[Fizzygoo]

Hehe, according the write up in Ancient Files on Dragons and Immortals http://ancientfiles.dumpshock.com/Immortals.htm#41

Harlequin lives with Jane Foster in the Chateau d'If; an historic castle on an isle he owns in France.

Then, in Tom Dowd's Wyrm Talk http://pl.shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Wyrm_Talk_%28Tom_Dowd%29

“Um, I don’t know what dragons are into,” I said, “but I figure you [Harlequin] might want to put some clothes on before he comes in.”

...though there is no confirmation that the narrator is Foster that I could tell...though the big D says to her at the end, "“It has been a pleasure meeting you, my lady,” he said. “You do your heritage proud.”"

And then in Dowd's Post Mortem http://pl.shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Post_Mortem
There is this exchange between Erhan and Harlequin;

“So, since we are here,” the dwarf [Erhan in disguise] finally asks, keeping his tone as neutral as he can, “how is my daughter?”

The appearance of the dark skinned ork [Harlequin in disguise] shifts without warning, slipping into a smear of color and shape as his eyes widen slightly in surprise. He turns his head very slowly as he regains his composure. “Excuse me?”

A slight grin appears barely visible beneath the other’s matted white hair. “Of course I knew, you twit. I am not as completely self absorbed as you like to believe.”

Still all conjecture and innuendo...but

Fizzygoo doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at researching the possible love affair between to elves, hehe

[FastJack]

A) Masters and apprentices of old lived together until the Master felt the pupil was learned enough to go on their own. He also took to protecting her from others that would like to have a bargaining chip against Ehran (and liked having the bargaining chip himself).

B) Harlequin is like the Elvis of the Sixth World. He shoots out TVs while eating PBJ&Banana sandwiches in the nude. And yes, that was Foster.

C) That only implies that Ehran has figured out that Harlequin's apprentice is his daughter (which Harlequin thought he was keeping secret from the elf per Harlequin, Harlequin's back and the Immortals discussion from Aztlan sourcebook).

Am I saying that they weren't romantically involved? Not at all, but the impression *I* get from all the sources they have appeared in is that they aren't. My opinion is that Harlequin takes his position as her instructor very seriously and would not cross that line being teacher/lover.

[Bradd]

Ancient societies sometimes blur the lines between teachers and lovers, y'know.

[Nomad Zophiel]

Plato aside, I just keep thinking the line here is "maybe when you're older, precious. Get a thousand years or two under your belt and you might be mature enough for me."

I'm sure little Janey Foster's cute and all and having a mentor like Harlequin puts her in the ranks of the best Prime Runners. She may be one of the best in her league, but her league is maybe 50 years old. Harlequin's league includes elves and dragons who have first hand experience with Horrors scouring the world at least once. Compared to that, Frosty is a talented elementary shcool kid.

[Bradd]

I somehow doubt that Harlequin chooses his bed partners solely according to their magical skills.

But the most compelling evidence I've seen is that Ghostwalker accuses Jane of being as “impertinent as her mate.” If Ghostwalker knows Harlequin half as well as his brother did, I think he's onto something!

[FastJack]

I somehow doubt that Harlequin chooses his bed partners solely according to their magical skills.

But the most compelling evidence I've seen is that Ghostwalker accuses Jane of being as “impertinent as her mate.” If Ghostwalker knows Harlequin half as well as his brother did, I think he's onto something!

I don't recall that, where did he say that? Also, consider that Dragons may have a MUCH different outlook regarding relationships.

[Prime Mover]

B) Harlequin is like the Elvis of the Sixth World. He shoots out TVs while eating PBJ&Banana sandwiches in the nude. And yes, that was Foster.

I always played H as more of a "Crow" figure then a burn out country singer.  Intelligent, confident, impulsive and dark humored.
The pressure of age and knowledge weight heavy on his mind his twisted sense of humor is his coping mechanism.

[Nomad Zophiel]

I somehow doubt that Harlequin chooses his bed partners solely according to their magical skills.

Who said anything about magic skills? Ask anyone in their mid-30's what its like to try and date someone fresh out of high school. Now multiply that difference by about 1,000. Even mentoring would be a pain in the ass. Assuming you haven't been in college for a few years imagine trying to teach a kid geometry from memory. Either you've so internalized parts of it that you forget that anyone might not know it or you've moved so far past certain parts that you can function just fine but can't explain the underlying steps anymore. Multiply by 1,000. That's any Fourth Age IE trying to teach any Sixth Age mage.

[Bradd]

@FastJack: Ghostwalker comments on their relationship in DotA: Midnight, and in Darkest Hour somebody talks about them being a couple, possibly with firsthand knowledge.

[FastJack]

Ahhh... that makes sense then. I have not read any of DotA in depth, because I'm hoping to play/run them in the future and so have put them on the pile, while concentrating on the sourcebooks instead.

Now I see that they have cleared up the relationship quite a bit since Harlequin's Back, when it remained vague and said that Jane wasn't sure what she was to make of their relationship.

[Kot]

That's not much of a deal. Frosty is an adult woman. And despite his age, Harlequin is still childish, like a teenager (or at lest he acts that way).

[Angelone]

B) Harlequin is like the Elvis of the Sixth World. He shoots out TVs while eating PBJ&Banana sandwiches in the nude. And yes, that was Foster.

Elf-is, He's the Elfis of the 6th world. *Sigh* Reduced to bad puns... I've been working too much lately.

[raggedhalo]

She may be one of the best in her league, but her league is maybe 50 years old.

She was about 18 in the first Harlequin adventure, which was set (IIRC) in 2050 - making her just 40 in 2072...

[Semerkhet]

That's not much of a deal. Frosty is an adult woman. And despite his age, Harlequin is still childish, like a teenager (or at lest he acts that way).

I figure that if Harlequin is still nominally sane after living for thousands of years he has obviously developed coping mechanisms.  Coping mechanisms that would likely enable him to have a romantic relationship with a woman 1% of his age.


The following is all more or less spoiler-ific regarding DotA.


I agree that the implication from those two lines in DotA 2 & 3 is that Harlequin and Jane Foster are romantically involved, which is totally immaterial from the point of view of my particular group of players.  Having completed all three DotA episodes and having  heard the rather negative character reference for Jane and Harlequin given by Malcom Carella, the major concern of my players is deciding whether or not to take the inevitable next job, or to take the job and then betray their employer.  At the end of the last job they made it clear to Ms. Foster that if they were to continue the, so far, lucrative and successful business relationship they would need to be better informed of the overall goals and ramifications of the project being undertaken.  I mean, it doesn't take a genius to start putting the pieces together from the three missions so far and start making guesses about where it's heading.  I played up the unease by extemporizing some dialogue by Georgy Abelev of the APEP Consortium in which he warned the characters to evaluate what they were doing and decide if their current employer is the one they want to get his hands on the Keys.  The fun part being that Abelev spoke to them as if they'd already been informed of the big picture by Jane or Harlequin.  Since they hadn't been, Abelev's words just added to the feeling of being kept in the dark.  Being kept in the dark is par for the course in shadowrunning but when the stakes start rising as high as they do in DotA, strict professionalism can quickly go out the window.

[Bradd]

More spoilers.

Huh, that's a nice touch. I may need to use that. My group doesn't like Abolev (left him for dead in DotA1), but they might take him seriously if he approached them with a conciliatory attitude. They're already a little puzzled about Samriel's involvement in SotA2, and even though they enjoyed working with him, they still don't trust him. I'm honestly a little surprised that they trust Jane so much, given how they always end up in feral cities, and their first Johnson (from On the Run) totally screwed them. I guess it's because she acts like a hotheaded hero, much like their typical D&D PCs.