I’m going with the Chekhov’s gun principle. Burlew made a point of showing Xykon give a specific command involving the phylactery so I’m going to assume it won’t be destroyed before that command comes into play.
I hope you brought enough joke for EVERYBODY. Would you care to share with the rest of us?
Back in the old days, you used grease pencils or crayon to fill in the numbers on the dice so they could be read, because they weren’t painted in.
Back in the really old days? The D20 went 0-9 twice. I still have a pair somewhere. Came with Top Secret. You filled them in with different colors… or did what I did and rolled a D6 with them. Odd, it was 1-10, even it was 11-20.
You forgot the best thing about those dice. They were so soft that just rolling them wore them down fast. They’d get edges worn off rattling around in your Crown Royal… er… dice bag.
Could have been worse, of course. You could have been pulling chits from a cup.
Okay, I vaguely recall those (1981, IIRC, which is why it’s so vague). And in the game I played in the DM did have us roll a D6 to establish the first digit.
Didn’t know about crayons and grease pencils, though.
We had one guy in our D&D group in college (early 80s) who wouldn’t fill in his dice numbers…we later figured out he used the fact that no one could read his dice to cheat, and hit a lot more often than he used to.
And, yeah, the corners on those dice would wear off in no time. One guy in my current D&D group still uses his 1980-vintage dice; the two d20s are virtually round.
I had never read this comic before; I’m in the mid 300s now after a lot of time today spent reading. So great!
I’m a pretty new fan as well, thanks to this thread, and I gobbled up the archives in about three or four days. It keeps getting better and better, Eonwe. Have fun!
Don’t overlook the fact that there’s two books worth of stories not published on the web: Origin of the PC’s and Start of Darkness. Start of Darkness in particular is getting referenced a lot lately (not so that someone who hasn’t read it couldn’t follow the webcomic, but it adds quite a bit more texture to recent happenings).
Alas, my library doesn’t have either.
You can order it online.
658 is up. This looks interesting.
And some on the forums actually remembered the familiar!
Looks even better for the “stolen, but not destroyed” phylactery theory. But if so, exactly how far will Xykon go to get it back, if it means delaying getting to the next gate?
ETA: Bah. In the same minute, too. gets comfort from the fact that ultrafilter was only first because he was all terse and all, and I actually said something in my post 
Another ETA: Will Blackwing sacrifice himself to destroy the phylactery in the rift? It’s a suggestion from the forums that I find interesting. Now if only someone could resolve once and for all whether liches can make another or not… (Then again, it’s all up to Rich; it IS his world.)
Next strip or two: Blackwing takes the phylactery and makes for the rift, but is shot down by Xykon before making it there. However, the phylactery falls somewhere in the city where Xykon can’t immediately get to it.
I’ve got my 1976 vintage d20 sitting here on my desk at work. I shaded half the sides with pencil for the upper end of the range. And ALL the corners are missing … .
The fact that we have cut back briefly to the Monster in the Dark bodes well for the “Monster interferes” school of thought, too.
This story is AWESOME! The only bad part is that I don’t know when the next installment will be up.
It’s incredibly selfish of me, but I kind of want to go away for six months and some back when I have a good long chunk of it to read. Have to be some place without internet, though. I just don’t have the self-discipline to keep myself away for that long.
I bet O-Chul could do it.
Rich is freakin’ killing me with these cliffhangers! This has been a non-stop roller coaster ride since Vaarsuvius decided to take off and attack Xykon. Go O-Chul! Must say, Xykon’s aim is getting as bad as V’s with that crappy Meteor Swarm. In V’s condition, that should’ve killed him/her, and O-Chul barely looks singed.
What a beautiful large panel, too. I love the teeny tiny O-Chul & V in the window.
My guess is that Blackwing takes the phylactery, Xykon zaps a spell at the bird, and O-Chul leaps in front of him, sacrificing himself and allowing Blackwing to toss it into the rift. Exactly where this leaves Vaarsuvius, I can’t guess. Not in a good position, with an enraged Xykon and still no defensive spells, but maybe V can jump out the hole and escape with a featherfall.
Hmmmm…revised prediction: O-Chul hands the phylactery to V so he can give it to Blackwing. At that moment, one of the Big Evil Three decides it’s time for V to make good on their deal.
I’m sure the Three could use having a guy like Xykon owing them one.
On preview: I constantly want to do that, ** kaylasdad**. I just read a half dozen XKCDs and about a month’s worth of PvP. But I just can’t seem to do it with OotS. It’s just too damn addicting…
If the phylactery goes into the rift, what’s the over-under on its destruction carrying serious physical repercussions on [del]Azure City[/del] Redcloakville, up to and including the disruption of the cloister?
Probably the mere posing of the question demonstrates my complete ignorance.