: Something else ... we know that Garrick's party wasn't
: expected, so someone in their party must have activated
: the knot. The Jman is a good guess, but the dwarves may
: have had some knowledge of how they work too seeing they
: alone knew how to fix the broken pylon.
Indeed, Dwarves have an affinity for magical devices; they knew just what to do with the Tain keys too.
: Here's an idea. Something in the construction of the
: knot makes them relatively easy to use for Light folk,
: but prevents even master-mages like the Watcher from
: using them. I mean, surely the Watcher would have figured
: out how they work if it was purely a matter of simple
: magic.
: Along this vein, it would make sense that the Deceiver
: was able to use them. Not only does he have impressive
: teleportation abilities of his own as seen in-game, but
: I reckon that he was able to 'deceive' the knots into
: thinking that he was a member of the Light, and hence
: persuade them to work.
We don't actually know that it was the Deceiver who figured them out, and not the Watcher. In Force 10 From Stoneheim, the Dark forces could have been coming through the Knot from anywhere. And they were exclusively mindless undead, which suggests that the Watcher rather than the Deceiver was commanding them.
I think the Dark just wasn't that *interested* in figuring them out. Sending small teams across the country into enemy territory is the Light's job; most Dark units aren't competent to fight except en masse, and World Knots don't transport them fast enough. A single Dwarf stationed at the exit knot could destroy an entire army of incoming Thrall.
Eventually they happened to work it out and sent, almost casually, a small force through to see what would happen. You stopped them, the Dark tabled that method of attack, and the war went on.
--SiliconDream
