That’s easy for somebody to say who isn’t going to risk winding up in a whale’s colon.
WHOA. And whoa.
The eyes-to-anus ratio thing was pretty funny, actually.
See, I wonder: at what point does a lich regain the paralytic touch ability? Because I’m thinking unless he ends up in an undead sea monster, he’ll be able to paralyze it within 5 minutes (that’s 50 chances to roll a 1 on a fort save). Then, as soon as he can cast animate undead, he’ll have a helluva zombie submarine.
Xykon’s shown he’s not as stupid as he sometimes appears. He’s probably aware that if he were to blow himself in order to be regenerated, Redcloak might not loyally wait like he’s done before. Xykon’s at his most vulnerable while regenerating which makes that Redcloak’s best opportunity to move against him.
New strip up (663)
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0663.html
It seems back to comedy for a bit. Looks like a full regroup and end of arc in the next couple finally.
[sub] Yay! O’Chul survived it all:)[/sub]
The fact that O-Chul *actually covered for Miko *makes him a candidate for sainthood in my book.
Has he ever done ANYTHING that wasn’t stand up? That’s quite a man, there.
And, yes, I agree that we’re in for a few comedy/wrap up/set up comics. It’ll take us to a natural break point for the next book.
And if we’re coming to the bookend, that means… new storyline coming up!
… anybody else kinda hoping that one of the paladins could join the OotS? I mean, yeah, not with Belkar around, but Hinjo and Lien and O-Chul are awesome.
Put your tray tables up and lock your seats into the upright position; I think we’re about to land this book. I’m going to guess two more strips until we have an official break and Burlew will take a break to work on the printed book before starting up the next section like he did after War and XPs.
Oh, and there’s confirmation that it was the monster and not some other coincidental outside force that saved them. Yep, definitely a half-djinn giant firebreathing space hamster.
It was a cute strip, the first lighthearted one in ages. And how nice to see everyone back in the same place at last!
But as I just posted on the GiantitP forums – and this will probably get me roasted alive – I’m really over O-Chul’s nonstop perfection and his being the awesomest thing that ever awesomed. It’s edging near MarySueville for me. Not only is he apparently without flaw, at least to the audience and possibly the author, but even the main cast takes a backseat to O-Chul. Everyone pretty much ignores the PC on the ground looking like near death (why do they heal O-Chul but not poor V?) and Haley looks way happier to see O-Chul than her supposed close friend who was going off to near certain death. At least Elan spares a smile for V’s return, which is impressive since their parting was hardly amicable; this is much more than Haley does.
Plus, O-Chul’s backhanded compliment, his being all, “oh yeah, the elf helped me,” kinda got on my pecs. Both O-Chul and Vaarsuvius were vital to the “let’s get the phylactery out of Xykon’s bony hands” plot, V didn’t just give an assist. Sheesh! An odd bit of phrasing there.
Dunno. I’ll be very glad to see O-Chul return to a supporting role as the Order reunite at last. I’m definitely not wanting him to join the OotS; his idealized perfection isn’t funny.
I don’t know that I agree (about Haley’s reaction to seeing V and O-Chul, that is). Haley first establishes that V is alive and probably sees that V is stunned in place, so not terribly interactive at the moment. Then she sees O-Chul, and remember that she’s been carrying the burden of guilt all this time about leaving a good man to a gruesome fate. I think it’s understandable that she’s thrilled to see him alive and in one (albeit scratched-up) piece.
I absolutely love the fact that he doesn’t lie, either. He did make the decision to destroy the gem when it was still the best thing to do, and Miko did use his blade to do it when it was the stupid thing to do.
So he misleads, but doesn’t lie, for a “good” cause.
Paladins are weird :).
I see what you’re saying and if I thought for a moment that he’d stick around I’d probably agree with you. He worked as a side character but as a plot mover he’s dull.
Of course I will enjoy seeing him make a dramatic entrance much later.
You mean the friend who was acting all kinds of weird and looking pretty darn evil less than 10 minutes ago? Remember, Durkon’s still casting the Resurrection spell. It took 13 strips over the course of a couple weeks or more from V leaving the party to returning just now, but it hasn’t been very much time at all in-strip. To Haley, V had just left, so V’s reappearance isn’t all that odd (despite V saying V was going to kill Xykon). But like shantih says, Haley gave O-Chul up for dead months ago and has been upset about that ever since. Sure she’s going to be more surprised and happy to see O-Chul. Elan wasn’t in on that whole attempted rescue operation, so O-Chul doesn’t mean as much to him as V.
I can see where you’re coming from about the Mary Sueism, although I disagree that O-Chul was making some kind of backhanded compliment; that I believe is you interpreting his words as uncharitably as possible.
I had a big paragraph typed up on why I thought O-Chul was probably going to join up with the Order, but y’all are right. O-Chul doesn’t even make a good straight man to play off of, unlike Durkon. I personally like him a lot, as I’m very partial to Paladins and I think he exemplifies the best qualities of that class, but putting him with the Order would significantly change the tone of the strip.
Of course, when Roy comes back, he might have a few, ah, words for the Order a la Xykon, which would change the tone just as much.
I assume the ten minutes of spell casting are up. So my guess is that the arc closer will be a strip with Roy back among the living and the Order finally back together.
I’m sure that will be the case, but something I’m still a bit unclear about – do characters retain knowledge/memories attained while dead? Will Roy remember what he learned while in the spirit world, or will the last thing he remembers be getting his ass handed to him by Xykon?
DM’s call. I guess we’ll see in a couple of days.
Did anyone catch the little smile on Haley’s face at the very end? She loves it when he talks all silly.
Note the corresponding scowl from Lien.