TIG LXIX: Meeting at the House of Usher
 

It was a dull, dark and oppressive autumn day, where the rain clouds hung low in the sky but refused to spill their watery contents. It was on this day that a variety of Downers would, once again, be attending a gathering at yet another suspicious location.

It was a house, once again, this time surrounded by a landscape as bleak and depressing as the weather. The few trees that surrounded the structure were long devoid of leaves and would likely never again bear fruit. Where green grass should have stood there was only brown, and spotty patches at best. There were no sounds of birds or life of any kind to be heard, lending to the eerie silence.

"Why do we always get stuck at places like this?" Pitchwife asked, shaking his head.

"Clearly because Werewolf can only be played in super sketchy places!" sally chimed in perkily. The rest of the group turned to glare at her as the massive wooden gate began to move of its own volition. They turned to stare at it, covering their ears from the loud creaking being emitted from the ancient joints.

"Well, that's comforting," Boro murmured. A few nods echoed his sentiment.

The group stood in silence, staring at the now-open passageway. Morsul broke the silence. "Should we...go in?"

A few moments of casting frightened and confused glances around the group later, it was decided that they would indeed venture inside.

----

The inside of the house was just as ominous as the outside. The room they had entered into was vast, but desolate. Sheets covered many of the pieces of furniture, as well as the various forms of sculpture and artwork. Ancient tapestries hung on the walls, faded and fraying. Before anyone could wonder what to do next, the door behind them swung shut with a clang.

"Well this is all very true to form," Fea nodded knowingly, having attended these gatherings on more than one occasion.

"Does anybody else hear that?" Saucie asked nervously, jerking his head in the direction of an adjoining corridor. Those who had been whispering amongst themselves ceased, tilting their heads in the indicated direction.

"Footsteps!" Lari whispered helpfully. She was generally ignored as the cause of the noise presented itself in the form of a man. Crippled by years of disease, his footsteps were really more of a shuffle, his breath labored and uneven. The dim light emitting from a lone gas lamp reflected off his pallid face, illuminating the sharp angles formed by skin stretched too tightly over bone.

The man began to speak, in a voice that had not been used in ages.

"Welcome," he said with a slight bow, "to the House of Usher."

Panicked looks were thrown around the group. Many were familiar with the tale, which ended in ruin.

"Upon entering this house," he continued, "All but seven of you were infused with a spirit. Five of you have been infected by evil. You will attempt to kill your fellows when the Night falls, but only four work together. One of the others wants you to win and will help you trick the others during the Day. One of you will be able to protect someone from their fate, but for only two Nights. One is sworn to take down their choice in game if - or rather when - they are killed themselves. Yet one more will be able to have the role of another sent to them in a dream. The final two are paired together, and their survival depends on each other.

Before Night falls, you must pick one person to be killed. Your goal, of course, is to eliminate the evil ones before they eliminate you. If you fail to reach a decision, however, someone will be picked at random and killed.

Your choice must be in by the stroke of Night. If they are any later, they will not count. Abstaining for two or more Nights in a row will result in your death. One free pass will be granted per player for the duration of the game, but you must state that you are choosing to abstain or be penalized.

Good luck to you all."

With another slight bow, their host turned and disappeared back down the corridor from whence he had come, leaving the group standing in stunned silence.
---------------

IT IS NOW NIGHT 1.

"Um, so, this probably isn't the best time to bring this up," Mira said with a slight tremor in her voice, "But I really have to go to the bathroom."

Nienna shot her an exasperated look. "Can't it wait?"

"Um no. No it really can't."

"Okay fine," Nienna rolled her eyes, assuming teacher-mode. "Let's go find a bathroom."

With that, the pair headed in the direction of the corridor their host had recently left down. The others decided to discuss their plight.

"So if this works the way the others have," Greenie began slowly, "It's safe to assume that everything our host said was true and we do actually have to follow his rules."

"Meaning we have to kill someone?" Inzil asked.

"Looks that way," Nerwen answered. "Although they usually come back to life after the game is over."

"But who knows if this one is the same as the others," Loslote pointed out. Silence fell again.

"So we have four wolves, a werebear, a Hunter, a Ranger, a Seer, a cobbler, two Lovers, and seven ordos," Brinn counted off.

"So how should we-" Hakon's question was cut off by the sound screaming.

Fea jumped. "That was Mira!" Nobody decided to question how she knew that, as the two had been friends for years.

The group took off running down the corridor, coming to an abrupt halt near what they assumed was the bathroom. Lying on the floor, bleeding from the pores, was Nienna. Or at least, they assumed it was Nienna, since the face was covered in blood and Mira was still standing.

"What happened?" Nog asked, attempting not to panic.

"She was fine and then said she got really dizzy and-ow!" Mira doubled over, grabbing her stomach. When she had recovered enough to look up, the others saw that her face was covered in blood. "Never...got...my...cookies..." With that, she slid down the wall and said no more. She was dead.

A hush fell over the group.

The Dead:
Mira - moddess, death by Red Masque
Nienna - co-moddess, death by Red Masque

The Living:
Boro
Brinn
Fea
Greenie
Hakon
Inzil
Lari
Loslote
McCaber
Morsul
Nerwen
Nog
Pitchwife
Roa
sally
Saucepan Man
wilwa

IT IS NOW DAY 1. DISCUSS.

Awwww come on guys! 20 minutes into Day 1 and there's only one post to amuse your incredibly bored moddess at work. Not cool guys. Not cool. :p

I'm here.

And for the Moddess: Pineapple.

Thank you. :D

Well it's statistically proven that at least one of the first three posters is evil so I was avoiding....crap. :p


(Also, I got really sick over the weekend so I'll probably not be on much if at all toDay. Sorry about that.)

Also, for the moddess. Random.

True, at least that's how it seems to happen pretty much every game. Your self-consciousness on this point is very suspicious, by the way.:p


*sigh* I suppose we can look forward to dying in really horrible ways this game?

I'll be disappointed if you don't. Erm, I mean.... :p


Wow, it's quiet. Then again, that's probably good for me; less to read later. Going to bed now and likely won't bother to check until afternoon/evening my time, so until then. :D

I should imagine that most of the Living have been asleep and, like me, are only just waking up to the full horror of what has befallen us. In any event, I am here, although only momentarily until later in the Day.

Isn’t there a theory that the first poster is more often a Wolf than not? The question is whether Boro’s first post counts as a first post, given that he didn't actually say anything. If so, then he is clearly a Wolf. If not, then the finger of suspicion points at Lari. Mind you, if one of the first three posters is evil, then a sneaky Wolf would post third. Which means that sally is a Wolf.

… as is your audacious accusation. :p

So, of those who have posted so far, my main suspects are Boro, Lari, sally and Nerwen. Er … ;)

On a more serious note, the Living number seventeen. There are five baddies (three out of four Wolves, on the basis that one of them is on our side, one Bear and one Cobbler). Which gives us, on pure percentages alone, just under a 30% chance of lynching a Baddie. And nearly a 25% chance of lynching a bad Wolf or the Bear. Of course, lynchings aren’t random, but those are quite good odds nevertheless, so I am fairly optimistic about our chances today.

Best thing that could happen to us would be to lynch the Bear, since that will limit the Night kills to one. On the other hand, being solitary hunters, Bears leave far less tracks than Wolves and so are more difficult to hunt down.

Back later.

Isn't posting something that doesn't actually say anything a most classic symptom of lycanthropy? :p So, Boro is a wolf in any case. And we're one wolf down. Easy, eh?

On a slightly more serious note, I've never played with a Bear before and just wondered if it's possible to ever catch one except by chance. I wouldn't want to be pessimistic, but...

I'll be semi-around for some hours now and more actively in my evening. And, because the DL is something like 7 AM for me, I'll vote around nine hours early.

Another guilty post. The only question here is whether Greenie is the Bear, doing some preliminary gloating, or one of the other baddies trying to fix our attention on the Bear instead of the wolves.

May I remind the village that last time Mr Recently-Fenrissed here claimed to find everyone suspicious, he was, in fact, a wolf?

That depends how good the Bear is. No pressure, by the way, Bear. :p

True. But, as you know, lightning never strikes in the same place twice. Except in horror stories, of course … er ... oh … ;)

Ah, the Red Death. Let us take pains it does not hold sway over us all.

I've heard that before, and I've been curious as to whether statistics would prove or disprove that notion.

Well, the best thing that could happen is for us to lynch all those who are gunning for us, but the bear would be an excellent start. ;) It does seem to me they are more difficult to find, especially since they'd have no hesitation about doing away with a wolf, which could give the appearance of innocence.

Could be either, but I can't necessarily read anything into that post of hers. You seem a bit quick to label her 'guilty'.

Same here Just got up...

So nothing too suspicious from any of the posters Nerwen's being suspicious of other people, True. However to me unless something else comes up she may simply be trying to get the ball rolling I mean it Is day one not much to go on.

I agree the bear should be a top priority I mean we have to kill three(or is it four?)wolves to eliminate their nightly kill, but only one bear to get rid of his or her kill. Seventeen people... 5 wolf/bears... so 12 Innocents considering we lynch the wrong person. in theory 4 days is our time limit for the village...

I'll be around for another hour or so but the next time I'll be around is Much later have work then doing a show.

Now Sally to me again going only on her first post so that may change... seems like the agent I doubt she's a wolf but kind of in your face look at me type of deal. While attempting to hide seems in plain sight is a good strategy people end to write you offf if you're in the open.(It gave me two days)

Drat. Got caught already. But actually, I think we shouldn't concentrate solely on the Bear, and yet we shouldn't forget him either. When looking for wolves one plays with connections between people, and looking for those connections I guess I at least will forget completely about the Bear.

I'd want to have some suspicions but I don't yet.

Mostly, killing the first wolf is not a matter of tracing connections, either– and there's only one Bear. We'll just lynch anyone who looks evil, as usual. Including the cobbler. In fact, after last game, make that especially the cobbler.;)

Good point. I assume that the friendly Wolf counts in the Wolves’ numbers for the purposes of determining victory, just as the Cobbler counts for the Innocents. But, he is, of course, playing for us, so it would be somewhat ungracious to kill him, if we can possibly avoid it. ;)

Quite so. Killing the Bear early would be good from the point of view of limiting Nightly kills, but the Bear will be much more difficult to spot. So, we should not lose sight of either enemy.

I wonder whether it might be worth pondering the dynamic between the Wolves and the Bear further. From the point of view of both, double kills at Night is good because, the more innocents that die, the better their chance of victory. On the other hand, while the Bear is alive, there is always a reasonable chance that he may kill a Wolf at Night. Accordingly, while I presume that the Wolves don’t need to kill the Bear to win (although it is not entirely clear), they will no doubt want to get him out of the way at some point. In a funny kind of a way, therefore, the Innocents and the Wolves have a mutual interest in finding and killing the Bear. The same goes for the Innocents and the Bear, I suppose, since the Bear needs to stay alive to win and is as vulnerable as anyone, I think, to Wolf attacks. What do people think? Is there any way that we might use these dynamics to our advantage?

I rather got the impression that Nerwen was being flippant. In which case, your readiness to seize upon this as suspicious is, in itself, somewhat suspicious.

Hm... Now see the first post from Greenie seemed more just obvious hey this is who we're looking for type of deal but....

why Completely? You just said Don't forget him. Seems less of a let's look somewhere else type of deal to me more of a magician's slight of hand.

Also:

Again same as Sally hiding in plain sight buys time...
Though since Sally started with that more than likely joking around but keeping watch
Greenie on the other hand seems to use this as a defense...

Inzil- Agreed but I think the bear doesn't know who the wolves are so throwing hem under the bus would be more coincidence than anything else...

Hm... Boro's post may mean nothing It seems the first few posts were 1 am posts which in my book make them nonsensical too late to think posts...
Boro's was uneventful. Lari's post was also rather silly... Sally is a bit more on topic and a bit disturbing.

Boro- although passed out no signs of foulness... yet
Brinn-
Fea -
Greenie- most suspicious at this time.... though still to early to tell
Hakon-
Inzil- Didn't say much... then again only one post
Lari-Pineapples um not suspicious was it olives THEN there'd by something
Loslote-
McCaber-
Morsul- his fate shall be decided b the village
Nerwen- Either throwing out suspicion to coveror to start up the game.. latter I think
Nog-
Pitchwife-
Roa-
sally- may be an agent or just fooling around... too early to tell
Saucepan Man- Hmm... Names from a hat odds are against rewolfing But not impossible
wilwa-


and while one wolf may be on our side don't we need to eliminate All wolves to win? so Actually there's just slightly more than 1/3 chance of getting a baddie.

Excellent point about the relations between wolves and bear. Hmm. The answer to your question is, of course, that we should use them to our own advantage. Wait... that didn't answer the question, did it? Ah well. At least we know that accusing and possibly helping in the lynch of a baddie doesn't make a player seem innocent (not that it normally does, either, but...) But that is certainly a question that deserves to be given some thought.

I feel oddly like doing a list but there's no point I suppose since a majority hasn't posted yet and I don't have much to say about the ones who have. :rolleyes:


EDIT: x-ed with SPM and Morsul

I don't see how we can possibly avoid it, except by losing. It is to be hoped, however, that we won't end up killing the Friendly Wolf before he has managed to leave trails to his packmates, or helped in other ways.

*shrugs* They may end up working to our advantage– whether we can deliberately aid that is another matter.

EDIT:X'd since SPM at #20.

In theory, yes. But if the friendly Wolf is the last remaining Wolf, I hardly think that he is going to suddenly turn on the remaining innocents ...

I'm here- I'm going to catch up and then start commenting.

Well my point was exactly that. I fear I'll forget about him while hunting for the connections between wolves, and wanted to caution others of doing exactly that. We shouldn't forget about the Bear; I just fear I accidentally might, at some point. Sorry if I was unclear.

By the way, I love it when people are around the same time as I. Dunno why.


EDIT: x-ed with SPM and Roa

Of course if the "bad" wolves figure out who the "Good" wolf is then it's just a matter of turning him in and if done properly we could lose "our" wolf easily enough. I doubt when he dies he'll be listed as "Good wolf" just "wolf" there'd be no way to tell if we got the right one.


HAHA Good point :D made my morning

aw man time to get read for work bleh just when things were heating up

Fair point, and one worth bearing in mind.

Also, perhaps the fact that at the same time Inzil seems to be sort of leaving himself the option of suspecting Greenie too:

However, he may have thought I was being more serious than I was. I should have thought my "Another guilty post" comment was pretty obviously over-the-top, though.

EDIT:X'd since my last post.

Have I missed something? Since when is there a 'friendy' wolf?

'Five infected by evil', but only four working together. I read that as four wolves, and a bear. And then one working for the evil side during the Day, the cobbler. If I'm misinformed in this regard, I'd like to know.

I considered that, but the lack of a smilie left room for some doubt.

x/d with Nerwen, SPM, and Morsul

Actually do the math....(I should have realized this earlier...)

17 people

Only 7 ordos

2 lovers
1 Ranger
1 Seer
1 Hunter
(5 good)

1 cobbler
1 Bear...
that leaves
3 Wolves Not Four!

The sentence is written incorrectly It SOUNDS like four wolves it means 3 wolves and a bear(the four) then the cobbler....

There is no good wolf....

Crossed with nerwen

Ah, you think the "you" in that sentence refers to the wolves? I think you may be right. Drat.

EDIT:X'd with Morsul.

Ah... I guess everyone assumed– I know I did– that it was only the card-carrying villains– the shapeshifter roles– who had been "infected by evil".

Well, then, there may not be a good wolf after all, but then there's only three wolves!

Erk, my bad. I assumed that "you" in the passage quoted by Nerwen referred to the Innocents and that there was therefore one Wolf working for the Village. However, reading it again, I fear that I was wrong and that Inzil is correct. :(

Alas, no ...

I think the maths is wrong. But only to the extent that there are 6 ordos as, according to the narrative, there are definately four Wolves. And a Werebear. And a Cobbler ...

Great. :(

Still, on the bright side, it improves our odds of lynching a baddie. :D

First things first: being a native of the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, and my home team being the Ravens, I demand that my death involve ravens if/when I die. (Little known fact, the Ravens are so named in honor of Edgar Allen Poe, who is still well loved in the area. There's even a restaraunt named Annabel Lee's.)

Sorry, where did you get that from? Did I misunderstand the rules? Where does it say we have a Friendly wolf?

My impressions thus far:

It's nice to see that people aren't being shy with their accusations. At least we'll have plenty to discuss.

SPM, are you suggesting "The enemy of my enemy is my friend?" Keep in mind that the wolves and the bear could ultimately try to work together and turn on the village as a whole. I odn't know if we can count on that dynamic playing out.

Nerwen has been throwing suspicion left and right, and seems very ready to jump on SPM's comment towards Inzil.

We seem to have a lot of confusion regarding the number of wolves. I thought there were only three this game, plus one bear and one cobbler to equal all the baddies. Are there really 4 wolves? If so, is one of them a lover? I thought the lovers were both innocent. A modgod intervention would be appreciated.

SPM's idea about this friendly wolf, if flawed, looks a great deal like someone trying to spread confusion, and perhaps open a doorway for "Don't lynch me, I'm the friendly wolf!"

So right now, my two main suspects are Nerwen and SPM.

Edit: crossed with Nerwen and SPM

All right. let's look at the full text about who is 'infused with a spirit' here.

There are 17 of us in all. Only seven do not have a spirit of some sort, whether good or evil.

Ordos- 07
Ranger- 01
Hunter- 01
Seer- 01
Lover Pair- 02

That's 12 for the good side.

Which leaves 5 evil ones, wolves, bear and cobbler.

Since the bear and cobbler do not work with the wolves, I don't see how 'four' could be in collusion. Perhaps we could get some enlightenment on this?

x/d with SPM and Roa

Alright, I can accept that SPM was confused by the posting. (I could have sworn we were only having 3 wolves...)

Either the 4 wolves was a typo, or the 7 ordos was a typo. They can't both be true.

Erm so this one time Mira can't count. There are six ordos. Epic fail on my part. And just to clarify, there are four wolves and a bear and a cobbler. No friendly wolf. Sorry for the confusion.