Admin Thread for Tol-in-Gaurhoth XVIII: The Cottage of Lost Play

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Hakon

Inziladun congrats on being the only wolf who fooled me till your death in the game.

Too bad I couldn't fool Nerwen.
But thanks for the compliment! And you also, Eönwë!

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Shastanis Althreduin

No, Nogrod. I mean all that about "I voted Shasta because he wasn't participating as much as Inzil was", when the moddess's clear secondary goal was to tell a story. I don't care about accusations made against my role - that's part of the game. What I'm not okay with are implied slurs against my actual person.

Look, it wasn't really you, Shasta: Zil did a rather brilliant job of framing you.

[Lalaith]

Hapless wolf? You won.

I was referring to the DW game which Nogrod modded and Rikae, as EW, turned me evil at the last minute. I managed to blunder from a situation where I was most trusted player, to getting myself lynched, in the course of just two Days.

[Lalaith]

If anyone's interested. I don't have the PMs from Nights one and two, but have tried to paraphrase them from memory. Much of this is, for obvious reasons, just my own thoughts to myself.

Night one…we three PM. Sadly I didn’t keep any PMs but maybe someone else did…anyway we chat a bit and Fea warns us that (I think I have the phrasing right) “a skinny piece of lynchbait” like her good self should be left alone by the rest of us.
Day one – I am convinced Boro is the Seer. Why? He refers obliquely to the werePenguin game, where I was the Seer who dreamt of him as a wolf the first night. I thought he was hinting that the roles were now reversed, that he had dreamt of me. Got me very worried.
I am enjoying Fea’s inner monologue and Inzil’s reasonable helpfulness. Inzil goes for McCaber and Fea for Nessa ..when Fea starts picking up a couple of votes, I am not unduly worried for her…there are after all lots more people to vote and remembering her warning I chuck Shasta into the mix as a distraction thinking it might spread things even more. Then McCaber reveals (NEVER suspected you were the Seer so well done there) and I realise Fea is a goner anyway.

Night two…Inzil and I talk, mainly about who to kill the next day. We are sad to lose Fea but pleased that Inzil forced the Seer to reveal…We assume the Ranger will protect McCaber so we decide on Boro, mainly through my instigation – Inzil suggests Nogrod I think. Both feared players. Inzil is worried that killing Boro will implicate him, perhaps in retrospect he was right. I was really not expecting Inzil to be in danger that Day…as far as I could see he was playing really well. Our secondary kill motives were to find the Ranger and also kill the subject of McCaber’s dream.
Day Two
I was only around for half of it and focused on analysing Fea (a safe task since she had cleverly left no trails) and picking up on the Pitchwife/Eonwe interaction – which I truthfully didn’t understand at the time but now has an explanation – all is clear! I would have tried to save Inzil in the triple lynch chaos, had there been time. Inzil I know from post-game PMs was sad to die but pleased that he took the Ranger down with him. I was dismayed that my last brave pack-mate died, but very pleased that the Ranger was taken out…that pesky Ranger was my downfall last time I had to play lone wolf.
Night Three
Well this was a no-brainer...and luckily the Ranger was dead even if he had pulled a double-bluff and not protected McCaber the previous Night.
Day Three.
This I think was my favourite day, even though RL took me away again for half the Day – I enjoyed the virtual Friday night Mojito session with Nogrod, and the way that everyone was so willing to narrow suspects down to three. I never expected Nogrod to pull a triple lynch though, my jaw dropped when I saw the thread on my return…
Night Four
Nogrod clearly had to be kept alive after that, I thought he would be seen as suspicious by the other innocent. Nerwen was the most obvious kill to me out of the three remaining innocents – she would automatically have been trusted by the other innocent. Perhaps in retrospect I could have persuaded her to vote Nogrod but it seemed too risky.
Day Four
Well, you all saw what went on. It was horribly nerve-wracking. Rikae and Nogrod were arguing so intensely – with Rikae back up to her full power, it was Greek meets Greek, and I felt totally outclassed. I made myself late for work trying to frame a convincing case against Nogrod and frankly failing. I didn’t think I could win, even when Rikae said she was going to vote for Nogrod. Then about an hour before DL I had a family visitor and had to vote…although frankly I was ready to go for it anyway, just to put myself out of my misery.
Thanks again for a great game, Mnemosyne and Sally - a brilliant 'murder mystery' concept and it was good to get a rare chance to play...

[Nessa Telrunya]

It was a great game everyone! As a first-timer, I was a little nervous, but I think I"m hooked now.

[Mnemosyne]

If I put it here I'll feel better about revising the actual one tomorrow.


"I can't believe it was so obvious," said Rikae. "You've been behind everything, haven't you? Always trying to take charge of the situation. Eönwë didn't let that first triple-kill happen on purpose. You did."

"And gunning after poor Shasta like that!" said Lalaith. "I'd say your plans have gone wrong, only I don't think that's the case, is it, Nog? I'd say they're right on schedule."

The two women looked at each other.

"We don't have to just kill you, you know," said Lalaith. "If you could admit to it first..."

"What is there to admit?" said Nogrod. "I may be a fool, but I'm not evil! It's one of you!"

"Please," said Rikae. "If you let us know it'll make us feel a lot better about doing this."

"One of you," said Nog, "one of you is dooming yourself with this."

"On the contrary," said Rikae, "I think we're saving ourselves."

"Tell us," said Lalaith. She put one of his eyes out.

"What are you doing?" said Rikae. Lalaith shook her head, closing her eyes to let the tears out. There was blood on her hand. "He isn't putting up a fight. He won't. He thinks he'll be able to strike at our conscience that way, by not fighting. But if he's hurt, he'll get angry, transform--we can fight him, and he'll already be weakened that way." She looked down at Nogrod, who was clutching at his eye. She put the other one out.

"Why isn't he fighting back yet?" said Rikae.

"I don't know. Help me."

"How?"

"The hand."

Rikae picked up a nearby knife and cut it off. "He's still not doing anything! Why isn't he doing anything?" She cut off his other hand.

"Not... me..." Nogrod gasped.

"Liar!" said Lalaith. She cut off a foot.

"I'm telling you," said Nogrod.

"Liar!" She cut off the other foot.

"...What if he isn't?" said Rikae.

"He has to be. He's the last wolf!" Lalaith paused. "And if he isn't, then we've--I've--just done a foolish thing. We may as well put him out of his misery." She handed the knife hilt to Rikae. Their bloodstained hands met, and together they plunged the hilt into Nogrod's neck and severed his head. Panting, they backed away from the scene of terror.

"He hasn't transformed," said Lalaith.

"Maybe he didn't have time? Have you checked the door?"

They ran down and tried to open it; it was still locked.

"I can't believe it," said Rikae. "He was just a fool--an innocent fool. Which means the last werewolf..."

"...is one of us..."

Lalaith and Rikae stared at one another, each too nervous to take her eyes off the other's face.

[Mnemosyne]

"It's her," said Nogrod. "It has to be her."

Lalaith licked her lips and nodded. "Right. I don't think those helpful trees are going to come back, so..."

"Yeah."

"We'll do it together."

"Please," said Rikae, "it wasn't me! This is it--kill me and the wolves will win!"

"I don't think so," said Lalaith. "Hmm, do you think we could find the Sammath Naur from here?"

"That sounds like a good idea," said Nogrod. "At Mount Doom doom will fall." Binding Rikae's hands behind her, they began to walk through the house, hoping to find a suitable place of execution.

"I think I see it up ahead!" said Nogrod.

"No!" cried Rikae. Twisting out of Lalaith's grasp, she began to run toward the forest nearby.

"Stop her!" yelled Lalaith.

In a fluid motion Nogrod picked up a spear that was lying at the wayside and hurled it at her. Just as Rikae turned to look back, it struck her and pinned her to a tree. She looked down in shock at the blood that bloomed out from the wound. "Tell Macalaurë that Rikae is here," she said before she died.

"She didn't transform," said Lalaith.

"She must not have been the last wolf!" said Nogrod.

"So the last one must be one of us..."

Nogrod and Lalaith stared at one another, each too nervous to look away from the other's face.

[Mnemosyne]

"All right," said Nogrod. "Lal's the last wolf. Let's do this."

"Really," said Rikae, "I don't know how I feel about that. All this killing at close quarters..."

"Well, I doubt the trees are coming back. But we should be able to find some fairly humane way."

"Gondolin?" said Rikae. "She is a traitor..."

"No, she isn't," said Nogrod. "She was just cursed to be on the wrong side. Let's find Gondolin."

"What if I don't want to go to Gondolin?" said Lalaith. "What if I'm actually innocent and my death dooms you?"

"Are you?" said Rikae.

"Yes!"

"Well," said Nogrod heavily, "if your death dooms us, then so be it."

"All right," said Lalaith. "As long as you know what you're in for. Do I get a last drink?"

Nog smiled. "I'm sure I'll find you something..."

The ascent to Gondolin was difficult, but in the end they found a suitable place for execution. "Right," said Rikae. "Now, if we can manage to fling her so that her head strikes first--"

"I beg your pardon!" said Lalaith. "I am still alive at this point, I'll have you know. Cast me off any way you like."

"As you wish," said Nogrod, and they flung her over the side. Her body struck the cliff three times as it fell.

Rikae peered down after her. "Poor thing," she said. "Wait... she never transformed!"

"She must not have been the last wolf!" said Nogrod.

"So the last one must be one of us..."

Nogrod and Rikae stared at one another, each too nervous to look away from the other's face.



Afterwards I think I was planning on Lal climbing back up the cliff and there being another last-minute showdown before Measse zapped her with a bolt of divine lightning so that the rules of the game would be fulfilled. But it did not quite get there, did it?

[Nogrod]

Nice narrations!

But as echoing slightly some things Rikae and Boro have said already, I think there is a problem in early written narrations. And that is not a problem of quality of writing but how it relates to what happened in the game.

At least to me it is always fun to read narations that actually mirror things that happened during the Day and how people actually related to each other in the game - and when I mod a game myself I try to stick as closely I can to real suspicions and votes - and the ways they were made. So if someone is reluctant to kill someone that will be shown in the narration; or when certain people vote for the succesful lynch they are also the ones to do it in the narration etc.

To me, it's kind of mod's skill-requirement to catch the air of the Day and to turn it into a narrative - which of course shouldn't reveal anything.

But I know some others have differing views about the matter. Why not make a few comments on the issue here now as it has been brought forwards?