Mafia VIII: Return of the Recommencement of the Revenge of the Mafia [Concluded]

[Privateerkev]

Correction: it was a hockey game.

Is there a difference?

[CountArach]

Is there a difference?

One has big sticks, the other doesn't.

[Privateerkev]

Alright, now that I'm off work, I'm going to comb through the reports again.

N1: I couldn't find anything missing.

D1: I couldn't find anything missing here either.

N2:

Andre, out of breath, stopped automatically to wave back and chat with the man. "Excellent morning for running, I do say," he said aimiably.

Craterus, deep in the Frontroom marshes, watched the ducks fly away with his high-powered binoculrs.

So that is an S and an A respectively.

D2:

Apparently not having got the message, this obviously coldhearted, callous, unfeeling individual quickly earned the ire of everyone around him by cracking (bad) jokes, voting for weird reasons, and generally ot taking the process seriously.

You ee, thanks to the OBI's meddling, I didn't even have an execution planned.

So that is an N and an S respectively.

N3:

"Downtown," he muttered, pocketing his bioculars and getting into his old blue car.

From what he gathered, it had to be there, consdering that the birds were flying in all directions away from that area and that he had heard the shot from his house, meaning that it was probably fired on a roof where there wasn't much to block the sound from going far.

So that is an N and an I respectively.

S A N S N I

Only two names have those six letters in them.

Sigurd Fafnesbane and Omanes Alexandrapolites who is dead.

I'm pretty sure I found all the missing letters so far. One trick is to go to each night/day summary, hit "quote", and look at all the misspelled words that are underlined in red. A word of warning though, this trick would not have found "Andre". So you still need to read carefully.

[pevergreen]

When I am a townie, I do hope that I'm not useless, if nothing else I am active, and I do provoke discussion.

Unvote: Kage by the way.

its pever

Hmmm, I do believe over analysation with the missing letters, I think wait for more writeups, it could just be a storyline thing...

I could vote myself, but...

Vote: Sarathos

Im pretty sure he is guilty.

If I am lynched, I request that I yell at everyone for using the capital and falcon punch someone, then get killed.

[FactionHeir]

So that is an N and an I respectively.

S A N S N I

Only two names have those six letters in them.

Sigurd Fafnesbane and Omanes Alexandrapolites who is dead.

I missed that many? I used MS Word's spellchecker though + going manually, so I'm not surprised

SANSNI. Hmmmm I'm starting to think it may not directly be a name but a hint.
Note the map had French writing.
Sans = without
Ni = Nor/Neither

Together they tend to be used as sans X ni Y. Like Sans foi ni loi (without spirit nor morals).

So we may still be looking for more clues somewhere. Or a name that means neither nor / without nor or a name that is lacking something.

Actually, can you find anything else missing/wrong between the second S and the second N and something after the I? Like a letter, number, anything? Because then it could mean something like:
Sans P ni K (like a name without P nor K for instance)

[GeneralHankerchief]

Voting over.

Stand by for the execution.

[Privateerkev]

Actually, can you find anything else missing/wrong between the second S and the second N and something after the I? Like a letter, number, anything? Because then it could mean something like:
Sans P ni K (like a name without P nor K for instance)

Sorry, I can't figure it out.

Day 2, where the first N and second S were missing, we're in parts specifically to do with EliteFerret.

And in Night 3, where the second N and first I were missing, we're in the same paragraph. And that was where TevashSzat was trying to figure out where the birds were flying away from.

So, neither EF nor Tevash?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Alright, now that I'm off work, I'm going to comb through the reports again.

N1: I couldn't find anything missing.

D1: I couldn't find anything missing here either.

N2:

So that is an S and an A respectively.

D2:

So that is an N and an S respectively.

N3:

So that is an N and an I respectively.

S A N S N I

Only two names have those six letters in them.

Sigurd Fafnesbane and Omanes Alexandrapolites who is dead.

I'm pretty sure I found all the missing letters so far. One trick is to go to each night/day summary, hit "quote", and look at all the misspelled words that are underlined in red. A word of warning though, this trick would not have found "Andre". So you still need to read carefully.

I think that counting Day writeups in probably an incorrect move. Leaves S-A-N-I.

A greek resort, a Hindu name for the god Saturn, a name often used in 419 scams...not sure we have anything complete.

Substitution using 8 (for mafia eight) yields A-I-V-Q...but this seems even less helpful.

[Privateerkev]

I think that counting Day writeups in probably an incorrect move. Leaves S-A-N-I.

Yeah but the letters missing on Day 2 are uber-obvious and should not be discounted.

He left the N out of "not" and the S out of "see". I don't see those being accidents. Plus they show up in the .org's automatic red underlined spell checker.

[pevergreen]

If you have that enabled, I dont.

[Privateerkev]

If you have that enabled, I dont.

It's weird. I have it at home (firefox) but not at work (IE).

I have no idea how to turn it on.

But there is a manual spell checker function when you write posts that you can use.

[Csargo]

Firefox has a spell check function. IE does not.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Day 3 of the attack on the Frontroom. Six were gone, four courtesy of the mafia, two by the town's own hand. Shortly that number would rise to three, for sunset and thus the counting of the votes drew near.

The unlucky third lynchee appeared more and more likely to be peverpink, who had committed the critical error of goofing around too much. Apparently, even the barbaric execution of Elite Ferret during the previous day had failed to convince him to wise up and get serious about things. pever was about to pay the ultimate price.

"Kill the jokester! Kill the jokester!"

It was all too familiar. The town had yet to take out their mob clothing, torches, and pitchforks, but the reason that they were going after pever was exactly the same. pever, realizing far too late that he had taken things too far, tried to backpedal and plead with the town to spare him.

"Okay, I admit it! I lied! So what if I wasn't the Detective, I'm still a townie! I'm still with you guys!"

The town wasn't buying it. pever picked up the villagers' bloodlust, exhibiting a sixth sense akin to when certain animals detect fear. Remembering what had happened to EF the night before, he realized his chances of survival remaining among the townspeople weren't good. He scrambled up the execution platform, cowering behind Chief of Police Beirut, once again paralleling the lynching of yesterday.

"All right, look. I know I'm going to be lynched, so-"

"That's right," Beirut interrupted, "You are. I was about to read the tally."

"Everyone knows it's me. Can we just get on with it? I'd prefer a quick death."

"Hold on there, young'un," Beirut said. "Procedure must be honored." He cleared his throat, speaking to the rest of the angry town.

"Gentlemen," he began, "You have chosen to execute Peverpink for crimes of the Frontroom today..."

"peverpink with a lowercase 'p'", the condemned muttered under his breath."

"...now then," Beirut said, finishing up, "He is to die!"

The crowd cheered wildly. An outside observer witnessing this scene might have noted that the villagers of the Frontroom were perhaps too into it, chanting and screaming and calling for engeance. Now, finally, the mob clothes and torches and pitchforks came out, completing the déjà vu.

"peverpink," Beirut boomed. "You are hereby sentenced to death by immolation. If you are religious, now would be a good time to pray."

Looking around, pever noticed the crowd gripping their torches tighter, as if preparing to throw them. "Now, waitaminute," he said, "You're gonna waste your brand new execution platform on me? And what about you? You're here too!"

Beirut chuckled. "Unfortunately for you, only the top of the platform is flammable. And as for me, well... the Chief of Police always has a way out." Pressing a button, a propellor popped out of the top of Beirut's police hat. A second later, he was puttering above the crowd and out of sight, leaving pever to the mercy, or lack thereof, of the crowd.

The immolation was bright enough to illuminate Beirut's way home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still alive: (29)
Ichigo
RoadKill
TinCow
woad&fangs
shlin28
makaikhaan
Sasaki Kojiro
Sigurd Fafnesbane
Caius
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Sarathos
Mithrandir
Beefy187
Tiberius of the Drake
KukriKhan
|Sith|R|AntiWarmanCake88
Crazed Rabbit
Fenring
Lord Winter
CountArach
Kommodus
Rythmic
Seamus Fermanagh
Quintus.J.Cicero
Kagemusha
georgeman51
discovery1
FactionHeir
Joe Monks

Killed:
Tratorix
Omanes Alexandrapolites
Andres
Craterus
LittleGrizzly
TevashSzat

Executed:
Privateerkev
Elite Ferret
peverpink

PMs please.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

So, a missing V?

I'm not convinced the missing letters are important. Puzzles are fun though. I recall the Godfather two were the bolded words in the writeup turned out to have no significance whatsoever.

[Privateerkev]

D3:

An outside observer witnessing this scene might have noted that the villagers of the Frontroom were perhaps too into it, chanting and screaming and calling for engeance.

That makes it V.

S A N S N I V

Did anyone find a 2nd? I couldn't.

[woad&fangs]

missing a V in vengeance for those paying attention to such things.

edit: too slow I guess

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Slowpokes

[Privateerkev]

Slowpokes

Yeah well I was busy adding context.

[seireikhaan]

I didn't see anything else other than the colloquialism.

I'd be willing to bet the first part is supposed to be "sans". However, I think the rest is yet to be revealed, and we'll probably have to wait longer to see what it's supposed to be.

So right now, we've got "without..."

[TinCow]

I didn't see anything else other than the colloquialism.

I'd be willing to bet the first part is supposed to be "sans". However, I think the rest is yet to be revealed, and we'll probably have to wait longer to see what it's supposed to be.

So right now, we've got "without..."

Now this is sounding a lot more like something GH would do. A recognizable pattern that spells out direct words, but the substance behind the words will not become apparent until very late in the game. I suspect it will give us a clue as to the mafia's identity, but without specifically spelling out a name.

[discovery1]

Vote: Ichi for failing to bandwagon be like I asked him to.

[KukriKhan]

Google actually has an entry for S A N S N I V (near bottom of page). It's in French, and I think (not being a french-speaker) it refers to educational levels in a survey. "Sans niv indicating 'without formal education'. French speakers can gratefully correct me, please. What that might have to do with our game, or identifying a player, I dunno. Just throwing it out there as something to pursue if other evidence refers back.

Would GH go so far as to resort to a French word ('sans') to be included as a twist-clue? Maybe. It's fairly common English borrowing-usage.

Nevertheless, his correction of 'chargees' (where he explains that 'charges' was correct usage, he thought (correctly)) leads me to believe we are on the right track pursuing individual alphabetical letters to suss out clues, not the pages-wrapped-in-envelopes type of letters.

So, 7 letters/characters so far. With no doubt, more to come. Based on the numbers of players, I'd guess we have about 9-10 more day/night cycles to go. If GH goes to pattern, the 'message' to the town could be up to 9 more characters/letters. But to win, we town will need to solve the puzzle/cryptogram in the next 3-4 phases, lest the bad guy's killing abilities exceed our remaining numbers.

So: S A N S N I V plus 4 more letters to reveal something that might (might) help us. On top of, of course, the usual psychoanlaysis we do.

I see that Seamus has applied a crypto rule he's familiar with; anyone else friendly with letter-substitution schemes, or sequence-pattern paradigms?

-pause for dinner-

and we might also consider the source of the 'watch the letters' clue. What might have motivated him to utter such a phrase, on the event of his death?

[Csargo]

Putting it in backwards gets you a shiplog and a kid from Norway a couple people down is a guy named Sigurd. Also, Navians which is mostly google hits about Scandinavia.

Propellor is also misspelled, should be propeller.

[naut]

So the letters are S A N S N I V (E?). I really don't know how they're going to help us though.

[Privateerkev]

I've been discounting misspelled words since the "hint" said to look for "missing" letters. There are at least 3 misspelled words total left in the reports. I've just ignored them for the purpose of this exercise.

Same reason why I've ignored the guy with the hurt nose. Ichigo figured out what letters should have been put in but we have not been using them.

[Sigurd]

I guess the hidden message might be in French since the clue were in French.
Sans niv...
I have French in my clue dictionary and there are not too many words that starts with niv.
Either a form of niveau (level), nivéole (snowflake) or nivôse (fourth month of Republican calendar).
Maybe someone else has a bigger dictionary.

[Andres]

I believe GH speaks at least a bit of French, so the message being in French is certainly a possibility.

makaikhaan should know better then to attack Tiberius who always behaves like this in mafia games. And I'm getting bad vibes from FactionHeir as well.

Why the FoS on TinCow, Sasaki?

EDIT: oh, and can someone dig up PK's corpse and lynch it again? Not knowing the difference between hockey and soccer football

[Sarathos]

I've been discounting misspelled words since the "hint" said to look for "missing" letters. There are at least 3 misspelled words total left in the reports. I've just ignored them for the purpose of this exercise

I was going to say somethinga bout those, but I wasn't sure either. Could be it GH's intention or just some simply mistake, though it would be handy to remember those words just incase.

Just a crazy idea I had, what if we are looking at these letters the wrong way. What if the word isn't actually SANSNIV, but VINSANS...? I have done a little bit on reasearcj on it but haven't come up with anything so far.

[FactionHeir]

you guys found the clue while I was sleeping!
Anyway. I found the use of the word "puttering" a bit odd as well. freedictionary links it to pottering for some reason.
Maybe its missing a S at the start?
On the other hand, if we go back to the write ups, there was no missing in D1, but 2 in D2, and discounting what I just said, 1 in D3.
This suggests he forgot one in D1 and thus had an extra one in D2.

Also, note that the Day writeup missing letters are always at the start of the word while the missing letters in the N write ups so far where in the middle or end of the word. This may have some significance.

[FactionHeir]

Just a crazy idea I had, what if we are looking at these letters the wrong way. What if the word isn't actually SANSNIV, but VINSANS...? I have done a little bit on reasearcj on it but haven't come up with anything so far.

You mean Sans Vin, as in Without Wine? No WIFOM?