I love it! Bugsby’s Cat-Retrieving Hand gets another use!
V doesn’t seem concerned about the Vamps apparently carrying out some nefarious plan. scratches head
It’s the callback to Bugsby’s Cat-Retrieving Hand that really adds that extra touch. Who knew that would be more than a one-off joke?
It was probably originally intended as a one-off joke.
Or when the high-level caster decides to waste the vampire cleric on hearing what’s happened, thus breaking a tie.
…Or when he notes a certain halfling ranger battling a different vampire cleric.
The detail I found interesting was the fourth panel. It appears the Mr Scruffy and Bloodfeast are communicating with each other. The exchange might be something as simple as “You okay?” “I’m fine” but it could be something deeper. We’re using to thinking of the non-speaking animals as normal animals but in the D&D setting it’s possible that Mr Scruffy and Bloodfeast are fully as intelligent as any other member of the group and are following their own agenda.
Cute to see the return of Bugsby’s Cat-Retrieving Hand. And I laughed at V not being able to quit while she was ahead.
No one. If V flies in over the arch, there is no problem. And thus we now have the answer of how anyone can get in and out to deal with all this crap.*Not sure the reason for the spoiler tags, but I’ve honored them just in case there’s something I’m missing.
*
I think V is being portrayed as caring more about making sure everyone is well before saying anything about what happened. I’m sure V thinks Roy and Belkar will have further information about what happened.
I mean, V isn’t even saying anything about how much it ruins the Order’s plans not to have a teleportation sphere! Compassionate Vaarsuvius seems to have arrived. And all it took was the genocide of an entire race, too!
Blackwing also talked to Mr Scruffy.
I just didn’t want to give anything away, like the possibility of V showing up to the Moot, kitty-kat in tow, before people had the chance to read the strip. Probably an overreaction.
Yeah, V not completely losing hir shit upon learning the Teleport Orb went walkabout was really surprising. And a V that doesn’t do that, probably won’t go into the Moot guns blazin’, which was what I think I was worrying about earlier. I.e., V strolls in, blasts various vampire guardians, and gets blasted in turn by a bunch of very high level priests who’re wondering who crashed the party.
Based on the High Priests’ reaction to the Vampire Invasion that just happened, they aren’t the types to shoot first and Speak With Dead later. I think V will be fairly safe going into the Moot. That is, unless that barrier keeps him out, which at one time I would have expected, but not anymore.
I’m not sure if the IFCC has a stake in keeping the world operational. If they’re neutral on the subject, they may well invoke V’s next time-out.
Well, they could invoke a time-out at any time, but they won’t until V is about to do something they don’t want him to do. And since Durkula and his minions have already teleported out, there’s really little that V is likely to do that’s all that critical. So I don’t see a time-out in the near future.
If he dusts every vampire in the chamber, Hel’s vote no longer counts. The IFCC might prefer to let Hel’s plan at least appear to continue succeeding.
Wouldn’t the IFCC be more likely to want to prevent the gods from dealing with the Snarl? They seem to want to use it for themselves and don’t have anything obvious to gain from Hel’s plan. Granted, we don’t have a lot to go on with respect to divining their plan, but I’m doubtful that they’ll intervene here.
Frankly, that’s my take. Just throwing it out there. Their domain IS primarily Afterlife-related, though, just like Hel’s.
I don’t think the IFCC gets involved just yet. The vampires are gone save for the one who is Hel’s rep, and V is already conditioned to the idea that a vampire need not necessarily be killed right away (see Durkon). So I don’t think it’s all that risky for them. They are watching, and could step in the second V tries to attack–if they even want to. V attacking would create a lot of turmoil.
Plus, I really just think they need to get the gang back together so this year-long chase can start. I guess you could do that with an IFCC controlled Vaarsuvius, but I don’t see any reason they would need to. At least, not unless they need extra power to go after Durkula–assuming the souls even have extra powers.
I don’t think the three fiends are interested in letting the world get destroyed. Hel’s plan is predicated on the fact that, through a quirk of her pantheon’s theology, if the world is destroyed she gets a huge chunk of souls that would otherwise be unavailable to her. That’s likely not the case for the fiends: if the world ends, they just get whatever souls would be coming to them anyway. Plus, whatever other machinations they have going on in the Prime Material (whether as a group, or as individuals) are disrupted, forcing them to start all over when the Gods make a new world.
Back to Roy and the Goodsmoot.
At least Rich managed to lampshade a few things here. I get the feeling we’re about done with this place and the story’s about to shift over to other locations for awhile.