The Pub Discussion Board

Well, let's clear up one thing:

A familiar cannot "speak".  They do not have the vocal equipment to do so (except parrots, obviously.  Why aren't parrots used more often as familiars?  Hmmm.  Good question.)  What happens between a familiar and a wizard is essentially telepathy.  The familiar must establish a connection with his wizard.  This strongly implies that there is no way that the wizard could ease this burden on his familiar by clearing up some kind of interference.  Ultimately, it boils down to this:  Familiars don't talk, they think.  Now, David's house in Bolmont proves that at least simple divination of a familiar's thoughts IS possible (the lift in his house recognizes "up" and "down" requests from familiars), but that would be magic incorporated specifically into an object, and not something that is inherent in its ability.  (Jacob most likely had a familiar when he had the house built, and wanted that familiar to have run of the place, thus needing to give it a way to get around.)

Now, as to Jailla carrying the cynosure:  I've already detailed why carrying it beneath would be a serious difficulty.  I had not considered him carrying it above, but this, also, is probably not feasible.  A black-throated magpie jay has a wingspan of 16".  A billiard ball is 2.25" in diameter.  I envisioned the cynosure slightly larger than that, about 3" across.  Strap this to his back, and chances are that it will interfere with his ability to raise his wings above the horizontal.

Now, let's assume for a moment that Jailla can manage to carry the cynosure on his back, and be able to move his wings far enough to engage in flight.  While I was unable to find any information about the ability of corvids to carry weight, a bald eagle can carry around four pounds or so.  They weigh 8-12 lbs, so we're talking about 33% - 50% of their body weight, maximum.  And, as birds of prey, eagles would be much stronger fliers than carrion-eaters like the corvids.  So, I'm thinking that the cynosure is really beyond Jailla's weight capacity for cargo.

But let's assume that we can secure the cynosure to Jailla's back, he can move his wings, and he can carry the weight for about 120 miles or more (in order to cover the entire forest, he is going to have to fly at least ten passes, each of which is about twelve miles long.)  Let us further make the assumption (though not in evidence anywhere in the series) that David could throw his voice to the location of the cynosure to give it commands.  Now, David could surely use the cynosure as a focus for a viewing lens, so that he could see where the cynosure was pointing.  HOWEVER... he has no way to know where it is!  Once again, the cynosure tells you where you want to go, but if you're not the one who's going, then you also have to know where you are, in order to give useful directions.  Yes, David could see through Jailla's eyes, but we're back to trying to find a useful landmark, in the dark, that will be visible from the ground.  And keep in mind that David has never communicated to Jailla in return: the bird-sight that Jailla has allowed him to have has always been visual-only, and one-way communication.  So David could not even direct Jailla to hover over a spot, once they'd gotten close enough to the boy to be useful.  So the only way this could work at all is if David COULD 'throw his voice'... which is something he has never done, so he would have to be taught how to do (assuming it's possible, which I am neither confirming nor denying at this point).  Generally, you don't think to do things you don't know how to do.

Like I said, this plan is fraught with difficulties and dangers.  It would almost certainly take more time to figure out how to make this plan work than it did to just do what they did.  The truth of the matter is, when someone else's life is on the line is NOT the time to experiment with untried ways to rescue them, unless you've already exhausted all other tested, reliable, options.  The thing that David should be kicking himself for isn't "not thinking outside the box", it's not thinking INSIDE the box.  Fifty years ago, before helicopters with infrared scopes and GPS units, when you wanted to find someone, you called in the dogs.  It took David way too long to remember this.  But he's new to the job, so it can be overlooked.  Why the others didn't think of it is questionable.

Eric Storm

PS: To clarify:  Crystallomancy uses a crystal ball to foretell future events.  Hydromancy would be used to see events occurring now, but at a distance.  David is not good at hydromancy.  A viewing lens could be used to follow a specific "focus", such as the cynosure, but they would have to get a viewing lens and then focus it on the object... not a difficult task, but it would require more time taken.  And a viewing lens is also "one-way" communication.  You can see through it, but not talk.  The simplest method of two-way communication would be a mirror... but now we're just getting weird.  A bird with a ball and a mirror strapped to his back...  I'm pretty sure he couldn't fly at that point.

Well, the only thing is that he's used Bispy as a tracker before, so there's no reason he shouldn't have thought of it.  But... stress.  It has a deleterious effect on creative thinking.

And, like I said, I don't mind discussing things.  It just helps me solidify the world.

Eric Storm

The /bsd should have been fixed already.  If it's not, please send me an email pointing to its location.
[EDIT:] Never mind: I screwed up when I reposted it.  It has been fixed now.

A police academy focuses on street work, mostly.  The investigative techniques taught at an academy would be those involving interviewing witnesses.  When you're talking about scientific investigative techniques/forensics, you're not talking about a police academy, you're talking about college time.  CSI people are often NOT police officers: they're scientists. 

And truthfully, there's little that earth science could add that magic cannot do.  But the laws are not the same, so there are different rules to play by.

Eric Storm

Barbarian3165 wrote:

...
study both Dugerran and Earth investigative methods.  Couldn't hurt if the Rhimors that had to deal with Earth did it either, in my opinion, although that would be outside the story as uninteresting.

It was shown that at least some of the law enforcement in Earth have knowledge of Dugerra and Rimhors. Perhaps there are liaisons (perhaps at state or federal levels) that can facilitate cross-world investigations. Like the one facing Joe and David now.

Oh, I can say, to turshen's point, however, that no, there are no special liaison officers between Earth and Dugerran law enforcement.  They wouldn't have enough to do to justify their existence.  Generally, the Rimohrs are supposed to have enough Earth knowledge to handle the liaison work directly.  (This is another failing of the current department.)

Eric Storm

I have answered this question before.  ALL law enforcement officers are told about Rimohrs.  Now, that briefing is probably short, and many of them probably forgot it ten minutes after it happened, but they have all been told.

You'll note that they have not run into a police officer who, once told what they are, says, "What the fuck is a Rimohr?  Get the hell out of my face!"  That is NOT coincidence.

Eric Storm

Makes sense to me they would all have some basic knowledge.   Talking to those in charge would be the correct course of action in my opinion as they are the ones that can tell the other officers to back off as would be the same case when dealing with other agencies.

Eric, I would assume that as part of the briefing a Rimohr would be present or even make the presentation.  Then, they could use magic (assuming the spell exists) to prevent the officer from discussing the existence of the Rimohrs with anyone they do not expressly know has knowledge of the existence of magic in general and Rimohrs as a whole.  Of course, I suppose they could have just cast a similar enchantment on the whole of Earth but made it Rimohr specific at the time.

Last edited by Fenixreign (2016-04-21 15:21:47)

Barbarian's right.  Magic is "taboo" to talk about, it's not "illegal".  If it were, then they would have to Gag Order every single wizard. 

The briefing officers receive is in order to let them know that a) Rimohrs have full and complete jurisdiction over anything involving wizards, and b) to warn officers that, since a Rimohr's presence is probably going to prevent you from getting your ass fried by some dark wizard, it's not a good idea to piss them off.  There would be a suggestion that they keep this information to themselves in order to keep the public from being confused and dismayed, but let's face it: people who have no need to know about magic are going to know.  Friends and family of wizards, people that wizards have tried to impress, judges and others who have had to deal with wizard issues...  This is one of those things that is "closely held", but is not "classified".  Now, the specifics of the matter (Dugerra, the travel gates, etc.) are more sensitive information, and that is NOT distributed to anyone who doesn't have need to know.  But hiding the existence of magic completely would be like trying to hide the existence of Area 51: too many people know it's there.

Eric Storm

Two points:

1. The US Government has never denied the existence of Area 51.  Their position was always "neither confirm nor deny".
2. The government's position was rather... well... stupid.  The term "Area 51" is geographical.  Denying the existence of "Area 51" implies that the government had some reason to number their map Area 49, Area 50, Area 52, Area 53...  This would be highly illogical.

I never said anything about the existence of Dreamland, after all, just Area 51. 



Eric Storm

PS:  About the only thing the US Government is actually good at is lying to the American public.

You misunderstand:  "Area 51" is a geographical map designation.  A government map was broken into "areas".  "Area 51" falls between (naturally enough) Area 50 and Area 52.  This is not speculation: the maps were public information.  This is why denying the existence of "Area 51" would never make sense.  Denying the existence of "Dreamland" or the "Groom Lake Annex" or any of a zillion other names given to the base... that's a different story.  (Although in this day and age, denying the existence of the base is just as ludicrous, given that there is photographic evidence of it...)

Eric Storm

Hi,
I have read 2 times already this whole series and I like it very much. I like it when David "levels up" gets stronger on the way. I have few ideas how Davids investigetion will go and will wait until it finishes to find out will it be like I thought.
I would like to know what David studies in this year at school. In book it have been told thas he has registered his school year, but not told what it is. What I have caught is Advanced Sword And Staff, which is not official in papers. I think he continues TEM and Divination but other than those I dont know.
I think it will add to his combat strenght if he would start Charms And Hexes in DET studies if has time for it.