OotS #1042 - Wait Watchers

I hope you like WORDS.

Not terrible, could do with a thog.

Though that last line is pretty neat

My beef here is everything they're saying is something the reader can infer themselves.

It just doesn't sound like a natural conversation. They're either justifying things to each other for no real reason or just providing rote summaries of what's going on around them.

I like both of these characters but Rich isn't really using their personalities here.

I've defended a lot of Rich's wordiness, but this one has me on the meme train. There is nothing of substance here.

The only real worthwhile information here is that, whatever the MitD is, a Fighter/Paladin would have the knowledge necessary to formulate a theory about what it is, but that same theory would likely not be believed by a fellow Paladin or the MitD himself. That may (possibly) narrow things down a bit, assuming he's in the right ballpark.

How many ranks in stealth do Paladins have?

I don't mind wordiness when the conversations are actually interesting. Back-and-forth dialogue streams were one of the comic's early draws.

But this one just feels boring.

Yeah this is just exposition.

Except for the Go stones, and maybe a little MitD speculation

This comic could be summed up as 'Well I guess we're gonna call Haley and wait for them to show up'. Rich is sometimes a little obsessed with writing out absolutely every little thing, like explaining how they're gonna keep warm, fed and watered during their wait. I mean they could have easily said after a time skip "Oh I'm getting sick of rations" or whatever, no need to spell it all out now.

Maybe the MitD is actually some normally Good-aligned Outsider that Xykon wanted to corrupt?

His comic began to suck around the time Games of Thrones became massively popular. He's jelly of GRRRRR Martin; he wants to appear intelligent, but comes across as pedantic and shallow.

Mostly because if he doesn't justify every single thing, the folks on his forum ask hundreds of questions and speculate all sorts of weird shit.

This, really. Whenever I read comics like this one, I'm reminded they only exist because the GitP community are really fucking stupid and can't function unless everything is spelled out.

Usually none, stabbing a man in his back is deepry dishonolabre, and you can't preach from the shadows

Celestial Balor?

They're probably just relying on cover/concealment and range penalties to Spot checks.

The Order of the Stick: Uncivil Servant. One of the kickstarter rewards back in 2013, Rich just released it today with a "pay what you want" price.

I paid a dollar for this so you wouldn't have to. Enjoy, Anons.

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>Basically, an adventurer is an armed vagrant who solves more problems than they cause.

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Man, this page reminds me of vintage oots something fierce. Why can't the current comic be like this?

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Truly Belkar is a role model for all murder hobos everywhere.

Thanks man, that was pretty good.

Though don't those "pay what you want" things often have a $0 option?

I'm still waiting for my shit that I actually paid for Burlew

It was minimum $1 USD. I don't have a problem with that for a 12 page B&W comic. It was pretty okay. If you want to toss Rich a buck, the link's up on the front page of his site.

Yeah it's not a bad comic by any means

Here's On the Origin of PC's for anyone who wants it, sorry about the weird file format
(aitch tee tee pee ess colon slash slash) mab (dot) to (slash) 6Ms9OP0g

This, when you get comics like this that go into unnecessary detail about shit like "how will we eat and drink here?" or "why aren't we cold in a polar region?" it's something he intentionally wrote to avoid his forums spazzing out

these are the people who still believe that Haley's a Half-Celestial based on a single line from her several years ago saying her "Mommy's in Heaven" after all.

Damn, it's nice to know that Belkar can still be funny.

>weapon shrinkage

So the druid(?) was supposed to be female huh.

It's kind of refreshing to see a comic about a literal murderhobo with no aspirations to be anything else.

>with no aspirations to be anything else.
The Aspirations class-feature has 'two brain-cells to rub together' as a pre-requisite, and Belkar didn't start qualifying until some time in the 'Roy the Bone Golem' arc.

So Redcloak is basically Rich's sooper dooper OC donut steal self insert character right?

Joke's on you I'm a word monster. We're basically rust monsters but with words. Got a book? We'll eat the words right out of it and leave a bunch of blank pages. What now, huh?

>Redcloak is a backstabbing racist who murdered his own brother because he bought into the Sunken Costs fallacy and couldn't bear to walk away from his plot despite all of the pain it was bringing to his people and family

Just because you personally don't like him doesn't mean he's shit, user.

Oh, I forgot the "got his spine ripped out and shoved up his own ass by Xykon" part where he tried to bury said brother but got forced to animate him as a zombie.

I was thinking ranger

He eventually managed to get his spine back in place though. I'm looking forward to the eventual showdown between him and Xykon.

My money is on Xykon though.

I was thinking Ranger too.

>My money is on Xykon though.
I really like Redcloak, but he's completely fucked.
The moment he finally makes his move against Xykon he's dead, he's just dead.

I do in fact like words. Maybe not to the density of Subnormality but OotS is fine.

Yeah, same here. People always underestimate Xykon. Redlocka thinks that now that he has the real phylactery, Xykon will stop.

But he'll just do the same thing. If the phylactery is destroyed, the soul pops back into Xykon's body. And then Xykon kills Wrong-Eye. Granted, if the Order of the Stick is present when Redcloak becomes Turncloak, then Xykon might have to worry.

>underestimating an epic-level Lich sorcerer

Those people deserve to die.

>Though that last line is pretty neat
It's just asking for banepost edit. Or maybe reverse banepost.

Well there is a chance that he could make up a high-level undead-nuker spell just in case, given that researching new cleric spells is a thing in the setting.

However, now that they are out of the gobbocity the backstab becomes less likely.
Back there, Xykon was a constant meatgrinder of the goblin population.
Now he's out of there.

Although on second thought there is a possible scenario
>Order finds gate first
>they break it
>RC knows that in rage Xykon is going to exterminate gobbotopia
>backstab time

Redcloak won't win against Xykon. Optimistically, he'll Starscream him just when the Order shows up and they'll work together in an Enemy Mine scenario.

Xykon is Roy's endgame, one way or another.

Link doesn't work for me. Could you try Sendspace?

If they are using the archaic spot rules that almost no one ever uses, you get a -1 for every 10 feet away from someone along with a -5 for being distracted and unless he is spending a full round action to scan you are assumed to be taking 10 for passive perception.

So even if they maxed out their spot, the spell casters besides druid/ranger thing has level+13+ ability modifier.

The others, excluding MITD would be 1/2(level+3)+ ability modifier. Even at level 40, which if they are gaining xp they probably are not, is 31+ability mod.

At like 100ft, which is at least with the height and them not hearing armored opponents, means they are at least a -15. Now factor in obscured sight which usually negates the need for hide checks, even paladins could hide while wearing white in a tundra.

I believe she's a paladin who happens to be water-specialized given her upbringing.

She is a water-themed Paladin. Her charger is a great white shark.

Rich's Paladins are a little different than standard paladins. Given her unique weaponry and appearance and her prolonged absence, I can understand why people forgot her class.

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I think they're talking about Oona.

I don't think Redcloak gives a shit if he can take Xykon or not. If the Plan works, Xykon won't know he's been had until after everything is said and done, and by that point the Dark One will be aggressively renegotiating the terms of reality with the other gods and a universal reset is going to be imminent.

Yeah, we know Lien is a Paladin

Not working for me either.

Solid.

That's not part of the grand scheme of red cloak. He's going to sacrifice himself and xykon to the snarl to make a controllable portal that his god can use to force the other gods to remake the world with his influence. Making gobo cities and have them be respectable people and all that jazz.

SO
MUCH
TENSION

Ha ha well I sure do love words!

Since Redcloak killed Tsukiko, does this mean that Xykon gets to kill Woona as he will probably perceive her as her potential squeeze?

Xykon may kill Woona, but I'm guessing there'll be a different reason than to get back at Redcloak for killing someone Xykon probably doesn't even remember.

Would you avoid being killed by Xykon if you crafted a magical item that let liches taste food and drink again?

You might be able to buy a lot from Xykon with a 'Lich-Tasting' spell and a pot of terrible coffee.

Nah, the MitD is going to kill Xykon.

My money's on Xykon unleashes him, employing some sort of domination effect, O-chul gets in the way and is killed, snapping the effect and the MitD drags Xykon through the gate, and Roy is there to clean it up.

If even that

He'd probably take the magic item, kill you, Identify how it works exactly, and then forget you even existed. The only way to bargain with Xykon is to have something he needs that he cannot, by any means, take from you. That's a tall order given his motivation and abilities. Furthermore, it has to be something that prevents him from wanting (or being able to) kill you after gaining it.

If you developed the supernatural ability to let Undead temporarily experience certain senses as if they were alive, and it was somehow inherent to you, and you couldn't be mind-controlled or otherwise influenced by him or his servants... maybe you could bargain with him. Maybe he'd just find it reminds him of being mortal, and he thinks eating and drinking is the lich equivalent of sensory nostalgia, and he just kills you anyway because he decides he doesn't need you at all.

It's funny that magic's overpowered nature in D&D 3E makes Xykon such a terrifying villain. That and the bullshit that is Lichdom. If the entire universe converted to 4E D&D rules, Xykon would just be a very high level foe with otherwise reasonable AEDU powers. But because things remain under this ruleset, he's stupidly overpowered and a serious threat to a party of several high-level adventurers.

>you will never play a DMC-style CUHRAYZEE action video game starring Belkar

why must life be so cruel