What are they going to do NOW?[Spoilers]

[Morty]

Alright, so the Gate is destroyed, the city overrun with hobgoblins etc. The OOTS and Hinjo are on the walls. I wonder what are they going to do in the nearest future- we all know that their long-term goal wil be probably Girard's Gate. Is Hinjo going to search for O-Chul's body? If he does that, he'll find Miko's dismembered corpse instead. That'd probably raise a lot of questions, since she was supposed to stay in prison. And anyway, how are they going to get away from hobgoblin hordes? How are they going to retrieve Roy's body?
Any thoughts?

[Prothero]

Perhaps when they find her corpse they'll make a Miko-style jump to conclusions and pin her for an insane traitor?

'Cause that would be sweet.

[Alysar]

Alright, so the Gate is destroyed, the city overrun with hobgoblins etc. The OOTS and Hinjo are on the walls. I wonder what are they going to do in the nearest future- we all know that their long-term goal wil be probably Girard's Gate. Is Hinjo going to search for O-Chul's body? If he does that, he'll find Miko's dismembered corpse instead. That'd probably raise a lot of questions, since she was supposed to stay in prison. And anyway, how are they going to get away from hobgoblin hordes? How are they going to retrieve Roy's body?
Any thoughts?

O-Chul is alive. There were no Xs in his eyes. The paralysis will eventually wear off, he'll get away from MitD and make his way back to the city where he will inform everyone that it was Miko that destroyed the gate.

[Chaoseiber]

O-Chul is alive. There were no Xs in his eyes. The paralysis will eventually wear off, he'll get away from MitD and make his way back to the city where he will inform everyone that it was Miko that destroyed the gate.

Uh, no it will not. A lich's paralysis is a permenant, death-like state. Everyone else sees (I think) X_X. It's like :elan: 's illusions - we can see through them (literally), but not the NPCs.

Also, since O-chul is with the :mitd: , :xykon: and :redcloak: will probably get him first. I think O-chul will become a hostage.

[Silveralex]

O-Chul won't be doing anything untill someone cures his paralysis.
I'm presuming the Oots and Hinjo will find him on their way to Roys body and Durkon will cure him and he can fill them in on what happened in the throne room.

[Smiley_]

A liches paralyzing touch, as I understand, is permanent until a Remove Paralysis or Remove curse is used. This effect cannot be dispelled by dispel magic.

The subject is also supposed to appear dead to an untrained eye (DC 15 heal check to see that the subject is still alive) Which did not happen, but a seemingly dead body has fewer comic possibilities than a rigid, immovable one.

As for actually being dead, the Xs tell all, paralysis or no.

[Hushdawg]

[QUOTE=Chaoseiber;2742716]Uh, no it will not. A lich's paralysis is a permenant, death-like state. Everyone else sees (I think) X_X. It's like :elan: 's illusions - we can see through them (literally), but not the NPCs.
[QUOTE]

Actually, the Xs for eyes have been mentioned in the strip. Part of the 4th-wall-breaking that Rich does with the dialogue.

A lich's paralysis IS permenant, but it can be removed with a "remove curse" or similarly powerful spell.

Permenant just means it doesn't go away on its own.. so you are right on that count.

I think of it this way, a brick and mortar building is classified as a permenant structure; but a bulldozer or enough explosives can get rid of it fast. :smallbiggrin:

[Scalious]

except It DOSE NOT wear off...It needs to be dismissed by someone.


It looks you covered most all plot points that will be done in the next few comics

[Morty]

O-Chul is alive. There were no Xs in his eyes. The paralysis will eventually wear off, he'll get away from MitD and make his way back to the city where he will inform everyone that it was Miko that destroyed the gate.

As Chaoseiber said, this paralysis is permanent. Also, he may not look dead because of the same paralyzis- he's dead, but paralyzis prevents any changes of his outlook. We don't know, though since Miko is dead, I guess O-Chul is too.

[Glyde]

As Chaoseiber said, this paralysis is permanent. Also, he may not look dead because of the same paralyzis- he's dead, but paralyzis prevents any changes of his outlook. We don't know, though since Miko is dead, I guess O-Chul is too.

A OotS lich could be different.

I'm going with the x = dead thing. He's not dead.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

Any number of things, for any number of reasons. But my take on the next section of the adventure is this:

Xykon and Redcloak argue over what to do about Azure City. Wars are fought over resources, and the only resource Xykon was after was the gate. Redcloak may have a bigger goal in mind (his "This one's for you, Mom." line), and the hobgoblin general is not too likely to leave once victory is at hand. Azure City is a potential cash cow, the hobgoblins would be foolish to just walk away after such a stunning victory.

Hinjo may have allies in the form of the nobles, ruling 80% of something is far better than ruling 100% of nothing. Kubota made that clear in the hit against Hinjo, whether or not Hinjo welcomes Kubota back with open arms is subject to much debate. Again, not an easy battle, certianly not as easy as Kubota was planning on it being.

Roy's body needs to be retrieved, which won't take place until the hobgoblins are off of the battlefield, either in the city or down the road to the next destination. Or over the sea, if I understand the layout of Oots World. Shojo's junk, anyone? And while Roy is being scraped off of the battlefield, there may be an encounter with the MitD, which would include retrieving O-Chul's body as well.

Hinjo has a limited budget, so not everyone will be "Raised," but a certian population will be. Roy is pretty much a given, O-Chul is a candidate as a senior paladin. His testimony may determine if Miko is resurrected, or buried in a traitor's grave, or something in between.

[Sigbru]

Alright, so the Gate is destroyed, the city overrun with hobgoblins etc. The OOTS and Hinjo are on the walls. I wonder what are they going to do in the nearest future- we all know that their long-term goal wil be probably Girard's Gate. Is Hinjo going to search for O-Chul's body? If he does that, he'll find Miko's dismembered corpse instead. That'd probably raise a lot of questions, since she was supposed to stay in prison. And anyway, how are they going to get away from hobgoblin hordes? How are they going to retrieve Roy's body?
Any thoughts?

They will fly for Neverland

[Hugh]

I have a few probably inaccurate guesses about what might happen next.

1. Part of exploding castle hits the Bootycall amulet and summons Celia. i doubt she has the power to raise him, but she can fly him over to Durkon, who can do it tomorrow (and probably has collected some components in advance even though he did not memorize the spell for D-Day).

2. The Hobbies loot the city, but are much more disorganized without Redcloak running things. Once they have looted, they probably can be run off by the remaining heros and perhaps some returning nobles.

3. I do not believe O-Chul is dead (no x's). Who knows why. Perhaps he had a contingency Heal spell and/or made his saving throw (Can you make a reflex save while paralyzed, hmmm?). Miko obviously failed hers and did not Evade. Ahh, another reason that Miko is dead is that she came in direct contact with the gate when she hit it (remember the exploding Xykon?)

4. A posthumous conversation between Miko and Roy could certainly be amusing. Perhaps Miko will realize the depth of her fall when they take her someplace other than the Seven Heavens. Not sure where she will end up, possibly Mechanus or Archadia? I could even see Miko having an epiphany and that being the reason that Roy decides to raise her, but I'd probably leave her dead. And she may want to stay dead, she has to answer for the murder of her lord still.

5. Xykon could return now that the Spirits are gone, but why bother with no gate left? I think he will fade into the background while the comic handles the political fallout of the fall of Azure City.

[iabervon]

I think Xykon and Redcloak are going to take off for Girard's gate without the hobgoblin army. Redcloak isn't going to want to risk hobgoblin lives on the trip and doing things with it after, it's happy occupying Azure City, and Xykon is going to be just as happy to not have to take the time moving it (assuming he remembers it at all). They'll presumably pick up the MitD, but you never know. Hinjo will probably stay and try to deal with the city, maybe after the nobles sink a lot of money into trying to evict the hobgoblin army.

OotS needs to resurrect Roy, and then head out to Girard's gate. There's no point in them hanging around to figure out what happened, because it's clearly over now. Then they'll all pose, because it's the end of the adventure. Oh, and they'll do a lot of whining that they should get lots of experience for this even though they basically didn't do anything.

[slipper]

Hopefully it will involve mud, zebras, and :thog:

[Renloth]

Just to point out, with Miko, how would Hinjo know that she had escaped her cell?

Half the castle was just vaporised, and there seems little evidence that he would not just assume that she was blown away and torn in half during the fall.

Unless I'm not seeing something.

~Ren

[Lord Zentei]

What they will do will depend on whether there is any chance of them retaking the city. I'm seeing Hinjo joining up with the OOTS if the city remains in hobbo hands or Kubota manages to become Lord.


Just to point out, with Miko, how would Hinjo know that she had escaped her cell?

Half the castle was just vaporised, and there seems little evidence that he would not just assume that she was blown away and torn in half during the fall.

Unless I'm not seeing something.

Well, she did get clipped by the throne, and there is some distance from the throne room and the cells (note that she had to run along the castle walls to reach the keep).

[holywhippet]

Is Hinjo going to search for O-Chul's body?

Unless he happened to see him fly past, Hinjo has no reason to suspect that O-Chul wasn't annihilated by the explosion.

I'd say he isn't dead, assuming he had about as many hp as Miko did. Miko wasn't killed by the explosion, she had enough life left in her for a short conversation with Soon. She only died because the throne cut her in two.

Unless Xykon or one of his minions grabs O-Chul I suspect he'll be found by someone. He's not that far outside of the city after all.

[Lord Zentei]

Unless he happened to see him fly past, Hinjo has no reason to suspect that O-Chul wasn't annihilated by the explosion.

I'd say he isn't dead, assuming he had about as many hp as Miko did. Miko wasn't killed by the explosion, she had enough life left in her for a short conversation with Soon. She only died because the throne cut her in two.

Unless Xykon or one of his minions grabs O-Chul I suspect he'll be found by someone. He's not that far outside of the city after all.

Xykon and Redcloak will be picking up the Monster, presumably, so I'd guess that they will find O'Chul first.

[DragonTounge]

i've already posted this in a few other threads but i'm trying to get the word around. My prediction for the next comic is that it shows Miko getting ushered into the lawful good after life were she meets Roy and tries to kill him (even though hes already dead).:smalltongue:

i also want to add that O-Chul is dead because he was right next to the explosion with Miko and you'd think if she died so would he. Also he flew across pretty much the entire battle field plus after taking damage from the eplosion i don't think a level 20 could survive that. Face it he's dead and the only reason he doesn't have X's in his eyes is because his body is paralyzed.

[Kreistor]

Retrieving O-Chul is going to be easy, unless Xykon proves his evilness by killing him. Xykon will probably just collect the MitD, who won't bother dragging O-Chul along, leaving him lying on the battlefield out in the open and obvious to passersby. A Paladin this far out is noteworthy, and I'd expect Durkon to have a look. It's a fairly easy Heal check to notice the person is not dead for a L13 Cleric. They also have an excuse to be that far out to find him, since Roy's corpse is out there all alone, too.

[maitreyi]

I think that the battle has turned for the hobgoblins, and that Azure City will win. Remember that the comic is about the Order of the Stick, the story of Azure City is only important in how it concerns the OOTS.

The characters still have to stop Xykon so I think that the Giant will wrap up the Azure City arc and get them moving (with Roy) towards the other gates. I expect this to happen within the next dozen or so comics.

I also say this because I am sick of the color blue. Anyone else with me?:smallwink:

[EyethatBinds]

Xykon has no reason to stay in Azure City, there is no gate. Redcloak has no reason to stay, the sapphire guard is gone too. MitD has no reason for anything and his tea party might have started to bore him.
So I think the army will loot for a few hours burn stuff on their way out and call it a day. Where they'll go from here? No clue. The army can't get over the ocean and eight human nations aren't really worth Team Evil's time. My guess is the army is going to go home and celebrate whiel Xykon and Redcloak work on their next target.
Also I too am a bit tired of the color blue. Come on Rich could we try.... yellow next?

[Hugh]

i also want to add that O-Chul is dead because he was right next to the explosion with Miko and you'd think if she died so would he. Also he flew across pretty much the entire battle field plus after taking damage from the eplosion i don't think a level 20 could survive that. Face it he's dead and the only reason he doesn't have X's in his eyes is because his body is paralyzed.

Although it might be different in OOTS world, I would say that in order to actually be paralyzed (your voluntary muscles holding you perfectly still), you pretty much HAVE to be alive. If you are dead, you'd go limp, at least until rigor mortis sets in. O-Chul is still in the position that he was in when he was standing on the steps to the throne. To me, that plus no x's means he is alive.

[nusigf]

This is what I think's going to happen, and I don't know if anyone else has guessed at this...Tsukiko is looking for a whole dead corpse. I'm assuming undead goblins and hobbos aren't much better than the live version of them, unless we're talking Pun-Pun.

So, what if she's looking for a dead non-gobbo, non-hobbo to animate. Evil Roy, anyone?

[Green Bean]

So I think the army will loot for a few hours burn stuff on their way out and call it a day. Where they'll go from here? No clue. The army can't get over the ocean and eight human nations aren't really worth Team Evil's time.

That's true; the army can't really get across the ocean. I mean, building enough ships to transport that many hobgoblins across the ocean would take enough raw materials to build an entire city. Oh, if only there were a convenient city to take apart, or possibly even a fleet of ships that are completely vulnerable to a high-level spellcaster with flight capabilities! :smallamused:

[InfernusTribble]

Erm,

Okies, here goes; the (hedged) bets of the InfernusTribble. Lock and load, we're going in!

Assumming that Ochul is alive still since his body is still locked solid and hasn't had death release his paralysis. Xykon either uses him as a trophy or the OOTS rescue him while looking for Roy's corpse. If he's rescued he can report on Miko's actions in helping to stop Xykon...

Xykon moves onto Girard's gate along with Redcloak and Tsukiko tagging along behind, with her trying to kill or ruin Redcloak and bounce Xykon (sounds oepidal in some respects doesn't it? Plot hooks agogo :smallsmile: )

The hobbos have their fun, call it a day after they loot the city and go home with some of their force following their glorious supreme leader Redcloak. Either that or Redcloak sends them home because he doesn't want Xykon to use them as a la deathknight "corpse ramp" solutions to problems in the future. This also helps the storyline as 25000+ hobbos tend to cause more of an obstruction to future plot arcs than they help...they make it too easy for Team Evil to just swamp a future, non-city defended gate and render it a more-or-less auto win for Team Evil, since no-one can get past them while Xykon plays with the gate

The OOTS regroup and azure city becomes controlled by hinjo's forces again - boosted by the large number of paladins and other troops who were out of range before the siege hit returning home.
Hinjo stays in azure city and starts playing political hardball with the local nobles - if the hobbos leave and he ends up holding Azure city, he has all the cards when it comes to being the hero of the common people, who may not like the nobles much at the moment

Miko either stays dead or ends up being dragged back into life by Hinjo or Roy (assuming Roy gets resurrected). Hinjo because Miko gave her life for the cause despite being a traitor (if Ochul hands in a good report, like say: - "Xykon had me paralysed about to destroy the gate, then Miko rushed in, saw what I was trying to do and destroyed it for us while I was helpless")- he's soft enough to forgive her her trespasses - he was even talking about atonement when she murdered his own uncle right in front of him;
Roy might rez because he's met Miko in the afterlife and gets his eyes opened a little as well as the fact he has his own cleric buddy, Durkon who believed meeting Miko was Thor's will. It could even be said that Roy cares a little about Miko still since one of his comments about who he knew that he needed to save the world from Xykon for was about her - he might guilt trip a la speechless Hayley, but if he does, I'll check what I'm drinking in case my drink got spiked...

I'm leaning slightly towards a resurrection atm myself, though permanent death would be more satisfying storywise right now, since a lot of the horrible deathknight/blackguard/hung as a traitor fates seem to have been, I dunno, closed off recently by the Giant - her destroying the gate probably nixes the traitor thing and the deathknight thing is probably nixed by the being cut in two pieces. I'll hedge my bets again and say, probably stays dead - but you never know...(Universal hedge betting for the win!)

IF Miko does get resurrected on Ochul's testimony or Hinjo has a rush of blood to the head regarding her sacrifice (and it's a big if considering she is basically a traitor -plz don't flame me, I love her too, but she is), then expect her to sent after Xykon either by herself or with the OOTS in order to at least try to redeem herself. I'm cool with that as long as death and Soon have managed to beat some sense into her - otherwise I'd personally be happier to let her rest in peace

Where does this all end up, my wild speculations: -

Xykon and Redcloak head off to Girard's gate with a small force of hobbos, with the order of the stick in hot pursuit and maybe Miko as a loose cannon or as part of the oots hunting down Xykon as well, or more likely allowed to rest in peace.

If Roy does gets undeaded, then Durkon may ask for a high level warrior to help bring him back. If he gets handed Miko in a sack along with a big diamond and best wishes from Hinjo then I will probably die laughing...

[lavidor10]

Roy is pretty much a given, O-Chul is a candidate as a senior paladin. His testimony may determine if Miko is resurrected, or buried in a traitor's grave, or something in between.

Which half will get the grave? :smalltongue: I say the top gets buried but the feet get raised, they are innocent.

[ThorFluff]

That's true; the army can't really get across the ocean. I mean, building enough ships to transport that many hobgoblins across the ocean would take enough raw materials to build an entire city. Oh, if only there were a convenient city to take apart, or possibly even a fleet of ships that are completely vulnerable to a high-level spellcaster with flight capabilities! :smallamused:

:redcloak: - If you make me sail a ship made of hobgoblin corpses across the ocean so help me go i will find a way to make you pay

:smallbiggrin: