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Oh, that's hilarious. And almost certainly a lie designed to trap idiots like Nale.
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Jun 18, 2013 05:27
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Welp.
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Jun 18, 2013 05:28
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It's absolutely another trick. After a dungeon infested with magic and illusions, who would expect a nonmagical illusion at the very end? Especially not paladins.
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Jun 18, 2013 05:43
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The most worrying thing about this update is that Malack casted True Seeing. This will let him see through Elan's wall illusion, if they get within 120 feet of the Order. I'm not sure how big this chamber is, though.
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Jun 18, 2013 05:47
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Brannock posted:It's absolutely another trick. After a dungeon infested with magic and illusions, who would expect a nonmagical illusion at the very end? Especially not paladins. Yeah, it's probably just a big stone block. Maybe the gate is inside it, but probably not. The real gate *is* probably in this pyramid and not another, but if the only way to get to it was by getting hit by a trap and ending up in an network of hard-to-navigate-underground tunnels (or just in a buried chamber, because it's not like they need to use it), well, that would be a lot harder to find. Soup du Jour posted:V or someone will stumble upon the real gate. The question is, how detailed was the journal Xykon has? Does it tell him the location of the pyramid, meaning he has to navigate this clusterfuck too, or the actual location of the gate? My bet is on the later, which will mean he probably will just casually gate to an area practically on top of it. Edit: Glory of Arioch posted:The most worrying thing about this update is that Malack casted True Seeing. This will let him see through Elan's wall illusion, if they get within 120 feet of the Order. I'm not sure how big this chamber is, though. Uranium Phoenix fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 18, 2013 05:51
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There's absolutely no way the gate isn't here somewhere. No matter how many double-bluffs you do, it's always better to have it in the place guarded by your family, rather than someplace with no guards. This is totally magician slight-of-hand. A big, distracting sign that you stare at (because obviously it's fake, the gate must be inside or something) while the real trick is being done somewhere else.
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Jun 18, 2013 06:57
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drat, Rich has perfected the art of trolling.
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Jun 18, 2013 07:26
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My money's on a small model of a pyramid hidden somewhere in the building. Could even be walled in right in that center column with no magic employed at all. The only question is, is it small enough for Girard to have kept it where his descendant said it was.
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Jun 18, 2013 07:38
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My Lovely Horse posted:My money's on a small model of a pyramid hidden somewhere in the building. Could even be walled in right in that center column with no magic employed at all. The only question is, is it small enough for Girard to have kept it where his descendant said it was. Maybe there's a smaller pyramid inside the pyramid, but it's not necessary. Girard had no qualms with lying to the paladins about the location of the gate. Why would would the epic level illusionist have anything against lying again? The descendent they spoke with via speak with dead was obviously using language that was technically true but completely useless. All we know from that conversation is that the rift is still sealed by the gate, that the gate is in the desert, and that Girad had a crack between his butt-cheeks, which is also effectively useless knowledge. Uranium Phoenix fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 18, 2013 08:29
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Uranium Phoenix posted:Maybe there's a smaller pyramid inside the pyramid, but it's not necessary. Girard had no qualms with lying to the paladins about the location of the gate. Why would would the epic level illusionist have anything against lying again? The higher trolling would have that answer be both correct and useful, if only they'd worked it out. I would not be surprised if Rich has had the answer in plain sight all along.
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Jun 18, 2013 08:38
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You know, they could have named the mountains around where the real rift was sealed 'Girard's buttcheeks'. I'm just saying.
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Jun 18, 2013 08:55
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UGH! Man that hurts because I'm dying for resolution but at the same time it's perfectly understandable.
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Jun 18, 2013 09:09
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Maybe the gate is only accessible through the illusion that the party had a few strips before?
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Jun 18, 2013 09:24
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Uranium Phoenix posted:The real gate *is* probably in this pyramid and not another, but if the only way to get to it was by getting hit by a trap and ending up in an network of hard-to-navigate-underground tunnels (or just in a buried chamber, because it's not like they need to use it), well, that would be a lot harder to find. The trap wasn't actually connected to those tunnels, though. Assuming that the actual way to access the gate is passing through a wall somewhere, the "entrance" ought to be either past all the deadliest traps or near the Draketooth living quarters.
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Jun 18, 2013 10:44
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Kajeesus posted:The trap wasn't actually connected to those tunnels, though. Assuming that the actual way to access the gate is passing through a wall somewhere, the "entrance" ought to be either past all the deadliest traps or near the Draketooth living quarters. What was that text in the illusion room, "No secret message here" right? But what about a secret passage?
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Jun 18, 2013 10:57
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Bobulus posted:There's absolutely no way the gate isn't here somewhere. No matter how many double-bluffs you do, it's always better to have it in the place guarded by your family, rather than someplace with no guards. Is it? Having lots of people around means you're going to leave a trail, however faint it might be. Someone determined to find the gate will find that trail, like Nale had almost done using Tarquin's latest dead wife. Who's to say the Draketooths don't have another, smaller branch of the family guarding the real one? It could be layers upon layers of fake-outs, really. And if the real gate is hidden someplace else, the Draketooths who are defending the fake pyramid may get off a warning to the real one. This block stating the the gate is somewhere else is so obviously a trap, it can't be. An empty room would've served better as a distraction. Unless it's a triple-bluff.
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Jun 18, 2013 12:44
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I'm currently of the opinion that it's a bluff that serves the narrative purpose of getting Nale & co out of the way so that just as the Order figure it all out and uncover the gate Xykon can show up. Then they blow up the gate and end up on a race to the final one.
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Jun 18, 2013 13:07
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Nah, Xykon and Redcloak complete the ritual at this gate, and the end of the story happens here, the final gate is a red herring.
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Jun 18, 2013 13:26
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There's two books after this one, so something stops Xykon from just teleporting on to Kraagor's Tomb.
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Jun 18, 2013 17:01
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Danzou posted:There's two books after this one, so something stops Xykon from just teleporting on to Kraagor's Tomb. Or it doesn't and the books are them taking down Xykon despite him having the power. The ultimate power not being as ultimate as was originally thought is a common enough idea, and we already know there is something going on with the Snarl that doesn't fit what everyone has been told
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Jun 18, 2013 18:09
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Fried Chicken posted:Or it doesn't and the books are them taking down Xykon despite him having the power. The ultimate power not being as ultimate as was originally thought is a common enough idea, and we already know there is something going on with the Snarl that doesn't fit what everyone has been told This book ends with Xykon in control of the gate, they do the ritual but get sucked into the Snarliverse. The next book is the party racing to Kraagor's gate to somehow fix things, the party also gets sucked in. The last book is the Order fighting Xykon in our world as photorealistic stick figures.
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Jun 18, 2013 18:32
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I'm expecting a fairly catastrophic gate destruction when/if this one goes down. When Soon's gate was destroyed, the tear in the rift covered a huge portion of the sky around Azure City. Girard's gate is in the middle of no-where in the desert - the rift's tear could be a third of the size of the continent or some similar ridiculous scale without harming more than a handful of small desert towns. This could suddenly make the existence of the rifts a huge well-known international incident instead of a relatively secret thing guarded by a handful of descendants of the adventuring party (although the size of the Azure City gate rift might have already pushed us towards that). I could see the international panic/interest somehow shaping how the events of the fifth gate go about.
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Jun 18, 2013 18:33
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Uranium Phoenix posted:Yeah, it's probably just a big stone block. Maybe the gate is inside it, but probably not. Durkula did cast Detect Magic so if the gate is inside the block he would detect the magic of the gate, I guess, so that should rule out that simple trick.
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Jun 18, 2013 21:08
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A foot of stone blocks Detect Magic.
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Jun 18, 2013 21:22
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Colonel Cool posted:A foot of stone blocks Detect Magic. Locate object is blocked "by even a thin sheet of lead" so it's pretty weak too. If it is just inside the block, it's a great way to seal and protect it.
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Jun 18, 2013 22:59
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I'm going to say that just from a narrative perspective I'm going to be disappointed if the Gate really is somewhere completely different. It just goes against the flow of everything. Last chapter was all about how the party was fractured and aimless and the big satisfying conclusion was that now they were together and could get back on track. That then led to wandering around in the desert for a while and then dicking around in the Kingdom of Blood and then this temple. If the temple turns out to be a dud, what was even the point of the last chapter arc? The Order would still be drifting around pretty aimlessly and ineffectively. I'm not trying to say that I haven't enjoyed a lot of this chapter or that I think Rich needs to speed things up towards the ending, but having the temple be one giant waste of time would be a little much on top of all the other time wasting things that have happened in a series with very slow updates. Again it's understandable why updates are slow in general and particularly slow recently, but something other then 'lol, no progress' really needs to happen soon. (Yes, I know a ton of character stuff has happened this chapter, but the plot is starting to drag a bit.)
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Jun 18, 2013 23:32
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Again, I feel like it's gonna be real, just because not being real would be a really unsatisfying, not even amusing anti-climax.
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Jun 19, 2013 00:19
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cafel posted:I'm going to say that just from a narrative perspective I'm going to be disappointed if the Gate really is somewhere completely different. It just goes against the flow of everything. Last chapter was all about how the party was fractured and aimless and the big satisfying conclusion was that now they were together and could get back on track. That then led to wandering around in the desert for a while and then dicking around in the Kingdom of Blood and then this temple. If the temple turns out to be a dud, what was even the point of the last chapter arc? The Order would still be drifting around pretty aimlessly and ineffectively. I wouldn't worry. My rule of thumb with Rich is that if a proposed plot twist/development is not surprising, awesome, satisfying or all three, then it will not happen. So far it's got a 100% hitrate.
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Jun 19, 2013 00:22
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I'm in the opposite camp, right now the more the plot "drags" the better. We have next to no idea about what's going on with the rift and the is-there-still-a-Snarl, so I feel zero tension about it and I'd be perfectly fine with that MacGuffin staying indefinitely out of reach; while I do enjoy every twist and character scene along the way (well, except for really lame ones like 'V falls in a hole'). The end of the comic is on the horizon, and I know that in 2-4 years I'm going to wish it had lasted even longer.
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Jun 19, 2013 00:22
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NihilCredo posted:I'm in the opposite camp, right now the more the plot "drags" the better. We have next to no idea about what's going on with the rift and the is-there-still-a-Snarl, so I feel zero tension about it and I'd be perfectly fine with that MacGuffin staying indefinitely out of reach; while I do enjoy every twist and character scene along the way (well, except for really lame ones like 'V falls in a hole'). The end of the comic is on the horizon, and I know that in 2-4 years I'm going to wish it had lasted even longer. Exactly. The story is what happens while the characters are making other plans, to misquote someone or other. I mean hell, there's almost certainly a four way clusterfuck about to happen that has been building up for dozens and dozens of strips. Worrying about anti-climax seems premature.
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Jun 19, 2013 00:28
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Hmm. What are the odds that the skeleton they searched wasn't really Girard after all, just a decoy, and the gate really is between his cheeks?
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Jun 19, 2013 04:26
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Colon V posted:Again, I feel like it's gonna be real, just because not being real would be a really unsatisfying, not even amusing anti-climax. It would be funny in the Roy got Durkon killed chasing a red herring sense.
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Jun 19, 2013 04:45
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The problem with these kinds of things is that you can turn them into an endless chain of 'I know that you know that I know'. The fact that they outright tell you that it isn't there means it has be there, unless that is exactly what they want you to think, unless they want you to waste your time, unless... On the one hand, Girad was a obviously a liar, on the other, maybe he was so paranoid that he didn't even trust his family. The point is really that with Rich writing, you never know if he is going to use a cliche or making fun of it.
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Jun 19, 2013 10:28
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nimby posted:This book ends with Xykon in control of the gate, they do the ritual but get sucked into the Snarliverse. The next book is the party racing to Kraagor's gate to somehow fix things, the party also gets sucked in. The last book is the Order fighting Xykon in our world as photorealistic stick figures. A world where mages are powerless and a fighter is king. 
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Jun 19, 2013 15:08
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 Order of the Stick #895 - Plain Sight Ladies and Gentleman, lead foil.
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Jun 21, 2013 14:20
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e X posted:lead foil. THAT is the best.
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Jun 21, 2013 14:23
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Way to use those cross-class skills, Roy! Belkar's line about oppression was a out-there, but funny call back as well.
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Jun 21, 2013 14:23
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Looks like Roy has learned enough from Elan to know how this would inevitably end up, and is trying to sequence break.
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Jun 21, 2013 14:42
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Why do I have a feeling that Girard didn't include a convenient self-destruct rune.
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Jun 21, 2013 14:42
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I really like the reference to Roy's Architecture skill.
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Jun 21, 2013 14:45
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