New Strip!
ETA: Wow, I got it first. That never happens.
Psst! 6 posts back.
But you are right. That never happens.
Heh, I remember the first time I thought I had it first. Turns out the announcement was just on the previous page.
I wonder how many false “new strip” posts there were in the book 5 thread?
New Strip #950
V has become a lot more comfortable with his badassitude, hasn’t she?
I’m kind of loving Mr. Scruffy and the former dinosaur snuggled happily up together in the first panel. And is that V preparing Explosive Runes? It’s just about time for that running gag to come up again, isn’t it?
ETA: Also, ‘My Other Airship is a Carpet.’ Heh!
I wonder if there’s any signifigance to this little bit of narrative that will become apparent later. It seems like the joke is not worth a whole strip.
Wizards get the ability to handle entire encounters single handedly by the level the Order is at. I would hope most of them adjust to it fairly easily. Then again, this is just an environmental consideration, so V doesn’t consider it terribly exciting.
I noticed that as well - seemed like a throwaway strip compared to what came before. I suppose even Rich is allowed downtime.
Although there’s plenty in here to note. Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator is hanging out with Mr. Scruffy. Blackwing is airsick, and getting along with V like an old married couple. V is happy to help out, unlike when they were on Hinjo’s Junk.
V and Hinjo had sex ?!
He’s spending all his time drawing those colored in “stick” hands these days, no time for plot 
“Let’s not sully our relationship with cheap lies.”
It’s not a strip - it’s the third page of a book. It’s there to establish setting and character, not to provide a punchline.
V was scribing a scroll; hence the request to Blackwing not to vomit on it. A prudent use of class features, since wizards get Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat.
Most likely it just shows the ship getting damaged, but they got it under control. Next strip they have to land for repairs, and the adventure starts.
It’s the sort of thing though that could (and I think would) usually be handled with one or two panels. V casting Cone of Cold, fire out and V walking back to the group. This seemed unnecessarily elaborate in setup but I suppose it’s not worth worrying about. Either something in it will come back again or else he just felt like giving V the chance to be badass and zap a smoldering bit of tinder.
Yeah, that’s basically what wizards do whenever they get free time : store the daily spell slot allowance they’re not using on paper, for later. The scroll can then be read at any time to cast the spell that had been inscribed on it, at a preset caster level.
It costs some money and the tab runs up deceptively quick, but it’s still extremely useful to keep a scroll bank of spells that are too situational to memorize in the context of a general dungeon, but can come in* super handy* in rare situations that can’t really be foreseen before you walk in. Stuff like a Gust of Wind to disperse a Fog or Cloudkill spell, water-breathing, item repair, Death Ward, Gaseous Form… or just Dimension Door so that the rogue/bard can get the whole party out of dodge even should the wizard bite it.
It’s pretty cool for clerics as well, but of course they have to spend a feat slot on it and never have enough of 'em already.
I remember discussing this in the other thread, I think, but just to re-clarify: Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator won’t spontaneously turn back into a dinosaur, right?
Baleful Polymorph is permanent. The only way Bloodfeast is growing 125 shoe sizes is if someone deliberately dispels the Polymorph.
Or if someone accidentally dispels the Polymorph. Someone could set off an area dispel, that the dinosaur just happens to get caught in. But yeah, the point is that it’s not going to wear off spontaneously.
And the other place scrolls are really handy is for the fix-up spells, like Remove Curse, Remove Blindness, Raise Dead, etc. When one of those conditions is affecting you, you want to get rid of it right away, but they come up very rarely. Of course, those spells are mostly cleric spells, not wizard.
I think this one’s all about showing V’s character growth. First, he’s still treating Blackwing like a person, and not a class feature. He’s interrupted while working on magic stuff, and responds immediately. Elan points out the blindingly obvious, and V thanks him for the advice with only a little snark. He waits to find out the whole situation before acting. He casts a high level offensive spell without any warm up at all, and finishes the job with a zero level spell, before going back to work without another word.
Vaarsuvius back in book one, in the same circumstance, wouldn’t have been talking to Blackwing at all. She would have bitched about being interrupted to deal with someone else’s problem, insulted Elan for pointing out the obvious, acted immediately without listening to anyone else, and likely have spent so much time monologing before casting her spell that the ship would have crashed before she got around to it. Ifs he did get the spell off, she’d then bitch some more about being interrupted, before casting a second cone of cold to finish off the twig, because “proportional response” is something for NPC classes.