[V] The Lydhampstead Mystery - SOLVED

[Azrael001]

I hate all of your stupid faces. Especially bio.

That is all.

[b.i.o]

Especially bio.

<3

[Azrael001]

[Misnomer]

Colonel Azrael cursed his luck. Here was this man, Bio, claiming to be a journalist, accusing him of murder and whipping up the locals against him. Well, he had no intention of giving himself up into the hands of a lynch mob! An athletic man in his youth, the Colonel still possessed a surprising amount of strength in his old age. Pushing aside those seeking to apprehend him, Azrael ran as fast as his old legs could carry him - which was significantly faster than those chasing him. Quickly losing them, he laid low, and, once certain that the coast was clear, slowly made his away across the moors. Before long, he came to his destination - a secluded and seemingly abandoned old shack, hidden from view of the village. Here he would rest, and decide how best to proceed from here.

He opened the shack door, and immediately found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

'Now look... let's not... let's not do anything ha-'

But his pleas were of no use. The gun fired, and the Colonel fell to the ground. The other figure quickly discarded the weapon, and made their way back to the village, hoping nobody had noticed their absense...

Azrael001 is now dead. His role will be revealed in the morning.

Night actions please.

[Misnomer]

Sorry for the delay everyone, I've had trouble getting to a computer today. The next day will start later tonight.

[Misnomer]

'Fire! Fire!'

The cry rang out across the village, rousing all from their sleep. Apparently even in the freezing depths of winter, buildings in the West Country were more the capable of going ablaze. Dashing out into the night, the villagefolk rushed over to the flaming inferno that only a few hours ago had been the tall and proud home of Colonel Azrael. Judging that the building was beyond saving, but that there was little threat to the rest of the village, the villagers decided it was best just to let the fire burn out. That is, at least, until they heard a muffled cry come from inside the flames.

'That's Mr BigCheez!' gasped Mr Lorenz, 'He's trapped inside!'

'Then we've no time to lose!' shouted Mr Enigma, charging into the flames before any of the other villagers could stop him.

The few seconds that followed seemed like an eternity, as the villagers collectively held their breath. Then, struggling under the weight of BigCheez, Enigma re-emerged from the burning house.

'Help me!' he shouted to the others, 'He's been badly hurt!'

Laying him down on the ground, the villagers were horrified by the extent of BigCheez's injuries. Not only was he badly burned all over, but he had a gaping wound in his side - he had clearly been stabbed, and left for dead by his assailant as they set the building alight. There was no way he could recover from anything like this, and judging by the look in his eyes, he knew it to.

'My name... Homerton', he croaked, struggling to pronounce the words, '..tell... wife... love her...'

The inspector closed his eyes, ready at last to be at peace... but he was not done yet. Gathering all his remaining strength, he carried out his last duty, and in harsh whisper reported the results of his final investigation:

'It was Azrael... him and... and Easterbrook's... child...'

The villagers couldn't believe their ears. Surely the agony of his pain had warped the inspector's mind? After all, none of this could have had anything to do with Easterbrook's child... they had been dead for 7 years.

DaBigCheez is dead. He was the Inspector, town.
Azrael001 was the Mastermind behind the murder, scum

5 players remaining, 3 to lynch. Soft deadline set for 6pm BST Thursday 4th August.

[Gopher of Pern]

Well, it was a good catch by bio. I don't suppose we can hope for another one? So now its a guessing game between myself, Lorenz, Weiyaoli and PE. Bio can clear one of us, but will get killed tonight before they can do another investigation.

One thought here: before bio clears one of us, we should put forth our opinions on the other 3. That should give us something to go on, and might catch the scum out.

So, my thoughts on PE:
First, its that they're very lurky, which either indicates boredom, a dislike for their role or 'other'. Now, that role could be scum or vanilla, which the dislike could be for either, and I don't know them well enough to know if they prefer one over the other. PE was the first to suggest follow the cop, which while it didn't work out as planned, did work out for us, so thats a point in their favour. But then their post day2 worries me abit, as they seem to assume that no discussion is needed, even though it would have been incredibly helpful today. That, plus their lurkage, has me suspicious of them.

Weiyaloi:
First, I don't have any opinions before I look through their posts. They have posted, but their content has seemingly not sunk in on me. So now I will look closer. Their first comment is abit strange: they seem to think that the tracker/watcher is useless, when it has almost won us the game. They do not agree with a massclaim strategy, which I tend to agree with. They point out Lorenz's mistake. They don't have any scum tells, and disagrees with lurker lynch. He then apologises for not voting, and they seem to clear Lorenz's vote. Theres not alot here, maybe a little active lurking, as most of their posts have discussed strategy, which scum are wont to do anyway. Not as suspicious as PE, so neutral.

I will post an analysis of Lorenz later, need to go shopping now.

[DaBigCheez]

*sizzles, dies*

[b.i.o]

Targeted weiyaoli, who did nothing last night.

Remaining possibilities are GoP, PE, and Lorenz. As I've already said, I'm inclined to believe Lorenz is town, leaving us with PE and GoP as the possibilities. And I'm getting pings from both of them.

[Lorenz]

I'm not getting much reads on PE or GoP. GoP seems to be more active and their proposal to give opinions before b.i.o posted seems much towny.

b.i.o will be killed tonight, leaving a confirmed weiyaoli. So pretty much, we lynch and then the game is on the hands of weiyaoli. PE seems to post when he is called, so for the sake of discussion and getting this game moving.

Vote: PE

[Lorenz]

Also, there's that flavor or PE walking out with DBC with a knife wound. He probably wanted to look like the hero for saving him from the fire before, but stabbed him to make sure he did die.

[weiyaoli]

GoP still hasn't answered my question from yesterday. Until then, FoS: GoP. Looking forward to that Lorenz analysis too.

Out of Lorenz and PE, my read of PE is nonexistent due to his lurking. I'm hesitant to let the game rest on whether Az was bold enough to attempt to bus a scum buddy D1, but I am willing to trust that for today at least.

I think I would prefer a PE or GoP lynch today, (leaning towards PE at the moment) and then the other tomorrow.

[Gopher of Pern]

You mean this question?

Seems all good. Anyone feel like hammering?

Why have you asked this instead of hammering yourself?

In any case:

Vote: Az

I didn't want to hammer in case someone had an objection to what I was saying. You know, more discussion, what helps us find scum?

I dislike the way bio handled things, I think it would have been more helpful to let us discuss things abit, and then show the hand.

Atm, I am leaning towards PE. I haven't looked in depth into Lorenz too much, but it looks like noone else is willing to vote for them anyway.

[b.i.o]

K, so nothing is happening.

I haven't made up my mind because neither PE nor GoP have actually stated an opinion that could be construed as at all controversial the entire game. Right now I'd like to hear, from both of them, reasons they shouldn't be lynched, because this is honestly getting ridiculous.

[Gopher of Pern]

Nothing controversial? What need has there been for me to say something contraversial? I wasn't here day1, day2 was decided by your actions, and now day 3 I have put forth my opinions, before we knew who you cleared, so people could judge. PE has been lurky all game. You said you have been getting pings from me, but without explaining anything, there is nothing to defend against.

I know I said I would look at Lorenz, but I haven't had the time yet. Hopefully tonight when I get home.

[Lorenz]

Right... PE is out of town. That explains some. (He was supposed to get back yesterday night I think)

[Misnomer]

PhoenixEnigma has been modprodded

[PhoenixEnigma]

Indeed I was out of town, and with much less internet access than coverage maps lead me to expect.

Right now, I'm feeling a little aimless. My gut is leaning towards GoP as well, but I'm having a hard time putting a finger on why, and as he's already mentioned there's not really much to talk about there. Lorenz hasn't really stuck out at all for me during this game, which I tend to read more as vanilla town than scum (although it could just be good scum play, or poor play on my part.) There's also the fact that Az deliberately trying to appear bus a scum buddy to create wine and confusion is something I wouldn't put past Az, but that road leads to WIFOM and I'm happier to trust appearances and not go down that road.

@bio: I would think that, at least, the FTC strategy would be at least "discussable" and possibly "controversial", no?

[b.i.o]

Right, so this is going nowhere.

vote: PE

My choice is between PE and GoP. Right now, I'm choosing PE because of the voting yesterday: PE voted for Az right away, and GoP didn't. While this may be counterintuitive, it actually makes sense for scum to try to get in a vote for someone they know is scum when that person's getting lynched regardless. If GoP were scum, he would have had no motivation to hesitate to hammer, since it was pretty obvious what was happening anyway.

[Misnomer]

Votals:
PhoenixEnigma (2): b.i.o, Lorenz


3 votes to lynch. Soft deadline in just over 21 hours.

[Gopher of Pern]

Thought I'd already voted

Anyway, here it is:

Vote: PhoenixEnigma

Hope this is right, coz otherwise Lorenz is probably scum, but everyone will try to lynch me.

[Misnomer]

That's a majority!


It was over. After days of torment, The villagers of Lydhampstead believed that they had finally got to the bottom of the mystery.

As soon as they had taken stock of the night's events, they collectively reached the same conclusion. The villagers rounded upon the mysterious Mr Enigma, demanding justice. But Mr Enigma wasn't ready to give up his secrets just yet.

'You can accuse me all you want,' he declared to the villagers, 'but the fact is that you have absolutely nothing to tie me to these murders, or to Colonel Azrael. Or for that matter, to Captain Easterbrook.'

'Oh, but that's not true at all,' Mr Bio interjected, 'is it Phoenix?'

'How the devil do you kn-', spluttered Phoenix Enigma, clearly shaken at being addressed by his first name.

'Phoenix!' gasped old Mr Pern, 'Why that... that was the name of Easterbrook's son!'

'You were mistakenly reported as having been killed on the western front, weren't you Phoenix?' continued Bio, his journalistic talents in full flow. 'But instead of correcting the authorities, you assumed a new name and allowed the world to think Phoenix Easterbrook was dead. Now why was that?'

'His debts,' growled Mr Weiyaoli, eyeing Phoenix contemptously, 'Old Captain Easterbrook was always complaining about his son's debts.'

'But of course,' said Bio, 'Your death meant that you would be denied your inheritance, didn't it? And so you, influenced by your father's old enemy, Colonel Azrael, came up with a plan to get what you considered to be rightfully yours. Kill the old man, and then from a safe distance 'reappear' as Phoenix Easterbrook, and claim your fortune.'

'So you did stab the detective last night, when you claimed to be saving him!' gasped Mr Lorenz, 'I knew it!'

'Bah!' snapped Phoenix, clearly rattled, 'If you're so smart, then tell me this! Why did I kill Dr Misnomer? What on earth would I gain from that?'

Mr Bio paused for a moment, his face suddenly drained of confidence.

'Because he was blackmailing you?' he suggested weakly.

'Oh, that's a good one,' sneered Phoenix triumphantly, 'On what possible grounds could Misnomer have been blackmailing me?'

Phoenix allowed himself a smile as Bio looked away, unable to provide a satisfactory answer. But then, Mr Lorenz piped up.

'He was blackmailing you because you had told him to lie to the police and the press.' said Lorenz, wiping the smirk off of Phoenix's face, 'I remember reading the newspaper reports that the Captain had no history of heart trouble... but now I think about it, I clearly remember it being said around the village that he'd suffered several heart attacks in the past...'

'It all makes sense!' cried Mr Pern, 'The captain really was frightened to death after all - and by his own son! You were the white-robed figure from the photograph, weren't you! And then when the stress of "seeing ghosts" finally got to him, you bribed Misnomer to claim he'd been in perfect health all along!'

'You wanted there to be no suspicion whatsoever, didn't you Phoenix?', mocked Bio, his confidence more than restored, 'And that was your undoing - Misnomer proved unreliable didn't he, and so you killed him. And then when the snow blocked your escape, you were forced to kill again. And again. And again.'

'So many people dead', muttered Weiyaoli bitterly, 'and all for money...'

His words hang heavily in the air, and silence fell upon the villagers. Then, quietly at first, Phoenix started laughing. It was a terrible and cruel laugh, and yet all the same it had an air of desparation, all while growing louder louder. Eventually, he spoke again.

'Well gentlemen, that's a very amusing story you told me just now. Of course, it's all nonsense. Long-lost sons? Ghosts? It's ludicrous - and what's more, it'll never stand up in a court of law.'

'You forget though, Mr Easterwood. We're not in a court of law', growled Weiyaoli, 'We're in Dartmoor.'

And with that, the mob descended upon the murderous son without remorse. The lynch mob had finally got a lynch.


Game over, villagers win!

Thanks for playing!

[roband]

Wooooo. Nice work on lynching me guys! haha

Good work though

[Azrael001]

Fraking bio. We'd have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for him.

[PhoenixEnigma]

Curses, foiled again!

Good game, all

[DaBigCheez]

Aha, my investigative skills were...well, actually useless as it turns out, but still! XD

And yah, b.i.o. for MVP imo

[weiyaoli]

And yah, b.i.o. for MVP imo

This.


This was a fun game. Shame the last day ended like that, with PE only popping in briefly at the end and everyone waiting on that.

[Gopher of Pern]

Yay, I hammered the last scum!

I didn't really have much to do, as all the discussion was in day 1. The rest was decided by bio's awesome tracking. Which is why I didn't have the chance to say anything contraversial. I had a brief period at the end of day 1, but I didn't quite have the time to more than a quick go through, so I didn't have any hard opinions. Would have been a more interesting game, imo, if bio had been killed N1 instead of Webby.

Well done bio, and Town.

[b.i.o]

And yah, b.i.o. for MVP imo

I really don't deserve that...I only investigated Az because he's Az and I really wanted him to be scum and I got lucky.

[Azrael001]

Alright, things have gone pretty well so far. In my opinion we cannot allow any chance of the cop getting an investigation off.

I think that I should block him, and we should kill Webby or b.i.o.

I think that you should do the kill so that I've got a better chance of claiming watcher tomorrow. Day three will be the death of me, but by then it should be too late.

Block: DaBigCheez