ZhonLord
2022-07-17, 09:41 PM
Well folks, the final fight approaches. The Order of the Stick, vs Team "Redcloak & Unwanted Company". And as such, I'd say it's time we placed our final bets on who/what the Beast in the Shadows truly is. So let's hear your final theories in light of all the comic pages uploaded to date!
Personally? My expectation is that he's Pun-Pun the Kobold. Evidence:
1. He has absurd amounts of raw physical strength, able to do things with a punch or a stomp that would normally be in the realm of gods and/or 9th tier spells. But he does it easily, and if a light angry stomp can create an earthquake then what kind of damage can he do with his (theoretically unlimited) FULL strength score?
2. He's very small, according to Oona who peaked under his umbrella. Kobolds are among the smallest sentient creatures we've seen in this comic - right there alongside gnomes and halflings.
3. All kobolds have a name that is the same word twice. Kilkil, Yukyuk, etc. Punpun would fit in perfectly with the naming convention.
4. Kobolds and other lizardfolk have very open easy-to-address diets, able to eat just about anything. Like, say, vulture stew, or meat and gruel, or people that Xykon puts on his plate (except babies of course).
5. He has enough intelligence to learn Go and get quite proficient at it, as well as hear and remember information like the token representation of bugbears in goblinoid society, which would line up with a 1-level dip into Wizard for the first step of the punpun build. He also has good Charisma due to being very likeable to anyone who spends time around him, but his Wisdom - aka common sense and ability to understand rather than just know - is very lacking indeed. The punpun build doesn't need wisdom, it can effectively be a dump stat in exchange for the Int and Cha needed to cast the right transformative spells to obtain infinite Strength.
Do you agree, disagree and/or have an alternate theory? let's hear it!
Personally? My expectation is that he's Pun-Pun the Kobold. Evidence:
1. He has absurd amounts of raw physical strength, able to do things with a punch or a stomp that would normally be in the realm of gods and/or 9th tier spells. But he does it easily, and if a light angry stomp can create an earthquake then what kind of damage can he do with his (theoretically unlimited) FULL strength score?
2. He's very small, according to Oona who peaked under his umbrella. Kobolds are among the smallest sentient creatures we've seen in this comic - right there alongside gnomes and halflings.
3. All kobolds have a name that is the same word twice. Kilkil, Yukyuk, etc. Punpun would fit in perfectly with the naming convention.
4. Kobolds and other lizardfolk have very open easy-to-address diets, able to eat just about anything. Like, say, vulture stew, or meat and gruel, or people that Xykon puts on his plate (except babies of course).
5. He has enough intelligence to learn Go and get quite proficient at it, as well as hear and remember information like the token representation of bugbears in goblinoid society, which would line up with a 1-level dip into Wizard for the first step of the punpun build. He also has good Charisma due to being very likeable to anyone who spends time around him, but his Wisdom - aka common sense and ability to understand rather than just know - is very lacking indeed. The punpun build doesn't need wisdom, it can effectively be a dump stat in exchange for the Int and Cha needed to cast the right transformative spells to obtain infinite Strength.
Do you agree, disagree and/or have an alternate theory? let's hear it!