So what’s V gonna do now? Go nuke post-takeover Azure City (and Xykon) and reseal the Snarl? Reunite the party? See the oracle for random advice?
I’m guessing V is going to do three things that radically effect the current plot and lose a soul splice when something “shocking” happens in the aftermath of each one.
V said “But I need to find…” – that suggests that finding Haley is next on the agenda. Somehow, I don’t think Haley will react any more favorably to Dark V… :eek:
That, my friend, is an interesting thought. It’s pretty clear that V could, now, destroy Xykon and the entire Hobgoblin army if he felt like it. If fact, that would be the MOST effective thing he could do to resolve the ongoing issues with Roy, Haley, and the fleet. The defeat of Xykon, total and complete, removes ALL obstacles to a happy outcome for all plot points. It even leads directly to a resolution of the current problem with the Snarl.
Hmm…
That would be expedient, but about as satisfying as the eagles dropping the ring into Mt. Doom. Then the only conflict we’d have left is whether Spouse will take Suvie back.
I’d give Xykon a fighting chance against V right now even though he’s the underdog. V can’t stop to rest and recover spells (or at least it wouldn’t be smart to for multiple reasons) and has already blown his/her big wad against the dragon. And Xykon is an epic caster himself with an ally who might also be epic (though I think Redcloak is actually around 17 or 18). It’s doable but nowhere near a sure thing.
I had kind of hoped that Vaarsuvius’s mate would be just fine with the changes but willing try to talk V down from the power is reasonable enough.
Not really, it just gives an opportunity for our fiend friends to jump front and center into Big Bad territory, besides, they’ll all end up in an evil afterlife and they have one ruler for each alignment, giving access to ALL post-mortem evil souls if need be. If V does that guess who might be recruiting…
I should add that Id on’t think Burlew wouldn’t be above handily resolving the plot just to make a deconstructionist point about “well, he could and he did, he’s not stupid, you’re telling me you wouldn’t of if you had unprecedented arcane power and the chance?” And like I said above, the story won’t end then and there, there’s plenty of new things he could bring back or reorder to keep it fresh. Hell, V’s rash idea of wiping Xykon off the planet could end up causing more problems than it solves.
It would be more like having the giant eagles to drop the ring into the volcano only to find their brief exposure to the ring allowed Sauron to take control of the entire species.
Edit: And I can’t remember, is Miko still alive? If she is I can’t imagine her being less than a raging ball of pure vengeance right now, hell, if she’s still in the city maybe Xykon warped her fragile little mind to the point of blackguardom.
Torn in half, as I recall. No, I don’t think she’s still alive.
Yep, she’s so dead the necromancer decided she wasn’t worth fixing.
I could easily see V trying to kill Xykon, as that’s the logical next move, and it’d be hilarious. Xykon, beaten down and on the verge of final death, could make one of his bitterly insightful comments that would so stun V that the soul splice would tear apart. Xykon would make a wisecrack about the convenience of it all, shrug his bony shoulders, and commence to making a donation to the Whup V’s Ass Fund. At the last second, the demon trio could pop in, tell Xykon they have a use for V, and spirit the dispirited sprite away.
Oh no shes very dead.
Dead, cut in half, and explicitly not revived as an ultra-powerful undead.
Or V kills Xykon and becomes the new Big Bad.
Haley’s not going to be personally offended, unless something else has been happening to wind her up. She’ll be pragmatic and reasonable and not make any ultimatums.
Also, with the strongest soul gone, V is down to less than 2/3 strength - with spell slots gone. That’s a diminishing return for a continuing cost, which is the kind of thing that Haley would point out. So getting to Haley is a positive.
Of course, now that I think about it, V going to Haley puts V in the middle of the getting Roy’s body back problem. (S)he’s not going to want to let that go. And Haley might have a thought or two about, say, conjuring some diamonds quick while the conjuring is good. Damn.
Yup, V is in a vise.
It’s hard to say that for sure: V is down more than 1/3 of his borrowed power, but he’s got levels of his own.
But he has no spells available of his own if I’m following this right.
Or at least, he’s out of his/her most powerful ones.
The fiends did say that all of V’s spell slots would be rejuvenated when the Soul Splice commenced, and if V geared up with his normal personal load-out, he has more than enough magic to dust Xykon.
Then again, V doesn’t seem to have a grudge against Xykon personally. He may decide that the army that defeated and humbled him is a greater threat.
He is also still Spliced to the soul of an epic conjurer who made war on other planes of existence.
I wouldn’t be surprised if V shows up above Azure City and simply starts bringing in powerful outsiders and ordering them to lay waste to anything goblinoid or undead.
If this happens, I think we all know that O-chul is going to get the “First Person to Discorporate Xykon with Your Bare Hands and No Nearby Hole In Reality” award.
V’s always been too over-concerned about acquiring power and too under-concerned about using it wisely. He might decide to use his temporary power to go directly to the rifts and use them like Xykon, Recloak, Nale, and a bunch of others planned to. V’s completely capable of deluding himself into thinking he’d be doing it for a good cause.
And the Infernals might have anticpated this and maybe their plan is to let V do it, while standing by to take over at the right instant.
V has been obsessed for months with finding Haley. As much as Xykon and the goblin army and the rifts are part of the big picture of the overall story, I think that, now that the danger to the family is over, the next priority for V is getting to Haley.
And I wonder if there might be something larger than usual for strip 650. Rich Burlew has had a lot of fun with popping people’s expectations of special strips for round numbers, so maybe he’ll skewer it from the other side this time.
Lastly – when will V cast Explosive Runes again? It’s high time for that running gag to be revisited!