WW LX - Mortal Men, doomed to die

[Thinlómien]

The wind and rain of the stormy night could not reach the tower chamber, but the darkness, it was present everywhere, it was not blocked by the closed window or by the curtains drawn over it. Lady Lómiel Starbrow was sitting by her desk, white wax candles in elaborately decorated candlesticks as her only defence against the ever-growing darkness. Beautiful, strongly drawn characters appeared on the page in a quick pace as she wrote the name of the recipient and then continued:

I call upon you in the direst need and with the utmost confidence. A darkness is gathering on our continent and the winds of change are on Númenór. Things are changing and there are alliances to be made. Now is the time to decide what we want and estimate what threatens us. Therefore, I invite you to a secret council on the uninhabited island called the Isle of the Dead, owned by my family. The council is held on the first day of the upcoming year. Apart from you, nineteen other persons of great importance have also been invited. Do not bring your own servants or guards with you to the island. I swear in the name of both the Valar and the Dark that I will not bring any either, except for the old mute housekeeper who lives on the island. I know you understand this rather extreme safety measure, but otherwise secrecy cannot be maintained and no trust can be created. Yours in haste,

She paused, gritted her teeth, then left a blank space and finished

Lord Thinroz Whiteblade

She took the letter and put it to the pile of nineteen other letters, identical except for the name of the recipient. She took all of them, blew the candles and hurried down to the main hall. She found her father sitting on his high marble chair. He was half asleep, head bowed and his face buried in the long white beard. Lómiel walked to him and asked, softly: “Father?”

“Lommy?” the old man asked, his eyes suddenly wide open. He looked around, looking lost.
“Yes it’s me,” his daughter said softly. “I have brought the letters for you to sign.”
He furrowed his brow. “Letters?” he asked weakly.
“Yes, father. The invitations for the Númenórean, Haradian, Corsair and Variag lords. About the council.”
“Oh… yes…” he nodded, looking to the distance. “Good that you wrote them. Now off you go, you can go back to play with your dolls. I will sit here yet for a while.”
“Father,” Lómiel said. “I asked you to sign them.”
She handed him the parchments and a quill dipped in ink, and he signed slowly and with a wavering hand. She waited patiently, then gathered all the letters again. “Thank you,” she said, planting a kiss on his brow and hastened away.

Lord Thinroz Whiteblade remained on his high chair, gazing to the distance with clouded eyes. “Bring him a blanket,” Lady Lómiel ordered and hurried to find the trusted messengers handpicked for this occasion. She gave each of them one of the letters and the instructions how to get to their destinations.

She remained by the doorstep, watching them go. It was still two months until the set date, two months of uncertainty and expectation. And the night was still growing darker and her cloak could not protect her from the cold the darkness brought with it.

[Thinlómien]

Roles:
4 ringwraiths (werewolves) – each Night they may PM each other, decide whom they’d like to kill and PM me the name. They win when their number equals the number of the innocent.
Seer – each Night PMs me with a name of a villager and I will reveal the role of the named villager to her.
Ranger – each Night can protect one villager from the ringwraiths’ kill. Cannot protect the same person two in two consecutive Nights and cannot protect herself.
Hunter – each Night and Day sends me a hunting pick. If she dies at Night, her pick will go down with her if he’s a ringwraith. If she dies by lynch, she will take her picked person with her regardless of his role. She does not have to send me a new pick every Day/Night but she has a right to do so.
Ordinary villagers – try to lynch ringwraiths during the Days and are used as cannon fodder by both sides.

Miscellaneous rules:
- no double lynches
- no retractable votes
- the deadline is 8.00pm GMT, votes timestamped after the deadline do not count
- in the case of a tie, the mod flips a coin (or actually, rolls the dice since she can’t flip a coin) to decide who dies
- you can’t use PMs etc as evidence and while alive, you are not allowed to talk about the game with dead or living players outside the game (game thread and ringwraith PMs). Dead people do not post on the game thread or the admin thread or talk with living players.
- don’t edit anything except typos etc on your posts, be on the invisible mode, remember ++ and bolding when voting and all that la di dah…
- there are no clues in the narrations: ringwraiths are always referred to as “he” and if gifteds are mentioned anonymously, they are referred to as “she” (and I warn you, if I accidentally write “he” for a gifted it’s most probably a typo since I’m gifted at making those as you might have noticed…)

~*~

The players

Kath
Nienna - pirate
Kent2010 - Black Númenórean scam artist
Legate of Amon Lanc - rebelling Haradian King
Nogrod - Corsair Captain "The Cat O' Nine tails of Ethir Anduin"
Shastanis Althreduin - King of the Sea
Isabellkya
wilwarin538 - sorceress
Nerwen - Queen of the Sea
Nilpaurion Felagund - fussy courtier
Rune Son of Bjarne - Tivo the Sorceror
Lhunardawen - rebelling Haradian Queen
Eomer of the Rohirrim
Groin Redbeard - Variag Warlord of Khand
satansaloser2005
Eönwë
Brinniel

~*~

PLEASE DON’T POST ANYTHING ON THIS THREAD YET. Use the admin thread.

The game starts on May 1st 8pm GMT. Sign up is open all the way up until that.

[Thinlómien]

Night1 has now begun.

Sign up is closed and I will start sending out the roles now.

As soon as they know who they are, the ringwraiths may start plotting with each other and the seer may send me a pick.

Thread still closed to posting.

~*~

The guests arrived, mostly one by one, although there was two married couples among the invited as well. Seventeen of the twenty invited appeared, which Lady Lómiel considered a personal victory. She and her father had walked the way to the pier to welcome the guests who were eyeing around suspiciously, clearly expecting a trap from their hosts or fellow guests. But there was none; the bare rocky island made it clear there were no hidden soldiers around and all of the guests came alone, unattended and unguarded.

“I am glad so many of you have arrived,” Lord Thinroz said to his guests. “I am… I am… delighted.” His eyes wandered to the sea, very grey and restless tonight.
“We welcome you to our humble villa, not an ideal place for such noble people as us, but it suits the purpose of a secret council,” Lady Lómiel put in. “Let us go in now, it is needless to tarry here in the cold wind as we can as well make ourselves comfortable inside.”
Captain Nogrod, also known as The Cat O' Nine tails of Ethir Anduin let out a laugh and said: “Ha! Cold wind? This wind is no cold wind at all. Do you want to know what is a cold wind? It really tears the flesh from your bones, like in the far seas where I…”
“The weather may not be coldest imaginable but it is unpleasant enough,” interrupted Lhunardawen, a Haradian queen.
“Yes, let us go in like our hosts suggested,” her husband, King Legate agreed.

So, they all followed their hosts up the stairs on the hillside and to the old, grievous-looking house on the hill. Lady Lómiel showed them their rooms and introduced the housekeeper, a mute old woman who was quickly agreed to be harmless. A little later, all the seventeen guests and Lord Thinroz alongside with his daughter were seated around a round table.

“Lord Thinroz Whiteblade will now introduce the topic of the council,” Lady Lómiel Starbrow announced, casting a meaningful glance at her father.
“Oh yes…” the old man said. “We are here to discuss…”
“With all respect sir, I have a question,” said Lady Isabellkya. “Why is your daughter attending the council? We were not supposed to bring anyone with us, and neither were you.”
“Besides she is known as an Elf-friend!” spat Groin, a Variag warlord.
Lady Lómiel laughed. “Yes, indeed, they even say I’ve had an Elf as a lover. Do you truly believe everything you hear?” She paused. “My father only promised to bring no servants or guards. I am neither. You don’t need to be worried by my presence. I will see that the housekeeper does her duties and act as a secretary of the meeting.”
There were a few grumblings, but no one protested aloud anymore. So, the hosts introduced the topic and the nineteen of them started debating the matter of the East. There were no conclusions reached and they went to sleep undecided and discontent.

After a few hours had passed, four of the guests emerged from their rooms and gathered to an old tearoom to have a private negotiation...

[Thinlómien]

Moonlight came to the salon through a high window. If someone had been there to see the four cloaked figures, he’d have wondered at how they looked. Very human, but slightly transparent and there was a darkness around them.

“Well met, friends,” the tallest of them said. “I guess you all know what we’re here for.”
“Yes…” hissed another. “We are here for this.” He drew a long, faintly glowing blade from its sheath.
The one whose cloak was lighter than the others’ laughed. “Yes, that is what he asked us to do. Get rid of these people before they pose a threat to him.”
“Or to us,” added the fourth, whose hands looked unnaturally thin and pale in the light of the moon and the stars.
“So, who do you reckon we should kill first? Who is the one who causes the most harm?” the first speaker asked.
“Lómiel Starbrow,” he with the pale hands replied immediately.
“The woman who manages the household and makes notes about our meetings?” the one who had drawn his sword asked in disbelief.
The light-cloak laughed again. “You are truly blind, my friend. Whatever the façade was, she was the one to truly led the council. She led us all as she willed – us kings, sorcerers, warlords and pirates… Don’t underestimate her. She is dangerous for us.”
“Besides, whatever she says, there is the possibility that she has had dealings with Elves, which is most undesirable from our point of view,” the tall one added.
“And if we kill her, her father will be out of the game too… He’s no more than her puppet, whatever they try to make us believe,” the light-cloak grinned.
“You win, you win,” said the swordsman. “Let us go.”

Moving as one, the four stood up and walked out of the room. When they strode through the corridor, there was hardly any sound of footsteps, just the soft rustle of their cloaks. They paused at Lady Lómiel’s doorstep, drew their swords, and entered.

~*~

Meanwhile, three other guests remained awake. They were more careful than the rest. Whatever Lord Thinroz had tried to make them believe, they knew they would not be safe here.

One of them knew evil was afoot, she could feel it in her bones. Therefore she made herself a potion of herbs she had brought with herself and drank it before going to sleep. Before she closed her eyes, she summoned the face of one of the guests to her mind and held to the image. If her potion would work as it should, she would know the alignment of the person she had chosen when she woke up in the morning.

The second one was scouring her sword. She had a bad feeling this would come down to killing people, and she did not want anyone innocent to be killed. She would protect the innocent with her sword, so it would have to look deadly enough to ward off any attacker.

The third one was sharpening her knives. She had not been allowed to take guards, so she would have to take care of herself. She hid the sharpened knives in her clothes and in her bed. If anyone dared to attack her, she would have a knife to stab him with.

~*~

In the morning, the guests were woken by the bewildered housekeeper. She tugged at their clothes and made pleading gestures with her hands. When all the guests had woken up and gathered to the corridor, the housekeeper led them downstairs.

“I wonder what’s up,” the courtier Nilpaurion wondered aloud.
“I demand to know what’s going on!” said Shasta who styled himself The King of Sea.
“Yes, that idiotic housekeeper can’t even talk,” his wife Nerwen agreed.
“I think we…” started Lady Sally, but her comment was cut out by a terrible wail.
“Lord Thinroz…” Nienna whispered.

As if by a common decision, the guests ran down the stairs. In the hall where they had been holding their council, Lady Lómiel was lying on the table. Her face looked pale and the elaborate nightgown she was wearing was all stained with blood. There was a neat cut across her throat, and her right arm was adorned by four ritual cuts. There were four long, slender swords leaning against the table, blood on the blades.

“Lommy… my daughter…” Lord Thinroz sobbed. He was standing by the table, holding his daughter’s unharmed arm. “They feared her, so they killed her.”
“They?” asked Wilwarin, the sorceress.
“The four evil ones,” Lord Thinroz replied, gesturing at the swords, and broke in tears again.
“Well, they were pretty silly to leave the swords here,” said Lady Brinniel and picked all the four blades up. “Confiscate those,” she told the housekeeper.
“And let’s move her, shall we?” asked Rune, also known as Tivo the Sorceror. He waved his hand and the body floated away from the table to a divan far at the other end of the room. Lord Thinroz followed it immediately and sat down on the floor next to the divan. He started crying again.
“Housekeeper!” shouted Lady Kath. “As soon as you are finished with the swords, see to your mistress’s burial.”
“We are busy with other stuff,” Lord Eönwë agreed.
“We need to find out who it was that killed her,” said Eomer who was known for his mysterious experiments with wolves.
“I think we can rule out Lord Thinroz himself and the housekeeper,” the scam artist named Kent said. The others agreed quickly – it seemed unlikely that those two would be involved in a conspiracy like this. But that was no comfort… that still left seventeen options.

~*~

Dead
Lommy (mod) - Lady Lómiel Starbrow, the hostess – killed on Night1

Alive
Kath
Nienna - pirate
Kent2010 - Black Númenórean scam artist
Legate of Amon Lanc - rebelling Haradian King
Nogrod - Corsair Captain "The Cat O' Nine tails of Ethir Anduin"
Shastanis Althreduin - King of the Sea
Isabellkya
wilwarin538 - sorceress
Nerwen - Queen of the Sea
Nilpaurion Felagund - fussy courtier
Rune Son of Bjarne - Tivo the Sorceror
Lhunardawen - rebelling Haradian Queen
Eomer of the Rohirrim
Groin Redbeard - Variag Warlord of Khand
satansaloser2005
Eönwë
Brinniel

Day1 has begun! Everybody, start discussing. Hunter, you may send me your first pick whenever you wish.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I can't say I'm very happy about being forced to spend time with this group. Full of self-important types who couldn't begin to impart upon me knowledge of interesting things, such as Wargs - probably only keen to discuss how large a safe they need for their gold.

I should think, if we are to be slaughtered, that we won't be a great loss.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Ha, and actually somebody has already spoken up! Well, all right...

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

I can't say I'm very happy about being forced to spend time with this group. Full of self-important types who couldn't begin to impart upon me knowledge of interesting things, such as Wargs - probably only keen to discuss how large a safe they need for their gold.

I should think, if we are to be slaughtered, that we won't be a great loss.

Certainly your way of thinking is disrespectful at least, though I guess there are more important matters at hand than taking care of the punishment for slander. Nevertheless, I am sure there are more willing to speak... then we may weigh our worthiness.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

What a distasteful deed, truly! The mere thought of this lady's murder in the house of her own poor father is verily freezing my blood. In my lands, those who have done something like that would have been punished in the most severe way.

But I think there is no need to truly execute such a punishment, when it comes to that... that's our purpose now, I guess.

To start, I know some of you from before - some of you I have met in courts of faraway places, or even on battlefields, either by my side or even against me - but there are quite many of you whom I know very little or not at all. Namely, the one pirate, that strange Black Númenorean artist and the sorceress are ones I have not seen before. Well, I guess it does not matter that much now - at least, I might have a kind of "fresh" view of you, unbiased by any previous encounters. And even with the others, actually - it has been a long time since I have traveled to meetings like this, so let us hope that I will be able to use both my experience with you and the rested mind to determine where the hidden killers are.

I guess there is not much to say for the beginning, but I am looking forward to seeing more of you speak, so then... I shall be listening to you now for some time, so hope you will speak up.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Could there be a greater mark of dishonor than killing the hostess? Perhaps maybe their next target will be a mere child!

[satansaloser2005]

Voteses, precious....


Brinn-->Sally at 3:08am
Shasta-->Noggie at 4:14am
Nilp-->Nilp at 7:11am
Rune-->Izzy at 7:42am
Wilwa-->Eomer at 7:52am
Sally-->Noggie at 10:44am
Lhuna-->Legate at 1:12pm
Kent-->Rune at 2:18pm
Nienna-->Sally at 2:24pm
Legate-->Izzy at 2:52pm
Izzy-->Sally at 2:59pm
Kath-->Izzy at 2:59pm
Eomer-->Izzy at 2:59pm
Steve-->Izzy at 3:00pm
Noggie-->Sally at 3:01pm (doesn't count)

GMT-6, deadline of 3pm, innocents and baddies. Enjoy!



And toDay's votes so far. Just so we know where we stand with an hour and a half or so left in the Day.

Nerwen-->Sally at 10:56am
Rune-->Steve at 11:35am
Wilwa-->Eomer at 12:38pm
Brinn-->Eomer at 1:10pm

Which puts Eomer in the lead at two votes, with me and Steve-Oh-Noes at one a piece. 11 votes yet to come in.


I'm off to the doctor's for a bit, but when I get back I'll give you some more thoughts before I head off to nap land. Post lots while I'm gone, dearies!

(And Nilp! Not in public, you silly thing you!)

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

In my previous post I was referring to the first DAY's voting. So clarified, I shall proceed to my actual post.

~*~

Ah, the power of the nebulous . . .

First of all, I sympathise with Nogrod's frustration when he urges others to post, but for a rather more circumspect reason. In Legate's two lists he dismisses more than half of the village as silent; some of his kind might easily be hiding among them.

This is Legate's DAY 1 list. Setting aside the dead, the prophet and Nerwen, and the silent:

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Nienna - despite the first sort of exchange with Nog, I am inclined now to see her behavior as genuine, and not as a particular intention to fly under the radar. Thus, hope to see her posting more in the future: like I said, this far, the picture seems genuine.

. . .

wilwarin538 - the first impression is somewhat positive, I think she is trying to make some input, I only once again hope that there will be more in the future. It is yet quite some time till the end of Day 1, so let's see...

. . .

Rune Son of Bjarne - he actually reminds me of the typical Rune who weighs arguments of everybody... so he makes me feel him as rather innocent.
Lhunardawen - I guess my dear wife should learn her place, but now I would like to see more than one-(or few-)liner input from her.

. . .

satansaloser2005 - this far, she's being more or less like her usual self, though it seems to me a bit defensive with her reaction to Brinn's vote, which was, like Brinn said, random. Well, whatever - let's see what comes in the future.

He is being ambiguous with his statements, but it is merely 14 hours since the opening of the court, so I suppose that would account for some of that.

This is Legate's DAY 2 list. Once again, setting aside the dead, the prophet and Nerwen, and the silent:

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

wilwarin538 - with the recent posting with Eomer and all I am becoming again a bit more confused, so I don't know. Maybe it would do good to look at her in total... or then maybe who knows, as sometimes she seems to me quite hard to get. "Chaotic."

. . .

Rune Son of Bjarne - looks still more or less the same to me, like a good Rune

. . .

satansaloser2005 - posts a bit more scarcely, so it's hard to say now. I would certainly like her to post more: otherwise, just sticking with my feelings from yesterDay.

He says even less about the members of the court, which is a mark of an evil being not wishing to hide in silence, but in the spoken word instead. (Of course, having a silent village does not help. I fear much blood would be shed by the silence ere this court closes.)

I shall continue to examine the archives for more of his statements.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Okay, well, I am here, but I guess this is over for me already - practically everybody voted for me now, and I am not very sure if it can be changed.

That said, I could vote too, although it will be seemingly only symbolical:

++Nogrod

But you all will be doing the same toMorrow just as soon as you see that you lynched an Ordo.

Okay, it is really silly that everybody is so easy to believe Nogrod: I think you should use some thinking of your own and at least ponder the other possibility, but most people (except perhaps for Rune or something) basically appear and dump me immediately. If you act like this, then practically any charismatic enough person could manipulate you folks. Like Brinn said:

Originally Posted by Brinniel

I'm inclined to trust Nogrod, though I still don't really get why he revealed when he did. Was he really that concerned he'd be a potential Night kill? I couldn't see that. Anyway, we'll know the truth soon enough.

Well that's exactly what I am saying, and you will see. What reason did he really have to reveal? Moreover, the fact that he did it by the end of the Day basically prevented any reaction among the people and so everybody went to sleep at Night with the idea of me being a Wraith already there with no contest.

Nogrod's relation to Nerwen should be looked at, too.

Originally Posted by Nilpaurion Felagund

Will we have a DAY where little is done save speculate on Nogrod and Legate, and afterwards voting for Legate? Will this not be an aid to those three others who wish to hide in the shadows? Will we waste a DAY given to us by the One in such manner?

Now that's a good point, yes. But seems nobody did anything much.

And I just hope the real Seer remains alive for some just reasonable amount of time.

[satansaloser2005]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

And I just hope the real Seer remains alive for some just reasonable amount of time.

If I have anything to say about it, they will. And no, that wasn't a ranger hint, so don't even try it. I rather like it when seers stay alive, doncha know. Very handy creatures.


Nice try, Leggie darling, but you're toast. French, erm, Czech Toast.


Let's start discussing who'll be our suspects toMorrow, okay? That way we're more productive than we've been. I like this plan!

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

++Legate

I never liked him anyway. . .

Lommy might have said it was random, but I cannot let the thought go that maybe the special roles where picked after some criteria. Unfortunately I have not been around the werewolf games much or the downs in genneral, so I don't know much about who interacts much or what people have done in ww games.

I could imagine Brinn as a person Lommy would give a special role, maybe Sally as well.

Ok I know this theory has very little merrit, but I just cannot seem to let it go.