Another random selection. David was the recipient this time, in Warsaw, Poland.

He was to play "Trap". I told him there was one trap in the challenge, and he needed to step lightly. I then asked if he wanted two stones. Yep. You foolish fool. Those "stones" were Anti-Stones. One of the miscellaneous goodies referred to in the Rules section. These are the reverse of regular Safety Stones: they ADD 10% per stone. But before I could post results, David hatched a scheme. He would try and unload the anti-stones onto someone else via a trade. I agreed to play along, and was vaguer than I'd normally be in results posting. Only after someone had been successfully duped would I inform the victim they'd been had. Either that, or the entire group would be let in on it at the end of the round. He immediately sprung into action.

Another thing players wouldn't know: the nature of the next challenge in Tirane, Albania. The only challenge in the game that had nothing to do with the location. So it could be anything. Players would have no idea-- until they'd completed it. It's actually a trivia challenge based on the TNN game show "Oblivious", wherein contestants answer trivia questions without knowing there's anything at stake. I'd ask each player I find 3 questions. Each one they get right is worth 1 Safety Stone. Yes! REAL Safety Stones!

But nobody but me knew that at first. David had a deal to make. Cindy took the bait, and took the two "stones" (David informed me of a signal I'd take as him unloading the anti stones) and 2,000 votes in return. So now Cindy had the 2 anti-stones and 2,000 extra votes. She was informed that she'd been had at my first opportunity. Which was not for a while. By the time I had gotten to the computer, Cindy and David had agreed to terms, but Cindy only e-mailed me and not David. David, not knowing, rescinded the already approved offer and went to Chrissy, who accepted as well. My call was Cindy and David came to terms first, so I gave the anti-stones to her.

David (Australia): Nothing personal about foisting the stones on you. In fact, I figured you would have time to find someone else to give the stones to... So if you look at it, right, I'm doing you a favor. I'm making sure you DON'T end up with the stones. I'm also getting you to do my dirty work for me, always a plus.

In the meantime, i had players to bait. Chrissy and Cindy were first up, and each won something. Chrissy got 2 Safety stones, Cindy got 1. Each was suspicious about something in the interview, but neither could pinpoint what. Saturday morning featured Stephen getting his turn. He had no idea he was winning 2 stones. Later rounds saw Colin getting 2 stones, David scoring 3 for a perfect round, and Royann and Andrew getting one Safety Stone each.

Just before Andrew's round, however, the eGame Central September tournament ended and I had discovered 24/7 had won Site of the Month in a wild tournament, beating 7 games directly, and 88 others indirectly. And everyone of course took the time to applaud. But back to the game. Confessionals specifically. I think I need to repeat a sequence of (ahem) questions, and Cindy's responses. I wound up going on a Beavis and Butthead tangent with the Safety Stone usage question...

Q: Stones? Wanna, like, do stuff with 'em?
Cindy (Egypt): I think it's finally time. I would like to use one safety stone this round of play. But only one. I guess I'm just being kind of risky.
Q: Huh huh. Do stuff. Beavis, why don't we get to do stuff?
Cindy: Because all the challenges are for such small amounts of people, and so we can't all play at once. I know that further down the line, all of us will be able to play, but right now it would be kind of nice if we could all play together. Our last big bon voyage challenge, I guess.
Q: I do stuff, Butthead. I score. Heh heh heh.
Cindy: Now that's just downright evil Control. I feel violated. If I hadn't signed my life away, I might get Stillman-esque and sue you. But you're lucky this time Control!
Q: You don't do anything. You've never scored in your life, buttmunch.
Cindy: I haven't scored myself either, except for when I won an innoculation. My moment of glory. I love it so much, and I wish I could have more. Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen.
Q: Fartknocker.
Cindy: Trust me, the culprit is Chrissy. She doesn't like to admit to it, but I know. The rest of us, we can tell.
Q: (tackle, slap) nnnnNGAAHH! (punch, slap, choke)
Cindy: That would be the sounds of Stephen and Colin fighting their big battle together, which they seem to always be fighting. I'm surprised they're both still here. They seem like they would have taken out each other by now.

As for the exile, the phone lines were jammed with people wishing to vote against Steve. I found this out from David, who noted that someone- probably Colin- was up to something. I took one look at the tally and, seeing 2 Colin votes and 19 Steve votes (discounting player's fake votes) was inclined to agree. I posted a message asking the culprit to e-mail me explaining for the sake of these episode reviews. (No reply.)

This was to have a big effect on the exile results. Not only was Steve not originally in last place, he wasn't in the bottom 2. And it was the second Delayed Flight round. (He was 5th out of 7th on my pre-count.) That was a surprise to me, seeing Steve in 5th and Royann in 6th. I was fairly sure Steve would wind up in 6th and in the Delayed Flight with Andrew, but I wasn't sure. So I sat down during a study hall in school and crunched stats. Every which way i looked at it, Royann was behind Steve. Royann underperformed in Paranoia, had picked dog #9 in an 8-dog race in Monte Carlo, did worse than Steve in Oblivious, whereas Steve had failed to show up in Florence (but then again, Royann missed out as well) and had a strategy that was thoroughly confusing David. I had to give the advantage to Steve in the end.
And then all the number-crunching got rendered moot by a phone line siege. Well, THAT study hall was a waste, wasn't it?

Maybe not. Steve was prepared to use all 5 of his Safety Stones in self-defense. And did. But with the votes against Steve at 19, would it be enough? And what of Colin, who was starting to get votes of his own in addition to his 8,500 vote penalty from Vienna? Was Cindy right? Were these two about to slit each other's throats? I had no idea, as I only calculate stones and penalties at the actual exile and not a moment before. My gut was that it was still Royann vs. Andrew, but if either decided to use a Safety Stone, the numbers could get ugly in a 4-way brawl.

...Or 3-way brawl. David donated 5 more Safety Stones to Steve, which Steve promptly used. For those of you not keeping score, that marks 10 stones used for Stephen, and he's moving on safely. So after all this, who was to play the Delayed Flight?

Colin and Andrew, that's who. They were to complete a maze to find their helicopter. Andrew got his map just before I had to log off. Colin requested his map just minutes after I logged off, and had to wait the entire night, during which Andrew completed the map. By the time I made it back to get Colin the map, it was far too late. My brother's phone call to his girlfriend had cost Colin the game.

David (Australia): Colin. You brought this on yourself by your actions since day one of the game. I'm sure you're a fine, upstanding guy outside the game, but in here, you alienated everyone around you. You even had the chance to peek into how the vote was going and didn't bother. That's arrogance, and hubris, and plain stupidity. You could have saved yourself and didn't. Don't like your own medicine? Tough bits. Ask Greyson how it felt going down.

6 contestants, 5 rounds.