The sword is star metal, which I believe is not defined in D&D rules. However, my headcanon is that in this strip, star metal is the same as all the special metals (cold iron, silver, adamantium, whatever) combined. There’s inconclusive evidence for this impression. However, the sword did overcome Sabine’s DR and seemed to penetrate Xykon’s (battle on the zombie dragon).
My guess as to what happens next in this battle is that the High Priestess of Thor will somehow intervene. She’ll probably remember where she heard the name Durkon Thundershield before and realize that he used to be a priest of Thor. That may let her rationalize that fighting him would be an “internal church dispute” and so be allowed under the Godsmoot rules. I don’t expect her to win (the tactic Durkon used on Gontor – Silence spell and then grapple and drain – would seem to be quite effective against any cleric without the silent spell feat) but she would divert Durkula long enough for Roy to drink a potion or two before rejoining the fight. He probably would rejoin soon enough to keep her from being totally drained, but not before she loses too many effective levels to be a factor. Then again, she may just try to intervene verbally. At any rate, she’s not going to be happy with the prospect of being Garm’s chew toy in the next world and will try to do something to avoid that.
I think Roy’s sword glows when he has fully lethal intent. Roy wants to destroy Xykon so the sword lights up. With Durkevil, Roy is holding back a little. If he is made aware of Durkon’s true situation, I’d expect the sword to brighten.
Sheesh it’s a +5 magic sword. It’s gotta have some sentience of one kind or another.
That or something similar is probably the reason why we’re not seeing the glow in this battle. Previously, we’d seen the glow on all but two times when Roy attacked undead and also saw it three times when attacking non-undead. However, one of the times the green did not appear was when he chopped the head off the zombie dragon. He was really wrought up for that one; you’d expect lots of green. So it may be just something as simple as Roy forgetting to replace the batteries.
Right, I fucked up. I figure he’s got something like 24 or 26 str, which is about average at these levels (16 or 18 to begin with, +4 from levelling to 16th, +4 to +6 from a belt of STR). So +8 base, +12 with a two hander.
But then I did forget weapon spec - I hardly ever play Fighters - so it evens out somewhat :o
But based on what we’ve seen, Roy has to be at least 1 HP, right? He’s not dead, so he either made the save and was reduced to 1 HP, or he didn’t make the save but it still didn’t do enough damage to kill him.
Although, Elan was at negative HP in #58, and he didn’t have Xs over his eyes. Though he did look a lot more unconscious than Roy does now.
3.5 had a Death’s Door rule…if you went to 0 hp, you continued to lose 1hp per round? turn? until you got to -10, then you died for real. If you could be stabilized in that time, you’d recover.
I gathered that much based on strip #58. My point is that Roy does not appear to be in the same condition that Elan was in when he was at negative HP, ergo, he’s probably at least 1 HP.
My money is on some other member of the party. Belkar, his cat, someone who saw Belkar fall, someone Belkar spoke to as he died… But someone in the party.
Belkar is the only other person who has “clearance” to interfere. And the cat, I suppose by extension, but I assume cats can’t harm vampires. Anyone else should, by rules, get smoked by the rest of the Godsmoot.
The only other way around that I could see would be someone removing Roy from the situation (how, with the force field, I don’t know). I don’t think that teleporting Roy out would technically count if they didn’t affect Durkon at all although obviously Roy wouldn’t be allowed back in.
Roy’s participation in this fight seems pretty close to over unless he’s got a potion handy. So I’m guessing some third party intervention is called for.
We do know, from Haley’s battle with Crystal, that the Mechane is well stocked with supplies of holy water. That seems like a Chekov’s vial that hasn’t gone off yet. If I were members of a party with a recently transformed vampire, I know I’d be carrying some around with me. Even Batman carries kryptonite, just in case.
That, or somehow tricking Durkon into accidentally attacking one of the other clerics.
Might not be a bad idea for one of the clerics with an interventionist bent - turn invisible, then stand near Roy, hoping that Durkon uses something with a blast radius.
I would expect that forcefield does more than just keep the participants in. It should keep out everyone except valid participants. So it would also have to prevent teleportation, gating, and summoning. It would let Belkar and the High Priests of the demigods in, but no one else.
This would explain something that’s bothered me. Durkula entered the nave without anyone to introduce him. Certainly the Priestess of Odin didn’t know who he was. So why was an obvious vampire allowed to wander around the Godsmoot without challenge? Or even if he wasn’t obviously a vampire, an apparent random dwarf. You’d think someone there would have challenged his right to be there.
But if the forcefield is handling that aspect of security, this is easily explained. The participants know that the forcefield only lets in valid participants, so they never have to worry about that. Everyone there is authorized to be there.
About that teleportation orb, I’m fairly sure V still has it. I don’t think Roy has a Use Magical Device skill, so he probably couldn’t use it. But even if Roy had it and could use it, he’s not going to run from this fight.