THE OotS Thread, Part IV.

[Terralthra]

I rather passionately disagree with the notion "You are who you are on your worst day. Everything else is a comforting lie you tell yourself."

Naturally. Remember, Durkula is a creature of Evil; you're not supposed to sympathize with his outlook. After all, we know it isn't universal; if the Bureaucratic Deva that judged Roy in the afterlife agreed with Durkula on that, he would have been chucked to True Neutral without batting an eye, as she explicitly said.

Not just "not universal", it's specifically created to be Durkon's antithesis. Of course it believes that you are who you are on your worst day. First of all, that's what it is, and second of all, that's probably close to Durkon's worst fear.

[Lonestar]

My mum taught me tha' I should always take feelings like that, and bury them inna deep dark part o' my soul and nev'r ev'r talk about 'em again. That's tha dwarven way.

[Simon_Jester]

Yes; that appears to have backfired.

Although it's interesting to speculate on, oh, what Roy's vampiric evil inverse might be like.

[Solauren]

Roy's vampiric inverse would probably go back Xyklon for a nice 'screw you' to his dad.

AFTER going and killing/turning his sister.

[LadyTevar]

My mum taught me tha' I should always take feelings like that, and bury them inna deep dark part o' my soul and nev'r ev'r talk about 'em again. That's tha dwarven way.

I'd forgotten that.
Knowing now what we know about his Mum and Dad, and how his dad died, I think if Mum was talking about her own feelings and regrets.
I'd actually hoped that Loki's Cleric would be her.

[Raesene]

1008 is up

Durkula uses a variation of Durkon's favorite spell.

[Rogue 9]

Still doesn't make him any faster.

[Jub]

Still doesn't make him any faster.

It does grant him reach. Durkula's huge there and should get an AoO if Roy does anything besides running for it.

[Ralin]

Roy just Got It.

Well, something like this was telegraphed well in advance. Was hoping it would be more complicated or nuanced, but meh. I wouldn't have come up with anything better.

[Solauren]

So THAT's what a Full Bore Critical looks like in OOTS.....

[Ralin]

So THAT's what a Full Bore Critical looks like in OOTS.....

On an undead who is immune to crits?

[Simon_Jester]

Hm. Maybe starmetal allows you to crit undead? I know it has some special property against them, don't it?

In any event, this looks like a fairly wide but shallow cut. Probably represents a significant chunk of Durkula's hit points, but not all by any means.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Hm. Maybe starmetal allows you to crit undead? I know it has some special property against them, don't it?

It is likely that your sword will sometimes glow with a deadly green energy that is particularly harmful to the undead.

I don't recall it ever making his eyes glow green at the same time too, though.

[Simon_Jester]

Has he had many opportunities to use it on undead? Aside from the defense of Azure City I can't remember any.

[Ralin]

Hm. Maybe starmetal allows you to crit undead? I know it has some special property against them, don't it?

In any event, this looks like a fairly wide but shallow cut. Probably represents a significant chunk of Durkula's hit points, but not all by any means.

Or various other things, including converting to Pathfinder. I wasn't being particularly serious.

[Lonestar]

Has he had many opportunities to use it on undead? Aside from the defense of Azure City I can't remember any.

He used it while fighting those zombies from Drake's family at the pyramid.

[Ralin]

Looking at the strip again, I don't think it's a crit. I mean, all he did was land a wide slash across Durkula's chest. That wouldn't be a crit on a vampire even if it was vulnerable to them. There's nothing vital there.

I'd call it max or near max damage roll plus whatever the sword's magic added on. And Power Attack or whatever

[Alkaloid]

Does anyone who read the Origin of PCs book have an idea as to what it was the Durkula said that gave him away?

I don't recall it ever making his eyes glow green at the same time too, though.

They haven't. It's also a different flame effect to usual, normally it just surrounds the blade but it's surrounding his body here as well.

[Venator]

Also, it could be the dramatic effect or 'lighting', but Roy's visible injuries vanish in that last panel.

[Simon_Jester]

I honestly think it may just be the sheer... malevolence of Durkula's taunting Roy about his brother's death.

Like "okay, I can imagine Durkon becoming bitter and angry and wanting to destroy a world that has mistreated him... on his hypothetical worst day plus a lot. But... I can imagine him acting that way... but I can't imagine him taunting me about Eric."

The other possibility is that this is going to invoke Durkula's complete inability to actually learn anything from Durkon's memories except for raw facts. We've seen that he repeatedly "doesn't get it" when two related memories are juxtaposed. Durkula is, after all, a bodiless spirit of pure evil; I don't think he really understands the idea of learning, personality development, character growth, or the life cycle of mortals. Certainly not on any level other than the intellectual level.

Roy's a smart cookie, so it may be that Durkula's behavior here seems so strange to him that he deduces this- that Durkula, despite clearly possessing Durkon's memories, is utterly incompatible with being the person who has learned from Durkon's experiences.

[Crazedwraith]

Also, it could be the dramatic effect or 'lighting', but Roy's visible injuries vanish in that last panel.

He's also completely surrounded in the green sword from his fire. Hmmm, someone/somegod lending magical support on the sly?

[Ralin]

I honestly think it may just be the sheer... malevolence of Durkula's taunting Roy about his brother's death.

Like "okay, I can imagine Durkon becoming bitter and angry and wanting to destroy a world that has mistreated him... on his hypothetical worst day plus a lot. But... I can imagine him acting that way... but I can't imagine him taunting me about Eric."

It's not the malevolence. It's the bit about how he was thinking of horrible stuff like "how many pieces was the kid's body in?" all the way back when Roy first told him about it.

Roy's been around the block. He knows or at least he can understand that something like turning undead can turn someone into a sadistic monster. But Durkula just told Roy that he was always filled with hatred and contempt for Roy. And Roy knows that can't be true.

[Venator]

Also, it could be the dramatic effect or 'lighting', but Roy's visible injuries vanish in that last panel.

He's also completely surrounded in the green sword from his fire. Hmmm, someone/somegod lending magical support on the sly?

Or it's part of the effect of the sword. It could be that the anti-undead effect scales with how ticked off the user is, though I have no idea what kind of effect that would be.

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0434.html -- the flame effect seems bigger when Roy is enraged at Xykon here...
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0442.html -- than when he's just doing routine slices at him here.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0861.html -- he's visibly angry (plus doing a multi-target attack) here.

[Rogue 9]

Does anyone who read the Origin of PCs book have an idea as to what it was the Durkula said that gave him away?

I'm pretty sure it's the culmination of all the things. The evidence has been piling up for nearly a hundred strips at this point; Roy just finally realized he'd been willfully ignorant.

[Lord of the Abyss]

New one up.
Spoiler

So, it wasn't just the art style; something "weird" is actually going on.