OOTS #908 - The Discussion Thread

[Malanthyus]

Laughed out loud at the energy drain. So ZZ'ditri is dead now, and Durkon is back with the team. The OOTS owe Nale a HUGE thanks.

Durkon didn't energy drain him. He used brute force to snap his neck. Or if he did use an energy drain attack, that wasn't what killed Z. To create a vampire spawn or other vampire, the actual kill has to be energy drain or blood drain.

[Leirus]

I wonder if Nale will try to bring Z back. Great strip!

[Aeriander]

Is the rest of the Order going to misinterpret this as a hostile action against Roy? They don't know what's going on with Durkon, and they certainly don't know Malack is dead.

[Maugan Ra]

Laughed out loud at the energy drain. So ZZ'ditri is dead now, and Durkon is back with the team. The OOTS owe Nale a HUGE thanks.

Also, Z just died from a vampire. If they leave his body there, he'll rise again won't he, in three days? Vampire Z is not a loose end you want to leave around!

I'm pretty sure just getting your neck snapped by a vampire isn't enough to make you turn. You need to have a full set of blood drinking first, really.

Also, yeah, OK, that worked out surprisingly well. All we need now is for Tarquinius to stab Nale to finish the job...

[SavageWombat]

That was harsher than I expected.

Vampires drain levels as part of their slam attack - so I'm hoping Durkon can learn to not drain people by accident. But we'll see.

[Burner28]

Interesting. Whilst Durkon is certainly less merciful, it's nice to see that he still cares about the Order.

[Giggling Ghast]

That neck snap was a bit surprising.

Still, glad to see Durkon's back! Sort of.

[tcrudisi]

Hahaha. Brilliant. Well, that proves that Durkon is evil (as if he was neutral, he'd still be able to channel positive energy). I would also argue that realizing you channel negative energy instead of positive energy would be based more on Wisdom than Intelligence, though the joke is still hilarious.

[Irish Musician]

Oh Mr. Rich....you made me laugh so loud just then.

"......I also haf potions" Classic awesome D&D funny. Love the way the comic is going, even though I did cry a little when Durkon was turned, but stories can't all be sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns, so I'll just have to deal with the tears

Keep up the brilliant work Giant!

[liooil2000]

Didn't know vampires energy drained on touch. Malack didn't do that, did he? He could heal Elan, for example.

I think he tried to cast a heal spell with spontaneous casting, but because he is now evil it turned into inflict.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

[HZ514]

Hooray Durkon!

GG Z.

[AutomatedTeller]

I didn't expect the elf to die there. Go Durkon!!

LG is hurting now, isn't it, presuming Thog is actually dead, of course. Just Nale and Sabine.

Durkon better help out heftily with the elemental - presumably, the devil will do so.

That was an energy drain? It was the same color as Durkon's spell, so I assumed cure moderate wounds backfired, though I don't really understand why it would.

[Arathnos]

That was deliciously evil and beautiful.

[Goosefeather]

Hah, I imagine the crustacean demon's ranting as sounding like a sulking Zoidberg.

I wonder if V got to see Z's demise - and what exactly our favourite Neutral-sometimes-bordering-on-Evil elf thought of Durkon just casually snapping his neck like that.

[DaggerPen]

"... I also haf potions."

*dead*

So, uh.

Wow

Okay, so Durkon seems to be evil. That was the consensus, but it is a shame. Still, this will definitely be interesting. And - wow. There goes Z, I guess. Yikes.

[toapat]

Magnificent Execution on the behalf of Durkon.

[Porthos]

I guess Vampire Durkon forgot that since he is evil his spontaneous spell conversion no longer produces cure spells.

Ah, a much better read of things. Yeah, I'd say you're right about that.

Should edit my post I think.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Didn't know vampires energy drained on touch. Malack didn't do that, did he? He could heal Elan, for example.

Durkon tried to convert a prepared spell to cure X wounds, like he always does (a good cleric has no logical reason to EVER actually prepare cure spells, he can just convert others to them anyway, so prepping others doubles his versatility). But, now being evil, it converted to evil, and that caught him by surprise. Hence the strip title.

[The Giant]

That's interesting. I was assuming he damaged Roy because he was evil now, so his cure spells became inflict spells. I didn't think of the energy drain angle. I wonder which it was?

Edit: Looking back, I think it was an inflict spell. I think that's what the 'reverse polarity' refers to.

That's correct. The Cure Moderate Wounds was converted to an Inflict Moderate Wounds per the fact that all vampire clerics channel negative energy.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Wow .... and that's a goodbye to Z.

OTOH, loved the last two panels!

[watupwithdat]

The inflict spell was pretty funny. Hopefully the rest will be too busy with the sandy one to notice before he can give him a potion. May cause some issues otherwise.

[Forikroder]

wow didnt see Z dieing like ta tcoming at all

[RickDaily12]

Has Malack ever touched any living creature directly while healing them?

Perhaps this is why he never did, and would use the staff instead.

I also imagine this is another purpose of the Giant inventing Mass Death Ward- a means to have Durkon given a way to safely heal the Order, as well as be free of the worry of all negative energy/level defects.

Clearly not the same Durkon. Friendly, but still... This is going to be interesting.

EDIT: super ninja'd. Ah well. MDW still helps the Order in this way.

[Roland Itiative]

Nice to see the alignment change didn't seem to shift his loyalties at all, at least at first.

I wonder what's happening to Haley meanwhile... May it be we'll need to have Durkon cast that Raise Dead he has prepared after all?

[B. Dandelion]

I can't get over Durkon's >:D expression in panel three. I don't think he's ever made it before in the entire comic, and it's so... disturbing, especially in the context that he's making it as he snaps Zz'dtri's neck in cold blood. Brrr...

[Anarion]

Nice, love the "evil, but still likes the planet" angle. That probably even extends just to stopping Xykon since there's no reason Durkon would want to be ruled by Xykon any more than any other selfish and powerful evil character.

That's correct. The Cure Moderate Wounds was converted to an Inflict Moderate Wounds per the fact that all vampire clerics channel negative energy.

Oh, that makes a lot of sense. I had thought it was artistic license with the energy drain.

Also, minor art complaint: there's a stray bit of beard in the first panel of this comic that extends into Durkon's mouth and is sort of driving me nuts.

[Rakoa]

... goodbye Z, you will be missed. I'm hoping a resurrection will come eventually.

[Drakeburn]

Yay! Durkon is still good! And he's still himself.

[Secris]

Holy crap. He killed Z! I thought Z and Nale would both get away... woah. Just... woah. O_O


Also, hilarious at the end. That's probably gonna have to take some getting used to. Maybe Z can learn to heal so Durkula can be the main nuker X_X

[DaggerPen]

Oh hey, I just realized that Durkon threw Z's body at the daemon to show that said daemon could leave now. That makes a lot of sense.

Question: someone identified the font that the daemon is using, right? Does it say anything particularly fun, even if it's just "no secret message"?