Mafia: The Last Resort [EPILOGUE: THE END]

And fogel, scum are more likely to go after cult the more cultists there are.

And I think you're scum. So we both think the other is antitown. wheeee.

Yes you don't want to outright give into the cult.

You'd much rather outright give into the mafia.

Because you are mafia.

Whatever. Right now this game is annoying me, which it really shouldn't and I realize this and I'll get over it.

I'll stick around for the fireworks now that the candles are lit, (hey whoosh Sanzh lit the last candle) and then let the chips fall where they may.

Congratulations to whoever pulls a win out of this mess.

To clarify: earlier today I found myself feeling really stressed and nervous for no real reason, and this game isn't helping that at the moment so I'm going to try to mostly ignore it because I feel "bad mood" isn't a good reason to replace out at this late hour, especially when there's a strong bandwagon on me.

Basically I'm going into passivity for the rest of the day, even if it means I'm lynched, to try to calm myself down. But I want to see what happens now that the candles are lit.

The final candle is lit. As soon as Sanzh steps back from the engraved triangle a faint noise is heard, and all sound drops away as those present strain to hear it. It resembles something like the wind, only muffled and far away.

It is only as the sound increases that the guests realise they are screams: the wails of the tortured, the dying and those in unending pain. The noise quickly rises, soon becoming unbearable. People clutch at their ears and fall to their knees, but this is a noise that sings through their very bones and blood.

For those who were still paying attention, a maroon fog was gathering over the candles. Hands, feet, faces and eyes formed in the fog at its edges only to disperse again. Those who were lucky enough to have a mouth (for however brief an amount of time) would use it to add to the screams.

Suddenly, the screams began to quieten. In the same instant the fog slipped forward and slid to the floor by the candles, where it began to take on a definite shape. The legs formed first, kneeling in the floor, followed by the upper parts of the body in turn. The face was last, but the head hung towards the ground and their identity remained a mystery for now.

And then, as abruptly as it had begun, the screams ended with a single gust of wind blowing through the hall. The red fog was stripped away, revealing one scarred and trembling man in the tatters of a suit. The candles blew out.

A few tendrils of red fog snaked off into some dark corner, but for all intents and purposes it was gone. There was no sign that anything had happened other than the stranger on the floor.

A few step closer to view him better, but they halt as he rises into a sitting position. His trembling hands run over his face, his arms, even resting on his chest to feel his heartbeat, before he raises his piercing gaze to the others in the room.

Everyone recoils.

It's Pinary, it seems, but not as they remember him. His eyes are sunken, his skin gaunt. Brands and scars litter his skin like graffiti but worse than that, worse than his emaciated limbs or his still bleeding wounds, is the look of absolute terror and hopelessness on his face. The change from the quiet but pleasant man of a day or two ago is utterly unnerving.

“Is this real?”

No one is brave or clear-headed enough to respond for a few seconds. His voice is broken and rasping, and it's almost as shocking to hear as is to look at him.

“Yes,” someone says. “You're back.”


Pinary has returned from the realm of the dead.

Called it.

So I doubt this is going to affect anything at this point given the state of things, but suddenly I want, in-game, Sanzh and Paranoia to die before I do.

Call this a hunch, but did you guys get a similar message?

TimeothyHour - (3) - Sanzh, ProfessorLizzard, Woffles
Dragon Fogel - (3) - Mirdini, soundlyParanoid, Drakenforge
Sanzh - (1) - TimeothyHour
Mirdini - (1) - Dragon Fogel

(Abstaining - (2) - SleepingOrange, Pinary)

With 10 alive it takes 6 to lynch and 4 to soft lynch. Deadline is 18 November 7PM GMT.

Thanks, whoever got my cards last night and drew one of the two cards capable of resurrecting me! You've made me a very happy third-party survivor.

Town: Sorry I left that bit out yesterday, but it seems a tad unlikely you'd've been so cooperative with my prophecy. Things aren't looking so great for you right now, are they? Ten people alive, at least half probably either cult or mafia, and one more suddenly coming out as non-town as well. I hate to give up on giving you guys a shot, and I'm open to any gambits you might have in your rapidly-thinning playbook, but I'm not exactly holding my breath.

Mafia: How's it going? I don't know how many of you there are, but I'm willing to help you guys just kill someone with pure force of vote if it means getting closer to a win. Don't have the numbers for that? Well, you can at least take comfort in knowing there's one fewer townies to deal with, eh?

Cult: Nice work staying concealed up 'til now! I'd avoid converting me tonight, since I can win alongside you guys. Same offer as I gave the mafia- you guys want me to vote a certain way, I'm open to convincation. (Of course, you guys have the added benefit of a publicly-admitted mouthpiece, so he doesn't have to worry about outing himself just to tell me which way you'd like me to go.)

For the moment, I'm going to drop my vote alongside the cult's self-proclaimed PR guy, Mirdini, and Vote: Dragon Fogel. Mir's logic leading to him being scum roleblocker makes sense, and a cult win is as just as tasty to me as anything.

Well, Pines, I have a bit of an offer for you.

Unvote, Vote: soundlyParanoid

All I can say for now is that if you follow me onto this vote, things will get interesting. You've got a variety of paths to victory, so why not go for the interesting one?

If you have questions, ask them. I can't guarantee an answer, but there's no harm in it, is there?

Hm so I got the same message as Fogel, though with Fogel and Paranoia being the targets, obviously. I'm going to assume this overrules my normal win condition (and at this point, I'm kind of doubting that I can win based on that). This also probably means that I'm going to be tomorrow's lynch target given how popular the SK theory is, unless the cult hammers someone who's an actual threat.

I doubt I can eke out a third-party win so I guess I'll just settle for living as long as I can.

Unvote, Vote: DragonFogel

Well earlier I had a big post written up about cult versus mafia and the town's chances and who I thought was bluffing about their certain victory.

Then I realized that I'd missed an entire page of discussion because I was asleep when all the conversation happened :I

A lot of it isn't totally relevant anymore, but the salient point was that the cult gains an advantage of two every night (the town loses a player to them AND they gain a player) while the mafia only gets an advantage of one since they don't convert. The cult is the most pressing threat right now, especially if it's as big as it claims to be.

Then Pines came back and offered to side with anyone who'd offer. I thought the town had a chance up to then, but one swingvote is probably enough to win the game for whoever he sides with.

And since I am 70% sure paranoid is the cult leader, and I have no intention of being bullied into a loss by the cult...

vote: soundlyparanoid

You'd better have a pretty sweet trick up your sleeve Fogel.

And I'm lynching the fuck out of Times tomorrow if paranoid drops leader.

Sanzh, I'd like to ask that you go for Para instead. From your point of view, that's no different from going for me.

And I think that my way will be more interesting to watch.

Sure, but forgive me if I question your ability to move enough votes to lynch him.
Unvote, Vote: soundlyParanoid

IUnvote, vote: Soundlyparanoid

Seems like an interesting route, and I want to see what fogel has up his sleeve. Right now, I'd much rather have anything besides cult win.

Something's happened, everyone please wait for whoosh to get back before posting.

Oh hey fogel's a lyncher for me now.

No really - I bet both he, n' sanzh have the same shit going for them. Also you guys are still listening to him even though he's basically trying to bullshit his way into a mafia win.

DISMISSIVE SIGH

Final Votals

TimeothyHour - (2) - ProfessorLizzard, Woffles
Dragon Fogel - (4) - Mirdini, soundlyParanoid, Drakenforge, Pinary,
Sanzh - (1) - TimeothyHour
soundlyParanoid - (4) - Dragon Fogel, SleepingOrange, Sanzh, TimeothyHour

_ _ _

Following Pinary's arrival, the polite discussion rapidly decays into finger pointing, wild accusations and very loud speaking in an attempt to drown everyone else out. In the ensuing chaos a morbid determination grips the crowd, and the lunge upon the same person.

They stutter a defence, but nothing will change the mind of the mob. Screaming and kicking the victim they roll out onto the balcony.

A noose is tied, slipped around the neck of the chosen, and then they stand the person upon the balcony.

With a thunderous, jubilant roar the victim is kicked off the edge.

soundlyParanoid was Eveline Faraday. Not that you would have noticed her. No one ever did. Once upon a time she'd been the life and soul of the party, but little by little her enamouring presence had faded to nothing. These days she could just about manage to draw your attention by shouting in your ear, and so she had arrived at the Last Resort. When the killings began, she found great use in what she had previously perceived as a curse. Every night she would stand outside of the room of a guest, and if they went anywhere then she would follow them. As such, soundlyParanoid was a Tracker and Town aligned.

Night has approached unnervingly fast. Everyone slips back to their rooms, the innocent filled with shame at the mindlessness of the mob and the guilty with something to smile about.

Night will end 16 November 7PM GMT.

Today the hotel is woken not by the gentle caress of the morning sun, but the sound of a rather large and messy explosion.

The explosion grabbed people's attention, as such volatile happenings are wont to do, and soon everyone was gathered at the scene of a guest room. The door had been blown off cleanly by the force of the explosion, offering an unfortunately good view of the room's insides. And the insides of Woffles too, apparently.

Woffles was Eliza Veronesi. Once she was driven by fear: the fear of her duellist counterpart. It was a fear she overcame in the way all fears should be overcome: by facing it. In a brief and messy duel she succeeded in stabbing her hunter through the heart, and she lived happily ever after.

That's how it should have worked, anyway. Unfortunately, it seems someone or something slipped her the idea of taking over the hotel for her own entrepreneurial needs. With bloodshed, if necessary, and her previously unseen skill as an orator...

She was the Cult Leader. Every night she could add another member to the cult, but if she attempted to cult scum it would fail and she would be killed. Without their leader, you can only imagine what the remaining cult members will do.

Gory and brutal as the scene is, someone gathers up the good sense to do a headcount. Upon feverish recounting and a short investigation, it seems another has met their end. Dragon Fogel is found in his bed, dead and lying as peacefully as if he was sleeping.

Dragon Fogel was James Ericson. He found himself in the Last Resort due to what he perceived to be a most fortuitous blessing: the enlightenment and endarkenment of the mind. He was deeply unhappy with his apparent incarceration within the hotel, and wished to be able to leave in peace. He intended to secure this goal by working with the very same people who wished to remain in the hotel so badly: the murderers that everyone else feared. Through enlightenment he would allow them to converse even when not near each other in the day, and to retain the balance at night another's mind would be crippled. This endarkened person would be unable to move, and would struggle to even think. As such, Dragon Fogel was the Encryptor Roleblocker, and was part of the Mafia.

There was a great deal to celebrate, however gory the proceedings that brought it about, but this is not over yet. The discussion begins anew.

The day will end 21 November, 7PM GMT. With seven alive, it takes four to lynch and three to soft lynch.

Interesting fact: Last night, the cult decided to bring me into the fold.

Another interesting fact: As an already-third-party person, if the rest of the cult dies, I go back to my original win condition, allowing me to win with anyone.

A third interesting fact: The cult currently consists of just me and Mirdini.

These facts combined: If Mirdini bites it, I'm back to third party and we're rid of this cult business.

Ergo, I Vote: Mirdini and encourage others to do the same.

Well, if it means being rid of the cult, I'll go for it.

Vote: Mirdini

Okay so I think (and this is probably been said before but whatever, I'll reiterate) Times and probably Slorange (just from process of elimination, not really sure about this) are scum, Mirdini's cult (he admitted as much), Pinary said he's cult but he's willing to cut a deal I suppose, PL and Drakenforge are town, and I'm me-- not going to bother with the roleclaim business, say what you want. Drakenforge is paired with Times for performing vig-kills. Assuming Mirdini's lynched today, scum gets another night-kill, presumably going for Forge, given that at this point scum are more or less readily apparent so lynching PL wouldn't be helpful. Forge gets a vig-kill in but dies, leaving one last scum who gets lynched. At least that's how I'd assume it'd happen, maybe I'm completely wrong.

I'm a really shitty gambler so not gonna bother with trying to get people to support my lynch prediction, hell lynching Times'd be counter-productive right now. So I'm voting for Mirdini.

Also I think lynching Paranoia was a mistake on my part but sort of necessary for me? PL should at least cop me if he hasn't already somehow and if I come up guilty and Forge can still vig-kill after tonight then he should do that, I guess.

Um guys.

Guys.

There are still three other mafia members left.

Why are you killing the dead cult.

Lynch: TimeothyHour who reeks of scumness and quickhammer. Also Slorange and Sanzh who were also trying to kill Para very quickly, in hopes he is a cult leader and they can overrun us, poor town.

Also I got guilty on Fogel, herp :V

EBWOP:
Also actually Sanzh is pretty NonScum Third Party, since fogel wanted to use him as a scapegoat