--- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > > > On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Jerry Friedman wrote: > > > > > --- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > > > > > > ambition. SKZB may know someone like Vlad (perhaps from shaving). > > > > Shaving? > > I meant, from looking in the mirror. Duh. > > Well, I still had trouble with Mellar's plan. And it seems that > > someone should be able to find Vlad with witchcraft or sorcery or > > the kind of combination he and Cawti and Daymar use to find Mellar. > > Make him a "homing" amulet or something. Or use the method at the > > end of _Orca_. > > Vlad comments somewhere that the Jhereg would find it humiliating to go > to > a witch. Note that V may have a countercharm. Note also that one of > Verra's aspects might be helping to shield him. As far as the trick > with > Daymar is concerned, this might require Daymar. And perhaps witches > wouldn't like helping the Jhereg go after Vlad. The _Orca_ method > requires contact with Loiosh - sort of a Catch-22, also a limitation on > the use of witchcraft. I can imagine that V cleaned up all traces of > his > DNA at the end of _Phoenix_. Sorry, what I wrote was unclear. I meant that at the end of _Jhereg_, one of the good guys should be able to find Vlad and help him fight Mellar, since Vlad would presumably be cooperating with the search. > > One of these days I'm going to post what Vlad *really* should have > > done in _Jhereg_. But it might be reasonable that he missed it, > > considering the pressure of events. > > Why wait? The list is going to be swamped with _TEoDM_ talk soon... _SL_, as I was recently told. Anyway, one of these days... > > > Put the damn rock in a different room. Use a concealment not > subject to > > > Spellbreaker. > > > > Then Morrolan and Aliera track the flow of sorcerous energy starting > > from the amorphia stream, or Aliera uses Pathfinder, or they wander > > into the storage room with Verra and she says, "Kyrancteur!" (I kind > > of like that last one.) Why is one of these better than another? > > > Your elaboration requires some minimal intelligence from M/A for once > and > makes the J a bit more believable. Maybe Vlad could have used some of > that interpersonal intelligence to figure out the viewpoint to find the > stone. For that matter, he might have communed with the stone - he says > it might be sentient... I agree with you that it's a bit of a cop-out to have the Jenoine keep moving in such mysterious ways their wonders to perform, but I don't mind them thinking that an illusion spell is just as good as putting the trellanstone outside in an artistically chosen spot next to the stream. M. and A. aren't supposed to be all that intelligent, outside of fighting and sorcery. Possibly Brust missed a bet by not having Vlad figure out the Jenoine's motives, but then maybe he's not at the Lady Teldra level yet. He's still working on appropriate behavior to hominids and reptiles. > > Sethra, yes, but have Morrolan and Aliera been thwarting them at all? > > Sethra says GW-wielders are important, I believe S. Right. But I didn't get the impression that that made M. and A. formidable enough not to be cute--and in fact they and their weapons damage the Jenoine less than a kitten can damage a person. > > > I think Vlad is altered in _I_, as opposed to growing. Ok, he has > > > learned some things - things he might have been expected to know > > > before the novel. > > > > I think having a little more consideration for others counts as > > growing. > > But does he have that? Before the Issola injection? In some ways, especially in _Phoenix_, _Athyra_, and _Orca_. Also _Taltos_, come to think of it. But he doesn't seem to connect it with manners (despite his ability to piss off Morrolan when necessary), or with planned public spirit. > > Steven keeps saying he likes Vlad, so I doubt Vlad will alter out > > of recognition. > > I'm just saying that in future we're going to be asking the > Necromancer's > question a lot - Is that you, or is it Teldra talking? I suspect it won't be that much, but we'll see. Jerry Friedman __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html