TOL-IN-GAURHOTH XII, Erbar Telamarth

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Slandering my sewing, Boromir?? What kind of foul strategy is that? Even were I truly a werewolf, during the day my hands would be as skilled and delicate as you see them now. Were I truly a werewolf, would I give myself away by crude craftsmanship? Nay, talk like that is foolish at best and suspicious at worst. That is not the way to pin down who is guilty.

I claim no knowledge of anyone's secret inner life. On this first day, we can only guess and choose at random. As yet, we have only words, no deeds by which to judge our fellow villagers. May the Valar guide our choice - and that hopefully without the delay with which they so often act!

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Irritating people, lord Anguirel? How say you! 'Tis only my nature to talk in such a way. Though granted I've made a few enemies along the road. I'll aim to make myself a fearsome enemy of them thar wolves, tho'.

The ol' peepers have been working and they do believe they've spotted something, even this early. Anyone else? I'm not sure I want to spell it out yet.

And hail my hobbits, I do think I'll ha' to find the saloon masel'! Good day!


PS. I never knew that ol' Sir Phantom an' all, but I hear he was a rousing good chap. The village'll miss 'im, I'm sure. Rich fellow, by any chance?

[Anguirel]

Forsooth, I do hope that yonder man-at-arms Eomer be not a wolf, for it will be nigh on impossible to bring myself to vote for him...

My good esquire, supposing thou art innocent, thou hast left the villagers pondering on this...

Originally Posted by Eomer

In addition to the wise comments delivered beforehand, I would also ask my new fellows to look out for those things that we have to look out for, for they are placed so as to be found by those who are looking, if you'll follow me.

while the wolves will be puzzling exactly how much they ought to fear your strong right arm...

Still, you seem a sturdy fellow, and I shall vouchsafe thy character against the denunciations brought by the Elvenking's messenger...for the present...

[mormegil]

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

The ol' peepers have been working and they do believe they've spotted something, even this early. Anyone else? I'm not sure I want to spell it out yet.

I think I may see what you are speaking of and though I find you a miscreant rouge I may tend to agree with you and won't spell it out yet.

[Anguirel]

You varlets! Thy cryptic maunderings are most infuriating.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

It's ok, Ang. If you weren't going to vote for me anyway then it's useless trying to point you in that sweet and truthful direction.

Mormegil is a trusty servant and a far more worthy fellow than I (though I offer Thingol no regrets) and I think he is wise enough to see what has been laid out.

Look: we have a Seer in this village, or so I am told. It is imperative that he/she stays alive for as long as is necessary for our cause. It would be downright awful to lose him/her on the first day. Try not to make the lynchings too random, even here on this first Day.

A pity things are turning out as they are, what with the Wolves invading an' all. It appears that that outrageous character littlemanpoet would have batted my notoriety right into thae shadows! Ah, for peace and quiet!

[Anguirel]

The noble line of the Knights of Anguirelli number some Seers among their ancestors; and I can impart this much family lore. No post-mortem "trail" is worth a succession of dreams made safely. O farsighted one, wherever you be, do not expose yourself unduly-perhaps even at all-dropping hints too early. All too often a valiant Seer has paid the highest price far too soon for lacking subtlety...

Incidentally, if we wish to avoid lynching one of our gallant band of heroes, then I am happy to volunteer myself for the noose; if the village truly wills it, though I would rather follow Master mormegil's strategy...

[Formendacil]

Alas! 'Tis bad enough to come in from a lonely night at work (and worse having to work at what I work), but coming in to find that the village is in a bigger pile of turds and stools than my job consists of is no fun...

I won't bother the village with my suspicions simply because I don't have any. As yet, we have no way of knowing who the vile Werewolves are, short of leaving the village and handing ourselves up to Sauron...

None of us is so foolish as to want to do that, methinks. Although Sauron would be rather pleased, I suppose...

But still, I am not certain that we shouldn't lynch somebody. True, it is an awfully hard fate for anyone here in the village, and I'm no more eager to volunteer myself than the next villager. But it isn't unheard of to catch a Werewolf on the first day, now is it?

That said, I'm not going to push for a lynching. I've got a bad track record of lynching all the wrong people- why do you think I shovel man-turds for a living? And I'll say this regarding my last village- I was lucky to get out in time- and according to some storytellers, I didn't. Werewolves are exceedingly cunning creatures, and are very good at sowing fear and dissention...

My question regarding Master Mormegil's strategy is this: If there are fifteen villagers, and fifteen votes cast for fifteen victims, then is the one who was voted for first just lynched off- on the strength of ONE vote, one-FIFTEENTH of the population?

It's not a likely scenario, I'll grant, but if you're counselling us to vote as randomly as possible, it is quite possible that we'll end up with someone being executed with hardly any suspicion, and most likely innocent. I agree that's a dangerous thing to all bandwaggon together against somebody, and that the chances of catching someone are no greater, but at least with a bandwaggoning you have the weight of a truer village majority behind you...

I don't suppose it's possible for ALL of the village to not vote. Would the phantom of our departed leader hound us to the grave for that? If EVERYONE in the village participated, would it perhaps be manageable...

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Anguirel

O farsighted one, wherever you be, do not expose yourself unduly-perhaps even at all-dropping hints too early. All too often a valiant Seer has paid the highest price far too soon for lacking subtlety...

Then let all innocents be as loudmouthy as can be so that the merest hintings by the farsighted one, should they occur sooner than later, go unnoticed by the evil spirited ones, so distracted they will be by the noise of the rest of us.

Incidentally, if we wish to avoid lynching one of our gallant band of heroes, then I am happy to volunteer myself for the noose; if the village truly wills it, though I would rather follow Master mormegil's strategy...

Bad idea. If we have an innocent volunteer, assuming that you are, although it could be a brash werewolvish bluff, then there is no voting trail to follow to roust out the werewolves.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I have no inclination to talk in role-playing riddles. I've been out of town a few days as can be ascertained by a peek at our dearly departed Sir Lord Master King (jeesh, does he want God next?) Phantom's edit of the start date. T'was my frantic begging that delayed our preceedings. As I've only just finished reading the thread after getting back to campus, surely you'll understand the lateness of my response. Mind you, I'm hoping that coming clean about this won't glean spite votes against me just to get revenge for making you wait...

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

The ol' peepers have been working and they do believe they've spotted something, even this early. Anyone else? I'm not sure I want to spell it out yet.

I've glanced something, but as it's only the very first day, and I've made similar mistakes in the past, I'll see if I can learn from my rashly accusational nature. Perhaps not though... perhaps I should go with my perverse sense of humor (though less so, apparently, than LMP's ) and just accuse you here and now of wolvish undertakings.

Anyhow, here's what I've gleaned:

Everybody speaks sense. How clever of them. Here's a bit more:

We ought to assume that I'm innocent (a good assumption, based on fact) and circle-vote. Each person is assigned someone to kill (I'm not included on this list, obviously) and votes for them. That way, when the day is done, everyone but one person (moi) will be dead, and the villagers will be victorious. If you like, I can then take my happily living innocence and go avenge the phantom by challenging Sauron to single combat. After all, I'm somewhat short, and if I keep accidentally slamming my shoulder-blade in the car door, I'll be unarmed.

Or if you don't want to assume that I'm innocent, we can have the Seer step forward to proclaim his/her innocence, as well as whomever s/he dreamt about, and circular vote that way, based on them.

Or, even better, we can continue blindly. To be honest, that sounds like a load more fun.

My own opinion is that I've found either two known innocents, or two known wolves. Quite frankly, I think that we should kill one of them off just to see which idea is accurate. *grin*

Or on another note, let's off mormegil... at random, of course.

You see, I'm not crazy about his plan. If we all vote "at random" then yes, we might be able to see who doesn't vote randomly, but it will take longer to analyze than if we all go off on our own ridiculous tangents. At least then, we have something to do tomorrow, yeah?

PS: dear clothier, I've finally managed to photograph the sign that says "Esty Street."