Grrl Power #475 – Emergency egress
It makes sense that if you’re going to send someone or something into a room of largely magic creatures and get all hostile, you’re going to have some protection against magic. Then again it’s probably fair to assume that a bunch of automata might just be disposable.
I haven’t really talked about the rules of enchanting in the Grrl verse, but there is some common sense to it. In most cases, complexity and power adds to the resources needed for the enchantment. Difficulty, time, power, crafting supplies, etc. There are also ways to cheat that equation a bit as well. Higher quality crafting supplies can either cut down on the time needed or can increase the quality of the enchantment, as can borrowing power from a potent source, for instance draining it from another artifact.
If they learn nothing else from this fight, the power of these attack mannequins (Attannequins? Mannattacks?) might tell them something about who sent them.
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Is it just me or does this seem like real easy way to bypass their repair function?
Sounds legit to me.
That would depend on if exploding is something that they can’t recover from (they could be like Nitro from Marvel Comics, he explicitly explodes and reassembles from it as his power), just how harmful having your mana drained from you so harshly can be (clearly it put the wizard down for the count, and having her kinetic energy stores drained rendered Maxima’s teammate unconscious), if they had enough people around to sacrifice the mana required to overload the remaining attackers, and whether or not Maxima can handle multiple point-blank explosions like that especially if her shielding isn’t as effective against the explosions (depending on if they’re conventional or more magical in nature).
While it’s normally safe to assume that exploding KOs the source of the explosion, you make some good points. The mage does appear to have remained conscious though and I’d be very surprised if the entire rest of the council don’t have triple his mana reserves between them, even if he is the best of the best.
Maxima’s ability to take magical explosions is, I guess, unknown but what we can probably assume she can’t handle is more than one going off at once so, even if every other part of the plan was sound, the mannequins would need to be isolated first.
I’m Assuming that trying to shield their drained friend would have weakened the entire council and allowed them to be dispatched in the same explosion.
Attention user: This action has voided your product warranty. Your product will now explode in a huge ball of flames.
Thank you for choosing to do business with us.
Samsung.
Don’t forget that Bloody-Hand-Face walked through an explosion, and was firing his grenade launcher before it had even finished expanding! All this without the slightest scorching, or blemishing, on his SWAT outfit and weapon.
Explosions do not seem to bother him. Mind you being the bomb might change that!
I’m pretty sure it’s a side-view digging game that I’ve played but can’t remember the name of.
I was hoping one of you guys would recognize it. >_>
Dig-Dug?
Thought Dig-Dug on first page, but after looking it up (game wouldn’t load though :(), it’s not Dig-Dug
Made me think of terraria
Likewise. Albeit that folks have identified the textures as being from another game, the gold did look spot on, and the feel gave me the urge to have another session on it.
I might try and recreate the map, in my current game. Sometime.
Tried Terraria (or at least a version of it), didn’t get far (couldn’t figure out how you rescued the prisoners, even though you can ‘Lemming’ your way direct to them, bypassing the pesky monsters and locked doors), looks fun, designed for Kender though (you can basically nick every thing, including the dungeon walls, leaving huge piles of emptiness :P)
Provided you have spare living quarters in your base (a.k.a. “town”), all you need do is right-click on them, to free prisoners from their bonds. Buy anything they have available, which is of use to you. But make sure nothing kills them, whilst you are shopping. Then quickly block off any monster access to them (throw a wall around them, for instance).
This is just to avoid the inconvenience of them dying whilst you go off to do other things. Typically it is safest to scoot some distance away, fast, so that they can de-spawn and relocate to the empty room you have provided them. Thereby avoiding pesky teleporting or burrowing monsters from attacking them. Not that it is a big problem, if they die, as a similar replacement will automatically be recruited, in due course. So the right-click is the only really important bit.
If you have not played for a few years, it is worth having another shot at it, as they did some major updates. For instance some worlds now have pyramids, whilst others have hidden underground Mayan temples. And, even though they have officially ended updates, over a year ago, due to working on a sequel, they still sneak in the odd tweak here and there. Deserts recently got sandstorms, for instance.
Only tried it yesterday
How do you build a base, or designate a hole in the ground as your ‘town’? Is it simply where you put your workbench and crap?
After giving the Tutorial several goes (browser kept mucking up and rebooting the game), went for the basic 2 Dungeon map (the one with a Pyramid and ‘normal’ dungeon’), was kinda fun, but would need to be something could save in case of further ‘glitches’ with the browser or need for sleep (or doing other things, but mostly for the reboots)
There is no such thing as base, only individual homes. Each could be at completely different part of the map. Doesn’t make much sense but it’s possible. In my latest game I made two bases (=bunch of houses), one floating spartan for only the bare minimum amount of NPCs, rest of them burrowed underground, out of the harms way.
You designate a house by providing a chair, a table, a light source, entrance (door or platform), outer wall (blocks, like dirt or wood) and background wall.
One thing that puzzles me is that you mention “browser” and “basic 2 dungeon map” which are NOT related to Terraria as far as I know. Each map has exactly one dungeon, maybe a pyramid, and you don’t get to choose, they are randomly generated. And the “prisoners” thing – there are few, but you encounter first of them pretty far into the game (after goblin invasion, which can only happen after you reach some amount of max health and have home for at least dryad or demolitionist NPC – several days of gameplay if you are new to the game). It it possible to find bound person without building a home if you really go out of your way to avoid it, but very unlikely to do it by chance if you are new to the game. So, whatever you are talking about doesn’t seem to be Terraria.
Terraria is desktop game written in .NET. There are some console ports that are behind PC content (which is still actively developed by the way, they released significant content expansion yesterday).
Found a version of it on one of the free gaming sites (can’t remember what the site was as stumbled across it randomly, and now can’t find it, but will keep looking)
Ah yes, found it!
… as I suspected. Looks like very cheap knock-off, I doubt that Re-Logic even knows that it exists. From the few minutes I tried it, it is similar, because there are blocks you can mine… and that’s where the similarity ends. If you look more carefully, it doesn’t even claim it is Terraria in-game, the name iside that flash plugin window states “Dungeonfield build 4.0”.
Ahh, different thing altogether. I can heartily recommend the original, but am not averse to playing free versions of games. Even those where I have the original. Sometimes the independents can implement features which make for an interesting experience. Albeit that most would not be as visually impressive and I would avoid any which were buggy.
I play it on Steam, as a friend bought it for me, when they had an offer allowing him to buy extra copies dirt cheap, for friends. Although it can be bought cheaply at the moment being just $6.99 (there is presently a 25% discount offer). Of course the next couple of months are likely to see even more severe discounting, for the usual special events. I strongly recommend it.
Really need to stop playing InPrivate (every time the browser ‘glitches’, lose all progress and any ‘saved games’ are lost), but these are still fun(ish) games to waste 10hours or so
Well spotted on that not being the original, huan. I was assuming that Guesticus was speaking from memory, having played it some time ago, and that the details were a bit foggy.
As regards the prisoners though, there are a couple that you can unlock, in the manner that Guesticus described, even in the original. Provided you are adept enough to survive the journey.
One is the fisherman. All you need do is reach the ocean, at either end of the map. Whilst this would entail crossing hazardous terrain, such as the crimson (or its equivalent) and/or jungle, it does not otherwise require unlocking him, by previously defeating giant monsters.
Likewise, if exploring down, rather than across the surface, you can find the stylist, bound in webs, in spider-infested areas. The dangers of which should be self-evident. But, again, no other prerequisite to hire her.
But, whilst down there, be sure to build a house in a mushroom biome (or create one near to your town, if that suits your style). That will unlock a fungi follower!
Hmm, you are right about the angler and stylist, I completely forgot about those. And to think that I started new world/char about two weeks ago and angler was among the first unlocked NPCs… I’ll have to have serious chat with my memory! Still, newbie would have to take very weird path to unlock either of those before learning how to build a house.
I did not have that clue, at the time of giving my reply. :-)
Personally I enjoy setting up my initial base then running, as far as my character can. Or exploring caverns downwards, if the mood takes me.* So I could see him doing either, under similar circumstances.
Mind you I love building. So the instant I return from such an expiation, I will start either building my Helivator or trans-oceans railroad. If it is a new character, in a new world, that would require going down first, of course, to get the resources. But my initial run would have netted me a lot of wood. With, of course, freshly planted forests replacing those I felled.
* If only just to see if there is anything which might inspire me to create a different permanent base. Such as a nearby giant tree, begging for a tree-house. Likewise it is nice to know where the mountains and valleys lie, when deciding on what kind of transportation infrastructure to build.
I hope you don’t run into the following scenario:
huan: Memory, you and I need to have a serious chat?
Memory: *Poof* You forget we need to chat.
huan: Um, what we were going to talk about and who are you? Oh, well, I guess it can’t be all that important or otherwise I’m sure I would have remembered it.
Terraria / Starbound?
Looks like Minecraft.
Definately looks like MC graphics.
You might be thinking of Motherload.
my first thought was Motherload too, but this is definitely minecraft.
vaguely reminescent of lemmings too.
This is Terraria-similar.
Lemings!
*jumps off cliff*
AhhhhhhhhhHhhhhhHHHH!
I wonder if lemming moms ever asked the question “Well, if you saw everyone else jumping off a cliff, would you do so too?”.
The digging game is called Boulder Dash. One of the first games to the Commodore 64 back in the 80’s
…..or maybe not…
As for the style of game that side scrolling looks like, it looks like the map between worlds from the old Super Ghosts & Goblins from SNES to me
I guess they mined up all the iron when they were building the facility. Surprised they didn’t harvest the coal though cos castles are pretty drafty and heating is expensive.
not to mention SURFACE LEVEL DIAMONDS!!!
Surface level diamonds are available in the advanced setup options. If you up the values high enough you can get diamond deposits that are 10×10 and maybe bigger. You have the same options for all the blocks that aren’t stone.
I’m in favor of having “intelligent” racoons in the Grrl Power universe!
With the potential for a crossover with Sandra & Woo?
Or maybe Housepets!, although that would pretty much require an AU.
(Not only are most animals known to be intelligent and capable of speech, but magic is technically out in the open, just so rare and finicky that most people don’t expect to ever run into it in their lives.)
Got my vote for that!
I am GrrlRoot?
Rocket: There ain’t nothing like me, but ME!
And Woo
That raccoon is a main character now.
When I called out, “FIRE IN THE HALL!!!”, I was joking. Yikes.
Max is probably having a combination of flash, bang, rubble from a cave-in, probably a concussion if something hit her head hard enough or from the shockwave at two centimeters distance.
I’m betting Max is probably in a world of hurt right now. Healing orb reveal incipient?
Given that she knew she was carrying a bomb, she probably buffed both her speed and her defense at the expense of offensive power. She certainly wouldn’t have stripped her defense in that situation.
Where is the raccoons who’s who?
he hasn’t been named yet so no Who’s Who yet. Maybe next time.
Woo!
Who’s Woo?
No, Who’s Who.
Where’s Woo’s Who’s Who?
Twit Twoo!
Who’s that, Woo?
Duno, I can’t see who, in Dr Who’s Who’s Who.
How do you get to third base on a raccoon?
Raccoons are much to small for humans to ride on! But they are smart enough that you could teach them to play baseball. But they only have short legs, so would be at quite a disadvantage. So it would only be fair to allow them to have mounts. Here is my line up:
First batter
Second batter
Third batter
I wonder if Charlie is guarding the checkpoint in the sixth panel?
If he is, he is probably brown bread.
He has had an unlucky history in the security industry. A while back he got a job at the White House as an aide to the president. He was on the team whose job is to guard the satchel of nuclear launch codes that the President has at all times known at the ‘football’. Every time it was supposed to be his turn to carry it some other guard ended up grabbing it away just before he got his hands on it.
Did that other guard happen to be named… Lucy? o_O
Why is there a red handprint on the face? I saw that showed up after she backhanded it … but she backhanded it, close-fingered.
It was probably a part of the spell to animate them, it used to be obscured by their visors.
Still an ongoing debate, yet to be revealed
Codebracker has the right of it, I believe. Red handprint, bloody handprint, either to bind some spell to them or mark them.
see Wilson the volleyball as a mechandroid, only in the GrrlPowerverse
About the Speed/Shield discussion:
If she is fast enough, she can see the Puppet explode and switch into shield mode just before the shock wave hits her (or at least something more important than her hands).
A handguns muzzle velocity is 1000-1500 m/s, TNT’s detonation velocity is just short of 7000 m/s.
We have been told at the shooting range that she can outrun her own gun’s bullets, and that requires way better coordination and timing than a simple “shields up, speed down”. (At least I assume.)
So my guess is: She went 100% speed (Or maybe 99% speed, 1% strengh. Those things look heavy), waited until the puppets sides started being pushed outside by the explosion and put every point into damage resistance. If she is quick enough, the shockwave just hurt the callus of her palms. Not even that much if the explosions origin is the center of mass and she was smart enough to grab an arm or a leg.
I think that Maxima´s biggest problem will be not to get buried and asphysiated. Maybe, she would be able to reach the surface piercing the ground though.
Max flew it out of the room before it started exploding. She’s fast, but so are explosions. Quite a bit faster than bullets in most cases. The Flash, at least the comic book Flash could dispose of a grenade mid-explosion, but Max isn’t a lightspeedster.
You mean like this time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duMfz2nAyDw
Yeah, that’s bonkers fast. I don’t see how one of his regular villains is a guy who throws boomerangs.
Because he just keeps coming back.
Because if bullets aren’t fast enough to hit him, then boomerangs… Um, forget it.
What if the attack mannequins were more like these guys…
https://www.yojoe.com/action/86/bat.shtml
They would be a lot smaller. Maybe their detonations would be good for lighting cigars?
Poor Rigby…
For God’s sake, make sure you mine those diamond blocks with a Fortune III enchanted pick-axe!
With all the mages, they probably have endgame emchants on their starter gear.
fortune III? why limit yourself?
Just get one, and throw it into the “infinite probability duplicator” or some shit like that, and enjoy your never ending diamondfall.
or if you are not comfortable with messing with timelines, just get some coal, and use atom rearranging spell of some kind to change it into diamonds.
or you know what… just conjure some. sell “pretend” diamonds. no one will notice.
The council has galaxy travelling members. A galaxy which has more than a few planets made of diamond.
Somewhere, on one of those planets…
“For God’s sake, make sure you mine those silicone blocks with a Fortune III enchanted pick-axe!”
Silicon. Silicone is something else.
Maybe it’s a succubus planet?
Is a silicone succubus a true succubus? It can´t be. Nor a silicon one.
Sounds like I made a boob.
The underground bits remind me of Miner VGA. I don’t think that’s what it actually is, though. :)
Glad to see Daves a minecraft fan, I miss the days when it was THE hyped game
I’ve spent probably a total of 8 hours playing Minecraft. I get the appeal, but it never really grabbed me. Terraria on the other hand…
I’m with you. After hearing so much about it I “played” it for about an hour, mostly wandering around looking at stuff, before deciding it wasn’t something I cared to spend any more time on. I think I also collected some sticks and ore, maybe. It was a long time ago.
Wait… What just happened?
Nevermind, I think I get it. The raccoon having sapient thoughts threw me off. I thought it was relevant to what had just happened, but it was just one of those “cutaway to something mundane that’s about to be affected by what just happened” things.
He works for Squirrel
I didn’t know that Rocket was lactose intolerant.
Fun fact: Humans are practically the only mammal able to digest milk after weaning. It’s also a rather recent adaptation. Last 10k years or so. It matches up pretty nearly with the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry.
IIRC we’re still very mildly lactose intolerant and become more so as we age.
certain Genotypes are more lactose intolerant as adults than others
And it’s something like only about 35% of humans are capable of doing this. I’m half-tempted to find out how the creationists try to explain away that one.
Loss of genetic information.
Some humans have brown hair, others black, blonde or ginger. Some are well-suited to survive in hot climes, whilst others are better in cold ones. I do not recall any creationists claiming that all humans are identical, so I do not see that such a fact would bother them.
It looks like the Swatomatons came set up for the major heavy hitters of the council, grenades that launch antiwere/vamp rounds, antimage countermeasures, plus attrition and fatigue…
I have a word of advice to the resident Council mage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4qzPbcFiA
Well darn it to heck. There goes the evidence I was talking about. It’s pretty clever, actually: now that the mannequin has disposed of itself there’s considerably less to track. Hopefully there’s still enough left of that bloodstain.
One of the mannequins had a knight’s helmet. Maybe that’s a clue, too?
Also, was that a Minecraft reference?
Now we have Rocket origin story.
*Raises hand from the back of the class.*
Are the apparently intelligent animals going to be important in the future? Also will Sydney gain a subtitle power from the Comm orb? I could really use subtitles.
Yes.
Yes, the orb will display subtitles. However, they will be written in zebra. Don’t worry, if you are fluent in basic horse it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.
I happen to be quite fluent in both horse and hoarse. I also know a good deal of mumble, nervous rambling and “I haven’t had my coffee.”
Wow. I only speak nonsense and gibberish.
<——- Expert in Pig Latin.
Oink oink. Snuffle truffle snuffle. Grunt.
Psst. I don’t recall Antonious ever claiming to be Latin.
Twasn’t my intent to imply that he was. I was simply under the impression that people were naming off their linguistic capabilities and figured to add my own.
magic in a nutshell is basically the violation of the three laws of thermodynamics. think superbatteries mass to energy conversion made simple, and mental control.
Supers in general do horrible things to stuff like the laws of thermodynamics
And you don’t want to know what they do to simple Physics, that be the stuff of “SVU” and “CSI” (Miami, not New York)
It’s a trait supers share with people who have magic powers.
“Magic in a Nutshell”®
From the people who brought you:
“Fusion power in a Honeycomb”®
Yes, but how does someone in a nutshell do magic in the first place?
By being nuts.
Then someone cheated me out of a nutshell!
Ahh! Happy Little Trees! RIP Bob Ross <3
Fog of war. Yes, thank you.
It’s the little things that count, and that is exactly the kind of detail that makes me feel rewarded for reading. I am slightly happier than I was a moment ago.
Sorry to tell you, but that part of the image is a typo. It is actually the next attack headed their way; the ‘Frog of War’.
Oh noes, are you saying this is going become the World of Frog Warcraft?
Frogs of war and men of hate?
Seems kind of odd to only have one explode…. You’d think there would be a AoE effect to make the others also go boom.. I highly doubt that explosion was only converted from that fellows magic only and is likely combined with other effects already set in the golem things..
One spell = one mana mine. I will not have you quadrupling your energy, via rules lawyering!
You can’t vacuum drain your manna and have it three.
Judging by color, it certainly looks as though the mannequin is pulling energy from Max as well.
Well Gault (the Mage Guy) is wearing purple, so that could account for one of the colours. He does not have anything gold visible, but he is a mage, and they are known to have material components and devices to aid casting, which can well include golden items.
Whilst this is pure speculation, the one point supporting it is that the golden colour starts from him, rather than Maxima. Likewise, although it is very faint and blurry the purple does seem to come from him, rather than the purple parts of Maxima.
One other angle to consider is that it may just be picking up colours in the viscinity. Maxima is there and her colours do match, as you say. But this need not necessarily point to power also being drained. The best indicator in that regard is that Maxima still has her super-speed, so clearly has not lost her powers.
Seems kind of odd to only have one explode…. You’d think there would be a AoE effect to make the others also go boom.. I highly doubt that explosion was only converted from that fellows magic only and is likely combined with other effects already set in the golem things..
Also if these are not autonomous…
This is a perfect moment for the others to self destruct.. They saw a way to take max out of the picture, for even a brief 1-2 seconds. Even a muted explosion might do damage to a council or the runes.
though it would make sense if this was entirely a distraction with benefits for stealing or modding the runes
Have a look at the edges of panels 4 & 5. You can see the leg of one of the manikins there, and it is showing none of the sparklies that Red-Hand-Face was suffering from. If it had been, it was in Maxima’s field of view, and she could have grabbed it, and the other ones, on the way out.
As it was, only the one showed the symptoms, so she prioritised just that. Wisely mind, as active ones could have grabbed on door frames, or otherwise made a nuisance of themselves.
I know it’s normal fantasy nomenclature, but “mana”? Really?
That guy does not look polynesian to me
It’s pretty well-established as a term by now. Probably most people would get what you meant when you were talking about mages and mana.
Hows about a bit of bartering. We will let Polynesians use the 1.5 million words of the English language, so long as they let us borrow that one, from theirs. Fair deal?
Fairly sure ‘mana’ is from the Mediterranean area, “Mana From Heaven” (wasn’t that the stuff the Gods were supposed to feed on, or something?)
Guess not
Further looking, it was ‘manna’ that saved the Israelites
It’s also a movie from 2002 (Jerry Orbach‘s final film :( )
The archaic spelling, for the former, was “mana”, so you were right. But it is distinct from the Polynesian concept, which is the key inspiration for games globally referring to magic capability as mana. E.g. mana potions and the like. Given that it covers related matters.
I think you’re thinking of ambrosia.
That was it! Thank you
How condescendingly imperialist of you, Yorp.
I’m pretty sure Polynesians were quite happy with their own language, before europeans came in an stole all their best words.
But joking aside, still, if that guy is a wizard, you’d expect him to be precise with his terminology.
It is a precise term. English borrows words from other languages, all the time. But the purpose it uses them for will not necessarily be the same as it was in the original language.
Interestingly it is impossible to count how many words there are in the English language, simply because it is used in many specialist fields. Each of which either makes up its own words, on demand,or adapts existing ones to its own purpose.
Role playing gaming is one specialist field. Professional spell casting is another. Each may use the same term, and both likely derive from the same source. Although the precise meaning may be different between the two specialist fields, and the original inspiration, Gault (the Mage Guy) need only concern himself with his field of expertise.
Likewise his listeners, in that room, will know the term well. Barring Sydney but she is good at extrapolating from her general knowledge and can pick up on the context easily enough.
The thing is, it is already a magical term in the original language, albeit a rather specific one. So that would be pretty ripe opportunity for misunderstandings and ambiguity
Only if a pedant is around. Err not implying anything as regards yourself. Your points are interesting and valid. But if you are in a specialist situation (dealing with spell casting or joining in a raid) you use the term applicable to the circumstances.
If your raid leader tells you “Your mana is getting low” you know you need to ration your spell casting or top it up with a mana potion, or some such. You would not take it as the opening gambit on a philosophical discussion about your mystical relationship with the world and the Polynesian belief system. Unless you suffered from an extreme form of pedantism.
The same is true of very many borrowed words. Some of which retain both the original meaning, plus the one it was adopted to serve as well as any new specialist uses for it. Thus, in the dictionary each will appear, numbered in order of the most frequently used first. Listeners or readers then have to contextualise a word, to decide which meaning applies.
You are right to say that when they are closely related this can cause ambiguity, but only if both can be taken, in the same situation. In this case it would require that the Polynesian dogma be based on something real (otherwise nobody present would give a hoot about it, in the middle of a battle), and also that something pertaining to it be present.
Which is entirely possible. There may be a Polynesian deity, magic user or hero present. But if they are real, and interacting with this community, then the term ‘mana’ may be derived from their actual working practices and it can be that which forms the basis of the terminology that everyone is using. I.e. there would be no distinction between the two terms. Polynesian magic and European magic would be using the same professional language to describe its practices.
If they are not one and the same though, then the community will be used to dealing with the distinctions. Clearly as Gault is not a Polynesian he would not be referring to that usage, unless addressing a Polynesian or dealing with some issue pertaining to same.
Actually they speak a variety of languages, including Samoan, Maori and Tahitian, to name some of the better known ones. I would not suggest that they switch to using English though, as I am in favour of diversity and preserving cultural heritage, wherever possible. But it does make a very good second (or third) language, if they choose to use it.
Importantly though I would not object to them borrowing as many words, from English, as they might find useful, in their own languages and dialects.
So much for the “rule” that there are no power neutralizers. Just line your prison cell with a mana void and you can keep any magic powered super locked up forever. To add additional mental damage to the usual stress of incarceration, line the cell with creepy blood-palm-faced manikins.
In this case, I’m assuming that the magic the mana void sucked up here was used to fuel the explosion of the creepy evil mannequin. I wonder what would your hypothetical prison mana void do with all of the energy it sucked up.
Power the facility? Or a lightbulb. Depends on the power of the super and the optimization of the enchantment I’d think.
The mana void didn’t drain the Mage Guy for just for straying too close, but for actually using his magic on the Creepy Evil Mannequin. If the incarcerated bad guys don’t use their magic, wouldn’t that mean the prison would power down? The guards might still have their guns, but it would be a lot easier for prisoners to escape a blacked out jail, I think. Especially if they could get outside help!
The obvious thing to do would be to power more mana voids. After all, they must require power to create, right?
The rule remains consistent. You have misquoted it mind. There are no universal power neutralizers. The one you have suggested is only good for supers who draw power from magic. It would not stop succubi (tantric power), Jiggawatt (electrical power), Anvil (kinetic energy) or well… any known super. I cannot think of any, in the Grrlverse, who draw power exclusively from magic.
And it might be trivial to bypass the mana void, you just need to know its there to counteract it.
In a situation like this you can get caught off guard. You are drained and won’t have a chance to recharge before the fight is over, or at least until the trap goes boom in your face.
In a prison cell, you have a lot more time and more chances to handle the problem. Throw up shield charm that prevents your power being leached. Didn’t work? Try again in a few hours.
Hopefully they don’t all just blow up like that after use. That would be more of an execution chamber than a prison.
Second part seems kind of cruel and unusual.
So basically these shadowy “animal” agents never get named so they never end up in the who’s who and not showing up in the who’s who after appearing a few times gives people the idea that they aren’t actually characters doing anything plotwise… Clever, BUT WE ARE NOT FOOLED!
That sounds ridiculous!
Wait, we don’t have a cat, that sneaky son of a feline is more dastardly than we knew!
Well, it looks like the cat’s out of the bag (and ripped it to shreds in the process).
Yorp, I don’t know if you will see this, but if you do:
https://existentialcomics.com/comic/157
I reject the heresy!
Just look at history, and realise the line of development, unto the present day.
Agent R, colleague of Agent P: Perry the Platypus.
Shadowy animal agents? Agents R and P? Does this mean OWCA is a real thing in Sydney’s universe? That’s a cool thought! I can’t wait to see a story arc where The Mighty Halo teams up with Agent P.
I think Sydney would prefer to team up with Agent F.
I’m going to have to stop following links I see on this website. Not that the clips of “Agent F” weren’t amusing, but I watched a lot of political news and commentary on YouTube across the election season, so my recommended video titles are all reminding me about how Trump is going to make a racist, alt right web site manager into his chief White House strategist and senior counselor. And how attacks on women and minorities have increased since the election. And the dumb-ass isn’t even the President yet!
I take it you didn’t notice how carefully everyone else was being to avoid talking about politics and the election at DaveB’s request?
Yea, we should avoid the politics side of it. Although I felt it to be a fair comment, as regards it impacting on one’s personal life. But you are right that we should avoid all party-political stuff, at this sensitive time. Especially given Dave’s request
It is depressing. We saw the same big increase in racist and religious hate crime, in the UK, after the Brexit vote. Which totally shames me, on behalf of the country. And it is worrying seeing similar patterns threatening, elsewhere in Europe, and the rest of the world too.
Doubly depressing for me, as I have come up with a couple of ways of reducing such. But it would require massive promotion, and effort to propagate them, if they are to stand any chance of being implemented. Which would require abandoning my quiet lifestyle and getting into the public spotlight. Something I hate the prospect of, with a passion! :-(
Not to mention that the public are pretty resistant to changing rigid ways of thinking. So it would be like slamming my head against a brick wall. And possibly no more effective at actually getting any change. :-(
The good news though, as regards YouTube, is that it is responsive. Just stop clicking on the topical news ones, and their predominance will fade, as you view other subjects. You will always get the odd one, but with half a dozen other things, to distract you, it is not too hard too resist the temptation.
*writes prescription: “Watch lots of funny cat videos”*
Shouldn’t that movie have been named M(&D)iB?
Looking at the bloody hand mark, I wonder if the organization that is attacking the council is called the Bloody Hand?
Or the Bloody Eyes. Look where the archwickedvillain has put his bloody hand. The thumb right in the right eye must have hurt. Poor M-Anakin.
Now that we mention blood, wouldn´t Maxima has had to take a sample of that blood? She scolded Sydney because of her poor tools choosing for her utility belt (nearly everything Batman approved though [but not MacGyver]) and looks like she has not CSI like things for this kind of matter. She has not the right to scold Sydney again.
I love the point of view, and the whole picture, in panel 2. I commend it, to the director of Grrl Power the Movie, as ideal to be replicated in film.
Plus great expressions in panels 1, 7 and 8.
Dave, how long does it take to draw a page starting from a blank white page to a finished page ready to be published? Including actual story writing/planning time and any redraws assuming it’s not a double page. If there is no average time then what’s a high average and low average? I’m guessing 8 hours but I’m in no way an artist so I could be wrong.
I wonder how the mastermind behind all of this is handling the current lack of results especially considering the amount of resources and planning that went into the attack (among other considerations, such as the likelihood that the Council will increase security after this, which would make any further potential attacks even more difficult)?
He is probably masticating his nuts, in anxiety!
Seems I was right! Booby traps galore. If it can absorb his magic, how about Maxima’s fireball?
I wonder if the mage will reevaluate his bureaucratic stance toward magic after tonight…
I think the raccoon would be more concerned if it were a mammary trap, given his lactose intolerance!
Note that the magic absorbed came from both Mage Guy and Maxima, but not necessarily from Sydney. Maybe she was too far away, the camera angle is obscuring, or her power comes from the orbs and is non-standard magic. Otherwise, I’m inclined to think that her shield orb is actively magic resistant.
No, it didn’t come from Maxi (she’s not a Magical Girl), her look is one of shock, not pain, and if drained active powers, then it would have drained both Speed and Protection (and possibly Might)
I don’t see my comment from earlier, don’t know where it went.
That’s what I thought, but I’m questioning because there are three colors of magic there, Magic guy’s blue, a little purple in the middle (starting about at Maxima), and yellow/gold, the color most around the mannequin. Most Magic descriptions put everyone having at least some potential, or at least having magic in them, even if they don’t have any ability to use it.
You have three comments, on the first comments page. If you scroll to the top of the comments section you will see it headed up with Discussion (448)*. Underneath which are the page numbers. Alternatively they are also available at the bottom of the comments page. Either way, just click on the “1” and you will be able to find your comments.
The quick way of doing so is to use your browsers ‘Find’ capability. Which can probably be activated by using Control+F (or use its menu and look for ‘find’ or ‘search’). Just type your user name and you can skip right to every occurrence of it.
Or you can jump straight to one with this link.
* The number indicates how many comments (and replies) there have been to the comic page, in total, so it will rise.
After enlarging the picture as much as I could (by copying the image location and then opening it up in another page), it appears to me that all of the magic being sucked by the mannequin is coming from Mage Guy. Also note that the mammary trap wasn’t triggered by Mage Guy having magic, but by him using it against the mannequin. The same would seem to hold true for Maxima.
As Mage Guy does not have an official name yet, I vote for calling him “Gault“, for entirely nonsensical reasons.
Probably because his picture is labelled gault01.png?
Just make sure you never take a trip with him.
I deny everything.
Is the anti-spoilered text just the pun I’m seeing there? Or do I have overlooked something deeper?
Ingsol: *(Accent ignored)* Okay, mage guy, you can consider yourself fired! You should have anticipated that they might be booby-trapped like that. It’s so obvious! We’re just lucky that none of the others have gone bang yet.
*Mage Guy’s shoulders slump and he trudges off to the sound of a mournful melody*
Ingosl: (*Still ignoring his accent*) How about one of you space alien types come over here and examine the rest of them? Surely one of you has something like a Star Trek tricorder, right?”
*An alien comes up, whips out a gadget, and starts scanning. This sets off the other booby trap in the Creepy Evil Mannequins because who ever sent them must have known about the ETs, too. The other three baddies quickly go boom.*
Sydney: (*Wincing as she watches the fireworks from inside the safety of her shield bubble*) Oops . . .
Better Syd saying “oops” than Shannon Foraker.
Fools! If they dug just a few meters down they could have gotten diamonds!