Grrl Power #468 – Blues closet
Maxima probably didn’t know about Ingsol’s attic or else she would have had Pixel or someone keep Sydney company (i.e. supervise) out there. Still, it’s unlocked and poorly concealed, so one would hope there’s not a Hand of Vecna laying around up there.
The average human amasses quite a bunch of stuff over their lifetime. Some are better about purging themselves down to the essentials, while some are hoarders. I hang on to some key articles from my childhood. I have a folder of terrible drawings from when I was a kid, my 8-bit Nintendo (actually all my consoles), a VHS copy of the original non-special edition Star Wars movies, even though I don’t have a VHS player any more. You know, stuff like that.
A 700 year old vampire would have to be really selective about what mementos to hang on to. I mean, ignoring the occasional involuntary purge, whether it’s fleeing a mob of angry villagers or losing it all in the odd London fire, someone a few centuries old would probably need quite a few storage lockers or maybe just very little attachment to the past, and when was the last time you saw a story about a vampire that wasn’t chocked full of flashbacks? Any vampire would probably have several caches of, well, mostly sentimental crap, but also a few priceless works of art and maybe an Eye of Vecna.
As previously noted, creepy flute player painting by Zdzislaw Beksinski.
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Oh, here we go…
That door hinges really weirdly…
That aside, Sydney, kick back into genre savvy mode, right about now, please.
EDIT: But take the bow first.
What bow? Can only see a Quiver
Where there is smoke there is an Elven Holy longbow of might +8. Its name is “Fire” and it likes long walks in the forest, harp music and smiting evil.
Nah, that’s just a “Legolas’ Everfull Quiver”- you’re expected to bring your own bow.
But what happens when you try to put an arrow back in the quiver?
Boring RAW answer: the quiver instantly fills with new ammo when one is drawn, making it impossible to even attempt to place any back inside.
The DM is bored answer: Either a Wave Function collapse or what happens when you try to put a Hole into a Bag of Holding.
The DM is a sadist answer: Deck of Many Things 52 card pickup effect. Prepare your diddly hole!
Hole = Portable Hole. Really wish comment editing was a feature in this system.
omg, now I’m imagining an entire quest in D&D where the characters being played get turned into Looney Tunes, and no-one realizes it.
I did once allow my players to find Looney Tunes magical items. Although they failed to recognise that the tunnel, which they discovered the items in, was actually a portable tunnel. They did however find the luminous pink fluffy bunny slippers of leaping and kicking +5.
You are too kind. Mixed in amongst the fun and useful Loony Tunes items should have been several items made by the Acme manufacturer. As an occasionally sadistic DM I can just see the players drooling over some obviously deadly or useful item, failing to realize that no matter how they attempted to use the item it was bound to cause them harm.
In our world Acme would have gone out of business due to wrongful death lawsuits within the first couple of months, but in the Loony Tunes universe they persist due to the continued purchases of one Mr. Wile E. Coyote.
Well the slippers did come with a significant reaction penalty, and a cap on the best reaction possible. Nobody could take the wearer seriously. As such most of the players considered them to be more of a cursed item. But one really took a shine to them, and did not give a hoot about the loss of face. He just loved the image. Not to mention the fun of hopping around like a big bunny!
:-D
It could be a thing, but DaveB doesn’t want to install it, because he’s afraid of losing all the old comments.
Viirin’s answer as a GM: They were Holy Imbued Mythril Arrows of Smiting +4 with an additional enchantment to only KO stuff if killing wasn’t your intent, and were empathically linked to the firer, but now that you placed a slightly-warped knockoff arrow from a sporting goods store in it, they’re that instead. Forever. You’re welcome.
The strap looked like a taut bow. In hindsight, fool me for thinking bows are stored like that.
Easy mistake to make, if you didn’t know that most bows, when stored, look like sticks (unless they are the fancy Olympic Games type compounded bows)
Weird hinge, as in, door is completely-ignoring-gravity weird? Yeah, I thought so too…
Why? Maybe it hooks on something, lot more ‘attic’ type doors like that open like that
or spring-loaded hinges. She IS holding the door open
Look like normal hinges to me, and gravity would normally close the door
She has opened the door with the molestorb/lighthook and is flying.
Door isn’t ignoring gravity, its hanging straight down. The wall is angled, so when closed the door is at an angle, and when the door is hanging straight it is, of course, leaving an opening.
Ignore me, I went back and looked and you are correct, it is angled out… but you can also see her lighthook extending out the open doorway, so she has the door… well in hand.
‘Well in tentacle’.
+1
Partly that; it seems really inconvenient to have it swing out and up unless it can be hooked, as mentioned (which I admittedly didn’t think of), and moreover, the door is sitting ajar to begin with; IE not held shut, so why isn’t it hanging down? Not to mention it looks like it should hinge inward, given the handle on the outside.
Hmm, upon closer inspection, the door -can’t- be hooked to anything. It can’t swing much further than right now (due to being set back just a little), which has the handle sitting way out in the open. The only possible hook (without at least a metre of rope being involved, anyways) would be right at the top of the door, which we can see there isn’t. I imagine getting any two-handed object in or out of here is a two-person job.
There must be a locking mechanism. Presumably having bolt-like mechanisms on either side. One of which had not properly engaged, when last closed. Hence why it was hanging slightly ajar.
Maybe the candle was not burning, when it closed, so the error was not spotted at that time? Explainable, for example, if the candle only burns in the proximity of chaos incarnate.
Oh, there’s no way this will go poorly! /sarcasm
…we really need to figure out a way to show sarcasm via text without ending everything with ‘/sarcasm’
The common trick is just to end with /s
The problem with using just an ‘s’ is that it could also mean that you were being “snarky.”
;)
Or forgot the square brackets on your strikethrough.
my question: why is there a ‘snarky’ but no ‘boojum-y’?
BEWARE INVERSE SCHRODINGER’S PHYSICIST BOX. Physicists should not click, on risk of death.
There will be when quantum physicists need to differentiate between a ‘left-right boojum’ and an ‘up-down boojum’, by boojumy and boojumx, respectively, in addition to their snark counterparts.
Don’t tell Physicists about that though. They are not meant to discover any of them, for a few years yet!
The reason why they haven’t discovered it yet is because those who’ve already tried didn’t live long enough to tell anyone else about it…
You omitted the purple boojum and the smelly boojum.
Because the folder marked “English, examples of rational rules regarding” is empty.
One of my favorites is the word ‘weird’ violating the i before e ‘rule.’ Weird, huh?
The most useless grammar rule going. Given that it literally has more exceptions than words which comply with it! Fortunately the sensible institutions have already stopped teaching it, for precisely that reason. It is not fit for porpoise.
Actually, I think the full rule is “i” before “e” except after “c” and words with a long “a” like “neigh” (and note that both “heir” and “their” have a long “a”). Which eliminates many of the exceptions but still doesn’t explain “weird”.
Or just leave it like that.
People either get it or you leave them wondering. Which is funny as hell.
Seriously. Sarcasm is best when it is witty, therefore it is meant to entertain witty people. Ignore the rest.
Maybe not the best policy, but saves a lot of energy. Fear of being misunderstood can bog one down.
I hadn’t made the connection between announcer voice and vocal fry before.
Dave keeps teaching me new stuff.
The only morons who believe that that is a positive, are the ones who are keeping the Cardasians in the spotlight (and not so the guards can shoot them, unfortunately :()
Stuff changes in society. Older generations may not approve, but it is the younger ones who will shape the future, with or without that. And it is both interesting and useful to remain abreast of them.
Railing against such is pointless. Just look at the hostility directed towards Elvis, or just about any radically new type of music. Pretty much all of which remained, despite vocal condemnation of ‘corrupting the youth’. To the extent that many are now an entrenched part of the music establishment.
I don’t like rap,* for example, but a heck of a lot of people do, and it is a firm part of our culture now.
* Words spoken to music I am fine with. Putting a vocal full stop, after every word though, just gets on my wick.
But the point is, ‘Valley Speak’ was universally panned and was not viewed as The Next Step In Linguistic Evolution (or whatever the hael they are saying about ‘Vocal Fry’)
True, not every trend becomes ingrained or has a permanent effect. But it has not exactly gone away either. So think of it like flairs. Sometimes they come back.
However do note the way that style of speech has positive connotations. That is the kind of aspect which can turn a localised phenomenon into a national or even global shift in dialect. Given time. Typically you are looking at the delay between people being impressionable teenagers up until they become key members of society and have enough role models representing their ‘fad’ as the norm.
Of course they come back, but when was the last time so crap-awful was lauded as the “next step in **** evolution”?
But again, the only ones promoted it (and endorsing it) are the Kardashi-whores and their in-bred followers, not even Paris Hilton had this much impact on society
I don’t watch TV so am not as passionate about the non-entities as you are.
Valley speech (or up speech) makes a person sound air-headed, and the more you use it the less seriously people will take you. The people who espoused were forced to drop it or be discounted.
Fry voice is only used as an emphasis (a vocal BOLD-FACE) and as such (depending on the listeners view) can make you sound smarter. Since it is only used to emphasize and not all the time, it is more likely to become acceptable, and a permanent change
But not if it is overused by the vacuum-packed talentless Kardashi-whores and their equally vacuum-packed followers
What young people are you talking to in real life? The alt right is almost entirely millennials that ignore & make fun of people who say things like during the debate “Trump wants to nuke Russia” & “Russia is hacking to help Trump win” , they have enough logic to understand those are 2 mutually exclusive statements.
If anything millennials are more conservative than boomers who never actually grew up. After the PULSE shooting even young gays came out for Trump forming TWINKS4TRUMP, and threw an old gay magazine “The Advocate” article from 15years ago praising TRUMP into the face of the old queens. Across Europe and the US millennials know we are the first western generation to not have better lives then our parents in hundreds of years because of boomers. Listen to millennial music to hear these things.
People get more conservative as they get older. Case in point the NYC democrat election commissioner Alan Schulkin caught on camera admitting such when he bemoaned voter fraud this week, but mainly because the minorities are doing it for their own interests instead of his party interests. Trump was pro abortion until he had kids.
Vocal Fry Register… for some reason when i saw that term, i thought Sydney was imitating Phillip J. Fry. now try to un-hear what she said in that voice. :D
Same here
So Valley Speak (as I understand it is called) and Vocal Fry are two ends of a spectrum?
Mmm, sort of. One of the key features of Valley Speak is a rising intonation, at the end of a sentence (or key word). As Vocal Fry goes deeper, that is opposite.
However I imagine that it would be possible to combine both, in a single sentence. For example using Vocal Fry to emphasise a key word in the middle of a sentence, then turn it into a question, using the rising intonation in a later word.
Thinking about Guesticus‘s point above, the fact that this aspect of Valley Speak has now become a staple of the California dialect, it cannot be considered to have gone away. And as Hollywood is in California there is a good chance of it continuing to ripple out, at times, into other parts of the world.
I must object on that point. Announcer voice, best typified by the late, great Don Pardo, does not “fry” – it’s deep, but resonant and clear. Vocal fry involves dropping to TOO low a register and results in the voice becoming raspy. An example is Katy Perry, whenever she hits low notes. /pedant
I listened to a couple of episodes of Cerys Matthews radio show where she had voice coaches on, and they absolutely raved about how various singers manipulated their voices. Provided they do so in a controlled fashion, which does not cause damage, then they did not consider any of the vocal effects to be “TOO low” or “TOO raspy”.
It really was fascinating, learning all the different techniques, and hearing them emulating and demonstrating them. Sadly this was long enough ago that the episodes are not amongst the current podcasts (although she may well have had them back as guests). But it very much enlightened me, on the subject. As I too used to make such statements (and still do for the heavy metal and other, similar music, which both stresses the vocal chords by distortion and shouts, at the same time).
One definition I have heard for ‘vocal fry’ is the voice making a buzzing noise in the throat. The best example being the ‘Elmer Fudd’ voice.
Or ‘throat singing’
Agreed. I can see similarities but raspy/croakiness is not a part of the dramatic announcer voice.
Weird, that’s not really the voice I imagined Sydney doing. I searched “opposite of falsetto” and “creaky tween” is not the opposite of falsetto, despite that pretty much being the consensus of google. I would change it in the comic, but I don’t know what to change it to, since there doesn’t seem to be a word that means “deep announcer voice”
I guess I could just change it to “Announcer Voice” but then I lose reason for the mini-Syd to be shouting at the 4th wall.
Falsetto is about frequency. “Announcer” voice is a whole technique (pronunciation, intonation, inflection, cadence) that in Spanish is called “impostar” but I don’t know an equivalent English term. Dictionaries translate is as “to project” or “to place” the voice, which do not sound totally right to me.
BTW, many announcers have a natural deep pitch, often that’s why they became announcers :) While Falsetto force the voice above the natural register, “announcer” voice do not goes below it (I’m not sure if that is even possible).
Projection, to the layman would just mean ‘making the voice carry further’. However to someone into theatre it would carry the optimisation of all of the characteristics you noted, in addition to that. ‘Speaking from the belly’ allows your voice to carry all the way to the back of a theatre, even without a P.A. system.
In learning how to do that, and also convey emotions, make theatre-trained actors have a noticeable advantage over their TV and film competition. To those who appreciate the distinction. Which also makes them good for voice-over and announcer work.
Which is not to say that all announcers are luvvies mind. Others are chosen because they have a deep voice, or other timbre (etc), which gives them the appropriate qualities, sought for the particular role.
Perhaps the substitute for “Vocal Fry Register” (and the addendum “Which is apparently the opposite of falsetto”, could be “Theatrical Voice”? Or, to make the subsequent gag work better, the more complex “Deep mysterious theatrical voice”? Or some variant, along those lines.
“However to someone into theatre it would carry the optimisation of all of the characteristics you noted, in addition to that.”
Oh, I see, thank you.
Years ago, I was at a Jesus Christ Superstar play acted by know singers but on a provisional scenario at a parking lot, thus below zero acoustic (it was a charity). The singers were using mics so everybody was listening fine. Then the sound system failed without a warning. I was rather far frome the scenario and, of course, the voice of the singer became barely audible. After a few seconds he realized what was going on, but he didn’t stopped or anything, instead his voice suddenly multiplied, not yelling, an intoned voice but it expanded in the course of a few words. Even at that distance and at an open place I was able to heard him perfectly. The others singers did the same and for about five or ten minutes they keep going until the sound system returned.
It was a demonstration of the power of a trained voice that I will never forget.
For a time in the early eighties and in a very select geographical location (i.e, I never heard anyone but KC metro people ever use it, and not very many of them), the term for what Radio Personalities and Game Show Announcers use was called “Big Voice”.
The voice John Caravella / Johnny Fever used when he was Rip Tide on the television show “Gotta Dance” is a marvelous example of this huge contrast in vocal tones (WKRP In Cincinnati is the TV show).
Phil Keaggy had a liner note on the vinyl album of Play Thru Me for the title song that included the phrase Big Voice.
That magical candle is just a waste of power. Turn off the light when you leave the room Ignsol.
Continual light
Why is it called ‘Continual Light’ when it’s a steady, even source of light?; there’s nothing intermittent with the light that shines. It should be called ‘Continuous Light.’
;)
Continual Light.
If it works for continual fear it works for continual light.
Even the Oxford English Dictionary indicates that
Thou shalt not disrespect the Player’s Handbook!
Ha ha ha.
Oh yea, and if you see a big red button with a “DO NOT PUSH” sign on it, that is just a bluff!
:-D
It’s the buttons that want to be pushed that you need to watch out for.
My dwarven Battle-Bard once got the Paladin of the party to “push the shiny red candy-like button that was clearly a trap” in a “not of his faith” temple once. Trapped nearly the whole group and nearly got us all killed. We had no gear for digging out way out – luckily the guy standing watch outside decided that two of us were worth rescuing.
And, for some reason, the party still blames the Paladin.
Lol.
But… but… it’s jolly… and CANDY-LIKE! And, it’s only POSSIBLE that it will end my very existence…
Bad Maxima, she should know better than to leave Sydney on her own in a place like this…
Yeah, I don’t know WHAT she was thinking.
It’s like Maxima almost wises up, then you have blatant mistakes like this.
My Gravatar isn’t showing, and I’m logged in.
What the Hell?
Probably a typo. If your avatar name looks right, perhaps there is an extraneous space? Or do you have zeroes instead of capital “O”s, as examples.
There would be no need to be logged in, by the way, for a gravatar to work.
Maxima’s theory about Sydney radiating a ‘stupidity aura’ might have some basis. :-) Albeit that her behaviour is so extreme, and distracting, that it is explainable without having to resort to super powers.
Yeah, that’s what it looks like to me too, whenever I’ve mistyped my email address,
but see below…
Initially, I was just seeing part of the filename for the graphic of my avatar, but I hit refresh & it cleared right up.
;)
Loving Sydney’s expressions and depiction here. Despite the fact that she looks like a balloon is trying to impersonate her head!
Yeah, I must admit that I still miss her old hair style, but her expressions here priceless. ☺
I agree, but with her new headband, it’s easier to actually see her expressions.
;)
At this point in juncture the Dragnet theme should start playing…!
The Art Of Noise version, maybe.
It is not that so much, as the lack of a chin. Sydney used to have one. Only the final panel, of today’s comic, even hints at her having one above.
All this awesome art, and having her expressions look great, makes me feel really bad about raising this mind.
I too miss her chin
Seconded
Sydney has been replaced by a mannequin!
Could be worse, there could be a “Head of Vecna”.
.. saw me a few players fall for that one. *grins
Damn! You beat me to it!
I feel left out. Who is Vecna, and what is the importance of her limbs?
D&D reference to a Lich. A very powerful god-like one, who’s hand and eye became powerful magical artifacts. Dave has a link in his blog, above, which doubtless explains it fully.
I wonder if any of them thought to check to see whether the head had both eyes or not….
the Eye and Head of Vecna are mortal remains of a Evil-aligned God of magic, and are powerful relics that require sacrifice. you must pluck out your eye, and cut off your hand, then put the artifact into the resulting gap. the Head of Vecna is a way to get a party to kill itself… by cutting off each other’s heads.
People actually try that? And even if, only 1 person would try it before the DM says ‘you are now dead’ right?
well they cut of a head of a player, than got into a fight about who would wear it, when it didn’t work, they assumed too much time had passed.
How is the fight over who gets to wear the super powerful item not BEFORE you cut off the related limb?
Clearly, you have not spent much time around FRP groups.
*nods sagely*
No, I’ve never had the pleasure. Though I would probably be the logical one trying to argue against cutting your head off.
Someone failed a WIS check
in the case mentioned at the end of a fight the wizard pointed out he was the best to use it, so they cut off his head, once he was dead the REST argued over who should really get it.
Right, first eliminate your mutual target, than continue the discussion.
I heard of a DM that put a fake Head of Vecna in his game, merely giving it a false aura of magic. He went through a lot of PC’s that day…
…there is no such thing as the “real” Head of Vecna. That’s the joke.
Sure there is a real Head of Vecna;
Vecna himself still has it!
O.o
I remember that story about the “Head of Vecna”. It’s a funny read.
https://www.sjgames.com/ill/1996/ill-dec96.html (search for “December 6, 1996”!)
Thank you for that. Good laugh.
On the subject of self-inflicted Player-Character mutilation, the ‘Agent Of Evil’ strip from Knights Of The Dinner Table’ is also well worth viewing.
Awesome. It is recounting that kind of session which earns the DM a free drink, at any gathering of games masters!
Actually the Head of Vecna is IIRC canonically a spectacularly successful prack perpetrated by a bored and lightly twisted wizard upon his rivals. The Eye and Hand are actual artifacts of the most powerful litch in the AD&D multiverse
That should *now actually canonically*. The prank became so well known WOTC decided to make it canon
The importance of his limbs (well, hand and eye) is that they can imbue the ‘wearer’ (I say wearer, but to use them you have to rip out your eye and replace it with his eye, and remove your left hand and replace it with his hand) with pretty huge power in D&D.
Being creative types, and enjoying being able to swear in mixed company, I had a group that used “Vecna’s Balls!” anytime things went pear shaped on us.
Some fates are worse than death!
*looks around warily for any dog-catchers*
Nope. I don’t care how much phenomenal cosmic power they grant, not worth it.
No Hand of Vecna, but maybe the Head of Vecna is in there…
ROFL.
Halo did. She just talked a room full of them into submission!
Good point! Many (read: basically all) of the entities in that room qualify as RPG bosses.
I’ve fought the cests and the flame but the quiver?
:-D
‘That room’ would be the ‘Twilight Council conference room’, with ancient vampires, werewolves and other assorted supernatural and extraterrestrial beings.
The quiver is being carried by an invisible archer golem.
A couple of different points I want to mention:
DaveB’s reference to the Hand of Vecna? Well, in the Planescape: Torment RPG game, the members of your party have some discussions between each other whenever you’ve been “idle” for a time while playing. Mort (the floating skull) makes a reference that he was the Head of Vecna & doesn’t like to talk about it.
Sydney referring to an oubliette? Aside from Castle Oubliette in the webcomic Monster Soup, the definition of an oubliette is basically an underground room with only one entrance in the ceiling, usually used as a prison cell. I prefer Hoggle’s (the Labyrinth movie) description of a place where you stick something when you want to forget about it.
That’s because oubliette comes from the Middle French oublier (“to forget”), which itself can be traced back to the Latin oblivisci… which also means “to forget”.
Ultimately, oubliette really DOES mean something similar to “a place of forgetting”.
I think the idea is that the room with ceiling entrance was used as a prison — where you put prisoners and then forget about them.
Yup. And that was the context in Labyrinth too.
So it was an oubliette-gatory reference?
Not as bad a fate as being fed to an oubliette carnivore though.
Darn it Halo! Okay, Max needs to organize a Call of cthulhu game at the base. It’s the perfect game to demonstrate that you should not pick up random magical junk!
Also… you’re kinda going through someone’s attic, Halo. Kinda rude, and if you find any sentimental items the vamps are in full justification of mind wiping you.
I’m sorta getting the feeling that Sydney is like a 4-year old that found the toybox full of “10+ years old” toys…
Except the toybox is from Deathworld. Their toys are fully functional flamethrowers, blasters and explosives, by that age!
That’s because ‘Deathworld’ was actually Australia, and everything over there is out to kill you, including the plants (they have a plant, that makes you so sick you puke yourself to death, if you are lucky)
You need to read the book. Deathworld is like Australia x100. Even the rocks try to kill you.* It is an awesome concept, and very cleverly told.
* OK moss, or other vegetation, growing on it, but you can’t even sit down safely on one, for a breather. Not even in a kindergarten training zone!
Yes, have read the book, and remember that scene well
I read it! Ages ago. Loved the irony about why it was that way :)
I play too much Terraria. That flaming blue candle, in the reliquary, has me worried. Not only has it attracted Sydney, it could be increasing the spawn rate of other monsters in the area!
Term used advisedly. From the point of view of Ingsol, or whoever owns this particular horde.
I didn’t notice that connection, but now that you mention it, it DOES look like water candle. Though the dread of increased spawns is long gone for me, I learned to treat it as useful resource for farming rare stuff. Any world where I can get my hand on at least one without having to beat the guardian first is a good one.
Oops.
Wow, thought that looked familiar, going through an archive swim and stumbled across an old post from me about Raspberry Coke from three years ago!
Looks good, thank you :)
My pleasure. :-)
One sad aspect about that comic is that the comments are so quiet. Readily understood though, in that readers can easily subscribe to get their comic by email. Which I do, and it is very convenient. But it means folks do not need to go to the webpage.
On the plus side it does mean I still get to read the comic at times, such as on holiday, when I have email but do not have easy access to my browser tabs. As such it has remained in my regularly read comics list, even when others have fallen by the wayside.
*glares at Google Chrome, for loosing some bookmarks, by failing to synchronise properly*
Ohhhhhhhhh, this can’t POSSIBLY end well.
The only question being, for who/what it doesn’t end well? This is Sydney, after all.
I predict, anyone, and everyone.
And it seems she forgot about her new detect magic ability.
I guess Max will learn that leaving Sydney alone has a decent chance of causing a new crater…
Much like Lina.
That last panel aside, I don’t think we really need to worry about Sydney going too crazy with all of these new toys and unleashing hell on Earth or some such. She’s far too genre savvy to make that kind of mistake. On the other hand, she’s just wacky enough to make a much more minor mistake.
Remember the first Men In Black film where Jay touched some kind of ball and sent it ricocheting wildly all over the MIB offices? I foresee Sydney having an embarrassing moment like that soon.
You mean, this thing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II4UebN1Dxw
Yup! That would be the one!
“I thought it was funny as hell.”
— the Great Attractor
Yeah that seems likely. *grins with anticipation*
At no point is this the cursed items store.
There are few better ways of protecting yourself, from monster hunters, than putting a tempting room full of cursed treasure just before your most important chamber. And the next room is the Twilight Council’s present world seat of government. So it makes sense that it would be very well protected!
Is it world seat or just for north america, has it been established?
They have been talking world issues. Whilst it may well be just the North American chapter, I would have expected them to have either directly mentioned it, or have said something which implied needing approval from a higher body. Even the titles, when they were first introduced, did not have a caveat, such as “Ingsol represents the Undead, in America”.
One thing which struck me, moments after hitting the ‘Submit Comment’ button, on my previous, in this thread was the following. I do not think it is a coincidence that the Council meeting chamber is in New York.
If it were an American chapter house, for instance, you might expect it to be in Washington. Unless they were too stubborn to move it during the Second British Civil War. But even so, you would expect the convenience of being close to the seat of human government, to have convinced them to overcome their inertia before now.
Yet the United Nations is in New York. So being here makes a lot more sense in that regard.
I admit that I don’t know a lot about RPG games, so are half-elves really good at finding secret doors then?
They’re almost as good at it as full-blood Eleves are. Only Dwarves looking at stone architecture are any better.
:)
Yes, elves and half-elves alike. If talking D&D and any game which take strong inspiration from it.
Albeit that elves are better. But Sydney lacks the pointy ears to be a full elf.
Elves have an inherent knack for detecting secrets. In D&D, they get a feeling when a secret door is nearby and get an automatic search check (though they may not necessarily find it).
A half-elf doesn’t get the automatic search check, but they do get a bonus on searches due to keener-than-human senses.
Yaaaay! Super secret treasure room! The best thing is that it’s a secret! I can just feel the pure excitement as if I was there myself. You’ve made my day! :)
What are the chances one of those amulets are cursed and will turn Sydney into a variant of her epimeliad character? It would be fun watching a certain purple alien try to process the fact that she is suddenly being out-glamoured by Sydney!
On a slightly more likely note, how many secrets will she learn as soon as she thinks of using her true-sight orb on the room? She might even get another level up, depending on how the ‘experience’ mechanic works.
Sometimes seeing the true form of something is not advisable. Do you remember the original Trek episode when Spock looks into a box containing the Medusan ambassador without his goggles and goes insane?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_There_in_Truth_No_Beauty%3F
Trivia Note: The actress playing the ambassador’s liaison later came back in ST:TNG as a major character in the second season (and had previously had a part in another episode earlier in that same season). It pays to be good friends with the executive producer. :D
Diana Muldaur played:
Dr. Miranda Jones (ST:TOS “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”)
Science Officer Dr. Ann Mulhall ( ST:TOS “Return to Tomorrow”)
Dr. Katherine Pulaski (ST:TNG Season 2)
Oh, holy crap. I never realized that! But if you go back and look at a picture of Dr. Jones side-by-side with a picture of Dr. Pulaski, you can see the facial resemblance. (I don’t even need pictures. I have a nearly eidetic memory.)
Weatherheight wins a No-Prize for actually surprising me!
Conspiracy theory time!
The veil has been damaged and everyone seems to think it’s likely sabotage. Then Sydney finds a secret room that’s packed with relics and stuff not really because of her utter cleverness, but because the door was apparently ajar and light was spilling out. I suspect that someone has broken into that room to find something to do mischief with!
The question then is have they gone, or is someone hiding in there and about to jump Sydney!?
…Or have they already been & gone? They may have already left after picking up their new “toy” & on their way to put it to use. If the others catch Sydney up there, she’ll be the first they blame.
It seems that the Sigil being “damaged” was something that probably occurred before Sydney actually joined Archon, though…The Council has already had time to notice it, investigate it & call this meeting together to address the problem; Sydney’s only been in Archon for what?…3 days?
The timing is unlikely to be coincidental. Archon’s press announcement is likely to have shaken up things. The human public have been told some weird stuff is real. So whilst the wheels may have been in motion before (perhaps for centuries), the time is right now.
As the Council, and therefore the member races, have clearly been colluding with Archon prior to that, the Veil Lowering Front could have been planning to do this concurrent with the press announcement.
Except Arianna sneakily moved things forwards, due to her ‘bank security check’ and the success of discovering Halo with it. Hence the gap between the two events.
Wait, what if Ari is part of the VLF and this is all part of
hertheir plan?Ooh. Interesting possibility.
Or a plan from the ones that oppose Archon. Lay a trap for Syd, then “catch” her in the act, and use her “breaking into” to discredit Archon… nah.
How could they lay a trap for Sydney, if they didn’t know who Sydney was two days ago? o_O
They would have to know what Sydney was like to count on her getting thrown out of a last-minute meeting that she wasn’t even meant to be at
Well, I did say “nah”. You don’t think you are the only one allowed to have fun, do you? :)
Not at all, was just explaining why that wouldn’t work
Meant that I already knew (thus the “nah”) but I was just having fun saying it :)
Wait, wait, what if all this do is a plan but from… wait for it… Max and Syd!
Archon have suspicions about The Council. All this has been a play to give Syd an excuse to wander and check. And right now she hit the jackpot! They will give her a medal!
It is Halo’s job to find secret things. Literally the principle reason why she was chosen for her role.
Maybe she will find a display case with one trophy obviously missing.
Use the Lens of Truth on the large treasure chest before opening it!
Err…
I mean use your True Sight and Telepresence orb to look for illusions and danger…
…
But actually just get the heck out of there! Either that’s the good stuff and you are betraying a trust to a major political figure that will effect your job (and maybe life) or its the bait that he leaves around for would be thieves…. (unless you are really lucky and its just his spawns toys but even Adam’s Family “toys” can be pretty dangerous. :( )
Yes, all true… but…
magical artifacts! WHEEEEEE!
Sorry non-gamers will just not understand the addiction value here. This has a -10 to all willpower and wisdom checks. Hopefully y’all get that from context. :-D
I was referencing games in a lot of what I said. There are games where this is dangerous behavior too… (though you’d still be racking your brains desperately trying to find a way to get the loot safely!)
I don’t think the truesight be able to detect a Mimic, as the disguise is an actual shapechange and not an overlayed illusion. Same goes for detecting traps now I come to think of it. Beware Sydney, chests may have abilites even beyond your powers!
Shield up and use the lighthook, only you can prevent T.P.K!
Are Mimics fools by illusions like her Telepresence?
Probably not. Many hostile critters (mimics, trappers, etc) sense the environment around them by heat, air movement, vibrations in the ground, etc, etc. Mimics don’t rely upon only “eyes” or “ears” & Sydney’s Remote Image affects only sight & sound.
Yeah, I don’t remember Arianna saying anything about feeling warm or tingles so I guess it doesn’t copy all of the “light” and radiation that Sydney’s true form might be giving off. (unless she was just freaking out too much to notice)
Imagine if she finds a luggage made of sapient pearwood…
…which left some poor treant as a widow…
Well that went to a dark place quickly..
…Ninjas thrive in the dark…
>:-)
and evil glows in it (misheard lyrics)
Are there sapient pears? What happens if you eat them?
You get charged with murder, if you were aware of that fact, and under Council of Twilight jurisdiction.
Whereas, under human jurisdiction, you would doubtless walk away free, either way. Unless you happened to be in a really enlightened country, which recognised non-humans as having intrinsic rights. And I cannot think of any which would extend that beyond animals and to include plants as well.
In this story I suppose the Veil would try to make me think I was eating babies anyway. (Imagine my disappointment! :O )
Seems no one got the Discworld reference.
Sapient pearwood is wood from a pear tree given sapience. Intrinsic to these magical properties is invulnerability to damage, the ability to sprout tiny feet for mobility, have several quantumly-entangled “compartments”, and teeth and a tongue at will. Sapient pearwood *anything* will follow it’s owner to the ends of the world. And even into the afterlife.
Your homework is to read “The Color of Magic” and then “The Light Fantastic”, both by Terry Pratchett.
*holds up paw*
I got it! I can’t do the homework though, a human ate it!*
* OK what actually happened is I loaned out my first editions of those, to somebody, and never got them back. But I take the Jean Luc Picard view on such matters, so it does not hurt too much. However I have never replaced those gaps in my shelf. Not until I can get proper replacements.
I got it right off the bat. I just always wondered about the properties of those trees’ fruit.
D&D style true sight would pick up a shapechange and I think the Truesight Orb will do too. However I cannot think of any supporting evidence to give, and we cannot say for sure, in any event, until Sydney tries this against an actual shapechanger.
Varia will be the ideal testing partner for many unusual abilities. Even if she may not be privy as to why she has been asked to do a particular test.
“I don’t know why you are obsessed with me using my velociraptor form. I only get that with the one gestalt.”
“Err, it is for reasons. Classified. Not allowed to say. Wink wink, nudge nudge.”
*Halo grasps yellow orb*
When she sticks her illusory self’s head inside something can she see anything if there is light getting through the object a bit? Would the fake light of her orbs help illuminate a dark hidden area she stuck her head into? Could be useful for gathering some quick info on a potential shapeshifter.
I like to think of mimics/pandoras as a natural evolution of molluscs to prey on feeble-minded adventurers in worlds that are obviously overrun with them.
mimic mollusk. interesting idea , kind of like a giant oyster opening wide to show a diver a nice big pearl, and then clamping down… oh, look, a treasure chest, and it’s open!
DaveB – is there a way to substitute the Patreon version of the comic on the site, to enjoy full double-res glory plus comments on one page by using some kind of cross-site authentication?
Uh… I don’t think so. Patreon might be working on an API that could do something like that but it would be far beyond my meager programming capability. Not to mention what it would do to the layout of the site.
Really, it’s probably not impossible, but not just yet.
[!DOCTYPE html]
[html]
[frameset cols=”50%,50%”]
[frame src=”https://www.grrlpowercomic.com”]
[frame src=”https://www.patreon.com/davebarrack”]
[/frameset]
[/html]
Sorry, forget that, it do not work, there’s a security restriction on the Patreon server side :(
Why not just two tabs? You can’t see both the comments and the comic at the same time on the same page anyway…
So is Sydney just a rude person in general? From the way she has acted and now rummaging through someones attic, this is beyond symptoms of ADHD. This is just basic manners she’s lacking.
*nods*
But this is a monster-infested dungeon. Certain considerations have to be made for a hardcore gamer!
No. These people have been polite, inviting and plenty understanding of Sydney and her problems.
I’m begining to think that its not her ADHD thats the problem. but that she is actually a mild sociopath
ADHD doesn’t make you wander through a friend’s house and start rummaging in their underwear drawer.
NOR does it automatically mean that you ignore/disrespect social graces and expectations.
Being an asshole/sociopath does.
Agreed. I agree with your comment to Guesticus below too.
On a meta note, having Sydney’s bad behavior be the plot hook too often is boring.
So you are saying that Sydney is Gwenpool?
Hmm, why did this post here, it was supposed to be a response to Russell Jackman below.
Typically, in my personal experience, through user error. I have realised that, at times, I switch to another tab, to look something up (or just look at the comic, for reference) and when I come back to the comment, I click on the one above or below (or create a new comment), rather than replying to the correct one.
Once in a very rare while though it happens, without me being able to attribute it to that. So there may be a bug. Or there may be some other error, that I make, which I have failed to recognise.
She goes beyond that. She is completely disconnected from reality (even the reality as established in a super-hero comedy comic). She thinks the world operates by delusional rules that only she perceives, and as The Protagonist she is immune to consequence. By and large she is right about that, but there has to be a limit somewhere. Max usually is her reality check, but there are times, like this one right here, like her rolling on the ground like a maniac in public acting like the sun has put her on fire, etc, that makes me think that she goes beyond ADHD straight to schizophrenia.
Huh. I kind of wonder if this whole comic is all just in Syd’s head.
Not really. She is only play-acting that. Sydney does not actually believe that any more than she thinks she is hurt by sunlight. Or that her whatsits cheesy snack can affect the outside world, when looking through the flaw in the window.
Now that is an excellent point. Although the entire ‘flash back’ could be, instead allow me to point at a particular break point of significance.
The Muppet hallucination.
Didn’t that turn out to not actually be a hallucination at all, but Dabbler and… the Other Girl messing with her? Still, the fact she was weirded out, but not overly surprised is a good point.
Ahh, but what if Sydney was hallucinating, everything, from that point on (including imagining Dabbler and Gwen faking her hallucination)?
If it’s all in her head, it would explain all the scenes she’s not present for, so yeah, sure, that could have all been part of it. I’m not sure I’d call it a hallucination at that point though. I mean, *none* of it real for Syd.
Seeing how this is a flashback, it’s possible she has since talked to those involved to fill in the bits she wasn’t there personally to experience
Shh. I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. However logic has little to do with it, when dealing with an addiction!
If you doubt this, think back on the fact that Sydney was willing to have her arm chopped off, in order to gain access to just one extra power!
And, to put you in a suitable mind-frame, to be receptive to Sydney’s own, at this moment, think about your favourite super power. If all it took, to gain that power, was rubbing a lamp you stumbled across, at a neighbor’s house, might you not be tempted to give it a quick rub?
Mind you she did come around very easily, when Dabbler talked some common sense into her. Plus Sydney has not given into that temptation, yet. However she is badly sleep deprived and suffering severe problems with her ADHD, at the moment. The latter can cause undue fixation on things, as just demonstrated. Combined with the former, her judgement is obviously impaired. So who knows what will happen next?
Err… I will not enter in an argument about this, I will just point out that right now Syd character is doing a pretty bad thing, since there are real persons suffering from ADHD I think is not a good idea to link it with her… let’s not say illegal but highly questionable action.
I don’t suffer from ADHD. I enjoy every minute of it.
(Sorry to derail your argument – I just couldn’t help myself.)
I read your comment below. I’m not going to fault you for disliking the type of character Sydney seems to be. Far be it from me to tell you that “you’re having fun wrong”.
Though I can get the idea that you’re pointing this out to DaveB in case he’s gone off on a tangent and having Sydney act OOC. Hmm… Well, I respectfully disagree unless DaveB does an edit to make her change her behavior.
I was going with terms used in medical papers I read, but yours is a good call. I stand corrected.
All true. But I was just listing mitigating circumstances. ADHD, on its own, would not be one. But it can compound other issues. Fixating on interesting things, whilst you have diminished responsibility (again emphasising stemming from other reasons), could make it harder to resist temptation. In my opinion.
As always, I am happy to be corrected. I certainly am not an expert and we have a lot of people, in the readership, who could speak with more authority on the matter.
Others, which I failed to list, is the fact that Sydney believes she has been suffering hallucinations. Which will help to account for her feeling disassociated with her actions. Take for example playing out being the protagonist in a story. Not too different to her normal behaviour. But it does show her state of mind is viewing her own actions from an outside perspective.*
Another is the fact that she has literally fainted, from culture shock. I do not know how to spot any clinical symptoms for that, in general, but I can, thanks to QI,** mention Paris syndrome. This is a (very specific) form of culture shock. But it shows how mismatched expectations and experiencing a radically different culture can result in extreme symptoms.
Emphasis added on key symptoms, which support my argument.
* Here I must give credit to Russell Jackman for saying something similar. Albeit that he feels differently to me, in that Sydney has fully detached from reality. I still do not think that to be the case, but it is not an unreasonable argument to make. And shows that I am not alone in thinking along these lines.
Aside from my joking about how gamers (whilst playing a roleplaying game) often treat any situation as if it were a dungeon, giving them carte blanche to loot it, Sydney does actually have a lot of mitigating circumstances working in her favour. It is still wrong, but she may not be able to properly appreciate that, at this present moment.
** Yup, i have been working my way through all the series recently.
A very well-worded and valid argument, Yorp.
My main worry, in as much as it is first and foremost a comedy comic, is taking suspension of disbelief past the point of no return by adding to how easily Syd seems to be able to be compromised mentally, and how much she is able to get away with in that state.
Thank you. It is always worth pointing out when suspension of disbelief is being compromised.
Sydney has gotten away with more than she should have, under the circumstances. That however was purely for the comedy. It is worth noting though that the author acknowledged, in his previous blog, that, in hindsight, Maxima should have reined in Sydney earlier.
That said though Sydney has gained what could be critical intelligence, via throwing her conversational partners off balance, with her antics. So it could be argued that Maxima was giving enough weight to the tactical advantages being gained from that, in order to offset the social disadvantages of her being erratic.
Of course the tipping point came when Sydney was becoming a political liability too. Not that anybody was too phased (and Ingsol forgave her for irritating him). In fact the balcony members were amused (Dave wanted to put laughing in, but forgot).
If you think about it that is actually realistic. In a conference chamber of dozens, or hundreds, of different species, including ones from other planets, there will be a huge diversity in behaviour. Sydney
might actually beprobably is quite mild, in comparison to some of the entities who will speak there.Maxima will be aware of such, if only from intelligence reports, which would account for her being less bothered than she might be, in a similar situation, in human society.
Fair enough. I’m not against to find causes or even excuses for Syd’s bad behavior, as far as it do not place much blame into ADHD. It would be unfair.
Agreed. And thank you for pointing that out, as it certainly was not my intention to give such an impression.
I’m not exactly sure where this fits in here but it is also true that for a her entire adult life and an unknown part of her high school life she has apparently attached herself, perhaps somewhat on purpose, to a more mature, level headed, rooted in reality, etc… type of person in Joel. Being his close friend in high school and then entering into business with him finally choosing to bond with mostly Maxima in her new Super life (probably with her parents/family before that). Maybe she either knows, or subconsciously knows, she has… issues… and leans heavily on these “partners” for support but in doing so for so long what capacity for self control she has is somewhat weakened? (I know there are parts of my life I have gotten too used to “outsourcing” to family members because I wasn’t very good at it but this of course led to me being even worse at it than I probably otherwise would have been)
Short version: She’s REALLY used to having a “handler” on hand for the important decisions.
Add in the way reality has lately been proving stranger than even some of her wild imaginings (Ka-Pants…….. ) and going off her meds. Aaaand she’s probably still going a little far here but I can kind of see where a real person who overall means well might have gone wrong in much of the comic previously. So its only in this one here, the whole rifling through someones rooms and private possessions, where I’m really starting to have to reexamine my view of Sydney.
Well thought through. My most notable outsourcing was as regards computers. Most of my friends know them inside out. Either running their own companies or working their way up to run IT departments. So I always had a friend to hand anytime there was a problem or I needed the build changed. All without being a burden to any one in particular.
So, yea, long run I am completely deficient on the hardware side. Albeit not totally incompetent with software issues, as I can fix most of such problems myself. And am even more adept at avoiding creating them in the first place. The latter being the beneficial side effect of knowing so many paranoid professionals.
Yeah, kinda like that.
Sadly people in my life think >I’M< the computer fixer upper. I am like an average user at the best of times. I have to have a computer running and connected to the internet to even try to fix an issue on a computer so as long as we have enough of them running around I sorta kinda fake I.T. for my little group. *sigh*
Having the internet, at our claw tips, does make us smarter.
@Yorp
Extended mind: https://xkcd.com/903/ :)
Well, if not for: https://xkcd.com/978/ :(
That does not stop the smarterness amplification it just makes it smarterness amplification less a bit.
@Yorp It helps replace/shore up my sorry arse memory and it seems like superior memory and average intelligence can do a decent job of faking better than average intelligence. (perfect memory helps fake genius and so on within limits)
Too bad I can’t get a high speed connection to the internet in my skull!
It is more than just that. Dozens of times today I have accessed information which I have never experienced before. Ergo no matter how good my memory I would not recall that.
Further humanity has long since surpassed the point where one person could know all the things that civilisation has learnt. So no matter how smart somebody is, there is more information out there than they currently know. Information which has been analysed, assessed and collated by others.
So by drawing upon the collective wisdom, of the planet, I am accessing more cognitive reasoning ability than exists within just my own skull. That does make me less dumb.
The fact you know you don’t know everything, but know where to look, makes you smarter than some loud mouth who claims they know everything without verification
We have a saying around here that loosely translated goes: “The more important thing to know is the phone number of who knows”
You know, I’m not saying this as a criticism, but when I ended today’s comic I realized that if things goes the way it seems (actually they are already bad) it will mean that Syd is a type of character I’m not fond of. This comic is great in several ways but being her the main character that will became a great interference against to enjoy it, which is a prett bad thing after all the investment on the comic.
It is nice that our readership has so many properly moral people.
[warm fuzzy feelings]
Nah. Not so much morals as personal tastes :)
Sociopaths are 4% of the population but here are the key traits.
3.Perma-victims are usually perpetrators. Female sociopaths, in particular, are adept at revising every story to make themselves the victim, especially when they were the culprit. If nothing is ever someone’s fault, it’s usually all their fault.
1.Look for abrupt changes in demeanor as the situation changes, and particularly for a wide-eyed, “caught red-handed” reaction when such a change is observed. Sociopaths go from bright-eyed, charming, and friendly to dead-eyed and icy cold in the blink of an eye. Normal people do not.
5.Sociopaths have a very alert gaze and they are always scanning to see if anyone is watching them. If you intentionally let them know you are onto them by not looking away and smiling at them in a “gotcha” manner, they will confirm their sociopathy by abruptly changing their behavior towards you, usually by becoming avoidant and launching a whisper campaign against you. This can be risky, of course, but it does provide certain confirmation. I would not recommend it for most people, as most people are insufficiently ruthless to deal effectively with sociopaths.
your numbering schema both confuses and deeply perturbs me…
I would point out, since she is a hardcore gamer, that the typical adventuring party is insufferably rude and sociopathic: they rush into these dungeon-dwellers’ homes, bringing murder and mayhem in their wake, and steal everything of value they can get their greedy mitts on, then proudly claim that they’re the good guys… 0.o
Yes.
Sydney would not be the first gamer to require a reality check, when applying gamer logic to the real world. Usually in the hypothetical mind. Hopefully though she will not succumb to temptation.
Do note however that there is a difference between ‘taking’ and ‘examining’. Sydney has not been trained as a policewoman yet. As such she might base her decisions on what she has seen on TV. And TV detectives take any opportunity, that presents itself, to have a nose around a suspects property, to see if there are any clues to be found. And she is aware that Archon is going to be jointly investigating the Sigil damage, so she does actually have that excuse.
Not to mention that she may be able to find something which could either corroborate or refute the various claims that Ingsol and the others have been making.
A trained cop would not have such an excuse, mind, as they would know that a warrant is required, and the precise circumstances under which such requirement could be waived.
The major difference in my mind is that Sydney is effectively a walking WMD. She has more capability to fulfill those impulses, and far more capability to withstand the consequences. Combine that with her hideously low impulse control and it goes from being whimsical to being a tragedy waiting to happen.
On a similar note to the post I made above, she seems to exist in her own bubble of reality, and is far more tempted to act on assumptions made from comics and television than to consider real-world (even the real world set up by the comic) actions and consequences.
I also agree to a degree with the idea that she is also suffering from severe culture shock. She has been introduced to a world that she has clearly always dreamed was real (that being super-heroes). She very much wants all the tropes and axioms of the super-hero world to apply, complete with the hackneyed coincidences, long-winded monologues, secret super-group organizations, and villainous plotting. By and large, those axioms are in play, but at the same time the differences are a hard clash against what she knows and expects. The world operates almost, but not quite, like she thinks it should. Coupled with that is the fact she is *not* the typical super of this world. She is not an innate, with in-built powers, and the body to match the super-hero ideal. Despite being a part of her dreams, she is still an outsider.
It has been repeatedly shown that Sydney is not just prone to getting caught up in the moment in more understandably ADHD ways but also something of an act first, think second person anyway. She is not intentially rude but rather loses her sense of social/societal boundaries when exposed to one of a kind opportunities like this. Especially those where excitement and the conditioning of nerd culture take over.
I’m not saying that this excuses her actions, merely that it explains how they fit with her generally more considerate attitude. Honestly, I’ve always queried this particular habbit in RPGs.
Assuming that this is referring to the looting of things which they are not legally entitled to, I can assure you that PC in my games do not get away with that, if there are witnesses around. And, under appropriate circumstances, there will be investigation of thefts, so they might be tracked down. Outsiders do often get suspected, in any event, unless there is a more likely culprit at paw.
It really bugs me how in most computer RPGs players can just loot everything. Even chests, barrels or sacks, belonging to people, in their own house, whilst they just stand there, ignoring that their life savings and/or stock in trade is stolen from them.
So I approve of ones, like Morrowind, where you need to use appropriate thief skills, successfully, if playing an antisocial person, inclined to such behaviour.
I’m more a JRPG guy than an MMO guy but, even there, the occassional game will have one of your party members turn to you and give you a serious telling off. For every one of those there are at least 20 where you can steal without reppercusion though.
Like I wrote elsewhere, Sydney is probably acting under seriously impaired judgment due to lack of sleep, unfamiliarity with her current meds (and that’s assuming that she’s taken them when she should), adrenaline, and whatnot (she’s also probably hungry as well, considering she’s wanting a vending machine) and she’s probably gone into full-blown rationalization mode (they pushed me into this section of the castle knowing I’d be bored and… what is this? A bunch of poorly-hidden artifacts? They must want me to try them out! Plus, Maxima would want me to make a report on any them as well. So buzz off conscience, I’m not doing this just because I want to, but it’s practically my duty!). Taking all of that into consideration, she’s probably at the point where none of this seems quite real to her. While that doesn’t justify her behavior, it does make it understandable.
Uh,oh! I think that Sydney might reconsider that last statement!
What could go wrong? D:
famous last words, that, and “I know what I’m doing”
“Ya’ll hold my beer and watch this.”
Being a Southern Man, I can confirm that this is definitely a “Hold Mah Beer” moment.
Knew that Sydney had more sense than to barge right back into the room she has obviously been expelled from :D
+1
On the contrary, what Syd did is absolutely nonsense. I can get what she was thinking. She is a police now, she should know better. Any reasonable person in her situation would sent her hologram ahead. Traps, duh.
How should she know better? She hasn’t actually been given any real police procedural training, she only knows what she has seen on TV or the movies
You make me feel like Grace :)
https://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1861
At the time it was a nudge about how intense the debate was becoming :) before I realized how intense the debate was becoming.
Grace is like the Scary Lady from Mansion of E!
Sydney is a Super Cop (In Training), she has found a potential crime scene, she should investigate further
Although, she should at least send a text to Maxi that she has found something suspicious and is going to investigate
Whats suspicious? Its a storage room. Someone didn’t close it properly.
She’s a super cop (in training) that is accompanying a diplomatic mission to what essentially constitutes a sovereign nation (they have their own laws, police, politics, etc) and is now wandering around uninvited in possibly secure areas.
I mean, i’m sure she’ll discover someone/thing doing something wrong and it will be all justifiable with a stern warning but an acknowledgement of a job well done.
BUT right now, without that meta-understanding. She’s at best breaching Ingsol’s trust/privacy, at worst causing a huge diplomatic snafu
You have convinced: Sydney is a menace to society and needs to be locked up in a sealed air-tight container deep underground!!
Sure you meant to post this on this comic instead of another? :D
It is interesting to me how often the “protagonist is about to do something horribly stupid and unethical” is coming up of late. Must be something in the air…
Nope, it was a reply to Ingryter, they have convinced me that Sydney is dangerous to all and should be removed and isolated permanently and forthwith
Nah, if anything, Sydney is a Kender, a top-knot of a Kender at that :P
Wait, or was she a door-knob of a Kender? Can’t remember Flint’s favourite insult :(
Kender are a pest. Any right thinking lawful society should take steps to control them and their anti-social natures.
(I once played a character who managed to wipe the kender race out of existance. LN all the way, baby)
Kender: Nail them to the town gates – they’ll get the message eventually.
Ewoks: Play with the warp drive, get a free trip to space – via explosive decompression out of the garbage bay.
Jawas: Play with ANYTHING – you get the Ewok Treatment.
I will say that one of the best moments in any game I’ve played in happened with a Kender. He wasn’t exactly a kleptomaniac as many kender tend to be – he would always exchange something for whatever he took. So the party gets this map from the potentate – we’re to go deal with some draconians that have taken over a border town and are using it for a base of operations, and the map shows not only the town but also the kingdom itself in rathe lovely detail. The GM had painted a watercolor map and had inked it with all the details; towns, roads, fortifications – you name it. It was gorgeous.
So the party is looking at the map, and the Kender asks if he can take a look at it. We resoundingly say “NO!” but later relent, so long as he promises not to touch it. So we’re sitting around the table, planning strategy, and we realize we need to look at the map again to confirm something. So we look back down on the table – and the map is gone. There is, however a crystalline oversized d30 sitting in the middle of the table where the map was. Problem – so far as we know, none of the group owns such a die. We look at the GM and disavows any knowledge of the die. And then one of us notices that the player playing the kender (6’4″, 350 pounds) is no longer standing around the table and has been edging towards the front door of the apartment. He looks up at the player – we all look up at the player – and the player opens the door and makes a break for it outside…
Our map flapping out of the top of his back pocket.
Yes, we had to chase him down and hold him down to get the map back.
And we kept the 5000 gold piece gem represented by the d30 the player had bought the day before.
One of those items might sever the connection she has with the orbs and put them into “looking for new host” mode.
“Wade Wilson, you have been found to be able to cause great chaos. You are now Halo Lantern of Sector 2814.”
:-D
“Harley Quinn, you have been found to be able to cause great chaos…wait, Wade Wilson already got it? Meh, this’ll be better, give her a second one.”
Did anyone else recognize the coin that she’s holding in the last panel?
That’s the coin that you get in the ultima 5 game. It’s the symbol of the codex.
I was beginning to think I was the only one who caught that. You don’t spend hours of your childhood playing Ultimas 1-5 on your Apple IIe and not learn a thing or two! And it’s Mr. Avatar to you.
Was wondering if anyone else recognized it!
Looks like the symbol for the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom:
https://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Codex_of_Ultimate_Wisdom
Which significantly increases the odds of Sydney just making an ironic comment through the 4th wall.
Plus opens up the possibility that the Codex is her own one, secreted about her person, and brought out as a reminder, to not fixate on looting treasure blindly. Normally deployed in gaming sessions, needless to say.
I think that amulet is the same one hanging to the right of the blue flame.
Yea, you are right.
I had considered that initially, but decided that it was blue, with a triangle, so did not match. However, reexamining it, following your comment, I see the hint of a second, inverted, triangle, which makes up the hexagram we see. The blueness can be accounted for by the proximity to the blue light.
Scratch that theory. :-/
I was always a Bard.
Bard to the bone?
Well spotted. Knowing Dave I was sure it should be something “real” but I’m not a player so I was totally lost. Thank you for the reference :)
*holds up hand*
I did! I’ve had that symbol made into a necklace! It also bugs me furiously that it has no proper name other than “the Codex symbol”. A fun hobby of mine is asking random nerdy people if they recognise it and if they can tell what are the things it represents. I’ve offered to buy coffee for anyone who can, but so far there have been no winners. Either Ultima is far more fringe than I’ve thought, or no one else bothered to learn the virtue system by heart when they were playing through the series as kids. And learn the runes. And.. umm.. *coughs* Okay, maybe I’m just a weirdo.
Anyhoo, tons of love to Dave for including it! Made my day! *happy sigh*
That amulet is going to be trouble.
Oh no! Sydney has found the dreaded Oubliette Amulet! Make your saving throw or be turned into a marmoset.
I thought it turned you into a lemur?
Maybe I need to update to the latest edition rules.
Sydney is lit appropriately by ominous lighting. This cannot end in a normal fashion. Not sure about badly. But definitely not normally. Maybe she’ll find something that will let her know more about the orbs?
You’ve definitely shown before that Sydney has a knack for finding things she’s not supposed to.
The orbs, aliens, aggro field, super undetectable spy guy, porno sense, and now, vampire stash. :P
+1
perception -2
perceive hidden +10
Considering how poorly it was hidden (door ajar, light on, unguarded and unlocked), maybe she was supposed to find it?
I now forsee the meeting being interrupted by a weird noise/explosion punctuated with Sydney’s futile assurances or something, followed by Max’s grumpy face.
bet it was maximas intention to use sydneys clumsyness as a scapegoat for investigating the supernaturals
And then finally there’s the group who accidentally brings out the complete..
WeeOOOWEEOOO
Where’s Sydney?
Ok the chest is likely a mimic, she isn’t checking for traps and the item in her hand is probably cursed……..yup this will end well.
Worse, the chest is made of sapient pearwood and is there with valuables inside.
So who do you think will be the next protagonist after Sydney is eaten and trapped inside a pocket dimension until she dies?
But yeah, a mimic is one of the better results, considering she should be able to just use the PPO or shield with that, although collateral could be bad.
Hey I made the Luggage of Doom joke already!
;P
Relax, he’s just trying to mimic you. =OP
Wondered where Mick the Mimic went to :D