Finally got around to posting my side of the story. It seems like my actions confused a lot of you, so I hope this brings some clarification. It didn't make sense for me to just post PMs, but unfortunately this created a large post that can't be hidden by spoilers.
If you aren't interested in a summary, then feel free to scroll past this though I think you should read the Day 5 section at least. Jim didn't post his PMs for that day, but I did. I think they're pretty interesting.
The summary itself took up
two three posts due to the character limit, but I should be making a
third fourth post about my poster idea and thoughts on the game later in the day.
Day 1Not much happened. I got bandwagoned out of nowhere so I thought I would make
one last contribution before I died. Thought the information of a pre-lynch flip would be useful in this kind of game. Chose my large tech, and then chose to target Tric since he was the player I felt who's absence would have done the least amount of harm. After the deed was done, I quickly realized quickly that Caz or Juicebox would have been better choices based on that criteria.
Somehow survived.
NightFelt the atmosphere was pretty bloodthirsty at the end of the day. Decided to use my medium tech for a stun bomb to lessen the casualties. Went after Owl because I thought he was a third party who knew more than the average exterminator, and was opposed to us. I also wanted to thin the herd a little bit if it turned out that we would have to fight to the death after all.
Day 2Still not much. When I first saw the announcement, I was convinced that the only possible way to win was to be the last man, so I bought a mind control ray. Didn't claim the stun because I didn't want everyone to know that I had no tech. Then all the RPG stuff started to happen and we had Jim's ship plan. Clearly, escape was possible, but how wasn't yet clear. The repair ship was too easy so I expected it to fail. If it did work, it would have been so unsatisfying.
NightAt this point I wasn't sure if I was going to try to escape, or if I was going to try to be the last one standing. I decided I was going to wait until the next day before I committed in either direction. I wanted to be prepared though. Money was needed either way, for my own use or to fund the next plan once the repair ship revealed itself to be a bust, so I did those mind control shenanigans.
Somehow survived
Day 3It seems I was right to be paranoid. A ton of deaths, the ship was stopped, and our Great Leader Jim was reduced to bickering with Toonyman and LuckyOwl. Whatever semblance of hope we had yesterday had been completely crushed.
As you can imagine, I began thinking about how to kill everyone. Unfortunately, doing this only made me realize how terrible of a position I was in due to the bad decisions I made. I had no tech because I blew it all in the previous two days, and I was also the least trustworthy player because of what I did to Trickmagic.
I was only able to come up with two plans for winning the game. Buy a replicator and make an anti-tech and personal shield, or buy a plasmabomb and hope everyone else dies in a chain reaction. Neither was promising, so I ultimately had to give up on playing that way.
Investigate Webadict's corpse. Look for evidence that confirms whether the plasmabomb nuke gambit was real.
You don't find any evidence that anything was wired to him. However, you did see Jim Groovester over here messing with the corpse earlier.
Look around and try to find life support. Ponder how easily I could destroy it
You find the life support system in the Power Room. It seems someone has rigged this room up with a Plasma Bomb.
Try to access the dark web with a computer. Turn off mindshield if I must. Check how much it would cost to have this universe’s equivalent of Boba Fett or the Mandalorian rescue us. I’m a bounty hunter, surely I know how to find my colleagues?
You do manage to get ahold of another bounty hunter you've worked with in the past. She's willing to try and help you out, but getting past armed security ships makes this a dangerous mission. She will do the job for 5000 KOR.
I didn't really have any plan yet so I just threw random ideas at meph to see how they would stick. This lead to me finding the life-support plasmabomb as well as the bounty hunter lead. I needed that last one honestly. It was the first piece of hope that I had seen that day, and was what finally made me believe cooperation was possible. Ironic considering the circumstances.
From there, I focused my efforts on lowering the bounty hunter's price and it was also when I started talking to Shakerag.
Assessing confidence
What is my confidence in her ability to actually pull it off, based on my previous experience working with her?
She's pretty competent. Although without knowing exactly how strong the security forces are here it's hard to know for certain.
Fishing for intel and and a discount. I'm honestly pretty proud of how I went about this. This was the moment the game really clicked for me.
Call the ship repair company and introduce myself as a member of the internal affairs committee of the organization running the show. Tell them that it is my job is to investigate potential alien rights violations against innocent civilians and they may be entitled to legal compensation if the company exceeded the bounds of reasonable force when intercepting their ship. Security brutality is serious business after all.
Ask them investigative questions about how their courier was treated by the security team. Ask them about how the security team hailed them to make sure they followed protocols, and that kind of stuff. Eventually get into questions about the number ships as well as their ship class (fighters, corvettes, capital ships, etc.). If they fired on them, ask about the kind of weaponry they used, Anti-matter missiles are a war-crime after all.
Make sure to stress the danger of lying in a situation like this, and how a false claim can lead to them receiving fines worth thousands of KOR if the information he gives doesn't line up with other information gathered further into the investigation.
Assuming it all goes well, thank him for his time and promise to get back in touch a week from now. Then share the intel with my bounty hunter friend and try to determine if she still has what it takes based on the new information. Maybe ask for a discount for so graciously providing her with info.
"Oh! Oh, geeze, uh. I don't know, uh, the driver is in hyperspace now. Can't really talk to them much about it until they get back. Probably be a bit, you know? One system over and all. Uh, I know they said there were a couple of fighter looking ships blocking them? Don't think they were fired on, no. Mostly just told to turn around or else, you know?"
"Don't think I know anything else right now. I can have them call you when they get back, though?"
"We are a busy department that is constantly flooded with claims. If you were to call us, you would likely have to deal with customer service and be put on hold, and then get dropped after waiting for an hour anyway simply because we didn't have the time in our schedule that day. To minimize suffering and frustration, our organization prefers it if you were to give us a time and date when he would be available so we can work on arranging a timeslot to discuss your case ahead of time."
"Oh. Uh. Yeah. Sure." they give you a time that puts it at around the start of the next Hunt Phase. "The driver should be back by then."
Preparation with Meph cause I didn't fully trust him at the time
Action
Return to life support room. Watch anyone who walks in and prevent them from stealing the plasmabomb
The actual convo
PM-to-Shakerag
Check the Life support room. I found something pretty unpleasant while looking around. You may not trust me since it's pretty clear that I killed in the Night-phase, but I'm the only person who isn't trying to lie about it.
Don't touch it and don't tell anyone else about this yet. I don't want the culprit to do anything before we figure out what to do with this.
We'll discuss it more once you return. This needs to be handled delicately. We'll get more info if the suspects don't know we're on to them. LuckyOwl is the only other person who didn't kill anyone btw.
I'll explain my night actions in the main thread later
Ok, I was kinda legit expecting a body, not that.
Awful isn't it. Either this was the "deadman's" switch Web was talking about, or someone who was still alive planted it. Actually, we should check if some kind of timer is hooked up to this thing.
The most likely living suspects so [far] are either Jim or Toonyman. I can definitively prove to you that it wasn't me though.
Either Jim looted Web's corpse for the bomb and then set it up for life-support. Or Toonyman has been playing to kill this entire time and set it up as part of his plan. It feels like he's desperately trying to hide the fact that he killed Web with an assassin droid since his accusation against Caz is just inane.
The thing is, why life support though? It kills the culprit too unless they found some way to get a space suit.
Could it have been webadict before he died? I thought he mentioned a plan to make everyone win. And everyone dying would achieve that, I think?
Jim I kinda trust. Don't have a solid read on Toony this game but meta read says he'd be quick to stab anyone in the back.
Everyone dying would have only worked on Day 1. It would be good if turned out that none of us placed the bomb though. It means we'd still have a chance of uniting and making it out alive together.
Toony does worry me though, but I do think I have an idea for how to calm things down in the main thread. Escape is not dead yet. With so many claimed bounties, we have at ton of money to fund our plans with if we can just work together. I'm currently working on trying to hire this universe's equivalent of boba fett to try to break us out. I'm keeping it under wraps though, because I don't want the gamemasters to find out again.
But we should probably make a blind-spot this time.
Check to see if Juicebox's corpse has been looted. Take whatever is on him
You find Juicebox's corpse in the morgue. He doesn't have anything on him other than his standard plasma pistol, combat knife, and Mind Shield. You can take all of those if you wish.
I forgot I even checked his body. Makes the second time I do this a bit hilarious in hindsight.
Action
Return to life support room. Watch anyone who walks in and prevent them from stealing the plasmabomb
Question
How long do you think we can survive if the power or life support is disabled?
Noted.
With only 6 people alive in a station this size, probably 3 days or so. Rough guess, you're hardly an expert on the subject.
Go to the morgue and cut open the least damaged body. Look for tracking devices and microphones and anything else they may be using to listen in on us.
It may seem silly since I don't know when they could have possibly planted them on us (we came here of our own free will, we weren't kindapped), but I want to make sure.
You don't find any chips or anything like that in the body.
Go to the plasmabomb in the life support room and check if it has a timer on it or something like that. How would someone have detonated this specific bomb? Could I take it and use it for my own purposes or do I have to find a missing detonator first.
Also, ponder the security of my methods of outwards communication so far. Will the GameMasters have heard me talking to the bounty hunter and repair company? Or did they only find out because they already had a security team guarding the base?
The Plasma Bomb seems to be wired up to explode using a remote detonator (as usual for them). This one also seems to be set up to explode if anyone tampers with it.
You're not too sure. Your communicator should be secure. An exterminator can't exactly afford to have just anyone listening in to their calls, after all. Of course, if you were right near a microphone or something while talking to them that might have been overheard.
You do remember Jim mentioning the rescue ship in the main Mess Hall, which you know for a fact is heavily monitored. It's also possible they have a security team on the lookout for any ships.
With progress made in PMs, it was time for me to finally
post in the main thread and try to save this day.
The reactions were less than I hoped for, but as we can now see, I clearly made the right choice. It honestly scares me to think of how differently things would have ended up if had just been a little better off. I wasn't happy with the options I had earlier, but if I already had some of that gear, I probably would have bought what I was missing and still try to play the game. My one advantage was not being in the spotlight like Toony and Jim were, and I thought I could have at least survived one more night if I stayed silent.
I was even thinking of continuing my cooperation with Caz and we could eliminate Jim and Heydude, the only others with KOR, and be unstoppable.
It's funny how wrong I was. If Toonyman pulled off his plan, I don't think there would have been any means of stopping the bloodshed anymore.
With my post, we had transitioned to a different phase of day 3. Things had begun to calm down and we started trying to piece together what happened last night. I won't waste your time with a summary, I'll let my Pms speak for themselves
To Meph
Go to TrickMagic's room and hide a note containing my bank account info in his pillow.
Write a note with the phrase "Guess I got Trickmagic's pill" and hide it on my person.
How much time until the next hunt phase?
Noted.
Real world time? 5pm Pacific Wednesday, so just about 23 hours from now.
I want to add a couple of things in addition to the bank account info dead-man's-note.
Explain my plan to hire a bounty hunting friend (give contact info of course), and write about my intel-gathering mission appointment.
So I've been talking to the ship repair company about the security fleet that intercepted their ship. I'm trying to learn details such as the number ships they have, what kind of weight class they're in, weaponry, etc.
If my friend has this kind of information, they'll be more likely to be able to successfully rescue us.
Anyway, I've posed as a member of internal affairs investigating security brutality, and I have an appointment to chat with our original driver at the start of Hunt phase. If you're reading this, then please carry out the interview in my stead. Tell them I was busy.
From what I've heard, the security forces have been quite courteous so far, but I think we can justify asking our questions if we just say that they are part of procedure.
Don't worry, you'll be fine.
Noted
To Shakerag
In case they kill me with an assassin bot before I transfer you my money, check my corpse.
It will have a note. This note will be part of a message. You have the other half of that message. Your half is:
-ow!
Add your piece at the end of my corpse's note.
It's probably unnecessary paranoia on my part, but I don't see the harm in it.
In other news, I checked the plasmabomb. We can't use it cause the remote detonator is missing. Someone else must have it. If it's Web's then Jim probably got it, but it could also be someone else's. The plasma bomb also has an anti-tamper mechanism that will blow up if it's disturbed. We may still be able to disarm it anyway, but I don't want to risk it.
Can't you tell? It's supposed to spell Pillow! Check Trickmagic's Pillow! I wonder if Shake would have been able to figure it out if I was actually killed?
Asking for his opinion on my big post
What do you think? It's a lot of responsibility, but I believe it's the best way to unify everyone again. I'll send you my money if you agree to hold it.
You know, it honestly is good to have a confidant in this situation. It's frustrating constantly trying to make my case. I wish the others would just confess already.
In more important news, I think Jim's telepathy is referring to the bomb we found. It's probably trying to warn us to escape before it detonates. I think his hacking tool is our best chance at defusing it though.
The bomb is our final trump card though. It's a common enemy we can fight against.
The second part is a reference to this:
I'm receiving fragments of messages telepathically from somewhere. My guess is people in dead chat are trying to contact me but I can't rule out that the source is from somewhere else.
I received two messages. It's hard to explain what they are without quoting the PM directly. The first one is barely a message at all and is a few letters separated by ellipsis.
The second is much clearer. It mentions 'time left' and 'escape plan'.
I think there's a way to resolve this peacefully but seriously all of you need to stop killing each other.
Comment on Toony's stunbomb incident
I was sure that Toonyman killed Web, but working as part of a conspiracy with Caz was not something I expected. It also sucks that Toonyman only confessed because he got caught doing something bad, rather than because he changed his ways and wanted to co-operate with us. I doubt he'll give up his stuff, and even if he did people still aren't going to trust him.
With this in mind, I think Toonyman might be behind the life support bomb. He either planted it directly or looted the detonator off Web, though there is also a chance that Caz did the dirty work in this job.
I'm gonna try to consult the spirits on this one. It's silly, but it may work. We'll discuss it again when I get a response.
Here's how I contacted the spirits. Read out loud for best effect
My mind shield should be off by this point (I hope you didn't miss that, you didn't give your usual "noted" confirmations), but I will now meditate to contact the spirits. I am still in the life support room btw.
"Oh Humble spirits, how I beseech thee. Grant me your wisdom and aid this weak mortal mind! Before you is a device, that will cause us much doom. I we don't find the culprit, life support will go Boom.
"Three guilty minds could commit such a deed. Toonyman, Webadict, and Caz, could have betrayed us in this time of need."
"If Toonyman is the culprit, say 'T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T'
"If Webadict controlled it, say 'We We We We We We'
"If it's none of that Jazz, and the traitor is Caz, say 'Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z'
"Please grant my request, at my pleading behest. I hope when I talk to you later, I'll know who has the detonator"
"But if it's neither, say 'nee nee nee nee nee"
Noted and noted. We shall see if the spirits heed you.
[later]
While you take a few moments to calm your mind and focus on possible psychic communications you do sense a presence. It seems angry.
The rest of this stuff will be in chronological order
Check Juicebox's body for a used up shield. There shouldn't be one if he only faked killing him. Otherwise, he would have survived Toony's attempt.
His body does not have a personal shield on it. (Used or otherwise)
If only I realized that I had already done this
Jim Hacking tool Stuff
Jim hands you a used up Replicator.
As for the mechanics behind the tool, you can verify those with Mephansteras.
What did he mean by that?
I assume he just wants me to verify that Hacking Tools:
1) Can be made using a replicator
2) Can be used multiple times, though really tight security can damage them
If I get night killed, would I have still been able to do my phone call and pass the intel along to the bounty hunter? Or would the kill interrupt me?
You'd probably have time to contact them, unless you were waiting on something that happens during the hunt phase.
Turn off mindshield. Listen to telepathic messages
The mind-shield message Meph missed, this happened before the spirits stuff. I just wanted to put that at the top for a quick payoff.
Life support paranoia
Check the life support room again. Look for evidence of someone else coming here since I last went there (except Shakerag of course).
No evidence that anyone has done anything here. No way of knowing if someone walked in and just looked, though.
Actually, wait in the life support room. See if anyone decides to come.
Noted.
It was after this that I contacted the spirits
Another bout of life support paranoia. This time after I told everyone there was something there.
Hide in Life support. Watch who comes inside. If it's Toonyman and he tries to steal the bomb, "tamper" with it and blow us both up.
If someone else takes it, just sneakily follow them.
Noted