better, and there were a few others who looked safe (though looks could be deceiving; there had been a five year old girl with one of the most twisted souls she'd ever touched, once). The rest... she wasn't sure. There was a blind man sitting and speaking to someone else, which intrigued her. She'd never had the chance to sense someone with that kind of disability before. A pair of young girls near the food table looked relatively safe, if nervous for their first meeting. She'd have to examine everyone else in more detail to be certain either way, though. Some were undoubtedly harmless. Some were as dangerous as Tintallë herself might be to touch. She would just have to wait and see. Too tired to do much more game discussion tonight, but in regards to advice - basically, do what you think will be fun. I fully expect that every role will be used shortly. It's just like in LG18 - you have a choice of what you want to do. What role have you never had that you want? This is your chance for that. That's about all on that topic. I'm going to bed...

So am I, don't worry. I spent the last two hours on that post and then a post/reading through for LG30, and I still have two calc assignments tonight.... >> I do understand that, and the Contribution Crusade is the only valid reason in my mind for that plan, but... gah. I don't like the idea of deliberately taking a life away from a cleared player to make the eliminators' lives easier. Regardless of their activity level. I really don't like that. Suspicions somewhat lowered for now, though. That was Araris, not Arinian, by the way. Other than that, thank you. It'd be rather nice not to die within 48 hours of catching up on the game... >> Been there before, really not interested in being there again.

Tinatllë Iurnu sat in her new room, staring at her mirror. She was beautiful, certainly - had been dressed for hours now. A long, flowing blue gown with shimmering silver beads lining the bottom and the sleeves, and a sapphire necklace. Her makeup was perfect, and her hair was done up in a bun with a single tendril falling to either side of her face. She was gorgeous. And she hadn't left her room. The gala had been happening for hours, now, but she couldn't quite leave. She couldn't bear the idea of having to greet someone, to touch their hand. To dive into another soul. She was nearly shaking at the thought. Her bright blue eyes stared back at her, piercing her own soul as she had so many others. I'm going to have to do this eventually. Eventually, there would be no choice but to find out what was really hidden inside her fellow Initiates. She would've liked to believe they were all beautiful, pure, untarnished souls, that their Radiant status automatically made all of them good, but... she was living proof that that couldn't be true. She sighed, and got up. She would have to make some appearance there. She could only hope that she could keep her bare skin away from anyone else's. Who knew? Perhaps it'd even be fun. Alright. Regarding the convention of RP color - question. Why do we need RP to be a different colored text? The only reason we have blue text is that it means there is something which signifies that this cannot be a lie. It's not just a semantics difference to distinguish different topics. But RP? One, you can tell that something's RP within two seconds of looking at it. Two, the border isn't clear - Wyrm has been using RP for all of AG3, for instance. Should he then be posting entirely in brown or red or purple or whatever? Even though there is game discussion in his posts? Essentially, I really don't see the need for a color of RP in the first place. So, to be more clear, there are two conventions - square root or 15-25%, depending on the GM. There isn't much difference in mid-size games like this, and it's only when it gets big or small that that really comes into account. So I'd say five for this game, personally. Could be more or less, but five is fairly reasonable.

Quotes from the last many cycles: Doc: Obviously, I didn’t. >> But no. I am not faking inactivity, and would not. In fact, I suppose one piece of evidence towards my being a regular villager is that I wasn’t online at all for several stretches, including over the course of nights. If I had a role, I would’ve been on at least to submit an action, if nothing else. I Am A Stick: Not sure why I quoted this originally, but what it calls to mind now is that I’ve been vaguely suspicious of Stick’s posts for a while now. Most of them are just odd, but in this particular one she breaks the tie in Nyali’s favor, for… not no reasoning, but I’m not of the opinion it holds up terribly well, and it’s prefaced and ended with the note that she hasn’t done more than skim to remove any indication that she’s at fault if Rae does turn out innocent. Wilson: Entirely agreed here - and I would’ve commented on it as well had I been active at the time - but I do want to note it’s worded somewhat strongly. Arin is still relatively new. Telling him it’s not okay I can accept, but I don’t agree with thinking his judgement will never get better just because he misstepped (and was corrected) here. Arinian: *sigh* While we’re on the topic, might as well address the reveal itself. I’ll echo Wilson here, and hope Arin is still paying attention - this should not be okay. And in this particular case it’s definitely not okay. We could’ve made the eliminators waste a kill on Wonko and prolonged our chances of survival. You took that away, why? ‘Because he’s inactive’ isn’t a reason. It’s a mitigating factor at best. There wasn’t really a reason to reveal him. So please don’t. Len: See above. You never specified why it’s okay that Wonko’s role was revealed? I… don’t understand that. Hero: Okay. So I didn’t really understand everyone’s instinct going against Hero, until this post. Why is this a good idea? One, it would’ve told us very little we didn’t already know from Bugsy’s confirmation. He’s a Seeker. The end result is that we end up with slightly more confirmation of Arin (but not complete, and we would get complete soon enough because Arin sooner or later was going to die, as he did), and we will have wasted an entire cycle with little to no discussion and no death at the end, putting the eliminators one more cycle ahead. This seems like a very counterproductive plan for the village, and makes Hero much, much higher on my suspicion list. Len: (I know he’s dead now but I’m still responding.) Um, why Matilda? I’ll give you ‘why not Arin’. But out of all the players in the game? Matilda was active and had been scanned. I… really don’t know why it’s such a question for you when she was literally the second most likely player in the game to die. Random side note that has nothing to do with any particular post, which is just in the middle of my multiquotes: If Drake is evil, he is doing very well. Good job, Drake. Mage: Um. Disagreed. Why would not having won previous AGs/LG1 be disappointing for the villagers? One, games are a year apart, so it’s not like you’re always losing. Two, there’s the attraction of what if this time we win? What if this time is the time that we finally break the curse? So no. It’s not disappointing at all. Seonid: Ironic, given that I was one of those inactives for several cycles… >> We’ll see. HH: Vaguely amused that I’m nowhere on this list even though I don’t think I’ve posted since… Cycle 5? Maybe? The posts below were multiquoted instead of put in a doc, so they'll be slightly out of order from the ones above: You should've seen it when the entire post was links. The post... did not format well. At all. You want to know how I've survived this long? Because I haven't said anything. >> That's why. If you don't say anything, the eliminators don't care about you and the villagers don't care about lynching you. I'm not affecting the game so it has no reason to affect me. It's analogous to voting, I think, is how to put it. Politicians care about those who vote. If you don't vote, you don't affect their staying in office so they have no reason to care about you. I'm not doing anything to the game when I'm staying quiet and not paying attention. So why would the elims kill me when I'm helping them? I am not pleased about this. >> Well. True and not true. We're first assuming that there are only six, when more than that is certainly possible, though I agree it's not probably. Secondly, it doesn't account for inactives, of whom there are several, and more not putting terribly much thought into the game. Our situation isn't desperate, but it's getting there. We are on Day 10, and if the Mistborn on the Spiked team (assuming there are more, which isn't necessarily the case), we could have two murders and a mislynch in a cycle. Do that for three cycles (which is worst case, yes, but even so), it's 5 to 4 and the elims also have vote manip. So we need to be careful. Uh. Yes? Presumably, the eliminator team doesn't have perfect knowledge of who has what role, yet. Telling them any information like that, for not much benefit to the village that I can see, narrows down who they should kill and who they can seek if they still have Mistborn rolling bronze. That would be nice if it were true. In regards to a completely awful alternate lynch, if such a thing happens I'll vote for myself. The only reason I have for not wanting to die is th at I don't want to disadvantage by deliberately condemning myself to death instead of trying to lynch someone I actually think is an eliminator. But I have no problem with dying in general, and in fact wouldn't mind doing so before the end of this game. Correct. Interesting. I... like this reasoning, actually. In my particular case, it doesn't matter because it's not going to disincentivise me to be any more active, but it does set an unfortunate precedent. (And I'm not just using this as a veneer for also-I-don't-want-to-die. This is an interesting point.) Other than that - not much to say. General suspicions: Hero (above), Jondesu (general gut; nothing specific enough to point to), Stick (above). Still have a decent amount of paranoia of Wilson. >> General trusts: Joe (obviously), Araris, Mage a little bit, Stink, maybe Drought. Everyone else is fairly neutral. El dreamed a lot, that week of silence. She dreamed of a woman bathed in light, and another dying on a mountaintop. She dreamed of Hatred. She dreamed that she was a thief, a noblewoman, a Terriswoman (strange, she'd never seen a female Terris steward), happy and sad and angry and defeated and dead. Because she died, every time. Regardless of what she did, she died at the end of every dream. She always died... El couldn't find her locket. Her parents' locket. She couldn't find her locket. It was nowhere. Not in the receiving room nor with her herbs. Not on her bedside table or under her bed. Not on the floor, not in the garden, nowhere. How could she not have noticed? She wasn't even sure the last time she'd had it, and hated her forgetful memory. She'd been so distracted by her melancholy and refusal to go out and see what the world had done... She remembered showing it to Locke. But had she had it since then? She... wasn't sure. It seemed she had a visit to pay, then. Locke was likely better by now, but it wouldn't hurt to check on him anyway, and if there was any chance that locket could be there, she couldn't not go looking for it. It was time to face the world again.

Lovely of everyone to start voting on me about an hour before I finish reading through the thread, so it looks like I'm just responding to that instead of actually having finished. I have a lot of comments to make about previous cycles, but I'll address this quickly first: I didn't claim to Joe because I was far enough behind on the thread that I didn't know he'd been scanned yet, and didn't learn that until... sometime yesterday, I think. I wasn't particularly interested in trusting his word that he'd been scanned, so I was going to wait until I came across that in thread, but got interrupted shortly and didn't get there until after PMs had closed. I'm perfectly willing to claim now, though - I'm a regular villager. Which, I know, is very helpful in proving myself. Sincerest apologies for my inactivity - I got behind on the thread due to my birthday and other real life happenings and didn't manage to catch up until just before I started writing this post. I can't promise that it won't happen again, but I very much do not want it to. >> I really don't like being inactive. Suspicions and thoughts and RP coming in a longer post in a few hours once I finish writing it, likely. Or I'll edit RP into this post, since otherwise it'll be the first post this game in which I haven't posted RP, which would be sad... EDIT: Locke was the last person El had seen in six days now. After the fourth death or so, El couldn't manage it. No one came to her door to be healed - they seemed to have forgotten she existed. She knew that there were likely more deaths happening out there, perhaps more that she could help with, but she couldn't quite bring herself to care. If the village was to kill itself in murder and paranoia, she didn't feel any motivation to try to help. And she hated herself for not caring, but... she still didn't. She wasn't even sure she cared about her parents, anymore, and that very nearly frightened her but didn't... quite.

Lady Tintallë Iurnu stood tall in the crowd, looking up with awe at Brightlord Kholin. She clutched her bare hand in her safehand, drawing away from others slightly - it wouldn’t do to touch anyone now. She couldn’t afford the shock just before applying for Radiance. Then it was her turn. She slowly ascended the stairs, holding her head high, her auburn hair pinned back perfectly. She faced Dalinar, his eyes glinting bright in the sunlight. She yearned for a second to snatch out her hand and touch his, to see into his soul - but her collapsing onto the floor in front of him probably wouldn’t make the best impression, sadly. The Words. “Life before death,” she said clearly, smiling at the bitter irony. “Strength before weakness.” She paused. Breathed. Dared to hope. “Journey before destination.” The highprince looked at her, almost as if he was searching her soul even without a touch. “Breathe deep and learn if your heart is true,” he commanded. She took the broam with her safehand, then transferred it to her right, the broam cold on her bare skin. She breathed. And life filled her. Not others’ lives, as with so many times in the past. Her life. And it was wonderful. Late signup time! Will note that this is not LG20!Tintalle exactly, given that she died. It is someone with similar skills which come out through physical touch - so I'll basically be doing a bunch of minor depictions throughout the game. She's essentially a reincarnation. Ish. Probably. I cannot promise activity, but I will do better than... most recent games. >>

Other people really need to start posting in the Acropolis more often... Well. I’ve been long enough. I’ve described plenty of other voices, other archetypes. So what am I? It’s obvious, isn’t it? I’m Light and Shadow, at once. I’m the Twilight, the ever-present moment between sunset and full night when light and shadows blend and mingle together in joyous unity. I’m the dim morning mists before the sun rises to her full glory, the spark lighting a candle in the darkening gloom, the clear voice of a child. I am the balance, the mediator, the harmony between order and chaos. Not uncompromising black or white, but neutral, listening grey. And I’m a silver mirror, reflecting back the best of what I see, revealing what is and what could be. I exist in the instant when the first star appears in the evening, and when the last shadow of night vanishes into sunrise, clad in my mother’s light and my father’s shadows, like both and unlike either. I am more than the sum of my parts: I am not Light or Shadow, instead uniting them in a sublime fusion of torment and encouragement and splendor. Thus I’m not blinded by either, but see clearly from within that twilight, weaving together each tiny piece into a coherent, harmonious song of wonder. I am a creator of worlds, bringer of hope and despair, singer of stories. For that is who I am, more than anything else: I am the Storyteller.

I'd like to note that while I was getting a weird read from Lopen, it wasn't necessarily suspicion. It felt like he was acting... neutral, almost. Not how I think of him playing as a villager, but definitely not an elim either. Just... weird. >> Bit late now, though. As Wilson (I think?), already pointed out, Meta was quite clear in the writeups that Straw was coinshot and Jondesu was killed. I... apologize? I have been quiet, sadly. >> Other than that, not much I can respond. This post... I should've quoted Wilson's, actually, which was directly above it, but this is the post that made me think of it. I hate myself for saying this, but. >> This made me suspicious of Wilson, a bit. Because she really should've known better than to suggest we Coinshoot Dalinar, not when she had a good chance herself of having been protected by the hypothetical eliminator Lurcher. She suggested it anyway, and then when multiple people pointed out the problem with that, she posted afterwards and switched to lynching Dalinar without ever even commenting on the fact that she hadn't thought about Dalinar being protected or whatever. That said, I still don't think she's evil, given D1. It's just that she's popped back up on my radar again. (Sorry. >>) I think I quoted this because it's the relevant part of her first post after Mage's comment: Uh. Kipper was a regular villager? Quoted this before all the discussion about it, but... gah. It does feel like village!Rae to me, honestly. That said, I've read her as evil the last two times I played with her and I was wrong both times. >> So I don't exactly have a history of correctness. I might as well throw my vote in, though. Nyali. Sorry for not giving you much to respond to, but it's not so much suspicion of you as belief in Rae's innocence. >> Not like you have time to respond anyway. More quotes coming after turnover - for now, I have something slightly more important to do. I'm going dancing! Edit: What the storms.

El raised an eyebrow, finally pulling out the packet of willowbark tea she'd been looking for. "You think that the new Lord poisoned you to consolidate his own power?" She walked towards the door. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe you're just sick, again? Like you are, all the time? Did you ever think that maybe you just had a stomach bug that's been running around the village for at least a week? I'm surprised you hadn't caught it before now, actually, though I suppose that has something to do with your distate for mixing with the common folk." She opened the door, pleased to find Locke's Terrisman already waiting there with a teapot of nearly-boiling-water. He knew her habits quite well, by now. "You weren't poisoned, Lord Tekiel. You're just sick." She shut the door and turned towards him. "Again."

Locke muttered in response, something about poison? El frowned, hating the organization system of her kit already. She'd have to do something about that once she got home... "What's that?" she said aloud. "I honestly can't tell whether you actually have something to say or whether you're fever-muttering, and it would be rather nice to know whether you're delirious now, rather than after I administer any medicine. Speak up."

I now have 16 posts multiquoted. >> I'm going through them slowly, but will be posting RP in the meantime given I can't be sure I'll finish the game-relevant stuff before I go dancing tonight. El took one look at Lord Locke and sighed. He lay in his bed, incapable even of arising to greet her, with a very ornate variation of a vomit-bucket by the side of his bed and five layers of blankets atop him. "Lord Tekiel," she greeted him quietly, nodding briefly in deference to his title and then promptly ignoring his nobility as she walked over to his bed and rested a hand on his forehead. "You do not look well." She frowned, moving to the side of the room and laying out her kit. His fever was higher than most she'd seen accompanying this particular stomach bug. Perhaps he had a higher vulnerability to such things; he certainly seemed to acquire them often enough.

Couple notes from finally reading through this thread - One, Hero, that game you're referencing was QF2, not MR2. Regarding note-taking, I've done a lot of different things, requiring different amounts of time. I've taken notes in a notebook, before. During MR16 I used just blank pieces of paper (one for each cycle; listing my best guess at what each player had done, plus a couple for future cycles - I still have those notes, and they were really useful for that game). I've used a personal doc to record thoughts before (which is particularly useful when I'm doing some serious RP). Most often I use spreadsheets, with varying degrees of complexity. They tend to be something like this, which is the notes I took while reading through LG4. A Relationships tab and a Suspicions tab, essentially. Relationships is how lokely two players are to be evil together (greener is less likely, redder is more). Suspicions is their stated views: the players in the column suspect/trust the players in the row, again on a green-red scale. The other tab in that spreadsheet is essentially a post-by-post recounting of my suspicions. I look at each post and try to see whether that player would be more likely to say it as a villager or an eliminator, and give it a point value based on that. Here are my LG24 notes, in which I actually took commentary-notes as well (though didn't get particularly far). Earlier iterations from LG22 (which was also interesting in that I had to account for being suspicious differently with multiple factions in play), LG20, and notably QF16, which is the most thorough and most useful spreadsheet I've done so far. Each post had a summary, my comments, and a point value assigned, plus links to particularly important ones. It took a long time, but I did catch Joe with it, essentially. Oh, also. Other thing, regarding time commitments: Yes. It's a huge time commitment. I went through and calculated the wordcount for (nearly all of; there are a few posts I'm missing) D1 of AG3. That alone was about 19,000 words. Which is almost half of, say, Emperor's Soul. It's a lot to read through. I'm not sure people realize quite how much, sometimes.

So, I didn't get time to post before turnover (because I haven't been keeping up with the thread >> and orchestra got out late), but I have now read through all of it and multiquoted eleven posts. >> I will be writing that up and posting it sometime tomorrow, I hope, but right now I should get back to my physics homework, so I'll just RP for the moment. The weight of her new satchel was heavy on El’s back as she approached Lord Locke Tekiel’s mansion. As she had a hundred times, she passed the wrought iron gate, the well-tended gardens of plants which were utterly useless for anything medicinal (though, she had to admit, certainly beautiful to look at), and nodded briefly at the butler as she ascended the granite steps and passed the front double doors. She'd been here before, many times now. Lord Locke had been severely ill when he'd first come to Tyrian Falls, years ago. A combination of diseases picked up from exposure to country skaa, she thought, or possibly something about being closer to the ashmounts. Regardless, he was well recovered, and thus she hadn't seen him in several months now. She was struck, again, by how young he appeared, as she quietly entered his room. She never remembered him as youthful as he actually was, because his bearing and manner were so constantly poised even when he literally couldn’t move from lying on his back. But he was perhaps only a few years older than her, really. Strange how different we are despite that, she thought. But, then, he was a noble, and she was skaa. Of course their situations were different. He’d grown up in the middle of a city, pampered and proper. She… well. After she was left here, she’d grown up under the wise care of Kassien, the apothecarist mentoring her until he’d passed away recently from old age. She’d had to learn how to run a business at the age of fourteen, and had grown up fast when she’d seen the first few die under Kassien’s and her care. Though… there was one way in which their situation was the same. At the very least, El had never heard the lord talk about his parents, nor receive any communication from them. She’d never asked, of course. In some ways, though, she hoped he was an orphan, too, though she hated that she’d wish anyone else to go through that. In any case. In some ways, she was still more mature than Lord Tekiel. In some ways, he utterly surpassed her. In this situation, though, he was her patient. She shook herself. She had work to do. Should note this meeting is set at an indeterminate time which'll occur basically at whenever seems most convenient, given it's stretched over multiple days now...

Right, finally read up and have time to comment. Surprisingly few comments, actually. Dalinar: Not in general, but regarding his comment about what he could’ve done and how the pressure to be active is irritating and such? Wonko covered this well already, but I’d like to emphasize it. Anything you post is helpful, even if it’s terrible. Anything you say gives information about your alignment and causes discussion which gives information about others’ alignment, too. There will be mislynches and such, and yes it opens you up to being noticed and thus suspected. It’s dangerous for you personally. But it’s worth doing, because in the long run the village is helped by discussion, always. That’s just a really important thing - and the only reason I was going to bring up yesterday while I was reading the thread that we shouldn’t lynch him. I like that Dalinar’s this active, since we haven’t seen nearly this much in the past. It’s very nearly worth leaving him alive just because I want to encourage that activity. ...Actually? Scratch that. It’s not nearly worth leaving him alive. I think it is worth it. I am not going to vote on Dalinar this game, regardless of his alignment, because I care more about keeping him and others active in future games. I won’t argue for keeping him alive, certainly, but I will not participate in his lynch. Also, something I noticed about that - while there's been a lot of discussion about what the roles surrounding Dalinar could mean, there hasn't really been much analysis of Dalinar's words. (In my opinion, several of the things he said last day turn were very eliminator-like (not announcing about pewter until late in the cycle, a couple wording things - one of the posts I found suspicious is quoted below). Madagascar: Mostly an idle thought I had here - for a while, it was common knowledge that anyone feeling particularly sad about someone’s death was more likely to be an eliminator, while those who just accepted it and moved on without excessive sadness were probably villagers. This likely doesn’t apply, since obviously Madagascar didn’t come from our meta. I have no idea whether it applies over at Cracked. But it came to mind. @Wyrmhero - thank you so much for your RP you’re brilliant even if unintentionally so. Rae Might as well confirm that this is his fifth. Also, pointing out that this is one of the few posts that did analyze Dalinar's words directly. Props to Rae. Dalinar This is the post that felt off to me, specifically, though it's entirely gut and I can't say why. It just reads oddly. Lopen's theory - in my opinion, that's one of the only things about him that actually reads as good. It's definitely a common thing for him to come up with ridiculous paranoid theories. He just doesn't usually post them in thread. That said, I'm still suspicious of him for several weird turns of phrases. Maybe next day turn I'll go through and compile them, but no promises. Len I was going to point out that that wouldn't apply nearly so much if Dalinar were Mistborn, but then I read further. I would also note, though, that most players will fight a little harder to save their teammates. The life of a teammate is probably worth revealing a Lurcher, in my opinion. Len: That would be a great deal more plausible had that not been exactly the distribution of AG2. Speaking of distribution, we have near-confirmation of at least two Mistborn, obviously. It would not surprise me at all to find that there are more, and very few actual roles. That's... about all of my comments, for the moment. El kept to herself for the next few days after the man's murder. She didn't sleep well, haunted by dreams of blood and death and a tiny blue bird. From the few patients she had, she'd heard of other deaths in the village, but there was nothing she could do for them now. From the sounds of things, no one would have wanted her to, either. She shivered. We're killing ourselves, she thought, staring out the window in a rare moment of rest while the antiseptic she was mixing set properly. The koloss won't have anything to destroy, by the time they get here. What could she do, though? She wasn't a leader. She healed, sure, but there was no healing for the dead. She thought of the man again, remembering him dying in her arms. She hated him then, a little bit. He had caused this. He was the one who had made the village spiral into death and self-destruction. Why had he had to sow distrust like that? Perhaps he'd given advance warning about the koloss, but what could they do with that? How could they survive an attack by such beasts, regardless of the warning? All the man had done was make it easier for the koloss to kill them all. Now she was trapped. They all were, she supposed. Stuck in this little tiny village, unable to leave for fear of the koloss, unable to trust each other, dying at each others' hands. She almost hated her parents in that moment, too, for leaving her here to die - but she pushed the thought back immediately. She could never hate them. She shook herself and went pack to the antiseptic. There was work to be done. She'd heard Lord Locke was ill, again. Perhaps she'd pay him a visit that afternoon. A rational perspective on the matter could be useful.

I am here, and finally catching up on reading through the thread. I have just finished submitting my college applications, which is why I've been quiet for the last 72 hours. I should be more active in the future now that that's over with. I'm about to be called to dinner, though, so probably won't be able to post properly until after turnover. @Silverblade5, @DroughtBringer, @Sart, @OrlokTsubodai

Well... okay. That's entirely your choice. I think I'll take a moment away from college apps to give my perspective, though: Yes, I do think you could have acted better in this and previous games. I do think your playstyle is unhealthy in the aggregate, and I don't want to see people following your example because SE is primarily about fun, not competitiveness. And for you the competitiveness is the fun, and I can understand that. But if it's interfering with the happiness of other players in the game or making them legitimately angry, it should no longer be acceptable in our community. So yes. You can leave. You can take a hiatus, wait indefinitely until you think the time has come to come back, for whatever reason. Or maybe you never do, and SE is just something that you enjoyed for a while and then ended badly and you don't really think about it. You can continue without SE in your life. That's fine. But you don't have to. This community is still here. Just because I disagree with some of your choices doesn't mean I don't care. Instead of staying the way you are, you could make a conscious effort to change, to become more aware of the enjoyment of others in the game, not only your own enjoyment. You could learn. That's one of the really amazing things about SE, honestly - it teaches you so much. I know for a fact I've become more honorable directly because of SE. I keep to my word more. I'm a better critical thinker. I'm more open to other perspectives. All these things directly because of the influence SE has had on me. You're not suddenly unwelcome here, Len. That doc wasn't trying to tell you that. It's telling you that your behavior needs to change, sure. And if you don't want to do that, that's fine. But you're not going to be suddenly ostracized. You're not an example of a 'bad' player. (You're still better than a habitual inactive.) You're just one who could be better, and that's what that doc was trying to tell you. It's your choice, in the end. Stay, and change and learn and grow, or don't, and stay the way you are. I would be happy to see you stay, but that's your decision to make, not mine.

*sigh* Thank you, Mage. Docs should be fixed now. >>

Doc links coming up. Spiritual Realm Cognitive Realm (there may be more that I'm missing - @Seonid, if you could paste in any that aren't there, that would be appreciated) Odium's Champions Honor's Champion Autonomy's Agents Autonomy's Converts 17th Shard

Warning: Long post ahead. >> Much to say. 8 posts in multiquote will do that. He didn't, actually. I did. (Please don't throw a cat at me?) While this has now been retracted, note - in future cases I'd suggest asking a Coinshot to target you, rather than the eliminator team? For various reasons, pretty much every game since... oh, LG24 or so? I can't remember it happening since LG22, but I could be wrong... vigilantes have had some reason or other not to kill inactives (there weren't any, or they were limited, or they were faction-based and killed based on that instead). I don't think it's been suggested as a strategy in ages. That's the reason I agree with Lopen about not lynching an inactive today - we hopefully have Coinshots whoc an do that if they don't have any other suspicions. (Of course, in the last AG, there were no coinshots. Hopefully that doesn't hold true again.) The only WGGs that have been performed successfully are LG2 and LG15 (LG15 moreso than LG2), both planned by Wilson but not executed on her. Well... I don't understand you at all. I didn't put you on the list because I honestly had no idea whether you wouldn't kill her or not. I would argue that it does matter, at least insofar as it's causing discussion. This applies to a below point, too - yes, I'm not saying those players are cleared for this. The possibilities of an experienced player pulling a fake-WGG and a team without one of those players just straight attacking her are about equal chances (given her post, I would say that her being evil is very unlikely, in my opinion). There's a reason I didn't go to all the trouble of listing out tiers all nice like Joe did - we don't know that that is actually the scenario we're dealing with. But it is an interesting thought, and it's D1. I'll provoke discussion in whatever way I can get. And... how exactly do you suggest they do that? Seekers can scan based on what their guesses for alignment are, yes. Guessing and scanning roles is somewhat harder. Also, somewhat less useful? Being able to find alignment is far more important than finding roles, in my opinion. So yes, while it'd be nice for a Seeker to be able to find a Village Lurcher, that's not really a helpful suggestion, in my opinion. For clarification - though Stink already mostly said - he was referring to his current character at the time not being a Tineye. PMs can be opened with anyone so long as thehre's a Tineye alive. His character just wasn't a Tineye at that point. (Speaking of PMs, I would greatly appreciate being PMed. I am considering PMing everyone, but will likely see sense and only PM a few players I particularly want to talk to. But any PMs sent to me would be quite welcome.) Not sure how to respond to this? I agree that just because Wilson wouldn't have been attacked by one of those players (if that's even the case, which is probable but not necessarily correct), it by no means clears them. It's one possibility to consider, and an interesting one. There is a conflicting possibility which would say exactly the opposite. Right now, we're not in a position to tell which. But it's something to keep in mind. So... you're saying we shouldn't discuss Wilson's death, because it'll lead us in circles, as far as I can tell. Sure. I can understand that. But it comes off as 'we shouldn't be discussing her death at all'. And... why not? Why shouldn't we discuss her death? It's not cutting out any other topics of discussion, obviously. It could potentially be helpful along the line, and at least shows the viewpoints of various players. And it's Day One. As I said above - I'll take any topic of discussion I can get. I'm really not sure why you're trying to stop that discussion from happening. Other notes: 1. Something no one's mentioned yet, that's somewhat important - we now know that there is at least one Lurcher or Mistborn in the game. (Could be either; my guess would be Lurcher just because that seems considerably more likely). Which is useful, given there was exactly one in the last game, and useless because there were no Coinshots or Mistborn. This is an indication that we have at least that much and very probably more. 2. That Lurcher who protected Wilson - if you haven't yet, I'd highly recommend claiming to Wilson. If you are good, you pretty much know for a fact that Wilson is as well (unless you told anyone you were going to protect her, which you certainly should not have done). She can't necessarily trust you in return, but even so. That'd be something I would suggest. 3. From what I can see, Drake is voting on me for being the first voter in the game. *sigh* I'm going to post this, and then I will go find where I did the statistics on first voters in every game. Though... actually. I may not have. I did second vote on a person, and the person voted on, but possibly not the voter. @little wilson, I don't suppose you remember? I really, really shouldn't do what I might be about to do. El mashed the aloe down into the bowl, again and again. Thump. Thump. Burn salve, of course - she'd realized after last night that she didn't have any on hand, and she needed to be prepared. There hadn't ever been a fire bigger than an overturned candle here, in her memory. There hadn't been a need, before. Thump. She sighed, looking across the counter into the open room where she did most of her business. It was neat and tidy as always, of course. One couldn't do much healing if nothing was organized. She began making a list of mental items to put into the healing kit she would prepare next. The burn salve would go in, of course. Antiseptic, naturally. Gauze... Diseases tended to be slower than would be needed for going out and about, so she shouldn't need anything that countered those... Her attention drifted with the thumping of the pestle in her hands. She still couldn't remember how long ago it had been. She knew she hadn't always lived in Tyrian Falls. She'd been somewhere else. She had had parents. She just wasn't sure where, or when she'd come here, and her parents... well. She knew nothing of them except the locket. It had been at least a year ago, certainly... Probably more. But when? She frowned and began listing items for her kit again. She had to focus, not get distracted by idle memories. She was needed here, now. The people of the town needed her skills. She was pretty sure that they'd need them even more, in the coming days.

(space I can't get rid of whee) Wilson has expressed multiple times her displeasure at being killed, and killed every. single. time. She hasn't survived a game since LG9. Two years ago. She's practically the only player like that, now - she's so dangerous that she literally never survives games. Even in LG29, when Hael and I were both on the evil team and I didn't want to kill her nor was I afraid of her because of her rep (for the first attempt it was strategic to kill her, but it would've been for anyone in her position; it wasn't exatly a fearkill - for the second attempt I would really have preferred someone else but acceeded to the will of the majority, which I very much regret now), she died. She always does. This is not particularly pleasant, as you might imagine. Those players are the ones to whom she's most likely to have expressed her displeasure or to hae picked up on it and been unlikely to kill her - and also, to an extent, those players from a meta in which killing the really experienced players who died constantly was frowned upon until later in the game than N1. (This was around when I joined, I'd say, given that Maill had just died three times in a row C1 and was not happy about it.) So, basically, anyone around enough and conscientious enough to give her a chance to play before she died. Rae - that depends on how you define 'newbie'? I don't think the players from... oh, before LG20 or so, would be likely to kill her off the bat like this. Certainly not more likely than a team of newbies. Also, Meta did a team of all newbies last time. While it's certainly possible he's done the same thing (which would be amusing, certainly), I'd guess that he did something else this time. I'll be watching for hours yet, but I really should not post any more, not if I'm going to RP for every post. I still have a fair amount of work to get done tonight which I have somewhat neglected. >> Someone vote on me if I post again in the next six hours, please. I need the disincentive. This RP is almost certain to be edited later with more details about the setting and such. El lay in the softness of her bed, still unwilling to get up. The face of the man who had died flashed before her memory, again. The blood pouring out, the helplessness, the lack of time. Why was everything about time? She idly unfastened the locket from around her neck and held it up, dangling it in front of her. It was very simple. A silver chain, holding a small circular pendant. One side was some sort of black stone or metal, too dark to be iron, and the other was white silver. She wasn't even certain it was a locket. It looked like one, but she'd never been able to open it, and she hadn't dared do anything too extreme to it for fear of damaging it permanently. How long had it been, now, since she'd been left here, since she'd last felt her parents' touch? How much time had passed? El blinked. She... didn't know.

Does it seem that way to you? I think it tells us a fair amount, actually, though the possibilities are somewhat contradictory. Assumption: Wilson is good. If this is the case, we can draw one of two things from the eliminators' kill: One, they're from a particular subset of players who would actually be willing to kill Wilson N1. That rules out a fairly significant number (myself, Orlok, Seonid, Joe, pretty much for certain, and I'd place a much lower likelihood on Wonko, Gamma, Stink, Doc, Hero, Nyali, Wyrm as well - I could probably compose a specific list of several tiers of likelihood, but I don't particularly wish to bother right now). Very helpful. Corollary: We have an excellent Lurcher on our hands. Two, the evil team has a Lurcher and decided to pull a kill-and-protect. Either to implicate Wilson (saying that she's pulled a WGG), or to make people think that the people listed above cannot be evil because of course they wouldn't have attacked Wilson. Alternate Assumption: Wilson is evil. Only possibility here is that it's a WGG. Which is possible, though gutsy. I... would not place a high likelihood on it, but it's something to be considered. So no. I don't think it doesn't give us much to go on. And I'm vaguely curious why you're passing it off so easily, Len. In the darkness, El dreamed. She dreamed of a tiny blue bird, a bright island on another world, a search. She wasn’t El, in this dream. She was… she was… First of the Twilight, Trapper, walking through the night that was not night to her. That was right - an Aviar which granted night vision. Tiel. Of course. How could she have forgotten? She reached her destination, a camp in which several forms were sleeping soundly. That couldn’t be allowed. Intruders. They would die. First of the Twilight drew her dagger slowly, kneeling above the man she was about to kill as El had knelt above the man who had just died. The dagger sunk into flesh - wait. El? Who… what… Her attention was distracted by the little blue Aviar who had just hopped off of her shoulder and into the air. She followed Tiel’s flight, up, up, up, looking for… something important. Something that mattered. El woke, gasping. What was that? Had she just… killed someone? A dream, yes, but still. And that bird… It was familiar, somehow. It had been searching for something. She wasn’t sure what, but it had felt every bit as desperate as her own search for her parents. It had been so real... RP to be continued later, once I figure out some specifics about El.

El knelt, helpless, above the man whom she could not save. Time. There hadn't been enough time. Not enough to save him, not without what she needed. She made a mental note to create a small packet of useful herbs to carry around with her at all times, something she should've done a long time ago. That didn't help now, though. While Hero was speaking, she reverently closed the man's eyes, wishing she could have known even his name to pay him proper respects. She ignored the crowd around her, murmuring and pointing, the girl screaming above the body. All that mattered was that she could have saved him, and she hadn't. There hadn't been time. There never was - no time with her parents, no time to save the man. The only question remaining, then, would be whether there was time to save the town. Hero, it's been a while. Might I suggest explaining what the Contribution Crusade is, so that the newer players who've never heard of it before have some understanding of what you're talking about?

The mist was coalescing. She didn’t have much time. El frantically shifted through her memories. This had happened before, yes, yes, something to do with time looping. She’d known of it before. Before… what had she been, before? She remembered finding this place, somehow, stumbling into the village alone and without home, family, or memory of either. Kassien, taking her in, dying, dying… But no. That was forward. She needed to go back. Who was she? She pushed against the mist still infiltrating her mind. I need to remember. She strained, and…. something broke. She was pushed back, repelled away from those memories into entirely different images, moving too fast to make out. She tried to focus, tried to find something that could help her escape this- this what? She’d nearly thought ‘trap’, but how was a town that El had known for years a trap? Everything looked the same as it always had. What had she been thinking? It was daytime. There was no mist yet, not for a few hours still. El shook herself, touching the locket at her neck to reassure herself that it was still there. The only important piece left, that. The last memory of her parents, whoever they had been and whyever they’d left her here. Perhaps that was why she’d thought this was a trap, in her apparent delirium moments ago. This was home, yet it kept her here. It kept her from searching out her parents. Someday, she thought. Someday she would find them, and ask why they’d left. Demand to know why they'd left her here, alone. Her grip clenched on the locket for a moment, before her hand fell to her side. Someday. Signing up as El (the same El as AG2, of course, though sadly without a Kassien yet). She’s a Hopeful Orphan/Past Lives mix (primarily Hopeful Orphan, as Past Lives may not be referenced in every post and is only kind of past lives). I will note that I intend to prioritize RP above game talk (for myriad reasons, including the prize for cosmetic roles but by no means limited to that), so I’ll be RPing at least once a Turn (hopefully once a day), but game talk might only be once a cycle.

It was quite convenient, the amount of trust that was invested in me this game. Wilson telling me she was Mistborn, you telling me JUQ was a scanner so we knew all along that he hadn't been lying in the first place, Seonid's trust near the end... Part of the reason I'm disappointed in myself is that I didn't use that nearly as effectively as I could have. For anyone who doesn't bother to read the evil doc, the reason we didn't kill JUQ was partly that we had so many already-trusted members and partly that I was a scan-hiding role. I loved this game, despite my own errors (which I will likely be speaking about more at a later date, at length). Thank you so much to Kas and Wyrm for a lovely game regardless of the inactivity that they were put through. I appreciate it immensely.