| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Roy is bodyguard to the High Priest of Hel. There's no rules saying his job is voided when the role changes hands.
Also, Antilife Shell is centered on the caster. It goes away when Durkula does.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ah, here we go.
The first [rule] that matters is that a cleric attending can only have TWO bodyguards accompany him or her onto the cathedral grounds.
So even if Roy did get "canceled", that would still only protect up to three vampires at once (including the "high priest"). And they'd have to declare themselves the bodyguards.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Durkula actually explicitly said that the hosts have absolutely no protections (hence his being able to vampify them to begin with).
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
~shakes my head~ That does it Aberzombie. You are undead to me now.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.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.
And you are........???
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah I'm really not sure how this plan is supposed to work. (Since pretty sure roy could just dust most the vamps including the new high priest once Durkon leaves) So does kinda feel like DBZ lvl's of padding here.
In fact everything from the last few pages has been a bit of how the heck does that work for me.
Also was I imagining things or was this not supposed to origonally be the last book (Curious since from what Rick has said there is this book and one more to go)
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Okay, time for some Hit Die math...
Create Spawn (Su): A vampire can create spawn out of those it slays with blood drain or energy drain, provided that the slain creature is of the same creature type as the vampire's base creature type. The victim rises from death as a vampire in 1d4 days. This vampire is under the command of the vampire that created it, and remains enslaved until its master's destruction. A vampire may have enslaved spawn totaling no more than twice its own Hit Dice; any spawn it creates that would exceed this limit become free-willed undead. A vampire may free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a vampire or vampire spawn cannot be enslaved again.
Assuming Durkon was 15th level when he got turned, we have 30 HD of vampire spawn to play with. We see 10 new vamp spawn in this comic, plus Big Hammer goliath and the Exarch. Assuming the Exarch was at least 10th level, we only have 20 HD to share between 11 Vampires. That's not too much against a high level fighter.
Granted he could have freed some of them, or the staff could be giving him extra HD, but per the base rules for vampires things aren't too bad.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
The church is a frontarchy. All they need to do to keep up a new high priest is have someone in front
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Also since the godsmoot rules only apply to at most 3 of the vampires couldent the room of priests and bodyguards not just wreak most of them?
I believe that would be considered unacceptable interference with the voting process. Same as what panel 1002 described.
They do not interfere with "internal church dispute".
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah I'm really not sure how this plan is supposed to work.Trust in Rich.
The man could play chess with Grand Admiral Thrawn.
He probably already has pieces in play right in front of us that we have not noticed.
I juts noticed a few loose ends related to this in the Gnome city strips. We should search for those now that we know this is far from the end of the Durkon story.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Crazy Theory: Mister Scruffy will perish dispatching the rat swarm, or Varsuvius will accidentally kill Scruffy while blasting the swarm to save their familiar. Belkar will die and refuse to come back simply because he knows the party won't choose to bring Mister Scruffy back and he'd rather stay in the afterlife with his cat.
Holes I currently count in this theory: 3, and the number keeps rising! Still, it sure would surprise people expecting Belkar to get undeadified.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Secondly, this post somewhat confounds me. You are complaining that the arc or scene has been going on too long but you don't care how long it is? What's that supposed to mean?
That "too long" in his complaint is not a quality measured by page numbers, but rather by his (personal) tolerance for the story arc and (personal) determination that it should or should not have concluded by now.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think he'd need to keep all those other vamps enslaved; not very many of them appear to be dwarves and if they aren't dwarves, they wouldn't be under Hel's domain in undeath.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
In the last panel, it appears that So Thirsty has made her way to the Antilife Shell, rather than attacking the first available living humanoid to drink their blood; interesting.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
*sigh*
And still no one is blasting Durkula and his primary minion when they are the greatest threat...
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
*sigh*
And still no one is blasting Durkula and his primary minion when they are the greatest threat...
Well, they are not unrelated vampires and did not attack an administrator.
Nice light show BTW. Reminds me of the War of Light. Quite appropriate for the season :-)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So awesome! So... cliffhangeryyyyy~!
(I know, I know... but still. Rich, man, you're an awesome story teller and a solid srtist, too. I just... it's just... wow. This thing is amazing. I've gotta have something. You know?)
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
In the last panel, it appears that So Thirsty has made her way to the Antilife Shell, rather than attacking the first available living humanoid to drink their blood; interesting.
Also she (if it really is a she, hard to tell) does not have the V eyebrows that so many of the other vampires have and that makes them look Evil. It makes her look more motivated by her thirst (and instinct for survival) rather than mere hatred and bloodlust. And she did not follow the new HPoH's command since she did not try and attack Roy.
I now wonder if, per a fluke in the transformation, she may be a Neutral vampire. Which could make things interesting if she becomes Hel's representative for lack of other surviving vampiric cultists. Especially if she is released from control later on ;-)
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Secondly, this post somewhat confounds me. You are complaining that the arc or scene has been going on too long but you don't care how long it is? What's that supposed to mean?That "too long" in his complaint is not a quality measured by page numbers, but rather by his (personal) tolerance for the story arc and (personal) determination that it should or should not have concluded by now.
I knew there was a reason I keep you on the List of People Never to be Eaten during the Zombiepocalypse!
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Honestly, this arc has been going by way too quickly. Rich needs to slow down on the story and draw it out. ~grins and runs from Aberzombie~
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Secondly, this post somewhat confounds me. You are complaining that the arc or scene has been going on too long but you don't care how long it is? What's that supposed to mean?That "too long" in his complaint is not a quality measured by page numbers, but rather by his (personal) tolerance for the story arc and (personal) determination that it should or should not have concluded by now.
To be fair, the worth of a story line and the amount of time/pages the author devotes to it are entirely different.
I offer as an example my manuscript for the 8th Harry Potter book -- Harry Potter and the Pastrami Sandwich, in which, over 1800 rollicking pages, Harry Potter, now an Auror in Training, goes to a newly opened Jewish deli in Diagon Alley and orders a pastrami sandwich.
In it, I explore a number of unresolved aspects of the Potterverse, such as
* why are there no Jewish wizards and witches?
* what's the difference between pastrami and corned beef?
* is marble rye or pumpernickel more magical?
* why can't you get a decent Reuben sandwich in a kosher deli?
and perhaps most importantly
* where do witches and wizards get their food, given that we never see magical famers?
At 1800 pages, that's just over twice the length of Order of the Phoenix, but I'm sure it's worth it to learn that Hermione doesn't like mustard, right?
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Honestly, this arc has been going by way too quickly. Rich needs to slow down on the story and draw it out. ~grins and runs from Aberzombie~
Oh, don't worry. You're already on the List of People to be Recruited into the Horde during the Zombiepocaylpse - fittingly, it's under the generic Everyone Else We Don't Eat.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Honestly, this arc has been going by way too quickly. Rich needs to slow down on the story and draw it out. ~grins and runs from Aberzombie~
I still think that Rich needs to cut away of follow Team Evil for a few strips. :)
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
The issue is not number of strips or quality of plot. It is his posting speed. Any plot that takes this long to resolve in terms of real time is a problem, and has me losing interest. That it is a plot with the fate of a loved character, and in many ways a diversion from the ongoing plots which are no closer to resolving, just makes it worse.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
The issue is not number of strips or quality of plot. It is his posting speed. Any plot that takes this long to resolve in terms of real time is a problem, and has me losing interest. That it is a plot with the fate of a loved character, and in many ways a diversion from the ongoing plots which are no closer to resolving, just makes it worse.
Yeah, it's not Burlew's fault or anything—this comic is just better-read archivally. Most plot-heavy webcomics are, in fact.
Hel's aiming for the end of the world. It's hard to pull that off from her position without getting pretty damn involved.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
At this point, I'm really leaning towards, "Belkar kills one of the demigod priests to break the tie and is perma-destroyed by the other clerics by law of the Godmoot."
I'm leaning toward the High Priestess of Odin being the one to disintegrate him.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Am I the only person who thinks this entire plan by Hel is somewhat convulouted?
Yes. I think I mentioned about 3 pages back that Hel's whole plan is extremely contrived to the point of ludicrous. If you want hand-waive author-fiat on this one, then I have to ask how extensive was Loki's "agreement" to limit Hel's power that she had to plan all these contingencies based on the notion that someday there would be a dwarven cleric who manages to become a vampire and not get killed?
I guess that's a lot of time on your hands to plan.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think there are two plans here: Hel's main one, and Durkula's additions to allow his attendance.
The plan to manage the tiebreaker vote basically came down to a bunch of plans we don't see. There was probably a plan for each Yes-voting demigod, or at least for a large number. Two matter here.
1. Hel persuaded Hermod to go with her by convincing him that the vote wouldn't actually go through—perhaps she was hoping he would be one of the first demigods to vote (so he wouldn't realize how many other demigods she'd convinced), or that he just wouldn't understand exactly how final his vote would be. Regardless, he waffled on her.
2. As a last resort, Dvalin could be controlled by getting someone in there to mind control the Council of Clans. Durkula planned to do this by taking advantage of the Creed (the Creed was a known vulnerability, and without them, this whole backup plan would fall to pieces). Durkula stated this part was his concoction, too—and that he could not have made it without the existence of the Teleport Orb. Though he probably exaggerated the latter portion to piss Roy off.
Of course Hel had to make this fairly complicated. She's a god planning the end of the world via bureaucracy. But when you get down to it, it's really not "ludicrous". The only rule she's really taking advantage of is "No take-backs", and she only used that to get away with gloating*. If no such rule had existed, she just wouldn't gloat, the vote would go through, and she would win.
Also, there was no extensive agreement to limit Hel's power. There was her wager with Thor (which appears to be the old "dishonored spirits go to her" rule) and the loophole that kept her out of the voting—namely, lacking a sufficiently high-level priest due to undead being at such a disadvantage in the Northern Pantheon. All she needed was a high-level cleric, dwarf or otherwise, to make her voice heard. She's had a long, long time to plan for this day (especially when you consider how time might pass differently for her). In fact, she probably guessed the mortal bindings would eventually fail the moment the Gates went up. They voted to leave the world be then. She's had time to study her fellow gods since and guess how they might vote if the time comes to choose again.
Hel did get pretty lucky with Durkon, though. She'd probably consigned herself to waiting out another hundred years or so. But the Order of the Stick is not often favored by fortune.
There really aren't that many moving parts to Hel's main plan. It's about as complex as your standard villain scheme—just with some sensible contingencies in case something goes wrong.
*Loki is a failure as a parent.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think there are two plans here: Hel's main one, and Durkula's additions to allow his attendance.
Also, there was no extensive agreement to limit Hel's power.
Fair enough explanation; I can see that approach. I would only disagree with the question of an agreement to block Hel's role. As she points out in 1000: "Your little scheme with Uncle Thor has done a fine job of excluding me from my place here..." seems to imply there was more going on with it - at least for some of the Northern Gods.
Also - the fact that Loki knows nothing about her manipulation of the demi-gods implies a level secrecy to circumvent the agreement and keep anyone more powerful out of it.(Sidebar - apparently the Northern Pantheon doesn't have much amicability for it's demi-gods given the dismissive attitude all the major clerics have).
That kind of indicates to me there's some kind of arrangement against expanding Hel's power. That's why I am concluding there such a level of Boolean planning in what she and Durkula have been doing.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I assumed it was Loki saying to Thor, "Listen, if she only gets undead, she'll never be able to get a high-level enough priest!" But that could be wrong.
The demigods, meanwhile, were easy to manage because their voices are clearly barely-heard in the current system. Hence it being remarked that the priests rarely even bother to show up. I get the sense that's a whole other issue—just one Hel took advantage of.