Grrl Power #1240 – Puzzle a possessor
Welp, Sydney’s mind has gotten bored with the situation. Really, that’s no surprise, seeing as how they stuck her in a light beige room. Would it kill them to maybe print a nice landscape on the canvas? Sure, if someone is having a proper looney-tunes freakout, you probably want to minimize their stimulation. It would be foolish to stick someone having hallucinations in a room where one wall is a 10×10 foot print of van Gogh’s self portrait, another wall is a high-res picture of a nebula, another is a silhouetted forest, another is a giant M.C. Escher, the floor is a print of a photo taken of the ground from the top of the Eiffel tower, and the ceiling is one huge eye. That would not be therapeutic.
By the way, anyone think it’s weird that it’s “Looney Tunes” and not “Looney Toons?” They were cartoons not a band. So why was it “Tiny Toons” and not “Tiny Tunes?”
Anyway. In Sydney’s head, and mine too, admittedly, there’s a sort of height hierarchy, where races are clumped together based on size category. The problem is it kind of breaks down beyond a few examples unless you really go digging around in extensive monster manuals. Halfling to human to giant is an easy matchup, but what comes next in the Kobold to Lizardman chain? Are there 9 foot tall mostly anthropomorphized dragons out there? Probably, but you probably have to look in Monster Manual 8 to find them. And then there’s the problem of gnomes and dwarves. Why is is halfling to human and not dwarf or gnome to human? Or maybe it goes halfling -> human -> hill giant, and dwarf -> human – > stone giant? It could be a multi-dimensional chart.
Or it could just be that some races are shorter than others, and myself and Sydney have spent entirely too much time thinking about it.
For the record I hugely prefer the mini-lizardman version of kobolds. They’re so cute.
(Not my art, clearly. First pic is by Sorc at FurAffinity, who seems to like lizard Kobolds more than me. Second one is Nisnow from reddit.)
It amuses me that if you look up hobgoblin on the DnD Wiki, each edition of the game has them becoming better and better looking. Like the first edition one looks like some Mongolian Oni, and evolves through different stages of demon gorilla until the 5th edition where they look like cool, red lion men. Baldur’s Gate 3 has pretty amazing artwork and 3D design, but the first time I met a hobgoblin in that game, I was like, why isn’t this handsome race available for character creation? They look like Bruce Campbell with a slightly shorter, wider, downward pointing nose. I wanna play as one of those! Or I would if I hadn’t been playing a badass looking gold fucking dragon guy. Though I will say, as cool as he looked, the player avatar’s primary function is being surprised in the reverse angle shot when a big monster is revealing itself in a dialog/cut scene, so my awesome dragon guy was like (;ʘöʘ) half the time I was looking at him.
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.
It’s my Ifrit Pathfinder 1e 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.
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Wow, I was surpriesed that there was only one hit for Tolkien up to now. I mean, I get that Sydney’s almost certainly going of D&D which is more particular, but the grandfather of modern fantasy (fantasy written in modern times, not set in modern times), pretty much went with an old English/Germanic concept- goblins are all sizes and, generally, trace back to humans who deformed. So orcs one of many goblins, and if you think of Uruk-hai as true orcs, in which case they’re comparatively Johnny Come Lately’s, depending on which of the contradictory origins you go by.
I’d like to standby Sydney on the Kobold as the Halfings of Lizardmen, but my vague memory is they’re completely separate offshoots of dragonling type peoples from old time. Or Lizardmen aren’t even that. Either why, not capable of mixing with each other like Halfings may be with humands.
Last note, most adorable Xuriel/Dabbler panel as, mana deprived (ie sickish), she just wants to keep her chile that makes her feel better.
Actually, Tolkien Orcs are a bad copy of Elves. And the Uruk-Hai are an improved version of regular Orcs.
More specifically, the Orcs as a species came from captured and tortured elves. Like they’re the children of corrupted elves or the corrupted elves themselves. A running theme in Tolkien’s work is that evil is unable to create. Evil can only steal and change.
I’m not a Tolkien afficianado, but didn’t Sauron CREATE the one ring?
Not really. The one ring was basically a physical manifestation of his power and essence. For a spirit like being like him, that basically just changing his own shape, not creating something new.
It’s just in the movie, they kept referring to Sauron forging the rings, and forging generally means creating something.
“It began with the forging of the great rings.”
and
“In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret a master ring, to control all others.”
I’m not sure what the good guys would be creating that could be considered ‘creation’ if that wasn’t considered ‘creating’ something also.
PS – to be fair I also didn’t realize Sauron is a spirit being. I thought he was like Gandalf or whatever race wizards are.
He is actually, but both he and Gandalf (and all the other Wizards) are both maiar, which are basically angels in the cosmology.
That’s not right…
Mine’s a tale that can’t be told, my freedom I hold dear
How years ago in days of old, when magic filled the air
‘Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her
I’m just quoting the beginning of the movie, not the book. Never read the book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4xV2RIlMi4
At 0:38 and at 1:15
Gandalf is a spirit being as well (same “race” as the Balrog and Sauron).
They’re basically angels.
I constantly learn new things for my nerd knowledge here :) (and I say that with PRIDE).
Thank you too all who explained.
Yes but that’s not a creature or anything it’s just shaped metal with some of his essence in it, very different from creation of a race of beings that breed true and he didn’t create the metal he used he just corrupted it to contain his essence.
Actually, you are quite close, only Eru Iluvitar can create free willed life, evil like Sauron or Morgoth can only corrupt it.
Maybe Sydney needs to be off medication for a while, for the possessor to want to get out…..
It’s Looney Tunes because a lot of the original cartoons were musical numbers. Silly Symphonies was the competing Disney model. *cues up Powerhouse*
Originally cartoons were shorts that were shown before the feature at drive ins. They were literally “car tunes”, they didn’t evolve into the Saturday morning collection of shorts that they are now until much later.
That is not correct car tunes may have been made because it sounded like cartoon but cartoon did not come from “car tune” and animation existed long before then. In fact I cannot find much in reference to car tune other than people modifying cartoon to stand out as their own brand to be silly rather than anything official. Heres the history of animation if interested: https://www.britannica.com/art/animation
That’s some creative folk etymology here.
Serious linguists agree that it comes from French “carton” and/or Italian “cartone”, which is cardboard. In the art domain, a cartoon was originally a sketch, the piece you made quickly to try to work out how the finished art should look like. It started to mean a type of art (specifically, humorous drawings) with the British “Punch” magazine in 1843 when they started publishing “Punch’s Cartoons”. There weren’t all that many drive-in theater in 19th century Britain, so the “car tunes” theory falls short.
Ray Scott for the win!!
Disney started Silly Symphonies in 1929, Warner Bros came out with the competing Looney Tunes in 1930. To quote Wikipedia, ” the Silly Symphonies were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces of music”.
WB had more than one division of cartoons…there was also Merrie Melodies, which was more focused on musical numbers. Also, Merrie Melodies were in color while Looney Tunes were in black and white at first, until they all went to color in the 40s.
What I find rather surprising is that most people don’t realize that Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies have different music (at least during the period where most of the classics were made, 1937-1964). Looney Tunes used “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” (famously sung in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”), and Merrie Melodies used “Merrily We Roll Along” (which the WB used as the logo music from 1994 to 2003).
You have an excellent idea. Sydney will just drive them out of her skull with mental bombardment with her un-medicated brain storms.
Try a 3 stooges marathon
If she did that to me, would never leave
a mashup of 3 Stooges and Monty Python, with every character played by Gungans and Klingons
You are still saying things to get me to set up permanent residence
My homebrew game workd has the greenskin races all the same species, they just keep growing. Goblins become orcs become trolls become ogres become giants. It’s not strictly age based, availability of food (especially protein) is a big factor in determining if they “level up”. The trick being, they’re able to reproduce at any phase, so the goblins are as much “adults” as the ogres.
That’s very cool!
You could do something similar with the humanskin races (if you will forgive me the anthropocentrism), where specific diets and other environmental factors like exercise regimes lead to different phenotypes with different stats. Underfed? Halfing. Which is why they enjoy food so much. Eat lots of mushroom and cave fish (i.e. lots of protein and fat but very few carbs) and work out a lot? Dwarf. If you got a dwarf diet but not a lot of hard labour you get a tall dwarf. Lots of leafy greens and fruit? Elf. Lots of everything? non-green giant.
Sounds very Reincarnated as a Slime, I like it.
“Except you’re not an *urgent* problem. We can make you both sit there and there’s nothing either of you can do about it.”
Wonder how long it’ll take for her to leave Sydney now that you’ve got the Mega nerd, “Closet nerd” and the magical nerd all talking DnD stuff lol.
Still the solution to the problem is in Dablers hands.
She just needs to present Sydney with the spiciest stuff she knows with the best after burn effects.
Lapha will be begging to jump from Sydney before the end of the day.
The chili ploy is just plain *nasty*….. And brilliant…
Lapha has no idea what’s in store for her..
Reading the comments, I can’t see it mentionned, but…. What is up with Maxima ear in the 5th panel? Something that wasn’t there in the 3rd panel appeared. Is it a magic thing, or just a drawing spot-thingy?
Yes, came here for that too. And if it’s *not* something in her ear, what’s the arrow pointing at her ear for?
It indicates that she tilted her head in that direction, not her ear.
They’re motion lines.
She turned her head in panel four to loom at Dabbles (as indicated by the blue arrow) and she turned back in panel five (also indicated by the smaller blue arrow)
> Are there 9 foot tall mostly anthropomorphized dragons out there?
Isn’t that just the dragonborn race in DND 5e?
Or you could include the Sivak Draconians from Dragonlance (Literally 9ft)
So wait…a lot of people keep mentioning that they should put Lapha to the test via Sydney’s spice tolerance, but thinking about that made me wonder… Is this restraining method intended to be long-term? Because it seems to me that Sydney would have to be fed (and watered) by someone since her hands have to be restrained like this…and don’t even get me started on the difficulties of allowing her to have bathroom breaks. Even if they take a lesson from old fashioned combinations and have a significant enough split in that jumpsuit to prevent the need for disrobing, there are still some privacy issues. While these issues are potentially less of a consideration when dealing with an “evil Sydney” (I’m not familiar with the ethics of monitoring those imprisoned in ostensibly private situations, but I can imagine the excuses that would be used to allow it), they are definitively unfair and problematic when dealing with “good but hostage host Sydney.”
It’s both short and long term. Putting the orbs in a Sydney proof box is the long term solution… but no one thinks it will come to that. Max and D have multiple back up plans.
Knock both of them out and use the remover.
Use weird powers that the Team Knows about but don’t normally come up (including that Gestalt chick).
Ask Deus if he has any ideas.
Ask the Night Council for a stronger remover.
Use the remover and try to repair the brain damage (the Team has a healer)
Kill Sydney and try to have Peggy use the Orbs.
Lapha inside Sydney is slowly experiencing her meds wearing off, and soon she will beg to be put into a box instead of putting up with unmedicated Sydney.
Best way to get Sidney unpossessed is to use her own mind to annoy the heck out of the possessor. Get Sidney’s hyperactive, tangent prone mind thinking about something totally inane, like what species is like a giant or halfling of another species, and in about an hour the possessing entity will be begging to get out of Sidney’s body.
And I think this is exactly what we’re seeing here.
A bored sydney locked to the chair, no meds, have max and dabbler start sydney on a tangen spiral (then leave), and only the body possessing spell being around. give it an hour or two and either the being cures sydneys ADHD and you need to come up with a new plan or the spell being begs to be let out. (still would have allowed the final mystery sphere to be used somehow just to see if it has some kind of conditional use like mental protection or something)
What if the only way to control Lapha is to keep Sydney off her meds?
ah yes, the “we cant let you leave with our nukes, and all you can do is hold them hostage till one or both of you dies” gambit. its a zero sum game. there is no negotiating. there is only the option of submission. i mean.. lets face it, they had plans to have Max eliminate Halo entirely if things got too bad… Lapha’s mistake was assuming that military installations care about their soldiers past their ability to carry out orders.
That’s a pretty cynical view of the military
The military does care about their soldiers but sometimes that gets overridden by the necessity to achieve other things.
Kobolds are humanoid Chihuahua’s or Yorkies: annoying little yappers that need to be punted into a volcano!!
Random thought. If this interrogation/ hostage negotiation gets out, it’s going to be an example video to these head flames why possession is not just morally bad, or karmic bad, but bad for YOU!
Oh dear Lord I know what Maxima and Dabs are planning! It’s so horrible! It’s inhumane and evil!!! I can’t believe they could be so DEVIOUS! You see…they are…they are letting Sydney go off her ADHD meds!!! Oh dear Lord I almost pity Lapha…
If you were going to pick a giant that Dwarves are ‘halflings’ of, I’d go with Fire Giants. Squat, master smiths, beards… if you ignored the ‘immune to fire’ thing, they’re the logical step up.
Fire dwarfs are a thing, so other dwarfs might be the halflings of some other giant species.
in general, the longer a monster has been in the public domain, the more “sexy” we tend to have artists draw it.
Because the internet is horny. Then this feeds into public perception and then leaks back into official artworks for projects, and… ya, the internet takes those new official projects, makes fanart that is horny, and… ya… loop continues.
Sexy….BEHOLDER?
What do you get when you cut a Half-Orc in two?
……………………………………….
QUARTER-ORCSES!
(this joke brought to you courtesy of over 40 years’ of misspent youth playing D&D)
Why does Max turn and glare at Dabbler (panel 4)? I don’t get it. It seems like a complete non-sequitur. What could she imagine Dabbler had to do with Sydney going off at a tangent?
I think it’s basically the same gesture as when two people exchange glances after seeing/experiencing something weird/out of place. That kind of silent “do you have any idea what’s going on? You neither? Okay then.” But Maxima kind of turned up her half of it to 11.
On Chili: I get the feeling people are suggesting giving Dabbler’s chili to Sydney.
Dabbler’s chili as requested is “all-meat, just a little spicy, topped with sour cream.” (#1224)
Sydney is vegetarian, with a high ‘spicy’-tolerance. (#110, #198, etc) I doubt she will eat from Dabbler’s order, if she can help it.
So they will need a new order, with The Unmaker (#118) in it.
Fourteen panels was truly a delight! Thank you!
I too prefer the lizard kobolds
I’m waiting for Sydney to to say “I’m not trapped in here with you, You are trapped in here with meeee.” in the most annoying way possible.
Sydney knows she is stubborn enough to make Lapha regret this possession.
personally i prefer Chris Zito’s Kobold’s. mini dragon born with long floppy ears like a dog
Sydney: I want to denial-of-service Lapha’s bandwidth with my ADHD
GM: Lapha – Roll for sanity check.
*rolling… Natural 1 – critical fail*
Lapha: Blubber. Blubber… Gaaaaaah! *passes out*
We’re overlooking the fact that Max just shared a spoon with Dabbler?
-shared kiss trope?
Or maybe Max will get succubus germs?!?
Waiting for Laph to be just as big a nerd-geek as all three
Also, there is no reason for anything Sydney to eat to affect her, seeing how she’s not physically there!!
The pain receptors will still fire, which Lapha will feel. And she probably hasn’t been warped enough to think that that kind of pain is good, so it could still be agonizing for her.
so does that make Gogu from mandalorian on 8th-ling or a 16th-ling?
a young~ling
Kobolds sure get switched around a bit depending on the universe. Sometimes they’re lizards, sometimes they’re dogs or some other furry thing. In the Warcraft universe you have rat-humanoids… You no take candle!
Current DND lore for goblinoids is interesting, as well as the tiny goblins like halflings, they also have the big orc-like bugbears, hobgoblins that like building their hierarchies and organisations the same as humans, and some more obscure but occasionally mentioned dwarf and elf like alternatives.
Take you seriously?
Girl, they didn’t even take a Fel Invasion seriously. They were messing about and having fun with it.
You don’t want to even think about them taking something seriously.
Hey now they took the Fel invasion seriously… for almost two whole minutes!
Then the cheerleading started. :)
They took the Fel Invasion seriously because Cora took it seriously and she was the one briefing them on it.
Then they engaged, and stopped taking them seriously as soon as they realised how oversold the Fel had been.
Honestly, Dabbler should have known better.
A thought, does Lapha actually have a copy of all of Sidney’s memories right now, or is it just that she can access Sidney’s memories, but has to actively do so. The impression I got from the last couple of pages as she seemed to have to pull up and analyze the associated memories to what Sidney and Maxima were talking about (Silence of the Lambs) and the reaction to the Orbs was like checking on some data about them.
So right now if Lapha was removed without harming Sidney (such as when voluntarily leaving as well), would Lapha have a complete copy of Sidney’s memories or only those that she had accessed. For Sidney looking at Lapha’s memories it felt like situational randomness, but Lapha’s species was designed for this, so compartmentalize and intentional access would make some sense.
Which I bring up as speaking on taking things seriously, I wander if Lapha would have any insight on what happened on Alari prime with the Fel looking kaiju robeasts. Or if that information alone could be something special
Maybe, after she reviews Sidney’s memories about ADHD, she’ll fear being “infected” or “contaminated”, and leave willingly?
I’d just like to point out that the device Dabbler pulled out isn’t in view, and they’ve gotten Lapha completely off balance and thinking of something else entirely.
I sense some sleight of hand chicanery is afoot.
I wonder if I could summon pander by mentioning deus in a strip unrelated to deus.
Sydney used ADD
It’s super-effective!
Lapha is annoyed!
It hurt itself in its confusion!
No one who has lived through the horrors of the Nashkel Mine will think kobolds are cute
Is that where Tucker’s Kobolds are from?
I’ve always said that halflings and humans are related because if they weren’t and were going to hibrydize, then the offspring would be a half-halfling (just like there are half-elves and half-orcs) but hald a halfling would be a quarterling. But then, they’re halflings because their height is half a human, so they would be threequarterlings. and at this point Tolkien threw angrily his pipe and exclamed “Fuck it! They’re related and that’s it!”