TAU IV: It's a small world after all

[Dragonsbreath]

Once again, Skabslik found himself confronted by accusations almost as soon as the day had begun. Angrily, he hissed at the offending persons - clutching his gnarled staff close to himself.

"Singing man-thing most obvious choice, yes-yes, lies through pretty words, still lies,"the Grey Seer began, nodding as if to cultivate understanding in the others.

"Also Half-thing, very suspicious. Always wait for majority vote before joining. Very cautious, too cautious," he continued before speaking directly to Yana,
"If you were most hated traitor you would gain death of an innocent, yes-yes"

Skabslik's eyes narrowed and he looked over to Hugo,
"Useless man-thing, mighty Grey Seer would not have let them flee-flee," he muttered before conjuring a second miscellaneous breakfast into being.

[Deroth]

"Maybe we should have a look at our greenskin companion, it has been silent, hiding in the background, springing out only to vote. Both times he has been the second to vote, both targets innocent. He also started the turning of the vote on the first day from Skabslik to Vaelen, We know Vaelen was innocent, Skabslik I am not so convinced."

Herod turned to face the greenskin, "What say you Shaman?"

[Raneth]

At Herod's last words Rutger again grabbed his hair with both hands in frustration. No! Damn it all! The Elf's blood is also on my hands, not those of this repulsive greenskin... I'm sorry Crank, that wasn't supposed to come out so rudely...

Then, to Skabslik, who was chittering his view on matters: Shut your snout! For all I know your late subordinate was right about you!

[Dragonsbreath]

Skabslik drew himself up to his full, thoroughly impressive, height. He managed to look down his snout at Rutger, even though the man-thing was slightly taller than the Grey Seer.

"Underling was stupid, now dead-dead."

"Man-thing very defensive now we watch him. First act like a fool, seem harmless. Now he receives blame, no singing, no dancing. Why put on an act if innocent?" The Grey Seer questioned.

Turning to the others, he spoke conspiratorially,
"Most odd, man-thing not reveal his true self until now. Hiding something, yes-yes?"

[Draknir]

For the whole morning, Hugo had been grim and silent, not even a curse-word escaping his bearded lips. At last he spoke, rising finally from the edge of his bunk, scratching the back of his neck.

"Is it too obvious to suspect that the one who tried to attack me was someone on whom i cast suspicion last night? Like Yana or Rutger? I could've been right, or maybe that's what they'd rather have you thinkin'. I've got no reason to believe Herod's or Skabslik's innocence either. In fact, I can't really be trustin' any of you lot, even though I know that someone did protect me last night. I wish I knew who that person bleedin' was, so I could thank him."

[Belial]

Yana has been silent for a while, listening to the discussion.

"Ya know, ah agree with ya Hugo, it would be mighty clever of me, to pass it off as too obvious, if ah was the culprit. But ah'd like to point out that ah never stated that as mah defence.

Right now, ah got no idea where to look. The only one ah'm sure is innocent would be you, Hugo. The rest...

The greenskin has been mighty quiet these coupla days. That's an easy way to stop yerself from saying something incriminating. And from escaping our suspicions. And even if he ain't a bad guy, he sure aint helping us along.

The Skaven has been a tought one to read, but damned if ah can find any actualy suspicious behaviour. And there was no reason at all for him to gun for Hugo, unless ah have missed something. Unlike our greenskin here, the rat has been most active.

Same goes for the dwarf. No suspicious behaviour, little reason to go for Hugo, and very active participant. Besides Hugo, I have the best feelin about you mr. Dwarf.

Rutger sure would benefit a lot from getting you killed Hugo, but even if ye weren't saved, wouldn't it have been obvious he stood to gain the most? Of course, that might, as you yerself say, be the defence, and that makes sense.

And let's not forget Herod. Ah'd say the only thing ah've noticed is that he was a bandwagoner yesterday. Otherwise, he seems to be cautious and thorough, which is a point in his favour if ye ask me. But his late vote yesterday puzzles me... It was, ah think, unneccesarry, and given with very little explanation. However...

Ah say we look at the greenskin or Rutger. Ah'm leanin' more to the greenskin meself."

Vote: Crank (darkdoom)

[Deroth]

Nodding to himself while Yana laid down her reasoning, Herod quickly added to her discussion, "Well we agree on many points there Yana."

"I admit that my vote yesterday may seem like it was a bit unnecessary but he was going to be executed whether I voted for him or not and I didn't want to risk being the only one who didn't vote against him if he turned out to be guilty, I will freely admit it was to protect myself because I was not sure and I am still not sure who the guilty parties are."

"As for the greenskin it seems more and more likely he is guilty the longer this silence lasts and if he does not respond to these accusations my vote will be going his way too."

"I would also go as far as to say if Crank turns out to be guilty I would wager Skabslik being our other cultist. But that is a discussion for later, right now I am still waiting for Crank to speak up."

[Darkdoom]

Crank wasn't really to surprised by the others now questioning his behaviour. It was obvious that at some point the others would turn on him for being the mightiest of the lot or for keeping to himself.

Speaking up and articulating carefully as to be sure even the dim witted draft understood him he put forward his opinion:

I might not have said much and I have certainly keep to myself. It is obvious that that was to protect my skin. Firstly form our group, looking at the score more of us died by our hand than by the cultists. Secondly not to attract the attention of the cultists. But I have always vote to the best of my knowledge, I admit I was never fast enough to vote fist, but no one can say that I just jumped on the band wagon. Currently I have no Idea who is guilty, I admit that the rat seems most likely to me but having the blood of two innocents on my hands I will not vote lightly again.

[Smiler666]

after hearing the greenskin's speach Glorin couldnt help but supress a chuckle,
"I see you developed some eloquence when suspicion turned toward you, however you have been very quiet and happily threw your vote in against two innocents. i believe those suspicions are well founded."

vote: Crank - darkdoom

[Drainial]

The days were short here, or maybe they simply seemed so with all of the excitement of debate particularly when intellectual combat was spiced up by the prospect of death. Having been burned twice before by votes that were perhaps overhasty and which had certainly condemned two innocent members of the council to a fate worse than death most of the remaining contestants in the daemon game were unwilling to vote. Now it was too late, a gong had woken them that morning and that gong sounded once again to announce the end of the day’s activities.

The end of the day could mean only one thing, time for their host to re appear. Re appear it did, blossoming right into their midst the head looked around at all of them with its characteristic smirk before settling its inhuman gaze on the diminutive figure of Crank.

"Not quite so quick to condemn today I see, but it is of no importance. You goblin have the greatest number of votes, that they are also the only votes does not matter, they are enough."

The small green skin did not look best pleased with this news
"No! Crank not die! Crank mighty shaman! Crank show you all!!!" he bellowed, at least as much as any goblin could bellow.

These defiant speeches were nothing new but where Vaelen had attempted to fight with mundane arms conjured from the air and Skwee had tried to run the shaman tried a different tack. Reaching inside his robes Crank pulled out a large orange mushroom with vivid red spots. Throwing the fungus into the air he caught it in his mouth and swallowed. As the mushroom vanished down his gullet Crank's eyes lit up like torches transforming his comical face into something that was quite disturbing and not a little frightening.

Opening his mouth once more the little goblin let out a stream of golden arcane fire which enveloped the daemon head. Impressive as this display was it was ruined somewhat by the lack of any visible effect on the daemon. Flames danced all around its face, inside its mouth and eyes and yet its trademark smirk never wavered.

A long moment passed, the stream of fire continued and eventually the Daemon seemed to become bored with this game, as Crank continued to blow the head began to suck. Great lungfuls of air (despite the fact that it had no lungs) were sucked in and with them came the fire. Another long minuet passed and finally Crank stopped spewing gouts of flame and came to a halt choking and spluttering.

Now with a mouthful of flames the Daemon thing smiled
"My turn," it said and then it began. The flames from its mouth were not bright golden like Crank's but bright blue in many shades and their impact on the little greenskin was dramatic.

Crank let out a long scream as the fire hit home, through the blaze the others could see as his flesh began to bubble and melt. His legs fused together, his robes flashed brightly for a moment and then disintegrated in a puff of ash. Bit by bit his head and torso malformed until as the flames died away all that was left of Crank was a large green mushroom.

Turning back to the remaining councillors the daemon host said the words that they least wanted to hear
"Another miss. How sad for you."

_______________________________________________________________________

It is now night, all those with abilities please contact me. -Drainial

Players
1)Belial
2)Dragonsbreath
3)Raneth
4)Deroth
5)Smiller666
6)Draknir


Deceased
1)Noble Korhedron: turned into a piano- inactivity- innocent
2)Lord Damian Valar (Vealen): soul eaten- voted day one- innocent
3)Meteor (Morr): Fired from his own pistol- assassinated night 1 -innocent
4)Dresden (Skwee): soul eaten- voted day 2- innocent
5)Darkdoom (Crank): turned into a mushroom- voted day 3- innocent

[Dragonsbreath]

Throwing his arms into the air in frustration, Skabslik chittered angrily,
"Foolish creatures, make poor Green-thing die-die," the Grey Seer cast his gaze over at the bulbous mushroom. Distaste at the method of death briefly crossed his rat-like features before he continued,

"Must find the slave-things quick-quick, game becoming too dangerous for most important of Grey Seers,"

Looking slowly round at the others, Skabslik crept away to craft his night-time abode once again. As he did so the Skaven muttered assurances of his own survival to himself, casting dark looks over his shoulder at them from time to time before scurrying behind the high walls he had constructed.

[Smiler666]

"we're getting awfully good at this murdering the innocent buisiness," Glorin grumbled darkly, "as the rat says, we need to find the traitors quickly now, before they get us all."

"Humph, i'll be staying out side again, perhaps i can manage to stay awake tonight," he added.

[Raneth]

Cold sweat ran down Rutger's back as he witnessed the greenskin's demise. The group was now rapidly shrinking and the fear of death had all but overtaken his usually cheery demeanor. Solemnly, he made to rest, not a single word or note parting his trembling lips.

[Drainial]

Another night, another hunt; having been thwarted in their last attempt the cultists were out for blood. Abandoned once more by his fellow councillors Glorin was left alone. Their conjured homes floated off into the murk and he was alone with only an axe for company, by this point he was well aware that the axe was for comfort more than any real defence but it was the best he could come up with.

It was difficult to concentrate and keep awake with nothing to focus on but looking into the dark was something that every dwarf was familiar with. Glorin's days of travelling the underway were long behind him now that he was trade lord but there were some things that stayed with you.

That being so he was awake when the featureless night ceased to be quite so featureless; a white blur on the edge of his vision caused the Dwarf lord to jerk his head to the side, another on the edge of his vision brought him to his feet with a curse.

Perhaps wary of more traps and wards the spirit lights circled around Glorin but the arks flashed ever closer and there were no signs of salvation. All too soon the blurs came to a halt before him, no longer moving they were no more distinct just two vaguely humanoid shapes glowing with ethereal light.

"No need for this," Glorin growled "No need for killing, I'm a wealthy dwarf. You want gold? I can get you gold."
Hollow laughter was his answer
"Gold," it was impossible to say which of the shapes was speaking, certainly there were not mouths that Glorin could see "You think gold means anything to us?"

At that the darkness began to fade away, within moments the endless night was replaced by gleaming walls of marble, great columns stretched up to the ceiling overhead while huge doors crafted from solid steel and glimmering with protective runes showed the only way out. It was all very familiar to the trade lord, this was his treasury. There was only one major difference, there was no money in it.

"Jewels then!" Glorin shouted "Influence! I know a great many people!" more laughter, chilling laughter. A metallic clink caused Glorin to turn just in time to see a fat gold ingot clatter onto the floor.
"Keep the gold you value so highly," the voice said "have it all."

Another coin fell from the ceiling, materialising out of the air and tinkling onto the floor several feet away. Glorin was somewhat confused, keeping all of his gold didn't seem like a threat, it didn't seem to be a bad thing at all; on the other hand he was not naive enough to believe that the cultists had any plans for him that were not decidedly bad for his health.

Another coin fell from the sky, and another, and another until a few drops became a trickle, a trickle became a flood. Soon enough several tons of gold and jewels were pouring in thick streams from the ceiling and piling up on the floor. As gems rose up to his ankles Glorin began to understand just what the Tzeentchens had in store for him. Struggling through the hail of cash Glorin made his way over to the door but of course it would not open, he knew the pass words, he knew the secret places to press with his finger tips and the seven keys were in his pockets but the door would not open.

Franticly Glorin tried to imagine the walls away, to stem the tide of gold with the power of his mind but whatever powers the daemon of this realm had given them it was clear that he was favouring his servants more, the illusory walls were solid as stone and the cascade of precious metals no less heavy or painful as they struck his form again and again.

The swelling tide was now up to Glorin's waist, unable to move he never the less tried but it was hopeless, he was a strong dwarf but the weight was simply too great and there was no give in the gold. Faster and faster the coins tumbled down, his shoulders, back and head were bloody from a thousand impacts and he howled with rage and pain as the coins reached his neck. There was nothing he could do and his cries were finally drowned out as the gold piled up and buried his head.

_______________________________________________________________________

Next morning the remaining councillors were woken by the gong, summoned back to reality they dared to hope that as nothing had woken them another night had passed without a murder but it was not to be. The broken and battered form of Glorin was stretched out on the ground and it was clear that the cultists were closing in on their ultimate prize.

_______________________________________________________________________

It is now day.

Players
1)Belial
2)Dragonsbreath
3)Raneth
4)Deroth
5)Draknir


Deceased
1)Noble Korhedron: turned into a piano- inactivity- innocent
2)Lord Damian Valar (Vealen): soul eaten- voted day one- innocent
3)Meteor (Morr): Fired from his own pistol- assassinated night 1 -innocent
4)Dresden (Skwee): soul eaten- voted day 2- innocent
5)Darkdoom (Crank): turned into a mushroom- voted day 3- innocent
6)Smiller666 (Glorin): Crushed by treasure- Assassinated night 3- innocent

[Dragonsbreath]

As much as his race despised the dwarf-things, Skabslik regarded the cold corpse with a look of sadness upon his face. His bloodshot eyes looked warily at the remaining members of the depleted group.

"No time to waste-waste. I place my vote quick-quick, for most sneaky half-thing. She has caused death of all three innocents, most glorious of Grey Seers remembers. Very slow to act - not want to attract attention. Fortunate for lesser races, mighty Skabslik spots such obvious pattern, yes-yes. No doubt as to who dangerous traitor-thing is anymore."

Vote:Yana (Belial)

[Belial]

"No time to waste you say. As much as ah am saddened by the loss of the dwarf, and as much as ah feel the cultists knives getting awfully close to mah throat, this is certainly NOT the time to do anything quickly. The worst thing we can do at this point is not use the time available, to try and clean up this mess. Here's what we are gonna do today: We are gonna use the time we have, and not rush into anything. Let's think long and hard, and not end the day before we have to. We have done this other days, and it brought us nothing but the death of our allies."

Yana sat down in a conjured chair, shooting a suspicious look at the ratman.

"In fact, you hairy bugger, I can't help but wonder why you are so anxious to get this vote over and done with before we have time to do some collective detective work here."

[Raneth]

Though he felt terrible, as if he hadn't slept at all, Rutger realized he must have dozed off at some point when he saw the mangled corpse of vigilant Glorin. From the looks of it he'd taken a good while to succumb, as legend would have of Dwarves, even to a death so obviously excruciating. He never cared much for my songs, the jester thought wryly, thinking the better of lamenting.

Skabslik was first to speak, casting his claw at the runt. Rutger watched dispassionately; silently glad the rat's screechy condemnation wasn't directed at his own person. Yana kept her cool, advocating thoughtful deliberation as she was wont to. I can not see it, he spoke softly in reply. I keep thinking and thinking, trying to wrap my head around it, even though it isn't something I'm good at. The only assumption I dare make is Hugo's innocence; I doubt anyone would be so ruthless as to try and slay their own. He took long looks at Yana, Skabslik and Herod, then shook his head. I can not see it...

[Deroth]

Feeling worn down and harrassed, Herod just stood and listened to the others.

"I think you are right there Rutger, Hugo must be innocent because the cultists would gain nothing from anonymously assassinating one of their own, it was only by luck he survived."

Slumping down into a conjured chair he continued, "but I think Yana has a good strategy, we need to use our brains and figure out what the hell is going on and who are the ones pulling the strings.”

“Skabslik, you target Yana for voting for all three innocents which is a valid arguement but don’t think you can avoid suspicion on that so easily. On the first vote vote you evened up the votes between Vaelen and yourself, the second day you were the first person to vote and it was for an innocent and on the third day you said nothing after Yana voted for Crank, keeping quiet is a good way to avoid drawing attention to yourself while keeping the result at the death of another innocent.”

“Next we have Rutger, he was the first to vote for Vaelen on the first day, on the second day he voted for Hugo who was then targeted for assassination that night then on the third day spent the whole time claiming his guilt and didn’t vote.”

“Then we have me, I voted alongside Vaelen and Glorin against Skabslik on the first day, on the second I jumped on the bandwagon against Skwee and I didn’t vote on the third day either.”

“Well take what you will from these thoughts because I am still not sure who the guilty parties are.”

[Dragonsbreath]

Skabslik rolled his eyes in irritation, as if confronted by particularly dense underlings.
"Listen good, man-thing, mighty Skabslik was forced to vote twice, yes-yes, by stupid elf-thing ad traitor Skwee. Both voted for most generous of Grey Seers - leaving me little choice. Half-thing had no reason to vote for any, yet each time it votes for an innocent. Most suspicious, yes-yes."

The skaven then turned to the halfling,
"Vote quick-quick, before Half-thing can poison minds of others. When Half-thing die-die and proven guilty, mighty Skabslik will be shown to be innocent, yes-yes"

[Belial]

"Ya know, you sure aint helping your case, ratman. Ah had good reason for all mah votes. Reasons that were stated when they were cast, after much discussion with the others. We acted too quickly before, it ended in disaster. Ya know what ah think? Ah think you have caught up on the notion that if we vote off one more innocent, the cultists have won. Seems to me, that if we vote off one more, and they take one in the night, they have majority and the poor bugger that is last alive, won't stand a chance. With that in mind, ah can't help but wonder how sincere your headlong rush to close the vote is."

Turning to the rest, Yana conjures up an extravagant sandwhich. Mumbling apolegetically, "might be mah last day on earth or wherever we are", she bites into it with a sad look on her face.

"Now, *crunch crunch*, Herod, you got a point. Our rat here was awfully quiet yesterday. On one hand, he didn't vote for Crank, who turned out to be innocent. On the other, he might have done so to escape suspicion. In fact... Consider this: Our little furry friend here, spoke only of one thing yesterday: gunning for Rutger. The rat could claim that he was suspicious of someone else, namely Rutger, and lo and behold, he was right, the gobbo was not the culprit. His vote was not needed, thus he did now want to do anything incriminating. But despite his right choice in not going for the greenskin, he has suddenly dropped the line of reasoning he had, that it is in fact Rutger who commands most reason for suspicion, and now guns for me. Ah can't help but wonder, where that conviction went. If he truly felt Rutger was a suspicious target yesterday, where did that conviction go? He kept out of one damning vote, to convince us of his innocence and lead us in the last, damning vote. But I think the fact that he dropped his last line of reasoning to be very, very telling.

Because... Rutger was the attention of the council for a few days. Narrowly escaping blame from us because we had elsewhere to look. How about this: Rutger is a cultist, sorry mister minstrel if that offends you, and the rat is his accomplice. It stands to reason, that the best the two cultists can do, is make sure that if one is revealed, the other stays hidden. What better way to do that, than to stand against each other? Surely, the cultists might think, if one votes for the other, or at least leads the accusations, that would absolve the other of guilt, in the eyes of the innocents?

But now, now they have thrown that strategy, because now they can see the finishing line. All it takes is the death of one of us. Call it a gambit, they have dropped caution, and let them to feel too safe in their comming victory. All this time, we have looked for behaviour that truly indicated who was our resident evil. And this, fellow councillors, I believe is the shard of proof, finally showing, finally giving us something to lead us in the right direction. What say you?"

[Raneth]

Preposterous, Rutger shouted angrily in response to Yana, his courage bolstered in no small part by the girl's diminutive stature. Surely you see the madness of that thesis! Why would the rat have tried to focus all your gazes on me yesterday, if we are indeed in the same league?

[Deroth]

"Well you surely can't expect us to believe you would act like the best of friends if you were in cahoots with each other. It is like Yana says, a good smoke screen to oppose each other so if one is discovered they can claim innocence by pointing to their efforts, problem is that despite levelling his suspicions at you Rutger he did not follow through and start a vote that could have gone against you and possibly saved Crank and today is focused on Yana changing tact now that he can see the end."

[Dragonsbreath]

"Very true - singing man-things behaviour most odd, but even the most wise and powerful of Grey Seers was not sure that Green-thing was innocent. He was going to die-die, and if he were guilty, and only mighty Skabslik had placed his vote with the goblin - lesser races use that as reason against me!"

"Listen good-good, Half-thing like logic so much - mighty Grey Seer show you it impossible for him to be traitor-thing. If allied with half-thing, then why vote for it first today - and try to convince others to do same? If singing man-thing were my ally, then why point blame at him yesterday? Instead just kill-kill green-thing. If wizard-thing my ally, why would he vote against most powerful Skabslik on first day?"

Skabslik puffed out his chest, looking rather proud with his own conclusions.
"See Half-thing, evidence in my favor, yes-yes."

[Raneth]

Though he had rebuked them quite violently, sweat had been running down Rutger's back as the terrible truth of Yana's words sunk in. Herod then reinforced his fears, bluntly stating mere public animosity was no proof of innocence. Especially since the Skaven went on after him to extol the virtue of making an enemy of just about everyone...

All the evidence says is... that you hold life in no regard at all! I will for once and for all prove that I have no allegiance to the likes of you!

Vote: Skabslik

[Deroth]

"Well I am just going on a gut feeling here but I am not sure if I am right about this"

Vote: Yana