OOTS #603 - The Discussion Thread

[An Enemy Spy]

I bet the Sending will go to some other dwarf who looks exactly like the one in the crappy drawing.

[Timespike]

Geez! Haley is not to be screwed with!

[The Tygre]

Finally. some action! Keep up the good work, Giant!

[Draz74]

K, aside from the concerns others have voiced about Pete's magically shielded room (and how it interacts with the outgoing Sending as well as efforts to Scry in return), and whether the message will be trusted, and why the thieves are dumb enough to approach Haley in single-file, I have two questions/comments.

First, we get another tidbit of Haley's gradually-revealed life story. Mia, her mysterious mother, was also in the Thieves' Guild.

Second, what is Roy's first comment supposed to mean? Who in particular is he thinking of (besides possibly Blind Pete) who has hurt the Order by selling out?

[Brasswatchman]

Wait. Sneak attack? He's standing there looking at her. He's standing there talking to her. Is it a sneak attack because she suddenly attacks in the middle of a conversation. Which interrupted a fight.

Granted the fight could be said to start with him speaking first, then Haley, then his turn again, then Haley uses a sneak attack. I thought speaking was a free action though.

Must remember that's how the rules work :)

If Haley won Initiative, he counts as Flat-footed until he acts.

[Brasswatchman]

That's why this particular one is threatening to break my mind..along with that apparently Haley has an unlimited amount of arrows if she can hold off all these rogues for 100 rounds. (Of course since it only seems to take two arrows to kill anyone no matter their level, I guess that's moot)

Sorry, you actually count arrows in your games? In most of the games I've played, it's gone something like this:

ME: "Okay, I have 20 gp. Can I buy 400 arrows?"

GM: "Just write down that you have arrows. Period end."

[TheNovak]

Uh, I believe a F*** YEAH is in order.

Haley? F*** YEAH!

[Brasswatchman]

2) I was rather confused by Haley's guess. We haven't really seen much in the way of helpers and also she doesn't remember any questions being asked.

Look, for everybody dealing with this, I'm just going to go ahead and say that it isn't a rational decision on her character's part. She made her Intuition check or wouldn't trust Belkar any further than she could throw him anyway or maybe she just knows Belkar. In particular, she knows that he's too careful to have tripped off his MoJ for any other reason other than the "fun way."

So relax, willya?

[Brasswatchman]

Geeze, if they really loath this evil monster so much and do not want his help in a fight either, why bother with him at all? The character, or more precisely, his role in the strip, has become an annoyance anyway.

Probably because Belkar's player is the GM's kid brother, and his parents will only let him and his friends use the garage if he can play.

... what? Too metafictional?

[Prince_Rohan]

Haley must have grown up in my neighborhood.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

Can't Celia just "unsummon" herself out of trouble? Hinjo sent Argent back when he was poisoned, but can resummon Argent the next day.

Seems like Celia has an emergency exit if she really needs it, although that would leave Haley hanging...

[Warren Dew]

It is an iron-clad law of drama that the more you know about a character's plans, the worse things are going to go awry. This is not just a trope -- it's a consequence of the fundamental rule of good writing: Surprise the reader.

And here I was somehow under the misimpression that great literature was enjoyable to reread even when one already knew everything that was going to happen. I guess the things I thought were great literature were actually just bad writing.

Honestly, while I think the author of this strip does use surprise to good effect, he also does a good job of making the strip rereadable, and still funny the second time around.

[DBear]

Everyone that is worried about Haley taking on the thieves' guild seems to be forgetting the Conservation of Ninjutsu. If Bozzok had sendt Crystal in first, Haley would have cause to worry. But sending down the mooks---one at a time, yet--Haley should cut them down easily.

[Tim]

I predict sending fails, and they eventually find ANOTHER cleric of Loki who actually met Durkon. Well, more than just "met", but you get the drift.

[Sequinox]

... yeah, that was funny. I feel bad for that guy's wife though. And the 'we'll pay you triple' was awesome. 'at last, someone selling out works to our favor.'

And finally, I foresee Celia's death. That's hard for me, because I've always liked her, but... the whole 'lack of rez' thing tipped me off. Though I hope that I'm wrong.

[One_Wolf]

I laughed hard on this one. Great job.

I don't know whether the swearing was necessary (maybe it was), but Haley's line in the last panel slayed me.

-One Wolf

[picklepenguin]

I don't know if this has been said, but if Durkon doesn't know who Celia is, wouldn't that screw up the message somehow? Of course, I doubt he'll get the message or understand it correctly (due to the law of comic drama).

[DBear]

Oh, Durkon knows who Celia is.

[nosignal]

I don't know if this has been said, but if Durkon doesn't know who Celia is, wouldn't that screw up the message somehow? Of course, I doubt he'll get the message or understand it correctly (due to the law of comic drama).

Why wouldn't Durkon know who Celia is? It's not like they haven't met.

[Kish]

Probably because Belkar's player is the GM's kid brother, and his parents will only let him and his friends use the garage if he can play.

... what? Too metafictional?

Also incompatible with the way they act toward him.

Plus, Rich confirmed that they don't have players, so that can't be the reason.

Plus...I find the idea that the OotS' imaginary players are just like their characters distasteful. It strikes me as unimaginative. If we're speculating about players, I'd rather look at "why would Belkar's player choose to play a psychopath?" than assume Belkar's player is psychopathic and/or immature.

[Hellbore]

Hi all,

Making my debut post to say how much I enjoy this comic. It goes to show how well its written that I, who no nothing about D&D can still get so much on from this story.

Anyways, heres to the next strip.

[fangthane]

Hmm, something I hadn't noticed about this and the last comic until I re-read this one and then skipped back some.

Celia has the same hair-out-of-place hairdo as Haley at the moment, obviously an artifact of their long enclosure together. I appreciate the attention to detail which has Rich implementing little touches like that, which (so far as my cursory search of the forum is concerned) doesn't seem to have caught much attention at all.

I guess people got more caught up in the "things are finally moving forward" aspect and missed some of the fine detail, but it's nice to see that Rich didn't.

Very nicely done.

[picklepenguin]

Ah, right. Totally forgot the trial part...my bad.

[Arcane_Secrets]

Man, the way Belkar is being treated i'll be surprised if he even wants to help now.

Don't you think that:

1) It would give Belkar a chance to kill someone.

2) His opponents were going to try and kill him anyway.

would sort of outweigh his anger at how they've treated him? I'll grant he doesn't think rationally all that often, though.

[Brasswatchman]

Also incompatible with the way they act toward him.

Plus, Rich confirmed that they don't have players, so that can't be the reason.

It was a joke, you know.

Plus...I find the idea that the OotS' imaginary players are just like their characters distasteful. It strikes me as unimaginative. If we're speculating about players, I'd rather look at "why would Belkar's player choose to play a psychopath?" than assume Belkar's player is psychopathic and/or immature.

Because he - the hypothetical player - is a jerk? :) C'mon. We all must have played with somebody like that at some point.

[Laurentio II]

Which Victor would be that? Surely not Victor Mancha from the Runaways? They are about twenty years apart in creation and even further away conceptually, after all.

My bad, I misswrote the name. Rictor.

[Zolem]

A wife beater? Full attack using rapid fire and quick reload with my MK72 Anti-tank rocket launcher on the ashole!

[Kaytara]

Hmm, something I hadn't noticed about this and the last comic until I re-read this one and then skipped back some.

Celia has the same hair-out-of-place hairdo as Haley at the moment, obviously an artifact of their long enclosure together. I appreciate the attention to detail which has Rich implementing little touches like that, which (so far as my cursory search of the forum is concerned) doesn't seem to have caught much attention at all.

I guess people got more caught up in the "things are finally moving forward" aspect and missed some of the fine detail, but it's nice to see that Rich didn't.

Very nicely done.

I thought it odd that Celia still has the hair-out-of-face braid in this comic, but I can't for the life of me figure out where it could be going if it's supposed to be important. After all, anyone who could be trying to identify Haley here has already met her in the past and probably remembers if not her hair colour, then at least that she's not a sylph.

[eilandesq]

Given that Toby--given that Haley was able to catch him flat-footed--was at most a third level rogue, I have a feeling that Bozzock must have wanted him dead for some reason. Given that Toby didn't seem particularly terrified at going down to face the (probably) 13th level rogue optimized for lethal close range archery, I'm assuming that he wasn't the brightest lantern archon in the heavenly choir, and that was what made him expendable. Bozzock might use this method to thin out his more-dimwitted low-level members, then head down himself with Crystal once the remaining ones start telling him "Bite me, orc boy" in response to the call to go to be slaughtered.

[spectralphoenix]

Bozzak probably figured he could surprise Haley and have everyone file down the stairs and set up in the basement before storming the secret rooom. Of course, he sends down the expendable people first just in case, but he probably wasn't planning on fighting down the stairs.

Wonder if Crystal has a potion of Fly or something?