Did I get one?!
I got one!
Now Mr. Fluffy is their only hope.
My money’s on Mr. Fluffy for certain.
Maybe Mr. Scruffy can get to the bag of holding and unleash Bloodfeast.
Maybe not. I figured that Roy would get taken out, and the final reckoning would be in Durkon’s memory.
Supposition: there are five dead miners who are Raised in his story. One is a black female. There is also a black female vampire inside the anti-life shell with Durk. Is it the same person? Did she dedicate her life to the Temple after she was shown such generosity by Durkon’s mother? Is she perhaps holding a wild card that will save the day?
They look too close for coincidence.
No on the black female. Different skin color.
In case anyone hasn’t figured it out, the five miners are the five friends of Sigdi who meet every week for dinner. The best intro of them is here, although we don’t learn the name of that black female; she’s the mother of Cousin Logann.
There’s speculation on the GitP forum that they’re going to enter the banquet hall and save the day. Really doubt that, since they aren’t that high of level as far as I can tell.
Even if it is, if the original owner of the body could do something against the vampire host, don’t you think Durkon would have managed it by now?
Thanks for linking to that strip, I figured there was one but didn’t go far back enough to find it.
So, the linked strip is of Durkon’s graduation from clerical training, and the donation and resurrection of the five happened quite some time before that, since Sigdi’s hair wasn’t grey yet. Apparently, Sigdi and the five kept up with each other after they were Raised, while Durkon was growing up and going through training. By the time of the strip you linked, it looks like they’d all gone a bit grey, but none of them appear to be anything other than miners, with the possible exception of “Uncle Kandro”, who apparently knows a little something about combat. The female vampire doesn’t appear to have gone grey at all, so it seems unlikely now that she’s the fifth Raisee.
But there’s gotta be significance here, else why would Durkon be showing it…hmm…
Uncle Thirden, a.k.a. Squeaky, is a bard. Aunt Shirra is still a miner, although now she’s mining silver instead of copper. I don’t think we know for certain what the rest do now, so miner is the default assumption, although my guess is that the other three changed professions. But none seem to have become adventurers, so likely they don’t have more than two or three levels. Not enough to be fighting mid- to high-level vampire clerics.
That’s the 64,000 gp question. Answer it and you win an internet or two.
Well. I saw someone speculating about this exact memory scenario on the GitP forum, but I didn’t believe it because I couldn’t figure out how it was relevant.
Still have no idea how it’s relevant.
Being vamped changes skin tone, doesn’t it?
However, I think it probably isn’t the same. Sigdi’s friend wears a hairclip, and the vampire doesn’t.
My best guess for relevance is that if She was willing to pay 25k+ to prevent 5 dwarves she had never met from going to Hel, There may be some fail safe contingency in place to protect her only son from the same fate.
Although I’m not sure how it would work at this point without a cheesy magic plot button, which he just doesn’t do without fore shadowing. And after racking my brain, I just can’t figure out where it would have been hiding so far.
I liked Minrah. I wonder if this is the end of her story. If it is, I’m glad she died an honorable death.
Durkon died an honorable death, i.e. one in battle. Once Durkula is destroyed, Durkon will go to Valhalla[sup]1[/sup] if he doesn’t get Resurrected.
[sup]1[/sup] Or wherever clerics of Thor go when they die.
I liked Minrah too, but let’s be realistic here. As soon as she volunteered to go with the Order, she should have donned a red shirt. The chances of her surviving the battle with Team Vamp were somewhere between nil and none.
That explains the name of this particular strip:* Raising a Family*.
I see what you’re saying, and I’m at a loss too, to think of what possible preparation Sigdi could have made in the case of Durkon’s accidental death. I’m also at a loss for what this revelation—that Sigdi’s donation was for raising from the dead a bunch of dwarves she’d never met before, who are now her best friends and “family”—has any relevancy as far as getting a vampire priest and friends to not now feast on the Order’s faces:
“O.K., your mom was a saint, and I’ll never understand why someone could do what she did. Oh, and she did this precisely because my goddess is such a bitch.”
(Pause)
“Dinner time everybody! We’ve got a big day ahead of us!”
I just don’t see how this revelation changes anything for Greg. Though I’m sure Burlew will find a way that it will.
Other comments from cruising the GITP forums that I thought were interesting: For all of the forethought and growth the Order showed in planning their attack on Team Vamp, they ended up about exactly as they would’ve if they’d just rushed in like they would’ve around Dungeon Crawlin’ Fools. Which makes their growth and improvement over all this time seem kind of meaningless to me. Probably not the takeaway that was intended.
Oh, and, if a group of mid to high-level vampire clerics gave the Order this many fits, how in the hell do they expect to be able to handle Xykon and Company?
I did read one poster (here: View Single Post: OOTS #1128 - The Discussion Thread ) who layed out an interesting idea that this revelation would cause Greg to switch sides and start helping out the Order. The fight against the Exarch would then be the big fight at the end of the book. The interesting twist is that the poster thought of leaving Greg the way he was, but now giving full voice to Durkon. In the same way that the female vampire listens to the spirit of her evil host. He’d need a new deity though with that scenario, and fast.
As it is, unless Roy or V is playing possum, all of the Order are unconscious, and maybe in negative hit points, right? IOW, no one is available to either break domination or heal the party. So even if the revelation just causes Greg & Co. to just leave for whatever chamber the Elders are meeting in, the Order is still stuck? Just leaving won’t help the Order at this point, they need someone around to actually heal them and get rid of the mind control juju. And there isn’t anyone besides Greg & Co. who can do that.
Eh, a couple bad rolls will screw anyone up. Their plan was solid (much like when they successfully routed Tarquin & Co) and even their execution was fine. They all protected against Domination but there’s not much you can do against a Greater Dispel Magic. Everyone failing their Will Saves was… improbable but it’s not the Order’s fault if everyone metaphysically rolled low. They didn’t do anything wrong, they just got screwed.
I guess Hilgya could still somehow be triggered to break the Domination although, with Kudzu supposedly guaranteed safety, it’d be hard to guess what might do it. Or someone else could enter but they’d probably be vampire chow (plus this room is supposedly unused today).
Real answer is that this will be some Durkon/Vampire internal struggle, yadda yadda.