Grrl Power #1235 – Battle of the attocentury!
In case you were wondering, one attocentury is 3.1556926 nanoseconds, according to google. I didn’t do the math this time so it’s probably accurate. Not that attocentury is a real term, though how crazy would it have been if it was exactly pi nanoseconds? It’s pretty close. Maybe there was a point where that was the case, like how the moon is very slowly de-orbiting the Earth so it’s orbital period is nanoscopically changing? Maybe before Theia came along and bonked the Earth and formed the moon, an attocentury was pi nanoseconds. You know what that would mean? Literally nothing! Numerology, man! It’s where the crazy people live!
The lesson Sydney should take from this page. Shield up Sydney = Pretty tough. Shield down Sydney = bitchslapped.
Not that Harem is a creampuff of a foe. Sure, she can’t throw a car at you, but she will always outnumber you, I mean unless you can also create duplicates. She isn’t exactly the best fighter on the team, but even so, no one but Math has beaten her during sparring. And that includes Maxima and Hiro and the like, as long as they’re training their fighting skill, and not just relying on the fact that Harem couldn’t hurt then if she came at them with aluminum baseball bats. Obviously if Maxima is using her full speed, she’s basically untouchable, but if she limits herself to human speed, Harem wins. If she goes double speed, Harem has a lot harder time but usually still wins. If Max goes 5x speed, the fact that there’s five Harems doesn’t make up the difference.
The new vote incentive is up! This is a bit of a weird one as it’s a character that hasn’t appeared in the comic.
I’ve started playing some Pathfinder 1e on the occasional Saturday. It does eat into my drawing time, but I kind of don’t leave the house anymore unless it’s for a walk or short errand, so my wife was like “Hey, let’s go to a place and do a thing.” Plus playing D&D/Pathfinder (lets not pretend that Pathfinder isn’t just D&D) has given me an excuse to expand my dice collection again. Honestly I wish we were playing the latest version of Pathfinder, because 1st Edition is… I guess the kids would call it crunchy? Characters have an Armor Class, natch. Okay, they need a “Touch AC” for spells like shocking grasp where the armor isn’t a factor in defense. Sure, that’s fine. Flat Footed? Okay. That’s Armor Class without Dex bonuses. (I think.) Makes sense. But do I need Fortitude, Reflex and Will saves? Isn’t that just Con, Dex and Wis? And CMB and CMD? I still can’t remember what they stand for, and it’s stuff like if I’m trying to trip or grapple someone maybe? It seems needlessly complex.
But still, I’m having fun, even though I have terrible dice karma. I don’t believe in luck or karma or anything like that. It’s all anthropomorphization of causal events and confirmation bias. But that said… I roll so badly that the DM started giving me pity rerolls towards the end of one game because I hadn’t rolled a double digit “to hit” die in like 9 attacks. To see if it really was some kind of weird deviation, I wrote down all my dice rolls for the last game. I’ll break them up for non-combat and combat rolls. This is just the D20’s. My other die rolls like damage seem… better distributed.
Non-Combat Rolls (Init, Saves, Skill Checks, etc.): 8 17 2 9 13 20 18 20 17 (Average of 13.777 )
Combat (to hit) Rolls: 6 15 11 8 3 3 10 20 5 9 2 12 7 16 1 10 18 9 14 6 5 9 12 16 2 18 11 1 4 3 1 4 20 13 3 ( Average 0f 8.777 )
If you add all of those up, the average shifts to 9.577, which for a single game session isn’t exactly bending the law of averages. What makes the attack rolls hurt more is that the non-combat rolls usually have lower targets. Perception checks against DC15 or whatever, or it’s an initiative roll which doesn’t really matter all that much, but the to-hit rolls are almost always against AC’s in the 19-24 range. Everyone always goes into combat with a bunch of bonuses to hit, but usually I still need to roll double digits on the D20 to actually hit anything.
So, I swapped characters early on in the campaign from a Ranger to a monk, because 1) Monks are rad, and 2) I figured if I can get 4 attacks a round with flurry of blows, I might actually hit once per combat turn. So that’s who’s in the vote incentive, my Ifrit monk, Fray. Ifrits don’t really make great monks in Pathfinder, as player characters they get a +2 to Dex and Cha, but -2 to Wis. For monks, Dex is good, Cha is largely irrelevant, but Wis is important as it can add to your AC and also has something to do with Ki points I think. But I didn’t care. I wanted a character with dark blue/gray skin and glowing orange hair, so that’s what I picked. (I don’t think Ifrit even really have dark skin, so maybe she’s 1/4 Drow? Don’t care. I think she looks cool.) Will she show up in the comic? I mean… maybe? Probably in a Dabbler flashback, but who knows?
As usual, Patreon has her in delicto flagrante.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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well sydney is not sure if its Nth tech that is what they are assuming even cora is no sure thats just the general guess or best guess on what the orbs are. So lapha just reached those memories and no way to really confirm it
It does not matter. The rumor will now spread in an uncontrolled manner and that means more bounty hunters that may be less concerned with collateral damage. That and possibly whole organizations or imperia might want to take the orbs even if there is just a chance of them being so valuable.
Yes. Sydney possessed Earth’s greatest secret.
What? Up until now everyone thought that they were Ancient Magical Artifacts??
There is a difference between “mysterious objects of unknown power” and “mysterious objects of precursor tech”
“Supers” are apparently a new thing, and apparently limited to Terrans. As of now, no one knows how Supers actually work, except maybe Deus has some info. So no one would know the difference between a natural-born Super (mutant?) and “created” Supers such as Max (created from some other artifact, most likely from off planet?) and Sydney.
They most likely assumed the orbs were “magical”, created by Sydney herself or someone like Dabbler, to focus Sydney’s natural Super power. The fact they could be Nth tech makes them exponentially more powerful and valuable.
Yes, yes they did. When she first revealed them even the magical experts said they resembled other magical items like elemental stones and such that wizards and gods and whatnot would have floating around them to use. The orbs were mysterious because they had nothing to indicate their origin and it was only by trying to scan them that they became more mysterious as they defied being scanned. Which magically scanning them isn’t something the average person or alien or demon or whatever would do…so assume they are some custom magic balls she has.
In fact it was only because of things like the Aethereum Causeway and their insane power output that the likes of Cora and Dabbler realized they were defying some laws of physics that even magic couldn’t account for that even known 3rd tier tech couldn’t do, so postulated the Nth tech explanation.
but so long as Sidney didn’t show the specific powers in front of the wrong individuals most would just assume, magic orbs.
unless of course, they imprison, mind wipe, or execute the succubus high group. Dabs probably has 8 different memory erasing options at her imeediate disposal
At school I was taught to approximate the year as π·10⁷ seconds. My mnemonic for that is that the year is kinda circular and there are 7 days per week :P
… wow, that’s really only 1.64 days off? That’s actually kind of remarkable.
Has Sydney’s neck always been this long and I only just now noticed?
No it hasn’t, it’s just drawn long here for some reason. Possibly as a subconscious ‘uncanny valley’ effect to make possessed!Sydney even creepier to look at.
Posture… Sydney has very poor posture. Lapha does not.
Actually, yes, Sydney has always had the bobble-head
As do a lot of the other females (check out Abby in panel five specifically)
*powering down* lol
Harem was holding halo when she was based, that means she was based as well.
Nah. Electricity likes to take the shortest path available. You’re not going to be suffering badly if you hold onto somebody being tased, unless you make the mistake of holding them close to where the taser is touching.
Which Harem is conspicuously NOT doing. She’s probably been trained in this.
Plus, the Harems holding Sydney can let go as soon as they start to feel the tingle in their tangle(d minds)
I’m not sure releasing when you feel a tingle works with a taser.
Electricity triggers muscle contractions
Which is part of the reason you don’t pee on an electric fence (the muscular contraction keeps the passage open)
Harem has the advantage of de*VORP*ing
I assure you people have many reasons for not pissing on an electric fence, and the prospect of emptying their bladders is probably the least of them.
Came here to see if anyone made this comment yet. And the “shortest path” thing some people have commented on is actually path of least resistance. And while there are some cool science tricks Tesla came up with manipulating the path of least resistance. Doesn’t change that Harem isn’t set up for a cool science trick.
There’s a reason you tell everyone to “clear” before you set off an AED. It’s a warning to make sure no one is in contact or they get shocked too.
Not even the least resistance: electricity goes through all possible paths, and current will flow inversely proportional to the given path’s resistance. So a path with 10x higher resistance will have 10x lower current. When you touch a well-insulated conductor (like a regular AC cable) some minuscule current will flow through you. (In a very nutshell).
“Sure, she can’t throw a car at you, but she will always outnumber you, I mean unless you can also create duplicates. She isn’t exactly the best fighter on the team, but even so, no one but Math has beaten her during sparring.”
Not just that she will outnumber you, but each of her bodies will also be COORDINATING PERFECTLY with each other. No shouting and listening and trying to figure out what the others are trying to specifically do. They all act with a unified plan instantly updated in thought.
Agreed. And she has the ability to maximize leverage truly absurd ways due to her, ummm, odd anatomy.
After all, there may seem to be 5 bodies to us, but for her they are all just parts of her body, it’s just five sets of everything and can function when very widely separated. (Maximum distance before breaking isn’t actually known, Earths diameter isn’t enough, but being who knows how many light years away, possibly thousands, has done it.)
Actually she clarified it wasn’t the distance, it was because of the time shift there were too many of her at one time.
Fully integrated Harem probably could throw a car at you.
She doubles strength when put together with every body, so she’d only be 16x stronger. If she can bench 200 lbs base, that’s only 3200 lbs. She’s not throwing any cars around.
Depends on the car
CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!
This answers the question in the comments, if Lapha was accessing memories in the background and being clever, or if staying true to what we’ve seen thus far of her character reacting verbally to each and every memory.
of course now the mystery is, can Lapha control an unconscious Sidney’s body.
Will this parkinglot revelation with witnesses, several of whome no doubt have been recording the scene..including news crews likely having shown up and naturally no one other than the immediate group would have heard anything Lapha and Sidney were saying until Lapha shouted this out.
Now the question is will damage control be.
A: Deny it, claim Lapha was lying to try and make a scene to try and escape (a cover story told to news and alien governments)
B: Claim its only what Sidney thinks they are and they don’t have confirmation (mostly true)
C: Like B kind of confess and confess it has been Sidney going to Fracture station, have her apologize for creating a fuss as she was only going there to shop, and that thus far the orbs are only a *singular device* found so its only Sidney zipping about space with an Arthereum Causeway.
Alternatively: “What’s an Nth or a One Beyond, why are they special, and why are all the nonhumans staring at me like that?”
I am also assuming some in the crowd don’t know this term and may think they mean 3rd tier civilization tech….which would still be way above Earth’s paygrade, and presumably everyone else in the Xevoarchy as well given they are described as the glowy ascended ones who like to subtly guide the younger races with idiotic puzzle temples and cryptic riddles about friendship being the real treasure but also this awesome space laser to defeat the hungry shadows.
as opposed to 4th tier and above as Sidney and co mean it, being the *oh shit what is that, the fabric of space time is breaking apart around it and its language alone is causing waves of chaotic shifts in space/time…why didn’t they use an avatar for this..the fabric of reality is peeling and ripping apart by their movements! I AAHHHH!*
Parfait is the real problem here, she will probably tell Tom about this at some point.
I’m actually surprised she didn’t know to be honest. But Tom knowing wouldn’t surprise me, he is allied with Deus and Deus has already expressed the whole Superion field idea and being a Nth creation, but also during that meeting implied he knew/suspected the orbs to also be Nth tech.
So guess either Deus never shared this with Tom, or Tom hasn’t spoken of it in the presence of Parfait.
Parfait is much more into the succubus stuff than Dabbler is, but as a consequence Dabbler has much more depth of knowledge.
I think various other succubi have seen the orbs without noticing that they’re unusual (I suspect the bar owner would have seen them off screen if she didn’t see them on screen) and none of the people on the space station noticed them blocking scans
So it’s likely that very few people run much in the way of scans.
it wasn’t about her being a succubus being the reason she might have heard they are Nth tech and more she is the wife/mistress/concubine of a guy who is allied with the guy who implied he figured out they were Nth tech.
I thought that was clear by how I said it…Deus while talking about the Superion field implied the creators of that quantum field could be the same as the creators of the Orbs by gesturing to them and everyone else looking at them.
Thothogoth has allied with Deus, lending his demonic legions to aid in his military campaigne in exchange for Deus lending him supers as well. So there was a chance part of this deal was an exchange of information.
and by that route Parfait as being with Thothogoth may have heard.
and nothing to do with her being a succubus or scanning them.
Slight correction: Dabbler has a great BREADTH of knowledge. That’s really her whole shtick. She actually doesn’t have a great DEPTH of knowledge in any particular field – or at least not the depth she could have if she focused her prodigious intellect on one thing. Her depth in any given subject is probably still at least on par with human experts, hyper-intelligent folks like Deus notwithstanding.
Actually, she has both, compared to Earth. She is very much multi-disciplinary, very much a genius, and she has all the information resource access of super science and super magic available to her.
So she is very much qualified in BOTH areas for depth and breadth.
What she would be lacking on is Earth-specific tidbits… and she maintains constant internet access to look those things up on demand. Just knowing the words for things in so many languages is going to give her a breadth of knowledge we all would be envious of.
I get why it’s happening but oooooh this makes me wanna see bad things happen to Harem.
Why? For doing her job?
Yeeeaaah, Syd’s type weakness is burst attacks. Normal type humans are only so fast and react so quickly.
I wonder if one of her orbs has a pip that when unlocked corrects for that, seems reasonable for say the flight orb since too slow reaction time with the speeds available could leave you splattered across a mountain or building.
Her flight orb does have slowfall now, not unreasonable to assume it works when she accidentally lets go of the ball in flight as some sort of momentum absorption to stop splatting in exactly that fashion
“You all wanted to strangle me?”
Nahhh!
BUT….YEP!
*CHOKEOUT*
Taser over heart, very dangerous. Like defib of a perfectly working heart.
Where are the mittens?
Dabbler’s hammer of forgetfulness appears in debrief in 3…2…
We just need to perform a quick eye exam. If only things could be contained as easily.
What’s with all the faces around Halo’s head?
They’re Harem’s sleeve tattoo.
It’d be really funny if Sydney or Lapha woke up with little ahegao faces spinning around her head.
Dice: There is a way to test if dice have an internal defect to make them weighted. (I had one that I discovered was weighted to roll 2. Not a good time)
Get a mason jar. And put 3/4 of water in it. Then start adding salt. let the salt dissolve (Using a microwave can help, but caution hot)
Once you have the water/salt enough to float a die, drop in the die in question. Once it is stable and floating, poke it. Make it spin. It’ll quickly show if the die has a tendency to want to go to a certain number.
Clear dice usually have less internal problems, because you can see if there are any flaws.
Clear dice or not immune to being waited. You only have to put in a clear liquid that is different density in a pocket on an edge
I didn’t say “immune” . I just meant that they have less factory problems on the whole because its easier to see any flaws. Because some people want to have as fair a dice set as possible. But this test also works for clear dice too, if you want to test them.
Also, that sounds like intentionally weighting your dice. I have several questions, but first is how do you get the liquid in? Do you inject it? Or are you making dice? Or are you talking in the hypothetical?
Vote Incentive is the Anti-Maxima from the negative universe (or would that be the inverse universe?) and she is here to liberate Sydney because her Sydney done something really dumb like getting caught without the orbs being accessible. Dark skin instead of shiny gold, pointy ears, muscles, ready to do you in. I wonder if she dates more than the regular Maxima…
Nope, if you checked out the Patreon it’s his character from a game he’s playing as an ifrit.
I’m sorry, But I cannot believe Harem is at her cap powet wise.
I see zero reason for her to not be able to train herself to add wah more attarations with the power that involves.
If you think CMB/CMD is complicated you should see the D&D 3e grapple, trip, and disarm rules.
Heh, try and figure out who gets surprised in 1st ed AD&D when people are using different dice for surprise checks…
In Pathfinder 2e, the graple rules are very simple. Make an athletics check (it’s a skill, not just a stat and being trained in it is very important) and if it meets the target’s passive fortitude save (10+their fort save modifier), you have the target grabbed, they can’t move or do any trait with the manipulate trait (which includes many spells). If you exceed that number by 10, you crit-succeed and the target is restrained and can’t do anything but try to escape. Very effective against spellcaster.
Allow me to introduce you to the undisputed KING of DnD min/maxxing. He does BG3 and pathfinder as well!
D4 Dnd deep Dive. Updates most every tuesday.
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Sydney might not be happy about what just happened, but she does know that her orbs are a mega-secret from EVERYONE, mostly aliens. So while she’s not going to be happy with Harem, she does have the common sense to understand why Harem did it. Sydney does have a problem with blurting things out, but not to the level Lapha just did. Like nuke launch codes level, because if it gets the the Galactic Counsel, things are going to get sticky… And messy.
I noticed that the succubus that Parfiat had to “fight” is still being held in that tickle binding spell… She’s going to need a a bottle of water and maybe a weeks rest if she’s still “enjoying” herself for all this time. (Parfait giggles and says “Sooooorrrrrrry!”)
Sydney gets her revenge on Harem by chasing her with the fire orb!!!
Harem ends up getting strip singed……!
Which would be well deserved karma for when she stole Hiro’s shirt.
Hiro should say, “Touch my shirt again and you’ll be peeling spuds until Idaho declares you their new state bird!!!”
I feel like the final panel is an homage to the scene in True Lies where Jamie Lee Curtis gets knocked out on the plane. If it’s not, it should be! ;-)
It would be funny if the next comic just has Sydney waking up free from possession and none of the other characters are ever seen of again and never even mentioned by anyone in authority
Possibly already mentioned but, they had sleepy time juice at the big battle and wristbands to keep it pumping for storage and processing of enemies. Harem was the one injecting said sleepy time juice.
Why is she using a Taser? And I add that she literally is never far away from anything, so even if she did not have it on her, one of her must have it.
Because it’s something everyone who has spent two minutes in Sydney’s vicinity have wanted to do?
Based on Harem’s outfits I really wonder what the other Harems were doing before she teleported them to take down Sydney before Lapha shouted out any more stuff.
Picking outfits to generate questions about when they inevitably have to teleport in to deal with the Sydney situation is my guess.
Berry looks like she was doing yoga (have only seen that kind of pattern/design on yoga pants)
If someone is tasered while touching someone, they both get tasered.
Taser to the boob? Not cool, Harem.
Out of curiosity – would Harem also get shocked from pressing Sydney’s bare skin (her neck) while the stungun is applied?
mmmm… freckles… *happy sigh*
Not seen it said yet here, but a reprisal of this thought.
while the Xevoarchy have a prime directive law about young species having access to tech that isn’t at least close to what they developed, they have no jurisdiction over these orbs as Nth tech, as the Nth would be above them as well. So by their own rules they shouldn’t have access to it either, (of course since when has any government body followed its own rules when it comes to advancing their own tech).
but at the same time it can be argued since their government is made up of a federation of other species that since none of them originated this technology that none of them have any real say in if humans can have it or not. Its like saying group A forbids sharing tech with less advanced people but group B has no such rule and allows it on a case by case basis, but group A comes in and tries to take what group B gave because “its against our rules” even though the less advanced people are not formally in their group either.
So issue…what if group B (being the Nth here) WANT the less advanced people to have this tech and group A would be pushing their luck trying to take it away, or at least consider this possibility, especially if they are made privy about the Superion field and it affecting humans, that the Nth have some sort of plans regarding Earth and butting it may be a bad idea.
“CMB” stands for Combat Maneuver Bonus, and “CMD” stands for Combat Maneuver Defense, and that CMB vs CMD system was created to replace a WORSE mess from D&D 3.5e (which PF1e is a revision of), where each of those maneuvers had their own separate, unique rules that made DMs hate anyone who tried to use one of them because it forced them to look it up because no one could ever remember how that shit worked.
You want to trip someone? Make an unarmed melee touch attack opposed by the target’s Strength or Dexterity check (whichever bonus is higher). Yes, you’re rolling against each other, I hope you know that ties goes to whoever has the higher bonus on the roll, and don’t forget the tripper takes penalties if they’re smaller than the target.
You want to disarm someone? Make opposed attack rolls; the person making the disarm attempt takes a -4 if they’re using a light weapon (including unarmed), or a +4 if they’re using a two-handed weapon. If you succeed and did it unarmed, you can grab the weapon, otherwise it gets dropped in the target’s space. If you fail, your opponent immediately gets an opportunity to disarm YOU.
So PF1e made them all basically just an attack roll. d20 + CMB vs opponent’s CMD. Not the best, but a vast improvement, and one of their biggest design goals was compatibility with 3.5e content (so they could still sell their back catalog of 3.5e adventures), which limited how far they could take their revisions.
Everyone is missing the point that the demons now know they are in deep shit.
Most of them come from rich families, none of them are going to be unfamiliar with blackmail and coercion, and all of them are going to be aware of the value of Nth tech.
They are now intruders on American soil and the planet Earth who know something they shouldn’t know.
I expect Dabbler is going to be excising some memories before sending them home, or these kids are going to be locked up, and they all know it.
I suspect that Dabbler will know of a way to force remove Lapha from Sydney. It has to be possible since we know that Garamm and Lapha were able to force Tenri out of her body. Since Lapha has no access to the power of the balls I don’t see how she could stop them forcing her out.
“how crazy would it have been if it was exactly pi nanoseconds?”
The odd part would not have been that it is PI in nanoseconds.
But that it was pi in nanoSECONDS.
Given that seconds are a arbitrary unit of time, derived from a approximation of the orbital period over a year long cycle.
is this a new harem #6, or is it the one who usually has short curly hair and glasses?
Yes, that is Abby
Assuming you mean the one with white hair, that’s co-ed Harem, yes. She’s been gradually growing her hair out over the course of the last few story segments, and Dave mentioned awhile back that Harem was in practice of changing the theming of her bodies every now and then. Pretty sure it was in the commentary from when Harem first visited the comic shop as a “hey, you’re late to work!” thing.
I’m honestly surprised more people haven’t tried to shut Sydney up before.
So, this is mostly off-topic because it’s about the vote incentive rather than the comic page itself (but I really like PF1e and couldn’t resist talking about it), but if you care enough and your GM is open to a bit of a respec, there are some monk archetypes that make the class charisma based rather than wisdom based, with scaled fist (https://aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Monk%20Scaled%20Fist) being the less niche one.
Sadly Scaled Fist is not compatible with Champion of Irori…
I have some wild mass speculation.
The rest of the galaxy doesn’t have superpowered individuals. That’s an earth-only thing and nobody knows how it works.
The rest of the galaxy also doesn’t have working examples of nth tech. That’s another earth-only thing and nobody knows how it works.
So now the galaxy has a big juicy mystery (what are superpowers, how do they work) and a big juicy solution in terms that their mystery buffs and conspiracy theorists will go nuts about (where are the nth, what are they up to, what is nth tech, what can it do) and it’s absolutely inevitable that, at least in widespread speculation among the most unhinged sections of galactic society, nth tech will BE THE EXPLANATION of why superpowers emerged on Earth.
With follow-on hijinks ranging from deep-cover spying, to attempted looting by treasure hunters, to ENORMOUS amounts of unhinged speculation and becoming a tourist attraction, to whatever messed-up analogue they have to the ‘Naruto Run’ on Area 51.
And here’s the thing. They might not be wrong.
Your wild mass speculation predicts wild mass speculation.
That’s either meta or zen. Possibly both.
Or maybe just recursive.
Isn’t Harem also electrocuting herself now?
Tat*Harem spends six hours every Saturday tazing herself to build up resistance specifically so she can pull this stunt.
Also, author has probably never held a taser.