The Settlement: Information and Summary thread

**Reenk Roink** · 03-12-2009, 19:50

How the usupers' plot was uncovered by the priest king only to have the settlers take control of the investigations

In the depths of the night an man slowly limped across the swampy trails surrounded by partially constructed structures of the settlement. He stopped suddenly in a marshy clearing and simply stood there for a few moments until a dark mist descended from the sky. The mist formed itself into a humanoid figure and handed the man a scroll.

Nothing was said, as the man nodded and the misty figure dissipated. The man then limped slowly back to the settlement, towards the temple complex.

Meanwhile the priest king paced along the unfinished halls of his temple complex. It had been a dozen days since the ship was beached on this swampy strip of land that was now his settlement and a dozen more since the attack of the sea creature. The disappearance of the dead slave still weighed heavily on his mind and he examined the amulet of Vode wrapped around his fingers. What could it possibly mean? Why would the god of wars and foreign peoples send such an omen?

Reenk Roink had time to reflect on such questions in the silence the dark brought. During the day, the immense tasks that needed to be completed along with the bickering between the settlers on socio-economic issues scarcely allowed for contemplative thought.

Somewhat jaded that he was in such a situation with such people, the priest king began to walk back to his chambers. At the door he spotted a scroll lying on the floor. Looking around, he reached for a sword placed against the wall with one hand while picking up the scroll with the other.

Breaking the seal, Reenk Roink slowly unraveled the scroll. Written in the most exquisite script were the words:

Disarm your soul

A burst of energy suddenly emanated from the text right onto the priest king's handsome face. He was not even able to let out a sound as he collapsed to the floor.

When light entered the priest king's eyes again, he believed he had went to paradise. Instead he saw the concerned faces of his Bronze Companions and a few priests around him. A feeling of disappointment overcame Reenk Roink as he looked beyond to see a crowd of settlers around him, who were also somewhat disappointed that the one they looked at looked back.

Dismissing the settlers, the priest king then was told by his closest advisers that he was found lying on the ground unconscious. The entire hallway of the temple complex and everything in it was totally scorched. Everything but the priest king and the scroll found next to him that is.

Hesitantly taking the scroll from one of the priests, Reenk Roink examined it again noting that the words had been erased and replaced with the symbol of OsiOsi instead.

The priest king got out of his bed and told his retinue to gather the people in the gathering hall in an hour. He then turned to the priests to get to the bottom of what had happened.

In the Forest of the Gods, the god of wars and foreign peoples watched with a tinge of disappointment as the priest king Reenk Roink continued to walk about the earth. He turned to the god of the sky and questioned: "Why did you save him?"

OsiOsi, the king of the gods replied: "It is not for you to affect a matter that I have forbidden to the gods. You know well enough that you must act through your followers. If you plot anything Vode, know well that I also plot, and I am the best plotter."

**Reenk Roink** · 03-13-2009, 00:30

The settlers gathered unenthusiastically in the gathering hall at the time the priest king had issued. Some of the good men burned some incense to drown out the smell of the men.

After some time, Reenk Roink entered the hall, flanked by his retinue of Bronze Companions and some priests. He began to address the crowd: "Settlers, our preliminary investigation has led us to some conclusions. The events on the ship with the sea creature and the attempt on my life last night are related in some way having to do with the god Vode. We do not know why Vode is displeased with us but the guy has always been somewhat of a prick so it is not completely unexpected."

The priest king continued: "The priests have interpreted the signs of the gods and..."

At this point someone in the crowd abruptly interrupted: "lol gods!" However, his insolence went unpunished as he blended away in the mob.

Reenk Roink, after pausing for a few moments, carried on: "The priests have interpreted the signs of the gods and have come to the conclusion that there are usurpers among us who are following the dictates of Vode. Their goal does not stop at taking my life. They want this entire settlement to be destroyed."

"As of now, we have not identified who exactly these usurpers, but I assure you, I will oversee a thorough investigation of everyone's dwellings as well as consult the priests for info..."

The priest king was interrupted yet again, this time by a visible well dressed man: "Now just wait a minute! You agreed that us settlers would have a say in policy, and we want a say in this!"

Reenk Roink replied: "Yes, but we already have gathered much information and are close to unmask..."

An ordinary dressed man interjected: "Yes, it is us who will oversee the investigation. Every day we will gather the evidence and discuss it, and then vote for who we think is the usurper. Then we will execute that man!"

To this suggestion the settlers cheered in unison while the priest king looked at them incredulously. Soon his expression turned to one of disgust and he stormed out of the hall.

Challenge List:

Alive:

GeneralHankerchief
Sasaki Kojiro
taka
White_eyes:D
seireikhaan
Lord Winter
Captain Blackadder
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Beefy187
TheFlax
Psychonaut
CountArach
FactionHeir
Andres
boudica
Jolt
TinCow
Ichigo
Yoyoma1910
Tristan de Castelreng
pevergreen
Sigurd
shlin28
777Ares777
Askthepizzaguy
LittleGrizzly
Seamus Fermanagh

Executed:

Fallen in battle:

Killed:

**Reenk Roink** · 03-13-2009, 20:46

Night fell upon the settlement and most everything had become dark and still, but the house of the man they called The Flax had a dim glow emanating from it. Inside The Flax was engrossed in his writing and scribbled away copiously. You see, The Flax was a scribe, and had devoted his life to the noble cause of Writing. He was composing yet another work of polemic against Reading, which scribes considered to be Writing’s arch nemesis.

It was at this moment that a man slipped into the house of The Flax. He was so silent that The Flax could not hear him over the sound of the gentle scratching sound his quill made when striking the papyrus.

Not many moments passed before the man pounced and drove a blade deep into the side of the neck of The Flax. Mortally wounded, The Flax spent his last moments desperately trying to prevent the blood spilling on his work. It was really a useless effort, however, as his killer shoved his now limp body off the desk and proceeded to roll up a sheet of papyrus and smoke it, well pleased with his kill.

In the outskirts of the settlement, a man stood next to an unpitched tent. He seemed to be engaged in a heated argument with an owls. After much hooting and hollering the owl let out a series of howls that those learned in the art of owl interpretation would render as: "How can I checkmate the one who not only refuses to make a move, but doesn’t even know how to play the game?"

Before the man could offer his final thoughts, a large figure, clad in well crafted armor that was dark as obsidian approached. The man turned his attention to the armored figure and cheerfully greeted him: "Hiya!"

The armored figure responded in a cool, deep tone: "What is your name?" What a critical error this warrior of Vode committed as the man opened his mouth...

"They call me pevergreen."

"It's spelled with a small p because my mommy said I was special."

"So what’s that big sword for?"

"It's shiny."

"I think I stepped in something."

"People say I talk a lot."

"Do you think so?"

"You look funny."

"This is the longest conversation I’ve ever had!"

"People sometimes throw rocks at me."

"Are you going to throw rocks at me?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

"How about now?"

Throughout this, the armored man went through a wide range of emotions he thought he had succeeded in suppressing: he was initially bored, then became confused, then became irritated, then became enraged, and finally felt some fear and pity.

He finally shouted: "ENOUGH! I have HAD my FILL of the nonsense that you freaks in this settlement constantly spout that continually tests my will, mettle, strength, intelligence, and most of all, patience! If you do not draw your sword RIGHT NOW and take the first swing I will give the world a sight that even the immortal gods in the Divine Forest have never seen. Do I make myself perfectly CLEAR!"

Immediately, pevergreen picked up a stick and began to draw a sword with it in the mud. This action so infuriated the armored man that he did not even wait for pevergreen to initiate the fight as was his custom. He pulled out his mace and pounded pevergreen’s head into the mud, and although the blow instantly killed him, the armored man continued to pound away pevergreen into a bloody pulp, each strike sending pink mist into the air.

As dawn finally woke from her slumber, the two dead bodies were discovered by a slave and the priest king Reenk Roink was quickly notified. The settlers were summoned to the gathering hall and all arrived on time except the one called Yoyoma who was found sleeping in his home with the sacred text of OsiOsi in one hand and an empty bottle of wine with a pretty ribbon in the other.

Finally when all the living settlers had arrived, Reenk Roink announced to the crowd: "The bodies of two of you have been found brutally murdered. Do go and bicker and conjecture in all your futility so that you may have an innocent executed. I'm going to be drink-"

The priest king was interrupted by a slave who barged inside the entrance hall holding a rock that while covered with blood still had an uncanny shine. The slave exclaimed: "I found these on master pevergreen's body, LOOK!"

As all present in the gathering gazed into the palm sized stone, they saw the entire events of pevergreen's last moments being played out. They saw the argument with the owl and they saw the armored man approach and kill him. They even saw who the armored man was. It was the man called Ares!

Reenk Roink immediately gave the order to his Bronze Companions to draw their swords and seize Ares, but amazingly, this drew protestations from the crowd who demanded they vote on the matter.

The priest king angrily stormed out of the gathering hall muttering: "Why did I have to lead such a piss hat bunch..."

Challenge List:

Alive:

GeneralHankerchief
Sasaki Kojiro
taka
White_eyes:D
seireikhaan
Lord Winter
Captain Blackadder
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Beefy187
Psychonaut
CountArach
FactionHeir
Andres
boudica
Jolt
TinCow
Ichigo
Yoyoma1910
Tristan de Castelreng
Sigurd
shlin28
777Ares777
Askthepizzaguy
LittleGrizzly
Seamus Fermanagh

Executed:

Fallen in battle:

Killed:

TheFlax
pevergreen

Day ends on Saturday, March 14 at 20:00 Eastern

**Reenk Roink** · 03-15-2009, 02:25

Day 1

This day will go down in history. Never before has a settlement see so much bickering on its initial day.

Though the settlers decided to assert their own right to vote they overwhelmingly went ahead and came to the same conclusion about the magic rock that the priest king did and doomed the man it showed: Ares.

Ares had resigned himself to his doom early on, in fact, the consensus was so overwhelmingly against him that for the latter half of the day the settlers argued about all other kinds of topics.

The pizza guy that people asked was an especially vocal member of the crowd and the man they called Sasaki Kojiro challenged him to a duel for what could have been any reason. However, after changing his mind on the challenge as much as he did on the vote, eventually he backed down.

So Ares was bought before the priest king, who stood next the widow of The Flax consoling her, in an open field outside of the temple complex. Though he was quite active in trying to defend himself earlier in the day, it seemed that he had either accepted his fate or was exhausted from speaking, and so he remained very silent.

The priest king walked up to the kneeling man in chains. He was in sweat soaked clothes that were much too small for his burly frame. Reenk Roink demanded: “Are you an agent of Vode?”

Ares, who had been hanging his head up to that point, suddenly looked up and stared the priest king in the face. Reenk Roink was somewhat unnerved by the man’s glaring; he got the feeling that Ares was debating whether to speak or act. He settled on saying nothing.

After a few moments, the priest king grew tired of the insolence shown by Ares and struck his face with a light blow of his sword which sent the prisoner falling to the ground. The light dimmed around Ares as the Bronze Companions closed in to finish the job.

Voting Record:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Challenge Record:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Vote Tally:

777Ares777 (shlin28, Sasaki Kojiro, Ichigo, White_eyes:D, FactionHeir, Sigurd, Lord Winter, Captain Blackadder, Beefy187, CountArach, Askthepizzaguy, Yoyoma1910, Seamus Fermanagh, TinCow, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Andres, Tristan de Castelreng) - 22
FactionHeir (GeneralHankerchief) - 2
Gaius Scribonius Curio (Psychonaut, 777Ares777) - 2
TinCow (seireikhaan) - 2

abstain (boudica, taka) - 2

Challenge List:

Alive:

GeneralHankerchief
Sasaki Kojiro
taka
White_eyes:D
seireikhaan
Lord Winter
Captain Blackadder
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Beefy187
Psychonaut
CountArach
FactionHeir
Andres
boudica
Jolt
TinCow
Ichigo
Yoyoma1910
Tristan de Castelreng
Sigurd
shlin28
Askthepizzaguy
LittleGrizzly
Seamus Fermanagh

Executed:

777Ares777

Fallen in battle:

Killed:

TheFlax
pevergreen

**Reenk Roink** · 03-16-2009, 05:00

As the sun tucked herself to sleep, the man known as Gaius Scribonius Curio quickly lit all the candles in his house. He was very unnerved by the murder of The Flax who turned out to be a scribe as Gaius Scribonius Curio himself was.

The world could not afford to lose any more scribes. After all who who but scribes could keep the evils of Reading away from civilized society?

Gaius Scribonius Curio went to the only thing that comforted him: writing. He wrote with the quill furiously, knowing he would have to pick up the work of his dead colleague.

His frantic scribbling stopped immediately when a sound was heard at the window. Gaius Scribonius Curio picked up a paperweight and cautiously went to investigate. On his windowsill lay a rock covered with a piece of papyrus. Gaius Scribonius Curio picked up the rock and slowly peeled the papyrus off which read:

Look behind you

Gaius Scribonius Curio slowly turned his head. At that moment a figure jumped on him, driving a knife deep into his neck. Gaius Scribonius Curio dropped dead, his face forever set in a look of horror.

The killer went up to the desk and picked up an ink bottle. Huffing it, he looked at his bloody blade and smiled.

Unaware of the events at the house of Gaius Scribonius Curio, Sasaki Kojiro walked back to his tent with a look of disappointment but also relief on his face. His work done for the night, he tried to get some sleep.

As he slipped into his nightwear a small squirrel entered his tent. Sasaki Kojiro smiled at the creature and went to look for some nuts to feed it.

How stunned he was when the squirrel suddenly spoke: "There will be no need for that Sasaki."

Sasaki Kojiro turned around and saw that the squirrel had transformed into a strikingly handsome man towering nine feet above the ground, his head pushing on the ceiling of the tent. The giant had a mischievous smile on his face as he said: "Oh how delightful this situation is, so much more lively than the boring formality of the Forest!"

Sasaki Kojiro overcame enough of his fear to state: "Who are you?! What do you want?!"

The giant responded: "Oh my plans are so far beyond your mortal imagination Sasaki. The little priest king and his little pets go about their pathetic lives trying to find these annoying little insects - or as you call them - usurpers. It is quite amusing really."

"Now Sasaki, I'm terribly sorry, but it is time for you to get off this little ride."

Sasaki Kojiro, seeing that he had nothing to lose, charged the giant. The giant simply took a deep breath and blew the quite heavy set Sasaki Kojiro all the way to the other side of his tent.

Sasaki Kojiro cried out: "Kefy my matron! Goddess of the earth! Save your servant!"

The giant chuckled and said: "Kefy was such a bore. She just never put out. Really the perfect match for OsiOsi."

"Now Sasaki, don't even bother with your healing abilities. I have thought long and hard of how you should die and I assure you, the method will make your abilities quite useless."

The giant began uttering some chants and suddenly, Sasaki Kojiro was transformed into a fish. He began to asphyxiate on his the floor when the giant went and picked him up and dropped him into one of the many barrels of water in his tent. Initially feeling relief, Sasaki Kojiro soon realized he was drowning! As a fish no less!

He looked hopelessly at the laughing giant before he floated limply to to the top.

The giant then pulled out a trident and impaled the corpse of Sasaki Kojiro the fish. Taking a bite of his freshly killed victim, the giant chuckled to himself: "Oh Pisuf, you have really outdone yourself tonight!"

"Hopefully these mortals will be thankful for the favor I have bestowed on them..."

Deep in the Divine Forest the earth goddess watched as her chosen one was killed in such a bizarre manner. Burning with rage she snapped to the sky god: "Destroy that fool!"

OsiOsi replied calmly: "Enough Kefy, you and Vode complain too much when your puny servants are foiled. You know I have little love for Pisuf, but he is doing important work and has impressed me with his decisions. I am not going to punish him because he feels the need to kill some of your agents."

The earth goddess glared angrily...

Back in the comfort of his house, the nobleman Beefy was pouring over volumes of tax records. They were many years old, but Beefy wanted to make sure that the state had received every grain it had deserved.

His pleasant night was suddenly disturbed as his door exploded and a short man in red robes with a grim looking face entered. Beefy could feel the power radiating from the red robed man and cried out in desperation: My indentured servant! Come out and defend me and I will consider your debt payed off!

A man came running out with a broom to attack the intruder but the red robed man quickly cast an incantation which caused to broom to burst in flames, forcing the servant to drop it. The red robed man then made some movements with his hands which directed the burning broom to beat the servant to death.

Beefy was absolutely terrified at this point, and began to cry and beg for his life. He offered his attacker vast amounts of riches, but the red robed sorcerer of Vode was unmoved. He began to cast another spell, and all the precious metal in Beefy's house began to melt into pools on the floor and converge on Beefy.

Beefy screamed for a long time until the molten gold and silver reached his gaping mouth, and when it was all finished, a shining electrum Beefy stood in the middle of his house, his last moments of pain immortalized in a statue.

As the sun rose from her rest, the settlers quickly gathered together and called role. Realizing that Gaius Scribonius Curio, Sasaki Kojiro, and Beefy were missing, a sickly feeling came over them. They went to the gathering hall to discuss the murders but CountArach stumbled in a bit late, burping and hiccuping...

Challenge List:

Alive:

GeneralHankerchief
taka
White_eyes:D
seireikhaan
Lord Winter
Captain Blackadder
Psychonaut
CountArach
FactionHeir
Andres
boudica
Jolt
TinCow
Ichigo
Yoyoma1910
Tristan de Castelreng
Sigurd
shlin28
Askthepizzaguy
LittleGrizzly
Seamus Fermanagh

Executed:

777Ares777

Fallen in battle:

Killed:

TheFlax
pevergreen
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Sasaki Kojiro
Beefy187

Day ends on Tuesday, March 17 at 02:00 Eastern

**Reenk Roink** · 03-19-2009, 01:36

Day 2

Though the bickering on this day was less than on the day before, it was still significant enough to make the priest king Reenk Roink stay away from the settlers most of the day. He had more important things to attend to such as spend time with the widows of Gaius Scribonius Curio and Beefy in order to...comfort and console them.

At length the settlers had decided that the most vocal of them all was the man who was most likely to be an usurper. So the pizza guy whom everyone asked was chained and brought forth to the priest king. At this point, the pizza guy had gone quite insane and was reciting poems stating his desire to die.

Reenk Roink examined him quizzically and said: "A pity. This fellow was entertaining, and I sensed potential that he would have some good ideas for stopping the usurper threat."

With that the priest king gave the order to one of his Bronze Companions who swiped the head of the pizza guy off cleanly with one stroke of his sword.

In accordance with his wishes, all of the pizza guy's sheep were slaughtered at his execution.

Voting Record:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Challenge Record:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Vote Tally:

Askthepizzaguy (TinCow, Yoyoma1910, GeneralHankerchief, Jolt, Askthepizzaguy, shlin28) - 9
TinCow (taka, White_eyes:D, Andres) - 3
Yoyoma1910 (Psychonaut, FactionHeir) - 2
White_eyes:D (LittleGrizzly) - 1

abstain (Lord Winter, boudica, CountArach, Seamus Fermanagh, seireikhaan) - 6

Challenge List:

Alive:

GeneralHankerchief
taka
White_eyes:D
seireikhaan
Lord Winter
Captain Blackadder
Psychonaut
CountArach
FactionHeir
Andres
boudica
Jolt
TinCow
Ichigo
Yoyoma1910
Tristan de Castelreng
Sigurd
shlin28
LittleGrizzly
Seamus Fermanagh

Executed:

777Ares777
Askthepizzaguy

Fallen in battle:

Killed:

TheFlax
pevergreen
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Sasaki Kojiro
Beefy187

**Reenk Roink** · 03-19-2009, 01:47

As the sun retired to her resting place the man named Shlin went to his tent which did not contain much more than a severely overused combat dummy. Shlin was a soldier as his father and his father's father had been, and he did not spend long days on the field or in the office. Rather, he continued to practice his swordplay and keep his martial skills sharp for the day that battle would call again.

The sonorous sound of his sword striking the combat dummy was disturbed by the sudden entrance of a short red robed man, who grimly looked at Shlin. Shlin immediately turned his attention to the intruder and charged him. He was no more than two paces away when the sorcerer of Vode directed a burst of lightning at Shlin, hurling him back. Recovering from the shock, Shlin got up and exclaimed: "Foul magician, it will take more than that cantrip to fell this warrior!"

The robed sorcerer thus hurled another burst of lightning at Shlin, this one clearly causing damage to the hardy warrior. Yet although Shlin was unable to pick himself up after the second attack, he still defiantly exclaimed: "You are weak behind the evil magics given to you by your god. You cannot slay me with the sword!"

This statement of Shlin caused the grim faced sorcerer to raise an eyebrow. He then reached out with his hand and somehow took Shlin's sword out of his hand, causing it to float right above the wounded soldier. The red robed sorcerer then forcefully jerked his hand downwards and the sword mimicked the motion, running through Shlin.

Meanwhile, the man named Hankerchief sat in his house drinking wine and thinking of his glorious past. He reminisced about the days when he was a simple farmer boy who answered the call when the people called for a hero at their darkest hour during the Great Civil War. He rose up from his humble beginnings to reach the position of priest king from which he then began to conquer the largest empire our people have ever seen, effectively ending the Civil War and ushering an age of great peace and prosperity.

He then stepped down from his place as the most powerful man in the land to devote himself to knowledge. Later he would write about his heroic deeds. Even later these writings would be stripped from the history books as it was realized that Hankerchief simply had a vivid imagination and had made everything he documented up. Yet in his mind, Hankerchief was still a glorious general.

So the self styled general spent his night sitting on his fine chair, not realizing that a man had entered his house and drew a blade from behind him. So the life of the self styled general ended as his throat was slit and even more, the story of him would be lost forever as the killer proceeded to grind up the pages of the last remaining copy of Hankerchief's history into a fine powder and snort it.

As the sun rose from her slumber, all the settlers once again were called to the gathering hall by the priest king who informed them of the murders. So the discussions began, with Yoyoma once again joining in late in a limited capacity as his mind was clouded by drink.

Challenge List:

Alive:

taka
White_eyes:D
seireikhaan
Lord Winter
Captain Blackadder
Psychonaut
CountArach
FactionHeir
Andres
boudica
Jolt
TinCow
Ichigo
Yoyoma1910
Tristan de Castelreng
Sigurd
LittleGrizzly
Seamus Fermanagh

Executed:

777Ares777
Askthepizzaguy

Fallen in battle:

Killed:

TheFlax
pevergreen
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Sasaki Kojiro
Beefy187
shlin28
GeneralHankerchief

Day ends on Thursday, March 19 at 18:00 Eastern