The Syndicate

-= Battle =-

"It's about time you got here," said Timmer evenly. "I thought you were supposed to be fast. I've been waiting for hours."

The Tarnished Golem stood silently at the door, regarding Timmer with no expression on its blank face.

"Well?" said Timmer angrily, lifting his mighty hammer. "Let's see what you've got!" The Golem held up its hands which shifted, liquidlike, into sharp blades. It began to move, advancing on Timmer and whirling the blades in a basic attack pattern.

Timmer leapt forward and blocked the first stabbing attack with the head of his hammer, bringing the metal handle down to block the other blade, sweeping in low, and took a swing at the Golem's head. The Golem moved much more quickly than he had anticipated, and he was surprised as his hammer connected with nothing but air. The Golem was already at his side, jabbing a blade at his chest. Timmer jumped back, turning a potentially fatal kill into just a painful slash on his ribs.

Timmer narrowed his eyes, and readied his hammer again, this time in a more complex pattern of attacks. Still, the Golem twirled and danced around them, jabbing and slicing, and by the time they stepped apart, Timmer's blood was flowing from three more wounds, and he was breathing a little more heavily.

"Stay still, damn you!" shouted Timmer, beginning another hammer attack, but craftily drawing a small dagger as he did. He yelled as he swung the hammer overhead, causing the Golem to raise both blades in an X to block it, and he cried out again in victory as he stabbed in with the dagger underneath the Golem's defenses. Instead of sinking the blade into the Golem's side as he expected, Timmer was shocked as the Golem's frightening speed showed itself again, as it easily brought an arm down to knock the blade across the room, slicing two of Timmer's fingers off as it did.

Timmer bellowed in pain and rage, and as the Golem moved to stab him again, he surprised it by moving into the jab. Its blade-arm sunk deep into his chest, and the two came face-to-face. Though the Golem could not speak, Timmer could read a message in its eyes, repeating over and over, "Die... die... die... die..."

"NO, U!!!" roared Timmer, grabbing the arm that still had a blade fatally embedded in his chest. The Golem's expressionless face seemed to somehow show fear as it jerked and pulled, trying to retract the blade and get away, but it couldn't break Timmer's crushing grip. Timmer grinned a bloody grin as he raised his hammer again, and brought it down right on the Tarnished Golem's face, denting it severely.

The Golem began to move more franticly and erratically, stabbing at Timmer over and over in a vain attempt to escape, as Timmer, laughing, brought the hammer down again and again on the pinned Golem's head, until it was nothing more than a misshapen lump of tarnished silver.

Finally, the Golem stopped moving, and Timmer let go of it in satisfaction. "Take that, you bastard," he panted, and Metalmarsh crashed to the floor with a tinny thud. Timmer blinked and twitched as the blade slid out of his chest, and he could feel his blood flowing freely from that wound. He shuffled back to his table and sat, glaring at the pile of useless silver that now sat on his floor.

He picked up a bottle from the table with a shaky hand, and tried to pour himself a drink in a thick, dusky gold goblet, but the bottle fell from numb fingers as he began to feel light-headed, and he blinked one last time and fell forward onto the table one final time.

Metalmarsh has been killed by the Circle of Decay. Timmer has been killed by the Tarnished Golem. It is now Day 14.

-= Decay =-

"Prepare the Eldritch Corruptor!" commanded the Lich of Khastor Keep. "Our Dark Goddess commands it!" He gestured to the Cursecrafter. "Bring Metalmarsh, for a life must be sacrificed to being the Corruptor to full power!"

But when he turned, the Cursecrafter was nowhere to be seen. Three hooded figures stood behind him, one holding a weaponlike device. "Lich!" he intoned. "Your evil will end here!"

"You have sealed your fates!" hissed Turnip Head, raising his hands in a killing spell. Before it was complete, though, the hooded figure fired the weapon, and a beam of fluctuating purple energy struck the Lich in the chest. He fell back upon the Eldritch Corruptor, crying out. The weapon was draining him of his power, and his connection to his phylactery. Without it, Turnip Head became the dessicated corpse that he had appeared as for centuries, lifeless and brittle.

"We did it!" said another hooded figure. "We killed the Lich!"

"Well, it ain't the Avatar of Maligna," said the first. "But I reckon it's the next-best thing!" They left before the Lich's teammates could return to kill them.

And the Eldritch Corruptor began to glow.

Turnip Head has been lynched. He was the Lich of Khastor Keep, and a member of the Circle of Decay.

It is now Night 13

Tranq wrote:@ Hosts: Would the civvies need the Tarnished Golem dead if he chose a baddie as his watched over player?

No team needs the Tarnished Golem dead to win. He mimics the Win Condition of the player he's watching over, but doesn't technically join their team.

Oh yes, and timmer has been removed from the poll again today.

Long Con had not spoken in some time. More and more gods had gathered to watch as the wager between Long Con and Dark Willow neared its resolution. They could see the essence of both gods streaming in to the realm, as both became more and more invested in seeing their chosen teams win.

"Yes!" cried Long Con suddenly, startling those near him. "fingersplints LIVES! And the Trickster is still out there, working hard to ensure that -I- will win this wager, and teach the godling a lesson!"

Dark Willow grinned evilly, watching Long Con closely as he leaned in further to the realm, completely transfixed. "Don't call me that. I told you."

-= Instinct =-

fingersplints knew her time was up, that she had trusted too many times, shown her face when her instincts cried out for her to run, to hide, to climb a tall tree and hug the trunk until morning.

Now, the evil was after her. It crashed through the underbrush that fingersplints deftly ran through, and she could hear the blade it was using to hack away at the vegetation in its determined desire to end her life in the most brutal way it could.

She stopped short at the edge of a small ravine, gasping as she almost tumbled over the edge. Frantically, she looked around for another way, but she was too late. The Witherdeath killer violently burst through the last tangle of branches, red eyed and savage, and fingersplints shrieked as the villain's blade came chopping down, but the ground beneath them gave way at the same time, crumbling into the ravine. fingersplints scrambled and grabbed on to some exposed roots, as the killer tumbled over her, bellowing as it tumbled down the steep and rocky slope, and into the darkness below.

fingersplints has not been killed by the Witherdeath Cabal. It is now Day 13.

Night post soon, leaving work now

-= The Man That No One Knew =-

Matt was led, held gruffly on each arm by the Tarnished Golem and the Living Statue, toward the Pool of Moonlight, where a Cage of Tears was set up, waiting for him. Matt struggled and fought, trying to slip out of his trenchcoat and away from their grasp, but to no avail.

"Please," he said, as the Essence Elemental. The Tarnished Golem didn't react, but the Living Statue seemed taken aback by Matt's new appearance. "Please, Statue, you were created to protect our realm, won't you stop this injustice?"

The Living Statue paused, and then shoved Matt into the cage. "You are not the Essence Elemental, for though you appear beautiful, you have none of her purity." The Tarnished Golem silently slammed the iron cage closed.

Dr Von Dreszenstein clutched at the latticed iron bars of the cage and looked to the Tarnished Golem. "I created you, and I now order you to free me!" The Tarnished Golem froze, a strange memory of a time and place that may have never existed causing a fleeting feeling to stir within its unbeating heart, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared, and the Golem was unmoved as ever.

As the cage was winched into a horizontal position, tiny white luminescent crabs streamed from the Pool, disturbed and frightened by the events, and they clung to the rocks and trees at the Pool's edge, their tiny eyes watching intently.

"ENOUGH!" commanded the godly voice from within the Cage of Tears, which sat just above the water's surface. "I am Long Con, Shaper of Realities, and I command you both to walk into this Pool and never leave it again!" Golden light streamed through the bars of the cage, and the power of his divinity could be felt by both the Statue and the Golem. Twin pairs of wings, cramped behind him in the tight cage, flexed, bending the bars outward slightly.

"Enough of thissss..." the Lich's raspy voice hissed behind them. "This creature would say and do anything to fool you into going against the wishes of the Realm. He is no god, he is merely an animal in a cage. End this."

A lever was pulled, and the Cage of Tears slowly lowered beneath to Pool of Moonlight's surface. The Lich of Khastor Keep raged against the imposter on the shore. Gladius Mechaspark frantically tried to convince them that a mistake had been made. The Deadeye Raptor squawked and screeched... and then the Cage was underwater.

A strange hand, long-fingered and shifting in colour, burst up from beneath the surface one last time, before going pale grey and sinking too.

Matt has been lynched. He was the Karma Chameleon, a Civvie. He was also the Avenging Statue, on a Quest Win Condition.

It is now Night 12.

Timmer has been removed from the poll!

Metalmarsh89 wrote:I will vote timmer.

Hosts: if a player's name is not on the lynch poll, can they still be lynched via shenanigans?

No.

-= Silent Night =-

The Lich of Khastor Keep worked hard with the Cursecrafter, carefully constructing the artifact that had been shown to them in a dream by a pale woman with dark hair and jet-black eyes.

"Thisss..." hissed the Lich, "flows now with the most dark and arcane sorceries that I have ever encountered, and some that even I have never heard of!" He waved a hand over a bed of orange crystal, and the mystical energies within flared and pulsed.

"And this will focus the energy," said the Cursecrafter, placing a device made up of a series of dark steel circles, which looped around the crystal bed, containing it from all sides. "But what are we focusing it on? Will this eliminate the Witherdeath Cabal?"

"No..." the Lich's hollow voice spilled forth like an icy wind. "Our goddess has greater plans for thisss..."

No one has been killed. It is now Day 12.

-= Disorderly =-

"The legend of the Chaos Wizard's defenses is somewhat... intimidating," said the Master Thief. "How do you expect to take him down?"

"This device," Gladius Mechaspark held up a finger, "Is an Encepholatic Expander, designed alter the target's awareness. I, along with the good Doctor, Von Dreszenstein-"

"Just call me Dr Dre," nodded the scientist with a grin.

"Yes, Dr Dre and I," continued Gladius, "Well, we've been doing some experiments on the realm, and have found that it bears certain qualities that may aid us in this. We just need to set it up near enough to him to target... forty meters should be fine. Fifty, maybe."

The Psionic Ninja crept onto Bass' square, and quietly set up the Expander. He flicked the switch, and the device turned on with a quiet whirr. The Chaos Wizard's sensitive ears picked it up, and he immediately rose to his feet, his eyes flaring with chaotic magic, but he was too late.

The rays from Mechaspark's machine hit him, and his point of view grew distant. He saw the land as if from a great distance, the patterns that overlaid their very existence.

"A grid!" he cried out, clutching his head. "It's all... organized! Methodical!" His eyes spun as his viewpoint went microscopic, and he saw the spiralling patterns that made up reality, fractals within fractals, and still deeper, seeing the digital code underneath that made up the world within which his world existed. His soul searched for the embrace of chaos, and found only the cold void of order waiting.

They found him curled up in a fetal position, and he was not even aware of them as they ran him through with a spear.

Bass the Clever has been lynched. He was the Chaos Wizard, a Civvie. It is now Night 11.

The Trickster is pretty tricky. It's a safe bet that they could pull off a trick like that. But the Trickster couldn't trick you into thinking that a dead team is alive.

How's this for a trick though? Timmer is off the poll today.

Hmmm, yes... well it was a late night last night and tired Host forgot about that poll thingy. Well, it wouldn't do to have a poll cycle start at that time anyway. Go ahead and place your votes in-thread, and I'll make a 24-hour poll tonight between 10 and 11 pm EST. I'll check my PMs now, also PM me if I missed anything. Sometimes a Host just has to go out on Saturday night.

-= Target =-

Long Con watched with greater and greater interest as the events below played out. "Look now, the Witherdeath Cabal is going after Bullzeye! I never would have predicted such a thing!" Even as he spoke, the magic of Witherdeath caused black tentacles to rise up from the ground and wrap Bullzeye up, dragging his spirit from his body into a torturous afterlife of negative energy.

Bullzeye has been killed by the Witherdeath Cabal. Sorry for the late and short post!

It is now Day 11.

-= Frigid =-

That day, it grew very cold. Gladius Mechaspark took the fur cloak he had packed away in one of his trunks, and put it on, shivering. As the snow began to blow, he travelled, searching for others who would help to seek the daily justice that the realm had become accustomed to.

For some time, he found nobody, and as the sun began to set, he settled in to light a fire. The snow was beginning to accumulate, and the wind was blowing harder. As the blaze grew and began to cast a warmth in a real way, he noticed a pair of eyes flashing in the darkness across from him.

"Ho there!" he called out, his hand moving to his Ionic Photon Repeler. "Are you friend or foe?"

"Friend, I hope," came the quiet voice from the shadows. The Feral Pixie crept out tentatively, dressed only in scant rags.

Gladius' eyes widened, and called out to her. "My god, come here, girl!" He opened his voluminous fur cloak. "Come and warm up, you must be freezing!"

She hesitated, and crept forward, coming around the fire, and settled in next to him. She leaned against him as he brought the cloak closed around them both. "Turnip Head, it was supposed to be," she whispered.

"What's that?" he asked, not understanding.

"They were going to lynch Turnip Head today," she said softly, leaning her head on his shoulder and gazing into the fire. "But this storm has kept everyone in hiding, and now the day is over."

"There's always tomorrow," said Gladius reassuringly, but she sighed.

"Are we going to make it, inverntor?" she asked sadly. "This cold isn't natural... it's the darkness that causes it."

"The Darkness? That demon was already vanquished!"

"The darkness of their hearts," she whispered, closing her eyes to sleep. "Can't you feel it all around us? The realm is ill, and I don't think it can be cured."

Turnip Head has not been lynched. It is now Night 10.

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! And thank you all for playing my game. Good luck to all in the lynch!

Sorsha wrote:My thoughts on bass from a few days ago:

Sorsha wrote: I just looked over bass's posts and not liking them. When it was Juliets vs Canuck he decided to vote for Canuck then the next two lynches when Juliets was a candidate he was a no show. He's showed up to vote in the night polls but not the lynch polls plus he's been posting elsewhere on the forums during all of this.
I don't know how he voted in the Floyd poll because the poll thread hasn't been updated for over a week

Geez, buncha whiners! Poll thread updated.

LoRab wrote:My darling hosts:

And would love other's input on this, because it could just be me. But Thursday is US Thanksgiving. For a lot of us, that means a stressful day full of family, limited chances to get away to check mafia, added stress, and way too much food. Not to mention the copious amounts of wine. Could we consider extending this lynch and adding an extra day? That would also give us all something to do on Friday instead of supporting huge corporate masses who make employees get to work in the middle of the night for door breaker sales. So...it makes the world a better place.

I'm fine either way. But wanted to throw it out there.

All right, if I do this, then changing the poll length may erase the votes. I think that's not so catastrophic. Let me hear some opinions on this.

-= Close Call =-

The Circle of Decay killer grinned, so close to its prey. The victim was going about their nightly business, completely unaware that a murderer lurked so close.

Darkness fell, and the killer moved in, a killing spell glowing red in its hand. A flash of light, and a pained cry rang out, and Dom staggered out, his entire body smoking, and he fell to his hands and knees. Crawling, he moved quickly to get away, thankful that his life had somehow been spared.

The Circle of Decay kill has failed, and Dom has survived! It is now Day 10.

Epignosis wrote:
Long Con wrote:
S~V~S wrote:The poll question says choose two, but you may pick only one option. Going with D~ it corresponds to 4, ...*BOOM* LOST
Whoops, I did want that to be two votes per person. Will it delete the current poll if I change that?
As long as you don't add or delete options on the poll, the current votes should not reset. You should be able to enable multiple votes without consequence.

Thank you, dead Epi!

It seems that still doesn't give the people who already voted another vote, so I'm going to delete the poll. Here's what it looks like now:

If any of these people don't vote again, then I'll count their vote here. Linki: Except for Bullz.

S~V~S wrote:The poll question says choose two, but you may pick only one option. Going with D~ it corresponds to 4, ...*BOOM* LOST

Whoops, I did want that to be two votes per person. Will it delete the current poll if I change that?

-= =-

"You can't do this! I'm a doctor, dammit!"

The rest shook their heads sadly at the madness that had clearly taken over DrWilgy's mind. Though his efforts in the fight had been diligent and sincere, they had come across as false, deceptive, deluded. His regular patients had fled, and even those closest to him couldn't help. "He's there one minute, gone the next!" claimed a neighbour. "That guy is unreliable!"

For creative fun, they blindfolded DrWilgy and secured his feet in cement. Encircling him, each of the eleven accusers levelled a long spear at him, and, with a nod from their leader, they advanced slowly, impaling DrWilgy from all sides at the same time, slowly and brutally.

Afterward, they congratulated each other on a job well done, and went out to tea with the Spirit Oracle. "DrWilgy?" he croaked in his ancient voice. "Why, he was just the Blinkman. You can't blame a man for acting according to his nature!" He shook his head sadly. "Why he didn't blink away from you lot is beyond me.... beyond me."

DrWilgy has been lynched. He was Blinkman, a Civvie role.

Night 9 has begun!

-= Double Down =-

"All my power, and I still I cannot foresee what the outcome of this struggle will be," remarked Long Con, peering down at the realm with continued interest.

"That's the point," smirked Willow. "Is there any greater form of entertainment? Besides, I am confident that evil will drag the righteous down into the mud. Look at their power!"

"And yet, champions like the elusive Feral Pixie fight on. And," his eyes widened slightly. "See there - the Tarnished Golem moves swiftly and surely, finally choosing to kill! And it kills MacDougall! The unpredictability is quite exhilarating!"

"And my precious Witherdeath Cabal are cutting down HamburgerBoy," She noted with a twisted and loving grin. "They make me so proud."

MacDougall has been killed by the Tarnished Golem. HamburgerBoy has been killed by the Witherdeath Cabal.

It is now Day 9!

-= Two Is The Loneliest Number =-

TheFloyd73 looked around, irate. He leaned over to his companion and muttered, "This is how they treat us? We stay in basically the same place all game while they're running around, getting items, taking on quests, finding spirit animals, discovering their destinies... and it's US who are the bad guys?"

"I know," he said, shaking his head contemptuously. "Try to be left alone, and they still find a reason to come and cut you down. How are your ropes?"

Floyd fidgeted a little, moving his wrists behind his back. "They're pretty tight. They're kind of chafing me actually."

"Me too."

"Well, duh." Floyd turned to his companion. "Look, if one of us doesn't make it out of here..."

"Stop it!" he cut Floyd off. "Where you go, I go. We're a team, and nothing is going to make me forget that!"

"But still..."

"No!" Floyd cut him off again, more sharply. "No buts. You and me, together forever."

"It's 'you and I', actually," he said.

"Are you sure?"

The conversation was cut short when the executioner walked in. He paused for a second, and then turned back to the magistrate and said, "Which one?"

The magistrate frowned. "Both, I guess. Safest just to do both."

TheFloyd73 has been lynched. He was the Splinter Twin, a member of the Witherdeath Cabal.

Night 8 has begun!

You will be told when a baddie team has been eliminated.

timmer wrote:@HOSTS, the front page post with the links to players' post histories has reywas's history on bass the clever. Could you change bass' link to show his posts when you get a chance, please?

Done. Good reporting! For your diligence, I grant you a Spirit Butterfly to flutter about you as you travel.

-= Unfairaday =-

DFaraday was minding his own business when a member of the Circle of Decay just walked right up to him and stabbed him in the throat!

A traveller, named Jim Nonplayer, witnessed the brutal killing, and ran off into the darkness. He quickly got lost, and decided to find his way to the shining beacon of light that was the only real landmark he could see.

He was just getting close, when a huge explosion knocked him on his back, and he saw bodies flying through the air. Dazed, he got up to continue to the beacon, but instead he found that the whole area was nothing but a smoldering pit. Had all the people there been killed?!

DFaraday has been killed by the Circle of Decay. It is now Day 8.

juliets wrote:Thank you LC and BR for another outstanding game. Your games just get better and better. And thanks to those of you who said goodbye in some way to me. I likely won't be in another game for awhile so have fun with the rest of this game and going forward.

Thanks for playing, juliets! I hope to see you again in a future game, at least make some non-player cameos in blue!

Terribly sorry for an oversight, I should have announced this at the beginning of Day 7.

There is a beacon of light shining into the sky, visible from anywhere on the map. It's coming from G9.

-= Grim Tidings =-

The realm had turned on juliets. Hands bound with loops of thick, coarse rope, she was led up a blasted hill to New Crickneck Gallows, where a black and twisted oak tree leaned out over a steep drop. A jagged and rusty chain hung from a thick branch, a noose from which the darkest of evils were cruelly disposed of.

They led her before the crowd, and Yin cried out authoritatively, "Juliet! Er... ets. Juliets! You have been accused before your peers of dark sorcery, murder, and worse! You have desecrated the dead, and used them in your evil quest for power! Have you anything to say for yourself before you hang?"

Juliets bowed her head, seeming contrite for a moment, before glaring around at the gathering with evil, bloodshot eyes. She grinned a wicked grin. "Desecration? You have not seen desecration yet!"

Her eyes became beacons of sickly green light, and the sky seemed to turn several shades greener, swirling with ominous clouds. "Enough!" cried Yin, grabbing her and shoving her toward the noose frantically. He cried out when the black oak tree reached down with a branch and grabbed him, pulling him into its trunk. All around, bony arms burst from the ground, hanging with rotten flesh.

Mayhem ensued as the living dead rose and began to attack the living. Some fought and attempted to strike them down, but they merely rose again, twice as angry, scratching and biting viciously.

The Karma Chameleon nimbly dodged around several zombies, and camouflaged himself against the hill as he crawled up the steep slope with a sticky grip. The winds were whipping wildly, tossing juliets' hair around her head as her mouth hung open in a voodoo trance, calling forth more and more of the undead to attack those who had betrayed her. The Karma Chameleon tensed his muscles and leapt, grabbing the noose-chain and speeding around juliets, wrapping her neck.

A quick shove sent her flying off the edge of the hill, and she twisted and jerked until the light in her eyes died out, and the living dead returned to the ground. Yin extricated himself from the oak's thick branches with a grateful nod to the Chameleon, and moved with him to help the injured.

juliets has been lynched. She was the Grim Shaman, a member of the Witherdeath Cabal.

It is now Night 7.

Polls thread is up-to-date.

I should clarify, that was the Witherdeath Cabal kill in the Night Post. They kill on even nights.

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