Tol-in-Gaurhoth XXII: Hic Monstrae Trucidant

[Nogrod]

Am I the only one who thought it was 11PM GMT? Now the game has closed 10PM GMT! I might be wrong about the 11pm, but well, ...

[Nogrod]

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/

[Nogrod]

Let's just make sure we end and start the day at the same time tomorrow... so either 10PM GMT or 11PM GMT. Both are fine (10PM even better for me - if I'd only knew it beforehand...).

[Kath]

Unaware that his death was now inevitable Boromir continued to talk, trying to explain, to get people to listen, but to no avail. The villagers converged upon him, raiding his clothes for hidden weapons, not wishing to be caught off-guard if he turned out to be a wolf.
“What shall we do with him?” Asked spawn, who found a knife inside Boromir’s boot. “Use this?”

“No, that’s too simple.” Replied Sauce. “We need something that will really show these fiends who’s in charge round here.”

“Well, how about using the wolves own tricks against them, and kill him with his favourite animal?” Mused Lommy.

The idea was taken up with glee, and after much persuasion of a violent nature, an answer was finally pulled out of the doomed assassin.

“A lion! My favourite animal is a lion.”

“To the lion pit!” Cried the villagers, some with bemused voices, sure they had not had a lion pit the day before. Still, it was a fitting death, so they shrugged and joined the crowd.

Boromir was lifted high into the air on the villagers shoulders, in a bizarre parody of a victory parade, and carried towards the outskirts of the village. As they neared the boundary markings, roars could be heard, and a few more steps took them to the edge of a deep pit, in which three lions were prowling.

The villagers put Boromir down and pushed him right up to the rim of the pit. Terrified he turned round and pointed at Lommy.

“She’s the one you want, not me!”

The villagers just shook their heads.

“Oh yes, her and the other hundred villagers you voted for today.”

“Please, I’m INNOCENT I tell you! Inno . . .”

But it was too late. With one final push he fell, and the lions closed in around him. The villages watched in anticipation as the claws ripped through him, shredding both cloth and flesh, waiting for the moment when he would transform into the beast he truly was. It never came. The lions tore at Boromir, their roars masking his screams, but he remained human throughout.

Looking down into the pit the villagers saw his mangled, innocent body, and knew that three among them were quietly gloating. Walking a little way apart from each other, they made their way back into town, dreading what they knew was to come that Night.



Night 1 ~ Kath, killed by a turtle in an aerial attack ~ Innocent.
Day 1 ~ Boromir, lynched by the villagers by means of lions ~ Innocent.




Night 2 has now begun.
Wolves, Seer, Hunter, Ranger and Changeling - please PM me your choices.

Oh and Nogrod, if you make one more after the deadline post your death will swiftly follow, savvy?

[Kath]

Formendacil had found a place to spend the Night a little way off from the village. He had abandoned his usual habit of sleeping on one of the villagers doorsteps, having had a trying Day and wishing not to be disturbed or, indeed, killed by a werewolf tripping over him as they left the house to go kill someone. He had assumed that his new bedroom, a small hollow in a tree just on the edge of the village, would keep him safe, reasoning being that if he was well hidden, the wolves might not bother taking the time to find him.

From his vantage point, he saw the three wolves leave their houses. For a moment he considered running back to the village, to tell everyone who the traitors amongst them were, but before he could gather the courage to leave his hiding place he heard a howl behind him.

Whirling round he began to back further into the hollow, expecting to see a wolf. He was unsure whether to be pleased or afraid when the sight that met his eyes was not that of a wolf, but of a coyote. Cocking it’s head the animal regarded him with cold eyes, and then turned it’s head up to the skies and began to howl again. Formendacil reached a hand forward.

“Shh.” He muttered, casting a wary glance back toward the village. He couldn’t see the wolves anymore, and it was worrying him not to know where they were.

The coyote continued to howl, disregarding Formendacil’s plea. Hearing answering howls from within the village he repeated his request, more desperate now than before. Receiving no indication that the animal had even noticed him speak, he crept a little further out of the hollow, hoping he could reach it and find some way to shut it up before the wolves became curious about the reasons for the noise and arrived to find an answer.

As he moved, the coyote stopped howling, and fixed wide eyes on him. Stopping, Formendacil smiled in relief, and turned to sneak back into his makeshift bedroom, but again his movement was stopped, for standing behind him were the wolves. Screaming out in terror, he tried to back away, but in his haste he forgot the coyote. His legs caught on the animal and he fell onto his back, crying out in fear as the powerful jaws of the wolves appeared before him.

The ripping sound of his own flesh being torn from his bones accompanied by screams of pain were the last thing Formendacil heard before death claimed him, but the mauling of his body continued long afterwards. The wolves dragged his body into the town square and proceeded to tear strips of flesh from his body, and place them on the embers of the dying fire left to burn throughout the Night.

When the villagers awoke at dawn, they smelt the cooked meat, and left their houses to find out what it was. Reaching the firepit, they saw what remained of Formendacil’s body lying on the ground, and many turned round to be sick. The wolves had claimed another innocent life.


Dead:
Night 1 ~ Kath, killed by a turtle in an aerial attack ~ Innocent.
Day 1 ~ Boromir, lynched by the villagers by means of lions ~ Innocent.
Night 2 ~ Formendacil, killed by a coyote and it's trickery ~ Innocent.

Alive:
Lhuna - traveller with absolutely no sense of direction
Cailín - tragedienne
Nilp - ex-world champion in chess
Fea - confectionist
Celuien - ketchup grower
TGWBS - Pokémaster
Lommy - AA-adviser
Nogrod - owner of ME's first hamburger restaurant
lmp - gravedigger
Tom - tree surgeon
Caran - town poet
Findëasëa (from now called Fin) - alpaca herder
spawn - lumberjackess
Mith - aura consultant
morm - butcher
Durelin - ninja
Sauce - retired Arda-famous chariot racer and playboy millionaire


Day 2 has now begun. Wolves stop PMing villagers start talking.

[the guy who be short]

Formy's dead? I suppose it's his own fault for not wearing shorts.

Anyway, before I go off and spout various theories that will only partially make sense due to my current state of sleepiness, I would like to mention that late yesterDay I started making a list of my thoughts on people. So far, only three of you have been noticable.

Here they are:

Durelin - Anti-retractable votes. Pro-random. Good.
Caranlondien - Easily swayed by others. Bad.
Findeasea - Good reasons against Boro. Post 108.

Such is the extent of my analysis.

[The Saucepan Man]

Gah! How on earth did we end up lynching Boro? He was one of the last villagers that I would have voted for yesterday! All that nonsense about him looking suspicious for switching his votes. It was clear that he was attemting to use the retractable voting tactically to flush out a Wolf or two. Obviously, he did not want to explain his plans precisely, since that would only have alerted the Wolves to what he was trying to achieve.

Still, if it had not been him, it would most likely have been Form or me. Form has been proven innocent. And I am innocent too, although obviously I don't expect anyone to take my word for that.

Anyway, here's the Day 1 voting:

Boro => spawn (spawn-1)
SpM => Fea (spawn-1, Fea-1)
Boro ≠> spawn => SpM (Fea-1, SpM-1)
Caran => Celuien (Fea-1, SpM-1, Celuien-1)
Nilp => SpM (Fea-1, SpM-2, Celuien-1)
Cailín => Lhuna (Fea-1, SpM-2, Celuien-1, Lhuna-1)
Elempi => Form (Fea-1, SpM-2, Celuien-1, Lhuna-1, Form-1)
Lhuna => TGWBS (Fea-1, SpM-2, Celuien-1, Lhuna-1, Form-1, TGWBS-1)
Boro ≠> SpM => Lommy (Fea-1, SpM-1, Celuien-1, Lhuna-1, Form-1, TGWBS-1, Lommy-1)
Celuien => Nilp (Fea-1, SpM-1, Celuien-1, Lhuna-1, Form-1, TGWBS-1, Lommy-1, Nilp-1)
Tom => Boro (Fea-1, SpM-1, Celuien-1, Lhuna-1, Form-1, TGWBS-1, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-1)
SpM ≠> Fea => Form (SpM-1, Celuien-1, Lhuna-1, Form-2, TGWBS-1, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-1)
Caran ≠> Celuien => SpM (SpM-2, Lhuna-1, Form-2, TGWBS-1, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-1)
Durelin => SpM (SpM-3, Lhuna-1, Form-2, TGWBS-1, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-1)
TGWBS => Cailín (SpM-3, Lhuna-1, Form-2, TGWBS-1, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-1, Cailín-1)
Morm => TGWBS (SpM-3, Lhuna-1, Form-2, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-1, Cailín-1)
Lommy => Boro (SpM-3, Lhuna-1, Form-2, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-2, Cailín-1)
Mith => Fea (SpM-3, Lhuna-1, Form-2, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-2, Cailín-1, Fea-1)
Caran ≠> SpM=> Durelin (SpM-2, Lhuna-1, Form-2, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-2, Cailín-1, Fea-1, Durelin-1)
Cailín ≠> Lhuna => Form (SpM-2, Form-3, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-2, Cailín-1, Fea-1, Durelin-1)
Form => Caran (SpM-2, Form-3, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Nilp-1, Boro-2, Cailín-1, Fea-1, Durelin-1, Caran-1)
Celuien ≠> Nilp => Durelin (SpM-2, Form-3, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Boro-2, Cailín-1, Fea-1, Durelin-2, Caran-1)
Spawn => Boro (SpM-2, Form-3, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Boro-3, Cailín-1, Fea-1, Durelin-2, Caran-1)
Durelin ≠> SpM=> Tom (SpM-1, Form-3, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Boro-3, Cailín-1, Fea-1, Durelin-2, Caran-1, Tom-1)
Fea => SpM (SpM-2, Form-3, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Boro-3, Cailín-1, Fea-1, Durelin-2, Caran-1, Tom-1)
Fin => Boro (SpM-2, Form-3, TGWBS-2, Lommy-1, Boro-4, Cailín-1, Fea-1, Durelin-2, Caran-1, Tom-1)

Did not vote: Nogrod

Interesting that the Wolves chose Formy, who attracted a lot of votes yesterday. That said, and despite my suspicion of him yesterday, I concluded when I reviewed the Day's events that he was most probably innocent. When he voted yesterday, he led the lynch chart with three votes. He could have voted for TGWBS, Boro or me to save himself. Yet he voted for Caran, who had attracted no votes at that stage. A most unlikely vote for a Wolf.

That may be why the Wolves killed him, anticipating that the suspicion that he had attracted yesterday would die down today. Possibly, they thought he might be the Seer or another Gifted, although I cannot see much that would lead them to that conclusion. And possibly, it was a clumsy attempt to frame Elempi, Cailín or me - most likely me, given the suspicion that I was under yesterday.

Most likely a combination of all of those things.

I'm going to take a close look at the Boro voters, and follow up a few other ideas. Back soon with some further thoughts.

[the guy who be short]

Formendacil posted thrice yesterday.

Post 7 - Says nothing of importance.

Post 29 - Repeat performance, haha.

Post 103 - Form votes Caranlondien for being careful in covering her tracks.

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the haphazard chronology of the following. I first searched for all posts containing the word Formendacil, forgetting that some would refer to him as Form. I then had to go through again searching for Form. And it's far too late for me to edit for something so minor as that.

LMP votes Form. He says Form is always a wolf when he plays, thats the way it is.
Sauce then votes for Form, changing from Fea, for saying little of importance.

Spawn says Form seems more frustrated about Day 1s than usual.
Cailin says Form may be a wolf, but she doesn't know or see anything odd about him. Mith says she may vote for him if he keeps whinging. Cailin then says she thinks Form is being odd by being more silent and sullen than usual. Cailin changes her vote to Form from Lhuna.

SpM rants about how Form is wrong in thinking Day 1s are useless. Naturally.

****

Now that you have all the bare information, here are my thoughts.

Formendacil may have been killed for giving us no information whatsoever. I think this is most likely. We are confusing ourselves to death - quite literally - and the removal of a quiet villager allows us to continue in this vein.

However, he could also have been killed for a multitude of other reasons. Perhaps to incriminate an innocent, Caranlondien. Perhaps they thought he was the Seer and Caranlondien is a wolf. This is less likely as he did not mention her until his last post.

He could also have been killed to cast suspicion on those who voted for him - Sauce and LMP and Cailin - or, using reverse psychology, as a bluff to make them less suspicious. However, the latter is unlikely as they were not under much suspicion in the first place, excluding SpM. For him, this theory is credible.

In conclusion, I think he was likely killed because we were all barking up the wrong tree, and the wolves want to keep it that way. So we need some new people to accuse.

****

One thing I noticed was very interesting. Cailin says that she thought Form was acting normally. Later spawn, in a very long post, casually remarked that she thought Form was being more defensive than usual. Later still, Cailin echoes this and switches her vote to Form. I find this very suspicious and wouldn't put it past both of them being wolves. I would like to hear why Cailin suddenly changed her mind. Spawn, meanwhile, appears to be very influential in her summary posts.

Thoughts on Boromir after I come back in about 12 hours, hopefully. In short, I thought he was a loud, mistaken innocent. Bed now.

[Celuien]

I have to agree with the assessments of Formy's death. The first thought I had was that this was an attempt to frame Elempi. He would be an easy target for framing as he was less present than expected yesterday and Formy's death could have been used as a tenuous link back to him.

I'll return shortly with a look at Durelin. I want to see if I still find her suspicious after a good rest.

[The Saucepan Man]

Tom, Lommy, spawn and Fin voted for Boro yesterday.

Tom seemed genuine in his vote, even if I think his reasoning misguided.

Lommy was fairly aggressive with Boro and looks to have been the one most keen to push this idea that he was suspicious because he kept switching his votes (although he only switched twice in the end). In any event, she and Boro clearly clashed over the retractable votes issue.

Spawn effectively sealed Boro’s fate, although it would not have been clear to her at the time she voted. She voted for him because he “looked fairest and felt foulest”, whatever that means, although she had earlier accused him of twisting Lommy’s words.

And Fin put in the final vote to bring him to four votes. I seriously doubt that a Wolf, knowing him to be innocent, would have voted for him at that point.

If there was a Wolf amongst the Boro voters (and there was surely only one at most), I would look to Lommy. She came across to me yesterday as directing the most of her energies towards heightening the growing suspicions of Boro and me. Although I am surprised that spawn was caught up in the shoddy reasoning that led to him being lynched.

Originally Posted by TGWBS

Spawn, meanwhile, appears to be very influential in her summary posts.

She always is. That's why when she is good, she's very very good, and when she is bad, she is horrid.

But I wonder if there was a Wolf among the Boro voters at all. From my perspective, the three most likely lynch candidates of the day (Boro, Form and myself) were all innocents. There was simply no need for the Wolves to vote for someone who was likely to be lynched and proven innocent. As far as the Wolves were concerned, it was a good day for a “throwaway” vote, or even the odd Wolf-on-Wolf vote.

My chief suspect at the moment is Caran. She was fairly active yesterday, despite problems reaching the village square, yet I cannot recall her saying much of substance. She seems to have spent most of the latter part of the day worrying about whether she should maintain her vote for me or not and came across to me as someone who was concenred about where best to place her vote.

But would the Wolves kill someone who voted for one of their number? Quite possibly, I think. The old double-bluff.

As matters stand, my thoughts are along the following lines:

Probably innocent: Nogrod

Inclined to trust for now: Cailín, Lhuna, Celuien, Durelin, Mith, Fin

Wary of: Nilp, TGWBS, spawn, Fea, Lommy

Looking decidedly suspicious: Caran

Just don’t know: Elempi, morm, Tom

Btw, in light of recent events, I am happy to acknowledge that my "Animalia" theory was a load of old tripe.