OOTS #883 - The Discussion Thread

[JSSheridan]

Thanks Giant!

Sabine is practicing her sloth.

[NihhusHuotAliro]

Wait, I thought she was in the Lust Department, not the Sloth Department. No intra-departmental competition, Sabie-girl, don't you know page 287496, paragraph 216, sentence 666 forbidding you from doing so?

And besides, you're already getting similar competition complaints from the department of the treachery.

[Kish]

I like Z, he doesn't seem truly cruel, sadistic, or unlikeable; just an evil spellcaster.

Who tried to send Vaarsuvius to the Demiplane of Extremely Painful Torture.

And not because of the Familicide.

[Paseo H]

Well, it's not like she could do much else to further the cause of the Linear Guild at the moment anyway.

[NihhusHuotAliro]

Yeah, but, I mean, don't we all just want to condemn someone we don't like to an eternity of unfathomable suffering?

If I can sympathize with a humanity that condones the selling of baby Alligator heads at market, conducts mass slaughter of crocodilians, and has systematically tried to exterminate all reptiles, I can sympathize with basically anyone.

[Forikroder]

Well, let's hope that Qarr's dumb enough to:

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tell V that Durkon has died while V was off sobbing. That might be just the thing to make V man/woman-up and get back in the game.

thats probably exactly what Quarr wants to happen, the IFCC want conflict, and having V involved in this fight makes the conflict much more "even death match" and much less "clean sweep"

[Fshy94]

{Scrubbed}

[DaggerPen]

Awesome strip, as always! And I too wonder about the sword thing - I presume he was inadvertently drawn with it initially?

Also, Sabine's pose can't be comfortable with her wing like that.

[Water_Bear]

Wait, I thought she was in the Lust Department, not the Sloth Department. No intra-departmental competition, Sabie-girl, don't you know page 287496, paragraph 216, sentence 666 forbidding you from doing so?

And besides, you're already getting similar competition complaints from the department of the treachery.

Luckily, as a Demon she gets to skimp out on the paperwork. Devils like Qarr are the only ones who have to sweat the rulebook.

[Skamandros]

Blackwing wins the award for most unhelpful help by a pet or familiar. Congratulations.

I see a certain odd genre blindness in Tarquin here. I wonder if he's setting Nale up to fail intentionally, or if his concern for his family and legacy is actually causing him to miss the setup where he has everything in hand and then it all goes around as soon as he relinquishes personal control.

He knows that no one is going to end up with control of gate four out of five.

[SaintRidley]

Soo... Is it time for IFCC to cash in V's soul time debt? I actually thought that this will happen already in this strip, when I first read the comic title - Fiend Swap (Fiends as in IFCC). The fact that the comic ended with V and Qarr only supports this :-)

(Also, I'm quite surprised that there's already 6 pages of comments and this hasn't been predicted yet)

It was predicted on the first page:

You know, my opinion of Malack went up again with this one - this 'tiresome struggle' does feel like it needs its 'overdue conclusion', at times.

As for Qarr...I dunno what he's got in mind this time. It seems pretty obvious to me that the reason he skipped out earlier was to tell the IFCC that V killed the Draketooths; that was the only new and urgent information available at the time. My guess right now is that the fiends are gonna offer V some means of keeping the Gate safe, since Girard's defenses seem like they're running out. Or maybe he's just there to tell the elf that they're calling in the soul debt, in order to keep Xykon from taking the Gate. Just my immediate thoughts.

Good rule of thumb for this site: unless you are a post on the first or second page of a comic's thread, odds are good that somebody else has already predicted your prediction.

[snikrept]

Is this the part where Tarquin realizes that to properly play the role of just-about-victorious evil overlord, he's obliged by narrative stucture to start being cocky, taking the heroes for granted, and leaving things in the hands of incompetent underlings?

I dunno. I think he's just trying to finish his master plan someplace Nale can't see.

[Forikroder]

imo if they were going to take Vs soul they wouldnt ahve Quarr there theyd jsut take it with Q popping out of nowhere it only increases the chance of V wasting spell slots or blasting Q they wouldnt warm him beforehand

Is this the part where Tarquin realizes that to properly play the role of just-about-victorious evil overlord, he's obliged by narrative stucture to start being cocky, taking the heroes for granted, and leaving things in the hands of incompetent underlings?

I dunno. I think he's just trying to finish his master plan someplace Nale can't see.

IMO i get the feelings heres not here to win, its almsot like the only reason hes here is to make the scenario as chaotic as possible

[Starwaster]

I'm no expert on D&D, but I checked the SRD, and it seems to be 200 xp per caster level loss, assuming you fail your save. Now, giving Z the insanely generous 20 wizard levels, that seems to be 4000 exp. And from what I can look up, the difference between levels 14 and 15 is about 14k exp.

Unless Z *just* levelled up, we're not going to see even one level loss in that case, and we're really not going to see multiple.

Yes but the imp isn't a standard familiar. He wasn't summoned and bonded to Z. He was sent by the Fiends to so they could have someone present in the field to look after their interests. Z's wrong when he says he has a familiar now. The imp isn't even his friend.

[Forikroder]

Yes but the imp isn't a standard familiar. He wasn't summoned and bonded to Z. He was sent by the Fiends to so they could have someone present in the field to look after their interests. Z's wrong when he says he has a familiar now. The imp isn't even his friend.

hes probably unaware of that Sabine probably introduced them and they could be bonded

[Icedaemon]

Two things:

1. Wow, I thought Durkon would have to re-dedicate himself to an evil god or cause before he got his spells back! I guess in this world, only Paladins have to suck on insanely harsh code rules.

2. If V *is* history's worst mass murderer, then Haerta must have never actually used Familiacide. Because even if she had also only used it once like V, I'm pretty sure her murder count from general "becoming an epic level necromancer" out takes dwarfs V's general murder count to date.

Which is good, I was pretty upset with the gross power of that spell and the fact that not one mention of the "unspeakably powerful godlike evil that once lived" had been mentioned in the comic. You don't just research and use a spell like that without it being remembered as a cataclysmic apocolyptic event. So confirmation it has never been used before helps make the versimilitude jive much more for me.

Actually, since Familiacide jumps from one living relative to another, with if I remember correctly some limit to the steps required between them, casting it on a creature which lives for centuries but can and does crossbreed with short-lived species can easily be much more damaging than casting it on a human or halfling family which has not crossbred with dragons, elves or suchlike.

[gooddragon1]

[Sarcasm]V is male, Quarr confirms it!!![/Sarcasm]

[the_tick_rules]

V, pull it together.

[FlawedParadigm]

[Sarcasm]V is male, Quarr confirms it!!![/Sarcasm]

Just ten cents. That's all I ask. Ten cents every time someone thinks V's gender has been "revealed." I could retire by now.

Nevermind that in previous scenes, Qarr has also called V female, so that's not even internally consistent for Qarr, much less all the other people that have used gender pronouns for V.

[Porthos]

Just ten cents. That's all I ask. Ten cents every time someone thinks V's gender has been "revealed." I could retire by now.

Nevermind that in previous scenes, Qarr has also called V female, so that's not even internally consistent for Qarr, much less all the other people that have used gender pronouns for V.

*pssst* Check the White Text

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

From the quasi-random speculation department, I have a guess as to what Tarquin was doing before he left the city, and what he has to go deal with right now.

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He brought an army.

Also, an attempt to guess how Elan's plan might become relevant despite Durkon being removed from the equation:

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He might be induced to cast Atonement on himself.

[BobVosh]

Just ten cents. That's all I ask. Ten cents every time someone thinks V's gender has been "revealed." I could retire by now.

If you noticed it was white texted sarcasm.

I bet V is really missing the conjuration school.

[rockdeworld]

Quick question: what happens to Planar Allies if their summoner dies?

Nothing. It's instantaneous, so can't be dispelled and doesn't wear off except: "At the end of its task, or when the duration bargained for expires, the creature returns to its home plane (after reporting back to you, if appropriate and possible)." However, the planar ally could just teleport home if the summoner dies, though not if it's under a bargain and can still receive payment.

On another hand, I'm wondering if Durkon just cast SMIX or Planar Ally, since the monster looks like a Barbed devil. The former would make sense because of the hazards involved making the deal very hazardous (and if I DMed I'd rule a called creature refuses combat for that reason), but puts Durkon at level 17, whereas the latter is a spell he already had prepared.

[sims796]

I'm with Malack, I'm waiting for this particular storyline to be done with.

[Felhammer]

I hope the Paladins arrive some time soon. The Order of the Stick needs some cavalry!

[IsmAsm]

Nothing. It's instantaneous, so can't be dispelled and doesn't wear off except: "At the end of its task, or when the duration bargained for expires, the creature returns to its home plane (after reporting back to you, if appropriate and possible)." However, the planar ally could just teleport home if the summoner dies, though not if it's under a bargain and can still receive payment.

On another hand, I'm wondering if Durkon just cast SMIX or Planar Ally, since the monster looks like a Barbed devil. The former would make sense because of the hazards involved making the deal very hazardous (and if I DMed I'd rule a called creature refuses combat for that reason), but puts Durkon at level 17, whereas the latter is a spell he already had prepared.

Thanks!

Edited because I misread it originally; I've been up too late for too many days, I guess. What I meant was, I would not be surprised if the three gentlemen downstairs, who clearly have an agenda in this area, have a gaggle of fiends on hand who have been coerced or ordered or whatever, to do whatever they're told if they're summoned.

[Octopusapult]

With Tarquin gone, I'm sure Roy will handle this. Between him, Haley, and the way Belkar has been, the Order is still a force to be reckoned with.

Maybe we'll see the Inverse Ninja Law in effect. (Otherwise known as the Conservation of Ninjutsu.)

But I doubt open confrontation will be his plan A. Just saying, it might come down to it. Nale has been fairly crafty in the past.

[EccentricFellow]

I like how helpful little vampire Durkon is. It will be interesting to see what happens when they meet.

Of course Mr. Wildcard, Xykon, is out there somewhere and Linear Guild still does not appear to be genuinely aware of the stakes, although Tarquin must know something. I am sure we will find out what "business" he was up to soon enough.

Cheers all

[Another_Poet]

There's no army coming. They're travelling light. Redcloak, Xykon and TitS (Thing in the Shadows, Xykon's words, not mine) is all that's coming...

Your sad devotion to those ancient strips is... impressive. I always forget details like that.

I'm wondering if Durkon just cast SMIX or Planar Ally, since the monster looks like a Barbed devil.

SMIX would expire in less than 2 minutes and the monster would poof. It's possible they'll engage OOTS in that window, but not worth the risk - I would assume this is a longer duration spell eg Planar Ally.

[Killer Angel]

I love Tarquin's condescension toward Nale...