Werewolf XXXII: The Lost Age

[Volo]

A calm night was beginning. Moonlight and a warm wind were upon Ossiriand. Summer had a wonderful start and Yávië was as nice as it could be. A light rain started. This was perfect weather, wasn’t too hot, but warm enough for the rain to be pleasant. The beach of a little lake, the most beautiful place imaginable.

Enhilion was watching the waves as they slowly disappeared under the earth. He hoped with the whole of his heart that he could just sit like this again. But that meant that he had to succeed in his wicked mission. He rose up, the talk earlier during this period came back to his head. Enhilion felt that this was wrong, he had made his biggest mistake. But then again, would he want to sacrifice the sight of those waves for the life he had?

[Volo]

Once a great city, Kaimoir was slowly falling into decay. Great pillars were covered with moss. Most of the houses were abandoned and palaces stood empty. Silence was complete. And so was darkness.

The cave was found by the First King, no one can remember his name today. It is strange, such a leader’s name should be in every song. But no, it had faded, as if by intention. Some say that he is still there, haunting the Halls of Kings. When the First came with his people, the cave was all empty. Strangely the race began to grow and prosper. The empty caves turned into wonders of stone, even the skills of the dwarves were matched.

The new race became a terror above ground, raiding at night. Their abilities in battle were greater than of the greatest human warriors. Like a cloud they swept over villages. Fear grew in Men. Even many elves were afraid of this horror.
This new race was great indeed. The city of Kaimoir was built to the size it still remains nowadays, but then it was full of people, happy and wealthy. Gold and silver adorned even the poorest homes. The key to their success was being hidden. Their raids had brought riches and fear to their enemies, but nobody really knew who or what this horrible race was. But in open war they would have probably defeated their foes.

Luckily for every other race it never went so far as open war. For as the First Age ended the race began to diminish. Nobody knew the reason. Or nobody except the King. Some feared that the fall of Morgoth was the reason, but nobody wanted openly relate their strength with the Dark Lord.

Raids became rare and the terror was turned into myth. Their population dwindled. Only a few children were born every century. The life-span shortened to about two hundred years, when in their glory they could live over the age of five hundred. Still even the few that were left were stronger than any man and most of elves.

Strangely the King ordered the gate to the cave closed and none have left the city since. In hunger they lived for centuries, for they cannot die of hunger like men, but they feel it stronger. The only thing that prevailed was the line of Kings, one after another they kept their power and will. Even now when few of the race survive a king sits on his throne.

[Volo]

Enhilion could not believe his ears, Firithhyando had ordered him to get ready for battle. Real battle. Sure Enhilion had practised fighting from birth, he even thought of himself as being quite good at it. No, he didn’t match the skills of his elders, but he liked the way he used a sword and enjoyed it.

But now this was something new, a real battle. Would that mean that the gates would be opened the first time for many centuries? Would Enhilion be the first Vampire to see the outside world? Something no one had done before or so long ago that knowledge about it was all lost.

The young lad was really excited and afraid. This must mean that he had to meet the King. He had seen the King two times in his life, once when his grandmother died and once when his little sister was born, the family had gone together to tell the King those news. The King seemed happy when he heared about the girl, it was the first time for more than a thousand years that two children were born into one family. Sadness held long when little Astore died in a landslide. Anyway, Enhilion didn’t like the King and would rather not meet him again, unless he really had to.

Enhilion had packed all his belonings: his rone jacket and trousers (Rones are somewhat pig-like creatures that are the only animals in Kaimoir and Kaimoir is the only place where rones live. Rones eat mushrooms and are eaten or turned into leather objects by Vampires.), his family heirloom sword he prefered over fangs and claws, his rone-skin bottle and some mushroom cakes (the only food in Kaimoir, except for everything made out of rones, but…). He was ordered to have a good sleep before the journey would begin, early next period (the terms ”day” and ”night” aren’t used in a cave with no sunlight).

Enhilion was too excited and when he finally fell asleep he rolled off his bunk and woke again. He decided that it was useless and walked out of his great stone house. He really hoped that he wouldn’t fail in the battle, that could be the end of his race. Of the Vampires only five were alive now, and he doubted that they could remain much longer, the race was fading to an end.

[Volo]

Enhilion was running through the empty streets. Suddenly he heared voices, it was Firithhyando, the second youngest Vampire. Firithhyando was talking to Numundo, the middle Vampire.

Numundo continued the talk in the usual hoarse voice ”…if he fails. You know how gentle he is. I doubt he’ll do it”.

Firithhyando, Enhilion’s best friend, answered, ”He might be gentle, but he fights better than you” .

”Not true”, grumbled Numundo.

”Maybe not, but I’m sure he’ll do just fine”, Firithhyando tried to convince Numundo, but without much success.

Enhilion pressed himself hard against the wall, he knew that they were talking about him. Was something important being hidden? Fear came to him as he heared steps closen. They went by, it was Lossenatar, only the King was older than this great warrior.

”Arguing about the kid? The King wants him to go with us, so that’s what will happen”, Lossenatar wasn’t angry, but seemed rather troubled.

Enhilion felt uneasy, if even Lossentar was worried, this mission must be hard indeed. What if he blundered…

Firithhyando said, ”See there Num, I told you. He’ll manage”. To everybody’s dismay Lossenatar mumbled ”I hope…”

[Volo]

Numundo dared to ask, ”What exactly do we need to do behind the Wall? You keep saying how important it is and that there will be a fight and all, but what is the reason of this madness?”

”Let’s not call it madness, for that is the will of the King. This is our only way to survive, you must see it by now. We’re dying! Another hundred years and we’ll be gone. Completely!” Lossenatar said rapidly.

Firithhyando asked again calmly, ”Yes, dear Los, what is the goal of our mission? It seems you know much more than us. And all I thought was that we go and fight a bit and come back”.

”You’ll know tomorrow, the King-” started Lossenatar, to be interupted by Numundo, ”Start talking sense! Or me and Fir won’t be going anywhere”.
”Oh, calm down”.

But the two younger Vampires didn’t seem to be content with that. Lossenatar gave up, ”I’ll tell. If you don’t tell Enhilion… He won’t like that”.

[Volo]

The two nodded. Enhilion was starting to panic, his heart was beating so loudly that he feared the elders would notice him.

But nothing happened, Lossenatar continued, ”The King says that we’ll die. He told me some knowledge lost long ago. We Vampires became a great nation by converting Men to Vampires. It is true that our power faded with the death of the Dark Lord, we were originally made by him. Our King… he is The King. King Yulnagar is the First King, Melkor’s Maia…”

Enhilion couldn’t believe it, this was against anything he has been taught, it couldn’t be true. Was all his life just a lie? Yes… Oh hell, Enhilion wouldn’t go anywhere after this. He decided that he’ll say straight that he won’t fight for a liar. Never!

”Our King Yulnagar rebelled against Melkor and fled to Ossiriand. In fear he hid in this cave, all by himself. For a long time he never left this place. But during the centuries his hunger grew and he couldn’t bear it anymore. He fled back outside and attacked Men. Then he found his skill! He could convert the weak Men into us, Vampires. Though the Vampires of that time were far greater than us. And so we lived here and hunted at night, converting more and more and our number growing larger and larger. Yulnagar thought that by being just a simple king he could have more power over us, that’s why he chose the same role as us”.

Firithhyando looked at Numundo, Numundo looked amazed. Firithhyando’s voice shook but soon regained it’s calmness, ”So it was like this, interesting. I feared that this was the case. But I understand your motives now”.

”What! You knew? How?” Numundo was shocked. Lossenatar seemed to be rather surprised.

Firithhyando said quietly, ”I had a vision once…

”No, nothing. Forget it… But Los, tell me, why was the gate closed?”

”I was coming to that. Yulnagar, being a Maia of Melkor lost his power to convert Men into Vampires as the Dark Lord fell. He was scared of the other Valar. That would be the reason”.

There was a silence which was broken by Numundo, ”And what is the meaning of our mission? Get back to the point!”

Lossenatar thought for a while and answered, ”I know that this might sound like Yulnagar betrayed us… He doesn’t know if we can succeed in this, or can he succeed in it. He told me that he might be able to turn a few Men into Vampires with his last strength, it takes a lot to do such a deed. But he’s thinking about us, this is the only way to continue our race…”

Lossenatar had a short pause, but before the old warrior continued, Firithhyando killed all Enhilion’s hopes, ”Yes dear Numundo, our mission seems to be the capturing of Men.”

Capturing Men, Enhilion understood that this was for the greater good of the Vampire’s race, but he never wanted to capture anyone, it felt much worse than killing, not that he had ever done either.

Lossenatar exclaimed, ”Yes, exactly! Though I am sorry to say this, but there is also another thing that makes our job difficult. You see, King Yulnagar has forgotten the spell to turn Men into Vampires… We have to bring him many Men just in case he casts a wrong spell on them. And this is where my own plan comes to life!”




Night 1 Begins

Vampires may chat


The living:

Gil-Galad
The Saucepan Man
Rikae
Boromir88
Nogrod
Eomer of the Rohirrim
Thinlómien
Brinniel
Legate of Amon Lanc
Aganzir
Meneltarmacil
Xyzzy
Roa_Aoife
Macalaure
Diamond18
Shastanis Althreduin
Celuien
Kitanna
Sleepy Ranger
Durelin
Glirdan
Rune Son of Bjarne
The Sixth Wizard


Notice:
I'll start the day a half an hour earlier tomorrow.

[Thinlómien]

Celuien
#41 Says there are cases where innocents could/should feign voting early, to use the feign vote like a retractable vote is sometimes used. I disagree with her since this'll cause far too much confusion and distrust between the innocents. Yet she still says she will post her votes. Hmmm... this makes me quite uneasy. Why didn't I spot this slight suspiciousness before? Must have been because of the sympathic frog-comment...
#52 Corrects Kitanna about the rules and says the shade is interesting. Hmm.. if she noted Kitanna's mistake here, why did she consider it suspicious only when Eomer said it is?
#72 "I have cast my vote for Kitanna. On reflection, it was rather odd to think that the vampire-seer/ranger/hunter were additional roles."

Menel
#13 A traditional advice-giving post. But I don't like his advice... This early on I see nothing bad with giving people the benefit of doubt. Somehow the title "A bit of in-character banter, but some of it's serious" makes me wary... (Am I paranoid?)
#36 He defends his advice innocentishly, but then jumps on Boromir on quite flimsy grounds: he says he'll definitely be watching Boro since he had said he didn't want to die today. Granted, he didn't get the thing about Boro's birthday, but still... In this post Menel also agrees with SPM and finds Rikae worriesome. How convenient.
#53 Doesn't trust rikae, says she's going to get his vote tonight most probably.
#57 Corrects Rikae.
#73 "Well, I just sent in my vote for Rikae, and that should be all for toDay."

Oh, and I'll be taking a close look at Gil tomorrow. I'm uneasy about him, but I'd like to hear more of him or what others think of him before voting him... (Funnily, he's been more active than my other top suspects Cel and Menel who I feel readier to judge... ) Also, I wouldn't like to lynch him (Gil) today - as there is no good reason for it - he has been one of the most active people toDay.

[Thinlómien]

Lomiella lowers her voice, as if telling a secret. "I voted Cel", she says and giggles. "She seemed the most suspicious. Her jumping on Eomer's accusations against Kitanna was very weird, especially as she had commented on Kitanna's words before."

Then Lomiella casts a look at the bearded woman and the woman with short hair. "As to the lynch-seer negotiating, it might be a good idea... - Aganzir, that made me feel you're innocent. - But let's not do that toDay maybe, like Roa said. I don't think anyone will be trusting any other person enough to grant them a kill at this phase... or I hope no one is."

Once again, Lomiella flushes her eyelashes. "Now I'll be going to sleep. see you toMorrow, dearies."

edit: xed with Gil and Noggie

[Thinlómien]

Brinniel suspected Rikae and Celuien, they were the ones who she said she could vote. She told us that she voted Cel.

Brinn also expressed slight concern over Legate and his Sixth-case.

She was not sure what to think about Menel.

Reading between the lines, she did not find Kitanna particularly suspicious.

Of others she said nothing.


What other people said about Brinniel

Boro did not like her first post and thought she was feigning to be "the confused villager".

Mac was also slightly suspicious of her.

Thinlómien was not worried by her.

Other people did not mention her at all.


~*~

That was it. Just like I presumed: nothing that would point to seerishness (to me her suspicions weren't seerish suspicions) or other kind of giftedness. (Nevertheless I wanted to check if there was somethig interesting in her or other people's posts.) Like was said aloud before, Brinniel was most probably killed to leave no tracks.

edit: xed with Aga, SPM and Mac

[Thinlómien]

Funny, Sauce, when you explained your claimed over-defensiveness, I started to consider you slightly over-defensive, even though I hadn't though so yesterDay... Anyway I think you had plenty of good points and analysis in your previous post so I'm not suspecting you (actively) yet.

edit: xed with Eomer, Sleepy and Rune. The village is quite chatty tonight, yay!

[Boromir88]

Anything past Thinlo's response here:

She told us that she voted Cel.

I haven't read yet because there was a slight discrepancy with SPM's vote count:

Brinniel: Rikae (Kitanna 1, Rikae 3, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 1, Celuien 4)

And if we look SPM was correct:

Deadline is almost here, so I will be submitting my vote now.

++Rikae

So, what happened Thinlo?

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

So, what happened Thinlo?

Oops! I've been quite careless. I made a mistake, that's what happened.

[Durelin]

I didn't state my vote because I didn't vote. Of course there's no way to prove that. Whatever.

You know, this whole the vampires don't get to vote thing really isn't an advantage to the villagers. It might be a little bit of a disadvantage for the vampires, but at the same time it helps keep them extremely clean - we can't really get much dirt on them based on their votes, because they're not really voting. About the only warning signs we'd get is if the stated votes added up give a different result than the kill, and the chances of that happening at this point are very slim. And still then we'd only know that there's almost definitely a vampire in a certain voting group....

Basically, I think we're screwed.

Man, there are way too many people and way too many posts. Tonight I should have some time, though, so I'll come up with my vote then and let everyone know...well, unless I get up tomorrow to vote. But either way I promise to let everyone know when I vote. And I will vote this time....I won't let all you other innocents slowly kill each other off by yourselves....

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Lommiella

She told us that she voted Cel.

Did I get this wrong? I thought she said that she voted for Rikae. I will check.

If I am right about Brinniel's vote, however, it raises the question (in my mind at least) whether a Vampiric Rikae would have been so bold as to target someone who had voted for her.

Assuming that Mac and Sleepy are telling the truth, updated "voting record" for yesterDay is 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)
Mac: Legate (Kitanna 2, Rikae 3, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 3, Celuien 4)
Sleepy: Rune (Kitanna 2, Rikae 3, Gil 1, Sixth 1, Menel 2, Legate 3, Celuien 4, Rune 1)

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

I have added Mac and Sleepy on the end as there is no indication as to when they voted. I note that, despite posting already toDay, Shasta did not take the opportunity to tell us how he voted.

Originally Posted by Eomer

Point taken SPM. However, I do think it unlikely that a vampire will claim to have voted privately for Celuien.

Fair enough, although it would have provided an opportunity for a possible Vampire slip.

Originally Posted by Lommiella

Funny, Sauce, when you explained your claimed over-defensiveness, I started to consider you slightly over-defensive, even though I hadn't though so yesterDay...

Remember, I was not around to respond to those points yesterDay, so addressing them toDay means dealing with them all "in one go", as it were.

I share Boro's misgivings over Shasta's attempt to identify those who came under suspicion yesterDay. It looks off to me too.

Edit: Crossed with Boro, who confirmed Brin's vote for Rikae

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Menel

Celuien's death was probably due to Vampirish influence.

This certainly merits further consideration. I am somewhat at a loss to see why Celuien became such a prime target in such a short space of time, especially as I shared her misgivings over Kitanna's "confusion". However, as I have said, I do think it would have been risky for a Vampire to state a vote for Celuien, and it looks unlikely that one did on the figures we know. I am not ruling it out entirely, but I think it unlikely.