Girl Genius XIII: "Gott's Leedle Feesh in Trousers!"

[Gez]

Hey, look what I found: a flying yurt!

The Castle is going to be so jealous...

[Traab]

Originally Posted by eee

I wonder what the story of the big machine is. Why would the Heterodynes build such a thing - it looks like a generator of some kind - and then brick it up? Some sort of secret weapon?

I also wonder what der Kestel's problem is. Moloch has repaired the water wheel and now apparently the coal gas lines: Just how much power does it need to stabilize itself and reactivate its memory circuits? It's not as if it's having to devote effort to fighting, any more. Of course it might be pouring all the power it's getting into reconnaissance to see what's coming, and running city systems so the Mechanicsburgers can build up defenses: But still, it seems like a very massive energy sink.

The way I see it is, the castle was at its last few flickers before the wheel got fixed. Now it has power coming in, but its not an infinite amount coming in every second. Its basically enough to keep its very least amount running, with maybe a trickle left over to add to the reserves. If it tries to activate a big weapon, it will drain all power and shut down. That coal gas line is probably the only reason it was able to set off the torchmen. As a math formula I will try to explain it.

The castle keeping its mental functions and voice running requires 10 units of power per second

The dyne wheel provides 12 units of power per second

The lava canons require 400 units of power per second

The castle is currently at less than 100 units of power remaining as of the wheel activating.

Much like one of those rts wargames like warcraft 3, you start off with little resources, and it would be stupid to spend them all at once on a single big unit, which leaves you incapable of building up defenses, or gathering in more resources. You have to bide your time, work on increasing the flow of resources, and THEN you can start spending it carefully on the big ticket items. Thats what the castle is doing right now. It is getting the minions to repair as much as possible, because much like the coal lines, there may be other sources of energy out there it can tap into, and as it regains control over more and more of itself, there is more it might be capable of doing.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Originally Posted by Traab

Thats what the castle is doing right now. It is getting the minions to repair as much as possible, because much like the coal lines, there may be other sources of energy out there it can tap into, and as it regains control over more and more of itself, there is more it might be capable of doing.

I agree with everything you have said, and I want to throw an extra wrinkle to the castle's issue: it doesn't remember stuff. He keeps getting surprised to discover all these things he is getting connected to. The Dyne river is likely no longer enough to run the castle at full capacity, and every new source of energy is necessary just to activate the new systems it remembers that are connected to it.

After all, think of the castle just before it got hit. Do you think a spark would not use as close to 100% of the energy input of the castle? Of course he would. Sure, some of it will go to non-essentials, like heating the castle and what-not. But this being sparks, you can bet that most of the energy the castle could tap into would go to oversized death rays. So now that the batteries are low, and the death rays are necessary, you can't just reconnect the old power lines - you will need to add a few extra power sources as well as the old ones to recover the lost ground. Otherwise, each old source of energy will be earmarked for something already.

Grey Wolf

[Traab]

Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf_c

I agree with everything you have said, and I want to throw an extra wrinkle to the castle's issue: it doesn't remember stuff. He keeps getting surprised to discover all these things he is getting connected to. The Dyne river is likely no longer enough to run the castle at full capacity, and every new source of energy is necessary just to activate the new systems it remembers that are connected to it.

After all, think of the castle just before it got hit. Do you think a spark would not use as close to 100% of the energy input of the castle? Of course he would. Sure, some of it will go to non-essentials, like heating the castle and what-not. But this being sparks, you can bet that most of the energy the castle could tap into would go to oversized death rays. So now that the batteries are low, and the death rays are necessary, you can't just reconnect the old power lines - you will need to add a few extra power sources as well as the old ones to recover the lost ground. Otherwise, each old source of energy will be earmarked for something already.

Grey Wolf

If anything, I may have overstated the power granted by the dyne, versus what the castle needs to exist. Remember, the castle itself said that just with the dyne, it would be three YEARS before it had built up enough reserve power to do impressive things again. So if talking and thinking requires 10 units of power per second, the dyne provides 10.01 units of power per second. And you may be right. Things like the coal line may just be jerry rigged into supplying energy to the castle, instead of wherever they usually go. If so it would make sense to send those minions out looking for more places to repair, and extra power sources.

Imagine it like this. The dyne is a nuclear power plant in a city. But there is also a hydro electric dam nearby that is used for other purposes, a series of wind turbines setup to experiment with green energy, and the standard power plants. The castle needs way more power to come in. The nuclear plant is enough to keep it running, and eventually would get its reserves back up, but they need more power there NOW, so they are cobbling together connections from the hydro plant, the wind farm, and any other source of energy they can locate. So as an example, the dyne gives that 10.01 units of energy, the coal plant is adding in an extra 4 units, and if they can add in a few more sources, it may be able to build up enough raw power to send out a few carefully planned single blasts to try and bluff about its current level of power. It will still be months before enough reserve power is in place for a sustained defense, but thats better than years, and it can still do stuff in an emergency without setting itself back 10 months with every blast of the lava cannon.

[PhantomFox]

But... how did they set off the Torchmen to chase off the pink airship without these new sources of power?

[Traab]

Originally Posted by PhantomFox

But... how did they set off the Torchmen to chase off the pink airship without these new sources of power?

The coal gas line may have provided enough of a boost for the torchmen to be used.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Originally Posted by PhantomFox

But... how did they set off the Torchmen to chase off the pink airship without these new sources of power?

It sounds like the torchmen run on firedamp. Reconnecting to the coal mines would provide enough firedamp to recharge them for a second round of attacks. But firedamp could have been stored in the torchmen, and thus still have enough from before the castle explosion for the first round.

GW

[Matuse]

Anyone else think that Tympanus Heterodyne's concierto was written on the device featured here: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090213

[Lord Tyger]

Originally Posted by Matuse

Anyone else think that Tympanus Heterodyne's concierto was written on the device featured here: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090213

Hmm. A highly bloodcurling scream of sad, innocent, ecstasy?

[Candle Jack]

So in addition to being mass murderers, the Heterodynes were devil-worshippers too?

[HandofShadows]

Naw, they probably considered themselves more evil than the devil.

[Qwertystop]

No, I think that's the Doom Bell Ringer Statue

[Lord Tyger]

Originally Posted by Candle Jack

So in addition to being mass murderers, the Heterodynes were devil-worshippers too?

Given that he has the Heterodyne crest emblazoned on his forehead, I'm not sure worship is the best term.

Or devil, for that matter. Plenty of churches has grotesque statuary (IE, grotesques and gargoyles).

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Originally Posted by Lord Tyger

Or devil, for that matter. Plenty of churches has grotesque statuary (IE, grotesques and gargoyles).

Indeed. And the friezes are even worse. They are there to provide an education to peasants that cannot read or write, so they tend to be very graphical in their depiction of both sides of the Great Battle.

Grey Wolf

[eee]

Hm. I would have thought the Chapel would be dedicated to the local battle goddess of the Dyne. Evidently she got supplanted somewhere along the way.

Or that's her. O_O;

Grey Wolf, Traab, your comments regarding der Kestle's situation were most explanatory and plausible, and I find myself in agreement. So I will stop complaining about its power situation, and go on to complaining about how it's playing things too close to its metaphoric chest. I mean, why not tell Agatha what's up there fighting the Torchmen, or even give a word about what's shaking the ground? Even if she can't do anything about it, she might like to know. Obviously der Kestle has a flair for the dramatic that gets in the way of it being the perfect servant. In addition to it being borderline psycho.

Also, if the Castle has the ability to absorb energy, it occurs to me they could solve the problem if they managed to get Gil's lightning generators back on line and hit said Castle with a few lightning bolts. That much energy, even if not enough to recharge it fully, should get it back in the pink.

Or enable it to send a Delorean through time.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Originally Posted by eee

Grey Wolf, Traab, your comments regarding der Kestle's situation were most explanatory and plausible, and I find myself in agreement. So I will stop complaining about its power situation, and go on to complaining about how it's playing things too close to its metaphoric chest. I mean, why not tell Agatha what's up there fighting the Torchmen, or even give a word about what's shaking the ground? Even if she can't do anything about it, she might like to know. Obviously der Kestle has a flair for the dramatic that gets in the way of it being the perfect servant. In addition to it being borderline psycho.

Glad I could be of service. And keeping things secret strikes me as very much in character for the Kestle. It seems to have a directive to keep testing each new Heterodyne. It also is required to keep secrets, so in its not altogether-together state, it might be having trouble with full disclosure, especially with all those ears about. If loose words cause deaths, it might just be playing it safe.

Grey Wolf

[Gez]

They've fixed the font attack (it's now "aerial bombardment") and the speech balloon arrow in the first panels of both bloopered pages.

[sherlock]

So the whole Cathedral is a sort of "uber-torchman" in shape of a narwhal/shark hybrid? Very interesting!
(Especially for its target ... )

But this was definitely something that required quite a lot of power. Let's hope der Kestle mantains at least a little of rationality (sort of ...).

[factotum]

Originally Posted by sherlock

So the whole Cathedral is a sort of "uber-torchman" in shape of a narwhal/shark hybrid? Very interesting!

I got the impression the shark thing is not part of the cathedral, but something that is *attacking* the cathedral...surely the Abbess would know about it if it's a normal part of the building? It's not like this is the first time Mechanicsburg has ever been attacked, after all!

[HandofShadows]

Well, if this thing had not been used for 80 or 90 years it might have been forgotten about.

[BannedInSchool]

Originally Posted by factotum

I got the impression the shark thing is not part of the cathedral, but something that is *attacking* the cathedral...

Isn't there also someone with an underground burrowing machine or am I thinking of another comic entirely?

[ChowGuy]

Originally Posted by BannedInSchool

Isn't there also someone with an underground burrowing machine or am I thinking of another comic entirely?

Yep. The Mole Machine. Last seen delivering Othar to the Baron.

[eee]

Originally Posted by BannedInSchool

Isn't there also someone with an underground burrowing machine or am I thinking of another comic entirely?

Yes. Klaus has Mole Machines that can burrow through the ground like a submarine goes through water. One of them brought Grantz and Othar to the Great Hospital a while back. But those are basically cigar shaped giant drills. This is a drill shark. I wonder if it's another Spark seeking asylum...

The abbess is scary...

[BannedInSchool]

Originally Posted by eee

Yes. Klaus has Mole Machines that can burrow through the ground like a submarine goes through water. One of them brought Grantz and Othar to the Great Hospital a while back. But those are basically cigar shaped giant drills. This is a drill shark. I wonder if it's another Spark seeking asylum...

I'm still pre-coffee; it's a miracle I managed to remember Klaus' at all. :) But yes, I was thinking another Spark, possibly with some words about Klaus' inferior copies then.

[Rockphed]

Whoever predicted this as another spark attack was right. The Kraken, however, came right out of left field.

[Brother Oni]

I almost feel sorry for the submersible - in the third panel, it looks like it has tears in its eyes as the kraken's tentacles burst out of the ground, as if it knows its doom is nigh, despite its frantic desparate attempts to escape.

On the other hand, the kraken is licking its mechanical beak in preparation for a bountiful feast of metal whale meat. Given it's one of the fun Heterodynes' creations, I wouldn't be surprised if it had an external speaker to allow it go "OMNOMNOM" as it chowed down.

[datalaughing]

Oh, colors, how I've missed you.

[Landis963]

Originally Posted by Rockphed

Whoever predicted this as another spark attack was right. The Kraken, however, came right out of left field.

Not entirely: Remember the "Impertinent" mechanical squid that Agatha &co. repurposed as a transport? Why would that be the largest model? However, if you meant "in this context", then yes, it came out of left field.

[ChowGuy]

Originally Posted by Landis963

However, if you meant "in this context", then yes, it came out of left field.

Well no. if we're to take the Abbess' word for it, it came out of "the old Kraken Works Caverns."




yeah, yeah, nitpicky...

[eee]

I wonder how Snaug is reacting to the sight of the squid? It probably brings back bad memories... but on the other hand, she apparently runs into situations like that often.

Although I doubt we'll get details until XXXenophile: The Girl Genius Edition...