|
Dolash posted:My money's on Nale dying, since 'family business', and Tarquin makes a better final antagonist for Elan's plot arc without losing anything Nale imparted to it - he's really just a better continuation. If the Order gets the "murdered in a pit" treatment (which they might, since Tarquin specifically asked Haley to get out of the pit too), V will reappear just in time to save them. This is also where I'd put my money. Tarquin's a sociopath, not a psychotic though.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 01:40 |
|
|
# ? Mar 28, 2024 13:11 |
|
I'm thinking duel between Nale and Elan. Tarquin has been wanting to see just what Elan is capable of, after all.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 01:53 |
|
Even if Nale did try to lie about what happened to Malack during his brief walk alongside the army, Durkon's right there within earshot to say something if it comes up. He's already proven he remembers what he saw while enthralled.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 02:24 |
|
Well, if we know anything about Tarquin, it's that he can put two and two together to figure out what Nale did. He doesn't even need to ask unless he thinks it's appropriate for the scene.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 02:27 |
|
I think it's telling that Nale hasn't been healed.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 03:15 |
|
My big question about Nale dying is this: what would Sabine do? She's moderately powerful, has access to a variety of resources, and seems to genuinely love him.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 04:14 |
|
MikeJF posted:My big question about Nale dying is this: what would Sabine do? She's moderately powerful, has access to a variety of resources, and seems to genuinely love him. Yeah, but that love is maintained at least in part by sacrifices, so once the latest sacrifice wears off, she may change her mind. Also, do we know what happens to dead evil people in OOTS? Nale might become one of those demon soul blob things with good prospects for advancement due to having somebody with some rank who likes him.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 04:21 |
I'd think pop in long enough to get Nale's body (assuming there's anything left of him to recover, so he's boned if Tarquin's friend can use a Disintegrate-like effect), then get out and try to find him an Evil Cleric that can resurrect him. That actually reminds me: I swear I remember reading about a less powerful resurrection spell that transforms the target into a random race as a possible side effect. Am I imagining things?
|
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 04:22 |
|
Regalingualius posted:I'd think pop in long enough to get Nale's body (assuming there's anything left of him to recover, so he's boned if Tarquin's friend can use a Disintegrate-like effect), then get out and try to find him an Evil Cleric that can resurrect him. It's called Reincarnate.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 04:23 |
|
Pope Guilty posted:Yeah, but that love is maintained at least in part by sacrifices, so once the latest sacrifice wears off, she may change her mind. Wait - Nale is binding Sabine to him through sacrifices? I figured the sacrifices were just something they did together for pleasure, not a method for Nale to actually keep Sabine loyal to him.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 04:38 |
|
Hey guys. Nale isn't going to die.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 04:42 |
|
Brannock posted:Wait - Nale is binding Sabine to him through sacrifices? I figured the sacrifices were just something they did together for pleasure, not a method for Nale to actually keep Sabine loyal to him. I think that whole bit was rather a joke, and you shouldn't try and rules-lawyer it.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 04:42 |
|
Johnny Aztec posted:I think that whole bit was rather a joke, and you shouldn't try and rules-lawyer it. I haven't played D&D in years and I'm one of the last people who would try to rules-lawyer something. I didn't know if this was a tidbit mentioned in one of the extra books or not. Sorry
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 04:44 |
|
greatn posted:Hey guys. Nale isn't going to die.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 05:38 |
|
greatn posted:Hey guys. Nale isn't going to die. I think it depends on whether or not Tarquin's going to take Nale's place as a more-competent third-party foil. Nale's been kind of a jokey threat from the get-go, with occasional successes punctuating almost constant overall failure. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets fragged from both the "no longer really plot relevant" standpoint, as well as a "show that Tarquin cares more about winning than family" kind of thing. But, as usual, conjecture is usually pointless with this comic because Rich doesn't usually show important non-OOTS character motivations until they're acted upon.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 06:15 |
Eifert Posting posted:I think it's telling that Nale hasn't been healed. You know, while Tarquin was riding his sweet rear end dinosaur.
|
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 06:26 |
Eifert Posting posted:I think it's telling that Nale hasn't been healed. Tarquin was sadistic enough to burn alive a ton of recaptured slaves to make a welcome message to Elan. I really would not put it past him to get Nale lulled into just enough of a false sense of security to not think of the underlying implications of why he hasn't been healed yet (assuming Psions even can heal, that is).
|
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 06:46 |
|
Brannock posted:Wait - Nale is binding Sabine to him through sacrifices? I figured the sacrifices were just something they did together for pleasure, not a method for Nale to actually keep Sabine loyal to him. This strip suggests that it's a supernatural effect.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 07:10 |
New Strip Well that was unexpected...
|
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 08:36 |
|
Ferrosol posted:New Strip It's so perfect, I think I'll start implying it was what I expected to happen all along. edit: Why is Tarquin turning his back on an angry Nale? That never ends well. my dad fucked around with this message at 08:50 on Aug 19, 2013 |
# ? Aug 19, 2013 08:43 |
|
Ferrosol posted:Well that was unexpected...
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 08:44 |
|
The OotS leaves, Tarquin turns to Nale, and says "Now let's talk about my vampire buddy who I can't help but notice isn't here, and also you have some ash on your cheek, there." Nale is never seen again.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 08:57 |
Well gently caress, I didn't see that one coming either. Tarquin's too tough for even a rage fueled Nale backstab to kill, though. And he sure as poo poo doesn't have a glaring weakness for Nale to exploit like Malack did.
|
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 08:58 |
|
Tarquin is entirely too in love with himself. Dude is going to have one hell of a fall.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 09:02 |
|
Tarquin is too awesome.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 09:02 |
|
mmkay posted:Tarquin is too awesome. Yes, that is his only flaw.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 09:12 |
On a positive note, they may be able to sell this result as inevitable to V to assuage her guilt about letting the Gate get blown. After all, there was no realistic chance the Order could have held off Tarquin's whole army, especially when backed up with his Psion. And Tarquin was going to destroy the Gate anyhow, so the fate of the Gate was pretty much sealed. Granted, if she hadn't wiped out the Draketooths the Gate may never have fallen in the first place, but at least there wasn't anything she could have done to save the Gate, with or without the Fiends repossessing her soul.
|
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 09:42 |
|
Speaking of which, the IFCC's really taking their good sweet time holding onto V right now, aren't they? Even though the one who owned Haera's soul got the least amount of time out of the deal, the other two each got... 20 something minutes apiece? I can't find the source. It has to have been a decent amount of time for Roy to smash the gate, the pyramid to crumble while they race to safety, the explosion, Redcloak showing up and summoning the elemental, fighting it, getting Durkon back, and now speaking with Tarquin.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:05 |
|
ImpAtom posted:Tarquin is entirely too in love with himself. Dude is going to have one hell of a fall. I'm really hoping that he keeps flaunting conventions by suddenly stepping down at the climax of his battle with Elan, like what the noble during the boat arc tried to do. Except Tarquin shows how to do it properly and not get disintegrated. TunaSpleen posted:Speaking of which, the IFCC's really taking their good sweet time holding onto V right now, aren't they? Even though the one who owned Haera's soul got the least amount of time out of the deal, the other two each got... 20 something minutes apiece? I can't find the source. It has to have been a decent amount of time for Roy to smash the gate, the pyramid to crumble while they race to safety, the explosion, Redcloak showing up and summoning the elemental, fighting it, getting Durkon back, and now speaking with Tarquin. I don't know, though. Duration of Summon Monster is 1 round per level, which means a max at level 20 of 2 minutes. Even if you assume Redcloak is 20 (he's not), and if you assume that the spell ran out instead of them managing to deal enough damage to kill it, you've still got 18 minutes to kill in "temple blowing up" and "army walking through a portal". I think Tarquin'll have enough time to finish his dialog tree and leave before V pops out. Alliterate Addict fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Aug 19, 2013 |
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:09 |
|
DivineCoffeeBinge posted:The OotS leaves, Tarquin turns to Nale, and says "Now let's talk about my vampire buddy who I can't help but notice isn't here, and also you have some ash on your cheek, there." Nope. This was basically the only real chance Tarquin had to off Nale and take his place as eventual big bad of Elan's story. Nale is going to kill Tarquin, probably try to run the Blank Empire scam, fail, then go after the Oots again and maybe kill Belkar, then fail some more.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:12 |
|
SirDan3k posted:Nope. This was basically the only real chance Tarquin had to off Nale and take his place as eventual big bad of Elan's story. Nale is going to kill Tarquin, probably try to run the Blank Empire scam, fail, then go after the Oots again and maybe kill Belkar, then fail some more. I really hope he doesn't from a storytelling standpoint, just because Nale really doesn't feel threatening and even killing Tarquin won't help that (much).
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:14 |
|
Ursine Asylum posted:I really hope he doesn't from a storytelling standpoint, just because Nale really doesn't feel threatening and even killing Tarquin won't help that (much). At this point I'm pretty sure Nale is meta commentary on DM's that can't let that one character they'd plotted out to be the nemesis go even after the party has gone off in a completely different direction and moved into another weight class. "You enter the room to find your arch-nemisis Nale waiting for you!" "Who?" "Nale! he's your bard's evil twin, he's plauged you throughout you adventures!" "Thay guy we beat like at the start of the campain?" "You didn't beat him! He let you win it was part of his plan!" SirDan3k fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Aug 19, 2013 |
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:20 |
|
Ursine Asylum posted:I'm really hoping that he keeps flaunting conventions by suddenly stepping down at the climax of his battle with Elan, like what the noble during the boat arc tried to do. Except Tarquin shows how to do it properly and not get disintegrated. I really doubt that is going to happen. Tarquin is a fairly horrible monster who is completely enamored with his own cleverness and utterly convinced he is in complete control, and the same drama rules he loves to live by basically mean there is no way he's not going to run face-first into a whole lot of hubris.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:23 |
|
Ursine Asylum posted:I'm really hoping that he keeps flaunting conventions by suddenly stepping down at the climax of his battle with Elan, like what the noble during the boat arc tried to do. Except Tarquin shows how to do it properly and not get disintegrated. I'm starting to get the idea of just what might happen soon, and if it really happens, it will be glorious.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:25 |
jng2058 posted:On a positive note, they may be able to sell this result as inevitable to V to assuage her guilt about letting the Gate get blown. After all, there was no realistic chance the Order could have held off Tarquin's whole army, especially when backed up with his Psion. And Tarquin was going to destroy the Gate anyhow, so the fate of the Gate was pretty much sealed. I don't think it is a certainty that the gate would have been destroyed by Tarquin. He mentions wanting to study the gate, so it is perfectly reasonable that while doing so he'd come to the same realization as V (either by V passing on what s/he knows or from his own investigation of it).
|
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:40 |
|
You know, I'd be honestly surprised if Tarquin gave more of a poo poo about his dusted vampire partner than he did about his many, many wives.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:41 |
|
Random note: I'm not sure if I missed part of the discussion in all the psion , and the iPad app doesn't have search-in-thread, but has no one noted that Belkar referred to V as "she" last comic? Not sure if mistake, or callback to "the event".
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:45 |
|
I have my fingers crossed on Tarquin and Malack actually being BFFs. I wouldn't bet on it though.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:45 |
|
SirDan3k posted:At this point I'm pretty sure Nale is meta commentary on DM's that can't let that one character they'd plotted out to be the nemesis go even after the party has gone off in a completely different direction and moved into another weight class. I've never seen that happen in a game. Mostly because all players I know hate nemeses and make everything they can to be sure any fight with a villain results in that villain's death. The villain is captured? Strict "no prisoners" policy; summary execution time! The villains flee? They chase. The villain falls over a cliff? They rappel/levitate down and search for him. The villain teleport? They go prepare/buy scrolls of scry, teleport, and dimensional anchor to hunt him down. The villain looks dead? They cut the corpse in pieces just to be sure. The DM manages to have the villain escape and elude the party's search efforts? They complain endlessly about railroading.
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:56 |
|
|
# ? Mar 28, 2024 13:11 |
Ursine Asylum posted:Random note: I'm not sure if I missed part of the discussion in all the psion , and the iPad app doesn't have search-in-thread, but has no one noted that Belkar referred to V as "she" last comic? The characters in the comic all have their own ideas on V's gender. Rich is on the record somewhere of saying that V's actual sex is still 100% ambiguous despite them.
|
|
# ? Aug 19, 2013 10:56 |