Rebellion IV - Death of the Lich King (Day 10)

[Zeb The Troll]

*Zeb enters the auditorium from the side and walks up to the podium*

Lords and Ladies, Rebels and Loyalists, can I have your attention please?

The results are in. I have the votes here in this envelope, which has been hermetically sealed and kept in a jar of mayonnaise on Funk and Wagnalls porch since noon.

*he pulls an envelope from somewhere under the podium and holds it up, then opens it*

From Judge #1 - Loyalists
From Judge #2 - Rebels
From Judge #3 - Rebels
From Judge #4 - Loyalists

Hmm, seems we have a close vote here. There's only one more vote to count. Whichever story this judge voted for will be declared the winner. And that vote ... will be revealed right after this commercial break. Stay tuned, we'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the show. Are we ready to hear who the last judge voted for? Yeah? Alright!

Judge #5 - Loyalists

*the crowd bursts into cheers and jeers*

That's right, ladies and germs, this is a momentous occasion. This marks the first time that the Loyalists have won a game of Rebellion!

((And it came right down to the wire. It should be noted that each of the judges also commented on how both stories were very good and it was tough to choose one over the other. Good job, guys.

Now that I think about it, this is also the first time that I've seen a game come down to literally the last player standing. But I guess that's because other games have the "bad guys" win when it gets down to a draw.

Now, in keeping with tradition, I'd like to open the floor to comments and suggestions about the game. What did you like? What needs improvement? It seems like we've got the balance thing nailed down pretty well, I'd say, but that doesn't mean that there can't be some tweaking.

I'll start off. Should I add a rule about a draw going to the Rebels, like other games, or was this an acceptable resolution? Should I write this particular resolution into the rules or try to come up with something else creative next time, if there is one?

And finally, from both of us, thanks to everyone. You all played a great game and kept us both entertained the whole time. Thanks also for your patience with this unforeseen limited internet access. I'm going to ask Alarra to draw up some trophies for this. It probably won't be as many as the other games sometimes give out but keep your eyes on the thread for a couple of days if you're interested in seeing what we come up with.))

[Fleeing Coward]

Good game all, and congrats to the loyalists for finally winning one and thanks to Zeb and Alarra for running a wonderful game.
While the rebels expected a victory in a rebel vs loyalist situation when both were nobles, it's still a nice little twist and made for an interesting situation in a boring endgame.

Personally, I'd prefer that the rules be the same as other games as it would be a deadlocked final vote. This one situation this would be a good alternate solution thoguh is in a rebel peasent vs noble loyalist final day as in that case, both would technically lynch/kill each other.

As for balance, I think it's about right although starting with only 4 rebels, it would be nice to maybe have the recruitment ability straight off the bat rather than on the third day before the cooldown since it is tied to the rebel leader. An unfortunate day 2/3 lynch would basically end the game for the rebels with the current rules, the chances of a rebel would lose then and there if something like that occured.

EDIT: As for the game, most of the early days, we just let each rebel decide for themself how to vote although in hindsight had we been abit more coordinated we had our chances to win this game before Freshmeat woke up.

Day 1: Not much happening, unfortunate that easyname jumped straight to my defense, figured it'd come back to haunt me in the future.

Night 1: We didn't attack the emperor or CotG as some suspected, we were abit slow in getting organised and just plain forgot to send in a kill/scry for the night.

Night 2: Initial plan was to scry Freshmeat and kill Shadow that we should have done on night 1.
Evnafets thought it would be too obvious a move to kill Shadow so we decided on a last minute switch for a random kill on SweetlikeLemon just in case Shadow was protected. Scried Pwenet instead on the off chance he's emperor since a couple of people believed that Freshmeat might be autolynched despite the fact that he has never been autoed.

Night 3: Recruited Zar Peter because we figured there'd had to be some reason he was defending Curly. Evnafets suggested we scry Dr. Bath which is what we did. When scry returned as gossip, we got our next night kill target.

Night 4: Ranna managed to get information on Fin been baner from Dr. Bath, found out that Freshmeat was heir from Zar Peter. Killed Dr. Bath as planned and scried Szilard to confirm our suspiscions that he was the Emperor.

Night 5: Little discussion that day, coincidentally both me and Evnafets send in a kill on Mordokai despite not having discussed anything. Ranna scried Mustiado as a mason. At this point we were feeling pretty confident that we had the game in the bag if we can survive another day without been discovered.

Day 6: Freshmeat woke up and by pure luck as far as I can tell picked evnafets and Szilard as kill targets. Had he picked anyone but Evnafets, we would probably have just gone along with it and just tried to recruit him that night as originally planned.
Evnafets decided to go for an open attack on Freshmeat's credibility and I decided to join in after he decided to target me when his kill the emperor plan failed.
Saw the plan wasn't working with about 12 hours left, decided on a last ditch effort to change his mind and save the game for us via MSN. Pointed out that evnafets was the one that foiled his plan to get Szilard killed and was unlikely to be rebel because of that but didn't push to much harder least he gets suspicious on why I was defending him so much. Spent the rest of the conversation just defending myself while trying to get an idea of who his other suspects.
Started praying after the conversation. Fortunately, he decided to change targets, went along with it initially but had always intended to change back Gwyn ap nud at the end for the peasent kill.

Night 6: Needed to successfully recruit to get to a draw/win situation, tossed up our options between Shishnarfne and Zombie Pixe. Settled on Zombie Pixe because I wasn't sure how Shishnarfne would react after how I ended Infection. Sent a pm to Zombie Pixe claiming we didn't need need his support to win but we're recruiting him anyways since he helped kill Gwyn. He accepted.

After that it was pretty much going through the motions of kill for kill although I think there might have been a few attempts at getting Freshmeat to take a leap of faith.

[Zeb The Troll]

So instead of starting with a cooldown, make it so they can use it anytime they want, but with the two night cool down after that, right?

[Freshmeat]

First things first: good game to everyone involved. I really enjoyed this one.

On balance:

Spoiler

Balance-wise, I think the loyalists are actually a bit too strong. I'm aware that this might be a controversial opinion, but I think it's just a total coincidence that not a single rebel got killed (or auto'd) in the first five days, and that neither of the two seers found us a rebel before for this long a time. I was quite certain that at least someone would have scried easyname or Fleeing Coward after the game started (because the former jumped to the latter's defense). Had either of the seers noticed that, this would have been game over real quick.

The problem, I feel, is actually that the Emperor cannot be killed at night as long as the Captain of the Guard lives. But the CotG is the baner, so in all practicality they're invincible to the rebels. All the Emperor needs to do (and what the Emperor in this game didn't seem to realize) is to reveal himself on day four or five to win. Because of the CotG, he can only die through a lynching. But since his vote counts triple, he's definitely not going to get lynched by the nobles, especially if you factor the Imperial Guardsmen in, who are also not going to vote to get the Emperor lynched (or whoever claims to be it). The only reason you might want to consider waiting a few days with this tactic is so a handful of random nobles will die/get autolynched. From there on out, the Emperor's vote + the Guardsmen vote + the CotG vote equals practical noble vote invincibility.

So he only really needs to worry about the peasant vote. But after someone has claimed to be the Emperor (and by this I do mean an actual well-timed convincing claim, unlike what Pwenet tried this game) no peasant is going to rise against them. There'd be no point in doing so for them, since they'd only make themselves look like rebels, which is bound to get them lynched.
Sure, there are rebel peasants who would definitely want to get the Emperor killed, but they'd need to devote so much manpower to *hopefully* get a majority peasant vote to get the Emperor lynched that this is a suicidal move in the long term.
The worst part is that as long a the Sheriff is alive, even if the rebels can somehow whip up the peasants into an angry lynch mob to get the Emperor lynched, he'll just veto the vote.
But suppose the entire 'kill the Emperor' plot does work (somehow). Then a new Emperor (the Heir) will simply rise up and begin the cycle anew. If the rebels can't get to the Heir before that happens, nothing really changes.

Despite that, the rebels do have a couple of strong tools at their disposal, most of them involving recruitment. Being able to recruit the baner or the seer can (and will) completely change the course of the game.
But I still feel that, by all means, the loyalists could have easily won this if the Emperor had simply revealed himself on day 4 (or even 5) and did the exact same thing I did, but one day sooner.

That's merely my view on things, at least. As my first game of Rebellion, I can say I really liked it. I must applaud the way in which you've set up things that almost every role has a different win condition, which means that just about everyone has a hidden agenda and will happily join, betray and join whichever group suits his needs best. So you can definitely count me in for Rebellion V.

[Fleeing Coward]

Yea, either that or giving the rebels an extra noble rebel at the start. Either way would give the rebels a fighting chance at least in case the rebel leader met an unfortunate early demise.

EDIT: I have to disagree on the balance, all 4 starting rebels were peasents which actually makes a huge difference as they could theoretically gain lynch control pretty quickly by recruiting a 5th peasent and the sheriff can just be night killed. This game wasn't exactly like most of the rebellion games as the peasents and nobles continually targeted the same person to execute/lynch. In a normal game, the rebels could have gained lynch control much quicker than what happened so the 2 scriers wouldn't have had as much time to scry out a rebel in time to prevent the unavoidable peasent lynch mob.

[Zeb The Troll]

Oddly enough, Zar Peter was recruited. At the start, there were NO noble rebels. Not by design either. There certainly could have been and were in past games but this time the randomizer made them all peasants.

Freshmeat - you have some valid points, and I was concerned about them in earlier versions but I decided to leave them because of what you mentioned, the possibility of recruitment of nearly anyone else in the game.

The Sheriff is one I'd like to play with a little more. He didn't really get used in this game at all and might have had more of an impact if he hadn't gotten autolynched early.

[Fleeing Coward]

So the 4 peasents weren't by design but chance? I sort of figured that every rebel started as a peasent to make up for the significant dowgrade in their recruiting abilities which makes it harder for them to gain control of the peasent lynch.
Guess it makes sense though now that I think about it. It'd be too easy for the scriers otherwise.

Another idea that I've been thinking about - making a heir recruitment unrefusable. As Freshmeat mentioned, it's already hard enough to get the Emperor killed so I think it's only fair that if the rebels find a way to kill the Emperor, their chance of achieving their alternate win condition isn't foiled purely by the whim of an individual.

[Freshmeat]

Spoiler

Originally Posted by Fleeing Coward

Day 6: Freshmeat woke up and by pure luck as far as I can tell picked evnafets and Szilard as kill targets. Had he picked anyone but Evnafets, we would probably have just gone along with it and just tried to recruit him that night as originally planned.
Evnafets decided to go for an open attack on Freshmeat's credibility and I decided to join in after he decided to target me when his kill the emperor plan failed.
Saw the plan wasn't working with about 12 hours left, decided on a last ditch effort to change his mind and save the game for us via MSN. Pointed out that evnafets was the one that foiled his plan to get Szilard killed and was unlikely to be rebel because of that but didn't push to much harder least he gets suspicious on why I was defending him so much. Spent the rest of the conversation just defending myself while trying to get an idea of who his other suspects.
Started praying after the conversation. Fortunately, he decided to change targets, went along with it initially but had always intended to change back Gwyn ap nud at the end for the peasent kill.

I voted for evnafets for several reasons. First of all, Shadow said he was suspicious of evnafets and - wouldn't you know it - if it wasn't for a last-minute kill-change, he would've been killed. That seemed a bit fishy to me, but was probably a coincidence after all.
I found it strange that after about 5-6 days, evnafets was still alive, and doing so little to help us out. Since he'd make for a good alpha pick, there was a good possibility that he was a rebel (this later turned out to be a coincidence as well, as the alpha didn't even pick his roles this game).
What interested me was actually that he voted for easyname so late on day 2. It's the precise move evnafets would have made (in my opinion) if both he and easyname were rebels. Combined with the entire easyname/FC thing on day 1, an FC/evnafets/easyname rebel coalition was a certain possibility.
Since I had no scry at the time and I definitely needed a rebel target, I chose evnafets. I only found out later on that that was a horrible move.

You see, I was suspicious of Zar Peter for quite some time. That's the only reason why I openly told him on MSN that I was the Heir - just to let the rebels know who I was. Knowing that, it'd seem probable that the rebels would gladly sacrifice one of their own and go along with my plan.
To my utter surprise, I ran into a lot of resistance. FC joined in later on and refused to point at evnafets at any single moment. The same held true in reverse, even though there's no way they couldn't at least have a hint of suspicion towards eachother. I definitely knew these two weren't masons, so that only could mean they were rebels, as per my first guesstimation.

I was pondering on what to do next (I definitely couldn't keep on pointing at Szilard because the need to kill an additional rebel was too high), when FC contacted me on MSN. Since I was assuming that he was a rebel anyway, I paid close attention to who he was protecting and why. His comments regarding evnafets seemed interesting enough to me that I realized that evnafets might actually be the rebel leader. From that point on, there was no way I could keep on pointing at him. If I got the rebel leader killed, I'd just get killed on the night thereafter and I'd lose.
I *could* have engaged in a guessing game on the subsequent night involving the baner's protection until my coronation, but that was a bit too risky to my liking.
However, I definitely wanted to send the rebels a signal, so I wanted to get another important rebel role lynched. The rebel spy, to be more precise. Thanks to my conversation with FC (where he pointed out that Ranna would be a good pick for a rebel spy because she could slip under the radar), I decided to follow up on precisely that suggestion and get her killed. Turns out that yes, she was the rebel spy.
When the votes didn't change fast enough and Gwyn got lynched instead, I then honestly thought the game was lost for a moment, but threw the 'evnafets is probably a loyalist peasant' comment out there just in case. If there was still hope for me left (later on it turned out that yes, there was) it would be essential for evnafets to survive until night 9.
This became especially risky when PGCoD suggested killing evnafets on day 8, but, fortunately enough, I managed to talk him out of that plan.

I think it's good that all four initial rebels turned out to be peasants in this game. I think they'd have had a much harder time in a 3/1 or 2/2 setup.

[Fleeing Coward]

Originally Posted by Freshmeat_

I was pondering on what to do next (I definitely couldn't keep on pointing at Szilard because the need to kill an additional rebel was too high), when FC contacted me on MSN. Since I was assuming that he was a rebel anyway, I paid close attention to who he was protecting and why. His comments regarding evnafets seemed interesting enough to me that I realized that evnafets might actually be the rebel leader. From that point on, there was no way I could keep on pointing at him. If I got the rebel leader killed, I'd just get killed on the night thereafter and I'd lose.

You had already switched to pointing at me by then actually. I'm curious as to why you thought what I said about evnafets is interesting. All I said was that the list he posted to come up with who the emperor was made sense when you look at the other votes after which I even told you to lynch evnafets if you want to as I was just trying to save my own skin.

However, I definitely wanted to send the rebels a signal, so I wanted to get another important rebel role lynched. The rebel spy, to be more precise. Thanks to my conversation with FC (where he pointed out that Ranna would be a good pick for a rebel spy because she could slip under the radar), I decided to follow up on precisely that suggestion and get her killed. Turns out that yes, she was the rebel spy.

Actually, you were the one that brought up Ranna been picked as a possible rebel and never once did I mention that she might even be the spy.
Obviously I wasn't going to tell you that the rebels weren't hand picked at that point as that'd just give me away. While I did say that she could be the sort of person an alpha would pick, the fact she was relatively new and unproven meant that it would be a high autolynch risk as you said yourself.
In fact, up until you decided to target her, I had believed that she was the only one that you havn't yet picked out as a rebel and I said as much in my last pm to the other rebels before you changed your points

[easyname]

Congrats on your win, Loyalists.

Sorry about day 1...

[Freshmeat]

Originally Posted by Fleeing Coward

Actually, you were the one that brought up Ranna been picked as a possible rebel and never once did I mention that she might even be the spy.
Obviously I wasn't going to tell you that the rebels weren't hand picked at that point as that'd just give me away. While I did say that she could be the sort of person an alpha would pick, the fact she was relatively new and unproven meant that it would be a high autolynch risk as you said yourself.
In fact, up until you decided to target her, I had believed that she was the only one that you havn't yet picked out as a rebel and I said as much in my last pm to the other rebels before you changed your points

Upon rereading my logs for a moment, it seems that you are indeed correct. I must've mixed up some thoughts/conversations there. I believe I ultimately went after Ranna, hoping that she was indeed the rebel spy, because the less information the rebels would have, the more they'd be inclined to recruit me for the information I could offer them. In case I was wrong about all of you, there was still a good chance she'd be a rebel, because she could technically be with anyone (unlike some people whom I was sure about weren't in league with eachother -- at least not at certain points in time).

Originally Posted by Fleeing Coward

You had already switched to pointing at me by then actually. I'm curious as to why you thought what I said about evnafets is interesting. All I said was that the list he posted to come up with who the emperor was made sense when you look at the other votes after which I even told you to lynch evnafets if you want to as I was just trying to save my own skin.

To be honest, I put you on a bluff. Suggesting to lynch evnafets and easyname and drawing attention to Ranna being a likely rebel seems to fit that profile perfectly, although not everything was 100% clear to me at the time. What interested me was that you specifically suggested killing evnafets even after you gave the precise reasons as to why that wouldn't make sense (as he was trying to save the Emperor).
I was also assuming that if evnafets was a rebel indeed, he'd probably see how accepting death and not speaking up about Szilard would only further the rebel cause. When he didn't do so, I knew I was either dead wrong about him being a rebel, or that I had precisely picked out one of the main rebel power roles - one they didn't want to lose at any cost.

I probably should've just taken a gamble with Zar Peter and worked out some sort of plan with him beforehand. I don't expect he would've ever admitted to being a rebel though.

In this respect, I don't know if making a Heir recruitment unrefusable is a good idea. Half the fun in this game was whether I'd be given the chance to betray anyone, and if so, who.

[DarkLightDragon]

Very amusing.

[Zar Peter]

Originally Posted by Freshmeat_

I probably should've just taken a gamble with Zar Peter and worked out some sort of plan with him beforehand. I don't expect he would've ever admitted to being a rebel though.

In this respect, I don't know if making a Heir recruitment unrefusable is a good idea. Half the fun in this game was whether I'd be given the chance to betray anyone, and if so, who.

I was pretty sure that you only told me that you are the heir because you thought I'm a rebel.
In every PM about you with the rebels I made clear that, in my opinion, you WILL accept recruiting. Unfortunately I went on holidays just before the end of the game and couldn't effect the decisions anymore.

[Szilard]

It was a good game, does the emperor usually last that long?

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by Freshmeat_

I voted for evnafets for several reasons. First of all, Shadow said he was suspicious of evnafets and - wouldn't you know it - if it wasn't for a last-minute kill-change, he would've been killed. That seemed a bit fishy to me, but was probably a coincidence after all.

I'd just like to throw out here the fact that I did this in the thread, before any of that stuff happened.

Any of what stuff you say?
The are people that know what I'm talking about.

I kept my word. Freshmeat_ has no clue what I'm talking about right now.

[Mustiado]

So... I never actually intended on my story being the loyalists' story. I figured I'd submit it to S over there, and then we'd edit it with other ides, get some work done on it, and then put it up. I was pretty surprised when it went straight up without any input from the rest of the team. So sorry about that if anyone was putting something else up for consideration.

With that being said... YAY! It worked! That was a lot of fun guys, and I think I actually prefer the "Best story wins" ending to this game. Game mechanics be damned!

[evnafets]

Originally Posted by Shadow

I'd just like to throw out here the fact that I did this in the thread, before any of that stuff happened.

Any of what stuff you say?
The are people that know what I'm talking about.

I kept my word. Freshmeat_ has no clue what I'm talking about right now.

Just to clarify what Shadow is talking about, seeing as it doesn't matter anymore. On night 2 we originally decided to kill Shadow. I changed that later in the night (but still before dawn) to kill SweetLikeLemons. However Zeb had already sent a request to Shadow asking him to write his death scene.

I wasn't aware of this until Shadow posted the PM from Zeb in thread, using it as proof that he wasn't a rebel.

Originally Posted by Shadow

I've been expecting to die since then because a) that's the norm, so I never start a sheet until then -and- b) I was actually targeted by the rebels one night, but they changed at the last moment. I've been waiting until they do it again.
*Scrubbed*

I immediately PMed the narrators to complain as I considered this cheating.
- using a PM from the narrator as proof
- Shadow shouldn't have known he was targeted on night 2 in any case, and IMO even using that info as an argument was questionable.

My complaint resulted in Zeb's PM being scrubbed from Shadow's message. Zeb sent a PM to Shadow letting him know the narrators did not approve. Unfortunately he also included me in the "To" list for that PM, and also included my original PM (with name) in the message. Thus Shadow found out that I was the one who complained.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if someone complains about a post like that, he must be a rebel. Hence my role was outed to Shadow. Shadow promised not to use that information, or pass it on anywhere. I took him at his word, and he kept it.

case closed.

[Fin]

Yay! Congratulations Loyalists, would just like to thank Fleeing Coward for our big political debate the day we died. i couldn't have asked ofr a better opponent, although the Your Next Pm freaked me out somewhat

Also on the death of Dr Bath, he actually contacted me on the night of his death asking for protection but merely claiming he was the gossip's proxy I replied saying I would but he should really tell me who the actual gossip is, he died before he gave me a reply my decision to wait for a reply before alerting Zeb of my action was a mistake I apologise..

Anyway great game Zeb I really enjoyed it! Are there gonna be trophies!?

[Zeb The Troll]

About Shadow knowing he was being targetted on Night 2...

It's not an uncommon thing for narrators to ask targetted players if they want to write their own death scene. I get asked all the time.

I did not request that Shadow do it, I simply asked if he wanted to.

It is uncommon for the bad guys to change their minds about the night kill after the order has been sent in.

Sometimes, when I've gotten all of the night actions in early, I'll end the night early to help the game progress faster.

As a result of Night 2, I will no longer end nights early and I will no longer ask targets if they want to write their own death scenes. If people want to write their own scenes, however, and I get them before they are actually killed, I'll be happy to post them.

Szilard - Yes, it is uncommon for the emperor to live that long.

Fin - I hope for there to be trophies, but with Alarra working furiously on her thesis right now and me having no artistic abilities whatsoever, that hasn't yet come to pass. I'll keep you posted on whether or not it actually will happen though.

[Fin]

Hey don't worry I know how it feels. My thesis is nearly Fin ((tee hee name pun)) And my university life will be coming to a close over the next few weeks and so I assume Alarra's is the same. Wish her luck that it comes along well for me.

[Penguinsushi]

ok, so *both* sides killed me off in the 'final scene' story? Nice to know I'm so loved...

...still, doesn't that seem kinda counter-productive, you know, since i was the loyalist...

~PS

[Szilard]

Well, that was a fun game, I liked being the emperor, it was a cool surprise for my first game.

[Mustiado]

You lived in mine, of course Penguin. You get the throne room and a cooler of sushi all to yourself. ?:)

[Penguinsushi]

Originally Posted by Mustiado

You lived in mine, of course Penguin. You get the throne room and a cooler of sushi all to yourself. ?:)

...I must have been reading that wrong then - i thought i fell off a balcony...

~PS

[Zeb The Troll]

Okay, folks, as promised...

This awards presentation will not be nearly as elaborate or detailed as that of Mafia with Andre, but here is what we've come up with (and Alarra drew).


For authoring the Rebel's story...

Spoiler

Penguin Sushi returns to his igloo to make plans for the final showdown. As both a noble of the realm and a highly respected press photographer, he has made full use of the benefits associated with such a position while also making a small personal fortune along the way. Using these gains, his igloo now more resembled a castle fit for a king than that of a humble noble. There was little doubt that this was one penguin that loved to live in the laps of luxury.
Handing off his coat to a waiting footman, he starts to bark orders.

"Have that cloak cleaned. It got spattered with blood when that insignificant runt of a turncoat noble Zar Peter shot Lord Aemoh. While you're at it, have my shoes polished as well will you? And get the cook to rustle me up a little something to eat. NOT sushi. "

The servant bows.

"With apologies sir, but we won't be able to clean the coat as the washer woman Ranna, was hung the other day as a rebel spy."

"Oh well never mind then. At least have my shoes polished will you?"

"I'm sorry sir, but we're all out of boot black, and we can't get any more because the boot black boy was also hung as a rebel."

"Very well, forget that as well ...
The cook hasn't been hung as a rebel as well has he?"

"No sir"

"Good. Then have him..."

"He committed suicide when his lover was executed as a rebel."

"Good lord! I thought the meals haven't quite been up to the usual standard lately, but what with this rebellion going on - oh well never mind that. At least fetch me a drink of cognac."

"With apologies again sir..."

"What now?"

"Your master of cellars was killed by the rebels the other night, and noone has been able to find the key to the liquor cabinet."

((Sigh.))
"Very well, just put my camera away in a safe place then. I've shot enough pictures for today. Also bring me my best rifle from the cabinet above the fireplace. Here's the key."

"At once sir."

((The footman heads over to the fireplace, unlocks the cabinet and takes down a long hunting rifle))

"Make sure its loaded will you?"

((The footman cracks open the rifle, making sure the cartridges are in place. He then begins walking towards PenguinSushi))

"This will be a week long remembered. It has seen the end of the rebel leader evnafets, and it will soon see the end of the Rebellion. There is only one more rebel alive. An insignificant little runt of a noble by the name of Zar Peter."

((The footman nods)) "Yes sir."

"By the way, is there anyone else on the staff who is no longer with us that I should know about?"

"Well sir, now that you mention it..."

"Yes?"

"Your chief Footman Zombie Pixe was executed as a rebel a few days ago."

"Really? Who are you then?"

"Just an insignificant little runt of a noble sir. Who happens to be carrying your best rifle."

BAM!

"You really should have paid more attention to the hired help sir. If you had, maybe you wouldn't have been in this situation..."

For authoring the winning Loyalist's story...

Spoiler

As the sun begins to set in the western sky, lighting up the village in a red blaze, a strange thing happens.

A tumbleweed blows through town.

This lone action sets off a number of cliches, turning the hamlet from blood soaked village to deserted ghost town in a matter of minutes. A fitting end, Penguinsushi muses to himself as he stares out the window into the widening darkness. Somewhere in the houses below, a lone torch springs up...

He comes tonight.

PenguinSushi plods off into the castle to make his preparations...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zar Peter cautiously pushes open the castle's front door, torch raised for light and pistol in hand, cocked. He glances about, his eyes darting left and right, but unable to find his opponent in the oppressive gloom of the castle. "The first thing we're ... well, I'm doing, when the rebels are in charge, is installing electric." Zar grumbles as he takes his first tenative steps into the building, the door thudding shut behind him. No more than ten feet from the door, however, candle shaped lights snap on all around him, illuminating the castle foyer.

"Greetings!" Penguinsushi's voice booms out around Zar, as if amplified from the top of the staircase, and yet projected from the sides of the room as well.

"I knew you would come tonight, so I took special care to make your welcome a warm one!" Penguinsushi cried, as the bucket suspended above the door via tripwire tipped over, spilling out flaming oil to the square Zar Peter had just inhabited, creating a nigh impassable barrier and forcing him further into the room.

Zar, looking on in horror, discovers a veritable fun house of traps and tricks, all seemingly ripped off... ahem... lovingly lifted from a certain Christmas movie starring Macaulay Culkin. Ornaments, wires of christmas lights with the electrodes bared, even a slightly larger than tarantula sized spider inhabiting one side of the room.

"You think I never saw this movie?" Zar chortles as he skips through the traps, using the dangerous tinsel to incapacitate the spider while leaping through the various ornaments. "We watched this every year!" he screams, ducking under the appropriately timed paint can on the stairs, dashing ever closer to his goal.

"Well then, perhaps THIS will come as a surprise!" exclaims the sushi master, as he leaps from the banister of the staircase behind Peter, brandishing his filet knife and his trusty rolling mat. With one deft move, he catches and removes the flint from Zar's old fashioned pistol. "Now, we battle on even terms." says Penguinsushi, advancing slowly towards his now unarmed, yet still formidible opponent. "...well, almost even, anyway." as he flicks his rolling mat out, distracting Zar while he dies forward with his knife set to "de-bone."

Too clever for such a feint, Zar catches hold of the top of Penguinsushi's shirt, pushing him down and under him, well out of angle for a strike, while leaping up and over him, grasping the chandelier with his newfound height. The momentum of his swing carries him to the throne, where he quickly dismounts the ornamental battle-axe of the realm. "En garde indeed." murmurs the gnome.

Penguinsushi flees at the sight of the maniacal gnome lumberjack, sprinting for his life while Zar sings out a warcry, "The best sushi is fresh!" Quickly turning a blind corner, however, the charging gnome skids to a stop, finding himself on an open air balcony. A weight crashes into him from behind, dislodging the battle axe and sending him head over heels over the railing. Managing to catch hold with one hand, he twists around to see Penguinsushi's gleeful face above him.

"Hang in there, friend! I have just the thing to help you back over!" Without another word, Penguinsushi produces a gigantic green blob, and shoves the entirity of it into Zar's mouth.

"Wath ith dis? EEEYAGHHH!!" Zar quickly grabs the giant wad of wasabi from his mouth, frantically wiping at his tongue to erase the disgusting flavor. However, in a fashion worthy of Wile E. Coyote, Zar fails to realize that one hand holding the wasabi, and one hand wiping his tongue, equals no hands on the railing. With one look down, and a squeak of "Mother!", Zar Peter dropped from the balcony, only to crash in a comical puff of smoke in the courtyard.

After a moment of silent reflection on his nemesis' demise, Penguinsushi ambled back into the throne room, kicking open a cooler next to the gigantic chair. He pulls out a piece of tuna sashimi, and with a final glance over the now empty chamber before his feast, he can't help but utter one final line.

"It's good to be the king."

For being the last Rebel standing...

And finally, for spectacular game play which resulted in keeping his role a matter of speculation clear up until the very end, which resulted in the ultimate victory for the Loyalists and his being the last player standing...

I hope you all enjoyed playing the game as much as we enjoyed narrating it. I'll plan on starting another one here in a few weeks. I'll be looking for a different narrator, though, since it occurred to us, too late, that the odds are that if I can't post, neither can she so she's not an ideal candidate to back me up.

[Zar Peter]

Thank you very much! An awesome Zar picture!

[Mustiado]

Woohoo! Awesome Zeb!

... Now how do I put it in my signature?

[Uncle Festy]

[/unlurk]
Just copy the URL below, wrap [img] tags around it, and stick it in.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../goldenpen.gif
EDIT: ... or, you know, just quote the post and copy the code for the image.
[/lurk]

[Cobra_Ikari]

...wait. Rebellion? Wow. *hugs*