OOTS #1225 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

New comic is up.

[Ruck]

Happened to be inexplicably still awake, lucky me. Looks like those of us who suspected the final panel of #1224 suggested a scene transition were right.

Of course, lots to speculate on the identity of the hooded individual. Maybe this is the unlikely ally!

[Rinion]

The cloaked figure's arm looks short in relation to their height. Could it be two kobolds in a trench coat?

[Yxylu]

Link for easy future navigation.

The figure at the cauldron looks tall, but the arm looks relatively short. Halfling on a stepladder? Although, looking more closely, the fingers seem to be an olive green color. I dunno.

Edit: Too slow on the arm observation.

[carborundum]

Maybe one of the IFCC?
Edit: Hmmm, cloak's the wrong colour.

[locksmith of lo]

well, this is unexpected... i come to read reactions and virtually no one has reacted yet. hmmm... no one is yet ready after superb owl sunday to make commentaires.

[Ghosty]

The dartboard is a nice touch, as are the darts sticking in the wall, nowhere near the board. I thought the kids' drawings on the wall near it were cute. Which might explain the tone of the second member of the Invisible Duo

The 'coziest warehouse ever' part makes me think of Hobbits, which is a short skip to Halflings and Serini. Anyone translate the runes on the cauldron yet? (LOL)

No doors or windows makes me think of portals to gain entrance and exit. Which again points to whoever put the maze together in the first place.

[Peelee]

Super Longshot theory: Serini wasn't a halfling. Possibly wasn't a rogue.

ETA: Nah, that's definitely a halfling or other small character.

[Cicciograna]

Many plants. A Druid of some guise?

EDIT: To be honest I have many plants too, and I am far from a Druid, so...

[link3710]

Hmmmm... Could that be the Oracle? Short arms, yellow/orange skin... Is he on stilts?

[Ghosty]

...The figure at the cauldron looks tall, but the arm looks relatively short. Halfling on a stepladder? Although, looking more closely, the fingers seem to be an olive green color...

OMG! It's Redcloak's niece! Ahhhhhhhhh!

[Cicciograna]

Green hand, very tall but arm short. I call for some kind of fey that can fly or levitate - and turn invisible.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

My theory is that its Sereni, or perhaps someone related to her, but we shall see....


Anyone figure out what is written on the cauldron yet? If I look at the symbols, they look like "Boogers" but i think its actually runes, so it would be similar to figuring out the cypher from the symbol font he used.

[Ghosty]

Anyone have any ideas what's draped on top of the low dresser, or on top of the little piece of furniture near the dartboard? Or what the green thing is on the right side of the top drawer?

There are a ton of plants in there, as noted already. OTOH, it's the Arctic: where else are plants going to grow? If the inhabitant wants a salad, doing it this way is their only choice. Though getting sunlight to them might be tricky... 'Magic', I guess.

[dancrilis]

I don't know Lien seems to be reaching to try and make her case let alone call it a draw - I think O-Chul has her solidly beat.

[Schroeswald]

O-Chul and Lien are a great duo and one of them is definitely going to die before the end of the strip.

[deltamire]

Hmm . . . in terms of hex codes, the fingers (which are on weirdly small arms, as people have pointed out, for a body that tall) are #818C6C, which is a kind of grey-green. Not the usual goblinoid green, and while I was on board with the dragonic origins for the voices, I don't know if we've seen skin that unsaturated for dragon-related creatures so far. The only thing I can think of would maybe be that one green hag? Not quite as desaturated, though. Looking forward to seeing what they are!

[InvisibleBison]

OTOH, it's the Arctic: where else are plants going to grow?

I'm not sure this chamber is in the Arctic. Lien said she couldn't see any doors, which suggests that the chamber is accessed via teleportation. If so, it could be hundreds of miles away from Monster Hollow, or even on another plane of existence.

[Agi Hammerthief]

„access by teleport only“ lair, excellent idea.

[KorvinStarmast]

... no one is yet ready after superb owl sunday to make commentaires.

As owls go, it wasn't that superb unless your name was Bowles: the job he and his guys did was superb.

Spoiler: what I am alluding to

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The only team to really solve the problem of the KC offense

The 'coziest warehouse ever' part makes me think of Hobbits, which is a short skip to Halflings and Serini. Anyone translate the runes on the cauldron yet? (LOL)

For some reason, my feel was "coziest greenhouse at the North Pole" but then I realized that the walls look like cinder blocks, not glass.

Anyone have any ideas what's draped on top of the low dresser, or on top of the little piece of furniture near the dartboard?

Beyond the idea of 'hydroponics' via magic, the orange thing seems to me to be a hood, and what's on top of the chest near the ladder seems to me to be squares as I zoom in. Lego, perhaps? I like the 'bean bag chair' look for that couch.

I don't know Lien seems to be reaching to try and make her case let alone call it a draw - I think O-Chul has her solidly beat.

She knows better than to try and out-paladin him, doesn't she? Maybe not, the exuberance of youth knows no bounds. (I am drawing a little bit on the GDGU Lien story ...)

Heh: O-Chul's punchline in the last frame got a grin out of me.

[Fyraltari]

I guess they do have to pass the time somehow.

[Lord Torath]

I love the on-going Paladin-Off! Also: lots and lots of interesting detail in the room. Anyone translate the runes on the cauldron yet?

Many thanks, Rich!

[NerdyKris]

That is clearly a halfling on stilts.

[Ghosty]

Hmm . . . in terms of hex codes, the fingers (which are on weirdly small arms, as people have pointed out, for a body that tall) are #818C6C, which is a kind of grey-green. Not the usual goblinoid green, and while I was on board with the dragonic origins for the voices, I don't know if we've seen skin that unsaturated for dragon-related creatures so far. The only thing I can think of would maybe be that one green hag? Not quite as desaturated, though. Looking forward to seeing what they are!

Dragon-related origins might fit, if you think one of those drawings near the bean bag couch might be a child's representation of their parent.

My guess for other two drawings: 1) Watering can, tilted to the right, watering a plant. 2) Something wearing a purpleish crown. The more I look at them, they remind me of Rorschach blots.

[Fyraltari]

It would have been funny if the reason Lien couldn't see a door were because it was under the platform she and O-Chul are standing on.

[Shining Wrath]

O-Chul being funny is great because you never see it coming. That was a legit laugh out loud.
No doors implies Orange and Green can teleport / ethereal travel / similar no-door-needed ways in and out of the room.
It's good to see that the captor likes music. Humanizes them. Of course, Xykon hums, too.
The captors evidently sleep - there is a bed - and like extremely soft sofas.

EDIT:

Didn't spot the arm / height ratio problem, and given the green skin, I'm guessing a goblin, but of a not-supporting-Redcloak faction. A goblin cleric of high level who wasn't totally invested in reverse genocide would be an interesting development, and would make O-Chul and Lien getting out to carry the message to Durkon vitally important.

[DukeBG]

Anyone figure out what is written on the cauldron yet? If I look at the symbols, they look like "Boogers" but i think its actually runes, so it would be similar to figuring out the cypher from the symbol font he used.

Yes, the font is

Spoiler

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WizardSpeak
blambot.com/products/wizardspeak

The words on the cauldron are

Spoiler

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magic instant pot

[Cicciograna]

Anyone have any ideas what's draped on top of the low dresser, or on top of the little piece of furniture near the dartboard? Or what the green thing is on the right side of the top drawer?

Note, what follows does not stem from me having great eyesight, but rather from the fact that I'm a Patreon supporter, and Rich sends out high resolution version of his pages.

On the low dresser there is what resembles a green truncated cone, maybe a vase of some sort; some orange rags that could be interpreted as a cloak; and two dun (DUN DUNNNN!!) colored sacks or something like that. Also, as you notice, there's a green thingie coming out of the right side of the top drawer, and that seems to be a plant leaf. Could be a tentacle, though.

On the box under the dartboard there are some sheets of paper and a small, yellowish box; the bottom part of the box seems to be somewhat stained in grey, might be a decoration, some dirt, or just the sign of age.

Now, I'm noticing them only now: there are three drawings on the wall, which seem to be very crude and simple, like the ones a child could make. One of them seems to be just doodles, I can't discern anything specific. Another one seems to depict some sort of draconic figure, it has an ovoidal body, a tail, an elongated head and bat-like wings. The third one is VERY interesting: there's a large pink blob with some spiked thingies on top of it, and a smaller figure on the side. The small figure is very crude, just a green rectangle for the body, and a pink circle for the head, but it really gives me "dad and son" vibes. The pink blob with spiked thingies could be interpreted as a very large head next to a smaller creature? And the spiked things could be hair, or a crest?

[Hotu]

I'm seconding the two Kobalds in a trench coat theory, although that means all that pedantry about their arm size would go to waste

also obligatory surprised reaction to my first time on the first page

[Zyzzyva]

„access by teleport only“ lair, excellent idea.

And it narrows down the possibilities for who's captured them a lot! Ok, who thinks it's Kitty and who thinks it's Kurt?

And, of course, that means the important character from one page is

Spoiler

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Cyclops, from #560