Werewolf XXXII: The Lost Age

[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.