Long Game 11: Twinborn Village

[Newan he/him]

Day 3

 

Axies knew he had made enemies.  It was time to get away from the center of the village.  He tried to keep a steady pace as he walked toward one of the main tunnels.  

 

The soft sound of stealthy feet came from the stone walkway behind him.  He turned around.  "Sneaking about in the dark, are you?" he yelled into the night, but he saw nothing.  

 

Then he felt the blade slide between his ribs.  Axies fell to the ground.  As the life bled out of him, he heard the hemalurgist snicker, as if trying to keep a laugh in at an inappropriate time.  The strange thought lingered in Axies' mind until his heart stopped beating.  

 

***

 

Lord Mattias Mountford lounged at home.  This "war" against the "spiked" was much more work than he had expected.  

 

"Grape!" he yelled, and held his mouth open for a moment.  Then he was stabbed in the face.  

 

***

 

An ancient relic had been unearthed.  It was waiting for someone to find it.  Who would wield it in battle this time?  Would it be a mighty leader, or a lowly farm boy?  The latter tended to become the former when holding this weapon.  

 

Two hands gripped the haft and slowly lifted Hazecrusher from the ground.  

 

 

Axies was a bronze/nicrosil Twinborn.

Lord Mattias Mountford was a brass/bendalloy Twinborn.  

5 pretty cool items were found.

Hazecrusher was found.  

 

Because of the confusion last cycle, Dowanx is taking the role that was previously held by Eolhondras.  Dowanx now has the abilities, alignment, and previous actions of Sheol.  

 

Map: for some reason, my computer won't upload the picture.  But there is a pretty cool item in every room, except for B1 (Upscale Residential) and B3 (Miners' District) which have awesome items.  

 

Day 3 will end on Friday, April 10 at 8:00 pm PDT, unless anyone asks for an extension.  

Edited April 9, 2015 by Newan

[Kandra Skrull]

Have the PM's been sent out? I haven't gotten mine.

[Newan he/him]

Not yet.  I'm still working on those.  

[Bort he/him]

Well, since the voting has to start somewhere, Phattemer.

 

It's nothing personal Phattemer, we just have to start somewhere, before we all get taken out.

 

My only suspicion for Phattemer was that he asked me to identify what I was capable of, but offered nothing in return.

 

Newan, are you still working on PMs? I'm missing mine.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Bort

[Lightsworn Panda he/him]

Bort, Axies is Phattemer, and s/he's dead.

[Bort he/him]

Oops. Sorry, I missed his gravestone.

 

Clanky then, as the only other person who has PM'ed me.

[vineyarddawg]

I still haven't received my post-cycle-report PM.

[Bort he/him]

Nor have I, which sucks because I'm in the UK, so if there is too long a delay, I may not see last night's PM until the next night cycle.

[Surgebound Rainspren he/him]

I attempted to sleep last round, though as my Pm is yet to come through I don't know how successful it was.

[Araris Valerian he/him]

I slept. I like the feeling of Strength and Power flowing through my veins! I have control over who lives and dies! Join the awesome group that is asleep.

[lev]

Lev labored forward toward the mouth of the tunnel, hauling his heavy load, but paused while still concealed in the shadows to survey the cavern before him. It was completely empty, all of the the inhabitants of the twinborn village were off in the town square, accusing people that had been neighbors and friends until this "war with the spiked" began. Yes, the spiked were an evil that needed to be eliminated, but there had been little effort to try to root them out until the townspeople had discovered the corpses this morning. The spiked were an evil in the village, but they were NOT the only evil.

After one last glance to make sure there were no prying eyes watching, Lev pulled the cloth mask down over his faced and made his way as quickly as possible out of the tunnel mouth toward  Acer Tuy's amphibian hatchery. He paused at the side door, pulling the hevy sledge hammer out of his pack. Muttering a silent prayer to the Founders that the noise would not be heard, he slammed the hammer down on the latch, braking it open. Dropping the hammer on the floor, he made his way to the nearest amphibian tanks. The spiked may still be out there, but at least he could do some good today...

 

​Just thought I should get into character.

I agree, we need to get some serious discussion going today. I am going to vote for Winter Cloud. You were posting at least every couple hours up until the roles got assigned. I don't know if you were trying not to put a target on your back by fading to the background, but I am a little suspicious anytime someone's behavior changes. I am totally willing to change the vote if you have a good reason. 

 

Also, I wouldn't be opposed to someone barging in on my amphibian activist. 

Edited April 9, 2015 by lev

[Clanky he/him]

Well. The HazeCrusher has been found.

We need discussion. We do. The lynch is vital, yet I exepct that many have not slept! I haven't slept either, though. Raise your hand if you actually slept. We need to know whose vote is supposed to count and whose vote is not. That way we can tell what Soothers and Rioters are doing.

 

I don't think we should tell whether or not we slept yet. We can do that once the votes have already been counted. This way people can still use votes to to put pressure on people even if they haven't slept. Nobody but you knows if you've slept so they won't know your vote won't count.

 

EDIT: I'm not sure why sending out a PM is a reason to vote for someone Bort. 

Edited April 9, 2015 by Clanky

[Araris Valerian he/him]

But see, it only helps the spiked to be unsure about the results of the vote. If there aren't enough people to put pressure on somebody then we should change tactics next cycle, but keeping track of who slept is just another opportunity for us to catch the spiked in a lie. I'm going to vote for Winter. That puts some pressure on since we now have a potential lynch this cycle. Also, Winter didn't sleep last night, which is 1) A good excuse for the spiked to avoid social interaction and 2) a sneaky way to store extra feruchemy charges behind the rest of our backs.

 

Edit: Why does b and ) change to a smiley? Its bothersome when making lists....

Edited April 9, 2015 by Araris Valerian

[Feligon he/him]

Serious mode engaged.

 

Faliu crept around the houses of the fancy people to try to get a good look at the amazing hammer of awesomeness.  Someone had to have found it.  Was it him?  Or him?  Or her?  Someone was hiding a legendary war hammer underneath their cloak.  Probably with great difficulty.

 

The twinborn of the village were not fighting like the title of "war" suggested.  They were slinking around, talking in groups with hushed voices or strutting about with knives or coins in their hands.  Some war, huh?

 

Faliu quietly sneaked around a building, they had actual buildings in the fancy part of town,  and searched the crowd that had gathered.  All of them had been trying to find the hammer.  One of them did.  Many of them had only simple cloaks, but Faliu was way more prepared for the upcoming apocalypse.  He had his hat.  A priceless family heirloom he just found in a dumpster.

 

Now Faliu was just wondering where was that ostich?

Edited April 9, 2015 by Feligon

[Alvron he/him]

Rolan tipped the bucket of acid on the green marble headstone that previously had marked the grave of Dow.  Only now it had been discovered that Sheol had been the one that die. More work.  As if I don't already have enough to do.

"Give it a couple of minutes then scrap off the remaining glue Jain."

Turning to the two other headstones Rolan sighed.  Four deaths in three days and it looked like there would be another before the day was done.

A few hours later and the headstones were all carved and ready to be taken to their final resting place.  Strangely all of them were supposedly the last words of the ones they marked.
 

Here Lies Axies
The one who killed me was... *hurk*
 

Lord Mattias Mountford
I regret nothiiinnnngg!

Forever remembered:
Sheol and his parting words
This is NOT what I had in mind when I said, “Over my dead body!
 

Two votes on Winter in quick succession?  Nah, that doesn't seems suspicious at all.  Araris, why did you place a vote on Winter?  We saw last day round that just one vote is enough to lynch someone so a second isn't necessary.

[twelfthrootoftwo]

Then he felt the blade slide between his ribs.  Axies fell to the ground.  As the life bled out of him, he heard the hemalurgist snicker, as if trying to keep a laugh in at an inappropriate time.  The strange thought lingered in Axies' mind until his heart stopped beating.  

Axies was explicitly killed by a hemalurgist. Joe and Luckat's attackers were also referred to this way, so this is definitely the Spiked kill. Mountford was killed by a villager.

 

So what do we know about Axies?

-He PMed just about everyone in the game asking about their powers. I have reason to believe he was the person to attempt to spike someone in night 2.

-He had Allomantic bronze

Taken together, these two are rather interesting. Seeking can distinguish between normal and hemalurgic powers. We've been assuming the would-be hemalurgist just went for anyone with the right power, but what if that's not the case? If Axies used Allomantic bronze the first night - which was an excellent opportunity, so he probably did - he would have known some of the Hemalurgic powers in use. Matching that up with power claims from his PMs, he would have had a decent chance of picking a Spiked as his target. Kwon?

 

 

 

Kirrah stared hard at the sketch before her. She'd mostly forgotten the dream, but with this drawing, she could hang on to a few important details. The symbol wasn't correct - she was certain of that much - but it was close, and she'd managed to hold the lines straight despite her shaking hand. She pinned the paper to the wall in front of her. There was a mystery here, and she was going to get to the bottom of it. But how did this tie in to Gund and the Trellists? She'd have to go through the letters again.

 

Still, she couldn't let the Trellists think she'd caught on to them. She slung her banjo around her neck and pushed out into the street, playing as she walked. (Her left hand couldn't quite keep up with her right, but that was what practice was for, after all.) Outside, the banjo drew surprised looks, and everyone seemed to suddenly find a reason to walk quickly away from her.

 

Hmm. Perhaps she was playing a bit too loudly.

 

Reducing the volume, Kirrah found she could hear the voice of a crier ahead, and walked towards them. The words resolved themselves.

 

"...warhammer, Hazecrusher! This ancient relic isn't affected by Allomancy, because it's made of solid aluminium! This fearsome relic..."

 

"What?" She punctuated the word with a discordant strum. "Aluminium is lightweight and malleable! It would be a terrible material to make a warhammer from! No, I think you're mistaken - its far more likely to me made of stone. And wood. With a bit of aluminium to hold it together. Actually, wood would decay, would it not? So - "

 

The crier glared at her. "Does it matter what it's made of? It's allomantically inert and deadly, and it's been found! That's the important part!"

 

"Of course it matters! You see, if..." Kirrah continued, grinning. It was much harder to ignore her with a banjo to back her up.

[Araris Valerian he/him]

I voted for Winter because votes don't really mean much when there is only one on any given person. Also, quick succession and 2.5 hours aren't really the same thing. I don't think Scadrial has moles, but somebody is making an ashmount out of a molehill. I think a person not sleeping is against the best interests of the village. Personally, I propose that we lynch anyone that refuses to sleep each night since the eliminators are going to be able to use extra actions much more efficiently for their goals than we can, and if we catch a bunch of people not voting in sequence then we have found the spiked.

[Clanky he/him]

Axies was explicitly killed by a hemalurgist. Joe and Luckat's attackers were also referred to this way, so this is definitely the Spiked kill. Mountford was killed by a villager.

 

So what do we know about Axies?

-He PMed just about everyone in the game asking about their powers. I have reason to believe he was the person to attempt to spike someone in night 2.

-He had Allomantic bronze

Taken together, these two are rather interesting. Seeking can distinguish between normal and hemalurgic powers. We've been assuming the would-be hemalurgist just went for anyone with the right power, but what if that's not the case? If Axies used Allomantic bronze the first night - which was an excellent opportunity, so he probably did - he would have known some of the Hemalurgic powers in use. Matching that up with power claims from his PMs, he would have had a decent chance of picking a Spiked as his target. Kwon?

 

 

Axies confirmed to me that it was him who attempted to spike. He thought that he was attacking a spiked because allomantic bronze can't distinguish between spiked hemalurgy and kandra blessings. 

[Feligon he/him]

Phatt told me he only wanted Kwon's feruchemy.

[Wonko the Sane he/him]

I can confirm. Before the attack, Phatt contacted me, offering to tell me his allomancy in exchange for my feruchemy. He expanded it a few posts later, offering his feruchemy instead. He did not, however, offer to let me tell my allomancy; this should have been a clue. I agreed, and he told me he was a seeker in exchange for my feruchemy. Later, after the attack, I demanded answers; he replied with this:

 

Look at my perspective... you have an AWESOME power I can steal... It's nothing against you personally, but it just fit. Can you not be teling other people it was me? They'll be a lot less understanding. Also, look at the RP in write-up. "would-be" hemalurgist... "had no idea what they were doing..." I know you don't really care, but it shows I'm a villager.

 

I grudgingly agreed to keep his name out of it, but still felt that I should inform everyone the general idea of what had happened.

 

It would seem that I was attacked simply because my powers lined up with the metal of his spike.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Wonko the Sane

[Araris Valerian he/him]

Just saying, you aren't allowed to copy-paste PM messages (correct?). You have to paraphrase things because of individual writing styles and so forth that make it a lot harder to fake claiming that a message came from somebody.

[spencer12347 he/him]

Another two died, dang. I'm going to vote for Lightsworn Panda. It is nothing personal i just picked some random guy. 

 

Edit: i'm not voting for you anymore. 

Edited April 10, 2015 by spencer12347

[Wonko the Sane he/him]

@Araris: Okay; that makes sense. Regardless, he made it clear that the motivation for the attack was the acquisition of my Feruchemy.

 

@Spencer: That's not a good plan. There are way more Twinborn than Spiked. Selecting randomly, you only have a one in five chance of killing someone you actually want dead.

 

And now for our feature presentation. I've been constructing the following analysis in Word since early this afternoon. As such, some of it may be slightly out of date. I've decided to post it anyway, though, as I think there is a good deal that is still relevant.

 

--------------------

 

I think the general consensus is that Phattemer was likely tonight’s Spiked kill. However, Lord Matthias Mountford’s death seems nearly as interesting to me. Why was he killed? How was he killed? The write-up only says he was “stabbed in the face.” Until now, stabbing meant a Spiked kill, which this clearly wasn't.

 

In an effort to uncover the facts of the matter, I have gone carefully through the rules to create an exhaustive list of every possible way to die in this game, annotated with what I thought were the relevant details. Here we go:

 

• The lynch
  • Can only happen during the day. Moving on.
• The Spiked kill
  • Attack can be performed by a Spiked.
  • One and only one attack can be performed each night.
  • Write-ups indicate that it is performed with a knife.
• Spike items (metal spike, two metal spikes, atium spike)
  • Attack can be performed by any player who has found a spike item.
  • Write-up from Phatt’s attack made it clear that the weapon was a spike.
• Sterrion 36
  • Attack can be performed by any player who has found a Sterrion 36.
  • Write-up would likely indicate manner of attack.
• Sterrion 36 failure
  • Attack can only kill a player who has found and used a Sterrion 36.
  • Write-up would likely indicate manner of attack.
• Hazecrusher
  • Attack can be performed by any player who has found Hazecrusher.
  • Write-up would likely indicate manner of attack.
• Allomantic steel
  • Attack can be performed by a Coinshot.
  • Write-up would likely indicate manner of attack.
• Enhanced Allomantic pewter
  • Attack can be performed by a Thug or a Duralumin Gnat who has found and used a spike or lerasium alloy containing the other power, by any player who has found and used a bead of lerasium, or by a Thug with the aid of a Nicroburst.
  • Depiction of attack in the write-up is currently unclear.
• Feruchemical pewter
  • Attack can only be performed by a Brute.
  • Attack requires two charges per target.
  • Depiction of attack in the write-up is currently unclear.
• Feruchemical brass
  • Attack can be performed by a Firesoul, during Night 3 onward.
  • Attack cannot be used on Nights 1 and 2.
  • Attack must be preceded by the attacker’s death.
  • Write-up would likely indicate manner of attack.
• Blessing of Potency
  • Attack can be performed by a kandra with the Blessing of Potency, or by any player who has found and used a Blessing of Potency.
  • Attack can only be used twice, and using it even once requires abandoning the Blessing’s protective qualities.
  • Depiction of attack in the write-up is currently unclear.
• Koloss
  • Attack can be performed by a kandra with the Blessing of Potency who has found and used a second Blessing of Potency, or by any player who has found and used two Blessings of Potency.
  • Attack can be used once per night.
  • Depiction of attack in the write-up is currently unclear.
• Brass Compounding
  • Attack can be performed by a Brass Compounder.
  • Attack must be preceded by an attack against the attacker.
  • Write-up would likely indicate manner of attack.
• Double-Enhanced Allomantic iron
  • Attack can be performed by a Lurcher who has done two of the following: burned consecutively for 12 periods to become a Savant, found and used a spike or lerasium bead containing Allomantic duralumin or a bead of lerasium, or received aid from a Nicroburst.
  • Attack can only kill kandra.
  • Write-up would almost certainly indicate manner of attack.

 

We can quickly narrow these down by removing those methods, such as the Sterrion 36 and Feruchemical brass, which could not possibly be described as ‘stabbing.’ Furthermore, many of these attacks are simply impossible at this stage of the game (for example, there cannot be a Koloss yet, as it would require charging at least two spikes with player or NPC kills, either of which would have been reported in the write-up).

 

After removing these, the remaining possibilities are:

• Spike items*
• Enhanced Allomantic pewter (lerasium alloy or Nicroburst only)
• Feruchemical pewter
• Blessing of Potency (kandra only)

Apart from the spikes, these are all alike in that the rules do not state exactly how the attack is performed, meaning that a stabbing with a knife is a valid interpretation. This is supported by the fact that the Spiked kill, also undescribed in the rules, has been shown in the write-up to be committed with a knife.

 

So know we know how the kill could have been committed. But I’m not any closer to figuring out why. Unfortunately, I did not have any contact with Lord Mountford, and I have not heard from anyone who did. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Also, I know this was a lot of work to do for this, but I justified it to myself by reasoning that we could reuse a lot of this same data in analyzing future kills. Feel free to reference this list for whatever you want.

 

*I have left spikes in the running, because they are technically used to stab, but Phatt’s attempted spiking was clearly depicted for what it was; and in any case, Mountford was stabbed in his face, not through his heart. I personally think it unlikely that this kill was committed with a spike.

 

--------------------

 

EDIT: Does the forum automatically replace the "a Iron" notation with the appropriate lengthened form? That's awesome!

Edited April 10, 2015 by Wonko the Sane

[Bort he/him]

I can confirm. Before the attack, Phatt contacted me, offering to tell me his allomancy in exchange for my feruchemy. He expanded it a few posts later, offering his feruchemy instead. He did not, however, offer to let me tell my allomancy; this should have been a clue. I agreed, and he told me he was a seeker in exchange for my feruchemy. Later, after the attack, I demanded answers; he replied with this:

 

 

I grudgingly agreed to keep his name out of it, but still felt that I should inform everyone the general idea of what had happened.

 

It would seem that I was attacked simply because my powers lined up with the metal of his spike.

 

This is how Phatt contacted me, offering to trade my feruchemy for his allomancy. I didn't tell him what feruchemical ability I had, but I did ask him what he was offering, and got nothing in reply. I didn't realise he was literally going to steal it though, I assumed he meant some sort of trade deal.

 

Clanky, it's nothing personal, just that Phattemer was already dead, and I used about as much logic in voting for him as I did in voting for you. Namely, none.

[Lightsworn Panda he/him]

Another two died, dang. I'm going to vote for Lightsworn Panda. It is nothing personal i just picked some random guy. 

 

Voting randomly for people isn't a good idea, spencer. You could potentially and accidentally cause the death of someone. Yes, in previous games we would randomly vote for someone at the start of the game, but that was only to start some discussion. As it stands, I have nothing to contribute, and this isn't the start of the game.