Who's going with Quentyn

[Wanderwolf]

Let's remember something: the contract states that he has to account for all of the lost artifacts.

Does that mean he doesn't actually have to bring back any or all of the artifacts IF HE CAN DOCUMENT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM? Sounds like a mighty good loophole, if so.

Assuming that the contract is as given in the story, the loophole isn't there: The account given in http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20060404.html states that O'Ridgedale was to retrieve the artifacts, not just account for them.

On the up side, the artifacts might be relatively easy to find... especially if any of them have an older version of Merchant Max' "advertising spell" on them and haven't been named.

Yours truly,

The grinning,

Wanderer

[Squeaky Bunny]

Has anyone read the first Harry Potter book? The relationship between Rahan and Quentyn reminds me kinda of the relationship between the book's main character and his own personal nemesis, that obnoxious brat with that ridiculus name I can't remember at the moment. There was a quite similar situation in that book.

Draco Malfoy. And the situations are a bit different.. For one, Rahan's father isn't a back-stabbing @$$hole who used to serve the Rac'conan world's equivalent of Hitler..

I was thinking of Dudley Dursley, Harry's cousin. Although it's his aunt who's far more antagonistic. She did make a fairly good imitation of a parade balloon though.

[StrangeWulf13]

Okay, let's go over the evidence...

First of all, the contract specifies that Quentyn must retrieve the artifacts... alone. No help is allowed; it's a solo mission. And if you think they're gonna give him any leeway, you do not know beuracrats. The letter of the law is what counts here, not the spirit.

Second, most of the people suggested have reasons not to go. Fen and Kestral have their studies to attend to. Nessie is too young, and is probably surrounded by fussing mages at the college already. She might also lose her interest in him as she grows and matures. (And that pairing with Colin seems like a cute idea. ^_^)

And then there's my third point: no news is bad news.

No one knows what's waiting for Quentyn outside the Mist Wall (well, except for Ralph, of course). Could be nothing but farmland or plains for miles around. Could be there's a dragon a couple miles over, with the edge of its territory dangerously close to their country. Or maybe they're surrounded by a kingdom ruled over by the Universalist church, which persecuted them in ages past. Might even be Rosad Beither himself waiting somewhere nearby for our young Questor, assuming the old bastard's still alive.

So, tell me... who's going with Quentyn again?

[Wayfarer]

First of all, the contract specifies that Quentyn must retrieve the artifacts... alone. No help is allowed; it's a solo mission. And if you think they're gonna give him any leeway, you do not know beuracrats. The letter of the law is what counts here, not the spirit.

Could you point out where we've seen this? So far as I remember, we haven't seen the full text of the contract anywhere; just people quoting from it. And the closest thing I can find to a statement that the quest should be conducted alone is where the archivists ask Quentyn 1 "to retrieve the artifacts as discreetly as possible." But "as discreetly as possible" is not the same thing as "must be absolutely solo." So either I've missed something, or there is leeway for someone to go along with Quentyn 2.

Now I agree that some candidates are less likely than others. I'd say Nessie would be the least realistic - far, far too young. I also think it could be problematic for Fen and Kestrel to leave their studies. I find Squidge highly likely if nothing else because he doesn't seem to have much of anywhere to go except on the quest... or, I suppose, Q's parent's pantry.

[Kerry Skydancer]

Now, that's just silly, Strangewulf. Quentyn is now the one contracted to retrieve the artifacts. As far as we know, the agreement does not have any limitations on -how- he performs the task or what subcontracting he is allowed to do... But he has to try, and he's the only one who can die to shut it off forever.

[MikeVanPelt]

Now, that's just silly, Strangewulf. Quentyn is now the one contracted to retrieve the artifacts. ... and he's the only one who can die to shut it off forever.

Exactly. Once he takes up the quest, the weasels' insidious plot is off the rails. (Assuming taking the land is the plan.) They can't take possession of the land until Quentyn fails to uphold his part of the contract.

If Quentyn goes out and gets himself killed, the weasels are left completely empty-handed. They can only somehow attempt to prevent him from fulfilling the terms of the contract, or take what they can get, some hope that maybe he can actually bring back some of those artifacts after all.

I expect to see some manuvering to attempt to keep him from fulfilling the terms of the contract, but it's hard to see how they could do this -- They'd have to be demanding the terms of the contract be fulfilled, while simultaneously preventing the contract from being fulfilled. If they're playing that kind of obvious fraud, surely there's some adjudicator Quentyn could find who was not completely corrupt.

Probably, the weasels are hoping he will go out briefly, then come back empty-handed. Again, they don't know Quentyn very well.

I'm happy to see these two lawyers are unhappy with doing the weasels' dirty work. I wonder if they're unhappy enough to be of some material help to Quentyn?

The next battle, of course, is going to be with Quentyn's parents, especially his mother. They aren't going to like this one little bit.

[Shyal_malkes]

quentyn goes outside the mist wall and finds...

...Malarkey county!

[StrangeWulf13]

Meh. I still think he's going alone. Even if they try to keep him from going, they probably won't stop that. And if there's one thing beuracrats are known for, it's being spiteful little buggers who will pull every string possible to hurt someone who's stopped their plans or gotten in their way.

If Quentyn pulls this off, what the heck makes you guys think they won't try to tip the odds so he'll be more likely to fail?

True, it'd be close to a death sentence in everyone's eyes, but there's also the chance he'd just come back empty-handed. And either way, the beuracrats would win.

Like I said, the spirit of the law doesn't matter here. It would if we were dealing with decent people. Beuracrats are neither decent nor people. That would require having a soul.

[Squeaky Bunny]

Meh. I still think he's going alone. Even if they try to keep him from going, they probably won't stop that. And if there's one thing beuracrats are known for, it's being spiteful little buggers who will pull every string possible to hurt someone who's stopped their plans or gotten in their way.

If Quentyn pulls this off, what the heck makes you guys think they won't try to tip the odds so he'll be more likely to fail?

True, it'd be close to a death sentence in everyone's eyes, but there's also the chance he'd just come back empty-handed. And either way, the beuracrats would win.

Like I said, the spirit of the law doesn't matter here. It would if we were dealing with decent people. Beuracrats are neither decent nor people. That would require having a soul.

You think that if the government was involved, that they wouldn't assign someone to travel with Quentyn, verify his "finds", and look after the interests of the Guild?

[TMLutas]

Meh. I still think he's going alone. Even if they try to keep him from going, they probably won't stop that. And if there's one thing beuracrats are known for, it's being spiteful little buggers who will pull every string possible to hurt someone who's stopped their plans or gotten in their way.

I would tend to agree that it's quite likely that bureaucrats would stand in the way of anybody else going off on this excursion (series of excursions?). And everybody knows that when the Council bans something, everybody snaps to attention and salutes....

Like the swamp people...
Like Rosad Beither...
Like the Gragum...
Like Fen...
Like Rahan...

Yup, a little piece of paper with a stamp on it is going to absolutely be determinitive, determinitive I tell you, to what happens in real life. In fact, the form *is* real life, dontcha know?

And I have some nice plots of land to sell you right out past the mist wall. Get them now cheap before the mistwall expands and then everybody'll be after them.

[Chaser617]

Plus, I don't think its actually the Seven Villiages central government that is involved here. It is the guild, which, if they work the way I *THINK* they work (and this is the key folks, I've been proven wrong a few times by RH) then they're a civilian orginization with a similar goal as *stated* by a union (note, this stipulation, because guilds and unions can work in completely different ways). Therefore, I don't think, as yet the central government is involved, it might be taking an interest, but not actively involved.

[Maxgoof]

Meh. I still think he's going alone. Even if they try to keep him from going, they probably won't stop that. And if there's one thing beuracrats are known for, it's being spiteful little buggers who will pull every string possible to hurt someone who's stopped their plans or gotten in their way.

You keep assuming that it was the Archivists that are behind this. I keep saying that the Archivists couldn't care a whit about the land. They don't do real estate.

Nor do they care about whether the village of Freeman Downs exists or not.

BUT...someone else may. The only way they can get what they want now is to distract Quentyn from his quest, so they can get a default judgement on him. Fully expect him to get an offer of a LOT of money to take a competing quest.

[Catherine_Puce]

Meh. I still think he's going alone. Even if they try to keep him from going, they probably won't stop that. And if there's one thing beuracrats are known for, it's being spiteful little buggers who will pull every string possible to hurt someone who's stopped their plans or gotten in their way.

If Quentyn pulls this off, what the heck makes you guys think they won't try to tip the odds so he'll be more likely to fail?

True, it'd be close to a death sentence in everyone's eyes, but there's also the chance he'd just come back empty-handed. And either way, the beuracrats would win.

Like I said, the spirit of the law doesn't matter here. It would if we were dealing with decent people. Beuracrats are neither decent nor people. That would require having a soul.

Yes but what if the real goal was to send Quentyn outside the mistwall r even that they seen the loophole but that doesn't bother their plans. I mean maybe the free traders are not better that the expansionnists. What if they set this playright? They could have decided to take a revenge on them. They could have seen the hole before send the contract. Thinking that someone will find it. They hope that all this scheme will be look like a idea of the expansionnist. They want maybe accuse them to create an artificial rarity of the land and when Quentyn come back they'll show raise him as an hero trying to make of him a false icon of their cause.

It could be that the event to show how rare the land is. Even if the Questor go the expansionnist could said look this time a village had to send one of their in the slaughter house for safe them. Don't you think that this kind of contract is unique, how many contract like that hide in the closet. It's better to make this place bigger for be certain that we had some new land in reserve in case of something like that happen again. In this case that Quentyn die, fail or success the result will be the same. Fear and terror will run in the public opinion helping them to force the government of move farther the barrier.

Des évênements comme ça marque le future d'une nation.

S.P.P.

[Maxgoof]

Yes but what if the real goal was to send Quentyn outside the mistwall r even that they seen the loophole but that doesn't bother their plans.

Except this turn of events came as a surprise to the lawyers. If either contingency didn't make any difference, and they had seen the loophole, why not present it?

[TMLutas]

Yes but what if the real goal was to send Quentyn outside the mistwall r even that they seen the loophole but that doesn't bother their plans.

Except this turn of events came as a surprise to the lawyers. If either contingency didn't make any difference, and they had seen the loophole, why not present it?

In fairness to the theory, we have to admit that the peons rarely know the full plan or even understand the implications of what they *have* been told.

[Dapple]

Has RH been working on this idea for awhile, it's always been an option.
http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20040723.html

Hey that could be Fenn, I could amagine those with a stake in protecting Freeman Downs would accompany Qentyn at least part way.
http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20040726.html

[Nick012000]

Look at what that dragon is guarding. One of the artifacts, maybe?