from Arrow's Fall by Mercedes Lackey

Arrow's Fall

The outland mage Hulda disguised herself as a nurse for young Elspeth, and used that position to influence the girl's development. Elspeth gradually become more and more unmanageable, and, to her mother's bafflement, developed a near-debilitating fear of Companions. She became hysterical if one came anywhere near her. While only seven years old, her behavior toward her servants and other children was even worse. Haughty, mean, self-important, and occasionally violent, she was frequently referred to as the Royal Brat among the Heraldic Circle.

Hulda's perfidy was eventually discovered, but she somehow learned of her danger and escaped before she could be questioned or arrested. Moreover, her knowledge of outland magick, unfamiliar to the Valdemarans, allows her methods of disguise and concealment that could prevent her from being discovered even if she still moves amongst the Court.

It has become apparent that unless something changes, Elspeth will never be Chosen, which will render her ineligible for the throne of Valdemar. There are many in the Court and even the Queen's Council that would be only too happy for this to come to pass. Worse still, there are those within the kingdom that have allied themselves with the foreign mage and her master, Prince Ancar. While she may not have succeeded in her plan of completely subverting the Heir-presumptive, they continue to work from within to weaken the Queen, eliminate the Heralds and the Companions, and bring all of Valdemar under Ancar's control.

And the Queen's Own Herald, Talamir, has now been murdered by someone close within the Queen's trusted circle of courtiers and councillors. His is only the latest in a series of mysterious deaths among the Heralds, and the ranks of the Chosen are dwindling. Talamir's Companion, Rolan, seeks a new Queen's Own Herald, one that can not only defend the Kingdom against its external enemies, but detect the rotten core within the Government as well, and, ideally, do something to salvage the Heir-presumptive.

The Companions

Companions are listed in the order in which they Choose their Heralds. Under certain circumstances, the Companion's Choice may fail. In the event that the Companion's first Choice is rejected, the Companion will choose again, and that Herald will not receive their powers, although he/she will establish communication with his/her Companion. The Grove-Born Companions are the exception to this rule. Regardless of whether their first choice is successful, they will always endow their Chosen with powers.

Rolan: The Queen's Own Companion, Grove-Born and Leader of the Companions. Communicates with his Chosen in images only. Images may not contain any letters, numbers, or symbols and must be approved by the mod.

Caryo: Companion to the Monarch of Valdemar. May send 1 one-word pm to Queen Selenay every day.

Gwena: Companion to the Heir to the Throne of Valdemar, Grove-Born. May not contact her Chosen until the mod gives permission to do so (Talia locates Selenay). May answer one yes/no question from her Chosen each game day.

Tantris: May send one PM per day to his Chosen. PM may not contain names or numbers, must be 10 words or less, and must be approved by the mod.

Ahrodie: May send one PM per day to her Chosen. PM may not contain names or numbers, must be 10 words or less, and must be approved by the mod.

Jasan: Companion to the Prince Consort of Valdemar. May enjoy unlimited communication with his Chosen, however, he alone of all the Companions may Choose an evil player. In the event that he does so, he alone of all the Companions will be susceptible to nightkill.

Harevis: May contact his Chosen once during the game via PM. PM may not exceed 5 words.

The Heralds

Heralds do not exist until they are chosen by their Companions. The Queen's Own Companion, Rolan, will Choose Talia the night before the first day of the game, and she will receive her first peek on night 1.

Talia, Chosen of Rolan: Queen's Own Herald. Heraldic Gift: Empathy: Gets a peek every night looking for Queen Selenay (peek returns simple Good/Evil and Selenay/Not Selenay). Continues to peek after she locates the Queen.

Selenay, Chosen of Caryo: Queen and Ruler of Valdemar. Heraldic Gift: Foresight: Once, per game day, may pm the game mod and will receive the role of the lead wagon at that point in the day, a “foretelling” of the lynch result if events continue as they stand.

Elspeth, Chosen of Gwena: Heir to the Throne of Valdemar. Heraldic Gift: Hidden Sting. May execute one nightkill per game with a chance of a second one. Will not be contacted by Gwena or learn she is the Heir until/unless Talia locates Selenay. May ask Gwena one yes/no question per day.

Kris, Chosen of Tantris: Herald. Heraldic Gift: Mindspeech. Will form a masonry with Dirk.

Dirk, Chosen of Ahrodie: Herald, Lifebonded to Talia. Heraldic Gift: Mindspeech. Will form a masonry with Kris. Knows Talia’s identity.

Daren, Chosen of Jasan: Herald and Prince Consort. May be evil. Heraldic Gift: Thought-Sensing. Unlimited communication with Jasan in both directions via PM or chat.

Griffon, Chosen of Harevis: Herald. Heraldic Gift: Firestarting. Will develop powers.

Other Good Roles

Healer Devan: May protect one player from nightkill or other evil action each night. May not protect himself. May not protect the same player twice. Immune to Companion's Choice. Healers are too important and Companions will not Choose them.

The Ungifted: Two village-sided players that do not have the psychic ability required for the Companion's Choice. They will not know their identities and, if the Companions attempt to Choose one of them, the Choice will fail.

Evil Power Roles

Lord Orthallen: Will peek as an unpowered good player.

Lord Gartheser: May change one player's vote per day. The vote buy will not work upon anyone Chosen, as Heralds are as close to uncorruptible as it is possible to be. However, Lord Gartheser may detain them in conversation. If he attempts to purchase the vote of a Herald, they will be blocked from receiving communication from their Companion that night, and the Companion will learn that their Chosen was so blocked.

Prince Ancar: Can place a player in a special mirrored holding cell every night. Anything that that player tries to do that night or the next day, be it a peek or an attack will get thrown back in their faces and will affect them instead of the target. Their votes will count zero and Communication with their Companion, if applicable, will be blocked. The Companion will learn that their Chosen was so blocked. Ancar may not imprison the same player on back to back nights.

Mage Hulda: Will receive one new spell every day that both she and Ancar are alive. If Ancar dies, she may receive new spells only through the activities of the Slaver. Hulda begins the game with two one time use spells:

Mindblock: Renders its target permanently immune to Companion's Choice. Does not have any effect on players already Chosen, although that player's Companion will learn of the attempt to Mindblock their Chosen.

Final Strike: Day Kill. May kill up to two other players at the cost of her own life. Certain conditions apply.

The Slaver: Does not join evil chat or know who the other evils are. In the event that Ancar is killed, the Slaver will submit one name to the mod each day. If that name is not an evil, a Herald, the Healer, or an Ungifted, that person will be silenced for the day and Hulda will receive a new spell. After two successful enslavements, the Slaver will join evil chat and lose his power.

Playing the Game:

Game Mechanic

Instead of the usual good power roles in this game, I will rand() the Companions, who will then choose the players to fill those roles, excluding the Angel role, which will be part of the original rand().

The roles will be filled at a rate of one per night, beginning the night before the game.

Companions are not lynchable or night killable, and may not post in the game thread. Once they choose their Herald, they will die if their Herald does, until that time they are immune from death.

Those players selected to be Companions will be public information. However, the individual roles of the Companions will not be public information.

Beginning the Game

Role PMs will go out some time between 11 pm Eastern on Saturday night and 11 am Eastern on Sunday morning. Companions and evil roles may contact each other immediately.

The Companion Rolan needs to send me the name of the player that he chooses to be Queen’s Own by 10 pm Eastern on Sunday night. This will be the only night zero action in the game. I will advise Talia of her role before the thread opens.

Thread will open no later than midnight Eastern on Sunday, and will likely open early.

Daily Timetable

Game days will run from 1 am until 8 pm Eastern. There are voting powers in play in this game, so majority lynch is not in effect. Lynch will be promptly at 8 pm.

Night actions are due by midnight, and may be submitted early.

Saturday and Sunday will act as one game day, which means that night will fall with the 8 pm Friday night lynch and the thread will be open at 1 am Saturday morning and close at 8 pm Sunday.

I will attempt to open the thread as consistently as possible by no later than 1 am, although it may be earlier. That said, the time the thread opens is approximate and may be slightly different from day to day. The time the thread closes is fixed. If I will be away at the end of the day I will attempt to find someone to close the thread, but in the event that I don’t, everyone is responsible to stop posting. Votes timestamped 8:00 or earlier will be tallied, and posts timestamped up to 8:01 will be considered acceptable. Posts timestamped after 8:01 will be warned and repeated instances of nightposting by the same player may lead to penalties.

Game Actions

There are many game actions in this game, quite a few players that may take multiple actions in a day, and not all of them will take place at night. It would help me a lot if players PMing their actions to me (especially the Companions, whose communication standards are all different and have to be approved by me) would put their role name in the Title of their PM.

Ex:
Actions may be submitted early, and players in a masonry like evils or Companions may delegate those actions to their team. However, in the event that I receive night actions from both a player AND that player’s team, I will take the action by the player with that role unless they specifically request that their team decision supersede their choice.

Questions for the Mod

All questions asked in the game thread will be ignored to avoid angleshooting. If you have a question about the game, please ask it by pm to me. The question will be answered publicly and anonymously in the game thread, to ensure all players always have the same information available.

Order of Operations

Actions will take place in the following order:

Protects
Blocks
Peeks
Kills
Companion Choice

Please note that this means that a player can not be Chosen and killed in the same night cycle.

Win Conditions

Good Win Condition: All evil players are dead.

Evil Win Condition: All COMPANIONS are dead.

The Moderators:

atakdog
VoraciousReader


The Players:

aardvarksrus
AriesRam
biggerboat
bobman0330
BrownEyedGirl
Caedus
DiggertheDog
dmk
ElliotR
Epicurus
essedarius
ewalsh420
FCBLComish
GetThere1Time
goofyballer
gtpitch
J.D.
Jennifer Garner
Karak567
LuckayLuck
Ludovic Banhammer
lukethefluke
McAvoy
Nez477
pvn
Pyromaniac
rchandra
ReneLuske
Scrubbo
ship_it_trebek
sixfour
sopoRific
Sun Tzu
Swiitch
Tao1
ughaulkghalugh
VayaConDios
wahoopride
wdcbooks
well named
Wiild
Xr8ed
XXsooted
ZeTurd
Zurvan

Participation and Sportsmanship

Participation:

Everyone with the ability to post in the thread is expected to post and vote daily. Anyone missing the first game day in its entirety (no post or vote until after 8 pm Eastern on Monday) will be replaced unless he/she PMs VR and atakdog before the thread reopens at 1 am.

After the first game day, anyone that fails to vote on any day will be sent a pm reminding them of the participation guidelines. Failing to vote a second day will result in substitution if possible, or modkill, if no sub is available. In the event that I need to modkill someone, their team may be penalized by losing their kill for that day/night cycle if I judge that the circumstances call for it. There is no early nightfall in this game, so there should not be an issue with anyone not being able to make the thread regularly.

Anyone needing to miss a game day that knows ahead of time you will be away should pm me before the thread opens and I will say as much in my opening post. You will not be held accountable for the participation guidelines that day.

Sportsmanship:

Werewolf can be both a stressful and immensely frustrating game. Sometimes things get less than completely civil around here and that is okay. However, because of the widespread namecalling and hostility that has broken out over the past few months, the board is currently under a zero-tolerance policy for name-calling.

Acceptable:

Not Acceptable:

Actually I'm allowing spazmonkey because I find it humorous. Please feel free to call each other spazmonkeys.

In addition, anyone who carefully avoids name-calling but is clearly spewing hostility all over the thread may, at the discretion of the game mods, be silenced for a few hours at risk of modkill. I'd prefer not to use Forum Moderator Powers to enforce a minimal level of sanity during this game, but that is an option also if necessary.

If you have any questions about what is or is not acceptable, do NOT pm me. Just don't say it. It's not going to add anything.

Anger, whether real or feigned, can be a useful tool in the game of werewolf. However, it can go "too far" and, like pornography, we "know it when we see it".

Thank you for helping to ensure this is a fun game for everyone.

Role PMs are now out.

Villagers received:

The Angel received:

The Evils received:

In addition to the named evil power roles, there are two unpowered evil players.

The names of the Companions (although not their roles) will be revealed in the day post.

Life is difficult on the Valdemar border. The weather is unkind, the land is harsh, and brigands from within the country and without prey upon those who are not vigilant in their own defense. Many children, especially male children charged with defending the family, die young. To increase the number of offspring, girls are married as young as twelve years old, and most end up as one of multiple wives in the household. It is considered unseemly for them to meet their husbands before their wedding day.

Sometimes, young girls don’t wish to cooperate.

Queen Selenay simply cannot cope with any more of the Heir’s temper tantrums, either as a mother or as a ruler. Certain the girl will never be Chosen, her Council is pressuring her to name a “contingency” Heir from the royal blood, each of them pushing their own relatives. As she looks into each one of their faces, she doesn’t know who to trust. If only she could be certain this were just the normal politicking and games of advancement and moves for power. But Talamir’s murder suggests a darker explanation.
She glances out the window. In the distance, she can see the flashes of white moving through the Companion’s Field. What I wouldn’t give to run out there and join them myself.

She turns back to the Council meeting. “Gentlemen and Ladies, I understand and share your concerns. However, I think any action we take before Rolan returns with the new Queen’s Own would be premature. I therefore table this discussion.” The Council erupts into shouts of “Your Majesty!” and “Highness!” but she firmly brings the gavel down and moves to the next piece of business. Please, Rolan, hurry…

Rolan has Chosen young Talia, but they still have many hurdles to clear before they arrive safely at the Herald’s Collegium…and evil forces already move among the Queen’s Court.

Meanwhile, in the Companion's Field, the following players enjoy the brilliant afternoon sunshine, though they know with a knowledge that is more than human that dark times lie ahead.

ElliotR
Epicurus
GetThere1Time
Jennifer Garner
lukethefluke
Pyromaniac
sopoRific


It is now...



Day.

first?

Night will fall tomorrow at 8:00 pm Eastern time. The following players may post in the thread now:

aardvarksrus
AriesRam
biggerboat
bobman0330
BrownEyedGirl
Caedus
DiggertheDog
dmk
essedarius
ewalsh420
FCBLComish
goofyballer
gtpitch
J.D.
Karak567
LuckayLuck
Ludovic Banhammer
McAvoy
Nez477
pvn
rchandra
ReneLuske
Scrubbo
ship_it_trebek
sixfour
Sun Tzu
Swiitch
Tao1
ughaulkghalugh
VayaConDios
wahoopride
wdcbooks
well named
Wiild
Xr8ed
XXsooted
ZeTurd
Zurvan

caedus

3st

McAvoy

Some Questions:

Yes. Everyone must post on day 1. On day 2 and later, everyone must vote daily.

Yes.
Correct. The only exception is the Companion Jasan. If he Chooses an evil player, the evil team will be able to directly nk him.
No.
No. They must choose every night.
The choice will fail and they will have to pick somebody else, unless it is Jasan as noted above.
The Companion Rolan will Choose. All other powers are not useable until n1.
That is the sole exception to the order of operations. If Talia peeks the same person the Companions choose, she will learn that it is Selenay.

omgomgomg a unicorn invited me to her house.

crazy

Sup All?

[x] played a ww game where rules made it impossible for JG to get mislynched day1

one less item on my 'things to do before I die' list.

Anyone ever seen FCBL enter a thread like this before? me neither.

FCBLComish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5im0Ssyyus

xr8ed