Tol-in-Gaurhoth XXII: Hic Monstrae Trucidant

[Durelin]

Durelin, how did you protect the last night?

Caran, since I wasn't sure about the Seer yet, and I figured the wolves were waiting for me to slip up. And really, it just was my best bet.

Cailin actually protected Caran the night before, as well.

[Thinlómien]

Caran, who did you protect each Night?

[mormegil]

Fea dear,

Will you please explain yourself?

[Caranlondien]

I hunted:
Night 2 - lmp
Night 3 - Nogrod
Night 4 - lmp
Night 5 - tgwbs

Darn you wolves for not killing me right away when I came out as the hunter! I would have taken Nogrod with me...

By the way, why didn't you guys kill me?

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by me

Caran, who did you protect each Night?

An interesting question...

I loved playing in this game, and I loved trying the seer for the first time. It was real fun.

Kath, thanks for lovely modding and narrations.

What I maybe haven't said before, I appreciate Nogrod's valiant last day try. It was only doomed, and ridiculous to me as I knew how things were...

And I'd never have guessed Durelin to be the ranger... I guess she had the same advantage as me; being too suspicious to the wolves to kill or anyone to guess to be the seer, but never getting lynched though. Cheers, Durelin, well-played!

Originally Posted by morm

Fea dear,
Will you please explain yourself?

Second!

[tom bombariffic]

Thanks for a great game everyone, especially my great co-wolves, who were excellent throughout. It's been good fun.

Just a quick point - I've not noticed fea explain her master plan anywhere, and I'd like to know what it was, because I thought I had it sussed at the time:

Pm from ME to NOGROD and LHUNA:

fea's plan
Hi guys. Lhuna, I tried being earlier but it seems like I've missed you again! Hopefully this will be relevant if by any chance you come back in time.

Firstly, Fea. Nogrod, I couldn't tell from your pm if you understood her plan, but I'm certain I did. It was a very good plan. And, thank goodness, it failed.

Fea knew she was innocent and not gifted. She told the villagers to all vote for her, in the hope that everyone would change their votes - EXCEPT the seer and changeling (if they know any wolves). Obviously if everyone is voting fea but one person sticks to their vote saying they understand the plan and that they believe that [a villager] is guilty , then people will realise that they are the seer/changeling, and gain valuable knowledge of a certain wolf. They'd obviously die too, but 2 gifteds=2 wolves, a good turnaround.

The plan failed, because either no gifteds were present, or no gifteds understood it. When Durelin stuck to his vote, she said 'durelin understands', but he said he hadn't, which is true because if he had he'd either have voted for her or for one of us. I hope I'm explaining this well.

When you look back at what she said in this light, it seems very obvious. she says things like 'why would I tell you all to vote for me, and who will try to stop me?', putting the emphasis on people who DON'T vote for her.

I dunno if other people did get it at the time, but I'd like to know if I was right!

thanks again everyone,

bombariffic

[Celuien]

Originally Posted by mormegil

Fea dear,

Will you please explain yourself?

Fourth. In the absence of the space thingy answer, I'm quite confused.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by mormegil

Fea dear,

Will you please explain yourself?

Of course, love.

Basically, in the middle of the game, I realized that I was still trying to move back home from school, my family was about to meet my boyfriend () and my father and brothers were NOT being cool about it, I was about to start at least one new job, I was trying to finish up school work after term was officially over, AND my great grandmother is dying. I couldn't stick around.

You can even ask Kath; I frantically PMed her apologizing and freaking out that I had way too much going on in RL to keep playing. I asked her to kill me and she begged that I manage at least one final post before she killed me off at night so that I wasn't totally non-participatory.

That was my very random and non-backed-up "Y'all should just kill LMP" post.

Then I discovered a spare hour or so in which I decided that I had no inclination for my inevitable death to be wasted. I saw the village trying to kill Morm and I was worried they'd succeed. See, I was very convinced of the innocence of Mithalwen, mormegil, LMP, and Celuien at that point.

Since I didn't want TWO innocents killed in one night, I posted my plan that, should the village be uncertain of the lupinity of the lynchee, they ought to kill me.

Basic plan: avoid wasted deaths of innocents.

I also very sincerely hoped that somebody would figure out (without me saying it and potentially breaking rules because it referred to non-game discussion with the mod) that I wasn't coming back and would know to use my "suicide" as a way to gauge legitimate reactions. I figured out Nogrod that way.

The one post I made that said "Nogrod, I'm so confused" originally read "Kill Nogrod."

Secondary plan: use my inevitable death to spot those trying to capitalize on it.

I freaked a little when I remembered the changeling role and realized that I'd made myself look that way, but before I could tell y'all to kill Noggie and clarify a little (still trying to be discreet enough that my death would be productive), I had to leave and wasn't back for quite a long time; far after the Day ended.

Basically, I was going to die that night regardless and I really wanted somebody to take full advantage of the fact. Sorry it was so confusing but I was trying not to break any rules and I was bound by insane time constraints while doing it.

[Mithalwen]

Hence your decalration of love!!!! And there I was thinking it was all so complicated ..especially when I had to google trekkie stuff and discovered the changeling ref... and since I was never completely up to speed on what the changeling could do exactly I thought there was some cunning plan......

[Nogrod]

One more ironic twist to the game.

One of the reasons why we wolves were defeated was in Cailín playing her Changeling role exactly in the way myself and Spm had been calling the Changeling should do. So in a way the tactics that made me look good in many of your eyes somewhat backfired as Cailín actually did just the thing I had been calling for (I had counted on the Seer and the Changeling to cross-dream a lot, but...).

So both Durelin and tgwbs had been piling up suspicion and Cailín had checked them - but Lommy hadn't! When Cailín's announcement then came, Lommy had good reasons to check Lhuna (she had checked me already, tom had been lynched as a wolf so why not the third one from tgwbs's list - and anyhow enigmatic player who should be checked?). Finito.

Good teamplay by Cailín and Lommy!

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Hence your decalration of love!!!! And there I was thinking it was all so complicated

Yeah, no. It was a lot simpler than Star Trek, though I started laughing like mad when that was brought up. Just that I was going to die and I wanted as productive a death as possible.

I kept track of the rest of the game... just I could only do it in bits and pieces of time that were utterly unpredictable in occurence. It was fun to watch and very interesting to see what people came up with about me.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

One more ironic twist to the game.

One of the reasons why we wolves were defeated was in Cailín playing her Changeling role exactly in the way myself and Spm had been calling the Changeling should do. So in a way the tactics that made me look good in many of your eyes somewhat backfired as Cailín actually did just the thing I had been calling for (I had counted on the Seer and the Changeling to cross-dream a lot, but...).

So both Durelin and tgwbs had been piling up suspicion and Cailín had checked them - but Lommy hadn't! When Cailín's announcement then came, Lommy had good reasons to check Lhuna (she had checked me already, tom had been lynched as a wolf so why not the third one from tgwbs's list - and anyhow enigmatic player who should be checked?). Finito.

Good teamplay by Cailín and Lommy!

Yep. With my final suspects on the Night I caught Lhuna were Lhuna, morm and Mith, it wasn't very difficult to guess who the remaining wolf was aftre reading through their posts. On Day 2 (?) morm received a vote from both tom and Nog and Mith just acted so innocenty.

I had two reasons not to pick the most suspected players (TGWBS, Durelin, maybe morm). 1) I though they'd be lynched soon anyway and I couldn't change it, so the dream'd be wasted. 2) I thought the Changeling would pick them.

I think the biggest thanks from the village victory belong to Cailín. *curtseys*

[Kath]

Ok guys, Fin's death is up and the final narration will be soon.

My apologies for the delays on this. Up til now revision hadn't really been top of my agenda, which means I have a lot of cramming to do

[Mithalwen]

HI-ing in the hope that the final narration will happen..

[Kath]

Lommy stepped forward, brandishing a piece of paper with two names written on it.

“Right here!” She cried out triumphantly, slamming the paper down in front of the eyes of the villagers. “Look! The names of the final wolves.”

As she stepped back everyone else crowded round it to get a look.

“Lhuna and Nogrod are the wolves!” Yelled Caran. “Get them!”

“Wait, wait.” Said Nogrod calmly. “You’ve got it all wrong. I’m not Gifted but I am the Seer and I can tell you that Lommy and . . .”

“Excuse me?” Came morm’s incredulous voice. “You’re not a Gifted but you’re the Seer? Incredible!”

“Well what I meant to say was that I am Gifted of course but, I mean, you know what I mean surely.”

“Oh yes, of course we do.” Lommy laughed. “Look guys just lynch me and then you can lynch them tomorrow. Won’t do the village any harm. I’ve already got you the last wolves.”

She sauntered over to Nogrod.

“Come on Noggie, give up. You have no way to win now.”

Nogrod bowed his head, eyes casting desperately around for Lhuna, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Damn this timzone-itis!” He snarled, rising to his feet. “You think you’ve won, Seer? You don’t know what you’re up against. My partner in crime may not be here, but I have many others who will assist me with your deaths.”

Throwing his head back he howled, and as he did so his body began to change into the familiar shape of a wolf. Snapping his jaws he leapt at Lommy who screamed and turned tail, fleeing into the relative safety of the rest of the villagers. Wolfgrod approached the group, eyes glinting with malice, and tried to move in toward Lommy. His attempt was thwarted by two villagers stepping forward; one brandishing a sword and the other the dust that had prevented him from killing before.

“You won’t harm our Seer.” Durelin spoke softly but firmly, throwing the dust in a circle around Lommy who was standing behind her.

“Or any of the rest of our village.” Caran agreed, directing the point of her sword at Wolfgrod’s chest.
The resulting lack of anger from the wolf in front of them confused them all. He simply stood there, watching them, seemingly waiting for something. Frightened and unsure the villagers huddled behind their protectors, relieved that the animals behind them would warn if Lhuna arrived from that direction.

Slowly realising what they had just been thinking, the village turned as one to meet the eyes of the animals lined up at their backs. The ferocious glares of a boa constrictor, a cat, numerous Pokemon, a penguin, a dog, a panda, a raven, and a mongoose stared back at them.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place the villagers turned to their Gifteds.

“What do we do! We’re going to be slaughtered!”

“Yes you are.” Came a growl from their right. Dreading what they would see the villagers reluctantly turned toward the source of the noise, and met the gaze of the once lovely Lhuna, now fanged and furry as Nogrod.

Giving up on any idea of unity the villagers screamed and ran. An each man for his own mentality broke out, with fellow villagers treading on each other in an attempt to get furthest away from the dangers on all sides. Only Caran and Durelin stood strong, trying to stop the beasts from attacking. Seeing this Lhuna and Wolfgrod leapt at them.

Quickly Durelin spread her dust around the two of them and Caran met Lhuna’s outstretched claws with her sword, forcing the wolf to fall back. Wolfgrod was luckier, as he leapt he snatched the mongoose from the ground and threw it into the dust, which scattered as it was hit. Landing inches away from Durelin Wolfgrod grinned, baring his teeth and snarling into her face. Dancing backward Durelin continued to protect herself and Caran with the dust, but Wolfgrod continued to break her lines with various animals, as the dust did not protect against them.

As Durelin played tag with Wolfgrod, Caran was still fighting Lhuna. The wolf had seemed surprised to find open war when she arrived, but she had soon accepted the situation. Caran parried as claws came at her again, ducking to avoid the heavy weight of the wolf on top of her. The two circled each other, jumping back and forth as Durelin’s lines of dust would appear between them, stopping the fight for a moment as Lhuna manoeuvred round them.

Suddenly, with all the moving around, Lhuna and Wolfgrod found themselves back to back. Snarling they whirled round to mutilate whomever it was behind them, and hissed when they found an answer, turning back to their battles. The process only took a few seconds, but it was all Caran needed. As Lhuna’s faced away from her, she took her sword in both hands and aimed it, waiting for the opportune moment. The great head swung back, neck taut and visible for just a moment, and Caran took it. Slicing her sword down she severed Lhuna’s neck from her body with one quick stroke.

As the separated halves of his comrade fell to the ground Nogrod yelped as if in pain himself. Howling again he doubled the strength of his attack, until Durelin could no longer defend both herself and Caran.
In the background the villagers had been fighting their own battle with the animals not being used by Nogrod. The boa constrictor was silently squeezing Cailín, who couldn’t make a sound or a movement due to the crushing pressure all around her. TGWBS was involved in an intricate battle with the Pokemon, who were clearly winning. Lommy was protecting her eyes from the sharp beak of the penguin that was after them. Mith was struggling with a panda, which was attempting to stab her with sharpened bamboo sticks.

As Nogrod’s howl went up the fighters looked toward the source. Seeing Lhuna’s head on the ground gave them the villagers the kick they needed to fight back. Mith darted behind the boa constrictor, causing her panda attacker to trip over its tail. The snake turned on the bear for a moment, giving Mith enough time to pull Cailín free. The same teamwork was going on with the other villagers, and while they weren’t winning, they weren’t in such dire straits as they had been.

Free of Lhuna, Caran turned to help Durelin with Wolfgrod. The wolf leapt and twisted and turned, and the fight was evenly matched. Soon Durelin was running out of dust and Caran was tiring, but Wolfgrod just kept coming. A sudden yodelling yell from behind them caused all three to jump and turn to locate the noise, spotting Cailín heading towards them, a cat in one hand and an arctic loon in the other. The cat she threw at Wolfgrod, causing an immediate spat as though they were technically on the same side no dog-like creature likes a cat. Just as he was finishing dealing with one nuisance, Cailín threw the artic loon at him, hitting him square on the nose. Wolfgrod howled in pain and reached his paws up to cover his snout. Taking advantage of his distraction Caran plunged her sword through his chest, leaving it embedded there as she leapt backwards to avoid the claws that came down in defense.

As Wolfgrod staggered, the animals stopped attacking the rest of the villagers. All eyes turned to the great wolf and watched as he slowly fell, impaling himself further on the sword. A gasping breath was heard, as though he was trying to growl but couldn’t, and then a gurgle, and then silence. The villagers watched as the animals they had been battling with moments before slunk off back into the woods, and realised that it was over. All the wolves were dead. They had won!

[Kath]

There we go Mith! Took long enough but it's up now

[Durelin]

Marvelous, Kath!

Ah, the accursed mongoose...my sworn enemy...

[Lhunardawen]

Eeyuck. What a mess. *feels for neck*

[mormegil]

Well done Kath but what of my animal?

[Nogrod]

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going"...

Nice one Kath! A narration to match the story!

[Thinlómien]

Kath, I loved the narration. Like gloating.

Apparently I can't stop myself from getting amused and probably irritating everyone else, but I found this hilarious:

“Wait, wait.” Said Nogrod calmly. “You’ve got it all wrong. I’m not Gifted but I am the Seer and I can tell you that Lommy and . . .”

[Kath]

Well done Kath but what of my animal?

My apologies morm, but without having a pool suddenly appear in the middle of nowhere I wasn't sure how to get it in! That's why you got to gloat at Noggie with Lommy instead

As for you Lommy, thought you might like that bit

[Mithalwen]

Thank you Kath that was great ... love even malevolent pandas.....

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I'm still of the opinion that my chat skwerls were the best.

[Mithalwen]

I have nightmares about chat skwerls.... funnily enough.... and not just becasue of the glowing green. I was horrified when I realised that the animals were going to be our attackers not our "daemons" ..it is just too energetic for your average panda..

[Kath]

Haha! Sorry Mith, I kept forgetting you guys didn't know that first day. I loved the theories you were coming up with though

And Fea, your skwerl death was just so much fun to write.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

And Fea, your skwerl death was just so much fun to write.

Thanks ever much for catering to my whim, Moddess Goddess. For those that don't know (presumably all of you), my original choice for animal was a cryptoprocta ferox, commonly called a fossa, even more commonly called a "What? I've never even heard of it."

I had a sudden desire to be killed by a chat skwerl about the same time I begged for my own early demise and my beloved Kath agreed to do both.