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RandallODim posted:And, in one panel, the whole alignment debate w/r/t Durkon is solved forever so we never ever have to talk about it again. On one hand, I like how Burlew resolved it without any bullshit. On the other hand, I sort of wish the circumstances of Durkon's freedom had been different so he could rejoin the party in a more dramatic fashion, perhaps in a way that brought a little more suspense. On the other other hand, it's pretty funny to have such a potentially big conflict resolved so quickly. I suppose we'll see more of the new Durkon soon, and I'll be interested to see where Burlew takes his character now. He's always had a good take on what "evil" is (and more importantly, isn't) so I have faith that he'll make Durkon's transformation meaningful at the very least.
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Aug 6, 2013 02:37
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RandallODim posted:And, in one panel, the whole alignment debate w/r/t Durkon is solved forever so we never ever have to talk about it again. I wouldn't say that. But the boring part of the debate has been tidily disposed of. I like the way Rich does alignment stuff, so I'd guess there are lots of interesting places he could take Durkula.
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Aug 6, 2013 02:39
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Wouldn't channeling positive energy hurt Durkon? e: I choose to believe that this is Demonic for "See ya, shitlords" 
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Aug 6, 2013 02:44
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He's also still got a Thor's Might in stock, if that'll still work.
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Aug 6, 2013 02:52
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RandallODim posted:And, in one panel, the whole alignment debate w/r/t Durkon is solved forever so we never ever have to talk about it again. Is it, though? Not from a spergin' alignment PoV, but Malack did go out of is way to talk about how he's not the same lizardman cleric that got bitten (which is a pretty drat big Chekov's Gun to remain unfired), and I don't recall Durkon being quite so  before. There's going to be a plotline involving Durkon's temptation to slide to the "dark side", the only question is which way he's going to end up going.Not to mention that whole "doom to your homeland" thing, which I can foresee as being a direct "Durkon goes bad and fucks poo poo up", or an indirect "Durkon returns home as a vampiric cleric and splits his country in half via civil war just by existing".
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Aug 6, 2013 02:56
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Hmmm Vampire durkon could be a monkey wrench in the grand scheme of the 3 arch demons. Their whole plan seems to revolve around taking V out of the game and weakening the party at critical moments, but now the team as a whole is stronger. They also planned On puppeting the linear guild who is now a man short. That and some humility from V and having him/her telling the party about the deal could derail their plan beyond repair.
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Aug 6, 2013 02:59
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Is have to haf a regular durkon accent thing or is does he actually have a stereotypical eastern European accent on top of his weird Scottish one now. I really hope so.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:04
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Shwqa posted:Hmmm Vampire durkon could be a monkey wrench in the grand scheme of the 3 arch demons. Their whole plan seems to revolve around taking V out of the game and weakening the party at critical moments, but now the team as a whole is stronger. They also planned On puppeting the linear guild who is now a man short. That and some humility from V and having him/her telling the party about the deal could derail their plan beyond repair. Given how elegantly they've managed things so far, I wouldn't leap to any conclusions about what they can and can't repair. The fiends are in it to the end, IMO.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:04
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You can tell he's evil now because he made the >:D face. edit: I wonder how the order will react to seeing vampire Durkon over an incapacitated Roy.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:04
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That is some really crappy dialogue toward the end, reminds me of the MitD strip just before. Maybe Rich should go back to updating once a fortnight to smooth these over better.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:14
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Ursine Asylum posted:Not to mention that whole "doom to your homeland" thing, which I can foresee as being a direct "Durkon goes bad and fucks poo poo up", or an indirect "Durkon returns home as a vampiric cleric and splits his country in half via civil war just by existing". Didn't the prophecy say that he'd bring Death and Destruction to his homeland? Maybe those are his new Domains.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:26
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Pope Guilty posted:Wouldn't channeling positive energy hurt Durkon? According to some of the translator types over on GitP...ie, the people you went to for Crypto-Haley translations...the font is Miskatonc and the message is: "If the boss is dead, I'm punching out early." Which fits.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:28
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I actually laughed out loud on the last panel. Funny stuff. I hope Z will be resurrected and stay with Nale. They have a good dynamic, and I think it'd be more interesting than Nale recruiting yet another disposable wizard villain.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:31
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ZearothK posted:Didn't the prophecy say that he'd bring Death and Destruction to his homeland? Maybe those are his new Domains. quote:However, the true reason for the "mission" was that the priest of Odin had arrived at the temple that morning with a prophecy that, when Durkon next returned home, he would bring death and destruction upon his people. I guess I could see "upon" if he got converts? I don't know. I'm probably off-base on what exactly "death and destruction" will entail-- for all I know, it could be that he needs some sort of self-made überbräu to get himself drunk in his new form, and when he brings it back to his homeland it knocks everyone into perpetual drunkenness and causes society to collapse. I'm still betting on the temptation to alignment-slide being a thing before then, though.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:41
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It's still Durkon-ish, but it's not the Durkon that'll go to an afterlife. I wonder what he'll think of Roy taking VampDurkon back. Also, there is no way next time he gets access to someone else who can res that Roy won't be tempted as hell to take VampDurkon down and resurrect him.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:48
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run DNC posted:Is have to haf a regular durkon accent thing or is does he actually have a stereotypical eastern European accent on top of his weird Scottish one now. I really hope so. Let's be honest, they're both pretty much interchangeable.
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Aug 6, 2013 03:51
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I also haf potions.  They might talk things out more later when they aren't being attacked by a giant elemental, but for now no more evil than Belkar is good enough. Even if the party is cool with it, having Durkon around could hurt them socially. Belkar was evil, but most people won't expect a halfling to be evil. Everyone expects a Vampire (and his companions) to be evil. It is going to be basically impossible to work with the paladins with Durkon around. Or nearly anyone else who can easily detect that Durkon is undead.
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Aug 6, 2013 04:07
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I've interpreted 'bring death and destruction' as being the domains Durkon will now have as a cleric of Hel, and of course what can a cleric do after the adventure is over besides start a church? Death doesn't have to be Evil, after all.
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Aug 6, 2013 04:35
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All I know is that his bat form better keep the beard.
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Aug 6, 2013 04:38
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VanSandman posted:I've interpreted 'bring death and destruction' as being the domains Durkon will now have as a cleric of Hel, and of course what can a cleric do after the adventure is over besides start a church? Death doesn't have to be, but vampires (in D&D, at least) unequivocally are.
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Aug 6, 2013 05:47
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sebmojo posted:I wouldn't say that. But the boring part of the debate has been tidily disposed of. I like the way Rich does alignment stuff, so I'd guess there are lots of interesting places he could take Durkula. Yeah, that's a better way to put it. Everyone's brought up good points about how it'll probably come up again, but the question of "Is Durkon evil?" and "Will he work with The Order?" getting resolved in all of four lines just made me very happy. As did his desire to keep helping immediately being undermined by his new powers. There's at least some of the old Durkon in there.  DrakePegasus posted:All I know is that his bat form better keep the beard. This needs to happen.
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Aug 6, 2013 05:53
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To some degree I think Roy is also going to be more willing than most people to accept "sure, I'm evil but not that evil" because the dude is his best friend and Roy would much rather believe that his pal is back with a new diet than to instantly drive a stake through his heart.
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Aug 6, 2013 05:54
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This could be interesting if Durkon starts engaging in shittier and shittier behavior, and Roy keeps trying to justify it because it's his best friend, until it comes to a head down the road.
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Aug 6, 2013 05:56
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The Rooster posted:This could be interesting if Durkon starts engaging in shittier and shittier behavior, and Roy keeps trying to justify it because it's his best friend, until it comes to a head down the road. 
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Aug 6, 2013 06:09
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So Nale lost the entire team, go Nale!.
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Aug 6, 2013 06:10
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Uranium Phoenix posted:On one hand, I like how Burlew resolved it without any bullshit. Actually nothing has been resolved. Aside from killing his opponents rather incapacitating them, everything we're assuming on his motives (i.e., still a friend to Roy, no worse than Belkar, wants to save the world, etc.) we only have Durkon's word to go on, and he's not exactly the most trustworthy source now. Maybe everything is as it appears to be, or maybe he thinks he gets to travel a bit with five humanoid snacks for the road. flyingkiwi posted:That is some really crappy dialogue toward the end, reminds me of the MitD strip just before. Maybe Rich should go back to updating once a fortnight to smooth these over better. Feel free to show us how you'd do better. Okay, the MitD might have sounded a little forced if at least was still in line with the character growth. But you're complaining here on first reactions in four panels. At least wait until the next strip for a genuine denouement before you start declaring the comic ruined. Geshtal fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Aug 6, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 06:12
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mmkay posted:So Nale lost the entire team, go Nale!. Well at least it's not a TPK!
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Aug 6, 2013 06:20
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ImpAtom posted:To some degree I think Roy is also going to be more willing than most people to accept "sure, I'm evil but not that evil" because the dude is his best friend and Roy would much rather believe that his pal is back with a new diet than to instantly drive a stake through his heart. I think it's been driven home that not only does "evil" not mean "moustache-twiddling destroy-the-world", but "evil" can cut towards neutral or even good over time-- almost like people have personalities and motivations beyond "kill everyone" I could see the extent of Durkon's evil being selfishly hellbent towards getting revenge on Nale and possibly Tarquin, since Malack's out of his reach now.
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Aug 6, 2013 06:35
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Geshtal posted:Actually nothing has been resolved. Aside from killing his opponents rather incapacitating them, everything we're assuming on his motives (i.e., still a friend to Roy, no worse than Belkar, wants to save the world, etc.) we only have Durkon's word to go on, and he's not exactly the most trustworthy source now. Maybe everything is as it appears to be, or maybe he thinks he gets to travel a bit with five humanoid snacks for the road. I highly doubt Durkon's motives are sinister with regards to the Order. If he wanted to eliminate the OotS, this is the perfect opportunity to do it right here. He could have allied with Nale, or even did what he did but not dismiss the fiend and just let the elder earth elemental that's about to wipe the party do its thing. If he's out for blood, there's easier targets than high level adventurers. At the same time, if he's looking to vampirize and control the rest of the party, now is also the time to do it--when it would take about 1-2 rounds to kill and convert Roy, Haley, and Belkar and none of them are in a position to fight back or escape. Durkula's enough the same person that he isn't going to betray the order, and especially not Roy. At the same time you're right that the situation isn't fully resolved (but at least the "Durkon's back with the order" part is). Uranium Phoenix fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Aug 6, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 06:39
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Ursine Asylum posted:I could see the extent of Durkon's evil being selfishly hellbent towards getting revenge on Nale and possibly Tarquin, since Malack's out of his reach now.
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Aug 6, 2013 06:39
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I'm guessing Durkon's evil will mostly manifest in ruthlessness to opposition as well as a vindictive, vengeful streak against the people who exiled him from his home. I don't recall, have we ruled out the possibility that Belkar will die here then be raised as a vampire by Durkon? That might allow the whole original party to continue on to the last gate together.
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Aug 6, 2013 06:42
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Ursine Asylum posted:I think it's been driven home that not only does "evil" not mean "moustache-twiddling destroy-the-world", but "evil" can cut towards neutral or even good over time-- almost like people have personalities and motivations beyond "kill everyone" As a corollary to this, a lot of the Evil characters that we've been have been among the most reasonable / pragmatic forces in the OotSverse. Hell, you could probably convince Sabine to leave the conflict entirely if she got to bring Nale with her.
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Aug 6, 2013 06:48
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Colonel Cool posted:Well at least it's not a TPK! Yet. EDIT: Re: Evil Durkula Look at the panel that he snuffs Z in. Look at the glee in his face. LE Durkon is a sadist who enjoys killing people in the way that Belkar and Xykon do. For now he'll be restricting that to enemies, but over time, especially as the "I need to drink from people to keep moving" his respect for life will diminish until, if he survives that long, he'll be as much of a monster as Malack was. Calm, polite, respectful....but planning the extermination of thousands. jng2058 fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Aug 6, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 06:51
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Ursine Asylum posted:I could see the extent of Durkon's evil being selfishly hellbent towards getting revenge on Nale and possibly Tarquin, since Malack's out of his reach now. I think the thing that is lingering here is that Durkon was sent away under false pretenses and he still doesn't know that (or that he was welcomed back.) If Vampire Durkon is spiteful or angry or seeking revenge, it's probably not gonna be good news once he finally does go home. (Especially if the prophecy comes true literally.)
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Aug 6, 2013 06:53
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Dolash posted:I'm guessing Durkon's evil will mostly manifest in ruthlessness to opposition as well as a vindictive, vengeful streak against the people who exiled him from his home. That last is such a good point.
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Aug 6, 2013 07:28
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Dolash posted:I'm guessing Durkon's evil will mostly manifest in ruthlessness to opposition as well as a vindictive, vengeful streak against the people who exiled him from his home. I'm still holding out that Belkar will kill the Snarl and be skyrocketed to godhood(sexy and shoeless). Otherwise I can see Durkon feeding on Belkar each day and then restoring all the stat drain with a restoration spell. I don't think he's going to turn Belkar (2 vamps in the party would be a bit overkill).
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Aug 6, 2013 07:35
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I think Durkon returns to his homeland as a vampire and then may end himself after going to the temple of thor.
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Aug 6, 2013 07:45
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I enjoy new Durkon and I enjoy Nale's continued inability to not gently caress up in the big picture, decent short term success notwithstanding. Wonder if the whole Linear Guild idea is done now, either Tarquin takes the reins after his son has lost half the (effective) team or they have to get another wizard. e: O-Chul and Lien are not going to like this. My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Aug 6, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 07:48
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I anticipate a disagreement between Roy and Durkon about whether to try to have the vampirism cured.
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Aug 6, 2013 07:50
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jng2058 posted:Yet. Truly, ">  " is the face of sheer evil. At any rate, whatever makes Durkon tick now seems to be too influenced by Durkon's original personality, so I can see him still being an asset to the party, friction with the rest of the world notwithstanding.
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Aug 6, 2013 07:56
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