Mid-Range Game 31: Spiritual Warfare

[Fifth Scholar]

Did anyone notice that we have 5 cycles left until the Invasion now? We should be on 6 cycles left, if we were on-track. This makes me think something happened behind the scenes, and that we’re running out of time. 

Also @Steeldancer @Kidpen Do either of you have reasons to suspect CadCom? Going with the prevailing logic without at least stating what parts of it you agree with isn’t going to get us very far. In addition, could someone who’s been accusing CadCom pull out the actual reasoning being used to condemn him? @Cadmium Compounder I understand your motive for self-defense, but do you have other thoughts on Bard or anyone else? If you have a defence, could you state it?

[Steeldancer]

I'm not so much suspicious of Cadcom as I feel like he's currently the best option for a lynch imo. 

[Fifth Scholar]

But what makes him a good candidate for the lynch over, say, Bard or Drought, or Itiah, who have also been broached as potential lynch targets?

[Steeldancer]

Itiah is a bit too obvious as a convert, drought has done literally nothing all game plus some other reasons for not suspecting him, and I mainly suspect Bard based on how he's acting towards Cadcom. Lynch cadcom and we get info. 

[CadCom]

35 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

Did anyone notice that we have 5 cycles left until the Invasion now? We should be on 6 cycles left, if we were on-track. This makes me think something happened behind the scenes, and that we’re running out of time. 

Also @Steeldancer @Kidpen Do either of you have reasons to suspect CadCom? Going with the prevailing logic without at least stating what parts of it you agree with isn’t going to get us very far. In addition, could someone who’s been accusing CadCom pull out the actual reasoning being used to condemn him? @Cadmium Compounder I understand your motive for self-defense, but do you have other thoughts on Bard or anyone else? If you have a defence, could you state it?

Mainly any additional reasoning is what I expressed in my first accusation of him. I still have a litle bit of that tunnel stuck on me. 

I also just want to throw out there that when I die, to please consider my posts of this cycle. I don't know if I'm right, but I think that there's a possibility that one of the people who cleared me this cycle could be an eliminator trying to clear their name. 

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

 

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Being completely honest, After putting my vote in the thread, I brought this issue up in my doc, and, before anyone responded, I went through the thread again, and explained my thoughts more, including how I thought that [Fifth Scholar] was the wrong choice, and [Elandera] was a better one. But I haven't changed it in thread. If anyone in my doc wants to vouch for me, then that'd be cool, but if not, I understand.

I don't believe anyone from CadCom's faction actually addressed this. Did CadCom in fact change his mind in the doc well before he changed his vote in the thread?

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I’ll look at them in more detail later, but I still believe that CadCom is the most suspicious as things stand. 

@Fifth Scholar, what caused you to change your mind about the relative suspicion of CadCom and the Independents? If you're not even particularly confident about your top Independent suspect, it would seem you had a reason to downgrade your suspicion of CadCom.

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Hmmm... I'm good with revealing all the factions and Independents at this point (both as they were last cycle and as they are now), mainly because I suspect that the Village would gain more from that info at this point in the game compared with the Spirits.

Do you still stand by this statement, @Young Bard? At the time you posted this, Elephant and Steel had not yet claimed to be Barons, while MetaTerminal and Walin were not revealed as Independents. There's a decent chance the Spirits would have gained information they didn't already know had the faction lists been posted at that time.

 

I don't believe we should lynch Itiah this cycle, unless we get solid evidence beyond his role. If he's a villager, killing him only reveals that there is a traitor in the Wildman doc, which we know already. We know he's Dashe, so if he's evil he would have to be a convert. His death would then remove a convert, but it wouldn't necessarily tell us anything about how many Wildmen were also evil, as an evil Dashe could easily have lied and said one Spirit when there were actually two, and the Spirits may still have conversions left. 

We haven't heard from @Droughtbringer in over five days, though he has been online to potentially submit orders. I would have expected Drought to contribute more if he was evil, especially since him being an Independent rather than a Wildman means he can't just show up, submit a kill and log off. Has anyone received a PM from him since he last posted?

I'll probably vote for either CadCom or Bard, but I'm going to wait and see if anyone responds to this before making a final decision.

[Kidpen]

1 hour ago, Fifth Scholar said:

Also @Steeldancer @Kidpen Do either of you have reasons to suspect CadCom?

He seems the most evil out of the other lynch targets. I'm beginning to get a bit suspicious of Steel as well, but oh well.

I'm aware that I'm terrible at this game and I have embraced it.

[Fifth Scholar]

@Devotary of Spontaneity My main issue with the lynch train on CadCom was how quickly it sprung up, with fairly little opposition. While that isn’t a great reason to dislike it, there’s also the contribution of Bard to the CadCom lynch, which I don’t like thanks to my ambivalent feelings about him, and I have a desire to re-examine both the Wildmen and Independents to see what I can dig up. CadCom isn’t off my suspicions list, but he’s certainly moving towards the bottom, and I have other people I’m more focused on (namely the active Independents and Wildmen, some of whom I trust and some of whom I do not). 

[Darkness Ascendant]

3 hours ago, Fifth Scholar said:

Did anyone notice that we have 5 cycles left until the Invasion now? We should be on 6 cycles left, if we were on-track. This makes me think something happened behind the scenes, and that we’re running out of time. 

2

I don't know what you are talking about. Totally didn't make a mistake from the start nope.

[TheMightyLopen]

I suppose I should vote Bard, as I do feel Cadcom is village. I haven't examined Bard's posts very closely, but from what I can recall I hadn't formed an opinion either way. Just seemed like pretty typical posts, with nothing to sway me towards him being village or elim.

Anyone have a vote count?

Edit: not 100% sure this is correct

Cadcom(4): Bard, MetaTerminal, Steel, Kidpen
Bard(3): Fifth, Cadcom, Lopen

@Devotary of Spontaneity, Cadcom did mention switching to Elandera before he posted, yes. Not sure how much time before though.

Edited October 2, 2018 by TheMightyLopen

[xxGaea]

My suspicions of CadCom had mainly been due to getting a weird vibe from their posts in-thread, but I have since become more suspicious of Bard, as well. 

[Young Bard]

25 minutes ago, Devotary of Spontaneity said:

Do you still stand by this statement, @Young Bard? At the time you posted this, Elephant and Steel had not yet claimed to be Barons, while MetaTerminal and Walin were not revealed as Independents. There's a decent chance the Spirits would have gained information they didn't already know had the faction lists been posted at that time.

Hmmm... ish? I might push for it harder if CadCom flips Elim, since we'll know that by posting the Wildmen lynch, we're not narrowing down the list of possible Shaors for the Spirits.

As for why I'm voting on CadCom, a couple posts (particularly their first vote of the last cycle, which felt to me a lot like an Eliminator who knew they'd almost won) felt very off to me, and it matches sentiments expressed by others independently, and historically, that's been a sign that I've been on the right track. On top of that, I feel like he would make a good convert, since it would allow the Spirits to have a spy in the Wildmen doc, and have someone to try and influence the vote in that doc (the effects of which I feel we're seeing a bit now.)

OK, this is interesting - I have more votes on me now, but the only one that actually gives an explanation (beyond not being suspicious of CadCom) is Fifth, which I think I forgot to respond to. Some of my posts were exaggerated in tone last cycle, but that's because I was paranoid last cycle that the Spirits knew who Shaor was and were planning on converting him that cycle, ending the game. Since that hasn't happened, my paranoia has eased (slightly). As for me trying to pocket you... I have openly stated I trusted you, but I think that was backed up with very good reasons (namely, you led the lynch on Shqueeves, and couldn't have been converted the cycle after). So I feel my posts were justified, and I stand by them.

This may be my last post before rollover, because my laptop doesn't have a lot of battery life left, so if I get lynched (and supposing the game doesn't end with Shaor's conversion), please look at CadCom and Drought as my biggest suspects.

[Alvron]

Vote Tally:
Crmsn (0): Fifth
Bard (4): Fifth, CadCom, Lopen, Crimsn
CadCom (5): Meta, Bard, Steel, Kidpen, Alv
Fifth (0): Lopen

While normally I love a tied vote, this one doesn't help us as it would only give one level of pain to both CadCom and Bard.  Bard would survive that and if CadCom is a Spirit then he would also survive making it a wasted cycle.  While I have some suspicion of Bard, we know that there is a Spirit among the Wildmen so the odds are better there.  Sorry CadCom but I have to go with the odds.

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

Well now there is opposition to the CadCom lynch. I don't really see the Bard lynch though. Fifth mentioned feeling that the tone of Bard's posts were off, and Bard was a little too eager to have the faction lists posted, but most of the votes against Bard appear to have been cast because he was the only viable alternative to CadCom. I'm not seeing the evidence for being a villager that Lopen and Crimsn appear to be noticing. Admittedly, most of my reasoning for suspecting CadCom is tonal, mostly where he sounds too sure of how many converts the Spirits have. I also don't like how he's been setting up people to be lynched for their votes, such as when he cast suspicion on everyone voting for Straw, Sart, or a GM cycle 2, and now where it appears he wants to cast suspicion on those who cleared him. Furthermore, voting for Bard at this point would cause a tie, which is not really a desirable result. I will therefore be voting for Cadmium Compounder.

[A Joe in the Bush]

The Turn is Over!

[Darkness Ascendant]

Domi Domi

Kielan crouched behind a fallen wall, and signalled to the others to move up the street. Kaido waved his hand for Kielan to move forward. Kielan frowned, and glanced over his wall. Spork, the hulking wildman they were sure was working for Galladon, was standing in the rubble of the abandoned restaurant along with some other Wildmen. Kielan was quite certain he was the closest to the beast, and that meant the others needed to move up.

So he waved again for the others to move up. Daan shook his head vigorously and mouthed something at him. Kielan cocked his head, exaggeratedly mouthed what and cupped his ear.

Daan snuck a peek out from behind his pillar, then hissed “get closer!”

“You first.”

“You!”
Kaido pounded his fist into one hand threateningly at him. Daan glared. The Squid undulated. Diir rolled his eyes, then stood and strode menacingly into the restaurant. Kielan and Kaido both froze, then darted up and behind him, followed by Daan and the squid. The Wildmen inside looked up, except for Spork, who seemed to be playing with bits of metal.

Diir pointed at Spork and spoke loudly and slowly. “Spork, Spirit. Evil. Food stealer.”

Kielan looked at their faces, hoping to see some understanding. They had seemed to perk up at Diir’s words. “Food?”. Keilen sighed, Maybe he could help them along? He stood, walking up beside Diir and pointing as well. “Kill.” Keep it simple. That was the best way to deal with Wildmen.

Diir looked at him in shock and, was that fear? Why?

The Wildmen around Spork began to grunt and growl. They didn’t look perky anymore. They looked focused and expectant. He should probably keep reinforcing the idea. “Kill.” He pointed as vigorously as he could at Spork, using both hands now. “Kill!”

Diir facepalmed. “You’re dead.”

Kielan frowned, “What?” And then a Wildman tackled him. He screamed and raised his arms to try to protect his soft pretty face. More of the wildmen piled on top of him. “Someone! Help me!”

“Quick everyone!” yelled Daan. “Get Spork while the Wildmen are distracted!”

“No! Help me!”

“I think Daan wants us to help him kill Spork!”

“I hate all of you!” The Wildmen were still beating him as his human comrades ran past to attack Spork. He struggled valiantly against the Wildmen, taking numerous injuries. But there was no escape to be had. He closed his eyes, and began to pray to Holy Jaddeth.

Immediately, a great weight was lifted from him. He snapped his eyes open to see the squid lifting the Wildmen from him and throwing them around the room. Panting, Kielan stood, and bowed slightly to the squid. “Thank you, you have saved my life. I will do my utmost to return the favor.”

Another Wildman grabbed the squid from behind and tore it in half, throwing the pieces to opposite sides of the room.

“Or not. I think I’ll just run away.” Corpses and Hoed littered the field. Diir was groaning, and dragging himself along the floor. Kielan ran to him and dragged the man’s arm up, supporting him. Half staggering from his own wounds, the two stepped over Flavio’s body and out of the Restaurant.

---

“Are you sure about this princes?” Shuden inquired, warily looking at the gate of Kae.

“What? Is the great JinDo martial artist afraid of a door?” Sarene poked him

“Not the door...what lies behind it” muttered the man.
“Haha, there’ll be nothing but pitiful half-livers I’m sure. You haven’t seen an Elantrian have you Shuden?” Eondel assured him.
“No...not in the time I’ve been here”

“Here my lady!” a voice cried from behind the trio. “Your escorts, along with the goods you ordered”. They turned around and saw a man in leather armour accompanied by a small band of other guards trailing carts as they turned around. “Awesome, glad to see you lieutanant”.

“Just a humble officer my lady, delighted to meet you”

They shook hands and the man gestured towards the doors, “Shall we?”

“Oh this better not go sourly” Shuden muttered.

\\Event Initiated-Widow's Trial//

For the duration of Turn 6 all indidividuals may forgoe their normal action and instead send in an action to " Order Food" this lowers the pain levels of the recipient by 1, Injured become Pained and Pained become Healthy etc.

 

---

Nothing was going well at all, even as Hrathen walked out of his office he nearly tripped. Tripped. Gyorns did not trip! Hrathen himself had not tripped in nearly 3 years, and at least on that day he had been in private…

He shook his head and straightened himself up, looking around hastily to make sure nobody had seen his misdemeanour.

Thank Jaddeth, nobody had.

He left the Derethi monastery and began his usual walks around the city, wondering about what he should speak of in his next sermon in Elantris. The Demon angle seemed to be working with varying success and he seemed to rouse a decent congregation. Of course, a handful of people were not enough to convert a nation, in fact next to none of them had converted themselves. Hrathen needed to quickly think of something that would appease Wyrn, another Duladel case would not weight well on his conscience.

Speak of the demons, Hrathen had finally rounded around to Elantris itself, and surely enough the gates were open, revealing a large group of guards and what seemed to be Sarene, of all people, handing out food to the wretched beings. Only a line of guards stood between the monsters and a large congregation that had gathered outside the gate.

By Jaddeth

Hrathen finally had an idea of what just might work!

---

Iadon stared darkly out of his window and down towards Elantris. He watched the wretched girl hand out his valuable resources to the inhumans, pondering Telrii’s words from the night before. Of course...he did seem to be right, and if his intercepted message was to be held to truth, the girl was more than just an annoyance.

Even still, she mocked him in his own halls, she infuriated him with her bold gall and decieved him with her act of being dull. Surely she was more than an annoyance...she and her father must be up to some nefarious plot. A plot to dethrone him and take the vacant throne through Raoden’s inheritance and her connections with Roial, Shuden and Eondel. Were they conspiring against him? Eventeo had always struck him as clever and suave, perhaps this was a manifestation of it. Perhaps his empire was under threat.

If that was the case, the girl needed to be...removed from the equation. Even if his thoughts proved to be false, nobody would miss the girl. But her elimination had to be staged as a natural death...perhaps caused by her husband-to-be’s untimely death.

Of course, he’d need to call upon some old contacts for the job.

---

Vote tally

Bard (4): Fifth, CadCom, Lopen, Crimsn
CadCom (5): Meta, Bard, Steel, Kidpen, Alv
 

Cadcom was lynched! He was a Wildman[/color!]

Steel was killed! He was Dahad!

Lopen was killed! He was a Wildman!

Alvron was attacked but Survived!

Meta was attacked but Survived!

 

The cycle ends in:

 

Player List:

 

 

 

Astrea (Crimsn Wolf)

Mist (Fifth Scholar)

Ynoga (xinoehp512)

Daan (Kidpen)

Ashertma (Devotary of Spontaneity)

Agri Kai (Walin)

Itiah X (I think I am here)

Diir (Alvron)

Straw (Straw (Straw (Straw)))

Soul (Droughtdrinker)

 

Kielan (MetaTerminal)

Sheol (ElephantEarwax)

Kaido (Young Bard)

 

Rat (Sart) Child (I said I was Busy)

Venele (Brightness Radiant) Baron Aanden (Fly you fools)

A Shqueev (Multiple Shqueeves) Raoden

Mii (Mailliw73) Wildman

SIGN ME UP (Coop772) Independent / Baron (What the heck Maill)

Rena (Elandera) Karata of the Spirits (Did it for the Children)

Flavio (TheMightyLopen)Wildman

Spork (Cadmium Compounder) Wildman

Squid of Sensationalism (Steeldancer)Dahad!(

 

 

4 turns until the Invasion begins

 

Edited October 2, 2018 by Domi in the Dark

[Darkness Ascendant]

Colour issues, please ignore. Shard editing/formatting is the worst. 

All upvotes for the first writeup scene to go to @Jaddeth in the Bush  

[A Joe in the Bush]

Praise Jaddeth

[I think I am here.]

Nice!

Also, listen up again!

Time for your Daily Dashe news! Weather looks cloudy with a slight chance of rain 

But seriously, we got a problem. I scanned the Independents last cycle, and I’ve come up with 4 (four) non-converts. With 6 known Independents that are alive that means 2 traitors. Here are the Independents we know.

1. Fifth

2. Devotary

3. Drought

4. Walin

5. Bard

6. MetaTerminal

7. Coop

Coop was already dead, so he’s out of the equation. That leaves 6.

Right now, I can’t decide between Fifth, Bard and Meta.

 

Edited October 2, 2018 by I think I am here.

[Darkness Ascendant]

1 hour ago, Jaddeth in the Bush said:

Praise Jaddeth

You're lucky I tolerate you

Quote

Just my luck

^Lopen's Mantra

[Young Bard]

Dammit.

Right. I'm sure I'm going to be lynched this cycle, which is disappointing, since I genuinely am innocent. I'm surprised at two Independents - one I'd expect, but I thought the Spirits would be targeting the Wildmen to try and find and convert Shaor. There's the chance that Itiah is converted, but I don't read it that way. Which means I'm going to have to go with Drought through process of Elimination - Fifth could have been converted last cycle or the one before that, but certainly not before then, so isn't the first of two. I read Devotary as good, though my paranoid self is starting to doubt that, and I may try and do an analysis of their posts before the end of the cycle. Coop is dead already. Meta I again saw as village, and I honestly can't see them being converted (though that might be an IKYK), and I know I'm not an Eliminator, leaving Drought - @Droughtbringer. If I had to pick a second... it's hard to say, especially since it might have been a convert from last night, but I'd guess Devotary or Meta, with the possibility of Fifth being converted last cycle.

(Oh, and Dahad (or whoever the roleblocker role is) roleblocked me last cycle. That's fair, I suppose.)

EDIT: Huh. I missed the number of attacks. And Steel/Dahad died. As did another Wildman. That's... not good, in the number of possible Shaors left, and no-one to stop the conversions.

EDIT 2: Drought, Alvron. You are a Wildman, and started out injured. How did you manage to survive an attack? Did the Barons ever heal you?

Edited October 2, 2018 by Young Bard
That's... interesting.

[Fifth Scholar]

@I think I am here., that is...disconcerting. I believe this is as hard confirmation as we’re going to get of Independent!Galladon, who will likely be one of [Bard, Drought, Devotary, Meta]. I really don’t like any of the four, but I especially don’t like the way in which Bard was saved last cycle. Call this a tunnel (and you’d probably be right) but I am seeing the odd way votes swung on and off him at the end of last cycle as potentially informative, and the lynch on CadCom looked almost like an attempt to swing it away from an Independent, Bard, to a potential Shaor, CadCom. I’ll go back over last cycle, but this would make me more immediately suspicious of Devotary as well, though I’m still unsure on her. 

Drought, though fairly inactive, was still acting suspiciously at the beginning of the game IMO, and I wouldn’t be adverse to seeing him killed. Meta is possible, but less likely; I’m reading him more as confused and new than anything else. I believe Walin is likely too inactive at this point to be Galladon or a convert, though I could be wrong on this. 

That leaves me, of course. While I am relatively trusted, as a self-proclaimed Baron, the Eliminators would have next to no reason to waste a conversion on me; if they have any left, they gain more from narrowing the field of potential Shaors (which is rapidly shrinking by the way; could the Wildmen not self-target so much?) than from trying to pick up trust. I suppose the argument could be made that they wanted eyes in the Barons, but so little has happened in that doc it’s kind of sad.  Finally, regarding the timing of any conversion on me; as Bard said, it would have had to happen after the conversion/death of BR and Elandera, at which point I don’t think the Spirits would be trying to convert anybody except Wildmen. 

As a final note, it is possible that Itiah is lying, as a Wildman convert, and it’s not implausible. That said, again because I believe the Spirits are focusing on converting Shaor, and because he is definitively ruled out, I am inclined to believe him for now. 

[xxGaea]

Alright, so. When I first saw that three good peoples died this round, I kinda gave up hope of being able to win anymore. But then I realized, by looking through the rules and everything, that it is still entirely possible for us to win. In order for the Spirits to win, they have to either outnumber us or kill/convert Shaor. We now know that there are at least three Spirits, and a max of four Spirits. If there are four spirits, they have no conversations left. Meaning that Shaor would be safe from conversion. [to note, this is not at all me telling Shaor to claim, since there is no way for us to know for sure if the Spirits have used all their conversations or not.] Now, the ways that someone can currently die are by the lynch or by a Wildmen kill. Meaning that the lynch is the only way to kill Shaor, since it is not possible for the Wildmen to attack Shaor. So as long as we don't lynch Shaor, we should be safe from that win-con.

With there being a max of four Spirits, we have a bit of a cushion left for the second win-condition of the Spirits. As long as we are more careful with our Wildmen kills, we still have a few cycles to root out the remaining Spirits. 

As for the Independents, I think we should closely watch Fifth. Since they seemed like such an obvious choice for conversion--for being the leader of the Shqueeves lynch--that made us pseudotrust him not being converted. As was mentioned when I brought this up in the Wildmen doc, it is a huge IKYK situation, because our thinking the Spirits wouldn't convert Fifth because of how obvious they were makes them actually a really good conversion, since we'd think they wouldn't convert such an obvious choice. ----I am more inclined to agree with Bard after reading his post, that it seems unlikely for it to be Fifth, which leaves the plausible options as Meta and five others that I don't really have a read on. I don't really trust Bard at all, so I am wondering if Bard and Meta are the two Spirits in the Independents. [Also, @Fifth Scholar, mind shooting me a PM?]

On the other Independents, I don't really have a read on Devotary, Drought, or Walin, so not much to say there. I have had a bad gutread on MetaTerminal for a long time--which I did bring up in cycle two, I believe. Ahhhh, I'm just not sure what to think right now.

9 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

they gain more from narrowing the field of potential Shaors (which is rapidly shrinking by the way; could the Wildmen not self-target so much?)

Haha, yea I would like us to stop the self-targeting. I am not sure who attacked Alvron and Lopen--although it was brought up in the doc that it is possible that Lopen was the bodyguard and was guarding Alvron. I was under the impression that the Wildmen were targeting Steeldancer, since his posts had felt off. The attack on Alvron has made me slightly less suspicious of him--but I'm not entirely certain of that.

Edited October 2, 2018 by Crimsn-Wolf
adding more reasoning onto Fifth read

[A Joe in the Bush]

Steeldancer's Hoed Mantra:

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Flailing Tentacles as I die

Cadmium Compounder's Hoed Mantra:

Quote

Praise the Ja! I'm innocent!

 

[MetaTerminal]

It appears my general ineptness is working both for and against me when it comes to gut reads. In terms of suspicions: while I’ll probably do a deeper read of all of the candidate’s posts, I’m going for a tentative blind guess of Bard, with Fifth Scholar as my second - I’m not happy with the IKYK trust that Fifth has, and it’s entirely possible that they were converted this turn when the Spirits saw the trust that had built up. Is there a reason they’ve been cleared from being Galladon apart from Itiah’s trust?

Also, I survived two attacks. Wow.