BtM10: Truth, Despair, and Hope [Game Over]

[Technetium]

....
Episode 10
Of Devious Machinations

The castle had been home to much excitement and intrigue in its day, but the group of fifteen walking through it now found it dreadfully boring, no doubt in part because of the droning of the tour guide leading them through it. One looked up from his phone to take in the view out a window--such as it was. In better weather it'd probably be a spectacular view, with the castle situated, as it was, atop a sheer cliff. Now, though, with it overcast, everything just looks grey and dark. Oddly dark, for this time of day, actually, even with the clouds. As they headed into a massive, high-ceilinged hall, the guide was describing an unusual incident where, according to one account, several people had killed each other in some sort of competition, with the prize supposedly being the castle itself. Normally this would get people's attention a bit more than the other things he'd been droning on about, but the sounds of thunder outside, and the lack of light through the high-set windows, proved to be another distraction, compounded by torches mounted along the sides of the walls igniting. At this last, even the guide stopped, confused.

Confusion would be replaced with shock and fear quickly, as the doors to the great hall slammed shut, and two translucent figures materialized in the center of the room. One had the rich clothing of an aristocrat of centuries past, while the other bore the heavy armor and weapons of a knight. "Welcome..." the Aristocrat said, "welcome to Castle Perroquet. A-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa!"
"What is the meaning of this?" asked one of the tourists.
"The meaning? Well, now, don't we have a surprise for you! I believe the leader of your little group was just explaining how some cowardly fool managed to win the castle! He violated the rules that had been arranged, and through base treachery arranged to drop everyone else still alive down a trapdoor, to their doom. Bah! That was five centuries ago, and now I've managed to set things up to be done right this time..."
Another tourist, a younger one, spoke up, hesitantly, "What...what are you going to do with us?"
"Isn't it obvious?" The armored knight hadn't spoken yet, and when he did it was in a low voice. "The game, it was broken, so he's fixing it. To do that, he needs new players. That's you all. Whoever wins, rules the castle. Whoever loses...well, that ought to be obvious."
"And if you're thinking of leaving, you can't. You can move around the castle, sure, at least part of it, but trying to escape is futile. I had help from the ghost of the Magician in arranging that."
"Now I suppose I should tell you exactly what the rules of the game will be..."

Behind the Masks Rules

Signups
-Before the game begins, a list of 15 roles to be used has been arranged by the moderator.
-The number of players is equal to the number of roles.
-Once signups open, players may “/join” the game and provide an animal mask to be referred to as.
-After all available slots have been filled, the roles will be randomly distributed among players via PM, with no repeated roles.
-Players may still join a backup queue once the game begins, or may choose to spectate. Individual spectators will be accepted and given access to game information at the discretion of the moderator.

Basics
-The last player standing is the victor.
-A player’s role is not revealed when they die unless the death was by being guessed.
-There is to be no communication outside the thread between living players on the topic of the game.
-Dead players cannot post. Period. Don't be that guy.
-The post in which you join the game must have a number in it that no other join post had.
-The above is the check to see who read the OP, the no communication thing is important.
-Actions, gifts, and guesses are sent to the moderator.
-No making fake mod messages, or misquoting real ones.
-Posts containing player actions may not be edited for any reason. Posts not containing player actions may be edited, but only if actions are not added to them.
-If a player fails to submit an action in a phase other than Action Phase, and time runs out, they will be prodded. If someone would be prodded twice in a row, or if they miss several actions over the course of the game (There is no specific number because what matters more is frequency than actual count of prods), they will be replaced.

Phases
-The game itself has four phases.
-Discussion is permitted and encouraged throughout all phases.

Challenge Phase
-The Challenge Phase lasts 48 hours, or until all players have challenged or nochallenged and all pending challenges are resolved.
-The game begins on this phase.
-Players may “/challenge” other players to dances or duels.
-Once issued, the challenged player must choose whether to “/accept” the challenge or use a “/deny” (all players begin the game with one deny).
-Players must specify whom they are accepting or denying, although one can specifically say "/accept all" or "/deny all" to accept or deny every challenge made to the player so far.
-If the challenged player does not respond by the end of the Challenge Phase, the challenge is automatically accepted.
-Each player may only challenge once per Challenge Phase (even if the challenge is denied), but can be challenged multiple times.
-If a player does not wish to challenge, they may instead “/nochallenge”. This allows the phase to end earlier. Players must still choose whether to accept or deny challenges.
-The results of the challenges will be posted at the start of the Voting Phase.
-The victors of duels and dances are determined by which player’s roles are higher on the respective list (see Challenge Ranks below), plus any interfering abilities.

Action Phase
-The Action Phase lasts 24 hours, or until all actions have been received.
-Roles with abilities that are used during the Action Phase can PM the moderator to use them. These roles are the Blacksmith, Musician, and Gardener.
-Players may choose to send in gift requests during this phase instead of during Voting Phase if they want to do so.

Voting Phase
-The Voting Phase lasts 48 hours or until all players have voted.
-Challenge results are posted at the start of this phase.
-Voting Phase will not end early if a majority is reached.
-The Voting Phase will still occur during the first round, but no players will be voted and no execution will occur.
-Any player who lost a duel or dance during the past Challenge Phase is a valid vote target.
-The player with the most votes at the end of the phase will be executed.
-If there is a tie vote, whoever reached their current vote count first will be executed.
-The Man-at-arms, Royal, Poisoner, Court Jester, and Mystic can act during this phase. The Royal may also PM an extra vote.
-Players may also select gifts during this phase (see Gifts).
-For each challenge participated in, regardless of outcome, the player earns one gift. Gifts are revealed at the end of the Voting Phase.

Dinner Phase
-The Dinner Phase ends after 48 hours, or after all players have acted.
-Each player is given a plate of food.
-You may “/switch” your plate of food with the plate of another player, consuming a plate switch (each player begins with one plate switch).
-You cannot switch with a player that has switched with you that same phase.
-At the end of the phase, each player eats the food in front of them.
-Players who eat poisoned food will die, unless they are the Soldier or have Premium Food.
-The Barbarian and Blackmailer act during this phase. The Thief may secretly switch plates during this phase.
-In addition, if you selected a Free Guess as a gift, you must use it during the Dinner Phase. If you are correct, that player will be executed at the end of the Dinner Phase. All attempted guesses are revealed at the end of the Dinner Phase.
-If you do not have a free guess, you may still make a guess as to another player’s role as normal. However, if you are incorrect, you will be executed instead of them. This is called a "Death Stake Guess."

Gifts
Deny- grants an extra deny to deny a challenge (see Challenge Phase) (each player starts with one Deny)
Plate Switch- grants an extra plate switch to swap plates (see Dinner Phase) (each player starts with one Switch)
Free Guess- during the next Dinner Phase, you may make a guess as to a player’s role. If you are correct, they will be executed. You may only choose one of this gift per round.
Guess Immunity- you are not a valid guess target during the next Dinner Phase.
Premium Food- you are immune to poison during the next Dinner Phase. Cannot be stolen with a Plate Switch, but can be switched by the Thief.
Gift Reserve - This gift can be redeemed at any point later in the game for a gift of your choosing. Each player starts with one Gift Reserve, but Gift Reserves cannot be taken as gifts during Voting Phase.

Challenge ranks

Duel list
Barbarian
Blacksmith
Soldier
Man at Arms
Blackmailer
Peasant
Poisoner
Mystic
Professor
Gardener
Court Jester
Student
Thief
Musician
Royal

Dance list
Royal
Musician
Thief
Court Jester
Blackmailer
Gardener
Peasant
Mystic
Professor
Poisoner
Soldier
Student
Man at Arms
Blacksmith
Barbarian

Behind the Masks Roles

Spoiler:

Barbarian

[The Great Warrior]

An imposing figure, and a capable fighter, but making use of these skills tends to land you in situations that you don't want to be in. Though now that you're here, perhaps you can take advantage of your abilities to win the game...

Three times per game, during the Dinner Phase, you may intimidate one player, preventing them from acting (challenging), however they must accept all challenges made against them. PM the Moderator to use this power.
The target of your intimidation will not be made public unless they attempt to challenge or to deny a challenge.

Blackmailer

[The Hidden Truth]

A clever and conniving lawyer, you've proven yourself many times to be at your best convincing others to give those you represent large amounts of money to not go to court against you...and then taking similarly large sums from the clients. Knowledge of the law won't help here, but perhaps being able to manipulate people will.

During the Dinner Phase, you may blackmail one player. PM the Moderator to use this power.
Blackmailed players must partake in a challenge during the Challenge Phase, or will die at the start of Action Phase.
Only the blackmailed player will know that they are blackmailed.

Blacksmith

[The Battle Must Be Won]

You do construct things out of metal, like blacksmiths of old, but the tools you use are quite different. However, even without heavy equipment, you should still be able to easily make some alterations to some of those weapons in the armory, so that their edges are dulled, or they become brittle, and may break in the middle of a duel.

At the beginning of the Action Phase, you will be notified of the intended winner(s) of the accepted duel(s).
Three times per game, during the Action Phase, you may change the winner of a duel. PM the Moderator to use this power. You may use this ability once on yourself.

Court Jester

[It's Showtime!]

You're but a simple entertainer. You don't really want to be stuck in this crazy game, but you do realize you've got to play it as well as you can to get out. If you can use what you can do to win, it will quite possibly be the ultimate performance.

When a player dies by any method other than voting your position on the duel/dance list is randomized
Once per game, during the Voting Phase, you may choose to perform for the other players, skipping the phase. Gifts will still be taken, but actions submitted that phase, as well as the execution, will not happen.

Gardener

[Lifelight]

The plants and flowers you grow are beautiful, not like this gloomy old castle. If the castle will really belong to the victor, and that victor is you, perhaps you will have it destroyed so things can grow here.

During the Action Phase, you may choose one player to anonymously give a flower. PM the Moderator to use this power.
Players that have been given a flower will not be able to guess anyone as the Gardener for the rest of the game.

Man at Arms

[Hit Man]

You once served alongside the Soldier, but were discharged because, while you were willing to fight and kill, you lacked discipline. Perhaps they were right, but that won't stop you from shooting your way to victory here...probably.

Once per voting phase, you may shoot one person. This will kill them unless they are the Soldier. If you shoot the Soldier, the Soldier will kill you instead.
You can only shoot losers of duels/dances.
You start off with one shot, and cannot have more than one shot at a time.
In order to gain another shot, you must defeat another player in a challenge.
The use of your action does not reveal your role.

Musician

[Softly With Grace]

Perfect pitch, perfect playing...perfect music. Hands dance across strings and keys as the notes rise and fall. No matter the tune, no matter the tempo, every song ascends to perfection in your grasp. Yet, with people's lives on the line, a quick change in beat, a shift in tone, can throw people off, and their error may be their death.

At the beginning of the Action Phase, you will be notified of the intended winner(s) of the accepted dance(s).
Three times per game, during the Action Phase, you may change the winner of a dance. PM the Moderator to use this power. You may use this ability once on yourself.

Mystic

[Under My Control]

People these days tend not to believe in the supernatural. What fools they are. Your power is such that you can only really demonstrate it once, but it'll be spectacular when you do. Perhaps even more spectacular than the Aristocrat's trickery in trapping you all here.

Once per game, if you are being executed, you may possess somebody and they will take your place.
The person you possess must have voted for you AND lost a challenge.
You will become that person's role, and will obtain all of their gifts and attributes, as well as their challenge rankings.
You will, however, keep your original mask name.

Peasant

[Open Your Eyes]

You had plenty of reason to believe you'd be highly successful in life--having a well-honed intellect and keen attention to details would support that belief. One vital element was lacking, however--luck. So, you found yourself stuck in a dead-end desk job while hearing about some kid who's going to inherit the entire company just because of being the owner's child. If you survive here, though, maybe things will start going your way for once...

You will be notified at end of Action Phase whenever the Blacksmith or the Musician interferes in a challenge.
You will be notified at end of Dinner Phase of any secret plate switches.
You will be notified at end of Dinner Phase of the original target for the poisoner.

Poisoner

[The Vital Vitriol]

Chemical compounds and reactions are your field of expertise. You would find it trivial to synthesize some compound that is undetectable when placed in food, and yet highly toxic when consumed. Especially since you couldn't resist pocketing a few filled vials of things when the tour passed through some sort of "alchemist's lab" earlier.

You may poison a player's food during the Voting Phase. If they eat it, they will die during the dinner phase. PM the Moderator to use this power.

Professor

[Supreme Logician]

It's not so much that you are professor that may help you here, but rather that you are specifically a professor of psychology. Your knowledge of how people's minds work, or, frequently, fail to work, should give you an edge in figuring out who is who.

Whenever you guess a player's role, you may also submit a secondary guess to the moderator for the same player.
If the secondary guess is correct, it will be displayed as your submitted guess, otherwise, your primary guess, whether correct or incorrect, will be displayed.
If you won at least one challenge in the most recent Challenge Phase, you may submit a third guess in addition to those two.

Royal

[Burning Ambition]

Well...not exactly royalty, but you might as well be. Your father is the owner of a massive corporation with tremendous power and influence. Though you do not have control yet, being his child gives you quite a bit of influence yourself, and many kings of old could only dream of having as much power as the corporation does.

During the Voting Phase, you may cast an extra vote secretly. This vote is noted as being from the Royal. PM the Moderator to use this power.
Once per game, during the Voting Phase, you may force a person of your choice to be executed instead of the majority vote. PM the Moderator to use this power.

Soldier

[The Defender]

You once served alongside the Man at Arms, but were discharged because, while disciplined, you were unwilling to fight. You're tough though, and will defend yourself against the others here if you must.

You are immune to poison.
If the Man at Arms attempts to shoot you, you will survive and kill them instead.

Student

[Rise Above]

A student in college, you can't decide what you want to do, and aren't really limited by what you're able to do--you learn extremely rapidly and have accumulated much knowledge of many subjects. You don't know how this "game" is going to go, but you're sure you can figure things out.

Each time you participate in a duel or dance and lose, you move up two slots on the corresponding list. Dead players count as being on the lists.

Thief

[Secret Maneuvers]

A common pickpocket, but one of the most skilled around. Through sleight of hand and deception, you've actually become able to live quite well on money other people earned. And hey, what was that one of the others took from that one room full of glassware earlier? Maybe you should see for yourself...

You may switch player's plates up to 5 times each Dinner Phase without their knowledge. PM the Moderator to use this power. If the poisoner dies, you will become the new poisoner.

Changes from rolecards in BtM hub:
-Barbarian intimidate target will not be made public.
-Peasant gets information about challenges at end of AP, and information about poison and plateswitches at end of DP.
-Royal rolecard changed to match the abilities the role is intended to have.
-The following cards have rewordings or clarifications that do not affect role abilities: Blackmailer, Court Jester, Gardener, Man at Arms, Mystic, Professor, Soldier, Thief.

Signups

Players
1. Determinus: the Alien [5th place, executed and shot by MAA]
2. EyeOfTheTiger: the Newt [14th place, poisoned]
3. TheEyeOfRed: the Hawk [1st place]
4. Chemist1422: the Yoshi [2nd place, guessed as Blacksmith]
5. Bluedetroyer: the Dog [10th place, executed in place of Mystic]
6. Cenvil2: the Peacock [8th place, guessed as Court Jester]
7. timurtheking: the Fat Bear [3rd place, executed]
8. tardispaten: the Wolf [8th place, guessed as Blackmailer and poisoned]
9. PokemonKidRyan: the Swan [4th place, guessed as Soldier]
10. ElusiveBelle: the Kirin [13th place, executed]
11. RevengeoftheRaccoon: the Raccoon [11th place, guessed as Barbarian]
12. Phone0Ix: the Stingray [6th place, guessed as Poisoner]
13. BRVR: the Snake [15th place, force-executed by Royal and shot by MAA]
14. SamuelJackson1972: the Hydra [7th place, executed]
15. TheNiceOne16: the Nice One [11th place, poisoned]
Backups
1. DJVoxel: the Chimera
2.
3.
...
Spectators
1. XerxesLeFan
2.
3.
...

[EyeOfTheTiger]

/join

[TheEyeOfRed]

/join as hawk

number? from what-what?
edit: uh 666

[TheEyeOfRed]

FUCK

ok let me read the rules

[timurtheking]

/join as The Retard


whats so specialabout most btm games, it just seems like theres one every week which is exactly the same as the others minus the flavour & small tweaks.

[Bluedetroyer]

/join as Dog

[Cenvil2]

/join as peacock
its a 999 for you

[Technetium]

There's something else that needs to be had for the join post to be counted, people. Read the OP, please!

[EyeOfTheTiger]

/join as the Newt
idiot #1 over here

[Chemist1422]

/join as Yoshi

I noticed the undertitles for the roles are songs

This'll be my lucky 7th btm game.

[Bluedetroyer]

/join as Dog
#3

[Cenvil2]

There's something else that needs to be had for the join post to be counted, people. Read the OP, please!

Happened.

[Determinus]

So it turns out I could be on, sorry for wasting your time with the pre-in Tech

[Technetium]

No problem, you had reason to expect you couldn't, and besides, you still made it in time for normal signups, so it doesn't really matter. Now, I PMed you what you need to do to complete your signup...

[timurtheking]

/join as the Fat Bear#12

[Determinus]

/join as the Spider
#10

[timurtheking]

edited my join msg

[tardispaten]

/join as the Spider
#10

/join as the Wolf

#5

[PokemonKidRyan]

/Join as the Swan
My number is a throwback: #007

[Technetium]

Uh...sorry, but 7 doesn't fit the requirement now.

[PokemonKidRyan]

/Join as the Swan
My number is a throwback: #007

Slaps Yoshi You was supposed to do 007.

(Number of times one of my fave characters says something lewd: 69 =3)

[Chemist1422]

/Join as the Swan
My number is a throwback: #007

Slaps Yoshi You was supposed to do 007.

(Number of times one of my fave characters says something lewd: 69 =3)

sadness

[ElusiveBelle]

/Join as The Kirin
Post #3.14159265359

Guess who's back, back again.
Elu's back, fear me friends

[tardispaten]

/Join as The Kirin
Post #3.14159265359

Guess who's back, back again.
Elu's back, fear me friends

Ahhhh hell nawwww

We gonna die

[PokemonKidRyan]

Why do I feel like that join was like a big pi in my face?