Octopus Overlords

Mark wrote:I'm glad the game can get moving, at any rate. The addition of two hidden Betas makes things more interesting - especially since we don't know who we got. For all we know, Chris could have been one of them. Of course, if I were the Alpha using noxiousdog and Grund as my unwitting dupes, this is a really good result for me.*


*Of course I'm human, but at this point in the game there's quite a few people acting strangely, either from habit, deliberate action, or pure stupidity.

The morning cycle should be interesting...

agreed... from all the talk. all the stratagizing.. now we have to figure out who got infected.

Night was a chilly one that descended on the village. Each villager slept an uneasy sleep under a cold moon, thinking of their actions on the green the previous day.

As the sun came up, the villagers gathered again upon the green. Had the vampires left them in peace? It seemed so! Each villager emerged from his home and greeted the others with heartfelt happiness. Had the scourge truly passed?

But all was not as it seemed. One villager remained absent the impromptu morning gathering. The townsfolk approached his house, finding the back door ajar, hanging from a broken hinge. Inside, they found poor Crux, drained white and still as the grave. Around his punctured neck was the hanging strand of garlic he'd bought from a merchant the afternoon before.

"How can this be," gasped a shocked Mr. Bubbles. "He had garlic!"

Grundbegriff snatched the strand of vegetables from around Crux's neck and gave them a good sniffing.

"Onions," he said.

"Fine protection from pleasant breath, but of no use against a vampire."



It is day. Crux is dead, so no explicitly game-related PM's or communication from him going forward in this match. Talk amongst yourselves and choose a victim. There are 13 of you, so 7 votes is majority, and at 11:39 AM Monday, the plurality rule goes into effect!

pr0ner
Mr. Bubbles
Leigh
Varity
J. D.
Kelric
Setaside
Crux MURDERED
noxiousdog
Grundbegriff
Chris Grenard LYNCHED
msteelers
Orinoco
Chaosraven
Mark

Wow. That was completely unexpected!

Poor Crux. We shall remember you.

Wow, I was sure nox was going to get it first after claiming to be a mason. I would not have expected Crux to be next. Good thing Grund is still at large, he'll be a huge help for us, unless he has been notified that he's a beta vamp now.

Let's get lynching! We have a village to save!

Mark wrote:

*Of course I'm human, but at this point in the game there's quite a few people acting strangely, either from habit, deliberate action, or pure stupidity.

And some of us it's all five! Uh, three.

J.D. wrote:Wow, I was sure nox was going to get it first after claiming to be a mason. I would not have expected Crux to be next. Good thing Grund is still at large, he'll be a huge help for us, unless he has been notified that he's a beta vamp now.

Let's get lynching! We have a village to save!

Raises some questions for me...

Are the wolves expecting us to lynch Nox? I mean we came pretty far into the whole Gotta Be A Mason, didn't we?

Of course they let Grund live too.

<Sarah Michelle Gellar Vampires Suck>

I wish.

</Sarah Michelle Gellar Vampires Suck>

Kelric wrote:<Sarah Michelle Gellar Vampires Suck>

I wish.

</Sarah Michelle Gellar Vampires Suck>

is this some sort of confession?
I'd say lynch kelric, but it's gone way beyond cliche

Well, this raises some interesting questions. Noxiousdog claimed that he was a Mason early on. He would be a valuable ally in the later stages of the game, yet he was spared from the vamps. Grund was especially vocal - if he wasn't the Alpha then he is an extremely important asset to the villagers. Yet, the morning shows he lived through the night. Why didn't the vamps go after him?

It could be that the vamps thought that the FVH may want to protect either noxiousdog or Grund, and so went after poor, innocent Crux in order to 'waste' a protection. It could also be noxiousdog and Grund are more than what they claim to be. It could also be sheer coincidence and the luck of the draw.

I am also worried about the lack of input from some of the others. Leigh, Orinoco, Kelric and J.D have skirted around the periphery of this game, and have avoided saying anything controversial. Similarly, J.D seems awfully keen to keep everyone reminded that he is on the good guy's side.

Chaosraven managed to turn votes away from himself (and to be honest, so did I), so in the end poor virginal Chris took a long jump off a short pier. This bandwagon, of course, was started by noxiousdog. My list of suspects consists of the following:

1. Grund. Too clever by half: Everyone wants to be on his side, and his irrefutable logic games are hard to resist. In addition, he threatened (then attempted to bribe) me to reveal the identity of another player.
2. Leigh, Orinoco, Kelric and J.D: Are these guys actually playing the game?
3. Me: let's face it - I was almost at the end of a rope twice (the first time because of my geographic location, the second after Grund attempted to turn the tide against me).
4. Nox? It was a big risk of him to come out and admit he was a Mason, but no one to my knowledge has refuted him. Yet he still lives.
5. Setaside: I'll add him to the list of 'ghost' players with Leigh, Orinoco et al.

Question marks still hang over Chaosraven, Pr0ner, Varity and Mr Bubbles. All of them are playing their cards close to their chest, and aren't revealing much at all.

Hmmm.

Some revelations:

(1: protection)
noxiousdog and I kept the "Please Mr Hunter 'sup on the protection" debate alive so that the Vampire contingent wouldn't know which of us was protected but would reckon it likely that one of us was. Choosing to kill either of us ran a high risk of wasting a kill, so we effectively forced the Vampires' hand. They chose someone else.

Was I protected? Was noxiousdog protected? Was someone else-- say, a Seer, protected, with nox and I serving merely as misdirection? Tune in next week....

(2: choosing Crux)
Trying to cast suspicion on noxiousdog at this juncture would've been too difficult for the Vampires; they know he has played the Mason card just right and now enjoys more trust than anyone, as yesterday's antiGrenardian bandwagon demonstrates. But they could still try to cast suspicion on me, to take me out of the game despite protection. They did this, as I expected, by killing the person against whom I alone voted.

Killing Crux made good sense from their perspective for three reasons: first, because he's a skilled and clever player and therefore posed a threat to them. Second, because killing him casts doubt on me. Third, because Crux had been vote-hopping as if he were playing Frogger, and that made it look like he was hiding something and was perhaps a Special-- the other Mason, a Seer, or perhaps even the FVH. All in all, it was a well-reasoned choice for the Vampire team.

What they don't know or didn't take into account is that noxiousdog's accumulation of trust-me-I'm-a-Mason contacts has made clear to the Village team who the Seers, Masons, and FVH are. My public accusation of Crux was drawn from a small pool of players we know are simple villagers. There was therefore no way for the Vampires to try to frame me and score a major kill.

Rest in peace, Crux. Your taking one for the home team will not be forgotten.

(3: who am I)
It made sense yesterday for me to ambiguate my status. I could reveal that I was neither the Alpha Vampire nor the Hunter without loss. However, I had to leave open the possibility that I was either a simple Villager or a Seer. (You can't lie about being a Mason unless you do it with a partner). That way, if I became a vampire, I'd have an explanation for why the Seer saw me as "more than meets the eye"-- I could claim to be the other Seer, not a Vampire.

I don't need that cover anymore. I'm now scanned and known to be a simple villager. That makes me 100% trustworthy to the Village team.

The village's web of trust consists of noxiousdog, me, Seer1, Seer2, FVH, Mason2, and at least one simple villager. We only need to establish trust in one more person (via Seer scanning) to have a game-winning alliance.

That fact must be demoralizing for the Vampires.

My guess is that the vamps figured that either Nox or Grund would be protected. Why risk the chance of wasting a kill when they could go after somebody they knew wouldn't be protected at all? Especially when that would breed confusion and suspicion.

Hey, Grund? If the seers aren't going to scan me and add me to the village collection, please don't point your voting finger at me..

it's disconcerting to have the bad guys and the good guys following your lead.

What Grund says is correct. Seer #1 verified his innocence.

The only scenario that could make Grund a vampire is if Seer #1 isnt' really a seer, but instead was the alpha, which would be unlikely.

So, if there is a seer who hasn't contacted me, now would still be a good time .

Killing one 'innocent' is enough for me, I'll let someone else take the lead.

Interesting.. but honestly wouldn't have taken much effort to conclude what was said by grund was leading even from teh beginning. But interesting to see the cat and mouse game.

As a side note... Im gonna be gone for the day. Im adding another wrinkle today.

Mr Bubbles wrote: As a side note... Im gonna be gone for the day. Im adding another wrinkle today.

What does that mean?

Leigh wrote:

Mr Bubbles wrote: As a side note... Im gonna be gone for the day. Im adding another wrinkle today.

What does that mean?

It means Im gonna go to a party and sit until I wrinkle myself.

Mr Bubbles wrote:

Leigh wrote: What does that mean?

It means Im gonna go to a party and sit until I wrinkle myself.

Is this a pool party?

Grundbegriff wrote:

Mr Bubbles wrote:

Leigh wrote: What does that mean?

It means Im gonna go to a party and sit until I wrinkle myself.

Is this a pool party?

Yup. Gonna be up to 100 today so perfect pool party weather.

Chaosraven wrote:it's disconcerting to have the bad guys and the good guys following your lead.

Oh, because of course Palpatines trustworthy...

Come on, people - let's get those accusations flying!

Kelric - why are you being so quiet?

Leigh - are you still playing this game?

Chaosraven - you never responded to my PM from over a day ago. What are you hiding?

Mark wrote:Come on, people - let's get those accusations flying!

Kelric - why are you being so quiet?

Leigh - are you still playing this game?

Chaosraven - you never responded to my PM from over a day ago. What are you hiding?

I was hiding today because of Greaserama. I'm back and have finally gotten caught up.

I don't post a lot because a lot of my points are either redundant or not fully thought through which generally makes me post something that gets torn to shreds. I don't like that so I think and rethink a lot of stuff before posting. Quality over quantity and all that.

I will say that I like the way the alliance of villagers seems to be forming. Good news for the village. Trust me, if I hear or see something unusual, I'll call it into question. Until then, I'm content to sit back and read the pros dissect and disseminate.

This is fun.

Analyzing...

Grundbegriff wrote:Analyzing...

That one word never fails to get my attention.

I can actually hear the boops and beeps of old school room-sized Hollywood-prop-type computers while anxiously awaiting the punch card results.

P.S.

Mark wrote:
Come on, people - let's get those accusations flying!

Kelric - why are you being so quiet?

Leigh - are you still playing this game?

Chaosraven - you never responded to my PM from over a day ago. What are you hiding?

Mark is taunting people! He must be a witch! Or at least French.

If you're a Vampire, contact me by PM.

Grundbegriff wrote:If you're a Vampire, contact me by PM.

Grundbegriff wrote:If you're a Vampire, contact me by PM.

I bet your mailbox is full of responses!

I'm glad to see not much happened today while I was gone. I was out of town helping my sister move into her new place at school and wasn't able to check the boards since last night.

While I do agree with the whole "vamps can't kill nox and/or Grund because they may be protected" theory, it still doesn't rule out that one of you isn't a tainted beta vamp (or even worse, the alpha vamp). I have yet to see any hard evidence from either of you other than you're "bickering" and posturing.

I've only received a handful of PMs this game, the most notible one from someone claiming to be the heroic "Vampire Hunter". I'm sure other people have heard from this person as well. I'm curious to see if a) this person is actually the VH and b) if this person also unknowingly told a vamp about his status (as I understand it, the self-proclaimed VH PM'd more than one person).

The big storylines for me tonight as I go to bed are:
1) Nox and Grund: Innocent for real? Or playing the "game"?
2) Heroic vampire hunter: Is the person who claimes to the VH telling the truth? And if so, who else knows and who is this person protecting each round?
3) I have no idea who the seers are, I'm flying blind on this one thus far. For this reason I'm going to wait for some evidence to present itself before voting (although I'm tempted to dive right into my "lynch the quiet people" strategy, there's just too much else going on).

Tactical Notes for Alpha Vampire players:

"Taking initiative" means casting the first vote against someone whose vote tally is now zero.

• Alpha doesn't want to be perceived as going guns out for anyone widely believed to be a trustworthy villager. Anyone who would attack the most non-suspicious player must have an agenda.
• Alpha doesn't want to be perceived as taking initiative too often. Anyone who's itching to drive a stake into the heart of a fellow citizen without probable cause clearly isn't worried about accidentally killing an ally. But everyone knows that Alpha is the only player who already knows who his allies are.
• Alpha wants to vote neither in lockstep nor consistently out of sync with his Chosen Ones. That triadic pattern could come back to bite 'em.
• Alpha wants to vote to kill one of his Chosen, if the vote is safe.
• Alpha prefers to be perceived as a follower of bandwagons most of the time.
• If the Vampiric team can afford the loss, one or two members should vote a third out of the game to establish Village-cred.

So then, the voting patterns of the Chosen Ones tell us nothing at this point, since the Chosen Ones didn't yet know that they were Chosen when the wranglin' took place.

But based on the voting and rescinding behavior thus far and on interactions here and in PM, someone smells Alphy. Who?

triggercut wrote:The idea was always that the FVH could protect one player each day, but once he'd protected a player on a given day, that player was ineligible to be protected beyond that in the game.

We're ok with that if the Vampires are. Vamps?

Grundbegriff wrote:

triggercut wrote:The idea was always that the FVH could protect one player each day, but once he'd protected a player on a given day, that player was ineligible to be protected beyond that in the game.

We're ok with that if the Vampires are. Vamps?

Nah, we're cool with that.

Oh shit

J.D. wrote:I bet your mailbox is full of responses!

You have no idea.

While I do agree with the whole "vamps can't kill nox and/or Grund because they may be protected" theory, it still doesn't rule out that one of you isn't a tainted beta vamp (or even worse, the alpha vamp). I have yet to see any hard evidence from either of you other than you're "bickering" and posturing.

Our friendly neighborhood alleged Mason, noxiousdog, endorsed me. Therefore, to believe that I am a Vamp, you must also believe one of two things: either noxiousdog is a Vamp, or the Seer with whom noxiousdog consulted before endorsing me is a Vamp.

To believe that noxiousdog is a Vamp, you must believe that two Masons in the game would watch noxiousdog profess to be a Mason, watch support gather around him, and yet remain silent. It would be understandable for one Mason to remain silent and for the other to step forward. However, doubting noxiousdog requires you to believe that both Masons, through hyper-reticence, are making themselves irrelevant to the game they wanted to play, while ensuring defeat for their team.

Do you believe this? Of course you don't. And so, you don't believe that noxiousdog is a Vamp.

This means that to believe that I am a Vamp, you must believe that the Seer with whom noxiousdog consulted regarding me is a Vamp in collusion with me. In particular, you must believe that she was Alpha and, knowing I'd be chosen, recommended me as clean to noxiousdog. (You couldn't believe that I was Alpha and the faux-Seer was my Chosen, since he or she wouldn't have known of the infection and wouldn't have known to fake noxiousdog out until after the first day.)

But wait. To believe noxiousdog was duped by a fake Seer who subsequently enlisted me, you'd have to believe that two Real Seers who join you in regarding noxiousdog as trustworthy (for the reasons mentioned above) simply ignored noxiousdog's call for Seers to contact him, even though those anonymous Seers must've recognized the risk that someone might try to pull the wool over his eyes.

You don't believe the Seers are idiots any more than you believe the Masons are idiots. Therefore, you don't believe noxiousdog was duped, and cannot believe that I am a Vamp.

Nevertheless, you write:

J.D. wrote:While I do agree with the whole "vamps can't kill nox and/or Grund because they may be protected" theory, it still doesn't rule out that one of you isn't a tainted beta vamp (or even worse, the alpha vamp). I have yet to see any hard evidence from either of you other than you're "bickering" and posturing.

Why would someone to whom no viable theory of Grund-vamphood or nox-vamphood is even available say such a thing?

Why would someone who expressed inexplicable doubt about two obvious innocents also bemoan the difficulty of figuring out whether the whole Mark is the Fearless Vampire Hunter game was an elaborate ruse to hide the identity of the real FVH? Yet you wrote:

J.D. wrote:I've only received a handful of PMs this game, the most notible one from someone claiming to be the heroic "Vampire Hunter". I'm sure other people have heard from this person as well. I'm curious to see if a) this person is actually the VH and b) if this person also unknowingly told a vamp about his status (as I understand it, the self-proclaimed VH PM'd more than one person).

Heh.

Oh, and why would someone reemphasize that his early, early voting pattern wasn't initiative-grabbing but simply part of the forum's wolfgames' Accuse The Absentees First custom for handling Round 1 confusion? Why would someone, this deep into the game need to call attention to the fact-- which nobody seriously doubted-- that this pattern of slinging accusations around was innocent? Why, unless that person had taken note of how I accused Crux on the basis of his willy-nilly voting and wanted to foreclose similar attention?

Why would someone cast doubt on two obvious innocents, try to raise theories about the apparent FVH hoax, and provide self-exonerating explanations of last-round behavior?

There's only one reason someone would do any of these. There's certainly only one reason someone would do all of them.

You, J.D., are a Vampire.

Grundbegriff wrote:
I don't need that cover anymore. I'm now scanned and known to be a simple villager. That makes me 100% trustworthy to the Village team.

Unfortunately for those of us who have not been contacted by the seer, are not masons, and are not vampires, there is one small flaw in that logic.

The possibility exists that the "seer" is in fact a vampire playing the villagers he contacted... and that you are possibly one as well in cahoots with your undead brethren. Or you are not but the vampires have managed to keep the masons silent based on the "we're not exposing ourselves just to out a guy we know isn't a mason"

As a normal villager with no abilities, I would love to be added to the good guy voting block, but thus far the PMs I have received have had conflicting messages, which brings me to two possibilities...

(1) Someone is lying.

(2) Someone is being lied to and spreading misinformation.

My brain hurts.

I trust Grund.

JD is a vamp.

Chaosraven wrote:As a normal villager with no abilities, I would love to be added to the good guy voting block, but thus far the PMs I have received have had conflicting messages, which brings me to two possibilities...

(1) Someone is lying.

(2) Someone is being lied to and spreading misinformation.

Let me know what those are, and I'll clear them all up.

And why would the seers and the masons remain silent?

Because they identified "not a normal human" with their visions and can't trust whether that means good guy or bad guy... I know if I was a seer I wouldn't contact that person, and I *certainly* wouldn't open my throat to a vampire by stating that I am the seer.

And do I want to get killed as a mason to out Nox? Having "bravely" stepped forth and proclaimed his status he maintains the edge that he was "out" first, lending credibility to his claim. And each post that reiterates his "concrete" position smacks of that reminder...


Calling for the masons and seers to expose themselves to nightdeath from the vampires does not seem prudent to me.

Seers: I will remind you that your visions only show metahuman versus metahuman.

Villagers: remember that if a seer contacts you and you *have* an ability, they do not know what it is... contact by a "seer" to anyone with an ability is *suspect*

That being said, I am willing to believe that we actually have a mason in contact with an innocent villager and the seer... thereby garnering a fourpack of votes to use.

Mark wrote:
Chaosraven - you never responded to my PM from over a day ago. What are you hiding?

Not knowing whether I would change to a beta vampire over the course of the night made me hedge my bets... not wanting to lean too heavily to either side depending on the outcome of the first night.

That, plus the conflicting messages I have received, and the corresponding posts in this thread.

Chaosraven wrote:Calling for the masons and seers to expose themselves to nightdeath from the vampires does not seem prudent to me.

It's too late for that.

Either shit or get off the pot.

noxiousdog wrote:

Chaosraven wrote:
(1) Someone is lying.

(2) Someone is being lied to and spreading misinformation.

Let me know what those are, and I'll clear them all up.

As I have stated above, I will have to maintain my questioning status based on the information I have received. I do not require explanation of my interpretation of what has gone on behind the scenes.

As I am fond of saying:

It takes two thieves to strike an honest bargain.
Of course I trust you... now cut the cards.

Whatever possiblities and permutations exist are there for a reason... the odds are better that we have this game well in hand. But at the risk of losing the entire village playing the odds?

Never bet more than you can afford to lose.

You go ahead and trust me, but I'll be watching all of you for the nonce.