> > > If he says yes, and Morrolan and the Organization work something > > > out on who gets to kill Mellar [*], then Vlad walks up to Mellar at > > > the party and says something to shake him up, like, "There won't > > > be any war. Your plan has failed, half-breed." Daymar does the > > > mind-probe. If it doesn't work, back to plan B, depending on what > > > the Demon insists on. > > > > This puts Mellar seriously on his guard, making Vlad's backup plan > > even less likely to work. > > Mellar's got to be as much on his guard as he can possibly be. Not necessarily. So far, as far as he knows, his plan is working swimmingly. If Vlad displayed such intimate knowledge of his plan, I suspect that would surprise him, and thus make him more wary. > > For instance, what if Mellar decides to just let out the information > > disgracing the Dzur -- and lets it be known that this information > > only came out because of machinations between the Jhereg and the > > Dragon. He might end up with a three-way war! > > What machinations? The Jhereg can take full credit for figuring > out Mellar's plan and deciding to hold off. Morrolan isn't > involved at all, much less the Jhereg, unless they came to an > agreement on killing Mellar, and no one has to reveal that. The machinations don't have to be documentable, or even actual. They just have to be convincing enough to get a gang of rash Dzur to start attacking. I think that's well within Mellar's abilities, especially if he's considering that sort of backup plan. Alexx Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employers. alexx at carolingiaSPAMBL@CK.org http://www.panix.com/~alexx "...I'm finding it harder and harder to avoid the conclusion that if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, three or four anti-avian comments per issue don't stop it from *being* a duck." -- Dani Zweig