[WW] Fellowship of the Ring II - Conclusion

[triggercut]

Heh.

Heheheheh

Heheheheheh.

He said "Beat off."

[Mr Bubbles]

Is it to soon to vote for bb2112?

Did anybody else just get a chill? And, um, are Remus's eyes supposed to glow like that?

It's called Love... He's obsessed with you. I'd just offer the leg and let it be done.

[Remus West]

[El Guapo]

I thought about joining but decided I want to be an observer this go-round. So I'll be monitoring this thread closely...

[Lagom Lite]

I thought about joining but decided I want to be an observer this go-round. So I'll be monitoring this thread closely...

El Saurono?

[bb2112]

Is it to soon to vote for bb2112?

Did anybody else just get a chill? And, um, are Remus's eyes supposed to glow like that?

It's called Love... He's obsessed with you. I'd just offer the leg and let it be done.

Oh, I think he wants to "F" me all right.

[Newcastle]

Is it to soon to vote for bb2112?

Did anybody else just get a chill? And, um, are Remus's eyes supposed to glow like that?

It's called Love... He's obsessed with you. I'd just offer the leg and let it be done.

Oh, I think he wants to "F" me all right.

hmm, sounds like you two need your own room. when should we find one where the two of you can snuggle up together on this journey of ours?

[Remus West]

It is snowing.....that means we need to avoid hypothermia....body heat sharing ......

[bb2112]

You just stay on your side of the camp, and leave the little furry guys alone too. They are not your play things.

Enough of this nonsense, when do we get to hunt orcs?

[Grundbegriff]

Love the revisions, Lagom. This'll be very interesting.

[Lagom Lite]

Chapter 1 – The Doors of Durin

In the commotion tru1cy fell behind. The others pressed on, waiting for him as much as they dared. At length he dwindled into a black speck in the whiteness, and passed from sight. The company spread out to search for him but as the hours passed it became clear that they would need to leave for the safety of the Ringbearer. The clouds lowered, and now a few flakes of snow came curling down again.

A cold wind flowed down behind them, as the survivors turned their back on the Redhorn Gate, and stumbled wearily down the slope. Caradhras had defeated them. In the distance they heard drums.

”How far is Moria?” asked theohall.

”There was a door south-west of Caradhras, some fifteen miles as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs,” answered Qantaga grimly.

The Company were footsore and tired; but they trudged doggedly along the rough and winding track for many miles. At length they came to a sharp bend. There the road, which had been veering southwards between the brink of the channel and a steep fall of the land to the left, turned and went due east again. Rounding the corner they saw before them a low cliff, some five fathoms high, with a broken and jagged top. Over it a trickling water dripped, through a wide cleft that seemed to have been carved out by a fall that had once been strong and full.

”Indeed things have changed!” said bb2112. ”But there is no mistaking the place. There is all that remains of the Stair Falls. If I remember right, there was a flight of steps cut into the rock at their side.”

They found the stone steps without difficulty, and rshetts2 sprang swiftly up them, followed by Remus West and RMC. triggercut pressed on at a great pace, and others followed as quickly as they could. They reached the strip of dry land between a lake and the cliffs: it was narrow, often hardly a dozen yards across, and encumbered with fallen rock and stone; but they found a way, hugging the cliff, and keeping as far from the dark water as they might.

The Moon shone upon the grey face of the rock. Slowly on the surface, faint lines appeared, like slender veins of silver running in the stone. Steadily they grew broader and clearer, until their design could be guessed.



”What does the writing say?” asked Mr Bubbles, who was trying to decipher the insciption on the arch.

”The words are in the elven-tongue of the West of Middle-earth in the Elder Days,” answered coopasonic. ”But they do not say anything of importance to us.”

”They say only: The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter,” said pr0ner.

”What does it mean by speak, friend, and enter?” asked Newcastle.

”That is plain enough,” said Grundbegriff. ”If you are a friend, speak the password, and the doors will open, and you can enter.”

”But do not you know the word, redrun?” asked theohall in surprise.

”No!” said redrun.

”What are you going to do then?” asked theohall, undaunted by the lore master’s bristling brows.

”Knock on these door with your head, theohall,” said redrun. ”But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words.”

With a suddenness that startled them all Qantaga sprang to his feet. He was laughing! ”I have it!” he cried. ”Of course, of course! Absurdly simple, like most riddles when you see the answer. Mellon!”

Slowly the rock divided in the middle and swung outwards inch by inch, until both doors lay back against the wall. Through the opening a shadowy stair could be seen climbing steeply up; but beyond the lower steps the darkness was deeper than the night. The Company stared in wonder.

But that moment several things happened. bb2112 felt something seize him by the ankle, and he fell with a cry. rshetts2 gave a wild cry of fear, and turned tail and dashed away along the lakeside into the darkness. Remus West leaped after him, and then hearing RMC’s cry he ran back again, weeping and cursing. The others swung round and saw the waters of the lake seething, as if a host of snakes were swimming up from the southern end.


tru1cy has been captured!

The Fellowship is carrying the Ring.


Players:
1. Grundbegriff
2. redrun
3. theohall
4. Qantaga
5. bb2112
6. rhsetts2
7. Remus West
8. RMC
9. tru1cy - captured
10. triggercut
11. Mr Bubbles
12. coopasonic
13. pr0ner
14. Newcastle



Fellowship, how will you proceed?

You may Appoint a Scout.
You may Hunt some Orc!

Majority is 7

Deadline is October 16th, at 9 p.m. Central European Time (GMT +1)

[RMC]

It looks like I made Remus Cry... Sorry Remus.

[theohall]

My initial thought:

We should probably Hunt Some Orc, since tru1cy is either Frodo, another hobbit, or Gollum and we can free him. This would give Gandalf time to scan for Servants without us potentially sending one of the Fellowship as a sacrificial Scout. Freeing tru1cy would also give us a 4/5 percentage of having a known member of the Fellowship. The only way this is bad is if tru1cy turns out to be Gollum.

[Grundbegriff]

Sound reasoning, theohall.
 Hunt Some Orc 
 

[Lagom Lite]

Hunt Some Orc (1) - Grundbegriff



Majority is 7

Deadline is October 16th, at 9 p.m. Central European Time (GMT +1)

[bb2112]

Ok, if I understand the rules correctly, since Tru1cy was captured, he is a hobbit or gollum. But can he still be Frodo and retain the ring?

And I agree, we should hunt Orc.

 hunt orc 
 

[Newcastle]

kind of thinking out loud here.............if we hunt some orc what does that gain us? we get truicy, who's relatively proven; and at the same time we dont take a stab at either finding a bad guy....however we also dont potentially shoot one of our own.........


smart and safe play is freeing truicy for now i think

 hunt some orc 
 

[RMC]

 Hunt some orcs 
 


Seems like the best 'safe' play currently.

[Grundbegriff]

kind of thinking out loud here.............if we hunt some orc what does that gain us? we get truicy, who's relatively proven; and at the same time we dont take a stab at either finding a bad guy....however we also dont potentially shoot one of our own.........

The key difference in this game is that we're not trying necessarily to annihilate the enemy. We're just trying to retain the ring for more than six cycles.

[theohall]

 Hunt Some Orc 
 

[Remus West]

Lotsa folks jumping very quickly towards hunting without much discussion. Are we that certain we wish to hunt rather than try to eliminate one of the Evil ones? Are we that certain we wish to limit talk and thus do nothing to out potential Evil?

[RMC]

kind of thinking out loud here.............if we hunt some orc what does that gain us? we get truicy, who's relatively proven; and at the same time we dont take a stab at either finding a bad guy....however we also dont potentially shoot one of our own.........

The key difference in this game is that we're not trying necessarily to annihilate the enemy. We're just trying to retain the ring for more than six cycles.

Remus I guess this is what I am thinking... We don't have to 'lynch' as much as we have to protect/hide the ring.

[Grundbegriff]

Let's talk.

tru1cy is either a Hobbit or Gollum. So everyone in the game, friend or foe, has learned something.
tru1cy was not Frodo, since Frodo starts with the Ring and since Evil has captured tru1cy and since Evil does not currently control the Ring.

This means that tru1cy is one of : {Gollum, Sam, Merry, Pippin}

What happened last night? It's unlikely that anyone expended a one-use power. So last night probably looked like this:

• Gollum guides.
• Gollum steals.
• Boromir scans (for Frodo).
• Gandalf scans (for alignment).
• Witch-King searches (Bubba for Ring).
• Aragorn protects (probably Self, but maybe Other).
• Servants of the Eye hunts (tru1cy!)

The only thing noteworthy here is that the existence of an Evil Forum means that coordination between the Witch-King and Servants was possible. So we can be pretty sure that the Witch-King scanned someone other than tru1cy, and that he didn't find the Ring. Thus, they went for tru1cy as a second stab in the dark.

Now, the Evils know one another, so they're choosing from among 11 others. They've now Ring-scanned one and captured another who's ringless. So they've narrowed it down to 9.

Tools:

Roles

• Frodo
• Sam (Hobbit)
• Merry (Hobbit)
• Pippin (Hobbit)
• Aragorn
• Gandalf
• Boromir
• Eowyn (Free)
• Gimli (Free)
• Legolas (Free)
• Uruk
• Saruman
• Witch-King
• Gollum

• bb2112
• coopasonic
• Grundbegriff
• Mr Bubbles
• Newcastle
• pr0ner
• Qantaga
• redrun
• Remus West
• rhsetts2
• RMC
• theohall
• triggercut
• tru1cy

[Grundbegriff]

Strategy:

Every time a Good person who isn't a Hobbit bears the Ring, he becomes corrupted.
Every time a Hobbit bears the Ring, he becomes ineligible to bear it again except at the Crack of Doom.
Therefore, we have only four slots for holding the Ring, and we have to distribute them across six more overnights.

Frodo may retain the Ring as long as his identity is hidden, or he may pass it to another Hobbit if he identifies one (though it's hard to see how that would go without a leap of faith).

So we don't want to risk killing Hobbits and we don't want to out Frodo.

Why would we then risk sending out a Scout when we have a legal action that liberates a Hobbit?
Sending a Scout would have one of four outcomes:
(a) It's an Evil! Huzzah!
(b) It's Frodo. Kudos on outing the most important special!
(c) It's a Hobbit. Kudos on exposing a scarce commodity!
(d) It's a free person: Kudos on weakening the Good team's reserve of special powers!

Everyone other than Gandalf is flying blind, and 4 or 5 of the 14 are playing against the Good team. So we should send Scouts only when the case for doing so is rock solid, unambiguous, and compelling.

[redrun]

Let's talk.

The only thing noteworthy here is that the existence of an Evil Forum means that coordination between the Witch-King and Servants was possible. So we can be pretty sure that the Witch-King scanned someone other than tru1cy, and that he didn't find the Ring. Thus, they went for tru1cy as a second stab in the dark.

Now, the Evils know one another, so they're choosing from among 11 others. They've now Ring-scanned one and captured another who's ringless. So they've narrowed it down to 9.

One thought about this. If Evil did find the ring on turn one, would they want to prove Frodo (by grabbing him early, knowing that we'd hunt orc and release him) thus making things easier for both Gollum and Boromir? Would they go for a random shot hoping to take out a special? Odds are they didn't find the ring - but if they did I'm thinking their move would not be to grab the ringbearer on turn one.

[Grundbegriff]

One thought about this. If Evil did find the ring on turn one, would they want to prove Frodo

IIRC, that's more or less what happened last time. I think it was Scoop.

You're right, though, that the gamble of waiting a day or two would probably be worthwhile from an Evil perspective. They'd risk losing track of the Ring, but they'd leave little time to react once they struck.

[redrun]

Lotsa folks jumping very quickly towards hunting without much discussion. Are we that certain we wish to hunt rather than try to eliminate one of the Evil ones? Are we that certain we wish to limit talk and thus do nothing to out potential Evil?

Discussion good, after discussion we hunt orc. Unless someone has a tell (via play) or a scan to release, I don't see any reason why we'd risk a lynch as compared to hunting orc.

[Remus West]

Lagom, will we know the difference between a captured player and an imprisoned one?

While I doubt they burned the imprisonment on round 1 and got blocked in an Orc attack it may make a difference down the road.

[Remus West]

Lotsa folks jumping very quickly towards hunting without much discussion. Are we that certain we wish to hunt rather than try to eliminate one of the Evil ones? Are we that certain we wish to limit talk and thus do nothing to out potential Evil?

Discussion good, after discussion we hunt orc. Unless someone has a tell (via play) or a scan to release, I don't see any reason why we'd risk a lynch as compared to hunting orc.

How many people voted to hunt within moments of the update? How much do we learn from anyone if all that happens is we vote to hunt and the phase closes? I've been going back over the rules and I'm actually not sure discussion is good. It may be best for us to proceed as quickly as possible through each phase. They do not find out anything any more quickly than we do (we have Gandalf looking for them, they have the Witchking looking for the Ring) but we are not the ones on a timer - they have to find the ring and capture it before time runs out. We only need to not expose it. Discussion is likely to expose things to both sides. Question is which side benefits the most from that.

[Remus West]

Lagom, will we know the difference between a captured player and an imprisoned one?

While I doubt they burned the imprisonment on round 1 and got blocked in an Orc attack it may make a difference down the road.

Never mind, I just noticed it says that you will announce which are captured and which are imprisoned so we would be able to tell the difference.

[Remus West]

Finished reading and I think I have concluded that too much discussion is a bad thing.
 Hunt Orc 
 

[Qantaga]

So we don't want to risk killing Hobbits and we don't want to out Frodo.

Why would we then risk sending out a Scout when we have a legal action that liberates a Hobbit?.

This seems to be the crux of the matter.

It looks like we're at n-1 to Hunt Some Orcs.

I am in agreement that hunting is our best option, but I'll withhold my vote for now:

Discussion good, after discussion we hunt orc. Unless someone has a tell (via play) or a scan to release, I don't see any reason why we'd risk a lynch as compared to hunting orc.

I think it wise to let coopasonic, Mr Bubbles, pr0ner, rshetts2, and triggercut check in before we close the chapter.

[Scoop20906]

I thought about joining but decided I want to be an observer this go-round. So I'll be monitoring this thread closely...

El Saurono?

[Scoop20906]

This is very interesting.

[Lagom Lite]

Hunt Some Orc (6) - Grundbegriff, bb2112, Newcastle, RMC, theohall, Remus West

n-1

Majority is 7

Deadline is October 16th, at 9 p.m. Central European Time (GMT +1)

[Lagom Lite]

Lagom, will we know the difference between a captured player and an imprisoned one?

Yes.

Imprisoned players will be marked as "Imprisoned". Captured players will be marked as "Captured".

[triggercut]

Fascinating.

Pretend I'm stupid, but as I understand one key difference to this game vs other "WW" games is that the "village"--in this case our Fellowship--only has to survive 7 turns. Doesn't matter how many baddies we kill, the game ends at 7 turns with the winning team determined by who controls the ring.

That's essentially correct, right?

So, normally in a game the worst possible play is to go to deadline without having lynched anyone. In this case, however, that isn't true. We just need to get to that final turn with the ring, come hell or high water. Finishing the day without lynching anyone--or in this case without accidentally killing someone in the Fellowship--seems like the must-do play, right? Combine that with Grund's point about our limited Ringbearer pool and the fact that Gollum may have some use for the Fellowship at this early stage of the game I think it is the only sensible play.

 Hunt Some Orc 
 

[Lagom Lite]

Hunt Some Orc (7) - Grundbegriff, bb2112, Newcastle, RMC, theohall, Remus West, triggercut

Voting is closed.

[Lagom Lite]

Journey 2 – Balin’s Tomb

With a cry, triggercut leapt forward and cut bb2112 loose. Out from the water a long sinous tentacle had crawled; it was pale-green and luminous and wet. Its fingered end got hold of triggercut's foot, and was dragging him into the water.



”Into the gateway! Up the stairs! Quick!” shouted triggercut, cutting off the tentacle grappling him, then leaping away from the Watcher’s maw.

Rousing from the horror that seemed to have rooted all to the ground where they stood, the Company fled. They were just in time. Mr Bubbles and coopasonic were only a few steps up, and pr0ner had just begun to climb, when the groping tentacles writhed across the narrow shore and fingered the cliff-wall and the doors. Many coiling arms seized the doors on either side, and with horrible strength, swung them round. With a shattering echo they slammed, and all light was lost. A noise of rending and crashing came dully through the ponderous stone.

”The passage is blocked behind us now,” said Newcastle. ”And there is only one way out – on the other side of the mountains.”

”What way shall we take?” asked Grundbegriff. ”Yonder eastward arch?”

”Unless I am quite astray,” said redrun, ”I guess that we are above and to the north of the Great Gates.”

”It may not be easy to find the right road down to them,” said theohall.

”Before we make up our minds we ought to look about us,” said Qantaga.

”Let us go towards that light in the north door,” suggested bb2112.

As the company went, they came upon a band of net-carrying goblins. After a short fight, the goblins were slain and their prisoner freed. Before long the Company realized it were none other than the lost fellow from Caradhras - tru1cy!

"Why did you run off?" tru1cy wailed. "I'm too short to keep up!" The Fellowship cheered and vowed never to leave him behind again.

After this, the Company passed under the northern arch. They found themselves in a wide corridor. As they went along it the glimmer grew stronger, and they saw that it came through a doorway on their right. It was high and flat-topped, and the stone door was still upon its hinges, standing half open. Beyond it was a large square chamber. They blinked as they entered.

The chamber was lit by a wide shaft high in the further eastern wall; it slanted upwards and, far above, a small square patch of blue sky could be seen. The light of the shaft fell directly on a table in the middle of the room: a single oblong block, about two feet high, upon which was laid a great slab of white stone.

”It looks like a tomb,” muttered rshetts2, and bent forwards with a curious sense of foreboding, to look more closely at it. Remus West came quickly to his side. On the slab runes were deeply graven:



”These are Daeron’s Runes, such as were used of old in Moria,” said RMC.

”Here is written in the tongues of Men and Dwarves: Balin son of Fundin, Lord of Moria,” said triggercut.

”He is dead then,” said Mr Bubbles. ”I feared it was so.”

coopasonic cast his hood over his face.


tru1cy has been freed!


Players:
1. Grundbegriff
2. redrun
3. theohall
4. Qantaga
5. bb2112
6. rhsetts2
7. Remus West
8. RMC
9. tru1cy
10. triggercut
11. Mr Bubbles
12. coopasonic
13. pr0ner
14. Newcastle


Gollum, will you guide a player?
Gollum, will you steal from a player?
Boromir, will you scan a player?
Gandalf, will you scan a player?
Witch-King, will you scan a player?
Aragorn, will you protect a player?
Servants of the Eye, will you hunt a player?

[tru1cy]

FREEEEEEEE!!!!! Where's my pipe and longbottom leaf!!!