New Order of the Stick Strip Up

[Fromper]

Well, it was pretty obvious from #984 that Durkula knew a cleric would be passing through the gnome city, and he wanted to find them. Now we know a little more about who they are, though the details are still sketchy.

[137ben]

It occurs to me that a blind-folded cleric is less likely to fall victim to HPoH's gaze domination. Which could matter if they are at all like the cleric from the end of 968.

[Itchy]

986: Inn Doubt

Rich is cranking out the comics. The elven cleric is ditzy. There are no dumplings. It's very sad, how dumpling free this strip was. I want to see more dumplings in future strips.

[Drejk]

Itchy wrote:

986: Inn Doubt

Rich is cranking out the comics. The elven cleric is ditzy. There are no dumplings. It's very sad, how dumpling free this strip was. I want to see more dumplings in future strips.

Well, that makes an opening to see more of Belkar's amazing skills in action.

[Spiral_Ninja]

So...is that Belkar's paper hat...or a paper hat shaped like Belkar?

[Alex Martin]

I was greatly amused by the inn's tagline: "Human-sized rooms at normal-sized prices!"

[137ben]

Veldrina is the kickstarter-cameo, while Wrecan is also a forumite.

I felt sad when I saw the name Wrecan--
Wrecan was a long-time forumite who died a couple years ago from heart failure. He maintained the "number of character appearances" thread on the OOTS forum for seven years.

In spite of being 'cameos', both the Veldrina and Wrecan characters will be sticking around for awhile.

[The black raven]

When overly frustrated, undead in Oots have a tendency to insult mortals by referring to exactly the features the undead themselves are lacking :

Durkula "you pulsing bloodsack" in 985.

Xykon "you sickening pouches of warm goo" in 661.

I wonder if it shows an envy (veiled by scorn) of what the living mortals are and have.

And I am now left wondering whether Liches follow the same "inhabited by an evil spirit" case as Vampires do.

Not that the mortal Xykon was a goody-two-shoes to begin with, mind you (as seen in Start of Darkness).

[Orthos]

I would lean to no, primarily because lichdom is a (usually) voluntary metamorphosis, so I presume they'd keep their own intellect and will post-transformation.

[Andostre]

137ben wrote:

Veldrina is the kickstarter-cameo, while Wrecan is also a forumite.

I felt sad when I saw the name Wrecan--
Wrecan was a long-time forumite who died a couple years ago from heart failure. He maintained the "number of character appearances" thread on the OOTS forum for seven years.

In spite of being 'cameos', both the Veldrina and Wrecan characters will be sticking around for awhile.

That's awesome.

[John Woodford]

137ben wrote:

I felt sad when I saw the name Wrecan--
Wrecan was a long-time forumite who died a couple years ago from heart failure. He maintained the "number of character appearances" thread on the OOTS forum for seven years.

In the larger scheme of things this may not matter a whole lot, but it always makes me sad when a big fan of an ongoing work dies before the work is done. Sometimes the creator does a solid in those cases--I remember Mercedes Lackey overnighting a manuscript copy of her latest book to an acquaintance of mine many years ago when the acquaintance was dying of cancer; other friends read the manuscript to her, though I don't know if they got through it in time. It was still a good thing for Lackey to do.

[Caineach]

The black raven wrote:

When overly frustrated, undead in Oots have a tendency to insult mortals by referring to exactly the features the undead themselves are lacking :

Durkula "you pulsing bloodsack" in 985.

Xykon "you sickening pouches of warm goo" in 661.

I wonder if it shows an envy (veiled by scorn) of what the living mortals are and have.

And I am now left wondering whether Liches follow the same "inhabited by an evil spirit" case as Vampires do.

Not that the mortal Xykon was a goody-two-shoes to begin with, mind you (as seen in Start of Darkness).

Or it is because the undead have transcended beyond those things and look down on those without.

[Tacticslion]

Yes. I'd say both are correct. :)

[Dragonchess Player]

After all, people always feel better when they think it's their own idea...

That was pretty subtle.

[Drejk]

At first I was surprised when she started to speak about technicalities suggesting high Intelligence. The favored soul explained it - her Wisdom is the actual cause.

Also, I play favored soul to avoid hassle of preparing spells every day too :P

[Drejk]

Anyway, Durkula wasted time... If he knew the location he could just say that he received sending from high priest with the information and coordinates and convince the party to go to get help in their mission... Sense Motive isn't the party's strong suit, vampires get a racial bonus, and Roy wants to believe him anyway.

[Fromper]

Drejk wrote:

Anyway, Durkula wasted time... If he knew the location he could just say that he received sending from high priest with the information and coordinates and convince the party to go to get help in their mission... Sense Motive isn't the party's strong suit, vampires get a racial bonus, and Roy wants to believe him anyway.

Roy would have bought it, but Belkar's already suspicious, and Haley's constantly telling everyone else to grow a Sense Motive, so I think she might have been suspicious, too. With someone other than Belkar calling him out on it, that might have been enough to make Roy and V stop and wonder, instead of just playing along.

By Durkula leaving himself completely out of the equation for how Roy found out, it's far more subtle and easily successful.

[Dal Selpher]

Fromper wrote:

By Durkula leaving himself completely out of the equation for how Roy found out, it's far more subtle and easily successful.

It also just plain makes for a better story.

[137ben]

Fromper wrote:

Roy would have bought it, but Belkar's already suspicious, and Haley's constantly telling everyone else to grow a Sense Motive, so I think she might have been suspicious, too. With someone other than Belkar calling him out on it, that might have been enough to make Roy and V stop and wonder, instead of just playing along.

By Durkula leaving himself completely out of the equation for how Roy found out, it's far more subtle and easily successful.

My thoughts exactly.

The black raven wrote:

When overly frustrated, undead in Oots have a tendency to insult mortals by referring to exactly the features the undead themselves are lacking :

Durkula "you pulsing bloodsack" in 985.

Xykon "you sickening pouches of warm goo" in 661.

I wonder if it shows an envy (veiled by scorn) of what the living mortals are and have.

Hmm, interesting point. The one thing we know Xykon is jealous of mortals over is their ability to taste coffee. But that might not be the only thing.

Quote:

And I am now left wondering whether Liches follow the same "inhabited by an evil spirit" case as Vampires do.

Not that the mortal Xykon was a goody-two-shoes to begin with, mind you (as seen in Start of Darkness).

I doubt it, for a few reasons:

1. The aforementioned coffee debacle. A negative energy spirit unrelated to Xykon would never have tasted coffee to begin with, and wouldn't be upset at not being able to.
2. There was very little change in Xykon's personality after lich-ification. He became harder for Redcloak to influence, but that is just as easily attributable to him becoming more powerful as a lich than as a human. He spent more time torturing/killing goblins, but that could just be because he could no longer do the other two things he enjoyed (drinking coffee and sleeping).

3. The Blood Oath. Xykon killed Fyron as a human. If lich Xykon were totally separate from human Xykon, then human Xykon would already have been destroyed once and for all. Yet Eugene still can't get into the afterlife. Maybe it didn't count due to Lirian being the one to kill Xykon, but then that would mean the Oath is now impossible to fulfill. That doesn't seem likely.

[137ben]

988: Much less swordfighting

[Itchy]

Andi and Captain Bandana don't seem to be getting along...

[The black raven]

Felix reminded me very strongly of Cinna (played by Lenny Kravitz) in Hunger Games.

Even a glorified tailor can become a hero after all.

[baron arem heshvaun]

More NPC panel filler.

[Drejk]

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

More NPC panel filler.

"hiss!" "mrrrrrwwww!"

"I think I got a defective tiger"

"Does that trick work on elves? Asking for a friend."

:D

[Orthos]

Wrecan's shield looks like a giant button, especially in panel 3 where... I'm not really sure exactly what he's supposed to be doing with it there.

[thejeff]

Orthos wrote:

Wrecan's shield looks like a giant button, especially in panel 3 where... I'm not really sure exactly what he's supposed to be doing with it there.

That does seem wrong. Every other shot he's got it strapped to his back. Shield probably would look like that from behind, but he's facing us.

[Itchy]

Orthos wrote:

Wrecan's shield looks like a giant button, especially in panel 3 where... I'm not really sure exactly what he's supposed to be doing with it there.

Yes, it does look like a giant button! Maybe he's looking over his shoulder in that panel?

Perhaps the person the character is based up used a button as a mini's shield (that's a REALLY good idea!) then carried that over into his GitP avatar?

[ulgulanoth]

That cat man, must be an animal companion :P

[The black raven]

As if there ever was a doubt about who really calls the shots :-))

Good one about "Dusted himself" BTW. I enjoy Belkar's vampiric puns.

[Fromper]

Yeah, he's definitely turning his head around to look over his shoulder, and the shield is still strapped to his back. Compare to the previous panel, where he's standing behind the tiger, facing the the ship.

And yeah, that cat does seem to be an animal companion these days, while the tiger is just a pet.

[The black raven]

Fromper wrote:

And yeah, that cat does seem to be an animal companion these days, while the tiger is just a pet.

The cat stayed Small when it came time to advance then. No wonder a 1st-level commoner had zero chance against it.

That reminds me that there is still a smallish Lizard around unless I am mistaken ;-)

[baron arem heshvaun]

ulgulanoth wrote:

That cat man, must be an animal companion

I always thought that was the case.

[Chris Mortika]

We are aproaching Strip #1000.

[137ben]

Chris Mortika wrote:

We are aproaching Strip #1000.

Nope! The OOTS characters have three fingers on each hand. Hence, to them, strip 1000 was all the way back here.

Although, they MIGHT have thumbs, so strip 1000 might have been here (if they have a thumb on each hand), or here (if they have a thumb on only one hand.)

[baron arem heshvaun]

[thumbs up]

[meaning I stab you upward through the heart]

[Tacticslion]

137ben wrote:

Chris Mortika wrote:

We are aproaching Strip #1000.

Nope! The OOTS characters have three fingers on each hand. Hence, to them,

I'mma let you finish, but let me stop you right here.

Chris Mortika wrote:

We are

137ben wrote:

to them,

WELP. :I

[Itchy]

The black raven wrote:

Fromper wrote:

And yeah, that cat does seem to be an animal companion these days, while the tiger is just a pet.

The cat stayed Small when it came time to advance then. No wonder a 1st-level commoner had zero chance against it.

That reminds me that there is still a smallish Lizard around unless I am mistaken ;-)

Mr. Scruffy (the cat) has been Belkar's Animal Companion since it joined the party.

The lizard is Bloodfeast The Extreme-inator, having been Baleful Polymorphed into a lizard. Interstingly, there have been two castings of Baleful Polymorph, both have resulted in a lizard.

[baron arem heshvaun]

The limits of cognitive abdominal speculation.

[Drejk]

"My gut is smarter than his gut!"

[ElterAgo]

"It would appear you are of two guts on the matter."

[Lord Fyre]

"Miss Starshine apparently leveled today without our participation."

[137ben]

I suspect that Roy's actual gut instinct(s), whether he wants to admit it or not, is to distrust HPoH. However, he also doesn't want to admit that Durkon is dead, hence his desire to trust HPoH in spite of his true instinctual reaction. Thus, his actual gut instinct is to distrust HPoH, but he is telling himself that his gut instinct is the opposite of what it really is.

[The black raven]

Actually, I feel that his gut instinct is to trust Belkar's own gut instinct. But that goes against pretty much every habit Roy had concerning Belkar.

After all, who can expect the LG guy to trust the CE one based on nothing else than gut feelings ?

[Drejk]

Especially when for the CE character in question "gut feeling" normally would mean ripping guts off of enemies more than intuition... An ability governed by a Wisdom score, which happens to be Belkar's dump stat by the way.

[Alex Martin]

It just seems like there is building a case that despite that vampire Durkon (and by extension the readers' awareness) is deceiving the party to the point that there's no logical reason to suspect him. But, the characters still have a general distrust that may help them when the storyline comes to fruition.

I don't think they will stop/discover vampire Durkon's true motives until we get to this meeting - the point looks to be to build us up to that moment. Rather, maybe the result will be that the Order will be able to thwart the plot, not by sheer luck or whimsy as they have sometimes been able to do in the past (or sometimes not given what happened at Azure City). But by taking their experience and general sense of suspicion and be able it use that. I mean, isn't that a good way of showing that these characters' level have increased as much as by adding more spells or abilities?

I also can't help but wonder if this Godsmoot is possibly a way to shed more light on what's going on with the tears, the Snarl, and generally the meta plot in way that adds or explains what we have seen so far. Stuff that generally seems to contradict what both characters and we the readers have been told until now.

[Itchy]

137ben wrote:

I suspect that Roy's actual gut instinct(s), whether he wants to admit it or not, is to distrust HPoH. However, he also doesn't want to admit that Durkon is dead, hence his desire to trust HPoH in spite of his true instinctual reaction. Thus, his actual gut instinct is to distrust HPoH, but he is telling himself that his gut instinct is the opposite of what it really is.

HPoH. I've seen this acronym used before. I know it points to "Vampire Durkon," but what does it stand for?

High Priest of Hel?

[Alex Martin]

Itchy wrote:

HPoH. I've seen this acronym used before. I know it points to "Vampire Durkon," but what does it stand for?

High Priest of Hel?

That was my assumption as well.

[The black raven]

I am not sure that the Godsmoot, likely convened in utter urgency because of the destruction of several Gates, will give the warmest welcome to the very adventurers who caused it / were unable to prevent it.

IIRC, Hel wants to take advantage of the Godsmoot to hurt/embarass Odin and Thor.

Maybe she wants all Gods to know that these two let their high priests send Durkon out in the world where he actively contributed to the current catastrophic situation.

All because of the dark prophecy of his return which is now coming true, "posthumously".

[Taliesin Hoyle]

Itchy wrote:

HPoH. I've seen this acronym used before. I know it points to "Vampire Durkon," but what does it stand for?

High Priest of Hel?

Hairy Priest on Haemoglobin

[Shadowborn]

I'll just stick with Durkula.