Stars Aligned II - Game Over!

[Percy]

Stars Aligned II

is a Large Theme game for 25 players.

Moderator

: Percy

Backup Moderator

: Vi


This game has finished.

Skip straight to

the Rules post

if you would like to read the game without being spoiled.
====
































====

To skip straight to the end, click

here

! Might want to check the Rules post first though...

Those who Live:

semioldguy

-

Survived

,

Cultist

.

Insanity Count:

5

.

Those who have Died:

Nothing but

Dust

remains

Those who have returned to Dust:

Nicodemus

-

Lynched

on the

First Day

,

Cultist

.

Insanity Count

: 0

.

Sajin

-

Murdered

during the

First Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count

: 0

.

Iecerint

-

Murdered

during the

First Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count

: 0

.

Katy

replacing Seacore

-

Murdered

during the

First Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count

: 0

.

CSL

replacing Col.Cathart

-

Lynched

on the

Second Day

,

Cultist

.

Insanity Count

: 2

Phate

-

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

during the

Second Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count

: 1

.

startransmission

-

Murdered

during the

Second Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count

: 3

.

SlySly

-

Lynched

on the

Third Day

,

Cultist

.

Insanity Count

: 2

Wickedestjr

-

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

on the

Third Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count

: 0

elvis_knits

-

Murdered

on the

Third Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count

: 1

vikingfan

-

Lynched

on the

Fourth Day

,

Murderer

.

Insanity Count

: 4

.

evilsnail

-

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

on the

Fourth Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count

: 1

Plum

replacing Sarag

-

Lynched

on the

Fifth Day

,

Cultist

.

Insanity Count

: 2

dramonic

-

Lynched

on the

Sixth Day

,

Murderer

.

Insanity Count:

8

.

Ellibereth

-

Lynched

on the

Seventh Day

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

6

.

DrippingGoofball

-

Murdered

during the

Seventh Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

3

.

iLord

-

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

during the

Seventh Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

4

.

farside22

replacing Chaco

,

Modkilled

during the

Eighth Day

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

5

.

VP Baltar

-

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

during the

Eighth Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

4

.

Magua

replacing Amished

-

Lynched

on the

Ninth Day

,

Cultist

.

Insanity Count:

7

.

rewq455

replacing Faraday

-

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

during the

Ninth Night

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

2

.

Furcolow

replacing Hayker replacing Adel

-

Lynched

on the

Tenth Day

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

6

.

animorpherv1

-

Destroyed during the Ascension

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

4

.

kunkstar7

replacing Drench

-

Destroyed during the Ascension

,

Investigator

.

Insanity Count:

8

.

[Percy]

Roles

There are three Roles in this game -

Investigators

, who number approximately three quarters of the starting players;

Cultists

, who number approximately one quarter; and

Murderers

, who appear later in the game.

Investigator

You are an

Investigator

, and have travelled to this place to seek the truth of what lies beneath the temple.

Honest individuals caught in the deadly machinations of the Cult. You must outwit and outplay the evil Cultists and deranged Murderers, fending off the strange and horrifying supernatural world that threatens to overwhelm you.

Win Condition

: The Investigators win when all Cultists and Murderers have been killed, provided there is at least one Investigator still alive.

Cultist

Many years ago, you dedicated your life to the service of the gods who wait; Hastur, Dagon, Zoth-Ommog, Nyogtha, Cthulhu. You are a

Cultist

, and have travelled to this place to perform your dark Rituals.

Depraved individuals intent on slaughtering the Investigators. They command the dark, supernatural forces that threaten the lives of every Investigator and Murderer, but at a price; their sanity will slowly be eaten away by the very beasts they try to control.

Special Abilities

:

Secret communication

- All Cultists will receive a link to a QuickTopic thread with their PM. They may communicate with each other in this thread at any time, provided they are still alive.

The Ritual

- Cultists may select the Night Actions

Pass Fetish

,

Craft Fetish

and

Participate in the Ritual

. However, they may not select the Night Action

Stalk

.

Win Condition

: The Cultists win when they number at least half the remaining players, and there are no surviving Murderers, at the beginning of either the

Night

phase or the

Day

phase.

Murderer

Players who succumb to the urge to strike out against unseen horrors and go on a killing spree become Murderers. They become lone wolves, fighting for themselves alone. They descend the dark steps to insanity as they strike out at former friends and foes with equal ferocity.

Special Ability

:

Killer

- Murderers may take the

Murder

action more than once.

Win Condition

: A Murderer wins instantly upon the completion of a Murder action, provided that they:
-are the only Murderer alive,
-have completed more successful murders than any deceased Murderer, and
-have completed at least two Murders before this one.

Global Mechanics

Night and Day

The game is broken into two phases,

Night

and

Day

. During the

Day

, the spirits retreat from the harsh sunlight; at

Night

, they come out to play... The Investigators retreat to dark corners and small rooms to await the day, managing only small bursts of activity to do what they can to save their fellows and root out the Cultists.

Each

Night

, all players may perform a single

Night Action

. The Cultists may perform

The Ritual

. Players may not publicly post at

Night

.

During the

Day

, all characters discuss events in the game thread and perform a

Lynching

. Play then proceeds to

Night

again.

The game begins at

Night

.

Lynching

During the

Day

, a

Lynch

is performed. Each character has one vote as to who they want lynched, which can be changed at any time. Once at least half of the characters left alive have voted to lynch a player, that player is killed (and therefore becomes

Dead

). Once the required number of votes has been reached, no further vote changes will be counted. The lynched player may not post, though others may continue to post until the thread is locked by a moderator. The option to lynch nobody is available (

Vote: No Lynch

). Once a majority has been reached, the game moves to the

Night

phase.

Votes must be marked in bold in the format

Vote: Herbert West

. You may

Unvote: Herbert West

to undo the previous vote. Whilst they are encouraged when changing your vote,

Unvote

s are not mandatory.

A successful lynch will reveal the

Insanity count

of the lynched player, but not his role (but see

Rob Grave

, below).

A deadline of three RL weeks will be in place for the first three

Days

, falling to two RL weeks for subsequent

Days

. If activity has been good, the Moderator may extend the deadline by one RL week up to two times per

Day

by request from the players. At deadline, whoever has the majority of votes will be lynched. If there is a tie, whoever received their final vote first will be lynched.

States

Various things can happen to you during the course of the game - you may become

Bloody

, hear

Noise

, go

Insane

, become

Dead

and eventually turn to

Dust

. You must also be wary of a descent into

Chaos

.

Bloody

Characters may get blood on their clothes from the

Resuscitate

and

Murder

actions, as well as from

The Ritual

. The

Investigate

action can detect blood. The

Launder

action will clean the blood away. You will be told when you become

Bloody

.

Hearing

Noise

Night Actions

that target a character will often make noise. If your character is the target of at least one of

Pass Fetish

,

Craft Fetish

,

Resuscitate

,

Investigate

,

Ward

or

Stalk

, or if your character performs the

Ward

action, you will receive the message "You heard

Noise

in the night" upon the start of the next

Day

. You will receive the same message, even if multiple noisy actions target you.

Insanity

Every character begins the game with an Insanity Count of 0. As they are exposed to the bleak horrors of their environment (willingly or unwillingly), their count rises. The

Rob Grave

,

Stalk

,

Murder

and

Commune

actions all cause Insanity, as will being saved from death by a successful

Resuscitate

and participating in

The Ritual

.

Launder

and

Ward

can also cause insanity, as will receiving a

Fetish

of yourself from a Cultist.

Each time a player's insanity score goes up, they will receive a PM from the Moderator. They must choose an insanity from the list below at the start of the next

Day

, prior to posting. You cannot choose the same insanity more than once. You can never remove or change your insanities.

(i)

Taboo

- Choose an action you have Equipment for,

Launder

or (if a cultist)

Craft Fetish

. You may no longer take that action. If you choose

Taboo

(Launder)

, you may not take

Compulsion

.
(ii)

Hallucination

- You always hear

Noises

each

Night

regardless of actions taken.
(iii)

Compulsion

- If you are

Bloody

, you must

Launder

. You may not choose

Taboo

(Launder)

in the future.
(iv)

Aversion

- Choose a player who is alive. You may no longer vote to lynch that player. If and when that player dies, you must choose a new player from among those still alive. If you are a

Cultist

, you may never choose another Cultist.
(v)

Distraction

- Your lynch vote, once placed on another player, cannot revert to a player you voted to lynch earlier this

Day

.
(vi)

Paranoid

- Each

Day

, if any living player has voted to lynch you, you may only change your vote to players who have voted to lynch you that

Day

.
(vii)

Twitchy

- All posts by you in which you vote or unvote must contain "*twitch*" or "*twitches*".
(viii)

Avolition

- For three

Days

, your vote no longer contributes to a lynch. Your vote still shows up in vote counts.
(ix)

Sadism

- You may only place your votes on players who are one or two votes away from a lynch.
(x)

Psychopathy

- You are now a

Murderer

.

Only Investigators may take this Insanity, and cannot take it as their first Insanity

.

If a character posts before PMing their Insanity choice(s) to the Moderator, or if they contradict one of their Insanities in any post, the Moderator will insert the text

Insanity Infraction

into the post.

If a character receives 3 Insanity Infractions in one game

Day

, they will lose their

Night Action

for the following

Night

, and will gain an

Insanity

instead. If this occurs for a second time, or gains 8 Insanity Infractions over the course of the game, they will be modkilled.

If a player reaches an Insanity Count of

8

, they will no longer gain any

Insanities

. Votes that contradict Insanities will not contribute to a Lynch.

Dead

Once you have been lynched, murdered or killed by the Ritual, you may no longer post. You may still be the target of the

Rob Grave

action.

Dust

You may no longer be the target of

Rob Grave

. All of your Equipment is destroyed (if it was not taken by a grave robber), and your alignment is made known to the players.

Chaos

If

every living player

is

Bloody

at any time, all

Investigators

gain the

Psychopathy

insanity, and the

Day

phase no longer occurs. For this state to be triggered, there must be at least three more Investigators than Cultists remaining.

Night Actions

The following are the available Night Actions. They take place in the listed order, and each action resolves simultaneously amongst those who have chosen it (most relevant for

Murder

,

Ward

and

Commune

). If your action fails for any reason, you will be informed via PM (with

Ward

and some instances of

Resuscitate

being the only exceptions). A failed action will not produce the

Effect

, but all

Side Effects

still apply. Some actions allow you to take another action, but you may never perform more than two actions in a single Night.

Participate in the Ritual

Together with [Other Participants], you venture into the heart of the temple. The long, winding tunnels stretch on for hours, always slanting down. Eventually you come to the circular Ritual hall.

You smear your own blood on the walls, and take your seat around the circle of dread power, lit with black candles scented with the tears of innocents.

Holding aloft your fetish of

Target

, you beseech the gods you serve to deliver chaos, blood and murder upon him!

A dark vortex swirls in front of you, and what slithers, floats, crawls its way out brings madness. It is a loathesome, fleshy construct of unimaginable power, covered with coiling tentacles and oozing putrid rot.

It sets off through the house to fulfil its purpose.

You breathe deeply as reality slowly reasserts itself. You blow out the candles...

Target

: Any player.

Effect

: You submit the target's name to the Ritual.

Prerequisites

: Only

Cultists

may take this action. At least one third (rounding up) of the Cultists must submit the same name for the Ritual to take effect, and the Cultists must possess a

Fetish

linked to the target.

Greater Ritual

: If two thirds (rounding up) of the Cultists target the same player, the Ritual counts as two kills for the purpose of

Resuscitate

.

Free Action

: You may

Participate in the Ritual

and perform another

Night Action

.

Launder

When

Bloody

:

You rush outside, and use a small gas heater to melt some snow. Looking nervously over your shoulder, you jam your

Bloody

clothes into the hole and furiously scrub them clean with your hands. Your hands soon grow numb with cold.

You return inside.

When not Bloody

:

You rush outside, and use a small gas heater to melt some snow. Looking nervously over your shoulder, you jam your clothes into the hole and furiously scrub them clean with your hands.

"Can't make it clean. Need to make it clean again. I can't make it clean! They'll know, they can see it, I can see it, make it clean! Clean again!"

Your hands soon grow numb with cold as you howl in the night. You return inside.

Target

: Yourself.

Effect

: If you are

Bloody

, your

Blood

is removed.

Prerequisites

: None.

Side Effects

: If you are not

Bloody

when you take this action, you gain an

Insanity

.

Notes

: Players who do not submit a

Night Action

will default to this action.

Search

Target

: Yourself.

Effect

: You acquire your choice of equipment -

Forensic Tools

,

Resuscitation Kit

, or

Occult Books

.

Prerequisites

: You may not search for a

Resuscitation Kit

while

Bloody

.

Forensic Tools

After the others leave, you begin searching through the mess strewn about the large rooms on the ground floor of the temple. After some digging, you find a UV lamp and some batteries, perfect for detecting unseen blood.

Effect

: You may choose the

Investigate

Night Action.

Destroyed when

: An

Investigate

you perform discovers

Blood

.

Resuscitation Kit

After the others leave, you begin searching through the mess strewn about the large rooms on the ground floor of the temple. You find some electronic equipment, and what looks like some chest paddles. You turn it over in your hands, and manage to switch it on. Perhaps you can save another.

Effect

: You may choose the

Resuscitate

Night Action.

Destroyed when

: You become

Bloody

.

Occult Books

Hidden near the back of the temple is an old, dusty library. It smells of old parchment and lavender, but your skin crawls as you approach the shelves. You draw out a volume bound with red leather, and its power floods through your hand and fills your vision with blackened rage. This is what you were looking for.

Effect

: You may choose the

Commune

Night Action.

Destroyed when

:

Commune

discovers someone more

Insane

than you are.

Ward

With care and practiced grace, you sketch the protective wards around the sleeping form of

Target

. The chalk, tinged with your own blood, seeps into the floor and disappears after your whispered incantation, before flaring into ghostly light. He will be safe tonight.

Target

: Any other player.

Effect

: If your target is targeted by the

Pass Fetish

,

Craft Fetish

or

Stalk

actions, those actions fail.

Prerequisites

: None.

Side Effects

: Your target hears

Noise

. You hear

Noise

. Your action will fail if someone targets you with

Ward

, and you will not be notified of the failure. If you choose this action two nights in a row, you gain an

Insanity

.

Pass Fetish

Success

:

You sneak into

Target

's room as soon as they are gone. You leave the

Fetish

sitting atop their things, staring into the room with vacant, evil eyes.

Failure

:

You attempt to do the same with

Target

, but a large circle, wrought with ancient runes, turns you away.

Target

receives

:

You leave your room for a few moments, and when you return, you find something horrible.

Something disgusting, intrusive, a part of you twisted and shaped for evil purposes. The small doll seems to look right into your soul, and you feel yourself go mad.

Target

: Up to three (different) non-Cultists.

Effect

: The targets aquire a

Fetish

of themselves, causing them to gain an

Insanity

. Investigators cannot gain more than one Insanity per night as a result of this action. The Cultists lose any Fetishes they successfully pass.

Prerequisites

: You must be a

Cultist

to choose this action. The Cult must also possess

Fetishes

of each of your targets.

Side Effects

: Your targets hear

Noise

.

Craft Fetish

Success

:

You find

Target

thrashing in their sleep in a small, dark room. You carefully pluck some hair from their head and escape back to The Sanctum. You fashion a small doll; canvas from hemp hewn by silver on the full moon, filled with the wool of a day old lamb, stitched with the entrails of a man slain by demons, and

Target

's hair tying a noose around its neck. It pulses with the power of the gods you serve.

Failure

:

You attempt to do the same with

Target

, but a large circle, wrought with ancient runes, turns you away.

Target

: Up to two non-Cultists.

Effect

: You create a

Fetish

of your targets.

Prerequisite

: You must be a

Cultist

to choose this action.

Side Effect

: Your targets hear

Noise

.

Notes

: Fetishes are not equipment, and once made are available to the Cult as a group. This action will fail if your target has also been the target of

Pass Fetish

.

Rob Grave

You pause at the top of the stairs that leads down to the ice outside. You take a deep breath and prepare yourself for the descent.

Down, down, through the thick night air, towards the hasty cairn built for

Target

. You dig up his corpse, spray some lighter fluid on his flesh and set him alight.

If Cultist

:

You watch as his body disintegrates and his spirit leaves his fleshy body, cackling with the insanity of the Elder Gods.

If Investigator

:

You watch as his body disintegrates and his spirit leaves his fleshy body, weeping with the loss of life and mind.

If Murderer

:

You watch as his body disintegrates and his spirit leaves his fleshy body, cackling with the madness of death and murder.

If Sole Targetter

:

You hastily remove [

Equipment

] before you set them alight.

Target

: Any

Dead

player.

Effects

: The alignment of the Dead player is publicly revealed the next

Day

. If you are the only player to target them, you will receive all of their equipment (

Resuscitation Kits

provided you are not

Bloody

,

Forensic Kits

and/or

Occult Books

) if they had any.

Prerequisites

: None.

Side Effects

: You gain an

Insanity

. Your target turns to

Dust

.

Free Action

: You may choose

Rob Grave

and another

Night Action

.

Resuscitate

You keep your

Resuscitation Kit

at the ready, ghosting

Target

for the evening.

If successfully

Resuscitated

:

Just when you thought everything was going to be quiet for the evening, your blood runs cold. Your skin prickles in horrified anticipation.

You hear

Target

scream, and rush in to find his badly mutilated body lying on the floor. His assailant is nowhere to be seen.

"You're going to be OK, just hold on..." you whisper, but he's lost consciousness. You shock him once, twice, three times... He splutters, and breathes again. You wrap his wounds as best you can, shoot him full of painkillers and leave before you pass out from shock.

Covered in blood, your

Resuscitation Kit

is unusable.

If unsuccessfully

Resuscitated

:

Just when you thought everything was going to be quiet for the evening, your blood runs cold. Your skin prickles in horrified anticipation.

You hear

Target

scream, and rush in to find his badly mutilated body lying on the floor. His assailant is nowhere to be seen.

"You're going to be OK, just hold on..." you whisper, but he's lost consciousness. You shock him once, twice, three times... He splutters, and breathes again. You wrap his wounds as best you can, but he's too far gone. He dies in your arms.

Covered in blood, your

Resuscitation Kit

is unusable.

If no killing actions target player

:

No ill befalls them.

Target

receives on successful

Resuscitate

:

...


...


...

"Can you hear me?"

...


"Can you hear me?"

Pain, everywhere. Nothing but black and red and oh god what has happened to me

"You're going to be OK,

you're going

to..."

Sleep reclaims you. When you awake in the morning, you are alone. You are drenched in blood, and bear the mental scars of your near-death experience.

Target

: Any other player.

Effect

: You protect your target against one of either

Murder

or

The Ritual

.

Prerequisite

: You must possess a

Resuscitation Kit

.

Side Effects

: Your target hears

Noise

. Any Resuscitate action targeting you tonight will fail, and the player who targeted you will not be notified of the failure. If you successfully protect them, you become

Bloody

, and your target both becomes

Bloody

and gains an

Insanity

when the killing action (

Murder

or

the Ritual

) resolves.

Notes

: If more killing actions target the player than there are players Resuscitating them, then the kill is not prevented, though you still become

Bloody

when the killing action resolves. If you save your target from death, they will be notified that they were saved, but not by whom.

Investigate

You wait outside

Target

's room. Eventually, he leaves; you dash in and shine your UV light all over his clothes, attempting to catch a glimpse of blood with your

Forensic Tools

.

Target

Bloody

:

The light does not lie.

Blood

is everywhere. Your light shudders and dies out; your

Forensic Tools

are broken.

Target

not bloody

:

There is none to be found.

Target

: Any other player.

Effect

: You determine whether your target has

Blood

on their clothes.

Prerequisite

: You must possess

Forensic Tools

.

Side Effect

: Your target hears

Noise

.

Stalk

You watch

Target

dash off into the massive temple, and slip quietly away in the confusion. You follow, and attempt to catch up to them.

Success

:

You spend the whole night ghosting

Target

- finding hiding places, learning habits, learning noises. The desire to snuff out those noises and desecrate their hiding places with their warm, red blood builds in you. You are ready to strike just after sunset tomorrow. You return to your room and sharpen your knives.

Failure

:

As they run before you down a long, straight corridor, you come to a circle drawn in the dust. Try as you might, you cannot fight your way past it, and you lose them into the night.

Target

: Any other player.

Effect

: You prepare yourself to

Murder

your target.

Prerequisites

: You must be an

Investigator

or a

Murderer

.

Side Effect

: Your target hears

Noise

. You gain an

Insanity

.

Murder

You sharpen your knife and watch

Target

move about the mansion. After a few hours, you know it's time.

You leap from the shadows and draw your blade across his throat, cackling with pride and elation. You let the blood, gushing from his wound, run down your arms and soak you in his death.

Target

successfully

Resuscitated

:

When you return to join the others,

Target

still breathes. Someone must have saved him from death!

Target

receives

:

You begin to make your way back to your room. Waiting for you is not peaceful slumber, however. Someone there, lurking in the darkness. The knife glints, and your world explodes in pain.

Target

: Any other player.

Effect

: You kill your target. They are now

Dead

.

Prerequisite

: You must have targetted them with

Stalk

the previous night. You also cannot take this action for a second time unless you have the insanity

Psychopathy

.

Side Effects

: You become

Bloody

. You gain an

Insanity

.

Commune

You open the

Occult Books

bound in red leather, containing your notes and annotations and clippings and spells. You locate the one you seek, and sit yourself in the centre of a circle of salt. You invoke the spirits to attend to you, to assess the mind of another person here imprisoned. You invoke

Target

's name, and they fill your mind with images, flashes, half-stitched-together memories all tumbling through.

Target

more

Insane

:

They push against your will until finally, you know

Target

's mind, twisted in grave and terrible

Insanity

. You expel them by breaking the circle with a brush of your hand. Their presence lingers.

Your

Occult Books

burst into green flame, leaving nothing but ashes.

Target

not more

Insane

:

They push against your will until finally, satisfied with

Target

's sanity, you expel them by breaking the circle with a brush of your hand. Their presence lingers.

Target

: Any other player.

Effect

: You learn whether your target has (strictly) more

Insanities

than you.

Prerequisites

: You must possess

Occult Books

.

Side Effects

: You gain an

Insanity

after the

Effect

resolves.

Ritual Resolves

Success

:

You return to the scene of the Ritual and await the return of your... fellow servant.

It returns before too long, dripping with the blood of its victim. The madness grips you again as it reports its success in the gutteral language of your gods.

Target

's blood flies all over the room, and spatters all over your clothes. It retreats back through the portal to the nether realms.

Failure

:

You return to the scene of the Ritual and await the return of your... fellow servant.

It returns before too long, the same as it entered. The madness grips you again as it reports that

Target

had already died. It retreats back through the portal to the nether realms.

Target

successfully

Resuscitated

:

When you return to join the others,

Target

still breathes. Someone must have saved him from death!

Target

receives

:

You return to your room, and intend to wait the night out there. Waiting for you is not peaceful slumber, however.

Something slithers, floats, crawls in the darkness. It is a loathesome, fleshy construct of unimaginable power, covered with coiling tentacles and oozing putrid rot. Before you can scream, it lets out a terrible roar, a noise no mortal should hear. Your mind is blasted from your body.

Your face stretches into a terrible rictus, and you walk smiling to your death.

Effect

: The target of the Ritual is killed.

Side Effects

: All

Cultists

who selected

Participate in the Ritual

gain an

Insanity

. If the target was not

Murdered

, they also become

Bloody

, even if the kill was prevented by

Resuscitate

.

Notes

: Only one Ritual may succeed per night. If there are multiple names submitted for the Ritual, whoever has the clear majority will be killed. If there is no clear majority, the Ritual will fail.

Other Game Rules

Do not discuss this game with other players outside this thread. The only exception to this rule are the Cultists, who may post in their QuickTopic thread.

Do not directly quote any PMs you receive from the Moderator. Do not mention any content in an attempt to learn the content of another PM ("its third and fifteenth letter is g", etc.) - PMs will be flavoured and (hopefully) interesting, but they are just for you. Don't fake a PM and quote it, either.

Your

Night Action

choices are due to me by the posted deadline. If I do not receive your choice via PM by the posted deadline (usually 72 hours from the threadlock) you will default to the action

Launder

.

This game is a commitment, and should be treated as such. If you're going to be unable to post for a significant period of time, let me know

(it will help to let the other players know as well, of course).

I will prod players for being inactive for 5 RL days, and then possibly replace at my discretion. Players who receive multiple prods throughout the course of the game may be replaced as well.

All of the Moderator's decisions are final.

Purple is the Moderator's colour

. Do not use it. Do not use small/invisible text.

Violating any of these rules will result in a punishment according to their severity, from a private or public rebuke up to and including a Modkill. Modkills may be accompanied by a change in phase, at the discretion of the Moderator.

If you see something you don't understand, ASK! If you have any questions feel free to PM me directly, or

mark your question in bold

in the thread.

Questions and Answers

Questions asked publicly of the Moderator will be appended to this post.

Q: I'm an

Investigator

. What can I do on Night 0?
A: You may take the

Ward

action to interfere with the

Cultists'

plans, or

Search

to allow greater choice of Night Action for subsequent nights. You can also

Launder

(not recommended) or

Stalk

.

Q: I'm a

Cultist

. What can I do on Night 0?
A: The first thing you should do is talk to your fellow Cultists in your quicktopic. On the first Night, you should be looking to perform

Craft Fetish

on multiple targets, as well as choosing

Search

to get Equipment that will help your side later on (such as a

Resuscitation Kit

in case you are threatened by

Murderers

). An important strategy will be faking claims - such as explaining your

Insanities

, what

Night Actions

you took and when and how you heard or produced

Noise

, so discuss this with your Cultist buddies.

Q: I want to be a

Murderer

! What should I do?
A: Carefully read the Murderer Win Condition. Your first action should be

Stalk

.

Q: The

Murderer

Win Condition actually doesn't require everyone else to be dead. What happens when a Murderer wins? Does the game continue?
A: Game ends, Murderer wins! Winning as a Murderer takes at least 6 nights worth of effort, and a lot of luck.

Q: Are

Commune

and

Investigate

results always accurate?
A: Yes.

Q: The

Cultists

cannot kill Night 0 because they must first craft fetishes, right?
A: Yes, Investigators are safe from being killed by the Ritual (or Murder) on Night 0.

Q: For

Commune

, do you gain an

Insanity

before or after the action?
A: Afterwards.

Q: Actions like

Murder

and

Stalk

can be prevented. Do I still gain an

Insanity

if they are?
A: Yes.

Side Effects

always apply, even if the

Effect

is cancelled.

Q: Can I submit "No Action"?
A: No. The default action is

Launder

, which will probably send you

Insane

. There will always be a better choice than doing nothing. If you default to Launder and cannot choose Launder (due to an Insanity), you only gain an

Insanity

.

Q: Can I have more than one piece of

Equipment

?
A: Yes, there is no limit.

Q: Can I make multiple

Fetishes

of the same player?
A: Yes, there is no limit.

Q: Can a

Cultist

become a

Murderer

?
A: No;

Psychopathy

is available only to

Investigators

.

Q: Can

Rob Grave

be used multiple times per

Night

?
A: Yes, but the maximum of 2

Night Actions

per player per

Night

still applies.

Q: If my

Night Action

fails, will I be notified?
A: Yes, with two exceptions: (1) You are not notified if your

Ward

action fails due to someone warding you, and (2) You are not notified if your

Resuscitate

action fails due to your target also choosing

Resuscitate

.

Q: What happens if my

Insanity Count

reaches 8 and I gain another

Insanity

?
A: Your

Insanity Count

continues to go up as usual, but you don't choose any new

Insanities

.

Q: Will we be able to tell whether a death was due to a

Murder

or

The Ritual

?
A: Yes, but no further information will be given (such as number of

Murders

and/or who committed them).

Q: If a player is the target of

Murder

,

Resuscitate

and

The Ritual

, what happens?
A:

Resuscitate

prevents the

Murder

, but

The Ritual

succeeds.

Q: This game is so complicated!
A: Well, that's not really a question, is it? This game is complex, with multiple strategies that can be employed by the players.

Q: I played in the first game of Stars Aligned. What's changed?
A: The following has been changed from the previous edition:
-

Investigators

no longer begin the game with equipment.
-

Ward

requires no equipment.
-

Distraction

,

Aversion

,

Avolition

and

Twitchy

have been slightly altered. You cannot choose the same Insanity twice anymore. You cannot gain more than 8 Insanities.
-

Commune

(the old

Research

) no longer interferes with

The Ritual

, and

The Ritual

requires at least one third of Cultists to participate. Cultists can also make their Ritual kill harder to prevent.
-

Craft Fetish

has been altered so that Cultists can more easily manage their Fetishes, as has

Pass Fetish

.
-

Search

is the old

Equip

, but only the name has changed.
-Default action is

Launder

.
-

Rob Grave

is now a free action.
-

Cultists

are free to talk during the

Day

.
-

Fetishes

are no longer equipment, and are available to all Cultists.
-Enough

Insanity Infractions

result in the loss of your

Night Action

rather than a modkill.
-Cultists may no longer become

Traitors

.

“Fools!” said West, his clenched fist striking the lectern before him. “We must prepare today’s youth for a world whose terrors are etched upon ancient clay tablets recounting the fever-dreams of the other gods... who lie beneath the earth, waiting until the stars align so they can return to their rightful place as our masters...”

[Percy]

Quick Reference for Night Actions

Below is a greatly simplified list of the Night Actions, presented in the order in which they resolve. Consult the post above for more details; many actions have

Side Effects

.

Participate in the Ritual

-

Cultists only

,

Free Action

. Kills a player.

Launder

- Default action. Removes

Blood

.

Search

- Acquire equipment.

Ward

- Prevents

Stalk

,

Pass Fetish

and

Craft Fetish

.

Pass Fetish

-

Cultists only

. Causes

Insanity

.

Craft Fetish

-

Cultists only

. Required for

Pass Fetish

and

The Ritual

.

Rob Grave

-

Free Action

. Reveals alignment of

Dead

players, can acquire equipment.

Resuscitate

- Requires

Resuscitation Kit

. Prevents kills.

Investigate

- Requires

Forensic Tools

. Determines the presence of

Blood

.

Stalk

-

Investigators

and

Murderers

only. Prepares for

Murder

.

Murder

- Requires

Stalk

from the

Night

before. Kills the target.

Commune

- Requires

Occult Books

. Determines whether your target's

Insanity

is higher than your own.

Ritual Resolves

- Target of the Ritual is killed.

[Percy]

"What you are seeking lies to the North. Go North. North."

Every night, my dreams were invaded by the monotonous, maddening voice. The newspaper clippings strewn around the room, covered in insane scratchings I barely recognised as my own, pointed to something, but clarity eluded me. I hadn't left the house in weeks. My wife had left me months ago. Or perhaps years. Did I ever have a wife?

"North. Go North."

It was a dim winter's evening when I set out to find the object of my hunt - foretold in the stars, prophesied upon ancient clay tablets. It... called to me. What "It" was I could not say.

"North."

I rented a car and drove for days. When the car broke down, I walked. The snow was perpetual during the day, though the stars were clear at night. I spelt out words with them and formed my own constellations, making my own prophesy.

"North."

I was joined by another man, then a woman. We said not a word. We pushed on. Days passed. Weeks.

"North."

My body had withered, but still I walked. It was night again, and staring up at the stars, they seemed to blur, or shift. Far off in the distance, I saw a searchlight beaming its feeble light into the cosmos. I ran. I had made it.

The structure was immense, larger than any work of man; a mansion of some sorts, or perhaps a temple. Carved directly into the face of the mountain, it jutted out at strange angles, twisting the eye and turning the mind. We bounded up the great stone steps to the warm, inviting glow from inside.

Looking around, there were twenty-five of us, cold and miserable, eyes searching for some clue as to why we were called here. The entrance hall was well-lit, and passing through we found dinner laid out for us. Still not a word was spoken as we gorged ourselves on the strange food and drink; meat from no animal I had ever seen, fruits of all hues that burst with the slightest pressure, and a strange green liquid that burned inside.

Before long, I regained my senses. Looking at the others, these strange creatures, I knew I was in danger. I ran.

It is now Night 0. Role PMs are going out now.

[Percy]

All players confirmed.

Please send in your Night Action choice by the deadline. You may change your choice up until deadline by sending me another PM.

[Percy]

The vast majority of players have sent me their Night Action choice. If I receive

all

Night Action choices by 8:00am site time on Thursday the 19th of January (exactly one day before the posted deadline), I'll start the First Day.

[Percy]

"I managed to find a small alcove where I thought I could get some sleep, and though my body yearned for sleep, the noises of the others kept me awake.

The rooms in this place were immense. The high ceilings, supported by twisting pillars, hung menacingly over me, as though they had watched thousands of fools like me dare to learn the secrets of this place.

I returned to my hiding place and pulled my ragged coat over my head. I escaped into the land of dreams...

Far below this place, I choked for air, thrashing and churning the water around me. I was drowning, and there was nothing but darkness around me. As the blood ran from my head, I felt it move - the thing that had called me here, slowly rising below me. The size of it was... incomprehensible. I saw an enormous, pale tentacle reach out towards me, and I screamed.

I woke up screaming, covered in sweat. I held onto the floor, digging my fingers into the solidity of reality, and slowly caught my breath.

My scalp hurt, but I couldn't recall injuring myself. Puzzled and scared, I made my way back to the dining hall where the others had been last night.

I found them gathered there, frightened and haggard. The sunlight, filtered through the clouds and slicing up from the snow outside, was warming and welcome in this dark and terrible place. We began to talk."

It is now

the First Day.

Make sure you read your

Night 0 Result PM

before posting in this thread.

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

EDIT: Site seems to be having issues. Apologies to anyone who received more than one Result PM; they will be identical if you did.

[Percy]

Just wanted to make something abundantly clear:

Your PMs have been flavoured. The flavour is for you and you

alone

. Any attempts to even

reference

the content of the flavour for a particular action in public will be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly.

[Percy]

"Talk of those who were moving around in the night consumed us. Suspicious looks were cast around the table, and before long, I found myself calling for someone's blood."

Vote Count

animorpherv1 - 6 (elvis_knits, Seacore, startransmission, iLord, Iecerint, vikingfan)

dramonic - 5 (Sajin, Adel, Amished, Faraday, SlySly)
Amished - 1 (VP Baltar)
Adel - 1 (Wickedestjr)

Not Voting

- 12 (animorpherv1, Chaco, Col. Cathart, dramonic, Drench, DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, evilsnail, Nicodemus, Phate, Sarag, semioldguy)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Query: Can Rob Grave be used multiple times a night?

Multiple people can choose

Rob Grave

, just like any other action.

As

Rob Grave

is a

Free Action

, a player could rob two different graves, but they would gain two

Insanities

.

You only get the equipment from the

Dead

player if you are the only player to target them with

Rob Grave

.

[Percy]

If a person's stalk fails due to ward, would they be notified?

You are notified if your

Night Action

fails. This applies not just to

Stalk

, but to every action that can fail, with the exception of

Ward

.

EDIT: I neglected to mention that failure notification is not given if your

Resuscitate

fails due to your target also choosing

Resuscitate

.

[Percy]

@Mod: What happens if I rob so many graves that I would be taking my ninth insanity?

This response is correct.

[Percy]

Vote Count

animorpherv1 - 9 (elvis_knits, Seacore, startransmission, iLord, Iecerint, vikingfan, Nicodemus, Ellibereth, animorpherv1)

dramonic - 3 (Sajin, Amished, Faraday)
Adel - 2 (Wickedestjr, SlySly)
Ellibereth - 1 (VP Baltar)
SlySly - 1 (Adel)

Not Voting

- 9 (Chaco, Col. Cathart, dramonic, Drench, DrippingGoofball, evilsnail, Phate, Sarag, semioldguy)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

I will confirm that there was an error in the Night 0 Result PM I sent to animorpherv1. It has since been corrected.

If Alice wards Bob, and Charlie wards Alice, then Charlie's ward causes Alice's ward to fail. Alice will be warded, but Bob will not be warded.

[Percy]

Mod: can you please confirm that the day has not ended?

The

First Day

continues.

I want to make sure that Percy accepts the

vote: ani

format.

I do.

[Percy]

Due to shenanigans, I'll post another VC.

Vote Count

animorpherv1 - 10 (elvis_knits, startransmission, iLord, Iecerint, vikingfan, Nicodemus, Ellibereth, animorpherv1, dramonic, Adel)

dramonic - 2 (Amished, Faraday)
Adel - 2 (Wickedestjr, SlySly)
Ellibereth - 2 (VP Baltar, Phate)

Not Voting

- 9 (Col. Cathart, Drench, DrippingGoofball, evilsnail, Sarag, semioldguy, Sajin, Chaco, Seacore)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Mod: Can you please explain your policy on kill flavor? Specifically, is there a standardized kill flavor, and are Murder and Ritual distinguished? Is there a distinction between Murder committed by Investigators and Murder committed by Murderers?

You will be able to tell whether the deaths were a result of a

Murder

or by

The Ritual

. There is no flavour distinction between Murders.

[Percy]

Mod: I would like to know whether Adel's proposed plan in post 385 (or a similar one) a) is against the current rules, or b) will result in any mod alteration of the rules, disciplinary mod action against those who participate in the plan (other than the Insanity Infraction for failing to post *twitch*) (please provide specifics, if any).

What I'm asking you, in short, is whether you have a problem with a concerted attempt to break your setup, or whether you would take steps to prevent this midgame if you thought this was possible.

I am currently discussing it with Vi.

I have reserved the right to alter the rules of the game as the game progresses. I continue to reserve that right. If I believe a strategy has been concocted that will break the game (as per Texas Justice), I will alter the rules to prevent this from occuring, such as broadening the definition of

Chaos

.

As it stands, I do not believe that any breaking strategy exists for this game. This included the various plans that Adel has proposed.

I'll give it some more thought, continue to talk with my backup mod, and get back to you.

[Percy]

Vote Count

animorpherv1 - 9 (elvis_knits, startransmission, iLord, Iecerint, vikingfan, Nicodemus, Ellibereth, animorpherv1, dramonic)

dramonic - 2 (Amished, Faraday)
Adel - 2 (Wickedestjr, SlySly)
Ellibereth - 2 (VP Baltar, Phate)
SlySly - 2 (Seacore, Adel)

Not Voting

- 8 (Col. Cathart, Drench, DrippingGoofball, evilsnail, Sarag, semioldguy, Sajin, Chaco)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

Adel has requested replacement.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Let me make something abundantly clear.

I do not believe a breaking strategy exists. I have worked very, very hard to make sure there is no such thing in this game.

A "breaking strategy" is something that

breaks the game

. If there is some sequence of Night Actions that one faction can take to

ensure

their victory, then I believe this will make the game very unsatisfying for all involved. If it becomes broken, then I have two choices - either let it play out, or fix it and let play continue. If the fix were to change anything fundamental about the game, then the game would be abandoned.

I'm not going to change the rules if some element of the game can be exploited to give one side an

advantage

. In fact, I've built many such things into this game deliberately, so that careful and observant players can help their side (or themselves, as the case may be...)

I hope this makes my position crystal clear. I have no desire to spoil your fun, and I am an avidly strategic player myself. I also can assure you, with 99.99% confidence, that the rules will be unaltered throughout the course of the game.

[Percy]

Hayker replaces Adel.

There will be no modkills.

[Percy]

Vote Count

animorpherv1 - 4 (startransmission, vikingfan, Nicodemus, dramonic)

Nicodemus - 3 (evilsnail, Iecerint, animorpherv1)
Hayker - 2 (Wickedestjr, SlySly)
Ellibereth - 2 (Faraday, Phate)
SlySly - 1 (Seacore)
evilsnail - 1 (Amished)
Iecerint - 1 (VP Baltar)
Chaco - 1 (DrippingGoofball)

Not Voting

- 9 (Col.Cathart, Drench, Sarag, semioldguy, Sajin, Chaco, Ellibereth, elvis_knits, Hayker, iLord)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

There was an error in the previous Vote Count, and it has been corrected.

Col.Cathart's replacement request is noted.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Nicodemus - 3 (evilsnail, Iecerint, animorpherv1)

animorpherv1 - 2 (startransmission, dramonic)
Hayker - 2 (Wickedestjr, SlySly)
Iecerint - 2 (VP Baltar, elvis_knits)
Ellibereth - 2 (Faraday, Phate)
SlySly - 1 (Seacore)
evilsnail - 1 (Amished)
Chaco - 1 (DrippingGoofball)
startransmission - 1 (Sajin)

Not Voting

- 10 (CSL, Drench, Sarag, semioldguy, Chaco, Ellibereth, Hayker, iLord, Nicodemus, vikingfan)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

CSL replaces Col.Cathart.

Amished has requested replacement.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Nicodemus - 6 (evilsnail, Iecerint, animorpherv1, iLord, Phate, DrippingGoofball)

Iecerint - 3 (VP Baltar, elvis_knits, SlySly)
animorpherv1 - 2 (startransmission, dramonic)
Hayker - 1 (Wickedestjr)
Ellibereth - 1 (Faraday)
SlySly - 1 (Seacore)
evilsnail - 1 (Magua)
startransmission - 1 (Sajin)

Not Voting

- 9 (CSL, Drench, Sarag, semioldguy, Chaco, Ellibereth, Hayker, Nicodemus, vikingfan)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

Magua replaces Amished.

Seacore has requested replacement.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Katy replaces Seacore.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Nicodemus - 5 (evilsnail, Iecerint, animorpherv1, iLord, Ellibereth)
Iecerint - 5 (VP Baltar, elvis_knits, SlySly, Phate, dramonic)

animorpherv1 - 2 (startransmission, DrippingGoofball)
Hayker - 1 (Wickedestjr)
Ellibereth - 1 (Faraday)
SlySly - 1 (Katy)
evilsnail - 1 (Magua)
startransmission - 1 (Sajin)

Not Voting

- 8 (CSL, Drench, Sarag, semioldguy, Chaco, Hayker, Nicodemus, vikingfan)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

Please do not post with alt accounts.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Iecerint - 6 (VP Baltar, elvis_knits, SlySly, Phate, dramonic, CSL)

Nicodemus - 4 (Iecerint, animorpherv1, iLord, vikingfan)
startransmission - 3 (Sajin, Ellibereth, DrippingGoofball)
Hayker - 2 (Wickedestjr, Katy)
animorpherv1 - 1 (startransmission)
Ellibereth - 1 (Faraday)
Katy - 1 (evilsnail)
evilsnail - 1 (Magua)

Not Voting

- 6 (Drench, Sarag, semioldguy, Chaco, Hayker, Nicodemus)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

I have updated the Q+A section with the questions from the thread. I've also included another (unasked) question that was related to some of the questions being asked, as my response to this question has changed from the first version of the game:

Q: If a player is the target of

Murder

,

Resuscitate

and

The Ritual

, what happens?
A:

Resuscitate

prevents the

Murder

, but

The Ritual

succeeds.

Prods on inactive players will be going out tomorrow.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Iecerint - 6 (VP Baltar, elvis_knits, SlySly, dramonic, CSL, animorpherv1)

Nicodemus - 5 (iLord, vikingfan, Katy, DrippingGoofball, semioldguy)
startransmission - 4 (Sajin, Ellibereth, Iecerint, Phate)
Hayker - 1 (Wickedestjr)
animorpherv1 - 1 (startransmission)
Ellibereth - 1 (Faraday)
Katy - 1 (evilsnail)
evilsnail - 1 (Magua)

Not Voting

- 5 (Drench, Sarag, Chaco, Hayker, Nicodemus)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

Faraday and Sarag have requested replacement.

Drench has been prodded.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Plum replaces Sarag.

[Percy]

rewq455 replaces Faraday.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Nicodemus - 11 (iLord, vikingfan, Katy, DrippingGoofball, semioldguy, VP Baltar, dramonic, Iecerint, elvis_knits, animorpherv1, Ellibereth)

startransmission - 2 (Sajin, Phate)
Iecerint - 2 (SlySly, CSL)
Hayker - 1 (Wickedestjr)
animorpherv1 - 1 (startransmission)
Ellibereth - 1 (rewq455)
Katy - 1 (evilsnail)
evilsnail - 1 (Magua)
vikingfan - 1 (Nicodemus)

Not Voting

- 4 (Drench, Plum, Chaco, Hayker)

Deadline for today is 8:00am (site time) on Thursday the 11th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

With 25 alive, 13 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

"I will never fully understand what happened to us that day. All of us, perfect strangers, screaming for the death of others.

The anger and madness built to feverish intensity. Someone found an extension cord and began thrusting it into the air, and I found my mouth uttering words no human mouth should ever utter. We chanted in unison:

'Nicodemus! Nicodemus!
nglui-n'gah geb goka!
c-ehye!
nglui-n'gah geb goka!
c-ehye!
uaaah!
uaaah y'hah!'

Some restrained his flailing limbs and bore him to the dusty ground. One of us, a slight woman, grabbed the cord and wrapped it around his neck. Her boot held his head firm as she strangled him, a mad rictus transforming her into a creature of nightmares.

The body shuddered, and lay still. We cheered. We cheered!

The cheers turned into astonished cries as the world lurched. The sun, still many hours from setting, dropped below the horizon, and we were plunged into darkness.

'What have we done?' cried someone. Perhaps it was me. But all order and unity was lost as we clambered over each other to find a safe place, away from the others, away from what we had done."

Nicodemus

has been lynched. His

Insanity Count

was

0

.

I will be sending out your Night 1 PMs when I get home from work, in ~6 hours. 72 hour deadline for

Night 1

will begin once the PMs are out.

[Percy]

All Night 1 PMs have gone out.

Final Day 1 Vote Count

Nicodemus - 14 (iLord, vikingfan, Katy, DrippingGoofball, semioldguy, VP Baltar, dramonic, Iecerint, elvis_knits, animorpherv1, Ellibereth, Chaco, Nicodemus, CSL)

startransmission - 2 (Sajin, Phate)
Iecerint - 1 (SlySly)
Hayker - 1 (Wickedestjr)
animorpherv1 - 1 (startransmission)
Ellibereth - 1 (rewq455)
Katy - 1 (evilsnail)
evilsnail - 1 (Magua)

Not Voting

- 3 (Drench, Plum, Hayker)

[Percy]

Less than 24 hours until deadline. Send in your Night Action choices by the deadline, or you will

Launder

.

[Percy]

I spent the night exploring the temple, attempting to find out why I was called here. The walls were covered in strange, curling script, surrounding pictograms of men and some other creatures I couldn't identify.

Whilst they stood like men, their faces were a twisting nightmare. They were often shown submerged in water, as though these deformed creatures were aquatic. I noted everything I could think of in my notebook.

I am positive that the others were not so scholarly. The night was punctuated with fast footfalls, screams, crashes and the cackling of madness.

I had no desire to return there. I gathered my things, and moved further into the temple. My best efforts to avoid my fellows were futile, however; they were at my destination.

My mind reeled. How many of my decisions were my own, and how many were guided by forces unknown?

It was a church of some sort. Row after row of pews swept back from the altar, a granite block covered in a sea-green cloth.

The ghost of

Nicodemus

swirled out from behind the altar, bending the air around his transparent form.

"Glad to see you could all make it, ladies and gentlemen. My demise was most unfortunate, but this is only the beginning.

"One must shed their blood here today. The choice is yours."

He then began to chant, and music followed soon after as he disappeared from our sight.

Not all of us made it to the church, victims of cruel knives in the dark. I knew someone had to be sacrificed to satisfy the things that lurk below, but I would do anything to ensure that it wasn't me.

Nicodemus

was a

Cultist

.

Katy

was

Murdered

during the Night, and her

Insanity Count

was

0

.

Iecerint

was

Murdered

during the Night, and his

Insanity Count

was

0

.

Sajin

was

Murdered

during the Night, and his

Insanity Count

was

0

.

Deadline for today's lynch is 11:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 21st of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 21 alive, 11 votes are required to Lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Drench - 2 (elvis_knits, VP Baltar)

startransmission - 1 (Ellibereth)
animorpherv1 - 1 (Phate)

Not Voting

- 17 (animorpherv1, Chaco, CSL, dramonic, Drench, DrippingGoofball, evilsnail, Hayker, iLord, Magua, Plum, rewq455, semioldguy, SlySly, startransmission, vikingfan, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today's lynch is 11:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 21st of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 21 alive, 11 votes are required to Lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Drench - 3 (elvis_knits, VP Baltar, SlySly)

animorpherv1 - 2 (Phate, rewq455)
CSL - 2 (DrippingGoofball, vikingfan)
startransmission - 1 (Ellibereth)
Ellibereth - 1 (dramonic)

Not Voting

- 12 (animorpherv1, Chaco, CSL, Drench, evilsnail, Hayker, iLord, Magua, Plum, semioldguy, startransmission, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today's lynch is 11:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 21st of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

animorpherv1 received Insanity Infractions for this post, this post and this post. He has lost his

Night Action

for tonight.

I'd also like to remind everyone of my warning:

PMs have been flavoured. The flavour is for you and you

alone

. Any attempts to even

reference

the content of the flavour for a particular action in public will be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly.

A good rule of thumb is that if it's in italics at the top of your PM, it's for you. Everything from your

Night Action

choice down is free to be paraphrased.

Finally, I have added in an additional caveat about Insanity Infractions. If anyone loses their

Night Action

due to Insanity Infractions for a second time, or accrues 8 Insanity Infractions over the course of the game, they will be modkilled.

With 21 alive, 11 votes are required to Lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

CSL - 6 (DrippingGoofball, vikingfan, rewq455, VP Baltar, Phate, SlySly)

Drench - 2 (elvis_knits, CSL)
startransmission - 1 (Ellibereth)
Ellibereth - 1 (dramonic)

Not Voting

- 11 (animorpherv1, Chaco, Drench, evilsnail, Hayker, iLord, Magua, Plum, semioldguy, startransmission, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today's lynch is 11:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 21st of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Percy, if a Cultist accrues 3 Insanity Infractions, will he lose his ability to participate in the ritual that night? Additionally, would you consider purposely going for a modkill in this game blacklistable (Like going for a modkill in any other games?)

Yes to both questions. Note also that a modkill may end the

Day

at my discretion; for example, forcing a player to receive a modkill due to Insanity Infractions will end the day as though a

Lynch

had occured.

Prods going out to Chaco, Plum, semioldguy and Wickedestjr.

With 21 alive, 11 votes are required to Lynch.

[Percy]

(Some) Insanities are post restrictions, and intentionally violating a post restriction in any game is against the spirit of the rules, if not the letter. I've allowed players to do it once, and will continue to do so; however, if I believe a player has incurred enough Insanity Infractions

on purpose

to result in the loss of their

Night Action

, they will be modkilled and the

Day

will end.

CSL has requested replacement.

[Percy]

Before I knew it, the day was over.

After some frenzied shouting,

CSL

was hauled up to the altar. Someone pulled his head back by his hair, exposing his throat. Another took a wicked knife, curled and barbed, from an alcove, and muttered

"Cthulhu f'tagn!"

before drawing it savagely across his neck.

Mesmerized, I walked up to the altar and put my hands in the pool of blood that had spilled across the marble surface. Without a thought, I rushed over to the wall and began smearing twisted symbols and ancient pictograms in a frenzy. I do not know what I wrote, but when I finished, I began whooping with joy.

Looking around, I saw similar symbols being painted by the survivors on every bare surface. The altar had disappeared, though the still body of

CSL

marked its old location. Without full understanding of what I had done, I walked over to the hole in the ground where the altar once stood. Beneath it were steps, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

I descended.

CSL

has been lynched. His

Insanity Count

was

2

.

Your Night Action choices are due to me by 1:00am (site time) on Saturday the 6th of March. You can view a countdown to the deadline here.

Drench has requested replacement. If I haven't found a replacement by deadline, I will extend the Night.

I will get your Night 2 PMs to you as soon as possible.

Final Day 2 Vote Count

CSL - 11 (DrippingGoofball, vikingfan, rewq455, VP Baltar, Phate, SlySly, Ellibereth, elvis_knits, semioldguy, startransmission, dramonic)

Drench - 2 (CSL, Magua)

Not Voting

- 8 (animorpherv1, Chaco, Drench, evilsnail, Hayker, iLord, Plum, Wickedestjr)

[Percy]

Due to Ellibereth's Insanity Infraction in this post, the required lynch votes were not accrued.

However, given that I've already posted the Insanity Count and Lynch scene for CSL, I've decided to still call it a Night.

(Modding from phone is never a good idea, apologies everyone)

[Percy]

Night 2 PMs are out.

[Percy]

24 hours until

Night Action

deadline, folks.

[Percy]

kunkstar7 replaces Drench.

[Percy]

IRL crazy will prevent me from starting the game today. Deadline is pushed back 24 hours. Sorry everyone.

In the meantime, I've updated the Rules post to include all PMs that players may receive, in an attempt to avoid having to modkill anyone. Happy reading, and see you in 24 hours.

[Percy]

Below the altar were winding steps, constantly forking in different directions. I followed some instinct within me, and moved for what seemed like hours. My small lighter was all that kept me from complete darkness.

After what seemed like an eternity, I came upon a room. It would be more accurate to describe it as a cave; a pool of clear blue water sat in the centre, and stalactites hung menacingly above, dripping with moisture.

I lay by the side of the pool and attempted to get some rest.

Again, I dreamed. I was floating above the temple, looking down at this unnatural construct in the middle of an icy wasteland. From here I could see that the temple itself was a geometric figure; almost a five-pointed star, though my mind turned over whenever I tried to hold it all in my mind.

I plunged through the cold night air, whistling past the cairns of the dead, through to the church and down where the altar once stood, passing others as they climbed down the stairs. I passed my own body, lying on the side of the pool, and down into the water.

The... thing I saw last night was still there. Its appendages danced a strange and maddening dance as I beheld its immensity, its power. A glassy eye opened, and I felt it look into my soul. Eight more eyes opened, then more, countless misty piercing eyes focussed only on me I scream and scream and scream and

I woke up, gasping for breath, and scrambled away from the water. I needed to be as far away from the water as I could possibly get. I continued to descend down the steps, and came upon a grand sight.

It was a city of some sorts. Towering, bulbous buildings built beneath the temple promised solidity, and I entered the closest one. Inside was a large hall, with a circle of seats surrounding a deep hole in the ground. Others had already arrived.

The ghost of

Sajin

hovered above, weeping and shaking. "One must enter. One must enter." His form shakes apart, drifting ephemera that slowly fades from view.

Phate

was

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

,

Insanity Count

: 1

.

startransmission

was

Murdered

,

Insanity Count

: 3

.

Sajin

was an

Investigator

.

The

Third Day

has begun

.

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Beginning-of-day post has been edited to include the kills from last night.

[Percy]

Vote Count

kunkstar7 -3 (Ellibereth, vikingfan, iLord)

animorpherv1 - 2 (DrippingGoofball, VP Baltar)

Not Voting

- 13 (animorpherv1, Chaco, dramonic, elvis_knits, evilsnail, Hayker, kunkstar7, Magua, Plum, rewq455, semioldguy, SlySly, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Percy, if a player loses his night action due to three Insanity Infractions, does that player gain an insanity automatically that night?

Yes.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

evilsnail - 2 (semioldguy, Ellibereth)

animorpherv1 - 1 (DrippingGoofball)
kunkstar7 - 1 (VP Baltar)
DrippingGoofball - 1 (vikingfan)

Not Voting

- 13 (animorpherv1, Chaco, dramonic, elvis_knits, evilsnail, Hayker, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, Plum, rewq455, SlySly, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Mod, please prod or replace Hayker since he's clearly not playing the game. Thanks!

Indeed. Prodding Hayker, Magua, Plum and Wickedestjr.

As for twitchy, yes, *twitch* and *twitches* refer to actions, and so must be marked as such; that is, with asterisks.

There was an addition error in the previous vote count which has been fixed.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

kunkstar7 - 1 (VP Baltar)
evilsnail - 1 (semioldguy)
animorpherv1 - 1 (DrippingGoofball)
DrippingGoofball - 1 (vikingfan)
dramonic - 1 (Ellibereth)

Not Voting

- 13 (animorpherv1, Chaco, dramonic, elvis_knits, evilsnail, Hayker, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, rewq455, SlySly, Wickedestjr, Plum)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Unvote (Do I need a *twitch for these?)

Yes. Two asterisks are required, but I'll let it slide

this one time only

.

Hayker has not picked up his prod. I'll start looking for a replacement in 48 hours.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
Plum - 1 (semioldguy)
animorpherv1 - 1 (DrippingGoofball)
semioldguy - 1 (vikingfan)
dramonic - 1 (Ellibereth)
SlySly - 1 (Plum)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)
Hayker - 1 (rewq455)

Not Voting

- 10 (animorpherv1, Chaco, dramonic, evilsnail, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, SlySly, Wickedestjr, VP Baltar)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

@Percy: What happens if you have Taboo: Launder and fail to submit an action?

This is treated the same as losing your

Night Action

due to public Insanity Infractions; you perform no action, and gain an Insanity.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

SlySly - 6 (Plum, DrippingGoofball, iLord, VP Baltar, Chaco, vikingfan)

kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
Plum - 1 (semioldguy)
dramonic - 1 (Ellibereth)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)
Hayker - 1 (rewq455)

Not Voting

- 7 (animorpherv1, dramonic, evilsnail, kunkstar7, Magua, SlySly, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

SlySly - 7 (Plum, DrippingGoofball, iLord, VP Baltar, Chaco, vikingfan, dramonic)

kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
Plum - 1 (semioldguy)
dramonic - 1 (Ellibereth)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)
Hayker - 1 (rewq455)

Not Voting

- 6 (animorpherv1, evilsnail, kunkstar7, Magua, SlySly, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Plum's V/LA is noted.

I'll assess activity levels tomorrow.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

SlySly - 8 (Plum, DrippingGoofball, iLord, VP Baltar, Chaco, vikingfan, dramonic, evilsnail)

kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
Plum - 1 (semioldguy)
dramonic - 1 (Ellibereth)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)
Hayker - 1 (rewq455)
VP Baltar - 1 (Wickedestjr)

Not Voting

- 4 (animorpherv1, kunkstar7, Magua, SlySly)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

kunkstar7 is V/LA until the 21st. No-one needs a prod.

As for the Warding question:

Your action will fail if someone targets you with

Ward

, and you will not be notified of the failure.

This condition applies only to players who choose

Ward

as their

Night Action

.

Ward

does

not

function as a general-purpose roleblock.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Apologies for premature lock. Lynch has not occured.

[Percy]

Vote Count

SlySly - 9 (Plum, DrippingGoofball, iLord, VP Baltar, Chaco, vikingfan, dramonic, evilsnail, semioldguy)

kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
dramonic - 1 (Ellibereth)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)
Hayker - 1 (rewq455)
VP Baltar - 1 (Wickedestjr)

Not Voting

- 4 (animorpherv1, kunkstar7, Magua, SlySly)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Ellibereth's V/LA is noted. Activity check again tomorrow.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

SlySly - 8 (Plum, DrippingGoofball, iLord, VP Baltar, Chaco, vikingfan, dramonic, evilsnail)

kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
dramonic - 1 (Ellibereth)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)
Hayker - 1 (rewq455)
VP Baltar - 1 (Wickedestjr)

Not Voting

- 5 (animorpherv1, kunkstar7, Magua, SlySly, semioldguy)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Prodding Chaco, DrippingGoofball, evilsnail and Hayker.

[Percy]

Vote Count

SlySly - 8 (Plum, DrippingGoofball, iLord, VP Baltar, Chaco, vikingfan, dramonic, evilsnail)

DrippingGoofball - 2 (Ellibereth, SlySly)
kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)
Hayker - 1 (rewq455)

Not Voting

- 5 (animorpherv1, kunkstar7, Magua, semioldguy, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Hayker and evilsnail haven't responded to their prods. They have 24 hours before I look for replacements.

Chaco is V/LA for two days.

Prods going out again tomorrow.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

SlySly - 9 (Plum, DrippingGoofball, iLord, VP Baltar, Chaco, vikingfan, dramonic, evilsnail, rewq455)

DrippingGoofball - 2 (Ellibereth, SlySly)
kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)

Not Voting

- 5 (animorpherv1, kunkstar7, Magua, semioldguy, Wickedestjr)

Deadline for today is

10:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 27th of March

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

DrippingGoofball has accrued three Insanity Infractions, and so has lost her Night Action for tonight.

Searching for a replacement for Hayker.

With 18 alive, 10 votes are required to lynch.

[Percy]

We had sat, dirty and hungry, huddled in that ancient temple for what seemed like days. As I gazed into the pit, I heard it calling, its perfect darkness wanting to devour my mind and my body.

A fight started a short distance from me; I could see that they were trying to push someone into the pit. The hungry, black mouth.

It was

SlySly

. A fever gripped me - perhaps its calling would stop if I fed it. Could it be sated? Could such a thing ever know satisfaction?

I rushed up and helped them with

SlySly

, desperate to quiet the voices, the urge to jump headlong into oblivion. He struggled, but his face was still and peaceful at the end.

Silence descended over us, and I stood above the hole, stunned at my actions. Whatever lay at the bottom was not satisfied. It demanded more.

The darkness, wreathed in shadows and cloaked in madness, emerged from the chasm, spilling across the floor and around my feet.

I ran, off into the Night, off into the dark and alien city.

SlySly

has been lynched. His

Insanity Count

was

2

.

It is now the

Third Night

. Deadline to submit

Night Actions

is on

Thursday the 25th of March at 6:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Night Three PMs

will be sent out shortly.

Final Day Three Vote Count

SlySly - 10 (Plum, DrippingGoofball, iLord, VP Baltar, Chaco, vikingfan, dramonic, evilsnail, rewq455, kunkstar7)

DrippingGoofball - 2 (Ellibereth, SlySly)
kunkstar7 - 1 (elvis_knits)
Wickedestjr - 1 (Hayker)

Not Voting

- 4 (animorpherv1, Magua, semioldguy, Wickedestjr)

[Percy]

Furcolow replaces Hayker.

Searching for a replacement for Magua. Day will not start until a replacement is found.

[Percy]

No luck so far finding a replacement for Magua.

Please tell your friends about this game

[Percy]

VasudeVa replaces Magua.

Night Action Deadline

is now 48 hours from the time of this post, or whenever I receive all

Night Actions

, whichever comes sooner.

[Percy]

Magua contacted me a few hours after he was replaced, and VasudeVa kindly offered (without prompting from either myself or Magua) to let Magua have his spot back. I have agreed, so Magua is no longer replaced.

I'll take this opportunity to remind you that, whilst I do not mind if my players are absent (RL is busy, stressful etc.) for some period of time, I would ask that you notify me of your V/LA status.

Deadline for Night Actions is Saturday the 27th of March at 3:30pm (site time), or when all Night Actions are submitted.

[Percy]

That night was one of the worst of my life. I ran and ran until my legs felt like acid itself, following the winding trails around the strange, bulbous buildings. In the distance I could hear the terrified screams of my companions, but there were only two thoughts in my head - self-preservation, and the crushing guilt from my complicity in the murder of a stranger.

The further I got from the maddening darkness, the more alone I was, dashing through the silent city. Eventually, I stopped in a courtyard of some sort, and collapsed on the ground.

I was safe. Safe. Safe? The absurdity, the madness gripped me - I had never felt less safe than huddled here, all alone.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you doing this to me?"

Full of anger, I yelled my indignation at the sky, as though someone was the master of my downfall. I felt my thoughts turn in on themselves, blaming and questioning and probing and torturing and hurting and

I ran back. I was going to feed the hole, I was going to make the voices stop. But it wasn't long before I was completely lost in the city that must once have held hundreds of thousands of... creatures.

I curled up on a doorstep and tried to sleep, but my eyes refused to close.

Eventually, I found myself on the other side of the city, in a hall just like the one from the day before. There I found my companions, similarly sleep deprived, surrounding a hole in the floor.

Ringing the hole were six ghosts, pointing into the awaiting, hungry darkness.

It needed to be fed. And it wasn't going to be me that fed it. I smiled.

elvis_knits

was

Murdered

, and her

Insanity Count

was

1

.

Wickedestjr

was

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

, and his

Insanity Count

was

0

.

Iecerint, Katy, Phate and startransmission

were

Investigators

.

CSL and SlySly

were

Cultists

.

Deadline for the

Fourth Day

(and all subsequent

Days

) is now shortened to two weeks.

The current deadline is

8:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 10th of April

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 15 alive, it takes 8 to lynch

.

[Percy]

Vote Count

vikingfan - 3 (evilsnail, rewq455, iLord)

Ellibereth - 1 (animorpherv1)

Not Voting

- 11 (Chaco, dramonic, DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, Furcolow, kunkstar7, Plum, semioldguy, Magua, vikingfan, VP Baltar)

The current deadline is

8:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 10th of April

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Can Percy confirm that the rez target becomes bloody during the "Murder/Ritual Phase" and not the "Rez Phase."

This is correct.

With 15 alive, it takes 8 to lynch

.

[Percy]

Vote Count

vikingfan - 5 (evilsnail, rewq455, iLord, Plum, semioldguy)

Ellibereth - 2 (animorpherv1, Furcolow)

Not Voting

- 8 (Chaco, dramonic, DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua, vikingfan, VP Baltar)

The current deadline is

8:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 10th of April

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 15 alive, it takes 8 to lynch

.

[Percy]

Vote Count

vikingfan - 5 (evilsnail, rewq455, iLord, Plum, semioldguy)

Ellibereth - 2 (animorpherv1, Furcolow)

Not Voting

- 8 (Chaco, dramonic, DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua, vikingfan, VP Baltar)

The current deadline is

8:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 10th of April

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

@Mod: If a vote has an insanity infraction, is it void?

Yes.

Activity check tomorrow.

With 15 alive, it takes 8 to lynch

.

[Percy]

Vote Count

vikingfan - 6 (evilsnail, rewq455, iLord, Plum, semioldguy, DrippingGoofball)

Ellibereth - 2 (animorpherv1, Furcolow)
dramonic - 1 (VP Baltar)

Not Voting

- 6 (Chaco, dramonic, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua, vikingfan)

The current deadline is

8:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 10th of April

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Chaco hasn't responded to my prods, so he is being replaced.

With 15 alive, it takes 8 to lynch

.

[Percy]

Vote Count

vikingfan - 7 (evilsnail, rewq455, iLord, Plum, semioldguy, DrippingGoofball, VP Baltar

, Furcolow

)

Ellibereth - 2 (animorpherv1, Furcolow)
dramonic - 1 (VP Baltar)

Not Voting

- 6 (Chaco, dramonic, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua, vikingfan)

The current deadline is

8:00pm (site time) on Saturday the 10th of April

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Still working on the Chaco replacement.

With 15 alive, it takes 8 to lynch

.

[Percy]

Another day, another death. I didn't care; as long as it wasn't me.

I moved away from the temple, and began exploring the city.

Strange buildings seemed to grow out of the very bedrock...







Everywhere I turned, there was more to see, more to explore. I was fascinated, compelled to feel the city all around me...







I moved in closer to one of the larger buildings, crumbing after what must have been millennia...



Scattered all along the entrance to the building were strange, grinning skulls, vaguely humanoid but utterly alien.



I went inside...

vikingfan

has been lynched. His

Insanity Count

was

4

.

Final Day Four Vote Count

vikingfan - 8 (evilsnail, rewq455, iLord, Plum, semioldguy, DrippingGoofball, VP Baltar, Furcolow)

Ellibereth - 1 (animorpherv1)
dramonic - 1 (VP Baltar)

Not Voting

- 6 (Chaco, dramonic, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua, vikingfan)

The error in the last vote count was mine. I shouldn't have written Furcolow's vote into the list of voters.

Still working on the Chaco replacement.

[Percy]

Night 4 PMs are out, sorry for the delay.

I will hold off the next Day until a replacement for Chaco is found.

[Percy]

Still working on a Chaco replacement.

I've got around to writing the flavourtext for the lynch scene. Enjoy.

[Percy]

farside22 replaces Chaco.

I've given her 48 hours to submit her action to me. If I receive all player actions before then, I will start the Fifth Day early.

I'll take this opportunity to thank all the replacements in this game. You are awesome!

[Percy]

My dusty footfalls echoed around the chamber. There was little light, but what I could make out was row after circular row of seats, descending further into the darkness.

I slowly, silently made my way to the bottom, moving with the sudden curves and unnatural spirals of the ancient staircase.

In my mind, I heard noise; something like cheering, or screaming, or both at once. It hovered around me, insubstantial as memory.

I could see light slowly spilling onto the sandy floor at the bottom; from where, I knew not. As the light crept up the floor, I saw that the stadium opened out to far-reaching plains beyond; but what took centre stage was this:


It was a cruel torture implement, older than humanity itself. The wicked impulses in my unravelling mind, awakened by the madness embedded in the very stone of this unholy place, yearned to watch someone twist in agony upon it.

I looked around at my fellows, and knew they were thinking the same.

evilsnail

was

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

, and his

Insanity Count

was

1

.

vikingfan

was a

Murderer

.

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Plum - 2 (VP Baltar, semioldguy)

Ellibereth - 1 (Furcolow)

Not Voting

- 10 (animorpherv1, dramonic, DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, farside22, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, Plum, rewq455)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Activity check tomorrow.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Plum - 2 (semioldguy, DrippingGoofball)

Ellibereth - 1 (Furcolow)
farside22 - 1 (rewq455)

Not Voting

- 9 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, farside22, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, Plum, VP Baltar)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Prodding Magua.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

@mod: Can two murderers kill the same person, and it counts toward both win conditions?

Yes.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Plum - 4 (semioldguy, DrippingGoofball, rewq455, farside22)

Ellibereth - 1 (Furcolow)

Not Voting

- 8 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, Plum, VP Baltar)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Mod: If you stalk someone n0 can you stalk someone else N1? Would that option be avialible?

Whilst Stalk must come before Murder, Investigators and Murderers are not required to Murder after you Stalk. Investigators and Murderers can take the Stalk action as often as they like, including two concurrent nights.

Also, any votes that infringe one or more Insanities are rendered invalid.

Activity check tomorrow.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Plum - 5 (semioldguy, DrippingGoofball, rewq455, farside22, VP Baltar)

Ellibereth - 1 (Furcolow)
farside22 - 1 (Plum)

Not Voting

- 6 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Plum - 3 (semioldguy, DrippingGoofball, rewq455)

dramonic - 2 (Plum, VP Baltar)
Ellibereth - 1 (Furcolow)
DrippingGoofball - 1 (farside22)

Not Voting

- 6 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Mod: At what point do you count someone gaining insanity in the game? Is it at the time of the action or after the action?
If I commune and check a player who is the same sanity as me at the time of the commune and they were to stalk that night would I be told they had more insanities?

Directly after the action resolves that causes the Insanity gain.
As

Stalk

resolves before

Commune

, you would get an affirmative result in your example.

dramonic has accrued three Insanity Infractions today, and so loses his

Night Action

for tonight.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

@ mod- If person B rezzes person A and A rezzes B, are they both rezzed or is only 1?

Neither.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Plum - 3 (semioldguy, DrippingGoofball, rewq455)

dramonic - 1 (Plum)
DrippingGoofball - 1 (farside22)

Not Voting

- 8 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, VP Baltar, Furcolow)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Activity check tomorrow.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Plum - 2 (semioldguy, Furcolow)
DrippingGoofball - 2 (farside22, rewq455)
Magua - 2 (VP Baltar, DrippingGoofball)

dramonic - 1 (Plum)

Not Voting

- 6 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Plum - 2 (semioldguy, Furcolow)
DrippingGoofball - 2 (farside22, rewq455)
Magua - 2 (VP Baltar, DrippingGoofball)

dramonic - 1 (Plum)

Not Voting

- 6 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Saturday April 24th at 4:00am (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

Mod, can I request this post to be investigated?

The post in question breaks no game or site rules.

With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

We hoisted

Plum

up.

All around me, I could feel the pressure of aeons-old bloodlust pumping through the vacant, dusty seats. I watched her die a swift and painful death, immersed in the cacophonous psychic screaming.

When it was done, the beautiful plains behind the instrument vanished, along with the memories of this long-dead culture. In its place was a cave, damp and wet and stinking. It called to me.

My torchlight flickered, against the rough edges of the ancient cave, and I realised that I was alone again.

I saw strange things scratched into the walls, showing beasts beyond imagining:


As though in a dream, I made my way further down. One particular drawing caught my attention, and I could not tear my eyes away. It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful.

I walked on in delerium, the memories of beings the world has long forgot echoing in my skull.

Plum

has been lynched. Her

Insanity Count

was

2

.

Final Fifth Day Vote Count

Plum - 2 (semioldguy, Furcolow)

DrippingGoofball - 2 (farside22, rewq455)
Magua - 2 (VP Baltar, DrippingGoofball)

dramonic - 1 (Plum)

Not Voting

- 6 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua)

Final votes on the three players who received two votes:

Furcolow - Voted Plum on Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:13 am

rewq455 - Voted DrippingGoofball on Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:34 am
DrippingGoofball - Voted Magua on Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:21 pm

Night 5 PMs going out shortly.

[Percy]

Night 5 PMs are out. I haven't provided summaries of previous Night Actions as I have previously (as I am very pressed for time right now), but will provide them upon request.

[Percy]

Sorry for the delay, everyone; I am having some RL issues that prevent me from starting the Day right now. The next Day will start within 24 hours.

[Percy]

The cave continued to writhe through the damp earth. I could hear footsteps behind, above, below, all around me, echoing wetly throughout.

Pain pulsed behind my eyes, slowly ebbing from somewhere inside me. It was though I was in a fever-dream, surrounded by these monstrous pictograms.

For hours I trudged through the darkness, compelled by urges not entirely my own. The torch I carried flickered out, and I was forced to stumble on in darkness. I came to what I thought must be the end of the cave; I could not feel any further down the track.

After much searching, I discovered a small trapdoor with a rusted handle. I threw it open and dropped through.

I screamed as my stomach lurched; I felt myself falling. However, after a few moments the lack of light and the stillness of the air around me made it feel as though I was floating, and the world was rushing up away from me. It was a curious and thrilling experience.

I fell for hours, and eventually sleep took hold.

When I awoke, I was back in the entrance hall where we first entered the temple. Stunned to find myself and my compatriots similarly arranged haphazardly around the room as though tossed through the air, I rose and journeyed outside.

Before me was a glittering ocean, and a clear blue sky. The sun was bright, even more white than I could remember. I was rendered speechless at the sight.

The stairs to the ice floes were now stairs down into the ocean. Dark shadows moved in the depths of the water. And they were hungry.

Plum

was a

Cultist

evilsnail

was an

Investigator

Wickedestjr

was an

Investigator

elvis_knits

was an

Investigator

Apologies again for the delay. It is now the

Sixth Day

.

Deadline for today's lynch is

Friday May 14th at 1:00am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

With 12 live it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

kunkstar7 - 1 (farside22)
Magua - 1 (VP Baltar)
DrippingGoofball - 1 (rewq455)

Not Voting

- 9 (animorpherv1, dramonic, DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, Furcolow, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, semioldguy)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Friday May 14th at 1:00am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

Percy, what will your put as the manner of death if a player were to be the target of the ritual and murder? I assume murder, because that resolves first?

You are correct;

Murder

resolves first, so would be listed as the manner of death.

With 12 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Magua - 3 (VP Baltar, DrippingGoofball, rewq455)

kunkstar7 - 1 (farside22)
dramonic - 1 (semioldguy)

Not Voting

- 7 (animorpherv1, dramonic, Ellibereth, Furcolow, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Friday May 14th at 1:00am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

With 12 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

dramonic - 5 (semioldguy, VP Baltar, iLord, rewq455, animorpherv1)

Magua - 1 (DrippingGoofball)
kunkstar7 - 1 (farside22)

Not Voting

- 5 (dramonic, Ellibereth, Furcolow, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Friday May 14th at 1:00am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

@ Mod- How many un-robbed bodies are there?

Currently all players are either Alive or

Dust

.

With 12 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

Vote Count

dramonic - 5 (semioldguy, VP Baltar, iLord, rewq455, animorpherv1)

Magua - 1 (DrippingGoofball)
kunkstar7 - 1 (farside22)
Ellibereth - 1 (Furcolow)

Not Voting

- 5 (dramonic, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Friday May 14th at 1:00am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

The last two Insanity Infractions animorpherv1 accrued are cancelled; I apologise for the error.

The previous Vote Count has been edited to reflect the accurate count at the time.

(Which is good, because I just realised he would have had 8 Insanity Infractions...)

With 12 alive, it takes 7 to lynch.

[Percy]

I had been transported to another time and place. The air smelt different - sweet, but almost sickly so.

Throughout the day we talked. After so much strangeness, I had hoped to find some solace and companionship, a small amount of sanity in this strange land.

My thoughts we haunted, however, with the memories of the past week. Murder, suspicion and paranoia had entrenched themselves in our very being, so that small disagreements turned quickly to harsh recriminations and calls for slaughter.

I tried, for a while, to concentrate on the dire peril we were in, but the faces of those around me were twisted with hatred and fear. From the corner of my eye I glimpsed dire fangs in the mouths of my fellow refugees, only for them to disappear when I looked closely. Was it my imagination, or was I truly in danger?

The most unstable of us,

dramonic

, was pushed roughly down the stairs. The sea writhed, and in a flash of slime and pitch-black eye his final cries were cut short.

The sun disappeared almost immediately, the entire world revolving to bathe us in the starry brilliance of the night sky.

dramonic

has been lynched. His

Insanity Count

was

8

.

The flavour from the beginning of D6 has been updated. Flavour for N6 and D7 will be ready before the start of D7, and I will be sending out your Night 6 PMs shortly. As before, I am happy to provide Night Action summaries on request.

Final Day Six Vote Count

dramonic - 7 (semioldguy, VP Baltar, iLord, rewq455, animorpherv1, DrippingGoofball, Furcolow)

kunkstar7 - 1 (farside22)

Not Voting

- 4 (dramonic, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua)


Deadline for

Night Action

submission is

Sunday May 16th at 6:30pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

[Percy]

Deadline is approaching fast. Get those

Night Actions

in!

[Percy]

What followed was a calmness amongst us, as though resting by the side of the road on our journey. Sitting on the steps, we gazed up at an unfamiliar sky.



I lost myself in the infinite depths of the Night. Many hours passed as I watched the stars wheel around this humble Earth.

Towards the dawn, I saw what I thought to be a black shape moving through the sky. I could not see it directly, but whatever it was blocked my view of the distant furnaces as it moved with terrifying speed.

Profoundly disturbed and utterly terrified, I hastened inside. When I crossed the threshold into the temple, I felt the warmth of sunlight on my back. It was dawn.

It is now

The Seventh Day

.

Deadline for today's lynch is

Tuesday June 1st at 10:30am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

With 11 alive, it takes 6 to lynch...

[Percy]

Vote Count

Magua - 2 (farside22, animorpherv1)

Ellibereth - 1 (rewq455)

Not Voting

- 8 (DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, Furcolow, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, semioldguy, VP Baltar)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Tuesday June 1st at 10:30am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

Prodding Furcolow.

With 11 alive, it takes 6 to lynch...

[Percy]

Vote Count

Ellibereth - 2 (rewq455, Furcolow)
Furcolow - 2 (animorpherv1, farside22)

Not Voting

- 7 (DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, semioldguy, VP Baltar)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Tuesday June 1st at 10:30am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

With 11 alive, it takes 6 to lynch...

[Percy]

Vote Count

Ellibereth - 3 (rewq455, Furcolow, semioldguy)

Furcolow - 1 (animorpherv1)
kunkstar7 - 1 (farside22)

Not Voting

- 6 (DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, iLord, kunkstar7, Magua, VP Baltar)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Tuesday June 1st at 10:30am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

With 11 alive, it takes 6 to lynch...

[Percy]

Vote Count

Ellibereth - 4 (rewq455, Furcolow, semioldguy, iLord)

Furcolow - 1 (animorpherv1)
kunkstar7 - 1 (farside22)

Not Voting

- 5 (DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua, VP Baltar)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Tuesday June 1st at 10:30am (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

With 11 alive, it takes 6 to lynch...

[Percy]

The sun, the air, even the temple itself was rejuvinated. The turns and twists in the masonry still curled uncomfortably in my mind, and more sharply now - as though the power of the temple had grown as I had been transported to wherever I was.

We spent the day balanced on a knife edge; halfway between relief at our much more pleasant surroundings, and suspicion and madness from the days of torture we had suffered and inflicted.

Ellibereth

was the quietest. Before long, we felt the call of the sea. And that call was for more.

It was not a call born of desperation and hunger, nor any desire held by any earthly creature. It was a call for tribute, honour and respect, made in blood and death and madness.

We rolled him roughly down the steps and paid our dues. My eyes glazed over as I watched not a thing move in the water for several moments. My heart thumped in my chest, drumming in fear.

I could feel it. We could all feel it. Something was coming, hurtling up from the deep black waters.

The world revolved into night.

The stars aligned.

It had awoken.

It was coming.

Ellibereth

has been lynched. His

Insanity Count

was

6

.

Final Day 7 Vote Count

Ellibereth - 6 (rewq455, Furcolow, semioldguy, iLord, VP Baltar, animorpherv1)

kunkstar7 - 1 (farside22)

Not Voting

- 4 (DrippingGoofball, Ellibereth, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline to get your

Night Actions

to me is in 72 hours, on

Tuesday June 1st at 7:00pm (site time)

. Feel free to send your actions now, otherwise your Night PMs will be coming in ~24 hours. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

[Percy]

I've been having some connection issues with the site, and I'm going to assume I'm not alone. I'm extending the Night Action deadline by 48 hours.

Night PMs going out very shortly. Those who have sent me their actions already may, of course, ignore them.

[Percy]

The ocean erupted in a roaring spray, the sound crashing through my fragile mind. I remember laughing, gibbering at the thought of my impending death. I stumbled and ran as far as I could from what arose from the deep.

Past the dining room, into the church where we had committed murder - sacrilege or sacrifice? - so long ago, so fresh in my mind. Again I felt the prickling of memories stirring, of creatures worshipping the beast that ruled them from the waves.

With the creature so close, I could hardly think. When the others arrived, I got down low against the damp, sticky wall and we were fighting, yelling, struggling to find someone responsible.

Two of us didn't make it to the church, felled by foul things and foul desires.

iLord

was

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

,

Insanity Count:

4

.

DrippingGoofball

was

Murdered

,

Insanity Count:

3

.

dramonic

was a

Murderer

.

Ellibereth

was an

Investigator

.

All flavour has been updated, and will stay updated. Here are some handy links if you're interested:

Beginning of Day 6

End of Day 6

Beginning of Day 7

End of Day 7

It is now the

Eighth Day

. Deadline for today's lynch is

Thursday June 17th at 7:00pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

With 8 alive, it takes 5 to lynch...

[Percy]

Vote Count

Not Voting

- 8 (animorpherv1, farside22, Furcolow, kunkstar7, Magua, rewq455, semioldguy, VP Baltar)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Thursday June 17th at 7:00pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

Mod: clarification please. Do you stop taking insanities once you reach 8 insanities?

Yes.

Activity Check tomorrow.

With 8 alive, it takes 5 to lynch...

[Percy]

farside22 has requested replacement. Beginning the search...

[Percy]

Vote Count

farside22 - 4 (semioldguy, VP Baltar, animorpherv1, rewq455)

Not Voting

- 4 (farside22, Furcolow, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Thursday June 17th at 7:00pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here.

Activity is good!

With 8 alive, it takes 5 to lynch...

[Percy]

We shouted and roared in a futile attempt to keep the noise from our skulls, from our minds. Powerless and shrieking with insanity, I cursed my compatriots, the few survivors. I knew they were complicit, that they had done something to make this happen to me.

We rounded on

farside22

, who bore the brunt of the scorn. As the masonry collapsed around me in chunks, as the sunlight outside dimmed in fear of the dark shape from the deep, she picked herself up and ran outside.

She cried out in pain, in bliss, and we never saw her again.

The darkness became total, and though the sound diminished, I could still hear it; a low bass note resonating in my body, shaking my chest in time with my heartbeat. We took that short moment to scamper and clamber further inside the temple.

We thought we would find safety there. We could not have been more wrong.

farside22

has been

modkilled

. Her

Insanity Count

was

5

.

It is now Night Eight.

Night action PMs will be sent when I get home. You have 72 hours to submit your

Night Action

to me.

Final Day 8 Vote Count

farside22 - 4 (semioldguy, VP Baltar, animorpherv1, rewq455)

Not Voting

- 4 (Furcolow, kunkstar7, Magua, farside22)

[Percy]

Please get your

Night Action

choices to me ASAP. I'm going to extend the deadline by 24 hours from this post, as I was quite late in getting out the Night PMs.

[Percy]

The darkness was complete, and the sound...

I felt my mind fray into tiny shards as I ran, gibbering, through the halls. I ricocheted down the hallways that seemed to change and twist under my feet.

From behind, I began to feel rather than see a faint green glow. I knew to see the source of that light would mean my death, and in spite of that crushing certainty I lingered for a few moments, unable to turn away. What it was I can only guess, but it was old, older than humanity many times over; it had watched my ancestors crawl from the primordial soup with contempt and infinite patience.

When the first slimy tentacle reached around the corner, I shrieked and ran.

As we sped through the temple, I felt time shift around me. Even though we were underground, I could feel the stars move above my head, slowly aligning into terrifying geometric patterns that spelt the end of humanity's rule over this fragile rock.

We knew we could slow it down if one of us fell behind. We exchanged fearful, desperate glances, tinged with cruelty and madness.

VP Baltar

was

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

. His

Insanity Count

was

4

.

It is now the

Ninth Day

.

Deadline for today's lynch is

Sunday June 27th at 9:00pm (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 6 alive, it takes 4 to lynch...

[Percy]

Deadline is extended by 72 hours.

Sending out a mass-prod to welcome everyone to the new site.

[Percy]

@Mod: Can Cultists perform the Ritual and Launder in one night?

Yes - Participating in the Ritual is a

Free

action.

Also is there truly no alignment reveals?

There has been no moderation error.

[Percy]

EBWOP: I still don't have edit powers, but animorpherv1 incurred an Insanity Infraction for this post.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Magua - 1 (rewq455)

Not Voting

- 5 (animorpherv1, Furcolow, kunkstar7, Magua, semioldguy)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Wednesday June 30th at 9:00pm (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 6 alive, it takes 4 to lynch...

[Percy]

Vote Count

Magua - 3 (rewq455, semioldguy, animorpherv1)

Not Voting

- 3 (Furcolow, kunkstar7, Magua)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Wednesday June 30th at 9:00pm (site time)

. You can view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

animorpherv1's V/LA is noted.

With 6 alive, it takes 4 to lynch...

[Percy]

The church was clean and free from the weathering of ages. With frantic desperation we hauled

Magua

onto the cold stone slab and slit his throat with the wickedly curved ceremonial blade. His eyes widened in shock and pain as the red, red blood flowed from the violent gash in his neck.

We descended into the heart of the temple, fear and rage and madness following swiftly.

The tunnel pulsed with bright, warm light. I felt it calling me home, back to the time when this monstrous race and its monstrous gods held no power. But if I could get home this way, what was to stop the creature following in my frantic footsteps?

Magua

has been lynched. His

Insanity Count

was

7

.

Night PMs going out now. You have 72 hours to submit your

Night Action

to me.

Final Day 9 Vote Count

Magua - 4 (rewq455, semioldguy, animorpherv1, Furcolow)

Not Voting

- 2 (kunkstar7, Magua)

[Percy]

Our frantic descent came to an abrupt stop. The city was gone, replaced by a vast inland sea, bound by a circle of bright light.



I could see straight to the heavens above me, watching the stars shift across the darkness, spanning the millennia from these dread aeons until the present day. A humming filled my ears, overwhelming my senses.

We boarded a small boat, slipping on the polished wood, and rowed into the ocean, fleeing from the creature that was madness itself.

I desired more than anything to be safe, to be home and far away from this place. I felt that very desire pulling me through time.

The water stirred beneath us, tossing our small craft in the dim ambient glow.

Below us moved the great beast of my dreams, its terrible blackness imprinted on my mind. We realised as one the mistake we had made, the trap that had been set for us.

It followed us through time.

rewq455

was

Destroyed by an Unspeakable Being

. His

Insanity Count

was

2

.

VP Baltar

was an

Investigator

.

DrippingGoofball

was an

Investigator

.

farside22

was an

Investigator

.

Magua

was a

Cultist

.

It is now the

Tenth Day

.

Deadline for today's lynch is Monday the 5th of July at 6:00pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 4 alive it takes 3 to lynch...

[Percy]

@Mod: If Cultist and Murderer crosskill, yet it's the Murderer's winning kill, does the Murderer still win?

The

Murderer

would win; even if a

Murderer

dies (via another

Murder

or

The Ritual

that night), they win

instantly

upon completion of their third

Murder

.

[Percy]

The option to

Vote: No Lynch

is available to players.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Furcolow - 1 (animorpherv1)

Not Voting

- 3 (Furcolow, kunkstar7, semioldguy)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Monday the 5th of July at 6:00pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 4 alive, it takes 3 to lynch...

[Percy]

The previous votecount was incorrectly copied-and-pasted from yesterday's penultimate votecount. The error has now been corrected, apologies all.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Not Voting

- 4 (Furcolow, kunkstar7, semioldguy, animorpherv1)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Monday the 5th of July at 6:00pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 4 alive, it takes 3 to lynch...

[Percy]

Vote Count

Furcolow - 2 (animorpherv1, semioldguy)

Not Voting

- 2 (Furcolow, kunkstar7)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Monday the 5th of July at 6:00pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

With 4 alive, it takes 3 to lynch...

[Percy]

A player with no insanities can vote for anyone, including themselves.

Self-hammering, however, is a modkillable offence.

[Percy]

If you would like a deadline reduction, then I'm happy to oblige.

If you would like the deadline moved forward to the 2nd of July (48 hours from this post), then post as such in the thread.

[Percy]

Vote Count

Furcolow - 2 (animorpherv1, semioldguy)

Not Voting

- 2 (Furcolow, kunkstar7)

Deadline for today's lynch is

Monday the 5th of July at 6:00pm (site time)

. You may view a countdown to the deadline

here

.

I will be V/LA until the 4th here, which is the 3rd in most of the world. Deadline remains the same.

With 4 alive, it takes 3 to lynch...

[Percy]

Time itself smeared across my conscience, dragging my awareness across the aeons, drowning it in the omnipresence of the watery god below. I cried and grunted, holding onto our small craft in impossible seas.

One of our number,

Furcolow

, drew the ceremonial dagger from the altar from the depths of his clothing and pinned

semioldguy

to the ground.

"Stand back, all of you!" cried Furcolow, eyes wide with fear and rage, "He's the one doing this! He's responsible!"

Poised to strike, my companion and I froze in indecision. Who could it be? Should we do nothing, condemning

semioldguy

? Or should we kill

Furcolow

to save him?

"I don't know, I don't know, I can't decide I don't know I dontknowidontknowiDONTKNOWIDONTKNOW" screamed my companion, paralysed with fear.

Below me was the depths of infinite insanity, and above were the stars, slowly aligning, welcoming the Ruler of Madness back to its home, its court, its billions of victims.

"It's him, he's doing it!"

"No, it's him! Get him off me or we'll all die!"

"We have to stop this!"

"idontknowidontknowidontknowidontknowidont"

Words. Images. Crosses. Stars. Temples. Snow. Nooses. Holes. Graves. Knives. Dead. Flames. Blood. Ghosts. Stars. Aligned.

All blended into nothingness, impossible to think, I kicked

Furcolow

with all my might into the ocean. He didn't scream as he fell through the misty waters; he laughed as his life was snuffed out, and in seconds his mind was consumed, now to be maintained by the beast like all before him. Silence pressed in through the weakening of the worlds.

I held on to hope, looking with terror into

semioldguy

's face, trusting that he, at least, could stop the ascent.

semioldguy

smiled, mad and cruel. He stood to his full height, seemingly immune to the chaos around him, towering over the craft and the two huddled survivors. And he began to chant.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn...
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn...

Horrified, I reached up with all my strength to try and stop him, the horror of my mistake crashing through tainting all

y-hafh'drn ilyaa, y-kadishtu...
nafl-nglui, nog Cthulhu...

He continued, standing with arms outstretched, guiding the boat to my home, guiding the beast to the world's destruction

wgah'n shugg shogg sgn'wahl stell'bsna
tharanak-yar throd uaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

The desecration of my sanity was complete, and I smiled in joy at the coming of the end of time, the end of humanity and all it ever could be.

Never had I felt so wonderful, so complete, so at peace.

The Stars Aligned, and Cthulhu no longer waited. He had returned. The totality of Cthulu was all that ever was, ever could be.

And never would I feel again.

Furcolow

was lynched! He was an

Investigator

with an

Insanity Count

of

6

.

kunkstar7

(

Insanity Count:

8

) and

animorpherv1

(

Insanity Count:

4

) were both

Investigators

,

Destroyed during the Ascension

.

iLord

and

rewq455

were also

Investigators

.

semioldguy

, the last remaining

Cultist

, completes the

Ascension

and wins the game for the

Cultists!!!

[Percy]

Expect full moderator notes and action summaries within 24 hours.

[Percy]

Hi guys, wrapup is taking longer than expected. It will be done very very soon, I have taken the day off work to get it done

[Percy]

Night Action Summary

Abbreviations:

I

- Gained an Insanity

N

- Heard Noise during the Night

B

- Was Bloody at the end of the Night
(Y) - Action succeeded / gained Yes result
(N) - Action failed / gained No result
(R) - Target Resuscitated
(FT) etc. - Equipment gained from Rob Grave actions

Insanities

are listed in the order they were acquired.

The Cultists

Magua (who replaced Amished)

N0: Craft Fetish - VP Baltar (N) and Wickedestjr (Y)
N1: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N2: Ritual - Phate (Y); Pass Fetish - DrippingGoofball (Y) and elvisknits (Y)

I

N

B

N3: Ritual - Wickedestjr (Y); Rob Grave - Phate

I

I

B

N4: Launder
N5: Rob Grave - elvis_knits; Craft Fetish - dramonic (Y) and DrippingGoofball (Y)
N6: Ritual - VP Baltar (R); Ward - rewq455

I

N

B

N7: Ritual - iLord; Launder

I

B

N8: Ritual - VP Baltar (Y); Launder

I

N

B

Lynched on Day 9

Insanities

Distraction, Twitchy, Aversion: DrippingGoofball then animorpherv1, Sadism, Paranoia, Hallucination, Compulsion

CSL (who replaced Col.Cathart)

N0: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N

N1: Ritual - Phate (R); Craft Fetish - DrippingGoofball (Y), elvis_knits (Y), Resuscitated

I

I

N

B

Lynched on Day 2

Insanities

Aversion: kunkstar7, Twitchy

Nicodemus

N0: Craft Fetish - Ellibereth (Y), Seacore (Y)

Lynched on Day 1

Plum (who replaced Sarag)

N0: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N1: Resuscitate - CSL (Y)

B

N2: Ritual - Phate (Y); Search -

Forensic Tools

I

N

B

N3: Investigate - DGB (N); Rob Grave - startransmission

I

N

B

N4: Craft Fetish - kunkstar7 (Y), rewq455 (Y)

B

Lynched on Day 5

Insanities

Twitchy, Taboo: Launder

semioldguy

N0: Craft Fetish - iLord (Y), vikingfan (Y)
N1: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N2: Craft Fetish - evilsnail (Y), Chaco (Y)
N3: Resuscitate - Plum (N)
N4: Ritual - evilsnail (Y); Craft Fetish - animorpherv1 (Y), Furcolow (Y)

I

B

N5: Launder; Rob Grave - Wickedestjr

I

N6: Ritual - VP Baltar (R); Craft Fetish - animorpherv1 (Y), Furcolow (Y)

I

N

B

N7: Launder

N

N8: Ritual - VP Baltar (Y); Pass Fetish - animorpherv1 (Y), Furcolow (Y)

I

B

N9: Ritual - rewq455 (Y); Launder

I

N

Survived

Insanities

Twitchy, Distraction, Taboo: Craft Fetish, Hallucination, Compulsion

SlySly

N0: Craft Fetish - Phate (Y), DGB (N)
N1: Ritual - Phate (R); Craft Fetish - Iecerint (Y), VPBaltar (Y)

I

B

N2: Ritual - Phate (Y); Launder

I

N

B

Lynched Day 3

Insanities

Hallucination, Distraction

The Murderers

vikingfan

N0: Stalk - Katy (Y)

I

N

N1: Murder - Katy (Y)

I

B

N2: Stalk - elvis_knits (Y)

I

N

B

N3: Murder - elvis_knits (Y)

I

N

B

Lynched Day 4

Insanities

Aversion: Katy then elvis_knits then VP Baltar, Hallucination, Psychopathy, Twitchy

dramonic

N0: Stalk - Sajin (Y)

I

N

N1: Murder - Sajin (Y)

I

B

N2: Stalk - iLord (Y), Rob Grave: Sajin (OB, FT)

I

I

B

N3: Rob Grave - CSL, SlySly

I

I

B

N4: Stalk - animorpherv1 (Y), Rob Grave - vikingfan

I

I

N

B

N5: None (

I

)

N

B

Lynched Day 6

Insanities

Distraction, Psychopathy, Taboo: Commune, Aversion: Magua, Sadism, Twitchy, Paranoia, Hallucination

startransmission

(Never actually a Murderer, but was certainly on the Murderer track)

N0: Stalk - Iecerint (Y)

I

N1: Murder - Iecerint (Y)

I

N

B

N2: Stalk - semioldguy (Y)

I

B

Murdered by farside22 during Night 2

Insanities

Distraction, Sadism, (Not selected)

The Investigators

Furcolow (who replaced Hayker who replaced Adel)

N0: Search -

Forensic Tools

N

N1: Search -

Occut Books

, Resuscitated

I

N

B

N2: Launder
N3: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N4: Resuscitate - iLord (N)

N

N5: Commune - rewq455 (N)

I

N6: Launder

I

N

N7: Stalk - kunkstar7 (Y)

I

N

N8: Investigate - VP Baltar (N)
N9: Stalk - semioldguy (Y)

I

Lynched on Day 10

Insanities

Twitchy, Aversion: VP Baltar then animorpherv1, Hallucination, Sadism, Taboo: Investigate, Distraction

animorpherv1

N0: Stalk - Furcolow (Y)

I

N1: Rob Grave - Nicodemus; Search -

Forensic Tools

I

N2: Launder

I

N

N3: Investigate - DrippingGoofball (N)
N4: Resuscitate - iLord (N)

N

N5: Ward - VP Baltar

N

N6: Resuscitate - VP Baltar (Y)

N

B

N7: Launder
N8: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

; Passed

Fetish

I

N

N9: Ward - rewq455

N

Killed in endgame

Insanities

Avolition, Paranoia, Aversion: VP Baltar then semioldguy, Taboo: Launder

farside22 (who replaced Chaco)

N0: Ward - dramonic

N

N1: Stalk - startransmission (Y)

I

N2: Murder - startransmission (Y)

I

N

B

N3: Search -

Occut Books

B

N4: Commune - DrippingGoofball (N)

I

B

N5: Rob Grave - Plum; Ward: iLord

I

N

B

N6: Search -

Forensic Tools

B

N7: Stalk - iLord (Y)

I

B

Modkilled Day 8

Insanities

Taboo: Launder, Twitchy, Distraction, Aversion: DrippingGoofball then VP Baltar, Sadism

kunkstar7 (who replaced Drench)

N0: Stalk - Furcolow (Y)

I

N1: Murder - Furcolow (N)

I

B

N2: Search -

Occut Books

B

N3: Rob Grave - Katy, Phate

I

I

B

N4: Commune - Ellibereth (N)

I

N

B

N5: Rob Grave - evilsnail, elvis_knits

I

I

N

B

N6: Commune - farside22 (N)

I

N

B

N7: Rob Grave - dramonic, Ellibereth

N

B

N8: Investigate - Magua (N)

N

B

N9: Rob Grave - farside22, Magua

N

B

Killed in endgame

Insanities

Taboo: Launder,

Psychopathy

Twitchy, Sadism, Hallucination, Aversion: VP Baltar then Furcolow, Paranoia, Distraction, Avolition

DrippingGoofball

N0: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N

N1: Resuscitate - elvis_knits (N)

N

N2: Resuscitate - elvis_knits (N); Passed

Fetish

I

N

N3: Launder

I

N

N4: Resuscitate - VP Baltar (N)
N5: Rob Grave - Plum

I

N

N6: Search -

Forensic Tools

N

N7: Investigate - semioldguy

Murdered by iLord during Night 7

Insanities

Twitchy, Aversion: iLord, Sadism

Ellibereth

N0: Stalk - CSL (Y)

I

N

N1: Murder - CSL (N)

I

B

N2: Search -

Forensic Tools

B

N3: Rob Grave - Katy, Iecerint (FT)

I

I

B

N4: Investigate - rewq455 (N)

B

N5: Rob Grave - evilsnail, Wickedestjr

I

I

B

N6: Investigate - iLord (Y)

B

Lynched Day 7

Insanities

Taboo: Launder, Twitchy, Sadism, Paranoia, Avolition, Distraction

elvis_knits

N0: Ward - DrippingGoofball

N

N1: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N

N2: Resuscitate - Magua (N); Passed

Fetish

I

N

N3: Resuscitate - iLord (N)
Murdered by vikingfan during Night 3

Insanities

Taboo: Launder

evilsnail

N0: Search -

Forensic Tools

N1: Search -

Occult Books

N2: Investigate - farside22 (N)

N

N3: Investigate - vikingfan (Y)
N4: Commune - rewq455 (N)

I

Ritualled during Night 4

Insanities

(Not selected)

rewq455 (who replaced Faraday)

N0: Search -

Forensic Tools

N1: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N2: Investigate - animorpherv1 (N)
N3: Resuscitate - iLord (N)
N4: Resuscitate - iLord (N)

N

N5: Search -

Occut Books

N6: Resuscitate - VP Baltar (Y)

N

B

N7: Launder
N8: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N9: Rob Grave - VP Baltar, DrippingGoofball (2FT, OB)

I

I

Ritualled during Night 9

Insanities

(Not selected), (Not selected)

Iecerint

N0: Search -

Forensic Tools

N

N1: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N

Murdered by startransmission during Night 1

iLord

N0: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N

N1: Resuscitate - Phate (Y)

B

N2: Search -

Occut Books

N

B

N3: Commune - VP Baltar (N)

I

N

B

N4: Commune - Plum (Y)

I

N

B

N5: Search -

Occut Books

N

B

N6: Stalk - DrippingGoofball (Y)

I

N

B

N7: Murder - DrippingGoofball (Y)

I

B

Ritualled during Night 7

Insanities

Twitchy, Distraction, Taboo: Launder, (Not selected)

Phate

N0: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N

N1: Search -

Forensic Tools

; Resuscitated

I

N

B

N2: Investigate - Plum (Y)

B

Ritualled during Night 2

Insanities

Twitchy

Sajin

N0: Search -

Occut Books

N

N1: Search -

Forensic Tools

Murdered by dramonic during Night 1

Katy (who replaced Seacore)

N0: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N

N1: Resuscitate - Furcolow (Y)

B

Murdered by vikingfan during Night 1

VP Baltar

N0: Ward - Furcolow (N)

N

N1: Search -

Forensic Tools

N

N2: Search -

Occut Books

N

N3: Commune - semioldguy (N)

I

N4: Commune - Plum (Y)

I

N

N5: Investigate - dramonic (Y)

N

N6: Stalk - semioldguy (Y); Resuscitated

I

I

B

N

N7: Launder
N8: Search -

Occut Books

N

Ritualled during Night 8

Insanities

Twitchy, Compulsion, Distraction, Aversion: animorpherv1

Wickedestjr

N0: Ward - VP Baltar

N

N1: Search -

Forensic Tools

N2: Search -

Resuscitation Kit

N3: Search -

Occut Books

Ritualled during Night 3

---

The Sanctum

-

Cultist

QT

In the Belly of the Beast

- Graveyard QT

Notes on gameplay:

-Trying to spread

Insanities

thinly amongst the

Cultists

will only end up with everyone dead; semioldguy remaining relatively clean allowed him to appear clear at critical moments, so well done there

Cultists

. The scumteam also equipped

Resuscitation Kits

early on, which was a good move.
-I was pleased to see the scumteam as eager to find the

Murderers

as the

Investigators

!
-

Fetish

management was not as big a restriction as it was in the first game, which was great.
-Town scumhunting efforts in the first half of the game were truly impressive; the town were able to locate and punish anti-town elements so successfully for a long time.
-

Murderer

is meant to be almost impossibly difficult, but there's something about striking out on your own that calls to many players. It is also really, really useful in creating paranoia, second-guessing and fear amongst both the

Investigators

and the

Cultists

. For vikingfan, his fakeclaim was his undoing. The most important part of being a

Murderer

on the fast-track to victory is to acknowledge the near-certainty that the town will find you both covered in blood and completely insane at very critical moments, and to begin working on your story from Night 0. dramonic didn't make the same mistake as the last game (being caught out by Grave Rob), but ended up being caught anyways.
-Each action was taken at least once in the game; I'm really glad that everything was tried out and things seemed to work together. Ward probably needs a bit of a boost...
-This game was meant to allow each and every person the chance to be a cop, a doc, a vig, an SK, whatever they felt like at the time. I think this game succeeded in doing that quite well.
-Every Insanity was chosen at least once as well! I'm much happier with how the Insanity system worked in this game than in the first game; each had its own drawbacks, and they became crucial in the endgame. Twitchy was by far the most popular, but probably because of its relatively light restriction and its "confirmable" nature (more on that below).
-I thought that the Cult were pretty much finished at the beginning of the Sixth Day; only two of their number remained against a

Murderer

and

nine

Investigators

! When Magua and semioldguy took the risk and both Ritualled VP Baltar on the Sixth Night, and yet it still failed, I felt their hopelessness. Still, some good play, some good choices and exploiting the few missteps made by the town in the final days saw the Cult take victory! Well played, everybody, but especially semioldguy and Magua.
-The game was designed to be chaos initially, followed by a strong midgame from the

Investigators

(when the equipment-requiring actions become prevalent), before becoming much more difficult (with Insanity Infractions) towards the end. It played out very similar to what I expected.

Notes on flavour:

The flavour for the game was inspired by a good deal of Lovecraftian horror; specifically, the Cthulhu mythos. If you enjoyed the flavourtext, then I suggest that you will enjoy the writings of H. P. Lovecraft infintely more!
Pictures were from all over the place, but I was particularly happy with the pictures from this post in evoking the right mood. If anyone knows the artist, please let me know!
(My favourite pictures from the setup are those for Insanity and Stalk... )
The storyline was adapted from the original story I told in the first Stars Aligned - that the

Investigators

are prisoners in a maddening place full of strange horrors and insanity, and the fear and paranoia of the fellow travellers causes them to turn on each other; however, I was able to conclude the story in a much more satisfying way due to the length of the game and the final result, whereby the

Investigators

' own madness and desperation leads the Beast to re-enter and destroy modern life. Writing in first person was a much more satisfying result.
One thing I do regret, however, is not being able to write miniature stories for the players out of PM flavour text, weaving them into a coherent narrative. I quickly realised that I would either have to make new flavour for every player every Night, or publicly disclose my stock PMs; the warning to not allude to flavour text would have been skirted, I'm sure, and I really didn't want to have to modkill someone because of it. I chose to just copy and paste them into the OP.

On farside22's modkill:

I stand by this completely. The lynched looked almost a certainty, but that had little to do with my decision. I felt that her posting in the thread after requesting replacement to self-vote could not go unpunished, especially since it is an extremely unlikely action for a

Cultist

or

Murderer

to take - I was concerned that, if I were to pardon the action, I would have helped to confirm farside22's pro-town alignment in some fashion.

Some things I will (probably) not do again:

1. The current

Insanity Infraction

system

Originally, this was intended to increase paranoia within the game, and to reward careful and thoughtful players. However, the mechanic came extremely close to open abuse. In future incarnations of this game, the

Insanity Infraction

rules need to be re-worked comprehensively, possibly making them private.

2. Comment on the veracity of a player's plan to break the game

Day 1 really span out of control; whilst I fully expected people to search for optimal solutions, I didn't expect players to play only to break the game. My judgement on the issue was, effectively, that in a game as complex as this one, extremes are very difficult to cater for (though I did my best, Magua managed to come up with a viable breaking plan), and that I would modify a rule to ensure a balanced game rather than trashing the game and starting over. I stand by my decision, but regret the manner in which I did it; in both not stating up-front that I would be willing to change the rules in such an eventuality, and in explicitly stating that Adel's plan was not, in my estimation, requiring my action. It was an error on my part, and I apologise for it.

3. Pesky mod errors

The N0 mod error regarding animorpherv1's Stalk against Adel is one I regretted all game. Very frustrating and careless of me. Similarly when I had to retract

Insanity Infractions

that I gave him.
Aside from that, I had a few copy-paste errors, but those managed to clear themselves up (mostly) as the game progressed.
This game was hard to mod, and it has certainly helped me be more diligent.

4. Allow Rob Grave to be such an effective roleblocking measure

Rob Grave is not meant to constrain players from performing actions; I made the wrong call in allowing a player to rob two graves per night. I think a roleblocking element may be important, though, and will consider this some more in the next game. The fact that the choice was often to "double graverob" meant that a lot of Equipment was destroyed, also.

5. Rethinking Psychopathy

I gave kunkstar7 the option, upon replacing in, of changing his predecessor's

Insanity

choice of Psychopathy. Choosing Psychopathy was a very, very poor decision for Drench, and I didn't want kunkstar7 to be saddled with it; however, it obviously caused a great deal of confusion that I couldn't clear up without mod-confirming that kunkstar7 was not a Cultist. Something needs to be changed here. I have considered an action called

Contemplate

or

Meditate

before, where your Insanity Count increases by 1 and you may re-pick all your

Insanities

, but it makes detecting Insanity patterns a lot harder.

Other notes:

-Thank you to all the replacements, and thank you to those who stuck through the entire game.
-Five months is a long time, and I was very pleased with activity levels. Thank you everyone who played!
-Thank you to Vi, my primary reviewer and back-up mod. The conversations we had before the game started were invaluable in making sure there were no gaps or holes in the setup.
-Thank you to the players who waited patiently on the replacement list, only to never get a spot! Thank you especially VasudeVa, who replaced in but graciously stepped out after Magua returned.
-In a few months (read: at least 3!) I will be running Stars Aligned III. If you are interested in getting a PM about it when I post a thread, then let me know.
-I am very eager to hear your feedback, so please give me your thoughts (positive and/or negative). I promise to give them back...

“Fools!” said West, his clenched fist striking the lectern before him. “We must prepare today’s youth for a world whose terrors are etched upon ancient clay tablets recounting the fever-dreams of the other gods... who lie beneath the earth, waiting until the stars align so they can return to their rightful place as our masters...”

[Percy]

Sending out mass PM to all players; if you've already seen that the game is over, please ignore the PM!

I haven't had a chance to read what's been written so far, but I will do that tomorrow. I need some sleep...

[Percy]

Oh, and thanks to Percy for modding this epic game. I really liked the flavor and I know the entire thing was a lot of effort on your part. You're the man!

Thank you!

Awesome game Percy, my personal favorite since I joined the site.

Thank you!

This was also my last game for a while so I'm glad I can mark it as a victory, especially after it looked so grim after the first few days and my hand in lynching almost all my fellow cultists.

Yeah, the Cultists had a hard job of it, but there is an element of that built into the setup; as I already mentioned, the optimal Cult strategy (in my opinion) is to have a few Cultists stay bloodless and sane for as long as possible. That way, they can take over the heavy lifting once their compatriots are lynched, and Resuscitate Cultists who are in danger of getting Murdered.

@Magua

: I too was looking at the first six days, and I was consumed with self-doubt - there wasn't a

single

mislynch in the first Stars Aligned, and it took until Day 7 in this game for the Investigators to mislynch. I was sometimes concerned that it was something to do with the setup, but Town deserve full credit here. The Nicodemus lynch, based on some solid votecount analysis, was a particularly impressive D1 lynch, and sticks in my mind!

The Murderer role is, as I've said many times, almost impossible. However, no matter how hard I make the win condition, I assumed that at least one person would try Murderer - we ended up having six Stalk actions on Night 0, and I was mildly concerned that it would end in a bloodbath!
Still, the threat of going Murderer, and the uncertainty as to their numbers, is a really important part of the game. I also think Stalking as a pro-town action is important for two reasons - it empowers the town to make their own calls (at a considerable cost - two Insanities and Blood), but it also increases the fear that they are Murderers. If you want to vig kill someone, you have to be almost 100% sure!

Any voting insanities past the first or second are really bad for town to take as it makes the game progressively more difficult or even impossible. Aversion and Sadism being the most hurtful ones as the have the greater consequences if the game goes long.

I think an Investigator can have quite a few Insanities and have it impact little on their

greatest

ability - the ability to freely vote for a lynch. For example, an Investigator could take Twitchy, Hallucination, Compulsion, Taboo: (equipment) and Distraction and still be able to have a free vote during LyLo. It all depends on what you, as an Investigator, want to be able to do - Vanilla Townies can be devastating in normal games with good scumhunting efforts, and so taking (say) Hallucination doesn't impede this ability at all, but I found that most people were very reluctant to take this Insanity. Voluntarily giving up information is hard...

Another note that Adel picked up on - Investigators are the only ones that can gain Insanities on Night 0 (via Stalk), and this is a loophole that should probably be looked at. Still, the first Night choices are due before anyone has a chance to co-ordinate, so the impact was relatively light this game.

Huh? I never got a link to the dead QT.

Ah well.

I checked my PMs, and I think you did... the link was in your Night 1 Result PM. Sorry you missed it!

Shame on all the murderers! On the other hand the murderer mechanic made the game way interesting. This was a really cool game and I liked the way it worked. I can't imagine trying to mod something like this but it was very fun to play, even for only a short while.

Thank you!

Thank you Percy for your amazing commitment to mod this epic game, which I believe was very much enjoyed by all!

Thank you!

Nominated this game for Best Setup and Best Flavor Text. Congratulations on so much hard work coming together Percy.

Thank you again, and to all the others who have seconded this, I really appreciate it!

1) Fetish/ritual mechanic. I was glad to see that fetishes were communal this game, but I think I would've preferred that fetishes would get used up on, eg, unsuccessful rituals. As it was, cult never passed out too many fetishes, but we never had to pass up a kill we wanted because we didn't have the right fetish, either.

I made the Fetish resource far too difficult in SAI. I think I'm happy with how the management turned out - I think the Cult were mostly very constricted in their Night Action choices, rather than being spoilt for choice.

5) Grave robbing as a roleblock. I thought the double grave robbing thing worked quite well as a mechanic, actually. It cost something (sanity), it was limited (number of bodies), and there was a spectrum of choice between affecting more people and getting reliable confirmation (you could get more people to graverob at the risk of losing confirmability).

It's true that it helps obscure just how Insane the bad guys are if they're forced to Rob a lot of graves too...

@Magua

: You hit the nail on the head with regards to the problem with Insanity Infractions. The punishments and notifications should, at the very least, be made private.
However, I have an instinctive aversion to randomness. I have never created a setup with a random element, and I never will. Ultimately, the game should come down to the choices made by players, not the roll of a (proverbial) die.

2) Twitchy. I'll be honest; I don't like it because it is either a game-ender or a non-starter. If you have a reason to take an insanity that is town-approved (eg, you're robbing graves), you take twitchy. There's no downside to taking this -- it doesn't impact your play in any way. On the other hand, if you don't have a reason to have gained an insanity, twitchy is just about instant death. I'm willing to bet just about every investigator's first insanity was twitchy, because, why not? It's free, and in a pinch, it's easy to mod confirm.

I agree that Twitchy needs a bit of work; it was originally included more for atmosphere than anything else, and to give everyone a chance to take a light Insanity as their first one before the tougher ones start kicking in. But giving it more of a downside is a good idea.

If you keep the idea of free actions as "extra" actions, maybe instead have an insanity that limits you to 1 action at night, which would put it more in line with Compulsion/Taboo.

This is a good idea, but as has been mentioned, I do not want the Cultists being unable to perform a Ritual due to player-and-Insanity-lockdown, and they would be more affected by this. In fact, if I was an Investigator and there was an option to limit players to one action per Night, I would insist that everyone take this as their first Insanity!

I think you underestimate the

threat

of Murderer and the appeal of a Town-aligned Vig-via-Murder, though. Even if no-one ever took the Stalk action (which is very unlikely), the Cult still had a chance, but I take your point that it's more difficult in that instance.

I like your "slippery slope to Murderer" idea, but Vi pointed out, the one you proposed seems to make the Win Condition a lot less attractive. Right now, my only problem with the Murderer role in my mind is that you need to play it smart to have a chance at winning, and the decision to go Murderer should not be taken lightly.

Great game, Percy, one of the most enjoyable I've played in.

Thank you!

Is your problem with double graverobbing that it was simply too effective in shutting down Murderers?

Yes; a Murder takes two nights worth of commitment, and getting a potential Murderer to rob two graves or be lynched meant they were both roleblocked and could be checked for blood/etc., and were set back at least a full Night in their bid to win. I felt it worked well for the Cult (as they have the numbers to help each other rob), but there was some unpleasant synergy for the Murderers.

Y'know if this continues , I may have to get the title "Mod Error"

I do apologise, but it did mean you were virtually mod-confirmed for most of the game

But the game was AMAZING.

Thank you!

I'm pulling for instantaneous modkills for Insanity Infractions precisely to avoid this sort of issue tbh. iPick featured someone getting modkilled for missing a post restriction and it still won a Scummy so etc.

As I've mentioned before, I really didn't like modkilling Kise for violating his Twitchy insanity in the first game. I agree that punishment needs to be stricter, and a (x2?)warning-then-modkill for any other Insanity makes sense, but Twitchy is the sticking point. Hmm...

The flavor was totally awesome.
It was a great game, Thanks Percy!

Thank you!

I would definitely like a notification PM for Stars Aligned III. Consider this a /pre-in if that's allowed at this point

Absolutely! I've got my list going already.


Thanks again to everyone, especially anyone who read all of this! Vi and I will be hard at work to make the third instalment even more satisfying and bug-free.

[Percy]

Oh, another note: Writing two PMs per player per Night was tough work, and I made a few mistakes; this new forum, where PMs are organised into threads, will make life a lot easier on me in the future!

[Percy]

OP has been edited for spoiler purposes.