Squidge found the flaw

[EdBecerra]

If Quentyn comes back and says it's safe, the Free Traders will be backed by the Archivists. If he comes back and says it's unsafe, the Expansionists win. And if he doesn't come back at all, the Archivists stay sitting on that fence and hope to find someone else they can blackmail into doing the footwork.

This time, I have a strong feeling I'm right...

Yours wolfishly,

The having-a-bad-feeling-about-this,

Wanderer

Of course, if you're right, and Quentyn finds out, there's a nice trick he could pull...


Guild: You've brought bach the artifacts! Thank you! Oh.. not that it matters, but what was it like out there?

Quentyn: Dunno.

Guild: What?!

Quentyn: Hit my head coming back with the artifacts. Can't remember a thing about what I saw. Sorry 'bout that. Here's your artifacts. Enjoy.

Then we watch all three sides scream in frustration...

[DracoDei]

waitaminute, no votes for bread? How can my families SSI prevent me from regesitering or voting? It didn't stop me registering into the Selective Service...

I was WONDERING when someone else would notice that...
Apparently THEIR society beleives that if one can't manage one's own affairs well enough to stay afloat financially, ones input on how the country should be run should be discounted. It also serves as a prevention against the formation of a welfare state (whatever that is PRECISELY... note my semi-educated status on such matters). The major danger with such a situation is that the poor would be oppressed, or outright slowly starved... but in a society where, historically, everyone had to help everyone else for mutual survivals sake, that shouldn't be a problem in their society for another century or so after this story takes place.

[DracoDei]

Quentyn: Hit my head coming back with the artifacts. Can't remember a thing about what I saw. Sorry 'bout that. Here's your artifacts. Enjoy.
Then we watch all three sides scream in frustration...

Or, much more honestly... he can simply demand a fair price for the information, since no such report (or at least not in such detail) would be required by the terms of the contract... I would say that he could flat out refuse to answer, but even in a libertarian-like society such at the Seven Villages such information could probably be subpeonaed (sp) as being vital to the national security. Note however that since nobody has ventured outside the mistwall in a while, and trade with humans was cut off before that with dwarves, then probably a legal case for the risk being astronomically high could be made, which would also put the value of such information astronomically high... plus its value to anyone looking to restart trade would also be very high (and said value applies to the fair market value of the information, no matter WHICH political movement is asking the question!).