How would YOU end the comic?

[Ridureyu]

WHat do YOU think would be the best way to end this comic? of course, chances are that the comic will end in a way totally different from anything we say here, and it probably will be much better, but what ideas do you have?

As for me, I think that it should be in very dire straits - Durkon and Belkar dead (as per the prediction), V somehow ruined (after gaining and losing ultimate power), Roy, Haley, and Elan having failed, with the Snarl about to win - when another group of heroes who looks just like the order (except for coloration and maybe some facial hair) charges in, wins, and saves the world.

I don't know, it seems like it would be unexpected :smallamused:

of course, if BElkr were alive, h e would then proceed to shank them all so they Order can hog all the credit.

[Tempest Fennac]

I'd probably end with the Snarl being sealed perminantly with Red Cloack's aims from Start of Darkness being fulfilled without Xykon or any non-Goblins suffering because of it (I like happy endings.:smallsmile:)

[Kurald Galain]

I would have a bunch of police cars ride in and arrest everybody.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Not.

Filler!

[cheesecake]

I would have a bunch of police cars ride in and arrest everybody.

anything...ANYTHING, but a Monty Python ending.

I would make everyone die. The world ends....no sequels...

[Kaje]

The party around a card table playing DnD.

[Kato]

The party around a card table playing DnD.

Nice idea... like some old guys and one says 'Finally this crappy campaign is over!'

[Lunaya]

The party around a card table playing DnD.
And have the players turn out to be the exact opposite of the characters they play.

That'd be funny. :smallbiggrin:

[Haleyintraining]

And have the players turn out to be the exact opposite of the characters they play.

That'd be funny. :smallbiggrin:

Would the person playing V be a man or a woman? :smallconfused:

[Kato]

Would the person playing V be a man or a woman? :smallconfused:

A dog (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0020.html) of course.

[Defenestrator]

I wouldn't end it. :smalltongue:

[Greg]

I would have a bunch of police cars ride in and arrest everybody.
A better python reference would have been an alien ship catching roy and returning him to the ground.

[Logalmier]

Belkar would kill everybody at Liren's gate, and harvest their organs. However, he accidentally chokes on an ion stone that V swallowed when s/he was a kid.

[David Argall]

I will join the no ending crowd.

[silvadel]

Snarl gets released and the world ends...

Then you see another world with another oots panel and similar characters all under 4th edition only belkar is a goblin.

[BRC]

The oracle with a bag of popcorn saying "I saw it coming."

[turkishproverb]

The oracle with a bag of popcorn saying "I saw it coming."

The winner.

[Hoplite]

I would suddenly let one of the flumphs (or how they are called, those white pre-3rd edition good aligned monsters) wake up and realise this was all a bad nightmare.

[The Hop Goblin]

"Dear readers/respective fans of OOTS. I regret to inform you that due to the inordinate amount of second-guessing, forum-flaming, and persistant flow of negative comments, I've decided that it is no longer worth the time and effort to put energy, time away from family and loved ones, and sacrificing free time to a decidedly ungrateful audience.

I know this is not what you expected, and certainly not what most of us wanted, but there are those who feel they can do better - and I welcome to the attempt.

Signed,

Le Artist"

[Xuincherguixe]

Xyklon is about to achieve his aims, and says, "You know what? I was really expecting you guys to stop me." And then he destroys himself*. The final panel just has everyone staring with no dialog.



*and the thing his soul is trapped in that I'm not even going to try to spell correctly.

[Ninja]

i would end it somethin in a manner of the Order of the Stick replacing the roles of the Order of the scribble.... they fix the gates and protect them in simmilar way's like the OOTS senior......

[xyzzy]

Xykon realizes that slowly he's becoming only a tool in Redcloak's personal army, and kills him. He gains much power until he becomes unimaginably strong. Roy is ressurected, and the party (along with several of the Sapphire Guard, several orcs from the island, and hundreds of goblins and hobgoblins) form a resistance as Xykon, insane with power, begins destroying everything in sight.

The group, led by Roy, gains epic levels, and becomes strong enough that they believe they can face Xykon. They find him, and he reveals Monster-san. O-Chul tries to convince Monster-san not to hurt his friends, but Monster-san refuses. Xykon reveals that Monster-san is one of several portable rifts, a small arm of the Snarl. Monster-san is horrified to find this out, and proceeds to attempt to destroy himself. He fails, and instead only increases the size of the rift, and becomes much stronger and much more violent.

A battle begins with the Snarl's Arms, and as the battle goes on, Vaarsuvius notices that as the arms die, they are repeatedly resurrected by some other force presumably behind the rift. Vaarsuvius uses a high-level spell he created, an extension of Soul Bind capable of targetting many different things at once and transfers the target's soul to the caster's, on the dead Snarl's Arms - "Soul Bind Snarl's Arms!"

These are, of course, the four words - Vaarsuvius becomes the living embodiment of the most powerful thing to ever exist, and in it's enhanced state, Vaarsuvius becomes entirely apathetic about the goings on of the mortal plane, and decides to wreck havoc on the various pantheons, and ultimately ends up destroying the afterlife. The souls of those in these afterlives are consumed by Vaarsuvius.

Meanwhile, Xykon, angered that his plan completely backfired, begins battling the PCs and their allies. Moments before Vaarsuvius destroys the chaotic evil afterlife, Belkar is killed, and as a result his soul is destroyed. Most of the other characters are killed after this, and their souls, unable to go anywhere, embody themself as a group, and take on the body of a sleeping monster: the Tarrasque. Though Xykon is weakened, by the time the Tarrasque reaches him, he's killed the entire group, and the Tarrasque is even stronger than usual.

The Oracle senses that the source of his power has been destroyed, and becomes worried - he was aware from the beginning that any predictions about events after the death of his master would not be guaranteed accurate, and thus his predictions about any events beyond Vaarsuvius's rampage are inaccurate.

The Tarrasque continues to battle with Xykon, and the pantheons continue to battle Vaarsuvius. Xykon is killed, and his soul, refusing to enter the Tarrasque, possesses the embodiment of the Oracle's master, and he joins the battle against Vaarsuvius. The Oracle realizes that his master is alive, but he can't receive visions, so he's still unsure of whether any of what he believed is to be trusted.

Xykon realizes that he may be able to control at least part of Vaarsuvius, since he was Monster-san's master before. He attempts to restrain Vaarsuvius, and Monster-san in a moment of restored sanity self-destructs. The remaining pantheon is destroyed along with Xykon and the Snarl, and Vaarsuvius, reduced tremendously in power, is restored to its incredibly weakened body. Due to wounds from its mortal body being trampled on by the Tarrasque, Vaarsuvius only has time to do one thing before dying: he wishes to have all those who died in the battle against Xykon restored to their bodies, fully healed.

Of course, the wish badly backfires, since the Tarrasque is now both awake and right by the group. The Tarrasque devestates the group, and only a few of the group survive the battle. As the world slowly begins to fall apart, all of the most powerful magic-users assemble to try to restore the pantheon. Slowly, one by one, the various members of the Pantheon are restored, and they slowly restore the world. Elan and Haley are the only survivors from the Order, and Durkon is buried in dwarven lands with his forefathers. Those who died in the battle are remembered as heroes. The gods figure out how to restore the souls of those destroyed in the battle, and they are allowed to finally go to the afterlife in peace.

Except for Eugene, because the gods decide it's a funny ending.

[lvl 1 sharnian]

The Order of the Stick ends up fixing the gate, but new rifts appear when the Order of the Stick are old so its up to their children to save the new gates, the children are all the same as their parents except for some things, Roy's kid is a wizard, wanting to be like his grandfather( like Roy wanted to be like his grandfather), Elan's kid actually has intelligence and wisdom due to not having siblings, Haley's kid is melee instead of ranged, Durkon's kid (thanks to Hilgya) worships Odin instead of Thor or Loki, Vaarsuvius's kid has noticeable gender, and Belkar's kid can cast spells now with murderous intent.

[Teatime]

Xyzzy, you sadly lost me at killing off Redcloak in the first sentence. I'm up for any sort of ending or twists Rich has to offer, but I sincerely hope Redcloak has an at least moderately happy ending in some way. Preferably, I'd like to see him somehow screw over Xykon, tilting the scale in favor of the OotS. Then...(Start of Darkness spoilers)...

When the mind control spell Xykon put on Monster-San, to kill Redcloak if he ever betrays Xykon, activates, O-Chul, or perhaps simply his time spent with O-Chul, manage to help him snap out of it, and he too turns on Xykon, thus screwing over the lich even more so.

[Copacetic]

I would prefer something Nice for Redcloak. He is one of the most complex and deep characters, and is also very funny. A scientific cleric. Heh. Anywho, Mabye something along the lines of Redcloak back-stabbing Xykon, followed by the Spell Xykon placed on the :mitd: not working. :mitd: Spell, what spell? Redcloak then takes over a large size of the world and creates a land were monsters can live in peace. On, and he kills Belkar.

[Logalmier]

I love your prediction xyzzy. Especially the part about Vaarsuvius.

[Red XIV]

Elan's kid actually has intelligence and wisdom due to not having siblings, Haley's kid is melee instead of ranged
Wouldn't those be the same person?

[Trizap]

well there would be two ways I would end it, the comedic ending and the dramatic one.

dramatic: Everything comes to a head at Kraagors Gate. Its a three-way battle between the Linear Guild, Team Evil and the OOTS, It starts off with Roy and Xykon dueling each other and Nale and Elan dueling each other. Belkar quickly kills Tsukiko and Thog. Durkon starts fighting Redcloak while talking to each other. O-Chul and V team off against Monster-San, but V and O-Chul argue more than they fight, O-Chul saying to persuade Monster-San to their side while V says to destroy it. Monster-San is conflicted by the situation.

Then Haley shoots down Sabine, Nale, enraged by the death of Sabine, tries to kill Haley but Elan steps in the way and becomes mortally wounded. During the fight between Redcloak and Durkon, Durkon accidentally drops a few of his healing scrolls but manages to persuade RC by saying "ye hate humans don't ye? then why do ye trust Xykon? he was once human, and still has the mind of one" making Redcloak turn on Xykon just as it seemed Roy was losing.
Redcloak, however gets killed. Meanwhile Belkar joins in the fight with Monster-San, but Monster-San beast up all three of them, Belkar sees what V's gender truly is and V says "yes.... I am a woman" these are the four right words and gains ultimate arcane power and nearly destroys Monster-San but O-Chul intervenes and saves him.

Haley fights Nale while running from him and finally killing Nale with a critical to the head. Xykon goes ahead with unleashing the Snarl but Durkon foils the plan by sacrificing himself. The Gate falls apart but the rift starts growing larger. Meanwhile seeing that Durkon is dead and that both Elan and Roy near death, casts owls wisdom on Belkar again and he picks up Durkons scrolls and heals Elan then heals Roy, Roy attacks Xykon again, Again Roy is nearly killed. Belkar tries to get the Phylactery but Xykon uses Finger of Death on Belkar, Elan then tries to get it and Xykon blasts him down to 2 hp then turns advances towards Elan to finish him off. The Snarl starts to emerge from the rift, Monster-San switches sides and starts holding the Snarl off.

Just when Elan thinks hes done for, Roy stabs Xykons phylactery and Xykon turns to dust. Elan staggers up and says "Roy...thanks for saving my life, your a true friend" but then everyone realizes that the Snarl is coming through and with everyone battle weary, despairs of what they will do. just when Monster-San is killed by the Snarl, V steps up and unleashes all of her ultimate arcane power, destroying the snarl and closing the rifts, but goes back to normal arcane power.

Elan and Haley get married, so does Roy and Celia, Eugene finally gets into Celestia, and since all of the afterlife planes are Timeless (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/planes.htm#timeless), the Owls Wisdom spell on Belkar becomes permanent and he ironically gets admitted into Celestia as well.

years later, the remaining cast come back to Durkons Grave and Belkars grave- right besides Kraagors Tomb- and pay their respects, and to celebrate the Order of the Stick saving the world.

comedic ending coming soon

[Steveio]

The Comedic Ending, courtesy of Neglected Mario Characters

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Cyberquad/earthmoonspace.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Cyberquad/explode.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Cyberquad/nothing.gif

[Trizap]

Steveio, don't be a smart aleck

[CarpeGuitarrem]

"Okay, so here's ze earth..."

[David Demola]

OOTS sitting in a cafe, with "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey being played by a band. Xykon walks in, followed by a bunch of goblins, and it looks like he might try to kill them, but harmlessly walks by. Redcloak comes out of the bathroom, and takes a quick glance at them before leaving the cafe. The 2nd to last panel shows OOTS smiling and having a good time, with the words "Donnnn't Stop-" above them all. The last panel is black.

Fin.

~David "I Am One Of The Few People Who Really Appreciated/Loved That Sopranos Ending" Demola

[Haleyintraining]

The Order, the Linear Guild, and Team Evil are at the last gate. All the other gates have been destroyed, and this is the final battle. The Snarl breaks through, killing everyone but Redcloak, Xykon, Roy, Haley, Elan, Nale, V, and Monstersan. Which means Durkon, Belkar, Sabine, Thog, and whoever the copies of V, Durkon, and Belkar are are dead. O-Chul dies heroically to save monster-san. V casts a spell on the snarl that s/he created called Vaasurvius's Greater Lightning Bolt, which gives her ultimate Arcane power, so she destroys the snarl. But hir brain can't handle all the power, so s/he dies. All the wrong reasons was referring to the fact s/he wasn't trying to kill the snarl to save everyone, s/he just wanted to prove that s/he could. Now that the snarl is destroyed Monster-san drops his umbrella so he can go to see O-Chul's dead body. All the remaining members of the order and the linear guild go "oh wow" but readers can't see it because Haley is standing right in front of him. He runs away to bury O-Chul's body, and after everyone isn't paralyzed by shock anymore they continue fighting. Elan and Haley VS Nale, and Roy VS Xykon. Redcloak secretly sneaks away from the battle and yells, "Goblins, attack!" An army of goblins join the battlefield. All the fighter's were surprised by this, until Elan spotted the Oracle sitting on a boulder eating popcorn. Roy says, "I hate that guy." The goblins charge and at the last moment Haley pulls Elan away, and everyone but them and Redcloak get hit by the rampaging goblins. Redcloak takes Xykon's soul hiding place and stomps on it. Haley and Elan start attacking him, and Redcloak is about to be killed when the lawyers pop up saying that it is Hero nature to let the villain live, or something like that. So Redcloak leaves and Haley and Elan are left alone. They get married and Elan says "Yay for happy endings!" In the last panel there are 7 people sitting around a table, real people, not stick figures. Each one resembles a different character. The Durkon-person is a short guy with a beard holding an empty beer glass. The Belkar-person is short too, with a bald head and a scowl on his face. The Roy-person was tall with dark skin, and the Haley-person was a redhead. The Elan-person had blonde hair and pale skin. The V-person looked ambiguously gender, but with brown hair, not purple. Roy says "I always die." Belkar says, "This game is boring." V says, "That was unexpected." Haley says, "Yes! I win again." Elan says, "Let's play again!" Durkon says, "Not 'till I get me another beer." The seventh person looks possibly like Rich Burlew, or somebody famous, or like an NPC in the comic, I don't know. He or she says, "Maybe later." Then in the very last panel it says the end.

[xyzzy]

Xyzzy, you sadly lost me at killing off Redcloak in the first sentence. I'm up for any sort of ending or twists Rich has to offer, but I sincerely hope Redcloak has an at least moderately happy ending in some way. Preferably, I'd like to see him somehow screw over Xykon, tilting the scale in favor of the OotS.

Which is why you should be glad I'm only telling you how I would end it :)

[Trizap]

now for my comedic ending: they all go the final gate, Xykon unleashes the Snarl, but he along with everyone else gets killed, the world gets destroyed the gods sigh, Thor says "well, time for World 3.0" the last comic strip shows a party similar to the OOTS getting converted to 4th edition.

[Edan]

After the epic finale there and the resolution of all lose ends there will be one panel. In that panel will be whoever is left alive after the battle looking up and seeing rocks falling, accompanied with an "o crap" look. Fin.

[mikeejimbo]

Happily for Redcloak and Elan. I don't care about the rest of them.

[Grey Watcher]

Exactly the way it began: the Order converts to whatever's the latest edition of D&D at that point. To quote Zathras, "at least there is symmetry."

[Balkash]

TPK

Sixs and Sevens

[Cutsleeve]

Rocks fall, everyone dies.:smallbiggrin:

[Raging Gene Ray]

The Order of the Stick ends up fixing the gate, but new rifts appear when the Order of the Stick are old so its up to their children to save the new gates, the children are all the same as their parents except for some things, Roy's kid is a wizard, wanting to be like his grandfather( like Roy wanted to be like his grandfather), Elan's kid actually has intelligence and wisdom due to not having siblings, Haley's kid is melee instead of ranged, Durkon's kid (thanks to Hilgya) worships Odin instead of Thor or Loki, Vaarsuvius's kid has noticeable gender, and Belkar's kid can cast spells now with murderous intent.

Would Kazumi and Daigo get killed, leaving behind a child who gets sent to a monastery, somehow gets involved with the new Order, and leaves an endless stream of flamewars in his/her wake?

[Arcane_Secrets]

Redcloak and Xykon reach the last gate. They perform the ritual to control the Snarl, but Xykon tricks Redcloak into performing it in such a way that Xykon gets the jump on using the Snarl first. As their last act of collaboration, they set up a command phrase to gain access to the power of the Snarl.

The Snarl's first target is The Dark One. Redcloak, immediately disempowered by the death of his god, gets attacked by Xykon and pummeled by spells until left on the border of death. Redcloak, finally realizing how much he underestimated Xykon, gives the Order of the Stick Xykon's phylactery and tells them how to kill Xykon once and for all-but he doesn't give them the command phrase because he thinks nobody should have the power of the Snarl.

They enter the chamber with Kraagor's gate, and fight against Xykon. MitD fights on the same side as O-Chul, his friend. Vaarsuvius accidentally speaks the phrase to control the gate, gaining ultimate arcane power, but sacrifices herself like Kraagor did. Xykon's phylactery is destroyed, and Xykon is at last killed. However, with all of the gates gone and the cracks opened even further, the only way that the Order of the Stick can deal with the Snarl is for Vaarsuvius to remake the entire world, or it will be destroyed like the last time.

They have a meeting with whoever is left. There are surviving goblins and hobgoblins from the remaining battles: among them is Righteye's daughter. The surviving paladins want to kill them after everything that's happened, but Roy, realizing from his own experiences in OotPC's when dealing with Durkon and the heavy metal orcs realizes that the goblins/hobgoblins didn't have to be evil, or follow a god analogous to the Dark One. They come up with the solution of making Righteye's daughter the new goddess of the goblins/hobgoblins, and remaking the world so that they no longer got a raw deal.

After the world is remade, Haley and Elan get married (giving Elan his happy ending), and Roy's father finally gets into heaven.

[MSK]

...and Roy's father finally gets into heaven.I would love that being the last panel. Eugene has a final emotional speech, like Miko, and then ascends.
Yeah, I actually like Eugene (cept for agreeing all too readily to never see his family again), gotta problem?

[GSFB]

I end with "And they all lived happily ever after. Except for Belkar. And Miko. And her stupid horse. And Xykon..."

[King of Nowhere]

O-Chul get bored and decide to eradicate evil from the world.

or

V's player became the dungeon master, thus gaining ultimate arcane deus ex machina power and kills the snarl by having rock falling. And Xykon has an epiphany and becomes good, because it's the master who plays him. Then the other players get angry because that sucks and kick him.



Would Kazumi and Daigo get killed, leaving behind a child who gets sent to a monastery, somehow gets involved with the new Order, and leaves an endless stream of flamewars in his/her wake?
CRAP! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :smalleek:

[SPoD]

I would love that being the last panel. Eugene has a final emotional speech, like Miko, and then ascends.
Yeah, I actually like Eugene (cept for agreeing all too readily to never see his family again), gotta problem?

I'd rather see the deva stamp REJECTED! on his forehead because of things he's done since death that shifted his alignment towards True Neutral. He doesn't care about anything except his own ticket to Heaven and his behavior shows it.

[wzeller]

The second-to-last comic would make it very clear that the very next comic is the last, and that it will (in a triple length episode) reveal Monster-san, have an epic battle resolving everything between the Linear Guild, Team Evil, and OOTS, and bring everything to a swift and satisfying conclusion.

The last comic: A single panel with Elan the bard singing, "We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment's what I'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other guy. I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling. Gotta make you understand. Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you."

Epic rickroll, OOTS-style.

[Lunaya]

The last comic: A single panel with Elan the bard singing, "We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment's what I'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other guy. I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling. Gotta make you understand. Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry,
Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you."

Epic rickroll, OOTS-style.
And have that be his marriage proposal to Haley! :smallbiggrin:

[Renx]

"And they all died happily ever after."

[Oslecamo]

I'd rather see the deva stamp REJECTED! on his forehead because of things he's done since death that shifted his alignment towards True Neutral. He doesn't care about anything except his own ticket to Heaven and his behavior shows it.

Since his ticket to heaven demands the destruction of one of the vilest sorcerors in history and the salvation of the universe, I would hardly call it selfish.

What good act could Eugene do that wouldn't be directly related to his ticket to heaven?

It's unfair really. If he doesn't help Roy from the grave he's a bastard, and if he helps Roy from the grave he's a bastard too.

You have locked him into a circular logic. No matter his actions, you'll consider them wrong, because whenever Eugene does a good act, he'll be contributing to his ticket to heaven, and thus he's clearly selfish, even if he's saving the freaking universe by being so "selfish".

[Ninja]

it seems you forgot that he refused to help Roy in scyring becuse "it wouldn't help him". he doesn't giva a damn about the world, as long as he is happy.....

but back to this topic.... i would have the OOTS Junior replace the OOTS Senior and rebuild the gates or so.... than some new adventurers (Order of the Statue?) wind up going after some mad lich in the Dungeon of Vaarsuvius and they get upgraded to version 4.....

[Jazzpirate]

I guess I bet on the we're-gonna-see-the-party-ending. Probably when something totally unexpected happens, with one of the players standing up and shouting "aww, screw you, this sucks!" and leaving or something...

[tenguro]

I wouldn't.

[snoopy13a]

I will join the no ending crowd.

I agree. Have the strip end with the Order setting out on another adventure.

[TheOOB]

I would love to see a "where are they now" ending, that would be hilarious.

Of course I'll be sad to see it end when it ends. Hopefully when the giant ends it, he has another thing to do after it.

[VForVaarsuvius]

I dunno if this is the topic, but I know in one of these someone was talking about how Redcloak wouldn't betray Xykon.

What about this comic though: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0416.html

Redcloak looks all too eager to send Xykon charging into battle suicidally.

[drengnikrafe]

I'd say that most of the Order dies, and the few that are left are enlisted as the eternal guards of the final gate, under some sort of spell. Xykon, however, has failed in releasing the Snarl, and Redcloak leads many of the goblins to a happier life. (I never read SoD, so don't complain that I'm not fulfilling Redcloak's wish with this). Then, Julia gathers up a crew of adventurers in a tavern, and they look moderately like the OOTS crew, but with some differences, and they go out to hunt Xykon who has a new, but undisclosed plan. The comic then ends, and Rich explains to people that he wants another person to write the continuing adventures.

[Tredrick]

Give it a The Last Unicorn ending.

The Order is victorious and on their way back to civilization when an obvious plot hook runs up to them. They politely point out they are doe with adventuring and, anyway, the plot hook adventure sounds too low level for them. They point out a low level party they recently passed and wish the plot hook luck.

[J Ravenblade]

I would end it like this: The Linear Guild, The Order of the Stick (minus Belkar and Roy) and Team evil are fighting eachother at the final gate. Xykon gets killed as does Elan, much to the dismay of Haley. Snarl breaks through because the other gates have been destroyed and weakened his prison. The Linear Guild, The Order of the Stick and team evil join forces to defeat Snarl. When Snarl is defeated, the teams go their separate ways. With Xykon dead, Redcloak goes back to his home and the Linear Guild goes off, but swear that they will get the OOTS someday. Meanwhile, Haley is crying next to Elan's body. She runs over to Durkin, begging him to raise Elan from the dead. Dirkin says he cannot because his power has been drained. Haley runs back to Elan's body and hugs it. She whispers, "I love you." then goes back to join the others. The OOTS go to a tavern where they have drinks. Haley is still devestated but the others comfort her. Roy looks down from overhead and then the story ends.
Tell me what you think of this please.

[Carteeg_Struve]

A construction guy comes in and starts pouring in the concrete for a super-strong fourth wall.... thereby blocking our view of the MitD jumping out and attacking V... whose clothes are apparently ripped off, thus answering the age old question.

Unfortunately the wall is high enough that we can't see anything.

[sasuke898]

Xyklon is about to achieve his aims, and says, "You know what? I was really expecting you guys to stop me." And then he destroys himself*. The final panel just has everyone staring with no dialog.



*and the thing his soul is trapped in that I'm not even going to try to spell correctly.

his "phylactery"
or put in simpler terms his "soul hidey place"

[Super_mad09]

Roy will turn alive again and all of the characters turn in their late 80's or early 90's and after a few comics they will all DiE!!!!

[Nameless]

I think an awesome ending would be a realistically drawn comic of five people around a D&D table.
The one say's, "That was the best D&D session ever!"

Or something of that nature. :smalltongue:

[Finn Solomon]

"Dear readers/respective fans of OOTS. I regret to inform you that due to the inordinate amount of second-guessing, forum-flaming, and persistant flow of negative comments, I've decided that it is no longer worth the time and effort to put energy, time away from family and loved ones, and sacrificing free time to a decidedly ungrateful audience.

I know this is not what you expected, and certainly not what most of us wanted, but there are those who feel they can do better - and I welcome to the attempt.

Signed,

Le Artist"

Although it is weird that the number of hyperbolic comments like this far outweighs the number of negative comments to be found on the forum.

I for one would like a happy ending, preferably with Elan and Haley in it somewhere. Oh, and Goblin Dan.

[Belkar Rocks]

Well, I don't know about plot specifics, but I've been imagining the specific last few panels for some time ...

Xykon and Redcloak are dead. All their minions except one are dead.

:mitd: Can I come out now?
:: brief pause ::
:mitd: Hello? Anyone there? Can I come out?
:roy: What? Oh sure, come on, you're not beholden to anyone anymore. Come on out.
:: fade to black ::

[Silence]

I would have a bunch of police cars ride in and arrest everybody.


That would be awesome. So awesome.

[Vulion]

I'm more for the no ending please.

But if it did, I'd choose an ending where most of the order does NOT die.

[Black Orc 2k8]

with OOTS tricking Xylon in 2 breaking the rules and sumoning an army of mods to send to a dimension of enternal suffering
Note: this may not make sence because of the OOTS history lines thats because i have just started reading it and im only oon 204

[Nevitan]

SOD spoilers
I would have the Order mostly defeated by Xykon but just before he kills them and then Right eye's daughter and the MitD will come in and hold Xykon off long enough for Roy to destroy Xykon, at which point RedCloak will have to destroy himself and the phylactery to keep Xykon's loyal followers (he'll have some of those at this point) from regenerating him. then a cut scene to Eugene in the after life going "huh" and looking shocked.

[The Hop Goblin]

Although it is weird that the number of hyperbolic comments like this far outweighs the number of negative comments to be found on the forum.


Obviously you don't remember the Trial, the Azure city stint, the War stint, the Xykon's bouncing ball of insanity, Belkar being evil, anything involving Miko, etc.

[itsmeyouidiot]

I'd end it in a way vague/inconclusive enough to allow for another comic series as a sequel/prequel. It worked for George Lucas, didn't it?

[Kish]

I'd end it in a way vague/inconclusive enough to allow for another comic series as a sequel/prequel. It worked for George Lucas, didn't it?
..."Worked," in the loosest sense of the word.

[Lupy]

Here's how I would end the comic...

The Order arrive at the final gate just after the ritual to open it begins. Tsukiko fights them, and finally RC comes to back her up, leaving Xykon to finish the ritual. The LG and Tyranar's army rush in on the fight, and then the Saphire Guard show up to Roys surprise. There is a three way battle between the Hobbos, Tyranians, and SGers, with Major character face offs as follows:

Sabine vs/ Haley: Haley has a running shooting battle with Sabine, who is injured enough to have to retreat to the lower planes. As she tries Durkon attacks her, leaving her open to a finishing blow from Haley. She then goes to Hell/Abyss.

Elan vs/ Nale: Elan and Nale have a duel, and Nale cheats somehow to injure Elan badly. Haley runs up to help him and Nale one hit downs her, causing Elan to get mad. They fight a little more and Elan falls on top of her to keep Nale from mutilating her supposedly dead body. Roy has been trying to reach Xykon and calls for help. When no one responds he turns and sees Nale standing over a presumably dead Elan and Haley. He runs through the melee and pwns Nale into a wall, killing him and sending him to be in a different afterlife than Sabine ironically.

Hinjo vs/ Redcloak: Hinjo leads a charge at the hobbo center where RC is. Hinjo attacks him again and after a longish fight RC drops him and keeps moving towards V, who is disrupting the ritual. Durkon has to retreat to help Haley, leaving Belkar as V's only defense. Belkar flies out of nowhere and lands on RC's back, leading to an epic scene with the God of War massacreing RC in AoO damage. Rc then hurls him off and smashes him up big time, leavign him for dead he beelines for V. He knocks out V and turns to see Xykon about to succeed. Something in him snaps and he teams up with Roy to stop Xykon. After a totally epic fight Roy and RC defeat Xykon and RC throws the phylactery to the Snarl. The SG and Hobbos team up and beat Tyrannar. Elan and Haley and Hinjo are helped out and Roy thanks RC, who nods and takes the Hobbos back to AC.

We flip forward a few years and see Roy married to Celia with a wizard for a son. Elan and Haley have a son and daughter with red and blonde hair respectively. Durkon died of his injuries after healing everyone else and was buried with Honor in the homelands. The doom is the death of all the trees above the mines. Redcloak has established a small kingdom for monstrous humanoids arounsd AC, died, and is another god in their pantheon. He and the Dark One are shown arguing with the otehr gods for monstrous humanoid rights, and appear to be winning. Finally we flip over to the Abyss, where Belkar, Nale, and Sabine are leading an assult on the good planes. There is a cavalry charge resisting them, and Belkar Jumps up just as the leading charger does. Her hood falls back and Belkar and Miko slash at each other, the sun flashes, and we see the MitD under his umbrella watching the clash with V and her equally androgynous mate silently.

[Liwen]

Rich gets hit by a car and dies the very day he was supposed to finish the comic, leaving us with a infinite clifhanger.

Actually, I wouldn't end it that way. More like they win the final fight, Elan gets the girl, Roy make a few half slyphs with Celia, Durkon and Belkar get themselves killed by a cop coming out of nowhere with a stogun to blow the ?&$* out of them, V becomes a goddess and rebuilt the fourth pantheon after saying "Where is my reward?" to the DM, O-chul, Hinjo, Lien, Kazumi and Daigo restore Azure City to her former glory and apply 4th edition rules to their paladins, giving them the opportunity to remove that damn stick out of their asses, Monster-san never gets revealed to us, but everyone else in the comic saw it, Redcloak returns to the Hobo's capital city and uses his epic powers to transform the countryside into a living paradise for goblins, Xykon is granted one last cup of coffee he can taste before he's detroyed forever, Tsukiko turns into a zombie and rots, the oracle predict that the creator of this world may have some more goodies planned for his audience and the snarl becomes a 70 feet wide mashmallow, don't ask how.

[Kish]

I dunno if this is the topic, but I know in one of these someone was talking about how Redcloak wouldn't betray Xykon.

What about this comic though: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0416.html

Redcloak looks all too eager to send Xykon charging into battle suicidally.
That was him thinking of the decoys plan.

[Nevitan]

Since his ticket to heaven demands the destruction of one of the vilest sorcerors in history and the salvation of the universe, I would hardly call it selfish.

What good act could Eugene do that wouldn't be directly related to his ticket to heaven?

It's unfair really. If he doesn't help Roy from the grave he's a bastard, and if he helps Roy from the grave he's a bastard too.

You have locked him into a circular logic. No matter his actions, you'll consider them wrong, because whenever Eugene does a good act, he'll be contributing to his ticket to heaven, and thus he's clearly selfish, even if he's saving the freaking universe by being so "selfish".

So your saying that you think Eugene wouldn't take the deal of going onto heaven even if Xykon was never destroyed... I think he would, I also think that he would take that deal even if it meant that Xykon's power doubled as soon as he entered the afterlife.

[DreadSpoon]

Rich gets hit by a car and dies the very day he was supposed to finish the comic, leaving us with a infinite clifhanger.

Whew, thank the gods his last name is Burlew and not Jordan...

(is it too soon?)

[Mr. Mud]

End the Comic... ME END THE COMIC?

BLASPHEMY!!

*shoots with dart gun hiden iin avatar's cane*

--

Seriously though, I'd do something... something really really clique...:smalltongue: Like real people standing up from a DnD table, walking away calling "see you next week" over their shoulder.

But Rich will o something so grand our feeble minds can't handle it. :smallamused:

[Blanth]

During the final battle; V angrily blasts Belkar with fireball, which due to our bardic heros proximity puts Elan's instrument a flame which sets Haley in his embace ablaze. Durkon takes the burning lute from Elan who is feverishly attempting to extinguish his love, and tries to put out the fire by smashing said banjo into a "approaching tree" which sets another tree alight which sets other trees alight...

The world burns up ala Gotterdammerung.

In the last few panels under the red-orange glowing embers of the world, the last of the Order floats down a river clinging onto sticks. V entones a sorrowful, long, Elvish lament as the waves rise and all are sent asunder leaving only branches floating on the surface.


Wait...
Does that mean, it is over?
Does that mean V was a she?

DUN DUN DUN!

[Blanth]

All though the Cliffport Police Department showing up by horseback and taking everyone away as mentioned earlier, could work too.

[Random221]

As long Giantitp is on, they will work on OOTS nonstop - as possible - cause we like it and I think, they like it. Or else we'll get angry :D

Commentint at page 583.

Xykon wants to rule the world(s) cause it is fun. I bet he would do extreme sports instead if he wanted to but since he is kaputt, that would neighter would be dangerous nor interesting for him (even less since he can fly).
While redcloak -as we all know- prefers world domination without fun. What he wants after he claimed that is a mistery.
Xykon might slow the goblin down, so these two will interfere and break apart soon. With a short battle of course.

What will come after it is still a mistery but it is our job to guess!

Xykon will try to find allies Somewhere Else while RC enstabilishes his new castle. Then RC looks for a map to guess his new and old enemys' plans. RC collets a huge army made of goblins, hodgoblins, orcs, trolls, gnomes, ogres, giants, gnolls, bigfoots... Monster-san meets another monster hiding in a shadow, this one with pink eyes. After the army is on, RC leads them to Nowhere.

The citizens and palladins of Azure City find a shore near Anywhere and find allies - and another rift. Then form an allience with 2 other small countrys (and the orcs) We will see several races (dwarwes, elwes, halflings...) in a few strip. We can meet several new heroes this time - and a traitor.

Xykon takes charge of Somewhere Else and fills his army of unded. Reforms the Linear Guild and fills it with a few members (including the reanimated Miko). New badguys and new minions will come too. Even trough this, Xykon keeps his moves in secret, letting the others face RC.

To find a place to resurrect Roy, the fairy fails. The thievery guild sells him. Unfortunately to Xykon. Not know how but Roy is turned to a lich.

Not know how Belkar dies, but he will be reanimated too:D

Here comes an army march and a great battle where countless people die - for no reason. The OOTS party will sneak in the castle at the same time - just as in the films - to get rid of RC, the rebels help. A few traps, and a few hundred hodgoblins "wellcome" them but the Snarl interferes. In the chaos made by the Snarl, Redcloak retreats. The order will have to face the Snarl...
V will not gain arcane power but will be totally useless. Since the hodgoblin spellcasters died, the paladins have to face the Snarl by themselves, but then the Oracle, and some others arrive.

Being while the goblin army - without the adventurer's help - defeats the palladins whom flee.

A few heroes want to join the order. They "do not look too intelligent" so the party leader decides the smartest: Thog

Elan, the bard-wizard-cleric helps it to unite the people with the religion of Banjo. But that takes time. While this happens, the goblins take control of a rift. This time no mistake. RC finds human (and dark elf) allies to face the palladins. He offers them power.

After this the armies move again. Half of the OOTS march to fight RC, the other to find the last gate Xykon is at. Being while RC leads an army somewhere else. The first army destroys the gate quickly and accidentally (Elan of course). Leave some guards and charge to somewhere else.

Somewhere Else a 4 sided battle takes form. Xykon seemingly retreats, and the allyes of RC betray him. After that, the palladins arrive. Who fights who on the battlefield is a mistery but in the castle: Haley vs Belkar. Roy's animated bones vs Thog. Tsukiko vs Durkon. Being while The gods eat popcorn and watching the fight (and make bets). Durkon realises his friend and makes Roy remind about his duty. Roy takes counciousness (after wounding Thog a few times) and reforms the half of the party. Belkar rejoins the order and starts to attack the unded for XP. Next moment Durkon dies by Tsukiko's spell but she is slained by Belkar's leaping attack.
The order marches to the room of Xykon where he has been watching them all alone on Teevo. Then the other party marches out and the battle beguns. Xycon wathches all from the first seat, till Roy stepps in front of him.
Roy gets an ingury that would have killed him, but he is dead so the fight continues. Both Roy and both Xykon takes minor demage. Before they could get to the rift, CV-s army break into the castle. With major losses, of course, but they won the battle. The OOTS have to flee from the linear guild as fast as they can.
Xykon hide his phylactery or lost it. A spell earlyer demaged his clothing, so only his bones remain. Which is Roy which is Xycon? They take both of them.
The oracle is waiting for them... One must be resurrected, Of course the wrong one. Xykon, as a living person, does not have the power like before (lvl 7 sorcerer or so) and he wants to be an unded again. Butt till then, does a lots of funny things. Xykon joins the order.

Linear guild is in the charge of the goblin army, even trough CV does not like them.

CV wants every country in his hands, a littre break.

Trials begin to judge Xykon but the party needs them and the oracle too so he remain innocent - as possible - Wihtout an army, the hole OOTS party with Xykon and the oracle try to sneak in the castle. A few dungeons and traps and another fight with the linear guild. Xykon with Roy fights RC but there is no time. The gate is fragile.

For the last time, everyone is on one side - likely. In the middle of restoring the scar, CV turns against Xykon. Roy pops in the middle and tells Xykon to handle the rift instead. A smart move from CV and Xykon is dead again but soon CV too. The snarl slowly break trough, and needed to be sealed. The palladins cannot barely manage, even with the help of the oracle. The lawyers arrive. The lawyers fail too. And then a giant clown puppet appears. Banjo, the puppet god appears and helps closing the gate.

Roy is resurrected and marryes Haley, but shortly after it he dies by Xykon. He wants vengence on the traitor lich but cannot be resurrected, lost his sword. The oracle and his wizards have left. Eugene got his passport to Heaven but Roy has to wait upp in the clouds....

The rifts that have been closed or destroyed seem to reappear and the party scatters to ensaften their safety.

Roy's son's born (being while Elan's 1/4 orc daughter is born too). Redcloak joins the abyss. Xykon's son borns (from Roy's sister) and he is planning some new evil deeds. Castles and dungeons are rebuilt (Haley has enough money to rebuild them) and the hole story starts again.

3 shaded figure sitting in camping chairs. As someone mentioned before, just before they show theirselwes...

Extra strips:
Chat with the main chacacters (good and badbuys) what they liked and disliked in the hole story. What else?
Party reforms to fight goblins again as in the old times???

[Staven]

How would I end it? Well, we first need to assume that a few of the major loose ends have been tied off: Roy is alive, the Linear guild (i consider them to be pretty secondary) has been pacified in some way or another, and the order has reassembled. Only Girard's gate remains, as Braagar's gate (I think that's his name) was inadvertently destroyed by Xykon by a rogue meteor swarm he cast while fighting its protecters. On his way to Braagar's gate, Xykon passed by Girard's gate, not knowing that it was even there, thus fulfilling the oracle's prophecy.

The order gathers their ragtag band of allies (Elan remarks "that's the way it has to be. Xykon's hordes of highly regimented hobgoblins against our couple hundred, badly organized, but lovable, gang of misfits") and heads to the deserts that hide Girard's gate. Xykon beat them there, and in a strip mirroring the first encounter with the lich, they are met by his army and the Monster in the darkness (which has been revealed to be a giant happycat) remarks "ohai!" The battle begins.

Xykon quickly gains the upper hand, his horde slamming into the small army that the order assembled. Belkar, eager to beat his record in azure city, charges into the hobgoblin horde and chops them down left and right. After thirty or so, he realizes that he just missed his current target. He looks up. Redcloak looks back at him and casts implosion. Belkar does not save.

We next see Elan and Haley sneaking past the battle, trying to get to Xykon and stop him. Tsusiko sees them and blocks their path. A fight ensues. After it seems impossible to beat her, as she has an entourage of advanced undead with her, Haley breaks character and begins talking to an unseen DM, saying that the Tsusiko's character is unamusing and exists only because there weren't enough minor bad guys. She asks everyone to take a vote on having the character annulled. Across the battlefield, all of the members vote on Tsusiko's expulsion from the comic. Her last words before disappearing are, "Yeah, well screw you, too." Haley and Elan, content with what has gone on, walking to Xykon, content.

Durkon and Roy are having a hard time, stuck in the front lines of the battle, dealing with the wave of infantry. It seems that they are managing to at least make a dent when Durkon is impaled by a buffed up (bull's strength, barkskin, etc.) giant. The dwarf smiles and comments that he looked through a few obscure rulebooks when he learned that he was going to return to dwarven lands posthumosly. The Death Throes spell activates and about 100 of Xykon's forces are disintegrated, the order's allies backed up when Durkon was impaled. The spell created a hole which Roy, along with a bunch of azurite soldiers, charged through. The last panel of that particular strip shows the back of Roy, charging up to Xykon, while we see Haley and Elan approaching from the back.

Belkar is sitting down in front of a Balor somewhere in the lower planes. The Balor, after some discussion, tells Belkar that everything checks out in his file, and that he can enter the chaotic evil afterlife whenever he'd like. He is about to do it when he realizes that his score with Vaarsuvius is not yet settled. The Balor gets on the phone with an unknown entity. An avatar of Erythnuul comes down to Belkar. He remarks, after killing the Balor for troubling him, that normally they wouldn't care about a newly-dead's requests, but seeing as Belkar is almost a paragon, that he would let him go back, but not quite in the way he expected. Belkar asks, "Wait, what?" before the avatar casts a spell.

V had another plan of action than the rest of the party, and casts speak with dead, targeting Girard Draketooth. Girard comes down and Asks V, "Wait, you look familiar. Are you Lirian's and Dorukon's son?" V pauses for a moment, then says, "Yes. Yes I am," lying through his teeth. Girard buys it and says that his "parents" left him something. The wind blows away a large amount of sand, and a box is uncovered. V opens the box, titled, "The beginner's guide to ultimate arcane power and ability, by Dorukon." V smiles ever so slightly, and says that his years of power reading will not have been in vain.

Roy charges closer to Xykon. Haley and Elan rush towards him. V flies towards him, raining multiple high level spells, affected by metamagic feats, down on the hobgoblins, cutting their numbers in half, effectively evening them out with the allied forces. Redcloak is about to rush to help Xykon when he is impaled through the head with two swords. He falls forward, and a skeletal halfling on a rotting dachsund tramples his corpse, and rides towards the lich. He laughs maniacally.

Xykon looks at all of the high level adventurers and calculates the odds. He charges up a spell, a powerful one from the looks of it. Each member of the order converges on the lich simultaneously as Xykon releases the spell. An explosion racks the desert, destroying the gate along with it. This was the last gate. The snarl emerges and devours Xykon without hesitation. The order looks like it's doomed. Then enlightenment strikes. They all turn to V and shout something, something that cannot be "heard" by the reader over the snarl's roars and the screams emanating from the soldiers, who says, "I never thought of that." He turns to the Snarl and casts a supercharged Calm Emotions. In a splash page, the Snarl's color turns from purple to a light blue. It waves and departs in a giant plane shift. The order turns to each other and starts laughing with joy and relief. Durkon's ghost joins them, as an injured Hinjo approaches. V explains that since the snarl is born out of frustration and anger, the only reasonable way to counteract it was with the particular spell he used. Hinjo laughs at the simplicity of it. The order turn to one another, shake hands (even the skeletal death knight belkar makes amends with V, which is what he meant when talking to the balor) and part ways, Elan leaving with Haley, and Celia joining Roy. The monster in the darkness, which had been ignored up to this point, sits down, content. The last panel is a "ride off into the sunset style" shot of the order silhouetted against the setting sun. Everyone except Elan remarks that they are slightly disappointed that it was that simple in the end, thus fulfilling Elan's prophecy.

Wow, that took me awhile.

[Kentos]

i want two endings (dramatic being the real one, but an alt ending for comedy). For dramatic, id rather not want it to end a certain way, make it funner when that time comes ;). For comedic, well id like it be people playing the OOTS, like some1 said before, but they take a break that time. Come back next day, relize they lost all the sheets/minatures, making a big deal out of it :P

[Graymayre]

Rocks fall, everyone dies.

[Jorrath_Zek]

I would have the Comic end with the Snarl winning... Have the world explode after Elan does something stupid like stupidly destroying the last gate...

Bang the world blows up... Three blank panels and back to the a slightly diferent version of first comic ever with them in a dungeon and getting updated to Version 4.0

The implications would be that the surviving gods simply made the world again to retrap the snarl, and time reset... Noone remembers, and Elan gets his Happy ending.

[Linkavitch]

End Oots? End...Oots? END OOTS?!?!?!?! Who started this thread anyway?

[Laurentio II]

Bang the world blows up... Three blank panels and back to the a slightly diferent version of first comic ever with them in a dungeon and getting updated to Version 4.0
Or Gurps. Just think.


Rich gets hit by a car and dies the very day he was supposed to finish the comic, leaving us with a infinite clifhanger.
I chip my part for the Raise Author spell (if possible) or for the Prevent Author's Son to Finish Uncompleted Works. Great spell, sadly Cristopher Tolkien made a Will Save.

[Linkavitch]

Or Gurps. Just think.


I chip my part for the Raise Author spell (if possible) or for the Prevent Author's Son to Finish Uncompleted Works. Great spell, sadly Cristopher Tolkien made a Will Save.

That bit about Christopher Tolkien was pretty good.

[Lord_Butters_I]

For those who don't know, Rich made another comic a while ago also about D&D that centered around a group of friends playing the game. It wen't nowhere, but it would be great if the focus suddenly jumped away from a climactic showdown to the table in the old comic's art style to something happening there. Not a well developed idea, but I think it would be funny.