OOTS #603 - The Discussion Thread

[hamishspence]

Yes, is it bit blurry. Passage- overriding passage.

Page 213: casting time for a spell is the time required to activate same power in an item whether it is a scroll, a wand, or a pair of boots, unless the item description specifically states otherwise.

Page 213: Spell completion:

A scroll is a spell that is mostly finished. The preparation is done for the caster, so no preparation time is needed beforehand as with normal spellcasting. All that's left to do is perform the short, simple, finishing parts of the spellcasting (the final gestures, words, and so on.)

Activating a spell completion item is a standard action.and provokes attacks of opportunity exactly as spellcasting does.

Note for wands and staffs (spell trigger) it explicitly states if longer casting time exists, it applies.

also, for Use-activated, it explicitly states reverse- unless time is explicitly stated as Longer, its standard action, or no action.

For scrolls, nothing stated either way.

Maybe errata clarifies it.

EDIT:
Rules Compendium does have little footnote under Scroll- same casting time as spell.

[Varkarrus]

First of all: I think the cleric is autistic: He never makes eye-contact

Second: He's going to die. He screwed himself up after saying "no names, please"

[hamishspence]

Its usually stereotyped as "shifty" in most stories: Might even be a trope "Look Me in the Eye"

and gets subverted lots: the guy who looks people straight and has firm handshake is the conman in Discworld.

[chiasaur11]

Its usually stereotyped as "shifty" in most stories: Might even be a trope "Look Me in the Eye"

and gets subverted lots: the guy who looks people straight and has firm handshake is the conman in Discworld.

In fact, he banks on the handshake eye contact thing.

Of course, he's a decent enough guy, deep down.

[David Argall]

By the time the smoke start filling the bottom part of the house, he already polluted the air enough to choke the fire.
But anyway, do you really want to try to smoke a sylph? Because there is some relative chance that she has some air spell of sort. Likely.

The details don't really matter here. Any time you are stuck in one location and your enemy can just sit and wait for you to come out, you are dead. It just takes awhile. Eventually you have to come out and fight on the enemy's terms.

Haley is in a fine tactical situation. She can hold off her foes for a long time. [Probably. Cloudkill looks like it would rapidly dispose of the defense here. The thieves guild may not have access to 5th level Arcane spell, tho they should, but if they use them 1d4 con damage per round is fatal fast.] But her strategic situation is lousy. She can't expect help to show nearly in time. The guild amuses itself with smoke bombs and such and eventually can just wander in.

Since Haley seems to have a back-up plan of Durkon raising everybody, she seems to realize she is in deep do-do.

[hamishspence]

it's a siege: Question is, will they stop attacking and try to starve them out? or just keep probing, wait till Haley gets tired, strike?

[link55557]

I think the cleric is autistic: He never makes eye-contact

No, he does too make eye contact in this comic.

How mad will V be when he learns that he spent months trying to contact those guys, and they finally make contact AFTER he's gone?

I for one can't wait

[Ceric]

My new favorite character survives another strip! I refer to the cleric, of course.

Also, I predict that

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Belkar will convince the cleric to cast Remove Curse. After all, he's a high-level PC and the cleric wants to live, and the spell shouldn't take too long to cast.

[Warren Dew]

My wife felt the same way about the people she grew up with, although to the best of my knowledge she never killed any of them with arrows.

I know what you mean ... my wife doesn't use arrows either.

[FoE]

My wife felt the same way about the people she grew up with, although to the best of my knowledge she never killed any of them with arrows.

Did any of the people she grew up with show up years later and try to kill her?

[Xorbon]

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.

Wasn't that was answered in the first panel of #602? They were just bored and doing each other's hair.

I think the only significance it might have is that it could show that Haley and Celia have bonded. It's a nice little touch added by the Giant.

[Jewel Thief]

But I still haven't. I don't like Celia...

[Raging Gene Ray]

Also, I predict that

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Belkar will convince the cleric to cast Remove Curse. After all, he's a high-level PC and the cleric wants to live, and the spell shouldn't take too long to cast.

And I predict that after that happens:

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Belkar kills Crystal and immediately collapses in a pool of his own freshly produced vomit.
You said you removed the Mark!
Cleric: No, I said I removed the curse. It's just going to activate again if you violate the terms of the Mark. Anyhow, you've served your purpose keeping me safe. Thanks and all that, but I don't see any reason to waste anymore valuable spell slots on you.
BLARG!!! (Attempts (possibly successfully) to kill the cleric and maybe the girls).

[RMS Oceanic]

And I predict that after that happens:

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Belkar kills Crystal and immediately collapses in a pool of his own freshly produced vomit.
You said you removed the Mark!
Cleric: No, I said I removed the curse. It's just going to activate again if you violate the terms of the Mark. Anyhow, you've served your purpose keeping me safe. Thanks and all that, but I don't see any reason to waste anymore valuable spell slots on you.
BLARG!!! (Attempts (possibly successfully) to kill the cleric and maybe the girls).

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The mark is the curse. Dispelling it gets rid of the whole enchilada.

[hamishspence]

Its a Greater Mark of Justice spell, unique to OOTS. How it works is entirely up to The Giant.

[Raging Gene Ray]

Haley nonchalantly refers to George as a wife-beater. ... it's a really horrible thing to do, so Haley calling someone who does it merely an ******* doesn't do my feelings on the issue justice.

The thing is that Haley grew up in Greysky, where the only options were probably join the Thieves' Guild or live in misery. This would have forced her to overlook many horrible things for the sake of calling people like George allies. Otherwise, they would turn against her. Now, however, she has left the guild and has had the freedom to develop her own moral compass. Her realizing that everyone she grew up with is an ******* could be a way of declaring her independence from the guild, her past, and whatever circumstances prevented her from getting close to any good and pure person (Panel 15).

[Hithros]

What use is a dog-fighting ring for a Thieves Guild?

Go, Haley!

[RMS Oceanic]

What use is a dog-fighting ring for a Thieves Guild?

Thieves Guilds usually do other organised crime: smuggling, racketeering, illicit gambling etc.

[teratorn]

But I still haven't. I don't like Celia...

Nice to know I'm not the only one...

[Lord_Butters_I]

Thieves Guilds usually do other organised crime: smuggling, racketeering, illicit gambling etc.

The fact that they sell insurance and and have hitmen means that they're less of a thieves guild and more of a mafia.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

The fact that they sell insurance and and have hitmen means that they're less of a thieves guild and more of a mafia.

If you ever read Wiseguy (later made into the movie Goodfellas), you'll see that while the mafia was into everything, their primary purpose and method of making money was by stealing it. So, yeah... Thieves' Guild, mafia... Same-same. More-or-less

[ChowGuy]

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The mark is the curse. Dispelling it gets rid of the whole enchilada.

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Removing the curse requires the password, which the cleric doesn't have. Temporarily verriding its current effects however may be within his reach of his "healing" spells, of which he has several prepared. Particularly if as he says this is something he's seen a lot of before.

Thieves Guilds usually do other organised crime: smuggling, racketeering, illicit gambling etc.

Drawing crowds of marks for pickpockets.

[Lord_Butters_I]

If you ever read Wiseguy (later made into the movie Goodfellas), you'll see that while the mafia was into everything, their primary purpose and method of making money was by stealing it. So, yeah... Thieves' Guild, mafia... Same-same. More-or-less

More a matter of symantics than anything else. Thieves guild implies a bunch of thieves who work together to keep each other safe and provide a streamlined way to fence loot.

Mafia implies an aggressive, militant organization that engages very openly in just about every criminal practice that makes money and can potentially become the dominant political organization of a region, usurping the government in deed if not in name. This seems to be what the Greysky racket seems to be.

[Arkenputtyknife]

What use is a dog-fighting ring for a Thieves Guild?

In addition to the illicit gambling take? Pickpockets.

Lots of people in a confined space, doing something illegal (i.e. watching and gambling on dog-fighting) so they'd be reluctant to talk to authorities afterward, and getting excited so their attention is not on their wallets.

[Jiachi]

To those that think Belkar can't be unmarked, #602 panel 9 says he can.

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Unless, of course, Roy happened to suggest a different password.

[Starscream]

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Removing the curse requires the password, which the cleric doesn't have. Temporarily verriding its current effects however may be within his reach of his "healing" spells, of which he has several prepared. Particularly if as he says this is something he's seen a lot of before.

Hmmm, I thought the implication was that the cleric did know the password. He mentions that he has dealt with thieves from Azure City before, and it seems likely that its the same password every time.

Just like many people use the same password for multiple accounts and things on the internet, when you think of a good one you tend to stick with it. Perhaps Shojo always uses "Squiddlydoodlefluffer" and the clerics of Greysky puzzled it out years ago in order to turn a profit by curing such people.

[David Argall]

What use is a dog-fighting ring for a Thieves Guild?

The business is profitable? Then the reason is right there.

A criminal organization is simply another organization for the most part [tho since the old pink slip gets that way from your blood, the termination policy kinda blows]. It does what looks profitable. Our criminal organization in large part merely notices that there are large profits in whatever the government makes illegal and marks down 10 years in the slammer as a cost of doing business.
But criminal organizations will operate legal businesses when they see money in it. So if the dog-fighting business makes money, the guild may be interested.

[hamishspence]

maybe its illegal in Cliffport? It might be, not a Everything is Legal city, but one with Ineffective Police. Hard to say.

[unithom]

Remember Belkar's appetite for bloodshed has been at near starvation levels for months now.

Sure, but Belkar is sick - you don't act the same way when you feel lousy. And Belkar is sick on the order of 'The Exorcist' sick. It seems hard enough for him to maintain a conversation right now and he seems really out of it. Just like you don't have much of an appetite (for food) when you're puking all the time, maybe he's not as 'hungry' for bloodshed.

Although it would be interesting to see the order of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs as applied to Belkar.

[unithom]

Btw, anyone think Celia's reference to her not being able to be raised is a bad sign?

Why does this make me think of Ladyhawke for some reason?

You know, like what if

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Celia is killed during the battle and Ghostly Roy is forced to watch, then he hightails it back to the afterlife to see her (yeah yeah, I know they'd probably end up in different 'neighborhoods' back there but The Giant could make it happen) only to have Roy get resurrected and be all mopey.

Strangers in the night...