Another theory for Girard's Gate

[martinkou]

The illusion is a lie.

The coordinates that Girard gave to Soon and Serini are the same. Xykon isn't at the gate yet because he's still looking for his phylactery in the sewers.

What Girard planned is... if someone captured Soon or one of his "facist" paladins, said paladin will activate his illusion spell with one set of keywords. If someone captured Serini or one of her friendly monsters, said friend will activate his illusion with another set of keywords. Which implies... there's a third set of keywords to dispel the illusion and make the gate appear.

Possible plot hole for this idea: what if somebody casts a Disjunction or even just Greater Dispel Magic at the illusion spell?

So a hypothetical plot for Xykon to walk to the Girard's gate would be this:

Xykon: ... Serini ... gate ... diary ... encoded ... Snarl
Illusion spell: Keywords accepted: Serini, gate, diary, encoded, Snarl.
Illusion spell: Hello, my name is Girard Draketooth.
Illusion spell: Serini, you're a jackass. You're an ugly bitch. I'm still having nightmares about how ugly you are. It should have been you who died at the rift. blah blah blah
Illusion spell: Boom!

Redcloak: Sir, maybe you should try to dispel this illusion to see what else it hides.
Xykon: Disjunction.
Xykon: Heh, that's easy.

[Hatchet]

It would be pretty funny if Girard wanted to troll all his former party members in an attempt to make them leave him alone.

"Keywords accepted: Dorukan, Gate, Magic, Rift"
"Hi Dorukan, it's me, Girard. Allow me to be honest with you for a moment: you must be the biggest Epic Level DORK I have ever seen in my entire life. Every minute I spend without hearing you droning on about magic is like heaven. Also, can't you see that Lirian is just playing with you? Gods, you're a loser. It should have been you who died in that rift." BOOOM

"Keywords accepted: Lirian, Druid, Snarl, Nature"
"Hello Lirian. I'm honestly surprised that you found your way here. You're probably not alone though, you're not smart enough to read a map by yourself. Right now you probably have that stupid look on your face again, like you don't know what's going on. You know, the expression you have 90% of the time? You have to be the most empty-headed woman I had the misfortune of meeting. It should have been you who died in that rift." BOOOM

[martinkou]

It would be pretty funny if Girard wanted to troll all his former party members in an attempt to make them leave him alone.

"Keywords accepted: Dorukan, Gate, Magic, Rift"
"Hi Dorukan, it's me, Girard. Allow me to be honest with you for a moment: you must be the biggest Epic Level DORK I have ever seen in my entire life. Every minute I spend without hearing you droning on about magic is like heaven. Also, can't you see that Lirian is just playing with you? Gods, you're a loser. It should have been you who died in that rift." BOOOM

"Keywords accepted: Lirian, Druid, Snarl, Nature"
"Hello Lirian. I'm honestly surprised that you found your way here. You're probably not alone though, you're not smart enough to read a map by yourself. Right now you probably have that stupid look on your face again, like you don't know what's going on. You know, the expression you have 90% of the time? You have to be the most empty-headed woman I had the misfortune of meeting. It should have been you who died in that rift." BOOOM

If would actually be quite reasonable if Girard just recorded a troll message for every party member in that illusion spell. And the troll message would send whoever activated that message to another OOtScr party member's gate.

e.g.
Activated Soon's message: Send audience to Serini
Activated Serini's message: "I totally told Dorukan the true coordinates!"
Activated Dorukan's message: "The true coordinates is in Lirian's hands, jerk!"
Activated Lirian's message: "I told the real coordinates to Soon - he has the maps, you know"

[paddyfool]

I hope this is right... it has the potential for much awesome (unlike the current situation)

[snikrept]

It would have to be a pretty enormous illusion, covering miles and miles of land area. Compare what the surrounding desert looks like at the gate's 'coordinates' when the oots arrive (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0694.html) with these (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html) depictions (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0276.html) of the gate's actual location.

There are whole mesas and mountains that would need to be hidden or moved.

Presumably within the range of epic magic, given time and xp cost. But within 12 weeks?

[Atronach]

If would actually be quite reasonable if Girard just recorded a troll message for every party member in that illusion spell. And the troll message would send whoever activated that message to another OOtScr party member's gate.

e.g.
Activated Soon's message: Send audience to Serini
Activated Serini's message: "I totally told Dorukan the true coordinates!"
Activated Dorukan's message: "The true coordinates is in Lirian's hands, jerk!"
Activated Lirian's message: "I told the real coordinates to Soon - he has the maps, you know"


... That is a rather wild hypothesis. Considering how... different the plot is compared to most comics I have read, that would not be very surprising.

[Moff Chumley]

Sort of a Giant-ish touch. Dunno how likely it is. =|

[The honest illusionist]

From what little we've seen of Girard, he seems to have a real grudge against Soon, and a motive for having that grudge - as Soon was directly responsible for Kraagor's death. It was Soon's command to seal the rift after all. And though Dorukan and Lirian both played a part in banishing Kraagor, Dorukan stood with Girard in opposition to Soon. I think it's most likely that Girard's trap was meant for Soon alone.

But you have an interesting piece of speculation, to be sure.

[TheSummoner]

I'd like to add a branch to this epileptic tree.

If you marked all of the fake locations on a map and connected the dots, they would point to another point. This point would have an elaborately constructed fake gate that would destroy anything that got too close.

[Spirited Charge]

I'd like to add a branch to this epileptic tree.

If you marked all of the fake locations on a map and connected the dots, they would point to another point. This point would have an elaborately constructed fake gate that would destroy anything that got too close.

That would be interesting, to say the least. Although I'm under the impression that the Giant wouldn't spend all of the strips neccessary to get them through all of the fake locations. Although, I guess he could do a flashback thing like he did on strip #501...

[magic9mushroom]

It's pretty hard to get illusions that hide the fact that there's SOMETHING going on, especially if it's a huge bloody Epic gate (major artifact, certainly).

[Roderick_BR]

The illusion is a lie.

The coordinates that Girard gave to Soon and Serini are the same. Xykon isn't at the gate yet because he's still looking for his phylactery in the sewers.

What Girard planned is... if someone captured Soon or one of his "facist" paladins, said paladin will activate his illusion spell with one set of keywords. If someone captured Serini or one of her friendly monsters, said friend will activate his illusion with another set of keywords. Which implies... there's a third set of keywords to dispel the illusion and make the gate appear.

Possible plot hole for this idea: what if somebody casts a Disjunction or even just Greater Dispel Magic at the illusion spell?

So a hypothetical plot for Xykon to walk to the Girard's gate would be this:

Xykon: ... Serini ... gate ... diary ... encoded ... Snarl
Illusion spell: Keywords accepted: Serini, gate, diary, encoded, Snarl.
Illusion spell: Hello, my name is Girard Draketooth.
Illusion spell: Serini, you're a jackass. You're an ugly bitch. I'm still having nightmares about how ugly you are. It should have been you who died at the rift. blah blah blah
Illusion spell: Boom!

Redcloak: Sir, maybe you should try to dispel this illusion to see what else it hides.
Xykon: Disjunction.
Xykon: Heh, that's easy.

A very strong ilusion to throw Roy several feet in the ai (Belkar was nowhere in sight, and Roy almost landed on him). I think shadows can only do so much.

[JonestheSpy]

Another possible interpretation - one I'm leaning toward - is that Girard set up this illusion recently, because he knew that Soon's gate was just destroyed. Remember, the only contact the Scribbles had with each other is a warning system that alrets them if anything happens to the other gates. So if Girard is alive, he should nkow that something really bad happened in Azure city (not to mention the fact that the news of the city's fall to an army of hobgoblins should be common knowledge after all this time).

So he think's it likely that someone will be coming to his Gate before too long, and creates a very convincing story about why his gate isn't where it actually is, along with a trap that if not lethal to high level characters, at least would take out any hobgoblins in the vicinity - and hey, Roy might've been a lot worse off if he hadn't landed on the sand Flumph.

[Zedd]

Hey, this theory somewhat fits with mine
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135341

I agree that is possible and think It's much more likely than other theories around.