About V changing really fast without any incantations or anything: V used Shapechange against the Black Dragon Mommy. Shapechange lasts for 10 minutes per caster level and allows you to change form as a free action, so V is still under the effect of the spell from back then.

Along with the 4th wall breaking-and-entering, I really liked seeing just how utterly desperate V is to get some mileage out of hir Ultimate Cosmic Power, and only finding little things like crushing the golem or offering to jaunt over the the Plane of Earth, and that last one got upstaged by Haley. I've got a feeling V isn't gonna take this much longer.

I'm surprised considering they are staring at him partly in horror partly in surprise.

Well, it's genius that he solved the problem by making a joke that no one saw coming.

I would think it's lazy because he seems to be going far out of his way to say V needs a few new subcontractors.

Yeah, I too thought it was just a random pink dragon that did it. It was quite a bit funnier when it was just a random happenstance. I was really disappointed when I found out it was actually V. I mean, major 4th wall breaking AND deus ex machina, in the same strip. That's better than V being annoyed.

Does anyone happen to have all the episodes saved on their hard drive? The giantitp.com server issues are beyond ridiculous and I'd like to have the comic around.

A quick check of my hard drive actually reveals I have 1-223 myself. We can trade.

I actually have 'em in print form.

I started collecting for the proxy server for my LJ account but I started to get tired when other people started proxying it instead.

If people wanted I could start it up again, and try to get some older episodes when his server isn't being awful.

Well scratch that question, I got 'em all now. The site was hardly acting up today and I had nothing else that needed to be done, so I re-read the entire thing. Pretty cool to see everything play out.

Things I noticed, incidentally:

- At this point Roy has been dead for approximately one third of the strip's total runtime. It really is about time, because
- I didn't realize how much I missed Roy's sarcastic comments until I re-read the earlier strips.
- In episode 550 - back when we saw the monster in the dark and O-Chul last - the monster mentions as its friends Xykon and Redcloak, but also someone named "Right-Eye" who "he hasn't seen around in a while." Is that something from the books or really obscure foreshadowing? Incidentally we haven't seen the villains since.
- The Linear Guild also has been laying low for a very long time indeed now. Last appearance: around 200 episodes ago during the battle for Azure City.
- I found the part where Haley and Belkar discussed the existence of 17th-level clerics; Haley wasn't sure whether any existed and Belkar mentioned Redcloak probably was one.
- Looking forward to exploration of the Western continent and, eventually, Girard's Gate. Western gods include Marduk and Tiamat.

I have to wonder how its going to work now that (God I hope that's not an 'if') Roy's getting resurrected, since that means they will presumably continue on their quest, except that many of them have things they want to do, like, right now. IE Haley wants to get her fortune back so she can rescue her dad, V's family, Elan and Durkon might want to help the Azurites, etc.

Its going to be interesting to see Roy take command again.

I haven't read Origin of Evil or whatever it was called, so I'm not sure about that one. But I know it isn't from Origin of the PCs.

Fortunately there's an OotS wiki, and he really is from Start of Darkness. Sounds like an interesting story. I'd link it directly but it's kind of a huge spoiler.