Tol-in-Gaurhoth IV (The Saga, erm, Still Continues...)

[the guy who be short]

Nilpaurion looked around in shock as the villagers, pitchforks ready, surrounded him. The Oddwen Memorial Gallows were still in construction (they were doing it as quickly as time allowed, honest), so this was the only option.

“Are you going to lynch me??” Nilp cried, staring round in confusion at the shiny pitchforks.

‘Fraid so, his alter-ego replied with an evil cackle.

“You do remember that if I die, you do too, right?”

There was a short silence, followed by an expletive.

“I hate you, Adam, you know that?”

The villagers looked on in awe. This was simply too suspicious… was the werewolf side of Nilpaurion Felagund's personality arguing with him? In public? A few thrusts of the pitchfork would tell. They closed in, narrowing the circle.

“Erm… look… could we maybe…”

Lynch him! Lynch him now! He’s a wolf!

The villagers decided to believe Nilp after all. Well, to believe the side of Nilp that accused Nilp, but called itself Adam. Unless maybe Adam was lying… was Alice in there somewhere? Or maybe Alice was telling Adam to...

“Oh, darn this, it’s all too confusing!” Somebody moaned in exasperation. The pitchfork went in. The pitchfork came out, slightly redder and more wrapped in guts than before. Nilpaurion Felagund's body collapsed to the ground as the rest of the villagers joined in. Pitchforks were so multi-functional; it was incredibly handy.

The villagers stepped back, pitchforking complete. The post-pitchforked (and thus very full of holes) body of Nilpaurion remained in a pool of blood.

Heh, how interesting, Adam noted. A blood-puddle. A Bluddle. Heh. Good on you, villagers… You finally got him... Something I couldn't do for years...

The villagers watched Nilpaurion die. Come on, he was the suspect after all, he had to be a wolf!

But nothing happened. There was no transformation into a Beast of the Night. The villagers looked sadly at one another as they realised that this death was simply the product of Nilpaurion Felagund's vindictive alter-ego.

Sobered, the villagers decided to check in on Esgallhugwen, the candle and candle stick maker who hadn’t been at all visible during the Day. What could she be doing all Day long? Was this another one of her notorious Candle-making sprees, where she shunned humanity for extended periods of time and mass-produced small wax animals for the sheer amusement of it?

The villagers knocked on the door. No answer. Surely the wolves couldn’t have killed her by Day?

The people walked in nervously. The Candlestick maker’s home was no place for superstitious peasant folk… who knew what evil arts the wretched woman employed to create those little wax figures? They were endured solely for the light they gave at night.

But inside the house, the villagers screamed in shock. For there, lying on the floor, clearly dead, was the body of Esgallhugwen – in wolf form! One of the triumvirate was killed – not by the villagers, but by chance! What good fortune was this?

The villager’s closed in on the body of the wolf, fascinated by the repugnant beast. What had caused her – it – to just die?

Possibly it was the fumes of the business that had slain the creature. Perhaps it had had a heart attack. Maybe she had simply choked on something – was that a small tree-frog in her throat, or merely an enlarged larynx? It was croaking suspiciously.

The villagers didn’t know. To be frank, they didn’t really care. They simply prayed to and thanked Eru for the good fortune with which they had been graced. There would be much feasting soon.

Living:

Anguirel
Celuien
dancing spawn of ungoliant
Evisse the Blue
Feanor of the Peredhil
Firefoot
Hookbill the Goomba
Lalaith
littlemanpoet
Saurreg

Dead:

the guy who be short (Villager) - partially consumer by werewolves on NIGHT 1.
Kath (Ranger) - lynched by villagers on DAY 1.
Azaelia of Willowbottom (Villager) - turned into a pincushion on NIGHT 2.
Oddwen (Villager) - lynched with kitchen utensils on DAY 2.
Eomer of the Rohirrim (Villager) - lynched and drowned on DAY 2.
the phantom (Shirriff) - poisoned himself on NIGHT 3.
Nilpaurion Felagund (Villager) - pitchforked to death on DAY 3.
Esgallhugwen (Werewolf) - probably choked on a tree-frog on DAY 3.

Score:

Werewolves: 2
Villagers: 8

It is now NIGHT. NIGHT will end in 24 hours at 6:30pm BST, 1:30pm EDT, 12:30pm CDT, or earlier if all activities are completed by then.

[the guy who be short]

The villagers woke up, much as villagers are obliged to do in the mornings. Orodreth viewed late mornings as a sign of treachery, not to mention how unproductive they were.

A headcount revealed that the village was now down to single-figures, which was mildly depressing. The absence of any giant dancing spiders was immediately noticeable as the cause of this. Dancing spawn of ungoliant had been taken in the night!

As per usual, the villagefolk traipsed to the home of the deceased. What would it hold? Would their yearning for blood and gore be satisfied with this death? The door to the small shack creaked open as they filed in.

The remains of dancing spawn of ungoliant lay, face down, in the middle of the floor. As well as being a (rather poor) house-wife, dancing spawn supplemented her income by selling small tree-frogs on the black market – it all made sense now! She had supplied the frog… and now the werewolves had exacted terrible vengeance (though ulterior motives couldn't be ruled out, of course).

The body has suffered cruelly. Turning her over, the villagers saw that her throat had been forcibly removed, and a small, rather limp amphibian had been shoved down her windpipe. What a horrible way to die, asphyxiated by a frog! And to think that two members of their humble village had died so! This must have been some kind of record, surely.

Surroundings inspected for any oddities (there were none), the villagers filed out again, leaving dancing spawn of ungoliant lying on her floor with a frog half-way down her throat, to discuss who the remaining wolves could be.

NB: Yes, I was feeling quite… odd when I wrote that. And yes, I re-used a few jokes. So sue me. My contract with you people says nothing about originality.

Living:

Anguirel
Celuien
Evisse the Blue
Feanor of the Peredhil
Firefoot
Hookbill the Goomba
Lalaith
littlemanpoet
Saurreg

Dead:

the guy who be short (Villager) - partially consumer by werewolves on NIGHT 1.
Kath (Ranger) - lynched by villagers on DAY 1.
Azaelia of Willowbottom (Villager) - turned into a pincushion on NIGHT 2.
Oddwen (Villager) - lynched with kitchen utensils on DAY 2.
Eomer of the Rohirrim (Villager) - lynched and drowned on DAY 2.
the phantom (Shirriff) - poisoned himself on NIGHT 3.
Nilpaurion Felagund (Villager) - pitchforked to death on DAY 3.
Esgallhugwen (Werewolf) - probably choked on a tree-frog on DAY 3.
dancing spawn of ungoliant (Villager) - definitely choked on a tree-frog on NIGHT 4.

Score:

Werewolves: 2
Villagers: 7

It is now DAY. DAY will end in 24 hours at 1:30pm BST, 8:30am EDT, 7:30am CDT, or earlier if voting in complete before then.

[Firefoot]

Oh, dear. Poor dancing spawn.

As always, here is the previous day's voting (proven innocents underlined, werewolves italicized):

Nilp – 4 (Fea, Anguirel, Hookbill, *Celuien*)
Lalaith – 1 (*Saurreg*)
Esga – 2 (Dancing Spawn, Lalaith)
Hookbill – 2 (Firefoot, Evisse)
Anguirel – 1 (lmp)

Did not vote: Nilp, Esga

Now edited voting of:
Day 2
Day 1

I don't have time to post in length right now, and I will be in and out of the house for the rest of today - I may not be posting again until this evening (in about 12 hrs or so).

But I will be looking hard at Lalaith and Hookbill when I get back.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Anguirel

Celuien

Evisse the Blue

Feanor of the Peredhil

Firefoot

Hookbill the Goomba

Lalaith

littlemanpoet

Saurreg

These are those that I like to refer to as "the living". Two of these are those that I constantly refer to as those "thrice-bedamned and disturbingly sneaky *&^%$#@ of werewolves". Now... down to business. Nilp's death, although sadly pointless, did at least get rid of the question "Why was he saying "I'm a wolf, lynch me."?" So though we lost a villager, an important question was answered. The death of Spawn hits hard, since she's been a constant blip on my radar. The trouble is, I've mislabeled my radars, apparently, because the blipping's been wrong every time.

I truly detest you people, because every time someone dies, I have to go alter my entire kill list. It makes life more complicated. Now, down to business.

Celuien: Seer? Maybe. If so, nothing conclusive, and I've got that same question for two or three others. And I've been wrong before (many times... stupid phantom, Eomer, Nilp, Spawn). I'm seeing a growing trend with where my wrongness has led indirectly to the deaths of a bunch of innocents. I would like to, now, point out a discrepancy with this unsettling irony: Littlemanpoet.

Each person I've accused has died, though not directly at my hands. I said of tp and Eomer "I hope you both die." and lo and behold, the two died. One at the hand of werewolf-villagers, one at the hand of werewolves alone. Nilp... I was officially confused at his stance as the village suspect. I thought it might be better to just get rid of him. He died. Spawn I had a wee bit of worry about, but that was mainly at the very end of Day One.

They've all died! Except for one person that I've practically shouted that I think is suspicious. On day one, I had four suspects: tp, Eomer, Spawn, LMP. I voted Eomer. On Day Two, I had the very same four because I was working in a limited time frame. I had already discounted Eomer's guilt, but thought it a bad idea to outright say so in case I was wrong. I wanted very much to vote tp, but I didn't want to screw up just because I was annoyed. Spawn, I was no longer suspicious of. LMP, by default, got my vote. Nobody followed up on this. They all pointed to it as "my early vote that was a shot in the dark" or "Fea's trying to discreetly say that we should look harder." (but didn't).

I'm saying now that my vote was entirely a shot in the dark. It was based on my previous suspicions. The second statement is more to the truth. "Of the few suspects I have, he's the only one I haven't yet discounted. Try taking a look for me, since I can't for myself." But nobody did. Anybody noticing my point yet?

Of all of my suspects, the whole lot of them were bandwagoned (or just heavily suspected after I left), slaughtered, and proven innocent. Except LMP, who was ignored. Why wasn't LMP dealt with in a similar fashion?

[Lalaith]

The werewolves were quick off the mark tonight, alas young spawn, I'm sorry I suspected you.
For what it's worth, wherever your spirit dances now: after you voted for Esgal - even before we found her to be a wolf - I realised you were innocent, because to come up with this way of minimising villager deaths was not the action of a wolf. It was a good idea, and one I was grateful to follow. I was fairly sure that Nilp was innocent and as for Hookbill, there wasn't time to review the evidence and I felt I was being pressured into making a hasty decision.

What Esgal's death then revealed...well now. The first round of voting now becomes highly significant. Phantom, who voted for Esgal, was the second to vote. My own reading of the voting sequence that followed indicates to me that Feanor is probably an innocent. The others I'm not so sure about. Firefoot's vote for Saurreg could be read in different ways.
And I am well aware, before anyone else points it out, that Day One's voting in no way absolves me from suspicion. I also realise that my vote for Esgal could also be seen as a clever bluff and doesn't absolve me either.

[Saurreg]

dancing spawn of ungoliant was never high in my list of suspects. However I cannot say the same for Lalaith whom I have very strong suspicions (or should I say convictions?). Last evening's voting was also very peculiar and Anguriel with his reasonings and intents have made me very wary of him also.

These two are my choices today.

Is it just me or is our Seer totally ineffectual at all? Unless something significant occurs I shall stick to my deductions and gut feelings.

Just a quickie: did anyone other than LMP read my last post yesterday? I thought it was a fair and judicious deduction. Funny why no one bothered to take it into consideration...

[Lalaith]

To correct Firefoot's summary, Esga did not vote for me. Esga did not vote at all, she didn't appear, which is why she died. And Nilp got four votes, not three, Celuinen also voted for him.

[Lalaith]

Saurreg, you can lead a phantom-style campaign against me if you like, there's not much I can do to stop you.
But if Anguirel and I were both werewolves he would be a brave double-bluffer indeed to defend me so openly. You could suspect either of us, or neither of us, but not both.
For what it's worth, on day two, I suspect the wolves each voted for a different suspect.
One thing I had forgotten to bear in mind until quite recently: the wolves cannot co-ordinate policy "on the hoof" as events develop during the day, as they can only PM at night.
By the way lmp, from a comment about Nilp you made yesterday: the Cursed Villager doesn't actually know he's cursed, I think.

[Anguirel]

I must say, Lalaith, your vote for Esgal, while understandable, wasn't that helpful...but I saw its motive, and I'm not going to pursue it, for now.

dancing spawn's death was a surprisingly subtle choice for the wolf-kin, but it has at least narrowed down our shortlist.

I am assured, by every due process of the law, that Hookbill-who escaped our pitchforks yesterday-richly deserves the Memorial Gallows on all counts. I am certain that he is the second wolf, and thus draw up the following charges:

Three counts of murder and conspiracy to murder
Six counts of perjury
Impersonation
Protectionism in tree-frog dealing

The only question is, should we hang him and have done with it, or track down his lupine accomplice through reasoning while we're at it? Whatever happens, we should hang Hookbill at the end of the day, but should we tie another suspect alongside him? Only if it's a universally decided suspect, of course.

I fear the third wolf is a talker, a reasoner, a cunning piece of scum, in all probability a lawyer. Someone not unlike myself. For a start, I think that butcher's too dashed eloquent, though my view is somewhat coloured...coloured. Brings me to the Artist, Miss Fea-steered us towards the innocent Nilp...

All in all, I'm really undecided about the third wolf, but if we don't hang Hookbill by sundown I swear I'll pick up a particularly large and sharp legal document and do him in myself...

++HOOKBILL THE GOOMBA

[Saurreg]

Anguriel has not answered my queries yesterday and he has ignored my first post of this round. Instead he goes straight for Hookbill. To all those who might be blinded by his flowery and well-written post, may I point out that he has not given any real reasons of deduction.

EDIT: Lalaith my dear, you will not know how much your pleading and reasoning bites into me. But the facts are facts and i cannot deny them. Your voting styles, choices and explanations does cast much suspicion on yourself. And it is not just me - read around and you'll find that more and more people are against you. We reap what we sow.

[Anguirel]

How am I supposed to answer your queries, old chap?

I can either say "There are some things that great men do that they wish to go unobserved" and then be turned into mince overnight.

Or I can say, "Goodness, Saurreg, you're right. Oops. Aren't I stupid for blindly defending Lalaith? I'm really not very good at this game, am I, ho ho?" This is called the Hookbill technique.

Or I can play a Nilp and laconically drawl, "Lalaith and I are indeed werewolves. We're wondering whether to use parsley or basil for seasoning."

I think I'll do the third. It's the wittiest.

Lalaith and I are indeed werewolves. We're wondering whether to use parsley or basil for seasoning.

But please, could you oblige us by falling for our demoniac ruse and lynching the patently innocent Hookbill anyway?

Thankyou.

[Lalaith]

Dear Anguirel, please convince me that Hookbill is a werewolf. What has s/he said or done that makes you so sure?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Ang, ol' boy, I'd fall for your ruse, only... Well... I don't want to. I've made my point about LMP and I'm watching happily to note that, yet again, nobody is paying any attention to it. Which makes me wonder.

[Saurreg]

Originally Posted by Anguirel

How am I supposed to answer your queries, old chap?

I can either say "There are some things that great men do that they wish to go unobserved" and then be turned into mince overnight.

Or I can say, "Goodness, Saurreg, you're right. Oops. Aren't I stupid for blindly defending Lalaith? I'm really not very good at this game, am I, ho ho?" This is called the Hookbill technique.

Or I can play a Nilp and laconically drawl, "Lalaith and I are indeed werewolves. We're wondering whether to use parsley or basil for seasoning."

I think I'll do the third. It's the wittiest.

Lalaith and I are indeed werewolves. We're wondering whether to use parsley or basil for seasoning.

But please, could you oblige us by falling for our demoniac ruse and lynching the patently innocent Hookbill anyway?

Thankyou.

Ah...

Let us make a deal, I am very good at that. Infact let this be a deal for all who are interested.

For this round I will not question you or even bug you. I will also leave Lalaith alone I will in fact vote for Hookbill the Goomba. I will even solicit for votes against him.

And for additional insurance we also lynch someone else.

Your part would be to state whom you suspect next.

If you are wrong this evening, then we all go for you tomorrow.

What say you?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I fear the third wolf is a talker, a reasoner, a cunning piece of scum, in all probability a lawyer. Someone not unlike myself. For a start, I think that butcher's too dashed eloquent, though my view is somewhat coloured...coloured. Brings me to the Artist, Miss Fea-steered us towards the innocent Nilp...

Now... "cunning piece of scum" is forgivable, but lawyer?!? And how can you say that I've been steering people? Nobody followed my Eomer-vote on day one (although you had a blast on day two), and you absolutely ignored my LMP-vote on day two. It's not my fault that Nilp was a very public confusion. I just voted. At that point I half expected everyone to say "Let's vote for Evisse instead because we have nothing against her." Much like what happened to Oddwen.

Do you think, when I vote today, people will follow me? If so, I feel tremendously special, but given who I currently plan on killing off, I highly doubt the likelihood.

[Lalaith]

Look, we now know the identity of one of the wolves and instead of flinging accusations around straight away, I really think we should all try to examine the evidence we have. I have inspected Esgal's posts closely but unfortunately she posted so rarely that we have very little to go on. However, as I said before, can we not learn something from the first day's voting.

A wolf was nominated as the second vote, and yet no other wolf stepped in to save her. Why?

EDIT: Saurreg, I wasn't pleading. In fact, I said there was no point in pleading as I couldn't stop you.

[Saurreg]

Originally Posted by Lalaith

A wolf was nominated as the second vote, and yet no other wolf stepped in to save her. Why?

I can see two possiblities:

a. The two wolves have long decided to ostracize their unlucky kindred since the beginning. The werewolves win in the end regardless which lycan stays alive and by habing the unwitting one eliminated, they exonerate themselves.

b. In RL Esgal had difficulty balancing her schedule with the game. She was already on the way out via default and there was nothing they could or were willing to do.