Sending: solution to the current problem

[ZerglingOne]

:durkon::Girard Draketooth, I am Durkon Thundershield. Gate at Azure City destroyed, epic lich on way to your gate with Serini's diary. Please respond immediately, thanks.

Edit: This would be especially useful if Girard could say, teleport to them(assuming he's alive and on the PMP).

[Forbiddenwar]

doesn;t help if girard is dead, or distrustful. on the other hand he may respond immediately. by killing the party.

[Hann]

This idea crossed my mind too. Of course, I didn't put the thought into what exactly the 25 words would be. There's probably some plot device to stop them though.

[ZerglingOne]

True, but it's more than worth a try. Hopefully the diplomacy check would have gotten a hefty bonus by mentioning Serini's diary and the epic level lich carrying it.

[FujinAkari]

You have to "be familiar" with someone in order to use Sending, so i don't think its a viable option. Familiar is a bit closer of a relationship than "saw an illusion of once."

[SaintRidley]

You have to "be familiar" with someone in order to use Sending, so i don't think its a viable option. Familiar is a bit closer of a relationship than "saw an illusion of once."

Indeed, an accurate and current physical description with enough personality details to establish uniqueness seem required.

[derfenrirwolv]

The preist of Loki send a sending to Durkon based on celia's chalk drawing. Presumably Girard, as a master of illusion, can present a more functional image of himself than hailey can with a dwarf (they all look alike)

[Holy_Knight]

Yeah, that certainly seems like the logical next step. They'd better spend a lot of time getting the words just right, though.

[Zevox]

The preist of Loki send a sending to Durkon based on celia's chalk drawing. Presumably Girard, as a master of illusion, can present a more functional image of himself than hailey can with a dwarf (they all look alike)
Except for the little problem that the illusion they just saw is decades old. Girard will have aged since then, so relying on that illusion to cast a sending will be unlikely to work out.

Plus there's the possibility that he may be dead. Though honestly, I do doubt that personally. Epic-level wizards have a tendency to find ways to lengthen their lifespan.

Zevox

[derfenrirwolv]

Except for the little problem that the illusion they just saw is decades old. Girard will have aged since then, so relying on that illusion to cast a sending will be unlikely to work out.

Its very likely to work. The illusion is bound to be closer to Girard than the chalk drawing of Durkon.

Also, the preist of loki was asking for a description of Durkon. "A dwarf that likes beer worships thor and is afraid of trees" wasn't specific enough. "Girard draketooth, paranoid illusionist with 2 levels of ranger, guardian of the gate" will probably get it.

[Forbiddenwar]

Its very likely to work. The illusion is bound to be closer to Girard than the chalk drawing of Durkon.

Also, the preist of loki was asking for a description of Durkon. "A dwarf that likes beer worships thor and is afraid of trees" wasn't specific enough. "Girard draketooth, paranoid illusionist with 2 levels of ranger, guardian of the gate" will probably get it.

yes, but see paranoid. Again, I think Girard is more likely to show up and kill the order for even knowing of the gates, rather than help them.

[J.J.J-H-Schmidt]

i think that is a great and plausible suggestion.

i dont think that girard is as paranoid as everyone thinks... he set a pretty specific trap for a very specific person for a very specific reason... i don't believe that makes him any less good or any more chaotic than everyone else seems to think. another point for the "good guy" theory is that he put the trap in a random spot in the worlds largest desert where there is a great chance that no inocent bystandards would be harmed. hell, he even had specific keywords that only a select few would even know about.

[TriForce]

none of the gates so far could be scyed on, assuming girard is alive, whatever prevents the scrying will also block sending, so no go

[Ancalagon]

none of the gates so far could be scyed on, assuming girard is alive, whatever prevents the scrying will also block sending, so no go

Who said that?

[SPoD]

Nice idea, but I think it's safe to file it under, "Won't work because if it did, the story arc would be over."

There are plenty of ways to block Sending; Dorukan developed Cloister, for example, and could have taught it to Girard before they went their separate ways. Or, for the low-tech version, Girard could be dead already.

[Hardcore]

Better to send to Serini then, since Girard would trust her.

[SPoD]

The likelihood of Serini having survived Xykon taking her personal diary (that contained the secrets of the Snarl) from her is spectacularly low. Much lower than the chances of Girard still being alive.

[HealthKit]

Interesting theory...
I don't think Durkon knows what Girard looks like. He wasn't around when the illusion popped up.

[Turkish Delight]

The likelihood of Serini having survived Xykon taking her personal diary (that contained the secrets of the Snarl) from her is spectacularly low. Much lower than the chances of Girard still being alive.

I'm pretty sure if Serini got wacked at Xykon's hands, it would have been in SoD. I haven't heard anything about it at all, so I have to assume it isn't.

Does SoD show how he gets the diary? He goes after the gates in it, after all.

[Kish]

It does not. He just
shows up with the diary to ruin Redcloak and his brother's lives.

[RainRat]

Interesting theory...
I don't think Durkon knows what Girard looks like. He wasn't around when the illusion popped up.

V saw the illusion and can cast sending. If not sending, perhaps "V's Greater Animal Messenger"

[NerfTW]

Who said that?

Dorukon had anti-scrying magic, and the Azure City gate was shown to block scrying when Xykon was scrying on Miko. The video cut out when she entered the throneroom unti she was being taken back out in chains. Lirian's gate was similarly blocked, since he felt the need to send Paladins all the way out there to check up on it instead of just scrying it.

It's reasonable to assume all gates are similarly warded, or else they would have just scryed the location of the gates in the first place.

[Ron Miel]

I started a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7521648#post7521648)with the same idea a few days ago. It was merged into the Girard mega-thread, along with 8 other threads.

My sending message:
"An evil undead mage and his army wants to capture your gate. We seek an alliance to defeat him. Please show yourself and we'll discuss."




There are plenty of ways to block Sending; Dorukan developed Cloister, for example, and could have taught it to Girard before they went their separate ways. Or, for the low-tech version, Girard could be dead already.

Sending passes through cloister. See SOD p 98

[SaintRidley]

Sending passes through cloister. See SOD p 98

From the inside to out does not imply it would work in the opposite direction at all.

[Douglas]

Sending is not a kind of scrying magic. It isn't even in the same school and does not have the scrying descriptor. Unless someone's using it to annoy you like a telemarketer, there is absolutely no reason to block Sending specifically, and it is more than different enough for a general block on scrying to not affect it.

Edit: I checked the comic where Celia explains Cloister (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0532.html), and apparently it blocks communication spells too, including Sending. Still, that's specific to Cloister, and Dorukan teaching it to Girard would take just as much effort as Girard researching his own customized version, so it's a question of whether Girard would choose to block Sending with his own version of the spell, if he even has his own Cloister-like spell.

[Somewhere]

According to some peoples' estimate of Girard's personality/thinking, he distrusts any non-Scribble who knows about the Gates.

By extension, he might as well just explode the face off anybody who Sends to him any awareness of the Gates. After all, why would the Sender know about the Gates in the first place? EXPLODE THEM.

[Cizak]

You're all forgetting that they have no idea what Girard looks like now. We have no idea how old he was when that illusion was recorded, but he oesn't look nearly as old as Durokon did when he died. Girard probably looks different now.

[RebelT]

Some of you are acting as though when people age, they turn into a different person. The likeness of an individual doesn't change that drastically with age, it's just altered slightly with its effects.


Furthermore, the tatoo or whatever the identifying mark on Girard's face would be a specific mark that would definitely aid in identifying him.

[Kish]

Some of you are acting as though when people age, they turn into a different person. The likeness of an individual doesn't change that drastically with age, it's just altered slightly with its effects.
Indeed, if a chalk drawing (with the eyes the same size) of Durkon worked, I'm sure a much-younger illusion of Girard would.

Whether it's possible to Send something to him that he'll listen to instead of responding with instant hostility is another question.

[RebelT]

Whether it's possible to Send something to him that he'll listen to instead of responding with instant hostility is another question.



Agreed. The question is not whether they can get the message to him. No doubt about that. The question is first of all whether Girard is even still alive, and second of all, assuming he is alive, what he would do with the message when he gets it.

[pendell]

Okay. So what *is* a good plan B?

I can think of a few possibilities off the top of my head:

Obviously the first thing to do is spend a few more days searching the area to ensure the trap isn't an elegant bit of mis-direction. It's possible the gate really IS there, and the trap merely serves to direct people to anywhere but the gate. It'd be a neat way to spend people off on a years or decades long hunt away from the one spot it actually was in.

Once that is done..

A) If the original spell survived, try using some other keywords like 'serini' to see if we can generate an alternate reaction such as 'Hi , Serini. The gate is at ..."

B) Back to the Oracle to find the location of the gate. I don't think this
is a great idea because the Oracle may be obtuse, and it's a looong way to go.

C) Find an oracle equivalent on the current continent to find the gate. Or use some of V's researched spells that he used while attempting to find Haley.
Perhaps that effort was NOT fully a waste.

D) We already know one person in the entire world who knows precisely where the gate is located : Xykon himself. And we have a good idea of exactly where he is.

Easy option: Go back to Azure City. Shadow Xykon's army. While he can teleport personally, if he wants to take along the hobgoblin ar

my he'll need to use more mundane transportation. Shadow the army, sit and have a brew-up while Xykon sends his minions and himself in wave after wave to break the gate's defenses. THEN, after he's done all the heavy lifting, has finally made it to the gate and is down to single hit points -- THEN sweep in with the Greenhilt sword, kill him and Redcloak, smash the philactery, and secure the gate.

Middling hard option: Same as above, except polymorph into hobgoblins and infiltrate the army. The danger here is that we might be tapped as cannon fodder to defeat a trap -- this would blow the hero's cover.

Super-hard option: Steal the diary from Xykon. Xykon is ADD -- he may not remember the exact location. This would enable the heroes to reach the gate and deny that information to Xykon. But this is an insanely difficult option. There's also no guarantee Redcloak hasn't made copies. And if he hasn't made copies, that means hunting down the OOTS and recovering the diary becomes Xykon's top priority. I doubt they can survive that.

What do you think? Are there other options? If not, which would you choose?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Inhuman Bot]

Apparently I didn't post this earlier, but...

One flaw with this cunning plan: Durkon didn't even see the illusion of Giriad. If that was Giriad.

[Dixieboy]

Except for the little problem that the illusion they just saw is decades old. Girard will have aged since then, so relying on that illusion to cast a sending will be unlikely to work out.

Plus there's the possibility that he may be dead. Though honestly, I do doubt that personally. Epic-level wizards have a tendency to find ways to lengthen their lifespan.

Zevox

Chalk
drawing

[Ancalagon]

Go where the most smoke rises. That's where Xykon is. And as we know: He knows where the gate is...

[Kish]

As we know, though the Order doesn't, he's planning on Teleporting out, not marching out, once he finds his phylactery. So, even aside from what it would mean to let Xykon get a head start, it would be a big mistake for the Order to count on following him.

[rewinn]

Interesting theory...
I don't think Durkon knows what Girard looks like. He wasn't around when the illusion popped up.

Elan would have to provide a bardic illusion.

V is smart enough to do the same AND alter it to allow for aging process, sort of like those computer-aged photos of lost kids. After all, it takes only adding a couple of curved lines under the eyes :smallwink:

The illusion and the sending are only two spells, a cheap way to solve an important problem, even though I'd be willing to bet the result is just getting shunted into Gerard's Arcane Voicemail.

[pendell]

As we know, though the Order doesn't, he's planning on Teleporting out, not marching out, once he finds his phylactery. So, even aside from what it would mean to let Xykon get a head start, it would be a big mistake for the Order to count on following him.

Odd. I would have thought he would have wanted to bring along
the army because there's no problem you can't solve by
sacrificing enough minions. Why risk his own undead-ness when
there are hordes of expendables ready to die, return his zombies, and
get destroyed again ?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Forbiddenwar]

Odd. I would have thought he would have wanted to bring along
the army because there's no problem you can't solve by
sacrificing enough minions. Why risk his own undead-ness when
there are hordes of expendables ready to die, return his zombies, and
get destroyed again ?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

However, bringing the army along doesn't suit Xykon's immediadte gratification.
A) Spend several years crafting an armada and lay waste on the entire western continent in order to bring an army to girard's gate.
B) Spend 3 seconds casting teleport.
He is impatient, what do you think he'll do?

[Shatteredtower]

Aging matters less than any other transformation. Your DM isn't going to rule the spell fails just because the target got turned into a newt lately.

Would Girard react as stupidly as some insist? No. He'd likely pick a response less than ideal (e.g., try to contact all other gatekeepers, then establish neutral meeting ground while verifying their story), but that's because the Giant prefers the results he gets that way.

[Forbiddenwar]

Aging matters less than any other transformation. Your DM isn't going to rule the spell fails just because the target got turned into a newt lately.

Would Girard react as stupidly as some insist? No. He'd likely pick a response less than ideal (e.g., try to contact all other gatekeepers, then establish neutral meeting ground while verifying their story), but that's because the Giant prefers the results he gets that way.

I'm sorry. But girard in the last few strips has not been portrayed as a rational and calm individual. Perhaps he has changed since making that recorded message. Perhaps not.

[Somewhere]

Would Girard react as stupidly as some insist? No. He'd likely pick a response less than ideal (e.g., try to contact all other gatekeepers, then establish neutral meeting ground while verifying their story)

What current strips offer support for this conjecture? :smallconfused:

[Aldrakan]

What current strips offer support for this conjecture? :smallconfused:

As far as I can tell the belief that trying to kill everyone who might know about the gate including your own allies is the most rational course of action. Therefore Girard is a perfectly rational person. And so he'll be reasonable.
It's... a little questionable.

[Shatteredtower]

I'm sorry.

No. You're not. You are, however, reading far too much into a display of hostility between great adventurers in a world that operates on game mechanics.

And Somewhere, the example I gave was the ideal, not the course I'd expect. Reason for conjecture: the suboptimal option is par for the course in this story -- unless that wouldn't be as funny as the better choice.

Aldrakin... again, too much with the reading into of things. We have no reason to expect the best response, but neither is there evidence that any attempt at communication would be met with attack. What we saw was intended for anyone that would do Soon's dirty work, and it was not forseeable that anyone else would be able to trigger it.

[veti]

Odd. I would have thought he would have wanted to bring along
the army because there's no problem you can't solve by
sacrificing enough minions.

There are evil people on the western continent. We've even seen some of them.

My prediction: someone like Xykon will have no trouble recruiting new minions wherever he goes. Within two days of landing on the continent, he'll have - maybe not an army, but at least a few score of those slaver thingies to do everything he tells them. Or maybe he'll even take over one of the local kingdoms.

[Aldrakan]

Aldrakan... again, too much with the reading into of things. We have no reason to expect the best response, but neither is there evidence that any attempt at communication would be met with attack. What we saw was intended for anyone that would do Soon's dirty work, and it was not forseeable that anyone else would be able to trigger it.

And the assumption you're making is that trying to kill anyone working for Soon is... you know. A reasonable thing to do, rather than a paranoid murder attempt based on a complete misjudgment of Soon's intentions.

I never said Girard is going to try and kill them all, I just said that the claims that Girard knows what he's doing that many people have been making seem to be based on incredibly shaky evidence and reasoning.
I personally don't expect Girard to have the insane "everyone who knows about the gate must DIE!" approach that many people have been claiming as the sensible option.

[Shatteredtower]

Aldrakin, a message for Soon only gets through if he receives it, whether he's there or not. That makes it unlikely this was more than V's substitute parking ticket.

The point is that further efforts to reach him aren't likely to get Roy's head blown off.

Belkar's, maybe...

[gibbo88]

Wasn't there an alarm system set up on the gates so that if one was destroyed the guardians of the rest would know about it? Wasn't that the whole reason the Paladins were sent to the druid lady's gate and to wizard man's?

Excuse the lack of name remembering...its too early and I haven't had coffee.

[Aldrakan]

Aldrakan, a message for Soon only gets through if he receives it, whether he's there or not. That makes it unlikely this was more than V's substitute parking ticket.

The point is that further efforts to reach him aren't likely to get Roy's head blown off.

Belkar's, maybe...

I'm sorry could you rephrase your point there? I'm not sure I follow.

Are you saying that the explosion wouldn't have been lethal because then Soon wouldn't have got it (or, given that the message came before the explosion, it wouldn't have made any difference due to Soon being dead)?

[Shatteredtower]

If Soon wasn't with the group that got the message, he wouldn't get it if they were killed.

[Aldrakan]

If Soon wasn't with the group that got the message, he wouldn't get it if they were killed.

Okay and this proves that Girard wasn't trying to kill whoever it was why? Because it was so incredibly important to give Soon a way to find the gate through Serini despite believing Soon was trying to take over the gates?

[Tao the Ninja]

none of the gates so far could be scyed on, assuming girard is alive, whatever prevents the scrying will also block sending, so no go

Actually, the Saphire Guard just placed a nondetection (or similar effect) on their throne room

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Wasn't there an alarm system set up on the gates so that if one was destroyed the guardians of the rest would know about it? Wasn't that the whole reason the Paladins were sent to the druid lady's gate and to wizard man's?
Yes. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html)

Assuming Girard is alive and there hasn’t been a failure in the alarm system, Girard knows that Lirian’s Gate was destroyed thirty years ago, Durokan’s was destroyed two years ago, and Soon’s was destroyed one year ago. If this is the case, I should hope Girard has enough sense to tolerate “interference.”

[rewinn]

Yes. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html)

Assuming Girard is alive and there hasn’t been a failure in the alarm system, Girard knows that Lirian’s Gate was destroyed thirty years ago, Durokan’s was destroyed two years ago, and Soon’s was destroyed one year ago. If this is the case, I should hope Girard has enough sense to tolerate “interference.”

I'd hope so too, but since the anti-Soon bomb went off, it would appear that Girard isn't around to turn it off after Soon's Gate was destroyed.

Unless ... it's a trap! Gerard WANTS whoever's been knocking over gates to think he isn't around.

Wheels within wheels ...


My prediction: someone like Xykon will have no trouble recruiting new minions wherever he goes...As long as there's a plentiful supply of corpses, Team Evil will never lack for cannon fodder.

And Xykon is rarely seen without a plentiful supply of corpses.

[lothos]

Sending is not a kind of scrying magic. It isn't even in the same school and does not have the scrying descriptor. Unless someone's using it to annoy you like a telemarketer, there is absolutely no reason to block Sending specifically, and it is more than different enough for a general block on scrying to not affect it. (snip)


Oh I love this idea.... you have just given me the image of a room full of mid level casters all casting sending 8 hours per day to people who were not careful enough to check the box "I do not wish to receive marketing messages", reading a script like this as part of a sending spell:

"Considered a subscription to Homebrew potions monthly ? Only 20 gold per annum. Special offer this month only. Reply to Bob Jones, Marketing Team, Cliffport Publications."

:-)

[Asta Kask]

Odd. I would have thought he would have wanted to bring along
the army because there's no problem you can't solve by
sacrificing enough minions. Why risk his own undead-ness when
there are hordes of expendables ready to die, return his zombies, and
get destroyed again ?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Given his power level, he can easily kill all the people in the trade camp and turn them into zombies.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I'd hope so too, but since the anti-Soon bomb went off, it would appear that Girard isn't around to turn it off after Soon's Gate was destroyed.
Just ‘cause you didn’t turn something off doesn’t mean you’re dead or otherwise “not around.” It just means you didn’t turn it off. You could have just forgotten about it. :smalltongue:


The likelihood of Serini having survived Xykon taking her personal diary (that contained the secrets of the Snarl) from her is spectacularly low. Much lower than the chances of Girard still being alive.
Y’know, that’s something that’s been on my mind as well. But keep in mind that Serini is in charge of a gate. If Xykon got the diary directly from Serini, wouldn’t that have necessitated being close enough to Kraagor’s gate that he should have gone after that gate first?

Yes, there is that pesky line about Serini not being “the type for retiring (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html),” but that doesn’t imply she’s foolish enough to stray very far from the Gate she’s protecting while on her adventures. Nor does it imply her “type” remained static over the decades between the Gate’s construction and Xykon’s procurement of her diary.

It seems to me Serini managed to lose her diary in a fashion that allowed it to travel far from Kraagor’s gate. Either that or she intentionally planted it so there’d be some record of the gate long after she and the rest of the Scribbles were gone under the hope that it would be good guys interested in protecting the gates that would find it, rather than someone like Xykon.

Wild Speculation follows:
It always seemed to me that the biggest problem with the Order of the Scribble’s big plan was that in keeping this thing a total secret, they help keep people who would threaten the Gates away, but at the same time they don’t have anyone to protect it after they are gone. Soon, at least, saw this problem when he created the Sapphire Guard.

Start of Darkness
Lirian seems to have addressed the problem too. She had plenty of intelligent fey, magical beasts, and plants in on the secret.

It doesn’t appear Dorukan had any plan for his departure. The few beings in the dungeon that should have been on the secret clearly weren’t, as Celia had no knowledge of the gate of the Gate, nor any particular devotion to her job or employer. Best case scenario: Dorukan was planning on using his arcane arts to live forever in some fashion.

Not being a wizard, Serini wouldn’t likely see that as an option. She’d have to find some other way of maintaining a legacy of protectors.

[Random832]

Start of Darkness
Lirian seems to have addressed the problem too. She had plenty of intelligent fey, magical beasts, and plants in on the secret.

Point of order: not actually SOD spoilers (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html).

[Zxo]

Speculation/SoD spoiler:

Maybe Xykon soul-bound Serini like he did with Lirian and wants to use it against Girard, like he used Lirian's soul to get Dorukan out of his tower. Repetitive, yes, but Xykon sticks to things that work. In a way, if would be karma-rrific to see Girard facing the same kind of tragic choice Soon had to make - life/soul of a friend or saving the world.

[SoC175]

Yes, there is that pesky line about Serini not being “the type for retiring (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html),” but that doesn’t imply she’s foolish enough to stray very far from the Gate she’s protecting while on her adventures. Why not. Install an automatic defenses system (aka a bunch of monsters eating anyone, good or evil, who comes near the gate) and leave it be.

[AlfredAmeoba]

I can look at SoD spoilers now, Weeeeeee!

Anyhow, seems plausible. Not sure about scrying, though. If not sending, scrying would be the number one thing I would block while defending a gate. Plus, you wouldn't be able to scry through the illusions Girard has no doubt put up.

[Trixie]

You have to "be familiar" with someone in order to use Sending, so i don't think its a viable option. Familiar is a bit closer of a relationship than "saw an illusion of once."

Elan saw illusion of him, he can recreate it. And actually, that's a very good idea which was posted since long before the battle of Azure city - they had access to Speak With Dead then, as scene in courtroom indicates - they could have asked Soon (or anyone familiar with Girard) for description.

Or, if that didn't occurred to them before, why they haven't tried to on a ship when Roy was resurrected (long, boring trip with nothing to cast) or after first day of fruitless searching? Certain someone has daddy with Epic Inside (and repaired sword), haven't he?


According to some peoples' estimate of Girard's personality/thinking, he distrusts any non-Scribble who knows about the Gates.

By extension, he might as well just explode the face off anybody who Sends to him any awareness of the Gates. After all, why would the Sender know about the Gates in the first place? EXPLODE THEM.

No, the proper step for distrustful man would be to squeeze any info they might have out of them, THEN explode them if they don't have anything useful to add.


Easy option: Go back to Azure City. Shadow Xykon's army. While he can teleport personally, if he wants to take along the hobgoblin army he'll need to use more mundane transportation.

First, there is no indication he will take it, and second, he might have already left. What then?


And the assumption you're making is that trying to kill anyone working for Soon is... you know. A reasonable thing to do, rather than a paranoid murder attempt based on a complete misjudgment of Soon's intentions.

A.K.A. the guy they were ready to kill the last time they met, someone who had resources of a whole nation at his command and like, 50% chance of turning Blackguard, at least to them?

Power corrupts, you know. Hinjo can say something about how "easy" for LG Paladin is the job of ruling the Azure City.

And sorry, they would be royal idiots had they were not prepared for a "visit" from the most powerful man who knew about the gates, who hasn't been killed like other threats to them. Huh, if the story went a little bit differently (with Soon breaking oath and Girard keeping it) all these people hating Girard would be screaming at him about how dumb he was to not expect revisit of someone he spared at Serini's urging.

That's, like, the most classic Dark Overlord backstory there is.

And yes, Girard in effect sent Soon/his lackeys/evil guy who somehow got info from them/Roy to Serini, but at the same time he gave him a way to contact himself if Soon really needed it, and a little bit of time to find Serini (as, unlike Soon, he knew where she was) to himself to prepare a little trap of four epic characters, lying in wait for Soon if he really was traitor after all. All bases covered, here.