OOTS #1257 - The Discussion Thread

[Ron Miel]

Who is that crayon-drawn dragon standing next to I assume Kraagor and Serini?

Girard's introducing them to his grandmother.

[danielxcutter]

Roy's had a pretty stressful day so far. Poor guy needs some time to vent.

Sunny's Crayon drawings are pretty cool! If they have crayons, though, I assume this means they have a way to teleport back to civilization to buy them? It can't be practical to travel across the open artic field every time just to buy stuff.

That sounds kinda sus - (*gets stabbed*)

Did anyone else notice the art error where the speech bubbles cover each other in the last panel? Really obscures what's being said.

That's the joke.

[Crusher]

Scribble vs Snarl? Hmm. Either would be thematically appropriate.

[Fyraltari]

Girard's introducing them to his grandmother.

Unlikely. Girard's grandparent was black and still had both horns when the pyramid was built.
I think this is an unrelated dragon.

Then again maybe it's nothing and The Giant wanted more variety in Sunny's drawings/is meesing with our collective heads.

[mjasghar]

The perfect excuse for the 2 parties to rest and respell. And let’s Serini use 5 or 6 comics to do some Scribbler backstory exposition

[carrion pigeons]

I am now curious as to whether those thought bubbles are superimposed over Roy's rant bubbles, and whether the original speech bubbles can be recovered? The FBI should get someone working on removing the top layer so we can see what lies beneath!

(Masterful storycrafting here, and much more powerful than simple blue language rants or "censored" stamps would have been.)

Xykon is nowhere near finding the gate, which is good news, and Sunny does not sleep. Any new tidbits of info I missed?

Seems like the critical issue is that Redcloak and co are "playing sleuth", meaning that they and Xykon are split up, and also that the teleportation trap is more likely to be discovered.

[King of Nowhere]

why is xykon going out so bad?
they will return tomorrow, and can be ambushed again. it will give time to the other to rest, because they also spent many resources in this fight.

yes, ok, I know narrative causality will cause something else to happen.But Roy don't.

[KorvinStarmast]

Roy knows better. Stop responding emotionally! Time to think, Roy.

last time he responded that emotionally he got his sword back.

More like AngRoy, am I right

Nice.

I was worried for a minute that the gang was going to get effective.

Yeah, can't be going off piste like that.

Girard's introducing them to his grandmother.

Dos centavos wagered on this being correct.

Last panel was very well done. Thanks Giant.

[Beni-Kujaku]

why is xykon going out so bad?
they will return tomorrow, and can be ambushed again. it will give time to the other to rest, because they also spent many resources in this fight.

yes, ok, I know narrative causality will cause something else to happen.But Roy don't.

Because Xykon will probably not go in a tunnel as unprepared and rushed as he did right now, because they might now put some sort of alarm to not get ambushed next time, and the OotS can't be ahead of them again, and especially because they now know something fishy is going on and they have a pretty high chance of finding Serini's hideout!

[Breccia]

Wow, Roy turning the air so blue, I was worried they were coming out of an illusion spell.

[Shining Wrath]

Nothing can ever be easy, Roy. Especially not if we want this to last for an entire book.

The part about "Junior Detective" is worrysome, though. Did the OotS leave some clue of their passage further into the tunnel?

[Gift Jeraff]

Who is that crayon-drawn dragon standing next to I assume Kraagor and Serini?

I assume that's just Sunny making a drawing based on Sereni's stories about Kraagor fighting powerful monsters, which is the whole theme of the dungeon.

[Edward15]

I have just one reaction to Roy's bleep out in that last panel:
XD! XD! XD! XD! XD!

Well, on the plus side, at least Seirini messing up their ambush didn't lead to Xykon learning about the teleportation runes. That would've been a REAL reason to swear like crazy!

[Resileaf]

Roy is officially voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

Also loooots of people here seem to have forgotten that there is a half-scorch mark on the ground where Haley used her rat head to disarm the portal and there's no way Redcloak won't notice it and realize what's been going on all along. The tunnel is not going to be a secret any longer.

[hroþila]

That's the joke.

That's the joke.

[BriarHobbit]

Roy is definitely feeling the stress of the moment. His stress levels are going to go up when the Three Fiends's hit team bypasses Serini's defenses. Of course, with V acting as a spy camera for the Three Fiends, they have no incentive to unleash their team prematurely.

[snowblizz]

I assume Serini has told Sunny stories about her adventures, and sometimes you like to draw stuff from stories you've enjoyed.

Shock twist. All the crayon art in the books is actually done by Sunny. Who is the narrator of our tale.

[Lexible]

Roy's large pile of F-bombs had my laughing out out several times over. Thank you, Giant.

[gerryq]

Is that a drawing of the Snarl on the wall? Pretty cute.

Yes, and it looks like a pretty accurate one. Which begs the question: when did Sunny see it, and what did Serini learn about it on their visit? My guess is that this will be significant... and I consider the fact that something immediately happened to draw attention away from it a bit of a tell for authorial misdirection!

[El_Chupacabra]

That sounds kinda sus - (*gets stabbed*)



That's the joke.

That's the joke

[El_Chupacabra]

... On a more serious note... it's too bad Roy didn't hear the part where Xykon says "you can stay inside, I'm staying here." Separated from his support. All alone.

[Coppercloud]

Nothing can ever be easy, Roy. Especially not if we want this to last for an entire book.

The part about "Junior Detective" is worrysome, though. Did the OotS leave some clue of their passage further into the tunnel?

They did. They left footprints from the door to the teleportation trap, but nothing beyond that point. Belkar took the time to erase their tracks, but Oona is a skilled tracker, so if Team Evil takes the time to investigate she might find them anyway.

Unless I missed something, it is also possible that there were monsters in this dungeon too, especially considering Xykon's comment about "nothing left to kill". So Team Evil should be certain that the Order didn't in fact enter this tunnel. What they make of this knowledge is yet to be seen. In 1222 they were not certain that the Order went that way, but there are only a few other possible doors. Best case scenario, they deduce that the Order must have flown away.

Also loooots of people here seem to have forgotten that there is a half-scorch mark on the ground where Haley used her rat head to disarm the portal and there's no way Redcloak won't notice it and realize what's been going on all along. The tunnel is not going to be a secret any longer.

Thanks, I had, indeed, forgotten that detail.

I assume Serini has told Sunny stories about her adventures, and sometimes you like to draw stuff from stories you've enjoyed.

My thoughts exactly. It just seems like a small reference to the Order of the Scribble, to remind us that they had adventures before, too. I don't think it is significant at all, although I would be pleasantly surprised if the Giant proved me wrong in a later strip.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Some good lines in this one.

[faustin]

On the plus side, Redcloak and Oona are still in the tunnels, with a few spell slot less and without the support of their lich boss.

Removing the epic level cleric who incidentally holds half of the ritual needed to control the gate is still a win, right?

[Aquillion]

I mean... this is also a great opportunity, isn't it? Xykon just implied out loud that he's A) burnt at least a few spell slots, given the "nothing left for us to kill" line, and B) will be alone for presumably a few more minutes, since the rest of Team Evil is "[playing] junior detective," which presumably involves making a whole buttload of skill checks and burning even more spell slots.

If the Order, plus Serini and Team Paladin, can haul their respective behinds to the canyon, they could theoretically all try to defeat Xykon right away. It would be challenging, but they have never had an opportunity to fight him alone while they are at nearly full strength. The action advantage in that combat alone would be immensely in their favour.

Assuming they win, they could approach Redcloak to negotiate from a position of strength, just like Julia suggested.

Also, can't Serini just disable the teleport, temporarily stranding Redcloak and the rest of Team Evil inside the dungeon while the rest of the party fights Xykon?

[bunsen_h]

Roy may be saying "Frick!" It's been used in the comic before.

Removing the epic level cleric who incidentally holds half of the ritual needed to control the gate is still a win, right?

Except that they need Redcloak alive, and willing and able to use a 9th-level spell slot. If he's "removed" in a fatal kind of way, they don't know if he'd be willing to come back, nor if he'd still be able to provide the spell slot after he lost that level due to dying.

[Schroeswald]

Just remembered, this door was supposed to be empty (had an X), but from Xykon’s lines it sounds like they had to kill some monsters during this whole thing. Which means that some more information is about to come out.

[Coppercloud]

Just remembered, this door was supposed to be empty (had an X), but from Xykon’s lines it sounds like they had to kill some monsters during this whole thing. Which means that some more information is about to come out.

Yep! In #1221, after going through the dungeon that they thought the dwarves were in, Redcloak pointed out that "the only logical conclusion is that the door was marked in error somehow" because they were active monsters in there. Then, he said "we need more data to determine the scale of the error with regard to the door marks. If we have the Dark One's luck with us, it'll be a one-off."

Now, they know it isn't. Which might lead to bad consequences for the MitD...

[Peelee]

Roy is officially voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

Ah yes, the only man known to curse.

[The MunchKING]

Just remembered, this door was supposed to be empty (had an X), but from Xykon’s lines it sounds like they had to kill some monsters during this whole thing. Which means that some more information is about to come out.

I mean, they already knew the caves would regenerate monsters at some point.