Quick Fix Game 25: A Sundered Sky

[Sparkrunner he/him]

STINK, with my earlier reasoning.

[Jondesu he/him]

Since the Sart lynch apparently isn’t happening, how about one on Lopen? I wasn’t going to do this, but that first post this cycle is really bugging me. He’s attacking Stink for correctly (he claims) knowing Lopen was village? I think maybe Stink was just wrong about you, Lopen, and so was I.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

10 minutes ago, Jondesu said:

Since the Sart lynch apparently isn’t happening, how about one on Lopen? I wasn’t going to do this, but that first post this cycle is really bugging me. He’s attacking Stink for correctly (he claims) knowing Lopen was village? I think maybe Stink was just wrong about you, Lopen, and so was I.

I dont understand the reasoning exactly. Plus, its kind of late for a switch, unless you're an elim planning one...

[Jondesu he/him]

7 minutes ago, TheMightyLopen said:

I dont understand the reasoning exactly. Plus, its kind of late for a switch, unless you're an elim planning one...

There’s over an hour left. I was lynched in the last minutes of a round not long ago, so I’m not just giving up and saying I’ll see ya’ll next cycle. I might if I didn’t think a mislynch here would be really bad, but we don’t have many chances left.

And I find it suspicious that your reasoning for thinking Stink is Elim is how sure he sounded about you being village. It doesn’t add up.

[Sart he/him]

The lynch on STINK is crazy. If you recall correctly, Lopen was attacked cycle 3 by the Skybreakers. Thus, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that Lopen would be trusted. The only way that makes any sense is if the eliminators were trying a wound gazelle gambit. Therefore, Stink trusting Lopen is logical. Further, that makes voting on Lopen a really sketchy proposition to me. If we're sure about this, then the team would have had to pull that gambit. Unfortunately, I think my read on Lopen is the better of the two options presented to me. Orlok is my biggest suspicion, especially after people leapt to his defense. I would rather lynch him if there were more people on, but alas.

[Elbereth she/her]

Cycle is over! I've been out with Orlok all day and am still not quite back, so the writeup will be somewhat delayed. 

[Elbereth she/her]

The Last Hour - Dying
1 p.m.

This time the circle’s reformation is slower. Squires pause, talking to each other, trying to work out who is evil. The arena is full of whispers that lead in circles, around and around without end or clarity. 

Finally, though, the thirteen (for even in the few short hours of the morning, their numbers have been nearly halved) join and watch each other. 

Eyes fall on Ardent Sartal, at first. He has been suspected for a time now, given Ardent Aaliyah’s death. 

Revali steps forward. “I think that Lazar is evil,” he announces. There’s a strange weight to the proclamation, which most don’t notice, but they trust it. 

“Agreed,” Belegaer says. “He’s been acting oddly all game.”

Lazar grins. 

John rolls his eyes. “I’m fine with that. I don’t have a clue what’s going on with him, and it’s getting annoying.”

Lazar sticks his tongue out at John, and proclaims proudly, “I know what’s going on!”

Locke smirks. “Yes, because you’re the one who’s been murdering us. Acting suspicious deliberately, perhaps, to make us think you’re too obvious?”

Albion Kerenas is next to nod. “Yes. Lazar would be my choice as well.”

Silver smiles. “Let’s kill him.”

The six advance on Lazar, who grins at them. 

They attack, and he roars and draws a sword. Each Squire tries to lay a hand on him, but he fights with a skill and experience that they struggle to match even with six to his one. 

One by one, each fall. Revali, beheaded for his pains. Albion and John have their legs cut out from under them, and throats slit when Lazar’s blade bothers to flicker down. Lazar stabs Silver in the gut, then whirls to catch Belegaer’s attack and slices down the man’s arm. While still distracted by the pain of his arm, Belegaer falls to a mortal wound in the side. 

Ardent Sartal and Damond join, now, infuriated by the deaths. They’ve managed to draw weapons, unlike the others. Lazar grins, swinging at Damond and wounding his upper arm, but before Lazar can extricate his sword from the wound, Sartal manages to drive his sword deep into Lazar’s side.

Lazar doesn’t fall, though. He grows angrier. Damond falls moments later, and Sartal is disarmed and beheaded in two blows. 

The arena falls silent. Lazar, still seeming slight and only made fearsome through the blood covering him, stands above the bodies of eight fellow squires. The jeweled hilt of a sword still protrudes from his side, and he grasps it. His attempts to remove it, however, are futile: he is too weak. 

Slowly, the four remaining watch him slump to the ground and complete the pile of the dead. 

Locke steps back as the others attack, and watches. He smiles. 

Tzlim, Ceol, Teralarin, and Sebas are in shock. Teralarin and Sebas have both been somewhat dazed for a while, now. The shock of so many deaths before their eyes simply reduces them to being essentially catatonic, rather than merely stunned. 

Tzlim, however, has the presence of mind to look around, and sees Locke’s expression of satisfaction.

Locke notices his look and turns, stalking towards him. “Well done,” he comments. “You actually noticed.”

Tzlim stares at Locke. He opens his mouth, to call out, warn the others. 

Before he can say a word, though, Locke raises his hand and a Shardblade appears in it. Locke takes one more step, and Tzlim falls. 

Locke turns to the others. “Well, gentlemen, this has been an interesting morning, but I think it’s time to draw this experiment to its conclusion.”

---

2 p.m.

Locke walks out of the arena casually. Another ordinary soldier, going about his business. He makes his way to a nearby restaurant, where he’d met Lazar for the first time. In the Truthless’ honour, he buys a particular horneater specialty the man had liked: flatbread with sauce and other, less-identifiable pieces. 

He smiles, content in the knowledge that he has averted the end of the world.

---

Stink was lynched! He was a Skybreaker Truthless!
Orlok was attacked, but didn’t die!
Lopen has died! He was a Elsecaller!
Eternum has died! He was a New Recruit!
Winter has died! He was a New Recruit!
Roadwalker has died! He was a New Recruit!
Darkness Ascendant has died! He was a New Recruit!
Sart has died! He was a New Recruit!
Magestar has died! He was a New Recruit!
Jondesu was killed! He was a Elsecaller! 

The Skybreakers have won. 

Vote Count
>Stink (8): Orlok, Lopen, Eternum, Winter, Roadwalker, DA, Sart, Magestar 
>Lopen (1): Jondesu

Player List
1. Elithanathile - Sebas New Recruit
2. Drake - Aaliyah New Recruit
3. Mage - Damond New Recruit
4. Eternum - Albion Kerenas New Recruit
5. Jebus - Teralarin New Recruit
6. Flash - Johnny Quick New Recruit
7. Elenion - Albert Vospar New Recruit
8. Orlok - Highprince Locke Tekiel Nale
9. Megasif - Zirconidas New Recruit
10. Winter Devotion - John New Recruit
11. Roadwalker - Silver New Recruit
12. Jondesu - Tzlim Elsecaller
13. Paranoid King - Spiff Dustbringer
14. Stick - Dan New Recruit
15. Sami - Aleta Nebrask New Recruit
16. Stink - Lazar Skybreaker Truthless
17. Arraenae - Malnar Dustbringer
18. Lopen - Revali Elsecaller
19. Darkness - Belegaer New Recruit
20. Bard - Melinon New Recruit
21. Ecthelion - Ceol and Vis New Recruit
22. Yitzi - Brightlord Erethin New Recruit
23. Sart - Ardent Sartal New Recruit
24. Arinian - Alrin Dustbringer

More postgame thoughts to come later, but the relevant bit: there were only two eliminators in the game, Orlok/Nale and Stink/Truthless. Nale was the reason for the PAFO - he had multiple powers, rather than just one. Also, docs to come shortly. Congratulations to all on a very amusing game, and go sign up for LG37 if you haven’t already!

Edited August 10, 2017 by Elbereth

[A Joe in the Bush]

Elbereth, I am so proud of you. I'm crying with Laughter here. This game has my loving Stamp of Approval.

[Ecthelion III he/him]

Ceol...actually survived!

[Sart he/him]

Hey, I killed an Eliminator! At least I did something. It wasn't of my own volition, but I killed an eliminator.

@Elbereth What powers did Orlok have? I'm just wondering how this turned into an Eliminator victory, since we had 3 villagers alive and 1 elim left. Sure, it would be unlikely, but it technically could have been possible. To win, did the village need to kill both Orlok and Stink, or did we only have to kill Orlok? Did Stink dying make the Skybreakers win automatically?

[A Joe in the Bush]

Mm, I know exactly how, But I'll let the Magician reveal her secrets.

Also, Y'all are dead! That means you have no excuse to not sign up for LG37! Coyote Stories!

[Elenion he/him]

Wait... how were all of those votes moved if the only vote manipulators were Dustbringers?

[Elbereth she/her]

 

26 minutes ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Elbereth, I am so proud of you. I'm crying with Laughter here. This game has my loving Stamp of Approval.

Thank you.  I appreciate it. 

13 minutes ago, Sart said:

Hey, I killed an Eliminator! At least I did something. It wasn't of my own volition, but I killed an eliminator.

@Elbereth What powers did Orlok have? I'm just wondering how this turned into an Eliminator victory, since we had 3 villagers alive and 1 elim left. Sure, it would be unlikely, but it technically could have been possible. To win, did the village need to kill both Orlok and Stink, or did we only have to kill Orlok? Did Stink dying make the Skybreakers win automatically?

Right. Here's essentially what happened: Orlok initally had two of each power (two passive lives, two protects, two Soothes, two Riots), which he determined very quickly (as in, about a minute after he got his PM) that that was OP and relinquished the two Soothes. In addition, Orlok only used one Riot until the last turn, and even then he could have won with one. This is a very good thing - we realised that it was too strong to give him two Riots sometime in the middle of the game. Lynching him would require a seven-vote lead above any other player, essentially, which is frankly impossible given the fear of a Truthless in the game. But since he never used that Riot (or never needed to - he used it the last turn merely to cause even more death), the game didn't end up broken in his favour as it could have. 

Anyway. Long answer (and it will be even longer when I go into why I balanced it that way) to a short question: he had enough vote manipulation and lives to guarantee that he would win with only three villagers left alive. 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

I did wonder if you were working on a finale, when the writeup was delayed 

STINK was the perfect choice for a truthless, honestly... 

I wasn't following this game terribly closely, at least after I got killed. But I guess that's that.

An interesting configuration, but an effective one, I think.

[Sami she/her]

HA! In the speculator doc last cycle I predicted that you would all lynch the Truthless. It seems I was right

[Eternum he/him]

Heh. Dang. Shoulda trusted you, Lopen.

A Skybreaker Truthless.. Jeez, that's rough.

[TheMightyLopen he/him]

Well then.

To shed some light on what happened, Stink told me Orlok claimed Truthless to him, and eventually Orlok claimed directly to me, asking for my help. He said he knew all of the eliminators and would reveal one because he needed to kill 5 players to complete his win con, and since the eliminators knew he was the Truthless, he could only win with the village. So, he told me Stink was an eliminator at the end of last Cycle, which made me go after him this Cycle.

I was worried something was up when I couldn't for the life of me figure out the eliminator team. Everyone seemed like they had good reasons to be good, and it turns out, they all were! Turns out, I should never play when there's secret roles involved. >>

So, even though I kind of hate them right now, congrats and well played to Stink and Orlok.

And to Elbereth...you're very cruel, y'know? :'(

[Arrae]

Just now, TheMightyLopen said:

Well then.

To shed some light on what happened, Stink told me Orlok claimed Truthless to him, and eventually Orlok claimed directly to me, asking for my help. He said he knew all of the eliminators and would reveal one because he needed to kill 5 players to complete his win con, and since the eliminators knew he was the Truthless, he could only win with the village. So, he told me Stink was an eliminator at the end of last Cycle, which made me go after him this Cycle.

I was worried something was up when I couldn't for the life of me figure out the eliminator team. Everyone seemed like they had good reasons to be good, and it turns out, they all were! Turns out, I should never play when there's secret roles involved. >>

So, even though I kind of hate them right now, congrats and well played to Stink and Orlok.

And to Elbereth...you're very cruel, y'know? :'(

I was thinking that making everyone vote on Stink was a bad idea, on the off chance that he was a Truthless.

[Yitzi2]

6 minutes ago, TheMightyLopen said:

Well then.

To shed some light on what happened, Stink told me Orlok claimed Truthless to him, and eventually Orlok claimed directly to me, asking for my help. He said he knew all of the eliminators and would reveal one because he needed to kill 5 players to complete his win con, and since the eliminators knew he was the Truthless, he could only win with the village. So, he told me Stink was an eliminator at the end of last Cycle, which made me go after him this Cycle.

I was worried something was up when I couldn't for the life of me figure out the eliminator team. Everyone seemed like they had good reasons to be good, and it turns out, they all were! Turns out, I should never play when there's secret roles involved. >>

Secret roles in and of themselves aren't that bad.  The problem arises when either the existence of secret roles is hidden (not the case here), or when the secret roles substantially change the fundamental nature of the game (as here, where they changed it from "normal number of elims" to "few elims with powerful roles that also synergize with each other)".

Edited August 10, 2017 by Yitzi2

[Stick. she/her]

But El, you said this wasn't a Joe game...D: 

I knew something was fishy they way only village were getting lynched, though I did consider the possibility of no elims, I didn't consider really less elims to be a thing.

Well played, elims. Good game, everyone! 

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

@Elbereth*slow clap

You actually storming did it.

@The Young Bard @Amanuensis

smh hahahaha

I didn't suspect Orlok mm, and STINK did little to hide *shrugs, not to miffed at this loss, smh

El you troll. Yes what Stick said haha, I'll remember this one, I'm struggling to remember my other games  If only I had time to ge reread them (lol too bad LG37 is starting soon)

Just wish I invested more in this game.

Twas fun, well played elims.

[Arrae]

"Dalan, I need you to run these messages to Brightness Kelani," Captain Favan said. "Do you know where those are?"

Dalan nodded. "The northwestern section of camp, two rows from the mess hall."

"Good. Here's the message. Once you're done sending this, come back. We have a lot of messages coming from Brightness Kenara's squad," Favan said.

Dalan took the message and looked over it. Indecipherable lines stared back at him. For the millionth time, he wished that he could read, but all he recognized was a few letters here and there. Malnar was trying to teach him, but Dalan was a terrible student. It didn't help that they were both so busy.

"Brightness Kelani does death notifications, doesn't she?" Dalan asked. A flash of worry shot through him. "What happened?"

Captain Favan eyed Dalan. "Please, I won't blab. My husband --"

Favan grimaced. "It's nothing. Go do your job."

Hopefully it was just that. Favan had a reputation for being tight-fisted with information for no good reason, so it didn't have to be anything big. Right? Dalan tucked the message under his arm and took off in a run. He loped towards the northwestern section of camp at a steady pace, the familiar route calming his farther-fetched worries. Straight here, left at the massive shalebark-encrusted boulder, past the mess hall, left here, right there. When he passed the northern barracks, a few soldiers waved at Dalan. He smiled and waved back. The soldiers in the northern section of the camp were generally friendlier than others. Good looking, too.

Once he saw the tent of the bereavement offices, he slowed down to a walk.

"Brightness Kelani?" Dalan called. "I have a message for you."

A pause. "Come in," said a distracted-sounding woman.

Dalan entered the tent and handed Brightness Kelani the message. She looked rather grim, though whether that was how she normally looked or just how she looked today, Dalan couldn't tell. Death notification was one of the safer jobs in Dalinar's warcamp, but it was also one of the worst. 

Kelani took the message and read it. Her shoulders slumped a little.

"Do you need me to take a message?" Dalan asked, suddenly uncomfortable. Had someone died after all? Oh, storms... Not Malnar, please not Malnar...

"Stay," Kelani said, a little sharply. "Please." She turned to a filing cabinet and rifled through drawers. After a few minutes, she pulled out a file. Dalan watched with increasing desperation as her eyes flicked back and forth. Please not Malnar, please not Malnar, please not Malnar...

She sighed. "Do you know where Dalan's tent is?" asked Kelani.

"That's me," Dalan said.

"Are you the husband of Malnar?" Kelani asked.

"Yes," Dalan said. Stormfather, no no nonono.

"The secretary of the army has asked me to express his deep regret that your husband, the archer Malnar, died at 10 AM today," Kelani said.

"No," Dalan said. He brought his hand up to his mouth. "He's dead-- no. He said he'd be back in the morning, he, he can't be dead."

 "Cause of death at this time is still under investigation," Kelani said. "The secretary extends his deepest regrets to you for your loss."

The world spun around him. Dalan staggered, but Kelani caught him and carried him to a chair, where she sat him down.

"He said that he'd never leave me," Dalan mumbled. His voice shook. "He said our vows were as good as any and he'd never leave me for as long as he lived."

Kelani nodded. "He left you something in case anything happened," she said. She took out a piece of paper with two pressed rockbuds attached to it. Alethi vinebud for eternal love and milky rockbud for regret.

Dalan broke down sobbing. With one arm, he held onto the arms of the chair for support, and with the other arm, he took the proffered paper. Stormfather, what was the worth of it all? They'd gone through so much, judgement, disownment, poverty, the army, and now...He'd never see Malnar again. Never walk out out of camp and compete to identify the most plants. Never talk to Malnar about anything again, about how one day they'd travel around the world and see the flora of Azir and Jah Keved and Shinovar and all the other places. Stormfather, what he'd give even to listen to Malnar whine about the food in the mess halls one more time... He'd always said that the army would be the death of him. He'd been right.

Snot ran down his nose. Dalan wiped it away with his hand. Kelani offered him a handkerchief, which he took.

"How did this happen?" Dalan choked out.

"We're still investigating," Kelani said. "I wish I could say more, but I don't know anything else."

"Malnar wasn't -- he wasn't careless. Kelek's breath, he wouldn't have gotten himself killed for no reason..."

Someone else entered the tent. "Message for Brightness Kelani."

Kelani stood up. A moment later, she swore and walked out of the tent. Leaving Dalan all alone.

Dalan hugged the paper to his chest, crying.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Arraenae

[Magestar he/him]

...

Well, I didn't exactly see this coming.

But there's a reason I didn't vote on STINK.

Not that it matters at this point.  Well played, guys.  I can't say I had any idea Orlok was evil.  Good game.

I don't know why I listened to STINK in the first place.  

[Arinian]

38 minutes ago, winter devotion said:

I was right! I knew it I knew it! There was no way STINK acting like that was normal the truthless is an eliminator! I was right! 

I mean we lost but I was right

Naahhh... it's really normal behavior for Stink. In previous game he also all time was saying something like " You wrong; I'm right; he\she not elim; he\she is elim".

[Jondesu he/him]

Orlok, Orlok, Orlok.  And Stink, Stink, Stink.  How did I not guess?  Oh yeah, wasn't expecting the Skybreakers to be just two people but with crazy skills.  Well done, ya'll, well done.  That'll teach us to make assumptions about the size of the Elim team and their capabilities.