[Midnight]

just a quick question...why did Shadowthrone and Cotillion want Apsalar to kill Pearl?

[PannionDude]

Shadowthrone still wants revenge against Laseen, so removing one of her top Claws might be his idea. Cotillion though...I've got nothing. Maybe they just don't like Claws that use poison? Maybe they want Lostara all to themselves? That's a really good question.

[tiam]

no it cant be because he used poison. he never used poison until malaz as far as we know. and apsalar had been trailing him for months so it wasnt a recent thing. maybe they just dont like him or his position in the claw

[PannionDude]

Man that'd be rough. "I'm a bit of a jerk, so the God of Assassins had me whacked." I hope they had some reason beyond just disliking him. It would be a funny scene though:

DeadPearl: Ok, this must be hood's realm, anyone know why I'm here? I coulda sworn that was some heavy duty firepower they called in on me. What made them concentrate such power on my obliteration?

Otherdeadguy: You're a jerk.

[Dolorous Menhir]

Pearl had just tried to kill Kalam, who is a defacto agent of Shadow, former Bridgeburner and likely favourite of Cotillion.

Is that not reason enough?

[Morgoth]

Also, he did it using poison. An assassin does not kill the patron of assassin's favourite with poison without angering said patron i'd think

[tiam]

as for morgoth and dol men. yes i agree that he killed kalam using poison and yes he was the patron of assasins favorite. however apsalar claims her asignment to kill pearl was months old and shes being targeted him for ages. therefore his recent killing of kalam had nothing to do with it

[Dark Mac]

He also stabbed Kalam in the back when Kalam first got to Malaz City. That's probably a bit of an issue as well.

[Tiger_sword]

Shadowthrone and Cotillon have never been fans of the claw. Naturally they would wish to take out the top dogs in the claw. I'm wondering whats happened to Topper. The irony is, of course, that both Pearl and Kalam had the same eventual goal, to use the claw to assist the empress and remove Dom and Mallick Rel. I wonder what has become of the claw now, without it the empress is pretty defencless

[Dolorous Menhir]

Ok, he was on the hitlist before his attempt on Kalam's life.

Which brings up the question, why were the others that we know of on Shadow's hitlist - ie Mebra and QB's sister?

I don't see what High House Shadow has against those people.

[Tiger_sword]

QB's sister - prehaps to draw out QB (you know how hard he is to find). As for Mebra, he seamed to know quite a lot and the NO's wanted him dead too. Prehaps he stumbled on something huge. Just struck me, completely forgot about that part but didn't he have a tablet which said it was a VERY BAD THING for Heobric to reach the jade giants. Interesting.... thoughts?

[Lister of Smeg]

I was wondering about that, too. Mebra seemed to think that Heboric had the power to destroy the world, and that no one could stop him. But he ends up saving it instead. Maybe he's not yet done.

[Tiger_sword]

I guess we really don't know what impact the Jade giants had on Wu and what impact Heobric had on them. I can't help but be concerned at those comments though. He seamed to know what was going on, and they are ominously linked with the CG. Only thing i can think of is that they wouldn't have landed if it wern't for him in the first place

[jammer]

QB's sister was on a list of people trying to ressurect the old shadow cult so Cotillion's explanation on Mebra fits her as well

As to Pearl, just because he hadn't attacked Kalam yet doesn't mean that is not the reason for the Assasination. Cotillion is a god after all he might have known it was coming. She might have been supposed to prevent it. IF this is true then maybe her guilt at failing will keep her aorund longer, she is a cool character I would hate to see her succeed at disapearing

[Dolorous Menhir]

So following that line of reasoning then - maybe Shadow was trying to assassinate Pearl (and Topper?) so that Kalam would become Laseen's candidate for head of the Claw. This would obviously be a good development for Shadow, since Kalam is all but their man.

[blewin]

um... but Kalam would follow Tavore nevertheless (as if he'd work for Laseen with her betraying the 14th!), so killing Pearl wouldn't have changed anything.

Unless Shadowthrone doesn't want Kobolo Dom and Mallick Rel killed YET, because they're Pearl's next targets?

[Sir Thursday]

Perhaps Mallick Rel and Korbolo Dom are agents of Shadow? It definately seems to me as though someone was behind them, especially Rel, and if it was Shadowthrone pulling the strings then that would explain why Pearl needed to be eliminated.

If this were the case, then effectively Shadow has control over a large number of claws. They're collecting assassins aren't they? Mind you, using Apsalar to kill a large number of them doesn't quite make sense. Unless someone made sure that The Black Glove didn't have many operatives active that night...

Vox

[blewin]

Shadowthrone doesn't have to be directly in league with the two traitors, he can be working behind the scenes like all gods do. Those two probably don't know they're doing exactly what Shadowthrone wants (assuming the guess is right). And it seems that he wants Kalam alive, even personally overseeing Kalam's survival. Hang on, though he doesn't do it good enough. He could've had Apsalar follow Tavore's group. Wouldn't that be better protection? oh, but then he needs Apsalar there to take care of those assassin mages...