Machinations of Light's Glory - death, decisions, doom

Nonsense. There's twelve of us, which means either eleven of us servants of the Light and one Cultist, or at worst ten and two. The odds are in our favor, especially if the cultists lost their telepathy as well. If I understand the legends right, they've got to come to a consensus to use the Scythe, don't they?

"A giant tower suddenly appearing out of thin air is not a sign I'd consider to be 'in our favour'."

Gee, I wonder if that had anything to do with the Box of Evil.

Chance sits quietly, legs crossed, eyes closed, clearly meditating. He neither speaks nor moves in the hours between the Rite of Babel and the nighttime Circle-casting, but slowly, ever-so-slowly the tension drains from his muscles and the agony lining his face fades.

While everyone is staring into the sky, or clutching their hands to their temples as they wait for their headaches to subside, the ripples from the Rite of Babel continue to change the world.

A tower stands in the clearing between the island's main facilities that was not there a few minutes earlier. A great fire rages on its roof, made of nothing but roaring magic. The doors are open, inviting and warm.



Something itches in your memory. This is familiar. This is something from the Arkiolojiss' history. Something that has been missing.

The Citadel Vaults have returned.

( You may now explore the vaults in pairs as a night action. This functions identically to a private meeting, but with added potential for adventure, looting, and incineration )

"Well. That's...interesting.

Since it appears our MEIDO has shut down for the day and will not listen to reason, I suppose it falls to me to change my course of action. I shall cast in TurinTuramba's circle on the assumption that we are still scrying; if it turns out we take another action instead, vengeance shall be had tomorrow.

That is, assuming someone doesn't decide I'm too much of a threat and decide to take me out in the night. In which case, I cordially invite you all to shove your noble ambitions up your collective rectum."

" soundlyParanoid, we need you to change your plans, sir."

Well this is even more clearly a trap than Nute is evil. And Nute has been figuratively jumping up and down shouting "I'm evil!" all night. Does anyone want to cancel our scrying circles to go get incinerated?

That's a rhetorical question by the way.

Baron Red eyed the gigantic tower suspiciously and turned to the group.

I've read about these fabled vaults and all they do is cause more confusion and problems. I don't trust them! We should just stick to our planned scrys and identify those cultists!

soundlyParanoid leading a circle?
Bladida
Anabanana
Anxifera
Lazy Shiftless Bastard

Turin leading a scrying circle:
Speak With Bread
Cormac
AaronSofaer
Kohei

That leaves Demon and Nute I guess?

Don't you fuckers dare. The plan makes sense and you all goddamn know it. Those Vaults are nothing but bad news.

I'd go, but the only other person free is the Demon and I'll tell you right now, if I go into the Vaults with him I am pushing him into the first deathtrap I see because I am 101% convinced he's a cultist.

So if anyone wants me to kill Demon so you guys don't have to, I'm up for it.

"I fail to see the issue with this plan."

Ah, Anabanana declared her intention to lead a circle earlier and is now asleep or recharging. Currently we already have a full circle:

Anabanana leading, Anxifera, Bladida, Kohei, Lazy Shiftless Bastard.

Unless someone wakes up and decides to change their mind, the rest of you have to decide who actually wants to lead your circle.

Meanwhile I suppose Demon and Nute can decide if they want to link arms and head off into the vaults.

"Current tally is as follows:

Anabanana's circle: Ana, Anxifera, Bladida, Kohei, Lazy Shiftless Bastard
TurinTuramba's circle: Turin, Cormac, Dazzler, Chance, need soundlyParanoid in here
Can't cast and therefore can go dance in the Ruins: Nute, Demon Ji-Sidas

If the cranky little bear doesn't get his vote in, we'll need a rearrangement pronto."

Thanks for the recap.
HEY! Paranoid Teddy bear? Where are you!??

Damn, I just hope soundlyParanoid hasn't done something stupid like run into the ruins on his own...

It takes at least two people to explore, I believe.

Yes, I'll join Turin's circle.

Looks like he bear-ly made it in time.

Yeah, only an hour and a half before the deadline. Just in time.

And I'm not going into that place with you. I've got a lot of living left to do.

It's just simple math. We can go into the Vaults and maybe you die tonight and everyone goes home a winner - or you do your cultist thing in the night and they Knife one of us in the morning. If we both go into the Vaults and there's no Night Kill, then the evidence is clear.

It's clear that either one of us would be a cultist, and since I'm decidedly not (The chances of the Arkiolojiss society putting more than one cultist into a school is tiny at best, but I understand not ruling it out entirely), I will not be joining you to give you a cover for not murdering someone tonight.

Sorry. No offense but, while I thought you might be a follower of the light, your current actions and reactions have shown that you're scrambling to defend yourself. I hope one of the circles can cleanse you from this world, and we can be done with this nonsense.

Five of the Arkiolojiss stood in a circle at the site of power on the hill. They chanted, and worked their hands in the arcane patterns of magic. They finished, and Mount Sturm erupted behind them into a column of magical flame.

They stood there in their circle, and looked at it. Then they looked at each other, and at Anabanana, and at Kohei.

Bladida was the first to speak.
“What have we done?”



There was no time to reflect further. The horrible scraping they were all so familiar with now could be heard approaching from below.

“It’s me,” said Anxifera quietly, shivering, “It’s coming for me.”

Kohei lowered his head, dropped the cigarette from his mouth, and raised his hands beside him. Magic started gathering in his palms. “Go,” he commanded.

It came over the crest of the hill, and Kohei unleashed his power. The night lit up with sustained black fire, and the Scythe was halted in its path.

Bladida and Lazy Shiftless Bastard grabbed Anxifera and tried to pull her down the hill away from it, but she resisted. She reached back towards the red mage.
“Kohei, I’m so sorry.”

He responded with a sound that began like a word but ended as an incoherent roar. The Scythe shuddered and glowed as it fought against the fields of dark magic holding it in place.

Anxifera relented, and fled down the hill with the others. Anabanana was the only one left standing behind Kohei. She looked up with cold blue eyes at the fire cascading down the mountain, and the streaks of magic flame being thrown into the sky. Then she looked at Kohei, struggling against the Scythe. Without taking her eyes off him, she finally walked away.

Anxifera was already being bundled into Bladida’s aircraft, and being given a crash course on flying it.

The magical fireballs thrown into the sky by the eruption were now all turning in the air, converging on a single point.

Bladida and Lazy watched from the ground as the sleek mercenary craft took off and began to jet away from the island.



Kohei ran out of breath to scream with, and of energy to fight with, so he stopped. He fell to his knees, trembling, and the black fire was extinguished. The Scythe paid him no more attention, and span on its way. It took to the air in pursuit, its speed growing to match and exceed its prey’s.

Ana watched from below. The client protection contract software installed in her mind pushed at her, demanding that she help the girl she was paid to protect. Her neck twitched as she overrode it with the monastic hierarchy dominance protocol, a privilege she kept for herself as the head of the MEIDOs, but had never had to use before. Her secret mission was more important than her contract.

But she was unnerved to find that the urge to save Anxifera was still there, and diagnostics confirmed it wasn’t a glitch. She looked back to the site of power on the hill, and watched as the fiery orbs from the magical eruption smashed into it, one after the other, demolishing it piece by piece. She watched until she saw Kohei’s spirit rising to the heavens.

Her head turned again, and her eyes whirred as they increased their magnification to see the Scythe gaining on Anxifera. She sighed, and then leaned forward. Flaps opened on her torso, hissing as they took in energy from the air around her. A generator wound up deep inside her, rising in pitch, causing her skin to crackle with electricity, until it reached the required charge, and Ana disappeared with a bang through a short-range teleport.

The Scythe connected with a living body, and its task was done. Fragments of the earth Ana had been standing on fell away into the abyss, and the unholy weapon returned home, having claimed its chosen target. The ones that came willingly were always the sweetest.

Ana’s spirit hung in the air, fading away in a golden halo. When it was gone, Anxifera reached out to the controls and turned Bladida’s craft around.

Kohei has been killed by a magical fireball. He was loyal to the light to the end.

Anabanana has been killed by the Scythe of Sarkus. She was a Heavenly Servant, uncompromisingly dedicated to the eradication of heretics and outlaws among the Arkiolojiss.

The eighth day begins.

... what in the fuck just happened?

Ah am not sure, but our scry of Cormac went through. He's Good.

So wait, did Ana's circle kill Kohei?

If so - explanations please.

"well then.

Cormac is Innocent, as Chance says, but with the death of two of our casting members, we are down to once circle a night now."

The bear rattled off who were left:

Chance - Nebty "cleared" - should have been scried but apparently wasn't.
Dazzler - Nebty "cleared" - claims they can't be scried?
The Convict - Nebty "cleared" - wanted to have his face shot off to have his alignment revealed.
The Baron - Quantum "Cleared", which was vouched for by Nebty
Cormac - Scryed last night as Good
Turin - Scryed Night One
Bladida - Was scryed some night as good? I can't remember
Lady Ann - Scryed her Night Six or so. Returned as Good.
Cthulhu - Scryed Night Seven as good I believe.
and the bear himself. - Scryed Night Three as good.

"There is at least one cultist still amongst us, more likely two or three.

From the sound of things, that is indeed what happened. So we lost one of our own to fanaticism in the night. Fantastic."

Interesting choices by Anabanana in the end. Apparently she chose to fireball Kohei to death rather than scry. A rather unfortunate turn of events. Perhaps this is tied into Nute's desire to be killed thus.

Well, given the lack of knowledge regarding Nute my reasons for voting yesterday still stand, with the added bonus of our favorite inmate's persuasive arguments last night that he himself is probably evil and asking that he be killed. Though it may not be by his request of a magic circle I vote to sacrifice Nute, again.

And for the same reasons I've already given, I vote to send Demon ji-Sidas to the Knife.

"I believe his arguement was that he and the Baron be killed.

As it stands, can someone give me the voting records from... days seven and two?"

I'm in no hurry to die, but I can understand if someone's got to - you guys don't know my alignment which is a legit concern for you. I get that. But if I've got to die, I want to take that powermongering cultist swell down to Hell with me. I'll walk into the abyss myself so long as I can do it with my hand around his throat.

Ah'm having some trouble believing in the... No, ah'all remain calm. Too much anger clouds the mind. For the moment, ah return to my vote for Nute.

Yesterday's Votes:
Nebty: soundlyParanoid, Nute, TurinTuramba, Anxifera, Corma, Anabanana, Kohei
Nute: Demon G Sides, Lazy Shiftless Bastard, The Sofa of Luck, Nebty, Speak With Bread

Day 2:
Phoenicity: soundlyparanoid, Bladida, Chance, Lazy, Cormac, Fontaine, TurinTuramba, Nebty, John Stargazer, (Sarkus did not bold his text)
Nebty: Ana, Soli'Sturm, Dan Lawrence, Vi, Ann
John Stargazer: Q
Anabanana: Baron Ji-Sidas, Dazzler, Phoenicity, Equis
Abstain: Kohei

Also of note, unscried people from Soli-chan's failed circle: Nute, Dazzler
Unscried: Chance the Sofa
Silliest story ever: Demon

Silly stories tend to be true, my squid faced friend. My biggest mistake so far has been killing Paradoxial early in the game. Otherwise, i've done nothing but try to help the light, including taking Sarkus' evil box (And then proceeding to sit on it), as well as being as completely honest as I can without giving away what I thought were friends. I'm assuming we've got one more cultist; it only takes 3 to take down the shields.

Killing Nute will at least get us one step closer.

Send Nute to the knife.

Bladida's aircraft landed with a soft thud.
A few moments later, the door opened to allow Ann's trembling form to emerge. Her eyes were red from crying, and she could barely walk.

"W-we killed Mr. Kohei. O-our circle killed Mr. Kohei. I didn't know what Ana was planning. I would have used my ability. I would have saved him. This is all my fault. I have innocent blood on my hands.

And the Scythe. The Scythe. It was after me. I could feel it. But Ana, she ... Oh, Ana, why did you...?"

The girl's voice cracked, and her legs gave way. She fell to the ground, a sobbing heap of misery.

"Anabanana killed him because of his involvement in forbidden magic, I'm guessing. She was in on his scry circle, was she not?"

Let's see, you voted against sacrificing a cultist when there was an attempt to force one of them out days one, two and seven. that we know about. Your insistence upon hunting for third parties above cultists after the defeat of the cyberqueen day three...

You know what they say about coincidences, Baron? That too many of them are a pattern? Here is another thing: I'd prefer scrying Nute as opposed to sacrificing him as he simply does not feel like a cultist to me. I could be wrong (as has happened before), but there's someone who I find leagues more likely to be a cultist.

I vote to Sacrifice The Baron.

Here is what I do not get:
Anabanana was scried on night one. So Anxifera knew all about her. She also knew Kohei's special powers, since she lead the circle that scried him. So why would you allow her to lead a circle without speaking up about it? And also given that your scry revealed that you can redirect spells/targets I was under the assumption that you would know what the leader of the circle would do before deciding whether to use your powers, because otherwise it is not much of a redirection, but rather a simple taking over of control.

She wouldn't know the full extent of what Anabanana was after - I knew Soli'Sturm was after the same goal. How would we know that included Kohei?

By using our brains?

"You're missing the point. To Ann and the others who scryed the Meido, it would have simply translated as good - as it did to me.

People aren't always going to make the most optimal decisions."

Well I cannot argue with that, given that you apparently think Nute is an innocent.

For Nute to be innocent the following has to be true:
-Nebty really had a oneshot communication item she used on him.
-His story about being able to lie during the examination and choosing to do so when asked if he is evil is completely true. Which by the way makes no goddamn sense.
-Dazzler is the cultist who sabotaged Soli's scrying circle.
- He somehow managed never to vote for a known cultist until it was between him and Nebty. And even then he wanted to switch to the Demon.

Suffice to say all this is rather unlikely. Not that that means the Demon is innocent.

Vote Nute for sacrifice.

Oh and if the eye in the sky tells you something in bold flaming letters, it is probably important.

Ok... I've obviously not been paying enough attention to whats been happening over the last few days! What were Koheis special powers and why would they cause Ana to kill him INSPITE of knowing that he was good?