Order of the Stick General Discussion Thread (Open Spoilers and Speculation)

And by long and difficult, you mean non-permanent, right?

The ironic thing is that if V is still carrying around those Energy Drain negative levels, he stands a good chance of actually losing his worked-for skills.

(The other ironic thing is that if V had taken Limited Wish, he could have used it to cast Restoration or Death Ward himself. He’s not affected by the non-compete divine magic emulation clause, after all.)

This encounter was a lot like Miko’s run-in with the party. But for an externality (the weather, V’s sudden inability to use his own magic effectively), the fight would have gone much differently.

Xykon managing to cast Superb Dispelling and drop a rock on V in the same round didn’t help, either.

Actually, IIRC, they later fought Miko in broad daylight on a clear day, and STILL lost.

Yeah but that was a stupid railroad plot.

ETA: Hmm… should I explain that to the fifty percent of the thread that didn’t get the joke in that strip… Nah… I’ll let someone else have the fun.

I don’t think V was affected by Energy Drain. The spliced souls took it all - and didn’t like it one bit.

That’s an interesting question…will the souls remain affected by those spells, or will they somehow be restored?

662 is up ! Xykon’s not in a good mood.

Damn, talk about your tough employers. “More eyes than assholes,” heh.

Sooooo … next strip, reunited OotS and end of this arc?

Nah. Four more. End it on 666.

Get V and O-Chul to the OotS, get Roy rezzed, some explanatory stuff, and Redcloak and the ongoing search. That should get us there.

Heh…looks like Rich used panel #1 to hush up everyone suggesting that Xykon off himself.

Huh. I think the last panel shows that Xykon has no idea what the CitD is capable of, or even what he is. The fact that he doesn’t even *suspect *that he had anything to do with V and O-Chul’s escape proves that.

Xykon certainly can be all business when the mood strikes him.

So how long do you think it’ll take for Xykon to forgive Lefteye?

I think “forgiveness” is Xykon’s dump stat. Red Cloak is going to have to get used monocular vision.

The mood Xykon’s in, I’m surprised there aren’t a lot more dead hobgoblins around.

Given that Haley and Belkar abandoned Mr. Stiffly to nine months of creative torture, one would have to think that any reunion is going to have to be awkward…

You know, O-Chul is such a standup guy I think a sincere apology would put it behind them completely. Especially with evil yet to be banished.

V, on the other hand, might have some serious discussions with O-Chul about the embracing of evil.

Does anyone else think that with most of the city’s garrison trudging through the sewers, the oppressed humans of Azure City will finally have their opportunity to throw off their shackles?

It’ll be easier to do it once Xykon and Red Cloak are gone. Myself, I wouldn’t be stirring up anything with a really hacked off Lich in the neighborhood.

The moment Xykon has his phylactry in his hand he’ll teleport out of there (with Redcloak in tow), rebellion or no rebellion, as a matter of principle. He might even help the rebels out of spite.

I’m getting the feeling Xykon is going to release the Monster soon given the wording of that last sentence.

Nah, we’ve just been given spec fodder to last another 100 strips. We’re not seeing the monster any time soon.

I don’t think things are going to be that simple for Xykon. Of course that’s mainly due to the fact that the strip needed some kind of win against him and just finding his phylanctery after hunting for it for a few hours would make what was achieved meaningless.

And Xykon dismisses the “destroy self and regen with it” plan too easily. A sea monster wouldn’t be able to digest it and as noted here he can just wait it out. I can understand that he wouldn’t want to do it given his impatience rant in this strip but the option should still be on the table.