The Class and Level geeks took V’s casting of Telepathic Link, and how many creatures it affected (7), to make the deduction that V was operating in that spell with a 18 ECL. The Ioun Stone on Blackwing gives hir 1 level. Which leaves V at 17th Level, enough to cast 9’s.
EDIT: I agree with you on V showing off, despite intervening character growth, but it’s conceivable V hasn’t had the chance to scribe a 9th, yet. And may not have enough surplus XP for Wish.
Besides, it’s about time. Again from that thread, V’s been stuck at 16 forever it seems, and has had a ton of fights (Frost Giants, Vampires, Nightcrawler) since then. And hasn’t been killed and Rezed, unlike Roy or Durkon (x2).
I feel this might be a double twist. If the alignment reader exists and is later revealed, people will go back and see that Belkar wasn’t in the tunnel. “Aha,” they will conclude, “it wouldn’t have worked if Belkar had been there because we all know he’s evil. How clever to misdirect us by having him be outside when it triggered.”
But I feel the second twist will be the eventual reveal that Belkar wouldn’t have had a problem passing the test - because he’s no longer evil. I feel his alignment has shifted into neutral.
So he’s fine as long as he doesn’t park on a hill.
I don’t think it will be a gimme. The maze is still going to challenge them with monster attacks. But I feel Serini will have set things up so it’s at least possible for a good aligned group to find the gate.
Clearly, the Scribblers intended for the Gates to be accessible somehow, to the right people. Otherwise, why bother to have a tunnel complex full of traps/monsters/whatever at all? Just fill the whole thing in with a few hundred meters of reinforced concreteStone Shape. So the question just comes down to who each of the Scribblers considered “the right people”, and how they’d tell.
I guess I just assume that “the right people” would be the people they handpicked to take on the mantle of protecting it. Not some people who would have no reason to even know about it, no matter what their alignment.
I mean, what if they are convinced that it’s actually evil and they need to destroy it?
We know that Soon handpicked people to carry on the defense of his gate after he died, and although Girard and Lirian expected to be personally involved in their gates’ defense for some time yet, they also had handpicked defenders. But Dorukan, despite knowing that he was close to death, he didn’t have any defenders per se, relying instead on monsters and magical wards, and yet he still left his Gate accessible to the right sort of person, who could come along after his death.
Guess Burlew completed most of his Christmas products for sale. I obviously like the new early strip.
For being a new dungeon, Team Evil doesn’t look like they have a scratch on them. RC may be down on healing as a result, but still.
Does Xykon really not notice the implications of someone jacking with marking the doors? Or he does notice, but it’s more fun to needle RedCloak than to answer the question? Or just doesn’t care, because whatever happens, at least he’s not bored now?
Surprising that they haven’t asked where the MITD is, nor are seemingly that enthused about finding him.
This one, sort of. He doesn’t want to think about it because that’s a bother and who cares they’re all dead now anyway. Thinking is for dorks. I did like Oona’s plausible suggestion that maybe they’re just regenerating faster now. We know that’s not the case but it’s something to possibly take the spotlight off MitD.
One shouldn’t reinforce Elan’s genre-saviness, while Blackwing providing that sort of feedback to his owner is a valuable service. Not that V is likely to pay attention, although the two of them are getting better in that area.
That’s possible, but Xykon’s not stupid, just lazy. He may have immediately recognized the significance of a marked door having monsters behind it, and is playing dumb with Redcloak because Redcloak is the most obvious suspect for fucking with Xykon’s plans.
So - are we about to see a climactic showdown? Per Elan it really doesn’t feel like it, so what’s going to happen instead?
a) OotS get away with it, Team Evil miss them and they go back to tracking down Lien and O’Chul undisturbed.
b) As they’re on the brink of ambushing Team Evil, those invisible folk intervene and a new subplot emerges.
c) They find the gate.
d) ???
We still have to cash in so many plot hooks that a showdown is a loooong way away. Just the hooks of Belkar and V alone should make up half a book worth of strips. Then throw in all the other factions…
No, there will be a miniclimax soon, with maybe putting paid to Belkar, but a Big One? I don’t think so.
They’ll see Team Evil very soon, I think. TE’s going to track them to this door—I agree with Dibble that Roy yeeted Belkar because they were out of time, and he didn’t want B leaving tracks. I just don’t think B was done obscuring their trail—open it, enter (Burlew will then end that strip), the Order will lose its shit, and then TE will disappear.
Is the Gate down this passageway the Order’s on? Maybe, but I think they’ll definitely find a key to where the Gate is. Might even find ‘Green Lettering’ and ‘Orange Lettering’, if not the Paladins themselves.
I think it’s more a case of Xykon realizing that whatever the mystery is about the regenerating monsters, it isn’t related to the task at hand. Xykon plans on killing the intruders and then circling back to the mystery.
Redcloak can get curious about something and get diverted by looking for answers. Xykon doesn’t care about abstract knowledge; if some information isn’t useful to his goals, he has no problem ignoring it.