[Dragaera] Vlad's passivity--getting long

[Jerry Friedman]

--- On Sun, 10/19/08, Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Oct 2008, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> > --- On Thu, 10/16/08, Philip Hart
> <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 16 Oct 2008, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> >
> >>> The way I read it, the murder of Reins and the
> attempts
> >>> on Vlad's life reveal that Vlad's in
> danger from Loraan,
> >>> so he decides he'll have to kill Loraan
> sooner or later.
> >>> Then for reasons I don't understand, he
> >>> decides it should be sooner.
> >
> >> Vlad doesn't have anything to do with his life
> at the moment.
> >> And he's likely to be killed at any time the
> Jhereg find him.
> >> So there's not much to be gained by waiting.
> >
> > I see a lot to gain.  Loraan won't be quite so
> > prepared if he doesn't know Vlad's in the area.
> 
> How is Vlad going to get into the area without Loraan
> knowing it?

By taking care.  "The other [attack] happened the
door before [the one at Tem's house].  I got
careless and allowed myself to be seen too close to
his manor house, and he made a sorcerous attack on
me....

"I was really sloppy in staying at Tem's house long
enough for them to find me."  Chapter 15.

On the other hand, I don't think it's ever clear
how Loraan knew it was time to kill Reins.

> >  In particular, Ishtvan and his knife probably
> won't be around.
> 
> Sure, he'll be pursuing Vlad as he walks away from the
> area.
 
Ishtvan has shown no ability to find Vlad.  Anyway,
Vlad teleports a couple of times in the book.
 
> >  Also, Vlad can have time to plan in relative safety
> and time to 
> > amass whatever he needs.
> 
> He needs a GW and a bazooka.  That or lots of luck and a
> destiny, which he already has.

He knows people with GWs.  Whatever Vlad is planning,
they would improve his chances.

And what could his plan possibly be?  If Blackwand
failed, how can he hope to succeed?  He has no
reason to expect that a Morganti dagger will work--
and is he hoping all along to use Ishtvan's?  In
fact, this is another reason he needs to talk to
his friends: to find out why Blackwand didn't eat
Loraan's soul and what Vlad can do to keep Loraan
from coming back for another sequel.

(Which I trust isn't going to happen.)

> > (Loraan can also do that, but he's probably done a
> lot already
> > and reached the point of diminishing returns.)
> 
> Who knows?  Maybe he set a desultory trap but once Vlad
> walks away
> he'll pull out all the stops.  Permanent teleport
> blocks, for example.
 
I see no reason to think he can do that.  Ishtvan is
impressed enough that Loraan can put a block up over
three square miles (Chapter 15).

> > Most important, Vlad can get help.
> 
> How?

To be serious, he can get a message to Kiera the same
way he did in /Orca/, and he knows Kiera can get in
touch with Morrolan.  He also communicates psychically
with Savn, so he could communicate with others.

> > I imagine Aliera would be interested in getting
> revenge on Loraan.
> 
> Why would she care?  Loraan didn't know it was her
> soul, presumably.

I don't think it's presumable--we have no idea what he
did or didn't find out with over 200 years to
study the staff.  And Sethra or Morrolan could easily
have told him, though that's pure speculation.
Certainly he figured out that it was someone important
to them.

> And what was he going to do with her soul otherwise that
> Aliera
> would thank him for - put it in an animated corpse?

Sell it to Sethra or Morrolan.

Anyway, Aliera has often demonstrated that she'll fight
over nothing.  I feel sure she would fight someone who
used her soul as experimental equipment and refused to
stop when he was offered compensation for it.

> > Morrolan might also be interested in finishing the job
> > and preventing Loraan from getting revenge on /him/.
> 
> I would guess that Morrolan, having killed Loraan once,
> considers himself satisfied.

Maybe not if Loraan is a threat (although maybe).  And
wouldn't it be frustrating to kill somebody and see him
reappear?  If you're a Dragonlord.

> > (We don't see any sign that Vlad thinks about
> warning
> > Morrolan.  He could ask Savn to send a letter by the
> > Imperial Post, maybe.)
> 
> If I'm Loraan, the second thing I'd do when Vlad
> splits is to call in all the villagers and
> threaten/torture/mindprobe
> them.  Vlad has I think left pretty solid clues that
> Savn's
> family has interacted with him - if he goes now, they get
> eaten or worse.

The interaction has just been with Savn when Vlad first
says "Leaving?  No, it's probably too late for that."
(Chapter 3.)  Although he has told Savn that Loraan is
undead, and Loraan might kill Savn if he finds out he
knows that (to speculate without evidence).  But until
later in the book, Vlad hasn't shown a whole lot of
concern with innocent bystanders.

Why does Vlad say it's too late?  That's what I don't
understand.

> (Incidentally, I sort of doubt M reads mail from Teckla. 
> Maybe
> if the return address is Vlad Taltos, Wilderness.)

Maybe that was the return address on his letter to
the Empress in /Jhegaala/ with the method for making
good paper.

As I said above, there are other ways of communicating
with Morrolan.  But M. or whoever opens his mail would
probably look at a letter with the return address
"Jonndoe e'Drien, your long-lost cousin" or "Soandso
Siblings, Dealers in Rare and Powerful Books".  (Or
"BEST SOURCE OF H3RBS 4 MALE PERFORMANCE"?)

Something we have no idea of is how much unsolicited
mail Morrolan gets.  Which would be too trivial to
mention, except that it leads into something I've
wondered about.  Morrolan and Aliera must be as
famous as Kobe Bryant and Madonna.  Why doesn't
their celebrity ever rate a mention?  And after
/Taltos/, more so after /Phoenix/, even more after
/Issola/, Vlad must be pretty famous too.  Are the
events of /Taltos/ and /Issola/ secret?  

Of course the "psapparazzi" wouldn't dare take
psiprints of any of these three without permission,
but still, I'd expect something.  Vlad meets Ric
in /Dzur/: "Greetings, my lord Count!  I hear
you've saved the Empire twice since I saw you
last!"

Pointless speculation material: How secure is the
Imperial Post?  Should Vlad worry that the Jhereg
are watching Morrolan's mail?
 
> > Even Sethra might be interested.
> 
> If Sethra cares, why doesn't she know?  (Ditto Aliera
> et al.)
> Loraan hasn't I suspect made any efforts to disguise
> the fact
> that he's still around (in whatever sense that is). 
> It's been
> a few years and nobody bothered to tell A, M, or S that L,
> who's
> a leading Athyra and as you note of interest to them,
> managed to survive a pretty high-profile attack?

That's a very interesting question, which I'd been
wondering about from a slightly different point of
view.  M. might think Loraan's heirs would be
interested in revenge and might want to keep an eye
on who moves into his manor and keep.  All three might
have various ways of knowing.  If they do know, they
might be safe (certainly Sethra) or think it beneath
their dignity to worry, but why haven't they warned
Vlad?  He doesn't have a GW.  And Loraan might very
well want revenge on Vlad and want Spellbreaker back
(as we find out he does).

> Anyway, my point was that walking away means quite likely
> giving
> up on attacking Loraan, because Vlad has no future.  The
> Jhereg
> are going to kill him, or a bandit will, or some root he
> trips over,
> or some other mess he wanders into.  He's already
> running from
> one formidable foe - the evil of the day is sufficient.

To me that's a reason not to take on a foe you can walk
or teleport away from.

Jerry Friedman

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