OOTS #696 - The Discussion Thread

[Lissou]

Since nobody mentioned it (at least in the first two pages) the accent in "vis-à-vis" is the other way around. You know, if you care.

[Deuce]

Interesting to note that Elan, Haley and Vaarsuvius all survived Girard's little nuke. Kind of provides fuel for both sides of the "Girard is an idiot" argument, because if that explosion couldn't even take out V or Haley there's no way it would have hurt Soon--therefore, either Girard was being an idiot for placing such a weak explosion, or all the people who said the explosion was nothing more than a warning that was never intended to kill anyone are correct!

Or the explosion was itself an illusion.

I mean, it's not like he's an Evoker.

[awibs]

I didn't like Elan's message. Why the grammar is so awful? He's a bard, he should know his language up to the smallest shades of meaning: how comes that he cannot write it correctly?

I can think of many extremely talented professional actors and singers who still text message like morons. I can also think of two who can't spell, punctuate, or capitalize for the life of them in any form of written word. It's odd looking, because people in those fields tend to have huge vocabularies and use very quaint, complex idioms. It's super-weird to see such a high-level piece of language horribly misspelled, but it absolutely does happen. One of these gentlemen specifically defended himself that as a performer, SPOKEN language was his business, not written. That could very well apply for Elan.

Hell, even for authors of the written word, I can't see why one has to hold them to higher standards of consistent spelling than Shakespear :P

You know, and rule of funny.

[Somewhere]

If the explosion was an illusion, then how did Roy physically get sent flying?

He did that while spliced. This really doesnt tell us his real hp.

The strangling and second Meteor Swarm was after the splice got knocked outta him by the huge slab of stone.
That aside, did the splices actually confer HP? Or was it a case of loads of arcane power = heavy LA?

[Deuce]

If the explosion was an illusion, then how did Roy physically get sent flying?

I don't know, a very good illusion?

[Boogastreehouse]

Another appearance of...

the stick.

Edit: After posting, I went through the thread and saw that I was indeed ninja'd multiple times.

I believe we last saw The Stick here, in the hands of Inkyrius.

I believe there have been more sightings, although I can no longer recall them. Does anyone know of a thread?

[Almaseti]

Great strip. I think this is one of the best ones we've had in a while. I like how it has a little bit of everything.

[Crystalline]

Glad to see the new comic finally posted :D

V is my favorite character, glad to see he got dialogue ^_^

[Trixie]

So, the strip was like...

A great disturbance in the Forum, as if dozens of Girard haters suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced when V survived

Seriously, the only lynchpin of their argument fell apart like a house made from cards

[ThePhantasm]

Well, I'll be honest, this was the weakest OOTS strip in a long time in my opinion. Wasn't particularly funny at all, and something seemed off - the pacing or something. I can say it is a rare occasion when I don't like a strip though.

[Mc. Lovin']

That one was the funniest in ages, nice giant!

[Shale]

So, the strip was like...

A great disturbance in the Forum, as if dozens of Girard haters suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced when V survived

Seriously, the only lynchpin of their argument fell apart like a house made from cards

Yes, V has never survived damage that by all plot logic should have been lethal before. Samantha never happened, Xykon's Meteor Swarms never happened. Whatever.

[the_tick_rules]

I love Belkar's smile when V tries to pull back from her explosion comment.

[Snake-Aes]

Temporary hit points.

[Cheesegear]

Ah Durkon...The good little Cleric. While the rest of the party is talking and making 'big boy' decisions, Durkon is in the background, saying nothing, healing them.

I also like the expression changes in the last two panels reflecting their different personalities as they react to '...and that would be wrong.'

=>
=>
=>

Elan, as always, isn't reactive. Probably doesn't understand.

[Trixie]

Yes, V has never survived damage that by all plot logic should have been lethal before. Samantha never happened, Xykon's Meteor Swarms never happened. Whatever.

Aaaaaaand... how many of these things were low level spells, instead of epic-paladin-killing nukes?

Yes, even MS, as it happened to hit spliced/buffed V.

And what exactly Samanthad did, excuse me? Counterspelled much?

Oh, pretty much all of them? Whatever

[Mooglefrooglian]

So will Durkon ever get any sort of attention? He healed them, then we dont see him the rest of the comic.

I feel embarrased whenever I see him now.

[liq]

That was a great strip. Practically a joke in every panel. Well done.

[SoC175]

Has anyone of the OOtS ever seen the ghost-paladin?

[Shadowbane]

I actually laughed out loud when I read the last panel. Nice!

[Knellroy]

Have anyone conidered that Girard didn't actually wanted to kill Soon? If he did there would be no-one left to gard Soon's gate; something that he proberly didn't want. A explosion that was designed to merly annoy, and not kill, a epic paladin would both fit the strip, by not killing V, and the story by ensuring that the gate remains safe.

[Blaznak]

Ah. I get it now. The invisible raven thingy on 'V's shoulder told him it was wrong. Got it.

[Kish]

Have anyone conidered that Girard didn't actually wanted to kill Soon? If he did there would be no-one left to gard Soon's gate; something that he proberly didn't want. A explosion that was designed to merly annoy, and not kill, a epic paladin would both fit the strip, by not killing V, and the story by ensuring that the gate remains safe.

Telling Soon, "I'm freely disregarding the oath and so is Serini, I want you dead, hahaha!" and blasting him not hard enough to kill him--or, worse, killing whoever he sent as a messenger--would be all kinds of stupid. If anything could convince Soon he really needed to seize Girard's Gate, that would be it!

[Shale]

Yes, even MS, as it happened to hit spliced/buffed V.

V took one MS while spliced and buffed, and still took substantial damage from it. Then s/he took another one after Superb Dispelling and being hit in the face with an enormous rock. Let's be charitable and say that the first one was reduced by 75% - that's still 30d6 damage to a character who would have needed to roll all 4's on d4 hit dice to have 70 HP.

Plot. Armor.

And what exactly Samanthad did, excuse me? Counterspelled much? Oh, pretty much all of them? Whatever

Samantha hit Haley and V with the same Lightning Bolt. Haley mentioned that she couldn't make the save because Samantha's spell DC was too high, meaning V, whose Dex is unremarkable, almost certainly failed it. The spell KO'd V, and left Haley so weak that a single, no-metamagic Magic Missile took her to 0 HP. Any spell that deals that much damage to Haley should Kill Vaarsuvius, straight up. Except, you know, plot armor.

Edit: Wait, I'm sorry. Maximized Lightning Bolt. Meaning that, by definition, it dealt the same amount of damage to Haley and V. There isn't even a "the damage dice came up 1" excuse.

[SoC175]

Another appearance of...

the stick.

Edit: After posting, I went through the thread and saw that I was indeed ninja'd multiple times.

I believe we last saw The Stick here, in the hands of Inkyrius.

I believe there have been more sightings, although I can no longer recall them. Does anyone know of a thread?

Actually that's a different stick. Too many leaves, different top

[Sewblon]

He doesn't... But he does know that 1. Girard is notified of the illusion being triggered and 2. Girard knows the location of the coordinates that he gave Soon (he might've rolled randomly for the coordinates, but he still had to know what they were to give them to Soon AND set up the booby trap.)

Chances are, if Girard is still alive, Girard would have the illusion alarm go off and would at least be curious enough to scry on the spot to see what happened.

That's my point, how does Roy know that this particular illusion has any kind of alarm? For all we or The Order know illusory Girard was lying.

[Shale]

How do we know it wasn't set by a team of giant squirrels wearing a Lady of Pain costume? He's assuming that Girard told the truth until proven otherwise, because what good does it do them to not leave a message?

[Sewblon]

How do we know it wasn't set by a team of giant squirrels wearing a Lady of Pain costume?

That would be a pretty cool Planescape tie-in now that you mention it.

He's assuming that Girard told the truth until proven otherwise, because what good does it do them to not leave a message?

A message written by anyone but Elan sure, but I don't see this ending well for some reason.

[DBear]

How long is Elan's message going to last in the bleedin' desert? A decent wind will obliterate the message.

[Elderac]

Got my copy of Don't Split the Party followed by a new strip.

Yep, good day.