57.01-Renaissance man

 

We are back for another season of the Smole! On the Smole, 12 contestants take part in missions to fill the pot with points. However, one of the 12 is the Mole, whose job is to sabotage and keep the pot as low as possible while being as undetected as possible. Every other episode, the contestants will have to take a quiz about the Mole and the (s)lowest will be executed. This continues until there are only 3 left.

Season 57 comes with its own twists. This season, contestants who score lower than the average would privately be given 5 more questions to save themselves. The lowest scorer among this group would be executed. The only time this will not apply is when there are fewer than two contestants with a below-average score. In addition, this season reintroduces a final two again.

Without further ado, it's time to meet our new contestants!

First up, we have Aldrin Buzzo, a 37-year-old astronomer.

Secondly, we have Aria Feld, a 30-year-old singer.

The third contestant is Lydia Beckett, a 33-year-old AV director.

The next contestant is Tina Khaled, 25 and unemployed.

Our next contestant is Anthony Hartono, 26 and also unemployed.

The sixth contestant is Ximena Xavier, a 34-year-old diving instructor.

Our other contestant is Theia Omena, 30 and unemployed.

Another contestant is Finn Macroni, a 23-year-old college student.

The next contestant is John Ronson, a 49-year-old journalist.

We also have Anita Salami, a 35-year-old hospital receptionist.

Our second-to-last contestant is Lawrence Lasseter, 28, carpenter.

Last but not least, we have Russell Terrier, 27, athlete.

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This season takes place in the fantastical Dragon Valley, a medieval Celtic world full of elves and dragons...and a Mole trying to blend in. But the Mole's not the only one blending in the first mission.

The contestants will experience the local culture by participating in a Renaissance Faire. There are plenty of activities for them to do to become a true Renaissance man.

3 of them can be archers for the day. They must hit 30 apples in 2 hours to earn 30 points.

2 of them will need to play musical instruments and earn tips. Every 10 Simoleons is worth 1 point, and they can earn up to 20 points.

5 of them will take part in various miscellaneous activities within 2 hours. Each activity completed is worth 6 points.

One of the miscellaneous activities is to complete a firewalk for 3 temperatures: cool, hot, and HOT!!!

Aldrin: "Is it hot?"

John: "It's more manageable than I imagined. It's a cakewalk."

Theia: "Let me try."

John: "Yours is the lowest temperature. Why are you tiptoeing?"

Theia: "If your walk is like cake mine is like glass."

Aldrin: "You did it."

Aldrin: "My turn."

Aldrin: "Wow this is hot."

Aldrin: "Ow ow ow ow ow!"

Aldrin: "How did you guys even handle this?"

Theia: "Your flesh is weak."

Aldrin: "At least that's one down."

The second miscellaneous task is to complete a game of chess. The longer they take, the less time they have for the other activities. They are not allowed to throw the game. Their moves will be analysed by a professional chess player and if it is found that they did not display good sportsmanship they have to restart the game.

Meanwhile, the archers are taking their position. They get a few practice shots first before the score is counted.

Tina: "Those violin lessons when I was a young girl pay off."

Aria: "Hey, don't fight with me for tips!"

 Lydia: "Hmm, this is harder than I thought."

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Lydia: "My strategy was to send the best and worst chess player so that we can end the game instantly. Unfortunately,  Anita is apparently allergic to prolonged sun exposure and she's not the worst player, so the game took a while."

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Anthony: "Ya! This is fun!"

Ximena: "No!"

Ximena: "The swinging blades make it so much more difficult."

Ximena: "This is impossible."

Finn: "You can do it. You just gotta find the rhythm."

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Finn: "I wanted to do archery and I'm so glad I did. Music is for girls and archery is way more fun than whatever the other five of them were doing. Damn, I'm not even sure what they did. I should start paying more attention."

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Tina: "Why is nobody coming up here? Do they know I am even here?"

Anita: "What do you work as?"

Lydia: "I direct porn."

Anita: "Oh."

Another activity the contestants can do is to grill 3 plates of hot dogs which are of at least nice quality to earn 6 points.

Aldrin: "They're really taking a long time."

John: "Let's just do this while waiting for them."

Theia: "You are not grabbing your sausage correctly."

"Lydia, Anita, we have detected some unsportsmanlike behaviour. You are to restart."

Anita: "What? But we didn't cheat."

Lydia: "They won't believe us."

Aria: "Finally I got some tips."

The three archers decide to start their challenge for real. 

Ximena: "Missed."

Finn: "Bullseye! But that's not what I need."

The results are in for the hot dogs: Horrifying, horrifying and normal. They are still short of 3 nice hot dogs.

Theia: "I need to recharge. I will do another activity first."

John: "We still need 3 plates."

Theia: "We don't need 3 cooks to make 3 dishes."

John: "Someone should watch over her. I don't like the idea of anyone running off on their own."

Aldrin: "But we already started our next batch."

4 contestants can also earn 6 points by finishing a game of Gnubb with sportsmanlike behaviour. However, Theia chooses to skip that since there aren't enough players available currently.

She instead goes to smack-a-gnome. If she can earn 5000 points in a round, she earns 6 points.

Finn: "How are you doing guys?"

Ximena: "Better than during practice."

Anthony: "Got another apple!"

Finn: "You're on a roll!"

Tina: "Tips, tips, come to me tips~"

Aldrin: "Dude, yours is smoking."

John: "I've got it under control."

Finn: "Find that rhythm...aim...and fire!"

Theia: "Die you foul dwarves! I'll banish you to the anti-heaven!"

John: "Damn it. These are still only normal."

Aldrin: "Shit. So are mine."

Aldrin: "What do you say we give this up and go Gnubb?"

John: "The girls are still busy. I don't want to interrupt them. We'll give it one more go."

Aldrin: "Alright, one last time then we round everyone up."

Lydia: "We aren't going to be able to finish in time."

Anita: "We have to finish what we started. And I'm not going out of the shade."

Anthony: "I got 14 apples! Celtic culture is amazing!"

Theia: "It does not matter how many times you respawn. You will not defeat me."

Tina: "Why do they keep cooking?"

Ximena: "I got another apple."

Ximena: "We did it."

Finn: "Yeah! Go team!"

Finn: "No way. Aria Feld? You were behind us the whole time?"

Ximena: "How many tips did you get?"

Aria: "Sims here are stingy. I only have 54 Simoleons."

Anthony: "Halo! Do you need help?"

Aldrin: "We do actually. Can you help grill?"

Lydia: "Checkmate. At long last."

Lydia: "Hey! You two! Come join us upstairs for Gnubb!"

John: "Finally a nice plate."

Aldrin: "Mine too. Now it's down to Anthony. Let's go up and play some Gnubb."

John: "It looks like they've got it covered."

Aldrin: "What do we do now? I don't ever want to touch a hot dog again."

John: "We can try and get the visitors to tip our musicians."

Theia: "9000 points. May you never live to see the light of dawn."

Anthony: "Complete! This isn't hard."

"Time is up."

Ximena: "Oh no. We didn't finish."

"4 miscellaneous activities have been completed, 63 Simoleons have been tipped and 30 apples have been pierced. Today's stakes are 60/80 points. But the day's not over yet. The sun is about to set and we've still yet to meet our last two contestants."

The last two contestants and the only two to have horse-riding experience, Lawrence and Russell, will be jousting...sort of. The other contestants have decided how they want to split the 60 points they gained between the two of them.

Finn: "The most straightforward way is for us to divide it between the two of them equally."

Aldrin: "But that would mean we can only earn max 30."

Finn: "Oh. True."

Lydia: "But we don't know them well enough to know who is better."

Tina: "I would go with the athlete. Russell."

Anita: "I agree. We should put more points on him."

Theia: "Why not put everything on him?"

John: "That's too risky. I actually think Lawrence looks more skilled in handling horses."

Aria: "But it's about jousting and I doubt either of them have jousted. I vote for an equal split."

Ximena: "I choose an equal split too. It's too risky."

Anthony: "I think we can take a risk."

John: "We also need to consider if we are going to take up the offer. We can add 20 bonus points to our stakes if we give our predicted winner the exemption."

Lawrence and Russell have each been given a pouch of points. They have to try and be the first to steal the pouch. To do so and reveal the pouch, they first have to joust using their pokey fingers instead of javelins.

Who will win the joust?

And how many points will the winner earn?

"Begin!"

Russell: "Poke."

Russell: "Ha! I got his pouch."

"Russell, you have won the joust. You may now open the pouch you stole. That's how much you add to the pot."

Russell: "40 points and an exemption."

"You may also open the pouch you initially had."

Russell: "40 points. Thanks guys!"

"Contestants, your day earns 40/80 points and an exemption for Russell."

Aldrin: "I told you we shouldn't have split."

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Aldrin: "We were persuaded by John to split equally and give Lawrence the exemption because he was confident he would win the other pouch, which would mean nobody gets the exemption. Now we have the worst possible outcome."

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The contestants start off with only half the pot. Will they be able to fill it subsequently?