HFQ Official Snippet #20

Having a suspicious mind, I wonder if the Mighty Wizard Weber has another means in mind for "rescuing" Thirsk and his family.

Oh, Nice Snippet.

runsforcelery wrote:

Peter2 wrote:
I wonder if there's any chance of Aivah Pahrsahn's organisation getting Thirsk and his family out from under the baleful eyes of their Inquisition guards?

No.

runsforcelery wrote:

Peter2 wrote:
I wonder if there's any chance of Aivah Pahrsahn's organisation getting Thirsk and his family out from under the baleful eyes of their Inquisition guards?

No.

Let's rephrase. Is there a chance Nynian Rychtair's organization can get Thirsk or his family out from under the baleful eyes of their inquisition guards?

runsforcelery wrote:

Peter2 wrote:
I wonder if there's any chance of Aivah Pahrsahn's organisation getting Thirsk and his family out from under the baleful eyes of their Inquisition guards?

No.

Shucks! Oh well . . .

First thing, thank you RFC for another long and very insightful snippet. I hope you and your family are on the road to recovery from the battery of life's ills that have besieged you, and I hope our analysis of and conjecture about your story is worthy of the universe you've created for us to play in.

This is about the condition I expected the surviving Dohlaran army to be in at this point, although they're much farther from Thesmar and moving even more slowly than I'd anticipated once they ran out of highroads. I honestly don't see how they can skirt Thesmar and head for parts north before DE comes howling down the Fort Tairys - Thesmar highroad. Toss in an educational visit from Seijin Zhevons and there's no way this ragtag excuse of an army is going home again.

Ahlverez looks likely to become the ranking Dohlaran POW, unless Hanth suffers a notable defeat at Evrytyn. Since Hanth will be facing breech loading rifles, rifled artillery, and a few other nasty things the CoGA forces have copied from the ICA weapons list, the butcher's bill to drive the CoGA forces from Evrytyn may be higher than he is willing to pay. It's the first time that church forces will be fighting Charis with equivalent or better weapons in the entire series! Of course Hanth can cut the canal behind the Dohlarans and force them to retreat - and the Delthak is shrieking its way upriver and Evrytyn is within cannon range

Hanth has done all this as a marine officer, not an army officer, and without the aid of a seijin or the advantages of being part of the inner circle. Either he's a naturally gifted strategist or he has good aides - which he does now , since several thousand ICA regulars have joined him.

Obviously his "fight with superior weapons on a field of my choosing" style has worked well, as has his "pursue the enemy closely when he's in full retreat" policy. I'm rather fond of his "sail an ironclad up the river to send the Dohlaran's to meet the archangels" strategy as well!

I feel a bit less worried about 40,000 (and dwindling) survivors of the Army of Shiloh staggering around behind Hanth's main forces after this snippet. I'd feel even better if Seijin Zhevons showed up, or if Hanth received some clandestine reports of enemy movements penned by OWL...

DrakBibliophile wrote:Having a suspicious mind, I wonder if the Mighty Wizard Weber has another means in mind for "rescuing" Thirsk and his family.

Oh, Nice Snippet.

[quote="runsforcelery" quote="Peter2"

I wonder if there's any chance of Aivah Pahrsahn's organisation getting Thirsk and his family out from under the baleful eyes of their Inquisition guards? /quote


No. /

There is a point in LAMA (if I recall correctly) where Thirsk thinks to himself about his secret plans which I assumed will concern rescuing his family, and may have something to do with the Duke shoot which occurred in a previous snippet

Thank you very much for the snippet RFC. I am sure that we all hope that things are going well in the household.

I think the best thing for the ICA would be for Ahlvarez's men to become POWs. If the succeed in retuning to Dohlar, they will become the core of a new, experienced fighting force that will like nothing better than to avenge their treatment at the heretics hands. In short, rather than supporting the church, it will have become personal for them, as well as theological.

DrakBibliophile wrote:Having a suspicious mind, I wonder if the Mighty Wizard Weber has another means in mind for "rescuing" Thirsk and his family.

Oh, Nice Snippet.

runsforcelery wrote:

Peter2 wrote:I wonder if there's any chance of Aivah Pahrsahn's organisation getting Thirsk and his family out from under the baleful eyes of their Inquisition guards?

No.

Oh dear, the Voice of God on Safehold has spoken!

Those of us who have had the misfortune to have spent far too much time on these forums over the years, and thus have been the victims of RFC's . . . misdirections, know better than to believe him when he makes a clear, direct declaration about anything! So all he said here is that Aivah's organization won't be involved in spiriting Thirsk's family away from the tender guardianship of the Inquisition, not that it won't happen!

Since most readers respect Thirsk and wished he weren't playing for the wrong team, getting him to defect has long been a fond dream of ours. I've postulated that we're more likely to see a seijin involved in spiriting his family away if some sort of derring do is required, although the best sort of derring do is when the inquisitors notice that their charges are missing only after those charges have been missing for some time. Now that there's a female seijin, rescuing Thirsk's family might be a bit easier. Of course Thirsk would have to be at sea so he isn't immediately executed for treason...

Seriously, if his family disappears, he's a dead man. If he's killed in battle or "something" then there's no reason to keep his family under the "protection" of the Inquisition. So if there's some skullduggery afoot, the seijins, Aivah, and the EoC may not have to be involved at all! (Other than the EoC serving as a sanctuary for Thirsk's corpse and his grieving family of course!)

McGuiness wrote:I feel a bit less worried about 40,000 (and dwindling) survivors of the Army of Shiloh staggering around behind Hanth's main forces after this snippet. I'd feel even better if Seijin Zhevons showed up, or if Hanth received some clandestine reports of enemy movements penned by OWL...

I think it is to Hanth's advantage to let The Army of Shiloh keep on going toward St. Alek's, for a while, at least. With every mile they go, the more starved they are, and the less prepared for combat they are. With Hanth's ironclads, barges, supplies, and fresh troops, they could choose an ideal location for an ambush, ring it with mines and entrenchments, and when Ahlverez walks into it, oops. For that matter, the impact on morale after they think they might get away would be significant. I don't think he'd even put up much of a fight.

It does occur to me that Hanth's forces may not be the most critical ones to go after. Pushing toward Silk Town, and pushing the Dohlarens back may be more important. They are probably the best price-performace option for removing CoGA troops from the scene, however.

-- Bob G

...Since most readers respect Thirsk and wished he weren't playing for the wrong team, getting him to defect has long been a fond dream of ours...

Quite. Many of us DO wish Thirsk would stop musing in cathedrals about how bad the team he is playing for is (Midst Toil Etc.) and figure out a way out. However, getting him out of Dohlar would have been an early to mid-game strategy for the EoC in my opinion...and the game is moving on rapidly. Frankly, while it is easy to get bogged in the details when getting the story in agonizing little snippets, Himself is writing a major story arc and the Empire has to hold and control what it acquires by whatever means...and without consuming too much scarce person-power. In the past, this has meant doing practical deals with conquered princes and/or replacing them (a la Zebediah) with reliable parties like General C. However, soon, at least some on this forum speculate, Charis will be in a position to occupy Dohlar Very good. Who then, however, to have as a tributary prince in Dohlar? Just as Prince Hector appointed a local Zebedian noble as "Grand Duke" after conquering that Princedom, the Empire may well wish a Dohlaran prince of their own choosing but less likely to be seen as a foreign interloper by the locals. At that juncture, one may ask: "Who better than the irritatingly competent, honorable, "knows he has no future," and increasingly Zion-sceptical Thirsk?" Thus, in this scenario, no one spirits out Thirsk or his family. At most a team of scout snipers (or similar) is sent on ahead during the confusion of invasion to take out the temple guards/inquisitors watching Thirsk's family. Once they are safe and the Princedom is held the Empire can negotiate with the Earl - they do not even have to defeat his fleet as a fleet with no home port will soon be no fleet at all.

On the above note, one might speculate that one fine day the King of Delferahk may find a letter on his pillow from his loving niece, now married into the Armahk family, suggesting to her Uncle that it is time to get into the boat with the winners and out of the water with the Temple losers. Again, this is in accordance with the type of realpolitik themes already used by the redoubtable Mr. Weber in this series. Now that might be a real blow to the Grand Inquisitor! Thirsk as Prince followed by Delferahk's change of allegiance. After all, how much territory does the EoC take and how many princedoms does it acquire before there is a rush to the exits by the remaining rulers of Safehold? Hmmmm....?

I forget, which kind of guns are these guys carrying. If only a third are armed, that is 13000 guns. so a small force could do untold damage to the armny.