Rata Mall - Zombie Chat

[Battle Mage]

we need to isolate people then. easy!

[Battle Mage]

we may as well just talk here.

Pooky has an investigative innocent on me, so I'm confirmed good guy which is helpful. I've also crumbed to Ariel that I'm cop-cleared.

I guess the plan is we isolate 1 weak player next turn, and so on? And definitely stick together, as presumably I can't recruit and am vulnerable to attacks.

Is it helpful if we use this thread as a repository for all the info we have on everyone and every room?

[Battle Mage]

I think you over-estimate the strength of other players - I believe there are weaker players who are rolling around 1d4 too. I think i started at 1d6 and I was the 3rd strongest. so most are 1d5 and lower. As you say though, that's before weapons. My stick isn't really much of a weapon - it's a magic alcohol-finding stick.

[Battle Mage]

Hmm ok,

I'm thinking we need to look for some environment kills, I considered locking you in the freezer when you went for the food, but it has an emergency hinge release on the interior.

I checked the stove, utensils, and microwave, to turn on the gas and put metal and paper in the microwave and turn on high, hoping to blow you up while you checked the room but the gas is not running and needs to be turned back on, so I'm thinking that should be a side goal, get the gas running and we can rig this room to blow, if we are lucky we might be able to take out some stronger players.

I think Green Crayons might have a gun and he's old, so perhaps easy to convert.

i'm not sure that would have worked - 2 players knew i came here, and you declared publically you came here, so me being dead would have looked pretty bad on you. Similarly we should be careful going forward.

Why do you think GC has a gun? I was definitely not thinking that.

in general though, setting traps in rooms is a good idea. if you stick the kettle on and make some coffee, I'll pour my chilli powder in it. At the very least, we might give somebody a nasty bout of diarrhea.

[Battle Mage]

What was your original role and win conditions, might need you to continue acting that one out once we go back into the Eatery.

...yes obviously. I'm hardly going to suddenly break character.

[Battle Mage]

Anyway, we are a team, so let's work together!

Shall we start with a repository of info on all the other players - just to pool what we know

[Battle Mage]

Player 1:

Pookythemagicalbear

Casey Ballentyne: Male, Early 30s Tall, Muscular, Scar across his face, slightly balding, tidy Beard, Dressed in Denim.
Forecast strength - 1D7.
Win condition is to "kill all bad guys".
He was very interested in the history of the mall, and is highly suspicious of Green Crayons.
Started the game with a lie detector he can use once every 2 phases. He has only used it on me so far - he asked me if I was a good guy in the book store, I said I was and the lie detector confirmed that I was telling the truth.
Is currently in the car park - planning to use lie detector on Talitha, using a similar approach.
He is likely therefore to want to go somewhere with me and Talitha next turn to basically move in a cop-cleared pack.

[Battle Mage]

Player 2:

Groza529

Johannes Berger: Male, Mid-Late 40s Tall, Skinny, South African accent, Dark Hair - Dressed in a suit and tie. Carrying Briefcase.
Forecast strength - 1D5
Claims his win condition is related to "uncovering intelligence concerning the end of the world somewhere in this mall." He suspects foul play in that respect.
Claims his briefcase contains a hefty wrench he got from the basement in the last phase (weapon) and a card to access the car park. Implied the briefcase was empty at start of game - I don't believe this.
Received an anonymous telecom message from somebody last phase which said something like "I hope you are a friend, what can you see?". Only other players in a room alone were Green Crayons and Porochaz.
He didn't find much in the basement, besides the two generators, one working, one not (as noted publically), some water and gas pipes.

I wonder if we could cause a gas leak in the basement?

I have 1 gas mask, Talitha has another. On the generators, I told him there was a book on how to fix it in the book store, so he may have gone there, or the bank, which he opened last phase.
He is suspicious of me (because i was V/LA and didn't have time to answer all his questions!) and Green Crayons. He also had a plan for moving in packs for protection which will be unhelpful to us.

Player 1:

Pookythemagicalbear

Casey Ballentyne: Male, Early 30s Tall, Muscular, Scar across his face, slightly balding, tidy Beard, Dressed in Denim.
Forecast strength - 1D7.
Win condition is to "kill all bad guys".
He was very interested in the history of the mall, and is highly suspicious of Green Crayons.
Started the game with a lie detector he can use once every 2 phases. He has only used it on me so far - he asked me if I was a good guy in the book store, I said I was and the lie detector confirmed that I was telling the truth.
Is currently in the car park - planning to use lie detector on Talitha, using a similar approach.
He is likely therefore to want to go somewhere with me and Talitha next turn to basically move in a cop-cleared pack.

[Battle Mage]

Player 3:

Primate, formerly Jesternl

Harry Carrouthers: Male, 60s Medium Build, using a walking cane (noticeable limp), white haired, thick glasses.
Forecast strength - 1D3
Claims his main objective is to reside in the mall and be safe, as he keeps getting attacked on the road.
Moderately suspicious of me, and unusually trusting of Green Crayons. Limited dialogue between us so far.

[Battle Mage]

I haven't spoken to Zag or CaptainMeme at all, so won't do entries on them. Others to follow in the next day or 2 when time permits.

[Battle Mage]

We can probably aggravate Green Crayons into trying to attack you, as you keep trying to steal from him, if I can lure him into a room somewhere with the promise of helping him take you out and ""patching him"" back up after the fight, we could jump him and then tell Pooky that GC tried to attack me and you had to save me from him?

I don't think that's a good strategy. I would prefer we prioritise finding 1 more person to recruit, given it will give us another body, and you will also become individually more powerful.

[Battle Mage]

Some random thoughts for now:

There is a risk of people working out you are the obvious link to a zombie outbreak, and so we need to bolster our numbers quickly if possible.

Do we think foreigners are more likely to be immune to the zombie virus? maybe somebody with similar demographics to me would be a good option. I'm thinking Talitha? or Porochaz?

We should go to the barbers shop next for sure - I don't know if anyone has gone, and I can go under the pretense of knowing there is more alcohol there (my stick told me).

We don't know what happens when people die (i.e. will people be able to identify that they were good people (presumably yes) - this increases risk of gambits like the one you proposed with GC).

[Battle Mage]

also, record of where people went in phase 1:

Bookstore:
Battle Mage
Talitha
Primate
Pooky
Nexus

Cafe:
Porochaz

Basement:
Groza

Toilet:
Green Crayons

Hardware Store:
RubberDuck
Zag
Ariel
CaptainMeme

[Battle Mage]

On "regarding puzzles" that was a very helpful post, all noted. Remind me to do a similar one re-capping what happened in the book store.

I'm not sure whether we want to work out what's going on now, do we? Presumably we should be looking to sabotage all these things to keep ourselves hidden. Likewise, you're right we should be wary of CCTV now. And we definitely need weapons. I don't really have a gun sadly, currently wielding a fork!

I have cash for the seer machine - we can use it when we go back to the eatery.

On the movie theatre, yes I am assuming it is up another floor. I believe the room to the south of us currently is the Brewery (which is why I was trying to get into it). However, believe the brewery can only be accessed through a secret door under one of the seats in the cinema.

[Battle Mage]

If I had to guess, I'd say what you were trying to do was BREW, which would be 2 7 3 9 going by the keypad letters.
Looks like someone already entered a dud number and scored first red skull, so we probably only have 3 attempts remaining before getting a lockout.

Let me know if you think I'm just crazy.

I think this is worth a shot. ^

[Battle Mage]

Unless each skull turns green when a correct pin is entered.. so we might have to enter 4x different pins in the correct order for a total 16 correct digits.

Her who created what you are trying to do might be "The Hymn

of

Ninkasi"

thehymnofninkasi

= 16 letters

Phrase: THEH | YMNO | FNIN | KASI
PIN#: 8434 | 9666 | 3646 | 5274

Food for thought. Or I'm the high one

Oops, "The Hymn TO Ninkasi" is the correct title.

Phrase: THEH | YMNT | ONIN | KASI
PIN#: 8434 | 9668 | 6646 | 5274

I do not think this is worth a shot ^ although I'm impressed at the creativity.

[Battle Mage]

Ambic confirmed it’s a just a 4 digit Pin with an incorrect entry flagged. Guessing Porochaz found the door and tried to enter a code. 3 chances remain.

I don't recall him mentioning a door/code, but let me check my messages and see if I have any clues.

[Battle Mage]

The nonsensical writing "Remember her who created what you are trying to do".

What if this was aimed specifically your role BM? You might be the only player that had a need, or is capable of getting into the Brewery?

What if,

Her who created what you are trying to do

.. that could be you specifically what you were trying to do, which was brew alcohol. The original alcohol was beer, first brewed by the Egyptian women.

Ninkasi who is the tutelary goddess of beer in Sumerian mythology. I doubt most people here would know that beer was invented by women without some kind of in game hint.

Scholarly works from the early 1800 BC have translated various Sumerian documents. Among these is a poem with the English title, A Hymn to Ninkasi was poem which thought to be the first written recipe for brewing beer.

That stick of yours doesn't happen to have anything written on it does it or some kind of reference to an ancient female beer deity?

eh...worth a shot I guess

examine my stick for inscription

[Battle Mage]

ah damnit, we're in the wrong place for this...

[Battle Mage]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking in post 24?

[Battle Mage]

Ambic confirmed it’s a just a 4 digit Pin with an incorrect entry flagged. Guessing Porochaz found the door and tried to enter a code. 3 chances remain.

I don't recall him mentioning a door/code, but let me check my messages and see if I have any clues.

I can't find anything on the code.

[Battle Mage]

Time Travel - a few thoughts

Porochaz wants to build a time machine.
Pooky inexplicably talked about GC being a time traveller when we were in the bookstore.
In the bookstore, there were lots of books, but a conspicuously high number linked to the concept of time.

Unrelated but there was also a book called:

"what really happens when you get The Jab", which I suspect may have some hints about you being evil. I don't know if anyone identified/read that book.

[Battle Mage]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking in post 24?

I whispered him that I had booster shots that give a +5 combat boost to next combat roll in the hope that he would volunteer for a jab, (which I am allowed to do if a player consents)

I was just letting you know in case the lie comes back to bite me, I might now have to come up with an alibi as to why I shouldn't give him a shot, i.e. it's unethical as he might use it to murder an innocent, or if he turns out to be immune as to why it didn't work.

It might also work in our favor if he consents to it.

I can't find anything on the code.

Shall we try entering BREW 2 7 3 9?

I'm not sure what else to try doing at this point.

Noted, I'll think about best approach in light of that. We do have plenty of time here.

Yes, I'm happy to take a punt on 2739. We could also try BEER? 2337?

[Battle Mage]

Player 4:

Porochaz

Xavier Lynch: Male, Early 20s Short, bookish, well groomed, Red Puffer Jacket, skinny.
Forecast strength - 1D4
Win condition involves looting food his sick, elderly grandfather who is a famous inventor - and the only one who knows how to get him home. After phase 1, he was more interested in finding "equipment and medicine". He is trying to build a time machine, so he can go back in time to when his grandad wasn't sick, and presumably everything was normal. He is looking for missing bits for the time machine, and also wants to get in touch with his grandad.
I made a deal with him whereby he gave me yeast in return for a promise I would help him fix the generators in the basement later. He was given the book about generators by Ariel so he should know how to fix them. Although he may have gone to the Phone store this time to find a way to contact the grandad.
Likely armed with a sharp knife. Went to Cafe in phase 1.

[Battle Mage]

Player 5:

Green Crayons

Sir Leo Mustelid: 70s Suit and Tie, Overweight, Wrinkly. Wearing Powder Puff Girls backpack in contrast to suit. Pants , shoes, and lower half of shirt saturated. Smells of sewerage. Filthy. Carrying a large Metallic Pipe
Forecast base strength 1D4.
Didn't get much out of him through conversation. Almost inevitably in the bank this phase, after taking a massive, toilet-destroying, dump in the previous one.
He started the game with glue in his backpack, which I stole from him. He also claims to have a picture of a girl in there - not clear who she is.
Lied about owning the mall - in fact, the rightful owner of the mall is Ariel as the only surviving relative of the previous deceased owner Harold Temperton. He was searching for his granddaughter Carla Temperton when he died. (Ariel knows all this, as I told her).
There was an article in the bookstore about Sir Leo complaining about an expensive highway, and voting to block its construction, 6 months into being partly completed. I deduced this is the highway which leads to the Mall. Ariel and I discussed the likelihood that Green Crayons wants to purchase/acquire ownership of the mall and that he might be trying to kill her. She was talking to him, but didn't appear to trust him.

[Battle Mage]

BREW was a fail, do you want to try attempting to enter beer?

Or would you prefer to leave it safer with two tries remaining?

I'm happy if you want to have a go at plugging the numbers in?

I'm not sure what else to do in here.

I'm not averse to us using up our guesses even if we get it wrong. Worst case scenario is room locks forever, which doesn't hurt us as we are unlikely to come back here, and we don't want others having access. If we are, as I hope, intending to move around together for protection, our ability to cover lots of ground is limited and the fewer rooms opened up the better.

You can plug numbers in. My main immediate priorities over the next couple of real life days are:

1. Downloading and consolidating all my research here and combining with what you know. Including player bios, and room data. We can then update these as we go.
2. Working out the best plan for next phase - in terms of who we want to recruit and how we do it. I already have some ideas, but will pitch to you coherently in due course.
3. Finish exploring the Cafe before we leave. I'm confident there are more things to do here, but haven't been thinking about it yet.

[Battle Mage]

We can agree to disagree on that. I mean, money clearly has some value, in both practical terms in the game, and also for character motivation. It's implied that nobody knows how far flung this crisis is, nor if it may one day end. And Sir Leo is a 70 year old man. It's quite possible he thinks a land transfer has some value, even if it may actually not (just like my character thought everything would be better if I got smashed). Likewise, Ariel was also clear that her character motivation was partly about claiming the property which is hers. Everyone could be lying, but I doubt it.

The Ben Nerrow theory seems unlikely to me.

[Battle Mage]

I think you over-estimate the strength of other players - I believe there are weaker players who are rolling around 1d4 too. I think i started at 1d6 and I was the 3rd strongest. so most are 1d5 and lower. As you say though, that's before weapons. My stick isn't really much of a weapon - it's a magic alcohol-finding stick.

Ok, Ambic clarified this for me. If we are in combat together, it is my dice roll + dice your roll vs the target's dice roll.

For example: If we both attack a player it's counted 1d4+1d2 vs 1d4

Therefore the minimum attack value we have is 2 and the current max is 6.

If we can pick up one more recruit, it will be 1d4+1d2+1d2
Giving us an attack range of d3-d8

We can still lose a fight this way. Because zombies are basically a 50/50 coin flip for rolling a 1 or a 2.
If we collectively roll 2+1+1 for a total of 4 and an opponent rolls 1d6 and gets 5, they can choose what happens as a result of that combat victory from 1. Kill 2.Rob, or 3. Knockout.
There is no Health Point system, so if we lose combat and the other player elects to kill, then whichever target they want is killed. (Meaning my aspirin is useless or has some other application)

It's slightly different if we are defending an attack, depending on who gets targeted, how and when the attack occurs i.e. Like how I attacked you from behind while you were performing another action, and lastly if any weapon modifiers are applied. i.e. Trying to bring a fist to a crossbow fight when the opponent is on the other side of the room.

this is really useful info. As I noted previously, we aren't quite as weak as assumed, as even our 1d6 currently compares favourably to most players pre-weapons. And we have the benefit that only 1 of us could die in that situation. Defensively we should probably stick fairly close if we are in jeopardy then.

Of course, I've been spinning a yarn to most players that I have a gun, so can't imagine anyone attacking me.

[Battle Mage]

in case i just died in that fking freezer, beware of Talitha - try to recruit her