WWLXX: At the Prison of Ice

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

It was after the death of our pilot when we turned with a new resolve towards the trouble that seemed to pursue us. It was inevitable to conclude that there must be another among us who is - however crude and unprofessional the term might sound - a Werewolf. But who was it? Much of the earlier evidence has been brought forward once again and in the end it was our senior crewmember who had been labeled as guilty of the murder of our pilot. She accepted her fate almost peacefully, and as we turned the guns against her, she merely closed her eyes and bowed her head in expectation. It was at that moment when it again crossed my mind, what have we become? The will for survival seemed stronger in us than anything else, and we felt no remorse for killing those whom we have found guilty. I guess it must seem terrible for the reader to hear that kind of confession, but one can hardly imagine the strain and the effort we made to remain mentally sane and not to just turn on one another in a second in that terrible prison of ice. Despite all we have gone through, we have remained the men and women of reason, and we were determined to end this horror in our midst.

In writing about this I have nothing to lose: it is indeed far more important to me than anything that the full and true account of what we have encountered in that remote and dreadful place reaches the public. I know that I may be awaiting a lifetime sentence, if not worse, but nothing of that stops me from reporting what had happened after we have mercilessly executed another of our team and we have descended further into that nightmarish cavern.

As indeed in a no short time we have decided that we must go on and uncover the mystery of this place, as we have been increasingly convinced that the ominous events among our crew and the retreat of the dying beast who has once been our chief marine biologist into this cavernous complex must be related. And so we picked one of the corridors, having no better lead, and marched on in a straight line, lighting our path with electric torches.

And it was indeed not very long - a few minutes at most - when we have entered a large space, and the flashlights illuminated something that filled us with awe and wonder.

LIVING MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION:

Boromir88 - senior assistant to a professor of glaciology
Loslote - rich funder's spoiled daughter
Morsul - federal grants lawyer
Brinn - polar bear biologist
Nogrod - old palaeoecologist with is own theory of climate change
Macalaure - palaeomathematician
sally - the original initiator of the expedition
Thinlómien - whale expert
Nerwen - mechanic
Bes - room/store manager
Shasta - sled-dog handler

GONE:
Roa - survival guide - died on blood loss from Werewolf attack on Day 2 (left game, innocent)
Mnemosyne - field medic - shot by the survival guide on Day 2 (Werewolf)
Inziladun - meteorologist - killed by Werewolves on Night 3 (innocent)
tromkehra - cook/bartender - left aboard the ship on Day 3 (left game, innocent)
Nienna - navigator - shot on her way back to the ship on Day 3 (innocent)
Greenie - senior assitant to important scientists in the company, killed by Werewolf on Night 4 (innocent)
Pitchwife - marine biologist - unambiguously executed by the expedition on Day 4 (Werewolf)
Eomer of the Rohirrim - sea pilot - murdered in the icy darkness on Night 5 (innocent)
wilwa - crewmember - executed in the underground cavern on Day 5 (innocent)

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

The place we have entered was large in size, far larger than any of the other spaces we have passed through this far. Its walls have been of the same volcanic rock as everywhere else, yet there was something definitely unnatural about its almost hexagonal shape. Even though the stone walls were uneven, the geometry was striking. It was our glaciologist who later pointed out that such symmetry could hardly have been achieved by natural geological processes. But even if it were not for this affirmation, we could not have ignored what we saw on the northern wall - with its archway opening hewn in the black stone and with faded, yet curiously vivid graffito above it.

I can hardly describe our feelings as we beheld this subterranean wonder of the icy waste. Even with the most unusual events of the previous days in mind we would not have expected to find anything of this kind in this forgotten ice-sealed place.

The glyptic image atop of the wall was the most curious to our eyes, for it without any doubt bore witness to the presence of sentient beings in this complex, at least perhaps once upon a time when it has been formed. But what was it? Our palaeomathematician seemed particularly curious about it and he was the first one to start examining it. If it came down to its artistic value, it was crude at most, yet clear enough as to what it represented - a long mountain range stretching beneath the starry sky. The stars were represented in the form of small-diameter holes, distinguishible enough from the rest of the irregularities in the stone. But none of us had recognised what our palaeomathematician probably did already by that time and we saw nothing more to the glyph than an expression of some ancient art.

We have been in shock from the discovery, but still our main objective lay in front of us - and so we decided to finish our purpose in this underground labyrinth of volcanic rock, even though our minds have been mostly distracted by the thought of that peculiar graven image. We passed beneath its archway and went on. There was another crossing awaiting us nearby, and it was there where we have decided to rest, at least for a while. It must have been also at that time when our mathematician had decided to slip away to look once more at the curious carving.

None of us saw him leaving and I cannot explain how came we did not see his flashlight, but the fact is that after several minutes we heard his cry from the corridor through which we just came. Running to the place we found him lying beneath the archway with his arm almost torn off and blood dripping from his neck. He was still holding his notebook, now stained with blood, but we could still make out the last words he hastily noted before his death, no doubt relating to the mysterious carving:

No mistake. Resembles distinctly the constellations of Northern hemisphere, though some major differences. Ursa Major completely missing - why? Instead quizzical triangle made of 15 dots - equilateral. Why 15? Is also a hexagonal number - room - any connection? Is atomic number of phosphorus. In Hebrew 10-5 forbidden to write, forms the name of God. What other uses of 15 -

Apparently whichever conclusions our palaeomathematician might have reached have been interrupted before he could make them.

LIVING MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION:

Boromir88 - senior assistant to a professor of glaciology
Loslote - rich funder's spoiled daughter
Morsul - federal grants lawyer
Brinn - polar bear biologist
Nogrod - old palaeoecologist with is own theory of climate change
sally - the original initiator of the expedition
Thinlómien - whale expert
Nerwen - mechanic
Bes - room/store manager
Shasta - sled-dog handler

GONE:
Roa - survival guide - died on blood loss from Werewolf attack on Day 2 (left game, innocent)
Mnemosyne - field medic - shot by the survival guide on Day 2 (Werewolf)
Inziladun - meteorologist - killed by Werewolves on Night 3 (innocent)
tromkehra - cook/bartender - left aboard the ship on Day 3 (left game, innocent)
Nienna - navigator - shot on her way back to the ship on Day 3 (innocent)
Greenie - senior assitant to important scientists in the company, killed by Werewolf on Night 4 (innocent)
Pitchwife - marine biologist - unambiguously executed by the expedition on Day 4 (Werewolf)
Eomer of the Rohirrim - sea pilot - murdered in the icy darkness on Night 5 (innocent)
wilwa - crewmember - executed in the underground cavern on Day 5 (innocent)
Macalaure - palaeomathematician - killed while performing his palaeomathematic operations on Night 6 (innocent)

Day 6 has started. Night folks, stop PMing. All people, start discussing. You know how it goes.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

What the crap.

After yesterday's voting, I had a great case for Mac and Lommy being the wolves... and I come back to find the wolves have killed Mac.

There are several stupid baseball analogies that I could make here, but I won't.

[Nogrod]

Darn! Dang! Drat! D'uh! *how many familyfriendly curses beginning with D there are?*

I had actually taken the risk of trusting I'm controversial enough to be alive and spent almost two hours analysing Mac during the afternoon (and I only got to somewhere in D2). Well, luckily I didn't finish it but waited to see first the results before continuing.

Like with Roa... all wasted... (well then I could be sure there would be no Night-kill)

I think this has been the first game I have actually used my time as an ordo during the Nights to actually do something for the game... and with this experience I'm afraid it will remain a solitary trial.


My gut reaction would be Boro now. Or Lommy.

But that's just a gut reaction. I need to go back there and look if there are any better reasons to suspect either of them. My bad feeling for Lommy comes from the last moments of yesterDay - which actually will look different now as Mac was innocent. And Boro for what I saw reading Mac back there the first Days - which might actually look different as well now that Mac is innocent.

Although there might also be the new perspective of one or both of them actually knowing they're interacting with an innocent...

So nothing better yet but bad feelings. I'll try to look back there with fresh eyes...

[Shastanis Althreduin]

My mind is running in circles...

Mac stepped up his suspicion of Brinn hardcore yesterday.

Does this mean a Brinnwolf got scared and offed him?

Or are the wolves trying to frame Brinn?

[Boromir88]

I was going to post a defense for Mac today, thanks a lot wolves.

After my wilwa crusade failed, I've caught up on reading and threw everyone into the "unknown" to take into account the new information (wilwa innocent and whoever the kill choice was today). I knew it wasn't going to be me, and I figure there will be justifiable suspicion against me. If you decide to lynch me, so be it, I won't be the worst loss...but if the wolves think I'm going down quietly they should have killed me sooner.

Since I have caught up on the days I missed (when Pitch was lynched and yesterday) Lottie's innocent. Shasta and Nerwen look the best.

I don't like Morsul. I don't like Lommy. I don't like sally. I don't like Nog. Bes and Brinn I'm unsure of.

Explanations to come.

[Thinlómien]

Well, this time I'm not surprised. Apart from Nogrod, everybody considered him innocent. Also, I was expecting either him or me to die toNight, because of a few comments he made yesterDay where he made clear he's pretty certain I'm innocent and he's willing to vote Wilwa to save me etc. I think those could easily have been thought of as signs of a gifted connection. I'm not sure if Mac actually meant to divert the wolves that way or whether he was just pretty sure of my innocence and not aware of how they could be interpreted. Anyway, I guess that's a secondary issue, the main point is why the wolves killed him. Better theories?

And speaking of him, I'm glad he was innocent and I was laying my trust on a trustworthy person. Seems like my judgement is not totally crappy. Although I did feel a bit crappy after Wilwa died, but then again, it could've been me, so from my point of view it was not a total disaster. And hey, we didn't lynch a gifted either.

And as for who are the wolves, I have no idea. I would like to continue on my Nog&Sally speculation but seemingly Nogrod gets all heated up if I start the topic. I'm still suspicious of Brinn, although now that I was wrong about Wilwa, I wouldn't somehow be surprised if I was wrong about her too. I think I need to reconsider Boro and Morsul, and especially Bes and Nerwen. Shasta is the only one I currently feel good about.

[Nogrod]

Okay, sorry I got distracted and I have an early morning call tomorrow... so this is nothing near to what I thought I would do. So only a few points from yesterDay

Boro you make quite a show of your "reasoning" and "facts", but looking at things toDay and comaparing it to your vote on Wilwa makes one think again.

Originally Posted by Boro

I'm willing to stand by that vote and bet she's a wolf. If not, than I'll accept the consequences. I'm just asking you trust the info, and me, above crap-shoot shot in the dark misgivings about being fooled.

So what might be the manner of your "accepting the consequences"?

Also you seem to really press hard on it... this is your post quite soon after the previous I quoted:

Originally Posted by Boro

If we are wrong, at least we made a logical and wise lynch based on sound reasons which have less of a chance of turning out to be a crippling lynch than deciding we drop the suspicion on them and go for conspiracy theories about someone double or triple bluffing.

Securing your back already then?

Well Boro could go either way (what I pointed out was little and things I suspected him on on the basis of D1 were mainly depending on the assumption that Mac was a wolf). I need to look at him more carefully later though just to be a bit safer with him - or actually suspect him.


Lommy, you go seriously to and fro with Wilwa with first just saying she gives "wolvish vibes" enough to make her your top candidate (which is actually quite odd looking at her first post you point at... I mean she speaks sense there, like it or not; and you say yourself that: "more so on the first than on the second reading, though.") - and when it starts to look she is going to bite the dust you start back-pedalling with your "alternative theory"... even if I have to admit it being an ingenious move to showcase a choice between a top suspect and a top-theory!

But then you go on twisting perfectly checkable facts to back your "theory" and start fishing Mac's help with the lynch of another fish.

Btw. Lommy: you say "I can't really find the vote count for Day2 right now, so Nogrod, let's postpone this debate for toMorrow". In what order people de facto voted is no case for a debate... but a fact easily checkable.

I hate it when people try to mislead others with fiction to get people lynched or suspected at last minutes. And it's hard to see an innocent intention behind that kind of moves. If you were innocent you wouldn't have acted that way as you would have been worried about actually having it wrong and thus helping an innocent to die / be painted black.

It actually fits quite well that you raised this "concern" in the last hour of the Day buddying with Mac and then killed him the next Night...


And in every sense I must say that your last post looks much more worse than Wilwa's first yesterDay. I mean what did it consist of?

- You were not surprised (you learned: last time you played surprised and people suspected you for it)

- Mac was innocent and "made clear" he was ready to vote wilwa to save you as he realised you were innocent!!! (so everyone else should follow his lead and trust you as he did so)

- Probably not the gifted-connection (well not as he was no gifted), but another point how sure he (an innocent) was of your innocence - and how you we're afraid as being looked as a gifted by the wolves... (without your own liking - or effort to be looked like that by us?)

- Your judgement is good indeeed in this game as you backed the right horse that Day. Although you of course felt crappy when wilwa died... (here your double-act works: you can both push wilwa to death and still reserve youurself a right to show a face of "I told I had better ideas")

- I will just get heated up if you continue your speculation of me being a wolf... (a nice 100% proof defence. If I suspect you, you can just say I'm "heated"... right?)

Quite nice Lommy... but so fabricated and calculated (how can you fit that many messages into one post? *bows*) that it actually makes me consider you as my suspect number one right now.

And I'm quite cool with it.

Now good night....

[Thinlómien]

Nogrod, Nogrod, Nogrod... this will be a full-blown war, I assure you, because to me your latest post just screams wolvery. I was waiting to see who would jump on my theory about Mac getting killed first, and you have incriminated yourself by jumping on that. A seasoned player like yourself, you wouldn't have jumped on it like that if you were innocent and really thinking about it. (Not suggesting that my theory is so right you should believe it, but merely that suggesting a hypothesis that assumes my own innocence doesn't make me a wolf and that knowing me, as a wolf under serious scrutiny, I wouldn't definitely say anything like that, but that's a side issue. You can't know that because you're not me, so you have no "duty" to believe it.)

Originally Posted by Nogrod

Lommy, you go seriously to and fro with Wilwa with first just saying she gives "wolvish vibes" enough to make her your top candidate (which is actually quite odd looking at her first post you point at... I mean she speaks sense there, like it or not; and you say yourself that: "more so on the first than on the second reading, though.") - and when it starts to look she is going to bite the dust you start back-pedalling with your "alternative theory"... even if I have to admit it being an ingenious move to showcase a choice between a top suspect and a top-theory!

Rubbish. (Ha, Roa you should be proud of me. ) Of course I was wavering. Every sensible innocent is wavering with their suspicions unless they have divine inspiration. I didn't claim Wilwa didn't make sense, I just said I got wolvish vibes. You question me because I went more with my first impression than with the second - what's the problem with that? Second impression is no gut-feeling anymore.

As for back-pedaling and alternative theory, I had been thinking of that alternative theory the whole Day, to be honest, but didn't say it aloud. Why? There is, to me, an obvious connection between you and Sally. You co-operate. She spends a whole post discussing points for and against your innocence. This could point at two things and that was why I was wondering whether to bring it up at all or not: I suspected the two of you, but I didn't want to risk the chance you were our gifted.

So, maybe stupidly, I settled on this vague "theory" thing after much debate and posted it. The time I posted it had nothing to do with what other people were saying but with when I had time to think about it. Why am I saying this aloud now? Because it seems obvious to me that you two can't be our gifted because you are a wolf. There, feeling better?

PS. You have absolutely no right to claim the moral highground about the Wilwa lynch, btw. I was at least forced to vote her to save my life, unlike you. (Not that there would've been no chance for me to vote her otherwise, but I was pondering between her and Brinn before Bes came and made my decision for me.)

But then you go on twisting perfectly checkable facts to back your "theory" and start fishing Mac's help with the lynch of another fish.

Twisting checkable facts? Me? It's you who's doing that. I did not start the Brinn-thingy, it was either Mac or Sally, I joined it. If I was a wolf, why wouldn't I just have sticked with Wilwa and make sure my life is saved? I would've had believeable grounds for doing that taking into account all my expressed suspicion of her earlier.

And as for the vote count, I was not twisting any facts or accusing you of such. *stomps feet* How many times in this game do I have to say that if you ask me WOLVES DO NOT TWIST FACTS INTENTIONALLY because that's plain stupid! They may make mistakes, just as us others.

Btw. Lommy: you say "I can't really find the vote count for Day2 right now, so Nogrod, let's postpone this debate for toMorrow". In what order people de facto voted is no case for a debate... but a fact easily checkable.

Now you're again misunderstanding me badly, either intentionally or unintentionally. I was merely saying I'm not talking with you about the actual issue until I have my facts right. I thought I had my facts right. You had them differently. I was not sure which one of us is right so I wanted to check before discussing further. Is this wolvish in your opinion? Last time I looked, misremembering wasn't a crime.

I hate it when people try to mislead others with fiction to get people lynched or suspected at last minutes. And it's hard to see an innocent intention behind that kind of moves. If you were innocent you wouldn't have acted that way as you would have been worried about actually having it wrong and thus helping an innocent to die / be painted black.

What? You could've been lynched? Guess what? Only a wolf can be that paranoid. There was absolutely no chance of you getting lynched yesterDay, that should've been clear. Your point is very weak anyway: what bad is it for an innocent to be merely suspected in the last minutes? If something, it's good because it helps you survive until the next Day. (You should be grateful. ) And I was actually worried my facts were wrong, just go and see.

It actually fits quite well that you raised this "concern" in the last hour of the Day buddying with Mac and then killed him the next Night...

I didn't kill him. I might be smart enough to have something like that, but I don't think I'm ruthless enough.

And in every sense I must say that your last post looks much more worse than Wilwa's first yesterDay. I mean what did it consist of?

And here poor Wolfgrod falls into the trap of making a mountain out of a molehill... here we go...

- You were not surprised (you learned: last time you played surprised and people suspected you for it)

Hey please, that is ridiculous. If I had thought there was something wrong with my surprise yesterDay and wanted to act less suspiciously, I would not have commented on the predictability of the death at all toDay.

- Mac was innocent and "made clear" he was ready to vote wilwa to save you as he realised you were innocent!!! (so everyone else should follow his lead and trust you as he did so)

Well that is true, go and see! I'm not claiming everybody should follow his lead and trust me. You all have to make up your own mind. If you need to follow someone's lead on me, follow my own. I have the best knowledge of my role in this village. But it would be just as stupid for you to blindly follow my opinion of myself as Mac's opinion on me.

- Probably not the gifted-connection (well not as he was no gifted), but another point how sure he (an innocent) was of your innocence - and how you we're afraid as being looked as a gifted by the wolves... (without your own liking - or effort to be looked like that by us?)

...what? I was not afraid to be looked as a gifted by the wolves. If me shouting "I'm the ranger I'm the ranger" would make the wolves go for me instead of him/her, I would do that. Usually as an ordo I'm not trying to set myself up as a gifted for the simple reason that I'm selfish and don't want to die, but I don't definitely fear looking gifted because I know I'm less valuable than a real gifted. And I have no intention of misleading the innocent to think I'm gifted, because I have no reason for that (at least now, not toDay in this game).

- Your judgement is good indeeed in this game as you backed the right horse that Day. Although you of course felt crappy when wilwa died... (here your double-act works: you can both push wilwa to death and still reserve youurself a right to show a face of "I told I had better ideas")

I didn't say I had better ideas! I had other ideas, not better ideas. This point seems to me that you're just trying to make everything I do look suspicious, there's no point in this point. "You have good judgement ergo you're a wolf." Thanks a lot.

- I will just get heated up if you continue your speculation of me being a wolf... (a nice 100% proof defence. If I suspect you, you can just say I'm "heated"... right?)

No, dear, I won't say you're heated... I say you are a wolf who has decided to get me lynched toDay. Nice. And I made that comment because I didn't like the way you started going berserk when I disagreed with your facts. So you can take it as a mild sarcastic offense at your direction... and although I promised not to say that, what is this reply to that if not heated? *insert a mischevious smiley here*

Quite nice Lommy... but so fabricated and calculated (how can you fit that many messages into one post? *bows*) that it actually makes me consider you as my suspect number one right now.

Oh that is exactly the kind of statement that makes me want to hit the person who said that with something heavy and makes me write a defense smoke rising from my keyboard. *takes a deep relaxing breath* Thank you, but save your compliments for someone who deserves them. Like, next time you see a mirror, that might be a good line.

Okay and now I'm either off to sleep or write an RPG post but I feel like a pause from ww would do good... *still has smoke rising from keyboard and ears*