Except Belkar didn’t lay down his life for anyone, nobly or otherwise. He was spying on Durkon, got caught, tried to run, got physically caught, tried defending himself and got tossed out a window and off a mountain. That’s just a punk death.
Though, like Chronos said, he should be able to survive it anyway (assuming maximum fall damage rules versus just “splat after X feet”). He’s a high level ranger and was pretty much unharmed prior to the window toss, just taking one or two bite attacks, unlike Roy at Azure City who was pretty knocked around even before eating a Meteor Swarm and then falling.
Or even better, a lawyer…
As for Durkon contributing to the fight, here’s something I posted elsewhere.
Prediction for the next strip: Durkula, now being hit for lots of damage, realizes he made an error and tries to fix it by reconvincing Roy of his Durk-ness. He has Durkon bring up a memory that he can use to do this. Durkon chooses a memory that ostensibly should do it, but actually subtly undermines Durkula’s argument. Here’s where Durkon’s recognition of Durkula’s weakness will come into play.
Well, there’s philosophically fitting, and there’s narratively fitting. This strip is about the story, so, IMHO, narratively fitting should win out.
Anyway, there’s no rule that says a Belkar return to the fray would have to prevent Durkon from playing a crucial role in the foiling of Hel and Durkula’s plot. In fact, from what’s been shown so far, the narrative requires both.
If it’s an alt-version of Righteous Might, then no. It lasts a round per level.
I found it interesting that Durkula was holding onto a Slay Living the whole time. Even if Roy had successfully saved against it he would have taken almost as much damage as from an Inflict Serious Wounds.
What happens Godsmoot-wise if Roy is killed? Can anyone else step in and start fighting? Is there some advantage to Durkula if he drags it out rather than killing Roy immediately?
I suspect that along with healed green-eyed Roy and green flame, there’s a dispel effect. It feels to me like these two strips are a reveal of new powers of the starmetal greenhilt sword. The aerial fight with Xykon was the closest we’ve seen to an ‘activate’ of the sword before. Roy clearly damaged Xykon with green flame strikes, but (a) Roy didn’t have green eyes, (b) Roy wasn’t healed, and (c) Xykon’s Overland Flight was not dispelled. This combat is quite different. But if Roy can learn to invoke this effect in a fight against Xykon and/or Redcloak, then wow!
Well, I doubt the rules require you to have a bodyguard. Unless Death’s Little Helper comes back, it means the vote would stand at a tie unless the demigod priests can be rounded up.
And damn, Roy has been holding on to one mother of a weapon this whole time. Full heal and Greater Dispel on undead when he rages? That is a weapon that would make taking down Xykon almost too easy. Seriously, that is a near game-breaker.
Normally buffs like that last for a set duration (Thor’s Might would be X rounds/level where X is Durkon’s level - so at least a minute and a half), and even getting killed doesn’t stop them.
So his shrinking is either creative licence or, as **satogata **says, Roy’s new GreenJuju includes an innate Dispel Magic effect.
Well they happen to be in a room with as much as much of a total sum of wisdom as you could expect to exist in the world, although maybe not Intelligence. But still between all the high clerics(and the sacred Knight of the Expository Aside) who all saw it, maybe we will get a full explanation of the effect in story.
If Roy is killed (and Belkar doesn’t show up) the Godsmoot proceeds as normal and the world ends. Remember from the beginning of this fight, if a priest or his bodyguards attack any of the other parties, they’ve violated the Godsmoot and will be struck down. Roy can only attack Durkon because of a loophole that lets a priest’s own bodyguard attack him.
Sure, but why would they ? One would assume that, apart from Roy, each of the various bodyguards actually know who their own priest is, are loyal to them and presumably also share their devotion.
The weapon maker mentioned that the green glow occurred “Sometimes” when battling the undead. Redcloak is not undead.
I’m guessing that if Durkevil dies, then his vote would still stand, the group would remain deadlocked, but anyone thralled by him would be freed, including representatives of demigods.
I don’t think the vote stands, which is one reason why the HP of Balder (I thought it was Baldur, but it has an e in the comic) can’t leave the room to go find the demigod priests. If Durkula gets whacked, his vote does too, and the tie is resolved without the demigods.
That said, if the demigod priests got thralled, they probably also got their own lawful evil vamp spirit running their bodies around, so presumably they would vote with Hel since they’re dwarves. Well, assuming they can fake the summon proxy spell, which I doubt. More likely is that Durkula whacked the priests of any demigods that would have voted no. Assuming he whacked them at all, as opposed to just the unaligned clerics.
I’m guessing the other deities can’t rescind their votes; that seems to have been covered by Hel invoking the “no takebacks” rule. So killing off any clerics wouldn’t change the vote count. So the clerics of Elemental Earth are the only open vote left.
My guess is that the connection with Durkon is that he’s holding those clerics in thrall and can control their vote. And like Malack’s hold over Durkon, Durkon’s hold over his thralls will end if he’s killed.
Nope. The weapon maker specified that the sword, “will sometimes glow with a deadly green energy that is particularly harmful to the undead”. I read this as the green glow being harmful to anyone, but especially so to undead. So Redcloak isn’t off the hook just because he’s still alive. And if the sword casts a Roy-heal (which seems likely) and a dispell (I’m skeptical, but whatever), then those certainly help against Redcloak (among others).