[Dragaera] alternative solutions to Jhereg?

[Jerry Friedman]

> From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu>
> To: Dragaera List <dragaera at dragaera.info>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2012 11:30 PM
> Subject: [Dragaera] alternative solutions to Jhereg?
> 
> During a discussion about the difficulty an outfielder experiences catching a 
> ball hit directly at him, someone mentioned that a lunge with the point 
> extending on a line is harder to pick up and parry.  I forget whether the 
> classic Dragaeran style calls for the sword held high directed at the 
> opponent's eye (and the poignard directed at his or her heart).

Yep.

"'Draw your blade,' I continued, 'and get into a guard position.'"

"He
 did so, standing full forward, with his blade level with his own head. 
 His blade... formed a straight line from his eyes to mine."

/Jhereg/, Ch. 16

> Anyway, I wanted to mention two possible alternative solutions to _Jhereg_, 
> without, admittedly, having searched the Text for counters.
> 
> First, boringly, the Jhereg treasury is 9M gold; they don't use 10% of that 
> on a regular basis, surely, and I have to think the Dragon treasury, or 
> Sethra's sub-basement if you think Aliera wouldn't loan a copper to the 
> council to save dozens

Thousands?

> of lives, could cover the deficit for 17 days.  Then 
> it's just a question of squelching any remaining leaks or speculations.

Since there won't be any new leaks with money in the safe?

> Secondly, Kragar apparently has solid evidence that Mellar had Lord Onarr's 
> wife infected and cured by witchcraft.  (How Kragar could learn this some 
> hundreds of years after the witch or witches died is beyond me.) Sending that 
> info to Onarr might well result in Mellar's immediate death. Well, I guess 
> Vlad wouldn't countenance Morollan's hospitality being flouted in that 
> way, so never mind.

You're right.

"...'What about a Dzur?  Couldn't you maneuver a Dzur hero into taking him out for you?'"

"I
 shook my head.  'No good, beloved,' I said, thinking of Morrolan's 
speech earlier.  'Aside from the chance that Morrolan would figure out 
what happened, I'm just not willing to do that to him.'"

Ch. 14

> Ok, instead Aliera has Pathfinder find the 9M in gold, or 
> all the ownerless buried treasure in the world,
> and then as above.

I'd
 only thought of trying the same trick with Daymar that actually worked 
in the text, but much earlier.  As soon as Vlad knows that Mellar is at 
Castle Black, presumably without the 9 million gold, he should be trying
 to locate the treasure.  If he can get it back, Mellar hasn't succeeded
 in robbing the Organization and there should be much less pressure.  
And Vlad can address Mellar as "dead man".

This also suggests that Mellar should have had the money in his luggage.

> Incidentally, http://dragaera.wikia.com/wiki/Lord_Onarr says various things 
> about Onarr that I don't recall from the Texts.

"Dragon-Issola crossbreed"?  That's not in /Jhereg/.


Jerry Friedman