Considering that no one countered knuckles on his psych claim, he has to be innocent. So for me it comes down to hezekiah and white lancer, whom at this point I have nothing on. I'll have to read through all of the past days for any clues.

Well, from the last 2 rounds I think I'm fairly sure of vandy's innocence. It's probably between White Lancer and Hez for me. And considering Hez was the last to vote last round (of course this could have also easily been bad timing).

And let me know when you get back with those clues. I'll be back at some point.

It would help if either of the two suspects would give their thoughts!

If not, my gut is that hezekiah is the last of the mafia. Neither of the two have done anything to incriminate themselves, so it's really difficult to say. hezekiah kind of led the charge against Xhin on day 4 but I don't know if he thought everyone would follow his lead there; however if he did he would have a good defense for now. Xhin may have decided to sacrifice himself due to legitimate inactivity, in order to give the mafia a defense for later rounds.

Day 5 hezekiah did not aid much in the investigation. white lancer named myself and FAW as the last of the mafia and switched to FAW after she failed to defend herself. Although that could also be a ploy to secure his defense, allowing him to sway votes today and kill the last of the town tonight. That would guarantee victory, really.

This is what I have for now after reading through the previous days. I would be interested in what others think.

Ya... I think Hez is the way to go based on the last round. Though I hate to single him out for stuff like him being the last to vote off FAW. If it's still up, I'll change my vote.

It would help if either of the two suspects would give their thoughts!

Frankly, I was hoping to hear from hezekiah before saying anything this round. I've felt like he's been playing pretty passively since the Xhin vote so I wanted to feel him out a little bit before he felt like he needed to be defensive. I also wanted to hear from you, of course, since I'm still torn between the two of you as Mafia.

It is true, however, that my main reason for suspecting Vandy was the fact that I thought the Sniper might be inactive. That's obviously not a factor anymore, so I'm having to reevaluate. I had backed off on hezy just because of the Xhin vote and the RockyT vote (it doesn't feel like that vote benefited the Mafia in any way, since Rocky was probably going to be hostkilled anyway), but hezy has definitely done these sorts of things as Mafia in the past so I'm leaning towards him. What worries me about Vandy is that if he's Mafia, he's played a pretty textbook under-the-radar game, but that suspicion is alleviated somewhat since part of that was getting married.

Another factor making me lean towards voting hezy over Vandy is that Vandy was one of the first to suggest voting FAW last round. Again, that's not any more proof that he's innocent than hezy's vote for Xhin is proof that he is, but Vandy's responses to FAW don't really seem like he's putting on a show for our benefit. My reads this game have not been the best so far, so I'm a little hesitant to trust them, but I guess I have to go off something.

I didn't help in yesterday's investigation because Knux and WT had no reason to trust me more (or less) than wl or Vandy. Had Knux asked for my input, I absolutely would've provided it.

To make sure y'all are aware, the only way a mislynch tonight WON'T end the game is if the mafia misses their kill tonight. Yeah...

Anyway, here's my perspective on the two suspects, since apparently Knux is content to trust us Townies:

Vandy was quite inactive a lot towards the start of the game, so there's not as much to go on for him. I am still concerned about what happened the night the mafia only got 1 kill instead of 2...but, his willingness to vote for FAW yesterday does look good; he could just as easily have put his vote on lancer instead, "making" Knux keep his vote there as well. Especially given that FAW was the sniper, it doesn't seem like a very smart mafia play.

Lancer, on the other hand, didn't put up what I saw as a very compelling defense yesterday. Quite possibly by design. I think his goal was to disassociate himself from FAW as much as possible so that after he got lynched Vandy and I would be looking at each other instead of her.

(for the record, last post I saw before making mine was Knux's). I'll now read and respond to lancer's.

Okay, so lancer and I agree about Vandy probably being a Townie. If it turns out he's the mafia, oh well, so it goes.

Seems like I already covered most of what I'd say in response to lancer's posts. I've been playing passively the last couple rounds because there are confirmed innocents (known power roles) whose words can more easily be trusted. Now that we're on the verge of losing, though, I'm obviously going to do my damndest to prevent it.

Alright, I'm feeling better about this vote now. Mostly because of this:

I didn't help in yesterday's investigation because Knux and WT had no reason to trust me more (or less) than wl or Vandy. Had Knux asked for my input, I absolutely would've provided it.

Seems like I already covered most of what I'd say in response to lancer's posts. I've been playing passively the last couple rounds because there are confirmed innocents (known power roles) whose words can more easily be trusted. Now that we're on the verge of losing, though, I'm obviously going to do my damndest to prevent it.

I don't buy these arguments at all. You're not the type to just sit passively by and allow other people to make the decisions in the later rounds, especially when neither White Thunder nor Knuckles had played particularly big roles in the discussion in prior rounds. I also don't buy that you needed someone to ask you for your input in order to give it. That's just not a helpful way to approach the game, and you're one of the last people I would expect to take it.

I haven't played a single round of this game passively. Every round I've been proactive, trying to find strategies to help us to win...and I still think that we would have won this game pretty easily had more of my ideas been enacted. As for my not providing a 'defense'...the only real reason I got an accusation was because I've spoken up a lot. Which, yes, I have (especially in the early rounds, where I was hoping to put a target on my head so the Mafia would kill me instead of potentially hitting a power role). The thing about Mafia is that talking a lot is much more dangerous when you're Mafia, since you run the risk of slipping up and making yourself look suspicious--that's why I always push to go the full time on the round. It's also why the Mafia are usually more under-the-radar--not only is it easier to avoid attention, it's downright stressful playing as Mafia (plus you don't want to help the Town out with strategies too much).

I think that if you were to look back at other games you'd see a pattern of me deferring to known power roles. It's not a new thing for me.

More ideas of yours? Like the roleclaim that kinda had to trickle in because of inactivity? Getting out in front of that isn't too hard with a game as delayed as this one was.

As I recall, you agreed that the roleclaim strategy would have been a much better idea for the town had it been enacted. We certainly wouldn't have had the Psychiatrist accidentally blocked by the Drunk or the Cop almost lynched had people cooperated...and as it turned out, our power roles were active enough, but not willing for whatever reason even though almost all of the important ones were already out. Even the partial roleclaim was helpful--Ghowilo alerted Feral to the fact that he was a Sniper target, which caused him to roleclaim and allowed the Ditto to take the Doctor role. I've also constantly been giving advice to all of our power roles (though I haven't been able to make it super specific, as telling the Doctor to protect one person would negate any chance they had at actually saving someone). So yeah, I have helped the Town this game (probably more than most), and I would have been able to help more had my ideas actually been followed.

I think that if you were to look back at other games you'd see a pattern of me deferring to known power roles. It's not a new thing for me.

And if you look back at other games, you'll notice that I simply don't talk very much in games where I'm Mafia. Feel free to check that--I was Mafia the past three games.

As for you deferring to known power roles...I didn't see anything like that in the past couple of games. The closest thing is in the most recent game, where you were mostly inactive until the last round, and that was because you forgot about the game. Even if you were deferring to power roles in that game, though, it still doesn't make sense to do so here. Thunder, though I actually think he played a good game, wasn't very active in actual discussion, and Knuckles made a few stray comments but hasn't been a driving force either. I can't see you deferring to them without even putting in a real opinion last round, especially not when you were playing aggressively in previous rounds.

Lancer, on the other hand, didn't put up what I saw as a very compelling defense yesterday. Quite possibly by design. I think his goal was to disassociate himself from FAW as much as possible so that after he got lynched Vandy and I would be looking at each other instead of her.

Ya.. this is entirely possible.

Lancer's also making some seemingly fair points though. But my gut also went towards him.

Eh..... It's literally just going back and forth in my head but there's no really enough to pick one over the other right now. Ultimately though I still think I have to stick with you for now. You say that you were just listening to me, And that makes some sense because it's better than listening to someone who's just mafia, but I am pretty much as in the dark as you are assuming that you are a townie. It would seem just a tad foolish to confide in me simply just because I'm a townie. Not saying that makes you more suspicious than lancer, but it is someone questionable coming from someone who seems like a skilled and smart player, almost as if it might be to get me to trust you more, and again I'm not saying it makes you more suspicious.

*but there's not really

*but it is somewhat questionable

I'm so torn because one of you is a liar!

I've read through the past days over ten times now. I can't bring myself to vote for lancer. If you are mafia then bravo because you've hid among us very well.

that was close -_-'

@hezekiah you did a good job covering your tracks. The main reason I had trouble voting for you was that you voted for Xhin on day 4. Ultimately, white lancer had done too many good deeds to be killed.

Whew, I was not expecting to be in that position this game (I was expecting to be in the rather unenviable position of making the decision for the final vote). Cheers, Vandy--your suspicions were spot-on the last couple of days! Knuckles ultimately also made the right call both days, so props to him as well. My reads were generally pretty far off during most of the game, but somehow I ended up never voting for a non-Mafia player, so I guess they came through when it counted?

Thanks again for taking over the game, Flare--it wound up being one of the most fun ones for me in a while! Me not being Mafia for once definitely helped, as did the heightened activity. This game's setup was actually quite interesting, so props to Speed for that as well although it's unfortunate that he almost let the game die.

I'm very interested to see why the Sniper didn't kill anyone a couple of rounds ago. If that was a calculated decision as opposed to inactivity, it at least worked well enough to throw my entire analysis off for a couple of days (though it ultimately didn't keep me from voting correctly).