On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 12:39:30 -0500, Steve Simmons <scs at di.org> wrote: > If Vlad wants to return, the threat of Godslayer alone will probably be > sufficient to stop most assassins. Sure. Probably not any of the good ones, though, since you normally don't figure on the target fighting back anyway. The Jhereg were willing to go after Sethra Lavode in Dzur Mountain during the Dragon-Jhereg war, at least until she destroyed a number of assassins. (Heh heh heh.) I think Godslayer makes a better _pretext_ for backing off than an actual defense--it would probably have to be pretty much as Scott Schultz suggested, the Demon waking up to find Godslayer pointed at his eye. > If Sethra Lavode, the Empress, Morrolan and Aliera announce they will > avenge Vlads assasination by wiping the Council and their successors to > the third iteration, The Organization will likely swallow hard and agree > to leave him alone. I can't see it happening exactly that way. If you _could_ involve the Empress like that, perhaps it would work, but I don't see her doing that and I don't see the threat of Morrolan, Aliera, and Sethra alone cutting it. (Sethra would have to leave Dzur Mountain, where a lot of her reputation/power resides, to do it.) Although I _can_ certainly see Morrolan and Aliera wiping out a couple of Council members if Vlad gets rubbed, they're not personally a threat to the Organization as a whole. (Unless Morrolan declares war in an official capacity, with armies and stuff. Then I'm not sure.) The Empress could be. > If Brust wants to bring Vlad back to town, there are no more ifs: he can > do it. Sure, but it has to be done in a way that's "cool." Max Wilson Agreeing that Vlad is probably not going back to being a crime boss. P.S. Much as he would hate to admit it, I think Vlad fits in better with the Dragons than with the Jhereg. He's got too much concern for honor. Jhereg, as Sethra points out in Taltos, would be glad to sit down and listen to a business proposal no matter how they were brought into it. Vlad is, much as he would hate to admit it, more like Aliera in "Jhereg" when she volunteers to feed herself to a Morganti blade because it gives her a better chance of survival than making Morrolan kill her or letting him start a war. Declaring war on Boralinoi for Cawti's sake--is _that_ Jhereg behavior? More like a honor vendetta. Rescuing Morrolan and Aliera from the Jenoine? Spending a year of his life wandering Dragaera nursing Savn back to health? I'm not saying Vlad/Dolivar fits in well with the Dragons--relative preferences for hot meals vs. fighting come to mind--but I don't really think he ever really fit in with the Organization and it's not really a surprise that he got the boot. -- something funny