120 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 108

[Chicken Little]

New strip!

The glasses tell you their names... doh!

[Moral Wiz]

Now, it begins!

[Half_Moon]

I love the sound effects and stuff. Like Redox

But where did all those corpses in the tunnels come from?

[Vesilasi]

Is that Webinar croaked in the last panel?

[Subtext]

D'oh indeed. We should have remembered that...

Anyway, nice strip (again). I really love Sizemore's evil look on the first panel :D

And no, I don't think that Webinar is dead...someone's shouting orders while the soldiers are climbing the walls (last panel) and the person on the right seems to be Dora.

[The Old Hack]

And the battle begins. Webinar lives fully up to his deeds so far, but I wonder if it will be enough to save him. One wonderful added charm of underground fire is that it not only brings all the joys of smoke poisoning but also uses the oxygen you need to breathe.

[hiigaran]

Parson still probably needed jacks name to send him the thinkagram

[Cadrys]

I don't think that's an 'evil' look on Sizemore, it's more of a 'game face'. He's off to do something he really doesn't want to do. [Existential angst in a game piece!]

Can someone with more chemistry-fu than I tell us *what* redox reaction is fueling things there?

[Ascension]

Awesome, one of the crap golems looks like Hedorah the Smog Monster!

[DCR]

Can someone with more chemistry-fu than I tell us *what* redox reaction is fueling things there?

Oooooohhhhhhhh man...
I propose that sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter are being mixed in a 1:1:6 ratio by that golem in panel 4.
Gunpowder go boom.
Parson, you magnificent cheating why-didn't-I-think-of-that sunuvuhgun.

[SteveMB]

New strip!

The glasses tell you their names... doh!

Obviously, a commander's standard ability to see stats doesn't show names (unless you know them already), or Stanley would have known Jack's name on sight.

Apparently, ability to see stats works via Thinkagram (at least for the glasses, dunno about ordinary commanders). Ansom didn't note anything unusual about not seeing Parson's stats, but that could just be a matter of having more important things to think about (and to become enraged about).

[jindra34]

note to self (and anyone else who cares): chemical reactions can still work... and something tells me that that means a lot of other sciences work at least a little...

[AstralFire]

I don't get the last panel.

[SteveMB]

I don't get the last panel.

I thought it was pretty obvious -- the liquid was some sort of "Greek Fire" type trap that went up in flames. Some of the Jetstone units got caught, others managed to climb onto a ledge in the tunnel (which may be exactly where Parson wants them... ).

[Alynn]

So, the glasses let Parson see the stats of the person, but it also seems to allow him to see the actual person inside the outer shell. Notice how not deranged Jack looks through the glasses.

So I wonder. Is the "O tempt not a desperate man..." what Parson heard, and "...nnuncle" what Jack said, or nnuncle was something said after? The elipses suggest a continuation of the sentence, so I'm curious if there is an actual conversation that is going to be possible or not.

It just seems to me the glasses translate not what Jack is saying, but what he would be saying if his mind was whole.

Or perhaps its a function of the thinkogram.



Oh, and is that burning poo water? If so, all we need is diesel fuel and a metal rod and we can keep that burning for hours.

[Generalissimus]

note to self (and anyone else who cares): chemical reactions can still work... and something tells me that that means a lot of other sciences work at least a little...

I think all the physyc & chemistry works OK in erfworld... the magic is an exception assumed by everybody.

So... maybe Parson is beginning a weapon race in Erfworld. If he is really making powder.

[OnDroid]

Hmm, by the change of Jack from panel 2 to 3 I think that Parson really plans to mislead Stanley with his own Foolamancer.

And Sizemore's glowing shovel ( of office ) is simply great.

[SteveMB]

Hmm, by the change of Jack from panel 2 to 3 I think that Parson really plans to mislead Stanley with his own Foolamancer.

The really amusing thing is that the Foolamancer can do it right under Stanley's nose -- by now, Stanley is probably accustomed to treating anything the Foolamancer says as mere background noise.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yeah, it's interesting how this is the first thing anyone has got out of the foolamancer that made any sense when related to the previous statement.

And the glowing shovel is great. I want one.

[stupidface]

Seems to me like Jack's proving somewhat difficult to snap out of his delusional trance. He looks in panel 2 like the thinkagram surprised him, and then in panel 3 his reaction is more of the same backlash kind of stuff. He looks like he's having an aneurysm or something.

[Vesilasi]

So I wonder. Is the "O tempt not a desperate man..." what Parson heard, and "...nnuncle" what Jack said, or nnuncle was something said after? The elipses suggest a continuation of the sentence, so I'm curious if there is an actual conversation that is going to be possible or not.

"nuncle" is just how he addresses people, I think. He used it with Stanley when the link was broken.

[rman]

Can someone with more chemistry-fu than I tell us *what* redox reaction is fueling things there?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redox

Redox. Mostly associated with reaction with O2. Like fire combining free oxygen into other stuff. The key point being reducing the amount of free oxygen in the system. Side affects like heat, pressure (explosion), acid, poison may occur. The most likely results are CO2 and CO.

Fires in enclosed spaces are bad. Note that as O2 concentration goes down CO is produced in preference to CO2. Also CO is still flamable should the O2 concentration go up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide
CO2 is toxic in higher concentrations: 1% (10,000 ppm) will make some people feel drowsy[citation needed]. Concentrations of 7% to 10% cause dizziness, headache, visual and hearing dysfunction, and unconsciousness within a few minutes to an hour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide
Carbon monoxide is a significantly toxic gas and has no odor or color. It is the most common type of fatal poisoning in many countries. Exposures can lead to significant toxicity of the central nervous system and heart.
Carbon monoxide forms in preference to the more usual carbon dioxide when there is a reduced availability of oxygen present during the combustion process. Carbon monoxide has significant fuel value, burning in air with a characteristic blue flame, producing carbon dioxide. Despite its serious toxicity, CO plays a highly useful role in modern technology, being a precursor to myriad products.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning

[Doctor Zuber]

Humm... The glasses doesn't quite make sense. Allegedly they duplicate a normal commanders ability, which would say that Stanley can just look at Jack and know his name.

Does this mean the glasses are more powerful than the normal warlord sight? Or like someone else suggested Does it mean that since Parson was able to get Jack's name from Wanda, he can see it in the unit stats? And it doesn't quite explain why it shows Jack in his original un-warped form. For every answer, there are new questions...

As for jacks commentary of ....nuncle. I don't think he's said a single sentence in a long while that didn't have elipses in it somewhere. My take was always that he speaks in odd halting pauses, and many odd phrases.

Looks like Ansom is getting a bloody nose in the tunnels. Now to see what Parson has in mind to deal with the siege units aboveground.

[PePe QuiCoSE]

oh, FITH: Fire In The Hole

Nice, had to look that one up. I guess it's GK owning time.

[Lord_Butters_I]

It's not gunpowder, Webinar treats it like liquid.

[Radar]

I really liked that "redox" onomatopeia. :D

Also it looks like Webinar makes a good use of his brain. Point to him for quick reaction.

[Doctor Zuber]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redox

Redox. Mostly associated with reaction with O2. Like fire combining free oxygen into other stuff. The key point being reducing the amount of free oxygen in the system. Side affects like heat, pressure (explosion), acid, poison may occur. The most likely results are CO2 and CO.

Fires in enclosed spaces are bad. Note that as O2 concentration goes down CO is produced in preference to CO2. Also CO is still flamable should the O2 concentration go up.

Wow.... Chem-fu indeed. Thank you for the thorough explantion of redox and the many possible nasty side effects that may be included. I realize this is a fantasy world, but our writer is also a fairly intelligent guy, he may well choose to include some or all of these nasty side effects in his world. ;P

[Generalissimus]

It's not gunpowder, Webinar treats it like liquid.

I think I remember something... something about sh*t. I think s*i* has a lot to do with CO2 and CO. Parson is playing really dirt here!!

Edit: Now I remember: The decomposition of the excrements produces CO and CO2... Parson has just introduced the WMD in Erfworld, with the help of a pacifist-dirtamancer.

[St.Sinner]

Apparently, ability to see stats works via Thinkagram (at least for the glasses, dunno about ordinary commanders). Ansom didn't note anything unusual about not seeing Parson's stats, but that could just be a matter of having more important things to think about (and to become enraged about).

Can you see the stats of enemy units? I'd have thought you could only see your own unit stats.

Ugh... crap golems in the first panel.

[Doctor Zuber]

I think I remember something... something about sh*t. I think s*i* has a lot to do with CO2 and CO. Parson is playing really dirt here!!

Um yes. I guess it's my turn to break out some HazMat-Fu. You're thinking of Hydrogen_sulfide[H2S]. H2S is colorless, essentially odorless, and highly lethal. However, this has little to do with caves and fire. The creation of H2S is actually a natural biological process. Common places to find H2S are sewers and oil wells.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide

The problem here, is if H2S was present, everybody would be dead as soon as they enter the cave. It wouldn't just suddenly form mid comic on you, it's a slower process than that.