WW LXXXVIII: What Lies in the Dark (Admin Thread)
 

You hear one of your fellow party members cough, the noise bouncing sharply off of the tunnel walls. You turn to see who it was, to silence them before they cause another collapse, but you can’t see far enough to make out any of your compatriots’ faces.

A match, you think, I need a match.

Even as you have the thought, a light shines brightly from above you, illuminating your path if only for a few feet. You start toward the light, trying to discern its source, but it seems to retreat. Despite your reservations, you feel compelled to follow it.

The rest of the group seems drawn to the light as well, a fact that would be concerning if you bothered to stop staring at the light long enough to acknowledge it. Instead, you make your way through a narrow tunnel, the light always close, but not so much that you could make out what is casting it. After a few minutes you arrive in a large cavern. The light seems to have stilled now, and you approach it, the rock walls echoing your hesitant footsteps.

Suddenly the glow intensifies, and you recoil in horror at the sight of your guide.

Its eight legs tap against the damp floor, shifting its body back and forth as it surveys its prey. It looks each of you in the eye, not sparing a single person from its glance, and after it has taken note of your reactions, it rears up and waves its forelegs in the air, staring directly at you.

You look around at a sudden hissing, afraid that a snake as grossly disproportioned as the beast before you has come for you as well, but you quickly realize the sound is coming from none other than the spider.

“Back in the tunnel,” you hiss urgently, not wanting to attract its attention. “Hurry, back through.”

Your fellow adventurers don’t seem to hear you, still mesmerized by the creature in the center of the room. In desperation you grab at your nearest compatriot’s arm, but he doesn’t seem to notice, his gaze still locked onto the light emanating from the spider.

“It’s going to kill you,” you insist, but he still doesn’t react.

You realize that you are the only one who is close enough to make out the creature’s form. The rest must be attracted to the light like you were before, unable to see what lies in the dark. You grab onto your fellow’s arm again and pull your hardest, dragging him toward the creature. If he sees, surely he will come to his senses. If he realizes what’s happening, he can help you get the others out.

A searing pain interrupts your thoughts, something piercing the side of your neck and making you release your friend’s arm. As he stands in awe of the brightness, you feel something coursing into your body, a feeling of dread passing through you just as quickly.

You’re the only one who can save the others. And you’ve just been immobilized.

You can’t feel your fingers, though you can see your comrade’s arm just inches away, and you can’t run, even to save yourself. You struggle with your body, trying to make the slightest movement, but to no avail. Finally, you manage to scream. It’s the only thing you can do.

Your voice rips through the room, startling the rest of your party. As you do so the creature releases your neck, though you still feel whatever it has injected you with coursing through you.

“That way!” you shout, seeing a smaller exit that the creature couldn’t possibly fit through. You see the rest of the group run toward it, disappearing into the darkness and leaving you alone. The room falls silent, and you close your eyes, waiting for the spider to devour you where you stand.

Then you realize. You can move again.

Without further thought you rush for the smaller path, not looking back as you hear the spider begin to make chase after you. You dive through the opening and hear a sharp thud as the beast collides with the wall. In front of you, your compatriots scream as a shower of rocks falls in their path, trapping you in the small tunnel.

The only way out of the cave is to defeat the beast. The only way to escape is to find a way to overpower it. The only way to survive is to band together and fight it.

So why do you suddenly want to help it?

WW LXXXVIII: What Lies in the Dark


Welcome to the 88th (technically 87th....wibbly wobbly, timey wimey) game of Werewolf here on the Barrow Downs. Rules and roles can be found here, but be careful as you approach the darkness. Oh, and watch your back.




ROLES

Shelob
Shelob is the villain of this game. Each Night, Shelob will target one of the innocents in the village and attempt to sting them. There is an incubation process (described below), at the end of which her victim will become as one of her children.


The Children (aka the Itsy Bitsy Spiders)
Each of Shelob’s children will be able to communicate with Shelob during the Night, but will be able to receive PMs from Shelob at any time. The children play the standard role of cobbler, with the difference that they are able to speak to their mistress. Each child will be independent and unknowing of the identities of the others (and Shelob may not divulge this information under any circumstances), and will probably kill each other at some point by mistake; there will be no penalty for kin slaying, and in fact it is strongly encouraged (kidding, kidding). The goal of each child is to keep Shelob alive, and to remain alive to munch on tasty corpses with her. To this end, children of Shelob may not sacrifice themselves to prevent Shelob from being lynched.


Sam
Sam is the ranger, with a few twists. He can save people from being stung by Shelob in the Night, but if he does not succeed, his obligation to them is not finished. He may still save the person who was bitten, and has one chance to do so within the Day/Night following a victim’s attack. He may use this one chance at any time between the Dawn following an attack and the Dawn at which a victim would turn into one of Shelob’s children. This second chance to save someone will be in addition to regular Nightly save until such time as it would be too easy for him to prevent Shelob’s attacks entirely (which I will be happy to discuss with the village).

Sam may not be stung by Shelob. The only way for Shelob to kill Sam is to get him lynched. If Shelob attempts to attack Sam, her attack will fail and she will be too stunned to attack for the rest of the Night. She may not tell her children Sam’s identity if she discovers it.


The Doctor....erm, doctor
Each Night, the doctor will examine someone in the village to see if they have any telltale signs of a spider bite/sting. The doctor may not see the condition/role of Shelob, Sam, or Frodo (see below). He can only see if a person has been attacked by Shelob. He will receive his answer at Dawn, so as to include that Night’s events, and he may examine a person more than once if he so chooses (as I will not update him on the condition of players for obvious reasons).

The Doctor, upon being bitten, will still endure the incubation period, at the end of which he will be stripped of his gift. Shelob can convert him with another bite, the result of which will be immediate. (Basically the Doctor needs to be bitten twice to be turned into a spiderling, but if he is bitten a second time he's immediately turned. Sam still has the opportunity to prevent the attack, but not to save him after he's been bitten the second time.)


Frodo
Frodo will have no special abilities, but his death can change the course of the game’s
activities dramatically.

If Frodo is attacked in the Night, the following happens:
1. Sam is notified at Dawn after Frodo is attacked, but is not told Frodo’s identity. Even if he finds Frodo by the end of the Day, he will not be able to save him. Instead, he is able to PM with Frodo during the Night (if he holds his guess until after Nightfall, he can PM for the remainder of the Night) where Frodo would normally turn into a spawn of Shelob. (Note: Frodo is not told the identity of Shelob, so he would not be able to give it to Sam.) At the end of that Night, Frodo dies.
2. If/When Sam finds Frodo’s body, he will strike out at Shelob’s lair. While he cannot kill Shelob on his own, he has the strength and anger to prevent Shelob from making an attack that Night. He will then spend his Evening with Frodo, and when Frodo dies Sam will spend the next Night in mourning/angst.
In game terms, this means that the Night after Frodo is attacked, both Sam and Shelob will be out of power, and the Night after that Sam will be unable to stop Shelob from attacking anyone.

If Frodo is lynched, Sam will lose his powers for that Night, regardless of whether Frodo has been stung. Shelob will suffer no ill effects.


Ordos
Anyone who has not been turned by Shelob, even those in the incubation period from one of her stings, will be an innocent member of the village and shall be aligned accordingly.



GAME-SPECIFIC ITEMS

Beginning the Game
Shelob will begin the game with one person on her side; depending on the number of players and how people feel about it, this person will either be bitten (yet still able to be healed) or already a full-fledged spawn. Either way, she will have someone under her control at the beginning of the game (in case of a really lucky lynch the first Day). I will ask Shelob for a short list of people she prefers to be her starting minion and will select randomly from that list.

Shelob’s first bite has the strength to fully turn someone into a spider. If she is killed before she can bite anyone (read, if she’s killed early enough that it will ruin the game) her first victim will take her place.

The first Night the Doctor and Sam will have no powers.


Incubation Period
If Shelob stings a victim, that person shall suffer the following effects:
1. At Dawn, they will be informed that they have been stung. They will not be made aware of Shelob’s identity, just that they have been stung and only have a Day before they change. (Let it be noted that a stinging victim may not say they have been stung, or give excessive hints at their condition. Doing so would ruin the game and make it unfair to Shelob.)
2. Its vote has a 50% chance of not being counted (because Shelob will have weakened it the previous Night) the Day following its stinging. I say 50% because I want to inform a person that they have been attacked, but do not want them to feel they have a throwaway vote. Thus, I will roll a die at the end of the Day to determine whether or not the victim’s vote has any merit.
3. The Night following its stinging, if it has a gift, it will not be able to use it.
4. During the Night, it may be healed from his wound (see Sam’s powers above). If this happens, they will be notified and will be restored to full health/privileges the following Day (but he will not regain his gift during the Night of his healing).
5. If it is not healed by the end of the Night following its stinging, it will become a spawn of Shelob and be notified of her identity. It will then follow Shelob, regardless of any attempts made my Sam or any other villager to help it return to its former self. (If this person is gifted, their gift will be stripped from them, but not reassigned to anyone else.)


End Game
The game ends with a village victory when Shelob is slain. Upon that time, the effect on the children will wear off and they will revert to their current form (though possibly with some extra limbs or teeth).

The game ends with an arachnid victory when Shelob and her minions outnumber (repeat, outnumber) the head count of the innocents in the village. This is to account for margin of error in the spider camp.



MECHANICS, RULES, ETC.

Due to the rushed nature of this game, I have no co-mod. Please PM me directly with any questions (I’ll make sure to keep my inbox well cleared out) or text/call me in an emergency.

Votes will not be retractable under any circumstances.

Please double-plus and highlight all your votes so that it’s easier for me to count them.

No self votes will be permitted. Any pseudo-votes (division symbols, minus signs, etc.) will be counted as per moddess (and her d20’s) discretion. The screen of my phone (where I’ll be accessing the Downs from for a good portion of the deadlines) is small enough that I may not be able to tell the difference, so please don’t try to break my brain.

If you swear, you will be modfired. If you’re a jerk, you will be modfired. Hopefully this won’t be a problem. We’re all grown-ups, aren’t we? Goodie. :)

If someone does not vote for two Days in a row without a satisfactory reason, they will be modfired (and their role not revealed).

Except in the case of modfire, all roles will be revealed upon death. (I’ll also discuss the possibility of divulging Night of attack for children who are killed if the players think it would be a good idea.)

The deadline is flexible, though I would greatly prefer 4pm CT (which my laptop clock tells me is 9pm GMT, though please correct me if that is incorrect).

Narrations will be in the following format: Shelob will be a female, her children referred to as its, and gifteds indicated to be male. This has no bearing on a player’s gender.

In the case of a tie, no one will be lynched. I highly discourage intentional ties.

The village will be tallied accordingly: Shelob and all who have fallen to her poison will be counted as evil, while ordos, Frodo, Sam, the Doctor, and all those in the incubation period (no matter the stage of their incubation) will be counted as innocent.

No one may under any circumstances reveal what they know/who they are. Doing so will result in instantaneous (read, as soon as I notice) modfire, regardless of the validity of their claims.

You probably won’t face any surprises with this game. I didn’t have time to think of any, and I wanted to run a simpler game for a change anyway.

I’m going to keep capitalizing Doctor. Just deal with it.

If anyone would like to play but would not like to be Shelob, please sign up and PM me with your intention; I know the role may require a lot, and time is scarce for everyone, so I want to honor the wishes of players as much as possible.






If you’re brave enough, please sign up to enter the darkness. I hope you escape with your life.

Signups will remain open until April 30, or until we get 20 people (so pretty much April 30, given the scarcity of WW players these days). I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for checking out the game! :D

~~Sally~~

P.S. Many thanks to Mnemosyne, who helped me develop some of the aspects of this when I first had the idea (aka she let me blab her teeny little ears off, bless her).



Players:
Sugar, spice, and everything Ni-ce
Lottiepop
DunDunDun
Noggins
Bom 'Stealth Yellowboots' Tombadillo
Vanilwa. Accept no imitations.
The WW player formerly known as Nerwen
Flaky yet sweet, our very favorite Pie
My sweet prince....erm, I mean Boro
What is that mysterious ticking noise? It's the Lhunatic!
The most beloved shadow
Regular Shasta. Diet tastes nasty.
The token newbie (laurab2333)

Simple? Simple? I was very confused but I think I can figure it out and would like to play a game if ww and I have a bit of time so here I am. I'd love a bit later deadline but I may just have to be missing.

How could I pass it up when you call them itsy bitsy spiders? :D:D

I believe the word I used was simpler. ;)

Also, yay! :D

I've always liked spiders. There's one that lives on the mantle above the fireplace. I named it William.

Yeah, this basically means I'm in. ;)

sally, if I wasn't currently neglecting my other Downs duties to a criminal extent in favour of frivolous role-playing;), I would soo love to play in this. As things are, I'm sorry I can't, but still want to say this rocks and wish you the best of luck with it!:)

I'll have to do more than merely skim over the rules at some point, but go ahead and sign me up anyway. ;)

I can't play, but I want all the good gossip.

Fea dear, you must play.

I really truly can't manage it. But I'll keep tabs on everything.

Excellent! ^_^

Sir, I am incredibly offended by this statement. Roleplaying is not, in fact, frivolous, and I'll thank you to not type such slander again.

(In other news, no hard feelings, and enjoy the RP!) :D

Fantastic! Good to have you, sir! :)

This is highly unacceptable. *pauses* Madam.

I guess I'll live with it. *nuzzles you*

I have to edit my Master's thesis! The New Version that I wrote last week! I have to edit it, in its entirety, THIS week!

So make it acceptable. *pauses* Khup-khak.

Harrumph. Fine. :p

Count me in Sally! Too long a break from Werewolf makes me feel empty... :p

It was about time we got a game rolling (not that I would have had time to play in the meanwhile, but well, one just fits the game into one's scheduals when it's on...).

Well I'll be happy to fill the void in your life, sir! Good to have you! <3

I HATE spiders. I look forward to this opportunity to murder them.

Also, I'm going to be waiting for any opportunity to quote the Doctor (the new season just started over here). You have been warned.

If we don't start til Thursday, I shall join. I haven't played in forever and now that it's almost summer I will finally have time to play, so yay! :cool:

What a marvelous web of complexity! ;)

But I'm sorry to say that I can't play. RPing and RL take up all my time...

Please sign me up, Sally! I ought to do well at this game– dealing with large arachnids is pretty much a way of life where I live...;)

Yay, Nerwen! ^_^


And again, I understand, Galadriel. RP and RL are important. Well, RP anyway. ;)

I'm not that sure about the first one either. :p

Gonna keep tabs as much as I can on the game!

Edit: question: how will the doctor see Shelob?

Gah!!!! Curse you for making a game that I cannot say no to!!! :( I'll play, but don't expect much from me in the form of participation. Oh, and if this game is not ended by the 12th of May or if I'm not dead by then (unlikely after my last game :Merisu:) I will have to withdraw as one of the shows I am will be starting that day.

So count me in

He won't. The Doctor will only be able to see if a person has been bitten by Shelob, so if they examine Shelob herself they will only know that she has not been bitten. It's up to them to remember to include that in their hypotheses. :D

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Erm, I mean I'm glad to have you. <3

It's Mnemo's game design and she's not playing? *shakes head* :p

Oh, yes sally, take this as BD-official. Sign me up.

Oi. Watch it, snarky. <3

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! *dances*

Sally has successfully twisted my arm.

Right now I just feel like a werewolf newbie. Be kind to me, please?

Yay! :D

The game will begin Tuesday, May 3, at 4pm CT. I will accept any signups until noon CT, at which time I will send out roles (and eat lunch). If you know of anyone else who can play, please do bovver them. Either way, we have enough people, and we'll start soon!

Please remember to set yourselves to invisible BEFORE the game starts. Thank you.

Finals are nearly finished. I'm in.

The game thread is now up. If you didn't receive a role (which you all did, because I checked, but still), please PM me. Any questions about your role, PM me.

Night 1 will begin at 4pm CT, which is in six hours.

laurab2333 is now unable to play (which has nothing to do with the possibility of her being a spambot, no, seriously). Fea is now playing. That is all.

I'd say you all suck, but I think this works out better for me. I literally just walked through the door about five minutes ago....That and I'm pretty sure this is retribution for some of you from a recent game :rolleyes: Good luck guys, I'll try to keep an eye out :D

PS: The little sling with Lottie and I was about me not being invisible :P

Hi kids, I do exist and I am playing. I just didn't check the deadline when I agreed to play, assuming it was a night time one since most American-run games are for me. Went off to take care o' bidniss, and back I come to see I'm in trouble!

I shan't be caught off guard again.

So I left the house this morning in a bit of a rush. About halfway down the street, I thought to wonder what time DL was. :o I won't do that toMorrow, promise.

YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! I love it sallycakes!!! You get more snuggles and cookies and muffins and pie :D <3

*snuggles you*

Nienna has withdrawn due to vastly more important RL concerns. She will not be replaced.

My inbox is all cleaned out now. If you need to PM me with questions or whatever, you're now able to do so. I'm sorry I let it get so full. :eek:

I clarified the rules regarding the Doctor. I advise everyone to read them.

If anyone has questions, please PM me with them. Thanks!

No one has to worry about me anymore, I'm withdrawing.

I made a mistake trying to come back into this game too soon, I'm sorry miss moddess.