Did we win? Not yet? Come on, government, get online!

I bet Lift is still online and waiting because he drew L.

Braaaaasas, I see you:D

What is taking so long?? Did we win already or what?

Lift logged in.
Brasas logged in later.
Waiting for Zeo

Maybe he's eating bagels under the conference table again.

Basil and Big Brass rise up as the latter rings a gong produced from his robes to signify that a decision has been reached.
"Good members of the council," begins Brass, "we believe that there is no need for this incessant fighting and worrying about taking power. It's clear to us that the power of this artifact should most definitely be used to better humanity. In fact, I have even taken the time to produce this."
Brass places a bizarre, many-jointed dull metal stick on the table.
"From what I've understood of the artifact's description, this should allow us to harness it's power safely. In fact, I wish to try it now. Bring in the alien device!"

As the soldiers exit to retrieve the artifact, the Puzzlemaster's eyes grow wide and he rushes to Wyrm's side.
"Well, Zeo...

It would appear that the government has passed a liber-"

"Hey! That...that looks exactly like a trunzel arm!"
"A what?"
"A trunzel arm! By golly, I believe he just forged a trunzel arm right there!"
"You mean that's a real thing? I thought you were-"
"No time for that! I think if we nab it and make a break for the exit, you can cause a distraction, giving me just enough time to Puzzle-Bot and get us out of here!"
"Wait, what? Why am I the distraction? What am I even supposed to-"
"Oh, crap! Here come the soldiers! Quick, act natural!"
"Natural?"
"SILENCE, STRUDEL!" screams the Puzzlemaster, slapping Wyrm across the face.

The soldiers enter and gently set down what appears to be a miniature microwave on the table.
"Hey!" says zeogold, jumping up from his seat and forgetting his accent. "Puzzle-Bot's popcorn maker! Oh, thank God! I thought I'd lost that thing forever!"
"You have indeed lost it forever, you blind fool!" cries Adalia, brandishing a pistol.
"Huh? What are y- ...er...VHAT IS ZE MEANING OF ZIS INTERRUPTION?! GUARDS! SEIZE HIM! GUARDS! ...guards...?"
The Puzzlemaster turns around to see that the soldiers are incapacitated. One is held at cutlass-point by Captain Dedo, the other has the sharpened, diamond-encrusted crucifix of Bishop Bling at his throat.
"Now, you sniveling idiot," sneers Adalia, "you sit back down and be quiet. And drop the stupid accent!"
"Aw, c'mon, boss. Not the accent. I like the-"
"SHUT UP! Chief Blotunga, are you ready?"
"Ready?" asks the Chief. "Ready for what?"
"To take over the world like we've planned for you to do! With the power of this artifact, you can at last release the mighty creatures you command from your frozen world!"
"Aha! Me like!"
"I'm afraid you won't like it very much when you hear what he's planning, my monosyllabic friend," coos the Countess.
"What?"
"I believe I haven't properly explained, have I? You see, my arriving here so quickly is no coincidence. I am the sister of the Countess of Evensburg, the one who was disgraced, driven out of her land, and came back under the guise of the Count of Monte Cristigale. Before she dashed off to this little group, I caught wind of her plans. Apparently, she was to wait for the Chief to take power and then kill him and institute her own reign of terror. I came here to stop her, but I see you've already gone and poisoned the old dear and decided to take up where she left off."
"Oh. Me no like that."
"What lovely detective work, but I'm afraid that won't save you or any of the rest of this council," says Adalia. "We'll be taking both the artifact and the brass lever and leaving. The world can rest at our feet without the help of the Chief."
"Uh...not to butt in here my dude, but you know the thing is only good for makin' popcorn, right? For real, I've tried bacon, reheating bagels, even some Easy Bake Oven recipes, but it only does popcorn."
"QUIET, YOU! Captain! Bishop! Dispose of the soldiers and let's be off!"

Suddenly, before anybody can make a move, the three journalists in the corner exchange a glance and then raise their cameras at once, synchronizing their flashes to blind the Fascists.
"QUICKLY, STRUDEL! ZIS IS OUR OPPORTUNITY!"
"Didn't he tell you to drop the accent? What's even your plan? They'll stop rubbing their eyes any second!"
"THIS!"
https://i.imgur.com/ne1zQ52.jpg
"Now, get the popcorn-maker and run!"
"Wait! What about the Rapunzel-arm thing? I thought we needed that to get home!"
"Oh, yeah, I guess that's probably important. Get that too! But don't forget the popcorn-maker!"
"Why can't YOU carry anything?!"
But Wyrm's question goes unanswered, as the Puzzlemaster has already dashed into the hallway and begins viciously banging on Puzzle-Bot with a wrench on all sides. As angry voices come from down the hall, followed by a volley of gunfire, zeogold slams the trunzel arm into to the bellywhacked floorbrush and spends an extra 15 seconds carefully aligning the popcorn maker in Puzzle-Bot's tummy.
"Let's get out of here already! They're coming around the corner now!"
Both of them grab one of the bot's arms and Zeogold presses a button as they're surrounded by a brilliant flash of light. Approximately 37 seconds and an ample amount of popcorn-making later, they arrive back in the Puzzlemaster's laboratory, disheveled, but unhurt.

An awkward minute of silence and head-scratching passes. Bookwyrm glares angrily at Zeogold. One of his eyes begin to twitch, and his fingers curl. The Puzzlemaster breaks the silence, expressing profound wisdom in his carefully-selected words.
"....y'know, I was just thinking, if I adjust the trunzel arm a bit, maybe this time I can-"
"'STRUDEL', EH?!"

A cool breeze passes over the afternoon. The flowers in the garden of the Puzzlemaster's mansion gaze happily upwards into the gleaming sun. The peaceful sounds of a singing bird, a chittering cicada, and a screaming Bookwyrm chasing Zeogold up and down the mansion with a wrench drift along the wind...

The liberals have won the game!

The fascists were:
5. Bishop Bling (ZFR)
6. Captain Dedo (dedoporno)
8̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶C̶o̶u̶n̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶M̶o̶n̶t̶e̶ ̶C̶r̶i̶s̶t̶i̶g̶a̶l̶e̶ ̶(̶c̶r̶i̶s̶t̶i̶g̶a̶l̶e̶)̶
8. Adalia the Bookkeeper (adaliabooks)
10. Chief Blotunga (blotunga) - HITLER

Observer thread:
https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/QNs6rfrZYTpPd

Thank you all for playing! I do hope you guys had fun. There were quite a number of rough patches and things seemed to get really intense and even stressful at times, but I'm glad to see things pulled through to the end. I hope there's no ill will left between anybody and perhaps we can do this again sometime.

Yay! We won!

I'm a bit surprised that RW wasn't scum. I thought if ZFR is fascist, then RW would be with him. They seemed to be in league. Well played in stringing him along, ZFR!

(and RW seemed to be under a lot of stress when it went bad for the fascists. But perhaps he's just under a lot of stress IRL and it was a coincidence of timing)

Quick impressions:

Dedo! U had me :D you right sneaky bastard you...

ZFR! Gosh, above anything else I'm just relieved. If you were Lib I would be super embarrassed.

RW... well, not sure what to say. Sorry to have pissed you off that much, the backhanded compliment was intended to piss off scum. Sorry again and I hope no hard feelings.


First post mortem:

This was not so far from going the other way... IF we drew only F I was thinking Blotunga would be a safe pick for chancellor o_0

Looks like the seating order really damaged the F team. Hitler had no chance to really get in the game...

Congrats to the liberals. Unfortunately I think ZFR sealed our fate when he tentatively turned down chancellorship and also we had a bit of bad luck at points.
Yea, I also think that, we had a late turn and by then it was already far into the game. Maybe next time...

Finally!

Er... I mean.... good game everyone!

Since the game is over I'd like to apologize to supplementscene and greeklover for going after them with such intensity.

Congratulations, liberals, including RW, who would have thought:)

Fascists were unlucky that Hitler was in position 10 and didn't get in the game, but this was also thanks to us for sticking to the plan and cycling to me as fast as possible.

Dedo, you disappointed me. Why didn't you say brasas is fascist with your investigation? You had already passed a F, and you weren't Hitler, there was no reason to keep low profile. Saying brasas is fascist would ensure Adalia as president, she would make the score 3-2 and who knows what would happen next. And think of all the show we missed between RW and brasas in that case:D

Zeo and Bookwurm, thanks for setting this up and for all your time and effort. I had a lot of fun and had no problem with trash talking etc. Everything was part of the game so all is well :)

gg everyone. I'll post a bit from home.

Congrats, libs, you played an awesome game!

Fellow fascists, better luck next time. It was still a valiant try :)

Some comments from my end:

I think the table setup hit us pretty hard having so many liberals in line during the first few governments which gave them a chance to gain lib cred while it didn't allow too much of the same for the Fs. If we had a bit more variance thing might have gone in a different direction.

Cristi going awol from the very start pretty much condemned her slot which stuck for the rest of the game. Pretty much one F down - adalia did an awesome job but his was essentially locked out of governments based on legacy.

ZFR's reluctance for taking part in the first government was probably a mistake which locked him out of future governments as well. Another F down.

Both adalia and ZFR did a great job with what they had after, to make noise and muddle the water for the Ls.

I feel Blotunga could have tried a little bit harder to put himself in a more trusted position. I really don't know how we could have tried to set him up for a Chancellor unless it came from the liberals. It's a lot easier to support someone who is putting a good show to begin with than to do it for them.

As for what I tried to do at which I both succeeded and failed - I tried to get into a very open conflict with my buddies who were under heavy suspicion and basically bus them while buddying and pocketing trusted liberals. After I assured one F was passed my personal F objective was basically done so I was planning to get exposed (maybe even investigated) which would by extension spread distrust over my liberal buddies and potentially clean up things a bit for my fascist buddies. RW was my strongest asset in this regard as he kept a very visible camp separation in the spotlight at all times. Scene also helped quite a lot. At some point I was afraid I'm being too obvious and Brasas may pick up but it seems things never got too far to blow up in my face.

Unfortunately there was never an opportune moment to blow myself up and I believe adalia and ZFR decided to not confront me but just ride along and support my "trusted" position as a liberal.

Fun fact: I don't know if ZFR slipped when he tried to calm RW down when he told him he is at the verge of winning anyway but I was about to make the exact same thing intentionally to blow myself up. ZFR just beat me to it :D
Adalia alone was not enough. ZFR was also needed. The only way I could have that was to team with Brasas so I can drag him down upon exposure while pushing me buddies up. At least that's how I saw it. Maybe it was a mistake :)

After you picked up where RW left, I was convinced that either you and greek are definitively in different camps (with a preference for greek being liberal and you not). Who would have thought that you all three were liberal?

All in all, good game!

Thank you for hosting, zeogold!