Mafia 7 - Appearances Can Be Deceiving

vovan · January 17, 2004, 20:14

Well, we are hereby starting a new Mafia game.

I hope you all remember the rules. Wait for the kill during the night, vote for the Mafia during the day.

The game is over. The Mafias: Guynemer, and his replacement - Nikolai, have been captured. Congratulations to the winners: Zopperoni, MattH, CapitanGarlic, Frozzy, Pave, Kassiopeia, Jamski, Jon Miller, Sandman, Spaced Cowboy, ADG, and rah!

vovan · January 17, 2004, 20:16

Welcome to A____, a quiet little village. The houses huddle along the bank of a small river, against the side of a large hill.

You could always find Nikolai here. He enjoys fishing, and always gets up at six o'clock in the morning, while it is still dark and foggy and goes to the bank with a fishing rod. He spends there until early afternoon, when he goes to the town store and sells the catch there.

The town store is located just up the hill. The villagers call that place "The Downtown". The owner of the store is Zopperoni, an old Italian, with a beer belly, graying hair, but still black moustache. He's owned the shop, "Zoppi's", ever since he decided to settle down in the village, about fifteen years ago. Back when he just opened it, he sold nothing but pizza, which he made himself. It was then called "Zopperoni's Pepperoni". But by now, the shop has grown greatly, and pretty much all the trade in the village is done here. The producers, like Nikolai, come here and sell their stuff to Zopperoni, who then resells it to the other villagers at a slightly increased price. In general, he's a good chap, however, and if someone needs something, but doesn't have the money, Zopperoni is always willing to help out.

Zopperoni likes to visit the pub, owned by Skanky Burns, which is located just down the dirt road a little ways from the river. Now, Skanky is not a newcomer to the village either. He's spent his whole life here, and inherited the ownership of the pub from his father, who originally built it and turned it into a flourishing place. Skanky upheld the tradition of quality and now, even people from neighboring villages come to him to try out some of that famous ale.

On big lover of that Skanky's ale is MattH. MattH is another regular at the pub, and likes to spend the long evenings sitting in the cozy atmosphere, sipping some good beer, and chatting with Skanky or Drogue. During the day, MattH is a thatcher. Fortunately for him, the village is rather small, and it rarely happens that more than one or two holes in the roof appears during a week in the whole village. So, he can spend most of his time in the pub, listening to Drogue's crazy stories.

Now, Drogue, is supposedly a former infantry officer. So, naturally, he has lots of stories to tell. Whether they are true or not is a different matter, but they sure are fun to listen to! Well, nowadays, Drogue is the director of Police of the village. Well, he doesn't direct anybody, because there are no other policemen, but he still tries his best to uphold law and order in the village... Well, in the pub mainly. Although, there do happen certain things in the village when his presence is required.

Just last week, for instance, there was an incident between Kassiopeia, the village's tailor, and Jamski, where the former said the latter asked him for too big a price for the wool. This, of course, warrants a bit more explanation.

See, Kassiopeia is a tailor. He makes all kinds of things for the villagers - coats, pants, shirts - everything - and sells them to Zopperoni for retail. But of course, Kassiopeia needs to get the materials from somewhere. And this time around he needed wool.

Now, Jamski owns a flock of sheep. He inherited it from his father, who was also a shepherd. He treats the sheep lovingly, almost like humans, and drives them every day down the dirt road, past the grove and to the left, where there is a nice meadow for them to graze. Some people even think Jamski treats his sheep a little too lovingly. But that is beside the point. See, Jamski always provides top-quality stuff, and that's all that matters. Be it wool for the tailor, or mutton for Zopperoni's shop, it's always as good as you could ask for.

The only problems Jamski has ever had was with Spaced Cowboy. Cowboy owns a ranch a bit away from the village and a rather considerable herd of bulls and cows, and a few horses. The reason for the collision of interests between him and Jamski was the aforementioned meadow where Jamski likes to take his sheep. The meadow is large and spacious, and has lots of clover growing on it. And so, it is a prime spot for the Cowboy's cows to graze - whenever they are brought back from that meadow and the Cowboy's wife milks them, the milk is always sweet and tasty, and is great for either immediate drinking, or to whip some butter or make some cheese. All of which Cowboy's wife is great at doing, and in great quantities, too. So, through Zopperoni's shop, the village is well supplied with the milk products. So, now, this meadow was exactly the source of dispute between Cowboy and Jamski... But it was minor, a long while back, and not true. So, now Cowboy and Jamski are good friends again. Back to the animals though. While the Cowboy's cows and bulls are always well-fed, healthy, and happy, Spaced has no clue as to how to take care of horses. They are always thin and weak, and can barely pull a carriage. They are indeed, a sore sight, as Spaced is often reminded by Guynemer.

Guynemer is the village's blacksmith, so he often gets to see Spaced's horses to shoe them. He makes all kinds of metal things for the village, ranging from plows and axes to knives and forks. He's not great at the artistic side of the trade, but is skillful enough for most tasks he is faced with at the village.

One of the other regular clients of Guynemer is Frozzy, who orders plows, and very often - silverware. Frozzy owns a rather large field right by Spaced's ranch, where he grows such things as wheat for the baker and barley for Skanky to make his beer out of. Frozzy sometimes comes to Spaced to ask for a bull or two to plow the land, but otherwise their relations are rather cold.

You could also sometimes see ADG the timberman in Guynemer's shop. He is a huge, strong fellow that fells trees for a living. The woodcutter goes off into the woods every morning, and you could always hear the monotonous sound of his axe against the large trunks of the oaks, and sometimes his terrible singing. Although he's a good fellow and tries to only fell trees that don't have any birds' nests on them or squirrel's holes. He also tries to keep away from CapitanGarlic while in the forest so as to not annoy him too much.

See, CapitanGarlic is an apothecary and herbalist. He likes to go around the forest listening to the birds' singing and collecting different herbs. Naturally, ADG's brutality towards the nature annoys him, and so he tries to keep away from the woodcutter.

One of CapitanGarlic's best friends in the village is Sandman, the baker. May be the fact that they deal with different plants all the time brought them together or maybe something else. But the fact of the matter remains. Now, Sandman produces bread, doughnuts, and bagels for the whole village. Not only does he make those in his bakery that is located just between Guynemer's smithy and Kassiopeia's tailor shop, but also he runs the mill located down the hill on the river, where he brings wheat from Frozzy and grinds it to flour. It is often hard for Sandman to transport the stuff: first, the grain from Frozzy's farm to the mill, and then the flour from the mill to Downtown, where the bakery is, - so he often asks rah for help.

See, rah is the village's inn-keeper. He's got a couple boys working for him, who help the visitors with the baggage, and those boys are great for carrying sacks of grain and flour, too, and rah is always more than happy to get rid of them for at least that amount of time which it takes them to transport the goods for Sandman. They are much too loud and annoy rah greatly. They also sometimes steal stuff from the kitchen and that is the worst thing. Some guest in the inn would order, say, a steak, and the cook would make one, and then one of the luggage boys would come and eat it. Could be nothing worse than that. And speaking of steaks, rah's inn has the best steaks in the village. Rah personally chooses the meat for them, and doesn't buy it through Zopperoni's but goes directly to the butcher - alva.

Alva's butcher shop is located just across the road from Zopperoni's shop, so the transportation of meat is usually not a problem. Alva is well loved among the villagers thanks to the steaks and sausages he makes. He is truly a master of his trade, and even the village priest comes to his shop every week, once or twice, to stock up on sausages.

The Priest's name is Pave. He is a good man, though doesn't spend too much time in the church lately - people are coming less and less to say a prayer and there is just nothing to do. Although Pave never sits idly. Often times, he is engaged in intellectual disputes on the topic of religion, life, universe, and about everything else you can think of, with the village teacher - Jon Miller - and sometimes even teaches the kids English or math himself.

Jon Miller is a newcomer to the village. He has only spent about a month teaching and some three weeks of his work were spent here. As with any newcomer to a small community, some people don't like him much, although he has gotten to be friends with the priest, whom he considers the only intelligent man around. Otherwise, he likes his work, and enjoys teaching the children, and they like him, too.

One last person of importance, but certainly not least, is Comrade Tassadar. He is the village's banker. He loans people in need money, and collects taxes from the local richards... That's pretty much all there is to say about him.

Zopperoni · January 17, 2004, 20:56

Quote:

Originally posted by vovan
Alva's butcher shop is located just across the road from Zopperoni's shop, so the transportation of meat is usually not a problem.

Hey Alva, here's 20 pounds of beef... CATCH!

Quote:

One last person of importance, but certainly not least, is Comrade Tassadar. He is the village's banker.

Ooh, a communist banker, I suppose all our accounts have the same amount of money on them?

Tuberski · January 17, 2004, 21:19

Quote:

Originally posted by Zopperoni

Hey Alva, here's 20 pounds of beef... CATCH!

Quote:

One last person of importance, but certainly not least, is Comrade Tassadar. He is the village's banker.

Ooh, a communist banker, I suppose all our accounts have the same amount of money on them?

And you have to wait in lines two blocks long to access your account!

Damn, I miss Apolyton!

ACK!

Spaced Cowboy · January 17, 2004, 21:52

Awesome bckdrop, vovan...I'm impressed. BTW, my wife goes by cowgirl.

Skanky Burns · January 17, 2004, 22:30

Guynemer · January 18, 2004, 01:11

Awesome work, vovan.

Just so y'all know, in about 12 hours or so I'll once again be gone for a while... have another interview for a pediatric residen... er... blacksmithy apprenticeship, this time in Columbus, Ohio. I'll probably be out of touch for about 24 hours; however, the kindly blacksmith will be putting me up in a ritzy hotel, which might offer net service; if so I'll be more than happy to docpile away.

CapitanGarlic · January 18, 2004, 01:29

Miracle cures and wonderous herbs! Whee!

rah · January 18, 2004, 04:40

Yeah, very good job starting it out with the village descriptions.

Well done.

Nubclear · January 18, 2004, 04:56

Quote:

And you have to wait in lines two blocks long to access your account!

Hmm? Accounts? I thought all the money people were giving me was gifts to the glorious Chairman!

Pave · January 18, 2004, 05:27

Good work on the background story, vovan, keeps us interested until the Mafia strikes

alva · January 18, 2004, 05:34

Nice story indeed, funny how they are always set in the past.

Quote:

MattH is a thatcher.

A transvestite politician eyy, hmm, must be the mafia...

Quote:

where there is a nice meadow for them to graze. Some people even think Jamski treats his sheep a little too lovingly.

Nikolai · January 18, 2004, 07:28

Great opening story!

Drogue · January 18, 2004, 09:18

Nice

Nikolai · January 18, 2004, 10:21

The only thing I'm a bit worried for now, is this "up six o'clock" thing...

BTW, have you seen the latest news?

BREAKING NEWS!
Writing on the chalk board found, saying "Mmmmmmuuuhahaha! I win, you're dead!"! Joke or mafia?

Jamski · January 18, 2004, 10:49

Quote:

See, ******* was the village's Mafia agent. If ever anyone in the village of A____ needed to be brutally murdered in a horiffic fashion, he was the one to do it. Because of this he was always very respected in the village, and was often see leaving the bar without paying.

Baaa!

-Jam

Skanky Burns · January 18, 2004, 11:17

So not only is he killing people in the village for no good reason, but he is not paying for his drinks as well?!? He must die!

Jamski · January 18, 2004, 11:39

Sssssssh! Don't draw attention to yourself

-Jam

vovan · January 18, 2004, 13:19

Rah woke up in the morning. He normally sleeps in one of the rooms on the second floor of his inn, and last night wasn't an exception. Rah slept in today, because last night was busy indeed: quite a few villagers came to the inn for a steak dinner, and even though they weren't staying at the inn, rah decided to treat them. Plus, Skanky brought some ale, and Sandman brought some muffins for tea. It was a great dinner and lasted well into the night.

Rah stood up from the bed and yawned. The sun was shining through the window and the inn-keeper was quite in a jolly mood, although his head ached a little. He went out into the hall and headed towards the bathroom, humming a tune he must have heard the night before. And then he heard some strange sound coming from one of the rooms. The kind of sound you hear when one of the sloppy guests forgets to close the window in his room and the wind bangs it against the frame. Rah frowned. He opened the door of the room that the sound was coming from and saw that, indeed, the window was open. He shook his head and went over to close it. And then he frowned again, recalling that there was noone staying in this room last night. As he looked out into the street, he saw, to his horror, a body lying in the dirt, as if it was thrown out of this very window!

Rah ran down the stairs and outside to see who it belonged to. What he saw wasn't pretty.

On the road lay, in a puddle of his own blood, face down in the mud, Drogue. His neck and hands were the kind of bluish color you see in horror movies, and as rah bent over to look closer, he saw that there was a string tied tighly around Drogue's neck. Apparently, the killer put a loop over his victim's neck and then used some long strong object to twist the loop so it would tighten up around the neck. The thin string cut the flesh in places and embedded itself into the neck of Drogue. Rah was hoping that there may still be a remote chance of the old man being alive, and flipped the body over to its back. He then wished he hadn't done so, for the face of the dead man was mutilated beyond recognition. It looked as if it had been hit with a hammer numerous times. The lower jaw was twisted to the side, and the chin was missing. The nose was also taken cleanly off, so one could see into Drogue's nasal cavity, with only a piece of cartilage sticking oddly out of the face. The eyes were gouged and one of the cheek bones broken. There was also a hole in the forehead through which one could see some brain matter...

If rah had already eaten anything this morning, he would have, without doubt, promptly produced the breakfast upon this sight.

Well, at least that is the story he told the villagers upon inquiry as to why he was the one to report the murder.

It is now day, and the villagers decided to hold a vote and choose the murderer from among them to commit vigilante justice, for there is no other policeman left in the village and a murder of such brutality warrants immediate action in response, which would not be nearly prompt enough if the villagers were to send for police from a neighboring town.

Name	Status	Vote
Nikolai	Alive	Guynemer
Zopperoni	Alive	Guynemer
MattH	Alive	Guynemer
Skanky Burns	Alive	Zopperoni
Guynemer	Alive	Comrade Tassadar (by PM)
CaptainGarlic	Alive	Guynemer
Frozzy	Alive	Guynemer
Pave	Alive	N/A
Kassiopeia	Alive	ADG
alva	Alive	Guynemer
Jamski	Alive	Zopperoni
Jon Miller	Alive	Zopperoni
Sandman	Alive	Kassiopeia
Spaced Cowboy	Alive	Guynemer
ADG	Alive	Pave
~~Drogue~~	Dead (Mafia - Round 1)	~~N/A~~
Comrade Tassadar	Alive	Guynemer
rah	Alive	Guynemer
Village Status: Day
Votes: Guynemer - 9 Zopperoni - 3 ADG - 1 Kassiopeia - 1 Pave - 1 Comrade Tassadar - 1

Jamski · January 18, 2004, 14:06

When I saw Drogue was the police I knew the Mafia would target him.
Actually, Vovan might have had the kill orders already when he wrote that. Hmmm.

No obvious candidates yet...

Hmmm, the face probably looked like a pizza. I blame Zopperoni

Nubclear · January 18, 2004, 16:26

Hmm....While I working (in the bank, obviously), I noticed someone coming up and spending much time withdrawing cash....
However I really thought nothing of it until today....Because the person I saw was Zopperoni

Nikolai · January 18, 2004, 16:50

difficult... Should I listen to a communistic banker and Jamski, which seems to just be guessing?

I guess I'll think of it while I fish.

Kassiopeia · January 18, 2004, 17:11

We ought to play the tie-break game for the first two turns, so I vote ADG.

Sandman · January 18, 2004, 18:02

Throttled with some sort of cord, eh? That sounds like the work of a tailor to me. I vote for Kassiopeia.

Drogue · January 18, 2004, 18:10

I can't vote

Maybe I'm the mafia, and I committed suicide?

MattH · January 18, 2004, 18:10

Quote:

It looked as if it had been hit with a hammer numerous times.

It could only be the blacksmith- Guynemer!!

vovan · January 18, 2004, 18:20

Quote:

Originally posted by Drogue

I can't vote

Maybe I'm the mafia, and I committed suicide?

In that case, I would have chosen another mafia by now. Although, only the current Mafia and I know if that is really the case.

Skanky Burns · January 18, 2004, 18:22

I like that reasoning. And Kassiopeia's instinct that we should get back to ties for the first two rounds. Afterall, we got the mafia round 1 before and only ended up spawning a new one.

So I vote Guynemer, the clues sort of point to him.

Zopperoni · January 18, 2004, 18:50

Severe trauma and asphyxiation. The mafia sure has trouble with authority.
Guynemer seems to have the tools for the job, as Skanky pointed out, so my vote goes out to him.

Quote:

Originally posted by Drogue

I can't vote

Maybe I'm the mafia, and I committed suicide?

Hm, mafia and police at the same time, eh? Sounds like conflict of interest there

Frozzy · January 18, 2004, 19:35

Guynemer