Book 4 - Page 91

Alternately, Rob is a student of the same school of writing as Jim Butcher; and we've arrived at Sequels, stage two: Parson is reviewing facts and working through the logical options of his situation. We can expect maybe a half a page more of that, before he gets to the next stage of pondering his options, and the subsequent stage of making a Choice.

Of course, it's sometimes dramatically useful to interrupt review and pondering by having new and unexpected events force need for an immediate and perhaps underconsidered Choice. However, I think it's more dramatically exciting to have him do the pondering by means of arguing with Caesar (character conflict!) about what choices Caesar should be making, now that Caesar is getting indications Gobwin Knob has been pulling some fast ones.

Clevermancy way to Hocus-Pocus out of the problem: Parson should suggest that Benjamin ask the Mathamancy bracer for the probability that Charlie has been covertly meddling to prolong the conflict between Transylvito and Carpool. I'd expect at least three nines.


In hindsight, his signamancy may have been a red flag. Ben Franklin delighted in creating dozens of characters in his writing with plausible-seeming unique voices of their own; that is to say, a form of literary ventriloquism. (OK, I'm probably reaching a bit here.)

Yeah, but nobody Parson is going to take into the MK for this rescue is among them (okay, I don't really know about Marie).

The argument that makes fire a non-trivial problem for the Dirtamancers to address makes it unacceptable as a possible diversion tactic.

Having Ace and Parson in a stack with a gun and a Miracle pole murdering casters at random to draw off the armed Dirtamancers while Marie, Sizemore and Janis go in with Miracle poles to repatriate the prisoners is a far more workable and controlled tactic, any way we cut it. But Janis and probably Sizemore are still not going to be very cooperative with such a plan.

So it makes more sense foe Ace and Parson to use a Miracle pole and an unspecialed gun to pose an apparent threat to the execution site and then retreat through cover. This is tactically inferior to actually slaughtering people, but likely to be more acceptable to Janis and Sizemore. If Janis isn't on board, they need to set up an ambush and kill as many of the armed Dirtamancers as possible.

Hopefully Parson is smart enough to figure out that rifles have an effective range three times greater than the maximum range anyone else in Erf realizes is possible. But even at that, this is going to be an extraordinarily...interesting fight.

Sounds like a rescue plan worthy of the Doctor: No defenses, no weapons, no plans = enemies scared to death (watch from the bookmarked point (2:35) to about 3:01 for the relevant conversation)

I mean, I see what you're saying and all, but at the same time the forums were predicting the Transylvito coup "any day now" for the better part of a year.

Even if they can be expected to handle fires easily, they're not gonna be cavalier about starting fires, for the same reason you wouldn't invite your friends over for a nail gun fight just because you live next door to a hospital.

I don't think that follows. We're pretty cavalier about using fire here in the real world, despite similar difficulties controlling it.

Just as I would use a nail gun in a construction project regardless of my proximity to available medical care, I would use a fire to cook. Conversely, regardless of my access to aid, I would not "invite my friends over for a nail gun fight." Nor would I invite them over to throw fire at each other.

In the MK, all of the above are equally unthinkable. You don't find that remarkable in any way?

I don't find it remarkable. In Stupidworld we use "magical" fires a lot more than what Erf worlders would consider normal fire. Yes, those magical fires can still be dangerous, (as can "magical" nailguns), but they are substantially less so than 'normal' fire. And yet, I flout rules against fire all the time (as do a lot of people I know who don't have any particular ideological commitment to defying legislative edicts). This is part of why I suspect that the "no fires" rule is enforced magically, that it is simply not that easy to start one in the MK compared to using a magical flame effect. That's just how things tend to work in Erf...they don't make rules without having an enforcement mechanism ready. I'm sure it's possible to set fire to the MK, but I don't buy that it is at all easy. Otherwise some people would do it despite the prohibition.

I also don't buy that it is impossible to fight the fire until the MK is clear of all sided units. But if that were the case, then a fire wouldn't work as a distraction at all, because none of the Dirtamancers would focus on anything but croaking GK units while all other sided units were ordered to evacuate.

A rescue plan that makes the immediate and unceremonious execution of the prisoners you're trying to rescue an immediate tactical necessity for their captors is NOT a good rescue plan. You have to avoid giving them additional reasons to kill the prisoners until you supply reasons it is disadvantageous or impossible.

Someone posited earlier that the bald figure in green in the bottom left of the last panel could be Digdoug, so I went and read through that story again. Unfortunately, I never found it stated either what color Digdoug's clothes were or what Homekey's colors were. The style of clothing seems to be the same, and it makes sense that Digdoug would be interested in this trial, since it involved Charlie to any degree at all.

The only difference in the descriptions is that Digdoug liked to go barefoot and this caster has shoes.

Personally, I hope it is Digdoug. This would be a good point for him to re-enter the story.

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Haven't seen this brought up,

If you guys don't recall, this line was first said by Ansom, of all people, in the print edition of book 1. It's the page after the first one with the Archons.

Jack likely came across that phrase whilst he was stuck in the trilink. Being linked up with a lookamancer, he could see and hear everything that was on the map, and being a foolamancer he couldn't help but observe everything he sees and hears.

edit: removed prediction as it detracted from my main point.

Considering that the map has never been shown to have a "zoom in and spy on conversations"-option, even though that would be pretty useful (spy on their plans!) and thus would probably have been brought up, I don't think the tri-link had the necessary "resolution" to pick up stuff like that.