I like the title; “With a Critical Eye”
So, what happens to a lich after the destruction of his phylacthingy? Anything immediate, or does he just loose the ability to regrow a body? (And how do you pronounce lich anyway? Laik?)
Just the ability to grow a body as I recall. And I’ve always pronounced it “litch”.
He’s already cast it sometime previously, he’s just triggering the effect now.
Litch is the overwhelmingly popular pronunciation, yeah.
And I called it. 
Okay, sure I said it would be V who would manage to destroy Xykon’s phylactery but not Redcloak, but that’s the result of V’s attack. I’m normally horrible at predictions, so I’m calling this one a win.
The root word that it comes from is pronounced “lik” (I want to say it’s Norwegian but I’m not positive; something Scandinavian…) but the official pronunciation is “litch”.
It’s great, isn’t it? My only beef with it is the slow and sporadic updates. Thunt has the written story completed, but the drawing is slow, and I don’t think he does buffers. I would prefer it if her would take like a month or so off from posting and build up a good buffer so we could get non-stop comics, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. 
Meanwhile, I don’t know who to cheer for, Redcloak or O-Chul. And part of me has the sneaking suspicion that destroying the phylactery isn’t going to be so easy. Either that, or Xykon’s soul is no longer stored there at all. How hard/easy would it be to transfer a soul to a different holding place?
I always thought it ended with a gutteral German CH.
Recall Xykon’s decision to run like hell when his phylactory was threatened during the battle of the throne room. He’s touchy as hell about that thing and the implications of having it destroyed.
So there’s something there that focuses his mind. We’ll have to wait and see how things go.
yeah, but at that point his body had been destroyed, so destruction of the phylactery would have been death for him (end of unlife… whatever) If it is destroyed now, he can make another one can’t he?
Lik is Swedish and means cadaver in this context.
That’s the biggest problem with webcomics that are styled to look like graphic novels instead of 3-6 panel daily strips. The art is usually fantastic and the writing is generally very good, but that level of quality is difficult to keep up with any regularity. The only ones I know who’ve never missed a day are the Foglios, but they’re professionals (and most of their online updates are reprints of the already-existing dead tree format anyway). Even Burlew’s had trouble maintaining a consistent schedule for the past year, and his art style is much less demanding than Goblins or other epic webcomics.
I (individual me) had read the books. But it seemed there was a larger point to O-Chul wounding Redcloak’s eye than just causing a serious injury. The strip is titled “With a Critical Eye”.
But rereading it now, I see I misinterpreted what O’Chul said. He was apparently talking about cutting off the amulet not stabbing the eye when he said “No more spells.”
A lot of Redcloak’s power is also tied up in the Crimson Mantle, which he still has.
For what it’s worth, there was a joke once where Xykon confused a lich with a leech.
Schlock Mercenary has also gone for almost nine years every day without a single missed update. I’d recommend it for any nerd.
And Rich Burlew’s art style is relatively simple (most of it is cut-and-paste of pre-drawn characters), but he has some unspecified health problem that sometimes prevents him from updating on time.
Oy, all this vagueness on word of recall!
- Redcloak was able to cast it because it only has a Verbal component; it does not require a Focus (which is what his “amulet” holy symbol is)
- you do choose where you teleport to when you prepare the spell (that is, when Redcloak decided that word of recall would be one of the spells he could cast that day)
- it’s a measly level 6 spell; not something that Redcloak would be reliant on the Crimson Mantle for.
I’m a bit surprised to note that it takes a Standard Action, but that would explain why Redcloak wasn’t able to get it off before getting his eye gouged out and his holy symbol swiped.
Burlew’s art is simple, but his scripting is not. That certainly adds a lot of time between updates.
Absolutely. I’ve got it in my regular reading list. But Schlock follows the 3-6 panel format with a larger Sunday strip, which is somewhat easier to maintain than a regular full page update.
I believe he could.
But, if Xykon’s phylactery is destroyed, and then Xykon is subsequently killed (OK, dropped to 0 hit points, since he’s been dead for some time already) before he has a chance to create a new phylactery, that should be the end of him (barring Redcloak casting Miracle or something).
Just FYI, the 3.5 rules on liches.
Also, I note that O-Chul’s improvised weapon seems to have a blunt end, as well as a pointy, eye-piercing end. Theoretically, he could cast Bless Weapon on the bar (he doesn’t have his holy symbol / divine focus on him right now, but Bless Weapon only has verbal and somatic components), and thus be able to bypass Xykon’s pesky damage reduction (DR 15 / bludgeoning and magic).
GO O-CHUL!
Well, until the disintegrate spell failed, his eye was gouged out and the symbol was swiped, there was no need to do so.
We know that eyes can be regenerated in the Sticks Universe (c.f. Eagle Eye Pete), but is there anything about Smite Evil that would make this difficult? Are we going to see Redcloak wearing an eyepatch in the future?
Given that Redcloak had already taken a lightning bolt and maybe a sunburst, just how many hit points did he have left?
I’m amused that the noise that the bar made when it was torn from the cage was “Katang!” and O’Chul is wielding it like a katana.
The spell didn’t fail, it just didn’t do enough damage to kill it’s target. The target only ‘disintegrates’ if the damage inflicted by the spell actually reduces the targets hp below 0. See V hitting the black dragon with 2 of them for an illustration.
Smite Evil by itself doesn’t, but Redcloak doesn’t have his holy symbol anymore, and I’m pretty sure he needs that to cast Regeneration. He can make a new holy symbol, but I think it will be a little bit before he gets around to it. We’ll probably see one for at least a little bit.
Another thing is that in Start of Darkness, Righteye lost his eye to a Blue Paladin, and he refused to have it healed so it could serve as a reminder or something. Part of Righteye’s plan to kill Zykon involved a Regenerate scroll that Redcloak could cast on him in case his plan failed, so that Zykon wouldn’t be able to identify him as the culprit. So we’ll probably see a reference to his brother, either a deep pithy comment about how he understands his brother more from Redcloak, or a blunt insulting one from Zykon.