Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Or maybe Laurin's favor will be "Die!!" at a critical moment in the battle, forcing Tarquin to realize that he's a second-string villain, taken out by an underling.Quite possible. It's also possible that this is in some sort of revenge for Malak (she seemed quite fond of him or close) by blaming Tarquin's sons for his death (maybe even a "sins of the son passed onto the father sort of thing).Oooo ... or maybe her favor will be to kill Elan. It could be the Darth Vader redemption moment when he turns on his "companions" ... even though he's more like Palpatine ...
I was thinking along the same lines, but was guessing Haley.
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No redemption for Tarquin. There is a succubus down there that just cannot wait to get her claws on his soul.
Also I feel that Tarquin has forgotten that they do not have a Cleric anymore, and thus no way to come back from the dead. Which to me implies that he will die.
However, I do not see Rich playing the Laurin's line of getting a favor if it is not used later on. And Tarquin's death would seem to preclude that. Unless Laurin feels that the debt goes to his son Elan.
I'm somewhat shocked that somebody like Tarquin would so readily agree to owing another person a favor, a unspecified future favor no less. I know his perceived legacy is important to him, but I have to think he's throwing cation to the wind now.
If somebody was my good friend I would think hard before agreeing to something like that. Tarquin is an evil mastermind which makes the event even more stark. This is the type of thing smart evil masterminds don't do for a reason. Maybe he's smart enough he already had a contingency for this or maybe he's planning on killing Laurin shortly afterwards, but if he's not there is no way this ends well for him.
This is not going to end well for him.
This sub-plot is played out, and I think that Mr. Burlew knows that.
Damn, burlew. Thats a great plot twist.
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Tarquin DID in fact pause before agreeing to the unspecified favour. He would never otherwise agree to such a thing, but he is desperate to assure his "Legacy" as he keeps on stating!
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Battle's ON
I have feeling this going to end in a) bloody mess for several characters and b)another Elan/Tarquin meta plot conversation.
So Tarquin has Snatch Arrows. Either he dipped some Monk like Miko or burned some Fighter feats on the chain. (Or he has some item that gives him it as a Bonus Feat.)
Color me oblivious then =)
Belkar DOES have a level of Barbarian. That would be interesting to see.
I will be glad to see the desert in the rearview mirror. Just as I grew tired of Azure City near the end of that story arc, I am growing tired of the desert.
-Aaron
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I'd actually like to see a happy ending where Tarquin dies, where him and Elan kinda make amends.
"You weren't the big bad father. You didn't have the vision for it, unlike Xykon. Besides, you had a much greater role. You were the boss of my personal sidequest father."
I could see something like that ending fairly well off for both of them.
I'd actually like to see a happy ending where Tarquin dies, where him and Elan kinda make amends.
"You weren't the big bad father. You didn't have the vision for it, unlike Xykon. Besides, you had a much greater role. You were the boss of my personal sidequest father."
I could see something like that ending fairly well off for both of them.
Or, Elan could - justifiably - be more cold towards Tarquin.
Remember, Tarquin just murdered Nale in front of Elan (because Nale was an expired plot point).
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Tarquin and co need to have their ass handed to them. I'm tired of him...
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I know that feeling. One of my players took out one of the nastiest monsters I could have thrown at him a couple of weeks ago by BPing it into a toad. I rolled a 1 on the save.
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"You named the Dinosaur?" That was great!
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So, just out of curiosity, anyone remember what the heck the wormhole ability is that the psion keeps using? I realize that the game mechanics aren't determinative to the plot, but Rich usually bases stuff in the game mechanics and it's nice to be able to track that.
I'm just guessing, because I don't feel like searching through the earlier installments, but could it be a psionic version of gate? I thought it's how Tarquin got his army in place the first time.
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What's the dotted line in between portals from V's view?
I get the feeling we might see an 'exploiting geometry for fun and profit' moment where V goes all 2nd Ed and hits Tarquin and Co. with a single lightning bolt but from 8 different angles or something, by banking it though all the wormholes.
What's the dotted line in between portals from V's view?
I was wondering that, too. That panel and the previous one confuse me. First, you see V right outside of a portal right above the triceratops, then in the next panel, you see V and the triceratops pretty far from each other.
I wonder if it's supposed to illustrate Tarquin's mount is traveling quickly by using rapid wormholes.
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I'm wondering how often she can cast it. Either she has the same spell prepared a whole lot of times, or it's a spell like ability of some sort.
Psions use power points and can spam the same power more than any other class in the game if they really want to.
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What's the dotted line in between portals from V's view?Think Family Circus.
I thought about Indiana Jones and the red line showing on maps to mark the travel route albeit on a much smaller scale.
Ah. You're right. It's just the path Bloodfeast ran in. With V framed in the shot I was trying to interpret it as what the wizard's brain was computing.
I'm not sure they stay open at all. Multiples appear in that image, but that's to demonstrate where and why Bloodfeast zigzagged, not necessarily to imply they stay open for any length of time.
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Looking at the Psion Powers list for the Dreamscarred Psionics, which is close enough for government work to the 3.5 XPH version Rich is probably using, she's probably high enough level to pull herself, Tarquin, Miron, and their mount with just psychoport, which is a 5th-level power costing 9 PP per casting. It's extremely unlikely she's augmenting, as the only augment option is to up the accuracy of the teleport. You can bring one Medium creature/three levels beyond yourself, and a Huge creature like a Triceratops counts as 4 Medium creatures. That's 6, since she doesn't count herself against her limit - as long as she's level 18 (or at least has a Manifester Level of 18 - one of her Ioun Stones might be bumping her ML up, if she herself isn't high enough), she can port them all, and since she can physically see her destination there's no mishap chance so no wasted castings.
A level-18 Psion has a pool of 280 Power Points a day as a base.
But wait, there's more! Bonus PP from high ability score. A level-18 manifester with only 15 INT (the bare minimum to manifest psychoport) would only get 19 extra Power Points, but the likelihood she only has 15 INT is staggeringly low. A more realistic 30 - between a high starting score, level-up bonuses every 4 levels, and a magic item - however gives her another 95 a day.
That's 375 PP a day. 41 castings of psychoport and some change (.6666~), presuming she did absolutely nothing else that day. As it is, we've seen her do a small few other manifestations, but I imagine she's still got the majority of her PP remaining, even after using a larger gate-mimicking power to bring in Tarquin's whole army earlier and the few blasts we've seen her do.
Given Rich's tendency to play a little loose with the rules for the sake of story, I doubt he's tracking her PP to this minute detail, but it's certainly quite possible for her to pull this off within the rules.
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See, I thought it might be that, but she's creating an actual gate. Teleportation effects make the 'pop' effect in OotS, not gates. I suppose there might be different visuals for psionics, but considering the lack of difference between V's Bigby spells and the psion from Roy's childhood book, I doubt it.
Huh, I don't remember that particular strip. Link?
I was blaming it on flavor difference for the magic vs. psionics thing myself, yeah. I didn't see any portal-creating powers on the list, nor on the discipline list for the Nomad. The closest other option I found was reposition, but that's still a teleport effect. (And is more expensive for the same effect, in this case.)
There might be some appropriate power amidst the 3.5 books but I don't feel like digging them out.
Huh, I don't remember that particular strip. Link?
I was blaming it on flavor difference for the magic vs. psionics thing myself, yeah. I didn't see any portal-creating powers on the list, nor on the discipline list for the Nomad. The closest other option I found was reposition, but that's still a teleport effect. (And is more expensive for the same effect, in this case.)
There might be some appropriate power amidst the 3.5 books but I don't feel like digging them out.
Maybe I'll look and post if I get the internet back.
Looking at the Psion Powers list for the Dreamscarred Psionics, which is close enough for government work to the 3.5 XPH version Rich is probably using, she's probably high enough level to pull herself, Tarquin, Miron, and their mount with just psychoport, which is a 5th-level power costing 9 PP per casting. It's extremely unlikely she's augmenting, as the only augment option is to up the accuracy of the teleport. You can bring one Medium creature/three levels beyond yourself, and a Huge creature like a Triceratops counts as 4 Medium creatures. That's 6, since she doesn't count herself against her limit - as long as she's level 18 (or at least has a Manifester Level of 18 - one of her Ioun Stones might be bumping her ML up, if she herself isn't high enough), she can port them all, and since she can physically see her destination there's no mishap chance so no wasted castings.
A level-18 Psion has a pool of 280 Power Points a day as a base.
But wait, there's more! Bonus PP from high ability score. A level-18 manifester with only 15 INT (the bare minimum to manifest psychoport) would only get 19 extra Power Points, but the likelihood she only has 15 INT is staggeringly low. A more realistic 30 - between a high starting score, level-up bonuses every 4 levels, and a magic item - however gives her another 95 a day.
That's 375 PP a day. 41 castings of psychoport and some change (.6666~), presuming she did absolutely nothing else that day. As it is, we've seen her do a small few other manifestations, but I imagine she's still got the majority of her PP remaining, even after using a larger gate-mimicking power to bring in Tarquin's whole army earlier and the few blasts we've seen her do.
Given Rich's tendency to play a little loose with the rules for the sake of story, I doubt he's tracking her PP to this minute detail, but it's certainly quite possible for her to pull this off within the...
How much to move Tarquin's entire army?
If the OOTS is to survive this fight head on - it seems to me that somebody's got to either make a "heroic" sacrifice or pull out an unconventional move/item to even the odds. It just looks like Tarquin and company are too power-heavy and genre savvy too lose a traditional battle at this point. I could see Elan and maybe Haley left alive, but otherwise it just seems like the rest are fodder for Tarquin's "legacy."
I keep wondering if Durkon's going to realize that there some uber-spell or effect in Malack's staff to even the odds?
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How much to move Tarquin's entire army?
... but I imagine she's still got the majority of her PP remaining, even after using a larger gate-mimicking power to bring in Tarquin's whole army earlier and the few blasts we've seen her do.
9th-level powers cost 17 PP a pop, but if she has a power that mimics gate, she only had to cast it once and leave it open long enough for the army to march through.
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... me love Thog.