WWJ IX: Psychotic Penguins: The Crossing of Helcaraxë

[Thinlómien]

Roa started the Day by blinking. Then she began: “I was afraid of this....
Quite the conumdrum, indeed.” After that she went on to try and solve it with a host of analysis thrown to her fellow Elves.

Given one more day to live – by his own words, the phantom quickly presented his master plan. Everyone agreed to it. And the flow of analysis – or were they summaries – continued with a steady pace throughout the Day.

Valier had been convinced of Anguirel’s guilt and stated it from the early morning onwards. Soon she started a campaign, holding various plackards, saying:

”ANG MUST GO!!” and ”HE IS EVIL!” and ”DO NOT LET HIM FOOL YOU!” and “KILL, ANG NOW!” and “IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!”

“Wow, Val is going nuts. Is that normal?” the phantom asked confused, sharing the uneasiness with Eancaitare and Firefoot.

“Nuts? I like nuts! mmmmmm nuts”, Valier answered, pulling another protest sign:
”ANG IS NUTS!! NUTS, NUTS, NUTS!“ After that she continued her picketing “ANG IS BAD!” and ”EMPEROR, SHMEMPEROR !!” and “I'M NOT AFRAID OF BIRDS!”

Many were suspected, but the Elves were going basically to two directions, either to Ang or then to Dimwë (although she had taken care of Kitanna’s corpse for the day quite well). At one point Valier even threatened the others with a suicide if Ang wouldn’t be lynched, but it seemed not to help her crusade. Dimwë’s heartbeat dashed. Valier was crying ever louder: “Not her, not her! Wouldn't it be faster if we just kill Ang today? Just leave Dia for today and you will see I am no Loon!!! Kill Ang!” but Firefoot and Encaitare took Dimwë from the shoulders and Anguirel took a chandelier. Just then Roa jumped forward sighing and sided with Valier. “Alright, I don't want to see Diamond dead yet. So it will be you Anguirel!” Firefoot and Encaitare let go of Dimwë.

“I won’t die without a fight!” Anguirel shouted, his eyes flashing. He took a great mace that hung on the ceiling and swung it threateningly.
“Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave innocents in peace!” Valier answered, picking Kitanna’s ranger sword from the ground.
“I won’t watch this tomfoolery!” Ang declared.
“Do what you will; but I will hinder you, if I may.”
“Hinder me? Thou fool. No chambermaid may hinder me.”
“But no mere chambermaid am I! I am the confidante of Lady Elenwë”
All the beholders were frozen by their fear; no one but Valier had dared to approach Ang in his fury, nor to resist his deadly mace. Roa clenched her hand. Valier should not die, so innocent, so desperate!
Valier swung her sword. As a minstrel Anguirel was used to prancing around and easily warded off the strike. The fact that Valier didn’t hit didn’t lessen his wrath. With a cry of hatred that stung the very ears like venom he let fall his mace. Valier’s arm was broken and she stumbled to her knees. He raised his mace to give another blow.
But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Roa’s dagger had stabbed him from behind.
“Valier, Valier!” cried Roa. Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strenghth Valier drove her sword through Anguirel. The sword broke sparkling into many shards.

Anguirel was dead. His Elven body was laying on the floor.

Have we killed our first innocent with our own hands? The question hung grimly in the air, though no one voiced it.

Overtaken by sadness, they turned for the last time to their dead friend Anguirel. To their astonishment they saw that it was no longer the Anguirel they had known that lay on the floor. It was something like this.
When they were still staring it, they saw it slowly being consumed by an inner fire. In minutes, only ash remained.

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~ The Dead ~
Nogrod - a troubadour, singer – mod, blowed up in the Big Bang on Night1
Thinlómien - a troubadour, harpist – mod, blowed up in the Big Bang on Night1
Boromir88 - The Mouth of Turgon – werepenguin, cast into a gorge on Day1
Kitanna - servant who empties and cleans chamber pots – ranger, body and soul separated by Cartesian Dualism on Night2
JennyHallu - An Embroiderer, lost, not related – cobbler, shot dead in to the sea on Day2
Lalaith - Aredhel's tutoress – seer, blinded, mutilated and torn apart by the Owl of Minerva on Night3
Eonwe - Turgon's herald - ordo, lost in the waves of the dark sea on Day3
Naria - Family's goat herder - werepenguin, driven into a gorge by her consicience on Day3
Macalaure - Turgon's nephew and part-time-repentant kinslayer – ordo, brains exploded after entering a vicious regression concerning the possible infiniteness of self-reflective consciousness on Night4
Anguirel - Lalwendë's semi-canonical lutenist and Findis's demi-canonical flautist - werepenguin, pierced by the Ranger sword wielded by Valier, the secret chambermaid on Day4

~ The Living ~
dancing spawn of ungoliant - animals' dung cleaning specialist
Diamond18 - Dimwë the half-wit second cousin of Elenwë
Encaitare - A standard-bearer
Firefoot- Aredhel's friend
the phantom - Ecthelion's hotheaded nephew and personal squire
Roa_Aoife - Elenwë's personal guard
Valier - Elenwë's personal chamber maid

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Congrats to all innocents, you have won.

The official game has now ended.

However, there will be a final final narration that reveals the fates of the Elves and their lady Elenwë, and the origin of the evil penguins, and it will be up in 24 hours.

[Nogrod]

You can discuss freely now.

[Roa_Aoife]

*hugs Valier* You are the most awesomest player ever! Your instincts are just phenomenal. I swear, you have got to be psychic.

[Valier]

No I'm not psychic. I just watch how people interact and who the players are in general, then who the mod or Mods are and who I think they would pick and so on. After awhile I just go with my high suspects and watch the way the people I attack act. I have no idea... but I'm glad we won. I thought I was really going to go crazy today if Ang was not killed. Sorry to everyone for being so loony!!! Nice narrations LomGrod they were great!!

[Diamond18]

Hahahahahahaha! And my perfect "Never been lynched" record still stands.

Valier, you're amazing. *mwah* Sorry to have doubted you on earlier days. If only I hadn't been thinking of Ang as innocent for so long.... But at least I got it in time.

Who was it who said, "Good thoughts, Ang" in response to his last crazy tirade against me? Oh, yeah, that was you tp. Well you're forgiven because you changed your vote in time.

Great game, Lomgrod! I'll be looking forward to the final, final narration.

[Firefoot]

It was me! Me! I was the Hunter! Not phantom, me!

Okay, I've been wanting to say that for a while now... phantom stealing all my thunder while I'm sitting in line to get lynched. But I let him have his way, since it seemed a reasonable way to keep an innocent around, and might tell us something about the penguins (can't tell you how many times I've had to back up because I said wolves... there probably are some places that I didn't catch myself). Well done, phantom, it was a clever move. But you've been killing me over here!

Great game everybody. Even if I was wrong... a lot... I kind of had fun being way out there for once. For a while there I thought you all were going to break my record though... never been lynched as an innocent. Of course, if you were aiming to do that I would have had to reveal myself. Sometimes sitting back and waiting for the wolves to kill you gets a bit old, y'know. It was a... weird game for me.

[Nogrod]

That was a brave bunch of Elves! No ordos were killed during the Days! Kudos to you all!

Valier, you are just scary...

Btw. meaning before you ask, the roles were given out totally at random (we had a deck of cards and a card nominated to every player here). The three species of penguins were also picked beforehand and their characters in the narrations evolved within the frames of the storytelling. We surely were sad to miss the opportunity to continue the chatting between the Rockhopper and the Chinstrap after Day1.

Even though I have in a way made also my congrats in Lommy's official post earlier, I would still like to do it in this more personal way (as the in-game narrations have all been made together, with the same keyboard - and the fight for both the keyboard and the ideas).

Well done people! (not Elves anymore?)

[Thinlómien]

Valier, you're creepy. And your hunches are just incredible.

Ang, you were my favourite.

Well played everyone. Yes, every single one of you.

I must admit that I was in a way on the penguins' side, but hear my three reasons before you start to scream and neg-rep me...
1) If they had stayed alive longer, we could have written more narrations. Writing them is real fun.
2) Can you imagine me not supporting penguins? That would just be against my deepest nature...
3) You innocents were doing such an awesome job except that you managed to lose all your gifteds except the hunter, who I will let come out themself, that I felt the baddies needed some support...

Honestly, that was the most awesome, analytical and non-nonsense village I've probably ever seen.

Congrats for a great game!

[Roa_Aoife]

So, phantom was lying to us the whole time. And you used the idea of being a gifted to further your own agenda, too. I ask you, what would have happened if you had been killed and Valier had been guilty? The real hunter may have had to come forward, and then all our gifted's would be revealed. Or we would have lynched the real hunter because we believed you. It was terribly reckless of you.

Okay, I'm done chiding for the moment.

[the phantom]

Well you're forgiven because you changed your vote in time.

Of course I did. You didn't think I'd try and save you, m'dear?

So, phantom was lying to us the whole time.

Yep.

I ask you, what would have happened if you had been killed and Valier had been guilty?

Do you honestly think Valier would've killed me when I was "hunting" her? Even if you could find a Penguin crazy enough to consider doing that, I doubt anyone actually would.

The way I saw it, if I got killed then Val was innocent, plus there would still be a Hunter left. A rather nice set up for the village if you ask me. My plan was basically to improve the odds of having a proven innocent left hanging about at the end.

The real hunter may have had to come forward, and then all our gifted's would be revealed.

Why in the world would the real Hunter do that? No no. I was providing our Hunter with cover. And my whole "think like a gifted plan" for getting everyone to state their fake-Hunts- that was so just in case the REAL Hunter got killed during the night we would know precisely who the pick was, and thus have another proven innocent.

Or we would have lynched the real hunter because we believed you.

Well, not getting lynched would be the Hunter's responsibility. I was hoping that the real Hunter would find a way to drop me a hint as to their identity so that I could keep them from getting lynched, and at the same time keep them under suspicion (to avoid being killed by the Penguin right away).

Unfortunately I didn't have a whole lot of time to snoop for clues, so I just made the best guesses I could. You, Roa, along with Valier were the two I was trying to make sure survived until tomorrow. When I have more time I'll explain why I thought you were the Hunter at first and then why I became convinced that it was Valier (and why I put pressure on her despite thinking her innocent).

But it seems that I was wrong about both of you being the Hunter. I'll just have to wait and see who it was.

[Lalaith]

Oh well done elves! And bravo to the mods for some wonderful deaths, I don't think I've enjoyed the denouments so much in any game.
Valier, another scarily inspired divination, how do you do it?
SO, who was the real Hunter? Valier herself?
And as for you, Angurliel....