Suddenly, Nale killing all of Malack’s children appears to be the most heroic thing he’s ever done.
Holy crap. That’s one hell of a twist.
That’s still not the resolution of Belkar’s prophecies, though. He’s also “not long for this world”.
Huh. I was wondering about Malack’s eye color.
I’m willing to bet that neither are the rest of the Order. Remember, there’s another world on the other side of the rifts.
“Death in the Family” may also be a reference to Malack’s “children”, given that he and they apparently were a “family” of dead.
Either that, or we’ll see some line about:
“Hey, aren’t animal companions supposed to shun vampires?”
"He’s a cat. And the central principle of being a cat is ‘screw the rules.’ "
Neat twist. Still doesn’t get Belkar off the world, but it’s a lot more elegant than the Quest or Mark of (Justice) that I thought Malack was going to stick him with if Malack didn’t just CdG him. (I thought Malack was going to Quest Belkar into trying to kill/distract Tarquin if Tarquin tried to help Nale escape.)
Also settles the question of whether Malack was LN or LE. I didn’t find any evidence, but are there prior strips where other characters are casting shadows, but Malack isn’t? Or a mirror where Malack doesn’t show up in the reflection? There is the pinkish-red spittle that Malack gives off when he’s arguing with Tarquin in Panel 7, #854.
If Malack’s a vampire, and vampires have DR 10/Silver, Magic, how did Belkar falling on him do any damage at all? Or is this just a case of Rule of Funny?
As Miller points out, this sorta’ puts Nale in a bit of a better light, no? I wonder if Burlew is going to also use vampires to deconstruct the D&D morality of ‘killing “Always-Evil” creatures is always a net good,’ like we went through with black dragons?
Ha, from the OOTS forum:
[QUOTE=Winged One]
What’s the difference between Belkar’s past and future?
One is a bloodthirsty little monster, and the other is a vampire.
…you’re just jealous that I got to say it first.
[/QUOTE]
Another nice detail that was pointed out there: Malack’s speech bubble suddenly goes black-and-white in the last panel. And then there’s him mentioning he needs a “special diet” earlier…
It’s only DR 10. Belkar could overcome that with a good roll.
EDIT: Also, there’s a change in color of speech bubble in that last frame. It could just be code for “I’m more evil than usual at the moment!” but Rich has used speech bubble color as a major identifier of who’s speaking throughout the strip pretty consistently. I think this might be more than just an indication of emotion.
My thoughts exactly. Goodness me.
Another clue: “This trap appears to be airtight”. In other words, he can’t go gaseous form and escape.
It not only changes color, but loses the squiggly lines Malack’s bubbles usually have. Plus, his eyes go from pink to bright red.
My estimation of Durkon’s attention to detail have dropped a bit, You’d a thought he’d have noticed and mentioned it.
He didn’t notice Vaarsuvius going all Dark Side either. He’s not the most perceptive fellow.
OH, if Malack’s a Vampire Lord, which seems plausible, he would be able to walk around in sunlight willy-nilly.
Well, willy-nilly albeit with some nasty penalties. Apparently someone on the OOTS forum thought of the vampire lord possibility way back in Nov, 2011!
Here’s something potentially interesting, spoilered because it involves a bonus strip in one of the books:
In one of the bonus strips in Book 4 (#665b), there’s a flashback to Azure City where there’s a prophecy made that Belkar will save Hinjo’s life twice. The first time was in the battle for Azure City, but the second hasn’t happened yet. So apparently undead Belkar is in it for the long haul, and we get to see how Hinjo reacts to having his life saved by a vampire.
Word of God (aka The Giant) confirms vampire. Vampire lord is debatable. At least, it’s entirely plausible Malack has a magic item that hides his vampirism and enables him to be in the sunlight.
It seems a little odd that a god of death would be OK with an undead priest. Aren’t those types of deities usually concerned with maintaining the natural order of things?
Depends on the DM. There are undead-antagonistic death gods in the official cosmologies and there are undead-friendly death gods, too. And it’s all up to the DM…Burlew isn’t shy about futzing around with the personalities of the gods he has extant in Stickworld.