Eh, less than half of dragons breathe fire, too. By my count, it’s only about 30%, or less if you include wyverns, dragon turtles, and the like.
And aside from the question of whether Crystal could be raised, who would want to?
The percentage has grown recently due to a sudden drastic reduction of the acid breathing dragon population.
Yeah, Crystal was never a nice person. I can’t see any resolution other than her death, either.
That would be funny, but I don’t see how it would tie in to the rest of the story. Shame, because it would be entertaining.
Speculation - BIG spoiler if correct.
[spoiler]Bard girl Jenny seems to be a friendof hers. She might well want to raise Crystal.
Jenny also like-likes Belkar. I’m expecting her to show up in the next few strips, as part of Bozzok’s team. When she is rejected, she’ll get all Fatal Attraction. She’ll probably try to put Mr Scruffy in Belkar’s cooking pot. It won’t go well for her. [/spoiler]
Comment by the author:
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The art upgrade isn’t for you, it’s for me. It’s what I needed to keep going after 11 years of the same story by way of challenging myself, while still trying to stay within the initial parameters of the comic’s signature look. If it slows the comic down in the process, then so be it. Instead of comparing it to the speed the comic would update if I hadn’t upgraded, instead compare it to the speed the comic would update if I had lost all joy in creating it because I was unsatisfied with the finished product. (Hint: It would have been even slower.)*
I’m getting the impression that maybe he’s growing a little tired of OOTS
Hmm, that’s too bad. I hope he finishes the story.
Damn, Burlew can be really bitchy about his work sometimes. Yes, I know, it’s free, etc., etc… (The books certainly aren’t though.) If he’s so tired of drawing the comic, then quit, and see if he can strike lightning twice. A lot of artists haven’t.
But selfishly, I do want him to let us know how the thing ends—and I’d bet the guy who plotted Durkon’s vampirization years in advance already does know—as well as wrapping up the other questions like: who the MITD is; what’s the Snarl really; how does Tarq et al get his comeuppance, if he does at all; do the lovers in the Scribble ever make it out of the soul gem (and do they want to leave?); the IFCC’s ultimate goal(s); how does Belkar bite it; what happens to RedCloak and so on. Given his health issues, I hope it’s written down somewhere.
For Christ’s sake, his work is so loved that he got a bunch of random strangers on the Internet to give him, what, over a million dollars to reprint it?! (Weird, I’d remembered it being more, but that’s what the page says.) And he’s still surprised that people bitch that the ‘normal’ webcomic update rate isn’t being followed, and want him to work faster, whether or not it jibes with his tastes and artistic vision? We complain about the update rate for the same reason a junkie bitches about the price and rigamarole they have to go through for their hit. (Giantitp.com isn’t going to refresh itself.) The pusher doesn’t care, so long as the money’s good, and neither should Burlew. IMHO.
Thanks dtilque for laying out the chain of custody for the dagger. Many strikes of palm to my face followed. And I think that Chronos’s scenario for V meeting Aaarindarius again is absolutely delicious, not the least of which that if true it’s another ‘lie’ the IFCC told V when recruiting him. Best part is: it’s not even a lie, given they said he’d “intercede against the dragon.” Not win. And thanks, Little Nemo, for answering the questions I had, and I think you’re right about Niu. Probably should have referred to her instead as an Azurite Refugee, or member of their army.
Given that the Gnome clerics weren’t high enough level to Rez Durkula/feratu, but were high enough to have enough Knowledge: Religion ranks to know how vampirism works in the Stickverse, is this foreshadowing that he’s going to be found out really quickly when he hits the Dwarven lands? Or by anyone who’s taken a few levels of Cleric? Or that Hilgya would know right away? Assuming she reappears in the comic, of course.
GRUBWIGGLER: “I’m sick of your banal little guild’s petty intrigues interfering in my magical research. . . .”
Thieves do tend to have a blind spot there; they sometimes forget money isn’t everything to everybody.
I believe that the official word about that was that the one gnome cleric knew, but it wasn’t necessarily common knowledge among clerics.
The internet tells me that a vampire’s Dominate ability acts as if cast by a level 12 caster and that the spell lasts one day per level. So the gang will be long gone before the Dominated gnome shakes the effect and can strike up a second warning.
I don’t get the impression he’s tired of the strip. My impression is that he’s tired from all of the extra work he’s been doing in the last year on top of the strip. His Kickstarter project went phenomenally well, which is great from a financial sense. But it also meant he was committed to a bunch of extra projects that he’s been working his way through.
She becomes the replacement for the kobold they lost in Windy Canyon, then acts as a meat shield for the final showdown with Xykon.
Probably not feasible under current rules wrt bardic Music and its effect on golems and other undead. Although, she DOES appear to be a new kind of undead…
Waitaminute – as part of WHOSE team?
Eh, Burlew has always been a touch, call it sensitive, about his art. That’s OK; one expects artists to have their idiosyncrasies. He produces art, I enjoy his art, his personality really doesn’t come into it.
I think he may get annoyed with some people who assume that he chose to work with stick figures because he couldn’t do any better.
In point of fact, Burlew is a good artist. He certainly has the skills to have done the strip with conventionally drawn art if he had wanted to do so. If anything, he probably works harder on his art to produce it within the limitations of the format he’s chosen.
Well the art upgrade comment came in direct response to a suggestion that he dial back the art quality and increase the update frequency. To which Rich replied (paraphrase): “That’s not the audience’s call. It’s mine. The audience is welcome to drift away though.”
Rich is correct, but I admit that I get curious about the guy after 7 days pass without an update. “Hey Rich, how’s the thumb? Whatcha working on? Can we go out and play? Mom says we should ask you. When’s the next update? How’s the the thumb? You working on Kickstarter now? What pens do you use? Are we there yet? Whatcha working on? How many computers do you own? Is it hard drawing a comic?”
It’s really none of my business. But I still wonder.
Aside from Rich’s personal aspirations, I speculate that part of the reason for the art upgrade relates to the difficulty of depicting the big MitD reveal in stick format. As it is, I’m wondering whether Rich will go full Picasso. (IMHO, they’ve basically IDd MitD at the forum, though picking up on that requires some study and decoding. Of course Rich has a habit of upturning my expectations so take with pinch of salt.)
What did they ID it as?
I’m going to be cagey on this one. It’s more fun that way. Plus I could very well be wrong.
Here’s the thread. The answer is on the first page, but is not IDd explicitly. The reader can work it out themselves… or not! MitD VIII: Everything we know about MITD (but were afraid Tarrasque)
The first page summarizes existing theories. Happy digging!
There are a huge number of suggestions listed in that thread. None of them are generally accepted as correct.
Seriously, which one do you think is it? You can put your answer in a spoiler box so you won’t ruin it for others.
I’d be interested in knowing the supposed ID of the MitD simply because I don’t follow current D&D enough for it to be “more fun” to guess at a monster I’m probably barely aware exists or who changed enough between editions that I wouldn’t guess it anyway.