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Spies

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Re: Spies
Post by BarryKirk   » Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:28 pm

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That research effort will cost the COGA time and money which it doesn't have.

More squandered resources, especially if it becomes a major church expenditure.
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Re: Spies
Post by FriarBob   » Wed Dec 12, 2012 1:05 pm

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These last few posts assume those records are sent to Zion. Are they?

And Tonto you're right that they're already accusing him of being a "demon familiar". And they've never had to bother trying to "prove" anything before, their word was always good enough for the entire world for centuries. Why would they even think of the possibility that somebody might demand proof? And if they see no need to provide that proof, they aren't going to even start the process until somebody demands it.

And with the inquisition literally functioning as a NKVD/KGB/etc equivalent of a secret police, with the ability to accuse anybody they wish of being a heretic and send them off to Zion to be tortured into confessing, just exactly WHO do you think is going to be crazy enough to ask for that proof anytime soon?

In summary, I think you're all quite right that this is a flaw in Merlin's identity. But it will almost certainly remain safe anyway because nobody will ever bother to go looking for the proof.
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Re: Spies
Post by Randomiser   » Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:36 pm

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The natural assumption for Clyntahn is that Merlin changed his name, just to avoid the kind of pressure on his family you are talking about. No big deal within the Vicar's office. Shan Wei is the mother of lies after all ...
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Re: Spies
Post by NinaKatarina   » Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:13 pm

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Randomiser wrote:The natural assumption for Clyntahn is that Merlin changed his name, just to avoid the kind of pressure on his family you are talking about. No big deal within the Vicar's office. Shan Wei is the mother of lies after all ...

Exactly - many religious traditions today have the convention that when one joins a holy order, one takes a new name to signal that your old life is left behind.
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Re: Spies
Post by Seawolf509   » Fri Dec 14, 2012 2:25 pm

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Well Clyntahn would not know the full extent of Merlin's influence. Great bodyguard, got the prince and princess out from under his nose yes but that about it. No way would he would send forces to kill Merlin when he could use those forces to kill Calyeb instead. Besides it been shown how hard it is for Group of four to operate in Charis Empire lands. Now with that Naharam working with AI and access to full data base and hyper huristic mode I doubt a party large enough to get to Merlin and win could get through.
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Re: Spies
Post by saber964   » Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:21 pm

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Seawolf509 wrote:Well Clyntahn would not know the full extent of Merlin's influence. Great bodyguard, got the prince and princess out from under his nose yes but that about it. No way would he would send forces to kill Merlin when he could use those forces to kill Calyeb instead. Besides it been shown how hard it is for Group of four to operate in Charis Empire lands. Now with that Naharam working with AI and access to full data base and hyper huristic mode I doubt a party large enough to get to Merlin and win could get through.

In order to kill Merlin the COGA would need a couple divisions of ground troops and heavy arttillery. IIRC Merlin could survive a derect hit at close range from a cannon ball.
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Re: Spies
Post by BarryKirk   » Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:03 am

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Any force large enough to actually harm Merlin would be spotted a long way away.
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Re: Spies
Post by AClone   » Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:32 pm

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What makes you think that the fact that Merlin studied in the Mountains of Light is "widely known"? We've seen him tell that to perhaps half a dozen people, and I'm not sure that anyone who was told would have blabbed it all over.

Clyntahn knows right exactly where Merlin is. Um...most of the time. I'm pretty sure that's all he's worried about.
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Re: Spies
Post by cralkhi   » Sun Dec 16, 2012 6:51 pm

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saber964 wrote:In order to kill Merlin the COGA would need a couple divisions of ground troops and heavy arttillery. IIRC Merlin could survive a derect hit at close range from a cannon ball.


If they shot him with a couple of dozen bullets, it wouldn't KILL him, but it would force him to abandon the Merlin identity.
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Re: Spies
Post by Tonto Silerheels   » Tue Dec 18, 2012 4:45 pm

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AClone wrote:

What makes you think that the fact that Merlin studied in the Mountains of Light is "widely known"? We've seen him tell that to perhaps half a dozen people, and I'm not sure that anyone who was told would have blabbed it all over.

Of course, without textual evidence there's no way to know for certain. However, I think the preponderance of the evidence points to it. Virtually everyone calls him seijin Merlin, so that's widely known. I'm sure that friends of the people who seijin Merlin told he studied in the Mountains of Light have asked them how they could be so certain he was a seijin. Seijin Merlin has done a number of things that would tend to support the idea. He saved Cayleb from a dozen assassins. He defeated Tyrian and fifteen of his armsmen. He threw a javelin through a kraken. He rescued Irys and Daivyn. However, with the exception of saving Cayleb's life, they started calling him seijin before any of that happened. Even stopping the assassins was controvertible. After all, the first suspicion was that Merlin was actually part of the plot to assassinate Cayleb, or that it was all for the purpose of getting him in close to the prince. The only way to keep from looking extremely gullible, would be to list the other reasons for believing Merlin was a seijin, among them that he had studied in the Mountains of Light.

Clyntahn knows right exactly where Merlin is. Um...most of the time. I'm pretty sure that's all he's worried about.

I agree that's where most of Clyntahn's concern was placed earlier. That started to change once he featured so prominently in rescuing Irys and Daivyn, and has moved even further in that direction now that he has been revealed to be a military adviser to Cayleb.

~Tonto
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