WW XXXIX - Do Werebalrogs have wings?

[Thinlómien]

I am on the three-peaked mountain. I have a feeling I've been here before. When I look back I see the lights of the city of Gondolin. But something pulls me forward, some unknown force. I can't resist. I want to stop but my feet don't obey me. I'm going deeper to the dark. I'm afraid. They are waiting for me, as if summoned by my fear. They feel me approaching, they hear the blood pounding in my ears, they smell my sweat. I'm trying to turn back, but even if I could, it would be too late. There's one behind me, there's one beside me, there's one before me. I stop. They come closer. Flame and shadow, shadow and flame, merging into one, parting into three. I scream.

”Mother! I had the dream again.”
”It's alright, darling, it's alright.”
”It was the cave dream again.”
”I know, my darling, I know.”
”It was the third time.”
”Let's go to tell Grandpa Turgon, darling, let's go.”

~*~

”What be it, my dears, that ails you?” High King Turgon asked.
”The little one has had the dream again. Something must be done. I fear... the worst”, Idril said, glancing at her son.
The King looked at his grandson. ”The three-peaked mountain again?”
The boy nodded. ”They were there”, he said in a small voice.
”I must send someone to investigate”, the King said, ”there might be something to this. After all, you, Eärendil, are the son of Tuor the Messenger of Ulmo and my daughter Idril, who sees far.”
”Lord, I will go, if it pleases you!” a clear voice came from behind the King's throne.
”Glorfindel of the Golden Flower, I did not know you have the evil habit of eavesdropping! More would it please me if you used your gift for good.”
”Then, my lord, let me go to the mines!”
”Your wish is granted. Glorfindel of the Golden Flower, you shall go to the mines at the three-peaked mountain and find out what is happening there. And don't forget to take your sword with you.”

~*~

Every step takes me closer to the three peaks. A dark cloud lingers above the mountains. There's something wrong. Glorfindel shook his head. He had a bad feeling about this.

~*~

The old miner Thinlómion frowned. ”Anything special? Well, we found a new lode of iron ore this morning. That was a good find, even though I'd rather have found a silverlode. They are rare these days. Maeglin's miners found last year, but it was a thin one...”
”Excuse me, master Thinlómion. Anything else?” Glorfindel asked impatiently.
”Oh, nothing special, I guess. Three new workers came here yesterday, but that's hardly anything special, it happens all the time: the workers come and go. No one stays for long, except Maeglin's folk, they are the only ones who like it here.”
”Speaking of workers... where am I going to work?”
”Hmmm... I think you can work under my old friend Aganwë. I'll show you to his place, he'll assign you your duties.”

~*~

”I can’t understand why there’s no word of him!” Tuor bellowed.
“Hush”, said his wife, “you’re waking the little one. He should sleep.”
“How could I be silent, my fair lady? My friend, one of the finest and most valiant men there ever was in this city, is in trouble, possibly already dead.”
“I’m sure nothing’s wrong with him. There might have just been... snow in the mountains, so no messenger has been able to pass. Or maybe he just doesn’t have anything to report.”
“Or maybe your father hasn’t sen fit to tell me anything”, Tuor said, an edge of bitterness to his voice, “or maybe Glorfindel is dead.”
“You know my father isn’t like that! He took you here, treated you like his own son and let you marry his daughter. How could you accuse him of such thing? Tuor, that kind of hot-headedness is not like you. What is wrong with you?”
“Idril, Idril, don’t you see? Glorfindel, my friend, has walked to an unknown danger and probably died. But it should have been me, not him. It was my son’s dream, not his, wasn’t it? I should have gone, not him.”
“He was willing to go.”
“I would have been too, but no one saw it fit to tell me.”
“My love, you were away and the matter was urgent.”
“Nevertheless, it should have been me, not him, to go to investigate this thing. It is more than my duty to go after him and see nothing has happened to him.”
“Tuor, don’t leave me, don’t leave our son. I fear... I fear the Enemy knows. You should be here to protect Eärendil if...”
Tuor kissed his wife lightly on the top of her head. “I promise no such thing will happen. Don’t be afraid. I’m sorry, but I must go.” He let go of his wife, turned and walked away.
“Tuor! Don’t leave me!”
He glanced one last time to his wife, but said nothing and hurried to find his weapons and traveling gear.

~*~

Idril could not sleep. She knew everything was not well. There had been no word of Glorfindel or of her husband. My love, to think that you’re there in the mines and that there might be a deadly threat there... She had demanded and pleaded that her father should send a party of soldiers to see if everything was alright in the mines. He had declined it. He had said: “It would ruin everything. The soldiers couldn’t know if Tuor and Glorfindel were safe and sound unless they forced them to reveal. That would ruin the whole operation. They’re both there, spying, in a miner’s disguise. If they were to reveal themselves to my soldiers or leave a word, everybody in the mines would learn their true identities and their mission would fail. No, we must just wait patiently.” But Idril, she couldn’t wait any longer.

One morning Turgon found a note from his rooms.
“Dear father,
I see you can’t send soldiers to check if my beloved is alive and well. Thus I must go myself. I can’t stand this any longer. I have gone to the mines, in a miner’s disguise and I wish to find my dearest (and also Lord Glorfindel). Take care of my little son and see he is safe.
With love,
Idril Celebrindal”

High King Turgon was grieved and strangled with worry, but he couldn’t send soldiers after his daughter. He knew that if there truly were Morgoth’s servants in the mines, the last thing they should find out was that the High King’s only daughter was there.

He might have sent the soldiers anyway, if he had known that his grandson Eärendil had run off and left to the mines as well.

[Thinlómien]

The players:
3 Werebalrogs
Seer
Ranger
Hunter
Cobbler
8 ordinary miners

among which are the Lovers.

Werebalrogs:
Each Night they choose a villager to kill. The werebalrogs may PM with each other during the Night phases. No PMing during the Day. One of the werebalrogs must PM the kill to me, preferably one hour before the deadline at least, so that the narration can be in time (I will be flexible with this as there might be timezone problems, but would hope the wb:s could send their kills in time). The werebalrogs win when there are as many wbs left as there are villagers – then they are just happy to massacre the remaining villagers.

Cobbler:
Is an ordinary person who just wants the balrogs to win. S/he will play as an ordo (so no special abilities), but wins only if the balrogs win, so s/he will try to make them win. However, s/he doesn’t know who the werebalrogs are. In this game, the cobbler will be seen as the cobbler by the seer when dreamed of, but counted as an ordo in the tallies.

Seer:
Each Night chooses a person to dream of. The person’s role will be revealed to the seer. The seer PMs her/his dream choices to me each night. The seer is on the ordinary people’s side and wins if the werebalrogs are defeated.

Ranger:
Each Night the ranger chooses a person to protect. The chosen person can’t be killed by the balrogs that Night; the ranger protects him/her. The ranger plays on the ordinary people’s side and wins if the werebalrogs are defeated. The ranger can’t pick the same person to protect for two Nights in a row.

Logical Hunter:
Picks a person to hunt whenever s/he wishes to; s/he can change her/his pick whenever s/he wants to. The following rules apply to hunter kills: if the hunter has picked a werebalrog and is killed during the Night, s/he will take the picked wb with him/her. If s/he has picked an ordinary villager or any gifted, s/he will die alone. If the hunter is lynched, his/her pick will go with him/her, be s/he guilty or innocent. The hunter should feel free to reconsider her/his pick at anytime during the game. S/he is not tied to the one pick/Night –rule and s/he doesn’t have to change his/her pick Nightly. The logical hunter is on the ordinary people’s side and wins if the werebalrogs are defeated.

Ordinary Miners aka Ordinary Villagers:
Have no special activities to perform and win if the werebalrogs are defeated.

Lovers
Might be any people from the roles mentioned above. If the seer dreams of a lover, s/he does not see him/her as a lover, but as their actual role (for example an ordinary villager or a werebalrog). I will not give any further information about the lovers to anyone but the lovers themselves.


Miscellaneous Rules:

- The Days and the Nights last 24 hours.

- The deadline is 7 PM GMT.

- The roles will be revealed upon death.

- There will be no double-lynches (or triple or quadrupule or whatever...) lynches. The first one to reach the highest vote count will be lynched.

- There are no retractable votes, so once you’ve voted, you can’t change it.

- If there's a tie, the player reaching the highest vote first is lynched

- There will be no clues about the gifteds, werebalrogs or ordinary villagers’ identities in the narrations.

- The dead players can’t post on the thread.

- No player can use PMs to verify anything they say.

- Editing is only allowed to correct spelling/grammar mistakes, to go back and bold/italicize something etc. or to mark cross-posts, so it’s not for changing the content of one’s posts.

- All players must be in the Invisible Mode.

- Players are forbidden to talk to each other about the game anywhere else but on the game thread. (And admin thread for off-game announcements.) Werebalrogs and lovers, of course, make an exception.

- Absences etc. should be announced in the admin thread, which I hope all the players would check frequently.

- Players who don’t post or vote in two Days in a row will be removed from the game.

- The votes should be cast as follows:

++ Aganzir

(on a separate line, bolded, ++ in the beginning)

- Aganzir will be the mod-in-case-of-emergency. She will be there if I'm somehow unable to come to stop the day or something like that. She has also helped me with planning and we will co-write some narrations. You can trust her word about things in this game (unless I have said something that disagrees with what she has said).

~*~

Players
Brinniel
Gil-Galad
Kath
Legate of Amon Lanc
Lhunardawen
Macalaure
Mithalwen
Naria
Nerwen
Nogrod
Rikae
satansaloser2005
Shastanis Althreduin
The Might
Volo

~*~

Please don’t post anything on this thread before Day1 starts. If you have something to say concerning this game, post it in the said admin thread.

Night1 will start today, November 11th, on 7pm GMT. The roles will be given out before that.

[Thinlómien]

Night1 starts now. Lovers and werebalrogs, you may send PMs. Seer please send me your dream pick. Hunter, you may choose a "victim", but you're definately in no hurry, because it's me who's going to die toNight anyway.

Day 1 will start tomorrow at 7.00 pm GMT, so this first Night will be a bit shorter than a usual Day/Night phase.

Please don't post anything here...

[Thinlómien]

A clear voice came amidst the sound of falling water.

”Ei múmitaloa lucita yócsi, hei múmí! Cun hamara hípú yo tahtien vyócsi, hei múmí...! Nyt carceloi cansa ya cunnailla soi, cas múmeilta elamá opia voi... hei múmí!”

Tuor recognised both the song and the voice instantly. It had to be Glorfindel, singing the famous battle (and bath) song of the House of the Golden Flower. Tuor couldn't help smiling. So his friend was alive and well and as cheerful as usual. Sighing, Tuor retreated back to the shadows. It was better that they did not see each other. It was better Glorfindel wouldn't see him at all and that he did not see Glorfindel in his disguise. If they knew each other, they might not be able to hide their friendship and thus their mission would be risked.

~*~

Eärendil took off his miner's clothes. Pretending to be an adult was harder than he had expected. He folded up the clothes and hid them behind a stone. Resolutely, he walked into the little brook, curled up in a ball and fell asleep.

~*~

”Who is it? Who is calling me?”
”Don't you know my voice, darling, don't you know?”
”You shouldn't be here.”
”You shouldn't be here either.”
”You know I must be here. But you don't have to.”
”I couldn't be without you any longer.”
”It is not a reason to risk your life.”
”Maybe love is more important to me than it is to you.”
”Oh, let's not start quarrelling, my love, it has been so long since we last met.”
”I guess it depends on what you consider a long time...”
”Every second without you feels like a hundred years.”

~*~

”He said he suspects some spies have arrived from the City”, said the Balrog with Swing.
”Then we must act”, said the Balrog with Bling.
”That shall we do”, agreed the Balrog who Sings.

They decided to make the roof of the passageway collapse. They started whipping the roof with their fiery whips and the Balrog who Sings started singing:

”Just whistle while you work
And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place
So hum a merry tune”

”What's going on?” Thinlómion the Old Miner asked grumpily. ”You woke me up. Who are you and what are you doing to the roof?”
”We are da Werebalrogs, dude!” the Balrog with Bling replied enthusiastically.
”And we're making the passageway collapse”, the Balrog with Swing continued easily.
”Don't let it bother you, forget your troubles,
Try to be just like a cheerful chick-a-dee”, the Balrog who Sings adviced the old miner.

”Stop right now, thank you very much! You foul creatures of Morgoth! I'll wake the others and they'll kill you!” Thinlómion shouted.
”That you're not going to do”, warned the Balrog with Swing and picked the elf up. He rose up and started flying around the cave in circles.

”Do balrogs have wings?” the Balrog with Swing asked casually.
”What?” asked Thinlómion.
”Do balrogs have wings?”
”Of course they don't!” Thinlómion shouted, horrified by the unnatural idea, ”There's nothing in the books that states they have actual wings!”
”A pity”, said the Balrog with Swing, ”then we must fall. Because I can't fly without wings.”

They fell together. The old miner's frail bones broke when he hit the stony floor. His twisted body was surrounded by a great shadowy fire. Then the Balrog with Swing emerged from the flame and bowed. His companions applauded. He grinned. ”Now let's get back to work.”

~*~

The miners woke up when the passageway roof came crashing down. In the chaos that followed, no one noticed that three of the miners didn't actually look like they had just woken up nor that there was one miner whose hair was dripping water.

”What the Utumno is happening here?!” satansaloser2005 shouted.
”The roof of the passageway just collapsed!” Nogrod roared.
”We're in a dead end”, screamed Lhunardawen.
”We are trapped”, The Might said, fear in his voice.
”Don't worry! We have plenty of space here, so we're not going to suffocate”, Mithalwen said.
”Besides, there's a brook running over there and we all have food with us, don't we?” Volo said cheerfully.
”This doesn't look so bad, after all”, Kath concluded.
”But this does!” Gil-Galad said, upset, ”come and see what's happened here!”

Thinlómion's body was laying on the floor, half buried among the fallen stones. The other old miner, Aganwë, was kneeling by his body and weeping. ”Wake up, dear”, he sobbed.
”Oh Valar, Thinlómion is dead”, Legate of Amon Lanc whispered.
”What happened here?” Naria asked Aganwë.
”I don't know. Leave me alone, I don't want to see you, leave me alone!”, he screamed.
”I think he's gone crazy”, Shastanis Althreduin said in a low voice.
”Poor old man”, Macalaure said empathically.
”Go away! And don't disturb me unless you really need something. I don't care. My world has fallen apart. Kill each other or something, I don't care”, Aganwë said in a broken voice.
”I think we'd better leave him alone”, Brinniel suggested.

They moved away from the dead man and his grieving friend.
”Horrible things happen in this world”, Nerwen said, shaking.
”What shall we do?” Rikae asked hopelessly.

”There are three werebalrogs among you. Wipe them out. All of them”, a mighty unearthly voice bellowed from the little brook.

”Ulmo”, Eärendil whispered.


~ written by Thinlómien and Aganzir

~*~

Dead
Thinlómien (mod) - killed by a wingless balrog on Night1

Living
Brinniel
Gil-Galad
Kath
Legate of Amon Lanc
Lhunardawen
Macalaure
Mithalwen
Naria
Nerwen
Nogrod
Rikae
satansaloser2005
Shastanis Althreduin
The Might
Volo

Day1 starts. Elf miners and the ones disguised as such (in other words, all of you players), you can start discussing.

[Nogrod]

Let's just organise ourselves people.

The innocent miners to the left and do-gooders should blend in I suppose... and the baddies who are behind all this havoc to the right. Okay?

Now let's see the persons remaining at the right side and lynch them once and for all...

Well no one that is.

C'mon, be fair guys! What's all this hide and seek stuff about?

And how about if this one with wet hair being kind enough to explain?

[Mithalwen]

Care to say which side you are standing on? Nogrod? It would solve my dilemmas as to whether I should summarily vote for Kath for being inscrutable or Gil-galad for being confusing... However I shall not be hasty. But actually reading posts might force me to abandon age long prejudices.... Anyone else talking?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

And how about if this one with wet hair being kind enough to explain?

Hey, but that's you, sir! What are you going to say on that?

Originally Posted by Nogrod

C'mon, be fair guys! What's all this hide and seek stuff about?

Definitely! But are these shadow-and-flame guys fair enough to reveal to us?

But if they are not as fair guys, I wouldn't be as sure whether the actual villain would have already dried his head, so...

I only hope there is no xyzzy among us...