New comic is up.
And before anyone says anything:
SpoilerYes, I know Keoghtum's Ointment doesn't normally remove deafness. That's why this is Extra Strength. :smalltongue:
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New comic is up.
And before anyone says anything:
SpoilerYes, I know Keoghtum's Ointment doesn't normally remove deafness. That's why this is Extra Strength. :smalltongue:
Nothing better to make my day after week of flu. Awesome as always :smallbiggrin:
There's something about smiling Zz'dtri that so gosh darn adorable.
I love it when these get meta. Seriously, when's the last time a group of good guys just did a great job and WON a fight?
My friends roll their eyes at me when I treat this comic like literature, but I love it when Giant screws around with narrative conventions.
This is the same reason people love Joss Whedon - defying convention in ways that make the story better.
Aww.
My dad refers to me as "my idiot son" all the time. So touching.
I roared with laughter when I read the "Inactive Ingredients" part. :smallbiggrin:
Thanks, Giant!
If Malack is in the room with all the corpses, my first guess would be that he's going to make more undead, but, what would he do with more undead? Maybe we will get to find out what else his staff does soon.
Haha!
Poor Elan.
The fight was made too easy.
Overshadowed by the cleric.
The tiers list strikes again!
So that's what Elan was going to do. Poor guy.
First the Order succeeds in rescuing V without his dramatic conventions, and now this? It's almost as if they've accumulated experience from their adventures, and have evolved into a talented, capable adventuring party.
EDIT: Is anyone else excited by the idea of Tarquin with a whip? Referring to his combat abilities of course, not any disturbing long-term daddy issues.
Huh. I just yesterday got my hands on the sourcebook Dungeonscape, which Rich co-authored, where I read a list of dungeon item packages, which included this "Keoghtum's ointment". But I could not discover where it was from. Couldn't find it in the DMG. Does anyone know? Strange to see it resurface here...
EDIT: Actually, now I discovered that this is the same as Restorative Ointment, just with a cooler name...
2nd EDIT: And now I found out about Keoghtum too: "And Keoghtom is a quasi-deity of Oerth, detailed in the 1983 World of Greyhawk set and featuring in Gary Gygax's Gord novels as Lord Keogh." (from Candlekeep forum).
3rd EDIT: So, I guess this might be called the second time (that I discovered) where Rich draws on his sourcebook, then, the other being the acidborn shark.
But now that I actually own a copy of the Dungeonscape book, I'll certainly look more closelier to see other instances where it's referenced in the OOTS!
Hey, in the first panel you can see Girard's Pyramid in the background. Nice touch. :smallbiggrin:
I am, and I've now got this image in my head of Tarquin swinging the whip around Indiana Jones-style... :smalltongue:
Also, I agree that Zz'dtri smiling like that is pretty neat. :smallsmile:
I thought so too! He's all smiling and happy to be healed. Then I was a little weirded out by my own reaction. I wonder if it's a sign Tarquin has endeared himself to the guy a little. I mean, not like that, but that he's preferring Tarquin's leadership style to Nale's, and will wind up siding with him over his son if it comes to that. But in any case, it did just seem oddly cute to me.
That must be the best medicinal product ever made, mainly because of the directions.
There's one major flaw with Roy's plan, which was Durkon was surrounded by the enemy, included a really good fighter. How would Durkon escape?
I love how this thread was posted right before the evening backups.
My roommate and I have been puzzling for weeks what Elan was going to do. This was way better than any of my theories.
That ointment description is so full of awesome :smallbiggrin:
I foresee some Indiana Jones-themed jokes...
It looks like Tarquin's axe was not recallable. So who gets to use it? Durkon would be the obvious choice, since he's the only one without a magically enhanced weapon (not counting V, of course).
Nale's bastard sword (I think that's what it is) was also left behind. Roy should keep it as a backup weapon (don't want to see him reduced to using a club again). That would give everyone (except V) two weapons.
The duration is 10 minutes/level: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/meldIntoStone.htm
But, according to the text, "When the casting is complete, you and not more than 100 pounds of nonliving gear merge with the stone." The spell "enables you to meld your body and possessions into a single block of stone". And "The stone must be large enough to accommodate your body in all three dimensions."
It seems to me that when casting the spell, you must designate a fitting stone, and meld into that stone and remain in it. It's not like you gain incorporality and can move about in solid walls, or out of/into stone material.
Active ingredient : magic is pretty hilarious!
I think I know who is goinv to end up with Tarquin's Axe!
SpoilerThog!
Of the sausage variety :elan: priceless!
(re)treat and regroup...:smallwink:
Nice strip. Happy drow is surpising and a bit creepy. So he can feel happyness, even in such a fleeting manner ?
And loved the "make it believable" line answering the "but then we won". Priceless. XD
Liked the strip. I hope there were a sufficient amount of things going imperfectly for Tarquin to mollify his haters. Personally I think he seems like the right sort of level of competant and threatening for the order to really learn something from facing him without it seeming like a hopeless mismatch (though I do suspect it'll be Xykon that knocks Tarquin down in this arc).
I sure could have used some Keoghtum's Ointment a week ago, I had a terrible flu. It probably would have helped also to some long-term medical conditions. Hey, if it cures cancer, it can probably deal with a migraine and asthma.
Now all we need to do is to mass-produce the ointment. Of course, getting the hearts of the virgins (taken on their wedding night) might be slightly problematic. Maybe we could replace it with Virgin Oil taken from some chef's kitchen?
I laughed at the "Cleric-in-a-can" statement. Good comic.
Depends on the cancer... skin cancer is easy, lung cancer you have to aerosolize it.
Boulder Trap? Definite Possibility.
Snakes? Rats? Or some other fear for Tarquin (how about Roy pulls out the Bag of Tricks and lets loos the... um... Squirrels? Beavers? Mongooses... Mongeese... what is the plural of Mongoose... well... whatever... the good counterpart to Snakes)? Why not.
But in Halfling Ehlonna is spelled with an Y... or was it in Elvish Ehlonna is spelled with an A... Wait, in Dwarvish it is spelled with a Belch... what the heck letter is a Belch? Hmm, okay might be too tricky a joke and too obscure a reference.
My only issue is... Rich is making fun of himself via the demon roaches by calling himself a hack in the Acid Breathing Shark scene. Otherwise, why the heck not reference his own source material?
71% Magic, that's a lot of magic...
I wonder if it comes in unscented, or with alternative ingredients... cause the fragrance or petroleum jelly could cause some allergic reactions, and what if the heart from the virgin on his/her wedding night isn't O- Bloodtype... or a different species... there could be rejection issues. Well, I guess if those are complications... add more ointment as per the directions... right?
Awesome picture... sad that no one can get a new one with him unless they do photoshop (or GIMP, or some other alternative image editor) it. Thanks for sharing it.
Hey, anyone know where we can find a Cleric who can due True Resurrection... and a big Diamond? We could bring back Gygax...
I think it is less happiness and more relief. Try depriving yourself of sight and read a few comics, or go listen to your favorite CD muted with headphones on so you hear nothing from it nor even your own breathing... do this for... 5 or 10 minutes... don't pretend, really try reading without sight or listening without hearing, have someone else keep track of the time, tell them to return after 10 or more minutes... stipulate they can wait longer (this is even better if you have a mischievous friend, as they may really make you wait a while, or even leave), and keep trying until they return, and see how relieved your are when you're allowed to see or hear again (obviously if you have the mischievous friend, that could be days, at which pint you'll be really relieved to get your sense back, and royally angry with your so called friend... also a good way to gauge how good a friend they are).
As for Elan, I feel bad, cause he's genre savvy enough to know he got left out, meanwhile I think it is great that Tarquin thinks of Nale as the idiot while thinking Elan is a real threat... though it does seem that Tarquin realizes that Elan is not the leader and knows Roy is in charge (or at least thinks Elan is the leader, but thinks Elan was smart enough to differ to Roy's tactical expertise and let Roy field command).
This is the first time Tarquin has acknowleged alignments, and he also refered to a group he is part of as "evil."
There seems to be a typo in panel 9: ‘tissure paper’ for ‘tissue paper’.
I know ‘tissure’ is French for texture, but it doesn't seem right… unless the Giant was making a very indirect stab at the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” stereotype.
Looking for (re)group ? But where's Richard ?
not that I am a huge Nale fan and all, but it seems like Tarquin is being a bit tough on him. dude gets hit with a death trap, riddled with arrows, and then ambushed by Ceiling Belkar. thats a lot of damage in a couple of rounds.
Nales deserves worse than what he just got.
how much worse can you get then getting repeatedly shanked by Ceiling Belkar who actually, through genetics, has a primary strike zone of ball level?
Elan: "If you´re going to fib, Roy, at least make it belivable"
Hohoho has Elan just made a Level up and spend a point in Wisdom :smallbiggrin:
Does anyone else see Nale's list of allies growing smaller and smaller? Not only is Sabine gone, but I've never been that clear on why Zz'dtri followed Nale, but as a smart Drow, I have to imagine he can tell how much better a leader Tarquin is, and one that helps heal him to boot.
That is so going into my quote list. I'll have to remember that the next time I play a Dwarf.
Anyway, Tarquin could be making fun of the fact that he got his arse pretty solidly handed to him by a Halfling with a racial strength penalty, a small weapon penalty, and a mild tactical disadvantage (He couldn't hear, so Elan could have held him off quite deftly with some kind of sight-blocking spell or even just ducking deeper into the smoke) and a suboptimal class combination, since it really didn't seem like Belkar was raging. All while he single-handedly dealt with the one factor that had shut down the entire group.
Of course, he could also be calling him an idiot son because Elan actually remembered to get him something for Evil Tyrant day, while Nale tried to invade with three woodchucks, Thog on rocket boots, and a Kobold that had three levels of Bard.
I liked this strip, as well as the fact that Tarquin was shown to be capable of human error in order to quell the criticism that he seemed impossibly knowledgeable.
I'd never heard of Keoghtom's ointment before. There's no indication that it's an evil item requiring the heart of a virgin. I suppose that's humor, and perhaps an alternate recipe which Tarquin got from Evil Pharmacy, Inc.
As expected, Tarquin proves to be the Adam-West style Batman hero, who's got something for every occasion on a utility belt. Which may explain why he's stayed alive so long and reached such high levels.
*Chuckle* But he still doesn't understand that Elan experience great competence swings. When he got his level in dashing swordsman, he proved quite effective. But now that he's back with Roy he's reverted to being useless. It's almost like Roy infantilizes him some how.
And of course the last panel brings the funny :). Here's hoping Elan can prove more useful in the near future.
ETA: The result of this encounter is that the LG is deprived of Sabine for 24 hours, just as the OOTS has been temporarily deprived of Vaarsuvius. So for the next 24 hours, they will encounter each other at near parity.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
:smallwink: I see what you did there, giant. Great comic.
Thanks Giant!
Well at least Tarquin didn't try to believe Elan planned the entire ambush...
He has to agree Roy is keeping his word by protecting Elan though I am wondering how long before Nale actually points out whose actually leading Elan's group of course there is an odd chance he doesn't know... nah!
Once again I wonder what Tarquin's reaction will be once he is shown that Elan is not the great super-warrior he wants him to be. He seems to go to great lengths to ignore that fact. Certainly Nale realize's his father's naivety about it.
Ok, now they're literally dragging kilkil around behind them. I'm SURE he's destined for something. Mentioned it once, calling it now: Kilkil kills Belkar.