Long Game 17: Heronfall

[STINK he/him]

Do you think I would really put so much effort into that? 

[RippleGylf she/her]

Well, screw the code then. Scanned Clanky, showed up as village.

[STINK he/him]

Why you gotta be active again, HS :'(

[Wyrmhero he/him]

The Day is over! Writeup coming soon.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Night 7: Rotten Luck

In a dark street that most would have thought twice before traversing, a handful of people met. They did not intend to meet there, in the pouring rain and the dim light, amongst the vagrants and unfortunates that lived in these slums, but they had no choice; their regular meeting place was closed.
 
They had long-since given up on hammering on the door, peering in through the windows and attempting to break the locks. It was somewhat reassuring to know that the building was practically impregnable, but at the same time, it was a real pain when you were standing in a heavy shower such as this.
 
They had gathered in the portals of buildings nearby, almost appearing to be the down-and-outs that they passed every day in the slums. Glances were shared between them, not quite trusting but at least not outright hostile yet. The previous night had, by all accounts, been successful. Not a single person missing, which was nice to see.
 
But they were not complacent; they would not have survived this long if they were. There was a tension in the air, thick and heavy, with only the sound of the rain to keep them company. It drowned out the other sounds, and only a Tin-Metalborn would have managed to see through the cloud and haze it produced. But that may not have been a bad thing. The feeling of isolation it produced was welcoming in these circumstances.
 
“Soddit,” Lopen muttered, looking at the locked door. “Anyone able to jack in and open the damned place? I'm freezing my nethers off here. And I'm sober. I don't know which is worse.”
 
Ripple sighed. “She'll be here soon, Lopen. And I doubt Feis would appreciate you B-and-E-ing his place.”
 
“Bah, the git probably has hundreds of these places. Hell, maybe he's even got nine other gullible bunches to try his luck with the other corps too. Bastard's probably richer than anyone except the ten anyway, judging from what he's paying us.”
 
“What if he is one of the ten?” Avis asked. There was no response, but there was a small measure of understanding from most of them. It was a fairly common concern, at this sort of point in a mission, that the Mr Ventures might not be on the level. Indeed, the most common employers of Mistrunners were the Megacorps themselves. But the idea that it might actually be one of the ten themselves? That was an entirely different concern. That didn't mean they were simply working for a Megacorp – They were known by them, at an almost intimate level, if someone so lofty was handling this personally.
 
“...Can't be,” a man standing rather further away from the rest said. It wasn't his choice, more of a defensive mechanism by the others attending the meeting. “I mean, why would one of them do that? It'd be like...” he cast around for a comparison. “I don't know, it'd be like if The Lord Ruler personally fought against The Skaa Rebellion.”
 
“He did personally kill The Survivor though,” Avis pointed out.
 
“Well, yes,” the pungent man allowed, nodding briefly, “But that's different. I mean, none of us are exactly leaders amongst Mistrunners, are we? We didn't start this on their most wanted list. Makes no sense that one of them would do it personally.”
 
“Assuming they're logical,” Citona said. “I mean, maybe this is how they relax in an evening, by plotting a few murders and stuff. We know they're petty, right?”
 
Lopen snorted. “Almost makes them seem human.”
 
“They can't be petty,” the skunk-human crossbreed argued. “Otherwise they'd never be ruling this place. Stands to reason they're actually at least fairly clever. Can't all be Allomancy and Feruchemy, right? Though I guess compounding their smarts helps a lot there...”
 
“You do seem fairly well acquainted with how they're thinking,” Exisa said, looking at the filthy man with narrowing eyes. “Something you would care to mention?”
 
“You think they'd let me even near them?” he responded. “You're pretty crazy if you think that. I mean, even you can't stand to be that close to me.”
 
“Yeah...” Lopen nodded slowly. “Or it might be the perfect disguise! Someone so obviously a dirty, degenerate street-dweller can't be what they look like! That's too obvious! You're really a clean, dapper gentleman, aren't you?!”
 
“What?” He blinked. “What?” He repeated. “What about these guys?” he said, gesturing at the homeless people sleeping rough nearby. "Are they all secret lords and ladies?"
 
“They're not Mistrunners,” Clanky said, nodding sagely. “So obviously they aren't the ones infiltrating our group, and they aren't in disguise.”
 
“I've heard enough,” Lopen said, pulling out his knuckledusters. “Let's see what this guy knows, eh?”
 

---

When Lord Yolen's assistant arrived half an hour later (and about two hours late), she was greeted by the sight of a bloody corpse in the middle of the road, slowly being cleaned by the rainfall. Everyone nearby tried very hard to look innocent, forgetting that the first thing to do in order to seem innocent was to get rid of the evidence.
 
She sighed and pointed round the side of the building. “Corpse over there. I'll deal with it later.” She watched them haul the body away, grimacing as they did. Why they had to work with these psychopaths, she would never understand.
 
“Now that that's done...” She opened the door and let them into the bar. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the alleyway to the side. Well, she should probably deal with it now, really, even if the Lone Shard rarely entered the shadier parts of town this late. Besides, anything to put off having to pretend to be the barmaid for a while.
 

---

IrulelikeSTINK was a Mistrunner!

IrulelikeSTINK (4): Avis, Dragonsight, Exisa, Clanky
Avis (3): IrulelikeSTINK, Alexandrius Venturia, Lopen

Player List 

 

 

IrulelikeSTINK - IrulelikeSTINK - A placeholder  - Mistrunner
Anamaximder - Alexandrius Venturia
Mailliw73 - Miller Washington - Medical Knowledge
Hellscythe - Avis
Kynedath - Dragonsight - A teetotal seasoned criminal.
Shallan - Citona Vinid - Thinks quickly on her feet.
phattemer - Exisa - Paranoid, but who isn't in this business?
Elbereth - Elbe - Quiet and polite - Well-Connected
RippleGylf - Ripple - Another teetotaler, but not so far proven to be seasoned at criminal activity.
Elkanah - Lane - None of your business - Mistrunner
Bridge Boy - Sam Flynn - Experienced Mistrunner and Cognitive Matrix explorer - Assassin
Adavantos - Count Banuir Reynaud - Count is actually his first name - Hacker
TheMightyLopen - Lopen - Excitable and forward-looking.
Araris Valerian - Araris - A fencer with an aluminium sword - Mistrunner
Burnt Spaghetti - Ember Ghetti - Most definitely not a Kandra - Mistrunner
Clanky - Clanky - A placeholder.
Arraenae - Niter - A mute guy with a high-tech notepad - Assassin
The Silver Dragon - Star Thief - Part-Scadrialian, part-magpie, all mysterious - Non-Specialist
luckat - Lucy - Never late, nor early - Communications Specialist
LUNA - Eda - A new Mistrunner - Data Gatherer
OrlokTsubodai - Locke Tekiel - Always in a rush - Mistrunner 

Night 7 has begun. PMs may now be sent again. The Night will end on Saturday at 8PM GMT.

Alexandrius Venturia has been chosen to select people for the mission! I will need to hear back from him by Friday at 8PM GMT.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Alvron

[Kynedath]

I can never tell with him . . .

[Clanky he/him]

Sorry everyone, that sudden switch by Lopen because of such a simple reason really seemed wrong to me. I recommend we put all our biggest suspicions on the mission so that hopefully all the traitors will be in that group so that if they do decide to fail the mission to kill someone at least it will cut our suspicions down by one.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Well that's just great. I change my mind and so do you guys.

 

Clanky, it was a simple reason. But I thought it was enough to switch over to lynching Hellscythe first. We don't have any good evidence for or against Hellscythe, and so getting some evidence that STINK might be Loyal was enough to change my mind. I'll respond to your post in more depth later.

 

Anamaximder, I suggest putting Hellscythe, phattemer, Ripple and yourself on the mission.

 

Those are the players who could be Well-Connected, and with the closer numbers, I don't want the Traitors to have any voting power like that.

[RippleGylf she/her]

I'm fine with going on the mission, but I would really like to use my hacking. Maybe my target won't die this time.

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

Well that's just great. I change my mind and so do you guys.

 

Clanky, it was a simple reason. But I thought it was enough to switch over to lynching Hellscythe first. We don't have any good evidence for or against Hellscythe, and so getting some evidence that STINK might be Loyal was enough to change my mind. I'll respond to your post in more depth later.

 

Anamaximder, I suggest putting Hellscythe, phattemer, Ripple and yourself on the mission.

 

Those are the players who could be Well-Connected, and with the closer numbers, I don't want the Traitors to have any voting power like that.

That was my plan.

[Hellscythe he/him]

I agree except I'd replace Ripple and Anamaximder. I'd personally choose Clanky and Lopen. If Ripple and Venture both are what they say they are we can get two scans in one night. And the eliminators had a problem with revealing which side of the mission they were on when it was Me, Lopen, and Phattemer so I think it's a good idea to keep us 3 to prevent another possible kill or if they do kill we gain the same information we would've had had they killed last night which they clearly don't want us to have.

Edited March 4, 2016 by Hellscythe

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

I agree except I'd replace Ripple and Anamaximder. I'd personally choose Clanky and Lopen. If Ripple and Venture both are what they say they are we can get two scans in one night. And the eliminators had a problem with revealing which side of the mission they were on when it was Me, Lopen, and Phattemer so I think it's a good idea to keep us 3 to prevent another possible kill or if they do kill we gain the same information we would've had had they killed last night which they clearly don't want us to have.

 

But there's no proof that Ripple and Anamaximder are what they say they are. I think they are, but I've been wrong before, so I'd rather not risk it.

 

If we know that the Traitor Well-Connected is on the mission, and therefore cannot send in the kill or be able to move a vote, we can learn something if the Traitors kill someone. If the Traitors kill someone with their kill, and we KNOW that the Traitor Well-Connected was on the mission, we'll know that Hellscythe isn't Well-Connected, because that would mean he was protected by False Trails on Night 2, when LUNA scanned him, except that it would be impossible for that False Trails Traitor to have killed someone on this Night and have protected him from a scan on Night 2 because they are in the same group as the Well-Connected player(meaning they would have to be on this mission as well). Does that make sense? Hopefully I explained it right.

[RippleGylf she/her]

But if the traitor well-connected is almost guaranteed to be on the mission, I might finally have the chance to find a traitor.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

But if the traitor well-connected is almost guaranteed to be on the mission, I might finally have the chance to find a traitor.

 

False Trails is the one who messes up your scan. It's not a guaruntee that that role will be on the mission. Just Well-Connected.

 

Anamax, did you send in your order? There's only 5 hours left for you to do that.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Anamax, did you send in your order? There's only 5 hours left for you to do that.

 

Unfortunately, I did not get a list of players for the mission, so I have no choice but to kill him due to inactivity.

 

Alexandrius Venturia was a Temporal Displacer!

Edited March 4, 2016 by Wyrmhero

[Clanky he/him]

Why can't people remember to put in their teams!!!!!! Now we will be down to 7 people if the traitors make a kill meaning that we can't afford any misslynch anymore or we lose. These missions have really killed us recently with people forgetting to send it in.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Inactivity is just the worst.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

The Night has ended! Writeup coming soon.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Day 8: A Knife in the Dark

Feis tapped the arm of his uncomfortable chair as he thought. So few left. Not outside of the expected parameters, admittedly, but closer to the worst-case scenario than he would have liked. Today's mission was crucial, and yet it had to be postponed. They simply could not decide on its participants. It was better to delay instead of go ahead with an uncertain team, but it was still frustrating all the same.

He was a patient man, however. A day mattered very little when he had been planning this for years. If he had to try again in a few years, then so be it. The world would not change much in that time; Mistrunners would still be willing to try something as dangerous as this. And he would have experience on his side the next time, knowledge of what their enemies would do to try and stop him. He might lose the battle, but he would win the war.

He switched off the camera with almost a mere thought, pulling the switch into the off position with his Allomancy. He would probably have to abandon this safehouse in the near future, and pull his assistant out of danger. Well, as much as she was in danger. But even if she could take care of herself, he did not want to leave loose ends lying around. If his connection to the bar became compromised, he did not want the trail to lead back to his location. Not for his sake as such, but for the sake of his plan, for the sake of Scadrial. It would not be good to require outside assistance for something such as this. It would just replace one set of tyrants with others.

Sighing, he rose out of the chair, bones creaking somewhat. It was not from age; he was old but not worn. It was just the stiffness of the chair. But appearances were everything in this world, and they had to be maintained whenever possible. Even when in front of those who were mostly allies, he had to appear aloof, uncaring and imperious. It was as much for their sake as his own.
 

---

It was an entirely too sober Ripple that left the bar that night. There were times that he wished he was a drinker, because these days the world probably made more sense if looked through the bottom of a glass. There was too much that made no sense now. Or perhaps it never made sense, and he only recently became aware of that. Or maybe the world still made sense, but he didn't understand it anymore. Who could say? Certainly he had no idea.

Wandering the streets certainly gave one time to think. There was not so much a lack of interaction as an aversion to it. People went out of their way to avoid each other. They didn't want to interact. It was something that would probably be described in a paper as 'a sad indictment of the world we live in', if it weren't for the fact that it was almost certainly encouraged by the Megacorps.

Head down, keep to yourself, and do your work. Work, eat, sleep ad nauseum. Ripple didn't undestand that mentality, and particularly why the Megacorps pursued it so ruthlessly. What was the point of wealth if all you ever did with it was amass more of it? But then, they had a rivalry between them, a competition. They probably didn't even consider the common people in their quest for power. If it weren't for the fact that machinery had not advanced that far, he suspected that they'd replace their workers with robots in a heartbeat, no matter what effect it had on the people displaced by it.

The streets were not empty out here, even at this late hour. The slums had a thriving night-life, both benign and seedy, and many of the Megacorp's finest could be found here, particularly on weekends. They would be hard to spot at first, but little things would give them away. Perhaps they would be slightly too arrogant, or flash slightly more cash than most would. Either way, when they did finally reveal themselves, that was when the inhabitants of the shady areas would descend.

Ripple kept his head down and a hand on his coat pocket where his wallet was. He wasn't too concerned though – He was openly carrying a weapon, and even the least experienced pickpocket in this part of the world knew not to bother a Mistrunner. He was what they aspired to be, what they pretended themselves to be, as much as Mistrunners pretended to be a part of The Survivor's crew.

The gulf between them was as wide as it was between Mistrunners and the Megacorp elite, or between the nobility and skaa in the old world. Experts in their field dove between the crowds, lifting boxings and more besides, their hands deft and almost unnoticable. But Ripple saw them, each and every one. From his perspective, they were obvious, but the normal crowd didn't have that perspective. They wouldn't notice their missing items for several minutes at least.

His hand darted out to catch a hand, and he looked into the eyes of the would-be thief. It was just a small body, barely even through puberty. An understanding passed between them as the thief's eyes widened at the realisation he had just tried to rob a Mistrunner. Ripple dropped his arm, and continued on without a second glance.

He continued his walk home through a dark alley, once more unafraid. There were worse than thieves in this place, but they would not dare attack someone like him. He might not be much to look at, and he might not pose much of a physical threat (or, if truth be told, metallic threat), but his power was not personal. It was almost the same as the Megacorps had, a political power. If they attacked him, his crew would wreak bloody vengeance against them, and they would not stop until his attackers, their friends, and perhaps even their family had been made an example of.

He reached his home without incident, as he had expected. He closed the door behind himself and switched on the lights in the hallway. Or at least, he tried to. Strange, he didn't remember the bulb having blown...

Immediately he drew his gun and fired at a slightly thicker area of darkness in a corner. He was rewarded by a scream of pain and the clattering of a body hitting a small table and then the ground. There was a beep from the answering machine. “Lopen here,” it said, the man's speech slightly slurred for drinking. “I wonder if I'm dead or not. Oh well.” Then another beep. If he wasn't in such a dire situation, Ripple might have wondered what possessed the man to leave that message. If it was him, of course.

New he might be to the Mistrunner business, but he wasn't going to be jumped so easily in his own home. There was a reason he was his crew's representative, even if his skills paled in comparison to the others in his mission's group. Edging through the hallway so very slowly, he peeked into the kitchen. His potential assassin in there was already moving, and they almost collided with one-another.

He aimed and fired another shot, and was rewarded with a second body hitting the floor. Then there was something cold at his throat, and an arm across his chest keeping them close. His head turned around, cutting him slightly as he looked at his attacker. In the darkness, he could make out a general form and, with their closeness, even a few features.

“You!” he accused, unable to think of a more eloquent response as he tried to bring his weapon round.

“Me,” his attacker smiled, drawing his knife vertically across Ripple's throat and dropping him to the floor.
 

---

Ripple was a Hacker!

Player List 

 

IrulelikeSTINK - IrulelikeSTINK - A placeholder  - Mistrunner
Anamaximder - Alexandrius Venturia - Temporal Displacement
Mailliw73 - Miller Washington - Medical Knowledge
Hellscythe - Avis
Kynedath - Dragonsight - A teetotal seasoned criminal.
Shallan - Citona Vinid - Thinks quickly on her feet.
phattemer - Exisa - Paranoid, but who isn't in this business?
Elbereth - Elbe - Quiet and polite - Well-Connected
RippleGylf - Ripple - Another teetotaler, but not so far proven to be seasoned at criminal activity - Hacker
Elkanah - Lane - None of your business - Mistrunner
Bridge Boy - Sam Flynn - Experienced Mistrunner and Cognitive Matrix explorer - Assassin
Adavantos - Count Banuir Reynaud - Count is actually his first name - Hacker
TheMightyLopen - Lopen - Excitable and forward-looking.
Araris Valerian - Araris - A fencer with an aluminium sword - Mistrunner
Burnt Spaghetti - Ember Ghetti - Most definitely not a Kandra - Mistrunner
Clanky - Clanky - A placeholder.
Arraenae - Niter - A mute guy with a high-tech notepad - Assassin
The Silver Dragon - Star Thief - Part-Scadrialian, part-magpie, all mysterious - Non-Specialist
luckat - Lucy - Never late, nor early - Communications Specialist
LUNA - Eda - A new Mistrunner - Data Gatherer
OrlokTsubodai - Locke Tekiel - Always in a rush - Mistrunner 

Day 8 has begun. PMs may no longer be sent. The Day will end on Monday at 8PM GMT.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Alvron

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Well, phattemer is a confirmed Traitor now I guess. There's only 2 possible players left who could be Well-Connected. Hellscythe and phattemer. Hellscythe was scanned as Non-Specialist the Night the Well-Connected used their ability, so if he's the Well-Connected, that means that phatt is the False Trails Traitor. Only other option is for phattemer to be the Well-Connected Traitor. So there you have it.

 

Hey phatt, mind talking to your sister and getting her to get back on somehow? 

[Hellscythe he/him]

Well I know that I'm not Well-Connected so Phattemer.

[phattemer]

I'd don't like how you're just randomly accusing people, Lopen. Hey, can anyone who agrees with me vote with me, maybe at the last second?

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

I thought that might be coming. If Anamaximder had only sent players on the mission... 

[Kynedath]

Phatt since you all think that he's evil.

[Clanky he/him]

Phatt don't want to risk anyone actually changing the vote off you

Edited March 6, 2016 by Clanky