Tol-in-Gaurhoth LI: The Pain of Wargs

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

The Wargs had become more vicious this day; resentment had flared up, caused by the murderers in their midst. Legate garnered more votes than any other, and it was decided that he should die. But as his would-be executioners rounded on him, a terrifying transformation occured. Legate writhed and twisted, and he grew to a great size; becoming a form mighty and magnificent, yet also dreadful; and such a look of wickedness was in his eyes as the Wargs had never before seen. This fearsome spectre stood poised, waiting for battle. The Wargs pounced upon him, and they fought a brutal exchange. The stranger was remarkably powerful, and even all the Wargs together were struggling with him, but then they heard a deep, booming laughter, and they stopped to look at where it had come from.

Brinniel had not yet joined proceedings. She stood there, her unnatural form trembling, as if about to burst. The demented gaze she sported was proof enough that she was no real Warg. She cast aside her skin, so it seemed, and grew into a figure so similar to what Legate had become.

It cried out: "Manwë! Thou hast tried to cripple the Wargs, but how it has turned out -- they have helped me cripple thee!"

And he flung himself at his foe, a devastating collision that rent a chasm in the middle of the ancient Wargish sanctuary. Manwë had time enough to cry "Melkor!" before their clash; afterward he shrieked, a sound so terrifying some Wargs threw themselves to the ground. And then he was gone.

Melkor danced to the top of a stone pillar, looked back at the Wargs and smirked. Some gave chase, but Melkor flew off the side of the hold, down into the valley, and disappeared victorious. He had achieved his goal.

The Wargs, bemused though they were, soon began to remember their old friends Legate and Brinniel, who had been murdered by the two mightiest beings in Arda mere hours ago.


---------------------------------------------


The Living

Thinlómien
Kath
Gwathagor
Shastanis Althreduin
Mithalwen
Diamond
Gollum The Great
Rune Son of Bjarne
Gaunt

The Dead

SamwiseGamgee (Guardian)
Kitanna (Warg)
Groin Redbeard (Warg)
Nogrod (Warg)
Legate of Amon Lanc (Manwë)

Victorious

Brinniel (Melkor)


Night 4 has begun. Villains, send me a name; Seer, send me a name.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

The Warg Elders were far too exhausted, after the bizarre happenings of the dusk, to look at the walls of Eomer. In truth, they missed nothing essential. They had done well to dispose of the master of the villains, he who had directed the slaughter of Wargs, including Legate of Amon Lanc -- the Warg whose form he had assumed. That despicable Manwë was ever cursed by Wargs after.

And Melkor too had been and gone, slaying Brinniel in the process, though aiding the Wargs in damaging Manwë so badly that he would never again be seen in Middle-earth. Their private war was not at an end, though it never again caught the Wargs so grievously. The Wargs knew now how the mighty thought of them.

In the morning, the Warg Elders found that more terrible things had happened: Rune Son of Bjarne had been slain, obviously with gruesome gusto. A blade was sticking through his heart, not quite obscuring the Wargish markings neath the fur on his chest: the markings were of ancient tradition in Warg magic, and their meaning was not lost on the Elders. Rune had been a Warg skilled in seeing the truth beyond the outer layer of beings of this Middle-earth; he had been one of their specially gifted: their Seer.

They later found the body of Shastanis Althreduin, who had not been seen for at least one day. He had not been murdered directly, but had indeed died of grief, at the realisation of the pain of Wargs.

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The Living

Thinlómien
Kath
Gwathagor
Mithalwen
Diamond
Gollum The Great
Gaunt

The Dead

SamwiseGamgee (Guardian)
Kitanna (Warg)
Groin Redbeard (Warg)
Nogrod (Warg)
Legate of Amon Lanc (Manwë)
Shastanis Althreduin (Warg)
Rune Son of Bjarne (Seer)

Victorious

Brinniel (Melkor)


-----------------------------------

Day 4 has begun.

[Diamond18]

I may be particularly out of it, but I can't understand what exactly happened with Brinniel there. Did she die automatically because Legate was lynched? Does that make them some sort of "anti-lover" pair? Me not gets it.

With Rune gone this village seems doomed to debilitating silence. I'm one to talk, I know, and unfortunately I won't have time to remedy that completely. But I should be able to delay my vote to a wee bit closer to the deadline.

For now, it seems a closer read of Rune's posts are in order.

[Thinlómien]

So, our seer dead? Not nice, not at all. But at least so is one of the baddies. (And two extra casualties on our side - not good.)

Well, at least I know what to do. First I will look through Rune's posts and see who he might have dreamt of.

Then, I will reread yesterDay's narration. I'm rather puzzled as for what Legate actually was, and how was Brinniel related to that. It didn't look like Legate was an ordinary wolf. Maybe he was some kind of a werebear? (But that Brinn thing still looks weird to me.) And then lastly I will never even half-trust that Monsieur d'Amon Lanc again. But even if it looks probable that he was something else than ordinary wolf, it makes sense to check if he has suspicious connections with anyone.

edit: xed with Di

[Thinlómien]

I think it's rather difficult to interpret Rune's posts. On Day2, his suspect list looked unseerish, but this was his list of people he won't vote:

Originally Posted by Rune

Groin: He has this air of innocens around him. . . It is not that I agree with him as such, but it is the fact that he does not seem the least bit manipulative.

Kath: It is annoying that she is not around, but I really want her around at least for another day.

Nogrod: Because he seem very Nogrod-ish and this normaly means he is innocent, but I am probably going to change my mind later in the game. . .I mean it is Nogrod.

Gaunt:I need more time to analyse

Lommy: A mixture of what I said about Nogrod and Gaunt.

This is what he said yesterDay:

Originally Posted by Rune

Maybe it is just the style that Mith plays that confuses me, she pops up a few times and with some small posts which are mostly uncontrovertial or at least in my view not really creating much of disciution. Anyways I will not be voting for her again today, that would not be fair unless somehthing major happens.

Originally Posted by Rune

People I am quite confident I will not vote for today:

Mith - I have voted for her two times now and even though I stand by my decision I think it would be unwise to vote for her at this point. . . For one she is gennerally regarded as innocent so it would be a waste of a vote, secondly it would not leave much of a pattern for people to analyse should I get killed. oh and also: It is very easy to become to focused on one individual and thus become blind to what others do, so yeah I do not think it would be wise to vote for her again today.

Kath - I really like Kath as a player. . .of course there are limmits to how long I can use this as an excuse for not suspecting her.
Maybe I should add Gaunt to that list.

Of course he said other stuff too, but these quotes stuck me as most important. None of his suspicions anywhere look seerish.

I think he dreamt of Mith on Night3. That would explain his reluctance to vote her again. Then he probably also dreamt of Kath... (which would mean I've once again been wrong about stuff ). Who was the third dream, then? I'd be inclined to say Groin, that "air of innocence" looks rather seerish. He could have dreamt of Gaunt too, but that seems less likely.

So, if we think he dreamt of Mith and Kath (and Groin), that leaves me, Diamond, Gwath, Gollum and Gaunt as possible wolves. How many are there supposed to be in there? At least one. Possibly two. Or even more, who knows. Anyway, right now I'm most suspicious of Gwath. Gollum looks a little fishy (haha, Gollum and fishes ) too. Diamond has managed to slip under my radar, and so has Gaunt, but some of his posts had an innocent feel.

Now, I'm off to reread that Legate-Brinn narration and have a quick look at Legate's posts.

[Gwathagor]

Not only did I defend Brinniel, who turned out to be Melkor (surprise!), but I also voted against our Seer. I look pretty dirty right now.

How many werewolves do we have now? I guess it has to be 3 or less, since there are only 7 players remaining, right? That doesn't seem to fit with the prophecy. But I guess we should just focus on trying to sift out one at a time.

Well - I've written all this and now I discover that I don't actually have anything useful to say...I guess I'll try to stop in and do some substantial analysis later this evening, or tomorrow afternoon.

I will say this. I'm sick of voting for obvious people that turn out to be good. At this point in time, the odds are good that I will go after somebody who's been quiet and unobtrusive, like Diamond or Gollum. Yeah, that's flawless logic for you.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

Not only did I defend Brinniel, who turned out to be Melkor (surprise!), but I also voted against our Seer. I look pretty dirty right now.

But if she was Melkor, wasn't she kind of on our side? I got that picture at last... And btw if it was anyone else that said something like this I'd be raising my eyebrows at the jumpinessbut suspicious comments like this are very gwathistic...

Originally Posted by Gwath

But I guess we should just focus on trying to sift out one at a time.

Agreed.

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

But if she was Melkor, wasn't she kind of on our side? I got that picture at last...

Oh. I guess we are Wargs. I just saw "Melkor" and I thought "Ah ha, he's bad. I'm a dummy." I hope you're right, but I'm not going to worry about it too much at this point, since they're both dead - or gone anyway.

[Thinlómien]

Okay, I don't really get that Legate-Brinn stuff.

And not much to say with Legate's connections to other people either. His interactions with Gwath look a little fishy though: Legate keeps supecting but not really suspecting Gwath and Gwath keeps trusting but not really trusting Legate, or really, it's not even that simply but it looks like an elaborate dance and slightly suspicious.

Legate and Gollum are interesting. I could see it all as constructed, or then Gollum is simply innocent. Hmm... really that last attack of Legate's could be seen as a wolf attacking a fellow and thus trying to make him look innocent when he knows he's going down...

YesterDay's voting, then...

Diamond voted him first. It looks pretty innocent, but the fact that she didn't give any grounds for her vote worries me.

Mith cast the second vote on him. There were no other votes that early. This would make me think Mith wasn't Legate's fellow even if there wasn't any Rune-evidence for her innocence.

Gwath voted Rune then. If he was Legate's fellow, would he have chosen someone less widely trusted?

Rune voted me.

Gollum voted me next, tying me with Legate. Now this makes me wonder, really...

Brinn voted Legate.

Kath voted Legate next. Either a smart fellow seeing he's dying already or an innocent. This vote was rather decisive, after all. I'm inclined to think Kath innocent just based on Rune's posts anyway.

Legate voted me.

I voted Legate.

Okay. If Legate had any fellows, I'd be looking most closely at Gollum, even though Gwath, Gaunt and Diamond could very well be ones too.

So, I'm afraid this all didn't make me much wiser...


edit: xed with Gwath

[Gollum the Great]

Hmm. With Rune, Legate, and Brinniel gone I have the idea Lommy is the only one who will keep up a steady flow of conersation.

This situation is horrible. I can't justify accusing most of the remaining party because of the almost total lack of evidence of any kind, except simply being quiet, like Gaunt, but then so have I been a silentish sort of player.

To another topic, I was first chased around by Legate, and now Lommy has chosen me for a target. Knowing now who Legate was, I am tending towards considering Lommy a traitor. Of course, I may be wrong and I am not making a decision off of so slim evidence as that, but I am watching Lommy.

[Thinlómien]

So, Gollum, you first mourn that everybody is too quiet and then suggest lynching someone who is according to your own words the only one who will keep up the conversation? Great logic.



I don't really understand this village and to be honest, I'm even annoyed with it. (This is not especially for you, Golly, so don't take this as a personal attack.) All the Days, only the actions of the loud players are discussed. Then, every Day, a loud player is lynched and with the exception of Legate, they've all been innocent. Then, the village just always picks a new loudmouth to lynch. On top of that, the cowardly wolves keep taking down loudmouth people as well.

Is this supposed to be a good game? A bunch of people who say nothing and just get rid of the few ones who bother to commit time to actually doing stuff.

Not very enjoyable in my opinion. You might as well lynch me next, would fit the pattern nicely, wouldn't it? And would be just as useful as most of the other lynches. And you wouldn't have to bother with anyone actually talking and urging people to post. And I wouldn't have to get frustrated. Wouldn't that make everybody happy?



Okay, I know I'm generalising and not being fair, but I really don't like this "pop in once a day and make two or three posts" tactics because it makes discussion very difficult and what I like even less that this village is so stupidly centered on loudmouths that they wouldn't notice if the silent slip-under-the-radar wolves were doing pirouettes and blowing up bombs in their shady corners.

[Gollum the Great]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

So, Gollum, you first mourn that everybody is too quiet and then suggest lynching someone who is according to your own words the only one who will keep up the conversation? Great logic..

Are you just trying to protect yourself? I mean, if we kill you, all we'll be short on will be a one-sided conversation.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Gollum the Great

I mean, if we kill you, all we'll be short on will be a one-sided conversation.

Obviously. So just kill me and get rid of it.

But really, I feel this village is being rather unconstructive. I bet the wolves are going to win this game.