OOTS #896 - The Discussion Thread

[Niwrad]

Arghhhh!!!! Cliffhangers!

Looks like V doesn't have the right spell for a change.

[Sir_Leorik]

I don't understand why the 'planet inside the rift' is such a revelation.

By now, everybody in Gobbotopia has stared into the rift, given the size of it. And Gobbotopia is supposed to have worked itself up, made allies, probably some trade routes etc... so I would assume that such worldshattering news travels fast to become common knowledge.

So everybody knows instead of a few adventurers who are pyramid crawling?

I doubt think anyone ever got as close to the Rift as Blackwing did. He didn't just stare at it from a parapet 100 yards away, he flew up to an inch away and looked inside. Xykon didn't even do that (he was more concerned with getting his phylactery back, and then he got an explosive runes spell in the face. While Redcloak makes a big deal about his scientifc rigor, he doesn't think that far outside the box. Examing the Rift from afar is a good idea (and a safe one); flying up to it and looking inside is tantamount to suicide in Redcloak's mind, since he is so afraid of the Snarl.

So the only ones who know this are V and Blackwing. (The Pantheons may know something, but they aren't telling.)

[Kish]

V is weak and trapped right now - it would be a serious anticlimax if the possession process didn't come with a return of superpowers.

I doubt that Vaarsuvius would need superpowers to destroy the Gate, if that's what the IFCC wants. S/he's a blaster wizard of at least level 15 who I don't believe has cast any combat spells today unless Bixby's Knocking Hand counts. One Disintegrate aimed at the right place on the ceiling, and the Gate falls into the tunnel along with the rest of the Order. (Might kill the already-nearly-dead Belkar; too bad so sad, especially from the IFCC's perspective.)

[Lossoth]

Yes. The top of that chamber appears to be parabolic. It would be focusing the sound waves that pass through the rock onto a single point. Anything within the room is easier to hear, while any noise from the chamber would be diffused throughout the room.

First thing it reminded me of is this:

Spoiler

Show

xkcd Loud sex, very mildly NSFW

[Victorsix]

Yes. The top of that chamber appears to be parabolic. It would be focusing the sound waves that pass through the rock onto a single point. Anything within the room is easier to hear, while any noise from the chamber would be diffused throughout the room.

Why does there need to be some special construction to allow one-way sound travel? None of the characters up top have enhanced elven hearing; maybe they just failed their listen checks?

[AstralFire]

Well, I didn't think the directors would be cashing in their chips right now. But they clearly know something that just about everyone else does not. Mea culpa, I was wrong.

I am amused by the amount of clarity with regards to the tunnel and passwall, though!

[Morty]

One question I have: why would V assume the destruction of the gate also means the destruction of the inner world?

Why wouldn't V assume that? It's not guaranteed, but it's a risk s/he's not willing to take.

[sockmonkey]

I just figured there was a one-way silence spell on the tunnels. That falls under the aspect of illusion yes? Plenty of the enchantments on the place were still operative after all.

[Sir_Leorik]

*Edit- Sorry about that, but I've thought of something else: even though it was a running Gag, ultimately- the fact that the Daemons don't know themselves if V is a She/He/It, points towards the fact that they are not omnipotent. [I am using this instead of the direct reference of Qarr himself that says that should not have known some things without observing them themselves, as his opinion MIGHT be biased and/or ignorant.] Only very clever, perceptive and adept at long term planning and pattern recognition.

Technically, the IFCC Directors' inability to determine if V is male or female means that they aren't omniscient. Their inability to leave the Lower Planes at will, being forced to rely on Imps like Qarr and mortal pawns in order to carry out their nefarious schemes, is proof that they are not omnipotent. They are incredibly intelligent, but their are limits to even their powers of perception and deduction. Running gags are apparently one of those limits.

[DigoDragon]

The tax man cometh for his due.

[Mike Havran]

Wow. There's never enough bad guys on the battlefield

[Victorsix]

Odds are pretty high that the contract comes with some re-activated soul splices.

V is weak and trapped right now - it would be a serious anticlimax if the possession process didn't come with a return of superpowers.

That, and...

The three fiends own the souls used in the splice, and they've rented V's soul for a certain duration without any preconditions on how it can be used. There's no reason they can't combine the four if they want to.

[Sir_Leorik]

One question I have: why would V assume the destruction of the gate also means the destruction of the inner world?

V is not willing to risk that the other world won't be destroyed. Remember, V and Blackwing don't really know anything about the other world, except that it exists within the Rift. They don't know that there are any people (or animals, plants or single celled bacteria) living on that world, its just that after making callous assumptions when she cast familicide, V is no longer willing to gamble with the lives of innocents.

[Shale]

All they need to do is make V stop talking -- and shut Blackwing up as well, which could be why Qarr was so keen to get him out of the picture. I'd be mildly surprised to see Vaarsuivius take any overt action against the Gate here.

[Maldrac]

Wow, this was an amazing cliff-hanger!!!
I can't wait for the next comic!

[Paseo H]

Plus, he practically would need more powers simply because he's so weakened at the moment.

[Quild]

So many things could happen right now, but:

I don't imagine the IFCC intervened in order to prevent V from warning the oots. Roy was more likely to believe a threat was coming.

Thus, I don't imagine they've taken control in order to make V destroy the gate.

Thus, I could imagine they've taken control of V in order to have V take control of the gate . But there's no divine caster present. Yet.

D'oh, what is there game?

[urandom]

Blackwing only got that close view because the fiends gave V power enough to challenge Xykon. So either their plans backfired regarding that, and this possession is covering it up or they are doing a lot more than just preventing V from telling the order about the gate. Of course they have plenty of time to blow a couple of minutes on silencing V.

[Demolator]

Oh man, and the whole time I was reading I was like "OH GOD XYKON'S GONNA' COME OH NO OH NO OH N-" and then the IFCC came back and I was like "WHAAAT?!" Now that's a good plot twist! (I don't know if it really counts as a plot twist but whatever)

[Saldre]

Technically, the IFCC Directors' inability to determine if V is male or female means that they aren't omniscient. Their inability to leave the Lower Planes at will, being forced to rely on Imps like Qarr and mortal pawns in order to carry out their nefarious schemes, is proof that they are not omnipotent. They are incredibly intelligent, but their are limits to even their powers of perception and deduction. Running gags are apparently one of those limits.

Omniscient! You're quite right- sorry about that.

[Willis888]

Have we ever actually seen a Snarl tentacle come through a rift?
Or did that only happen in a story told by a Chaotic politician?

[Arrowstorm122]

I do wonder what will happen if the gate is destroyed. Will the last one still be enough? Or will the planet or whatever the "Snarl" really is do some crazy stuff?

Also, I sense the multiple pages means we're going to hit something big on strip 900#? Possibly the end of the book, mega cliffhanger style?

[Roland Itiative]

The plot thickens Now I'm wondering if the IFCC already knew about the world inside the rift even before V was informed of it, and this somehow fits in whatever their master plan is. I mean, they could have made their move as soon as V reached the spot below the Gate room, but chose to do so only when he was about to successfully stop Roy.

[Miklus]

Can that actually work? I mean, can a set of rooms be designed so you can hear one room, but the other room cant hear you? It just seems that if sound can pass in one direction, it should be able to go the other way too right? Also, I cant wait to see what the "now" is going to do.

I'm pretty sure it can work, if the room V is in is parabolic in cross section (and it appears so). Then the sound will be concentrated in a focal point right about where V is floating.

Sound will also travel the other way, but it won't be nearly as clear.

This is pretty clever.

[Tathum]

Linear Guild attacking...

Losing Durkon...

Xykon on his way...

V getting separated...

Man, the Order can NOT catch a break this adventure!

[snikrept]

lol, "The warning method favored by my people"

He's right, crows are way too loud

[Spanish_Paladin]

Crap!!

[JSSheridan]

First, when I do a strip like this, I finish all of them at the same time. I don't finish one page, then the next; I do all the text, then all the foreground characters, then all the backgrounds, then the speech balloons.

Second, because this is the proper chunk of story to be read at one time. Each strip needs to end with a punchline or a dramatic moment; releasing the first or second page of this strip by itself would have left each one ending with a transitional exposition moment instead of an impact moment. While I try to get one impact moment per page, sometimes it's better to build up tension over more than one page before springing the end panel.

And third, by releasing them all as one giant strip, people can't speculate and predict (and spoil for themselves) what is going to happen between the first panel (when V comes back into the story) and the last panel. There's no time for everyone to debate three dozen theories and all agree that yeah, such-and-such is probably going to happen. And then when it does, no one is surprised.

So you're basically publishing it to the web, and the one reason your dividing it into pages it to make it easier to publish in a book later.

[Capnris]

Why does there need to be some special construction to allow one-way sound travel? None of the characters up top have enhanced elven hearing; maybe they just failed their listen checks?

The chamber was not designed for Elven use, or use against non-elves. It was presumably created by the Draketooth clan, for the same reasons as the service tunnels flanking the illusion halls: to keep a covert watch on intruders in order to judge their reactions and act accordingly without being noticed. Illusionists aren't known for fighting fair.

[tbe878]

The Giant got put in something of a tight spot in terms of Varsuvius' ability to get through the wall. As everyone has already pointed ou, V certainly has the type of spell book that would allow him/her to blast through a wall, and as the character has noted "being prepared comes naturally." It's been something of a joke that V is ready for anything, but suddenly a wall proves to be a game-changing hurdle?

Whether or not the Giant foresaw this exact problem (though the well-timed intrusion of the IFCC indicates that he certainly did), the problem is answered at least in part by the fact that V's spell selection has actually been changing as an expression of his/her character development. This plus a long day that was not supposed to be combat-oriented means that the chances of having a handy spell that can effectively damage super-dungeon walls moves into the 'probable' range.

While I was initially put off by the plot-convenient lack of spells, the fact that the Giant was preparing us for this TWO HUNDRED STRIPS AGO as a real plot point speaks volumes (heh heh) about his planning and his ability to craft a story.