Werewolf XXXII: The Lost Age

[Kath]

A long half-a-period had ended, the three Vampires were all fed up with the whole business. Their meeting place was on top of the highest tower. With their unnaturally good eyesight they could see all Kaimoir. The place the Men chose to sleep in was well lit with torches brought from above.


”Hmph, they don’t seem to believe Enhilion’s calming words about no monsters living here. His kindness killed him, because of that”, Lossenatar said.


Firithhyando cursed in the usual calm manner, ”Chort ih vozmi. Dear Hilly, why did you have to do it… The only consolation is that Hilly may still be somewhere around, his body is alive. Hey Num, cheer up, our plan is working after all”.


The usually strong willed Numundo was indeed weeping. Numundo turned towards Firithhyando and snapped, ”What do you mean by our plan working, it’s not! Enhilion is dead! Did you hear, dead! Would you have made such a sacrifice if you had known? Yulnagar knew, I bet! But did he tell us? No, he didn’t. Curse him! And now Enhilion is dead. So that’s who we should blame, not those fools down there”.


Lossenatar shouted with an icy stern voice, ”Do not speak ill of Yulnagar! I’m sure he has his reasons”.


With that something glinted in Numundo’s eye and the largest Vampire’s hand suddenly turned into a claw flying straight at Lossenatar’s chest. The slash would have been a deadly one, if Lossenatar hadn’t dodged. Firithhyando caught Numundo’s arm and held it firmly until the claw turned back into hand.


The only sound following was Numundo’s hard breathing. It softened soon. Numundo looked at Lossenatar, ”Sorry, friend. I didn’t mean it”.


”It’s ok”. Lossenatar was really shocked by Numundo’s sudden attack but it was too dangerous to start quarrelling now.


Firithhyando stood on the edge of the tower looking down, through it all. ”I feel danger”.


Numundo didn’t notice that and said, ”I’m going for blood, those humans will pay”.


”Don’t. King Yulnagar will be angry”, the eldest answered.


”Like I care? It’s Yulnagar’s fault, it’s all the same to me what he thinks about this”. With that Numundo jumped off the edge.


A lone bat flew through the city, only the eye of a Vampire could notice it.

-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-

The night wasn’t a pieceful one. Not only the Vampires didn’t sleep. Mac was tossing his knife around nervously. Glirdan was trying to make himself a bow, without much success. Legate was more lucky, he found a strong stick that he could use as a staff and was now carving on it in his thoughts. Sleepy slept: he was terribly tired.


But one woman was an exception. Brinniel was sulking in the corner of her room. There was probably nothing left that she hadn’t cursed that night. ”Why do I of all the people have to be here!” She tore at her hair and kicked a chair that stood perfectly innocently beside her corner. ”Aargh!”


Then as Brinniel stood up to look for something sharp, she noticed a piece of paper and a quill lying beside the door. She looked at it, and it looked back. Brinniel tried but couldn’t resist, she grabbed the quill and the empty piece of paper. Then she noticed the problem that floated in her room: there was no ink!


Brinniel cursed and was starting to rip the paper, when all of a sudden she heard a voice. The voice, oh, it was so beautiful! Brinniel heard words come to her from inside her own head. Words of poetry, just as beautiful as the voice. A glint of madness would have been seen in Brinniel eyes if somebody were there to see.


The girl held the quill in her shaking hand and slowly stuck it deep into her other hand. Blood started flowing. And Brinniel wrote words never written before. She wrote, and wrote, and wrote... She felt dizzy, but the voice in her head continued and Brinniel couldn’t stop now.


Unfortunately, she did, but not because she wanted to.


Behind the door to her room Numundo laughed and was gone.

-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-

The great clock struck.


As the crowd quietly gathered around the big square, the Oracle in Enohl’s body walked out from a house opposite the clock. He walked past Morgan and stood in the middle of the square.


”You have made a decision and I will honor it.


”Bravely this hidden eye told our truth, and now our truth remains.”


At that a gasp of terror was heared from beside Shasta.


An artificial scream of joy followed, ”Ribbits! It’s you! I thought you were lost”. Celuien pointed one way and ran the oppisite.


This caused a commotion. Aganzir bumped into Roa, Menel bumped into Diamond and many other collisions accured. Finally Gil got out of the crowd and started searching for Celuien. No sign of her could be found.


A lot of cursing followed and that was the moment when the absence of Brinniel was noted. Some screaming followed the cursing.

-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-

Having had a good sleep, Sleepy was the first to run to Brinniel’s house. Roa and Morgan followed Sleepy.


Brinniel’s house was locked. Sleepy tried bashing through, but only got a cut on his arm. While Roa was tending Sleepy’s arm, Morgan headed back to the square and soon returned with Esspiem. Esspiem looked at the lock, took a nail from his pocket, stuck it into the lock, twisted the nail and opened the door.


Sleepy, Roa and Morgan looked at each other and agreed that it would havee been better that Essipiem hadn’t opened the door.


The view was ghastly. All the things were tossed around and nearly all the furniture broken. Brinniel was sitting at the table, but clearly and sadly not too alive. She was paler than usually, which would have been the most shocking thing if not for the fact that Brinniel’s left hand was all red and there was a large puddle of blood below her chair.


She was dead. And so was her art. The piece of paper had blood all over it, only a small corner was readable.


"The gates crash down

The blood runs through

The veins are open
And now the world... is broken"


At that the four dizzy persons left the room.

-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-

Sleepy, Roa, Morgan and Esspiem returned the square and Roa told what they saw.


And then Celuien walked back from the darkness, slowly and calmly, with a smile.


”Get her!” shouted Menel.


”No. Let her come”, said the Oracle and Menel was ignored.


Celuien walked with her hands holding something near her heart. She continued mumbling, ”Ribbits... Oh, Ribbits. How scared I was when I couldn’t find you. I am so so happy that you came back”.


It didn’t help Esspiem when he saw that Celuien was in fact not holding a frog in her hands and chanted to thin air. He looked at the Oracle and back at Celuien, deciding to back out a bit.


The Oracle walked to Celuien and spoke, ”Your time is over, you have been chosen to die”. Enohl’s body put a hand on Celuien’s head.


What happened next was the most dreadful thing any of the people around had ever seen. Celuien fell into pieces. Her hands came off, her legs came off, bones cracked and broke. With a snap her head came off... After that everybody’s eyes were closed and nobody knew what happened, except that whatever happened, happened very loudly and the imagination replaced facts.


The noise calmed.


A while lasted.


Rikae risked her health and opened her eyes. What she saw not only suprised her even more but probably damaged her mental health, not that it wasn’t a pretty sight. But knowing what the beautiful, or at least artistic, chair the Oracle was sitting on had been a moment ago did make it an ugly situation.


The ugly situation continued being ugly.


Finally since the Oracle didn’t say anything, Glirdan asked, ”Umm... W..w...was she the V..Vampire?”


”No!”

-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-

The living:


Gil-Galad (Gil)

The Saucepan Man (Esspiem/SPM)

Rikae

Boromir88 (Boro)

Nogrod

Eomer of the Rohirrim (Eomer)

Thinlómien (Lomiella/Lommy)

Legate of Amon Lanc (Legate)

Aganzir

Meneltarmacil (Menel)

Xyzzy

Roa_Aoife (Roa)

Macalaure (Mac)

Diamond18 (Di)

Shastanis Althreduin (Shasta)

Kitanna

Sleepy Ranger (Sleepy)

Durelin

Glirdan (Glirdy)

Rune Son of Bjarne (Rune)

The Sixth Wizard (Morgan/Sixth)


The dead:


Celuien (Cel) – Turned into a chair by the Oracle after being voted out on Day 1. Innocent.

Brinniel – Possessed by the Vampires to write poetry with her own blood on Night 2. Innocent.



DAY 1

All votes should still be sent to the gmail address, or PMed to me if you've cleared that with Volo.

You may now start talking.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Shasta shook his head. "So both were innocent... As lovely... er... artistic as that chair is, looking at it does nothing for my mental health." He turned away, shuddering.

"Brinniel wasn't mentioned a lot yesterday, was she? I'm going to hold my vote for now, until we've heard any new evidence that might have surfaced during the night."

[Gil-Galad]

No Brinniel wasn't mentioned that much last day, the vampires must be playing it safe... we should look at who was under speculation last day, for one of them might be the vampire and with the brinniel-kill they played it safe...

much to do today... and i've been thinking too hard already...

[Gil-Galad]

Finally Gil got out of the crowd and started searching for Celuien. No sign of her could be found.

i must say my apologies to Cel for this part, i hope i didn't make you blush...


OOC: its probably just chance my name was put there, but why was i (a male) the one to searh cel (a female)?

[Shastanis Althreduin]

"Well, I'm not exactly sure how this will help, but if I recall correctly, the people under suspicion were Rikae, Gil-Galad, Esspiem, and to a lesser extent, Meneltarmacil, Nogrod, and Sixth. Of course, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!" Shasta caroled, running off to find something to eat. Maybe there was some preserved food in the kitchen of the big house, as he'd taken to calling it.

[Gil-Galad]

Originally Posted by Shastanis Althreduin

"Well, I'm not exactly sure how this will help, but if I recall correctly, the people under suspicion were Rikae, Gil-Galad, Esspiem, and to a lesser extent, Meneltarmacil, Nogrod, and Sixth. Of course, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!" Shasta caroled, running off to find something to eat. Maybe there was some preserved food in the kitchen of the big house, as he'd taken to calling it.

i remember only being under suspicion of Rikae, but that quieted down after Esspiem decided to talk about rikae more... and Legate has been receiving suspicion too...

but besides that peoples suspicion were not as cornered as you put it Shasta, as the days go by, it will be narrowed down.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Well, yesterday's events were a lot more unhellpful than they could have been? Why were votes not made public?

But, er, I mean, isn't all this fear and trepidation frightfully wondrous?

A dark mind, I may have (my parents certainly thought as much), but I can still be an asset to this village.

I was the lynch seer.

I couldn't actually figure out the riddle I received last night, but I felt confident enough that it was Celuien, because the person to be killed received 5 votes; and I already saw that Celuien had 4 public votes, more than anyone else.

I chose not to post the riddle because, obviously, I suspected Celuien of being a wolf. Waking to find her innocent, I see that any kill she would have made would have been in good faith. My apologies, to you Celuien.

So: any thoughts?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Wolf? Er...vampire.

What's a wolf anyway...

[The Saucepan Man]

First, at the risk of being accused of being overly defensive ( ), a few points in response to some of the comments made about me yesterDay.

It was said (primarily by Rikae and Nogrod) that my opening words (about the less developed characters always being the ones to be picked off first) came across as defensive and Nogrod also commented on my reference to my sharp wits. I can, however, assure you that those opening words of mine were almost entirely fluff - an attempt at humour (based on horror film cliché) and in-character banter based on my stated character traits.

I was also accused of being overly defensive in my response to Rikae’s suspicion of me. This concerns post #17 in which, knowing that I would not have an opportunity to post much more of substance before the end of the Day, I summarised my thoughts on those who had spoken thus far, based on what they had said. Since Rikae had done little other than accuse me for my opening words at that stage, there was little else to say about her other than in connection with that.

Now, my vote for Kitanna. Unfortunately, as I had anticipated, I returned from searching this place less than an hour before sundown. I reviewed the Day’s events as best I could, but only had time to skim read much of it. When I read them, Kitanna’s confused words concerning the possibility of Vampire Gifteds being able to vote struck me immediately as suspicious. She was either genuinely confused or else a Vampire bluffing so as to give the impression that she couldn’t possibly be a Vampire. Since Kitanna generally knows what’s what and her ancestors have had much experience of Werewolves and the like, the latter struck me as a distinct possibility. I did see that these words of hers generated much debate and actually led the village to be more distrustful of those who accused her on this basis than Kitanna herself. I nevertheless thought it the most suspicious thing that I had seen and so cast my vote for her. I still regard her as a possible fanged wee beastie.

However, when I reviewed the Day’s events in more detail later a few things struck me about Rikae. My original impression was that her behaviour was far too attention grabbing to be Vampiric. However, some points of detail gave me cause to reconsider.

First, her denial of having accused anyone on the basis of in-character banter was in my view somewhat misleading. Not, as Nogrod thought, because of her playful “accusation” of Mac, but because she had expressed suspicion of me based on my opening banter.

Secondly, and of greater concern to me, is her involvement in the Kitanna affair. When Eomer laid his apparent trap with his accusation of Kitanna, she said:

Originally Posted by Rikae

I think Eomer has a good point about Kitanna. I can't quite believe she would honestly make the mistake of thinking the gifteds were on the vampires' side. I would be interested in hearing more from her.

This brought her under suspicion for having jumped on Eomer’s unspecified accusation (and thereby fallen into his trap). In response to that suspicion, she said:

Originally Posted by Rikae

I should have said Celuien had a good point.

Yet Celuien only picked up on the Kitanna thing after Rikae had already done so. So how could Rikae have been responding to Celuien’s point when Celuien had not even made her point at that stage? Now, Rikae would have known that it was not Celuien’s contribution that prompted her accusation of Kitanna and, if innocent, would surely not have lied about this. It looks to me distinctly like a Vampiric slip.

But can both Kitanna and Rikae be Vampires? Would Rikae have jumped so enthusiastically on an acccusation of a fellow Vampire? I do not discount the possibility, especially as Rikae “laid her cards on the table” shortly thereafter and said that she was leaning towards giving Kitanna the benefit of the doubt. I am, however, currently more concerned about Rikae than Kitanna.

Finally, in this lengthy discourse, some comments on the “voting”. The stated votes were as follows:

Celuien: Kitanna (Kitanna 1)
Menel: Rikae (Kitanna 1, Rikae 1)
Sixth: Gil (Kitanna 1, Rikae 1, Gil 1)
Gil: Rikae (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1)
Legate: Sixth (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1, Sixth 1)
Rune: Menel (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 1)
Rikae: Menel (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2)
Boro: Legate (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 1)
Lomiella: Celuien (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 1, Celuien 1)
Eomer: Celuien (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 1, Celuien 2)
Roa: Celuien (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 1, Celuien 3)
Aganzir: Celuien (Kitanna 1, Rikae 2, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 1, Celuien 4)
Brinniel: Rikae (Kitanna 1, Rikae 3, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 1, Celuien 4)
Nogrod: Legate (Kitanna 1, Rikae 3, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 2, Celuien 4)
SPM: Kitanna (Kitanna 2, Rikae 3, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 2, Celuien 4)

No vote stated: Xyzzy, Mac, Di, Shasta, Kitanna, Sleepy, Durelin, Glirdy

At least four of those who stated no vote are innocent. I would therefore ask all of those who did not state a vote here yesterDay to state now whether they submitted a vote to the Oracle or not and, if so, what it was (it would have been helpful to do this before Eomer revealed the number of votes actually cast for Celuien, but you can’t have everything ). I would also ask those who expressed no view on the proposal to state votes here (Xyzzy, Shasta, Sleepy, Durelin and Glirdy) to say now whether they support it or not and to confirm that they will state their votes here in the future. And, as for those who opposed the idea (Di and Kitanna), I would ask them to explain how on earth they consider it to be in the village’s interests not to state their votes.

Now, some thoughts on the “voting”. Given that (assuming that the Lynch Seer survives the Night and is innocent) the number of votes cast for the lynchee will be known, I would expect Vampires to avoid “voting” for someone who looks likely to be lynched. This, to my mind, speaks in favour of those who “voted” for Celuien, since she looked quite likely to be lynched even before the “votes” for her were posted, namely Lomiella, Eomer, Roa and Aganzir. It also speaks slightly in favour of those who “voted” for Rikae at a time when it looked quite possible that she might be lynched, namely Gil (and Brinniel, but she’s now dead). It is also fair to say that Rikae’s “vote” for Menel, putting him equal with her on two “votes”, might be regarded as risky for a Vampire, though my current suspicion of her outweighs this.

The most suspicious “votes” (other than the “no votes”) are surely those cast for people who looked very unlikely to be lynched at the time that they were “cast”, namely those stated by Legate, Nogrod and (erm) me.

I’m off to consider the significance of last Night's events. More shortly.

[Thinlómien]

Lomiella enters, her big eyes wet with tears. "Cel and Brinn are dead...?" she sobs and searches her pockets for a handkerchief. "Oh, I always was too emotional", she says, drying her face. "Now we must be rational and start discussing. I gues it's no use moruning the dead since those horrid beasts are still among us." She casts a wary glance around the cave.

Yesterday was a sort of fiasco. The village can only win if the villagers co-operate and that certainly did not happen yesterDay. Please people, tell me what was wrong with Sauce's plan?

Anyway, I've decided to quickly check through Brinn's posts. Results here soon.

edit: xed with the second posts of both Shasta and Gil

[Boromir88]

the people under suspicion were Rikae, Gil-Galad, Esspiem, and to a lesser extent, Meneltarmacil, Nogrod, and Sixth.~Shastanis

I find this quite odd...considering it's a bit off.

Where is Kitanna in that list? She was one of the people who was most suspected. And why is Esspiem in that top list? Sure, some found his defense a bit too overly-defensive, but no one was acting as if they were prepared to vote for him. What about Legate as well? Besides myself I saw some people rumbling about Legate's 'awkwardness.' You will see myself, Nogrod, Mac, Roa, and Brinniel all to some degree express worry about Legate.

I find this odd, because it is rather skewed as far as what happened yesterday. Are you coming in here in the morning and trying to direct who gets under suspicion today? Or did you not carefully read what took place yesterday?

Edit: x-ed with Gil and Eomer

[Gil-Galad]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

I find this quite odd...considering it's a bit off.

Where is Kitanna in that list? She was one of the people who was most suspected. And why is Esspiem in that top list? Sure, some found his defense a bit too overly-defensive, but no one was acting as if they were prepared to vote for him. What about Legate as well? Besides myself I saw some people rumbling about Legate's 'awkwardness.' You will see myself, Nogrod, Mac, Roa, and Brinniel all to some degree express worry about Legate.

I find this odd, because it is rather skewed as far as what happened yesterday. Are you coming in here in the morning and trying to direct who gets under suspicion today? Or did you not carefully read what took place yesterday?

Edit: x-ed with Gil and Eomer

exactly what i partially said in my previous post... so i say that Shasta's list not be followed because of its un-truthful-ness (i'm totally lost for words...)

[Aganzir]

I don't have much time now, as I'm at my friend's place, and this will be my only post for at least some hours. I will speak shortly.

Originally Posted by Eomer

I couldn't actually figure out the riddle I received last night, but I felt confident enough that it was Celuien, because the person to be killed received 5 votes; and I already saw that Celuien had 4 public votes, more than anyone else.

This leaves us with the question who is the fifth person (or the fourth and the fifth, in case one of us who voted for Celuien in public was a Vampire - yet at the moment I'm not inclined to think this would be probable.). However, I don't think how clever it would be if the fifth person(s) came out from the closet and said "hi, it's me, I voted for Celuien", as this would be quite an easy way for a Vampire to make him/herself seem innocent.
It would make things much easier if all were ready to tell their votes in public.

I don't have the time now, but when I'll be back, I will go through the thread and check if anyone else than us (who voted for Celuien) would have been seemingly ready to vote for her; if anyone hasn't already done that before I come back.