WWJ III - Nan Qualinmerë: Death Wish Valley

[Glirdan]

Gandalf sat in his living room, thinking of all the different spells he uses each night to protect his house. Tonight, however, nothing was coming to him. "What is the matter with me!?" he cried out loud. That's when images of the dead villagers flashed before his eyes. Right then and there, he broke down, balling his eyes out. The he heard a scratch at window and he jumped. "Oh!! It's just a tree branch!" Then he heard a knock at the door. He jumped and the door swung open. "Oh! It's just the wind." The he heard another scratch at the window. "I'm not falling for that one again."

"Maybe not. But you should be afraid!" snarled the figure lumbering towards him.

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The villagers awoke in the morning, lumbered out of bed, got dressed groggily and slumped to the village square. There was a sad, depressed mood in the air. To no one's surprise, they noticed that Gandalf was the one missing this time. "Oh, I really don't want to go see what's happened to the guy. After all teh dead bodies of friends that I've seen, I think I might throw up!" Valesse said solemnly(sp?). Just then, Mith screamed in terror. "What!? What is it!?"

"Gan-gan-GANDALF!!" Mith gasped, and she fell in faint. Ang and Valesse turned to where she was pointing an saw the most ghastly sight that they've ever seen. Gandalf's body was right there, in the middle of the square, torn to bits yet placed in the shape of the message:

Hurry up and catch me
For thee only have one day to find me!

Of course, there were letters left out of some of the words, yet they were able to read the crudely shaped words. True to her word, Valesse threw up on the spot.

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Dead
Glirdan(Mod) - Night 1 - Beheaded and then reheaded with a sax
Gil-Galad(Mod) - Night 1 - Bled to death.
Eonwe(Ordo) - Day 1 - gallows collapse on top of her
Thin(Wolf) - Day 1 - strangled to death, by Valesse with a hidden chord
Eomer(Ranger) - Night 2 - stabbed through his stomach with own sword
Shelob(Ordor) - Day 2 - killed herself with her scciors in sacrifice
tar-ancalime(Seer) - Night 3 - stabbed by spear through the heart
Feanor of the Peredhil(Hunter) - Night 3 -Mauled on both sides
Garin(Ordo) - Day 3 - Buzz sawed neatly in two
Crombie(Ordo) - Night 4 - Torn to bits and body pieces dispersed through house
Wayne(Ordo) - Day 4 - Head bitten off by Valier
Valier(Wolf) - Day 4 - Burned to death by one of Gandalf's spells
Roa(Ordo) - Night 5 - Flesh eaten right off and only bones remain
Kath(Ordo) - Day 5 - Died gasping for air as a tortoise bit her neck
Gandalf(Ordo) - Night 6 - Body torn to bits and placed in a crudely shaped message

Alive
Ang
Mith
Valesse

It's down to the last day. Good luck!!

[Anguirel]

That wolf's grammar is dreadful.

An interesting choice of kill by the lupine, illiterate vermin. I confess Gandalf_the_White was my prime suspect after the revelation of Kath's innocence, against all the odds.

Comforting at least to know that we're being beaten not by sheer dumb silence...but by...acrobatic...skill.

The unobtrusive, hesitant maiden who cast her vote for Eonwe and got away with it. Who so cunningly left Valier to hang in vain, making her voting record just as good-just as dangerous, therefore-as mine. Who did, in a way, attempt to cast suspicion on Mith.

It has to be Valesse. Mith herself I'm not considering. You should have slain her last night, she-wolf, for she's a clearly unambiguous figure. She has a bad voting record, worst out of us three. She's befuddled by events. Such tactics don't fit with her as a wolf in the least, and they've been patently clear from the start. She will have to be our arbiter today.

As for myself-I have Kath's word against me. But she was herself but a fallible innocent, after all. Eonwe and Shelob both fell by her vote, though Valier too. Her reaction was defensive and natural. But mistaken, I assure you.

[Valesse]

we're being beaten not by sheer dumb silence...but by...acrobatic...skill.

I have to admit... thats a charming little blurb.

As for the accusation: My vote for Eonwe even you admitted was more justified than your own. The Day of Valier death I tried to make clear that I did not want a double lynching, but since I was totally unsure of who I believed to be a wolf that Day I let the village's will decide.

Where did I try to cast suspicion onto Mith, goodly knight? The post you encouraged us all to write about "How so-and-so would act as the last wolf"?

[Anguirel]

Oh, for Mith to turn up. The last Day is almost as bad as the first.

It's left to me to parry and riposte.

Originally Posted by Valesse

As for the accusation: My vote for Eonwe even you admitted was more justified than your own. The Day of Valier death I tried to make clear that I did not want a double lynching, but since I was totally unsure of who I believed to be a wolf that Day I let the village's will decide.

I admitted nothing of the kind actually, unless perhaps you're addressing Mith. I just looked back, and the gist of what I said was that your justification was ominously vague (something about "tactics", without qualification) but that I thought you seemed like a panicked innocent.

As for my own vote for Thinlomien , I justified it perfectly after the lynching, though it was, true, shrouded in assumed insanity prior to that point...

"Let the villages will decide." In other words, you were passive. There was still my vote to come in all possibility. The situation hung on a knife's edge. Good, but not quite good enough, o demoiselle acrobatique.

Where did I try to cast suspicion onto Mith, goodly knight? The post you encouraged us all to write about "How so-and-so would act as the last wolf"?

A fair point. I had asked for an opinion, and you did warn you might be somewhat off due to lack of experience. The fact remains that you were quite startlingly off...but perhaps I should let that particular element pass.

The rest is very far from silence, however.

In two and a half hours my time here will be curtailed. I shall retire to the chapel of the Anguirelli and pray for a wise decision. But I will have to cast my vote first, and at this rate Mith is not going to be its recipient.

[Mithalwen]

I am here ... I didn't expect to be here. Maybe if I work out why I am here I will have a better chance of making the right decision.

[Valesse]

Ack! I got my source wrong! Well this is great.

Those were the words of Kath, and in her memory I am deeply embarassed to have confused the two of you. This has been a hectic week and I a exhaused. As far as being passive: I found no reason not to be instead of making a mindless accusation. Am I not allowed to do so, when I had no dramatic suspisions which would make me act otherwise?

About being "startingly off" about Mithalwen: I have never really spoken to her, so from what basis is left for assumption that I had past knowing her to be a clever person, and hearing about her success in past games what more could a girl say? I did what you asked of me to the best of my ability at the time, and for that I am suspected of wolvery? What trechery is this?

[Mithalwen]

I would point out that this is not a question of who knows me best that we have to decide. We have to decide which of us is a wolf.

Needless to say in my case I have to decide which of you is a werewolf... but then I would wouldn't I .

I am going to reread with the two options in mind and it will be the overall picture not a bit of nit-picking that is likely to be a truer guide at this stage.

[Anguirel]

I accept your arbitration, Mith. However, by definition this means I have no choice which way to vote-and vote I must. I can scarcely, having placed myself under your jurisdiction, declare you guilty, and, as I still hope we may attain victory, I do not intend to self-defeatingly accuse myself. I have never done so in the past and, Valar willing, will not do in the future.

That means that, however insecure my case-and while Valesse seems the most stained with guilt to me, there is far less indication of her skullduggery than there was in the case of the innocent Kath-I have no option other than to vote

++VALESSE

I am sure you will understand. I place justice in the wealthy widow's hands, and as the remaining representative of the secular nobility, by the power invested in me I appoint her Chief Arbiter of Mejis. For the next hour I will be intermittently present. I will provide further arguments for my case if our judge requests it, but otherwise I shall leave her to consider.

If I am wrong and Mith is the last wolf...she must have been taking tuition from local, ah, phantoms, and frankly I am too impressed with her performance to wish to vote against her.