Dragaera

Vlad's not a Jhereg at heart

Thu Mar 24 04:56:03 PST 2005

Steve Simmons wrote:

>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:
>>    
>>
>I'd hazard a guess that
>your average Jhereg on the street doesn't have a clue to what a Great
>Weapon *really* is.
>  
>
Since they've already gone after Morollan once, even though he's had 
Blackwand for 200+ years or so, that argues that either they (House 
Jhereg) don't really know what a GW is, or they discount what it can do 
(ie, they do not excessively fear it), or that it is *not* easy to 
recognize what is and what isn't a GW.  Any of these mean that Lady T. 
cannot be counted on to cause the Council to back off in the slightest.

>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.
>  
>
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So would I, because it doesn't make sense based on what we know of 
Council actions.  They've taken on Sethra & Morrolan before, even with 
their GW's.  But as I've said, they probably won't know that Vlad has 
returned, with a GW, for a while, unless he wants it known right away.  
Sure, if he returns to his old haunts, they'll make him in about a day 
or so.  Ditto if he hangs out at the Imperial Palace, just to see how 
Zerika is doing.  Double ditto, if he keeps dining out in Valabar's, or 
visits Cawti a few times.  Otherwise it might be weeks before someone 
spots him.  Heck it might be a year or more if he keeps to himself.  
There isn't the equivalent of CNN, especially if he keeps wearing his 
fancy necklace, and he's not suspected of being in Adrilankha at the moment.

As for assassination attempts, yeah, they'd have to be successful ones, 
and that would be tough:  Vlad is a former professional with quick 
reflexes, and he has eyes in the back of his head, in effect, or 
overhead if you want to be technical (-:  An unsuccessful attempt will 
not leave anyone in any condition to tell the Council about Lady T.

I do see an interesting situation if Vlad stays in Adrilankha or "goes 
public" as it were:  pressure on Kiera.  ("You know that Easterner you 
used to hang out with?  Well, he's been spotted in Lower Kieron Street 
last night.  Sure you don't know anything about it?  What can you tell 
us, eh?")  I haven't seen enough Council handiwork to know exacly what 
they would do--I spell my name S-n-a-r-k-h-u-n-t-e-r, not S-t-e-v-e--but 
I think it would make for an interesting storyline & even more 
interesting choices for Kiera & her secrets.

Snarkhunter