OOTS #844 - The Discussion Thread

[Pory]

Ouch, Elan lost a finger in panel 8

[MammonAzrael]

Elan was pretty quick on the uptake that time.

[RMS Oceanic]

Of course, an argument could be made that the Draketooth clan's postmortem paranoia makes even less sense given that they obviously would have realised that two gates were destroyed in less than a year, including Soon's. They could maybe think the Sapphire Guard tried to seize Dorukan's gate and failed, but what motivation would they have to destroy their own gate?

Oh wait.

But in all seriousness, Haley's father could be an honorary Draketooth (obviously not a real one, given a certain spell) with a strikingly similar display of spite and paranoia that seems to be shown right now. And thus another weakness in the Order of the Scribble's methods are shown: Complete nontrust. I'm kinda hoping some of those books there contain Girard's version of Kraagor's death, assuming Girard himself doesn't pop up, because I'm fascinated to see what could cause this. We know Ian was raised in a town were backstabbing is a way of life, so we can see where his paranoia comes from, but what made Girard so distrustful?

I will now hedge my bets and speculate on what happens if Girard turns up. Back when Girard's message first displayed his contempt to Soon over what happened, I kinda hoped Roy would get to meet and punch him for putting himself above the safety of the world. But now for some reason I think Haley and/or Elan would be better at talking to him. Roy would get mad, but the Chaotic party members would have a better chance of actually reaching him, especially Haley with her recent dealings with Ian.

[t209]

I wonder if one of the draketooth will be resurrected and join OOTS if Belkar, Durkon, or V dies?
-If it was a bad ass young kid, it could be Kevin Costner's Perfect World for OOTS.

[Gift Jeraff]

I like how the Gates are color-coded for our convenience (and obviously match up with the area around each Gate).

[Ikialev]

this is funny to me because it is ironic

[Surfing HalfOrc]

Interesting thing about the beads on the monitor. Three are next to the surface of the circle, two are floating above... Soon Kim's gate was high up, so I wonder if Kraagor's will be up in the air as well? Might be a bit of foreshadowing.

I'm also thinking YY will be the death of Belkar. He's still alive, and Nale & Co. are on the way. The spell will be broken, and YY gets his revenge for the litter box prank.

[MonkeyBusiness]

Well, now we know that resurrection isn't working. I find it interesting that all the descendants share Girard's views. Or at least this one. I would think there should be at least one that would want life over hating paladins.

the other Draketooth descendants might or might not be *only* distrustful of lawful good alignments ... there are plenty of additional reasons for not wanting to return. For example, if they all are as close-knit a community as they seem, then a single person being resurrected would be awfully lonely. I'd imagine they might prefer tostay together.

Also, the afterlife as we saw it when Roy died seemed pretty nice. If the afterlife is as kind to the Draketooth clan, it would be tough to want to leave just to go back to life in a pyramid in the desert, taking turns casting illusion spells. The afterlife might be more fun.

I'm very glad to see V and Blackwing have not yet shuffled off this mortal coil.

[RMS Oceanic]

Interesting thing about the beads on the monitor. Three are next to the surface of the circle, two are floating above... Soon Kim's gate was high up, so I wonder if Kraagor's will be up in the air as well? Might be a bit of foreshadowing.

I'm also thinking YY will be the death of Belkar. He's still alive, and Nale & Co. are on the way. The spell will be broken, and YY gets his revenge for the litter box prank.

Nah, I think they're all at the same hight from the board, and their different positions on the circle make them seem higher or lower.

[MoonCat]

Oh dear. I want to know what is up with V quickly. Also, I totally was hoping for an OoTS today, thank you Giant!

[Mordar]

: Lawful characters try to make other people think like they do.
,: No we don't.
: O RLY?

Of course, Haley wasn't trying to make other people think like she does...

So, my first thought when the Ressurection didn't take was...the body wasn't actually that of a dead person. Sure, all the evidence is in place to indicate that it did go down thanks to V's spell, but I'm struck by the thought that the simplest answer for the spell not being effective was that it was incorrectly applied.

Though I freely admit that I didn't account for the material component, which must have been consumed (or Haley'd be sweeping it up with a little broom), and thus applying WoW-as-DnD logic, it would not have been consumed if there was not a proper target for the spell.

So now I remain confused and will just have to wait and see what happens next...

[eheins]

Though V's alive, it doesn't appear like he's gonna be up anytime soon.
On the other hand it's a neat move that Girard's people won't return because they can sence the Ressurector's alignement.

Any non-lawful-good-guy the order knows that can ressurect?

Malack also qualifies, and has a better chance of being persuaded to cooperate with the OOTS than Redcloak would.

[zimmerwald1915]

Malack also qualifies, and has a better chance of being persuaded to cooperate with the OOTS than Redcloak would.

That's assuming he can cast Resurrection. We haven't seen him cast a spell above sixth level yet.

[Euodiachloris]

I bet any Draketooths have decided not to help out as any Lawful Good alignment trying to raise them will be deemed 'Paladins trying to take our jobs after they failed at theirs' as they'll know Soon's Gate fell. Hence the attitude of 'suck on this, suckers!'.

And, even if they are scrying, odds are a few of those family members are not ones to take what the scry is telling them at face value. For some reason.

^ Not all my idea. Another forum plus me.

[Karoug]

The monitoring system-plot clock is really ominous... I bet 10 gp that it is going to be shown again in the future with at least one more blackened-out sphere

[Orzel]

So there is the diamond dust. Where is the bauble?

What? Durkon didn't memorize 1 Speak with Dead every day?
LOL Durkon. Wasting perfectly good diamonds.

[SoC175]

Well, now we know that resurrection isn't working. I find it interesting that all the descendants share Girard's views. Or at least this one. I would think there should be at least one that would want life over hating paladins.

Well, that depends on how nice their afterlife is

[Siosilvar]

Of course, Haley wasn't trying to make other people think like she does...

Oh, of course not. That's what Lawful people do, of course.

[Mantine]

Just saying, this sounds a bit too much like an excuse to prevent the "well, they can still resurrect them and fight the bad guys together" thing.
One would expect that at this point a Gate's safety would go beyond a grudge, expecially when you suddenly died for no apparent reason and everyone else may have fell the same. Expecially when they're all likely to have met in the afterlife all at the same time, given their same time of death and probably same alignment.

It's believable, but still smells a bit too much like plot excuse.

[TheCountAlucard]

Yaaaay, new comic!

[Shadowleaf]

Nice comic!

Elan is missing a finger in the 8th panel, though.

[LadyEowyn]

So, given the casting time of Resurrection, V's been missing for at least 10 minutes.

[KoboldRevenge]

Wow the state of the gates is really at a tipping point here. Only two left to keep what's in there in.

Nice comic. I want to see what happens to V!

[Ron Miel]

The stuff Durkon is throwing in the air in Panel #6 is diamond dust.

But where did Durkon get the diamond dust from? Last we saw, Haley had to climb to the cast page to get a diamond for Durkon. And there's no sign of V giving his dust to Durkon.


Does a failed spell use up a diamond? From #410 it would appear not.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0410.html

[Squark]

Remember, anyone killed by someone Who's been soulspliced stays dead.

[Gift Jeraff]

And there's no sign of V giving his dust to Durkon.

My dwarven companion and I require that diamond dust for a task of literally universal significance--

Does a failed spell use up a diamond? From #410 it would appear not.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0410.html

Really? It's no longer in the high priest's hand after he finishes casting. Seems like it was consumed.

[Agi Hammerthief]

The stuff Durkon is throwing in the air in Panel #6 is diamond dust.

But where did Durkon get the diamond dust from? Last we saw, Haley had to climb to the cast page to get a diamond for Durkon. And there's no sign of V giving his dust to Durkon.

he gave a referrence link

Really? It's no longer in the high priest's hand after he finishes casting. Seems like it was consumed.

do you mean the second or third time he says "Resurrection?"

well, have fun sweeping up the diamond dust Durkon

[zimmerwald1915]

But where did Durkon get the diamond dust from? Last we saw, Haley had to climb to the cast page to get a diamond for Durkon. And there's no sign of V giving his dust to Durkon.


Does a failed spell use up a diamond? From #410 it would appear not.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0410.html

"My dwarven companion and I require this diamond dust for a task of literally universal significance" --

EDIT: ninja'd. Again. Jeez.

[ellindsey]

Remember, anyone killed by someone Who's been soulspliced stays dead.

Only in the same sense that anyone killed by any other cause also stays dead. The purpose of the statement in that strip is to point out that people killed won't come back to life when the Soul Splice ends, even though continuing spell effects cast during the Soul Splice will end. It doesn't mean that people killed during the Soul Splice can't be resurrected afterwards.

[Anarion]

V is alive, which is good. Somehow Blackwing is also hurt even though he can fly, which is...odd but I guess that's caused by the overhead block that smacked them both.

Failed resurrection was amusing. I expected it to be based on familicide actually, rather than just paranoia. It would take away from the familicide spell if any close friends or family could raise the dead person without epic magic of their own, but perhaps that would be too much.

Ironic joke at the end was great.