OOTS #852 - The Discussion Thread

[Gnome Alone]

Sweet Elven gods, do I hate Tarquin. Such a smug little rapist and murdering tyrant and such.

But it's the smugness that gets to me; even when he's pretending to be a fool it's for some self-satisfying master plan.

I kind of hope Xykon shows up and just slices him up like a hot knife through butter just to wipe the damn stick figure smirk off his face for a second.

[Halleflux]

Low. Blow.

Also it's ironic that I had just gone back about 2 days ago and found the stuff about the ring of regeneration and how Tarquin never leaves home without it. Odd.

[factotum]

They can still see his skin color and should be able to notice it's not the orc-green it should be.

And since the whole point of taking off the helmet was to prove the warrior wasn't Thog, that's mission accomplished as far as Roy is concerned--so the "Nope!" written on the mask is actually incorrect!

[talkamancer]

Reminds me of Kendo Nagasaki as all you grapple fans will remember.

[Caractacus]

OMG - That was so worth no plot progression. Although they should be able to figure it out from the "so worth it" line, given that Elan and Tarquin both say that any chance they get, as well as his unique combination of silliness and total domination.

You mean Nale and Tarquin, surely?

[Theo333]

Why isn't Tarquin's neck stretching several inches upwards?

Also that disguise is useless if he isn't changing his voice when talking normally.

[Holy_Knight]

Batman pulled that trick once in an episode of the Animated Series.

I'm really interested to see how this is all going to play out!

[Querzis]

That was silly and out of character for Tarquin. No more silliness from him, please, it diminishes the character.

You're kidding right? Tarquin is just as silly and overly dramatic as Nale and Elan, being a succesfull evil overlord doesnt change that. I really dont get how you can say silliness is out of character for him when hes silly in half of his appearance.

And hes obviously hiding his identity so that he can reveal it at the most dramatically appropriate moment.

[Killer Angel]

"nope!" is priceless...

...but saying "Totally worth wearing a mask under my helmet for two days!" could give Elan a hint to guess it's Tarquin.

[luc258]

I'm a bit surprised about the attack though. Didn't Tarquin plan on waiting till the OotS had found the portal and then take it away from it?
The whole attack seems a little early for that.

[Roland Itiative]

Haw! The Man In The Ironic Mask!!!

I was already laughing at the strip, but this just made me laugh even more

They can still see his skin color and should be able to notice it's not the orc-green it should be.

Well, at this point it's really clear he isn't Thog anyways. The very fact he has a mask under the helmet could be used as evidence for that. He even dropped the act.

I guess now he'll just keep his identity a secret for drama's sake, as Elan would in his place. He probably wants to make a big reveal of his true identity during their moment of triumph... if such a thing comes even close to happening.

[Hamiltonz]

Great strip. Thanks Giant. :)

[Heksefatter]

Oh Gawd, Tarquin must be an annoying foe to fight.

[Kish]

That was silly and out of character for Tarquin. No more silliness from him, please, it diminishes the character.

...You're kidding, right? That is the character.

[Onyavar]

Nice "reveal".

But.
I'm not aware of any rules regarding ripping off helmets - HOW did Roy manage to do that? Anyone who ever wore a helmet will tell you that these things don't come off just like that, they're integral part of your armor!
Any helmet (regardless in which time and setting) includes straps or other measures to prevent the helmet from slipping, shifting or falling off. (At least, any helmet worth more than a carneval costume.) Helmets are not simple tin pots you put over your head!

In order to remove the helmet, you have to either
- loosen the strap while preventing the opponent to move (I guess this involves grappling rules + DEX checks in D&D).
- or cut off the strap (I guess this involves precise cuts, so DEX again)
- or ripping the helmet off your opponent (including the head!!), which involves a STR check.

Furthermore, while most medieval style helmets are padded inside, they still REQUIRE you to wear a mask like the one Tarquin has there. Wearing a helmet without a mask will give you bruises to no end, even without combat. (ok, regenerating ring > bruises, but still)

Removing the flexible mask under the helmet is in fact EASIER than removing the rigid helmet, so this should be Roys first move in the next comic.

[Onyavar]

I'm a bit surprised about the attack though. Didn't Tarquin plan on waiting till the OotS had found the portal and then take it away from it?
The whole attack seems a little early for that.

Uh, for all the LG knows, the Order should have found the gate by now. I expect Nale to be very pissed off that Roy+Elan DIDN'T manage to find the gate once he finds out.

[Winter]

I'm not aware of any rules regarding ripping off helmets - HOW did Roy manage to do that?

He just grabbed the helmet and did it. That is all that is to it.

[Nohar]

Is my english rusty, or is Elan's dialogue in last panel... Odd ? Is there a reference that I'm missing here ?

Anyway : Tarquin, you little troll...

[Moblin]

I'm a bit surprised about the attack though. Didn't Tarquin plan on waiting till the OotS had found the portal and then take it away from it?
The whole attack seems a little early for that.

You forget, Nale is the titular leader of the Linear guild, and Nale was the one to order the attack right now. Tarquin has taken up a position as 'the man behind the man' in the Linear guild, just as he always does with his kingdoms. I imagine Tarquin is probably giving Nale too much credit here by assuming that Nale has the faintest clue what he's actually doing.

[Roland Itiative]

Nice "reveal".

But.
I'm not aware of any rules regarding ripping off helmets - HOW did Roy manage to do that? Anyone who ever wore a helmet will tell you that these things don't come off just like that, they're integral part of your armor!
Any helmet (regardless in which time and setting) includes straps or other measures to prevent the helmet from slipping, shifting or falling off. (At least, any helmet worth more than a carneval costume.) Helmets are not simple tin pots you put over your head!

In order to remove the helmet, you have to either
- loosen the strap while preventing the opponent to move (I guess this involves grappling rules + DEX checks in D&D).
- or cut off the strap (I guess this involves precise cuts, so DEX again)
- or ripping the helmet off your opponent (including the head!!), which involves a STR check.

Knowing Tarquin, he probably left the helmet loosely strapped (or not strapped at all) just to have a chance to show off his mask

Furthermore, while most medieval style helmets are padded inside, they still REQUIRE you to wear a mask like the one Tarquin has there. Wearing a helmet without a mask will give you bruises to no end, even without combat. (ok, regenerating ring > bruises, but still)

On that, I guess we can call "there's no rule for tummy aches". Most games, D&D included, don't really focus on realism when depicting armour (hell, most works of fiction, be it an RPG, book, movie, or anything else, ignore a bunch of the "boring" stuff like that), there's no reason for a strip comic to do so.

Removing the flexible mask under the helmet is in fact EASIER than removing the rigid helmet, so this should be Roys first move in the next comic.

True. But will Tarquin let him do it? The man is clearly dominating the fight right now, Roy would probably never have a chance to remove his helmet in the first place if he didn't have a contingency plan.

[Username_too_lo]

Chuck Testa!

[The Pilgrim]

Keep kicking ass, Tarquin. Someone must keep us amused until the real villains show up. Probably the next book or so.

BTW, Roy already knew it wasn't Thog, he pulled the mask in order to identify the enemy, not to confirm the obvious.

[SinsI]

I don't think that mask actually did anything to hide Tarquin's identity, it only provided a surprise for Roy.

[Baphomet]

So a ring of regeneration lets the owner regenerate 1 HP per HD once per hour. That means he only regained somewhere in the vicinity of 17 HP with that, and he can't do it again for a long time. Nowhere near being the fight stopper everyone is acting like it is.

[Burner28]

Good, good, good.

[TynamMerise]

OK, it's official.

The purpose of Tarquin's existence is to make all other entries under Dangerously Genre Savvy seem irrelevant.

[kickassfrog]

So a ring of regeneration lets the owner regenerate 1 HP per HD once per hour. That means he only regained somewhere in the vicinity of 17 HP with that, and he can't do it again for a long time. Nowhere near being the fight stopper everyone is acting like it is.

Still pretty daunting when the order don't know what kind of magic item he has. When they find out it is Tarquin, they'll know more.

Also, perhaps Haley will remove his mask. She has high DEX, access to sneak attack, and hasn't appeared in the last 2 strips. Apart from that one panel showing the order group rushing not-thog.

[ManuelSacha]

It seems like Tarquin is giving up on pretending to be Thog by the last panel.

Given that the OOTS isn't buying that he's Thog, what does he have to gain from continuing to hide his identity? I wonder if they'll see through it, or if they will settle for identifying him as "unknown assailant".

They can still see his skin color and should be able to notice it's not the orc-green it should be.

He already knows the Thog façade is gone. He isn't stupid.
However, he still needs to hide is true identity. Just because they know he's not Thog, that doesn't automatically tell them that he is Tarquin.

[Cynric]

Is there nothing Tarquin can't predict?! He's worse than frikkin' Aizen!

[Themrys]

I guess Elan will recognize Tarquin...the only question is when. The most dramatic moment would be after he killed Tarquin, but I have no idea how he could do that.

Bwahahaha love it

Question though: I'd love to use that panel where the Nope mask is revealed elsewhere on the net. What's the policy around here? Fair use, or Rich's copyright/intellectual property and therefore verboten?

Funny - only now do I realize that I have, for years, needlessly browsed my memory to come up with the English word for "verboten" every time I wrote in English forums when I just could have used the German one.

Regarding your question, I have no idea, but suspect it is verboten, since many things are forbidden on this forum.