Keep in mind we don't know which other cop took it. I don't have a very good answer - maybe it's not the stats cop and the other cop uses the item to run some sort of divination on. In any case, I suspect whichever cop it was can better answer the 'what did they learn from a chess game.'

My character is only middlin' smart, but then lots of chess players wouldn't get in to MIT. The best connection I can see is the 'Knight' + chess angle. But even that's a guess.

Yog added a joke in the vein of "Your chess set is gone, alas, and you were just about to challenge Yogsloth to a game." He doesn't need to actually bus him all the way to lynch today. With the deadline looming he just needs to add confusion, which he can do by splitting the vote. Interesting play though.

Whoa things are happening! I'm going to make a long post which will be in a little bit.

~8 hours, give or take.

I'll do the usual full-flavor and vote count in about 2 hours.

Ok, maybe I'm getting a little too jumpy.

Uh, ya you are right, reading it again it doesn't quite make sense. What I was trying to say is that since we can't really know how many cops are on one side, we cannot determine anything from how many cops visited you (except maybe that one was town). I am not suggesting that there are four town cops and you are scum, they were two different possibilities.

I couldn't, like, whip up some sandwiches for it or something?

LOL. I do not know what to say.

The first seems likely, I don't see how the second could be wrong, and the third... ya it's an assumption.

You could be on to something, it is a little weird that they haven't interacted at all, I don't know if you are making too big a deal out of it though.

I can't shake the feeling that Lifthrasil is scum. I am not sure what it is, and I hate it when other people say this, but it is kind of a gut feeling. Add that to Bookwyrm's numbers on No-Lynch, and I think my best move is to Vote: Lifthrasil

Also waiting on CSPVG to respond to bler, should be interesting.

All of that fits together very neatly, but something is bothering me about it. I'm not sure if you're putting together a string of coincidences, or if you've actually found something. Problem is, I'm feeling the time crunch too much to calmly work it out.

Reading over your analysis again, I think my issue is that some of these things look incidental. For example: Has anyone else not interacted with another player until late in the game? Was Lift the first one to bring up the stats cop idea?

My last question would be: Why Lift over CSPVG (or vice versa)? What is the tipping point to choose him first, your previous suspicion?

Because of the time limit, I'm going to post this now. I need to read through from JMich's 786, and I'll place responses as soon as I can.

Remember, you felt the same way about Trent ;P

My dear bler, I find your focus on my lack of focus on Lifthrasil incredibly interesting. So, instead of mentioning the numerous other people that I've discussed things with, you pick the one I haven't? Perhaps to you this is a notable hole in my game, but I don't recall anyone other than JMich and Dedo having any serious problems with Lifth's game thus far. So, why pick me?

On the Lifth front, I don't recall him ever asking me anything specifically, and while I've found his play to be slightly deviant from the 'normal' Lifth, I can't say that he's raised that many flags for me. So what is there for me to address when I don't find Lifthrasil to be the most scummy player there is? Should I respond to the every word of someone that uses my own words (sort of) infrequently, whilst I leave people that I find to be far more scummy to go about their business?

As for me asking you to come up with your claim first (which I am surprised that you did), I again find it interesting that you've gone for me over QuadrAlien, who responded with something along the lines of,"I haven't anything to say until CSPVG has said something." Is that not equally suspicious.

Moving along, I wanted you to tell me what you thought you'd found, as my PM contains not a word about the contents of my backpack. So, while I suspected you of being the person that went through my bag (because of the hints you dropped earlier today), I have just learnt, along with everyone else, what was apparently in there. Though I expect that you're lying about that.

Furtermore, I was hoping for a full claim on your part first because, as you have guessed, I am the stats cop. This sort of power isn't worth much if all of the people I investigate don't try to claim (at least to my mind), and more particularly lie while claiming, first.

So, for my claim then:

I'm Digdug Atebit, Orc Shaman (Town Stat cop), STR 4/ AGI 6/ CHR 4/ INT 6.

I was the only intelligent orc in my village. I knew the difference between good and evil, and so learnt the spiritual ways of my people. This is why I have the ability I do (which, more on that later). All of this studying and no bashing innocent villagers to death with a donkey's jawbone has left me weaker than your regular orc (seriously, death and mayhem are a real workout). Needless to say, it's pretty boring being the only orc in the whole settlement that doesn't think drinking and raiding is the height of entertainment, I leapt at the wizards offer to join his party.

My ability is to use my shaman powers to look into the aura of my target, thus determining the values of their stats. My PM alludes to this 'tickling', which I thought of as joking at the time (this appears to be true, if HijacK and bler are to be believed).

I investigated HijacK on night one because I felt that he was 'off', as I've stated at least twice in the past. It's also why I found his talking about telekensis very interesting, as his stats are: STR 10/ AGI 3/ CHR 2/ INT 2. Interestingly, it says that I wanted to get the information before he became too flustered or angry. If I remember correctly the NK on night 1 was crushed by a boulder. I would have liked to have ask him something about strength, but thought it would be too much of a give away. I must admit that I immediately thought Mafia Strongman when I saw that he had a strength that high.

On night two I investigated bler on one on my 'hunches' that he wasn't quite the same bler I'd played with last game. His satas are: STR 7/ AGI 6/ CHR 5/ INT 5. As I was reading him, I felt that he was (now keep in mind, this was during our battle with the goblins) anxious at first, but he seemed to sense something was watching him and became (again, not too strangely) confused.

If you want to go ahead and kill me, I don't really know what I could say to stop you at this point (or if you'll have enough time to kill me). Then again, perhaps being eaten by an Australian-sized spider isn't the worst way to go.

1) My counter would be, if you're hoping for something "stronger" on D4 to act on, what would that look like? Even if there is a town alignment cop, they would have to find a scum that shows as scum, claim, and be believed enough to get a wagon going. And then almost certainly be the NK on N4.

And of course have to hope scum don't take them out tonight. If there are 3 scum and dedo and I are not scum, that only leaves them 4 targets to pick from to try and hit the right one. Possibly less since they can also likely rule out either Leonard and/or Hijack. It's possible they have as good as a 1 in 2 chance at nailing the hidden cop tonight.

I agree, I'd like it to be more concrete, but there are any number of variables that could mean we have less time than JMich's math shows. What if one of them is vengeful? What if it's 3+1 and the one has a survival win condition that works just as well with scum as town? There's no reason to assume they'd cooperate with lynching scum rather than just laying low.

2) I don't have adalia's script on my work cop, but from what I did last night I'm 99% sure the answer is yes, Lift was the first to hint at a "stats investigator." When I searched for "stats cop" I was confused because the first hit wasn't til much later, so I had to search for 'stats' and go back and dig through a bunch of posts until i found his. As Leonard notes, yeah...it took a while.

3) Fair question. Part of it is simply that's where my vote already was.

But step back and look at the bigger picture - if my analysis holds water then which of the two is more dangerous? Either Lift has an unknown power, and/or he's doing the NKs. If he is doing the NK it's possible he's untrackable. At this point a stats cop doesn't seem to help them as much as whatever lift would do.

@CSPVG So, you're an orc? I try not to be racist but...

I actually didn't have serious problems with Lifth. Some people tried to sold the notion of us having an alliance. Even though I can't say that is true I also can't say I had any problem with him, either.

Any idea on why this tickling is perceived as "painful" and "terrible" by the targets?

That's the most interesting point. Why didn't you say something? Do you believe your ability is powerful enough to keep this to yourself in order to keep it around for a bit longer? Did you expect some better stats to appear in next investigations that are more suggestive?

A 3 scum + 1 neutral survivor means the game ends at 6 players, not 8 (assuming of course none of them is lynched).

The obvious one would be an SK who is sitting and waiting.

-Maybe I'm nitpicking too much, but you seem to be assuming that the investigative roles will be telling the truth about their investigations, assuming they mention their results at all.
-I'm seeing a fair sized split in people's opinions on Lift's claim of protection. One group of people seem to want those that were protected (or doing the protecting) to keep their mouths shut. And another group of people seem to be counting that lack of extra verification against Lift.

This was not meant as an accusation, just an observation based on the assumptions presented. As I said, I'd been kicking around the idea for awhile now.

I'm using mafia as an easy reference handle to refer to a specific group of scum. All mafia are scum, but not all scum are necessarily mafia (with SK being the easy example). Any anti-town neutrals would be included in scum, but not all neutrals are necessarily scum (ex. a neutral survivor that just needs to be alive when another side wins).

Even if we mislynch, mafia hits town, AND SK hits town, we don't lose unless all townies are removed by the 3 kills. If mafia tie up the numbers, then we're in a bad situation because mafia just need to eliminate SK for a win, but we're not entirely out of the running. With a mafia unfriendly SK, each would need to eliminate the other in order to secure the game.

Unless we have a vig (on top of everything else), then our only weapon for eliminating scum is the lynch. The only way to securely get an extra night of investigations is to No Lynch twice. If we No Lynch today, then lynch tomorrow, we've basically forfeited the main benefit you are touting for No Lynch (an extra night). I strongly disagree with you on the risk/reward. We MIGHT get an extra night of investigations (that will hopefully be useful) in exchange for giving up two chances to kill scum, and we might lose the investigators we're depending on while waiting. In return, we're running the risk of straight up losing RIGHT NOW.

Gah. Stupid deadline. I'm sure Yogsloth and the dead thread, at least, are amused by all this running around with flailing arms.

JMich and Wyrm, you are having a lovely discussion but your opinions on the things that are happening right now will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, guys! U da greatest!

Convince me your vote is on a scum, and you'll have my vote too. Alternatively, convince me any information we'll get from the investigators will be useless, and I will (reluctantly) vote.