With Great Sacrifice [Concluded]
It is the forty-fifth day of no rain. My heart sat low as I approached High Priest Tlacaelel’s quarters. I gripped the record in my hand tightly. I saluted the two guards who stood at his doorway. The one on his right extended a hand, and placed it on my shoulder, shaking his head. I understood the meaning, and sat down on the stone floor outside. After a short time, four more guards adorned in jaguar skins exited the room, carrying the unmistakable banner of the emperor. I immediately prostrated myself, waiting for him to pass. After a minute, his rear guard finally began their descent down the steps, and I stood up once more. The guards gestured me in.
Tlacaelel was clearly agitated. He paced back and forth in front of his bed. He noticed me enter, but only gave a cursory nod to acknowledge my presence. I bowed.
“My High Priest,” I started. “It seems that… the gods are still not yet satisfied. The crops continue to fai-“
“I am aware, Quautli. The Emperor is gravely concerned. He is blaming us for the drought. He claims we haven’t shown ourselves to be dutiful enough. Our sacrifices are not sufficient, he claims.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant by this. Was blood not blood? The High Priest sighed.
“He claims that Paynalton approached him last night. The sacrifice of our captives is not glorious enough. Their blood and spirit are not pleasing. He… he said that he demands holier sacrifice. A single, pure sacrifice.”
I tensed. At times, I wished my master would be more direct. Did the Emperor actually order what was being implied?
“The Emperor has ordered us, along with every other priest, several commanders, and the servants, to join him in the lower chambers of the great pyramid. He claims it is there we shall divine who this is. You…” he paused. “You should say goodbye to your wife and child, to be safe. I do not know if he has one person in mind, but there is a chance one of us will be the choice. It would be improper to leave them on no notice. Now… go. We are to meet tomorrow morning. Enjoy the day.”
The guards behind me took me in each arm and ushered me out of the home. This was unbelievable. Was the Emperor mad? Would he lock us in and butcher us until it rained? Yet, there was no alternative. If the gods demanded such, who are we mortals to object?
My last night before the… trial, I will call it, was horrid. My wife does not approve. She feels that we’re being blindly obedient to gods that don’t care for us. In spite of my pleas for her to cease her blasphemous talk, she does not calm down. I spent the night in the main room. I only managed a small amount of sleep when I saw the sun rising with the fallen warriors in the east. With a sigh, I left without waking either of them.
I arrived to the inner sanctum of the pyramid, feeling more apprehensive than a common scribe should be to witness it. I stepped into the main hall, apparently one of the last to arrive. There were a large number of men far more important than me gathered about, sitting around a stone tablet erected in the middle of the square room. It occurred to me I had never been to the sanctum itself. There were far more torches and braziers to illuminate the room, showing the artful decorations. The right wall showed Huitzilopochtli welcoming fallen soldiers to his golden kingdom. The left showed Mictlantecutl laughing as he collected the bones of those who perished less gloriously. The far wall showed Quetzalcoatl flying across the sky, barring the previous two from interacting with the other realms.
I was shaken out of my reverent observation by Tlacaelel, who was standing in the center, side by side with the Emperor.
“Welcome everyone. I will not waste our time with introductions. The Gods are not satisfied with our sacrifice. Our great Emperor was visited by a godly messenger. They demand a single sacrifice, he with the purest spirit. That is why we’ve assembled our best here. We shall divine our single, most pure spirit here, and with their sacrifice, save the rest of us. The matter is graver than any we’ve approached yet. That is why this will be a collective effort. My own judgment has been… in error recently. We will not leave until that one has been found. The pyramid complex has sufficient food and timber reserves to last us until we are successful. If we should need sleep, there are servant’s quarters that we’ve vacated for the time being. I repeat- we are here until we have finished and the gods send rain. We shall start the endeavor now…”
Hello again! Welcome to my current hosting endeavor. I'[ll cut the chatter there and simply explain the minimum. The town consists of the priests and warriors attempting to find the pure sacrifice. The Mafia's motives will not be quite as clear cut. There will be a minimum of roles. The town will have, at it's disposal, at least one doctor, and possibly an investigator of sorts depending on the numbers play out. There will also be one currently unidentified "mystery" town role. The mafia may have additional abilities on top of killing. If I were playing, I would not rule out 3rd party roles. I'm hoping for at least 30, up to 40 players. 40 would be ideal, but I can work with 30. There won't be alt accounts for this game.
General rules stuff:
NO QUOTING HOST'S PMS, NO QUOTING CHATLOGS, NO SCREENSHOTS, NO ALTERNATE ACCOUNTS, AND NO TRANSLATING PM'S-You may claim whatever you want, including role name, so long as you don't quote my PM's word for word, or very close to word for word. You may quote pm's from other players.
The dead cannot reveal anything, including previous night actions, but they may participate as much as they want to contribute to general discussion. The dead also may not communicate outside the thread in any way, shape, or form relating to this game, be it via PM, chat, quicktopic, or other.
I do not allow Vote: No Lynch as an option. Period. You may abstain, however.
If you wish to take back a vote, you CANNOT do it by editing a previous post. I will not count it. Period. You must unvote:GeneralHankerchief in order to recant the previous vote. In order to vote for someone, you must do so in the usual Vote:issaikhaan style. Votes must be bolded, for reference.
WOKs(Wrath of Khaan) will occur if a person does not vote 3 rounds in a row, or if they do not vote in 4 rounds in total. Please, please don't make me do so. It won't be a pretty death.
Suicides will only be allowed in the event of a person being very much unable to participate in the game. I do not allow suicides for any other reason.
No links to anything outside of this thread. Period. I don't care if it pertains to something completely irrelevant.
It would be very helpful for the sake of my sanity if player's kept a tally running.
Please don't mess with the tally! I know sometimes errors happen, but if I determine that anyone deliberately misrepresents the tally for benefit, they will be wok'd.
Voting periods will be 24 hours, though it will likely end up being 36 on a number of occasions depending on scheduling issues.
Any ties in voting will await someone to break it. First vote to either person who is tied will result in lynch, regardless of any posts after it.
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