Long Game 24: The Godless City

[STINK he/him]

And what do we know? 

Lies!

[Arrae]

5 minutes ago, TheSilverDragon said:

 Like lopen's better than potentially killing Amanda, kill one if the inactive players, but tell us in advance so we can verify it was you

Emphasis mine. Who are you talking about?

 

[Magestar he/him]

2 minutes ago, STINK said:

And what do we know? 

Lies!

I'm not going to even respond to this.

 

I won't, I tell you.

 

I know it's too late.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME.

Edited August 6, 2016 by Magestar

[Master Elodin]

12 minutes ago, The Only Joe said:

Yes, It will specifically say they were a (Alignment) (Faction, if present) (Role)

If a player spreads misinformation, I will first ask them if they are doing so intentionally, or because they believe it to be true. If it is intentional, I will leave it be.

Nope. Please don't use me as an excuse. Constatn switching is only annoying during the final half hour of the cycle. You can switch as often as you like before then. As Magestar said, I signed up for this. I know what I'm getting into.

 

I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to use you as an excuse, I was just trying to be polite. The "I don't know if I can" comment was because of the phrasing of your "noted" PM. 

[TheSilverDragon he/him]

8 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

Emphasis mine. Who are you talking about?

 

Sorry, odd autocorrect, fixed it now.

[Master Elodin]

11 minutes ago, Magestar said:

I'm not going to even respond to this.

 

I won't, I tell you.

 

I know it's too late.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME.

What does someone not have to tell you?

[little wilson she/her]

Sigh. I'm honestly disappointed that I have to do this. I'd hoped more people would've read the rules but I guess not.

Let's look at the win conditions for the all the factions/possible factions.

Villagers:

Quote

The Citizenry win when all the Eliminators are dead.

The Citizenry do not need to kill all the Neutral or Neutral-Evil players to win, only the Eliminators.

Eliminators:

Quote

Eliminators have win conditions that can be fulfilled only at the cost of the Citizenry team’s win conditions.

Eliminator Factions need to kill all other Eliminator Factions, if there are multiple factions.

Neutral:

Quote

Neutral roles have win conditions that can be fulfilled with any team

Neutral-Evil:

Quote

Neutral-Evil Roles have win conditions that can only be fulfilled with Eliminator or Neutral teams.

Now, let's look at what we're heard about the Jeskeri faction.

On 8/5/2016 at 1:37 PM, Arraenae said:

Before he left, Maill told me about a faction called the Jeskeri, which have a conditional kill. Every time they kill somebody, a Jeskeri gets outed. The Jeskeri win when they sacrifice the last non-Jeskeri player. 

On 8/5/2016 at 3:07 PM, Master Elodin said:

Rae, we also have a conversion every two cycles. We're willing to work with the village for a time at least. We also have a Forsaken-type (not in abilities really, just an ace in the hole type) Jeskeri leader, but we're not telling what she does yet. That, Alv, is why we don't need to be larger than the village.

On 8/5/2016 at 5:09 PM, Master Elodin said:

1. We have been confirmed to be a neutral/ neutral evil faction and not the primary opposition to the village in doc.

2. It means that we get revealed. As of now we have opted to only convert and kill later. 

On 8/5/2016 at 5:10 PM, Master Elodin said:

Everyone. A converted player wins for both factions though, that's why it works.

On 8/5/2016 at 5:12 PM, Master Elodin said:

You keep both alignments.

For the sake of this discussion, I am going to assume that the Jeskeri are a real team.

 

Are the Jeskeri Neutral? Or are they Neutral-Evil?

As previously mentioned, Neutrals can win with anyone. Neutral-Evils can only win with Neutrals or Eliminators. What is the (claimed) Jeskeri win con? To kill all non-Jeskeri players. Well, if they were Neutral, they wouldn't have to kill everyone because they can win with anyone. So they're not Neutral. Which leaves Neutral-Evil. Which means that they can win with everyone but the village.

Now, I want to note something about their claimed win con: they say they can only win when all non-Jeskeri are dead. What about Neutrals, who, per the WoJ ("Neutral roles have win conditions that can be fulfilled with any team"), can win with anyone? According to the Jeskeri, they would have to kill or convert the Neutrals. According to Joe, they should be able to win with the Neutrals. Someone is lying here, and I'm certain that it's not Joe.

What does this lie tell us? They have something they wish to hide from the village. Why would they want to hide something from the village? What would they gain for wishing to deceive the village? Well, they'd gain the village's blind acceptance of a plan where the village doesn't actually have all the details. And why would they lie? Because they can't win with the village, and because of that, they have no allegiance to the village and won't actually abide by any "alliance" that some villagers may wish to agree to.

Result of analysis: Jeskeri are Neutral-Evil (or they are eliminators)

Moving on.

Will this alliance work? Can a village convert cause a win for both teams?

No. Why do I say that? Because of win conditions: Joe specifically says in the signup post that Neutral-Evils or Eliminators (of which the Jeskeri are one or the other) cannot win with the village.

'But Elodin said the convert retains their alignment win conditions!' you say. Sure. That's what he says. Is that true? We have no idea. And even if it is, that would just mean that they specific convert can win with either team. But they have to choose which team they want to win as. If the Jeskeri convert an eliminator and a villager, does that mean everyone can win? No! Per the rules, Neutral-Evils cannot win with the village. Therefore, the village convert has to choose. The eliminator, however, might not have to. Because Neutral-Evils can win with Eliminators.

Result of analysis: Saying that a convert keeps both alignments does not equate to them being able to win for both alignments.

We will never know all the information about the Jeskeri, because Joe will PAFO it.

Not true. Per the rules:

Quote

I will not answer any questions about secret roles, until that role has been revealed. I will reveal all rules about a secret role only once that role dies, or other specific circumstances are met.

So if a role is revealed, Joe will will answer questions about it. I'm not sure if that means attacked and revealed or player-thread-revealed. Regardless, he specifically says that he will reveal all rules about a role when that role dies. I would assume that this also goes for secret alignments/teams, since those are parts of the role. The "other circumstances" more likely refers to a situation where you could glean more info without a person dying. I really really don't think a player with a secret role would die without the secrets inherent in their role being revealed.

Result of analysis: We can know the Jeskeri information by killing one of the Jeskeri.

If we maintain a strong enough grip on them, we can control them for a short period of time.

No, we can't. For one, that assumes that we know everything about them, which we don't. We don't even know what their real win con is. We need to kill one of them to know all the secrets their keeping from us. Only then can we trust them to be telling the truth about their team. But how receptive do you really think they'll be when we've killed one of their members? Not very. And if we can't kill one of their members to know what they're withholding, we can't maintain any kind of a grip on them at all, because we don't know what they can do. We don't know what their real goal is. Well, actually we know one thing: They cannot win with the village.

Two, do you honestly think they will let themselves be controlled by a faction they can't win with? No. They will be holding the reins the entire time, even while they convince us that we are in charge. We're not and we never will be. Not with this alliance. There is no controlling them. "Oh, but we'll threaten to kill them!" Okay, and you think they honestly haven't predicted that? I guarantee you that they have and that they have a plan in place should we do that (as we should). It doesn't matter because we will only know one of them at a time, and while their team is small, we don't know all their members. So a threat to kill them falls just a little bit short when we can't actually kill them. We can only kill the person we know of. Who wouldn't be known if he wasn't expendable.

Three, why do we even need an alliance? For information? You realize that's not information we can trust, right? They want to kill us. That's their win con. While they'll be honest and truthful about some of it--possibly even most of it--they will also tell some lies. It's guaranteed. How do you propose we separate the truths from the lies? We can't. Therefore, we cannot trust the info they provide because we cannot trust them. Hence, an alliance for information-gathering purposes is useless. Do you want an alliance to direct their kill? Why do we need their kill? We don't. We have our own kill abilities. You want to direct their kill so you can keep it off of important villagers? That won't help the village. That just narrows the field down for them on who we don't want them to attack so they know who to attack here in a couple cycles. So we might be able to to direct the kill for a couple nights, but that's not directing their kills. That's them choosing to kill who we tell them to kill. We're not forcing them to do anything. It is always their choice. Which is exactly why they will always remain in control.

In MR10, Aman was an outed eliminator with a known kill ability. He told the village he'd provide information and that he would kill who they told him to kill, so long as they left him alive. The village made a temporary alliance with him, leaving him alive and directing his kills. He went with it for a cycle or two, but then eventually, he went against the village's wishes and turned on them, and before the village could kill him, his team finished off the remaining villagers and won the game. With Aman still alive. The village kept a known eliminator with a kill alive.

Now, you can say that this is a different situation because the Neutral-Evils aren't Eliminators, but it's actually not terribly different at all. Sure, the village doesn't have to kill them to win, but they have to kill the village to win. That's certain, based on their part of their win conditions. Looking the other way and hoping that they won't stab you in the back while you're pointing out someone else for them to kill is foolhardy.

Result of analysis: We cannot control them.

5 hours ago, Elenion said:

Why? Because my best interests appear to be different than your best interests, which you consider to be the village's best interests. I think an alliance is in the village's best interests, as long as we keep a choke-hold on the Jeskeri by threat of lynch on Elodin. Even more than the kill, I want the list of his faction so we can narrow down elim targets.

An alliance is not in the village's best interests, for the reasons I've just stated. They will never give the full list of their faction to us. It won't happen. Even if they give one or two of their teammates, we won't get their full team, because they will withhold names, and we won't know. We only have their word for it. The word of people who do not share our win con and cannot win with us. Your insistence that it's a good idea makes me this close to suggesting your death because I honestly cannot see a single way that you could possibly be a villager at this point. You are far more likely to have been converted.

1 hour ago, Elenion said:

I'd suggest STINK, because he's already claimed Neutral. Either we kill a Neutral or a deceptive Villager, either of which doesn't hurt the village.

I'd suggest you, Elenion, because you're not helping the village at all either. At least Stink is making sense even if he's Neutral. He's a lot better of a villager than you are, and he's not even village!

And really, why do people keep threatening him? Why do people keep suggesting we should kill him? He's done nothing wrong or against his own personal win con. He is neutral. Let him be neutral. He's not being a troll. He's not being unhelpful. He doesn't know much. He just wants to survive. Let him.

[A Joe in the Bush]

27 minutes ago, little wilson said:

Someone is lying here, and I'm certain that it's not Joe.

I have not, and will not Lie. (Unless it's an extremely obvious lie, and those are all marked with a  Emoji.)

28 minutes ago, little wilson said:

So if a role is revealed, Joe will will answer questions about it. I'm not sure if that means attacked and revealed or player-thread-revealed.

Player's cannot 'reveal' a secret role. 

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Welp, here's my reads so far. Generally I only have villager reads, because too many people are being quiet. So everyone who's being quiet, if you're a villager, you really need to speak up more, so that the people who do in depth analysis(not really me, although sometimes I do. I basically just get my reads from my initial reaction to posts, combined with what they've said previously) will have more to work with.

Villagers(my best guesses, anyway): Arraenae, Aman, Elenion, Bard, Magestar, SilverDragon, Jaime(weak read), Araris(very weak read), Emerald(weak read), Kipper(weak read).

Neutrals: Stink, Elodin(Neutral-Evil, but whatever).

Eliminators: Renegade(weak read), Eolhondras(like I said, I wouldn't mind if he was killed by a ChayShan), Sart(although I don't think him and Eol are teammates, so likely at least one of them is village), Orlok(so quiet, even during the Day), Elbereth(mostly paranoia. Could be the head Jeskeri(not a guess based on Elodin's "slip-up")), Burnt(still mildly suspicious), Conquestor(depends on who attacked him really, but I was leaning evil before he was attacked because he's been extremely quiet this game and has mostly just joked around when he has posted(though I haven't looked over all of his posts in a long time)).

No read/reads are too conflicting: Aonar, Wilson(although doubt she's Jeskeri and she was scanned as non-elim, so leaning Neutral or village, more Neutral, tbh), Alvron(no read, though if one person is evil, leaning village on him).

Really though, I have no idea who the eliminators could be at this point. I feel extremely lost. The first few people in my villagers section I feel a bit confident about, but most everyone else is really still a mystery to me.

[Elenion he/him]

3 hours ago, little wilson said:

As previously mentioned, Neutrals can win with anyone. Neutral-Evils can only win with Neutrals or Eliminators. What is the (claimed) Jeskeri win con? To kill all non-Jeskeri players. Well, if they were Neutral, they wouldn't have to kill everyone because they can win with anyone. So they're not Neutral. Which leaves Neutral-Evil. Which means that they can win with everyone but the village.

Now, I want to note something about their claimed win con: they say they can only win when all non-Jeskeri are dead. What about Neutrals, who, per the WoJ ("Neutral roles have win conditions that can be fulfilled with any team"), can win with anyone? According to the Jeskeri, they would have to kill or convert the Neutrals. According to Joe, they should be able to win with the Neutrals. Someone is lying here, and I'm certain that it's not Joe.

What does this lie tell us? They have something they wish to hide from the village. Why would they want to hide something from the village? What would they gain for wishing to deceive the village? Well, they'd gain the village's blind acceptance of a plan where the village doesn't actually have all the details. And why would they lie? Because they can't win with the village, and because of that, they have no allegiance to the village and won't actually abide by any "alliance" that some villagers may wish to agree to.

Result of analysis: Jeskeri are Neutral-Evil (or they are eliminators)

The Jeskeri do indeed appear to be neutral-evil. This means that Elodin's plan will not end in a village win, and so must be abandoned.

Sorry, @Master Elodin, but Wilson makes sense: your win con puts you as N-E, and by definition if you win, the village loses. You have earned both of my votes next cycle.

3 hours ago, little wilson said:

Your insistence that it's a good idea makes me this close to suggesting your death because I honestly cannot see a single way that you could possibly be a villager at this point.

The way that you do not see happens to be the correct one. Since I have a gut feeling a village Chay-Shan has me in the crosshairs, I'll wait for the write-up to prove this.

[Eolhondras he/him]

34 minutes ago, TheMightyLopen said:

Welp, here's my reads so far. Generally I only have villager reads, because too many people are being quiet. So everyone who's being quiet, if you're a villager, you really need to speak up more, so that the people who do in depth analysis(not really me, although sometimes I do. I basically just get my reads from my initial reaction to posts, combined with what they've said previously) will have more to work with.

Villagers(my best guesses, anyway): Arraenae, Aman, Elenion, Bard, Magestar, SilverDragon, Jaime(weak read), Araris(very weak read), Emerald(weak read), Kipper(weak read).

Neutrals: Stink, Elodin(Neutral-Evil, but whatever).

Eliminators: Renegade(weak read), Eolhondras(like I said, I wouldn't mind if he was killed by a ChayShan), Sart(although I don't think him and Eol are teammates, so likely at least one of them is village), Orlok(so quiet, even during the Day), Elbereth(mostly paranoia. Could be the head Jeskeri(not a guess based on Elodin's "slip-up")), Burnt(still mildly suspicious), Conquestor(depends on who attacked him really, but I was leaning evil before he was attacked because he's been extremely quiet this game and has mostly just joked around when he has posted(though I haven't looked over all of his posts in a long time)).

No read/reads are too conflicting: Aonar, Wilson(although doubt she's Jeskeri and she was scanned as non-elim, so leaning Neutral or village, more Neutral, tbh), Alvron(no read, though if one person is evil, leaning village on him).

Really though, I have no idea who the eliminators could be at this point. I feel extremely lost. The first few people in my villagers section I feel a bit confident about, but most everyone else is really still a mystery to me.

I don't see how I've contributed less than con, ren, orlok, sart. And yet I'm the one you put up on the chopping block. 

Also you post this within the last 40 mins of a 48 HOUR turn and essentially pass off your kill on me by saying the words 'plz ChayShan'. I don't by it at all. I think you're just using that as an excuse,  and have my name lined up next to the ChayShan in people's heads so when they see my name in the write up,  it's just assumed that was the cause. 

[Renegade he/him]

Alright, I’m slowly sifting through all the game’s contents.  I mean, it’s great that we’ve had a lot of discussion, but there’s been so much irrelevant discussion that it’s really making it difficult to determine what is actually important.  Though I suppose that I will give my take on the game so far, especially with regards to the Night kills, in case I end up dead after tonight.

Okay, so one of the Night 1 deaths was Straw, which is fairly self-explanatory: this was a ChayShan warrior that claimed to Aman.  Given that this player targeted a highly-voted player and revealed their role fairly early in PM, I’d say that it is likely that they are a Citizen (or at least neutral); though, there’s always a possibility of them being converted by the Jeskeri.

The other Night 1 attack was on Ecthelion, as a religious-philosopher person.  On one hand, I’m inclined to believe this is a serial killer, because the write-up seems to imply that the person who killed Ecth was also the same who killed Conquestor, and Conquestor seemed inactive enough to not hamper any eliminator plans.  On the other hand, it could just be the same eliminator performing both kills, and it is very unlikely for the eliminators to forgo a kill action (unless someone was protected by a bodyguard on Night 1 and the bodyguard hasn’t revealed this).

One of the N2 kills was on Conquestor, killed by the same religious player/faction that killed Ecth.  Con's been pretty inactive, even after being attacked, which makes him an odd target for the eliminators/SK to hit, unless they’re going for low-profile targets.  This could perhaps mean that the eliminators/SK were already aware that there were a number of protective roles in play.  Either way, I think it would be beneficial for us to know whether @Conquestor revealed his role to anyone, and why he’s still been fairly silent after being attacked.

Alvron was attacked despite not talking at all on N2 (implying that he would be Arrested), which likely means that the killer was either really scared or suspicious of Alvron, or believed that he wasn’t actually Arrested.  The latter of these two is certainly an interesting possibility, but would again likely involve some private information that I am not privy to.

Finally, Emerald101.  Unless he’s lying (which I doubt), he was attacked and protected on N2.  I feel that this is a ChayShan kill, considering that Emerald was a pretty high-priority target, which doesn’t really give us any clues as to his alignment.  It does reveal that there is a second ChayShan warrior (assuming the one that talked to Aman wasn’t lying about not killing anyone N2).

The interesting thing to note of all of these kills is that they have all been on relatively low-profile players, or players that have previously been discussed as possible lynch targets.  Unless there are some other blocked kills that haven’t been publicly revealed, this means that the eliminators and neutral players/factions have been playing it safe with their kills, or were wrong with some of their role-reads on some players.  What this ultimately means is that if this trend continues, we may end up with a well-protected trust group of players, which I usually tend to dislike, but find extremely dangerous in this particular case, where there is a faction with a conversion ability that could potentially infiltrate this group if we aren’t careful.

At this point, it is difficult to tell who might have performed any of these attacks, but given that we seem to have quite a few protective roles in play, I’d be cautious about immediately clearing any player who gets attacked by an eliminator team.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Actually, I'm a ChayShan and I was gonna kill you because I'd rather try and kill an elim than a N-E and only said that so I could prove my role a bit, but, I moved to Elodin now.

Like I said, I feel like my reads aren't very good. They're probably mostly wrong(except maybe the first few village reads I said).

[little wilson she/her]

Personally, I've had a village read on Eol since he called out Sart like he did a few cycles ago.

In case I die (possible, but unlikely since I have protection right now), my reads:

Village: Aman, Eol, Emerald

Weak Villager reads: Elbereth, Burnt, Magestar, Jaime

Neutral/Neutral-Evil: Kipper, Alv, Stink, Elenion, Elodin

Eliminator: Aonar, Sart

The others are people I have no real read on or conflicting reads. I keep going back and forth for both Orlok and Lopen.

EDIT: forgot Elodin

[A Joe in the Bush]

Time's up! Come back in fifteen minutes.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Day 4: In which the Enemy shows it’s face, and the Citizenry know fear.

 

---

Iadon stood on his Balcony, grinning up at the Full Moon. It was Time. Time to act. If the Citizenry couldn’t find the Conspirators, well, he’d just remove them all, one by one.

He twirled around, and strode confidently into his bedroom, where a maid stood waiting nervously. He had summoned her here earlier, and told her to wait. But now, “It is time Sheeo. Come with me.”

He ignored her queries, as he lead her into the palace. Deeper than she probably had permission to go. She would be seeing things that no servant ever should without him there. He pulled on a fake torch, and opened a secret passageway. One he had had installed in the first month of his reign. He smiled kindly, and gestured for her to go in first.

She hesitated, rather than obeying instantly, but his suddenly frosted smile convinced her to scurry into the passage. He followed her in, and closed the passage behind him. As he walked, a tune began to beg for escape from his mind. He began to hum. Then sing.

“They say, the price of my rule’s not a price that they’re willing to pay. They scheme, in their city when they hear me proclaim ‘I am King.’ Remember I made a Monarchy when Elantris fell, now you’re plotting my fall. Remember all of my commandments, I’m your king.”

Sheeo kept giving him backwards looks over her shoulder as she walked fearfully through the dimly lit passage. He ignored her, and kept moving forward, leaving her no option but to continue.

“They’ll be gone, soon they’ll know, they’ll understand why I’m unopposed. Gods will fall, Men will rise! I have seen the people through it all. And when hate, turns to war, I will send the bloody Jeskeri Cultists to remind them of my crown!”

A wall suddenly opened, and two strong pairs of arms grabbed Sheeo and pulled her into the room. She tried to scream, but the hooded men stuffed what Iadon only know from experience was a severed fist into her mouth to silence her. They pulled her roughly to a stone altar in the middle of the room, and tied her down. Iadon grinned as they looked to him for permission to begin. He shook his head and walked over to her. He sat on the altar, and gently stroked her cheek.

“They’ll say my crown is heavy and I can’t be king! They’ll be the ones exploding when you are gone. . . And no, you won’t survive this, cuz you’re the Sacrifice. My fearful, scared Sacrifice. Forever and ever and ever and ever. . .”

The Practitioner swung his knife with precision, burying it in her belly. The Acolytes dipped their hands into the blood, and began to draw.

 

---

Officer Kailin finished writing down the rest of the information that the man had told him during their interrogation. It wasn’t much. But he was mostly certain of the man’s innocence now. It was time to set him free with the dawn. He rose from the table, and went to the front door of the safehouse. He rapped on the door four times, waited, then once more.

The door opened and Wilson and Janomi walked in, weapons oddly at the ready. Wilson closed the door, and Janomi prowled over to a window, looking through it as if searching for someone.

“What is it?” He asked, pulling out his own blade.

“We saw someone out there. Come on, let’s get the prisoner out of here.” Wilson gestured to the basement door, where the prisoner was being kept in the darkness. Kailin leaned his sword against the wall, then drew out a thick Iron key. He slipped it into the lock, twisted it, and kicked the door open.

Just like every time, they went in fast, grabbing the hooded prisoner and throwing him over a shoulder before he could react. There was a muffled gasp of fear from him, but he offered no resistance. A night with Kailin could do that to a man. They bundled him up the stairs and into the parlor. Wilson cracked the door open, and peeked through it.

The door shot the rest of the way open, slamming into her head. And knocking her backwards. A man, unarmed and unarmored danced into the room. He never said a word, simply lunged forward towards the prisoner, dodging around Kailin’s jabs.

“For Kae!” Janomi cried as she tackled the man. He twisted, eyes closed, grabbed her by the waist and threw her into Wilson.

“Lexicon!” Kailin snapped, stepping back, “What in Domi’s name are you doing?”

The man paused, and opened his eyes. Lexicon regarded him coolly, then gestured to the prisoner. “The man is guilty of conspiracy to commit regicide. I’ll be killing him first.” He dived forward again, hitting Kailin in the waist and knocking him over. The prisoner’s muffled screams accompanied the ponderous thud of Kailin hitting the floor.

Lexicon jumped over the legionnaire and picked up the prisoner in one hand. He drew his hand back to punch him, but paused when he began to glow. The glow quickly spread to Lexicon, covering both of them in a sickly green light. Lexicon dropped him and backed away, staring at his hands.

Wilson grabbed Kailin’s shoulder and pulled him up. She grabbed the dazed, glowing prisoner, and threw him onto his broad shoulders. “Go, free him, I’ll take care of Lexicon.” she turned to Lexicon as the glowing spread to her and Kailin as well. “What have you done? What is this?”

Lexicon met her eyes, wide with fear. “This wasn’t me, this isn’t the Dor I know. This is, hostile.”

“I know.” All three turned to look at Janomi as she rolled to her feet. “It’s the Mysteries.” She took the prisoner from Kailin, and laid him down on the table. “You’re all already dead. That glow will force your heart to implode in the next minute. It’s completely lethal, unless blocked by a higher power.” She was not glowing. In fact, the prisoner’s glow retracted away from her hands. But when she removed them, the glow returned. “I can only save one, and I choose him.”

She reached under her tunic, and withdrew a Korathi amulet. It was shaped into the Aon Dao. she pulled it off, and tied it around the prisoner’s neck instead. The prisoner’s glow seemed to jump through the air, onto her.

Lexicon gasped, then began to choke. His eyes bulged out, and he fell to his knees, grasping his chest. The glow faded as he fell to his side. His hands fell away, revealing a distorted chest.

Kailin cursed, the lunged for the prisoner, in a desperate bid to grab the amulet. His corpse hit the prisner instead. He fell in unison wil Wilson, leaving only a sorrowful Janomi. She pulled out her knife, and cut the prisoner’s bonds. His hands trying to pull the hood off his face was her last sight as her heart burst in her chest.

 

---

Liadan sat between the feet of the half finished statue. Straw's will had insisted his gravestone be larger than life, and he had left enough money to afford one. They had started construction on it almost as soon as his body had been found, as the will specified payment only upon completion. For now, the legs alone were nice to lean against. They reminded her of him. Sometimes, she didn't want the reminders, and other times, she did.

Something was strange about the graveyard tonight though. The animals had gotten used to her presence and tended to ignore her, but tonight, they were silent. Someone else was in the graveyard with her. She was certain of it. If she was quiet, she could hear the occasional footfall, or the intake of breath She felt like one of the statues, being studied by a curious scholar. But, she wasn't a statue, was she?

"You can come out." She called to the unseen visitor. "I won't bite. Honest." The silence became more ponderous, as if the unseen person was worried about her offer. So she called out again, "I know you're out there, come talk with me."

A tall figure, wrapped all about in a cloak, stepped out from behind the statue of the mother. He stood there, face shrouded in darkness, studying her, as an artist studies a blank canvas.

"Come have a seat with me, I like to talk to people."

The man ignored her invitation, and instead began to walk sideways, maintaining his distance from her. "I'm not certain what to make of you little girl, everyone seems to trust you, but no one seems to know you. Why do you sit in this graveyard all night?"

Liadan shrugged. "Life seems sweeter in a graveyard. More, worthwhile."

"Life? Sweet?" The figure stopped circling her. "Let me ask you little damsel, why should life be sweet? Should it not be dark and cruel, to test us for the life to come after? Is that not why people think the gods sent us here?"

She smiled, and patted the statue's base. "Come, sit."

The figure didn't move for a long while, but then advanced cautiously, looking this way and that.

"What do you look for?"

"Everyone knows Children are the most dangerous of all humanity." He snapped at her. "What traps do you have planned to sit there so openly?"

She shrugged again. "No traps. I just like to talk to people. Or listen. Some people need one, and some need the other. I think you need to ask questions. You wouldn't be here otherwise."

The figure halted before her, then sat cross legged on the ground. "You know far more than you seem little lady."

"I thought you said I was supposed to be dangerous. Aren't dangerous people smart?"

"Of course not! Smart people aren't dangerous, because dangerous people get killed! And if you're smart, you'd know that, so you wouldn't be dangerous. and then you won't get killed." He nodded his head firmly, seeming rather pleased with himself.

"So, we should kill all the fools then?"

The figure blinked, then opened his mouth. He closed it again, then frowned. "Bah, you're too talkative by half girl. Haven't you heard that children should be seen and not heard?"

"Tell me sir, if I was seen, and not heard, what would be the point of talking to you?"

"To figure out if you're dangerous to me or not!" he snapped.

"And, am I?"

"Of course not, you're a child." He frowned, and began to rub his chin. "Of course, you are surprisingly effective at getting people to talk. I've watched you theses past few weeks you know. People open up to you, tell you their secrets."

"Like I said, some people need someone to listen to. Tell me sir, what will your gravestone be?"

The man's eyes narrowed. "My gravestone? I'd never thought of that. Hmm. . . That will require some consideration. Why? What do you think it should be?"

"How about, a pair of glasses, with which to see? Or a book, with which to read?"

He shook his head. "Both are far too humble for me. But I suppose, it doesn't matter, does it? If I'm dead, I shall want to be forgotten. A fitting punishment for failure."

"Why would anyone want to be forgotten?" Liadan jumped off her statue, and walked over to the man. She smiled, and stuck out her hand. "Walk with me. I'll introduce you to all the people of the graveyard."

He frowned, then took her hand. She couldn't actually pull him to his feet, but he graciously pretended she did. She walked through the moonlit night, pointing out each statue, and telling their stories.She told him of the mother statue, and the saint's statue.She showed him the statue that she pretended was the caretaker's baby brother. She showed him a statue of an Elantrian, proud but kind.

With each statue, the man nodded along, looking confused, and contemplative. He looked, almost happier, his hand still in hers.

Finally, she took him to the most opulent statues in the graveyard. She tended to avoid these four, because two of them were still alive. "The king had these built for his family as soon as Elantris fell. He moved his wife and eldest son here as soon as they were finished. And the other two are for him and Raoden. Iadon doesn't want to be forgotten, not ever. Some days, I think that's why he has everyone looking for the people conspiring against him. He wants to be big in our minds. Do you think so, sir?"

She looked up at the figure, and nearly froze at the sight.

His almost happy face was gone. Instead, he was scowling, and his teeth were clenched tightly together. "The king?" he whispered."The king built this?"

"Sir, you're hurting my hand." She regretted her comment instantly, as his glare turned from the royal family to her.

"Why did you bring me here, waif? What are you trying to say with this?"

"I just wanted you to have a gravestone as well! You didn't want one, but everyone deserves to be remembered!"

He lifted her off her feet by one arm so he could look at her eye to eye.

"Do you know my name, little girl?" Trembling, she shook her head.

He leaned forward, and whispered it into her ear. She shied back from the implications, as she understood him for the first time tonight.

"Girl, I have already been forgotten. I will be remembered only if I succeed. I will not be remembered by statues, I will be remembered by history! I will choose who lives, and who dies!”

“I will be the one to tell my story!"

He grabbed her neck with his other hand and pivoted, spinning her about. She tried to scream, but the sound was trapped in her crushed throat. He took a step and flung her at the statues of the royals. Her back hit Iadon's knee, and something inside her broke. Her back cried out in pain, and at the same time as her legs went silent. She screamed in agony as the figure stalked towards her.

He knelt down, and as her vision faded, whispered, "Not everyone deserves to be remembered."

 

---

The shop was dark, save for the moonlight shining in through the two open windows. By some divine happenstance, one was perfectly placed to  illuminate his desk as Alaraon did his final inventory of the days sales. The other fell in the empty middle section of the shop. The only sounds he coiuld hear were the scribbling of his quill, and the occasional scurry of the ever present rodents. His back ached from hunching over for so long, but it hardly mattered to him. He carefully inked in the last sale, and closed the ledger, allowing himself a soft smile of satisfaction.  He had been worried that he wouldn't be able to get back into business without his wife, but he had managed it. And perhaps soon he would be able to regain the fortune he had lost with her. He carefully tied his ledgers shut, slipped the quill back into it's drawer and stood up, stretching to relieve beleagured muscles

He blinked and squinted as something flashed in the darkness. Alaraon looked carefuly at the blank patch of stone, then at his desk. There was no obvious source of the flash. He moved the few items on his desk, his inkjar, spare quills, rolls of parchment, to see if he could replicate it, but to no avail. The darkness, once familiar and comfortable, now seemed ominous as he examined the moonlit space

He wanted to believe it was nothing, but as his father always said, 'See what's actually there, not what you want, and you'll see further than most'. He reached under his desk and grabbed a dagger, one he had purchased after that pirate had been murdered barely a street away. He raised one hand above his eye and peered into the darkness.

There, just beyond the light, he could make out the form of, someone, standing with head bowed as if in prayer. "Who are you?"

The figure did not react.

Alaraon pulled the dagger out carefully, holding it behind him, and eased out from behind his desk. "Sir? Or ma'am? I can't tell from here. But my store is closed now." He inched forward, never taking his eyes off the barely seen figure. "If you don't leave now, I'll be forced to call one of Lord Eondel's Legionnaries. We're old friends you know."

He was now standing in the middle of the moonbeam, the figure just beyond arm's reach. Was this figure even alive? Or was it a statue, some child's idea of a joke?

He reached out with one hand to tap the figure in the chest, and was surprised when the formerly motionless figure's arm shot out, grasped him by the wrist, and whirled, throwing him through the air into his heavy wooden door. He gasped as the air was forced from his lungs, and before he could even identify where all the pain was coming from, he was in the air again. This time he landed against a wooden shelf, full of vases he had had specially imported from the Rose Empire. The pain hit him like a wall, crushing every thought. His vision went black, and his hearing registered nothing but his own screams. He completely missed whatever it was that finally finished him off.

All he knew was that the pain was gone.

 

A Player was attacked by the Jeskeri Practitioner, but was saved!

Magestar was killed by the Jeskeri Practitioner! He was a Citizen Legionnaire!

Wilson was killed by the Jeskeri Practitioner! She was a Citizen Bodyguard!

Jaime was killed by the Jeskeri Practitioner! She was a Citizen Bodyguard!

Elodin  was killed by the Jeskeri Practitioner! He was a Citizen ChayShan Practitioner!

Araris was killed! He was a Citizen Merchant!

Elbereth was killed! She was a Citizen Dula!
 

The Secret Faction The Jeskeri Cult has been revealed. They are eliminators. They have a Doc. They do not have a group or nightly kill. Their goal is to outnumber the Citizenry and kill all other Eliminators.

The Secret Role Jeskeri Practitioner has been revealed. Jeskeri Practitioners may target one player every 3rd night. That player is killed, as is Every player that player targets, and every player that targets that player. If the Practitioner dies, a Jeskeri Acolyte ascends to become a Practitioner.

 

Living Player List:

 

1. Alvron

2. Amanuensis

3. Aonar

4. Arraenae

5. Burnt Spaghetti

6. Conquestor

7. Elenion

8. Emerald

9. Eolhondras

10. Kipper

11. Lopen

12. Orlok

13. Renegade

14. Sart

15. Stink

16. The Silver Dragon

17. The Young Bard

 

Edited August 10, 2016 by Metacognition

[A Joe in the Bush]

Nevermind. It's up now.

[Elenion he/him]

Holy kolo!

First off, can someone please explain how Elodin was a citizen when he openly claimed Jeskeri? But it seemed like he was working with the Practitioner, so alignment obfuscation sounds pretty likely to me. But I hope that he was the Jeskeris' only Chay-Shan.

Next up, the Jeskeri are full-out elims, as I noted as a possibility earlier but then forgot to put into my calculations. Storms!

Next, it appears that my attempt to forge an alliance with them was stupid. Well played, @Master Elodin.

The outed Jeskeri appears to have been Jaime, but I'm not completely sure of that with what went on. But if that was the case, how was Jaime also a Citizen? More role obfuscation?

[Alvron he/him]

Well crap.  I would vote for Elodin but it seems he died as well.  On top of that he was a villager which just leaves me confused.

@The Only Joe you have Wilson and Elodin in the list of the living despite being killed during the night.  They are dead right?  There isn't a Zombie mechanic is there?

Edit: nvm Joe, I see you changed it while I was typing this up.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Alvron

[Renegade he/him]

Aman.  The Jeskeri attacked one of their own players who they knew would be protected.  Nobody else other than Aman could've coordinated that many players to target him at once, nor could they have known that he was being targeted by so many players.

[Arrae]

@The Only Joe, what were the specific circumstances that would reveal the Jeskeri practitioner role? What is a Jeskeri acolyte? Can Bodyguards protect against Jeskeri practitioner kills? Can Legionnaires protect against them? Are there items in this game? What happens if the Jeskeri practitioner targets someone who is arrested?

The Jeskeri do not have a conversion or a sacrificial kill. However, they are eliminators, and they exist. If we had accepted Elodin's plan, the Jeskeri would have gained a huge advantage. I don't know how likely an alignment obfuscater is, but I have a feeling that an unknown alignment obfuscater in an unknown eliminator team would be imbalanced.

Elodin was a Chayshan practitioner, so if his aligment was truly village, he had the means to carry out his attack. If he was village, I have no idea what he plan was supposed to do. Phish for reactions?

Also, Chayshan practitoner and Jeskeri practitioner sound very similar. Both are ways to access the Dor, both end in "practioner", and both are kill roles.

@Renegade, How do you know Aman was protected and attacked?

Edited August 7, 2016 by Arraenae
Ninjaed

[Renegade he/him]

40 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

 

@Renegade, How do you know Aman was protected and attacked?

I can't know for sure, but there's several very jarring pieces of evidence.  One of which to comes to mind is that Magestar seemed rather certain that Aman was being protected last night, and considering that Mage is a Legionnaire and was killed, it makes sense that Aman was the one who was attacked.

Edit: Also, according to Wilson's trust list, the only players she likely would've protected are Aman, Eol, Emerald, and herself.  Wilson clearly didn't protect herself, and I highly doubt that Eol or Emerald received that many actions.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Renegade
Wrong link

[A Joe in the Bush]

31 minutes ago, Elenion said:

Holy kolo!

First off, can someone please explain how Elodin was a citizen when he openly claimed Jeskeri? But it seemed like he was working with the Practitioner, so alignment obfuscation sounds pretty likely to me. But I hope that he was the Jeskeris' only Chay-Shan.

The outed Jeskeri appears to have been Jaime, but I'm not completely sure of that with what went on. But if that was the case, how was Jaime also a Citizen? More role obfuscation?

Jaime was a Citizen, NOT a Jeskeri. Neither was Elodin. There is no 'Outed Jeskeri' Mechanic. Mailliw and Elodin made that up. That is a prime example of Deliberate misdirection.

7 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

@The Only Joe, what were the specific circumstances that would reveal the Jeskeri practitioner role? What is a Jeskeri acolyte? Can Bodyguards protect against Jeskeri practitioner kills? Can Legionnaires protect against them? Are there items in this game? What happens if the Jeskeri practitioner targets someone who is arrested?

The specific circumstances that reveal the Jeskeri Practitioner are the succesful death of more than one player in an attack. The Jeskeri Acolyte, PAFO. BG's can protect against Practitioner kills. So can Legionnaires. There are no Items. This is what happens if the Jeskeri Practitioner targets an arrested player. The Legionnaire who arrested the player, and all who attempted to target them, (In this case, Jaime, WIlson and Elodin) Die.

[Arrae]

46 minutes ago, Renegade said:

Stupid quotebox.

Let's assume that Aman was arrested by a legionnaire and attacked by the JP. Someone was saved and Magestar, a legionnaire died. Fits the hypothesis. A Chay-shan practitioner, Elodin, died. He mentioned that he might attacked Aman. Fits the hypothesis. Two bodyguards, Wilson and Jaime, protected Aman. That's the weird part.

Why would two bodyguards protect someone who was arrested? Maybe they didn't know that person would be arrested. Wilson and Magestar were both scanned by a Dula. However, they might not have been coordinating actions, so Wilson might not have known that Magestar had arrested Aman. She also might have known but didn't trust Magestar to actually arrest him. Jaime might have thought that Aman wasn't getting legionnaired and needed protection.

Why would the JP attack someone who from the very start of the game said that he would be arrested every Night? There's a chance that Aman might be bluffing and not be arrested. The JP might only kill Aman, especially if nobody else targets him because they think he's arrested. There's also a chance that Aman might be arrested. The JP might only kill the legionnaire arresting him. 

Last Night, Magestar claimed that he was in a system Aman set up, with several players. Wilson said she had weak village reads on Magestar and Jaime, and they all targetted the same arrested person. Aman, if you're a villager and really do have a system based around protecting you, your organizing skills suck.

No philosopher kill this Night. However, two people still died to non-JP causes. 

@TheMightyLopen, if you really are a Chay-Shan Practitioner, who did you kill these past few Nights?

[Alvron he/him]

5 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

No philosopher kill this Night.

We don't know that yet.  Joe still needs to edit in Araris and Els deaths.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Alvron