OOTS #1106 - The Discussion Thread

[KorvinStarmast]

This was probably answered in the 50+ pages of the 1105 thread, but why is it that Roy took no damage from that Flame Strike the vamp used? Is it because of his sword?

Yeah, somewhere late in the thread, it was discussed that it wasn't enough to register, not due to the sword as far as we could tell from evidence drawn form the battle with Durkula during Godsmoot.

[GrayDeath]

Well, given how we`ve seen him act in the comic, I`d peg Loki as CN myself.

Also: Maybe she only wants to make him regret it (a LOT)? I mean that might be more cruel and hence vengeance-completing than simply kill him (also she can still do a repeat-performance if necessary)...only to realize hes a Vampire now, and that killing him might actually help him...but Durkula cant be punished otherwise, as he does not react like Durkon?

Complex possibilities...

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

I'm baffled by this assertion. Her motivation seems quite clear: to kill the father of her baby for having gotten her pregnant and then abandoning her.

Nah, her motivations are still quite murky; we can only speculate about WHY she wants to kill Durkon. Her intentions are quite clear, though; "I was told someone here needed help murdering Durkon Thundershield" doesn't leave much room for argument.

[Fyraltari]

Someone explain the OG part to me please

It stands for Original Gangster*, ie she was doing it (being a member of the LG) before it was cool and all that.

"I was told someone here needed help murdering Durkon Thundershield" doesn't leave much room for argument.

I've got a 56-page long thread that says otherwise.



*Old Guard actually.

[gamingfreak10]

I think the fact that she knows someone needs help murdering durkon, the order are durkon's friends, and they're fighting vampires pretty clearly implies she know's durkon is a vampire right now.

It's not guaranteed, but that's what I got out of the last couple strips.

[Nomen]

I mean honestly Loki being CN and defending the Dark One just 'cus still kinda fits his personality. Or yeah CE and hates undead. Either or works.

I'm agree I'm actually leaning more towards CN myself, but I don't want to be one of those guys if there is that comic where we see that he's definitely evil. Right now I think the only thing we have seen him do which has much weight is the dwarf deal.

[KorvinStarmast]

I've got a 56-page long thread that says otherwise.

I was in that 56-page long thread that says ... a bunch of us had lots of time on our hands, and Rich took a (well deserved) break and the strip lingered for about two weeks before we got some answers.

[dps]

It stands for Original Gangster, ie she was doing it (being a member of the LG) before it was cool and all that.

Nah, it means Old Guard.

[Ruck]

I'm not particularly happy with the idea of Hilgya obsessing over Durkon, or anyone else really, simply for revenge over being spurned. Therefore, I choose to stick to my personal and increasingly unlikely theory: she knows Durkon is a vampire and wants to help destroy him (Loki told her), and the reason she had been praying to Loki hoping to learn of Durkon's whereabouts is that she wanted to tell him about Hilgyuson and she figured it'd be only proper to do it in person.

I will probably only be able to stick to this theory until the next strip comes along, so humour me.

She had his child. As someone who long argued that Hilgya wouldn't come back because being obsessed over a one-night stand would be bad characterization, the equation completely changes when Durkon isn't just a fling, but the father of her child.

Nah, it means Old Guard.

Can you find an example of "OG" being used in this manner? Every example from pop culture I've seen says Fyraltari's explanation is correct.

[Morquard]

This strip strikes me as a bit odd. Hilgya is peculiarly nonchalant about meeting the order again. Shouldn't she assume that they are still allied with Durkon and would attempt to prevent her from killing him? How does she know their "strategy concerns" discussion doesn't involve subduing her? Why isn't one of her first questions "so where is Durkon, anyways?"

She obviously doesn't know about the Godsmoot but the fact that she doesn't ask these questions makes me think she does know that Durkon is vamped.

She came here knowing that someone is here looking to kill Durkon. She finds the Order, and Durkon isn't with them. So maybe she assumes Durkon betrayed them just like he betrayed her. Or Loki actually told her "Go there, you'll find the Order of the Stick, trying to kill Durkon"

[Kantaki]

Someone explain the OG part to me please

It stands for Original Gangster, ie she was doing it (being a member of the LG) before it was cool and all that.

Nah, it means Old Guard.

Overzealous Gourmets.
Or maybe Original Generation?
Nah, that sounds silly.

[HalfTangible]

OK, so she's still a cleric of Loki, but no explanation as to how she Turned rather than Rebuked Undead.

Edit: also, not outright stated, but I think this page bolsters the case that she's unaware of Durkon's vampirization.

I love the baby just grabbing for the helmet.

GW

It's not impossible by any means. Being a cleric for a particular deity requires that your alignment be either your diety's alignment or one step away from it, and neutral clerics get to pick whether they turn or rebuke/bolster.

[KorvinStarmast]

Haley: leave it to Loki to find a loophole in the rules.

Possible double meaning pointing to Hilgya turning undead ... depending upon Loki's finally revealed (at some point) alignment.

[IntelectPaladin]

Well. I'm still terrified at what happens next,
and still doubting any sort of happy ending here. There's too much pressure.
Still, at least they were perceptive.
Here's to hoping my doubts are entirely misplaced.
Thank you for reading this.

[Kish]

Overzealous Gourmets.:smalltongue
Or maybe Original Generation?
Nah, that sounds silly.

Obsolete Goons. Not a nice thing to say about Hilgya, but...sometimes Elan's like that.

[wingedcatgirl]

It's not impossible by any means. Being a cleric for a particular deity requires that your alignment be either your diety's alignment or one step away from it, and neutral clerics get to pick whether they turn or rebuke/bolster.

Neutral clerics only get to pick if the god is also Neutral.

Either Loki isn't evil, or something unusual is going on.

[Kereminde]

Neutral clerics only get to pick if the god is also Neutral.

Either Loki isn't evil, or something unusual is going on.

It's Loki, something unusual going on is usual.

[The MunchKING]

It feels like an euphemism for sex, given that it is Belkar. In any case, I've never heard of it before, if it is indeed slang.

I was thinking he meant contraception of some kind.

[137beth]

So Haley, Elan, and Belkar on board with the forumite speculation.

[Vendanna]

Neutral clerics only get to pick if the god is also Neutral.

Either Loki isn't evil, or something unusual is going on.

Maybe he ain't Chaotic Evil, but he is Neutral Evil, and he is using as loophole the "neutral" from the first alignement bar as if it where "neutral" on the good/evil axis, saying that should count as neutral for the picking part, since the rules doesn't pin point which "neutral" it refers to.

(ofc, that's my opinion since I don't have a hold of the rules) :P

[The MunchKING]

If it's B it's a double serving of hypocrisy since she could have Sent to him anytime.
Aaaaaaah break-ups are always such messy things.

Only if Loki gave her Sending. Downside of being a Cleric is you rely on your God to give you spells. If Loki didn't want her getting in touch just to build this moment, she's not getting Sending.

Someone explain the OG part to me please

Original Group. :p :p

Although from what I understand the origin of the phase was Original Gangster, meaning a rapper who was a gangster before starting a rap career, but now it's being used to refer to anything that was in the group before it got famous.

[Lethologica]

I always assumed that OotS characters had to take a certain % of their hit points as damage before we start seeing visible wounds. Assuming the cleric was level 9, rolled below-average on damage, and Roy made his save, he took around 10 hit points damage, which could be a tiny enough fraction of his total not to be visible.

In this strip, Lien takes damage from Thor's Lightning, but no new visible wounds appear. So something like the mechanism you suggest is operational.

[Fyraltari]

I was in that 56-page long thread that says ... a bunch of us had lots of time on our hands, and Rich took a (well deserved) break and the strip lingered for about two weeks before we got some answers.

Man, that hit close to home.

Nah, it means Old Guard.

That's actually way better. I don't care if it's true or not, I'm going to say that.

It's Loki, something unusual going on is usual.

Then, he should do something unusual by doing something usual. Now, let's see what would be usual for Loki to do... Gasp! He told Hylgia to betray the Order!


Now excuse me I am going to check for survivors among my neighbours.

[Morquard]

Only if Loki gave her Sending. Downside of being a Cleric is you rely on your God to give you spells. If Loki didn't want her getting in touch just to build this moment, she's not getting Sending.

Well we know that Loki at least can give Sending, the Cleric of Loki in Greysky was the one who cast Sending for Haley.

It's also possible that Hilgya was harrassing Durkon via Sending for a while after their breakup, so he put her on the no-call list, so when she had something important to say, she couldn#t send anymore? Ok I kinda doubt that one myself

[Shining Wrath]

Vaarsuvius wins the comic.
Loki didn't send his cleric to interfere with the Godsmoot - he sent one to kill Durkon Thundershield. Trickster God, is Tricksy.
Although, come to think of it, if the all-out assault by Thrym's frost giants didn't break the rules, there isn't anything Hilgya could possibly do that would break them.

Anyway, there's about to be some dramatic tension, because will Hilgya agree to murder Durkula but then resurrect Durkon? And can she be trusted to do so if she does agree?

[JumboWheat01]

Aww... baby wants the helmet. Smart baby, always wear a helmet in combat situations.

[atemu1234]

I am loving this vampire arc!

The forum four weeks ago: IDK about this arc, it seems to be getting a bit long, maybe we should end it quickly...
The forum now: I WILL PUT UP WITH ANYTHING SO LONG AS WE GET TO THE FANTASY MAURY-MOMENT.

[Fyraltari]

Loki didn't send his cleric to interfere with the Godsmoot - he sent one to kill Durkon Thundershield. Trickster God, is Tricksy.
Although, come to think of it, if the all-out assault by Thrym's frost giants didn't break the rules, there isn't anything Hilgya could possibly do that would break them.

Why would the Order or crew of the Mechane be protected by the gods' rules ? The only Cleric aboard worships the Western Pantheon, Roy and Belkar do not work for the Church of Hel anymore and the only member of the Order that's anything close to religious prays to a puppet that's unaffiliated with the Godsmoot.

Really they are just a band of adventurers working on nobody's behalf that would make good plunder and Thrym told his worshippers about them as a reward for their faith, that's all there is to see here.

Who says a girl can't take after her father, heh ?
(Or maybe trickery is a giant thing, Loki must have got it somewhere right ? That's pretty unlikely.)

[Lethologica]

One way Sending wouldn't have gotten through is if Hilgya didn't start trying to find Durkon before he was vamped.

One reason Hilgya might not have tried Sending is if she always wanted to kill Durkon and specifically wanted to get the jump on him, in which case contacting him would be counterproductive.

[Shining Wrath]

Hilgya has explicitly stated she wants to murder Durkon.
She is unaware of saving the world, so knows nothing of the Godsmoot.
I'm going to guess she doesn't know Durkon is a vampire.

Rich is simply ignoring 3.5 rules regarding alignment and turning undead for purposes of telling a good story, is my guess. He's modified the rules before to tell his story his way. Most DM's do, in my experience.

Possibility: Hilgya feels honor-bound to kill Durkon; it's not really personal, it's just dwarven custom that she is choosing to follow (since she's obviously willing to break others).

Remember, nothing - NOTHING - required her to return to dwarven lands after exiting Durukon's dungeon. Just because she's no longer in the Linear Guild and is no longer with Durkon doesn't mean she has to go home. I'd bet that she could have gotten a job as the healbot for the Greysky thieves' guild, for example.

Well, nothing except dramatic entrances.

But anyway, she may not be as willing to violate societal norms as she once was; and, perhaps having lost her husband due to carrying another man's child, is now expected to kill her former lover.