: Hmm. Even 100 years later, when the entire war was being
: fought in the West, there was still quite a bit of
: resistance to Truan's foray. Wouldn't there be a much
: larger force back when the bulk of Balor's army was
: located in the former Cath Bruig?
I knew I said I wouldn't choke the board with responses, but... I see this event as on a par with the five heroes rescuing Alric (the Emperor's body being even more important to the Heron Guard than Alric was to the Legion at that point, frankly). Yes, there would be an enormous guard force and it would take a lot of sneaking around in the ruins but I think a small enough group could do it. A couple of reasons why it would work: A) Muirthemne is GONE. There is pretty much nothing left to guard. As soon as Balor realized he wasn't going to find the Ibis Crown, he stormed off in disgust to plan new evils. Why would he leave most of his army standing around in a bunch of ruins when he'd killed off a good chunk of the continent's population? Since Muirthemne is still uninhabited sixty years after the Great War, apparently nobody thought there was enough left taking back, so Balor wouldn't expect any daring raids--the narrator of Myth II didn't feel the ruins had any strategic value whatsoever. Alric knew better because he knew the crown was still there, but Balor missed that one. Apparently Ceiscoran's paranoia paid off--Balor found one fake crown and gave up.
B) The Heron Guard, at this point, have nothing to lose. I'm willing to bet a bunch of them would have gone back to the ruins just to die, since they had nothing left to live for. It took somebody with the vision to suggest that there might be a possibility for redemption to keep them from falling on their swords (maybe somebody who knew about the fake crowns, which a highly-placed HG definitely would). I don't think they would have any problem finding volunteers for a suicide mission.
C) We know it happened. After the fall of Muirthemne, the guards went in and grabbed their golden tiles. So they had to be there anyway. Why not bury Ceiscoran while they're at it? It just seems like an elegant solution to me--it explains why they went back and why they carry shovels at the same time. It also makes me sound very clever. :)
: Yes, anything which expands the possible universe of Myth
: is beneficial.
Thank you so much for saying that. This was one of the points (Jmen and HG coexisting) that I thought people might have the hardest time swallowing, and it's absolutely critical to my plot.
: --SiliconDream
