Werewolf XXXII: The Lost Age

[Boromir88]

My only hope is I survive today...I mean it would be a shame to die on a special day like today. I don't care if the vampires decide to kill me after today, but it would be a shame to die today.

I was a bit nervous about the 'secretive vote' thing, as that takes away part of the ordinary innocents advantage. But the more I think about it, it may work to our advantage. Afterall, the vampires can't vote to save themselves, so we just have to worry about making the right decision (but that's easier said than done), and not have to worry about any vampires sticking their fangs in to save one of their partners.

[Macalaure]

Oh the werewolf has such teeth dear,
And he shows them pearly white.
Just a jack-knife has Macheath here*
but he keeps it out of sight.

*or rather he doesn't, cause he wasn't allowed to bring it. Bah!



I don't have much time and even less to say right now.

As Espiem said, we should simulate the voting process as good as we can. Not only will we have something close to a voting record, but there's even a chance that, missing the non-votes of the vampires, a different person will die than the one everybody expected. If it happens, it will be very helpful, I think.

Though it will be difficult to cope with the secret votes, keep in mind that the vampires aren't allowed to vote at all. They can't mess with the voting outcome like they usually can.

[Meneltarmacil]

Alright people. Listen up and listen good!

I've fought in a lot of wars, so I know how to deal with ruthless enemies. These vampires want us all dead, and that's just what we're gonna be if we don't kill them first! Don't just stand around wondering what happened! Don't give anyone the benefit of the doubt or whatever you call it; we've got a fight to win! The enemy doesn't care about your reputation or your life or how kind you are. All he wants to do is kill you. So you'd do well to show him no mercy.

[Rikae]

Rikae stepped through the doorway carefully, so as not to snare her long silver-gray cloak on the splinters...and broken nails...in the lintel. She went to the window and pushed back the yellowing curtain; a sunbeam pierced the dim interior; bewildered specks of dust danced erratically in the light.
She stood silently, then turned to Mac with a slight smile.
"Thou wenyst I knowe nott thy councell; Butt I warn the; I know itt, every deall."
She turned and addressed the whole room:
"I don't trust this Mac person. He speaks of a knife...then says he doesn't have one! I say we search him.

And what is this talk of "less developed characters" from Esspiem? I never quite trust someone who starts off with a joke about his or her own vulnerability, combined with a long speech reiterating the situation at hand.

But I do agree; we should all state openly for whom we are voting. If the vampires' non-votes sway the results, it may even give us a trail to follow.
There is still hope..."

[Gil-Galad]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

My only hope is I survive today...I mean it would be a shame to die on a special day like today. I don't care if the vampires decide to kill me after today, but it would be a shame to die today.

I was a bit nervous about the 'secretive vote' thing, as that takes away part of the ordinary innocents advantage. But the more I think about it, it may work to our advantage. Afterall, the vampires can't vote to save themselves, so we just have to worry about making the right decision (but that's easier said than done), and not have to worry about any vampires sticking their fangs in to save one of their partners.

i must agree on what master Boro here says... we have a greater chance on the vampires because they will not be able to help sacrifice one of their own to save themselves... i am glad at that fact.

And Rikae... accusing two people right off the bat are we? my what headstrong you are... but you should be careful... or doing the whole double bluff, instead of acting like a confused innocent, you could be pretending to be a vampire and lose the lead off of you early... i do not like that one bit... and now my hunch is moving on to you being very suspicous...

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Having uncovered all the furniture in the rooms, Shasta paced restlessly down the hall. He felt helpless without at least some sort of weapon with which to defend himself... small blades were his forte, and where best to find such weapons than the kitchen? It had to be around here somewhere...

A quick search of the upper floor elicited the answer; a small set of back stairs, probably used by servants, that lead directly to the kitchen. Shasta entered, stifling a sneeze... it was much more dusty in here, for some reason. Looking for anything that could be considered a weapon, he came across the desiccated remains of what used to be a fine meal, halfway through preparation, on one of the counters. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Shasta crossed the kitchen and began to search through the cabinets and drawers. His search was rewarded with the dull gleam of unpolished metal in the third drawer he checked.

Shasta lifted out a six-inch carving knife. Not a lot against the claws and fangs of a vampire, but better than nothing. He tucked it away in his sash, hilt protruding for easy drawing, and prowled on, searching for anything that might be of use later.... however, he was arrested in his search when he heard voices coming from the main hall.

Shasta entered the larger room from a smaller door, hidden behind an ornate tapestry, now despoiled by the ravages of time and the appetites of vermin. Padding on bare feet over to the small group, he smiled winningly, deftly sliding in between Rikae and Gil-Galad.

"Calm, you two... this early on, I doubt there's much of anything in the way of evidence to go on. There's no real point in accusing each other when there's no proof of guilt or innocence whatsoever."

[The Saucepan Man]

Alas, my circumstances dictate that I shall be unable to speak much more here until close to the end of the Day. I was rather hoping that more would have spoken ere the time came for me to take my leave.

Of those who have spoken already, I would comment as follows:

Gil-Galad said:

so basically keep our heads up about each other and be careful...

… which does not really provide us with much more than we could work out for ourselves, although he was the first to speak toDay. I suspect that this Gil-Galad will prove rather a conundrum, unless he deigns to speak more helpfully concerning his thoughts.

Shasta counselled that we “stick together”, which is not entirely helpful as we know that there are three among us who we cannot trust and one whose assistance is far from guaranteed. Having bid us all stick together, he then proceeded to go off on his own, in search of accommodation rather than items which might be of use.

Boro considers that it would be a shame if he were to die toDay, but does not care if he dies thereafter. Not sure what to make of this. And while I agree that it is beneficial to us that the Vampires (and Shade) are unable to vote, I am far less enthusiastic than he seems to be over the secret voting. Hence my proposal that we all state our votes.

Mac wishes he had his knife. I sympathise with him, as I appear to be without my trusty dagger. I am somewhat concerned that he seeks to compare himself to a Werewolf but, then again, we are dealing here with Vampires here, not Wolves. He supports my proposal on voting, which is encouraging (although I put it no higher than that).

Menel paints himself as a mighty warrior. Fine, but I think that quick wits rather than strength in arms will be more useful to us in our travail. He said:

A bit of in-character banter, but some of it's serious

Maybe I am missing something, but I failed to see anything "serious" in his post. And, while I admire his fighting spirit, I am not so sure that an inflexible refusal to “give anyone the benefit of the doubt” will help us. I do not propose placing my trust in anyone lightly, but I will be trying to weigh all the available evidence before reaching a conclusion on anyone, including points that might seem to point to their possible innocence.

Rikae is suspicious of Mac for talking of his knife. I don’t follow her reasoning here. An innocent would surely rather be armed in a situation such as this. She also dislikes my opening spiel. I, in turn, am suspicious of those who cast suspicion based on “in-character banter”, unless there is good reason to suspect that there might be something sinister in it. And I would venture to suggest that my “long speech” was an attempt to put forward some thoughts that I felt might be useful, particularly as my opportunity to contribute during the remainder of the Day is limited. Still, at least she too agrees with my proposal on voting.

Not a lot to go on, I fear. I trust that there will be much more to consider when I return to cast my vote. In the meantime, I would urge that everyone adopt my suggestion on voting.

Edit: crossed with Gil and Shasta.

[Rikae]

Rikae realises that the light coming through the window is not of the sun, but of a fire someone has already lit outside of the building...it's an awfully bright fire.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Legate finished his work and now delightedly looked on the burning bonfire. The flames cracked cheerfully, as they consumed the large pile of wood the tall dark-haired man brought into the middle of the cave. The shadows around seemed to fade as the light grew.
"Whaddaya say," Legate turned to the rest of the people in the cave. "It's quite friendlier now, isn't it? The chairs burn pretty well. I suppose no one's gonna miss them, there's more than plenty of all the stuff around here. Now we'll better see each other's faces."

[The Saucepan Man]

While I will unfortunately soon be struck dumb until shortly before the deadline, I would note that I remain available to assist in searching this place. And should the door to any building be found to be locked and cannot be forced, I may be able to help, since I have no little skill in picking locks.

Esspiem gathers some rusty nails from the chairs being broken up to feed the fire, to assist in such endeavour should it be required.

[The Saucepan Man]

A parting thought.

While I acknowledge that we are encouraged to interact with this mysterious place in which we find ourselves, I will no doubt find myself becoming increasingly suspicious of those who spend more time telling us what they are doing than what they think. It seems to me to be a mighty convenient way of hiding “in the open”, as it were.

Discussion of ideas, thoughts, opinions, suspicions etc is the best way we have at the moment of trying to find a Vampire, so I hope that all will endeavour to contribute to as fully as they can to the debate. I know that sounds a bit rich coming from me, given my imminent enforced silence, but I am afraid that circumstances elsewhere dictate it. Should I survive to see another Day, I will endeavour to participate more fully.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Legate walked a few steps away from the fireplace and looked around. He waved at Rikae peeking through the window. Then his sight turned to the dull, underground-moss-covered top wall of the cave. "I'm gonna miss the sight of sky", he said after a while. "How long are we gonna stay here? I'd like to go out as fast as possible. But I understand we cannot rush it. If we only knew who the three Vampires are, we might just give them to the Oracle and go home!"

This forced Legate to switch his thoughts from momentary concerns to the main problem of the village. "We are stranded here," he spoke slowly, "until the Oracle allows us to leave, right? Until we hand him three Vampires. And who is that funny fella the Oracle spoke about? The one with the shady nature? Whoever he is, he's not a Vampire, right? Oracle doesn't need his head to let us go. Espiem, was it you who said that he's the best staying with us now?
As to the voting. You and Boro I think it was who already spoke of it - I would see it as a big disadvantage. Why the Oracle wants us to vote in secret? If we all just spoke, it might be pretty clear who is hiding fangs, so to say. But we have to accept the situation as it is. And in this part, I agree with the proposal that we keep as honest as we can about our votes. It means not getting swayed in the discussion as much, I believe, though the Vampires still can leak their ideas here and there, they cannot actually realize them in the end, so if for example it comes to a contest when we have to choose between a vampire and a non-vampire to lynch, and a vampire says he'd vote for the non-vampire, we can still get the vampire lynched for there is an actual vote less (I hope it's clear). Of course, we cannot hope for situations like that every day. But only time proves if the compensation of not knowing who votes for whom by the Vampires' lack of votes is enough. But shortly said, I agree with the "honestness" idea. Actually, I don't even know why a villager would want to bluff..."

Legate looked back on the bonfire. "I must sort my thoughts, but now I'm going to get some more wood. It's better to have it prepared. Fortunately, it's plenty around here. Espiem, come with me, I might get some use of your skills if youn't just showing off - I think I saw plenty of wooden tables in a house over there, maybe it's some sort of store-house, but it's locked.
Hey! What about the rest of you over there! Can anyone of you cook? I can make fire pretty well even in the rain, but I'd like to get something warm, and I am a terrible cook if you ask me. I once baked a pancake so that it was not even black, but also wreathed in flames. Looked like that monster from the legends, Balrog, if you know it. Only it didn't have wings."

[Sleepy Ranger]

My, this seems to be a picky situation. It's rather bothersome that such a thing has arisen and meh, it seems nobody wants to get anywhere. Regardless, I'm afraid I would like to stay with myself for this day and reflect on the happenings. I'm afraid I shall keep to myself for this day.

[Boromir88]

Hey I have an idea! Vampires don't like garlic, right? So for our supper how about we all ask the cooks to put garlic in our meals...and the three people that don't eat their food must be the three vampires! That leaves the shade, but the shade would surely side with us as we would have the 3 vampires and the shade would be victorious as well. What do you all say about that?

Edit: x-ed with Sleepy and Legate is far too nice for my liking.

[Nogrod]

"Now what maddness is this?" Nogrod yelled as he dropped the pile of wood to the ground. "You're burning the furniture even though the Oracle said there is a stack of wood in the middle of the city - it's from where I brought these." He looked at Legate questioningly. "I hope they were from your room and not from mine... and anyhow, it promised us three meals a Day so I would rather that we concentrate on finding the vampires than trying to simulate a summer-camp feeling here."

"And where do you think you're going Mr. Sleepy? I will mark your name right now." Then he sat down and closed his eyes to think. He tried to put the first pieces of the puzzle together but there were so few pieces to use! This will take a moment, steady now...

EDIT: X'd with a few...

[Aganzir]

I agree with SPM's suggestion about voting. It's probably the best way to start with.
I'm quite eager to see how this kind of voting will work in practice, as there seems to be many possible results the voting can end in (see Legate's post for an example).

The thing I hate in playing in character is that it's difficult to make out what people are actually saying in their posts. If no one minds, I will avoid playing in character. I'd rather write a short message and say something than write about everything I do without a real point.

Originally Posted by SPM

it is beneficial to us that the Vampires (and Shade) are unable to vote

I thought the Shade was able to vote.

**

I am sorry for a short and rather useless post, but I don't have very much time (there's a paper I have to write and a test I have to study for). I won't be around before tomorrow.

[Nogrod]

Okay then. We should make our votes known openly. With this I agree. It looks like most of us do. I would also suggest that we mark the votes in a traditional manner of voting in the villages (with the double+ and bolding in a separate line - for easier reference as we are at least yet 23 of us).

This may give the Vampires some hard times as we can make an inference or two from the difference of the actual tally and the said voting if and when that shows up, not to talk of looking closely at some actions the Vampires may be forced to take.

But at least at the moment I'm not sharing the optimism of some. Even if the Vampires can't vote, they can influence the overall opinion around and steer the vote still - if they wish to do that in the first place. So we have very little solid evidence on anything here.

But as an encouragement I might recite the words of a long-gone wise man who once said: In the long run it's easy to speak the truth because you don't have to remember all the fabricated strings of the web of lies you are forced to create when you slip from the straight road of truth.

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by Esspien

Rikae is suspicious of Mac for talking of his knife. I don’t follow her reasoning here. An innocent would surely rather be armed in a situation such as this.

"I suppose..." Rikae threw her cloak behind her shoulders, revealing a low-cut black gown covered in glimmering burgundy embroidery. She sidled over to Mac with a smirk, and lifted her hand; something fell from the ceiling and she caught it: a knife, glinting in the firelight.
"Can't I at least frisk him?"
...

"What? I can levitate objects. It's part of my character." she rolled her eyes.
"I am suspicious of those who jump to conclusions as well. Sometimes accusations serve as bait for werewolves; those who are quick to make much of a joke or unfounded accusation are often evil; or so a great Werewolf-hunter once taught me."
Turning back to Mac, she handed him the knife.

EDIT: X'd with SPM. Suspect me then! I like this new kind of game, and I'm gonna have fun with it!

[Gil-Galad]

Gil looked on as the fire grew and illuminated the whole room. the outspects of old decaying buildings can be seen

"i wonder who lived in thsi forsaken place before we ended up here... not in all my travels fighting in the Great Spice War down south did i ever come upon anything like this..."

Gil peered into a building and saw an old table with a broken chair laying next too a corner of jars. Gil decided to grab whats left of the chair and submit it to the fire

"here you go Legate, some more firewood in case"


"we still have time to determine more, and hopefully hear from those of us among us that are quiet... then we can fully decide who seems suspicous, until then i guess we sit tight... something i hardly like to do."