Grrl Power #480 – No relation to Captain Caveman
So if I recall, the passage I misread which inspired the idea for Elsbeth was something like the character opens her spellbook and pulls something out of it. It turned out to be something you could reasonable expect to keep in a book though, like a bookmark or a warrant or something, but my mind went to, well, what you see on the page here.
Actually my initial idea for Ellie was that she could pull basically anything out of her book, assuming that at least 2 dimensions of it fit within one of those pages. Then as I was writing the page I realized I needed to limit that ability slightly, cause what would keep her from pulling out the Wand of Orcus or some other game ender right away? Or, I don’t know, all the individual parts she needs to build a nuke or whatever. So she does have some significant limitations, or rather, the book does. I’ll get into those as she continues to appear in the comic. Regardless, she’s pretty handy to have around. The one thing I’ll say is that it does have to be a real thing that actually exists, but in a world of superheroes, magic, aliens, demons and epimeliads, that’s not much of a limitation.
I don’t know why I gave her multiple braids, but I guess they’re not so hard to draw. Maybe Sydney will have a french braid in the next arc.
Also, as I was drawing this page it occurred to me that there’s virtually no chance that Gault wouldn’t be walking around without some basic adventurer gear on him, including a mana potion or two of his own, but I guess he was busy preparing the report on the situation with the Sigils and left his mage overcoat in his other magic closet portal or however he got here.
Be sure to check out Wearing the Cape: Team-Ups & Crossovers. Sydney’s first Crossover! I’ve made a dedicated blog post for it, please comment there.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Thinking about it, isn’t now the perfect time for someone to score a point or two?
She is still in a collapsed tunnel, digging herself out, maybe rebuilding the tunnel.
That is to say, she is not saying much right now, except maybe some grunts and comments about stupid rocks.
And turning the air blue (she has to have picked up a few things from Sydney over the last couple days… )
She was in the military. I’m pretty sure she could embarrass Sidney with her swearing if she needed to.
Let’s be honest here. Sydney would make an awesome drill instructor, just because of her inventive swearing.
I beg to differ. If you’re going to be a good drill instructor you need to be able to target and adapt your swearing to match the situation. It’s not just inventive swearing, you need to WEAPONISE it!
Just a thought, wouldn’t it be hilarious if “Targeted Super Swearing” was the function of one of the unknown orbs? Arianna’s reaction alone would be worth it.
In the Dragon Lance series of books, there’s the Kender’s ability to fluster an opponent by Taunting.
It seems to be a reoccurring trope. The monkey island games used it in the first and third game (wordplay not swordplay would decide a duel), in OOTS both Julio & Elan have the “Dashing Swordsman” prestige class which allows them to substitute their charisma for strength during combat if they make an appropriate pun or wordplay), and in a more than somewhat NSFW anthropomorphic comic a friend of mine wrote for about 30 years ago female soldiers posing while wearing skin tight uniforms and carrying overly large weapons would cause opposing soldiers to feel sexually inadequate and flee the battlefield in shame and frustration (I don’t remember the published title for this short series, but the working title was “Lesbian foxes in hovertanks”, you have been warned).
Tank Vixens
Dude, I LOVED Tank Vixens!
No need for taunting. Just seeing a Kender is enough for most people who knows anything about them.
I see a Kender, I get…inventive. Metal tubing, several horns of blasting, a cone, and one stuffed Kender in the middle…Activate horns, off you go. No more Kender. OR…the oldest trick in the book. A box, a spring, a rod of cancellation, a stasis spell, and a sphere of annihilation. Mount button and spring, close box, give to the kender and tell ’em not to push the button. And then RUN LIKE HELL.
Sydney made a pair of sailors blush
Speaking as a former sailor… bwahaha…
She wouldn’t have made me blush and I was a sailor. (Airdale)
Nah, if only because Sydney doesn’t seem to be the type to be embarrassed by swearing.
I still don’t know how they haven’t gotten her to say thrust or penetration, those are both standard terms when discussing combat, and should thus be easy to work into conversation naturally.
Explainable by Maxima’s prudish nature. There are alternative words available and I imagine she would routinely use those. Otherwise they would not have been put on the bingo card, in the first place. In fact doing so, in a planning session, when others were using the words she was not comfortable with, may even have been what inspired the competition in the fist place!
Few things I’ve realized…
Unless there was an off panel discussion, or its just her habit…. then the book girl can recognize mana amounts at a glance through some sorta special vision. If so, I wonder how long until Syd gets to unlock a status screen scan.
On sydney…
Well the orbs are apparently not magic huh? As the golems didn’t absorb her shield, nor her whip. and unless Dabbler had the unluck of fighting the specific and only one that has a magic breaking poker, they didn’t try break Syd’s shield either..
I can’t remember what Dabbler said way long ago when they were looking at them, so she might have already noted they weren’t magic.. but i thought they just weren’t sure if it was magic or not and coudln’t actually get a read on it properly..
Well in anycase. I’m voting magitech. just enough of each source that it can’t be broken by either breaker.
They are completely undetectable to any of dabblers scans, even the ones for visible light came up negative, despite the fact that they can SEE them glowing.
So either they are not magic, or they are far beyond Dabblers abilities. (At this point the golems failing to do anything proves nothing, the orbs could easily just counter any attempts to drain them).
Halo’s orbs officially fall under the catagory of ‘weird shit’. They aren’t ‘there’, so my theory is they’re simply conduits to something else. Wormholes that tap into the Power Cosmic.
They are made out of macguffin-ite.
They might be Tardis like inside… https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2139
It’s also possible that they are magic, but beyond the ability of the mannies to drain them. If someone can come up with a drain magic ability, why not an anti-drain magic ability? Or maybe they can only drain magic from certain things (e.g., sentient creatures).
It could be that Sydney is an extremely powerful telepath and projecting her nerdy delusions upon the rest of the group.
Nah, she’d be dead from UV by now if that were the case.
Or she just listened to what her mentor said about the golem draining his mana. Or the visual effects of the drain clearly identified it. Or the symptoms of mana fatigue are easily identifiable.
I seem to recall that the backlash from the mana drain was.. dramatic in several ways. Could be all of the above. :D
I am guessing that you think Elsbeth was not in the room, when Gault was drained. However I think she, along with Pixel and Mysterious New Character #2 have been in here all the time.* As such she would have seen it happening, just the same as we did. Along with his self-explanatory dialogue.
Of course it could go the other way, and she may have just come in with Gwen, but then we would need to explain why she realised that Gault was drained. Possibly the physical indications are obvious to any trained mage? Equally mages have to manipulate mana and are probably well attuned to it. As such, a soon as she got close enough to render aid, she would have felt the absence of any mana.
Or, alternatively, she may simply have used the book as a diagnostic tool. You will note that it is on the ‘mana’ definition page. One of the example uses, of the word may be “Gault has no mana” (always picking the nearest mage, other than the reader, and dynamically updating their current level).
* It looks like Gwen was the only one bursting in Elsbeth is clearly either a junior mage delegate or otherwise one of Gault’s subordinates, so probably came in at the same time as him, and has just been mingling.
My initial reading of “bursts into the room” was that it was referring to all four of them, but I suppose an argument could be made either way.
As for Elsbeth, another couple of possibilities are: a) she recognizes that a battle is taking/has taken place and that means it’s possible that Gault might need mana replenishment and/or b) there may be physical, non-verbal cues that indicate a mage is low on mana, such as acting tired, shoulders slumped, etc.
On B, Gault is seen slumped on the floor with no visible injuries the pannel after the bursting in. I think her diagnosis was justified.
Now that you mention it, Elsbeth is seen helping him up. So even if he hadn’t told her, your explanation is highly likely.
I also just noticed that the peanut gallery had emptied. Looks like the Council finally decided on what action to take.
Dang! Not quite 24 hours since the comic update & we’re already onto the fourth page of comments. DaveB, what kind of a monster have you created?
A really Popular one!!?… even though we HAVE fallen to 4TH place on TWC.
Yeah, people tend to forget to vote every day, not just when a new invotive goes up (and that’s less than once a week)
DaveB blinded me with Grrl Power (Grrl Power),
It’s poetry in 2D….
Okay, why im thinking now that hole for assault rifle have a shape of the dick?
Because everyone you know has a giant balls and a tiny dick?
Plus, it’s been mentioned about every fifth post since page one of these comments
This feels like a silly quibble, but does anyone feel like that thing is a combat shotgun not an assult rifle?
You do get ridiculously oversized magazines like that for assault rifiles but they are more common on SAW/LMG’s, That’s either a Colt Automatic Rifle (a SAW version of the M16) or a M27, or a cool looking mishmash of the various ligher SAW’s.
Just looks like a SCAR with a drum magazine. Rifle without said magazine pictured here: https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/inception/images/d/d8/FN_SCAR-L_(Standard).jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150505040614
I stand corrected, you have a good eye for these thinhs
I would think it much more likely that you sit corrected. At least in my case, I’ve found that position much more comfortable for reading the comic and responding to comments =OP
Look up FN SCAR H with Dual Drum Mag.
“Look up FN SCAR H with Dual Drum Mag.”
That’s what I thought it looked like… Couldn’t find that combination anywhere, but it does look like there may be conversion kits available. Definitely looks like the SCAR-H with that distinctive stock and trigger module.
clicky
I’m hardly an expert, but that gun keeps showing up in video games I like to play. :)
I’d go with the Scar with normal magazines, and a 40 mm grenade launcher loaded with Beehive (turns the grenade launcher into a 2 inch dia. shotgun).
How about indirectly then? Maybe Elsbeth only needs to pin down the no-gooder with her big gun until Master Gault is back on his feet? Once Mage Guy has his magic working again, he can conjure up a barrage of anvils in the air above it’s head and Wile E. Coyote it to death!
That’s why she is pulling out her big gun: may have been created (or summoned) via magic, but the attack won’t be directly magic-based
Yes, I know, but big guns have a tendency to result in things labelled “Friendly Fire Incidents” and “Collateral Damage.” Falling anvils can have the same problems of course, but seem much more likely to result in things labelled “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies.” ☺
how about a “portable hole” right under it?
see how good a manquin can fly?
A good technique if they have one. Should the book be able to create such, on demand, it is phenomenally powerful (unless other limitations balance it somehow).
If any one is interested in the power to pull things from books like that there is a book series called Libromancer. The series main chatacter is basicly her just he can pull things from any book
I keep thinking of inkheart, but then, that’s something I’ve actually encountered before. also reminds me of my own daydream, but I can connect almost anything to my own daydreaming.
Libriomancer
What I was going to say. Limited by the wielder’s ability, and the fact that you need the actual book containing the object you need, among other things. Jim Hines comes up with some pretty logical, reasonable limitations to the power. I love the protagonist’s cheat for getting into a forbidden book by pulling out of The Beast’s Library.
Also, I love Kat and Clover.
Can I have this book please
Sorry for the long link but thats the book, on amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0756408172/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480698511&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=libromancer&dpPl=1&dpID=51Wzxpl5uHL&ref=plSrch
And the link for the same books on Google Play Store
https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=Jim+C.+Hines&hl=en
Google Play Store is not available in this country. Cause it is really poor and they are greedy.
You’d need a different book for Dabbler to use. She’s a Libidomancer.
Actually, you can stop earlier for an Amazon link:
https://smile.amazon.com/Libriomancer-Magic-Libris-Book-One/dp/0756408172/
Of course the best way to shop on Amazon is going in via Grrl Power, using the button on the panel at the side or bottom of the comic (the one with Halo asking us to support the comic). Or clicking on this link. Whilst that defaults to the US version, you can select other countries, by using the options at the bottom of the linked page.
Doing your festive Amazon shopping this way will give Grrl Power a modest commission, at no extra charge to yourself.
*(looks)*
Oh, you only mean ‘Libriomancer’: I was hoping that you meant the book that Elsebeth has…
:(
Take a look its in a book. Reading Rambo
My fave comment on this page!
I would think that Reading Rambo would be more like, “Take a load, I’ll make it explode”. (Ok, that’s the only rhyme I could think of on short notice).
I’m assuming you have the worst “spell checker/corrector” ever….
For those still asking about the rifle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7fB2-S7sC0
The Assault Rifle hole is rather phallic……because those “balls” at the sides are for sticking your hand in and the top bit is where the scope comes out of.
They’re not for hands, they’re for ammo storage. You can see the ammo drums in the last panel (they blend with mage dude’s pants).
“Mage Dude” has a name now
That would have required scrolling up. And I’m lazy.
Don’t worry about it. He’s only try to give you a Gault trip. =OP
Gah… He’s only trying….
At least hi first name isn’t John. Because then the world would have shuddered as ‘Atlas Shrugged’.
You know, everyone keeps saying that the rifle is a SCAR H. It could just as easily be a SCAR L, which would be a better choice considering that they are in a building in the city, and a 7.62 round might just punch through the walls and cause damage to the civilian population. The real difference between the two of them is the caliber and the upper receiver which can easily be changed out.
I compared this drawing against real weapon photos, and calculated the relative width of magazine well vs. the length of grip and trigger guard.
https://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/FN_SCAR_rifle.jpg
According to image-based measurement, Elisabeth has a 5.56x45mm SCAR-L.
I’m having a hard time with the proportions but your probably right, the SCAR-L would be more practical.
First thing I thought of when I saw Elsbeth pulling that gun out of her book was Doraemon’s 4D pocket!
I’m absolutely stealing the idea of that book for one of the RPGs I run. There’s a library in it that borrows shamelessly from, well, every fantasy library I’ve ever seen — the one in Wapsi Square, L-Space, Wan Shi Tong’s Spirit Library, Borges’ Library of Babel. And, now, Grrl Power.
May I suggest a librarian for your library?
Oh, he’s around. The one they’ve run into a couple of times now is a variant on Phix, from Wapsi Square. Phix in a bad mood
She’s a sphinx, and (when they’ve seen her) the size of a small bus.
Or you could borrow a librarian from Discord Multiverse
Multiple librarians, even! And have them battle it out to see who gets to be the head librarian!
Wouldn’t the one who can eat them be the favourite to win? o_O
Why have a librarian in the library, when the librarian can BE the library.
https://www.missmab.com/DLoads/DMFA_Wallpaper28_1600.jpg
(From: https://www.missmab.com/dload.php )
Have you read a fairly recent fantasy novel by the title of ‘The Invisible Library’, and its sequel ‘City of Masks’?
Someone has probably mentioned this already, but Syd is losing air in her bubble, right? I can’t tell if she’s out of breath because she’s exerting herself, or excited, or using up her air and so excited she hasn’t noticed she having trouble breathing…
DaveB said she was nerdgasming, but also believe that that is leading to her air running out faster, so a bit of both
It’s been speculated before and, with the speed at which this is all happening, her increased oxygen usage still won’t cause trouble for a while.
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention this, but there’s a series of books, the first titled “Libriomancer”, where the main character has the ability to reach into a book and draw out objects from within. They’re just this side of trashy, but it’s actually a pretty cool premise, and they’re reasonably well written.
No, I lie, someone just above me mentioned it.
Read the Libromancer books by Jim C Hines. Very similar in concept.
Replying to creators post, actually the book may be that powerful but she is still in training there for give her 20 or so years and she might be able to do it
One thing I was wondering about, that I don’t think has been mentioned yet, is why so many bottles? Why does rhe book not simply provide just one bottle of potion…I mean, one Mana potion, then one antidote potion?
Just imagining all the other types of potions she might come up with in that book. It’s pretty cool.
Perhaps Elsbeth is able to let the book know what she needs, but for some reason not how much? Or maybe she just forgot to specify how much she needed when asking for it? Or perhaps she asked it to provide a few extra just in case they were needed?
If any of my guesses were accurate though, wouldn’t that mean there was likely another assault rifle behind the one she’s currently pulling out?
Obviously anything she pulls out of the book has to be small enough in at least two dimensions to fit. That SCAR probably barely fits, whereas several mana potions or antidotes can fit on a single page (possibly more, if they were all vials instead of two vials and two flasks… my assumption is that the flasks restore mana more efficiently than the vials.)
I could be wrong, in which case Ignoble’s suggestion that maybe she asked it to provide a few extra in case they were needed, seems like the most plausible explanation.
It’s possible it provides enough of what is asked to fill the page; just be glad that, instead of providing one big giant potion, it provides several varying sizes
My guess is that the Book only contains nouns that are physical objects that are somehow put into the book at some point. A book of *holding* not *conjuring*, It contains several potions because several potions were put into it at some point.
In fact, I am going to guess that the book’s actual function is “identify item”, and the “store item, while negating it’s weight and physical dimensions” function is a side aspect.
So if you want the book to contain a nuke, you have to put one into it at some point.
Another possibility: providing multiples would also cut down on the amount of time to acquire them (and wear and tear on the dictionary) if that’s what she needed.
I’m assuming there might be some limit to how many things she can have out at once or that theres some sort of a learning curve to bringing out items shes never pulled out before.
Perhaps items only last while their page is open.
Poor Kat! Didn’t even get to take a sip of the vital antidote!! :(
Am I the only person getting shades of Season Two of “Darker than Black” and “Revolutionary Girl Utena”
with a twist? Regarding Elspeth, I mean?
No? Just me? Alrighty then…
I wonder how many different variants of this power we could come up with (the power being “Pull something useful out of effectively thin air”).
Potterverse: Hermoine’s bag, the Sorting Hat, etc.
Any anime with angry girl (hammer space)
wouldn’t a semi-automatic shotgun be better to take out considering she is fighting automatons?
Depends in her aim, she may only need one shot to explode the head of the absent SWATaton (or wherever Clover found the sword-fragment)
This, why the AA-12 isn’t more popular: friendly fire!
okay the hole in that book when the assult rifle comes out is dabbler approved
Nah, Dabbles prefers men who don’t have teeny tiny two-inch dicks
Mages using guns!? What next? Fighters casting spells? Dragons casting heals? Baseball?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D07AgDm4Vmk
Bah, if want sexy RPGs, true sexy RPGs, will stick to Nutuku.com
*groan* UBOS, Ultimate Book Of Spells, a cartoon series. That’s what this book reminds me of but this book doesn’t talk.
That we know of…
I hope she can summon an infinite number of ping pong balls from that thing.
I do like the trope-busting in this episode. The helpless bunny-girl was not rescued by a bloke. Plus ‘the black guy is the first to die‘ didn’t happen.
That is a load of monkey-farting corn-dipping bullshit!!
No, it’s the teenage lovers who die first, the black guy dies second to save the show from cries of “racism!”.
If you really want to invite trouble, be a black teenaged lover wearing a red shirt.
I don’t know how DaveB decides on names for his characters, but the name Elsbeth struck a chord with me for some reason. It was as if I’d heard of someone with that name before. Well, as a matter of fact I hadn’t ☺, but I did at least know of someone with a similar name.
The person I was thinking of was Elspet Gray, the late British actress. Evidently, I’ve seen the first season of Blackadder often enough by now that I’ve memorized the actors names without meaning to.
Spatial Manipulation magic. Nice! Now the question lies in whether or not that magic follows the conservation of mass rule.
Bear in mind, without time at the range, a working knowledge of the weapon, and at least some basic gun safety education, she’s likely to be more dangerous to the people around her than the man-killerkins are.
In a life-or-death situation, where Elsbeth had her choice of a dictionary full of options, it is fair to assume that she chose one that she is mildly competent at. Whilst it may not be her best skill, given that she has been restricted from using direct-attack magic (which clearly Gault knows she has), there are other ways of using magic indirectly, which she could have opted for, if she was not confident of her gunwomanship.
How do we know she doesn’t have a Markswoman badge? Because she’s a mage?
One thing to keep in mind when choosing your weapon is the possibility of ‘bouncers,’ which could end up wounding/killing people on your side. (Having read John Ringo’s zombie books I’ve seen how overpowered rounds could be a problem.)
i’m guessing that the book of holding has to be chained down to keep it from wandering about and causing mischief
So you are getting a kind of ‘luggage from Diskworld’ kind of vibe, but not being quite so easy going? Maybe that explains how things get into the dictionary, in the first place…
It eats them!
An I the only one who loves the fact that the square antidote vial with the bendy straw is like an emergency juice box?
Hmm Maybe Make It Where She Cant Pull “Anything” Out Of The Book But Make It Where Its Like A Bag Of Holding? Like These Are Objects That She Has Stocked up Over Time, More Of A Plan Ahead Type Thing. Idk Just Some Thoughts
That title seems kind of long and I’m not used to seeing titles with periods and question marks in the middle. However, it is an intriguing name and at least a title that long lets you know what the story’s about.
However, searching on Google I can’t seem to find a link to that anywhere. Where can I find that story? Or maybe it goes by an abbreviated name like “Make It Where Its Like A Bag Of Holding?” But I couldn’t find that on Google either. Can you provide more information?
Bottom line, middle panel: Nice try, DaveB!
but I saw the penis…
Have you perchance ever read the “Libriomancer” series. that is basically entirely about people who can pull things out of books
Are there subtypes of bibliothaumaturgy? Like, is she a dictionarithaumaturge, or still called a bibliothaumaturge?
What else can the book summon? Can it summon food? Is there a size limit?
Love the book!