Tol-in-Gaurhoth VII (The Saga goes ever on and on)

[Firefoot]

And so the Day ends. Expect Oddwen's death soon.

[Firefoot]

Despite her protests, the villagers had chosen. Oddwen, a mere tourist who was unfortunate to be caught up in the troubles of Loveland, would die tonight.

“I tried to tell you!” she cried out over the clamors of the mob. “I’m your Ranger! Your guardian! Honest!” But the mob had simply gained too much momentum by then.

“If that’s so, you haven’t done such a great job of it!” yelled someone cruelly.

The mob herded her off towards the village square – towards the gallows. As the gallows rose into sight, however, doubt wavered in the hearts of the villagers. They hadn’t had a whole lot of luck with the gallows the previous night…

At this point, the executioner was able to make himself heard: “My axe is sharpened!” But he was overridden by another voice: “Let Nilp’s wolves kill the wolf! They’ve not eaten recently. Let the wolves kill the wolf!”

The mob seemed to forget any inkling that this might be their ranger that they were killing as a chant went up, “Wolves to kill the wolf! Wolves to kill the wolf!” They changed directions and headed out of town for Nilp’s wolf farm.

The wolves, curious about all the noise, gathered near the fence of their enclosure as the mob drew near. The villagers lost some time in figuring out how the latch on the gate worked, but eventually it was opened and Oddwen was shoved inside. “Maybe those wolves really will be good for something,” someone commented.

"This is the most unloving village I've ever had the misfortune to visit," grumbled Oddwen.

Now, wolves don’t usually attack people, and at least a few of the villagers realized this. They began to throw sticks and stones at the wolves to provoke them, and between fright and hunger they concerted their attacks on the available victim – Oddwen. In desperation, Oddwen drew back her cloak, and the villagers realized that this was no mere traveler’s cloak; it served a second purpose in covering Oddwen’s weapons of defense. As the wolves attacked, Oddwen did her best to defend herself, but the wolves’ sharp teeth, raw strength, and sheer numbers were no match for Oddwen and her sword. Though many wolves were wounded, and one or two killed, eventually Oddwen was overcome as one of the wolves made a lunge for her throat. Soon Oddwen collapsed to the ground, her body scored with tooth-slashes and her throat mangled.

The villagers had watched the whole thing in stunned silence. “She really was the Ranger… and we killed her,” mumbled that one villager. And as always, that villager spoke the truth. No longer did the village have protection from the werewolves – the wolves were ecstatic.

~*~*~*~

Living:

Dancing Spawn
Durelin
Elf-warrior
Encai
Eomer
Kath
Kitanna
Lhuna
LMP
Mormegil
Oromin
Saurreg
TGWBS
TORE
Wilwarin

Dead:

Firefoot – drowned and burned by werewolves on Night 1
Nilpaurion (Ordinary Villager) – beat piñata style and killed by villagers on Day 1
Fea (Ordinary Villager) – gutted and stuffed by werewolves on Night 2
Oddwen (Ranger) – killed by Nilp’s villager-provoked wolves on Day 2

Score:

Werewolves – 3
Villagers – 12

It is now Night 3. I need names from the Werewolves, Hunter, and Seer. Shirriffs should stop PM’ing. Night will end in 24 hours.

[Firefoot]

Despite the late hour, the hunter Durelin had not fallen asleep. She knew that her chances of dying tonight were high, so she remained armed and vigilant, ready for what the werewolves might bring.

Sure enough, she soon spotted three werewolves making their way to her house. She crept downstairs, drawing her sword. If she could, she would take one of them with her.

So when the wolves came through the door, the surprise attack was turned on them. They leapt at her, their sharp teeth gleaming as they snarled. The element of surprise was with Durelin, and many of her blows came too close for comfort, and she may have even beaten the wolves had they not decided to retreat and regroup, then come back in a more organized fashion.

“One of you was TGWBS,” murmured Durelin as they departed. “I’m sure of it.” So while she had a break from the furious attacks of the wolves, Durelin hastened to the blacksmith’s house, which was, in fact, next door. She found that TGWBS was not asleep at all and assumed it was because of wolfish activities, though in actuality he had been woken up by the commotion next door.

“I knew it was you! Thought you could hide from me here, didn’t you!” said Durelin triumphantly.

TGBWS held his blacksmith’s hammer ready, the only weapon accessible to him at the moment. He tried to ease what seemed to him Durelin’s utter madness. “You’re making a mista-” But Durelin’s age belied her swiftness. Taking the hammer to be a threat, she plunged her sword through TGWBS’s heart while TGWBS could only begin to swing his hammer in defense. Durelin’s face paled as TGWBS slumped to the ground – no wolf was he, but an ordinary villager.

Nor was Durelin ready when the real wolves burst through the door. In haste, she tried to pull her sword from TGWBS’s body, but to no avail. She was already scored with slashes by the time she was able to face the now organized wolves. As she swung her sword towards one of them, a second caught her wrist neatly in its mouth and snapped off her hand. She still fought valiantly with a knife in her other hand, but Durelin Erchamion was no match for three vicious wolves. Like so many flowers that Durelin had dead-headed, the wolves ripped her head from her body.

Durelin had been quite correct in saying that werewolves disliked flowers, and for their “victory lap” the wolves ripped the blossoms off every single one of Durelin’s plants in delight. Their night had been entirely successful, after all – two innocents dead where they had thought only to kill one!

~*~*~*~

Living:

Dancing Spawn
Elf-warrior
Encai
Eomer
Kath
Kitanna
Lhuna
LMP
Mormegil
Oromin
Saurreg
TORE
Wilwarin

Dead:

Firefoot – drowned and burned by werewolves on Night 1
Nilpaurion (Ordinary Villager) – beat piñata style and killed by villagers on Day 1
Fea (Ordinary Villager) – gutted and stuffed by werewolves on Night 2
Oddwen (Ranger) – killed by Nilp’s villager-provoked wolves on Day 2
Durelin (Hunter) – Dead-handed and dead-headed by werewolves on Night 3
TGWBS (Ordinary Villager) - Slain by Hunter on Night 3

Score:

Werewolves – 3
Villagers – 10

It is now Day 3. Shirriffs may begin PM'ing; Wolves should stop. Day will end in 24 hours.

[Orominuialwen]

I'm the Cobbler. Please lynch me.

[Kath]

I'm the Cobbler. Please lynch me.

If you are the cobbler Oromin then surely it is not in our best interests to lynch you when you have simply given us less people to look at in our search for a wolf. Or, you could be a wolf hiding behind the role of the Cobbler so that we will not lynch you.

Now Oddwen and Durelin are dead so let's have a look at the people they were suspicious of.

Oddwen:

My suspicions of wolfhood belong to Kitanna, Guy, Wilwa, and perhaps Elf-Warrior. Lhuna confuses me also.

Durelin:

Oddwen, Dancing Spawn, and Wilwa are the wolves.

Now we know that TGWBS was innocent. Wilwa was suspected by both of them so I would suggest keeping a close eye on her and I hope that she posts quite a lot today so we can see any clues in her behaviour. Yesterday Kitanna drew a great deal of suspicion, she was second or third on most people's lists, and having now seen that Oddwen and Durelin were innocent, and indeed gifted leaving only the Shirriffs and the Seer as active gifteds, I think we should concentrate on her as well.

EDIT: Having just seen Eomer's post I think Elf-Warrior deserves some attention too. He doesn't post often enough for my liking, I can't make any decisions about him, he could be a wolf hiding under the radar.

[Kitanna]

Originally Posted by Orominuialwen

I'm the Cobbler. Please lynch me.

*raises an eyebrow*

Oh my, I killed poor Oddwen! With my theory on Elf-Warrior shot I'm not sure of the guilty anymore. I was wrong two days in a row. I don't want to make it three. Though my Elf-Warrior theory is shot I still find lmp to be innocent. I also think morm is innocent. I'm not sure about anyone else. Though Wilwa should be watched...

[Kath]

Though my Elf-Warrior theory is shot

Sorry could you explain that? What was the theory and why is it shot? I think I missed it.

[Kitanna]

I thought Oddwen was the wolf and Elf-Warrior was a wolf, simply because of how they voted on Day 1. But since I was wrong about Oddwen I fear I may be wrong about Elf-Warrior too.

[mormegil]

Originally Posted by Kitanna

Though my Elf-Warrior theory is shot I still find lmp to be innocent. I also think morm is innocent. I'm not sure about anyone else. Though Wilwa should be watched...

If Kitanna is lynched as I think she may be today I would suggest looking at Wilwa very closely. A great wolfish tatic is to make sure to say you are suspicious of one another an yet never do much about it. And she's also trying to attach to at least one innocent here. I know I am innocent and actually believe LMP to be innocent as well. Elf-warrior is interesting too. I'm not sure Kitanna would have mentioned the other two wolves in one post but perhaps she did.

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

It's time for my theory of the day but here are yesterday's votes in chronological order, to begin with (who voted for whom).

Elf-warrior -> Durelin
Lhuna -> -II-
mormegil -> -II-

Kitanna -> Oddwen
Eomer -> -II-
Durelin -> -II-
TGWBS -> -II-

Oddwen -> Kitanna

lmp -> Oddwen

Kath -> Durelin
Saurreg -> -II-

TORE -> Lhuna

wilwa -> Oddwen

spawn -> Kitanna

I think the wolves are wilwarin, Elf-warrior and especially Kitanna.
Reasons for my suspicions of Kitanna can be found in my post #169 and I won't repeat them here. Other things that make me think that she's a wolf are:

- She went pretty strongly against Oddwen. I believe that most of us think that Eomer's not guilty so that would have been a perfect way to associate oneself with an innocent.
- The "flip-flopping on Elf-warrior"

On day 1 wilwa said about accusing and lyncing people:

we should take our time with this decision

Yet twelve minutes later she said:

Morm is a little too eager for some blood shed don't you think?

After most of us disagreed with this, she starts the confusion talk. Is she playing a dull wolf? Anyway, I have found her behaviour rather weird.

On the first day wilwa, E-w and Kitanna voted rather late and all for a different person. Now you might ask who I am to blame because I have voted really late on both days but I'm not suspecting myself. There's the difference. It seems to me that their votes were a safety operation for distracting us. They watched who would get votes and then each of them voted for a different vote-gatherer. All three seem to be rather easily persuaded, too.

About Oromin... She's following Nilp's footsteps. I'm afraid that there are two options (yes, again). Either Oromin is the cobbler or she is a wolf. If she's a wolf she may have thought that we learned something from Nilp's case and we won't lynch her. If Oromin is the cobbler, she's doing her job and making us confused. I'm not going to vote for her today.

The Seer is hiding his/her personality pretty well. I don't have a faintest clue who it might be and that's good. I trust his/her own deliberative ability to decide when to step forth.

[littlemanpoet]

Sorry, I haven't read any of today's posts yet, except to scan the Night's kill and to my horror we lost two, not one.

The madness must stop. I have been no help, and was wrong to tell Durelin that we could not organize because of no known innocents. It may be difficult to organize with no known (alive) innocents, but not impossible. Better to struggle than the current mad chaos.

I have a plan. A proposal.

1. Let's take a vote to choose a leader from amonst ourselves. This leader must have such traits as:

• the confidence of a large number of villagers as likely innocent
• good at strategy
• clear communicator

2. The number of votes needed for such a leader to be agreed upon must be equal to the total number of current innocent villagers.

3. Choose a new leader each day. The previous day's leader may be chosen again, which makes sense if said leader did a good job.

4. If you agree with this proposal, show it by voting for a leader, using the following format, on its own line: LDR: {name}

It's possible that we might vote a cobbler or werewolf as our leader ... for a day. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It puts pressure on the werewolf to try and seem innocent while being very active, which is far more difficult than flying under the radar. If we inadvertently choose the cobbler as our leader, this is the one person who could sabotage the day's efforts. I see no clear way around that. Suffice it to say that it can be no worse than losing two gifted villagers in the space of a night and day.

The whole point of this is to try to take the initiative away from the werewolves. I'm not sure it will succeed, but it's better than the current chaos, I think. And whoever the leader is, I would request that we actually have a trial of law, and that we arrest both Kitanna and Elf Warrior and put both of them to trial today. The leader can serve as magistrate. If the current Moddessgoddess thinks I'm taking things way out of control for the kind of game this is, please say so. At least it's more civilized than the wild accusations and mass murder we're currently visiting upon each other.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I feel great shame for the part I played in yesterday's fiasco. In my melancholy, I read through everything said numerous times, and I am willing to share my ideas. Though I am less inclined to believe that the rest of the village is interested in my theories anymore.

But:

I still believe that there is a wolf who voted for tgwbs on DAY 1. That's either The Elf-Warrior or littlemanpoet.

I am slightly suspicious of Lhunardawen though now (and especially with tgwbs dead) I am thinking she is possibly the cobbler.

And one other villager who has shot to my attention after careful re-reading is Kitanna. I am finding her very suspicious indeed. I'll post more later, though with the benefit of hindsight, I am thinking I should probably just keep my mouth shut.

I am truly sorry for the dead, especially Oddwen and Durelin.