Not going to lie - for a little bit last night I seriously considered saying to heck with it and voting for Roy for putting us in this mess

But I've been roleplaying Tim & Nick from the start, and Nick would never throw a friendly under the bus, so...

Endgame: God rest ye merry gentlemen; Let nothing you dismay!

As Charlie Chan went out the window, the rest of the detectives reacted. Two detectives lunged over and knocked a mask off of a lanky detective in a green shirt to reveal a patchy goatee and an unkempt mop of hair. Shaggy was a little bit taken aback. “Hey, man, like, what’s your problem.” Nick Diamond sighed and removed his mask, clearly fed up with bungling detectives. Of course, he’d been dealing with his brother his entire life, so he was accustomed to it. “All right, you got us. The jig is up.”

Eddie Valiant and Detective Pikachu both removed their masks. “Ha! We showed you guys after all! I can’t believe we had to come to this party without wearing our hats. Don’t you guys know that I’m balding? Why do you think I never take my hat off?” A small electric mouse chimed in. “Yeah, I need my hat. Without it, I look just like any other Pikachu. I’m a detective, guys! It’s like my whole thing!”

Nick was taken aback. “Do you really mean to tell me you have gone through all this trouble, hurt so many people, because you were upset about not wearing a hat?” “Our masks didn’t fit right with our hats on, and the host said we had to wear the masks! It’s shenanigans! If I can wear my hat through my entire movie, then I can wear my hat to a party!” “Is this how you all felt? Detective Chimp? Dick Tracy? Inspector Clouseau?” Nick asked. Detective Pikachu replied “yes, we all love our hats.” “Do you really mean to tell me even Sherlock Holmes and Odin were so upset about not getting to wear a hat that they conspired to ruin the party?” “It was Sherlock’s idea! He was the one running the thing.”

Nick sighed. “It just seems rather childish, don’t you think?”

RenegadeRoy has been eliminated! He was Shaggy from various Scooby Doo cartoon series (Town)

Grinner has been eliminated! He was Tim and Nick Diamond, from the children’s novel series The Diamond Brothers by Anthony Horowitz (Town)

“Finally, we can put our hats back on. My head’s been itchy for hours.”

Space Jawa has won the game! He was Detective Pikachu from the 2019 film Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (Mafia)

killingjoke101 has won the game! He was Eddie Valiant as portrayed by Bob Hoskins in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Mafia)

Eddie and Pikachu pulled out their hats. Eddie rocked a tall fedora, while Pikachu went with the classic deerstalker. How else would you know he was a detective?

Ah, well, it's looking like that's how it's going to shake out anyway heh. Almost voted for myself to end it.

A rumbling noise started to emanate from the fireplace. The parlor’s entire hearth slowly began raising with a mechanical clanking. Where the fireplace had once been, there was now what looked like the railing of a spiral staircase. The detectives recognized their host, now wearing a smoking jacket, still wearing his silver masquerade mask.

Nick spoke up first. “I knew you were still alive! And we figured out who you are! C. Auguste Dupin!”

With that, the host removed his mask to reveal a smile. He pulled a pair of green spectacles out of his pocket and donned them. “Yes indeed, Nick. I was most impressed with your acumen and powers of ratiocination. It’s a good thing your older brother brought you along. Let me fetch him for you.”

The remaining detectives looked behind Dupin to the top of the staircase. A man was approaching - it was Tim Diamond! He was still alive, and from the looks of it not too much the worse for wear.

“It’s been raining quite a bit recently; the ground outside is awfully soft, and has done well to cushion several falls.”

From the staircase more faces appeared: Inspector Clouseau, now rocking his trademark trilby; the unnamed detective restored from the form of a chicken; Angel, the vampire; Ella Lopez; Odin, wearing his wide brimmed wizard hat; Velma; Dick Tracy, complete with his trademark yellow fedora; Sherlock Holmes, wearing, of course, a deerstalker; Daisuke Kambe; Harry Du Bois, sobered up just a touch; Detective Chimp, matching his deerstalker to two of his compatriots; Encyclopedia Brown; Yusuke Urameshi; Harry Dresden, confused as to why people thought he wore a hat; and Charlie Chan.

“Velma, like, it’s good to see you, man! Are you ok!” “Yes, Shaggy, we’ve been in the basement watching you.”

“Indeed,” said Dupin. “It’s very much as Pikachu surmised. You all did manage to make quite a mess looking for those cameras, but you found very few of them, all things considered. I had originally planned to watch in the basement alone. I didn’t know a group of you would be so obsessed with the faux pas of wearing hats to a ball that you would resort to crashing the party! But I must admit, I enjoyed the company of my fellow detectives below as we watched you unravel the mysteries.”

“And your work was very impressive. But I think it’s most important to acknowledge those of you who solved the mystery I brought you here to solve: who was your host? And what were the circumstances of his murder? For a moment, I thought the mystery was perhaps a little too plain. A little too self-evident. But you all rose to the occasion finely. You discovered my true identity, and to those who I have not yet formally introduced myself, I am C. Auguste Dupin, at your service. But of course, you all arrived at that conclusion, thanks in no small part to Mr. Dresden and Mr. Diamond.”

“Mr. Diamond went further. Many of you had idly guessed that my murder was staged; but Mr. Diamond was the only one to lay out all the pieces. I turned out the lights and deployed a smoke bomb, and, slashing the chandelier’s rope, used the rope to slow my descent to the floor. I had on my person a bag containing several pints of my own blood, which I had been withdrawing for months and storing padlocked in my freezer. It was easy enough to open the bag and dump the blood before positioning myself in the pool. I had a squash ball under my arm to conceal my pulse, and the locking mask prevented you all from detecting my breath.”

viciousbuddha and Grinner solved the mystery of the host’s identity!

Grinner solved the mystery of the host’s murder!

Viciousbuddha has won the game!

Grinner has won the game!

“I must say, I quite enjoyed my viewing companions who joined me after they were removed from the playing field. My unnamed friend here was the first to recognize the significance of the unusual handprint drawings you all found in my library. Our young Mr. Edogawa correctly identified the purpose of the squash ball, and realized the intent of the cameras. And young Mr. Brown was the first to put together the drilled freezer and the fake blood, as well as the 22 place settings in the dining room.”

Honourable mentions to Vlad3theimpaler, K-Ness, and DarqFeonix, whose detective work in the DetectiveBackroom channel rivaled that of the active participants!

“That brings me to my next point. You’ve made quite a mess of my kitchen; I’m not sure there’s any food left, and in any case, the cookware and utensils are in such a disastrous state that preparing a meal would be rather arduous at this juncture. I suppose I can’t blame you; you can’t make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.

“Fortunately, it appears that the dining room has been left relatively untouched by your hijinks! It’s just about 8:30am, is it not? A perfect time for breakfast. Indeed, the caterers should have everything about set up just now. I’m sure they’ll be quite curious about the state of the mansion. Please, follow me.”

Dupin led the assembled 21 detectives from the parlor and through his library, into the front hallway and across the ballroom into the dining room. Sunlight was streaming in through the picture windows on the east wall. What was once an austere table with 22 place settings was now covered with all the trappings of a Parisian breakfast. Wine, champagne, and glass bottles of fruit juices and milk were chilling in buckets of ice. Tea and coffee had already been poured at each guest’s seat. Croissants covered four platters, two with chocolate and two without. There were fine fruits and berries; sliced meats; buttermilk pancakes, waffles, and crepes; an assortment of syrups and jams; cinnamon rolls, and yogurt. There was even a platter of omelettes.

“Please, take your seats. I do hope you have all enjoyed my rather unusual holiday celebration. Tonight was the longest night of the year, and we still didn’t manage to end our revelries before daybreak! But here’s to all of you, on this Winter Solstice. As you may know, I am quite enamored of the Night for her own sake. The longest night is a time for personal celebration, and I am glad this year I was able to include all of you, my successors.” The host once again raised his glass, “À votre santé”. A few of the detectives looked around nervously, but this time, the host merely waited for the others to raise their glasses, and they all drank a toast. It was the happiest season of all.

Thanks for playing!

I'll admit, I was a bit off my game on this one. Good win for the mafia. I'll be interested to see how the powers worked, etc. but I'm leaning that even with a million trackers that 7 mafia might have been too much.

Very nicely put together game though, Adam. Wish I was more dialed in.

It was definitely a lot, but here's my perspective: both mafia and town complained at points that the setup was stacked against them. That's a good indication of balance.

To be a little less glib, Day 8 could have been a win for the mafia, the town, or the SK. It was wide open with 6 players left. It was a close game. This was after the town voted out 2 of their own and town also nightkilled another town.

And town could have still won on Night 8 if mafia hit the wrong target, or Day 9 if they had voted before the mafia did. It was a very very close game, in the end.

The town started strongly and the mafia finished strongly, I think, is the best summation.

Very enjoyable and nicely done, Adamical.

I will admit to several points of maddening frustration over the course of the game, whether with clues or fellow players, but fun all around.

Although I do think this is the first time I've ended up "dying" from Grinner's Lament when someone else got lynched

First time for everything!

Oh yeah, I 100% agree. Just want to clarify I wasn't complaining so much as I was lamenting my own poor play lol... which I will right off as 100% RP haha

Also, to everyone, I kind of spoiled The Murders in the Rue Morgue in this game, but I tried my best to not spoil The Purloined Letter! If you're into mystery stories you should give it a read; it's rather short but is one of only 3 stories featuring Dupin (and the 2nd story, The Mystery of Marie Roget, is not really a detective story and is more Poe's commentary on a real murder of the time).

Poe is obviously public domain, and here's a link to The Purloined Letter for those interested:
https://www.eapoe.org/Works/stedwood/sw0304.htm

I'll post the roles later today; both sides had something totally broken that never got used.

Thanks for running, Adam. This was a fun game. I’m excited to see all of the roles.

Man, there were a few points where I thought we were goners as the Mafia. All of the tracking made it very difficult to fib about anything, so picking targets was tough.