Long Game 7: The Annealing of Luthadel

[Left he/him]

Lord Fain got out of his carriage and stepped onto the back of a skaa slave he kept as his step. He made sure to keep that skaa alive because it was remarkably difficult to train a skaa to keep their lowly backs flat, even, and unmoving. The skaa lurched making a sneezing sound, sending Fain to the ground. As he tried to get up swearing at the rusting slave he felt something like a punch to his right shoulder followed by a sharp pain. The Lord started calling out for his guards only to look around and see them surrounding him already. He tried to stand but the pain hit him again sending him crashing against one of the guards. The guard helped steady him and escorted him inside the Fain manor while the house guard commander sent orders out and called for the house surgeon. 

Hours later Fain was doing better although he had lost a lot of his blood. He had been attacked with a large steel ball wrapped on 5 of its six sides with a strange light metal. Despite his best efforts to keep a low profile, only showing up when needed, and the rest of the time either too busy with house affairs or else just trying to stay safe from the outbreak of killings that had been plaguing The Lord Ruler's city of late. Still he'd done a great deal to support the cause of Lord Heron and had made it far. If he didn't survive than at least he had done his best.

 

So first couple of day/night cycles I really was very busy in real life and couldn't write much, but I've made sure to use everything at my disposal to help the cause behind the scenes the rest of the time. My team decided that it'd be best if I just stayed low after a while to protect myself. So I've been following that and trying to make sure that I contribute as much as possible at the same time. Last night cycle I got attacked so I'm not really expecting to survive next night. I'm thinking Asyr as well, but I don't have any proof that hasn't already been submitted I think. So anyway, I am alive! But probably not for long...............

[Sart he/him]

"Well gents, I hope you're happy." Asyr strode calmly toward the door. He stopped before exiting, and turned to face the crowd, calling for his execution. He supposed it was inevitable. He had known that a House Lord would have had his background checked out sooner or later. Honestly, he was rather surprised that it had taken them this long.

 

     He knew that his father had been Skaa from an early age. Most people assumed that his mother had a Noble lover, or even that she was raped. She never told them the truth; that she had fallen in love with one of the laborers, and had sex with him. Was it any wonder that his step-father had the man executed quietly? He hated that man. He could still recall the beatings that had accompanied his visits. He could hear that wretched noble saying he wasn't worthy, that he was only there because his mother hadn't given him a child yet. He thanked the Lord Ruler that his "father" had been born infertile. Still, the beatings hurt. The anger hurt. The whip on his skin that last time had hurt. The coin that he pushed into his father, hurt more. People whispered that he killed his father to gain the House. He let those rumors thrive.

 

     Asyr was a bitter old man. He was not afraid to show his displeasure, and was known as a force to be reckoned with. His incomes tripled, and he became the head of a Great House. He let his House members have their privacy, and they let him have his. He supposed he should be grateful for that. After all, how else was he going to smuggle Skaa out of the city if he had Nobles prying into his business at every turn? He grinned, for he had alerted them after the votes had turned to him. By now, they were somewhere out in the country; he didn't know where so the Inquisitor couldn't find them.

 

     He smiled sardonically. They had been a great team while it had lasted. He was the leader, orchestrating the killings, and supplying much needed resources. There was the elderly Racine, monitoring their meetings, making sure no prying eyes were watching. Wandrin, the lazy soother, calmed the skaa's fear, ensuring fresh recruits. Asyr missed them both. At least the last member was still alive. He hoped they would be alright, though he doubted they would live much longer. He realized he was getting caught up in day dreams. He was old, and it had some privileges.

 

     He addressed his audience once again. "You're all children. You play your little Noble games, not realizing the lives you hurt. You are scum. I would hate you, but instead I pity you. You'll tear each other apart. It's already happening. You've already murdered innocents. How long do you think it will take until this will become a house war? No, it already has. I hope you're happy with your ill gotten gains. Do you think the Lord Ruler cares about you? He knows you can be replaced. And so I say to him, Lord Heron, Inquisitor Belmark, and the whole lot you: go to Hell." He calmly pushed against the door, and flew out the room. His tears were his only companion.

Edited August 13, 2014 by a smart guy

[Metacognition he/him]

That was awesome Asyr; well played. 

 

I just have one question for you: why hit Fain of all people?

[Ashiok]

Also, when did you do that?

[Kasimir he/him]

Kassel awkwardly adjusted the bandages on his arm in the silence that followed Lord Tuy's outburst and departure, feeling strangely tired. Time to end this, he thought. It was long past time; he was tired and sick of balls, of killing, and of the Inquisitors. He was tired of jumping at shadows, of looking over his shoulder, of--of what? He didn't even know.

 

His bronzemind wasn't helping; not against this exhaustion which had stolen over him. He stood up, nudging his way past some of the other nobles to find the one he was looking for. He grimaced; Fien was dressed in what he insisted were Urbain colours--gaudy as always. He wondered briefly where Fien had gotten that idea from--some of the recent historical texts describing the Great Houses of Luthadel had indicated the colours of House Urbain had been different. At least it wasn't hard to pick Fien out in a crowd.

 

"Lord Urbain," he said, quietly. "We need to talk."

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Night 6

 

Hadrian strode forwards, before his peers. "I vote for Lord Tuy," he declared. "I said we should take down a House Lord, and I still think we should! After all, his is the only House that the Skaa haven't attacked..."

 

"I agree with Lord Penrod," Alden said, nodding. "House Seeris had no Skaa, and they were attacked continually, and House Urbain was only attacked when their Skaa infilitrator had been removed. House Elariel has lost someone as well. House Tuy, however, stands alone as the only Great House which has remained untouched."

 

"Now," he continued with more confidence than he had expected after his previous attempts to speak up had him defending Skaa, "this is by no means damning evidence. To my knowledge, Asyr's guilt cannot be proven. We are running low on suspects though, and we must start somewhere this ball. We're not here to dance, ladies and gentlemen, we're here to find a traitor."

 

"Claiming that such an old and prolific House Lord is actually Skaa is a dangerous thing to do without evidence," Heron said. "Not that we couldn't find out for certain either way..."

 

"My Lords," Kassel said, wincing as he limped over. A bandage could be seen under his shirt - it was rather easy to notice, considering he was wearing a white shirt and the bandages were a bright orange colour. "You will no doubt be pleased to discover that I'd set my contacts to investigating Lord Tuy. I must admit, I had come to similar conclusions, albeit through a different set of propositions."

 

"Last night," he continued, pausing to catch his breath and steel himself, "last night, I was informed that those suspicions were correct. Lord Tuy is Skaa."

 

"I agree," Ashette said, from her small podium in the centre of them all. "I suspected that when he said he was a Coinshot. There have been far too many attacks on us for the Skaa not to have a Coinshot in their employ."

 

"It pains me to have to agree with this, but I too believe that Lord Tuy is hiding something," Kaldin added with a sigh. "Let's just get this over with then." The room turned towards the man in question.

 

"Well, gents, I hope you're happy," Asyr called back, as he slowly strode towards the door. He took his jacket from a slightly bewildered Terrisman, who seemed torn between being polite and thinking that he should be trying to stop Asyr from leaving. "Though calling you gentlemen is a bit of a stretch."

 

"You are all children. You play your little noble games, not realising the lives you hurt. Not realising how pathetic you are for giving yourself airs. You are scum, all of you." He shrugged a bit. "I would hate you, but I can't even bring myself to do anything but pity you instead. You will tear each other apart, just to get slightly ahead of everyone. It may not happen today, it might be tomorrow. But all of you will die at the hands of someone else in this room."

 

"But I suppose that's nothing special to you. You already murder innocent Skaa. Why should you balk at killing guilty nobles? How long do you think this will last, until it becomes a House war?" He shook his head. "No, it already has, whether you realise it or not. Do you think The Lord Ruler cares about you? For your families? You can be replaced, just as easily as I will be."

 

"If I am to have last words for you all, let them be this: The Lord Ruler, Lord Heron, Inquisitor Belmark, all of you can go to Hell." He shrugged his jacket on and took his cane back from the Terrisman. Then he pushed against the door and left. No-one noticed the tears he left behind, soaking into the carpet that led to outdoors.

 

The room was silent for a few moments, and then Fien looked to Lord Heron and the Inquisitor. "Shouldn't someone go after him?" he asked.

 

"I don't see you volunteering, Fien," Mesist said with a patronising drawl as he tossed another coin at Fien. Fien batted it away with a look of irritance. A House war seemed pretty good right now, so long as Mesist was the only casualty. "But however much it pains me to admit it, Lord Orange is correct." He grinned at Fien's subsequent scowl.

 

Mesist looked to Belmark, who shook his head. "I have a House to destroy," the Inquisitor said, before following after Tuy with a measured pace.

 

Lord Heron sighed and took out a handful of coins. "I suppose I shall have to do this," he said, exiting as well.

 

*

 

Wyrm eventually found Asyr atop the Keep of House Morinthe, which had become dusty and unkempt already, though not even a week had gone by. Heron took another coin out of his pouch and aimed it at Asyr, waiting for the elderly man to make a move.

 

"I suppose I should be thankful that the Inquisitor didn't come after me," Asyr said, maintaining his relaxed pose, overlooking the grounds calmly. "Though no doubt you won't let me have an easy death." He turned around slowly to face Lord Heron.

 

Almost immediately, Wyrm launched the first coin at Asyr. It was countered as Asyr too burnt steel, the coin slowing rapidly in mid-air and almost hanging motionless between them, unable to fall from the sheer pressure on it that each applied in opposite directions. The force was transfered through their shots, and both men were knocked backwards.

 

Wyrm was able to stop burning steel in time that he didn't fly off the roof, but he hit one of the crenellations hard enough that it was a scramble to fall to the ground to avoid being struck by the now unimpeded coin. Asyr was knocked back less than his opponent, for he was the stronger Coinshot, but didn't have the benefit of something to stop him falling off the roof. He wasn't concerned though, as he simply Pushed off a window latch and soared gracefully over the grounds.

 

Lord Heron dropped a coin and followed him as closely as he could, attempting to use the same anchors as Lord Tuy did, though it was apparent that Asyr would be able to escape him if this continued. Asyr was simply able to travel further on the same amount of Steel. No, if he needed to stop Asyr escaping, he needed to stop the skaa as quickly as possible.

 

Aiming a shot while bounding through the air like this was difficult, particularly since his target was moving. Wyrm Pushed off another window latch and fired a coin as his prey. His shot went wildly off-target as Asyr changed direction suddenly, yanking himself to the side and sending Wyrm travelling in the wrong direction.

 

Wyrm landed on the rooftop, looking out into the distance at the direction Asyr left in. Despite the fact that any Allomancy seemed to disperse the mists slightly, that didn't mean that they could be seen through easily. He burnt steel again and launched himself in the direction that Asyr had just gone in.

 

A coin bit into his arm out of the mists from ahead, and he hit this rooftop harder, rolling painfully as he landed. Nothing was broken, but his arm was bleeding heavily from where the coin had dug in and then been pressed in further.

 

"I can keep this up all day, your Lordship, leading you around Luthadel like this," Asyr said with a smirk. "I very much doubt that you can."

 

"You're twice my age, Asyr," Heron replied, wincing slightly as he pulled the bloody coin out of his arm and tossed it aside. "You're practically dead on your feet already. I could just wait for you to collapse from exhaustion."

 

"You won't get that lucky," Asyr replied as he threw a handful of coins at Wyrm and Pushed them at him. Wyrm returned the Push, deflecting them slightly and moving to the side so he could attack from another angle. Asyr dropped a coin and jumped off it, escaping back up into the sky.

 

This time though, Wyrm was ready for him. He pushed the coin that Asyr was using as an anchor away, and his trajectory shifted suddenly, flying off at an odd angle. Asyr burnt steel and pushed on a latch, but it wasn't quite enough, and he flew into the side of a building with an audible grunt of pain. He dropped down to the floor, dropping a coin from his hand to steady himself.

 

He whirled around, ready to fire another coin at his opponent, but Wyrm was already there, dagger in hand. Asyr wasn't worried though, the dagger was metal. He could just fire it into his attacker instead. He flared his steel, but was surprised to find none of the lines were coming from it.

 

The dagger found his throat as he attempted to dodge too late. Wyrm withdrew it quickly, taking out a napkin to clean the blade, letting Asyr bleed to death instead of finishing the job immediately. Already blood was oozing out of his throat.

 

"A..." it was excruciating, but his hold on life was rapidly disappearing, and so was the pain. "Alum...?" He managed to get out, blood caught in his throat, stopping him from breathing. The world swam out of focus.

 

"Aluminium wouldn't be strong enough unalloyed," Wyrm replied offhandedly. "Though it's interesting that you know of it. I believe that was how Lady Raisaal died, come to think of it. I suppose we'll have to look for a leak in the Canton of Inquisition," he continued, moving on to soaking up some of the blood on his arm with the napkin. He sighed as he examined the wound. "I hate fighting other Coinshots," he muttered.

 

"But in any case, I'm glad that you revealed that we have a traitor in there as well," he said with a smile, as Asyr's eyes slowly became unfocused. "The Lord Ruler thanks you for your help." He dropped the bloody napkin onto Asyr's face, and Steelpushed off the roof.

 

Night 6 has begun. It will end on Friday at 9PM BST (GMT+1) as an extension has been declared.

 

Asyr Tuy was a half-Skaa Coinshot! Jae Kastner is now Head of House Tuy.

 

The next ball is at House Erikell Urbain.

 

Player List

House Tuy:
Asyr Tuy (a smart guy) - Skaa Coinshot

Jae Kastner (jaelre) [House Lord]

House Elariel:
Hadrian Penrod (Araris Valerian) [House Lord]

Quitania Elariel (QuiteContrary) - Unknown Rioter
Cat Lekal (luckat)

House Seeris:
Jain Phantomhive (Lightsworn Panda) - Noble Seeker

Sylinia Seeris (Theorymaker) - Unknown Pewterarm
Cadri Raisaal (Shivertongue) - Unknown Coinshot

TelZaan - Kandra

House Urbain:
Fien Urbain (Gamma Fiend) [House Lord]
Ren Gardre (Renegade) - Unknown Tineye
Wandrin Nuvidas (New One) - Skaa Soother

House Morinthe:
Racine Morinthe (twelthrootoftwo) - Skaa Tineye

House Venture:
Tonul Venture (Tulir) - Noble Rioter

 

House Tormander:

Hyrun Tormander (The Only Joe) - Unknown Smoker

Unknown Affiliation:

1. Kassel Erikell (Kasimir)
2. Alden Izenry (Aonar Faileas)
3. Ashette Cett (Ashiok)
4. Finch Fain (LeftInch)
5. Mesist A'lees (Metacognition)
6. Mailu Willen (Mailliw73)
7. Kaldin Fathvell (Kal Dell)

Edited August 14, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[Kasimir he/him]

Night had fallen.

 

A basket of oranges sat on the table. Typical, Kassel thought. It had taken Fien a night to send him a fruit basket and a curt card advising him to make a swift recovery in eyewateringly purple ink. At least he liked oranges. He picked one up, and peeled it slowly, juices dripping past his fingers onto the stone floor. The first thing Fien had immediately sent him, upon word of the attack, was bandages. Orange bandages.

 

He half-wondered if Fien had just ordered Gamad to shred up a curtain or something.

 

The orange were tart. Fruit out of season...he set the remaining slices down. The skaa servant usually brought in the tea, but this time, Kassel had brewed it himself. It seemed wiser, in times like these. And what did he mean, by 'in times like these'? Restlessly, he padded over to the bookshelf, his hands finding the slim, worn volume by Althus Iosanth and flipping through the pages until he found the slim reading pointer. The obsidian was cold to the touch. A golden age, he read, haltingly in the poor lighting, never lasts. Perhaps the term itself is a misnomer. Enlightenment--what does it mean? The crimes of tyrants whose bones are long dust lie unremembered; we treat them as new horrors, and believe that the wrongs of our times are the greatest. This, then, is why the historian's task...

 

He sighed, and shut the book in a sharp, decisive movement. It wasn't, he thought, a night for reading Iosanth. He had things to do. He returned to his desk. The cup was already there, waiting. He held up the pouch of pewter beads, weighing it in his hand. The pewter, he thought, was a way of explaining his survival. But it wasn't the truth. He'd been taken by surprise and hadn't even had a chance to reach his pewter vial.

 

Someone saved me, thought Kassel, and I don't even know who. Or why.

 

He counted out pewter beads, gleaming wetly in the steady candlelight, and then swallowed them down one by one with the tea. Bitter as noble grudges; he still didn't know why he insisted on drinking it, each night.

 

Kassel held the cup in his hands, studied it. Admired it. It was beautiful and simple--something most artifacts in a noble House were not. A branch family of House Erikell invested in glassware made from the abundant ash that fell. It was, all things considered, a work of art, in a way.

 

He dashed it to pieces against the stone floor, deliberately, and doused the candle. The philosopher Degan, controversial in this modern day and age, came to mind: As soon as man comes to life, he is at once old enough to die. He'd never liked Degan, and his contemporaries. Too sweeping. Too imprecise. On a night such as this, however...

 

So this is how it ends, Kassel thought, tapping bronze.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Fien finished chewing the mouthful of pastry he had been eating when Lord Heron re-entered the ballroom, slightly bloody and holding his injured arm, letting everyone know the traitor Asyr had been dealt with accordingly.

"Well that's another one down," Fien toasted, raising his glass of wine up in the air in celebration. The glass was only half-full so the sudden gesture only sent a little bit of the wine sloshing over the top of the rim, but it was still enough to let everyone know Fien was already well-and-plastered.

"I feel like I'm forgetting something important," he stated, frowning. "Gamad, what am I forgetting?"

"The gifts from Lady Cett?" The Terrisman proposed.

"No, I said important. Hm." Fien fell silent and pondered for a moment before shrugging. "Oh well. Must not matter much, then. Come on, let's go. I have big plans to start preparing." He walked forward a few steps before he noticed Gamad wasn't following along with him, and was instead standing there and frowning after him.

"Uh, what plans, sir?" He asked.

"Why my House Ball, of course!"

"Um.... sir? That honor was handed to Lord Erikell....." Gamad replied dryly, trailing off.

"Huh? Well, he's in my house, right?" Gamad nodded. "Then it's decided. I'm commandeering the burden of host from him. Poor guy should be resting and taking it easy anyways. Make sure to send him another care package. He didn't seem to enjoy the last one as much." Although I do wonder why Kassel had chosen orange bandages, of all colours? I'm not that much of a stickler for the House Colours.

Gamad bowed. "Yes sir."

"Good, now that that's settled, let's go. We have much to do." Fien downed his glass of wine and tossed it over his shoulder, yelling and waving his thanks back to Ashette for having him, and as he exited the front doors of the keep he looked up into the sky at the weird message that was scrawled there in the shadow of the limelight lamp he had sent as a prank the other night.

Lord Ruler, just what was I thinking?

[Ashiok]

dudes! somebody wanna hit me up with a coinshot target?

[Metacognition he/him]

Okay, cards on the table time. I'm Kassel's Spook and after last night's activities, I have a bone to pick with some people. See, last night the Skaa were far too accurate and Asyr coinshot a lurker for apparently no reason... except there was reason. See, Fain and I are in the same House and he saved me from being hit the first night by Asyr. He also saved Kassel from death last night. He's been lurking on my suggestion, since I assumed that the Skaa wouldn't go after a lurker when they had more important targets they'd need to hit. Up until last night, I was right. 

 

Why am I laying this out? Because the last person I had contacted before last night was Kaldin, who is in the same House as Asyr. Genie had scanned him as a Noble, so I gave him the full extent of what we had learned and including Fain's hiding trick. I asked him not to reveal what he had learned to his House until after we had confirmation on Asyr's alliance. He says that he hadn't revealed it to his House, but then, the next night, the Skaa happen to be incredibly accurate in their shots. I don't buy it. I think that the reason their House was never hit was because they made a deal with the Skaa to try to go for the House Win. 

 

As before, with Tonul, if we're going for the Noble win, betraying us like that is a cruel move, IMO. If the Skaa had figured out who we all were and all that on their own, I'd applaud them and there'd be nothing to it. But for them to just be handed the information by one of our own is just... grrr. 

 

So, I and almost everyone I've contacted, have a deal for the final Skaa. We're scanning you tonight, so we will have confirmation of you by the next day turn and there's no way you'll be able to kill us all off or survive the vote if we all go that route.

 

If you help us raze House Tuy to the ground, we won't kill you until afterwards. If anyone else other than House Tuy gets hit, then we just straight up lynch you and be done with it. But if you go after House Tuy (I suggest Kaldin, as he's the biggest threat), you'll at least get to destroy another Great House. Who you attack tonight determines your fate, so anyone looking for a target for the night, we suggest House Tuy. 

 

Also, yes, I've already been told I'm horribly vindictive, why do you ask?

[Dellexe he/him]

Yo. Ask Jae. He'll tell you the exact same thing. I SAID NOTHING. If you want to make it easy for the Skaa, go ahead. If I die, I swear I'll turn into a cognitive shadow and haunt you.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Kal Dell

[Araris Valerian he/him]

I'm pretty sure Preservation is the resident cognitive shadow right now, and he got toasted by Ruin pretty hard. Might not be the safest thing for you. If only I had a couple coinshots, I could lynch the last skaa and shoot any competing noble houses for the win. I am actually kind of impressed that a house would have tried a pact with the skaa, and that they never revealed that they ha one in their house or anything. I actually suspect that someone in the "chain" of Mesist is a traitor, and sprung this on us to make a bid for soloing everyone. Either that, or there were 5 skaa and we are all going to be doomed pretty soon.

[Dellexe he/him]

I'm pretty sure someone in Mesist's group is a Skaa. I didn't reveal the information, so unless the Skaa just picked someone at random (doubtful) there's a traitor somewhere in that group.

[Ashiok]

Or Asyr forgot that meist's old injury wore off and went for a kill off that

[luckat she/her]

Cat rifled through a few more of the papers she had lying on the table in front of her. This politicking business had never had any draw for her. Ever since it had become clear that her life was at risk if she didn't participate, however, she had been doing as much figuring as she could to find the skaa.

A few lines of her notes made her grimace, until she saw the doodles in the margins. Those made her grin. She took out a fresh piece of paper and started drawing a more detailed picture of Tris to push the foreboding feeling from the pit of her stomach. The tail, sleek and dark as ash. An ear with that tuft of fur. Her mind wandered to other, more pleasant things. When this was all done, she would get away from the city. Flee responsibility. But first, she had to find those skaa.

It wasn't until she was almost done that she noticed what she was really drawing. The picture was wrong. Instead of eyes, she had drawn two large spikes, like those the Inquisitors had. The picture stared at her with Tris's face, but those dull eyes.

A shadow moved at the edge of Cat’s vision. She swiveled her head around--anything to break contact with the picture. Suddenly, something soft hit her cheek. She turned to find Tris in the flesh, sitting on her lap, eyes perfectly normal and staring up at her.

Cat heaved a sigh of relief and hugged Tris in her arms until she leapt up onto the table. It was only a few seconds before the papers were a scattered mess, but Cat didn't care. They weren't helping anyway.

"It won't be long now," she whispered to Tris. "We've almost found them all. Then we can leave all this behind. All the danger and lies. And, can you believe what some people were talking about earlier? Deals with skaa! What is the world coming to? But soon we’ll be done and safe. Soon."
 

---

A bunch of thoughts have been flying around my head since you posted, Meta. One is annoyance that someone might have made some kind of deal with the skaa. Another is puzzlement that the best way to punish someone for making deals with the skaa is to make a deal with the skaa…. And then I’m wondering if you’re even right about betrayal. I don’t have enough information to say for sure either way, but after thinking about it, and at the risk of possibly defending someone I shouldn't, there are two things I want to address.

First, I don’t think betrayal is the only explanation for the attack on Fain. Honestly, my first thought when I learned that Fain had been attacked was that Asyr must have hit someone who the skaa thought was inactive enough to not come forward if he was hit, especially since Fain had said that he would be gone from the forums for two days and appeared mostly inactive before that. Obviously, if Asyr was the one who hit Fain, then he couldn't have hit Mailu (so what Kas learned was a lie the skaa put in), and that’s something he would have wanted to hide. If it was Asyr who hit Fain, then Fain is exactly who I would have expected him to hit to hide the fact that he didn't hit Mailu (if he hit anyone).

Second, I do not understand how the skaa actions during Night 5 were "incredibly accurate". They attacked the person who was the voice of the chain (an obvious target for them) when a lurcher was protecting him with the skaa kill (not exactly an "accurate" time), and a coinshot attacked a lurcher, leaving the lurcher free to still protect someone the next night (and I explained above why he might have seemed a good target independent of his metal). If the skaa had access to the information that Kaldin did, why did they not kill you to cripple noble communications? Or kill a lurcher completely to prevent future protection? Or power through a lurcher's protection with both the skaa kill and coinshot hit? Or why not get to the heart of it and kill the Genie (if you told Kaldin who that was)? Injuring Fain is hardly what I’d call a top priority for the skaa or an incredibly accurate shot.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

When I was informed of Meta's offer to the skaa, I was skeptical myself, and voiced my disagreement with the plan. If we have another possible skaa in our sights, then we should go after them and try and end the game as soon as possible. I'm pretty sure we all decided long ago House politics are useless to us in this game, and while I may understand the want to "make them pay" for what could be a betrayal, it just defeats the purpose of going for the win. Who care if they'll be "tied" with the other Houses for the draw at the end of the second win-con for the houses with 2 players left. And as Cat pointed out above, making an offer with the skaa to get revenge on somebody for making a deal with the skaa kind of loses it's purpose, don't you think?

What I'm worried about is that there isn't one last skaa left. Considering Asyr explicitly stated there was one left in his farewell post makes me wary of disinformation. And the fact that there were 4 alleged hits yesterday. That means that somebody lied about being hit, or a Mistborn took a shot at someone with steel as well. We still can't know the complete truth right now, but it definitely narrows down some possibilities. Either way, Mailu should definitely be checked out tonight to check his claim of being hit last night.

Also, Meta can attest to this, (since Kas has been in contact with him, we've been communicating through him, The Messenger), but I have been long wary of the Chain and a leak. I would hope that all the people in it have been checked by Genie by now, because it does seem we should be able to trust him, turning in two skaa like that. Especially a coinshot. If it's a long-con tactic, that was extremely hurtful to them, and I really don't see the point of it, number wise. Nor could I see the players being given up being on board with it either. (Unless their inactivity was tried to be used against them, in Newan's case and semi-Asyr's case.)

And I'd like to address the Kal accusation and defense. Of course it doesn't immediately mean that Kal had to have betrayed the Chain, and him and Jae are possibly working with the skaa, but there is always the chance. Unfortunately, Kal, we can't really take your teammates word who's in the Doc with you on what's been happening in there, ya ken?

We either check out Mailu or Kal tonight I guess, see what happens, but also keep an eye out for anyone else who might be slipping through the cracks. I'm still wary of that fifth player, though. Still no leads though, and I hope we can lynch Mailu for the win next Cycle. I really hope we don't get side-tracked making deals with the skaa or anything like that, though. :/ Should we ask for an extension, since there's actually some discussion going on, and hopefully we can actually get to something going into the Day Turn and not just an automatic bandwagon of votes.

Edit: I don;t think we should really have any coinshot targets tonight. we're just only going to be helping the skaa, and they might just be able to piggy-back off the coinshot if the target is public, and take out anyone who can maybe survive a hit.
 

Edited August 14, 2014 by Gamma Fiend

[Dellexe he/him]

This is true, Jae is in the House and probably wouldn't say anything harmful. But the more people being honest, the better. The only other one who can attest to my truthfulness is the Great and Powerful OZ GM, but he can't say anything.

-

I vote, in the interests of ending this game and me living through a game, that we kill someone who is likely to be, or confirmed to be, Skaa.

-

Also, putting on my Dellan mask, if I wanted to cause chaos and seriously try to win as a Skaa, I'd order a kill on the Tineye coordinating all the messages or the Genealogist. Without the Tineye to coordinate, no one can share information without revealing their roles anymore, and the Genealogist dying loses the Nobles a night of confirming someone.

[Kasimir he/him]

More awkward in-thread posts as I can't edit my House doc: Gamma, acknowledged.

[Metacognition he/him]

I had a huge, long post written up about how horribly off you guys are, but since it had sensitive information in it, I'm refraining. I left a copy of it in my House Doc though, so you guys can read it after the game ends. 

 

Also, if I am wrong about you Kaldin, I will apologize after the game, but I don't think I'll have to (besides, you think I haven't thought about me being a huge target as Spook? I already gave Kas and Genie a code for figuring out targets and confirming results in case I were to die! We did that fairly early! ).

Edited August 14, 2014 by Metacognition

[Araris Valerian he/him]

I would like to point out that through Cat's contact with Ren I learned that both Jae and Kaldin are confirmed by the Genie to be nobles, so if we don't get a confirmed skaa tonight or there is a 5th one then taking down 2 confirmed nobles wouldn't be that great of an idea.

Edit: I'm the Genie btw for anyone who doesn't know yet. The skaa either already know this or it won't really help them to, since they hopefully will only get 1 kill action left this game.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Araris Valerian

[Wyrmhero he/him]

An extension has been declared! The Night will now end on Friday at 9PM BST (GMT+1)

[Metacognition he/him]

Okay, this is just crazy. Hadrian, you said that you were good with the idea when I ran it by you before! Now even you're turning on me! And since we're all just revealing stuff in thread now, even though it's night, I'm going to go ahead and just post my argument/rant from last night. 

 

For the love of Pete you guys, fine.

 

The main idea of the plan was to keep everyone safe and alive. If Mailu were to hit Kaldin as planned, then he survives due to Atium. That's why I didn't give out his role and just made it a suggestion. We have two scanners for the night and they're on Ashette and Mailu, so the only people that aren't scanned is you two (I'm leave Kas, myself, and Hadrian out of it since we've been the ones actually working together the entire time and finding the Skaa) and Alden (leaving Alden out as that would mean that there was a Lesser House made entirely of Skaa). So unless you're saying one of you two are Skaa, we'll have our confirmation. Both our impromptu scanner and Hadrian are protected, so the Skaa can't kill them even if they hit them. On the other hand, the Skaa could easily hit Kas or Fain and take one of them out, since they're both injured.

 

Now as far as leaked information goes, I still think that Kaldin and Co. did indeed leak the information. How else do you account for the Skaa hitting both Lurchers in the same night? Cat, why would Asyr have to hit someone at all, based on your idea? And if he knew that Fain was lurking on purpose, why would he think that he wouldn't come forward? If he didn't know that Fain was lurking on purpose, then why waste his shot on someone that it wouldn't matter if he was hit or not when he could have doubled up on someone? That's why it's too accurate. They couldn't know if Kas was protected, but they knew that if they wanted a chance, they needed to get rid of our ability to protect ourselves and with us closing in on them, they couldn't afford the time it would take to double up. You're looking at the effects of their attacks in hindsight. This is why I'm fairly certain that the information had to be leaked and the most likely suspect for that is Kaldin, since everyone else already knew about this well ahead of time and this is not information you just sit on since, even if it does implicate you, it gives the rest of your team the knowledge they needed to know to be able to cripple us. So yes, I feel fairly confident that the information was leaked. Kaldin's denial of it makes me think that he was working with Asyr the entire time and thus deserves to be taken down a peg. Not enough to be actually killed, but enough to make a point about what it means to actually go against your own team (No offense, Kal. Heck, I asked Fain right off the bat if he was Skaa too! ), though I would've been willing to go with the actual razing to the ground bit as well.

 

So why am I spilling the beans now rather than waiting till the end of the night? Because it doesn't matter. Since you guys are giving the Skaa a reason to not go for the deal in the first place by making it less certain that we'd even honor such a deal, let the chips fall where they may. If both Ashette and Mailu turn out to be Nobles then either Cat or Gamma are Skaa so we'll have a 50/50 chance of killing the last Skaa in the lynch tomorrow at the very least.

 

So for Mailu, here are your best targets if you want to get in one final kill, unless someone has been lying about where their protection is going: Kas, Fain, Cat, Ashette, Jae. If you hit anyone else, the best you'll do is injure them.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Metacognition

[Ashiok]

Wait... Mail is the skaa? I'm confused...

[Dellexe he/him]

In theory, Mailu is the last Skaa.

-

I'm going to stand by what I have said, I did not say ANYTHING in my House doc. You will see when this game is done. I have not said anything since saying "You have one mission: Don't let me die." when I went out on a backpacking trip.

-

Also, Meta, you could've told me you wanted the Skaa to waste a kill. I would've been fine with that, but instead you made me think you actually wanted to destroy my house because of a random suspicion.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Kal Dell

[Mailliw73 he/him]

I had a huge, long post written up about how horribly off you guys are, but since it had sensitive information in it, I'm refraining. I left a copy of it in my House Doc though, so you guys can read it after the game ends.

Also, if I am wrong about you Kaldin, I will apologize after the game, but I don't think I'll have to (besides, you think I haven't thought about me being a huge target as Spook? I already gave Kas and Genie a code for figuring out targets and confirming results in case I were to die! We did that fairly early! ).

I'm glad you made a code. Games like this, they're pretty good back up.

Edit: Meta, you owe Kaldin an apology. No deals were made.

Edit: I'm the Genie btw for anyone who doesn't know yet. The skaa either already know this or it won't really help them to, since they hopefully will only get 1 kill action left this game.

Yes. I do know. You're correct.

Mailu heard the horse lord's accusations and knew his game was up. He stepped forward out if the background. "Filthy nobles. You should all burn. Idiots like you should never have been put in charge. We are not the evil ones. We have suffered abuse. We have suffered beatings whenever you 'nobles' feel like it. We have suffered for hundreds of years and we are done. You may kill us four, but there are many more that will eventually defeat you. You will be overthrown and you will regret your treatment of us. The only reason you were able to catch us is the lack of communication we had. Corruption is everywhere in your ranks. You all think us skaa are so stupid. Well two of us were able to imitate you. One was even a house lord. I was able to survive for this long in your culture. We are no different than you. You just want us to be inferior," Mailu began ranting at the nobles. "Mesist, we are smart enough to know our guaranteed targets. Death will be dealt tonight, one last time. None of your houses will be the strongest. All of them will be razed to the ground like Tormander and Seeris or like most, left with a single inhabitant. The few others will only have a couple of members to even the score. Cat, one thing I'll give you," Mailu said, addressing the crazy cat lady, "I am not a Soother. I am a Rioter." With that, Mailu flared his zinc and Rioted the pity of everyone in the room. He ran out, heading for his last kill.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Mailliw73