'Liar!'

[Ashstripe]

For anyone who has ever seen the movie "Cry Wolf" or played the online game, this concept is basically the same. For everyone else, this is an interesting concept I've found played on other forums, though it does require a fair bit of people; and the more, the better!

Here's the scenario, we're all members of a Village, Tribe or whatever group you want. It can be any scenario really, even Redwall if your creative enough. But for the sake of a simple metaphor, I'll use the witch hunts.

Let's say our Village has Five people(Five members playing.), one of them is a 'Witch'(In other words, a killer.). They know this, they also know who's on their side, everyone else doesn't - with the exception of whoever is running the game.

At the end of a set period, say a day or even a week. This 'witch'(Or witches.), gets to eliminate one member from our village; or more elegantly put, kill them.

However, the Village gets to lynch/hang/murder/execute one member of our fair community, for crimes of witchcraft or murder or whatever - just before they strike.

Oh yes, one more thing. In the interests of back-stabbing I'll hand out hints every so often to random innocents, who will likely share it with the rest of the community, or they may not and who even says their telling the truth?

See why it works better if we have more people? Yes, it's a fun little mind game with wild accusations being thrown around. But before we begin, we need a gang of willing volunteers. Then I'll hand out roles and then we begin.

Witches will be handed out at a 1:5 ratio - more or less depending on how well this works out.


Roster
Ashstripe
Yves
'Retchen
Griffin
Dirgecallers
Rocky

At least 6 people are needed to begin.

[Yves]

Of all the games I've come across online, few compare to this in the appeal they hold for my.. erhrm... better nature.

I'm in x3

[ferretface]

I played something like this before, only twas in Drama and with Mafia. Witches be fine, though. Anyway, count the mad mustelid marksman (Bleh, alliteration. Forced, painful, but whatever) in!

[Griffin]

I'm in.

[Ashstripe]

Thanks for joining! Though we can't really begin till we have another two members - otherwise it'll be too easy to guess the witch.

[dirgecallers]

Im in

[Rocky]

Im game..

For only about 2 and a half weeks, then I must get back to my studies >.<

[Ashstripe]

Hurrah! Let the back-stabbing commence.

A few more ground rules, witches win if there is only two people left or the number of witches happen to outnumber the survivors.

The number of roles can actually grow with the amount of players - perhaps even factions. Time being, it's just the Lawful and the Witches with one extra role. Since we have the bare minimum.

The Game will take place in Day and Night phases, by day, we all meet in the Town Hall and throw out wild accusations. Make sure you include VOTE, ASHSTRIPE or something similar(I ACCUSE ASHSTRIPE) in large bold letters. That'll make life easier on my part.

You may only have one vote per round and you may change your votes during the day as many times as you like - do it in a new post instead of modifying a previous one, please.

By Night, the Witch makes his/her move and kills whomever he/she deems a threat.

The Monk cannot be voted, but he can be killed - he will sway the course of the chaos left and right, so to whoever is the witch; think twice before killing him.

Hints are given through PM - whether I did actually send them is up to whether you believe me or not =). As a rule, I always at least send one. You may say "I found a note from Ashellius" or "The Monk told me someone can't be trusted.". You may reference as much or as little detail from the hints as you like.

E.g

"Ashellius told me that Rocky, 'Retchen and Yves can't be trusted. So I'm voting for Rocky.

I ACCUSE ROCKY."


Here are the Roles:

Citizen
Description: Witches!? Where!? What!? Where is Lord Ashellius!? Running just before the election isn't he? But Mortimer is right in assuming the Mayor's warning is correct - he's been right in the past after all, hasn't he?
Object of the Game: Kill all the Witches/Werewolves, whatever.

Witch
Description: Your cover's been blown, you(And your covenant) have managed to stay under the radar for a few years now, taking care in your pickings, satiating your lust for chaos and evil ever so lightly, but Ashellius has his suspicions of your identity and has declared a witch-hunt - remember, your not the only one heading towards the pillory, Ashellius isn't 100% certain and the village isn't 100% honest.

Times a tickin' and the noose is a weavin'.

Object of the Game: Kill anyone and everyone until the number of citizens becomes a 1:1 ratio with your covenant.

Greedy Farmer
Description: You've had your eye on a patch of land for a while and the owner of this land is an upstanding member of the community, who wholly owns this property through legal means. They have expressed no interest in selling it off, not for your highest offers or unlimited labour - blast it. This Witchunt is just the excuse you've been looking for to dispose of this inconvenient member.

Oh, and right, the Witch isn't such a great thing either - so you suppose you have to lynch them too.
Object of the Game: Get one citizen lynched(Assigned to you) and get the witch lynched


____________________

There is a note tacked upon the wooden doors of the Town Hall, the paper is crumpled and hastily scrawled upon;

Hark! Do ye hear the howls a yonder? Do ye sense that presence in the air? Do ye taste the bitter milk of cows too afraid to give?

My township, the problem is not a plague, nor is it an act of the Lord. But something much more sinister, for I fear that one amongst our fair number has been living in the shadow of our light for o'er the span of years now, cutting our every corner.

I have my suspicions and ye may have thine. But I cannot stay, I only leave you my warnings.

Ashellius - Lord mayor


There is a stir amongst the townsfolk, the Mayor is the backbone of the community, without him the floor is open to madness. Eyes shift left and right, suspicions and old hatreds begin to surface - this witch hunt was the perfect pretext to settle old scores.

"My children, please." The resident monk, draped in his faded habit arose upon the steps of the Hall, "Let us not open our hearts to malice and close our eyes to evil, know that I will serve as the judicator of this conflict and know that should the hellspawn confess, they shall have redemption in the eyes of the Lord; know this applies not only to the spawn of Lucifer, but to the sons and daughters of those wrongly killed. So let us not blind ourselves in the search for the truth!"

There was a loud cheer from the townsfolk, the Monk smiles, satisfied that he has calmed the impeding tempest. But yet his eyes are not still, he has yet to swallow his own speech, fearing that he has just made himself a target to the masses.



Your roles are assigned,

Day One - Begins. Happy Hunting.

[Rocky]

My character peep, going by the name of Rocky walks towards the town meeting.

"Hey all... Um, er... I found a note by some random crony and, uh... He told me of some peeps not to trust so, uh...

I ACCUSE 'RETCHEN!!"

THERE WE GO! RETCHEN HATH BEEN ACCUSETH-ED BY ME!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAHHHA

[Yves]

Yves is a young skunk who wears a double-breasted shirt and conical hat and brown scarf and black suit. His legs are mostly obscured by his black coat, largely because they themselves are clothed in black velvet pants. His feet are covered in long, brown, hunting boots, while a shining pair of primitive glasses obscure his eyes. In short, in a town of puritans and superstitious peasants, he is the-man-of-the-world, the modern man, albeit one who keeps well out of the way. He is also extremely wealthy, and, above all, very private.

It comes as a surprise to everyone, then, that he is the first to react to Skipper's accusation.

"Yes... Yes, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Skipper on this one, as odd as that sounds even to myself. Now, I know that 'Retchen has always been a fine member of our little society, productive, friendly, social, the kind of girl we all admired. But, I think we can all agree that our mayor was a much greater staple, and it is because of him that I must put my support behind this accusation.

Before our mayor left, you see, he left me a note. A brief note, rushed, and to the point. Obviously, he wrote it just before he fled. If you look on the table in front of me, you will find it, folded four times. I hope you will forgive me for waiting so long to divulge this information... there were other reasons, but the primary is this: I wanted to wait for the right time, when I could accuse without risking my own neck. Now, I can share this burden with Skipper, coward that I am. The killer, no matter how nimble, cannot attack two accusers at the same time without compromising her position."

On the table in front of him, in scrawled hand, a note read, "Beware, ye reader, of 'Retchen." It was signed by the mayor.

"Now, my own stance notwithstanding, I recommend prudence and caution in this affair. Although there is the note, the hint dropped by our mayor, such a hint, so subtly placed, is suspicious. Any one of you could have planted it. I believe it; the signature fits, but then again, who is to say our mayor himself isn't our villain? Does it seem strange to anyone else that he vanished the moment the killings began?"

"The only reason I bring it up now is first because our Skipper seems to back it, and second because time is of the essence. There is no telling who the next victim will be, or when he will fall. We have no other leads, and if we have no evidence to the contrary, we must act."

"However, that is not to say that this is the only evidence, I'm sure you all understand. First, because Skipper has made this accusation, I must assume that he has some reason, some logic for his movement. If we have two pieces of solid evidence, then I for one am convinced. Second, 'Retchen will, no doubt, offer some defense for her life, and I'm still open to it. Convince me. Perhaps, after all, Skipper, or even I, or, yes, even the mayor himself, is your true villain."

((I doubt the note only because that is what my character would, in this situation, do. It is a fully legitimate hint.))

[dirgecallers]

The two rats, Weghul and SPinetooth hath made their descions. They have carefully reviewed everyone who is in the least suscpicious and have now come to one conclusion.
In the village square they have asserted that:

"YVES De EBIL WITCH FER S'HUR DAT GOTS TO BE DEAD"


....and quietley step down from their soapbox and blend into the crowd.

[Yves]

Yves merely yawned at this suggestion.

"Shall we trust the random shouts of vermin then? I demand evidence for my guilt. Throwing accusations willy-nilly will only shorten our numbers, and leave the witch with an... oh, let's see, there are what, five, six of us? Right then, something like an 80% chance of survival."

[dirgecallers]

The taller of the vermin countered with a shrewd observation of his own:"Par'dun me sir's but its jist yoo gots de funny smell ober yous, dis oberpowering."

Spinetooth, being the smaller and less bright one interjected, "Her onor it may be that ways because that be's de skunk."

"Din you speak when I tells yer too!" Weghul snapped at his lackey. "'Ahm sorru, he dinnae wat de hol' hisself up in polite society. But de plain tru't de matter is.....eighty precent is der pretty good odds, a least in a fight."

.....And the reason for their objection never did get explained.

[Yves]

"Hmmm... so, the leader wants to squelch the stupid one who points out that there is no evidence, eh? You're just pulling rubbish out of your hat, Weghul, and that seems mighty suspicious. If I could only believe that the three of you had the brain-power to forge a note and signature from the mayor, I would point straight to you, vermin.

"As it is, I object, your honor, your holiness, because the accusation is based on hearsay (my scent, you see, is irrelevant to this case), because the accusation calls for speculation, which is obvious, and because the accusation assumes facts not in the evidence, mainly because there is no evidence, I request that the case against me be thrown out of the court until such time that reasonable evidence, legal under due process, may be brought to the court."

"Remember, your honor," Yves went on, staring the monk straight in the face, "That if we abandon due-process, the rights of the accused, we sacrifice order, and innocents will fall before the razor of the mob. There are plenty of people here who have an axe to grind, who will only see this trial of ours as a mechanism by which they may end personal feuds.

"For instance, I remember, very distinctly, that a certain vermin among us, Weghul specifically, offered to buy a valuable piece of land from me last Thursday. He offered gratuitous sums, but you are all aware of my refusal to sell to vermin. Perhaps he sees this as an opportunity to get that land into more cooperative hands, courtesy of the noose? Could he be, as we have come to call such men, a 'greedy farmer?' After all, with no evidence, no hint from the mayor, no shadowy contact, and not even a witness between the three, why should he pick me, of all the people present?"

[Ashstripe]

((Hmm? A Redwall setting? XD I was playing in mind of a traditional pilgrim village, but this works too.

Remember - you can play in or out of character, doesn't really matter - it's a game of wits and all that jazz, your character isn't deceiving everyone. You are, or aren't.))

The monk nodded his head wisely, Rocky was likely correct in heeding Lord Ashellius's warnings. There is an outcry of murmurs and muttering from within the township - unable to fully grasp the concept of one so central to the community being a part of the enemy.
"Citizen 'Retchen is an outstanding member of our community!" Came a cry from the crowd, a particularly large and burly man whom likely worked on a nearby estate,
"Oh aye, may'hap that's what 'e wants us t' think!" Snarled a near shrill reply from a young maiden, this was more than enough for the monk - as much as he wanted justice, he wanted to dispose of this threat as quickly as possible; yet he was playing a game that the witch had likely created long before he was born.

He would mediate and nothing more.

________________

An outcry again erupted from the gathering, to which the monk only raised his hands to quell and silence
"Citizen Yves, you are correct in assuming a prudent mind and enlightened eyes - but let us not cloud our hearts with suspicion, let us only keep our wits about us; as I find it quite hard to believe or even impossible that our dear Lord Ashellius would betray us all. He has his reasons and we must trust his judgement - for he may have already passed on by the demon-spawn's hand."

He smiled reassuringly and gently, his lips pressing against his cheeks, yet his eyes kept that constant stern, suspicious gaze - everyone was a suspect - only he was above suspicion. A holy man could never fall so far. Slowly, he reclined back into his seat and observed the proceedings - seemingly uninterested in this whole affair; which was partially true, everyone had one reason or another to lie, he only hoped he could figure out the lies.

"And so the noose prepares for Citizen 'Retchen, he whom has 2 votes out of six of our township." The monk announced flatly when he managed to quell the crowds and restore order and power to himself.Two votes for 'Retchen

The minutes passed and the accusations continued, some wilder than others, but the most influential members of the town seemed to be consistent in their stories - perhaps 'Retchen was this killer whom lurked in the shadows?

"I trust you not to lecture one such as myself on the matters of Law and Order, Citizen Yves." The monk replied sternly, for who else other than he understood and knew the laws that controlled their land?

"Citizens, Weghul and Spinetooth - I trust your judgement in the matter, I have had my suspicions as some of our, more influential citizens have been more active during the winter hours as of late." One vote for Yves.

"Citizens of our fair town, know that the noose shall only be tightened at Sundown - should no one else have any other objections by then, the executioner shall perform the Lord's justice."

And pray that the morning comes.




((One more vote for 'Retchen and he's dead at Sundown. Night phase begins by this time next week(So roughly Wednesday - everyone's Wednesday) if some people still haven't voted by then - your vote is forfeit. And no one is getting lynched.

Keep up the back-stabbing =) ))

[ferretface]

(As an aside, myself and my character are male )
'Retchen, a tall ferret in green cloak and tunic with black pants and brown, mud-splattered boots, coughed.
"Now, if you decide to vote to kill me, you will be killing an influential member of the town," he began a touch defensively. "And I will swing, and die, but what good will it do you in the end? I have done nothing but HELP this community, and all who say otherwise are worthy of suspicion themselves...
"Observe Rocky there!" he shouted, pointing at Rocky. "Look at him, quickest to accuse, with the least reason of all. If I swing tonight, he lives for longer himself. Does that not speak of fear for his own life? ha! I do not fear for my life, for you are all...intelligent. But even a fool could look into those eyes and see the fear, and the cowardice within them! He fears death himself! I have nothing to fear, for I am no servant of the night!"
"To conclude, is a 'note from some crony' really enough to kill me, a member, by your own admission, Rocky Wormtongue," he sneered, "a productive and active citizen...name, who is this knave who wishes me dead? Decide amongst yourselves who to blame, but I must decide against Rocky there. I wash my hands of this affair." Turning his back scornfully on the proceedings, he walked off evenly with composure.

[Yves]

'Retchen, a tall ferret in green cloak and tunic with black pants and brown, mud-splattered boots, coughed.
"Now, if you decide to vote to kill me, you will be killing an influential member of the town," he began a touch defensively. "And I will swing, and die, but what good will it do you in the end? I have done nothing but HELP this community, and all who say otherwise are worthy of suspicion themselves...
"Observe Rocky there!" he shouted, pointing at Rocky. "Look at him, quickest to accuse, with the least reason of all. If I swing tonight, he lives for longer himself. Does that not speak of fear for his own life? ha! I do not fear for my life, for you are all...intelligent. But even a fool could look into those eyes and see the fear, and the cowardice within them! He fears death himself! I have nothing to fear, for I am no servant of the night!"
"To conclude, is a 'note from some crony' really enough to kill me, a member, by your own admission, Rocky Wormtongue," he sneered, "a productive and active citizen...name, who is this knave who wishes me dead? Decide amongst yourselves who to blame, but I must decide against Rocky there. I wash my hands of this affair." Turning his back scornfully on the proceedings, he walked off evenly with composure.

(Sorry ^^;

Yves shrugged.

"If only we had an alternative, 'Retchen, I would be swayed to your reasoning. I don't trust Rocky further than I can throw him, but there is the note, and the unmistakable signature. If you have any evidence, anything at all to throw to prove your innocence, I will follow you.

"But, when I asked for a defense, all you pointed to was Rocky's cowardice, and to your own reputation. That is not enough to defeat the word of our mayor. I don't know why he flees as he does, or why he writes what he will, but as our monk says, his is the righteous path.

"Therefore, until this note is concretely disproved, my vote remains, regrettably, where is stands. Evidence must trump the conjecture of cowardice, especially when a coward would not risk his neck in a trial such as this. If you die, and if the murders continue, then my desert shall come from my own guilt, and the justice of the Lord."

[Rocky]

OOC: My first post was OOC. Now this will be IC

Rocky sighed. ''So quick to accuse?'' Rocky merely laughed. He drew forth from his pocket a note, tea stained in color, then passed it on the table, the words 'Beware of 'Retchen' on them, next to two others.

''It seems, 'Retchen, that Lord Ashellious thinks you are the witch.'' Rocky c.ocked his head and looked at 'Retchen with an up-raised eyebrow. ''And,'' Rocky continued, ''Was I the only to pick up that when I voted for 'Retchen, she was so quick in defending herself and accusing me? Of course, if she had nothing to hide, then maybe she wouldn't be so quick in her accusation of the accuser. Sure, maybe if she wasn't the witch, then she would probably take her time and explain, but no. She jumps right to the point.''

''And I do not fear death, 'Retchen. You, probably do. If you want, you could kill me where I stand, before I draw another breath, but heed my words: You will not be killing the witch. Oh, and she is the only one to resort to name calling. Rocky Wormtongue? Witches, I've heard of, from stories and anecdotes, are clever, deceiving, like a fox. And one to come up with a name so quick? ''

Now, Rocky turned to Weghul, ''Or... Perhaps you are the witch?''

OOC: My posts wont be lengthy cuz, well, they're not normal posts, lol, and I dont feel like going into much detail with this.

[ferretface]

Grunting slightly, Furetchen turned back. "Being clever makes one a witch, eh? Then, are you saying, it is natural for all villagers to be fools? I know little of Weghul and his...companion, but..." 'Retchen shrugged. "In any case, I can once more only affirm that I am not the one you wish to hang. Rocky himself? Perhaps."

EDIT: Ah, gotcha Rocky. Although, I'm hanging on anything to preserve my alter ego but yeah, edited it out.

[Rocky]

OOC: Hey, 'Retchen, the cackle was definitely OOC, lol. I woudnt have Rocky cackle like that, lol. Ill post later.