Seventh Anniversary Mafia

[Zdrmonster]

After a moment of tapping and feeling the warmth of Dave's fur against his skin, Rocky spoke again, sounding more composed.

"Rocky want to remind everyone this is number game. Demon and Minions fear death most. Small numbers compared to good guys. Good guys with information already and no powers should not fear death. Still in game even after they die, no powers to lose. Watt not scared of death. Watt had information. Watt good guy."

Rocky finally peeked towards where Watt had previously sat, before speaking more solemnly.

"Hareta already have information. Hareta claims no power. Yet Hareta scared of death. Why, question?" Two taps.

"Rocky want to hear from Rui after all this, but Dave give Rocky power to vote, so Rocky will vote."

Vote Hareta @Inkedust

Remain calm, Hareta... You just need to-

"Yeah that hunk of rock is right, I think," Drake declared. Yeah, he was smart.

[[Trying to organize thoughts

1. Possibility 1 is that Yellow/Rui is the most galactic brained scum chance play I've ever seen, falsly accusing players randomly with I guess.. fake claim? I think Lyn said those are in the game? But it did get our chef Executed and force a reveal of our Chef, Washerwoman and virgin, assuming Hareta isn't lying.
2. The next is that Rui is our drunk, and this was all one big clusterfrick. Which. lol. But maybe the most likely answer?
3. Or Rui was poisoned which is even more insane??
   But this meanslike. Okay i dont math but thats 2/3 chances for Rui to be town and 1 where she's scum.
4. Hareta is lying and is a spy and picked well for their lie? Rui is telling the truth, which means Hareta is a Scarlet Woman.

I have to admit for a second I was getting Mafia-brained and thinking a Drunk is third party and why i was more ready to vote Rui. I feel like we shouldn't vote...? Or maybe Hareta is a safe vote?

After all, the info has been offered and used. Hareta can still ghost vote. It's not as grievous if we're wrong as mafia and we're losing a power role.

Changing my mind (sorry sorry its end of day and I have to go to bed and I'm sweating).

Sorry ZRD! I think its worth the risk. And you're not out if your dead and you gave up your info. winco

Vote: Hareta
(@Inkedust )

...But I only get one ghost vote! If I use up that ghost vote after dying, then I'm really out of the game! There's nothing mentioning the Scarlet Woman can spy on anyone, so the idea I was spying and the idea that whole blunder was just a gambit is ridiculous! ...I'm still stressing here, if Rui isn't scum then who is?! I'm not thinking straight, I need to sleep...

 

[Dragonfree]

When their fists met, Rocky beamed at Dave as much as a rock with no eyes could beam.

What a funny and easy to please little rock.

"Yes, yes, Rocky ask questions about role. Was told as long as the player Rocky picked in the night cast any vote during the day, Rocky could then vote. Even if vote was later retracted, the first vote by that player allows Rocky to vote that day. Rocky chose Dave. Dave cast a vote. Now Rocky can vote!"

Tilting his whole carapace to the side, Rocky said, "Not sure how power is useful, though. Unless is to punish Rocky for making a bad friend. Make Rocky seem suspicious for not voting, question?" Two taps.

"But Dave is good friend, Dave voted! Dave fisted my bump!" One leg, then another waggled in the air accompanied by squeals similar to the time Rocky gave himself moss-stains that morning.

"Now that Rocky have vote, Rocky need to think." He shuffled away from where Watt lay on the ground next to him, a slight tremor shaking his limbs. In the process, also inadvertently huddling closer to Dave. "A lot happened. Rocky need time to process..."

Dave stroked his chin. "Huh. That sounds like a pretty different dynamic from what's described in the manual for this game, but it'd be consistent with how shit like the Virgin execution thing worked out, like it's a hybrid of this and mafia. Doesn't feel likely Rocky'd go for this claim if it weren't true."

[[Also, Rocky picking Dave is consistent both with Rocky mentioning Dave in particular a couple of times and with Rocky being based on Project Hail Mary where he befriends a scientist. I buy it.]]

"So then, what does this suggest?" he rumbled pensively. "If the Leafeon was truthful, we should suspect the Squirtle in turn, whose own claim has been verified in spectacular fashion. I hardly think it likely that he made a mere lucky guess. Is there some other explanation than that he holds the Big Ears Emera as he claimed? Being unfamiliar with this game, I wish to be certain. Our enemies are given fake claims to make, are they not? Could he be some other role, with accurate knowledge given him to win our trust?"

"I mean, the manual doesn't seem to suggest you'd get accurate info with a fakeclaim. They'd have to be the spy. But then that'd also mean Rui was wrong, because she said specifically that one of the two was the Scarlet Woman."

Dave frowned at the Leafeon. "Well, Watt was innocent, and there's no way Scarlet Woman Hareta could've known about the Virgin, so either that was the world's luckiest fucking guess or your info was bullshit. You could be drunk or poisoned, but personally I'm calling Occam's razor on this one. Picking two good-aligned players and saying one of them's the Poisoner or Scarlet Woman is literally the first suggestion in the manual's playbook for bluffing as the Investigator, and if you get given that as a fake claim, you'd kind of have to claim it immediately to look convincing. I'm not ruling it out just because it's bold play. Meanwhile, Hareta's flailing in a way I can't see from a scum player with knowledge of everyone's roles who thought of doing this claim."

@Inkedust Vote: Rui

 

[Flyg0n]

Drake turned to stare at Dave. "Wait seriously?" How come everybody else knew the rules so well? Not fair.

[[

Picking two good-aligned players and saying one of them's the Poisoner or Scarlet Woman is literally the first suggestion in the manual's playbook for bluffing as the Investigator, and if you get given that as a fake claim, you'd kind of have to claim it immediately to look convincing.

Wait seriously??

Okay maybe my lying theory does hold water? I just read this wow, that lies up suspiciously well and the gambit forced several of our hands townwise.

(can you tell I dont know what im doing lol)]]

 

[Sinderella]

[[Okay, hi. Let's do this.]]

Odette gestured to the squirtle. "Just want to make it clear that I clocked you right off the bat. It was way too convenient that you singled in on me the moment you started speaking, then went straight into asking about the Virgin? Yeah, way too convenient. Even more so now that I know it was between me and..." her face went blank. What's the leafeon's name again? Starts with an R... "Rrr...ui? Yeah, that. It was between Rui and me, and you just happened to land on me? Obviously it's a fifty-fifty choice and it could have just been lucky, but in light of things, it could go either way. And there are only two reasons I could imagine you'd want to goad out the Virgin right out of the gate.

"You're Townie who very innocently figured that a role that could kill Townies should be outed immediately, or you're anti-town who wanted the role outed so your sect knew who to not vote for so they wouldn't immediately be outed by me. Both have you on opposite ends of the spectrum, clearly, and again, was trying to give you the grace to figure yourself out. Here's where my problem comes in."

She sighed and crossed her arms. "When you came forth asking me to reveal myself, you were advised not once, not twice, but three times that outing the Virgin was not the move. Observe..."

It would be a good idea for the good people with hazardous emeras to tell us now, but Targeted Attack isn't necessarily one of those."

"Woah dude. You sure its such a good idea for this, uh, virgin to go and out themself out the gate. If one of us does have the targeted attack emera, it feels like that might be information to hold close to the chest.

"We probably don't want the virgin saying anything yet right? Maybe we can use that later to help eliminate scum."

"...and you still did it. Yeah, yeah, you are your own person. Free will or whatever, but still. You're very new to this game. You'd do very well to at least take the words of the more experienced players into consideration, so the fact that you ignored the warnings and still went for it tells me that you're leaning anti-town, probably a Spy, I'm thinking, and are fumbling all over it [[OOC: I'm really sorry, I know it's a rough position to be in]]. Rui put heat on you, and you needed a reason to fan that heat away, so you ignored warnings and declared the Virgin's existence, probably in a last-ditch attempt to throw everyone off and direct some scrutiny back at Rui. To some success, might I add!

"That said, with Dave's comment, it does feel a little strange that Rui pointed to one particular person who said something even remotely funky. And if it is a common gambit, I could believe she made it..."

Bobbing her head, she shrugged. "I think...I'm gonna Vote Hareta for now (@Inkedust ) and scrutinize Rui more tomorrow. Feels safest to me, especially considering, apparently, being dead isn't an end-all! Wonderful, huh?"

 

[Persephone]

Dave stroked his chin.

You watch the mightyena try to stroke his chin and know for certain that this is a former human.

"Hmm. Well, I didn't know that framing two innocents is a literal textbook start for those of the more murderous persuasion. I suppose my ghost felt it ill-advised to make such a claim with ill intent when it would quickly be disproven and one of the wicked ones cast out in turn. But there aren't an unlimited number of us and if roles never reveal themselves upon 'death,' then such a deception could long go unpunished. I suppose this comes down to whether I believe it likely that the fox is a drunkard or poisoning victim, or that they would willfully deceive us. I still worry about killing too many too quickly, but, scanning the rules once more, I am unsure what information we would glean tonight if we were to hesitate. Certainly none from either of the two whose life we may take...

Whose death may gain us more information, then, from our lovely mortician, assuming they exist? If the turtle is a spy, then their death may not yield correct information either way. Killing the fox would reveal if they were truly malicious or merely drank something ill-advised. If they were aligned against us, it would confirm two more souls to be innocent. If they were not... hmm. Well, I doubt that the turtle is a woman in scarlet. The only explanation for that being the case is that the villains have a spy who was allowed to speak freely at night and this is how they chose to use that information.

I suppose one path does end with a potential dead villain and two more confirmed innocent... provided we believe any undertakers who come forward. If we are wrong, there would be little to be gained from the undertaker to speak up on the matter. Of course, someone more well versed in these games may well correct me.

For now, I suppose,

Vote Rui. @Inkedust

Pixie must be beyond pleased, wherever she is."

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Happy grunting came from Rocky at Dave's musing. "Dave read flashcards, too! Good good good. Everyone should read flashcards."

Suddenly, Rocky stiffened, standing straight up, or as straight as a Boldore could. "Oh. Embarrassing embarrassing. Rocky forget Rui's claim say Scarlet Woman specifically, not just bad guy. ~Oouh~ Rocky make blunder embarrassing, stupid--" Rocky proceeded to repeatedly bonk his head off of the nearest root, only to suddenly stop a moment later.

"Wait. Remind Rocky. Do bad guys have night talk first night? If there is a Spy, fake claims given to bad guys could be spun to be correct. Or half correct. Rocky unsettled that other half of Hareta's claim was Rui. She already make claim which would make Hareta's claim no longer flip of coin. If two bad guys worked together to get town to find and defuse virgin for them... bad bad bad bad bad bad--!"

"--Rui. Rui. I want hear from Rui. Rui's words hurt Watt. Kill Watt. Rocky need to hear from Rui."

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Gotta head to bed shortly but gonna do one final review and decide if I keep my vote on Hareta... now that Free mentions the gambit and I looked that up and... yeah.



So I previously assumed that a lying gambit was too bold but maybe it isn't this is like, the first thing. And her lie led to a cascade of town reveals that actually make things hard in some ways.

Back in like. 10.]]

 

[Flyg0n]

Happy grunting came from Rocky at Dave's musing. "Dave read flashcards, too! Good good good. Everyone should read flashcards."

Suddenly, Rocky stiffened, standing straight up, or as straight as a Boldore could. "Oh. Embarrassing embarrassing. Rocky forget Rui's claim say Scarlet Woman specifically, not just bad guy. ~Oouh~ Rocky make blunder embarrassing, stupid--" Rocky proceeded to repeatedly bonk his head off of the nearest root, only to suddenly stop a moment later.

"Wait. Remind Rocky. Do bad guys have night talk first night? If there is a Spy, fake claims given to bad guys could be spun to be correct. Or half correct. Rocky unsettled that other half of Hareta's claim was Rui. She already make claim which would make Hareta's claim no longer flip of coin. If two bad guys worked together to get town to find and defuse virgin for them... bad bad bad bad bad bad--!"

"--Rui. Rui. I want hear from Rui. Rui's words hurt Watt. Kill Watt. Rocky need to hear from Rui."

[[According to what Lyn said here, I think they do? ]]

[[Inke has answered my question: Evils will have out of play fakeclaims ready tonight, unfort. Should be possible to play around this.]]

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Rocky perked up once more, turning to face Elgyem. "Rocky also remember flashcards say Spy has ability to appear as Good, too..."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

“Yeah, hi. Meet your friendly neighborhood Virgin.”

"Nice to meet you, I'm sure you're not in poor company with this croud."

There's nothing mentioning the Scarlet Woman can spy on anyone

Morgan pulled her lower lip into her mouth as if it was possible to bite it, thinking for a moment.

"This is true. Our turtle pal over there can't be two things at once... Can't be Spy and Scarlet, and the whole poke-poking the Virgin would be a weirdly specific plan to commit to so early as the Spy. Especially for a total greenhorn. I don't see any way you could've come about that information without Autumn over there being wrong anyway, at which point why suspect you?"

Clearly, she needed to scrutinize her assumptions more closely.

"Despite how we might feel, I think we made good progress today. Not quite my desired outcome, but net-positive. I'm less frond of Autumn over there than I was before this. Oddly, I trust the turtle. They've arguably given us more info than anyone else here with little plausible theory as to how they could've manufactured it. I'm not even confident I can rightfully call it a blunder, even if it was reckless. I might even, begrudgingly, have to call him my... augh... strongest townread."

She shot the leafy cat thing a sidelong glance.

"I don't know if I'd rather take you out, or just call it a night here. I think it's the latter, honestly. We made all the progress we're going to. But that's not a choice I seem to have right now, If it's you or the turtle, well, I guess I know where I stand."

[[I do not believe it to be possible for Yellow to have received accurate info based on these developments. No idea where to take that, though.]]

VOTE: RUI / HELLOYELLOW @Inkedust

Wait. Remind Rocky. Do bad guys have night talk first night? If there is a Spy, fake claims given to bad guys could be spun to be correct. Or half correct. Rocky unsettled that other half of Hareta's claim was Rui.

"They have three out of play roles, that's it. My freak communed with the whatever and was told the Awakened [Imp/Demon] player erroneously got their three out-of-play emeras before the first night, but everything else went as intended, which means the All-Knowing [Spy] player would only get their info as a result at the end of the night like any info power, which'd be after it was too late for them to tell the others. Knowing that Big Ears isn't in play isn't enough to fake an accurate Virgin call zero point zero five seconds into the day. No, only the All-Knowing player themself could do that right now, and even then it'd be pretty unhinged. We got more or less perfect value out of the free kill, it certainly didn't 'trick us into wasting' that power. If you were All-Knowing you'd let 'em coast and quietly tell your boss to kill 'em the second Night 1 fell. You'd never want to let them confirm themself and an ally."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

[[clearly i have a secret role where the fucking sun explodes if i ever refer to anything using consistent language and have been playing around this all day]]

 

[Flyg0n]

"Alright alright geeze! Get off my ass for a sec okay? Angel above." He raised his paw up as if to run it through his hair, remembered he didn't have hair anymore — just short fur — and let it drop.

"Look, I'm the chef, alright? [...]

[...]
By the way, I don't know why I'm considered the Washerwoman. To prove my innocence further, I guess I should directly quote the information I got... "One of Odette (Sinderella) and Rui (HelloYellow17) holds the Targeted Attack Emera (Virgin)."

Vote: Watt @Inkedust

“I learned that either Hareta or Watt has it.”

She sat back. “That’s all my role does, I think. I won’t learn anything else for the rest of the…of this.” Felt weird calling it a game when Zevya had been hurt. Then she gave a small start. “Oh! But, um, there’s always the possibility I could be Drunk or Poisoned, right? I think I heard something about that. So…there’s always the possibility chance my information isn’t accurate. But it was too important to keep to myself.”

[[Role claiming Investigator. I was told either @windskull or @Zdrmonster is the Scarlet Woman, who is a Demon. But Drunk/Poisoned is in play so my info might not be accurate.]]

Drake folded his little rat arms. "I say the Leafeon has to go. She started all this and now that chef is dead and that virgin rabbit killed him. Accidentally, I guess." Her voice sounded vaguely familiar.

[[So originally I was thinking Yellow was a TP and could be doing this as a drunk bc mafia brained, but entertaining the idea of a gambit seemed ridiculous. But Lyn pointed out that scum has fakeclaims on N0 and also Free pointed out that this is apparently the most textbook way to fakeclaim? it'd make sense to do it early then see what happens.

I looked it up and it is so textbook and it all started because of that. And then scum would know we don't have an investigator if its in their fakeclaim, right? So it would be a bold but safe pick.

Hilarious spin if Hareta is telling the truth and our virgin is off the table and our chef is dead, but at least it was an early role, maybe our investigator lives. Sorry for the waffling ZRD, your play seems sincere after reviewing the sequence.

Anyways. ugh Im sweating so much cause I wont be awake at EOD, thats about 3am/4am my time.

Vote: Rui
@Inkedust final answer

 

[Shiny Phantump]

So originally I was thinking Yellow was a TP

[[Reminder to everyone that Third Parties do not exist here. There are none. Outsiders are just Town with shitty roles. (Also anything that specifies "townfolk" and not "good" won't count them, e.x. Virgin wouldn't kill one.) They still share our wincon. Everyone has the good wincon or the evil wincon and knows which one it is. Even if they're our drunk they'll have the good wincon but think they're a townfolk, who also have the good wincon.]]

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

After scratching a series of symbols and lines in the dirt, Rocky grunts to himself and announces to the group, "Rui information wrong. She either evil or Drunk. Cannot be who she say she is." Several stomps on the ground emphasize the word 'cannot'.

"Is possible if Rui Drunk-- not evil-- that Hareta is evil, but not evil like Rui said. Hareta would have to be Spy to make super accurate fake claim information, not Scarlet Woman."

More stomps on the ground. "Watt Good. Odette Good. Rocky Good."

"Watt info good unless Spy is in game." A sour sounding grunt. "Spy has ability to appear Good to information roles."

"That is all Rocky know to be true, and even then Rocky sometimes make mistakes."

"Apology to Rui, but Rocky wants to change vote."

Vote Rui @Inkedust

[[I will not be around for EoD as it happens very early in the morning for me, before I wake up.]]

 

[windskull]

Name	Read	Thoughts
Dave	Soft Town	But only like the softest of town. I really am not good at reading Free lmao. Was the first person to bring up the fakeclaim information. I think it's unlikely that Dave is scum if Rui is, given that he brought up the textbook fakeclaim information. He was also only the second person to vote for Rui
Drake	Neutral	Leaning sus. Is hesitant for people to start roleclaiming, but also not super familiar with BotC. Wishywashy about whether virgin should claim. Waffled on voting Hareta or Rui once Watt was eliminated, but was the first person to vote Rui if I didn't miss anything.
Odette	Confirmed Town (Virgin)	Hi fellow townie :)
Malachai	Neutral	No strong read yet. Gameplay feels in line with previous uA play.
Spectrier	Neutral	No strong read yet. Mostly setup and logic discussion at this point, unless I missed something. Second-to-last person on the Watt train prior to Watts elimination. Cannot be scum if Hareta is scum.
Hareta	Neutral (washerwoman claim)	Leaning slightly towards town as, based on my understanding of the rules, even if given the washwoman fake claim, I don't think he'd be given the information that goes along with it. It feels unlikely to me that both Hareta and Rui are scum given that the information contradicts.
Elgyem	Neutral	Claims to have information that corroberates Rui's claim and that made them lean towards Hareta being the innocent between the two of us, but has not elaborated. Cannot be scum if Hareta or Rui is scum
Rui	Moderately sus (investigator claim)	Feels like either scum or drunk. If i understand the investigator role correctly (read: if it worked the way mine did, where I got my information immediately upon receiving the role, then I don't think poison is an issue, which leaves it as a 50/50 scum/drunk if Hareta is town)
Madeline	Neutral	No strong read yet. Getting tired. Third person to vote for Watt, expressed concern that Watt was a more experienced/competent player if scum. Second person to vote Rui. Cannot be scum if Rui is scum.
Morgan	Soft town	Similar to Rocky, has put a lot of logical/helpful information out. Brought up the idea of having me vote for Odette, which seems to me like a bad play if she was scum. And though I'm a bit rusty, it doesn't feel like scum Phant play to me.
Watt	Confirmed Town (chef) (eliminated)	Dat Me :) Info: there are no evil characters sitting next to each other.
Rocky	Soft town	Claiming, Butler, a town-aligned outsider role. Reads have generally been logical and helpful

[[Note, I wrote all this up before thinking about the possibility of a spy throwing off my read. I am too tired to redo it all so please take all "cannot be scum if neighboring player is scum with a grain of salt. That said, even if we have a spy, the total number of scum sitting next to each other could only be 1]]

Watt stared down at his own corpse. He blinked once. Twice. A third time. Then he threw his paws up in the air. "Vindicatioooooooon!

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[Ok wow so I was not expecting that…

Y’all, I proposed right out the gate that I could be drunk or poisoned here. I’m also barely familiar with the roles in this game, let alone the meta for how to bluff. I guess I’m flattered that y’all think I would go for such a galaxy-brained, bold play especially in a new format like this, but I am NOT that bold. 😂 Never have been.

I came forward with this info because, as Town, there’s no reason for me to hide it. And it would be actively detrimental to Town if I did hide it. Like Pano said, this is a numbers game where Mafia are in the minority—why would I come right out the gate with such an insanely risky play? I would have to assume nobody else is Investigator to counter claim me, and I immediately open myself up for suspicion the second either of my accusations flips town, like what’s happening now.

I don’t really know what else I can say at this point to convince people otherwise, because I’m just as baffled as everyone else. As far-fetched as it sounds, this tells me I’m either the Drunk or I’ve been Poisoned—both of which are much higher odds than me aiming for a galaxy-brained play. (Not to get too meta gamey here, but every single time someone tries to accuse me of Galaxy-braining, they’ve been wrong…because that has never been my playstyle. 😂

That said, that info was the entire extent of my role, so I don’t have much more use there. By that logic, I’m a safer townie to kill. But I will also be the second Townie killed on day 1. I’ll leave it up to you what y’all want to do with that. I refuse to get bent out of shape over this one, I don’t think I’m going to be changing anybody’s mind at this point.

I don’t even have any other solid guesses for who could be scum among us, so I’m just gonna toss out a random vote.

VOTE: DAVE @Inkedust ]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[Though actually I’m curious—I did ask this question earlier but didn’t ping Inke.

@Inkedust there seems to be some differentiation between information given to a player right at the start vs their active ability. Can Poisoning affect the info one receives automatically from their role, or does that only apply to active abilities?]]

 

[Inkedust]

[[As mentioned, Poisoner goes at the very beginning of the night, before all info roles.]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[As mentioned, Poisoner goes at the very beginning of the night, before all info roles.]]

[[Ok thank you! So yes, Drunk and Poisoning are on the table here.]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[Sorry—one last thing! A classic red flag in mafia is when a vote train starts and nobody pushes back against it. If the vote train were on scum, generally their scum mates would at least try to defend them or deflect the train to somebody else.

Just gonna point out that absolutely nobody has done that here. Ergo, scum are very content to sit back and let me die. Just some food for thought.

Anyway I might roll out an RP reply just for fun before EoD. RIP Rui, the one time you weren’t scum and nobody believed you, alas. 😔]]