On Wed, Mar 23, 2005 at 11:48:31AM -0700, Maximilian Wilson wrote: > 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. Come to think of it, it may well be that most Jhereg have very little idea of just what a Great Weapon can do. Consider - there are only four we know enough of to name the holder. Of those four, two have only surfaced in the past few years (Godslayer, Pathfinder), one in the past two centuries (Blackwand), and one has been largely in exile (Iceflame) since Sethra died. Consider also that Vlad is startled as all hell when Blackwand continues defending the dead Morrolan. I'd hazard a guess that your average Jhereg on the street doesn't have a clue to what a Great Weapon *really* is. And thus Godslayers reputation gives Vlad no more protection than any other Morganti blade. Until, of course, the first successful assasination attempt. Someone takes out Vlad with a Morganti blade. Vlads dead hand, weilded by Godslayer, kills the assasin. Sethra and Morrolan pop in and revivify Vlad. While Vlad sits there groggy, they drop a few words to the passers by neither they nor Godslayer are going to be real tolerant of any future attempts. The Jhereg Council promptly shits it collective pants and becomes very amenable to negotiation. I'd pay to read that scene. . . . > > 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." IMHO the above is cool, but I'm only Steve, not Steve Brust. :-) > P.S. Much as he would hate to admit it, I think Vlad fits in better > with the Dragons than with the Jhereg . . . Nice analysis. I think you're right. -- "History will be kind to me. I intend to write it." -- Winston Churchill