Rubicon [Concluded]

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

We dont know, that's the problem. It could be the mafia trying to mess with us, or they may be trying to save Pevergreen. or maybe its a townie..... all we know is that Pevergreens alive because two votes got switched between him and navarro.

[Caius]

Whats all this about vote shifting?

Looks like that some people have the ability to shift votes to change the result of the votation at the end. We must be careful with votations. We do not know if one side or the other have two "shiftvoters" (to give 'em a name), or one have one and the other side has the other. Just we need more time to figure it out, but one thing is clear as water: we must get the mafia in time. Its a must.

[LittleGrizzly]

Thinking on it if the 'vote shifters' are 2 seperate people then they would be on seperate mafia teams (if they were mafia) so they could just be going for confusion effect... or they could be using thier weapon already so it isn't suspcious when it is all of a sudden used...

[TinCow]

Night III is over. Write-up commencing.

[TinCow]

“Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.”
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus

After the Senate adjourned, more news came down from the north. Shortly after his retreat from Iguvium, Quintus Minucius Thermus began experiencing difficulties with his cohorts. Many of the men had served with Caesar in Gaul, and the closer their favored commander’s armies came, the more their loyalties wavered. Thermus had gone no more than a few miles when the first men started breaking away from the column. The small mutiny quickly spread to the entire force, and soon all but Thermus and his officers were turning back towards Iguvium to enlist in Caesar’s service. Thermus and his loyal staff fled south in panic with only a handful of men. Instead of being blocked at Iguvium, Caesar has only been made stronger.

pevergreen was unsure of what to make of the latest developments. The return of the proscriptions alone were enough to make any man uneasy, and pevergreen was concerned that his name would be the next on the list. Still, he did his best to keep his spirits up and continued to receive callers at his villa. Shortly before midnight, there was an urgent rap on his door. Some of pevergreen’s servants answered and found a few plainly dressed men asking to see the master of the house. The men were shown in, and pevergreen came out to greet them.

At the sight of him, the men threw back their night cloaks to reveal drawn pugios in their hands. A female slave screamed, startling the killers, and giving pevergreen just enough time to turn on his heels and run. He bolted for the rear exit through the culina, but when he reached that door he found a second group of men battering it down. In panic, pevergreen bolted towards his bedroom, but the sound of his sandals slapping on the marble drew the attention of yet another group of men who were roaming the halls with knives, their method of entry unknown. In a T shaped intersection, pevergreen found himself surrounded by armed men closing in from all sides. As if the matter were not hopeless enough, a fourth group turned the corner, adding to what was already hopeless odds.

pevergreen tried to reason with the men, but they were not there to negotiate. He shielded himself with his toga, but the thin cloth was of no protection against the sharp daggers. The stabs came slowly and clumsily, and pevergreen was cut a great many times before one finally struck home into his heart. The large group of men departed, leaving the butchered corpse lying sprawled on the floor.

…

Glenn was at home, amusing himself with a beautiful slave girl. Both he and the girl were heavily intoxicated, and several other semi-nude slaves were well on their way to stupefying inebriation. Glenn’s freedman advisor had scolded him numerous times over the previous few days for failing to even attend the Senate session. Senate?! Why would anyone go to the damnable Senate when there were beautiful, drunken, naked girls at home whom he could do with what he pleased?! The temerity of that man was unbelievable… he would have to be replaced. What kind of age was it when a Roman could not enjoy the pleasures of a slave or seven in the privacy of his own villa without being scolded?

Unfortunately for Glenn, drunken, naked slave girls are as ineffective as bodyguards as they are effective at… other things. It was not difficult for the gladii-armed attackers to burst into his villa and slaughter him. After the act was done, one of them looked at his sprawled body and expressed amazement that a man could ever look so happy in death.

…

Ichigo was strolling through the halls of his villa, enjoying the fine artwork with which he had so carefully decorated the dwelling. With the recent murders, Rome was in a low simmering panic, and the streets were not safe for pleasure walks. His servants bowed and groveled as Ichigo walked by; actions that he enjoyed. It was indeed a good decision to invest in these decorations to provide domestic amusements on nights like these.

As he rounded a corner into a side courtyard, he saw several men blocking his path. He scowled at them, daring as they did to look at him so disrespectfully. Servants should know their place, and these men clearly did not. He was about to scold them and order them to be whipped when as one they pulled gladii from behind their plain clothes. So, assassins it was then? How rude.

Ichigo cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at them, daring them to get on with whatever vile business they were about. The men needed no invitation, and they charged, blades raised. As if from nowhere, several men appeared near Ichigo from side galleries. They raised weapons and countercharged the onrushing men. Clearly outnumbered and in danger of being surrounded in the tight streets, the attackers turned on their heels and fled deeper into the villa. Ichigo’s protectors attempted to follow them, but the villa was so vast that they were able to disperse and escape with ease. Ichigo finished his walk, wondering whether he should invest in more locks.

…

Andres was deep in thought about the events that had transpired in the Senate. It was not so much the proscription itself that troubled him so much as the method with which the final decision had been made. What was the point of voting if the results were subject to the whims of a few men? The Republic had indeed fallen far. There would certainly be much to discuss in the morning. Without anything further to be done that day, Andres crawled into bed and closed his eyes.

Just as sleep was about to overtake him, Andres heard a cry of alarm from the front of the house. It was one of his servants, and it was a pre-arranged signal for intruders. Andres quickly slipped on his sandals, grabbed the blade he always kept near his bed, and crept close to the door, careful not to expose himself to anyone looking through from the hallway.

As the sounds of battle continued, he advanced in this manner from room to room and hallway to hallway. The screams of fear, pain, and bloodlust led him towards the main courtyard of the villa. Poking his head around a carved column, he saw a grisly scene: several men were lying prone with spreading pools of blood coming from their wounds. They were not Andres’ servants, but they appeared to be defending the villa nonetheless. The one surviving defender was fighting for his life against several other men wielding gladii.

Andres breathed deeply; none of his servants were nearby to aid him. It occurred to him, however, that he was the only one who knew that. Andres cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled as loud as he could, “Abito, Helvius, Proceus, follow me!” He rushed out into the room, brandishing his blade, and screaming as fierce a warcry as he could summon. The attackers, already startled by the prospect of reinforcements, turned and fled at the sight of him. The lone surviving defender, exhausted with exertion, nodded at Andres and disappeared into the night. Andres got little sleep that night.

…

As dawn broke, the Senators filed into the forum for another discussion on what to do about the looming crisis. The Curia was growing noticibly less populated, and there was some whispered discussion about the newly empty seats, one on the Optimates side and one on the Populares side. Even so, attention was again drawn to the doors of the building. This time, two notices had been nailed to it. They read:

Hellos angels, I mean senators. now as I was saying, its good to see that you are all finally lynching, you may all be wondering why we switched the votes off of pevergreen. well keep wondering, that was not me or my men. so please feel free to string him up, he is obviously working for Caesar. speaking of Caesar is he crazy or what, I mean his messages are madness! NO, HIS MESSAGES ARE SPARTAN! (naahhh just kidding). but really I havent got a clue about who the heck he keeps babbling on about, I ask all populares to look at their obviously senile master, he is the future you want? really?

but that's not important, whats important is that you are all idiots! You all whine of how faction are not important, how you can "save the republic" well look at yourselves!!! both I and Caeser have a Freudian Excuse, you have breed us, and now we want our rightful place as heir! there is no going back, the shaft of justice is gone, (wink, wink, nudge nudge, say no more!) so I say to all of you tear down this false facade you have of the past. its the circle of life my friends, you cant stop us. so all of you trying to spread tales of "joy" and peace, just stop. or I promise you will die in seven days (or rather one night). gather together, I ask that all optimates strike their colors, and if you do perhaps I shall even grace you with my presence. if you are found lying about it, well then bye bye. but really, several populare are dead, if you strike your colors you could rule the senate. I am serious! I know this because we have had a hand in killing them. let me just leave it like this, lets play a game, everyone will strike their colors, tomorrow, and join their perspective sides, the sides will break down and investigate each other to make sure we have it all nice a proper, and then they shall lynch each other till no ones left. (did I mention anyone who doesn't reveal will be killed? yeah I should have. I have 5 kills every night, so it would probably be best to go with the flow on this.) yeah I play hard ball, the revolution will not be civilized and all that. but come now, optimates have nothing to fear! we can do this nice and happy like, and many of you will live to suck all the good out of the new regime!

General handkerchief
Ichigo
Sasaki
Andres
Tiberius of the drake
Woad and fangs

Have fun. cheers.



ohh and for those who will argue against me, SCREW THE RULES! I HAVE MONEY!!!!!

It is rumoured that Pompey the Great will divorce his wife, Cornelia Metella.

A gorgeous 18-year-old girl is involved with breaking up Pompey's marriage. A well informed source told us that this unknown girl calls Pompey the Great "daddy", because he really is her father, according to a rumor circulating widely in the province of Latium.

Her mother used to "work" for a man known in certain circles as "AggonyDuck"; already named in a recent betting scandal.

We, however, have discovered that "AggonyDuck" is in fact Senator Caecillius Metellus Scipio, Pompey's right hand and also his father in law!

Pompey, who went to the girl's birthday party and gave her a gold and diamond necklace, said, "I am a friend of this girl and nothing more."

Senator Caecillius Metellus Scipio denies everything.

Maybe the transaction of no less than 1.000.000 denarii has something to do with his sudden amnesia.

Alive (30):
Beefy187
GeneralHankerchief
Andres
Greyblades
LittleGrizzly
Sasaki Kojiro
everyone
johnhughthom
AggonyDuck
'khaan
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
Chaotix
Khazaar
Ichigo
Jolt
Tiberius of the Drake
Cultured Drizzt fan
Don Corleone
A Very Super Market
Iskander 3.1
Captain Blackadder
atheotes
Tratorix
YLC
woad&fangs
Lord Winter
Ignoramus
TheFlax
Cronos Impera
Caius

Killed (6):
White_eyes:D
mini
Beskar
Yaropolk
pevergreen
Glenn

Proscripted (1):
navarro951

WoG/Suicide (0):

It is now Day III. You may begin voting. This day phase will end on Tuesday, May 19th at 8:30pm EST.

[Jolt]

Four assassination attempts? This is getting big. And Pompeius message is most clear to me. Whoever wrote it must certainly knows how to write English very well, but decided to write without capital letters in an attempt to put us off.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

I am beginning to get the feeling that both of our would-be dictators are completely insane.......

[Beefy187]

Four assassination attempts? This is getting big. And Pompeius message is most clear to me. Whoever wrote it must certainly knows how to write English very well, but decided to write without capital letters in an attempt to put us off.

Was Pompey telling the optimates to reveal?

Who are these men on the list?

General handkerchief
Ichigo
Sasaki
Andres
Tiberius of the drake
Woad and fangs


Sorry, I couldn't hear the message clearly..

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

I think so, it seems to be a demand for us to reveal our factions and proceed to slaughter each other...

don't know about the list, seems to just be there?

[Beskar]

Since the Night kills, I will confirm who I suspected was my killer due to various evidence from it.

Problem is, there are a few people I suspect of being power roles, the thing is, which was the killer by remember what pm/replies. However there is the rule on that. There is only one that comes to mind.

I messaged Sasaki as a test, I had a theory that AggonyDuck was in fact a Pomp. Sasaki also messaged me wanting protection for him. I later messaged Sasaki that I believe AggonyDuck was a Pomp, which Caesar apparently revealed tonight. Sasaki never replied to this message and I ended up deader than a dodo.

With this, I suspect Sasaki of also being a Pomp, especially since the protection message was on Night one.

As an added note, AggonyDuck also messaged me saying GeneralHankerchief is a praetor. Pompey just revealed him as an optimate. Make of that as you will.

[Greyblades]

Dead Townies have little to no reason to lie, Vote: Sasaki

[ULC]

Dead Townies have little to no reason to lie, Vote: Sasaki

Dead Townies may not be dead Townies - there are 2 mafia families this game.

Vote: Abstain - I await your reply to his accusations Sasaki

[Csargo]

Vote:AggonyDuck

[Beskar]

Just to let you know.

Victory Conditions:
(1) Eliminate all Caesarians and Pompeians. You will be victorious even if you are dead if this goal is met.

I don't care if people are Populares or Optimates, as I messaged those previously, I suggest both Populares and Optimates not reveal their faction identities. You never know, the names listed could be a ploy by Pompey to get Caesar to assissnate those targets, so I would recommend to the Caesar faction not for fall for that ploy either.


Also, my statement has both AggonyDuck and Sasaki listed. Sasaki as my killer if you would like to revenge me, and AggonyDuck for being a Pomp as well.

[Chaotix]

AggonyDuck may have been exposed by Caesar, but he is still mafia. He's gotta die, no matter what kind of victory you want.

Vote:AggonyDuck

If he turns out to be wrong... then we just stop believing him and his messages.

[Tiberius of the Drake]

Vote:AggonyDuck

The reveal by caesar seems to be pretty damning evidence.

EDIT: For some reason bold will not work on my crappy 2001 iBook anymore. please accept my vote as valid.

[ULC]

Hmmm...it appears my vote is invalid. However, can we actually trust what the messages say? I think it fair we test it out, and then based upon forthcoming results, dismiss it afterwards, yes.

Vote: Aggony Duck

[Askthepizzaguy]

Standing by as a replacement. Sounds like I'm going to be needed.

[Splitpersonality]

Vote: AggonyDuck

[Beefy187]

Vote: AgonnyDuck

[seireikhaan]

Vote: Tiberius of the Drake


Oh, and all you killers... Its getting very, very lonely in my villa. I would love some sharp, silent company to drop by tonight....

[Csargo]

Unvote:AD, Vote:GH

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Let's protect AggonyDuck, because he got kind of a hard break the last couple games and it's true that he doesn't like lying.

Sasaki

My apologises, I am going to reply OOC.

As you might have gathered, I pm'd a couple of other people, afterall, in a game like this, trying to establish some sort of network is part of the game. Obviously in the beginning, it is simply trying to find friend from foes.

What is amazing, a couple of people have replied to me saying they want to have AggonyDuck investigated. And here, you are wanting to have him protected.

I don't mind some metagaming, but this amount seems quite disturbing. So could I ask what is so special about AggonyDuck? To me, as I am new, he is just another player, but if you was in my position, you would be wondering why his name has come up 3 times from 3 different people.

A have very strong reason to assume AgonnyDuck is an Pompeians or a Consul.

After gathering some information, it appears there was an exception. While majority of the investigations had senators going to a party, his investigation revealed that he was hosting a party which his supporters attended.

Ok. I investigated Duck (N1) and Sasaki (N2) together with Beskar.

Results on both were similar, nothing special in i

Beskar suggested that duck might be a consul or mafia, I saw no reason to believe that however. I don't believe investigations reveal anything important as far as mafia/townie goes.


What I'm more interested in is this:

Sorry, I'm already doing something else with another group tonight. Good luck.

Chaotix

I remember messaging a bunch of people in capo and getting some odd replies from people who ended up being mafia. I suggest that Chaotix's group speak up.

[Beskar]

Unfortunately for Andres (as he didn't see these), I got copies of results from other people which revealed a difference in the PM's. Because Sasaki wanted AggonyDuck protected, I tested him with that message, just to see his reply, which he failed to reply.

As I can't reveal anything about night findings, Sasaki quoted Andres which said "results on both were similar".

[Csargo]

Probably in one of those kill groups.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Unfortunately for Andres, I got copies of results from other people which revealed a difference in the PM's. Because Sasaki wanted AggonyDuck protected, I tested him with a message with my theory, just to see his reply, which he failed to reply.

As I can't reveal anything about night findings, Sasaki quoted Andres which said "results on both were similar".

You said "I think duck is either mafia or a consul" based on the detective result. I disagree that the results will show anything--TinCow has stated that they only show faction:

Senator investigation groups will show the faction of the person they investigate, nothing more.

[Beskar]

Curse you, I am not going to go post digging now just before bed.

He alluded to there actually being more than that in one of his posts, however, he is not going to say what.

There is also the thing that i suspected AggonyDuck based from the investigation, Caesar apparently revealed that he is infact, Scipio of the Pompey faction, there is also the fact you wanted him protected and also the fact the night I said to you I suspect him of being a Pompey, I end up dead.

You have to admit yourself, there must be some truth to my comments, or at the very least, should give you a cause for concern.

[Iskander 3.1]

I'd at least like to hear what AggonyDuck has to say for himself.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Curse you, I am not going to go post digging now just before bed.

He alluded to there actually being more than that in one of his posts, however, he is not going to say what.

There is also the thing that i suspected AggonyDuck based from the investigation, Caesar apparently revealed that he is infact, Scipio of the Pompey faction, there is also the fact you wanted him protected and also the fact the night I said to you I suspect him of being a Pompey, I end up dead.

You have to admit yourself, there must be some truth to my comments, or at the very least, should give you a cause for concern.

I don't find the fact that one mafia faction is claiming someone is mafia to be particularly damning (if it's really true I trust they'll kill him themselves at some point) and I don't think the benefits of suggesting a protection for a mafia partner outweigh the risks.

[AggonyDuck]

I am Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, a Rich Senator of the Optimate faction, and a man willing to sacrifice my life to save our great republic from these foul tyrants and their murderous agents. From day one of this conflict, I swore that I would not sit idly by while these bastards stake their claim on our fair city and drag it down into the abyss. Thus I have spent each night investigating, the first night alone and after that with trustworthy senators, building up a circle of senators I could trust to find the agents of the Tyrants and stop them. I will not reveal my circle yet, even if pressured, as our fate as a Republic lies on their shoulders, but I am willing to provide you with almost all other answers.