On 12/4/05, Jon Lincicum <lincicum at comcast.net> wrote: > Davdi Silverrock wrote: > > >I don't buy it. She is able to lead an army, with all of the > >attention that that requires, and can't be bothered to take the two > >seconds to peform a single spell? > > > > > > > Well, there's also the healing that she was going to perform on Vlad's > arm in Issola. Really, I think my primary objection to this line of > thinking is that it says that Sethra is confounded simply by her life > state--which is, to her, almost as much a "matter of engineering" as it > is to the Necromancer. > > I find that possibility much more improbable than the alternative. Well, another idea that occurred to me is that Sethra Lavode *is* capable of learning and changing, so that as she becomes more used to dealing with being undead, she feels more confident of her ability to control any side-effects of her undead state (if there even actually are any, of course). Especially after the improvements to the Orb after the Interregnum, which I am sure Sethra took full advantage of (especially with teleportation, given your counterexample below). > >Bah. It's not like she was trying to move a sofa or something. > > > Well, considering Sethra's sofas are madeof solid stone, even *that* > task isn't as easy as it might seem. ;-) Heh. > > > >Incidentally, I thought of another point: When Sethra teleports > >Aliera, note that there is indeed a rather unfortunate side-effect to > >Aliera's soul. Perhaps, maybe, because of Sethra's undead state? > > > > > Interesting notion, although Sethra herself seems to imply that it was > more the impending explosion of amorphia that put her off saving Aliera > than anything else. Also, remember those countless teleports she did > bewteen Dzur Mountain and Castle Black right after the ninth (or Tenth) > Seige of Dzur Mountain... With no untoward after effects. > > > >So it seems to me that they were pretty sure that under no > >circumstances would Sethra Lavode *ever* perform the gene-scan > >herself, despite being intimately involved in the whole mess. Which > >to me implies that there is *something* that would prevent her (or > >very strongly discourage her) from doing so. > > > > > > Well, it seems likely that the Sorceress in Green knows Sethra better > than anyone else alive at the time the conspriacy was formed (or at > least has known her for longer than anyone else). It was likely a > calculated gamble as to how Sethra would react given the circumstances. > And I wouldn't put it past the Sorceress in Green to be able to *invent* > something that would distract Sethra at the critical moment, either. > (Faking an attack from the Jenoine? Or even inviting a *real* attack, > perhaps?) > Hm. I suspect that if Sethra Lavode figured out that the SiG had invited a Jenoine attack, the SiG would not have been revivifiable. But it need not have been anything so drastic. As you say... perhaps it was just that as the Sethras approached Norathar, StY psionically told the SiG: "We're here! Quick, distract her!" And thus the SiG communicated to Sethra Lavode something mundane that did actually require her attention, while StY said "I'll perform the genescan". And Sethra Lavode walked away from Norathar, in a bad mood about the whole business.