Two questions Anons:What is the throne-like thing on top of the temple with a line of people carrying stones supposed to be? A reference to something?What is the petrified wizard(?) with a giant asshole filled with humans supposed to be?
>>94751884>What is the petrified wizard(?) with a giant asshole filled with humans supposed to be?Reference to Hieronymous Boch's paintings
>>94751884Sure glad everyone gets to wear clothes, even with the doll bodies. It would be terrible if hell were PG-13.
>>94751884>lava lamp>Newton's cradle>grillI kinda like this corporate suburban hell. It's funny.
>>94751884Thog.
>>94752045Okay, thats pretty good
>>94751884Which version of D&D are they playing with the giant d20?
>>94752098They're in hell, so it's gotta be 3.x.
>>94752329now thog want rolls
>>94751884It's never been quite clear to me in a setting with planar travel what the exact downsides of being dead are.
>>94752420Nale probably isn't allowed to leave anymore. Apparently he got off easy because he has a demon GF, but he's still a prisoner there for eternity.
>>94752420I imagine that if you get killed while already dead something really bad happens to you
>>94752471Double hell?
>>94752471>>94752477
>>94752477Detroit
>>94751884Boo! Boo at that pun! Shame on this succubus!
>>94752471Isn't it deity-power only revival if they die while just a soul?
>>94752522No! Not Detroit!
Even though this strip is wordswordswords, just this once I really don't mind at all.
>>94752538I'm kind of surprised Tarquin didn't turn Nale into an undead, THEN blow up the body. That tends to fuck up basically all resurrection.
>>94752602Heh, it was a plasma TV...
>>94752602Wouldn't that mean they need a true resurrection spell or is there something else I'm not aware of?
>>94752602It's kind of funny that Tarquin is getting all meta talking about B-list villains here when he was only ever a secondary villain anyway.
>>94752634I believe so. Once you don't have a body it takes some real bullshit. True Resurrection, Wish, and calling in a favor from a god (moreso than 9th level cleric magic already is) is all I can think of. "True ResurrectionConjuration (Healing)Level: Clr 9Casting Time: 10 minutesThis spell functions like raise dead, except that you can resurrect a creature that has been dead for as long as 10 years per caster level. This spell can even bring back creatures whose bodies have been destroyed, provided that you unambiguously identify the deceased in some fashion (reciting the deceased’s time and place of birth or death is the most common method).Upon completion of the spell, the creature is immediately restored to full hit points, vigor, and health, with no loss of level (or Constitution points) or prepared spells.You can revive someone killed by a death effect or someone who has been turned into an undead creature and then destroyed. This spell can also resurrect elementals or outsiders, but it can’t resurrect constructs or undead creatures.Even true resurrection can’t restore to life a creature who has died of old age.Material ComponentA sprinkle of holy water and diamonds worth a total of at least 25,000 gp. "
>>94752645I mean, that's what Nale is talking about in today's strip. They're both melodramatic egoists with no sense of scale for their in-universe importance or their narrative importance, and in both cases that got them discarded from the narrative. Nale only came back when he had character growth, though I imagine the three devils are about to send him to god knows where to do god knows what.
>>94751884Oh yeah, that dude was a character relevant at some point in the past.
>>94752329Lotta cheating, but I still like it.
>>94752420Going by Planescape rules you get dragged into the Blood War and/or your soul slowly gets dissolved into the plane (assuming you don't end up in one of the nicer planes).
>>94752420This is why I like the pathfinder setup, only way to retain your memories/powers is to avoid the boneyard and wash up on the shores of the river of Souls and fight your way through endless daemons becoming one in the process.
>>94752674Hey, he only died 400 strips ago. That's barely a third of the comic.
>>94752329Definitely more poignant. I legendary quality Thog.
>>94752465>Apparently he got off easy because he has a demon GF>get off easy in hellBecause it's a stain on his lawful conduct, or what?Having planar friends they can easily get you out of shit when you're a petitioner but that's just someone buying you as their slave, possibly with a premade deal, rather than the PtB actually going easy on you.>>94752602Giant doesn't know how to play, but the correct way to stop someone from being revived is to not destroy the body and just keep it intact to send it somewhere irrecoverable.
>>94751992there's a naked guy in the first panel.
>>94752420do you think people who die and go to the afterlife are permitted to just leave whenever they feel like it? retard
>>94753712All of the "permanent" forms of death are all countered the same way - level 9 spells.Some combination of true resurrection, wish, freedom, and discern location are sufficient to bring someone back from basically any form of death / incapacitation that doesn't have the "only the direct intervention of a deity" clause.
>>94753954he's wearing red shorts
>>94754154not talking about the impaled people
I realize now that I missed Nale
>>94751884I've always liked Nale and Sabine, so if this is setting them up to come back into the story for the climax, then I'm honestly pretty optimistic
>>94753993>deities>being able to revive the dead if you don't want them toYou don't know the rules either>Anifer wears a cloak whose interior can open into a void dimension. When the remains of a victim are sent to her for utter removal, she allows her cloak to fall over the body and speaks a command word. When the cloak is pulled free, the body is gone forever, beyond even the recall of greater gods.Literally all you have to do is throw the body outside and they can't do shit because True Res etc. need the body if it still existsOotS exists in a universe where permanent portals to the far realm are literally all over the fucking place. Simply casting gentle repose on him and dropping him into the snarl would put him beyond the reach of the combined efforts of every deity in every pantheon in the setting.
>>94752045thog/10
>>94754309>beyond the reach of the combined efforts of every deity in every pantheonthat's actually the one thing that could work, if the purple goblin god wasn't such a retard.
>>94754309>epic rulesgood one.
>>94754309oots has never used any rules
>>94754362>oots doesn't have epic characters or deitiesuh huhI accepted your concession before you ever posted btw
>>94754383Nope, you concede, nice try though.
>>94754362Xykon at least has epic spellcasting.
>>94754309It wouldn't be very dramatic if Tarquin stopped everything to do all that now would it
>>94754464Having a snarlpit to dispose people of permanently into would be just fine, though
upscale.finally we get an update on the real protagonist(alternate title: retcon as reflection)>>94752045perfection
>>94754362>>94754446There's plenty of epic casting (Dorukan had epic-level Cloister, Lirian and Soon both had epic homebrew bullshit, and all three casters in Vaarsuvius's Soul Splice had epic spells, to name some of the most obvious cases.)>>94754370It has never committed to perfectly implementing a fixed ruleset with greater primacy than its storytelling, but it has made many, many references to specific rules and specific editions (mostly in the form of gags, but clearly explicit ones.)
>>94752645I think that was part of the thing with him. He was legitimately genre savvy, but he had a big ego and assumed he was the main villain of the game instead of another boss of the week on the way to the real fight. I'm half expecting the plan Elan made to mostly involve beating him mostly off panel by someone else since that would likely be the biggest thing to get his goat.
>>94752498How come this is funny now when is wasn't back in the day?
>>94752666Nice digits Satan but we know you know
>>94755808Modern writing got worse
>>94755565no rules
>>94755808it was always funny, piss off
>>94751884I liked this one.
We're having a six-month diversion to a permanently dead character.
>>94756262the elan b-plot is honestly one of the more interesting ones in the comic
>>94755808That's the power of archival reading versus following updates.
>>94752645It was explicitly stated to be the root of his arc, anon-kun.
Explain the golden bed to me.
>>94754309>True Res etc. need the body if it still existswhere does it state that?
>>94757880You mean the thing at the end of the line of people? I don't think it's a bed, but rather some kind of press or a partially built throne.>>94757908It says that it works even if the body is destroyed, which I suppose you could interpret as not working if the body exists but isn't available.
>>94751884Not sure if an actual Hieronymus Bosch reference or just a reference to a Berserk reference to garden of earthly delights.
>>94758024>It says that it works even if the body is destroyed, which I suppose you could interpret as not working if the body exists but isn't available.I feel a more natural interpretation would be "doesn't care if the body is destroyed". That's usually what "even if" means.
>>94752645That was literally the point. That was the actual text of the parting words.>>94752602An actual question is why is Sabine even upset. He's essentially just moving in.
>>94758327>An actual question is why is Sabine even upset. He's essentially just moving in.She's always been supportive of his plans and ambitions. Presumably she wants him to continue realising himself rather than be forced to settle down on Satan Avenue 616 and mope forever.Also I sorta doubt this hell honeymoon is a long-term solution. He'll dissolve or something eventually.
>>94755646More than that, I think they're going to actively try changing the genre Tarquin fits under by turning his whole empire into a slapstick comedy-of-errors.An evil empire is one thing, but a corrupt, incompetent empire everyone laughs at constantly? It'd be the ultimate destruction of all of Tarquin's ambitions.
>>94758327Personal feelings aside, he was her ticket back to Prime Material Plane, her chance to make a decent career for herself.
>>94757908Reading the spell explains the spell>Target: Dead creature touchedAlso if you read literally any book in 3e it's very clear that this is the intended reading, including critically the ELH which talks about ways of getting around deities.Bonus deity references:>This ability works like the true resurrection spell [Gift of Life]>This ability works across planar boundaries and penetrates any barrier except a divine shield. However, the subject must be in a location the deity can sense, either within the deity’s sense range or in a location the deity can perceive through its remote sensing ability. [Life and Death]>The ability is otherwise identical with the Life and Death salient divine ability. [Mass Life and Death]>>94758024>you couldIt's unambiguous. There's a proviso for being able to use it without a body but you still need to touch the targeted body otherwise, and it's also clearly how the developers think it works.>>94758191That would be jumping through hoops to try to justify something that's disproved by looking at the spell for even half a second.Also it doesn't justify it at all. It's purely you making text up that exists nowhere in the game. If the developers wanted it to work that way, they would have written that it does. ELH written by the same people on the same design team clearly indicates that moving the body to an inaccessible location prevents even dieties from reviving them, and that NPCs do this in-universe because they know it works (as was quoted).
>>94758473You know what, I could argue with you, but I get a strong sense you are not going to make it a pleasant experience. So have it your way, grognard.
The discussion in this thread confirms what >>94752098 >>94752323 said.
>>94758711It's not like the first strip was literally about the conversion to 3.5 and no subsequent upgrades happened.They even had a fight against their 4E bizzaro counterparts in one of the books...
holy shit thats a pretty brutal hell
>>94758755You missed my point. Maybe this will help.
>>94759058Nah, I just ignored it on purpose
>>94756262>permanently dead
>>94752045>When you know how bad things are
>>94758120It is a Hieronymus Bosch reference. Because the picture composition looks more like the Garden of Delights than your Berserk page.
>>94752465Having a hot demon sugarmommy save you from hell torture is the ultimate fantasy.
>>94759332Nah, she needs a feminine penis.
>>94759833she canonically can do in this case
>>94758356>Also I sorta doubt this hell honeymoon is a long-term solution. He'll dissolve or something eventually.What are 60 years more or less to an immortal demon?
>>94758356>>94763662He won't dissolve. Depending on who you ask, Hell petitioners are either lemures or larvae. The fact that Nale has his body means he's an exceptional petitioner per Deities & Demigods terms.The real problem with it as a long term place to stay is that she's still CE and getting blasted by planar incompatibility with a strongly lawfully aligned plane. She has a headache to the tune of -2 to all charisma, wisdom and intelligence checks at all time.Both thogs are 11/10 btw>>94758755They've made explicit reference to 5e mechanics though.That said, I will once again reiterate that giant does not and never did understand 3e mechanics even slightly at all ever in his life.
>>94751884Normally I just skim these comics but I actually read every single bubbleI think it must be because I'm over the endless mega dungeon crawl that suddenly seeing a new scene got me interested
Huh. Thought we'd be done with Nale after that Disintegrate. I guess this should be enough padding for a few more decades, at least.
are we gonna take a detour to see whats going on with the entirety of the order of whatever the fuck's their name again? and then tarkin's gang too? or does nale specifically have some future bearing on the plot?where is the fucking battle for the final gate already rich, you said there would be a battlewhat the fuck is up with the planet inside the snarlget to the plot already
>>94751884>>94752045>Bosch's empty butt guy>huge d20 torture>lava lamp torture>pendulum balls torturelol
>>94766622Pure guess, but I suspect that Nale will tie into the V's evil pact storyline as an ace in the hole when things go tits up and they use their leverage on V at the worst possible moment. Nale will have a semi-heel turn or use the "only I am allowed to ruin Elan's life" as a fig leaf to help save the day or at least unfuck the situation.
>>94757880That's a throne, you fucking retard
What's the downside of being fucking dead in this universe
>>94766692>whole squad of Sisyphuses>Orwelian future
>>94768841What's a bed but an extralong throne. In the bedroom, rather than the throneroom. Treaties still get signed atop the both of them, if you know what I mean.
>>94768974I'm not sure, can you elaborate
Sex with sabine
>>94768990Is that the answer to this? >>94768914
>>94752329Fantastic.
>>94755808It was never funny. It's just relatable to a certain mindset of "being a gamer.">>94766622A notable number of those characters are dead now. This is probably a segue to talking about the scheming of devils, who still have V's soul wrapped up in a contract.
Good page. I'm not even mad we're wasting time for WORDS WORDS WORDS, Nale and Sabine are way better to spend time with than the they/them eye tyrant.
