[Dragaera] Dzur spoilers - 17 thoughts

[Jon Lincicum]

Davdi Silverrock wrote:
> On 8/12/06, Jon Lincicum wrote:
>   
>> Davdi Silverrock wrote:
>>     
>>> On 8/12/06, Jose Marquez wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Davdi Silverrock wrote:
>>>>
>>>>         
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>> Personally, I am inclined to believe her completely on this point, as
>> she is in a position to know, and Vlad has her clarify it pretty precisely.
>>
>> This strikes me as one of the type of things SKZB likes to do to keep
>> his stories feeling "real".
>>
>> In real life, people can die at random times, and for random reasons.
>> Not every death of a powerful person is going to be some elaborate
>> assassination. Sometimes people just die. Life can be like that.
>>     
>
> I would be more inclined to be convinced if her death had been from
> something a bit more rapid and certain than "indigestion" (how,
> exactly, is that supposed to be fatal, anyway?) and she had not been a
> high-powered sorceress.  And if I did not have in mind Master Wag's
> book titled /The Sorcerer's Art and the Healing of the Self/.
>   
"Chronic Indigestion" (taken at face value, anyway) implies that she had 
some sort of recurring ailment of the digestive tract.

So maybe she has a nice plate of pasta, and turns in for an early night. 
Her digestive problems cause internal bleeding in her sleep, and she 
wakes up dead the next morning. How is her knowledge of sorcery supposed 
to help in this sort of situation?

So, why didn't she take care of her chronic ailment earlier? There's 
lots of reasons why she might not have. She was too busy to take time to 
learn the spell. It isn't that serious of a problem. I'll take care of 
it next week, just as soon as I finish my deposition to the Jhereg 
Council as to why my group deserves titles, &c, &c, &c.

This is only one example. I'm sure there are plenty of others that would 
work just as well.

> And finally, I note that after Kiera clarifies the point, Vlad
> immediately guesses that the rest of the sorceresses change their
> direction, and Kiera confirms this.  Which makes me wonder if perhaps
> the tone of the clarification was in a less than entirely believing
> tone of voice.  "Hey, this is the official history, and I'm just
> reporting it".
>
> If it was the 14th Cycle, it was before Kiera's time anyway, so she
> would not know personally what exactly happened.
>   
Yes, but perhaps her friend Sethra told her about it? Since this was 
before Sethra was banned from court, she would be in good position to 
know lots of things that happened behind the scenes. Besides, we don't 
*really* know how old Kiera is, anyway. Perhaps she's been around for a 
lot longer than her apparent physical age?

> If Curithne wasn't a sorcerer, and had no sorcerer bodyguards, or
> bodyguards with physicker training, I might agree.  It might be
> suicidally dumb of him, but, hey, stuff happens.
>   

Again, here's a simple scenario. He goes into a private dining room. His 
bodyguards have scoped the place out, so they know it's clean. He is 
served the first and second courses, and the waiter retires to prepare 
the main dish. He chokes on a fish-bone. Ten minutes later, the waiter 
comes in with the beef brisket, and finds him dead on the floor. Having 
no real friends, and with the other Jhereg in power having no real 
interest in having him revivified (after all, his death presents a great 
opportunity for all of them) he is given to Deathgate.

If there's anything nefarious here, it may be that his sorcerers are 
given a sackful of Imperials by The Demon to simply ignore Curithne's 
own orders to have him revivified in the event of accidental death. But 
that doesn't really make it murder.

Of course, he could have just slipped and fallen on a morganti knife, as 
well.

Majikjon