It wouldn’t stop her from being raised. Destroying her faith in the goodness of undead might make her unwilling to be raised, though.
Because Redcloak was wearing it as a necklace just before it was lost. Who else would he blame?
She may have concluded that RC cast some kind of magical ward, or something.
I assume that she had told her “children” to attack anything that attacks “mommy”. Since her minions didn’t react to RC’s spellcasting (or rebuking), she may have thought that whatever it was wasn’t an attack.
Edit: Could Tsukiko cast “Rebuke”? Do spellcasters recognise spells from different schools? (Especially with the Divine v. Arcane
divide.)
Edit2: What was the spell “Shout” Tsukiko tried?
You lost the thread. Xykon berating Redcloak was not the point. The point is this chain of events:
- Xykon comes back
- Xykon inquires about the whereabouts of pigtail girl and her assignment
- Redcloak says “Oh yeah, her, the Resistance took or killed her while you were away I think”
- Xykon flies into a rage
- Frustrated Xykon berates Redcloak over being incompetent at doing everything all the time
- Frustrated Xykon sets out to end the Resistance once and for all
- Frustrated Xykon finds no Resistance whatsoever no matter how hard he looks and how much magic he expends on it
- Super Frustrated Xykon comes back to Redcloak, who presumably makes him even angrier by trying to mollify him. Figuring he still needs 'Cloak, Xykon opts to hurt what he cares the most about instead: Gobbotopia, home of the Idiot Tax. Plus it’d not even be gratuitous: to Xykon it’s only because of Gobbotopia that there was a Resistance in the first place, and only because of the Resistance that Xykon didn’t get what he wanted, ergo Gobbotopia is the source of all of Xykon’s frustrations.
It all makes sense if you’re a lunatic.
Power isn’t everything. Ask V, s/he knows.
Why should Redcloak say anything at all to Xykon about Tsukiko? Nobody knew she was going to break into his study except for her wights, and now she and they are dead (in some cases, deader) and all traces of them have been wiped out. The Resistance had a secret base and only Redcloak and his spy knew where it was; now only Redcloak does. The base has also been wiped out.
Nobody knows that Redcloak recovered the phylactery; nobody knows that he had Tsukiko killed. There are no witnesses to any of his actions.
Why should he say anything to Xykon? The most Xykon knows is that the phylactery was found but then immediately stolen by the Resistance. He may well produce it now as a way of distracting Xykon and getting him out of the goblin city without figuring out anything awkward about Redcloak’s true priorities, but that’s entirely his choice right now.
“Here’s that phylactery you wanted, sir.”
“Smashed that Resistance for you, sir.”
That’s if it goes the way you figure. If it goes some other way – Xykon simply double-times it to the next gate, prepared to hit back with overwhelming firepower if the Resistance attacks but not giving a crap so long as they stay out of his way as he obtains ultimate power – then Redcloak doesn’t even need to bother with the second part. (And, depending on how things go, he might not even need the first part; he’s just got options, is all I’m saying.)
V knows that because Xykon can bring other stuff to the table. I’m not aware of anyone else who’d be willing to work with Redcloak and has either the power or the “other stuff” to get the job done.
It was a spell she used before, to save herself from the chlorine elemental during the battle for Azure City: 458 Exit Strategy - Giant in the Playground Games
ETA: sniff it everything thog imagined and so much more.
Woah, I just realized that that ring is a total Chekhov’s gun, isn’t it? In terms of items you’d want to have when you’re fighting Xykon, there’s little better than something that protects you from negative energy.
Not only that, but it’d be a lovely poetic justic response to Xykon’s victory in the final battle in Start of Darkness, if I remember that battle correctly.
Xykon would probably laugh so hard he’d crack several ribs if old RC could spin it like that. I think that he’s found Tsukiko very useful as a spellcaster, but incredibly annoying in her pursuit of his body. Skeleton. Whatever.
And you gotta read Start of Darkness. Really. It’s worth it.
Really, I think the way this goes down depends precisely on how much Xykon cared about Tsukiko in the first place. If he was planing on using her as a major lieutenant and had bothered to find out anything about her, he’ll probably guess that RC killed her, and that may not go so well for him (if nothing else, he’ll have to show X the phylactery to pacify him, which he apparently didn’t want to do yet?). OTOH, if X didn’t care about her beyond “freaky spellcaster minion”, then RC may get away with keeping everything a secret and stalling for as long as he needs to for whatever he’s waiting for.
Which would again put Xykon on the warpath for something that doesn’t exist any more. Xykon can’t scry his own phylactery, but he can scry the elves who supposedly took it, or their HQ. When his superduper crystal ball returns “404 Elves Not Found”, he’s going to wonder what’s going on.
Worse, it could well show him a picture of the mountain where all the inconvenient bodies are buried…
Yes, but then again no.
Rebuke is not a spell, it’s a cleric class ability, and as such its relative efficiency hinges on how many cleric levels you have. Since she most probably doesn’t have more than 3 or 4 levels of cleric, hers sucks. Which is a problem because in order to turn Rebuke into Command your turning ability needs to be really powerful, along with one stat that Tsukiko probably doesn’t have gobs of (Charisma).
I can break the rules down if you want, but suffice to say that no, her own Rebuke ability was way too stunted to have been of any use - best she could have really hoped for was maybe force one of the Wights to let go for one minute, and even that would have not been a sureshot.
I guess she could have stored *some *actual undead control spells in her gazillion spell slots, but probably not as many as Redcloak has turning attempts per day and in any event she couldn’t have cast them while she was Grappled.
Spellcasters (or really anyone with ranks in Spellcraft, but that skill is hard for anyone but primary spellcasters to raise much) can recognize *spells *as they are cast after passing a non-trivial skill check, but I’m not sure about supernatural abilities.
It’s a damage spell. Cone shaped, relatively short range, does really meh damage and might make people go deaf for a little while, which is annoying to spellcasters but not incapacitating by a long shot. Its real advantages are that the damage is Sonic (rare source of damage, few things can resist it naturally and hardly anybody ever buffs against it), and that it doesn’t have a somatic component, that is to say you can cast it without having to move.
I was only asking to see if she would recognise a “rebuke” when she saw one.
She managed to kill that elemental in strip 458 with it. Can’t be too “meh”.
Didn’t one of 'em get away?
There’d have to be some kind of observable effect. There’s no finger-waggling or words involved, and she’s not an undead herself, so she wouldn’t feel the effects.
It’s a level higher than Fireball, but doesn’t scale. A level 5 Wizard can do 5d6 damage with a Fireball, and a level 10 Wizard can do 10d6. He’d need to be level 7 to cast Shout, and it never gets higher than 5d6.
Tsukiko was identified as a Mystic Theurge when she was first introduced. That prestige class requires the ability to cast 2nd level Arcane and 2nd level Divine spells. I suppose she could have been part Bard or Druid instead of part Cleric, since it’s never mentioned in the comic, but the whole undead shtick lends itself better to a Cleric than the others.
As for Xykon’s reaction, I suspect it’ll go more like:
“Here’s your phylactery.”
“YES! Hey, where’s that creepy goth chick?”
“I dunno.”
“Huh. Whatever.”
Answer: They don’t. The original plan is now irrelevant. The Goblins have their homeland. The Dark One’s new plan is to build up trade and diplomatic relations with other nations. This is now more important to him than controlling the gate. And his message to Redcloak is “Don’t screw this up.” link
But Redcloak is obsessed with following The Plan. I pushed all my chips into the middle of the table long ago so I might as well play my hand to the end." (link) And if he abandons the plan, then he was wrong all along, and murdered his own brother for nothing. And he is incapable of admitting that.
Wait, better idea:
“Where’s that creepy goth chick?”
“Last I saw her, she was having some hands-on time with some wights.”
“Yiiiiick. TMI.”
Xykon does not give a damn about Tsukiko or about the Resistance. He only cares about getting his phylactery back and then going on to the next Gate.
He might remember to ask about Tsukiko, but it’s doubtful he’ll remember about the Resistance – they only mattered while he had to stay in Azure City to prepare for going on to the next Gate. After that, they’re the (hob)goblins’ problem… and he doesn’t care anything about them, either.
Redcloak seems ready to give Xykon his/a phylactery, and ready to go on to the next Gate. If he’s able to turn Tsukiko’s death into an amusing joke to tell Xykon, all the better. But no way is Xykon going to be upset by Tsukiko’s demise.
What ? No ! Xykon can bring nothing else to the table, that’s the whole point. His raw destructive power, while massive, is all he’s got.
That’s precisely what V learned: that no matter how powerful you get, there’s always something strictly more powerful around the corner so you’d better learn how to do more with less, especially if you don’t want to sell your soul every time you hit a snag.
Xykon, on the other hand… well, I’ll just quote him, shall I ?
[QUOTE=Start of Darkness]
I know people think I’m stupid. Because I’m not a wizard. Because I get bored easily. Because I have no interest in strategy or tactics or contingency planning.
But see, I’ve learned a lot over the years since I died. A lot more than I learned during my life. And now I see that planning doesn’t matter. Strategy doesn’t matter. Only two things matter: force in as great a concentration as you can manage, and style. And in a pinch, style can slide. In any battle, there’s always a level of force against which no tactics can succeed. For example, all I need to do is keep smacking you with Energy Drain, and soon you won’t be able to cast any of your fancy spells at all.
Because yes, I *am *a sorcerer - and this magic is in my bones, not cribbed out of “Spellcasting for Dummies”. And I can cast the same friggin’ spell at you until you roll over and die. You can have your finely-crafted watch - give me the sledgehammer to the face any day.
[/QUOTE]
His big speech on power would indicate he hasn’t changed all that much since then.
Bzzzt. He also cares about the ritual, and probably doesn’t trust Redcloak about it else he wouldn’t have tried to figure it out in the first place (waste of time when there’s something good on TV).
[QUOTE=Peter Morris]
But Redcloak is obsessed with following The Plan. “I pushed all my chips into the middle of the table long ago so I might as well play my hand to the end.” (link) And if he abandons the plan, then he was wrong all along, and murdered his own brother for nothing. And he is incapable of admitting that.
[/QUOTE]
nod He’s the poster boy for the sunk cost fallacy. Hell, his own brother called him out on that way back when.
I confess I don’t know what your “whole point” is. Redcloak is working with a spellcaster he believes fits the bill: powerful enough to get the job done, gullible enough to think he can thereby weaponize the Snarl for personal use, and evil enough to think that’s a great idea. I’m not aware of another spellcaster that Redcloak could better partner up with: not a more-powerful one, not a less-powerful one, not one with roughly the same amount of power. I don’t know what you think Redcloak should do, if not ‘team up with Xykon to cast that spell at the next convenient gate.’