Was Soon an idiot?

[zaloo]

Hey everybody. After 2 years of lurking I finally got an account, so this is my first post.

I'm unclear on Girard's trick. Wouldn't soon know the coordinates he received from Girard are fake? After all, he was one of the party members who sealed the gate.

[Shale]

Soon was there when the party sealed a gate in the middle of a featureless, sandy desert. Later (possibly years later), Girard gave him coordinates for a spot in the middle of a featureless, sandy desert.

[Twilight Jack]

Ever been lost? It's easy to do in a featureless desert. Without some serious navigational skills, it's insanely unlikely you'd be able to find your way back to a specific spot, even though you'd been there before.

Girard had the navigation skills to map out coordinates. Soon Kim? Did not.

[Green Bean]

Well, Soon didn't exactly spend much time at Girard's rift, and he was probably a little busy with the fights that inevitably crop up when an adventuring party do anything. Plus, he probably doesn't have any cartographic training. If you were shown a random set of longitude and latitude numbers, would you be able to match it to a place you've only been once? And Soon was forbidden by oath to use those coordinates in anything outside of an emergency, so it isn't like he'd be able to check them, or even show them to anyone.

[Connington]

Keep in mind, Soon was Lawful. He gave Girard a job (keep the maps, plot the travel routes) and then assumed Girard would do so honestly. So, since this is, as previously mentioned, a mostly featureless desert, all Soon's going to remember is that it was, say, a ten day march from East Despotania, which isn't much good when you don't know what direction to march in, and East Despotania gets conquered by the lizards three months later. So all Kim really remembers is what basic section of the continent it's on. Which is like saying that I left my keys somewhere in America that's west of the Mississippi, not right near the east coast, somewhere in the middle, but more towards the south, and not in Florida. No, you're not going to find those keys anytime soon, and if your friend tells you they're in West Virginia, and they're really in Tennessee, tough luck for you.

[Thursday]

Its fun to Lurk!

So, since this is, as previously mentioned, a mostly featureless desert

This is key, another kind of featured landscape, it wouldn't work so well.. do we know anything about how they divided the rifts between them? Girard might have wanted this one just so he could pull a stunt like this..

[NerfTW]

Its fun to Lurk!


This is key, another kind of featured landscape, it wouldn't work so well.. do we know anything about how they divided the rifts between them? Girard might have wanted this one just so he could pull a stunt like this..

Very likely. Only one of them had an obvious match. Lerian's gate was already in her forest. Given Azure City's culture was probably around prior to Soon, his gate was probably already in his homeland as well. But the others have no obvious connection to their respective guardians, and were also harder to fake the location of.

[Connington]

Of course, with the possible exception of the Azure City rift, any one of them could have worked, if not quite so well. For a non local with little interest in geography or the natural world, pretty much everywhere with the same climate/terrain looks the same. Most landmarks are a lot less distinct than you would think.

[Herald Alberich]

This is key, another kind of featured landscape, it wouldn't work so well.. do we know anything about how they divided the rifts between them? Girard might have wanted this one just so he could pull a stunt like this..

Serini said (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html) they each took the one closest to his/her homeland. A bit off-topic, but rather than Girard taking the desert gate because it was easy to hide from his allies, I find it interesting that he got the one in the area where every authority figure is a tyrant and the lands are in constant warfare, and that this implies he grew up there. Explains his outlook a bit.

[derfenrirwolv]

Lets say everything is in soon's favor.

The party walked to the gat rather than teleport

The party had a well known location like sands edge

The direction was relatively westward (the easiest direction to tell) for 12 days (360 miles)

Lets say soon is pretty sharp and guesses the walking direction within 3 degrees.

After 12 days of travel, that would put soon almost 90 miles away from the gate.

Now since soon wouldn't know what direction he was off by, he'd have to search over an 8 THOUSAND square mile radius before finding it.

thats 8,553,600 squares to search, at a minute a peice, or 9 years 8 months of 1 person searching 24 7.

[Dixieboy]

Lets say everything is in soon's favor.

The party walked to the gat rather than teleport

The party had a well known location like sands edge

The direction was relatively westward (the easiest direction to tell) for 12 days (360 miles)

Lets say soon is pretty sharp and guesses the walking direction within 3 degrees.

After 12 days of travel, that would put soon almost 90 miles away from the gate.

Now since soon wouldn't know what direction he was off by, he'd have to search over an 8 THOUSAND square mile radius before finding it.

thats 8,553,600 squares to search, at a minute a peice, or 9 years 8 months of 1 person searching 24 7.

He has an order of paladins and a city of subjects at his command.

100 dudes should shorten the time to atleast a 4th.

[Aldrakan]

He has an order of paladins and a city of subjects at his command.

100 dudes should shorten the time to atleast a 4th.

Also the thing they're looking for is invisible. And sending all his people out to look for it would leave his gate undefended.

[derfenrirwolv]

He has an order of paladins and a city of subjects at his command.

100 dudes should shorten the time to atleast a 4th.



But how many of them will be able to do anything against an epic level illusion?

[Conuly]

I find it interesting that he got the one in the area where every authority figure is a tyrant and the lands are in constant warfare, and that this implies he grew up there. Explains his outlook a bit.

Oh, that's a good point I hadn't thought of.