New Order of the Stick Strip Up

[The Raven Black]

Lord Fyre wrote:

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Lord Fyre wrote:

Belkar's mowing down a bunch of these vampires will still be important for the continued survival of the heroes.

True ... Except our intrepid Ranger is weaponless and has yet to take a level of Monk. (not that he has the Wisdom for it.)

I don't think that Belker is every actually weaponless.

Improvised Weapon : snowball.

And icicles can make pretty good Small daggers in a pinch.

[Dragonchess Player]

The Raven Black wrote:

Improvised Weapon: snowball.

And icicles can make pretty good Small daggers in a pinch.

Huh... I just had a thought: Since this is the location of the Godsmoot, plus with the cathedral being (literally) created that morning by divine magic, could (at least some of) the snow and ice around the cathedral have become holy water?

[Rosgakori]

New Comic is up.

Oh F+%& you Durkon :D

[Alex Martin]

Interesting turn of events, and certainly builds the tension. That being said, I'm kind reaching the how much more extensive can we make this plan before it veers to ludicrous? Did they really obstruct Hel's power that much that she has to plan all these contingencies in advance to make it work?

[Drejk]

Rosgakori wrote:

New Comic is up.

Oh F!*+ you Durkon :D

The dwarven clans' leaders don't happen to...:

vote surrounded by magic circle against evil? Do they?

[Luke_Parry]

I am more curious about the fact that Odin's priest stated that none of the voting representatives should leave.

If Durkula Teleports away, does that mean Hel's vote is rescinded?

[Dragoncat]

Who says Durkula is going to teleport away?

He's got a subordinate who isn't bound by Godsmoot rules right next to him.

[MannyGoblin]

Burlow sure is padding this out for yet another book.

[Luke_Parry]

Dragoncat wrote:

Who says Durkula is going to teleport away?

He's got a subordinate who isn't bound by Godsmoot rules right next to him.

Well, his minion said 'we can escape'; now, granted, Durkula does not have to follow through with that, but it would be an amusing loophole/technicality to accidentally stymie Hel's carefully orchestrated plan ;-)

[137ben]

Also, the Godsmoot is not a sidequest.

But that was probably already fairly obvious....
;)

[TriOmegaZero]

Dragoncat wrote:

Who says Durkula is going to teleport away?

He's got a subordinate who isn't bound by Godsmoot rules right next to him.

Exact words:

"No attendee shall pass through these arches until this issue is resolved!"

[Fromper]

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Dragoncat wrote:

Who says Durkula is going to teleport away?

He's got a subordinate who isn't bound by Godsmoot rules right next to him.

** spoiler omitted **

Yeah, I noticed that, too.

[baron arem heshvaun]

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Exact words

I saw that as well, but I like that TriOmega who's avatar is the god of Chaotic Good is pointing out Lawful Evil loopholes for us.

[Lord Fyre]

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Exact words

I saw that as well, but I like that TriOmega who's avatar is the god of Chaotic Good is pointing out Lawful Evil loopholes for us.

Hey, just because he understands Lawful Evil, does not mean that he approves of it.

[baron arem heshvaun]

Lord Fyre wrote:

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Exact words

I saw that as well, but I like that TriOmega who's avatar is the god of Chaotic Good is pointing out Lawful Evil loopholes for us.

Hey, just because he understands Lawful Evil, does not mean that he approves of it.

Said the True Neutral of the group.

;)

[TriOmegaZero]

I am the Chaotic Neutral god of rules.

[strayshift]

Dominating a number of Dwarven Clerics with the souls of every dwarf at stake?

Good luck with that.

[137ben]

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Lord Fyre wrote:

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Exact words

I saw that as well, but I like that TriOmega who's avatar is the god of Chaotic Good is pointing out Lawful Evil loopholes for us.

Hey, just because he understands Lawful Evil, does not mean that he approves of it.

Said the True Neutral of the group.

;)

Okay, I'm missing the joke. How are you determining the forumites' alignments? Do you have Greater Scrying or something?

[Andostre]

137ben wrote:

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Lord Fyre wrote:

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Exact words

I saw that as well, but I like that TriOmega who's avatar is the god of Chaotic Good is pointing out Lawful Evil loopholes for us.

Hey, just because he understands Lawful Evil, does not mean that he approves of it.

Said the True Neutral of the group.

;)

Okay, I'm missing the joke. How are you determining the forumites' alignments? Do you have Greater Scrying or something?

I think their avatars are Golarion deities with those alignments.

[Andostre]

Okay, open question: How would Xykon feel about Hel's plan?

[137ben]

Andostre wrote:

Okay, open question: How would Xykon feel about Hel's plan?

Probably bad.

A world that's been destroyed can never be conquered by Xykon.
The creatures currently in the world would all go to their afterlives, and we already heard Xykon's opinion on that:
Be a vampire or a ghost, or an immortal with a paint-by-numbers portrait in the rec room. Hell, even a brain in a jar in a pinch. Anything to avoid the Big Fire Below.

[137ben]

Andostre wrote:

I think their avatars are Golarion deities with those alignments.

Thanks, that explains why I didn't get it.

[The Raven Black]

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Dragoncat wrote:

Who says Durkula is going to teleport away?

He's got a subordinate who isn't bound by Godsmoot rules right next to him.

** spoiler omitted **

Which likely means that Durkula will not be able to cross back this way either. And that might just doom the whole Hel's plan in the end ;-)

BTW, once again, we see the Gontor-spawn giving crucial info to the Oots without seeming to.

[baron arem heshvaun]

Actually what are Xykon and Co. doing just about now?

[Alex Martin]

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Actually what are Xykon and Co. doing just about now?

Shhh, don't tempt him! Rich might decide to cut away from the current crisis and give us some villain filler updates. I don't think I can take it if he does.

[Lord Fyre]

Alex Martin wrote:

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Actually what are Xykon and Co. doing just about now?

Shhh, don't tempt him! Rich might decide to cut away from the current crisis and give us some villain filler updates. I don't think I can take it if he does.

Actually, plotwise this is an opportune time.

[Andostre]

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Actually what are Xykon and Co. doing just about now?

Very possibly something related to this:

137ben wrote:

Andostre wrote:

Okay, open question: How would Xykon feel about Hel's plan?

Probably bad.

A world that's been destroyed can never be conquered by Xykon.
The creatures currently in the world would all go to their afterlives, and we already heard Xykon's opinion on that:
Be a vampire or a ghost, or an immortal with a paint-by-numbers portrait in the rec room. Hell, even a brain in a jar in a pinch. Anything to avoid the Big Fire Below.

The Dark One has will surely find out about Hel's plan, right?

[baron arem heshvaun]

Lord Fyre wrote:

Alex Martin wrote:

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Actually what are Xykon and Co. doing just about now?

Shhh, don't tempt him! Rich might decide to cut away from the current crisis and give us some villain filler updates. I don't think I can take it if he does.

Actually, plotwise this is an opportune time.

It's always an opportune time for The Dark Side Team Evil.

[MannyGoblin]

The other gods don't give a darn about The Dark One, it fits into his role as god of the races created to be killed for XP.

[The Raven Black]

Just noticed that the spawn did cross the Antilife shell to bring the orb to Durkula.

"Nothing that's still alive" indeed :-)

[baron arem heshvaun]

Let us send our Communal Will into the Comic Ethereal and wish the Giant gift us a new comic this Holiday week.

[Aberzombie]

Good lord! Will this plot line never end?

Spoiler:

I'm just going to start cheering for Vampire "Durkon" and his new army of blood suckers. If they win, the series will end.

[Imbicatus]

Well, it looks like he did have enough juice to turn everyone. Still, I think Roy should be able to whirlwind attack a bunch of underlevel spawn with his nice green sword.

[Hitdice]

Anyone else starting to think the oracle's prophecy of Belkar ceasing breathing permanently might mean that he'll get vamped? Of course, having never rejected all the negativity and evil in his heart, he'll probably remain exactly the same.

[Imbicatus]

Maybe the prophesy just meant Belkar would get a necklace of adaptation. He could have picked it up with the ring of feather fall.

[Dragoncat]

Okay, honest question here--is this going on longer than Tarquin's arc? Because it certainly feels like it is.

[137ben]

1017: Personnel Changes

[137ben]

Aberzombie wrote:

Good lord! Will this plot line never end?

** spoiler omitted **

Dragoncat wrote:

Okay, honest question here--is this going on longer than Tarquin's arc? Because it certainly feels like it is.

The last strip of book 5 was 946. We have now had 71 strips in book six. Were book six to end now, it would be the shortest book in terms of number of strips. DCF is the next shortest (121 strips). Books 2, 3, and 4 all have more than twice as many strips as book six currently does, and book 5 is more than three times as long. All of what I just wrote can be obtained in a couple of minutes by looking at the strip numbers in the archives.

You could also ask how long each book is in terms of number of pages, since some strips have more than one page. That is something that would take more than a few seconds to check, since the OOTS archive doesn't helpfully provide page counts the way it does for strips. Fortunately, some people spend a lot more time tabulating OOTS related statistics than I do:)
As of strip 1017, book six has had 98 online pages, shorter than DCF (122 and a half pages, due to strip 50 being 1.5 pages), and much shorter than BRiF (320 pages).

EDIT: Or, as the Giant recently said

Rich Burlew wrote:

The reason that this scene is not the climactic pay-off that everyone seems to be looking for is because this is not the climax of this story. This is the beginning of this story. The point of this scene was to elucidate the stakes for the rest of this plotline and set up the conflict, so complaining that it does not resolve said conflict is completely missing the point.

This is the equivalent of the scene where Tarquin stands on the balcony and tells Elan about how he's schemed to bring three nations under his control and how they're going to have a great duel someday, and Elan looks on in horror at the giant flaming letters. Which, if you'll remember, occurred one-third of the way through the last book, about where we are now. In both cases, the point of the scene was to get the heroes on board with the conflict that would form the main body of the book. Because, as I intimated in the main discussion thread: This "Durkon stuff" is the main plot. If the only plotline that matters to you is what happens with Xykon, then yes, I would expect that the next year or two are going to be rough for you. But there's a long ways to go on this book, and it will have direct and unskippable ramifications on everything that will happen in the final book. The plot of OOTS is saving the world, and the world needs saving in this way right now.

[Andostre]

137ben wrote:

The last strip of book 5 was 946. We have now had 71 strips in book six. Were book six to end now, it would be the shortest book in terms of number of strips. DCF is the next shortest (121 strips). Books 2, 3, and 4 all have more than twice as many strips as book six currently does, and book 5 is more than three times as long. All of what I just wrote can be obtained in a couple of minutes by looking at the strip numbers in the archives.

Nobody in this thread is asking how many existing strips will be in book six, nor anything related to the length of any of the hardcopy books. It's more of a general complaint about how long this current plot line has been going on. The general consensus of the detractors is that we're ready to see the story advance to a different scene.

[Kobold Catgirl]

Fun fact: Any vampire not currently High Priest is open game for the other clerics and bodyguards to start firing on, technically speaking.

[Imbicatus]

I also doubt Durkula bothered to cast protective penumbra on all of them. Opening a window could hardly be considered an attack, even if it were to expose the current High Priest of Hel to sunlight.

[Kobold Catgirl]

The irony: Wasn't it the worshiper of the sun god who refused to allow attacks against Durkula?

[Orthos]

Andostre wrote:

137ben wrote:

The last strip of book 5 was 946. We have now had 71 strips in book six. Were book six to end now, it would be the shortest book in terms of number of strips. DCF is the next shortest (121 strips). Books 2, 3, and 4 all have more than twice as many strips as book six currently does, and book 5 is more than three times as long. All of what I just wrote can be obtained in a couple of minutes by looking at the strip numbers in the archives.

Nobody in this thread is asking how many existing strips will be in book six, nor anything related to the length of any of the hardcopy books. It's more of a general complaint about how long this current plot line has been going on. The general consensus of the detractors is that we're ready to see the story advance to a different scene.

According to the quote from Rich posted in via Edit above, you might want to take the next year off the comic, then.

[Kobold Catgirl]

So there's an error in the blast mark in Panel Four—the top of it got clipped.

I think we can all tell what's going to happen next. Durkula will make it to Durkon's homeland and fulfill the prophecy, but they will stop him from passing the vote and the world will be saved.

[Hitdice]

Imbicatus wrote:

I also doubt Durkula bothered to cast protective penumbra on all of them. Opening a window could hardly be considered an attack, even if it were to expose the current High Priest of Hel to sunlight.

I'm just very curious about this new High Priest of Hel. Durkula is so indifferent about about the individual he chooses that I'm hoping it's going to be a low level cleric that Roy can wreck in a single round, even with the vamp template, voiding the vote. Then again, Burlew has disappointed my expectations many times before.

. . .

I mean, I enjoyed those strips, they just didn't the way I'd anticipated, you know?

[John Woodford]

I don't know about anyone else, but the reason why I have some sympathy for the folks who think this is dragging on too long isn't because I want to get back to Xykon.

It's because I want Durkon back now, and it's a mark of Rich's skill as a storyteller that I care that much about a short stick figure with a beard. And a hammer. Can't forget the hammer.

[Aberzombie]

Andostre wrote:

137ben wrote:

The last strip of book 5 was 946. We have now had 71 strips in book six. Were book six to end now, it would be the shortest book in terms of number of strips. DCF is the next shortest (121 strips). Books 2, 3, and 4 all have more than twice as many strips as book six currently does, and book 5 is more than three times as long. All of what I just wrote can be obtained in a couple of minutes by looking at the strip numbers in the archives.

Nobody in this thread is asking how many existing strips will be in book six, nor anything related to the length of any of the hardcopy books. It's more of a general complaint about how long this current plot line has been going on. The general consensus of the detractors is that we're ready to see the story advance to a different scene.

Indeed. Although my answer would have probably gone something along the lines of "I could give two f+&~s less how many strips make up a book". To me, the story is dragging ass and getting s~@+ ass boring.

[Sharoth]

Aberzombie wrote:

Andostre wrote:

137ben wrote:

The last strip of book 5 was 946. We have now had 71 strips in book six. Were book six to end now, it would be the shortest book in terms of number of strips. DCF is the next shortest (121 strips). Books 2, 3, and 4 all have more than twice as many strips as book six currently does, and book 5 is more than three times as long. All of what I just wrote can be obtained in a couple of minutes by looking at the strip numbers in the archives.

Nobody in this thread is asking how many existing strips will be in book six, nor anything related to the length of any of the hardcopy books. It's more of a general complaint about how long this current plot line has been going on. The general consensus of the detractors is that we're ready to see the story advance to a different scene.

Indeed. Although my answer would have probably gone something along the lines of "I could give two f*#!s less how many strips make up a book". To me, the story is dragging ass and getting s#*@ ass boring.

~shakes my head~ That does it Aberzombie. You are undead to me now.

[The Raven Black]

Various points on the various topics.

If Rich needed to explain that this was not the final confrontation we were all expecting, then he is far too good at setting up high expectations for this kind of scene.

I guess that the vampires will all get into the Antilife shell. And the current HPoH will definitely do so. With the next in line not far behind, just in case.

Trying to get sunlight on a vampire is attacking it. Same as setting a human on fire. You might want to pass it off as making them warm, but no one will be fooled ;-)

Roy cannot attack the new HPoH because he is not its bodyguard. Come to think of it, since Roy is not a representative's bodyguard anymore, he is not allowed inside and should leave the Godsmoot at once.

The other vampires are likely the bodyguards of the new HPoH (prove otherwise), and thus somewhat protected by the Godsmoot's rules.

[Fromper]

I thought they were only allowed one bodyguard.