I’m pretty sure Soon was in range of the spell - Lirian says that they both need to get clear. This is D&D. The fact that he survived doesn’t mean he wasn’t in range, it means he made his saving throw.
Whether or not killing a dangerous foe justifies hitting other PCs with spell splash damage is a pretty frequent debate around my gaming table, but I don’t think the circumstances justify the use of the word “sacrifice.” It wasn’t a deliberate decision to kill the dwarf to save the world - it was a risky action that might have gone off perfectly, or might have killed them both. Which is just the sort of risk adventures face on a regular basis.
It’s also worth noting that we really don’t know anything about Kraagar’s personality. Imagine Roy and Durkon in that situation - Durkon would have absolutely no problem sacrificing himself if it meant stopping the Snarl. Kraagar may have been the same way. Or, imagine Belkar instead of Kraagar, being so gone in a psychotic fury that he doesn’t even realize that the spell’s about to hit him, and is going to keep fighting it until the rift gets too big for the spell to seal it.
My assumption is that he was trapped on the other side of the rift when it was closed. Which might tie into what the raven saw when it looked into the rift over Azure City.
Whenever you’re reading a work of fiction you have to remember that things don’t just happen. Everything is there because the author made a conscious choice to put it in the story. And Rich Burlew has shown he puts a lot of work into planning out small details.
So I’m assuming Kraagar didn’t just happen to die. Burlew created the character of Kraagar for the purpose of killing him - so there is a reason for his death. Same thing with Belkar’s predicted death. Burlew created Belkar and created the Oracle in order that the Oracle could predict Belkar’s death. And Burlew created the circumstances that let Roy know about this prediction. So again, Burlew had a reason for doing all of these things. I’m just wondering if the reasons are connected.
That may be the answer to it - giving everybody the time to get to the next gate before Xykon gets active again. They might actually be able to steal a march on him (but I doubt it!)
All the goblins say is that it’s some sort of doohickey that TPTB really, really want. Does it even show up on magical “Detect Evil/Magic” scans? You’d think it wouldn’t, given the screening spells Redcloak and Xykon put on it.
I guess O-Chul could have told the Azurites about Xykon’s loss of the phylactery, as well as its description and where it was last seen. The Azurites could then have “Sent” the news to the Resistance, who would then have had to lurk throughout the city hoping to catch one of the search parties with the loot.
Seems low probability, but that’s what Drama is for. Neat twist.
Except in a weird way, you can view the Azurites as the antagonists to the goblins. Consider this: The only reason the Redcloak and Xykon ever teamed up to find the gates is because the Azurites massacred Redcloaks’s village without provacation in an effort to proactively protect the gate from potential threats.
I don’t think it’s a reference to anything, except Xykon’s predilection towards killing henchmen when he gets bored. And Shelby is kind of a funny name for a goblin.
V is an elf from the Elven Lands. V was the one who sent the phylactery down the sewer to begin with. V knows about the Azurite Resistance and feels serious guilt over letting them down before. You do the math.
Also, elves are despicable Mary Sues, especially when it comes to magic
It’s a reference to an extra strip in either War or No Cure, where Xykon and the Gang have to clean out all of the Good creatures from I forget who’s tower. The final Good critter is an Ancient Silver Dragon, which proceeds to kick ass on Xykon and the gang until Shelby the ordinary Goblin mook throws an axe and decapitates the dragon. (Go figure how many 20s in a row that would take.)
Xykon realizes that Shelby would get enough XP from the death to potentially be a threat, or at least another character to have to keep track of, so he Energy Drains Shelby to death.
Kobal, I thought V was keeping his activities as Darth V under hir (his/her? its?) hat as much as possible, hence it would’ve been O-Chul telling them. Still doesn’t explain how the Resistance caught on so fast where the phylactery was, (as gets lampshaded by the Goblin bluecloak’s question), but I’m sure there’ll be an interesting explanation for it later.
Good grief. Those dopes think killing the goblins is going to prevent Xykon from finding out who took the phylactry? They’ve got a high-level cleric and multiple means of creating undead! Speak with Dead is, what, only level 3?
If they communicated with HQ about the find already, sure - but there’s nothing in the strip either way about it.
If HQ doesn’t know they had the phylactery, then they’re just another group of goblins killed by the resistance, and there’s no reason they’d think to cast Speak With Dead on them.
Tsukiko’s going to raise them as intelligent undead like Wights in any event. Well, OK, she might raise the rank and file as just zombies, but a body with evil priest levels is money. Intelligent undead can talk. Whether they can remember is another question, of course.
Or Redcloak could just be smart and realize the Resistance isn’t in the business of killing random groups of gobbos just for the body count, that’s a losing strategy when there’s little Resistance and lots upon lots upon lots of gobbos.
