He’s at the gate, but still has not actually gone through the gate. At this point, they’re basically just trolling the readers about Parson ever getting through that damn gate. Next strip will probably be yet another long tearful scene about how sad Tramennis is saying goodbye to his dad.
New one up.
I guess I don’t know what the heck is going on with the tiny dupe king and the two sides actions in the rubble.
On the Jetstone side, the duplicate Slately is trying to make it to the Jetstone throne room to officially designate a different city as the capital of Jetstone. If he does this after Parson passes through the portal from the Magic Kingdom, the portal in that portal room will close permanently, leaving Parson trapped, and presumably an easy kill for the remaining Jetstone fighters. He has made it to the palace, but still has a perilous journey ahead of him to make it to the Throne Room (as demonstrated by the fact that the leader of the fighters escorting him has just taken an arrow through his thorax).
Dollamancer Ace Hardware is simply on a personal mission to rescue his injured friend, the Hatamancer Cubbins (I can’t recall if this was also planned as a diversionary feint). His Duty to protect the King did kick in in time for him to divert his attention long enough to take out the warlord archer who croaked Slately’s escort.
The Lady Sylvia (currently the ranking Gobwin Knob warlord on scene) is simply trying to croak as many Jetstone personnel as possible, so she’s going where they go. When the Jetstone party split forces, she chose to do the same, to maximize her chances for success.
As to what happens if Slately changes the capital City before Parson passes the Portal, I’m not sure. It’s possible that he would step into a city that was only nominally defended (before Tramennis’s arrival), and be able to singlehandedly defeat whatever skeleton crew is on hand.
I checked the older panels. I didn’t see an order to create a diversion. It looks like the cloth golems are attacking to protect their rescue efforts and the diversion is a side effect.
The crushed archer implies that it was Luckamancy, rather than His Duty, that shifted the attack from Sylvia to the archer. “Um, Ziggy says . . . there’s a 97 percent chance that this . . . was a Luckamancy repayment.”
Unless the archer’s name is Ziggy, I have no idea who that is.
Ziggy was the computer from Quantum Leap that Al was always interacting with.
Luckamancy steals numbers from your own Side to give you better numbers; so the Luckamancy repayment was probably whatever Carnymancy is still affecting Sylvia, snatching good numbers from an ally, to save her.
I don’t think that Parson would be able to take Jetstone all by himself if Slately switches the capitol too early; Parson will be the only unit going through the portal, per what the thinkamancers agreed to. And I don’t think that Charlie’s plan is for the remaining Jetstone units in Spacerock to croak Parson (the uncroaked will probably outnumber any Jetstone units that survive the sortie, by a considerable amount). I think that Charlie is trying to cut Parson off from his twinked-out support system: i.e., Wanda.
Now we’re getting somewhere. Maybe.
Just to clear up a detail from upthread a bit, the original capital of Jetstone the side was Jetstone the city. Way back, even before the first Royal Crown Coalition was formed, the largter, stronger city of Spacerock was named the capital. It’s in Spacerock that all the Jetstone-area actions since Jill’s megalogwiffback negotiation have occurred. The plan is that Tramennis will go to, and Clone-of-Slately will redesignate as capital, the original city of Jetstone.
You know, I read this comic and I didn’t even notice that he actually stepped through the gate!
New one.
Nice that Jack immediately knew who would have set the fire in the city they’re all trapped in.
Now Parson pretty much has to croak all the Jetstone units still in the citadel. Too bad; I kinda liked Ace.
Croak them or accept their surrender. Ace could yet live through this.
As an aside, has it occurred to anyone else that a high-level Hippiemancer and yellow dwagons on the same side would make for a nigh-unstoppable combination? The Hippiemancer does the Chillaxe spell that Olive Branch has been using, to prevent enemy units from engaging… But as Jillian pointed out, that doesn’t stop yellow dwagons from cwap-bombing everything.
Where’s Admiral Akbar when you need him?
He had a Clue, yes. 
By the way, have I mentioned my appreciation for the double pun on the city name “Efbaum”? All that’s left for the trifecta is to make an “Efbaum’s world” reference.
New Text Erf, with new Arkentools… although probably should have seen that coming.
Jillian is so close to resolving everything… all she needs to do is hack the Chillaxe and get Judy to abdicate immediately after ending Turn.
And my hopes of an Arkensaw are dashed.
Wasn’t it established early on that there were only four Arkentools?
Four known Arkentools, I believe. Speculation matches each Arkentool up with a magic discipline (Arkendish = Thinkamancy, Arkenpliers = Croakamancy, etc), so there’s probably more than are known of.
To get this out of the way: If the Arkenshoes were left behind by the Titans of Ark…shouldn’t they be blue suede, instead of ruby? 
Now for the rampant speculation. First, the obvious “element” associated with shoes, and ruby slippers in particular, would be Motion. Motion can be a component of four classes of magic:
Motion + Life = Eyemancy
Motion + Matter = Naughtymancy
Motion + Life + Matter = Stagemancy
Motion = Spookism
Now, if we assume for the time being that the Arkentools are tied to the Fate axis of magic, we can look at the resulting potential disciplines:
Fate + Eyemancy = Thinkamancy
Fate + Naughtymancy = Croakamancy
Fate + Stagemancy = Carnymancy
Fate + Spookism = Dollamancy
There are already Arkentools with established connections to two of those disciplines. The Dish is tied to Thinkamancy, and the Pliers are tied to Croakamancy. There is speculation that the Hammer is tied to Carnymancy, but we still don’t know enough about that discipline to be sure, even after seeing a whole mob of carnymancers…which is probably appropriate.
At any rate, given the prevalence of golems in Haffaton, and the fact that their former Dollamancer did something highly unusual with golems, it seems plausible that the Shoes would have Dollamancy-related powers, possibly in addition to direct movement powers. So, what can they do, besides possibly taking Judy back to Kansas?
So far, each known Arkentool provides unusually powerful units in some way: the Hammer tames dwagons, the Dish provides Archons somehow, and the Pliers produce Decrypted. A Dollamancy Tool would presumably produce ubergolems, and it’s mentioned that the special golems made for Judy were capable of independent thought and had the same upkeep as warlords.
My guess is that the Shoes enable a Dollamancer to make golems with leadership–i.e. golem warlords. If so, and if the effect is in place on the Tin Man and the Scarecrow now that Judy is wearing the Shoes, that’s quite a stack that was hiding behind the curtain.
Well, only if she’s actually Attuned to them…
Not necessarily. Not being attuned limits access to the artifact’s powers, but some of them are still available (like the Pliers’ “dust undead” property). I wouldn’t think she could use it to create golems at all if she’s not attuned, but she could conceivably be able to “wake up” free-willed golems that were created by an attuned wielder. Of course, we don’t know whether or not she’s attuned to the Shoes, so it may be a moot point.