The Mansion II [on hiatus]

Obviously, as an experienced military man of impeccable breeding, it's only natural for me to take up the mantle of leadership.

I will, of course, be needing some non-commissioned types to perform those tasks unbecoming of a gentleman - planning, organisation, that kind of thing - whilst I manage the more nuanced aspects of la stratégie grande (best accomplished at the billiards table, with a glass of red in hand).

Montmorency and Raith Kemmler seem suitably equipped for such donkey work, I'd say.

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Originally Posted by Raith Kemmler

I'll come. Maybe two teams of 5 to split up, pending on layout, and the remainder check out the study we're in?

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Capital notion, Sergeant. One group can seek out the billiards room, whilst the other fetches the wine. The remainder can search our present location for useful intelligence, so to inform my deliberations.

I want to examine the Study. Maybe I can found something we could use?

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Originally Posted by Winston Hughes

Oh dear. I think I'm beginning to understand...

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Sir, I am greatly offended by your suggestion, I am a true bred St Andrews man myself.

I'm just a simple rental clerk, but I'll go looking for the kitchen/pantry.

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Originally Posted by Winston Hughes

Capital notion, Sergeant. One group can seek out the billiards room, whilst the other fetches the wine. The remainder can search our present location for useful intelligence, so to inform my deliberations.

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Then for your consideration General, I present the following tentative listing:

Grand Strategy: Escape the Mansion
Strategic Initiatives: Survive and then Explore

From most to least important in terms of immediate resolution:

Secure immediate area
Find potential food sources
Find and secure fortifiable positions
Discover and Develop Weapons
Establish a sleep watch
Raconteur potential hostiles
Search for Clues
Look for a viable Exit
Optional: Vengeance on whatever SoB did this to us

I agree with Mont, but I'd like to take things farther. I say until we find a good food source, we should hold off on establishing a sleep schedule and indeed push the group until this has been resolved. If we can't find a good source of food, we can sleep when we're dead.

If you need some muscle in the expedition to the kitchen, I would be willing to help.

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Originally Posted by Myrddraal

Hi everyone, I'm Lola Richards (my friends call me Myrddraal for short)

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I would have thought ‘Lola’ would be shorter than ‘Myrddraal’.

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Originally Posted by Winston Hughes

I'm terribly sorry, but I don't speak middle-class. Can anyone translate?

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In confidence, I do tell you he's in the money markets, a fancy name bookkeepers, moneylenders, panwbrokers, bankers -that sort of ilk.

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Originally Posted by Winston Hughes

Oh dear. I think I'm beginning to understand...

Oxford man, are you?

My condolences.

*shakes head in disgust*

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Ah, a fellow Cambridge man. Did you attend Snobbington College, by any chance?

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Originally Posted by Winston Hughes

I am feeling a trifle peckish. Perhaps a sortie to the kitchens is in order. And the wine cellar, obviously.

Of course, I couldn't possibly venture below stairs myself. But if you'd be good enough to fetch a bottle of Chateau Lafite and some fois gras, caviar, truffles and such, that would certainly prove satisfactory.

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Good grief, old chap! In the spirit of Boxing Day, perhaps sir Donald could go and help himself? The servants appear to have left.

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Originally Posted by Winston Hughes

Capital notion, Sergeant. One group can seek out the billiards room, whilst the other fetches the wine. The remainder can search our present location for useful intelligence, so to inform my deliberations.

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But how can you deliberate without any wine, Sir Donald?

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Originally Posted by Golden1Knight

If you need some muscle in the expedition to the kitchen, I would be willing to help.

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Well, I do believe Sir Donald has practised pugilism.

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Originally Posted by Raith Kemmler

Don't put a lot of stock in past experience with showman. You should check yourself, maybe another, but we probably aren't seeing much repeats on that front I'd wager.



I'll come. Maybe two teams of 5 to split up, pending on layout, and the remainder check out the study we're in?

We should check for secret passages too. The door being barred might be lulling us into thinking this room is safe.

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Very well. I'll unbar the door myself and venture to the next room. We should also be wary of traps, both of the "door" variety as well as generally being wary of what we touch.

It would be helpful if we can get at least the simplest description of the room we are in

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Originally Posted by Jarema

It would be helpful if we can get at least the simplest description of the room we are in

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From the write up.


Looking around, you observe a room with no windows and a single door. The furniture appears old, some covered in plastic, others just dust. Armchairs... bookshelves... some kind of Study.



BTW, Zack what's in the note? Is that our role PM or something? Your mind reeled, no memory of how you got here or where "here" is. All the knowledge you have is scribbled on that note.

Based on that this is a room with a single door, I suggest a small team explore this room properly, while the rest move out. And since I doubt our imprisoner has a huge monster in the next room (for now atleast), we should do something like that team A go and get a quick view for the room behind the first door/window on the right, team B, first door on the left, team C first door on the opposite or opposite right if it exist (like in a hallway) or second right if it doesn't, team D do the same for the left etc.

I'll do some naming so if people agree to this, we can easily coordinate the groups together.

Team Study: Explores this room. The furniture, the walls and all possible supplies.
Team Scavenger: Explores the next room in the same way. I suspect it's a hallway or at least a room with a lot of entrances.
Team Right: Gets a sneak peek on the first room to the right. If the room looks empty of dangers, start explore it. Same for all room teams.
Team Left: As above for the left room.
Team S(econd) Right: Gets a sneak peek on the central opposite room if it exist, otherwise first opposite room on the right if it exist, otherwise the second room on the right.
Team S Left: Gets a sneak peek on the first opposite room on the left if it exist, otherwise the second room on the left.

How dangerous were the traps in the last game? I was thinking if we need some dedicated trap checker for each group.

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Originally Posted by Ironside

From the write up.

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Thank you, I managed to miss it.

I would like to be in Team Study if others agree. I am not sure if having so much teams is benefitial though. I would say that we should have 3 persons per team, so 5 teams?

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Originally Posted by El Barto

I would have thought ‘Lola’ would be shorter than ‘Myrddraal’.

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Yeah, but Lola is harder to pronounce.

Remember that a 'night' phase represents 4 in-game hours, so we can achieve quite a lot. I suggest that we should be reasonably ambitious in how far we want to explore - we shouldn't limit ourselves to neighbouring rooms.
@Zain, I assume it's fair game to submit instructions like 'Try to make my way to the Garden'?

We should try to explore as much as possible while we are still in the beginning of the game. 3 in each team seems enough. And since our discussion time will soon end, I believe that we should follow Ironside's plan.

I'm willing to join one of the room exploration teams.

Jolly good, I will lead Team Sleft then. With a name like that, what could possibly go wrong.

I will go with Team SLeft: sneak peek in the first opposite room on the left if it exist, otherwise the second room on the left.

Could I suggest some alternative teams and actions?

Actions:
Search this room
Suggested instructions to host:

• Search the room we are in for anything useful (read any papers and (skim-read) books, look for anything that could be a weapon or food, look for sources of light, search for secret passages)
• If there is time, have a nap, leaving one person awake to guard and wake the others in the case of anything unexpected (this person might as well spend the whole phase searching)

Team members:

• Jarema, Winston?

Search neighbouring rooms
Suggested instructions to host:

• Moving carefully, un-bar the door. Check for traps.
• If anything that could be considered a monster or 'hostile' is encountered, fall back and try not to disturb it.
• If it is a corridor, give it a quick search before moving on.
• Leave the door to the study open, and keep one person in this corridor / room at all times, trying to keep line of sight between those in the study and those that have gone ahead.
• Explore rooms which lead immediately off the corridor / neighbouring room (again checking for traps and hostiles).
• One person in this group should go slightly ahead (but within line of sight of the rest of the group) and keep an eye out for the kitchen search party.
• This person should take a light but recognisable piece of furniture with them from the study (for e.g. a stool or a picture). If, for whatever reason, the group needs to fall back to the study whilst the kitchen search party are still out and about, the stool or picture should be dropped and left at the point closest to the direction the kitchen party left in (so that the returning party will immediately know that something has gone wrong).

Team members:

• Ironside?, Monty?, Raith Kemmler?, Beskar

Search for the kitchen
Suggested instructions to host:

• This party will go further afield than the 'neighbouring rooms' party in an attempt to find the kitchen.
• We have four hours, so we can still be careful, take our time to check for traps etc.
• Within this group,
• If we spot anything hostile, we abort and fall back.
• If we spot the garden, make a detour to check if there is a shed. If there is, grab anything that could be used as a weapon.
• Keep a couple of people on rear-guard, keeping an eye out for anything behind us, and trailing slightly behind the main group (but always within sight) to try to make sure that we always have a clear escape route.
• If we find the kitchen, load up with as much food as possible and head back. Also check for knifes or other things that could make good weapons.
• If, for whatever reason, our escape route gets cut off, we should try to find a room which we can barricade ourselves into.

Team members:

• Khaan, Myrddraal, Golden1Knight, Auto, El Barto?,

The following haven't posted yet. We could arbitrarily drag them along on a mission, but I suspect that would quickly lead to casualties...

• GeneralHankerchief
• johnhughthom
• Greyblades
• Choxorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Myrddraal

Could I suggest some alternative teams and actions?

Actions:
Search this room
Suggested instructions to host:

• Search the room we are in for anything useful (read any papers and (skim-read) books, look for anything that could be a weapon or food, look for sources of light, search for secret passages)
• If there is time, have a nap, leaving one person awake to guard and wake the others in the case of anything unexpected (this person might as well spend the whole phase searching)

Team members:

• Jarema, Winston?

Search neighbouring rooms
Suggested instructions to host:

• Moving carefully, un-bar the door. Check for traps.
• If anything that could be considered a monster or 'hostile' is encountered, fall back and try not to disturb it.
• If it is a corridor, give it a quick search before moving on.
• Leave the door to the study open, and keep one person in this corridor / room at all times, trying to keep line of sight between those in the study and those that have gone ahead.
• Explore rooms which lead immediately off the corridor / neighbouring room (again checking for traps and hostiles).
• One person in this group should go slightly ahead (but within line of sight of the rest of the group) and keep an eye out for the kitchen search party.
• This person should take a light but recognisable piece of furniture with them from the study (for e.g. a stool or a picture). If, for whatever reason, the group needs to fall back to the study whilst the kitchen search party are still out and about, the stool or picture should be dropped and left at the point closest to the direction the kitchen party left in (so that the returning party will immediately know that something has gone wrong).

Team members:

• Ironside?, Monty?, Raith Kemmler?, Beskar

Search for the kitchen
Suggested instructions to host:

• This party will go further afield than the 'neighbouring rooms' party in an attempt to find the kitchen.
• We have four hours, so we can still be careful, take our time to check for traps etc.
• Within this group,
• If we spot anything hostile, we abort and fall back.
• If we spot the garden, make a detour to check if there is a shed. If there is, grab anything that could be used as a weapon.
• Keep a couple of people on rear-guard, keeping an eye out for anything behind us, and trailing slightly behind the main group (but always within sight) to try to make sure that we always have a clear escape route.
• If we find the kitchen, load up with as much food as possible and head back. Also check for knifes or other things that could make good weapons.
• If, for whatever reason, our escape route gets cut off, we should try to find a room which we can barricade ourselves into.

Team members:

• Khaan, Myrddraal, Golden1Knight, Auto, El Barto?,

The following haven't posted yet. We could arbitrarily drag them along on a mission, but I suspect that would quickly lead to casualties...

• GeneralHankerchief
• johnhughthom
• Greyblades
• Choxorn

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I find this an agreeable course of action.

Okay.

I'll explore the neighboring rooms.

I agree with Myrdal and Khaan.

I'll explore rooms starting from the right then.

Some tips. The roofs might contain hidden doors, so watch them if there's something weird looking at least.
And our architect should use his specialties to check get a good guess on where the kitchen should be. All I know is that the diner should be nearby. And see if he can spot odd things with room placements and room size. Significant rebuilding is usually done for a reason.

Edit: Oh and do a listening check before opening a new room. Non-mechanical sounds are bad.

Until such time as the scout parties have identified a more suitable accommodation, I shall remain in the Study as suggested.

Here, for my own entertainment as much as any material advantage, I shall apply the skills acquired in my stint with the Royal Engineers.

Any hidden artifices of a mechanical or technological nature should soon make themselves apparent.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Myrddraal

Could I suggest some alternative teams and actions?

Actions:
Search this room
Suggested instructions to host:

• Search the room we are in for anything useful (read any papers and (skim-read) books, look for anything that could be a weapon or food, look for sources of light, search for secret passages)
• If there is time, have a nap, leaving one person awake to guard and wake the others in the case of anything unexpected (this person might as well spend the whole phase searching)

Team members:

• Jarema, Winston?

Search neighbouring rooms
Suggested instructions to host:

• Moving carefully, un-bar the door. Check for traps.
• If anything that could be considered a monster or 'hostile' is encountered, fall back and try not to disturb it.
• If it is a corridor, give it a quick search before moving on.
• Leave the door to the study open, and keep one person in this corridor / room at all times, trying to keep line of sight between those in the study and those that have gone ahead.
• Explore rooms which lead immediately off the corridor / neighbouring room (again checking for traps and hostiles).
• One person in this group should go slightly ahead (but within line of sight of the rest of the group) and keep an eye out for the kitchen search party.
• This person should take a light but recognisable piece of furniture with them from the study (for e.g. a stool or a picture). If, for whatever reason, the group needs to fall back to the study whilst the kitchen search party are still out and about, the stool or picture should be dropped and left at the point closest to the direction the kitchen party left in (so that the returning party will immediately know that something has gone wrong).

Team members:

• Ironside?, Monty?, Raith Kemmler?, Beskar

Search for the kitchen
Suggested instructions to host:

• This party will go further afield than the 'neighbouring rooms' party in an attempt to find the kitchen.
• We have four hours, so we can still be careful, take our time to check for traps etc.
• Within this group,
• If we spot anything hostile, we abort and fall back.
• If we spot the garden, make a detour to check if there is a shed. If there is, grab anything that could be used as a weapon.
• Keep a couple of people on rear-guard, keeping an eye out for anything behind us, and trailing slightly behind the main group (but always within sight) to try to make sure that we always have a clear escape route.
• If we find the kitchen, load up with as much food as possible and head back. Also check for knifes or other things that could make good weapons.
• If, for whatever reason, our escape route gets cut off, we should try to find a room which we can barricade ourselves into.

Team members:

• Khaan, Myrddraal, Golden1Knight, Auto, El Barto?,

The following haven't posted yet. We could arbitrarily drag them along on a mission, but I suspect that would quickly lead to casualties...

• GeneralHankerchief
• johnhughthom
• Greyblades
• Choxorn

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Agreed.

Ugh, open-ended thinking and compromise. I'm management and what is this.

OOC: I've been watching Soviet sci-fi for the past day or 40. Give me some time.

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

Ugh, open-ended thinking and compromise. I'm management and what is this.

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No compromise, Sergeant-Major. Your word is my word, and my word is law. If you have orders, give them.

ps. Ironside and Myrddraal are promoted to Corporal.

Our current command structure:

Lieutenant-General - Moi
Captain - johnhughthom (pending his appearance)
Sergeant-Major - Monty
Sergeant - Raith
Corporal - Ironside
Corporal - Myrddraal
Private - Everyone else
Oxford - Beskar

Discussion Phase 1 is over!
Please everyone send in order PMs for this Order Phase!
Ending officially in 24 hours at 23:59 GMT Wednesday

And please continue to discuss (There were 42 posts of discussion this Discussion Phase, pick up the pace or there will be a mishap :rtwno:) Also if you already sent in an order out of turn, please resend it or send a new and improved one.

Thank you :bow:

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Originally Posted by El Barto

Ah, a fellow Cambridge man. Did you attend Snobbington College, by any chance?

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No, I attended one of the non-imaginary ones. Peterhouse, to be exact.

Good man, failing my shibboleth not! I am sorry for the subterfuge, but you might have been one of those substandard rowers Oxford people trying to infiltrate properly educated people.

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Originally Posted by Winston Hughes

No compromise, Sergeant-Major. Your word is my word, and my word is law. If you have orders, give them.

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OOC: You're really quite good at this aren't you?

I don't know much about corporaling now mind. I do know how to change the toner cartridges of a Multi-Function Device and I do the best tea round in the office. (Anyway, isn't corporal when you smack people? Cheeky! :wink:)

Now say Mr Sir Donald, you seem like a decent fella. You stay right here and work out what's going on whilst we fetch a little something to keep us ticking-over. Ta-ra pet.

Khaan, Golden, Auto, El Barto, for the sake of expediency I'll suggest roles for our little expedition, but please don't take them as given; feel free to suggest alternatives.

1st Rear-guard:
Keeping an eye out for anything behind us, and trailing slightly behind the main group (but always within sight) to try to make sure that we always have a clear escape route.

2nd Rear-guard:
Staying with the main group, but looking back, keeping an eye on the 1st rear-guard and making sure they don't get separated from the group

Door opener:
Before we enter any room or corridor this person listens at the door for any suspect sounds (as suggested by Ironside), this person then loosens the catch, pushes the door gently and takes a step back (we don't want to run into any nasty surprises on the other side). After the point-men have gone through the door this person follows closely, always looking for anything suspect and ready to support the point-men.

Point-men (or women, as appropriate) x2:
After the door has been opened, these go through first (carefully, as always!). Once the room is deemed clear, they call back to the rear-guard to follow.

Everyone should grab some kind of weapon, be it a chair leg or whatever, but we should only use these if we can't escape our potential aggressors.

Golden, as the strongest of us, should probably go point. I'm happy to volunteer to go with him (just look at those biceps!)

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Originally Posted by Ironside

And our architect should use his specialties to check get a good guess on where the kitchen should be

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Do we know we have an architect?

Good thing I looked in when I did, might have missed the round altogether.

Apparantly I am a photographer, so I assume I am somewhat weak, thus I volunteer for the rearguard position.

Quote:

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Everyone should grab some kind of weapon, be it a chair leg or whatever, but we should only use these if we can't escape our potential aggressors.

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I agree we should attempt to dismantle (smash) the furniture to make some makeshift clubs for the exploration teams.

In a house like this I'd assume the study would have a fireplace, we might get lucky and find an iron poker.