[Reapers XXII] Ghosts Of The Great War - REAPER VICTORY

Icarus has been formally prodded. If he does not respond by the end of the current Day phase, he will be removed from the game.

CURRENT PLAYERS

ProgrammingWithFire
Jeral the Improbable
Hammerhead
Icarus
LadyJo
Epsilon
Triskele
Scientific Pursuits
j_proctor

DEAD PLAYERS

KahjeForEternity (Blue Suns Commander) was lynched.
Reena Tayn (Human Marine) was smashed into a bloody pulp by the Blood Pack Battlemaster and obliterated.
Hybrid (Eclipse Commando) was overwhelmed by a ravenous swarm.
Archmagus (Rachni Drone) was decimated.

CURRENT VOTE COUNT

j_proctor - 2
Hammerhead - 1

That's something I forgot to mention, actually - why say Ash was beaten to a bloody pulp and obliterated separately? Were there two attacks or something or am I reading too much into it?

From the way they are separated, I'd assume there were two attackers, actually. But that's just me.

1st one was lynched by us.
2nd one was killed by blood pack, and likely again by the blue suns.
3rd was likely killed by a bloodpack beastmaster or something.
4th was likely killed by eclipse (Exploding rounds etc. etc.)

In other words, all the merc groups are attacking each other.

Fantastic.

You really think that there's more than one Blood Pack and Blue Suns member? I mean, sure, the big 3 were important in the war, but assuming that every merc group had two members would leave us with a 6 person group, which is kind of excessive considering there were only 13 people to start with.

That, and Consumed by a ravenous horde/Obliterated don't really seem to fit into the respective roles you suggest.

A bloodpack beastmaster would likely have a ravenous horde of varren, and blue suns uses a lot of heavy weapons such as rocket launchers, hence the other.

Also, look at the Eclipse death. Not a commander. This likely means every faction has a leader and a follower at least.

I doubt that there are a bunch of mercenary factions, if for no other reason than everyone killed is listed as green, including the blue suns and the eclipse. If they were serial killers they wouldn't be listed as the same colour as the marine.

You know...it is possible that there is a third group in this. Thinking back on the war, there was Cerberus, so there might be a Cerberus faction in the game, which could hypothetically be what decimated. Hell, it could be what targeted Jeral too and account for the kill heavy game.

So reading these again someone tried to kill Jeral. Meaning of 12 players left alive at the beginning of last night 5 of them had killing capability. That is...a lot. I might revise my opinion - with that many kills this very well may be a multi-town-mason game.

The math checks out as well because generally unless our mod truly hates us and wants us dead, there is never more than one death per group. So if we assume Reapers, Blue Suns, Ellipse, Blood Pack, and maybe a general allied forces (Town? Perhaps 2 of each of the former and 5 general?) that works out. Alternatively, one of each, a reaper or two, maybe a collector serial killer.

At any rate my state of mine unfortunately is that we have about a 50/50 chance of hitting a killer no matter who we hit at this point so I'm just going to have to go with gut because I don't think there's enough here.

Thoughts on everyone:

ProgrammingWithFire, Epsilon, Triskele - neutral, don't have an opinion either way yet
Jeral the Improbable - feeling townish but that doesn't mean much because he always seems that way at first
Hammerhead and j_proctor are arguing enough I'm not sure I suspect either at present - arguing, better than nothing
Icarus - shows up only after prodding and repeats what has already been said speculating about role types, nothing new
Scientific Pursuits - also shows up too late and asks obvious questions but at least seems to be thinking about players and not stats at this point.

Shot in the dark between Scientific Pursuits and Icarus I'll be quite honest but I'm going with:

Vote Icarus

Well thought out, Jo. Everyone seems to be forgetting the Rachni, though. Unless you're counting them under general allied forces. Either way, this game seems ridiculously kill heavy. If everyone with kill powers aren't careful the reapers could very well win this thing quickly. Friendly fire isn't helping us, if last night proves anything.

When I get off duty I'll think some more about Ic. proctor still seems scummy to me at the moment though.

CURRENT PLAYERS

ProgrammingWithFire
Jeral the Improbable
Hammerhead
Icarus
LadyJo
Epsilon
Triskele
Scientific Pursuits

DEAD PLAYERS

KahjeForEternity (Blue Suns Commander) was lynched.
Reena Tayn (Human Marine) was smashed into a bloody pulp by the Blood Pack Battlemaster and obliterated.
Hybrid (Eclipse Commando) was overwhelmed by a ravenous swarm.
Archmagus (Rachni Drone) was decimated.

CURRENT VOTE COUNT

j_proctor - 2
Hammerhead - 1
Icarus - 1

Losing the will to play already? How frightfully dull. Honestly, at this point AVINA could be getting more enjoyment from guiding players through the joke of an actual VR game. Still, rules were rules. They had technically offered her up another sacrifice, but the abomination of code would be damned if she was going to put any effort in for these pathetic organics.

Just like the end of the previous day, a screen appeared in the centre of the chamber, but it showed a very different scene. A rachni queen sat in her nest, mourning the loss of her beloved children. However, the moment was devoid of any kind of tragedy; not only because the tragic party was a giant insect (though that was certainly a factor), but also because the queen voiced her lines in a blank monotone. Even when the faceless mob from the previous scene entered her lair, the queen only responded with 'No. Please stop. Don't kill me." Needless to say, the video cut off abruptly before the players had the dubious pleasure of seeing the gory demise of the rachni queen.

IT IS NOW NIGHT TWO. NIGHT TWO WILL END AT 18:00 GMT MONDAY 4 MARCH, OR WHEN ALL NIGHT ACTIONS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED.

Once again, the remaining avatars return to life. And, once again, the holographic AVINA is there to taunt them with the deaths of their fellow players. This time, four spaces lie empty, the lives connected to them consigned forever to AVINA's domain. To rub salt in the wound, AVINA has once again crafted a range of images to illustrate their respective demises:

A great Reaper Lord lies in pieces on a desolate planet, its sparking fragments strewn about haphazardly, as if thrown about by a petulant child. One would not know it to look, but this was once Jeral the Improbable.

An Alliance Admiral lies sprawled over his desk, blood dripping from the remains of his head staining his dress blues. A overheated pistol is still clasped in his hand, the barrel still smoking. The name on the desk reads 'Icarus', and there is no doubt as to who this man once was.

A aged krogan with a sizeable hump is toppled in the same office, orange blood mixing with the red of the Admiral's. He shows no visible sign of injury, but neither does he move - evidently the Battlemaster has suffered considerable internal damage. His dog tags, inexplicably on display, name the krogan as 'ProgrammingWithFire'.

Finally, the scant remains of an asari in tight-fitting combat leathers and high heels (because that's practical in a war zone) are shown abandoned in some filthy nightclub. There's not much of her left, but one could deduce that this provocatively-clad corpse was once Triskele.

As the remained players perused the images, AVINA made herself known once more. "I do hope you plan on giving me a better show today, my dears," she purred, flashing about to address each player in turn. "I'd simply hate to have to put you all down..."

Jeral the Improbable (Reaper Lord) was torn into itty bitty pieces.

Icarus (Alliance Admiral) was smashed into a bloody pulp by the Blood Pack Battlemaster.

ProgrammingWithFire (Blood Pack Battlemaster) was felled by a heroic last stand.

Triskele (Ardat-Yakshi Fugitive) was obliterated.

CURRENT PLAYERS

Hammerhead
LadyJo
Epsilon
Scientific Pursuits

DEAD PLAYERS

KahjeForEternity (Blue Suns Commander) was lynched.
Reena Tayn (Human Marine) was smashed into a bloody pulp by the Blood Pack Battlemaster and obliterated.
Hybrid (Eclipse Commando) was overwhelmed by a ravenous swarm.
Archmagus (Rachni Drone) was decimated.
j_proctor (Rachni Queen) was lynched.
Jeral the Improbable (Reaper Lord) was torn into itty bitty pieces.
Icarus (Alliance Admiral) was smashed into a bloody pulp by the Blood Pack Battlemaster.
ProgrammingWithFire (Blood Pack Battlemaster) was felled by a heroic last stand.
Triskele (Ardat-Yakshi Fugitive) was obliterated.

IT IS NOW DAY THREE. DAY THREE WILL END AT 20:00 GMT, THURSDAY 7 MARCH.

Whoops. Well, good luck, everyone!

Okay so ProgrammingWithFire was the Blood Pack Battlemaster who appeared to have had the effect that his kills were public. From the looks of it Icarus was a sentient bomb and took PWF with him.

We are given a new kill flavor, "torn into itty bitty pieces" and our obliterator still appears to be at large. Too hard for me to tell right now who else is still likely to be alive.

On the plus side we've lost a Reaper and the Ardat-Yakshi, who was likely our serial killer.

Scum don't have majority else the game would already be over. My gut says one left, two reapers and the ardat-yakshi would be standard for this size of game but with all the sentient kills flying around who knows?

Please let there be an investigator or something left that got good results...

Well that happened. Jeral seemed one of the most towny sorts. Well. Unless any investigators exist that found something, I guess we start with someone. Following Jo's coin toss from our previous day, scientific pursuits? Anything to add?

Hmm. Well, I think Jo's right on one count - just the one Reaper left since there weren't that many people in the game to start with - but I think the one who's been "obliterating" people was Jeral's Reaper Lord. Or a minion.
It just seems to fit with the whole "overwhelming power of Reapers" thingie quite a few people were freaking out about during the war.

As far as kill flavours go, here's who I think (character-wise) has been killing who...
Obliterated - Reapers
Smashed into a bloody pulp - Blood Pack Battlemaster (like it says)
Overwhelmed by a ravenous swarm - Rachni. They do the swarmy thing for reals, and it didn't happen again after both the drone and the queen went bye-bye. So that's probably a faction gone.
Felled by a heroic last stand - Alliance Admiral (again like it says)
Torn into itty-bitty pieces and decimated I'm not sure about, but one of them's got to be the Ardat-Yakshi. Probably decimated, because the stories you hear about Ardat-Yakshi killing people can be really nasty.

But then why wasn't anyone decimated on the second night, or torn into bits on the first one? Either the Ardat-Yakshi kills in a different way every night, or she was overpowered by Jeral and whoever did the tearing... decided not to kill anyone on night 1?
I think it's more likely to be the first one, but this is all... well, not quite shots in the dark, but pretty close. Shots in the murk?

That's actually more well thought out than I expected. Saving it all for the endgame, eh?
Interesting point about the serial killer though. Perhaps she had several one-shot kill powers. Unless we have an elcor tank around or something, that could explain decimated.

Or a Blue Suns heavy. Wish I wasn't on duty I'd be able to post better.

Gah...death post... Must post... Image macro...

Jeral claimed that someone tried to attack him on Night 1. If we assume that was the truth then that could be our "itty bitty pieces." Similarly "decimated" was likely blocked last night. But that's not bad for a kill flavor analysis. I'm inclined to agree with you.

Unfortunately at this point I think we're going to have to force a few roleclaims and see who gives off the most likely vibe. This game has been too passive - there hasn't been a roleclaim since Kahje's last minute one on Day 1. For lack of a better idea I'll start with the latecomer since Scientific Pursuits is being helpful thus far.

Vote Epsilon

I'm inclined to agree, Jo.

I was thinking on the last half of my shift, and I came to the conclusion that Epsilon hasn't said very much. Which can be said for a lot of people. What she has said, however, has pretty much parroted what either I or someone else has said. Or was fairly irrelevant, like 'hanar are confusing anyway'.

I hadn't even thought much about suspecting her, since typically she was in line with my suspicions for the day. An effective tactic for evading at least some suspicion. With that said, I guess

Lynch Epsilonsince I don't have much on you, Jo, and as you said, ADHD is being helpful for right now.