Erfworld 158 - tBfGK 145

[Forgotten2]

More than likely, Stanley will want to re-grab the other cities that he lost before Parson arrived.

[Tubal-Cain]

Tool now has a new, handsome warlord, one that doesn't cost anything to feed, fresh army and no enemies in sight - perfect circumstances to let Parson go.

Oh yes. Just fire the warlord that just handed you an EPIC WIN and replace him with the guy he just beat.

Stanley seems to have matured a little since the incident over Jack's name, but it wouldn't be entirely unlike him. Maybe he'll sell Parson to Charlie.

[Gez]

BTW: Did anyone notice the single dwagon flying around in the background? That reminds me of the very first panel of erfworld, when the Titans formed Erfworld itself.

Yup. That's the one that popped in the previous page, he's circling around the city.

Hmmm. No "Deus Ex Machina" exclamations so far.

I do believe its different when Parson's side is doing it.

It's quite clearly Ansom's side. Parson is quite reticent, actually.

[Thray]

Uncroaked may always have no upkeep. I mean, it's not like zombies need to eat (well, maybe brains).

Yup, this was implied when Stanley joked about how uncroaked are cheap to feed.

And that is the first time the absolute level of a unit is stated, other than that only up'ed 2 levels or such

Not true-we know Jillian's a 9, Webinar was a 5, and Dora was a 2.

I'm surprised that there are so many corpses remaining. I had thought they would all be burnt by the volcano.

[chefsotero]

Cameltoe in panel nine.

Booping Shockmancy

[Alexei P]

It's quite clearly Ansom's side. Parson is quite reticent, actually.

Indeed, he certainly appears to be. I completely fail to figure out where the plot flows from here, and can't wait to find out.

[T-O-E]

Maybe he'll sell Parson to Charlie.

No way is that going to happen, for obvious reasons.

[TheMutant]

Gotta agree with an earlier poster- I don't think this new army is as broken as everyone seems to assume. My guess is that this is more like the Trioxin spell- all croaked in a hex/city zone become the 'weakest kind' of Uncroaked, but possibly with the sole benefit from the 'pliers of not decaying.

Also, I foresee a possible I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight between dearest Jillian and Ansom. ...if so, I hope it doesn't work. :3

Also, gosh, one can only imagine how confused Stanley might be when he shows up. A good chunk of the RCC, (seemingly) normal and sitting on the ruins of GK along with an also fairly normal-looking Ansom? That doesn't look like a winning situation! Though I suppose warlord-vision might help the case, if he can see that they're his (GK's) units.

[Yahoo_Serious]

What's the mechanic for assuming and maintaining control of a side? Does Stanley get to come back to GK after ditching it and automatically take over control of this grand new army just because he was once designated heir, or can Parson tell him to fall in line or buzz off? Will Wanda have to be subservient to the Tool, even though she's a Tool herself now? And is ReAnsom really so transformed that he'll accept orders from Stanley?

[chefsotero]

Not true-we know Jillian's a 9, Webinar was a 5, and Dora was a 2.

Link up?

I'm surprised that there are so many corpses remaining. I had thought they would all be burnt by the volcano.

Well the pliers can redo fabric, so they probably can redo tissue as well so as long as some pieces of bones are left u can rez, just like in DnD I would venture

[joosy]

What's the mechanic for assuming and maintaining control of a side? Does Stanley get to come back to GK after ditching it and automatically take over control of this grand new army just because he was once designated heir, or can Parson tell him to fall in line or buzz off? Will Wanda have to be subservient to the Tool, even though she's a Tool herself now? And is ReAnsom really so transformed that he'll accept orders from Stanley?

Stanley is the de facto Overlord. If they were to defeat him they would go barbarian and would 'freeze in time'. They need an heir to Stanley in order to continue as a side, I believe.

[Aquillion]

... What is with this fixation on a largely inconsequential warlord that was thrown into a few comics pre-volcanic explosion for the sake of flavor? She doesn't even have a name, as far as I know! Or any lines.

Geez.

Man, someone needs to create a "Scarlet destroyed FAQ!" thread.

Also, "Scarlet is future Parson!"

[Calmness]

Glad to see Ansom is still functional, he is a neat character and him remaining in the story sets up for a very interesting love triangle... especially if Wanda decides to start hitting on him . Though yeah i'll agree Gobwin Knob is a bit overpowered now. Ansom alone is one of the best leaders in the world (if not the one), add a couple unique artifacts, some awesome casters and the world's greatest warlord...

[chefsotero]

Man, someone needs to create a "Scarlet destroyed FAQ!" thread.

Also, "Scarlet is future Parson!"

We all (or some of us, or jus me an a few other dudes) had red sonja hard-wired to our pre-pubescent brains, and now we need to cheer for the red haired female warrior, thats all.

(And I still want to see her Decrypted )

[joosy]

If the massive number of Archons that Charlie so generously donated to GK's new army is in the mix then.. well.. I think FAQ will fall and rise again.. followed by Transylvito if not Charlie himself.

For didn't the Archons have huge move? and lots of magicdetection/attack/thinkamancy/foolamancy abilities? hmmm..

Of course knowing Charlie he will be begging like an orphan to join up with GK once he gets wind of their massive treasury. :)

(apologies to those who are orphans.. or beggars.. or begging orphans or.. heck, whatever, get a thicker hide.)

[ishnar]

... What is with this fixation on a largely inconsequential warlord that was thrown into a few comics pre-volcanic explosion for the sake of flavor? She doesn't even have a name, as far as I know! Or any lines.

Geez.

She's HAWT? :P Well, I think a lot of her fans are fans due to the the way she went out and because the expression on her face really struck a cord in many readers turning on the natural protect instinct.

She does have lines though. She was one of the lords complaining at the table that Ansom wasn't attacking. That's the only one I know off the top of my head.

Is Ansome going to take Bogroll's place? It's looking that way, and that would be some form of poetic justice.

[Jeivar]

Hm. Interesting development. Ansom said he remembered "most things". I'm guessing, by the rules of drama, that he doesn't truly remember his feelings for Jillian and Vinny. In fact, he just might view ANY royal as being in need of a killing and decrypting, even Jillian, who doesn't even WANT to be a royal.

Speaking of Jillian, I'm getting more and more clueless as to what her role is going to be in the next book. The Laws of Drama simply won't allow her to die before a dramatic confrontation with Ansom and Wanda, but how is that confrontation going to be? Once the Transylvito have found FAQ they'll have no more use for her except as a loyalty-spelled fighter . . . but if she ends up fighting Gobwin Knob again under mental compulsion it would take some of the POW out of the confrontation with W&A, since she won't be acting of her own free will.
And if she escapes the TV and strikes out as a barbarian again, she won't have the means to pose any threat to GK or Wanda.

Hmmm . . .

[Yodimus]

As an aside - I'm having a massively difficult time staying connected to the new erfworld.com I can't navigate one page without getting a page load error for ten minutes or so. Is that just me or are other people experiencing this?

[Oslecamo]

Hoorrah! I was right! Artifacts are really the uberest things in Efworld when used properly!

Also I must point out that Ansom hasn't changed that much. He's still a war-hungry warlord willing to fight for it's cause to the death, the only thing that's changed it's the focus of his fanatism. Now he shall crush all those who stand against lord Hamster, avatar of the titans!


To all those of you who say pliers are overpowered

Yes, they're strong, but the other tools have also shown to be quite strong.

Charlie was renowed for imba thinkmancy powers like infiltrating enemy communication systems.

Stanley's hammer destroyed several elites at once and knocked off high-level warlords with a single blow.

So Wanda's super raise dead isn't that over the top. Strong? Definetely yes, but it's an artifact, and Wanda herself was quite strong before acquiring it.

Anyway, I really hope we keep seeing the story from Hamster's PoV. There's just too much character development for the authors to waste.

[Gez]

Not true-we know Jillian's a 9, Webinar was a 5, and Dora was a 2.

We don't know whether she was talking about level or leadership bonus. Of course they might be the same thing. We don't know that either.

I'm surprised that there are so many corpses remaining. I had thought they would all be burnt by the volcano.

The volcano did not erupt in the city itself, but about halfway in the mountain side. People who were in the city itself died from the tremor, noxious fumes, and intense heat, but the heat at ground level there was still not intense enough to spontaneously combust them because they had a lot of rock to insulate them a bit. Contrarily to the archons flying high overhead.

[warune]

hmmm i wonder if wanda can wield hers so usefully cuz she understand magic whereas stanley does not, no he uses his to make walnuts into pidgeons. i wonder id stanley has fully discovered the powers of the arkenhammer. i wonder what would happen if it were given to say sizemore?

and yeah i know it wont be GIVEN to him, but think bout this. wanda is under no loyalty spells, she now matches or even outmatches Stanleys power and CERTAINLY outnumbers. she could easily turn on him to get the hammer and she seems to like parson so she prolly keep him around or follow his strategy since hes awesome strategist.

[Spot]

It's becoming clear to me that my suspicions about book 2 may be correct:

It will be after Parson & co. take over (most of) the world. His friends are summoned to lead the fight against him.

"We need leaders who know how to fight this Lord Hamster. There are none in this world. We will cast our wills across the whole of creation, seeking those who know best how to fight this new menace."

I think that you're sort of on the right track...

...but it was the next-to-last panel that clued me in on where this all is heading:

Ansom: "I shall be your Captain now. We will bring about a new Titanic order. We will conquer the whole world."

That line from Ansom, delivered directly to Parson while ignoring Wanda, makes everything clear.

This whole thing, from the death of King Saline IV, to the fall of FAQ, to the purchasing of the "perfect warlord" spell, to the defeat of Ansom's army, to the capture of the Arkenpliers by Wanda...

...all of it...

...is part of a plot, a conspiracy, cooked-up to alter the very fabric of the world.

And the very nature of the conspiracy points back to the "pocket kingdom" run by a "Philosopher King".

People have misjudged Wanda. She isn't do any of this for personal power... she's doing this to remake the entire Erfworld, and plenty of folks from FAQ, and from the Magic Kingdom (especially the Hippiemancers) are all in on it.

I bet that the only person from FAQ who *isn't* in on this, is Jillian, who was always away from FAQ playing at being a mercenary Captain.

Seriously: The death of King Saline IV, and all of teh subsequent events that flowed from it, are part-and-parcel of teh FAQ conspiracy to remake Erfworld from a thousand-sided wargame into a unified perfect Budhist-style philosopher kingdom.

I'm willing to bet that Jillian is in for some serious surprises in the next few comics.

[stsasser]

Awesome comic! I like the new Ansom better than the former stick-in-the-mud.

Seems like the same old Ansom to me. I think he'll sacrifice "Parson's" army just like he did his own.

[Kaja Rainbow]

On the imbalance: the Arkentools're god-tools after all. And it's not like the Uncroaked armies wouldn't have their weaknesses. In actual practice not being able to create new units without a corpse can be a real pain sometimes (speaking from personal experience playing a necromancer in several different games). Powerful with plentiful supplies of corpses, far more crippled with a shortage of them. Stanley can just pop dwagons without needing to go out and hunt down enemies to uncroak.

Grossly powerful? Yes, but again, that's the Arkentools for you. All-powerful? No. Besides, we don't know all the details about those new Uncroaked, how they work, whether they still level up, etc.

[Frogpop]

holy. boop.

Link up?

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0056.html

[teratorn]

n fact, he just might view ANY royal as being in need of a killing and decrypting, even Jillian, who doesn't even WANT to be a royal.

I think that's implicit in his talk about conquering the world.

[Cracklord]

See, Ansom is a big enough man to admit he was wrong reasnobly, and work with it from there.

Parson isn't.

Who's the better person?

[Welf]

She's HAWT? :P Well, I think a lot of her fans are fans due to the the way she went out and because the expression on her face really struck a cord in many readers turning on the natural protect instinct.

She does have lines though. She was one of the lords complaining at the table that Ansom wasn't attacking. That's the only one I know off the top of my head.

She also tells Ansom that they won't make it trough the walls with all the uncroaked and that he will die.
Scarlet had character. Check out her position in panel 5/page 117, compared to the warlord on her left. A Jillian without issues.
And she's HAWT.

[Cracklord]

hmmm i wonder if wanda can wield hers so usefully cuz she understand magic whereas stanley does not, no he uses his to make walnuts into pidgeons. i wonder id stanley has fully discovered the powers of the arkenhammer. i wonder what would happen if it were given to say sizemore?

and yeah i know it wont be GIVEN to him, but think bout this. wanda is under no loyalty spells, she now matches or even outmatches Stanleys power and CERTAINLY outnumbers. she could easily turn on him to get the hammer and she seems to like parson so she prolly keep him around or follow his strategy since hes awesome strategist.

Each Arken-item attunes to a specific class. That's why Ansom couldn't use the ArkenPliars. That's why Wanda can. Sizemore couldn't use the Arkenpliars, ArkenHammer or Arkendish. He'll use the Arkendrill or whatever when it gets revealed. Maggie will get the Arkendish. Jack will get another one that isn't known about yet.

Parson does follow loyalty spells, as does Sizemore and Maggie, and the Toolship can end Wanda with a thought. Even if he couldn't, if she kills him she reverts to barbarianism and sits around waiting to die.

[Fjolnir]

ansom is spouting off all the things that probably ran through his head before the pavement