SAU 17: The Frosty Dozen

[Lordanubis]

Aza shrugged a little. "I was about to speak again when votes for me began to rain in and it suddenly seemed more than a little pointless. As most seemed more interested in just voting for me than in saying anything there was precious little for me to say that I had not already said. I stand by my conclusions that Achar and now also Katash bear watching. But voting for either would be pointless and look like a mere attempt to distract you all from the course you have chosen."

[Drainial]

"That is a very strange attitude, if you don't mind me saying so; threatened with interrogation and execution you feel that trying to present a defence would be pointless? You are not a dead elf yet, and much of the point of voting at all is so that the accused will talk, and thereby give everyone more to work off. A de facto refusal to talk is... troubling."

[Lordanubis]

Aza raised an eyebrow. "I hope I'm not dead, but there's a majority of votes against me. Any defence would surely be futile. But alright then."

She paused. "I think that a fair number of those who voted for me are in a rush. It is still morning. We have the rest of the day to debate, which is interesting. Gyla, you for example gave no reason other than five others voting for me. That is not a good reason. Belial did much the same, claiming that he wanted to get somewhere when, as I said, we are only a little way through the day."

"In fact, only Katash and Achar gave any reason to vote for me. All the rest have just said that they think I'm the most likely suspect." Aza's mouth twisted. "Like Asur sheep. Nice to know that you just jump on the first idea that runs through your minds without even stopping to consider an alternative. How about this then? Katash and Achar have taken the time to accuse someone and be proactive. I may be wrong to consider them suspects when they are the only ones making any points of their own."

She folded her hands in front of her. "I suggest we wait until after midday therefore to vote me off. In fact, if you still believe me the suspect come nightfall, I will place the deciding vote myself. But for now, perhaps this council could consider the possibility that looking at others might be worthwhile?"

"For now, I am going to give strong consideration to Kefka, who is doing about as little as I have to progress things. His choice of timing smacks to me of jumping on the bandwagon. Also he says nothing that is worth saying, nothing to be analysed. Therefore, I suspect him." Aza gave Gyla a level stare. "Defence made."

Vote: Kefka

[Tarbo]

Noon had well arrived. Everyone was up and seated and, after they had trickled in, added their two cents to the discussion. Whether truly it was discussion or perhaps group therapy remained a matter of opinion. Mioralynthia had no opinion on the matter.

“We are all here,” she said and, with a studious look at her notebook, added, “and you seem already to have come to a decision. That is encouraging and yet strangely frightening.” She looked up from the booklet in her lap and addressed the convicted. “Aza, do you have anything to add to your defense?”

Aza kept a cool gaze in her eyes as she neglected to survey her peers with them. “Will it matter?”

“No,” Mioralynthia said. “No, I suppose it will not.”

“In that case, I believe I will let silence speak for itself.” She stood from her seat when she saw Anleth walk up to her. “My peers,” she excused herself with a slight bow, and followed the captain to an other, undoubtedly less comfortable location.

Tarbo looked up from the counter when he noticed people entering and leaving the room. He raised his coffee to his lips and took a good sip. He, unlike so many others, was well-rested. He had only gone to bed after Cliff had indulged himself in his razzia. And he had only just woken.

“Ooh, excitement,” Tarbo said, and leaned against the counter. “Looks like they already picked someone. Means they can go to bed early.”

“You think she’ll make ‘em spill?”

“Yes, definitely. The question too obvious to ask, however, is whether Aza’s actually guilty.”

°°°

You sit in the lounge, idly waiting for the news. Or just news. While peace and quiet is something you can well appreciate, given the sleep that has been so masterfully deprived from you, there is an uncomfortable silence, as if everyone is listening for steps approaching the lounge, hoping it will be the bringer of news.

And finally, you recognize the captain’s walk as she approaches the lounge, and you peek out the window and notice the darkening skies already. Or perhaps that’s simply the gaping yawn of the vacationeer sitting across you.

And it is indeed Anleth, but she brings feeble news. Aza appears to be innocent. She will investigate —to be understood: interrogate— further, after a brief reprieve, and will keep you apprised of information. But you would be best not to hope much.

The only hope you have for the moment, is that of a good night’s sleep. You briefly contemplate placing a bear trap in front of your door, but you imagine Cliff’s scream of agony, while satisfying, would rouse you from slumber all the same.

________________

Players

1. Drainial
2. SleekDD
3. Raneth
4. Belial
5. Kefka
6. Draknir
7. Katash
8. Deroth
9. gramash

Aza (LordAnubis)

1. Katash
2. Draknir
3. Kefka
4. gramash
5. Belial
6. Drainial

Kefka

1. LordAnubis

Deaths

1. sassmaw (innocent) (Day 1, inactivity) -- thoroughly 'investigated'
2. Zardock (protector) (Day 1, inactivity) -- did not dodge the wrench
3. Sidorio (infiltrator) (Day 1, voted)
4. LordAnubis (innocent) (Day 2, voted)

It is now Night. Night ends on Tuesday, around 23h00 GMT.

[Katash]

Katash rose to leave.

"I shall not sleep easy tonight, I know that tomorrow my head will more than likely roll. At least we know now that Aza's suspicions were honest and we can trust them."

[Draknir]

"Katash, as far as I can tell the one whose head's about to roll tomorrow is either you or me. Good night everyone" Achar said, shook his head and left for his quarters.

[Drainial]

"A terrible shame," Gyla muttered as she clambered stiffly to her feet "Still, one cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs, and good fortune cannot be expected to last forever. Time for a little skiing I think, as it is still so early."

[Deroth]

"Bugger, well that didnt work out so well, but hopefully we have some more to talk about tommorow when it arrives. And for now a nice walk in the snow sounds like an idea to me".

[Raneth]

Ran growled his discontent when when Anleth came with the revelation of Aza's innocence. At the back of his mind, he'd never stopped considering her as a victim of poor timing, and her last defense reinforced as much. "Ack, I should get my mind off these sour matters for a little while," he said as he went upstairs to fetch his brand new pair of skis. "Time to break these babies in."

[Tarbo]

It was deathly quiet in the mountain inn. Everyone had long gone to sleep, and now the night was to the watchful and the wicked. The wood creaked gently, warmly in the cold wind, keeping the senses of nocturnal wanderers sharp.

Sergeant Kefka prowled the empty corridors silently. He skipped his eyes from left to right, then left again. He could feel some madman was about, like cruelty looming over the inn like a cloud that wouldn’t disappear.

The night before, a life had been saved by an unknown, anonymous colleague of his. The knowledge that the madness could be thwarted, stopped if even temporarily, strenghtened his resolve. He knew his ‘friend’ was out tonight, just like himself, watching over the others.

A crumpled piece of paper on the floor. Kefka looked around cautiously, then picked it up and read it: “Speed kills.”

-Ka-CHUNK-

What was that?

°°°

Anleth brushed her fingers over her cheek idly, seemingly lost in thought. She stared intensely at the pitiful fate masterfully unfolded in front of her, and took a deep breath.

Tarbo’s eyebrows shot up when he walked in and saw the elf-shaped engraving in the wall, with the elf that shaped it still embedded in the skillful woodwork. His eyes briefly followed the erratic writing arched over —and slightly covered by— Kefka’s crumpled body: “What seems to be the problem, officer?”

“I almost don’t dare ask,” Tarbo said.

“There is a giant sling on the other side of this corridor,” Anleth explained, her voice hinting at some disbelief. “The force must have been enormous— wait, do you hear something?”

Tarbo pitched his ears and listened. He picked up something as well... His eyes met Anleth’s with identical expression, and they focused back on Kefka.

“...Ooouuuch...”

°°°

You find yourself down one man when you enter the lounge again. You wish you could say that you’ve had a good night’s rest, and a good morning’s rest that Cliff hadn’t the gal to disturb, if not for the surprised scream of a City Guard officer blazing through the corridor at near-relativistic speed and drilling into the wooden wall and halfway into the next room. Cliff must have been too busy picking up bits and pieces to bother with you.

“He’s in the infirmary,” Mioralynthia tells you when met with your inquiring gaze. Kefka, she means. He’s the only one missing. You nod briefly, taking in the new information, then look around you. Eight people left. At most seven of them trustworthy. But who?

And so morning and with it, the new day, has begun.

________________

Players

1. Drainial
2. SleekDD
3. Raneth
4. Belial
5. Draknir
6. Katash
7. Deroth
8. gramash

With 8 players left, 5 constitute a majority.

Deaths

1. sassmaw (innocent) (Day 1, inactivity) -- thoroughly 'investigated'
2. Zardock (protector) (Day 1, inactivity) -- did not dodge the wrench
3. Sidorio (infiltrator) (Day 1, voted)
4. LordAnubis (innocent) (Day 2, voted)
5. Kefka (protector) (Night 2, eliminated) -- speed kills

It is now Morning. Morning ends on Friday, around 23h00 GMT.

[Draknir]

Achar had a sizzling plate of eggs, beans and mystery meat in front of him as he sighed deeply and began yet another statement.

"I'm not sure if I dare speak first today too, but whatever, it might be my last day here anyway so why not try and make some progress.

Now that Aza proved innocent, I'm willing to take Belial and Sleek off my suspect list. I sort of grouped them together as suspicious in my mind, but my wild theories are proving more and more incorrect over the time so I'll be staying on the safer paths from now on. Raneth doesn't seem as suspicious anymore either, as Sleek's statements start to make sense in my head. Hmm. Let's see what a bit of deductive thinking can accomplish."

Achar grabbed his fork, stuffed his mouth full and after a while of awkward silence as he chewed he swallowed loudly. Using his fork as a pointer he turned to the others, digging food from between his teeth with his tongue as he spoke.

"I think we can assume that at least one of the six persons who voted for the innocent Aza yesterday is an infiltrator. It is possible that the infiltrators stayed out of the Aza affair in order to avoid exactly the kind of attention I am giving now, but I doubt that. So, if we assume that there is one infiltrator among these six persons, then the infiltrator was either a) encouraging the vote or b) jumping on the bandwagon, contently contributing to the other's foolishness. So, the persons who voted for Aza were Katash, me, Kefka, Gramash, Belial and Gyla. Gyla and Kefka are certain to be innocent. Belial is off my list too. That leaves Katash, Gramash and me. I can't deny that logically one of us three is an infiltrator. Me and Katash were the ones who put forth the initiative to vote for Aza in the first place, which makes Gramash a lesser suspect. I am certain of only that I am innocent, but surprisingly, I am not able to prove it. I would go for Katash because hey, whatever the case it'd be foolish to suspect myself, no? I'd certainly be a fool to vote for anyone at this point, so for now I'll just see where the discussion leads to."

[Drainial]

"Of course we must look at the votes, but just as important may be the murderer's choice of victim. Why Kefka?" Gyla sat for a moment, as if collecting her thoughts,
"Well what do we know about him? He voted for Sidoro about halfway through, which as the late Aza says might be taken for bandwagoning, though we know that if this is the case then it was not in order to aid the infiltrators. We know that he voted for Aza very early on, though not first. We know that Aza voted against him, but though her innocence means that we can most likely trust her intent we have to now doubt her judgment. We know that he has, while not being silent, not been a leading member of the council." The aged widow sat back again, thinking for a few more moments.

"Which gets us where precisely? Well the assassination of a less vocal member, but one who is willing to lend his vote to a quorum, may be aimed simply at weakening the council while trying to avoid those whose rooms are more likely to be protected at night.

"It may have been tempting to try and use Aza's last remarks, given force by her innocence, to divide the council, they did not try this which either means that they did not think of it, they thought about it and discarded it or they had another reason in mind.

"If they were simply looking for a bland candidate, someone who had expressed few opinions and as such were unlikely to give away leads there are other options, though Kefka is baffling enough. Achar springs to mind, which may mean that it is amongst these 'bland' candidates that we had best look, and looking is best achieved by stirring things up, to which end I shall be voting for Achar, though we should certainly consider everyone as a possible suspect, and it is yet early in the day."

Vote Achar (Raneth)

[Raneth]

Raneth entered the main hall, eagerly awaiting his coffee after an uneasy night's sleep. He responded when Gyla said her piece: "You have to consider that Achar is openly proclaiming himself to be a likely suspect. The fact that he has been very vocal in general also speaks in his favour to me. Differing from his analysis, I feel that Kefka's killer may be found among those that jumped on the bandwagon in voting for Aza yesterday, which includes Deroth if I'm not mistaken. Achar is excluded as I said earlier. You also, Glya, for you were the first to vote for Sidorio the day before. Kefka too, for obvious reasons."

"Of the four who are left, being Katash, Belial, Gramash and Deroth, the former two have been most vocal in their arguments. So my suspicion as of yet rests mostly on Gramash and Deroth, but the day is young still. Cliff, more coffee please."

[Drainial]

"Ah, I am sorry, I find myself confused as to names. I mistakenly said Achar, when in fact I meant Raneth, apologies."

Vote Raneth

[Raneth]

Raneth smiled at Glya, gulping down his coffee. "And why would I spring to mind?"

[Draknir]

"Well, Raneth, I must point out your mistake in that Deroth didn't actually vote for anyone yesterday, and he was actually the first one to vocalise their suspicion on Aza yesterday. He planned to vote for her should her defense not be adequate. That doesn't qualify as bandwagoning in my eyes."

[Raneth]

"Your memory deceives you twofold, Achar," Raneth replied as calmly as he could, "it actually was you who first branded Aza a suspect. You even went so far as to quote her words. Secondly, the first to actually, concretely vote for Aza was Katash." He eyed Achar warily. "Are these honest mistakes or are you trying to cover for someone?"

[Draknir]

Achar sighed.

"I said he was the first one to vocalise their suspicion on Aza yesterday. What I did was to point out some facts about her that were genuinely suspicious in my eyes, although they did prove false. I suggest you to go through your notes one more time. And yes, yes, I know Katash was the first one to concretely vote for Aza. I never claimed otherwise."

[Raneth]

"Oh, I'm quite aware of the time. Prove me wrong."

[Deroth]

"I still find it difficult to see why you find me so suspicious Raneth, I also note that you left Sleek out of your deductions so I am curious as to why he doesn’t warrant a mention. As for what the time is, when did that even come into the discussion? I think you are listening but not really listening, that you mistake statements made and twist them to how you want them to hear. On the other hand you didn’t vote for Aza either so that means one of three things to me. One, you thought he was innocent, two, he was voted off so early that you didn’t need to add your vote to eliminate him so could avoid suspicion or three, didn’t have a chance to vote before he was carted off to be interrogated. Which one I wonder?”

[Gramash]

How could they argue so much so early in the morning, Gramash wondered. Sitting there silent on his chair seemingly sleeping, but keeping himself awake and force himself to listen to the heated conversation. As the morning grew, interesting things rose up, but all was still to vague for him.

''Glya, are you really voting for Raneth, just to stir things up again? That's the second time you vote for someone just at random right? although it's less random than before. And it gets even weirder: Raneth states he doesn't suspect Achar, but as soon as Glya shifts her vote he gets in a heated argument with achar and asks if he's covering for someone and therefore, in my eyes, is suspecting him again....
Its weird too weird, i really don't know what to make from this, but we still have the whole day ahead of us so there's enough time to make things clear.''

[Raneth]

Raneth glared angrily at Deroth. "This is what you said yesterday: 'I think that we should be wary of Aza because he is a quiet liability, we can’t find out anything about him if all he does is sit quietly in the corner so he only splits our focus from the task at hand. So I am going to add my vote against him because unless he changes his tune we would be better off without him.' In my understanding, that counts as a vote. Don't accuse me of twisting words, or infiltrators may be the least of your worries."

"As for not voting for Aza; I clearly stated my doubts between the two of you and hence was reluctant to vote. I suggest you make a case, now that your words have been proven false. In a way, that goes for you as well, Achar, but still you remain off the top of my list."

Vote: Deroth

[Sleekdd]

“Okay, I'm stumped,” Sleek says without even looking up from his writing pad. On most of the sheets of paper flipped over are jumbled words, descriptions, quotes and a lot of scratches. There is a title too, 'The Frosty Thirteen' which is scratched and replaced by, 'The Frosty Dozen' which is scratched again and replaced by 'The Mad Mob Murders by Sleek Castle'.

“I have the impression my words mean little in this little gathering and given my track record, that might not be such a bad thing but why would anyone vote for Deroth? Is he being voted because he says he voted without actually placing a vote? Is that your evidence?”

“Truth be told, I don't know what to make of it any more as I'm sure most of you will be too. The attack on Kefka looks like it was an attempt to avoid prying eyes more than anything else. After all, the first night nothing happened. I would be logical to assume that the victims from now on will be those whom nobody pays real attention to. And just saying that turns everything upside down because then we start playing the 'I know that you know that I know'-game.”

“No, I won't vote Deroth based on what I heard today and the days before.”

[Raneth]

"There is no concrete evidence against Deroth apart from his account of things being incorrect", Ran admitted. "But it's the best evidence against anyone I could come up with. If you can argue for a better candidate, please share your thoughts."

[Drainial]

"It is just my point that the murderers will likely turn to those who are not much noticed, which until today included Raneth, though to be sure that is no longer the case. If you are looking for a bland candidate Raneth was better than Kefka. Hardly damning I know, but I am yet to be impressed by anyone else’s arguments, not that I am overly impressed with my own."