Man, that first panel makes Winterfell look like Jamaica.
What evidence do we have that dwarf vampires aren’t all Hel’s? It’s not like dwarf vampires are all that common: The only ones we’ve seen are Durkula and those he’s turned, and we haven’t seen any of them free-willed yet.
And I don’t think it’s quite the case that the vampire spirit is available beforehand, to be “plugged in” to the body. I think it’s more that the process of vampirization creates the spirit in situ. After all, the spirit has to come into existence somewhen, somewhere, and within the body at the time of vampirization is as good a place and time as any.
On the current strip, is it as blatantly obvious to anyone else as it is to me that the Mechane is going to end up touching the ground at some point? I mean, that’s just Narrative Causality 101 that when you say “we’ll be fine as long as something doesn’t happen”, it means that that something will happen. And narrative causality is strong enough in Stickworld in general, especially so on this particular ship.
Wouldn’t Hel’s domain be part of that afterlife? Hel gave up clerics for the ability to get every dwarven soul because souls are what makes deities powerful. So all of the deities must have some claim over the souls that ascend/descend to the outer planes or else none of them would have any power. I’d assume Hel’s domain is just a section of Hades (Neutral Evil) and non-dwarves under the Northern Pantheon who are Neutral Evil wind up in Hel’s suburb of Hades.
I’d buy this. It nicely explains why Durkula looks like a dwarf, even in his own head. It also fits into that “worst day” thing in the strip.
That’s interesting since it suggests that normally Nergal would have gotten the vampire but Hel did in this instance because Durkon is a dwarf. But the arrangement was made between Hel, Loki and Thor so why would it be Nergal’s problem? The pantheons don’t seem to take well to intrusion from one another. But maybe the Northern gods made the dwarves and they only exist in the north so that gave her additional pull.
I suppose maybe Nergal was down for destroying the world but Hel doesn’t say that, implying that she sort of scooped Durkon up due to special circumstances.
Not that I expect we’ll ever get it officially, but it would be interesting to see the breakdowns in the other two pantheons of which gods voted which way, and why. I loved how the Giant handled it for the Northern gods, with each one having different reasons, and with the breakdown not corresponding to alignment or traditional divine alliances.
Hel explicitly states that the vampire spirit “was birthed in my hall”.
Since the Durkula vampire up to the moment Malack was destroyed was in thrall to Malack, how did Hel gain her toehold? Had Nale not succeeded in destroying Malack, would Durkula have been a subordinate of Nergal and thus unable to take on the role of High priest of Hel?*
*I realize that Malack’s intention was to release Durkula from enthrallment at a later time, and that could have freed him up to take the position, but Malack could have extracted an oath that Durkula would serve Nergal before releasing him, so the question of mechanics remains.
Even if Malack intended to release him “at a later time”, it was just days away from the Godsmoot. Hel didn’t have any wiggle room to wait a few days while Malack & Durkon went coffin shopping.
So many possibilities for the upcoming battle. Will one of the vampires cast a Dispel Magic at Belkar trying to disable his clasp of Protection from Evil and instead, or in addition, dispel the Polymorph that keeps Bloodfeast small? Could Bloodfeast then be dominated, requiring the Order to battle an allosaur? Except that Belkar will be opposed to that, of course.
That may not be the reason Belkar pointed out that he has the lizard in his bag. It may just be that the Order will not be going back to the Mechane, so it’s just a way of showing that Bloodfeast does not have to be retrieved.
Welp, I’m calling it – V is due for another period spent with the cloaked LE/NE/CE evil dudes whose name I can never recall.
Can you (well, a vampire) Dominate a dinosaur? Seems like Durkon could have just done that to Tarquin’s triceratops and saved a lot of trouble back when.
I’d bet at least fifty quatloos that Bloodfeast the Extreminator ends up getting accidentally caught by a dispel cast by an enemy, at some point before the end of the comic (and probably before Belkar dies). I’m not certain it’ll be this fight, but it does seem a good time for it, since they’re going to be fighting spellcasters and there’s speculation that this fight will be the one where Belkar buys it.
And Bloodfeast is unlikely to be dominated: He’s not a person, so it’d need to be Dominate Monster, and even if any of the vampires has access to that spell (it’s not typically a cleric spell), they probably wouldn’t bother to prepare it when they already have Dominate Person available at will.
I figure it’ll either be an enemy or Elan casting that spell. Elan has Greater Dispel Magic which he’s never used. Note that the human vampire on Durkula’s team also has that spell. The author has set it up for either to happen. (Duelling Chekhov’s spells?)
Good point. Then the Dispel will temporarily suppress the Protection from Evil and remove the Polymorph (it’d have to be an area dispel). Belkar is then Dominated, so the rest of the Order has to fight Belkar on Bloodfeast.
I’m not sure if a Dispel spell will penetrate a BoH and the rules don’t say. I think the bag’s interior is considered a separate dimension or something like that, so it’s likely a Dispel won’t penetrate. If so, ignore this speculation.
I’m sure I remember a rule somewhere that if a BoH is hit by a dispel, the interior is inaccessible while the bag’s magic is suppressed, but that the contents are unaffected. It looks like that rule isn’t in the SRD, though.
We’re getting off the boat! Love the picked-up pace.
So V is 17th level at least. Dayummmm. And is going for two Mind Blanks rather than one and a Sunburst or two. Although, if I understand the rules, s/he gets an 8th level Evocation spell for free, so two MB plus a non-cold or electricity based 8th level spell would be cool too.
Are Durkula’s fellow vamps likely to make Reflex saves vs V?
Is that two concurrent castings of Mind Blank or one casting, a rest/meditation during the 24 hour duration and a second casting before the first expires?
Mind Blank affects one critter, not necessarily the caster. V says, “I also prepared and cast Mind Blank on myself.”
After some more dialogue, V then says, “The spell lasts a full twenty four hours. Unfortunately, it is among my most difficult spells, and I can thus only prepare it twice per day.”
Roy replies, “Well, let’s see what magical help we can get from the clerics of Thor before we decide on whom you should cast the other one.” and V says, “I understand and concur.”
So from that, I’m getting that V prepped it twice and used one on hirself today, leaving one. (and some other 8th level Evocation spell).
V has cast more than one 8th level spell in a day before this. In 946, V cast 3 Dimensional Locks on the Mechane.
My guess is that Burlew didn’t have any plans for Bloodfeast in the upcoming battle and just wanted to explain why he wasn’t seen. Otherwise there would be dozen of posts saying “Mr Scruffy and Blackwing are there. Where’s Bloodfeast? Did Belkar forget him back on the ship?”
The part of V’s two spells, however, is foreshadowing.
But you can never tell with Burlew. He loves to point the story towards one apparent direction and then head off somewhere you didn’t expect. So maybe we’ll be rereading this strip a couple of years from now and realize the huge plot point was the revelation that Elan’s vest has a name.