On Tue, 8 Oct 2002, Davis, Iain E. wrote: >On Tue, 8 Oct 2002, David Silberstein wrote: > >> But the water wasn't modified deliberately, as far as we are told. >> It's just water, from the ground, that hasn't been exposed to >Actually, that's not strictly true. There was a discussion between Vlad >and Savn about places of power, presumably where prior magics had been >performed, they mention that the place that Loraan did his necromatic >work would probably be one of those places. One could assume that the >water flowing through caves where "necromancy" has been performed >extensively, taints the water, and for some reason exposure to "light" >(light confuses the issue, given the "overcast") mitigates the effect. Good point; I had forgotten about that. Although Vlad doesn't say that the Dark Water was affected by the prior necromancy. >Hmm. Was the water flowing? I can't remember. Or was it in stagnant >pools? That could be the critical difference, and actually, I've read >something besides a Vlad novel where stagnant water was significant with >undead/magic (I no longer recall what, though). Yes; that's part of Athyra. I don't have the exact quote to hand, but it was something along the lines of actively flowing Dark Water would enhance the power of the undead, while "stagnant and contained" Dark Water would inhibit it. At the end, Polyi (Savn's sister) has some Dark Water "contained" in a lamp, which does seem to affect Loraan for the worse (he complains about it out loud to the Jhereg assassin). Loraan then kicks the lamp & breaks it, which seems to cause the water to flow enough to strengthen him again. I wonder if there might be some electrical analog involved where something static is an insulator, and moving is a conductor. Eh, not very likely, I guess.