Tol-in-Gaurhoth CXIV – The Evil Breath of Morgoth in Dor-lómin, game thread

[A Little Green]

Initial thoughts for toDay:

Leaning innocent:

Lottie – multiple reasons, but particularly her instrumental part in lynching Huinwolf as well as very vocally agreeing with him and pointing it out herself on Day 1. Doesn't look like a plausible wolf pair.

Pitch – I still think Huinwolf wouldn’t have pushed the attention on the GLP and especially Pitch’s role within it so heavily if it implicated a packmate.

Lalaith – Might need to reconsider, but I do think it’s a good sign that she voted for Huinwolf even though she had previously mentioned feeling uneasy about Mac and so would have had a perfectly valid alibi for not bussing a packmate.

Shasta – Still mostly gut feeling combined with his effort to subtly protect Kitanna in a way that wouldn’t necessarily occur to a wolf.

Rune – Haven’t seen anything to worry me so far, and Lommy’s Legatolysis (which sounds like a medical condition btw) brings up a good point about how if the wolves killed Legate for looking like the Seer then Rune most likely isn’t one of them.

Could be anything:

Lommy – On the fence about her. Has a pretty horrible track record so far (though I’m not really in a position to judge anyone on that ), but I think an evil Lommy would have been smoother and less bloodlusty about trying to get Sally lynched. (As she pointed out herself, a wolf would have known Sally was telling the truth and consequently would have known exactly how bad an all-out attack on her would look in retrospect.) On the other hand, I still think she seemed somewhat more jumpy than usual earlier in the game, and her mutual suspicion with Huinwolf could easily have been wolf-on-wolf.

Kath – I still have worryingly little read on her considering how active she’s been. Has stayed out of the spotlight and the big controversies, and barely interacted with Huinwolf.

Lhuna – On the fence about her too. Her voting record doesn’t tell us much; admittedly yesterDay’s no vote was due to RL and understandable, but Day 1 she voted for herself which gives us literally nothing, and Day 2 she voted for Lommy for reasons that still aren’t entirely clear to me. There was also the bit where she pointed out Huinwolf’s slip when no one else did but then didn’t follow up on it, which I still think could be a possible indication of guilt (a wolf would be more likely to notice a wolf slip because she’d know that’s what it was).

Eonwe – I get a general good vibe from him, but don’t really trust vibes anymore. He was very careful and diplomatic especially earlier on. Cast the deciding vote on Huinwolf; though as Pitch pointed out, if he knew he was casting the deciding vote, I could see an Eönwölf bussing a packmate knowing that the alternative would leave him looking pretty bad.

THE Ka – Like Kath, has carefully stayed out of the spotlight and the big controversies while contributing actively. Barely interacted with Huin. I don’t like how she seconded Inzil bringing up Kitanna’s slip and thus contributed to outing the Ranger but then didn’t take part in the ensuing discussion about it – and consequently, isn’t really mentioned when that whole debacle is discussed. Admittedly if Inzil is as guilty as he looks, Ka more than likely isn’t; for two wolves to be the first to poke at a likely Gifted would be brazen in a way I don’t think Inzil and Ka would be.

Leaning guilty:

Inzil – Interactions with Huinwolf basically amount to mutual suspicion without votes, and then Inzil voting for Mac over Huin at a fairly crucial moment. First reacts to this with fatalistic “I know this incriminates me!”, then later when both he and Sally are being suspected for their vote placements as well as following paranoia and defensiveness, he drops this tone and basically tells the village to lynch him if they want. Then starts toDay with an all-out attack on Lommy that looks somewhat rehearsed to me (regardless of Lommy’s role).

Brinn – I’m still not comfortable with her. Huinwolf defended her very vocally; she voted for Huin on Day 2 at a fairly crucial point which makes her look better. Admittedly she had been pretty heavily suspected herself, so possibly thought she couldn’t afford to visibly save a packmate people were already connecting her to. Enough has been said about her (especially earlier) concern with keeping her hands clean and overt focus on how the Rikae kill is connected to herself. I’d like to reread her posts from yesterDay and toDay to check what she’s been doing since, as she’s largely disappeared from the public eye aside from those cyptic votes from the QT.

Boro – I find him increasingly worrying. Lightly suspected by Huinwolf while saying he doesn't want to lynch Huin and voting for Mac over him at a fairly crucial time. Admittedly I’m not sure if a Borowolf would be this open about it. Additionally, I’m not comfortable about how he’s repeatedly suggesting QT-related plans that don’t make sense to me from an innocent POV (though admittedly complex ploys and strategies aren't really my strong point so it's possible I'm just missing something) – first when we had an evil-majority QT he suggested bringing the pre-votes back which would have been very useful for the evil QT, then when questioned about this he said something along the lines of wanting to mess with them; then toDay he’s suggesting we start to trust the QT vote now that they have an innocent majority, which doesn’t make sense to me either (other than as an easy way of justifying a vote that doesn’t incriminate himself). Also not sure what to make of his voting for Sally to save himself from a last-minute panic bandwagon against himself that, frankly, didn’t look at all likely.

[THE Ka]

[RL – Sorry for the long bit of silence, helping grieving family is always difficult the second day when shock wears off. I have some more time today so I’ll be catching up further. Thank you everyone for your words, I appreciate all of you. As for the Game, again, regardless of role and what’s happening in our RL let’s keep playing as a sort of solace in the storm.[/RL]

Originally Posted by Lommy

Claiming to be the hunter is quite a good wolvish lynch prevention tactic because a) the real hunter might be reluctant to challenge because it greatly decreases their chance to get to use their special ability and b) conversely, flushing the real hunter out is a big favour to the wolves, it's like flagging a landmine for them. So I would certainly take a hunter claim with a bigger pinch of salt than say a seer claim.

Are you echoing Mac’s statement of the wolves trying to get the hunter out of the way early to bag an innocent in the same Day?

Personally I’d take a Seer claim with a greater pinch, especially early game, unless the Seer happened to be extremely lucky and dream of a wolf on a previous Night (even so, that’s really risky as Seer you want to stay in as long as possible). Even if you’re using the ‘wait don’t do it, I’m really the Seer and this is what I know-‘ to try and either sway votes for your pack or just use it as last minute cover as a villager, it won’t keep you concealed for long. Other wolves might just decide to sacrifice you the next Day for being too hot a topic (and making any innocents who supported you guilty of collaboration to others), and if you were a villager and found lying, you could garner a lot of distrust for trying to flush the Seer out and possibly be thought a flustered cobbler.

Originally Posted by Eonwe

now that it turns out Mac was an innocent.

My Mac vs. Sally reasoning boiled down to what happened to Mac beforehand. It just seemed so forced as I’ve said before, like the wolves regardless of his innocence or not at that point, found him to be a sort of main distraction as they were trying to figure out gifted roles. He appeared coy and nervous which made it look like he was afraid of being caught due to Rikae appearing innocent, etc. and that was forced without abandon. I figured by being a pothole in the road, it would frustrate a few of them just enough to see who was upset by proximity.

The next Day, I spot Sally and then Zil casually joking in the same manner and poke them over it, asking if we’re going to see a repeat of yesterDay over Mac. Zil eventually gave an answer to other players, but Sally remained distant and coy over it and I dug further into her voting patterns and actions around DL on different days. I even ended up agreeing with Brinn when she pointed out Sally had begun to try and turn the wheel of attention towards the reason behind Mac votes when the majority of us were already becoming convinced it was something taken advantage of and others feeling duped.

I’d feel more duped over my Sally vote, but before knowledge of the hasty hunter reveal it just appeared that she was doing a lot of little to appear involved. Sort of what we saw from Hui in their list posts and a self-assurance that since Zil had appeared to garner enough attention early on yesterDay that it would be a unanimous vote for them. Considering what had happened with Mac until Legate had enough of a hunch to go back and pull Hui’s posts, Sally had come across to me as trying to bide time and pull the same as Hui, hoping Zil would take all direct hits since they were engaging all our questions at that point.

Originally Posted by Lommy

I would like to hear what THE Ka, Eönwë and Greenie have to say about what they thought of the Sally quote above at the time.

I remember reading it in passing first, then again, but at that point it sounded still coy and more like a cobbler move than a villager, which comes across as a flustered wolf that is trying to make us pause enough to try and find reasoning for voting along their suspicions so they can recuperate enough to start back again. In comparison between Sally and Zil at the time and with what had happened with Mac the previous Day still burning in my mind, I didn't want to entertain it and be lead down a rabbit hole. Unfortunately, even fumbled, I wasn't around to read the semi-reveal until after the Day had ended.