Old Habits Die Hard Part Three, The old dog practices new habits Options

[haute ecole rider]

Here is the first of a third thread for Old Habits Die Hard. I appreciate all of you staying with Julian and I this far, and hope you stick with us to the end!

For those who want to go back to the beginning, here you go:
Old Habits Die Hard Chapters 1 - 7
Old Habits Die Hard Chapters 8 - 13

[SubRosa]

On Lerus, I do not see how she is recruiting Julian to her cause. She did not hire/ask Julian to close the gate outside of the city, rescue Aleron Loche, or kill the local crimelord. Julian did all those things simply because it is in her nature to be heroic. Lerus is just sitting around until Bravil gets lucky enough for someone else to come along willing to do something. I would not characterize the murder and drug running you are describing as simply being illicit behaviour either. The way you lay it all out, this is all happening because the Count benefits from it, and he is not going to let anyone upset his gravy train. You even implied that he is the reason that the city is in such dire economic straits. Basically, you have led all the problems Bravil has back to his doorstep (which is entirely believable, I have seen it all for real here in Detroit).

Lerus is not the only good cop in a bad town doing her best to make things right. She is a cop doing nothing to make things right. If Lerus were the person you try to portray her as, she would do something, even though it would probably get her killed. The truth is her hands are not tied. That is just the excuse that everyone who is too afraid to act uses. Instead she is playing it safe, staying out of it all, and letting someone else do her job for her.

She could start by closing down the skooma den when the Count's son is in it, with a bottle in his mouth, and throw him and the rest in the dungeon. Then when the Count demands she release him, she can stand up to him and refuse. He might try to sack her, and she can refuse to surrender her command. Things would quickly hurtle to violence then, as the Count would probably try to have her killed. Most likely by whoever her second in command is. Or he might try the Dark Brotherhood instead. If she survives, and is smart enough, she can use that to accuse the Count of trying to murder her and throw him in prison. If he went the DB route, he would have to do a Night Mother ritual to contact them. That leaves plenty of evidence for Lerus to use against him (as it did with Claudius Arcadia). Even if not, he still has to hire the killer, and she just has to make the right person talk. Furthermore, if the Count is being paid off by gro-Dragol and the pirates, then he will have ledgers recording it somewhere. When that much money is changing hands there always is, otherwise he would not know if he was being cheated out of his share of the loot (not just by gro-Dragol, but by his own flunkies).

Or instead of going the above route of your standard Western, Lerus could go Miami Vice instead. She could petition Adamus Phillida for aid, since in the game City Guard are members of the legion, so he is her boss. He can send in an outsider as an undercover agent to get all the evidence on the Count, the crimelord, the pirates, and the skooma trading. Then she can throw a net over them in one fell swoop.

On the other hand, if she is afraid her career will be destroyed because she brought down the Count (a very realistic concern), or if she has a family that would probably be murdered, she can just quit and go work for a ruler who is not corrupt. I hear the Countess in Anvil is looking for someone. She can not only keep her integrity, but also make room for someone else who might take care of business.

The reason none of this happens in the game is because if the NPCs are competent it leaves the player with nothing to do. It is a game after all, and its creators were not interested in making sense, or believable characters, but rather creating a fun romp where the player can walk around fighting things.

I am sorry that it sound like I am being overly critical, but if I am going to give a meaningful critique, I have to bring up the things that hurt your writing as well as those that help it. You are trying to force a very square peg into a round hole, and have made Lerus a completely unbelievable character for me. You wanted an explanation, so I have said my piece, and I am not going to harangue you with it anymore. The last thing I want is for you to worry that I am going to attack you every post you make.

Now, onto chapter 15. You show us Julian at the end of her rope in fantastic fashion. I can feel the exhaustion that covers her in a shroud. Then to top it all off with her having to admit to her skooma addiction in front of everyone. I doubt that is going to be a real issue for anyone though. The way that Julian arrived at Cloud Ruler is the clearest statement of her quality, which none can deny.

Well on that bright side, at least no one was calling her a hero That would just be unbearable!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 4 2010, 05:27 PM