Goblins XVIII: Being yourself can be dangerous

[Murk]

Now that they've decided they need to hunt down Kore anyway and also go to hell, the whole "let's take a shortcut to get to the village before Kore" is completely useless.

Which seems realistic for a D&D campaign. Or for real life. Plans change, that's life.

But it doesn't make for a particularly compelling plot. They've now been in a dungeon they didn't actually need to be in for a while.

I'm still unsure whether the dungeon will turn out to have a consistent theme (and function) or not.
On the one hand, a lot of these rooms seem to have things in common. Lots of colours that change based on the person(s) in the room. Lots of "know thyself": I remember a room where they had to fight themselves, an angel that will kill you if you answer questions about yourself wrong, and something with pillars that show who you want to boink?
So it could be that it's a dungeon of self-development and personal growth and the only way to escape it is through introspection, and it could be that that needly ties in to the characters' personal stories and the general plot.

But it could also just be a loose collection of rooms that made the author go "ooh wouldn't it be cool if..."

Not sure yet which.

[Morgaln]

Now that they've decided they need to hunt down Kore anyway and also go to hell, the whole "let's take a shortcut to get to the village before Kore" is completely useless.

Which seems realistic for a D&D campaign. Or for real life. Plans change, that's life.

But it doesn't make for a particularly compelling plot. They've now been in a dungeon they didn't actually need to be in for a while.

I'm still unsure whether the dungeon will turn out to have a consistent theme (and function) or not.
On the one hand, a lot of these rooms seem to have things in common. Lots of colours that change based on the person(s) in the room. Lots of "know thyself": I remember a room where they had to fight themselves, an angel that will kill you if you answer questions about yourself wrong, and something with pillars that show who you want to boink?
So it could be that it's a dungeon of self-development and personal growth and the only way to escape it is through introspection, and it could be that that needly ties in to the characters' personal stories and the general plot.

But it could also just be a loose collection of rooms that made the author go "ooh wouldn't it be cool if..."

Not sure yet which.

The "before Kore" part of getting to the village isn't even a thing. The goblins never encountered Kore until the fight on the bridge; which only happened because they had already decided to go into the dungeon that bridge leads to. To this day, they don't even know Kore has a map to the village and is on his way there.

Their argument for going through the dungeon was that it would cut down travel time (a travel time of eight days otherwise, which without pressing need, would probably have been fine) and that it would avoid enemies on the other way; enemies that the group was clearly facing every time they set out to travel to that warcamp, so shouldn't pose too much of a threat to them. A dungeon crawl was certain to be more dangerous than that. So the reasoning for going through this dungeon was flimsy, at best.

[Murk]

Oh, I might be misremembering!
I thought they somehow knew Kore had the intention of wiping out their camp; they couldn't defeat him so they needed to get there quickly. No idea where I got that from, then. Been a while since I read it all.

[Anarchic Fox]

At this point, it's as valid an interpretation as any.

...and then it sort of concurrently hit that this is also the... fifth? Sixth? Some number-eth dungeon crawl in which a bunch of strange rooms come one after another without any obvious thematic rationale between them. Sure, each one is visually distinct, but... what the heck is this place supposed to be? Who built it and why?

I think my "this is a huge D&D campaign with several concurrent groups of players" interpretation helps a bit. The dungeons are random and nonsensical because Herbert prefers to design ones that are a collection of puzzles rather a sensible place with a purpose and a history, and he favors novelty over coherence. Herbert might be making them up on the fly, or he might have designed a bunch of places eons ago before some kind of magic occurred that turned his campaign into a real universe.

Agreed about the awful pacing, but at least we're not in the Maze of Many anymore.

[Kornaki]

At least if we were in the maze of many it would be historically bad pacing. You would feel like you were really watching something special. This is just bad in a mediocre way.

[Dame_Mechanus]

At least if we were in the maze of many it would be historically bad pacing. You would feel like you were really watching something special. This is just bad in a mediocre way.

Goblins: A Comic Which No Longer Features Any Goblins

[Anonymouswizard]

Goblins: A Comic Which No Longer Features Any Goblins

Be fair, Thaco and Vorpal haven't gotten their templates yet. I'm also not sure that Saves A Fox is going to get one.

[Morgaln]

Be fair, Thaco and Vorpal haven't gotten their templates yet. I'm also not sure that Saves A Fox is going to get one.

Do we even expect Saves-A-Fox to show up again in our lifetimes?

[Anonymouswizard]

Do we even expect Saves-A-Fox to show up again in our lifetimes?

I don't expect them to leave the dungeon in my lifetime.

[Fyraltari]

Do we even expect Saves-A-Fox to show up again in our lifetimes?

Is she alive? I thought she was dead.

[Morgaln]

Is she alive? I thought she was dead.

She is very much alive; last we saw her and Dies-Horribly was when Klik died. Which was in 2012. Holy s***!

[Dame_Mechanus]

I don't expect them to leave the dungeon in my lifetime.

I was originally going to say something snarky about "depending on what you expect your lifetime to be, that might not say a whole lot" but frankly it sounds equally accurate no matter what you estimate as your remaining lifetime.

[Anteros]

Pretty sure the comic is only still "alive" at all because it provides a platform for Ellipsis to spread their voice and periodically beg for money. They have no incentive to actually finish the story and fade into obscurity, and absolutely no artistic integrity to do so either.

Maybe that's cynical, but I'd bet my life that it's also accurate.

[Murk]

I seem to recall the comic was past the halfway point.
It's something like 900 pages now, so at most 900 pages more to go. The previous year has averaged about one page every three weeks, I think.

So that would be 2700 weeks, or 52 years at most.

Personally I still hope to be alive in 52 years, but it'll be a close call.

[Anonymouswizard]

I'm less concerned with me being alive than with Ellipsis being alive.

[Dame_Mechanus]

I'm less concerned with me being alive than with Ellipsis being alive.

Well I'm concerned with you being alive! You seem like a nice sort and it'd be better if you were still around.

That being said, if we could start actually moving toward some sort of resolution one of these years that'd be keen.

[Keltest]

Well I'm concerned with you being alive! You seem like a nice sort and it'd be better if you were still around.

That being said, if we could start actually moving toward some sort of resolution one of these years that'd be keen.

As much as we complain, more problems have been resolved than created. We are on a downward slope heading towards a conclusion.

[Dame_Mechanus]

As much as we complain, more problems have been resolved than created. We are on a downward slope heading towards a conclusion.

Really? How do you figure that one?

Just picking the end of Book 5 as a starting point, which was back in 2012, we've had whatever is happening with Dies Horribly's arm, Forgath being turned part-Klik, Idle, Bowst, and Ward all being introduced, Big Ears becoming part angel and getting a token from the angel, Plush getting introduced (Pawlush, I know, but everyone's defaulting to Plush now), all of Vorpal's prophecies. Oh, and the whole "hell realm taking over and the goblins need to visit hell" thing.

Still outstanding are the fates of Dies Horribly and Saves a Fox, the fate of the Viper Clan, Chief being trapped inside of Kore, and the general face-off with Kore that's clearly coming up.

Meanwhile, resolved is... the prophecy of Forgath's death and Minmax and Kin getting back together. This doesn't really feel like things are approaching a resolution.

[Anonymouswizard]

Well I'm concerned with you being alive! You seem like a nice sort and it'd be better if you were still around.

Thankfully I believe I'm younger than her by a couple of decades, so it's all relative.

[Fyraltari]

Personally I still hope to be alive in 52 years, but it'll be a close call.

I think a better question would be "will the Internet still be there in five decades, and if so how different will it be?"

As much as we complain, more problems have been resolved than created. We are on a downward slope heading towards a conclusion.

If so, I then Olympus Mons has a steeper slope.

[Vinyadan]

Some time ago, the twitter account did mention how much comic was left (or how much time it would likely take to end the comic), and to me it sounded impossibly optimistic.

[Neoriceisgood]

Some time ago, the twitter account did mention how much comic was left (or how much time it would likely take to end the comic), and to me it sounded impossibly optimistic.

Well now I'm curious, how much time was supposedly left? You can spoiler tag I guess.

[Vinyadan]

Well now I'm curious, how much time was supposedly left? You can spoiler tag I guess.

https://twitter.com/EllipsisGoblins/...82520773971968

Spoiler

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In 2019, it was four or even three years left. Based on the output back then, it would have meant 72 to 144 pages. The tweet came out while the Goblins were using the Golem against Kore.

[Fyraltari]

Some time ago, the twitter account did mention how much comic was left (or how much time it would likely take to end the comic), and to me it sounded impossibly optimistic.

How ironic.

[Anonymouswizard]

If those timescales were true I'd expect this dungeon to be wrapping up arcs like no tomorrow. Which I guess it is? Vorpal claimed his new identity in the face of the divine, Minmax and Kin are reunited, Complains has magically gotten over his reluctance to take charge, Twogath's prophecy has been fulfilled, Big Ears has a boyfriend (disappointing lack of hardness nonwithstanding)...

[Traab]

How ironic.

[Gez]

If those timescales were true I'd expect this dungeon to be wrapping up arcs like no tomorrow. Which I guess it is? Vorpal claimed his new identity in the face of the divine, Minmax and Kin are reunited, Complains has magically gotten over his reluctance to take charge, Twogath's prophecy has been fulfilled, Big Ears has a boyfriend (disappointing lack of hardness nonwithstanding)...

While those could be their character arcs, there still remain the story arcs: Kore, the axe, and also all the plotlines related to Dies-Horribly's side of the sory (Duv's prophecy thing, the evil klik thing, probably other stuff I forgot).

[Quild]

New page! Or movie?

Spoiler

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I was afraid they were going to be attacked by spiders but these things have 6 legs, not going to happen!

[BaronOfHell]

Personally I still hope to be alive in 52 years, but it'll be a close call.

So.. you're 70?

[Fyraltari]

New page! Or movie?

Spoiler

Show

I was afraid they were going to be attacked by spiders but these things have 6 legs, not going to happen!

This really feel like an out-of-universe discussion. Like it's not Minmax and Kin talking but their players. I thought the whole "this is a game ran by Herbert and his friends" thing was quietly retired?