Great strip. I do wonder how Belkar was able to smell the bodies before the illusion was dispelled by V. If Belkar could smell the bodies, you’d think the beetles could too.
The family tree was a little too obvious for my liking, but OTOH, it did get the essential information right out in the open quickly. Oh, and where’s the rest of the family: that chart was huge. They aren’t all in that dining hall, I don’t think.
While Girard may or may not be dead, Tarquin certainly isn’t. And I still think that V’s reveal that s/he’s responsible for the massacre is going to be made in such a manner that Tarquin will hear about it, and get really pissed off that V killed his wife. Not sure how that’ll affect the throwdown at the Gate, but maybe Tarquin’s a much less effective fighter if he’s consumed with blind rage?
What do you think Roy and the Order will do when they find out? Would (should?) V even tell them? How do you even begin to atone for such a thing?
Hallmark card. Probably one with sound recording so you can put in a personalized message.
Also, those that are concerned with the potential amount of inbreeding in the Draketooth line probably need to step back and comprehend that, at some point, a dragon had sex with a human.
Or, as was said in a comic appropriately titled Half-Dragons Are Even Worse
“chief grukgruk frankly not want dwell on that very much”
Both humans and dragons are, in D&D-land, species-sluts. There are human crossbreeds with almost everything, and dragon crossbreeds with even more. If you really want the brain bleach, it’s possible to have a half-dragon gelatinous cube.
And I’m betting that the next comic will feature only V and Blackwing, debating over whether to tell everyone else about the Familicide.
Keep in mind that dragons can sometimes take on humanoid form, metallic dragons innately and chromatic dragons once they’ve achieved sufficient prowess as sorcerers (polymorph).
Could be a trick by Burlew. We haven’t established that Belkar was smelling the corpses. In point of fact, Burlew is hinting it wasn’t the corpses. So the next strip may have the Linear Guild popping out on them.
He was (at the time of the casting of Familicide) the mate of the MOTHER of a direct descendant of the dragon. There’s still wiggle room to say that that’s a step beyond the influence of the spell, but the connection’s a little more direct than the mate of an ex-mate.
Perhaps. But we just saw Roy talking about how it wasn’t right to abuse the kobold. So the “it’s okay if the victim is evil” defense is already foreshadowed as unlikely.
I know that it’s not okay to hurt of kill someone just because they’re evil. I know it’s definite that not everyone killed by the spell was evil. And that V knew that the spell was not constrained to evil family members, or even all-dragon family members. I’m not trying to exonerate V, either. I’m just trying to predict what the reactions will be and whether the rest of the crew will have trouble deciding what their reactions are.
On the disturbed-but-not-totally-appalled side there’s protecting injured children that are about to be murdered and soul enslaved. And also that the spell was cast at a supposedly evil dragon who was acting in a violent manner. (A dragon whose child the whole group fought previously and whose death they’ve lost no sleep over.)
On the completely-and-totally-appalled side there’s the massive overkill and the worldwide collateral damage. Also the renting your soul thing, the repercussions of which are still up in the air; repercussions that are looking a bit more dire now that the happy side of that bargain turned out so badly.
I won’t get into the loss of sleep vs PTSD and the temptation for power vs hey, you could cut off your head, because V never shared the PTSD and I don’t think either subject will come up in the first rounds of group discussion. But I think that the other things listed above will.
Tarquin is pretty high level. Can you roll a save against an epic spell?
Again, I’m puzzled at the whole “boohoo, the family is dead” attitude. In the OOTS Universe, aren’t you just a few diamonds away from a family reunion? I know diamonds are expensive, but after Haley and Belkar’s rampage against the Thieve’s guild, they paid for the diamonds to bring everyone back. So it’s not that inconceivably expensive.
Certainly, if Girard is still alive, he’s got the magical moxie to either revive the family or find someone who can.
Is there some element to familicide that says “This death is for keepsies”?
It was a death effect, which prevents Raise Dead (the cheapest option) from working. Resurrection still should, though. You just have to find a caster who’s high enough level, and willing to help. And twice as many diamonds per person …
Also, they don’t really have time to rez all the Draketeeth. With the gate open for taking, I don’t know if they have time to even rez one. I think the GitP forum said that Ressurection takes twice as long as Raise Dead.
First line of the raise dead spell description on the d20
Roy was dead much longer than that. Also he was made into a bone golem and broken down, which might be out of the scope of Raise Dead. The page isn’t that clear to me.