The OotS Thread III

[Simon_Jester]

I was honestly not aware of Malack being a vampire in the first place, so this caught me totally off guard...

[Ahriman238]

He's pale with red eyes, his clothes are black and hooded against the sun. It makes perfect sense in retrospect while being easily overlooked the first time. I love it!

Crap. What are the DnD rules about vampire sires again? Does Belkar have to obey Malack in all things, can he hurt Malack or work against his interests? It'd be a shame for Belkar to have to turn his coat and join the Linear Guild (or when that inevitably falls apart, Team Tarquin.)

[LadyTevar]

Holy Mother of God... I did NOT see that coming!!!

I thought Malack was just ALBINO...

[The Yosemite Bear]

I was hoping we were going to have more albino lizards, I like albinos, where's elric when we really need him....

[Ralin]

Holy Mother of God... I did NOT see that coming!!!

I thought Malack was just ALBINO...

I'd heard speculation about him being a vampire before, but I'd ruled it out because we'd seen him in sunlight.

That said, I'm still not convinced he is one. He could be some other sort of energy draining undead, though I'm drawing a blank on good possibilities. Or he could be alive and using some sort of granted power that lets him energy drain with natural attacks.

[Napoleon the Clown]

So, people are really surprised over this? I've been hearing speculation that Belkar would go undead for years now, and it's a pretty obvious interpretation of the whole "Will breath his last" prophecy.

No, the Belkster will have at least one reason to be pissed off about this turn of events. Check the rules and you'll see why, unless Malek is really nice about the whole thing.

Do you mean him being controlled by the master vampire, him losing his Con bonus from raging, level drain or what? I'm drawing a blank on what else you could mean.

Being Mal's servant. The perks of being a vampire outweigh the loss of Con.

He's pale with red eyes, his clothes are black and hooded against the sun. It makes perfect sense in retrospect while being easily overlooked the first time. I love it!

Crap. What are the DnD rules about vampire sires again? Does Belkar have to obey Malack in all things, can he hurt Malack or work against his interests? It'd be a shame for Belkar to have to turn his coat and join the Linear Guild (or when that inevitably falls apart, Team Tarquin.)

The SRD isn't specific, though there may be more in the MM or Libris Mortis. I would imagine that it basically boils down to not being able to disobey the master vampire's orders.


There's an outside chance that Belkar will be freed. Not terribly likely, though.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Holy Mother of God... I did NOT see that coming!!!

I thought Malack was just ALBINO...

I'd heard speculation about him being a vampire before, but I'd ruled it out because we'd seen him in sunlight.

That said, I'm still not convinced he is one. He could be some other sort of energy draining undead, though I'm drawing a blank on good possibilities. Or he could be alive and using some sort of granted power that lets him energy drain with natural attacks.

No, Burlew himself has said that Malack is a vampire on the OOTS forums.

As for the sunlight, there's apparently various ways around that, especially for a high level character like him.

[Ralin]

No, Burlew himself has said that Malack is a vampire on the OOTS forums.

Ah, well then.

As for the sunlight, there's apparently various ways around that, especially for a high level character like him.

I do remember a 2nd edition Ravenloft spell that let a vampire caster temporarily remove vampire weaknesses by swapping them for his powers, starting with the most useful powers for the most minor weaknesses (energy drain for deathly pallor, etc) and ending with sunlight vulnerability. So there is precedent for it. Not sure I like it thematically, but I suppose that yes a high level vampire with Malack's resources should be able to find a way around the sunburn issue.

EDIT:

Aww, I just realized, odds are Belkar can't keep Mr. Scruffy as his animal companion anymore. The rules say that most familiars won't stick around with a vampire master, and while I don't think it says anything about animal companions I suspect many DMs (including Burlew) would be inclined to make a similar ruling.

[Crazedwraith]

I remember Malak said he was worried he wouldn't have that 'special bond' with any new children. Is it possible that might have a double meaning in light of this revelation? Like Belkar might not end up under his control?

[Napoleon the Clown]

Possible. Or he may be referring to nothing more than an emotional attachment. We'll only be able to wait and see.

[Ralin]

I remember Malak said he was worried he wouldn't have that 'special bond' with any new children. Is it possible that might have a double meaning in light of this revelation? Like Belkar might not end up under his control?

I was just skimming threads at the Order of the Stick forums and saw someone quote the dialogue from that exchange. It was in response to V pointing out that the empire must have a lot of orphans. I think the implication was just that living kids wouldn't be vampires and hence wouldn't have the same bond with him.

[Serafina]

He's saying "i miss the company of my own ilk", which strongly implicates he misses being around other vampires. You know, having like-minded people with like-minded problems and the same lifestyle-choices.
Complete mind-control would ruin that point.

[Irbis]

So, was Nale "child slaying" possibly a neutral/good act? I mean, if Malak meant just killing three vampires instead of real kids...

Huh, must go and re-read the scene.

[PainRack]

So, does a vampire servant still retain his alignment or???

[Imperial Overlord]

So, does a vampire servant still retain his alignment or???

Not much of an issue in this case, because Belkar is Chaotic Evil.

[Ralin]

The SRD says "Always evil (any)"

Still somewhat relevant since Malack is probably Lawful, but I don't think that aspect would change, no.

[The Yosemite Bear]

there is something wrong:

my brain imagined vamp belker rolling around in gold dust so that he would sparkle, plotting to get some action with the now very dead and unresserectable Tesuddio, (sp), Lost boys/Salem's Lot shout outs, Hailey going back to being a goth just to take out the master vamp, etc....

[Irbis]

Raise hand who saw it coming

Malack is sooo evil.

[Crazedwraith]

By which I assume he means 871 is up and it was a bait and switch on Belkar's demise.

[Spekio]

D&D wiki tells me that Death Ward makes the subject is immune to all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, and any negative energy effects. But does it make one immune to vampirism?

--------EDIT-----------

People were pointing out that a Don't Split the Party bonus strip there was a mention that Belkar was gonna save Hinjo's life twice. If that were on the main comic, I would have liked this twist. But without the book, it just looks like Rich is messing woth his readers for no reason.

I would like to see Belkar as a vampire. Oh well.

[Ted C]

D&D wiki tells me that Death Ward makes the subject is immune to all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, and any negative energy effects. But does it make one immune to vampirism?

As I believe that the victim must die by vampiric energy drain to become a vampire, death ward would effectively block the transformation.

[Ralin]

...This is really silly, but I'm going to seriously think less of Durkon if he sticks to being a vampire bigot.

[Ahriman238]

...This is really silly, but I'm going to seriously think less of Durkon if he sticks to being a vampire bigot.

It sounds a bit silly, yeah. May I ask why?

The comic established pretty early on that Durkon hates the undead. So passionately that the mere mention of them (or anything sounding vaguely like a mention of them) is enough to send him into a flurry of Turn Undead.

Of course, he also passionately hates Ogres and Trees. So much hate for a man of the cloth.

[Ralin]

It sounds a bit silly, yeah. May I ask why?

The comic established pretty early on that Durkon hates the undead. So passionately that the mere mention of them (or anything sounding vaguely like a mention of them) is enough to send him into a flurry of Turn Undead.

It touches juuust enough on how actual bigotry works to make me uncomfortable. Like I said, I know it's silly.

I mean, he's cool with agreeing to disagree about thinks like worshipping Nerull and working to run a blatantly Evil empire. Just seems really sad that he would draw the line at Malack being the wrong creature type.

[Ahriman238]

It touches juuust enough on how actual bigotry works to make me uncomfortable. Like I said, I know it's silly.

I mean, he's cool with agreeing to disagree about thinks like worshipping Nerull and working to run a blatantly Evil empire. Just seems really sad that he would draw the line at Malack being the wrong creature type.

This is an unfortunate consequence of a setting with creature types that are always evil. Durkon is a pretty live and let live sort of dwarf regarding religion, and seeing Malack as a respected colleague he can mentally distance him from the Empire's evils. But vampires are universally evil and Malack is a murderer having at least killed those he previously sired.

Same deal with Redcloak, really. He's a cleric, intelligent, well-educated, reasonable, and with that dry wit he'd probably be a fun guy to hang out with. But he's also the dedicated servant of a God whose agenda does not work out well for non-goblinoids. So being intelligent and reasonable just makes him dangerous.