The OotS thread

[Lusankya]

It looks like they probably started running a round before the spell was triggered, which would put them 120 feet away from the centre of the explosion when it went off. That would put them well outside of the blast range, unless the spell had a ridiculously huge area of effect.

[Crazedwraith]

Pfft. Turns out nukes have shitty stats?

[The Yosemite Bear]

Hailey is probably wearing boots of speed or something....

hey it workis in hollywood...

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

It looks like they probably started running a round before the spell was triggered, which would put them 120 feet away from the centre of the explosion when it went off. That would put them well outside of the blast range, unless the spell had a ridiculously huge area of effect.

Haley also has Evasion, meaning she could be unhurt at any distance. Though the fact that Elan was closer but also is untouched at the moment means that this isn't enough to explain all of it.

[Bedlam]

I'd assumed that the explosion was not really suposed to kill anyone, it was just there as a slap in the face to Soon if he'd broken his promice and gone to the gate. I think that although the last order broke rather acrimoniously I dont think they have gone as far as to try and kill each other.

[Crazedwraith]

I'd assumed that the explosion was not really suposed to kill anyone, it was just there as a slap in the face to Soon if he'd broken his promice and gone to the gate. I think that although the last order broke rather acrimoniously I dont think they have gone as far as to try and kill each other.

"It should have been that you that died in that rift, you cowardly son of a bitch. Allow me to remedy that error now. Say hello to your barnyard gods for me" - Girard Draketooth, one comic ago.

You're right. Defiantly sounds like he wasn't trying to kill anyone.

[Solauren]

I'd assumed that the explosion was not really suposed to kill anyone, it was just there as a slap in the face to Soon if he'd broken his promice and gone to the gate. I think that although the last order broke rather acrimoniously I dont think they have gone as far as to try and kill each other.

"It should have been that you that died in that rift, you cowardly son of a bitch. Allow me to remedy that error now. Say hello to your barnyard gods for me" - Girard Draketooth, one comic ago.

You're right. Defiantly sounds like he wasn't trying to kill anyone.

What would be more 'revengeful'.

Blowing up Shoon, or making his paladins wonder about the honorability of their Leige?

[Lord of the Abyss]

Hailey is probably wearing boots of speed or something....

She is actually; green ones that she dyed brown because the color clashed with her outfit ( which is why she wasn't wearing them earlier ).

[Rogue 9]

697 is up.

[Serafina]

I wonder what that searching montage is going to be good for?

[Crazedwraith]

... I don't get it.

[Rogue 9]

... I don't get it.

Roy said he hoped they could skip straight to finding the gate [without having many tedious comics of searching the desert], which I'm guessing just happened.

[Sheridan]

I think it also might be a reference.

Never forget Julio Scoundrel's advice: "...never underestimate the strategic value of a good Training Scene Montage."

[Rogue 9]

... I don't get it.

Roy said he hoped they could skip straight to finding the gate [without having many tedious comics of searching the desert], which I'm guessing just happened.

Actually, reading it again, it seems more likely that they have instead skipped straight to "night has fallen and the search has failed" due to not having the montage.

[Serafina]

Duh, i get it - the author simply spared us another searching montage.

[Lord of the Abyss]

698 up!

I like the place names on the map.

[Sinewmire]

Heh, nice. I hope we see what, if anything, has happened to Lord Tyrinar. I suppose it'd be justice if he'd been deposed and forgotten about. That'd pretty much be the the ultimate insult to a tyrannical dictator.

[Crazedwraith]

Oo! Double Length! I'd have missed that if not for people talking about the map.

Now is Elan's message still around for that spell to see? Also will Mr Scruffy's presence be significant? Was it Soon's cat before it was Lord Shojo's or Belkar's?

[Lonestar]

Oo! Double Length! I'd have missed that if not for people talking about the map.

Now is Elan's message still around for that spell to see? Also will Mr Scruffy's presence be significant? Was it Soon's cat before it was Lord Shojo's or Belkar's?

I think its a regular cat. So i doubt it's been living the several decades since then.

[Raesene]

698 up!

I like the place names on the map.

Not many good-aligned states around going by their names - poor humans

[Crazedwraith]

More and More, I wonder if Soon wasn't a Paladin for some of the Order of the Rifts adventures, like near the end, but then attonted and became one again.

He did know alot about it when he talked to Miko, after all....

Oddly this isn't far-fetched at all. I'm just reading Start Of Darkness Now and the Order Of The Rift makes a one panel; crayon coloured appearance. Guess who is conspicuous by his absence?

[Sinewmire]

Solauren wrote:
More and More, I wonder if Soon wasn't a Paladin for some of the Order of the Rifts adventures, like near the end, but then attonted and became one again.

He did know alot about it when he talked to Miko, after all....

Oddly this isn't far-fetched at all. I'm just reading Start Of Darkness Now and the Order Of The Rift makes a one panel; crayon coloured appearance. Guess who is conspicuous by his absence?

Not a chance. This is the guy who based the defense of his gate on the concept that the only unbreakable thing is the honour of a paladin.

[Crazedwraith]

Not a chance. This is the guy who based the defense of his gate on the concept that the only unbreakable thing is the honour of a paladin.

And someone one who apparently also knew a shit load about Paladin's gaining redemption. He obviously wasn't ignorant of the process. He was also smart enough to have an entire order of Paladin's guarding the thing: Even if one of them was stripped of their powers there's still a bunch more left to defend the gate, right?

---

So Anyway, my copies of On The Origin Of PCs and Start Of Darkness arrived early this afternoon and now later afternoon I have read them and posted my thoughts. Not expecting to post massive spoilers for them but just in case I've spoilered them:
Spoiler

This book is really quite short but is pretty funny. Elan's, Haley's initial thieving section is good but tails off later for me because given everything revealed in the main strip; it really is superfluous now; though perhaps not as much as when original published. Her wanted poster resume is great though. Durkon's was intriguing in terms of further plot; given the prophecy given in the book and those the Oracle gives in the strip it seems likely the return of Durkon's body is going to cause big problems in the dwarven lands; though in a way it makes the fact he never gets the message carried by Miko a bit less sad.

Elan is, as ever, just good fun; though he seems even stupider when he's with his previous employer his section also nicely introduces one of his uses; recognising tropes and employing them and so forth.

Belkar is even more one note than usual and his section's only real hit with me is the way it dove tailed nicely into V's who is competing in 'Iron Mage' and accidentally fireballs Belkar's prison.

Roy has the meatiest plot as expected; it shows him a nerd in fighter college and then pursuing peaceful solution with trolls (fans of a metal band) in a nifty sequence where he meets Durkon and then finally forming the Order Of The Stick which have a good sequnce fighting kobolds (or rather causing them to die of laughter) which rounds out the book on a positive note.

All in all; perhaps not as good as I'd hyped it to myself. BUt all in all 72 pages of solid OotS but not really noticeably worse of better than the main strip

Spoiler

This one... disappointed me I think. For reasons I think Burlew surmurised quite well for me in his intro: Its about bad people doing bad things and its about bad things happening to good people and there's no karmariffic ending. I quite like Xykon and co in the main strip but I don't think a hundred pages of them went down well. I quite want to feel sorry for Redcloak who really did have a hard lot in life; but still by the end of the book; the only thing that's holding him back and makes him kill his brother is that, as Xykon says; he's a total bitch.

Xykon is, as promise, just evil all the way through.

Still a lot of things in this one feel custom to be re-visited in the main strip: that Wizard peer of Xykon's in the evil lair; red cloaks and right-eye's real name also Right-Eye seems to have a surviving daughter out there; which I would have thought important.

The crayon section though was superb. I think I may feel better about this when OotS is finished and it can be taken as a whole with the rest of the storyline; whee Xykon and Redcloak will hopefully get karma'd up.

Does anyone have any comments; on the extras and things in the complications book? Given these two I'm not sure I want to spend any more dosh on OotS in dead tree format.

[Rogue 9]

I've bought all the compilations except the newest one (I do my purchasing at GenCon) and I've never been disappointed with the extras. Whether they're worth the cost of a book to you is up to you, of course; I wouldn't pay that much for just the extras, but I also prefer to do my reading in dead tree format, so that along with the extras was worth the cost for me.

[Sinewmire]

And someone one who apparently also knew a shit load about Paladin's gaining redemption. He obviously wasn't ignorant of the process.

if one of them falls then his creed is refuted.

He has spent, what, 140 odd years either in LG afterlife, or bound to the throne room, and has had little to do but meditate, that'd give him a lot of insight on the nature of Lawful Good and Paladins and the like. The last we saw of him, he drew his sword when his wife was insulted. Thinkingup on the matter, you might be right - he drew a weapon on his friend, admittedly when provoked, and is generally represented as hot-headed and prickly, as well as the usual self-righteous SOB that paladins tend to be. That sort of temper could lead to a fall.

On the other hand, the fact that he didn't even peek at Girard's gate at least suggests that he takes his oaths seriously.

Plus, if you want to metagame, he most likely has a buttload of ranks in knowledge: [religion].

You don't have to experience something to know about it, especially when you have been to the afterlife (disputed point, admittedly) and have access to the sum total of LG religious learning.

He was also smart enough to have an entire order of Paladin's guarding the thing: Even if one of them was stripped of their powers there's still a bunch more left to defend the gate, right?

Granted, the Sapphire Guard should be internally policing, but I don't think that was Soon's goal in founding the order. I just think he thought More Paladins = More Places At Once.



I don't think he fell. His lifes work hinged upon that nothing is as unbreakable as the honour of a paladin, and he didn't see fit to change his mind when he instructed his successor. He was a good deal mellower when he spoke to Miko, but he didn't have to fall to learn that.