I think what I like best is how Vaarsuvius was going to just nick one from another plane, which probably would've taken about five minutes. And then he not only got upstaged again, he got upstaged by a cheesy fourth-wall-break.

Five strips from now, eh? Bet's on.

So, in order to get the diamond, Haley stole it. From the past. That's absolutely hilarious.

By the way, everyone check the Cast page now.

I know I've said it before, but damn V has been useless with his new powers.

New comic may be awesome but I especially like how V destroys the bone golem.

No spellcasting or anything. Just, "done."

Somehow, I knew the diamond would be gone on the actual cast page.

This is like when Brian made Thief have a black outfit, many people aren't going to get it when they see the cast page. XD

How is it possibly lazy to solve a problem that he set up, in the exact same strip that he solves the problem, for the single and solitary purpose of making this joke about solving that problem?

I wonder, did she Polymorph Self or did one of her fused soul-things give her the wild shape druid spell/ability? Or do you think maybe she's somehow managed a couple levels in shifter? Maybe one or two in that psionic base shape shifting class from Oriental Adventures? Honestly it's probably polymorph self, I'm fairly certain the rest are just too ridiculous, especially since her two fused souls are both arcane casters.

OH! Maybe she secretly was a changeling the whole time! Or a Hengeyokai! Incredible drama unfolds as her family realizes she's not an elf at all!

Yeah, ordinary Polymorph Self. V already used it in the battle with the black dragon.

... I didn't even notive V was missing in that panel. I just thought a random pink dragon had come completely out of the blue and happened to step on the bone golem. I'm not sure if I like this polymorph scenario better.

Yeah the lack of seeing V saying "Polymorph" or "Shapechange" like he usually does when casting spells through me off for a second too. But then again I've only seen one pink dragon anyway so I figured as much.

I thought the same thing at first, then I thought the same thing right after. Great minds and such. It would be kind of nifty if she turned out be a demon/spirit from Oriental Adventures though if only as a ridiculous joke from well into left field

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.

Redcloak's Brother. Read "Start of Darkness" for more details. Think of him as a slightly more likeable Belkar to Red's overanalyzing.

Sad that Redcloak had to kill him... Also, it does go into detail about how Redcloak has lived so long and what his cloak signifies.

Well, they can't take back Azure City, they'd probably go for the next gate which is Girard's which is probably close to where Haley's dad is or something to that affect. But I was wondering about how and why they would venture to this next gate other than Roy and Durkon, for the same reasons you mentioned, Mirai.

-Damn ninjas...-

@new Erfworld

Holy shit.

This.

Hammer that controls dwagons or pliers that create an army that doesn't march on its belly, as said belly has no upkeep ? Wanda's new toy is way better than Stanley's.

Either that, or Stanley is too dumb to use his to its fullest potential. Anyway, I'm just hoping we get our favourite twoll back.

Edit: So do you think he actually changed his views on his own, or that it's because he belongs to Hamster now? The world's rules have certainly proven able to affect a unit's mind.

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...5uJmGLGz2t.jpg

Combo of loyalty plus whatever evil juju the Arkenpliers did on him, I figure. I don't think it's written to sound like a sincere, philosophically considered conversion.

It's gonna be fun watching Jillian completely lose her shit.

You know, I was expecting that little trick to only be usable on characters.

Hmmm, quite a game-breaker.

Hm... if Parson does decide to go with Wanda's plan (like hell it's Ansom's), I wonder if the Skull or the Hamster will be the emblem.

Also, for the new OOTS... additional Holy Shit. While V can't be allowed to succeed for story reasons, I do wanna know just how the battle will go... or if we'll be allowed to see it at all.

I think one of two things will occur...

V gets Soul Binded adding to irony on his part.

Or V pops up right next to Roy as he gets resurrected.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...jlsrBmjw2j.gif

In before the server crash!

I would say I'm surprised, but really, who didn't see this coming?

I think V overestimates just how powerful he really is.

There's also the whole 'concentration to maintain soul splice' thing he kinda forgot about. I give V one good blast in the back by Redcloak before he loses the remaining power and suddenly goes, oh, well, shit, time to get my bill from the FCC.

Also, does this mean unmasking the CitD?

There's no way Xykon beats V on sheer power right now, but he's a *necromancer,* and V's current power is coming from a soul binding. Doesn't seem like a smart thing to do.

I'm guessing this will have something to do with the actual gate though. Those fiends had a plan for all this, and I doubt it was just to get V screwed over. They probably need a lot of power in one place.

...Wow.
It's been less than twenty minutes since V inherited her powers?
Does that mean s/he technically owes about an hour of hellish punishment, or is his/her time reduced by a fraction of that amount since one of the spellcasters bailed early?

It's an hour with each one. But since one is gone, that's one hour that V doesn't have to do with that respective plane.

Wouldn't s/he have to still do a fraction of the time in that plane, corresponding to the amount of time that spellcaster actually was attached to V?

Yes

It's been 20 minutes. Let's say that the necro (Haera) left at the 10 minute mark. So far, V gets to spend 20 minutes with the CE and LE plane since they're still bonded with him. He spends 10 minutes on the NE plane since she left because his willpower was weakened.

Maybe now Belkar gets to cause Vaarsuvius' death, too. Incidentally I don't think it's explicitly been stated that death ends the soul splice.

I totally see V dying four strips from now.

In the last panel.

I'm reasonably positive V will take on Zykon but will lament the loss of the necromancer in dealing with a lich.

I think something's going to happen that binds those souls to V a lot tighter. If he died now or lost them all that setup with the specific soul splicing rules would be wasted, and I don't think he's gonna spend the next few episodes worrying about his growing debt.

Concentration has to be maintained for the soul splice to keep going - that, to me, says he can end it any time he wishes. Which I think Kyrie led in on as well.

Also: He would spend an equal time to the soul splice with each of the FCC, which means twenty minutes with each one, and an hour overall. I don't think its twenty minutes times three with each one, which I think was the number someone was using earlier?

Cedrik (purple guy) even said:

Lee (yellow) states it's equal amount for each of them. 20 minutes with one is 20 minutes with all. Just less time for the one he loses.

Link

Actually it's "under the effects of their soul splice," which turns the whole thing around again.

Yeah, but his example assumes an equal length of time for each individual splice. The way I read it it might as well be "hold on to my splice for one hour and and Cedrik's for two, you spend one hour with me and two with Cedrik."

I took the "their" to mean each member of the IFCC respectively.

But I think we're stating the same thing. Since Haera left (I'm making the example of 10 minutes) he stays on the NE plane for only 10 minutes, while V has to stay on the other two planes for 20 minutes and counting.

I do like how the epic level teleport spell V uses, created by the great Conjuration master Ganonron, the Terror of a Thousand Planes, is called "Epic Teleport."



Also, he says "If you hold all three soul splices for an hour, you spend an hour with me, and an hour with my associates." or something to that effect. That leads me to believe its dependent upon the soul in question.

So we are. Heh. I guess the thing about "20 minutes with one is 20 minutes with all" threw me the wrong way. I totally only skimmed the discussion, my bad!

Did they ever explicitly say that, when they redeem the time, it has to be in one chunk?

It would be rather funny if they can just hijack him for a few seconds at a time whenever they want.

Very intriguing..

All they said was exact order would be discussed at a later point.

Something tells V has gotten the short end of the stick.

It wouldn't be a proper deal with the devil otherwise.

Hey, question: does V know what a phylactery is? Back when the group first encountered Xykon he didn't mention it. In fact Roy and Haley are the only members who know for sure, as Eugene told them after the trial in Azure City, and even then he only mentioned "a thingamajig that holds his soul in place" which still doesn't tell anyone it's Redcloak's pendant, even if Roy informed everyone else off-panel.

... re-reading the archives has its perks. Know-it-all attitude notwithstanding.

Seriously though, did I miss something about that?

A high level wizard must know what a phylactery is surely. That's what all the ranks in knowledge arcana are for.

Yeah I'd have a hard time believing V, in all his arcane magical might and constant hoarding of information and power, wouldn't know about that.

However, it wasn't mentioned in Origin of the PCs, which I just flipped through.

Yeah, I really just have the lack of definite statements on my side here. Could well go either way.

Two interesting points I gathered skimming a "Xykon vs. V" thread on giantitp, which I'll spoiler because I consider at least one to be pretty definite:

- Xykon can't possibly (permanently) die in this battle. He'll have to come within 1000 ft of Girard's Gate first, as per a certain Oracle. A diameter of 1000 ft around the gate is the Stavromula Beta to Xykon's Arthur Dent.

- There is, in fact, a good chance Xykon is already on his way to Girard's Gate. A lot can happen in 100 episodes.

We did get from O-Chul's torture that Redcloak is ready to go. As I see it, he could have moved a few legions away from the city and started the journey to Girard as you've said.

Time doesn't necessarily stop because we are focusing on the adventurers.

That being said, (and nice reference btw!)

Who said he hasn't already been there by accident? Who knows what he's been doing, maybe his auxilary tower's right next to it and he has no idea it's there?

Are those spoilers from the print books, or should I read over the archive again because I should remember something like that.

Not from the print books at all, it relates to Roy's question for the Seer.

Erfworld is splitting off of Giant as soon as book one comes to an end. They even have a new website and stuff. http://www.erfworld.com/

If V dies while linked, does that break the link? Because if he goes into the afterlife tied to some serious evil mofos like that...

I imagine that at some point while dying he'd lose his concentration.

Roy specifically asked the Oracle which of the two gates Xykon would go to first "at any point in the future." Since he asked that while Xykon was on his way to Azure City, the only way for Xykon to go to Girard's Gate would be after the invasion and associated rift research. And once he's there he wouldn't have much reason to return to Azure City, so if he's in Azure City now, the prophecy most likely hasn't come true yet.

... I'm absolutely not sure what about this to spoiler-tag anymore. :sweatdrop Maybe we should just wait how it plays out.

Yeah, I don't get why we're spoiler-tagging things that happened like two years ago.

It started when I posted the theory and tagged it because I figure it's pretty accurate and let's not spoil the surprise for anyone, and now I'm explaining details using two-year-old facts from the comic, so of course I tag those lest someone figure out the theory from the explanation. Which is, I'm the first to admit it, an extraordinary ridiculous thing to do.

Erring on the side of caution with something like OOTS is very okay by me.

So some of you may have mentioned this already but I don't really want to read the fifty-some pages of this thread I haven't read, so here's a theory:

The demons V has to serve time under? They'll make him serve time in a dimension where time moves differently, but in opposite of Roy's afterlife, so while only say, ten minutes pass in the Material Plan, he has to endure 300 years under each demon.

Well, though that certainly does sound like a bastard thing to do, V was originally thought to have to sign up for eternal damnation.

I think their plan was more or less getting V to damn himself through his own actions more than a deal with the devil thing. They even say its amazing what people will do when they think they aren't responsible for their actions.

New OotS, scenery switch to Azure City (MitD & O'Chul).

Well, so much for that theory, or at least part 2 of it.

My internet's being weird, I'll try to upload the episode but I can't make any promises.

EDIT: Ha-HA! Mind over matter!

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/272/oots0651p.gif

I got it.

Snip.

Could have done without the fart joke, at least.

EDIT: Damn it, Meister is swifter than I this time.

I'm torn between "Woah!" and "Hehe, beans..."

Heh. Good old MitD. Preemptively stealing V's thunder with his adorable helplessness.

I'm predicting some massive misunderstandings when V decides to kill the monster and O'Chul tries to stop him but V doesn't listen cause, hey, what could a smelly half-ape know that a superior, intelligent elf doesn't?

Bunch of damn pointy-eared bastards.

I only hope when the monster eventually gets revealed it's gonna be something to go "oh holy shit" at without knowing the Monster Manuals by heart.

See, I know nothing of the Monster Manuals, so I've always guessed that it's somehow related to the snarl (like some kind of remnant of the snarl or whatever). It might explain why he can't see the gate, and why he can literally tear shit up without trying. I may just be missing some evidence, but that always struck me as most plausible.

Here's hoping for Tarrasque!

I think it's probably going to be something from an already-published Monster Manual. Rich has said that "it's possible to guess" the MITD's species.

I'm fairly certain by this point that he's a baby tarrasque. An epic-level sorcerer kept him hanging around for his power, he's been shown to be basically immune to attacks, and he was strong enough to tap the ground and cause a small earthquake, as well as sending a high-level Paladin a couple of hundred feet along with her horse with the lightest hit he could give.

And as revealed by this comic, his dad was massive and ate a ton. Besides that, it sounds like he's never met another one of his kind besides his dad, which sort of implies that his kind is fairly rare .

All of which sound like a tarrasque, to me. The only problem(s) with this theory is that it seems like even a baby tarrasque would be huge (a normal one is 50 feet tall, 70 feet long, and weighs 130 tons), he's more intelligent than a tarrasque should be (3 Int), and in the standard D&D world, the tarrasque is one-of-a-kind.

Because my answer is impossible to guess?

Species: fragment of uber snarl that's been the focus of the entire conflict in the comic.

Sounds pretty guessable to me. Again, it also allows an explanation for why he couldn't see the gate. Also, I probably don't need to be using spoiler tags, but I'm just erring on the side of caution.