Erfworld 150 - tBfGK - 137

[ghost81]

Disturbingly beautiful strip.

I don't think the pliers are saving her - more that it was showing us she was still in harms way and hadn't escaped with them.

Edit: Re panel 3 - if you look at the fireballs closely they have the disintegrating sillohettes of figures in them - my guess - that's the Archons.

[ghost81]

Further to my comment above the figure to the right of panel three reminds me of 'The Scream' by Edvard Munch. Especially as there is a theory that the red sky in that picture is a result of Krakatoa having exploded earlier the year and tinging the sky that colour.


Edited due to having lost all spleling ability today

[Killer Angel]

Sleeping volcanoes have the nasty attitude (if unkroaked) to explode in a spectacular way.... (Krakatoa, Mount st. Helens, Vesuvio at Pompei). Maybe I'm wrong, but I won't bet a penny on the survival of the troops at the feet of GK.
I like Erfworld more and more.

[Oslecamo]

And the arkenpliers don't make you invinceble in my opinion, would have been all to easy to just send Ansom in by himself and let him destroy everything, eventually.

You're forgeting a little detail:

Disarm.

When Wanda and Bogroll attacked Ansom, the first thing they did was disarm him of the pliers.

Altough they probably don't grant outright invincibility, the pliers probably grant a fat defense bonus, enough defence to stand in the middle of a raging volcano and live to tell the tale.

And also the reason why Bogroll was sent in his suicide attack. If the city had been colapsed while Ansom still had the pliers he probably would have simply shrugged it off.

Anyway, great strip! BURN ARCHONS BURN MUAHAHAHAH! Try to mind trick your way out of hot raging uncroacked lava Charlie!

[ishnar]

Hmm, so the pliers grant fire resistance? Or was that just a dramatic pose, seconds before a fiery death?

Looks like dramatic pose seconds before death. Clear expression of fear on her face. Jets of flame and burning soldiers in the background.


With the figure in panel one and two in the same position, it appears they should the same person. The second panel shows a slightly different perspective to emphasize the rising lava and how the gas is thick enough to obscure the walls in the background. If panel one was supposed to show her immune, then it would show her standing on the lava or something.

[DCR]

Oh boop me. A beautiful, terrible page.

The volcano is dead, long live the volcano.

[RMS Oceanic]

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!![/Demoman]

A glorious end to Gobwin Knob. Beautifully drawn, too.

[kreszantas]

Now the real question is with what is left of the RCC can they even find the ruins of GK to claim? If indeed this does make Stanley go Barbarian (total destruction of his capitol site) that would allow for all the prior pages blemishes to go off without a hitch.

Awww Poor Charlie don't you feel sorry for him he did get his "Sorry, Charlie" reply so there was your foreshadowing to this fire/lava storm, and if he was a great wheel and dealer he better have gotten paid for it up front.

This actually causes more questions than answers and I like the fact we see yet we don't know what 'really' happens to the pliers.

[timothyx]

Scorched Earth For the Win.

I think the Warlord is just looking at her death and it's just "Inevitablity" that's written on her face as opposed to "oh look, I aint gonna die cause I got the pliers" kind of thing.

I almost feel bad for Charlie. Almost.

[ishnar]

I almost feel bad for Charlie. Almost.

Charlie is alive and well in his mountain hideout.

[some guy]

Awesome. And check out the plush golem in panel 2.

[Oslecamo]

Charlie is alive and screwed in his mountain hideout.

Charlie has just lost a LOT of archons, and he can't really have many more otherwise he would simply have conquered Efworld by now since an archon is at least as strong as a dwagon. He will need a lot of time to recover from it.

If he ever recovers. Now that he's on his last troops, Charlie is ripe for attacking from his rivals. Aka Stanley the Tool.

[Dizcorp]

Well, having read the reams of criticism/praise in the previous comic's post, I have one thing to say.

I like it.

These last two strips have a lot of positives to them. The panel where the Coalition and Gobwin Knob forces (comic #149) are desperately cooperating to try and save themselves struck a nerve in this amateur storywriter's normally frozen heart. The burning fireballs, containing dying soldiers whose screams you can almost hear. And the final panel, which conveys the sheer terror which the surviving soldiers must be feeling at this point.

Boom. GG, Parson, GG indeed.

I particularly like the first panel of #150. The unnamed lieutenant with the Arkenpliers, should the comic's creators will her survival, may well feature in a future storyline. Just think how burning her revenge will be against the masterful generalship of Parson Gotti, having seen thousands of her comrades put to a fiery death. It puts Ansom's feudal "will of the Titans" crusade into a different perspective.

I have enjoyed this comic as a serial (and a worthy complement to The Order of the Stick) and will eagerly continue to read it.

Excellent work, gentlemen. GG.

[T-O-E]

Aw... Wanted to see Parson leave the portal. Guess I'll have to wait.

Not that this wasn't an awesome page though.

[Nekomata]

Scorched Earth For the Win.

I think the Warlord is just looking at her death and it's just "Inevitablity" that's written on her face as opposed to "oh look, I aint gonna die cause I got the pliers" kind of thing.

I almost feel bad for Charlie. Almost.

Agreed. I'd call it "Oh, boop." look.
It's pretty common for storytelling purposes - the villain/leader/strongest character, even if he gets obliterated in a mili second by a megaton explosion, he'll still get an "oh, boop" scene.

[the_tick_rules]

Brutal art there, burning them alive and all. Very short comic. I wonder, has it been said at some point where exactly that portal is taking them?

[Strengfellow]

Well that has soothed my hangover no end.

Everybodies dead dave.

Splendid work.

[Subtext]

Agree to dramatic pose instead of pliers drive-by invulnerability...

[valce]

New meaning to 'wtf bbq' :P

[Kreistor]

Okay, everybody chant now.,.

Pyroclastic flow! Pyroclastic flow! Pyroclastic flow!

How about...

Dust turning to cement in their lungs! Dust turning...

[Drana]

Maybe the red-head somehow attuned herself to the Pliers.

[Mystyco]

Here's some lava, there's some lava, and some other bits of lava
fiery lava, burning lava, lava lava DUCK!

my dog was like "HELL YEAH LAVA!" and so was I.

also love crispy archons, better than fried marbits.

[MrPhoenix]

My god....

[Estelindis]

Poor coalition troops and archons. What a horrible way to die.

[marquiz]

Methinks for the red-head, two explanations exist, and I am inclined towards the first one.

Arkenpliers are known to be very effective against uncroaked, and technically, the volcano is an uncroaked volcano right now. Perhaps a defense bonus of a sort against any uncroaked attack "the zombie volcano erupts in your face but arkenpliers unply the lava...

Secondly, Arkenpliers, like most artifacts, have some sort of intelligence/protective instict, and instead of accepting to sink into the bottom of the soon to be formed lava pool, they protect their current wielder by the will of titans.

Oh a third option an innate fire resistance/immunity.... or from a ring or potion...

[Subtext]

So...now where I have a wee bit more time...

I dunno, only because the red-headed chick is yet alive it doesn't have to mean anything.
This is something that's a little bit annoying (for me) in general...people make a theory up that may make sense but are utterly complicated or depend on too many "if"s or maybe aren't plausible at all - but dismiss theories that make sense too (most often more) but are far more simpler to explain.
A good example would be the "fact" that only casters can use the portal because they are casters - based on the statement "You have a way out, use it. I have to stay and fight".
It *can* mean that he can't use the portal. It can also mean that it won't make sense (because he and the troops will probably disband anyway when the city falls) or that the magic kingdom only wants casters or blah...

Okay, making up theories isn't the bad thing...I just don't like how one theory that has no proof or whatsoever (only a mere indication) is granted for fact by so many people...and even worse, that some people are annoyed because if their theory proves wrong they consider it cheating...(I admit, I should have posted it in the previous thread) or scream "Deus Ex Machina!" if there is an unexpected twist...reminds me a bit of the Jehova scene of Monty Python's Life of Brian...

Anyway, end of the rant...

Again, awesome page although I would have loved a bit of text...but it wouldn't have fit.

[msb]

It kinda looks like the way this page is drawn, it's meant to extend onto the next page, maybe? There's no side borders, and the art is flush with the edge of the image.

[Gez]

I don't think the pliers are saving her - more that it was showing us she was still in harms way and hadn't escaped with them.

They are artifacts of the Titan, so she might be protected if there's some Artifact-protection rule that prevents lava from flowing in a unit-scale hex (not map-scale hex like the city, just the space a single unit occupies) where an arkentool is present. If there's no convection (or if the space is protected from it), then she might simply survive but be completely surrounded by lava.

[The Minx]

To me it seems like that girl at the top is still stunned by the death of ansom, and she's just gone mentally.

Or perhaps she is simply resigned to her fate.

I don't think it's implausible that the Tools are immune to the volcano, after all these were used to make the world. As for whether the bearer becomes immune, we'll just have to see I guess. :/

[Twin2]