The fiends don’t know what Blackwing saw in the rift, do they? This could be interesting.
That depends on how closely they’ve been monitoring Vaarsuvius – were they watching when Blackwing explained what he saw in the rift? I would assume they have been keeping a very close eye on Vaarsuvius, so they may have overheard…
Reservoir Dogs does seem appropriate. But they do have actual names, as we saw on their business cards. And in Don’t Split the Party, the author’s commentary says “For the record, the devil is Lee (yellow), the daemon is Nero (purple), and the demon is orange (Cedrick).” It was pointed out earlier that the names match up to their alignment abbreviations (Lee = Lawful Evil, Nero = Neutral Evil, Cedrick = Chaotic Evil), which is cool.
An idea that just occurred to me: The fiend possess V. Meanwhile up above the Order starts trying to destroy the Gate but finds it harder than they thought, probably commenting that “If only V were here he could blow it right up!” Meanwhile unseen beneath them Possessed V begins the Fiend’s version of the Gate control ritual…
It’s been my suspicion for a while that the goal of the fiends is to use the Snarl as a weapon against the gods, possible including the evil gods. To unleash it and wipe them all out so that the fiendish races can dominate the outer planes alone. Imagine Durkon’s reaction if he’s released from Malack’s control and discovers that not only is he now a vampire, but Thor has been annihilated.
Based on this strip, we can surmise that the IIFC either doesn’t know about the planet-within-a-planet, or only found out by spying on Blackwing after the soul splice.
I doubt whether a ritual to reshape worlds would take a couple of rounds. The gate would probably be destroyed before the ritual could be completed. What the possessed V could to is to attack Blackwing with Bigbe’s crushing hand. :eek:
Whatever the fiends are up to, I suspect from past strips that they are operating behind their Mistress’s back.
This strip is operating at a pretty high level, at least relative to cinema. It’s not often that the protagonists are pursuing an ultimately misguided but not especially teary quest. There are multiple sides with pronounced agendas and interests: most films limit the perspectives to two, at least one of which is pretty flimsy. Admittedly novels have these traits on occasion, with greater elaboration. Same with manga, less often, to a lesser extent.
I saw Blackwing’s world like everyone else, but what I absorbed was, “Disorientation”. It didn’t occur to me that the world might already be peopled. Which is sort of contemptible in a way. I know, I know: it’s fiction. But I think it parallels some of the moral lunkheadedness that the Giant portrays and skewers.
ETA: Oh yeah, the fiends could force a soulsplice.
A count of rounds, by V’s actions:
1: Epic teleport
2: Attempted Time Stop and Quickened Chain Lightning
3: Empowered Sunburst and Quickened Dimensional Anchor
4: Bixby’s Crushing Hand
5: Disintegrate
6: Attempted Greater Teleport, after which e loses the splices.
That’s only 36 seconds, leaving 3 full rounds for talk with Haley before leaving, posturing that’s not depicted as any particular spell (“My power exceeds yours”), and/or spells not shown on screen.
And Measure for Measure, I’m not sure I understand what you’re talking about. Who is the Fiends’ mistress, and how is it contemptible (and on whose part) for the rift-world to already be peopled?
Maybe he’s misinterpreting Tiamat’s displeasure over the Familicide spell as a superior reaming out a subordinate? Which I don’t think it is…Tiamat isn’t really one of the Nine anymore, she’s just one of the LE gods scattered throughout the Hells. Evil, Inc. has to maintain a diplomatic front with her just as any organization would have to do with an entity they interact with who’s more physically powerful than the organization, but there’s no reporting line between Tiamat and Evil, Inc.
Bastard. I hear Stairway to Heaven in my head every time I see the title to 896.
Yeah, jayjay had me pegged: I was too lazy track down Tiamat’s name.
“Contemptible” and “Misguided quest” points: nix that. Thinking it over, I realize I was confused. Though now I’m wondering whether Roy’s plan isn’t nuts to begin with, as the 2 gates are allegedly holding up his world (as well as possibly the other one). Plus, can’t Xykon teleport to the remaining gate faster than Roy et al can walk (assuming they can’t locate V)? Or maybe he’s betting that Xykon won’t risk destroying the last gate ??? :dubious:
My speculation presumes that the Gate is more durable than that.
Hmmm. Do we have any information on how long Redcloak’s ritual takes?
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0416.html
“they’re likely to get upset if we loiter in their throne room for the few weeks it will take to complete the rituals”
Nice catch Peter. Another data point: the fiends seem to think that ~20 min of control is sufficient for “their purposes”, whatever those purposes may be.
I’m not sure this is worth the electrons, but I was saying that is was sort of contemptible on my part that I didn’t give the new world any particular moral consideration until this strip. It didn’t occur to me. It’s sort of like assuming that it’s ok to kill a sentient being like an orc or black dragon, solely because they are e-e-e-e-e-e-vil. Yes, you can set up the story in that a way, but such a (rather common) framework would be childish at best. Or maybe just escapism.
[1] Admittedly I wasn’t sure that it even was a world, as Blackwing said it was “Difficult to describe”, IIRC.
Not so. If they want to daisy-chain these together, they’ll just activate the next chunk at the end of this one. What we know is that they think they will need more than 3 minutes of V’s time, or that Cedrick’s particular interest is in preventing V from contacting the party right now, or feeding them false data, or something.
Ack - I posted in the wrong thread ! Please forgive
Does the crockpot have +2 against acid spitting beetles?
Not unless it’s magical! Might be needed before a Profession (cook) can even be rolled. But if it’s Masterwork, it would give a bonus to that roll!
Imagine the fiends splicing V’s soul into Elan or Belkar just in time to defend against Xykon. Or some other switcheroo.
Also, wouldn’t it be funny if Xykon arrives and handily defeats tarquin without so much as batting an undead eye? THAT would be funny. Tarquin getting whacked like a nameless goon and dying* anonymously*.
Well, that sorts out the question of duration and intent. Motivation - not so much.