Open 820: The Siege of Aurelia — Game Over!

[Dannflor]

Wrought iron greaves clanked against the flagstones as nine soldiers made their final preparations. On the battlements, the honorable Something_Smart assembled the ballistae, peering down the sights of each one in turn as he tried not to let the approaching shadow shake his resolve. Sergeant skitter30 ran back and forth across the ramparts, carrying rocks almost big enough to be called boulders. Setting one betwixt the crenellations of the northwestern tower, she stopped to look at the shadow. It had grown twice in size. Could the nine of them really hold the line against a force of that size? skitter30 shook her head, best to leave those thoughts behind, Something_Smart needed ammunition for the ballistae. Across from the Sergeant, Sir Penguin_Power stood atop the southwestern tower, his armor shining in the glimmering sunset. In the dust beneath his feet was scrawled a network of complex battleplans and tactics, arrows pointed this way and that in patterns only he could understand. In the keep, T3 and catboi visited the various entry and exit points into and out of the castle, making sure each was barred and secured. Meeting in the Great Hall, they greeted each other with a gaze of both fear and reassurance. They had done the best they could. Dunnstral barely noticed their presence as he directed a crew of spare guards to barricade the great doors. "More rubble. And more timber. Anything you can find in the grounds is fair game!" Dunnstral turned to his companions, raising an eyebrow. T3 and catboi merely nodded. Time was not in their favor. Elsewhere, the recently knighted ssbm_Kyouko yelped as she jumped back from a pot of boiling water. Cursing, she nudged the cauldron over the murder holes in the floor of the gatehouse, careful not to let the metal scald her skin. "You should be a bit more careful," rumbled unwnd, "it's a bit early to be sustaining injuries." ssbm_Kyouko just stuck out her tongue, ignoring the officer. unwnd sighed, and returned to methodically waxing his bowstring. The motion was therapeutic, and helped to take his mind off the coming battle. "Hey! Can you see me?" The excited voice of implosion sang out from beneath the gatehouse, within the archway that lead from the main road into Castle Aurelia proper. ssbm_Kyouko leaned over, squinting through one of the murder holes. She laughed, before shooing implosion away from the practice pot of boiling water. While spirits were not at an all time high, there was a sense of cheer around the castle. These comrades knew each other well. Together, even facing death could not be the worst fate, could it? But a shadow lurked, even within Castle Aurelia. Three of these soldiers were not what they seemed...

[Dannflor]

It is now Night 1 , it will conclude in (expired on 2021-07-22 23:51:02).

[Dannflor]

A glimmer of pink dawn was the only light that shone through the roiling cloud cover. A storm was brewing. Whether or not the elements were harnessed by the arriving forces, or were simply stirred up through some combination of fate or coincidence, no one knew. The mood was desolate. Sleep had not been found by many of the guard over nightfall. Each hearty soldier continued with their preparations, straining to forgo a sleep that would only carry them forward to death. For most, the castle was quiet, aside from the drizzling rainfall that clattered ceaselessly against the polished cobblestones. Three soldiers, however, were more active than the others. They found a quiet respite away from the others, chatting away into the long hours of the night. Returning to their posts, dawn was upon the castle, as was the invading army. From atop the wall, one could make out clearly the black cloaks and painted faces, the sign of the Tyrant. It was mere minutes until swords were drawn. A small messenger boy ran along the ramparts, struggling to keep his tote bag from flying away in the rain and wind. "Message from the Captain! Message! Message from the..." The page collapsed exhausted. A shuddering, rumbling sound emerged from the ground outside the castle. The troops were stomping. The boy picked himself off, brushing off his clothes as he bared his eyes against the rain. "skitter30, you're swapping posts with unwnd!"

[Dannflor]

skitter30 and unwnd have been swapped! ssbm_Kyouko is town .

[Dannflor]

VC 2.0

Song of Storms

Gate

[3] Not Voting

:

ssbm_Kyouko

, skitter30, implosion

Wall

[3] Not Voting

:

Something_Smart, unwnd, PenguinPower

Keep

[3] Not Voting

:

T3, catboi, Dunnstral

The Battle Phase deadline is in: (expired on 2021-08-01 23:53:26)

Mod Notes

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[PenguinPower]

I’m still very unhappy.

[skitter30]

VOTE: implo
Idk why you did this but ok

@ssbm let me know what you need from me

I feel p good abt my reads, and i think this indicates unwnd is scum too

[skitter30]

Honestly i'm feeling p good abt my reads. I think uwnd was planning on 1v1ing me if i had gone to gate yesterday, which would imply the swap was gonna be betwewn wall and keep

That probably says something abt the town-scum distribution at wall-keep at the time but i havent figured that out yet

[catboi]

I feel clowned already by that gate swap. My main theory gets blown to bits immediately.

I'm confident penguin is town, everyone else in this game can kick rocks.

Need to hear from Dunn on why he hammered the keep.

[PenguinPower]

Then why does implosion lolhammer gate when you were almost assuredly going there?

[skitter30]

I have absolutley no idea and i think he loses this so yeah
Idk what they were thinking

[skitter30]

Also catboi r u still planning on voting first

[catboi]

implo-unwnd makes that swap plausible but still very ??? as to why they'd put skitter in the gate, rather than someone more likely to lose a 1v1. I really hated that move from implo.

[PenguinPower]

But why didn’t you go there given you were imminently going there several times?

[skitter30]

Because ssbm wasnt ready to end the day
I was going to when we were ready to end the day

[PenguinPower]

Then why did you ask me?

[skitter30]

Because i was trying to tell if we were ready to end the day yet

[PenguinPower]

I mean - cus, you literally were the reason why the day ended when it did.

[Dunnstral]

Need to hear from Dunn on why he hammered the keep.

I thought it was all town, looks like I was wrong.

[PenguinPower]

Mmmmm

[Dunnstral]

I think solving the gate first is the most informative

[skitter30]

I mean - cus, you literally were the reason why the day ended when it did.

I thought gate getting hammered was enuf of a trigger to end the day, i.e. that when i (or implo as the case may be) voted gate the day would end, so i was holding off on the gate vote until we felt the day waa over

I thought when implo voted gate that the day *was* over, i voted wall just to like formalize where i was going, i didnt realize that was the actual trigger

[skitter30]

Also catboi r u still planning on voting first

[catboi]

Also catboi r u still planning on voting first

I plan on casting my vote at the keep as kingmaker, yeah. I don't know if I go first out of all the areas - that was the approach last game, playing the percentages to an extent, but here I feel like we should resolve whichever location would give the most high-info flip first, if that makes sense. Like, in my view, do we learn a ton from a dunn scumflip or a T3 scumflip? not particularly. Whereas with you vs. implosion, I feel like you've both been active enough that we learn a lot from whichever one of you is scum.

However, if people prefer that I be the one to act first, I'll still gladly oblige.

[Something_Smart]

Mm.

I felt like the weird way unwnd was acting toward skitter made them somewhat more likely to be partners.

Which makes this swap very interesting.