I didn’t want to bump the thread until there was already a new comic, but did anyone ever figure this out? Am I missing a super-obvious reference?
What’s that about an invisible raven ? I don’t get the joke
The dumb muscle mistook the raven for a crow. The raven, hearing this, reacted not by saying “Hey, it mistook me for a crow” but by looking around for a crow.
The whatever-wurm referred to a crow - which Darkwing* is not, he’s a raven. So Darkwing is talking about the crow the wurm referred to.
*Darkwing? Suddenly I’ve blanked on his name.
Blackwing. Darkwing is, famously, a duck.
Only explanation I’ve seen is from the OOTS Wiki.
*The title plays on the term “gatekeeper”. Instead of keeping the Gate scroll in reserve, Gontor “spends” it, making him a “gatespender”. *
Bit weak,IMHO, if that really is the intended meaning.
Something I just noticed: A nightshade (such as a nightcrawler) generates a Desecrate effect, which among other things, suppresses (and is suppressed by) any Consecrate effect it overlaps with.
The Council Building is probably Consecrated. And the defenses which the vampires are exploiting are probably based, in part, on that Consecration.
The vampires might have accidentally sabotaged their own plan.
Is it that the Nightcrawler would cancel out the Consecration, and therefore the Order would just have to make saving throws to avoid triggering the defenses stated by the Exarch? Or would the Desecration take down the defenses entirely?
Neat idea. I hadn’t thought the creature could interfere with the building to that extent but it’s an interesting case you make.
:smack: Thanks guys
That worm reminds me of someone.
Nice spot check for a creature with no eyes.
Poor spot check for a (presumably) human with 2 working eyes.
Yeah, that’s what I was referring to.
Would be the first Monty Python rehash, though. 
Nor the second, third or fourth.
Help help I’m being oppressed.
Pine-ing for the fjords
Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Book
My money’s on climbing up top to knock a hole in the roof and let the sun shine in.
But whatever they’re doing, it has a good chance to work, because we didn’t see them spelling out the plan ahead of time. I’d like to see more of that in the strip.
Range increment on the Hammer of Thunderbolts is 30 feet, and (I’ve not played 3.5 enough to really have this down), you can throw a weapon up to five range increments. With to hit penalties on each successive increment. So Durkon can throw the Hammer at something 150 feet away from him, and since the hammer is returning, it’ll come back. Is he 150 feet away from the ceiling of that cavern?
Alternately, if V doesn’t get dropped off a bridge by the nightcrawler, a Disintegrate at the ceiling might also help with letting light in. I think when they say “10 foot cube” in the spell description, they mean 1000 cubic feet of material. I’m sure there are other spells that’d be better for rapidly excavating rock, but we know V loves to use Disintegrate, and so would likely have it prepared.
Well, Durkon’s not in the picture yet. My theory (not mine originally) is that he, Roy and Belkar are climbing up on the roof of the temple from the outside and plan to break in through the ceiling there. In other words, V and Haley are really just a distraction.
A bit better when you consider that he spent the gate spell to summon a monster which itself is a gatekeeper, in guarding the passageway.
Works for me. There, Durkon can easily open up the roof of the building, as well as try to open the ceiling of the cavern. He even has Roy there, with cross-skill ranks in Engineering and Architecture, to advise Durkon on just where to smash. Keeps them out of the line of sight of the worm, too.