POSSIBLE SPOILER: Mark of Justice

[GKBeetle]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0295.html
I don't know if anybody else already brought this up. Up there is the link to the comic where the Mark of Justice is explained. The second provision that Roy brings up is that Belkar can't be any farther than a mile from Roy or the Mark goes off. Now that Belkar is in the middle of a group of hobgoblins, wouldn't it suck if the dragon that Roy was riding decided to fly a mile away while he was still on it? It does not seem like it would take a dragon very long to get a mile away. I'm probably way off here, but I think it would be hilarious if this happened.

[Zenthar]

Well, the dragon seems to be staying still at the moment, and I bet that the fight will end before that happens.

[Raeden]

Actually I think that dragon is flying in the direction it was flying when it went for it's second run over the wall. My guess is that that is in the direction of the throne. Azure city has a diameter that's probably bigger than a mile, so it's possible that the mark will get activated. Could this be the end of Belkar Bitterleaf?

[TigerHunter]

Actually I think that dragon is flying in the direction it was flying when it went for it's second run over the wall. My guess is that that is in the direction of the throne. Azure city has a diameter that's probably bigger than a mile, so it's possible that the mark will get activated. Could this be the end of Belkar Bitterleaf?
Look at the first panel of March to War. The castle and therefore throne room is pretty much directly behind the wall.

[Alysar]

Actually I think that dragon is flying in the direction it was flying when it went for it's second run over the wall. My guess is that that is in the direction of the throne. Azure city has a diameter that's probably bigger than a mile, so it's possible that the mark will get activated. Could this be the end of Belkar Bitterleaf?


Oh Noes! Now he'll never get to return to his village and murder everyone in their sleep for not letting him join in on their games of Throw the Rock, or Throw the Stick, or Throw the Rock and then the Stick Shortly Thereafter.



So what happens if the MoJ gets activated because Balkar is further than a mile from Roy, but then the distance closes to less than a mile? Does it get deactivated again? Does Roy have the ability to deactivate it as well?

[Raeden]

Look at the first panel of March to War. The castle and therefore throne room is pretty much directly behind the wall.

Just like Birmingham is pretty close to London if you zoom out on google maps? :smalltongue: It's a stick figure comic but it still uses some form of perspective.

[Hiest, monkey]

Can not happen, you want to know why? Plot, belkar needs to live. Unless of course this is where his prophecy is fulfilled.

[fangthane]

Even if the dragon was taking a Run action and flying flat-out away from Belkar, it'd be nearly a minute before anything happened to him. The dragon has a fly speed of 150 feet and can take a "run" action for 600 feet per round, meaning that it moves at 100 feet per second, tops. At 5280 feet in a mile, it'll take a minimum of 53 seconds' sprinting to trigger the mark. Not likely to happen.

[Haruki-kun]

Maybe it would affect Roy too, He'd lose his balance, fall of the dragon, and thus Belkar caused Roy's death, as the Oracle said.

Or maybe the ARROW hits Vaarsuvius and kills him/her.

I was kinda hoping he'd kill Miko, though.

[Icewalker]

Hey, yeah, maybe the arrow causes his prophecy. No, I don't think the Giant will kill him, he just got an awesome and almost sorta backgroundish story for him. "WHY ISN'T HE JOLLY!"

And FangThane, your calculation assumes he is at the same location as Belkar at the current time. He is very far off the ground, and already past the wall.

[the_tick_rules]

well the dragon is doing barrel rolls to shake roy. it's not flying away from the city.

[Bel_Bel]

Wow! I didn't think of that! Oh snap! Okay, as of now, I am praying very strongly that this little "detail" doesn't come up. ><

[Mapmaker]

Actually, I have a pretty strong feeling Belkar is being played:

I think it's going to turn out that the "Mark of Justice" is just a simple Wizard's Mark placed there to trick Belkar into behaving. What does Belkar know of magic, anyway? Roy knows the truth, of course, and is probably enjoying the bluff greatly. The only thing stopping Belkar from harming people inside the city is Belkar himself!
I can't wait to see how it plays out when he learns the truth. :)

[holywhippet]

Hmm, Roy is lawful good so he shouldn't be so willing to lie to Belkar. It wouldn't quite make sense not to have applied such a mark if they could do it given Belkar's nature. Finally, you'd think the spell would only trigger if he moved away from Roy, not vice versa.

[oball]

Roy's lied to Belkar before to get him to behave how Roy wants (giants guarding the starmetal (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0139.html), the chimera made fun of how short he is (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0022.html)). I don't see why this would be any different.

[choryukami]

Yeah, he's Lawful Good, not a Paladin. He'd still lie to a Chaotic Evil member of his team if it kept him under control in an area very hostile towards him that would possibly imprison him or execute him if he went about his normal routine. Infact, if the Mark of Justice is really a lie, he's lying to make Belkar follow the laws of the land (ie not killing in the city), which is very lawful.

Roy doesn't have a 'don't lie' code to follow, which means when he lies he's not breaking any sort of law, as opposed to a paladin or some such that probably made oathes not to do a thousand things that normal people do. In their case, they would be breaking their code if they lied.

[the_tick_rules]

oh i'm sure Roy would have told belkar before the siege if it was a gag.

[Alysar]

Hmm, Roy is lawful good so he shouldn't be so willing to lie to Belkar.

You mean like he wouldn't be willing to make up stories about giant kings and stuff like that?

[WarriorTribble]

Hmm... well I don't know the numbers but it seems a bit pointless to just put a mark on someone. I mean you're going to want a mark that can't be easily removed, and I think that would require a high level spell, and since you're using such a spell slot you might as well use a spell that adds a curse to it.

[Forrestfire]

Accually arcane mark is a 0-Level spell.

Edit: Never mind, i just checked the SRD and it says arane make fades in a month if it is put on a living creature.