OOTS #1164 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

New comic is up.

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[dmc91356]

I'm in love with that likeable worm, that's for sure. Feelings are hard . . .

[Ron Miel]

"Foil your evil squirm"

I don't get it. Is there a double meaning I'm missing?

[Ruck]

Woo-hoo, nice surprise to come to after work this afternoon. Cracked up at Belkar's advice to "feel at him really hard." (Yeah, I'm mashing up two panels there.)

[GAAD]

Oh yeah. Having a 'regular battle' is FAR too much to ask; what would be the point of showing it? Let the zaniness continue!

[Tom Lehmann]

Of *course*, Belkar tries to use his new found empathy and understanding as a weapon...

Why was I surprised?

[Ehcks]

"Foil your evil squirm"

I don't get it. Is there a double meaning I'm missing?

A foil is a type of sword used in fencing, similar to the rapier Elan uses. He's using it as a verb.

[remetagross]

"Foil your evil squirm"

I don't get it. Is there a double meaning I'm missing?

Didn't get it either. Must be that Elan is really reaching hard...also, guys, what does "O.G." stand for?

Likeable Death Worm is amazing one more time. It's a sort or reversed Elan when it comes to pronounce hilariously outlandish sentences in the middle of a fight.

[RaveDave92084]

Belkar at his Golden Best.

I took O.G. You: as original guy you.

[Peelee]

Dang, I'm kinda starting to like Belkar.

[Riftwolf]

Likeable Deathworm continues to be likeable :)

[Pablo360]

Elan knows how to make puns. Nobody ever claimed he knew how to make good puns.

[denthor]

To many jokes.

But the one that got me was high percentage. Still laughing.

[hroþila]

Didn't get it either. Must be that Elan is really reaching hard...also, guys, what does "O.G." stand for?

Likable Death Worm is amazing one more time. It's a sort or reversed Elan when it comes to pronounce hilariously outlandish sentences in the middle of a fight.

O.G. stands for "Original Gangster" and is a slang term for "original". In this context, "O.G. You" means "Gontor Hammerfell the mortal dwarf as opposed to the vampire spirit".

As for "evil squirm", I took it as a play on "evil scheme". Because worms squirm.

[Rockphed]

So, what is horrid willow actually supposed to be?

[Peelee]

Didn't get it either. Must be that Elan is really reaching hard...also, guys, what does "O.G." stand for?

Original Gangsta.

So, what is horrid willow actually supposed to be?

Horrid Wilting.

[littlebum2002]

I mean it's not a bad idea. If Durkon would have told the Order in more detail exactly how he overthrew the vampire, it makes sense that the rest of the imprisoned souls could do the same thing.

[Araon]

That was a TERRIBLE pun. Love it. Well done, Elan.

[ti'esar]

I think Elan in the first panel was going for a pun on 'scheme' with "foil your evil squirm." But egads, that's bad.

[DougTheHead]

"Foil your evil squirm"

I don't get it. Is there a double meaning I'm missing?

I think "squirm," which describes the way a worm moves, is supposed to be a pun on "scheme." So because it's a worm, it's an "evil squirm" rather than an "evil scheme."

Like Roy said, Elan's kind of reaching for the pun here.

[hroþila]

Guys, I've seen how this forum puns. Our standards are not that high.

[gkarrish]

I thought "squirm" was a phonetic play on evil "worm," but that's about equally cringe-worthy as if it was a pun on "scheme." I'm going to go with, meh.

[Dion]

Do they have to kill the evil death worm?

Maybe belkar, bloodfeast, and the death worm can team up and ride off into the sequel?

[2D8HP]

I hurt my rib laughing at "lukeworm"

[Ron Miel]

As for "evil squirm", I took it as a play on "evil scheme". Because worms squirm.

I think Elan in the first panel was going for a pun on 'scheme' with "foil your evil squirm." .[/B]

I think "squirm," which describes the way a worm moves, is supposed to be a pun on "scheme.".

Okay, I can see that.

[Iago]

"Foil your evil squirm"

I don't get it. Is there a double meaning I'm missing?

Squirm --> scheme. Kind of a homonym. It is a reach, though.

[Ghosty]

Do they have to kill the evil death worm?

Maybe belkar, bloodfeast, and the death worm can team up and ride off into the sequel?

I love the LDW using basically the same language as Grubwiggler in #980, "Emotions are tricky. You can't really sort out the ones you want from the ones you don't." Further evidence, if we didn't have the SRD, that the worm's not dumb at all.

I'm impressed Elan can hit the LDW's AC.

Really charismatic for a creation of eldritch horror and undead evil, isn't s/he?

[Fyraltari]

Uh, has that worm worked for Grubblewiggler before? The man isn't a necromancer, though.

I mean it's not a bad idea. If Durkon would have told the Order in more detail exactly how he overthrew the vampire, it makes sense that the rest of the imprisoned souls could do the same thing.

Unlikely:

Second, unlike the other vampires, he needed to access those memories right away because he needed to impersonate Durkon. The Exarch is not going to be in as much danger of something like this because nobody cares what spirit is in charge. He can (in theory) just put off even looking at all but the most basic of Gontor's memories until this whole thing is over, and then sip them slowly over years.

Third, I doubt everyone has a single memory that could surprise and shock the vampire spirit like that. Because it's not the speech about "worst days" that does the real work here; that's mostly just Durkon psyching himself up by telling the spirit that they're wrong. No, the workhorse is the memory itself and how it makes the spirit feel. And I just don't think most people have a single ten-minute memory that completely changes the context of their entire life, before and after.

And finally, this would be the sort of thing that would take a very strong will to pull off successfully. Even if you explained this entire procedure in advance, I doubt someone like Haley or Elan could make it work. They just don't have the mental strength. They could show the spirit the memories, but without the unshakable resolve to back it up, the spirit wouldn't be as affected by the emotional content. In purely game terms (which I usually don't like to discuss but this is good to use as an analogy), Durkon is a high-Wisdom, high-Will-save character who possesses an unimpeachable Lawful Good alignment. That makes him unique. He may, in fact, be literally the single strongest willpower character who has ever been vampirized, ever. It's not a thing that usually happens to Lawful Good clerics in their mid-teen levels; Malack would have been much lower level (and not LG) when it happened to him.

The best way I can put this, overall, is that a human needs about half a gallon of water a day, or about 93 gallons over the course of 6 months. But if I poured 93 gallons of water down your throat today, you would die. That is not a significant design flaw in the human body that needs to be addressed! It's just a circumstance that doesn't come up enough for us to spend all of our time worrying about whether or not we are in imminent danger of swallowing 93 gallons. And if someone offered you a drink, you wouldn't think about, "But what if they suddenly whip out a fire hose?" before accepting.

So, is it a thing that could have happened to other vampires? Sure, maybe, once or twice, just as I am sure people have died from drinking 93 gallons of water. Is it common enough for Hel to mention it in her five-minute orientation of the vampire spirit before stuffing it in Durkon's corpse, when she has an entire scheme to explain as well? No. At best, she would have said something like, "Keep an eye on the host spirit, don't let it get control," and the vampire would have said OK. And then still walked into Durkon's trap because it was incapable of connecting the dots on its own beforehand.

(Also, fair warning: I'm not going to get into a back-and-forth on any of these points. If you still don't want to accept that this is a pretty rare set of circumstances, I don't know what else to tell you.)

Especially since this worked because Durkon* didn't know what Durkon was trying to do, but Belkar can't tell Gontor without Gontor* knowing.

EDIT:

Horrid Wilting.

Wow, Gontor was way nastier thanI thought. That is a mean spell.

[MartianInvader]

Well, there goes my prediction that Durkon would let Belkar think he killed the vampire all on his own.

[Auguries]

Belkar has a pretty good idea actually. Spread the virus of free thought. MWUAHAHA