Goblins

[Gez]

Nail got nailed pretty quick.

[Winterwind]

Is it sure the Minotaur is dead at all? When I first saw the page with the Minotaur, I interpreted it as "he tries to open the gate, is being pelted with bolts, starts to dispair as he is unable to open it and his strength is starting to fade, then the ogre and ettin come to help him". It never occured to me he might be dead until reading it here in this thread.

Today's page was very much necessary from a writer's point of view. After being repeatedly shown to be a rather petty and short-sighted (figuratively speaking) man, and being outsmarted by Thaco, some display of badassery on the Goblinslayer's part was much needed to emphasise what a great menace he is. This page served this purpose formidably. Well done, Thunt.

[Castel]

But... he got hit with about 20 crossbow bolts! Isn't that enough to kill a minotaur?

And he disappeared since panel 4 of this strip... maybe he was summoned and went poof?

Anyone else thinks Not-Nale's exit was a bit... lame? I just think adding a petty insult at the end of your last line is a bit sad.

[Job]

But... he got hit with about 20 crossbow bolts! Isn't that enough to kill a minotaur?

Normal Minotaurs have 39 hit points so yes 20+ bolts at 1d8 to 1d10 damage are likely to take him down.

However he also has +5 natural armor, so many people would construe this to mean that any attack that missed his AC (14 + cover) by up to 5 would 'harmlessly' stick in his hide rather then miss entirely. Add to that the further abstraction of hit points in general and the cinematic nature of Goblins, and it's reasonable to assume he survived and was pulled or moved away from the gate.

[Gez]

And he disappeared since panel 4 of this strip... maybe he was summoned and went poof?

So he was a Maulotaur summoned through a Dark Servant artifact.

Anyone else thinks Not-Nale's exit was a bit... lame? I just think adding a petty insult at the end of your last line is a bit sad.

Well, Nail did not expect it to be his last line. In fact, he expected to be able to deliver some payback, but totally drew a rubber check. I guess Nails aren't as tough as they're cracked up to be...

[Winterwind]

But... he got hit with about 20 crossbow bolts! Isn't that enough to kill a minotaur?

I care much less about what the rules say than what the comic actually shows, and what it showed was the minotaur being hit by bolts that were hardly able to penetrate his fur and skin, much less reach vital organs. He still might have died from blood loss, those were a lot of tiny wounds, but in this case I imagine Thunt would likely have depicted actual severe bleeding - note how in the strip itself, there is only very little blood to be seen.

[Gez]

Also, in that world, people have numbers floating over their heads when they're in the negative hp. And you can't die from blood loss, no matter how many bleeding wounds you have, as long as you are in the positive.

[Castel]

I care much less about what the rules say than what the comic actually shows, and what it showed was the minotaur being hit by bolts that were hardly able to penetrate his fur and skin, much less reach vital organs. He still might have died from blood loss, those were a lot of tiny wounds, but in this case I imagine Thunt would likely have depicted actual severe bleeding - note how in the strip itself, there is only very little blood to be seen.

I wasn't really talking about the rules, I said "about 20 bolts" to emphasize that the minotaur was left as a pin cushion (and thats almost the total number of "Thups" shown).
I still think that the minotaur is dead. Like Gez said, when you're in negative hitpoints in the goblinverse, those numbers show above your head and, normally, characters faint when in negative hitpoints. But there are no numbers floating over the minotaurs head, thus leading me to believe he's dead.

But.
Since the minotaur just disappeared after being struck by the bolts and we're just shown monsters swarming without any apparent obstacle (a corpse that big should hinder their movement, since they'd have to go around it or step on the body, but that doesn't seem to be the case, judging from panel 5) where the minotaur used to be, and a bunch of small and some medium-sized monsters should have a hard time moving that thing.

And so, I stand by Gez's theory of that being an actual Maulotaur, and it disappeared after recieving much damage, or its time ran out.

[Winterwind]

I wasn't really talking about the rules, I said "about 20 bolts" to emphasize that the minotaur was left as a pin cushion (and thats almost the total number of "Thups" shown).
I still think that the minotaur is dead. Like Gez said, when you're in negative hitpoints in the goblinverse, those numbers show above your head and, normally, characters faint when in negative hitpoints. But there are no numbers floating over the minotaurs head, thus leading me to believe he's dead.

A perfectly valid conclusion; I, on the other hand, draw the rather polar opposite conclusion and think rather that the minotaur was not put into negative hit points by that barrage in the first place. After all, while it may have turned him into a pincushion, considering the respective size of minotaur and bolts, that's hardly more than a glorified acupuncture for him.

[Tempest Fennac]

Those are actually really good points. I assumed the bolts were causing lethal damage due to how many hit him.

[Castel]

A perfectly valid conclusion; I, on the other hand, draw the rather polar opposite conclusion and think rather that the minotaur was not put into negative hit points by that barrage in the first place. After all, while it may have turned him into a pincushion, considering the respective size of minotaur and bolts, that's hardly more than a glorified acupuncture for him.

Good Point.
I was thinking along the lines of "shoot anything enough times and it will die"

Maybe I'll ask thunt in the live feed if I get the chance... The way the minotaur just disappeared leaves us unable to come to a definite conclusion (but I guess that if you go by tropes, there was one that said something like "no body, not death"...)

[Hands_Of_Blue]

In the third panel, you can see how long the bolts are compared to him by the one breaking on his horn, so all the bolts went in pretty deep. And he had about four of those in his forehead, so I think his brain has been skewered.

[Sholos]

Thunt also seems to be using a variant combat system where locational damage actually means something (like the broken arm).

[Winterwind]

In the third panel, you can see how long the bolts are compared to him by the one breaking on his horn, so all the bolts went in pretty deep. And he had about four of those in his forehead, so I think his brain has been skewered.

Hmm, good point... Still fairly little blood for that, but yeah, this broken bolt makes this seem a lot more dangerous.
I guess we will have to wait for an official statement.

[High-Chancellor]

Don't think I buy it, foreshortening and all. We don't really have a good angle to see how far any of them went in. And if they didn't go in very far, it would line up pretty neatly to those bloody bolts lying on the ground.


Who would bother pulling bolts out of a corpse anyways?

[Radar]

Don't think I buy it, foreshortening and all. We don't really have a good angle to see how far any of them went in. And if they didn't go in very far, it would line up pretty neatly to those bloody bolts lying on the ground.


Who would bother pulling bolts out of a corpse anyways?

The minotaur was hit by at least 25 bolts (i did count). There are less then 10 broken piecec of bolts on the ground and amount of bloob is minimal. If anyone would pull bolts out of the minotaur, there would be more of it (bolts and blood). It rather looks like some of the bolts were broken and minotaur draged away (or he walked on his own).

[Castel]

Changing the subject a little:

Did anyone save the strip with the original "It hurts... It hurts like a sickness!"?

[Winterwind]

Changing the subject a little:

Did anyone save the strip with the original "It hurts... It hurts like a sickness!"?

Yes, I did.

[Felius]

Yes, I did.

On that subject, if you are going to send it to anyone, I want a copy as well, so I can compare it...

[Castel]

Yes, I did.

In that case, could send me a copy please?

[Winterwind]

Umm... well, I would, but the forum does not reveal your e-mail addresses, and it does not seem to be possible to attach files when sending mails via the forum itself (or, if it is, I don't see how).
I don't want to upload it anywhere - this is Thunt's property, after all - so I think the only way would be if you PMed me your e-mail addresses (or instructed me how one can send files via forum, if it is possible after all).

[High-Chancellor]

you could always go to the goblins live feed and ask thunt himself if you can upload it for posterity.

[Felius]

My email is [email protected]

(yes, I do trust quite a little google's spam filter quite a lot. )

[Winterwind]

Strip in question sent to both of you.

[Castel]

Again, thanks a lot, Winterwind.

[Tempest Fennac]

Good news: Chief has a friend. Bad news: guards found him.

[averagejoe]

You know, I think I rather like Kin.

[Gez]

I liked her comment about leverage. Chief's clumsy attempt at operating the capstan ironically echoes Thaco's previous comment about how "our best goblin" is on the problem.

[Neoriceisgood]

I liked her comment about leverage. Chief's clumsy attempt at operating the capstan ironically echoes Thaco's previous comment about how "our best goblin" is on the problem.

At first I was like "doesn't he need like, six people?"

When I looked at panel 1 and 2 again, I realised exactly -how- he was attempting to move it.

That's hilarious.

[Ascension]

Good news: Chief has a friend. Bad news: guards found him.

Worse News: Kin pretty much says outright here that she's only trying to enable her own escape. Not exactly the deus ex machina we need to get our heroes out of this jam.