The OotS Thread III

[Irbis]

I'd disagree. The Order has been up shit creek for awhile now- V is still missing, they still have the threat of Tarquin somewhere nearby, Xykon is off to the last gate, and they're busted up bad. Even the tiniest sliver of hope is gonna get jumped at hard. They don't have the time, energy, or resources to:

A. Fight Durkula.
B. Get his body to a cleric somewhere (that's even assuming they won).
C. Pay for a resurrection.

They might not have, but given Roy and Belkar's reactions, fact that someone who was doing the same thing as Belkar and someone being blind-deaf don't freak out like the former two but just go 'okay' (especially Elan, always freaking out about tiniest detail) looks extremely improbable.

[Ralin]

Don't forget, Durkon has a hell of a lot more grace saved up with the rest of the Order than Belkar, and as he said, they put up with him. I really,really doubt Roy is eager to fight Durkon if there's a way to avoid it, vampire or no.

[Simon_Jester]

Roy would probably also like to believe that Durkon is still, at heart, a decent person despite being vampirized. This may not actually be true (we can't say until we've seen Durkon interact with NPCs), but it's hardly out of line.

"You're a vampire?

"Yes, but... I can control it... I'm still... your friend!"

is a very appealing exchange, thematically.

[xthetenth]

Also, this is a party which puts up with Belkar and Durkon's actively helping them.

[Ted C]

Converting other spells to cure spells "on the fly" does incur a casting time penalty, so many clerics will prepare cure spells to avoid having the spell interrupted by something (if the DM actually enforces the rule, that is).

Where is that rule? Can't seem to find it in the 3.5 rules.

I'll have to get out my book to get a page reference for you.

I stand corrected. Apparently, the "spontaneous casting" rule for converting other spells to "cure" spells only comes into play when metamagic is applied to the spell.

[CaptainChewbacca]

New comic. Guess that conversion rule for Durkon is cleared up. Interesting that he prepares spells at dusk, though.

[Jub]

It's exactly opposite of how he did them before, so it kind of makes sense.

[Irbis]

Don't forget, Durkon has a hell of a lot more grace saved up with the rest of the Order than Belkar, and as he said, they put up with him. I really,really doubt Roy is eager to fight Durkon if there's a way to avoid it, vampire or no.

Roy would probably also like to believe that Durkon is still, at heart, a decent person despite being vampirized. This may not actually be true (we can't say until we've seen Durkon interact with NPCs), but it's hardly out of line.

Roy buying it fast? Sure, they have been friends for years. Roy really wants to believe it. Elan and Haley buying it faster than Roy? Say what?

When even Roy's first reaction was 'get away, unholy spawn!' these two just stretch it.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Roy buying it fast? Sure, they have been friends for years. Roy really wants to believe it. Elan and Haley buying it faster than Roy? Say what?

When even Roy's first reaction was 'get away, unholy spawn!' these two just stretch it.

We don't actually know that they are buying it. Most of this comic consisted of finishing the fight against the elemental; their reaction consisted of one question from Haley.

[Crazedwraith]

I'm actually going to be most interested in Belkar's on going interaction with Durkon. He seemed to accept Dark!V pretty easily but i'm thinking with character development and his reaction to the way Durkon went out, it'd be interesting if he's the party member with the biggest issues to it. While everyone else is desperately trying to believe Durkon hasn't changed and Belkar calling them out on it.

And we've already seen Durkon is pretty evil now. I can't ever see him executing a helpless member of the LG before he got vamped. And of course there's the issue of food. Can D&D vamps going the discworld route of 'i'll be fine eating lots of black pudding'?

[Simon_Jester]

Side note: I love how the silicon/sand elemental* just absorbs attacks endlessly, being stabbed, bludgeoned, and so on with no sign that it's even being weakened. Then, one multishot of arrows and BAM! spontaneous existence failure.

I think there's a little implicit joke there at the nature of hit points, especially for certain classes of monsters that won't show visible injury when 'damaged' by weapons.

*Sand is NOT pure silicon! [grumbles at Mr. Burlew]

[Sharp-kun]

Would be interesting if Durkon is the one that eventually does Belkar in. The Order accepts Durkon despite Belkar's objections and later Belkar pays the price.

Would be a good way to finally bring Belkar into the group proper if they realise he was right all along and they ignored him until it was too late.

[Irbis]

Side note: I love how the silicon/sand elemental* just absorbs attacks endlessly, being stabbed, bludgeoned, and so on with no sign that it's even being weakened. Then, one multishot of arrows and BAM! spontaneous existence failure.

I think that was summon running out of 'fuel', actually, been about long enough for that, though just HOW that time wasn't enough to kill Haley is beyond me.

[Aharon]

I'm actually going to be most interested in Belkar's on going interaction with Durkon. He seemed to accept Dark!V pretty easily but i'm thinking with character development and his reaction to the way Durkon went out, it'd be interesting if he's the party member with the biggest issues to it. While everyone else is desperately trying to believe Durkon hasn't changed and Belkar calling them out on it.

And we've already seen Durkon is pretty evil now. I can't ever see him executing a helpless member of the LG before he got vamped. And of course there's the issue of food. Can D&D vamps going the discworld route of 'i'll be fine eating lots of black pudding'?

Actually, by the Core rules of the game (Monster Manual), Vampires don't need to drink blood at all. They do so to gain power (draining somebody completely yields a new vampire totally under their control). While the rules are silent on it, presumably they also do so because it tastes well and they don't care about the lives they destroy.

The expansion book that focuses on Undead (Libris Mortis) adds rules that Vampires can't live without draining blood (via biting) and life force (via their energy draining touch). In the expansion book is a variant rule that says they have to feed on life force every day, unless they make a DC 25 Will Save, and on blood every three days, unless they make a DC 15 Will Save. If they don't make the save, their Wisdom is damaged. Durkon is a 14th level cleric with Wisdom of at least 19, so he only has a 10% chance to fail the "need blood" will save. He will fail this save with a 95% probability within about 43 trials or about 120 days.

[Crazedwraith]

910 is up
Spoiler

Hm. Tarquin plus army arriving. This is more a problem for Nale than the Order I think. With the Gate being gone already Tarquin's not going to have much beef with them if he wants Elan to defeat him some day/

[Bedlam]

That is a seriously cool army.

I wonder if Nale's going to boast of the vampire slaying he just got done or blame it on someone else?

[Spekio]

Can vampires be "raised"?

[Esquire]

No, but they can be killed and the ashes true resurrection'd.

Also, what could Tarquin possibly be up to?

[Crazedwraith]

Trying the capture the gate? He doesn't know its gone boom yet.

[Esquire]

Oh, right. Forgot about that.

[Napoleon the Clown]

I'm unsure of if Tarquin would will care about Malack. It's entirely dependent on how useful he was to The Plan, I would imagine.

[Rogue 9]

I'm unsure of if Tarquin would will care about Malack. It's entirely dependent on how useful he was to The Plan, I would imagine.

Most likely very useful, or he wouldn't have been kept around for it, if that's your estimation of Tarquin's calculus.

Personally, I'll just say that nothing about being evil prevents him from having genuine friends and being upset at their loss.

As for bringing back Malack, he can't be restored as a vampire; any attempt to resurrect him would restore his living self.

[Solauren]

Revive Undead, p175, Spell Compendium

This spell could be argued able to resurrect or raise a Vampire destroyed by sunlight.
.

[Crazedwraith]

This spell?

Because it says there: "The body of the undead to be revived must be whole."

That would suggest the ashes of Malack are shit out of luck.

[Ralin]

Or Malack could have created his own True Revive Undead for just this situation.

Which if I were DMing I would allow a lot more readily than a Resist Sunlight spell, so there's that.