Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXVII: God Has Nothing to do With This

[Welf]

Thanks for reminding me of the first thing that just bugged the hell out of me when I was younger and reading through this.

Hunting down a dryad when a fireball spell would do.

I don't know; TIM wanted the Dryad's blood. Burning her crisp would have been kinda counterproductive.

[rocketpony]

I don't know; TIM wanted the Dryad's blood. Burning her crisp would have been kinda counterproductive.

But TIM soaked up a fireball, and suddenly was healed and had eyes and everything.
Check out that third panel dogg

[SaintRidley]

I tried to write the Infernomancer as a class or prestige class a long time ago, but gave up because it was so impossible to account for everything.

I revisited the idea several months ago and decided to start from scratch with a super fire mage idea.

It worked much better, and now it's in my sig.

[spectralphoenix]

Becoming an Infernomancer (and being a Demon Lord, so far as we can see,) seems to be akin to buying a ticket in the Superpower Lottery. Maybe you become invincible, maybe you gain the ability to make people get angry over the rape of their friend.

In D&D terms I imagine it would be one of those prestige classes that have a set of base abilities and then get to choose one of a selection of themes to gain more specialized abilities from. So maybe everybody has super fire mage powers, while infernomancers who choose Karnak get DR and the like, while ones who choose the Poison demon get some mind-affecting SLA's.

Edit: though I suppose Diabolic Domain actually makes your class kind of like that.

[M84]

Heyall,

Infernomancers are just D&D warlocks with a different name. As of 4th ed, the two are exactly the same: make a deal with an extradimensional entity -- demon, devil, Cthulhu, whatever -- and you get the kind of power wizards have to spend years studying to obtain.

Edit: Okay, the fire absorption is a bit different. As is the "Revive kills Zombie" trait.

On another note, the real winner of the Superpower Lottery among the Infernomancers would have to be Caylen Bren. His special trait was "Screw the Rules, I have Plot". At least until Mookie needed him to die.

[colonelslime]

Heyall,

Infernomancers are just D&D warlocks with a different name. As of 4th ed, the two are exactly the same: make a deal with an extradimensional entity -- demon, devil, Cthulhu, whatever -- and you get the kind of power wizards have to spend years studying to obtain.

Edit: Okay, the fire absorption is a bit different. As is the "Revive kills Zombie" trait.

On another note, the real winner of the Superpower Lottery among the Infernomancers would have to be Caylen Bren. His special trait was "Screw the Rules, I have Plot". At least until Mookie needed him to die.

Hey if chaos doesn't obey the rules, shouldn't Celesto have gone to an incredibly ordered place to meditate and scry? Like some flat plane covered with parallel lines and geometric shapes? After all, the rules is that rules don't apply to chaos beings.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Hey if chaos doesn't obey the rules, shouldn't Celesto have gone to an incredibly ordered place to meditate and scry? Like some flat plane covered with parallel lines and geometric shapes? After all, the rules is that rules don't apply to chaos beings.

"Yo dawg, I herd you like not having rules applied to you, so we didn't apply some rules to you in the rules that didn't apply to you so your rules wouldn't apply while the rules that don't apply to you didn't apply."

Or something.

[Glass Mouse]

Hey if chaos doesn't obey the rules, shouldn't Celesto have gone to an incredibly ordered place to meditate and scry? Like some flat plane covered with parallel lines and geometric shapes? After all, the rules is that rules don't apply to chaos beings.

But if that is a rule, then that rule should be broken, thus enforcing the broken rule and furthermore following a rule that should not be followed, which means that having a no-rules rule...

...just hurts my brain.

[guttering flame]

THE HORRENDOUS VISAGE OF THE BIGGEST
DEMON YOU'VE EVER SEEN CRUMBLES BEFORE
YOU, AFTER YOU PUMP YOUR ROCKETS INTO
HIS EXPOSED BRAIN. THE MONSTER SHRIVELS
UP AND DIES, ITS THRASHING LIMBS
DEVASTATING UNTOLD MILES OF HELL'S
SURFACE.

YOU'VE DONE IT. THE INVASION IS OVER.
EARTH IS SAVED. HELL IS A WRECK. YOU
WONDER WHERE BAD FOLKS WILL GO WHEN THEY
DIE, NOW. WIPING THE SWEAT FROM YOUR
FOREHEAD YOU BEGIN THE LONG TREK BACK
HOME. REBUILDING EARTH OUGHT TO BE A
LOT MORE FUN THAN RUINING IT WAS.

Nice

[Welf]

But TIM soaked up a fireball, and suddenly was healed and had eyes and everything.
Check out that third panel dogg

That ...is correct. I assumed that the fire had only very temporary effects, while Dryad blood would work permanently. But rereading the strips I realized that this is nowhere stated and just extrapolated by me.

[Deme]

That ...is correct. I assumed that the fire had only very temporary effects, while Dryad blood would work permanently. But rereading the strips I realized that this is nowhere stated and just extrapolated by me.

It was totally extrapolated, with no basis in the strip... But I also made the same 'mental band-aid' to make that make sense, so it's not a bad assumption: just completely nonsensical.
How would a dyrad's blood counteract infernal pact magic anyway?
Also, for extra bonus points, would that work for the infernomancer of Chaos?

[Trazoi]

THE HORRENDOUS VISAGE OF THE BIGGEST
DEMON YOU'VE EVER SEEN CRUMBLES BEFORE
YOU

So the ultimate Big Bad of the comic will be... John Romero's head on a stick?

[Gez]

Logically, that'd be Mookie's head on a stick.

Before the fight, he's say: "Tuo keeg dna no kcor won rof em morf lla s'taht, dren latem nagev era yeht, sboob ekil i!"

[Trazoi]

Logically, that'd be Mookie's head on a stick.

Young Romero and Mookie both have the long hair. Just add stubble and glasses.

Before the fight, he's say: "Tuo keeg dna no kcor won rof em morf lla s'taht, dren latem nagev era yeht, sboob ekil i!"

Eeh eeh.

Edit: Sneaky Gate

Teaser panel:

[Domochevsky]

Now that's a appliance of Sneaky Gating i can approve of.
Says so much, yet so little.

[Silverblood]

Damn it Bulgak. You fail evil manipulating backstabber class completely. You don't SAY it out loud! You just both ....know.



[Alternative interpretation: classic tell don't show fail]

[Palmer]

Man, was the tiny little ass shot really necessary? Let the woman have her shame. :/

[Trazoi]

Man, was the tiny little ass shot really necessary? Let the woman have her shame. :/

Yes, it struck me how Bulgak and Loxo appear to be naked apart from the cloaks. And Bulgak just put his cloak on, so apparently he's been completely naked in earlier strips. I guess that explains why they spend their time in Hell hiding together behind rocks.

[Palmer]

Yes, it struck me how Bulgak and Loxo appear to be naked apart from the cloaks. And Bulgak just put his cloak on, so apparently he's been completely naked in earlier strips. I guess that explains why they spend their time in Hell hiding together behind rocks.

This brings up an excellent question; Where do they get clothes from in hell? Siegfried got his instantly, these guys are naked and Karnak seems to shop at the local Gap. Does your level of evil determine whether your clothed or not?

[TheLaughingMan]

This brings up an excellent question; Where do they get clothes from in hell? Siegfried got his instantly, these guys are naked and Karnak seems to shop at the local Gap. Does your level of evil determine whether your clothed or not?

Nonsense! Stacy and Clinton just take road trips to hell every now and then.

[rocketpony]

This brings up an excellent question; Where do they get clothes from in hell? Siegfried got his instantly, these guys are naked and Karnak seems to shop at the local Gap. Does your level of evil determine whether your clothed or not?

There are only so many clothes in Hell. When you arrive, you're naked. One of the perks of being a lord of Hell is that you can kill pretty much anybody who has fancy clothes and take them for your own. Hence, being clothed is a sign of power - you're either powerful in your own right, or you're some demon lord's whipping boy. This is why Siegfried got clothes instantly - by merit of Karnak just waxed most of the population of Hell, he suddenly had a lot of clothes to choose from. A lot of snappy clothes.
Loxo and Bulgak were pledged to crummy demon lords who are now dead, and since their powers are respectively, political machination and being a whiner, they can't win their own clothes.
TADA

[guttering flame]

So I guess Hell is now populated by 'king' Karnak and the conveniently unharmed infernomancer duo? Oh, and the occasional hoards of NPC (demonic) monsters for point gaining.

This makes sense

[Glass Mouse]

There are only so many clothes in Hell. When you arrive, you're naked. One of the perks of being a lord of Hell is that you can kill pretty much anybody who has fancy clothes and take them for your own. Hence, being clothed is a sign of power - you're either powerful in your own right, or you're some demon lord's whipping boy. This is why Siegfried got clothes instantly - by merit of Karnak just waxed most of the population of Hell, he suddenly had a lot of clothes to choose from. A lot of snappy clothes.
Loxo and Bulgak were pledged to crummy demon lords who are now dead, and since their powers are respectively, political machination and being a whiner, they can't win their own clothes.
TADA

But wouldn't the clothes be... y'know, less snappy after their previous owner was violently killed while wearing them?

[Fishy Fishy]

Well if you want a dude's shirt, you stab him in the crotch. If you want a dude's trousers, you stab him in the chest. If you think a dude's entire outfit is pretty dapper, stab him in the eye.

So far I like Lady Loxo.

What's with Bulgak's hands in panel four? It looks like he's got clubs for arms.

[Gez]

Loxo's clothing design is half-assed.

[Doompuppy]

Loxo's clothing design is half-assed.

It fits right in with the rest of the art then, no?

[FoE]

The sexual tension in this strip is palpable.

I just thought of something: doesn't the fact that you can die in Hell fairly easily kind of, you know, defeat the point of Hell?

"Well, I guess I've been sentenced to eternal suffering … for as long as it takes for me to find some pointy rocks to fall on."

[SlyGuyMcFly]

There are only so many clothes in Hell. When you arrive, you're naked. One of the perks of being a lord of Hell is that you can kill pretty much anybody who has fancy clothes and take them for your own. Hence, being clothed is a sign of power - you're either powerful in your own right, or you're some demon lord's whipping boy. This is why Siegfried got clothes instantly - by merit of Karnak just waxed most of the population of Hell, he suddenly had a lot of clothes to choose from. A lot of snappy clothes.
Loxo and Bulgak were pledged to crummy demon lords who are now dead, and since their powers are respectively, political machination and being a whiner, they can't win their own clothes.
TADA

Of course! And because Loxo was an even more minor villain than Bulgak, she's wearing a smaller amount of non-descript black rags!

Loxo's clothing design is half-assed.

Oof. That was mildy painful.

Great job!

[Gez]

Bulgak was an infernomancer of poison, so he's trying to poison his relationship with Loxo. Being a whiner and a general creep, in a too-pathetic-to-be-really-threatening way, is his current approach.

[Shadows]

"Well, I guess I've been sentenced to eternal suffering … for as long as it takes for me to find some pointy rocks to fall on."

Another point in favour of the existence of super-hell!