OOTS #1154 - The Discussion Thread

[chy03001]

WHY?!

Why wasn't Elan in the room for this?!?!

[nolongeralurker]

So, apparently Minrah will be joining the next battle as well! I hadn't thought of that for some reason, maybe because I think someone suggested Durkon would wait to raise her so that he could use all his spells in the battle. But thinking about it now, it makes sense tactically that he'd use one spell to raise her and then they'd gain all of her spells. I suppose it's theoretically possible he'll heal Sigdi so she can help in the battle too, as someone suggested last thread I believe, but I doubt that'll happen.

And Durkon finally has a weapon upgrade. Cool! I wonder where he plans to get a new armor set.

They're in a temple of Thor. There's probably some spare armor around.

Yay, long awaited weapon upgrade!
Nice twist to the prophecy too, making it about Durkon's choice to kick ass

So death was dealt by Durkula, and the destruction will come from the recovered Durkon? Hmmmm.

The only problem with these interpretations is that the priest of Odin said "for us all." Maybe "all" is used loosely enough that it only applies to those of "us" that were turned into vampires (similar to how, if it's used loosely, it could apply to just the dwarves who've already been killed and vamped, as people have said before. Of course, there's still people's interpretation that "for" only refers to Durkula's intentions, not what he was actually able to accomplish...).

Me.

Maybe I'm just being stupid, but I don't get this.

[The Pilgrim]

Ready to roll them!

That little secret got resolved faster than expected. Good to see plot points getting resolved at fast pace.

[Turin_19]

Here's a (possibly non-comprehensive) linked list of Order of the Stick weapon upgrades:

Vaarsuvius - Ring of Wizardry
Roy Greenhilt - Starmetal Sword
Elan - Keen Rapier
Haley Starshine - Icy Burst Arch-O-Ry
Elan (again) - Chaos Sabre
Belkar Bitterleaf - Psionic Dagger
Blackwing - Ioun Stone
Roy Greenhilt (again) - Weapons of Legacy Book (booster for Starmetal Sword)
Durkon Thundershield - Hammer of ???

I've been thinking of this and how power is currently distributed along the order now. V seemed to me the most powerful, but could we say now that Durkon and Roy are very similar to her now?

While Haley and Belkar seem 'weaker' but maybe capable of attacking more times per round? (I'm no D&D player).



And Elan even weaker.

[zimmerwald1915]

I've been thinking of this and how power is currently distributed along the order now. V seemed to me the most powerful, but could we say now that Durkon and Roy are very similar to her now?

While Haley and Belkar seem 'weaker' but maybe capable of attacking more times per round? (I'm no D&D player).



And Elan even weaker.

Elan is by far the most powerful, since he can manipulate how the world works. That he chooses not to is of no moment.

Vaarsuvius and Haley are probably the highest-level, for what that's worth (nothing).

[Peelee]

Maybe I'm just being stupid, but I don't get this.

Grey Watcher quoted a line from Darken. He also used the forum's Quote function on one of my posts, so I weasled my way into winning a quatloo (and a finely crafted one at that).

[Snails]

Whaaaaaaaaaaat this is amazing omgrotf he needs frikkin gloves to weild it?!?!

Well..

Járngreipr
(from Wikipedia)
In Norse mythology, Járngreipr (Old Norse "iron grippers") or Járnglófar ("iron gauntlets"[1]) are the iron gloves of the god Thor. According to the Prose Edda, along with the hammer Mjölnir and the belt Megingjörð, Járngreipr is one of Thor's three crucial possessions. According to chapter 20 of the book Gylfaginning, he requires the gloves to handle his powerful hammer. The reason for this may come from the forging of the hammer, when the dwarf working the bellows was bitten in his eye by a gadfly (commonly held to be Loki in disguise) which caused the handle of the hammer to be shortened.

BTW, in the world of D&D 1e, Mjölnir can be wielded by a mortal who wears both a Belt of Giant Strength and Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Giant strength was required to even pick it up.

So I would guess this hammer is an incarnation of Mjölnir, an Epic-level artifact forged to closely follow the inspiration of the real thing. Thor obviously is holding the True Mjölnir.

[The Pilgrim]

Durkon Thundershield - Hammer of ???

I bet it's the Hammer of Thunderbolts:
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Ha...f_Thunderbolts

Which may mean that those gaunlets are not for show, but actually the Gaunlets of Ogre Power.

[LasVegasLawyer]

WOW

That's a good upgrade, I must say. I don't think that's THE MJOLNIR, but I do think it may be A Hammer of Thunderbolts, which is a minor artifact and quite powerful. If those gloves are Gauntlets of Ogre Power and if there's a Belt of Giant Strength in there too, we may be looking for very powerful combination.

LoKi SuCKs LOL

You mean like the belt around Roy's waist?

[nolongeralurker]

Grey Watcher quoted a line from Draken. He also used the forum's Quote function on one of my posts, so I weasled my way into winning a quatloo (and a finely crafted one at that).

Oh, okay, cool. I thought it was something along those lines, but I didn't realize he'd quoted something else you said.

[RaveDave92084]

Repeated listed to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" after the mention while reading this discussion and re-reading the comic...

VERY appropriate for reading this comic if you can.

The password was entirely, wickedly, EPICally (?is this a word?, should it be?) funny for me. Hit my funny bone just right.

So, we see, potentially, a hammer of Thunderbolts and gauntlets of Ogre Power, no belt, yet.

Let us see the Champion of Thor bring the prophesied DESTRUCTION..A-A-A-A-A-A-H, AH, A-A-A-A-A-H, AH... We come from the land of the ice snow

ARGH!!! now I have the ear worm again... so distressing.

[zimmerwald1915]

You mean like the belt around Roy's waist?

Like that one, but probably not that one. The hammer probably comes cached with one, that Durkon simply hasn't picked up yet.

That or he's been wearing one since the first strip, and never mentioned it.

[137beth]

Ah, so that's what he wouldn't let us here

[Kish]

Elan is by far the most powerful, since he can manipulate how the world works. That he chooses not to is of no moment.

Sounding like Tarquin is bad.

[Vendanna]

...it's got the lightning logo right there, and it was apparently stashed with a pair of gauntlets, which I'm betting are Gauntlets of Ogre Power. There might be a Belt of Giant Strength in there as well - the whole kit needed to use a Hammer of Thunderbolts at full effect.

Roy HAS a belt of giant strenght he got from rescuing those guys from the slaver bugs in the desert. just in case you have forgotten, which wouldn't be hard to happen since it was a long time ago. :)

[zimmerwald1915]

Sounding like Tarquin is bad.

So are ad hominem fallacies. Just because Tarquin believes something does not make that thing untrue. Nor does having a belief in common with Tarquin mean that a speaker holds all of Tarquin's beliefs.

[AutomatedTeller]

I love the hammer, love "Loki sucks", which I missed until the forum, but I think "ruminant boob drippings" is the best part of the comic ;)

[Grey Watcher]

Mink, from Darken comic. Funnily enough, I remembered the quote, the characters and the plot, but not the actual name of the comic.

But... but... he spelled it wrong! That doesn't count!

Do you people think I'm made of quatloos!?

Ugh, fine! But this is the last one!

:hands over quatloo:

[Joe the Rat]

Hammer a' Thunderboolts!

Or not. But if he needs to borrow Roy's belt to go with those swell gauntlets...

[Henk]

I'd love to get that last panel as a wallpaper for my iPhone...

[AutomatedTeller]

Is V required to trance to learn spells? I ask, because it was a big plot point that trancing is not biologically necessary for elves, and in fact during the whole research thing, there was no trancing.

Is this just because V is smarter now?

[SilverCacaobean]

So are ad hominem fallacies. Just because Tarquin believes something does not make that thing untrue. Nor does having a belief in common with Tarquin mean that a speaker holds all of Tarquin's beliefs.

Tarquin was wrong though. He didn't manage to control the narrative the way he thought he would and neither can Elan.

[Grey Watcher]

Tarquin was wrong though. He didn't manage to control the narrative the way he thought he would and neither can Elan.

We heard you like fallacies, so we put fallacies in your fallacies.

[Fyraltari]

Is V required to trance to learn spells? I ask, because it was a big plot point that trancing is not biologically necessary for elves, and in fact during the whole research thing, there was no trancing.

Is this just because V is smarter now?

Did V struck you as healthy during that time? Just becaause something isn't necessary for you to stay alive doesn't mean it isn't good for you. Also the reason V avoided trancing was because of the guilt-tripping dreams, which I think they have gotten over by now.

[GregTD]

The password "Loki sucks" nearly made me spill my coffee.
Awesome comic.

Um, where are you all seeing that?

[tyckspoon]

Is V required to trance to learn spells? I ask, because it was a big plot point that trancing is not biologically necessary for elves, and in fact during the whole research thing, there was no trancing.

Is this just because V is smarter now?

It's not 'biologically necessary' in about the same way sleeping is not 'biologically necessary' for humans - which is to say, you can avoid doing it and it won't (immediately) kill you, but you will suffer for it. The text requirement for recovering spells is '8 hours of rest' - that doesn't have to include sleep/trance, but any sufficiently strenuous activity will disrupt it. V presumably found some activity (reading books of magical theory or similar, probably) that would help with their studies but still counted as 'resting' to do instead of trancing. They have probably since realized that being exhausted and on edge because they decided to do something 'useful' instead of trancing doesn't actually help the Order.

Roy HAS a belt of giant strenght he got from rescuing those guys from the slaver bugs in the desert. just in case you have forgotten, which wouldn't be hard to happen since it was a long time ago. :)

Hadn't forgotten, just figured Roy probably won't be asked to surrender his item so Durkon can make use of another one. Especially if, say, Roy has a +6 belt, and the Hammer was stashed with +2 Gloves and a +4 belt.. not that Rich is likely to go into the exact bonuses in that detail, but it would mean they're getting the same total benefit from their respective items, while still leaving Roy as 'the strong one' due to likely starting with a higher Strength.

[Fyraltari]

Um, where are you all seeing that?

The letters Durkon pressed are darker.

[zimmerwald1915]

Tarquin was wrong though. He didn't manage to control the narrative the way he thought he would and neither can Elan.

Tarquin applied his method using the wrong inputs - for instance, an assumption that the story about himself was the central one. That does not invalidate the method, it merely means that one must be careful when applying it.

Also, Tarquin had Elan working against him, as opposed to the savvy-less people who had been his opponents all his life up til then.

[zimmerwald1915]

Also the reason V avoided trancing was because of the guilt-tripping dreams, which I think they have gotten over by now.

You'd think the opposite would be true, but apparently genocide is a thing you just get over.

Or maybe instead of running from it, Vaarsuvius punishes herself by subjecting herself to the memory over and over.

[kenlund]

If Durkon lost a spell level or some number of spells by being raised twice....I guess this will make up for it!!