Maybe. But, in my opinion, probably not. The whole point was to eliminate those dragons who would be looking for revenge. It was extreme but probably effective as far as achieving that first level goal. My guess is that most surviving black dragons will leave Vaarsuvius alone - they didn’t lose anything personally in the massacre, they’re evil so they’re not going to do it for some abstract “good of the race”, and they’re not going to want to go up against somebody who has that kind of power. So while I expect Vaarsuvius will face some serious consequences, I don’t expect if will be a black dragon attack.
As I surmised earlier, though, don’t you think Tiamat might be a little miffed at the wholesale slaughter of a large number of black dragons?
There are already powerful extraplanar beings ready to cause serious trouble for the Order as a result of the splice, so it’s not clear where Tiamat would fit into the story structure.
50 strips ago, I would have told you that I’m not sure where the spirits of three dead, evil mages would have fit into the story. Yet here we are.
I’m just speculating, same as everyone else. If Burlew wanted to put Tiamat into the story, I’m sure he could handle the challenge readily enough.
I don’t think it any more likely than it would be for Tiamat to squash Belkar for offing her favored kobold, the Oracle.
If anything, I suspect the Familicide spell will be called back in a “What did they mean by that, V?” “Nothing, nothing!” moment. The soul bind and pact with the fiends will get way more attention from the rest of the Order… assuming they learn about it before they’re cursing the sudden inevitable betrayal of V getting controlled by the three fiends.
I’m guessing that the elf will lose the splices in the next strip or two, then end up in the dungeons with the paladin and the unspecified monster. I expect V will figure out what the monster is before the reveal, but not soon enough to help the order much. V will end up having to to swallow a lot of pride because the Order is going to end up saving the completely helpless elf.
It’s not looking good for V.
Now, granted, I’m just spitballing here, but really? Favored or not, the Oracle was just a kobold. The legions of black dragons that got offed in the blink of an eye would have meant far, far, far more to her than a single priest/oracle/whatever. I mean, I doubt that that many dragons have EVER been erased at one time before, and it wasn’t even on a single field of battle. It was all over the world, effectively instantaneously. If I were a dragon goddess that had a black dragon head, I’d definitely be more than passingly curious about what force could have possibly croaked a significant portion of one of my worshippers’ species…
A definite possibility.
And we’ve still got storylines that haven’t begun yet. We don’t know who the Holey Brotherhood is yet. We don’t know Haley’s mysterious past and I assume at some point we’ll have an arc about her father’s rescue. The story’s barely begun to head towards Gerard’s Gate and we have good reason to think that’s just another detour - I’m pretty sure Burlew created five gates for a reason so we still have Kraagor’s Gate to go.
You know, I just realized something : with Familicide, V killed off a number of dragons that probably goes well into the triple digits… how much XP does that make, roughly ? He should have been deafened by the concerto of “ding !”, gaining so many levels in one go 
Part of the deal was that he gained no XP’s while the Soul Splice was in effect. But it wasn’t 100% - there apparently was some minor loophole. So it’s possible but I think unlikely.
The Oracle is a kobold that got his job from Tiamat through nepotism. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tiamat was his mama with the glandular problem, actually.
Anyway, given how the Oracle works, Tiamat actually knows him personally. Unlikely she knew all those black dragons, personally… especially since they were color-coded as Good adventurer XP.
Well, Tiamat probably wouldn’t care. Plenty more where they came from. Now, Bahamut might take exception to near-genocide, evil dragons or no.
OK, not a black dragon attack. But what about that green dragon from the next forest over that the young one was hanging out with? Thing is, you can’t kill off that many powerful beings without making yourself some correspondingly powerful enemies.
200, since V already lost the necromancer.
The other difference is that Xykon has allies with him that DO think; therefore, the traps that cost V surprise, and True Seeing to see the Splices. As opposed to Vaarsuvius’ allies, whom V left far behind and can’t cover for V’s weaknesses.
Bahamut would most likely give V a medal for killing all the evil dragons.
Vaarsuvius : “OOOOF !”
Bahamut : “Oh, sorry. It’s sized for a dragon.”
Fearless prediction: V makes some sort of escape out that big-ass hole that got blown in the side of the tower.
I can see some arguments about that in strip in the future. The terms were for as long as the splice lasts, not for as long as Vaarsuvius could hold on to the soul that fiend lent. Splice is still going on so the clock is counting for all three of them.
But like I said, I’m sure that’s going to be a plot point down the line.
Hey I have a question. I was just rereading some of the older strips after the Order’s first supposed defeat of Xykon, and came across #130, which is when everyone took some “prizes” from the castle. Belkar took the Ring of Jumping (which has been used a few times, including getting Roy onto Xykon’s dragon); Durkon took the Amulet of Natural Armor; Haley grabbed the Bag of Holding (which we’ve seen her use); Elan took the Elvenkind boots; Roy got the bag o’ critters; and Vaarsuvius chose the Ring of Wizardry, “pried off of Xykon’s charred fingerbone.”
Now, so far, we’ve seen Roy, Haley and Belkar’s rewards put to good use. Durkon’s amulet seems to have a logical use, so I’m not that curious about it. Elan’s boots make me curious, but since he’s almost certainly lost them by now – he had to get a new outfit after Nale stole his clothes – they’re off the table, so to speak.
But the Ring of Wizardry interests me, especially because Rich had V. point out that it was taken directly from Xykon’s remains. (None of the other goodies are described as being so personal – except for Xykon’s crown, and we know there’s something up with that – it made Roy track as “evil” to Miko.)
So what does a Ring of Wizardry do in D&D, if anything? Has V. ever used it?