Dumb question: What IS his holy symbol?
Well one of my favourite broken-ass spells, Magic Jar, lets an arcane caster do just that: put her own soul inside an inanimate object, then try to force a swap with the soul of someone in the vicinity. If it works, she’s now in their body and they’re helpless inside a gem. When that happens, the caster gets to keep his Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma scores as well as all of her magic abilities, but take on the target’s Strength, Agility, Constitution, hit points and physical abilities.
TL;DR: spells are in the soul, not the body.
So if the fiends wrest V’s soul from its androgynous coil, him no spellcasty no more. Unless they put someone who can cast spells inside of him, but even then possessing V wouldn’t help the body squatter cast any better than he could have if he was squatting inside of Roy.
On the other hand, it’s well established that you don’t have to actually yell, “Sneak attack!” when you sneak attack someone. It’s just something people do. Presumably, Durkon could turn undead more quietly, he just likes being shouty when he does it.
Someone on the previous page said they felt sorry for Tsukiko.
I don’t.
Unpleasant as that death was, it was nonetheless exactly what she had coming to her.
Yeah, she was pretty much the Timothy Treadwell of the undead.
That’s a good analogy.
<nm>
It used to be Xykon’s phylactery, and then switched to his backup holy symbol that he wears around his neck. So, with the artwork in 828 that made me think that RC was trying to hide the phylactery in his robes and powering down his magic, instead was RC displaying the phylactery—which, as Kobal2 notes, you have to do in order to Rebuke/Command undead—and silently rebuking/commanding Tsukiko’s minions. The second blast of magic in 828, a few panels on, the GiDP forum denizens say, is RC Bolstering his Command of the wights. Awesome misdirection.
I would’ve guessed that an undead’s creator would have had a bonus in a fight for control, but the srd20 rules for turn/rebuke undead don’t have such a feature. I also didn’t know that you could do it silently, and the artwork is different from, say, Durkon’s Turn Undead that kept blinding Roy several hundred strips ago.
With all that, I think the dead goblin janitor is actually a smith, contracted to build a fake phylactery. Obviously he isn’t finished with the task. And if he were, then you’d think that Tsukiko would have found it, and would have had some more questions for RC. Whether RC Raises the smith, or just rolls with it since X is due in any second, I don’t know.
Her monologuing to RC, in RC’s study, without having X’s protection or presence is just too stupid for words.
Fantastic strip.
I’m not certain that Xykon will be back right away.
I have a theory that the reason we haven’t seen him for so long is that he’s undercover somewhere in the Western Continent, keeping tabs on the Order. He won’t leave them now that they’re so close to Girard’s Gate, not even for his phylactery.
True, but his holy symbol also went all flashlight-ey then.
As did Redcloak’s one when he was using Bolster Undead on minions Durkon was trying to turn, now that I think of it
(I think. I’m actually not sure if that was during the boss fight at the end of the very first dungeon, or during the Azure City battle, nor if Durkon was actually involved - I only remember RC bolstering zombies at some point, which caused the same flashlight effect only black of course)
It happened in this strip, way back when.
The kinda 50’s-Dracula necklace he’s wearing.
If you’re asking what a holy symbol IS, it’s a focus to let him channel the power of his god. He’s a 3x edition cleric,* so he needs one to cast many (but not all) of his spells and class abilities. It doesn’t have to be specific to him, but it has to be a valid symbol of his faith.
Earlier editions would require him to have one to do ANYTHING more cleric-y than bash someone with a mace, while in 4th his HS would be his implement, and work like a magic weapon would to a fighter. That is, he wouldn’t NEED it to do his thing, but it would make him better at pretty much everything.
They’re pretty much always necklaces in game based art. The only exception I can think of is the iconic 3.0 cleric, who wore his on his belt. (when the artists remembered to put it there)
Why his god’s holy artifact doesn’t count as a holy symbol is one of those amusing bits of ‘the GM didn’t’ think of that’ that pops up in RPGs.
- A reasonable argument could be made he’s a “Cloistered Cleric.” Which is just like a regular Cleric, but trades toughness (armor proficences, HP, and BAB) for a crap-load of skill points. I loved my cloistered cleric.
Anyway, this may not go quite as smoothly for Redcloak as he’s hoping. Tsukiko was too dysfunctional for a leadership position, but fanatically personally loyal to him. That’s a good thing to have in a 3rd in command, especially when you know your second in command has no personal loyalty and conflicting goals. In short, she was his Luca Brassi. Useful as a deterant, and her “disappearance” would be the first sign that something was up.
–
Odd that Rich went with ‘he cast still, silenced Control Undead beforehand, which necromancy-specialist Tsukiko somehow didn’t notice due to railroad plot’ instead of ‘he cast quickend Control Undead before she realized they were fighting.’ Sure, in the grand scheme of things it’s the same, but one follows game logic, the other doesn’t. Ah, well. It’s not like his fandom’s obsessed with that kind of thing or anything.
For going on about your Cleric, I’m surprised. Control Undead isn’t a Cleric spell. Redcloak used the Cleric’s Rebuke ability, which lets the Cleric command undead if he’s powerful enough (and Redcloak is powerful). Supernatural ability, doesn’t draw AOOs, no need for V or S components.
Plus a few extra spells on their list, plus free access to Knowledge as a bonus domain. And I agree that it would be a good choice for Redcloak, though we don’t know if cloistered clerics even exist in Stickworld.
You got me. I confused a possible status effect of a differently-named class feature (that rarely comes up in actual play due to scaling issues, Turn/Rebuke has great flavor, but wasn’t well-designed) with a fairly common, identically named spell.
I have no excuse. I am clearly a terrible D&D geek. I will perform the 'walk of 100 d4s in my shame.
Well, maybe not the walk of 100 d4s. I’ll consume some low-quality frozen perogis in my shame.
Still relies on the undead-specialist (who has the same class feature) to have somehow missed him doing it. Just cause she’s a jobber doesn’t mean she has to be so obvious about it.
–
Going on? It was five words! When I ‘go on’ with an RPG war story, you’ll bloody well know it! 
It was; but she thought Redcloak was a cowardly toady, and that she was surrounded by allies; not that Redcloak is a fanatically dedicated man on a mission, a manipulator, and that he could hijack her undead “friends”. Her understanding of the situation was completely off base, and it caused her to walk to her death.
She probably noticed but assumed it was just him preparing a generic combat spell or making a threat display - he does wave the magic right in her face. Thing is, she didn’t expect him to actually fight, he didn’t say anything while casting like normally happens, she probably didn’t expect him to have a counter prepared for her specifically, and most important of all she was totally irrational about the undead. She was convinced they loved her as their “Mommy” and would never have admitted to herself that a high level cleric like Redcloak could casually hijack them and they’d just obey him.
I agree. Tsukiko doesn’t deserve much sympathy. Not only was she a homicidal nutcase, let’s not forget how much of a bully she was - she enjoyed humiliating Redcloak when she thought she held the upper hand.
- Holy shit, Redcloak is a badass.
- It occurs to me, and has for some time now, that Redcloak and the goblins have a more than sufficient cause to petition for redress of grievances. Can one truly look at Redcloak’s actions and motivations and not feel a certain amount of sympathy? If anything his methods are working against him due to his lack ability to reach out to others.
- Burlew can really write. This was both satisfying and horrifying. He’s only approached this comic with The Death of Miko. The ability to show the humanity of even unsympathetic characters and make the reader feel for them is a real sign of his talent.
I wonder what the world that Blackwing saw inside the rift figures in all this.
Yeah, but the prices range from $40 (used) on Amazon to triple figures on Abebooks.