Of course, you can always have the Serioli invent Kryptonite...how's that for a Deus ex? On 6/3/04 5:58 PM, "Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> wrote: > If the Taltos cycle was viewed as a series of RPG sessions, I'd be starting > to look a bit aghast at the game master. > > Let's face it, if Vlad was just a bit less likable, he'd be a munchkin and > the GM would be one of the worst Monty Haul types around. > > Vlad is so accomplished a fighter and assassin that hardly anything gets > past him. > He has friends and "connections" among the most powerful people of the > Empire. > In addition to his political contacts, he semi-regularly has face-to-face > contact with his patron deity. > There are seventeen Great Weapons in the entire world and somehow, despite > being an outsider twice over, he befriends three of the people who own those > weapons and is even instrumental in acquiring one of them. > As if that weren't enough, he's now the owner of what is arguably the most > powerful of the seventeen. (Iceflame might technically have a greater raw > power behind it, but even it held back rather than endanger its partner.) > > Now, there's a sort of poetic justice in the idea of a deity-killing knife > ending up in the hands of an assassin. However, it seems clear that > Godslayer/Lady Teldra is no ordinary Great Weapon (assuming you could think > of any such as "ordinary"). We can assume that Vlad is now immune to almost > any magical attack and he's shown time and again that he's well equipped to > handle the purely physical. > > Where does he go from there? On the face of it,he's invulnerable; he's > Superman. Or, to put it in RPG terms again, he's the 40th level assassin > with the magic knife that projects an anti-magic aura and pretty much any > other powers that he can talk the GM into giving him. About the only thing > left is for him to ascend to deity-hood himself. > > Either that, or start being faced with strictly emotional issues from here > on out as those generally can't be overcome with a knife. I'm just a bit > concerned that's where we're heading, especially given Mr. Brust's recent > entry in his blog about how he wasn't sure he liked where the current story > is heading , but if it gets too horrid, etc... I appreciate character > development as much as anyone, but IMO Vlad is at his most interesting when > he's NOT wallowing in angst and indecision. > > I guess I'm wondering what you do with a Great Weapon once you've written it > into the story. Any threat Vlad faces in the future has to be greater than a > Great Weapon (and there are few such threats) or else the plot has to > contrive to somehow separate Vlad from Lady Teldra. Considering that the > sword is linked to the soul of its bearer, I'm not even sure if that's > really possible. In any case, as a plot device it would work once, or maybe > twice. After that it would just get repetitious. > > I suppose we'll just have to wait for the next story (assuming it's a > present-day story) to see what happens. > > Scott Schultz > scott at cjhunter.com > > >